Contentment

Hebrews 13:5- "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Being content, it is something you are instructed to do by parents, teachers, grandparents, and others alike, but how often do we actually practice it? I am sure you are wondering why there is a picture of a young Amish school girl, but that is in fact, actually me. Not sure the age, but I am sure it still wasn't in style at that time. Looking back at pictures from childhood I realize that past superfluous wants, I was content. The older I get the more I see that I begin to question God's plan and become less content with the place God has me. However, when I examine my relationship with God I believe they are directly related. My discontent has everything to do with the lack of communication I have with my Father. The more time I put into the Word, the more I see the childlike faith displayed in my life. I say that all to say this. Putting your faith in the Lord doesn't take all of your problems away, but it does show you they are opportunities in disguise.

To do a quick catch up on what's going on with me, nursing school is challenging, yet rewarding in many ways. Rewarding because of the friendships created with other classmates, relationships with my patients, and having a storehouse of medical terminology I can throw around. Challenging because of tests upon tests and paperwork galore. I can say I am very excited about Halloween coming up because of the tons of haunted houses that are open! I love being scared! Well that is to a point, because I don't love being scared alone in my house. I do love getting a group together and going to haunted houses though, it's so interesting to see the way people react. You have the talker, they talk back to every monster/ghost/murderer that presents them self as if they are having a normal conversation and they are not scared and they just want to know what's going on in this person's day. There is the clinger, they do just that, cling to whatever is near with a death grip and bury their head in the back of the unsuspecting bystanders clothing. They are targeted frequently. Then there are the runners, they seem fine to begin with, but then all of a sudden they just booked it out of there because turns out, they were really scared. Couldn't forget the combative ones, they literally look for opportunities to knock these poor people out if they accidentally brush them while trying to scare them. Am I forgetting anybody? Ohh the screamers...their characteristics can fit into other categories as well, but are characterized by a high pitch squeal (not gender specific) with every single thing that happens. This includes when the tour guide is pointing out where the emergency exits are. Then there are always those who stay chill the entire time. I have never been one of those, I jump when I hear my roommate unlocking the door when I am home. Anwyays, I hope you all have a lovely time with your Halloween plans. Sorry I take awhile to post. I don't want you guys to get tired of me :)

Journey with Jesus,

Lauren

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? - Matthew 6:25

Guess who's back?

Here I am 3 and a half months later writing another post. I gotta keep it fresh so you guys don't get tired of me. Actually it's because I forgot I had a blog, and just remembered when I facebook stalked myself and saw it on my info...guilty on all charges of being pathetic.

Frankly, not too much has happened since that post. Actually now that I think about it, a lot has happened. I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my family (including Gran Gran). Me and Gran were set on taking the casinos down with our slot skill, especially after we read 3 hand-bound pamphlets from the 70's on the way over. Double Gran and I hit the slots and won big. By big I mean around $5 more than I brought to gamble. You could say I pushed the casinos out of business. I wish I could say double G did that well. She came out in the hole, she reasoned that if she planned to spend the money anyway that she didn't actually lose it. A couple tips for Vegas travelers:

1. Gamble off the strip - Casinos on the strip get the most action and pay out the least. Off the strip casinos have locals that frequent their casinos making it more likely to get a pay out

2. If you gamble slots- Gamble 1 payline 3 reel slots and double ups if you can find them. Read this in that retro pamphlet, but it still proved to be true. I won $134 off one machine playing one credit. Another reason to play max credits (3 max) on each machine. Also play the spin to wins if you are feeling froggy. I won a fair amount off of those machines.

3. Go see a show...or two- We went to see The Beatles Love Show by Cirque Du Soleil, which if you can get past the slight creepiness of these crazy costumes is a fantastic show. Also my brother splurged and bought us tickets to go see Daniel Tosh's stand up at Mandalay Bay. It was totally worth him spending money on.

4. Be touristy- This is your time to do tourist trap activities and enjoy it! Gran and I visited Madame Tussauds and thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures until my memory cards were full.

5. If you gamble blackjack- do the $5-$1o buy ins with no funky double ups. They will destroy you and if looks like winning is in your favor...you're wrong. The house always has the advantage and that's why it's gambling.

6. Don't go with your parents- Sorry Mom and Dad I love you and this was fun...but just a good idea if you don't want to endure many comments about how Vegas is the armpit of society.

Hope those tips help you if you are going there in the future and also Hash House a Go Go is a great place to eat, it's in the Imperial Palace.

Okay so back to my summer, I went to Disneyworld with my dad on his IBM work conference (SCORE). Also we had a brief, visit to Harry Potter world, which because IBM makes bank was closed down to the public. You HP fans may think, "That sounds incredible!" and as it was pretty cool, they closed off the rest of IOA and only let us frolic in HP world for 2 hours. Although the free butterbeer was nice, the ambiance was killed by the club music playing in half the park. Fergie and HP just don't mix when you are nerding it up. Also for things that don't mix neither do two cups of butterbeer and motion sickness. What really made the experience was being "chosen" in the Ollivander's wand experience, which is normally reserved for small children or obnoxious large ones. I was disappointed to know that even though the wand "chose" me, I still had to purchase it at the giftshop if I wished.

When I got back I got the privilege of working at a CRNP office. It was wonderful. I learned so much that I know has driven me closer to my goal of becoming a nurse. I also worked my last week at Chick-fil-A with all of my wonderful co-workers. Then the summer took a turn for the worse and in July I had my jaw surgery. The first week is definitely the worse. Puking blood and nosebleeds are frequent. Then comes the liquid diet for 6 weeks (7 in my case) and pain meds galore. I am happy to say that I am on the downhill of recovery now, and now that I can chew all I have to complain about is the numbness and tingling in my chin and lower lip. About three weeks after my recovery my mom and I visited our family in PCB and Milton, FL. What was exciting about that trip was that even though my family is from FL, I haven't seen the beach in years. I was happy to remedy that with my mom and I frequenting the beach daily and I found out that with repeated exposure to the sun I do tan...that is after painful burning and peeling.

Geez this is a long blog post, but to finish it off and catch you up. I am the day before sorority recruitment bid day. Bittersweet, for sure. It will be my last bid day as an active member and will be a replay of running to my sorority the first time because I am a recruitment counselor (Gamma Chi). I can genuinely say however, that I was blessed with a fantastic group. I am so excited to see their faces tomorrow when they find out their new homes. Also I am in my second week of nursing school and have already had 2 tests, 2 quizzes, 1 discussion post, and one test coming up on Tuesday. Needless to say it is going to be a busy semester, but I do plan on updating this more often. Yeah, I know I said this last time, but I really mean it this time. Anyways hope you guys have a fantastic week.

Journey with Jesus,

Lauren

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. - Nahum 1:7

Docu Time

Documentaries! Oh how I love them. If I could get frequent flyer miles for every documentary I had watched I would be in the Maldives right now writing this post from an internet cafe... too far? I can remember the first documentary I watched; it was called Grizzly Man. Do yourself a favor and do not watch that as your first documentary. It is a fantastic film; however, it is a little grim. Save it for a second or third pick, because I am surprised I am still watching documentaries after that selection. It was definitely more than just a documentary about living in the wild, that guy had some issues. When you watch it you will see what I mean... In the nursing world he has what we like to call bipolar disorder, but it is still a great one to see.

I could do a miniature movie review on each of these. I did that for one of my teachers in Auburn through email. I thought I was doing her a huge favor letting her know an overview of the movie with appropriate commentary for multiple movies I had seen in previous months. I went Rotten Tomatoes all over those movies. Turns out she was just making conversation when she asked what movies I had seen recently. I will save you guys the trouble and hope that you trust in my star system.

5 Stars pretty much means I would highly recommend this movie, it also means that you do NOT need to google this previously trying to figure out what is about. This is fairly specific to the movie Catfish (picture above). This movie is my favorite documentary of all time and do yourself a favor and do not look up anything previous to watching it or watch the trailer. You will see what I mean after you watch it. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything because now it is the forbidden and everyone will do it just because I said not to. Just have a a little faith. 4 Stars means that I liked it a lot when I watched it, but I might have forgotten watching it until just now. It is worth watching, but may not stick with you. Recommended by Others is fairly self explanatory. Keep in mind I have not watched these movies so if they belong in the Don't Waste Your Time category, I didn't know. Last and least category is Don't Waste Your Time. These movies were disappointing and I am happy to know there are only two movies that I can remember in this one. I probably am blocking the memory of the others.

5 Star

· Catfish

· Exit Through the Gift Shop

· Freakonomics

· The Business of Being Born

· The Pixar Story

· State of Mind

· National Geographic: Inside North Korea

· Grizzly Man

· The Blue Planet Series

· Planet Earth Series

· The President’s Photographer

· 9/11 Loose Change

· The Cartel

4 Star

· The Lottery

· Nursery University

· Paper Clips

· Fantastic Flesh

· Disney’s Oceans

· Super Size Me

· Art and Copy

· Dogs Decoded

· Ballerinas

· ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room

· Picture Me

· Van Gogh: Brush with Genius

Recommended by others

· The Art of the Steal

· They Came to Play

· The One Percent

· Food Inc.

· Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

· Restrepo

· King of Kong

· God Grew Tired of Us

· Bigger, Faster, Stronger

· The Cove

Don’t waste your time

· The Parking Lot

· March of the Penguins (It might be too late)

Anyways I hope you guys get to watch some of these and I hope you love them!! Also something fun my friend Leo sent me the other day. http://www.ustream.tv/sfshiba Puppies make me so happy and I love these precious little rascals. New posts will be much more regular now because I am out of school for the summer!

Journey with Jesus,

Lauren

"for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" James 1:3

Well, there's a first for everything...

Hey guys,

Let me first let every chemist, alchemist, or owl chemist down by telling you that this has nothing to do with chemistry, making gold, or studying the chemistry of owls. Sorry to disappoint; however, this is a blog where I plan on sharing interesting things I have found on the web and tell a few stories along the way. Not interesting? I know, but I have to have some creative outlet after cross-stitching fell through (Sorry mom, I will finish the apron for you at some point). I will space this bad boy out so it is not so intimidating to read.

The name of this blog basically came from my love of owls. I can't pinpoint the exact age I began loving this flighted creature, but I can sure as heck tell you it was not because of Harry Potter; although I do love Harry Potter. It started after my penguin phase when I realized my ultimate goal of becoming a penguin trainer at Sea World was not so likely. Owls seem to define parts of my personality and appearance. I can be fairly nocturnal, pray for wisdom, am somewhat scholarly (this only applies to the Winnie the Pooh Mr. Owl), and have large eyes. Unfortunately I do not swallow my prey, wrap them up in hair, and vomit them up for first graders to dissect. My very biased view of owls is quite naive really. I refuse to believe they fly away with puppies in their large talons.

Basics about me: Lover/Follower of Christ, 20 years old, nursing student, one brother, both parents. The rest you will find out if I can keep my attention enough to write more blog posts.

Precursor to all the things I will post on here to share with you guys. I use the website www.stumbleupon.com more than just frequently and feel like I find the neatest things ever on the web. I have a hard time keeping them to myself so here is what I have for todayhttp://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9guNPY/shuttersalt.com/blog/most-amazing-time-lapse-video-milky-way-ever-made-seriously . Quite honestly the most breathtaking depiction I have ever seen of God's creation. It really puts things into perspective when you see this incredible masterpiece the Lord Himself made.

Perspective is a word I was familiarized with after a mission trip I had taken over Spring Break. It became the "buzz word" on the trip because it was a constant reminder that our sin nature is to be self centered. Changing your perspective to a selfless one completely redefines your daily walk and causes you to become intentional with your actions, consider the long term effects on the Kingdom, and is extremely spiritually rewarding. I love this quote and I learned it from a women's Bible study from a book called "Let Me Be a Woman" by Elisabeth Elliot "Being selfless is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less" I encourage you to consider that as you walk daily with Christ.

Journey with Jesus,

Lauren

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen - 2 Corinthians 13:14