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 :)

New Things

Wow. Though it is now February, January has been a month of new things! A new semester at work started, bringing with it new students and new challenges. I'm teaching 1 in-person graduate class and 1 online graduate class. I definitely miss teaching undergraduates, but I already know all the students' names in my in-person class so that's awesome. Teaching online is a new experience for me and I miss having the in-person connection with the students. The jury is still out on how it will go, but I will be grading their first assignment today so we'll see how they do!

Our new living room furniture was delivered this past week. It came a few weeks earlier than we expected, but we don't mind. I just love it and I think it fits the space so well! The colors are great, too, and it will be the perfect nap couch, I can tell :)

Perhaps most importantly, I am an aunt (again)! My sister-in-law had her first baby this past Thursday morning and I couldn't be happier. Bethany is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to meet her soon. (Sorry, not comfortable sharing pictures of a baby online until I have the parents' permission)

Hope you had a great weekend! 

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!

Let's not focus on the almost 2 months that I didn't blog and just focus on me being back now, k? :) It has clearly been a little bit busy around here, with the holidays and everything, but life is getting back in order now and it feels good to get back to the normal routine. 

First Christmas at our new house!

Christmas Eve dinner at my parents'. Note the huge snowman cake (it
was almost as delicious as the rib-eye my dad roasted)

Matt & I got to go to the Gaylord Texan for the huge ice display

Yes, it is all made of ice.

I was brave enough to slide down and it was really fun!

We had a great Christmas and were happy to spend it with both of our families. It was great to spend good quality time with everyone and good food was enjoyed, like always. After we got back from traveling, we had a week at home before Matt went back to work. We took advantage of that to do some much needed organizing and cleaning. One of the closets upstairs went from being an absolute wreck to being neatly organized and with room to spare. Wish I had pictures of before/after, but I'm just happy that it is so much better now!

For Matt's birthday, we went to see Star Wars. We loved it!

I survived my first semester as a professor and when all is said and done, I think it went really well. I enjoyed my students (for the most part) and received ratings that I'm happy with. I definitely enjoyed teaching more this semester than I had last spring, and I hope that will continue. I was able to have some really fun and enlightening discussions with my undergraduate students and I know several of them really enjoyed the class. I have some things I want to change the next time I teach these courses, but overall I was happy with how things went. 

Our New Years Eve consisted of homemade white chicken & herb pizza

And some amazing dessert (store-bought from Kroger's-- SO good!)

This semester will be different as I'm teaching 2 graduate-level courses, 1 online and 1 in-person. I think it will be a good semester and I hope to get to know the graduate students better. Research has been going well and I have been able to get several new projects started. I have been able to work on some really exciting collaborations with different scholars, both at and outside of my university, so I am excited to see where those take me. 

We have some exciting plans for this semester! My sister-in-law will be having her first baby any day now, so we're looking forward to meeting our new little niece or nephew. We will be adding to our own family and hope to adopt a dog in the next couple of months (no, no human babies anytime soon!). We have several house projects on the horizon as well, so it looks like I will have several things to post about here. I will definitely try to be better about posting on the blog this year, promise!

Random question for you: The first day of class is next week and I will be teaching my graduate-level statistics course on Tuesday. What random question should I ask the students? It can be an ice breaker, a get-to-know-you question, or anything. Looking for ideas :)

Now It's Done!

And now it really is all done. I rescheduled a meeting I had today because I found out our dining room table and chairs were done and I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving for them to be delivered. Gotta love having a flexible schedule! They were just delivered a few minutes ago and I had to share these pictures with you.

Sorry the lighting is so hard to get in this room...

Hope you love it as much as I do!

It's (Almost) Done!!

All of the house renovations are done and they look great! It had been 2 months since the original incident and it was certainly the process. We learned a lot about flooring, water leaks, and all sorts of other house things. There were certainly moments of stress and frustration, but it was worth it.

The entryway, love the floors!

We ended up getting a new light for the entryway since the electrician was
coming anyway. Love it so much more than the old one!

New dining room and light! And no hole in ceiling!

From the front door looking in; you can also see the new carpet.

New tile in the bathroom!

So there you have it! All that's left is for the dining room furniture to be delivered, and then we will definitely have people over to enjoy it with us. :)

House Update

On Wednesday our old hardwood floors were torn out of the entry way and formal dining room. That was quite the dusty process and also led to wasps invading our house. Fortunately we were able to stay at our church small group leaders' home that night! Yesterday they installed the new floors and I think you'll agree it made the whole process worth it!

I promise our furniture is black.

You can see the original color by the frame

This picture honestly reminds me of the lobby at the Tower of Terror

It is all over the kitchen tile and mats, so I could
only imagine our living room carpet is equally dirty.
Fortunately our contractor is getting us someone to clean the house :)

And the grand reveal-- our new floors!!! See the old ones here

Aren't they pretty?? It's hard to tell with these pictures, but
they have are hand scraped so they have some of the real wood look.

When we got home last night after dinner and saw them for the first time, I knew it was all worth it. Yes, there is still tons of work to be done and we don't want to use our living room or kitchen, at least something is done and it is gorgeous!

Oktoberfest in New Orleans

Because clearly New Orleans is known for its German food. Well, at least it should be. This past weekend, Matt and I took a whirlwind trip down to NOLA to visit my family. And I mean whirlwind-- drove down Friday, hung out Saturday, and drove home Sunday. Both travel days were in the rain for 75% of the drive, but it was well worth it. We had a great time on Saturday as you'll be able to see-- enjoyed a lot of great food (that I strangely didn't take pictures of, sorry) and had a great visit with my aunt, uncle, and grandfather. Next time we'll definitely stay a little longer, though! :)

We spent Saturday morning touring the French Quarter

And discovering cute alleyways

And watching street performers outside of Brennan's. They tried
to get Matt to dance, but he refused. After seeing what he
would have done though, I must say that was the right call.

And now Oktoberfest, where they had wiener dog races! Sounds strange, but is really fun!

They had several heats we got to watch, some more comical than others

The one on the far left was Layla. Her fans (yes,
she had groupies) had t-shirts that said "Lightning
Layla." She ended up winning the competition!

Of course they had to have the 'Hold the Beer Stein' competition. I have
no idea how much it weighed but it was quite impressive to watch them go!

Matt turned into Mad King Ludwig

Here's the same castle by the way-- Schloss Hohenschwangau;
picture courtesy of my trip to Germany in 2010. 

And our amazing host for the weekend, my aunt Paula, rocking the dirndl!