Epic Date Part A

As I've discussed in a few posts, Matt decided to plan the Epic Date of 2013 to celebrate the end of summer school. We had a feeling this summer was going to be difficult (it was) and we would want a weekend to recuperate (we did). The original plan was for us to go out to dinner and then spend the night somewhere, no geographic restrictions other than the DFW area. So once a month, he would email me hints of 2 locations- one for dinner and another of a hotel. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Epic Date ended up getting split into Parts A and B, but I think we preferred it that way. Plus, everyone likes to spread out celebrations, right?

So part A was a couple of weekends ago. On Friday, after a very sweaty spin class, we got ready, packed up, and headed to the Fort Worth Omni. It is pretty new and so nicely decorated. It has a Texas theme but not in a cheesy, over-done way. The package Matt reserved for us included a premier room, valet parking, and breakfast the next day-- none of these disappointed. Our room was on one of the upper floors of the hotel and had a corner view so we could see part of downtown as well as the Fort Worth Water Gardens. 

During our time in downtown, we explored a lot downtown, ate a lot of delicious food, and just relaxed. It was an amazing time, from when we started celebrating happy hour with some delicious chips & dip to sadly checking out the next day. Matt planned it all so well and we could tell we really needed that time just to get away from our normal life, even if it was just 30 minutes away for 24 hours. Still so good and so fun! But enough words, here are some pictures!

Our view

  

Our room with the huge king size bed

Rooftop pool/bar area

Ready to go explore before dinner!

One of the fountains at the Fort Worth Water Gardens

Dinner at Uno's Pizza-- we shared an individual size...

So we could order our own desserts. Oh,
these are mini desserts, by the way.
White chocolate macademia nut deep dish cookie (yum!)

Matt's (mini) apple-based dessert

A beautiful church we discovered downtown

Exploring the water gardens around sunset-- so pretty!

View of the same thing a few minutes later

We may have uh... 'borrowed' some strawberry shortcakes from
the convention center earlier... they were very good late-night snacks!

Our complementary morning coffee the next day

Sunrise!

Some breakfast

More breakfast...

And more breakfast. Take a guess as to who's plate is whose.
Should be a fun game.

Matt outside his UTA-Ft Worth campus

There is a cool little museum inside
this old fire house on the history of the city

Inside the museum, some of Matt's favorite things

Tarrant County Courthouse

While Part A was awesome and it was hard to go home, I'm looking forward to Part B. It should involve some delicious food and we all know how much I love to eat! I'm so thankful for my amazing husband to take the time and effort to plan this. We had a great time and I can't wait to see what Part B has in store!

First Day of School!

Today is my first day of school for the... 21st time. I am starting my third year of graduate school today and though I've been registered as a Ph.D. student this entire time, it feels more real as I have now earned all the credits necessary for my master's degree. I'm not planning on walking for my MS (I can only take so many more graduation ceremonies after the 4-hour-extravaganza for my undergrad) but I will be getting the pretty diploma for my wall at some point and I can now put it on my CV that I have a Master's in Criminology, so that's cool. But it still feels like a long way to go til I'm done. Intended graduation date: May 2016. Here I come?

This semester will definitely be a difficult one, but I'm excited about my classes. They should all be pretty interesting as well as useful for furthering my own research, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to getting into a routine as life as been anything but routine as of late. 

In honor of the first day back for myself as well as thousands elsewhere, here are some of my favorite PhD comics. 

source

haha so true; source

source

source

If you are starting today, good luck to you! What are you looking forward to this upcoming semester? Aside from my classes, I'm looking forward to some cooler temperatures, A&M football, and of course pumpkin spice lattes! 

Prayer Request

As most of my readership is family, I'm using this venue as family communication. I wanted to write a short post just requesting prayers/thoughts for Matt's family. His grandfather passed away earlier today and so comfort and peace is needed at this time. We are making arrangements to head to El Paso for the next few days so I will be succinct, but we would appreciate any extra prayers you have.

Thanks!

Five for Friday, catch up addition

Howdy everyone! Happy August. I know, I'm late. We're halfway through August already and this is my first post. Oops. We have had a few happenings and have a few more coming up!

1) First I have to brag on my amazing husband! He got a promotion last week and definitely deserves it! I'm so proud of him :)

2) We got to experience the amazingness of home-living when we house-sit for some friends who were on mission in Poland for a week and a half. It was pretty awesome having a large kitchen, master bath, and so much square footage (especially compared to our little 1-bedroom apartment)! Oh, and did I mention it was on the lake? This was our view.

3) Do you recall me telling you about Matt's mystery date and he would send me clues about it? Well, it is this weekend! Well, part of it. We are doing the fancy hotel stay this weekend and then the following weekend going to the nice restaurant (due to DFW restaurant week confusion). I know where both are and I am pumped.  

Omni Fort Worth, source

Not the location of our fancy dinner, but we still have to eat this weekend, right?
Uno's is just down the block from our hotel. Om nom nom! Source

4) The summer semester is OVER. Matt finished his last summer classes this week and we couldn't be more excited. He only has 4 classes to go and he has his MS! Intended graduation date of May 2014. Only 2 semesters to go...

5) Speaking of school, it starts soon. Aug 26th to be exact. I'm looking forward to having a schedule again-- our lives have been a little crazy these past few weeks-- but then again, that means exams and papers. Yay?

Don't some of my books sound awesome?

So what's going on with you? How have you celebrated August?