6 Days to My 365th Blog

Today's year-in-review highlight pics come from the months of April & May, 2010. April showcases a wedding I photographed and Paul videoed; while May is special because it reminds me of our Memorial Day Weekend day trip to the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.

I struggled all day at work today with being really tired. Not only has it been hard to get back into a full week of work again, but last night our dinner out and other things kept us up until midnight.

Sunday Quote

In church this morning our pastor referenced to the following quote, "The greatest sin of the desert is to know where water is, and not to tell anyone." An important quote if you're literally in the desert, but more importantly it applies to the living water of eternal life found in Christ. Those of us drinking from the living water of Christ should be informing others and serving as a "sign post" of sorts to Christ.

Office desk

For my "pic of the day" I really wanted to put a pic of my husband mooning me this evening in response to my questions regarding his progress on transferring everything from the old desk to the new desk. We are so happy to finally have the new computer desk assembled (thanks to Paul), moved into the office room and everything moved from the old desk to the new desk! We said goodbye to our old desk which has been with us basically since we were first married - for almost 10 years. As we carried the desk across the parking lot to the dumpster we reminisced all the memories and events which the desk had been privy to over the years.

So, back to my "pic of the day", it is again of some spring flowers and blossoms that have decorated our landscape the past couple of weeks.

Blooms and Buds Abound

Spring is in full bloom around the Columbia area. The showers last week coupled with the unseasonably warm 80 degree temps of this week have ushered in an amazing display of blooms, buds and blossoms. I heard today that this is also partly due to the long, brutally cold winter which has resulted in everything now budding at once. My "pic of the day" showcases this explosion of spring.

Today was a long work day (~11 hrs) as I'm trying to recover from time lost in my 6 days off sick. What stands out to me most from my day is the guest speaker that came to my class. She is a health educator at the university and provided an experiential stress management session for the students. She explained that the American culture does not value self-care in terms of time for self and time to relax. We are a very busy, achievement oriented society, but we must take time for rest and stress reduction.

"They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven." Psalm 107:30

Dandelions

I was off work sick again today and I slept for 12 hours, but I don't feel like it now. I spent some time on work email and about an hour in the sun trying to bake out the germ within me. Now I'm so tired I feel like I could curl up and take a nap. While I was baking in the sun, I noticed all the dandelions that had sprouted up so I chose them as my "pic of the day".

Stormy night

My "pic of the day" is of the white tree blossoms outside my apartment window. Last night several thunderstorms were triggered by the unseasonably warm temps yesterday in the 80s. Hail and tornadoes were reported throughout the area which brought damage to homes, but we were safe. The storms were actually quite wide spread as my mom told me that the house I grew up in was hit by a storm and several windows were blown out of it. That was about 10 miles away from where my mom lives and about 100 miles away from me.

Today was also an unseasonably warm day with temps in the 70s, but as you can see in the photos it was pretty calm. I'm still sick and was home from work today. I called the doctor and am going back in for an appt. tomorrow morning. I'm still coughing horribly and am struggling with my sinuses and with tiredness/weakness.

Easter weekend

Yesterday's rains brought forth many new blossoms on the trees outside our apt. My "pic of the day" is of one of those trees. I spent two hours this afternoon sitting in the sun trying to bake out the germs within me so I could get well. While staring at this tree, I thought about how spring provides a time for many things to start fresh. In what way will we each choose to "blossom" this spring season? What old ways will you shed, and what new habits will you form?

This Easter weekend, the spring blossoms are a great reminder that it may be time to make changes in our own lives. As one accepts Christ's as savior, he/she puts away the old self and is reborn. We celebrate Easter remembering Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and our salvation.

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

Email Mania

Email mania describes my day as I cleared out over 160 emails from my inbox. I also went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis and watched a webinar on first year seminar classes for college students. So nice to have quiet at work after the steady stream of students for weeks. It's a great feeling to get caught up with a few things! My "pic of the day" is of the famous MU columns in front of Jesse Hall. It was a pretty spring day full of sunshine and this pic resonates that feeling.

Spring is in the Air

My "pic of the day" is a reminder that spring is in the air.

A busy morning of appointments gave way to a quieter afternoon, although I did have a 4 p.m. appointment scheduled which prevented me from coming home early. My work email inbox went over the 200 mark late yesterday so I'm thankful that spring break is next week so I'll have some quiet time at work to get caught up.

I struggled with not feeling well all day (achy, sore throat, cough and sinus congestion) so I came home and tried to rest and we watched the Blind Side. I tried so hard to stay awake through the whole thing, but fell asleep at the very end from pure exhaustion - and then remembered I had to blog.

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 :

Weekend begins

My "pic of the day" is of the sprigs of green grass that were clumped together in patches across campus this week. We had a warm day, but it's shortlived with a cold front coming in for the weekend.

This morning started busy, but at about 2:30 the traffic in our office slowed and I was able to answer some of my emails. Since we've been working so hard and so many hours recently, our boss actually threatened to fire us if we did NOT leave by 4, lol. I left at 4:15 and enjoyed a walk around our apartment complex, went to the store and then had to grade some papers. How long the evening feels when it's not 7 or 8 when one gets home! We just started the movie, "Did You Heard About the Morgans?" when I realized that I hadn't completed my blog for today, so here it is.

Signs of Spring

Last night was a bad night and it was the first night that I missed a blog/pic entry and I apologize. My "pic of the day" was actually taken and was intended for yesterday's blog. I was so excited as I walked across campus yesterday to see the green sprigs of spring surfacing from underground that I had to stop and take some photos. Today even a nicer day, it was sunny and 62, and tomorrow is supposed to be warmer yet at 67. However, by Saturday we are supposed to be cold with a chance of snow!

I have a very big praise - today Paul had a phone interview and he was invited for an in person interview next Tuesday! We are really excited and optimistic yet cautious.

Another praise - Today I completed the third and final phase of my dental implant. You know you've been to the dentist too often when they realize that you've done something different to your hair when it's actually all pulled back in a clip (the staff had noticed a few highlights I had added). My dentist actually took pics of the procedure before he placed the crown on my tooth area, so he'll send those to me soon and I'll post them on here. He said he wanted pics so he could use them in the future for teaching purposes.

As a contrast to my praises, in the past 24 hours I've also experienced a lot of rejection, so I'm trying to overcome that and look towards bigger and better things. In addition, I've been up to the usual business with student appointments.

"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield." Psalm 33:20

First Signs of Spring!

As I gazed out the window of our computer room, I saw one of the first signs of springs...the berry buds on the tree outside our apt. window. My "pic of the day" is of these buds. Even during a dreary, cool, rainy day, these buds are breaking through and rising from their dormant winter slumber.

Today was also the first day of daylight savings time so we had an extra hour of daylight tonight, but of course one hour less of a weekend. After the week I had I was unfortunately too tired for church, but I did listen to a sermon online from my church. I then did some email and was on Skype with my mom showing her the new clothes I bought yesterday. After that, I tried to nap to no avail so we watched the movie, The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee.

"...Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest." Jeremiah 5:24