Almost Done

I have officially earned an acronym! :) Friday was the big "Orals" day, where I got to show I actually learned something during my time at ISU. Near the end of your educational experience as a graduate student, you get to travel down to Pocatello, they give you a case and you have three hours and only what's in your backpack (and your noggin) to prepare a power point presentation outlining the issues at hand, perform a SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, come up with alternatives, make a recommendation, and offer steps for implementation. Then your "committee" gets to grill you and ask questions that under normal circumstances you would easily know the answer, but under this much pressure and stress . . . but, HIP HIP HOORAY, I PASSED!!! (I wasn't super worried about not passing, but it is still stressful.)

The fun thing is, after I demanded my diploma on the spot, the graduate student guy in charge said that while I wouldn't get my diploma until August or so, I could put "MBA" on my resume THAT VERY DAY!!! On the spot, I was instantly an MBA, just like that! How incredible is that!?!? The really fun thing is that I only have TWO CLASSES LEFT TO ATTEND AND THEN I AM DONE WITH CLASSES FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER!!! (I know, I know, I am using a ton of capitals and exclamation marks, trust me, you would too.)

So, as I walked to the parking lot, I had a moment. I realized that I have worked my ass off for the last 5 years to get here and that while I am so glad to be done, I have learned that I am tougher than I ever thought I was and that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I almost got a little teary. Almost. Anyways, that is enough of my moment of being proud of myself, now we are back to just being happy to be done, well, almost done.

I will be retaking the stupid audit section of the CPA exam probably sometime in August, I'm still trying to make myself think about it, so far I only can think that it sucks.

Meanwhile, the kids and I had a day of fun Saturday, since we have all been starved for fun for some time now. We had breakfast outside, went to the zoo, then later went to the lake, and finished with a hot dog roast at our house. Kellie and her kids joined us for everything except the breakfast outside. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Also, we got to go camping last weekend at Fall Creek with Brad, Stacy, and some other friends. We had lots of fun and went on a big long trail ride on the four wheelers and motorbikes. Here are some pictures from camping, I know I don't have any of Court, but I promise there will be more to come, as it is her birthday very very soon.


The falls at Fall Creek, I was testing out my camera on scenery, I need a class.


Stacy and I after riding for four hours, we are dirty girls.


Cowboy Kade


Greg and Kade at the falls.


More scenery.

Cheese

So, I got a new camera. It's a Nikon D5000 and is very fancy and I really have no idea how to use it, other than the basic point and shoot. No worries though, I will take a class (probably sometime in July) and learn how to do all that fancy stuff and take all of your family/baby/senior/wedding/boudoir pictures and be amazing.

But for now, here are some I took while we were camping.


Here is Kade, handsome as ever, just doing his best to be cool. (It is not hard to be cool when you are 12. It is much harder to be cool when you are 34.)


Courtney, looking cute. (Again, harder to be cute when you are 34.)


Again, children, cool and cute.

And that my friends, is all for now, since it is taking the computer a ridiculously long amount of time to load each picture. Good night and good luck.