Fun with Family

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the past two weekends. Two weeks ago, Ken was in WI for Army-related matters, so I was left home alone. I was slightly nervous about being alone in the new town and new apt, but all turned out well. I was able to get some much-needed work done on my diss and other projects and even enjoyed some downtime watching some of my beloved Northern Exposure DVDs.

Matt & Lisa came up that weekend as well and we made our way to a wine tasting in Naperville where M & L enjoyed sampling many wines. As their DD, I found my way around the many vendor booths and sampled a few Starbucks pumpkin lattes, honey-roasted peanuts, pepper steak samples, and even an ultra dark chocolate candy bar. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself just fine, with or without the wine itself. The weather was beautiful and it felt just like fall. After the wine tasting, we ate at a wonderful Cajun restuarant in downtown Naperville, something we could only try because Ken was in WI. (We knew he wouldn't have liked it.) Here is a picture of Matt & Lisa enjoying one of their wines (perhaps a little too much!)

Just last weekend Ken and I were on the road once again, this time together, as we traveled to Cedar Rapids for one of his Army conferences. I stayed with him Thursday night and then I headed up to Waterloo for some family time with Mom, my sister Melissa, and my niece Audra. I was able to take care of a few around-the-house projects for Mom, do some shoe shopping to get ready for Ken's Military Dining Out in Oct., and buy some shoes to match my new interview suit. Audra and I had fun playing together outside on Friday and Saturday. Here's a picture of her swinging with her "Tiger." She wanted him to swing with her, so I did my best to make that happen. Note that the loop is not around Tiger's neck, but under his front paws instead. The picture is a little misleading.

Though we love being with family and traveling, we are both looking forward to staying home next weekend and relaxing.

Apartment Pictures

I thought it was time to share some of the pictures of the rooms in our new place. A virtual tour, if you will. This is our living room taken from the entry way. It's a little dark in this picture. When I was taking it, I forgot that the open blinds would make the room look darker. Sorry about that. The large item in the upper left corner is our TV cabinet - the one Keely gave us. We love it! It was a royal pain in the you-know-what to move, but it holds and hides so much stuff. This morning I finally got the stereo hooked up. That's a project I've been putting off for quite some time. I'm proud to say I accomplished it by myself (sans Ken).

This is the view from the living room into the dining room. We're still working on hanging pictures in the dining room so the walls look pretty bare. To the left is the kitchen and to the right is the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

A few weekends ago we spent some time finally hanging pictures on the walls. To the right you can see the picture Ken sent me from Iraq. It's a drawing of a picture of us that was taken shortly before he was shipped over. While he was there, he had an Iraqi man make the drawing from the picture of us he had.

The next picture is our kitchen, cow decor included. Those of you who know me know that I like Holstein cows. You can't really see in this picture, but I have more cow items above the cupboards. The door from the kitchen leads to our laundry room/Tucker's "bathroom" and eatery.

This picture isn't one on the major tour, but it was funny. As some of you know, Tucker has a this thing about sleeping in sinks. Every place we've been, he's found a sink to curl up in. At first I thought it was a security thing, then a it's cool and comfortable thing, now I just don't have a clue why he does it. But it always makes us laugh and usually surprises a few houseguests when they go to the kitchen or bathroom only to find a cat has joined them. Really, for the size of cat he is, it's amazing how he can make himself fit inside small sinks. Here he is in the guest bathroom.

Sumo Kitty and Me

Well, it's my first weekend hanging at the place by myself. Ken's off to play Army in Wisconsin so it's just Sumo Kitty and me. (Sumo Kitty is Ken's new name for Tucker thanks in part to the "Fat Kitty" blog posting). Last night I was watching reruns of The Office on TV and it was the episode where they go to the Beach and Michael wants to figure out who'll replace him. Of course Dwight and what's-his-name were in the Sumo outfits. I just kept thinking of Sumo Kitty. If only they made little Sumo Halloween coustumes for pets!

So far, so good for the weekend. Today I've spent the whole day in front of the computer working on various projects (the diss mostly) even though it's an amazing fall day outside -- cool and breezy. I've had the wondows open all day and actually got chilly! I love that!

A bad thing about working on the diss is that I can't check it off my list. Each weekend, I make a list of all the things I want/need to get accomplished by Sunday night. This was something I started when I came to the Ph.D. program (maybe I even did it in my MA program, but I can't remember). It seems like I always have so many little things to do, so I started writing them down and checking them off as the weekend goes by. It makes me feel good to be able to check something off. I was able to check off one item this morning: my lesson plan for the ReadWriteThink website. Every weekend, I put "Work on Diss" on the list, but I never feel that I can check that off. There's just never a feeling of being "done" even though I worked on it.

Not much on the radar for the weekend. Matt & Lisa may be coming out on Saturday for a wine tasting in Naperville. I hope the weather is just like today. I'll be happy to wear fall clothes again.

Gotta Have Goals

I'm dog and house sitting this weekend in Bloomington. I really do like dog/house sitting, I have to say. It's a nice change of pace to stay somewhere other than home (use their cable - can you tell I'm missing ours now that it is gone?). Sometimes when dog and/or house sitting, I surprise myself at how much I can actually get accomplished work-wise.

Take this morning, for example. Here I am in a house with several wonderful channels of cable, and I have been locked away in the office working on my diss. My goal today is to draft at least 10 pages. These can be very rough pages; I've allowed myself that at least. But at least it will be something. My Diss Director is sitting on (meaning "reading") my latest (revision #4) Methodology chapter, and so in the mean time, I've decided to get cracking on drafting the Results chapter. It's slow going considering I haven't finished analyzing all of my data from the class I taught in 2005 for which I'm basing my study. But I have starting some analyzing, or at least reading students' work again closely. So far in writing, I'm just working on setting up the part of the chapter where I describe the class situation and the assignments, so I can get away with not doing a whole of of reporting or analyzing. So far, I've typed at least six full double spaced pages. I just hope that it's stuff I'll be able to keep in the chapter once my Director reads a full draft. It's very disconcerting to have written so much only to scrap it and have to write more.

I've set a goal for myself in terms of finishing. I'd really really like to be done and graduate in May. I could always finish over the summer months and then walk at graduation in December of '08, but I'd really like to be done before the end of the summer. One thing I think of as a reward is to give myself a big trip in May once everything is done and before starting a job. England is a place I've always wanted to see; Hawaii too. The latter may be more in my financial realm than the first. Of course, maybe neither one will be financially do-able by next year. I'm trying to save some little by little in the hopes that I really will finish and will be able to take a trip. Gotta have goals! And now back to the Diss.