Announcing Dr. Rodriguez

Well, it finally happened. I finished school. For the first time since I was 5 years old, I am not registered as a student in any capacity. Graduation was fun. The doctoral candidates sat on the main stage, and we were "hooded" at the ceremony by our advisors. I'm so glad my parents and Ricky got to be there. Our friend Tim made it out for the occasion, and my supervisor from work also made it (her step-son graduated with his Bachelor's in Business earlier in the day). After starting the program with 10 students in my cohort, Aaron and I were the only two who graduated together. What happened to everyone else? A couple finished early (they had the MS in School Psych prior to starting their PhDs), a few quit altogether, a couple switched to MS and one is still finishing up her dissertation. I feel incredibly blessed to be at this place in my life and certainly wouldn't be here without so many of my friends and family who have supported me along the way. It is crazy to think that in a year's time, I was able to pass my test for fourth degree black belt AND graduate with my PhD.

Here are a few pics of the occasion. More pics of the parental visit to come soon! :-)

After surviving 5 years together, Aaron and I enjoy our moment in the sun.

Cindy, our advisor, joined us for a picture. Aaron and I were her first advisees to go all the way through the program at the UO. (She is the reason I ended up at UO as she was at WVU when I was applying to programs.)

After graduation, our good friend Candy was gracious enough to have us all over to her house where we each made home-made personal pan pizzas for dinner. Did I mention she was 9months pregnant? She still looked great, and now baby Natalee has already joined the world. I can't wait to meet her, too.

Wouldn't have survived graduate school without Candy's support (even though she did switch to MS, she stayed in the Eugene area to keep me sane).

I am so thankful and lucky to have such an incredible husband in my life. I DEFINITELY wouldn't be here and certainly would not have accomplished so many of my goals without him. He has been more supporting than I (or anyone) deserves, and I am so happy he is getting to live one of his dreams this summer, too. I love you, Ricky.

And for those of you who don't know...the following is the excerpt from the acknowledgement section of my dissertation.

This manuscript is dedicated to my dearest family and friends: for my parents who taught me I could accomplish my dreams and to never settle for less, for my husband, Ricky, who has stood by me and fortified my every adventure, for my sister, Kimberly, who sometimes had to stand in the shadows, and for my best friend, Laura, who is an inspiration and support for me in more ways than she will ever know.

Time for an update...almost Doctor.

Thanks to a prompt from Dana, I am taking a shot at giving an update! The lack of blogging is a cyclical problem... I get busy, forget to blog, then more time and stuff happens, and then I feel so overwhelmed by the thought of trying to update everything that then I don't blog, which (obviously) compounds the problem. But, things are slowing down a bit, so here's a quick run-down of some of the more recent life events.

1. Dissertation Defense went well...possibly even better than I expected. I was prepared. My committee was supportive, asking good but non-threatening questions. Lots of friends from my program showed up to support me (and find out what they were in for at some point in their respective graduate school futures). I made all the changes and have submitted everything to the graduate school. Submitting things to the graduate school is a whole additional story in and of itself. They still live in the ice ages and want two hard/cotton-bond paper copies of everything (all almost 200 pages). But then they have an editor review it and then ask for changes (in which instance you have to print out two more hard/cotton-bond paper copies of every page they want changed). Silly. But as many hoops as one must jump through to get a PhD, I suppose the graduate school hurdle is relatively minor. Sorry the pics aren't the greatest. Ricky took a couple with the cell phone.

2. I picked up my graduation regalia. The gown is "green" both literally and figuratively. I will be "hooded" at the College of Education graduation Ceremony in less than two weeks. It's a crazy feeling. After all this work and anticipation, it seems strange to finally be finishing...almost like a let down even though I accomplished something big. It's hard to describe. In less than two weeks I will officially be Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez. Here's the story on the "green gowns" if you're interested in knowing more: UO GREEN GOWN STORY.

3. I tried Sushi for the first time a few weeks ago. There's a place near our house that has $1 plate sushi for everything they have out from 6-10 Sun-Thurs. It's been fun to try out with Ricky. I mostly stick to crab, smoked salmon, and shrimp ones...but I did try a spicy tuna, too.

4. Ricky is getting ready to begin on his professional umpiring career. He will be starting his summer adventures (as of now anyway) in the Arizona league. We're still keeping our fingers crossed for a promotion into the NW League.

5. The Portland Farmers market is amazing and more fun than the Eugene Saturday market. We've been able to sneak out a few times and gather some treats. All the local dairy farmers/creameries come with samples, lots of local berries and produce, and many interesting other things like jellies (lots of yummy pepper jellies), fresh fish, pickled foods, sweet treats, fresh breads/pastries, nuts, pesto/sauces, hand-made pasta, etc.

6. Ricky and I recently made a fun weekend trip to Seattle. We solely relied on our feet and public transportation for the entire trip. We walked to the max station, took the max to the train station, the train to Seattle, walked or bussed around Seattle, and then home. We had a good visit and dodged rain showers. We went to a Mariners' game, made it to the space needle, ate at some yummy restaurants (including a new favorite--Ohana), and enjoyed Pike's Place Market. We stayed in a really nice hotel that was very near the market and shopping areas. We enjoyed wandering and spending some time away just us.

And this last photo is from a "civil war" baseball game where the UO Ducks played the OSU Beavers in Portland a couple weeks ago. This is only UO's second year to have a "real" team (they only had a club team prior), and they made it to the post-season...pretty exciting. Check out the pretty rainbow in the distance.

In other news, Chris and Susan are pregnant. We are excited for them!! Laura is booking a trip to come and visit me in June. I can't wait for that much needed girl time with her. My friend Candy in Eugene is expecting a daughter in July. My parents are coming to visit next week for graduation and vacation. Ricky is enjoying his work at OHSU and might actually even miss it some while he's umpiring. The dogs are well, and I'm gearing up to teach my first graduate school class at Portland State University. Busy, fun times.