The Blessings of Institute

Ok, in a few of my prior posts I have complained just a little bit about the walking required for my grad school classes.  :)   I want to explain a bit about that and then I will get to the title of this entry.

When I finally decided that I was going to move to Denton my mom and I spent 2 different fun filled days here looking around for an apartment.  The very last one we saw was this perfect apartment.  It's location was unbelievable.

As you can see from the map above my apartment is RIGHT next to the Speech and Hearing building.  At the time that we were searching for an apartment I was under the impression that all of my classes would be in that building so it was PERFECT!  Unfortunately our class group is larger then usual and will not fit in any of the class rooms in that building so the Dean had to scramble to find classrooms that would fit us.  The problem with the last minute scramble is that the classrooms are not necessarily in the most convenient places.

This is the walk I made several times last week, the one I have been complaining about.  I know it is good for me, and thankfully the weather hasn't been too bad.  It is beautiful today.  I am looking forward to cooler weather but not rainy days.   Today brought with it a whole new set of classrooms to get to and believe it or not they are even further away then last weeks class room.

I am not in the best physical condition so I approach long distance walking like the tortoise, slow and steady.  I gave myself an hour so I could stop and rest if needed.  I needed to leave for class at 11:30am.  At about 10am it occurred to me that I had not yet signed up for Institute.  When I got on to the website to sign up I remembered where the institute was located...

TaDa!  Hoorah!  *chorus of angels singing*  Hallelujah!  OK, so If you attend institute you get to park in the lot for free all semester!  Hooray!  Needless to say I signed up for Institute class right then.  Maybe, later in the semester, I will do the long walk but it is nice to have this shorter walk option.  Especially for bad weather days and because my last class on monday night doesn't get out until 8:30pm I am counting my blessings.  So, I parked there today and who knows, maybe it will turn into a missionary opportunity... "Free Close parking!  You just have to attend a bible study class once a week!" :)

Which brings me to the title of this blog entry.  I know there are other, spiritual, blessings of institute but for me, today, I am thankful for the immediate blessing of free parking close to my classrooms.

DePeche Mode

Last night I went with some of my favorite people to an outdoor DePeche Mode concert.  When we purchased the tickets, 4 months ago, we thought we were crazy to be planning to go to an outdoor concert in August in Texas but we lucked out.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL!  There was a slight breeze and the lawn was all in shade and the temperature was in the low 90s.  It was delightful!

My favorite part of the evening was the waiting time.  We got to the stadium around 7pm, when they opened the gates.  We got prime seating right in the middle and then spent the next hour or so chatting and enjoying the night air.

The concert itself was just ok.  The crowd was fabulous to watch and hanging with my friends was a blast.  It was a lovely evening.

A day spent with the family

This morning I went and met up with my family at Adam and Vicky's apartment to help them move.  Charlie was out of sorts.  I think he could sense that his normally orderly "world" was now all in boxes.  He was happiest when his dad was holding him but he did have a few happy moments with his soon coming cousin... Special K.  Let me explain.  Lauren and Stephen are expecting a baby in November and they have decided not to find out the gender until birth day.  They have names picked out for each gender and both names start with K so I refer to my upcoming niece/nephew as Special K.  

Here Lauren is holding Charlie sitting on top of Special K. :)  You can just barely see the smile peeking out on Charlie's face.  It should be interesting to see what kind of friends these future cousins will ultimately be.

Aaron and Samantha wanted to help with the moving.  They picked up everything small enough for them to carry and took it out to the van.  They were very cute.  When they ran out of things to move the found the bag of Cheetos that Aubrey had brought with the leftovers from her party from the night before.  Samantha's favorite thing to do with them was to feed them to Dad, or Poppy as she calls him.

When Lauren and I were finished giving emotional support with the moving we decided to get some lunch at Chili's.  Guess what?!  Ok, I don't know if you know but once a year Chili's dedicates a month to celebrate me and this is that month!!  See...

Ok, so technically the proceeds go to St. Jude but still... I like getting all the Hope stuff.  The picture above is of 6 different coasters that when placed together make this Hope chili.  We had the best waitress I think I've ever had at Chili's.  We had a stack of coasters with the letter E on them on our table and when Lauren asked about the other letters our waitress went around the whole restaurant looking for the remaining pieces of the puzzle.  She found them all!  She was great and we made sure to tell her manager how great she was.  It was nice having lunch with Lauren.  Thanks for lunch Lauren!

So that was my day spent with my family.  They are pretty great.

Grandma Betty

Our sweet Grandma Betty passed peacefully in her sleep last night.  Her infectious smile is now bringing joy to those on the other side.  We will miss her loving presence in our lives.  Love you Grandma Betty!  God be with you til we meet again.

Not any easier

I think they made the path to my class twice or even three times as long today!  Halfway there I started questioning whether I was going to make it.  Thankfully there is this nice low steel parking fence thing in the shade where I was able to sit and collect myself before continuing on.  In case you were wondering, I did make it to class AND back again.  I was dripping with sweat by the time I made it to my desk in class but I SURVIVED!!!  So, I'm thinking that I was delusional in thinking this was going to get easier the more I did it... at least right away.  I'm thinking this is going to get harder over the next few weeks but THEN it should get better.  In theory... my body will get used to the walking and perhaps it will even get lighter which would also help relieve some of the "discomfort".  (believe me, I use that term lightly)  I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow brings with it more hot, sweaty, walking.  Wish me luck.

walked and walked and walked and walked

I spent the day with Allie yesterday.  We got ALL my errands done.  We walked all over IKEA and Target and Office Max AND Walmart.  I'm kicking myself for not bringing my knee brace.  It would have really helped.  Meet my knees new best friends...

Between these two bottles I am moving slowly about today.  I have class this afternoon but I am feeling pretty confident about the walk.  I did it monday and it wasn't that bad so I'm ready to conquer it again.

Last night Rachael came over and helped me fix some things around my apartment (including my bed...a whole other story).  We had some excitement while she was here.  We were taking my bed a part to figure out what the problem was when we heard a big BANG from the kitchen and then ALL the power in the apartment went off!  We soon discovered that this metal sign that I had hanging over the stove in the kitchen...

had fallen down behind my electric stove, fell across the 2 prongs of the plug, and shorted out my entire apartment.  After many frantic phone calls (including one to my dad) and several hours of fretting, it was finally discovered that the master fuse had been tripped and had to be reset.  Did you even know there was a master fuse?  I didn't.  Mine is located next to my electric meter so if this ever happens again remind me so I can just fix it myself.

So, Rachael helped me get my bed back together AND put my curtains up.  I LOVE my curtains!  Thank you Rachael!   You can kind of see them behind the bottles posted above.  They are so cute!

Ok, well I am off to class.  Wish me luck with my hike across campus.  Me and those pioneer children.  We are all about the walking and walking and walking....

Orientation

Today was orientation for grad school.  My stomach was all tied up in knots.  What if I didn't make any friends?  What if it was all over my head?  What if I stuck out like a sore thumb?  The one thing I didn't have to stress over was the commute.  My front door literally opens out to the parking lot of my school building.

I nervously made my way across the parking lot and was so excited to actually see a couple of faces I recognized from UTD undergrad.  Instant friends!  Hooray!

We toured the building and then were informed that because of the size of our class that was admitted this fall that all of our classes will be in other buildings around campus.  The only problem is there is no closer parking then the Speech Language Hearing (SLH) building so "Hello Forced Exercise!".

So Day One of the walking went ok.  Don't get me wrong, it was hot and hard and my knees were a little uncertain as to when I had lost my mind to expect them to do so much but as I finally made it back to my  front door I felt such a rush and a sense of accomplishment.  I can do this!  As I am molding my brain into a world class SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) I will also finally be able to sculpt my body into something I will be happier with.  Bring it on!

Moving Day

Today my family all banded together to get me moved before school starts.  I rented a truck to pack all my things in but when I went to sign the papers they mentioned that the "little" truck I had rented was not available but they would give me a slightly larger truck for the same price.   How big is slightly larger?  The truck was huge!  I think it might even have been larger then the efficiency that I was moving into.  Thankfully my brother saved me and went and picked up the giant truck for me and then drove it back again.  Thanks Christopher!  You are my hero!

Today was a whirlwind day and I couldn't help but feel loved as my friends and family rallied around me and we got everything moved in only a couple of hours.  Lauren brought the most delicious muffin and my favorite cookie, snicker-doodles!  We all caravanned up to Denton and had the truck unloaded before we could even get the fish tank filled.  After the truck was unpacked we took a break and went to the Grand Chinese Buffet.  It was definitely "grand"!  There were FOUR rows DOUBLE sided full of yummy food selections.  It was grand!

My favorite part of the day came after lunch when my friends and siblings had to leave and I got to spend the rest of the afternoon ALONE with my parents.  When you have 8 siblings time alone with one, let alone BOTH, of your parents is precious.  My mom unpacked almost every box and my dad put up all my shelves and cabinets and towel hangers.  There were not words to describe the love and gratitude I felt having their time and service.

I am truly blessed.  Thanks guys!!!