Internship Adventures: Texas

Our next stop on our crazy journey was Texas, which makes the fourth time in less than a year that we have visited. We spent the weekend with my sister and her family in Austin, then spent Monday in Dallas shopping and eating food. Texas food is uh-mazing. I would get so fat if I moved there because I would be constantly eating out.

Also, I love the shopping, but loving the food and loving the shopping don't mix well together, because by eating the food I will never be able to fit in the clothes!

Texans are extremely proud of being Texans. They put the Texas star on almost everything, like their overpasses:

It didn't happen this trip, but on a previous trip to Texas we stayed at a place that had a waffle iron in the shape of Texas, which is awesome.

Prior to my interviews I was given the advice to visit the interview site before the actual interview so I could be sure I'd get there on time. So the night before my interview, we visited the counseling center. I had to wear my jammies because I left my jeans at my sister's house. 

The UT Dallas campus is gorgeous, breathtaking, and in the middle of nowhere. It was founded as a graduate school to train people to work at Texas Instruments, and it's still more of a math and sciences school than anything else. 

Here is the student center, which is a relatively new building, and which houses the counseling center:

I can't really say how the interview went, just because it's hard to tell sometimes. It rained a lot, which felt just like home. Here I am right after my interview, feeling slightly overwhelmed from the experience:

I love Texas and would love to live closer to my sister. I have even already experienced a Texas summer, so I feel pretty prepared. Exiting!

Next stop: Bethlehem, PA!

Internship Adventures: North Dakota

To complete my doctorate, I have to do an internship. To get an internship I had to apply for and then interview with various places. I had two phone interviews (which I won't talk about because I don't want to jinx anything) and three in-person interviews. I applied to only college counseling sites, but I looked at my internship year as a chance to live anywhere in the country. So I chose places where I probably wouldn't normally get a chance to live.

First stop: North Dakota!

We flew into Bismarck to attend the temple. Our luggage somehow disappeared between Portland and the Twin Cities, which caused stress (it was found again before we left for Grand Forks, but we didn't know this yet), but this did not stop us from seeing the sights of Bismarck, which includes:

The airport!

Dinosaur bones in the airport!

The biggest draw in Bismarck is the capitol, which is (by far) the tallest building. 

North Dakota is unique in that there are these guys:

And apparently elevator technology has not yet reached their hotels. (Thankfully their hotels aren't very tall, but my luggage was heavy!)

Here I am right before my interview:

Overhead lighting is not great, but take my word that I was looking very hirable that day

It only snowed for the last hour or so that we were in Grand Forks, but it was pretty cold. I loved the counseling center and I wouldn't mind it at all if I matched there.

After my interview we drove to Fargo to fly out the next day for Texas.

ShepAlder Temple #45: Bismarck, North Dakota

We traveled from one end of the country to the other in the past couple weeks in order for me to go to various internship interviews. One interview was at the University of North Dakota counseling center, and I convinced Josh that this was the perfect opportunity to visit one of the temples we never thought we'd see: Bismarck!

This temple was dedicated in 1999 and is a smaller temple, similar to Fresno, Medford, Palmyra, and Detroit. It's the 61st operating temple and is pretty plain, so I don't have much to say about the interior. However, the temple workers were beyond nice and we chatted with some of them for awhile. They wished me luck on my interview (which was the next day) and I think it helped that we started our trip with the temple.

It was extremely windy and our luggage was unaccounted for, but luckily we had planned ahead and brought appropriate clothing in our carry-ons. Josh had to change in the parking lot of the stake center because he was dealing with other stuff and forgot to change in the airport. 

We found the temple easily. There isn't much to Bismarck, though we were thankful it was a beautiful day since we were so worried about snow.

We flew into Bismarck specifically to attend the temple, so the fact that our luggage was lost was worrisome because we had to head to Grand Forks for my interview the next day and might not have been reunited with our luggage until Fargo or Texas. But as we were leaving, Josh listened to his voicemail and our luggage had reappeared at the Bismarck airport! So my fear that I would have to wear some cobbled together outfit rather than the one I had planned was allayed.

Have you ever...?

Have you ever had a moment that you knew was absolutely life-changing? I get that sometimes with people, where I realize, "Oh, this is the point where I realize I will not be friends with that person." Before that moment, I thought we might be Besties, but now I know it was never to be.*

I had a moment like that this past week during internship interviews. Going into the interview, there was a chance I would have ended up there, but during the interview there was a point where I realized it just wasn't going to happen. I considered just calling it a day, picking myself up, and ending the horror show (okay, it was more like an uncomfortable dinner with acquaintances), but I just kept going. Because everyone hates a quitter. And, also, I couldn't think of anything more clever to say than "Alder, OUT!" And there were no tables to flip over. You know, mature stuff.

I can't say more about it since I haven't matched yet, though you can look forward to all sorts of Tales of Awkwardness in the future if I do (though if I don't, then forget about it because I'm going to be way too depressed). No matter what, though, you can expect upcoming pictures from my Internship Adventures. My interview schedule has taken me literally across the country, so we turned it into a thing that includes temple #45.




*It happens the other way, too, where I have a moment where I realize that I have just found a friend soulmate. But those are, sadly, less frequent.

Piecakes 2: Return of the Piecakes

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We celebrated at our house the way I usually celebrate things: by making cupcakes. I finally re-attempted the cupcakes that look like pies. They turned out better this time.

Red velvet. Mostly food coloring. True story.

Josh forbade the usage of orange M&Ms because he said it too closely resembled OSU colors. So I ate them.

 In the cupcake caddy.

Like always, Josh made his ribbon jell-o and it was a big hit.

Josh is suspicious about the quality of this turkey.

 Bonus Picture:

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it's cute. The cats just can't get enough of Josh.

Disneyland in October

We have a family tradition (started in the last 3 years) of going to Disneyland every October with my parents and whichever of my siblings decide to show up. Last year it was almost everyone. This year it was practically no one. But that's okay. The important people were there.

The ShepAlders

And Pumpkin Donald

We've noticed that we take significantly fewer pictures each time we go to Disneyland. We tried to remedy that, but still only took a few.

While driving through LA, we stopped off at the LA temple. We've been there before, but weren't able to take pictures of ourselves out in front. During my August break, I was trying to put together a picture album from all of the temples we've visited, but we didn't have any good pictures from LA!

So we took these:

Our primary reason for going to CA was to attend the wedding of Josh's high school friend Audrey: 

She married the guy on the left:

You may remember them from when we went to the Hearst Castle together.

So that was the excitement of our October. Right now we don't have any more plans to travel for awhile. Hopefully in January I'll be all over the map for internship interviews! 

Football Season Kicks Off

In September, we were lucky enough to go back to Texas (again) for the UO vs. LSU game. We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge because we were with two families' worth of kids, and I ended up with an ear infection. But everyone else had fun, which is important, and here is the proof:

Josh and my niece Jordan, with the Dallas Cowboys jumbotron in the background

Jordan and my dad

Josh and my brother Austin

Josh and Austin outside of the stadium

Then for the first home game, Josh joined the pickup band (made of marching band alumni, current members, and future members) for the first time. It was actually the first time I've ever seen him perform, since he had already graduated by the time we started dating.

Because Josh was sitting with the band, I asked my friend Carissa to sit with me in our seats.

We showed up really early so I could be sure I didn't miss Josh

I made him wear a white hat so he'd be easy to see

Josh loved it so much, he's thinking of doing it again next year!