But You Thought My Sister was the Random One!!!

There are just some random things I wanted to write tonight...feeling sort of 'full' at the moment, and need to just 'write it out'...

Bear with me, while I write out things that are just on my mind...

May....it is so cold here, I can't believe that it is really May...and the middle, at that. I don't think I can remember a year that we have waited this long to turn on our air conditioner. I'm thankful for the respite in electric bills, though.

Holly is home. She finally made it tonight. And, of course, now the drama begins. Not that she's dramatic, but the whole dynamic of watching her try to juggle time between all her sisters evenly, and find time to see her friends, and Will and Ally will be a challenge that I don't envy.
Tomorrow, she's already booked to leave with the twins and I to go to Vincennes to witness the moment we've been waiting for these past 23 months: Madison's braces are coming OFF!!! She's pretty excited that this is happening...and equally excited that Holly will be there, too.

Mallory has a few more months to wear hers. Twins, but they have totally different things going on inside their mouths! Mallory had 'bite issues' that had to be fixed, which takes a little longer.

A short update on what I've been up to: recently, I started preparing for the GRE exam. This means that I am studying vocabulary words like a mad woman. Notice, I'm not trying any of them out for you here! --No kidding, though, there are about 500 that I need to learn. So, I'm in process of making, (this will not surprise you, if you know me) 'color-coded' flash cards...pink for a positive term...orange for a neutral term...and grey/blue for a negative term. My goal is to apply and be accepted to seminary in 2011. The GRE is one of the requirements for that entrance. We'll see how this goes, this has always been a dream of mine...(NOT the GRE, but) furthering my education. And so, Lord willing, this will happen.

"Lord willing." I've recently found myself using this expressing more and more over the past few days. Life is just so unpredictable. And so, 'if the Lord wills' this or that to happen, then so be it'!

Our church showed the new movie 'To Save a Life' last Sunday evening. I highly recommend this movie because it hits home with most people. We all know kids or parents of kids that are faced with many of the situations addressed in this movie. One of the major events in the movie was a teenager that commits suicide. Suicide, though not a popular topic to discuss, is very real in the lives of many people that I know. Either they have attempted it, or been in a position to consider it strongly...or they've lost someone they know to it...

Tomorrow night, our church is going to offer a QPR training session (think CPR for the suicidal person) to equip people to be able to help those they may come in contact with that might be contemplating suicide.

Q, stands for question.
P stands fro persuade.
And, R stands for refer.

I think it is very pro-active to have this training available, and I'm so glad that we're offering it to anyone that would like it!

I watched a video today from Nooma. Rob Bell did an outstanding job talking quite frankly about grieving the loss of someone you love. He talked in it about 'Sitting Shivah'.it is very profound Jewish tradition when someone dies..I found myself loving this concept...I'll research it more, and get back to you!