4/5 Graduated

My little brother graduated last weekend. I'm so proud of him! This means that four out of the five of us siblings have graduated college, and the last will graduate in December.

Yale and I had the opportunity to go up to his ceremony and spend time with him. My brother, Brian, also came out for the party, and it was really fun to see and spend time with him. I'm so glad we got to go up! Definitely worth the trip!

(A look into our future with this little one? Uh-oh.)

We've Got Some News

Lish got a job! He interviewed with Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, and they liked him so much, they offered him a job. And he accepted. Whole-heartedly. We're so excited! When they called him with the offer, they asked if he was still interested. He responded, "110%!" Then they offered it to him and Lish said, "I'll take it!" They said, "Don't you want to hear what your salary will be first?" So they told him, and he accepted it again!

The thing is, they want him to start in January. We just found out about this a week ago, and we'll be moving in 2 weeks. Kinda crazy. We decided to take a trip down there so Lish could get the books for the classes he'll be teaching, fill out some paperwork, and so we could find a place to live. Mission accomplished. And Yale was great for his first trip of many down there. Because we will be making that drive a lot over the next several years. And yes, we will be living there for several years. It's close to family, it's a teaching school, Lish will get to help convert the program from an Associate's Degree to a Bachelor's Degree, the weather is wonderful and life will be grand!

It'll just be busy for these next few months, for Lish anyway. He'll be teaching three separate classes, finishing his dissertation, defending said dissertation, writing up the Bachelor's program, and being a husband and father. But, he's pretty amazing so I don't doubt he'll excel at all of it. We're thrilled about this opportunity and can't wait to start our lives down there!

Life Around These Parts

Why am I so bad about updating my blog this year? Honestly. My bad. Here are the updates for the past couple weeks in the Harris family's life.

Lish went into work a couple weeks ago for his internship job. School was out and everyone was just preparing for the fall semester, so he didn't really have to go in, but he thought it'd be a good idea, just in case something came up. While he was there, a secretary came into his office and said, "I thought you weren't teaching this fall."

"I'm not. That's what I was told."

"Well, we have your name on the schedule for teaching the intro class again. You might want to go ask someone about it."

Long-ish story shortened, Lish was on the schedule to teach this fall, but he's in charge of working in the internship office as well. They told him that if he does teach, not only will he get paid extra for teaching, but he'd get some award money from another teaching award that he won. Had he not taught this semester, he would get paid what he initially expected, but he wouldn't have gotten the money from that award. So, he's teaching again for these fall and spring semesters, which means he got a raise. Yay!

With the raise and having thought about this for over a year, we went out and bought a new TV. We love it. It's a 42" plasma screen. It's beautiful.My birthday came and went. I'm in my mid-20's now. That's weird to me. Good, but weird. Lish woke up early and made me breakfast. I headed into work, and when I got home we went out to dinner with some friends. Lish made me dinner the next night and it was delicious. So it was kind of like a 2 day celebration. We didn't do too much, but I was so worn out from work, so I was okay with that.
My little sister moved up to college last week. It's so weird. She's growing up so fast, which means I'm growing up so fast. I thought time wasn't supposed to get away from you like this until you were in your 50's or 60's. Why does it seem to be happening already? Anyway, she seems to be loving it. She's living in the dorms with her best friend, and although she feels overwhelmed about school right now, I know she'll do great!
Back to Lish stuff. He's starting the application process for jobs. The job market is looking much better than it was last year, which is great! It's fun for us to think that we'll be moving on to the next stage of our lives soon. He isn't being picky about where he's applying because we just want to make sure he gets a job. We both would love to move back out west so we could be closer to family, but as of right now, most of the jobs listed are on the east coast. We're okay with that too, just as long as where we live isn't as hard to get to as Tallahassee is. Anyway, he's busy working on that and continuing to do his dissertation.

Besides those few things, life is just about as normal as it can get. We love the experiences we have here in Florida and we love getting to spend so much time together. It's a good thing we like each other.

Now Starring in a Documentary

Last week I got a call from one of my old co-workers and friend, Kirk. He called me at work though, rather than on my cell. It was fine, but I was confused. He asked what my major was, so I reminded him, thinking all the time of why he didn't just text me. Then he told me that he needed to find an "exercise science specialist." Enter me. He couldn't get a hold of the first person he thought of (still trying to forgive you for that one Kirk), and it was last minute so he was stressing out. He needed to find someone for some junior high school kids to interview for a documentary they are making. I told him if he could email me the questions I would be asked, I could probably help. (I was a little nervous about how qualified I would be.) Turns out the questions were a cinch. Nothing to worry about.

The interview took place this morning. The kids from the junior high couldn't make it because they were in a meeting with the governor or something (how cool is that?), so Kirk asked me the interview questions. I think it went okay. I had thought of some things I would have really liked to say and of course forgot most of them. It's like the camera just sucks all those memories away. Oh well. It's done. Kirk is the one editing the film, so I hope I gave them some good stuff. It's a documentary on exercise, fitness, and nutrition. I was happy to help with it. Honored, even, that someone would think of me and then make me some chocolate bread because of the short notice. I'm not sure if they're doing the film just for their school or what, but it premieres on May 18th. I'm gonna go watch myself on the big screen!

On a completely other note, Lish is completely done with his semester from Hell. He had just finished entering in all his grades from the class he taught when I walked in the door last night. He is relieved and happy to start working on his dissertation (after a few days break). I'm just happy he survived! He's amazing!

Exams and Stuff

Remember when I mentioned Lish's big comp exams? They have come and gone. Want to hear what happened? Lish passed them both! He didn't get a score for them. It was just a pass/fail thing, but he passed them both and we just found out within the past couple of days! Lish was relieved, but had to immediately start working on homework again, considering he got so behind studying for those exams.

Anyway, we are both very excited! This means that after this semester, Lish has no more classes and can focus all his time and energy on his dissertation. He'll be on the job market this Fall and be done completely in a year! We're looking forward to knowing that his schooling will be behind us soon. I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he does. He's one of the hardest workers I know. He's also one of the smartest people I know and I'm not surprised at all that he passed. We are happy people! This has been a good week!