So it's been a while...

So, yeah, sorry about that. Since I last posted, I hired a new staff, went on a cruise to the Caribbean, finished my first professional year, got pregnant, and celebrated my 3rd anniversary with Justin. Now you are caught up ;-)

Currently, the baby thing seems to be getting the most attention so I'll start there. And probably end there to be honest.

We found out at the end of May that we will be bringing a Baby Turner into the world at the end of January. Yay! I've been wanting this for quite some time, but Justin warmed to the idea at the beginning of May, and lo and behold... a baby was conceived!

Today, I officially ended my first trimester. Another WAHOO moment! I'm not obviously showing yet, but I'm at that uncomfortable stage that people who don't know I'm pregnant just kind of glance at my belly over and over again in the middle of conversation.

Now, I get that it is offensive to ask someone when they are due when they aren't pregnant. But I never knew I could be offended at someone continuously looking at my belly and not saying anything. Its a lose lose really I guess, but still. This irritates me. I can't blame people for not staring, just stop taking glances. If I was gaining weight, and not pregnant, OH MY GOSH how rude is that?!

I can't wait to see my reaction to people when they realize I'm pregnant and start touching my stomach. I've decided I'm just going to touch theirs right back. When they look at me like that might be inappropriate, I'm just going to say, "You didn't ask me."

Incidentally, if you see me on the news, come bail me out ;-)

It took 8 years to finally find out...

I've been gradually letting people know what's going on in the pain department. Congratulations, you are one of the lucky few.

If you've known me for any length of time, you know I suffer from random bouts of pain in my abdomen. Just so you are certain, this is not agonizing pain. Its more inconvenient than anything. But when you experience it off and on for just short of a decade, it starts to get on your nerves.

The quest started my senior year of high school. One surgery, one very invasive test, several vials of blood, and the banishment of my modesty later and still no one is certain what is causing this. It could be endometriosis but we got rid of it. It could be IBS but probably not. It could be ovarian cysts (which was the most prevalent theory).

Well I gave up my senior year and just dealt with it. It eventually went away. It would come back every once in a while but not last long. I did some more test in college when it hung around a little longer than I liked. Still nothing. Other than finding out I had an inverted appendix... not that it matters.

Alas, we are to the last few months. The pain was back and I was almost certain it was a cyst. But then it never went away. Two months and still this pain is here. So I made another appointment. He thinks its probably and infection. Its not. Maybe its a cyst? Nope. So he asked me to come back later in the day so we could rule out a tumor, mass, or anuerism.

This is not my first rodeo at this. The most frustrating thing was not knowing what that test held for me but more so the fear that once again, I'm not going to know. I was almost to the point that bad news was better than no news. This has gone on long enough.

Well... good news is that nothing is harming my health. No mass, no tumor, no anuerism, no flesh eating virus, no infection. I have a nerve that's difficult basically.

The way he explained it was a part of a nerve that runs down my abdomen gets irritated every once in a while and causes this pain. Sometimes is sharp and stabbing because there is a trigger point that is being irritated. My body will heal it on its own eventually and then later down the road it may come back. It is probably a recurring problem. There is nothing you can do for it unless you go to an anesthesiologist and get the nerve deadened, which has no guarantees of permanent results.

He gave this to me as an option but I passed. I realize that the reality of it all is that nothing is causing this other than my nerve is irritable. I don't personally feel right just deadening pain without eliminating the cause. Since there is no cause other than bad luck, I've just chosen to live with it.

There's the update for you. I chose to share because some of you have been right there through some of these bouts and I thought you'd want to know the final verdict. Its good news. I'm realizing that more and more.

The Day the Preacher's Head Exploded

Alright, so the title is misleading... At no point in my life have I witnessed a preacher's head exploding... scratch that... At no point in my life have I witnessed a head exploding.

But... I did drive a preacher to go off on my husband... and so the story unfolds...

Justin and I were in Dallas, TX shooting the beautiful Christine's wedding (pay attention to that... its important later). Upon arriving at the church, Justin and I ask the wedding coordinator what the rules are regarding photography during the ceremony. She says, "You can have one person on the stage that is stationary. No flash during the ceremony. That's about it."

The way this church is set up, the fact that one of us could be on stage was good news. It was a beautiful church, but not set up to get close shots while staying out of the way. So I sat... SAT... in a pew on the stage where I was not visible to about 90% of the audience.

I got some amazing shots. I was excited while shooting because the angle I had and the lighting was amazing. After the ceremony, I went to switch cameras with Justin so I could take some shots outside of the wedding party while they were waiting for the church to clear. I came back in to give Justin his camera back and he leans down and whispers, "Stay away from the preacher. He's cranky."

Well that's all I need to know. If you know me well you know that there are some days where I'm the most patient person ever. Then there are days where I have no patience and am difficult to censor. This was a day of the latter. So I stayed away from him.

Here's the story of what happened...

The preacher came up to Justin after the ceremony and said, "Who was that woman taking pictures on the stage?"

Justin: "That was my wife."

Preacher: "Well I didn't appreciate how loud the camera was. The mic was picking up the sound."

Justin: "Well I'm sorry sir. We spoke with the wedding coordinator before the wedding and she said it was okay for us to be up there."

Preacher: "Well normally it is. But you know you can turn the sound off on those digital cameras."

(PAUSE) No you cannot. That is ridiculous. We aren't shooting with a point and shoot here sir.

Justin: "Actually, sir, you can't. That is a mechanical function of the camera."

Preacher: "Well if you are going to be using an old mechanical camera then she doesn't need to take pictures every two seconds."

At this point, the wonderful Christine interrupts and Justin no longer speaks to preacher.

Here's the best part and the good reason I was not near when this happened...

During the ceremony, my camera may have been loud. Maybe. But what I am certain was picked up on the microphone was the preacher calling the bride "Allison" three times during the ceremony. Her name is Christine.

For the rest of the day I referred to him as "Preacher Poopy Pants".

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Hello all! I know I didn't exactly update over the holiday season. Sorry about that. I will likely get to something of that nature eventually but for now, I'm going to go out of order.

As a hall director, I'm constantly looking for ways to get students involved in community service. I love it and I want to share that with them. I received an e-mail from City Year, a national service organization that has a group in Little Rock. They declared Martin Luther King Jr Day as a day "on" instead of a day "off." They were calling for anyone who would like to engage in service projects throughout Little Rock. Thankfully, on of my RAs jumped on the idea.

We took 10 people. The beginning was very cute. We met at the presidential library. City Year inducted a class of "Young Heroes." These are students in middle school that have donated 10 Saturdays (I believe, don't quote me) to service in Central Arkansas. They put on a drill skit and were very excited. On the news later that night, Justin and I were watching, and one of his students from Cloverdale was on tv talking about what it meant to him to be involved. It was really cute and inspiring because especially in that school district, you don't see many students really wanting to get involved in the community.

Anyway, once the ceremony ended, we were dispatched to the YMCA. Here are some illustrations of what we did...

This is a group of us shoveling and spreading new mulch onto the playground. I took it upon myself to pick up some litter that was around the playground. I found liquor bottles and lots of unsafe items. This was a labor intensive area as there wasn't a wheel barrow until we were almost done. As you can see by this picture and the next, they had a lot of fun! Great attitudes!



Here are some of our people painting a room. I stayed away from this room because I didn't want to have an asthma attack right there in front of everyone...






And here's the happy crew!

Human Rights Campaign

I am posting this for several reasons...

1. I feel I am an active human rights supporter. I stand up for gay rights as well as rights based on race, gender, ethnicity, disability, etc.
2. I am a strong Christian. I do not feel that my support of gay rights in any way violates or negates my beliefs as a Christian.
3. After reading this article, I found myself conflicted. You may see why after reading.

Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop to Deliver Invocation at Lincoln Memorial
By Laurie Goodstein

President-elect Barack Obama has asked Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop who helped advise him on gay rights issues during the campaign, to deliver the invocation at a kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, two days before the inauguration itself.

The move was seen among many gay advocates an antidote to Mr. Obama's decision to give the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent megachurch pastor from California who opposes gay marriage, the high-profile role of giving the invocation at the inaugural ceremonies on Jan. 20.

Bishop Robinson is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, and his consecration in 2003 set off a growing rift in that church's parent body, the Anglican Communion. Since then, Bishop Robinson has become an internationally known spokesman for gay rights – a hero to some and an object of scorn to others. He and his long-standing partner had a church wedding last summer.

Bishop Robinson said in a telephone interview on Monday that he believed that his inclusion in inaugural events had been under consideration before the controversy over Mr. Warren, but that Mr. Obama and his team were also seeking to heal the pain that Mr. Warren's selection had caused among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates.

"They called up and said this has actually been in the works for a long time," Bishop Robinson said, "and at the same time, we understand that people in the LGBT community have been somewhat wounded by this choice and it's our hope that your selection will go a long way to heal those divides."

He added, "In many ways it just proves that Barack Obama is exactly who he says he was and would be as president - which is someone who is casting a wide net that will include all Americans."

Bishop Robinson said he had learned of the invitation about two and a half weeks ago, but that he and the transition team agreed to break the news today in the Concord Monitor, Bishop Robinson's local newspaper in New Hampshire.

The event that Bishop Robinson will participate in is on Sunday, Jan. 18 – the first day of formal inaugural festivities in Washington. It will be broadcast later that night on HBO, which will provide a free
signal so that people who don't have HBO can also watch it, said Linda Douglass, chief spokesperson for the presidential inaugural committee.

Mr. Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend, and the event will include entertainers whose participation is still being finalized, Ms. Douglass said.

In recent years, and especially during the inaugurations of President George W. Bush, ministers gave explicitly Christian prayers. Bishop Robinson said he had been rereading inaugural prayers through history and was "horrified" at how "specifically and aggressively Christian they were."

Bishop Robinson said, "I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won't be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer."

He said he might address the prayer to "the God of our many understandings," language he said he learned from the 12-step program he has attended for his alcohol addiction.

Gay rights leaders said they regarded Bishop Robinson's inclusion as an indication of Mr. Obama's support. Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, said, "We have to be prepared for a roller coaster ride, but know that the decision to include Gene Robinson is a symbolic indication that at the end of this administration GLBT people will have made more advances in the direction of equality that at any other time of our history."

Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a gay rights group, said, "Bishop Robinson is a world historical figure at this point. He is at the center of the Episcopal Church's embrace of gay people and a symbol of inclusion even when it's difficult. And to choose him, of all the other figures that could have been chosen, even as a balance to Rick Waren, I think it still is a very powerful statement."

He said he thought that gay people and their supporters would help heal their anger over the president-elect's decision to give Rick Warren such a high profile spot in the inaugural ceremonies. But he said, "At the end of the day, policy is more important than who stands at the inauguration." --END--

Being in student affairs, when the holiday season is upon us, we have to be very careful about what we say. Particularly in housing, it is really easy to allow your RAs to do Christmas programs, but forget to do something for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. And I've actually always supported that. I realize that as a Christian, I say Merry Christmas and that I wouldn't be offended if someone came up to me and said, "Happy Hanukkah." But I also know I'm not in the minority on this one so I don't really know how I would feel.

This is one of those situations for me. I am a Christian. But I also believe in sensitivity to others. I think where my conflict comes into play is that this is a Christian bishop giving a "not Christian prayer." If you are giving a non-Christian prayer, exactly who are you praying to?

I have, oddly enough, no objections that he is openly gay. I am not of the belief that you cannot be a Christian if you are gay. I do, however, feel that as a Christian bishop, perhaps you should be giving a Christian prayer. But I also see that some non-Christians see this as a relief and more inclusive.

So that's where I am at... where are you?