I thought I would come by to let you all know that I passed my dissertation defense and only need to make minor revisions to my proposal. I need to add a few details to my abstract and a couple of documents to my appendices, and then I will resubmit it to my chair by this weekend. The next step is to start working on my IRB application. I imagine that it will not be approved until after the first of the year, but that is fine. I do not plan on doing much between now and then anyway.
I realized that I forgot to mention that we decided to refinance our mortgage, and we closed on the new loan today. When we closed on our first mortgage 2 1/2 years ago, our interest rate was 4.75%, and I was able to get it down to 2.75%. We also went from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage, and our payment will only be about $150 more a month than what I was paying. Oddly, we did not have to bring any money to closing--in fact, the title company is going to mail us a $500 check on Tuesday. It does not make any sense to me that we had to borrow money to pay ourselves, but I guess that's an extra $500 I can put toward my principle in February.
I think that is all I have to say at the the moment. Tomorrow is Friday, and I get off work at 3:00, so Dan and I will probably grab an early dinner and then watch Christmas movies. Sunday I would like to try to get my office painted and my house cleaned up so it's in order for Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to all of you!
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Defense Day
I am off work today because at 5:00 I am going to be defending my dissertation proposal. I was supposed to do it last Thursday, but I was not ready. I am nervous and will be happy when it is over, but I am pretty sure I will pass. The next step is my instituional review board application and then I will put my survey together and send out the link so I can get my results. After I have about 200 survey replies, I can run my statistics, write up my results, defend my dissertation, and be finished with school forever!!!
Other than that, there is not much going on at the moment. There is a lot in the works for after Christmas, though. I got my new countertops a week ago, and they have really brightened up my kitchen a lot. My old countertops were black granite. Apparently they were very popular in the early 2000s. I hated them because they always looked dirty and I could not find things I set down on them. It's like the item would get sucked into a black hole. My new countertops are white quartz with a gray pattern. After I take my Christmas tree down, we are going to rip out my floors and lay new vinyl planks down in the whole house. We already ripped carpet out of two of the bedrooms. Only my bedroom still has carpet. After we get the floors laid, we plan to paint, but only because I am not 100% sure of about what color will go best with the flooring I have chosen. If I can nail that down before we lay the flooring, then I might paint first, which would actually be better. We bought a sprayer, so that should make quick work of it. After those two big projects, there will just be small projects to do, and after I finish my dissertation, for the first time since 2014 I will not have anything big hanging over my head. It will be nice to have weekends to just go do fun things and not think about how I should be writing rather than playing Animal Crossing or cleaning my house.
Christmas is 10 days away and I feel like I have not really done much to prepare for it. My tree is up and I have decorated the inside and outside of my house a bit, but I have only bought a couple of presents. I bought April an Animal Crossing Switch and Dan wanted Game of Thrones DVDs. Ben will want money, and last year I bought Matt an Amazon gift card that he never redeemed, so I will regift that to him, lol. I also bought my nieces an Amazon gift card last year that their dad did not redeem, so guess who will be getting another regifted gift card. I bought my mom an Amazon gift card when I went to visit in October, so she is taken care of. Those are really the only people I need to buy for. I pretty much buy what I need when I need it, so I do not ever know what to tell people I want. I prefer just to enjoy the company of my small family. I will host Christmas Eve at my house and April is hosting Christmas dinner at her house. She is very proud of her new home and loves when Dan and I come to vist. She and Ben are making it really cute. I am glad that they get along so well.
Well, I really need to go and study. My defense is in eight hours and I want to be very well prepared. I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
Other than that, there is not much going on at the moment. There is a lot in the works for after Christmas, though. I got my new countertops a week ago, and they have really brightened up my kitchen a lot. My old countertops were black granite. Apparently they were very popular in the early 2000s. I hated them because they always looked dirty and I could not find things I set down on them. It's like the item would get sucked into a black hole. My new countertops are white quartz with a gray pattern. After I take my Christmas tree down, we are going to rip out my floors and lay new vinyl planks down in the whole house. We already ripped carpet out of two of the bedrooms. Only my bedroom still has carpet. After we get the floors laid, we plan to paint, but only because I am not 100% sure of about what color will go best with the flooring I have chosen. If I can nail that down before we lay the flooring, then I might paint first, which would actually be better. We bought a sprayer, so that should make quick work of it. After those two big projects, there will just be small projects to do, and after I finish my dissertation, for the first time since 2014 I will not have anything big hanging over my head. It will be nice to have weekends to just go do fun things and not think about how I should be writing rather than playing Animal Crossing or cleaning my house.
Christmas is 10 days away and I feel like I have not really done much to prepare for it. My tree is up and I have decorated the inside and outside of my house a bit, but I have only bought a couple of presents. I bought April an Animal Crossing Switch and Dan wanted Game of Thrones DVDs. Ben will want money, and last year I bought Matt an Amazon gift card that he never redeemed, so I will regift that to him, lol. I also bought my nieces an Amazon gift card last year that their dad did not redeem, so guess who will be getting another regifted gift card. I bought my mom an Amazon gift card when I went to visit in October, so she is taken care of. Those are really the only people I need to buy for. I pretty much buy what I need when I need it, so I do not ever know what to tell people I want. I prefer just to enjoy the company of my small family. I will host Christmas Eve at my house and April is hosting Christmas dinner at her house. She is very proud of her new home and loves when Dan and I come to vist. She and Ben are making it really cute. I am glad that they get along so well.
Well, I really need to go and study. My defense is in eight hours and I want to be very well prepared. I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
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