The 6 Greatest Things about doing Grad School Online

6.  No group projects - ever!  This means not having to find times that will work with all of your schedules, so that you can sit together for three hours trying to compromise on how the project should be done, so that then you can ultimately do all the work when your projectmates don't follow through.

5.  Despite what you're thinking, you still get plenty of opportunities to interact with your classmates.  Only instead of knowing someone as "that freakin annoying kid who stops the teacher seventy times during lecture to have them re-explain things", I know my fellow classmates as "he's the kid who is interested in Russian History" or "that's the woman who takes the time to read and comment on everyone else's paper."

4.  There are no surprises.  You know exactly what the entire semester is going to look like, including when everything is due.  Even quizzes are announced most of the time.

3.  You can work on school literally any time you want!  If I choose to wake up at 3 in the morning and listen to my professor's lecture for the class, I can do that.  Not that I would . . .

2.  You can skip a day or two, anytime you need to.  Because classes have assignments, lectures, and readings by the week, if I go out of town on Saturday and don't come back until Wednesday I don't have to worry about missing important lectures or assignments - as long as I catch them by Sunday I am good to go.

1.  I think I'm going to go listen to my professor's lecture for the week.  And you know what?  I think I'm going to take a nice long bubble bath while I do.  And maybe eat some ice cream while I'm at it.  Mmmm that's my idea of a good lecture.

Have I convinced you all yet? 

My mancub

Check out these beautiful flowers that my mancub gave me for my birthday.  He picked them out himself, isn't that sweet?  He really wanted to give me a Cars toothbrush . . . but decided on these instead.

Isn't he the sweetest little mancub ever?  You can't see it in this picture, but I'm holding a picture frame proclaiming "Favorite Aunt."  Oh how I love that little guy - it is going to break my heart the day he realizes that I'm not actually related to him . . .   

To Do List . . .

1. Put music on new iPod Nano.  Jam out while doing rest of to do list

2.  Eat cinnamon bears while reading papers for classes

3.  Kill spider living in mailbox

4.  Blow up 250 water balloons with Cannon

5.  Party like a rock star

Introducing Stacey Stradley Photography

Many of you many know our dear friend Stacey Stradley, photographer extraordinaire.  She was kind enough to take our family photos last week and they turned out awesome!  I can't get enough of looking at them so I decided to post some of them here so you could appreciate them too.  Guess who's going to be doing my bridals when I get engaged . . .

 

 

Best breakup song ever

New Beginnings

Dear friends,

There are two types of people in the world. The first, which is the type that most people belong to, are Planners. We Plan all the great things we want to do, the trips we want to take, the changes in ourselves we want to make. And we fully intend to do all these things, someday. The problem is there's always something else that comes up to stop us from completing our goals - we get busy, it's not the right time, we don't have the money, etc.

My cousin passed away in October after a fierce battle with leukemia. He was an amazing person who was always laughing and was friends with everyone. And while his passing was extremely difficult and saddening, it was also inspiring because Jared was a Doer. He had accomplished more of his dreams in his 25 years of life than most people accomplish in their whole lifetime. He didn't wait for the time to be right, or the comfort of being financially secure, or someone else to lead the way - he just went for his dreams and he achieved them.

Like most people in life, I have been a Planner. I had great intentions, and I even followed through on a lot of my Plans. But I am not satisfied with being a Planner anymore. This year I'm ready to take charge of my life and Do things to make my dreams happen.

Dream one: Get Lasik. Check.


P.S. I wanted to post the video here of them actually performing the Lasik process on my eyeballs, but I couldn't figure out how to. If you want to see it though all you have to do is ask :)

Why I'm a Geologist

People often give me strange looks when I tell them I am a Geologist. Here is why, in a nutshell, I love Geology.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1VfDva/www.mediadump.com/hosted-id186-most-fascinating-geological-wonders-on-earth.html

How can you not be awestruck and intrigued?