Graduation Breakfast

Earlier this week I was asked to speak at my Parish's Graduation Breakfast. We honor our graduating seniors now before life gets too hectic. I wasn't the first or the second person asked to speak, but the third. I hope that out of my ramblings, they got something out of it. So if you want to, you can read what I wrote. Enjoy!

Good Afternoon, Graduates, Family & Friends.
Please stand and join me in prayer:

Blessing of Graduates:

Before you were even formed, God knew you.
While in your Mother’s womb, God named you.
At your birth, God’s breath filled you with life.
Today, we celebrate what you have become at this moment in time. And so we pray:  God of our beginnings, we thank you for the gift of these graduates; their excitement, their awesome wonder & curiosity, their open speech & encouraging words. Their contributions have blessed & challenged us, & we have become a richer & more diverse community because of them.  (Pause)
God our Father, As they step forward into the world that awaits, comfort their fears with the full knowledge of your Divine presence.
Strengthen their resolve to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as modern-day disciples, in a world that needs their spirit.
Guide their feet as they move through life, protecting them from the pitfalls of darkness while they help to lead future generations into the warmth & promise of your light.
God our Father, we ask your blessings on them, today and everyday. Amen.
In the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Introduction:
Samantha Klish, Parishioner of St. Mary’s my whole life & a Catechist for the past 8 years.

Today I was asked to speak to you about what lies ahead as you go on and leave this chapter of your life behind.  In all honesty, I do not know what lies ahead. But what I do know, is that God has a plan for your life. As a graduate, a new adult in this scary, strange world, you will be faced with many decisions, challenges, rewards, pitfalls, failures & accomplishments.  There will be good times, bad times and all sorts of times in between. And I think that the unknowingness of the future is extremely exciting.

As I prepared for this speech, I reminisced about my life between my very own senior year of High School & now. What I found was this: it did not turn out the way I had planned!  When I look back on my plans as a graduating high school senior, I find that there was a very definitive thing missing in that plan. And that was God’s plan. I’m not here today to preach to you, I’m just here to tell you a little about my life in hopes of you looking into your own plans and finding the missing pieces, so that you may shape a past, which you can look back on, and be satisfied with it.  I’m not saying I regret my past, because I do not at all.

My plan as I began my senior year was pretty straight forward. I would graduate high school, live at home, attend Mid-State Technical College & graduate with a Nursing Degree in the Spring of 2006. At the end of my senior year, I was headed in a different direction. I can’t exactly pin point when my plan started to change, but it started with looking into the UW-Eau Claire Nursing Program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield. I now had a new plan. I would apply to UWSP, then apply and get into the 4-year Nursing Program. After meeting with the admissions department, I was told that it was very competitive and if I didn’t maintain about a 3.8 gpa my first year of college, my chances of getting in was almost none.  I was up for the challenge, high school was easy. So I applied to UWSP and received my Acceptance letter 2 weeks later.

Fast forward a year and a half and I found myself with a terrible gpa. I was not getting into the 4-year Nursing Program and I had a chance the following year to improve my gpa. Year 2 goes by and I’m in the same boat. So I started looking into other Nursing Programs to transfer into. Year three and my grades were so horrible I was sure I was going to never make it.  As I look at what it was that made me not succeed was there was a lack in faith.  The campus was a place that lacked God. It made me angry, I didn’t want to be there, I made my after school job my first priority and I quickly found out that that was not the school for me.

Sometime during my third year of college I decided to take a shot in the dark and apply to the Franciscan University of Steubenville Nursing Program.  Believe you and me, this was not an easy feat. I was told that if I really wanted a shot at this program that I would have to start over from scratch. I would be there for 4 years. I immediately thought “That’s $80,000!” There’s no way I can afford something like that. But I still felt this pull toward Franciscan.  So I talked many times to my admissions counselor trying to figure out if there was any way to get into this school.  We figured out a way, my current credits would transfer and I would be a Theology Major! I would be there for 2 years and I could take classes towards a nursing degree!  Well after it was figured out, I received a letter in the mail. “Dear Ms. Klish. Thank you for applying. We see that you have selected on campus housing. Unfortunately we do not have room for you and you can either hold your application for the following semester or withdraw your application. Love, Franciscan.”  I was devastated. But there was still that pull toward that small town in Ohio. I called once again my counselor and asked if there was anyway that I could live off campus and attend the fall semester. Guess what? He said YES!!! A week later, a new letter, “Congratulations Ms. Klish! You are now a student at FUS!!!”

What was it that pulled me toward this University? It was God! I put my faith and trust in His plan, not my plan! I believe that any other school would have rejected me without a second look. But the love of the Father is so great, that he puts you exactly where you need to be, and for me it was Franciscan. 

I remember moving in to my new house in August and watching out my living room window as my family drove off.  I of course, panicked! I don’t live at home anymore! I won’t see my family for 4 months! I know NO ONE here! I’m all alone!!! The fears eventually went away. I met new people. I got a fresh start. Let me tell you, I FINALLY thrived at University! I found solace in the one who is always there for me. I attended daily Mass and allowed God to be first in my life! Eventually the grades started to ascend and I loved living 850 miles away from home! I got to do things I never imagined myself doing. Such as road tripping to Canada on a whim one night to watch the sun rise over Niagara Falls.  Going to New York City on Fall Break & Spending a week in Connecticut & Boston for Spring Break.  I let God provide, because I trusted Him. I knew that this is where He, not I wanted me to be.  There were never financial issues or loneliness, as He provided for all my needs. Not everything was bliss, there were roadblocks, but I was able to pull through.

As my second year got well under way, I had to decide what I was going to do the following Autumn as I was set to graduate in May.  I looked into three options: 1) Graduate and pursue an Accelerated Nursing Program in the fall. 2) Apply to be on NET Ministries or 3) Attend a Semester abroad at my schools Study Abroad Program in Gaming, Austria. Option 1 was out because of the financial obligations it required. I was just not feeling lead to NET so I tossed Option 2 to the side. So I guess Gaming it was!

In the fall semester of 2009, I boarded a plane with my friend Maggie and we headed to Ireland for a week before arriving in Austria. Can we say Culture Shock?!?!  What a horrible way to start a semester 4,000 miles away from home. Arriving in Ireland, I lost one of my suitcases, I turned my computer on in the airport to email home saying I arrived and my computer tells me that it does not want to work, at all! And we did a horrible job planning and we had no place to stay! Exhausted from being awake for about 27 hours we finally got everything straightened out. We found a Hostel, planned out the rest of the week, My computer finally turned on, my luggage was found and eventually arrived in Austria.

Franciscan owns it’s own campus in Gaming and it is a Restored 14th Century Carthusian Monastery. Those walls contained some of the holiest men who prayed about 15 hours a day! One of the coolest things about these particular Carthusian’s was that they prayed for all who would eventually live in the walls of the Kartause. Who knew that 600 or so years before I was born, I was being prayed for!

During my semester, I learned from wonderful professors from all over Europe. One from Lichtenstein, One from Italy & one from Austria. I was able to visit 18 countries in Europe, over 30 Major Cities, 3 Marian Apparition sites, including:  Knock, Ireland; Fatima, Portugal & Medugorje, Bosnia & Herzegovina, I saw Pope Benedict XVI, I got to pray in front of the tombs and sarcophagus’ of over 20 saints, including St. Peter, soon to be Blessed Pope John Paul II the Great, St. Francis, St. Clare St. Maximilian Kolbe, to pray in front of the Miraculously Incorrupt Bodies of Sts. Padre Pio & San Francesca del Roma. and walk in the same place as St. Michael the Arc Angel did in a cave in Mt. San Angelo, pray in front of the true cross of Christ, and Volunteer with Mother Teresa’s very own Missionaries of Charity.  From the day I decided to go to Gaming I was going to Greece for my 10-day break, but I followed God's plan and headed off to Portugal.

It was with the Missionaries in Lisboa, Portugal that I was reminded of something that I had not used to it’s fullest potential yet: Let God Provide!  This particular group of sisters ran a small Nursing Home for the Poorest of the Poor here in Lisboa.  After literally 5 minutes of assisting, I remembered why it was I wanted to be a Nurse! God reminded me of what my goal was, even though it took a lot longer than I thought!  The biggest lesson I learned however was when I was helping sister in the Kitchen prepare food and she asked me to help freeze some beans. There were I believe 3 black garbage bags full! I remember the look on sisters face: Pure joy! She told me, “Such beautiful food! We do not know where it came from! It was on our doorstep this morning! We work here on Divine Providence. We purchase very little. See how God provides for us!” 
When I returned home, in December I immediately pursued my dream of being a Nurse and just a few weeks ago, I received my Acceptance Letter! 7 ½ years after my own “plan”.  As I look back on it, there would have been so much I would’ve missed out on, if I would have taken my own path.  Even though there are parts I would have loved to cut out and not relive, there is much more I would not have traded for anything of this world.  Who knew I would have done so many wonderful & exciting things if I would have chosen my path.

What my message for you today is this: If you do not put God ahead in your life, I’m sorry, you are not living up to the potential He has set up for you! When you graduate and move away from this place, first and foremost, find yourself a Catholic Church and become a member! Many of you will attend a school that has a Newman Center. Join that! If you are remaining at home, remember, you are most welcome here. This is your home as much as all of ours.  Attend Mass on Sundays. Frequent Confession. Let God become a focal point in your life.  Does this mean that you have to go to College? Study Abroad? Go on a Mission Trip? Wait 8 years to finally reach your dream? NO! Not at all. God has a plan for each of you.  I will suggest you do these things, especially travel! I agree with St. Augustine when he said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” How ever I agree more with St. Catherine of Sienna who said, “When you are what you were meant to be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” That will only come with the loving hand of God’s guidance. In the trials of life, in all emotions and situations, I ask you, beg you, to join those with Christ. Go to a church, and sit in the silence that awaits in front of the tabernacle, be with Christ as He is always with you.

Let me end this afternoon, with this analogy:

I am giving to each of you right now a rose.  I want you to hold it and look at it right now. 
I’m going to read to you 2 Timothy 1:8b-10

Beloved:
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.

I explained that the rose can show the path of our lives. It started out small and as it grew it grew thorns. That is like the parts of our lives that were challenging. Eventually we got through them and came to the leaves. These are our resting places. Our periods of joy. After many leaves and thorns we get to the bud. Sometimes we are like that bud. We are closed and not entirely at our fullest potential.  Eventually we open up and we are rewarded with the sweet smell of success, just like the sweet smell of the rose.  The rose was red, to remind us that we have succeed with the deep red blood that was shed by Christ on the Cross. 
I elaborated a little more but I didn't include it all here.

In conclusion I would like to read a few quotes to you:
“I command you: Be firm & Steadfast! Do not fear or be dismayed, for the LORD, your God, is with you wherever you go!” -Joshua 1:9
“What lies behind us & what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“High School is like toilet paper, you only miss it when it’s gone!” Unknown
“To those of you who received honors, awards, & distinctions, I say well done. And to the ‘C’ Students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States.” George W. Bush

I thank you for your time! Please stand once again for a final prayer.
“Heavenly Father….All Glory Be to the Father…”
In conclusion, I will end with a quote from G.K. Chesterton which was read at my own Commencement Exercises last Spring: “Let the speeches be short, and let the Graduates be on their way.” Thank you.

Tada! My ramblings!

The Seven Clues From The Artists

A few years ago I took this class called Theology of Healing.  A couple of weeks ago I starting going through old notebooks and folders from College, trying to remove some unnecessary clutter and found a short paper I wrote. It's a bit incomplete but I really like the realization that I came to. The first part is explaining a little bit about Peter Kreeft's book Making Sense Out of Suffering. We had to read a Chapter called "Seven Clues From The Artists" (Chapter 5) and then reflect on it in a summary then give our own perspective. I would like to share my thoughts and sorry if they are a little vague, but I have tried to edit it to make it seem a bit more complete.

Peter Kreeft writes about the pangs of suffering and turns to the artists to guide him through a widely asked question, that is "Why do we Suffer?"  Topics range from Fairy Tales and Children's stories and grow to more complex topics presented in Myths and even Birth Pangs. In all of this subject matter, suffering becomes the central theme. 
The classic story of the Velveteen Rabbit explains that the more something is loved and put through sufferings; in the rabbit's case, falling out eyes and rubbed off fur, the more real it becomes. One also becomes "real" the more one is tamed. We do this by becoming more of a part of God's life by letting Him be a part of ours. [Today I read this and think that the more we love God or Jesus, the more "real" He becomes to us. It's not that I'm saying He's not real, but He is easier to forget. He becomes so important to us that we have to take Him everywhere and the more we do this the more we see that Christ is worn out. He has suffered. How many times have we dropped a stuffed toy, left it behind, forgotten about it? All of these little things have given the toy wear and tare. Like Christ, the more we see Him in His brokenness the more we see that He became like that for us.  At the end of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, we see that the Rabbit has become "real" he has no more wear and tare. He is made new. Like Christ at the Resurrection, He bore the pain and He was made new. Now He is real to us. We've put Him through all that suffering, then we see that He said it was all worth it to what He became in the end]  When we share in the sufferings of God, we become more real to the pain that He went through.  This includes more importantly a death to self.
In Fairy Tales it seems that no matter how much turmoil one goes through, in the end one will live "Happily Ever After".  God doesn't want us to think that we have to go through all of this turmoil to get to a "Happily Ever After". The Fairy Tales say that the more one suffers the more meaningful the story will become. God has given us a free will and we are not for His enjoyment like a puppet on a string. These sufferings are a result of the fall and everyone endures and embraces them because we have chosen them.  God did not inflict these sufferings on us but we brought them on ourselves.
This suffering that is the fault of our human race did indeed arise after the fall of man.  Through this suffering comes a great wisdom and knowledge for man.  The wisdom that is gained becomes the valuable food for our souls.  We need this food to sustain our lives.  If we were given the choice of a Utopian Society or a perfect happiness, we would be consumed in boredom.   Our souls would not be fed and therefore we would still suffer.  With this suffering we are artists of ourselves with each choice being a stroke of a brush and each act a cut of the chisel.  Saints suffer the most and become the greatest artists of all.  [Many of them give up comforts and purposely embrace sufferings and hardships.  Some may call them foolish, still others call them wise.  If suffering leads to wisdom and knowledge, their souls are fed all the more and they do not go hungry in the spiritual sense. God satisfies them continually, especially with the knowledge that it's all for eternal happiness]. [If saints are great artists because of their sufferings,] All mothers are artists because they have pains and sufferings in child birth when they are assisting in the procreation of new life. [The fall occurred because some of the angels chose to not bow down to a human [Christ] and they knew they could not be like God in the sense where they could create. Mothers are creators like God and even though they are going through a horrific pain, once again the suffering turns into wisdom and knowledge and their souls have been satisfied in a way many can not fathom.]
Finally death is a lover and it is also a birth.  In the very darkest of sufferings, which is death, a light is found which is the most glorious of all the lights.  This [light] in turn is like a passageway or a canal of birth just as when we were born into life, we are born into death.  [It is wonderful to think that our souls are being fed through the sufferings of death. What greater reward then to have the most greatest of things, Eternal Life with our Creator, after the very darkest of sufferings.]
Our suffering is so important to our lives.  One thing I hear a lot of from someone I love [I call her Mother] is "Offer It Up!"  After reading through this chapter, I really have felt a deeper connection to Christ and His sufferings.  I do not compare my own to His and say they are the same because they are not even close to what He endured.  I look to His sufferings as a place to lay down my own into.  As someone who is not a crier by any means, I really couldn't help but to notice the passage on Christ's tears. [Kreeft says]: "Every tear we shed, becomes Christ's own tears." I cry more or less quiet, dry tears.  Even if they are physically there [or not] I know that if I put into Christ my trust that He will take them and make them His own. This was something that I really needed to hear.
Christ sits by our sides and no matter what our sufferings are, He takes them and makes them His own, if we allow Him to.  Sometimes it is our own foolish pride, yes we all are fools Kreeft says, that gets in the way of us reaching out to Christ and saying, "Here, have my pain and my sorrow and my sufferings and help me to get through them because I can't deal with them anymore. It's too much." We won't always feel that Jesus has taken our sufferings away, but when we are forced to suffer through them we are made stronger and our souls are fed. The strength comes from Christs as well as from the suffering.  He will not let us go through it alone.
The other part that just tugged at my heart and causes it pain, was that Jesus is such a part of us that He was in every gas chamber in Auschwitz. [After going to Auschwitz and paying my respects to those who suffered there, this hits harder then it did when I first read it.] He is also in every legal factory that participates in the killing of the innocent everyday.  For a Savior who loves us so much He is with everyone of us, no matter if we are strong or weak. No matter if we want Him to be with us or not.

 When I read this I sometimes feel that it is all over the place but it really was a great reminder to myself that no matter what is going on, my sufferings and pain are one with Christ's. That this suffering is forming me into a "real" person and feeding my soul and I pray, hope that it is enough to let me be with the one who has been along for my ride this whole time. It's a crazy journey and I think that Christ is the only one strong enough to take it on with me.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said it best:

"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much."

Being Hit Below the Belt...Twice

Wow. Do something good, get kicked twice for it. For the last few weeks I have been planning a "Praise & Prayer" Hour with two other parishioners at my Church. Deb & Jim are extremely musically talented and have asked me to help them to bring for lack of a better word a P&W hour at our church once a month.  Well we had the first one two nights ago and we had 6 people show up. Better than we thought. It seemed to go over very well. So of course, as my life goes, I do something good for God and satan has to come and throw in his two cents. I was hit twice by him, through a person who is supposed to be one of my best friends, is my flesh and blood family and where does the blow come from? Why to mock God and my Pro Life beliefs. I won't detail it because it's not worth mentioning. The first blow yesterday made me angry and frustrated. Then today's made me want to cry. Weep for the fact that someone could mock God and the unborn victims of abortion so coldly. The thing is that, I have been on my guard and walking on egg shells with this person. We did have a discrepancy about a month ago and I thought everything had blown over but I guess I'm such a horrible person. I don't want to beat myself up but, this is probably the the thing I hate the most about being a "devout" Catholic. That if I do good, I'm kicked in the face almost immediately. Sometimes it's just easier to give up. But of course, that's what satan wants. And in the long run it's not what I want. End Rant.

Double Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

So if there was one thing I was making sure I was perfecting in my last year of undergrad at FUS was that I was going to make a cookie that tasted just like the Subway ones. Specifically the Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. So I made many a cookie, and eventually found out how you make that cookie taste like chocolate, almost brownie like and now I will share it with you!

The Mint Variety - Great for Christmas!

What you need:

• 1 1/3 Cups & 1 Tablespoon Butter or Margarine (either will work, it just depends on how fattening you want them)
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2/3 Cup Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 Eggs
• 2 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2/3 Cup Cocoa (Royal Dutch Cocoa is better)
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Cup Milk
• 12 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 6 oz White Chocolate Chips
• Optional: 6 oz of any of your favorite flavored chip (Mint, Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, Cappuccino, etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F 
2. Take a brown grocery bag and cut it apart and put in on the table. You will put the baked cookies on here. It helps to absorb the excess grease and makes for easier clean up! My Grandma's way to make cookies!
3. Combine 1 1/3 Cups Butter, Sugars & Vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. I use a wooden spoon because that's how I was taught. You have muscles, use them!
4. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly
5. In a microwave safe bowl add 6 oz of the Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips & 1 Tablespoon of Butter. Heat in the Microwave until it's at a liquid consistency.
6. Add the liquid chocolate to your batter and mix together
7. In a separate bowl, combine Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda & Salt. Mix thoroughly
8. Add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the milk. Stir until blended.
9. Stir in the remaining Semi-Sweet Chips and the White Chocolate Chips.
10. Drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet in 1" balls. I like to use a melon baller because it gives perfectly shaped cookies.
11. Bake for 10 minutes. I take them out when they look like they are almost done. This way they stay soft. If they are over baked, in a hour they will be no better than a hockey puck and I for one do not like hard, crispy cookies.
12. When you take the cookies out of the oven, this is when you can add the optional chips. In the picture I used the Mint Chips. I just added 4 or 5 to each cookie on the top. This way they have more of an aesthetic appeal then if they were mixed in with the dough. You can add any kind of Chocolate Chips at this step. The sky's the limit!
13. After I add the chips, I remove the cookies from the cookie sheet to the brown bag
14. After the cookies have cooled (you will be able to tell because the chips on top have re-solidified and you can touch them without them being mushy) you can remove them from the brown bag and put them in an air tight container. 
15. To ensure the cookies stay soft, put a piece of bread in the container. This will work for cookies that have already hardened too, The moisture of the bread goes into the cookies and they become soft again!
16. When I made these for Christmas I got 93 cookies and this is a single batch. I did however eat some of the dough so I could've had more but I guess 93 is a lot. You can make the cookies bigger, but you will get less cookies

So there you go kids! My favorite cookies! And yes, I do believe they taste as good, if not better than Subways!

Immune to the Economy

So I'm pretty much gonna be losing my job soon. No Customers = No Hours. Am I sad, or worried? HELL NO!!! I'm actually quite excited. Why? Because I finally have an excuse to get back into the health field. So back when I was a senior in High School, call me crazy but I had 3 jobs and went not only to High School, but was taking College Credits. So I was a busy child. Well the class I was taking was the CNA course, or to expand on the acronym: Certified Nursing Assistant. I can't really remember why I decided to take it but I did. I did my Clinicals at Portage County Health Care Center. I loved to talk with the residents. I worked in a Nursing Home in the Kitchen. I was in the Health Field, I had my foot in the door then I went in another direction. I mean I don't regret getting out of it. I think it was good for me to do other things, it made me grow out of it. I was able to get a feel of the workforce outside of Health Care. Well when I did Portugal Mission, I realized how much I missed working in Health Care. So now a year and a quarter later, I'm really digging into it. I am preparing to re-take my CNA certification. I read like 100 pages in the book in the last 24 hours! I don't do that! But I did. I have this really crazy motivation and I love it! By the end of this week, I should have registered to take the exam! Thursday I am going to practice my skills which we'll see how rusty they are. Hopefully I'll take my exam sometime around the 1st of February! I'm not really nervous, I just want to work in a place I'm passionate about again. I also want to volunteer at Ministry St. Michael's Hospital. They have volunteering with the Hospice Program and that is what I want to do as a Nurse so what better way to find out if that's where I want to be than to volunteer with that. I know I won't get paid, but I think it will be rewarding in it's own way. Otherwise I'll hate it and I'll know to go elsewhere in the Nursing Field. All I know is that these next couple years are going to be quite exciting and unpredictable. So why the title "Immune to the Economy"? They say that Nursing will be Immune to the effects of the crappy Economy. So I should be good to go. Bring it on!

How Long Is Your Life?

So for whatever reason, I started reading a bunch of these "100 Things To Do Before I Die" Lists and that inspired me to do one of my own. I do have a handful I things I've always wanted to do, and maybe I should write them down. And then I can see if I ever accomplish any of them! Haha!

1. Train a Seeing Eye Dog
2. Visit all 50 States (been to 25 so far)
3. Go to France, see Lourdes and other various religious sites
4. Visit Sienna, Italy with Kassandra (As prescribed by Arch Bishop Listecki when Kass was confirmed)
5. Go to a random Island for a week, be completely lazy and enjoy every minute of it
6. Surf
7. Parasail
8. Learn to play the guitar better than a novice
9. Have a conversation in Spanish or German (or learn those languages better)
10. Go back to Fatima, Portugal and do it justice this time (I mean do and see everything there is to do and see)
11. Buy an old farm house and renovate it to my liking
12. Graduate from Nursing School and be a nurse! 15 May 2014
13. Pass NCLEX 2 July 2014
14. Eat an oyster
15. Run a Marathon (1/4, 1/2, Full, whatever!)
16. Be able to explain my education to someone and having them get it!
17. Be in two places at the same time
18. Go back to Gaming, Austria and jump in the Creek!
19. Go back to Gaming, Austria and climb Book Mountain
20. Go back to Gaming, Austria and go to the Caves!
21. Write a book (yea right!)
22. Attend Mardi Gras
23. Pay off my Student Loans
24. Give a generous sum anonymously to a charity
25. Go to Oktoberfest in Munich (preferably the Hofbrauhaus, cuz I love that place!)
26. Visit Lithuania
27. Go Whitewater Rafting
28. Go to Disneyland/world
29. Be a Salvation Army Bell Ringer 21 December 2013
30. Serve on a NET team
31. Eat Sushi 31 December 2010
32. Go on a Silent Retreat
33. Go to Spain
34. Live in Europe again for at least a Month
35. Shoot a Handgun 24 April 2011
36. Strive for Holiness (This should be #1)
37. Go to March for Life
38. Eat Frog Legs 6 May 2012
39. Polar Bear Plunge

I have a long way to go, and a lot of these things cost money, so they will be futuristic.
Oh well. Gotta love the randomness of it!

Analogies...

They go together like Lamb & Tuna Fish! Or maybe Peanut Butter & Jelly, if you're more comfortable with that analogy? Haha, great line from a great movie. So today's post I'm going to be comparing two things, which may sound like Lamb & Tuna Fish, but in the end it's really like PB & J! Teaching my Theology of the Body CCD Class is like giving Copper (my dad's dog) a bath. Uh, Okay? Well I really do think this. Last night I decided Copper was very very dirty, so dirty that her white fur was gray from all the dust and dirt outside. As I was trying to give her a bath, she fought it and fought it. She is a beagle and naturally she just doesn't like water. Well this bath usually involves 5 steps. First I have to get her fur wet. (Since she's so small, i just pick her up and put her in the bathtub, unlike Nilla, my Yellow Lab who was harder to coax into the tub cuz you can't just pick up an 80 pound dog an put her in the tub!). So after I finally get her fur wet, I have to get her soapy, and usually she shakes off and I end up getting a bath too. Then when she's finally all full of bubbles, I once again get to rinse her off. When she's soap free, I tell her that she has to shake off 5 times. Usually 5 times gets her dry enough to not be dripping everywhere. Then as I'm waiting for her to do that, I clean the water out of her ears so they don't get infected. Finally when she is finished shaking I let her out of the tub and try to towel dry her off. Then I release her and she goes mental! She'll start running her hot laps around the house and acting insanely crazy! So now as I was giving her her bath last night, I was like, "Wow, bathing you is like teaching my CCD class!" Getting her into the tub is like getting the kids to class, 95% of them can't drive so they are dropped off by their parents against their own free will. So getting them there is the easy part. Well then the hard part begins. Like getting Copper's fur wet, we have to settle the kids down and get them to try to pay attention. This is usually interrupted by them talking and not paying attention. Kinda like Copper shaking off and trying to get away from me, not paying attention to what I'm doing and not caring in the least! Then we delve into the tough stuff, we start to teach them what it is we have planned for that day. Usually by this point they have given up and just sit there lethargically. Copper does the same, as long as shes not getting water poured on her, she sits pretty still letting me get her all soaped up! Then we split the class up into 2 groups and do some discussion time. This usually gets them excited again. They basically try to plan their escape and not really wanting to pay attention again. Or they start to fight it. They usually will ask questions or argue or something that makes them no longer want to be there again. This is like rinsing Copper off cuz, once again, this pup hates water! Finally we take the kids upstairs into the Church to sit in front of the tabernacle and lead them in a closing prayer that usually lasts 5 minutes. They must stay there until they are dismissed. So like Copper, who has to shake off five times, she's stuck until I let her out. Usually all parties involved wait patiently until the 5 shakes/minutes have happened. Sometimes there's a little whining/whispering but this is why they spread out. It works wonders! Then when they are dismissed Copper runs out of there as fast as possible and runs her hot laps and the kids bolt out of that church to their awaiting cars to speed off into the night. Bringing it all together: So as I was bathing Copper this thought occurred to me and I said it to Copper, "You may not like getting your bath and the process of getting it sucks, but look at you in the end! You are clean and soft and pretty and you don't stink like an old man anymore!" Kind of like my CCD kids, they don't like going through this, but in the end they have been given the tools necessary to be clean and beautiful and they don't stink like sinners anymore. Haha! I sound crazy, but that's beside the point. We are making them go through this process of shedding off anything that they have acquired by their actions thus far, and are giving them the tools necessary to live a life that's clean and good. I didn't like CCD either but I wish I would've been able to do what they are doing now. My CCD experience was very different from theirs. Not to mention a whole year longer! I didn't ever want to go like a lot of them don't want to go. I was forced too. I am thankful for some of my experience, but I wish I got more of what they are getting now. Today we are teaching with the interest of the students at heart. Not just we're gonna read out of this book and this is the way it is cuz I said so. I want these kids to love God, and I know if they do have some sort of a conversion, it's going to be because of their own accord, not necessarily because of my teaching style or what I said. I struggle too. Sometimes I don't want to be there teaching them because my Monday's Tuesday's and Wednesdays are so crazy that I can't wait for Thursday to come so I can have a break. Well again I say, Giving Copper a Bath goes with Teaching CCD like Lamb & Tuna Fish!