Sorry, So Sorry

Dear readers, I am so sorry I have been gone so very long. For anyone who doesn't know, we are moving o Austin, Texas and therefore, have been hard at work finding a new place to live, packing our belongings, and visiting family and friends whom we won't be seeing as often once we move.

This is actually a very quick post today just to say I have missed posting! That and...

...when I finally get to a point where I can post regularly again, I think the blog will be going in a slightly new direction. Never fail, I will still post my extremely random thoughts, but the primary focus will be based off a book The Husband got for me. It is a "guide" to doing things. Kind of like the Boy Scout patch set-up. You go through the book, accomplish the task, and get yourself a "badge" (although I might have to make those badges myself - maybe in the form of some delicious treat from Sonic...hum...).

I will keep you updated as to my progress and share my tales (if any turn out intersesting). If it goes as planned, maybe you will want to tackle some of the tasks as well.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer (if it is summer where you are)!

Wednesday Hodgepodge, Coming on Thursday

So I might be a once-a-week poster these days, but at least I got the Wednesday Hodgepodge up on WEDNESDAY two weeks in a row! Yea me! (revision...so I started it on Wednesday but it's close, right?)

1. What reveals more about a woman - her refrigerator or her purse?

For most women, probably the purse. Take me for example. While my fridge is packed with pictures, drawings, and little notes, my purse really says a lot more about my life and who I am as an individual. I am pretty classy. I love classic patterns and styles. At the same time, I can't stand wasting money so owning tons of purses just isn't my thing. I have 4 purses...a small fancy one for ballgowns and special events, a cute black & white one given to me by my mother-in-law, a NorthFace satchel bag given to me by my sister-in-law, and the one I bought recently - my Miche purse. For those who aren't aware of Miche...they are pretty awesome. You buy the main purse and then get different shells to rotate as needed. I got three shells - a brown, a black/white, and a red. Who needs anything else? So I guess for me, practical is the best option and that really explains a lot about who I am.

2. When was the last time you went to the zoo? Where? What's your favorite zoo animal?

We took The Wee One to the OKC zoo last fall and it was the best zoo experience I have ever had. Usually we get to go to the zoo only in the summer months. When it is hot, the animals are tired and lazy. This time, the animals were moving all over the place. We saw just about every animal and they were all having fun. The snow leapords were really cool because they were young and so playful. We got to watch the gorrillas eat and they were awesome. I don't know if I have a favorite, but I do LOVE the zoo! FYI St. Louis has a free zoo and it is really, really a good one.

3. What social issue fires you up?
Can I just say several? Turst me, it's better for all concerned if I don't go into detail here.


4. Are you a coupon clipper?
I have tried over and over to be a clipper and just can't get it going. I clip and then almost always loose them...or I just forget to use them when I actually go to the store. I've gotten to a point where just don't clip any more.


5. What is one of your favorite souvenirs brought back from your travels?
When we went on our honeymoon, The Husband and I wanted to collect something from each place (we went on a tour of Europe - 8 countries (although we did stop at a truck stop in Belgium so that would be 9). Since we didn't have room for a lot of stuff, we decided I would collect dangle charms from each place. We have continued that collection, getting a charm from any trip that we take together, and I now have over 50 charms. It is just a small souvenir, but something that holds a lot of memories for us and something I will always treasure. (I have a journal that I keep with it telling what each charm represents).


6. Lemon meringue or key lime?
Niether!

7. What is the most beautiful word you know in any lanuguage?
Love


8. Insert your own random thought here.
I really don't have any interesting thoughts today. It's just nice to be able to relax and not doing anything at all for a day.

WEDNESDAY Hodgepodge

This might be only the second time ever that I have actually made a Hodgepodge post on Wednesday. I feel all kinds of accomplished today. hahaha (For those interested in playing along go to From This Side of the Pond).

1. How many times in your life have you moved house?
I almost didn't include this one because the answer is so ridiculous. I honestly don't know if I can count that high. Let's see...between my birth and my 4th birthday, I lived in 3 different states and moved at least 7 times (housing to include a large 2-story farmhouse, 2 cabins without running water, and a tee-pee). From 4 to 18, I lived in 5 different homes and attended 12 different schools. In college I lived in the dorms. After college, before I got married I lived in 3 different rentals. Since I've been married, I have packed, moved, and unpacked our belongings 6 times and we are about to go for lucky number 7. Let me tell you, I am a pro at this moving thing!

2. What subject would you study if you had a year to devote to it?
This might sound crazy since I have just completed 12 years of higher education learning, but I actually would love to go back and take more classes. Of course, I would prefer to not have any assignments or major papers to write though. : ) I would actually love to audit some classes in history and government. I would also like to take some sewing classes and figure out what I'm really doing. I think I'm kind of over devoting any more years to studying, but I would love to continue learning just for fun.

3. What in this world breaks your heart?
Actually, there are a lot of things that break my heart in this world. It is not a perfect world as we all know. I think the one thing that hurts my heart this most is the lack of love and compassion we see so often. As my very young niece has said, "She's mean because she doesn't have Jesus in her heart." God and Jesus are LOVE and when we don't make them the focus of our lives, we do not act in the loving and compassionate ways we should. When you boil it down, most of the horrible acts we see everyday are due to a lack of love for our neighbors and that is just sad.

4. What is one item that symbolizes the times in which we live?
My students have to give an introduction speech and find things that they feel represent them. Based on those speeches, I gotta say either cell phones. As so many of them comment, it is a life-line. We use our cell phones as cameras, computers, date books, calculators, etc. It is amazing how much a little device can do now and I am constantly shocked at how so many people cannot seem to function without them. So far, we have purposely not upgraded to smartphones because we are already so distracted in our personal lives that we don't feel we need another one. We'll see how long this lasts. Although, we have been the people that had a 13inch TV (for our only TV) for the last 7 years because "it works so why spend the money to get a new one. Will it really improve our TV watching?" I think we are somewhat odd at times.

5. Share a favorite bumper sticker or t-shirt slogan.
Saw this on a shirt: Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful
And I've always loved the shirt with the gnome that says Say Hello to my Little Friend
Lastly, the one that my dear friend, The Husband, I want to make: eCarnie.com...Because Small Hands Need Love Too

6. How do you like your spaghetti?
I'm not crazy about spaghetti, but when I do eat it, I like it with a good marinara sauce and sausage. I love pasta, but spaghetti is not my favorite.

7. What is your one piece of advice you would give a recent, or soon-to-be graduate?
Don't stress out if you don't find your "perfect" job immediately. It's out there, but it might take some time to get to it. Plus you never know what will happen along the way. It's all in God's plan and although it is scary to be out in the "real world" you are loved and cared for by the Most High.

8. Insert your own random thought here...
I'm starting to think that metropolitan people are kind of whiny. We've been reading reviews on apartments in the Austin area and they are ALL bad. So we thought we'd look at places we'd lived in the past in other cities to get a base idea of the rating scales. Let me say, Canyon apartments are not top-of-the-line apartments, but when we looked, we noticed that even some of the worst in town had higher ratings than any of the places we've looked at in Austin. Then we looked at Fayetteville where we lived and saw the same whiny comments. We actually did live in those apartments and loved it. Therefore, we have concluded that people who live in cities have higher expectations of life. Come live in Goodwell for a while and then talk to me about your silly complaints. hahahaha

With a sigh of relief...

Friday was in so many ways Good Friday to me! Not only was it the day to remember the amazing sacrifice of my Lord Jesus Christ, it marked the end of a long journey for me.

I spent Friday morning defending my doctoral dissertation. I am proud to say that everything went well (much better than I anticipated) and I am now officially Dr. Prairie Burgess!!!!!!!!!

This accomplishment comes after...

*Two years of course-work (which I LOVED)

*5 address moves (one being a move to a new state)

*Giving birth to The Wee One

*Dealing with a mild post-partum depression

*Editing & proofing The Husband's dissertation and supporting him through his completion

*Struggling with serious focus issues

*Teaching part-time

*Mothering/Wifing (yes, it's now a word) full-time

*Traveling with The Husband and The Wee One (probably much more than we should have since I had this dissertation to get done)

*A series of loans

*And a multitude of little activities and issues that arise in daily life.

All of that and 183+ pages later, I have completed my formal education and can proudly call myself Dr. Burgess - not that I expect anyone else to call me that (after the first month of course...hahahaha).

One of the things that I was looking most forward to during this process was writing my acknowledgement's page because this path would not have been possible without the love and support of several individuals. I want to share it...


"The journey to complete this dissertation has been filled with challenges, but through the support of certain individuals, I have been able to reach this point of completion. I feel truly blessed to have a Lord who knows me well enough to provide the necessary people in my life to carry me over the rough roads and reach the other side. It is very honestly through His grace and mercy that I am able to accomplish anything.

My dear husband was the ultimate inspiration and support for me to pursue this degree. His love is unconditional, even when I am emotional and nervous about the expectations and unknown of life, including this dissertation. During this process, he has served as a sounding board, a proof-reader, a cook, a cleaner, a baby-sitter, a friend, and a rock of support. I could not have done this without him.

I am fortunate to have a wonderful circle of friends who are genuine, loyal and lucky for me, very intelligent. They have offered advice, helped me work through my thoughts, and given me love and encouragement in all areas of my life, thereby making this that much more attainable. These ladies are my Circle Up family.

Knowing I have the encouragement of my family is something I treasure. My mother has always been a cheerleader for my life, but she also taught me the benefits of determination and hard work. Watching her dedication to education throughout my life has been an underlying current leading me to this point. I am forever grateful to hear and the rest of my family for their encouragement and support.

Finally, I want to offer my appreciation for the professionals I have been so fortunate to work with in my life. First of all, to my wonderful advisor Dr. Michael Miller and my dissertation committee, Dr. David Deggs and Dr. Daniel Pugh, thank you for your patience and encouragement. I would like to thank Dr. Flavius Killebrew and Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart who first introduced me to the concept of civic engagement. Lastly, I would like to extend a special thank you to Mary Anne Minto, my grade-school grammar and writing teacher. Her countless hours spent working with me on run-on sentences and grammatical formats have finally paid off."

There are several individuals who have helped me along the way through practical and emotional support that I could thank...I'm sorry I missed any of you in the recognition page - it was written at 7 in the morning after an all-nighter so I don't know that my mind was 100% percent. Actually I know it wasn't. : )

The picture was actually taken 2 years ago when the school let me walk early. At that time I really thought I would be done within the year...HA! It was nice though since The Husband and I could walk together and only ask the families to sit through that once.

Priviledge...who has the rights?

These days we see so many people disgruntled about immigrants coming to America and “flooding our nation.” I can understand a certain level of frustration with illegal immigrants, but those of us who were born here often forget that there is a fairly significant cost and a series of hoops to jump through to gain citizenship. Ultimately, my point is that many of seem to think that we (Americans) are better or more patriotic than an immigrant, but we forget that it is solely by the grace of God that we were born here.


I was recently watching M*A*S*H (a long-standing favorite of mine), and a particular episode as inspired this post. In this episode (Tell It To The Marines), a medaled soldier is attempting to get an early discharge (1 week early) to see his mother before she is deported to Holland. He is originally Dutch and after his mother married an American, they moved to the States. He joined the military to “serve my new country” and while at war, his mother got a divorce. Since she was no longer married to an American, she was being sent home. The doctors on the show go to great lengths to help the boy, ultimately enlisting the power of public opinion and freedom of speech. While it is a great story, what really got me thinking was the concept that this young man who CHOSE to live in America and CHOSE to serve our country because it was his new home. How many of us avoid even the smallest acts of civic responsibility, hoping or trusting that someone else will pick up the slack? How many of our wonderful service men and women are first generation Americans, possibly second generation who are willing to possibly make the ultimate sacrifice because they are so proud and grateful to be Americans?


Why is it that we can be so narrow-minded regarding immigrants? While I would hope that those who come to this country would take the time to learn the language and become citizens, I admire their willingness to better their lives by coming to a place where they find new opportunities (oh, and by the way, for those of you who complain about immigrants “stealing” jobs, do some research…most of the jobs these illegal immigrants take are open because the average American won’t do them).


It saddens me that so many "proud Americans" can be so harsh and unaccepting of people who want to make a better life for themselves and their families. I am extremely grateful that I was blessed to be born here. I've never had to make a decision about how to ensure my families safety. I've always been able to find some kind of work. I can't blame people for wanting to come to America, even if it is not officially legal. Maybe it's time for our government to stop looking at all the negatives and start developing strategies to provide legal and obtainable paths to citizenship.