My dad...

I am now the proud daughter of the DEAN of Communication at Harding University!! I am so excited for my dad and the new part of his job. If you are in Searcy or get to stop by, tell the newest Dean hello from his oldest and very proud daughter!!

College of Communication announced

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:51 PM CDT

Harding department name change to be effective with new fall semester


The Department of Communication has been redesignated a College of Communication, President David B. Burks announced recently. Effective with the Aug. 25 start of the fall semester, Dr. Mike James, department chair since 1993, will begin serving as dean.

The college will house the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Divisions of Mass Communication, Oral Communication and Theatre under the leadership of Rebecca O. Weaver, Jack Shock, Pat Garner and Robin Miller, respectively.

“This move aligns with the strategic goal of reshaping our organizational structure to match the growth and complexity of our academic programs,” said Dr. Larry Long, vice president for Academic Affairs.

“Dr. James has been a strong and effective leader in the Department of Communication, and I anticipate he will continue that tradition at the level of dean,” he added. “I look forward to working with Dr. James and the faculty in the new college. It encourages me to see the current growth and the potential for even more growth and excellence in the future.”

Formerly housed within the College of Arts and Humanities, the new college offers 10 undergraduate majors and one graduate degree. The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders offers the bachelor of arts degree and the master of science degree in speech-language pathology.

Six areas of study are available for students in mass communication: advertising, broadcast journalism, electronic media production, Web design and interactive media, print journalism, and public relations.

The oral communication major - for teacher licensure or non-teacher licensure - sharpens the interpersonal, cross-cultural and technical skills necessary to use the voice as an effective tool. The theatre major integrates the fine arts, humanities and performing arts into one experience for all of its participants.

More than 325 students are currently pursuing a degree through the College of Communication.

The College of Communication will continue to be responsible for the award-winning student publications - the Bison weekly student newspaper and Petit Jean yearbook; VideoWorks production company; KVHU radio; a cable TV station; the fall musical production and approximately 15 plays each year; Spring Sing; and a public speech therapy clinic.

James, a distinguished professor of communication, has served as a faculty member since 1979. He began working for the University in 1973 as director of photography for the Office of Public Relations. He holds the bachelor of science degree from Harding, master of science degree from Arkansas State University, and Ph.D. from Florida State University.

He is an active member of and contributor to the Broadcast Education Association. James was one of 30 faculty members nationally and internationally selected as a 2007 faculty fellow for the National Association of Television Program Executives annual conference.

Article taken from the Daily Citizen, Searcy, Arkansas. Original article can be seen here.

They forgot to mention that he has a wonderful wife, Beth, that he met in the registration line at Harding in 1969 and they married 9 months later! He also has 4 children- Jennifer, Jeremy, Jessica and Jonathan-that are very proud of him. His 5 grandchildren are also very excited about their Papa and his new job, but really don't care as long as they still get candy and whatever they want when they come to see him at his office!! We love you dad and are so extremely proud of you! We are blessed to be one of your accomplishments!! :)

Sweet Boy

Yesterday afternoon, right after I put Parker in his bed for a nap, I heard footsteps. When I got up to his room, this is where I found him. Not in his bed, but on the floor in front of his bed, with his George, of course. He slept there for 3 hours...Sweet boy!

Ten Things Tuesday!!

It's Ten Things Tuesday again!! Go over to X-Box wife and post your 10 things that you are thankful for this week, too! This has just been such a busy week. Here is a quick 10 things before we head off for our busy day!

1. I'm thankful for my husband. We had a wonderful anniversary celebration this past weekend. FYI, don't go and see the newest Mummy movie. It's terrible, but we found a way to laugh ourselves to the ending. We had a fun dinner on the roof of a great restaurant and walked and talked around downtown. It was the best and so is he.

2. I'm thankful for great families that help us with our kids. Our favorite two babysitters and their parents volunteered to watch our kids while we were out for anniversary celebration. We are so thankful for them!

3. I'm thankful for our new worship center finally getting done!!

4. I'm thankful that we had a great service in our new worship center on Sunday. I can't wait for the Sunday that Parker sits still so that I can make it past the 2nd prayer, too! What will that be...2010, maybe? Oh, boys are so different from girls, but I love the wiggleworm just the same!!

5. I'm thankful for all the people at church that made Sunday possible. The Elders, the hard working and running around deacons, Allan, Lance, the men passing out communion trays, the families the missed the first worship and served in the nursery (love them!) and all the families that helped with the dinner. It was a great Sunday because all the family was there together.

6. I'm so thankful for the families that came out on Saturday afternoon and helped set up tables and chairs. There was much work, but everyone worked together and got it all done in record time! Even the kids were a super big help with putting up the drinks!

7. I'm thankful for all the kids that got baptized on Sunday! There were 7 baptisms, and 6 of the kids have been in our bible class this past year. It was so wonderful to watch them be welcomed into the family with everyone standing around. I'm thankful for the Faith decisions class that Allan, Kipi and Lance did with them last week....they made some great decisions on Sunday, for sure!!

8. I'm thankful for sweet friends. Grace went to the dentist yesterday for some pretty extensive work and 2 different (and wonderful) friends kept Parker and Susie. Then yesterday afternoon, Grace's best buddy and boy-friend (not boyfriend, BOY-FRIEND...gotta be clear) Jack brought her a Sonic milkshake and a cute card. They played MarioKart and enjoyed a little visit. And last night, her sweet friend, Maddie brought her ice cream (and great brownies for us!!) and a bag of books! Her card that she made was so thoughtful. We are so blessed with wonderful and thoughtful friends.

9. I'm thankful for a great children's dentist that did a great job on Grace's mouth yesterday. She had a tooth extracted, a pulpotomy, a crown and 2 cavities filled. All from one tooth coming in wrong, the dentist assures me....she said it's NOT from a lack of brushing. I hope that is true and she's not just saying that to make me feel good...just kidding. She is the greatest dentist and if you live around here, I will be MORE than happy to give you her name!! We are going back at 11:00 for the rest of the job to be finished. I know Grace will do great...she is a trooper! Look at her little puffy mouth!!

10. I'm thankful for the rain!! We have had RAIN for the past 2 days and we are so very thankful for the cooler weather and being able to watch it fall and thank God for yet another wonderful thing that He blesses us with every once in a while here in Texas!! :)

10 years goes by so fast!

Happy Anniversary, Aaron!! I can't believe that we've been married for 10 years...that went by so fast! It feels like only yesterday that we met at Judy Thomas house on Father's Day in Gainesville and you thought that I was a teenager in the youth group....who knew that from that moment on, we would be inseparable? Didn't someone have a bet on us that day? :) I think someone lost their dollar!

I would not change one bit of our ten years together. From all of the moves (wow, have there really been 8 of them?) with your job, three fun and cute babies and finding our place here in Texas...I have loved every minute of our short journey so far. Many women would think that we were crazy to move to Alaska with a 2 year old and a newborn, but I would follow you anywhere, Aaron!! You take care of me and love me even when I am so completely stubborn and can't be reasoned with....okay, maybe I'm not that bad. You are the Christian man that my parents prayed for when I was a child and then man that I prayed for all though college. Who knew that I would find you at a state school like the University of Florida after college?

I love watching football with you, seeing you try to organize my messy closet, play around with the kids and be a Christian leader in our family and our church. God has blessed me more than I can even write in words when he steered me to Florida to meet you. You make me want to be a better mom and even more, a better wife to you. I love you so much!

Happy Anniversary!! I can't wait for the next 75 years....you are the best and my very best friend!!

Tonight we are going to downtown for an evening out together while our favorite two babysitters, Jenna and Bethany come over with the kids. Parker woke up this morning saying, "My Jenna, Befany...play today!!" He is so excited and I'm so thankful that they and their sweet families volunteered to come over so that we could enjoy our anniversary. Ya'll are great!!

Cross Raising

Here is a little video of the cross going up...you can hear Aaron's bass voice in there, too!

The Raising of a Cross...

This morning at 6:15, our family woke up, got dressed, brushed our teeth and piled in the car. Along the way, we all crammed down a pop-tart or two swallowed by a swig of coffee or milk. Oh, did I mention that Parker was still in his jammies? Where in the world were we going at this crazy time of the morning? Our church. We met with our church family this morning at 6:45 AM to watch the working crew lift the final touch of our new worship center....the cross. It was such a neat little devotional to be a part of...the sun was coming up, the cross was being lifted, and we were all singing, "The Old Rugged Cross." Oh, I love being with our church family.

After the short devo, the bible reading began from inside of the new worship center. For the next 72 hours, the bible will be read, cover to cover, aloud and on video from our new place of worship. Night and day, men, women and children will read from the word of God for everyone to hear. Grace is so very excited (and so are we) to get to read and be a part of all of this new opening of the building. Our family, along with our small group, will read late Saturday afternoon from 4:15-5:45 PM. And then Sunday morning at 8:45 AM, the whole church family will gather to read the last few verses of Revelation together and then have class and worship in the new worship center. It will be a very exciting day and we have all been anticipating this day for over 14 months while we broke the ground and watched the construction of the place for us to all worship together as one body in Christ. This week, I really can't wait for Sunday!!! Oh and did I mention that Babe's Chicken is catering our Sunday lunch, again?? We love Babe's chicken!!

Fun visit!

On Monday, we were so blessed as to have a visit from my Grandpa and Grandma Hogan from Searcy!! They have never been to see us here in Texas, so we were so excited for their visit!! Grandpa was speaking this past weekend at the Lewisville Church of Christ down the road in Lewisville so they came here after their weekend over there. Parker grabbed Grandpa from the minute that he walked in the door. "Pa-Par's room. Show Pa-Par's room, Gan-Pa!" He ran Grandpa all around the house and was so happy to have them both here.

The girls get reading time at night before bed...Parker had extra cuddle time with Grandma that night. We all just sat and watched the Olympics (what else??!) together. It was a fun visit and we are so thankful that got to come through and see all of us!!

Love me some Olympics!

I LOVE watching the Olympics! I do. I remember when I was a little girl that the only time that we were allowed to have the TV on during dinner was during the Olympics. I specifically remember sitting on the living room floor, eating my dinner on a Strawberry Shortcake TV tray and watching Mary Lou Retton win the All-Around Gold Medal. That was SO exciting!! What was that? 1984? Oh, I just love the Olympics. I guess I have rubbed off on my oldest. She woke up bright and early this morning, ran in our room (we were still sleeping, of course) and says, "Don't worry about waking up, I'm TiVoing the Olympics for you, Mom." Sweet thing.

We had to TiVo the Opening Ceremonies yesterday because we were in Graham picking up our sweet Susie. It was nice to go back and see our old house and the kids had a great time at the birthday party, too. We missed SusieQ, too. She is so quiet sometimes, but just having 2 kids changes everything. Needless to say, I did a little shopping this week and got some good deals for Grace to go back to school!Because of our trip, we started the Opening Ceremonies this morning and I got my "Olympic Goosebumps" all over again, just like I do every 4 years! There is just something really cool about seeing these amazing athletes perform on the world wide stage. I love it! You can guess what I'm going to do now...I'm off to clean the kitchen and watch some volleyball, Olympic style!!!

Some thoughts....

This picture of Aaron and Parker was just cute so I had to put it on here...

I have been so consumed lately with a few things that I have just decided to let go. I am. I've talked about it until I just can't even talk about it anymore. If you have even talked to me on the phone lately, you know exactly what I'm talking about and now I'm done. School is about to start and I am going to make the very best of these 2+ weeks here at home with the kids.

This morning we went to Grace's 7 year old check-up at the Doctor's office. She is in the 90th percentile for height and weight. Her hearing is perfect and her eyesight is fine for right now. I can't believe that she is exactly 1 foot shorter than me...I am so in trouble! She is going to be taller than me in a few short years!! She was a little iffy on one of the sight lines, so we may go in a have a better check-up with the eye doctor, but our doc says she is just fine for now. We sat there in the office this morning, just the 2 of us together...just chatted and had a fun time being together. She is just easy to be with and she could talk to Dr. L without me having to help answer questions. I'm so thankful for her being healthy and having a great visit today. After sitting there with Grace this morning, I decided that we are going to make the very most of the rest of our summer and go out of summer 2008 with a bang.

Yesterday was a great day. The kids played and enjoyed being outside and NOT sweating quite so much!!

Susannah is in Graham with her best little buddy, McKynna. They came into town last night for the Rangers vs. Yankees game and then took Sus home with them. We will go there and pick her up tomorrow night and attend McKynna's brother's birthday party. He and Grace are buds, so Grace is excited to be with her old friends from church in Graham. I'm excited to go back and drive by our old house and see what they have done with it and how the town has changed. We haven't been gone that long, but it will be 2 years at Christmas! Just seems like yesterday that Parker was born there!! I really do love Graham, it will always have a wonderful place in my heart. I loved our house there that we worked on for so very many hours and I so loved our church family. They took us in and loved my babies from day one. Of course, I can say that about our church family here, too! What am I saying, I just love my life.

There are just so many things to be thankful for these days. I know, I didn't do my list on Tuesday but that doesn't mean that I didn't remember to be thankful. We are so very blessed and for that I am thankful. What now? Grace, Parker and I are off to Academy sports to get me a batting glove for softball practice tonight. After the beating that I took last week at softball practice, I'm going to be more prepared for practice tonight!! I may not be the best out there on the team (by far!) but at least I can have a great time on the field! Then what? Who knows!! Maybe a picnic, but I do owe Grace an ice cream because she had to get a shot this morning...we are off to have a super day!!

Summer is so busy!

This summer has been packed with fun activities with our friends and our family. I love summer! This past weekend we went to the Circus with our small group from church. The kids loved it and so did we!! Of course, we would have loved it more if the TRE system that we rode in for the circus would have made their train schedule around the afternoon circus show. We had to leave the show a few minutes after intermission because the next train didn't show up for another hour after the show was over. For us, that meant standing outside in 102+ degree heat with too many tired kids, so we just left early. It worked out great! It was a super show that I recommend to anyone!! Riding the train in was a blast, too!!

During the pre-show, this elephant painted and they had a drawing for the painting!! It was just really neat to be so close to the animals!!

We tried to get a picture with all the kids...you know how that goes!! Parker got his legs stuck in this chair shortly after this picture was taken...he still has little bruises!

Here is part of our group waiting for the train to show up...it was so hot, but the kids were troopers! Notice that Parker finally gave up and fell asleep, heat and all!

Mr. Brown is showing off his "glow stick on the nose" skills while riding in a train. This guy will do anything for a laugh...he he he

Grace had the camera and wanted us to do a silly picture. So, we did one...

A few of us waited in line while the others went and stood in the good shade of the building. We all had to wait in the heat for about 20 minutes for them to open the doors for the pre-show. Did they not know that the train just let off 300 people and it was so hot outside?

Grace, Sus and Aaron watching the clown do a funny little act during the pre-show...the kids also got to try on the costumes that they wear during the show, but my camera was being silly.

On Friday, Susannah was invited by one of her best little buddies, Mia Mia, to go to the mall and visit every little girl's favorite place, "Sweet and Sassy." They got their nails painted pink (of course) with sparkles, their hair done and they got to walk the runway and pose. They had a wonderful time being sassy little girls. I think she would still have her hair done up if it were up to her!!

Parker and Little O man sitting still for just a second for us to take their picture! They were like crazy kids in that place because EVERYTHING sparkles in there!!

Sus sitting still while her nails dried and she was getting her hair "done up." It was so fun for those little girls!

They are most definitely "Sweet and Sassy" little girls!!