Manic Vampire Baby

So Jamis has confirmed our worse fears. He is really undead. How would you like to wake up to this every morning? Yeah, I didn't think so. Although, our increased garlic consumption doesn't seem to phase him. We hope this vampire thing is just a phase that will pass along with his tendency to bite - necks that is.

The Wait is Over...a new one begins

Finally our wait is over. Firstly, I have finally graduated from my Master's program. I was able graduate with a 4.0. If nothing else, I am pleased with myself. There was a good group that came to my graduation to support me. My parents and my little sister Lindsay flew from Idaho to be with us that day. My in-laws were there as well as Morgan's grandparents and aunt and uncle came as well. Thanks to everyone who came and supported us on that day. We had a hooding ceremony where everyone receiving the master's degree was able to spend a moment pick someone to bestow the master's hood on the graduate and then explain who the individual is and why he or she was picked to bestow the hood on the graduate. I picked Morgan to place the hood on me. She's the best.
In other news - In the fall, we will be starting another step in our schooling. I was accepted into a Ph.D. program and will be starting that in the fall. I will start the Ph.D. program at Idaho State in English and the Teaching of English. It is a program that specializes in producing teacher scholars rather than researcher scholars. I look forward to it.
We have also been offered a one-year appointment to teach English full time at BYU-Idaho. I will be teaching composition courses with maybe an option later to teach a literature course. It will be a full teaching load, but I know that I will have a lot of fun.
So, in theory I will work full-time and start my Ph.D. program part time. It will be a crazy but fun time. The immediate plans are to move back to Idaho in June and get ourselves braced for the start of the next school year.

Waiting

Waiting, waiting, waiting. I hate waiting. I have passed my comps (yeah!) and I am mostly done with my classes now. It looks like I will pass the classes and graduate just fine. Now we are just waiting to hear back from schools and Ph.D. programs. Hopefully we will hear back within a few weeks. In the meantime, we are waiting to head back to Fargo in two weeks for a conference I will be presenting at. I will be showing how the genre of Kunstlerroman with its inherent conflicts can be transposed onto Sartrean psychoanalysis. I will be illustrating this point with Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. Should be great laughs for all involved.

We are also waiting for Spring. I am on "spring vacation" right now, but the temperatures are still in the 30s at best, there is still snow on the ground, and the sun has not been visible all week. This is a joke. Call me old fashioned, but when I have spring break, I want it to be in the spring. Anyway, we will let everyone know our future as we learn about it.

Christmas '09

We had a great time in Idaho this year. Here are some pics from our trip.