Librarian in Disguise

a new photo toy

Thanks to Katie I discovered Flickr Toys today! How did I miss this?! Could be dangerous for me. I love this kind of stuff. I'm pretty sure I've posted this photo before. I really like it, for two reasons because it's a cool photo of my sister and because it turned out so well. I like it so much that I got a print of it to hang in my office.

This afternoon I'm getting my hair cut. Not sure how much but it's time for something different.

in the trunk

Olive: I'd like to dedicate this to my grandpa, who taught me all of my moves.
Pagent Judge #1: Aw that's sweet, honey. Where's your grandpa?
Olive: In the trunk of our car.

go see Little Miss Sunshine

before & after

As I've been working on losing weight it has often been difficult to notice any sort of dramatic difference. Yes, my clothes feel better and yes the scale has been telling me I'm losing weight but when you look at yourself day after day it's difficult to tell much difference.

That is until today when I compared these photos. The before photo was taken when I started Weight Watchers back in early February. And like I said before the other photo, the after was taken just last Saturday. It is encouraging to see these photos because it is a good reminder to me that progress is being made.

And like one of my WW teachers said, it's not like the weight went on over night, we shouldn't expect it to come off over night. So here's to learning about patience, progress and persistence. And patiently awaiting my Vera Bradley purse.

Good Night!

p.s. I went to see Little Sunshine Girl, good film. The last 10 minutes was probably the hardest I have laughed in a while.

Before

After

new favorite photo

It's not every day I get a photo that I really like. Well today someone sent this picture to me. It was taken during opening weekend/move-in festivities! Yeah for yellow.

Now I'm off to the movies with my friend Chrissy.

two grey hairs

boo! Today I found two very grey hairs in my hair. I'm only 27, that shouldn't come for several years.

hard to believe!

It's hard to believe that this little guy is learning to ride his scooter bike. I miss being around him. But the distance surely makes the visits super special. In just over 6 weeks we'll get to hang out for 5 days! Yeah!

School is now into day three. Today I begin my day by filling in for a professor who had an appointment that couldn't be rescheduled. So I get pass out a syllabus for ODU 100 (a first year student orientation course), then I'll have lunch with students, teach my ODU 110 course, and hang out at the activities fair.

I bought a lot of Jelly Belly's for our Campus Ministry table, I'll let folks guess how many beans there are and then they can enter a raffle to win them. So fun! Just means I need to count them at some point today. Guess I should see if food service has some gloves I can borrow.

And on a weight loss note...I exercise for 40 minutes last night. yeah! and I sure do feel it today. Gotta do it again tonight.

motivation of sorts...

I have been doing Weight Watchers since early February. This is actually my third go around with the meetings and program. The first time around I was pretty successful, I lost a little over 25lbs in about 4 months time. I had some pretty significant motivation, my sister was getting married and I wanted to look nice in the pictures and well in general I wasn't liking the way I was feeling.

Then I got a new job, quit going, gained all my weight back plus some.

Well back in February a shirt I really liked no longer fit me and I decided that it was time I head back to good ole Weight Watchers. I lost consistently up until this summer, when my job moved to PA for the summer. I was successful this summer in the sense that I was able to maintain my weight. I count that as a significant success for me.

Well now I've been back in town for almost a month and I've gained weight the last two weeks and have felt absolutely no motivation. I really want to lose this weight, but it's just not been a priority. On the way to my meeting this afternoon I decided that I needed to come up with some sort of reward for myself. And well you see it pictured to your right.

I've been wanting one of these Vera Bradley purses for a while now. I bought myself a total $5 knock off at the beginning of the summer and well it's beginning to be completely obvious that it's a knock off. So I decided on the ride over that I would allow myself this purchase when I reach my 10% plus an additional 10lbs, I think that totals about 14lbs. So maybe Fall break I'll be able to make this exciting purchase!

I'll keep you posted.

Orientation Fun!

Yesterday as part of First Year Student Orientation the Peer Advisors and their student groups had a very fun and creative photo scavenger hunt. One of their tasks was to get a picture with a University Staff Member, well they get extra points for creativity. So I obliged and let them pick me up for their photo. It was pretty funny.

Classes start today. One of the courses I am teaching beging today at 1pm. I am looking forward to it. It is just an 8 week course, but will certainly make the first half of my semster busy!

Move in went well this weekend. Aside from the fact that we lost power in all of the Residence Halls at 9pm on Saturday and the power wasn't restored until after 2pm on Sunday morning. Everyone behaved themselves for the most part. There was a group of about 20 students who amused themselves for almost 3 hours by playing charades. Very amusing to watch!

Now it's time to get going on my day. So much to do today and so many names to begin learning.

ready or not...

So today it really begins! Early Bird move in for new students is from 7-10pm and the rest of the new students (first year and transfers) move in between 8-11am tomorrow morning. Very exciting! The only problem is that it's supposed to rain today & tomorrow. What a bummer, especially because the majority of our orientation activities are taking place outside. Such is life! I know all the folks will get moved in and classes will start on Monday morning bright and early.

Speaking of which...I am teaching two courses this Fall semester, a first for me. I've only ever taught one course at a time and it was only for 1 credit hour. And well now I'm teaching a one credit and a two credit course. Thankfully the two credit course is only for 8 weeks, so after Fall Break I'm down to one class. It's fun to tell folks that I'm adjunct faculty at a University. Except I don't feel like adjunct! Back to finishing up my syllabus so it can get duplicated by the print shop and not by me this weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my Mom's birthday! Yeah!! She's in Florida with Sarah & Nat, but next week she's coming back to Ohio and we're going to have a slumber party after we explore Germany Village!

they're back...

the RAs moved back in today for the new school year. Yeah! I don't like it when it's so quiet around here, plus they're so much fun!

weekend happenings

This weekend was spent in my old home of Kent, OH. My good friend, Nicole, was married to Andy. Now she is Mrs. Flower. She was a beautiful bride and it was fun helping with the festivities and seeing lots of old friends from church.

back to work

Tuesday was my first official day back at ODU. With my first day back I also gained a new co-worker. Chrissy joined staff with the CCO this summer and now she works here at ODU as a Hall Director. She just graduated from Hiram College and is pure fun. I'm so thankful to have her here.

3 years

This summer I celebrate my third year on staff with the CCO. It's hard to believe that it's already been 3 years. It has been a good three years. Last night I was talking with a good friend and fellow CCO co-worker and reflected on the way the CCO has changed my life. I have grown in so many ways and God has used the CCO in amazing ways in my life. I am thankful to work for such a great organization.

The photo is from my summer training in Pittsburgh. We were celebrating half way to Christmas, the photo was taken at something like 6:30 or 7 in the morning.

my sweet nephew