update

 Okay update time...

Texas was great (was there any doubt) but returning to the real world came all too soon.  While I was down there, however, my mom and I managed to get a ton of things done.  Both wedding chapels were visited, and we ended up deciding on this teensy one near to Sherman.  It's sooo cute - reminds me of something you'd find on a drive out in the country or something.  The one in Ft. Worth turned out to be a little dingy-grandma-ish for my taste.  While it wasn't so ugly, it just didn't stand up to the one 10 mins from the house!  Here's a pic of the chapel at Willowood Ranch (willowoodranch.com) where it's going to be:
We also went to a bridal store that is going out of business just in case there was a dress I liked better (can't beat 50% off!) and I almost got one there, but finally decided on the original dress.  If only a girl could have three or four (but only one wedding)!  We did however find the perfect (half-off) veil, (half-off) mother's dress, and (half-off) flower girl dress.  So Dawn brought adorable little 4-yr old Ashlyn up and we tried on dresses together.  She had fun picking up the front to walk towards the mirror like "a lady."  It's way too big for her right now, but for the price they paid they can either get it altered or find another dress that fits her and transfer the sash and still come out ahead!  Here's my little love:
 Her favorite thing in the world is lizards and the occasional dinosaur, but she will stop to play "Princess" every now and then when she knows she's going to steal the show.  However she's already stressing out about the job and if she'll get to practice or not - at age four.  Yes, can't wait to see how she turns out, haha! (Sorry Chelsee, I guess I should've gone with you)
Let's see, I also got my "Bridal Book" that we get to write in all sorts of things about wedding prep, the wedding, showers, etc - it's white silk with flowers embroidered on it.  But best of all was what my grandma gave me.  Apparently sometime over 20 years ago she started knit/crocheting this delicate tablecloth-sized thing to give to her first granddaughter when she got married - well, that's me I am, and she did.  It's just absolutely gorgeous, she does amazing work - even 20ish years ago!  We're going to have it at the reception on a display table, like where you put pictures and stuff.  There's no way food is getting near this baby, it's so delicate!  Aww, I love my grandma :).
So we've got a place, a date, and a dress/cake/flowers/food in the works.  Yay, I'm so excited!!!

Why God won't get tenure

My advisor sent this to me after we randomly started discussing whether or not God would get tenure if he were to try...

WHY GOD NEVER RECEIVED TENURE AT ANY UNIVERSITY

*1. He had only one major publication.
*2. It was in Hebrew.
*3. It had no references.
*4. It wasn't published in a refereed journal.
*5. Some even doubt he wrote it himself.
*6. It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since then?
*7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
*8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
*9. He never applied to the Ethics Board for permission to use human subjects.
*10. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it up by drowning the subjects.
*11. When subjects didn't behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
*12. He rarely came to class, just told students to read the Book.
*13. Some say he had his son teach the class.
*14. He expelled his first two students for learning.
*15. Although there were only ten requirements, most students failed his tests.
*16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.
*17. While he can always be contacted, his answers are sometimes cryptic (our addition)

Then, in an attempt to further put off a project I so desparately need to be working on, I found this website with more grad-school humor.  Even if you're not in grad/professional school, it still has some pretty funny things on it :)
http://www.gettingintogradschool.com/book/graduate-school-zen

Yipee!

I'm going home tomorrow night!  Dad used some of their AAdvantage miles (all zillion of them) and for the low price of $105 I am catching a flight home tomorrow and will return early Monday morning!  Yipee for shopping with my mommy!!!

dresses dresses dresses

And thus it has begun.  Yesterday I went shopping in the morning all by myself because I wanted to have a chance to kind of see what I liked without the pressure of people telling me and asking me and just overwhelming me in general.  I went to this place called Eileen's Originals, and once they figured out that I was there, they were wonderful!  I found the most wonderful dress, but decided that I needed to keep looking anyways "just to be sure."  So in the afternoon Michelle and I went to that horrid place known as David's Bridal (I have a personal vendetta against that place, just can't stand it for some reason) and they had mis-written my appointment and seemed incapable of figuring out how to give me a bridal consultant instead of a bridesmaid consultant.  Not that hard, ladies.  So Michelle and I thought "screw it" and started looking at bridesmaid stuff while we waited on them.  25 mins later I finally walked up to the counter and "nicely" reminded them that they were 30 minutes late for my appointment and that we'd be in the bridal section if they needed any help.  Haha.  Pretty soon a lady came over (the very one we hoped we wouldn't get) offering all sorts of half-assed apologies that sounded like she was pissed she had to do it because it wasn't on her original schedule and she'd rather keep standing around talking like she had been.  Well instead of letting me look at the dresses, she kind of tossed me a catalogue.  Turned out to be easier, though, because those dresses are all smashed together.  So I tried on 4 or so and a couple of them were nice.  One in particular was really pretty, and we thought we had a conundrum on our hands because now I had to decide between the two!  So we went back to Eileen's and Michelle looked at the other dress and took more pictures.  But when I got home and looked at them all next to each other, it was kind of a no-brainer.  One makes me feel so special!  And it's beauuuuutiful and not like every other dress out there that you seem to see at every single wedding.  And it's not from David's Bridal... not that that's a deciding factor or anything.  The only problem is that I really want my mom to be part of this shopping experience.  I wasn't planning on finding a dress yesterday, it was just initial perusing so that when I went down next weekend I'd have some ideas.  Well, my potential air ticket fell through and so now unless Dan and I drive, I won't be there.  It's so important to me that my mom be part of it, though - as much as I don't want us to drive, it's almost worth it.  Even if I couldn't find a shop down there that had "the dress" so she could see, just knowing that she and I got to at least look at some dresses together would make everything feel right.  And we still need to see those wedding chapels so we can put one down with a date... you can't do flowers, food, invites, etc until you have a date!  And while part of me just wants to call the one in Ft. Worth and do it, I just can't picture not seeing it in person first.  Kinda feels like we need to go down, whether or not we want to drive... I dunno, guess we'll find out!

Love ya!