YEP! That’s right I passed yet another test and this time with a solid B. I could of had an A, but I missed two math questions. This is frustrating… I rarely miss math, because it’s BASIC math. It really wasn’t the math part that screwed me up, it was the Heparin protocol. It was the first time that we have been tested on this and I made a simple and common mistake. At least I made the mistake on paper and not on a patient (’cause it could have accually killed them).

I made it to bed around 2:30am. I was fast asleep. Around 6:00am I hear a scratch and a whimper at my door. It was my little 4 year old girl Mya. She needed to go out. This drives me crazy… She sleeps with my mother, but instead of waking her, she always wakes me when she needs to go out. I tried to ignore her, but she was persistent. So I get up.

I take her down to the backyard. I was hoping to make it quick, so I could go back to sleep (in cases you haven’t noticed, I put a high value on sleep). Ah, it was raining rather nicely. Mya hates the rain.

Last night I went to bed and fell asleep around 3:00am (not bad!). My alarm went off at 9:30…I hit snooze, fell back to sleep, alarm went off again at 9:40am, proceeded to go thru this cycle several times till 10:30am…Then I decided to get up.

I know that I was supposed to force myself out of bed at 9:30am, but this is…..

This is the letter that would be sent to you in the time of RAPTURE…. seriously

Dear Friend;

This message has been sent to you by a friend or a relative who has recently disappeared along with millions and millions of people around the world.

The reason they chose to send you this letter is because they cared about you and would like you to know the truth about where they went.

This may come as a shock to you, but the one who sent you this has been taken up to heaven.

If you read a Bible, you will see that after chapter three in the book of Revelation, the church is no longer mentioned as being on earth. (The church are the believers in Jesus Christ, not the buildings in which people meet.)

In the Bible, 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 verses 16 and 17 tell how Jesus came to take away His church. But, you have to believe the Bible is the Word of God in order to believe this.

I am sure that there will be a lot of speculation as to what happened to all these people. The theories of some scientists and world leaders will have so much credibility that most of the world will believe them.

It will sound like the truth!

But, there is only one truth. And, that truth is that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came back to earth and took with Him to Heaven all who believed in Him and made Him their Lord.

If you would like to give your life to Jesus Christ and be born again, it is not too late. First you must pray to God saying”Father I admit I am a sinner, and I will turn from my sin and do good. I believe that Jesus was your son and that He came here to die for me so that my sins would be forgiven. I ask you to forgive me and I will repent of my sins. In Jesus name I pray.”

If you just prayed that prayer and meant it with all your heart, then God will know you as one of His own. You should now seek out others who have also given their lives to Christ, read a Bible daily, and do your best to bring others to Christ.

God bless you.

From Orlando Sentinel

COMMENTARY: MIKE THOMAS

Mike Thomas says Terri Schiavo deserves better

Mike Thomas
Sentinel Columnist

February 24, 2005

You are Terri Schiavo.

You are lying in a bed, with your brain reduced to performing the most rudimentary functions. You wake up. You sleep. Sometimes you respond to basic stimuli. You make noises open to interpretation by the hopeful.

You are awake but not awake. You died but are still alive. It is a cruel hoax played on those who love you.

There are thousands of people who have been in a similar situation. They have had their feeding tubes pulled with no fanfare.

But they did not have a husband who wanted to pull the tube and parents who did not. For reasons beyond me, they can’t work it out. And you can’t cast the deciding vote.

You are Terri Schiavo. Whose side are you on? Your husband says it was your request, back when you had a working brain, that you not be kept alive under these circumstances.

If God is up there waiting, isn’t that a better place to be?

Or should you go to your parents if that brings them comfort?

Your father writes: “This is our daughter, our little girl, and even in her disabled condition, she still has the right to life and the right to be loved and cared for by her family.”

Is this really about your family providing love and care to you? Or is it about you — even in your condition — providing love and care to them?

And if this is the case, as a father I have to ask: Is that so wrong? Isn’t that your daughterly duty?

A judge allowed your feeding tube to be yanked in 2001. Two days later, another judge ordered it restored.

In 2003, the tube was pulled again. Then it was the politicians’ turn. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd was running for the U.S. Senate. He needed to curry favor with religious conservatives. So he pushed through a law to “save” you. And then he sent out a press release: Be sure to catch Me on Fox News, talking about Terri.

Jeb Bush used Byrd’s law to restore your feeding tube six days after it came out. He snatched you back, just about the time that bright light was visible at the end of the tunnel. Was he doing you a favor?

You are Terri Schiavo. Your body has become a soccer ball for others to deflate and pump back up. How much of this really is about you?

Bush’s actions were overturned by the courts, as everyone predicted.

He dragged this out, and he dragged you out. And now he is working his gubernatorial magic behind the scenes to keep that tube from coming out a third time. His Medicaid budget, meanwhile, pulls the money tube on the medically needy.

You are Terri Schiavo. You were so beautiful and full of life, and now millions of strangers watch your distorted features on video, supposedly reacting to that which the experts say you are oblivious to. How do you feel about being seen like that? The attorney who represents your parents has a media director. Anyone wanting a quote about you can give him a call.

You are Terri Schiavo. I wish you a final outcome, be it with your parents or with your maker. People ought not play tug of war with feeding tubes.

You confronted us with the possibility of ending up like you. The thought was so horrifying, we scrambled to sign living wills. If we suffer the tragedy of brain death before body death, the awful burden of decision-making will be lifted from our loved ones, thanks to you.

Your life, such as it is, certainly has not been without purpose.

Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525

or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.

Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel

I don’t know what’s going on with me these days. I have been falling asleep around 5 or 6 o’clock, and then waking at noon…. I am not lazy, I just can’t fall asleep. Right now I am to tired to study, to tired to read, I can barely make out what I am writiing now, and no matter what I cannot sleep. This is driving me crazy… I fell asleep at 230 am last night, only because I took some Benadryl. I need to get up early tommarrow. I have a test on thursday that I need to study for.

Please, please will someone send me the Sandman?

My father was diagnosed with cancer my sophomore year of high school. During high school I was so single minded and thought that nursing was all I was ever I going to do. Looking back, I realized that I was young and did not have the skills to cope with the stress of my fathers’ terminal disease. By the time I graduated from high school, I no longer wanted to be around illness.

Unsure of what major I wanted, I started taking classes at St. Petersburg College in January, 1995. I went from majoring in computer science, to engineering, to business administration. I was lost, and it showed in my not so stellar college performance.

I had been working for “Major US Airlines” for three years in the spring of 2001. I had been contemplating my next career move; I even seriously considered being a flight attendant. There was an ad campaign, “Be a Nurse” by Johnson & Johnson. The ad grabbed my interest; it was the wake up call I needed.

I started my working toward my Associates Degree in Nursing in the fall of 2001. I entered the Associates Degree nursing program in January, 2004 and will be graduating in May, 2005. I hope to continue next fall in the Bachelors of Science Nursing program. My overall college GPA is 2.71, but my GPA for the nursing program is 3.34. I have found what I am looking for.

I don’t regret putting off becoming a nurse. I needed the time to gain maturity. I have also added skills that will translate appropriately toward my career as a nurse. As an International Reservation Agent with “Major US Airlines”, I have honed the skill of communication by becoming a better listener, and in the medical world “bedside manner” is another way of saying “customer service”.

I have just come down with “Mid-Semester Stress Syndrome”. I called in sick to clinicals. Now I am just playing catch up. This always seems to happen when I have a paper due. Humm… any connection?

Hopefully two ibuprofen (and a nap) will be the cure!!!

I got an 80% on my last test. I barely passed, but that is better then I expected I’d do.

Why is that I only notice that I forgot to shave right big toe just as I am sitting in the pedicurist chair?

I usually shave them with rest of my legs, but sometimes I overlook a toe or two. Today I looked down at my foot just as the girl was about to cut my nails and…. OMG!!! There was a forest on my toe…

I wonder if that’s what they talk about amongst each other (they are always Asian).

How embarrassing…

Yep that’s right, I am officially poor. I finally qualified for the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) and a Pell Grant (FREE MONEY!!!). I’ve got BIG plans….

1. New Bra’s (They are falling apart)
2. Renew my car insurance
3. Have my roots touched up
4. Get a pedicure (My feet are rather unbecomming)
5. Get my passport renewed (It expired last September)
6. My nursing licence, and NCLEX fee (A total of $450.00)

Hum… anything else you can think of?

It’s nice not having to go De-Shopping for a change.