Excited!

Ahhh, I'm so excited, I'm so beside myself! Madison surprised me today and showed me that he ordered me an iPad which I've been wanting for a while! Not only that but I also found a really cool shop where I ordered sleeves for my iPad as well as a custom made guitar strap! Have I mentioned yet how excited I am??? The sleeves I ordered are below. You should definitely check out this shop, they make accessories for all kinds of devices!

Just for a very brief update on what I've been up to lately, I've just started my final quarter of classes for this year and I'm taking 3 while a normal load for me is 2! I'm still reading Unbroken as of now considering my work load, but plan to finish it and post a review by May. Right now I'm also raising money for Relay For Life and if you are interested in helping me reach my goal of $538, you can donate by clicking HERE. ANY amount is greatly appreciated and will go so far in fighting cancer! Thank you so much in advance! I hope you all are doing well! =)

What Prayers Are For

I am writing this post to follow up on the prayer requests I made via Twitter yesterday evening. I can not thank those of who you responded to me or prayed for those family members I mentioned enough. I told you I'd provide details once I knew them, and here they are.

My grandmother on my mom's side, and my only grandmother since age 5, was admitted into the hospital late last week because she was unable to breath or stand. After running tests, they've discovered that she has severe sleep apnea which she's been dealing with for some time and her oxygen levels are low. At the beginning of this week it looked as though she was taking a turn for the worst, but was admitted back into the hospital and is being treated now. More than anything at this point, please pray that she feels encouraged. She isn't keen of the idea of having to live on oxygen for the rest of her life, and we all know how much attitude matters with anything, especially life itself. She's never really been sick, so dealing with it isn't coming easy for her.

We had a distant cousin who lost his battle to cancer yesterday so please pray for his closer family/friends who are dealing with this right now.

My aunt was having symptoms last night that lead us to believe last night that she was experiencing a heart attack, so she was rushed to the ER. She's back at home now after being diagnosed with low potassium levels and anemia.

Tomorrow morning we're leaving town for 2 weeks so none of this was seeming to occur at the most appropriate time (not that illness can ever be appropriate). In a moment of concern, I requested your prayers. After all, that's what prayers are for right? Moments of concern!

Again, thank you all so much.

Relay For Life: Making A Difference

Almost everyone has been touched by cancer, either through his or her own personal battle or through someone they love. Just within my family and extended family, I know 9 people who have battled:

• My step-mother's other brother, Randy, who is a 3 month survivor of throat cancer

• My cousin, Kathy, who is a 5 month survivor of cervical cancer

• My step-mother's brother, Mike, who is a 9 month survivor of colon cancer

• My step-grandmother, Kitten, who is a 1-year survivor of breast & colon cancer.

• My mother-in-law, Sheri, who is a 3 year survivor of breast cancer

• My grandfather, Robert, who is a 6 year survivor of prostate cancer

• My aunt, Elaine, who is a 16 year survivor of breast cancer

• My aunt, Agnes, who is a 16 year survivor of cervical cancer

• My mother-in-law's aunt, Janis, who is a 21 year survivor of breast cancer

I am working to raise money for the American Cancer Society in honor of these people and many others we have met who are facing similar battles.

Every day, the American Cancer Society is helping us stay well by preventing cancer or finding it at its earliest, most treatable stages. They assist families in finding the best resources to help their friend or loved one deal with a diagnosis and their journey to get well. The American Cancer Society is also rallying communities (like ours!) through events like Relay For Life, to fight back and find cures for this disease. Please join my team or make a donation to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together, we can help make sure that cancer never steals another year of anyone's life!

When I say that your support is more appreciated than you know, I speak on behalf of every soul who has lost their battle, every soul who may be battling right now, and every soul who may battle in the future. I speak on behalf of every soul who has been touched by cancer, and that volume is high. Thank you so much in advanced for your donation. Any amount, large or small, is greatly appreciated more than you know!

Donate here!

Happy New Year!

Just a post to offer a brief update and a few recent thoughts...

We're coming off of vacation and back to work we all go! We vacationed in Orlando for a week prior to Christmas and this ranks as one of my favorite vacations ever. We enjoyed both Disney & Universal, some time together as a couple celebrating our one year wedding anniversary, and time with our family as well. This really was the ultimate vacation full of all the things we love!

I start school again on Jan 9th and until then I'm enjoying some leisure reading. I'm currently reading Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, and after that will be moving onto Sheri's book, Hear My Heart, which I should have read by now! I had started When God Winks and Unbroken midterm of last semester, so I figure I better finish them before moving onto more. My list of "to-reads" just keeps getting longer and longer. Hopefully my classes will be less vigorous this time around and I won't really have to take a break from my leisures... meaning that maybe this year I won't fail at my annual book reading goal like I did for 2011. It's ok, good grades and education were worth the sacrifice.

I've made my New Years Resolutions list for 2012 and extended it from my normal 10 goals to 11. Part of that list involves giving back even more. This year I'm aiming for our group, Making A Difference, to double the amount of rice grains donated in 2011. Our totals for '11 were 301540 meaning that our goal for '12 is 603,080. If you aren't already on our team, feel free to join HERE.

About a month ago I decide to try Tumblr, but have since decided that it isn't for me. I either have a little to say (Twitter) or a lot (this blog), and there really isn't an in between. I've grown very fond of Goodreads, and Instagram though. I'll include those links below if you care to follow.

Goodreads

Instagram screen name: shan3641

Just thinking.. I've heard the quote that goes something like "You are often your own problem, but you're also your solution". I've been thinking about this lately and I love that this quote is two fold. It's hard sometimes to accept that we can be our own problem, but the second half of that, "you're also your own solution" is so empowering. Believing that we are our own problem can be difficult, but knowing that we have the power to fix it makes it so much easier to hear! So take it to heart and take control!

Just a small disclaimer, in rereading some of my previous posts, I have noticed countless errors. Please know that when I feel the inspiration to blog I do proof read, but being too close to the material and to anxious to get it out there (to post it), I make mistakes. I'm human and I'm fallible. I'm going to go ahead and apologize for those mistakes now, and I'm going to do my best to make less in future!

Before I end this, I want to thank all of you who read my blog. I keep it because I enjoy writing. Knowing that I have a few followers makes writing feel rewarding. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Oh, and thank you!!!

I hope this year brings you all abundant blessings!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Book Review: When God Winks At You

I just finished reading this book, When God Winks At You, written by Squire Rushnell. It was my vacation book of choice, and one that offered me relaxation and rejuvenation like a good vacation should. This book is full of various stories of God winks; things that could be perceived as coincidences, but better perceived as divine winks of hope, encouragement, and reassurance. Each story was empowered by faith and for faith. I found myself often times reflecting on various situations in life and having no doubt that I'd experienced many God winks of my own, and that's what's so great about this book: it proves to us that we all have a story to tell and that our faith can bring us through anything. It encourages us all to review happenings in our lives and to pay closer attention in the future. This book is a quick and easy read that leaves a heart warm. It's one I'd highly recommend. 5/5

Follow me on Goodreads.com

Violated

I hate when life unexpectedly slaps you in the face with pain that I'd imagine a bag of quarters to be. On the flip side, there's always a more positive perspective to counteract that feeling. Last night, someone broke into Madison's truck in ATL while he was inside enjoying a lifetime experience of a concert, and they stole our new GPS/stereo system. The only word that describes this feeling is "violated". We feel violated. Someone thought it was ok to invite themselves into our personal space and take something that was ours completely careless of how it would affect our lives. Ultimately all that matters is that he's safe. It really could be so much worse, they could have taken more than they did, invoked vandalism to partner their thievery, or even worse, Madison could've walked up at the wrong moment. As wide of a range of emotions this makes me feel, angry, violated, hurt, fearful and frustrated, the point here is to focus on the only thing that matters which is the fact that my husband is safe and alive. Material things are nothing at all. Upon expiration they can be replaced, unlike a human life.

You might wonder why I'm writing this blog. Writers will do write to relieve thoughts, feelings, or stress. They may write for self-expression, or with a motive in mind to make a difference. They may even write because not writing isn't an option. And this blog is a little bit of all of that. Despite whether or not anyone ever reads this, I've put my feelings into words freeing them from my mind. Ive satisfied my need to analyze this situation in its entirety through verbalization.
In the occurrence that someone does read this, I hope what you take from it is the concept of life that I believe in most: the direct correlation between perspective and attitude which drives our lives into the direction of our choosing. That's the beauty of it. I can and will choose to see the bright side of this, the big picture, which will continue me on a path of positivity.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Universals

This weekend has been quite rigorous for me as far as Quantitative Methods go. I labored for 7 straight hours on Friday over only 6 statistics homework problems. I even had to bring out my trusty friend, my rice sock, to sooth my neck pain from the strain of constantly looking down to read and from calculating 13 hand written pages worth of mathematics. Believe it or not, I found some moral perspective amidst the madness.

Fact: Math is a universal language, understood by everyone, everywhere regardless of origin. If you think about it, pain is too. At some point in all of our lives we face some form of it. Now here's where it matters: if pain is universal, so should be understanding. Even when all we may see on the surface is a problem we can't understand, or a person who's actions we can't understand, there are underlying variables, or pains, that may be unknown or undefined. Once these variables are acknowledged, once we know what someone is dealing with in their life, it's so much easier to look past what appears to be "a problem", or their flaws, and to simply discover an understanding that leads to resolve. That being said, it's important to face every challenging action that one may bring towards us with a deep breath and an understanding that it is simply what it is. 2 + 2 = 4. IT JUST IS. The coefficients of our lives combined with the variables we may face result in the beings that we are. And that's something that's simply a universal truth.