Bloomin' Awesome!

Last week I had the priviledge of going to the Brownwood Community Garden - and it was awesome! One of our HPU professors, Mr. Kimery, and his wife Cindy took me to show me around and share more about the garden for a story I'm working on. This garden is awesome for many reasons, but the main reason being that half of all of the produce grown here goes directly to the Salvation Army and Good Samaritan to feed the hungry in our community. The planting boxes designated for donations are gardened by volunteers and I think it is so wonderful. In fact, I talked to my friends in my Tuesday night Bible study and I think we are going to go out there next week and help pick beans, or whatever veggie is ready for picking. What a great way to serve our neighbors in need!

And it's so neat to see produce in its element! The Kimery's are so knowledgable on all things "green" and they took me around and showed me all of the different plants, describing what they were, why they were growing that way, etc. I ate fresh okra and sweet peas right off the vine (or whatever they grow on) and saw almost every veggie you can imagine. I learned a lot and can't wait to start on the story! Its days like these that I really love my job!!! Getting out in God's creation and learning about how people are serving people. So cool!

Here are some of the pictures I took on our adventure:

Blogiversary

Monday is my one year blogiversary. I must admit, I enjoy blogging a lot more than I thought that I would. It's so neat to look back over the past year and see all of the places I've been, the things I've learned, people I've seen and how I've grown.

Believe it or not, here are all of the places I've been in the past year - Orlando, Florida; Galveston, Houston, Amarillo, Dallas and El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Missourri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Washington, D.C.; New York City, New York; and Taipei, Taiwan. (I provided links so you can read about the adventures you may have missed out on!)

Some other big changes include a job promition to Director of Media Relations, moving offices from the Harrison House to Packer, moving out of my apartment and into a house with a new roommate and my family moving from Canyon to El Paso.

I feel like this past year I have grown a lot in my relationship with the Lord. I'm learning more about who God is and how He loves me. I'm also working on figuring out His plan for my life. That's definitely a process that I know will continue the rest of my life, but God's given me a new confidence in who I am in Him, which has really changed my perspective.

Lots of new people have come into my life - new friends, a new pastor in my church, a new president at my school, a new Sunday School class.

Not to mention I joined the Quarter Century Club in November - being 25 has rocked my world! I'm in my mid-twenties. Whoa.

It's definitely been a pretty big year in the life of me! Thanks for being a part of it! I look forward to the next year of blogging - sharing about my trips, my thoughts on God and life in general, updates and just for fun stuff too.

So, here follow me as my Tales of Wanderlust continue...

Salt & Pepper

Great news! My computer is up and running and so is my internet! Yay! So one of the big themes of my summer have been change and moving. I've told you about all of the moves (my apt, new office and the parentals in EP) but another big change has been my friend Kristy deciding to leave HPU and be a stay-at-home mom.

Kristy and I have worked together for the past five years. Three of those years we worked right next to each other as the "Alumni Office" of Howard Payne. We've planned Homecomings, Senior Salutes, alumni events in Dallas, Waco, Houston, Amarillo, San Antonio and more and created postcards, e-newsletters, alumni magazines, etc. She made work so much fun! We get along really well and she has been my confidante over the past few years. I'm so excited that she is able to be home with her precious little boy, my favorite 3-almost-4 year old Tyler! But, HPU is definitely different without her being around.

We called each other Salt & Pepper because for a while there you never saw one of us without the other. And if you did, on that rare occasion, everyone asked us where the other one was. Leaving her goodbye party was sad, as I realized I was leaving by myself, without Kristy by my side. But then, God reminded me that I'm not alone! He's there walking with me. And Kristy hasn't left town either. She's still here and I know I'll see her all the time. It's just different - but that's okay!

Here's our Harrison House crew - Kathy, Debbie, Louise, Diann, Kyle, Tammy, Kristy, me and little Tyler. We're split up now, but this group will always represent the HH to me!

Rockin' and Rollin' in the New Crib

Whew, these past few weeks have been quite the whirlwind. I moved into my new house a little over two weeks ago - YAY! As soon as I moved in I lost my connection to the outside world (i.e. internet and cable), hence the lack of blogging. I've had so much I have wanted to write, but haven't been able to - so let's see if I can remember it all.

First of all, this move has been exciting, tiring, long, overwhelming, sad and happy. For those of you who don't know, I have lived in my apartment behind the HPU President's house since the week after I graduated college. It's been my home. I had two different roommates during my first year, but since then I've been on my own in my little home. It was not a big space, but it was mine. And, so it was kind of sad to think about moving out, but at the same time, I've been so excited to get into a HOUSE and have a roommate again (my friend Candice). The moving process has taken a lot longer than I thought it would - mainly because I've been busy and I couldn't move a lot of it on my own b/c A) I don't have a truck and B) I don't have the muscles necessary to lift large pieces of furniture on my own. So I had to ask for help - which is hard for me. I want to be self-sufficient and take care of everything on my own! I'm independent! Hello! But my friends Jeff and Kristy have been so sweet to help me and I'm so grateful that it's not hard to ask them to help! They even helped me move my bed and couch in the rain b/c I needed it at the house in time for my friend Maria to come visit. They are wonderful!

All that to say - moving has been an experience - for sure! Candice has only spent two nights at the new house with me so far. Our schedules have been completely opposite. But I'm sure one day soon we'll be together all the time and have lots of roommate bonding! :)

A frustrating part has been my lack of internet. I didn't realize how dependent I am upon it until it was taken away from me. I signed up for Verizon high-speed internet this week and was so excited to get the modem in the mail on Thursday night. I went straight to setting it up only to run into problems. So, yesterday, after three dropped calls and lots of "patience" I finally talked to a technician who said they will have to send someone out on Monday to look at it. I decided I was okay with that (didn't really have a choice not to be) and I went over to Jeff and Kristy's to use their internet so I could post some new pics, blog and you know do the normal stuff. And wouldn't you know it, my computer has decided to be stupid and not work. I don't know what's wrong with it either. All I know is that me and technology aren't really friends right now.

But - I'm settled into my new house now and I promise to post pictures as soon as technology and I reconcile. And here's an invitation to come visit! I'd love to show you my new crib! :)