school + springtown weekend

I have had some very busy/fun days this past weekend! The chaos started Friday morning. I had my New Student Orientation for Grad School at 10:00am - WOO HOO! I was so excited to be back on Texas A&M's campus it was crazy! There is something about walking around that campus that makes me incredibly happy. I was really shocked at how many people were in my orientation group and how much I enjoyed myself there. I thought it was going to be some information given out, lunch and then go home but it turned out that we all got to meet and talk with advisors/professors and get to know them one-on-one which I thought was really nice. I told Bret later that looking around that room and listening to the level of expertise these people have, I couldn't help but think "How on earth do I deserve to be in the same room as these people?" - It really was incredible. I got to meet one advisor that I have a complete girl crush on now because she was so fantastic. She is one of maybe five scholars in the US that studies Critical Human Resources which is something that I am very interested in. It is basically taking a look at large corporations and businesses and questioning the way their HR is handled. For example, how people are being laid off right now why others are getting bonuses. Critical HR steps back and analyses those situations. It is amazing to me that not that many people study this considering the way the economy is right now. Now is the time to question people. But, needless to say, I really enjoyed my student orientation and I cannot wait to start taking classes!

My new home on campus - This is where I had orientation and where all my classes will be!

Friday night Bret and I drove to Springtown to see his family. On the way we started listening to Twilight again for the second time. Stephanie Meyer, the author, had put out part of a book that was Twilight from Edward's point of view and Bret and I recently read that. So after that, we wanted to go back and listen to Twilight again and combine the two stories. It was really interesting listening all over again and knowing what Edward was thinking during the moments Bella is talking. And of course, it made the three hour drive fly by! Once in Springtown we visited with the family and I played with Mallory's, my sister-in-law, new puppy, Gage!! I love puppies and this one was without a doubt one of the cutest little puppies I had ever seen! I played with him majority of the weekend, which made me and him both super happy. I was dangerously close to putting him in my purse when we left on Sunday!

Gage - the cutest puppy in the world!

Saturday morning, bright and early, we all headed out to Brock's soccer game (our three year old nephew). I have come to like soccer after this game because it was so precious! Those kids running all over the place was hysterical beyond anything else! I found myself taking pictures of kids from the other team because they were making me laugh so hard! Loved it.

Brock looking like a Pro!

Had I been forced to play soccer as a child, this would have been me!

One of my favorite kids of the day!

After the game we went back home where I started to get sick - I went and took a nap for a little while. Bret came in at some point and notice that I had fever, never fun. Around 2:00 we went to our cousin Celeste's 4th birthday party. There was a lot of food, presents and family around so we had a good time. Celeste had an Easter egg hunt and a pinata so I enjoyed watching the kids play around and get candy.

Brock finding the Easter Eggs!

Bret and his brother Mark - Don't they look deep in thought?

Mallory helping the birthday girl with the pinata!

After the party Bret and I went and saw our Uncle Kelly, Aunt Lori and their daughters Hannah and Erin. Hannah had just found out she made Varsity Cheerleader so she was really excited and of course, we were very happy for her! Bret and Kelly started talking about books and by the time we left Kelly was sending us home with a stack of about 30 books to read! Bret and I are going to have a blast with those! That night we went over to Mark and Summer's house (my brother and sister-in-law) to play scattegories and hang out. We got home about 11:30, I was still feeling ill and exhausted from the family-packed day so Bret and I crashed!


Sunday morning we got up to get ready for church but I was still feeling yuck so we weren't able to make it :/ But for lunch all the family came over for steaks so it was fun to get to see everybody one last time before we hit the road! The drive home again went very quickly thanks to the help of Twilight. Once we got home we crashed on the couch, watched King and the ACM Awards and went to bed (with me still having a fever. boo.)



This morning I woke up, still feeling bad and still running fever, but headed off to work. Where my email refused to load and I almost threw my computer out the window! However, a wonderful thing happened this morning because I got to register for my first summer class as a Grad Student!! I am now enrolled in Change Theory which is described as: Conceptual tools needed to understand theories of change and to develop ways of operationalizing change for education and research. YEAH!! Classes start June 1st - Bring on the studying!!