See You Around

This past Sunday at about 1:30 am a dear friend went home to be with the Lord. It's been a tough week dealing with this lost.  Today driving home I was listing to Petra when this song came on and reminded me of some of the foundational truths.  That we shall be together again where there will be no more fears and no more tears.
And for our Spanish  speaking friends....

Another Disney Memory

In honor of my friend, Todd's birthday I wanted to tell a fun Disneyland story.

When Tim was finally old enough to ride Star Tours he was a little hesitate about riding it. So Todd begins telling Tim how it's not a big deal, and he said, "Come on Tim, the ride doesn't even move." It took a while but we got him on there.  Of course, Tim's eyes got as big a half dollars and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. It was QUITE entertaining!

A few weeks later we were at Disneyland again, this time Erwin was with us and we decided to eat at Big Thunder Ranch. Which back then you got a massive amount of food!  And Todd and Erwin pigged out! After we finished we asked Tim what he wanted to do, to which he responded,"Ride Star Tours!!"  Todd was like, "No Tim not tonight" To which without missing a beat Tim replies, "Come on Todd, It doesn't even move!"

At the point Todd had to give and ride Star Tours and thankfully every one kept their dinner down.

Happy Birthday Todd!  I hope it was a good one!

Goodbye Disneyland

May 1989 for our first wedding anniversary we got our first Disneyland pass. Yesterday I spent my last day at Disneyland for the foreseeable future. After almost 23 years I've decided not to renew my pass next week when expires. It's a little sad, but I just can't see spending the money on it.

So when I heard it was suppose to rain yesterday I was bummed. But I decided it was the only opportunity so I took it!
The morning was beautiful the sun was shining and when it did start raining around 1:30 or so it was very hard and I had my King's jacket with me so it kept me dry.

I was able to ride all my favorite rides with the expectation of the Matterhorn which was closed for refurb. I had a late lunch at the Blue Bayou which was really good but DANG it's gotten expensive. But the Cajun Salmon stuff with Goat Cheese and something else was so good! It was worth all the pain that came later.

After lunch I went to California Adventure and did my 3 favorite rides there, Soaring Over California (twice actually) Tower of Terror, and California Screaming. Of course, I learned something very interesting while riding California Screaming.  Even a light rain stinks like crazy at 35 miles an hour! Can you say OUCH!

After that I went back to Disneyland and for the second time yesterday rode Space Mountain for the last time. It was fun because the first time I rode I was in the very front and the last time I was in the very back.  So sweet!

There have been so many good memories from the past 23 years at Disneyland. Riding Space Mountain 6 times in an hour and half. Tim as a 4 month old baby getting his pictures with something like 15 characters, even better the first time he saw the Beast.  He was very happy.  The many hours just hanging out with friends there. A couple of years ago I was there with a group from work and I was sitting in the back on Splash Mountain when there was a LOT of weight in the car.  I've never seen a wall of water so high and of course it landed down my back.

I think I'll reminisce about the different fun times from the Happiest Place on Earth.   Maybe dig up some old pictures....

So much and so little

January is almost over and as I think about my goals for the month I've done fair.  I've completed reading 10 books for a total of 2,965 pages.  Read two books from a new author that I really enjoyed, Debbie Viguié. Very clever plot with the main characters, one who is a church secretary at a Presbyterian church and the other a Rabbi from the Synagogue next door. It's called the Psalm 23 Mysteries. They're cute and clever and quick reads. I'm thinking I need to buy book 3 in the series since book 4 comes out next month.  So the goal of reading at least 4 books, CHECK!

I've also had good success with the mybible360.blogspot.com site.  I've had 3 or 4 faithful people to comment almost every day. I'm only about 3 days ahead myself so I need to get caught up there.

I've been doing much better with the soda and not drinking as much.  I still love the taste.  My guilty pleasure.

The budget and keeping the balanced checkbook are still the weird ones in my life. I managed to NOT overdraft either account so that's good.

Things are good, busy but good. My greatest battle right now is getting Mark to do his homework and live up to even half his potential.  It's maddening to say the least.  So, for your listening pleasure and mine... a mindless tribute that ask the question, "Why is the Rum Gone?"

Back to Blogger

A year and a half ago, I moved my blog to WordPress. In many ways I really like WordPress.  Other ways, not so much.  So because I'm geeky, I'm moving back to Blogger. I've been using Blogger for My Bible 360 Project and I like the changes. Of course, figuring out how to get the domain to point to the right spot is the question!  And I'm not sure it's set up right yet. The blogger instructions aren't working the way it's documented. So we'll see. It's already been over 2 hours but of course they have the cushion of up to 48 hours for the change to take affect.

I just got back from Vegas Friday afternoon and I'm happy to be home and thinking I'm not going back EVER AGAIN!  I HATE cigarette smoke and cigar smoke is even worse!  Next year the conference is in San Jose again, which is much nicer on my lungs.   

One Week Down ALREADY!?!?

This week has been pretty uneventful. I went back to work on Tuesday which was nice though I really didn’t have a lot of motivation to work.  But I did get some things accomplished  had I nice time at the Spiritual Emphasis Day at APU.

My goals for January are pretty simple.

1. Stick with the Bible 360 website.  It’s been fun I’ve had 3 or 4 people who have been activity commenting and it’s getting several hits. I’ve got post through the 14th ready to go.
2. Read at least 4 books – I’ve already read 2 this weeks.
3. Get my budget established – I’ve been working on this but trying to remember all the stupid stuff I spend money.
4. Get my checkbook updated on my phone so I can track my finances.  
5. Reduce the amount of soda I drink.

I only made it to the gym 3 times this week.  But tomorrow is the start of a new week and another chance to get it right.

No great Mark stories this week. The only story is the stunt he pulled on Friday. I asked on Thursday night if his homework was done, to which he responds “yes.” Friday morning at 7:32, we try to leave at 7:30 but I digress… at 7:32 he comes to me and says “Can you type something for me since you type faster?” It was a page and half document for history that was due on that day!  I could have killed him! But since it affected 2 others I typed it. UGH

I did do something fun Tuesday, I went to the APU Women’s Basketball game and took pictures. I had a blast and we won! Here’s one of my favorite from the night. 

To see the other pictures that were posted on the APU Web site click here

2011–A look Back 2012–A Look Forward

Here I am in Carlsbad, though this year we are staying in the EconoLodge instead of the Rodeway Inn. The EconoLodge had only a slightly higher rate with a full breakfast. The really interesting part is the boys and I stayed at this facility a few years ago, before it was owned by the Choice hotels, it was called the Travel Lodge and to say it was a skanky pit would be polite. I was curious and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake. Oh my, I did NOT make a mistake! Choice has done an amazing job fixing this place up. The room is beautiful! One of the larger rooms we’ve had in a motel, flat screen TV. It’s just an incredible transformation from the skanky, no a/c hole that I could only spend a few hours in (we actually left in the middle of the night because it was too hot to sleep)  Here’s the picture I took with my phone.

Anyway, as I look at my goals that I wrote this time last year, I did fairly well.

Goal 1 – Read the Old Test chronologically. Check! It was great to read the OT that way. It helped me understand the interplay between the history books and the prophets. The Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible was a great tool. They told a lot of the history as well.

Goal 2 – An average of 4 work outs a week. I did fairly well with this, but did have lapses. Part of it was due to the tendonitis in my foot other times it was my depression and not caring about life.

Goal 3 – Read 50 books. CHECK! Finished #50 this afternoon. Read a lot of good books.

Goal 4 – Blogging… didn’t do as well at that as I should.  No real excuse… just didn’t get it done.

Other accomplishments this year:

• I finished my Master’s Degree!!!!
• Mark and I took an amazing road trip vacation to northern California and back.
• I started shooting Women’s Soccer, Women’s Volleyball as well as football.

There might be more, but those are the ones that come to mind.

  As I look forward to 2012 I’m not sure what major things I want to accomplish. But here are some things that I know I want to do:

1. See Bible 360 to completion, check it out at: mybible360.blogspot.com
2. Read 50 books
3. Create a budget (novel I know)
4. Manage my checkbook (yes, I know NOVEL)
5. Exercise an average of 4 times a week.
6. Build the followers of Favorite Christian Books website.
7. Be off blood pressure medicine by next New Year’s Eve!!! Which means a lot of work, but hopefully I’ll be up for the challenge.

Tomorrow I’ll post my goals for January. I like the idea of monthly goals that hopefully feed into the goals for the year.

There are changes happening this year. A little scary but I have to trust that all will work out for the best.

Happy New Year!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I’m blown away at the fact that this is the third day of December and only 28 days left in 2011. I remember as a kid complaining about how long summer was and my dad would tell me, just wait the older you get the faster the time will go by.  Was he ever right?  Hard to believe he’s been gone 17 years this month.

Things have been busy, of course.  I’ve been doing a lot of photography. My baby girl, Lily, is getting to be more and more fun, her Mom and I are going to need to be more creative since she is no longer satisfied sitting in one place looking cute. I did a family photo shoot the beginning of November and the pictures came out GREAT. I was so please. Of course there was APU football, women’s soccer and volleyball that presented some great challenges and some nice opportunities. I did pictures for one of the departments at the beginning of the school year and hopefully will be doing pictures for our Campus Safety in the near future as well. 

Christmas means music. I didn’t do a choir at church this year, when I should have been planning all of that, I was extremely tired. But we are still doing lots of music and having fun with a new guitarist on the team. 

Work has been good, lots of challenges. But I’m enjoying my new office, though I miss the beauty of East Campus and ready access to our students. I need to find the balance of enjoying my solitude in my office and spending time with the students.

One of my new projects is Bible 360. It came out of a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is a relatively new Christian talking about wanting to read all the way through the Bible, starting at the beginning. And although I think it is important to read the all the Bible, I struggle with the concept. I don’t think God necessarily wants us to read every chapter of the Bible in a year as much as He wants us to read the Bible every day of the year.  So the idea with Bible 360, is read one chapter of the Bible a day. Reading the New Testament, Proverbs and about half of the Psalms. I finished the schedule today.  I’ll use the website and the church’s facebook page to post the schedule as well as have schedules that people can have and put in their Bibles. I’m excited about it and hope it can involve more than just my church family.  I need to write the January posts so they can be ready to go. 

I had hoped to introduce this song tomorrow, but we just weren’t ready. But it’s a great song…

Goodbye October Hello November

OK, I really can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my last blog.  I just don’t seem to have the energy to do much of anything.  But I’ve stayed busy.  Football had 2 away games in October, which meant a trip to LegoLand for Brick or Treat.  It was Mark’s last year to do the Brick or Treat trail and even at that the lady at the beginning asked, “Do you want a stamp?” When Mark said yes, she stamped his hand and said “I just made you 12”  To which I replied, he is 12, he doesn’t turn 13 until January.  Her eyes got big and said ‘He’s gonna be a big guy!” 

The day went well, Mark enjoyed the new Mind Storms robots and Dr. Heartbeat.  Especially now the computer and robots communicate via Bluetooth.  It was the journey home that got dicey.  We had just transitioned from the 5 to the 57 in the carpool lane when the engine light came on and the car started power.  I had to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get off the freeway.  The car completely stopped on the shoulder of the off ramp, of course, I had no idea what ramp I was on.  Thankfully, Erwin was able to figure it out and AAA found me and towed the car to the mechanic. 

It was the timing belt and I was without a car until Wednesday and we won’t talk about how much that cost us. 

I’ve been doing a lot of photography.  I’ve been doing football, women’s soccer, and volleyball.  Of course there’s my favorite 15 month old, Miss Lily Taylor.  Had a lot of fun with her on Saturday as well as getting some nice pictures.  This Saturday I’m doing family portraits for a friend of work.  I’m looking forward to it, though, I’m a little nervous.  I want them to come out nice. 

Here are some of the pictures that have been used for the APU sports site:

From this past Saturday night’s homecoming game: http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17939/

September 17th football: http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17760/

Pre-season scrimmage (99.9% sure it’s mine but no credit line I have the original on my computer ) http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17688/

Women’s Soccer:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17895/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17890/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17858/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17824/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17721/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17712/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17694/  The sweet shot!

Women’s Volleyball:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17891/ the nicest shot!

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17784/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17747/ (my first time trying to shoot volleyball)

October? Really??? What happened?

I remember my Dad telling me to enjoy being a kid because the older you get the faster time seems to go.  I was probably complaining about waiting for Christmas or my birthday or summer or school to start! (Remember I grew up on an 80 acre farm, summers got to be really long before I would see my friends again.

Now as a 40 something adult I understand what he meant.  It’s hard to believe that it’s October and 2011 is almost over. It’s hard to believe my vacation of a lifetime was almost 3 months ago.  It’s hard to believe Tim is in his 4th year of college and Mark’s in middle school. 

I have to ask myself, am I really living my life to the fullest?  Am I taking advantage of the opportunities I’ve been given? Sometimes I feel like the answer is a great big NO!  But this year I have tried to invest more in people.  And I’ve got some amazing friends.  People that love me and that I love.  I’m also having a blast doing photography, though football has been VERY frustrating.  I have my new cool lens, but I’m still not getting great pics.  So I keep trying and hoping to get it right sometime SOON!

The nice thing is girls’ soccer is during the daytime and the D70 does great with enough light… you can check out yesterday’s pics here:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17824/

A Great Day!

Today was moving day and the movers didn’t want us under foot so I had the day off.  So I decide to have some fun.  After dropping off Mark I had breakfast, filled up the car (a whopping $45) picked up a couple of birthday cards. Then it was off to Monrovia to hike up to Monrovia Falls.  I had read about it in one of my favorite blogs, by Dan Simpson.  He has an entire hiking website with lots of information about hiking trails in the LA area. 

The hike was very nice.  Not too steep but a good walk. It didn’t kill me the way Garcia Trail does.  I took my camera (of course that’s the fun of hiking) using the Tamaron 300mm lens, it’s not as heavy as my 200mm and I figured that I would be able to get some decent shots with it.  The falls aren’t super exciting this time of the year, but it was still nice. 

 

Here it is!  The Monrovia Falls!

SQUIRREL!

The highlight of the trip… Down by the parking lot was a black bear (though he is a nice brown color, the ranger told us he’s a black bear.)  He just lumbered by and didn’t really pay much attention to us.

Had lunch with Tim, he wanted to see if the Barbq Beef Brisket was as good as I said, and it was!

I did some more fun stuff including buying some more camera equipment and then did a girly girl thing and had my nails done. 

Tomorrow I spend my first day in my new office.  I’ll try to post some pictures of that as well.  It’s really, really nice.

Less than a Week Left on East Campus

We’re scheduled to move this Thursday. It’s so surreal at this point.  Wednesday I’ll leave IMT-E for the last time (at least as far as I know at this point) come Friday I’ll arrive at my new office at 680.  I’m excited to have a  real office complete with a DOOR, but leaving East will be hard.

I think one of the things I’ll miss most about life on East Campus, is the students. The past few years I’ve had the opportunity to be more involved with the our student workers in Student Services. I love hanging out in the tech office getting to know the students and trying to be there if they need the support. They are young and energetic and have a wonderful outlook on life. Of course more than once they’ve reminded me I’m old. 

I will also miss the beauty of East Campus.  The rose garden, the fish pond by the Wynn building, the trees, the grass, the smell of barbq!  OK, that’s a relative new thing on campus and although I haven’t eaten there yet, it smells so good!

One memory that comes to mind were the potlucks in the business office, the business office that was located where the School of Music now sits.  It was in the business office where I made friends with Vicki at one of those potlucks. She has become one of my dearest friends. There have been so many others.  Some I’m still in touch with, many who have dropped off the radar. 

It was in the second business office where I would bring baby Timmy so all the ladies could oh and ah over him. While John and Dave would give their “courtesy” “Oh’s” and “AH’s”.  Of course, one of the coolest moment was when we all turned and saw Dave holding little Timmy.  I would have given anything to have had a camera to capture that moment.  It’s a memory that I’ve always treasured (kind of like the person!).

One of the hardest parts of this move is I won’t be able to drop in on Chad, Donavon, or Dave to lend a hand or just say “Hi.” I finally have a friend in Cornerstone who is keeping it stocked with Code Red Mountain Dew, thanks Molly! No more hiding in the bottom floor of Marshburn when life in the CUBE gets to be too much or reading a book down by the fish pond.

I am excited about the office, I’m actually excited about the door.  Change is always difficult but I’m sure I’ll adapt.

IMT East–The Bad

Disclaimer -  The names have been changed to protect the innocent! Oh wait… I won’t use any names, but if you happen to resemble the people I mention please do not be offended. I love all of you, and I know that I am probably the most annoying person in IMT-East.  So remember, this is considered good, clean, fun!

First off, cubicle life is hard on an introvert. Now many people will argue that I’m not an introvert. I’m loud and obnoxious, but as this website defines:  By Myers-Briggs' definition, an introvert derives energy from his or her internal world of emotions and ideas, while an extrovert draws from the outside world of people and activities for spiritual sustenance. ( http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/definitions_of_introvert.html) Whether you believe it or not, I am an introvert and this latest project has been exhausting to me!  But I digress…  there’s more of that coming I’m sure!

There is no real privacy in our world of IMT-E. Every conversation can be heard over the cubicle walls.  Even when you whisper, someone might just whisper from over the wall “I can still hear you!!!” This can also be very awkward as a one of a few women who work in IMT-E. There has never been a truly inappropriate conversation but there have been talk of guy things that as a lady (and I use that term loosely) didn’t want to hear.  I really wish I could remember one, but I have gratefully forgotten.

Then there’s the fact that the building is a trailer and there is no foundation the floor presents a source of constant “entertainment.”  One individual we’ll call Bob tends to walk very heavy.  I keep waiting for the day when he walks so hard down the hallway that he just goes right through the floor.  You can tell the level of Bob’s intensity by how hard he walks down the hallway.  The whole building SHAKES! 

Then there is the breakout room, our own little conference room, with a speaker phone.   There have been times when a co-worker, we’ll call Bob, would make a conference call and it seemed like he was shouting into the phone.  He wasn’t he just has one of those great speaking voices that carries (to McDonalds). Thankfully Bob is a quick study and after I shut the door on his meetings a couple of times, he started shutting them at the beginning of his meeting.

Another thing about cubicles are the cubicle walls.  For some reason people love to walk down the hall running their finger down the wall.  WHY????  WHY???? WHY???? It makes me crazy!

Today, one of my co-workers, we’ll call him Bob, reminded me of another thing about IMT-East that makes me a little crazy (only sometimes) is that people can peek over the wall at me.  What would happen if I’m like picking my nose or something!?!?!?!  How embarrassing!  THANKFULLY I don’t think that’s happened… and if it has they quickly ducked out of sight.  Of course, Bob, chastised me today when I said I wasn’t going to miss him peeking over the top.  He said, I would get lonely down at the other end 680 next door to Jeff.  Maybe, eventually, but it’s going to be awhile.  Especially after days like today.  It was hard one… 

Life in IMT-East: The Good

My office has been in IMT-East since sometime in 2002, at least I think it was 2002, since that was the year Jeff came and he had the fun of making that happen. 

As I mentioned earlier 2/3rds of this trailer has been at the university longer than I have.  It was the Academic Computer Lab.  A place for students to come and write papers, some came to program on the HP 3000 series 30.  Oh the days of COBOL and RPG. (and not Role Playing Games).

I have some fond memories of those days.  At least some of the people I had the opportunity to get to know, Tim Jones and Sue Munsey come to mind.  I remember one Christmas, when my Tim was still young Sue order pizza for the kids to celebrate. We had a great time laughing and eating pizza when when of the kids said, “You what would make this better?! If Timmy would say ‘God bless us everyone!’” Of course Timmy did and we all had a great laugh. 

I taught some of my early training classes in the corner that’s now Don’s office.  I remember one of those great moments when I was teaching Excel and was going to explain Pivot Tables.  I told them, I really don’t understand Pivot Tables but I’ll show you guys and hopefully it will make sense.  After I walked them through how to create a Pivot Table one of the participants got really excited. As an admissions counselor she saw an instant application what was going to make her life so much easier.  Oh the satisfaction that brings!

Since we’ve moved into the building as office space there have been some good times. Some of my favorite times include laughing with Ken Osterberg.  The guy has such a great outlook on life and is just fun to be around.  I’m sure there are those who would consider Ken and I together some of the bad of IMT-East.  We could be very obnoxious at times.

The best of times in IMT-East have come from spending time talking with the amazing people I’ve worked with and continue to work with, they’re great!

Life is always changing

For 25 years I have worked at APU and for those 25 years my office has been on east campus. It is by far the prettiest of the Azusa campuses. The only other one that comes close is San Diego, but that is only because it is 10 minutes from Seaworld!

The past several years my office has been in a "building" we refer to as IMT-East. Building is in quotes because it is actually a triple wide trailer. Two-thirds of the trailer has been at APU longer than I have been which is 25 and 1/2 years. So being a trailer you can only imagine some of the quirks we deal with. I want entertain with those quirks just yet, but trust me I will share the good the bad and the ugly of life in IMT-east. You see in just a couple of weeks our happy group is moving to a new location. This move brings about a lot of mixed emotions. Many things about this move thrill me beyond the wildest imagination, while other aspects sadden me to tears.

Over the next few days I will share the things I will miss from IMT-east and the things I won't. It is a time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the oh so ugly!

Life is always changing

For 25 years I have worked at APU and for those 25 years my office has been on east campus. It is by far the prettiest of the Azusa campuses. The only other one that comes close is San Diego, but that is only because it is 10 minutes from Seaworld!

The past several years my office has been in a "building" we refer to as IMT-East. Building is in quotes because it is actually a triple wide trailer. Two-thirds of the trailer has been at APU longer than I have been which is 25 and 1/2 years. So being a trailer you can only imagine some of the quirks we deal with. I want entertain with those quirks just yet, but trust me I will share the good the bad and the ugly of life in IMT-east. You see in just a couple of weeks our happy group is moving to a new location. This move brings about a lot of mixed emotions. Many things about this move thrill me beyond the wildest imagination, while other aspects sadden me to tears.

Over the next few days I will share the things I will miss from IMT-east and the things I won't. It is a time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the oh so ugly!

A Million Word or Less About Mark Magnuson

This past Monday Mark started seventh grade! Hard to believe that my baby is in middle school. However, the school year has started well and Mark is getting himself up and seems to be engaged. One of his teachers asked that one of the parents write about their child to help her understand him better.  She so doesn’t know what she asking for!?!?!

Mark is our second child, born eight years after his brother Tim. Finding that I was pregnant with Mark was the first of many surprises. He surprised us by showing up three weeks earlier than expected. Although he looked so much like his big brother did, he was definitely a very different personality. From the beginning he needed little sleep and was in constant motion. (something he’s just now grown out of!) 

Although Mark didn’t start talking as early as his brother when he started talking he gave us full sentences. He is very articulate and quite comfortable talking to children younger than himself as well as adults. Especially when he was younger he tended to have friends that were two years older than himself.

Mark ended up having the same teacher for both first and second grade. It was during second grade parent/teacher conference that we had the hard discussion about Mark’s behavior. No matter how hard he tried or what discipline method was taken Mark couldn’t sit still. He would ask to go and sit at the desk by itself so he could work, but within five to ten minutes he would be wandering the room socializing with everyone. There were other symptoms that indicated that Mark has ADHD. Thankfully, his doctor did a great job prescribing a medication that helped him mellow out, sit still, and focus without causing negative side effects. 

Another thing that the doctor recommended was for Mark to be involved in team sports.  For four years Mark participated in KARE Youth League.  It was a great opportunity for him to participate in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and track. Although he was not a standout athlete he did excel at track and basketball. It was fun to watch him in basketball playing defense against other kids as they pushed each other back and forth.

Mark is artistic. He’s done some beautiful work.  From 2005 until 2010 he participated in the Young Rembrandts program through the school.  In 2010 he started the Kids’ Art program in Glendora.  It has been amazing to see his growth as an artist.  I need to update it but I have a website of his artwork at: http://markart.magnusonhouse.com  This year at the LA County fair this piece will be displayed.  I hope he gets positive affirmation on his work.  As I mom I know I’m biased but I do believe he’s amazing.

I think one of Mark’s greatest strengths is his heart. He can be totally obnoxious, rude, crude and just socially unacceptable. But when it comes down to it, he has a soft heart for people and can be so very kind.  In the last year or so he has become a much affection person.  He cracks me up how he will hug people he’s just met like he’s known them forever. I love that about him! Though sometimes he just a little TOO social as I’m sure his teachers will see. 

Some fast facts about Mark:

• His middle name was for his grandfather that he never got to meet: Ray
• His birthday is January 23
• He wears a size 10.5 shoe
• He loves computer games WAY too much
• He is writing a book and drawing characters for it
• He placed 2nd in the Youth State Bowling Tournament in Doubles in 2010 (we haven’t gotten the results for 2011)
• He placed 1st in the Youth City Bowling Tournament in Team competition in 2011

There is so much more I could tell you about Mark, but a little mystery is good.

Hard Habit to Break

The campus is coming alive as we get closer to this weekend and new student orientation this weekend. For me things are slowing down as today I only had 2 trainings and tomorrow only one!!!  Thursday and Friday NO TRAININGS! It was also fun today to take faculty pictures for our Math/Physics department.  It was a nice break from Google Apps.

However, for many of my co-workers things are going to get crazy.  I’ll be helping out with the refresh day to help collect the laptops from the faculty and return them at the end of the event.  The weekend with the new students and returning students coming back there will be lots of action. 

I’m excited about the weekend and the start of the football season.  I have my new lens and am excited to see what I can get from it.  It should be a good time.

It’s almost time to go to the gym.  See if I can work out some of the sources that I got from Sunday’s workout. 

Keeping with my tribute to Chicago here’s another featuring Peter Cetera

You’re the Inspiration

Getting ready to start a new week.  Thankfully, shouldn’t be as crazy as last week, but it will be busy.  The start of a school year is always exciting.  This year we’ve had a busier than normal summer which has made preparing for fall extra difficult.  But it will be exciting!

Training week was a success.  It started out great with Tom Moon, the director of e-learning from In-N-Out.  It was a great time. We ended the week with a worship time and a devotion by our CIO.  It was a great morning.  It was nice for me to sit back and play keyboards.  I kind of miss those days.

This weekend was relatively quiet. Did an orientation for Haggard School of Theology, a photo shoot with my favorite girl, church today and trying to stay cool.  Which has been difficult.

Tomorrow is busy with 4 sessions, one of which will require me to drive to LA.  Not excited about that one!  The week will get easier.

As far as the title of today’s blog, I’ve been in a Chicago mood the past few days and this is one of many favorites.

This one is from the original recording with Peter Cetera, check out the styles from the 80s.  I never dressed like that, my parents would have killed me!  Enjoy!

Take 2- why I should go to the gym

I am more than mildly annoyed that this my second attempt to post from iPad. I wrote this really nice article in blog press, hit save it promoted to publish when I said publish now it gave me my Facebook login page, but no post on my blog. So let's see if the Wordpress app does any better.

If you notice it is now after 1 AM and I am still awake. I didn't go to the gym because I felt like I had too much prep work to do for tomorrow. I am doing four different sessions tomorrow on 4 very different topics. The shortest one is 15 minutes whilemthe longest is an hour and a half.

I need sleep but my mind won't shut down. Gym tomorrow no matter how busy I am on Thursday. (I think I only have 3 classes that day)

Sleep. That's the next big challenge!