A piece of advice...

Hard surfaces and knees do not mix. Of course, neither do slippery surfaces and cute boots. It was overcast and a little rainy all day today. Coming into work this evening, I made it all the way to the elevators, across almost all the tile, before my feet decided to betray me. I almost twisted my right ankle and overcompensated, heading too far left. Needless to say, I ended up on the ground and in some weird way, managed to bruise my left leg on the outside below my knee. No broken bones, I'll just be stiff for a bit and have a nice bruise to show for my gracelessness. :) At least there were no witnesses to the actual incident, just the aftermath. So the moral of our story? Slick tile floors and wet shoes don't mix. That is all. Update: So I may not have twisted my ankle, but I did tweak it a little bit at least. And the bruise is turning a nice shade of purple too. :)

New Update, August 28, 2008

Greetings everyone! And thank you to everyone who passed along birthday wishes. My 23rd birthday, while filled with work, was very restful. I was able to celebrate last week with my family while I was home which was a blessing.

So this is what 12-hour, overnight shifts lead to...actually remembering that I have a list of people I need to e-mail an update to. :) And yes, you read that correctly. This next week of work is going to be crazy. I'm working every single overnight until Labor Day except for one and several of those are 12 hour shifts. I could certainly use your prayers (and lots of caffeine) to make it through them.

While I'm on the topic of work, the last 2 of my 3 articles were published to our website earlier this month. You can reach them by following the URLs below.

Hurricane Alicia <-- This story went through 3 rounds of editing and the title was changed at the last minute when it was published. I guess I made it sound too much like a hurricane drought was a bad thing and a land-falling hurricane was a good thing. :)

Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs <--The Going Green section of our website has other tips for saving energy as well.

I recently had the opportunity to travel back to Colorado Springs for the Focus on the Family Institute Reunion. For the two years after we graduate, we will have a yearly reunion. After that, there is a reunion every 5 years for everyone who has ever attended the Institute. My roommate Bethany met me in Denver and we traveled to the Springs for the 4 days of the reunion. The trip was amazing and I had a wonderful time getting to see old friends and meeting people from other classes. If you would like to see pictures from my trip, you can find them here.

My next trip will be a little more local as I travel to DC September 12-14 for the Values Voters Summit, sponsored by FRC Action and Focus Action. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to hear some of the speakers that will be there to address the issues that are affecting us today. I'm also really excited to attend the Saturday evening gala event where Chuck Colson will be honored. If you're interested in learning more about the summit, you can visit their website here.

Otherwise, life has been continuing as usual. Things have been quiet around the townhouse as my roommate and I are on almost completely opposite schedules. I'm actually thinking of getting a fish but probably not until I get back from the Values Voters Summit in September. I'm kind of excited to have a pet of my own and personalize my space even more.

I hope everything has been going well for you. For those who have gone back to school or have kids in school, I hope your transition was smooth and safe. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Meghan Orr

Overdue update from June 1st

Sorry about being delayed in getting this up. :) This update was originally sent out on June 1st. Enjoy!

So it's been awhile since my last update again...I think I need to leave reminders for myself to do these. :) Maybe then they'll actually be more frequent.

Work has been going well. I'm slowly adapting to the shift rotations. Starting this weekend, I will be working the 4th and final shift rotation (Th-Su, 1pm-Mid) before going back to the graveyard shift in July. My first article as an official meteorologist was published on the WeatherBug website which was a very exciting moment for me. You can find it here. My bio was also added to our website which you can find here. I have a few other articles in the works and will make sure to pass those along as well when they're published out.

Otherwise, life has taken a fairly sedate pace. I have found a church where I can get plugged in and get to know some of the people. So far I've mostly only met those in my Sunday School, but I've only been there for a short time and with crazy hours I can't always make other events at the church. Hopefully in the weeks to come God will open up opportunities to meet other members of the church. I've also been able to do a lot of pleasure reading, which I love. I'm almost through the entire Chronicles of Narnia currently and plan on finishing The Screwtape Letters next.

On a technical note: I will not be as available online as I usually am. I returned to Germantown after spending Memorial Day weekend at home to find the AC adapter for my laptop had inexplicably failed and my laptop had run on battery for as long as it could. Since it may be awhile before I get it replaced, I will only be accessing the internet at work and at the library so my reponse times may be longer. I apologize for any inconvenience. If you need to reach me, my work IM is MegWxBug or feel free to call on the cell.

I hope you have all had a lovely Sabbath and a good weekend.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Meghan

Long Overdue Update

So an update is looooong overdue...just in case you hadn't noticed. :) Below is the update e-mail I sent out recently. I hope to be updating more often now that I'm getting into the swing of things so remember to check back! Enjoy! I hope this e-mail finds everyone doing well. It has now been over 3 months since I arrived back in Maryland from my experience at the Focus on the Family Institute. This e-mail has been long overdue and I apologize for that. Graduation at FFI went very well. We were actually concerned for a while that we wouldn't be able to hold because of a snow storm that was heading our way. Fortunately, we were able to have graduation and it was a wonderful time of celebration but also bittersweet as we said good-bye to amazing friends and teachers. I am excited to return at the end of July for our reunion and reconnect with my friends and roommates again. Christmas and New Year's came and went before I realized it. My cousin, Chelse, whom we are trying to adopt, spent three weeks with us over the holidays. She has returned for two weeks now for Easter. My family is hoping that, with all the paperwork done on our end, the system will move as swiftly as possible to bring Chelse to our home permanently. Please continue to pray for her as we work towards this transition. Since I have been back in Maryland, I was hired full-time back at Weatherbug in Germantown, MD. I worked here part-time over the summer in the same capacity. I found a townhouse basement to rent less than 5 miles from work with a nice Chinese woman. I've had a lot of fun so far exploring the area and finding out where things are. I'm on the overnight shift right now during the week. We rotate each month so next month I'll be on some afternoon/evenings and on weekend overnights. It's taken some getting used to but it's going really well and I enjoy being at work, especially in my field of interest. If you'd like to get in touch with me at work, my e-mail is morr (at) weatherbug (dot) com, IM is MegWxBug, and phone is 301-250-4036. I will attempt to continue updating my blog and may continue sending out an e-mail once a month or so on my life's happenings. Again, my apologies for such a long delay in updating you on everything going on. :) I hope you had a happy Easter. God bless! Soli Deo Gloria, Meghan

Time flies

Wow! Time flies so quickly! It's hard to believe that we have one full week of class left and less than two weeks left until graduation! Where had time gone? Thanksgiving break was really nice. I actually ended up being able to catch a slightly earlier flight home from Minneapolis last week. I got off the plane and was walking between terminals with another student who had been on the flight and saw that there was a flight to BWI at 10:25 instead of my original one at 12:55. I hemmed and hawed about it because I knew it would probably be an inconvenience to my family since they were coming to pick me up. I chatted with my mom about it and, as they were boarding, I asked the desk attendant. She told me that all they had were first class seats, and I said that probably wouldn't work since I was on a student's budget. She had me hold on for a minute and then say that she could do it for $100, the normal price to change flights! :) I ended up telling my mom I was taking it and ran to the ATM to get the money (their credit card machine wasn't working). It was such a nice treat to have the opportunity to fly first class! And then, when I got to BWI, my family had brought my best friend, Holly, with them to the airport! :) We got to have lunch and roam around the Arundel Mills Mall for a bit because my luggage wasn't able to make the earlier flight so we had to go back to the airport for it. The rest of break was very much a blur. I spent Sunday at church and cantata rehearsal practice. Monday, I drove up and had lunch with former co-workers from WeatherBug in Germantown (turns out their under a hiring freeze) and then met up one-on-one with several friends in the College Park area. Tuesday was spent helping my mom by running errands for her trip to CA and then at Bible study with a trip to Donut Connection (it's a So. MD thing). I helped out by taking over mom's daycare on Wednesday so she wouldn't have to close. Thankfully, I only had one of the babies, who slept most of the day, and 3 others. I got to take Holly to dinner for her birthday and then the college/career Sunday School had a bonfire that night which was exciting. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, watching the Macy's parade with my family and then having dinner at a friend's house. We had lots of laughs watching a video from one of their boys' school play. Friday found me and my sister Black Friday shopping and then collapsing and going to the airport to pick mom up. Before I knew it, it was Saturday and I was driving back up to the airport for my own flight back to the Springs. Ever since I got back things have been going at warp speed. We had a surprise shower for our resident supervisor, Elena, the day after we got back. She was so surprised. :) One of the biggest treats of this week was taking my roommates up to my practicum in the Office of the Chairman. Since Dr. Dobson was off on his annual Christmas shopping trip, my supervisor Paul took us in to see Dr.'s office. We each had the chance to sit at his desk. Paul told us all about the office and pointed out some of the quirks, like toy trucks, jelly beans, and a gumball machine for kids. It was a pretty awesome experience. He also showed us around the boardroom where the Board of Directors or heads of ministries meet with Mr. Daly or Dr. Dobson. We have our ski trip this Saturday where I think I might attempt to snowboard. Skis and I didn't really get along before so why not try something new? We have one more week of classes and then graduation is December 11th. My mom, dad, and sister will be coming to Colorado to celebrate with me and then we'll fly back on the 12th. Josh unfortunately has final exams that week. I still can't believe that it's almost the end of November and soon December will begin. The time here seems to have gone too fast. I can't wait to share much of what I have learned with people back home. It seems like it was only yesterday that I moved in with these 3 awesome women and now we're going to be scattering to our corners of the country again. I pray that God will allow us to stay in each other's lives for a long time to come. It's going to be hard coming home, knowing that there are only 87 other people in the world who shared this very unique experience with you. But I hope God will bless the friendships we have formed here and that they will help bolster our faith and courage as we share what we have learned. I hope this update finds you well. I will be back in Maryland on the 12th of December and will be preoccupied for about a week with stuff for the cantata, but I would love to have the chance to sit down and catch up with people over a good cup of chai or tea or coffee...whatever your preference. :) Take care and see you soon! Soli Deo Gloria, Meghan