What Madelyn doesn't know is that there's a nearly identical picture of her Daddy doing the same thing when he was about the same age.

Is this the happiest baby you've ever seen?

Happy Birthday Erin!

Today is Erin's 30th birthday. If you get the chance either drop her a line or give a call and welcome her officially to the other side of the hill. I understand she has a big day of mall-crawling with my Mom, Sarah, and the girls planned. Watch out Woodlands!

The Continuing Adventures of a Wanna-be Doctor

Good morning from Indiana. I've dragged my carcass back into to work today, and after a couple of hours working this morning I thought I'd take a break and do a quick blog post. The dissertation train keeps rolling along here, although slower than I'd like. We're deep into editing, and I'm finding out how much harder editing exisiting material can be than the actual creation of said materials.

On the plus side, I did manage to sneak down to Texas to see my girls this past weekend. It's amazing how much they can change over the course of just two weeks. Olivia is busy trying to learn how to crawl and defend herself from her older sister. Madelyn, meanwhile, is busy learning how to talk. She has become a virtual parrot. In fact talking to her is not unlike talking to yourself in a very large cave...everything is an echo, albeit an ill enunciated echo, but an echo nonetheless.

Erin is holding things together admirably well down there. She is quite busy as a full-time mommy these days. In addition to handling all of the child care, she has also managed to begin the home hunting process. We went out and saw a couple of homes, and came away with one or two promising prosepcts. I have to say after seeming perpetual relative childhood as a man-child in academia, nothing makes one feel as though they're suddenly having to grow up as the thought of getting a mortgage. Nevertheless, we're both looking forward to becoming proud homeowners in the not-too-distant future.

Anyhow, I'll leave with my quick dissertation stats:

Chapters Drafted: 7
Chapters Remaining: 1
Total Pages: 212
Editing Status: The 7th circle of the inferno--Chapters 1-6 currently being re-read, chapter 7 coming soon.
Morale: Anxious
Fatigue: I fall asleep in my chair...do dissertations lead to narcolepsy??

I hope all my friends and family are well, and I'm looking forward to rejoining many of you once this process is completed. Until that time, I appreciate all the support being given--in all forms--to not only me, but my little family as well.