UTEP

Today we went to UTEP to check out the Open house they had going on. We were able to talk with a business advisor, admissions and FASFA to get some much needed info. The advisor I talked with briefly gave me info so I can set up and appointment with her to talk about my General business degree, but suggested one of their new degree's to look into also (Entrepreneur) so we will see. I found a flyer about a site connected with the school to help you figure out your degree and I plan on logging on that and seeing what it tells me. Maybe it will come up with a degree I didn't think of!

I am now on the list to attend the March 7th Orientation and updated my enrollment to start this summer. All I need now is my transfer credit evaluation which should be finished soon. 

It feels nice to finally talk with people and get a few things accomplished so I can check them off my list. 

When we walked in we accidentally went through the Frat/Sorority area and were asked by a student if we were parents (aka are you here for your son/daughter who is going to attend school?) I think I can speak for both of us when saying that it took everything in us to not laugh in his face. I mean really...we would have had to have been 7 and 10...Then during the presentation the president of the school was talking about her first job being with switch boards. She said only some in the audience will know what she is talking about and we laughed along with all of the other parents that were attending. It was interesting feeling super 'old' today. Most that we attending are still in high school and are only thinking about college or just applied. I can't wait to be in classes and be with people closer to my age!

When we came home we found our Omaha steak order out front, can't wait to use it! Thanks Julie and Mike!

Now we are relaxing and going to enjoy the quiet weekend. Hope you all get to do the same!

 View of the inside of the Sun Bowl

 Out in front of the Sun Bowl stadium

My turn!

My free shirt I got from the day...

House, School, Army stuff...whew

I wanted to do a quick update for all of you of what we have been working on here at the house. I am taking a short break from Facebook and won't be posting, commenting, etc for a little while (haven't decided how long) 

As most of you know we are still hoping that Robbie gets into the April F-model course so he can then take Command of the B-Co Chinook unit here at Ft Bliss in June. I will be hanging out here while he is gone so the house isn't left empty for that long, but plan on going to Rucker to visit especially for my birthday at the end of April. We are hoping to take advantage of being 'so close' to Ohio and make a quick weekend trip up so we can meet our newest Nephew at the end of April! That is completely up in the air because we don't know if Robbie will have time to leave Rucker or not but if it does happen it will be a crazy short trip (2-3 days type of thing). If we don't get to make it up when he makes his grand appearance we will do our best to come up in the summer sometime :-) Then Robbie will be going sometime later this year to NTC (pre-deployment training in Cali) and will deploy from February-October which is a year earlier than it was supposed to be :-/

I am working on getting into orientation, a meeting with an advisor to discuss my schedule and then start classes in June. I am hoping to finish my bachelor degree in 5 semesters or less. I kind of have to since 5 semesters is around the time that we move again and I REALLY don't want to have to transfer to another school and finish there. Especially since the next place we would like to go (don't have a clue if this will happen, just on our wish list) I would never be able to get into the school nearby...Harvard. So lets all hope that I can get my bachelors here and graduate from UTEP!

This year will be a busy one with both of his trainings, hopeful travels to Ohio, and trying to get the house put together before he deploys again. I hope you enjoy the pictures below and we can't wait to have visitors sometime this year! (hint hint) Next year I will probably come home a few times while Robbie is gone but you are still more than welcome to visit out here when its just me since I will be in school and don't want to miss class. We love you all!

 View from the door of Bedroom #2/Office

 Bookshelf was broken so we are still working on finding homes for them

 Our desk! Robbie built it:-)

 The massive TV in the corner is for sale and will be going away soon. It's a good laugh right now with how much space it takes up...its like going to the movies

 Spare bath upstairs

 Bedroom #3

 They lost the glass top to the TV stand so we are just leaving it here until they find the glass or give us the money to replace it

 The Garage, still working on getting this room together but wanted to show you all the floor we did

 Up close of the floor

 We are beyond happy we decided to have them put this in...so much space to store things

 SEE?! Love it!

Our 'gym' haha, it does a great job and doesn't take up any space in the bedrooms

STB Winter Ball 2012

Last night we attended Robbie's ball for his unit. It was a night filled with new friends, tasty food, amazing cake, skits, awards and a few speeches. The formal part of the evening ended and the 'party' part began. We had fun doing a few dances and watching others dance.

The formal portion has many traditions including the receiving line where the Commander, Guest speaker,  Senior enlisted officer and their spouses stand in line and shake everyone's hand that is attending. The guests line up and the girl goes first and the guy introduces both to the 'greeter' who then passes our name on. We shake hands, say hello, nice to meet you but no conversations. It was a bit nerve racking since it was my first time but don't worry Robbie broke the ice when he stepped on my dress:-) They also have the toasts (with specific responses), the posting of the colors where you must follow the flag as it enters (you could end up turning in a circle depending on where you sit haha).

There is a traditional way that everyone must dress also. Women (civilians) are to wear ball gowns which are supposed to be floor length but some girls don't understand that....The female soldiers traditionally where their dress uniform but they were permitted to wear ball gowns if they came with a male soldier who was in uniform (at least that was our guess since we saw a few female soldiers in gowns) The men must where their mess dress or class a's and must stay in full uniform until the party portion. I explain that a little more below the first picture. Traditional things can make a newbie nervous but it always ends up being low key and you don't really need to be on edge or anything.

I enjoyed my first official ball and can't wait for another one. Hopefully the next one we attend Robbie will be a company commander (More on that in another blog post) **Fingers crossed**

Here are a few pictures of us from the night! Enjoy

 During the 'party' portion of the night. The Soldiers must leave their jackets on until the Senior ranking person attending takes off their jacket. Then the 'party' shirts come out:-)

 This would be Robbie's 'party' shirt

I love this dress :-)