Our Post-Dissertation Defense, Post-Election Weekend

Fact: The portion of people with graduate degrees in Lubbock is 4% (10,194 people), while in Lexington is 7% (18,236 people).

So, finally, we have two Dr. Rinaldos in our house and aren't we less stressed!

Because Aidan has had very little time with me and he's been pretty vocal about it, I attended chapel with him at school on Friday. His class sang two songs for the parents, complete with hand signals and dancing all around. It was very cute, although I'm sure Aidan is pretty confused. The songs are very different from what we've been accustomed to at his previous schools. I had to ask the teacher what one of the lines in the song was, as I was certain that I heard the words incorrectly. I had, in fact, heard them right, "If God were not on our side, our enemies would have surely eaten us alive!" While I won't get into why and how these words grate on my views of religious freedom and tolerance, they are just inappropriate for 4 year olds in my view.

Jason talked to a lady at the local NPR station, who also coincidentally sent her Jewish children to the same school Aidan attends. She had some interesting stories to tell also, but insisted that this is the most liberal and tolerant school available to us and that it is possible to raise liberal, tolerant children here in Lubbock. I told Jason to schedule a lunch for me to meet with this woman, I need to know her secrets. Her grown children are now in graduate school in Austin.

On Saturday Aidan and I participated in a Mother/child study with a group here at Tech. They videotaped us interacting and talking together, and then gave Aidan a verbal ability/IQ test. I am not going to ask what the score was, nor do I want to know. We were surprised by how many words he knows and we now have fear that he knows much more of what is going on than we previously thought.

We finished off our fun-filled weekend by cutting into Aidan's pumpkin to make pumpkin pies. We ate one, sent one to Houston with Grandpa, and took the third to church to share. And now we have enough pumpkin in the fridge to make about 15 more pies. Who knew it only took .08 of a pumpkin to make a pie?! And you should see the HUGE pumpkin on our porch! I guess I'll be burying that one in the yard because I'm not sure I could cook it!