12 of 12 December

1. Sent these two birds to school with Chris to see the life-sized gingerbread house and huge tree in the Purdue Memorial Union. (Please note all the girlie-patterns Millie is working.) I was able to get some Christmas prep done.
2. This is the best picture my photographer provided.
3. Cute boy on the ride home.
4. Opening our Christmas book from Aunt Ann.
5. Sometimes it's hard to be the one home in December. It took a lot of will power to leave this box containing Chatbooks of all our Instagram pictures intact to be wrapped up.
6. Connor came to play. Millie and Truman love Connor. Connor's dad has a hard time when Connor plays with our "My Little Pony" figures, so this picture had me cracking up all day long.
7. A lot of hand sewing on the ottoman I recovered to trade for our family pictures.
8. Truman immersed in a library book.
9. Chris lost his other dress glove last weekend in Chicago. I suggested taking it as our white elephant gift. Nikkala suggested naming it this and it was a done deal. (It made a four-year-old girl cry when she opened it.)
10. The spread of food at Chris's department Christmas party. My fruit platter was so impressive (if I do say so myself) that everyone just assumed it was store-bought. Psh.
11. Millie, Collis and Jared at the party. Jared is Chris's classmate, office mate and an all-around class act.
12. When Chris's professor sent out the invite he said he is known to put up "a few Christmas lights." The kids thought the Dineen's house was amazing.

12 of 12 November

1. Continuing to reset from two weeks vacation: whole wheat pancakes for breakfast.
2. Being crazy and feeding off each other at breakfast.
3. "I'm Captain Underpants!" (I have no idea how she knows anything about Captain Underpants...)
4. Beads and pipe cleaners were $2 that Santa spent very well last year. It's November and they're still going strong as a favorite.
5. The past week someone has had to lie with Millie while she fell asleep for her nap (and for once, I've thought it totally worth it). She fell asleep on her own today.
6. Both kids woke up within 30 seconds of each other and then Chris walked in the door.
7. He's keeping them occupied while I finished reading Insurgent. (Knowing how many minutes, according to my Kindle, it will take me to finish is a real boost to my cause.)
8. She bonked on the coffee table earlier this week- bruised forehead. She crashed into the back of a loveseat at play group- scraped up brows and nose. We added a little makeup before dance.
9. A quick dance performance, but one more opportunity for her to dance. She loves dancing, and I love watching her dance.
10. Chris said his meeting would be over "no later than 7:15." Ha. I had to occupy them in his office while he didn't get out until after 7:30. There is a lot of trouble to be had and kids are noisy when it's just college students studying.
11. Chris's office bookshelf. It's kind of pretty, but all I can imagine is the space this will take to move. He reassures me that we'll only be taking 1/3 of it. We'll see.
12. I was one short, so a gratuitous picture of us playing in the remainder of the leaves on Sunday. Chris had already raked mounds of leaves when we got home from our trip. 

12 of 12: Sunday and Solo Parenting

1. I am pretty confident it doesn't get any cuter than a little boy in a shirt and tie with a "leather" jacket over. Heart breaker.
2. Nursery kids were playing "tiger" and Tessie was instructed to "go to sleep." She played it really, really well and wouldn't be woken through all the things Millie and Connor tried on her until she decided she wanted to be awake. Watching these funny things is one of the few good things of being in nursery.
3. Star shirt Sunday and finishing coloring Truman's puppet from nursery.
4. FaceTiming with Nikkala
5. Her people crack me up. Pretty sure that boy has a lot of "chests" going on.
6. FaceTiming with Chris, who left right after church to head to the airport for a fly-out.
7. You want to watch Daniel Tiger on Sunday? Sure! You can get a lot out of me when I'm flying solo.
8. Dinner was just random veggies thrown in some pasta, with butter and parmesan. The kids ate it up. I don't really need more convincing to fly by the seat of my pants.
9. Blueberry banana swirl for desert, because I'm awesome. It always takes forever to get it processed smooth in the food processor. Drives me nuts.
10. I passed the level that had been plaguing me for way too long and had to send Chris proof.
11. Oh good. I'm home with the kids and it will be raining. I'm going to miss being able to send them out in the yard to play as the weather gets worse.
12. Chris was on his way to Cal Poly. The week before when he did IND-PHX on his way to CSU-Long Beach he flew first class. It's a bummer to get taken down a notch.

Solo Parenting is Hard

Lately Chris has been gone doing fly out job interviews. Which is awesome. Except that it's really hard.

I am so much better with him with me than I am as a single mom. Except for that rare day when I know I'm flying solo and have mentally geared up and I am an awesome mom. Then I crash and am cranky and impatient and tired. Or when the alarm doesn't go off for Chris's 4:55 shuttle, but Millie wakes up yelling just in the knick of time and kicks us into high gear. Once the adrenaline wears off and I fall back to sleep morning comes to soon. Kids don't nap. They fight, throw tantrums and cause trouble. It's all I can do to read our two verses of scripture, say prayers and put them in their beds. Then dinner dishes are waiting for me, along with Truman's bowl of potatoes and squash he threw all over the floor.

I am not used to doing this alone. (Thank goodness.) I'm used to being able to check in with Chris during the day.

I've been weighing it in my brain how lots of women do it full-time, and lots of women have it way harder than I do. But that doesn't make my hard less. It's still hard. Chris will be gone 8/10 days when this little stretch is over. He's basically coming home to get clean clothes, give me a bit of a breather and catch the next shuttle and flight, criss-crossing the country to opposing oceans. As soon as this round of fly outs is over there will (hopefully) be more.

Even if there aren't more Chris is teaching a night class second module this semester that meets twice a week. Conveniently placed in the middle of the week so he can book end the weeks with fly outs without having to miss class. And there's a dissertation to write. He was getting up at 4:30 the weeks before his proposal to get it finished. I feel like we're sprinting the last half of a marathon. (And I'm not a sprinter.) We have a school year ahead of us and it feels completely overwhelming.

I keep wishing we lived close to family so I could have someone who felt compelled to bail me out. Or that Chris was a dental or medical student and we lived in an apartment building with six other families in our exact situation. Or Chris was a business man making big bucks that I could spend to help myself (a maid, babysitters, cute clothes, etc). But we don't. We're graduate students living in our cozy little house in Indiana. And sometime I feel really alone. (Despite good friends.)

I'm writing this in the hopes that I remember clearer what the last year of a PhD program felt like. That when someone mentions their hard thing I don't try one-upping it with a "Oh, but when we were in graduate school..." or dismissing it with "It's not that bad! Get over it. I went through worse." I want to remember hard is hard. And once it's hard, it doesn't matter the degree of hard. Validating someone else's difficulties doesn't take away from my experience.

I can do hard things. Chris can do hard things. I am so grateful to be sending out a capable, socially adept and amazing husband for these interviews, because his role in this is grueling. I am very much looking forward to the PhD phase of life to be over.

Then the tenure clock starts...

Fourth First Day of School

When you don't teach or have classes, the first day is pretty insignificant (so much so that we were still in Idaho when the semester started). The only thing that changes with the semester is Chris's wardrobe. So long shorts, t-shirts and Chacos!

I made Chris promise that I can take first day pictures for the rest of forever. I love seeing the progression of things. It went from Chris, to Chris with baby Millie, to Chris with toddler Millie, to Chris with his arms full. To say nothing of this house we're actually starting to love. (Shout out to the last gladiola for hanging on and being in the frame.) Retrospection makes this ride all the better. So does the hope that maybe, just maybe (and not all too likely) this is the last first day of his PhD program.

Hod Podge

• Millie has mostly made the transition from two naps to one. Boo. Hiss. I resisted as long as I could. Mornings are my productive time, and I tend to waste away my afternoons. So it really cramps my style when there is a little one making messes and always underfoot as I try to get things done.
• Millie is getting good at playing on her own. She's obsessed with "baybuhs." Watching her play with her dolls and few stuffed animals cracks me up (giving them drinks, sharing kisses, piling them all on her mini-stroller). She's still very much obsessed with books. She empties and hauls the content of her bookshelves to the living room daily.
• Whenever I talk to Nik on Facetime and start talking baby-ish to Gracie, Millie knows and comes running to see the "baybuh!"
•  Millie is obsessed with giving high fives. Chris said she kept trying to give them to a 10 month-old yesterday at church. He didn't get it, so she'd go up and tap his hand anyway. She gives great virtual high fives.
• I got sustained yesterday at the RS Committee Chair. I'm all for callings that are basically party planning. Still sad to not being in young women, but excited to be here.
• We've gotten a good bit rain over the past few weeks. Our lawn has greened back up and I don't feel quite so trashy when I see our yard.
• Despite my last post, I'm feeling very ready to be done with the grad school phase of life. Mostly I just want to be back in Cache Valley, frying doughnuts with Nikkala on Halloween. I want it more than would appear normal. If anyone wants to sponsor this, let me know.
• All the local produce was frozen after our abnormally warm spring and one late freeze. Peaches shipped in from out of state are at least $2.00/lb, with the cheapest bulk I've found being $35/bushel for seconds. No apples either (and there weren't any blueberries earlier). The empty jars are increasing and it appears they won't be getting refilled this year. Bummer. It doesn't feel like late summer without canning.
• On that same note, our garden is pathetic. No canning there, either. Attempts a chipmunk trapping, yes. Produce, no.

And that seems to be all from the home front.

First Day of School, Year Three

If you would have told me two years ago that this day would come so soon, I don't think I could have believed you. I'd have wanted to, but I don't think I could have.

Classes started yesterday but Chris didn't have anything until today. He is taking one class (because he wants to; he should be done with coursework) and is teaching. Today was his first day teaching. He said fewer than 80 of the 90+ students were in class. They don't know what they're missing out on.

If things go my way, we're at the halfway mark. If things go the ridiculous longer route, we're 2/3 done. Let's hope I get my way. We'll get there, either way.

Every year I feel a little better about our house. Our flower beds have definitely made some strides in the past year! Slowly. We're getting it there.

Seventh "Copper" Anniversary

Chris and I celebrated seven years of marriage on Saturday. Well, we celebrated on Friday, too.

Years ago I decided I wanted a Glacier National Park Pendleton blanket for our seventh anniversary, since the gifts for seven are copper/wool. Back when I decided this they sold crib sized blankets. But not anymore. And spending that much money for a blanket seemed ridiculous, so I told Chris he could scrap the idea, despite it being a sentimental reminder of our honeymoon to Glacier.

Chris changed his route and decided to go for the copper. A week before he told me we needed to gather up all the pennies in the house. And I started wondering what he had up his sleeve.

Kanien had been willing to babysit and I knew we'd get to enjoy our Friday evening together. But then I was told that we'd be leaving about 2:00 in the afternoon. I was intrigued.

Earlier last week we drove past the Copper Dog Cafe downtown and I was so proud of myself for figuring out that element of our date.

Friday afternoon we packed Millie's bag, dropper her off and the Wallins and we were on our way. Chris pulled out the GPS and selected destination #1. It directed us toward Indy. I was really intrigued.

As we got into Indy I told Chris that I needed to use the bathroom and asked if this destination had a bathroom. He replied it did, I had used it before and he was pretty sure it was a nice bathroom. What?! I racked my brain. Finally I realized we were headed toward the Shane Co, our jeweler, to drop off our rings for their annual cleaning. He couldn't fool me.

After dropping off our rings Chris trusted me enough to man the GPS and pull up destination #2. As we were driving through Indy, near the airport exit, I told Chris, "It would be awesome if you had our bags packed, our passports at the ready and we were going somewhere awesome for the weekend.  Sigh ...One day, right?"

I remarked how Indy was bigger than I thought, because we just kept driving. Then I looked at the arrival time on the GPS and it said 5:58. Almost two hours later? That couldn't be right!

Chris confirmed that it was, indeed, right.

What?!

He decided since I was captive and we were well on our way, it would be alright to share the plans. Millie was staying with the Wallins overnight. Our bags were packed in the trunk. We were headed toward the Copper Kettle in Charlestown for dinner. Then we'd head to New Albany to the Mansion Row Inn to stay the night. The next morning we'd go to the Louisville temple, do a session. After that we'd hit Copper Cupcakes on our way home, and he might have programmed a Hardy's into the GPS as our last stop, for my anniversary present to him. (East of the Mississippi we have Hardy's instead of Carl's Jr, and Chris misses Carl's Jr. We don't have a Hardy's in town.)

After the craziest, twistiest, make you sick to your stomach road I've ever ridden on, we made it to Charlestown. Southern Indiana is really pretty, but it was weird to still see blue tarps on roofs from the tornadoes this spring.

Dinner at the Copper Kettle, meh. It was decent, but it was just a little mom & pop and nothing special. Decent, for sure. And there were lots of locals eating there. It was just the beginning to a weekend where we were called, "honey, darling, sweetie, etc" more than the past seven years combined. Welcome to the south!

A nice patron saw us trying to take our self portrait and came out to help us.

From the Copper Kettle to Mansion Row Inn. After dinner, I was a little bit worried about what we might find in small town southern Indiana. But there was no need to fear. We were impressed with beautiful Mansion Row in New Albany and with the bed & breakfast. We read on the patio, walked around the neighborhood and enjoyed the gorgeous, cool evening weather.

Chris did really well packing. Except he forgot my makeup bag. I'm not the most high maintenance girl, so whatever. Except with no makeup in pictures. Eeep. Oh well, this was the only picture we took of us at the inn.

The 12' ceilings, 8' doors, and all the original trim work made my heart go pitter-patter. It was really a pretty place. Breakfast was a bit of a disappointment in the morning, sadly.

No, the Mansion Row Inn has nothing to do with copper. And the Abraham Lincoln room (Abe -> pennies -> copper) was booked. It just happened to be in the right vicinity.

I really like the Louisville temple. The layout isn't as confusing to me as Chicago. BUT! It's always freezing. This was our second time going there and the second time an older woman near me told me, "I always wear my long underwear and a sweater when I come here." I was debating whether or not to grab my cardigan or not, but that answered that. So, for future reference, dress warm when you're in the Louisville temple!

The last official stop was at Copper Cupcakes. It is in Norton Commons, this adorable little neighborhood. I was in love. I love mixed use neighborhoods. And it seemed like it really was a tight-knit community. We had lunch at the market just up the street from Copper Cupcakes and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. 

Chris said that it was a very climatic weekend. Copper Kettle was alright. The bed and breakfast was good, but lunch and cupcakes were awesome and such a good way to end it.

Despite Kanien's offers to keep Millie Saturday night and return her at church yesterday, after a stop at Trader Joe's we came home and resumed responsibilities as parents. Millie seemed so much bigger and chatty. I think spending lots of time with older kids will do that.

Yesterday at church a friend asked Chris if I did alright without Millie. Chris responded, "I think I had a harder time than Deidra did!" What can I say, I was too busy enjoying the surprise weekend to spend much time worrying. And I knew she was in good hands.

(As for the pennies and the Copper Dog Cafe? Pennies were a red heron. And the Copper Dog Cafe hadn't crossed Chris's radar. If it had, the weekend would have probably stayed closer to home. But it worked out that we headed south near the temple.)

This weekend reminded me so much why I love being married to Chris. He's great at planning surprises (and I'm really good at being unsuspecting). He makes things happen and he always has our marriage at the top of his priority list.

Seven years, no itch. I love my husband!

Roadtrip from Hell

Oh man. Two weeks ago our little family left early morning for our road trip to Utah. Several months ago an acquaintance (she's in our stake and we played on a city league VB team together two years ago), asked if anyone would be willing to drive out with her and her three kids in exchange for a free ride.

 Life lesson 457: There is no such thing as a free ride.

Starting out and naive.

Things were going pretty well.  The kids were well behaved. Going through their surprises and presents like crazy, but they were good. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop where we about melted into puddles. The temperature was supposed to hit 100° in Lafayette that day and we were all glad to be heading to cooler temps without the humidity.

It took only a few minutes for the red faces and sweat curls to appear during lunch at the rest stop

Stopped again in the early afternoon at another rest stop. Chris drove and I was in the passenger's seat while Jessica was in the back with the kids. The A/C was blowing in hot humid air after the rest stop, but I turned it off and back on and things were good. We passed an electronic billboard that said the temp was 94° with a heat index of 104°. Ewww.

Then, as we were coming up on Omaha the A/C stopped working. First it was coolish but humid. Then it was hot and humid. And all sorts of miserable. Poor little ones in their carseats were being steamed like carrots. We pulled off and there wasn't any coolant in the car. We ran the little ones in the C-Store and bought some coolant. Chris filled it up and we loaded back in the van (no quick process with 4 little ones). I turned on the heater and the temperature dropped like a brick. A/C restored! Hallelujah!

Jessica wanted to get things checked, just for sure. As we were driving to get it checked the van lost power and died in an intersection. Some nice men hopped out and helped Jessica and Chris push while I steered us into a parking stall. The car started so we drove over to a Walmart where we died for good.

I don't want to relive the FOUR hours we spent in Walmart (my own personal hell), but a lot of it was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with the van, what to do, gathering what we needed out, wondering how quickly we'd make it back on the road. A lot of it I got the kids while Chris and Jessica dealt with those details. When we realized we weren't making it to North Platte, NE where we had hotel reservations we canceled those and got a hotel room in Omaha. At the closest hotel. Since you know, we didn't have a car. When we'd grabbed our bags from the van before it was towed we didn't know how long we'd be there. We were all hopeful it would only be a few hours, but grabbed stuff for overnight. If only we'd grabbed our swimming suits! We lived for a couple of hours out of shopping carts full of our luggage, bags and carseats in the McDonalds in Walmart.

Life lesson 895: Don't laugh at others. One day, you just might be The People of Walmart.

We got a couple taxis called and made our way to the hotel (we had the worst cabbie in history and Jessica had the best). The hotel wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst, either. Got two cribs for the two littles who didn't want to sleep in them. Millie ended up spending the night with us. In our full bed. Cozy. (And miserable.)

The shop called in the morning and said the van should be done in four hours. It needed a new water pump. We were excited to be on the road about noon. Jessica got check-out extended until noon. And then the van wasn't done yet. So we moved to the lobby (they wouldn't push back our check-out time any more).

Long story short, the fix-it time kept getting pushed back. Sometimes we'd hear from the shop, but most of the time we just kept waiting and waiting. It took all I had to be somewhat positive. I tried so hard, but it was frustrating. Each of the adults had some moments where we could be fun and keep the kids entertained. We had some dance parties in side hallway, some games, lunch and treats, but there was a huge portion of frustration and annoyance. (Maybe mostly from me? But I don't think so.)

Life in the Lobby. It looks nice enough, but it was hot and the floors were filthy. Filthy floors = filthy kids.

Finally, a little after 4:00 the shop called Jessica to say the van was done and they'd come pick her up. When I got a text from her saying it would be at least 15 more minutes before it was done, I thought I might lose it! But [mostly] kept my cool and it all worked out.

The most frustrating part of this was not knowing when it would be finished. If we'd known from the beginning that it was going to take so long we would have gone to the Omaha Zoo (it's supposed to be a pretty good zoo). But instead we just kept thinking it would be done any minute. That is a state of agony.

We loaded that van as quickly as we could and got on the road. It was disheartening to realize it had been a full 24 hours. So when we drove past North Platte at about 9:00, we all recognized that we should have been there the night before. Spent the night in Laramie, then headed out. Made it to Ogden the next afternoon where we met up with my Mom, Nikkala and Gracie at Target. After a little shopping, huge ice cream bars at Costco, we were on our way.

Finally.

The Suburban had some struggles starting, then Mom said it wasn't responding well. The battery indicator was at zero and we were losing power. I diagnosed it as the alternator, a call to Dad confirmed and we got off the freeway and parked it in the shade with the semis at Flying J in Willard. Nik couldn't get in touch with Chod, Tameka and Ty didn't have a car big enough to fit us. Nik and I took the babes inside and hung out watching the NCAA lacrosse championship game in the truckers lounge.

Nikkala's phone was lighting up like a switchboard. But with all the calling, Tameka made a connection that my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Bret and Baylee were driving home from SLC and just about 15 miles before Willard. They came and rescued Nik, the babes and me and made a detour through Logan to drop us off.

Ty got an alternator (it was about 4:30 on a Saturday), my mom had tools in the Suburban and he came and had it switched out in thirteen minutes. Chris and my mom timed him.

So, a day and a few hours later than planned, we made it to Logan! Sweet relief.

And looking back, it's funny to see how blessed we were. What if Jessica had been by herself? What if we had broken down in the middle of nowhere, not the middle of Omaha? The Robins just happened to be headed our way and Tameka had called Katelin and found it out?

We may have been the joke of the trip; no one wanted to let us in their cars, but we made it and no other cars broke down on the trip.

The flights home were uneventful and reminded me why air travel is my preferred method of travel.

Spring Break: Grad School Style

In true grad student fashion, Chris worked three days during his spring break. 

Monday he worked. Tuesday he worked. But I was able to convince him that we needed to go to the temple (this was beyond a want or a should), so we made the trip to Louisville on Wednesday. We left early and I stayed awake for the 40 minutes or so until we hit the outskirts of Indianapolis. Then I woke up about an hour outside of Louisville. Millie woke up right on the outskirts of Louisville. The drive seemed so much better than going to Chicago, but the sleeping could have colored it. That, and the beautiful sunrise found us in full-bloom spring country. 


The Louisville Temple only does two sessions a day during the week. If we missed one, that meant only one of us would be able to go, so we left with a very generous time buffer, that we didn't end up needing. That meant I waited around in the temple for the 10:00 session. The other session started at 11:45, which we figured would have to be a quick trade-off with Millie. But the 10:00 session got started late, and despite my front-row seat, it still took me a while to get out. Luckily a sweet temple worker had heard me say that my husband was trying to make the other session (the other sister gave me a funny look and sent me behind the women who were trying to make it to the session themselves) and rushed out to find Chris. She watched Millie in the waiting room for a little while until I got changed. It felt like a tender mercy that she was looking out for us.


Millie and I did laps around the stake center next door for a while, then I parked her in the sun and she promptly fell asleep. I loved bumming wi-fi from the church and planning out the rest of our day.

Hooray for the temple!!

We celebrated π day by heading to the Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen for lunch and a treat. We were sadly disappointed. I don't know if we should have gone with their famous caramel Dutch apple pie, some ice cream or what, but the sandwich and pie didn't knock our socks off. It wasn't even like, "Hmm, this is good."

Chocolate chip pecan- meh

After lunch we debated what to do. Most of the big attractions in Louisville I've already been to, and we weren't feeling up to paying admission for them this go-round. We went hunting for a mission apartment of Chris's, but so much has changed that he gave up the search (about a mile and a half too soon, he found out once we got home). 

But spring had definitely sprung in Kentucky! {If you're counting, that's 11 states for Millie.} There were huge patches of daffodils and popcorn was popping. It was so fun. But, with the heatwave we've been having it took just a few days until we had full-blown spring up our way, too. 

On the drive home I wondered what Millie was doing in her car seat in the backseat. So I shot some footage to see.


She has this funny little trick she learned that day where she pretends to eat something. She starts doing it about half way through the video. The trick makes it hard to tell if she's really found something to eat on the floor or if she's just pretending. And don't worry—she shares.

We made it back in time to catch the tail end of some friends' π day party. Chris got 2nd place in both candy guessing games (which isn't enough to win the jar of candy). And the other games were π-based trivia and calculations, and there's just no way we can compete against PhD engineers!


Thursday Chris stayed home and we devoted it to spending a good chunk of our tax return at Lowe's and doing some home improvement projects. (I think I've figured out a way to do part of it cheaper, so I'm hoping it works and we can return a bunch of stuff.)


And with that, he was back to a full day at work on Friday, gearing up for this week, which is one of the more stressful ones he's seen in a while. We'll both be glad when tomorrow, and a sizable presentation, is in the books.

Saturday

Life as the daughter of a grad student.

Bragging (Because I Can)

I just have to give a little shout out to the Mister of the house. He had four submissions to the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Inc (SIOP) conference coming up in April. He was fairly confident at least one of them would be selected.

Well, all four were selected! Three of them all stem off one project he's been working on for the past year, so it's good to know that his hard work is paying off. He's working with three others on the project, two at different schools. Two of the professors he's working with are big time when it comes to publishing, especially his professor here. One is at Michigan State, and when they found out that all three submissions were accepted, he was quite astonished. It's rare to get that many submissions accepted all based on one project-- so that's some indication of how big the project is.

It's so fun to see this phase of our life moving along and things going the way we want them to go! Good job, Chris!

First Day of School, Year Two

He hasn't grown much since last year. But our house has changed quite a bit and so have our lives.

It is amazing to pause and realize we're one year down in this whole adventure. Three to four more years of this seems impossibly long, but knowing how quickly the first year passed I know it will be over before I can wrap my head around it.

Chris is as good a student as I knew he'd be. He works hard, professors love him, he's made good progress on some pretty big research and he's moving along quite nicely. This is his last year of coursework before it's dissertation time.

I feel blessed that our little family gets to experience this adventure of life together. It can be hard, but we can do hard things.

If you want to play Spot the Differences with our house like the game in The Friend, feel free. You can leave them in the comments of this post, if you'd like. The winner receives air mattress accommodations at our house during their next visit to see us!

Incredibly Ridiculous Small World Story

This isn't really my story, but I was there to witness it, and it blew my mind, so I thought I'd share. I can't resist a good "small world" story. Please bear with the initials, which kind of make it confusing.

Our first week at church we met friends JF (husband) & FF (wife) and JH (husband) & JWH (wife). They invited us to join them for things, we reciprocated, and suddenly we were friends.

FF's due date is today, so her mom flew from California to be here last week. We had dinner as a group on Friday and played games. The H family and Mom tried making Boise connections, because way back when, Mom taught high school in Boise (where both JH and JWH are from), before she moved to California and raised her family there. They didn't have much luck.

We had a girls' lunch today, before the baby makes his appearance. Mom learned yesterday what H stood for, and asked JWH if she knew if her husband "happened to be closely related to" D and * H.

Uhhh, yeah, that would be his parents. FF and her mom both kind of had a shocked look on their faces. It appears that Mom dated JH's dad, DH. DH proposed to FF's mom (which she obviously declined), and FF grew up hearing stories about DH.

Thirty plus years late their children move to Indiana, become good friends and then figure that all out. Isn't that crazy?! So JH's dad once proposed to FF's mom. It stuns me how small the world can be.

First Day of School

Isn't he handsome? He had orientation last week, but today starts his first day of his PhD program, though he doesn't start classes until tomorrow. So many technicalities, no? He's decided he wants to be the "tie guy." Even today when he has nothing scheduled, he's showing up looking his best. (Channeling his inner high school Chod, I think.)

I can't wait to see how well he does. He's set some lofty goals for himself, but I'm sure he's capable of meeting them and more. I continue to be impressed by is determined and forthcoming ways. Last week he made some decisions that are pretty small and seemingly trivial on the whole, but could add up to a lot more than meets the eye. When they were challenged the very next day, he laid it out there for all his cohorts to know (while I cringed in the background, wanting him to just give in). Come to find out, he's not alone in his resolution, but he's the only one strong enough to stand up for it. A second year student in his program told him everyone starts out that way, but it's impossible. Well, my friend, he'll show you. I know he will.

Other upper classmates have told him that he's lucky to be married through this whole process. I can already sense it. He has purpose and motivation beyond what I think single students can have. I'm lucky I'm married to him for this whole adventure, too.

Nudges

Before Chris and I were dating, I frequently got told by random acquaintances in varied places how great Chris was. While Chris was interested in dating me, I had no interest in dating him. When I would report on these favorable comments, he would tell me that he was paying these people to make plugs for him. After marrying him and realizing our financial situation, I came to the conclusion that he should have saved his money; we could have used it in that first year of marriage.

It seems like Purdue has as vast a network as Chris, knowing just the right connections to work.

Our owners switched our internet service, but told me no technician would be coming and it would be seamless. Well, a technician came and it hasn't been seamless, but that's not the point. Dick, the technician, was making small talk with me while trying to figure out why he was here. He asked about school and I told him we were both currently finished, but that my husband would be starting a PhD program this fall. He asked where and I told him that it would most likely be Purdue. Excitedly he asked, "So, are you moving to West Lafayette?"

Most people don't know Purdue is in Indiana, much less West Lafayette. I told him yes, and he told me, "I was in a bishopric there. I loved it there, and wish I was still there."

Score one for West Lafayette.

Then at church on Sunday a friend told me how they had gone to the temple on Saturday to do sealings. Somehow they got started talking about schools and the future with the sealer. He had done a graduate program at Purdue. When they told him that their friends were thinking of going there he told them to tell us that it was great and we'd love it there.

Tally that up for Purdue.

And I was recently reminded of David, a man most of us look up to and admire. He did the exact same PhD program Chris would enter in August. It seems like he turned out alright.

Chalk up a point for the OBHR program.

The way things are going, I hope Purdue is saving their money to fund Chris, not wasting it to convince us they are the right match for us. Like my experience with dating Chris, I'm sure we'd come around without these comments, but it is nice knowing other people highly regard your choice.

The Road Ahead

 Picture taken during our drive home for Christmas

Earlier this week Chris asked me if we should do away with our separate blogs and blog together. I immediately and unequivocally answered, "No!" I like being separate, each with our own space in the blogosphere to call our own. And then there is the question of what I would blog if I wasn't constantly sending everyone to Chris's blog. Lately, not much. And here it goes again.

In case you have't ditched my blog completely in favor of Chris's blog, I'd recommend reading this post on where we are in the PhD school process. It feels so good to have acceptance at a school that we both feel is a good fit. For some reason, over the past few years I've just felt like we'd do a stint in the mid-west, and it seems a likely possibility.

I am so grateful that Chris is a smart man, and a dedicated and hard worker. He put lots of time into previous studies, and recently has been doing research with an old professor. He's made this happen through persistence, and more persistence.

I am also incredibly grateful that we avoided the detour of moving to Buffalo last summer. It was a near miss, and I'm so glad that we didn't deviate from what we really want and have to drag out the process even more. I feel so blessed for an extra year in a town I adore, with people who mean the world to me.

Looking at a move doesn't seem so awful when it is in the direction we want to be going. It feels more like an adventure and less like something to mourn. (It also helps that it is months away and doesn't exactly feel real yet.) Chris may have declined admission to the closest school option, but we figure it's best to invest our time away at the best school we can, for [hopefully] better options when he's done.