This picture is of my friends Sarah and Tiff (L-R) and myself at the Baylor v. Texas State Game this past weekend. I drove up to Waco Saturday afternoon to go to the game and visit with some of my dear Baylor friends. I attended the game with the Baylor student services grad students (Baylor's equivalent to my grad program). After Baylor defeated Texas State (not by much, they are going to have to step it up if they want to beat A&M on the 29th), a few of us headed to Chili's for an after game celebration. Sunday I went to church with two of my BaylorBound leaders and then met the rest at my favorite Waco restaurant- The Clay Pot. Lunch and fellowship was GLORIOUS. It was so good to see them all!

I also surprisingly ran into my friend Becky at the Baylor game Saturday. Becky is an Alumna of Baylor, but just graduated (May 07) from my grad program here at A&M. She also did her summer internship at Belmont with our mutual friend Matt. So, needless to say, Becky kept me sane last year and it was such a blessing to run into her. She and I got together for coffee on Sunday afternoon and it was so nice to catch up and hear about her life. Plus get her take on my current one. She's such a great friend.

Saturday before heading up to Waco, I had a "lunch date" with one of my old RAs. It was really nice to see her and hear how her summer went and talk about mine. I should be seeing more of this year, as she's involved with the SisterSHINE program that I'm going to be a spiritual mom for.

Since coming back I've been in a funk. I did not get as much school or work related things finished before I left as I had hoped and now I'm feeling pretty far behind. In reality, I'm not behind at all. I'm still ahead of where I would have been last year, but I've gotten used to doing school work in advance. So tonight I spent a while at a coffee shop catching up on things. Tomorrow I will be doing the same thing. I will probably be there from after class on. I want to get everything for this week finished, and get started on next week so I don't have to worry about it.

Friday morning I fly home for the weekend. I can't wait! I get to spend my weekend with this lovely girl:(that photo is us in Gulfport, MS on the beach. Ignore how awful we both look, we had been driving ALL DAY and neither one of us had slept much the night before). I can't wait. :)

Well friends, that's all for now. I'm off to bed. I need to not get back in the habit of staying out at coffee shops until 1 a.m. this semester. But, we'll make tonight an exception!

.peace and love.

I'm sitting in my favorite College Station coffee shop trying to catch up on life. I am not being overly dramatic about the catching up on life. I have lived a full and happy summer, and as soon as it was over, I was thrown back into life at A&M.

I spent this summer at Baylor University working in their Department of New Student Programs. I visited there in November to "interview" with the staff there, and felt as though it was where I needed to be. I am so grateful that I spent my summer there, and could not imagine a better place to work!

I worked with Orientation, Line Camp and the BaylorBound leaders and their training. I really enjoyed the work that I did, as well as the people I worked with. The staff in the office were AMAZING not to mention a hysterical group of people to work with. My students were a great group of people- so genuine and also pretty funny. I learned a lot about myself personally and professionally this summer. It was the break and experience that I needed heading into my last year in grad school.

I arrived back in BCS on August 1st and we started training on August 3rd. It's been full steam ahead ever since. I did manage to slip sleeping almost an entire Saturday in there. After a week of hall director training, my RAs came back and they had a week of training. My staff this year is amazing! They work together really well and I can tell that they are in this job for the right reasons. I can't tell you how happy that makes me!

We just opened the halls this past Sunday and 70% of my building moved in that day.
It was a very busy day. It went smoothly over all, minus a few issues. Our building is continuing to have issues with hot water working consistently. Also, I continually did rounds on the floors climbing stairs, grabbing boxes, and taking them out to recycling. It was a long day!

Saturday, I drove up to Baylor for The Big Even for Welcome Week. It was such a blast! There was a great 80s cover band playing and almost everyone dressed up in accurate outfits. It was really nice to be able to see the last stage of summer programming, and to see my students and coworkers again. I only wish that I had been able to talk to them more and see them for a longer period of time!

Currently my parents are in town visiting. It's been a really nice laid back visit. I believe that they are planning to make a few road trips this week to various places in Texas. Plus, my dad hung up my curtains and fixed my license plate. He's pretty handy!

Classes start at A&M next Monday. I'm taking Higher Ed. Law and Assessment. Additionally I have a Practicum (or internship) class that I am registered for, but completed the hours this summer. I am doing a third practicum in our Student Conflict Resolution Services/Alcohol and Drug Education program office. I'll be adjudicating a few cases, and developing a training session for student leaders teaching them to recognize signs of drug abuse in their student organizations. My hope is that it can be used for the RAs in the fall. I'm also co-teaching an RA class this semester with a full-time staff member. I'm not sure what that is going to look like yet, but I should be learning more about it soon.

I will also be a Spiritual Mom for the Aggie Sisters for Christ SisterShine program. The women in SisterShine volunteer as mentors to high school aged women in Bryan/College Station. They each are in smaller groups with a Spiritual Mother (aka me) who meets with them, and mentors them. I'm really very excited about this opportunity. The thing I missed most last year was being able to be freely intentional about faith with my students and this should provide me with an outlet to do that. I cannot wait to find out what students I'm going to be working with and see what this experience will be like!

I am very hopeful that this year will be great. There seem to be a lot of great things up ahead and if all else fails, I'll be finished with school (hopefully for good) in 263 days. Wow!

Well, my first year of graduate school is finally over. While in the moment, the year seemed to drag by, but in retrospect everything went by very quickly. Less than a year from now I'll have a Masters of Education and be on my way (hopefully) to a new job. This past semester was a very difficult one, but from what I understand, the next two semesters are much easier to handle.

I'm spending my summer interning at Baylor University. I'm working in the New Student Programs office with the Baylor Bound orientation program. I started here on Monday the 21st, and while I've only been here two days but I'm really enjoying my time here. The individuals that I work with are a funny and makes it fun to go to work. Monday we begin training for the Baylor Bound Leaders (orientation leaders) and will do that for two weeks. Throughout the month of June we have orientation sessions everyday, which will make for a minimum of 12 hour days. Should be fun!

I'm going to try to keep updates up here. But, feel free to e-mail me (sgmudd@gmail.com). My address here is: 300 Cottonwood #1301, Waco, TX 76706.

This weekend I'm heading back to College Station to celebrate my birthday with some of my friends there. I am sure that we will have a great time. I will be working on my actual birthday, so this weekend is about relaxing before the craziness of summer begins!

For now, I'm going to get back to reading. We have a common reading book that all freshman students are asked to read. During Baylor Bound Leader training we will be leading discussions on each chapter. I will be facilitating one of them, and need to refresh on the book. We are reading Parker Palmer's "Let Your Life Speak", which I read in one of my classes at Belmont. I strongly suggest that everyone read this book at some point in life. It's so good!