Never a Dull Moment

This weekend my wonderful parents sponsored me (bought my ticket) so I could attend the America Association of Christian Counselors West National Conference in Dallas. I was really excited about going, but nervous about traveling alone. I found an upper classman, Rachel, who was getting a group to travel together. I signed myself up. A friend of hers suggested we use the train, so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic etc. BAD IDEA!! We didn't realize that at the time, so he mapped us out a plan and we embarked at SIX A.M. on our journey. Well, we missed the 6:20 a.m. train because we couldn't find the train station and our friend Samuel was late. So we barely caught the 7 A.M. train. This train took 1 hour to get us to Dallas. In Dallas, we caught another, smaller train up to LBJ Central, which was "in theory" supposed to be in walking distance of the conference center. HA. HA. It was in the middle of nowhere. A nice police officer called the transit people and they told us to go back one stop and catch a bus! So we do. The nice bus driver says there is no way to get us to the Hilton Lincoln Center. The best she can do is drop us off on the backside of the Galleria. The Hilton wasn't that far from there, but there was a HUGE INTERSTATE between us and the Hilton. Luckily, my friend Rachel had a friend who knew Dallas well and had just arrived at the conference, so she called her to come pick us up. We FINALLY arrived at the conference....are you ready for this?....at 9: 30 A.M. Now...think back....what time did we meet to leave? 6 A.M.!!! We traveled for over 3 hours! I could have been half way to Mississippi and I was only in DALLAS!!! It was worth all the trouble though. The conference was good!

My new Korean friend Son Hi.

One of the many trains we rode.

Me and Rachel (we were twinks in our jean jackets and Brown slacks)

Our whole group for the train adventure!

We saw the sunrise and the sunset from the train on Friday! Needless to say, I drove on Saturday! I will try to post later about some things I learned at the conference!

FINISHED!! Plus more MUST READS!!

I AM FINISHED!!! With an incredibly long (28 pages to be exact) Outline. I have now officially thought through my personal strengths and weaknesses as a counselor/person, my theory of personality, and my theory of counseling. The basis of which was a biblical worldview, which I also had to discuss. AHH!!! Glad to be done with that...at least for now until she hands it back and I have to start revising and writing the paper.



Enough of that!






MUST READS!!



Okay, so all the hype was that this new series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer was the "next Harry Potter". Well, if you are a Harry fan, don't get your hopes up. I just won't even compare the two because they just really don't have much in common except they are both fantasy.



That being said, you MUST read Twilight, especially if you are a girl. Fabulous love story. Now, I will tell you that I wasn't that enthralled at first. During the first three books, I was thinking, well this is a nice story, but really its not just phenominally amazing (like Harry Potter). Then I read the last book. It made me fall passionately in love with the rest and want to go back and re-read them now with my new perspective. Now, this is interesting because I have friends who were passionately enthralled with the series from the beginning and were seriously disappointed in the final book. So, be warned. I loved it though. I thought it was totally unexpected and creative!



Now I know you are thinking, she is going on and on about these books and hasn't even told us what they are about. Well, if you don't know, all I am telling you is that it is a love story between a girl named Bella and a man named Edward. They are from completely different worlds which I will tell you nothing about. Go read for yourself and tell me what you think.



Now if you know why they are from completely different worlds, you should still go read for yourself and tell me what you think.



If you aren't a reader, check out the trailer to the movie.

I would like to hear anyone's thoughts on these books. Please leave a comment.

Just Following Directions

I was informed last night by my mother that I needed to get my priorities in order and update this blog. School and work are not more important than blog updates. This came to her through my dear Brother Sammy! So here you are!

I am in the middle of mid-terms. I really only had one test. I have an outline due for a really big paper on Tuesday which I haven't done very much work on, so this weekend will be devoted to that.

Last weekend we went to the Texas State Fair. It is just all the rave out here. It is supposedly the biggest and most attended state fair in the country. Well...it was fun, but I don't have to go back again next year! Everything is SO expensive, and you have to buy tickets for EVERYTHING! Even the Food! I ate a fried s'more which was very good. I left my camera in the car, so I have no pictures. SORRY!

Today in chapel we took up a boot offering. Literally, Dr. Patterson asked for the men wearing boots to take them off and pass them around to take an offering for the Hurricane Ike victims. A group went down from SWBTS last weekend to help clean up, and they will be taking 4 more trips down there before Christmas. Needless to say, the offering had a "sweet smelling aroma"! HAHA...only in Texas!

I am coming home the weekend of October 25th which is Homecoing for MSU. Michael and I will be at the game and tailgating before the game. We haven't made the decision on whether we will be in church Sunday morning or not. We might leave in the morning, so we won't get home so late. The week starts up again on Monday, so late Sunday nights aren't good. (In case you didn't know that already) I have commited 15 minutes to Brother Sammy...(Yes she conveyed that message too!), so if you try to see me during that 15 minutes I will have to ignore you. Sorry...he is the boss!

That is all I can come up with right now. I need to go type up a paper. I love you all and miss you all!

Welcome to Our World!

Congratulations to Todd and Nicole Ketchum
upon the birth of their son Andrew!!
He is welcomed by big brother Matthew!
October 8, 2008
10:56 A.M.
6 pounds 12 ounces
19 3/4 inches long
Everyone is doing great!

We May Have Found a Home...

GUESS WHAT!?!?....

NO! I am not having a baby!

NO! We did not buy a house!

YES! We think we may have found a church!

We went back to Travis this weekend because I really liked the preacher. We wanted to try out their Sunday School again. When we went it was summer, so the class was small. Plus one of my professor's teaches it, and I really like him. So we went back and...GUESS WHAT?!?

The Special Guest for the day was......KIRK CAMERON!!!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! So no, that was not the reason why we think we are going to go to this church for at least the next few months, but it was still really cool! Did you know he has SIX kids!?!?

He was funny and did a little 1-2 minute bit of Mike Seaver-isms to get us over the Growing Pains fix. Then he talked about God's judgement on America for turning its back on Him, and how each individual needs to make sure we are in right relationship with Him if we want to help our nation. (That was the really condensed version.)

Check out Travis at their website.

School Update

This is for those family and friends that care. Otherwise it is probably going to be a boring post.

I assume some of you want to know how school is going. So here ya go...

I have finally got myself on a schedule where I am not completely overwhelmed all the time. I try to have my classwork done a couple days ahead of time to allow for emergencies and so far that has kept me "chilled out". I am really enjoying my classes. A couple of them are really challenging while the other two are fairly easy. That is a good balance. I turned in my first paper on Wednesday. It was a book review on a book my PROFESSOR wrote! Seriously? I did it though. And was rather proud of it, but that makes me afraid. It will probably get ripped into shreds!

I am making some good friends. I have one friend that is in two of my classes and her husband is in another one. We hang out between class and chapel. Several of my new friends are coming over tonight for a Mary Kay party. Deanna will be here with her array of fabulous products. I am sure you will hear more about that on a post after the party!

I am really enjoying my job. I am getting used to the kids and their personalities. We have a pretty good routine and get the job done. I also have some time to do my own homework at work after I get things ready for the day, so that is good.

Michael likes his job. He is leaving me to go on an audit at the end of October. I will need lots of encouragement that week! I don't think he's wild about the getting up at the crack of dawn stuff, but that is the real world I suppose and you all are not sympathetic!!!

We have narrowed our church search down to two I think. One has a Sunday School that we liked and the other we really liked the preaching. We are going to go to Church 2 this Sunday to check out the Sunday School there. Hopefully we can plug in somewhere soon!

In other news, we are going to be aunt and uncle again in the next couple weeks. Nicole is getting close to her due date with little Andrew. We are hoping to get to make it home to meet him when he arrives, but it might not be until Thanksgiving. By that time we might be aunt and uncle again, depending on when little Kaylea decides to make her appearance!

If you would like to help me with my classes, call me when you have a problem! Every week I have to practice my new "skills" on people, and Michael is not very obliging! HaHa!

Also I have discovered that getting licensed in counseling is not as simple as getting the Master's degree. I will have to complete two additional years of supervised counseling after I get my Master's degree. Do not fret though, I can do this in Mississippi. We should still return to that great land in 3 years. Soon we'll be able to say 2 1/2!

I love you and miss you all! Please keep us in your prayers.

Mary Beth

Things I Could Live Without

My friend Laura Tomlinson inspired this post with hers similar to it weeks ago!

In no particular order, just as they come!

1. Caffeine...except in Chocolate...it gives me a headache!
2. CLEANING!!!
3. People talking on their cell phones in the bathroom.
4. People talking on their cell phones while they check out at a store.
5. Bubble Gum...like the old pink kind...the smell of it makes me want to puke!
6. Bad Weather...especially tornado weather...its strange though...I get a rush when the weather is really bad, but I don't like it!
7. Little children saying they need to, "Use it." Really? What is it?
8. Ole Miss...except for the fact that it is thoroughly enjoyable to beat them in anything.
9. Online quizzes
10. hmmm...this one has to be good...its the last one...OH I KNOW...Coaches complaining that the measly little COWBELLS in our stadium keep their poor wittle qwarterbacks from being able to think...POOR POOR BABIES. What exactly constitutes "artificial" noise anyways?
11. OOOOO!!! I thought of another one...RAP MUSIC!!

So how about you? What could you live without? Leave a comment!