December was a rough month.

I will not be sad to say goodbye to this month.
We started out the month with worst 24 hour flu in the history of the Miller-Prouty household! Taking turns caring for a baby with the flu is the pits but missing your own birthday party on top of that is the worst! Poor Jeremy didn't get to attend his bowling birthday party this year. I managed to make him a cake a few days later and I tried to make up for it by giving him the Diamond edition of Scrabble.

We scrambled to finish the semester and get ready for the holidays when- bam! I needed new brakes and tires! After getting a flat tire on the highway with everybody in the car- I was never so thankful for no snow!

Right when school was just about to let out and I could see the light, Sidney got sick with phenomena, then bronchiolitis, and later was also diagnosed with RSV. We spent two nights in the hospital with him because he was having such a hard time breathing, he had to be on oxygen. Sidney was such a trooper, he really did well being in such a strange place with all those doctors in masks everywhere. It was a rough few days, luckily Jeremy was able to miss his last day of school to be with us at the hospital. If you know anything about his school district, there's a terrible woman who never lets employees take their family leave days. He couldn't even use them for the birth of Sidney without an extensive doctor's excuse!

We got out on the 23rd but could not travel for the holidays and missed my family Christmas in DeWitt. It was hard, but everyone was so sweet to call us and sing Merry Christmas! Friends and family came to us over the next few days as a very tired baby healed. It was so nice to see Steph and Kyle from Portland! My mom brought a little bit of every kind of food from the family Christmas party. We are still eating cookies, veggie pizza, and drinking hot Chai tea, thanks to her!!!! (you are the best) Sidney loved unwrapping his Christmas presents and plays very intently with all his new toys.
  We went back to the doctor on Tuesday and were told Sidney is fine and not contagious. Just to make sure we cleaned and disinfected the whole house before anyone came over. That was quite a workout!
We got some great gifts for our basement to help build up the game room. Jeremy's folks bought us an old fashion popcorn maker and a new electronic dart board. They look awesome down there. We planned to have folks over for New Years Eve but our plans were washed out again. I guess we are still too contagious for some folks. We are hoping for a healthier new year.....

Thank you to everyone for the kind thoughts, prayers, messages, calls, etc... We are so lucky to have such great family and friends. xoxo W, J and Sid

Whew!

Today I am going to 3 meetings and then finally submitting my grades- that's it I'm done!  I will frantically prepare for next semester as it will my busiest in a while. I was accepted to take part in the Obermann Institute for Public Engagement at The University of Iowa. It's a week long workshop for selected graduate students to work to embed public engagement into their academic areas of study. I am super excited because this is right up my alley! Unfortunately it takes place the same week we start school at UNI. My department head will be covering for me and I feel so lucky to have such great administration in my department.
This semester, I am also taking my LAST class at the University of Iowa and I will taking my written comprehensive exams in February-March (date to be determined). YIKES! Luckily, my wonderful mom is coming to help out during some of this craziness! I may actually complete my PhD in the near future.
It's so hard to believe because I have been working on it for so long and so much has happened since I began this process.
Tomorrow begins the holiday preparations and I could not be more ready for some crafting and baking.
Here is a sneak preview of the Christmas card I hope to complete (before Christmas)
Happy Finals Week!