November 2012 update

Dr. Sleight (who retired from NCTA as the dean in December 2012) and I drove out to Scottsbluff, NE. We took a little detour to stop off at Chimney Rock briefly. It was interesting enough, for historical and geological reasons, to have its picture taken.

I successfully defended my PhD dissertation in Nov. of 2012. We (the family and members of Dr. Lubahn's lab) celebrated with dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Either someone gave the restauranteur some bad information, or there was some misunderstanding about the celebration, because the restaurant played Happy Birthday music and brought me a special dessert.

I took Sara out to a Thai restaurant for her birthday. The meal was beautiful and delicious.

While we were at the restaurant, our friends who were watching the girls helped carry out plans that I had previously made to surprise Sara. She loves to entertain guests and loves to have friends over to make homemade doughnuts, especially in the fall.
I bought her a deep fryer, filled it with Krispy Kreme donuts, had out babysitter friends finish up the dough I had started making earlier that day, and arranged for a bunch of friends to be waiting for us when we got back from the restaurant.
The house was dark when we returned from dinner. Sara figured that the girls and the babysitters were in the basement watching a movie. When we opened the front door and walked into the house, the lights in the front room suddenly came on and everyone who was hiding shouted "Surprise!" Sara was speechless. We had such a fun time visiting with friends, making and eating doughnuts, and sharing a great memory.

Eden's school music performance. Band, chorus, and orchestra. All three performed, and Eden had a part in each. Standing room only.