It happened….

First things first – I have officially FINISHED my dissertation proposal!!!! The first 3 chapters are DONEEEEE! 59 pages of literacy practices, community formation, phenomenological methods, and all the tears. Okay, maybe not ALL the tears, but there were some! I can’t decide if I’m thankful for the tight schedule I’m on or if I hate it. I think I’m okay with it…stay tuned. The good news is that all I need to do now is edit and revise, which will take me awhile, but then I am ready to submit! Then I have to defend my proposal, basically convince everyone that my study is worth doing, and then get started! It’s going to be a crazy busy fall, but I’m kind of excited. Okay, that’s out of the way! Man it feels to be finished.

So, Monday started out with me not wanting eggs for breakfast at all. I was really craving cereal, but we didn’t have any. I mixed some dry oatmeal with yogurt and that seemed to do the trick! I love having these two things with some frozen fruit added to it. SO GOOD.

I ate breakfast while working, then worked until lunch. I got about 8 pages written between breakfast and lunch, so I felt AMAZING about that. For lunch I had some leftover kabob goodness on top of spinach and coleslaw. It was awesome.

I topped everything with these two bad boys. Still haven’t made it to the store for Sriracha…

After lunch, which I had at about 11:30, I worked until about 2:45. Then I just couldn’t think straight anymore. I was literally typing things that didn’t make sense, so I decided to take a brain break and get a little workout in. It helps me to step away from my work and do something I love. It gives me more energy and then I’m ready to buckle down again. I wrote up this quick workout and got started!

Deadlifts are probably one of my favorite lifting movements ever. I can’t lift a ton of weight, but I’m working on it! I send pictures like this to Jake to ask if my form is correct. He said it was okay, but that I was straining my neck a little. He’s smart.

Definitely had to lay down on the garage floor for a little bit…I think that’s just a necessity on leg day. Well, any day really…

Then it was back to working on my proposal! Jake ran some errands after work, then did some work on the truck to get it ready to take to Colorado. We were meeting my birth-mom, Dawn, and her boyfriend, Mitch, for dinner, so I worked right up until we needed to leave. I threw this hat on because I didn’t want to wash my hair, ha! I just hate having wet hair and mine takes forever to dry…

We went to The Pitch and it was AWESOME. I got the stuffed peppers, which were to die for.

Jake got a spicy sub sandwich, which was also incredible. Their mac’n cheese is also the BOMB. We shared both of these. It hit the spot!

I’ve talked about my adoption a little bit before, but I met Dawn about 3 years ago. We have been close ever since! My parents always told me that I was adopted and that when I turned 25, they would tell me who my birth-mom was. I got SUPER lucky having the best parents in the world AND the best birth-mom! <3

This hard-working dude came home from dinner and changed the oil in his truck for the first time! He seriously amazes me every single day.

I went back to typing. This is how I felt about working on my dissertation at 8 pm, but I only had ONE section left. I was determined.

I needed a motivator. This sure worked! I finished about 10 pm! Now to edit and revise all three chapters…woof.

I hit snooze on “accident”, so I got started with my run a little later than I wanted. I walked outside to these clouds….I was keeping my fingers crossed for no rain! The temperature felt amazing though!

This week is a lower mileage week for me, so I didn’t have a track workout or anything this morning. I decided I was going to push my pace a little since I was just running 4 miles. Wow. I felt really great until about mile 3, then I got a little fatigued, but the whole run felt pretty good overall! I ran my fastest mile, too! 7:18. I think my fastest mile before this was 7:32 a couple weeks ago. I love seeing this progress. It shows that my training is paying off.

I was running a little behind this morning, I wanted to grab donuts for my class, so I needed to leave a little earlier than usual. I scrambled up some eggs real quick, grabbed a fig bar, and took my breakfast in the car with me. After class today, I think things will slow down a little!

Donuts for our last class meeting! I am not a huge donut fan, but I LOVE blueberry cake donuts. Like, seriously love them. And I think I see one in that middle box…

After my class this morning, my plan is to grade ALL the final projects that will be turned in. That might not be possible, but I’m going to try! The projects they are turning in are HUGE, semester long portfolios…so, fingers crossed! Then I would also like to get chapter 1 revised and edited. We will see!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!