Elvis Shoes

These belong to my neighbor across the hall. I smile every time I walk out the door and see them!

Memory Books

After more than a month of papers and photos taking over my office floor, I buckled down and finally finished the mini scrapbooks I made for Ben's Dad and siblings, commemorating our bittersweet trip downtown Chicago before Christmas. It was a crucial time for our family, and the art of creating something from it was somewhat therapeutic.

April Showers Bring...Newton Birthdays!

This year I celebrated my birthday in Minneapolis. While mostly busy with a conference that ran all weekend, I did have a few little treats that made the day sweeter.
(On a side note, this blazer is finally making an appearance after two years of ownership)

After mentioning to one of the hotel staff working the breakfast line, three of them serenaded me by singing "Happy Birthday" and presenting me with a very tasty cinnamon swirl multi-grain muffin-complete with a candle to blow out!

Luke and Kristina picked us up and we went to Sebastian Joe's in Uptown for dessert and gift opening :) Ben was super excited about this Justin Morneau bobble head, as you can see.

What I Do For a Living

March Madness Week 3: Comm Lab

Over the years working in campus ministry, I have had enough opportunities to speak in large group settings that I can't count them on one hand. It's not at all a main part of my job, but the opportunity presents itself often enough that I see a need and have the desire to grow in this area and be a better presenter. The same is true of Ben, although he is an excellent communicator, and it is in fact one of his top 5 strengths on his StrengthsFinder analysis. So even though we would be coming off of two weeks of conferences in Florida, we decided 3 days of training in the area of public speaking would serve us well. Thus we began our journey Monday morning from New Orleans to an Indianapolis suburb where Keynote was holding the conference. (Keynote is Cru's creative communication ministry).

I was a little nervous coming into the training, not looking forward to being critiqued and watching myself on video, but after hearing the emcee lay out the purpose of the training, I quickly became excited to grow and learn from the professionals around me. She said something to the effect of helping us become effective painters, and how even though we have an awesome message, we sometimes distract from it by communicating poorly. This week we would learn to get rid of those distractions. This excites me, because each time I go to speak at a weekly meeting on campus or a retreat, I wrestle with things like, "Am I handing God's word accurately?", "Am I engaging enough?","Do I sound too monotone?"

Some things I took away from the first day's sessions:
-Communicating from up front is more of a sport than a science.
-You really need to practice.
-Effectiveness in teaching is largely dependent upon how your message is delivered, rather than simply what is being taught.
-When I speak up front, it's not about me, so I need to be humble for my audience in order to best serve them.
-Doing things like holding eye contact for 5 seconds may feel awkward, but it will form a bond with individuals and help them to connect with what I'm saying.
-Keynote has some very talented staff!
-Being recorded and having to watch myself speak isn't as scary as I thought it would be!

I'm excited for what the next two days will bring and what I will learn from "the Tims" (Tim Downs & Tim Muelhoff) and my coach. Hopefully this will be the start of a strong foundation to build on for the years to come.

48 Hours In Crescent City

Week 2 at Big Break ended and I celebrated by going to a walk-in clinic to get antibiotics to treat a recurring ear infection. :/ It was actually an easy process and I'm so thankful for the relief! It was Friday, and the first day we had rain our entire time in Florida. Not bad! It was a day of rest before heading out on our next adventure: New Orleans!

Since we travel a lot for our job, I like to tack little adventures onto trips that take us to parts of the country we wouldn't normally go to. Last year we went to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and the year prior we stopped for dinner & walked down Broadway St. in Nashville. This year, we wanted to do something a little more exciting. And what could be more exciting than New Orleans? Seriously-I didn't know how much fun it would be.

The only plan we made was a minibus tour I found through a Groupon deal. It started the minute we pulled into town and lasted three hours. It gave us a great overview of the city's districts and what's still happening to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We learned that a few stars had homes in both the French Quarter and the Garden District, so we got to snap a few shots of those. We visited City Park, which is twice the size of Central Park in NYC. The rest was spontaneous and totally unplanned. We went to the French Market, and were fortunate to be there during the Roadfood Festival that comes once a year. Shrimp Creole, baked Alaskan with chocolate sauce (which I didn't realize was a dessert), Jambalya, Red Beans & Rice, Crawfish-We tried it all! I couldn't resist buying a cheap Mardi Gras mask from the market.

After dinner at Pat O'Brien's and a walk down Bourban Street we walked to our hotel just outside the French Quarter. It was a treat in and of itself. Having booked it over the phone without seeing it or being able to know if it would be close enough to the Quarter, I was a little nervous. But it was just the right distance away-in fact we are glad we didn't stay in the Quarter in the midst of the craziness. The hotel, the Holiday Inn Superdome, was modernly decorated, very clean & comfortable, and had an awesome rooftop pool. We couldn't have found anything better for the price.

It was a perfect vacation. We tried a lot of great food (Biegnets at Cafe Du Monde, boiled crab and seafood pizza at Deanie's, daiquiris at one of the many daiquiri shops), walked really fun streets in the Garden District & French Quarter, took hundreds of pictures on our new camera, slept in at a hotel we were in no hurry to get out of, and just enjoyed being together in a new city.
And-I didn't even mention our Favre-themed stops that flanked our NOLA trip. On the way there, we stopped in Kiln, MS where he was born and raised. On the way out, we hit up The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS where he played college football. This was an unplanned treat that we happened upon. Literally, we saw a sign, learned it was just 4 miles from the interstate, and drove right into the stadium parking lot. The field was unsecured and open for anyone to walk on. Ben was like a kid in a candy shop. Yes, we did find a foam finger at the bookstore across from campus :)

A French Quarter street's hitching posts (a rest stop for horses).

Recognize the house? It'sthe old folks home from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." We also saw Sandra Bullock, Sean Penn, Bradgelina's and Lenny Kravitz's places among others.

We happened upon these street performers on our way to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. I love this kind of thing, where people use their strength and skill to entertain pedestrians. It was a blast!








The beignets were delicious! Check out that powdered sugar falling off!

March Madness: Week 1

Over the next few days I'll be writing about the road trips and conferences Ben and I have experienced throughout the month of March. We've traveled over 2,500 miles and seen a lot of new sights along the way! On the 9th we took off for Panama City Beach, FL in our faithful Saturn, along with our friend and co-worker Jonny. The ride was surprisingly quick-probably because it was so fun (and I didn't have to drive much. Thanks guys!) The weather in PCB was the nicest yet during any Big Break conference I have been to in previous years. This was my fourth-at least-I can't remember if I went twice as a student.

Marquette and UW-Parkside students arrived eagerly and a bit anxious for the week of being taught from featured speakers and sharing their faith on the beach. We had a LOT of students come who had never ever shared their faith before, let alone been to Big Break. It was a great week of seeing these students step out and trust God to use them to love on people and listen to them. In particular, Ben and I are excited to see the momentum back on campus at UWP, as one of the girls said she wants to have a weekly time where people gather to go and initiate spiritual conversations with other students on campus. They saw God work through them during this week and want to make it a lifestyle, as we are called to do as followers of Christ.

The week was filled with bonding, and we especially loved getting to live life with students off campus, which is hard for us since we live out of town. Below, Kat and Halima learn to use Soularium, a tool that uses pictures to ask people about their life experiences and view of God.
This group of students left Saturday morning, and just hours later we greeted the UWM group to do the whole thing over. I prayed that God would help me to hear the speakers and experience this week with fresh perspective, not thinking that since I was there the week before that I could just check out mentally. It proved to be a bit of a struggle through the week, and I needed to pull away at times to think and process experiences & what I was learning-but God answered that prayer and taught me what it really means to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Girls share about a fruitful conversation they had on the beach one afternoon.


Over 100 students attended an optional morning seminar that taught them about apologetics and the importance of understanding a variety of worldviews.