The Best Friend a Girl Could Have

Can I just start this post by saying how difficult it is for your best friend to live all.the.way. a.c.r.o.s.s. the country? At this point, Laura and I are maintaining earthly (or at least national) balance by pinning down opposite corners of the US until we can get ourselves relocated somewhere a bit closer to the middle as next door neighbors. Sigh. It's bittersweet, but one of the sweetest parts came last week when she was able to sneak away from Boston to come and visit--just us (no kids, no hubbies). We had an amazing time, and if you follow her blog, you've seen much of it from her perspective. But, I felt I had to do her trip justice and document it myself, too. Well, I guess it's impossible to do the trip justice in just a few (or even a lot) of pictures and words; we had such a great time. I do want to document it here the best I can. Beware, I should probably split this blog into multiple posts, but I'm not... :)

Laura's trip was perfect because we were busy the entire time but we started the week with absolutely no agenda (other than I had to teach my PSU class two times and at some point we knew we wanted pedicures). We were able to plan each day as it came. Don't get to do that kind of entertaining too often. Oh, and all of these pictures are Laura's. That's the joy of having a best friend who LOVES to take pictures. I just take her cool places and she captures all the memories. No since duplicating work, right? Let the pictures begin!

We started Saturday at the farmers' market (well, actually we started it at kickboxing class and then went to the market). The same one we went to with my parents. I was in desperate need of more fresh fruit and produce. We get so spoiled here in the summer!

And what's a trip to the farmers' market without a few treats? These little homemade cookies were wonderful. I had the oreo and Laura's was peanut butter. Yumm-o!

Saturday afternoon ended with happy hour with a couple of friends from work and then relaxing time in the backyard enjoying the wonderful Oregon afternoon sun.

Sunday was a decision day. It was supposed to be pretty nice, so after a trip to the gym, we trekked (in the car) to the coast. It was, as usual, mostly cloudy along the coast. But we did find some sun and some cute kids selling lemonade.

Oh yes. We also found the Tillamook cheese factory, too. Where they just happened to sample cheese and sell all their ice cream in freshly baked waffle cones.

Monday morning, Laura and I went to a Power weightlifting class, and then we got ready to head downtown. I taught my students at PSU while she explored downtown. When that was done, we headed to have happy hour sushi where it's $1 per plate. We had lots of fun trying different dishes and searching for our favorites on the track. We made rice krispie treats and hot chocolate for our midnight snack (the first picture at the beginning of the blog entry).

Tuesday was a fairly perfect, yet all backwards day. We lounged around the house until late morning, had the famous voodoo doughnuts and local Stumptown coffee around noon, headed to the Columbia River Gorge for photos and some leisurely waterfall tour hiking, hit the gym for kickboxing class (where I found out my favorite instructor is taking a leave from teaching...*tears*), showered and headed to Portland City Grill for late night happy hour at 10pm. We had the best calamari either of us had ever tasted, yummy spring rolls, spicy fries, and girly drinks. We stayed until midnight and then stayed up at home until the wee hours of the morning chatting.

Signature VooDoo doughnut dolls.

Vanilla Late? Yes, please.

Columbia river (Washington on the left and Oregon on the right side)

By Wednesday we were pretty tired. Neither of us remembering the last time we'd been up at 2am, much less the last time we'd done that two nights in a row. So, we had pedicures, and I taught my class at PSU while Laura explored downtown again. We snuck over to yo-cream for treats and watched tv/worked on laundry that evening.

Laura left Thursday morning, and I worked out, mowed the lawn, taught taekwondo, and packed for my trip to Phoenix (more to come soon).

Words really cannot express how good it was for both of us to have the time to just relax, be together, and catch up. We do a good job keeping in touch from our respective coasts, but a chance to do it in person with no real agenda and wonderful Oregon weather was so refreshing. I really am such a lucky girl to have someone like Laura in my life.

Parental Visit

I know I'm a bit behind on blogging, but all this "entertaining" has me barely keeping up with my words with friends (aka Scrabble for iphone/itouch users) games much less blogging! As you know, my parents were able to come spend almost two weeks in Oregon with us (they used me graduating as a good excuse to come out). :) We had a great time. It was awesome that they were able to stay so long because we didn't have to rush around like crazy, but we still didn't get everything in. My mom had a lot of "firsts" on this trip (her first baseball game, her first pedicure, her first time on the public transit system train...I'm sure there were others but I'm blanking right now), which was fun. Here are a few pictures documenting some of their visit.

A trip to the coast. Overcast seems to be the theme for the coast when they come to visit. Nonetheless, it is always beautiful.

Haystack Rock. It was low tide, which meant we got to explore some of the tide pools that form around the rock.

Sturgeon fishing trip. Don't they look like dinosaurs? I think they've been around about that long.

My dad and the fishing guide.

Too bad he didn't have any fun!

We bought these fresh Oregon strawberries at the farmer's market. They were even better than they look (and in fact we bought two 1/2 flats of them while they were here).

Some of them were turned into freezer jam. :-)

We were able to sneak a visit to the nike employee store. Their products are seasonal and sometimes hit and miss, but everything is half price. I snapped this shot on my phone. Doesn't she look like a kid in a candy store?!

It was so great to have my parents out. Hope we can do it again soon.

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.

Running out of February

Hi blog. I'm Billie Jo. Nice to meet you. Oh, we've met? You're right. It's been a while but I vaguely remember you...

So very much has happened in our house since my last update. I'm excited to say that I survived the five weeks in Jan/Feb as a single woman (in that Ricky was in Florida at umpire school) and have never been happier to have my hubby home than I was a couple weeks ago when he returned. I am now married to a Jim Evans Umpire Academy Honor Graduate. I'm so proud of him. He was one of 18 selected out of 120 or so men (and one woman) who attended the academy.

What's next you ask? He now goes back to Florida for 11 days in March to be evaluated and ranked by the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp (PBUC). After this, he will be assigned an initial placement and will then wait for the calls just as baseball players do to move up the minor league baseball umpiring ladder. We aren't super sure what this all actually means for us, except it's likely that Ricky will be on the road somewhere for much of the summer living something he's always dreamed of trying. I'm 100% in support of him in this, even if it means some time apart for us. I've learned that I can make it while he's traveling (even if I don't get to eat quite as well since he's my cook), and that I will cherish our time together so much more.

Also, Ricky is going to have a .50 position at OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University) as an Exercise Specialist, coordinating athletic trainers and working with schools/individuals in athletic training realms. They are completely comfortable with him being gone in the summer for umpiring and are looking forward to his great people skills and his expertise in concussion prevention/management to share with the Portland area. Yay! This is such an AMAZING blessing for us. It will include vacation/sick/benefits and the option for additional flex hours. Wonderfully, it'll let Ricky do the two things he loves (athletic training & umpiring). We heard about this possibility before Christmas but certainly didn't hold our breath given Ricky's crazy umpire life right now. God is good!

On my end, a few exciting things have developed. I have a date for my oral dissertation defense (May 11--put it on your calendars and pray for me). For those of you who don't know, the oral defense is the seminal point in getting one's PhD. This is where you stand in front of a committee of expert researchers and explain/defend your research project to "prove" that you deserve a PhD. In the mean time, I have a bit of writing to finish and am looking forward to having a solid project to share with my committee. I have also been asked to teach a couple of classes this summer at Portland State University to senior and Masters level special education students in classroom behavior management and in individual behavior assessment and support planning.

I'm seriously considering writing Dr. Billie Jo Rodriguez on the marker board for the fun of it on the first day of class. It will be a little more than a week post graduation. :-)

Here are a few photos from Christmas with the hubby and our God daughter, Abby.

Back to life, back to reality...

This year's Christmas break flew by! Where did it go? I have no idea. This year was the first year I wasn't taking classes. Usually, when you're in college, classes finish up a week or so before schools let out, so things progressively slow toward the holidays but not this year. I'm done with classes! It was weird to work full steam ahead until 12/17 night when we packed up the dogs to the dog sitter and packed our own bags to head out first thing the next morning. We flew to Arkansas without a single hitch. Amazing! I know. We've had so much trouble traveling the last few years that we've just come to expect it.

In Arkansas, we got to spend some much needed time with friends and family. My sister and her husband made it in from Kentucky where she is now taking up residence and working as a surgical technician (much of my dad's family lives there, still), so we celebrated Christmas eve with my parents and sister. It was small and nice. Then we drove to Ricky's parents on Christmas Eve evening to spend the night and celebrate with Ricky's family on Christmas day.

Detour...Did I mention that it rained about 12 inches in less than 36 hours Christmas Eve and the day before? Oh, I didn't? Well, it did. And we found the remnants of a flood. The highway (67/167 near Redmond Road) was flooded. We didn't know it was flooded there (traffic was going really slowly prior to approaching the flooded area). There were no signs and once we came upon the water, we really just had to go through. When you're on a divided highway, there's nowhere to go with cars in front and behind you but forward. We did. It was scary. Probably 18 inches of water for a quarter mile or so. Believe me: I will NOT ever knowingly get in a car going through a flooded area. It was scary. We were fine, the cars kept moving, and we made it to Ricky's parents but it was not a preferable activity at all!..end detour!

We spent Christmas day with Ricky's family, and it was great. We enjoyed time with his parents, brothers (and Susan), Granny, and aunts. We went (Ricky's parents and brothers and wives) went to see Avatar. It was great. Really well done, and a good story...new version of Dances with Wolves but great. In addition to Christmas celebrations with family, we squeezed in several visits with friends.

We had lunch with Dinah, Mike, and Garrett (who I used to work with prior to coming to graduate school). We hung out with Kyle, Laura, & Abby on two occasions. We hung out with and got "shot" by John Newberry and Brittany (He's a photographer...I'll post some of those pics soon). We also met up with our friends Josh & Danica Smith (who also became a couple in Colorado summer of 2002). We made it to New Life Church, and Ricky learned the coveted salsa recipe plan from Kim Allen while I got to catch up on all the exciting things in the life of being a mom of an American Idol winner.

On New Years Eve, we traveled to Orlando. We made it after quite a bit of stress (our flight from Little Rock was delayed quite a bit, resulting in a connection that would've been missed but Southwest was gracious enough to hold our connection). We had an amazing king suite in Orlando and spent some really nice quality time with just me & Ricky. We watched new years eve fireworks from our balcony, worked out in the nice fitness center at the hotel, ate waaaay too much amazing food, visited Sea World, and laid around the hotel room watching football bowl games.

On Monday, I grudgingly came back to rainy Oregon and started back to work yesterday. Ricky is exploring the world of Professional Umpiring. It seems he's enjoying himself for the most part. It is pretty intense, though. They start at 8am and go until 5 or 6 everyday, eat dinner, do homework, and start it all again. The dogs are enjoying quality time with me, and I'm making the most of my time with just us.

Well, I hope you had a safe, relaxing, and fun Christmas break. It's crazy that it's a new year and that year is 2010. That marks the year of Ricky's 10 year high school reunion...and 10 years since we all stressed over the coming of 2000.

;-)