More Bubbles!

She knows the way to my heart...

One of my colleagues at JMU brought in a ton of homemade cookies this week to celebrate my dissertation defense. Thanks Alison! And yes, the cookies were divine!

23 Months

Snuzzle Wuzzle

Vivian and Gavin liked to rub their foreheads together or on one of our foreheads. When they do it, we call it a snuzzle wuzzle. Two people in our house snuzzle wuzzle at least 3 times a day.

In the Car

Thanks Girls!

I came home from Indiana on Saturday to this:

From my amazing girls- April, Bandy, Stephanie, and Jen. I (and Wes and Gavin and Vivian) absolutely LOVED eating every single piece of this bouquet. And yes, it's already completely gone. Okay, it was gone by Monday morning. 

Thank You!!!

Defense Weekend

On Thursday, March 31,  flew out to Indiana to defend my dissertation on Friday morning. I met up with one of my favorite people in Lafayette, Elizabeth Williams, on Thursday night for dinner at The Patio at Bluefin Bistro, which I had never been to before and absolutely loved.

Then on Friday morning, I defended my dissertation. My committee consisted of Dr. Jim Tyler (my Major Professor), Dr. Erina MacGeorge, Dr. Steve Wilson, and Dr. Titilayo Okoror. We talked about my dissertation for about an hour and 45 minutes before I was asked to step out for a few minutes (standard protocol) and then invited back into the room as Dr. Jennifer Gill Rosier. It was an amazing experience.

(Jim and I directly following my defense)

Afterwards, I met Erina for lunch at Bistro 501, which I had also never been to and was also quite delicious. I had the salmon quiche- yum! Erina and I had a great time talking for three hours!

That night, I met a few more of my favorite people at Adelino's (again- I had never been and it was delicious). Heather Fedesco, Lisa Hanasono, Eileen Doherty, and Zeynep Tanes-Ehle met me at the restaurant and we ordered a bunch of tappas. 

Heather and I split a bottle of wine and were entered into a drawing for a 14-day trip to the Mediterranean. We asked if we could get two entries (since there was two of us), but the server said that there was only one entry per bottle. Below is Heather and I practicing our shocked faces for when we win. Finger's crossed!

On Saturday, I headed back to Virginia. It was an awesome couple of days.

Put my picture on the wall Mama...

Haircut

Vivian's hair has gotten out of control in the last several months. It was really frizzy, extremely uneven, and just crazy-looking. So, the other day, I decided to give her a trim. I cut her hair so that it was all about the same length. Hopefully it will grow out at the same rate now.

 Here's the before shot:

And here it is afterwards:

The doctor is in...

I did it! I defended my dissertation! I'm officially a Ph.D.!