Lots of NEW Updates!

So for those of you who haven't heard- I GOT THE JOB at UCF (University of Central Florida)!! I will be the Coordinator for Career Development there, mainly doing career counseling with students, doing presentations and workshops, etc. I'm so excited!

It's been a whirlwind lately. I graduated two saturday's ago, left on the following Sunday for SoACE (southern association for colleges and employers- my old boss and I co-presented there!) which was through Wednesday. We got to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville! Got back Wednesday night, left Thursday night to stay at my parents for the night so my Dad and I could get up early to head out to Orlando to look at places for David and I! David can't take any time off right now... the holiday's are so busy and he's getting ready to be tranferred to a store in orlando.

After 3 full day of seeing apartment after apartment (and after 1 small mental breakdown on my part), we decided on a place! I uploaded pictures every night to share with David! LOL. In the midst of all that, we took an hour or so to go see the campus so I could show my Dad around a little bit. He even got to see where I'd be working!

Ultimately we decided on a townhome that is in an apartment community near the international airport. It's a pretty good midway point, as David and I are both on the opposite ends of orlando basically with our jobs. We're so exited to have more of a "house" feel and a GARAGE!! yay! lol

The official move-in date is the 31st of this month, so I have a LOT to do! Unfortunately David wont be able to come down until probably a week later, so it's going to be interesting to say the least trying to get everything down there and unpacked.

Oh and the half-marathon is in like 2 weeks?? UM CRAP! haha. The past couple weeks I have had NO time to run or do anything, which sucks considering I'd been training for months... I finally managed to run this morning for a pretty good 5 miler. I'm hoping to do 10 miles this weekend, 11 the next, and then hopefully be ready for the half the following weekend (13.1 miles). Wish me luck! Should be interesting.

So, LOTS of changes, that are exciting but scary and overwhelming all at the same time!

Oh, and yesterday was my birthday! Dad and I decided last minute to go to Disney for my bday while we were down there anyways, because this year on your birthday you can get into Disney for free, AND military and retired military get free tickets as well... so we had a wonderful day at the Magic Kingdom and soaked in the magic and Christmas spirit! It was much needed after a very stressful past couple of days.

I hope to post regularly on here about things going on with us while we start a new adventure! I'm excited to share with everyone. Please leave us comments! :)

Love,

Laura and David

I'm baaack- been TOO long!

Sorry to go MIA to anyone who is still reading this!

I really should be going to bed, but wanted to give a few quick updates...

1) I GRADUATE with my masters of education in college student personnel administration on SATURDAY!! I can't believe how fast this snuck up!! I can sign my emails Laura Crouch, M.Ed!! lol

2) I am going to SoACE (southern association of colleges and employers) from Sunday (day after graduation)-Wednesday to present on my offices Career Exploration Teams! It's in Nashville and I get to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel- so excited!!

3)I LOVE Christmas time!! Here is the tree all set up. It puts me in such a good mood to come home to the place all warm and cozy and christmas feeling! Also, I've recently learned my love for Black Friday!!! Mom and I went this year and boy did we shop til we dropped!!!

4) I'm actively in a job search! Being that I will be done with school in a week, I can no longer work in my role as it as a "Graduate Assistantship." I just got back from an interview today with University of Central Florida for a Coordinator of Career Development position there and I am really excited about this potential opportunity. If you have a moment, think some positive thoughts for me! This could be a very excited time for David and I!! I had a great interview so ultimately even if I don't get this position, I'm so excited that I feel confident about it and that I really put my all into it, no regrets.

5) I don't think I've posted about this since I've been gone for so long, but I got to visit one of my best friends in DC last month and that was AMAZING!!! I am already dying to go back!

6) One of my good friends just got married to David's younger brother Dean a few weekends ago! Now I have two awesome sister-in-laws who were already my great friends.

I think that's all for now!! I will leave you with an adorable picture of "Princessosaurus" getting her bath LOL.

What I hate about running... LOL

So the biggest thing I hate about running is.....

ROADKILL!!!!!

I ran past two things of roadkill on my 4 mile run this morning (YAY for getting up before work and going though, that rarely happens!) and it's SO gross!!! I hate it. I never see it until it's right in front of me and then all the flies that are on it fly up in my face and I want to puke!!

Just wanted to rant about that for a second.... haha. Hope everyone's having a good morning!

On a plus... other than that, it was a pretty good run! I got to use my new ipod and it worked great, I love it! I did a pretty good pace, I think I did 4 miles in under 42 minutes, which is great for me! I was excited. Then at work I went next door to get coffee because they have dunkin donuts coffee for 50 cents if you go before 9:30 and I made it just in time AND they had hazelnut flavored coffee which I LOVE!

So other than the road kill... good morning! :D

NASPA, Disney, Career Fair, OH MY!

LOTS has been going on, as usual!

I went to the the NASPA Florida Drive-In the week before last in Tampa at University of South Florida! I co-presented on the SGA Summer Leadership Series I developed and implemented with my internship supervisor. It was a great experience, but our session was last so some people had already headed out to beat the traffic so we didn't have a huge group by any means.

After that we got to go to Orlando for the weekend and I went to Disney World for a day! I went with two people who had never gone before and they wanted to do all 4 parks... it was a fun but exhausting day!!! My feet have never hurt so bad! I was limping for days. haha! Here is a pic of us at the Magic Kingdom! They are fellow graduate students in the College Student Personnel Administration program (CSPA).

Last week my office had our Career Fair we have every semester... only this one was a little interesting in that the campus when into LOCKDOWN right in the middle of it!!! There was a murderer who went into hiding in the woods on our campus and they locked down all the buildings and their were k9 units, helicopters, etc. looking for this guy. It was crazy! None of the employers could leave which they weren't too thrilled about, and no students could enter at that point because all the buildings were locked. It was nuts!! They finally found the guy though, so that was a relief.

Other updates... training has been going BAD. I got all out of wack with the NASPA trip and then Princess decided to EAT my ipod!! ugh!

Well after whining about it all week, David surprised me with a new hot pink ipod nano!! He also got me a new nike + system which syncs with the ipod and tells you how many miles you have gone, your pace, etc. I think this will be a good motivation for me to get back into the swing of things! I went for a decent 4 mile run last night... I'm sore this morning. David was behind me on his bike yelling at me to "push it! keep it up!" lol.

Also, we recently got a new couch! Here are some. We love it, it's so comfy! Someone else in the family loves it too. ;)

Lastly, I wanted to give a shout out to David who has really started developing his love for cooking! lol. He's always liked to cook (and I've basically always HATED it haha) so he's really started to take over, and we're both loving it! I included a picture of stuffed portobello mushrooms he made with prawns, and yesterday he made eggplant which was yummy! Last week was mexican pork chops which was awesome! I'm so glad one of us likes to cook and is good at it!!! haha.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I'm getting SO excited for November in which I'm taking a long weekend trip to DC with my best friends! :) Lu lives there so Melissa and I (they were both bridesmaids at my wedding) are flying up to visit, and we are so excited!

Too long!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I've been BUSY!

Lets see, what's been going on...

Well, work is keeping me very busy, we have lots of events coming up. Finding time for my online classes has been a struggle what with trying to have a life on top of everything. haha.

I'm in my 6th week of training for the half-marathon and so far, so good! Although my 5.5 miler yesterday didn't go so hot. I had to walk a LOT and me and my friend who ran it with me got so desperate for water that we stupidly didn't bring we drank water out of sprinklers on the side of the road. LOL.

We got a new couch set so that was big news for us, we're very excited and it's super comfortable!

Other than that, just chugging along... Princess is being her usual mischeiveous (spelling?) self. The other day she got into a jello chocolate instant pudding mix (in the box) and busted it open and licked it all... thankfully she was okay but her paws are now spotted and stained with chocolate which brought upon her the nickname "Chocpaw" that we like to think comes from her Native American heritage being that she's part Husky... hahaha.

This week will be a busy week for me as I leave Thursday morning to Tampa to head to the NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administration) Drive-in Conference. I'm excited to go, but also really nervous since I'm co-presenting. Wish me luck!!

I'll try to have a good update soon with pictures!

Ramblings about my job and life... sorry if it bores you! lol

Sooo... I know I said I was "Coach Laura" again but I actually decided to not take the coaching position. I was offered 10 extra hours at my current job since my boss got promoted to the Director of our office so she wont be able to do as many student appointments, it's busy enough already... it's going to be crazy! But I love every minute of my job.

Fall semester has started and the campus is FULL of students. I love it though! Students are still in that excitement phase which is great. I actually have the opportunity this semester to do an internship where I am co-teaching the AFS or Academic Foundation Seminar classes that are for freshman students. In these classes they learn about how to choose a major/career, what resources are available to them, how to use the library, etc., and some of the "soft skills" needed from a college education. My class seems really great and I'm excited to see the projects they produce! :)

Welcome Week is in full swing... it is a series of events that go on at the beginning of the fall semester with lots of free food, games, prizes and fun! I just went to the "Beach Bash" and saw lots of students and colleagues. I also got to see my HUBBY as Waffle House came out and grilled burgers and chicken sandwiches for us!!

Other exciting news at work... I co-submitted presentation proposals for two conferences... one is entitled the NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administration) Drive-In in which I submitted a presentation proposal on the Summer Leadership Series I developed this summer with the coordinator of SGA, and the other is entitled SoACE (Souther Association of Colleges and Employers) which I submitted a presentation on Career Exploration Teams, a peer-based "career coaching" model which my boss and I have facilitated in our office. Weeellll, BOTH got approved!!! I'm excited but also extremely nervous at this point. The NASPA drive-in is in early October in Tampa, and the SoACE conference is in December in Nashville. It'll be a great experience!!

I'm also a committee chair planning the fall Leadership Symposium which will hopefully be awesome this year!! I'm really excited because we were able to get one of the higher ups from Waffle House who does speaches all over the country come and talk at our symposium! His name is Bert and if you've ever eaten at WH and see "Bert's Chili" on the menu- yes, it's named after THIS guy! Too cool! David was really impressed when I told him. lol.

I still see students everyday as well helping tem choose a major/career, put together a resume, do a mock interview, etc.... so needless to say, I'm going to be a busy bee this semester, but I'm loving it!

Oh and did I mention I'm taking two classes online? haha!

OH! In other news, I also started my official half-marathon training schedule which I'm super excited about! I took the typical 3 months training guide by Hal Higdon and edited it to be a 5 month training program so I can work at it more gradual. So far it's really going great, and it was the kick in the pants I needed!

Now I have to give an update on the furbabies, as always. Well Starla Kitty just ATE A RUBBERBAND so I'm a little concerned, and I caught Princess chewing on Daddies shoes. Wonderful! She never chews anything other than trash usually, but she has an obsession with David's work shoes. I think because they probably smell like bacon being that those shoes spend the majority of the time at Waffle House. LOL.

Lastly, I CAN'T believe our 1st year wedding anniversary is coming up!! My mom and Aunt were nice enough to suggest having a anniversary celebration dinner this weekend at my aunt's house, so that'll be lots of fun, and I'm sure yummy food, which is key! ;) Hopefully I'll get pictures from that to post.

OK I think I have typed FAR too much. Kudos to you if you made it to the end!!! I will try to have a post with pictures in it soon, as it's been too long.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week. I love you all! :D

* and just for fun and for the sake of randomness, I decided to add in a picture lol. This is me SUPER excited after our wedding because we got a view of the castle! I'm posting it because I would give anything to be at the Grand Floridian right now! lol

Coach Laura again!

It's been almost 6 years since I've coached gymnastics and cheerleading, but I'm getting back into it, for a little anyways! :-) YES, I got the part-time gymnastics/cheerleading coach position! I'm so excited! It's Monday-Thursday, 4-7pm, and I also may be able to work with some of the classes they offer on Saturday morning/early afternoon. So I'll be busy with that as well as working Monday-Thursday 9-3 at Career Services and I typically cover the nighttime (8-10pm) and weekend presentations we have to do for the residence halls and such as well. I'm tired just thinking about it. haha.

Other news... I'm applying for two positions for after I graduate in December that have just been posted at the University of Central Florida (ORLANDO!). So David and I are talking about the possibility of moving there after I finish my masters in December as he may have the opportunity to transfer. It's all up in the air now but keep your fingers crossed. One of the jobs is my DREAM position!! AND the director of that department at UCF used to be the director at the department at UWF where I work now and she loved me, so I figure that can't hurt right? lol.

I know I said I'd talk about training for the Half in this blog but unfortunately, I really haven't done much of that yet LOl and I really need to. I did have a good 4.15 mile run on Sunday which is still long for me (oh how am I going to add nearly 10 miles to that?? lol) and last night did the fun McGuires Running Club 5K which was nice. I definitely need to amp it up though!! I've been having problems getting blisters which is extremely annoying.

I also have to post a funny thing we just noticed about Princess. My ringtone that plays when people who call me that don't have a special programmed ringtone is "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson. Well EVERY time that song comes on my phone Princess starts to like howl and whine along with the song. It's the funniest thing!!!! We tried all the other songs on my phone and she doesn't do it to any other one, just that one. I'll have to do a video of it and share somehow.

Well I guess I've rambled enough... I hope everyone's having a good week! :)

Since this was a boring post with no pictures, I'll include a funny pic of Princess passed out in our bed. LOL.