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!

Quasi Window

I love stained glass!! I think it is so beautiful, how the light streams through and makes colors become so vivid and brilliant! Since I don't have a window in my new office, my boss Louise had the wonderful idea to share a stained glass with me to give me the illusion of a window. This stained glass was donated by an alum and was originally in a church somewhere in Tennesse. I don't know it's full story, but it's beautiful nonetheless. Our campus carpenter framed it and put a backlight in it to make it really look like a window and today he came and hung it in my office - it's awesome!

Here's a close up picture so you can see what it looks like.

This is a view of my whole office - doesn't the stained glass add so much?

And, speaking of stained glass, I took this picture on campus today in our new Grace chapel. I thought it was really breathtaking. I just looked up and this is what I saw.

Lucky Bamboo

I've spent my day sifting through files, photos and just stuff that has accumulated in my office over the past four years. We are starting to move things over to our new offices in Packer and should be all set up by next week.

As a junior in college, when I came to interview for the "Hometown News Coordinator" student worker position, I had no clue that one day I would be Director of Media Relations. It is amazing to look back and see God's provision all along. He knew I was right where I needed to be and He knew that my entire plan for my life would change in such an effortless, natural way.

God is so good to guide and direct us and prepare us for what is to come.

Looking around my office, there are many momentos from my years at the Harrison House. Pictures from events, copies of the LINK that turn up everywhere, cards and pens and a bamboo plant.

My bamboo plant is probably my favorite thing in my office, and sadly I can't take it with me to my new office, because I have no windows and it would die. So, bamboo will be moving home with me. My friend Danielle gave this plant to me back in 2008 when we just became friends. It had something to do with One Tree Hill, I can't even remember exactly what it was about, but I remember that it only had three little leaves on it at the time and I was sure that my lack of a green thumb was going to kill it in a week. Well, here we are two years later and look how beautiful it is! It has grown and thrived and become so much more than I ever thought that it would. This may be kind of sappy, but I feel like it's kind of a metaphor for my time here. Starting out, I knew barely anything and didn't think I'd make it past the summer. Now, here I am, thriving and growing! I still have a long way to go, but God's right there with me, leading and guiding me every step of the way.

I feel like God is preparing my heart for some new things in the future and I am really looking forward to seeing what He has in store. His plans are so much better than mine and so I'm trusting Him to lead me on this great adventure known as life.

It's Spring Again

"It's spring again, it's spring again. Do you know how I know? All the leaves are on the trees and the grass is starting to grow!"

I learned this little poem when I was in Kindergarten and decided that I was going to recite it in our school talent show. It has some other verses I don't remember, but you get the gist. Isn't it funny the things that stay with you?

Well, it is spring and I'm so glad! This picture is the view from out of my office window at the Harrison House. Isn't this tree beautiful? I love all of the blooms everywhere on campus right now! I hope you are all enjoying the spring! Isn't it fun to be outside again? I love all of the green and the flowers and the sunshine. What a wonderful time of year!

I'm only going to have this view for a couple more weeks, because I am moving offices as soon as we wrap up Dr. Ellis' inauguration. I went over and looked at my new office yesterday. I like the furniture and the area looks really nice! The sad thing is that I don't have a window at all. I'm going to miss my view out of my eight different windows, but I'll survive!

It's so hard to believe that I won't be working at the Harrison House any more. This has been my home away from home for the past 5 years. I started working there my junior year of college and have been around ever since. My friend Kristy's son Tyler even calls it "Kalie's house." He actually thinks I live there, although one day he was really puzzled about where my bed was. I know I'm going to miss having Kristy right across the hall, but change is good, right? I am looking forward to being in a more centralized place on campus. Hopefully this move will help me stay more connected with everything going on. It does double my commute, though. Instead of leaving my apartment at 8:00 and arriving at work at 8:00, I may have to leave closer to 7:57 or so, depending on the traffic crossing Austin Avenue. haha.