Closing Out.

109.

Closing out.

The final "regular" week at Wesley.

I could have taken a picture from the final dL meeting that we had today (which made me so sad, as that it was one of my favorite parts of the year).

But this is what I have instead.

An overwhelming amount of books and disarray, which in some ways, captures my feelings best (the overwhelming/disarray part; I'm going through a pretty constant cycle of emotions, and I feel like all the work that I'm currently doing is in a disarray). Oh sheesh.

And, speaking of books, I'm really excited to have more time to read again soon!

108.

A.

Too much time in the car. I drove to Douglasville after Sunday school to grab my spring/summer clothes, and while I was there I saw these irises blooming in my neighbor's yard.

These are actually irises from my mom's dad in Indiana; he was big on growing flowers, as my mom was too. I believe that irises were both their favorites. Before my parents divorced she shared with her neighbor some bulbs from them, and I'm so glad she did. My father, during the divorce, plowed over all of my mom's flower-beds, destroying everything that she worked to grow, including all of her beloved irises (amongst hundreds others...literally. The woman has a green HAND). I'm really glad to be able to see them still; they definitely have a family connection.

B.

After I left community group, I went to play cards with some friends. My CG met off of Barnett Shoals, and Barnett Shoals I know ended on a road I needed to be on, so I took off confidently in the direction I thought I should go in. Then I saw the road sign above after a few minutes.

I hit the brakes. Put the car in reverse. And stopped and stared for a moment, thinking, "what the HECK?!" How is that even right?!

A full Saturday

Did a picture happen on Friday, 106?

Nope, :(

It was a pretty run-of-the-mill Friday; work-Sams trip for event Saturday-prep for Saturday. But 107 had more than enough to compensate. I still hate that I missed a pic though.

107.

Event 1: Senior Appreciation Breakfast

This was my final Leadership 2009-2010 event, a breakfast to honor our seniors who are leaving. Keenan and I worked together on this--he worked primarily on the online resource and the food preparation that morning, and I took on the invitations and decorative elements, or "look". The theme I went for was "Southern Living." I was really pleased with the final product. There were a lot of fresh flowers, some pretty china, tablecloths...

And more importantly, I loved how it flowed. I believe that the seniors felt blessed, the letters we had from alum were so inspiring, the food was great...it was just really good.

Event 2: Meeting Lorien Elizabeth

Christie, the director that I work with at the Wesley Foundation, had this sweet little girl not even a week before. Lorien had to spend 10 days in the hospital on an antibiotic cycle, and her parents could never leave her unattended. They had a baby-shower to attend from their families, so I had the privilege of getting to be Lorien's FIRST babysitter. I loved it; it was a sweet few hours of holding this precious little girl!

There were supposed to be pictures from a third event this day, a wedding shower for a friend, but I only made it for a few minutes at it before I went home to recoup from the prior few days.

105.

105.

Oh, you know. Just another day at work.

*Coordinating and interviewing around 380 students for Leadership 2010-2011 from 12:30-4:30.

*Giant letters being built for the kick-off.

*Holding the Leadership kick-off that night for those same students, plus 60 something staff, from 7:30-9:00something p.m..

Pursuing excellence in each.

You know.

A day at work at the UGA Wesley Foundation.

104.

104.

One of those days, jam-packed with getting ready for the big Leadership extravaganza the following day.

This was the view from the 5th floor of the Tate Center, overlooking campus, where Wesley has had to meet this year because of our size.

103.

103.

As my time at Wesley is closing out, I'm realizing that there are a lot of "lasts." My posts for my final work week will probably include a list of what the daily "lasts" were, so I won't forget (also because I haven't been a great journaler these days...I'm a little [lot] behind). Today was my last massive shopping trip for a Wesley event.

Keenan, who I work with at the Wesley Foundation, and I headed out and managed to make the trip in a few hours, and it was my favorite shopping trip for the Wesley Foundation. Things just went well. There weren't bloody turkeys to be bought, good company, well-written lists, I didn't have to drive...again, things just went well.

And yes, both of those shopping carts, plus two shopping carts at Wal-Mart did make it into my car. Did I have foot space on the way back? No.

102.

102.

Another coffee shop, another swing.

Today's shot came from a DT at 2-Story Coffee House. I haven't been that much recently, but today ended up being a most beautiful trip out. We got to sit in the swing, have some gelato, talk about the Lord and life...sweet times.

101.

101.

On Sunday night my second year project group had a work meeting at my house, and I made dinner for them (I don't provide many ideas, but I can provide food). I was most pleased with what I made--tacos, and a fruity-cream.cheesy-puff.pastry dessert thing. I do not take good food pics, so I wasn't going to take any pictures of it, but I did decide to take pics of the fridge.

In one of the pyrex bowls (another thing I heart [pyrex]) is the salsa I made. A food-processor is key in salsa making. I'm slightly allergic to peppers so they'll never make it into my food, but I then consider it a challenge to make sure whatever I'm making is sufficiently flavorful. I used a variation of the Pioneer Woman's recipe, and it was so good. I diced up some romaine lettuce hearts and avacado, did the meat & bean route, and whipped up dessert.

Per mentioned, it involved fruit (strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries), cream cheese, and powdered sugar. I just kind of made it up as I went along--I creamed the cheese and added sugar, then added the fruit. I baked up some puff pastry, and served the fruit mixture inside the pastry shell, with more powdered sugar on top. The fruit mixture was thinner than what I wanted, but it was fairly tasty.

Also in the fridge pic is my newest food obsession--Greek yogurt. If you don't like thick yogurt, don't try it. If you do...go for it. And yes, the Vera Bradley lunch box is mine. I really like bringing my lunch, and I especially like bringing it in that!

100!

100. Approximately 100 days of posting...

When Saturday first came about I thought that I was going to struggle to find a pic. The plan was work. Take care of dogs. Repeat. But then...my Gap shift got cancelled and I decided to go run up to ATL to visit Nutan for a few hours.

I made fairly good time while I was driving, but I got held up at the exit ramp. The exit ramp, from 285 onto Roswell Road. I was on the ramp for over 20 minutes.

But I finally made it! We went and ate lunch, had our eyebrows threaded, and went to one of my favorite places, yogurt...something. Long story short, it is the most excellent frozen yogurt ever, is really healthy for you (seriously), and on Saturday they had BLUEBERRY flavored yogurt(I. heart. blueberries). It was incredible.

While I was driving home I realized that Nutan and I have been friends for 12 years (since we're 24, that's half our lives. YIKES). I can't wait to do her birthday post (ps...our birthday's are on the same day, which is so fun). I have lots of pics to work with.

99.

99.

Restoration was tonight, something definitely picture-worthy, but I thought that this picture of the sky was incredible.

98.

98.

At work I helped the ArtSpeak Ministry with a project they were working on for the Athens Homeless Day (not the correct title, but I can't think of it right now). People had painted/made 300+ pieces of art, and we were writing a verse on each piece. I don't have a lot/any skill with a paintbrush, but I love writing, so I loved helped with this.

Coffee-shop hopping.

97.

On Wednesday I took a personal day from work to 1) rest, 2) take a day of solitude (mostly), and 3) soul-search/process/think/etc. I had planned to take off and go somewhere, but an astronomically high pollen count kept me inside (I'm not allergic, but it can't be good for you to breathe in that much stuff for long periods of time). Cue coffee-shop hopping. I started the morning with meeting a friend a the gym, came back and got taken to a place of deep repentance, and then headed out to Jittery Joes. Cue massive list-making (I made 16 by the time the day ended). My sweet friend Katie D. came to Athens so I went into town to 2-Story Coffee House to visit with her for a big. After we parted ways I went to Starbucks to process some more, and work on my sweet-spot questions for work. It was a really good day.

birthday surprises

96.

Today was my dear friend Rebecca's birthday, and she had a surprise party at her brother's house. I didn't take a single pic while I was there (though I had been saving my pic of the day for the evening festivities), so I was left with getting a lame shot of the wrapping paper I used for her gift when I got home.

95.

When pollen counts are in the 5,000 range, it makes me incredibly thankful that I'm not allergic to it in any way.

94-Easter!

94.

On Easter Sunday I went with the Mary and her son James to our community group leader's home for Easter Dinner. For it I made desserts, which were so much fun to make, but also slightly intimidating. The community group leader is quite the baker, and I was wondering if my desserts would measure up to fairly high standards.

Cake #1-#2

The bunny cake. These guys first made an appearance at my friend Hayley's birthday a few years ago. This time around I made everything from scratch. Chocolate butter-cream frosting was one of the most aggravating frostings--it did not like to stay on the bunny. However, it's thickness added a lot of texture, and thus removed the need for having to grate chocolate for the "fur." I like the chocolate ones far more than the yellow/white option, because I don't care for coconut all that much.

Cake #3

I got the idea for this from the Picky Palate food blog. She made this cake using a mix, and added food dye for the different layers. I modified it by using the Betty Crocker "Starlight-yellow" cake recipe, adding food coloring, and also adding fruit that went along with the appropriate color (strawberry-orange-lemon-blueberry). I made BC vanilla butter-cream frosting to go on it. My only regret is that I made the blueberry layer purple instead of blue.

I'll blame the wasp for my distraction.

Enemy.

93.

A necessary part of spring, but one that puts fear in my heart...wasps. I can't STAND them. So imagine my reaction when I heard one buzzing as I was finishing desserts for Easter dinner late one evening.

No, really. You should. I think a word that some may use would be "over-reaction." I consider my reaction to be mostly-logical.

1. I heard it.

2. I screetched (with a heavy dose of whine).

3. I ran to my room to grab a scarf to wrap around my ears and neck (so I wouldn't get stung, duh), and grabbed some sun-glasses (to protect my eyes, clearly).

4. I tried to get him.

5. I failed.

6. Repeat 4-5 a few times.

7. Enter Mary, who snapped a pic, and convinced me that if I left it alone, he'd leave me alone.

So, a little wasp-nemesis joined me in the preparation of cakes.

Catching up

Note to self:

NEVER get this far behind on uploading pics. Or if so, at least write the entry with it.

92.

Some of the top things I LOVE about Spring:

(this list isn't in order of importance)

1. The weather

2. Skirts & shorts, paired with cardigans

3. The sun rising earlier and earlier (and thus the return of going to the gym before work)

4.

Flowers, like these.

91.

I had some desperately received help on #90 when I was making dinner for the worship team. Mary came to my rescue with chopping and dicing vegetables. On my way home from Wesley (after a stop to the doctor's to check on my face and breathing issues...FYI: getting slammed in the face can and did cause excessive sinus drainage in me), I stopped and got her some beautiful hydrangeas to thank her. Two of the three died within 24 hours; the other stem made it a week.

Absentee.

I'm still taking my pics a day.

Really. And I have some super fun ones from the past week and a half.

But until the madness of this week settles down (hello, Sunday afternoon blog-a-thon), they won't be popping up here.

I'm also wanting a new blog name. Suggestions?

A work-full couple of days...

Both posts involve work...the post for day 92 will probably involve work...and I'm okay with that. Because I really, really like my job, and it lends itself to really good experiences and stories.

90.

A better image for today (I hate realizing I missed better shots, or things that I would have rather taken a picture of to remember) would have been of dinner time. Today (with help from roommate Mary) I made dinner for the worship team--some chicken salads (one mayo-based, one italian-dressing based), ants on a log (I still hate celery, I re-learned), strawberries, and some other sides. I really like cooking for people (I think I've mentioned that). And this is cooking for over 20 people! Score. I have always managed to pick some of my busiest days to cook on, without fail. When I signed up weeks ago I thought that I was going to have lots of time to prepare...negative.

The picture is from something going on in a few weeks that my ministry area is organizing--a senior appreciation breakfast for our dear seniors. I'm pumped. It has a lot of potential to be really awesome. Going along with the desire to do things with excellence, I made paper invitations in addition to the evite because hey, it's more meaningful. Unfortunately most of them were NOT picked up, so I'm hoping some delivering magic will happen on Monday.

91.

We had around 380 students sign-up by the deadline for Leadership. Yes, by the deadline. WHICH IS AWESOME! The pic comes from the adventures of trying to figure out how to schedule their interview times. Quite a few ways were brainstormed before the winning one was discovered (conveniently at the time I had to go take a 45 minute break to hear one of the girl's I disciple exit shows).

89.

89.

tuesday. march 30. a most eventful day.

I got slammed in the face by a pretty strong guy during the afternoon. It was a very unfortunate accident; he swung his arms out, and one just happened to come in contact with my face while I tried to walk around him in the intern office. I heard a crack. I screamed. I bawled. My nose may have a little break in it. Emphasis on little. It's not swollen anymore, I just can't touch it.

The picture is from my drive to 7:30 prayer. I get to see the most beautiful sunrises on the way to work on Tuesdays. Just one more perk.

88.

88.

Monday, monday. After a non-stop work day, I hung out with Ashley (the same one mentioned below). We did a little dinner (free pasta Mondays!), and a little shopping.

She did well.

Weekend Extravaganza.

85.

Friday night started with attending the lovely Lauren's (who I disciple) senior recital. It. was. incredible. She is so talented!

86.

Ashley is getting married to Tate. And it's so EXCITING!!! :D

I have really enjoyed getting to know Ashley better this year at work (we work in the same ministry area), and I have been very thankful for that opportunity. I love Ashley's story about her and Tate; the Lord's faithfulness and redemption is so incredible. Her shower on Saturday was so fun; super-tasty eats, excellent company, and a little purse-diving competition.

87.

First comes marriage, then comes a baby...or some little rhyme like that.

Sunday brought with it a baby-shower for dear Christie. She and Brian are having little Lorien fairly soon!

84.

84.

A strange perspective.

It is not everyday that you ride in your own car's back-seat. The two gentlemen above and I are in the same second year project group, and after working we went to Chick-Fil-A for some caffeine (desperately wanted by me after making the worst coffee ever).