Okay...so many thoughts in my head right now. I suppose that I could start with the news that I accepted a job at Methodist Hospital. That's exciting, but it means that the NCLEX is much closer than I realized. Jon and Kris are getting married soon, and the wedding plans are taking a toll on them. The Fleenor-Elgin wedding went well...I was exhausted after it was over with and quite certain that I never wanted to actually experience all the wedding day stress myself -but apparantly I changed my mind a little while later. I could never not marry Andy...

Anyway, dad's in Arizona for the national ABA meeting. That should be fun for him (anyone who knows anything about these meetings knows that they are anything but fun...sarcasim is dripping my statement.) The good thing about the ABA is that you have friends all over the world and you get to reunite with them...that's the best part, the part that I really love and kind of miss.

In the meantime mom and timothy are still using their devotional books at night. I don't have a book so I just listen and participate when I can. Tonight's lesson was about people's names. How God changes them, how He uses us, and stuff like that. I started thinking about this song that easily gets stuck inside my head...and a song that can take on several individual meanings to a large number of people. It's by Bethany Dillion. The chorus says:
I want to be beautiful
Make you stand in awe
Look inside my heart,
and be amazed
I want to hear you say
Who I am is quite enough
Just want to be worthy of love
And beautiful

And I think that's how I want other people to see me, and that's how I want God to see me. The song (being sung to God) goes on, and the chorus then changes to this:
You make me beautiful
You make me stand in awe
You step inside my heart, and I am amazed
I love to hear You say
Who I am is quite enough
You make me worthy of love and beautiful

It made me start to think that God is so awesome and can work in ways that we don't even seem to see or understand. And all this to realize that my name means "worthy of love" and the song says, "You make me worthy of love and beautiful". It was just a great, God-talking-to-amanda sort of time. I love it when He just uses stuff like that to touch me and let me feel how much He wants to be a part of my mundane life.

Okay, so many more thoughts...but I'm already crying now just thinking about how awesome God is with all His love, mercy, and grace.
God, I praise You and thank You for Your work in my life. You are so amazing, and I love you.

Well, we've had a lot of rain recently...so much that even though our pool (which is in dire need of the new liner that has been ordered)..umm, anyway, so our pool was drained completely 2 weeks ago, but now it's up to full level. I was showing mom...and we found that we have a froggy home. I'm not quite sure how many families we're hosting, but it's a lot. So, I was talking to Andy and he said "Take pictures!" (Of course that's what he'd say...he's andy :) So, I did...and it was a little dark so I couldn't get all the frogs, but here's a few :)

a family...

another frog...

and a couple from afar :)

aww, I feel like there's a trillion things I should blog about. First, for all those who may read this (and not read andy's) I think it's time to type with extreme excitement, joy, happiness, and anticipation that...ANDY WANTS TO MARRY ME!!! It's like the most wonderfully fascinating thing to think that someone loves me enough to want to spend the rest of their life with me. Such an amazing comparison with God's love.

So, I've been looking for jobs in the Evansville area. I've had a few interviews -although I haven't heard anything back from them yet. They might actually be waiting on my authorization to test papers -just so they know that I for real did graduate from a nursing school and I'm going to take the licensure test. There are so many changes and that's so wonderful....so, I'm filled with excitement and a little trepidation at the same time. It'll be great though to see what God has planned.

Saturday Andy and I went to Holiday World -the first time I've ever been...and although the weather wasn't what most would consider "ideal" I think it might have been my ideal kind of weather for hanging out in an amusement park. It was tons of fun....and then an afternoon drive home in order to find cici's pizza :) The drive was such a wind-down, relaxing time -for me anyway...andy was driving, so he might think otherwise. OH! and the kids that we saw in the park. It's so fun to just watch them...there's so many actions and facial expressions that can create a type of love and laughter that you can't get from anything else. Kids are wonderful.

So, then I drove home...planning to return on Monday. But, that was not to be so. Instead I'll be going back next week...I think I'm going to make the anderson-evansville trip more in these two months than andy, casey, or aaron have in a whole year. (That could be a slight exaggeration).

It's great...now, I'm going to see if I can find some people to bother :)

So, I had the graduation honoration thing tonight. I got this really great hebrew-greek keyword study Bible...neato :)  

humm....