I liked this picture for aesthetic reasons

MB during an acoustic set

Marc Broussard and band take a bow

me, Erica and Brian after the concert

27 days and counting!

My friend Bonny sent me this as a forward yesterday. Bonny is a very discerning forwarder so I know it's good if she's sending it. I enjoyed this one so much that I thought that it needed to be shared. If you aren't a teacher or can't relate, please don't take offense. Know that I love my students, but also know that we're all going slightly mad by this point in the schoolyear and if we can't laugh at ourselves, who CAN we laugh at? Other people! ha, just kidding.

YOU MIGHT BE EMPLOYED BY A SCHOOL IF.....
1. You believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.
2. You want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:20 and have summers free."
3. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
4. You believe "shallow gene pool" should have its own box in the report card.
5. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
6. When out in public you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.
7. You have no social life between August and June.
8. Marking all A's on report cards would make your life SO much easier.
9. You think people should be required to get a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.
10. You wonder how some parents ever MANAGED to reproduce.
11. You laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the "lounge".
12. You encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling.
13. You can't have children because there's no name you could give a child that wouldn't bring on high blood pressure the moment you heard it uttered.
14. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
15. You know you are in for a major project when a parent says,"I have a great idea I'd like to discuss. I think it would be such fun."
16. Meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"

Pics of my Peeps

These are pics of several people I've had the privilege to work with in the last few years. If you'd like to see pics of my team's program staff, I've posted those on our camp blog. Check it out!

me with beecher, devon and coop from our east coast 2004 team. don't worry folks, Coop doesn't always smile like that...he thought we were doing an 'aunt jemima lips' pose. Beecher is leading worship for Centri-kid while Devon and Coop will be at Jenness Park in California.

this is what Coop thought we were doing

Phil was there this weekend but I didn't get a good picture of him so I just thought I'd post this one taken last summer...it's one of my favorites! (wait, did i just say that a picture of Phil is one of my favorites?? what is wrong with me!! :)

jana and brother from my North Greenville College 2002 team

jana, tracie and brother...oh, wait--where's tracie??? oh, yeah--i forgot! she ditched us and left early without saying goodbye! ;) nothin' but love for ya tracie!

me and Sara Beth
Sara Beth is the worship leader for the Nashville M-fuge team this summer

me with crosby and willie from the Panama City Beach 2001 team. crosby and willie will be back at PCB this summer

me with James Jackson, my coordinator in 2001, 02, and 04. One of the great things about working Centrifuge is all of the amazing people you get the opportunity to work with. James is one of those people...but of course, I don't think I've met a bad one in the bunch!

me with Joe Hicks, my coordinator in 2003 and another one of my all-time favorite people

Patience...

I know that some of you faithful readers out there may be wondering where I'd gone, but never fear! In the words of those wonderful Who's: "We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!" [It's from Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss and it's one of my favorite children's books. Go out and read it today!] Anyway, back to the point...I tried to post pics from program weekend last night, but blogger was acting up (big surprise! ;) So, I hope to be able to post them tonight...since I know that people would rather look at the pretty pictures rather than read! :)

Until then, I just thought I'd write about something that truly fascinates me every time I travel: checked luggage. HOW IN THE WORLD do they get everyone's bag from one plane to another with such accuracy? I am referring to connecting flights for the most part. It makes me want to work at a major airport like Atlanta just so that I can see how it's done. Mr Rogers' never did a video segment on that (although he DID do one on how crayons are made which I still remember vividly and find quite interesting!) And along with that, HOW IN THE WORLD are the people at the Lafayette airport so inept that THEY can't get one piece of luggage from the counter to the plane parked RIGHT OUTSIDE the doorway within a timespan of 30 minutes??? As much as I enjoy the convenience of leaving from the Lafayette airport, things always happen that make me wonder if it wouldn't just be better to use Baton Rouge or New Orleans. I will curtail my complaints with that vague statement. I just felt the need to vent a little.

Alright ladies and gents...that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get to post my pics this evening and then you can see some of the people I saw this weekend! Ta, ta!

[Oh, I was able to post a few pics to our east coast camp blog which is a blog I set up specifically for my team. You're welcomed to look there for now.]

I'm always going somewhere...

...you would think my life would be more exciting than this! :) just kidding! I like my life. Anyway, that's not the point. I'm leaving tomorrow morning (VERY early morning) for Program Director's Weekend for camp. It's a weekend where the program staffs for all of our camps: centrifuge/mfuge/crosspoint/centrikid, get together for a little training, a little planning and a whole lot of fun. I can't wait! Of course, I've waited until the last possible moment to pack and organize--and now I'm blogging, so you see how well I'm prioritizing--I'm guessing it will be a late night! I'll be away until late Sunday night. I know you'll miss my quirky, pointless chatter. Never fear, I will be back next week! See ya soon--have a great weekend!

a walk around the block

It was a great day for a walk. These are just a few pics from around my neighborhood.

The place where I live

just down the block

I'm guessing these people don't believe in the idiom "backdoor guests are best!"

huh? I thought they only painted busses this color!

my favorite porch

just a friendly reminder

another great porch

Blank

I am completely blank. I have nothing in my head to write about! This is so weird! I never have nothing to talk about. I usually have an internal dialogue going 24/7--what is wrong with me?! Well, until something comes to me, I guess I'll write about my weekend--since I know you're dying to hear all about that!

Friday night was the 1st annual HBCS auction. It was a really big deal for the school and basically everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off all day getting ready for it. Of course the most popular cry of the students was, "can we go help?" some more out of a desire to get out of class than a desire to truly help the cause, I suspect. ;) One of my major responsibilities that evening was to help Jen and the 10th grade girls who volunteered to babysit for the event. It was a whole lot of fun! One of my favorite kindergarteners was there. His name is Ethan. Ethan can be a challenge at times, and I don't know what it is, but I just love this kid!

this is Ethan at Camo Craze

Well, that was my big Friday night. On Saturday, I did some shopping with my sister. As I have a co-ed readership, I won't go into more detail on that, but we had a GREAT time, didn't we Erica?! We also ran into our former high school English teacher--very random. Later that evening, I went to dinner at Jason's Deli with Jen and her singles Sunday school class group. We then went to see Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Vaughn, and Penelope Cruz. Matthew looked great, Steve was hilarious, Penelope was the stereotypical semi-useless female. The movie was alright, but I can honestly say, I wasn't going looking for a great plot! :) After that, a few of us went over to CC's for coffee and conversation.

Sunday has been mostly church. I help out with tech stuff (I run MediaShout/Power Point for the services) so I went to all three services today! For lunch I went out to my mom's house and heard all about last week's HOG Rally--my stepfather is a Harley owner and he was a site coordinator for this year's state rally. Mom then took me around the back yard and pointed out EVERY blooming plant she has!! I heard all about some mysterious rust spots that are showing up on her amarylis leaves and all sorts of other things I didn't know I wanted to know! Mom is so funny. Forget her thumb, I think her whole body is green! I brought my sick ivy for her to work on for me because I have no clue how to make it better. She loves a challenge!

So now I'm at home, excited about another day of school tomorrow! It's standardized testing this week and then I'm out Thursday and Friday for a training weekend for camp. Well, that's me and my exciting life! I'm sure it's been riveting! ;) goodnight!

New Experiences

I'm sitting in the computer lab at school preparing a test that I'm giving my Math 7 class tomorrow and I just witnessed something that makes me realize how much I take for granted as an adult. Two of our 9th graders--Lindsey and Jenni--came in to make copies of a worksheet for Science and they had no clue how to work the copier. I was intently working on my test (actually, I was reading Jen's blog, but my PLAN was to quickly get back to the test!) and wasn't paying attention to them until they asked me what legal paper was. I explained and then I started to pay more attention to what they were doing. They had a paper jam so I had to come over and open the machine to reset it, causing Jenni to comment that I was brave for putting my hand in there! I left them to their own and returned to my test. After it was set, they finished one set of copies, but needed to copy the other page on the back of the first, so an entire conversation ensued about how they should do that. They asked me to come over again to help them figure out the manual feed tray and were SO excited when they saw the paper going in--we'd found the right conversation of flipping and stacking which was celebrated with many "yay!"s. After testing that first page, I left them again and they made the rest of the copies, so excited that they had conquered the copier! I can't remember when I learned to use a copier. I take it for granted that I can figure out most everything I want it to do. It's just making me realize that I'm stuck in a rut and it's time for me to start learning new stuff again. I miss being excited over new discoveries. I'm bored...

The Most Talented People I Know, Part 2

Sara Beth


James Thiele

A while back, I decided to write about some of the most talented people I know. My first post was about Jamie Bates, a very talented photojournalist. I haven't forgotten my plan...I just couldn't decide who I wanted to introduce next. Well, I never could decide, so I'm doing both at the same time! James Thiele and Sara Beth (Geohegan) are two of the most talented musicians I know. I've just been looking at their sites, and the new opportunities that they are experiencing make me excited for them all over again.

I met James Thiele my first week in New Orleans. I became one of his youth interns about two weeks later and thus had the opportunity to work with Sara Beth and a TON of other neat students at FBC New Orleans. One of my earliest memories concerning the talents of both James and Sara was when Sara sang a song written by James in church one Sunday. First of all, the song was beautiful and Sara did an amazing job performing it. But after church, I was hanging out with a few of them in the youth room and heard Sara saying that she'd forgotten some of the lines in the second verse, so she just made something up while she was singing--WHAT?! People do that? I was amazed--I don't believe I've stopped being amazed since. I have absolutely no musical/songwriting experience, so what these people do so naturally just amazes me. In a time where so many "artists" use slick marketing tactics and creative publicity to cover for a lack of talent, both James and Sara Beth have true talent and an authentic heart for God.

If you'd like to know more about them, here are a few links:
James Website: http://jamesthiele.com
Sara Beth's Website: http://sarabeth.net
Universal Music Publishing Group--Their Label: http://www.umpgnashville.com/dsp_christianmusic_home.asp

Pictures I like

As I was looking through my pictures and doing a little housekeeping, I thought I'd post a few of my favorites. Some I've posted before; others are new. All are favorites. I hope you enjoy! (You can click on the picture for a better view)

Watchin' the show...

One may think this was taken deep in the backwoods of Louisiana, but It's actually a picture of cypress lake on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

This a picture of the trunk of the live oak at St. John's Cathedral--located just down the road from me. I love trees!

I just love this picture. I can't explain why.

He's growing up so quickly.

More wisdom from the World According to Mr. Rogers

This is from March 26/27: "I've always tried to love my neighbor as myself; however, the more experiences I've had, the more chances I've had to see the uniqueness of each person...as well as each tree, and plant, and shell, and cloud...the more I find myself delighting every day in the lavish gifts of God, whom I've come to believe is the greatest appreciator of all."

Ok, this is me: I'm coming to realize that I don't take time to appreciate the people in my life. I often take for granted those who are closest to me. I don't think I use people or take advantage of them. I just mean that I don't express how much I appreciate them. I'm not meaning for this to be a blanket, "Hey, I appreciate you!" that I'm sending out to everyone who thinks I should appreciate them. I'm just realizing that I need to be more intentional about encouraging people and complementing them when I see a trait that I admire. It's always been easier for me to find fault than to find reasons for praise, but I am realizing all over again how futile the former can be and how much more productive praise and genuine encouragement are in every area of life. Yes, no one is perfect, but why do I feel like it's my responsibility to point that out? I'm making a concerted effort to focus on the good and to encourage that in the people in my circle.

Google Gulp

Google cracks me up! Here is some information on a new product--Google Gulp--that they are beta testing. I would say more, but I don't want to ruin the experience for anyone--check it out for yourself!

Pics of St Louis

As seen in previous posts, Katie, David, and I spent Tuesday in St Louis. I thought I'd post a few of the "non-David" pictures that I took that day. Some of them were a stab at capturing things in an artistic light, and others were simply snapshots that I liked--and I'm not telling you which are which! :)

The St. Louis Arch and the Old Cathedral

My attempt at an artistic shot of the St Louis arch

Another view of the Arch

side view of the bridge

some bridge over the Mississippi river

under the bridge

lunch break

Leaving St. Louis

" 'a PUs 'a bu-TON"

David loves to push buttons! Here are several pictures of him in action--some of him and some by him:

In these pics, good ole' 'Aunt Beff' (ah, doomed to be forever known as 'Beff' by two-year olds and my Uncle Donald!)has let David push the button on her camera...sorry if I started anything! ;)

A bunch of pictures of David

You see the title, so consider yourself warned! These are several random pics of David taken during my stay. He didn't exactly wait for the shutter to click, so I have plenty of pictures of him looking away...but these are some of my favorites. And not to worry, there are plenty more to come! Like I said earlier--I'm developing themes, so watch out! :)

Lovin' life!

Reaching the summit!

Just hangin' around

Wow