30 pounds in 30 days. whoa.

Hmmm... Where to start? End of school? Surgery? Or Christmas? I feel like all of these things have been pretty major lately. Let's start with school. Oh my goodness, how stressed out was I? I had to get everything finished and turned in early for my surgery. The great news is that this is the first semester that my cumulative GPA is above a 3.0, meaning this is my first semester to be out of academic probation. I always thought I was a pretty good student, but grad school has shown me otherwise. I can't believe it, but I only have one more semester. I've already had to start reading for January which is a total bummer, but what else do I have to do... oh yeah, watch 90210 reruns on Soapnet!!- my parent's cable is awesome.

My Christmas was pretty great. Both of my brothers, their wives, and my niece were here for the big day. Christmas is a lot more fun when you have a little one around. Kaelan (my niece) was so excited about everything. She's so funny. We all basically spent five days sitting around and watching her. It was great.

Even though it has only been a couple of weeks, I already feel like my surgery has drastically changed my life. I feel like my body is finally being put back together (with the exception of soreness in my abdomen.) I had my blood tested again this week and everything is almost back to normal. Due to the trauma of getting my gallbladder out, my white count shot up really high. A high white blood count can be an indicator of cancer or other bad things, so it's a little scary to hear that your white count is twice as high as it should be. It's almost back to normal, so that's good. It's funny how much the surgery has changed my appetite. I am never hungry, in fact I always feel full. I have to force myself to eat, which is a nice problem to have. Although sitting through Christmas dinner with only a fourth of a cup of puree chicken wasn't the greatest experience, I made it though. I'm just glad the holidays only come around once a year. Again, let me just say thank you to all of you out there who have been praying for me and supporting me through this. This whole experience has honestly been as easy as it could have possibly been, and I know that has a lot to do with the support I've received. So, once again, thank you so much.

I have so much to blog about, but I'm just not in the mood. So, I'll leave you with this exciting news:
Since December 1st, I've lost 23 pounds!! Whoo-Hoo!!

still recovering... still doing good. :)

I just got home from the hospital a couple of hours ago. I had to stay an extra night because my white blood cell count was high, which means I could have had an infection. It came down though so I am fine. I'm actually feeling pretty good. My stomach is obviously sore. The bypass surgery only took about 30 minutes, but it took them a really long time to get my gall bladder out. Aparently it was very diseased. The first night was pretty rough, but yesterday and today have been relatively easy. I don't really know what else to say. So, I'll write more later. Thank you so much for all of the prayers. I could tell a difference!

Okay, so I don't really hate Jared Cramer, but he was sitting by me in the computer lab this morning and he wouldn't quit bothering me, so I showed him by hating him on my blog.

Anyways, tomorrow is the big day. I can't believe it, well actually I can, I've been waiting for this for quite a while. Originally, I was scheduled to get to the hospital at 6:30 in the morning, but I've been bumped. So, now I am scheduled to go in at noon. Which means it will be a long day of waiting around. If you think about it, I'd appreciate a prayer or two. I should be getting home from the hospital on Wednesday evening. I'll blog with an update when I can!

I HATE Jared Cramer.

Tonight I took a little break from my work and went to the movies with some friends. We went to see Stranger Than Fiction. I must say, it was so good. I'm rarely that impressed with movies, but this one was really good. It kind of reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another favorite of mine. I must warn you though, there is one locker room scene where you see several old man butts, so if you're going to the movies with your family during the holidays, it might be a little awkward to be sitting by your dad during that scene. Other than that, it's great!

Four Days
Field Ed Work
Church History Final

Six Days
Sermon Project
Church History Final
Field Ed Work
and a sinus infection to get over. :(

This one is pretty funny.

8 days
Preaching Project
Williams Book
Church History Final
Field Ed Work

Just got back from Lubbock, again. I had all of my pre-op stuff done yesterday. I need to have my gallbladder taken out. So what am I, 75 years old? They will take it out during my surgery. The end of semester stress has definitely hit. So much to do...so little time.
10 Days
Catechesis Paper
Preaching Project
Williams Book
Church History Final
Field Ed Work

Whoa, I'm sitting here in Church History class and I just realized that two weeks from this moment I'll be in surgery. That's nuts.

Oh my gosh, how good was Grey's tonight, seriously. I really like Dr. Hann. What's going to happen to Burk. I'm excited to see Christina and Burk apart for awhile. And, Addison and Alex, I wondered if that was going to happen. Is there a possibility that Addison is pregnant? I've heard that several places. Poor George. When is Izzy going to spend that money? And of course, I'm so happy to see Derek and Meredith together. I wonder how long it will last this time. It's not like they can go on forever without putting any McDrama into the DerMer plot line.

Anyways, I've had such a good Thanksgiving. Since this would be my last holiday meal (forever), my mom told me she would cook whatever I wanted. We ate with my aunt and uncle (Doris and Frank) and another family from church (the Starchers). We had such a good time. I really have so much to be thankful for. For this post I'll focus on one thing that I'm so thankful for this year. I have been blessed with so many good friends. This is a shout out to my three best girl friends. Allison, Lynsey, and Anne-Marie have been such a big part of my life. This year we were able to get together for a much needed reunion. It's funny, we acted just like we did in high school. Some things never change I guess. These are women of God who have definitely shaped who I am and I love them for that (even if they are the three least punctual people on the planet). So, thanks for being my friend. Here are some pictures from our reunion that I stole from Lynsey's myspace.

This one was taken in some booth-thingy at ChuckeeCheese. This shot was our fourth attempt to get a good picture. The little girl in the middle is Allison's, not just some random kid we picked up.

And this is a picture from our hotel room. Notice how Lynsey is molesting Anne-Marie. To be honest, she molested me a lot too. I had to sleep with one eye open, if you know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure what is going on there.

Well, after a very fast visit to Kansas City I am home for the holiday. I've noticed that my blog format doesn't look right on my parents' computer. It's supposed to be navy blue and pretty, not white and ugly. So, if it is ugly on your computer I'm sorry and I have no idea how to fix it.

I need a favor. A friend of mine from California has a friend who is trying to be the Big Lots elf for Christmas this year. He is running against a cute little girl and a little person, so the odds are stacked against him. So, go to http://biglots.com and click on the link to vote for the spokes elf and vote for Brian. Today is the last day to do this.

I hope you all have a super Thanksgiving eve.

Birth

Preaching is like giving birth. (Not that I know what birth is like, I'm just speculating)

School has been pretty hard lately. Yes, there's a lot of work to get done: papers, projects, sermons, reading. But that's not really what I'm talking about. I came into graduate school expecting to take a bunch of ministry courses so I could enter a church and know exactly what to do. However, I haven't really taken that many ministry courses and I have very few ministry to-do lists in my memory bank. The real work involved in this program is transformation. This seminary does not exist to simply fill minds with information. The point is to transform students into incarnational people who act as Christ acted, love as he loved, walk with people as he walked, and die and he died. It's easy to learn facts and do the right thing. We do it all the time. But I'm not called to do, I'm called to be. To be Christ in this world. This is infinitely harder.

HUGE BREAKING NEWS!

I just saw a commercial advertising the release of Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD. Man, life is good. 22 episodes of Brandon and Kelly and Dylan and Brenda and Steve and Donna and David and Andrea. Oh yeah baby!

Did anyone catch Desperate Housewives tonight? That was nuts!

I'm still a little high from yesterday. I preached for the first time in my preaching class. I feel really good about how it went. Honestly, I loved it. I have to wonder if I hadn't grown up in the churches of Christ where women were so squelched, would I have wanted to be a preacher when I grew up? I guess I'll never know.

Grey's was pretty good last night, I guess. It's starting to get a little predictable, isn't it? When I saw the previews I knew that woman was going to be Derek's sister. And it was pretty obvious that Alex was going to go join the gyny squad. I need some surprises. Honestly, I just don't like Callie. She's such a weird-o. I can't have any compassion for her because she's so weird. I loved the ham and eggs metaphor. How great is that. I keep liking Addison more and more. And I'm a little mad at Burk. Just tell the chief about your stupid hand. Don't put people's lives in danger. Come on. I hope Christina gets is good from Bailey. And oh Derek and Meredith, take your time, all the time you need, just as long as you get together in the end.

Has everyone been following the Madonna adoption story? Any thoughts??