Recent Fall Happenings

It has been a busy month!  Here are some of the highlights.

First, we had trick-or-treating on Halloween.  Ally and I dressed up as princesses.  She had a great time collecting candy from all our neighbors and can't wait to do it next year.

Second, attempt #2 at culturing my leukemia cells has gone well.  They are alive and growing well.

Third, my dissertation data collection is finally underway.  I tested 3 subjects last week, and I have subjects on the calendar to be tested all throughout December.  If the pace keeps up, I could possibly finish my data collection early next semester.

Fourth, we had both sets of parents in town for Thanksgiving.  Ally had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Gran-Gran.

Lastly, we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound yesterday.  Baby #2 is growing right on schedule and looks healthy.  And probably of most interest to everyone, Baby #2 is a girl!  Now to the task of finding a name for this little one.

I Killed Cancer

Apparently my lack of a green thumb regarding houseplant maintenance has followed me into the lab. I managed to completely wipe out my leukemia cell culture in only 2 passages. The culprit: bacterial contamination.

Now, to check my media for contamination and try this again...

Adventures with Bizarre Foods: Eating a Durian

One of our favorite shows to watch on Netflix is Bizarre Foods. It is hosted by Chef Andrew Zimmern, and he travels all over the US and the world to try local cuisine.  Many of the things he eats are really weird by American standards.  For example, he has eaten many dishes with various creepy-crawlies.  Also, many cultures eat other parts of the animal besides the regular muscle tissue, like heart, tripe, blood, stomach, tendon, brains, and both the male and female reproductive parts.  Sometimes things are raw, and sometimes things are cooked.  At first, Ben and I were kind of grossed out, but when Andrew explained that many of these ways of eating came out of necessity or poverty (i.e., eat what's hopping around your house and don't waste any part of the animal), we definitely gained a much better understanding and appreciation of how others eat, even if it is a bit odd.

When Andrew goes and samples all these foods, he is very up front about whether he thinks it tastes good or not.  He admits that very few things in his travels have really grossed him out.  However, there is one food that even Andrew Zimmern admits he cannot handle.  It is not blood, brains, tongue, eyeballs, or fried tarantuals.  Nope it is actually a fruit!  The Durian fruit.

There is an Asian market that opened in our area less than a year ago, where they have several of the bizarre foods we've seen featured on Bizarre Foods.  And as luck would have it, they carry the Durian fruit.  Ben and I were really curious about this thing, I mean how could a fruit be that gross?  So we took the plunge.  We bought one.

Me pointing to the Durian.  It weighs about 4 lbs and is really spiky.

We cut it open to reveal the pulp inside.  The pulp is rather custard-like in texture, kind of like a very soft mango.  It kind of comes in these separate compartments, each with a big seed.  The Durian certainly smelled strong, but it wasn't too bad, more like a very very ripe papaya.

So after mulling it over with our eyes for a couple seconds, we took the plunge.  Was Andrew Zimmern right or was he exaggerating???

Well, maybe a little of both.  The first bite wasn't too bad.  But the second and third bites were pretty gross.  I'm really not sure how to describe it, but I think the closest I can come is EXTREMELY ripe mango or papaya that has also started to rot.  It was sweet, but it was WAY too strong in flavor.  So after about 3 bites each (Ally quit after 1 bite), we tossed it in the garbage.  Actually, since the thing had become quite aromatic once we opened it up, I had to put it in the garbage can outside.

So although our experience with the Durian fruit was not terribly pleasant, we're still glad that we satisfied our curiosity.  I'm sure that this food is an acquired taste, but we won't be acquiring it any time soon.

First Family 5K

This past Saturday,Ben, Ally, and I took part in the Get Heeled 5K.  The event was held to raise money for the Get REAL & HEEL Breast Cancer Program, which is housed in my department.  The 5K attracted several hundred runners and walkers and ended up raising $75,000.  This was the first 5K race that the three of us have done as a family, and my first race while pregnant.  Actually, I use the term "race" pretty loosely here because while we all had race bibs, we didn't have race numbers or timing chips, so it was more of a fun run.  After the 5K, we did a 1 mile family walk, and then sampled a lot of the free food provided by the event sponsors.  Below are some pics of our day.

Ally and me with our jogging stroller.  We loaded her in and pushed her while running the 5K.  We have a race bib pinned to the stroller, which says "In Honor of Aunt Linda."  When running events that sponsor cancer charities, it is pretty common to write "In Honor of. . ." or "In Memory of. . ." on your bib.  We decided to run in honor of Ben's Aunt Linda, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and is now in remission.

One of the sponsors was Chick-Fil-A.  Ally had to go say hi to the Chick-Fil-A cow.  She even gave the cow a high five.

Team Evans

New milestones for Ally

Ally is approaching 2.5 years old, and here are 3 new things that have entered her life, or will be in the near future.

1.  She now sleeps in a big-girl bed.

2.  She is nearly potty-trained.  She is excellent with #1, but not quite there yet with #2.  In fact, she wore big-girl underwear all day on Saturday with no accidents, even as we ran our errands outside of the house.

3.  She is going to be a big sister.  That's right folks, sometime around her 3rd birthday (early May), Ally will be greeted by the arrival of a new brother or sister.

Lab Flood #3

No, this is not a joke.  Right in the middle of the renovations for the flood that happened 2 weeks ago.  At least this time, all the equipment was already covered.

Lab Flood #2

That's right folks, the lab flooded again last week.  Grrrrr.

I'm sure we'll all think this is hilarious a year from now.

Finally, IRB approval!

After 3 months and submitting revisions to both the Cancer Center PRC and the Biomedical IRB, I now how approval to start data collection for my dissertation.

Next task, order supplies and practice my laboratory protocols.  Much of this has been made much easier in the last week because I now have an Immunology PhD student who is teaching me how to do some procedures.

I slowly inch forward with this beast!

They're baaaaaaaack!

The students are back on campus!  The semester begins. . .

A common end-of-the-semester conversation

This is a hilarious YouTube video displaying a parodied version of a student worried about his course grade.  Ben and I both laughed pretty hard.  If you've ever taught, particularly at the college level, you have probably had some version of this conversation with at least one student. 

Where a pair of sunglasses could take you. . .

Ally loves to wear her sunglasses.  If she is wearing them in public, she almost always gets noticed for the movie-star appearance.  Case in point:

This is Ally at Nana's 90th birthday party (photo taken by Uncle Jim).  She kind of looks like she could be walking the red carpet.  So work a little photoshop magic and you get this:

Look out world!

Fellow grad school friends: do you ever have those days where. . .

you feel like you can't graduate fast enough?  I am having a lot of those days.

A shout-out

I want to send a shout-out to our friend Matt who is taking the NC Bar exam today and tomorrow. Go Matt! Kick some butt! We're praying for you!

Adventures in Maryland

Last week, we went to visit Ben's brother and family in Maryland. Ally got to play with her cousin Simon who is also 2 years old, as well as Javi, the big black lab.  I think she had a lot of fun with both of them. Here are a couple pics of Ally and Simon at Adventure Playground, where they kind of look like they could be hosting a talk show.

We also took a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium.  I had heard a lot of good things about it, and Ben had gone when he was younger and growing up around the area.  Despite the crowds of people, we got to see some cool sea life.  Ally's favorites were the blue crab, the sharks, and the sea turtle. 

We did have one unanticipated adventure:  a trip to the ER.  Ally took a pretty serious tumble down a flight of stairs and got a large gash on her head and an abrasion on her back.  But a couple hours, 11 stitches, and 2 popsicles later, she seemed to be back to her old self.  Now she talks about how she fell down the stairs,  got booboos on her head and back, that she cried when she got the stitches, and that she has to be careful on Simon's stairs. 

La Fête Nationale

I will start off with a disclaimer. I am not French. The closest I come to French in my blood is my French Swiss relatives on my dad's side. I think one of my cousins might be from Belgium but I'm not 100% sure. But I did take French from 7th-12th grade and I minored in it in college, and we did learn about French history and literature. So July 14th always comes to mind because it is Bastille Day, or La Fête Nationale. I would say the celebrations are probably pretty similar to our July 4th celebrations. And of course, it's not complete without listening to La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem. If you need to get yourself pumped up for something, just listen to it a few times; it is pretty rousing. Vive la France!

IRB approval, part 1

I just got the approval letter from the IRB at the Cancer Center regarding my dissertation project. Now I will submit everything to the Biomedical IRB so they can review my project too (since I'm using both cancer patients and healthy people, I have to go through two IRBs, and the reviews have to be done consecutively). It took about a month and a half to get IRB approval from the Cancer Center, so hopefully the Biomedical IRB will be about the same.

In other news, our lab is finally getting cleaned up from the flood.

Quiet summer

Summer has been quietly rolling along. Ben is working in his lab mentoring his two summer students and I am working in the vicinity of my lab writing a review paper. (The facilities crew still has not put our lab back together since the flood on May 27th, and my protocols are still in the hands of the IRB, so I can't do any dissertation work right now.) It is so nice though to have a relaxed schedule; we go in when we want and come home when we want and don't do any schoolwork once we're home. Therefore, we've been spending lots of family time together playing at the park, going out for ice cream, and scouting out the annual inventory sale at A Southern Season, or "Sample Time" as Ally calls it (for obvious reasons). But one of our favorite activities has been going swimming at the free community pool. I can't believe we did not figure out there was a free pool around here until this summer. It has been amazing. We go every Saturday morning with our friend Victoria and her 2-year old daughter (and Ally's best friend) Elaina. It is such an amazing way to beat the heat. I'll bet you're thinking, "Free pool, must be crowded." I was afraid of that too. But it is the opposite, at least in the mornings when we go. There is also a kiddie pool, so the girls can wade around without flotation assistance. And an unexpected but very much welcome bonus after the morning swim: a long nap!

Future ringer?

Ally loves watching us play bells at Mass. On Saturday, she got a very front row seat as we played the postlude.

Flooded lab and a trip to Denver

The last couple weeks have been interesting ones.  I submitted the first round of IRB documents on Thursday the 26th.  The deadline was actually the 27th, but I managed to get everything done and submitted a day early.  It is a VERY good thing that I did because the next day (Friday the 27th), we had a major flood in the lab.  The line of thunderstorms and torrential rain that came down was too much for our building's roof to handle, and our lab was one of several areas that flooded.  I was in the lab by myself when the flood started, and it is a very odd sight to see a waterfall pouring from the ceiling.  So that day was spent moving equipment out of the lab and trying to clean up as much water as possible.  Here is a picture of me and one of my professors in one of our storage rooms that got flooded the worst (yes, I am playing with a rubber duckie!).

It was probably a good thing that the flood happened when it did; i.e., during the summer when no research projects are ongoing.  Also, none of us were in the lab last week because we all went to the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, which was held in Denver this year.  I had never been to a national ACSM meeting, so I was pretty excited to go.  We all either presented a talk or a poster, which was fun, and I also tried to go to as many endocrinology, immunology, and cancer-related sessions as I could, as that is the focus of my dissertation.  I met some new people, which you never know, could one day turn into a job or collaboration opportunity.  It was also a good chance to hang out with people from my lab in a more relaxed environment as we shared meals or coffee together.  I learned several other things too, like the word "nutriceutical" and that I am really bad at texting (texting is a good way to contact someone if you're not sure if they're in a session and you don't want to risk their phone ringing).  And totally unrelated to science, but important when participating in air travel, I learned that it is a bad idea to drink lots of water during the flight and not visit the bathroom because once the captain turns on the seatbelt sign and starts the descent, you will find yourself in an extremely uncomfortable situation!

Does this bother anyone else?

When you're in Microsoft Word and you're cutting and pasting from somewhere else and it decides to randomly autoformat your pasted selection and change the font.  Drives me nuts!

I am preparing my IRB documents to submit for a deadline tomorrow, and I would really appreciate no more funny business from Word!

My conclusions about guilt and parenting

Okay, despite the heading of this post, I am going to try and keep it fairly light and straightforward.  Ben and I spent last weekend with his family in Portsmouth, VA, celebrating Nana's 90th birthday.  It was a great time, and I think I have eaten enough cake to last me for a while.  It was also great to chat with brothers- and sisters-in-law and let all the cousins play with each other (Ally is one of 5 Evans grandchildren and one of 6 Jackson great-grandchildren).  After spending time with all the kids and watching them interact, I came to some conclusions.

As a mom, I have often fallen victim to "Mommy guilt."  Over the past 2 years, my guilt has generally revolved around the issue of balancing the roles of working outside the home and being a mom.  Is it okay that I don't want to be a full-time stay-at-home mom?  Is it okay to want to attend a conference out of town for presenting research and networking?  I have felt guilty for being required to teach an 8am class 3 days per week last semester and for being required to attend Doctoral Seminar in the fall which went until 5:45pm two days per week.  I have wondered if being away from Ally from 8am-5pm during the week is a bad thing, and if we're going to pay for it somewhere down the road.  But after this weekend, I came to some very important conclusions; some directly related to Ally and her cousins and most unrelated:

1.  Guilt is self-inflicted.  A person cannot "make" me feel guilty.  Sure, a person can say something with the intention of inducing a guilt trip, but the decision to react with guilt is completely mine.  If I have confidence in myself and my decisions, then I have no reason to feel guilty.

2.  As far as I know, there is nothing in the Bible that says that a mom is absolutely never ever allowed to have a career outside the home.  But rather, the choice to stay at home or work outside the home should be made prayerfully, with an open mind and heart, the willingness to be led in a direction I may have never considered, and the willingness to be flexible and understand that what I'm being called to do now may not necessarily be what I'm called to do in the future.

3.  Kids' behavior is probably more related to their age, their personality, and how their parents handle them, and not because of whether one parent stays at home.  We have friends and family who run the gamut here; some who stay at home full time, some who stay at home part time and some who work full time.  One of my sisters-in-law stays at home full time; the other works part-time.  I wouldn't say that their kids are necessarily better behaved than Ally or that Ally is necessarily better behaved than her cousins.  We have friends with toddlers who are mellow and toddlers who throw temper tandrums at the drop of a hat, and their parents career/staying at home choices span both sides of the fence.

4.  And when I'm feeling a moment of doubt, all I have to do is look at Ally.  She is happy, sweet, laughs a lot, keeps up with her peers, easygoing, and one of the most agreeable toddlers that I know.  That's my answer right there.

Dingalings

A recent picture of us Chelsea Chimes handbell ringers, or as Fr. John calls us, the Dingalings

Random lesson learned

Original flavor almond milk is very tasty on its own, but absolutely disgusting as a coffee creamer.

She's two!

Some pics from Ally's 2nd birthday weekend, which we celebrated with my parents and some friends from church.

Enjoying our new deck, which Ben built entirely by himself.

Ben grilling on the new deck.

 Victoria with Elaina and Ally.

 Ally and Elaina, with Rebecca and Kate in the background.

I made birthday cake cones, which were enjoyed by all.

Ally, Grandma, and Grandpa.

Ally, Ben, and me.

Dissertation proposal-APPROVED

This morning, I successfully presented the proposal of my dissertation project.  My committee made a few suggestions but no major revisions.  They have now signed off on it, and now the real fun begins!

The road to potty-training

Now that Ally is approaching 2 years old (her birthday is next week!) she has achieved a lot of  major milestones.  She has been walking for over a year, she talks up a storm, she's got almost all her teeth, she can feed herself, climb into her car seat, and put on her shoes. And now, the newest skill she is working on is going to the bathroom in the potty.  She first became interested in the potty probably around Christmas time, so we got a potty seat for her to try out.  She liked to sit on it before bathtime, but generally nothing would happen, and if it did, it was probably just coincidence.  But in the last few weeks, she has been wanting to use her potty more and more.  She will even sometimes tell us that she needs to go to the bathroom, and most of the time she's right!  I will be honest, I did not think that potty training was going to happen this early; I guess I always assumed age 2.5 or 3 was when kids got potty-trained.  But I suppose every child is different.  In any case, I think it is pretty cool that Ally wants to go in the potty because it is way less messy than changing diapers!  One downside though; she is back to waking up before 7am because her full diaper bothers her.  I guess that's to be expected though.  Oh well, I guess it's bye-bye to diapers before long!

Happy Easter!

Things I don't understand

1.  Skinny jeans
2.  Wearing a strapless shirt or dress to class
3.  Super-short shorts, dresses, and skirts
4.  Wearing clothing that is 2 sizes too big or 2 sizes too small
5.  Wearing clothing that does not flatter your figure
6.  Women's clothing that looks like maternity clothing but really isn't
7.  Any article of clothing that costs more than $50
8.  Bright red lipstick
9.  Covering the majority of the body in tatoos
10. Body piercings in places other than the ears and nose
11.Grunting while lifting weights
12. Not making sure the toilet is completely flushed when using a public restroom
13  1/2 % milk
14.  Not following directions
15. Oversleeping for a 10:00 am class, especially on the day of an exam
16. How they cram so many fat and calories into fast food

Almost done

Regarding my dissertation proposal document:

Chapter 1-Introduction:  done
Chapter 2-Literature review:  done
Chapter 3:  Methods:  insert stats section from the statistician

So just a few more paragraphs and the first complete draft of my dissertation proposal is done.  Hopefully my advisor will let me know if I need to do any major revisions before I send it to the committee.  This thing is long; cover to cover is near 100 pages.  It's basically my dissertation minus the results and discussion, so there is comfort in knowing that the bulk of my dissertation has now been written. 

Dissertation proposal date!

Thursday, May 5th, 8am.  Successful coordination of dissertation committee schedules achieved on the first try!

I could eat that

One of the shows that Ben and I are enjoying on our Netflix "watch it instantly" queue is Bizarre Foods.  It is hosted by a chef named Andrew Zimmern, and he travels all over the world to sample local cuisine.  He is definitely right when he says that what is common in one country is quite exotic in another.  I think I was a little taken aback when I first started watching the show, but then again, one of the first episodes I saw was people in southeast Asia eating fried tarantulas.  Apparently though, they taste really good, and you eat them like a crab.  The kids were flocking to them.  I, however, would probably pass, as I am afraid of large spiders.  But now after watching a bunch of episodes, I'm starting to think that some of the previously bizarre eats are looking kind of appetizing.  Crickets sauteed with spices and vegetables?  I think I could eat that.  Crispy fried mealworms for a snack?  They look just like little french fries, I think I could eat that too.  Eyeballs, brains, heart, lungs, and digestive system parts? Hmm, I think I'll pass and stick with regular muscle tissue.

So many great things about Spring

I love this time of year. The flowers are starting to bloom, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, the semester is half over, and Easter is approaching (i.e., good music making opportunities at church).  But I think one of the best things about this time of year (and I believe my siblings-in-law will agree with me here) is NCAA basketball!  March Madness is underway, and UNC just won its first ACC tournament game against Miami.  Go Heels!

10 lessons I am reminded of. . .

as I develop my dissertation project and about research in general:

1. Everything always takes way longer than you initially think.
2. You are often at the mercy of other people's schedules.
3. Your project is the most important thing. . to you (i.e., not necessarily to others).
4. You will read many articles. Then you will re-read them multiple times.
5. The literature summary table will save you an incredible amount of time when constructing your lit review.
6. Don't re-invent the wheel; looking at other people's dissertations is very helpful when organizing your chapters.
7. Consult with a statistician.
8. Your advisor and committee members know a lot, but they don't know everything. You may end up having to educate them on a thing or two. In my case, that thing is using flow cytometry to measure NK cell counts and activity.
9. It is incredibly important to have very clear research questions, as they will drive the formulation of your hypotheses, study variables, and design.
10. Sometimes a figure is a great way to go when describing a concept.

I'm sure I'll think of more as I continue chipping away at this beast!

New home and office furniture

Last weekend, Ben and I purchased a new dining table. It replaces the 38-year old table that my parents got when they first got married, but got passed to us when we got married (they also had a new dining table and did not need it anymore). The old table new lives under our guest bed, to be brought out when we have the whole family over like at last year's Thanksgiving. Ben and I are loving our new table, as we can comfortably seat 8 people around it, and if people have especially small backsides, it might even seat 10.

I also acquired a new piece of office furniture; a nice big whiteboard. It is awesome. I have already used a good bit of it to write out my conceptual models for my dissertation. I feel so scientific now, as every good (and slightly nerdy) scientist needs access to a personal whiteboard.

Offensive behavior

Apparently, it is quite offensive to assist a toddler with an activity (i.e., putting on shoes, buckling the top part of the carseat, walking up or down stairs, etc.) if she has not explicitly asked for your help. The toddler considers this assistance even more offensive if she is tired, and her response will be quite emotional in nature. Additionally, the toddler must often be given a few minutes to "emotionally prepare" for some activities, such as mealtime, bathtime or leaving a friend's house. To not allow her that period of preparation could also be taken as offensive.

Lab happenings

Just a little while ago, the professors and most of the grad students in my lab left for a regional conference. I decided to stay behind, 1) because I am not presenting anything this year, and 2) to get some schoolwork done. It is going to be a VERY quiet next couple days in the lab, which will hopefully be conducive to productivity on my part.

Considering the figurative sense of the word "quiet", things are also quieting down in our lab because we just finished a faculty search. Over the past 3 weeks, a lot of us have been busy with giving tours to the candidates, going to their teaching and research presentations, and sharing meals with them. Hopefully we'll find out soon which of them is accepting the job.

My time this semester so far has been spent starting on the literature review chapter of my dissertation, investigating prices of ELISA assays that I might end up using (one word: EXPENSIVE), looking for small dissertation grants to apply for to fund said ELISA assays, and meeting with dissertation committee members to discuss my project ideas with them. I have the last of those meetings on Monday, so after that, I anticipate that I'll be able to solidify my research questions and proceed from there.

Scatterbrain

I get on the bus yesterday afternoon at 4pm like I always do. Then halfway home, it hits me like a lightning bolt: I drove my car to campus! Needless to say, Ben was a little surprised when he and Ally came home a few minutes after I did and found me in the kitchen but no car in the driveway.

So I have a sticky note on my computer today to remind me to drive home.

The art of conversation

I recently read a great post on one of the blogs I follow; you can read it here. The topic is about teaching children how to converse with others, and I thought it was a good one for those of us with little ones to keep in mind as they grow older and begin to learn how to have a conversation with others. I think it was a challenge to me too, to examine how I converse with others. Am I always the one talking and trying to tell my stories and my opinions? Do I really listen to the other person when they are talking? Do I fall into an "interview-style" conversation where I answer the other person's questions but don't inquire about how the other person is doing and what is going on with them? Being that I am Ally's example, if I want her to one day learn how to converse properly with others, I need to practice good conversation skills myself. It is some good food for thought.

It has begun. . .

the writing of the dissertation; the final event of my PhD career. Before I begin collecting data, I have to write and present a dissertation proposal, which is basically the first 3 chapters of the dissertation (intro, lit review, methods) and then get IRB approval. I have started with the lit review chapter, which I can chip away at piece by piece as I wait to meet with all my committee members to discuss the ideas I have in mind for the methods. Once I get some preliminary feedback from my committee, then I can proceed to write my intro and methods.

I have waited and worked a LONG time to get to this point, and I am really glad I'm here. I have a LOT of work ahead of me, but I feel ready for this.

Bizarre foods

Lately, Ben and I have been watching episodes of Bizarre Foods on Netflix. Last night, we ate a $6.00 lobster from Kroger. As I munched on a slightly tough piece of lobster tail meat, with the lobster's beady eyes staring at me, many of the episodes flashed in fast forward through my head. Not to mention that Ben managed to locate the lobster's digestive tract and proceeded to investigate it's stomach contents.

I am half-heartedly thinking of becoming vegetarian.