Day Twenty-seven

on my commute today, that took 90 minutes (it should only take 20) i thought i would be productive. while sitting in traffic i took this photo through my windshield. i really like the blue color of the sky.

Day Twenty-six

let the planning begin! here is a snap-shot of the lovely guest list, round one... oh so fun :)

Day Twenty-five

how quickly your life can change! this is my coffee table and it is only day two of our engagement.

tonight i went and looked at a venue and it was wonderful but we will need to pray for perfect weather if we have it there :)

God is good!

Day Twenty-four

oh, the faithful youth leaders :) we are a quirky bunch!

Day Twenty-three WE'RE ENGAGED!!

after he proposed and i said yes :) we went to the 95th floor of the hancock building, had a table right next to the window and enjoyed dessert and calling our families. i am so blessed and privileged to be with this man!

and we headed toward this fountain of lights. here is where he asked me to marry him, on one knee, with a small crowd of strangers watching us!! i said yes of course :)

we walked under this canopy of lights towards the fountain.

after ice skating and dinner at bistro 110, peter took me to the old water tower (picture).

he was acting a little strange... but i just thought peter was being his typical crazy self :)

this photo was taken at millennium park in downtown chicago. peter came to my house in the early evening with a pair of skates he bought for me and this uncontrollable desire to go ice skating.

i took this photo of us, having no idea that i was probably pushing up against the ring box in his pocket :)

Day Twenty-two

this is one of the cutest kids ever! little ethan :)

Day Twenty-one

this is a picture of the wrigley building (on the left) and the tribune building (on the right) from across the chicago river. i was waiting to pick-up my dear friend ashleigh from work. we used to work together at golinharris and this was my view!! how crazy is that? when i first came to chicago and was interning i would walk out of the building and see that and stand in awe, thinking, "wow, i made it to chicago!" who i am kidding, i still stand in awe :) praise the Lord! i hope i am always in awe.

Day Twenty

this is my colleague denise. she and i are taking a class at mbi together, hence why you seen the classroom in the background :) i am only taking one class and i tell you, i don't know how people go to graduate school and work full-time. i have always had respect for people who manage to do both but now i have even more respect! we are taking a theology class, the church and its doctrines, and it is a lot of stuff to learn in a very short period of time. guess i will be doing a lot of studying this semester!

Day Nineteen

the scripture on this wall says, "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 timothy 2:15.

this is the scripture written on the wall of the moody bible institute, where i work. it was dl moody's vision, over 120 years ago, to have a school that would train both christian men and women to effectively proclaim the message of the scriptures to everyday folks - men and women that would bridge the gap between clergy and common people.

if you have never read first and second timothy i highly recommend them. they provide a great outline for living and working in this world. they have inspired me many times.

Day Eighteen

i seriously struggled today to figure out what to take a picture of. i was actually going to try to get a shot of the L at night, but it was too cold to stand outside for too long. so i settled for playing with the shadow from the blinds.

Day Seventeen

lunch with friends :)

typical, johnathen tried to take a picture of us and peter thought it would be fun to stick his tongue out. of course, i rolled my eyes and got annoyed... after all this time, i should have expected it. the next two pics are attempts to redeem the above photo, still didn't quite meet that goal! haha!

Day Sixteen

who are those running hotties?!?!

i'm tough - not even the chicago cold can bring me down!

running buddy reunion - halelujah!!

Day Fifteen

last summer when we were training for the chicago marathon and the marine corps marathon, the girls would sleep over so we could wake-up super early before the summer heat got too bad. we had a reunion of sorts, plus one :)

Day Fourteen

Ode to Charlotte! I found your brother, he misses you and I would like a ride :)

Day Thirteen

i love this picture. ashley is one of the cutest girls i know and here you can see one of the many reasons why. tonight was a surprise b-day party for this lovely third and fourth grade teacher. you can tell from her reaction to her gift, she is perfect at her job :)

Day Twelve

today i was leaving work and i turned around and noticed the light shining on the building in the distance and the shadow covering the campus. the color of the sun light appeared stronger to my eye than what was caught on camera however, i still thought it was a pretty cool picture.

Day Eleven

today was an interesting day. i had the day off because of MLK and all i wanted to do was relax, enjoy being home and do random chores that can be done while sitting in one place (folding laundry, putting together a budget). but then i hit a dilemma, i didn't have a picture for today. so i decided to have fun with self-portraits, kinda (even though i spent all day in my pajamas and never put on make-up or brushed my hair). here is a picture of me that i took using the mirror in my living room, kinda fun - totally nerdy, yes i know.

to prove i did do something productive, this is a pic of my lap top with my budget for next month - so many weddings this year, need to save! that is my boyfriend's thumb, encouraging me in my goal - yes, he is an accountant and oh so proud of my spreadsheet :)

Day Ten

meet david. he is one of our youth leaders and every sunday we have meetings at our house. this sunday however, was unique - the bears were in a play-off game. this pic was taken when we paused the game (God bless dvr) to hear how helen's fiance proposed. he is trying to be very patient and listen intently :)

here you see david yelling at the screen. it apeared the bears scored a touch down but the ref called a foul. not fun since we were down by three points. it'll be ok coach david!

this is the funniest pic of all, because during this initial commotion, our dear friend melody fell asleep! don't worry, she woke up shortly after this pic was taken and saw the rest of the game.

prasie the Lord! the bears scored, winning the game in OT!! david is a happy man...

david doing the happy dance! thanks david, this was fun :)

Day Nine

tonight we went to dinner with greg and kelly at adobo grill.

so much fun and awesome guacamole :)

Day Eight

this picture was taken at my church during our kick-off to the year, all-night prayer meeting. the cross is on the wall behind the altar and with the lights dim and the christmas set still up just covered by black cloth, i thought this looked pretty cool.

Day Seven

today i set out during my lunch break to take some pics of chicago. when i saw this at a bus stop, i couldn't resist. this is the ugliest advertisement i have ever seen! i really wonder if there is anyone who has made the trip out to the zoo because of this ad?

Day Six

i took these photos of my living room to get one last look at our christmas decorations. if i get off my bum, they will be coming down tonight. it was fun too to take the same pic on different settings. i am having so much fun trying to figure out all the functions of this camera :)

Day Five

every tuesday night i have the privilege of serving in my church's youth ministry. when i think about my time as a leader i wonder if the youth have any idea of how much they have blessed me and encouraged me in my walk. i truly believe that i have gotten more out of serving in this ministry than i could ever give. this picture was too perfect to pass up tonight - maybe it will resurface one day on josh's album cover.

Day Four

anyone that knows me, has heard of or seen my obsession with icecream. my mom bought me the cutest icecream bowls for christmas... one of the best gifts i got :)

Day Three

today was youth sunday at church, the very first time ever! we are busy in the planning of an upcoming retreat for the teens/early 20s. all of us leaders are so excited about this retreat as many of us feel we got just us much out of it last year as the kids did.

this is a pic of cyndi, jackie and cicely :)

Day Two

this is a photo fo the ceiling at Roots restaurant where peter and i had dinner with his sister kris and her boyfriend. very fun evening :)

Day One

this is my first photo! i was waiting for peter to get off work so we could go to dinner and started to play. what i like about this photo is the streak of the cars going by in the background. hopefuly i'll take better pictures down the road, but for now, i like it :)

The joy is in the journey (or documenting)

So you might want to call me a thief or perhaps a copy cat. I have created this blog because a friend inspired me to do the Project365 thing. Now I am going to try my hand at posting a pic a day for the rest of the year. I suppose since I am starting late you could call it Project 360 but whatever, maybe I will back-post. I must admit, I never thought I would do something like this but in the past year, I realized how much change occurred and thought it would have been so cool to have all that documented. So, this is my attempt at that for 2007.

As far as the title of my blog goes, 'the joy is in the journey.' that too I must confess was an "original" from my dear roommate. Last June, she and I drove from Chicago to Connecticut and I just wanted to get there quickly, not make many stops, etc. She on the other hand thought it would be nice to stop every so often and take time to enjoy the trip. Hence, her words to me were, the joy is in the journey and you are taking out the joy! What a better concept than documenting the journey of 2007, the joys, trials, sorrows and triumphs?

I hope you enjoy this and I hope I can keep it up!