January 2008 - Posts
my dissertation proposal is done. I think. I hope.
One last review by my Mom, and it's off to my advisor tomorrow.
I spent over two and a half hours this afternoon working on my dissertation proposal. I think I'm finally done gathering material for it. Next comes APA formatting (ugh, I HATE APA FORMATTING). My official proposal reader AKA my Mom (I love you, Mom!) is now reading it. She's going to give it the big old virtual red pen so I can fix it up before sending it to my advisor hopefully tomorrow, or Monday night at the latest.
A pizza is baking in the oven right now making the house smell totally yummy. And Acme had my favorite mozzarella balls, tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing salad in their pre-made salad bar. So I'm looking forward to dinner.
I even scrapped a page this morning:
Credits can be seen here.
It was a good day.
Tassimo Starbucks Coffee - Cafe Verona Blend (bought with a 20% off coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond)
Plus
Chocolate Mint Truffle Coffee Creamer
Equals
A happier morning commute
My day started out sleeping on the couch clutching my fat cat Jasper. He is the world's best "stuffed animal". I did some scrapping and was pretty lazy before going out with my Mom for the afternoon. We had lunch at the Back Burner to Go which happens to have one of my absolute favorite soups - Pumpkin Mushroom - oh my is it yummy. After that we headed to Christiana Mall, where Mom picked me up some goodies: a new Hello Kitty calendar for 2008 and a box of Yankee Candle Potpourri - Mandarin Orange. I found the cutest frame at Pottery Barn in the "As Is" section for just $7. It looks just like this 4x6 one, except it says "Live Fully", which I thought was a really wonderful message.
Now to pick out the perfect picture!
Speaking of thinking about messages, one of the scrapbooker's blogs that I read regularly is Ali Edwards. She mentioned recently in this post that she had chosen her one little word for the year. The point of the one little word concept is to focus yourself with what you'd like to accomplish in the new year by choosing one word. I like the idea of selecting one little word to give myself focus, but since I talk a lot, I suppose it makes since that I'm finding it difficult to select "one" word. So when I was thinking about choosing my one word, and I saw the fame I mentioned above in Pottery Barn this afternoon, it hit me - these are going to be my "two little words" for this year - "Live Fully".
I have to do some more thinking about what this means to me - maybe I'll share it in the form of a layout? Off to make dinner.
Today we're back home after spending the past two nights in Washington DC. One of my Christmas gifts to Peter this year was a New Year's Eve mini-vacation. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, one of our favorite DC hotels because it's in a great spot and they have wonderful breakfasts and went to the Kennedy Center to hear the National Symphony Orchestra before going to their Grand Foyer After Party to count down to the new year with Champagne. The mini-vacay was absolutely wonderful - just the time away we needed together after being so busy over the holiday break. Tomorrow, I'll have to share some of my favorite pics from the trip.
I have some happy scrapping news - Andrea Burns asked me to be a guest creative team (ct) member for January, woohoo! I haven't been on a CT for a long time and I really admire her work - especially her photography. I started working with her and Amber Clegg's Glorious kit today and have finished two layouts so far. It's absolutely beautiful!
Credits can be seen here and here.
Tomorrow, my Mom is coming to visit. I'm not sure what we're doing yet - maybe shopping, but I really don't have any more room in my closet, so I'd rather see a movie - hopefully that will work out. I'm also doing some more work on my doctorate dissertation proposal tomorrow. I plan on submitting that to my advisor in the next few days. Oh, and I'm going to the gym. My lazy self is going to the gym. I have to go. Embassy Suites breakfasts were too good, haha.
I've never actually written down any New Year's resolutions, so I thought I would this year. My resolutions for 2008 are:
1. To be more consistent with working out- at least 4 days per week for 45 minutes plus.
2. To finish my dissertation and to graduate this year - with May being my primary goal for graduation.
3. To finally learn at least some conversational Czech so I don't look like an absolute idiot to my in-laws when we visit Prague this Easter.
4. To blog more. I think this will help my scrapping too because I'll have a consistent source for my journaling.
Time to kick my sleeping cats up and do a bit of reading in bed before sleeping.