The kitchen continues to progress... here is a quick shot from Easter with the kitchen designer himself trying out his creation. It is looking VERY good. Counters were measured yesterday and should be here in 10-14 days. Hooray!
And as a follow up to the last post on ballet... Mariel did have fun yet again. She also somehow managed to talk her teacher into letter her stay an extra 15 minutes to try tap (although they never really got to it) and be with the big girls. So once again, leaving was by far the most trying part of the class. But at least I know she is enjoying herself. I think she would stay at the studio all night if I let her!

"Baby Ballet"
We are about to head out to Mariel's second ballet class, and I realized that I never posted the promised picture from the first one. There she is, proudly showing her new friend one of the dolls they use as a prop and very clearly NOT paying any attention to the teacher. Of course, once I looked at the picture again, I realized that not a single child is paying attention to the teacher. They did perk up once jumping, twirling, hopping like a bunny and so on commenced. The only problem that we encountered during ballet class was getting Mariel to leave. The older girls had come in and began stretching at the barre while the little ones finished up, and she was quite sure that she should join them. We will see how we do today.

(And a note to thank our sponsors....
Mariel's ballet ensemble has been proudly provided by Babci Charlene- thanks Babci!)

Announcing... Dr. John!
My brother, the brilliant and handsome John Boxberger, successfully defended his dissertation in Biomedical Engineering today. It has something to do with: "Altered and restored function after reduced nucleus pulposus glycosaminoglycan content in the rat lumbar invertebral disc." Which translates to: he's smarter than you. And me. And if you have a rat with back problems, he is the man to call.
This also marks the end of an era for my parents, who are suddenly facing the prospect of a world in which their children are no longer students. As my mother reminds us, John has been in school for 23 years. I made it 24 years. I think we are both done for a while!
Congratulations John!!!

On Saturday morning Mariel, Noella and I went to an Easter Egg hunt sponsored by a local retirement home. It was pretty crowded and a little overwhelming for Mariel. Surprising, as she is rarely overwhelmed by anything. The Easter Bunny was definately too much for her- we made it to the front of the line twice, and both times she just stood there shaking her head and refusing to move. I guess it is reasonable to want to keep your distance from strange men dressed in bunny costumes. She had fun gathering eggs and enjoying her free ice cream from Serendipity.
With everything going on, we were all pretty worn out by Saturday night. So tired, in fact, that Mariel actually fell asleep curled up in her chair at dinner. I tried to carry her up to bed, but she remembered that we had gotten cake for Papa's last day with us and she woke up pretty quickly!

Many updates!

First- here is the kitchen progress- looking good! It is hard to believe that we will have triple the cabinet space and almost triple the counter space... plus an oven door that can open all of the way and drawers that can actually fit silverware. It will be very luxurious, and well worth my current grumpiness over the disaster of my house.

And next: Announcing... Dr. Anne

I survived my dissertation defense and a trip to North Carolina with an infant. Hooray on both counts. I am a few edits and format changes away from actually being done with graduate school. How lovely a summer off looks after the past few years!

Noella travelled well- she slept for much of the plane rides, just like Mariel did on her first flights (also a 3 months old... how funny to think that my babies' first plane trips are so early!). We LOVED visiting Carl, Adella and Christina. I think we appreciated living near our wonderful family when we were in Durham for a few years, but now that we have moved so far we do appreciate them (and miss them) more. Christina had fun helping to take care of Noella, although she was a little worried about the various bodily fluids and smells that came out of the baby.

Here are Noella and I VERY early in the morning on Thursday, heading home after our trip.
And another self portrait, snuggling in bed with both girls. We were trying to spend as much time as possible upstairs because of the ongoing chaos and dirt downstairs with the kitchen redo.

Much more to come (now that I have a little bit of time!). Today is an easter egg hunt, Tuesday is Mariel's first ballet class and so on. Even though I still have a few weeks of work ahead of me, it sort of feels like I am coming up for air for the first time in a very long while.