Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break is over...back to school I go. It is Sunday night, and I am up at school working on one of my last projects. I can't wait for these next two weeks to be over with! My Thanksgiving break was wonderful, but definitely too short. I went home, which is Harrison, Arkansas for 4 days. My brothers and sister, and their kids all came home as well. It is rare for all of us to be in the same place all at once, so I value the time I get to spend with my family.

We celebrated my niece & nephews 1st birthday on Friday. Their birthday was actually November 6th, but this past week was the first time we were all together so we had a birthday party for them. I bought them both cakes from Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville before I went home last week. (Their cakes are AMAZING if you are looking for a good bakery in town) This was really cute because we put bibs on them and let them have it on their cakes. Here are some pictures of them with their cakes. Matthew LOVED his, as you can see from the pictures. He managed to get cake everywhere. Madison, on the other hand, was much more careful with her cake and did not like getting it all over her hands.

This picture is of my four adorable nieces and nephews: Macy(3), Jack(19 Months), Madison(1) and Matthew(1). My mom bought them matching PJ's so we could get some good pictures for the Christmas card. As you can imagine, it is tough getting 4 young kids to take a picture together!

Well, better get back to working on my project! I just have to keep telling myself we only have 2 more weeks.... :)

Crunch Time!

As I said in my last blog, this is when the year gets really crazy and intense. I have 3 presentations I am currently working on and a couple tests I am preparing for in the next couple weeks. Thanksgiving could not come at a better time! I am ready for a little bit of a break so I can see my family, get some sleep, and prepare for the last few weeks of school.

Presentations started Monday in our Management class. So far, the presentations have been great. We were put into groups at the beginning of the year. In these groups, we have discussed and completed 5 case studies over the semester. The other group assignment we are responsible for is to complete an HR Plan for a fictitious company. Three groups presented on Monday, two presented today, and two will present on Monday of next week. We have heard HR plans from Duff Beer to the ever so famous Snuggie to "Lame Busters"(a party planning company that helps parties to be "not lame"). We have lots of creativity in our class which makes these presentations very interesting. My group will present on Monday, which I am looking forward because it will be one more thing checked off my list!

Other presentations and projects I am working on are: Marketing Research Survey Analysis Project and a Shopper Buyer Sustainability Project. My marketing research group has been working on getting surveys completed by undergraduate and graduate students. We have around 100 surveys completed, and are starting the analysis process of the project this week. Our surveys are looking at how consumers perceive the new Great Value packaging, and how the package appearance influences their purchases. As for our Shopper Buyer presentation, we are looking at what countries are doing differently as far as sustainability. Also, how much the government is involved, what people think, and so on. It has been pretty interesting so far, and I will be sharing the results in a future blog.

We have one more accounting project that is due in a couple weeks, but fortunately we do not have to give a presentation.Hopefully I can be really productive over Thanksgiving break and get some stuff done! This is probably the first time I have ever been excited about having a break from school, so I can have time to work on school...wow.

What a Week!

This has by far been the craziest week of my semester so far. I had an accounting project due Monday, Memo due on Monday, had to print out 100 surveys and have them filled out, marketing research assignment, marketing paper, and a 2nd interview where I had to prepare a 10 minute presentation about myself. On top of all that, I had 10 hours of Professional Development class that I had to complete. Phew! It is a good thing my GA is very flexible!

The interview I had went very well. It is for an external GA position that would start right away. This would be such a great experience. We are supposed to find out by Tuesday. I am looking forward to finding out! This next week is going to be pretty busy as well. I have a couple presentations that I need to work on. I would like to get them done this next week before we leave for Thanksgiving Break. I know that if I do not get my stuff done, then I will be working on them instead of spending valuable time with my family!