Catching up ...

It's been a while since I've posted. Again, I'll blame it on being busy and leading a hectic life. Which is all true. But. while I've been busy, I've had time to blog. I've just chosen not to. But here's a quick rundown if you haven't been paying attention to my tweets or my Fb posts. I've even divided it into sections to make it easy for you. ;)

The Love Life - 

Things are going swimmingly (yes, I said "swimmingly") between The Beau and I. Interestingly, I'm currently blogging while on vacation with Mom, Pops, and LL in Florida. It's the first time that he and I have been apart for more than a day since we started seeing each other. We've been seeing each other for over a month, and we finally made it "official" by changing our relationship status on Fb. That was weird given that it is the first time in my life that my Fb has said anything about my relationship status. Especially being directly connected to another person. But it's nice. He's a sweet guy who makes me laugh, enjoys my cooking (and thinks it's amazing!), and really challenges me to get out of my safe little box of life. While I'm a big fan of my comfort zone, I'm appreciative of his efforts to move me beyond that. I definitely resist at times, but he keeps at it. Which is a good thing.

The Diss Life - 

I've submitted another chapter of the diss. That makes two whole chapters submitted. Of course, the first chapter needs editing, and the most recent submit is quite skeletal. I'm at the point where I've written everything that I'm super confident about and now I'm starting to tread water through the more murky and less easy stuff. I'll continue to work and submit and make edits for about a year (although the basic draft of the whole thing will be done by the end of August), and, hopefully, I'll be getting ready to defend in about a year from now. We'll see how that goes.

I've also got to figure out a better balance between The Beau and The Diss. I obviously prefer spending time with him, but The Diss is requiring more and more attention from me. My typical work-best-under-a-short-deadline approach to writing and research doesn't quite work for this kind of writing, and the last chapter about killed me. I desperately need to create a better balance and actually work ahead of time.

The Family Life - 


Everyone back home is quite happy and healthy. There have been some hard time (when are there not), but good times are always close behind them. My big brother graduates from undergrad with his elementary education teaching degree in May, and I couldn't be more excited and proud. I am not, however, excited about the rive north and the too-short weekend that will accompany it. I'll drive up on a Thursday afternoon immediately after school, stay through Sunday, and drive home Monday. It'll be a short trip, but I'm eager to celebrate his achievements with him. And The Beau may travel north with me to meet the family, so that will be interesting as well.

So that's that. A few random photo posts are to follow, and then I'll be all caught up! :)