Amelia's first sentence

Amelia loves to brush her teeth.  I think it is because she sees the rest of us doing it.  That, and her toothpaste tastes good.  Amelia's vocabulary has really taken off, both with English and Spanish.  Most of the time she mixes them together.  Case in point:  after brushing teeth last night, I told her that we were all done.  As we made our way back downstairs, she said, "No mas brushing teeth." (No more brushing teeth)  I said, "Hey Amelia, that's your first real sentence!"  Pretty fun!

Life got really busy really fast

I kind of almost forgot I had a blog!  That is how busy things have been.  We are about 4 weeks into the Fall semester and things just hit the ground running.  It is amazing how we can go from the quiet of summer to the rush of the semester in the blink of an eye.  Ben and I are both teaching substantial course loads, so between prepping classes, teaching classes, grading for said classes, and meeting with students, we have become a bit detached from the real world.  Oh yeah, and did I mention we have 2 young kids?!  That definitely adds a little spice to life!

Lots of good things are happening though.  Probably the biggest news is that Ben submitted his application for tenure and promotion a few days ago.  Decisions don't get handed down until March, but we all have really good feelings about it.  I am almost finished preparing my 2 dissertation manuscripts for journal submission.  Ally is doing great in preschool and is involved in gymnastics and soccer (the former at a gym close to our house and the latter at preschool).  Neither program has any competitions or games to participate in right now, but I think that's totally fine because it's just about fun and learning some skills.  And Amelia is toddling around, trying to do what Ally does.  Ally seems to like having an understudy, and it is pretty cute watching them chase each other around and play together.

So all in all, life is running along, and we're trying to keep up!  Happy Fall!

A funny poem

Written by Roger, my church music director, upon reflecting on his puffy face after experiencing a tooth infection:

"My face, I don't mind it
Because I'm behind it.
It's the people in front that I scare."

Another Ally sound bite

A couple days ago, Ally was asking Ben and me how people kiss. Specifically, she wanted to know how people of different heights kiss. Ben told her that the taller person usually just bends down and kisses the shorter person. That explanation seemed to satisfy her.

I was a little curious why Ally was asking about kissing so I said, "Ally, are you thinking about kissing someone?" Ally replied, "No, I'm a serious woman."

LOL :)

Happy Father's Day!

Amelia's first haircut!

Hopefully this will reduce her tangles.

Transitions and new beginnings

We are now on semester break!  All grades have been turned in, Elon's graduation was a little over a week ago, and course evaluation results have been received.  After our crazy Spring 2013 semester, Ben and I are enjoying this different speed of life.  To be clear, we do still have work to do (he has a couple summer research students and I have a couple manuscripts to submit for publication), but there is no day-to-day class prep, which makes a HUGE difference.  We were all able to get out of town for a few days last week and we are looking forward to hanging out at the Evans family farm for a few days next month.  So yes, we are in easy living mode for a while, and most definitely enjoying it.

With end of an academic year and the beginning of summer also brings about the possibility of transitions and new beginnings.  Personally, I am leaving UNC to take a 1 year adjunct position at Elon starting in the fall.  I am excited about going to work at Elon every day and getting to know the students and the department even better, but after spending 7 years at UNC, it will be a bit sad to not see those colleagues on a regular basis.  Ben will be submitting his tenure application later this summer to hopefully make the transition from assistant to associate professor in about a year.  We just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week, so now we are transitioning to our second decade of marriage (seriously, are we really old enough to have been married for 10 years???!!!).  Ally is learning how to read and Amelia is on the verge of walking by herself.  So even our girls are embarking on transitions and new beginnings, which is a lot of fun to watch.

At the same time, we are observing our friends go through similar transitions and new beginnings.  One tough part of living in a university town is that a lot of friends come and go.  We have lived here for almost 10 years, and we have seen a lot of people move to and away from here.  This summer, two of our closest couple friends are moving away; our friends the Casads who we've known since 2006 and our friends the Hubbs-Keoghs who we've known since 1999 (we went to college together and then moved here together).  They will most certainly have huge transitions in front of them:  new cities, new jobs, new church homes, and making new friends.  For those of us back here, we must transition too, to maintaining these existing friendships long-distance and to not be afraid to go out and make new friends.  Luckily for the former, email, blogs, and Facebook make it much easier than before.

So here's to transitions and new beginnings, to the excitement of the unknown, and to staying open to new possibilities!

UNC Graduation Weekend

Last weekend was the Hooding Ceremony for all of us PhD folks who received our degrees between August 2012 and May 2013.  Additionally, my department had its spring commencement ceremony to recognize us grads from the past academic year.  Since I graduated last December, I participated in both.  The ceremonies were kind of long and my individual part was short, but my short moments were really significant to me.  The road to the PhD is not always an easy one, and sometimes it is more of an exercise of perseverance and tenacity than intelligence.  This weekend was a nice way to officially close the graduate school chapter of my life and celebrate with my family, adviser, and fellow Exercise & Sport Science grads and colleagues.

 Me and my adviser, Dr. B.  We were a team for 6 and a half years!  I am also now noticing that I am not wearing my hat 100% correctly!

Ally turns 4!

Yesterday was Ally's 4th birthday! We celebrated at the park with friends, lunch, and brightly colored cupcakes. Good times had by all!



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Amelia turns one!

Amelia is one year old today. So hard to believe! Happy birthday, sweet baby!









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Really Mobile Amelia

Her new favorite activity: climbing the stairs


















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The gauntlet of candy

Where there are young children (and holiday celebrations), there is candy.  I swear, it has been one steady stream of candy entering our house since last fall.  Here is the approximate progression of the candy-bearing holidays:

Halloween -> Thanksgiving -> Christmas -> Valentine's Day -> Easter

The thing is, since most of these holidays have a "season" that surrounds them, they all kind of blend together after a while.  For example, we had not finished our stash of Halloween candy before the Thanksgiving and Christmas season came upon us.  And when you have a lot of candy in your house, you kind of feel like you need to eat it.  This is all fine and good for us adults who (usually) can practice self control when it comes to desiring to eat sweets.  Not so much for the preschooler population though.  Up until about 6 months ago, Ally really never asked us for sweets because we rarely had them in the house, and also because she generally didn't care about them too much.  These days, it's a question that she asks pretty much every day after dinner.  So now we are trying to figure out ways to disassociate the sweets eating from desert  and dinner time, and that sometimes we have sweets and sometimes we don't.  Maybe now that Easter itself is over, our candy supply will decrease, and then it will become an out-of-sight, out-of-mind sort of thing.

In the meantime, please don't anyone send us candy.  Coffee is always welcome though!

Random Amelia Pictures

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You know your fate is sealed when...

Your 10 month old who has a runny nose sneezes in your face. Hello sinus infection.

Pi Day = A Day of Hugs

Here is an email message from a math professor on campus in honor of Pi Day (March 14):

My Friends in Math,

Once again we have reached 3/14, Pi Day, the best of the matholidays. 

This means that we should spend the day hugging each other, knowing that the distance our arms travel around is approximately Pi times our huggee's width. What a wonderful way to celebrate this day, and a gentle reminder that by eating more pie, we make hugs all the better!

 

Love it, love it LOVE it!!!

 

 

New Pope!

How exciting is this!  The first South American Pope was elected!  Pope Francis I, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.  Man, I love being Catholic!

Congratulations, Papa!

My current fantasies

1.  Living in a Plow and Hearth catalog while wearing clothing from the Title Nine catalog. 
2.  Living in a Title Nine catalog while also wearing clothing from the Title Nine catalog.

In both fantasies, I could be drinking coffee.

What is there to talk about?

Well, I guess not much since I have become a rather sporadic blogger as of late!  Truth be told, life is just really busy right now.  Thank goodness for imminent spring break though (UNC is this week, Elon is in 2 weeks).  Here's a recap of the latest happenings:

Ben had gone to 2 conferences in the past month or so:  one in Philadelphia and one in Sorrento, Italy.  He took students to both conferences and it seems that both were quite successful. 

I am burning a lot of rubber on I-40 this semester, teaching part-time at both UNC and Elon.  I also went to a conference last month in Greenville, SC, where I was a finalist for a doctoral student award.

Ally is in preschool now and enjoying it.  She has made some new friends and gotten pretty good at riding bicycles and tricycles.

Amelia is on the move crawling and cruising.  She has sprouted 4 teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom).  She is pretty smiley, and has just learned how to wave "adios".

So yep, that's the scoop from here!  Maybe when I have some more time (whenever that will be), I will write a "Mommy PhD" series of posts.  I am envisioning such topics as:  "Balancing the life of the Mommy PhD,"  "Could I be "Mommy' without the 'PhD?'", and "Using my kids and their toys to enhance active learning in Human Physiology."  Or something like that.

New teaching gig!

This week, I began a new chapter in my professional life:  adjunct assistant professor in the Exercise Science department at Elon University!  I am super excited.  I am teaching two classes there in addition to the one class I teach at UNC.  Right now, I feel like my brain is being pulled in about 3 different directions, but I think all will be fine once I get into the groove.  I have enjoyed meeting my students and I'm looking forward to seeing what Elon's Exercise Science program is like, as well as making connections with the Elon faculty.  I have learned one important lesson already:  it is extremely important to sufficiently caffeinate oneself prior to teaching an 8:00am class.

A new diet?

Said by Ally not too long ago:

"I don't like nuts. I just like candy. I'm a different kind of vegetarian."


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Boots around the house

How Boots is spending his Tuesday morning:



Working on the computer.




Practicing piano. I think his repetoire is limited to Christmas and holiday songs.



Hanging with Ally and Santa.



Reading O Little Town of Bethlehem with Ally.



Studying Organic Chemistry.



Trying to figure out how to lose his holiday weight.

Reindeer Recovery

How our reindeer Boots is de-stressing after the holidays:















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Mobile Amelia