#2 - Check!

I have officially (and legitimately, mind you) obtained a masters degree. Words cannot express how thankful I am to have this one finished. It all began with a suggestion from my oldest brother that I go talk to a WGU (my university...which I highly recommend by the way) representative at UEA a few years ago. I knew I wanted to get a masters and I felt like it should be in education, but that's where my inspiration ended. After that, everything fell in to place (as the right choices often do) and I was off and running. Naturally, it was a lot of work and it kept me busy, but I am so glad I did it.

The best part?? All three of my brothers already had at least one masters (yeah, some people collect degrees...my brother rocks like that) which means that every single one of my parents' children have a graduate degree. I think that's pretty cool.

Anyway, it's nice to be done...now I just have to pay those student loans...nice.

Busy, Busy, Awesome!

This is a new game, it's like "duck, duck, goose!" but it's more appropriate for my life. First there are lots of busy moments (with the occasional crappy moments, of course...such is life), followed by an awesome moment, then back to busy. Truly, busy is good though, it generally makes me happy. I get discouraged when I don't feel like I'm progressing or doing anything with my life.

Here's some of what's been going on...

Peach Days 2010

Here are some photos of a few of my nieces and nephews at the parade...

And...my niece in the parade (she's just left of the lady in the purple shirt).

My friend, Steph, invited me to go see The Lion King at Capital Theatre, which of course I did! I didn't take any photos to document the experience (sad face), but it was amazing. The costumes were fabulous!

School has been busy. I just had PTC (parent teacher conference) this week. I hate preparing for PTC, but it is always a great self esteem booster. It's nice that the parents are complimentary and appreciate all the hard work I put into helping their kid the best I can.

Grad school is coming to a close (hoorah!). I am just preparing for my oral defense which is in a couple of weeks. After that, I'll be done. I cannot wait!! It'll be nice to come home from work, correct gazillions of paper, spend hours preparing lessons for school the next day, then actually be able to go to bed rather than spend more time writing papers. :) Maybe I can even read a book or watch a movie again?? Woot!

In other news... I've become super emotional. Yes, I know I've always been emotional...but I had gotten much less so and now it's all out the window again. I don't know if it's the particularly heartbreaking breakup I experienced at the beginning of the summer, the increased pressure I feel at work thanks to NCLB, missing my Alabama family, the feeling that everyone's life is going somewhere and their prayers are being answered while I'm just treading water (which makes me want to scream "No Juli Left Behind!" but that would probably be no more effective than NCLB), or maybe it's just that I've given up trying to pretend that I don't have emotions...but whatever the reason, I am emotional. Speaking of emotional... did you hear Elder Holland's talk yesterday?? If not, check it out. I was driving down I-15 crying my eyes out...it was THAT good.