A New Dawn: through it all

I'm not sure where to start this post.

This past week has been completely insane. In every way.

I could tell you every little detail of it and bore you senseless...but I think I'll just hit the major things that happened:

-Parade of Lights last weekend: so magical! I looooove getting to do that every year :)

- Had my last week of classes for the Semester! Woo! It was one of those weeks that I kept asking myself, "WHY am I going to this school!?" Between professors and students, I was super frustrated. I've found that when I'm in classes that are extremely easy and I don't seem to learn anything from them, I just end up hating the class. It seems like the biggest waste of money & time. *sigh* one more day. one more day. one more day. Puedo hacerlo.

-A random lady yelled at me when I was waiting for the lightrail. She was apparently talking to me and I didn't know it so she went off on me. Then, once upon the light rail, a guy shoved me out of the way so he could get off the train. I ended up stumbling back and running into a lady. Some people...I tell ya.

- This past Saturday I spent all day working on Christmas presents! Oh man, I'm soooo excited to do our home-made Christmas gift exchange this year!

- My computer is pretty much toast. I worked on it for two days and it's just done. Thankfully I was able to get all my pictures off it before it totally tanked (haha I got my pictures but none of my old school papers...shows you what I think is important in life). Suuuper lame. I'm just glad it's the end of the semester. So, I'm on the hunt for a cheap laptop (preferably a mac). Let me know if you or anyone you know is looking to sell theirs!

- As some of you may know, Sunday was quite the day for the Martin household. Because of some odd symptoms, mom took dad to an Urgent Care center on Sunday morning while everyone else went to church. They ran a test which came back abnormal. The lady said he had to go to the ER because he either just had or was about to have a heart attack. So, I spent most of Sunday in the Emergency Room with my parents. They ran many, many more tests and found out:

1. The tumors are bigger.

2. He didn't have a heart attack nor was in danger of one (thank you, JESUS!)

3. Blood work didn't look super great.

4. He has some fluid buildup on the lungs and in the ankles.

The doctor said lots of other stuff...but that's the bottom line of what happened.

Thanks so much to ALL of you that were praying for dad and all of us doing that time. We all really, really appreciate it.

Dad isn't feeling much better. He is still in a LOT of pain, getting very little sleep, tore a muscle in his stomach from coughing, and still has a hard time breathing while laying down/shortness of breath.

So, please keep him in your continued prayers! Thanks!

I guess you could say this week has been...well, rough. Lots of curve balls and challenges that I didn't really want to get thrown my way. But ya know, I can't really complain. I have a God that walks with me every step of the way. Every moment of every day. Teaching, guiding, and loving me through it all. And I have awesome friends and family that are always supportive.

In regards to the picture above, I taught a little class at work about how to make a Christmas stocking! It was really fun and they turned out real cute.

Sometimes I find myself wanting my life to look like the one to the left - perfect, clean, organized, put together. And I think I try my best to make it so that things are that way in my life. However, when looking back at this week, I see my life looking more like the one to the right - disheveled, chaotic, eclectic, changing, sporadic, and messy. It is nice to have all your ducks in a row (especially if you're slightly OCD like me) but I think there is also a time to accept the mess in your life. Many times you can't control it. Stuff happens. Life happens. Learning to be okay with the things I can't change and striving to make the best of it will surely be something that I'll continue working on.

Anyways, on a lighter note...here are some pictures from the week:

Parade of Lights!

Ok...think what you want...

but one of the greatest little things is when you walk into the bathroom stall and you realize you're the first one to use it since it's been cleaned.

So awesome. hahaha it's the little things in life.