Things That Go Bump in the Mid-Morning

We were fortunate to be part of the hottest wedding I have ever seen this weekend. I don't mean hot like P-Ditty was there (though, that might have been fun). I mean hot, like--it's 100 degrees in the STL Botanical Gardens and so let's postpone the wedding for 40 minutes while the groomsmen meander in from getting ready--hot. Yes, it was so hot, the groomsmen actually sweat through all three layers of their tuxes. In fact, it was so hot, the other wedding at the garden that day moved their ceremony inside because of the heat advisory. Now if you know my charming male companion, you know that he's a bit of forehead sweater. On this day, who could blame him. Poor thing was soaked. The heat didn't stop it from being a charming wedding. Check it out:

Hot Groomsmen

Hot Husband

Hot Bridal Party

Not-So-Hot Hair on a Hot Couple

Yes, it was lovely. And most importantly, Evan and Dorina ended the occasion as husband and wife.

To celebrate the next day, Hubby and I got coffee and took some time driving through K-Wood. And then, bam! We got hit on our driver's side. No one was injured but our darling truck (to the tune of hundreds of dollars). Luckily, I have amazing parents. On their 29th wedding anniversary, they picked us up and left us a vehicle. We will be picking up Trixie the Tacoma later in the week after she gets some work done.

Thank goodness for great parents. I promised them that for their 39th anniversary, they could spend it not helping their children. No guranatees:-).

Here's to marriage!

The Probability of Updating My Blog Equals the Sum of My Homework Divided By the Time I Have

My statistics course is in full bloom and I am enthralled. Enthralled is the wrong word. Ensnared. There it is. Yes, I am one and a half weeks into educational statistics. Only two and a half weeks to go. It feels weird to be a student again, and I am reminded of all the habits I had three years ago in the classroom. Texting, kicking my feet up on the seat in front of me. Yeah, I was one of those girls. I am trying hard, as a grad student, to set a good example. It doesn't mean I am always naturally inclined to do so. I will say that I spend a lot more time on assignments and out-of-class readings than I used to.

Now that I have started classes, Hubby has taken to doing more around the house. It's miraculous! He voluntarily does hundreds of loads of laundry and folds it. He mops floors. He cleans the kitchen. When I try to help, I get the, "oh no, honey. You should study. Let me do this." Let me just say that I am staying in school forever. I jest, I jest. But really, he is going above and beyond the call of duty.

Last week was not only my first week of class, but it was also our church's Kids Club. We create our own summer kids' curriculum, so we don't call it VBS. We try to make it more of a camp for kids. This year was medieval themed, and we did all we could to make the kids laugh, play, and learn about Jesus as the true king. Exhibit #1




Yes, that is my dashing knight-of-a-husband dressed as a knight. Our group called him "Sir Baked Potato." He could barely move. It was all fun and games until he allowed the kids to remove the aluminum foil, revealing that he was a sweaty mess underneath. Here was the kids response:

"Oh cool, we get to tear the aluminum foil off!"

"Wait, why is it wet... (several seconds) Ew! Gross! It's sweat!"

Yeah, it was highly entertaining. Hubby also came in second in the Medieval Food Fear Factor. And I did not kiss him until he had thoroughly brushed the taste of head cheese out of his mouth.

Looking forward to a good weekend at my parents' house. I will try to update again soon, but that all depends on the probability that I understand probabilities without complications. You get the idea.

Here's to education.

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Life is moving full speed ahead at our house. Mom and Dad (mine) have decided to purchase a house to live in for retirement, or as I call it, the Grandparent Suite. Until they are ready to take up residence there, they are going to allow Hubby and myself to live there. Bonus!! So, we've spent the better part of this week researching properties. Can't wait!

In other news, I found out the hard way I have developed an allergic reaction to amoxycillin. Yes, I broke out in tiny bumps all over my body after recovering from whatever had my down and out in my last post. If you want to know what makes me look even more attractive than running a fever and having severe seasonal allergies, it's developing a massive amount of tiny bumps all over my chest, back, and neck. I will spare you the pictures. Suffice to say, I looked kind of like a child with tiny chicken pox. Or you can google "amoxycillin reaction" as my coworkers and I did. I do not recommend this. You probably won't be able to eat dinner. I looked like that. Yeah.

Hubby finished his last days at Kaldi's this week. I would say it ended bittersweetly, but really it was much further on the bitter side than it was sweet. You see, if being understaffed and overworked on the last day wasn't enough to make him glad to go, God decided to make sure he knew it was best to leave. About an hour before he was scheduled to finish his last shift, when the coffee house was packed to the brim, the water heater broke. The health inspector got tipped off, and the place was closed. And like that, Hubby's experience at his first job out of college was over. No happy goodbyes. No hugs from customers. The health inspector apologized for the timing of the issue, and we went to grab a beer. Adios!

I met with my new bosses this week. I am incredibly pumped to be working in their office come fall. We chatted, I got to see the office and then we headed to lunch. I was warned that we were going to do lunch in one of the most swankified places in our town, The University Club. This is where wealthy alums and townspeople go for great food and service. I, being a small-town, country bumpkin at heart was flooded with two contradictory feelings when I was invited to this lunch. One one hand, I had never been invited to eat at the lovely establishment. I was excited for the chance to try the food I had heard so much about and share in great conversations with my new bosses. On the other hand, I am the kind of person that says "friggin" and never orders the right thing and doesn't always claim to know a salad fork from a dinner fork. Thus, I was a teensy bit nervous at the formality of such a venue. I arrived without tripping up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief.
Ordering was tricky; I was trying to find something simple to eat so as not to make a mess. I am traditionally messy no matter what I eat. I settled on a salmon club since salmon is my favorite and I figured a sandwich couldn't be too difficult. Boy, was I wrong!! The sandwich was a double decker held together with shiny-topped toothpicks. I could take only one bite of each section before it exploded into smitherines, leaving me, my fork, my knife, and sometimes my fingers, to try to put it all back together. I was sure by the second of four sections that everyone in the restaurant knew I was not supposed to be there. As if they didn't already know when they realized I was under 30.
Resigning to the fact that I needed to finish picking at my explosion, I agreed to dessert. I immediately dropped the brownie tongs onto the ground and tried to pick them up to give to a waiter. With no waiter in my line of vision, I just looked like an idiot holding dirty tongs that I had caused to fall to the ground. The older gentleman behind me was obviously perturbed and begged me to leave them on the ground. Awkward. I also managed to stab my lemon tart with the other set of tongs, leaving part of my tart on the tongs themselves. I was in such disarray, I forgot to pick up a spoon for my sherbet. I arrived at the table, picked up the wrong spoon, and proceeded to dig into my sherbet without putting my napkin in my lap. Sweet.
During this time, we were also talking shopping. One of the ladies asked me my favorite place to shop, and although we had been talking of Ann Taylor and White House, Black Market, I blurt out "Oh, I mostly shop at Target." Yeah, you can tell I was a little nervous. Turns out, she was asking my favorite mall. I went back to work and crawled under my desk and held my ear for a while. Just kidding. But I wanted to. I am sure in my head this is all a little more dramatic than it was. And actually, I had a lovely time. I am so excited to start working in the office with the lovely ladies.

Well, Pete's birthday is today. Happy Birthday to one of my favorite brothers. Between you and Mark, I couldn't ask for better siblings. I love you dearly and will miss living with you come winter.

Here's to Memorial Day!

101.4

No, that is not my rating on the beauty scale.  That is my current temperature.  After having gone through this just a few months ago, I am back in bed fighting of sickness.  Luckily, I have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  Hopefully I can knock this out as quickly as it came.  The downside?  No work and no running while I am in this condition.

I didn't mention in my last post, but my darling baby brother is finally home.  He's currently residing at our place and we just LOVE having him around.  I think he is having that normal, difficult transition between living independently in a foreign country and coming home.  Still, having him around to hug, listening to him play video games with Hubby, it's just nice to have him around.  He'll be off to Pennsylvania for ballet before I know it. I just don't want him to grow up!

I have to say, even if I am still sick in bed tomorrow, I can't wait for Grey's Anatomy.  I took about six months off, but I am caught up and prepared for the waterworks tomorrow.  Of course, everything brings waterworks for me.  Scrubs finale? Tears.  Susan Boyle on YouTube?  Tears.  That's just me.  Sentimental and easily inspired.

Welp, my hubby just brought home 7-up, warm tea, and nail polish.  I think I will use the latter.

Here's to health!

Children of the Corn

Greetings from Omaha. I have to say, I kind of like Omaha. If you took out the Nebraska fas, this place might actually be an OK place to live. But, you could never take out the nU fans, so I think I'll pass. I am spending my second day here, and so far it's been lovely. I've eaten at Spaghetti Works, met a marathoner who gave me some tips, and spoken to 4 students who might come to Mizzou. I can't complain a lick.

When I am a resident of a hotel, I like to spend a good portion of my day streaming shows from my computer. I got to watch In the Motherhood and Samantha Who. Nothing like free comedy on demand to make me comfortable in a new city.

When I ran out of TV last night, I hit my Bible up. I have to say, I have read Ruth a dozen or so times but never has it touched my heart like it did last night. Ruth was truly a woman of God. She listened to God, sacrificed for the good of her family, and remained faithful during an incredible tragedy. It almost brought me to tears last night. I hope when I am faced with such challenges, I will have the foundation of faith to stand firm. What a mighty God we serve, that he would give his servants portraits of strong women for us to follow.

I have one more visit today and then I am headed to the hotel to get a run in. I will try to be more inspired in the future. Sorry for the recent delay in blogging.

Here's to God's faithfulness.

It's All Good!

Well, after taking a little hiatus, a lot has happened in the life of me. First, despite my fears and freak outs, interview day went just fine.  After six interviews, I was offered two positions.  I mulled quite a bit but ended up going with, what I am sure is the perfect choice for me.  I will be working for the Office of Parent Relations and Student Affairs Development.  I am completely thrilled to be working with two great ladies.  I know I will learn a lot from them and gain great experience.  I meet with them next week to make plans.  I also get to meet with my adviser this week.  I will start planning my classes and my goals for education.  Pretty excited about the whole thing, really.

I am headed off on the road tomorrow, so I will try to post again.  I am feeling a little uninspired right now.

Here's to answers to prayer, no matter how big or how small.

Aw... Freak Out!

Well, if you know me, you know I am a bit of a Type-A, first-born, perfectionistic, control freak. Just a little bit. So, it was a little more than a small hit to my Super Power (the ability to control all) when I got an email from my grad studies interview day organizer. You see, for the past month, I have been organizing data for my interviews. I had a list of position I wanted. I organized the list in the order of how badly I wanted the position. I then made lists of skills I had that would benefit the position and skills I wanted to acquire that I could learn in the position. I had scoured websites, read every bit of info I could, and hired a professional investigator to background check my potential boss at every position. Well, no investigator, but you get my point. The email came at about 4:30 yesterday and Dr. H told me that three of the five positions I had settled on were not, in fact, available.

And then I heard God chuckle.

I however, was not chuckling. No, I was looking more like a character from one of those old Disney cartoons right before Mickey makes Donald so mad that his head turns red and the top flies off. Yes, I was Donald. I texted and emailed with fury. I debated and wrung my hands. And then, I got in the car with my husband and we went to dinner with Momma and my best friend. Because, after all, nothing solves problems like time with your Momma. Even at 25.

Dinner proved to be productive. Meg and I then headed to the mall, where all the dresses were too big, which also proved productive. I settled into bed for my last night with my Esther study, and I talked to God a little. Sometimes, you don't have to talk too much. Sometimes, God does all the talking. And what he said to me was, "Um, Lady, I love how you think your plans are better than mine and all but really? Really?" And that's all he needed to say. I fell asleep and woke to a much better attitude.

As Bro and I came in to work this morning, he asked if I was doing better with the whole situation, and I told him my revelation. Being mad was basically me saying that my plans were better than Gods plans. This is not a position I am comfortable taking. I would rather not be mad than try to be God. And thus, a lesson was learned.

A reminder to myself and my friends in blogworld: I am still a Type-A crazy. That probably won't go away from one lesson. But thank God that he crushed my little head yesterday. I have no idea what position I will receive on Friday. Heck, I may not be going back to grad school after all. But I know it's not my decision. And for that, I am thankful.

Here's to the big decisions being taken care of by the Big Guy.