Little Brother

Little brother and his wife are here for a few days... have new pictures, but will be a bit til I post them... I am busy trying to prevent him from teaching her any more....

just a few quick pictures from the Florida Trip

I only have the one memory card at home with me... and its the one with the fewest pics.... but here are a couple of our day at the beach with Aunt Christina and Katie and a few from when we were stuck at dulles on the way home!

Katie in the ocean! (and this is finally a hat she is cute in!)

Mom, Katie and Aunt Christina at the Beach
Mom, Dad and Katie at the Beach.... Craig doesn't look burnt yet in this picture!

Stuck at Dulles for 6 hours--- here is Katies bodged together entertainment--- a dangling assortment of nonsense from our luggage attatched with velcro tie downs... she thought it was pretty cool!

exciting news and prayer requests

John and Christina have finally been able to set a wedding date! So they are now just weeks away from actually getting married and having to deal with the joy of combining two people worth of crap into one home.... I wish them luck (and have offered any extra crap from our house they might want-- think I have ANY chance convincing them to take some? We'll even haul it down to Florida for them if we have to!)

Sadly, the Tadpole's semi-imminent arrival means that we won't be able to join them for the big day-- but we wish them all the best and expect a ton of pictures and some cake to be sent to us. (definitely send me cake!) If we have to miss it while I am house-bound, I think I definitely deserve pastry of some form-- and I am thinking I will not be up to any spectacular feats of baking in those few weeks anyway.

Anyway, send your best wishes to them and say a prayer for Christina's continuing improvement in health and that her ordered dress gets here in time for their big day! (I don't trust David's bridal... but it is a pretty dress!)

I don't expect we'll get to see them before the wedding and their settling into Florida, but we are planning to get down to Florida at the end of April for a wedding in Craig's family-- so everyone should get to meet the Tadpole then.

If you've got a few extra moments in your prayers tonight, add one for my SIL and her husband who are waiting for the final permission to go get their little girl in Vietnam and bring her home where she belongs. They've been patient so far, but its been months and she is over there without her family!

To Ligonier to retrieve the animals

Murph and Tiki spent Thanksgiving at my parents-- and on the trip to retrieve them, we got to visit with my brother and his fiancee-- I only got one picture, but here it is!

Ok.. and a few gratuitous shots of the dog being well... the dog. He is utterly convinced that it is his duty to carry around HUGE branches... and then try and bring them in the house. Silly pup.

He is completely confused as to why he can't get inside, but nothing will convince him to just put DOWN the stick.

Another week down...

Sometimes my boss will say things that give me hope that SOMEDAY I may actually graduate. Someone in the lab made a comment about hoping their family's genetic diseases and their husband's family's diseases balance out in their kids... and the boss said genetics don't work that way... but I was able to explain that for multi-gene traits, that sometimes it could be possible that they do... and then comes the phrase from the boss "You know, talking like that comes from people who are almost ready to graduate." Ahhhh... now if it were only really true.

I am pretty sure this whole baby thing will set me back a ways in terms of when I graduate. I am hoping its not more than a month or 2 delay-- but in reality, who knows. I am very lucky that my boss is really understanding and seems excited for us, but -- well.. I still have to convince my committee that things will be ok. I think that should go ok as well. I am making pretty great progress on my thesis research -- and they have been happy with my progress on that-- and I am working on writing my first first authored paper (ok, technically, my 2nd-- but my undergrad research advisor was a lazy bum and never submitted it after the revisions)-- and my PhD research is WAY cooler than my undergrad stuff- so thats ok too.

Ugh.. its just a little bit of a headache.

Outside of that, I am finally working on this paper-- I've got 6 pages written so far! (and thats single spaced, normal font too-- with no pictures!) but its yet to head off for any editing, which I am truly dreading. I am just looking forward to it going out and having it DONE with. The writing is my least favorite part of science. I can deal with the mixing chemicals, mouse surgeries and tedious molecular biology procedures-- but writing, blah blah blah. It does give me a nice excuse to plop my bottom at my desk every day though-- so I am enjoying that! Our lab moved to a new room in November, and now we can have food at our desks-- so I can snack and drink my lemonade all day if I wanted (and well, if the Tadpole would let me!).

Nothing too big in Tadpole news, I am 11 weeks pregnant today (well... ok, today, yesterday, tomorow-- depends on whose due date we are using. I figured the 6th, the OB the 4th-- so we'll split the difference and call it the 5th of March) Apparently that means I have just about 2 weeks left in the first trimester-- I can't wait for them to pass! Because when they go I have the promise of my stomach returning to its normal purpose of actually being hungry and digesting food. Interestingly, it is an odd assortment of things that I actually am eating these days... strawberry fruit roll-ups, fudgesicles (see, that's calcium), pears and strawberries, and vanilla wafers, and microwave buttered popcorn have all been pretty appealing. I am trying to gak down some meats and such when I can-- hot pockets have been doing ok most days at lunch. Its not the most balanced diet-- but I figure its better than continuing to lose weight everyday. I've got vitamins and the same calcium supplements I have been taking for a while-- so hopefully, it'll be just another few weeks and I can get into the whole "eating for two" part of pregnancy. I've got my next doc visit in 2 weeks... so I am anxious to have a professional opinion that everythings looking good.

It seems I am sharing one symptom with my soon-to-be sister-in-law. She apparently can NOT stand the smell of pepperoni either since the whole chemo thing started ... how weird is that?! Speaking of Christina, please keep her in your prayers, she's back in the hospital for her next bout of treatment leading up to her transplant. So pray for a speedy and total recovery so she and my little brother can get themselves hitched.

Katie and James are Married!

Katie, my roomate from the first year of grad school got married this Saturday in Maryland. Craig, Kim and I were invited to see the big day and we carpooled down. They had a short outdoor ceremony in the early afternoon (whew... it was HOT out!) and then a lovely (air conditioned) reception. The cake was tasty! (no scary buttercream or tasteless fondant-- it was frosted in whipped cream!) It was a nice day and they happy couple well, looked very happy! Congrats to Katie and James!


Here is one quick picture of Craig and I from the reception-- Craig was enjoying the "Moby's"-- a special rum drink recipe from Katie's family-- so he had a pretty good time!

The remainder of this weekend was spent hiding in our room-- the only air conditioned room in the place-- amazingly, you can now see the floor-- we dug out all the boxes and bins of stuff and sorted out winter clothing that could be stored away in the attic or cellar for the next few months and now you can actually WALK in our room--without tripping! The plan is to allow the Murph and the poo-machine in the room tonight so they can enjoy the AC as well. I think for Tiki's well being... she'll be just as happy to stay out of there and have the run of the house in peace!

In the interest of peace I did rid myself of a few pairs of shoes this weekend as well-- Craig seems to beleive that two laundry baskets full is too many--- he fails to understand how I can NEED 5 different pairs of black sandals (the casual pair, the super high heel strappy ones, the semi-casual dress pair, the flip flops, the comfy but still dressy pair etc...) So I discarded a few pairs that were well past their prime-- including my FAVORITE sandals of all time-- these are the ones my mom called the "spartacus" sandals-- brown leather, criss-crossed straps, flat soles-- I wore these things to death-- across Europe, through college, they went with anything and were so very comfortable-- my dad had given them a second life with a few rivets 3 years ago-- and I had nursed them through last summer with glue and tacks-- but the time has come to say goodbye---and so this afternoon-- I tossed them in the trash--- of course-- this means I have to go get some new ones right?!?!?!

Craig is hiding in the cellar working on his HW for his online class-- its cool there and it means I get sole control over the TV! (so with a choice of 5 channels-- there's not too much to argue over-- but still!)

This week cake class starts up again on Tuesday and I've got my first full week with Undergrad Guy--- so it should be a busy week. I think I have one more fitting to go to with a friend for her wedding dress and I have to put together a wedding emergency kit to take to her wedding on June 16th--- its my turn to play "Kim" for a change and deal with all the nonsense that pops up so she doesn't have to worry-- Hrm... I should make sure the guest room isn't too bad either as we are keeping the groom the night before the wedding.

Big news over at my SIL's blog-- she's got all her paperwork to Vietnam and is #1 on the waiting list for a little girl--- looks like our new niece will be here before too long!

And as for my future SIL-- she's a trooper-- she survived her first entire weekend at my parents this weekend! And my Mom only had wonderful things to say-- about her and about her pup who came to visit too! So apparently the nuttiness that is my family hasn't completely scared her off-- and we are thrilled that she'll be one of us!

Saturday Night

Look! Finally a picture of the happy couple!




So Saturday night instead of the symposium reception, Craig and I hopped in the car for a mad dash to Winchester, Va. Mapquest told me this is a 2 hour and 15 minute drive, we made it in just under 2... We were in such a hurry because John, Christina, Mom and Dad were all meeting there and had asked us to come along... for dinner at 6pm... and I left the symposium which ran late at 4:37... so we were going to be late no matter what... it was just a question of HOW late.

So we drove down there all but setting new land speed records as this was Mom and Dad's first chance to meet Christina and because John had asked in particular that we try and make it. (And because I am the best big sister he could have ever dreamed of!)

We met up at Outback... (ok, so the promise of steak was helpful too) and had a lovely dinner. After dinner we took a couple of pictures and then everyone hit the road to get back to their homes.










The newlyweds and the "to-be" weds




Dad and Mom with the happy couple.

My only picture of the Happy couple so far... a cell phone snapshot!

YAY! I have a new "sister"

So my little brother got engaged last night! YAYAY!!!!!! (or as he put it in the text message he sent-- "wooo!") Christina is a really nice and smart girl, plus she works making beer... so my brother is a lucky guy. Here's hoping and praying that she has a swift and permanent recovery so they can move on with planning their future together!

As soon as I can get a picture of them I will get it posted on here and everyone can see the happy couple.

Woohoo... more news as I get it... and John, you'd better bring her up here to meet/see us as soon as you can!