K-Town

This week I began my rural rotation with the SEARCH scholarship program. This is a short-term experience offered (AND funded) by the Health Resources and Services Administration to give health care students the opportunity to decide if they want to work in rural health. Before I received my National Health Corps scholarship, I never knew so much about government health departments. Now I feel like they are a rich great-uncle I never knew I had. It’s almost enough to make me a Democrat. Whoa. Sit down, I said almost.

It’s Day 2 of the program and if I didn’t already want to work rural, I do now. I am living in an apartment in North Carolina with some other students and driving 45 minutes out to “K-town” (I don’t think privacy policies apply to entire towns but it feels better. Besides, it reminds me of British books where the characters lived in D-shire and traveled to B-ham). K-town is a small farming town that boasts a pretty river, a rich history, and an all-out fantastic community health center. The population is a poor one and the patients seen in this clinic often cannot pay, have limited transportation, and face multiple health risks.

Community Health Centers like the one in K-town accept patients with Medicare/Medicaid and also offer a sliding fee scale to match the patient’s income. But if the patient still can’t pay? They are still seen and treated. The facility itself has been recently renovated and offers family, pediatric, and OB-GYN services as well as dental and behavioral health services. This means that a lot of referrals are done in-house and consults are as easy as a knock on your neighbor’s door. I had the privilege of shadowing a very talented Certified Nurse Midwife as she examined patients from all sorts of backgrounds…and all very different from the Hawaii demographic. In some ways rural is rural. In other ways, they are worlds apart.

I left one side…

And a mere 17 hours later, I arrived on the other.

I’m enjoying the combination of a visit back to my southern roots and a taste of future practice. Before I left, my thoughts were fairly wedding centric. The day I flew out, we had a  wonderful Friday of Father-Daughter trousseau shopping (yes, Daddy Bill knows what a trousseau is and yes, he let Megan and I go into certain shops alone. But he was very helpful at the decent stores). And after a full day of flying, it was great fun to be with Lindsey and Whitney for a night discussing all things bridal. But the work I am doing now is turning my eyes to the future. Roger and I are excited to start life together and then find out where we will invest two years of that life! There is one rural community out there that God has our names on…and we can’t wait.

Showered

There’s been a few things going on like final exams and traveling far and wide but my favorite? Anything wedding. And last Sunday evening Megan and Sara gave me a bridal shower with lots of lovely ladies. A lawn party complete with croquette, hats, and iced tea in mason jars was turned into an inside soiree with the rain began dumping approximately 30 minutes prior to go time. The sisters flew into action, relegated me to downstairs, and transformed our upstairs into an indoor event that would have give Gatsby a run for his money.

Some of my favorites. They wore hats for me.

The modern lawn party look.

One of the stunning hosts. Good dress right?

The other gorgeous sister. Who finds time for everything. I don’t know how.

Pretty Alyssa.

The shower included a surprise visit from The Fiancee. We had to interview for a greencard. Can you see the nerves?

They showered me.

And they prayed for me. Which I LOVE.

And all of this because I get to marry THIS GUY!

Vanquish the Normal

A brief word on when to be normal and when to not.

In nursing school and now in nurse practitioner school, it is emphasized to us, the eager and teachable students, that we must know the normal to identify the abnormal. We need to know what a normal sinus rhythm sounds like in a typical heart to identify the murmurs, the irregular beat, the extra sounds. I need to know the ranges of electrolytes to know that a potassium level of 1.0 is probably a pretty bad thing and I should look at a whole bunch of healthy ears so that a bulging membrane looks different from all the rest. We gotta know the norms to know the abnorms otherwise we could catch ourselves looking at a very sick patient with crazy blood tests, nodding and saying “Mmm hmm…looks good.”

In marriage, I have decided that I need to know the norms so that I can be anything but normal. Roger and I have received a veritable plethora of wise wedding words, kind counsel, and sometimes simply been on the confused receiving end of a knowing married nod in our direction. The last one is a move that seems to say either “Get ready, this is awesome” or “You think this is going to be awesome? I know better.” We haven’t quite figured out which one so we just nod back in engaged bliss. Amid all the suggestions and comments, we most appreciate the words that include a knowledge of God’s sovereignty and the uniqueness of each couple.

We know that there are struggles that all men and all women deal with but we are also determined to meet these struggles with our unique gifts and personalities. We are determined not to agree with the statement that “Women are just like that” and “Boys will be boys” when it is applied to a weakness that we want to improve. If it is referring to the way that women cry at inopportune times such as every day last week or the way that men enjoy shooting small to large rodents in the Kona area, then we agree.  Otherwise, we are determined to be abnormal.

Adam and Eve and their official punishments, along with males and females throughout history show us that there are similarities in men across the board and there are shared tendencies in women in general. But the rest of Scripture also points to our unique standing before God and the consistent call that we have to rise up, go forward, conquer, overcome. We are called to bravely do what is difficult. We are called to vanquish the normal.

So, know your norms…and then attack them. Push through them. We are called to abnormalcy and it is possible. And I see that nod. And I am nodding back in engaged bliss.

 

 

 

Doing Lots of Life

So, I have still been doing life. I just have not been writing about it. A lot of people say that planning a wedding is a busy time. A lot of people say that sisters planning weddings in the same month is busy bordering on lunacy. I say its the best busy we have ever been.

We always fill our lives with something so that when our friends see us at Starbucks and say “Heeeey. Haven’t seen you in forever! How you been?” we can sigh and smile wearily and say “Busy! Good, but man, so busy.” It’s a pretty boring answer that I think should be banned. In fact, let’s all just commit right now to say something good whenever we are asked that. Then at least 35 people will be having a more interesting conversation at Starbucks this week.

But since we all do some kind of busy with our days, it’s nice to be doing the business of wedding planning, school, and enjoying each day as much as possible. I wouldn’t dream of complaining that it’s crazy or stressful. For one thing, it’s just not. It’s a big party that I don’t have to clean up after. How is that stressful? Friends are giving me things and I’m getting to know a super hot guy that said he wants to marry me. This is not stressful people.

So, in the spirit of stress-free busy, here is a little photographic synopsis of what I have been up to this month.

Sister Megan had a smashing bridal shower. Our friend Soo hosted in her beautiful home with her elegant decor to which we added some not-as-elegant craftiness. Turns out that stuff looks good together. Megan was a stunning bride-to-be, her twin sisters wore matching stripes and were not ashamed of it at all and Shaun made a guest appearance via flat screen television.

Fiance Roger continues to do manly things like dig imu pits to cook pigs, build water tanks, and help me pick out table linens. He is secretly talented at everything but don’t tell.

I continue with studies, edging my way toward being a Family Nurse Practitioner. I miss clinical work but realize that if I were working full-time, Roger would have met Miss Crazy Pants and run the other way. Presently I do the occasional volunteer work in the office above. It’s no cubicle on the 30th floor but it’ll do.

Why yes, I did get an Easter manicure.

Friend Ellen visited for Easter weekend and we celebrated with egg dying, early church celebration, and lots of food. I love that Jesus is alive. LOVE IT.

 

 

 

 

The porky terrier continues to grow and I continue to find innovative ways to keep him from binging. He insists that he is a skinny starving dog on the inside.

It's just green cauliflower but it might be in my bouquet.

I’ve been on a Farmer’s Market kick and traveled 45 minutes to Waimea on Saturday to hit two popular markets. Today we visited the Ho’oulu Community Famer’s Market at the Keauhou Outrigger Beach Resort. Our friends Lewis and Carla Draxlir have recently begun a bread company called Bread Alone. They bake sour dough breads of many varieties in the stone oven that Lewis built. It is AMAZING. And so are they. Buy their bread.

I have been thinking about health and living fear-free. I would like to share these thoughts with you soon. Also, Roger and I will be staging a dramatic Facebook exodus upon becoming Mr. and Mrs. We are doing it to get attention but also to focus on more important things than status updates.  So you should subscribe to this blog if you want to keep hearing about E(with a new)B.

Remember to tell people something good at Starbucks.

Register…as what?

When Roger and I became engaged, we were very happy. I think we were happy for the same basic reasons: we had found the spouse of our dreams. We were going to start a life together. We were going to live together. Things like that. But I believe we also had some secondary reasons for bliss that were unique to each of us. I think Roger’s secondary reasons included visions of me in fishing waders reeling in a catch just like he taught me.

Glorious.

Or other similar camping scenarios. I’m cool with that. But the fourth or fifth thought that I had after engagement was, “We get to REGISTER.”

Now, I am not an extremely materialistic person and, believe it or not, I’m not a shopaholic either. I freeze up with too many choices (remember? Click here.) But for the past two years I have had a growing urge to set up house. I have set up a couple apartments but have always resisted making them TOO homey because I didn’t want to collect too much stuff. As it is, I have a storage unit half full of stuff that I found at garage sales and on the side of the road. Hey, they still work with a coat of paint. I used to tell my friends that I was going to register for grown-up household goods for my 30th birthday. I’m not sure if I was joking so I am SO glad I don’t have to follow through with that. Roger’s response to the whole registry business was classic.

“We have to register? As what?”

After explaining that we did not have to go on an American Master List of Engaged Couples, I asked if the registry was a thing in Australia. Apparently it is. And that is when I realized that there will be things that I assume “aren’t Australian traditions” when in actuality, it’s just not a Roger tradition. It will be fun through the years to see how this unfolds. This reminds me of the famous Entree Conversation.

Entree

Roger: Girl that I’ve only dated a week and want to impress, Brent wants to have us over to eat some fish he caught.
Erin: Okay, man that I am so nervous around that I can’t quite look in the face yet, is there enough fish for four?
Roger: Well, we can eat the fish as an entree and something else for the main dish.
Erin: Now I can look you in the face because you said something very silly. Entrees ARE main dishes.
Roger: No, girl that I am still trying to impress, you are being silly. “Entree” means “to enter”, it is the starter.
Erin: In my family, we settle this kind of thing with a dictionary.
Roger: Yikes.
Erin: “Entree: Definition #1 Main course to a meal.” Something smug.
Roger: Ok, is there a definition #2?
Erin: Oh. Yes. “In a fancy meal, entree is an appetizer or starter.”
Roger: (Smiles devastatingly handsome smirk)
Erin: But it was definition number TWO.
Roger: Yes, in the American Heritage Dictionary.
(Dispute settled.)

Now that we have been engaged for three weeks, we are older and wiser and don’t have knowy-pants disputes like that anymore. No, really.

So last night we walked the aisles of Target with a Powerful Ray Gun.  And Roger decided he does like registering. He only had a few brief Boy Moments in which he used outer-space voices and aimed the gun at several unpurchasable humans but I chalked that up to male nerves and reassured myself with the fact that at least he wasn’t running in circles bonking his head and yelling like younger versions of his gender do when confronted with something completely new and slightly overwhelming. Like linens. Plus, he’s fun and I started the Ray Gun game anyway.

We are having a small wedding in Waimea. The registry is not the most important thing. The important thing is that I am marrying the best human I have ever met and if he knew everything about dinner settings and thread counts, I would be worried. Thank you Jesus for a man with patience and an excellent sense of humor. He’ll need it with a knowy-pants like me.

Jess is my Hero

Today, I was given the honor of being in the room during one of my dearest friends’ home birth. This is baby number 3 for this champion mother and amazing dad. They hold a special place in my heart. Jess and I have been friends since we were 13 and a number of years ago she married an Australian man named Dave. Their romance was rather quick and they have created a beautiful marriage since then. I have often asked Jess for advice and for encouragement while I waited for my own story to unfold. About two weeks before I met Roger, Jess texted me and told me she was praying for me. She told me my story was going to happen and that it would be beautiful.

So today I watched this team bring a new life into the world. They showed me a pretty amazing reflection of Christ and his church as they loved one another and encouraged one another. Jess had a peace that radiated through the room and I know that Dave and was a big reason for that. This is what marriage was made for: to shout the love of God. His goodness was so evident in that room. And we all celebrated over a wonderful healthy little boy.

Once again, I am thanking God for my unfolding story. I am part of something bigger than myself as I look around at the community I live in, the family I love, and the man I get to marry. To God be all the glory.

I think I am going to explode with happiness. Time for a run.

Very Engaging

We had our engagement photos taken in Waimea by our friend Eric Franke. He is very clever and talented and this is is website. I am extremely self-conscious in front of the camera and so these are a few in which I look the least awkward. Mostly because my face is not showing in a lot of them. Roger, on the other hand, looked fantastic in every single one.

We had a great time taking these.

To Make a Short Story Long

I think of myself as an average 29-year-old who has waited a little longer than average to meet the man of her dreams and fall in love. But nothing makes one feel quite so fascinating as when blog-reading friends make multiple requests for a blog-posting. I’m pretty much the most interesting girl in the world. If you were just being polite, thanks anyway and too bad because here’s the story. You asked for it.

It’s really quite short. But I will make it long. The one sentence version is at the very end so skim if you are in a hurry.

Roger Moves to Kona: Roger is an Aussie. He moved to Kona in November to work with Water For Life and to meet me. But he only knew the first part when he packed his bags.

 Roger Meets Me: Our mutual and wonderful friend, Dr. Andrew West, had talked to both of us about our respective cool factors and was fairly convinced that we were a perfect match. Even though I was unavailable and Roger was Australian. No offense, Continent, I just always figured I would marry intra-America. So we met and that was all. “See you around hot Pastor’s daughter.” “Catch ya later hot guy that Andrew works with.” Except we didn’t say that out loud.

Dr. Andrew West of Discovery Channel and Living Stones Church fame.

Roger Finally Uses the Phone Number He Asked for Awkwardly: Roger was in possession of my Facebook friendship, my e-mail address, and my telephone number for two weeks before asking me to lunch, which I will admit, I was not used to. For reasons that became obvious later, God had told him to wait. And I had told myself a lot of creative reasons for the two week silence. But I’ll keep those a secret. The important part is, we did have our magical Hayashi’s lunch date on January 21st.

Highly recommended.

Roger Sweeps Me off My Feet: It only took a few days before we were quite literally crazy about one another. I kept trying to figure out when the weird nervous feelings would go away. My family smiled smug smiles. Still are actually. We talked about life and goals and values and all of those important things. But over-arching all of the commonalities and attractive qualities, was the general sense of “Finally, it’s you.” Mom always told me it would feel like coming home. Yep.

Adventuring

Roger Proposes: Six weeks after we began dating, Roger took me to Baptism Bay where we had spent our first afternoon together. He had several sneaky stories for why we needed to go there and, sorry Rog, I did not buy a single one. But it was a valiant effort and I pretended beautifully. Until I saw the table with flowers and dinner set out in a garden by the beach. And then I began to cry un-beautifully until he asked me to stop so that he could propose. I did and he asked and I said yes. And then began snotty crying again. After a tearful and fun dinner, we headed home where Sara and Megan had arranged a surprise engagement party with forty or so people. The perfect night.

Absolutely.

Roger Remains Awesome: We have been engaged for almost three weeks and, after hyperventilating for 72-ish hours, I can now say that I am settling into the life of a full-time fiancee. Roger encourages me in every way – school, wedding, life.

A Word on Wedding Planning to Close:I started out the wedding process wondering what the big deal was. We are having a small wedding in Waimea. We already have a venue, a guest list, my dress, a photographer, and a caterer. All well within a budget.

But, then I skimmed some wedding blogs.

I DO NOT know how people remain engaged for longer than six months. And no, not just because of The Body Boundaries One Does Not Cross. Because of the Wedding Blogs. They are herniating, terrifying, inspiring, and nauseating all at the same time. If you are a Wedding Blogger, please, for the sake of every bride including yourself, STOP. I am going back to pre-Pinterest days when one did not know how every married female in the whole world decorated her tables. I hereby ban the blogs. So that I have time to brush my teeth.

Thank goodness it will only last three months. That’s right, the wedding is in June. Some of you are sighing in romance and others of you are shaking your head and telling me to slow the heck down. And the rest of you are skimming to get to the end. The important thing to me is that I get married to the man God has given me and that I am the wife I am meant to be for him.

The wedding is one day – one awesome party with friends and family to celebrate answered prayers and the start of something incredible. We want to show, share, and love Jesus better because we are married. And that will fill up a whole lot more days of bravely doing married life. So stay tuned.

(As promised, the one sentence version: Roger came to my church and asked me to lunch and we fell in love so he proposed six weeks later and we are getting maaaaaarried.)

Check out the next post for more engagement photos...by the talented Eric Franke.

Modern Living

This week was Sister Trip week. In honor of Megan’s upcoming wedding and 25th birthday, the three of us (plus Baby Sawyer) spent 72 hours in Honolulu. We shopped, we ate out, and best of all – we stayed in a hotel that beats the pants off any other I’ve stayed in on Oahu. Bear in mind, I do not stay in five-star-500-a-night places. So, The Modern beats the pants off of any other relatively affordable places on Oahu. This place had a 1960′s vibe with a Coastal Living twist. The staff was attentive, the pool and garden terrace were unreal pretty, and the rooms were super chic. It is located on Ala Moana Blvd within walking distance of the mall and overlooks the marina. But when you are inside and at the pool area, you feel like you could be anywhere. Like in a James Bond film for example.

We have all inherited Mom’s delight in hotels and fun places. She would have LOVED The Modern. She also would have loved picking out Megan’s wedding dress with us. Guess what? We didn’t cry a single time on Sister Trip so you better not start now either. We had a blast as Megan tried on stunning gowns and the staff all raved over her as the perfect wedding dress model. Good sales tactic perhaps but we all agreed it worked. Dad purchased the dress for her long-distance and she now owns the Most Beautiful Wedding Dress Ever. Sorry everybody else.

We found the dress on the first day before dinner. So the rest of the trip was spent leisurely shopping and vacationing and pretending to be the Vacationing Mainland Sisters everyone thought we were (“You’re from Kona?! You don’t look like you’re from Kona.” Umm, thank you? Or no thank you? I’m confused). Brother Sam came by the hotel between his crazy class schedule and work hours for Megan’s birthday breakfast and it was great to have all the siblings in one place. Even Sawyer got the staycation memo and was the most chilled out six-month-old you have ever toted along for wedding dress shopping.

We got home yesterday, on Megan’s birthday. Her fiance had created a sushi extravaganza that rivals Hayashi You Make the Roll magic and Roger helped with Mochi icecream and Mojito making. Sister Trip resulted in some Husband Ryan, Fiance Shaun, and Boyfriend Roger time. Turns out they make pretty good brothers.

So, now I am home and grateful for my sisters who love some finer things in life, my mom who showed us how to love those things but not serve those things, Dad who is generous and wise, and the newly forming brotherhood of Other Halves.

And it’s back to Pharmacology and Health Assessment presentations…I miss The Modern.

 

 

Have Some Pride. Or Don’t.

Yesterday I learned a thing or ten about pride. Ok, so when someone talks about struggling with pride and how we can get better, I usually tune out. Even if it is my dad/pastor/best preacher in the world. I tune out because I don’t think I am prideful. I may not be the most humble person, but “struggle with pride”? Nah. Let me explain.

In a room full of people, I don’t think I’m the coolest. No ways. The models and the doctors. They are the coolest.
In a line at the grocery store, I don’t think I’m better than the clerk. I served shrimp for four years at a restaurant with a movie theme. With trivia. And ping pong paddles.
In a conversation, I am fascinated by people’s stories. I want to know why they are in Hawaii, where they work, what their parents’ names are, and if they have ever gone sky diving. Others first. Or insatiably nosy. I mean curious.

So that means I am not prideful, right? Not according to the irritatingly awesome sermon. Here is the simple test presented at Living Stones Church yesterday.

1. Do you long for a lot of attention? Um, yes. Who doesn’t? I may not be the coolest in the room, but I better get some attention.
2. Do you become jealous or critical of people who succeed? The models and the doctors may be the coolest but the models are starving and the doctors have no lives. Pssh, who wants to be them anyway.
3. Do you always have to win? No, if I know I won’t win, I don’t play. That’s not competitive…is it?
4. Do you have a pattern of lying? No. No, really.
5. Do you have a hard time acknowledging you were wrong? No,  because I’m never wrong. Easy.
6. Do you have a lot of conflicts with other people? Only when they are dumb.
7. Do you cut in line at the store, airport, on the freeway, etc.? I try not to but sometimes I am more innovative than the people in front of me.
8. Do you get upset when people do not honour your achievements? No, I just make sure I mention it in my blog more.
9. Do you tend more toward an attitude of entitlement or thankfulness? In all seriousness guys, I can say I feel overwhelmingly grateful for and undeserving of  the good things in my life. Finally, one that I can check the box NO on.
10. Do you honestly feel you are basically a good person and superior to others? Not every other.

So, I think I scored a 9/10. Which is a 90%, which is an A. In Pride. Awesome. I guess I can work on it a little more and tune out a little less.

How do YOU score?