PhD Celebration Trip

This past weekend, Matt took me on a trip to celebrate my graduation. He had asked me several months prior if I would rather have a physical gift or an experience as my gift and I'm so glad I chose the latter! He planned this getaway for us and it was absolutely perfect. At first, all I knew going into it was this:

Then a few weeks ago, he let me know the first night was at the Fort Worth Omni, a hotel we had been to a couple of years ago. It was awesome to have one concrete thing to look forward to, given the rest of the trip was a complete surprise. My husband clearly knows me well as he planned the perfect trip for me. It pretty much consisted of amazing food, physical activities (to work off all the food), relaxation, and fun adventures. It is hard to believe it is already over and I'm so grateful to him for the time and effort he spent planning it for us.

The trip began Friday after lunch when we drove to downtown Fort Worth and checked into the Omni.

View from our room

Fort Worth Water Gardens

After checking out our amazing view, we went up to the rooftop pool area to enjoy the view and some tasty snacks. We hung out there for a few hours (got to see 4 F-16's take off), and then left to continue the rest of the evening. Dinner was at a local burger restaurant called Rodeo Goat, known for its deliciously unique burgers. 

At the roof top grill

Such good burgers!

My burger- the Chaca Oaxaca: beef & chorizo, avocado, pico de gallo,
fried egg, queso fresco, & tabasco mayo

Matt's choice, the Cowboy Murrin: applewood smoked bacon, tomato, jalapenos,
fried onion, cheddar, pickle chutney, housemade BBQ sauce

After dinner, we wandered around the downtown area some more, before coming across some fun arcade games. Along with playing the largest version of Jenga I've ever seen, we also played a few rounds of skee ball and air hockey! Made for a fun end to our evening.

It eventually came crashing down...

The next day we worked out at the Omni's fitness center (yes, Matt knows I need some form of physical activity every day), had a quick breakfast, and then went to spend the rest of the morning poolside. The water was a bit too cold to get in, but we were very happy to lay out and read our books. It was so relaxing and peaceful out there so I'm glad we took the time to just be quiet and enjoy the sunshine. 

We eventually had to check out, so after leaving the hotel and grabbing lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (all of the salad!), we hit the road for destination #2! I was driving and Matt was navigating, since he knew where we were going and I still didn't. However, after a little bit on the road my suspicions were confirmed-- we were going to College Station! We had a great drive back to the area we met and then did a driving tour of the area. We checked into our hotel and then got ready for our fine dining experience of the trip. 

That evening, Matt took me to Christopher's, an amazing restaurant that is perfect for celebrating special occasions! We had been a few times before but it was so nice to be back, especially to celebrate me earning my PhD. Texas A&M is where I first learned about criminology so being back in the area carried with it a nice symbolism. Plus, the food is absolutely delicious!! 

Our appetizer: almond baked brie.

Why don't food pictures ever look as good as it does in real life? This
was my dish, the Italian Braised Beef Ribs. The boneless ribs were
melt-in-your-mouth tender and the polenta hiding underneath was
SO good. Easily one of my favorite dishes ever.

Matt's equally awesome dish: South American Marinated Beef.

Our dessert- chocolate & peanut butter cake

The next morning we took a 2-hour walk around campus. Even though it has only been 4 years since we graduated, a decent amount has changed both on and around campus. Yet it was still nice to be back and very much made us feel at home. Until we saw the new Kyle Field! My goodness is that place huge! 

Matt in front of Bright, his AERO building

The Administration Building in the early morning

Only we would take a picture of the library :)

Inside the Flag Room-- figure it's rare to see it with NO ONE ELSE

Kyle Field!

About 6.5 miles later, we eventually wandered our way back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and headed out for lunch. We went to Fuego's, enjoyed some delicious tacos, then headed home. It was very bittersweet leaving, knowing we were headed back to real life after such an amazing trip. Throughout the weekend, Matt made a point to make sure I felt celebrated and that was certainly fulfilled! Guess it makes it really official now, right?

My Quasi-Unemployed Summer

Since I have graduated, many have asked me what I do with my time. Unexpectedly, it seems like I'm busier than I have been the previous summers! Don't get me wrong, I love it. I love getting to work on these things (most of the time). I just figured I should share what I'm actually doing with my time. Hopefully it will explain why I've been MIA on my blog :)

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Typically every Monday and Wednesdays, I work on my research. That can involve one (or more) of the following activities: reading and taking notes on articles, writing, running analyses, cleaning data, writing emails to professors and peers (I'm not sure where I fit in the world yet), and editing papers. Publish or perish, right? 

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I dedicate Tuesdays and Thursdays to course prep. I have 3 courses that I am prepping this summer- 2 that I will be teaching in the fall and the 3rd is an online class I'll be teaching in the spring, but it has to be completed by September. Right now I'm working on writing up course outlines and exams for the online course (research design). Then I'll be putting together lectures, exams, and assignments for my other two courses (criminology and community corrections). 

Friday tends to be my 'catch-up' day, where I deal with emails that I had been putting off and trying to finish up some of the other tasks that hadn't been completed quite yet. 

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I try to take the weekends off for the most part. That probably won't always be the case, especially once the fall rolls around, but I'm enjoying it right now :)

Journeys of Home Ownership

Being a first time homeowner is nothing if not overwhelming interesting. We have now lived in our house for a little under 2 months and have learned many things already. I'm sure it will only get better with time, right?

Lessons we have learned:

• Something is always broken. 
• Literally the night we get back from our anniversary trip one of our alarm sensors break. As a result, we can't set our alarm. Due to all the rain, the alarm company is flooded with service calls (apparently rain does weird things to alarms?) and they can't fix it for another 10 days. #FirstWorldProblems.
• During this time, my garage door decides not to open automatically. Call our home warranty and set up an appointment for the following Monday to get it fixed. We receive advice that it could be the sensor. Matt does something to it (magic, I'm sure), and it now works. #YayForSavingMoney!
• Always bag the bones.
• So it turns out just throwing trash into the garbage can doesn't guarantee it will fall out into the garbage truck. 
• You will go on dates to Home Depot and Lowe's.
• See above. #YayForFlyRepellant                           
• Get to know your neighbors.
• You may have to ask them if their dog is up-to-date on their rabies vaccines. (Don't worry, they were.)
• I know nothing next-to-nothing about:
• Lawn care
• Electrical 'stuff' and GFCI outlets
• Insect infestations
• Granite counter tops 
• What, they have to be sealed?
• Your parents & Google know everything.
• See all of the above

Anniversary #4

As I said in my last post, Matt and I went on a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, a few weeks back in order to celebrate our 4 year anniversary! Yes, it's the same place we went to for our 1 year anniversary, but we fell in love with it. When deciding where we wanted to go, we decided it would be best given all of the change that was happening this past year. I'm so glad we did because we had an amazing time! 

We stayed at the same B&B this time, too- The Buckhorn Inn. We loved it just as much if not more than we did the first time! I was a little worried that we had built it up in our minds to be better than it actually was, but as soon as we stepped into our room, all those thoughts were gone. I could not recommend this place more, especially if you like beautiful mountain views and delicious breakfasts! 

We did do a few new things this trip. The first was going on some longer hikes. Our first hike was up to Ramsey Cascades. Due to our inexperience at finding trailheads, we ended up hiking a little under 12 miles as opposed to the posted 8, but we had a great time! I think we will be looking into getting our own hiking gear (my brother lent us his backpack) and do some more hiking locally.

We had conquered 10 miles, still had another 2 to go.

Our second hike was to Rainbow Falls. This was a shorter hike (about 5.5 miles roundtrip) but we got to see tons of chipmunks! As it hadn't rained in the mountains for a while, the falls weren't quite as impressive as I heard they could be, but we still enjoyed our hike.

Matt finally found a salamandar! 

The other new thing we did this trip was go visit the Biltmore Estates. This was certainly a splurge ($60/person including the audio guide) but it was worth it to see the nation's largest home. If you go, be sure to get the audio guide as otherwise you won't find out much about the history of the estate. Though we didn't get to see everything, we did enjoy what we did do. For us, it was one of those 'good to see it once, but don't necessarily need to do it again' kind of things. 

You couldn't take pictures inside the home, but this was one of the views outside of the house!

The estates included several beautiful gardens and greenhouses

Overall we had an amazing trip! It was great to get away and just be the two of us after all the work/graduation chaos of the prior few weeks. 

Apparently Matt is super serious when he meets hiking-black bears!

Take me back to this view, please!

Life Lately

As my aunt (hi, Paula!) so gently reminded me, I haven't blogged since my graduation. This past month has flown by! Since graduation, we have traveled to and from Gatlinburg, TN, hosted our first party at our house, and experienced our first insect infestation. Nothing like being homeowners, right?

I will go into some more of these things in more detail, but I wanted to do a quick post to let you know I'm still alive and well. Even though I'm technically 'unemployed' this summer, I am staying very busy. During the week, I am working on both research and class prep. The weekends (and weeknights) are inevitably filled with house-related tasks, plus a few social events scattered here and there. 

Each of the other topics deserve their own post, but until then I'll leave you with some miscellaneous pictures.

Matt in front of Ramsey Cascades in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Our 4 year anniversary dinner

This was us on our 1 year anniversary, also at our B&B
in Gatlinburg. WE LOOK LIKE BABIES!!!!

Fast-forward to the present- we got
to see a panda at the Memphis Zoo!!!