It's hard to believe that the time has come to say goodbye to FL. The movers are coming tomorrow. Chris and Vivian are leaving tomorrow after the movers leave. I'm staying a few extra days with Lilli so I can attend a couple of school-related functions. One of the faculty members is having a retirement party and the student awards ceremony is next week. I've been nominated for an award, but I don't know what award.
The past month since we got back from NC has been a busy one. I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends with school -- talking to faculty members, talking with the librarian who specializes in my field, making sure all required forms have been signed and sent to the appropriate departments, and finishing up classes. I was also recently recognized as a Preparing Future Fellow at the Celebration of Grad Student Excellence a few weeks ago. There were only 2 fellows at the university this year, so I was really honored to be recognized.
We've also been tying up loose ends with other things, such as having another autism check at 15 1/2 months and 15-month pediatrician appointment, and a 16-month weight check appointment. Vivian dropped off of her weight curve, but is now starting to track along the 50th percentile curve. She gained 3 ounces in a month and is now about what she weighed at 12 months before getting sick. Overall, she's doing really well and is running around everywhere. This has made packing a challenge when she likes to crawl into boxes and take things out of the boxes.
It's hard to believe that we've been here almost exactly a year. We moved here the weekend before finals week and are now moving back the week before finals week.
In the year that I've been here, I finished my coursework, satisfied my residency requirement in 2 semesters (it usually takes a year) took the qualifying exam, took the preliminary exam, defended my concept paper, advanced to candidacy, became a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow, sat on the Academic Honor Policy hearing committee, took a leadership role in our program's student association, helped organize the department's fall orientation, attended the faculty retreat, helped to organize our multimedia studio grand opening, completed a certificate in our program, reviewed conference proposals for two conferences, completed two research studies, submitted a proposal to a conference, and attended a 2-day conference on Program for Instructional Excellence. WHEW! Oh...and I managed to maintain a decent GPA!
And so you don't think that all I did was school, here's a list of fun things we did while living here. We managed to travel quite a bit to Orlando (multiple times), Jacksonville, Pensacola, Panama City Beach (for shopping), Ft. Walton Beach, Destin, Atlanta. Locally, we went to the Greek Festival, Asian Festival, Homecoming Parade, Heritage Day, Maclay Gardens, Dorothy Oven Park at Christmas, Thomasville Victorian Christmas, Howl-o-Ween at the animal shelter, Lake Ella, Tom Brown Park (Vivian still loves the swings), swimming pool, pumpkin patch, Tallahassee Museum, North Florida State Fair, Jewish Food Festival, Springtime Tallahassee, Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, San Luis Mission, and a couple of FSU baseball games.
The next few months will be busy as well. Vivian will be starting preschool in August and swimming lessons in July. Chris and I will be having date nights, since we never got to have that here. We have Broadway season tickets and we are sharing a hockey season package. I'm sure we'll be eating out a lot more (we never do that here), since there are a LOT more gluten-free options in NC. We're going to attend track days at VIR and CMP. Chris has never been to the track before. Perhaps I'll FINALLY get the "family" car onto the track. :)
We're eager to get back home and back to friends, playdates, game nights, and cookouts at our house! I know Chris is looking forward to hanging out with adults again!
Sorry I can't close with a picture of Vivian. My computer has a trojan virus on it (so I'm using one of Chris's laptops) and the server has been packed away. I promise to post some pics when we get settled in a few days! :)
