He got it! He got it! He got in! He got in!

Hm...how to adequately express my excitement?
It's impossible!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok...let me try to give you a little bit of a narrative. It's more fun to read that way, I'm sure!

So...um...I'm so excited I can't even collect my thoughts!
Ok.
Well.
Here goes.
Um.
Ok for real:

As you know, it's a tough time to be applying to Finance PhD programs, as many have lost their jobs in the world of corporate finance and thus many are trying to go back to school. So you've got Mr. X applying for a PhD at Y University, and Mr. Stace is also applying there. Mr. X has ten years experience on Wall Street, and he graduated from, say...Harvard, Stanford or Yale with a masters. Mr. Stace is graduating this spring with an undergraduate degree. And while he may have a nice resume, it's hard to compete in this market, ya know?!

So. With the knowlege and the time a-tickin', came a sense of urgency for Stace to come up with a backup plan in case the PhD didn't work out. So he applied for the masters in finance at FSU at the last minute, and got in. I really thought this is what we were going to be doing next year. But still, we were just praying that we would go where the Lord would have us go, praying that we get into a PhD program, if that was His will for us this year. And praying to accept it if it's wasn't!

As time has progressed, the thought of going far away to school has become less and less appealing. The thought of being far away from our families, the thought of being in the cold, and the thought of well...being too terribly far away from our families (and friends! I love you too!), has become harder and harder. I salute my Sirmans kin in Utah, CT and Delaware...I know it must be hard to be away sometimes and having you here and being around everyone was so fun! You guys are all awesome and I feel so blessed to be a part of such an sooper dooper fun familia. :) I will be posting pics/ video eventually from your visit!

So with this moving-far-away-idea becoming more and more difficult to imagine, the idea of going to the University of Florida has become more and more attactive!

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Stace was contacted by UF about a month ago and told he had made the major cut from 130 to 25, then contacted again & told he was in the top 7! Then last week he was told he was in the top 6, and that they would contact us by Tuesday (today) to give him the final answer. Well, today I went on a youth temple trip (which was excellante) and Stace went down to Destin to pick up our camera because we left it there last weekend and tomorrow we are going to California and we need our camera! Point of that story: neither of us were home to check his e-mail all day. Stace checked his e-mail when he got to my brother's at about 4:30...and NOTHING! I got a text from him that said "They're killing me smalls!" And yes, that is how it felt! Then right when I got home at 7:30, I checked his e-mail and...duh duh nuh nuh!

ACCEPTED!!!!!

Guys and gals, ok, just gals: I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Quote of the Day

Stace is sitting and looks down at his belly and grabs it and says:

"I'm so fat! I need to work up the motivation to...to get liposuction!"

ahahahahahahaha!

Love that boy;D

Playing Catch Up!

Where to begin, where to begin?!
Well...I suppose from the beginning! The beginning of the the first story which I feel compelled to blog about, that is.
Well, for starters, one of Stace and I's great friends, Ben Stayton, returned home from his mission a couple weeks ago! Stace and I both grew up with him. He is the truest kind of friend, and we are so proud of him. Yay Ben!

Waiting for him to come! As you can see he is very special to many friends (and many were there that aren't pictured)

First glimpse!

Ben becoming acquainted with John and Katie's new addition: Baby Kiley

Hanging with Katie, Kiley and Mindi...love all three of these girls!


What's next? Well...the following weekend Stace and I went on a mini vacation to Orlando for a couple days. This little break couldn't have come at a better time. I really needed this time away. We got to go to Daytona Beach, the temple and Downtown Disney! We wanted to do a theme park...but goodness gracious they are so expensive! One day... :)

Daytona Beach

a neat sign at Downtown Disney


We drove home on Saturday to eat dinner with my dad, step mom, brother Chris and sister-in-law Beth and their girls...who are my baby girls! I love them with all my heart!

Sitting with ca-ray-zee Caroline and Miss Georgia

My dad pulling Kate along on the little goose...a favorite pastime of the girls:)

More updates to come!

There's a Blizzard in our Freezer!

Tonight we brought home Blizzard's (ice cream with wonderfulness mixed inside) to enjoy whilst watching The Office. Being that we got home at 8:45, we decided it best to let them sit in the freezer until our show started. However, when we went to put them in there, there was no room! It turned out the freezer had already had it's fair share of blizzards for the evening!

What in the world?!

Stace thinks we didn't close the freezer tight enough, and this was the result. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know I was ready to have a small-scale snowball fight!
PS: I love how I look like I'm 6-years-old in this pic...

Kimberology

Natalie tagged me in her note "Natalisms" on Facebook (thanks, girl-- I always love reading your posts/ notes). I thought I'd put my little survey up on the ole' blogeroo
. I wanted to post something, anything, because my last post is no longer relevant now that I put a horizontal photo up there. And I don't like going to my blog and seeing an irrelevant post. :)

So here goes.

Let others know a little more about yourself by re-posting and tagging your friends. Re-post note as your name "ology"

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Oh, that is a tough-ey. Red Elephant is up there.

What is your pet peeve? Can getting gas count as my pet peeve? I HATE getting gas. Oh...and blow drying my hair. I HATE blow drying my hair. Both of these things, to me, take way too much time and are a giant waste of it. Filling out this survey, on the other hand, is making exquisite use of my time... :)

What food could you eat for two weeks straight and not get sick of it? Rold Gold Pretzels! I’ve been obsessed for years and still that is one thing I crave when I'm really hungry. Strange, I know.

How many televisions are in your house? One...Stace reminds me frequently how much he wishes it was a giant flat-screen.

Are you right-handed or left-handed? right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? My four impacted wisdom teefies!

What is the last heavy item you lifted? My kitchen table so I could clean the rug underneath it.

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Hm…yes.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Every time I played pretend when I was little, I always wanted my name to be “Allison.” (Side note: Stace’s family tells me he always wanted to be named “Jerry.” Haha!) I wouldn't change it if I had the option...too much of a hassle! But if I had to change it, I suppose I would make my middle name my first name. It’s Brooke. We shall probably have a little Brooke of our own one day:) (Ya, Machelle! Good choice!)

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Two

Last person you talked to? Stace

Last person you hugged? Stace

Favorite Season? Spring

Favorite Holiday? Christmas

First place you went this morning? The wonderful world of work

What's the last movie you saw? Sat down and intently watched would be “Les Miserables.” Had on in the background while doing other things would be Kung Fu Panda.

Do you smile often? yeppers :oD

It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Hmm…probably Candace!

If you could change your eye color what would it be? A lighter blue, I suppose.

Have you ever had a pet fish? yep

Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night (Natalie: we’re twinsies!)

What's on your wish list for your birthday? To know where we'll be next year and what is going on in our lives! My birthday is at the end of May...I sure hope we know by then!

Can you do a chin up? I can probably just do one. That was always my toughest challenge in the presidential fitness test!

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited! There’ll surely be more trials to endure, of course, but there is so much to look forward to.

Ever been in a car wreck? yes

What is the last song to make you cry? “Just Let Me Cry” by Hillary Weeks. Her new CD is really good...I just love her voice and the words to her songs.

Plans tonight? Be visit taught by Frey Dog 26 and Michelle, and then go to YW New Beginnings final prep meeting

And that's that!

I tag all my lovely ladies out there! Yes, you!

Life is not always what you plan for

I am on my lunch break at work, and decided to take this opportunity to try and play catch up. It seems a lot has happened recently, but I will just mention a few of the happenings and the details that go along with them.

For starters, my boss got fired a week ago. I felt so sad for her. She worked so hard. Although at times her stress level would escalate to heights I did not really want to deal with (to be honest), I oftentimes thought to myself “I must have the nicest boss in the world.” She is a wonderful person and I am going to miss having her around the office. And while I feel this sadness, at the same time I’m really holding out hope for her that this is all one big blessing in disguise. She will not likely read this as she doesn’t know my blog address and I changed my privacy settings, but we had a pretty open working relationship and I was able to tell her these things when we hugged goodbye! :( I know she wasn’t planning on losing her job, as the primary wage-earner in her family and with her son going off to an ivy-league university next year. Life is not always what you plan for, I guess.

As a result of all this, my work load has definitely increased and my stress level has gone up. I am trying to deal with the stress in such a way that I get silly instead of psycho. It’s much more fun that way. We’ll see how it turns out:)

In happier news (and straying from the blog post topic), I have decided to pursue my goal of becoming a Pilates instructor! I started getting really into it in the last couple months, and I LOVE it! It’s amazing. When I get certified, we should have a Pilates party. (Ohh…maybe that will be the name of the studio I open one day! Not to get ahead of myself or anything!) I nervously (and sheepishly) spoke with my instructor about the possibility of me one day becoming an instructor and she was so encouraging and enthusiastic! And I’m excited because I could use this “skill” as a bit of extra income-earner no matter where we end up! Hopefully with this, it will turn out the way I plan for it.

Speaking of where we end up: well. Stace has received rejections from a few schools in the last couple weeks. The first one, from Vanderbilt University, came as a hard blow to me. I was excited at the thought of living in Nashville. Stace, on the other hand, took it like a champ. He said “well, this is probably good preparation for me because for the rest of my life I will be submitting papers to research journals to get published, and the editors can either accept or reject them. That will probably feel like how it feels to apply to grad school, I’m sure.” He’s so positive; I love it. Anyway. When the next one came, it was also pretty hard. I was also excited at the possibility of living in Boston. Dang.

But the weekend came and went and we were good. Then Monday, another one. Right after that Stace met me for lunch to share a $5 footlong. As we sat in the booth at Subway, I just started to cry; tears wouldn’t stop. I felt even worse because I wanted to be positive and strong for him—surely he must have been feeling bad inside about all this. But for whatever reason I just couldn’t hold it in. My thoughts were racing: “What are we going to do? This is not what we planned for! Don’t these admissions committees realize how amazing my Stace is and what his potential is? I know he can do it. Wherever we go, whether it were Harvard or the University of Podunk, I know he would succeed. How can they not see that?" But Stace just put his comforting arm around me and assured me everything would be alright, “no matter what happens, we’ll be ok.” Right! Right. That’s true. I know it’s true. Right? Right! Right. We’ve prayed about this for so long. And we’ve prayed specifically that we would end up where Heavenly Father wants us to be. I’ve prayed specifically for the faith to know that where we end up is where He wants us. That’s all I truly want. But still I felt sad, and I felt bad for feeling that way.

Later, I was talking to my mother-in-law about all this. As I was telling her about how I had been feeling and as I said “these rejections are just not what we planned for” she stopped me and said, “but you know what, Kimmie? Life is not always what you plan for.” She had just returned from the funeral of her childhood friend. She told me how her friend was only in her 50’s, and that she passed away from painful cancer. She and her husband were high school sweethearts, and had been in love from the start. He was a farmer so he was always home—day in and day out they were together. She said their love for one another and friendship was just obvious. She lovingly asked me “do you think they planned that? Do you think he planned for that to happen to her?” No, of course not. Life is just not always what you plan for.

The next morning as I was driving to work, the distinct impression came to my mind, a scripture: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” I felt very grateful at that moment for a loving and caring Heavenly Father, Who somehow, some way, is able to comfort me even whilst millions and millions…no billions, of his children suffer from pain and sickness and heartache that I cannot imagine. I can’t help but tear up even as write this. How humbling it is to know that He cares so much for me. I know all will turn out as it should. I am grateful that He took the time to remind me of that.

My lunch break is over and I need to get back to work. So I’ll just wrap this up.

Since we can’t always plan every detail, all we can do is try to be the very best we can possibly be, and then trust that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing as we acknowledge His hand in all things. I hope I will remember that.

And FYI Amelia: Stace was just notified that he made the first cut at UF from 130 to 25! Now let's hope he makes the second cut from 25 to three!