Words to Remember

A quote from a book I read recently (A Friendship Like No Other) and a photo from a friend that I altered considerably in Photoshop. (Friend, do you recognize your banana blossom and how are you Photoshop studies coming along? Umm, and may I use your photo as a background for my "thang" here?)

Sometimes I Play With My Food

(and my camera phone). This was not entirely my creation. I only cut up the pineapple ring. Someone else reversed the pieces to make the sunburst and add the peanuts and salt and pepper.

On a more serious note, my dad had something happen to the one good eye he has. I think it is called a colloital detachment. At this moment he can't see out it so he is effectively blind. He is taking steroids and using steroids drops which are supposed to make it better. If that does not work they will have to do surgery and it is a complicated surgery to do. Please pray that the medicine will make things better, that he will have his sight restored to him. He was doing so well after his cornea transplant two years ago. He was able to see well enough to be confident to drive again and that was a blessing to him. He goes back to two different doctors this coming week. For now, all he can do is sit and wait. He seems to be in good spirits but I can't imagine how hard it is to sit around for so long not being able to see, hoping and praying things will get better.

Doodling Around in my Journal

I'm still hoping my muse will one day show back up. In the meantime, I bought some little tiny watercolor sets that were marked way down in the campus bookstore. I was trying to experiment with them, but I have come to realize that using watercolors is tricky (are tricky??). I changed the colors on this one in Photoshop.

I have also been playing around with colored pencils in my journal. It's not exactly the kind of stuff worth showing off, but it is relaxing to do, and if I keep doodling, maybe my muse will think I don't care if he ever shows back up, and will join me!

It's corny, but true, one must never lose hope.


I added a black background to this one where my white page was in my journal. Since before the first of the year, we have been attending a different church. Here, they tend to jump around a lot, leaving you with lots of stuff to think about. I don't mind that so much, but I had grown accustomed to standard "three point outline" sermons at my old church so it's taken a bit of adjusting on my part.

It seems that in addition to the physical stuff I've been dealing with due to the diabetes, I am also doing a bit of spiritual work too. Not so much yet that I want to write about, but it's where my mind has been lately.

Is Anybody Still Out There??

It's been a while, I know. It's just that I don't feel like I have much worth writing about. And I have been looking at some of your blogs and know I have missed so much. It's hard to think about trying to catch up. I probably won't catch up, to tell you the truth.

My father had a mild heart attack on April 1st. There was little to no damage to his heart. We are very grateful for that. He did have to have three stints put in and is now doing very well.

I've lost a total of 18 pounds and dropped a size or two since I've started having to watch what I eat. I did blood work last week and those numbers were good too. The diabetes is now in what is considered the "well-managed" category. With a little more effort and attention, I can possibly get my numbers down to where it is considered in remission. I have not yet started an exercise program. That would probably jump start things a little more. I do walk nearly every day across campus to get the mail and run other errands, so I am not sitting all day long! I need to get out and buy myself some new pants at least. Mine are starting to get pretty droopy!

There are some serious budget cuts coming at work but I think my job is still fairly safe. Our department is lucky in that we have grant money that can't be cut.

I have not done any photography lately, or worked on any of my artsy-fartsy things. I don't know what's up with that.

Recent Reading

"Terrible defects"? Or "doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives"?

"First, although God calls us all toward more perfect life, we cannot personally achieve the state of perfection. We can and should do our very best to move in that direction, struggling with every resource we have, but we must also accept the reality of our incompleteness. Second, we need to recognize that the incompleteness within us, our personal insufficiency, does not make us unacceptable in God's eyes. Far from it; our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and for love. It is what draws us toward God and one another. If we do not fill our minds with guilt and self-recriminations, we will recognize our incompleteness as a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace. We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves. But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives. Then we may begin to appreciate our inherent, God-given lovableness."

Gerald May--Addiction and Grace

More to come...

Three Things

Facebook is okay, but I still like blogging better, when I have something to write about.

I started working in Photoshop on an old photo my sister gave me and I don't quite know yet what I am going to do with it. But I had a chance to look through the Somerset Apprentice magazine today and work and I am somewhat inspired so I imagine something will come of my efforts.

One of our students will not be returning to school after the Mardi Gras holiday. She died as a result of an accident on the parade route in one of the smaller towns around here. Such a tragic accident.

I Had an Excellent Title for this Post

But I forgot it!

I am feeling much better. I still have a bit of a dry cough and a squeak to my voice, but I imagine I will live!

I joined Facebook, and have been playing around over there the last couple of days. Some of you know that already, but if you don't know it, and are on Facebook yourself and want to be my friend, let me know, and we'll become friends! I joined under my real name so you might need to contact me for that information. I debated whether to do it that way, because I am mixing some of my real life people with some of my cyber-peeps and sometimes that can be a bit scary. For now, I am keeping my blog away from Facebook, for several reasons. I'm not quite ready to come out of the blogging closet! Just today, one of the professors said said something about something on her Facebook page, and told me "We need to get you on here, it would be fun." I don't know yet about my fellow employees seeing my Facebook page (and I am sure I don't want them seeing my blog). But I imagine it will happen before too long (seeing me on Facebook). And I will deal with it then. I'm just funny about stuff, pretty much a private person. And I have thought about what a paradox it is to call myself a private person when I have been writing this blog all these years. I'm not sure what that says about me. I'll have to think about that.

Now I need to get caught up with my blogging. I know some of you have written a ton of stuff that I have missed!

I'll be around...