Life is Sweet

Happy Saturday everyone!

This past week just flew by. My family came to visit last weekend and we literally had the best time. Friday was the presidential inauguration of ORU's new president. Friday night we went to a football game and it was super fun! Saturday wee visited Philbrook Museum here in Tulsa and I got to show my family all around the gardens. It is so gorgeous at Philbrook and I would recommend visiting it if you ever travel to Tulsa. We also got to tour downtown a little. My parents don't usually stay very long but this time they stayed about 5 days. It was so nice just being able to see them again and being able to hug my mom. I love my family so much! Sunday we went to church and visited Utica Square and went to the mall to do some shopping. Monday we just relaxed and I had some classes. I had the best time! Here are some pictures from their visit. 

I love my sisters so much :)

These are the gorgeous gardens I was talking about. It was such a beautiful day and the sunshine was amazing!

This is a picture from taken behind the museum where you can see most of the gardens. It is so beautiful!

My lovely parents :)

My mom and I :)

One last photo of the back of the museum :)

Every day of my junior year has been getting better and better.We had a scenario day on Thursday with two of our clinical groups in the nursing department. Basically, we had to act out scenarios with the mannequins in the sim lab. It was super cool because the mannequins can talk, blink, sweat, urinate, etc. Plus their eyes dilate, we can feel their pulses, listen to their heart and breath sounds, and inject drugs intravenously into their arms! I was super excited about this to say the least. I love all things nursing and my instructors are seriously the best so even though it was kind of scary at first, I really enjoyed myself. We all had different roles like primary nurse, charge nurse, tech, orientee, and wife of the patient. Our two patients had congestive heart failure and a myocardial infarction. I was the primary nurse the first time so I was in charge of everyone in the room. That really made me nervous because, even though I'm a junior, I still need to work on my confidence. So, basically, as the primary nurse, I did everything to help the patient. I even had to practice calling the "doctor", which was totally new to me. At then end of the whole event I really felt I had learned a lot. I got a lot of compliments on my performance, even though I totally felt I had messed up a lot. It was nice to know I had done my best to practice being a real nurse. 

I guess the reason I shared that story was to encourage everyone that we can have joy in the small things. Lately, I have been overcoming some depressed feelings. There have been days where I didn't want to do anything because I just didn't feel like it. I have also missed home a lot. I just wanted to encourage all of you that when it seems to be difficult in life, relying on God is the only way to go. Psalm 42:5 says, "Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God."God has really been showing me that I have no reason to be sad. Everyday is sweet because I can hope in Him constantly and I know I will see a reward from believing in His promises. He is my daily help and He is always there in every moment of every day. Life is good because God is faithful! His blessings make every day better and better. If you've been down or stressed out I encourage you to just rejoice in the midst of it all. You'll be pleased in how fast things turn around in your life. Rejoicing defeats depression and sadness. As you focus on God, joy becomes rooted in your life and you can face any circumstance with peace!

I hope this encouraged you as much as it encouraged me this week. I am so happy that I get to go home in less than two weeks and see my family and boyfriend. I miss his hugs so much! Anyways, I hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks for reading!