April and May 2013

April and May have come and gone. This has been a big year for us so far, and it seems like we've only just begun. I heard this song at lunch today, and it brought back memories of listening to the Carpenters with my mom. It seemed appropriate for this post. 

April consisted of the following shenanigans:

-I spent the first weekend with some amazing women from our church at Women of Joy Conference in Louisville, KY where we got to hear a concert by Jeremy Camp and several awesome speakers such as Lisa Whelchel, Jill Kelly, Liz Curtis Higgs, and Angela Thomas.

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory

Riding home from the conference on the church bus

Central Women's Ministry

-We ran with the Skyhawk Veteran Association in the UTM ROTC 5k where James and I both won second place in our age/gender categories. Whoop whoop!

SVA before the race

-My mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, a family friend, and I went on a day trip to the Southern Women's Show in Nashville where we got to see Miss Kay.

The Copeland Metals girls at the SWS

Miss Kay Robertson from Duck Dynasty

-Last but not least, James and I both made it through the end of the semester at UTM which is a very busy time for us. James made all A's!

May began with our 5 year anniversary Carnival cruise from Miami to Cozumel, Belize City, Roatan Island, and Grand Cayman. This was by far one of the best times James and I have ever spent together! We made so many memories and experienced several firsts: our first cruise, our first trip to the beach together, our first visit to the Caribbean, and James's first ocean dive. We absolutely loved it! The weather was perfect, there weren't any ship mishaps, and God kept us safe the entire time. Click here to see some photos from our trip.

We both love traveling, and we try to take advantage of any opportunity to travel abroad as often as we can. This trip added 4 new countries to our growing list. James has visited 10: Brazil, Germany, Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Caymans. I have also visited 10: Japan, Thailand, Peru, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Caymans. We plan to take a break from traveling abroad next year and go to Colorado where I worked two summers during college - Camp Redcloud. I have been patiently waiting to take James there since we started dating, so I am thrilled that we are finally making plans to go!

The rest of May included:

-Getting gutters installed on our house

-Dog-sitting for my co-worker Somsak. He and his family are from Thailand, so we are taking care of their dog, Junior, while they spend the summer back home. We are not typically dog people, but keeping Junior has been so much fun for me. He is an old dog, so he requires some special attention. I have done my best to make life great for him while he's staying with us. He hardly ever barks, he doesn't jump, and he is fairly obedient. He has the sweetest temperament. Such a good boy!

 
-During the last weekend in May, we went to Paris to spend time with James's family and to go to his 10 year high school reunion. Yes, folks, it's been 10 years. We can't believe it either.

Our nieces Evie and Ava

Our nephew Jax

Our nephew Caden

James and Ariel

Fun at the reunion!

2012 Recap & 2013 Resolutions

A recap of the resolutions I made in 2012:
1. Grow closer in my relationship with God. (Lifelong process)
2. Read and study Scripture more fervently. (Lifelong process)
3. Exercise more and eat healthier. (Lifelong process)
4. Graduate from the Master of Business Administration program in December. (Completed!)
5. Get into the Master of Science in Information Science program at UTK. (Completed! Although I'm almost certain I've decided not to continue with this program.)
6. Pass the Certified Administration Professional exam in May and get the 9% raise. (Completed! I didn't take the exam in May as originally planned, but I did take it in November and passed!)

2013 Resolutions/Goals: 
1. Grow closer in my relationship with God.
2. Read and study Scripture more fervently.
3. Exercise more and eat healthier.
4. Cook and read more. (Off to a good start: I cooked ham, green beans, purple hull peas, mashed potatoes, pumpernickel bread, and a double berry crisp dessert for dinner last night, and I am almost finished reading the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy.)
5. Train for and run in the Murray Half Marathon in April and complete it within 2 hours and 30 minutes or less.
6. Lose 10-15 pounds before our cruise in May. (I did great with my healthy eating for half of 2012. The past couple months are a different story. So goes that yo-yo effect I am bound and determined to conquer someday!)

MBA Graduation

Four Month Hiatus

Once again, I have allowed time to slip by me, and I have neglected to update my blog. I'm sure many of my readers have long since moved on since I have barely written a post this year. Although I'd like to think that life will finally slow down now that I have graduated (whoo!), I have a feeling my extra free time will fill up quickly (with things to be described in an upcoming post). I'll recap the past few months (or year, really) with the Christmas letter that we sent out to friends and family:

Merry Christmas to our dear friends, family, fellow bloggers and readers!

As 2012 comes to a close and as we all look forward to what’s in store for 2013, we hope that you and your family are doing very well! God has blessed us in great ways this year, and we would like to share some of our 2012 highlights.  

The most exciting event this year was most definitely when my dad became a Christian and then was baptized on July 22! Praise God who is faithful! Although his soul is now healed, please pray for physical healing and relief because he still struggles with a great deal of back pain and discomfort. Thank you for your prayers!

In March James and I celebrated our 4^th anniversary by spending a night at Patti's 1880's Settlement in Grand Rivers, KY. James had been there a few times with his family, but this was my first visit to Patti’s. The pork chops are definitely worth the drive!

In May James’s sister Casey and I spent two weeks in Europe for a Holocaust Travel Study with groups from UT Martin, Union University, and Rhodes College. We visited Poland (Warsaw, Oswiecim, and Krakow), the Czech Republic (Prague), and Germany (Dresden and Berlin). We toured ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka (extermination camp), Auschwitz I (main concentration camp), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (extermination camp), Auschwitz III (factory/work camp), Terezin (concentration camp), and many Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, museums, and memorials. Words cannot describe these humbling, surreal experiences. Casey and I have both been captivated by the history of the Holocaust since we were young, and we will not soon forget this incredible trip! 

On December 15, I graduated from UTM with a Master of Business Administration. I plan to continue working as the secretary in the Department of Engineering at the university as long as James is working on his nursing degree. As James continues his studies in nursing, he also enjoys his job installing and repairing classroom technology with UTM’s Information Technology Services. Over the past several semesters, James has also taken scuba classes. Diving has become one of his favorite hobbies. He has attained several scuba certifications and has had many opportunities this year to dive at Mermet Springs in Belknap, IL.

Speaking of opportunities, we have booked a 7-day Carnival Caribbean cruise in May 2013 to celebrate our 5th anniversary! James has already planned an excursion to go diving in the Cayman Islands. This will be his first ocean dive! Our ship will leave from Miami, FL and stop at 4 ports: Cozumel, Mexico; Belize; Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras; and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. We have never been on a cruise, so we are excited to try something new like this together!

This year we also visited with James’s aunt who was in town from Africa (my first time to meet her!), went camping with his family during a beautiful fall weekend, and celebrated with many of our friends and family who either graduated, got married, and/or had babies. This summer I helped with VBS at our wonderful church and this fall I attended an uplifting women’s conference with her mom and home-church ladies. James still actively plays the drums at our church and for other ministries through our church. We give thanks to God for how He has worked in our lives this year.

One last thing we’d like to add: In September, James officially got out of the Marines!

We hope that you and your family have a joyous Christmas season celebrating the birth of our Savior!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill!” Luke 2:14

Three Month Hiatus

Since I began this blog in July 2009, I have posted at least once a month . . . that was until this summer. Somehow time got away from me, and I neglected my blog for, not one, but three months! Shamefully, I have also gotten extremely behind on reading my favorite blogs written by friends, family, and blogger world acquaintances. Classes begin soon at UTM, so life will only get busier!

To recap the month of May, I traveled to three countries in Europe for two weeks. My sister-in-law and I had an amazing time in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany on the Holocaust travel study trip. It would be difficult to sum up the trip in a few words, so I'll just post some pictures instead:

Warsaw Uprising Memorial

Auschwitz

Auschwitz Birkenau

Auschwitz Birkenau

E. Wedel Chocolate in Poland

Astronomical Clock in Prague

The UTM group

Terezin Concentration Camp

Terezin Memorial

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

German Curry-wurst

Distance Learning

One of my New Year's resolutions has been achieved! This is an excerpt from the email I received this week: This message is to notify you that you have been accepted into the University of Tennessee, School of Information Sciences as a distance education student for Fall 2012. 

Even though I'm being admitted for the fall, I won't start the Master of Information Science program until Spring 2013. The program will take three years to complete. With that and my last year of the MBA program combined, I have four more years of school.

As a distance education student, I will attend classes via the computer. I will be able to interact with the professor and other students as if I was present in the classroom. I'm really interested to see how it will work. More importantly, I'm just happy to say I'm going to be a true UT Vol! 

 

Night Classes

Business Law 701: Basically, this class is a repeat of everything I learned in Business Law 711 over the summer. Dr. Hearn is a really great guy: friendly, dry sense of humor therefore funny, understanding, quirky, etc. He has his good qualities, but unfortunately, he's also very, very boring. He repeats himself often, and he speaks slowly and quietly. I truly struggle to stay awake in his class. It's not easy especially when the class is from 6:00-8:35PM. That's on the brink of my bedtime! At any rate, it'll be an easy "A" class, so I really shouldn't complain. As long as I show up and do well on the exams, I'll be just fine. I just get a little uneasy at the thought of spending my every Tuesday night until May fighting the urge to sleep in class. Too bad I don't use energy drinks.

Finance 710: This class is a little more exciting than Business Law, but it's twice as long. The class goes from 5:25-9:00PM every Thursday night. Whew. I have only been to the class once because the first week's class was canceled because of the weather. I've got the class tonight, and I somewhat dread it. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so long. I must say though that Dr. Haddad is an excellent professor. He's engaging, excited about the material, and extremely helpful when someone doesn't understand. I even enjoyed learning the material last week. Just need to take one moment at a time. Before I know it, I'll be graduating with an MBA!

Grad School, Part 2

Where is Part 1, you ask? Part 1 happened back in 2008 when I attended the University of Memphis for one short semester. I thought wanted to get a Master's in English Literature, but I quickly learned English Lit wasn't exactly practical to today's economy. After deciding that wasn't the route I wanted to pursue, I started a wedding planning certification program. The idea still interests me to a degree (pardon the pun), but I haven't found the motivation to complete the program. The program gives a three year window, so I have two of those three years left to finish the project (if I decide to finish it).

In addition to these two unfinished plans, did I mention I got a B.U.S.? That's a Bachelor of University Studies for those of you who didn't know. What does one do with a University Studies degree? Good question. That is one question that I've not been able to answer since getting the degree. My response is usually, "At least I have a degree!" My boss recently sparked this whole dilemma with me again, so I've chosen to take action. Believe me, I'm not one to make decisions based on what other people think of me. I'm much more concerned with what God wants me to be doing. That said, God has placed before me the perfect opportunity to go to graduate school here at UTM. My job here will soon transition from temporary to permanent. As a permanent staff member, I will receive an array of benefits. One being a fantastic fee waiver for grad classes each semester. How could I possibly pass on an opportunity like this?! It's as if God is holding it out, and all I have to do is take it!

The school offers only a few graduate programs, so after discussions with James (and other friends), prayers with God and consideration with myself, I believe a Master of Business Administration will be the best fit. I would have never chosen this degree on my own. I don't even really know what I want to do with it. That is what's so amazing about God. He knew I was having a hard time making a decision about my future, so He has narrowed it down for me. A GMAT appointment is scheduled for this Saturday at noon. Please pray I do well on this test. It's been a while since I've taken a test like this, so I may be a little rusty. If I do pass it, then I'll start taking classes this summer! I trust that this experience will equip me for whatever God has planned for James and me in the future. We're just taking one step at a time!