It's Already Monday again!!

It is Monday once again. I swear, as soon as I realize it's the weekend, it is over. But this is a special Monday. Today is my last day of DevBio class. I really enjoyed it but waking up to get to class at 7:55 was beginning to take it's toll. I will miss my classmates. The worst part of the morning is that I was unanble to enjoy the reward which Brad (Dr. Yoder) brought in this morning-Dunkin' Donuts. I gave up sweets/junk food for Lent and boy, I must say it is a sacrifice because temptation is all around. I have cookies I bought before I went on the fast in the cupboard staring at me each time I open it up. I am however determined to see this through. I also just got my stash of Samoas (girl scout cookies) over the weekend but have to wait till after Lent to indulge. Last time I tried a fast from sweets I failed (blame tamarind balls). I have none this but will be getting some at the end of the fast [someone is coming up for a visit  :)].

In other news, my experiments are not doing what they should. Thankfully I'm in the initial inexpensive phases so I think I'm going to restart and hope it works out this time. Say a few prayers...they would be appreciated -if you have His ear.

S/N The gorgeous Dr. Hill Harper (of CSI fame) will be speaking here at the university tonight. I am not too far gone to appreciate his appearance  (from my couch) but I am way too tired to do much more so I will not be attending said lecture. I will however try to attend a lecture by the Surgeon General who is a UAB alum. She'll be here on Thursday. In addition, her lecture is during the day.

Anyway folks, I leave you with this verse from scripture which is what I need to hear myself:

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest"

Toodles,
Dee


So I just read that Hill and President Obama went to law school together (Harvard) and are close friends so maybe I should reconsider, since if I buy one of his books and he signs it and shakes my hand, I would be shaking a hand which shook the President's hand (recently too since he was at the White House recently- I follow him on twitter).That equals one degree of separation. Hmmm.

It wasn't so bad.

This morning I had to present a lecture in classing on Stem Cells and Clinical Potential. I had prepared my slides complete with notes with the hope that the presenter view in ppt would work. Thats a seeting where the projector shows your slides but you see the lides and any notes you may have made. Well guess what, when I tried it, it did not work and I had very little time to actually fix it so I went rogue (lol). I presented without the notes. I didn't ty anything elaborate, just went along with my slides, didn't read from them, gave information on personal information, referenced papers that were relevant and It went well. My classmates actually said "Good job" which is high praise coming from your peers.I prayed alot about this because I am terrified of public presentations. I can talk to a large group of my peers but standing when everyone else is sitting plays on my psyche.

But today, I presented on a topic that I am familiar with, I read up on and I think I am on the road to curing my stage fright (with lots of prayers and trusting God thrown in). I'm remeinded of Paul when he was chosen to preach the Gospel and complained that hehad a thorn in his side, but God said that He would use Pauls weakness as a symbol of the power of His grace.

2 Corinthinians 12: 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Toodles,
Dee

A mini post

This here is just to keep the momentum going cuz He knows that if I stop, there's no telling when I'll restart posting. Got an email from my Genetics prof about test #2 results. From the looks of it 4 persons failed and though I did well on the first one, I am not so confident now. Going to get my results now. All I need is B for a pass so that I don't have to retake it.

*biting nails*

Dee

P.S. I got that A!!! Yay. I don't have to retake it. Now I need to refocus on the DevBio cuz I just realized that the quizzes I've been taking for granted will determine my final grade. At least I've got the class participation part down.

Life...Death....Life Again???

So this weekend we have all (or most of us) been shocked by the news of the passing of pop icon Whitney Houston. Call me weird, but since accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour, everytime someone dies I wonder about where they will spend eternity. Had they accepted Jesus' offer of Salvation? Alot of the time, without being judgemental, the answer is there. Of course human beings are ultra sensitive about the dead and questioning one's eternal home seens callous and unfeeling but is it really?

What happens when we die? Do you believe in God...heaven and hell? Do you believe that if you died today that you had done what is necessary to earn a place in heaven? Can you "earn" a place in heaven? How does one get to heaven? Is it by going to church, actively doing good, or by not doing bad, or by making a life changing decision?

These are all important questions to ponder in life because we can only secure our place in heaven while alive. Death is an end of sorts, and after it comes judgement. Once dead, our fate is sealed. I know what I believe, but do you? What are your beliefs based on? What you were told, taught or what you sought?

I believe that we are Saved through Faith alone in Christ alone through Grace alone. This means that, on my own, being born in and of sin, nothing I do will be sufficient to pay for those sins against God. But, God, in His infinite grace and love for me sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross and take my sin upon himself. By accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour I have clothed myself in His righteousness..all my sins have been washed away and I am a new creature, reborn in Him. I believe that my belief in Him is all that I need in order to have eternal life. But with that comes certain responsibilities: sharing His love and saving grace with others and being His representative here on earth.

What about you?  Think about it.

Dee

TGIF in every sense of the word

I'm exhausted, operating on 4 hrs of sleep but I am thankful that today is almost over!!!! I blubbered through my presentation but thats ok. I will get better with time. Public speaking is not my forte. I'm headed to a Rascal Flatts concert tonight and I hope that I can stay awake..lol. I think I was in this exact same situation last year on the day of the Brad Paisley concert...think I pulled an all nighter that time. This has been a long busy week but it has been productive so I am thankful.

1 Corinthians 13...

Toodles,
Dee

Never cease to amaze myself

So a few weeks ago I has a take home exam in Genetics class. I got hung up on this one question early on and the way that my brain works is that it cannot move on until the problem is resolved. I worked on this for 2 and 1/2 days before I finally solved it by which time the deadline was upon me and I had cried, thrown a fit, and some other things I am not proud of (Laticia can testify). But!! I solved the problem and had one day to finish the other 4 or 5 questions which I had almost completely ignored up til them. I say almost because I did try to work on them but my mind kept drifting to the unsolvable one. I felt that some data was missing but I was afraid to email my teacher just in case it was all there and I ended up looking clueless. Anyway, there was this other question which I finally got around to a few hours before the exam was due. I had some trouble with it and at one point I even considered not doing it at all and just submitting the exam minus that question. There was yet another that I was fairly confident about...as it was (I thought) rather straightforward.

Well  my good folks, as it turns out, I earned full credit for the one that I had planned to leave out and messed up on the one I thought was flawless (careless mistakes which I could have identified had I read over it). I also did better overall than I anticipated. So the moral of the story is... 1) Never give up and 2) things are not always as they appear to be. <---- not exactly but you get the point.

And update: I had lunch with the Lady from church and it wasn't that bad. There were a few awkward moments. I'm still getting used to the idea of almost 100% of all conversation topics being religious. I feel bad saying it but I just feel that sometimes, there can be other stuff to talk about which need not have spiritual overtones. I am happy about my faith and I recognize my growth based on my thought process but sometimes I would like to be able to not  feel it necessary for EVERYTHING to have a spiritual overtone..undertones I can deal with. But I guess thats a knock on me and not her.

Anyway, Toodles!!!

Dee

P.S. (lol) This does nothing to help me deal with my inner demon called procrastination seeing as I did rather well skimming the deadline. Just saying.

Post SuperBowl Monday

Yesterday was a good day...went to church, studied (a little), read for class and most importanly, watched the Superbowl. I was cheering on the Giants because Peyton's little brother plays for them..nothing against Brady but he already has 3 rings. It was an enjoyable game and it ended with a victory for the right team.

I have to start preparing  for Wednesday's calss since I'm leading the discussion. I also have to present in journal club on Friday which terrifies me but I will try to keep that in the back of my mind. Going to lunch with a Visiting Speaker who has developed a method for differentiating ESCs and iPSCs into intestinal cells in vitro. Pretty cool.

Anyway, back to my reading I go.

Toodles,
Dee.

Happy Hump Day

I'm getting better at this...stoked. So as it turns out, I am taking a develomental biology class and not Lymphocyte Biology this month. Glad I figured this out yesterday and not today. The class is at 8 which is about as terrible as they get but, the course master is lively (not sure how the others will be) so it lessens the blow-and he makes coffee for the class!!! My class goes from fertilization to adulthood so this ought to be good-fertilization, cleavage, gastrulation, morphogenesis, organogenesis. These words sound so good to me..lol. That's me in geek mode. Anyway, back to work. Got some digestions and ligations and transformations to take care of.

Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Jeremiah 1: 5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Toodles.

Dee