April 5: International Street Festival

International Street Festival is a wonderful event held in downtown Athens.  Faculty, staff, students, and the community come out to celebrate a variety of cultures.  There are performances and musical acts, and 30 tables with international activities to try.  We had approximately 5000 people show up, and stay for the day.  It was a huge success and I'm excited to have been a part of it!

We couldn't have done it without an amazing group of volunteers!

February 26: GA Feminist

The University of Georgia doesn't have a women's center on campus.  This is rather odd considering many other colleges have one.  As part of a movement on campus started by students, Student Government (and a bunch of others) are trying to get a center passed by the administration.  They are also selling tshirts to raise awareness and support for women's equality...moreover, all the proceeds go to local charities.  I purchased mine today!

November 8: Protest March

Earlier this week someone posted racial and derogatory slurs on various student groups Facebook walls.  If you want the story, you can read it here.  Essentially, this individual was posting was telling students they don't belong at UGA, and that UGA should be for White Christians. Side note & soap box…it makes me angry and sad to see people who claim to be Christians and Jesus followers writing such hateful things. I think most things Christians agree on is that Jesus was clear on two things: love him and love others.  I could go on, but this post isn't necessarily about that.

In just a few days, these student groups who were targeted organized a peaceful march to bring awareness to the racism, homophobia, and other social issues on this campus.  

I was so proud of our students; this is activism.  They sought to bring awareness to issues they face on this campus, and I was glad to see so many students, faculty, and administrators show up in support.  

 

Interim Associate Director Position

Two weeks ago today, I was approached with what seemed like an unusual proposition.  After searching for an Associate Director of Student Life for International Student Life (yep, true title) at UGA, I was told they were going fail the search, reconvene in the fall, and they wanted to know if I'd be interested in serving as the interim for the fall semester.

What an honor to be asked, right?!  But now what?!  Well, I asked for a day or two to consider the offer... and I prayed.  I also talked to wise counsel including a couple friends, my family, and my supervisor, Jan.  Jan, the supervisor who I just love working with, and by taking this position I'd move under different supervision.

I weighed all the pros and cons and as I became more and more excited about the opportunity, my prayer became, "God, if you don't want me to take this, close the door."  I prayed this because I knew there were things that would still need to be worked out (i.e., working and school, and I live on campus...and making sure I could still live on campus).  On Thursday, I spoke with TW (who would be my supervisor) and told him I was indeed interested.  We then got to working on details.  Friday we exchanged the information we found out and came up with many possibilities that just weren't seeming to work out.

The problem is that when you work full time, you have to be on a tuition assistance program (TAP) in order to get your credits paid for.  Apparently, it was going to take the Board of Regents signing off on it to make it happen for the fall semester.  This was clearly not an option.  We then discussed me not registering for courses.  This also was not an option.  We talked about me registered for 6 units and them paying me more to accomodate this.  This ended up being more of a headache too.  Meaningwhile, in talking with others one of my biggest concerns was having time to continue working on my dissertation.  Mallory suggested I try to negotiate for 30 hours a week.  I thought this was a wonderful idea, but frankly, I wasn't sure TW would go for it.

Friday at 3pm, TW and I meet to discuss options and he had an offer.  What he proposed was that they bump my assistantship up from 13 hours a week to 20 hours, I work 30 hours a week, and they pay me the extra hours I work in the fall throughout the spring semester.

I almost sat in awe...but jumped at the offer!  I almost teared up sitting in his office thinking about how God provided this opportunitiy, and the flexibility of 30 hours a week, even without me asking.  Furthermore, as much as it is a wonderful opportunity, and a resume filler, it also is a financial blessing as my car transmission is on the fritz, not to mention all the extra costs associated with my final year of this PhD program.  Again, God provides.

After accpeting, I then went to speak with Jan about it!  The next part is where I really did cry.  After talking with Jan, there was some confusion about how the money would work out.  She trusted TW to be fair, but wanted to make sure I was being compensated.  Long story short, her and another colleague began crunching numbers to make sure what I was offered was comparable to working full time.  For me, the tears came as I realized just how much these people cared about me.  I have loved working with them, and frankly not working with Jan this semester was on the list of cons.  But to see their care and concern for me was moving.  Luckily, in the spring, I will go back to my assistantship and work with them again!

So last Monday, August 12th, I started my role as Interim Associate Director of Student Life for International Student Life.

Little did I know that three days later the division of student affairs would go through a reorganization, I'd get a title bump, and become part of the Vice Presidents leadership team.

But that's another story for another day.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Post Op

I realize it's been awhile since I posted...too long.  Yes I've recovered from surgery, thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The worst parts were the first week, truly.  Between the gas they pumped into my body, and not really being able to sleep well...those were the worst.  However, full recovery did take quite some time. 

I could give you the nitty gritty of the surgery, what they found, etc.  But instead, I'll say that it wasn't cancer (praise the Lord) and that my community really came around me in amazing ways!  Here's the rundown of the ways that God blessed me! 

My friend Mallory took me to the hospital the morning of, and stayed with me all day and all night.  Two of my cohort members, Christa and Tiffany visited in the hospital that night.  Then Christy Correll-Hughes met me that morning, walked the halls with me trying to get the gas from surgery out from my shoulder blades (yeah, it's painful and odd), when I was released drove me home VERY carefully (you feel every bump and thump), and made sure I was set until Sarah came over.  Sarah Mudd, friend from Baylor who now lives in South Carolina drove down and spent the weekend with me!  Friends then brought me food every evening.  My cohort and advisor signed up for meals (sometimes twice a day).  The love and care I was shown was humbling.  I am blessed and so grateful! 

My sister joked that I was an office supply store after surgery.  At first I was stapled, then after they were removed it was replaced with glue and tape.  Here's a picture below of my staples.

T is for Thankfulness

And T is for Texas.  I spent a wonderful week in Texas for Thanksgiving this year.  I could  have never imagined five years ago, that I would be happy, even excited to return to Texas...but that's another blog post.  

I arrived in Texas early Saturday morning (almost a week before Thanksgiving).  A few of my former students were up in Dallas celebrating a birthday, and offered to pick me up.  It was such a blast to hang out with them all day! 

Gretchen, Allison, and Kalie...the three musketeers.  Their friendship began last year on staff and I was not only excited to see them, but to experience their craziness again! LOVE them!

We had a wonderful time in Dallas, until a few of us got sick from lunch.  It was less than pleasant.  That night I met up with more Baylor friends at the football game.  Unfortunatetly, I am beginning to think I'm the bad luck charm.  Baylor football began winning when I left, and UGA football began loosing when I came.  :/

Anyway, it was a great time to catch up with some of my Baylor peeps. 

Lisa, Ryn, and me

Sunday was church with Lisa, and then Cafe Cappuccino with Sarah and Tiffanie.  I LOVE the two of them, and LOVE Cafe Cap!  My favorite, banana pecan pancake, yumm.

Sunday, was fairly low key and spent time hanging out with friends, watching movies, and just being in the presence of people who really, really know me.  What a wonderful thing for my spirit!

On Monday and Tuesday (day) I spent time at my favorite coffee shop, visiting with friends over Common Grounds coffee. :)

Monday & Tuesday (night) I went to the Baylor Basketball games (men & women).

 Sarah and me at the women's game.

Shelton and me at the men's game.

I spent Thanksgiving day with my favorite Ecklund family!  I have missed this family and their friendship, tremendously!

Selah (above) enjoyed her frosting covered cookie!  And as an early Christmas gift, Gianna and Selah got pink, glitter, Toms from their grandparents.

They are growing up so fast, but it was such a delight to spend Thanksgiving with this wonderful family!

Friday morning, Ryn and I decided to tackle black Friday (again).  We arrived five minutes before Target opened (similiar to last year), however, this time the line wrapped around the building and snaked back and forth.  It was almost twice as long, and Target opened an hour earlier this year.  We hit a few other stores after Target, then breakfast, then nap time.  It was fun to share this memory with Ryn again!

Ryn and I braving the cold.  When I arrived in Waco it was almost 80 degrees.  Then Thursday, a cold front came in...just in time for Thanksgiving.  It actually made it feel a bit more like a true November.

Friday night I was on the plane headed back to Georgia.  Although there was part of me that was ready to leave (simply ready to be sleeping in my own bed), all of me was thankful for the amazing time I got to spend with such dear friends!

Homecoming 2009

This year was the 100th anniversary of the first homecoming at Baylor University.

Homecoming at Baylor is a wonderful production of events scattered throughout the weekend. The traditions begin with freshman mass meeting on Thursday night where the story of the immortal ten is told. From there, the freshman take the eternal flame to founders mall. Here the freshman use to guard the flame until Friday evening when the flame was taken and the bonfire was lit. However, due to events over the last few years, the tradition of guarding the flame was replaced by the building of the bonfire. Pigskin is offered on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and is the top six acts from Sing (the largest off broadway production in the country). Friday evening is the bonfire and concert. Saturday is the longest collegiate parade in the country and is followed by the homecoming football game.

This year they had a fireworks show, being the 100th anniversary and all. The show had 12 minutes worth of fireworks packed into 3 minutes. I LOVE fireworks! Megan, Sarah, and me at the bonfire (above) and Tiffanie, Lisa, and Monica (below).

I love that there are so many APU people at Baylor. Adam, Em, and I were in the same cohort and Monica and I were RAs together (although I don't remember her...ooops). She just finished the APU program (in higher ed) and is now working at Baylor. Sarah is the odd ball here, but we love her the same, even though she didn't go to APU.

Left to right: Me, Adam, Em, Sarah, and Monica
Reintroduced a few years ago was the residence hall decorating contest. Halls decorate the outside of their building based on the 'theme'. This year, the theme was Baylor through the years (past themes have been Baylor traditions...it's time they get a little more creative).

Anyway, the winner gets a trophy and major bragging rights. This year, little Allen/Dawson WON! This achievement is announced at the bonfire. My students made these impressive 8x4 foot picture frames that outlined the last 100 years of Baylor's history. They made honorable mention signs that lined the way between the giant signs with other random traditions or things that happened within the decade.

I am so proud of their hard work. AND, I'm glad we won!!!!

Here are the pictures of their work and the giant 'frames'.

Yep, that's right, the first African American to play in the Southwest Conference was at Baylor.

Yep friends, Baylor was good at football...back in the 80s and 90s!
Now I know this is stunning, but true. The first woman was not allowed to run in the Baylor line until 1993. Prior to 93, the women would participate in the 'Baylor sideline' where all the women would cheer from..you guessed it, the sideline.

**The Baylor Line is 'run' during the home football games. All the freshman line up with their jerseys and rush the field into line formation and then cheer the football players on as they run onto the field. It's a remarkable site, most of the time.

And here is our living art. Baylor will continue through the years because people like them! :)

The judges come around to each all and although 'spirit' is unofficially judged, it doesn't hurt to have your students out yelling and cheering ;)

Ps this is a great showing considering we were planning on the judges arriving an hour later...yikes.

Oh...if you made it through this entire post, congrats, treat yourself to something nice, it was a long one! :)

California Adventure

Although my time in California was rejuvenating, it wasn't exactly... restful. Here are some of my adventures...although they don't include California Adventure (the theme park) they do include disneyland!

I spent a day with my grandparents (mom's side). I hadn't seen them in a year and a half since I didn't go to California last Christmas. It was a great chance to visit and catch up. They are neat people and I'm so grateful for them. And they think I'm pretty great too...I mean, I am the first and favorite grandchild. ;)

I then spent a day with my dad. We visited the casino where he works, watched a movie, and had dinner at In-N-Out (yumm!). It was nice to see my dad, however brief it was.

From there, I went down to SoCal. Arriving on Monday night, and greeted by my former roommie, we headed to Victorville. Here are the highlights...

Tuesday: Kristel was offered a 3rd grade teaching position, woohoo! We headed to Vegas, both in celebration of her job AND for her birthday

Wednesday: Spent the day in Vegas (partly at the pool :)) and drove home in the evening

Thursday: Headed to UCLA to visit with Tiffani. I was also able to wander the campus, meet her faculty advisor, and partake in some fabulous weather (sitting on a grassy null, while the cool ocean breezed).

Friday: Disneyland in celebration of Jenny's birthday!

Saturday: Breakfast with Kristin. Lunch with Jenny. Dinner in Orange at Ryan and Jenny's...watched all sorts of mixed martial arts fighters beat the snot out of one another (UFC)... it was... educational :/. Laughed and cringed a lot. Stayed up late.

Sunday: Slept in. Went to church. I ate at In-N-Out for the third time on this trip (gotta get my fill). Boarded a red eye flight back to Waco.

Although I could go into far more detail, I will save you the ramblings. :) Additionally, I don't have as many pictures as I though I would have taken. Meaning...I normally take oodles of pictures. But many of these memories will have to remain just that...memories.

Kristel and I sitting out at the pool, it was obviously bright :)

In Vegas. Unfortunately, we had been up and ready to go at 7:30 in the morning an by 10:30pm we were pooped. So we headed back to our hotel room to catch a snooze. We then woke up at 1:30 in the morning and gambled for a bit. It was actually great...not many people choose to gamble at 1:30am. We headed back to bed at 3:30 proud of ourselves for .. living it up. Ha. :) This picture was proof we were up at 1:30, only I wish I had taken one at 3:30. But imagine if we look this tired at 1:3o what we looked like at 3:30.

This is a sign on the way to/from Vegas. It cracks me up every time. So this time, I finally got a picture of it! Success!

I met up with Jenny and Eric, and Ryan and Megan (and Aubrey) for some Disneyland birthday celebration. Here's a picture of me, Jenny (birthday girl), and Ryan waiting in line for the matterhorn. We had one car in front of us and the ride decided to have 'technical difficuties'. So I decided it was time to bust out my camera for a quick pick.

Megan and I. :) Random sidenote: 1. Don't straighten your hair the day you to go Disneyland if you decide to ride splash mountain. 2. When they say a child cannot ride in the front for splash mountain, they just mean the very first seat. So don't get tricked into riding in the front. Okay, so maybe that's not exactly how it happened. But Jenny and I did misunderstand the woman who was saying adults had to ride in the front so I ended up in the very first seat on the boat. Both Ryan and I were soaked. But oh how I love splash mountain!

Ryan and Meg have Aubrey. Jenny and Eric's neice (Kaitlyn) and nephew (Taylor) met up with us for part of the day in Disney. Isn't this picture of Aubrey and Kaitlyn holding hands too precious?!Space mountain has been redone and it's better than ever! :) We had to do this one twice!

Jenny and I waiting for the start of the parade, only, the parade wasn't happening. They did, however, have a large fireworks display above the princes castle. Let's just say it was probably the best display of fireworks I've ever seen...music...tinkerbell and dumbo flew through the air...if I ever work at disneyland someday, I want to be the flying singing tinkerbell in the fireworks show. :)

I had a blast and miss my California friends! The community I built there was probably the first time I had what I would deem as 'true' community. So as I mentioned earlier, it may not have been restful, it was definitely good for my soul!

Memorial Day

I fought against the urge. It was difficult. I wanted to give in, but I didn't (at least not much).

I took Memorial Day off, from studying that is. :) So here are some highlights from the day.

8:30am: Woke up

9:30am: Actually got out of bed (I love lazy mornings!)

10am: Cleaned, laundered, etc

1pm: Errands

3pm: POOL! Sarah and I went to the pool for some fun in the sun! Although not too much fun in the sun as I'm on an antibiotic that says 'no excessive sun exposure' ;)

5:30pm: BBQ with friends!

Here are some pictures from the BBQ. I didn't take many; you know, trying to live the memory. :)

We had some particularly yummy food! I made a fruit salad w/homemade whip (it went fast)! Sarah made some sweet tea, and green beans and potatoes (yum). And lastly, Beth brought a marbled brownie dessert. Ohhh, it was good and I'm sure everything in it was all natural and had absolutely no partially hydrogenated oils.

I love BBQs! Look, we're excited about the BBQ.

Sarah's infamous sweet tea...yumm!

Here is a picture of Beth and Amelia. What a neat family, the Smarts! And look how artsy the photo turned out. It was a gorgeous day outside, fabulous weather, and wonderful friends!

I stole the photo below from Smart's site. It's such a cute picture, of Amelia. It cracks me up, we were trying so hard to get her to smile. Of course, she smiled a lot, just not for the camera!

Thoughts on Community & the Ecklunds

I spent the evening with the lovely Ecklund women! Gianna is 2, Selah a few months, and Em...well, older than me (but not by much). Emily, Adam (her husband), and I met at Azusa Pacific, during undergrad. I also had the privilege of going through graduation school with them! One of our professors, John Hoffman, on the first day of class said, 'you won't be able to do this program alone.' How true I found that statement to be. The three of us (and a few others) quickly became good friends.

So when I came out to Baylor in 2005, they soon followed, but not for me of course. :) Anyway, it has been a pleasure having them here. I've been blessed by their friendship through the years and it's a joy to walk life with them! For me, it's nice to have people who know me, who I don't have to 'get to know', and who have seen me in different stages/phases of life. Additionally, I get to walk life with them. They now have two beautiful daughters and I find such delight in both of them!

Tonight it was just Em, the girls (Adam joined later), and myself. What fun (and trying at times). I get the pleasure of watching, helping, and being able to leave discipline to the 'parent'. At one point, after G was ready for bed, I had Selah in one arm and G next to me on the couch reading her a book about dinosaurs. They are great girls, and I love spending time with them.

After they went to bed and Adam came home, the three of us caught up on life, talked about PhDs, and other oddities.

Now stay with me for a bit. Last Sunday, my pastor was talking about Psalm 133. This is 14 of 15 Psalms about the ascension of Israel. These 15 Psalms represent the 15 steps that lead to the top of the mountain where the Holy of Holies was kept. As the Israelites (in community) would travel the journey to and up the mountain, they would recite these 15 Psalms on the last 15 step leading directly to the Holy of Holies. So Psalm 133 is the last step before the Holy of Holies and it says in short, how good and pleasant it is when brother & sisters live together in unity. Symbolically, the last step before they reached the Holy of Holies, God's dwelling place, is about community. Maybe it's suppose to represent the idea the one cannot make it to God alone. Maybe it's suppose to represent the journey is meant to be lived in community. Or maybe it's that the closest thing to Gods dwelling place, his heart, and essentially himself is community. And not just surface level community but community in which one lives, suffers, shares joys, and caries one another's burdens...true kiononia (Christian community).

I've been thinking this week about community and what it means for me. Tonight was a great opportunity to bless Emily. And yet, I received more than I probably gave. I am so grateful for Adam & Em's friendship and the joy they and their children bring to my life.