A Tree in El Paso

Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows that I like to climb, and I especially like to climb trees. Though I have mentioned once or twice in my writings that El Paso has no trees worthy of my time, I have been proven wrong. I present to you my tree. It may not look like much, but it did take some thinking and planning, scrapes and bruises to finally make it to up to the first branch, after which the tree is a beautiful haven with tons of easy branches right up to the top.

A Bowl of Sunshine

This past weekend I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I was hanging out with friends, wandering through the mountains, cruising the city, and enjoying the feeling of freedom. We somehow ended up at the local university, and after driving between all the buildings, came to the following scene:


Well, maybe it didn't look exactly like this, but you get the idea, and those of you who are football fans will recognize this as the sun bowl.  Seeing I had come to such an important place where many great feet before me had trod I took the opportunity to run between end zones, and up and down the bleachers before we moved on with our wanderings.

Penner

I'm just stopping by here to say that during my last shift, I had one of the best all-nighters that could be had. I got to spend the night serving a Mrs. (and Mr.) Penner. It was a delightful experience, and though I don't understand much Low German (thankfully they do understand English and Spanish), it felt like a taste of home.
Isn't it amazing how something, even something I don't understand can bring a feeling of comfort? That's a feeling I'm encountering more and more often as I go through life. As I see God working in and through my life, His love and mercy is such a comfort to me, even if I can't begin to grasp the infinite-ness of it.

Not Much

As you can tell from the title, there's not much going on. I've spent this past week sleeping, working, and eating, and since I was kind of sick, I did those things in that order and by now I'm feeling a lot better again. That sleeping, working, and eating thing seems to be the general cycle of my life these days. I don't remember how much I've shared about my schedule, but in a week I work no less than 48 hours and have 12 hours worth of classes. Looking at my past week and adding everything together, with three days of work and classes added on top, I spent a grand total of 90 hours of my life between work and classes. I am so thankful that I love the work that I do.
That said, I still had time to go to small groups on Friday (I was so grateful for the fellowship), and I spent that night with my El Pasoean "grandparents" who spoiled me with a wonderful breakfast before I went off to work the next morning. God is so good. He provides exactly what I need, despite a schedule like mine.

Hair

As you can see from the title, this post is about my hair. Now if you know me, you know that I spend hours and hours agonizing over my hair to get it to look as good as it does...or not. But in the five minutes I take on it, I try to make it look presentable. Now if this were a perfect world, I'd never have to take time for my hair. It wouldn't get greasy, it wouldn't look like a wet dog, and it wouldn't give me any worries.
But this world is by no means perfect, and I ran out of shampoo two weeks ago. Having no extra baking soda in the house, I decided that I would actually go out and buy some real shampoo like a normal person, so I headed to Walmart. Going through the beauty and hair aisle, I first found the cheapest brand, then the biggest bottle that didn't smell like something edible. I threw it in with my other purchases and didn't put any more thought into it. Not till the trouble started.
Before continuing, I have to let you in on a bit of a secret. I don't like washing my hair. And my hair usually lets me get away with that. In fact, I usually only need to wash it two or three times a week. Some of you might think that's crazy. Others might think I'm turning into a hippie midwife (don't worry, I've been doing this for years already). Whatever the case, it's my hair.
Moving on with the actual story...
Any girl knows that when you buy a new shampoo, there's always that 'getting used to each other' stage. This means that for a couple of days your hair can look pretty greasy no matter how often you wash it. Though I dislike this stage, I was prepared for it, and spent a week washing my hair every single day. But when on the second week my hair was still greasy by the end of a day, I was getting a little frustrated. Discouraged over my greasy hair (it wasn't even dry from washing it yet), this morning it finally clicked. I ran to the bathroom, realized there was some guy in it (a housemate's visitor), so I went to the kitchen and ate my breakfast as nonchalantly as I could before running back to the bathroom and checking the bottle.
This whole time, I had been using conditioner.

I was using conditioner this whole time and yet was looking for the results that only shampoo would give. The conditioner was doing exactly what it was made for, it made my hair sleek and shiny (and greasy), and I was frustrated that it was doing what it was made to do. It makes me think; how often do I expect certain work or results from people, when they are made by God to be doing something totally different? How often am I discouraged when I see the 'wrong results', when really everything is working exactly the way God has made it too? How often is it that my expectations are wrongly placed?

Of Snow and Work

You probably remember the last post I posted, the one about the snow (if you don't remember, it's right under this one). As a result of that amazing amount of snow that was dumped on us (a good 4 inches out of the annual average of 6 inches), our day was relaxed. I did a total of 2 appointments in the whole day, half of the total number of appointments for the day. (You might enjoy some of what this article has to say about it)
When there are a couple of standstill days like that, there's bound to be a rebound. And yesterday was the day for that rebound. The appointments started coming before we were officially open, and kept coming, leaving us with a packed waiting room the whole day. Nothing like a little pressure to keep us on our toes. Instead of only doing two appointments like last shift, yesterday I had the chance to do a grand total of six appointments. That doesn't sound like much, until you take into account that two of them were initials (first timers), appointments which take between 2-3 hours each.
In all, it was a great day, I met and reconnected with a lot of sweet clients, and I now have a potential on-call client in mind! To top off a day of hard work, I just woke up from an uninterrupted night. What an answer to prayer!

Snow in El Paso

I woke up this morning to flakes of white floating gracefully through the air. Looking out over the freeway (which is basically in my back yard) I saw the cars creeping along at a snail-like pace. Now you might think that with a pace such as that there would be a cause for caution, for instance a white out, icy roads, a foot of snow, or something of that nature. But no, the snowflakes were not even making it to the ground before melting, there was no ice or even slipperiness on the roads, it was just the sight of snow. Who knows, perhaps because it is so out of the ordinary here the drivers were slowing down just to take in the beauty of the individual flakes.

Christmas in my Room

Just in case you were wondering, this is the extent of Christmas decorations in my room. Thanks goes to my father for making sure I have a beautifully crafted nativity :)