mini vacations

last weekend we took a mini-vaca to the beautiful colorado.
we ate good food:

went fun places:

[Celestial Seasonings in Boulder]

[Breakfast-ing in Downtown Boulder]

and we saw great friends:

First Aid/CPR/AED class

wondered what my status on facebook meant yesterday?

Brittney Anderson

21 hours ago via mobile

So grateful for a wonderful husband who takes great care of me. :)

wondering now?


well, yesterday a first happened that i never expected. 

with my summer job, i have to become First Aid/CPR/AED certified. now before i go any further, let me explain something about myself. i don't like medical talk. plain and simple. even if you are telling me about the time you gave yourself a papercut , it will probably freak me out. [it's not always this extreme, but is possible]

okay, so yesterday morning was part 2 of the class. when we got there, the AC must have been turned off in the room because it was very, very warm. so about 10-15 minutes into the class, the instructor was going over seizes, strokes, diabetes, allergies, etc. can you guess what happened to this girl?

medical talk + warm room + getting a head cold = britt passing out

for about 10 minutes i felt light headed and did what i could to keep myself calm. after the 10 minutes of squirming in my seat, sipping water, putting my hair in a pony, taking my watch off and resting my head, i finally realized i needed to lay down. on my way to the bathroom, i made it about 5 ft until needing to lean against a foosball table and seeing black. the instructor helped me into the office area where it was cool and laid on the floor right outside an office. 

what do they teach in CPR class? well, if you don't know the person's history, call for an ambulance. 

so, when EMT arrived, i was starting to feel better, just still dizzy and feeling nauseous. so they did all their duties and decided to take me to the hospital. at this point, it's a bit of a blur. i remember them saying they think i should get checked out because someone my age and being healthy, this isn't typically normal. i think they mentioned something with my blood pressure. i remember telling them i get lightheaded at the doctors office. i also remember being freaked out about everything going on and kept wondering when cody would show up [they had called him and he was on his way]. 

when arriving to the hospital, the doctor did a couple checks and released me after about 20-30 minutes. he gave us a fancy word for fainting, said i am completely fine and there probably is no reason to run expensive tests. just to rest and drink lots of fluids. 

so all in all, i am fine. i've been debating if this was something i wanted to blog about. to be honest, i feel a little silly that they took me to the hospital. i feel a little embarrassed about being the girl who passed out in CPR class. but, we know that everything is okay. and when not feeling embarrassed, i find it ironic and a bit humorous. not everyone can say they were the reason EMT arrived at First Aid/CPR class. let alone get class pointers from the EMT while going to the hospital. 

a {first} anniversary

on monday was our first year anniversary!

we spent saturday morning at the farmers market and the afternoon at the husker baseball game.

sunday we went to church followed by another baseball game in the afternoon. this game was h-o-t but still fun.  after the game, we went out to eat at granite city. yumm. 

monday i had a substitute job during the day that required me to go to the henry doorly zoo for the day. :) surprisingly, it was a bit more stressful than i anticipated. before we got on the bus to go home, i probably counted the kids 8-9 times making sure we weren't leaving anyone. not to mention the very LOUD bus ride to and from omaha. but all in all, it was a fun day to go to the zoo. 

after i got home, cod and i exchanged our gifts to one another. for him; i made a book of letters from friends and family. i've been seeing his love language is words of affirmation [especially as he is trying to figure out what to do with his life] 

this is what i received:

isn't it sweet?! the united states is made of cork board, and we will pin everywhere we have lived while being married. [yes, he made this.] and i can't forget these little guys...

peonies were a focus for decorating at our wedding. so it's only appropriate he gave me some for our anniversary. 

one more thing! we did eat our cake for tradition. it wasn't bad, just a bit dry from being in the freezer for a year. so after our couple bites, we decided to smash the cake for fun. have you ever smashed a cake with your hand? no - and neither had we until monday.

this year has been one of the best in my life. i have been blessed by his patience, perseverance, integrity, humbleness, faith and love. i am so grateful to be married to cody; he is my provision and gift from God. 

{i could post pictures all day...you can click here to see all from the day}

[another thank you to Dawson - our photographer. you captured the day perfectly. we are so grateful for your gift of photography and willingness to make the day/pictures absolutely wonderful.]

being busy!

wowza! it has been a very busy 2 weeks in this household. here is what has been going on with the anderson's:

zoo:
about 2 weeks ago we went to the zoo in omaha. we contemplated about going because the weather was suppose to be bad and decided to go anyways. there was a 100% chance of rain and storms throughout the day. best part? it started raining when we opened the car door to go home. and we had a TON of fun!

jobs:

last week i was blessed to have an interview at a school here in lincoln. in my mind, it would have been the perfect job. unfortunately, they offered the job to someone else. the day i found out was the hardest day. thankfully, God has given me a great peace knowing He is Sovereign in the entire situation and has a better plan for my teaching career. 

we do have our summer lined up. currently, cody will be working at a golf course doing maintenance full time. sometimes i have to remind him this is a summer job :) and i just found out that i will be working at a summer day camp through the YMCA. 

we still are waiting to hear about full-time career type jobs. through all of this, i am learning a deep lesson of waiting and giving control over to the Lord. we have done all we can for some possibilities. i can't control the situation and often that drives me crazy. and cody is so great throughout all of this. he is so good about reminding me that we do have jobs for the time being. he gives me grace when i become anxious. all in all, he reminds me how patient and gracious Jesus is with our fears and anxieties. i am being reminded that God is FOR us and our future. 

farmers market:

this week was the first week of the farmers market. i am blessed to look at these in my kitchen and giving our apartment a sweet aroma. [peonies are my FAVORITE]

weddings and anniversary:

for the past several weekends, i have been able to celebrate the upcoming wedding of my best friend. i am so excited for her to get married in less than TWO weeks!

and saving the best for last:

our ONE YEAR anniversary is next monday! WOOO HOOO!!!!! we are so excited to celebrate. it has been a wonderful year - but i will save that for a post of it's own. 

storms

we had a very adventurous weekend. as i'm sure you are aware, the midwest was hit with several storms, including lincoln and my hometown.

before i begin this post, i feel it is necessary to tell you something about myself:

i. love. storms.

yes, i once considered to be a meteorologist/storm chaser.
yes, my husband questioned my career choice this weekend.
yes, i follow storm chasers on fbook/twitter.
yes, my family jokes that they have to monitor me during storms so i will not go on the roof for a better view.
yes, it's because crazies like me that the national weather service now has to change the storm message to sound more terrifying and scare people.

anyways, you get the picture. i love [severe] storms.

so you can imagine the excitement that i may have had saturday.

this is what lincoln looked like saturday afternoon:

the day storms of saturday were pretty uneventful. they were predicting up to baseball size hail so we took precautions and parked one of our cars in a parking garage downtown. it did hail for 15 seconds and was pea size. so we can't say we did it for nothing. :)

the fun began saturday evening around 11:45 when we went into a tornado warning. there was no tornado, only a spotted a funnel cloud just north of the airport. the sirens went off and we went into our bathroom [no, mom and dad, i did not stand at the window]. this was cody's first tornado warning so i felt that i needed to die down my adrenaline. he handled it so well. at one point he asked "are storms like this a drug for meteorologist?" i think that he is starting to understand...

weather experts made the comment there was no tornado because of fog in the morning and temps during the day not getting high enough. even though i have a crazy love for storms, i am so so  SO grateful this is all we received. i love storms, but i love lincoln, family, friends and safety more. 

while lincoln had a tornado warning, my hometown had a lot of hail and rain. 

this is what norfolk looked like saturday afternoon:

{to see more pictures of the town, click this picture}

see the stop sign? see the car right next to it? yeah. a LOT of rain. this picture is about two blocks away from my parents house. thankfully, they did not have any flooding problems. however, that did not stop my dad from helping other clean the water out of their homes, his store and Christ Lutheran school. 

so grateful for: God's provision, and a God, husband and family who understands and loves me for who i am

a green thumb

this weekend cody bought my first plant as an Easter gift! 

this is a big deal for me. i've never owned a plant outside of flowers that have a lifespan of a week. the plant is an "aglaonema" and is known as a "plant of steel" or wants minimal attention. :) we decided to start easy and work my way up. 

while we were in lowes, we dreamed of becoming gardeners someday. we dreamed of what we would have in our garden, the types of plants and flowers we would have in our lawn and inside our home. thankfully that is in the future and not now because even picking this "plant of steel" was a tad overwhelming. 

so, any suggestions or tips out there for this newbie? 

true confessions

cody and i attend a group of 20-30 people titled "transitions" that meets once a month for people who are in a transition of life. most people attending are about to graduate or have recently graduated and trying to figure out how to transition from college to the real world. this last month we discussed community and how to live in vulnerability. [if you have about 20 minutes, you should watch this video: The power of vulnerability]

our small group discussed how technology increases each day. with the increase of technology, a lack of community develops. we post blogs that share a small, positive glimpse of our lives. we only post the pictures that we look best in on facebook. we tweet - pin - and the list goes on...and while we post all of these things, we get this false impression that we feel connected to that person. have you found yourself saying "i saw on facebook that you...." and seldom we dig deeper. even as i connect with friends via messages and emails who don't live near, it is easy to only share what makes me look best.... this is called impression management.

a blog i regularly follow talks about impression management and how to avoid it through confession. you can find that post here. she decided to start a link up for confessions. [for newbies - a link up is where several blogs all focus on a topic and is posted on the link up host site. then others can see all the blogs on said subject]

so here are some things i would like to be honest about: 

- i often am very self-conscious to write blog posts. i have never been confident in my writing style and always feel uncomfortable in my word choice and grammar. i love sharing life - but don't enjoy writing the process. for instance, this post has taken me over an hour at this point. and even as i type this, i am afraid you would be critiquing every sentence. 

- i am afraid we won't find jobs soon. often, i "give" this fear to the Lord but have noticed my hearts intentions. i only "give" it to the Lord in hopes he will provide immediately. each day my heart grows impatient and anxious in one way or another. with this impatiences and anxiety, i get frustrated with responses from other people because it's not the answer that i want to hear. i want and try to control the situation as much as i am able to.

- subbing is okay but my heart longs to teach my own classroom; to have the same students every day; to have a steady routine. i often have to remind myself to not look ahead and wish away the free time we have. i am not always grateful for the schedules we have now - knowing that i should be incredibly grateful because this will probably be the most un-busy we will be for a long time.

- cody is so great to me that it becomes so easy to be self-centered and not serve him the way i should.

well friends, i am going to end with that for now. i confess that i don't have it altogether but i do have one thing that means everything; Jesus Christ.

James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.


[to see more confessions on the link up, click the button.]