I thought I'd throw in these pictures just for fun. The first is how I feel when I first sit down to work on something (like my dissertation). The second is how I usually end.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Dissertation, will you marry me? (proposal)
Yesterday (5-10-2012) I successfully defended my dissertation proposal. That leaves just one more step before graduation: dissertation defense. Well, data analysis, write-up of results and discussion and then defense. The proposal went very well and my committee was very supportive. I have set a tentative defense date of July 6th which is cutting it quite close for all of the things I have to do between now and then. The rest of my day was fantastic (birthday celebration) but that will deserve its own post.
I thought I'd throw in these pictures just for fun. The first is how I feel when I first sit down to work on something (like my dissertation). The second is how I usually end.
I thought I'd throw in these pictures just for fun. The first is how I feel when I first sit down to work on something (like my dissertation). The second is how I usually end.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Mandy's Wedding!
This weekend the boys and I headed to FL for the wedding of one of my best friends, Mandy. The wedding was outdoors at a house in Fruit Cove. The entire thing was absolutely beautiful but I think my favorite part was seeing all of my friends. We are all spread out and only get to see each other a few times a year. Hopefully our next gathering will be at my house here in Athens before I graduate.
About a month ago we got together for Mandy's bachelorette party. Actually, it was her bridal shower, her bachelorette party, and our other friend Nadine's baby shower all in one weekend. I planned the bachelorette party to be a competition themed event. It was just Mandy's style.
One of the 2 v. 2 games was a blindfolded puzzle. Here Holly (left) is being guided by Sabrina (also left) while Abby (right) is being guided by Rigsby (not shown). Sabrina and Holly won by a landslide.
I think this is probably the trivia win, or maybe the scavenger hunt win.
This is one of my favorite pics from the wedding. Grace was awesome enough to help me and Sabrina with our make-up. In this picture she is laughing because Sabrina fears she will poke her eye out with mascara.
The posse. If Grace owned them, they'd be the Bosse posse.
One of the beautiful bridesmaids and a good friend, Rigsby. Her name is actually Melissa too but one is enough for this crowd :)
The beautiful bride and her 'new' husband, Chris. Welcome to the family Chris!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Running challenge
Last year around this time I was getting ready for my first triathlon. I was in the best shape ever running, swimming, and biking nearly 5 days a week. My friend Ali trained with me which made getting to the gym every day a LOT easier than it is now. Last fall, Ali moved to DC and left me without a gym partner. Honestly, these days I'm lucky to get to the gym one day a week and try to get in exercise at the house or while walking/running with the dogs. I don't see another triathlon in my near future but I would like to get back in shape and would like to aim toward running often while in Australia. I pulled the trigger and just bought some new running shoes (not a cheap purchase) and am ready to start up again. With the days getting longer its easier to add in a run at the end of a long day rather as well. To fuel my jump start I've asked Ali to train with me from afar so that we can (hopefully) motivate each other to get running every week. I've made a goal schedule and will be posting our progress over the next weeks.
 |
| My new kicks |
Monday, April 30, 2012
What's going on with me, you ask?
I've been blogging for a few months now - originally because of a class requirement but then for other reasons (to keep up with writing skills, to keep family and friends 'in the know' of my life). I wanted to get a few posts in to ensure I was going to keep up with it before sending out the link to people. Well, here we are. You got the link. So, for those of you that I don't talk to as much, here is whats going on with me in a nutshell.
1. Renting out my house. Since 2008 I've lived in Athens, GA. In 2009 I bought my first house thinking that it would be a good investment and a good place for me and my 2 dogs. Now that I'm moving, I need to either sell or rent the house. Selling proved not possible as a realtor suggested I'd be lucky to lose only $25,000 in the sale. No thanks. So, I'm renting it out. Also, because I'll be moving out of the country, and I don't have family in the Athens area, I decided to sign with a property manager to take care of things while I'm gone. You can see my listing here. So far I have had several people come look at the house but nobody has signed a lease yet. Hopefully it will happen any day now...
2. Trying to finish my dissertation. I moved to Athens to attend the University of Georgia's PhD program in psychology. I'm (hopefully) months away from graduation and all that stands between me and a diploma is my dissertation. I work on it literally 6 days a week (I have always taken Saturday's off, no matter what) for several hours a day. I have my proposal coming up in a few weeks and then the final defense in early July. This is second hardest paper I've ever written (I would say my first was my comprehensive exam paper that took over a year).
3. I'm moving! My plans for after graduation include a 6 month stint in Melbourne, Australia. I had some extra funding from a pre-doctoral fellowship I received through the National Science Foundation and am using it to fund additional research experience in Melbourne. While I'm there I'll be working with both the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne on various research projects. One paper I'm pretty sure I'll be working on is examining father-infant relationships with infants with chronic cardiac conditions. I'm very excited about my trip. As of today I have a plane ticket purchased but no where to live. I also am looking to borrow a VERY large suitcase if anyone has one to lend out for 6 months.
4. Looking for a home for Charlie. As you'll see in a post below I'm looking for a temporary home for one of my dogs, Charlie. My parents will take my other dog - Tank - while I'm gone but Charlie is too much for their house. He is a young (3 yrs) hound mix that is really a fantastic dog but struggles around other dogs. I have been working with a trainer for several months now and he does very well with obedience. I feel confident taking him places off leash and having him stay close or calling him back if he runs too far. So, I need a temporary home for him with someone that could take him on regular walks or let him run around a back yard. Ideally the person would not have any other pets unless they had experience with aggressive dogs. I'm going to be sending out an email to everyone I know soon to see if someone knows someone.
5. Spare time? The above is basically my life right now. I work like crazy on my dissertation, I'm teaching a class this summer (Social and Personality Development), I'm running a research project, and writing two other papers. In my spare time I try to take the dogs out for long walks and I play on a community kickball league.
I'm going to do my best to update this blog as often as possible to keep the family in-the-loop of my life, particularly when I change continents. You should be able to post comments below, as well, so we can keep this a two-way street. Let me know if there is anything special you'd like to know about!
I've been blogging for a few months now - originally because of a class requirement but then for other reasons (to keep up with writing skills, to keep family and friends 'in the know' of my life). I wanted to get a few posts in to ensure I was going to keep up with it before sending out the link to people. Well, here we are. You got the link. So, for those of you that I don't talk to as much, here is whats going on with me in a nutshell.
1. Renting out my house. Since 2008 I've lived in Athens, GA. In 2009 I bought my first house thinking that it would be a good investment and a good place for me and my 2 dogs. Now that I'm moving, I need to either sell or rent the house. Selling proved not possible as a realtor suggested I'd be lucky to lose only $25,000 in the sale. No thanks. So, I'm renting it out. Also, because I'll be moving out of the country, and I don't have family in the Athens area, I decided to sign with a property manager to take care of things while I'm gone. You can see my listing here. So far I have had several people come look at the house but nobody has signed a lease yet. Hopefully it will happen any day now...
2. Trying to finish my dissertation. I moved to Athens to attend the University of Georgia's PhD program in psychology. I'm (hopefully) months away from graduation and all that stands between me and a diploma is my dissertation. I work on it literally 6 days a week (I have always taken Saturday's off, no matter what) for several hours a day. I have my proposal coming up in a few weeks and then the final defense in early July. This is second hardest paper I've ever written (I would say my first was my comprehensive exam paper that took over a year).
3. I'm moving! My plans for after graduation include a 6 month stint in Melbourne, Australia. I had some extra funding from a pre-doctoral fellowship I received through the National Science Foundation and am using it to fund additional research experience in Melbourne. While I'm there I'll be working with both the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne on various research projects. One paper I'm pretty sure I'll be working on is examining father-infant relationships with infants with chronic cardiac conditions. I'm very excited about my trip. As of today I have a plane ticket purchased but no where to live. I also am looking to borrow a VERY large suitcase if anyone has one to lend out for 6 months.
4. Looking for a home for Charlie. As you'll see in a post below I'm looking for a temporary home for one of my dogs, Charlie. My parents will take my other dog - Tank - while I'm gone but Charlie is too much for their house. He is a young (3 yrs) hound mix that is really a fantastic dog but struggles around other dogs. I have been working with a trainer for several months now and he does very well with obedience. I feel confident taking him places off leash and having him stay close or calling him back if he runs too far. So, I need a temporary home for him with someone that could take him on regular walks or let him run around a back yard. Ideally the person would not have any other pets unless they had experience with aggressive dogs. I'm going to be sending out an email to everyone I know soon to see if someone knows someone.
5. Spare time? The above is basically my life right now. I work like crazy on my dissertation, I'm teaching a class this summer (Social and Personality Development), I'm running a research project, and writing two other papers. In my spare time I try to take the dogs out for long walks and I play on a community kickball league.
I'm going to do my best to update this blog as often as possible to keep the family in-the-loop of my life, particularly when I change continents. You should be able to post comments below, as well, so we can keep this a two-way street. Let me know if there is anything special you'd like to know about!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Easter and approaching deadlines
Apparently I'm not great at keeping up with a blog. BUT, that's the purpose of this blog, to get me used to blogging in hopes of being more consistent over the next year or so. Since the last post I've purchased my plane ticket to Australia (yippee!) and met with my committee about my dissertation (hopefully I can defend in the next three weeks). I'm so excited because Brendan is able to come with me for the first week of Australia. He'll fly out of ATL and I'll fly out of JAX, we'll meet in LAX and be on our way to Sydney! It's an 18 hr flight so his wonderful mom upgraded our seats to give us an additional 5" of leg room. These past few weeks have been particularly stressful and busy because my post-doctoral fellowship is due tomorrow and I just realized on Friday that UGA has to submit the application for me which means I have to have the application to them ASAP. Also, my post-doc advisor has been sick for the past month. In addition to that application I've been working really hard on my dissertation in hopes of convincing my committee I'll be ready to graduate in August. Today, Saturday, is my day of rest so I put away the books for a nice dog walk and pool time with Tamar. I came home to a lovely delivery from my parents - Happy Easter!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
New Title, New Purpose
You may notice the change in my blog title to Bright Ideas. I did this because the purpose of my blog has changed a bit now. Originally I created a blog as a requirement for my course, technology in the classroom, but that portion of our class is over now so my blog can be more personal and geared toward friends and family. As my first post in this new era I'd like to give an update on my travel and graduation plans
1. I decided not to sell my house and am instead renting it out this Fall. I have hired a property manager who will hopefully do a good job taking care of things while I am away. No tenets yet though...
2. I'm still on track to graduate in August. I have a meeting with my major professors tomorrow to discuss graduation and dissertation plans, hopefully all will go well in that meeting.
3. I am still planning on moving to Australia right after graduation. In fact, I purchased my plane ticket earlier this week and applied for a tourist visa. Australia here I come!
1. I decided not to sell my house and am instead renting it out this Fall. I have hired a property manager who will hopefully do a good job taking care of things while I am away. No tenets yet though...
2. I'm still on track to graduate in August. I have a meeting with my major professors tomorrow to discuss graduation and dissertation plans, hopefully all will go well in that meeting.
3. I am still planning on moving to Australia right after graduation. In fact, I purchased my plane ticket earlier this week and applied for a tourist visa. Australia here I come!
This is a picture I pulled offline of Melbourne, Australia. I hope to have plenty of my own to post soon enough!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
NEEDED: Infant participants
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)