Graduation and Other Events

The happy, long-awaited day finally came on July 31st! James became a Doctor of Philosophy in Entomology. What a culmination to an awful lot of years of study, preparation, hard work, diligence, and sacrifice. I was very proud of him. He did an awesome job on his dissertation and had so many other great publications and awards and travel and great opportunities. It was a great experience for him and we all had a lot to be proud of and celebrate that day. Besides the actual graduation, it was a real highlight to be able to go to his dissertation defense. He spoke for an hour on "Phylogenetic Systematics of the Cerylonid Series of Cucujoidea," and yes, the remainder of his talk would make about as much sense as that title does to most people. He sounds like he's speaking a foreign language, though fortunately after all these years, I'm able to follow a little bit. He just sounded amazing and gave such a great talk. I wished all his family could've heard him because they would've been so proud. I was so proud. And relieved. :)

Here's a faraway picture of him on the big screen being hooded by the Dean and by his advisor, Joe McHugh. He looks happy, doesn't he?

Lots of pictures were taken, but for some reason, the handful taken with our camera aren't that hot. But as you can see, I was pretty darn happy too. And a little emotional at times. Even the boys knew what a big day it was. We were very happy to have my mom and dad there, as well as my sister Liz and her daughter, Jessica.

Like I said, my pictures weren't great. Sorry I got one of you looking down, Floyd. On the right is Joe McHugh, James's highly talented, capable, amazing professor. He and his family are not just incredibly smart and accomplished, but they are also some of the kindest people we have ever known. I don't know if it could've happened with anyone less amazing than Joe. We owe him a lot.

That evening we had a fun graduation party for James (thrown together at nearly the last minute) with my family and friends from work and church. It was all about showering James with his favorite things and some unexpected gifts. Here are his two favorite sushi rolls from his favorite restaurant, Utage, as part of the refreshments. He deserved it and so much more after seven years of hard work!

James, Henry, my dad, and Joe visiting in the kitchen.

My mom and a few of our Georgia friends.

Immediately following graduation, we traveled to Orlando with my family for a mini-reunion with my parents and siblings followed by a special family event. My sister and her husband, who recently finalized their adoption of baby Jessica, were sealed together as a family in the Orlando Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A temple is a place similar to temples you read about throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is more sacred than a church building, and in them, special ordinances are performed through the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Among these are the ability to bind or "seal" families to be together not just in this life but in the next as well. It's a very wonderful feeling to know that death can not permanently separate your family. That we will not only just hopefully all make it to heaven, but that we will still be a family and my children will always be my children and my husband will be my husband. We will always belong together, which is what brings us our greatest happiness.

It was very special to be with Liz and Dave as they were sealed to this sweet little angel whom we all love so much and whom they waited so long for.

Here are Henry and Wesley (and WALL-E) with my Grandma and Grandpa Bosen. It was great to see them in Florida. It had been such a long time!

Random Life

Well, much, much, MUCH has happened since my last post, as most of you know. It has been one of the busiest seasons of our lives. Everything changed. I thought I would write a couple posts about the last few months with some pictures. Pardon the randomness of it all.

Speaking of random, here is one of Henry's great Lincoln Log creations. He definitely thinks out of the box.
Not sure what to say about this one except that I was a little freaked out when Henry surprised me with his "mask." Luckily Wes didn't get too far other than one piece stuck in his hair.
Henry's graduation from Friendship Presbyterian Preschool. He had the best year imaginable with the sweetest teachers ever, Miss Chris and Miss Lisa. They are missed. Here he is with one of his good friends, Layla.

Our 4th of July celebration consisted of going to the downtown festival in Watkinsville. I'm going to miss all those cute, old-fashioned, smalltown events. We had a great time with our friends the Francoms, minus both James and Greg. Us grad student widows have to stick together, I guess. James worked literally around the clock all through June and July, so it was always me and the boys trying to stay out of his hair.

A particularly delicious pizza we made with some of the fresh basil and other produce from my awesome garden. Well, awesome until it was neglected by me and the heat wave hit. But it was a pretty great first try. We particularly enjoyed all the fresh herbs.

Actually this picture is a little ironic because what shortly ensued after the creation of the pizza was the sickest first trimester of pregnancy I've had yet. About the time of my last post (Mother's Day--nice timing) I found out our lives had yet another MAJOR change coming up. Kiddo #3! When it rains blessings, it pours. But it did complicate things a bit. Food was my dread and my enemy, and all my tastes changed from loving to cook and loving fresh foods, Asian, homemade this and that, to only being able to stand all the things I formerly avoided/disliked: processed foods, fast food, doughnuts, soda, junk, junk, junk. Were it not for my all consuming craving for orange juice and a few other items, I probably would have been admitted to the hospital for malnutrition. Fortunately, the sickness subsided quite a bit by the time James graduated at the end of July.
Henry played soccer this spring and was a pretty awesome player by the end. He really developed his confidence and abilities and was scoring great goals by the end. And thankfully, it was also the last season where poor Wes, the truer soccer lover, had to watch from the sidelines and be told he was too small.
Wes with his favorite puzzle. He can put together all 50 states by himself and there are no lines or pictures as clues or anything. Wes is a wild one but he is also one smart kid!