This was fun to put together.
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Thursday, July 1, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A birthday in status updates.
I make Oliver oats with frozen blueberries.
Shane runs to the store for milk and then calls me, “Will you start throwing together ingredients for crepes?”
Of course!
Oliver needs to pee.
Shane gets home and finishes making me crepes with hot blackberry filling. YUM.
Oliver wants to snuggle in our bed, so of course I’m going to make time for that. We all climb in and Shane sings me “Happy Birthday” hoping Oliver will join in. But he just smiles. And then blows on me at the end of the song as if I were a cake of 26 candles.
Between phone calls from family and finishing my hair and makeup I finally get out the door for work.
The car radio decided to play an Avett Brothers song making it a PERFECT drive to work (with almost all green lights!).
All I can think about the whole morning is my sister, Olivia, and how much I want to celebrate our birthday with her.
I recall one of our most memorable backyard birthday parties with lots of lights hung in the trees.
She got electrocuted because of a stupid staple in one of the cords.
She survived. It was a great party.
I’m greeted at work by a hug and “Happy Birthday” from Shelly, our receptionist, and colorful streamers hanging from my office door.
I open my email with TONS of Facebook notifications of happy greetings and take too much time reading them and smiling.
Dad calls singing to me in the most ridiculous way possible. Apparently not caring if his whole office hears how ridiculously he loves his daughter. (It wouldn't be a birthday without my dad singing obnoxiously at least once.)
Thanks to the streamers I get a lot of interruptions and random singing throughout the day (a total of 7 times the whole day).
I walk into the cafeteria as people are singing happy birthday to someone else (Sean) – how funny!
Barb is sure to tell them it’s my birthday too so everyone else turns to sing me happy birthday too.
Halfway through lunch Sean brings me his balloons and shares 2 huge pieces of chocolate cake with me.
Shane calls me at work to tell me I got a birthday package and card in the mail from my parents.
He wants to know if he can open it. The answer is NO. Only a Morgan would ask such a question.
It’s make-up day at work (which means nothing to anyone but the ladies in our front office). And I get first pick!
A pink rose.
Lemon tart.
More birthday greetings.
Am I ever going to get anything done today?
Shane calls again and tells me he was going to make me something tasty but realized we had only one egg.
So I need to pick up some eggs on my way home.
Listening to my Avett Brothers Pandora station helps me be more productive.
My mom sings a lot like June Carter Cash. Does she know that? Especially when I hear June and Johnny sing “Jackson
Should I call her and tell her?
No, get back to work.
It’s my boss’ wife’s birthday today.
It’s Eddie’s wife’s birthday today.
Volunteer Lynn
I call mom to tell her she sings like June Carter Cash.
Finally finish a couple projects at work.
Stop at the PO Box to check for birthday cards. Yay! One from my in-laws!
Shane tells me to not worry about picking up eggs.
Greeted at home with a little boy holding out his hand with a pretty rose…
…only to have him drop the rose in excitement to see balloons in the back of my car.
We make a delicious grilled chicken fettuccini alfredo meal with grilled Mexican squash.
Oliver is entertained the whole evening with the 9 balloons now scattered all over our house.
Have great, happy phone conversations with both my sisters.
I finish the day eating cherry chocolate chunk ice cream in a hot bath.
Happy 26 years to me and 29 to my sister, Olivia.
[My birthday balloons that were actually Sean's birthday balloons but are now Oliver's balloons]
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
First place for the first time.
Our UGM newsletter won First Place for printed newsletter and Best in Show for this year’s annual Media Awards for the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. We beat some of the largest rescue missions in the country who often hire outside firms for their publications and can afford full color. I just hope our newsletter can offer as much competition next year after redesigning its look to match our new brand!
"AGRM Media Innovation Competition was launched to recognize rescue missions who were making valuable progress in innovating print and online offerings. Call for entries attracted hundreds of submissions from rescue missions across the country in every budget size. AGRM awarded three Best in Show winners, as well as Award of Excellence, Award of Merit and Honorable Mention prizes for each category at the 2010 AGRM Conference in St. Charles, Illinois May 9-12. Congratulations to this years Media Innovation Competition award winners!"
The winner (a 6 page, 2-color newsletter with a response card and envelope to match):
Our new look for Mission News:
If you want to see an online archive of our newsletters and read what is current go here.
In other great news, our website got third place and we got second place for our Sucess Story.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
no doubt
(I have a tendency to type up something then post it later. This was written 4.30.10.)
Doubt is sometimes a fierce enemy. It arrives so casually disguised that it blends with your family, your work and all common ways of life. It can even become so familiar you start to believe it's your good friend who keeps you reasonable and far from danger. Well, I kicked Doubt out of my house this morning. It started telling me that I was not doing as well as I could, and that my talents were failing me and I wasn't trying hard enough. It's one thing for doubt to keep me from trying something risky...but to try to tell me who I am, and what I'm capable of and what my purpose is??? I can be just as fierce, Doubt. I know you'll probably come back, but I know better now what you look like.
* * * * *
There are a couple of high school seniors who want to raise money for the Mission with a ping pong tournament. They didn't know that UGM had a designer on staff that could help promote their event. One of the boys had drawn up a poster by hand and was going to make copies to hang, but was glad to turn the project over to me. But I told him I liked his poster. There were a couple of things I could help with to make the poster communicate the message more clearly, but I was inspired by his original and playful illustration. Somewhere along the line of adding fresh typography to the poster, I felt thankful for my job and the unique opportunities I get to help others. My projects are so diverse. One might be a direct ask on a billboard to help the homeless and poor of Spokane, and the next is making wallet-size meal punch cards for the guys who come to the Mission hungry. They might not look very exciting next to some of the edgy and new design work out there. And that's usually when I start to doubt. When I read blogs and look through creative magazines I feel rather unoriginal and stale. But the people I design for are so grateful, encouraged and surprised by my work. They feel honored, of all things! They say, "How did we get so lucky to have someone like you work for us?" And I blush because how on Earth do they really think that? They obviously don't look at design magazines and blogs. But I'm their designer. And I love them. And I will bust my butt to do an excellent job on their projects. Their affection for me and my work makes me so thankful for what I do. And if this is where God wants me, he can do wonders with me.
Here is the Ping Pong poster and the banner before I added a couple last pieces of information. Jake and Keinyn raised $150. That will provide 85-90 meals at the mission. I love young hearts for the poor.
Doubt is sometimes a fierce enemy. It arrives so casually disguised that it blends with your family, your work and all common ways of life. It can even become so familiar you start to believe it's your good friend who keeps you reasonable and far from danger. Well, I kicked Doubt out of my house this morning. It started telling me that I was not doing as well as I could, and that my talents were failing me and I wasn't trying hard enough. It's one thing for doubt to keep me from trying something risky...but to try to tell me who I am, and what I'm capable of and what my purpose is??? I can be just as fierce, Doubt. I know you'll probably come back, but I know better now what you look like.
* * * * *
There are a couple of high school seniors who want to raise money for the Mission with a ping pong tournament. They didn't know that UGM had a designer on staff that could help promote their event. One of the boys had drawn up a poster by hand and was going to make copies to hang, but was glad to turn the project over to me. But I told him I liked his poster. There were a couple of things I could help with to make the poster communicate the message more clearly, but I was inspired by his original and playful illustration. Somewhere along the line of adding fresh typography to the poster, I felt thankful for my job and the unique opportunities I get to help others. My projects are so diverse. One might be a direct ask on a billboard to help the homeless and poor of Spokane, and the next is making wallet-size meal punch cards for the guys who come to the Mission hungry. They might not look very exciting next to some of the edgy and new design work out there. And that's usually when I start to doubt. When I read blogs and look through creative magazines I feel rather unoriginal and stale. But the people I design for are so grateful, encouraged and surprised by my work. They feel honored, of all things! They say, "How did we get so lucky to have someone like you work for us?" And I blush because how on Earth do they really think that? They obviously don't look at design magazines and blogs. But I'm their designer. And I love them. And I will bust my butt to do an excellent job on their projects. Their affection for me and my work makes me so thankful for what I do. And if this is where God wants me, he can do wonders with me.
Here is the Ping Pong poster and the banner before I added a couple last pieces of information. Jake and Keinyn raised $150. That will provide 85-90 meals at the mission. I love young hearts for the poor.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
How do I live?
Today I can't stop the tears.
I had an emotional dream and wrote it down in my prayer journal even though it wasn't a prayer. Maybe later I'll share it. I woke up in relief that I was with Shane. That I chose him and he chose me. So much relief that I cried on his shoulder and shared with him the dream. He was relieved as well...mostly that I was crying tears of happiness and not sadness.
But then something else happened. On our way to church someone ran a red light at full speed and missed hitting us by 1 to 2 seconds. They would have t-boned us on the driver's side seriously injuring Shane and Oliver...maybe even killing them. Once again I was flooded with relief. I just cried and thanked God all the way to church and all through the service. Life can end in an instant. But somehow I am still walking this Earth with those I love next to me. How does it make you feel to know that in some cases, our life is completely out of our hands?
Personally, I feel like a piece of glass falling from the sky. Eventually I'll hit the ground. It's everyone's end. But more so, I feel a greater responsibility for what is in my hands. God has given me great gifts. I am thankful, SO THANKFUL. But I am also responsible. My awareness of life and its high value was heightened today. Every second is like pure water to me. How often do I experience life in this way?
___________________
Added later:
Just after I wrote this I read my friend's blog and felt like it was so closely related to what I am going through today. Read it here.
I had an emotional dream and wrote it down in my prayer journal even though it wasn't a prayer. Maybe later I'll share it. I woke up in relief that I was with Shane. That I chose him and he chose me. So much relief that I cried on his shoulder and shared with him the dream. He was relieved as well...mostly that I was crying tears of happiness and not sadness.
But then something else happened. On our way to church someone ran a red light at full speed and missed hitting us by 1 to 2 seconds. They would have t-boned us on the driver's side seriously injuring Shane and Oliver...maybe even killing them. Once again I was flooded with relief. I just cried and thanked God all the way to church and all through the service. Life can end in an instant. But somehow I am still walking this Earth with those I love next to me. How does it make you feel to know that in some cases, our life is completely out of our hands?
Personally, I feel like a piece of glass falling from the sky. Eventually I'll hit the ground. It's everyone's end. But more so, I feel a greater responsibility for what is in my hands. God has given me great gifts. I am thankful, SO THANKFUL. But I am also responsible. My awareness of life and its high value was heightened today. Every second is like pure water to me. How often do I experience life in this way?
___________________
Added later:
Just after I wrote this I read my friend's blog and felt like it was so closely related to what I am going through today. Read it here.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Appeal to my senses.
One of my favorite subjects for taking pictures is anything in the kitchen. Food, ingredients, table settings, etc. I don't know why, but I get SO inspired every time! It annoys Shane at times because he's ready to eat and I'm saying, "Don't touch it yet! It's so pretty, let me get the camera!"
The ladies I work with had a tea party as a celebration for our hard work on the 2010 Annual Banquet in March. We went to Taste and See which is a non-profit that partners with "local women's shelters to provide temporary employment, to prepare women to re-enter the work force." It's on the main floor of an historical mansion on the South Hill in Spokane which only adds to the atmosphere. I almost felt like I was wearing big long skirts and a colorful hat with white gloves as I walked up the steps. I was so inspired by the details of the house, and the display of finger foods and place settings on the table I could hardly sit down. ...Because I was taking pictures.
Here are some favorites: (I obviously didn't take the third one. But it's a good shot of everyone having a good time and of the whole table.) To see others not posted go here.
The ladies I work with had a tea party as a celebration for our hard work on the 2010 Annual Banquet in March. We went to Taste and See which is a non-profit that partners with "local women's shelters to provide temporary employment, to prepare women to re-enter the work force." It's on the main floor of an historical mansion on the South Hill in Spokane which only adds to the atmosphere. I almost felt like I was wearing big long skirts and a colorful hat with white gloves as I walked up the steps. I was so inspired by the details of the house, and the display of finger foods and place settings on the table I could hardly sit down. ...Because I was taking pictures.
Here are some favorites: (I obviously didn't take the third one. But it's a good shot of everyone having a good time and of the whole table.) To see others not posted go here.
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