Saturday Fun in Pittsburgh in Pictures

did the 15 minutes of fame!

The presentation is DONE!! I was presentation number 8 of 12 of the new doctoral candidates. It was a pretty cool experience and and I'm glad it's finished. . . . A classmate actually video taped all our presentations and so I'm looking at how I did. .

School's Almost Done!

Posters, Friday presentations to peers and faculty, Saturday free day and Graduation Sunday!! WOOHOO!! As one of my advising instructors says "Feel the Glow" Well. . . .I'm getting there.

wordless wednesday

Just a few short days

and it'll be over. Let's see. . .the list before leaving for Pennsylvania

manuscript bound (2 copies) and ready to go = check
poster, ordered and received = check
powerpoint for presentation = check
handouts for instructors and peers = almost check, need to make copies
electronic format for capstone project = check
suitcases out with beginning signs of packing = check
graduation costume packed = check
outfits picked out for presentations = check
girls hair done for the weekend = check

okay, what am I forgetting? I'll never know until I'm on the airplane and remember, oh yea, I forgot ________________!!! Geez, oh well. . . and then will think I can do without it for just a few days. . .

need to get cheese curds for my cohort, yes cheese curds!
When we met in July, no one knew what a cheese curd was so we all decided to gift each other with something known for in our state, so Wisconsin = cheese (cheese curds). Now, what kind to get? Decisions, decisions. I'll be so elated Sunday night when we are on our way home and life can resume to something more normal.

Motorcycles for India

I know, you think motorcycles for India?? What does that mean? Well. . . because I have to post, I'm leaving you with a teaser. I'll explain tomorrow.

st. nicholas

Did visit this year! We really don't do the "Santa" thing here at our house, but we do talk about St. Nicholas and the great things he did. So this year, the girls got bubble gum and socks to keep their little toesesesesssss warm! It was pretty funny, Kidist woke up first and found her goodies, and very quickly said, "I've been a good girl this year, St. Nick brought us something!" It's still pretty cool to watch the girls get excited over the little things. . . Makes me smile!

We now have a curler in our house

Bayat attended her first curling group today! She is going to be part of the Blackhawk Curling Club Junior League! Last year her kindergarten teacher, who curls, invited our entire family to the curling open house. We all went and gave it a try including myself. There are pictures to prove it too! SO anyway, I'm just about finished with my extracurricular educational pursuits and I think the girls are ready for some extracurricular activities, so away we go! Bayat really enjoyed the open house and seemed to quickly get the hang of it, so today she started! She's excited about it and has already made a few new friends.

too sick and tired to write yesterday!

So I didn't . . . . . . . .

Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The book is here! The book is here!! It's so very cool! It's pretty amazing to see all of the work I've been doing for the past 16 months in print form! It's all coming together. 11 more days until graduation and then it's Dr. Lori ~ That actually sounds kind of funny!

Wednesday ~ Wordless of course

Some random pictures!!


<

Today's writing prompt

IS: Are you a competitive person or not? What helps you refocus and/or work harder when you find yourself slacking off?

I wouldn't say that I am competitive, I would say that I don't want to be left behind or in the dark. As I am finishing up my degree, I would like to think that I've had a collaborative relationship with my cohort peers, being supportive, supported and just being there. There is always the one that posts first, makes the argument first, and is the leader of the pack, but I wouldn't say it's me! I am the one who sits quietly among the crowd gleaning information and taking it all in and then will add my two cents.

So let me pose the question another way. Am I a competitive person when it comes to my hubby? YES!!! But I always lose :-) And know that I will lose, but still the competition is ON!

When the heat is on, I don't know that there is one thing that can help me to focus. That comes from the inside. Let's take running for example. I don't consider myself to be a "runner" perse, but like to keep active and well. . . it's good for me. It's definitely not easy for me and having someone to run with is most beneficial for compliance. I run with a co-worker who is 14 years younger than me and for the most part I can keep up. Now I would not say that it's competitive between us, but we do support each other. We just ran our first 5K together and she finished 2 minutes ahead of me! Good for her! Again, I'm just happy I'm running and doing well with it. We are talking about looking into some 10K runs for the spring and this will be good as we work toward supporting each other to increase our running distance and endurance. Not competitive. The thing that keeps me focused is that I know it's healthy for me to do, I feel better when I do it and I'm hopefully being a good example for my daughters. Fenric the dog gets his exercise too! So. . . competitive, I don't know if I fit that bill in my adult life.

Monday Mixup~

So today, I get a call from the bookbinding place. They have shipped someone elses manuscript to my house. I can't even pronounce his name so it must be important. They are shipping my book/manuscript to my house today, with an estimated ship arrival date of Thursday! Cutting it just a tad close for me, but I guess it'll have to do. . .Still working on my final TO DO LIST in preparation for the final presentations/defense, etc. and slowly getting it done. Wish me luck.

A day of rest

Living Life - Jingle Bell Run

Today a coworker, a friend of mine and I ran a 5K to raise money for arthritis. It took place right here in Janesville and yes, it was snowing. We didn't think it would happen, but it did. So we ran in about 3-4 inches of snow at about 9:30 in the morning. Overall it was a lot of fun and well it was for a good cause. Bobbie came in first at 29 minutes and seconds, me at 31 minutes and seconds and Margo 33 minutes and seconds. I think we had good times considering it was snowing and at the end was quite slick! Good times had by all. . . . .

hair, hair, and more hair

So the girls and I are driving home a few nights ago and I'm scanning the radio stations for something to listen to. I come across a sort hip hop song and I think I hear "I whip my hair back and forth" and then tonight on the prowl for hair pretties I come across this. . . . and well. . . quite frankly it caught my attention. So with all the talk about hair, "I want long hair, straight hair, etc." I present two videos I've found on the great internet. . . . I have to say I well. . . like the second one best. . .

I like this one, it's cute, adorable and well just plain true! It gives little girls a positive image about having hair that is versatile.

Zeitgeist - what does it mean?

Zeitgeist = is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambience, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.
I'm not really sure what that means exactly, or it might be that I am too tired to really read what those words say and mean! I'm going to take it to mean that right now is a good time to be where I am with my family, doing what we do and living life to the fullest! Hopefully that captures the spirit of the times in my house!

So Zeitgeist is the theme for Decembers NaBloPoMo. We'll see. . . I might have to use some of the daily thoughts for writing this month. . .

December 1, 2010 let's try this again!

So it's NaBloPoMo for December. I've got very little homework, and well I don't know that I'll be able to post everyday as I will be out of the country from December 26 until Jan. . . perhaps I can con my hubby into posting for me. . .

So we'll see. . . School update: The doctoral manuscript has been submitted to the printer and hopefully I'll be receiving three nicely bound books with my name as the author. The topic: Spirituality and Health and Spiritual-Well Being. . . Deep huh?? Not so much. . . I'm looking forward to it being all done so that I can get on with some of lifes more fun occupations: quilting, reading, baking, etc. . . .

So we'll see what we can do for December daily posts! Oh yea the topic is Zeitgeist. . . can you figure it out. . . .hum! i'll post more about that tomorrow!