What's been going on...

I was recently reminded that I am the worst blogger in the world. I was also reminded that some people consider it unfair that you read what is going on in their blog if you don't put anything in your blog. So, today I am going to try to make up for both of those things with a blog that will fill you all in on what has been going on in my life.

My last blog filled you in on my class that I had finished and the fact that I got an "A". That was very exciting, so I am going to take a little time to update you on my school. I am now only FOUR classes, my comprehensive exam, and dissertation away from completing my Doctorate!!!! I am very excited about that. I had a couple of weeks of frustration when I realized that none of the classes that I need are being offered in the fall, for either my local campus or the online program. I met with the Dean of the College of Business for my local campus yesterday where she assured me that something would be worked out. The resolution was that she is creating three classes where I will be in a class with the one other student in my concentration. The professors for the classes are being worked out. The fourth and final class will be an independent study that will focus on my area of interest and will be taught by the professor who will head my dissertation committee. So, while I was very frustrated and concerned about being able to complete my degree in a timely manner, Dr. K resolved those concerns. So, all is right in the world with my degree, well except not having a 4.0 despite getting an "A" in every class.

In my work life, I have had some pleasant developments. I don't remember what I have written about my job, but I love my job. I love the company I work for, and the work that I am doing. It makes it very easy to come into the office everyday. The downside to that, is that I have a hard time with taking time off. I will get to that a little later. The developments with my job go back to the end of February. At the end of February the contract that I work on underwent some reorganization to combine two contracts under a central Director and Quality Assurance team. At that time, I assumed the responsibilities of Lead over one of the QA teams. For clarification, we have two contracts that each have dedicated QA resources we call teams, but we all fall under the central QA team. So I assumed the responsibilities of leading one of those contract teams. Since that time, work has been going on to create the position that would give me the authority and title of that role. After long wait, on June 27, I officially became the Technical Lead for the QA team I am working on. To say the least, I am excited about the promotion and the pay increase that came with it.

I mentioned that I have a hard time taking time off. There are exceptions to that. My family and I are going to Florida in August, and I had to problem requesting the 7 days off work for that trip. I just have a hard time taking a day here and a day there. I would rather just come to work. Tomorrow is an exception to me taking time off. After many months of talking about having a yard sale, we are finally going to put the plan into action. Friday and Saturday we will be selling everything we have been storing up to sell for a long time. We have big black trash bags full of kids clothes and adult clothes. We have about 50 pair of men's slacks, 5 or 6 complete suits. We have a coffee table, boxes of books, toys, and many little odds and ends. I hope we sell it all, because it is too much stuff for me to store for any longer. I want it all gone.

We had pictures taken this past weekend. Most of the pictures were taken for Reagan's two year pictures. I will try to get some of them posted here so you can see more current pictures. I love some of them.

Finally today, I want to talk about something I have mentioned in my blog in the past. It is the most important part of my life. That is my church life. I have talked in the past about the fact that we were looking for somewhere that we would place our membership and work. We have visited all of the congregations in our area that we were interested in and each of them had something we liked and something we didn't like. One of the things that we looked for was a place where we could be active and make a difference in the lives of people. Last week we made a decision on where we will be spending the next chapter of our lives. One of the congregations we had visited had asked me to fill in and preach for them on a couple of occasions. It is a small congregation and the elders were good friends with some of the people we had been worshipping with at Cane Ridge. Apparently, several of their members really liked me and asked the elders if there was a chance that I would be given the chance to preach for them on a more consistent basis. The response was, at that time, that they would have to meet and discuss it and think about it. Last week I was offered the position of pulpit minister and after discussing it with Sharon, I accepted the position. Beginning this Sunday I will be the new "full time preacher" for Mission church of Christ. I am excited about the opportunity. It comes with a nominal salary, but the pay isn't the reason I accepted. I am hopeful that we can grow the congregation spiritually, which will enable us to grow numerically.

I know this has been a lot of information, but that's what's been going on.

It is finished...

It has been a while since I posted a blog. I had planned to do a couple a week, but my coursework for school really took a lot of my time the past few weeks. In this post, I am going to update my progress with class and will try to post another update about what has been going on with the rest of my life.

You might recall a certain individual who was hoping for a "B" in his class, but would be striving for an "A". I actually began with the thought that I might not even try to get the "A", but it turns out that I'm not that kind of student. I actually put a lot into this class, and I am so glad that I did. I received my final grade today. It isn't official yet, but all of my assignments are graded and the online grade book for the class shows me what I got. Before I get to that, I want to talk a little about something that bothers me about college.

Here we are working in a doctorate program. My thought is, "I want to put everything into the program and walk away with a degree I could be proud of." Apparently, that isn't the same opinion everyone else holds. We had one student who in the last week has submitted every assignment for the entire class. His view was that he just wanted to get at least a "B" so he wouldn't have to retake the class. I don't know what he ended up with, but a part of my hopes he has to retake the class. I'm not saying he has to get an "F", although I read his assignments and think that is what he deserves, I just think he needs at least a "C" so he will think about how important it is to do your work on time.

My second gripe for this blog, is somewhat closely related to my first. It is slightly different though. Here we are working in a doctorate program and some of these people can't write for anything. One of the assignments we had was to review another students final business plan and provide feedback. The plan that I read had so many errors on each page. From simple spelling errors that anyone could make, to missing citations, to fragmented sentences and numerous APA style errors. I am just amazed at how bad his paper was. Then I found out that he was an undergraduate professor for an online program and I cringed at the thought. I am not the best writer in the world, but I still try to make my papers seem very polished. I had three suggestions from the peer review on my paper and I corrected them. One of them was the difference in how it was accepted under APA 5th edition compared to APA 6th edition. I reviewed the other students final submission and he corrected two of my suggestions from the first page and didn't correct anything else. I had even done track changes in Word, so he could have just accepted my changes and then addressed anything I had mentioned in a comment to the side. Nope, that was too much for him to do.

Needless to say, I think some of the students in my program need to go back through undergraduate and graduate school again. I don't want them tarnishing the name of my school with their inability to write or even follow the assignments. That is a whole other gripe that I am not going to subject you to in this posting.

So, now that I have griped, I can get back to the point of this blog: my final grade. The results are in. America has voted and Adam you are safe. You received an "A" in the course. A 97 if we want to be more accurate. A spring board into the final four classes of my coursework, all in my concentration. As for this class, it is finished.