Danielle Blog

Merry Christmas! – some images of Christmas

Those were cookies that my nieces decorated at Mom and Dad’s. Notice that the sprinkles are in the shape of dinosaurs! There were also blue dolphins, yellow bananas, and brown cows (not visible on this photo).

That was the birthday cake for Jesus at my church’s Christmas potluck.

This is the Advent wreath on one of the first Sundays in Advent before all of the candles were lit. The candles are for Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and the Christ candle (in the center). You can see the leftover mum from the Thanksgiving service and the Christmas tree in the background.

Tidings of joy

I have happy news! (health-related)

I don’t have breast cancer, uterine cancer or colon polyps! AND I don’t have to have another colonoscopy for TEN more years. TEN years! yay!

“What?!” you are probably thinking.

Well, it has been an odd couple of months. I’ve had some odd symptoms that required ultrasounds, mammograms, and a biopsy to check for breast and uterine cancer. All of that came out normal/negative, which was great.

Due to family history, I had a colonoscopy Tuesday. I was pretty convinced that I was going to have polyps, to be quite honest. But I do NOT have polyps, which is really exciting and joyous.
The procedure was really straightforward. The team that prepped me, did the procedure, and helped me after recovery was really terrific.

Everyone had warned me that the “prep” was the worst part. I would have to agree; I was pretty hungry and a little dizzy/cold at times. My last solid food was Sunday night for supper and I didn’t get to eat real food again until Tuesday at about 4 pm. Going almost 48 hours with only “clear liquids” to drink is a really unusual experience. I was actually getting pretty dizzy and lightheaded Monday morning, but I kept guzzling gatorade. Interestingly, I went to Target on Monday amidst the dizziness looking for a clear nutritional supplement (which they didn’t have), and found a type of gatorade that I hadn’t seen previously. It was CLEAR! This is critical, because I wasn’t allowed to drink anything with red or purple dyes. Better yet, the flavor was mango passionfruit! Turns out that once I drank THAT one, I wasn’t dizzy any longer. So, for those of you out there who have to have a colonoscopy, I highly recommend that you drink the 02 Series (Perform) Gatorade! It is terrific. Instead of 2 grams of sugars, it has 7 g. But it doesn’t taste overly sugary.

Texas Seestor was great about taking care of me before, during, and after the procedure. Trainwreck was really understanding and helpful too.

It has been nice to spend extra time with them this week. I’ve had a really good time playing and hanging out with my nieces this week too. This is the sort of thing we’ve done in years past when I would fly here for the holidays; Texas Seestor would take vacation and we’d spend time together.
Yesterday, Mom, Dad, Texas Seestor and I went to a Christmas art/music show. I got to hear a really great band play. I bought some art too; small things like ornaments and magnets. But I also got one larger piece of art for my walls. I definitely need to spend some time this break getting things framed and hung up! My apartment could really use some help.

Oh! Texas Seestor is home, I think we are off to the grocery for our Christmas grocery shopping now!

Thanksgiving hibiscus

On Thanksgiving morning, I was making dill pickle doobers when the sun was coming up. My hibiscus on my patio had about 4 or 5 flowers that morning, and I could see it through the window. I grabbed my camera and did a quick photoshoot while the light was spectacular.

Birthday!

Hello!

Today is my birthday! AND it falls on a Saturday this year! AND, even better, it is the first weekend of Spring Break!!!!

You know what that means?

hmmm?

Well, I’m going to tell you, of course.

I am not going to work this entiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire weekend!

AND, throughout the week, I’m going to take time to do some fun activities.

You can’t tell that I’m excited, can you?

Right now, I’m at Texas Seestor and Trainwreck’s place. I arrived yesterday at 5 pm just when Trainwreck brought the girl’s home from daycare – or PRE-K as my oldest niece exuberantly tells us. We played/I lounged while she played until about 6 pm. It was a great way to start the weekend. About partway through, the youngest finished her supper and bath and came up to play too. She is such a funny thing. She is at that stage where she loves putting things together and taking them apart and making them fit. Over and over again. Who knew that putting a plunger into the barrel of a syringe (all child-toys and not a real one) would be so fascinating?

We watched a lot of the coverage last night on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. How very awful and sad. My heart goes out to all of them.

I’ve been up for about an hour and I’ve eaten a small amount of cheerios or “pre-breakfast” to tide me over until we go out to breakfast. I think that we are going to go to one of my favorite places where I can get really good biscuits, sausage, and really good shredded, fried potatoes. I LOVE the shredded hash browns and biscuits at this particular place. Of course, if we don’t end up going there, the other 2 places we tend to go out for breakfast are also really awesome.

Other plans involve going out to supper tonight and having cake and ice cream at some point.
Then tomorrow, Texas Seestor got tickets for she, Trainwreck and I to go see a vocal performance (a Pops). I’ve been trying to find some sort of performance to go to in the upcoming months as a treat to myself, and voila! She surprised me with this! How perfect! Mom and Dad will watch the girls so that we can go out.

This week, Mom, Dad and I hope to go to the zoo. There is one in the area to which I’ve not yet been, and I’m really excited to go.
We are also talking about taking a trip out to another town that has artsy-craftsy type stores to spend part of a day.

I’ll have to be really efficient with getting my work done on all of the other days where we don’t have activities. But I should be able to do that. I’ve got incentive, because if I can get my stuff done, then I can take the entiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire weekend off next weekend too!

Don’t get me wrong. I really do love my work. But I’ve been working really long hours, and I’ve sacrificed a lot of “relaxing time” by having this type of job (and by wanting to do it to the best of my ability). And I’m just a tad burnt out right now.

hmm….

I think my older niece is up. I’d better go. The fun begins!

the gift of Christmas

During the days leading up to Christmas, Texas Seestor and my two nieces and I converged on Mom and Dad’s house. We spent a day making various types of cookies including: Swedish Spritz, sugar cookie cutouts, gingerbread, and snickerdoodle. We also took breaks to run and play with the girls outside, watch and wave at the golfers, and take the girls on a wagon ride around the neighborhood.

After the everyone else went home, Mom, Dad and I went into town to see the Christmas lights that were put up at the park.

I thought that green tree was an interesting way to do something useful with all of those clear plastic water bottles that are accumulating in our world.

Did you write your letter to Santa this year? Perhaps it ended up in this mailbox…

Ah! Here’s the gift!

Well, to be quite honest, here is the gift….

I guess some other people thought so too.

A visit to the historic/tourist town down the street from where I live

On Tuesday, Mom and Dad came over to my apartment, and we built the shelves for my garage. They also helped me figure out how to fit everything inside.

Once we got that finished, we headed to the historic/tourist town down the street from where I live. We had a fabulous lunch there and then played tourist for a while. THIS time (as opposed to a trip during the summer), I brought my camera!

Those were Christmas windows in an antique store.

I had to laugh that these are now considered antiques.

This building looks like a lovely place to sit on the front porch, and rock with a glass of iced tea in my hand.

I had to laugh at the barrels that were used to prop up the branches of this tree.

I’ve always loved how some places use these beautiful cabbages (?) (maybe lettuce?) as a way to have something pretty in the wintertime.

grades done! Vacation begins!

Hello! I’m quite excited, because I am now officially on vacation!

I have committed to not looking at anything school related for the rest of the week.

And now, the question becomes, how many activities can I pack into this week to make the most of this time? ha! Such an American way of spending a vacation, isn’t it?

But a lot of them are things I’ve been looking forward to.

Today, for example, Mom and Dad are coming to my apartment and we will assemble some shelves to stack the stuff in my garage in an organized fashion to allow me to continue to park my car in my garage but to ALSO get the stuff that I’ve stored in my 2nd bedroom into the garage. I think (or at least, I hope) that we’ll get some hooks installed to hang my bikes. And maybe I can even hang the few tools/broom that I own.

We are likely going to eat lunch in a cute, touristy area near where I live. I’d like to see the Christmas decorations. If we are really efficient, maybe we can even look in a few shops!

I think that is it for now. I fell asleep last night at 8 pm, because I was so wiped out. So I woke up early, but I still haven’t had much tea yet; my chatty-ness is at about 30% right now.

good party – almost (I hope!) done with grades

Hello again! The Christmas party at school was fun last night, and also useful. (more about that in a bit) I got all gussied up (see photos on Flickr – you have to log in to view them; they are set as private). Leave me a message here that includes your email address in the appropriate box when you comment, and I can share them with you.
Anyway, they are obviously self photos and I don’t have a remote control timer. That means that getting the focal plane correct is hard. So, the close-up one is a bit blurry, but it shows off my bangles and the rhinestones on the neckline of my dress better.

As to the party. I arrived when a friend of mine arrived too with her husband who lives in L.A. (Los Angeles (not Louisiana)) and commutes back and forth to visit. She is vivacious (she is in dramatic media) and fun, so it was great to arrive and have someone to talk to right away. She was also gussied up in a cocktail dress, so it made me feel comfortable to be dressed more formally. It was also fun to meet her husband for the first time. He is also in the entertainment industry.

The reception before the meal was the useful part I referred to earlier. I spent a while talking to a psych professor who is on sabbatical. Since he is not on campus, I’ve only ever seen him before at another party. He does research which is very, very tangentially related to mine, but he knows someone at another local liberal arts school whose research would be closer in topic. We talked about making a road trip to see that person so that I can have a local contact and maybe collaborator.

But that wasn’t even the most useful part. He gave me an idea for something that he has resorted to doing in his Intro to Psych courses to get students to read ahead of time that doesn’t involve me doing a huge bunch of grading! The usual method is to give a quiz. But that means that I (or someone) has to grade the quizzes! He told me that he cuts 3×5 notecards in half, and at the beginning of class he asks one question about the material that will be covered that day for which they should have read ahead. Just a really basic question that they should be able to answer if they even crack their book open. Then each person passes the card to a neighboring student, and that person grades it. He also switches around where they pass their cards so that they can’t make a deal with someone to give each other points or credit that isn’t deserved. He does that in lieu of longer quizzes. I think that I’ll try this and see how it goes next semester. I’ve got to do something to get them to read ahead of time! In addition, the coaches want to know the days that the student-athletes are absent (some of them have strict policies about their athletes missing classes), and I always forget to pass around an attendance sheet. It seems so high school to me that I tend to forget. Thus, this card system will also solve that problem.

Then the announcement was made for us to head to a different room for supper and to sit at our pre-arranged tables. I had fun talking to my friends in kinesiology and athletics and their significant others. The party was quite different than any I’d attended before barring a party associated with church, and here is why.

We started off with what was evidently a prayer – I think they called it a meditation. Then one of the staff sang a beautiful rendition of O Holy Night. It was very well done. We ate food and dessert. Then, after the meal, the faculty/staff bell choir performed about 4 songs. And then, this is where it became evident that I’m at a religiously-affiliated school, the president of the university (also happens to be a former pastor) read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke while a woman played related pieces of Christmas hymns on the piano. The hymns included O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a Manger, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I’d never had that done before at a party, so that was really neat to me.

Then we transitioned into Silent Night and we all stood and grabbed the menu cards at our tables that had the words to Silent Night on the back. We sang the first verse of Silent Night in English, then Spanish, and then German. I I had a hard time not chuckling at my struggles to sing it in Spanish! The German was easy for me, because – get this – I grew up listening to the Christmas album – John Denver and the Muppets. On that album, they start off Silent Night by singing it in German – which was, of course, the original language of the song. Also, a lot of churches I’ve attended have sung it in German, so it was no big deal to me. But evidently, not many people there knew it in German, because the people at my table commented on my knowing it. Regardless, it was a really special way to end the party. It is times like these that it feels like a perfect fit for me to be at a religiously-affiliated school. It was nice to have the party include what everyone refers to as the real meaning of Christmas.

And yesterday, I finished my lab grades! Today, I have one more homework assignment for my Intro Bio class and I’ll be done with those too! I meet with my department chair on Monday to finalize them. He teaches one of the other sections of the course, and in the past, the two profs for the sections compare grades and make sure that they are sort of in line with each other. They are due Monday at 5 pm, so as of Monday at 5pm (and maybe sooner, if I can manage it) I’ll be OFF on vacation for the week!!!! yay!

Oh Christmas tree!

I finally decorated my tree! It has been up since Thanksgiving weekend on Saturday, I think it was. Thank goodness that it came with lights and pinecones or it would have been really sad to have it up all this time with no decorations.

Notice the special tea decorations.

Life has been rather busy lately. I’ve been frantically grading final assignments, calculating grades, and prepping the lab exam. But FINALLY I gave my last lecture for the semester yesterday. Today is “reading day.” Yeah, get this, the students get a WHOLE DAY to prep for exams. Is that crazy, or what? At my undergrad school, we had a whole WEEK to do our final papers and prep for exams. It seems rather crazy to me to only have on day; however, I know that at the last school where I taught, there was a concern that students blow off the extra time and drink/party instead of studying. We certainly weren’t doing that at my alma mater.

But anyway, I digress.

Last night, after working from, I think it was 6 am to 7 pm, I came home, ate a fabulous supper (another tangent in just a moment on that), and then I decorated my tree! It took me quite a while. But I wanted to do the whole thing and put the boxes away. This doesn’t solve the garland issue that still needs to be fixed after falling from the garage and having part of the lights go out. BUT it is waaaaaaaaaaay better than before.

As for the fabulous supper: Mom and Dad were in the vicinity of my place on Sunday, because they were wanting to buy the same tree from Target. (Mom saw mine and loved it.) The Target near them was out, and they had looked at the one down the road from me. Since they were close by, they invited me to lunch and we tried a third German restaurant in town. Now, we’ve gone to the main three that are here. They were all fabulous in different ways. This one would be good when part of a group of people want to eat German food and the other part of the group does not, because they have more than just German food on their menu. In the end, the lunch portion was as big as their supper/dinner portion, and I brought half of everything home. It was WONDERFUL to have it again for supper.

As for the upcoming week, I have to make, give, and grade two finals. I have a pile of research papers to grade still for lab, which is just really, really is a pain in my ass. I have a pile of homework assignments, and seminar write-ups, and alternate essays to make up for the students who could attend seminars.

THEN, I have to start prepping for Genetics for the Spring semester! I already had a student ask me for the syllabus! oh dear. She has a learning disability and wants to read ahead, so it is a legitimate question. I suspect that we will start with Chapter 1, which should be pretty easy to tell her. But the book isn’t even published until tomorrow! The publisher is overnighting it to me (which really wasn’t necessary, but they put the order in before I could tell them no). Anyway, you can see how Christmas “break” is really never 3 weeks of vacation like it looks like on paper. I’m just hoping to take at least a few extra days off to work with Dad and Texas Seestor to build shelves in my garage and finish organizing my apartment, do my Christmas cards, spend a few extra days with family.

I don’t mean to complain. I really DO enjoy all of the work. But it is sort of annoying when people say things like “oh! but you have 3 weeks of vacation! That must be really nice!” It hardly makes up for the 70+ hour weeks that I’ve been putting in. It DOES get easier, but it will take a few years. A tenured professor warned me that it doesn’t slow down for about 5 years. But he was also teaching different courses almost every semester. So, I’m really hoping that I’ll have at least some repeat courses!

Anyway, I’ll post more later. For now, I need to go write the final exam for Saturday. Saturday?! Can you believe that? The Provost makes that decision, unfortunately.

But at least I have my beautiful tree to gaze upon while I work! Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

That is the playdough representation of animals from all walks of life coming together to share a Thanksgiving meal. Even the short animals like the ducks, the turtle and the snake (courtesy of older niece) who get to have platforms to allow them to reach the food.

I realized the other week that this is the 2nd time in 14 years (I think), that I am spending Thanksgiving with extended family. Since HB always had to work the day after Thanksgiving, most years, our Thanksgiving meal was the two of us. There was one memorable year where we traveled back to IN to have Thanksgiving with his family; I remember it so well, because it was the first time that I got to have a deep-fried turkey courtesy of his brother. It was really interesting to see how it worked, and tasted great too! It was also the first time that I ever had brussel sprouts and they were yuuuuuuuuuuummy. HB’s mom cooks up a mean brussel sprout dish!

This year, we are all converging on Trainwreck’s parents’ place. This is in part, so that Trainwreck and Texas Seestor (and nieces) do not have to choose who to spend Thanksgiving with. It is also fantastic for Mom, Dad, and me, because otherwise the three of us would likely be having our meal with just the three of us.
We are all pitching in by bringing various dishes. I’m excited about all of it!

I don’t know who is still out there reading (in general), because my semester has been really crazy busy and I haven’t blogged much at all. And I know that a lack of blogging is a sure-fire way for family and friends to stop checking.

In general, while busy, it has been really rewarding for the most part. I’ve had students go from earning F’s to earning A’s after sitting down with me and having a heart-to-heart talk about studying, study tips, and what it takes to do well in college. Those success stories are what keeps me excited when I grade exams and quizzes, which are, honestly, a real pain to design and then sometimes rather sad to grade.

As for life outside of work, I’ve been able to spend at least a few hours every weekend with family! Most weekends, I end up taking all of Saturday off of work to keep the rest of my life (i.e. errands, shopping, cleaning) and then seeing them. I’ve got lots and lots of photos on Flickr of the kinds of things that we’ve been up to. Mom and Dad are now officially here. Dad is retired and Mom is on the verge. We’ve already had a couple of Saturdays where all of us have converged on their new home. It is really special for me to get to see them more than just a week (or so) at Christmas and a week (or so) in the summer.

Well, I think that is as good a point to stop as any. Older niece will likely be up soon, and I’ll play with her to give Trainwreck a chance to sleep in. Texas Seestor is being an inspiration to all of us couch potatoes by going to the gym this morning!
Aside: She has some friends who are super-committed athletes outside of work that run a 5k in the morning and host an orphan Thanksgiving whose motto for the day is “run like a dog, eat like a hog, sleep like a log.” They have some sort of point system for the day to see who wins – more points for more plates of food, etc.
too funny, I thought.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving! And here’s to a great kick-off for Advent!