Update

A lot has happened since my last update. The biggest thing was that I went to MBA orientation (which I was dreading) at ASU. I was expecting to find a lot of people who just spent the week bragging about their accomplishments (Legally Blonde orientation), while I bragged about my awesome daughter, but had nothing to show for in the business world (at least, currently). I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone I met was really nice, humble, and impressive at the same time. I think that part of this may be because it's an online program - it's designed for people who are still working full-time, so they aren't just a bunch of former frat boys who are looking to revisit their college glory days for a couple more years. Everyone really wanted to be there, and was willing to make extra time in their already busy schedules to take on this course.

Most of the time during orientation was spent with my team, who I'll be working with for the first year (at which point we choose concentrations, and the teams are regrouped to reflect each concentration). My team is great. I'm the only girl on it, and actually only one of about 15 girls in the whole class of 115, which surprised me. The guys are really cool though. One is the Director of Admissions for a small college in Wisconsin, one works in Logistics for Honda, one works in Budget Analysis for US Airways, and one works designing programs and General Dynamics. They are all really nice, and two of them are within 5 years of my age, one's probably in his mid 30s and the other in his late 40s-early 50s. That's my initial guess. But all great. We worked really well as a team, and had fun outside of the schedule, going out to dinners and just hanging out. We even ended up winning the big case competition that took up two whole days of the orientation, which was neat. We all really bring something different to the table (my contributions being just a good old fashioned girl perspective, a ridiculous love of schedules and organization, and the ability to write, which is actually less common than you'd think, especially among numbers people).

The program is laid out in a great way. You only take one course at a time intensively for 5 weeks. The 6th week is exam week, and then you get a week off before starting the next course. Textbooks are sent to your house before each course, and they register you for your classes, so you don't have to deal with that. Also, the capabilities online really are amazing. Through video chat, ichat, online discussion boards, and online "modules" (combo of lectures/notes that basically summarize what's important in the reading), it is actually very similar to a full-time class. Also, I like that everything is open note/book. This is obviously to combat the inevitable cheating that would happen if it wasn't, but also it makes sure you really learn the topics and aren't just memorizing and cramming and then forgetting.

My first course is Organizational Behavior and Theory, followed by Statistics and then Accounting. The second and third courses will be interesting - don't expect too many blog posts during that time :).

After orientation I went back to Yucca Valley with Caroline and Rocky, and let me tell you just how GOOD it is to be home!! Back in Marine Corps country, where I don't have to explain to every single person I see that my husband is deployed. They kind of know by the look on my face ;). Also great to just be in our own rooms and be back in our routine.

So that's the update. I went to another monthly coffee with 3/4 wives this morning, which I always look forward to. As I've explained before, it's so nice being with people who are going through the exact same chaos of a deployment!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and is enjoying the holiday today.