November
On November 4th, we had a big birthday party for
Morgan and lots of the older kids joined us. She got some fun gifts and we had
strawberry shortcake at her request. On Wednesday Kory and I took her and Lakyn
to dinner, and Morgan chose to go to Panera where she ordered tomato soup in a
bread bowl. Morgan has unusually healthy/adult taste buds for an 11-year-old.
She is excited that she can start attending Young Women in January and going to
the temple to do baptisms.
That weekend I wrapped up my final edits on the
dissertation. Kory did his final yard work—trimming bushes and raking leaves
for about eight hours. Isaac took his girlfriend Carlie and Phoebe and a few
other mission friends to Goldbug Hot Springs in the Salmon area. They had a
pretty day for it. Kory’s dad happened to be in town on the 9th, so
we gathered at Josh and Kasey’s for some pizza and visiting.
On the 10th
was the Primary Program. Our kids are all too old for that, but Morgan was in
it for her last year and I was of course in it with my CTR 4 class. Always
brings a tear to my eye.
On the 12th, I headed to Pocatello and did my
dissertation defense. It was very sweet to receive lots of encouraging texts
from Kory, the kids, and my family as I drove down to Pocatello. The four
people on my committee questioned me about the paper for a couple of hours.
Then, they had me leave the room, then welcomed me back in as Dr. Kunz! I
passed. I still have to do some paperwork, formatting, and edits to submit it
to he graduate school, but to have this hurtle completed was AMAZING! My
official doctoral robes happened to come in the mail the same day, so I tried
them on and felt very official.
On the 14th, I went to Pocatello again to do my
colloquium. This is an hour long lecture that you give to other graduate
students and department faculty. I just shared some highlights from my research
and it went well. I think people were fairly interested in it. Evan and Jodi
happened to be in town for a few days for Evan’s grandma’s funeral. Kristi and
Jodi came up on campus for a little bit on Friday, so we visited. We also
visited some more on Saturday.
On the 16th, Diantha Smith, a fellow faculty
member in my department, threw a PhD party for the four of us who completed our
PhDs this semester. Lots of department and other BYUI faculty came and it was
fun. I dragged Kory and Caleb along and they were pretty eager to get out of
there, but they were good sports.
In the mean time, we were hiring new faculty members in our
department, so I had lots of extra meetings and Skype interviews during that
same week. The week after the dissertation, I got sick and kind of laid low,
catching up on grading and trying to get feeling better.
On the 23rd Kory and I had a lazy morning with no
kids and no responsibilities. Then we drove to Brigham City and ate at Maddox.
We drove home through the west side of Cache Valley, stopping in Clifton, ID
because Kory and I had both read the book Educated, which is set there, and
Kory was especially curious to look at it. It was a really pretty drive. We
stopped in at Lava Hot Springs on the way home and sat and soaked for an hour.
That’s one of my favorite ways to relax and the weather was perfect because it
was quite cool, but the water kept us warm.
Kory had the week of Thanksgiving off from teaching and I
only taught Monday and Tuesday, so we had a long, chill week. On Tuesday I
finished the last edits of my dissertation and formatted it for submission to
the graduate school. I heard back from my chair that the edits look good, so I
may finally be done with all of it. The kids were with Lynette all week for the
holiday, so Kory and I binge-watched a lot of The Mentalist. On Wednesday
morning we went to the temple. We were going to head to my parents that
evening, but the roads were slick with a lot of accidents, so we turned around.
On Thursday, we went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had great
food, both of my sisters and their families were there, as well as a few other friends
and relations. After dinner we chatted, napped, watched football, and shot Evan’s
guns. After dark, we had a special lighting ceremony of the outside Christmas
lights and then we watched the new nativity video. After that the little kids
made gingerbread houses and Kory and I headed home.
On Friday, we did some shopping, bought a new mattress, and
went to the movie Midway. The kids came back that evening and we went to the
movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. On Saturday, I went to a graveside
service from Grandpa Shirley’s sister, Kaye Brown. That afternoon, we took the
kids to Chik Fil A and then chilled at home. It was a relaxing holiday.
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