Thanks giving, Week 51

I haven't sent out Christmas cards for years now. If I don't have time to make them personal, it just doesn't seem worth it. Plus Wes signed 75 cards at work the other day for various staff and would be unlikely to add his original signature to anything additional. So since most of the people who would get one from us read this blog, if only from time to time, let this serve as this year's Christmas card, from our family to yours: May the joy of the season surround you. May the wonders of the day fulfill you. And may God bless you and yours in the new year. I give thanks each day for the special people who fill my life, both online and in person, and so this week, I give thanks for you -- whomever and wherever you may be.

'Twas the night before Christmas

Last night, Wes and I did the parent thing and put together a gift for Ollie with about 100 pieces -- from about 9pm until midnight.  I'd found this wooden workshop online some time ago and after soliciting opinions from aunts and grandmas, purchased it.  It sat in a very heavy box upstairs for the past two weeks.  I knew it was kind of involved to put together -- people online said upwards of 45 minutes -- but evidently if you watch VH1's countdown of the 100 Best Musicians of all time while putting it together, it adds more than two hours.  Fortunately, all of the pieces were labeled with letters or numbers, and the instructions were very clear.  We did have one or two hiccups.  There's a piece that holds a wooden dowel in place that wouldn't go in for some reason, and the pegboard on the left would not fit into the slats on either side.  I don't know if the slats weren't cut large enough or the pegboard not small enough, but it absolutely would not go in.  I was really disappointed but have taped the thing in place so Oliver can use it right away, and I'm going to call either the place that I bought it from or the manufacturer on Monday to see if they can send us corrected parts.  The unit is adorable, though, and well made for a children's toy.  We have it sitting in the living room for him to come downstairs to, along with 4 other small wrapped items (two puzzles and two books) and a wooden airplane in his stocking.  In keeping with family traditions, Oliver took the last link off the paper chain last night.  He went back for the star, but I told him he had to wait.

When I went to put the box and trash on the back porch after we'd finished, I saw that the rain that had been falling on our way home from the grocery store had turned to snow, and the lawn was completely covered.  This morning, there's not significantly more down.  The lawns and cars are white, but the porches and sidewalks are mostly clear, which is a nice trade-off.  It does look like there's either more light snow or some sleet coming down.  Oliver will be thrilled, and I may be forced at some point to get him some galoshes and snow gloves so that he can play in the occasional snowfall we've gotten both winters here.

I, unfortunately, slept poorly last night and finally got up at 6:30am.  There's monkey bread in the oven but both boys still in bed (Ollie did not nap yesterday, despite our best efforts).  I'm still holding out hope for a Christmas miracle -- that is, a December 25th baby -- though there are no indications that will be the case.  In the meantime, I will revel in watching Oliver enjoy the first Christmas he probably has enough faculties to process and, if I'm doing everything right, enjoy a juicy turkey breast that's been bathing since Thursday afternoon.

Thanks giving, Week 50

This is a week that epitomizes the need for giving thanks.  For example:

• I could be upset that my garage is flooded, the guest apartment bare and unusable, and my house full of misplaced furniture.  Instead (as Wes puts it), I'm thankful for the opportunity to redecorate the guest apartment -- and harass Wes to get the unused furniture out of the house.
• I could be upset that my house is completely filthy and seems even more so with the gray skies of winter.  Instead, I'm thankful that I'm completely done with classes and have some time to clean as much as possible before the baby comes.
• I could be upset that it took me to very last day of the semester -- last Friday -- to finish my schoolwork for the fall.  Instead, I'm thankful that it's done (done!), and so far, I have two A's on my transcript.  The third one, well, we'll see.
• I could be upset upset that I'm still pregnant, waddling around with my sore back and swollen belly.  Instead, I'm thankful that I'm pregnant, that the baby is still moving (though a little less each day), and that I don't have a premie to worry about.  
• I could be upset that there are virtually no Christmas decorations in my house.  Instead, I am thankful for the extra time I've spent with Ollie, the extra rest I've gotten as a result, and the fact that I won't have to take much down after Christmas!  Ditto for Christmas cookies (who needs the calories?) and Christmas shopping for Wes (as he put is, he's getting me a new guest apartment, and I'm getting him a new garage).

I guess being thankful is just about how you look at things.  

My water broke

The morning after the flooding happened.

One spot where the water came into the garage.

What was under the carpet.

They took out everything -- including the kitchen sink.

After everything came out and the fans went in.

Ceiling out.

And the labor has only begun.  Last Tuesday, Wes came home from work around 5:30pm to have dinner with some friends and their kids.  He pulled up to the garage only to find that the door was open, which is very unusual.  Upon further inspection, he found that water was pouring into the garage from the ceiling.  He went upstairs to the apartment and found the pipe connected to the sink in the kitchenette had burst.  He turned off the water and got some of the water up.  After dinner with our very understanding friends, I walked across the street to get suggestions on whom to call the next morning.  Joe kindly came over, took a look with Wes and both our dogs, and had his guys in the next morning.

Juan and Pablo came first thing Wednesday.  Wes took the day off and ended up helping out with the tearing out process (which Joe found strange and kind of funny).  They moved all the furniture into the living room of the house, tore up the carpet, removed the kitchenette (which had been destroyed by the water, took the ceiling out of the garage, and got some fans up to start drying things.  The weatherman had been calling for ice that day, so I'd put a bunch of salt down on the back patio, which was subsequently tracked through the kitchen and living room.  I, meanwhile, was upstairs trying to finish a paper due on Friday and then off to pick up Oliver at lunchtime to take him to a follow-up appointment with his ENT.  Ollie and I went to check out the progress when we got home, and I had to tear him away to go back inside.

The plumber has since been in and repaired the offending pipes.  We are now waiting for the insurance people to look at Joe's bid for repairs.  Wes and I visited Home Depot briefly the other night to look at paint colors, carpet swatches, and kitchen cabinets.  The bathroom is fine, so we don't have to do anything in there that we know of. We don't know how much any of this is going to cost, but we are looking forward to updating the space.  The carpet was really awful, and paint color was horribly ugly.  There was no insulation between the floor of the apartment and the ceiling in the garage, so that will be added, along with wrapping the pipes.  Wes also finally managed to find the cut-off point so that we have the option of turning off the water when it gets into the single digits.  We also decided to replace the window air conditioning unit with a wall heat pump that would allow us to keep the apartment from getting bone cold like it does when no one is out there.  

All of this happened, of course, after we had a leak on our kitchen in the house.  Wes had to replace the flusher on the toilet in the kids' bathroom upstairs.  A ring hadn't sealed properly when he put the tank back on, causing water to leak slowly out and around the base of the toilet and then through the ceiling.  We now have a lovely brown stain on our kitchen ceiling, waiting for some paint.  Wes had been feeling guilty about that but realizes now what a small issue it is  compared to the new challenge.

Not the ideal time for this to happen -- what with the colder temperatures and guests coming in the next 2-6 weeks, plus a baby on the way.  And not the ideal way to redecorate a space.  But we've been upbeat about the situation -- save my 36-hour mental breakdown about all the furniture stuffed into the house (I need a feng shui expert!).    Hopefully, by late January, we'll have a newer, nicer guest apartment, which will also serve as a place for me to work twice a week when the babysitter is here and I'm not in class.

Stairs to the garage. 

The humane harmonica

Anyone who has ever been in my house, met my dog, or even probably had a phone conversation with me knows that Lucy barks a lot.  She barks at random noises in the house, delivery trucks just passing by, people walking on the street, and on occasion, her own reflection in the back door.  She's a beagle.  She likes to bark.  When things get really serious -- like the delivery man stops out front and brings a package to the door -- the fur at her collar and her tail stands up.  I'm sure, if she could just get through that front door, she would like...jump on him and lick him endlessly.  Nonetheless, the barking can get tiresome.  It's very loud, and she doesn't stop after announcing whatever she's seen outside.  She just keeps barking.  We have some natural dog pheromones that supposed to help calm her, and also a bark collar that gives her a mild zap if she barks too loudly.  The latter usually works to some degree, but Wes is constantly taking it off her after she stops barking -- which means that it's not in place when she starts barking at the next thing.

Last night, I came up with a new plan.  I remembered the one thing that freaks Lucy out almost more than anything -- the sound of Ollie's plastic harmonica.  She will run to the opposite side of the house, tail between her legs, if Ollie so much as puts the things to his lips.  (She responds similarly to the sound of someone blowing across the top of an empty glass soda bottle.)  So for several hours last night, we implemented our new, more humane anti-barking regimen.  Every time she barks -- even one little yip that's not part of playtime -- I whip out the harmonica and play a note.

At the moment, Lucy is laying on her big blue bed upstairs where I am working today, snoring loudly and oblivious to any life elsewhere in the house or outside.  But just in case, I have my trusty harmonica next to my tea.

Thanks giving, Week 49

For celebrations:

• Of the holidays.  Wes and I have his holiday party for work on Friday, and my departmental party is Saturday.  I bought a dress since Wes's work party is suits and dresses, and my only maternity dresses are for 80 degree plus weather, about 50 degrees warmer than it's been any day in the last 5.  I did leave the tags on it though, just in case.
• Of our forthcoming baby girl.  One of my classes met at my professor's house yesterday night for a kind of end-of-semester hurrah, and my classmates -- all of whom are in my first-year cohort -- surprised me with a sprinkle (ie. just gifts!).  Baby girl received a few outfits, including one adorable jumper/sweater/tights set from Janie and Jack, and some gift cards to Target.  One of my closest friends in the group even gave Oliver a gift -- a set of Sesame Street ABC cards, which he has already spread out and enjoyed thoroughly.
• Of my 600th post on this blog.  Amazing, isn't it.  Almost 5 years since I started blogging!  Any nominations for favorite posts?  My sincere thanks to those (three, four?) of you who read regularly and especially those who comment.  I'm not sure if I blog more for me or others, especially this one that is more a me-and-my-life kind of blog with fewer pictures of cute kids, but I enjoy it either way.

Nashville at Christmas

Oliver and I went to the ICE! and SNOW! exhibits at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel today.  The ICE! exhibit was for sure a little more than he could appreciate right now, but it is amazing for older kids and adults.  There's an entire storyline, this year the animated short film Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, done in scenes carved from ice.  These are huge scenes that cover an area the size of several football fields when put together.  The top picture, for example, filled the space the fits the front two rooms on my house.  Santa was my height.  The Radio Flyer bicycle you see if an actual kid's bicycle.  And this wasn't even the biggest scene.  It's really impressive to see.

There's music playing throughout the exhibit that goes along with the story, and there's an adult and kids' ice slide in the middle that's optional.  They give out big, blue parkas to everyone to wear while they go through, which especially helps if you go on the ice slide.  It was kind of hard to hear anything, or in my case try to talk to Ollie or hear what he was saying, because of the music and probably three layers of hats we had on.

The final scene at the very end of the exhibit, after the "The End" sign, was a room with a huge nativity done in clear ice.  Oliver liked this part a little more because he recognized the various animals in the scene.  I pointed out to him Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus, too.  It was very extensive and pretty.

I don't know that I will go to this every year.  It's really expensive (fortunately, kids under 4 are free, hence my willingness to take Ollie this year), and if it's not a theme that's really interesting to you, it's just big blocks of ice.  But it's one of those "Nashville at Christmas" things to do that I'd passed on last year, so I really wanted to go this year and feel like I was seeing some of the local holiday fare.

Thanks giving, Week 48

For little things:

• fingerprints on our front storm door;
• "Songbird," by Fleetwood Mac;
• my dog laying in the sunlight coming through the front door ;
• chocolate chip cookies;
• a text message from my sister to say that she loves me and my family;
• a patient husband;
• bathtubs big enough for mommy and kids;
• the Magic Eraser;
• Skype;
• school buses;
• paint samples;
• another Thanksgiving.

Thanks giving, Week 47

Eleven -- ELEVEN -- days off from school. That doesn't mean no schoolwork, of course, but it does mean naps.  Naps!  And hopefully nursing this cold.  And maybe I'll even watch some of my Anne of Green Gables collector's edition DVD set that arrived yesterday in the mail.

Thanks giving, Week 46

This week:

• I am thankful for Costco for supplying (in exchange for our money, of course) the variety of foods that were made available to World Pneumonia Day celebrants so that I didn't have to do much food preparation.
• I am thankful to the lady who kindly overlooked the fact that Oliver's rubber ducky, which he'd been tossing into the air with great excitement all evening, landed in her beans.  (The ducky spent the remainder of the evening getting a "bath.")
• I am thankful to the several Vanderbilt employees -- all moms themselves -- who spent the better part of the evening gushing over, smiling at, playing with, and tickling my son, who was very well behaved (ducky episode notwithstanding) and seemed to have enjoyed himself thoroughly.
• I am thankful to Derrick, one of Wes's fellow attendings, who brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers, built Lego towers with Oliver, and even stayed after to help clean up.  Likewise to Angie, who brought a pumpkin-shaped container of Reece's peanut butter cups, Rolo's, and Hershey's Kisses.  (The scale does not thank you, but I do.)
• I am thankful that the weather has turned cooler, not only because I love fall, but because it means we can store the large quantities of leftover tea, soda, water, and beer in the basement.  (Nashville friends, please come by for a drink.  There's even a bottle of wine, I think!)
• I am thankful to the lead researcher who was here on Friday.  She interned at Children's Memorial in Chicago before Wes and I were even alive, gave birth at Vanderbilt to children who are now older than us, and was the first female attending at Vanderbilt.  She is also one of the researchers primarily responsible for the HIB vaccine that all children now receive (a contribution for which she received, at some point, death threats from anti-vaccine folks).  She is smart, kind, supportive, and has contributed a lot to women in the field and the general health and well being of my child as one who received this vaccine.

On an unrelated note:

• I am thankful to Wes, who has patiently and repeatedly looked at paint samples on the wall of the nursery and even formed an opinion (despite being colorblind), and offered for me to do whatever I want, owing in partly to that very disability.

And on a completely contrary note:

• I am NOT giving thanks to the Quaker Oatmeal people, who reformulated their instant oatmeal, including the Maple and Brown Sugar flavor that I've eaten for years.  It does not taste the same.  Put the sugar back and give me my oatmeal!

UPDATED: I went to Target today and found that they had several boxes of the old oatmeal left, so I stocked up on 5 boxes!  (I was tempted to buy them out, but that somehow seemed like overkill.)

Pnerds

Wes and I are having lots of people through our house this week.  Formerly, this might have meant we were having lots of friends over, or more recently, that we were having neighbors over (like for Oliver's birthday).  This week, though, it just means we're having lots of doctors over.  Wes hosted journal club at the house last night, so there were 20-25 residents and attendings here.  We did a little cleaning beforehand and more after.  Journal club is always catered, so we also have a bunch of leftover nacho chips with various layers of nacho dip in the refrigerator, plus a variety of drinks.  Not to be outdone by the residency program, though, on Friday we will also host around 30 researchers in honor of the 2nd Annual World Pneumonia Day (you did know about this coming up, right?).  The head researcher on the pneumonia project Wes is part of evidently saw this day as an opportunity to celebrate their work, though it does seem a little strange to have a party to "celebrate" pneumonia.  So the refrigerator is also full of snacks and appetizers for Friday, plus some wine and beer.  Oliver and I will be here for this one (I had class last night, and Wes stayed with some friends), though Lucy will once again "retreat" to the garage.  This is a little more party-like than journal club, which has an academic function, so we're making a sign for the wall and things like that.  We even got a couple of stuffed, fuzzy microbes to give away as door prizes.

Aren't we so, so cool?

The best thing about Las Vegas

Is that they serve Pepsi products.  When I wanted something to drink with my quesadillas or hamburger (my dinners while I was there), I got to have Pepsi.  Not Coke, not Sprite because I didn't want to drink Coke.  I got Pepsi.  And that, folks, was the one highlight of Las Vegas.  I know they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I just had to share.

I spent the last three days at the Rio in Vegas for a conference of multicultural educators.  It's a conference that includes practitioners, teacher educators, and researchers all in one (not especially common in the field) and, in part because of its multicultural membership, has a unique vibe -- slam poetry between plenary sessions, a Shabbat blessing before the awards dinner, African carvings presented to the award recipients.  Just not the common scene at the conferences I've been to.  And, for that very reason, rather refreshing.  I get funded for two conferences in my first year, and I don't have to be presenting at either.  After the first year, funding for conferences in dependent upon my being first or second author on a paper.  So I wanted to use my funding this year.  Unfortunately, the conferences that most made sense for me to go to were in mid-December and mid-February, about 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after my due date -- not great times for traveling.  My advisor, however, was receiving an award at this conference and thought it might make sense for me to go.  There were a dozen or so "big names" in the field there, and he's in a position now where he knows these people and could introduce me (which he did).  So I decided to go.

There's a reason, though, that most people don't travel alone, seven months pregnant, to Las Vegas.  There's the alcohol, the late shows, the second hand smoke.  Add to that someone who has no plans to gamble and is rather put off by women in lingerie serving alcohol in public spaces (or, well, women in lingerie doing almost anything in public), and Las Vegas was about the worst place I could've gone.  It's not that I have something against the town.  Well, okay, I guess I do.  I find rather objectionable the sense of hedonism that is ingrained in the town.  But I'm smart enough to realize there is (I sincerely hope) more to it than that.  It was just that, traveling alone and without a way to get around town, and without anyone I knew in town to show me the backside of the city (or the front side, maybe in my mind), it just came off kind of dirty.  But then, maybe that was just all the smoke.

There was something a little strange to me about having a multicultural educators conference there.  On the one hand, Vegas is perhaps the place where being different is almost a requirement for fitting in, which supports the inclusive nature of multicultural education.  On the other hand, the nature of the economy and the chauvinistic, sexist practices at play as part of it seemed incongruous with the organization's goals -- like having a cardiologist's convention at a Krispy Kreme.

So like I said, nothing personal against Las Vegas.  It's just not my kind of town.  I think I'm more a DC, Asheville, Denver, Portland, Seattle kind of person.  Even Chicago.  But the Pepsi -- now that I liked.

Thanks giving, Week 45

I am thankful for safe and speedy air travel.  I am thankful for a community of individuals who are invested in improving schools for our most underserved students and who are committed to equitable education.  I am thankful for a friendly, wise, respected, and kind advisor.  I am thankful for a first-row seat on a four-hour flight (read: 3 trips to lavatory, each way).  I am thankful to my mother, who kept my little boy happy and occupied in my absence and my big boy fed.  And most of all, I am thankful to be home.

Lyrics I love

Heard recently on the radio (and why I love Nashville):

• "Rain makes corn/Corn makes whisky/Whisky makes my baby/Feel a little frisky"
• "I'm pretty good at drinkin' beer"
• and my current favorite, in a song that could be considered a love song of sorts, "I'd like to check you for ticks."

Thanks giving, Week 44

I'm thankful for recipes, especially those that:

• Yield meals for several nights, like the soups and chili I make in the colder weather.
• Are relatively easy and tasty and not too, too terribly unhealthy (like the carrot, oatmeal, applesauce, raisin muffins recipe I got from my mom and that Oliver refers to as "cupcakes").
• Are somewhat seasonal, like the one I found today for Quinoa Pumpkin Pancakes.
• Can be made ahead of time and frozen mostly prepared, like the few dishes I'll make in early December to be de-thawed and eaten after baby comes.  I did this when I was pregnant with Oliver and found it really nice to have some big, tasty meals that I could pop out when I just didn't feel like cooking -- but did feel like eating :)
• Oliver can help with.  That child just loves to help.  Thank goodness for our step stool -- and hand vac.

Thanks giving, Week 43

Today, in Osborne's, I found one gallon of Nutty Chocolate Bluebell Ice Cream.  I've been looking for more of this flavor since I first had it months ago.  Many bowls of thanks giving for this one.

Thanks giving, Week 42

A brief list:

• I'm thankful for the stacks at Peabody Library.  They're very, very old-school library, dirty and dusty.  I like to sit in my study carrel (I always go to one in particular), with a window right next to me, and do schoolwork.  There's less distraction there than in my pod, which I share with other doctoral students.
• I'm thankful for PDFs.  I had to look up an article a few weeks ago on microfiche.  Google Scholar is way, way easier.
• I'm thankful for PetSmart, and the lady there who, for a relatively small sum of money, bathed my dog, clipped her nails, and brushed her until there was hardly any fur left for her to shed around my house.  Oliver is also thankful, but was very concerned all morning about where Lucy had gone.
• I'm thankful for whoever came up with the frog potty, without which no progress (however small) would have been made in the potty training arena.
• I'm thankful that I was able to easily fix the missing channels from our television so that Wes could watch some of the baseball playoffs.  He's been teaching Oliver the calls the umpire does.  I'm furthermore thankful that (unless I jinx it) the Rangers will beat the Yankees.  Now if only the Giants can do the same with the Phillies.  (I don't really like anyone specifically in baseball.  I just don't like some teams.)

Thanks giving, Week 41

This week in thanks giving:

• My statistics class was cancelled today.  This gave me not only a break from statistics class, but also an extra 2 hours to study for an exam tonight in another class.  Two hours I can definitely use (and clearly am, since I'm here updating my blog).
• Quizlet, an online learning tool.  I used this to study the 120 terms for my exam tonight.  The site lets you make flashcards, then study them, sort into piles of ones you know and don't know, and makes practice tests and games out of them.  I spent 10 minutes this morning trying to beat one of my classmate's high scores on one of the games :)
• Glasses.  Because I swear my contacts aren't doing anything for me, and I get headaches if I wear them while reading off the computer all day.  
• The Time Machine function on Macs.  Makes backing up the computer so, so easy.
• A 20% coupon for a rug place so I could get the nursery rug for cheaper.  Still backordered, but at least it's cheaper.
• Fall break.  I get days "off" that I normally don't have classes anyway, but it's the spirit of the university holiday that makes me feel more relaxed.  I guess.

Thanks giving, Week 40

I am thankful for fall.

The weather is cooler.  It's been in the 70s for the past week, and the highs for this weekend are in the low 60s.  There is one tree on Belmont Avenue that is starting to change colors, and there's a few more crunchy leaves on Peabody's campus.

October will be a bad month for Wes.  He has class again, shifts on the weekend and at night, plus a trip to Chicago for his oral boards.  But fall is his favorite month, so I will try to remind him -- when he has time to breathe -- to look outside and enjoy it.  Oliver will almost certainly be outside a lot, mowing the lawn or raking leaves.  And even if I have to sit in the plastic folding chairs out there with my laptop, I plan to soak up as much of it as I can.

Thanks giving, Week 39

Ten years ago today, I went on a first date.  It's memorable only because it was my last first date.  My date that night -- a fellow senior at Davidson, pre-med and the pitcher for the baseball team -- went with me to see The Princess and the Pea at the Children's Theater in Charlotte.  I packed chicken salad and pita bread, and we ate dinner at a picnic table across the street from the theater.  A few hours later, we got back to campus and watched the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics on television, then took a walk around campus (in part to check on his mating fruit flies).  And if my memory serves me, we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning just talking.  Seriously -- it was weeks before he kissed me.

A little less than four years later, I married that guy, and four years after that, I had his baby.  Five minutes ago, I sent them both off to school for the day.  So this week, I'm thankful for firsts -- first dates and first kisses -- and for a lifetime more of both.

Love you, hunny!

Thanks giving, Week 38

This week's Thanks giving post is brought to you by the number 2.

• I'm thankful for my son, who turned 2 years old today.  This time 2 years ago (8:29pm), he'd been in the world for about an hour and was probably being checked into the NICU at Prentice Women's Hospital (where, fortunately, he only stayed for 2 days before being discharged with a tub of Aquaphor).  I'm also thankful for the probably 40 people who came to his birthday party today and to the people at the bakery who baked and iced the cupcakes we fed to them (and for which we handsomely paid, but still...).
• I'm thankful for second chances, specifically for the baby girl in my belly who will not only be a second child but is also, in her own way, a second chance.
• I'm thankful for a second to sit down, as my lower back and feet are wicked tired, to use an expression I have no right to use, after a day of cleaning the house and almost two hours of mixing and mingling with guests.
• And I'm thankful for seconds.  Speaking of which, where are those leftover cupcakes...

Thanks giving, Week 37

This Tuesday, just as I finished my first full week as a doctoral student, I received in the mail the diploma for my master's degree.  It was an interesting overlap, to realize how much I'd done to earn that diploma and realize that the current program is at least five times as much.  But the former was also a pathway to the latter.

So this week, I'm being thankful for the opportunity to learn -- from the something new every day, like the importance of keeping Oliver parked in the very center of the aisle when there's glass cans of olives within arm's reach, to the big ideas, like the importance of putting aside school learning to spend a peaceful and beautiful afternoon with my boys out in the woods at a nearby park.  I enjoy learning, especially in the formal sense of the word.

And on a related note, I made a purchase today of two skeins of yarn and some size 9 knitting needles.  I have to learn something new for a class project in order to map my learning process against one of the major theories we're studying (does it seem to anyone else like asking medical students to play Operation and reflect on the similarity to actual surgery?), so I figured I'd choose something I'm unlikely to be good at -- anything kinesthetic -- and something that I might actually want to become proficient at in the future.  My mother has the most amazing creative skills -- gardening, sewing, crocheting, decorating cakes -- and I inherited none of them.  But I've always loved her handmade crocheted items the best.  While I'm satisfied to buy local produce from the Farmer's Market, kids' clothes from wherever is closest and on sale, and cake from the grocery store or a bakery, there's something inherently special about a blanket or scarf or hat that someone made for you.  Maybe it's because it's warm and fuzzy.  So armed with my purchases, suggestions from my former college roommate, and whatever YouTube videos I can find to help, I will -- between now and when the assignment is due -- hopefully learn to knit -- some, kind of.  Beyond that, we'll see how much room for learning is left in my head.

Thanks giving, Week 36

This week I'm thankful for:

• My Macbook and all things electronic.
• The Kroger 3 for $10 special on Bluebell ice cream this week.
• A specific brand of organic lemonade that Kim got me hooked on at her house, also on special this week (4 for $5!!!).
• A chance to instruct my very first graduate-level class (or undergraduate, for that matter).  It's only four students, but I'll take it!
• Being a first-year doc student, which means I'm not really expected to know anything yet.
• Linking to a friend's blog thanks for a comment she left on AD.
• The news that a blogger whom I've been following (who has suffered miscarriages, failed IVFs, and marital woes as a result) has made it to 12 weeks in a spontaneous pregnancy (I hesitate to call it a surprise, given how hard they've been trying, but I'm sure it surprised them that this happened without medical intervention).  I won't link out of respect for her privacy, but it's always great news to know someone has made it safely to the end of first trimester.  I pray I get to celebrate similar news for other dear people in my life, some of whom read this blog.  
• Our beautiful yard, where we spent some family time this weekend.
• Vanderbilt's new Sitter Service and Back-Up Care Service.  A working mother's dream come true.
• Another week of life for which to be thankful.

Thanks giving, Week 35

Graduate school is now, almost, begun.  I spent Wednesday and Thursday of this week at TA (teaching assistant) orientation and all day Friday at graduate school orientation.  I've met a lot of new people, many of whom will be my classmates and, some of them I hope, my friends, over the next few years.  I'm nervous about starting this program.  Each new endeavor like this brings up fears of failure, and there's a realization that this may be something that while I'm capable of (or not), I just can't balance with my desires for motherhood and a family life.  I'm hoping that, with help from Wes and outside caregivers, I can find that balance, but I also know what my decision would be if I couldn't.  It's a scary thing, to risk failure at something.  We all do it every day in small ways, but I recognize it more here because it's a big thing -- five years of my life and a financial investment by the university.  I'm hoping it goes well, and regardless, I'm thankful for the chance to succeed.

Thanks giving, Week 34

This week, I'm thankful for getting to be -- come January -- the mom of both a son and a daughter.  Variety is the spice of life, they say, and mine tastes pretty good these days.

Thanks giving, Week 33

This past week, I got to visit my dear friend Kim and her daughter Amelia out in Denver.  Oliver came, too, and it was a lovely visit.  I don't think it would hurt her feelings for me to say that I was a little nervous about this visit.  Kim and I have been friends for around 13 years now.  We met at an honors program in North Carolina the summer before our senior year of high school and just hit it off.  We saw each other maybe once or twice in the years thereafter, while she was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill and I was at Davidson, but we never spent more than a few hours or a day together.  The next time saw her for any length of time was last summer at her baby shower.  Kim and I are dear friends, no doubt, but there's a difference between blogs, email, and occasional phone call and five days together with two children under two all under the same roof.  Normal friends visit each other for an afternoon each week.  They swap childcare so the friend can get her hair cut.  They don't fly out and move in for almost a week, which is what we we did.  So I was worried -- about being in the way, about trying to help but being unhelpful, about making conversation that became too personal.  My worries were, naturally, unbased.  Kim and I (I think) had a great time, and it was hardly awkward.  We spent equal time in idle chit-chat, serious conversation, and content quiet (usually while kids were sleeping).  I tried to minimize Oliver's footprint on their house (somewhat unsuccessfully) and stay out the way when that seemed the thing to do.

So this week, I'm thankful for dear friends, near and far, on blogs, via email, and by phone, and those that let me come and move in for a week at a time.  So thank you, Kim.  I don't have too many close friends in my life, the people who I share my happiest and saddest news with, the first people I vent to, the people I tell ALL of Oliver's stories to, the people I know who regularly read my blog.  You are a treasure in my life, and I hope there are more cross-country visits in the years to come.

Thanks giving, Weeks 31 and 32

Somewhat belatedly, I am thankful for my marriage.  Last Saturday, July 24, was my 6th wedding anniversary with Wes.  It's hard to believe we've been married for six years, but I can hardly remember what my life was like before Wes.  I know what I was like, I remember who I was, but I can't remember how my days were filled before him.  I would never say, He is my life or he is my world, but if I'm going to pick a cliche, he does complete me.  Makes me a better person.  Makes me feel like a better person, anyway.

I don't know if our marriage has turned out like Wes expected, but I think it's fair to say that neither of us have been disappointed.  We have some challenges, things we work on constantly, balances we try to reach, but we are truly happy with each other.  I think I would be someone very different today had I married a different kind of man, and while I don't know that the same is true for Wes, I do think his life would look very different had he married a different kind of woman.  Oliver has been, truly, the icing on our wedding cake.  He has added much to our life and our marriage.  And not just in our roles as mother and father, but in the way we work with and appreciate each other as spouses.  Hopefully this new baby will just deepen that.

I'm thankful for my marriage this week, too, as Wes and I spending the week apart, both traveling but separately.  He's at a conference in New Hampshire, and Oliver and I are soon off to visit my friend in Denver.  (Which means I'm also very thankful for my friend Rachel, who is staying at our house with her two dogs to take care of Lucy -- and hopefully keep our plants alive.)  Wes and I have spent lots of time apart in our years of dating and years married.  From 8-5 workdays that led into 4-midnight shifts to 36-hour ICU shifts in residency to conferences and family visits to a month in Cleveland and another in Africa, Wes and I have learned to be apart.  It's not something I look forward to -- I have plenty of space, so I don't need that "alone time" (which is now, of course, alone with Oliver) -- but it's something we both tolerate well.  We certainly talk on the phone with each other more often now when we're apart than we did previously.  We seek that connection with each other and want to share stories about Oliver.  This week is strange because we're both away from home but not with each other.

So I'm thankful for Wes, which I've written about before, but I'm especially thankful for my marriage.  That relationship has, as much as anything and more than many things, been responsible for my happiness in life.  I love you, husband.

Welcome to our Living Room (Remix)

The desk (actually a dining room table from World Market) is new, as is the computer on it and the plant, Flora.  The Succulent Sextuplets in the window are doing well.  The chair needs replaced, as it is sagging and uncomfortable for long periods of time, but it actually looks fine in the room.  Except for the bare walls, it's very much done!

007

Wes and I spent this weekend killing things, some intentionally and some unintentionally. We killed a lot of ants, and unfortunately we also seem to have killed a bush in our yard.

The bush was the first project of the afternoon, and honestly even if we knew what was going to happen, I'm not sure we would have done anything differently.  We have quite a few tall, blooming bushes in the yard, and I did cut them pretty heavily back this spring, but evidently not enough.  As Wes puts it, they are a victim of their own success.  Many of them are getting so top heavy that they bend over in the yard. This one bush has fallen over several times.  There were lots of branches sticking up at the roots, with all the blooming branches towards the front.  So the whole thing just kept leaning heavily and blocking our access to the front gate.  Wes knows not to transplant in the sumer, but it was either that or just rip it out permanently.  So he (and Ollie) dug it out, deepened the hole, and then replanted it so that the root base settled more firmly in the hole.  I held it in place so that the dirt helped lean it back and bury it more properly.  When he was done, it looked great.  A few hours later, that bush looked sad.  Really sad.  Wes watered it, a lot.  That night, it looked dead.  And it still does.  We're not sure if we should tear it out and put in something new next spring (Wes wants to cover the window on the neighbor's house) or leave it and see if it bounces back.

We were more successful with the ants, or so it seems thus far.  We've had problems with ants in our kitchen since we moved in last year.  They got worse with rain.  We've sprayed Ortho Home Defense in the kitchen, the cabinets, sometimes on the counters, outside the house, and even in the basement repeatedly over the past year, but the ants always came back.  We've been able to keep the cabinets clear this year, but the counters, sinks, dishwasher, and even trash were often overrun with them.  My sister-in-law recently recommended this other product, Terro, a liquid bait system, so we decided to give it a try.  Wes put the baits around the kitchen, and that night, we even put one on the table.  Wes decided to smear some honey on the table to attract the ants, and we went to bed.  In the morning, there were ants all over one of the baits on the counter, and there were lots of ants on the table -- eating the honey.  I wiped the honey off and left the bait, and Ollie and I had breakfast on the child's table upstairs in the nursery.  Within a half an hour, the ants were all over the bait on the table.  We left it there for a day since we were out all day, then heavily cleaned the table and floor next to it the next day before eating there again.  The ants are still visiting the bait on the counter, but we haven't seen any anywhere else in the kitchen.  It's hard to know how long we'll have to leave the bait out and, once it's put away, if they'll stay gone.

For now, Wes and I are retiring our license to kill.

Thanks giving, Week 30

This might seem like an odd time to say this, but I'm really thankful for Oliver's daycare.  The facility he's out now (ooh, that sounds very institutional, doesn't it) is an employer-sponsored daycare, one of four sites available to Vanderbilt faculty and staff.  You'd think with that many locations it wouldn't take long to get a spot there, but (like with all the decent daycares around here, it seems), the wait list lasts anywhere from nine months to more than a year usually.  Because it's employer-sponsored, it has generous hours and rarely closes (they even send out surveys to see if enough people have to work major holidays -- like Christmas -- in which case they would stay open for those who need it) and all at the rate of a really cheap daycare.

Oliver started at a different facility last August when I went back to school because we were told he still had quite a wait for the Vanderbilt daycare.  The place was fine, especially for an infant.  The women there knew him, loved on him, and he came home happy, so I wasn't worried.  But six weeks into the school year, I got a call that they had a spot available at his current place, and it was even the location on Peabody's campus.  So two weeks later, he moved over with no adjustment necessary, and he's still there loving it.  We put in our application to the center last April when we came to Nashville house hunting.  I didn't know what I would be doing during the year but figured it didn't hurt to put in an application on the likelihood that I'd need a place for him, so our wait was April to October.

Wes and I rolled our eyes before having Oliver at people who said that daycare was "good for" their kids or that their kids "really liked it."  I don't know that the daycare is necessarily good for Oliver, but it certainly doesn't hurt him at all and I do think he's learning things there.  Not that he couldn't learn them at home, but it's nice that there's some effort at learning there, too.  And I do kind of think he likes it.  I know part of his up-and-at-em let's get to daycare in the morning is simply routine -- breakfast, shoes, hat, daycare.  But I've seen him when he gets there and when I pick him up, and he likes parts of it.  He knows his teachers and his classmates.  He loves the toys they have there that we don't have at home.  He likes the playground and shovels and tractors.  He's getting to the age that he plays with and not just nearby the other kids.   I watched several of them do ring-around-the-rosie, no adults involved, one day.  Oliver showed up, joined in between two kids, and ringed himself around that rosie.  He naps fine there, eats very well, and comes home filthy and worn out.  On a typical week, he gets dropped off around 9am and picked up around 3pm, which means he's there 30 hours a week.  It's not trivial, certainly, but it's not horrible.  There are lots of kids there whose typical day is 8-5 or even later.  And there are days Ollie gets dropped off a bit earlier or stays until 4pm or, if Wes has to pick him up, even 5 or 5:30pm, but that's usually one day here and there and not every day.  It's obvious on longer days that he's ready to come home.

Having the daycare there, convenient and affordable and decent, means Wes and I are able to do what we need to for ourselves and our careers and educations without worrying constantly about how he's doing and what he's missing at home.  Ollie is still going on my six-week "vacation," usually 2-3 days a week, in part to keep him in the routine -- we have to pay to keep his spot anyway, and I don't want him to have to get used to it again in the fall, especially when he moves up to a 2-year-old room -- and in part to give me time to run errands that are easier without him, get things done around the house without being hounded to read books, and just take a nap if I want to.  It's a luxury, one I feel is sometimes at his expense, but I also think that, if used sparingly isn't doing any damage and makes me much more fun to be with when he's at home with me.  On the days he does stay home this summer, I don't worry about housework or errands or anything like that.  We just play and do fun things.  That's not true of every day, like weekends, but it's fun for those few days we are just with each other.

I have been thankful for the daycare in the past week for a different reason.  I got Oliver's cold and am completely hoarse.  Parenting with absolutely no voice is not the easiest thing, so Ollie went for short days at daycare so that he could play and I could rest.  My favorite part of the daycare day is, of course, picking him up.  He usually immediately drops whatever he's doing and runs over, wanting picked up.  He walks to "Oliver's car," and on the way home talks about his day and "dada" (usually followed by "work"), "Soosy," "home."

5 things

Let me begin by saying that I love my husband.  I really do.  Very much.  We will have been together 10 years this September and married 6 years in another week or so.  We are for sure happily married.

But...

There are just a few things he does (or, I note as I reread this, that he doesn't do) that drive me absolutely nuts.  And I feel comfortable sharing these things because 1) I've told him (in some cases on numerous occasions) that they drive me nuts, 2) they aren't the big, serious challenges of our relationship that we persistently work on, and 3) they're really funny when you think about them, things I know shouldn't bother me but do, and so it's really more a commentary on me than him.

1.  When Wes uses the sponges in the kitchen, he leaves them soggy.  He doesn't rinse them, he doesn't squeeze them out, he doesn't put them on the drying rack to drip dry.  He just leaves them, covered in debris or soggy with milk or whatever Oliver has recently spilled.  And then they smell.  And they're gross.  And I mean, is it really that hard to squeeze out the ding-dang sponge before you leave them in the sink?
2.  He is oblivious to many things.  And sometimes I try to tell myself that it's because he's focused on something or because he's color blind and literally doesn't see it (like the crumbs on the counter that, even if they do get wiped, are left on the sponge in the sink!).  When Oliver was a baby, Wes would change his diaper.  Now that he's a toddler, Ollie can go five or six hours with Wes (on the rare occasion they're alone and together that long) without it occurring to Wes the kid might need a dry diaper.  Really?  He's also pretty slow to respond, which doesn't make sense to me given his personality (baseball pitcher, emergency room physician), but maybe that gets turned off once at home and in the face of a wife who can do the job (usually) equally as well.
3.  He won't purge.  Why, why do we have to keep years worth of random newspaper articles in the eaves?  When we die, some grandchild of ours will inherit this box of random newspapers, and they'll think they're really neat and special, and then they'll sit in a box in their eaves or attic for another two generations.  Wes knows my proclivity for clearing things out, so much so that he has a box upstairs marked, "Things Wes would prefer not be thrown away."  Hmm, we'll see.
4.  He has his own sense of time, which doesn't always make sense with the rest of the world.  Wes is very much on time in his academic and professional life.  He shows up to meetings on time, is present for things,  meets his deadlines.  But in his private and social life, not so much.  I tell him dinner is ready and on the table, and he's there 20 minutes later.  (I tell him I'm ready to have a baby, and a year and a half later I get pregnant...).  At night, I say I'm going to bed, and he says, "Oh, I'm coming, too." So I lie down in bed but leave the door open.  And 15 minutes later he's wandering in, then brushing his teeth and changing, then wanting to talk when he comes to bed.  And suddenly it's an hour later than when I wanted to go to bed.  And then he falls asleep two seconds after he decides to sleep, and I'm lying awake because I didn't fall asleep when I first laid down.  (Okay, so I can see I have some bitterness here.  Still.)
5.  He doesn't do surprises.  Now, I'm a planner, too, so I appreciate that he wants to include me in planning fun things.  But sometimes I just want to be surprised.  And this has happened...never.  Wes isn't the best at celebrating things, like birthdays and anniversaries, which I accept as part of who he is.  But it would be nice, just every once in a while, to be truly surprised.  Not a surprise party or a surprise trip to Hawaii or something big like that -- just, you know, elaborate flowers or he gets the babysitter and takes me out, or gets a special present I really wasn't expecting.  I'm definitely the detail person at home, so perhaps it's just the desire to enjoy myself without having to handle every detail.  And he does surprise me in small, fun ways, and we do lots of big, fun things together -- it's just sometimes you want one big surprise to carry the romance.

So let me reprise by saying, I love my husband.  I really, really do.  I could make a list ten or more times this long about the things I love about him (and perhaps I will for our upcoming anniversary).  And I don't have to worry about him seeing this list (and maybe this is thing #6) because he never reads my blog :)

Paper pushers

I have really enjoyed being a student at Vanderbilt.  However, I do have one main complaint.  There seems to be some real administrative bureaucracy there that results in paperwork being filled out multiple times, for multiple offices, and for no clear reason.  I'm sure there are dozens of examples of this, but here's the most recent.  Several months ago, realizing that I was one semester from graduating, I filled out and turned in (to whom, I don't remember) an Intent to Graduate form.  Yes, this is a form that tells the registration office that I in fact intend to graduate (not a foregone conclusion, not something a computer system could detect when I completed the classes I had previously identified on a Program of Studies?).  Included on this form were (somewhat) reasonable things, like what classes I still had to finish and when I would take them.  Less reasonable, what degrees I already had and what my home address is -- gee, seems like I've provided that before...and number of times.  Then last month I got a notice that I still needed to file my Intent to Graduate.  So I filled out another form and turned it in.  Then I got an email that I needed to fill in almost identical information electronically.  And then last Saturday I got a note in the mail.  It was from the office I'd turned the form into, with a list of the things I still needed to do to graduate -- strangely, it matched exactly the list I had provided to them.

I did get some more friendly paperwork this week.  Monday afternoon I got an email with a letter as attachment letting me know I had received a high pass on my capstone essay.  I don't know how common or rare this rating is, but it is the highest, which is nice.  And just in case the email didn't do it for me, the sender let me know that I would be receiving another copy soon -- in the mail.

Thanks giving, Week 29

I am thankful for several really major events in my life, one that happened recently and one that happened, well, about 13 weeks ago.

The first, that happened most recently, is that I am officially done with my master's program.  I submitted my final project for my final course for my program yesterday around 10:30pm.  I will get my grade for the class and the results of my capstone essay (a pass/high pass/redo kind of scale) late this week, and then my diploma will come in August.  It feels really nice to be completely done.  I, of course, will spend some part of the next few weeks reading books and articles related to my studies that I just didn't have time to get to during the year, but it will be things I choose, at the rate I choose, with no paper to write afterwards.  I really enjoyed my master's program.  I got so lucky coming when I did, that Vanderbilt has rolling admissions, that I found a job that paid for almost all of it (an necessary feat when classes are $1125/hour, and I had a 30-hour program), that the program was in its first year and so flexible, that the faculty member was wonderful and will continue to be my adviser for my doctorate.  There was a lot I would change about the program, but it was great for me.  I always hesitated to go back to school for education because I couldn't imagine liking an English education program, but this program (in Learning, Diversity, and Urban Studies) was just right, and it really helped me figure out where I want to go with my subsequent studies.  I had a few weeks off over the Christmas holidays, but since then I've either been in class or under the expectation that I was working on my capstone.  And working my job during that time.  Now, I am -- as far as school and work are concerned -- completely free for the next six or so weeks.  Then I have TA training, meetings with my adviser, and classes begin in late August.  I know and don't know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks.  I have a list of some household nuisances to deal with -- say, phones that don't ring when people call them- -, along with a list of fun things around Nashville that I want to see and do, some that will include Oliver and some that will not.  I'm taking a trip to Denver in early August to see a dear friend whom I haven't spent more than a few hours with since we met the summer before our senior year of high school.  I'm going to mostly just be and, hopefully, get bored in a way that will make starting back at the beginning of another program -- one that lasts at least five years -- seem like a really great idea!

As for the thing that happened about 13 weeks ago, well, you can hear all about it here, with the official announcement here.  Wes and I are thrilled, of course.  I am excited to be sharing the pregnancy with several friends who are also expecting, one right around the same time as me and with a son just about Oliver's age.  We are still a bit nervous about the whole thing -- early pregnancy is that way -- but looking forward to an anatomy scan in about five weeks and feeling movement around the same time.

And for one small other thing, I'm thankful that The Closer premiers this week.  I do so miss my TNT drama.

Blogging backlog

I am woefully behind on both of the blogs, but it seems that just happens every once in awhile.  "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."  And well, sometimes, you just can't do it today, and so it gets put off.  And here we are.  It's finally tomorrow.

Thanks giving, Week 28

The whole family headed down to my parents' house in Georgia this past weekend to see my siblings and their families.  Literally everyone was there, something that hasn't happened since Oliver was three months old and meeting his aunts and uncles (and grandfather) for the first time.  It was loud, chaotic, and well, home.  We went to pools (yes, plural), the grandboys (and grandma) played in the woods behind their house, making dams and tossing rocks.  Oliver bunked on a mattress in my parents' room.  I tried unsuccessfully to get some reading done, instead getting sucked in late Sunday night to the Twilight saga, courtesy of my sister's DVD copies of the first two movies.  We ate -- others much more so than me, but I did enjoy my mother's potato salad.  There were matchbox car races, which Oliver won, and a sparkler and fireworks show by my brother-in-law, with musical interlude by my sister.  I met my brother's new girlfriend, whom Oliver liked almost as much as Jon's dog (which is to say, quite a bit).

The trip down was a nightmare, as the trip down to my parents' house recently seems to be.  There was an accident on I-24 that resulted in it taking 2 hours to get the 25 miles to Murfreesboro, where Lucy's kennel was.  Then we couldn't find the kennel, then we had to stop for dinner, and then we almost ran out of gas.  The trip home was easy, but Wes had to drive so I could read for class, and then he had to work several hours later.  It was one of those trips that I normally wouldn't make -- too short a time there, on a holiday weekend, in the middle of busy schedules for me and Wes.  But, well, it's family, and if you can't be a little inconvenienced for them, who can you.

So I'm thankful for family -- all of them.  I'm thankful for safe, if not easy, trips there and back.  And I'm thankful that my mom's offered to come to our house for the next visit.  I don't know if I can handle another 3-hour tour that lasts longer.

Thanks giving, Week 27

I am so thankful for our new 27-inch Mac computer.  I have been a PC girl my whole life, but I am now completely converted thanks to this miracle of engineering.  I love the thing.  We got a new desk in the living room (pictures of the now fully refurbished room to come, eventually), and it's actually small dining room table, so Wes and I decided to put it downstairs instead of putting it upstairs in the nook, where out current computer sits (irregularly used both because of the location and its very, very, very slow operations these days).  When Wes asks me my favorite thing about the living room, I say the computer.  It is wonderful.  I have already used it for several school projects.  Really, I love this thing.

Theoretically, this could mean more consistent blogging.  Theoretically, of course.

Thanks giving, Week 26

Thanks giving, Week 25

This weekend, I spent almost every minute with my son.  My capstone essay isn't done, of course, and there's lots of housework and yardwork that needs to be done.  But I spent almost two whole days just being with him, on these days that will never be again.  For that, I am thankful.

Fireflies

Desert blooms

Phoenix

Wes and I just got back yesterday from his conference in Phoenix, Arizona. This was our first trip away together without Oliver since he was born, and only our second "vacation" trip since we were married (the first being a truly unforgettable trip to Portland, Oregon). There was some work -- I had to finish a final paper for my Maymester class, and Wes was at a work conference where he presented and had a dinner meeting on Friday night. But mostly we were just together. We stayed up late when we wanted to, slept in late when we were able (the time change threw me the first morning), sat by the pool, and ate good meals.

We did do some sight-seeing around Phoenix. We went Friday afternoon to South Mountain Park. We had planned to do a little hiking, but we had some trouble finding trails and ended up just driving to the summit at Dobbins Lookout. There were really great views of the city (from 2300 feet up) and surrounding mountains, and we started to get a real sense of the terrain. We drove briefly around Scottsdale, which is a cute, somewhat touristy area.

Saturday was our big day out on the town. We slept in, then had a big breakfast at Butterfield's Pancake House (New Orleans french toast, with sauteed bananas for me, and Strawberries and Cream Belgian waffle for Wes, and hot chocolate for both!), and then went to the Desert Botanical Gardens near the zoo. It was unbelievably hot outside, but with lots of water and some rest in the shade, it was nice. We saw lots of different cacti, some really pretty flowers, and several geckos. We briefly visited Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall, which might be the fanciest mall I've ever been in, but it didn't have a bookstore, so we weren't there long.

We had dinner with some old Northwestern friends and colleagues almost every night (tortilla soup -- mmmm). It made Wes glad he went there for residency, but certain about his choice to leave for his current job. Mostly it was just nice to have the time together. I read a lot, slept a lot. We did miss Ollie and were sorry to miss the fun that he was having with my mom and sister, but we also enjoyed the freedom we had without him with me, and I knew my mom and sister were having a great time, too.

Thanks giving, Week 24

By the numbers:

• One mother + one sister, in town for six days and five nights with a boy who didn't know we were gone until we came back
• Four days and three nights at a resort in Phoenix
• Three pools, a lazy river, and a hot tub, open all day and night
• Two very relaxed and rested parents
• One wonderful weekend

It's a dry heat

Wes and I are leaving today for Phoenix, Arizona.  The SAEM (Society for Academic Emergency Medicine) conference is there this year, and Wes is presenting.  As soon as he found out he was going, he asked me to go with him.  I haven't been to a conference with him  yet, and we haven't been away together since Oliver was born or at all since our trip to Portland several years ago.  He'll have some work going on with the conference, and I have to take some schoolwork with me (though had I been more diligent, I would not have had to), but it's hard to go wrong with a resort and four pools.  I can read by the lazy river!

I did check the weather this past weekend just to see how hot it was going to be.  It was 97 degrees at around 6am, and the high this weekend is 108.  I'm taking a new swimsuit with me for sure, but I'm also definitely taking the heavy-duty sunscreen.

Really?

These were the first two questions on a form I had to fill out when Oliver had his tubes put in. Did anyone think about how people would read -- or answer -- these questions?

Ich muss

So last weekend, Oliver, Lucy, and I went to visit my parents.  The trip there is normally three hours, but because of a sinkhole that closed the eastbound interstate, it ultimately took five hours.  Other than Oliver crying on and off, I also had a problem -- I had to pee.  There was no signs along the detour to tell how long it would take until we got somewhere with a bathroom.  I was getting seriously desperate.  I finally, after hemming and hawing, pulled onto the shoulder and was going to go into the bushes to go to the bathroom.  It was standstill traffic, and I honestly thought I was going to lose it.  Just as I pulled over, a cop pulled up behind me.  I pulled back into traffic, then rolled down my window to explain myself to the cop.  He wasn't sympathetic, but he wasn't mad either.  At that point, I started to worry for my well being.  I considered the mechanics of peeing into a bucket I had in the car for the dog, but it wasn't possible with me behind the wheel.  It was another twenty minutes or more before we made it off the interstate, then another ten to a gas station with a restroom.  Oliver had taken his shoes and socks off in the car, and I didn't have the time to put them back on.  Of course, I didn't think about the fact that he would then be standing in a nasty public bathroom.  But it was too dire a situation to really worry about that. 

I, fortunately, got relief, which was good since there was another hour to the delay.  Oliver got his diaper changed, and Lucy got a quick spin in the grass.  I'm starting to think I should travel with a urinary catheter in hand. 

Thanks giving, Weeks 22 and 23

I am thankful for:

• The smell of azalea blossoms on the very big bushes and trees around Nashville.
• The bunnies that visit my backyard most mornings.
• The giggle that Oliver does when playing with a spray bottle in the backyard and the inflection to his voie when he calls for "Soosy."
• A safe, if long, trip to and from my parents' house.
• My husband coming home tonight after several days at a conference in Washington DC.
• The excitement of a trip to Phoenix next week -- our first trip without Oliver -- and a visit from my sister.
• The fact that Chihuly is in Nashville for the next several months!
• My job this last year, which is now over, and which paid for most of graduate school.
• A four-day weekend before another class.
• The option, as the blogger, to make a doubled-up entry and the time to finally write down what's been writing itself in my head for the last week.

Safety first

For Mother's Day

My dear friend Kim wrote a beautiful post about motherhood and Mother's Day. She and I have had different experiences coming to motherhood and our feelings about our lives afterwards (though we both, to be clear, love our children and being moms), but she captures well the way young children see their moms and the way many women view motherhood and their own moms once they are grown women and moms themselves.

On this, my second Mother's Day with a child on the outside, I say as I do every year, Happy Mother's Day to my own mom, a kind, patient, endlessly loving woman who taught me, along with so many other things, how to be a good mom (I hope) to my own little man. I love you.

Thanks giving, Week 22

I am especially thankful for the good fortune our family has had recently. I finished my spring semester with 3 A's and 1 A+. I turned 31, am healthy and happy, and celebrated my second Mother's Day as a mom. Most importantly, our family is safe and sound after last weekend's deluge, though the same cannot be said for everyone in Nashville.
Thirty people died as a result of the flooding. Many historic landmarks, including the Grand Ole Opry and the Opryland hotel, and beautiful buildings, including the Nashville Symphony, have suffered significant damage. Many people lost their homes and all their belongings.
Wes and I have only seen the damage through pictures in the news and posted online. We travel in a very small area between home and school, and until yesterday neither of us had ventured out of that. I normally travel around the city for work but haven't because the schools were closed. I'm sure, in time and as the waters completely recede, we will go downtown and see remnants of where the water was. I have to admit that, in a strange way, going through this disaster has made me feel a little bit a part of Nashville. People here are proud of the way the city handled itself and has helped those in need (though I'm sure there are many who need more than has been provided). Communities have come together to help those most affected, and even Peabody has made efforts to help some of its students who lost their homes or needed assistance, including pushing back exams and many professors who extended final deadlines on papers and projects. I wouldn't wish this destruction on any town or anyone, but it does show the strength of a community and its spirit when things like this happen. It's nice to know that, when spring rains turn to flood, there are people there to help.

A walk on the rainy side

When the rain finally slowed this afternoon, the family went for a walk. And yes, even Oliver walked. We just went to the park and back, but with a 19-month-old, that's a piece (as they say in Wes's mountain home). Lucy was very excited to go out, and we were happy she finally did her business -- several times. Oliver was wary of the water and his squishy shoes, but he obliged us.


This ditch in the park is normally bone dry. I've never seen any water sitting in it.


Lucy found two of these little guys -- baby moles, maybe -- on the side of the ditch. We weren't sure at first if they were rats or opossums or what. Lucy sniffed them vigorously but was not at all interested in doing them any harm. Sweet girl. Oliver was likewise fascinated but fortunately kept their distance. Hope they are okay in all this rain!


When we got home, Oliver and I took off our soaked shoes and socks and put our feet in the run-off. It was cool but lovely.