Surprise 2.0

Two years ago I was able to surprise my Dad when he won an award for his volunteerism and last night I was able to do the same for my Mom! 

When I surprised my Dad, I wrote about how terrible I am at surprises. Turns out that in the past two years I have not gotten any better at not spoiling surprises. It was sort of a miracle that I succeeded yet again!

My Mom was honored last night at the YWCA's Tribute! to Women Award banquet. This is where women of all ages (15+) are thanked for their service in and with the community of Hastings.

I'm in the midst of my finals this week (and also on my way to Tulsa for an unrelated presentation), so my Mom was sure I was stuck in Omaha either finishing finals or preparing for my trip. I even sent her a few texts with questions on what she thought I should be packing for my trip to throw her off. But instead, I was already in Hastings preparing for the surprise!

(It should probably be noted here that I was in desperate need of a haircut and I trust my stylist from Hastings so I made an early afternoon appointment with her because I didn't have the time/energy to deal with getting it cut in Omaha in the middle of finals/preparing for the trip...I made sure to notify the whole staff of the salon that under no circumstances could they mention that I had an appointment to anyone because there are too many people in Hastings that know me and one of them would somehow inevitably ruin the surprise...so I'm getting my haircut and guess who calls to make an appointment for her very own haircut?!?! MY MOM. What in the world are the odds of that? Ridiculous. I'm convinced that somehow her weird Mom spidey senses kicked in and knew I was there. We all had a good laugh about it but thankfully my secret was still safe.)

The nominees in the "rockstar" category

After spending the rest of the afternoon in a coffee shop I know she doesn't frequent and taking very strange routes around the city I was sure she wouldn't be driving, I finally arrived at dinner with my Grandma. I talked to a few people whom I've known since college and high school and finally Mom came in. It turns out that I was somewhat shielded by the people I was talking to and so she didn't even notice me until she was basically at her seat.

SURPRISE SUCCESS!

Tears abounded (because that's what my Mom and I do). So much excitement. More conversation with the people around the room that I knew. And then there was food (salad, bread, glass noodles with steamed vegetables, and some sort of Kalhua ice cream for me). I was too busy eating it to take pictures of it though. Then the announcement of all of the honorees. I was impressed with the number of incredible women I knew sitting around that room. Many of those ladies have been my role models throughout life whether they realized it or not.

leave it to me to make a photo look ridiculous
photo cred: Sharon Brooks :) 

After we had all packed up and said our goodbyes after the ceremony, Mom and I were having a quiet moment at home and in her typical truest humble fashion she mentioned that she's honored for the recognition, but that she's sure someone else in the community deserved it more than her.

No Mom, this time we get to celebrate you and all that you do!

Hastings Noon Sertomans (minus me!)
(L-R) Marcie Kemnitz, Becky Matticks, Deb Sharrick & Jim Sharrick

(P.S. I just read her nomination and it's hilarious... My Mom is awesome. I'm so excited that I was there to be able to celebrate alongside you!)

(L-R) YWCA board member Marcie Kemnitz,
nominee Becky Matticks, and nominee Deb Sharrick

#UNCSW60

Last year I went to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women with the ELCA Young Adult Cohort (you can read about my experiences here, here, here and here). If you want to learn even more, you can also read the ELCA Young Adult Cohort blog, which is a lot of people's reflections on their experiences at various years of CSWs. <---there's some powerful writing and observations in there. I highly suggest it as top notch blog reading material! 

I didn't go back for this year's CSW, but I have several friends who did (I also may possibly be Twitter stalking a few people that went that I didn't previously know, but I now have a bit of a cyber crush on...definitely a few people I want to be real-life friends with someday!). 

This year they made these incredible videos about their experiences as people of faith at CSW and in the world. They were edited/produced by Pastor Jason Chesnut out of Baltimore (The Slate Project...which works to re-imagine "church" in the 21st century by meeting online and in person). 

There's some good stuff in there. Altogether the videos are only 6.5 minutes, so you should definitely take the time to watch. I know for me it was a treat to watch the people I look up to make a difference in the world in their short time at CSW! I will admit to you all that I am incredibly proud to know these folks and be working alongside them in the world. 

Birthdays & Holiday celebrations abound!

The past month included so many celebrations, that I decided to include them all into one post. First up, Mom's birthday!

We spent the weekend exploring Omaha. The weather was a little rainy and cold, so we had to opt for indoor activities only (although I just recently got my zoo pass and I really want to use it!). First up was the Durham Museum. They had special exhibits on the early days of JFK's presidency and also Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West Show (no one should be all that surprised that this wasn't my favorite exhibit I've ever seen...). It's been several years since I've been to the Durham, so it was nice to be back. I even got Laura some note paper made from elephant poop! Clearly I'm the best gift giver in the history of gift giving...who wouldn't want elephant poop paper?

just waiting to board our train!

the dining car...you could get a whole meal for $2.00! 

no trip to the Durham is complete without a
trip to the soda counter!

Then we tried out the new Flagship Commons food area at Westroads Mall. Essentially it's a fancy food court with burgers, falafel, ramen, tacos, sushi, pizza, salads, a coffee shop, a bar, and more! We all tried something different, but I have to say that my ramen was seriously delicious. A few weeks later, Mom and I went back to try the sushi--it wasn't the best effort by Blue (Yum Roll), but it was still pretty good.

Yoshi-Ya Ramen: vegan ramen

Mom and I split up 10 lbs of strawberries from The Fruit Club and I made all the delicious things with them (plus ate about half of them plain). Strawberry vanilla scones, strawberry oatmeal cookies and chocolate covered strawberries.

Strawberry vanilla scones...I'll be making these again! They made my
apartment smell heavenly! 

chocolate covered strawberries...I shared exactly 1 of these with Kelsey :)

Next up was celebrating Taryn's 16th birthday (and Easter part 1)! I seriously CANNOT believe how old this one has magically become. I'm happy to have her back close to home and am excited she's doing well at D-T. She is one of the more incredible artists that I know and I love getting mail from her because I know it always includes a drawing. For her birthday gift, Grandma took a trip into Hot Topic and realized it wasn't quite her scene...which resulted in an email that I still giggle at! :) I hope it was the most sweet 16, T! 

Finally, Easter part 2 rolled around. The little red-headed munchkins made it down to hOmaha for a good time. J got into lots of trouble with Uncle Jim and spent most of the morning asking when he got to go on the Easter egg hunt. D was a boss at finding Easter eggs and also created some incredible sidewalk artwork with paint/chalk. We attempted to play frisbee, but it was too windy. Mostly we just ate way too much food.

I found my very own bunny!

We got matching suckers (like ring pops) with bunny faces.
Thanks Aunt Jayne for giving me the fun candy, so the fairy
godkiddos and I can be silly!

I am not nearly as good with sidewalk chalk markers as Danni is.
But John got a little artwork in there at the bottom too! 

So what do you even do anyway?

Over the past few months I've been repeatedly considering what my job actually entails as I've been creating resumes for a big-girl job and I've been preparing to transition my job over to a new department with completely new staff and try to find funding for that new set of folks. That means I've had to really think through the big picture of how what I do on a daily basis affects campus, but also the best ways to inform others about the nitty gritty details.

And then a few weeks ago one of my good friends asked a simple question..."So what do you even do anyway?"

I speak to this person on an almost daily basis, but I realized I never actually tell people what it is that I do. So here we go...in case anyone cares!

I am the service learning graduate assistant for 4 service learning projects at UNMC. I oversee all 4 projects and then also consult with several of the colleges on the UNMC campus to begin service learning programs within their school. And the last portion of my job is reading and responding to student reflections on their service learning/volunteering experiences (something I was trained to do because of service learning at Hastings College--thanks Jean and Dan--AND the years I worked in youth/young adult ministry--thanks Adam--honing my skills at delving deeper and asking the next-level questions).

My job requires something different each and every day, which I love. There are many days that I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing as I head into work. Others are certainly more predictable, but always bring adventures of their own. Some days it's just a whole lot of ordering food for events or folding brochures for hours on end, but other times I will go almost a week without actually being at my desk or in the office at all. The best part of my job is being able to work with students who are seriously bada**. They are well on their way to being professionals and they take so much time out of their schedule to actually work in the community and make a difference. It's so amazing to be part of. Below are some photos of what I get to do when I go to work.

Bridge to Care
BTC provides health care services to refugees in Omaha. I've written about them before in a very different context.
Besides the biennial health fair, they also provide monthly health education sessions to refugee adults and mentoring
for refugee youth in 4th-8th grades. This photo is from our fall health fair that served more than 300 refugees!

bag packing for the BTC oral health hygiene fair--I packed 120 bags for 4th-8th grade students yesterday!

Decreasing the Donor Deficit
DDD signs up potential donors to the national bone marrow registry (thru Be the Match) and also provides
awareness/education on campus to health professions students about blood cancers. 

do juSTIce (DOuglas county Jail United with Students To Impact a Citywide Epidemic)
do juSTIce is the group I've been working with the longest. They offer free chlamydia and gonorrhea testing/treatment
to inmates at the Douglas County Jail. Additionally, they give age-appropriate/evidenced-based STI education at the
 Douglas County Jail, Douglas County Youth Correctional Facility, Omaha Home for Boys, and Community Alliance.
The students provide a full 25% of ALL chlamydia and gonorrhea tests in the county
(think somewhere in the range of 1,500+ tests per year plus the individual counseling that goes alongside that!).
This photo is from the poster session at the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality conference in 2014.  

do juSTIce: actually getting to provide the STI education with inmates...one of my favorite parts!

condom kit assembly: condoms, testing locations, condom information shirts and a t-shirt designed by youth detainees
to promote STI testing. It's not uncommon for my co-workers/professors to ask  "you have the condoms out again...
what's the project this time?" 

EMPOWER
EMPOWER provides health education to domestic violence survivors in the Omaha area. They also provide education to
health professions students on domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking through documentary screenings,
awareness events, and lunch panels. This picture was taken at the "Take Back the Night" rally, which was a joint-effort
event with the UNO Gender & Sexuality Resource Center. Also pictured is the UNMC Title IX coordinator. 

EMPOWER had a service day this past weekend. They partnered with
Rejuvenating Women (organization that works with sex trafficking
victims) and Open Door Mission (homeless shelter) to do whatever
they needed. My task was to be buried in piles of tiny toiletries.

clearly I was having a wonderful time at the EMPOWER service event last weekend... :)