A doctor and a baby

What a jerk I am, I know it's been way way too long. In normal circumstances, I might consider ditching a person who hadn't updated her blog for this long! But as I'm sure we all know, sometimes life happens. This is what's been happening:

Writing a thesis...

Writing a thesis...

Writing a thesis...

DONE!!

Preparing for my defense...

Preparing for my defense...

.............

DEFENDED!!! GOT A PhD!!!!!

Can't believe it's over, still hasn't sunk in, but I am done reporting to committees and dreading every meeting and feeling inadequate... well, I am sure I will continue to feel inadequate in life, but not in this sense anymore. I'm supposedly the equal to my doctor peers now, so they have to respect my authority!

Here's how a defense goes: You give a presentation that sums up, in about a half an hour to 45 minutes, five years of intense, spirit-breaking work at a bench or a computer or wherever, and then everyone claps and no one asks you any questions because you had to leave so much out that they never really followed you anyway (and according to Kyle, I spoke too fast). Then everyone leaves and your committee grills you about anything they felt you left out. It's funny, you think, they don't ask you any questions about your presentation or your thesis, which you're prepared for, they ask you all the questions you didn't think about first.

They asked me a few questions about what I thought was going on; like a model of cell behavior, that I really really had no answer to, and I gave it my best shot but I really didn't think it was going to fly. But I guess they were satisfied enough with the effort. At least I didn't cry :) (that's a joke. I would not have let these people see me get frazzled).

And then it was over and they switched from this:

To this:

It was gross. Just kidding, but it is weird, it's a very bipolar experience.

Anyway, so that's the PhD process. They call you doctor and you go on your way, it's over, go find something else to do! Hopefully the funding for my new job will be all set and then I can sit back and just relax till the new job starts. I'll hopefully be working at Fox Chase Cancer Center starting late August or early September.

Buuuuuut, that's not my only news... of course, Kyle and I are also expecting a little bundle of joy!! (or poop, depending on how you look at parenthood) It'll look a little something like this:

Crazy yes?! I'm five months pregnant!! I had no morning sickness, no problems so far, and I've officially felt it moving around. I want sweet things all the time. I can't function without my morning waffles anymore or my afternoon jello. And I'm starting to show enough that I had to get new pants and a few new shirts... but mostly I just feel fat! I can't reach my toes anymore!! Although I might just be out of shape flexibility-wise. If I have one piece of advice, it's stay at least a little active, it's made my weight gain not so so bad and kept me feeling good. I was really really tired at first, and then I started walking, nothing major, just a half hour in the mornings, and I stopped feeling like I had to take a nap every morning and afternoon.

So the blog focus might shift a little again, don't worry, it's not going to be crazy baby. In fact, a good friend is getting married (yay!) and has asked me to be bridesmaid, so I will still be talking about weddings. I am also going to start album planning as well, because my mom wants an album, and I'm still interested in DIYing an album, you know, self-binding. I think it'll be fun! I also want to play with the pictures with this instagram-like website called pixlr, it makes your pictures go from this:

 To this:

That's a little extreme of an example (I already loooooove that photo as it is), but you know what I mean, you can modify the colors of your photos AND add effects. It's pretty awesome. More on that as I make more.

That being said, there will be some baby stuff. For now, just me, five months preggers!

Just starting to pooch out a little :) I've started a poll with my family and friends, I'll post more about that later. Right now it's been a half an hour and of course, I have to pee again :P

Don't tell anyone I was here!

I'm supposed to be writing my thesis! I have TWO WEEKS to get it done! I am literally just here to say hello, and share a photo:

See, I have this wonderful man who, when I said I love the flowers around our house, went out and cut some for me! We have lots and lots of hydrangea already established around our house and they bloom in all sorts of pretty colors! I was also delighted to find that we have a few garden rose bushes around the house (those cute little light pink flowers in the middle there). We have lavender and daisies and even Gerbara daisies (none that were in cutting shape though).

Isn't he sweet?! He'd be proportionally sour though if he knew I was blogging instead of writing :) I must get back to work! Can't promise I'll be around for the next two weeks, but I'll have some big news when I get back ;)

Wow!

Yeah, I know! It's been, like... forever! Right?! Well, I been busy!! Just kidding, I mean, I have been busy, but I mean I'm kidding 'bout getting angry with you for questioning me. I just came back from a conference in California. Luckily, it has not made me renounce the East Coast, that'll just never happen. I was with my buddy Emily though who is from the West Coast of Canada and it made her homesick for the West Coast, and she was all trying to push her 'West Coast is better' beliefs on me.

Bah!! I say BAH to that! (I'm kidding of course, she is too nice to push her beliefs on anyone)

Anyway, it was foggy and chilly in the mornings and then the sun burned off the fog and it was gorgeous. but East Coast (Mid Atlantic to be exact!) wine is better than CA wines... (how many readers did I just lose?) And I prefer to watch sunrises.

OK, now that my foot is firmly lodged in my mouth, wanna' see pictures??? Of course you do!

Our hotel was right on the state park/beach in Monterey, CA. These are the morning shots, foggy, chilly, but we still had to enjoy the beach a little.

The sand was fantastic! Super fine and warm and white.

Emily being goofy...

Ashley following suit.

The water was also surprisingly gorgeous. I told Emily I still love my brown, murky Atlantic :)

Ending the morning the way it's supposed to be ended ;)

This area had some amazingly dazzling trees.

It has those trees with the fuzzy stuff hanging off it... that's as eloquent as I can be about that.

Fuzzy trees, and sweet rustic road signs. Also, the only other thing that makes me jealous of these amazing year-round great temps; succulents just growing everywhere!

 Succulent bushes!↑ Someone's succulent garden ↓

One of my favorite pictures ↓ Not sure what happened to this poor cypress tree, but some pretty crazy force bent its two largest branches at almost 90 degrees. It looked unreal.

 So I had to come back to the beach and take sunny pictures as well :)

 Pretty sick, right?

OK, so one afternoon, we all went on a tour of 17 mile drive, a famous trek through Monterey that follows the coast of Monterey Bay and has all sorts of great little monuments. The one below is not a good example but way back in the background is Bird Rock.

There were some fantabulous beaches where seal pupping happens, and the seals are very well protected by the state while they pup, so that we as fur seal lovers can continue to go 'Awwwwwwwww!!!!' at fur seal pups for years to come.

So as a result, this is sometimes the only types of pictures I could take of some of the beaches:

Still pretty heavenly...

This is the Lone Cypress. No, not the huge impressive one in the forefront, the lonely one in the background on a cliff all by itself. It's been there for about 250 years! That's what's supposed to be impressive about it, because as far as looks go, I saw a hell of a lot of cool, impressive-looking cypress trees in Monterey, but this is one of the only ones that's been around for forever.

Tons and tons of scary/awesome cliffs with smooth, pretty rocks, wind-beaten trees, and succulents and moss growing all throughout the cracks. And of course the Pacific lookin' pretty.

My phone died before I got a good picture but behind these live trees is the Ghost Tree:

I was so upset that I didn't get a good picture of it, I got a stock photo because you have to see it:

There's controversy over which one is actually considered the Ghost Tree, that tall one in the front, or that little bent one on the right in the background. The tall one is my favorite though. These trees have been so weather-beaten that they lost all their bark and leaves and branches. They look creepy but awesome.

What's amazing is that these cypress trees seem to grow best in this salty sea air and soil but they also get warped and look crazier than any other tree I've ever seen. They were everywhere so I had plenty of 'wow!' moments.



Finally, our last evening, we had a gala dinner at the Monterey Aquarium. Now, I don't know how I keep managing to go cool places with an almost dead phone, but I only had enough battery for a few pictures, and this guy was my favorite.

We caught this octopus in a rare active state, he climbed all over the place, and we caught him on film!

I loved this Aquarium, it was featuring jellyfish, and behind glass, I looooove looking at jellyfish.

(Yeah, that's not my picture) They also had awesome hammerhead sharks and otters (buggers were sleeping the whole time we were there :( ) and a huge 'please touch' area where we played with manta rays and starfish and little sharks. oh, and abalone!

This isn't a great picture but I wanted to impress how big they are. They basically look like a cross between a snail and a clam (because they have more clam-like shells but only on the top of their bodies, the bottom is a big sucker that they slither around with like a snail), and they can be about a foot long! Their shells are gorgeous like oyster or mussel shells on the inside, only gorgeous-er!

Anyway, they liked to sucker to our fingers, they were awesome. So I also did a lot of work and networking and listening to lectures while in CA, but that's the boring part not worth talking about. We're still on track for moving into our new house, inspections and haggling over fixing stuff is done, we're just patiently waiting now for the end of May!

Meanwhile, I still have no word on whether or not I've got a job after grad school and thank you notes are still not done! Lots to do, but I'll be around!

Interwebs good again!

I hope everyone had a marvelous Easter! I just wanted to take a minute out to let everyone in on a pretty fantastic deal going on right now at Easy Canvas Prints:

Just in case there was a question, this is a phenomenal deal! Just in case you need an idea of how big an 18x24 print is... it's big. I thought 16x20 was only kinda' big and when my first prints started coming in the mail (the ones I talked about a few weeks ago), I was kind of overwhelmed at how huge they were. And now these guys are giving away 18x24s and 8x10s for $50 PLUS free shipping... that's kinda' gigantic! And by gigantic I mean a savings of $100 gigantic! Get it?? As in 66.667% OFF!! OK, just making sure we're clear.

I almost doubled the deal, but I decided that it would be a little overboard. Before we've even moved into our first real home, we'll have SIX hung portraits... that maybe just might be enough for now. Shutterfly was running one of their awesome '101 free prints for no reason!' deals yesterday so I got more small photos for hanging in multi-picture frames. I don't quite know how these people can just give stuff away, but I am not complainin'! I'll take a picture soon as they come in! And I gotta' start shopping for multi-picture frames!

This actually brings up something that just happened this past weekend. Kyle and I linked our bank accounts! This might seem like nothing for some people but it's kind of a big deal for me, because I always find myself feeling very sheepish about how much money I have left in my bank account at the end of the month or how much is in my savings account. Now Kyle can see it. So there's no more "What do you mean you're out of money?" or "How much is really in your savings account?" Now he can see it. I'm not at all saying that I'm one of those people who lies about money, but I think I might have a tendency towards stretching the truth because I'm always kind of embarrassed when I make frivolous purchases or don't budget well. That kind of thing makes me want to fudge the numbers a little when my spouse asks me why I had to put groceries on a credit card (I don't! I'm just saying, I want to). 'They' say some crazy percentage of marriages break up because of money issues. I would never forgive myself if it was my fault. Some might look at this merger as a potential issue while I look at it as a blessing, because I'm the horrible type of person that doesn't have much drive to do certain things correctly until someone's standing over them with a stern look on their face... Shameful I know, but I'm not too good at saving money and Kyle is a-mazing at it.

All I have to say is why save $50 when you could save $100 on an 18x24 and an 8x10 canvas print instead?!?! No more, I promise, baby!

Meanwhile, I've got a conference in California in a week and a half and my interview in a week! So I gotta' get back to work!!

Was linking bank accounts an adjustment for anyone else one way or the other? How did it go??

Inspiration vs. Reality, part IV

OK, so where are you? (movie reference anyone??) Some motel room. (there, I gave you some more) Maybe I'll get another freaky tattoo to remind myself... anyone??

But seriously, my head is in a billion places right now, and looking over wedding pictures is how I calm the storm. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it! My paper for work is almost done. Once the paper is done, I get to start writing my thesis and defend. I've got five months, I should be done in four :) I don't have a huge amount of confidence in my writing skills so I'm always scared when I write something that it's going to be total rubbish. So while publishing this paper and officially getting the OK to start the final countdown is an awesome prospect, the fear of failure is stressful.

I got my first 'job offer' yesterday. I call it job offer but put it in quotes because it doesn't work the same way in science, you e-mail a prospective professor, and if they say 'Yeah, let's meet and talk' you're in the position of leverage. That doesn't mean you have the job BUT you'd have to really mess up at this point. If I can keep it together, Kyle and I will both be in great positions, both of us having good jobs, both working only ten miles from our new home! It's pretty intense... and stressful.

The home inspection is today. It's when we find out if there's some massive structural problem that we don't know about. This is highly unlikely because the house isn't that old, has little to no damage, and looked and felt great. BUT you never know of course. And there is a slightly higher possibility of there being something not massive but still expensive wrong with the house, and if the current homeowners don't agree to fix it, and we can't afford to fix it, then we're at an impasse, and the whole deal might fall through. Again, highly unlikely, all this, but still... stressful.

So there's a little look at why I'd rather be looking at wedding pictures. Ha, actually even that's kind of stressful because the man and I swore we are going to do thank you notes this weekend. Not really the most exciting of Saturday activities. ANYWAY, I'm almost done with inspiration boards. I'm slowly starting to shift my Pinterest use from wedding photos to kitchen and bathroom photos, but NOT TOTALLY! Still subscribed to a few of my favorite wedding blogs. So, without further ado, styling inspiration:

Succulents, fiddle heads, feathers, big hair flowers, big hair... yup, that sums it up! So there's no need to beat around the bush, here's out inspiration-turned-reality board; stylin'!

In love = me! I knitted my own shawl, made those hair flowers and the hangers, my Mama made my garter, the florist did a FANTASTIC job on the flowers, and Ben captured it all! Oh, and I am so glad I wore flats, so so glad; every muscle in my body ached the day after the wedding from all the dancing, but not my feet! The only thing I wish was that we had more time for portraits of me and the girls before the ceremony, but that was no one's fault but time; that fickle mistress... bitch...

Anyway, what do you think?! Thanks for the comments so far, I really enjoy these inspiration boards, and I hope you all do too!

Two awesome things

Every now and then, I hear about non-wedding-related stuff and I want to share it, but then I say 'I'm not going to bother everyone with this one dumb thing.' Then sometimes I hear about two non-wedding-related stuffs in one day and I decide to bother everyone with both of them!

First, every now and then, scientists do very silly things, like this:

This is indeed very silly. I can't believe I haven't shown it till now. Well, I just became aware of a new silly thing, that's also for a good cause. Every time someone views this next video, a donation is made for cancer research. The older guys in the video are some of thee premier cancer researchers in the world, which just makes it sooo much funnier.

Every now and then, scientists do these silly things because really, we have no shame, and the amount of work that goes into it just cracks me up, because ofttimes it seems we have no sense of humor. WE DO!!

Oh the other thing? Oh, just that we're home owners now...

WHOO HOOOO!!! Kyle and I put an offer in for a sweet little split level in the burbs and they countered, but we didn't want to fight or lose it, so we accepted. And now we own a house!!! You wanna' see?!

Cute yes?! It's a four bedroom, two and half bath 2,750 sqft split level! Plenty of space for all our crap :)

That sitting room has a massive picture bay window, it gets fantastic morning light.

It's very well-maintained, doesn't look like we have any work to do right off the bat; paint and drywall is in good shape, hardwood and tile floors are great.

 Large bedrooms, good bathrooms, really nice warm paint choices throughout.

 Feels like home!

It used to be a dentist office, so it has several bonus rooms on the lower level, and lots and lots of space; walled off right now, but as we have the time and money, the lower level will be transformed into a gigantic living room with a wet bar and a full guest suite.

The house has a covered, three season porch and an open brick patio, so we'll be able to be outside almost all year round!

One of the best features: we're on a corner lot and we have a half acre!




Sure, maybe as we go along we'll feel the need to make it a little more modern but for the time being, I am so super excited we've found such a sweet first home. I think we can really start living a real day-to-day life now, not just a "I hope we don't see a roach in the kitchen today" life. No more "I hope all that banging and yelling is across the street and not on our front porch." No longer a "need to wear shoes throughout the house to avoid blackfeet" life (it's the downstairs carpet, not my cleaning skills, I swear!).

For the recently married or getting married soon or even the married for a long time ladies, did you get super excited moving into your first house with your new hubby??