Skip to main content

November


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.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pie Face

Chloe had her tenth birthday and she asked for the game Pie Face. Yep, you've seen it. The one where everyone takes turns getting whipped cream in the face. Here are some precious moments. Chloe also got a little fort-making kit for her birthday, so we've had these structures in the family room for a few weeks now.
Post a Comment
Read more

Kory's Story

I just wanted to record this for our family history. When Kory and I were engaged, we went to Salt Lake to talk with someone at CES to see about re-applying to teach seminary. At the time, they indicated that he could re-apply, but they didn't seem positive about the likelihood of him getting re-hired. At that time, we decided not to pursue teaching again. Later that year, CES announced that there was no longer any block on people who had been divorced teaching seminary. Again, we talked with some people, but still felt that the chances of him getting hired were not good, because he would not be able to move if necessary, which is usually the case with new hires.  In Fall of 2015, Kory had a strong impression to check with the pre-service director and see what he would need to do to try teaching again. We still knew that the chances were not great, but he felt that he should pursue it. He began attending the class for pre-service seminary teachers, and was assigned to student te...
3 comments
Read more

April 2023

  April 2023 On April 1 and 2 we chilled and watched General Conference. On the first, we got a new cat to replace Todd. This cat’s name is Taco, she is a girl, and she’s a tortoiseshell calico. She and Binx have taken quite a while to warm up to each other, but I think we’ll get there. She is cuddly like Todd, so we all like that.  On April 4 I watched Season 3 of The Mandalorian with my dad. On the 5 th , Kory and I took Austin and Leah to the Bee’s Knees for a birthday dinner. They have really great food there and it was fun to visit.  On April 6, we had BYUI Graduation. It was fun to be there, since I’ve missed the past year due to my cancer. On the 7 th , Kory, me, and Caleb babysat for Austin and Leah. It was fun putting the kids to bed and singing with them. Stevie loves the song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” so we sang that a bunch. On April 8, Kory and I went on a little date. We drove up to Driggs and had dinner at O’ Rourkes and then stopped and visited with m...
Post a Comment
Read more