Grad School Update-Decision Soon!

For curious family and friends, our current standing on grad school admission is as follows:

UNC-CH: No
Pittsburgh: No
UT: Yes (PhD-no funding)
Rice University: No
U of Houston: Yes (Masters-no funding)
USC: Wait List
FSU: Wait List
W. Mich: No
Va Tech: Wait List
Texas A&M: ?? (the last hold out)

We will wait until April 15th to hear from any schools that may offer Reid a late acceptance letter.  If nothing changes it looks like we will be heading to....Houston University! Go Cougars!

Reid got offered acceptance to their master's program earlier this month.  His old prof from Chapel Hill told him that he believes Houston has the best master's of modern philosophy in the county.  This news as well as UH's placement record has Reid very excited to attend the program.  He's taking all the wait list notices and the few rejections with glee as they signify one step closer to being able to say yes to Houston's program.  While it's hard for me to understand all the excitement about 6 more years of school (ugh!) I'd like to think he's feeling something like I did trying on lovely wedding dresses.  He's ready to say, "yes" to the dress...errr....school!

Guess I better get rid of my wool sweaters and get ready to beat the heat!

That Was Then...This Is Now...

Reid and Ronda on March 27, 2010...

...so happy together!

Reid and Ronda on March 27, 2011...

...duking it out for a chance at the Final Four!

Guess what we did for our anniversary??  Thankfully, neither of us is any worse for wear after a hard fought game from both sides.  Kentucky pulled out the win, but the Heels fought hard.  Both Reid and I made a promise during the game to only cheer FOR our teams and not against the other's.  Either way the game went, we knew we'd have a reason to celebrate.  And celebrate we did! A lovely dinner out at Sawasdee Thai restaurant complete with coconut ice cream and sticky rice, this old married couple was asleep in bed at the late hour of 10:00 pm having fallen asleep cuddled up with a good book and each other. :)

March Goals and Updates

The month is off to a great start.  We were out of town last weekend on a church planting/young adult retreat trip to Harrisburg, PA.  It was an incredible time of fellowship! Needless to say, I'm behind on posting goals.  They're are a bit repetitive, but like I've said before, baby steps...One thing you won't see anymore is the goal to keep Sunday free of school work.  It just doesn't work for us, and it makes me feel guilty for something I don't need to feel bad about.  So I'm taking it off the list.  My school calendar/hw plan attempts to keep Sundays free, but if I get behind I use it to catch up. Here are our other goals!

March 2011 Goals

Spiritual Goals:
1) Follow the TCC 2011 Bible Reading Plan.
2) Memorize the first two verses in the stack of index cards on my desk at work.
3) Pray about our marriage and my heart as a wife.

Personal Goals:
1) Wake up when Reid wakes up each morning and earlier on the days we run together.
2) Continue to re-post Craigslist ad for my (first) wedding dress til someone makes an offer. Research consignment shops

3) Buy wedding pictures from online database. I still plan on doing this, but it's not in the budget this month, but I'm keeping it up here so I don't forget!
4) Continue working on:  Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal

Family Goals:
1) I'm not sure we have any of these right now.  We did talk about tightening up on our budget, but we have made no firm goals. 

Real Food Goals:
1) Use the Simple Dinners meal plan subscription I got for Christmas to make at least two real food meals per week.





Grad School update: Reid is 1 for 4 which is pretty good odds for PhD programs. Rice sent him a letter this week telling him he was not admitted.

February Recap!

This is month has gone by so fast! All of the sudden it's March first, and I honestly haven't thought much about accomplishing my goals.  Thankfully some of them are in my daily routine now, so here's how I did.

February 2011 Goals

Spiritual Goals:
1) Follow the TCC 2011 Bible Reading Plan. Behind in the OT, ahead in the NT!
2) Memorize the first two verses in the stack of index cards on my desk at work So far I've only written the verses out. No memorizing.
3) Pray daily for the unreached people groups sent to my email each afternoon from Joshua Project. Unfortunately most days I find that I am deleting these from my email.  I'm thinking of take one group a week a setting aside time each day to pray.
4) Pray each morning for our class prayer requests. Reid and I have just sort of naturally been doing this at breakfast.  We take one or two people each day.

Personal Goals:
1) Wake up when Reid wakes up each morning.This is going well! We've even added jogging/running to our mornings on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays!
2) Continue to re-post Craigslist ad for my (first) wedding dress til someone besides a spammer makes an offer. No hits yet, but I did sell three pots and a brita water pitcher!

3) Post the video camera on Craigslist. I've decided NOT to sell this.  Thanks to a friend, I learned how to actually download images to my computer!
4) Buy wedding pictures from online database. I still plan on doing this, but it's not in the budget this month!
5) Continue working on:  Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal I'm keeping track of this each day, but I haven't actually made the cards yet.  Can't find the right supplies, but I'll keep looking.

Family Goals:
1) Take the day off from school work on Sundays. I honestly forgot about this goal.  We've been filling up our Fridays and Saturdays so I've been using Sundays for reading. I'm not going to be a slave to this goal, but I want to re-evaluate my time usage this coming month.
2) Talk to Reid about other goals for the coming months. This seems like an ongoing conversation that we pick of for a few minutes here and there, but we never seem to have long periods of time to just think through it all.

Real Food Goals:
1) Research the make-up of the glass jars mom bought me (for making kombucha).I've decided to sell these, and buy some smaller ones.
2) Use the Simple Dinners meal plan subscription I got for Christmas to make at least two real food meals per week.This is going well!

I probably need to think through my goals for school.  I'm pretty behind right now, but I'm loving my classes and all the counseling reading I get to do! March goals coming soon...

Grad School Update

Well, folks, we're 1 for 3.  On Saturday night, Reid and I were checking our email after a long day of working at his office (he needed to organize his inventory closet, and since I live for that kind of stuff, I helped him!).  He casually leans over to say,  "I got into UT." At first I didn't understand what he was saying, and then it hit me.  He was admitted to his first PhD program.  A wave of joy and pride swept over me and I may have squealed a little (read: a lot). Reid took it in stride, UT not being his top choice.  We called all the parents.  My dad's reaction: "Thank God!" He's experiences bouts of panic and anxiety at the fact that his son-in-law may become an Gamecock next year.  Tennessee orange is way better than South Carolina red (or burgundy). So for now, here's where we stand: UNC-no admission; Pittsburgh-no admission; Tennessee-acceptance (without assistanceship for now). We're waiting to see if money becomes available at UT.  Also Reid's top choices have not yet notified him. His picks are VA Tech, South Carolina (*cringe*--what will my Clemson Tiger family think!?), and Rice (*cringe*-but this time, because it's too close to Houston for comfort...anyone who trained for TFA there understands).  We're praying the Lord opens up opportunities for admission with funding! We're not sure what will happen, but it's nice to have the acceptance letter to remember that with God all things are possible!

February Goals

Here my goals for February! I've also discovered a neat project I've started to work on to help me remember the little things over the years: Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal

February 2011 Goals

Spiritual Goals:
1) Follow the TCC 2011 Bible Reading Plan.
2) Memorize the first two verses in the stack of index cards on my desk at work
3) Pray daily for the unreached people groups sent to my email each afternoon from Joshua Project.
4) Pray each morning for our class prayer requests.

Personal Goals:
1) Wake up when Reid wakes up each morning.
2) Continue to re-post Craigslist ad for my (first) wedding dress til someone besides a spammer makes an offer.

3) Post the video camera on Craigslist.
4) Buy wedding pictures from online database.  
5) Continue working on:  Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal

Family Goals:
1) Take the day off from school work on Sundays.
2) Talk to Reid about other goals for the coming months.

Real Food Goals:
1) Research the make-up of the glass jars mom bought me (for making kombucha).
2) Use the Simple Dinners meal plan subscription I got for Christmas to make at least two real food meals per week.


Not much has been added to the list, but school has gotten into full swing, so I'm trying to take all that into account.  Plus, I like to have goals, but not completely full days.  It's great to have some flexibility to do some spontaneous things :)

January Recap!

At the beginning of the month I told you about my friend Michelle who has been posting on her monthly goals, and she's inspired me to do the same. The following is my recap of how I did on my goals for this past month.

January 2011 Goals

Spiritual Goals:
1) Follow the TCC 2011 Bible Reading Plan. I'm behind, but I think I'll be able to catch up this week!
2) Memorize the first two verses in the stack of index cards on my desk at work (they are still on my desk, so I can't recall the references). I didn't memorize these verses, but I did memorize James 1:2-8 and Hebrews 4:11-18.  Test me!
3) Pray daily for the unreached people groups sent to my email each afternoon from Joshua Project. I started out okay but have really not been diligent to do this. 

Personal Goals:
1) Wake up when Reid wakes up each morning. Praise the Lord I've been able to do this each day (even today when he woke up at 4:30 am!)
2) Post a Craigslist ad for my (first) wedding dress. I've done this TWICE.  The only response was spam. Sigh...
3) Transfer wedding pictures to online database. I'm still working on this one. It takes FOREVER.  I have half transferred, and I think the other half will be on by the end of the week. Here's a favorite:

 
4) Organize a filing crate for school papers.
5) Take the giant load of dry clean only clothes that have been sitting on the washer for several months to the cleaners. As easy as I thought this would be, I haven't done it.  Mostly because it's a LOT of clothes and was not in the budget last month. But it's ready to go this Wednesday (that's the dry cleaner's sale day!).

Family Goals:
1) Take the day off from school work on Sundays. Haven't had to test this out too much, but now that the school year has started, we'll see.
2) Talk to Reid about other goals for the coming months. We have yet to have this conversation officially though we discuss these things periodically. We need to sit down and write it all out.

Real Food Goals:
1) Research the make-up of the glass jars mom bought me (for making kombucha). Haven't done this either...ugh.
2) Use the Simple Dinners meal plan subscription I got for Christmas to make at least two real food meals per week. Check! I have been doing about three Simple Dinner meals per week!
3) Attempt my first fermentation (I think it'll be cabbage). I attempted both the cabbage and a pineapple chutney.  Currently I'm preserving lemons (my first batch of these molded). Next up is apricot butter.

Just a quick glance at the list above is revealing some interesting insights into my priorities.  Just to look at what's been crossed off my list you'd think I only care about myself and my food (most days that about sums it up).  Part of the reason for the discrepancy in my spiritual and family goals is that these things take discipline.  But the major factor is that I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it--SELFISHNESS. We've been talking in Sunday School and elsewhere about the kingdom of God and how to live in it.  All of our decisions come down to whose kingdom we are seeking- our own or God's. My choices about what I'm going to focus on each day reflect the kingdom I'm seeking. Lord test my heart and reveal my motives. Help me to be seeking first your kingdom! In February I want to seek God's kingdom first, put my family second, and let all the other things (my food and personal goals) be added.