Catching Up

Here's a few highlights of what's been going on for us in the last couple of months.  I'm not going to worry about chronology much, so this will be kind of stream of consciousness.

At the beginning of April was General Conference (a twice-yearly conference where the worldwide leaders of our church speak to us via satellite/internet/radio), which we watched online from home and very much enjoyed.   Kevin had just bought Abby a new fancy jumperoo toy thing and it was great to entertain her (at least some of the time anyway) while we watched.  Then Easter was the next Sunday--I think I'll write a separate post about that.

Kevin went on another business trip--but this one was much shorter (just two nights) and plus Abby sleeps better and is easier to take care of in general, so it was not nearly so hard this time.

I cut my hair--I got tired of all that pulling!  We have a very grabby Abby.

My new do--although this was like 6 weeks ago and it's a fair bit longer now.  I need to get it cut again because Abby has started pulling it again!

This was one of the first times we fed Abby cereal

Abby is starting to be a little mobile--she rolls over, and does a little army crawling/squirming to get toys.  She has also started solids--just cereal mostly, which she loves.  She tries to feed herself (always grabbing the spoon from me) but obviously isn't coordinated enough to do that yet!  So it gets pretty messy.




I've been doing some oil painting recently.  About every week or two a couple of my friends (and former labmates) come over and we all paint pictures in my basement.  I'm working on a portrait right now--those are so hard!  I also recently painted a little mountain landscape that I was going to put in a local art show, but I forgot to drop it off in time so it wasn't in the show.  Oh well.

I've done a fair bit of reading (mostly on my kindle), often while I pump (which I also do a lot of).  Books I've read recently include: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, The Beyonders series by Brandon Mull, Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale, Stargirl (meh) , the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones, Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, the Diamond Throne by David Eddings.

I continue work on my research paper (we are trying to publish the work in my dissertation).  We submitted it to Science and it got past the first review by the editor but was rejected after being sent out to referees (one of them liked it, one of them was so-so, and one of them hated it.)  Then I had to revise and change the format and we sent it to Nature, where it was rejected without even being sent out for review.  Now my advisor wants to try Cell, which has a very different format so it will require a lot of work re-writing and re-formatting.  Bleh.  I just want the darn thing published already!  But, my advisor won't settle for anything less than these super competitive journals, so most likely this won't be the last time I have to revise it for a different journal!


I joined a gym with childcare so that I can exercise more consistently.  I have been *gaining* weight since Abby was born--argh!  So frustrating.  Curses to everyone who told me the pounds just melt off when you are breastfeeding.  I think I got all the hunger but none of the calorie burning or something.  Anyways, I'm trying to reverse the trend.  It's nice to have a little time to myself everyday, actually, and they have some fun classes.  Sometimes I go to step class or kickboxing and sometimes I lift weights or use the cardio equipment.  They have dish TV on the ellipticals-woo woo!  I like the chance to watch HGTV or whatever.  It's not especially close to our house--like a 15 minute drive I think.  There is a gym like 2 blocks from us but they don't have childcare, so I have to make the trek.  Ultimately worth it though.