A miniature pumpkin

We had dinner at Barry and Ana's sometime near Halloween (sorry, the dates run together a bit for the last 3 months or so), and they had carved the cutest mini-jack-o-latern I'd ever seen!



I think that's the last of the major updates for now, sorry it's been so long. Hopefully there will be lots of exciting things happening that I can write about to keep y'all entertained...

Granny Virigie's 100th birthday...

Granny Virgie had a massive party for her 100th birthday. It was loads of fun! There were lots of people there that I haven't gotten to see in a long time. She got a letter from the President, a flag that had been flown over the Captiol in DC, and a bunch of other stuff. We all had a good time, and Granny Virgie seemed to enjoy herself.

Me and Granny Virgie


Dad, Me, Clay and Blake


Ava, Delbert, the grandkids and gret-grandkids

The tractor cake!

I got Sandra a tractor cake pan (okay, so it was really for Clay mostly), and Clay and I made a cake it in.







Of course, Clay had more fun eating the icing than actually icing the cake.

My defense...

It official! I passed my defense - or as my boss insisted on calling it, the "final examination". It went pretty smoothly considering all the chaos leading up to it (like last minute changes to the presentation),



and my committee seemed pleased with the talk, etc. I got a good number of questions (and I was able to answer them all), and some great feedback from the audience and from my committee.






The boss even bought champange and gave a toast.









Of course, it wouldn't have been the same without Macy to help me prepare and to give me a good-luck cuddle before I left.



Phil was there too, and that meant a lot! (So were my good friends Joel and Libby, also in the picture below, and Jamie Rae, and Stacy).



Now all that's left are corrections and getting my papers submitted...

Macy LOVES laundry day, especially the part where you get the laundry out of the dryer:








I decided it was because the clothes are so warm, and not because she likes to muss up the clean clothes. So, to test this theory, I got a heating pad, put it on the bed and turned it on low. Sure enough, in no time at all, Macy had clamied it!



Unfortunately, the heating pad is now covered in Macy hair, so I guess it officially "belongs" to her...