Whoa!

It all started with a walk to the park. I decided the two eldest kids were big enough to walk & that I would get the one seated stroller back out for Payge to ride in (lack of walking ability, you know). It's a good thing I brought the wrap...after a long day at the park, running & climbing, their little legs were ready to rest. So, Payge went in the wrap, and Zach derived a scheme to get them home with little effort (on their part). Have you ever pushed 60 pounds (while wearing 13) up a hill as steep as the one to our house? Think the hill by the Logan temple. Whew! Needless to say, I skipped the treadmill...that was definitely enough for me!

The SPIDER

AAAAAACK! This spider (three of them, actually) was in my HOUSE. Ug. For size comparison, I stuck it by a quarter on the floor after I squashed it. See below.

Why?

Mommy, why did you put me down? This is the face I got when trying to get a cute shot of her as she wore size 6 month clothes for the first time.

Happy!

Wow

So last year, Jillian had us get cell phones since she was gestating #3 and I had no office phone. I've paced myself on playing with all the features of the phone, and have made it to its video player - and the phone has a better picture than our (rarely used) TV.

I'm ABD

On Wednesday, I passed my oral preliminary exam - wahoo! I went and sat in a room with 4 faculty from my program, was asked a bunch of statistics questions for almost 2 hours, and then they said that they considered me qualified to work on my dissertation. This is also called being a doctoral candidate or ABD (all but dissertation).

Since graduate training varies a lot from program to program and I have received several questions on what all I have to do to finish this degree, I'll put the whole story here:
(i) master's thesis proposal (I did this at USU)
(ii) master's thesis defense (also at USU)
(iii) course work (a big number, I don't feel like recounting at the moment)
(iv) written preliminary (passed last week)
(v) oral preliminary (passed this week)
(vi) doctoral dissertation proposal (I hope to do by the end of the year)
(vii) doctoral dissertation defense (I hope to do sometime next year)

Good Egg

Now that I have stopped laughing (and I'm up off the floor...) I can post this conversation.
Setting: The kids were practicing brushing their teeth by brushing eggs that had been colored (the color comes off with toothpaste & just the right amount of pressure...the pressure that should be used on our teeth! Hence, the practice.) Anyhow, C dropped hers, and the following conversation ensued:

C: Whoops! Oh, the egg did a good job.
Z: Did it break?
C: No, it just cracked all over itself.

That egg was probably pretty scared...scared enough to "crack all over itself!"

Why we didn't make it to the library...

I just couldn't mover her, she was content to sleep this way...for awhile. I don't know how she kept her arms up there while sleeping. I don't know how she fell asleep with her brother awake...