Hail to the grad!

WooHoo!

Know of any good teaching jobs available? ;)

And the winner is....

ME!I was entirely honored and flattered tonight to receive the Cliff Schimmels Superior Performance Award (In case you can't tell, I'm holding a golden apple.). I looked up a little information about the award this evening, and I found a few snippets from local papers that had written up the information about recipients in past years.

Paper 1:
"The Cliff Schimmels Award for Excellence in Education is the oldest and most established of the awards given by Lee's graduate program in education. This award is named in honor of the late Dr. Cliff Schimmels, a nationally known educator who was a member of the Helen DeVos College of Education. The second award is the Gary L. Riggins Writing Award, named for the current director of Graduate Studies in Education. This award recognizes the best Master Level Thesis in the graduating class.

The award winners are nominated by a variety of professional educators including mentor teachers and university supervisors, and faculty research advisors. These nominations are then voted on by the graduate faculty and the award is presented annually at the Graduate Banquet prior to the summer graduation exercises.

Dr. Deborah Murray, dean of the Helen DeVos College of Education said, 'we are proud of these two exceptional candidates who represent the very highest standards in our Graduate Studies in Education Program.' "

Paper 2:

"The Cliff Schimmels Superior Performance Award is presented annually in memorial to Dr. Cliff Schimmels, a former professor in the HDCOE. Schimmels passed away in May of 2001 after 10 years at Lee. He was beloved by students and faculty and known for his passion and brilliance in teaching, writing, and cross-cultural education."

So, as you can see, it is pretty neat stuff that I was nominated and chosen to receive this award. I give it all to God. He has lead me every step of the way through this program, and it is amazing how much He has blessed me. Thank you Lord for blessing me, and please help me to continue to follow the path that you had placed before me.

How I feel about graduating next Saturday

Can you name that landmark?

Hint #1Hint #2
Hint #3
And because we're just so darn cute...

We took the youth at our church out for some local fun today. They have worked Ocoee Outreach this week, and this was our celebration for a job well done. We had a blast. It's a shame that they are minors because otherwise I would share our fantastic group pictures with you.

Can anyone guess where we are?

Camouflage

Sorry that I've been a bit MIA lately on the blog. I'm hoping to have some time this upcoming weekend to tell you about my "goings on." Until then, I leave you with pictures of the little guy I found in my garden this past week. As I took his picture from different angles, I marveled at the awesomeness of our God. He took the time to give even some of the littlest creatures their own defenses so that they can survive in the world. I think there are many reasons for nature to exist, and one of those reasons is to give us a constant reminder of our Father and Creator.

And on a separate note, the little dude is just nifty. I mean, he blends so well that you can barely see him! The school teacher in me has plans for these pictures. ;)

Have you asked any great questions today?

The other day when I was out taking some pictures of the garden and landscape, I looked down upon a beautiful flower. It had just rained, so it was drooping a bit from some collected precipitation.

I thought to myself, "How often do we take pictures of the front of a flower but neglect the hidden beauty beneath the surface?" I snapped a picture. It reminds me of our Creator. How often does He see the hidden beauty in us that we cannot see ourselves?
Have you asked any great questions today?

Life in the Wilderness

WARNING: If you're a bit squeamish when it comes to reptiles and/or reptiles eating rodents, you might want to stay away. I know I would have liked to stay away myself, but then life in the sticks doesn't always afford that luxury.

As I was sitting in my living room a movement from the front window caught my eye. If it weren't for my paranoia from the last snake encounter on our front porch, I would have just thought that it was a piece or rope or trim that managed to fall down to the ground. The sick feeling in my stomach told me otherwise. It's a snake...

I came out to find this "little" (probably 3 ft or more) guy outside.

I actually found him curled up in this position (below), constricting and eating a bat. There are some bats that have taken up residence in the outside wall of our cabin, and we keep them around because they are very beneficial mosquito predators. Once I'm back at work I want us to buy and set up a bat house that they can reside in. I'm fond of most small furry creatures, and I especially like ones who eat mosquitoes.

Although I was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible while I was taking pictures of this gorgeous snake and then sending them to my husband for his co-worker (who actually owns some snakes) to identify, I was a little too loud as I proceeded to shoo our cats inside They had come to see the commotion.

The snake decided to leave his prey (now dead, sob), and he headed back up the side of our house. If my not knowing if it was poisonous hadn't kicked in at that moment, I felt myself on the very edge of tearful hysteria as I realized it was headed back not only into our walls, but also to get another bat. (That's the bottom of our window frame.)

Turns out that this snake is a non-poisonous corn snake, and his marking are quite similar to this Wikipedia guy. Corn snakes are extremely beneficial as they eat rodents, small lizards, bats (sob), birds, and....bum da da bum!.....Copperhead snakes. They are good climbers, as you can see below, but surprisingly they actually don't like heights much.
So, any snake lovers out there will be glad to know that I did not kill this beautiful, beneficial corn snake, and instead I will live in extreme paranoia on my front porch for the new few weeks instead. lol. They really don't pose a danger to me or our cats even, but after all, I am a girl, and I don't really fancy coming in close contact with this or any other snake. But, I can admire the beautiful markings on its back and stomach. Thank you to....the creator of the zoom lens.