March 29 Photo: Feet

March 28 Photo: Trash

It is the end of another semester. Time to total up the grades, prepare the report cards, file away teaching materials and clear out the dated materials in archives. The bin holds the evidence of a busy semester now at a close. I miss this process. As all the teachers are busy wrapping up the term and packing up before a short break. I am in high gear. Consulting, assisting, and planning. Interviewing incoming students, so eager for the spring semester to start. Looking ahead, not looking back.

March 27 Photo: Your Name

Letters taken from signs at the university on my lunch hour.

So today's photo assignment is 'your name'. I'm not particularly fond of my name. I don't like the songs I've heard with my name in it. Definitely not The Four Seasons with "Sherry Baby" or Journey's "Oh Sherrie". Ugh. Now I do appreciate how it is spelled though. Sorry if you have the 'rry' at the end of your name, but I like the one 'r' followed by an 'i'. That part Mom and Dad, you got right.

The other part you got right is my middle name. Diann. Named after an awesome lady, my aunt! I love the spelling of my middle name as well but mostly that I share it with Aunt DaVeeda who lived with us as she attended University.

I was almost Sheriann, Sheri Ann, Sherry Ann, Shelley Diane, or Sheri Ann Emilie. Now the Emilie part would have been good - I would have shared that with my mom and great grandmother. But of all the choices on the list below, I guess the name I got was the right one.

The original list - and the winner is...

March 26 Photo: Key

I can actually find my keys now.

I seem to be rough on key chains. They don't last long. So you don't see the keychain from Germany of an ampelmann from my trip to Europe with my nephew or the keychain from Mexico of some Mayan hieroglyphs that my niece gave me from her family vacation. But you can see the keychain from the Cirque du Soleil tribute show to the Beatle's  'Love' from a trip with my sister!

I guess I need to go on another trip soon. :-)

March 25 Photo: Breakfast (and upcoming conference weekend!)

Breakfast on Fast Sunday (thanks for the tulips Mom!!)

Today's photo assignment is breakfast but it fell on Fast Sunday. So what would have been a picture of yogurt, fruit, eggs and a plunkett (is that how it is spelled?) from mom turned out to be a photo of an empty plate. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, once a month we forego two meals and make a contribution equal to or above the value of the meals to the Fast Offering fund.

Typically this Sunday falls on the first Sunday of each month but next weekend is special because it our Semi-annual General Conference, held in Salt Lake City and broadcast to members of the church world-wide.With all the interest in what being a 'Mormon' means in the USA with Mitt Romney's run for the 2012 presidential nomination, it may be a conference that gets more attention than ever by those outside the faith. 

We are lucky to have local television broadcast the four sessions of conference so that we can enjoy the speakers from the comfort of our couches. And those without the television broadcast can now use their computers to watch conference live. And the solution that many still rely on is to head over to the local meetinghouse where the conference session is received by satellite. And within 8 hours, these sessions are available online in 70 different languages!

I know that there are a lot of families with traditions around watching conference.  Some have special conference activity booklets for the children, bingo cards or even special foods (I remember cheese and cracker trays). Others contribute to shared notes on Google Docs or tweet quotes and highlights with the hashtag #ldsconf for those unable to watch the conference live. You may even see a repeat of what happened last October, when the names of speakers started trending on Twitter during the sessions!  What are your plans or traditions for Conference weekend??