HALLELUJAHHHHH!
The 10 weeks of the summer semester are officially OVER.

I may or may not have done a little happy dance when I turned in my last final.
These past 10 weeks have been the hardest, most stressful 10 weeks of my life and I am so glad they are over. I have had no time for anything other than school/clinic lately and I honestly can't believe I survived the summer semester. I woke up around 6:30 every morning and my head didn't hit the pillow until 1 or 2 am that night/next morning. It was definitely not ideal.

I poured myself a glass of wine the night I turned in my last final and just sat on the couch watching TV, doing nothing. It was glorious!

Here's an update on what I have been up to this summer, other than school...

Some of the girls from our grad program went to Katy Trail Icehouse to celebrate our friend Courtney's birthday.
It was a much needed break from school!

A couple weekends later, we went out in downtown Dallas to the Rustic and found Winston from New Girl! I am obsessed with this show and I was so nervous to go and talk to him. He was so nice though!

My birthday fell in the time period of all this craziness too, so Eric and I decided to take a weekend just to relax and spend some time together. I have always wanted to go stand up paddleboarding, so Eric took me to do that at Lake Grapevine on the weekend of my bday. It was SO MUCH FUN. We rented them for an hour, but I really wish we had done it for 2 hours. It was so relaxing, just super hot. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but once you get your balance, it's not too hard at all!

Around this time, Eric and I started taking Krav Maga classes. Krav Maga is a type of self-defense class  that teaches you how to defend yourself against attackers in real-life scenarios. They really try to incorporate good overall fitness and it's an extremely good workout. We got a groupon for it and have about 8 classes left. We go twice a week and each weekend I am so sore from everything we learned that week. It works your whole body! I feel like I am actually picking up on the moves and could at least attempt to defend myself ;)

Here is a video of what it is all about.
They are doing a lot of advanced moves that we haven't learned yet, but it's a pretty awesome video.

For my actual bday party this year, I did a pedal party in uptown Dallas with some of my friends from the grad program and of course, Eric, and Chris & Jaclyn, and my sister love Kourt.
We had such a great time!
Kourt signed me up for karaoke, which was a blast. We sang "Hit Me Baby One More Time"...I am still laughing about it to this day.
Someone recorded it, but I will spare you the terrible performance.

One weekend, some friends and I went to Improv Comedy Club in Dallas. It was a much needed break in the midst of this summer semester stress. We laughed all night long!

Lauren & I at Improv

Finals snuck up on me, thanks to such a short semester, as did client end-of-semester reports. Eric somehow got a picture of my in the middle of studying and writing reports. This is perfect representation of my nights during the summer semester.

The week before finals, Eric and I moved apartments in our apartment complex. We downsized from a 2 bedroom to a 1 bedroom, and if the summer wasn't stressful enough, try downsizing and moving and organizing right along with it. Oh man. It was not fun. But we made it through...and we just live on top of each other now. No big deal.

After finals, a few of us went to celebrate! It was so nice not having any homework or studying to do and we were finally able to relax. It was perfect.

Now I have 2 weeks until I start back for the fall semester and begin my offsite placement in Dallas. I absolutely cannot wait! I get to start my career as an SLP outside of the UNT clinic. I plan on going to the pool, relaxing, and spending time with Eric while I am on break. Oh, and sleeping. Lots and lots of sleeping :)

I know this post is VERY late, but I have been quite busy!

This past Memorial Day weekend we had our annual Baylor family reunion (plus one Aggie) river trip. We didn't have as many people as usual, but we still had the BEST time!

This is what my little (Kimber) & I did the day before the river trip...

Self-explanatory.

 Then we hit the road the next day.

We stayed at a condo in Gruene this year that was a 5 minute walk to the spot where you get into the river and it was smack dab in the middle of downtown Gruene, so we were able to walk everywhere. It was a perfect location.
We started the weekend by eating dinner at the Gristmill, which is an annual tradition :)

That night, we just stayed at our condo and hung out, catching up and pretending like we were in college again.

The next day, we got up at the crack of 10 am and got ready to head to the river to float! This is by far our favorite part of the trip.
We packed up the beverages, the sunscreen, and our sunglasses and walked the 5 minutes to the river.

We had to walk through downtown Gruene to get there, which was super awkward, because we were all in our swimsuits. And for this modest girl, it was my worst nightmare.

We got our tubes and floated for the whole day!

We had such a fun day!
That night we were super lame and stayed in playing games and just relaxing.

The next day we woke up and did it all again!

Jake and Paul got a kayak this year...hilarious.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant in downtown Gruene and then went to Gruene Hall to listen to music. We were SO exhausted, but our weekend was so much fun and we don't regret one minute of it.

It was a successful and fun-filled weekend! CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR.

Well hello there. It's been awhile…

The spring semester of grad school has finally come to a close and I actually have FREE TIME! Those words haven't been in my vocabulary in MONTHS. It's a wonderful feeling :)

Here is what I have been up to lately:

The semester started with a bang. I received 3 clients for the semester, plus a full load of classes. Oh and I felt the leisure chaos of being a teacher's assistant.

In February, some of the grad students went to the TSHA convention in Houston. It's pretty much a big convention of seminars for speech-paths. It was so informative and I learned a bunch. I also got to meet up with some of my friends who live in the Houston area! Always good catching up with them :)

In March, Eric & I were able to go to the Houston Rodeo with my parents and my bestie, Kourtney! We saw Keith Urban and he was AMAZING. Such a great performer!

I also ran my 6th Bearathon! Really exciting!

I went to my FIRST Rangers game this semester too. I still love my Astros, but man was it a cool experience. I love the ballpark (really any ballpark in general) and I went with my friend, Kimber, which made it so much better. We are both huge baseball fans and it was the perfect big/little date.

Our grad school class celebrate this girls quarter-of-a-century birthday in April.

We went to the Rustic in Dallas and had so much fun just hanging with all the girls in our program and not thinking about school for a night.

I also got to celebrate Kourtney's quarter-of-a-century birthday the next day! She had a "pedal party" for all of her friends and it was such a fun idea! You literally pedal a huge bike/vehicle from bar to bar on Washington street in Houston.

Baylor Bears!

Parker sisters & blonde parker sisters :)

C-town…what's up?

Our grad class showered these speechie babies with love right when the semester ended! One baby boy has already joined the world, and the other will be joining us shortly! Can't wait to kiss their cheeks!

Last week, my mom graduated college from Sam Houston State University! She is such an inspiration - GO MOM! The day after she walked the stage, we had a graduation party for her and about 70 people came out to celebrate her and her huge accomplishment! My in-laws and bro/sis-in law and my adorable nieces came in from San Antonio to join in the celebration. Always a good time to see them and love on their beautiful girls.

In one year from now, I will be walking the stage at UNT getting my Masters. Words cannot describe how excited I am. I have a summer semester of classes & clinic, a fall semester of classes & off site placement, and the spring semester externship (NO CLASS!) left until I finish. I have 2 semesters under my belt and it has flown by, even though it's been crazy hard. I feel so blessed to be where I am and I couldn't have asked for a better experience at UNT or better friends in my program to have by my side. As well as a wonderful family & husband to support me through this journey.

Until next time,
Brittney :)