back to school

And I didn't even get to go shopping!!! No back to school shopping here and there won't be any. At least until I get a back to school paycheck!

Tomorrow it begins again... and hopefully for my last semester of class work which is the only thing encouraging about the semester! Actually, I'm to the point where I'm teaching classes for the second and third time which is nice to have some of the prep work done. This semester I got Foundations of Kinesiology and Sociology of Sport. Both of the classes I like and, although I'm team teaching, it's with a friend of mine so it shouldn't be too bad.

I am taking two classes (and if everything goes well they will be the last two); one is a research statistics class and the other is Psychology of Gender. After that I will have to take (and pass-- that's the plan) my comprehensive exams and then dissertation time! That's still a lot of work to do but it's exciting to near the first big milestone!

Other than coursework, I've started working with the MSU volleyball team as a sport psychology consultant. It's  the perfect opportunity to be around and help but not have to put in all the hours and travel of a full-time coach. They won their first tournament at home but now they are in Hawaii  for a tournament so I am just sitting at home and crossing my fingers that they can pick up a win or two. It'll be quite a challenge for them-- lots of good teams!

With the start of school here, all of the students have moved back in to town and that we are not enjoying. Summer traffic definitely spoiled us and now between there being more students around and lots of road construction that is not complete, it's difficult to get around.

Mikel is busy working a lot and waiting (impatiently) for hunting season to open. He is loving his new bow and  has gotten permission with a friend to hunt some land outside of town so at least he won't have to go far!

Mikel's new toy

Mikel got a new bow! He is very excited about his new bow that he found a sweet deal on!

He has been shooting it a lot with his friend Matt (luckily, Matt has a backyard and a target and they also found a range at MSU where they can go and practice).

Obviously, he rolled his eyes at me when I asked to take a picture but he was a good sport!

road trip summary

Our road trip took us through ten different states and we saw thirteen different colleges/universities in eight days.

It was an awesome trip and an awesome month of July... Seattle, Alaskan cruise, Idaho (for me at least), and a road trip! Can't complain!

We are getting settled back into our normal routine and school will be starting here on the first of September! 

road trip part 5

The last day of our road trip we started in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure what I was expecting in Pittsburgh but it was way cooler than I was anticipating!

It is called the steel city (apparently) not only because of the industrial past but also because of the number of bridges in the city!

University of Pittsburgh is actually right in downtown Pittsburgh and is way cool. Practically connected to Pitt is Carnegie Mellon University and Carlow University (which is a Roman Catholic school that educates mostly women). 

This was a beautiful church on campus and there was actually a wedding going on...

An enormous door to an old building...

This was an old building on campus (we weren't sure what it was but figured if they kept it around being this old, I'm sure it was important...

This was a beautiful church right across the street from campus...

This was Carnegie Mellon.

After the downtown campus we headed to Heinz field where the Pitt football team plays as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers...

The stadium is actually right on a river and there were duck tours going on as we were walking around... 

We also saw PNC Park where the Pittsburgh Pirates play...

We drove through Ohio before we finally made it back to Michigan (and back to our own bed-- thank goodness)!

road trip part 4

When we left Charlotte we headed towards the outskirts and Davidson College. They were relatively unknown until they had an amazing run in NCAA basketball.

Driving through North Carolina and West Virginia...

I failed at getting most of the state signs but I did get West Virginia. 

Our next stop was Marshall University. 

This is the memorial for the football team and support staff that died in the plane crash...

Our last stop for the day was West Virginia University. We were totally excited about seeing it but it wasn't as cool as I thought. There was a bunch of campuses that were separated and it was hard to find our way around. They did have some pretty buildings and stuff...

This is where the basketball team plays...

Another good day of road tripping vacation!