Big News

I passed my thesis proposal defense.

That satisfactory check mark means I can now "officially" being my thesis. But in reality I started writing it over a year ago. I have two of the three chapters complete...somewhat. Some things will have to be added to beef them up to thesis status and make them coherent, but I feel like a million bucks knowing that I am approved and ready to being this new chapter in my life.

Tomorrow night is my last class ever. I will never sit in another classroom or turn in homework weekly ever again. The thesis will be done on my own time so I'm the only one accountable for that. So who wants to help me get it done...Just kidding.

Now let me tell you a story: We have absolutely no food to make a meal in our house. The roommate, Chelsey and I ate worse than college freshmen last night.

My dinner included: popcorn, edamame, raisins and a peanut butter and jelly thin bagel. News flash: That is not a meal. Not even a little bit. Clearly I'm starving. I am going to the store today. I have to go. The cabinets are bare.

So I'm going to fix that before I go home. I will have food in my cabinets, and all the dishes will be out of my sink by the end of the day.

In preparation for half marathon training, I have got to clean up my eating routine. And I have got to start running again. Hopefully I will be able to do that at the beginning of the week. I'm going to get all my ducks in a row for that this week. Maybe pick up some new running shorts or a tank top...Cause I need to buy more stuff.

I was asked by the lovely Paige from Approaching Joy (BTW show Paige some love and check out her blog. She is pretty awesome, and she is also a fellow Arkansas girl.) to write up a post about running tips for beginners after I wrote the Running and Learning post. So now that my life is slowing down considerably, I will finally be able to write the beginner running post I've wanted to write for so long. So be on the lookout for that tomorrow.

Tell me something good.

Waiting for Summer

In exactly 5 hours, I will be defending my thesis proposal to my graduate committee. I am so nervous. The possibilities of what they will say about my work are endless. And this is just the beginning. Remember it's just the proposal. They have the power to make me change anything about it that they see fit. Yeah, I know. The gravity of the situation is upon us, or I should say me.

But besides that major thing happening today, I do have some good news to share with you.

Critical Methods paper is complete.

Let's recap the semester so you know exactly what I put myself through:

• 27 page, 9,373 word original research paper
• Nine page thesis proposal
• Four books 
• Four book critiques
• Seven text book chapters
• Seven chapter synopses
• Six assignments
• Seven online posts
• Approximately 10 scholarly articles for online post submissions

And now you know why I'm officially crazy. School will do that to you. It will.

To help with my paper writing over the weekend, I bought myself some happy little daisies. And I moved them from my desk to my chair by the window as I did various school activities over the last few days. They are still so beautiful and happy. 

I've raised half my goal amount for St. Jude's half marathon. If you want to donate to the cause, just go right here and leave any amount that you like. Small donations are welcome...meaning just cause other people donated $100 doesn't mean you have to do that. 

I absolutely need these blush woven shoes. Absolutely NEED them. 

Ok, so after today's thesis defense...Who's taking me out for a drink? Any takers?

My Tornado Life

School is crazy. Absolutely insane. My life is like a great big tornado throwing me from one place to another and then back again. So. Not. Cool. 

Take a look at what I'm dealing with right now.

Two MAJOR things happen next week. And I'm trying to prepare for both of them. Holy cows! I'm scared to death about both things. Prayers are much needed.

But on a BIG, more exciting note, I signed up for St. Jude's half marathon yesterday.

And I became a St. Jude's Hero. Basically I will be fundraising for St. Jude's during my training period leading up to the race.Visit my Heros page, and make a donation. Every little bit helps. And it all goes to help pay for families who can't pay for cancer treatments for their children.

I've got a lot going on. So just stay with me. I'll be back to my regular scheduled posts as soon as school calms down enough where I can breathe. T-minus 8 days and counting.

Sidenote: The Little Rock Farmers Market is amazing. Go there. Get the locally grown strawberries.

It will be unlike any strawberry you've ever had. So delicious. But don't eat them all at once...like I almost did. 

Have a great week! Happy Hump Day!

Tell me something good.

A Weekend in Pictures

Spent a lot of time here.

Doing homework, lamenting over my non-existent social life and eating dark chocolate.

The 60s was an interesting time in Arkansas politics. Ask me anything...I bet I know it. Seriously.

For study breaks, I'd go outside to check the progress of my zinnia sprouts.

Early on Day 1

End of Day 1 after a full day in the sun

Day 2

There was a day 3, but I can't find it right now. Update on that tomorrow.

I ran yesterday.

Here are my stats:
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 34:16
Best Pace: 8:28
Average Pace:11:26
Calories: 357

I'll go into detail about that tomorrow. I've done some research that deserves a separate post. So stay tuned for something new I learned about running and side pains.

I had a lot of really wonderful food this weekend.

Waffles. Classic.

Rigatoni with a mushroom cream sauce

Parmesan and dill scrambled eggs on an English muffin

These beauties are on the way to my doorstep.

HOLLA. I'll be walking on a dream in no time.

How was your weekend?


Tell me something good.

Herbs and Other Things

Dudes, I planted a mini-herb garden yesterday. I was inspired by my friend Tori, who got a really cool planter from Home Depot and planted a whole bunch of herbs and flowers.

So while I was at Walmart picking up a few things, I stumbled into the garden section to see what it had to offer. Low and behold, there was a wide selection of herbs, flowers and vegetable seeds. I grabbed a window box planter and called it a day.

I planted my four most favorite herbs: Parsley, dill, basil and rosemary.

Y'all, I want a garden so bad. I want to plant my own veggies and maybe try my hand at tilling up some land. Big sigh. Just another thing to save for when I have more time.

Speaking of time...and not having any, school is stupid. And by that I mean I need some serious motivation. I'm currently reading a book about Arkansas history, and it's just not as inspiring as the other books I've read this semester. I have to make myself sit down and focus to read it. It. Is. Awful.

And on top of the boring book, I have to work on my original research paper due May 10. That's four weeks for those of you who don't realize and/or understand why I will be crazy and talking gibberish. But not to worry, everything will be back to normal May 10.

Now is the time to remember this mantra Paul wrote many years ago:

"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." Philippians 4:6-7 The Message Bible.

Y'all, I've prayed for motivation and understanding so much lately. I constantly worry about how I'm going to get everything done for school, while I do all the other 100,000 things I have to do. I'm so tired of trying to please everyone. So I'm working on doing what I have to do and incorporating a few things I want to do.

So that is where I am right now. Stuck in a tug-a-war with myself over what I should do and what I want to do. Say some prayers please. They are much needed and appreciated right now.

What kind of stress are you under right now?


If you could plant a garden, what kind of herbs/flowers/veggies would you plant?
I'd have a full vegetable garden and all the herbs. I'd also plant some zinnias to help keep the bugs away and make it pretty.

It's April...Almost

From now until the end of the semester, I'm going to be running around like a lunatic screaming "It's April...leave me alone...Unless you can help me with homework." Not really, but maybe. Aprils and Novembers are the hardest months of graduate school, but I'll talk more about grad school whoas later in the post. First, I want to talk about my run yesterday and my breakfast this morning (before we get into the grad school talk).

Yesterday's run went from bad to good, which made me happy that I stuck with it.

Mile 1 was a reminder of the speed work I did on Monday. And it was a reminder that I need to stretch no matter how much I feel like I'm dying. At the end of mile 1, I thought about turning around and heading back to the car. It was hot, and my calves felt like pieces of lead. And then I could hear my mom in my head saying "If you're going to run a half-marathon you have to keep your base run. And you can't quit after one mile."  So I pushed on.

Mile 2 was better, and mile 3 was ever better than the second one. The heat was still ridiculous. But I somehow made it to my car.

Here are my stats:
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 34:14
Best Pace: 9:34
Average Pace: 11:25 (pretty proud of that)
Calories: 356

Pretty sure I ate all of those calories back plus some when I got home. The main culprit was this piece of beauty and deliciousness.

My mom's homemade pecan pie. Gooey gooey goodness. I swoon.

This morning I got up and made myself a pretty little breakfast. (Sidenote: I've got to get better about eating after I wake up....I can't keep waiting for hours to have breakfast. It's going to be a very difficult, yet necessary, lifestyle change.)

Fried egg sandwich with extra thin sliced cheddar cheese on a whole wheat bagel thin, two cuties and coffee...always must have the coffee.

Speaking of the coffee, I'm about to pour cup number 3, and this is due to my unsettledness stemming from this week's grad school assignment. Now I won't bore you with all the details, but I just wish the direction of the assignment was clear.

I could do one of these two things:

1. Answer all the questions in an essay format like the handout says...and be faced with redoing the assignment after a different time on a larger scale (i.e. full literature review...yes it will be as awful as it sounds).
2. Disregard said handout and write the actual literature review and research questions for my upcoming final paper (yes, it also sounds equally awful).

I've been mulling this decision around in my brain all morning. And the main reason I'm stressing hardcore is because it's due tomorrow at midnight. While it can be done in the time period and I feel confident in my skills to write under pressure, I just don't want to set off on the wrong path, which will lead me to a redo or a bad grade.

Grad school peeps, weigh in on this dilemma. I've e-mailed the teacher and my classmates, and I have class tonight. Lord, I feel my professor because I'm about to blow him up with questions.

So until I decide what to do about my grad school dilemma, I am debating on making these cookies. Here is the recipe.

(And by that I mean I'll probably bake while mulling over said problem. Baked goods fixes everything.)

What do you know? Anything interesting going on?

What is your go-to stress reliever?
Mine are baking, cooking and eating.....go figure. :)

Never in a Million Years

First, I have a confession. I have only ran once this week, and I have done zero yoga. Sigh. In my defense (not that it really matters), I have been doing fridiculous amounts of homework in the evenings. With my birthday falling on a Monday and having something to do every night last weekend, homework took a serious backseat, which is not the norm. No worries. I'm caught up.

I'm unfortunately not caught up on grocery shopping, but I did find some good things to throw into a stir fry last night.

In this mix was short grain brown rice, steamed broccoli, corn, edamame and one egg. I threw the egg in on a whim (trying to be like my mom), and it was pretty tasty. And it gave me some added protein.

On a different note, I've been feeling pretty stressed this week. With the birthday, extreme amounts of homework and stressful projects at work, I feel like I've spread myself pretty thin the past few weeks. I'm finding myself with tense shoulders, a furrowed brow and more frequent break-outs. Why does the face always break out when stress sets in? Makes me more stressed, which fuels the vicious cycle of tension, forehead wrinkles and break-outs.

As I was perusing the World Wide Web, I came across this verse from the Message Bible.

"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." Philippians 4:6-7

I'm thinking it should be my new mantra whenever I feel stressed, or just all the time.

Switching gears: We all know my least favorite Holiday is approaching *ahem Valentine's Day.* Even though I'll actually have a Valentine this year, I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole required-to-show-affection day. My heart is with the single people of the world, I guess.

I am going to make a little something special for my Valentine, and we will be seeing each other this weekend. But as a little treat, I thought we could all look back to last year's Valentine's Day post to see exactly what I think about it.

I'm still have no idea what to get a guy for Valentine's Day. And I still loathe conversation hearts and creepy stuffed animals. And I still really dislike the idea of feeling forced to conform to society's "love day." And I still think the actual story of St. Valentine is better than any modern day love story.

But maybe my Valentine can help sway my train of thought away from such pessimism. Like I said a year ago, I am a hopeless romantic, and I do like to be wooed. But wooing shouldn't take place on a designated day.

More on this Valentine's thing later. For all I know, I could be completely wooed and made to love Valentine's Day....We shall see. Whatever happens, I know this Valentine's Day will be different than all previous Valentine's Days, which I'm most excited about.

I am handcrafting a little something, and I may or may not be flexing my baking skills (which I never in a million years thought I would do around Valentine's Day..and by that I mean crafting something for a special someone.) Who am I?

Tell me about your Valentine's history. Good or bad, I want to know.

What does one get a boy for Valentine's Day?

The End All Be All Birthday

We've officially made it to February. Yay yay hip hooray! It's officially 3 days until my birthday party, 6 days until my birthday and 21 days until I get to see Needtobreathe live for the fourth time. Holy crap I'm excited.

But before I can celebrate properly, I have to finish the homework.

Tell me what that means, and I will gladly do it. Until then, I'll just stare at the blank Word document on my computer. Got to get it done by Thursday. GOT TO.

My Sole Society February shoe picks are in.

Could they BE any cuter? I think not. I loved the blue ones, but I couldn't think of anything to wear them with. Luckily, they come in other colors.

These lovelies will be arriving at my door in seven to 10 business days. I love how work appropriate they are and how chic they are. Plus I love a wedge.

(But this whole shoe club thing reminds me that I need to clean out my closet. Maybe I will host a giveaway with my lightly worn clothes and shoes, if anyone is interested. Just a thought.)

If I hosted a lightly worn clothes and shoes giveaway, would you be interested?

What kinds of items would you like to see?

The Last of January

Let me sum this past weekend up with three words: Pizza, running and homework.

I spent Friday morning mulling over school work and trying to get organized to "start" the semester.

The amount of money I waste use on paper and ink is beyond me. But I'm totally one of those weirdos that has to have a paper copy of stuff to hold in my hand. I'm not really a fan of reading everything on a screen. I like to rock out old school. No big deal.

After the homework and printing mania, I decided to go for a little run. I don't know if I've officially told you, but I'm trying to run 3 miles in under 33 minutes. And I was just 39 seconds too slow.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 33:39
Best Pace: 8:51
Average Pace: 11:13
Calories: 354

I was pretty excited about the time, even though I was just under my goal time. It felt good to be outside. It was hot, and I was really overdressed. Before I took the above picture, I had on a hot pink long-sleeved pull-over. I ditched that after I ran the first mile and about had a heat stroke.

Speaking of the hot pink pull-over, let's talk about how ridiculous I looked on my run. I knew I was going to wear the pull-over. So I put on capris since it wasn't freezing outside. Then I thought Hey, I think I'll wear my purple compression socks to see if I can tell a difference while I run. Yeah, that's a great idea. So I put those on while still wearing the capris, hence the purple shins. And I just happened to put on pink socks.

Basically I threw up every little girls' dream colors as I ran with my pink and purple self. And yes, I went out in public. Totally not ashamed. I owned that run. Pink and purple powers unite. Ok, enough. I know. Whatever.

As an added bonus to this wonderful weekend, I got to have my favorite pizza.

The Queens Deluxe Pizza from NYPD Pizza in West Little Rock. SO SO SO GOOD! Can't even begin to talk about how tasty it is. I love it and would eat it everyday. Literally, everyday. YUMMY!!! And yes, that piece is two pieces that I decided was one piece. Again, not ashamed.

In other news, the countdown begins. Three days until Boom Kinetic and my birthday bash, and six days until my actual birthday. Gots big, big plans this weekend. And I'm so excited I can barely stand it. Pray the week goes by quickly.

How was your weekend?

Favorite pizza place? What do you get there?

A Tale of Good Fortune

School has officially started again, as in last Thursday. There are four people in my class, one of which I know from a previous class. And while I'm excited to start this semester, the excitement comes from seeing it come to an end. This is the last semester I will take classes EVER. So Thursday was my very last first day of school. Everybody scream.

Now let's talk about what the semester will look like. I'll definitely be stressed out trying to get all the HUGE assignments done each week. The book is as thick as a dictionary and reads like one, too.

Clearly, the class would be a lot more interesting if the words "critical approaches" were not in the title. Yikes. After my first class, I'm pretty sure my brain went into shock. I haven't seen such a demanding class schedule in a while. Like I said, something huge due every single week for the next 15 weeks. And it all comes together to be a paper, which will be a chapter in my thesis.

But enough with the boring graduate school talk, on to something more exciting.

I made a creamy mushroom pasta dish with roasted broccoli for dinner the other night. And it was amazing. It was super easy and looked very fancy. It will definitely become a regular at my house. So good. And let me also just say this: Roasted vegetables of any kind are absolutely delicious. When in doubt, roast em.

The other night at dinner, I got a pretty awesome fortune in my fortune cookie. I usually get the absolute worst fortunes. I mean all my friends will tell you the same. Pretty sure one time I got one that said something about orange being a good color to be around. Nobody knows what that's suppose to mean.

But the other night I got this beauty.

I've been saying 2012 was going to be the year of really awesome things. And I'm pretty pumped about my 24th birthday coming up in two weeks. So I'm hopeful this fortune won't be a fluke. And if the fortune wasn't good enough, the word on the back was February, which is my birthday month. I think it's a sign.

What's new with you?

 

Shoulds V. Wants

I've been struggling here recently with juggling stuff I should do and stuff I want to do. I've broken it into three specific categories so ju guys can see it.

Stuff I should do No. 1: Homework

So much to do in so little time. I've really had a hard time with self-motivation this semester. It had to be taking the summer off. I settled into my lazy ways of watching too many movies, cooking delicious food and doing whatever I wanted. School started back, and I didn't really jump on the bandwagon. So now I'm sprinting to catch up with school, while trying to keep up with my social life. It's very tiring.

Stuff I want to do No. 1: Running

I ran yesterday after work. I didn't want to because of the wind and the cold. But I had the best 3 miles ever. And probably my fastest.

Distance: 3.00 miles
Time: 34:41
Best Pace: 9:24
Average Pace: 11:30
Calories: 355

Look who was a whole minute faster than normal. And the best part was the run didn't feel like it was too much. It didn't get bigger than me. I felt in control and good the entire time.

Stuff I want to do No. 2: Cook and Eat

Pinterest has become my go to I'm-bored-and-don't-want-to-do-homework-so-lets-waste-time-staring-at-recipes-online thing. I'm not ashamed since I've found some seriously good looking food.

OH MY LORT! I just want to cook and eat. All the time.

It's getting out of control. Seriously.

Who wants to pay me to make their meals? I'll do it for a small fee.

I think the whole food thing has become a problem. But for all I know, it could be my life's calling.

Cooking and eating and writing. I could totally live with that.

Goal for the rest of the week/weekend: Finish all homework. ALL homework. Cooking something divine...I'm thinking Cheesy Potato Soup (my momma's recipe). And run 5 miles.

What are some of your shoulds v. wants?

Any recipes you want to share? I'm always looking for something new to make in the kitchen.

Eggos and Breakfast Burritos

First off, I'd like to start the day by saying that I need Eggo waffles and breakfast burritos in my near future breakfast routine. My current routine consists of sleeping as last as possible therefore forcing me to forgo a satisfying breakfast.

This morning I've had: A cup of coffee (that should be multiplied by three), a very small baggy of multi-grain Cheerios and a Luna bar (which I will likely save for later in the morning so I won't want to punch anyone out of hunger).

Saw this really awesome horse dog at Starbucks the other day. He had dreads. And he came up to my rib cage. And he was the sweetest dog ever.

I ran again. I'm still not on a schedule I like. And what I mean by that I'm not sure. When I have to skip to accomodate for my Thursday night class, it just messes everything up. (Probably because I've become too lazy to get up early on a Friday morning and just run my little heart out. But in my defense, there was a lot of good movies on the tube.)

Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 39:25 minutes
Best pace: 9:05
Average pace: 12:43
Calories: 331

In case you are curious about graduate school, I took a photo of an activity we did last week so you guys will know what I'm dealing with in that place.

The tallest paper/tape structure won prizes, and it just happened to be my group that won. HOLLA!!!

This activity was geared toward creative thinking....(Cricket. Cricket.) Ummmm.....I thought I already was a creative thinker. I mean I make wreaths, paint things, make up recipes...Oh wait. That doesn't count because it's stuff I actually like to do. So this project was a necessary to get the school-related creative juicies flowing.

P.S. I won a set of chattering teeth. You know the gag gift kind of chattering teeth. They are so loud. And perfectly straight. And spiritual white.

How was your weekend?

What kinds of breakfast foods have you been craving lately?