Now THIS is a Dream Come True...

Every year, IWU books a good concert for homecoming weekend. I heard rumor this summer that the concert this year was the Gaither Vocal Band. I didn't so much believe it because I also heard that it hadn't been arranged until March...and it seemed illogical to me that the official Homecoming concert would not have been scheduled by that date. But then when I read it in print...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I told my Mom that after the year I've had, it must be a special message of love from God Himself that David Phelps would be on the schedule at my 10 year reunion. You can choose to think otherwise if you'd like, but you're not going to change my mind. :)

I bought tickets to go with my sister and with Isaac, but my sister couldn't come and obviously after the breakup, Isaac couldn't come either, so Jenny went with me. I was so thankful she was there!

The concert was in our new chapel/auditorium. We were very fortunate to have this concert at all, because the Vocal Band doesn't go to a venue of less than 6000...but after Bill and Gloria were on campus for the World Changers convocation in March, Bill decided he wanted to do a concert here, so.....it began! Kevin Williams (the GVB guitar player) opened things up....

And then Bill came out to sing Old Friends.

Buddy Greene did a little bit on the guitar/harmonica.

And then...happiness on a stage. They opened with one of my all-time favorites: Alpha and Omega. In case you're not the diehard that I am, let me give you a little tour of the group. Left to right...David Phelps, Mark Lowry, Michael English, Wes Hampton, Bill Gaither.

Wes Hampton - doing a little Journey to the Sky - with Mark looking on.

David sang Nessun Dorma. I had previously warned the lady on the other side of me that I'm not right when it comes to David, and I don't think she believed me. I do think that scared her, though. Bless her heart. :)

I could seriously listen to him sing this song all day. I've been known to sing it over and over in my car. I know all the words. Sometimes I remember what a few of them mean.

He was on fire with that song last night!

I would like to take this moment to say that my boss ended up getting a front row seat at the last minute. I paid her a visit at intermission to let her know she may or may not have a friend in me come Monday. :) Good thing she loves me.

Okay are you tired of David pictures now? (The acceptable answer here is NO.)

My sister loves Michael English, so I tore the camera lens away from David long enough to take some of Michael for her. What do you think - 8x10 of this for her for her birthday?

These five have a great time singing, that's for sure!

On their latest project, David also does the old song He's Alive. Don Franciso's (?) song...he does a phenomenal job of it. (Of course.)

Great, great job.

I was sad that this one was blurry!

Our University Chorale sang with them on a few songs, and about 150 alumni singers came back to sing as well. It was very powerful - both to see and to hear!

They did one of my favorites - You Are My All in All. Love that song - love this arrangement!

Mark told some great stories...and did a fantastic job of singing, of course.

Toward the end of the concert, I got too hot (stupid broken body thermometer!) and felt sick so I had to go out and get some fresh air. When I came back in for the concluding songs - including Let Freedom Ring - I got some different perspective pictures. Yes, I took my camera with me. I was sick, not stupid!

That picture above shows you how far back I really was. (Didn't use zoom on it at all.) But below you can see how great my camera did with the detail! Jonathan is in Chorale and he was almost to the very back/top of the Chorale. But I found him!

We joined them to sing Greatly Blessed...Highly Favored.

All in all, a GREAT concert. GREAT. The perfect ending to a very fun weekend with friends from days gone by and friends from now, too.

This was my new concert outfit. (Thanks, Megan, for getting it all in the picture!) And of course, you know Jonathan. He wasn't from my college class, but I had to get a picture of him for the scrapbook, because he's been a great encouragement and support in these recent, difficult months.

Ten Years Out....

It has been one VERY FULL weekend. That was good, in many ways, because it kept me occupied nonstop for two whole days. But am I ever exhausted today! I took a three hour nap starting the minute I got home from church because I was just wiped out. I didn't even eat lunch first!

Yesterday was the official 10-year reunion day. It started with class receptions for all the 10 year interval classes. The receptions were held in Teter Cafe, which is this little Applebees-style corner of our dining hall. It's named after one of the original buildings on campus, Teter Hall, (it no longer stands) and has a lot of old college memorabilia in it.

Dr. Smith made the rounds talking to each of us, which I thought was very nice.

This is my friend, Amy. She got married after our sophomore year of college, but she'd still hang out in our campus apartment in between classes. Very fun friend!

Jenny went with me too. (She stayed at my house Friday night and we stayed up until about 1 in the morning talking and having fun!)

The lovely ladies of Eastburn....Bekah, Jenny, Amy, and Faith.

After the reception, we were supposed to have lunch out at the athletic fields. As you can see, the weather wasn't exactly conducive...so we had lunch inside instead. But we still went out for a walk around campus. Lovely day for a tour!!

Faith and Amy had lived in Shatford House their freshman year....

I played "official tour guide" since I had given campus tours this summer. That day was much nicer. No umbrella needed then!

The hall of world changers with all the bronze busts that scare me.

Since no one was in the prayer chapel when we went in...I took a few pictures. I cannot tell you how much I love this place. This is the front. The sculpture is of Jesus agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's holding a cup in His hand (to symbolize "let this cup pass from me").

The beautiful stained glass window above the door to the chapel...

The pews and windows....

Outside the chapel....

Jenny and I lived in Evans Hall our first two years of college....

After we toured campus, we went back in the Student Center to get some coffee from McConn. When we were students, McConn was an old church building that had been converted into the cutest little coffee shop. They ended up tearing it down to build something else, and the new coffee shop was named McConn in its honor. Faith tried out one of their candy frappes...

And I had a London Fog. It's some sort of chai, I think. SO GOOD.

All in all...a great day with my friends. Great day of reliving memories of classes, friends, professors, and crazy stuff we did!

There is one more "little" detail about homecoming to report, so come back tomorrow!!

Homecoming Alumni Banquet

It's true.

I'm not old enough to have been out of college for ten years.

But somehow I ended up receiving notifications that this year was my ten year reunion from IWU. Since I work there, Homecoming is usually just another weekend out of the year for me, but this year I decided to participate since it was monumental!

Last night was the alumni banquet, so I thought I'd let you see what sorts of fun took place. I do have to make a significant disclaimer about the photography. I had MAJOR camera drama yesterday. My camera requires 4 batteries at a time to operate. I have two identical sets of rechargeable batteries and yesterday I charged up one set, dumped them in the camera bag, and off I went. Problem was...they were mixed in with the uncharged batteries...and I didn't know which ones were "good!" So all night I had to keep swapping out batteries, hoping for a magic combo. As a result, my camera kept dying during photos and the focus on some is just awful. So sorry!


Okay. This year's theme for Homecoming is....

And last night was the banquet for all alumni. Those who had been out of college for 50 and 60 years were honored by name, but the banquet was open to any alumni...

You know Faith. You've seen her on here before. Faith and I met in college when we became roommates in a (no longer existing...sniff, sniff) apartment. I met her through my roommate, who had gone to high school with her. So last night, we were banquet buddies!!

My good friends Bill and Kristin. Kristin and I work together, but we first met in college. (Kristin is my voice of wisdom on a daily basis and Bill is the advisor of all my electronics purchases!)

Dr. Newman kind of ran the program for the evening. He is (according to the handy dandy schedule we received) the VP for University Relations.

Camera goes dead blurry picture #1. :( This is our current president, Dr. Henry Smith. He has been our president for the last four years, I believe.

This is Dr. Barnes, who was the president when I was a student. (I think they said yesterday he was president of IWU for 19 years overall.) Yesterday they named the Student Center in his honor. (Well, and his wife's, too.)

It's true. Jonathan is EVERYWHERE. :) At the end of the banquet, one of the student groups sang us a lil song. The group, One Voice, magically has Mr. Jonathan in it! I don't think he knew I was back there, but it was so nice of him to look at the camera for me.

After the banquet, there were some dessert receptions around the Barnes Student Center, and this was one of them. The Wind Ensemble alums played some selections....and Miss Kristin (see above photo) was one of the participants!

And then down in the piazza...look who was singing! Yep, it was Chorale. Here, they were singing their Rain out of Africa song. That's probably not even remotely close to what it's really called, but I know all those words appear in the song at some point in time.

I HATE it that this picture is blurry. They invited the chorale alums up to sing my favorite (though I highly doubt that's why they sang it) - A Mighty Fortress. Jenny, my college roomie, was in Chorale, so she went up to sing. That's her on the end in the front row. I was SUCH a Chorale groupie in college.

Camera is really really going dead...so we didn't have a chance to see that we needed to redo this one so Jenny could smile! :( Faith, Jenny, and me. We sat back here at this table and talked forever, even after the Chorale stopped singing.

They invited the alums back up to sing A Mighty Fortress again...because Dr. Barnes had missed it the first time. If you'd like to play a little game of "Where's Jonathan?" - he's in there!

After we were all done, we took a walk around campus. I wanted to take some pictures because the buildings are so pretty all lit up. "Some" turned in to "one" because of the battery issue. This is the little prayer chapel I love so much.

Show Us Your Life: My Confused Dining Room

I like for every room in my home to have a nice theme and purpose. They don't all have to match each other, but I like for them to be put together on their own. The one room in my home that has NEVER succeeded is my dining room. It is so confused, poor thing!


Well, to be honest, THIS is my dining room:
It's true. I'm one of those people who eats on the couch in front of the TV. GASP!! I was not raised to do that. We always ate dinner as a family while sitting around the table. And if I had a family, I'd carry on that tradition. But it's just me and I can be a rebel, so I eat right here.


Having said that, I do have a dining room, so here it is in all its purposeless glory!


The lady who lived here before me also wallpapered the ceiling of this room. But it's never been painted, like the living room, so here it is - au naturale.

Right now, my dining room holds three bookshelves. That won't be the case much longer, as Dad is about to build some bookshelves in my new office. But for now...

...meet the nonfiction shelves. I l-o-v-e books. LOVE them.

I also have this beautiful poem, which my friend Sarah wrote. Sarah was a temp in our office a few years ago and she and I became very good friends during that time. We shared a lot of struggles over singleness and finding God's purpose for us, so when Sarah wrote this, she wanted to share it with me. It is a beautiful comfort and challenge, and I love displaying it in my home.

More pictures!! :) This is my twin. I mean my niece. Isn't it scary how much we look alike?

After visiting the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to get some pumpkins for the dining room table centerpiece. I put them on a meat platter. :)

Yes, I do have a dining room table. When I first moved into this house, my sister Lori passed down to me the HUGE dining room table my grandparents used to have in this house. (I think Lori had owned it since she got married 25 years ago.) I loved the table, but it was huge and took up more space than my house has to offer. So I bequeathed it to a friend of mine and bought this high square table instead. It's GREAT for scrapping. My back doesn't hurt nearly as much! Oh and I put it together myself, thankyouverymuch.

If I had to declare a theme for this room, it would be the "heritage" room. I have a lot of pictures of my family in here. A few years ago, my aunt made this collage of my grandma's early-year pictures. It was a gift for Mom, but I loved it so much that I asked for one of my own. This is the grandma who lived in this house where I live.

And my grandpa...

The fiction bookshelf. I haven't read a ton of fiction in recent years, so these are mostly the books I grew up on, but I love them so....

A few years ago, I made one of these for myself, my parents, and each of my sisters. One side has all our baby pictures....

And the flip side has us now....

I am not anti-Halloweeen, but I don't like to get super crazy with decorations for it. Some are just way too creepy and some are way too cheesy. I noticed that this year, Meijer has some "classier" Halloween decorations. I liked this one.

OOH! Who is this in my dining room???? Hey David Phelps!

I have a buffet (since the table...when used...is too small to hold place settings and food...) and Mom gave me one of these charger stacker thingies. (Official term...feel free to use.) I have Indian corn on it for the fall.

My mirror above the buffet. It was a $100 mirror from Hobby Lobby that I got for $20 because it had a chip in the top. Eventually (when I figure out the color scheme and purpose of this room) I'd like to paint the edge of the mirror because I'm not crazy about the gold.

This also will be relocated shortly (I'm developing a "princess nook" for the house) but for now it's above the door...

Hopefully one of these days I'll settle upon a color and point to the dining room. For now - it's the hodge podge of the house!