Be KIND.

As some of you know, one of my best friends, molly has been working on a documentary. She has been traveling around for almost a month, about 3+ weeks and still has 2 weeks to go before she makes it back to Cali in order to get footage from all across America of middle school girls. The KIND CAMPAIGN is a movement that focuses on middle school and high school girls to start treating each other better and stop all the meanness that happens amongst so many girls. So the campaign team was in Atlanta and because I'm only about an hour and a half away I had to go see them! I got to watch their presentation at Tech High School and it was awesome to see everything I have heard so much about in action. After the presentation and shooting of some of the girls telling their personal story, we went back to Lauren's best friends' house. It was fun to get to just hang out and we actually filmed a little piece because we were at Lauren's best friends' house and I was there with Molly which was really cool.

Tetia was there! I was excited and surprised to see her because I had no idea she was on this cross country journey!

Mol and I in front of the kind mini van!

Check out more of what they are doing, where they have been, and all about the campaign itself on their website. www.KINDcampaign.com

In other news, I got asked to join Teach For America in a phone interview!! There are typically 3 steps. The written application, the phone interview, and the day long in person interview. So my phone interview is this Monday (as in 2 days! eeek) at 4:20 pm eastern time. So if you think about it please please say a prayer for that process and whether or not this opportunity is right for me.

With arms high and hearts abandoned

I love Sundays. I love waking up and being excited about church. I love waking up late enough that I feel rested, but early enough for an afternoon nap. I love spending a day with no agenda. I love being able to relax with friends and family and just simply be.

This weekend was just a fun relaxing weekend which was perfect after a busy/stressful week at the hospital. Because we have been gone the past couple of weekends, we decided to take advantage of having nothing planned this weekend. So friday night we took a drive in the car at sunset around the city and to see Emily's high school which is also a boarding school for some. I was fascinated by it because of the rules and regulations for a boarding student and because I have never been to one so she gave me a tour of the campus. After our little drive we came back to the house and ate a few snacks then heated up the hot tub, picked a delicious bottle of red wine, and turned on the music outside for a calm evening. It was wonderful and after about an hour in the hot tub we came back inside to watch a movie but we were both out in the first 20 minutes..

So saturday rolls around and neither one of us change out of our pajamas all day. We both woke up and read a little cleaned our rooms, made a full breakfast then just chilled. We watched a few shows/movies in the morning/afternoon-ish and then for the evening watched football and just hung around the house. We both felt completely worthless being couch potatoes all day but we have no friends and really just had nothing else to do.

So today was awesome maybe because we actually did something unlike the rest of the weekend. We tried a new church that was good, but neither one of us was thrilled about so we'll keep lookin' for one we like. This afternoon we just took naps and halfheartedly worked on things for work then around 4 hopped in the car. Anna came over and the 3 of us headed to Atlanta. We went to a church service there that was absolutely incredible. It's the Passion City Church and Chris Tomlin does worship there along with Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockels, and Matt Redman but he's on tour with Casting Crowns so he wasn't there tonight.. It was amazing. The lesson was about grace (which you can hear online) but what always touches my heart is the music. I love it and it was so loud and it was incredible to look around and see so many young adults just rocking out and loving Jesus all at the same time. It was an amazing night of worship followed by great company and good conversation for the car ride home.

"Music is like you touch the pulse of the world...

... Music is always happening, and sometimes you get to touch it for a while, and when you do, you know that everything's connected to everything else" Kim Edwards

I'm a YOGI!! Emily and I started Yoga this last week, we meet on monday nights and its awesome. There are 8 people in our class but they only allow a maximum of 10 to keep it small so its a good size. We did a lot of stretching this past week so its been good because aside from running and workouts I don't do the flexibility stuff I used to so this is just a good consistent way to keep up with that.

On other news, I applied for Teach for America so keep me in your prayers regarding what my plans are for the next season of life... I'm open to options and I don't have my heart set on anything specific, but I just decided to go ahead and apply to keep my options open... I am reading a daily devotional type book and it was talking about living in dependence on Him and earlier this week it read, "you keep your plans tentative knowing that My plans are far superior." I thought it was a really unique way to put it.

We are really excited about all the news shows coming out this week because we have no friends here other then our work friends which we see plenty of during the work day... So typically in the evenings, its just the fam... I only watched 2 tv shows before I got here, and I'm pretty sure I watch at least 12 now... Awesome. I have read 6 books since I have been here too. Oh and I have never been consistent exerciser although I like to think I am- it was more on whims or when I would get stressed. But since I have been in georgia, I work out daily (minus weekends), read daily, watch too much tv, and still get to bed early.. Who knew how much time friends take out of your schedule?!

In a daydream

I just left the hospital and have been there all morning.. We (Emily and I) got there at 7:15 ish to scrub in and watch Dr Brock do a spine exposure... I don't really know the technical names for everything but it was crazy. We watched them prep the patient after she had gone under and then the cutting began. Basically we saw him cut her stomach, through her muscles, move everything out of the way so they could get to the spine. They did a lot of stuff that I wouldn't know what to tell you or how to tell you and then put it all back. Sewing up each layer and putting it all back where it is supposed to go. It was gnarly. And we didn't watch from an observation deck because apparently those are only in grey's anatomy (who knew?!) so we stood next to the patient. Like I could stick my hand out and touch her spine. Yeah I don't know what I was doing there or how I got there. We had talked about watching surgeries and I was like yeah okay, and the next thing I know i'm looking all inside this lady. It looked cool though.

For those of you wondering, I didn't once get queasy or sick or lightheaded or anything... I was pleasantly surprised with myself. haha cause I was definitely expecting to have to take a minute or two and step outside. But I did good. Even with all the stapling and needles. Um after we went to radiology and looked at some x-rays and that was it. He was about to do some other surgery but we left because we are headed out of town today. I'm actually waiting on emily to pack right now.

Labor day was good.. Bennett and Natalie came home which the parents were thrilled about and some other people came over and we had bbq and just hung out, watched tennis and just relaxed..

We are headed to auburn in a little bit and we are going to see bennett, natalie, and a bunch of friends down there so im excited about that. We are going to the game tomorrow night which will be super fun cause night games are the best and i'll get to see a bunch of people I haven't got to see yet.. I'm new to the whole auburn, alabama, georgia rivalry because the teams i'm usually cheering for, or against, are in the big 12. So this is gonna be fun to pick a new team and I just love football season so i'm super pumped.

Other than that life is good.. I need to purchase a rain coat. The week at the hospital was good.. A lot of the kids are starting to get sick cause there is a bug going around.. which is good because we have been busy but some of these kids look miserable. :( Um that's all for now.

Happy Friday!

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” Jean Jacques Rousseau

So this week at the hospital has been good.. It's been crazy but anything less would make the time pass slowly, which has not been a problem yet. So my assignment tomorrow is to shop! Yeahhhh!!... So I'm heading to wal mart to get a bunch of games/toys for the kiddos. So to all you mommies out there... Any suggestions? Kids favorites? Here are a few I'm planning on getting and why:

- candyland (good for counting and taking turns)

- sorry (rules and number i.d.)

- scrabble Jr. (words, letters, spelling, taking turns)

- charades (social skills)

- cards/Go fish/uno- (language, memory, attention)

So now that you get the idea, i'm also getting puzzles, strategy games, catch phrase jr, connect four, guess who, stuff like that.. I'll be getting stuff for the younger kids too like sound boards, mirrors, rattles to help figure out where they are developmentally but i'll also be looking for distraction toys for the treatment room like bubbles, loud toys, bright toys, i spy, where's waldo, etc.

All that to say, if you have any you can think of that you think might be a hit for the kids feel free to let me know!!