Daddy and Dr. Kennedy

Emmy seemed to have kicked the bug I wrote about in my last post...but as sickness often does in a family, it unfortunately moved along to Boomer. He had similar symptoms to Emmy: a fever, congestion, and a runny nose. Luckily without even requiring an office visit, the doctor called in a prescription of Tamiful. We still aren't exactly sure what he had, but it was enough to keep him out of work for two days! He recovered just in time to give his dissertation defense on Friday. What a big week for Boomer! 

A little background on becoming "Dr. Kennedy"...

I joke that Boomer has been in school our entire marriage, because joking aside, it's true! As soon as we returned from our honeymoon at the end of December 2010, he submitted his application for the Master in School Administration at UNCG. After being admitted, he began classes that fall of 2011. During his Masters, some of the classes were online; some were seated. Some required going to Greensboro a couple of nights a week; some had Saturday classes. The program continued through the summer, and he even took classes during the winter/December term. At the time, he was teaching US History at Glenn High School. Halfway through the MSA program, he got the job as an Assistant Principal at South Stokes High School, and we all celebrated as it seemed he was on his way to a career in administration. He finished up the Masters that following year in Spring of 2013. I don't know if we even had a conversation about it, but we both just knew that that was not the end. 

Without a break, he applied to continue at UNCG for the Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree, a post-Masters degree which grants a superintendent's license. In addition to the standard application and letters of recommendation, he had to interview with the UNCG faculty. We held our breath hoping he would get in, knowing that the spots were limited. He began the Ed.S., and subsequently the journey to the Doctorate, that fall of 2013. The Ed.S. program was a combined curriculum of coursework and prepping for the dissertation. The classes were again flexible with online and seated options, but they still required a rigorous weekly commitment year-round. During that time, he became the principal at Nancy Reynolds Elementary School, and he continued to juggle schoolwork with the demands of a new job. The elementary world was very new to him, but he gave it his all as he learned new policies and foreign acronyms. Boomer completed the Ed.S. program in the summer of 2016, and he had a decision to make: to continue with the doctorate or to put things on pause. We contemplated a pause for two main reasons: 1) Boomer was just named the principal of Forbush High School, and 2) we were pregnant! Two major life changes that would require even more of his time and focus. We only briefly entertained the idea of a pause, hoping that the momentum of being a student would help push him through. So after a short break in the summer of 2016 (the first one in five years!) he put his head down to start writing. We have learned so much about the process of proposing, writing, and defending a dissertation. I am so proud of how Boomer tackled this enormous feat! I think it was key that he picked a topic early on. Quite decisive as usual, at the beginning of his Ed.S. degree, he settled on the concept of school choice and school vouchers, and he would often research or write about this topic when assignments were open-ended. Once he was finished with the Ed.S. coursework and was 'just' writing, we would communicate a weekly plan for writing sessions either on Saturdays or Sundays. Boomer has frequented almost every library and coffee shop with WiFi within a 30-minute radius of our home! After writing for a few hours, he would return home, and I would ask "How did it go?" The responses would be: "good", "very good," "just a lot of reading today." It was a while before he was knocking out actual pages, and those days were so exciting! "Four pages today", "Two pages today." Then we entered the editing phase, which required multiple submissions back-and-forth to his advisor and a mysterious miracle-worker "Richard Allen" who formatted the final dissertation at the price of $2/page. It all led to this final semester, when he set a date to defend his dissertation and applied for graduation. On the day of his defense, he was cool as a cucumber. He decided not to do an (optional) open-to-the-public presentation, much to my mom's disappointment. The (required) closed-to-committee defense was the last step in the process, in which they approved him for graduation. Even though it seems like a long haul, now here we are: a 241 page document that changes his title from "Mr." to "Dr." 

I can't quite put into words how proud I am of Boomer. To keep this post from getting too long, I'll just say that there will probably be another sappy post in May when he walks across the stage. We will surely celebrate a lot then! For now, we celebrated with an early dinner out at Small Batch in Winston-Salem before Boomer had to be back at school for the basketball games that evening. When I got home, I found the sweetest surprise: the dedication of his dissertation to me. 

After becoming "Dr. Kennedy" on Friday, Boomer was "Daddy" again on Saturday for a Daddy Daughter Date Night. Boomer and Emmy went last year to the same event at our local Chick Fil A. While it was met with mixed reviews (i.e. Emmy spit up her chocolate milk and was afraid of Princess Ariel), I was optimistic that year 2 would be better. I am now optimistic that YEAR 3 will be better. According to Boomer, Emmy was quite wiggly and was most interested in playing in the CFA playplace. Hopefully we will try again next year!

A few last photos: we have had almost two straight weeks of rain, which has meant a lot of playtime indoors. One of Emmy's fun games is empty-the-toybox. She also loves toting around her babies. I caught her with Big Teddy Bear on her hip, while her other babies were taking naps. 

We were so thankful to see some sunshine on Sunday. We took a trip up to the neighborhood park, and then Emmy and I walked her babies around the cul-de-sac. She loves imitating Mommy! :)