Friday ramblings

So I see between 5 and 10 students every day who come into my office for advising. The other day, I was on my lunch break, but I saw a student in our waiting room who looked troubled, so I asked if I could help her. She asked to speak to me in my office, so even though I was on lunch, I made an exception. Before she even sat down, she was crying. She wanted to drop her classes because her fiance had broken up with her. I could see she was devastated and I wanted to start crying right with her. I can't imagine planning a wedding and then having it all canceled. While for me, the wedding planning wasn't all fun, I thought being engaged was and I was really looking forward to being married. Well, I went through the paperwork with her and it is going to be a petition process, which may not be approved. Later on, I went to talk to our asst. director about it and he clearly did not have the compassion for this girl like I did. Maybe it is because he is a man and doesn't understand how that can affect someone? I don't know...but my heart hurt for her and I'm going to do everything I can to help her!

Hooray for Friday! I'm even getting out of here 30 minutes early because my exit road out of here is being blocked off for our new president's inauguration/homecoming parade. I'm armed with my coupons and I'm hitting the grocery store on my way home! Thank you couponsavinggame.com !

Hotel California

So we got a huge surprise yesterday - Billy's parents offered us their Eagles concert tickets! B's dad ended up with other obligations and so we got 2nd section, 5th row floor seats!!! I left work early, got home & changed and then we headed down to their house in Miami to pick up the tickets. We ate some quick dinner and then headed back up to Sunrise for the concert. Can you BELIEVE parking was $25!?!?! It that was our cost for the concert, it was MORE than well worth it. We were easily the youngest people there, but we knew all the songs, all the words and had a blast!

We're going to start calling B's dad TicketMaster because he also have us tickets to the Miami vs. Virginia Tech game in November!

Worrier or Planner?

A few times a month, I get really down and start to worry about what might be. Because I don't know what Billy's job will be in the next couple months, I start to worry/plan about bills, how things will get paid and essentially our life for the next few years. I always need Billy to talk me down from this ledge. I like to say that I like to plan things, but he just says I am a worrier. I guess there is a difference, but where is the line?

Some things that I've been "planning" about lately....what if we have kids? Who will watch them during the day? How much will be make on our house when we try to sell? Will we even be bale to sell it? Obviously these things are not anywhere in the immediate future, but they are on my brain!

So I was reminded of this prayer, which I probably need to read more often!
The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Many things

We have a great, relaxing and sort of productive weekend. The best part was that the Steelers and ECU Pirates won! I also mopped the floor...which I hate more than probably any other chore. But after I'm finished, I'm so proud of myself and just stare at the floor from all different angles. I also scrubbed the bathroom, washed Patton and finished up laundry. This is while Billy was busy digging up the backyard and found a broken drain pipe. We couldn't figure out why our deck drains were backing up...it is because 3 foot roots had made their way into the drain! Luckily, I married Mr. Fix-It. He can seriously fix anything. Even if it's not broken!

We also found a diving duck in the pool as we were getting ready for church on Sunday! Luckily, Patton did not notice! Last year, we had baby turtles! For a while, Billy had an account where the family purposefully kept a turtle in their pool. I think he finally convinced them that keeping the turtle in the pool would keep their chemicals unbalanced.

Today's is Mom's birthday!

I <3 my Labrador

So the time has come. The time for Billy to get a real world job. We've put it off for as long as we can so he could focus solely on getting his business going. He has made some strides and some great contacts, but I don't think we can keep paying the bills this way. So we were discussing this as I was making dinner(pancakes & sausage – yay Friday!) and we were thinking…poor Patton! He's been so used to someone being home most of the time. What is he going to do during the day if no one is here to pay attention to him? When we leave for short trips like church, he give him free reign on the house. I've only lost 2 shoes to this, which I think is pretty good for a pup that just turned 1! So I said we should have a kid so they could stay home and take care of Patton. Billy thinks we should adopt a 17 year old! But I guess our sweet Patton is going to have the join the ranks with other dogs that have working moms and dads. I just hope he understands. <3

Is It Worth It?

When I came into this job, I was able to show them a few tricks to make their life easier...like pressing the first letter of a last name when scrolling through a list of files can take you right to that letter! Simple things that I'm sure is because I grew up with computers. Our secretary is probably 60+ years old and it's hard to explain technical things sometimes. I am the queen of Ctrl + C and Ctrl + P = cut and paste, right? This eliminates a lot of mistakes when transferring data or text. I asked her to gather 51 email addresses for students that I met with over the past 2 weeks so I can send them a survey, which she happily did. But then I got 15 of them kicked back because they are not the correct university email addresses as we have in the system. A little cute & paste could alleviate this...but is it worth it? After having her help me was wonderful, and I don't want to make her feel bad. Plus, I'm still easing into giving intructions to someone older than me.
It's sort of a slow day today, so sometimes I just turn around and stare...we've hit paradise season in Florida and the major heat is officially gone!

Weekend

Happy Monday! This weekend went by in a flash, as usual. On Saturday, I had Open House. With my vast Admission experience, I know what students and parents want to hear, so overall, I think it went well. We collected all the contact information for all the attendees, so hopefully the program directors will get on board and recruit these students!

On Saturday night, Billy thought it would be a good idea to build a fire...on the dock. It went well for a while, until the concrete block he built the fire on exploded. No one was hurt in this experiment. But it was nice sitting on the dock for a while sipping on some wine and watching Patton run around like a crazy dog.


Then on Sunday, I got up early, went for a long walk, washed Patton and made some home-made salsa - until I realized that I could not get it all done before church! So we skipped and finished getting ready for our trip to Miami to celebrate Billy & his dad's birthdays. They both share October 19th for their birthdays. We had 2 cakes - yum! A Carvel ice cream cake and red velvet. It was a nice afternoon and the Steelers won! Icing on the cake, if you will.

Still Trucking

So we're almost at the end of the week again! This week went by so fast, and I haven't even had to travel, which is usually the cause of a fast week. Tomorrow is Friday though and I'm working a 1/2 day. We have a meeting at 8am at a different campus, so I'll just go home after that. Open House is on Saturday, so I will technically be working 5 full days.
I love Thursdays because it is the day when the Publix BOGO sales are posted and I use couponsavingsgame.com to find how to save even more money. It really is like a game to me! I'm not as good as other people, and I don't get the newspaper, but I save some serious cash some weeks! I can't believe I wasn't doing this long before now!
Some days things are better than others. Praise doesn't just fly around here, so I sometimes get nervous that I'm not doing well. But then other times, I'll do something and it's like I moved a mountain for someone. Even just the simplest things can get me some attention sometimes. It's just a different atmosphere. In Admissions, I could get a new student almost every day, but in Advising, the accomplishments aren't as traceable or noticeable I guess.
This Sunday, we'll be going to Miami to celebrate my FIL's 50th birthday and Billy's 31st birthday. They share the same date - Oct 19th. Then Mom's is the 25th. And how could I forget - my sweet baby puppy's 1st birthday was on Monday! His poor leg is hurt, so he needs to stay off it and swim a little more. We like taking him for walks after dinner, but we haven't been able to since Sunday I believe. I think it's my fault - I was home by myself last weekend and I walked him 3x a day and I think I just wore him out!

Anyway, I believe that is all for now! I'll try again to post Monday!