OUR PHD'S

I meant to post this during "my month" of posts, but never finished it.  There are some events that need to be memorialized.  So here I go.  Todd actually defended his thesis and was awarded his degree back in September 2008.  But MIT did not have a graduation ceremony for him to walk until the following June.  We were unable to go to the presentation of his thesis and Todd's parents were in Europe when he actually graduated.  It is nice to be covered by two sets of parents.  We were so proud of all the hard work and diligence that it took for Todd to receive his PhD in Bio Engineering from MIT, that it certainly warranted a trip back to Boston, even though he now had a great job with McKinsey Consulting and they lived in New York City.

Here is the scene and the pageantry.  We were so far away from the actual ceremony!

We could see him best by watching the giant Teletron in front of us.

He came straight down to where we were sitting.  MIT gave out every degree for the whole year in one ceremony.  One reader read the names from the first of the alphabet and the other did it from the middle of the alphabet.  Consequently, Todd was on about the last page of the graduates.  It was about two hours of reading names as fast as they could.  We left as soon as he was called.

They should give wives with three small sons their own PhD for holding down the fort while he is absorbed in earning a degree like this.

We were happy to celebrate this day with Todd.

I was trying to get the hood in as well in this picture.

The wise and not as wise solving the problems of the world.

PhD or not one of his main jobs is helping to raise these boys which includes stroller duty.

Then in July of 2009, Sam defended his thesis in bio-informatics at NC State.  Because the scheduling was changed so many times, Alan was not able to go with me back to Raleigh to observe this process.  I must say I was a long way from understanding all of Sam's presentation even though he went over it with me beforehand.  I didn't feel so bad when one of the statistics professors on the committee he appeared in front of did not seem to understand all of it either since it was in a different niche than hers.

This is one of the men on his PhD committee, a man he worked with at Glaxo, Smith, Kline and a great mentor for Sam.  He is also a member of the church and participated in writing Sam's paper with him.

Here Sam is calling his dad to report he had been given his PhD.  Not the terminology exactly and he still had some finishing to do on the paper, but it was a huge accomplishment to be finished.

Lindsay was probably even more excited and relieved than Sam.  Sometimes it seems like this process will go on forever.  It isn't like undergraduate work where you do all the requirements for a semester, take all the tests and write finite papers and then you get a grade and the class is over. 

He is the Man!

And then the man goes home and plays with his boys!

NC State had a graduation ceremony for Sam to participate in December.  In the meantime he was hired by Duke University by the department he had been doing work for as a PhD candidate.

Here is the set up and pageantry at the University.  We were thrilled when they only had the PhD candidates walk up to the stand and be awarded their degrees one by one by name.  All the others stood as a group and were pronounced graduated.  They picked up their diplomas later.  It was a much quicker ceremony but still had my son properly individually recognized.

We had good seats, but the Teletron was still the best close up.  This one is perfect for showing Sam!

Alan's camera was having serious problems with focus, but it did the telephoto lens pretty well

A little justified pride in his step!

Lindsay was home with a week old baby so we brought Reed with us.  For some reason, when the ceremony was over, Reed took off up the stairs through the crowds and was immediately lost.  Alan and I  went in opposite directions and searching for him.  It took at least 15 minutes before security notified us that they had him finally.  So Sam did not get much congratulations for a few minutes.  Then our camera was so bad that we only got this picture and a lot of blurry ones immediately after.

I took this one with my cell phone and it was a little better.

Sam, the PhD, is showing how brilliant he really is.

This new baby was a bonus for our visit.  She wasn't due until the day before, but was 9 days old when he graduated.  I think this is his real treasure.

If it weren't Christmas, we would have loved to stay longer.  But we were so glad we could be there.

What a great graduation/ Christmas present this little Ruby was!

We are so proud of the dedication, hard work and perseverance of these two young men and their families.  It will pay off for years to come.

KATE'S DAY!

Can you believe she is three years old today? She has grown up so much and fills our hearts. 

Here are some things I love about Kate Lindsey Tobler:

1.  She has such a beautiful little Tobler face.

2.  She is a happy, darling little girl.

3.  She is a smarty pants!  She has grown up so fast. Quick to talk, quick to learn.  3 going on 12.

Loves sunglasses and bathing suits.

4. She says funny things. "I need skinny jeans." and "Mom, that's the thing, you're not the boss."

A year ago when Kate turned two.

5.  Kate is a girl through and through.  She loves babies, dolls, and pink frills.

6.  She is growing out of shy and loves Nana and Papa.

7.  Kate is a very strong personality and continues to exert her will the older she gets.

8.  Kate loves her family.

With Mom

9.  Did I say she is cute? (Kate with her cousin Sam.)

10.  Kate loves her brother Jack and loves to do what he does.

A GOLDEN WALK WITH THE DOGS

One of our favorite things to do is to walk up in the hills by our house early in the morning with Alan's dogs.  For one reason or another we haven't done it for a long time.  It is the best thing the dogs get to do next to actually hunting.  They are like little children--excited and squealing and hard to restrain.  Believe me, Alan restrains them though.

At the head of the trail he takes their leashes off.  Can you see them shaking with anticipation?  They are poised but won't move until he says "Okay."

I don't think he actually got the "Okay" out this morning.  He just took the breath to say it and they were off!

He keeps his whistle handy and they return from wherever they have run to.  Often we just get a "fly-by" but we keep track of them. 

Right now the mustard weed has mostly kept them on the path.

They are quite obedient to the whistle, but sometimes are very far away.

We have never seen the mustard weed so high or thick.

We almost can't see the path.  This mustard weed leaves very high dense stems that dry up and look like ugly brown sticks growing out of the ground.  I have observed that in an area that has last years' sticks, no new mustard weed grows. It takes a couple of years for it to disintegrate unless someone comes and clears it.  We think it has been at least three seasons since we have had this kind of growth.  It will be a fire hazard in the fall but is beautiful unless you have allergies.  It  felt like we were in a jungle in places.

As we approach the top of the hill and there is a break in the weeds we can see the ocean...

... and behind us our house and neighborhood.

Time to start down the hill.  I love the view.

Dense growth on this side too.  We couldn't get over it--hence two similar pictures.

Bud is out of shape and just crashes on the path.

'

Man and dog heading home.

Too bad, we have learned that as we near the trail's end they must be on leashes.  Abby especially is not very obedient when there are so many places in the neighborhood to explore.  Hopefully we can keep this up daily.  The dogs and their owners really need a more rigorous exercise routine.  We'll see.