ice cream cake and life update

Hello to our dear friends and family! Hope summer is treating you well and you are staying cool, refreshed, and relaxed despite this crazy heat. I know that Springfield has been breaking heat records like crazy.

So yesterday afternoon I was in the mood to make a yummy treat to surprise Logan when he came home from a long, hot day of work. However, I decided that baking would be too hot. I remembered seeing a yummy ice cream recipe that my sister-in-law posted awhile back, so I made a quick Walmart run to get the necessary ingredients. I threw it together and froze it for a couple of hours and it was the perfect ending to a hot day! SO yummy. I would highly recommend it for summer parties/gatherings. My mom asked me to bring it to her 4th of July party this week :) The recipe is below! It is super duper easy and quick to make, which I'm always a fan of!

I forgot to take a picture before we "dug in"...but this will have to do :)

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

12 ice cream sandwich bars

1 large tub of Cool Whip

Chocolate Syrup

Carmel Syrup

5 large snickers bars (I used about 12-15 of the minis because they were on sale)

1) Layer 6 ice cream sandwiches at the bottom of the pan--I used a bread pan.

2) Spread a thick layer of cool whip on top followed by a generous amount of chocolate, carmel, and broken up snickers.

3) Repeat the process again in the order of ice cream sandwiches, cool whip, chocolate and carmel, and snickers. 

4) Freeze for a couple of hours

5) Enjoy!!

Besides for making ridiculously unhealthy desserts, we have been keeping very busy! At the beginning of June, Logan began two summer classes. The good thing about summer classes is that they are only 8 weeks long (so he's already half way there!)...however, the down side is that it is a fairly intense workload, as you're cramming a semester's worth of work into 2 months. Needless to say, when he gets home from work in the evenings, he is pretty consumed with going to class and then coming home and doing homework. I'm so proud of him though! As soon as he finished these classes he will officially be done with his Associates degree and he begins his last stretch for his Bachelors through the University of Phoenix at the end of July. He literally jumps from one class to the next without getting a break. 

We feel like the University of Phoenix will be ideal for him though, as it caters to working adults. He will attend class only one evening a week. He will take one class at a time for a period of 5 weeks. As you can imagine, the workload in these classes will be intense as well, but at least he only has class once a week and only has to focus on one class at a time!

Besides for school and work, we have made some good friends at our new church- Jordan and BreeAnna Bumpers. BreeAnna and I were good friends throughout my senior year of high school. Now that Logan and I are back at Broadway, we have reconnected with them and have enjoyed hanging out. They were married almost exactly one month before we were (June 5th, 2011), so we have a lot in common. We are very thankful that God has placed them in our path. It is definitely an answer to prayer.

As I shared in my last post, I'm working the night shift full time at Cox Hospital-which entails about 3 nights per week. I've gotten into a routine now, so the schedule really isn't that bad. My shift begins at 6:30pm and I am done at 7am. I usually come home and sleep until 2-3pm if possible, and that is usually when Logan gets home. We have been trying to spend those couple hours together and make dinner before I leave for work and he goes to class. When I'm not at work, I have been enjoying friends, books, cooking, swimming, family, and naps--all things that are rarely seen during the school year so I am basically in heaven.

The Lord has been working on my heart a lot this summer....and I thought I'd go ahead and share some of that :) Working in the NTICU has been so good for my spiritual walk! I've essentially been "thrown" into the secular workforce. I'll admit I was pretty overwhelmed at first when I'm surrounded with 20+ coworkers per night who show no outward fruits of a relationship with the Lord. I hear a constant flow of cursing and dirty jokes. I have seen outward disrespect and lack of compassion towards our patients. It can be very discouraging at times. I have to admit that I've been unusually hesitant to share my faith with them. This is very unlike me....but I finally figured out why. I don't want to hurt their view of Christians! I'm so worried that if I say I'm a Christian, I will mess up and then they will forever have a tainted view of who Jesus is. I would NEVER want that to happen! However, when venting to one of my good friends about this she said, "Haylee, the Lord is proving to have a lot of trust in you to place you in a spot among so many unsaved people..."  Immediately I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility placed on my shoulders. I don't want to mess this up. But I also don't want to waste this terrific opportunity to share Christ with others.  As you can see, there has been a battle going on inside of me. 

1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies..." 

I recently finished reading Blue Like Jazz. Now before I start tons of controversy, I'd like to point out that I don't necessarily agree with every single point that Donald Miller wrote. In fact, I would dare to disagree with a good portion of it. In my opinion, Donald Miller is not a theologian. But he does explain in simple terms how to love others like Jesus would....and THAT truly is something that a lot of Christians should learn. I don't think this book is for unbelievers because it assumes that you already know who Jesus is and what he did. But for Christians going about their day-to day- life....it's an eyeopener of what loving like Jesus can really look like! Jesus didn't cringe at the thought of speaking to a lesbian or prostitute. Instead, he would speak to their heart because He loved them more than we can even imagine. I want to display this kind of genuine care and concern for my coworkers (and patients, of course)...so that when I'm speaking to them, it's not at surface level (when deep down I'm actually judging them). I want to speak to them from the bottom of my heart...showing that I truly do care about them inside and out. One of my prayers this summer is that through me, Jesus would reveal even a speck of His intense love for them! I just don't think this will happen through me making requests like, "Hey, can you please not cuss in front of me?" I think it's more likely to happen by listening to them, showing love through caring about their needs and problems, and most of all praying.  I will of course lead by example through not cursing...but I don't want it to be so shallow! I want my words and actions to be backed up by an intense love for them! I want to trust that the Lord will not let my efforts go to waste. I'm confident that my compassion towards those around me as well as speaking Truth into their hearts will cause them to pause and wonder, "What's different about her?" I know I'm not perfect, and that scares me...again because I don't want to give them a hypocritical view of Christ. But I'm having to trust the Lord wholeheartedly and know that even in my weaknesses I can point others to Him. After all, it's not about me--it's about Him.

Although my summer journey is still in the process, the Lord has been showing me a lot: He bought me. He redeemed me. I owe everything to Him, including being a witness for Him and loving the unloveable around me. God has entrusted me with people He loves and wants to see saved. I can be used as a tool to aid in the process or hurt the process.

There are days when I've felt frustrated and defeated, saying "Am I doing the right things with my life?" But I have to remember that I am not my own! I'm not in charge of this life that I lead. Jesus has claimed me and has placed me exactly where he wants me...as a daughter, sister, wife, student, coworker, and caregiver. Now that He has redeemed me, it's my turn to honor him with the life that I choose to lead in all of these different situations. I've determined if I'm honoring Him...I can't go wrong.

Just thought I'd share with yall a bit of what the Lord has been doing in my heart so far this summer. :)

On a different note, Logan and will be celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary in 3 days!!!! Yayyy! Since it lands on a Monday this year we decided to go ahead and celebrate the weekend before! SO we are leaving on a little getaway trip today and will be back Sunday night sometime. I'll post pics when we get back!!

Have a blessed weekend, everyone. Stay cool!!!!

-H

summer

Over the past few days I've started to realize how many people I need to catch up with over the summer. Towards the end of the school year my relationships slowly started to dwindle as nursing finals approached and Logan and I were in the middle of MOVING (more on that later). But hey, that's one of the greatest things about summer, right? Catching up with the people you love. However, I've come to the realization that it's going to be impossible to have one-on-one time with ALL of my family and friends as often as I want to. Therefore, I'm resorting back to the blogging world to keep y'all connected to us.

It's been awhile since I've posted but I'll fill you in on what's been going on lately. In April, we moved into an apartment in Ozark, Missouri. It's super cute, but more importantly in a great location. We are right off of Highway 65, so it's an easy 30 minute commute for me to get to school, and it's perfect for Logan's job. He had been driving an hour each way every single day when we lived in Branson, but now it's a quick 15-minutes. This is the first place that is really "ours" since Logan's grandparents had been allowing us to live in their lake home when we lived in Branson. It's been very fun to finally get our own furniture and begin making our little space "home." I'm excited to start having couples over...especially all of our newlywed friends getting married this summer! Another fun part of living closer to Springfield is being closer to my family. We have been able to attend lots of baseball games, choir concerts, etc. already, and we love being close to support my brothers and sister.

At Josh and Emily's end of the year choir concert

MAY

Well, I successfully passed all of my classes this semester and will be moving on to my junior year of nursing school in the fall.

This is a just few of the amazing ladies in my nursing class. Towards the end of the semester we attended a national nursing conference at the Chateau :) Could not do it without you girls!!

I just thought someone might get a kick out of this.  We were able to bring one notecard into the Patho final with any information that we wanted on it. It took me hours to write!

Two days after I finished finals, we left for Destin, Florida. We went with Logan's parents and several of his siblings and their families. It was a wonderful week of relaxation while enjoying the beach, great shopping, good food, and of course..... family.

Derek (Molly's husband) had a birthday while we were there :)

Our adorable beach house!!

We even had our own little pool. This was the view from our bedroom balcony :)

This was our cute bedroom! Everyone had their own bedroom and bathroom which was super nice! The entire house was decorated in fun, bright, beachy colors.

  

This was the first day on the beach. The twins did not like the sand one bit!!! Collin did though :)

Our view from lunch at the Crap Trap one day...yumm!!

Sunset on the beach

Logan found a starfish...it was still alive and everything :)

Bruster's = Best Ice Cream EVER

       

Photo session at Bruster's haha

We went down to the bay where all of the fisherman and their boats dock before we left for our dolphin cruise :) Pelican!

Sweet Brooke feeding the sea gulls!

Sunset cruise to watch dolphins!

There were lots of restaurants and fun shopping all along the bay.

DOLPHINS! 

If you're interested in seeing dolphins swim around watch the video :) It's kind of hilarious how excited everyone is (yelling and screaming) along with the redneck tour guide. Oh and me trying to narrate in the background (sorry). Oh memories.

tired baby girl

SUNSET.

Night life

We spent a good amount of time shopping the outlets too :)

This was our walkway to the beach, just about 50 yards from our front door :)

Our beach camp out up ahead :)

At the Baytown Wharf. SO fun!

We went to Fudpucker's for our last dinner in Destin. Logan is actually petting one of the alligators but the lady wouldn't let me take a picture of it because they wanted us to buy their pictures. We were too cheap haha.

It was such a fun trip!!!!!!!

The week after we got back from Florida, I started my summer job at Cox Hospital! I am working in the Neuro Trauma Intensive Care Unit. So far I have just had one week of orientation and one week of on-the-job training but I can already tell that I am going to LOVE it and learn so much! It's honestly the perfect summer job before I head into my junior year of nursing school with clinicals and all, because I will already be used to working in the hospital with patients. Not to mention, the techs in the NTICU get a lot of hands on experience, so I'm excited to learn lots of new skills! I love all of the other techs and nurses, and everyone has been really great about teaching so far. Several times already I've had someone pull me out of a room and say, "Hey the are inserting a trach in room 9! Go watch!" I love it!!!

We were also able to get away to spend Memorial Day Weekend with my family down in Texas! It's pretty rare to get time with them without tons of other family around, so we really loved getting time with them. We spend a lot of time in the pool, grilled, and even got to experience my dad's first attempt at ribs on the Green Egg. Mmmm sooooo yummy! On Sunday we also got to attend Macy's voice recital, which was so special since we don't get to be there for many of her activities. She has a beautiful voice and is growing up to be an amazing young woman. I am so proud of both of my sisters! 

Mia all dressed up for dance pictures.

This is a sample of one of Macy's songs from the recital! So proud!

JUNE

We are finally getting settled into a church family, and I am so excited to be a part of what God is doing at Broadway Baptist Church! We attended the ministry fair on Sunday night, seeking out ways that we want to serve in the church. We are both praying about music ministry. I'm also considering getting involved with the kiddos/youth in some way or another. 

I'm loving all the freedom that summer is allowing me, even with a full-time job. This is the first summer in quite awhile where I'm not super busy doing something. Last summer it was getting ready for a wedding, the summer before it was Camp Barnabas, the summer before it was Thailand. I think God has me in this place intentionally, because I now have the time to devote to growing closer to Him  as well as the people around me. I'm excited to build these relationships stronger than they've ever been before! I'm also getting to READ for FUN (I can't believe I just said those two words in the same sentence) so I'm sure I'll be letting y'all know about any good summer reads!

This is all for now. I have some recipes and things I'd like to share, but I'll save that for a later post. After all, with all this time on my hands I have a feeling I'll be posting quite frequently this summer. :)

-H