Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Some changes....
It's been an eventful couple of months here in Nashville, so you'll have to excuse our online absence.
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?!)
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?!)
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Trips to the West
The lats couple of weeks, I've been in Colorado for a meeting and then in Montana to see family. (Brendon flew with the girls to Denver, met up with me and we went to Montana together.) All in all, it was 2.5 weeks of gloriously non-humid weather, [real] mountains, and a wonderful time with family and friends!!
First Colorado:
Steamboat Springs is such a wonderful location for a science conference. It's located at about 6,500 feet in elevation and right in the middle of the mountains. Tons of hiking, etc. The conference was great (I gave a talk- see page 2- and got good feedback-- which also meant I didn't have to haul a poster there. WIN). And I was able to see my former mentor, Missy Wong, and go hiking and to the hotsprings with her, some folks from my lab and and one of her postdocs, Nick, (who actually did grad school in Eugene right next to a lab where a friend of mine worked. Small world). We found out the hotsprings were "clothing-optional" after dark, and some people were taking advantage of that. Thank goodness it was VERY dark out! Great trip!
First Colorado:
Steamboat Springs is such a wonderful location for a science conference. It's located at about 6,500 feet in elevation and right in the middle of the mountains. Tons of hiking, etc. The conference was great (I gave a talk- see page 2- and got good feedback-- which also meant I didn't have to haul a poster there. WIN). And I was able to see my former mentor, Missy Wong, and go hiking and to the hotsprings with her, some folks from my lab and and one of her postdocs, Nick, (who actually did grad school in Eugene right next to a lab where a friend of mine worked. Small world). We found out the hotsprings were "clothing-optional" after dark, and some people were taking advantage of that. Thank goodness it was VERY dark out! Great trip!
Missy and I taking a break from a hike
Western US streams are something I will never take for granted!
One of the views as my lab mates and I approached RabbitEars Pass on a hike
My lab mates and I as we made it to the top! 9,500 feet!
Brendon sent me pics of the girls everyday. This was a favorite. They look so grown up!
Now for Montana: We went and visited my mom and dad. We didn't see my little sister Katy, as she was out in Seattle, but are looking forward to seeing her in December or January. Mostly, we stayed in Great Falls, where I am from, but did take a 2 day trip up to my parents cabin they bought a couple of years ago. It's 20 acres in the middle of the mountains on the Continental Divide in Montana. Its a wonderful little spot and we felt lucky to visit it!
Ev loved digging in grandma's dirt!
Beer from the west!
Hiking
Frying fish caught by Grandpa with Grandma!
Out on the boat
Driving with dad
View from about halfway through my 18 mile run. Missouri River. Gorgeous.
Dirt with cousins!
Dinner with cousins!
Dishes with grandma!
With great-grandparents!
Bedtime story on the porch at the cabin. Best setting ever!
Ev and grandma
Feeding the trout at the hatchery
Family pic!
That's a moose.
Grandpa talks to us about a bug.
The best way to grill fish is with no pants.
LOVE Montana!
Flying home. iPad is a savior. Such a big girl now!
Cora slept on the flight.
This is about the time we realized it was her first birthday! Whoops!
Friday, July 26, 2013
2 months has passed! Where did the time go?
We're completely behind, so this will essentially be a photo blog of our last few months. Here are some of the highlights:
1. Cora is 11 months today! No walking yet, but she's eating pretty much everything we eat and started cow's milk this week (mixed with her formula, of course.) We can't believe she'll be a year! New for her is also- waving and saying "bye-bye" and her first word was officially "Uh-oh!" She says it over and over when she drops something, etc. So cute.
2. Evelyn is almost 3.5 years old. She's such a little girl now- not even a small bit of baby left in her. We can't believe it. As of a few says ago, she is also out of diapers at night time! She's been potty trained for 1.5 years now, but has always needed them at night! Now no more! WOO!!
3. We took a road trip and drove EIGHTEEN HOURS to Minnesota last month to visit my Dad and Stepmom and my other family there. It was our first major roadtrip, and despite my trepidation, it worked out very well and we had a WONDERFUL time!
4. We will be headed to Montana here in a couple of weeks to spend a week with my family there. I will go to a small conference in Steamboat Springs, CO for a week, and then Brendon and the girls will fly to Denver, I will meet them in the airport, and we will all fly up to Montana. We are SO excited!
5. I'm running the Portland marathon again. So, we will go to Oregon for a week in October and are definitely looking forward to that! We continue to miss Oregon on a daily (if not hourly) basis.
6. Birthdays! I turned 32 last month. We had some folks over and Brendon put all 32 candles on the cake! ha! Brendon turns 36 on Sunday! He's getting 36 candles too!
7. Pool! We are officially now YMCA members and have been loving going to the pool to survive the Southern heat! We are so much happier with a place to cool off (and a place to take the kids so mommy can do yoga, or kickboxing, or spinning or...) and we can't believe we didn't join sooner!
Here are some pics!
1. Cora is 11 months today! No walking yet, but she's eating pretty much everything we eat and started cow's milk this week (mixed with her formula, of course.) We can't believe she'll be a year! New for her is also- waving and saying "bye-bye" and her first word was officially "Uh-oh!" She says it over and over when she drops something, etc. So cute.
2. Evelyn is almost 3.5 years old. She's such a little girl now- not even a small bit of baby left in her. We can't believe it. As of a few says ago, she is also out of diapers at night time! She's been potty trained for 1.5 years now, but has always needed them at night! Now no more! WOO!!
3. We took a road trip and drove EIGHTEEN HOURS to Minnesota last month to visit my Dad and Stepmom and my other family there. It was our first major roadtrip, and despite my trepidation, it worked out very well and we had a WONDERFUL time!
4. We will be headed to Montana here in a couple of weeks to spend a week with my family there. I will go to a small conference in Steamboat Springs, CO for a week, and then Brendon and the girls will fly to Denver, I will meet them in the airport, and we will all fly up to Montana. We are SO excited!
5. I'm running the Portland marathon again. So, we will go to Oregon for a week in October and are definitely looking forward to that! We continue to miss Oregon on a daily (if not hourly) basis.
6. Birthdays! I turned 32 last month. We had some folks over and Brendon put all 32 candles on the cake! ha! Brendon turns 36 on Sunday! He's getting 36 candles too!
7. Pool! We are officially now YMCA members and have been loving going to the pool to survive the Southern heat! We are so much happier with a place to cool off (and a place to take the kids so mommy can do yoga, or kickboxing, or spinning or...) and we can't believe we didn't join sooner!
Here are some pics!
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