I should really be updating my own blog...hahaha!

Hey Kelsey!
Hope things are going well for ya! Since I have been TERRIBLE about updating my blog in the last, say 2 or so months, I'm due for some great information to give you!! Haha. Not exactly the case actually...
My life has returned to normal to be quite honest. I've started my internship at an outpatient clinic and am living with my grandparents. No more time off from school, no more breaks - it's go go go all the time. Crazy, really. The clinic sees patients constantly, nothing like places I've been to or observed in. It's a slow day when there are less than 6 people in the gym at one time, if you have less than 20 patients on your schedule or if you have time to breathe. ;)
All that to say that I LOVE the clinic that I'm working at. Yes, it's busy. Yes, my whole body typically hurts by the end of the day. But the people that I work with are so much fun. They are hilarious, fun-loving, joyful people who truly love helping people - plus a majority of them love Jesus!! It's been great. I'm exhausted nearly all the time, but this is the type of place I could definitely work at once I'm free from school.
The hardest part of the job...seeing all these people hurting and many who have serious health problems. There are so many people who are overweight and have back problems due to that...usually major back issues like ruptured discs and degenerative changes in the spine...things PTs cannot actually fix. We can only provide exercises and treatment to make them comfortable and decrease the pain as much as possible. Some days it gets to me more than others. Today was one of those days. I was watching a PT perform wound debridement on someone who had stage-4 cancer. The spouse was telling me about their kids and the treatment that the person was going through. I nearly started crying. It just broke my heart hearing about the couple, and it was so sweet that they came to the clinic together. The spouse would clean the wound a couple of times a day when they weren't coming to the clinic. There have been other times where I want to go easy on a patient because I know they are in pain, but I know that ultimately, the pain is a necessary evil in order for them to get stronger and gain motion and get back to normal function. It's hard to watch people in pain everyday and see that what you have them do increases that pain.
The payoff to that is that we get to see them through the awful, the bad, the ok, the good, and the great. :) Spending so much time with these people and working with them until their pain becomes non-existent - that's what makes it worth it all. I think being able to work in the atmosphere that I am in is a huge encouragement as well!
Anyway, there's a glimpse into my life now that I'm back on track!! I'm off to bed now to hopefully get a few more hours of sleep tonight. :D

Love you, KK!! Take care of yourself there in Prague!

Kpax

Puttin the Bearcats on the map!

Boo Yah! It's the first time since I've been coaching to have a conference player of the week.

Read the caption

http://sports.todaysbigthing.com/2010/10/04

Shawn Johnson

Knew you would really LOVE this!

Faith

Kelsey Keizer! What up homegirl? I absolutely LOVED seeing you last month, you are such an encouragement and inspiration in my life! I'm also pumped that you're back in action over in Prague and all those girls lives. So I was thinking, could you send me a prayer list of specific people and things I can be fighting with you in? I'd love that.

So, instead of e-mailing you, I'll post it on your blog. I am really liking this Revelation study that we are doing. I really liked last weeks session, especially when she talked about John and the life attracting revelation. I so badly want to experience God and everything he has for me. I especially thought the third point was most challenging for me. "He had a history of allowing his former conceptions of Christ to be altered." If we are set in our ways, refuse to allow our doctrine to be challenged, we won't receive any revelation because God is looking for people who will be changed by it. I have grown up in the same association of churches, whereI have don't the same things for my whole life. Am I willing to hear from God and be changed from a new way? We talked about this a little when you were here, but I really liked how she put it.

I read Mark 6:5 today, "And he could do no might work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. He marveled because of their unbelief." Oh Jesus.. give me more faith!!!!

LOVE YOU LOTS!!!!

Dybs

what if...

kk! you're back across the pond again, ready to take on more days, weeks, and months of adventure ahead of you. although i've never been to prague, i'm guessing there's still the chance of a post-weekend case of the mondays. if not, i'm sure you know what i mean :)

today was that kind of monday for me. while chatting with a friend before the start of class tonight, i realized that maybe what i need to make my monday a bit better is a cute, cuddly, clean-smelling baby to hug and squeeze and love for an hour (then give back to his/her parents). HA! since the baby idea is a little too far out of reach (i'm surrounded by young, mostly unmarried grad students who have yet to start families), i decided another great mood lifter would be a puppy. i've always kind of wanted a puppy - when i was little the answer was always no because my mom doesn't like dogs. now that i don't have anyone holding me back it's been a serious contemplation from one day to the next: do i get a puppy, do i not get a puppy? right now i'm working on keeping 3 house plants alive - but you must understand for a while it was a struggle to keep a small cactus going, so this is a step in the right direction. since the weekly plant-watering and sunning of my house plants is still a work in progress, i've decided to put the puppy idea on hold for now.

since you now know of my life goals to having a week without mondays, a baby to cuddle for only an hour, and a puppy to play with, you're probably wondering what this has to do with you, prague, or really anything relevant at all. i can't say that i blame you. through this conversation with my friend before class, i realized that since my first two choices are more unrealistic than i'd like, perhaps a bit of ellen degeneres would do the trick. IT WORKED! after studying for a quiz and reading what seemed like a zillion pages of relatively interesting information, i've been you-tubing (yes, this is a verb) ellen videos for the remainder of my evening/your early morning :)

this video isn't the funniest, or even the shortest of some of the videos i've been checking out. i know ellen videos are frequenting this blog so to save you from the repeat, i thought i'd show you one youprobably haven't seen before. (hint: you can skip ahead to 2:30 - the second half is definitely the better part of the video.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/15/ellen-degeneres-in-chicag_n_612855.html

after the monday that i had, watching this blog got me thinking: what if ellen showed up at my workplace to spice things up for an hour? would i give her an extra piece of candy from the dish on my desk? maybe show her around, introduce her to my favorite coworkers? or maybe i'd just sit her down and ask her about the weather forecast for the week.

love you loads, my dear friend. thanks for allowing me a very good excuse to update you with a mediocre update to my monday, with the help of our friend ellen.

lb