1. Last Thursday, Gina, Emily, Mom, and I went to a Tipsy Artist party in Enid for an early celebration of Mom's birthday. It was a little touch-and-go at first, as we arrived about ten minutes later than we planned, and the place was packed! We weren't able to find four seats next to each other, but we were able to find two sets of two seats relatively close to each other, so we settled for that. There were also some issues with the food situation at the event center, but we made the best of it and went on with life. Having never been to something like this, I had no idea of what to expect, but ended up having a great time! As you can see, all of our paintings turned out slightly different, but suit each of our unique personalities perfectly!
2. We had a great celebration for Mom's birthday on Sunday, even if her birthday was on Monday of this week. It was a great day, and we had great weather so that we didn't have to worry about all 5 big boys being cooped up all day! Gina and I made a couple pots of my crockpot lasagna, and it was a hit! Even better, we did all the work the night before so we didn't have lots of work to do on the day of! I have a great picture of Mom with all six boys with her cake, but, wouldn't you know, I haven't uploaded pictures and my camera is at home. Such is life, I'll have pictures of things on here one day!! Regardless, I am so blessed to be able to celebrate another year with my amazing mom and I'm glad that she had a great celebration!
4. In saying how great my professors are, they're still human...and three of them decided to schedule tests yesterday. I know it isn't the case and I'm being dramatic, but it's like they met up and figured out the best way to cause me inordinate amounts of stress this week...hence me not getting a post up on Tuesday. I survived, as you can tell, and we'll see what happens!
5. One thing that has kept me anchored all week is the beautiful spring-like weather we have been having! It makes me happy to be able to leisurely walk between classes and not have to alter my route to go through buildings to avoid the polar-like temperatures! I also appreciate not having to wear umpteen layers of coats, scarves, and gloves just to walk across campus! I don't like my allergies that have flared up since our weather is being so bi-polar, but I'd rather have the sniffles and 60-degree weather than clear sinuses and weather in the single digits!
6. Another anchor for the week was the fact that Bill Nye gave a lecture here last night as part of our research week activities. I was really pumped up about it, but I may have given it a little too much hype. No, he didn't do any experiments, and they didn't play the Bill Nye theme song when he came on stage. Yes, he did wear a bow tie, which partially made up for this! I will preface this by saying that he is a fantastic public speaker, and he has an excellent presence. He is also really funny and really into sundials & coining his own words/expanding our vocabulary! (I.e. cerulescence-a bluish tinge, or plinth (a real word defining the base of a statue/monument/pillar)...good stuff!) I also loved hearing about his work on the Mars rover & as the chairman of the Planetary Society. I started to lose a bit of interest when his talk became political, and he began pontificating on how he thinks we should all vote/believe. I don't say this because I happen to disagree with some of his worldviews; I say this because I worry that he was taking advantage of his status to convince weak-minded college students who are ignorant of issues to take a certain stance without having the opportunity to see both sides of the issues he presented. Also, (don't berate me too much for this one...dare I even say it...) I think he's kinda overrated. Yep, I went there. I applaud him for introducing a generation of kids to the world of science and inspiring countless people to pursue careers in science & science-related fields and I respect him as a person, but I don't see how a guy with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering has any real authority to pontificate on the world of science or politics. I'll leave it at that.
7. There's a TEC reunion this weekend, and I'm more excited than you realize to get to be around my TEC friends again! I can't wait to catch up with everyone and have some fun after this crazy, test-filled week!
8. So, I've been wanting to start running again to work on my New Year's goal of running a 10K this year. I haven't been motivated to start on this and I think it's been because my iPod was out of commission. I'm happy to say that it is fixed thanks to a local repair shop that fixes iPods, and I didn't have to haggle with anyone at the Apple store who probably would've tried to convince me to buy a new iPod, while mine just needed a tiny repair and is perfect for me otherwise. The weather is great, my iPod is fixed, and I think it's high time to start running again! We'll see how it goes!
9. I've been playing on a couple of intramural teams so far this semester, and it's been lots of fun. I've stuck with women's basketball & bowling and it's been great! No huge bruises or anything, just lots of fun with great people! :)
10. Possibly the biggest news from my week is that my Bible study leader/friend, Heather recruited me to lead our Bible study this week while she was working on some other things. It was such an amazing experience for me, and I had a beautiful chance meeting with a freshman girl at church who was really needing a little bit of spiritual guidance who happened to join us for our study! It's amazing how the Holy Spirit leads us to the people who need us the most! Never underestimate the Holy Spirit; I promise that is how pretty much all of the great things that happen in life happen! :)
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!! :)