We'll start with the biggest change of all- the loss of our faithful dog, Khaya. We will devote a post to her, when we can bring ourselves to write it. It happened the day after Thanksgiving, was a complete surprise, and suffice it to say- we are still devastated. She was our dog for 8 years, and Brendon's and my only "child" for 5 of those years. It's almost impossible for me to type just this without blinding tears in my eyes.
Our little family will never be the same.
In happier news, Brendon has had a couple of months of changes in his employment. He left his job as a Product Manager at a Wine and Spirits Distributor, and moved into managing lighting solutions for an alternative energy company... a job he really enjoyed... for about a month...until he got the call to join a company he had applied to months before, which is a job that he'd wanted for a long time. He is now a manager for a real estate developer here in Nashville. He's only been on the job for a week, but he really likes it. It allows him to meld his years of customer/product interaction, construction and management skills. I think it really appeals to his creative side, as well.
As for me, this summer I'll have been a postdoc at Vanderbilt for 3 years and 1 year as an Instructor. I just had another paper provisionally accepted, and received a private foundation grant (my first ever!) from the American Gastroenterological Association for my salary and research for three years. It's my goal to run my own academic lab, so this year I applied to a number of assistant professor positions, including a couple here at Vanderbilt. So far, I know I'm in the running for two positions at Vanderbilt, one at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and I'll interview at University of Oregon at the end of this month, which you can imagine, we are thrilled about. It takes, on average, 3 years for a cell biology PhD scientist to get a academic job as tenure-track assistant professor in the United States, so even if these chances don't end in a job, I'll keep trying. Fingers are crossed that I'll be able to start my own lab soon!
The girls are doing really well and changing rapidly, as kids do. Evelyn will turn FOUR in a month, and I can't believe it. She's such a big girl- she's writing her letters and working on sight words. I can't believe kindergarten is only 1.5 years away. Cora Jane is 1.5 years old as of last month, starting to babble up a storm and runs and chases her sister everywhere. They play together really well and we feel very lucky to have these two little ladies as sisters.
So... many things going on.
Thanks for all of your support.
Here's a shot of the ladies from a rare, snowy day we had in Nash, not long ago.
(Did I mention it was 2 degrees here for a week, with a -10 wind chill?!)
