bragging

This picture can be explained by just quoting a Facebook status from December 11: "Ryan is awesome. There has been something floating around in the body of my computer for a long time, and then today there was an odd clicking sound that Ryan quickly diagnosed as something in the fan. So now he is taking apart my computer to get it all out. We found the screw that's been floating around, and then we found that it fell off of the hard drive (several other screws on the hard drive were also loose), and now he's going farther in to get to the fan. I have to give major points to him for being able to do that--and a few points to myself for trusting him."

He got to the fan and found a tiny piece of plastic in the fan. Then he put my computer back together. And it works just like it should. He did a great job and I am very blessed to be married to my computer repair man.

Oh, yeah, also Annandag.

The day after Christmas we went to the Johnsons' annual celebration of Annandag Jul. There were most of the usual foods and Reed gave the same speech explaining all the foods and making sure people knew that the proper way to slice cheese is to use a cheese plane (not whack it!). They always make a big fish. Usually it is a Spanish trout, but this year they had a flounder. I don't like most sea food, but I always look forward to the big fish for Annandag. I brought Lion House Rolls and got a lot of compliments. It's a great recipe.

One thing that was different this year was that we didn't have to spend the entire night chasing Kevin down. He mostly played in the living room with his friend Joseph and sometimes he asked to go outside and play with the dog. He was delighted to get to throw a ball for the dog to chase. It was so odd because normally he is running around and getting into all sorts of mischief, but apparently he's starting to figure out how to just go play with toys. Heidi just wanted to sit on the steps right next to the candles. She didn't want to play with the candles or climb up and down or jump or anything--she just liked to sit there. I think Ryan ended up blowing some of the candles out to prevent a fire. So it was nice to get to actually talk to people and enjoy our dinner instead of chasing the entire time.

After dinner we did ring dances and danced Christmas into the house by walking around the house holding hands in a long chain and singing a song. This is done every year. Kevin liked it. He wanted to do the ring dances too, but he was too shy, so he mainly just watched.

Christmas 2012

On Christmas Eve we went to Jared and Kristi's house to have dinner. We had Chinese food and it was delicious! Probably my favorite Christmas Eve dinner ever. We had egg rolls, General Tso's chicken, fried rice, chow mein, and Grammy Jenna's cheeseball (which I make every year). I got ambitious and decided to make my mom's wassail recipe. I always want to make it (it's a very easy recipe), but it makes a lot of wassail and I'm always afraid I'll end up with gallons of wassail that only I will drink. It was so yummy and tasted just like home. The adults liked it and Anwyn tried it and liked it, but the rest of the kids weren't interested. That's not much of a surprise. It's a little strong and I think I didn't start liking it until I was maybe ten years old.

After dinner we did the nativity. Anwyn wrote out the script and assigned the parts herself and did a good job. After that we had crunchy ice cream balls, ice cream, and mint brownies. Then all of the children got to open a present--new pajamas. I made Kevin some pajama pants using an old pair for a pattern (I know they look way too long in the picture--I hadn't hemmed them yet), and Heidi got some footed sleepers that I found in the "clothes-she'll-grow-into" box because she has more clothes than we know what to do with.

Christmas morning was fun. Kevin had fun opening his presents, but Heidi just wanted to scarf down the candy. It was crazy. She was dripping chocolate and minty drool everywhere and we were following her around with a washcloth to try to keep it from getting all over everything. She enjoyed it so much that it was mostly worth it. The kids got penguin crackers (Aldi's knockoff of goldfish) in their stockings and thought that was pretty exciting. The struggle the rest of the day was getting them to eat real food (not a surprise). I finally managed to get Heidi to eat half a cup of applesauce for dinner. Kevin ate a little better. He didn't ration out his stocking candy as well as the rest of us, so when he was all out and saw candy in other people's stockings he kept going for it. He was so upset when the rest of us hoarded our candy. It was sad. I probably won't give up the Christmas candy tradition because I know it's fun, but it does always lead to a lot of frustration for the rest of the day.

We were blessed with many fabulous gifts from family members. We've added several books and movies to our collection, which we love. Ryan's parents gave the kids a cute play mat of "CTR Town" that has roads and buildings. They have done a lot of imaginative play with the mat. Kevin got a duplo train set from my aunt that he played with for an entire day after opening it. It must have hit the sweet spot for him since the train runs by itself, he can build and take things apart, it has people, and it has a gas tank. There are so many different things he can do with it. He has never in his life played with something for more than half an hour, so we have been amazed at how much he has enjoyed this toy.

Here are some pictures of Christmas activities throughout the month:

Decorating the tree . . .

Sunday morning photo shoot:

Christmas morning:

Reading books after Christmas presents had been opened:

the kids in December

Kevin
"I'm having ______." (Fill in blank with whatever he is playing with/holding/using.) This is something Kevin has actually been saying for a long time.

"It's probably ______."

I am so amazed at some of the language developments Kevin has made in the last few months. He is also so much more imaginative than he was a few months ago. I think Kindermusik played a big part in bringing that about. Before we started going to Kindermusik he would often get annoyed if I would dance or do actions to songs. He liked to listen to them and would occasionally dance, but he wasn't interested in doing music and actions with me. Now he listens to his Kindermusik CDs all the time and is always looking for different things to turn into instruments, and he loves it when I come up with new movements or actions to do with songs. He also sings along with the music a lot of the time. I think Kindermusik helped him learn how to respond to music. Kevin can be sensitive to sounds--it's not that loud noises hurt his ears, it's that his activity level and behavior are strongly influenced by sounds. If I run the vacuum cleaner or grind wheat he will suddenly go from being calm to bouncing off the walls and screaming. So I think he was having a hard time knowing how to respond to music, and going to Kindermusik helped him figure that out a little bit.

Yesterday (12/14) he had an imaginary cash register set up in the washing machine. He was sitting on the spinning thing in the center and telling me what various things were, so I asked if I could buy some milk and he pantomimed the entire process of scanning the groceries and bagging them and handing them to me, and when I pantomimed handing him my debit card he "scanned" it and handed it back. Every time he imagines like this I get excited because a few months ago I wondered sometimes if he had any imagination at all. Back then he wasn't even interested if I tried to initiate pretend games (and would sometimes get mad at me if I suggested it), and now he does it by himself. I am so impressed by the things that he notices.

Kevin is also starting to be more purposeful when he's drawing lately. Usually it's pretty hard to tell what he has drawn, but at least he is drawing things and saying that they are mountains or bread or circles instead of randomly scribbling like he used to.

Ryan came in and found him wearing my glasses as if that were a perfectly normal thing to do.

Heidi
Heidi is learning to say her prayers, sort of. At random times she will fold her arms and say, "A-wah-wah," (Heavenly Father) and then smile and run away, and she will also say Amen at the end of prayers. She recognizes Jesus in pictures. She has been doing great in nursery since she started going at the beginning of the month.

Heidi's favorite thing is for us to hold her hands and spin her around in circles. She is always coming to me and holding out her hands to get me to do it with her.

Video: http://youtu.be/OB0YRbPXm54

The kids are good friends. Heidi takes a shorter nap than Kevin, and after she is awake all she wants to do is go wake Kevin up so he will come play with her. Until then she acts bored and gets mad if we stop her from going into Kevin's room. They love to turn on Kindermusik CDs and dance. Their favorite song is In My House: "Oh, in my house I help clean up with a dust-a-dust dust-a-dust-a-dust . . . " They both sing along and I love it. Kevin has decided that one of his train tracks is his banjo, and when they are listening to music he runs around pretending to strum it. (It does sort of look like a banjo or guitar.)

It looks like we have finally got the kids sleeping in the same bedroom at night. Heidi has been sleeping in a pack n play in our closet for nearly a year. We have made a few attempts at getting them to sleep in the same room in the past, but there were various problems. We had to put Heidi in there first and wait for her to get to sleep, and then sneak in with Kevin. Then they would sleep all night but wake up at 6:00 in the morning, which is way too early (they normally get up around 7:30-8:00--yes, we are pretty lucky). After too many early mornings I decided it wasn't worth being too tired to function and Heidi went back to the pack n play in the closet. But I wanted to try again during Christmas break when I didn't have school to worry about, so we tried again a couple of days after my last final. We didn't even do anything special--we just put the kids in their beds, turned off the light, and said good night and I love you. They chatted for quite a while, and then Kevin came out and greeted us and then turned and said, "Come on, Heidi, let's go get your dog." Yes, he had somehow managed to get her out of the crib. So they got her stuffed dog and then we escorted them back to bed. They chatted for a long time and then finally went to sleep. I figured as long as no hitting was happening I wouldn't interfere. The next night they went to sleep just fine and have continued to sleep in the same room for a couple more nights. They've been getting up around 7:30. I'm glad that we decided not to push it and just waited until they were older. This was easy! Heidi does still sleep in our closet for naps, but it seems like the kids are doing fine sharing a room.

I have been taking the kids to a free program at the University Mall called the Traveling Teacher Show. We have gone twice now. The two teachers sing songs and do activities with the kids and talk about different ways to help the environment, and then at the end the kids get to make a craft out of recycled things. The first time we went we made reindeer by decorating toilet paper tubes and the second time we made New Years Ned puppets using paper bags and various things that were leftover from previous classes. I don't like it quite as much as Kindermusik for the music aspect, but it's nice to expose my kids to doing crafts since that is not really one of my talents. The kids like doing the crafts and they are proud of their creations. In reality I just end up making the thing for them because they don't like deciding what else to glue on, but they're still proud of the result. The teachers have a furry green muppet named Org who always makes an appearance during the songs and also comes and looks at the kids' crafts and tells them how much he likes what they did, and Kevin and Heidi both think Org is very interesting. I can tell that Kevin feels very nervous during the singing and activity parts because it's a new experience and he doesn't know any of the people. When we walk in he holds onto my leg and then after we've been there for a while he starts crawling around and sticking his tongue out. I know it probably looks really odd to people who don't know him. I am hoping to keep going to the Traveling Teacher Show because I think it's helpful for him to be put in new situations like this so he can figure out what to do with himself.

Our apartment complex has a chronic problem with people leaving their boxes by the dumpsters instead of flattening them and putting them inside the dumpsters designated for boxes. It looks tacky and it's also the first thing that people see when they drive into the community. I don't see why adults in graduate school can't seem to be responsible enough to take care of their boxes properly. I think the apartment manager has just started putting the boxes in because the garbage/recycling collectors won't collect the boxes if they're piled up like that. The pile is always quite impressive right after Christmas.

I'd love to tape this note on all the front doors of the buildings, but I don't think I can bring myself to actually do it.

The quiet book pages are finished. There were other pages that I wanted to do, but I can make them later and add them onto the book if I feel like it. I ended up with eight pages.

I had to laugh tonight when I was finishing off the pages. I was sewing around the edges of the very last page to finish it off, and I ran out of bobbin thread two inches from the end. (Isn't it funny how often that seems to happen?) I was not about to take the time to wind up the bobbin for two inches of stitching, so I decided the page was done and wrapped them up to put them under the tree.

I'm really proud of how the pages turned out. I will try to post pictures of each of them later.

favorite ornaments

The kids have been very interested in the ornaments. Kevin's favorites are two small metal trumpets which he loves to blow on (most likely mixing his spit with the spit of all of Ryan's siblings as well as many of Kevin's cousins' spit--yummy!). When we got the trumpet ornaments out he held them and kept saying excitedly, "I'm so happy! I'm so excited about the trumpets!" Magical.

Heidi's favorite ornaments are these tiny wooden dolls (shaped like the nesting Russian dolls, except they're all the same size and don't nest) and of course a little stuffed bear that she likes to snuggle while lying down on the floor. It's so sweet to see her get one of the wooden dolls off the tree and happily walk around holding it and showing everyone.

The kids also love the two jingle bells.

I am getting closer to having the Christmas gifts done. Yesterday I finished the bean bags. I ended up with 20, which is a ton once you look at them. I cut out rectangles, folded them in half to make a square, and sewed around the edges, leaving some space, then turned them inside out. Then I filled them with rice and sewed them shut. It was a fairly easy project. The quiet book has been more work. So far I have five pages done, and I was hoping to make eight. We'll see how far I get. I'm getting pretty good at sewing buttonholes now. I'm not even scared of them anymore. I'm still trying to decide how to divide the pages up, since I wanted it to be a gift the kids would share, but I want them to both get to open some of them. Sometimes I am amazed at what my old sewing machine manages to pull off. A few days ago when I was making the buckle page, the sewing machine sewed those buckles down with no protest at all. A lot of pins got bent in the process of making the bean bags, though.

Enjoying the Magic

In past years I have been somewhat uptight about Christmas. We didn't even get a tree the past two years because I didn't want to deal with Kevin knocking it down and breaking ornaments and biting lights. But this year I have been feeling like I need to just let them enjoy the magic of Christmas. Our friend Teresa left us their artificial tree last year before they moved away, so we set that up and put lights on it soon after finals were over. (By the way, a benefit of an artificial tree is that if it gets pulled over you don't have to worry about water spilled all over the floor.) (Why yes, Heidi did almost pull the tree on top of herself and it scared her to death.) The kids were so excited and fascinated with the lights. It was slightly stressful but I made myself step back and see things from their perspective and I could see how magical it was for them. Then today I finally got out the ornaments and the nativity sets and we put those out. The kids love to look at the nativity sets, and I let them look at my nativity set on the floor for a while before I got nervous and put it up high. As we got the ornaments out I realized that we really only have a couple of ornaments that I would be nervous would shatter. Most of the rest are made of wood or cloth or metal. So at least we don't have to worry about stepping on broken ornament glass. I really like that I can let the kids take the ornaments on and off if they want to, except a few that are purposely at the top of the tree. This year we are going to enjoy the magic.

research project

I thought I'd share a brief synopsis of the research project I did this semester.

Here is a map of the area I studied:

There was a master's student who graduated last year who did an extensive study of the chemistry of the soil in this region (at the spot marked "Sun's study site"). The results of the Strontium analysis were very interesting. Strontium has a few different isotopes (same element, but with different weights due to different number of neutrons), and one of the ways to determine the ages (and other characteristics) of rocks is to find out how many of each isotope there are in the rocks. So they take Strontium-87 and compare it to Strontium-86. In this area, you would expect the ratio of 87Sr to 86Sr to be low because it is in the coastal plain and the rocks are relatively young. But in Sun's project, the 87Sr/86Sr ratio was higher than expected--more comparable to the older rocks to the west. So my adviser came up with the idea of having me collect water samples from the area and then find the 87Sr/86/Sr ratios for all of those samples so we could compare the results and get some ideas for what's going on.

So I collected the water samples and separated the Strontium out, which I blogged about before, and then I put the Strontium on filaments to run in a mass spectrometer to measure the amounts of the different Sr isotopes. The results were that the four samples on the west and the three samples on the northeast had 87Sr/86Sr ratios that were about what you would expect--similar to the seawater and groundwater of the area. But interestingly, the three samples within the national forest (CF-C, GL, and HC) that are near Sun's Study site all had high ratios, although not as high as the ratios for the soil she studied. So now the question is where this area is getting 87Sr from, and there are a lot of possibilities.

The main thing I learned is that I still don't know very much. But I do feel excited that the numbers I got from the mass spectrometry make sense and have some meaning. I'm guessing I will be studying this some more next semester.

Fun in the Cupboard

This is one of Kevin and Heidi's favorite games. As you may have guessed, I am not currently doing a very good job of rotating my canned food storage.

a placebo

One of Kevin's newest phrases is, "This is called a _______."

"It's kinda good/kinda gross." (Generally in reference to food.)

"I'm not being naughty!"

"I want to do it . . . by myself." Or, "I want you to do it by yourself" (if he doesn't want to do something).

"I can't--I'm just . . . too busy." (I don't know where he got this from, because I really don't think I say this that often.)

"I want medicine sugar on my toast." (He means cinnamon sugar.)

Most-requested foods: Berry muffins (plain muffins with 2 cups of frozen berries) and pizza

He addresses people as sweetheart and honey. At least there's one positive thing I say that he is copying.

Kevin is finally getting to the point where I can "help" him say the right thing. I'll see if I can explain what I mean. I've always been really frustrated when I go to the park or a playdate and Kevin acts up and then there's this expectation that I teach him what to say, like, "Kevin, you need to say you're sorry. Say, 'I'm sorry, Sally.' " Or, "Kevin, you can't take the toys away. Say, 'Bobby, can I please have a turn using the shovel?' " I think it's great to help kids learn how to speak politely to their friends, but it only makes sense if they can actually speak. It's just dumb to try to get little kids to say long sentences like that when they can't even say their own name. So anyway, Kevin is finally to the point where it makes sense to teach him to say the right thing, and he's big enough that he can not only repeat it, but later on he does a better job of applying it. It's actually really nice. I appreciate that now that I've had him practice several times, he is starting to apologize to Heidi with just a little bit of prompting. Or if he demands something, I can respond by saying, "Please, Mommy, I would like ______," and then he remembers and asks again with better manners. Don't get me wrong, this kid has a lot of learning to do, but it's nice to occasionally get a sign that he actually is internalizing some of this stuff.

One Saturday morning Kevin came out of his room complaining he was sick and needed some medicine. He took one bite of Cheerios and moaned even more loudly that his tummy hurt and he needed some medicine. We were convinced that what his tummy needed was food, not medicine. Besides, Children's acetaminophen doesn't do much for tummy aches anyway. After unsuccessfully attempting to get Kevin to eat, Ryan pulled out the syringe and medicine cup and said, "Well, if we can't get him to eat and medicine won't help, I know something even more powerful than medicine. A placebo." He then mixed up a tablespoon of Country Time Lemonade in the medicine cup and gave it to Kevin by syringe. Kevin perked up quite a bit, but he still moaned occasionally and refused to eat anything. It turns out he really was sick, because a little while later he threw up a little on the couch. Then he was back to normal. But the placebo did help.

[The couch is fine, by the way. It's a magic couch and has miraculously cleaned up nicely after all sorts of messes, including multiple episodes with pens.]

Kevin likes to take pictures of suckers. He also likes to eat them.

A favorite game these days is to tip over the rocking chair, drape a blanket over it, and play underneath like it's a fort or a cave or a tent. Sometimes both kids will go in and play nicely for a couple of minutes.

Clothes hampers are fun.

On Thanksgiving morning, the kids were having fun playing in the clothes hampers. Both of them can still sit down inside and pretend it's a little house/cage/cave.

Heidi is brave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Bn-D7x8jw

Heidi

Heidi has recently developed a love for going down slides and swinging. She has the sweetest smile when she's doing it.

One of Heidi's favorite games these days is to dance on the table and giggle while shrieking, "Get down! Get down!" She also likes to lean over the counter from the table and turn on the water.

I secretly enjoy it when she clutches things and says with a sweet smile, "Mine! Mine!"

She has just figured out how to open doors. I'm happy for her, but what a pain. Is it possible that this little sweetheart will one day become a two-year-old?

She loves to point to body parts and hear us name them. Her favorites are eyes, nose, and cheeks.

She will usually try to repeat what we say if we point to something and tell her what it is.

She finally has two more teeth, bringing the total up to eight teeth. It seems like most other kids already have a lot more at seventeen months old.

Today Heidi graduated from Relief Society. Since the custom in our ward is for kids to start attending Nursery at the beginning of the month when they turn 18 months old, next week is her first official week of Nursery (our church's class for kids that are 18 months to about 3 years old). I was dreading the six months before she got old enough because it was so hard to be in church when Kevin was that age, but it was much more bearable with Heidi. I'm still relieved that she's finally old enough to attend the nursery, though, because for the last few weeks all she has wanted to do is open the classroom door and run out in the hall, so I've spent the entire time standing by the door to keep her inside so I could get something out of the lesson. Hopefully she'll adjust okay. She has been to Nursery several times because I've substituted in Kevin's class, so it's already familiar.

When Heidi gets up in the morning or from a nap, she always wants to gather up every blanket and every stuffed animal that is in her bed, which sometimes means she is holding two stuffed dogs, her duck lovey, and two blankets. She also will insist that we drape a blanket over her head and wrap it around her. She has recently become very fond of the pink blanket in the pictures below.

Heidi's hair is getting a little longer, which means I can kind of fix it now if I have time or feel motivated. I can do one ponytail on the side with a clip, or I can do pigtails. Here's her I-slept-in-pigtails hair.

something to consider when choosing a major

This is a topic I keep wanting to write about, but I'm not really an expert on it, just a lowly seventh-year undergraduate student, so I keep changing my mind and deciding not to. But today I felt again like I'd really like to share my thoughts, and if anybody wants to comment and add to the discussion, I'd love to hear from you!

Our society needs to change the way we look at higher education. My observation is that most students who are planning on going to college have the perception, "I'm going to get my education." My education. It's not an entitlement. College is not the just the thing you do after you're done with high school. It's an investment. I admit that I was guilty of this perception. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with getting higher education. I think it's valuable for people to attend college. But it's more than the next step.

(As an aside, I think another change we need to make is for high school to prepare students for better jobs than McDonalds. Students who want to work after high school should have access to classes in high school that give them job skills.)

I think parents and advisors need to encourage high school students and new college students to think farther ahead than which major they will choose. When I was in high school there was plenty of talk of majoring in what you are passionate about. And that's important to some extent. But college is not just about entertainment. I said it before--college is an investment. It's great to go to college and learn about all sorts of interesting things, but when you graduate you're supposed to be more qualified for a job than you were when you graduated from high school.

Every year it's always interesting to hear all the freshmen, who are all trying to get to know everyone, talking about what they're going to major in. Usually the talk goes along the lines of, "Oh, I'm not really sure what I'm going to major in yet. I love linguistics, but I think philosophy would be really interesting, but then I also love English literature." There's not a lot of talk about what job they would like to be hired for after they graduate. It's all about what is interesting.

And then we have thousands of students all over the United States who are now complaining that they have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt and that they can't find a job. I will acknowledge that jobs have been a little more scarce for the past few years, but at the same time there are many industries that would love to hire more people, but there aren't enough people who are qualified. There's something to be said for studying what you're interested in. You can have a horrible life doing something you hate but making a lot of money. But if you want a reliable income, there's also something to be said for choosing a field that is in high demand.

We need to think about college differently. If you do a search on Google, there are many lists that show unemployment rates and salaries for different majors. Students going to college need to look at these lists and seriously consider whether the major they are passionate about would be a wise investment of their time and money. They need to realize that there are trade-offs in different majors. Some majors are really interesting, but people with degrees in those fields aren't paid well, or there aren't a lot of jobs in that field. If you choose that kind of major, you might want to supplement it with a minor or internships or jobs that get you more useful skills. Or you might need to resign yourself to the fact that you will always need to be frugal. Some majors are very challenging, but they lead to good-paying or high-demand jobs. There's something to be said for studying and working in a field that you are passionate about, but then again job security and financial security are also very valuable.

So in other words, pick something that you can stand and that can make you enough money that you can cover your expenses.

This post is in no way meant to disparage anyone. I can't make any judgment about an individual person's choices, because personal revelation and personal experiences play a significant role in choosing a major or a job or any other path. My main point is that in our society we need talk more about which majors are more likely to lead to jobs instead of focusing so much on majoring in what we are passionate about, so that at graduation it won't be a surprise to so many people that certain fields don't pay well or don't have a lot of available jobs. Then if some people still choose those fields, they will know what they are getting into.

ruts, projects, and water samples

Wow, I haven't blogged since the 8th. Occasionally I think about it, but I didn't really have anything to say. I do have cute things about Kevin/Heidi posts that I update occasionally, but I haven't been ready to post them yet. Oh, and Ryan's parents came and visited, but I haven't gotten around to uploading the pictures yet.

I have been in a rut when it comes to reading books. I'm not really sure how many books I have started without finishing in the past couple of months. Wives and Daughters, Silent Spring, Out of the Silent Planet, The Dark Is Rising, probably several more. I've tried rereading favorites, starting ones I've always wanted to read, reading books that others recommended, and most books just haven't done it for me. The only one I actually finished was Flowers for Algernon. I read it several years ago and liked it pretty well, but this time I couldn't put it down. I started it in the evening, read until 2 a.m. and couldn't sleep even then, and finished it the next day. It has a lot more meaning now than it did when I was younger because I've had more life experiences (relationships, marriage, children, college, etc.). In the end I cried. But after that I still haven't been able to get out of the rut. I've started Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and it seems promising, so we'll see. I think a lot of my problem is that I have a lot of other things that need to get done and I feel bad reading when I really ought to be finishing homework or a project.

It looks like we're going to have a rather handmade Christmas. I keep thinking about what I could get the kids for Christmas and I just don't want any more toys. But I do have a lot of fabric and scraps, and a few pounds of brown rice that (let's face it) we will never eat. So I'm going to use them to make some quiet book pages and little bean bags.

I also made some more bias tape for another project. I have several baskets that we got when we bought peaches at the farmer's market, and I've decided I'm going to put ruffles around them and put them on top of my cupboards to hold food so that my food storage won't look ugly up there anymore. The bias tape is to make the top edge of the ruffle look finished. Ryan and watched Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy while I was working on the bias tape. I'm intrigued and hoping that the library also has the next movie in the series.

Yesterday I spent the entire day getting my water samples ready to go in the mass spectrometer. It's quite a process. You use these tiny funnels called columns that have a very narrow neck with a little sponge in it. First you put resin and water in the column, and you have to let all the water drain out so that there is just resin in the column. Then you put more water and also nitric acid in the column and have to let it drain out, and you do that several times. Finally, you put the sample through the column. I'm studying the strontium, and the strontium sticks to the resin in the column while everything else goes through. After I put the sample through, I had to put 12 drops of nitric acid in and let it drain out--and then do it again six times. Then I put the column over a new beaker and put water in it, which had to drain out, and then more water, which also had to drain out. The water gets the strontium out of the resin and into the beaker. Altogether it took twelve hours, because it takes a while for the liquid to drain through the resin every time, probably at least half an hour. Usually it takes around eight hours, but for some reason the columns were draining really slowly yesterday. So it was a matter of putting liquid in, waiting, checking to see if it had drained, waiting some more, adding more liquid, waiting, checking, on and on. I knew there would be a lot of waiting, so I came prepared with homework. I ended up getting two pages of a paper done and making some headway on a final lab project. Oh, and the building was really cold, and the lab was even colder. There are a couple more steps and then the sample will go into a mass spectrometer.

Meanwhile, Ryan got to take the kids to Kindermusik and spend the entire day with them. Here's a google chat we exchanged late at night when I was still watching water drip:

Earlier today I was thinking about making mini quiches (which I have never done before), but I didn't really feel up to making pie crust. Dinner time came and it still hadn't happened. I told Ryan I was having a hard time figuring out what to make for dinner because there wasn't time to do the quiches. So he opened up the Tanner family cookbook to a random page and pointed at a recipe: Chicken Pot Pie. "I don't feel like making pie crust," I repeated. He tried again: Beef Pot Pie. I think he might have done it again and landed on Beef Pot Pie a second time. "Okay, apparently I'm supposed to make pie crusts tonight," I decided. But we had macaroni and cheese for dinner and I mixed the pie crust to use later. So I guess tomorrow is quiche and then I have two more pie crusts left for pie. And it just so happens that we're eating pie on Thursday with Jared and Kristi and family, so I guess I did some work ahead of time. We are very excited to get to have Thanksgiving with family.

election ramblings

Well, it was an interesting election. Four years ago, I didn't particularly care who was elected president because I didn't have a lot of faith in either one. This time was different. I really like Mitt Romney, and I'm disappointed that he wasn't elected. In my opinion, government debt is our biggest problem, and I felt that he would do a good job getting the country back on track financially. I also think he is a really nice guy, and I'm disappointed that the media spread a lot of lies and half-truths to make him look like a greedy jerk. That being said, although Obama is inexperienced and (in my opinion) misguided in some of his policies, I think that he is also a good person and wants America to succeed. I've taken a couple of quizzes that show that I actually agree with Obama on most issues. It doesn't all rest on him, either--and really I think it all depends more on Congress than on the president. If the Republicans refuse to work with him and make compromises, then it's just as much their fault as Obama's fault if they make a mess of things. The Republicans and the Democrats have a lot more things that they agree on than things they disagree on, but they're always focusing on the things they disagree on. It got so bad this year that I decided to block Facebook on my computer until the election was over so I wouldn't have to see any more bitter and hateful comments or articles. We have got to get over that if we're going to make any improvements in government. I intend to join our church leaders in praying for our national leaders.

I always try to make informed decisions when voting for local officials. It's hard because they're not publicized nearly as much as candidates for president or Congress, but I still try to do my best because in many ways they will have a bigger impact on our area than the federal government will. A lot of people just vote a straight party ticket, and I think that's a mistake. I think I ended up voting for about half Democrats and half Republicans this time. There were some cases where I disagreed with the Democratic candidate, but the Republican candidate was obviously not qualified for the office they were running for. There were also some Republican candidates who I disagreed with more than the Democratic candidate. In one case the choice was between the Democratic incumbent who has been doing a fairly decent job and a Republican who has all sorts of drama in her life that I didn't want being brought to state government. I would have missed all that if I had just decided to vote a straight party ticket.

As I was researching different candidates, I thought it was interesting to see what kind of effect different people's websites had on me. I'm not impressed by a website that has nothing but a biography and a list of the top five priorities. I need more than that to decide. But what's worse is a website that has so much yellow or neon green that I almost go blind. If a person doesn't even have enough sense to have a decent web site design, I'm not so sure they'll do a good job in public office.

on chivalry

So, I had an interesting experience today that made me stop and think.

This morning after my class, I went down to the study lounge for an hour to work on a lab that is due tomorrow. I sat down at a table with a couple of other people who are in my class since it was apparent that we were all working on the same problem. In a couple of minutes two other guys in the class had also sat down at the table. They're friendly guys and they know their geology, but there was also swearing and one guy even belched. No, I didn't say anything, because I hate asking people I don't know very well not to swear.

Then I had to meet with a guy who was helping me to filter my water samples. I had never met him before, and I was surprised to find that he's the sort of guy who casually swears a couple of times per sentence. Anything possible was described using a swear word. This might be surprising, but he probably swears more than anyone I've ever met (although some people I knew in high school probably swear a lot more now than they used to).

Well, at one point I went upstairs alone to the Geochemistry lab to get something, and the postdoc who is, I guess, my advisor was in there and asked how things were going with the filtering. We chatted for a second and then he followed me out. As we got to the door he stopped, and then said, "Oh," as if he'd forgotten something, and then opened the door for me. The interesting thing was that for two hours I had been around loud swearing boys who weren't at all sensitive to the fact that I was a girl, so when he did that simple gesture it was kind of a shock. And then I realized how much of a difference it makes when men try to be sensitive to women.

I'm not really one to care if men hold the door open for me. I hear the stories of women who sit haughtily in the car until their date/son/husband realizes their mistake and opens the door for her, and I don't admire those women. I think it's very unkind to make men feel awkward like that. I know that Ryan has a lot on his mind, and I don't want to hurt his feelings by making a fuss if he forgets to open the door for me. I'm a big girl--I can open a door for myself. (By the way, my dad always opens the car door for my mom. Even when we were little and they had to get us out of car seats, he would walk all the way around and let her out before getting anyone else out of the car. That is also great. It's just different.)

But this was a reminder to me that it is still important to teach our sons to be sensitive to women. I think in our culture lately there has been this feeling that women need to be independent and that they want to be the same as men, but we need to realize that it does make a difference when men make an effort to be sensitive and thoughtful to women. (It's also true that women need to be sensitive and thoughtful towards men, but that is perhaps a different post.)

Something to keep in mind.

vultures on the lightning tree

A local law firm had their firm meeting outside of our apartment. We took pictures. This was after three of them had left.

Every time I look out our window and see this tree, I think of Catching Fire and the lightning tree in the arena.

Trunk or Treat party

So, we had a good time at the ward party. The kids napped late and it took a while to get them in their costumes, and then there was traffic because last night was the UNC vs. NCSU game, so we ended up getting to the ward party an hour late. We had just about enough time to eat a little bit and then go trunk or treating.

I decided to rebel and bring bean dip and tortilla chips. Since we were late, most people probably didn't even know it was there, but I got a few compliments, and one guy said, "You brought this? Oh, bless you." Check out the awesome spiders made of olives that I put on top:

Ryan took Kevin trunk or treating and Heidi and I passed out candy. Kevin didn't really get the concept until the very end. At one of the last cars he saw one of his friends and he walked right up and said, "Trick or treat, Edward!" He's so smart, but sometimes he can be so oblivious.

Here are the kids in their costumes: Kevin the mad scientist (accessories: old computer hard drive and an electrical cord) with Heidi the pink lab mouse

Ryan said that even though parents and dentists and doctors freak out about kids having all that Halloween candy, there's something magical for kids about eating their Halloween candy. He's right. So I'm trying to let Kevin enjoy the magic. Heidi got to eat some Starbursts and thought they were great.

Our ward party is tomorrow evening. So far the kids don't have any costumes, although the plan is theoretically simple to execute. I figured Kevin could be a mad scientist again, and Heidi will be the lab mouse. The mad scientist costume is spiked hair and a white Sunday shirt that doesn't fit Ryan, and the mouse costume is pink footed sleepers and mouse ears (that I somehow need to figure out how to make).

It looks like it's going to rain tomorrow night, which is good, because it means I don't have to feel bad that I'm not going to decorate the trunk. The closest I've ever come to decorating the trunk is draping a sheet across the floor of the trunk and dumping fake leaves (scavenged from a recent Relief Society activity) all over. Antifreeze got all over the sheet.

And if I'm ever in charge of organizing a ward Halloween Party, we're going to eat something besides chili and cornbread. There are all sorts of fun things you can make with a Halloween theme that taste better than chili, and I would love to have a chance to make them.

I guess I'm a party pooper.

Never get too attached to anything when you have kids, because they will probably break it.

Today Kevin ripped the door off of the cabinet attached to his chest of drawers. He showed me triumphantly when I walked into his room.

Lovely.

Did I mention that at the pediatrician's office the other day all the doctors and nurses were commenting about how sweet-natured he is?

Anyway, I forgot to mention it to RT before I left for my evening class. So when I got home I remembered and told him.

His response: "Really? Because Kevin told me that you did it. Now who do you think I'm going to believe--the mother, or the three-year-old?"

transit of Venus

Last June Venus passed between us and the Sun.You obviously don't want to look at the Sun to see a planet crossing it, but Ryan got out his binoculars and projected the image onto a brick wall so we could see it.

getting water samples

I am doing a project this semester with one of my former teachers. I am collecting water samples from a bog near the coast, and then I will be separating the Strontium out of the water. Then I will get to use a mass spectrometer to separate the different isotopes of Strontium from each other so I can figure out how much of each isotope there is. The Strontium signature in the water will give us an idea of what rocks the water has been interacting with, because the ratio of the isotopes tells the age of those rocks. Young rocks would mean it's just been interacting with seawater, which is what we would expect, but old rocks would mean that somehow the water in this area has been mixing with water coming from older rocks (like the ones farther west, where I live).

So we made a couple of trips out to the area to get my water samples. I was hoping to get two more from some lakes, but it got dark. I'm not sure if we'll bother to drive out again.

It was an interesting adventure and we had a good time. Beforehand I had to plan out where we would stop. I had to use Google Maps to find places where rivers, lakes, and creeks would be accessible. Ryan and the kids came along, which was fun. Ryan was a big help with finding all the places. It involved a lot of gravel/sand forest roads because most of the area is part of the Croatan National Forest. I'm guessing almost all of the people who use the roads are there to go hunting or fishing.

Here are a bunch of pictures:

Some interesting conglomerate rocks by the lakes near the White Oak River:



White Oak River at Haywood Landing:

There were some forest fires in this area a little over a year ago, and we could see the damage in several places. Here is a video of a burned area on the way to Great Lake:
http://youtu.be/HpWAwP1eki8





These are from our second trip:

Brice Creek:

Some of the places we stopped at were kind of gross (littered with trash and beer cans), and some had beautiful views. Brice Creek was one of the beautiful ones. It was part of a big and well-maintained city park (think big soccer field, three playgrounds, picnic areas, and lovely creek at the very end). The White Oak River at Haywood Landing was a nice one too.

 Neuse River at Flanner's Beach:

There were thousands of dead fish washed up on the beach here. I'm sure you can imagine the awful smell.

That strip of stuff parallel to the water in the picture below is all dead fish.

After the Neuse River we were going to find Catfish Lake. There was a sign that showed the road we were supposed to take and said we would reach the lake in 6 miles. But the map was not that great, and there was no sign to indicate that we were supposed to turn right onto this little road, so we drove right past our turn and ended up driving so far that we reached a paved road again, so we went back. I did get a sample from a creek along the way, though (it's my filthiest sample, even filthier than my Neuse River sample that has fish skin and bones in it). Then Ryan figured out where we were and we decided to try the unlabeled road, and that went along Catfish Lake, so I was able to get Catfish Lake too. There was a lovely sunset where we stopped:

Both times we stopped at Chick Fil A for dinner. Kevin wasn't especially interested in it the first time (until we traded his CD in for an ice cream cone--he did enjoy that), so I was a little surprised that on the way home he was asking to go there again. The second time he actually ate his entire dinner. Apparently he really enjoyed himself, because when we told him we were going to go look for more rivers he was pretty excited and kept talking about it.

I drove the whole time for our second trip. I didn't know I was capable of driving all day. That meant that Ryan got to be in charge of passing snacks to the kids.

It was a fun trip. Ryan and I got to talk a lot and it was fun to see other places in NC. The contrast in buildings was quite interesting. You could see rusty shacks, mansions by private lakes, well-maintained businesses, and not-so-well-maintained businesses all within close proximity to each other.