polly pocket play and some good news!

all three kids enjoying some quality polly pocket time.
just don't mind the paper hoard under Josh's bed.
It grows no matter what we do to it...

Ashley and Josh get home from school about two hours before Ethan every day, but on the elementary school's short day, they get out 3 hours earlier than the middle school does. Yesterday I let Josh and Ashley each take a turn playing computer games after they did their homework, and when Ethan came home, they obediently got off the computer and went to play quietly in their room while he finished his homework.

While Ethan worked, I was reading in the living room and had to keep laughing as I listened to Ashley and Josh play polly pockets. Ashley is so patient, living between two boys. Josh was playing polly pockets like a boy, and Ashley just went along with it.

"Doctor, Doctor, help me!" came Josh's falsetto polly pocket voice. "I can't get this snarl off my face!"
I assumed the doctor took a look at the snarl. I didn't hear much until Josh said, "I have a snarl on my face and I can't get it off. Oh. Never mind. I got it off."
Then, of course, his polly pockets talked about light sabers and ninjas and other things polly pockets usually don't talk about. It made my day to hear those non-conventional polly pocket conversations.

And now for the really good news (not that the polly pocket stuff isn't great...), These last few months have been pretty intense for Chris as he studied for his qualifying exams, tried to get a paper ready to be published, and tried to get the thesis for his dissertation in working order.

Even though I was certain he would pass (since he's got an amazing brain that remembers things and can figure out how to figure out whatever his brain doesn't happen to remember), it was still scary. If he didn't pass his exam, he'd have to go through it all over again. It would make us have to be in school that much longer. And if his dissertation topic was rejected, he'd have to figure something else out. And it would make us have to be in school that much longer. Even though I was certain he'd be fine, because he's smart like that., it was still excessively stressful.

He's been taking the written portion of his exams over the last few weeks, and yesterday he had to verbally defend his answers in front of his committee, and then discuss his dissertation topic. He was stressed enough that he couldn't eat much, his stomach hurt.

After three grueling hours waiting at home for his results, he finally sent me a text that said, "Done. Passed. Now I am ABD."
I was happy he passed and it was finally over. What a relief. But I had to text back, "...What is ABD?"
For those of you who, like me, don't know what that stands for, it means All But Dissertation.
I think it should be WAD, instead.
For those of you who don't know what that stands for, it means We're Almost Done!

I can't stop smiling :D