Random lesson learned

Original flavor almond milk is very tasty on its own, but absolutely disgusting as a coffee creamer.

She's two!

Some pics from Ally's 2nd birthday weekend, which we celebrated with my parents and some friends from church.

Enjoying our new deck, which Ben built entirely by himself.

Ben grilling on the new deck.

 Victoria with Elaina and Ally.

 Ally and Elaina, with Rebecca and Kate in the background.

I made birthday cake cones, which were enjoyed by all.

Ally, Grandma, and Grandpa.

Ally, Ben, and me.

Dissertation proposal-APPROVED

This morning, I successfully presented the proposal of my dissertation project.  My committee made a few suggestions but no major revisions.  They have now signed off on it, and now the real fun begins!

The road to potty-training

Now that Ally is approaching 2 years old (her birthday is next week!) she has achieved a lot of  major milestones.  She has been walking for over a year, she talks up a storm, she's got almost all her teeth, she can feed herself, climb into her car seat, and put on her shoes. And now, the newest skill she is working on is going to the bathroom in the potty.  She first became interested in the potty probably around Christmas time, so we got a potty seat for her to try out.  She liked to sit on it before bathtime, but generally nothing would happen, and if it did, it was probably just coincidence.  But in the last few weeks, she has been wanting to use her potty more and more.  She will even sometimes tell us that she needs to go to the bathroom, and most of the time she's right!  I will be honest, I did not think that potty training was going to happen this early; I guess I always assumed age 2.5 or 3 was when kids got potty-trained.  But I suppose every child is different.  In any case, I think it is pretty cool that Ally wants to go in the potty because it is way less messy than changing diapers!  One downside though; she is back to waking up before 7am because her full diaper bothers her.  I guess that's to be expected though.  Oh well, I guess it's bye-bye to diapers before long!

Happy Easter!

Things I don't understand

1.  Skinny jeans
2.  Wearing a strapless shirt or dress to class
3.  Super-short shorts, dresses, and skirts
4.  Wearing clothing that is 2 sizes too big or 2 sizes too small
5.  Wearing clothing that does not flatter your figure
6.  Women's clothing that looks like maternity clothing but really isn't
7.  Any article of clothing that costs more than $50
8.  Bright red lipstick
9.  Covering the majority of the body in tatoos
10. Body piercings in places other than the ears and nose
11.Grunting while lifting weights
12. Not making sure the toilet is completely flushed when using a public restroom
13  1/2 % milk
14.  Not following directions
15. Oversleeping for a 10:00 am class, especially on the day of an exam
16. How they cram so many fat and calories into fast food

Almost done

Regarding my dissertation proposal document:

Chapter 1-Introduction:  done
Chapter 2-Literature review:  done
Chapter 3:  Methods:  insert stats section from the statistician

So just a few more paragraphs and the first complete draft of my dissertation proposal is done.  Hopefully my advisor will let me know if I need to do any major revisions before I send it to the committee.  This thing is long; cover to cover is near 100 pages.  It's basically my dissertation minus the results and discussion, so there is comfort in knowing that the bulk of my dissertation has now been written.