Today was my very last and final mid term exam and probably the most intimidating exam I have ever written.

We had to go into a room, draw a scenario and then complete the task in front of a board of nursing instructors who had to evaluate if you did the task right or wrong.

If you did it right good for you move on and never have to think about this exam again. If you do it wrong you fail and have to re write. If you fail twice you are booted out of the nursing program. GAH.

No pressure or anything.

Luckily for us we got to know the four possible tasks we could possibly perform and luckily for us we also got a list of things that are automatic fails. Unfortunately for us it was 2 pages long.

Don't introduce yourself to the client - Fail
Don't ask for allergies - FAIL
Don't check patients name band - FAIL
Don't lower bed when finished task - FAIL
Don't raise bed when doing task - FAIL
and the list goes on and on..

So I walk into the room and I was sweating bullets. I was almost to the point of hyperventilation and I walk over the hat and draw handwashing.

Never have I washed my hands so good.

The instructors never even blinked. They gave me no positive or negative sign to tell me how well I did, just the instruction to check my email at six. If I failed I will receive a email.


I never recieved an email.

:-D

Piece of cake.

As of Sunday, October 17 I officially have dual church membership. I am part of the pilot program at Trinity as they try to work out the kinks but I think it is an amazing idea. Basically I will be a member of the Lethbridge Church and will be able to partake of Lord's Supper and I will have an elder that will be watching over me and the church in edmonton will receive consistent letters regarding my church activities. This way when I go home for the weekend or for the summer (maybe) I will be able to do so easily. I think it is brilliant and I know of several churches that have this program in place for students.

And now that I am actively involved in the Lethbridge Church I have joined the young adults group and my experiences have been amazing. In the beginning of the study we all open our hymn books and we sing together and it's not the everyone is embarrassed that someone else will here them sing type but rather everyone sings loudly and joyfully. I just love that, its pure communion of the saints. Then we spilt off into little groups to discuss the weeks lesson. This year we are doing Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I started to read the first chapter and didn't put it down till the end of the book. Its an easy read and its packed jammed with a lot knowledge and will have you reevaluate your whole life and view on sin. Here is some excerpts from the first two chapters.

In the biblical sense of the term, sainthood is not a status of achievement and character but a state of being — an entirely new condition of life brought about by the Spirit of God. Paul describes it as “[turning] from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18) and again as having been “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13)... (p14)
He then goes on to speak about how even though we are set apart by God, we still struggle in the flesh with sin:

The Bible has a word for conduct unbecoming a saint. It is sin. And just as “conduct unbecoming an officer” covers a wide range of misconduct, so the word sin covers a wide range of misbehavior. It covers everything from gossip to adultery, from impatience to murder. Obviously, there are degrees of seriousness of sin. But in the final analysis, sin is sin. It is conduct unbecoming a saint. (p16)

[sin] has, in many instances, been deflected to those outside our circles who commit flagrant sins... It's easy for us to condemn those obvious sins while virtually ignoring our own sins of gossip, pride, envy, bitterness, and lust, or even our lack of those gracious qualities that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit (p19)...

The result, then, is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. (p 22)

I do believe that this is a necessary read and everyone should read it. It is just a reminder that sin is sin. It doesn't matter if you murder someone or tell a little white lie, the consequences are the same. It certainly made me think about the all the sin in my life.

My memory is nearly gone;
but I remember two things;
That I am a great sinner, and
that Christ is a great Saviour.

John Newton (1725-1807)

I'm back.

After seven exams in a week and a half and two major projects I am absolutely exhausted. When I start to study I tend to get into a zone and forget about the time until it is way to late and past my bed time. Fortunately for me it paid off and I did very well on all the exams I have gotten back. Only a couple more weeks and it will start all over again as the second round of mid terms come around. But providentially they are a little more spread out next time so it won't be two or three exams a day.

For about 2 weeks I carried around several stacks about this size of cue cards so I could study any where. These cards contain anything you could possibly want to know about the human body and its functions and a ton of medical terms. These are my best study tool.

On a high note I have received my scrubs and have had 2 clinicials at the extended care centre. It was so exciting even though it almost feels like the staff thinks we are in the way and in a way we really are. We have been at school for 6 weeks and our skills are just the very basic of skills. My mom will be excited to learn that I have learned how to make a bed (a skill she thinks I lack) and just for the record the way we learned is very precise and it was a two page list of all the steps involved. I never knew making a bed could be so complicated, but mom you would be proud of beds I now can make. They look perfect.

Now I had very good intentions of blogging more about the wedding with pictures and stories but I didn't take any pictures that day so I am waiting for Jason to send down a cd with the pictures he took. I was actually amazed at how some of the pictures he took turned out he is becoming an amazing photographer and I hope he stays with it. And along with a wedding blog comes a post about the wedding pranks and unfortunately I also forgot my camera for these so I will try describe them as best as possible. The first was on wedding with the saran wrapping of the car ( i wasn't responsible for this one but it was fun seeing Richard's reaction). The second one was on thanksgiving and the day of the return of the happy couple. We didn't do too much but we did saran wrap the toilets, and put a layer of dixie cups filled with water across all of the bathroom floors. We then blew up about 200 hundred balloons and filled about 50 more with water and we filled both bathrooms up with balloons and closed the door. Then we streamered the house. Actually I should say we streamered the house first which was not a good idea on our part because everytime we had to go back and forth between bathrooms we had to pull out our mission impossible moves. I think it was more fun for the group of us that put it up then for richard and michelle as the had to take it down.

A lot more has happened in the last couple weeks but this post is getting long and I need to shower before I head to work at five. I will post again soon.

So a lot has happened in the past two weeks and everytime I think its blog worthy I quickly jot it down on a piece of paper and have good intentions to write about it. And I will.

I promise.

I only have one exam, two quizzes, one major essay, and 2 poster presentations to do first.

Then I promise I will blog.

On Saturday October 2 my sister Michelle married Richard Voorhorst in a very beautiful and very simple wedding in Coaldale.

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was so much fun, even though I didn't enjoy the first half of it because I was so nervous about my speech I had to make. After I made my speech though I really enjoyed myself. There were plenty of games and lots of people contributed. Even the youth group from the URC of Lethbridge did a skit potraying Mich and Rich's dating life (how they met, their first date, the proposal, and the wedding planning) It was a lot of fun. Today I will leave you with a copy of the toast to the bride speech I did.

When I was preparing this speech I thought about what it meant to be a sister. According to the oxford dictionary it means “a close female friend”. I thought this was interesting because even though everybody in this room has a close female friend not everybody in this room has a sister, and sadly I imagine there are many sisters out there that cannot call themselves close friends. This is when I realized how lucky I am that I have someone who is both a sister and a best friend. Some of my friends hated growing up in the shadow of an older sister but I consider myself blessed to be Michelle’s little sister. The path she paved for me is one I am honoured to follow along on. Michelle has always left me big shoes to fill and I am a better person today because of it. So as I stand here and watch my big sister, my role model, enter into marriage I wish her all of the happiness that I could imagine.

I can still remember clearly the day Michelle met Richard. She had gone on a hiking trip at Waterton National Park and she was so tired when she got home but she wore this great big ear to ear smile and I think we all just knew, even though she denied it, that she had met someone and Michelle, you couldn’t have met a better guy. I never knew Richard before he started dating my sister so I can’t tell you any horrible stories about him but seeing the way Michelle’s face lite up when he pulled into the driveway or the way she still breaks into a grin when you mention his name we are happy to welcome him into the family.

When Michelle and Richard started planning the wedding I think they had everybody a little bit worried. The two favourite phrases that seemed to come out of their mouths were.. ‘ It doesn’t matter’ and ‘I don’t know’ and even though people, including me, have been known to crack a joke at this wedding planning technique I think Michelle and Richard had it figured out from the beginning. It doesn’t matter what your wedding colours are, it doesn’t matter how you decorate the tables or what kind of food you eat. A wedding is about Michelle and Richard exchanging vows before God and a room full of family and friends and that should be the focus. Even the day before the wedding, as I was sitting across from her at Tim Horton’s I didn’t see even a trace of the stress that some brides seem to have before there big day. Everything was placed in God’s hands and I think all everything just fell into place. You guys did a wonderful job.

I would love to stand here and fill you in on the Perrot family fun and special childhood memories, but the truth is there are too many laughs and way too many good times, to pick just one or two to share with you, but Michelle and I both know and cherish these memory’s, and I know tonight will bring many more memories that will last us for many years to come. SO now at the age 21 for the first time in my life I have to think about what it means to have a brother and this is something totally new to me so once again I turned to the dictionary, and you will never believe what it said, according to oxford, ‘ a brother is someone you can always turn to when you need a loan.’ SO tonight I wish my sister, my best friend, and my new brother God’s guidance as you begin your new life together. I love you both.

Congradulations Mr and Mrs Richard Voorhorst.