May 11: Mother's Day

We surprised my mom for mother's day and took her to Chateau Elan for a spa day.  It was a beautiful day of laying around, reading, sitting in saunas, and getting a massage.  It was the first time my mom ever had a massage and she loved it.  It was such a nice day a great way to celebrate her!

November 1: Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today is fall break.  It's a day they give students off in order to travel down to the GA/FL game, which is always held in Jacksonville, FL, near the Okefenokee Swamp (note #warfortheoar is for the Okefenokee oar).  It's super quite around campus and I LOVE it.  Only thing, I have lots to get done ...yep, I took a break to update my blog. Ha. But it's also been raining all day.  At least my rain boots make me happy.  Aren't they cute?!

Give me a C

On Tuesday, September 4th, I found out I successfully passed the written portion of my preliminary exams!  WOOHOO!  Although it is quite an accomplishment, it still feels a bit anticlimactic since I still have to defend orally.

But I earned my C (in D-O-C-T-O-R) and now I'm studying for my T...which will take place on Thursday, September 27th.  If I successfully defend that day, then I will change from a doctoral student to a doctoral 'candidate' (or sometimes referred to as ABD 'all but dissertation').  It's exciting and a bit terrifying.

Somedays I feel this PhD journey is taking for-e-ver, and other days I realize how quickly it's flying by.

Disney World: Magic Kingdom

To me, magic kingdom is synonymous with disney world...apparently they aren't the same thing. :) While down for Stace & Andre's wedding, Jennifer and I went to disney.  It was a funfilled day.  I loved comparing it to disney land.  Here is my list of comparissions

• Disney World's Cinderella's castle is much bigger, and much better 
• Small world at Disneyland has a better storefront.  When you walk up to it at Disneyland it's a sight, but at World, it looks like any other random ride.
• Disneyland has all the best rides in one park
• If I had kids, I'd choose Disneyland over world (because you can walk out of the park, across the street to a hotel, take naps, etc) but Disney World you have to take the monorail, or boat, drive, etc, OR pay lots to stay closeby.

There are many other small differences, both are great experiences and now I can say I've been to both, woohoo.  Here are some fun pictures from the experience!

On our way to the Magic Kingdom!

 Cinderella's castle.

 We thought we were in line for the people mover, oops.

I LOVE the toy story ride! Ps. I beat Jennifer :)

 We met up with Stace & Andre later in the day!

 The castle lit up at night! It changed all sorts of colors!

 Oh I forgot, they STILL do the electrical light parade, it was AWESOME!

 I thought they would be all decorated for halloween, not really.

Had a blast with Jennifer and so excited to experience Disney World for the first time!  I cannot wait to return and try some of the other worlds.  I do have a few years left here, so hopefully I can make it down there again before I'm done with this PhD in Georgia!

Magnificent Massage

After a long academic year, I knew I needed a break, and I had been talking about getting a massage for awhile.  I looked into many places.  The health center would do an hour massage for $50...great price, but not the experience.  For my first massage, I wanted the experience!  So then I began looking for day spas.  These massages began to run $90-100.  The price made me more convinced that I wanted my money's worth.  I found the Chateau Elan.  It's a local winery with a hotel and separate spa. I was sold when I found out that when you get a service there, you can use any of the facility for free.  

The options included:

a workout facility 

fitness classes

hot tub

robes & sandals

pool with jets for swimming

steamroom

sauna

afternoon tea and snacks

showers with all the necessities

lockers

and all the little extras that made it special

The massage itself was wonderful...although with the way my back was hurting she could have spent the entire time on my back and I would have been a happy camper.  The room was softly lit, quiet instrumental music, the bed heated from beneath me, and after the massage I sat in a quiet reflection room with dim lighting, flickering candles, wonderful lounge chairs and warm blankets.

I made a day of the experience and it was lovely.  AND just what I needed, a day of quiet relaxation and pampering.  I wanted to go around and take pictures of the place but thought it would be odd, so I took a few when I could. ;)

The grounds were beautiful and overlooking a small lake.  It was a much needed day.  Although I will probably supplement my experience with some trips to the health center, I will return and treat myself to another day of pampering!

Frolicking in Florida

This forth of July I decided to head down to Florida for some R&R and for a weekend of catching up with my friend Jennifer.  She and I worked at Baylor together and she & her husband recently moved to Florida...conveniently between Tampa and Orlando.  The weekend was packed with all sorts of fun with good friends.

I drove down on Friday and met up with Jennifer at University of South Florida, where she works now.  After getting the tour of campus, we headed to her home to meet up with Stephen for dinner and fireworks in their town.  The fireworks over the lake on the dark night sky were fantastic!

After the fireworks display we headed to downtown Disney to walk around and peruse the Disney Resorts.  A-maze-ing.  Each resort is themed, detailed, and ... magical.

Saturday was open to the possibilities.  We talked about Disney, we talked about Universal Studios, the ocean and the gulf were also options.  The possibilities seemed endless.  After discussion, we headed for Universal Studios-Islands of Adventure.

Why?

Mainly one reason.

Or maybe seven.

It doesn't require a train, although possible.

Maybe it's the butterbeer?

Which is neither butter nor beer. :)

The reason?

It's magical.

...


The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

What a fun experience, truly.  After having read and watched all the movies the wizarding world was quite like I imagined (and kind of like the movies).  It was fun to experience it with Jennifer too as she hadn't read or seen the movies, thus I was able to explain some of the intricacies.  However, before heading straight to the Harry Potter world...we did visit a couple other parts of the park.  I mean, you can't spend the whole day just at the WWofHP.

The Hogwarts train & platform 9 & 3/4

Hogsmead

 The three broomsticks

Butterbeer-delicious! I've already looked up recipes.

 Olivander's wand shop-no I didn't purchase a wand, but watched a wizard & wand matching. :)

 

This picture cracks me up.  Jennifer took it while we were standing in line for the Harry Potter ride.  A wonderful experience through the world of Harry Pottery (some virtual & some through the castle).  It was obviously hot outside (FL in the summer) but they had misters and fans...a little piece of heaven.

 After HP we walked around the rest of the park and rode some great rides.  The one above was a bit of a shock!  I thought we'd ride up nicely to the top and then drop.  This was not that ride.  This one shot straight up at lightening speeds and then slowly lowered back down.  Really fun, but was completely unprepared for the experience.  :)

After riding Jurassic Park, Jennifer suggested we ride it again.  In the front.  The front row.  Yes friends, we rode the water ride with the giant TRex in the front row.  Contrary to popular belief we didn't...oh wait, we did get soaked but it was fun.

 

The spiderman 3D ride. Really cool.

 

  The park was really neat at night...the lights, the sounds, the cool breeze.

Of course I couldn't pass up seeing HP at night. :)

The Atlantic Ocean
Sunday, Jennifer and I went to the ocean via South Beach (not Miami South Beach...another one). :)  It was a beautiful day spent lounging (literally) by the water.  The breeze was delightful and the sound of the waves was memorizing. 

And I didn't even burn :)

The Gulf Coast
Monday, Stephen, Jennifer, and I went to Clearwater Beach on the gulf side.  Although there were more people, it was still manageable.  I was so surprised that for the holiday weekend we never really waited in lines or traffic.  The gulf  water is a little warmer than the Atlantic (and yes the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific) and the sand is much whiter.  As the three of us were in the water, Stephen made some comment about the water being so clear...to which a little girl nearby replied, well it is called Clearwater.  Schooled by an 11 year old. :)  I could have stayed in the water all day, only I was beginning to burn, and I planned to return home that evening...thus I had a long drive in front of me.

Lunch at Frenchy's on the water. Yumm.

 

The drive home was filled with more Harry Potter on tape (yes, I listened to it on the way down and no, it wasn't actually on tap, iPod actually, but it doesn't sound the same) AND a magnificent sunset.  The time with friends was dear and although I was happy after many hours to no longer be in the car, I was glad I made the trip!

Snowpocalypse

On Sunday night and into Monday (January 9th & 10th), we here in the south had a dumping of snow thrust upon us and some have called it the snowpocalypse or the weather or northern aggression. 


For those of you from the south, you may have heard this before.  For me, I've always referred to the war between the north and the south as...the civil war...shocking, I know. Here, many southerns refer to it as 'the war of northern aggression.'  No I'm not kidding.  Thus the weather of northern aggression.  Wow.  Anyway, I'm digressing.

Sunday night, the school announced its closure on Monday.  So on Monday, Mallory and I trekked out to Larry & Christy's for lunch.  It really was a bit of a trek, lots of snow, and a layer of ice upon the snow.  In the afternoon, we went sledding.  Tuesday, another snow day.  So I did some stuff around my house and in the afternoon, went out for another sledding day.  Wednesday, another snow day.  So I did some stuff around my house and... you get the point. :)

The school opened late on Thursday and late on Friday.  It was quite the week and although the snow days were wonderful, I was looking forward to getting back into a routine.

Here are some pictures.  We got approximately 6-8.2 inches of snow.  Clearly, Georgia is unprepared for that amount of snow.

 Monday after the trek to Larry & Christy's

The people (and kids) in H-105 made this huge, and lovely, snowman! :)

 The hill by the intramural field, awesome for sledding. Ps. a trash bag covered pillow is an amazing sled!

 My dead plants. However, I thought it was symbolic, the snow did make me happy!