March 30: coat rack

The inanimate object week continues...

March 29: Katie's spice basket

This week being my first week back on campus, I've felt like I have been sobusy catching up that I keep forgetting to take pictures....thus I get to the end of the day and remember,
"oh yeah...I should have taken a picture of___. whoops!" So, tonight I found Katie's spices to be a nice subject for a picture. I'm running out of indoor pictures to take!

March 28: tulips at Northview

March 27: the treasure chest

March 26: freshness

We've been missing access to good produce lately, but today Katie was able to stop at the market and stock up. This is all the good food spread out before we figured out how to fit it into the refrigerator.

March 25: captive audience

We have a friend on a reality television show. It really adds to the viewing experience when you have vested interests in the outcome. And actually, speaking of vests, it sure is fun to see Joe's wardrobe again. You've got flair good sir and we're all rooting for you Joe! There certainly was a lot of gasping and screaming at the "to be continued...."

March 24: I.S.iversary

Today is a day to celebrate at The College of Wooster -- I.S. Monday is a holiday around here. All the seniors have to turn in their Independent Study Thesis' by 5:00. You get a tootsie roll and a button with the number in which you turned it in printed on the front. That might not seem very gratifying, but between that and the parade that follows, somehow it works! The whole class congregates at that time and the bagpipes play and a parade romps through campus. There are always a few stragglers who just make it in time...everyone is always cheering for them! I think I will celebrate my I.S.iversary for the rest of my life and it was exciting to be around so many excited students -- Good job Julie, Erik, Kirsten, Sarah! I'm really proud of you all!

March 23: Family Jenga

My dad has some incredible Jenga moves (generally)...he like to lift the entire stack with one hand and flick out the lone bottom piece with his ring finger. This move is probably illegal in most homes, but we're generally all so impressed that we just go with it. Here, was not one of those impressive attempts.

March 22: flowers

Thanks Hannah for brightening up our apartment!

March 21: 100%

Today in the mail I received a package from my friend Julie. I was confused at first, because as you may be able to put together from my last few pictures, I'm almost 75 years away from my 100th birthday. No, these candles are to celebrate that I have finally gotten 100% of the needed financial committments neccessary for me to be on staff this year! For all of you who have been a part of that, thank you! Your prayers, gifts, and pep talks have all been a part of making this happen. It's really nothing short of a miracle to me that it's all come in. While, I might still need some pep talks and prayers as I push forward to make this situation sustainable -- (the next few months I'm going to work really hard to get the regular monthly provision up to 100% too)...for now, I'm just grateful for all that has happened with this. We've had a lot of cake around here this week, so Julie suggested that I use the candles on whatever green vegetable I pleased. Here we have the aspapagus 100% dish. It was very tasty.

"Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing." Psalm 34: 9-10

March 20: Oh to see the dawn, of the darkest day...

Tonight, for Maundy Thursday, Charlie and Valerie had a Tenebrae service in their living room. I'm really glad they did. I learned some new things too -- first I always wondered what on earth "Maundy" meant -- it is from the Latin "mandatum novum" meaning the "new commandment" because Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. "Tenebrae" is the Latin word for "darkness" or "shadows" and was a service held by the early Christians. As we read through the stories of the hours leading up to the crucifixion the sky got darker and the candles were blown out one by one. We all left in the darkness and in silence -- a helpful preperation for the rememberence of Christ's death and resurrection .

March 19: balloons in tulle

March 18: cake

The InterFaith campus ministries staff went to this nice inn in Millersburg for a few days to meet and enjoy each others company while the students are on spring break. Linda and I got this nice cake (which was delicious) for our birthdays. This has been a great week of birthday celebrating!

March 17: Andy's colorful hand

Today, Katie and I learned a lot about fish. Our friend Andy who is part of our Monday night dinner parties is the head of the pet-department at Wal-mart. He has fish medicine all over his hands. Apparently, fish get illnesses that are treatable. Yes they do. And with a little blue medicine, then can be back to normal in three days. We had to go there today to buy a new home for my goldfish - Sacapunta and Desafortunadamente, as theirs got destroyed yesterday. It was a moment of panic, but they are all just fine. Don't you worry. We also got a new snail today named Phil. He's going to be like an algae vacuum cleaner.

March 16: Birthday Sandwich

We had a nice birthday party for Katie S., me, and Katie K! We all like that our birthdays come three in a row because then we can celebrate together and none of us has to be the center of attention. It works out very nicely like that. Katie K. and Julie D., the bakers that they are, made some very amazing pizzas for us to eat. It was a really fun night!

March 15: 25 trips around the sun

March 15th....Julius Caesar was murdered, 10,000 zealots committed mass suicide at Masada, the buzzards come back to Hinkley...and I WAS BORN!!! Yay! I like to think that I can maybe add a little brightness to the calendar on that day, because it's got kind of a rough past. I just love birthdays. I love that we all have one and that they come every year. And I've always liked being born in March. Spring is my favorite season, it just sort of starts feeling like spring in March and it always sort of feels like a new beginning. I made my annual birthday trip to the West Side market to have falafel with my dad and brother Bill. And we ate up in the balcony, the best kept secret in town. It was a nice surprise to see you there Case friends! Good day. My mom made me mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner, and we had lemon cake with my family. And my grandparents recounted how they met and how great it is that my great-grandma let my grandma go out on a date with my grandpa because otherwise there might not have been an Annie -- I enjoy those kinds of historical conversations a whole lot. And now I'm tired and think I will go to bed. Hope you had a good Ides of March too!

March 14: laundry

There was a lot of this going on today.

March 13: Cleveland Skyline (ob-vi-ous-ly!)

These guys made for a wonderful week. These are students from Case, Clarion, Cleveland State, Marietta College, Penn State Behrend, The College of Wooster, and Youngstown State University! I was grateful that they were willing to spend their spring break in Cleveland, Ohio to see what God is doing to revive this hurting city. We had a "Blizzard Version" of the Urban Plunge this year as the snow kept us from starting on time, but as you can see here the delay didn't prevent us from having fun together. (The staff team of Stephanie, me, and Joyce are being gargoyles, in case you were wondering)

March 12: resilient hood snowman

Today on the Cleveland Urban Plunge we got to introduce a very special guest to Cleveland - Randy White came to us all the way from Fresno, California! While he had some time on his hands in the parking lot, he made this miniature snowman for my car. It was a pretty determined little thing...making it all the way from E.55th street to W.25th completely upright. It was great to have you here Randy! Thanks for coming to be with us and sharing some of the wisdom God has given you in your life spent finding where Jesus lives and moving in with him.

March 11: molly and ellie

Two vivacious young ladies from Penn State Behrend

March 10: The postal service re-thinks its motto...

I really enjoyed this postman checking out his mail truck.

March 9: lakewood

Admittedly a bad picture...but you get the idea. There is a lot of snow here. Tonight, I'm at my parents' house and it's nice and warm inside. Soooooooo, fair warning about the upcoming few days. I'm going to be leading a trip to Cleveland for InterVarsity students and won't have internet access for a few days. I will be taking pictures though and will let you see them when I return!

March 8: snow-day!

So, the the urban project that I'm directing is not starting today as planned and I enjoyed staying in my pajamas all day and not having to do anything! I love when that happens. You know what else I love? I love those rare moments when I see neighbor helping neighbor. Yes, you may think that that comment is laden with cheese, but I am absolutley serious. We as a culture just really don't know our neighbors at all these days. Today Katie and I learned some new things about Sean who helped us dig out our cars so that the plow could come through and we could park under the garage. It was nice.

March 7: popcorn

Tonight I ate popcorn and enjoyed being snowed in.

March 6: BONUS

So, tonight was my first night back at Oasis after a semester of support raising! In the blur of it all, I managed to leave two very important things on my chair when I left...my Bible and my camera. Whoops! But, thankfully, as the students were cleaning up they grabbed them for me and left me with this little morsel of delight - a great bonus picture of the day. I'm not exactly sure what prompted this, but it doesn't even matter...I can just imagine the conversation that preceded what you see here and that is good enough for me.

March 5: berry on ice

March 4: fish tails

It's been a while since I took a picture of these guys. I tried to take a picture today of my expiring driver's liscense because it is one of the best pictures I have of myself (I don't know what it is about me and photo id's but suddenly I become photogenic in front of the blue screen.....aye...why?!) and I have to turn it in....but alas, I was not ver successful on that front. So, here you have Desafortunadamente and Sacapunta floating around.

March 3: InterVarsity in East Central Ohio

This is my InterVarsity staff team of colleagues (plus a well loved staff-in-law and a very supportive roommate too!) We've been through a lot together over the last three years, helping each other on our campuses, praying for and encouraging one another, and singing with gusto around pianos across Ohio (one of my favorite parts of our meetings together). Today was no exception. We had lunch together at the Barn in Wooster. We realized that there are many sharp things and farming impliments dangling precariously from the ceiling. But it's all worth the risk for the honey butter.

March 2: index

Contemporary church music from 1987 has a certain feel about it...Katie found this little gem of an index and we were reminiscing about our childhoods' full of these "contemporary hits". We were both pretty happy that for the most part we've moved beyond that stage.

March 1: flower

FEBRUARY PICTURE OF THE MONTH

It's that time again, to vote on your favorite pictures of the month!

Click on 'Comments' to leave yours.

Also, guess what? I just got the internet installed at my apartment (thank you Al Gore)....so now I can update these pictures for your procrastinating pleasure, daily!

Many of you have been asking me what MY favorite pictures of the month have been. So here you are...the top three (I am very indecisive) of each moth.

1. September 5: Face-off
2. September 9: One Disgruntled Clown
3. September 19: Smile

1. October 24: Flowers in Oct.
2. October 29: Ohio
3. October 21:Why is there a tree in your kitchen?

1. November 3: A Duck
2. November 8: Lowry Paper Pile-up
3. November 9: Match

1. December 25: Talking with Great Grandma
2. December 1: Last of the Pumpkins
3. December 14: Stars on Ice

1. January 27: Hannah's Hat
2. January 16: Steamer
3. January 17: Not What I ordered

I realized that my favorite from each month was usually one I took spontaneously and somehow captured a moment just as I saw it. That is very gratifying!

There are two other common themes of what I liked best. One is that there are images that just struck me as funny (like the two people with orange hair in the same frame) or the newspaper stand even though neither of those are very good pictures in any other sense. The other theme is when someone, like my dentist or the random people I met in Chicago posed for a picture for me. I find those pictures most charming because I associate them with the conversations leading up to the picture and the fact that those people were willing to respond to my request so perfectly! It's impossible to separate myself from the sentimentality of meeting new people and taking their pictures. I'm sure there are probably rules about in photography class...but since I have never taken one I guess I don't really have to abide by those rules!

So, yes, those are my official opinions up to this point. It makes me happy to know that you pay attention to my pictures every day and that you have opinions about them too. It's added some sort of little spice to my life (I'm not exactly sure what spice it would be, but you know....)

February 29: the challenge

The swiss-army knife corkscrew didn't cut it...it actually broke and got stuck inside. This is one of my oldest, dearest friends, Abby giving it her best effort. We then remembered we had neighbors (funny how you forget, geesh) and they helped us solve the problem. It was very gratifying.

February 28: nightly picture battle

I wanted to give you a taste of the nightly picture battle that usually takes place with my roommate. It can get pretty exciting and hilarious as she tries to evade my snapping away.