A nice break

After I defended on Monday, the kids and I rode back with my family to AR to spend the rest of the week. As always, it was a nice break from the city. The kids had a wonderful time riding the gator, playing with cousins and checking out Papa's new tractor on the farm. Here are a few pictures.

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It's official...

I have my Ph.D!! On Monday, August 17th, I defended my dissertation. It was awesome! My parents and brother came down for the event. I can't believe I am finally done with school!

The title of my talk (a bit blurry) "A Novel Function for Fibulin-5 in controlling integrin-induced ROS production: Implications on angiogenesis and cancer."



My parents and brother waiting anxiously for my defense to start.





My children gave me a nice card, beautiful roses and big hugs when I got home!




My mentor and his wife took my parents, my husband and I out for a very nice dinner to celebrate that night. It was wonderful!

Heavy reading

So what have you learned about human genetics, Ella?

Ella-in-the-box

Ella does anything to make her brother laugh!

And so it begins!

Luke stay away from the DVD player!

Ella's 80's hairdo

A little mishap with the hairspray.

Bye Bye Little School!!

On August 3rd, Ella said goodbye to her "little school" where she has been since she was 7 months....



and Hello to her new "Big school"! She was so excited but mommy was secretly very sad. I can't believe she is out of the little school. The big school is very cool though and Ella got a nice surprise. A little girl who Ella has made friends with at our apartment complex has taken the place of a student that left Ella's class. They were so excited to see each other on the first day!