Monday, April 30, 2012

May

April Showers bring May flower right?

Well its raining here now in the last few hours of April so by tomorrow the flowers should be in full bloom right?

Life is good and has been busy so sorry for not updating recently. Finals are this week and I just submitted my only take home final so I am officially done with my first year of graduate school.... Guess who is excited? This girl is!!! I wont be taking classes this summer or next semester because of the Antarctica trip so I only have Spring semester of next year and I am done with classes for good.... Its weird to think a year from now I will be going through comps and hopefully will be on my way towards full time research. School is going well though and I should be able to keep my A's in both of my courses so that's exciting. I hope teaching evaluations come back as good as they did last semester too.... I was very excited about how great they were last semester. And then there is research which is going well too... I have a big collaboration project coming up starting two weeks from today. I have been getting ready for it and it has become evident that for 10 days I will have to go to school every 4 hours for culture sampling (and sampling will take an hour each time) and I am tired already thinking about it hahaha. Its gonna be a long couple of weeks and I already told Phil he is gonna be in charge of the house for those two weeks all the cooking and cleaning haha and surprisingly he was ok with it haha.. I am so lucky to have such a great man in my life. But yea so this project I guess will lead to a small publication and my boss told me it will be a good start to my thesis so that's exciting and makes the crazy hours totally worth the effort.

Speaking of research I went shopping with Phil on Sunday and I bought my boots for Antarctica!! How exciting is that? They are pretty cool and I am going to test them out when Phil and I go hiking... Im sure my feet will be super hot though because they are designed for -40 degree weather so Ohio in early summer may be a little much but I want to try them out so oh well hahah. The clothing is gonna be expensive for this trip so its a good thing I dont have to pay for the trip itself hahah

Also while out and about and looking for a bridal shower gift for my niece, Phil and I ended up buying new pillows and stuff for the bed. We both thought it was kind of funny that we are buying stuff together for "the home" but Im ok with it... Its kinda nice to know that kind of stuff doesn't freak him out. This is such a great relationship... Im a lucky woman....

Speaking of my awesome man he is graduating this coming weekend!! I am so incredibly proud of him!!! I love that has accomplished something with his life and got a degree out of it! He is so incredibly intelligent and I can't wait to see him walk across that stage!!!

Going home May 11th finally!! The 12th is my niece's bridal shower and mothers day is the next day so I can't wait to see my mom!! I was remembering old memories with Phil the other day about my mom and It still amazes me just how cool she is... Some of my great memories include singing in the kitchen with her or listening to her sing while we cooked or baked together... I learned to cook I learned new songs and I learned more about her while we spent those times in the kitchen and I am blessed to have her!

ok this is getting long ill give you a break for tonight haha

God Bless xoxoxoxo

Sunday, April 22, 2012

A week in the life....

Sorry it has been since Monday when I last posted but this week has been crazy!!!!
Tuesday was the big seminar!!! I think it went off without a hitch.. I forgot to be nervous and my boss said it only took me 3 slides to slow down and then the rest of the presentation 65 slides worth went well.... Other people in the department were very helpful. They said I did great and were very helpful with comments to make it even better and I even got a few ideas of how to make my research better and more sound and reliable... it was a good experience... I had to teach immediately after the seminar so my voice was about gone after that but I think it went pretty well. Then on Wednesday I had another presentation, this one for Ecology. They posted grades and I have a 97 in the class so I think I am pretty sound in my grade, then they decided to cancel the final exam since everyone was doing well anyway... I wasn't the least bit disappointed let me tell you!!! hahah So then on Thursday a bunch of highschool kids were in the department for a look into the college life and science and what not and so we had an experiment set up for them so that they could do some real lab work. It was pretty good and I thought it went well. I kind of like showing them how to do stuff and I liked it when they got excited to see Chlamydomonas dancing around under the microscope!! My lab is too cool... So I rewarded myself for a tough week by not going in on Friday. I slept in worked out and then headed to lunch with a bunch of people from the department. After lunch a bunch of us went to the bar and eventually ended up back at my friend's house for pizza and laughing... I havent laughed that hard in a long time!! It was great... Then Friday night was date night with my baby which included dinner and a movie and tons of just hanging out with each other... I even got all dressed up which is always fun!!!... Saturday was OBASM (Ohio branch of the American Society for Microbiology) and I think it went well. The same people from Friday all went and I got to meet a lot of people that work at Proctor and Gamble. My poster presentation was ok too. It was my first poster presentation but I think it went well! I had three different judges come to judge me. The first judge was tough and kind of tore my research to bits but then it all went uphill from there. The second judge was this sweet little old guy and he seems intrigued by the Antarctica work. Then finally the third judge made my day. She and I talked for a long time and she asked questions and I stood confident and talked to her and answered them and then she asked me if I was a 3rd or 4th year PhD student. When I told her I was only in my first year she didn't believe me. She thought I had accomplished way too much and knew too much but then admitted to me that even if I was bullshitting her the entire time I was confident enough that she believed me. We joked about that and she told me that I did a wonderful job which was great to hear!!! By the time I got home from the day I was exhausted and took a nap but that night Phil and I headed over to a post Obasm party with some of the amazing people in my department. I was happy to finally have everyone meet Phil and vice versa... I talk about them enough it was about time he meet them and them meet him. It was a great time and again I laughed so hard Im sure I burned a thousand calories last night hahaha... Those people crack me up.... Now today should be a day of rest but I got really motivated to clean since I havent had time in a long time so its spring cleaning... everything is done... laundry, vacuum, mopping, dusting, kitchen, bathroom... EVERYTHING is getting cleaned!!! I love it, it smells so much cleaner and fresher in here!!!!

Ok this is long enough for now Ill post again this week
Peace and Love


Shout out to Anne!!!! Congrats on the new Job I am soooooo proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





oh and here is the poster!!!


Monday, April 16, 2012

People are odd sometimes

So I think I am going to do a mass deletion on facebook... Here is what I plan to get rid of

1) Anyone associated with an ex that wasn't in my life prior to that ex and haven't talked to since
2) Anyone I don't remember or haven't talked to in over a year
3) Negativity... I was scrolling through the news feed and a few people had statuses that were very negative... so Im thinking "hey they are having a bad day lets go to their wall and leave a nice note" when low and behold every status is negative... "I hate this, I hate that, people suck, life sucks, etc..." And it gets tiring just reading it... I mean everyone has bad days and Ill be the first to admit that sometimes I get like that and have a random "this sucks" post but not every single one... why are these people so angry and negative and upset with the world? Why does everything bother them... why is every other person annoying? I thought I'd just pray for them and get that kind of negativity out of my life.. that are too many good things in life to focus on the negative and I honestly don't want to be brought down by it. It would be different if it was a close friend going through a tough time but some of these people have been negative for years and all I can do it pray for them....

Turnabout new subject
My first seminar is tomorrow.. I can't believe how nervous I am.. just talking about it makes my stomach tie up in knots... I don't know why though... I teach.. Every week I stand in front of 20some kids and talk for at least 30 minutes... and then in my Ecology class I have had so far 3 presentations and I didn't have any problem with any of those and that was another 20 kids to talk in front of.... I don't know if I just don't want to look dumb in front of co-workers, or my boss, or if its the faculty.. but I am petrified... I was nervous my first time teaching and I kind of just got into my groove and it went away.. I am hoping that is what happens tomorrow and that out of nowhere I am just going to magically get confident and rock their socks off....
Hopefully Im not this nervous every time I have to present my research....

Turnabout new subject
This past weekend was my anniversary weekend with Phil... We have come such a long way and continue to grow together and it absolutely amazes me how utterly content I can be to just be laying in his arms or seeing him smile at me.... I never knew love like this existed and let me tell you.. I am not about to let it go. I am a very lucky woman to have such a great man in my life and I thank God every day for him.
Watched "warhorse" and if you haven't seen it yet, you should.... its awesome... It is funny to fall in love with an animal character and at points i was rooting for him and other times fearful for him.. it was awesome... Great movie

turnabout new subject
Its almost summer and I can't believe it... Time flies it seems... only 2 weeks left of class for the semester... next week my class has their final exam and then Im done teaching at least until spring semester of next year. (i wont be teaching in the fall due to the Antarctica trip and my being gone for the second half of the semester) It is going to be weird coming to work every single day for only work... from may until december there will be no teaching, no classwork, just my research... how cool is that? It is amazing to me and I hope I get a ton accomplished!!!  My summer collaboration begins mid May too which should be cool because I am going to be working with a man from University of Illinois at Chicago and it should be a good experience.

turnabout new subject
I am still losing weight... how cool is that? Its only about 2 pounds a week but hey 2 pounds and 2 pounds and I was trying on my entire wardrobe essentially for Phil this weekend while trying to find a seminar outfit and I realized that I have no dress pants or summer capris because they are all too big and fall off my hips when I walk, I have a ton of new shirts and cute half vests because they fit again (some of those vests haven't fit since Toledo) and it made me laugh because my ex and Erie Pennsylvania was sooo bad for my waistline.. another good reason that I got out there and away from medschool... not only was I depressed and hating life all the time but it was showing externally as well.... Now Im happy and healthy and fully in love!!! At this rate by the time I'm ready to become a married woman Ill be fitting into a much smaller and gorgeous wedding gown haha... A few more weeks and I will hopefully have to go jean shopping again haha... Loving it!!


OK This is long, Ill let you guys go now haha

Have a great week... God Bless xoxoxo

Thursday, April 12, 2012

All of my favorite nerd quirks and facts

 Awesome fact



 Some of the quirks I may or not have been found to do... ;)





























Yea I am a nerd...

insert laughter here....

Hope you enjoyed that

 My first seminar is Tuesday... these posters are hanging around the school... how crazy is that??? I am probably the only person who thinks this is cool but Im ok with that.... I still can't believe I'm here and doing this I LOVE IT!!!!