There's a doctor in the house!

My brother John has loved books and has kind of been a "book worm" his whole life. The instant image that appears in my head of our childhood is of him curled up with this blanket he had to have ALL the time (it was not a security blanket, it was a full size, keep me warm blanket) reading books. Don't get me wrong, he definitely took time to be a typical boy and play outside, wander in the woods, play sports, and of course torment me!;) He has been successful at everything he has attempted in his life - he is a great athlete, great student, a strong Catholic, and wonderful husband, father, son, and brother. He went to an accelerated high school, took A.P classes, got into and attended University of Florida, applied and got a pilot slot in the Air Force (which is REALLY hard to do), but decided in the end to turn it down bc his heart was not totally into it, married his high school sweet heart at the ripe old age of 21, became a father to two wonderful children, went back to school and got his Master's degree, was a professor at the Air Force Academy, went back to school again, and has been working on his PhD for the last few years. All of his hard work has paid off, and he successfully defended his dissertation last week and graduated on Saturday. Earlier this fall he had also been asked to present his dissertation in Switzerland, which he of course did! So if you can tell, I have always looked up to my big brother (in more ways than one), and I am so proud of all of his accomplishments!

It was a very busy, quick trip, and I spent most of the time man-handling my girls, so I was not able to take many pictures. So I gave my mom my camera to snap a few that she could.

Again, some of these are dark, so you can see them better if you click on them. Some are also zoomed quite a bit, so the quality is not wonderful.

You get to sit in the front row when you are a PhD!

On the stage, having just been "hooded."


Walking off the stage!

Proud parents!

Proud sister and nieces!