7 Quick Takes Friday (Take 51)

--- 1 ---

My husband passed his dissertation defense yesterday!  Nothing stands in the way of him graduating in May.  I am so proud of him.  He was able to get his Ph.D. in only four years with added responsibilities of a wife the past two years and more recently a baby girl.  More than anything, I am so grateful to him for working so hard to provide for us.

--- 2 ---

Not only is he done, he doesn’t have anything to do until graduation.  Which means I get to spend all day, every day with my husband!  I am not taking this for granted because I know once he gets a job, he’ll (hopefully) be working fulltime until retirement.  But for right now, he’s still being paid his stipend until graduation, won’t be hearing back from jobs until May, and is free to spend all his time with family.   I’m thinking lots of walks, picnics in the park, and afternoons by the pool.  I’m also hoping for day trips to see the beach and other places around the state; if David gets a job elsewhere, I don’t want to regret not seeing more of this area of the country while we’re here. 

--- 3 ---

ready to go out for my birthday dinner (the dress Lu's wearing was mine as a baby)

Last Friday was my birthday. We went to a Spanish restaurant to celebrate and had some divine pan de queso, gazpacho, paella, and flan.  I hadn’t been able to find a good Spanish restaurant in Colorado and have been craving some good paella for years since I studied abroad in Spain in the summer of 2006.  The food we had Friday was definitely worth the wait.

--- 4 ---

I had a few romantic surprises waiting for my when I came home from Atlanta last week.  While I was gone, David bought the sheet music for Pachelbel’s Canon in D and starting practicing it on the guitar so he could play it for me when I got home.  Since the first time I heard that song, I absolutely loved it and knew it was the song I wanted to walk down the aisle to (and I did).  I requested that David learn to play it a while back and he remembered!  He also cleaned the apartment and brought me roses when he picked us up at the airport.  (All this while finishing his dissertation.)  I guess you could say he missed me.

--- 5 ---

What do you think of the current US education system?  Earlier this week, I wrote a post asking for your thoughts about education in the US and I’d love if you’d hop over to that post and leave your opinion.  I found a really great graphic to include with some disheartening statistics that show that more money and technology hasn’t been improving education.  If those aren’t the answer, what do you think is?

--- 6 ---

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who left me advice about vaccines for Lulu after we found out our insurance wouldn’t cover them.  After reading your advice, I was able to find out that we qualified for Vaccines for Children.  Not only will we be able to get her next vaccines through this program, I was able to call our doctor’s office and have them rebill her two-month vaccines to Vaccines for Children.  What a huge relief!

--- 7 ---

In case you needed to see another picture of this cutie!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!