Pure Joy!!!

HEY there....

See how HAPPY I look here?

(Or, maybe I just look a little cross-eyed, or plain weird, but regardless...)

I just want to take a minute and SHOUT from the roof tops that I have submitted a completed draft of my THESIS!!!!!

No longer will I need to spend countless HOURS and DAYS here in a little corner of our local library, which I recently discovered they have named and dedicated in my honor!

"Kate's Corner for Getting IT Done"

Below the plaque, there is another sign that reads:

"Please, please leave this area available, so that Kate Agliata can forge ahead after taking two ridiculously long years to finally COMPLETE her Masters degree thesis. Your effort in finding another seat, will help her to get IT done, and free her, and her family from the heavy weight and burden of such work...Thank You."

Wow! Thank you local library! I am so touched!

I am sure I will still have to make many revisions...but in the meantime...

Thank you dear, dedicated husband for spending so many nights cooking and getting the kids bathed and to bed on time, and also for your having to go to work with wrinkled shirts because I had to work on this thesis, rather than iron your clothes....

Thank you poor, neglected children, who have had to listen to me repeat over and over, "just a few more minutes, and I promise I'll be done!" And for eating way too many peanut butter and jam sandwiches and scrambled eggs for dinner lately, because I couldn't take more than 10 minutes to cook you dinner....

Thank you dogs, for enjoying the bones I've bribed you with for the past several weeks so that you wouldn't keep bugging me to play with you...

Thank you friends and family for putting up with my cranky (and sometimes crappy) attitude...

Thank you truly awesome thesis advisor Dr. Town, for not losing your cool with me after I didn't submit anything to you for months and then asked you to edit something like 50 pages in a week or so...

And finally, Thank you me, for going after this in the first place...despite the huge lack of sleep, time, energy, or ability to get much of anything else accomplished in the last few months, I am very grateful for all of your hard work...You will be better off with this accomplishment under your belt.

Way to go!

Signs of Winter

Ahhhh...

Finally, a little bit of REAL Winter weather, Real Winter Traits, Real reasons to cancel school, Real reasons to put on hats, gloves, scarves, and boots!

Finally, enough snow for snowmen, snow angels and snowball fights...




Enough snow to enjoy it all day long...

All evening...

And into the next day...

I hope you too, are enjoying some of the awesome Winter weather that so many of us were gifted yesterday!

Oh Valentine, Oh Valentine, where for art thou Valentine?

We've been having fun around here....

painting, gluing, glittering (is that even a word?)...

Finding all kinds of ways to show our love for each other...

Even Sophie (our weimaraner got into it!).

Thank You Mom!

After spending a week visiting with us, my mom left yesterday to return home to North Carolina.

We're all so sad!!!

Due to her extensive travel (she works as a social worker on different military bases all over the world, for 6-8 week intervals) we don't get to see her as often as we'd like. Yet, this past visit was extra nice because of the amount of time she stayed.

Nate and Jules really got their dose of Maggie time, and it was extra nice for me to have so much help out around the house too (our NEW dishwasher broke last week- and oh what fun it was to have oh so many dishes to wash by hand!). She also gave me so much help with the kids (she even did bath time a few nights!).

But to me, the most awesome gift she gave this week was the gift of time. With my thesis due in less than a week from now, she knew how much I really needed (kid free) time to work on it. She volunteered to drive the kids to and from school all three days they went this past week, which is a big deal, because their school is 25 minutes away. And she made a point to sneak in extra time in the playroom with them when they all got home in the afternoons. It was wonderful.

And the best part- I never even had to ASK her. Isn't it amazing how some people just know what you need at just the right time, and do it, no questions asked...simply because they love you, and want you to achieve.

What a source of inspiration for me.

MOM, thank you. You are the BEST!

Checking In

Geez, this last week has flown by fast...

I've been taking a bit of a retreat from here while we've been playing host to visiting family and friends. It's been a wonderful week, filled with great food, good conversation, extra playtime for the kids, and extra mommy (ie: thesis) time for me... (Thank you Maggie!)

All else is going well, we are becoming more at home within our house and finding our selves enjoying Birmingham life...

I'll be back again soon!