Tying off loose ends

I feel like I'm a broken record. We're almost done with grad school! Bill is finishing up writing his dissertation! We're going to finish in May. No, August. No, December. No, May. No August. Wait. Still not done. Talk to anyone who got their PhD and they'll all have similar stories. It is such a slog. So it's very hard to plan for things like school and sports and other such things when you never know if you're going to be done in a few months or not.

I can say for sure that this fall will be our last semester at Clemson. See, Bill was awarded a grant from the university only given to students who are in their last semester of school. Haha! So there it is. They're not giving us another penny after this semester, so we best be done. He's actually trying very hard to finish his writing by the time school starts in three weeks, but as always, it's really hard to gauge how much work is left when it's this huge of a project.

Since I didn't expect to be here still now I never signed up Aaron for a preschool, which is rather a large problem because most of the ones around here, or all that I had previously known of and checked, have been full since February or March. Ay yi yi! But this week I finally tackled the problem and found him a preschool at a local Baptist church. It's a good price. We took a tour last week and I like it. The assistant director even lives in my neighborhood, and we've never met before. I feel good about it.

The one upside to the current situation is that this particular grant Bill has doesn't include any sort of TA or RA work that he needs to do. So literally the moment we are done and then have a job, we can leave. So if we up and move like September 13th or something ridiculous like that, you'll know we finished and are just over the moon to be done and on our way. We hit our six-year mark in December, so that day couldn't come any faster. I am so happy we got to come to Clemson and love everyone we know here and actually really like the area too, but moving onto the next phase of life is the dearest wish of my heart.

In other news, we celebrated Bill's birthday this weekend. It was a good day. We took the kids hiking to the first hike we ever went on when we moved here six years ago. It's still one of the best ones. 3.5 miles and the kids rocked it. We had a great time. The three younger ones all fell in the water, lol. It was fun.

Every Tuesday I take the kids to a free movie. They LOVE it, especially the big tub of popcorn I get too.

 I turned around while I was working this morning to find this lovely picture going on. Spencer was reading books to his siblings. He said he particularly was reading to Chloe, that lucky duck. Those two have a sweet relationship. He read four books! He's such a great kid.

Just a couple things

Aaron got a new backpack this week in preparation to start preschool next month. Chloe was insanely jealous, so Bill let her use his CamelBak and she has been wandering around wearing it all week. It's the cutest thing. 

 We've been going to these different performances at the library all summer and this one was from a guy that made all these masks himself and then told stories from all over the world using them. They were so incredibly detailed. I was really impressed.

mid summer

Summertime is really flying by. We're already halfway through, if not even further. I just checked and first day of school is August 20th. Barely more than a month away!

This was a fun week. We went to Cow Apprication Day and got buku amounts of food for hardly anything.

 The kids made a reading nest.

And a napping nest. But only pretend on that one. 

I know we did other things but hey, this is what I documented, lol.

Happy birthday, Aaron

Happy birthday, my sweet Aaron! Four years have flown by. I can't imagine life without your awesomeness as part of it. You are the life of the party. You always have a joke to tell. You're mischievous and determined and a problem solver. You are our little family policeman. You try to keep everyone in line and protect when you can, especially Chloe. You have a twinkle in your eye that always tells me when you're going to do something goofy. You're loud and crazy and still love Goonie beyond all reason. Tomorrow is your big day and I hope it's the best one yet.

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Selfies

Apparently this wasn't a week to take pictures. I scanned through my phone and all I got was a bunch of selfies from Spencer and pictures of my new haircut. And honestly, that's about how exciting this week was. Just Bill working like crazy, and normal summer activities like free movies, park visits, and kids fighting, I mean playing, together. Haha! We made it through the first month of summer. Huzzah! Oh, and I got a new haircut and I love not having hair on my neck and actually being able to see earrings when I wear them, and being able to wear scarves without having hair all covering them. It's the little things after all. 

The stress is mounting

We are right at the point in the PhD process where the stress seems to be at its highest. Close to done, not sure we're going to hit deadlines, feeling like we can't not hit them. It is stressful on a level I haven't felt before. Questions like why the heck did we decide to do a PhD are definitely in abundance. It's a ride and a really bumpy one right now. I keep hoping one more week will go by things will settle down and be more certain of finishing timelines and such. No dice yet. Still in the everything in our entire life is up in the air phase and I'm ready to move on past the limbo.

Still, we did some fun things this week. Most importantly, Chloe turned two! She is the cutest two year-old around and it's so fun to see her grow and develop. She's been potty trained for over a month. She is talking up a storm. She has definite opinions about things and is pretty stinking good at getting what she wants. She's still shy in public, which is really nice when she wants to just sit on my lap quietly. She thinks she's big enough to walk in the parking lot without holding hands. This is false. She's been known to scream, "Let go, let go!" when attempts at hand holding are initiated. She likes to ride on the back of the shopping cart like a big kid. She likes to drink from a cup with no lid. Basically she thinks she's big and has some skills to prove it. She still thinks hair is overrated. She's got some cute curls in the back, but it's just feathery otherwise. She's got these piercing blue eyes that make you forget about her lack of hair though. She's going to slay everyone she meets with those. Happy birthday sweet baby girl.

 She refused to wear this dress when she got it four days ago and has only now deigned to try it on, but only long enough to take a picture and then it was off again. She's so funny. Who even knows what she'll like. I reliably can guess she'll love any stuffed animal or baby doll and otherwise it's anyone's guess.

She thought this cupcake was cute and all, especially since the frosting was yellow, and she liked getting sung to, but Genevieve blew out her candles for her, lol.

Kind of a random gift, but we got her a camp cot for future adventures and, typical of our children, she adores it. The other kids don't know that there's one for each of them too, just waiting for their summer birthdays to happen. 

   Grandma Suzanne sent headbands and both girls are pretty happy about it.

Spencer has been struggling with sharing a room with his siblings and so on a bit of a whim we decided to help him out and literally  move every bedroom around in our house to give him his own room. He's thrilled. The littles are pretty happy with their new, huge room, and Bill and I aren't sad about having a half bath in our new, quite small, but just big enough for the essentials, bedroom. Seems like it will work out okay for however long we are in this house. Spencer is also sharing his room with our we hope we are moving soon and I'm worried about how hot and humid it gets in the attic and I don't want my stuff up there anymore storage. He really just has one corner of this room and the rest is storage, but he's happy as can be. We're going to remind him of this for the rest of forever whenever he says we don't do anything for him. Remember that time when we moved the entire house around for you? lololol. 

Pictures from this week

 Summer haircuts. Genevieve asked me to cut hers to her shoulder. I cut off a good six or eight inches. It is so adorable this length though.

 Chloe really got into her father's day craft at nursery at church. Stickers upon stickers upon stickers!

 She wears her swimsuit basically all day most days now.

 So do all the other kids.

Happiness is playing at the outdoor water park at the YMCA after swim lessons. Only one more chance for that this Saturday at Chloe's last lesson. Fingers crossed we have a YMCA or a good rec center wherever we move.