2 Days to My 365th Blog

My year-in -review highlight pic on today's countdown comes from the month of September. Who could forget the big mushroom that popped up in the front of our apt. building as the result of days of rain on September 16th?

How the seasons change in such a short period of time. Today (almost 4 months later) we received between 6-8 inches of snow, so of course I had to take a pic and share it. The view is from the balcony of our apt.

Information Overload

Today I had HR orientation at work and the focus of it was to review the benefits available to employees, specifically health insurance. We reviewed a health insurance plan comparison chart that was 8 pages long (and that was the summarized version)! In addition they had the highlights of each plan option on a PowerPoint along with all the other numbers, info and deadlines of additional benefits and by the end of the three hour orientation my brain was suffering from information overload.

Tonight, we had Kitty visit again, which was a welcomed relief after an information overloaded day. My "pic of the day" is of the area surrounding the back of our apartment on Sunday after Saturday night's snow.

Snow

My "pic of the day" is of the 2 inches of snow outside of our apartment that the Kansas City area received since late yesterday.

Cold

Cold is the only word that describes today's falling temps (over 20 degrees in 10 hours), the blowing wind and first snow of the season. My "pic of the day" was taken this evening to show the snow in our parking lot and on our cars. You can see Paul faintly in the background through the snowflakes as he was taking boxes out of our apartment that we had unpacked today and was running them down to the dumpster in the brutal cold (temps in the teens and windchills in the subzero range)!

Winter's Revenge on the First Day of Spring

The calendar says that it's the first day of Spring, but we woke up to snow on the ground (see pics below)! It snowed and sleeted all day with a high of 32F after the sun wasout with a high of 67F the day before!


I took several pics of different things all day, but my "pic of the day" is of the luminary in memory of my dad at the local Relay for Life event at MU's Rec Center today. Paul and I went because the professional fraternity that I advise had a Relay for Life team and we wanted to see them start the relay, and then I bought a luminary and we went back at 9:45 p.m. for the luminaria ceremony. As you can see in the picture they had bags with names of either "in honor" or "in memory" of individuals effected by cancer lining the track where the participants walked for 12 hours as part of the fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. It was a touching scene to see all the lights dimmed and the bags luminating, and they displayed a PowerPoint with all the names of the individuals who were on the luminaries. The local news said that over 1500 students and community members participated in this year's Relay for Life. Below is a crowd shot of some of the students present in the gym during the luminary ceremony.

There were many fundraising events going on, but one event that the department I work for organized was, "Decorate a Bra", these bras were decorated by various students or student organizations and then auctioned via a silent auction tonight. Below is a pic of one of them with a "Turning 21" theme.

Below is the what we woke up to this morning, notice the spring tree buds in the snow and the green grass peeking through :

Busy & Cold

It was another busy day that isn't over yet, I've come home and have to go back to a student organization meeting after doing another 10 hr day. My "pic of the day" is in honor of the cold and snow that we're still enduring. I saw the long range forecast and in the next several weeks there is more snow forecasted with temps staying in the 20s-30s below our seasonal avgerage of 42F.

My busy day started this morning by wishing my co-worker a happy birthday and then we hurried and left the office to go teach class together. Since it was another cold day, we stopped at the coffee shop on campus after class for hot chocolate to warm us up as we made the 15 minute walk across campus.

When I got back to the office I had a project to complete which required concentration. I then had a quick 15 min. lunch where I tweaked our personal business tax documents my husband sent me before sending them on to the tax place. The last 15 min. of my lunch were cut short by a phone call, and then it was time for the four student appointments. They each ran long (about 45 min - hour each) as the students had lots of questions. When I finally had a chance to look up it was 4 p.m. and I still had half my lunch to eat! I answered as many emails as I could before leaving work at 6 to come home for Wii Fit and dinner before leaving home for my 8:30 p.m. meeting. During this time at home, I was also briefed by my husband on the website research that he did today. Busy, busy!

Plans

This morning we awoke to more snow overnight and colder temperatures than expected. A lot of folks were like me with frozen car doors wich delayed them or prevented them from doing what they had planned. I also had to find another way out my apartment complex over the bridge (shown at left) because the main exit slope was too slick with ice and snow. My "pic of the day" is the bridge that gave me an alternate route out of my apartment complex and to work this morning. A lot of other people in my complex had to do the same thing and there was a steady stream of cars attempting to make it up the slope and then reversing to pursue an alternate plan.

This made me think about the choices we make in life and how we oftentimes think that we will be headed in one direction when in fact life has another plan for us. I had plans today to work all day, but I'm still sick and had to leave early again and then have to go back tonight for a student organization meeting. My to do list plans while at work were skewed as I had more to tend to than anticipated, had frequent interruptions and of course had to leave early. My plan to take a nap when I got home late this afternoon was not accomplished as my brain was still trying to digest all that took place today. These are examples of the small things that were redirected into another path, but I also think of major life plans that have started down one road and have quickly been diverted.

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Snow again

Several folks have commented on the view outside my office window on snowy days. My "pic of the day" tried to capture that view, but I don't think it did it justice. It was snowing again today and I thought it was the perfect time to try to catch a good pic, but the snow flakes weren't as big and flaky when I took the pic as they've been in the past. Believe it or not, there's a parking lot below the trees right outside my office.

Even though I was sick today, I was able to get several things on my to do list done this morning at work as I prepared for classes and I had one student appointment and then taught class this afternoon. I really didn't feel good today, I started not feeling well on Friday and today realized I had an upper respiratory infection. I called my Dr. and my husband went and got my medicine and delivered it to me at work and then chauffeured me to the classroom across campus so I wouldn't have to trudge out in the snow. Of course I had to walk back after class in the cold and snow, but I left work early not feeling well only to come home and spend the remainder of the work day answering an email. So, don't know if I actually gained anything by coming home except for being safe from the 5 p.m. traffic and bad weather. I've managed to get a little rest and watch a few of my favorite shows and I'm hoping to go to bed early (and that the medicine will kick in).

Appreciation & Kindness

Big flakes of snow came steadily down as I drove to work this morning and for most of the morning. My "pic of the day" is of the snowfall we had in early January, but the snow outlined the trees today in a similar fashion although we didn't have as much snow as we did sleet and snow slush.

Today was most remarkable by the nomination that my supervisor and I wrote together to nominate a fellow co-worker. Over the past two days we both worked to craft a nomination that adequately portrayed and captured our co-worker's kind spirit and unique abilities. I was so excited when we had submitted it and we were able to tell her. It was like Christmas waiting for someone to unwrap the gift bought especially for them. I couldn't contain the secret any longer. Our nominee was very touched and it truly was "better to give than to receive". I enjoyed the look on her face and her thankfulness. But what I enjoyed more was knowing that we made her day and that she could go home on a Friday and truly enjoy her weekend knowing that her work is appreciated by her colleagues and that we cared enough to recognize her. It meant a lot to me to be able to give a "warm fuzzy" to someone else and I so enjoyed seeing her reaction.

Outside of that, I only had one student appointment today but it was a rather difficult one and then I spent a lot of time identifying and notifying a group of students doing fieldwork soon. I also had my weekly Friday office yoga class and spent the remainder of the day trying to calm down my email inbox which resulted in me working over. I can't hardly resist working over when it is quiet and I can zip right through my email.

I came home not feeling so well and we watched the movie, Amelia, which was very good. Paul had completed a lot today and in addition he had a nice comfort food dinner waiting for me when I came home along with a fire in the fireplace.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved; clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

Winter Wonderland

I chose this tree as pic of the day because it has such unusual shape as you can see from this angle and from the picture at the bottom of this post. It doesn't have a trunk, and it's branches start to spread out directly from the ground as if to serve as a visual analogy of the paths our lives can take. We can also look at it and think about how our lives are connected to each others - we might branch out in different directions but we are united by a common, central point. It's up to each of us to decide how far and how high our "branch" will grow.

My recent growth and branching into this blog was inspired by a collage I did on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day based on the prompt: "What is important and where are you going?" I realized that photography has been a running theme in my life for many years, but an area that I'm not necessarily growing or have only grown in spurts. I also wanted more balance in my life and this was a way to have both a creative outlet and more balance by focusing on my photography.

On a side note, I think we are all starting to feel a stunt in our "growth" by the cold. We remain in a winter wonderland with hopes of temps to make it above freezing by mid week so we can all get back to normal activities soon...and maybe venture into new ones.

Snowcapades

Pic of the Day features photos of things that I have come across in my daily life that I find quite interesting. Today I'm profiling the huge ice "waterfalls" that have been frozen in time from our sub zero temps all week. I would marvel at these natural ice sculptures as I would drive to work and I couldn't wait for Saturday when I would have time to take pics during daylight hours. I waded through some pretty deep snow drifts along side the road where the snow plows had pushed all the snow and actually fell over at one point to get these shots but it was worth it.

Along with the ice, I also took images of the snow we had on Wednesday and Thursday (at right and below). I was quite taken by how the snow outlined the tree branches and am reminded of God's "paintbrush."

I also liked to contrast the textures against the snow, and compare the intricate (and at times fragile looking) plant structures to their cold and brutal surroundings. "Quiet" is often a word I think of a lot during the winter. I'm always amazed by how still the parks are in comparison to the summer. Last night as I walked out of my building after work, I realized how loud the crunching of snow was under my feet and that there was such an absence of sound from people, birds and nature as we find during warmer seasons.

Photography is a hobby of mine, and has actually become quite more than that as I have paired with my husband to offer wedding and portraiture photography through our business EZ Productions.