357. What is that?

If you guessed the number of survey responses IPG has received for her dissertation data you would be right.

Cha Ching!

“If you treat a sick child like an adult and a sick adult like a child, everything usually works out pretty well” Ruth Carlisle

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”

I have had some sort of food poisoning the last few days. YUCK. :( At least I feel good today. Cross your fingers that we have some good weather tomorrow. I am skiing for the first time this summer if the weather will cooperate. :)

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr. Suess

So my leading man bought me an Amazon Kindle for Christmas. I got to test it out as my travel companion when I went to see SD. Usually I would have loaded up my bags with 10 heavy books, but this time I just chucked my slim line Kindle in. I love it. I love the battery life, and how small it is. I also had people everywhere stopping to talk to me about it. (This can be a good or bad thing). I was a in a particularly friendly mood so I did not mind. I carried 33 books with me on my trip contained inside my Kindle. Bey is going to be overjoyed next time we travel and he doesn't have to haul 10 books around.

I am once again shopping for some book recommendations. I read a book about an asylum seeker called Little Bee. I think I have mentioned here that I usually read garbage. For example I read quite a bit of fiction. I like feel good books. Books that make you smile. I sometimes like chick lit. I go through spells. Little Bee was not one of those books. It was a fantastic book that was based in the truth.

Chuck Palahniuk used to e one of my favorite authors, but he has gotten so weird lately I don't even understand some of his books. :) Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity, also is one of my all time favs, but he hasn't written anything this year yet.

I am going to do a little shopping on my Kindle in a bit for some new books. I want to go ahead and mention that I am still a little blue about "my house" selling. So I will probably download and read some feel good chick lit...where the girl gets the Harry Winston, the 5th Ave apartment and the handsome man. What I really should be doing is running my preliminary numbers on my dissertation.

Stats or reading? Stats or reading? What do y'all think?

“Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.” Eliza Tabor

So I fell in love with a home when I was in Phoenix. I wanted it so badly. I was calling it my Barbie dream home. :) Today I found out it sold. The darling man and I were both upset.

I need to talk about faith for a second. I mention my faith frequently...but not in a I am so holy kind of way. I just believe that God has a big ol' plan for my life. Anyway, my biggest question is why did God let me fall in love with that house and want it so much, and then rip it out from under my feet. :(

Please pray for Bey and I. We are having a disappointing evening.

Phoenix

Here is a pic of SD's mom and I. Do you think my husband has a type? :)

Beach

Sea World

Disney

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. Albert Schweitzer

I have been in Phoenix all week. I don't head home until Tuesday. I have been to Disneyland and to Sea World. I also spent lots of time with SD. I also hung out with SD's mom. Finally I looked at houses in the Phoenix area.

These pictures are the pictures that I took of the house that I looked at. Notice all the interesting textures on the wall. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!

“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson

I know that quite a few graduate students read my blog. I found this on . If you don't know what Post Secret is it is a living art project. The creator has people mail post cards that are decorated to him that have a secret on them that they have never uttered out loud. They are amazing. Honestly. Anyway, this secret encapsulates how I feel sometimes so well that I am posting it here.

This is the post card:




Someone wrote this as a response:
Hang in there getting a PhD is suppose to make you feel stupid.

"Research is immersion in the unknown. We can't be sure whether we're asking the right questions or doing the right experiment until we get the answer or the result . . . ."
.

I had to post this here. It reached out to me in a way that I couldn't describe. It also made me realize I had to reach out to some others struggling with their Ph. D. as well. I wanted to find this person and tell them everyone in a Ph. D. program feels like this from time to time.

Anyway, to the graduate students reading my blog. If you ever feel this way. Just know you are not alone. There is a Ph. D. candidate in Mississippi that feels the same way.

On parenting, moving, crisis, healing, feelings and more

So the house is ready, and I got my IRB back on Thursday. Yeah to both. My husband is healing like a champ. I am glad he is a quick healer, because I am not much of a nurse. I haven't ever even been one on Halloween. :P

I am absolutely gung ho about moving. But of course now because I changed all my stats up I need to be here close to my Stats prof. So if the house were to sell I would be in a pickle. I found 100's of jobs for darling Bey to apply to so he is going to get busy with that.

I am either taking SD to San Diego, or the Grand Canyon and four corners for spring break. I can't decide. I leave Monday so I need to get that all hammered out here by tomorrow. SD keeps telling me she "feels like gambling in Las Vegas." I have a failed as a parent obviously. :) This is all my parent's fault. My dad taught her how to play cards when we took her to the beach, and they gambled with Reese's Peanut Butter cups. I came in from the beach to overhear this conversation from my dad. "The first hand is free. Each hand after that you bet or you don't play." I had to giggle because that is exactly what MY grandfather said to me. Only we gambled with coins. :)

I will be looking at houses in Phoenix while I am there. I really need some prayers. I need the stars to align perfectly so that:

1. My dashing man finds a job
2. Our house sells
3. I finish my dissertation
4. We buy a house
   

All in perfect harmony of time. My mom typically doesn't read my blog so I am going to take the opportunity to complain a tiny bit here. My mom has started on what I can only describe as a high pressure sales pitch to get us to NOT move to Phoenix. She feels that since she and my dad are moving back to Atlanta they would really like to have Bey and I on THIS side of the country. I can understand her feelings, but I have to counter that SHE MOVED to Pennsylvania and left me on my lonesome in Atlanta. Then I moved to Texas. I have been back south for 4 years. Just because she is just now getting around to head back south doesn't mean I have to stick around. Also she is an adult, and SD just keeps growing right under my nose. I want to be in Phoenix for SD. It has caused some hurt feelings (hers) and annoyance (mine) lately. My parents and I usually have a fantastic relationship so I am sort of surprised by all of this.

Ask me if I have done anything on my dissertation other than get my IRB back....if you said no fancy a Reese's cup?!

Sometimes I wish I could use the technique of a Mafia Godfather in my personal and professional life

The house is ready. Ready! We are listing it. I have never been so tired.
My IRB has not come back yet. If it comes back today/tomorrow I will start collecting data on Monday.

My husband is healing well. I leave for Phoenix on Monday!

“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.” Mark Twain

IPG has been getting her house ready to sell. It goes on the market sometime next week! Here is what is left to do:

• Pack up the study (UGH think 1000's of textbooks....100's of folders....millions of papers)
• Give the master bath a fresh coat of paint
• Pack up the 1 trillion books balanced precariously by the bed
• Restain the deck
• Pressure wash the outside of the house

Not much. Almost there. No update as of yet on the IRB. I was hoping to get it back by Monday so that I could start my data collection.

Because I have proposed I have actually had a bit of me time. Which is fantastic because I have not had any me time in about 4 years! :) One of the things I was doing in my me time...is playing Wii. The other is using my Amazon Kindle! I got a Kindle for Christmas but the back order was so bad that they shipped me a Kindle 2! I love it. It is one of the best presents I have ever received. Stephen King has a novella that is only available via the Kindle! THRILL!! :)

Bey had surgery on Thursday. He is healing, but not as quickly as he would like. I have been playing Nurse IPG...although I am not very good at it.

If you ever here me say baby...I am talking about my laptop. IPG

Something funny that we laugh about here in the land of IPG is that I give everything nicknames. I also have a tendency to use copious amounts of adjectives! So for example I might be talking about a chair. I would have a tendency to say "That little chair over there."

When I started my Ph. D. I bought a minute little laptop that got dubbed at our home "IPG's baby" or "IPG's Babytop." So if anyone at our house said "Where is IPG's Baby?" everyone knew we were not discussing my husband or even my darling dog. We were talking about my computer.

The computer is even named that on our home network! So if you ever hear me use the word baby...you did not overhear a pet name for my husband...I have my priorities in order...I am talking about my computer. Snicker!

SNOW in MISSISSIPPI!!!!!!!!!!

Bey had not seen snow like this before. So I woke him up at 8 AM to play in it. :)

Basketball Auburn vs. Mississippi State