Warning: don't let New Life pass you by...

Radical- the book

2010-05-23T14:26:00.001-05:00

Watch this clip:

Buy the book at Amazon

Fishing!

2010-04-04T18:47:00.003-05:00

Maddy and I went fishing this afternoon, and we caught a big fish!! It was her first time to go fishing, and she was really excited. We just used a piece of bread, and it was on our first cast. It was a blessing from God. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! Thank God for the redemption that comes from His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Video from CR trip

2010-03-26T17:36:00.002-05:00

Here are both of the videos that I made for my sponsors and whoever is interested. I used vimeo to upload them because the quality is much better than YouTube. Enjoy!

Richard

UAB Dental / CMMA Mission Trip 2010- Costa Rica from Richard Baxter on Vimeo.

Richard's Costa Rica Mission Trip 2010 from Richard Baxter on Vimeo.

Saturday Clinic

2010-03-07T09:34:00.002-06:00

On Saturday, the last clinic day, we went to a church and had 20 people lined up waiting for treatment. By 10AM we had examined over 90 patients. I noticed that we had open chairs for treatment, but we had a bottleneck at the Evangelism station. I asked Jan if we could start another Evangelism station and she told me to go ahead and do it. I went downstairs, moved some benches around, and invited 10 people inside for a chat. I began sharing my testimony and sharing the Gospel with them in Spanish. After 30 minutes, I asked each person if they had made a decision to accept Christ as their Lord and follow him with all of their heart. The third person I asked said she had never turned from herself and turned to Christ before, and today she wanted to put all of her hope in Him. Then, two more people chose to accept the free gift of the Gospel and follow Christ. One lady said that she had done so many bad things in her life and didn't know if this was for her. I explained how Christ died for all, and we have all sinned and cannot be reconciled to a holy God by ourselves, so we all need a savior. I told her it was not about her past, but about this moment and when you receive Christ, he will cleanse us and give us a new heart and the Holy Spirit to guide us in our new life. She decided she wanted a change, and she accepted Christ as Lord of her life. Later, I invited another 10 people inside, and two of them wanted to change their life and follow Christ. I gave all five of them Bibles and told them about the importance of reading their Bible and finding a local church to help guide them in their new life. This experience was better than any teeth I could have pulled, and this one event was worth the trip alone. Now, I have confidence to be bold as I share the Gospel with others back home because I know that it is not I who was speaking but the Holy Spirit through me that was changing hearts through the Gospel. I know this because my words and my Spanish are not good enough to do this, but with the power of the One who is all-powerful and all-sufficient, I could be involved in His plan to make His glory known to the nations.

Naranja and Earthquake

2010-03-06T18:06:00.000-06:00

So today we went to Naranja, a city outside of San Jose to go to a Baptist church. We arrived and had about 20 people waiting to see us. We triaged the patients and then I went to see my first patient of the day. He was a policeman who needed his mandiublar wisdom teeth removed. I gave him the injections, and then Daniel took them out easily with the 301. We were all sweating profusely; especially the police officer. It was very hot with no ventilation. Luckily, we got a fan later in the day. Then I went and triaged a few more patients, told parents not to let their kids drink lots of juice, coke, etc. and to brush their teeth. I gave away a couple of beanie babies, then I went to see another patient. This patient needed #11 and 12 root tips removed (canine and 1^st premolar). Nathan gave the injections and started on the extraction and finished them up. We had to flap the canine to get enough tissue released to be able to remove it with the 301 elevator. I placed two sutures and we sent her on her way. I triaged a few more patients and then we had our sandwiches, chips and pear juice for lunch. We ate outside and it was beautiful. I love this warm weather, especially compared to the weather we have had in B’ham recently. We went back from lunch early and saw a few more patients. My next patient was a 10 year old boy who told me he was “muy valiente” (very brave) and I told him if he behaved well and cooperated we would give him a toy. He assured me in a very mature way that he was ready to begin and he wanted me to take out his permanent first molars on the left side. It was sad to see them so “bombed out” and broken down but I knew he was in pain. Norm said that hopefully his second molars would come in to the space where the 1^st molars were. He tolerated the shots well and then I started elevating. I had to wait a little while to get an elevator, but once I did it moved a lot better. Josue was very interested in seeing the instruments and he would ask, “what’s that one, what’s this one” and I would tell him “es mi amigo” (this instrument is my friend). He didn’t cry or complain once. He was my first pedo patient. Then after him, I treated one more child, also named Josué. He had a bombed out mandibular second primary molar. I numbed him up quickly, and rolled the tooth out. His friends were watching and I sent them away because he was having a hard time and started crying. In the afternoon, I went with Jan to the Evangelism station and helped interpret for her for two groups. There were about 10 people in each group and we talked to them for about 20 minutes. We had a great time with them and they were listening very closely. We gave them several Bibles and explained to them the importance of reading their Bible like “comida para el alma” (food for the soul). We went to an heladeria (ice cream shop) and got some nice cookies ‘n cream ice cream (after I realized that what I thought was cookie dough was actually fig ice cream!). Then we went to a souvenir shop and had a 2 hour bus ride home. We had “comida typica” for dinner of rice and beans and some beef stew. After dinner we sang worship songs and hung out. After hanging out for awhile, we had a “tremor” not an actual earthquake according to the person in charge of the SCORE house, but it was real enough for us. It was a very strange sensation, the floor was moving and we didn’t really know what was happening. I ran for the door, but it stopped after about 5 seconds. We looked up on Wikipedia and apparently a 4.0 is when you can tell the ground is shaking and a 3.0 is barely noticeable. A 5.0 causes things to fall of the wall, so I think we had a 4.0ish earthquake. Then we made a campfire, many played spaids, and we went to bed.

Pictures from Saturday

2010-03-06T17:18:00.003-06:00

We were able to pull a bunch of teeth today. I triaged many patients this morning, I spoke with two groups of ten people about Jesus for 30 minutes each in Spanish and 3 accepted Christ as their Savior in the first group and 2 accepted him in the second group! It was a very fruitful day and I had a wonderful time sharing the Gospel with them. We also gave them Bibles and encouraged them in their new faith in Christ. Tonight we are going to dinner at a typical Costa Rican restaurant and tomorrow we are coming home! I can't wait to see Tara!

Pictures from Day 4

2010-03-04T22:51:00.001-06:00

For the post, see below. These pictures show us ziplining, taking the shortcut, and the treacherous adventuresome way back to the bus. The sand was all gone since the tide came in and all that was left were slippery rocks and waves that knocked us down. Enjoy!

Day 4 - Pura Vida

2010-03-04T22:25:00.003-06:00

Today we woke up early, had breakfast and got on the bus to Puntarenas. We went to a beach called Punta Leona and we were looking forward to a fun day at the beach and zip-lining. The other option for our free day was to go white water rafting. The bus ride was about 2 hours and we saw beautiful mountain scenery and saw a river with salt-water crocodiles in it. After we arrived, we went straight to the beach, played Frisbee, took some pictures and went walking on the beach. We found some coconuts, broke them open and tried the milk inside. We then walked to the other beach nearby, Playa Blanca with white sand. We took a shortcut and started walking down the beach in the waves. As we were walking in the waves, somehow I walked straight into a hole and fell 3 feet deep into the water. My camera was soaked. We kept going down the beach and then returned because we had an appointment for zip-lining at 11am. We got into our harnesses, had our helmets and went on a 10-minute hike through the rainforest. We arrived at the first platform and flew down the 10 cables in about an hour. After the 6^th cable, they let us go upside-down. It was a great feeling. Every time we arrived and they unharnessed us at that platform they would say “Pura Vida!” a saying common in Costa Rica. Then they asked if the girls we were with were single. I just told them no. We then drove back to the main restaurant for a buffet lunch and we had some great pasta, pork, and fish tacos. I asked the people at the buffet for some uncooked rice and a small bag. I put my camera in the bag and we will see if it is ok tomorrow. After lunch, we took a shuttle up to the Playa Blanca. On the way we saw some iguanas and some strange animal that is like a large cat /raccoon thing with a long tail. Apparently later in the day one would eat a Luna bar out of someone’s backpack! Then Forrest, Catherine and I rented snorkel equipment and jumped in. We saw tons of brightly colored fish, some were quite large, maybe 3 feet long. We also saw an eel. After snorkeling, Strud and I went around the bay in a kayak and had a great time. As we walked back down the beach, we saw an awesome palm tree and took some pictures. Then we went back by the shortcut to get back to the bus to come back the SCORE Coronado facility where we are staying. As we got over the hill of the shortcut, we noticed that the beach that was previously there was gone! The tide had come up, and now it was just rocks and waves for about 50 yards. Forrest and Catherine and Andrew went ahead and braved the waves and rocks, and Strud and I helped the other people we were with to make it safely across. We had quite an adventure and we almost fell into the water with all of our stuff several times. We made it safely yelling “Pura Vida” the whole time because it was quite an adventure! Then we had a 2 hour bus ride home, had dinner and small group and I talked to Tara for a while and now it’s time for bed. Here are some of the pictures I was able to get before my camera fell in the water. The memory card works, but we will find out tomorrow if the camera works!

Day 3

2010-03-03T23:06:00.003-06:00

Today we went to a church near San Jose and we were greeted with only 4 patients. Another group today had 75 patients waiting for them when they got there! Although a little disappointing at first, I soon realized this was in fact a blessing because we were able to take better care of our patients and really help them with their oral health and their spiritual health. Many of the kids we saw had pretty bad decay and I was able to talk with the mom about the amount of juice and coca-cola that they drink. I also encouraged all the patients to brush and floss. I was able to triage many patients in the morning and some patients in the afternoon too.

I was able to have some great in-depth conversations today that were awesome. One was with a guy from Spain, just outside of Madrid and he was agnostic. I was able to talk with him about Jesus and share my testimony with him. I asked him what would happen to him if he were to die this afternoon. We ended the conversation well and I told him I was just trying to plant seeds and I just wanted him to think about the things that we talked about (in Spanish). We probably talked for 45 minutes and we wouldn't have been able to if we had been really busy. Later, I was able to talk with a guy who was 18 from Pensacola, FL. His grandfather was the pastor at the church where we were. He shared his story with me and I was able to share mine and encourage him and talk with him. For lunch we went to Pizza Hut, and it was not like those in the states. It was more like Chili's in the US because they had all kinds of food- not just pizza.

After lunch I helped interpret and translate Spanish for Earl at the Evangelism station. We talked with 2 groups of 6 people and were able to encourage them in their walk with Christ. After that, we had a lull and an 18 year old guy came with his friend. When we tried to triage him, he said he didn't need anything, just his friend did. I had some time so I sat down with him. I just asked him how he was doing, how school was, etc. and I found out he was a Christian and was having a difficult time right now. I encouraged him that since Christ has defeated death, and with that sin, and since he has given us his Spirit, we have the same power over sin - and we don't have to give in to temptation any longer. We have been freed from that. He was very encouraged and I could tell he was very receptive and was glad I was talking with him. I prayed with him and then took a look in his mouth. He had two very broken down teeth and I explained to him the importance of having them taken out and he told us he was in fact in pain. We would have just skipped over him if we had seen lots of patients today. So I was glad we were able to help him out.

Additionally, we were able to help out a woman and her daughter with special needs. She needed two teeth removed (one root tip and one lower molar) that were severely decayed and couldn't be restored. We went after the root tip first but it turned out to be difficult to extract. I was able to flap the gingiva and we removed some bone in order to get to the root. I was able to put two stitches in after we got it out of there. She had had enough and so we weren't able to remove the lower molar after all. She was a great patient though, and even started falling asleep at one point.
Finally, we had some time for worship tonight and had our small groups. After small group some of us got together and sang songs on the guitar and I used a cooler as a makeshift drum. We had a great time of fellowship and had a good time getting to know one another. Tomorrow is our free day and we are going to the beach and the rain forest to zipline.

Our prayers are with our small group leader who is having surgery tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Day Two

2010-03-02T18:03:00.000-06:00

Today my group went to El Lugar (the place) church in San Jose. We arrived and were greeted by the pastor and his wife and some friends that worked at the church. We hooked up my iPod and played worship songs all day- it helped us stay motivated and encouraged us as we worked. I started triaging patients and we saw many people who needed dental cleanings and many that needed extractions. I was able to remove #32 (lower right wisdom tooth) and it was pretty stubborn. We elevated and tried to luxate with forceps but couldn't get a good grip on it since it was partially erupted and impacted with fully formed roots. I grabbed the #301 elevator- Tommy Murph style- and tried to roll it out. Eventually after a lot of presure it rolled out to the distal. That was my most exciting extraction today. I was also able to remove a retained root of a maxillary premolar for a lady who was in a lot of pain. The patients were all very appreciative and glad we shared with the the love of Christ.

During our lunch break we went to a nice park nearby and hung out for a few minutes before our afternoon patients (picture below).

I was able to talk with Earl about sharing the Gospel and we had a great chat. We were able to encourage a few brothers in Christ and I was able to share the Gospel in Spanish to another guy. We were also able to pray for our patients that we saw and show them the love of Christ. All in all it was a great day.

There are pictures from the day below! Enjoy!

-Richard

Photos from Day 2

2010-03-02T17:49:00.003-06:00

Blog post to follow.
Here are some pictures!

Richard

A few more pictures from today

2010-03-01T21:46:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures from today. One is from the largest Catholic church in Costa Rica. The others are of our group today, sharing the Gospel, and of course pulling teeth. The man in the black and white photo was deaf and could not read or write. We still were able to communicate with him using basic hand motions and we shared the Gospel and pulled three of his teeth. Luckily we had a picture representation of the Gospel that we could show him. God is good and transcends language barriers of Spanish and deafness. Enjoy!

-Richard

Day 1 of Dental Missions

2010-03-01T20:58:00.000-06:00

So we went to Cartago, a suburb of San Jose today and were able to work on 37 patients at our site. Two other groups from our trip went to schools nearby and were able to work with kids who needed extractions. We had a great time working with our patients and we were able to share the Gospel with all of them and 16 people accepted Christ as their savior! I was able to pull many teeth on different patients and we had a great time interacting with the patients in Spanish. I did triage the first part of the day, we had ham sandwiches and some great cookies for lunch, then continued full steam ahead until about 4pm. I was extracting on the last patient and we couldn't get this root out, the visibility was poor without suction, and everyone was waiting. The dentist that came with us was about to glove up and come tackle it, I pushed the elevator in harder and it sunk in, the tooth popped out and we could go home. It was a good end to a long day. We came back- it took about an hour, and we had dinner, threw some frisbee, showers, worship music with a guitar and an improvised djembe (water cooler) for a drum and sang a few songs. Then we split into small groups and discussed the Gospel of Mark. We finally got the internet to work, and now we're getting ready to go to bed. Hope all is well for you today! Please pray for us as we go to our 3 different sites tomorrow that we would be bold as we share the Gospel and that we are able to help many patients in need. Earl, one of the missionaries with ua explained tonight that if you had the cure to cancer, that good news would spread like crazy, not based on who we are but based on what that means. We have something far greater than a cure for cancer, the Gospel is the cure for so many of life's problems and we are blessed to be a part of God's plan to reconcille all people, all nations to Himself. Thanks again for reading and praying for us!

-Richard

2010-03-01T06:45:00.001-06:00

We made it to Costa Rica safely and settled into our lodging last night. We are sleeping in bunk beds at SCORE's Coronado house. We had a lesson on teeth extraction last night and had our orientation too. This morning we will drive out to 3 different clinics to start our work. Please pray for us as we begin our work.

Practicing Spanish

2010-02-26T08:25:00.001-06:00

It's important to be able to speak to the people in their native language, so the next few days I will be practicing my dental, Gospel and "getting around" Spanish so I can interpret while on the trip. I have a few dental Spanish books, a Spanish Bible and Google Translate (which works surprisingly well!). Please pray that God will give me the words to speak as I share the Gospel in Spanish and as we are taking care of patients with dental pain. Tara and I will be packing up and getting any last minute supplies today. We're getting excited for the trip! Here's a taste of Romans 8:28 in Spanish.

-Richard

Dental surveying

2010-02-23T16:01:00.000-06:00

It's a lot of fun!

-Richard

Packing party

2010-02-22T19:24:00.000-06:00

Packing up for Costa Rica mission trip!

Praise God for our small group

2010-01-26T22:32:00.002-06:00

They are awesome. We had a wonderful time again tonight, and we love all of them.

Mission Trips and Boards

2010-01-25T15:56:00.002-06:00

Ah, it is so nice to be finished with boards. I feel like I have my life back! I studied from August until the end of December, (yes, even Christmas Eve and Christmas), but it was worth it in the end. Tara had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so it worked out for us both. Now I can help around the house with chores again! School is going well this semester, and our course load is much better than last semester. It is nice to not have to worry about the basic science courses anymore, and to be able to focus on dentistry. We are learning about removable prosthodontics including removable partial dentures and complete dentures. We are also taking Periodontology II and Oral Pathology.

My Bible Study that I started at lunchtime has been going well, and we are learning a lot. Just today, a friend from a campus ministry offered to sponsor our Bible Study by providing us with food for the whole semester! Needless to say, I was very excited, and I hope we will have even more people come now to the Lunchtime Small Group. Our small group with Brook Hills has been amazing to be a part of as well. Tara and I are leading / facilitating the group, and we love getting to know all of the couples in our group. Our leaders Jim and Betty are wonderful role models, and truly display the love of Christ to our group through their relationship and their actions.

I also, just decided to go on the Spring Break mission trip to Costa Rica with CMMA to extract teeth and share the Gospel with the villagers we will meet. We are going with an organization that will maximize our impact by ensuring that we make a lasting difference in the community after we are gone. I am excited to see how God will work through our team in Costa Rica. If you want to help with the trip, you can donate through Paypal with "Richard Baxter" in the line. I don't think many people will read this, but it's worth a shot!

Also, Tara and I will go with our small group to Peru in June to spread the Gospel among believers and un-believers in Chosica, a small town outside of Lima. We will be interpreting for the group and helping teach in churches. We are very much looking forward to this opportunity as well.

Last Friday, I was able to rotate through the M-Power clinic in Birmingham, and I really enjoyed helping the people in need of dental care. I was able to help three patients. The first one had dry socket from an extraction from last week. She had been up all night for the past few nights with throbbing pain. I was able to anesthetize her, apply some Alvogyl (iodine, eugenol etc.) and suture her up so that it stayed put. She was very relieved and I was glad to help. The second patient needed an extraction on #14 (maxillary 1st molar) and I assisted one of my classmates. As we were trying to get it out, the crown broke off. This same thing happened to me earlier that morning and I had to ask the OMFS resident for assistance. This afternoon, I decided to give my classmate a hand, and we were able to remove all three roots without any help! She also had dry socket in another area (#6 max. canine) and again I applied some alvogyl and sutured her up. Lastly, the patient I saw had only her lower canine - canine left and all were badly decayed and in pain. She said she wanted to have them pulled and get a complete denture. So I pulled the teeth and she was out of the pain that she was in for almost a week. It's amazing the amount of pain a dental infection can cause. It's also amazing how by God's grace I am able to remove a patient's tooth and instantly they are happy because the cause of the pain is gone and they will be able to sleep again. It's wonderful to be able to serve those less fortunate in this way.

Break from school = pleasure reading

2009-06-10T12:52:00.005-05:00

I've had time to do some reading this morning and I thought that it was worth sharing. What I was reading is that we must look at our problems with the eyes of Christ and live with the destination in view. We need to have the end in sight. Revelation 7:9-10 is that end. "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb". We need to have the end in sight while we are living in this age. It clarifies our values in the present. The most important thing today is not the new house, new job, or latest ____. The one thing worth celebrating for all of eternity is your redemption. We will be a part of that great multitude celebrating the one thing worth living for: the Lamb and his salvation. God is preparing us to live in his kingdom at this moment. He is refining us and making us more holy today than we were yesterday.

Once we trust in Jesus as the only Lord of our life, we are justified - seen as just before God, and we get credit for living a perfect life. BUT that's not all we get, we get everything we need to live holy, God exalting lives here. That's part of sanctification. We do this out of living with hope in future grace- the grace that God will give us in 10 seconds, 10 days, and 10 years from now. God has been faithful to us in the past, and he will continue to do it in the future. Putting our trust and hope in His future grace will allow us to conquer our unbelief and sever the root of sin. When we realize this and see the future, it changes the way we live. We all need our values clarified so we are reminded that the physical world around us with its pleasures (nice food, clothing, cars, etc.) is garbage compared to the pleasures of knowing and delighting in God (Phil 3:8) . They will not make you happy. All the good things in this world are there to elicit happiness in us and make us think of our Creator who alone will satisfy. Happiness and enjoyment are not bad things at all, but are instead created to drive us to God and Christ- our only means of being with God through his sacrifice for us. When we delight in him, we prize him above all else - for God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him (John Piper).

The following is a passage from the book I was reading this morning. The author is talking about his rebellious child, but I saw in it the situation with my father. He is about to start chemotherapy next week in order to - Lord willing - eradicate cancer from his body. For you, you may see a situation that you are going through and my prayer is that it will be of comfort to you in whatever problem you're struggling in. I felt like I needed to share this. The text that follows is an illustration of the application of the principles above.

It was one of those late-night, concerned-parents conversations that come when you get scared about where one of your children is headed. The longer my wife and I talked and brainstormed about worst-case scenarios, the more we felt parental panic. We focus on our fears of all that could go wrong. Our panic did not subside until we began to help each other see the Lord at work in our child's life. We were dedicated Christian parents, but we were still blind to what the Lord was doing before our eyes. We were looking in all the wrong places at all the wrong things. The result was hopeless panic.

We needed to see that our hope was not in the fact that we had everything under control - we obviously didn't. Our confidence could not be in the fact that we had everything tied up in a neat little bow- things were actually quite messy. Our confidence had to be that Christ was carrying us - and our child - through the process he had ordained and would complete. We began to see that this hard moment was a God-given step toward a wonderful destination. This prepared us to deal in a very different way with the issues that had previously produced fear.

Is there someone in your life you are looking at through the lens of pessimistic fear? Is there someone you've given up on? Is there someone you do all you can to avoid? Is there someone in your life you fear? Is there someone you are bitter against? Is there someone you envy? What might God be saying to you about your relationship to this person? How does God's "steps to the destination" perspective change the way you relate to him or her?

You need to make your final destination the lens you use to evaluate your life. We all know that life is sloppy, hard, messy, shameful and boring.

We often deal with things that are out of our control. Good things tend to go band and bad things tend to seduce us. People leave us hurt and disappointed. Change is often much, much slower than we want it to be. God's Word is full of powerful life principles, but applying them to life is not always an easy task. We tend to encounter the same problems again and again. It is easy to believe that we are powerless to change and that all our effort is meaningless.

The gospel calls us to look at the messiness of life in a radically different way. The good news of the gospel is that Christ has conquered sin and death, and with them every word, action, desire, and response with meaning and purpose. There are no completely hopeless situations. The gospel welcomes us to a hopeful realism. We can look life in the face and still be hopeful of who Christ is and where he is taking us. Everything God has brought into your life has been brought with your destination in view. God is moving you on, even when you think you are stuck.

Your destination is secure. All of the things that are truly worth living for cannot be taken away from you! Yes, you can lose your job, your health, your house, your car, or your friend. The loss of any of these things would be hard. But you cannot lose your identity in Christ. You cannot lose his love and grace. You cannot lose his gift of forgiveness or the place reserved for you in heaven. When you keep your eyes on the destination and pursue the things that move you there, you can live securely in a world where it seems as if nothing is guaranteed. You will not escape the difficulties of life, but you can rest assured that your Savior will use each one to prepare you for the place he is taking you.

Think about it for a moment. You can be at peace even though you do not know how today's drama will end or what tomorrow will bring. You can live with joy even while things make you sad. Christian joy is not about avoiding life while dreaming about heaven. It is about taking an utterly honest look at all earthly life through heaven's lens. There we find real hope.

Well, I hope I didn't just type that in vain. I know God will use it in someones life, and for that it was worth it. If you liked that passage, and want to hear more, please buy the book, "How People Change" by Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane (taken from pp 43-44). It's worth it.

Have a great day.

_________________________________
Books that influenced this post: "How People Change" by Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane and "Desiring God" and "Future Grace" by John Piper and obviously The Word of God

Don't Waste Your Life

2009-06-03T16:03:00.005-05:00

The things we spend our money on will show where our priorities lie. If we ask ourselves, "What's wrong with this vacation? or What's wrong with buying these new clothes?" we will be in danger of looking just like the rest of the world. Instead ask, "Would this ____ glorify God? Show others that I value Christ?" If you ever wonder why people never ask you to give a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15) then it's probably because they can't see any different hope in you. If your life looks just like everyone else, yet you claim to be a Christ follower, then do you really believe that the Word of God is true?

We must show the world that we honor Christ above making ourselves comfortable (Luke 14:33). We must show that we want the Glory of God shown in all nations rather than show that we have the best clothes, lifestyle or technology (Matt. 28:18-20). We put our time and effort into wasted pursuits. If we don't live as if Christ is our Lord and our lives are not lived in submission to His will, then what are we doing? Please don't hurt the witness of the church. If you are a Christ follower, don't waste your life on what the world wastes theirs on... TV, money, comforts. If you claim to be in the Spirit but show NO fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22), or you produce "bad fruit" and want to live life for yourself and your pursuits such as partying, making lots of money, getting new "stuff" or simply living against God's Word and Plan (Galatians 5:19-21) then ask yourself if you really are a Christian (Galatians 5:13). We must maintain the purity of Christ's bride, the church (Revelation 21:9).

So with gentleness and humility, we must restore one another out of love and help each other see our faults and blind-spots (Matt. 7:5). The blind-spot of acquiring wealth and success that we as Americans often overlook is a problem and leads to many sins (Luke 6:20,24). We need to see the severity of our sin and remember that Christ died so we do NOT have to live in sin anymore, we are free! (Romans 8:1-4) We should give freely (2 Cor. 9:7) , love fully and glorify God in our actions. We must live like Christ radically changes our lives - because he does if you are in Him. (Romans 8:9-11)

Believe me, I'm the first one to tell you that I have wasted a lot of my life. I wish I hadn't pursued the things I did, but I'm a new creation and there has been a change in me. I'm now striving for and praying for a life that counts. My hope is that you will consider your life and lifestyle, and how it fits in with God's plan.

Don't Waste Your Cancer

2009-05-19T17:19:00.007-05:00

As many already know, my father was diagnosed with colon cancer a couple of weeks ago and underwent surgery on Friday to have a foot of colon removed. The surgery went relatively well, and he is still recovering in the hospital. He will still need chemotherapy and radiation. Please keep him in your prayers. I pray that he will take this article to heart and will live out its Truth.

One of the blogs I read (desiringGod.org) referred to this article that John Piper wrote a couple of years ago on cancer. This is an incredible list of God-centered ways to think about cancer and our response, and I would encourage you to share this with anyone who has or is going through cancer or any illness.

Don't Waste Your Cancer

By John Piper February 15, 2006

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.

The design of God in your cancer is not to train you in the rationalistic, human calculation of odds. The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (percentages of survival) and some count their horses (side effects of treatment), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7). God’s design is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” The aim of God in your cancer (among a thousand other good things) is to knock props out from under our hearts so that we rely utterly on him.

4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.

We will all die, if Jesus postpones his return. Not to think about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is folly. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning [a funeral] than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” How can you lay it to heart if you won’t think about it? Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Numbering your days means thinking about how few there are and that they will end. How will you get a heart of wisdom if you refuse to think about this? What a waste, if we do not think about death.

5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.

Satan’s and God’s designs in your cancer are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Cancer does not win if you die. It wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help you say and feel, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” And to know that therefore, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 3:8; 1:21).

6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.

It is not wrong to know about cancer. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the lure to know more and more and the lack of zeal to know God more and more is symptomatic of unbelief. Cancer is meant to waken us to the reality of God. It is meant to put feeling and force behind the command, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). It is meant to waken us to the truth of Daniel 11:32, “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” It is meant to make unshakable, indestructible oak trees out of us: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:2). What a waste of cancer if we read day and night about cancer and not about God.

7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.

When Epaphroditus brought the gifts to Paul sent by the Philippian church he became ill and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians, “He has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” (Philippians 2:26-27). What an amazing response! It does not say they were distressed that he was ill, but that he was distressed because they heard he was ill. That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with cancer: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don’t waste your cancer by retreating into yourself.

8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.

Paul used this phrase in relation to those whose loved ones had died: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). There is a grief at death. Even for the believer who dies, there is temporary loss—loss of body, and loss of loved ones here, and loss of earthly ministry. But the grief is different—it is permeated with hope. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Don’t waste your cancer grieving as those who don’t have this hope.

9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.

Are your besetting sins as attractive as they were before you had cancer? If so you are wasting your cancer. Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination—all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack. Don’t just think of battling against cancer. Also think of battling with cancer. All these things are worse enemies than cancer. Don’t waste the power of cancer to crush these foes. Let the presence of eternity make the sins of time look as futile as they really are. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25).

10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12 -13). So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it.

Remember you are not left alone. You will have the help you need. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Pastor John

_____________________________________

Original link is here.

Today's story about a 37 year old mother with cancer is here.

Reprinted with permission. By John Piper. © Desiring God.

Website: desiringGod.org

Failed Service Project?

2009-05-02T20:42:00.002-05:00

Some fellow dental students and I have been excited about participating in a health fair for a few weeks now. Today we were going to help out with the Spring Fling health fair for children in Birmingham. We had all of our toothbrushes and brochures, our directions and gas in our cars- we were ready to go. So we drove out to the Fairgrounds and we had a hard time finding the place we were supposed to go. The fairgrounds were under construction, and the only place that said "fairgrounds" was having a flea market. We decided to go ask some people in the office and see if they knew where Gate 12 was. A nice man that worked there helped us call many different places and asked us if we were from "one of those prank shows" - we weren't trying to catch him on candid camera- we were just lost.

When we first got there we tried to call our contact, but her phone was off. We looked up numbers for anyone we thought could help us, but to no avail. We finally decided to go home and I gave the lady one last call. She picked up and told us they were actually at Legion Field! So we drove to Gate 12 at legion field and it was deserted. There was not a single car or person, pretty much the opposite of a children's health fair. So we decided to go home because it looked pretty creepy and unsafe.

I believe God was showing us that our plans are weak compared to His supreme plan. When we make plans, even plans to serve others, it may not be what God had in mind. We may not see the reason why or we may think we have a small glimpse of the reason why, but we cannot fathom all that He has in store for our lives. All we can know and can abide in is the knowledge that He is in control and is doing everything for His purpose- to make His name known to all people.

So when your plans don't go exactly as you had planned, just know that He is in control and has a purpose. We don't have to know why, but instead just go along with what happens and trust Him.

If we look at the situation without knowledge or belief in God, it would seem like a wasted Saturday, but if we look at the situation with a God-centered perspective, we know that it wasn't failed at all, but all went according to Plan.

Easter

2009-04-15T20:29:00.003-05:00

Easter is not for the eggs. It's for Christ. It's for God. It's for us. Many people around this time of year question the resurrection of Jesus and ask if it really happened. In our church, we talked about the four most common reasons skeptics give for not believing. These are: Jesus didn't die on the cross (he was just really really really badly hurt). Jesus' tomb wasn't empty. The disciples stole the body. Or The disciples were delusional when they actually saw Jesus.

There are several problems with each of these theories, but some of the most convincing evidence comes from the fact that the disciples were willing and did lay down their lives to defend this truth and to spread the Good News to anyone who would hear. People don't go to their death for a lie. Also, there is no other rational way to explain the major shift in Judaism and the new Christian movement that happened after Christ's death and resurrection.

If what we hear is true, it has massive implications for our lives. If it is not true, Christians should be pitied more than any people because they celebrate a lie. If you don't believe he died, flat-lined, dead - and rose from the dead, his heart started beating again, breath again filled his lungs - then I challenge you to find a better answer than the Christian explanation of what happened. If you can't then the only answer is that He has "authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (John 10:18).

This means He is Lord over life and death, and is Lord over your life. If He is Lord we have no other option than to surrender our lives and our desires to the Lordship of Jesus. Our beliefs will be manifested in our thoughts and our actions, and we will be radically changed forever. You will not look the same as you did before. You will not act as you did before. You will be transformed from the inside out. You can tell when someone has the Spirit of Christ in them. Is it in you?

Driving home

2009-04-01T19:45:00.004-05:00

I was driving home today when I saw a large truck with the sign "Earned. Never Given." on the side of it and a sword - as this picture shows. I figured it was for the Marines, and I began to think a little more about it. I realize the Marines are very hard and must be earned, but then I had a revelation - God's way is the opposite. "Given. Never Earned." No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try at the Christian life you cannot do it. No matter how many years you go to church, or how many quiet times you do or how often you read your Bible, you CANNOT please God. Activities that you do apart from the Holy Spirit and try on your own are worthless. It is impossible for us tragic sinners to please a holy God. God's love can only be given by GRACE alone through FAITH alone in CHRIST alone. It is a gift.

Doing Bible studies, praying, reading the Bible, and going to church are acts of obedience that flow from the realization of His divine gift to us- the gift of the Gospel. Since God desired to reconcile Himself with the people He created, He realized a Sacrifice must be made to cover the sins of His people forever and so He sent his Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life and die on the cross and take our sins upon Himself, so we could be free. BUT sin did not have victory over Him, because on the third day, he defeated death and defeated sin forever... so WE do NOT have to live in our sin anymore. Any sin we struggle with has already been defeated and does not have a hold on us any longer. We get the gift of the Gospel, eternal life spent with God and the understanding that we are His. We are sons and daughters in Christ and of the Father.

From His love for us flows the desire to be more like Christ in our actions and in our desires - which happens through a transformation of our hearts. If you are re-born, your heart has been cleansed and replaced with His heart and you will trust in Him for your sustenance and your life. Your will, mind, and actions will have no choice but to be like His mind, will, and actions.

So, in a nutshell, thank God it is Given freely and Never Earned - because there is only one person who could earn it- Jesus- and He has already Earned our salvation for us by his obedience to God all the way to the cross. Since He earned it and gave it to us for us to enjoy, then we have no other option but to spread that joy we have to other people. The reason we are alive and the reason we go to church or read the Bible or learn more about Jesus is to spread the Gospel - the good news - to people who have not heard of it. It is not for self-consumption but rather for reproduction.

So go and do it.

Joining the church

2009-03-13T19:52:00.002-05:00

We've decided to join a church here in Birmingham, and we've found one that we really enjoy. Tara and I have been attending since September, and we are now official members of The Church at Brook Hills, an amazing church with a biblical mission - To make disciples of all nations. This was the command of Christ and many do not even know of it. We are thankful that we have found our church and our pastor, David Platt because we have experienced immense spiritual growth that is NOT for our OWN use, but instead to SPREAD the WORD to OTHERS and make disciples. Many often see Christianity as stopping with themselves and the consumption of church activities for the betterment of themselves. The problem is, it leaves out the other half of the equation. If we learn anything in church, or from our devotions, or from prayers, worship, or service, we are to PASS IT ON to others. When sharing with others about what God has done in your life and sharing the Word with others becomes our goal, and our mission becomes pouring our lives into others, it will accomplish the goal of Christ - to see all nations and all peoples represented in His Kindgom. We must strive to learn more and encourage one another to Show the Word with our actions. We must hold each other to higher standards and help each other when we struggle, for this is the way we are called to live. I have learned a lot in the past few months from hearing David's teaching and through reading the Word of God - again, not for myself, but so I can pass on what I learn to encourage others. Be encouraged, God has promised to bless His plan and He is faithful.

Short story - Our small group at church was collecting toothbrushes for a remote village in Peru who did not have any. Being the dental student in the group, I was tasked with finding any toothbrushes at school. So, I procrastinated and finally decided to email my professor and ask if she knew any way to get some donated toothbrushes. She then replied to me saying that her aunt has been a missionary in Peru for over a decade and she has a special place in her heart for Peru. She also just happened to have three large boxes of toothbrushes, floss, and toothpaste - just in case anyone happened to need it! She then told me that she was happy she could now clean out her closet and she was so happy that she could donate to the people in Peru. -- Here's the cool part -- I did NOTHING to set this up - it was ALL part of God's plan. Through my simple action of emailing a professor, which took about 3 minutes, and trusting that God would be faithful- He worked through us to provide oral hygiene products to a small village in Peru. He set it up so that HE would get all of the credit - for I cannot claim ANY credit for this divine transaction.

I thought my blog was lacking some substance, and I'm glad I finally realized that what I should have been talking about all along has been with me from the beginning.

PS - if you want to watch any of David's teaching - I recommend the Abide or Lifeblood series, in the .mov format for Quicktime. It'll change your life.

Update

2008-12-01T20:39:00.002-06:00

Lots of stuff has happened since the last post on Oct. 5th. I'm still loving dental school, Tara has started her job and is very busy, Thanksgiving break was nice, but short, and now it's time to finish up the semester.

It's crazy to think that 1 year ago today (well yesterday if you want to be all technical) many of us in the class found out that we were accepted to dental school! I heard back from the Texas schools and UAB and I was most excited about Dr. Filler's call. He was happy and it was the last one I got so I was a little worried but super excited. I was walking out of 20& Grand to go somewhere, then I got the call, talked to him and ran back into the gym at 20&Grand and told Tara. It was a very happy time. Today, across the nation people are finding out about their dental school futures. Many do not find out today, and may even find out a couple of weeks before classes start, but we all end up in the same boat and go on this journey together. It's been rough sometimes, (especially around Fundamentals test day) but most of the time the professors are nice and the people are friendly.
Today, I was able to assist in the oral surgery clinic with a 4th year student. It was very interesting and we extracted #31 (mand. 2nd molar on R) and on another pt. extracted #28 & #29 (2 premolars on mand R). These went smoothly and I was able to assist well because I had worked with the residents at VUMC OMFS. Other notable experiences from dental school have been the first few weeks of operative dentistry. We were able to start drilling on natural teeth and our typodonts. We first learned Sealants, then PRRs (Preventive Resin Restorations) and then Class I (pit and fissure fillings).

In other news, Tara and I are both enjoying our church very much, it's called The Church at Brook Hills and the pastor David Platt is a very gifted speaker with profound knowledge and an amazing capacity to relate the Bible to our lives today. We feel like he really gets it. He's only 30 but he is very mature and has great passion for missions around the world and seeing God's vision come to fruition in Birmingham. You can view his sermons or listen to them too - very cool. We were a little skeptical about attending such a large church (4,000 people), especially after worshiping in a warehouse with folding chairs for 4 years at Midtown in Nashville, however, we feel like this is really the place that God has called us to be and we are growing in our faith daily. I just finished a book this morning called Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell that was a great survey of the Old and New Testaments and talked about how many Christians today have lost the message Christ was bringing to the world. He also warned about empire (America) and how we are so blessed and we need to take care of the opressed, feed the hungry, reach out to people in need, etc. because those are the people He came to save. The problem with abundance is the need to spend all our money and effort to protect it (think a trillion dollar war on terrorism) and not spending our money to help people (what could a trillion dollars do to help aid world hunger, cure diseases, give clean water?) We need to rethink spending $8million on our church building renovations when 1/2 the world lives on less than $2 a day. Needless to say, it's a great read with some relevant points for today's Christians in America.
That's all for today!

Dental School and Wedding

2008-09-14T20:58:00.003-05:00

So dental school is definitely underway (hence the lack of new posts) and I am married to Tara now!

Dental school is going great, we have been waxing a lot and learning about teeth. You can actually show me any extracted tooth and I can now tell you which one it is! Cool! We also have Biochemistry, Radiology, Entry Level Clinical Skills, and Dental Anatomy and Occlusion. It's all very interesting. I'm excited to start drilling in November with Dr. Ramp. In other news, everyone on our lab bench now misses Dr. Lin, he was amazing and taught us about waxing (making wax models of teeth). Now we have an older guy who smirks and stares at us- but doesn't ever say anything... strange. Everyone in the class is getting along well, and we're enjoying getting to know each other better. Fundamentals is frustrating, and we have to take huge tests every other Monday - which means every other weekend is full of studying! That's about it for now.

The wedding went amazingly well, and was a ton of fun! It was the best night of our lives, as it should be, and we loved seeing everyone and getting to meet each others' families. Tara has a great family and her cousins are a lot of fun to hang out with - and talented too! Tara's cousin Leigh did all the pictures and her cousin Jessica is married to a talented pianist, Craig, who rocked out the rehearsal dinner and was fun to hang out with. Tara's cousin Michelle helped her get ready for the wedding and was great to visit with. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was a blast. Everyone was dancing and having a great time. The food was incredible and the cakes were very tasty. The only thing that went wrong the entire night was the top tier of the cake fell off during the ceremony so when everyone got to the reception it looked smaller than it should have. We just laughed it off and enjoyed the night. We were very lucky that nothing else bad happened - such as pouring down rain- it definitely threatened and even started sprinkling during the pictures, but you can't tell. Anyway, look at the pictures if you want any more descriptions, they're probably worth about a million words (1000 pics x 1000 words each...)

Stratford Class Essays

2008-07-01T14:04:00.003-05:00

As promised, here are some of the "testimonials" from my students. These were taken from their final essays. These helped me to know that I actually did make a difference to some of the kids. I tried not to change their spelling or grammar except where it was nonsensical. Enjoy-

“I like when we got on the computer, because I signed up for a job and now I’m able to help my momma and other family. I would like to take a class next year because it taught me a lot of things. So if I wanted to own a business and do things when I get older I can! Thank you a lot Mr. Baxter” Elondria

“ I can have better job, better life, and better future. This course has changed my life now I know how to work on that which I want to have or get. This helped me to set my goals, ideas, and work on it. “ Lucia

“ Because now I know how to get a job, how to make my own business, etc. He really helped me with my career. Now I can be somebody when I get grown. Because I really didn’t know much about jobs and stuff. Now I really know what to spend my money on. So I’m really happy I was in these class because he really helped me on some stuff. So thank you Mr. Baxter” – Briana

“I think that it was an OK class for a little bit, but now I’m ready for it to be over. Overall, it was ok I learned a little of the time I listened to you. I think that all this will not help me right now, but later in life. So when I get my business I will need it, but not now. So I will thank you then.” – Corbett

“The other thing I learned was budgeting. Now I know that I don’t have to spend my money on something dumb. So that way people in my family can’t say I spend my money on dumb stuff. My family told me that if I keep spending my money every time I get it, I wont have any when I want something. If it wasn’t for budgeting, I’d be somewhere broke and out of money. I am glad you came to teach. Mr _____, our first teacher wasn’t teaching us at all.” - Donte

“My thoughts and feelings after completing this course is that I know how to set goals. I know how to find jobs on the computer. I know how to be more responsible with my money. I know what’s a high risk investment.” – Mashondra

More to follow soon.

Zoo

2008-07-01T00:15:00.005-05:00

Relaxing

2008-06-27T19:08:00.002-05:00

Dental School starts in about a week and I've been relaxing in Birmingham for the past few days. I just got back from visiting my grandparents in FL and we went to Sea World too. We had a good time. One of the coolest things we did in Florida was playing with the manatees in my grandparent's "backyard" (they live on the water). About 3 manatees were swimming near the sea wall outside of my grandparent's house and we decided to get some freshwater from the hose and spray it in the water to see what would happen. Grammie has told us to try this before, and nothing happened the last time. This time however, there was significant pressure in the hose and the water shot up 10 feet in the air and came down on the water alerting the manatees to its presence. Then they languidly swam over to the water and rolled over on their bellies to feel the cool water massage their skin. They enjoyed this (and so did we) for another 30 minutes or so. They hung around for a few hours after we stopped spraying them. It was a lot of fun. By the way- apparently, Manatees have fingernails- LOOK!

So for the next week or so, I'm going to try to relax like the manatee above before I have lots of work to do. Maybe I can even finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which I've been reading since last August...

Revelations

2008-06-02T15:20:00.006-05:00

Some of you may have read my previous post about Stratford HS. I just wanted to give a behind the scenes look at what happened there and what I've learned since I left. The first time I substituted at Stratford was for Mr. Bailey, a Calculus teacher. It was a 3 day job, and I was a little scared about going there. I had substituted at other schools in Metro for a couple of months, but I had always kept my distance with Stratford.

In my junior year at Vanderbilt, I took an intro to counseling course and we had several guest speakers come by. One time, we had four students come by to talk to us about the "International Day of Peace" initiative that they started at their high school. Apparently, there was a lot of gang violence at their high school and this project they started helped to curb the violence on campus. This high school was indeed Stratford High School. And I had no idea we even had gangs in Nashville, let alone all of this violence going on in school. It was very eye-opening to me.

So back to substitute teaching. When I accepted the job online for Stratford, my fiancee was kind of nervous (I had told her about our guest speakers in the counseling class). I was nervous too, and scared enough to drive Tara's car to the high school so I wouldn't be targeted. Tara drives a newer car than mine, a 2002 vs my 1993, but hers is a Chevy Cavalier, and mine is a modded Lexus SC400. Needless to say, I figured the Cavalier would be less of a target for thieves or "gang bangers".

Fast forward to today, I'm reading a very insightful book titled When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in The Box by John Ortberg. It talks about how no matter how you play the game of life- acquiring nice toys (cars, houses, etc) it all goes back in the box when you're done (or dead). Is life all about trying to acquire the most stuff? He talks about focusing our hearts and lives on trophies that are truly worth winning because they last forever. The only things we can take with us are the love we have for Christ, the love we have for each other, and our own souls.

In the middle of the book, the author is discussing God calling us to do something to further his kingdom and his will. Here's the reason for all this set-up, and all of the background information I just gave you. This is taken from p.142:

When God calls people to do something, their initial response is almost always fear. If there is a challenge in front of you, a course of action that could cause you to grow and that would be helpful to people around you, but you find yourself scared about it, there's a real good chance that God is in that challenge.

I was definitely called to work with the students at Stratford, and God prepared me for that journey from at least the time of my counseling class, and likely before in ways I couldn't see at the time. In the same manner, this experience with these children is preparing me for a greater journey in the future to handle similar problems and someday I will look back and remember this experience and remember how it prepared me well for the tasks I have yet to do.

Finally, I had a difficult time teaching high school. Everyday was a challenge. There were students ridiculing me (seriously, ones that weren't even my students!), gang members threatening me, students arguing with me, and just a general uneasiness that I would get robbed or my car broken into. God protected me through those months. He heard my prayers at lunchtime at my desk. He kept me safe from those troubles and provided me with a larger view of the situation and of the purpose he had for me at Stratford. He even used me to influence the lives of some of the students I taught. So, I am thankful for what He has blessed me with, and the ways in which He has revealed himself to me this semester. It's not what I did that's amazing, but what He did that is truly amazing.

God makes us weak so he can show us His strength.

This pretty much sums it up... (Gas Prices)

2008-06-01T22:06:00.002-05:00

This was taken at the Shell station in Hillsboro Village, Nashville, TN.

Nashville

2008-06-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

So the Nashville chapter of my life is coming to a close. I might be back someday, but not anytime soon (to live that is, I'll be back in August to visit). I've enjoyed my time in Nashville- I've gotten out and seen the city through various events- Country Music 1/2 Marathon, CMA Fest, and lately, Substitute teaching and Full-time teaching. It's important for Vanderbilt students to get out of "the bubble" and see the sights in Nashville - go see the Bluebird Cafe, walk around downtown, or go to the Nashville Zoo. There's a lot to do in Nashville, and I've certainly not done it all. I still need to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame... Anyway, I look forward to our move to Birmingham next Friday, and I've been feverishly selling things on Craigslist so we won't have to take them with us. What a great website! I'm trying to relax and just enjoy my time before dental school starts July 7th. I'm reading some books and watching movies, encouraging Tara to study hard, and enjoying the nice weather we're having in Nashville. I recently wanted to study for anatomy or some subject that might help me in Dental school, but after hearing from current medical and dental students, I've vetoed that idea. First of all, you never know what you're teacher is going to focus on, and you never know when you'll actually need the information. Everyone I've talked to stresses the need to just ENJOY the time off- because once school starts, it's hell.

It's Been One Week...

2008-05-30T20:00:00.006-05:00

It's been a week since I was at Stratford HS, and I'm glad that part of my life is over with. It was stressful, difficult to wake up at 6AM every morning, and some of the students were verbally abusive. I know I made a difference to some kids there, and hopefully I was able to be a steady force in their unsteady worlds. Many of the kids let me know that they enjoyed my class, some said that they wanted to be a teacher like me, and some said they will use the things we learned in class now and in the future. So I did make a difference, it's just hard to see when you're in the daily grind.

There are major problems in Metro Schools (just like all of the public schools nationwide), and there are problems with the school I was at specifically. Many of the students walk around doped up on SUGAR from ridiculous amounts of candy they consume. Every class period the kids would ask if they could go next door to buy some candy. I'd encourage them to do it at the beginning of class, but sometimes they would just walk out without asking. It's not that I have a lack of control over my classroom, but the kids have no respect for adults, teachers, their peers or school property. The way they would treat their peers, and me, was often appalling. During finals, we had really long class periods, so after their test, I took them to watch a movie. The movie was over with 5 minutes left in class. Two of the kids were acting up throwing paper balls all around the room and disrupting the class. I told one student that I'd write them up, but then he flipped out on me started yelling, cussing, hitting desks, and walked out and slammed the door so hard I thought my eardrum might burst. What a great way to end the semester! If these kids (the freshman that is, ) were disciplined with ISS (In School Suspension) they wouldn't care one bit. At my high school back in Dallas, a teacher would hardly ever have to go that far. A detenion would be enough to get some parent interaction and a student's cooperation. At Stratford, if you tried to call a parent, they were likely to talk back to you, be rude, deny the problem and hang up on you. You can see where the students get their good people skills! Seriously though, a lot of the problems in the public schools can be attributed to lack of funding, teacher pay, this, or that, but what it REALLY boils down to is PARENTING. Lack of good parents in these underserved areas is probably the biggest contributing factor to these kids' successes, or often failure, in school and in life. We need better parents before we can get better schools. Almost all of the problems I encountered on a daily basis- the arguing, talking back, tardiness, lack of motivation, lack of respect for others, could all be attributed to a lack of parenting or attention from parents. Many parents work two jobs to support their family. Most of the kids (75%) are on the free lunch program. Many of the kids try to get jobs to support their family. But I have a feeling that when these kids are home, they never see their parents or don't have enrichment activities. They sit down in front of BET and watch it all day long (and the white kids like BET too) or play GTA 4 (Grand Theft Auto), neither one helps them academically or with relations with people.

Also, what's the deal with the girls acting up more than the boys? In class, the girls cause more trouble than the boys do with talking (obvious) but with respect to arguing ("It's a free country, I do whatever I want") or hitting each other ("You're trifling") and simply not paying attention in class, the girls are often worse behaved than the boys. Another awful thing I noticed is that no one takes responsibility for their actions. The guidance counselors, teachers, principles all emphazise that your behaviors dictate your consequences but the students still can't grasp this concept. If one student blatently hits the other, and I see it, the hitter will flat out lie and deny it. Everytime. If they are talking when they're not supposed to be talking, they will deny it. I'll say "But I heard your voice" they respond "No you didn't" - OK, well i guess I have auditory hallucinations that sound exactly like you... (I did often have bad dreams at night about teaching, but that's a different story).

Overall, did I have a positive experience at Stratford? Yes and No. The teachers were very supportive, they helped me often and were helpful with discipline. They truly do care about the students. Some of my students were a pleasure to have in class, some liked participating and enjoyed the activities. The others, well, let's just say I prayed for them daily. I had no formal training, and I didn't even have lesson plans (!), but I survived. It's over.

In the next post, I'll post some Testimonials from my class- "What I learned in Mr. Baxter's Class".

End of School

2008-05-19T13:54:00.002-05:00

Well, my time at Stratford HS is coming to a close. I have learned a lot from the students, and about the inner-city culture in general. I've expanded my vocabulary to include words like "triflin' " and " straight trippin' " and I've learned about new rappers like Lil' Wayne and Lil' Boosie. I asked my students recently to write me reflection papers about what they learned in this class. To my surprise, many actually wrote positive things like I taught them about stress management and hard work. One student said she had not learned anything from her parents about money and she spent every paycheck she got as soon as she got it. She said that after learning in my class about budgeting and saving, she's going to work harder to manage her money well. On each of these reflection papers, I wrote them back paragraphs about if they worked hard and kept a positive attitutde, they could acheive their dreams. Many have been discouraged by their peers and their backgrounds, and in many cases a lack of parental support. These students need consistency in their lives, and because I haven't left them (like many of their other teachers), they became attached to me. The other day, I was coming to class late from my other classroom and the other teacher told me that many of the kids were asking where I was, looking concerned. She said that when she is absent her kids rejoice, but my kids were worried- they thought something must be wrong. I guess my influence in their lives was more than I originally thought.

It's been fun, and truthfully, I'm ready to leave, but I'll never forget the students in my classes and the other teachers who have helped me along the way. I think this experience and cultural immersion will help me greatly as a dental provider and will help me to be more responsive to the problems in education and with inner-city youth in the future. I'll definitely identify better with my children's teachers and hopefully be a better parent because of my experience here. I'm excited to start the next chapter in my life: Dental School.

Wow, there's a lot to say now

2008-04-21T11:02:00.005-05:00

So I've been teaching full time now at Stratford HS. I teach Web Design and Career Management Success. Some days it's difficult, but it's always rewarding. The CMS classes are freshman, and the Web Design classes are Sophomores through Seniors.

In other news, I am hoping to run the half marathon on Saturday. I hope it's not going to be raining, and I hope that my hip will feel better in time to run. It's been hurting recently while running. I thought it was ITBS, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe ice and NSAIDs will help enough for me to run.

On April 4th, I went to the Spring Preview for UAB School of Dentistry Class of 2012. It was a great time and it was fun to meet everyone I will be spending the next 4 years of my life with. We talked about the new curriculum and what life will be like as a dental student. I'm excited! It's going to be tough, but it'll be fun too - hopefully. From the people I've met, I think we will have a great class and help each other out with assignments, studying, etc. instead of being crazy competitive. Also, class now starts at 10 AM instead of 8 AM everyday, or so we think- that would be sweet! All of the people I met seemed interesting, and I look forward to getting to know everyone.

We got the apartment at the Wildforest Apartments in Birmingham, so I have to start working on that now. We're still looking for someone to sublet our place in Nashville for June and July, and we need to sell the elliptical before we move to Birmingham in early June. One thing kind of bugs me about listing advertisements on Craig's List and Facebook - people respond all the time, but are never serious about committing. They ask "is it still available" and I respond back nicely and say "Yeah, come over and check it out" and they never get back to me. It's so strange...

I got a new computer, it's a crapload faster than my old computer that was actually my brother's old computer from 2.5 yrs ago. This one I'm using now is a Black MacBook but I bought it refurbished so it was ridiculously cheap. Then I put 4GB of RAM in it- it goes fast :-D

I've been working on another blog for teaching, so that's why I haven't been updating this one. I started making a new personal blog, but I've decided I like the Blogger software better than Wordpress for simple blogging. The best feature is the ability to email in blog posts, so I can post from my phone if I so desire.

Finally, Tara is almost done with the Spring semester for Nursing School. She will be done after her test- right now! It'll be nice for her to relax a little bit and get a breather before the Summer semester starts in May and goes until August 3rd; Tara's day of freedom. She says that will be the best day of her life; only to be outdone 27 days later by our wedding.

I've been reading more books lately, and I'm trying to stop getting on the internet and surfing aimlessly for hours. I realized that I won't have time to read all the books I've been planning to read once I'm in Dental School, so I better finish before July 7th!

Here's my list

The Importance of Being Foolish - Brennan Manning

Don't Waste Your Life - John Piper

The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini

Mere Christianity -C.S. Lewis

Harry Potter , Goblet of Fire through Deathly Hollows - JK Rowling

I need to finish Stumbling on Happiness, The Audacity of Hope (Obama), How to Read the Bible, and Christian Apologetics.

I think I can do it. Maybe I should start blogging more so they won't be this long again...

Alan Jackson Online Video

2008-03-18T18:56:00.001-05:00

So Tara and I went to the Alan Jackson Invitation Only concert in
Nashville back in January. The show aired on March 1st, and it's
coming on again tomorrow (Wednesday) on CMT at 9pm central time. If
you missed it or want to watch the online video clips, they are
below. We had a great time, and we were really lucky throughout the
whole show.

Background: About 600 people responded to the email asking for
audience members, 100 were chosen. Out of those 100, 10 were chosen to
ask Alan questions. Tara and I BOTH got chosen- crazy odds if you ask
me! Then they were placing the question askers around the room, and
they put some in the back, some in the middle to the right, then one
couple in the front left. We were the last to be seated, and there
were two recliners in the very front and center of the venue- then
they motioned for us to sit up there! We kept expecting them to move
us as they were making everything look right for TV, but they never
did- so we had awesome seats and got to ask him a question!

I hope you will watch the show on TV, but if not here are the clips
below.

Tara's question is near the end of this clip - http://www.cmt.com/loaded/index.jhtml?vid=212918

Richard's question is at the beginning of this clip http://www.cmt.com/loaded/index.jhtml?vid=213991

The rest of the show is good, and there are a few other places where
there are close ups of Tara and me, but these are our speaking parts.

Richard

ASB Orientation Video

2008-03-17T18:17:00.003-05:00

This is a sweet video that the ASB Board made for Orientation 2008. ASB stands for Alternative Spring Break, the largest student organization on Vanderbilt's campus that sends over 35 sites a year across North America to perform service for the week of spring break. I am a part of the Executive Board, and have loved my time on it. If you are interested in ASB, check out our website at Vandy ASB Website.

Maybe I Should've Been An Elementary School Teacher...

2008-03-04T14:25:00.000-06:00

The kids we're working with are awesome! They're really cute and when
they smile its the best. I was with the 4 year olds yesterday, and
today I was with the 3yr olds. We have done lots of organizing by
completely moving a storage room into a closet and the PT, ST and OT
office into the old junk room (it was larger, so they wanted it).
Then we made several bulletin boards, a wreath for the door, a banner,
and organized the library. Below is a picture of our bulletin board.
Last night we ate with Kim who is independent and has Down's syndrome.
She was a great host. Mark, a man with Down's came over also and told
us some great stories about his public speaking and his experiences
travelling to Chicago and Nashville. The first night we had Mexican
food. Our hosts, Joanne and Nancy have been amazing! They gave us tons
of food!!

We'll be on CMT on Saturday from 8pm-9pm!!

2008-02-29T22:37:00.004-06:00

So here's the deal. Alan Jackson performed some great songs at a concert a few weeks ago in Franklin, TN. Tara and I were invited to attend the show, and the producers asked us to submit questions. 600 people responded to the invitation, and only 100 were selected. Out of those 100, only 10 were picked to ask Alan questions. Tara and I were BOTH picked! Those are incredible odds, but it gets better. As they were seating the people who were asking questions, they put some in the back right, one couple in the middle, an older couple in the front left, and all the other seats in this small venue were still open. We were the last people to be seated in the group of question askers. The production manager then asked US to sit in the FRONT CENTER of the whole set! There were two recliners, tilted inward, and they were RIGHT in front of the stage! We couldn't believe our luck! We tried not to look stunned as we sat down, and we thought for sure they were going to move us. The whole time leading up to the show, they were filling in the crowd, moving people around to make it look right. We just KNEW they would move us. Sure enough, the lights dimmed, and the show was about to start - but we still hadn't moved!

There were about 100 fans in attendance, and probably 40-50 crew members running lights, audio, cameras, and overseeing the production. There were cameras on tracks and tons of cameramen walking around the place. After the show, the production manager came and thanked us for coming (it was free!) we were like, NO, thank YOU! It was truly a night we would never forget. And now, it will be on CMT at 8pm central time. The show is called "Alan Jackson: Invitation Only" and it is supposed to be like VH1 storytellers, and MTV unplugged. He played all of his best songs and several off of the new album.

A couple of funny things happened during the filming. They wanted us to sing along with all the songs, but some of the songs no one had heard before (on the new CD), so I was just lip- syncing... I hope they don't put any close-up shots of me fake singing in the final edit! Also, right before he started "Five O'Clock Somewhere", he said "Well, I don't have my watch on, does anyone know what time it is?" I took the bait and said "9:30" and some people said "5:30" and I was like oops... that was stupid. Then at the end of the concert they said they might need to re-shoot one of the songs because of the audio track. Then they decided that it would be OK. I'm not sure, but I think it might have been because of my gullibility. Later, during that same song, he said the line "And SHE don't care, it's Five O'Clock Somewhere" and he pointed directly at TARA as he said that! It was really exciting. I also caught a guitar pick and got a set-list from the show.

So we're not sure what the final edit will look like, but we're right up front so odds are that we will be visible in both long-range and close-up shots- so there's our 15 minutes of fame! In fact, people who want to become famous have their "agents" put them on the list in order to get good camera time and get "discovered" by people looking for actors for commercials and TV shows... sooo, if we end up on some crappy sitcom, you'll know where we got our start!

Smart move...

2008-02-22T12:40:00.001-06:00

Today I am in the same class ive been in since Wednesday. Its been
tough, the kids dont want to learn, they don't have any incentive to
learn, and they don't have a teacher to hold them accountable. Its a
bad combination. So I have been trying to show them that I care for
them, teach them something, and enjoy my time in the class. As a
reward (since it's Friday) and I don't have any lesson plans, I
decided for my sanity and the kids' learning, it would be most
beneficial to watch a documentary in class. I rented Planet Earth and
we watched the first episode. They thought it was boring, but when
sharks started attacking seals and the wolves attacked the caribou,
they started enjoying it and asking questions about the scenes we were
watching. I asked them to write a response paper about the movie, but
only about half the class would cooperate- its better than none!
Luckily, they have a new teacher coming in on Monday, and this is
supposed to be their full time teacher for the rest of the semester.

I just have to
start strict with them and have high expectations. I have to do that
with all of my classes- otherwise I wouldn't be able to teach
anything- they would eat me alive. How else could I control a group of
wild kids that look about the same age as me? Heck, several even look
older than me.

Its been a great experience so far, and I'm sure it will help me out
in the future. It will at least help me relate more to the issues of
education, inner-city kids, and poverty stricken neighborhoods. There
are no easy solutions. If we are going to try to fix education in
this country, it will have to come with a total paradigm shift in the
systems that affect these kids, and focus on parental involvement.
More money would help too, but it has to be allocated appropriately.

Anyway, it was a smart move to show them the film, and I'm pretty sure
they learned more from the film than from me trying to talk to them.

No Dentist Left Behind

2008-02-20T11:53:00.000-06:00

Here's an interesting email I got today. I agree with it, and as both a future dentist and a current teacher, I know how important both education and dentistry is to the low-income and impoverished families in America. I don't know how to fix NCLB, but we need something new.

No Dentist Left Behind

This is an interesting take on "No Child Left Behind." Teachers will
enjoy it, parents will be informed and politicians should consider it.

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget
checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He
never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth.

When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard
about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness
of dentists with their young patients?" I said.

"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities
each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a

dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average,
below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which

are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective

dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could

lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we
should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"

"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is
practicing good dentistry."

"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't
all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we

can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high
percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my
colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the
parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there
is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work.
Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much
candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who
understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all
off, so many of my clients have well water which is untreated and
has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference
early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that
you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job,
and you needn't fear a little accountability."

"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as
anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count

is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to

work where I am needed most."

"Don't' get touchy," I said.

"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he
was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to

damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up
being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated
patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called
rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist.
They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients.
And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that,
how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists
to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse-making
and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a
leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of
mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved"
"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't
buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would
you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated, expensive and time- consuming," I said.

"Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom
line. It's an absolute measure."

"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will
think . This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he asked.

"If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated
excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.

"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele
to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with

which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"

"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."

"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools
and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress

with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community

served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to

dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to
write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school
analogy. Surely they will see the point."

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed

anger that I, a teacher, see in the mirror so often lately.

If you don't understand why educators resent the recent federal
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT, this may help. If you do understand,
you'll enjoy this analogy, which was forwarded by John S. Taylor,
Superintendent of Schools for the Lancaster County, PA, School
District. Be a friend to a teacher and pass this on.

Oh boy!

2008-02-20T11:11:00.000-06:00

Oh boy!

What a day! The class I'm in has not had a teacher for 6 weeks and has
had subs come in and out the whole time. Now its my turn to teach them
something. I don't have any lesson plans, nor do I have a class roll.
I have a stack of worksheets that a teacher just brought in, and my
Barack Obama book "the audacity of hope" about politics in America. So
let's make a fun class day that would teach them something, shall we?
Ok, first let's get a warm-up activity and get them calmed down. I
wrote on the board- " Writing Assignment: How can we improve this
school?" they didn't like that one... Strike 1. How about "write about
your favorite musical artist" that one got them going. After they
wrote about young jeezy or Lil' Boosie, Lil Wayne or Alicia Keyes, I
took the papers up and read each person's favorite artist (not the
whole paper). Then the class tried to guess whose paper it was. After
that we worked on the adverb worksheets. Pretty boring, but they hung
in there. Then I read some of Obama's book and taught them about
government, bills, laws, the senate, etc. Then I was saved by the
bell. Its funny, teachers (especially subs) look forward to getting
out of class just as much (if not more) than the students- shhh its a
secret ;-)

My second class tried to get to me but I wouldn't let them. Besides
the relentless cussing and yelling, here are some good one-liners I
got: "your wife is going to leave you for a black man" "you look like
the 26 year old virgin" "are you from Germany? You talk funny and
proper " "you look like Mr. Rogers" I also got justin timberlake. One
kid really wanted me to hit him so he could pop me in the jaw.
Needless to say I knocked him to the floor for being so stupid ( yeah,
right).

Here's another surprising trend, the students don't pass notes
anymore- that's old school. These kids simply text each other during
class- and if you tell them to put the phones up- "Ooo you just made
me mad. I'm not gonna cooperate wit you no more" Oh boy! Gotta love em.

PS- they put another sub in here to help me, but he just sat at the
desk the whole time. I had him to over the adverb sheet 2nd period and
the class was so disrespectful he quit. He started getting visibly
agitated and they saw that and tried to make him mad. They can smell
fear. And anger. I felt sorry for him- the other students probably
give him a hard time because of that.

TIME Article on Teaching

2008-02-17T23:20:00.002-06:00

I just read this article on "How to Make Great Teachers" in TIME Magazine. It's got some pretty interesting ideas, and discusses the controversy of giving bonuses based on test-scores and other ways of determining the quality of the teacher.

Here's the end of the article:

" It's a good goal for an entire nation in need of better-quality teaching. As U.S. school districts embark on hundreds of separate experiments involving merit pay, some lessons seem clear. If the country wants to pay teachers like professionals—according to their performance, rather than like factory workers logging time on the job—it has to provide them with other professional opportunities, like the chance to grow in the job, learn from the best of their peers, show leadership and have a voice in decision-making, including how their work is judged. Making such changes would require a serious investment by school districts and their taxpayers. But it would reinvigorate a noble profession. "

Here's the link to the article

Sweet rock climbing wall at the elementary school

2008-02-15T18:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of the sweet rock climbing wall at the school I
subbed at this week. We never had anything like this!

Parthenon in Nashville

2008-02-15T18:03:00.001-06:00

James and I went walking around Centennial Park tonight and watched
the geese swim by and the sun set. It was great. Then these two girls
came up and offered us free Red Bull. I didn't sleep much last night,
so the red bull was a great help!

It's Friday!

2008-02-15T08:28:00.000-06:00

Before I started subbing, I was simply hanging out doing nothing
(since mid-December when I graduated) and I didn't appreciate the
weekend- all the days felt the same- Saturday, Monday- it didn't
matter. But now, I appreciate the weekend. It's a great time to pause
and take stock of the week and gear up for the next week if waking up
at 6am. Next week, I will begin working as a full-time sub for
highschool students in north Nashville. It will be worth it, but
draining at the same time. Waking up early, encouraging kids who don't
want to be there or learn the material, and the 20min drive will all
add up to one tough semester.

Today however, I'm teaching PE still and the kids are wonderful.
Yesterday was valentines day, and many kids were bringing valentines
for the teacher I am subbing for this week. I would tell them thank
you and I would make sure she got it. Then, one kid brought ME a
valentine! I was pretty excited because it was shiny and had a sucker
inside of it. Later in the day, I opened it up, and I saw that the kid
had actually written To: Mr. Baxter in the card- wow! I was pretty
stoked. Small acts of kindness go a long way-especially when the
receiver has had a long day. So go perform a random act of kindness
today!

Tonight is Brad Paisley at the Sommet Center. Tara, James and I will
be going; it should be a lot of fun!

Further, Ishmael Beah is speaking st Vanderbilt on Monday at 5:30pm st
Ingram Hall at Blair. You should go see him and listen to his
incredible story. He wrote a book called "A Long Way Gone" that
detailed his family's capture by the rebels in Sierra Leon and his
transformation into a Boy Soldier in the civil war that broke out
there in the 90s. Its a chilling novel that will make you ask yourself
" if we didn't have any authority, would we all turn to savage living
and go crazy like these boys did?" Think Lord of the Flies bad. On
steriods. Or "brown-brown" ( a mix of gunpowder and cocaine that the
boys would snort during the war). Luckily, Beah was rescued by UNICEF
and they started the long rehab process that eventually brought him to
New York for college and gave him the chance to write his memoir.

Have a great day!

Just call me Coach Baxter...

2008-02-13T14:20:00.001-06:00

So I'm subbing at an elementary school for a PE teacher the rest of
the week. Its a lot of fun! The kids have been great and it's been fun
to run around and shoot hoops and jump rope with the kids. We're doing
stations, so some kids Jump Rope for Heart, some play basketball, some
play hockey, and some rock climb. Man, I wish we had a rock climbing
wall in our elementary school!

I like working with the elementary kids- its a lot different from high
school. They're all very respectful and stay out of trouble for the
most part. They're not corrupted by society yet- they don't talk back,
and they do their work.

I got to work with special ed PE- like Erin does- it was fun. We
played with balls, I helped them climb the wall, and we scooted around
the floor on scooters! Then one kid came up and gave me a big hug-
they're really sweet.

I'm worn out! Ive been running around all day!

On another note, its snowing today! It started snowing after we got
here, so we still had classes.

After this week, I'm going to be a full time sub at a high school in
north Nashville. So, I'll be there for the rest of my time subbing. It
should be fun, and I can teach the kids subjects that most subs
probably wouldn't feel comfortable teaching- calculus, physics,
biology, etc. The school is also a school with low test scores, so
these kids need help academically.

Subbing today...

2008-02-11T13:13:00.000-06:00

I'm at high school today teaching pre-cal and algebra 1. Its fun
because I had a really small class and I could really help the
students in that class with their graphing assignment- y=mx+b. One
girl said she never does her work for her normal teacher. I told her I
wasn't her normal teacher and that we could go through if together.
She reluctantly agreed and I started helping her through the problems
by the third one she was really getting it and went on to complete
most of the assignment. Most of the kids need this kind of individual
attention, but can't get it. In my first period, many of the kids
simply refused to work, and because there were so many of them, I
couldn't work with them one-on-one. I only helped those students who
wanted help and asked for it.

There have also been a lot of girls that are pregnant in my classes
today. Its hard to see them so young and know that they have a very
hard road ahead of them and their kids have a hard life ahead too. Who
knows, some of these kids could have had teenage mothers themselves.

A girl in my 3rd period heard I was going to be a dentist and she told
me that was what she wanted to do too. I told her all about the
classes she would have to take and the DAT and encouraged her to work
hard. She thanked me before she left and told me she would try hard
to make it happen. It's moments like those that make me happy to be
doing this job. Its hard to take on a new group of kids every hour,
earn their trust, help them out, and know you will likely never see
them again. I wonder what will happen to the students I teach, and if
my being in their life for an hour will make any difference. For the
girl who wants to be a dentist, it could have made all the difference
in the world.

Next few jobs...

2008-02-08T11:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, so after I worked middle school, elementary school and high
school, I worked at a magnet middle school. They actually behaved
worse than my other "regular" middle schoolers. One class of 7th
graders was especially bad and were throwing paper at each other, and
then at me while I tried to help other students with their
assignments. It was a madhouse! That is still the worst class i've
taught. Part of the problem was the fact that I made them sit in their
assigned seats, and I made them be quiet and do their work. I was
harder on them than on my other classes, and they rebelled- hard.

Next, I went back to high school and worked in special ed. Now, there
are two types of students in special ed. There are the ones with real
learning disabilities and there are the ones that are apathetic and
simply don't want to do their work. The autistic, down's, etc kids
are in a different class- this was a resource class, so they only came
for 1 period. But these kids didnt want to work at all. The ones who
did, had a really hard time grasping simple concepts, and I focused my
time with them. Then the clowns in the class would disrupt the whole
time, so I couldn't even help those who wanted it! Its important to
put Discipline before Instruction- otherwise, you won't be able to
teach anything. The class will be gone.

It still amazes me how many students show up unprepared- no pencils,
no paper, no homework... I let it slide in 3rd grade. By 5th grade
they should know better, and in high school I don't get why it's so
hard to bring a pencil or pen. In every period today, i've had at least
3 or 4 students without a writing utensil. I let one kid borrow a
pencil yesterday... I'll never see that one again! One student today came and
took my pencil off the podium without me knowing- that one's gone too!
Oh boy.

During my stay in one of the high schools, they asked me to sub for one
period with the autistic, Down's syndrome kids, etc. and I was looking
around the classroom. On the board, this was written:
" I hope everyone is at the Best Behavior while I am away!!! IF NOT,
KNOW MOVIE ON FRIDAY!"

I couldn't believe it. It was ridiculous- this teacher was teaching
special ed students- who need more help than normal ones. I love the
use of all CAPITAL letters too!

Another time in middle school, I was with the special ed kids, and they
were learning to read. The handout was on Martin
Luther King Jr. And it had so many typos that I had to keep apologizing to the students who could barely read! How were they supposed to learn to read with something so full of
errors? Please, check your handouts before you give them to the whole
class, especially if your kids can hardly read.

First few days...

2008-02-07T11:48:00.001-06:00

Well, I have a long lunch period today, so I can write about my first
few experiences substitute teaching.

My first job was with 5th graders in a preetty nice school. The
principal was very nice and offered me a full time job, my first day
there! Kinds strange, but i figured out why later. I told her it was
my first day, and I was going to dental school in July, so I couldnt
work for more than this semester. I also wanted to see if I would sink
or swim with 5 different classes of 5th graders teaching 4 different
subjects. BTW, it was a weeklong job! The kids were a little antsy and
were asking whether I would be their new teacher. Their first teacher
went on maternity leave, they had another for 2-3 months, then she
left. So I was their new teacher. It was a great first assignment, u
learned a lot and met some great kids and faculty. My first day, the
principal told the students it was my first day (doh!) and I had to
explain to them that it wasn't ( I used my VSVS schools as examples of
places I had taught before- partially true, right?) Anyway, my next
class came in and asked me if I was a dentist, why was I subbing?
Again, damage control, had to explain about dental school and
graduating early- but I'm not new, so don't take advantage of me! The
rest of the week was pretty good, one class gave me hell like I'd
never felt before- but thats part of the job. It was kind of sad
having to leave- I thought I might get the full time position, but on
Friday I met their new teacher- she was nice and had 20yrs
experience... To my 5 days experience, so I guess she won in that
category. But, the kids didnt want me to leave and said they'd miss
me, so it was great to be a part of that while it lasted.

My second job was in elementary school. Now I was working with 3rd
graders, a different experience, different rules, and different ways
of going about business. All the chairs had cut tennis balls on the
bottom legs, kind of strange I thought. I guess it was partly for
noise and partly for safety reasons. They were pretty well behaved
too, and it was easier than 5th grade. Not as much backtalk. In middle
and elementary schools, the subs are expected to teach the lessons, so
I was teaching predicates and subjects; long division and social
studies. They really do just throw you in and hope you can swim!
Luckily I was on the swim team in high school, so I have pretty good
skills... Actually, nothing can really prepare you for facing a crowd
of kids and trying to teach them something without too many
disruptors. Not even reading books, I tried.

Third job was in high school, I was teaching ecology, whatever that
meant. I got there, passed out a worksheet and tried to keep em quiet.
That's all! I was amazed at how much less work there was! I could read
the book (Obama's) that I had brought with me! The hardest part was
keeping them from eating and listening to their music.

So that's my first few days as a sub, I'll fill in the rest of the
week soon. Gotta teach 5th period some geometry!

Teaching...and more

2008-02-07T10:56:00.000-06:00

Some tips for the newbies...

Learn their names- it lets them know you care about them and it helps
with discipline. They won't act up as much if they know you know who
they are.

Keep your cool, its probably one of the most important things you can
do.

Be prepared, I try to arrive at least 15-20 mins early each day.

Act tough- either you work the crowd, or the crowd works you.

Its not that big of a deal- at the end of the day, you don't have to
go back if you don't want to.

Its easy to piss them off- tell them to do their work, sit in their
assigned seats, take away their drinks and drawings... Pick your
battles.

Today, I'm in high school teaching math. It's nice because they're
working silently and working hard. I taught about multiplying,
dividing, adding and subtracting fractions this morning- but taught
many students in Spanish. Gotta be versatile- too bad I don't speak
Arabic... They spoke English pretty well though.

I'm almost done with Barack Obama's first book: Dreams From My Father-
its really good. Its helped to explain some of the things I see in the
schools.

One excerpt I read yesterday was from a pastor talking with him who
had this to say about the public schools:

"The first thing you have to realize...is that the public school
system is not about educating black children. Never has been. Inner-
city schools are about social control. Period. They're operated as
holding pens- miniature jails, really... Just think about what a real
education would involve. It would start by giving a child an
understnading of himself, his world his culture, his community. That's
the starting point of any educational process. Thats what makes a
child hungry to learn- the promise of being part of something, of
mastering his environment. But for the black child, everything's
turned upside down. He's learning about someone else's history and
culture... Is it any wonder the black child looses interest in
learning?at least the girls have older women to talk to, the example
of motherhood. But the boys have nothing. Half of them don't even know
their own fathers. There's nobody to guide them through the process of
becoming a man. In every society, young men will have violent
tendencies. Either they're directed and disciplined in creative
pursuits or those tendencies destroy the young men, society, or both.
" p. 258

I agree with a lot of what this guy says- there are some big problems
in education- but its not the schools' fault- the absent fathers,
poverty, lack of discipline- all contribute to one big social problem.
I try to help as a positive influence in their lives. I learn their
names- even if I'll never see them again. I encourage them to work
hard. If all of the adults in their lives showed them just a little
love- it would go a long way. It takes a village...

( ps- I'm typing all of these on my phone...)

First Subbing Post

2008-02-06T09:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I've started substitute teaching, and its pretty interesting. So
I figures I should share what happens with you. Its pretty crazy in
schools these days, so prepare yourself. Ive been teaching for 3 weeks
now, so I'll start by going back and telling about my previous
experiences.

Update

2007-10-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

I've been busy with school, and I started looking for a job for next semester. I thought about working at the Apple Store, but I guess I wasn't what they were looking for. I interviewed last night, and I think they could tell that I wouldn't be able to stick around a long time- coming from Vanderbilt, with experience in dental offices might have tipped them off... :-) I've been busy with Alternative Spring Break too, I had to set up half of our sites- www.vanderbilt.edu/asb , I made the website, and I have been updating it frequently. I love being on the executive board and giving back to the organization, it's a blast. Tara's been busy with school, but we took a break Saturday night and went to JukeBYX, a party I reinvented a couple of years ago that has since turned into a massive party on Vandy's campus- we had a 1,000 people last year, and probably just as many this year. It's a dry party- we serve Capri Sun drinks and give out Slapbracelets- it's a 90s party.
This semester, I'm taking Intro to Health Services with Vera, she's ridiculous - and I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology to help me with dental school. I have to take communications studies to graduate, and I decided to take French 101 just for fun. I have a few projects coming up that I need to work on, so I need to go. I also need a job, so if you have any ideas, shoot me an email. Later!

Vandy

2007-08-26T14:30:00.001-05:00

Back at vandy after a summer full of internship duties and fun! Tara and I went to Panama and had a great time, check the pictures on facebook... Then I had an interview with San Antonio, it's a great dental school, and I think I did well in the interview. School starts on Wednesday, and I'm excited that everyone is back and it's very fun to see people that I haven't seen in awhile.

4th of July

2007-07-08T22:19:00.000-05:00

Well, Tara and I went to Birmingham for the 4th of July and had a great time! We went running, played tennis, swam, watched movies, and saw fireworks. Tara's niece Madison is really awesome, she is cute and says the craziest things... When she heard that Tara was coming she said "And Richard is coming too I assume?". She's 3. Here is a picture of her enjoying the fireworks! I took it with the iPhone, it's an amazing gadget, it keeps me from getting lost, forgetting appts. and keeps me connected with the world. It has lots of amazing alien technology - all in one little device. Tara has boot camp for the next few weeks, and I havce 2.5 weeks left at the IFDC. I got to pull some teeth and suture someone up! I'm really learning a lot and I am now waiting to hear back from dental schools about interviews. I hope your holiday was fun and relaxing!

Travel Map

2007-06-21T22:15:00.001-05:00

This is a pretty cool map of the places I've been, I'm always looking to add more to it!

website

2007-06-14T19:31:00.001-05:00

So I've been working on a website for the Interfaith Dental Clinic, it's pretty sweet, and I hope to have it updated soon!

Click Here for Website!

It's almost inspiring me to start my own webpage, hmmm... I was reading this cool book by Dr. Dorfman, the dentist from Extreme Makeover, and he basically explains all about cosmetic dentistry in his new book called Billion Dollar Smile. I'm having fun at the internship, and Tara's working hard on scholarship essays- good luck Tara!

In other news, my application to AADSAS - the Dental School common app, has been mailed out! It's really important to get the app out as quickly as possible because they're rolling admissions. I'll keep you updated if I get an interview!

I'm ready for the weekend, working long days takes all the energy out of me!

CMA FEST TOP FIVE

2007-06-11T00:18:00.000-05:00

Richard's Top Five ACTS:
1. Brad Paisley
2. Rascal Flatts
3. Alan Jackson
4. Brooks and Dunn
5. Carrie Underwood
(6) Trace Adkins

Tara's Top Five:
1. Brad Paisley
2. Rascal Flatts
3. Alan Jackson
4. Brooks and Dunn
5. Carrie Underwood / Sugarland

An amazing weekend of country music- I got my country music schooling, now I can name all of the artists on the radio! I learned more in this weekend than I would in any "country music" class at Vandy - and for about $3,000 cheaper too! I'm now a proud country fan!

Richard

CMA

2007-06-10T00:43:00.000-05:00

Rascal Flatts rocked the stage tonight- they were the best by far!

I'm really tired, but i'm excited because Tara and I get to go to Midtown tomorrow, we haven't been in 3 weeks because we've been out of town...

Dead Cat

2007-06-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

Thursday, I took out the recycling after Armella and I had broken down the empty boxes from lab cases. I was rolling the large can down the loading dock, and I looked for a new recycling can to bring inside. I opened the first one and the most awful smell I could have imagined assaulted my senses and shocked me. I quickly closed the lid as Armella who was inside came out and asked, “What is that?” I didn’t know, and I wasn’t about to open it up. Then Lindsay, who was in the front of the clinic came back and said “what is that smell? We can smell it all the way up front!” I told her “I think that was the revenge of the dead cat! I can’t believe you could smell that all the way up there, I got the full brunt of the smell!” We laughed, my head hurt.

CMA Fest

2007-06-09T00:34:00.001-05:00

Formerly known as fan fair, this event was amazing and drew huge crowds- 160,000 people are here this weekend for country music's biggest stars. They have a huge lineup- last night we saw Brooks and Dunn, Trace Adkins, Dierks Bently, Reba McEntire, Kelly Clarkson, Alan Jackson and the Wreckers. Tonight was Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Montgomery Gentry, Sara Evans, and Jason Aldean. Our seats are decent, they're lower lovel, but we're at the other side of the field. The mix is pretty good, and they're filming the whole thing to air on ABC on July 23rd.

So Tara and I have been really busy this week, she had a test on thursday and a paper due Tuesday, so she's gotten hardly any sleep and I've been working all week at interfaith so we're both sleep deprived. Now we're going to concerts for 4 nights in a row... pretty crazy! I hope we don't get sick!

Anyway, we're enjoying life and having a good time here in Nashvegas!

See ya

OK i'm back

2007-06-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been doing my HOD internship and I have to write for hours upon hours of crappy fieldnotes for my class, so I figure I can write on here for a few minutes just to vent. First of all, Diezba - I am applying to dental schools right now, I just submitted my AADSAS application to UAB and UNC a week ago, and my letters of recommendation are being sent tomorrow. I sent my TMDSAS- Texas application a few weeks ago. I should be getting interviews from August until December, and I find out starting Dec. 1st where I will go.

Further, I am loving my internship at Interfaith Dental Clinic, it is a great place, and I am really enjoying meeting the patients and employees, and learning more about the dental profession. I am keeping very detailed notes, and if they aren't too juicy, I might post a sample of my fieldnotes one day. I am working on my Learning Plan right now, which is the list of all of my criteria to be graded on.

Currently, I am watching Passport to Latin America - on the Travel channel. What could be better than the Travel Channel and Latin America on television - maybe Grey's Anatomy, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this!

See ya!

hmm, havent posted in awhile...

2007-02-04T01:13:00.000-06:00

Lets see, I got engaged on New Year's Eve, I am graduating this fall, I am applying to Dental School in May, I've been working at the VUMC Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic and at Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in the Dental Clinic, I'm taking some great courses this semester, Intro to Counseling, Spanish for the Medical profession, Accounting, and Botany, and HOD 1410 through correspondence ;) This weekend was the longest I haven't seen Tara in awhile, and it was a good chance to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in awhile, but I need to see Tara soon. I realize how much I miss her when she's not here. She went skiing with Meghan in Knoxville and she said she's having a blast! I went to see Smokin Aces with Dave and Drew on friday, then I went to the ASB party which was amazing! It was the best party I've been to all year, by far! Tonight I went to Alex's suite and got PF Changs and we went to see Pan's Labryinth, or El labarinto del Fauno. It was in spanish, and really really wierd. I need to start doing things I haven't done in awhile, such as play guitar or go skateboarding. I've been in a groove recently and just coasting through life and I need to not waste my time in college, it will be gone soon. Part of the problem is it's cold as ballz outside and it's hard to leave the warmth when it's so cold. I'm really busy with ASB, volunteering, and Midtown Youth. I've been working out a lot and I'm the healthiest-by far- that I've ever been. Tara has helped with that! I am excited about our future together and I can't wait to get married next August! Sometimes I just want to fast forward, but then I would wish that I could relive this time in my life right now, so I just need to enjoy it. You should too, just enjoy where you are right now because you will not have another chance to relive this moment, take it all in. Put some music on, right now i'm listening to Mat Kearny's CD - a song called "Wait" is great. I was playing some Dave Barnes on guitar earlier, good stuff, but I need a Capo! My fish are sick again, I got three new ones and they have Ich, which really sucks because I have to do lots of work to get it to go away, and last week I lost 6 fish to this crappy parasite! I found out how to cure it on the internet, which just showed me how much random stuff there is out there, and how amazing it is that the internet connects us all so we can find anything we need. I can only imagine how many different things there are out there! I'm tired, but I'll post on here more often so I can reflect on what I have been doing, it's fun, try it.

Later
Richard

TURKEY TROT!

2006-11-23T11:03:00.000-06:00

So I decided to run the 8 mile turkey trot in Dallas, it was nuts! There were 30,000 people there to run the 3mi and 8mi combined, and it was crazy! I went really fast, and I beat a lot of people who had clearly been training and working hard for this, suckas! Overall, my time was 55'29"14 for 8 miles, that's less than 7 minute miles! I was stoked, and I originally wanted to get under 1hr, then as I reached the 6 mile marker, I set a new goal to get under 56min, or 7min miles, and I did it! Here are the mile times:
Mile 1 7'05"30
Mile 2 7'07"76
Mile 3 6'55"44
Mile 4 6'55"81
Mile 5 7'03"19
Mile 6 6'49"62
Mile 7 6'52"32
Mile 8 6'39"70
Overall 55'29"14

That's just what I timed with my watch, the chip time on my shoe was probably about a second faster...

I'm happy with my time! Tara also ran a turkey trot in Birmingham, it was a 10k, so 6.2 mi and she got 3rd place Female for her age group, and 8th place female overall! Yay Tara! I love you!

Site Leader and Ben Folds

2006-10-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

So I went on the Site leader retreat for ASB this weekend, it was really great. I got to meet some awesome new people that I've never even seen before, it was amazing. We played some great games and had some good talks, all in all- great retreat! Then I came home and finished my paper at Starbucks. I was kind of getting writer's block sitting there and then I saw someone walk in that looked exactly like Ben Folds, and I told Tara, and she was like OMG! then Meghan saw him too! I walked up to him while he was waiting for his drink and told him that I loved his music and I saw him at the Ryman last year, and he was like "thanks a lot man, i really appreciate it" then I told him that the song the Luckiest is "pure genius" (i dunno where that came from- it must have been from the heart - because it is an amazing song!) then he was like " yeah I love it, thanks again" then I kinda gave him the high five shake then said see ya later! IT was cool, he's really down to earth and really appreciative. He looks so average that no one else in Starbucks even noticed him, it was really cool that he can just blend in- I bet it's harder for other stars to do that, but he's got a chill thing goin on... Anyway, that's about it.

Parents weekend

2006-10-03T23:54:00.000-05:00

So my parents came in town this weekend, it was fun, except sallie didnt want to partake in the festivities as much as we'd hoped. The food was great, we went to Bricktop's and Goten, and went to the football game for 3 quarters. The chancellor gave a compelling speech and my Dad and I played golf with BYX at the Shelby golf course. I have been waiting to hear back from ASB regarding being a site leader, and they told me tonight I will be one! I'm really excited because I applied last year and really wanted to do it, but i didn't get a chance to, so this year I am doubly excited! We don't know where we are going yet, but we find out on friday at the site leader retreat. I have a take home exam in public policy, that class is pretty easy, and often we don't do anything but debate current events. Another great class to take, HOD 2510, we don't do any work there either, but we do have an oral final exam. Pretty tough if you ask me! I feel like I have to sensor what i write now, since facebook imports all of my blog postings, but I guess they were public before, so...but now they are announced to everyone that I made a "note" well that's crazy- I wish I had something useful to say to the masses. I can't really make any political statements because I try to limit myself to HOD 1800 for that, and I can't talk about private matters because those are largely, private. I wish I was funny like Cole, but I dont really have random thoughts like he does. Speaking of cole, softball was fun yesterday, I realized I suck at softball after I underhand tossed it to cole at 2nd base, and he laughed at me. At least I didn't strike out, or hit a pop fly, but I didn't exactly make it to 1st base. I guess i'll have to practice or something, it's different than baseball, and the last time I played that was about 3rd grade. My softball skills are pretty pathetic. I love procrastinating and not writing about minimum wage like my take home test is begging me to do. I think i'll try to finish that now, I swear I'm not ADD.

apple

2006-09-28T20:11:00.001-05:00

so I ordered a new shuffle yesterday from apple, and it looks really sweet. one thing they dont tell you- it ships LATE october, on the website it say it ships "october" but it's really on october 31st. In a totally unrelated event, my dad sent me an older shuffle in the mail today! crazy- like mind reading

this one's for josh

2006-09-28T20:11:00.000-05:00

have fun in Edinburough (sp) loved talkin on skype!

baxter

Lets see...

2006-09-21T16:33:00.000-05:00

Here's whats going on in my life right now. I took the neuroscience test this morning, easy as pie. I took the biochem test on monday, easy as well. The body shop still has not fixed my alarm, curtis couldn't fix it, and now they dont know what to do. I told them it was their problem, not mine, and i filed a complaint with my insurance company. AHH! Anyway, I tried to meet with my advisor, but she stood me up, I am trying to get Gen Chem added to my transcript but the administration is giving me the run-around, finally Dr. Porter listened to me and is going to do something about it! JukeBYX is this saturday, you ALL better be there, Old Phi Delt- 10:30pm on Saturday-- it'll be the best frat party you attend this year- guaranteed! The sunburn off my back is peeling and itching like crazy, check facebook for the pic, it's in a strange pattern that resembles a pig roast (arkansas game + body paint = interesting sun burn). I am about to go to the Rec because i couldnt work out all this week becuase of the pain on my back, now it just itches, i can live with that! Anyway, life is good and i'm pretty relaxed. Peace

Tennessee State Fair

2006-09-13T23:52:00.000-05:00

Tara and I went to the fair tonight and it was... interesting. We saw the LIVE SHARK exhibit, the PIG RACES, the AFRICAN SAFARI ACROBATS and we saw this dude with a monkey. The monkey was eating this caramel popcorn from the guy's bag of popcorn, and two people were talking to them. They reminded me of kevin and britney, but without any money, and she was pregnant. The guy with the monkey said "yeah, well looks like you're pregnant so it will be at least 10-12 years before the child and the monkey will interact well together" (apparently they were thinking about getting a pet monkey) "yeah I heard the spider monkeys are easy to take care of, so i was thinkin about getting one of those" said kevin, then the girl said "we were thinking of getting a dog, to acclimate the baby to" and the guy with a monkey was like "well... that's a little different than a primate..." and he just left it at that. It was hilarious, some people just don't understand how much work it is to have a pet, they think, oh man! i'll get a guard alligator, or hey I want a monkey! normally they're trashy and pay in cash and end up hurting the animal, it's pretty sad. Along those same lines, i was at the livestock pavillion and i wanted a duck, i have no clue how to take care of a duck, but it was only 20 bucks, and it was a SHOW DUCK! I could have gotten a show chicken for 15 though, or a rabbit, but i dont think Ginny at 20 & Grand would approve of a cow living in my apartment... that might violate the pet clause in my lease. - Night

today

2006-09-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

So I went to Sunset Grill with my boo; they had great food and it was on the card! Then I went longboarding down 25th ave garage a few times, went to Cole, Greg, Doug's sweet suite and watched a crazy movie about brotherhood and wolves. It was warrior-esque, then I longboarded down West End, something I've wanted to do for a long time now, and I got going pretty fast, a few cars coming, I saw an opening, swung wide (cutting all the way across 4 lanes) at Qdoba and flew onto 21st ave, it was pretty sick. Now i'm going to bed.

School

2006-09-05T00:49:00.000-05:00

School is going well, I've been studying a lot and keeping up with the readings. I think i'm going to play golf tomorrow, or wednesday at least. It's been really nice weather here in nashville and I need to enjoy it while it lasts! I took Sallie to get a new computer today but they were sold out of MacBooks! We're probably going to go again tomorrow, now all of the siblings will have macs... and iPods! My car's alarm is broken, so i have to get that fixed tomorrow (don't even think about stealing it... I'll find you...) and the front end looks a lot better now that it got repainted :) Life is good.

anyway

2006-08-13T10:40:00.000-05:00

this week will probably be boring... I have to pack and then leave for Nashville

Last day in Alaska

2006-08-13T10:29:00.000-05:00

So my mom and dad took me to the north pole. We drove about 15 minutes from fairbanks and went to North Pole AK, where the letters go if you write a letter to Santa. We went to Santa's house and it was really neat and we had a good time. I went and sat on his lap and got my picture with santa, my parents followed suit, it was quite humorous... Anyway, we drove back and picked up Sallie and James and we had to pack up all our stuff and leave it at the hotel and check out of our room. Then we drove over to the museum at the university of alaska faribanks and it was pretty cool. They had some wierd art from alaska and they had a really cool natural history exhibit downstairs. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and I got a coffetable book for alaska, since I will now have a coffee table in the new apartment...I need something to put on it! Then we went to the airport and almost missed our flight and we flew to anchorage, then had a 4 hr layover, ate at chilis, I watched part of fun with dick and jane, it was kinda boring, then we boarded, I took a sleeping pill and fell asleep and woke up in Dallas. That was a nice flight, and now I'm back in Dallas and I got my new center channel speaker and finally finished my surround sound setup for my TV. It rocks, hard. The center speaker is bigger than I thought and is most of the length of the 27inch TV, i guess I need a bigger TV, hehe, anyway it's great, got it off of ebay. I can't wait to pack up and go back to school to see all my friends, and of course, Tara.

Last couple of days in Alaska

2006-08-12T01:18:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, we went packed up our room at McKinley Village and went to the rafting company and we put on dry- suits. We had to then take a bus to the area where we put in, about 10 miles upriver. Then we got in the boat and Joe was our guide. We had some large rapids and we went over ones named, “razorback”, “the knife”, “trainwreck” and “iceworm”. It was a lot of fun, we got “glacial facials” where the water would just roar over the raft and soak us, luckily noone fell out! The water was about 38 degrees. Then we made it through and Dad re-proposed to Mom with a sign that we held after we finished that said “We survived the Nenana river!” on one side and the proposal on the other. We came to Alaska for their 25th wedding anniversary and they came 26 years ago and he didn’t propose, hence my mom wanting another proposal here. He gave her a gold nugget necklace. Then the driver took us back to the outfitter and we got back to our hotel. We left for the train depot at 3pm and got on the goldstar train. We had dinner downstairs and we were looking for moose out the window. Suddenly we saw a momma moose and a baby moose running away from the train in an open field. It was our first wild moose sighting! Then we saw a bull moose and two other moose while we were at dinner. Then we went upstairs and saw another 2 moose, we saw about 7 moose altogether, and it was really fun. We had birthday cake for sallie on the train and then the Japanese people all joined in singing happy birthday on the dining car. It was really funny. Then those same Japanese people were singing in Spanish trying to learn the language while we were upstairs in our seats, it was hilarious hearing Spanish with a Japanese accent! We arrived at our location and went to our rooms at the Rivers Edge resort, we are in a little cabin, as are all of the rooms, and ours is connected to our parents’ cabin. Then we went to sleep, the end.

Friday, I woke up at 6:30 after going to bed at midnight and we drove to “Joe’s” house and went fishing with our guide Brian. Only my dad and I went to fish on the Chena river, and the others stayed at the “resort” and slept. We caught a lot of fish and the first couple of casts I caught one! It was really easy. My dad’s first catch was 16 inches, my first few were about 14 inches long. Then I caught one that was 16 inches so we were tied for biggest fish, but he still only had one fish, I had about 9. Then he caught another one that was 14inches, and I caught 4 more that were decent sized and 2 of my first 9 were small, about 7 inches. Then I cast out at the end of the trip, right next to where we were putting in and I caught another one, a 16incher, so I had 2 16s and 14 all together, with 12 being netted and checking the length. One that got away we couldn’t get the net to quick enough and it got off, Brian thought it was a bigger one, probably 18 inches. The fish were called Arctic Greyling and are pretty easy to catch. While we were driving over to the put in place for the raft we went on we saw 3 more moose! They are all over the place. Then we came back and I fell right asleep, I’ve been really tired lately. Then we went to the Tenana state fair and walked around there, went to get Italian food after the fair, came back to the “resort” to sleep and now I’m typing this and downloading pictures. The cars are all really funny up here, they have electrical outlets hanging out of the front bumper. In the winter when the sun comes up at 11AM and sets at 1:30pm it gets kinda cold, 60 degrees that is, BELOW zero! When it is about 20 below, I think they have to plug their cars in when they park them or the engine blocks will crack and the coolant will freeze. All the parking spots up here have electrical outlets next to them, it’s kinda funny actually. Then I heard that it’s so cold you can throw a cup of coffee out of the cup and it will freeze before it hits the ground! That’s cold! Anyway, I’m going to bed, goodnight all, and I love you Tara!

Denali

2006-08-10T01:29:00.000-05:00

Today we woke up at 5:30 and got on the bus for our 6AM tour of Denali National Park. We noticed it was very clear out and we hoped that we could see Denali, or Mt. McKinley, or simply “the mountain”. We were lucky, around the first bend it was visible and we were all very excited. Due to the height of the mountain, 20,600 ft. it creates its own weather and most of the time it is cloudy. One man on the trip was there for his third time and he had never seen it before! We then saw a caribou and then he crossed the road. We saw many snowshoe hares, and scenic views, then we saw a momma bear (sow) and three cubs at the first rest stop. Then we continued on and saw many other caribou and a few more bears, we were very lucky indeed. We got closer and closer to Denali until we got to the turnaround point. They told us since it was a very clear day we could continue on to the last pass they normally travel, but they have only continued the busses to that pass 6 times this year! We finally got there and the views were magnificent, (check facebook for pics later, the internet is Terrible here!) and the tour guide warned of a bear nearby. The bear suddenly appeared and we had to get back in the bus, in a hurry, a BIG hurry! The tour guide apologized and said “sorry for using inappropriate language, but hey, what would you say if you saw a bear 50 yds or less from where your tour group is!” The recommended distance from a bear by the national parks service is 300 yds, or 3 football fields, we were half a football field away, and it could have easily attacked. We got lucky and it turned around! Then we ourselves turned around and went back through the park through the main gate and ended up back at our hotel, at 3:15 pm. That was a long bus ride! Then we went to dinner at the “chalet resort” and I had the special. I’ve never ordered the chef’s special so I was excited, it was salmon and reasonably priced so I went for it. It was really really good, and Sallie had some filet that was incredibly tender. Today is sallie’s birthday so happy birthday SALLIE! Anyway, I need some sleep I’m exhausted and we’re going rafting tomorrow. Peace. Love you TARA

Alaska Day 4 and 5

2006-08-09T02:03:00.000-05:00

Today we woke up and went on a hike behind the tram and sallie and james slept in. Mom, Dad and I went on the “Winner Creek” trail, and it was really nice and we had a good hike for about 45 minutes. Then we got in the car and drove down to the kenai river from Girdwood/Alyeska, and we went to the sunrise café. It was a nice place and I had a buffalo burger. On our drive down I watched the matador and my head kind of hurt from watching it in the car. Then we went rafting with our raft guide brent. He said to not fall in, and he had a perfect record, he told us many great stories. In one story, he was training the other guides and they always have someone fall in the river when it is 40 degrees outside and the water is a balmy 37 degrees F. The new guides could tell who it would be because they had a big drysuit on, but Brent decided to switch it up, and one time he wanted to feel what it was like to fall in, so as they went over the mild class II rapids, he winked at his friend and went overboard! He then told us he was in the water for no more than 30 seconds then they pulled him out and he lay in the bottom of the raft and thought he should pretend to be shivering, then he actually was shivering and he couldn’t move. They took him to the side of the river changed his clothes, made a fire and he said he had to go sleep after that his body was too exhausted from trying to warm itself up, it burned everything he had! Then as we were going down the river we saw many salmon jumping and we learned all about the different kinds of salmon: chum, sockeye, king, silver and pink. We saw two or three bald eagles then we came to where the Russian river and the Kenai river meet. There were many fishermen hooking salmon, they actually place the hook where they think the fish will be and if it happens to go in their mouth, they catch it! They don’t use any bait because the salmon don’t eat at that point in their life. Then we saw two brown bears fishing right next to the fishermen! It was pretty crazy, then we went further and saw two bear cubs playing in the river, so we got to see 4 bears, and the weather was really nice, we got super lucky. We finished the rafting trip without falling in, it was more of a float trip actually, and then we left and drove back to Anchorage, I watched a Spanish movie “la mujer de mi hermano” and brushed up on my Spanish skills. We got to anchorage and felt like we had been traveling all day, because we were moving for most of the day. We walked around downtown, went to the bar/grill called rumrunners and played the electronic bar game. We won a round of trivia and I had a chicken panini. Then we walked back to our hotel since we took our car back already and then went to sleep. I had a hard time falling asleep because it is still light out at 10:45 and the room was pretty hot.

Train day

We woke up early again, (what a surprise) and we got on the train, in first class or “goldstar service” and it was a great trip. We had good seats and I liked the train a lot because unlike an airplane you can walk around, go to the patio area, talk to the bartender or tour guide, have breakfast and lunch downstairs in the dining car, etc. It was cool. Then we heard the bad news. The conductor came up and told us a semi had taken out the track in front of us and we had to deboard at Taneka (sp?) and get on busses to go the rest of the way to Denali. We were on the train another 45 minutes and the scenery was great. We didn’t see any wildlife but it was a good experience anyway. We got to the switching place and it took another 2 hours to get busses there because it was halfway between anchorage and Denali and they didn’t plan on having the track broken! The conductor has been with the train 32 years, and its happened 9 times, once every 3 years this happens! We were lucky I guess. So we get on the bus finally and I sit next to a random guy, Richard, and he has a mac so I show him some tricks on it and help him with iPhoto. Our driver was pretty crazy and he told some funny stories as well. We sat in the front of the bus and talked to him the whole time. We got here 2 hours later than expected, and we ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. Wow, I’ve been spelling restaurant wrong this whole time, sorry. Anyway, we had dinner here and the chef walked by as my mom was asking what was in the vegetarian salad, he told her and she wanted protein, so he got excited and said he would make a special one with tofu, and he came out several times to check on us and it was really neat. Then we went to the husky homestead where they train dogs and raise them to run the Iditarod 1100 mile race from anchorage to nome Alaska, and he was really cool. The guy, Jeff King has won the race 4 times and he just won this year in march he told us all about how they train the dogs and how he doesn’t do the work, its really the dogs, and they deserve a lot of the credit. He has to care for them while they’re on the race, and he can only have 16 dogs but the best number is 9 or 10, so at the end of the race he has that many. He said he can predict which ones he will use and which ones he will send home and which checkpoints he will send them home at, before he even leaves for anchorage! There were puppies for us to hold so we “helped train Jeff King’s sled dogs” because we helped to socialize them. He told lots of jokes and told us about Alaskan life, he’s really interesting and has many cool stories and ideas. I came back and downloaded 4 cards worth of pictures and now I will edit them and then go to sleep. We wake up at 5:30 to go to the park for our 8 hour bus nature drive through Denali tomorrow. I’m really tired but it’s hard to sleep with the sun still up! Good night Tara!

Alaska day 3

2006-08-07T01:59:00.000-05:00

We woke up at 6:30 am to go to the ferry and we boarded and left at 8am. We saw a humpback whale, sea lions, puffins, porpous, and sea otters. It was fun but took from 8 til 1:30 !! I watched kiss kiss bang bang at Erin's suggestion and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the boat ride and we had some amazing views. Then we got off and went through a tunnel in the mountain that connects Whittier with the rest of alaska, and it was 2.5 miles long, one way. They have to regulate the traffic so on the hour until half past the hour it goes one way, and the rest of the time it goes another way. Then we saw the portage glacier which was really nice, and there were 3 other glaciers next to it. We then proceeded to the wildlife refuge and saw some really cool animals up close, and the pictures look amazing! Next we went to our hotel, which is our first hotel to go to before 10pm, and we got here around 4pm. I went and worked out, swam, and got in the hot tub then came back and we toured around the small town near Alyeska. During the winter, this is a big ski resort for most alaskans and some other people. Then my dad, mom and I went to this old gold mine in the town but it was closed. My dad and I went on a hike for a few minutes, then we saw a german shepard and it looked like it wanted to attack me! Luckily the owners were nearby and told it to back off. At first i thought it was a bear, because i was looking out mostly for bears at that point. Then we went to the top of the mountain in a tram and it was really cool. We ate dinner up there at a really nice resturaunt and it was some superb salmon. James had an Elk steak, sallie had a beef filet, dad had halibut and mom had tofu. We all got something different! That never happens! So the resturaunt had an amazing view of the "turnagain" finger of the bay that captain cook had to turn again and again to get out of because the tide difference is 39ft between low and high tide! Sometimes the river looks completely empty and its all mud, other times it is full to the brim, it just depends on the time of day! So we came back down the mountain to our really nice hotel, the Alyeska Prince hotel, and we have a nice view of the mountain from our room. I'm in the business area uploading pics to facebook. I love you Tara, goodnight!

AK day two

2006-08-06T02:28:00.000-05:00

We woke up early and went to breakfast at peggy's - they're famous for their pies, and I had some blueberry pancackes. Then we started driving to Valdez, a 6 hr drive, so we stopped at an indian museum thing, then went to a supermarket and got lunch food and snack food for our excursion. We stopped at a gold mine that was used before WWII and then we had lunch. James and I decided to hike up this trail to the lake at the top, there was no one else there, and it was really cool. Then some other people showed up, and they were originally from TX but they lived in Alaska now. Then we drove on to the glacier, we watched "the island" on the drive. We walked around on the glacier then had dinner at the long rifle lodge that had a nice panoramic view of the glacier. There were some strange accented people in the room with us so we asked where they were from. My parents thought france, or maybe canada becuase they had good english, but they were from mother russia. So we went back on the road and then started watching "she's the man" a pretty good movie that james and my mom and I watched. It made me miss tara, not just because it was a love story in disguise, literally, the actress amanda bynes looks like Tara, and that made it that much harder to watch without my boo. Then we finally got to valdez at 10:45 at night. We passed some cool waterfalls on the way here, and there were lots of mountains and lots of water, everywhere! I'm having fun, and tomorrow at 6:30am we're getting up and going to the ferry and heading back toward anchorage. I need some sleep!

Alaska day 1

2006-08-05T01:48:00.000-05:00

So we got to alaska at 8pm, and now it is 10:45pm and it is still light, but Dallas time, it is 1:45... interesting. We walked around downtown for a little while trying to find a resturaunt, but ended up eating a few blocks from our hotel in downtown Anchorage. We're staying in the downtown area and there are homeless people, but they are indian or eskimos, different from the homeless people we have in Dallas or Nashville. The air is a little fresher up here, the salmon was good too! I had some caffeine, so of course I am wide awake now (i was falling into my food at dinner...) and it's almost bedtime for me! I get to sleep with James, in a double bed, oh joy (james' words) and it's wierd that this is so far away and still the USA. We watched over the hedge and RV on the plane, pretty good movies and reinforced the family first ideals. Anyway, I finished working on wednesday and I had a great time at Drs. Alexander's office (there's two of them) and I learned a lot. I decided to do health service delivery to diverse populations, a course for my major instead of working with Dr. McKenna, at least for now. I think I got some good experience this summer and I don't know if my schedule next semester will be good for an oral surgery observation. Allright, bedtime! Love you boo!

I took the DAT

2006-07-31T22:18:00.000-05:00

I took it on Friday and did very well, I surpassed my goal and then some! I was really excited when I got the score and I couldn't be happier! I can relax now and enjoy the rest of summer, until I go to school that is. We're going to Alaska on friday and it's gonna be really cool and fun! My siblings arent too excited, but I'm really pumped to go and I'm going to make the most of the trip. Can't wait to see everyone at school and I can't wait to see TARA! Love you boo!

ortho

2006-07-25T23:26:00.000-05:00

Read Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What, it's really good! I am taking the DAT on Friday at 10AM, pray for me! I have been studying for many many weeks now, but I'm ready for it! I can't wait to go back to school and see everyone again, being at home is pretty boring. We're going to Alaska next friday, so I guess that will be fun, we're going fishing and white water rafting and on a small cruise past glaciers. Recently I have been at Dr. Alexander's office and i make the IDB - indirect bonding method of putting brackets on. First the assistants place the brackets on a model of the person's teeth, then Dr. A checks it, then we put vinylpolysiloxane, VPS on so it will hold the brackets in place, do a "suck down" on the model so the VPS and brackets are now on a tray, then trim the clear trays to fit their mouth and voila- just add adhesive and light, and they have braces! It's pretty neat, and I think i want to do orthodontics rather than general dentistry or surgery becuase there are so many opportunities to affect middle school children and their lives after braces. You can teach them about setting goals and working hard to acheive them, and it's also a great way to build confidence, be a role model, and since you get to see them every 2-6wks you can really get to know them better than the every 6 months dental visits! I'm excited to start dental school, but I am still a Jr! I now have a goal and I am working on acheiving the goal ... but seriously, that book is good!

fun

2006-07-12T22:21:00.000-05:00

Tara was here this weekend!!! It was soo much fun having her with me in Dallas, we had a blast at the Maloney wedding. We got there early and thought we'd be the only ones, but then the BYX Gamma class showed up in full force! There were like 12 of them there, so we felt more like we belonged! Cole and Dane also came and it was a lot fof fun to see everyone! Then Tara and I went and played Tennis on Thursday and Saturday and went to the gym, we're both pretty good at tennis- I challenge YOU jeffrey moredock! Yeah, I'm calling you out! We saw Mamma Mia! at the Fair Park music hall with my parents and Aunt Sharon. I was sad to see her go, but i'm going to see her friday in orlando! Love you boo! Lately, I've been having fun at Dr. Banta's office and Dr. Alexander's office, it was fun at both places, I like the surgery aspect, but I also like the orthodontic office. The orthodontist has everyone in one room and all the assistants are working together, laughing and having a good time. I hope that my office someday could be like that, a fun place that patients like to come; i wouldnt want people to hate coming to the dentist! Anyway, studying is going well, and today I went to Dax's house and went swimming, and I held my breath for 2 minutes 21.5 seconds! it was kinda crazy... I'm going to florida to see my grandparents again and Tara's going to come with my mom and me! I'm getting tired so it's off to bed! I love Tara!!

last day at Dr, Keeters

2006-06-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

I took impressions today on misti, then on mary carmen! The second round of impressions with alginate actually turned out well, and the first VPS, vinyl polysiloxane impression I took on misti looked good too! It was a fun day, but bittersweet. I made some great friends that I know I will see again, and it really is "good dentistry by friends for friends" the atmosphere was wonderful, and I can't believe I've been there for 5 weeks! The positive perspectives and attitudes of the staff made me feel at home and welcome and loved. I hope some day my office can be as dedicated to patients and each other as Dr. Keeter's office. I went to my DAT course tonight and it was biology, so I've been studying that a lot, and I learned a lot today from class and studying after with my mom. We got down the A&P book and looked at the anatomy of the kidney, which is really difficult, and then I studied the teeth, it was fascinating how the decidious teeth get moved by the adult teeth and how they fit together perfectly, it's amazing proof that there is a God, it would be impossible to make all this stuff work in perfect harmony- not to mention all the other systems I learned about today! There's no way this all happened by "Chance" it's just not even an option! Tomorrow i'm going to the dental school to tour around, and hopefully meet the dean of admissions, so yay for grad. school- but I'm only a JR. so yay for undergrad too! I love life. I love Tara. I love you, whoever you are!

golf

2006-06-25T18:13:00.000-05:00

Golf is so frustrating, i lost 8 balls today, but i hit them perfectly on the driving range. Made me realize that sometimes just practicing isnt enough, it's the actual doing that's important. Like going to church, you can practice all you want, but going out into the world and doing is a whole new "ball" game. I finished the ragamuffin gospel a couple of days ago, it was a great book, and i reccommend it to anyone who wants to further their spiritual life and can't figure out the next step, or cant see what they're doing wrong. I thought i had it pretty well put together, the puzzle that is, but i am just a ragamuffin, a meaningless thing unless I have some of Jesus in me. The book makes you realize that God's love for us is incredible and we can't do anything without it. Even when we mess up, He is waiting for us to come back to Him with open arms, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son. Sometimes I forget that, and I really need to internalize that becaues I try to hit the ball on my own and try my hardest at life, but get frustrated. Like Camp Ozark's theme last year, just Give it Up! I need to give it up to God and let my life be Jesus living through me and living in me. We're all weaklings and powerless without Him, we just need to recognize that more often. That is all., oh and I love TARA!

weekend

2006-06-22T23:39:00.000-05:00

It's the weekend now for me, I have to take a practice DAT tomorrow morning, 4 hrs! I have been studying like mad, so we'll see how it goes... I got to assist today at Dr. K's office, he was short staffed, so I was the assistant for a filling, I got to hand him the etchant, primer, caulk, light, tools, etc. it was fun being a part of that and getting to use the water gun and suction vacuum. Good experiences today! WE're going to a party for the american lung association tomorrow night, the Fresh Air Affair, and they have texas hold em and other casino games for entertainment. I hope they have good food too! I still feel like I have something wrong with my stomach, and i've been back from guatemala for 3 months now! I'm gonna take some anti-parasite medicine and see if it helps any, nasty little bugs from that pretty lake! enjoy the official summer (summer started on wednesday!) Tara is incredible, by the way!

2006-06-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

The graduate! it was pretty sunny!

2006-06-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

Magic kingdom, the money shot...

workin

2006-06-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

Still working at Dr. keeter's office, it's been very fun and rewarding, even though i'm not getting paid! 6AM wakeups and hard work make a good rec letter... i hope! I went wakeboarding yesterday for the first time since sept. it was a blast! I met up with some people from dallaswakeboarding.com and we went riding for 4-5 hours. Then we went to chili's and watched the mavs loose, it was pitiful. I have to do a full length DAT this weekend, so I hope i can do well on that and see where my strengths/weaknesses are... I have been studying a lot for it, and I hope i can rip it apart! Sallie got back from europe and said she had a great time, but now she's feeling kind of sick :( I just talked to Dr. Banta's office today and hopefully I can watch some wisdom teeth or implants for dentistry, it's going to be fun, and then i'll go to Dr. Alexander's office to see orthodontics. It's been a great summer, but I miss all of my Vandy friends, and I cant wait to get back to school. I'm reading the ragamuffin gospel, i'm almost done with it and I love it. The other day i googled it to see what would come up and it was some crazy baptist (sorry if you're baptist) lady saying that he was a heretic (brennan manning) and he wasn't saved and he's really a buddhist, it was wild! I like the book though, definately worth reading! New Guster CD is pretty good, it's not as good as their last one, I even pre-ordered it... and I rarely even buy cds! The first few songs are good, but then the album starts sounding like a repetition of the first few songs... eh, they're amazing live though! I'm glad I got my computer working again, well Gary fixed it but it's working better now than it ever has! I am kinda ADD, but i'm sleep deprived so it almost evens itself out I guess; I need to get to bed, see ya!

Dr K and GO MAVS

2006-06-13T23:31:00.000-05:00

So i've been taking the kaplan DAT course, its pretty easy, i got a 20 on the diagnostic which is pretty good, so i'm hopin to do well on the real one. I learned how to sterilize the instruments, develop a panoramic x-ray on the pano machine, scan into and manipulate the dentrix application, seen numerous crowns, build up's, fillings, dentures, partials, hygeine checks, I've learned a lot of vocab and I can enter in the numbers for the periodontal check. This friday i'm going to a conference at the dental school. Summer's going great, Sallie is still gone, my dad's fathers day present gets here tomorrow, we got him a camera (shh) and i think he'll love it ( i picked it out). The mavericks had a heartwrenching loss tonight to miami, to bring the series to 2-1 mavericks. We lost by 2 points!!! Tara's doing well in summer school, she has a test tomorrow in microbiology and i think she'll ace it. I gotta get up early, so i'm gonna go sleep.

Day three at Keeter's

2006-06-02T10:56:00.000-05:00

I started pouring molds for teeth that were impressions. I then grind them down to the right size, touch up the "nerds" then I place them in the machine and make a whitening tray, or retainer for them. I also sterilized a lot of equipment, so they really liked me and I received a lot of "compliments" at the end of the day! Then I went to the Dat course and I scored a 20 on my diagnostic test, which is very good, so i'm gonna shoot for really high on the DAT! I am excited, and i have a day off today. I'm having a great summer, and i'm learning a lot! Hope you are having fun wherever you are!

Richard

Summer is #1

2006-05-27T23:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally at home, and I am not doing much yet, just enjoying the warm weather and sun (Nashville's kinda dreary) and I have a busy summer planned, so i've been relaxing. Sallie just graduated last night, and she's leaving for Europe tomorrow, for three weeks! (yesss...) j.k but seriously, she's gonna have a lot of fun! I start at Dr. Keeter's office on tuesday, at 6:30AM, it should be a lot of fun and a good experience, I will be doing whatever they want me to do, so I don't really get paid and I can learn all the different aspects of having a dental practice. I have been really busy doing nothing, and have not found time to post, (shout out to Erin) and I've been slacking, so i'll do my best to update this as I learn more about dentistry and myself. I'm reading a great book by Brennan Manning, the Ragamuffin Gospel, it's a must-read for anyone interested in Christianity or anyone that is already a Christian. I am having fun at home with my parents, i dont get to see them that much, so it's nice to be back, and also seeing Sallie and James has been a treat. I went golfing today, and i discovered that I need some more lessons, the good strokes I had achieved over Easter break have left me, and I need some swing repair. My cousin just turned pro, but he's on tour so I won't get any lessons there soon... he's doing great from what I know. Uh, one of my dad's apartments got hit by a crazy person in a big truck, some kid apparently. It took out the front apartement, a parked car, demolished the whole front and side of the building, and then his truck exploded. It's a miracle he's not dead. Then he tried to run off, but the police arrested him. I'm kinda surprised it didn't make the news, with so many lesser stories circulating on national news... THC muffins anyone? Anyway, all these reasons and stories make summer #1! that's kinda stupid but it rhymed... oh well see ya later, have FUN!

stuff

2006-05-02T20:59:00.000-05:00

I've been studying for genetics for way too long now, and i'm barely half way. I ate dinner with Alex at Carrabas - that place rocks. The party that the gordons and mrs. grisham threw last night was incredible, it was nice to see so many people get together in the park! I'm almost done, and tara will be done tomorrow at 11, though we'll have to see how that goes! I am ready to get out of here and I cant wait ! AHHH!

This is the place

2006-04-30T20:19:00.000-05:00

This is where we are going in florida, my grandparents have a nice view ;)

im excited

2006-04-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

I got an A in Bioinorganic chemistry, i'm looking for some good grades elsewhere, and I have genetics left- thursday. I had cell group last night and it was really good, we met for three hours in Funke's room and had a great time together. I went to Vera's house today and she was really nice and fed us some good food. I want to start summer! AhH! I cant wait to go to vero beach and orlando with Tara, it's going to be fun meeting all of her old friends from celebration. So i'm starting to study for genetics because i need a good grade. I love you.

no more physics. ever.

2006-04-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

YAY - physics is over, i have to write a resume to give to Dr Mckenna when I meet him on monday for an interview. I want to do an independent study with him next year for research and shadowing, and it should be a lot of fun. I am really glad physics is over, and all i have left is genetics- next thursday- then we're driving down to orlando and vero beach to hang out for a few days. Then graduation and moving out, it'll be fun. Listen to the arctic monkeys, theyre really good and all the rage in Britain. New RHCP album comes out soon - can't wait- dani california is their single and its good too. I watched Transporter II the other ady and it was pretty good mindless action- as andrew says, but Jeff didn't like it. I feel good about the physics test, and i cant wait to be done!! PEACE

April

2006-04-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

Sallie came here this weekend for Rites, it was fun. The bands were really good, and Ben Folds rocked the house. I have a bioinorganic chemistry final this evening and i am NOT looking forward to it. I am looking forward to it being over though... Physics is on thursday, and genetics next thursday! I am getting invovled with the youth ministry at midtown, and that seems to be a promising endeavour. I am excited to be starting the summer and taking the DAT review course. I decided i wanted to be a dentist a few weeks ago, and that will be a better decision for me than med school. See ya

Guatemala

2006-03-19T00:32:00.000-06:00

It's been too long since my last post, but I went to guatemala for spring break and it was totally incredible. We went to ChiChicastenango and went to the market on sunday and i got a bunch of stuff. I love bartering with locals. Then we drove to Antigua which is the old capital of guatemala but was destroyed by a flood in the 1500s and killed a conquistador's wife, so it was abandoned. Its really sweet now. Then we went to Xela, Quetzaltenango and we stayed at Casa Argentina and it was really fun, a huge hostel with lots of foreigners staying there. We did work at Primeros Pasos clinic and we helped them fix up an old cabin so they could make it an entertainment center for the kids in the afternoon. We cleaned it all up and painted it with elephants, a sea scape and a village with a palm tree. We also installed shelves which is hard to do because there are no big hardware stores so we went to the carpenter and got wood, then we had to go to a different place to get nails, etc. it was hard. Then we did salsa dancing and it was a lot of fun, our teacher was really suave, he said "y bailamos" and we had no choice but to do exactly what he said! My ASB group was a lot of fun and everyone added a different element to the trip and made it complete! I had so much fun!! Then we went to Santiago Atitlan and worked with some special ed children and had a "field day" for them which was a blast. There was a lot of trash in guatemala and the reason is because there is no infastructure for trash collection. Not too long ago, everything was packaged with natural biodegradable wrappers, like banana leaves. Then plastics came and they would throw them on the ground like the leaves, but they had no landfills and no one wants to put one in their backyard. Now, they have a few landfills, but they're expensive and they burn the trash, often they do both! Its just a bad situation down there and an example of how the modern world messes up small villages and corrupts them. There is so much injustice in the world and the trip made me realize how lucky i am to live in America and have all the things that I am blessed with, like toilet seats and clean water and the fact that i dont have to make a craft to survive when i am 4 years old! The homeless people over there sell things, they dont just ask unless they are too old to do anything anymore and then all they can do is beg. Its just a different world over there and its incredible how much they have and how happy they are. They have far less than any person over here and they seem far more happy than any one person over here! I respect that for them, and the Guatemalan people are very hard working and want to help each other out. Anyway, tonight I went to the green rave and it was fun, in the basement of branscomb and it was a blast. I'm having a hard time getting back into the "swing of things" since spring break, but i;mgetting there. Have a great night!