Dachoo Yibadee!

branching out

farm girl Abby
Originally uploaded by gennabby.

The last two months have been pretty full of trying new things. For the first half of that time, Matthew was diligently working on his dissertation whenever he wasn't working. Last week he did it though: he finished the dissertation and got signatures. He is officially, totally DONE with his phd! I can hardly believe it! What an immense job, from start to finish. There aren't words to describe how proud I am of his accomplishment. We went on a date to celebrate, but this was an unusual date... Friday night we went to a great little restaurant and had gnocchi, scallops, and halibut. We spent several hours walking, talking, stopping for coffee at our favorite coffee shop in town. Hours, you say? Yes. HOURS. Matthew insisted on reading every dessert menu in town, it seemed. And we even sat down for dessert at one place (after a 20 minute wait) only to hop back up, and head to another location. Mysterious behavior for Matthew. It was raining lightly as we stood in the middle of Palmer's square and as Matthew shared his heart effusively. Again, mysterious behavior for Matthew. Finally, we drove home, a good hour past when I thought we would head home. As we walked up the path to our door, matthew stopped and said: "G, that looks strange. What's going on over there?" He ran to the small parking lot in front of our apartment and banged on the window of a slowly moving car! I thought someone might be unconscious or in danger or something--and then I thought Matthew was being crazy as a large man got out of that car! What in the world was going on?! "Look who's here!" Matthew yelled. Through the dark, drizzly air, I saw a dear, familiar face peek out from behind Matthew: Melanie Maynor was standing in front of me! All the way from St. Louis to surprise me for my birthday. Matthew and Melanie had known for weeks about this and had pulled of a real surprise. I had NO idea. And, strangely, I didn't think much of Matthew's nutty (and over the top romantic) behavior during the long celebration date. I just thought to myself that he must really want that perfect dessert and that no matter how many menus we have to read, his finishing his dissertation was reason enough for me to be patient. The weekend that followed was rich. Melanie and I talked, played, and finished our quilt backs--a project we have been working on for a LONG time now. It was the sweetest gift.

During the weeks without Matty around much (and, by the way, he also went to Chicago and to Boston for work during that time!! Super exciting!), the kiddos and I decided to check out our surroundings. We discovered Terhune Orchards, a little farm with animals, tractors, fruit stands (and pick-your-own), and flower fields! Both kids enjoyed throwing corn to the ducks and geese, as long as they didn't get too close. Noah squealed when he pet a small cat--he loved it!

Some new friends invited us to go berry and flower picking in another farm (the largest CSA farm in the US, apparently!). Our home is still filled with gorgeous cut flowers--cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias, and snapdragons--delightful!

And, finally, all four of us set out on an adventure on Saturday: we drove to the Staten Island Ferry, rode the ferry to Manhattan, and traipsed all over that huge city! But that needs it's own blog post...