Friday, February 27, 2009

Right now I am definitely...

Done with the day long interview process at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville and driving to my parents' house.

Say a prayer for us to have safe travels and a good time with my family!

Thanks to everyone who helped pray me through this!!!

Right now I am likely...

Preparing to present my seminar that I have worked for about three weeks on and finished on Tuesday evening.

Say a prayer that I maintain my nerves :-)

Right now I am probably...

eating breakfast with part of the search committee at Country Kitchen in Platteville, WI.

Say a prayer I don't spill!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Right now we are hopefully...

In the air somewhere between Atlanta and Milwaukee!

Say a prayer for safe travels before here and there!

And the answer is...



My sister Cheri with her hat pulled down over her face :-) This picture was taken getting Christmas trees in 2003. Wow...times flies!

Love you sisters!!!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Airplane Travel with Car Seats

The last couple of times that we have flown with one or more of the girls, we take their car seat(s) along with us. We check it at the plane so that we know that it is generally well taken care of.

It really is a pain in the rear to take it with us through the airport, especially with two little ones and I am not at all sure that this is a good idea for the trip tomorrow but I also know that we don't really have the $50 per day that it will cost to rent them on the other end.

Well, I decided that I had better clean them up a bit before taking them "in public".

OH
MY
WORD!!!!

How disgusting! I was going to take a picture but then I thought better of it because I hate to admit just how gross they got. I, like many people, feed my children in the car if the opportunity and neccesity arises. And not all of the food gets into their mouths. If what I found today is any indication, I don't know that ANY of the food got in their mouths!

I shook them and clorox wiped them and shook them some more. I have taken the liners off and they are being washed right now. I will be loath to feed the girls in the car again after what I went through to get them clean!

Now I just have to finish packing and vacuum out the van (on the seats where there is no doubt much MORE food and things), and run through my seminar a million times and I might be ready to leave tomorrow. Although I am NEVER really ready to travel through Atlanta :-)

"What is it?" Wednesday

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Answers to random questions about marriage

I figured I would copy Jawan who copied Becky because, well, it is our anniversary and it's when we tend to think about our marriage the most.

1. What are your middle names? Lynne and Christopher

2. How long have you been together? 4 years

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? We were matched on eHarmony at the beginning of August 2004, we met in person in October, I met his family in November, I met his daughter Julia at Christmas, he met my family in January, and we got "engaged" on Feb. 14, and married on February 19, 2005.

4. Who asked who out? Umm....we met on e Harmony so neither really but he did come to visit me in Oklahoma first.

5. How old were each of you? I was 30 and he was 31.

6. Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? Mine

7. Do you have any children together? 2 of ours, and 1 from his first marriage

8. What about pets? two dogs, 1 cat, 1 hamster, three fish, and a bunch of snails

9. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Julia and her mother

10. Did you go to the same school? No

11. Are you from the same home town? No, I am from Wisconsin and he is mostly from Virginia.

12. Who is smarter? We would argue about that :-) We both have our strengths.

13. Who is more sensitive? Me

14. Where do you eat out most as a couple? Chinese buffet (it's where we went on our first Christmas together...long story)

15. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Wisconsin

16. Who has the craziest exes? Him

17. Who has the worse temper?Probably me

18. Who does the cooking? Me

19. Who is more social? Him!

20. Who is the neat-freak? Possibly me

21. Who is the more stubborn? Me

22. Who hogs the bed? Him (although I tend to hover on the edge regardless)

23. Who wakes up earlier? Melately

24. Where was your first date? When he came out to visit me in Oklahoma we went to an outdoor range and I shot my first bullets out of a gun

25. Who has the bigger family? Him

26. Do you get flowers often? Nope

27. How do you spend the holidays? We alternate families

28. Who is more jealous? MOST DEFINITELY ME!!!!

29. How long did it take to get serious? About one phone conversation

30. Who eats more? I'd say we tie on this one.

31. Who does the laundry? Me

32. Who’s better with the computer? He is.

33. Who drives when you are together? He does.

Happy Anniversary My Love!


Today marks the 4th anniversary of my wedding day.

It was a small wedding, down in Hinesville, Georgia, with just my sisters and parents, his parents, sister and her kids, and a couple that knew both Loran and the pastor. Pastor Miller is the reason we chose Hinesville because I knew how much Alan means to Loran and well, it just made sense.

I had a few absolute requirements: I would wear a traditional wedding dress and my mom's veil, he would wear a tux, my daddy would walk me down the aisle to Canon in D, and I would dance with Loran and my dad at the reception (a seafood buffet...did I ever mention I didn't expect it to be a buffet?).

I got all of those things (plus my sisters sang the traditional Auchtung girls' wedding song) so I was happy. I'm not sure if I have ever posted pics of the day, so here you go!



And the answer is...

the baby gate in front of Julia's room (put there to keep the little girls out of her room :-) ) (Good job Jawan!)

The picture was one of those "I was trying to take a picture of Lillian but she grabbed at the camera and you can see her cute little hair curl in the picture which is helping to distort the picture which makes it a great candidate for my What is it? Wednesday posts" kind of pictures.

Thanks for playing and tune in next week for another exciting edition of...well, you get the idea.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day (belatedly)

My anniversary is just five days after Valentine's Day so I got a bit more than normal for Valentine's Day because it was a joint thing :-)


Beautiful roses in a beautiful vase!



New canisters for my baking essentials...


A digital photo frame! (and a lesson was learned...)



And my honey looked up how to make a balloon heart with his newly acquired balloon scrunching skills...thank you honey!!!

My first sewing (machine) project!!!

Don't tell my sister Heidi but I am actually sewing for her for a housewarming gift :-) So far, I have made one "Lily of the Valley" smell good satchet. Easy but homemade. Gotta love it!


It isn't quite what she made for me (a quilted welcome sign), but it is a start!


You can believe that once I get this interview out of the way (I am working almost every spare minute on this 40 minute seminar I have to give on the major challenges of the dairy industry...), I will be making more things with the sewing machine.

My family came to visit and other fun things

I braided Ankica's hair, so that was fun because she actually LET me and kept it in for a while and then let me take a picture of her :-)


Loran was working on something and Ankica wanted to "color" too.


Julia arrived on Friday night and the girls played Hungry Hungry Hippos together for the first time :-)


On Friday afternoon, my mom, dad, sister (Cheri) and her girls, Katy and Sophie, stopped by on the way from Orlando driving back up to Wisconsin. It was great to have them see the house but especially fun because even though it was a very short visit, I got to say "See you in two weeks!" Yeah!!! (Ankica wouldn't sit still for Grandma and Grandpa this time, but Lillian did GREAT!)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

And the answer is...

It is an osmotic pump :-)

For my photoperiod research, I placed the hormone prolactin, dissolved in liquid, into the inside of the pump.

The pump worked by taking in water from the animal's body and slowly releasing the hormone over the course of two weeks.

It was the first animal surgical procedure that I got to do all by myself. I used a local to numb the skin and then made an incision in the skin on the shoulder of the calf, inserted the pump under the skin, and stapled him back up. Then I took blood samples throughout the day to test for the presence of the prolactin and to see how it impacted their immune system.

I loved the outcomes of these experiments, they were just as we predicted and that is always fun!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Random moments I will cherish

Everyone wishes that there were moments in their life that would just go faster and then there are times that you wish things could stay just as they are.

Moments like Ankica and Lillian sharing Ankica's "baby" (a baby cone from Bruster's)


Or Lillian's first solo baby cone


Or Ankica's concentration as she colored in, as carefully as she could, a heart that I drew for her. She gave it to me with all the pride in the world. She goes around the house daily and reminds me of the things that I have displayed that she colored or made for me.

Or when Ankica wanted to be like Daddy and put on the hearing and eye protection brought home from Loran's adventures in pistol qualification.

Balloon creations

A little fun on a Saturday morning.

We were at Chick Fil A a while back and a clown made Ankica a balloon dog. Loran thought "I could do that". So at Walmart on Thursday night I found a kit and...voila!




Thursday, February 5, 2009

And the answer is...


Man, you guys are good! Yes, it is a small tear in the quilt on our bed, likely caused by Indiana (who likes to dig into her blankets, etc when she prepares for sleep) when we were away on vacation last summer.

I am in the process of figuring out how to fix it :-)

(I am going to have to get more unusual pictures for you...just wait til next week!)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Stardust: A Movie I Will Own


If you haven't seen this movie yet, then you absolutely have to. If you liked Princess Bride, then you will like this movie. It is a fantasy fairy tale complete with Princes and Magic and Witches. It has tremendous acting (Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro are in it) and has some really funny moments.

We didn't watch it with the girls because it has a PG-13 rating and Ankica is getting old enough to be spooked by some scenes but I wouldn't hesitate to let Ankica or Julia watch it. There is a bit of suggestion of intimacy but there was not even questionable language that I remember or even much violence (the witch gets a little scary).

The movie is really a love story with adventure and magic tossed in. We put it on Netflix after seeing a preview on another movie we saw and I am so glad we gave it a chance!

Add it to your list of movies to rent, or borrow it from us because I am sure I will find an excuse to buy it soon (like Valentine's Day :-) ).

The next big adventure

I got the call :-)

A few months ago I got a card from the University of Maryland asking for money to support the University Farm. I got my Master's from UMD and have fond memories of my time there.

I was intrigued that the Department Chair was someone I knew so I start searching the site to see what else had changed. Through alot of websurfing, I found myself at the Animal Science job website. I have checked it on and off since leaving Langston University and moving to Columbus.

Lo and behold, a faculty position in Wisconsin was on the job site. Specifically, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (small school near the Iowa and Illinois borders) is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Dairy Science. It is a tenure-track, 9 month teaching position (summers and holidays off) and includes potential responsibilities for things like the dairy judging team and other student organizations. Quite honestly, this position could have been written for me and my strengths and professional desires, so that is exciting.

I don't NEED to work. I am very happy being at home with my girls and we don't need extra income. But I also know that someday we want to be back in Wisconsin where my family is and that someday I would be going back into academia for either teaching or research or both. And even though I was hoping that it would be a few years before I would find myself in this situation, I knew I would be a fool to pass up this opportunity so I applied. And I have been asked to interview for the position at the end of February.

Lots of things have been going through my mind since I found the position announcement. I want the job for a million reasons and I don't want to consider the job for a million reasons. Step one was applying and step two has been accomplished (the request to interview). Will we get to step three (a job offer)? We will find out. I am confident in my abilities but they will be interviewing other candidates.

God has me and my family in His strong and capable hands and we will be alright as long as we do our best to stay in His will. I can't possibly discern God's will on my own. But we pray. And we try new things with the best intentions. And then we wait and see how it plays out.