Fall

What a busy semester! Tyler and I are both looking forward to having a  bit of a break next week with Thanksgiving. A lot of great things have happened in the last few months. Here are a few highlights:

Tyler and I enjoyed a few days at Disneyland with just the two of us in August. It was so much fun! We played hard, and wore ourselves out every day.











We went on our annual Table Mountain hike. We went up the face for the first time, which was pretty grueling, but we had a great time.







My sister Joni and her husband had a little baby boy at the beginning of October. He is sure a cutie.




Tyler finished the Halloween concerts the weekend before, so we enjoyed a low key Halloween at home answering the door.



And last but not least, I finished my doctorate!!!!!! On October 18th I defended my dissertation to my committee. They really put me through the paces, and I felt pretty beat up afterward, but I passed! Here is a picture with my advisor.



It is pretty strange to think that I am actually Dr. McNiven now. It doesn't really feel like it most days because all of my students on campus call me Sister McNiven. I'm still waiting for that first piece of mail that has Dr. McNiven on the front. :)

I've had a lot of people ask me if life is getting back to normal now that I'm finished. I don't really know what to say, because I've never really known anything but being in school. Ever since Tyler and I have been married, I've been working on my doctorate. I think we are working on redefining "normal" at our house. I'm still plenty busy with teaching, but it feels a lot less stressful. When I'm done teaching for the day, I can actually relax a bit.

We'll try and stay a bit more up to date from now on.  :)