Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman Birthday Party

This post is precisely a month late (the party was on April 20th), but I had to write this before posting about last Sunday's party. In my defense, most pictures were taken with my brother-in-law's camera and he had to send me the CDs with them.

Lots of people came to Kelvin's party -- his friends from school, from church, neighbors and former neighbors. The party was jam-packed with activities, led by my dear, long-suffering husband ;-) (thanks honey, my apologies again for being so busy with the food ). In the picture above, the kids are playing some traditional Brazilian games in our front lawn. Maybe they exist here too, but I'd have to ask someone about it. Oh, how about you? This particular game is called "lenço atrás" [handkerchief behind] and the participants sit in a circle while one one of them walks around and stealthily drops a handkerchief (or any piece of fabric) behind someone, who then has to run after the first person and try to catch him/her before s/he reaches the original seating place. If the person is caught s/he does the catching, if not, the first person has to go again -- do you have that here? Birthday boy had fun, and waited for his turn.

Here you can see my husband landing in his spot before our friend Karla caught him.

After these games outside, the kids moved to "Studio G" in the garage. Poor K, who had never watched a Fetch! episode in his life, printed out several activities from the website for the children to do. If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see that the "mailbox" on the left was the cat carrier -- I don't even know if they used, it though. All the activities were done in a competition between boys and girls. I must note that only the older kids got involved in this activity.



The younger ones, like my nephews in matching shirts, played at the sand table or rode bikes or scooters on the driveway.

The reason K had to be in charge of all activities with the kids was that I still had to frost the cake and help with the cooking. Here you can see me applying butter cream frosting to the cake (after all these birthday cakes I've become a pro). The cake itself was a big failure, it tasted OK, but it was really hard. I used the same cake that Caroline made for Ben's birthday, but I guess the problem is that I tripled the recipe. :-(


The failed cake. I was too tired to color some of the frosting for his name, so I just used jelly beans (Sunburst).

Obviously, my sister-in-law was in charge of the decoration. She made two Ruff Ruffmans out of poster board. Here's the first one (the second was in the garage, see photo above), with Kelvin's name in Fetch! style (the white dots were made with chalk!! -- you can click to enlarge):
(she also smartly made a Happy Birthday banner to cover the ugliest border in history -- it's GONE! I can't wait to post about it).

Happy Birthday, Kelvin!

Smiling for grandma's camera after blowing the candles:

After the happy birthday, K was so tired of entertaining the kids that he didn't even stop to think that they had not had time to eat. Smart parents either brought them in or brought food to them outside (I did have food at a table in the family room, next to the garage, so kids could get food there), of course those who were hungry and not completely engrossed in play, came in to eat, look at my nephew here: At this party we had the very first Piñata ever at our house (we don't much like to give out candy, I know, mean people, our family), and of course it was a big hit (K bought an empty one and filled it with Mini Snickers, Reese's cups, Kisses and Starburst candy. Note: we don't have piñatas in Brazil at all): Of course they had lots of fun, here's little brother trying to break it:
The breaking of the piñata took so long (and involved replacing the string, since it detached from it, that the younger kids went to play in the swingset:After many people had left, the closest friends remained and kids and adults played on the driveway, making chalk art and riding various toys:
(even my mom and dad tried the razor scooter, I took pictures, but won't post them).

They played until it began to get dark.It was a LOVELY day and party, in spite of the small problems (children not having time to eat, cake that went wrong).

"Rainy Days and Mondays"

Now that we have 3/4 of an acre of grassy lawn I value rainy days so much more. Even having a garden in the past three years didn't make me think much about the need for rain because small flower or vegetable beds can be easily watered, but watering grass is harder, not to mention wasteful.

Yesterday I stepped on every square foot of the lawn while mowing it with our self-propelled push mower. All our neighbors have those small tractor mowers, but besides the fact that we cannot afford one, it's good exercise to mow the lawn using a push mower. I do miss our electric lawnmower because it didn't pollute and was not as loud, but it really wouldn't help much with such a big yard. I love mowing the lawn, it's the type of work which provides instant results and gratification. It also makes me think intensely about our need to tame nature and green growing things because they are so "wild" that they would quickly overcome our efforts to control them, were they let free to grow.

It was raining today, and I was very glad and thankful for the rain and I'm sure the grass and my plants were too.

What brings me down right now are not rainy days nor Mondays, it's the uncertainty of our lives, of K's job. We have ups and downs, there are days when K feels more optimistic and others, like today, when he feels that it's not going to last long, that there's no way it's going to work out.

Since things turned around in such an unexpected way last December, I for the most time forget that our hopes are based on something very uncertain. Using a biblical metaphor, our hopes and lives right now are built upon sand, not rock. It was good to "pretend" that things were going well so I could have the peace of mind I needed in order to work on the dissertation, but now we're back to "real life." I feel devastated by the mere prospect of him losing his job again, but I know I should feel confident that everything will turn out OK in the end.

The biggest problem is this house. I've been repeating the mantra in my head that "this is not our house, it belongs to the bank, we're just 'renting' it from them in a way by paying the mortgage every month," but it's hard not to get attached to it, particularly after we're doing all these renovations and it begins to look much better and feel more ours. I don't want to be attached to things, though (and I am, most of the time, unfortunately), we don't need things to live, only very few of them. Maybe I need to learn this lesson, even if it is the hard way.

I should keep this in mind: we can live in this country, now. We can find new jobs, we can fly... I just wish we could know where we'll land and when.

I am just tired of not knowing.

Updating 365+1 Project (Photo Blog)

I just wanted to let you know that after being stuck on "March 30" for months now, I'm finally going to update my 365+1 Photo Blog. I have decided (FINALLY) to save the photos in lower resolution in order to make the upload time faster and that will help me get through all these days fairly quickly.

I have such a long after dissertation "to-do" list! (sigh) And now the trip to Brazil will delay the fulfillment of many of those things.... I shouldn't be complaining, should I? Sorry about that. I do share a lot of me in the blog and I do rant sometimes, but I'm mostly nice. I'm a whiner though, I have to admit it, and I know I have to improve that sad personality trait.

Do check out my photos, OK? I'll keep posting more and more, a bit every day, until I'm all caught up. And I also have a long backlog of posts to write here... I hope to get to all of them.

Accepted! Done!

The dissertation was accepted.

I know it's not "perfect" -- my husband was just telling me last week "there is no such thing as a finished dissertation" and he's absolutely right, there were countless things that could be improved on, but at some point one just had to be done! -- but it's DONE!!

What a relief. I didn't know if the answer would come today or not, but, after uploading it last night, I already woke up with a completely different energy today. I worked around the house, I went looking for pictures to hang on the walls, I put away empty boxes in the "garage attic," I was able to finally "be more present" and "in the moment" when interacting with my sons, my parents.

My mom is saying that it'll be a while until I feel completely done, until the sense of urgency, the feeling that there's an incomplete task that I need to work on leaves me, but I'm already feeling much better, much more alive. I think that the ups and downs, and how long it took to finally end has helped ease the transition between "dissertator" and Ph.D. holder.

Well, four years as an ABD, waiting and waiting to get done, as well as 10 years as a student must make some lasting "damage" to one's psyche. But that's what I'm going to find out in the days, months, and years that will follow. Perhaps the "damage" will be a "good" kind of damage.

I've always thought that relief (especially from nausea and from pain) was one of the best feelings and although I'm not quite sure about that, it does feel good right now. Yeah!

Two Weeks/ Two Years; Brazil Trip, and Other Bullets

Two much going on, as always, so a bullet-post is needed.

• In two weeks we'll know whether my husband's group will get a two year contract from big pharma or whether he might be laid off now or soon. There are positive prospects, but one never knows. My heart breaks again at the prospect of having to sell the house and live in limboland again for who knows how long. (not that we're not there right now ;-) , but the mere possibility of knowing where we'll be for at least two years is immensely comforting).
  

• On Sunday night I uploaded the revised dissertation, but, luckily, yesterday I found out that I had missspelled the first name of a scholar (a person with whom I'll be soon collaborating, i.e. part of my dissertation will be published in a forthcoming collection that s/he's organizing) and I had to correct the dissertation again, generate a new PDF, and resubmit it to the graduate school last night.

• The dissertation needs to be approved by 5/16, that is, in three days, so I can participate of commencement on the 23rd. I think I'll make it.

• I'm going to submit at least two articles, and perhaps one English translation of a Brazilian short-story, for publication this summer. Plus another accepted paper (a translation into Portuguese of a previously published paper of mine -- I only have three, OK? All three about children's literature, which is not the main focus of my dissertation, BTW.) which will be published in Brazil. I'm really excited about that!

• We're going to Brazil on June 5 to stay there for 20 days (K will only stay 10). I guess I've never stayed for such a short period of time (except when I went by myself for a weekend), but I'm OK with that. I don't want to miss too much of the summer in this house, particularly now that we have a share in a CSA (mostly greens and vegetables, only a mile from our home)!!! YAY!!! (It'll be late fall, winter in Brazil, so it'll be cold).

• We're already planning some summer trips. K has a workshop to attend in Boston at the end of July and we're going with him, and in August we're going to my in-laws to meet our newest nephew (due in July) -- I'm so excited about that, "K3" and "Rene!" We may also go to Florida and we'll certainly visit our brother- & sister-in-law and our nephews in Maryland several times. This summer will go by quickly, I can tell. I'm already missing it before it's even begun!
  

• Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot to say that I want to spend at least one weekend in NYC. We haven't been to the MoMA (OK, I went there only once in my life, back in 1998) since it was renovated and I want the boys to experience the Big Apple (they've been there a few times, but I think they don't remember much, probably just several playgrounds in Central Park and these).
  

I'm sure there's much more to say, but I guess I end this post with an overview of what's to come soon: photos about home renovations, gardening plans, home decorating (hanging photos and art in walls), and, of course -- birthday party decoration photos (another birthday party this Sunday)!!! I'll be back soon.

Happy Mother's Day!!

(this one and the next were taken by my mother)

Today I want to post more flowers for all my dear "mommy blogger" friends (and for everyone else too! :-)

These are from Longwood Gardens from two weeks ago. I took them with my brother-in-law's awesome new C@non R3bel camera.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Finishing Revisions - The Roller Coaster of Feelings is Back (Or : My Conflicted Feelings About Academia)

I got the revisions back from the graduate school a few hours ago -- I was glad that they did this quickly because if my dissertation is not accepted by May 16, I won't get to participate of commencement.

I am almost done with the corrections (moving the epigraph page, correcting some errors in the Table of Contents, changing the font size in all chapter epigraphs, correcting the margins in the bibliography, and a few other things), but I wanted to come here and talk about my feelings about this dissertation while they're still fresh.

[I know this is all I talk about, but once this whole thing is over, I'll shut up and NEVER touch this subject again, so bear with me for now]

You know, I kept thinking that all these revisions, that this whole formatting nightmare would make me care less or hate the dissertation and its subject, but nothing of the sort is happening. I am still profoundly interested and invested in this topic and it angers me that it's really not supposed/required/necessary to be that way for one to become part of academia. Perhaps is another reasons why I won't ever get to be part of it, because I'm too much in earnest, I don't really care for the formal aspects of it, the conventions, the "pro forma" stuff that is part and parcel of academic life. Publishing articles, organizing and presenting at conferences, publishing books, even. I'm sure that many people are truly interested and invested in their subjects, but I also think that a whole lot of people just go through the motions, year after year. Otherwise, there would be more genuine enthusiasm at conferences and such.

Yeah, I know, I'm an idealist. I care about things and I want to curiously and passionately pursue them, but that doesn't mean that these qualities will be valued. I don't really have the words to express intelligently and articulately all my feelings on this matter. I obviously don't know enough, I admit that I'm judging a whole lot of people and that I could be wrong. I also don't know if I'm really cut out for academic life. I find teaching extremely stressful, the undergraduates I taught for seven years had almost no interest in what I (or the professor, when I was a T.A.) was teaching. I still feel a fish out of the water in an American University and I have these feelings that part of my problem teaching here is a cultural one (Brazilians are much warmer, enthusiastic people in general, and it's hard for me to deal with the "typical" American students).

Well, anyway, I got carried away, as usual. So let me go back to my revisions and quit expressing these useless frustrations.

More on the "Ridiculously Long" Dissertation

Note: read the previous post first :-)

Yes, Tracy, it is a ridiculously long dissertation, even for my discipline (which at this point I'm still a bit fuzzy about in the blog, let's say all you need is to add a word that begins with "c" to the area I in the "about me" part).

It's like two or three dissertations rolled into one, really. After the theory and methodology part, I review all of Brazilian lit. in order to try and determine the proportion of m#en to wom3n writers (a project that involved typing up 14K author names and many more publication dates). Then I do a review of lit. showing how my own research draws on what has been done before in this area and present the results of my survey. This is the "macro" part. The second, "micro" part is an analysis of seven books by three wom3n authors.

Complementing the stats I presented yesterday:

- The length of the dissertation without the appendices and bibliography is "only" 399 pages. A lot of those pages are taken up by the tables and charts, obviously -- something totally and absolutely unusual in dissertation about lit3rature.

I want to blog about that some other time. How about a month ago I finally found out someone who does something similar (using data, graphs, charts) and now I don't feel so lost anymore. In the past two years I presented my research at various major conferences, as you know, and all I got were blank stares. That's one of the reasons why I think I have no chance whatsoever of getting a tenure track job. My research is just TOO ORIGINAL, perhaps even risqué in that sense. Not fashionable at all.

Moreover, I DO NOT depart from any theory or political positioning as is standard, but I look into real data, concrete evidence which sometimes contradicts theoretical positions. Even worse, huh?

Well, now I have to go teach a piano class and tomorrow we'll have guests here, so we're very busy.

There are TONS of things I want to blog about however, so I hope to be back with much more soon.

Revised, Resubmitted (or, should it be Signed, Sealed, and Delivered?)

This, let me tell you, was anticlimactic.

Everything else about my dissertation and the end of the Ph.D. until now was an exciting roller coaster (more on that in a future post), but this last leg of the process, one which may not even have ended yet, was just so tiresome and boring even. I know it's mostly my fault and I admit it.

- I was really STUPID not to have written every single dissertation chapter using the template provided by the university. That alone would have saved several hours because I'd be using the correct margins from the beginning and not finding out on May 7 that all my chapters had a 1.25 left margin when they were supposed to have 1.5. (changing the margins implied having to check and adjust the formatting of the whole chapters, including tons of tables and charts).

- I could have learned how to use MS W0rd effectively so I could have avoided the insane task of entering page numbers by hand in my Table of Contents and Lists of Tables and Figures... (I entered them in another W0rd doc that was all messed up, just so my poor husband could cut and pasted it into the final version).

- and many other Things I Did Wrong, like not using Endnote (my university library had RefWorks and that didn't work well) for my bibliography and having to type it manually. On the day the dissertation was due to the graduate school (in the end it was comforting, but I'll tell you why later, if I ever get around to writing the dissertation submission post, after I write the defense photos post, you get the idea ;-)

OK, I have to go to bed, but here are the stats:

- 489 pages + 21 pages of title, acknowledgments (4!), abstract, table of contents, etc. = 510 total pages

- Table of Contents: 5 pages long, because I have so many subsections...

- 33 tables, 46 figures (most pie-charts)

It's a 3.91 MB PDF, but the moment the graduate school says the formatting is OK, I can email to whoever wants it. Let me know :-)

I just hope I don't have to make many changes/ corrections.

I can't participate of commencement if the dissertation is not cleared beforehand. I don't know if they have a deadline for that, maybe the day before ;-)

News & Dreams

After a lovely weekend in Massachusetts (I hope to blog about it soon) I'm still busy with revisions, revisions, revisions of the dissertation. I just can't take it anymore, but hopefully it'll be over soon.

I don't know if you noticed, but the last post not only celebrated my 600th post, but also had recent news at the end, so check it out. I forgot to mention that the greatest reason to celebrate is that now I CAN work. I just have to figure out how/what/when/where. Any suggestions? I'm even thinking of putting ads in the blog (I had some last year [even though technically I couldn't], but they asked me to remove them, oh well). I know some of you do BlogHer -- would you recommend it?

I also want to begin that website I've been dreaming about and which would be a resource (scholarly and general interest) on Brazilian literature. I suppose that ad revenue could also be a source of income if I figure out how to make this site an indispensable resource and market it accordingly. Well, I guess the sky is the limit, I only have to begin planning and putting my plans into action. Well, now, back to those revisions so I can submit the dissertation again soon...

600th Post -- Eleven Years and Eleven Months

That's how long we've lived in this country.

Two sons

Two Ph.D.s

One M.S. & one M.A.

Three houses (one at a time)

Four cars

One cat

Six moves

Six towns or cities

Eight or more Visas

Eight or more Consulate visits

In sum, eleven years and eleven months...

...Later:

Led to this:

Now we're actually immigrants,
no more legal, but temporary, outer-space creatures.

Permanent Residents. Did you hear me? Permanent?
Still from outer-space, but **resident** aliens.

Should I even celebrate? I don't really know...But I can certainly celebrate 600 posts, that's for sure!

We've known since Monday, when K emailed the lawyers to ask about my visa situation now that I'd be graduating. The lawyer responded by saying that our work permit had been denied (?). Yeah... because the grass-colored card process had been approved. Wow.
We knew it'd be quick, but had never imagined it'd be that quick.

So, yeah, we're already planning the trip to Brazil. And...
K will participate of that concurso (competition for a tenure track position) there -- him and thirteen other people. Isn't that ironic? Trying out for a post in Brazil now that we can stay here for good? Well... with his job situation the way it is, we never know what would be best. More on that later, though.

Aren't our lives just too much sometimes? No wonder you guys get tired of reading this old blog! (really old now, 600 posts old -- I know that's nothing. Dawn has over 1,000 pages in her blog, isn't that so?), and I talk entirely too much. Sorry about that.

The Last Word

I cannot believe that it has been two years since I first read about this idea at my then still ABD virtual friend Yvette's blog (thank you so much for writing a whole post for me, BTW, my friend).

Anyway, Yvette saw this post and decided to take up the challenge and write her dissertation's last word even before it was finished because she loved this question from that post:

What's the last word in your dissertation?*[. . .] *For those of you still--or not yet--writing a dissertation, what word would you like to be the last word? It might be fun to record it here and then write to it. Voila.

At the time, I was not brave enough to try to guess what the word would be, so I waited. Almost two full years (May 16, 2006 was the day Yvette wrote her post).

So, here it is:

ACCOMPLISHMENT.

I may share the whole last paragraph later, it's pretty short, but I'll leave you with this now.

I have written down the whole odyssey of the dissertation submission and I hope to post it. I haven't forgotten about the photos from the defense, and I need to update my photo blog.

But for now, I want this word to stand:

accomplishment

It has certainly been a great accomplishment to finish this dissertation. We stayed up until 3 am last night again and I worked several hours today to finalize the revisions and I'm going to upload it on Monday morning, when I am at the university (I'm going there for a graduate student conference, I was supposed to be there tonight, but we'll only go tomorrow).

So, tell me, if you've completed a dissertation: what was your last word?
Or, if you're still working on it, what word do you want to be your last word?

Cranberry Drink - Yummm (Blog Tour/ Review)

I looove cranberries (and if you haven't yet seen my cranberry bog photos, I recommend that you check them out! :-)

Anyway, Mom Central frequently offers fun review review opportunities and I generally pass up those that have to do with foods because we try to avoid processed foods in our household. This one seemed irresistible, though! Trying out two new cranberry energy drinks and also getting "book money" (Amazon gift cert.) in the bargain? Oh yes, I'm in!
Well, it turns out that this review/blog tour couldn't have come at a better moment! The box with the two small bottles, one of " cranberry lift (the pink on in the photo) and the other of raspberry cranberry lift (green) arrived yesterday around noon and I saved them for later (the boys were curious about them, but because of the green tea extract, I told them it wasn't a drink for kids) since I intended to check out their purported energy boosting qualities. I began drinking them in the evening and still had some leftover for today.

I opened both, trying to figure out which was the best tasting one, but both won. They are not too sweet (Splenda is used as a sweetener to cut the calories and it's only 23% juice), and perfectly tangy, with a herbal touch of green tea in the "background." (I had fun last night imagining a comparison between my careful sampling of the drinks and people on winery tours -- of course I know nothing of the latter, so it was a funny comparison).

Anyway, I don't know if it was merely coincidence or mostly the adrenaline, but the truth is that I didn't have any difficulty to stay up all night and I haven't felt sleepy all day (that I can certainly credit to the adrenaline, but I was pretty calm last night), so I guess it really works to bring some extra energy. At least it does for someone who doesn't consume caffeinated drinks like me.

Coincidence or not, all I can say about the delivery of these drinks and the blog tour is:

Great Timing !!

Live Blogging Dissertation Upload

I still don't know if it's in or not...
It's uploading, but there are only 7 more minutes.
4:53

It could still not happen. I don't know. I'm just praying. I cannot look at the other computer's screen.

What a nightmare! I thought it would be bad, but I never imagine it would be THIS bad.
4:54

OK, it's in. It was uploaded, at around 4:56.

Wow, I can't believe it worked out in the end.

Details later (I have a blog tour thing to do today -- it's actually very fitting to what's going on, I think you'll laugh!).

So, the suspense is almost over. I'm on the phone with the graduate school just to make sure that EVERYTHING is fine.

It is. If I drank I'd pop open the champagne that my advisor gave me at the defense. It's sitting on the bigger desk, right in front of the laptop I used to submit the dissertation. ;-)

PHEW!! Spoke too soon....

The grad school accepts files with errors

All I need is to have SOMETHING, and I do have everything but the table of contents and list of figures.

I'm fine. It's fine. Sorry, but I was so upset!

Thanks Dawn.

Not Gonna Happen

I won't graduate because we won't be able to generate a PDF document in time for the 5 pm deadline.

long story

mostly, that K tried to do it in MS word, and it didn't work

all in vain
disappointment, almost desperation.

1h and 40 minutes.

It's not gonna happen... :-( I'll come back later. but I don't have much hope.

Almost 24 Hours, Almost There

We've been awake for almost 24 hours, K and I, and the dissertation is almost fully assembled.

383 pages, without appendices and bibliography.

That I am really tired is an understatement. Yesterday was a hard day, lots of wasted hours, trying to add a section that ended up being cut.

IBS in full swing. I may sleep for an hour or so, but I want to call the graduate school to pay the fees by credit card.

I'll be done soon. I can't wait.

NOT Wonderful

In contrast to that post.

Revising the dissertation under the immense pressure of an upcoming deadline. Not wonderful.

It's all I'm going to say about that for now.

And apologies for bumping those flowers from the top. Hopefully I can add more soon.

Flowers for You

Dedicated to my friend Professing Mama, who just had "Chico," her beautiful baby boy!

It's been so long since I've posted photos of pretty flowers in this blog, so, here you go.
And these "babies"? These gorgeous things? They are mine. I planted each with my own hands. That -- is priceless.

I hope you have a great weekend. I'm totally overwhelmed by dissertation revisions, but it'll be over soon. Keep me in your thoughts & prayers.

Demolition

Our first BIG outside-contractors home improvement project has begun this morning.

This stucco wall:
With this problematic buckling (there was even a wasps' nest in there last year) and more:

Has already been removed, as will happen to all the stucco around the house:

8:27 a.m.:

9:18 a.m.:
9:53 a.m.:

New plywood will be put in place and brand-new stucco all around. We'll have a "new garage" in the process, almost, since it's not a finished space (I just don't know if we can afford a new back door and a new window to the garage -- those need to be replaced too).

I'll try to keep you posted on the progress of this big project, although I need to concentrate in finalizing the dissertation.


P.S. We figured out a way to get the camera to charge again. (YAY! I'm so happy! I can take pictures again!) BUT this was after Kelvin's birthday and most of the photos from that even were taken in my brother in law's great new camera (a Canon Rebel) and we didn't get to download them to our computer :-(.

The Most Radical (for me) Work Avoidance Tactic

You already know I have work to do. With a deadline looming in the horizon...

But I think I'm going to bed early tonight (if you knew me well you'd be asking at this point -- "WHAT? Did you just say that? You must be kidding me!"). I must be out of my mind, though, because staying up late is just what I do. Always. Sleeping in is my goal in life :-) . But it's not just work avoidance, believe me. I'm just so sleepy today, though... it's almost scary! And last night I did go to bed comparatively early, before midnight (which is very early for me) and slept until 8.

I guess I've just had enough and my body is tired. I may not have recovered yet from staying up most of the night from last Wednesday to Thursday.

Well, wish me luck in writing the conclusion and revising the dissertation tomorrow and the next few days. I keep telling myself over and over "this is the final push, just do it, it'll be over soon," but I still get tired and unmotivated. Blah.

Back to Work

First, a few announcements:

(1) Thanks for reminding me about changing the "about me" and the blog header descriptions. I have edited them, but I'm sure they could be improved upon, particularly the header.

(2) I have yet to update my 365+1 project blog. I don't have time to do it because I have yet to submit my dissertation. In addition, my camera has temporarily "died" because the charging cable is broken so I can only take pictures with my mom's camera.

(3) I haven't published the "special post" I meant to post on the day of the defense because I have to figure out how to do a "cut" ("click here to read the rest"). I have found the instructions at Blogger University (a great site BTW, do check it out), but have yet to implement them. Oh, yeah, and I also want to do a defense photo edition post, that will be lots of fun! :-)

That said, after a busy and festive weekend, I am back to work now and I have to finish this dissertation ASAP because the deadline to submit it to the graduate school is April 30, but I want to do it earlier. I want to feel the taste of freedom and full accomplishment in my life! :-)

I do feel very happy that my son's party was done (I'll post about it when I get to take a break from work) and that we got to visit Longwood Gardens with my brother-in-law and his family yesterday (their first time there in the 3+ years we have been garden pass holders).

Now, however, I have to really work hard. My advisor wants me to write a longer dissertation conclusion and I need to implement ALL the corrections made by him and two other readers. I hope I can do that fairly quickly. And then I have to finish assembling the bibliography and make sure that the formatting is fully correct.

OK, so I gotta go now. Hopefully I'll have time to blog again soon.

Five Hundred and Eight Years Ago

Today, back in 1500, the Portuguese sailor Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil with the group of thirteen tall Portuguese ships [caravelas] and their crews that he led. They first thought that it was a mountain and named it "Easter Mount" (Monte Pascoal) because it was close to Easter. A few days later when they left this new place, thinking it might be an island or big piece of land, they named it "Vera Cruz [True Cross]" Island. When other explorerers came and realized that it was actually a continent, they named it "Terra de Santa Cruz" [Holy Cross Land]. It was not until 1511 when brazilwood was discovered, that the place was named Brazil (Brasil). Brazil wood has that name because it was a bright red color and it was taken to Europe to make a red die, the word "Brasil" comes from the word "brasa" -- red, bright fire embers or burning wood.

Well, I bet you didn't know that, so now you do. Every April 22 I think of that day long ago which marked the beginning of the European settlement of my country. I feel sad for the natives who were driven out of their land and many killed, and for the nature that was destroyed, but unfortunately that's what "civilization" means. And in spite of all that post-colonial theory represents, I'm glad that Brasil became the country it is now and that it is the place where I belong in this planet, even though I don't live there anymore.

I couldn't find any good links where you can read more about this subject in English! :-(

Blogger Isn't Letting Me Post Video

Good morning everyone,

I stayed up late last night trying to get my post (with a short video) published, but I guess I'll have to use an outside service such as YöuTube or Vimeo, because Blogger's video embedding tool is just not working.

So, Check out my "previous" post, OK?

Milestones

(ETA links) Phew! I finally figured out how to make the video public on Vimeo. Enjoy. You can hear my hoarse voice a bit, that's how it was during the defense.

In spite of the fact that this week brought an important milestone to my life (and I still owe you the "special post" that I saved for this occasion -- this is not it), I kept thinking that finally getting the Ph.D. wasn't really such a significant event in my life like, say, that of the birth of each of my sons. Those were the defining moments of my existence and I'm pretty sure that (at least for me) nothing will surpass the moments I brought two new human beings into this earth. I know that the birth of new human beings happens thousands of times every day, every hour even, and that maybe only a handful of Ph.D.s are granted each day, but still, what does a Ph.D. really mean when compared with a person?

OK, before I get too philosophical, which really is not my style at all, let me tell you what happened yesterday afternoon and tonight.

I was here at the computer yesterday when my six year old son arrived excited in the room and told me very seriously that I could not imagine what he had just accomplished. So I followed him outside and grabbed the camera, and this is what I saw:

Untitled from Lilian Mama(e) in Translation on Vimeo.

Kelvin had just been able to ride his* bike without the training wheels and I was thrilled for him as were K and my parents. "What a milestone!" I thought as I filmed him, "and only a parent would think that this was important at all," and I planned this post in my mind.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tonight I went to lay down with him for a bit before he went to sleep. I simply cannot put the boys to bed, however because I just enjoy talking and talking to them so much that they don't go to sleep at all. I'll never forget one night when Kelvin was almost three and Linton only eight months old. We were in Brazil and I was visiting my in-laws with the boys (and without K -- I went to Brazil for almost two months with the boys back in 2005) and one night Kelvin just kept asking question after question about Bible stories and complex concepts like how evil came into this world (you may remember how serious he was about death only a couple of months later) and I felt so touched by these conversations.

Anyway, tonight there was another milestones of sorts. Kelvin told me that he had had a special dream last night, but that he wouldn't tell me about it because it was a secret. His first secret from me. I guess he's growing up faster than I realized and beginning to create his own space, his own life, and I find that fascinating. I have given life to a unique person, and that's what matters most.

* Actually it was his former 12" bike which has been his brother's since we bought him a bigger bike last year. He had to use it for riding without the training wheels, though, because he's still quite short and cannot step on the ground while seated on his 18" bike -- I wanted to have bought him a 14" or 16" one, but couldn't find one that had "brakes on the handlebar" not just on the pedals like he wanted.

P.S. I guess I have finally realized why I want another baby and have been so envious of my blogging friends Articulate Dad and Rocket Mom, Kate (Expat Mama), and Anjali all of whom had their third baby this year. I have already discussed the pros and cons here, though, so I think it's not going to happen.

PSA: Mamma Mia! Contest

Any AB*BA fans out there? (BTW, do you know there's a brand new museum [loud website] opening next year?)

After the success of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on their music, this summer a movie based on the musical and starring Meryl Streep (one of my favorite actresses, BTW) will be released. This brand of skincare products has partnered with the makers of the movie to launch a fun contest for women 40 and older, who are invited to form a trio, perform their own take on the classics "Mamma Mia" or "Dancing Queen" and submit videos of those performances. The winners of this contest will get to go on a a lavish trip to London to live the life of three Dynamos at the world premiere of Mamma Mia! So, if you want to know more details, click here.

If this took place 3 years and 3 months from now I would most certainly participate because it sounds like LOTS of fun! (Come on, Jo(e) you know you want to do this ;-)

This post comes to you sponsored by Mom Central (and it's worth an Amazon book certificate -- something I really want/need right now since I spent all three of my last ones to buy one academic book for my dissertation while many other books remained in my wish list).

Wonderful!

Apologies for the suspense.

Everything went wonderfully well as I already knew it would be. I almost blogged right there in the room, and my friend Cris actually asked in a very awkward moment when we were taking a photo -- will you put us in your blog? You still have a blog, don't you? I didn't say anything, just proceeded with posing for the photo, but I guess now I've been "outed" to my committee -- good thing I can't really be tracked down if they search for my name :-). But of course I couldn't blog there with them, and I was staying at one of my committee member's house (another wonderful aspect of the whole defense experience), so she helped us pack the refreshments and drove us home where we had to leave and drive to my mother-in-law's house.

I still have to do all the revisions and submit them to the graduate school ASAP, but I'm DONE!!! I have a Ph.D.!!!!!

If you want to know more about the defense, it was very informal. I talked for 15-20 minutes and then they asked me questions for over an hour. Not that many people came because I ended up not making an announcement in the grad students' listserve (I did announce the date and time in facebook, though, and several of my fellow grad students are there), so only five very good friends were there, another colleague and one Chinese professor.

Funny stuff: in order to make Linton behave and not want to be close to me all the time, my mom explained to him that it was like church, with me "preaching" and it worked like a charm, since he's used to being quiet and behaving in church every week. The funny part was that half-way through it he wanted to know who the "pastor" was, and he also complained that the "service" was just too long. Towards the end my mom took him for a walk outside to see the ducks at the pond. Several people had to leave before the end, but the committee members plus three colleagues/friends were there to eat the refreshments that I brought (some of my favorite Trader Joe's goodies (meringue and lemon chocolate covered cookies), strawberries, Panera's foccacias, TJ's bruschetta and some other things.

On the drive here I was thinking of some lovely reflections to make, but I'm just a boring "facts" person and as much as I wanted to make this post really lovely and well-written, I know that all you want to know is how it went and how things are.

We have to leave in a few hours to NYC to take my MIL who has an early flight to Brazil, so we're basically not going to sleep anything, so I'm sorry that such a lovely day and great accomplishment has to be followed by such craziness, but that's our life. I've been telling people today that we're just a "crazy" traveling family... and we are :-)

I have a treat for you that was supposed to have been posted today, but which I'll have to post tomorrow. And... in spite of the fact that I NEED to work on the revisions and writing about 10 more pages in my conclusion, I have a birthday party to plan... yeah, crazy life. Jennie said once (and I'm yet to respond to the award she gave me ages ago -- my indecision problem has kept me from doing it until now, can you believe it? many apologies) that my life is just very full, with many things going on, I bet you guys get tired simply reading this, so I'll stop now.

And let me just say one last thing -- your support meant the world to me. I don't think anyone has ever gone into a defense feeling so surrounded by positive thoughts, prayers by friends and family, and support in every imaginable way. Thanks for being a part of that.

And the journey is almost over, I'm almost at the end of the tunnel. I'll emerge on the other side when they call my name at commencement -- it's then that I need to try and invite as many friends as possible so that in those brief moments after my name is called I can hear some screaming, and clapping, and rejoicing. Let me know if you wanna be there ;-)

Safely Here, Going to Bed

We made it in five hours and I drove half of the way. Driving is good for thinking, too bad it's hard to record those thoughts later...

Random thing. I googled my first and last names today and I was utterly surprised to find my facebook profile (not open to people not logged in and not my contacts) as the first result! Wow! More power to them, I guess... or whatever. And, BTW, if you're on facebook but not my friend yet and want to be, just let me know. I never do anything there, but I'm going to post more pictures because friends are asking for photos of the boys.

I was going to prepare a short power point presentation for tomorrow, but I read some blogs and wrote emails instead... oh well. I guess I've already done tons of work and I can "sit back and relax" now. I think I've got my priorities straight after all! ;-)

P.S. I forgot to say this in my previous post, but I did finally finish a conclusion draft (only 11 pages) and sent it to the committee before we left.

Oh, I just remembered that I have to figure out how to do a cut on the post I'm "publishing" tomorrow... and I'm so sleepy.

This is the most boring post ever. But I'm going to finally "earn" my Ph.D. tomorrow, so I can do silly stuff, like write a random post.

P.S. Thanks for all your good wishes. I feel like the most supported -- by virtual friends as well as from family and friends far and near -- dissertation defender EVER.

Hitting the Road

Shortly we'll be on our way to Massachusetts for my defense tomorrow. I'm so sorry that K cannot come with us. I'm going with my parents and younger son...

And of all things, I'm sorry I'll miss seeing my flowers for a couple of days -- is that too weird?

OK, gotta go!

What (Not) to Wear - Dissertation Edition

What should I wear to the defense?

- Professional clothes (like for job interview)?
- Casual professional clothes that one would wear for teaching? (I haven't been teaching and I also used to wear informal everyday clothes, [jeans, blouses, sweaters, sundresses in summer]when I taught)
- Regular everyday clothes?/ Comfortable clothes?

And to my female friends who defended in the past: what did you wear?

I wanted to take pictures of the outfits that I'm considering wearing, but that would take too much time. I will post a picture later of what I chose to wear, meanwhile, suggestions are appreciated.

Some of my options:
- Comfortable, cute, "very-much-like-me" outfit: one of those short jumper dresses (plaid beige with blue and black) with a black tight blouse and black leggings and black ballet flats. -- I'd look too much like a little girl, but I love this look.

- Pantsuit (which a friend gave me recently, gently used). Brown with discreet gold stripes. Can only be worn with high heeled shoes, though -- I wouldn't much mind that. The pants are a bit tight, however (it's a stretch fabric, so it's not that bad).

- Checkered (brown/beige) or striped (brown/beige/blue) shorter length pantaloon/ gaucho pants with boots (slightly high, but square, comfortable heels - shorter beige/ or longer brown boots, depending on pants) with blue blouse or brown sweater.

I guess those are my favorite four options. I own several skirt/suit outfits, but I'd rather wear pants.

What's your vote?

Spring's Here -- Take a Look!

Even my first tulip has began to open. I'm so thrilled that I planted all those bulbs back in December!
These photos were taken yesterday and I have almost two weeks of photos yet to post to the other blog, and, BTW, do check it out once in a while because I haven't been posting photos here after I began the 365+1 project. I do want to go back to posting more photos and I'm posting these here before I do it there, because, as my now blog-less friend ChicagoMama would say, I want to "bring good juju" to this blog (whatever exactly that means ;-).

Good news: my voice is better already, very low, but noticeably better. I guess that the singing can be blamed for most of the problem since my throat was already healing up to yesterday (I knew by the color of the discharges, apologies for this nasty statement...). So, next time I know, when not feeling entirely well in my vocal chords, no singing. Particularly no singing extremely high notes to rehearse the soprano parts (I'm an alto, but I sing along when rehearsing any other voices, including men's). I still need to take it easy, though, because my sinuses are not that happy either... oh well.

Ha! Guess What?

After staying up most of the night up talking last Monday and then twelve hours walking in and out of stores the next day made my defense system weak and I began to get a sore throat. I hoped it wouldn't become worse and I was already much better yesterday, but my voice began to get lower and I guess that after some singing with our musical group this afternoon it just got much much worse and now I'm totally hoarse. I had my tonsils removed at age four, so I often have laryngitis whenever I get a virus or cold. Now... how am I going to talk a the defense? Is there any way I could get better quickly from laryngitis? I guess not, right? Sometimes, like the last time I had it, I totally loose my voice and the most irritating thing for me is being unable to sing for weeks. I do enjoy my voice when I'm either getting sick or recovering -- a low, sexy, throaty voice ;-) but I don't want to be terribly hoarse at the defense!!!

Oh well... my mom's preparing pomegranate skin tea for me (which she says helps a lot), and when I have a sore throat sage leaf tea usually helps. Any advice or tried and true recipes? I will most certainly go to bed early and get lots of sleep in the next few days, but I don't know if that'll help my swollen larynx. Wish me luck with that!

Half-Hearted Guilt & Righteous Indignation

I defend the dissertation in five days, and yet, I haven't finished writing my conclusion and given it to my committee.

I haven't yet revised all chapters according to the feedback I received in the past couple of weeks from my most demanding and, in the end, extremely helpful reader (and in the past couple of days, including today -- from advisor), and I probably won't have a nice, collated PDF file of the complete dissertation for the committee before the defense. Well, maybe only on THE DAY before...

And yet, I have the nerve not to be feverishly working. And, on top of that to feel absolutely calm and confident.

How can that be? Why can't I even feel guilty about not working? Why don't I feel like working at all, in fact?

You know... I guess there's an answer to those questions. Perhaps I'm not really cut out for this because these may be signs that I'm not taking this seriously...

Oh well, who am I kidding? If you saw my dissertation and if you'd worked as hard as I have to write it in the past three years you'd be laughing at me for saying I'm not taking this seriously.

What I mean is this, though: I refuse to let scholarly concerns take over my life. I enjoyed spending time with my guests and simply "living" after being consumed by the dissertation for a few days. I decided to travel with my family to Nashville in spite of the fact that I was not done as I said I'd be. I value life much more than this degree. And from what I perceive, observing from the sidelines, basically only from reading blogs because I'm not on campus anymore, is that one cannot have that mindset if one wants (1) be offered and accept a tenure track job and (2) get tenured. So, I shouldn't even bother, I suppose.

Why can't there be a middle ground, though? I'm passionate enough about my research, I think it is quite relevant, why is it that my whole life has to be devoted to it? Besides, I won't even get into the reasons why I WON'T EVER even be offered a tenure track job -- the fact that I don't fit in with what's fashionable and what departments are/will be looking for. I have perfect conviction of that, in spite of my "great qualities" and those of my work.

I'm not really upset by that, though, only indignant. That people like my friend Articulate Dad didn't get a single offer, not even a single interview (for a TT job) after over one hundred and fifty job applications is OUTRAGEOUS!! I mean... I don't even want to belong to a system like that. That's why I keep thinking I should go back to Brazil even if it meant I'd have to put up with violence and being afraid and having to live in a crowded, polluted city. But no, I don't want that. And this is my quandary right now, had been for a while.

Well, rant over. Enjoy the weekend. All three of you who are reading this post. ;-)

"Reality Game Show" Party

A while back I commented in passing about Kelvin's fascination with the PBS show Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, a show that had two seasons in 2006-2007 and is currently on reruns. When he began to watch it at the suggestion of some older school mates he began to pretend that he was a person from TV for the first time ever. I guess that this happened because the show portrays real children that compete in various challenges (before that he never pretended to be Bob the Builder or the Thomas train, although he played with them). Season two is the one he watched first and he decided that he was Rosario (a weird name for me, because in Brazil most "Rosarios" [the word meaning rosary] are women -- "Maria do Rosário" being the most common one). I was dubbed Nina, and other members of the family named after other contestants. He's been watching two back-to-back reruns of the show daily for over two months now, but I hope that after his birthday party he moves on to something else.

I FINALLY prepared the party invitation this afternoon (while I should be working on the dissertation, obviously) and now I feel a bit better because I've been feeling really guilty about not having been able to throw him a birthday party earlier, considering that his birthday was on March 9. I didn't even blog about it, see? But I'm trying to redeem myself although I won't be able to prepare for the party until a few days before it since the defense is next Wednesday.

This is more or less what the invitation looks like (I even wrote a silly little poem, it's probably awful, but it brought a smile to my son's face and that's what I wanted):

Kelvin turned 6 years old and you’re invited to celebrate with us in a “Reality Game Show” setting! At our home (XYZ St.) on Sunday, April 20, at 3:30 p.m.

On TV all you find are re-runs,
But in Kelvin’s party you’ll have lots of fun!
We’ll play games and learn some science,
With many teams and lots of challenges
We’ll pretend it’s “Season Three.”
Let’s see who the winners will be!

Call us at (000) 000-000 to let us know you’re coming or if you get lost on your way to “studio G”!

Whirlwind of Guests and Shopping

(Edited to correct typos)
It's clichéd, but it's true. When it rains it pours.

It's not the first time it happens... and it goes like this: many months go by uneventfully, long, "lonely" months without any people coming from Brazil to visit, but then, all of a sudden, coincidentally, several friends come at once and we have a happy overdose of friends, conversations, packed days, late night sleeping, etc. (and, later hangovers too...)

Last Wednesday our dear longtime friend Marco and his family (his lovely wife, who by coincidence was K's math student in 8th grade years ago, and his two sons, aged five and one) came to stay a couple of days. I took them to Longwood Gardens on Thursday, but other than that, every single minute was spent inside various stores. It's like that with most people who come visit from Brazil because certain things are much cheaper and better quality here and they want to take advantage of that and buy clothes, bedding, toys, sneakers, electronics and other assorted things.

On Friday morning they left to go to D.C. and on Friday night another friend [K's best friend, boarding academy and college roommate] was supposed to arrive, but his flight was canceled, poor thing, and he spent the night in Houston's airport and arrived only at noon on Saturday to stay little over 24 hours with us. He couldn't really do any more shopping because many boxes of stuff (including a telescope) had been delivered to our house in the weeks prior to his arrival. We had to help him pack, though, so we stayed up very late for that. He's probably on his way back to Brazil now and tomorrow our friends return from D.C. to hit some more stores (no tax on clothes and shoes here in PA, unlike in MD), collect all the goods from their shopping sprees and then drive to Quebec to visit another friend.

And on Thursday another friend arrives from Brazil, this time on "business"... Our new "business" -- bringing baby and children's clothes from seasonal/end of stock clearance sales to Brazil to sell there. Yeah, I know... not really a job or anything. But I have to confess something. I enjoy all the shopping, particularly for the cutest baby girl clothes -- I revel in that! This all began years ago when this friend and his wife sent me some money to buy clothes for their son and daughter. I did it for two-three years and they had even suggested that we begin to bring more clothes to Brazil to sell, but it was only this year, after buying some irresistibly cute baby girl dresses for another friend's daughter (my "borrowed niece," daughter of K's best friend who just spent 24 hours here) for a mere dollar each, I decided we should give it a try. Let's see how it works.

So now you know why I was so busy back in January when my husband first went to Brazil carrying a couple of suitcases full of cute children clothes. It does feel weird to be doing that, though, because I really don't like consumerism and I try to curb it in my personal life as much as possible. In addition, and I'm appalled at how absolutely fictitious clothing prices are since after the season is over stores can sell them at 80-90% discount -- which suggests that these clothes are sold at an OBSCENE profit to begin with and people still buy them! Well, and don't get me started in talking about fashion -- oh boy, I really have lots of issues with THAT! Yeah, I don't feel very good, particularly seeing where all those clothes are manufactured. Oh well... why am I even writing about this, I wonder.

Oh, yeah... and I should be working on my dissertation's conclusion, and not preparing spreadsheets with lists of clothes and packing them into suitcases for my friends. It's an interesting distraction, though... particularly the girl clothes :-) (sigh).

Healthy Child Healthy World -- Mother Talk Blog Book Tour

Healthy Child Healthy World is both the title of a book and the name of a great non-profit organization, which, in their own words, "is dedicated to protecting the health and well being of children from harmful environmental exposures." They aim to

educate parents, support protective policies, and engage communities to make responsible decisions, simple everyday choices, and well-informed lifestyle improvements to create healthy environments where children and families can flourish.

I am excited to be part of this Mother Talk sponsored book tour since I haven't participated in a blog book tour in a while and the subject of this book is one that I've become increasingly concerned about in the past year. Various research studies have been showing for years now that chemicals pervasively used in the manufacture of everyday objects that surround us and our children, as well as found in our food and polluting the air and water, can cause many chronic and even fatal conditions, from asthma and allergies to cancer. The biggest problem, says actress AmyBrenneman in one of many "Parentblog" contributions, "the biggest emotional struggle is not getting overwhelmed" (12). That is why the book is organized in a way that emphasizes the small steps, ten for each chapter/subject, that we as parents can take to make ours and our children's lives as well as our homes "Cleaner, Greener, and Safer" -- which are words in the book's subtitle.

The book and the Healthy Child Healthy World organization are supported by many celebrities who contribute by sharing their personal experiences and reflections on the subject in the "Parentblog" sections. These and the personal contributions of author (and CEO) Christopher Gavigan bring the wealth of information presented in this book closer to home as well as demonstrate that different parents have different perspectives on the issues at hand and that flexibility is important in dealing with these overwhelming problems.

One of the main ideas that guides all the warnings, suggestions, and "recipes" presented in this book is the "precautionary principle" as Dr. Harvey Karp emphasizes on p.7. Since it has taken so many years for various substances to be proven toxic and cancerous, e.g. tobacco smoke, asbestos; even the suspicion or, animal studies, that certain substances may harm our children should be seriously examined. Children are much more at risk than adults, various parts of the book emphasize, because their smaller size makes the effect of even tiny amounts or toxic substances much more harmful and these can also affect their development. Many previously uncommon childhood illnesses that are on the rise such cancer can be cured, but at a serious cost to the child's future health.

Last, but not least, the main subjects addressed in the ten chapters of this book are: pregnancy, cleaning, food, body care, toys, outdoor spaces, water and air, pets, and house and home improvement. The last chapter is a "wrap up" that shows how we can maximize our impact for a greener life and a greener world. The book also presents a "Healthy Resources" section with information on manufacturers, blogs, books, magazines, and organizations that can help us achieve our goals. Be sure to check Healthy Child Healthy World's website as well as their sponsors. I had a nice trip down "guilty lane" when I browsed through the awesome gdiaper site. Well, it's too late since my boys are basically out of diapers now, but I know that there are many other things I can do from now on to make our carbon footprint smaller and my children safer from toxic substances. I am already using glass containers for most of our food, I avoid buying water bottles, and I am about to join a CSA. You may remember what happened to our clothesline back in January, but yesterday its replacement was delivered! So, in spite of the fact that there's room for improvement, I guess we're doing our part. And this cannot be emphasized enough (from p. 10):

No One Can do Everything.
Everyone Can Do Something.

P.S. Although I was already aware of a large portion of the information presented in this book, a lot of it was new brand new to me. I particularly enjoyed the recipes for many things, from household cleaners to finger paints and fun "gloop" to play with. My favorite so far was the recipe for vegetarian pet food! The pet section had a lot of things I'd never heard about and it was fun to read about it too.

The Things I Dream of Doing or Post Dissertation Resolutions

When the dissertation is done I dream of...

~Re-organizing my photos and putting them into semi-scrapbook albums (I use most of my photos, not just a selected few, crop some, use some stickers and special paper, but cannot stand full-blown scrapbooking).

~ Making more online photo albums for family and friends who are away, maybe even ordering some nice photo books.

~ Continuing to work on the house renovation projects.

~ Joining the Y with the family and having the boys take swimming and gymnastic lessons.

~ Exercising there too. I'm seriously lacking in this area.

~ Gardening as much as possible.

~ De-cluttering my house and trying to keep my stuff more organized.

~ Using an online tool to classify our books and CDs.

~ Watch more DVDs.

~ Cook more healthy and varied meals for our family.

~ Go more often to Longwood Gardens. I'm absolutely heartbroken that I haven't been there in over three months.

~ Join the Zoo and visit with the boys (although I don't like zoos too much, I feel depressed for the animals).

~ Blog more.

Just enjoying life and spending time with my family and friends.

P.S. I just sent the only chapter that was overdue to two of my committee members. I'll work on it some more and email it to the other two. Slowly but surely this is going to end!