My grandpa, my hero, the strong christian man who I have looked up to all my life, who an entire community respected, who held an extended family together, who fought hard and fairly his entire life and whom God allowed to live many years longer than expected, passed away to a better life this morning at 5:17 am. Please pray for my grandma and my family as we all try to deal with our grief.

From my oldest brother, Jason Holloway - mourning the loss of a great man, my grandfather, Carlos Walker. He died early this morning with his immediate family by his side, after a long struggle with multiple ailments; yet through it all, he showed us how to fight. At his weakest, he showed us what strength is.

I have realized over the past few months just how truly blessed I am. I was able to go home and spend an entire summer (work and school free) with my family. I felt needed and productive everyday while working on the farm. I finally got to start learning how to plow with daddy's ginormous fancy blue tractor, along with castrating/vaccinating/hauling cattle, building fence, and etc. My family greatly enjoyed having me home! I got to spend time with all three of my brothers, help my ailing grandparents, hangout with cousins and relatives, and still travel to many weddings and to see best friends all over south Texas!! I caught up on sleep and actually read my bible often.

Now that I am back in the swing of things here at A&M, I am still showered in blessings! I have an awesome church family and wonderful friends who are loving and supporting of me and my endeavors. :) Graduate school (12 hours) has been engaging so far...just a ton of reading and several mini assignments each week. The hardest part about graduate school (at least until the exams and projects start up) are the exceedingly long lectures. Three of my classes are 3 hours of lecture each and the other class is scheduled for 3 hours of lecture immediately followed by 2 hours of lab, making it a 5 hour class. My degree will be in School Counseling, and I really think I am going to love my classes. They are in the phychology department, which means I get to learn about human development and practice on becoming a better listener, among other things. Unfortunately my Wednesday class lasts from 5 to 8, so I will not be able to attend Wednesday services this semester. I am already realizing the impact of missing out on that middle of the week edification. When I walked into church this morning, I had a strange feeling that I had missed out on some much needed worship time. I pray that I will make myself get back on track with my bible reading this week, as I have not been very diligent about it for several weeks now.

Intramural flag football will be starting up soon!! :D I hope some of you are able to come watch like ya'll have done the past few years! Unfortunately this year we were unable to find a workable time to play on our All Womens flag football team that I had been on with Twin City girls for a few years now. I think that team is definately my favorite to play with! If you check out my facebook, Courtney McCasland recently posted a video with clips from our Championship game last year that we lost in TRIPLE overtime! That game was really a ton of fun! Thanks again to all those who came out to support us then!

Each day in small ways, I am reminded of how much I have grown spiritually and emotionally while in college. I certainly have a long ways to go, but I can feel that while my physical strength may be decreasing my spiritual strength and understanding has definately increased! Thank you to all those people who have both consciously and unconsciously loved, supported, listened, encouraged, trusted, and built me up. Ya'll are AMAZING and a BLESSING in my life!!!!!!!! :D I am looking forward to another wonderful semester of learning and love!

Well, I have dreamed ever since I was a little bitty kiddo that I might one day get to go to SeaWorld. Unfortunately, this dream has yet to be fulfilled. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone might be interested in going to SeaWorld this weekend, Saturday, May 23rd.

I currently have a couple of Benchley friends to accompany me but none so far who would be traveling from College Station. It would be smart to carpool and split gas prices. Ticket prices can be expensive.

Any takers?! Anyone who just wants more information?! Anyone want to bring the whole family?! All are welcome to join. :D

My family is coming!! My family is coming!! and my best friend is already in town and will be spending the week with me...which means very little sleep for either Emilie or I! :D

I'm so excited to be graduating and moving on to graduate school!

You are cordially invited to celebrate the graduation of
Miss Julie Janae Holloway
from the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD)
at Texas A&M University on
Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 2:00 PM
in Reed Arena on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas

Miss Holloway will be recognized at the
CEHD Distinguished Honor Graduate ceremony
Friday, May 15, 2009 at 3:00 PM
in the Stark Gallery on the Texas A&M University campus

There will be a joint graduation celebration for family and friends of
Miss Julie Janae Holloway and her best friend Miss Emilie Jordan Bibb
Friday, May 15, 2009 at 7:00 PM
at Still Creek Ranch outside of College Station

**If you plan to attend the family and friends graduation celebration
please RSVP to Julie as soon as possible at 979-676-2283 or on here.


Hey! I would really love to have any of you who can come out to the celebration at Still Creek Ranch! I know many of the college kids will be kicked out of dorms, but if you are wanting to stick around, I would imagine that we could find a place for you to stay. My entire family (including my three older brothers, my cousins, and parents) will be down here through Sunday morning. They would greatly enjoy meeting all of you!

Oh, and I received my acceptance letter into Texas A&M graduate school to pursue a Masters of Education in School Counseling, so I will be sticking around for about 2 more years!