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!!!!