A Day in the Life...

...of an unemployed, living at home grad student. Although my plate doesn't sound very full, I feel like there's alway something for me to do! Mondays and Tuesdays look pretty much the same so here's a general run down of the first 2 days of the week.

I usually wake up around 8:30, unless Charlotte comes in to wake me up earlier. After breakfast, I check up on all of the important things--like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, blogs, Draw Something, etc. Usually I watch the shows that I missed from the night before while I'm doing all of this "important stuff". As of late, I've been trying to fit in a walk after that too. Then I'll read or review the readings I have for the class that night and that takes up a decent amount of time.  But Charlotte can slow down any process though because she wants to play or help or steal my computer from me. :)

Evidence that a toddler has been "helping" me study

Then I shower, get ready, eat lunch with Katie and Charlotte while my hair dries, and finish getting presentable. I'll print off whatever I need for class that night and double check whatever I need to have ready. I don't have a "usual" after that but somehow it gets filled up and quickly without fail.

By 3:30, I start to get ready for class: get a diet coke and piece of fruit for the ride to class, a Tervis Tumbler of water and a snack for class, and make a sandwich or pasta to eat on the way home. Keep in mind I'm gone from 3:45 until 9:15ish hence the excessive amount of food and drink. Every trip to class is a small road trip. I pack up my bag and hit the road. The hour drive each way to and from class is great for time to just me and catching up with friends on the phone. By the time I get home, with 2 hours of driving and 2 and a half hours of class under my belt, I'm pretty brain dead. I watch whatever my mom is watching (I have absolutely no vote if one of my mom's show is on and Katie and Lee get the bonus room...) and catch up with her before going to bed around 11:00 or 11:30 for some quiet time and do some reading for fun.

Well, those are my class days in a nutshell. Wednesday through Friday looks very different, but that's another blog post for another day!

Grad School Spring Break Part Dos

The second half of my spring break was equally as wonderful, restful, and filled with time with friends as the first half! Late Wednesday night, Katy overcame the fight with her GPS and made it to Marietta in one piece. We stayed up late talking because I haven't seen her face to face since this:

that's right, my 24th birthday celebration. In other words--WAY WAY too long! I was so glad to hug her neck and catch up without having to schedule phone dates/playing phone tag and leaving forever long voicemails.

Thursday: We slept in, and were begged by some little redhead to play Mario Kart and Just Dance to entertain the kiddo. Eventually Charlotte lost interest, but Katy and I did not so our dance off continued for quite some time. We realized how late in the day it was...by the time we got ready, we didn't each lunch until 3:00! Oops? I dropped off K. Fish at the airport so she could make it to her friend's wedding and I headed over to Kirby's and Daniel's for the night. It was so great to have almost a whole day with my best friend--even though we forgot to document our visit, she did make a little collage of past adventures :)

Friday: Kirby and I spent some time together, but most of the day was spent with my little French Fry (we're trying out new nicknames, this one seems to be sticking) and helping Kirby clean the house. I am so glad to be able to help Kirby out while she seems to constantly be going to doctor's appointments and spend time with her cutie little kid! It helps that the kid is pretty stinking adorable.

Friday night was another reunion with a long lost best friend!! Kasey was in town for a dental conference and the last night I saw her was December 2010 at the Garth Brooks concert!!

That is just crazy, which made seeing her even more sweet. And only because I love her, I faked being a Cats fan so I could fit in with the rest of the Kentucky girls while we cheered them on against IU. She was staying at the Westin Downtown and Hooters was a short walk away....so Hooters it was. Hilarious. And so fun.

Saturday: Mostly an uneventful morning, but relaxing. Alexa came over in the late afternoon so we could have some friendship time, so naturally we watched guard videos. We went over to Bonnie's so we could get ready for Mary, Bracca, Beza, and Bro's Miami birthday party. Although the Miami theme was left up for interpretation, I think mine turned out a bit more Hawaii meets Vegas rather than Miami, but I embraced it. I've missed the chance to dress up for parties since socials are a thing of the past...The party was awesome and so so fun. Two Saturdays in a rows with some of my favorites: I can't complain!

Sunday: Picked up Katy from the airport and made perfect timing to see the Hunger Games! It was great, but like always...the book is better. They did a pretty good job of sticking to the books and it was neat to see the books acted out, but books will always, always be better. Katy had to turned around pretty quick to get stuff done before her week of rotations, but it worked out well because I had to head back to Bonster's because I'd left my license at her apartment. Whoopsies! Don't worry, I have it now.

And that was my spring break in a nutshell. Wonderful, filled with lots of friendships and time with family and seeing long lost friends! So so wonderful.

Grad School Spring Break So Far

I've never been one to have a "crazy" Spring Break. High school spring break meant early morning practices in gyms and traveling on Greyhound buses to Winter Guard shows. College SB, well 3/4 of them were missions trips (that I loved). Last year, I got to go on a "Spring Break" of sorts with Young Life. But this year, I'm kicking it at home and loving it. It's just been so so great to not deal with constant pressures of school work or even just not having to go to class on Monday and Tuesday night! Here's a run down of my break so far though :)

Friday: Family dinner, the usual.

Saturday: Lunch with Bonnie and Shahrukh. Playing with Felicity/dressing Katie for Lee's Festival concert. Dinner at Fellini's with friends to celebrate Alexa and Andy's birthdays. Delish. And wonderful to sit outside. Surprise celebration at Abbey Road with Mary's family for St. Patti's Day. Lovely.

 Sunday: Church. Lunch #1 with Clelands. Lunch #2 with Mardis/Newman family. Shopping with mom and Katie. Nap. Sunday night TV.

Monday: I finally got to see Annie! We got Starbucks (sat outside), enjoyed day drinks and snacks (outside) and spent time catching up. Oh yeah, and we totally meandered through Pope for absolutely no reason. So random. Monday night was "calm Bonnie down from her crazy stressful day" dinner.

Tuesday: Walk with Annie at the Hooch. Hair cut. Goodwill clothes hunting for Mary's Miami Bash. Almost drive to Atlanta to search for Kirby's dog, Sully. Turn around (false alarm). Take Charlotte on a Aunt Kristin/Charlotte date while her parents went on a real date. We went to McDonald's, split an ice cream cone, and looked at the kittens and birds at Petsmart. Only Best date I've been on all year :)

Wednesday: Errands, errands, and more errands. Kirby and Felicity came over to visit for the day. Dinner at Moe's with F, Burger, and Gigi. Now, I'm just hanging out waiting for KATY FISHER TO COME IN TOWN!!!!!! It's been over a year and a half since I've seen her and I cannot wait!!! More on the visit later :)

Mardis-isms

If you have ever been around a Mardis girl, you've probably raised your eyebrow and wondered "What in the world is she saying??" But really, it's like my sisters and I have our own secret language. Here's the run down:

What I call Kirby: Burger, Burg

What Kirby calls me: Burger, Burg, Toph (at times I refer to myself as Tofu Burger...on a rare occassion)

What I call Katie: Dearie

What Katie calls me: Girl

What Kirby calls Katie: Dearie

What Katie calls Kirby: Dearie

We know what the other sister calls each other so it all makes sense to us. The only time I actually use their names is when I'm talking about them to people outside of the family and sometimes to help my confused parents :)

Another little key that might help is explaining our Mardis-ian version of German. Some background: Katie was learning how to speak German when she was in high school and would practice on us/teach us and it kind of just stuck.

 Ich liebe dich (sounds like ick lee-bay dish): I love you

Vas bist du doing? (sounds like it's spelled! :) : What are you doing?

Du bist gut? (Doo bist goot): Are you good?
Sehr gut (sare goot): Very good!

Dunke bit (Dun-kha bit): Thank you

Bitte (bit-teh): You're welcome

I'm sure there are more...but I can't think of much else! I love that my sisters and I share something special that is just ours to have, even if we get weird looks from friends and strangers alike when they hear us talk! Admittedly, I am the worst when I am talking to Kirby and probably say "Burger" every other word. It just comes out so naturally when I'm talking to her and I don't even care what people say or think! It works for us :) I love having sisters. End of story.

Do you have any special family bonds that you and your siblings share?

Ten Years Later

It's amazing how much and how little can change in ten years. A decade ago, I was in the midst of my first winter guard season with 16 other girls. Yes, this is the same show I posted bragged about a few weeks ago and could continue to gush about for some time...which is exactly what I'm going to do.

This past Saturday was the Art of Youth Show that Pope puts on every year and Alexa, being nearly as sentimental as I am, decided it would be fun to do a 10 year Serenade Reunion. Although a few other girls are spread out here and there across the country, a surprising amount of us still live in or near Atlanta. Ten out of the 17 girls from that season came--not to mention 3 sets of parents that joined us too! We critiqued watched the other guards that performed and stayed until the end to see our alma mater perform (they looked beautiful btdubs...loved their show!)

Afterwards, we stayed around to take pictures in our two favorite places--the gym and the band room! ha! But seriously, it felt weird to be back at our old stomping ground sans spandex and sock buns.

Just like old times...no body knew which camera to look at. Typical.

This was right before we broke out some of the old show moves. Seriously though.  That's muscle memory at it's best!

Pope Girls Now and Then! :)

Afterwards, the group of us went to Marlow's Tavern so we could catch up. I think I laughed the whole time I was there!! Shout out to Marlow's for not kicking us out...even though we were there until 1:30 AM and were the last customers to leave. The time went by so quickly and that night has easily been the highlight of my semester thus far. It was so so wonderful to hear what everyone else is doing, and has been doing since 2002. The best part of it all was to see how little had changed once we were all together and to realize that we all share something so strong that no one else shares with us.

PS-It was so funny to reminisce over some of the details that I forgotten (maybe blocked out?) about that season that seemed too ridiculous not to laugh at now. Those who have ever heard a few Adam-isms understands :)

Blessed?

Okay, I just typed in the word "blessed" in the search bar on BibleGateway.com. How many results did I get? 291. I searched the hashtag #blessed on Twitter and too many tweets for this kid to sit around and count, knowing that another 20 tweets will come in about every 30 seconds to add to the list. This goes without saying (but I'm saying it anyways) blessed is a pretty popular word among tons of people, but especially Christians. I admit it, I probably say it a lot without thinking really thinking what I'm saying--whenever things are really, really great and I feel pretty darn good. But from a conversation I had yesterday, I've been doing some thinking about what the word blessed really means.

I think that we, as a culture--especially our Bible-belt, majority church going culture, say the word blessed more often times than not when things are going well. "I spent time with my friends and family this weekend! I feel so blessed!" "We got a new house! So blessed!" "I married such an amazing man--what a blessing!" The list really can go on and on (Please note: This list is not specific to me--obviously from the 2nd and 3rd quotes--but things I've seen recently on Facebook, Twitter, etc. BUT I know I've said the first one and more many times).

I am not saying that these things and more are not blessings. What I am saying though is how often we point out our blessings in a time of abundance...But aren't we, as believers, blessed regardless of our circumstances? We're simply blessed because God has shown us an abundance of mercy and unmerited grace. I think since we (again, as Christians) don't necessarily believe in "luck" or the chance of things falling into the right place at the right time, we replace the word "lucky" with the word "blessed".

When I think of the times that I say "blessed", it's so often when things are all going my way and that is not at all the case. Yes, being blessed does in fact mean blissfully happy or contented; and yes, I looked that up on dictionary.com, but shouldn't we feel that way even on a "normal" day because we know that whatever the circumstances, all things work together for good, that good being God's good and purpose, not our own. And that is a blessing--a bigger one that I could have ever thought of on my own.

This post is not to discourage people from acknowledging all of the blessings in their lives, but instead to call attention to the less obvious, the ones that don't always bring that feeling of elation, but maybe should be more greatly recognized in the happenings, heartaches, and actuality of everyday life.

Rock Concerts & Tornadoes

This is going to be a quick post because I should be: (edit: I lied. This post is not quick, but I wanted to leave this first part up here to show I had every intention of not rambling. I failed, as seen below with a long post.)
-Reading at least 2 30 page chapters
-Analyzing a transcription I had to do of myself during a mock counseling session
-Editing stuff for my Qualitative report (that's due Friday! OY!)
-Writing up description, intros, conclusions, and many, many more for my report
-And a long list of other things I should be doing, but can't think of because the first four things will keep me busy until...well, this week is over.

But I wanted to do a weekend update while I felt like procrastinating and I feel like I'm at least partially productive when I'm blogging. :)

This weekend, Molly and Hannah came to visit me!!! :) YAY! Molly and I were co's during my 3rd summer at Camp Vesper Point and now she's going to be Head Girls this summer! I'd like to take all of the credit for teaching her everything she needs to know about CVP (totally just kidding!)

 And Hannah is my twin! I've talked about Hannah in earlier posts--she got married almost a year ago!! But let me just say that I love my twin forever and always.

With all of that said, we all needed some Molly/Hannah/Kristin time. So we found a weekend we were all free and we met in the "middle"...or as close to the middle, which was my casa in Marietta. Because of the impending storms, their schedules got rearranged and they got to come even earlier than we had planned-which is good because we got to go out to dinner earlier! We went to Chili's with my family and opted to have two tables instead of just one so we wouldn't have to wait any longer than we already had because we were hungry! And good thing we didn't wait! We got home and were just about to start getting Charlotte ready for bed (Charlotte had claimed Molly and Hannah as her new found best friends at this point in the evening and we were referred to as "the girls" for the rest of the weekend by the curly headed three year old) when we heard the sirens going off. 

Now, I knew there were storms coming...but there's just something about hearing those eery sirens that drains the blood out of my face. We were glued to the TV and ready to duck and cover for about the next half and hour. I don't know what kind of panic I would have been in if Charlotte hadn't been downstairs with us and I didn't have Molly scratching my back for the better part of that half hour. After we got the all clear, we got the kid ready for bed and were even invited to be apart of her nightly rock concert. That's right. My niece has a nightly rock concert. And is therefore way cooler than I was when I was her age. Of course my camp friends were troopers and got all decked out and danced all around with us for the show! So. Much. FUN. 

Later that night, Katie was watching the news and saw pictures and reports from a Home Depot in East Cobb to report the wind damage from the storms (possible tornado touch down) and for the longest time, they didn't say which Home Depot it was. Then they scanned the parking lot and the Home Depot is in the same parking lot where we were for dinner about 30 minutes before the storms hit! If we had waited for one table instead of two, we could have still be there! Or driving through the storm! That was a reality check and a little scary to think of how close the storms were to hitting us. They had calmed down a bunch from when they hit Alabama and were not nearly as bad as when they came through Paulding County, but still scary! Here are a few pictures of the damage from where we would have been if we didn't make it home when we did. 

Saturday was spent playing Mario Kart, Just Dance, driving around (read: Kristin gets lost; times 4), laughing, watching this YouTube Video and this one too....on repeat...Hilarious!!! And just spending time together. We had dinner with my family and Molly drove back to B-ham after dinner and Hannah woke up at the crack of dawn so she could go to church with her hubs in Asheville, NC. 

Sunday was much less eventful, but very busy just the same. Church, a young adults lunch (I'm making friends! more on that later), and an afternoon and evening of writing papers, stressing to Taylor Ann about all of our school work, and more school work (with occasional procrastination in the form of writing a blog post). A wonderful, friend filled weekend. Hopefully that gave me just enough of a break to really buckle down this week because it's midterm season!