tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52684303658593354502011-04-21T16:35:57.422-07:00Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-63188044228728531452009-04-21T20:17:00.001-07:002009-04-21T20:21:41.874-07:00

Tonight, my Writing Fiction and Poetry students and Prof. Thomas's Illustration for Publication students had an art show and poetry reading at an area coffeeshop. We had a good crowd (~30 or so). I was very impressed with the work the students have done. I forgot to take my camera, so I'll try to get back over to the coffeeshop to take some pictures of the work and get them posted here.

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-50861095391195678862009-04-21T20:02:00.000-07:002009-04-21T20:16:40.024-07:00

One of the strange things and yet great pleasures about coming back to work at my alma mater has been getting to work with some of the folks I had as professors. After getting past the awkwardness of figuring out how to address them, my appreciation for them and their dedication to their work and to Olivet has grown.Last week, we had the annual salute to retiring faculty and staff members

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-31174480868560565452009-04-05T13:28:00.000-07:002009-04-08T21:49:34.876-07:00

Saturday morning, the Office of Health Services sponsored a 5K run on campus as the culminating event of a 3 month long wellness campaign. Over 200 students, faculty, and staff showed up to run at 8:30. 5 faculty members from our department took on the challenge and completed the race.Running has always been a bit of a mystery to me. It's what you did to get to a drop shot or a cross-court

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-88137711968745935572009-04-03T19:54:00.000-07:002009-04-03T20:06:31.068-07:00

I've had a unique experience this year working with one of our senior English majors as she has been writing a novel as part of her departmental honors project. I've been very impressed with her work and how much her writing seems to be growing through the process of completing this project. We've been meeting on Fridays to discuss her work. She's spending this weekend putting the finishing

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-31196038535422762682009-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:002009-03-09T11:59:09.210-07:00

I decided to tag along with the men's tennis team last night when they headed up north to work out in preparation for their spring season. I got a chance to talk with Mark, one of the players. Mark's a junior engineering major and a resident assistant in one of the dorms.During the trip to the racquet club and on the way back to campus, we had a chance to chat about any number of topics - class

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-84691742788467924922009-01-02T11:08:00.001-08:002009-01-02T11:52:38.805-08:00

Our family just finished our Christmas tour. We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family in South Bend, IN, returned home for Christmas, and then left the 26th for Heather's family in Abilene, KS.Anyway, on Sunday the 28th, we attended church with Heather's parents, her three brothers and their families. In all, there were 18 of us. The 2 youngest spent the service in the nursery, but

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-26183046679375527942008-12-06T08:14:00.001-08:002008-12-06T08:45:22.294-08:00

There seem to be multiple piles in my life at the moment...the thankfully still small piles of snow I can hear my neighbor making with his snow shovel, the pile of books I intend to read, the pile of laundry I need to get put away, the pile of papers that still need to be graded. I'm sure with enough time I could find a few more piles.However, a few faculty and staff friends and I decided to see

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-66393633222745631942008-11-05T19:07:00.001-08:002008-11-05T19:47:09.021-08:00

Yesterday morning as I was getting Emilia ready for school and Audra ready to go to her friend Kate's house, I happened to catch the footage of Barack and Michelle Obama and their daughters going to vote together in Chicago. The girls and I watched the footage, and I fielded a couple of questions from Emilia about what they were doing and why all the people were waiting in line. I explained

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-90713201349252694382008-10-22T19:38:00.000-07:002008-10-22T19:50:30.625-07:00

Last night, Emilia and I had the chance to read as part of Sigma Tau Delta's (the ONU English Honor Society) Dr. Seuss celebration. We read The Lorax. Emilia, who is in Kindergarten, read the Lorax's words and the Once-ler's instructions at the end of the story while I read everything else. I've got to brag a little bit and say how awesome she did particularly on those Seussisms like

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-34993371588728477072008-10-10T15:28:00.001-07:002008-10-22T19:38:15.008-07:00

I love great conversations, and conversations are one of the best parts about being in a community. Here are a few favorites from the last week...Saturday, we had dinner with the Claborns. While the conversation about whether the Red Sox winning consistently and paying players at a rate only exceeded by the Yankees starts to cause them to lose their appeal and a debate about the performance (

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-52366799904535272652008-09-15T18:43:00.001-07:002008-09-15T19:01:58.389-07:00

As you can probably gather, one of my favorite activities is getting the girls ready in the morning and dropping them off at school and daycare. The other day, Emilia decided that the time was right for her to walk from the car up to the school door for the last time. Tomorrow was going be one of those all important first steps. As we were approaching the path up to the school, one of her

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-25326567355889792008-09-02T20:17:00.000-07:002008-09-02T20:47:56.257-07:00

After my 1:30 class this afternoon, I saw Lyra, a junior English major I had in a freshman composition class, and Tim, one of the students I advise (an official sounding word for helping schedule classes and navigate the academic side of university life), sitting down at the end of the hall waiting for their next class to start.#2 on my list of what I enjoy about the students being back - Getting

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-24470771113441463792008-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:002008-08-30T10:56:22.051-07:00

Sometimes it's not easy to pause in the midst of the busyness of the beginning of the semester (meetings, planning schedules, cleaning up those things I should have put away at the end of spring semester, meetings) to soak in the energy that having the students back in town brings.I'll try to share over the next couple of weeks a few of those beginning of the year moments that help get me back in

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5268430365859335450.post-67379346421366662222008-08-20T13:56:00.000-07:002008-08-25T19:17:40.452-07:00

Well, it has happened. I'm officially the parent of a school age daughter. Emilia dressed in her new sandals, the dress her mom picked out for her in Portugal, and the necklace they had negotiated wearing marched through the front door of the school at 8:45 on Tuesday morning. I have to admit to having shed more than a few tears as I drove around the neighborhood waiting for her mom come back

Andy Gibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17804129352024071208noreply@blogger.com0