thanksgiving holiday

it was very nice to go home and see a lot of family over the break! sadly, i didn't take many photos. here are some of my favorite highlights...

1. delicious food! we actually had lots of leftovers on the big day!
2. OU beats OSU!! what a great game! i was especially impressed with ty's interest and attention throughout the entire game.
3. trivial pursuit 1980's - mom & grant were the winners. no surprise that kyle & i were not too good. wait til the 2000's come out though! also, liked how uncle matt repeatedly told uncle mike, ooh, you'll get this one, before reading his question.
4. cranium - holly was convinced she would be 'less than' a full player. however, she and dani beat the rest of us pretty good. my fav was probably dani bodysurfing, dave's many humdingers, and the group sonny & cher humdinger.
5. james' convincing argument to angel on the responsibleness of eleanor roosevelt in apples to apples. she stood her ground tho and didn't cave in.
6. getting to hold molly rose!
7. chatting fashion with kyle and holly
8. kyle's and my confusion over a new word, 'tump'. tentative definition ~ synonym for dump.
9. ordering my very own big screen tv on black friday! thanks for the help kyle.
10. did i mention the food?? :)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOU!

what a great game on saturday! that was very exciting!

i'm looking forward to a great thanksgiving holiday with the family. and hopefully some serious writing on a couple of projects i'm working on.

last weekend i got to go to club rodeo in okc with a big group of girls. we started the evening by eating at sake, a japanese steakhouse in norman (per my recommendation). it was delicious! club rodeo was quite the experience, plenty of line dancing, two stepping, and a real bullriding area with bullriders every 30 min or so. pretty crazy. i had to tell off a guy that wouldn't leave me alone...that's kind of interesting i suppose. i felt bad after i did, but he was being so annoying and stupid! he kept poking me and bumping me for probably close to 30 minutes and acting like he wasn't! it was so dumb! then he asked me to dance and i said, 'no, i don't want to dance with you. i want you to leave me alone. you have been bugging for way too long now.' he left my area promply after that.

had a couple former students from my program come talk to us on friday about the joys of being a professor in a business school. making me think long and hard about doing that when i graduate. sounds like a nice, flexible and rewarding life. we'll see....

i saw the new james bond movie last weekend. it was pretty good for those of you who like action movies.

that's all for now...gotta get to bed so i can get some serious writing done tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

Weeeeelllll, aren't I a cool cat. Got to go to two super fun Halloween parties this year.

The theme for the first, was 1980's Prom of the Living Dead. I got this great dress on Ebay. My cause of death was bitten by a vampire. You can't see in this pic, but I had blood at the corners of my mouth and a bite marks on my neck! I washed the blood off my mouth halfway through, as I decided it spoiled the pictures....I won the award for biggest hair too!

Kyle had to inform me that vampires are not dead, rather they are immortal. But I decided to ignore his negativism!

The second party was this past weekend and the theme was Graphic Novels/Comic book characters/Cartoon Characters. So, my friend, Kim and I were power rangers! We made the costumes ourselves!

Kyle again informed me that power rangers were alive, thus not cartoons and they were also not comic book characters. He sure knows how to be negative nancy!

fun times!

hello all! thought i would share some of my fun times with those of you interested. Been having lots of fun hanging out with people from school. The first set of pictures here are from a fun place in moore. We ate pizza, rode go karts, climbed the rock wall (which i dominated!), and played mini golf. lots of fun. :)

last weekend i got to go to lake texoma (and see you guys during the game). a group of 8 of us go to have a great girls weekend complete with karaoke. it was so much fun, the karaoke was not too pretty tho.

got to see mom and kim and claire this past wkd briefly. they came up to norman so claire could have some pics made with her other cousins. mom and i got some quality time in by going to eat lunch, shopping, and seeing a movie. brace yourselves. we saw "w". which was actually really good. i recommend seeing it.

i'm very excited for halloween parties! i think i'm going to two this year! stay tuned for pics of the festivities! :)

'long time no blog'

well what can i say? last week was abc stay at home week! so, you know my social calendar was quite full. only partly kidding....i did have a quite a bit of work also. but i found time to watch dancing with the stars, america's next top model, project runway, the office, and greys anatomy.

kyle came to visit me last weekend. we got in some good shopping, burn after reading, and several good meals. kyle also managed to squeeze in a little movie time with a lady friend as well. but of course, i wouldn't want to detail all of his happenings online!

teaching is going well. at least i think it is....not sure if the students would agree or not! sometimes they are listening and then i can tell sometimes they are completely zoned out! i actually enjoy teaching for the most part though, i think.

katie and i saw ghost town this weekend. it was pretty funny and i would recommend it given the current slump at the cinema.

here are a few pics from my house...since i haven't taken any others lately. the first is my bed, the window in my room, and then the guest bedroom.

Master of Disaster

I defended my thesis today!! So, now you can call me Master Shipman. :)

Woo hoo!

I was so happy to have that finished.

In other news...school has started and it is already busy busy. I thought I would take the evening off, but no luck. Going to start reading some articles now before bed.

I'm teaching a class this semester, well co-teaching with another grad student. I haven't taught my first lecture yet, we are swapping off. I pretty much feel like a poser--I'm teaching an upper division psych course, so the students are only a few years younger than me! I'll update on that later.

I'm also workin on some new projects this semester. One is what I like to call the Army Emo grant. In which we are developing training for emotional management for army leaders. Also working on another grant, no details available for that one!

I went to Miami this past week to see Nathan's parents and celebrate his bday. We had a nice time. Sorry, no pictures. My camera is MIA.

I took very few pictures from Andrea's wedding, but here is one.

Just because its a fancy hair place doesn't mean they won't do this to you....

Don't worry, I removed some of the flowers from the 'do before the ceremony.

six flags, andrea's wedding shower

mom, ty, and i went to six flags to help celebrate ty's 9th bday! it was a blast and ty was even brave enough to ride batman!

the 3d ride was a bit later in the day as you could probably tell....

andrea's bridal shower was today at my house! katie and i (the ladies in white) were two of the hosts. it went really well, all of our food was delicious! including the always popular (c/o kim's recipe) fruit dip.

andrea cracked us up with her one request, a barbie bridal cake.

vacations all i ever wanted

well i'm back in norman, ok after a long vacation, including the family trip to florida and then relaxation in coleman for several days. in florida, we got to enjoy plenty of beach time.

There was plenty of driving time of course--15 hours total! and that was with three of us in the backseat together. it wasn't too bad though and we really didn't have one of our traditional knock down drag out fights luckily.

Every evening we got to enjoy delicious seafood. By the last evening, however, kyle, ty, and I were wanting something different! so we ordered Chinese food while the others had seafood yet again!

I didn’t make many pictures over the fourth, but I will share my favorite one! This one captures a dramatic moment by miss jenny, when she saw lightening in the distance and feared there would be no swimming.

Fun with friends

Hi everyone! Had a fun time this weekend going out with the girls! We had lots of fun chatting, laughing, and busting a move.

On Sunday, Nathan and I went to church in Norman. There was a really good lesson on hungering and thirsting for righteousness. As opposed to always pursuing happiness, as most people try to do. In pursuit of righteousness, happiness will be a byproduct. It was very uplifting. After church we got do enjoy a delicious meal at Ted's.

4 more days of my summer class!! I will be glad when its finished. After that I really need to finish up my thesis. Although, the time pressure on that has kind of eased up since one of the profs on my committee is apparently going to be out of pocket until the the second week in August! Ah, the leisurely life of a college professor....

I will be co-teaching a class this fall! I'm excited about it because I'm hoping it will help me decide if teaching is something I would like to do after I graduate. Its an upper division I/O psychology course. So, we'll see how it goes....

No pics, just updates

I don't know about any of you, but sometimes I feel a little funny about posting details of my happenings online. Sometimes I feel like I should be intentionally vague about certain aspects of my life, like when I'll be out of town. Anyway....

My old roommate and dear friend has left me for Peace Corps work in Moldova. If anyone wants to hear chronicles of her tales, check out http://sunflowerlenses.blogspot.com/. I miss you Rebecca!

In other news....I've been busy as a bee with house work. Well, more purchasing things for my house and deciding where to put/arrange them. I'm very pleased with my progress and the look of my home. :) I'm just very slow to get it the way I want it. Stay tuned for pictures in coming days!

Family vacation is coming up very soon! I'm hoping for some fun on the beach, good meals, and relaxation with the family.

Tonight I'm going to go up to OKC to have dinner and go out on the town with some girlfriends. In fact, I should probably be getting ready now! We are going to eat dinner at Cheesecake Factory, which is one of my absolute favorites. :)

its magic!

i have honed my skills in photoshop. now i can be the airbrushed model ive always wanted to be!

btw....dani is supposed to get induced tonight! everyone keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

summer times

hello! i've been a busy bee the last week or two. i've been waiting to blog until i had the pictures that detail my business!


not last weekend, but the weekend before nathan and i went to a wedding of one of his old college friends. the wedding was in norman and the reception was in okc. we had a great time, the only downfall was the fact that my fabulous new dress was also seen on another guest!! *gasp. i know.

here is nathan with one of his best friends who flew in from california. he impressed us with stories of meeting carrot top and carson daly.

here is the happy couple!

the next day after the wedding we went to miami, ok to meet nathan's family. his parents were very friendly and warm, so we had a nice time. this is us with nathan's nephew who was also visiting.

on the way back we decided to drive through missouri and arkansas. we went to the ouchita state park in arkansas and devils den! the picture of us driving is also a good shot of nathan's head injury, acquired when he was giving me a piggy back ride after the wedding. it was pretty bad!

the next weekend was off to coleman for dani's baby shower at kim's house. it was nice seeing the family!

after the shower we went out to lake with dad. i would post a picture of that, but i've got one in my bikini and i don't want to be one of those girls.

beginning of summer

Well now that school has finished things have winded down a bit, still going just at a more relaxed pace. This weekend I'm going to a wedding and then to Miami, OK to meet Nathan's family. I'm thinking I will make some brownies to take with me, because I've been informed that his mom loves them. :)

I mentioned earlier how I'm writing a paper with another grad student on leading for creativity. Well, yesterday Mumford was actually highly complementary of the section I wrote. Making me very happy!

This past week I was a bit sick it turns out. So, I went to the doctors at Goddard (the OU health services). The doc immediately diagnosed me with strep throat. Even though all I've had is a sore throat that wouldn't go away. So, I suspect a misdiagnosis. I'm feeling much better now either way.

I've seen Chronicles of Narnia and Iron Man recently. Both were good! I do NOT recommend Horton hears a who. It was not good at all.

Finals & My Tattoo!

Just gotta get through tomorrow and I am through with my 4th semester of grad school!!!!! Hurray! Looking forward so much to going home and seeing the family at Claire's birthday party.

Nathan and I went to Norman's first mustic festival recently. It was pretty cool how they closed down Main St and had 2 different stages all day with bands performing. Since I was enjoying the rocker scene that I did something a little crazy....

Okay, so its actually a henna tattoo--which is temporary! But the funny thing is that we went to the mall later that day and I saw Andrea's sister's husband. Well, word got back to Andrea that I had a large dragon tattoo and she called me the next day. I think she was worried about her wedding! :)

San Francisco Trip

Hi all! I was about to do my regular planning for the next day or two, but instead decided to do a quick entry. I will mention that I have recently become a big fan of Microsoft OneNote--great for those who like to plan!




So, the conference was pretty neat. We went each day but only stayed for 1 or 2 sessions before taking off to do sight seeing. Unfortunately I didn't really take any pics when I was dressed up for the conference. But I will post a few of the sight seeing pictures.

The first picture is me at the base of Lombard St, which is the most crookedest, or most winding street in the world!


The next picture shows all of the sea lions, outside of the Sea Lion Cafe we had lunch in. They were entertaining to watch, those that weren't just sunbathing, that is.
Welcome to the Rock! The Alcatraz tour was my favorite part. It was really interesting to see it in person and hear about what life was like for the inmates.






Here is me outside of one of the cells. Each cell had a little toilet, a cot, and a shelf in the back. There was also a little metal seat attached to the wall with a tiny table over it.

This is me inside one of the solitary confinement cells! Men that were locked in these cells were shut up in complete darkness with nothing but the cement floor.

Other things seen: Ghiradelli Square, Golden Gate Bridge, Little Italy, China Town, and plenty of good shopping at some of my favorite stores.

Busy busy

Going to get a haircut and color. I don't think it will be anything dramatic. I'll take a before and after picture.

Tomorrow I leave for San Francisco! It will be my first time at a professional conference and in the city, so it should be fun.

Being a grownup stinks! And continuing to make Cristy look bad

ahahahha. Perhaps it was Cristy's refusal to update us through blogging on her precious baby that made me want to blog. (See her comment on last post). Maybe the peer pressure will continue to mount until she succumbs.

in reference to the other part of my title.....today was really annoying because i have many bills and expenses looming over my head. fence repair, new tires, annual servicing of my car, the list goes on and on! i have had the worst experience with repair people too! i will just sound off on that, if anyone else agrees i would be happy to hear it! the ones i have dealt with have been unreliable, done shoddy work, and hard to get a hold of. unless the person comes recommended, then you have no way of knowing if they will be any good, overpriced, untrustworthy, etc. i find it very frustrating.

misc--i'm considering getting a body wave--does anybody do that anymore? also, as summer approaches i'm also considering going back to blond... any opinions?

i'm planning on taking some pics around my house and putting them on here soon, for those of you who haven't gotten to see it yet! i've actually had lots of compliments on it in the past few weeks when i got to host the grad student recruitment parties. so stay tuned for those. :)

1st timer

Hello all. I have decided, on a whim, that I would start a blog. My past endeavors into these domains have ultimately ended within several short months, so we will see if I am able to maintain this blog. Those of you who are interested in my happenings can access this site, since I can turn into somewhat of a recluse.

I was in the middle of typing up my thesis when I got to a point where I thought I would just fall asleep, probably since I'm working from my bed. (I have on more than one occasion fallen asleep with my laptop at my side). To give myself a mental break I started checking blogs of my relatives--miss Claire's, Owen's, and briefly Allie and Emma's. Its fun to look at their blogs and see how much they are growing! Obviously, at this point in my life there won't be any baby pictures. Unless someone let's me pose with their baby I guess. :)

I won't get overly indulgent in describing graduate school--I know its boring to most people. But, I will say that I'm currently writing up my thesis (as previously mentioned), writing a theoretical article (with another grad student) on 'Leading for Creativity' and developing a new experimental study on the 'Overconfidence of Leaders'. Each week I meet with my major professor and update him on these projects and show him my work. To which he critically reviews and when I say critically, I mean it! Yesterday, for example, was no exception when he looked over the intro of the leading for creativity paper.

At least its the weekend! I'm not sure exactly what my plans will be (apart from writing on those papers I mentioned and a take home statistics midterm), but I'm conisdering going to a wedding tomorrow of an old sorority sister with my roommate and friend, Rebecca (pictured below). I also need to go by the bridal store at some point soon to try on the bridesmaid dress for my friend Andrea's wedding. As soon as she gets her bridal website finished I will be sure to post a link for those interested in seeing it.

I'm also hoping to spend time with Nathan. He suggested we do something active--like play basketball. I might have to beat him at pig again. Although he would have to bring up how he stuffed me over and over again last time we played against each other. I voted for going to see a movie since we haven't in a long time! There really isn't anything good out, but we'll see.

For those of you who didn't know I recently went snow skiing in Colorado! I had a great time with three girlfriends. I got to ski for 4 days and felt like I really improved my technique and my confidence. My friends were a little more cautious than I, so I ended up doing some of the harder slopes by myself. Making them even more of a challenge! I guess I would score high in risk-taking. (Psychometric perspective creeping in). The snow was good though and I can't wait to go again!