Back on Track
so apparently it has been something like 10 weeks since I updated my blog. This, unfortunately, was not do to lack of sutable material but alas to the crazy pace of life. For those of you who are/have been through grad school it was "that time of the semester." You add to it the craziness of the holiday seasons and you have a recipe for temporal disaster. This morning is the first in a long while where I can just sit, drink my coffee, read the newspaper or jot down an update.
Anastacia
so let's start off with the most important person in my life
Princess is still doing really well in school. Her reading skills have improved drastically, and as a team we have read through all of the magic tree house books, all of the Junie B. Jones books, and are now working our way through some small novels (Mouse and the Motercycle series, and then probably the Hobbit.) I think the next long series we will read will be the A-Z mysteries. I've heard good things about them....
Lest you think the written word is the ONLY thing vital to her existance (though a good book does rank very high, along puppy snuggles and ice cream) she is also smart as a whip at everything else she trys her hand at. She loves pretend play, and creates elaborate full-length movie type dramas with costume changes and set designs for herself as well as her barbies. She is also doing really well in Hockey, loving every minuit of ice time.
Doug
Doug is still working very hard. He recently aquired his own pair of hiking boots, so once we have a free weekend I think we will introduce him to chalk ridge falls. We'll see how that oh so city boy handles it. He is still working VERY hard, flew enough trips this year to qualify for "executive platinum" whatever-the-hell that is (he is very proud *shrug*). The last few weeks, he has been home which has helped our family dynamic a bit.
Overall Family News
We have FURNITURE!!!!! The week before Christmas *shudder* we decided to add a lease option to the house in Dallas and FINALLY moved down the rest of our stuff. I am sleeping on a bed, eating food at a real table, and have book shelves to put books on, dressers to put clothes in... you get the picture. I was also really happy to be able to "pretty" up the house a bit with little candles and what not, which were all used in staging. As most of my family was heading down for Christmas, I frantically set up furniture, shifted things around, and set out what-nots (oh, as well as decorated for the Hollidays eek). Now that it's all out, I can see what I need and have made a trip or two to Hobby Lobby to get some interesting things. When the stager came through I found out how little you need to "decorate" your home, I thought I needed to start from scratch, but now I have some ideas and I'm running with them.
We also have made a recent canine-addition to our household. About a year ago, my mom (dog-lover extrodinare) came home to find an almost full-grown huskie, thin and stragly looking, on her porch. She took the dog in, got it fixed up, and tried (unsucessfully) to re-home her. After a while, she decided to keep the dog, though Harley the black lab is still definitly top pooch. Fast forward to this October, when Mom headed off to Dog-Scout camp which is a one-dog-per-owner activity. We offered to watch Siku (the Husky) and as one week stretched to three, we all fell very much in love with each other. When my mom came to collect her, Siku threw a huge fit and tried to jump out of the truck window, my daughter and I rushed inside and colapsed into tears, Doug, being the stoic male, was definitly sad to see her go. We left the next day for New York, but the min. we got back I rushed to Dallas to collect what had obviously become OUR dog.... sorry mom. Mom is O.K. with it and is happy that Siku found a family who will take good care of her, and my Mom has been saying Anastacia needs a dog since I was pregnant.
And speaking of New York, we had an amazing trip. We went to the Museum of Natural History, checked out the balloon blow-up, watched the Macy's thanksgiving day parade, saw three shows: the Little Mermaid, Greese, and the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, and took Anastacia to see Dianthus at the Cloisters. We also just wandered the city, ate some GREAT food, and had alot of family time.
Me
So, as for myself, things have been buisy but I am O.K. I finished up the semester with a Bang, pulling a very nice GPA, but even more importantly writting some papers which may shape up into pleasant little articles for publication. I feel I've found my place in the department and I have started the oh so important process of developing a relationship with my mentor. I am starting to ponder possible disertation topics, but havn't quite nailed down what I want to do. Hopefully next semester will help, I'm taking a Byzantine Seminar which looks at non-traditional interpretation (like anamism woohoo!), a course in the English department called "Fictions of Medievalism" about later writtings/attitutdes towards the medieval period, and a French seminar on 16th C gender and litterary form. Should be a nice little schedule.
I also cashed out our flex account for insurance (end of the calendar year after all) and got myself some glasses. It's nice to be able to see (and sort of important for my professional life.) Got some awsome Christmas pressents, a new pepper mill, a real Mandoline EEK!!!!, a gift card for William Sonoma, lots of Harry and David grilling gear including a new set of cedar planks, so I'll be cooking up a storm in the few weeks before school starts back up.