No longer ABD (all but dissertation)

Yes, i defended last May 22- I passed! My topic was "Professional Development in Medical Education - Using a Motivational Framework to Increase Cultural Competence Skills". Sounds complicated? But it's not. It was a qualitative study over a 6 month period of time from October to March. It was challenging but fun. My powerpoint was about 45 minutes. I had a conference room, and about 20 people attended. Most of my coworkers, my committee and a couple of guests. I had a great party afterwards, attended by family and friends. I partied too much and somewhere i am told there is a video and photos of mr crumping with victor. Hah! Funny! It was worth it though, since it took me 13 years to finish this dang degree! That whole memorial day weekend was just a big celebration for me - it was great to spend it with so many family and friends....

My coworkers gave me this balloon and a bouquet of roses!

The calm before the storm, as ready as I would ever get for my presentation. This was the Smart Room (a contradiction, for sho) and it was so hot in this room. By the time I got done, my shirt was soaked with sweat!

Maddie!

I have a new niece! Her name is Madeleine Joelle. Her nickname is Maddie, born May 16 at 8.5 lbs. to my sister Jehlee and her hubby Joel. I love this picture of me, Maddie and Mia. Maddie looks like she's laughing at the camera...someone said I looked real happy here. I was and I think this little girl has a very special place in my heart already! I love that she looks like a boy, i know she's not but she has that look, maybe cause she looks like her Dad. She's very very pretty. I love her name too. Proud auntie, that's what i am!

Maddie and Auntie Marie!

Mia is already a good big sister!

I love this picture - she seems so aware, like she knows something we don't...sweet!

Tulip Festival!

Yesterday a couple of friends from work and I spent the day taking pictures and practicing with our cameras at the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, WA. In all the 28 years that I have lived here, I had never been so yesterday was a good sunny day to finally go! We had a blast taking pictures and generally creating a ruckus at the fields. We were doing our Tyra poses and giving the flowers something to smile about! Above is a picture of a school bus that was parked in the middle of the field. We figured it was there to give people a place to rest from the heat while they are picking or cutting flowers.

This is a flaming parrot variety of tulips. I did get a bunch of tulips and this was one variety i picked up. I love that the colors are flaming red orange and yellow.

For this one, I put the camera down low to the ground. Not sure if I had the 50 mm lens or my zoom lens on this. It was trial and error but it was cool to take a chance and just shoot and find out later what i took. I loved some of the ones I ended up with. Brilliant!
Ruusengaarde Field had a frog that people were posing with so I got down on all fours to give it a big kiss. It did not turn into a prince (or princess!) Nevertheless, i still looked ridiculous on all fours. Hah!
This is one of the photos I loved. I loved the orange with the blue sky, i might send this out to be printed professionally so I can frame it. Brilliant!
I think this was Tulip Town, the first one we went to. I still looked semi-fresh in this one, but as the morning and day rolled on, it got hotter and hotter and dustier and dustier!

Another stately bloom, i loved the color of this one...

I really enjoyed the contrast of the yellow line against the blue/white sky on this. The flowers looked amazingly flat. It might have had something to do with my setting on the camera but I really liked how it ended up.

Ah, brilliant!!

Jennifer, me and Maria, my fellow tiptoers through the tulips!

Love the red flowers against the yellow bus. This was definitely with my 200 mm zoom lens. This row seemed to stretch for a mile long! I enjoyed the day trip and used up a lot of gigs on my memory card. I have more pictures that I will print (instead of publish) so I can frame them. So happy I got a chance to do this!

UW Red Square on a beautiful sunny day!

Above is my niece Mia who is turning two in a couple of weeks. She's getting to be a flirty model, and I think she has potential to be an actress, if you ask me.

Then at lunch today, i had the pleasure of spending a beautiful sunny, 70 degree afternoon with my peeps at OMA/D - they were doing a lunch for folks who were taking a class, or entering a degree program, or finishing one up. As Sheila put it (VP for Diversity), it was all about nurturing the next crop of leaders. I was so honored to be included, and I always enjoy hanging out on upper campus more and more (more than my UWSOM world, unfortunately)...Then found out that Jan loves Adele, like me, and Emil can act all ghetto any time he wants to and that he's a Henny guy...LOL! On the way back, I took some shots as I was walking across campus of the Quad...the cherry trees are in bloom, so many students out on the grass, enjoying the sun. I love this campus! So right now, I am in between meetings, so checking email and work stuff but I thought I'd blog these photos right away since we've missed the sun so much. I hope the sun sticks around (it won't) so I'm going to enjoy it while i can.


And on another note, I just want to let you all know that I finally submitted my dissertation this Saturday. It was over 200 pages, with 109 pages I personally wrote every word. My title is "Professional Development in Medical Education - Using a Motivational Framework to Increase Cultural Competence." I was quite happy with it, after I did some more edits. My adviser Margery might have me change a few more things but I doubt it. The next thing that happens is I have to make a public presentation about it, my work, my outcomes, etc. That is open to the public, then everyone leaves and I am left to spar it out with my committee who will question me on my process, theory, etc. That roast is held in secret, away from public humiliation!

In any event, I am so ready to get this done. I can't believe that I am so close, since I've been working on this since 1996! It will be so nice not to have this hanging over my life once it's done. I can finally do some fun stuff, like paint the inside of my house and get Matthew's clothes packed and simplify my life. I'm going to be donating his clothes to a men's recovery group on capitol hill, and I feel myself getting closer to actually being ready and able to move on...symbolically, his clothes probably symbolize this the most, for me. It has been 14 months since he passed.

So lots of changes happening in my life - closing chapters, and starting new ones. Spring is a time for renewal and rejuvenation and I can feel its energy in my life right now....

Daren's Birthday

My friend Daren had a birthday party a week ago at La Casa dela Mojitos and we had fun! Of course the karaoke machine was on but it was so piddly compared to the super mike I am usually used to, but the company was awesome and people were dancing and singing on the floor. We had the place to ourselves and of course it was good to catch up with some old friends and to see people from work in a different setting than what I'm used to...

Me and my friend Annette:

Daren! Whaaaa!

Daren, Annette and me:

He had cupcakes instead of a birthday cake. He's such a great singer and dancer too!

Here he is on the karaoke machine:

What fun. It was a nice way to end my week at Lake Chelan.

Whoa, it's been a while!

Since mid February, I've been up to a number of things. My mom had her gall bladder removed last month and here's some shots of us in the hospital with her - can you imagine, someone is sick and here we are taking pictures...! Above is Mia playing around for the camera....

Here she is looking very cute....

Kissing Daddy!

Aaron is on the bed while the patient (MamaLuz) is on her feet. Does she look upset?

Mia looking very grown up - she's going to be 2 in April!

Then in mid March I went to Lake Chelan to recover from tooth surgery as well as to write my dissertation. I was determined, even though there was snow on the pass and chains were required. But fortunately, I had a four wheel drive and my trusty highlander pulled me through the traffic and slow moving vehicles. What would have been a 3-1/2 hour drive took me 5 hours to get there!

But it was worth it, here's the view outside my balcony! I was steps from the lake, and it was so quiet and so good for writing. Thanks to my friends Ginny and Larry! I finished my first draft in this tranquil environment, away from everyone, only my ipod to keep me company...and a bottle of wine. I did celebrate with a couple of shots of tequila after I finished writing!

The view outside my balcony apartment...

Last night we were over at Ella's house to celebrate her Dad's birthday. It was fun, we had the karaoke going all night. This is Aileen, Susan, Pinky and Jamie.

Above is Anton and her son, Ian (I think that is his name), PInky and Edwin.

Jehlee arrived a little later with Joel, and this is Pinky, Jehlee and Susan.
She's due at the end of May!

Me, Pinky, Jehlee and Susan. I have lost a little bit of weight, though you can't tell from this picture since I'm all covered up. I am down to size 12, from size 18! I was big, and now all my clothes are too big. I was able to pull up some of my older pants and start wearing them again!

Pinky was so happy that Aaron was doing Karaoke. This one's with Jamie.

Then she and Dennis started singing Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang and Pinky was already drunk so she was horsing around in this picture. It was still good to see them both perform though....

Whew, I am so glad aaron's hands are on her shoulder, not her butt!

Mia is so cute - she's sick right now with the cold - which everyone has...but she was doing ok when this picture was taken.

So right now, i am editing my dissertation and hoping to turn in a final by this weekend. It has kept me very busy but in a good way. I had a rough week this week but got to spend time with my friend Pam Friday to relax and unwind. Then the next day my Craft group and I went to Bellingham to go supplies shopping at various stores. I spent way more than I thought I would but I also hadn't spent any money on crafts in months.

I think that when my schoolwork is done, I am going to be able to go back to crafting again, which is my first love anyways. I can't wait for this to happen! I am so excited that I am going to be done with School soon!

Orcas Island

The kids and i went to Orcas Island over valentines weekend, just to get away and be near the ocean. i thought it might be therapeutic, being a year after Matthew passed. I had so much fun, shocking the kids with my dancing abilities, and blasting the ipods at night! They were all sitting looking at computers (can you believe it?) while i was dancing away, in the living room, like a fool, by myself. it was so freeing though, to have fun like that, and the kids just didn't really care. they probably just thought, that's mom being crazy - what else is new???? LOL! anyhow, we ended up going into town a couple of times, and visited the Rosario Resort which was under renovation, but we still got to enjoy the view. Here are a few of the pictures we took....

this is mandela and jamila's friend, victor

victor admiring jamila's food cause his took sooo long to prepare!

ahhh, sunshine!

jamila and victor (and mandela's thumb)

she's thinking....

GROUP HUG!