Sorry It's Been A While

Life has been pretty crazy.  I'm writing this in a class that is just rehashing everything I've already learned.  Not that it's not important, I just think that the content could be a little better...

Anyways, nothing new has really happened lately.  Tomorrow I go in for my second epidural.  This time it's in Aberdeen (30 min away) instead of Fargo (2 hours and 30 min away).  

Speaking of this topic.  I went through all the medical bills I have had just in the last year.  All of these are just from the problem with my back.  The total was $4,300.  Praise God because not only did the epidural work, but I've only had to pay $145!  This is without insurance as well and no medicaid/medicare.  God has really taken care of me and I believe that God is providing the way to be healed.

Graduation is right around the corner.  I kind of feel at peace with the whole process.  We're both really excited about Crete.  Next week (after Thanksgiving) we are going to check out some houses.  I called the landlord that Brent (the Sr. Pastor) recommended and he has a small house (1 1/2 bedrooms) which is just in our price range...which is next to nothing.  

I've started working out.  Every morning (either before or after my morning classes) I head to the fitness room, jump on the treadmill and get fit.  In the past week, I haven't lost any weight, but I have noticed that I am able to run a little longer every day.  I started running for 20 min, with breaks almost every 7 minutes.  Now I can run for about 20 min straight.  Every day I try to add a minute or so.  I just want to be healthy.  I'm not looking at losing 40 pounds.  That would be nice, but I just don't want to be out of breath from walking up a set of stairs.  Plus I don't want to buy a new set of clothes in the next size up...that's not going to happen!

I quit my job flipping burgers in the coffee closet because I got offered a job doing what I love.  I humbly accepted the position of making promo videos for TBC.  I hesitated saying this on here, because I didn't want to boast about it, but this is a huge step for me.  I say this in a non-boasting way-The administration saw the work that I had done with the promo videos for the missions trips people went on this summer and liked them.  They called a meeting with me and asked if I could do the same thing for the school.  So far, I'm working on the midnight worship we just recently had.  It's time consuming piecing together an hours worth of film!

Well that's about it for now.  Class is almost over so I'd better wrap up or I'll never get back to posting.  

Ryan and Nicole are now Employed

Well, we made the call last night to accept the position in Crete, NE.

For those of you who didn't know, we candidated at Radiant Springs Church in Crete, NE last weekend.  As we left, they offered the position to us and we took a couple of days to think and pray about it.  As the pastors there, we would be in charge of the Children's Ministry, help out with worship, and be general associate pastors.  This is a very exciting time because we feel that the Senior Pastor will gel well with us.

Crete is a smaller town just 20 miles outside of Lincoln.  They have a college of about 1,000 there-Doane College.  They offer some Master's level programs so that could be an option later on.  The town has a BK, Subway, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart (YES!!!!), and just other places like these.  The town population is around 7,000-so it is on the smaller side of things.

We would have to find a full-time job while we're there.  I'm looking at being a bus driver for the school district (I never, ever thought I would be saying that), and Nicole is trying to become what's called a "para".  It's basically a teacher's aid in the Elementary School.

So yeah, those are our plans.  We hope that this will be an exciting time in our life.  If you happen to think of us, shoot off a little prayer.

Apps I Use

As many of you know, I use a mac (Macbook Pro). A lot of us out in blogland use macs and I wanted to list some of my top apps, so here they are:

Microsoft Office 2008-I would be useless without this.

Adobe Photoshop-This is where I get to express my creativity. There's not a lot there, but I try.

Plaxo-This is the best app I have. It automatically syncs my Address Book and iCal to plaxo's site. This way I can have my calendar and contacts wherever I go (because it has a cell friendly website).

The Missing Sync-This app is awesome. It syncs everything on my Q to everything on my mac. My calenday, contacts, notes, call log, texts, etc. Then Plaxo syncs it all online. Pretty awesome system.

iCal, iTunes, and Mail-I love all these apps and use them pretty much every day.

Newsfire-This is the best RSS news reader I've found. This is how I keep up with everyone's blogs because it automatically downloads them when the cmputer is online and I can read them whenever I have time (with or without internet!)

That's about it. Hit up the comments and recommend some apps to me. I always love a fresh new app!

New York

Well, I'm sorry this is a little over due, but I finally had time to catch up on the blogsphere.

New York was incredible.  Nicole and I went to NY for Nicole's Grandma's 80th birthday/family reunion. I met a ton of people there.  There was close to 50 people at the reunion/birthday party!  Surprisingly, I can still remember most of them!  Woot!  Anyways, we had a great time.  90% of our time was spent with family.  We actually had the opportunity of staying with Nicole's Aunt (Eileen) and boyfriend (Jon).  We had such a great time there.  It turns out that Jon is an IT supervisor for a library supply company (plug-www.gaylord.com ) Anyways, he is seriously hooking me up with his old stuff that would sit in his drawers, closets, etc.  What a blessing!!

In the 10% of our time there that was not spent with family, it was spent eating pizza (9%) and apple picking.  I think I ate 6 apples in the 20 minutes of picking.  Then drank an apple cider on the drive home.  I had way too many apples that day...

Here are some pictures of the fam plus other randomness.

A OK

Well my epidural yesterday went pretty good. When I get nervous I start cracking jokes...so the jokes were endless and only got worse. it started with "Wow, this is the first time I've paid someone to see my crack!" We'll stop there...

But really, it went really well. Although I must say that I felt a lot more than they said I would. That aside, I have significantly less pain than yesterday (even with the soreness...) All in all I'm praying that this will be a permanent fix.

My side note for today...the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is by far, my favorite show of all time. It's not meant for kiddies...but the humor is so creative and...humorous! So if you have the courage to watch it, do it!

Epidural

Well, the time has come.  Tonight we leave for Wahpeton so the drive to Fargo is a little shorter.  My epidural is scheduled for 11:00 AM.  I'd appreciate all the prayers I can get because this is a totally new experience for me and I gotta say, a having a giant needle forced into my spine doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Leavin'

Tomorrow morning, Nicole and I are taking off for Utica, NY (upstate).  We'll get back Tuesday of next week.  I'll post pictures either while we're there or when we get back!

MRI

Hello world.

I finally was able to scan my MRI pictures into my computer.  On the first picture, the bulge is in my lower back.  You can see that it's not white like the others...it's black and yucky.  The second picture is taken from the top down.  It's like I am a loaf of bread and they cut me in half.  Pretty cool.  They added a nice pointer to help show where it's at.

So with this, I have to have an epidural.  I'm not sure if I put this up yet or not.  It's Sep. 26th in Fargo.  Nicole's going to drive me back so I can crash in the bed!

Anyways, that's really all for now.

Boring/Busy

 Ok, so I have to admit that it is hard to be both bored and busy at the same time, but