Thursday, November 27, 2008

And the answer is...

Palm trees :-)

The view from my hotel room at a scientific conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

In June of 2003...)

It was BEAUTIFUL there!

And hot!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving my family, friends, and anyone else who happens to pass by here!

Here is a SHORT list of all the things I am thankful for:

I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband of 3 years, 9 months, and 8 days :-)

I am thankful for my two beautiful babies: Ankica and Lillian.

I am thankful for my step-daughter: Julia.

I am thankful for my critters: Indiana, Riley, and Orion.

I am thankful for my family: my parents and my three sisters and their families, for my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. I miss you today!

I am thankful for my church "family". Thank you all for stepping in to fill the void!

I am thankful for our house and all the love that we share in it!

I am thankful for my life. God has blessed me far beyond what I deserve and I will never be able to thank Him enough.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

"What is it?" Wednesday



(More appropriately...WHERE is it...)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Everyone's a Winner!

Thanks to Coralie for hosting the Pampered Chef Party on her blog last night! I won a set of scrapers, a friend won a Mix N Chop and my sister won a can strainer! All that stuff is way too cool!

I can't wait to get what I bought: Medium Bar Pan, Mocha Hazelnut Sprinkle, and a cookbook.

I have often thought about Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Avon, and Mary Kay as ways of making a little bit of extra money (not all at once mind you :-)) but I am just not that much of a people person. Having the party on the blog was an interesting way to do it and it got me thinking...who knows?!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

And the answer is...

It is a Gus in the Box!

A bit of an inside joke for the undergraduate students and I when I was working on my Ph.D.

It was a student's rendition of another student who drank too much. And yes, it was made out of blue packing foam from some of the chemicals we would regularly receive.

We often created strange things like that just to keep from stressing out too much. It was a fun time :-)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Do you like Pampered Chef?

I have never heard of a Pampered Chef Pajama Party but here it is! A friend from church, Coralie, is hosting it and I am so excited to see what it is all about. Who knew you could host a party from your blog?!

This Thursday, November 20th, at 8pm at http://lifemoreabundant.wordpress.com/.

Come and join the fun!

It's been a while...

I has been a while since I posted last. It is amazing what not having a camera will do to the desire to blog. I like having pictures to put up :-)

But I bought a camera and it is on its way. And it is purple! It is my Christmas present.

I have written a few articles recently for Associated Content, so if you haven't checked it out in a while, click the link on the right. Within the week I have a bunch more articles to write...for cash!! A few dollars isn't much for the time it takes, but it is some exposure and bottom-line, it IS money :-)

In other news, I bought Christmas presents for Julia and the little girls. Julia got a bunch of Littlest Pet Shop critters. She talks about them all of the time so I found a display case for them and bought 25 critters to fill it up AND I individually wrapped them. I had to get it done before she gets here on Friday otherwise she would inevitable find a box or something :-)

For Ankica and Lillian, this is their big gift. I have seen many great reviews and they already love to "bake" things for us and their babies.

I can't wait to see their expressions when they open it :-)

Loran has his new guitar and knows that he is getting another guitar related present. Now I just have to come up with some presents he won't be expecting for him to open ON Christmas :-) I love to surprise him!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

And the answer is...

It is a lymphocyte proliferation assay :-)

The assay uses blood taken from any mammalian subject (in this case, cows) and stimulates growth of lymphocytes (which are cells that work in our immune system).



I had cows that were being exposed to two different amounts of light and dark (which we call photoperiod). One set of cows was on short days, which was 8 hours of light followed by 16 hours of darkness. The other set of cows was on long days, which was 16 hours of light followed by 8 hours of darkness. And believe me, taking blood samples in the dark is not easy!

I wanted to see if the prolonged exposure to either of these lighting set ups would have an effect on their immune function. The lymphocyte proliferation assay is one way of looking at immune function.

There is a very obvious difference between the two sides meaning that one of the photoperiod groups had more lymphocyte growth than the other group.

Anyone want to guess which is which?



(Leave it to me to include my science in my blog, right?)

Friday, November 7, 2008

My camera broke

You know how you give your kids things to play with that are close at hand so that you can just finish that one last thing?

Well, a few days ago I was blogging or something and gave Lillian the camera to play with while I finished. I have done that before. But it never hit the cabinet and the floor with the same force before.

I think it was on the way out anyway...I've had it since June of 2003...a good run for a digital camera. And I am sure that a camera that can do the same things is probably about $5 at Walmart these days.

But now I have the dilemma of trying to figure out what kind of new camera to buy. Do I buy a NICE one, like Jawan and Kacie, or do I get a decent one for the interim just so I don't miss any cute moments? I hate these decisions. Ask me which dose of growth hormone releasing hormone works best in the research I used to do and I'll be fine. Just don't ask me to choose a camera I like!

Loran will be little help because he is so darn SWEET and wants me to have the best of everything (I know, tough one, right?) and will want to get me one of the NICE cameras. (By the way, the capital letters equals a significant increase in PRICE.)

So, any pictures that appear in the near future will either be courtesy my personal photographer, Kacie ( :-) ) or pictures already taken. I'm just glad I got the last download done before it happened. Phew!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

And the answer is...

The evil knife-wielding mini-Lop rabbit named Bun-Bun from the cartoon Sluggy Freelance.

When Loran and I were first communicating (we met via eHarmony, so we weren't really "dating"), it was a cartoon we read often and then chatted about.

For our first Christmas, I made him a sweatshirt with puffy paint characters and sayings. Then, my poor honey, washed it and DRIED it. The puffy paint stuck together and the sweatshirt was no more. Ah well.






I also tried to make a groom's cake/wedding cake with BunBun and Kiki the ferret on it. The cake turned out well. Then the dog ate it. Seriously.




So that's my story. I thought it was a better picture than the hairless ape :-)

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

"What is it?" Wednesday



(I am looking for a specific reference...)

Monday, November 3, 2008

My girls

I haven't posted any of my pictures of the girls in so long I wanted to just throw a sampling out there.




My ancient Monchichi didn't survive Ankica's "attention" :-(















I'm doin' better

Well, I had an ERCP last Friday and I seem to be doing okay. I am still jaundiced and itching like crazy but I have had no pain or discomfort since Saturday. I still don't have much of an appetite but that's alright :-) I have hit the 42 lb loss mark since I started my weight loss. I don't remember the last time I saw this number on the scale!

Anyway, I will have some bloodwork done tomorrow to make sure the procedure worked and I'll let you know how it goes.