Picture of the Week Dec 10

Happy Holidays! Here is our tree. This picture is hot off the press... I just took it 10 minutes ago. We got our tree yesterday and it has lights and a few ornaments, not many yet. Ahhh, christmas.

I made this!

I made this skirt - my first without following a pattern. It didn't take me too long, but it is kind of thrown together. Making all the panels the same length was difficult. Next time I'm going to try a patchwork skirt with squares instead of lengthwise panels. That might be a bit easier. I still think it looks cool! I'm wearing it for my defense tomorrow.

"We The Living"

This morning I finished it. I have to say that it was one of the most depressing books I've read thus far. I have a funny love-hate relationship with Ayn Rand. I don't think I'll be reading any more of her fiction.

I think Rand is a fabulous writer. At least, I found 'We The Living' to be well written and engrossing. There were times I couldn't put it down. I have also read 'Atlas Shrugged', and parts of that novel were also engrossing, although I found it got quite boring at times. With both books I found I was compelled not by what Rand would probably want her readers to be compelled by, but by the somewhat secondary plots. I found myself absolutely hating 'Atlas Shrugged' but being driven to keep reading in order to find out what happened between Dagny, Rearden and Galt. A similar thing happened in 'We The Living' between Kira, Leo and Andrei. I'd find myself hungry to find out what happened next in their love-lives, and when I found out I would often scream and throw the book onto the floor. I was engulfed in the love in those two books, which always seemed secondary to Rand's main points, and her philosophy, which is the reason so many people like her work. And the love never failed to let me down. I remember being so upset when Dagny left Rearden for Galt. I was terribly upset when Kira kept choosing Leo even when he obviously no longer cared for her or about her, while Andrei had given her his heart so freely. Kira was drawn to Leo with an overpowering love that could not be stopped, and it was her downfall. She should have seen it!!!!! That is what my mind kept screaming through almost the entire novel. She should have seen Leo for what he was and Andrei for what he was. She should have chosen more wisely! Yet, love is blind. But oh, so depressing.

I didn't particularly enjoy 'We The Living', as I didn't enjoy 'Atlas Shrugged'. I don't like reading Ayn Rand and I won't do it any more. Yet I can see where she is a great writer. Her books do stress me though! I don't want to scream at any more books.

Picture of the week Dec 3

This week's pic is of my beautiful baby. Yes it's a funny picture. It's difficult to get a picture of her sticking her tongue out. She turned 5 months old on the 1st!

Weight issues

My baby is 5 months old and I haven't lost my pregnancy weight. I've lost some, but not nearly all of it. It is my fault I'm not exercising enough. I understand that. But I am (and have been for a while now) a little upset at practically everything I've read that says that breastfeeding moms lose their pregnancy weight faster than non-breastfeeding moms. Well, I'm breastfeeding, and I was exclusively breastfeeding until a short time ago, and that didn't help me at all. Other things I read suggested that breastfeeding moms would lose most of their pregnancy weight by 6 weeks. Hah! I had lost about 10 pounds by 6 weeks. That was mostly baby and placenta. What is up with all this literature telling me that I should have lost those pounds easily and about 4 months ago? I don't know.

We're looking at gym membership for Christmas. A real gym, not just the university gym. A place where they have childcare. I really enjoy working out with my husband and maybe gym membership would give us this chance. I've been working out on my own since my daughter was born, and while it is fun and satisfying, it's not helping me shed pounds. When we were undergrads my husband and I worked out together all the time, and that kept us both fit and happy. Hopefully we can become a fit and happy family all together.

No time!

I'm trying to finish up corrections on my thesis, and get ready for my defense. I have one week from Friday. I'm getting nervous about my talk - I still have to put part of it together. It is good that I have already given several talks about my work, so I have intro and methods parts finished. But I have to figure out how to make my discussion and my summary really kick ass.

I have spent so much time in the past two weeks working on my summary figure. I hope it is going to turn out spectacular. I just had to re-do it this morning to put in even more data, but this should be the last time I have to change big things.

I also made an appointment with the lady at the graduate school who goes over formatting. But that is going to be the Monday after my defense. I can't deal with more before! I'm already leaving the house messy.

On a completely different note, I am enjoying this winter so far. Just in the past two weeks it has gone from mild fall to chilly winter! The high today is not supposed to break 10 above zero. I walked to work yesterday morning through snow on the ground and the brisk air was invigorating. I'm happier than last year because (1) our house is much better insulated than the place we lived last year, so I'm warmer, and (2) I am not having morning sickness every day, which really put a damper on the holdiays last year. I'm looking forward to enjoying baking for Christmas this year! And decorating the tree, and wrapping presents for my baby, etc. Alltogether this year is much more fun.

Pie picture

I promised a picture of my lemon meringue pie. It was only beautiful until it cooled. Then my meringue shrank. Everyone suggested I didn't use enough. I'll try again sometime.

Picture of the week Nov 27

This picture, taken this past July 30, is of the fire weather from the Paradise Complex wildfire in the Paradise Valley, MT. We actually drove through the Paradise Valley the next day down to Yellowstone, and the smoke was fairly bad. In a few spots we could see flames. The smoke in Bozeman got much worse around Labor Day, and I have pictures of that too which I will post later.

Happy 100th post!

Wow! 100 posts in about 2 years. I started this blog back in November of 2004. It seems like so long since then! I've gone through a pregnancy and 4.5 months of my daughter's life. I've also passed my comps and written my thesis. Reading my old blogs is a trip!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time ever this year. I will post a picture of it later because it is beautiful.

Have a nice holiday, everyone!

Scheduled

My thesis defense is scheduled. I have 17 days to prepare. I still have to fix my summary figure and my discussion a little. And practice the talk.

Now I have to care for my baby. What's new??

Picture of the Week - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope you all have wonderful plans for the holiday. We are having dinner here at our house with two of our best friends. And our daughter gets some babyfood sweet potatoes. Mmmm.
This week's picture is me reading a paper by our cozy fireplace - in our previous house. This time of year we really miss the fireplace.

Funny Labor & Delivery Anecdote

As I promised...

Our daughter Z was born at 6:15 in the morning after a night at the hospital. We had all previously agreed that Danny would cut the cord. So the doctor gave Danny the scissors and he cut the cord. Then the doctor continued with the rest of the birthing process. Danny still had the scissors and he asked the doctor what he should do with them. "Just throw them on the floor", was the doctor's reply. Danny looked down and saw other flotsam and jetsam from delivery on the floor, and obviously they scrub those delivery rooms pretty well. So he did throw the scissors on the floor. But not until after considering that he had bare feet, and hadn't been wearing his shoes since before midnight!

We laughed at this later that day and again when we told my mom.

I should be asleep

Yes my bedtime is significantly earlier than it was when I was not a mommy. Actually, that is a lie. I just tend to go to bed early. I have for my whole life practically.

I drank coffee this afternoon, which is turning out to be a big mistake. I am tired but not sleepy! AAGH! Sleep is precious and I'm missing it!

Tomorrow... funny labor anecdote. I promise!

Hmmm...

For those of you with keen eyes, you will notice that the Picture of the Week on my sidebar is not the same picture as the one in my blog text. They are *almost* the same though!

Picture of the Week

I started using Blogger beta and you can add pictures to your blog super easy, so I've added a Picture of the Week. I'll post it too, so readers who use readers (heh) can see it.

This week's picture is of Swan Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Taken by Danny.

New look, new thoughts

I hate it when people give up their blogs for a long time and then start posting again. Wait... That's what I'm doing! To those of you who might have me on Google Reader or Bloglines or another reader, I apologize for the long absence.

For me, it has been impossible to write these past few months. Learning how to get along with my child has taken up most of my time. Then there was/is that thesis I have to turn in. I am giving it to my committee members tomorrow! Which means my defense is coming up. I'm only getting a Master's but I still have to do all this stuff. Thankfully it is almost over.

Sure there are tons of things to post about when you have a new baby! But who really wants to sit down at the computer and write about something when you could be either hanging out with said baby, or taking care of the myriad other things that don't get much attention when you are a new mom (e.g. house cleaning, dishes, husband, self). Instead of posting I had to work on my thesis. Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I want to post again. So I will. And if you are still reading my blog after the hiatus, THANK YOU!

Everything has changed

We had a gorgeous baby girl born on Saturday, July 1st at 6:15 in the morning. And she is the reason I haven't blogged since then. But she's a good reason. This is from the day she was born. She looks a lot older now that she's two months already!

So many things have happened in the last two months! I don't even have time to recap. I am immersed in my kid and my thesis. I have to have the draft completed by Monday the 11th (my own deadline) to get it to my advisor. I'm giving her over two weeks with it, then I'm getting it to the rest of my committee. I want to defend in November, so I'm hoping this is enough time for them. I still have to set the actual date for my defense, which I'm going to do next week.

In other news, I successfully did a poster at AMQUA when my baby was 6 weeks old. It was not a fiasco! It went really well. And I went to see a couple of talks including Bill Ruddiman's talk about his anthropogenic greenhouse hypothesis, while my husband hung out with our daughter in the lobby.

Now I'm keeping a baby book after deciding not to keep one and then changing my mind about a week ago. My mom suggested I keep one to write down interesting baby stuff in, and at first I thought it was not my thing. Then I realized that I was already forgetting stuff about the first weeks of having a newborn. Then I figured it was a good idea. And we've been taking oodles of pictures of course.

More to come in the future. I promise!!!

Trying to avoid work

It is after 3pm and I haven't done too much in the way of work yet today. I feel like I'm trying to avoid it even though I keep telling myself I'm not. Why?

I have a good chunk of thesis written. This week I finished the two gruesome tables I had to include. Just today I DID install Adobe on my computer so that I can make my figures. I have a list in front of me of the figures I need. This week I also finished the results section. Now on to the discussion. Which is what I think I am avoiding writing. That and one more section of my introduction that I don't want to write. I must get to it though! I must overcome!

In my procrastination I started reading thehomelessguy's blog (linked from She Falters' blog). I like it! It reminded me of times I've been confronted by homeless people. Most of the time I'm pretty leery of homeless people because there were many crazy ones where I grew up that were just scary and young women wanted to stay far away from them. But there were a few times when I got to know a homeless person a little. One guy I met in Laramie, WY, played the balalaika. And I have a sneaky feeling that one of my former employers is now homeless or close to it. He was my best friend for a while, I knew him pretty well. I hope he is ok.

Finished! (with my book)

Yay! On Sunday afternoon I finished War and Peace. It was a nice experience in my life. I believe that my favorite quote (at least that I can think of) is the one I posted before. Yesterday afternoon I picked up Skeleton Crew and read The Mist, a story I hadn't ever read before (I've had the book for years but hadn't read every story). I got completely sucked in and read the whole 155 page story in one sitting. It was really creepy outside too - thunderstorms and rain. That always makes King more intense.

I've read a lot of Stephen King in my life; the last book of his I read was Bag of Bones, around December 2004. Incedentally, that book scared the daylights out of me. But, after not having read him for a while, it was nice to get involved in a story of his style. I love the way he writes. I know it is probably simplistic and too mainstream for literature lovers, but I like it.

Life

"We imagine that when we are thrown out of our accustomed grooves that all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins."

-- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

I love this book. It has to be one of my all-time favorites. It has taken me quite a while to complete it. I'm actually not done yet, I still have about 100 pages left. But if you know War and Peace, I'm super close to finishing. Perhaps I will finish before I give birth...