Love Purple Live Gold - We're moving home!

Kyle and I are finally moving back home!!!!!!! Here we come Louisiana.

Back to the land of crawfish boils, Mardi Gras and a region rich with so much culture and history it's like no other place in the U.S.

MMMMM doesn't this look good?
I know what you're probably thinking? Don't people use that stuff for fishin' bait? Well back in KS we most definitely do! But in Louisiana, this stuff is a delicacy. And I have to say, I've grown pretty fond of it these past 5 years, in fact I've become pretty darn fond of most seafood that I hadn't otherwise had an affinity established for.

This is a Mardi Gras indian for those that don't know why this photo is on here. More history here.

After Kyle and I got married last year,
I began talking about wanting to go back to school. I always said I wanted to get my master's but was most definitely not ready after completing my undergrad. So, I moved out to Jacksonville to be with Kyle while he finished his undergrad, and have worked the last 3 years at the library doing community relations and marketing.

Around July of last year I started gathering studying materials for the GRE and began familiarizing myself with the information. I studied diligently each evening in the fall before taking the exam in November. I received, weeeeell less than ideal scores but I'VE NEVER BEEN A GOOD TEST TAKER AND NEVER WILL BE. And, standardized tests don't mean BULL anyway. Despite falling in the lower percentile, I decided to send my scores to my first and second choice and hoped that the other application materials requested would carry me through. Well, I was wrong. I got told No by both my fist and second choice with some totally impersonal automated rejection letter and was incredibly devestated. But, if you know anything about me, I'm a woman of perserverance and "No" was not really no to me. So, I asked for reconsideration of my application materials by both schools and my first choice came back with a resounding "YES! We'd love to have you". And I didn't stop there. I then expressed my interest in an assistantship. Although when I first shared my interest in one, there were none available. However, a couple of weeks later I got an e-mail indicating a position was available and the department wanted to interview me...via Skype. Have you all ever Skyped before? Not me, but I sure acted like I knew all about it and was totally comfortable with the technology. And so yesterday on my lunch hour I conducted a Skype interview. Wow it was fun! Though because of technical difficulties I couldn't see my interviewees but the interview still went really well.

AAAAAANNNND....
Yesterday, at 4:30 p.m. I receieved a call from LSU offering me a marketing/communications graduate assistantship with the Office of Student Life & Enrollment. YIPPEEEEEE!!!! I have been dieing to publish my first post to this newly created blog until things were official and I was 100% sure Kyle and I were moving back home. Yes, I call Louisiana my home though I was born and raised in Kansas. Some of you may know that story as to how exactly I came to fall in love with the southeastern Louisiana region, but if you don't, check out my tab on the home page. Yep, so that's the big news. I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am for this opportunity. It has been a year in the making and a lot of hard work but I pulled it off.

So what's next? Well, Kyle flew in to New Orleans today for an interview at a hotel in Gonzales, LA, just outside Baton Rouge. We'll see how that goes, but either way we're moving by or before Aug 1 and starting our lives back home. Aaaaah. It feels nice to finally say that.

More posts to come soon.