Hallelujah! And Amen.

So- How many of you readers out there knew that I was working on a Master of Science degree? Well, the short story is that I was and I passed my thesis defense today (hallelujah!) and it's over (amen).

For those of you who haven't seen me much lately, the 16-18 hour days are over and maybe my life will return back to normal. (After a week at youth camp, anyway.) By the way- whatever it was that allowed me to work 18 hours a day is suddenly gone. I was ready for bed at 8:30.

The slightly longer story is that I started grad school in physics, but before I finished, I got a job. Then we bought a house. Then we had a kid. Then another kid. And another. And somewhere in there, I started losing motivation.

I tried seveal times to get started on it again, but the long and short of it was that I didn't have the proper motivation or mindset. My friends quit asking about. My parents quit asking. Regina quit asking. But, always, it was there, eating at me. I wanted it done, but I didn't want to do the work.

The one person that didn't quit asking was my grandfather. Always, he would ask. "I'm working on it, Granddaddy." Sometimes, it was true, other times, a white lie. Last summer, when I could tell that his time with us drawing to a close, he asked again. I decided that if he still thought I could do it, I would do it. I started working diligently. I wanted to finish it for him. When we lost him just before Thanksgiving, I lost some of my motivation.

I came to the conclusion, though, that I could do this for him. It ended being a sort of "perfect storm" of many things- motivation on my part; Regina was motivated for me and allowed my many late nights and time away from the family to get it done; the kids were great and very patient with me and excited for me; Dr. Benesh's (my advisor) schedule allowed him time to meet with me probably more than he wanted to. And a deadline from the grad school didn't hurt, either. No more extensions! (what, no more? It's only been, oh, I don't know, 6 or so...)

So, anyway, I passed the defense and I have only minor revisions to make to my paper, so I will graduate in August. Only 13 years after I started in the program!

End of busy days

Last week was just as crazy as the week before. I was really starting to get run down and I know the kids were too. I wore my pedometer Thursday to see if I really was on the move as much as I thought. My pedometer said I took 35,583 steps in one day!!!! Now that is moving. Two of those miles I ran intentionally on a treadmill. The rest was errand and kid related. WOW!

Well, this week will be different. The agenda consist of nothing more than relaxation. Now that's what I'm talking about. Swinging on the back porch in Salado never sounded better.

Totally unrelated but I had to share. This baby bird fell out of its nest in Salado last weekend. We tried to feed it then placed it back in the bird house. I don't know what happened after that. Isn't it amazingly small?

Evan is Eight!

The years seem to be slipping by so quickly. Evan turned 8 yesterday. He was upset that we were not able to celebrate his birthday with him all day. He was hardly deprived of a good time though. He has been at Mad Science camp all week. He got to dig through Owl throw up and piece together the skeleton of a rodent. What could be more fun? In the evening we attended VBS family night at church. There were many Baylor athletes there to help celebrate the sports theme. A new family favorite was in attendance: Mamadou! This time he brought along some friends. Poor Birthday boy had to eat dinner with a table full of talented college athletes. He had their undivided attention.
After he and Mamadou ate two burgers a piece, the guys headed to the nearest basketball goal. Mamadou gave Evan a few pointers!

I know Evan had a great day but he just couldn't admit it. We tried to convince him to use his imagination and pretend that all the people at Family Night were there to help him celebrate his birthday but his imagination just wouldn't take him there. He was set on having a pity party instead. The kid is worn out from late nights and incredibly busy days. Isn't summer suppose to be laid back and relaxing?