Month Catchup....

So I've been busy.... to say the least. So this is my month catchup!

• We celebrated Bella's 1st birthday on June 22nd! Can't believe she is already a year old! She was the 2nd puppy of a litter of 9. Here they all are!

A close- up of her only a few days old :)

My little sister took care of her her when we were on our honeymoon. She was sooo cute when she was little (still is, of course).

This is what she looks like now! All grown up.... *sniff sniff*



Bella's birthday sundae!



 

• I started a huge experiment at work.... It had me in the lab for exactly 3 weeks and 5 days! Wowowow! I was exhausted after that. And unfortunately, the data did not turn out as I had planned and I lost a few animals.... so I started another batch this past weekend, so yup... I'll be in lab everyday again for the next 3 or so weeks. But you know what, as exhausting as work can be when I have experiments like this, I LOVE IT. I love the feeling of accomplishment and productivity.
• My paper was officially accepted as a manuscript and is on pubmed. YAHHHH... here's the link.
• My labmate and I (plus a few people from our collaborating lab) went to the National Neurotrauma conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It was the best conference!!!! The talks were good, the food was delicious AND free, the hotel was nice!

We stayed here!

The Westin Diplomat

The VIEW from our room!!!

They had a fancy dinner one of the nights. Which was A BLAST. It was a beautiful, formal sit down dinner. Everything was lab themed. The decor on the tables were test tubes and glass beakers. The also had rodent stuffed animals on each tables. It was pretty neat. The waitors wore lab coats. I was impressed to say the least.

Picture of my salad

DESSERT!!!!!

Just in case you can't tell (phone = terrible picture quality) - the dessert was served in petri dishes (or as we call them cell culture dishes) and the brownie had a picture of a NEURON on it. How cool is that!!!????

After dinner there was an "after party." They had a DJ (who had all his DJ stuff in a hummer) and a photo booth.

Me and my labmate dressed up for the photo booth!

DJ with his hummer (he's the one in the lab coat) and the dance floor

All in all... A good time :)

• The conference had its own professional photographer, so when the pictures are up on the website, I will post a few of them. They will be MUCH better quality. Plus, I know she got a picture of me and my labmate with our BEAUTIFUL poster. And no, I am not being conceited.... it really is that beautiful.  :)
• This past weekend I went to a bachelorette party for a friend of mine. I had so much fun. :) We went to "the garden where I guess they grow the olives" *heck yes, I just pulled out some old school DC TALK!* for dinner. Then we went back to her place so she could open all her gifts. We also made her try on every single gift lol. All in all = great time :)

Bella Update 6/20/11

On Thursday Reub took Bells over to a friends house with a MAJOR flea infestation... Although we keep her very current on flea meds, she still got infested. By Thursday night they were crawling all over her. We ended up giving her a flea bath and then putting flea medicine on her. I felt so bad for her. She had AT LEAST 50 fleas on her. They were crawling on her head and in her ears. It was pitiful.

Anyways, we think we may have overdosed her from all the chemicals. By Friday night she was throwing up sick and not eating. She threw up all day on Saturday. We ended up putting her in the bathroom while we were gone, so that if she did throw up it was on the tile floor instead of carpet *cleaning up throw up on carpet = NO FUN!*

She looks so pitiful.

So Saturday afternoon, I just held her in my lap and prayed for her and rubbed her belly and head. She was content just to let me pet her.

But by Sunday she was feeling all better. We considered taking her to the animal hospital but we decided to wait when she started perking up. She's doing good now. No throwing up. She's been eating and playing with her toys.

I really don't like it when she's sick.



C-2-5K Wk 5

So today we *my friend Mollz n' Me* start week 5 of the couch to 5K running program. So far so good.... but at the end of this week - they want us to run for 20 MINUTES!! yah, okay... I soooooo cannot do that. First of all, to anybody who knows me... Knows that I am N-O-T a runner. I have worked up to running at 5 min increments, and even that has been hard for me. No laughs, I'm serious. Not sure what we are going to come Friday when we are just supposed to hop on the track and "jog for 20 mins!!!" We went from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. Seems like a bit of a jump right????? So this is a 9 week program that we are definitely going to have to make longer!



Michigan!

The hubs and I just back from Michigan this week. Wow. What a trip! It was really nice to leave everyday life and hang out with family.

Not going to lie, the last real vacation I had was for our honeymoon. And even that, I wouldn't call that a real vacation. I was soooo exhausted after the wedding... I'm pretty sure I could have slept for a month!

So here is the quick catch-up *and by quick I mean not so quick*

We left Friday morning early. And after a good half hour of fiddling with Tom tom... (oh how I hate technology sometimes), we were on our way. Bella was ahhhmazing in the car. She mostly slept. I actually felt bad for her. Everytime we would start up again, she would sigh. Almost like "here we go again!"

But we packed lunches, so we ate a little picnic lunch at a rest area. We arrived at his sister's house at 11:30pm. They were already up North at his parent's, so we crashed there by ourselves. Their cat and Bella had a bit of a run in when we accidentally locked them into the same room together... Oops. A couple hisses later, Reubs was digging under the bed to find the cat lol.

Saturday started out fairly early, with a quick trip to Star.bucks of course :) Then off to my sissy's house in Northern Michigan (about a 4.5 h drive). We went there to shower... We could have gone straight to Hub's parents, but there were 16+ adults plus children and 1 shower (yes, I said ONE shower!). The open house was good. My dad and stepmom were there. The food was GREAT as per usual.

Sunday started early for me. I wanted to be one of the first in the shower before church. It was a little hectic getting ready, but we all made it to church. Graduation was good. Teary-eyed for some. We calculated it out - Reuben's Mom has had someone in school for 30 years. Ryan (the oldest) went into kindergarten in '81 and the youngest Bekah just graduated in '11. Crazy to think huh.



All the siblings. From top: Ryan, Rachel, Rick, Riley, Rock, Reuben, Randy, and Rebekah.



Sunday evening ended in a girls night, in which we want and saw a movie and made a quick trip to Wal.mart to find fake tatoos to scare "our boys" into thinking that we were wild and crazy. lol. We all packed in my Sis's Yukon XL - 9 of us in total. Reuben's Mom, his 2 sister's, and the rest of my 5 sister-in-laws. It was fun. Makes me wish we could do that stuff more often. I got a tatoo on my neck, below my ear and on top of left boobie.. haha. Reuben's initials. lol. Mom's only request was that we not all get "tramp stamps" because she was afraid "Dad might not find it for a while." hehe.

By Monday a lot of the in-laws started to leave.... the guys all went golfing for most of the day. I did pretty much nothing. Then a bon-fire that night!

Tuesday was just us. I took Bella boo and her Mom for a walk. They were soooo cute together. I didn't leash either one of them. They were really good though. They pretty much stayed with me. Except when Sophie decided while I was running that she would run through the water-filled ditch! But as soon as I called to her she came back to the road and beside me. Her feet were soaking wet and muddy. Took a couple of pictures of them together. Was never able to get one of them both looking at the camera.



Giving each other kisses.



True meaning of "the best of friends" - when you chew sticks together.



Sophie (left), Bella (right)

Sophie (left), Bella (right)

Don't they look a lot a like? The whole time we were there everybody kept getting confused on which one was which.

That night we drove over to Charlevoix (about an 1 h drive) to have dinner with his bro Riley and his wife. His bro Randy came too (and his wife after work). It was fun. I hadn't seen their new house yet. And their little soon Isaac, who is adorable, was very excited about giving me a tour.

We went to my Dad's on Wednesday night. Went to eat with him and then just chilled. But before I left, my MIL gave us the second part of Xmas present. It was monogrammed triffle dish! I love it!

Hard to see the monogram.

Met my Gram and Grandpa for lunch (Mom's parents) on Thursday and then took Bella out to meet their 7 year old golden retriever named Bailey that they recently adopted. She was neglected for most of her life, so Gram told me she doesn't usually play with other dogs. But Gram had to hold her collar when she saw Bella because she was sooooo excited. It was so cute to see them play. We went and looked at my Dad's new addition to his building - it's really nice. He even has a full gym (small, but all the equipment) including a shower - TRES JEALOUS! We also went and saw my Dad's parents. Dad grilled out some ahhhhhmazing asparagus for dinner. I'm sure we had other items as well, but the asparagus is worth remembering. The first day we got back, I went and bought some and made the Hubs grill it like my Dad does lol.

Friday wasn't too interesting. Worked out at my Dad's gym with my stepmom. Got overheated because the airconditioning is not up and running yet in the building. 

Went for a run before we left on Saturday with Reuby. *I am training for a 5K with my friend Mollz. We are usually the couch-to-5K program. Highly recommend it * I have the app downloaded on my phone. I'm not used to runnning outside in the heat or up and down hills. I usually run on an inside track at the gym. And its flat. I definitely threw up when we got back. Wowowow - my body totally was not happy with me.

We met a friend for dinner in the Detroit area for an early dinner. It was soooo good to see them. *Stole this picture from her - check out her blog.*





The ride home on Sunday pretty much sucked.... But again, Bella was good. Caught a couple cute pictures of her.

 I think Reubs said it best on face.book "home sweet home."

Trip plans...

The hubs and I are headed to Michigan to see family and to celebrate his youngest sister's high school graduation. We are driving with Ms. Priss all the way there and back. We leave early Friday morning and won't be returning till Sunday the week after. Excited... but already tired thinking of the LONG drive ahead.

Bella will get to see all her pup siblings. *The hubs parents have a very sweet golden retriever named Sophie. I believe she will be 4 sometime this summer. Anyways, all the kids (us included) wanted golden retriever pups, so they bred Sophie and she had 9 PUPS last summer - 3 boys and 6 girls. We took a girl (AKA Bella boo), 2 brother's took males puppies (the 3rd male went to the owner of the stud), and his brother and sister each took a girl puppy. So there are a total of 5 golden retriever puppies + Sophie (the mom). All of which will be staying at the family's house this weekend for the graduation.... YIKES. Talk about dog chaos. And on top of that, my sister (who is married to the Hubs' brother... yah, weird I know) have a german shepherd puppy named Harry who is ~7 months. But I heard he's HUGE... so he will aslo be there most of the weekend... so again puppy chaos.* Bella hasn't been around the pups since she was little, so I'm interested to see how she will do. All of the other pups have played with each other since then - they were all up for Christmas and such. 

 So we are going to go to the graduation party on Saturday. Then the graduation is on Sunday. The hubs already has made all sorts of plans with his brothers - shooting, golfing, taking the dogs to the lake. Anyways, we are staying at his family's till Wed, then heading to my Dad's. No huge plans there, maybe some bike riding. Then we will be there till Saturday and start are treck back to Tally, so that we can be home sometime later on Sunday night.

This week we have just been preparing to go to Michigan. Trying to eat up what is in the fridge so nothing goes bad, cleaning and doing laundry, getting the car ready, finding someone to watch Raja, etc... So basically a bunch of errands. But in the end it will all be worth it.

Weekend Update 4/30/11

Here's the play by play

Friday

My gym buddy and I went to the campus gym and walked the track. We usually do group excercise but because of finals, they canceled them. Also, the gym closed at 5pm, which is WAY early. We started ~4pm so we had to listen to all the anouncements about it closing like every 5 mins.

I came home to find the Hubs sleeping... he had to get up in the middle of the night at like 4am to fix a unit *hubs repairs refrigeration units on semi-trailers... you know the ones that carry yummy foods like icecream* So being the nice wifey that I am, I started cleaning the kitty litter box for him on his day to clean, washed the dishes, picked up, etc...

Then, our young adult group at church was going to a Fun park where they have putt putt, laser tag, batting cages, go carts, arcades, etc. The guys all did the go carts. I usually do, but it was chilly out and I was FREEZING to say the least. For being a Michigan girl at heart, I really do have THIN blood. Then the putt putt started. I was doing AHHHmazing at first. Hole in 2 for the like the 1st 6 holes *so unusual for me* Then it was down hill from there. I ended up coming in like 3rd place (just for our group - not sure about the whole group). Anyways the fun part of the night was when the hubs was being sweet talking big about his game and someone gently nudged shoved him to be silly AND he ended up like this

Caught in the bushes. He just kept sinking and sinking. It was hilarious.  He kept laughing and then going "ouhhh the branches are scratchy". Someone had to help him up, but no one would help him up until they all got pics. Here he is trying to get out!

All in all - a fun night! Its always nice to goof off and act like you are 13 again!

Saturday

Just a little background - The hubs and I are earning our way to Michigan to see family. I raised a good portion by working for my boss. Now, we have been doing what my friend Sarah and her hubs have been doing. Buying stuff and reselling it online. They are actually really good and starting their own business doing it. Not going to lie, we have been at it 3 weeks and we are not that good. We've made a little money, but nothing to write home about. The goal is $500 for our trip to Michigan. We are driving (me, the hubs, and Bella) straight through and we plan on packing lunches for most of the trip. Our best budget is $500. Should give us a little wiggle room just in case.

Anyways back to my Saturday. So in order to make this $500 we have been doing some garage-saling. We get up at 6:30am and load up in the car with lots of coffee and use an app on our phones to navigate to the sales. This week we were not amazingly successful. We got 2 things. I think our garage sale market is not very good. Most things in our area are junk junk junk. Like items I would not even donate. And on top of that they are priced high. So are pickings are really slim. But doing this and other odds and ends we have already raised $265! We have 7 items listed on eBay right now as well, so there is potential for about another $100. Anyways I did find this item...

It is an authentic, rare, and retired Vera Bradley purse. It is hideous to me, but these things are actually quite worth something. I am currently selling another Vera Bradley large duffle on eBay as well (that I bought for $2), but that pattern is not nearly as ugly. This pattern here is called "Hens N Holly." The larger bags with this pattern actually have a hen on them! I got this at a donation-only yard sale with another item for $5. Those were the only 2 successes of the day. It can be very frustrating to be out looking for 4 hrs and only find 1-2 items.

The rest of Saturday - I met with my boss at 2;30 at a coffee shop to edit my manuscript for publication. The hubs went to get his tires fixed. Then, when I got home, the hubs had to go on a service call. He did that on and off until about 10:30pm. We went over to our friends house after that with a few other people and watched people play Just Dance on the Wii.

I think the Hubs got called out again in the middle of the night - not sure though - sometimes when I am exhausted I don't wake up. We never napped on Saturday like we usually do, so we were both pretty tuckered out.

Sunday

We actually did not go to church on Sunday. I woke up not feeling very well and the Hubs was absolutely exhausted from working most nights. Then when we did get up... he got called to work. So I spent Sunday afternoon listing things on eBay and doing random stuff around the house. Being lazy mostly. I brought the Hubs lunch at about 4pm, then I think he was home by 6pm. We ended up going to the store and getting milk and icecream so we could have cereal for dinner and icecream for dessert. We also stopped at redbox and rented a movie. Such a great end to a weekend. We sat on the couch, eating and snuggling, and watching a movie together. :)

Bella

ahhhhh the life of a puppy.

She's too cute :)

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