Exciting Weekend

Well this week has been a crazy week, the beginning of the week was not my best and I was so ready for the weekend! I was looking forward to the weekend because my mom and Michael were coming to spend the day Friday. I have a lot of homework this weekend, but they wanted to get out of town and I needed a day off so I was super excited when they pulled into town Friday morning! As many of you know my mom has been on the quest for a new car for sometime. But if you know my mom, you know she will wait till she finds exactly what she wants. So she has been Internet surfing and test driving just about everything out there. She finally decided on an Volvo SUV, well as you may suspect (since everything is bigger in Texas) she traveled here to one of largest Volvo dealerships. Although, when my parents decided to make the drive the dealer did not have what she was looking for, we had still made arrangements for them to come and to go look at some cars... Well as luck would have it... She found a car!! They just received a beautiful XC90 with all the things she is looking for.... I have attached a picture below of a car that is similar, but not the right color. Her car is "Mists of Avalon" in color (silver/grey/ lots of different colors in different light) , well that is what I named it... It is beautiful and I think she will absolutely love it! But that is not the best part, well at least not for me!! If you have ever bought a car you know this... It takes a long time and a lot of paper work to buy a car... So I decided I wanted to test drive the Volvo C30. If you are wondering what it looks like it is featured in a little movie called Twilight...Well lets just say I fell in love with the car. Now, please know, I had NO INTENTION of getting a car...So I drove it and just asked a whole bunch of questions. So we finished up the paper work on mom's car and headed back to Denton. Well maybe it was kismet, but I felt like I had found the perfect car. My car that I had been driving, Sadie, was about to run out of warranty and had been a great car, but I could not resist... So I purchased my first car!! This was such a big deal for me! I was actually the one doing all the paper work and signing all on all the X's. But after signing 100 documents I now have a Volvo C30 Turbo. It is Black Sapphire with everything I could ever want on it (except unfortunately they left out Edward Cullen)... The biggest deal to me is that it is so fun to drive. If you noticed I said Turbo... so it has a lot of pick up and can turn on a dime. Little did I know I have a lead foot until today... I am so happy and excited! This definitely turned my week around... Now you are probably thinking to yourself... Well what happened to Michael? Well he was there with us for both our car buying experiences and was great! I think he did enjoy getting to go on the test drives and seeing how fast he could make the Turbo go... But the most important thing Michael did on his visit to Texas was suture LeRoy. Now, many of you may not know who LeRoy is, but is one of the most important members of my family. LeRoy is Chanel's stuffed lion of 4 years. Sadly, she has been in a committed monogamous relationship longer than me, but LeRoy is her life. She take her bones to him, plays with him, and he is truly her mate. Well due to some "rough play" LeRoy's head is becoming detached from his body. This is not Michael's first life saving procedure on LeRoy, but definitely the most critical. So THANK YOU Michael for allowing LeRoy to live another day!! That about ends my week! Tomorrow I have a day full of writing papers, but I think I may just have to watch Twilight before I go to sleep :-)

Assignments for the next two weeks...

Well I cannot sleep, so I was thinking to myself I should blog about it. Being in a Ph.D. program, is like juggling... You are always just waiting for a ball to drop. So like so many of the blogs I read, I am going to write my assignments out like a recipe. I think sometimes when I tell people I have homework to do, it is hard to conceptualize what that is... so here is what I have due by March 2... Please know, that this is not a complaint, I actually enjoy my program and all of my classes! But sometimes I feel as though people do not know what I am doing... so this is just for informational purposes... and maybe to show why I am single... and barely have time to take care of my little Chanel :-) Experimental Design
-Complete a Take home exam for experimental design
-Study in prep for an in class exam over Chapter 1-6 (p. 1-207) with knowledge of how to use SAS code, SPSS, and the hand written formulas. Exam will be 3 hours in length and taken on a computer.

Race and Ethnicity

-Topic: Colorblindness/Anglo Conformity (readings)

- Education Development in the Black Community p.51-57

- The End of Racism p. 163-243

- Race and Culture: A World View p. 111-125

Write a Reaction paper synthesizing common themes throughout the readings

Also, develop a 3-5 page abstract on a theoretical innovative perspective in which I will apply a theory used in class to a given racial issue in the United States.

Organizational Theory

-Topic: Contingency, Configuration, Congruence (readings)

-Here I have 6 journal articles to read and prepare for in class discussion (Approx 150 pages)

Then the next week...

-Topic: Systems Theory, Complexity Theory

-Here I have 6 articles, about the same amount, but I am presenting, with two other Ph.D. students and we will create a handout and lead a 3 hour discussion over the topic. I am fortunate that I have great partners in this, so it will not be to bad...

-Also have a paper due... This is an innovation paper, which is a theoretical paper which allows me to propose an innovative topic in Organizational Theory. I have to have 2-3 novel propositions and a brief and concise explanation of what they are novel and likely to be true.

Finally, I have my research meetings which are conducted on the phone with my research professor, my teaching hours and office hours. So in the next two weeks, I will have 4 lesson preps, since it is a new course, 6 office hours, 3 mandatory meanings... and a partridge and a pear tree!!! But please do not worry, all of the Ph.D. students still had time for a Wine tasting last night and know how to have a good time! Below is a picture of my fellow cohort member (Josh) and I at a friends weddings... Did not have a picture from the wine tasting, but there were some cute one's taken... so hopefully I can show everyone a picture of the first and second years. We have a great group!

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2nd year

Well I feel as though I have caught everyone up through my first year of my program... Now on to year two, I just completed my first semester. I took Strategy, Sociology of Mental Illness, and Structural Equation Modeling. For many of you, you have been lucky to miss a class such as structural equation modeling, so I have included a picture, of what one looks like. To say that this took a lot of time and a few tears would be an under statement. But I survived, and was able to examine Organizational Culture Orientations and its effect on Identifications in the Organization. I know I know, you are jealous....But that is the stuff I work on, and it is actually really interesting. After classes were complete, I made my way home to Oklahoma for Christmas! I had a great Christmas. One thing that is great about going home is everyone always comes home for the holidays!!! It was also great to spend time with Poppy. He wanted Satellite radio for the home for Christmas, and he loves it! He is one of the only 90 year olds I know who would want it, but he is really up to date on all of his electronics and what is the "new" thing to own! We took quite a few pictures over Christmas, because everyone got a camera. Tulsa endured another Snow storm, so we spend a lot of time on the couch watching movies. Then I rang in the New Year, with some close family friends, they have a 6 year old, a 19 month old, and a 5 month old. It was such a fun night! Instead of getting all dressed up and going out for New Years, I was able to just relax and just have a good time. I came back before school started so I could work on some papers to try to get into the Academy of Management Research Symposium in Montreal, Canada. I co-authored two papers, From Rival Hypothesis to Equifinality: Applying Fuzzy Set Methodology in Leadership research and Strategic Management: Is it an Academic Discipline? I should hear soon if either paper was accepted. This pretty much leads right into this semester, which I will save for another entry...

1st year

Just to get everyone up to speed, here is a look at my first year in the Ph.D. program. Chanel and I got all settled in Texas, and the school year began quickly. My first semester was definitely one of the scariest, since I did not know what to expect. I started off my first semester taking:
-Organization behavior

-Regression

-Research Methods

Along with each week:

-10 hours of research under a professor

-10 hours of mentoring on how to teach

One thing that is different about a Ph.D. program is my "class" or cohort, of 1st years, is actually one other person - Josh. Josh and I became fast friends which was great! It is really nice to be going through the program with someone! I survived my first semester and moved right into the second semester. This was my first semester to teach a college class, so I was really nervous, but I survived. Along with my 10 research hours, I had to take Human Resource Management Seminar, Nonparametric Statistics and Multivariate Stats.... Which leads directly into the fun part! My first summer as a Ph.D. student! I was able to Study Abroad this last summer in Greece and Italy for almost four weeks! It was absolutely the trip of a lifetime, not only did I receive credit for going, I also assisted with some of the teaching. We started by flying into Athens, then went on a 5 day cruise around the Greek Isles, Pompeii, then off to Sorrento, Rome, Florence, and last but not least Milan!!! Here are a few pictures from this amazing summer!

We thought it only appropriate to be gladiators!

Watching Soccer in Italia!

Greek Isle

Thought it would be fun to climb to the top of a volcano, I quickly realized, it was not so fun, but well worth the view!!!

All of us in ROME!!! It was definitely my favorite! Probably the 6 years of Latin....

Finally, on my return trip, my fabulous parents surprised me and flew me straight to Tulsa so I could spend the 4th of July at Grand Lake with the Sibley's! It was a great homecoming gift!

My summer ended with a trip to Chicago for the Academy of Management Conference. Over 10,000 business professor from around the world were there! It was an amazing experience, and my first paid for business trip! I was lucky enough that one of my best friend, who happens to be the best tour guide ever, was in Chicago doing an internship! Here we are on a boat architecture tour. She took me all over the city!

What I have been up to lately...

Well I decided to start a blog so that my family and friends could know what I have been up to the last few years and what I am currently doing now. I moved back to Texas almost two years ago after completing my M.S. in Industrial/Organizational psychology. I am now working on my Ph.D. in Management, with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior. I am half way through my second year, and am teaching undergraduate Leadership classes along with taking 3, 6000 level courses. I am loving what I do and working really hard. I moved into my first house upon my arrival back to Texas and have loved having my own home. I also have a faithful companion that has been with me through my Undergraduate and Graduate degrees. Although she can test my patience at times, I could not imagine life without her. It has been a fun journey with 2 more years ahead, but I am hoping to just give everyone a glimpse into my life and what the life of a Ph.D. student really is like... Enjoy!