Love much, travel often.

I feel so very blessed daily that I was able to find a partner that is as much in to world travel as I am. Last week, Aaron and I started planning out trip to Spain. We were just sipping coffee in our office together, discussing what we might like to do there when I started looking up airline tickets. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that round trip tickets from Dallas to Barcelona were going for under $700. Aaron and I were both convinced to purchase those tickets immediately.It's a good thing we did because tickets went up to $1700 the very next day! How is that legal, United Airlines?

Just FYI - we purchased tickets on a Sunday morning almost 10 months out. We are flying out on a Tuesday and returning on a Wednesday. I always heard that flying mid week is cheaper and the best day to buy tickets is a Tuesday, for us it was a Sunday. I found this site really helpful for flight advice. 

We are doubly blessed to have our summers "off" to travel. I say "off" because we work a 10 month teaching contract and are required to split it in to 12 months of pay. Teachers don't have summers "off"...we work for it.

Either way, we decided it's not worth going abroad if you can't stay for a long time. We'll be there for 28 days. Spain for a month! I can't wait! Now it's time to work on the itinerary. 

Proposal Accepted: July 25, 2016

At the end of July I actually presented my dissertation proposal to my committee of three counseling faculty and my husband. It was a boring 2 hour long proposal, which I will amend greatly during my defense, but I got done....and approved! 

My next step should've been working on the IRB, but my job started up again. Everyone knows how difficult it is for a School Counselor and Teacher at the beginning of a new school year. Adding the stress of a looming IRB deadline was a bit much, so I focused on getting the school year off to a good start. Now it's September and time to crack down on the IRB. I was at lease able to check two more items off the list!

Happening this week: ordering my Official TTU ring!

Dissertation Completion List

1. Present dissertation proposal to committee at Texas Tech University
2. Complete final edits by my committee and submit final proposal draft
3. Complete CITI research training
4. Get initial permission from LISD to conduct study at LISD campuses
5. Submit study to IRB
6. Get final permission to conduct study at LISD campuses
7. Send study invitation to Principals in Lubbock ISD
8. Schedule intervention module sessions at 6 LISD campuses
9. Recruit participants at staff meetings after school 
10. Collect consent and pretest information
11. Separate participants into control and treatment groups
12. Invite treatment participants to treatment sessions and complete posttest
13. Send posttest information to control group participants
14. Analyze data using MANCOVA
15. Write up Chapters 4 (Results) and Chapter 5 (Discussion)
16. Schedule final dissertation defense
17. Graduate Spring 2017

It's More About Perserverance

I've been on this PhD journey since fall of 2012. At the time I started I was living 400 miles from Texas Tech University and I commuted one weekend a month for 12 hour long classes. I never took a sick day at work, but had to use all my personal days to be able to travel to Texas Tech. Early in the Spring 2013 semester I met my husband (at Starbucks!) and ended up moving up to Lubbock. In the middle of the summer semester in 2014, I got married and by the end of that fall semester I was done with course work and was able to take my doctoral qualification exams. At that time I was also working as a School Counselor with Lubbock ISD and was absolutely drained!

I didn't do much work on the dissertation process until early this summer when I finally felt like I had a solid research proposal. I've spent weeks developing my project and now it's finally time to present it to my committee. If they approve it, then I'll be able to start my study this fall. Getting the proposal approved is a huge part, but there are so many more steps in the process. I think the only way for me to not be overwhelmed will be to follow my lists. Here's the first, ultimate list:

Dissertation Completion List

1. Present dissertation proposal to committee at Texas Tech University
2. Complete final edits by my committee and submit final proposal draft
3. Complete CITI research training
4. Get initial permission from LISD to conduct study at LISD campuses
5. Submit study to IRB
6. Get final permission to conduct study at LISD campuses
7. Send study invitation to Principals in Lubbock ISD
8. Schedule intervention module sessions at 6 LISD campuses
9. Recruit participants at staff meetings after school 
10. Collect consent and pretest information
11. Separate participants into control and treatment groups
12. Invite treatment participants to treatment sessions and complete posttest
13. Send posttest information to control group participants
14. Analyze data using MANCOVA
15. Write up Chapters 4 (Results) and Chapter 5 (Discussion)
16. Schedule final dissertation defense
17. Graduate Spring 2017

I think that's my exhausted list, but I'm sure there are steps in there that will be tricky. Doing the PhD coursework and the internships is the ;east challenging part of this process. The dissertation study is absolutely the most difficult challenge I have attempted in my life. A PhD is most definitely more about perseverance than anything else!

Tartan Weaving Mill

The Tartan Weaving Mill is located just outside of Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Royal Mile. Unfortunately, the whole place does feel very touristy but the working tartan mill is such a necessary piece of Scottish culture. The tartan is SO important to old highland culture as well as today's Scottish Nationalism. The history about the clan tartans has a bit of scrutiny y around it, but no one can deny the absolute love of plaid. 

Steale Falls - Fort William, Scotland

Steale Falls was one of the last hikes we went on while we were in Scotland. It was located very near Fort William. We were able to find the hiking spot from the WalktheHighlands.com site. If you are going to be hiking in Scotland, I highly advise you become a member of that site!

It was a rainy, drizzly day (Scotland!) but it was perfect for hiking. It drizzled on and off, but the thick canopy of the trees kept up pretty dry. It was about a 2 mile hike to the falls on a windy, slippery path. The sign pictured here is no joke! I could see how easily one could slip on the rocks and fall very far to the canyon floor. Luckily, we were sure footed.

Once you climb up the windy path, it opens up to a valley where Steale Falls can be seen very easily along the way. The river had that Scottish burn color, the dark whiskey brown. I took a moment to eat my shortbread and drink my scotch while Aaron walked in the river. It was such a pleasant hike! Very easy to get to with absolutely breathtaking views. 

Fun Fact: Steale Falls was actually featured in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scotland was a filming locale for many of the Harry Potter movies.

Google Photos is an amazing app!

I am back from Scotland now and it was a trip of a lifetime. I tried to chare along the way, but internet was very finicky in some of the remote locations we were, so I didn't get to post as much as I would've liked. 

Google Photos was an amazing piece of the journey that I did not expect. Aaron and I took about 4 GB of photos each, along with multiple video clips. Google Photo created edited videos for us using all of the videos we took. The result is fantastic!

The Aberlemno Stones

The Pictish stones of Anerlemno are stones that were included between the 7th and 9th century AD. They are very near their original discovered positions, but are still accessible to the public on the side of the road (B193 outside of Forfar).

The Picts were absorbed by the Irish clan, Scots, long ago. The Romans built Hadrians Wall to basically "wall" the Picts in. The Picts were the ones who painted themselves blue with symbols and such. Think Merlin. No wonder Scotland has so much magic!

Aberlemno 1 is called "The Serpents Stone". At the top is a snake and near the bottom is a mirror and comb. No one really knows what these mean at all, not a clue!

Aberlemno 2 is found in a Kirkyard down the road. It's a gorgeous Celtic cross. The center symbol is a Celtic spiral design and the arms are Celtic know symbols. Some of the knot patterns are akin to the Book of Kells! On the back is a battle scene, with horses and men in helmets. Barbarous!

Aberlemno 3 shows a cross with angels kneeling, reading from books! The back is a hunting scene. 

Aberlemno 4 is actually in the McManus museum in Dundee. We did it spend much time in Dundee aside from at the hostel and the Law, so we didn't get to see this stone. Aberlemno 5 is really difficult to make out and has said to be a fake, but it still stands. 

These stones were pretty fascinating, given how d they are. Here is the description on the side of the road. 

There is a small visitor's center that has a bathroom just across the street from the stones. It was a perfectly, strategically placed bathroom and I was super appreciative! The small "town" of Aberlemno was quite sweet little town, and difficult to find. If you drive too fast down the tiny road, you'll miss it! I'm so glad we didn't.