Birthdays and Blessings!

November 30, 2017

Birthdays and Blessings!

This week has been jam-packed with my birthday, finishing my capstone, Thanksgiving and Della's baptism! The first part of the week was filled with Christmas decorating at work and working on my capstone. UNA was closed for Thanksgiving starting on Wednesday, but I went ahead and took Della to daycare so that I could run my statistical tests and work on my paper at the office. I got alot done and was able to wrap things up around lunch and pick her up.

careful...

Trimming the tree!

the elves of Rogers Hall!

#stats

"Happy Cake Day" - accurate.

My birthday was on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day! Every 5 or so years my birthday will fall on turkey day and it's always special to be able to be with all my family on my birthday. I also get lots of good food! Daniel decided I shouldn't have to share my day with a turkey, so he gave me my gift on Wednesday night. We try to get each other things that we know we wouldn't get ourselves, and at this point in our lives we like to get necessary things... stuff that that we don't actually use doesn't need to be sitting around the house creating clutter. So he got me a video monitor for Della's room! He knew it would give me comfort to be able to see her when she's napping or when she starts sleeping in there at night. It's really cool!

good camera = not creepy

baby camera!

"Sweet Potatoes and Diabetes"

Thursday we had Thanksgiving at my parent's house and it was great having the whole family there! This is the first Thanksgiving without my dad's mother, Mamaw Butler, and we didn't want the tradition of the big family lunch to go away, so my parent's hosted everyone. One of the things I love the most about our family is that we really do all love each other and make an effort to all be together on holidays. Since we're all still pretty local it's possible for us all to be together, and that's not the case with alot of families.

Kellie and Henry were able to spend the whole week with us also and it was great that they didn't have to rush home! My mom's mother, Mamaw Fincher, spent the day with us as well and we were able to take a 4 generations photo! We had lots of great food and my mom made me a Tiramisu cake since it's my favorite! After all the thanksgiving festivities I got to open presents, then we all had some good turkey-coma-naps!

Happy Birth-giving!

On Friday Daniel and I braved the town, not to shop, but to come to campus to write my paper... He has been a trooper this whole time I've been in my masters program, always encouraging me and telling me that I can do this! He is an awesome sounding board and I could not have done this without his support, especially while I was pregnant and then having Della. It's no joke juggling work, school, baby, house renovation and family!

Saturday we went to UNA early so I could get some writing done before the Iron bowl, then we headed to my parent's house to watch the game. While everyone watched the game I set up shop in the dining room with my computer... are you seeing a pattern here? Yeah, this whole week I really could only focus on getting this paper done. #soclose

Paper-writing set-up #getitdone

Sunday was a big day as we baptized Della! We are so blessed to have Henry in the family for many reasons and we were honored that he agreed to perform her baptism! We figured it would be special that Della's uncle Henry was able to baptize her, and promise with us to help raise her to love Jesus and others. It is important to us to have her surrounded by people that love her and are invested in her upbringing. We have a wonderful community of people around us, and it really does take a village. It was awesome that Kellie and Henry were able to come to church with us and take their time going back home. They normally have to rush home after holidays and it was so great to have that relaxing time together.

That afternoon it was go-time to finish my paper. It was due at 11:00 pm and I figured I could finish it at Mama and Daddy's house. Well, when I started writing about my statistical tests I realized that I did not have any of the averages included in the tables... so off to UNA we go! The program to run the tests is on my work computer, so Daniel and I packed up and headed to Florence. I re-ran my tables, and was able to focus and get it done by 10:15 pm!! I turned it in and now it was just a waiting game for the professors comments and edits, then I'll turn in the final product on December 7th!

Next week: the big finale on my graduate student career!!