The day has come...

Well after what seems like months the day has finally come. Today my Applied Research paper is due! I can't even begin to tell you the weight that I feel lifted off my shoulders. Now I do know that I am not completely finished. I still have to defend my paper and make some final revisions before actually being completely done but overall the big part is done!

Now VA has had some scary weather theses past few days and I am currently without power. It's sorta funny when you stop and think about it but right now I am parked at Morgan's house washing clothes and finishing up loose ends on my paper! It's easier to be somewhere else right now since a farm without water is no fun!! Animals need water-power or not...so being away from the farm is a break right now! Plus Allen (husband) was running low on underwear!! haha!

My plan for today is to re-read my paper one last time. Make sure I didn't leave anything out and then place a final copy in the dropbox. After 2 years of working hard and balancing schedules I am happy that the end is so close!

Saturday

Terrible storms here last night! My yard is a mess...fortunately we only lost power for a few minutes! Allen and I had just settled in to do to sleep when it started storming and I said to Allen, "WE CAN'T LOSE POWER-I HAVE TO FINISH MY PAPER TOMORROW!" Then Allen says, "Jessica, we have baby cows, pigs, chickens and puppies out in this storm-I don't care about your paper." haha! I think that Allen is about as over this paper as I am.

When I talked to Dr. Ingram yesterday he gave me a little peace of mind when he said that he knows I am tired of reading the same thing over and over! At least I know that people do know where I am coming from. I can honestly say this is the hardest I have ever worked on a project. My undergrad portfolio was HUGE but this is even more time consuming...I know get what Jackie meant in January about being overwhelmed by something!

Yesterday I worked all day on Dr. Ingram's comments. As you know the Lit. Review was the hardest part for me. Yesterday I got everything but the Lit. Review fix....so that is where today's efforts are placed. I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon working on the Lit. Review and then enjoy the evening with some friends. Tomorrow we are boating with the family and Monday I will read over the paper once more and then send it onto the committee! Come on Monday!!!

The Final Friday!!

Up and at um...went to feed the cow this morning and the thermometer in my car already said 92 degrees at 9:00...whew-gonna be hot!

Not too disappointed that I will be staying inside working on my paper all day! It's cooler in here! Phone conference with Dr. Ingram at 11:00 and then spending the day working through his edits. Hope to have it all done by tomorrow so my sister the "Comma Queen" can check my punctuations.

It'll be Monday before I know it!! Happy Friday!

Thursday!

Got a great email from Dr. Estes this morning...my portfolio only has a few minor errors that need fixing and then I am straight!!

Today and I off to the last day of my conference. We've had a terrible wind storm here with lots of power outages and such! We were fortunate to not lose power but the place where my conference was did, so my 3 day conference condensed to 2! Off to learn all about Science literature in my classroom!

Heard back from Ingram yesterday with all the feedback on my paper. Went through last night and fixed the silly grammar issues I overlooked. Friday and Saturday are devoted to perfecting the paper! Then everything will be uploaded to Dropbox and ready to roll! Allen (husband) says if I work hard on Friday and Saturday he will take me for a boatride on Sunday...I think he is bribing me! haha!

Happy Thursday! Almost there!

Final stretch....

With the help and encouragement of my great friend Morgan, Saturday was totally devoted to finishing up my project. I think I sat in the same chair from about 9:00 that morning until about 6:00 that night....I don't remember getting up once! I can't tell you how great it felt knowing that it was all finished...now when I say finished I do know that I have a whole week left to perfect and revise but my original draft was completed! I then sent the paper on to Dr. Ingram and he began working through it for me! I received the first part of his revisions last night and I hope to hear back from him today with the remainder!

Today's agenda is to work through his comments and feedback. Tomorrow through Thursday I will be at a conference so my assistant principal is going to read over it for me and make sure I didn't make any silly grammatical errors or leave out important details. Then the weekend will be here and I will be making sure all my ducks are in a row before submitting it to the committee July 2nd! Then I get to spend a few days at church camp, come back and finalize my presentation and then defend my project to my committee!! In just a few weeks my masters program will be done!! I am really getting excited!!!

PS-I am also very proud of my project...I think it's the hardest I have ever worked on something!

Day 6

Slept in some...much needed! Gonna spend today taking these numbers and putting them into paper form! Excited that it's coming together. My plan is to have the paper done by Monday (6/25) so that I can have it proofed while I am at the conference.

It hit me last night-this is my LAST CLASS for grad. school. No more checking JMU email everyday, checking discussion boards often, juggling my time to get it all done! I will be Jessica Robinson M. Ed....and believe me-I will sign my name like that for a while!! haha!

Excited that it's coming together!!

Some more day 5...

OK! I have spent most of the afternoon working through the data and I have placed a PDF with the initial data in the dropbox...check it out! I'm pretty proud of it!