Shopping with the girls

Last week, my good friend Cathy was in town visiting and it was great to see her and her kids. Cathy, her 3 cute kids, and I had a fun lunch of Dim Sum one day. Another day, I met Cathy and her daughter, Berkeley, at the mall for some shopping and then dinner, where Matt joined us. Berkeley is definitely a girl after my own heart- she was all about anything girly, pink, or twirly as we walked through stores. Here's a photo of her trying on about 10 necklaces at Urban Outfitters. I love her thought process here- if one looks cute, 10 will be even better! What a fun time!

This weather....

is awesome! We've had a great last week or so of weather (in the 60s and sunny most days), which has really done wonders to my mood and allowed me to really get more serious about training for the half marathon that is coming up very soon (!) Matt has joined me on some of the longer runs. Last weekend we did almost 8 miles around our 'hood and into Freedom Park, which we love running through (it ends at the MLK Memorial Site, overlooking the city- maybe my favorite view in Atlanta). Today, we did a little less (long story), along the same route, ending at our favorite burger spot, Grindhouse Burger. Guess we kind of negated the run we had just completed...but oh well.

Happy Weekend!

Updates

(photo retrieved Feb. 1, 2011 from http://www.world-city-photos.org/Paris/photos/Eiffel_Tower/Eiffel_Tower_orange/)

I try to refrain from not posting for awhile and then the post being a list of everything that's happened since then- but I'm not doing so well so far this year! But, to quickly recap-

We went to CA for Matt's Grandpa's funeral service a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely service and great to visit with family that we don't often see. We also managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to In N Out and Coffee Bean, of course. We were also introduced to a dance game on Matt's cousin's XBox, which started something....more on that in a minute. It also happened that were home for Matt's mom's birthday, so we got to celebrate it with her.

School is keeping me busy! I thought things would slow down since I graduated, but some of my newer job duties are keeping me on my toes. But, I haven't been working on the weekends so far, which has been awesome. I've been spending a lot of time with Matt, friends, and family- which keeps the weekends pretty full, but in a good way:)

Dancing- So, we (I'm including Matt here, he may not like that) loved playing this XBox dancing game in CA, where you have to dance along to a song and follow the moves of the dancer. We don't have an Xbox, but there's a similar game for a Wii...so, we got that this weekend and we are enjoying it so far:) It's a great workout and lots of fun. I have to say that I'm happy to finally have a video game that I can actually beat Matt at:)

Europe!!!: We're starting to plan more for our trip early this summer. Originally, we were thinking we'd go to Belgium too, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized that we'd rather take our time in Paris and do some day trips there, and add an extra night to Heidelberg too. The 'Castle Lighting' there happens to be the weekend we're there, which is cool because it only happens a few times a year. We booked our hotels for Paris and Heidelberg, and we've just started looking for some great restaurants to try in Paris. I get excited every time I look at my Delta app and it tells me how many days until the trip. Definitely something to look forward to at this time of year....

Next up: I'm helping to throw a baby shower for a friend this weekend, we're going to a concert and to a nice dinner the following weekend (thanks Lindsay!), and crossing our fingers that this weather improves!

Talented Cathy

My friend Cathy is so multi-talented and creative that it might make one feel insecure if she wasn't such a great person:) Along with being a full time mommy to three young kids, she has a photography company in Maine where she lives (CathyClicks.com). Now, she has an Etsy site where she's selling her awesome art. She's doing paintings of Chinese Zodiac animals and it's called Zodiac Squares. Check it out! The one above is my favorite, of course:)-

http://www.etsy.com/shop/zodiacsquares

Snow Days

We've had record snowfall here in Atlanta and so far, we've been home every day from school/work. It's kind of crazy. Matt had the idea yesterday to shovel and melt (using multiple buckets of hot water) our walkway and driveway, so I helped him out (and my arms are feeling that today). However, it was a great idea because it's totally clear and not iced over again like everything else.

Today, things started to melt a little and we decided to take a little adventure to the Kroger less than a mile from our house. The roads were mostly slushy and it was actually nice to see the 'hood all snowy and white. The Kroger was a madhouse, so we turned around and went to BP instead for some junk food. We ventured out to our neighborhood Mexican joint tonight with some friends and the roads were pretty fine. I'm hoping this ends soon....

It's been awhile...

Well, what can I say? It's been quite awhile since I last posted and I don't think many are reading, but I thought that I would update anyone reading this with the last 6 months of so of our lives.

In August 2010, I successfully defended my dissertation. Yay! Matt and my parents attended the defense and so afterward, we went to lunch at my favorite burger place, Grindhouse Burger in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market. Matt had to head back to work and so mom, dad, and I went to one of Atlanta's oldest pubs, Manuel's Tavern, for a celebratory drink.

Soon after, we traveled to Southern California for Labor Day weekend to visit Matt's family. Since we didn't go on a vacation that summer, we took a mini vacation and drove to Del Mar and stayed for one night at a fabulous hotel on the beach. The next day, we drove to San Diego and enjoyed some yummy tacos and a baseball game. Back in Orange County, it was great to see family.

Even though I was sort of 'finished,' I still had some edits to make from my committee members and several applications for awards, so the next couple months were very busy with this and with the many new demands of my job....But, finally, at the end of October, I turned in the final and official version of my dissertation and prepared for graduation. In November, I presented at a conference in Fort Worth, TX. Finally, on December 12th, I graduated, with many of my family members (including both of my grandmothers) present. My Grandma from Ohio made the trip down and stayed with us, and we had a great weekend showing her our house and visiting with her.

As we do every year, we headed to Park City, Utah for our annual K family ski trip around Christmas with the family and enjoyed the skiing and time with family. Shortly after we came home, Matt's Grandpa, who turned 99 in December, passed away. We are heading to CA later this month for his memorial service and look forward to celebrating his life with the family. I know that I didn't know him for very long, but in the time I did have, he was sweet and kind and I feel lucky for that time.

Matt and I both lost grandfathers this year, and I think for me, this has just reminded me to live each day to the fullest and to continue to show love and gratitude for the awesome family and friends I have.

I promise to share more about this year as it continues....For now, here are some photos....

This is it

I told Matt the other day that I was going to just delete this blog, since clearly I have not been keeping up with it. Things have been quite busy around here, but not really in the exciting/fun category that I tended to write about here. Basically, we've both been working hard and there's not much to say about that really. But, in the hopes that something wonderful and fun will happen down the road, I guess I'll try to keep this blog alive for now with a short post because I am pretty much willing to do anything I can to distract myself from writing these days. My new 5 minute break treat is to look up a random hotel or inn in some beautiful town and imagine staying there someday. Thrilling!

I'm guessing anyone reading this knows, but the past 6 months or so have been really challenging, yet rewarding for me. I was required to apply for my current position to make it permanent and ended up interviewing for a position at another university as well. After about 4 months of waiting, interviewing, tears, and stress I now have a permanent position doing what I love. The catch was that I needed to be 'finished' with my dissertation by the time the position begins again in August. That pushed my timeline to finish up by a few months, but thanks to a great committee and husband who sanctioned my not working this summer, I have a plan for finishing this dissertation by the end of July and defending around the third week of August when the semester starts back. That will still put me at graduating in December as I have always planned. Right now, that means weekly deadlines and meetings with my advisor (again who is awesome to do this during the summer) to get chapters in and revised before it's a finished product ready to send to my whole committee.

People have been asking me, so in case you are interested, this is how it goes....
Dissertation will be 6 chapters....3 of these I 'technically' have from my proposal/prospectus I did last year- however since things have changed in my study quite a bit they have to be very heavily revised. The other 3 I am working on weekly. I have two just about finished, then I'll go through edits with those. I have to submit a 2nd version of all 6 chapters by the end of June....

Sometimes I have moments where I am excited and thinking "I'm doing this!" After almost 8 years of graduate work, I may actually be DONE at some point soon. Then, at other moments where I am stuck and feeling overwhelmed and reading something where I am using awful passive voice I doubt myself. So, in honor of trying to get back to that confident place here is a pic of me that I just found again the other day.