The end of March

March has absolutely flown by, as is evidenced by the fact that I haven't posted a blog entry in two weeks!  Grammy was here visiting for two and a half weeks, and we enjoyed having her here.  I hadn't been feeling so great (actually, the fact that I was cold all the time was the biggest deal) and learned that I am severely anemic.  More bloodwork revealed that there isn't anything wrong with my Vitamin B12 or folate or any of the blood counts, just that I'm iron deficient.  Now that I'm on iron supplements, I'm feeling a lot better!

The other thing that has taken up a huge amount of time has been that I've been working like a maniac to try to get my dissertation finished.   On Friday morning, I submitted a complete copy of it to my dissertation co-chairs.  So hopefully they'll review it, be in love with it, and will tell me to schedule my defense.  I'll feel so relieved once the defense is done!  It's been nice the last two days just not having it hanging over my head for awhile.  Hopefully I won't have many revisions or at least ones that are easily done.

I'm going to do my best to keep my blog in a better state of updates!  No news on my Redstone Arsenal job.  CONREP is in a somewhat more stable state, although it's still a different place than it was before the murder.  I'm on the last three month stretch of internship now, and it'll just be a race to get all my requirements met (although I'm in good shape on all of them).  I have to get my dissertation defended by May 29 and then the next deadline is June 13th commencement!   After that, I'll still have two more weeks of my internship, which I'll finish on June 30.  The end is in sight!

On Sunday, March 7, we went to California Adventure (the other half of the Disneyland park).  We got there early and were able to hang out with a lot of the characters.

We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto.  Princess Ariel was there to greet us when we came down the stairs.  Rebecca was very excited!

Here's Princess Rebecca!

Princess Rebecca and her fairy grandmother

Princess Rebecca's Prince Charming (and mine too!)

A family of princesses (HA!)!

Rebecca and Princess Aurora

Rebecca and Princess Mulan

Rebecca with Princess Cinderella

And of course, her favorite, Princess Minnie Mouse with Rebecca

After lunch, Rebecca wanted to have her caricature done like a mermaid, so we did.  She sat very still and calmly while they were doing her face...

 and then she ran around and danced while they did the body and the water.

Even Daddy got in on the dancing action

Our timing was just perfect, because as soon as they finished with Rebecca's watercolor drawing, we could tell that it was about to start raining.  We made a quick stop to get Rebecca's princess souvenir, just as the sky opened up!  She was ready to go to sleep, so that was the time to make our exit.

We're still here!

It's been really hard to blog lately.  Work is a hotbed of stress right now.  The sad thing is that it isn't the severely and persistently mentally ill clients who are dangerous felons - they're the bright spot, in fact!  It's just the environment in which we're working right now, which is just one hot mess.  I've actually given up on expecting that it is going to get better, and instead am just trying to survive until I'm out of it.  I feel much sorrier for my colleagues there who are going to be there indefinitely...unless of course they close the whole place down, which continues to be hung over our heads. 

I've been working on my dissertation in the evenings, because I have to get it to my dissertation chair and can then schedule my defense.  I have to have defended by May 29 in order to walk on June 13.  I am planning on getting it finished up this next week and sent to my chair and one other person by a week from Monday.  It's amazing how much statistics I had forgotten!  I had to teach myself how to run the program again. 

Things appear to be moving along appropriately with respect to my prospective job in Huntsville.  I email with the neuropsychologist there about once a week.  They had a visit from their HQ in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and they must have give them some kind of verbal green light to proceed, because since then, she's been getting paperwork in to get funding for the position.  I'd really love to know something definite soon.  It would make it a whole lot easier to plan for the future!

Grammy has been here the past couple of weeks, visiting us while Nanny Rebecca has been on vacation in Hawaii.  We have been having lots of fun together.  Rebecca and Grammy have been lunching and cooking and playing and reading and having a grand old time together during the week while Ramy and I are at work.  Rebecca regularly asks her if she can stay for five (always five!) more days.  Since Grammy has been here, we've gone to California Adventure to have lunch with the Disney princesses (pics coming soon), to the American Girl Place, and of course plenty of shopping and eating out. We're also planning a trip to France late this summer in celebration of my graduation.

Daddy and Grammy took Rebecca to her three year well-child checkup.  She is perfect, just as we suspected.  She remains in the 5th percentile for weight and 3rd percentile for height.  She was 26 lbs with all her clothing on and was 34 1/2 inches tall.  She even did the Snellen vision chart and came out fine on it.  We're very blessed to have a healthy little girl.  The fact that she is beautiful, sugary sweet, funny, and of incredibly high intellect is icing on the cake!

Grammy's here!!!!