79 Days, 22 Hours, 16 Minutes!

Yesterday, I took the first step towards something I have wanted for my entire life.....I ordered my Aggie Ring!! It was a quick process, and I can't wait until Aggie Ring Day on April 17th! Anyone who wants to come and celebrate with us is more than welcome!!

My crazy, crazy life

Classes started yesterday, and they went really well until about 10:30 this morning when I was sitting in the first day of my German 431 class. When I registered for classes back in November, German 431 and 334 did not show any necessary pre-requisite courses in order to be in the class. But when I got there today, I was told that both of them require German 202 to be completed, which I am taking this semester. So, I had to drop both of those classes which put me down to 9 hours, and I have to have 12 hours to be a full-time student. I was really irritated because they are supposed to list all necessary pre-requisites, but they didn't and now nothing I need for my degree plan is open. I talked to my advisor, and my only option was to take any class just to get 12 hours, so I emailed Dr. Krammer to see if he would do an Independent Reasearch Study with me. Luckily he said he would, so that brings me up to full time and it will be very helpful for graduate school. Basically, that means I only have 3 real classes and then I will be working with Dr. Krammer to do research for a thesis I will be writing for a grade for the class. It's not an ideal situation, but I am much less angry now and I'm excited about doing research with Dr. Krammer!

Blackhawk down

Today an Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed on the A&M campus. They were doing routine training exercises with the Corps of Cadets and the helicopter malfunctioned upon take-off and went straight down. Luckily, classes have not started and as far as I know right now, no students were injured. But one Army officer was killed. I heard about the crash while I was at work, and at first, I couldn't really believe it. It just seemed so unreal. Please keep the family of this young officer and recent Texas A&M graduate in your prayers. If you want, you can read the full story here.

Ryan

My Best Friend's Wedding

As many of you know, I like to do photography as a hobby right now, and I was able to take some pictures at my best friend Brittney's wedding back in August. I was in the wedding, though, so I don't have any of the ceremony, but here are some of my favorites! Let me know what you think!

Five Wonderful Years

Today, Ryan and I have been together for five years! I can't believe it's been that long. Time goes by so quickly, and I still remember vividly the day we met. I am forward to many more amazing years together! To celebrate tonight, I decided to surprise Ryan when he gets off work with a special dinner. I've already made a chocolate pie ( from scratch!), and I will be making Pan-fried Ribeyes, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and fresh green beans! Hopefully it will all turn out well and we will have a very special evening!

True Love

Love is not a place, to come and go as we please, it's a house we enter in, and then commit to never leave. So lock the door behind you, throw away the key, we’ll work it out together, let it bring us to our knees.

Love is a shelter in a raging storm; Love is a peace in the middle of a war, and if we try to leave may God send angels to guard the door.
No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for.

To some love is a word that they can fall into, but when they’re falling out, keeping that word is hard to do.

Love is a shelter in a raging storm; Love is peace in the middle of a war, but if we try to leave may God send angels to guard the door.
No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for.

Love will come to save us, if we’ll only call. He will ask nothing from us, but demand we’ll give our all.

Love is a shelter in a raging storm; Love is a peace in the middle of a war, and if we try to leave may God send angels to guard the door.
No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for.

I will fight for you!

Would you fight for me?

It’s worth fighting for.

"Love is Not a Fight" by Warren Barfield

Ryan

My Struggle

As many of you know, I love history and I love to read. However, I have never felt awkward about buying a book or had to struggle to make myself do it.....until yesterday. For my German history class this week, we had to read excerpts from Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, which means "My Struggle." Being the historian that I am, I have wanted to read this book for a while now, just to get a better understanding of what was going on in Hitler's mind at the time that would lead to the Holocaust. I am a firm believer that without firm, true, and deep knowledge of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, we cannot hope to be prepared to stop this from happening again. But, I just couldn't make myself go so far as to buy the book. Yesterday, however, I started thinking that as a graduate student and later professor of German history, specializing in the Third Reich, I will have to study and use this book. I will have to teach referencing it. And not only that, I shouldn't let others' possible opinions of me buying the book stop me from fulfilling my desire for knowledge . So...I did it. I bought Mein Kampf. However, as to the point as that sounds, it definitely was not easy. I debated with myself for at least a good thirty minutes and when I finally decided to just go check out, the African-American checker gave me the "You racist!" look, and I just wanted to scream, "I'm a freaking history major! Back off! I might be blonde and blue eyed, but that doesn't mean I'm a neo-Nazi!" But I held back, and shoved the book into my backpack as quick as I could. It's amazing to see how this book, even now can cause such a turmoil.