Musings of a sick John

Oh so much is going on! This isn't really the perfect time to be sick. I have not been sick all winter... I am quite proud of this fact since it is my first winter to actually see sick people all day every day. Except for last winter when I was doing pediatrics and was sick for 6 weeks straight!!!

Well Tuesday I saw some beautiful teenagers with colds and somehow I got one- despite the handsanitizing... and no it is not the swine flu but that is affecting me as well...
So yesterday, my day off, I spent most of it sleeping! Today I made it to work- with homemade soup and all but am feeling quite dead at the moment. One more work day to go... I think I will make it. I think I can I think I can.

I had to go to work today- because it was the going away party for my MA!! I have pictures to prove it.

She is going to be missed. One smart cookie.
Note my name plate in the background... yep my office... I really like where I work. it's a pretty good set up.
And after the third person asked me what I was bringing to her going away potluck today, despite my informing them repeatedly that I don't really cook. I brought taco soup.. which turned out pretty good.

I also snapped a pic of my new MA- Ashley- who is already doing an awesome job and learning the ropes.
Note the right hand corner is my own personal can of hand sanitizer that I keep of my desk :)

oh I can't be sick right now because it's a big weekend...
Our church plant starts this weekend! We've been having sabbath school every week for the past month but this week we actually are going to meet in our rented building and have church and sabbath school. I feel like I should be doing more to get ready but really- we have been planning this for months. Brian is in charge of worship and we have practice tomorrow night. I'm singing. Jim is preaching. Got sabbath school leaders, greeters, PA people... we're all having spaghetti dinner to celebrate after the service. Got the business cards printed, the banner, the invitations. Craziness. Brian has been working on the print stuff and doing an excellent job. I'm leading the youth group. So far we have two pre-teens so I am going to gear it towards middle schoolers. So all we've got to do now is pray!!

On top of everything we have decided to put our house back on the market. Now as I post this the last day of April I am wondering why we made our list date May 1st and if my house is clean enough for pictures tomorrow. It is about as spacious as it can be yet still have people live here. Our spare rooms are pretty much empty. Oh... I hope it sells in 2 days. That would be nice. but I am braced for a long haul in this economy. Anyone need a house? great town!

What else... also this crazy swine flu. I'm like yeah- Mexico and spreading here... but then I realized... HEY- We're going on our awesome Mexico vacation in 10 days!!! So I kind of think it's not going to happen. They rerouted this weeks cruise ship to San Francisco, Seattle, and Victoria. Hmm... nice except cold... and kind of the same weather as home. We are considering switching the cruise to the Carribean or using our airline tickets to California and going to Disneyland.

It has been BLAZER Mania at our house. Brian has taken to wearing his jersey to work on game days. Unfortunately we lost tonight.... so season is over. There is always next season.

Happy Tax Day

I like to think of Tax day as our anniversary. Since 6 years ago was the day we started dating!! In true fashion I made Brian take the afternoon off and we had planned to go our for fancy food. I called the place to make a reservation yesterday and they were closed for remodeling. After discussing several options we ended up going shopping for a kitchen table in Salem and got Kwan's food. Kwan's in Salem in delicious. Brian is going to take me to Nick's on Sunday for lunch... yummy.

Now we are back to watch the final Blazer game before the playoffs. They are on fire... and so much fun to watch. Maybe I should put my Roy jersey on for good luck!

What else what else. My MA Laura is leaving. I knew it was too good to last for long. She quits the end of the month to take 20 days to study before her MCAT's. She is one smart cookie and will be missed. I think I'm a little spoiled... my first MA out of PA school went to Dartmouth on a pre-med track! They've already hired someone to take her place who starts on Monday. She has big shoes to fill... I am happy for Laura though. She is going on to better things.

We are moving forward with Church planting! This weekend we held out first Sabbath school meeting. Brian led some songs- even had powerpoint, and then Jim led a lesson on Faith. It was simple and fresh and 25 people came. We had 5 kids there already so next sabbath we are going to have two children's sabbath school classes. I am leading the tween group. We have two tweens so far. It should be fun and a challenge. I think I'm going to lead indefinitely as long as everything meshes okay. We don't officially start church until May 2nd so off to a great start! Need lots of prayer... our little group has already been through a ton. Our leader Jim had neck surgery last Tuesday- it went awesome... but there is so much to do right now and to work full time and start something like this... craziness. We just finished putting toegether business cards and invites from the 2nd so we can start inviting people officially to the big kickoff!!!

Okay gotta go- Blazers are on in 10 minutes!!

April Showers bring May Flowers

Actually in true Oregon fashion it rained today. But a lot of our flowers are out already. We have tree full of pink flowers in our back yard and daffodils and other blooming bulbs in our front and back yard. Beautiful! It would be nice to put pics of this on here but alas... it's dark outside already...

I had April Fools day off today and got tons done. I actually cooked- broccoli rice casserole. I was again reminded that it seems to take me such an effort to cook. I had to go to the store and then run home and start rice cooking and then I ran to my friend Judy's house and bought some Fri-Chik from her. Do they sell Fri-chik in stores around here??? I guess there is one store in town. Then I came home and cooked broccoli and was frying the fri chick when Brian called me reminding me that I had to come pick him up at work in 2 minutes. So I finished the fri-chick and ran and picked him up (I had taken his car to the shop). I came home 45 minutes later (had to pick up the car, go tanning, and get chai tea). Finished mixing up the casserole and stuck in the oven. Then I'm like oh... I forgot to go get bread to go with this. Oh well. Then I realize that something dripped on the bottom of the oven the last time I cooked that I forgot to clean... cleaned that up. stick the food in the oven. Ahh... dinner was finally done at 7. I think I started around 3. Now that everthing is done and our bellies are full. I'm like wow- it turned out pretty delicious but was it really worth all that effort??

I did also make it to the gym today. My favorite instructor lead Zumba. (it's a latin dance workout) It made me miss Ecuador.

Happy April to you all!