Sweet Surprise

Friday evening, I hung out with the Correll-Hughes'. Not only are they great people, it just nice to feel as though you are known. I enjoyed getting to know new people and making new friendships, but every now and again it's nice to go...where everybody knows your name.

Anyway.

When I arrived at the CH home, Larry mentioned that his friend Megan who worked in Housing at UGA would be joining us but that she was late and we should start eating. After dinner, we sat out on the porch chatting. There was a knock at the door and Larry went to answer it. As two women entered the house, I thought, wow, his friend Megan looks a lot like my friend Megan.

Then it hit me. It WAS my friend Megan. Ha.

Rewind to earlier in the day. I was hanging out with Laura. Laura is a 2nd year in the Masters program and did her summer internship at Baylor. I was using her ticket into the game, as she wasn't going to be going. When she gave me her ID (how the student tickets are issued) she also gave me another ticket. She said this was in case I couldn't get in on her ID. I laughed and asked if she remembered Megan from Baylor. I made some sort of comment that Megan was going to be upset because I had an extra ticket to the Arkansas v. Georgia game (Meg is Arkansas alum).

Fast forward. I was surprised to see Megan, I even asked...what are you doing here? Then I laughed and told her she was in luck, that I 'randomly' had an extra ticket to the game. Oh yeah, not random.

Megan had planned it. All very last minute of course. Her friend Alicia had posted on facebook that she wanted to go to the Arkansas Georgia game. Megan asked her if she was serious, since Alicia currently resides in the state of Arkansas. She was. So they began trying to make plans. It wasn't until Wednesday that things looked like a go. Megan had called Laura, secured a ticket, talked with Larry and Christy to make sure I was around. And the rest...history.

It was a nice visit. Quick, but nice.

Saturday we went to the game. Saturday night we hung out with some of Megan's Arkansas people. Sunday (today) she left to go back to Little Rock (drop off Alicia) then head back to Waco.

What a fun surprise!

Megan and I on the bus to the game

Noon kick off, it was hot!

SEC football! WOOHOO!

Goooooo Dawgs, Sic Em, woof, woof, woof, woof

Sorry for the whistler, and yes, she was just as annoying in person. SEC football is something to marvel at. We were in the 'overflow' student section as the first was filled AND we figured it may be safer for Megan as an Arkansas fan. I was excited to experience my first game with Megan. Again, what a fun surprise!

101 things to do in 1001 days

A friend, and member of my cohort, introduced me to a website called Day Zero Project. It's a site that lets you create a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. Interestingly enough, if I had started this on the first day of class (Aug 16th), 1001 days later would be the day after graduation, May 13th.

Although I'm a month behind, I thought it would be fun to create a list of things I wanted to do & accomplish during these next three years.

Here is the beginning of the list

Walk across the stage (one final time)

Visit the Georgia Coast

Visit North Carolina

Visit South Carolina

Visit Kentucky

Be the first author on a published paper

See the Appalachian trail head (GA)

Purchase sweat pants

Run a 5k

Go to Disney World

Create a list of 101 things to do

Get contacts

Go to a planetarium

Go to a drive in movie theater

Run warrior dash

Run the Nike Women's marathon

Participate in the urban adventure race

Visit the Florida keys

Send a note via balloon

Write a letter to my future self

Learn to water ski

Road trip back to Texas

Pictures with the uga mascot around Athens

Attend a SEC football game

A one month photo journal

Watch the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean

Apply to be a court appointed special advocate (CASA)

Go to a UGA gymnastics match

Obviously I need to put this list together quickly as I'm already behind. Thus I'm soliciting you for suggestions. :) Thoughts?

California Dreaming

This weekend, I flew out to California to spend some time with my grandparents. Additionally, my sister found a flight and was able to join the party. We had a wonderful visit with our grandparents.

Here are some pictures from the (quick) wonderful trip.
On Sunday, my aunt, uncles, and cousins also joined for lunch. While my cousin was there, she fashioned her new work outfit. After she left, my grandma fashioned the jacket she got when she was up in Portland last time visiting my mom & sister. She needed a little coaxing, but came out parading the coat. :)
While sitting around eating dessert, my grandpa was looking at pictures on my sisters iPhone, amazed by all the things it could do.
We had to leave early Monday morning in order for my sister to catch her flight out of San Francisco. Unfortunately, both grandma & grandpa were in bed, which we thought might be the case, so we said goodbyes Sunday evening.

My dad took us to the airport on Monday. Since there was a bit of time between my sisters flight and mine, we went to Pier 39, ate sea food, visited with my Aunt Laura & Uncle Robert, and of course made a stop at In-N-Out before heading to the airport.

Although the trip was quick, I know I was extremely blessed to have been able to spend the weekend with my grandparents. Not only was the timing perfect, I was able to find a flight for around $350 with a weeks notice. Amazing. I know I am blessed to have almost 30 years of memories with my grandparents, and call me selfish, but I hope and pray that I have many many more to come!

Labor Day 2010

Since I don't work Friday's, I've been trying to determine what to do with my four day weekend. Many ideas came to mind. Visit friends in Texas. Visit friends in South Carolina. Read, study, and feel accomplished. Stay at home and veg. Or book a plane ticket at the last minute to see my grandparents on the other side of the country.

Guess which won?

In addition to seeing my grandparents this weekend, I will also get to visit with my sister! We found her a flight too (thank you Continental frequent flyer miles)! She'll be flying in on Friday evening and I'll be flying in Saturday morning (which also leaves Friday for me to bust my butt reading and such).

I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with my family, and I'm thrilled I found a flight for a decent amount of money on such short notice.

There are many other things to update on, but this was the most pressing for the moment. Thank you to those of you who continue to keep my family in your prayers during this time!

Questions

Sometimes this life just isn't fair.

I just received word that upon doing the scope, they found the cancer has spread throughout my grandpa's body.

I don't know much more than that at this point. They're going to try and make him as comfortable as possible.

This just sucks, I really didn't expect this would be the outcome.

Grandpa's Surgery

Thank you to those of you who have asked and been praying for my family. I just spoke with my grandparents and my grandpa's surgery is scheduled for this Tuesday, August 24th at 8am (pst).

The surgery will go as follows:

They'll open him up and use a camera to survey the cancerous tumor.

If they find other places where the cancer has spread, they'll close him up and make him comfortable until he leaves this earth.

If they only find the one cancerous tumor (which is what they're expecting to find) then they'll remove it, do some other work, and then patch him up.

My grandparents are in good spirits and trust that God will use whatever outcome for his glory. My grandpa finds every opportunity to share his story of God's love; this is just another opportunity to do that.

I'm obviously praying it's just a cancerous tumor, that it can be removed with ease, for a quick recovery, and to restore my grandpa to full health.

I (and my family) would appreciate your prayers. Thank you.

Mysterious Ways

God works in mysterious ways sometimes.

There are many times I sit in awe of what God is doing. There are other times where I throw my hands up in the air and think, 'what are you doing?'

When I was interviewing for assistantships, I spoke with this woman, Jan. She had an assistantship in her office of assessment. Although I wasn't too thrilled about the position itself (not that the job was bad, just very removed from students, and lots of assessment (which I already knew I'd be doing in the program)) BUT I was extremely excited about the opportunity to work with Jan. For whatever reason, I knew she valued people, would help create the experiences I desired, and would be a wonderful supervisor.

Well, I didn't get that assistantship.

Instead, I have an assistantship working in the student center. Having never worked with any sort of student union, it'll be a good opportunity to learn. Additionally, my office is just down from the dean, I have interaction with some students, and there's the ability to create my own job description (all wonderful things).

So I started on a Tuesday. My supervisor left (I mean left left) on Friday. The next Tuesday, my new supervisor was announced. On Friday, she moved in.

If you haven't guessed it yet...Jan is the interim...and my temporary supervisory. I couldn't have been more thrilled when they announced it!

...

So...God story number 2.

When I was looking for places to live, you may remember I decided to live on campus and the whole hoopla of securing my spot. Well, I had been in contact with this woman Mallory. A friend of mine in the program (Larry-2nd year) had someone in his cohort (Danny) that knew someone (Mallory) who was looking for a roommate too. Random, I know. So Larry put me in contact with Mallory. After a few emails back and forth, it seemed as though we may get along, although how much can you truly know through email. Well, after I had decided to go with on campus housing (and secured a place), I get an email from Mallory saying she's decided to go solo this year (phew). But we agree to meet up for coffee after we're both moved in.

A few weeks ago, Mallory shoots me an email saying she's moving in and that she'd like to schedule coffee. She informs me that she is living in on campus housing. (Insert random laugh here ps she didn't know I was also living on campus) Then she tells me that she's in the building next to mine (Insert confused look and thoughts of where her apartment is)

Literally, I can see her apartment door from mine (when the tree in the courtyard is trimmed).

Mallory and I soon meet up for dinner. Here are some of the things we talk about.

• We both like the outdoors
• She has her master's degree in higher education from UGA so she knows all my program faculty
• She's been working in a leadership development program
• We both finished our masters in 2005
• She's not married and about the same age
• She's a Christian

And the list goes on and on. We joked that we lived parallel lives. But really, it's just another reminder of God's provision for me along this journey.

I was reflecting the other day about this transition as opposed to the last, and surprisingly this one has been smoother. This may be in part because I'm not deathly ill three weeks into moving, but for whatever reason, I'm grateful. I know this journey to PhD will be a tough and long (roughly over 1000 days) road, but I'm so thankful for reminders that God is with me and watching out for all the details.