Little Dribblers

So I'll pretty much come right out and tell ya that I'm clumsy.

I know many girls in middle school who say they're clumsy and klutzy and things, but mine went way beyond middle school.

I have no hand-eye coordination unless I have a face mask on, and let's just say I was better at dance than anything that involved a ball.  I was one of the tall kids in school, and sure I've been told I have an "athletic" build (although I have no idea what that means). But I have never, and I repeat, never, played a real, actual game of basketball. Not even in P.E.

But guess who's coaching a little girls' basketball team this season?

:)

It's me.

...poor kids. 

We're going to have fun, and they're going to love rocking out to the great music we'll play at practice from my boombox, and they'll call me "coach."

But I have no idea if they'll learn anything about basketball.

But they needed a coach, and they're so young they've never played before. And they tell me I'll get a rule book and videos on basketball drills.  It's like when they needed a coach for the Mighty Ducks and Coach Bombay stepped in... except that he played hockey, and was really good at it, and almost made the pros. ;)

It'll prove to be hilarious. I'm sure we'll have many stories to tell. And I'm not just messing around; I'm going to look up the rules of basketball right now.... and then I'll have to learn how to dribble.

And I guess I'll have to buy a basketball...

Garage Sale Find!

I've taken some advice and perused pinterest. Funny how I found way more stuff typing "desk" into the search box rather than "office."

Will share later.

But this weekend we found some amazing stuff at a huge garage sale. I told a ton of people because there was so much stuff we wanted to buy it all.

Actually we walked through and were about to leave, but decided to give it another walk through.

Then we bought TONS of stuff.

Gun Replica and Frame (Kyle): $10

This awesome mirror with a huge frame. Kyle actually found this one: $5

Then we found a ton of old bottles, dirty, dusty, but great: FREE, because the lady thought we should have them for our new house ;)

Got a never been used electric ice cream maker: $1 And I know people say they never use these, but my family used to use ours a lot, and I LOVE that ice cream. We didn't register for one when we got married and there have been multiple times when I wish we would have.... $1, we'll take it.

Got a large green vase and a large green bottle for $3. Love the color; they had more green and colored glass but I didn't want us to get all cluttered.

And then Kyle got a rocking chair for $15. Good condition, solid wood. And apparently he's always wanted one. (And it has already been used to rock sweet Baby Pettigrew, so it's already worth it.)

That's our loot. Total $34. We're on our way to decorating a house. (And having yummy ice cream.)

Oo Fall.

It's fall.

Okay, so it's 70+ degrees out today. But on Saturday I got to put on boots (because it was colder then). And everyday I almost run off the road because I'm so intrigued by the colors of the leaves.... mmmm.

(But don't worry mom, I don't really run off the road).

Pics of the leaves. I tried to get better pictures, but there's only so much you can do when taking pictures while driving...

(Again, mom I was really safe.)

Enjoy the fall.

No More Classes.

I'm sure there are so many of you that love to read about my grad school classes, that love to hear I have an exam or an assignment or how my teachers are completely different characters than I thought they'd be.

Sorry.

No more grad classes.

Because I took my very last final last night!

...

And so I'm celebrating. I guess by writing this post and I'll probably get Kyle to buy me ice cream or something later.

Because today I'm done with my grad school classes!

And tomorrow... well, tomorrow I start preparing for my comprehensive exam and it's full force ahead on the thesis writing, statisical analysis and all.

You didn't think I was really done with all of grad school did you? I'd make Kyle buy me more than ice cream when that day comes. I'm thinking a really large charm necklace that says "I love my husband even though I ignored him for the first two years of our marriage to finish my masters."

;)

House Project: The "Office"

Project one ought to be small. Not the kitchen, or a big space. Just something little.

The "office."

We have a two bedroom, two living room house. But somehow neither of the extra rooms is the "office." Instead the desk is in the main living room. It fits there. And I like it there. But it's lonely. (Excuse our "moving" mess.)

And here's what I'm thinking...

I'm thinking three frames on the left for my undergrad degree, for my internship completion certificate, and then a blank one with some funny/motivating message. I'm not trying to show off degrees here, it's literally to motivate me to finish my thesis while I sit for hours at that desk working on it.

Then I'm thinking some small pictures on the bottom right and a 1 or 2-color panted canvas on the top right. Like these but with a more office-y message... then again these messages work too. Remind me to take a break and think about what really matters.

Then I'm up for ideas. Really.

Any ideas...Colors, I'm going to paint the desk some color...although I like the white-ish tones, antique white. Will paint the wall some color when I get to the rest of the living room.

But I would love ideas! Links, pictures, anything! What are you doing in your "office" or pinning on your pinterest, lol?

The House Project Begins

So I'm real excited about this announcement, and real in need of your help.

No, no, no... we are not having a baby.

But we have a house.

And I have no idea how to decorate.

See I would like to think of myself as an artistic person... I can paint, I can sew, I can watercolor, I bake and decorate cakes, etc. I can even pick out one thing I like: like "oh wow I love that sweater" or "oh wow I love that desk." But then ask me to match the sweater with anything similar and I'm out. Ask me to decorate a room to complement the desk and that's an entirely different story.

Then we bought a house; my bad.

So I'm thinking I'll put up sections of the house and I'm going to ask for your ideas. I'll draw up some sketched and then I wanna know what matches. Really, I'm not kidding, I'm lucky I wear the same color of scrubs every day provided by my workplace... no matching needed.

I'm calling it The House Project.

Stay tuned. And get your decorating minds warmed up.

Veteran's Day

Working for the VA makes me love our Veterans. Some people complain about their patients or their customers, but my idea is that unless you have customers you're out of a job. And also, these guys fought so we could have freedom. Can't thank them enough. I love my Veterans.

So today in the irony that I have the day off for Veteran's Day (irony being that the VA clinic closes to honor Veterans...) I spent the day living up my freedom.

Slept in (until about 8am).

Then headed out garage sale-ing with my friend Amanda and her awesome kiddos. We headed to the first sale, and the she told me about the elementary school Veteran's Day program. With me in tow to help with her two kiddos we could go attend her other kid's school program.

She liked to say that she tricked or kidnapped me. But I had a blast.

Hearing 500plus elementary school kids sing Grand Ole Flag, laughing at Boston who thought we were talking about him the whole time, making her youngest smile when she hated to be in the car seat. More garage sale-ing, reading Dr. Seuss, eating corn dogs, making Moon Pies explode in the microwave.

Day well spent. Thanks.

My only regret is that I didn't pull out my camera.

(The House Project is coming soon... stay tuned.)

Little Victories

So I got a really great email today.

From my advisor/professor in charge of my thesis.

I've been APPROVED!!! Fully approved!!

I could not be more excited! And I'm sure it doesn't seem as exciting as duct taped curtains or buying a new house or anything. But to be honest, I've spent more time working on this thesis than we did shopping for, researching, and even living in our new house.

So it's exciting. It really is

But, I do want to clarify though. Many of you have asked when I'll be finished with my thesis, or if I'm already finished... well, I'm not finished.

I just got final approval. Which means I can finally START my thesis.

Long process. I know. But after this, all the instructions all the steps are already lined out. I'm using what's called retrospective data which means the data was already collected for another purpose and I'm using it to analyze something else. So I get a spread sheet, run statistics, interpret the data, write the results, then the long parts of beefing up the review of literature from the proposal and figuring out the discussion.

For the non-researchers out there. It's like I've been planning and shopping this whole time and the big event's finally here.... well, unless you consider finishing, or submitting, or defending, or graduating as the big event.

In that case the big event is May.

:) Enjoy your little victories today. Enjoy that someone 'lets' you do a lot of work. And if you're a nerd like me, rejoice with me in 'thesis' victories.