Family Newsletter: April

Celebrating our straight As at Sizzler!

This month can be summarized in a few words: Getting ready for finals, writing papers, grading, taking finals, more grading, taking more finals, finally finishing finals, and . . . . . the usual. I have finished my thesis prospectus and am ready to get cracking on the actual chapters - as soon as I finish the research, that is. But my top priority is a reading list of 21 books to get done over the summer so I'll be prepared for this crazy exam that all the grad students have to take on the first Friday of December. I am not freaking out yet, but I will be. Particularly since I just found out that I will likely be teaching my own class of Humanities 101 in the fall - YIKES!

Matthew, meanwhile, has been applying for summer internships and enjoying the freedom of being home all day or working in his parents' yard after he finishes work at 10 am. He is finally putting together his master resume, inspired by me, naturally, after I spent the last week neatly compiling and organizing all of my work from the last two semesters. I was a little bit annoyed with myself when I didn't remember to change my name on the portfolio cover from "Miller" to "Covington" until five seconds AFTER hitting the Print button. Oh well - I guess I can spare the 14 cents.

We've been hitting the library pretty hard in our spare time and our newest addictions/finds include the following: The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells (AWESOME TV series! I can't believe I haven't seen them at the library before! Wow - SO good!); still anything by Brandon Sanderson (especially Mistborn related sequels, but even the immature Alcatraz series); The Princess Bride (the book - though I am pretty sure after reading it, Matthew will want to see the movie again); The Dog Whisperer series (we stumbled on this by accident and now watch them all the time! We totally analyze our own families and relationships using dog psychology, too... guess who's the calm-submissive one and the dominant-aggressive one, ha ha!); The Bridge on the River Kwai (I FINALLY got around to seeing this, and was amazed that it took me so long - what a great film!); and finally, Psycho and Carrie (two classic scary books, and yet I was sufficiently impressed to the point where I have decided that I am okay with reading these to my teenage kids; also, I was appalled that Matthew didn't have a clue who Norman Bates was -  I think a scary movie night is in order pretty soon here).

Moving into our one-year anniversary, we are both amazed at how quickly the time has passed but are still nowhere near moving out of the newlywed mindset. Life has been good to us and we are both so happy right now (and yes, the end of a long tough winter semester has a good deal to do with it). Coming up in May, we are looking forward to celebrating three birthdays, one anniversary, and Mother's Day - not to mention the fact that many good friends of ours have been getting married or are planning to get married this month, and it is exciting to see and share in their reception food . . . ah, I mean, their happiness, of course. May (HA!) your own month be just as wonderful!