April Showers

April showers bring May flowers- that's how the saying goes, right? Well it has been showering around here lately. Figuratively and literally. The last week has been one of the busiest I've had in a long, long time. But, it's been really good! Let me give you a run down on what's been happening.

Last Saturday was HPU Fest - one of my favorite days every year! This year we had great performers like Ben Rector (my new fav! I love The Ben!), Katie Curry (HPU student who is just awesome!) and Jimmy Needham. The day was so much fun as I met up with old HPU friends like Katie Ellwood, Heather Gadsby, Jen and Brandon Johnson, Shannon Kelly and Rick Mayberry PLUS hung out with new HPU friends like Brittany, Jonathan, Beka, Cristal, Mike and Candice.

Then came Sunday when I got terribly sick and had to stay home all day long and prompted a rush to the doctor's office on Monday morning for lots of pills and a shot. Thankfully the shot worked and I was doing much better by Monday night - which was awesome because I was in charge of the HPU Family Picnic that night. It was so much fun! All the faculty and staff brought food and we just sat around and had dinner as a family. One of my favorite things about HPU is the family atmosphere and this night really encapsulated that!

The rest of the week at HPU was known as "Celebration Week" and it included faculty presentations, the Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics, Dedications of Mims Auditorium and the Paul and Jane Meyer Faith and Life Leadership Center, along with the Inauguration of Dr. Ellis. Whew. It was quite a week.

One of the new parts of my job is to help put together special events for campus and this week was put on by my office, so I was running around like a crazy person, but it was so worth it! I am especially thankful for my awesome student workers who went above and beyond the call of duty - working lots of extra hours to help us get everything taken care of! They are awesome and I was so proud of them!

My Dad got to come in on Thursday night and take part in the festivities. He was the speaker during the Community Worship Service on Friday morning and he did an awesome job! The words he shared were so beautiful and I was, once again, so proud of him! Everyone who was there came up to me afterwards to tell me how touching it was and I agree! God has truly gifted him as a speaker and I am blessed everytime I hear him! I love my daddy!

I have some pictures of the new buildings at my office that I will post tomorrow. If you are an HPU alum, you will not believe the transformation in Mims and the chapel in Phelps. Both buildings are just breath-taking! I'm so glad to have them back in use again! These two buildings house a lot of my favorite memories from my time as a student and it has been sad to have them closed for so long. But they are back and better than ever!