Just a quick update

I'll try to add pictures later, but, since I know I won't have time to update the blog this evening (we are heading down to Cedar City after church for memorial day), I thought I'd take a minute now and do so.

There's not really a lot to report from this week, except that it was busy. Several months ago I agreed to help with some Writing Across the Curriculum workshops at BYU that fell this week. All told, there were six workshops (three of which I taught). I've spent the last several weeks accumulating material, creating packets and powerpoints, etc., to present on the following topics: teaching and evaluating oral and visual communication; helping students better integrate their research into research papers; and evaluating papers fairly and consistently. As is typical of teaching, I think I learned more than the faculty I went in to teach, but almost everyone seemed to find the workshops helpful--especially the opportunity to exchange teaching tips and strategies with one another. What never ceases to surprise me is how easily these professors take me at face value--I continue to feel like I'm somewhat of a charlatan: I know I have a PhD and that this is supposed to be my field, but I keep expecting someone to expose me for the ignoramus I so often feel like I am. So far, that hasn't happened. But I'm starting to learn (mostly from talking to other faculty) that this fraudulent feeling is actually pretty common, and, unfortunately, doesn't necessarily go away when you've been in the field longer. I suppose working in your field is actually sort of a continuation of the negative learning process of graduate school: the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know, so comparatively, the less you feel like you know! (see appropriate PhD comic here.)

Of course, since these workshops effectively took up a fair portion of my time the first part of the week (grandma kindly watched my kids), we didn't do much of anything fun until the weekend. On Friday, I took Andrew and Evelyn to a local park and watched Andrew make instant friends with the charming ease of small children. On Saturday, we did more of the same: I took Andrew to Discovery park again to meet up with some friends of mine (Evelyn stayed home with her dad). That afternoon, we took the kids to furniture stores to look at furniture (since we currently have little more than beds and bookshelves) and learned two important lessons. Lesson one: never bring a tired three-year-old anywhere public where he can climb on things. Lesson two: Dan is strangely hard to please when it comes to furniture. Ironically, after pooh-poohing all the couches we saw in the furniture stores, we checked out a set listed on craigslist that night and bought it. Or at least, agreed to buy it when we can figure out how to move it! :) (We did leave a deposit.)

And that's pretty much it for this week. Things continue to move forward with the house--the loan is in process, we've got an inspector coming next week, and we're looking into insurance. This is slowly but surely starting to seem real.

Maybe next week we can actually post pictures of the house!