Other life updates

Given that besides from my post on Monday I hadn't posted since February 1, I figured it was time for a miscellaneous catch-up post. So here, in no particular order, is a list of recent goings-on in our/my life.

I love hosting people at our house. We have now had the chance to host both family and friends at our home for dinner parties and I love that. It is great to use our house for that purpose and it also gives me a good excuse to try new recipes. This past Sunday we hosted our church's small group for dinner and we cooked jambalaya, apple crisp, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Yeah, we eat well (don't worry, there was also salad. And french bread. Nothing like a well-rounded meal!).

I can't wait to get a dog! We installed a new back door on our house that has a doggy door in it, so now all we're waiting on is time. We were going to adopt a dog this week, but since we are hosting large groups of people this month, we didn't want to cause any possible issues if the dog reacts negatively. So we're waiting until we get back from our anniversary trip at the beginning of June. Just 3 more months!

I love my job. It is exhausting and challenging and several days I don't know if I'm doing what I'm supposed to (autonomy is a tricky thing) but I am happy. I have a lot of fun teaching my grad-level stats class. We all make silly math errors- nothing like teaching by example- and they help answer one another's questions. It is awesome to have a more interactive class than some of the ones I have taught previously.

I finally have stuff on my walls in my office. I would show you but I don't have any pictures of it AND I'm not going to the office until next week. But if you remind me I'll share it then!

Because all posts need a picture of some form. This is
from a wedding we went to last month. We clean up well :)

Things Grad School Doesn't Teach You

Hello out there! Welcome back to this blog of mine. I apologize for the lack of updates, but it has been a pretty busy semester. It is finally spring break though so since I don't have to commute to campus, I can spend some of that time writing to you :)

This past week my department hosted a group of students from a university located in England. We are in the process of establishing a partnership with them and one component is having students visit each other's campuses. I was put in charge of planning their week here, so along with a couple of my colleagues we put together a range of events for them. During their visit, I played both hostess and facilitator. It was definitely exhausting but I learned a lot. I figured I would share some of those lessons with you that grad school didn't prepare me for.

• How to drive a 12 passenger van. Yeah, that was fun. Especially in the rain. On a highway filled with construction. And students with awesome accents asking you to turn on the radio and if people really own cows to mow their grass (yes, that really happened).
• Herding cats (uh, I mean students) and making everyone happy. Nobody is going to be happy all the time and unfortunately some students wanted to protest doing certain activities. Thankfully that's what their faculty sponsors are for.
• Managing disappointment when things get rained out. It rained most of last week up here in north Texas so that prevented us from doing a lot of activities like SWAT demos. The students were pretty bummed about that but there wasn't much we could do.
• Instructing students how to eat fajitas. Welcome to Texas, y'all!
• Instructing students that pico de gallo is not salad. Let's just say their tacos weren't so tasty.
• Shooting an AR-15 with a local sheriff's department. I hadn't shot in a few years so I was a pretty rusty. But it was awesome and a great way to end the week!

Oh yes, nothing like shooting a rifle while wearing a dress :)