Stranded

Apparently we were spoiled up until this point with calm weather like a lamb, but yesterday that changed and winter rushed in like a lion.

We had a wonderful family gathering with my dad's side of the family, but only about half of us could make it. One cousin was in the hospital with a stubborn baby boy in her tummy, the others could not make it because of the expected blizzard. We spend the day eating lunch (which was delicious). Then we opened presents and attempted our gift exchange, but with more than half of the cousins missing only a few got gifts. As the day progressed we played a number of heated games including Quelf, Catch Phrase and Scattegories. It was a lot of fun with lots of laughs shared.

Then the real adventure began. We headed for home. A mere 3-4 miles from where we were. Dad and I lead the pack, only to discover no headlights behind us. With a phone call we discovered that the Mountaineer had not made it out of the driveway. So with a tractor we pulled out the Mountaineer and continue on our adventure, only making in 1 mile before we stopped at a kind neighbors house for the night, unable to make it home.

It was quite the adventure and will make stories for years to come. Let's only hope that the rest of the season is more calm!

Thankful

It's time to join the bandwagon on Thanksgiving and write a post about what I am thankful for. So, here it goes.

1.) A God who loves me and forgives me and stands by me when there I times that I would have definitely already walked away.

2.) My wonderful, amazing, loving husband. When we met almost 3 years ago and I was hobbling around on crutches I just thought he was a cute guy that held the door open for the gimpy girl on campus. Little did I know that he would be the love of my life and my best friend.

3.) My family both new and old. I have always been blessed with my loving parents and little (big) brother. My grandparents have taught me so much about love and life. And my extended family is beyond a good time. Now I am lucky enough to have a new family with my in-laws. I never was lucky enough to have any sisters of my own, but now I get to have three!! Even though they are far away, I still feel so blessed to have them in my life.

4.) A warm, safe place to call home. After seeing so many people without warm places and struggling just to get by I feel very lucky to have a place to go home to at night.

5.) My friends. New and old. I am blessed to have some wonderful old friends from childhood, not so old friends from college and now some new friends as we have started this new chapter in our life in Des Moines.

6.) My job. Even though it is stressful at times I am lucky enough to be doing what I love and caring for people that make it all worth it.

There is so much more, but this is the best of the best at this moment in time... I hope you all had a blessed thanksgiving and are remembering how lucky we all truly are.

Difficulties

Do you ever have weeks that are just so much more difficult that others, the weeks that you don't think you are going to ever get through? This week has been like that for me. It has come from a variety of sources. Emotional challenges, differences at work, feeling lonely and friends hurting.

I was facebook stalking earlier this week and typed in a good friend from college's name. Come to find out, her last name had changed since the last time I talked with her. I looked through her wedding pictures and immediately got tears in my eyes remembering our good times. Life has changed so much for both of us, and we have fallen away from one another. Throughout my sophomore year of college this friend and I would take time every single night to go sit in the back of a dark chapel to pray. This year was a year of many challenges and changes for the both of us and I am sure that neither of us would have gotten through it without this time. It didn't matter how much homework we had or what else we had going on, we would make sure we went to the chapel every night.

After reminiscing about this time we shared, I realized that this may be where a lot of my unhappiness is coming from. Scott and I have started going to a church here in Des Moines, but we still don't feel "at home." I e-mailed the pastor a couple weeks ago about getting into a small group in hopes of making friends our own age with our same interests, but I have gotten no response. I am lonely and longing for friends who share the same beliefs that I do, the kind of relationships that I formed at my small college.

Another friend of mine in struggling with the sickness of her grandfather. The road ahead seems very long and it makes me remember my grandfather and how much it hurt to lose him. He was one of the most influential people I have known and I miss him terribly. Not only do I miss him, but my heart is breaking for my very dear friend because I know exactly what she is going through.

Basically, I am just in a period of searching and trying to find the new place. Luckily, I have the most loving husband and supportive family I could ask for to go on this journey with me. I promise the next blog post will be more upbeat and happy, but I just needed to bear my soul on this one.

Until It's Gone

You know the saying, "You don't know what you are missing until it's gone?" I discovered the meaning behind that saying this weekend. We had the opportunity to revisit our alma mater, the place the we both earned our degrees and fell in love. I was excited to return to Orange City, because I always enjoyed the small, safe town.

Driving into town late on Friday night I was surprised to find myself with tears in my eyes. I thought to myself, "Really, are you really crying." I guess I didn't realize how much I missed NWC and Orange City until I revisited the wonderful place.

We spent our weekend visiting family, catching up with old friends and taking in many sporting events. Scott played in his alumni baseball game, making his round on positions including first, third, right and left field and pitching. I think he enjoyed showing off his ability to be a jack-of-all-trades. I enjoyed being able to catch up with two of my classmates and their families.

It made me slightly wish that I was back in school, to be surrounded by some of my favorite people all the time and in a routine of studying/class. But, I guess the real world has called and it's a new chapter to write.

Until next time Orange City, I will look forward to our visit.

Love Overflowing

We just returned from a 6 day getaway to Medford/Jacksonville, Oregon where we were able to spend some much needed time with Scott's family, be a part of Eric and Danielle's wedding and of course spend time with (and spoil) our adorable nephew, Taylor.

Scott and I do not have children yet, God willing someday we will be blessed with a house full of munchkins of our own, so for now we have to love those other children in our lives. We live for these moments that we get to spend with both our nephew Taylor and my cousin's son, Dawson along with the other littles ones that bless us.

While rocking Taylor to sleep last night I was thinking and praying. I have heard many people say that once they find the person they want to marry they can't imagine loving anyone more. Then when they have children they love them even more. Even though Taylor is not my child, I had the feeling of love flowing out from my core. Feeling the warmth of him as he started to fall asleep on my chest made my heart melt.

But who wouldn't melt when they see this adorable face?

So until we are blessed with children of our own, we will continue to soak up the moments that we get to spend with the little ones already in our lives.

12 Hours

What do you do for 12 hours a day? For 2 days a week I work 12 hours at the hospital. Unfortunately this is not just a twelve hour shift. I arrive at work at 6:45 AM typically and do not leave usually until 7:30-7:45 PM. You can do the math, that is approximately 13 hours a day twice a week that I spend looking at the same walls.

I love my job, I love the people that I work with and I love the patients that I have the priveledge of taking care of, but for 12 hours? Some nights (Scott would say most nights) I would love to sleep for 12 full hours. During my days off 12 hours seems like an endless amount of time that I can accomplish all things on my to-do list, but the day always flies by in the blink of an eye.

However, when the 12 hour work day starts at 5:45, the clock seems to tick by very slowly. Yesterday, I thought to myself while working on beautiful Labor Day, "It must be about noon and time for lunch." Nope, dead wrong, the clock only read 10:08.

I am not complaining, I love my job, but I do not love my 12 hour shifts. They are the dread I feel when I look at my calendar and see a big fat "A" (nursing code for 7:00 am-7:00 pm) plastered on the day. Thankfully the next one is not until next Thursday....see you in more than a week 12 hour shifts.... I will not miss you.

Life as a Mineart

Here we are, joining the world of bloggers. Over the past year or so we have had the pleasure of following some of our friends and family on their journeys by reading their blog. Now, we don't feel that our lives are very exciting, but we do hope that some people will enjoy catching up with us occasionally (even if it's just our parents who feel it required of them to read!)

Currently, I (Rachael) am working as a nurse on a telemetry floor. We primarily take care of people with lung and heart issues. Unfortunately all of our patients cannot be squeezed into one category, even though we wish they could. It makes life very interesting not knowing what we will be running into on a day to day basis, but I also believe it makes me a better nurse and expands my knowledge base. I work with some amazing individuals and love my job most days.

Scott is working for Revival Animal Health in Orange City, IA as a consultant. This means that he gets to work from home. It is nice to have him here on my days off and when I come home after shift that gets done at three. He also played in an adult baseball league this summer which occupied our Sunday afternoons.

We are working on our house slowly. We will post pictures as we complete projects. Our kitchen finally looks a little better since my wonderful parents came to visit us and painted it for us. It made quite the difference after ripping down a couple of cabinets, losing the wallpaper and adding a fresh coat of paint. Check it out.

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