It's finally done!!!

It feels really good to say that I am completely done with my thesis. It hit me today, while I was at the gym of all places, how much work I have put into this thing. Especially since the beginning of this semester. In September, I sat down to figure out what I needed to do to finish. I looked at my deadlines and realized that I needed to be done with the whole thing by Halloween. This seemed totally do-able......til I realized that I needed to do an emergency 2nd data collection. For anyone who doesn't know what that means...I basically had to get as many families at Heritage to take my survey because I didn't have enough in my study to find anything significant. Sounds easy, but remember, this is a residential treatment center. So the kids are here in Provo, convenient, but the parents are spread out all over the country....mostly in California and Alaska. I honestly don't know how it happened....it's all a blur of no sleep and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But I ended up with 181 participants in my study. Yeah!!!

So I did the fastest data analysis in the history of......well, something, I'm sure. And for the past 2 weeks I have been in the grad office til 1:30 am or so....almost every night....writing, writing, writing. I turned it in on Halloween (YEAH!!!) and scheduled my defense for Novemeber 14. The defense is where I get up in front of my committee, professors, fellow grad students, and anyone else who comes, and give a 20 minute powerpoint presentation about my study. At the end, anyone can ask me questions or make comments. After that, I sit with my committee and they tell me whether or not I passed, and what revisions, if any, I need to make. I'm not too worried about the defense. It'll be pretty easy. And everyone is super supportive as they rip apart my study....haha....just kidding.

Anyways, here are a few pics of the recent happenings in my life.

Andy was in town for a few days in September. He came to a BYU football game with me and Jeff. Figures that he would ruin picture. Think his face will stay that way permanently?

This is one of the many football games I went to with Jeff this semester. BYU vs. UCLA Score was like 59-0 or something. Go Cougs!!!!!

In September, my friends and I went to Lake Powell for a few days. I learned to wakeboard. I love it!!!! You might be thinking....All she does is play!!! While that may seem true seeing as how I was jet skiing or biking or something almost everyday this summer, that was all for work. This trip was purely for fun with friends.

One friend had the boat, another had the suburban. You get enough people together and it's a relatively cheap trip. From left to right in this picture, Me, Jeff, Bryce, Jeremy, Amber, Jordan, Jenn, and Reuben. Good people! Good times!


Jeff and I swimming. This was actually in this sweet place called Cathedral in the Desert. When the sun light hits the water just right, it lights up all the walls and turns the water bright green. It was pretty cool. That's an understatement, but I'm really tired right now.

Yeah!!!! Shells came to visit me in August all the way from Texas. I will be visiting her in Houston in December, as she is getting married!!!!! Yeah!!!! Can't wait to be there for it.