Some Gatlinburg pictures...

At the Boyds Bear store in Pigeon Forge (which is actually being closed so most things were 50% off!)

The Sleepy Chair

We were definitely sleepy here...this was pretty late for both of us to be up.

Some of the girls...

Angie (Kathy's friend), Kathy (my sister), Birdie (my mom), and me! Elizabeth needs no introduction, of course.

Her first "pony" ride

Sour Cream

Elizabeth enjoying her food at No Way Jose's. I let her dip a french fry in the sour cream and then I couldn't get her to stop. She's definitely her parents' daughter.

Shopping Break

Shopping Break

Gatlinburg was decorated at every corner and bench with pumpkins, gourds, mums, scarecrows-name a fall decoration and they had it.

Dissertation update

Hi everyone,

I've chosen a date (it's written in pencil) to defend my dissertation proposal, which is just about the biggest day of one's career as a doctoral student. (Getting a job offer would probably be bigger, although it's probably up for debate.) And I have a lot of work to do until then.

So, any posting will probably be done by my lovely bride. She's been a bit shy about it so far, having posted approximately zero percent of the material to this blog. But she's planning to do a little more than that.

I know you're all pining away for more updates on my gorgeous little monkey. Sorry I can't do more for ya...I should do more blogging once I get my career in line. (Heh.)

Somebody's walking

Ellie-bean's been walking. She's just doing a few steps at a time, of course, but she's getting going. It's been a whole buncha fun.

That's right, use both hands to cram it in.

 

What a good girl...

...giving Papa some of her cake. 

I have to admit...

This is how I usually feel when I have cake coming. 

The cake

 

Mammaw and Pappaw's cee-ment pond

 

Two Elizabeths

 

Sophia on Ellie's pony

Ellie learning how to share... 

Ellie falling off her pony

Not really... 

Ellie and her pony

 

Ellie hearing about hippos' belly buttons

 

Ellie! Look behind you!

 

Ellie unwrapping

 

Opening presents...

Lots and lots of presents...

Thanks everyone! 

Ellie, her great-grandpa and her cousin Sophia

 

Ellie and her grandma

This at Ellie's birthday party. 

Go ahead...

Try to say you've seen a gorgeous-er baby. You might be able to say it but you'd be lying. 

Ellie as a mini-cheerleader

Here she is, all ready to go to college.

The only college Mama will approve of... 

By the way...

I was joking in the last post about rednecks. (About Tina's family, not about my being one. I stand by my claim that I am one, at least in part.) I actually get along quite well with (most of) my in-laws, which is a blessing a lot of people don't have.

So if anyone read that and took offense, I'm sorry...I was more goofing on Gatlinburg than on any in the family.

Oh, yeah

So Tina and Ellie are abandoning me again next weekend. Going to Gatlinburg, TN with a bunch of rednecks...I mean, Tina's family.

...Oh, come on, why else would you choose to go to Gatlinburg? I mean, right next door is Pigeon Forge, home of the world-famous Dollywood.

For the record, I admit my own neck gets red every now and then, so I can say these things. I do watch a little NASCAR, I listen to bluegrass, I do say "y'all"...it's better'n bein' some citi-fied blue-blood east coast trust-fund baby or a citi-fied blue blood new-money left coast hippie.

Anything is better'n bein' a hippie.

Also...

Our friends and erstwhile neighbors Corey & Beth moved away. Corey took a job in Cincinnati (well, just across the border in KY) and they moved. So we're a little lonelier lately. Ideally we'll be living in that general area in a year or so, so we hope to be able to hit the local Mexican joint and ice cream parlor with them soon.

Lately...

I've been dissertating.

Ellie's been sick again -- she had a cold from a virus that actually gave her hives. Pretty ugly stuff. She didn't really seem to notice the hives too much. Once they were itching her, but some Benadryl cleared that up.

On a related note, she seems to have inherited my reaction to medication -- nothing makes me sleepy, and pretty much everything keeps me up. Benadryl seemed to make her pretty resistant to napping.

But she's over that. We think she's teething again. Gallons of drool and miscellaneous fussiness. But we can't get her to show off the new teefs, so we have to guess whether and where they're coming in.

Tina seems all recovered from the surgery last month. (It's still September as I post this, so the surgery was still last month.) So that's a blessing.