The Little Ballerina as a Dog

The month of May was a whirlwind with graduation, a Pre-K graduation, a dance recital and packing everything we own to be stored for at least a month before our move to Ohio. Taryne's ballet recital was one of the last things we had before the final packing push.

The ballet recital this year was Cinderella. Her class performed as dogs. For the performance, they had headbands with dog ears and a tail attached. Taryne did a great job and remembered most of the moves. We are so proud of her and her hard work and determination with ballet. As of right now, she wants to be a dance teacher and own a dance studio when she grows up.

A picture with Cinderella

Graduation

Well, I did it. I graduated with a Ph.D. and I still can't believe I did that. I know I would not have been able to do this without the support of Kyle, Taryne, Hayden and all my friends and family.

Me and my advisor, Dr. Rob Hardin before the ceremony

Me and My friend Tyler Standifird, he graduated with a PhD in Biomechanics

Dr. Joy DeSensi, basically one of the original scholars in sport
and one of the founders of our national organization.

Just love these two!

What's next? I got a job as an assistant professor at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, OH beginning this fall. We will be moving there this summer and we are all looking forward to the things ahead!

My Little Ballerina

This year for Taryne's dance recital, her class will be the dogs in Cinderella. I love how the ballet show is incorporated into one main story. When I was a little girl in dance class, our recital had an overall theme for the show and all dances (ballet, tap, jazz, etc) somehow fit that theme with the music. Here, at this dance school, there is a theme for each type of dance. Last year, the jazz group went first, then all the tap and then finally the ballet production which was Peter Pan. Even though Taryne is in a ballet/tap combo class, the preschool agers only do the ballet portion.

Taryne is excelling in ballet and tap. Her teach is constantly telling us how well she is doing and that she is one of the best (if not the best) students in the class. She knows her ballet steps and terminology and can do the steps really well. On a few occasions, she has had the opportunity to be the "teacher" because she knew the dance and was asked to lead the class as they practiced.

As of right now, she wants to be a dance teacher when she grows up. She talks about working hard because she really wants to dance en pointe.

This is her costume for the dance recital this May. May 23rd cannot get here fast enough for Taryne!

The Defense

So as I previously mentioned, this past Monday was my dissertation defense. Let me tell you that the entire weekend before was crazy. Stressful, crazy. I felt so guilty on Sunday evening because I was a bit snippity the entire weekend. It was the stress. While I knew my advisor would not let me schedule or present my defense if I wasn't ready, but I still felt this big "what if...".

Well, I am happy to report that I presented the results, discussion and recommendations of my dissertation and passed with flying colors! I have some minor revisions from all committee members to do over the next few weeks but that is totally normal.

The relief to have Monday over and done with is huge. I can't even describe how huge it is. I have finally started sleeping through the night again, I don't get as frustrated with little things and I am partly in disbelief. I always knew I could do it, but I always had those small pieces of doubt. I guess that is normal.

It has been a bit weird to have everyone in my department greet me as Dr. Rode this week. I think it will take a little getting used to.

My committee: Dr. Fairhurst (tourism), Dr. Trendafilova (sport management), Dr. Hardin (sport management, advisor), Me, Dr. Waller (sport management) & Kyle

The Texas Rode's visit the Tennessee Rode's

This summer we had a few people come visit us from Texas. It was the talk of the house for weeks leading up to Reagan coming to visit. Josh, Janna and Reagan came for nearly a week to Tennessee to check out the Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee, visit us and lots more. The first weekend they were in town, we stayed with them in their cabin in Gatlinburg. We managed to get the kids through the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, the Knoxville Zoo and a trip to Chuy's for some yummy Tex-Mex.

Super creepy looking shark above our heads

Trying to get 3 small children to take a picture together and all look and smile at the same time is nearly impossible.

Taryne must always get a map at the zoo.

Later in the week, we had them over for a "play date" and dinner. Taryne and Hayden were so excited to visit with their cousin.

Officially ABD

You are probably wondering what the heck "ABD" is, right? Well that s my new "title" along with Ph.D. Candidate. I have officially passed my proposal defense (the meeting where I present my idea, research questions, method). I have "promoted" to Ph.D. Candidate from Ph.D. Student.

So, ABD means "all but dissertation". All coursework for the doctor of philosophy degree has been completed, I have passed my comprehensive exams and everyone on my committee believes I am ready (and prepared) to move on to the data collection phase. I want to thank you (those few that read this) for your patience and understanding with my lack of posts over the last 2 years. It has been very stressful and the time is often not there to even take 5 minutes to write down ideas or share pictures.

Currently I am working to finalize my survey (I chose survey over interviews because I have no desire to transcribe hours upon hours of recorded interviews and then code them and find meanings) and submit it for IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval. Once approved, I am cleared to collect data for my dissertation.

In case you are wondering, my dissertation is over what motivations people have to attend college football games with an RV. My research areas are in sport tourism, marketing and intercollegiate athletics. There is very little information out there on "who" the people are that travel to college sporting events with an RV. So to collect data, I will be doing paper and pencil surveys to those in the RV parking designated areas on college campuses on game weekends. Yes, I will be coming to TAMU and I am so excited to see Kyle Field in person. (squeal!!)

If all goes well, I will have collected all my data by end of October or the beginning of November at the very latest. I will then only have chapters 4 and 5 left to write and should have that completed sometime in December. The goal is to defend my dissertation in late February but no later than the first week of March. Once I defend (and my committee tells me I passed, which happens the same day as the defense) then I am a "Dr." but will not actually graduate until May.

So that is basically my next few months in a nutshell. Anyone want to come to Knoxville and help me? :)

While I have completed and "checked-off" so many things, I still have a lot to do.

Rocky Top

It has been 2 years since we officially moved to Knoxville. I was excited and very nervous. Kyle and I had talked about leaving College Station and Texas for years and here it was, finally happening. I was so scared that it might not be a good experience for Kyle, Taryne and Hayden. They were sacrificing so much to allow me to go to school (again) to get a Ph.D. I think we all knew it would be tough and we would miss things from Texas and of course our family, but I didn't think we would actually begin to love it here.

While I have missed some things from Texas, living in Knoxville has been great. We have one more year here and then we are off to the next city and next adventure. I don't think most Texans realize that there is so much more outside the state of Texas and most are not willing to live elsewhere. As an academic advisor, most students would not even consider leaving Texas, even if it meant a higher paying job and experience where they could eventually come back. Personally, living further north works great for our family. Our seasonal allergies are virtually nonexistent, I haven't had heat headaches and the weather is just amazing. Our "hot" days are in the upper 80's. Yeah, 80's and I think I am going to die because it is so "hot".

I truly was nervous about leaving College Station and our Aggie bubble. We are in a new orange bubble now and it has been so fun and crazy and frustrating all at the same time. People here bleed orange, not the ugly burnt orange, Tennessee orange. :) I think I will actually be sad next May/June as  we pack to move to wherever we go next.

Many days I feel that Knoxville is more "home" than anywhere in Texas, even College Station or Manvel--the two places I claim as my hometown. Taryne and Hayden love it here and Taryne insists we need to move to a location that is cloudy and rainy all the time because she doesn't like to see the sun that much. I guess she is my child. :)

"Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to me. Good ole rocky top, rocky top Tennessee, rocky top Tennessee!"

The "Other" Side

As a little girl, I loved to read. I look back and I did everything I could to get my hands on books to read. My summers were spent reading and some playing outside, but I remember thinking I would rather read than be outside in the heat. My favorite books were mysteries, especially ghost stories. I think I read Christina's Ghost at least 3-4 times per school year. Ironically I still don't own a copy of the book. Another book by Betty Ren Wright was The Dollhouse Murders. Really anything I could find with a ghost story and a mystery--fact or fiction--I was anxious to read.

When we moved to the "old house" in Llano, we were told there were "spirits" in the house. I didn't believe it, though there was a part of me that wanted to believe it. While I am not sure if there are really spirits there, a few weird things happened while we lived there that made me question if they were really there. The TV would often turn off if you left the room and sometimes the doors would shut.

Two things happened that really made me think someone or something was there. One night, in the middle of the night the TV turned on. To a station of nothing but static. The weird thing is the TV was one of those really old kind that ONLY turned on when you turned the knob. You know, the kind before remotes. The on/off knob was also the volume, so when you turned it on, the volume was very low and you had to continue turning to increase the volume. Well the TV turned on to a static station at FULL volume. And it was in the added on room that had an exterior door and lock and the door was locked and no one was sleeping in that room that night. I am not sure anyone really slept in that room again.

The other thing was in the detached garage. My dad was in there working and went in the house for a moment. When he came back, there was an old knife on the floor in the middle of the doorway of the garage. No doors were shut, so nothing could have knocked it loose. Just weird.

In December 2011, Kyle's grandmother passed away. Taryne was a little over 2, but pretty vocal on most things. At the church, she talked about the angel in the front of the church. The only angel was the small one on the nativity set on the side of the church. She insisted and pointed to the front, up high and told us there was an angel there. This lasted before, during and after the service. Kyle suggested that it could be Mamaw and Taryne quickly agreed. I had quite a bit of trouble keeping myself together during the service. I am sure part of it was being pregnant, but the other part was her constant pointing at the angel in the church, that only she could see.

When we moved in the the apartment our first year in Knoxville, Taryne constantly talked about the "shadows" in her bedroom at night. At first we thought it was just getting used to a new room and getting to the age where normal shadows scare little kids. When we moved to our current town home, the shadow talk stopped immediately. We thought she might continue since it was a new space, but she has not brought it up once.

Why am I writing about all of this? Well, Taryne recently mentioned the "shadows" from the apartment and that she was glad we didn't live there anymore. I asked her if they bothered her and she said no, just scared her. I really makes me wonder what, or who, those shadows were and I am now really glad to not be living there anymore! To be quite honest, I was surprised she remembered it. She even brought up the angel in the church. I was truly amazed she remembered both of these. It has been over a year since we lived in that apartment and over 2 1/2 years since the funeral.

Spring Flowers

Early this spring we planted gladiolus and anemones in the tiny front flower bed. I am pretty sure Taryne was going to go crazy waiting for them to come up and then bloom. The anemones finally bloomed and in the last week or so the glads are blooming. I now wish we would have planted twice as many but we now know for next year.

Silly girl!

Sweet siblings

Break from bike riding...eating a coconut milk ice cream sandwich!

Such a beauty!!

Did you know??

This past semester I took my second policy analysis course through the public policy administration department. We have to take 2 courses outside of our department to specialize in something. I wanted tourism, but the course offering was pretty sparse and nothing was offered when I needed it for it to work. So, I am doing Policy Administration.

Anyway, we had to do a policy presentation this semester and one classmate did theirs on the wine laws in TN. Currently you can only purchase wine through a liquor store in the state. So no wine in grocery stores, convenient stores, Target, World Market, etc. It is a bit of a pain when you are grocery shopping and want to add wine to the list and you have to go to another store for it.

They recently passed a law to allow wine in grocery stores, but it does not go into effect until 2016. Also, it is up to each county, city, town, etc to vote and determine if they want to allow wine sales in grocery stores in their area. Remember, this is the bible belt here....where there is a church on every corner and nearly as many adult stores as well, which is ironic...however, I digress...back to wine.

Well, I learned something new during his presentation. Chain liquor stores are not allowed in the state of TN. You can ONLY own ONE liquor store and you must be local to own the store. So there are literally hundreds of mom and pop liquor stores in town because you can only have one. This totally blew my mind and I never really thought about it before.

We talked about liquor sales in other states as well and it is amazing how varied these laws can be. For instance, another girl in my program is from Wisconsin. You can buy hard liquor in the grocery store. This totally blows my mind, but I am just not used to that. The new law is great for TN, but it really doesn't matter to us since we will be gone before 2016.

One year to go...

When we moved to Tennessee in August 2012, I have had several moments where I thought May 2014 would never arrive. After I turn in a survey proposal on Monday, I will be officially finished with my coursework toward my dissertation. How on earth did I make it through 4 long semesters and a summer that included 16 courses, 6 of which were research based?

Yesterday morning I had my dissertation pre-proposal meeting with my dissertation committee. It is pretty crazy to think I will be graduating with a Ph.D. in a year-May 7, 2015 to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I still have a long road ahead of me the next year to complete my comprehensive exams, officially propose my research topic, collect data and write my dissertation, but this spring the light at the end of the tunnel got a little brighter and it continues to shine and guide me to the end of this intense 3 year process (most other Ph.D. programs are 4-5+ years, so 3 is really fast).

In 2 weeks I start my comprehensive exams that I must "pass" to become a doctoral candidate and will then be "ABD" or "all but dissertation". Everyone tells me how lucky I am to have the exams I do. I receive 4 questions over the summer and I have 3 weeks to answer each question. By the time the summer is over and I have answered all 4 questions, I should roughly have chapters 1-3 of my dissertation complete. My friends tell me I am lucky because many of them have their comprehensive exam over a 6 hour period with not notes, books, internet, etc and must answer their questions. And, it is not necessarily related to their dissertation topic. What?! So, I feel lucky and glad my process is going to help me in the long run.

My research will be over motivations that influence travel to college sporting events, particularly college football games. While this type of research has been done in the past, I am going to look at an area that has very little, if any, research published: those that travel to the games with a RV. This is a unique population as they do not spend money in the community in the same way your traditional fan does and the community will need to market to these individual differently as well.

So if the posts on this blog continue to be really sporadic, it is because I will be practically living in the library to answer my exam questions over the next 12 weeks.

Hayden turns 2!!

It's the Mickey Mouse, Clubhouse, come inside, it's fun inside....

Hayden loves Mickey Mouse right now. We debated on what to do for his birthday and finally decided that it must be Mickey.