Thanksgiving fun

We had a great Thanksgiving, and Austin had fun carrying on the family tradition of "spanking the turkey" before it went in the oven.
There was lots of good food, and Austin even had a little taste of some of the goodies.

On Friday, we opened holiday crackers and Austin got to wear his first crown.

Afterwards, we put up our Christmas tree and Caitlin continued the tradition of wearing the tree skirt before we used it to cover the tree stand.


Austin wore the Santa hat and he looked so cute!

Jillian, Brittan and Austin went back home this morning but we are looking forward to seeing them again in a few weeks!

Thanksgiving preparations

I am busy making pies, pumpkin rolls and other "surprise dishes" for Thanksgiving at our house this year. I am so excited that Jillian, Brittan and Austin are coming for the feast! If only Jacki and John could be here, it would be perfect. I can freeze some of the leftovers for Jacki when she comes next month, but I would like to have another Thanksgiving feast later to celebrate John's return home.

Baby face

Guess who the baby is at the top of this blog. No need to guess too hard-it's me. I have been busy scanning all my family's old slides and uploading them to my computer and Flickr. They date all the way back from when my Dad was in high school until my older brother John's high school graduation.
This is one of my favorite pictures of me-I am 15 months old and looking in my grandparents' full length mirror. Brad refused to believe it this picture was me, though, until I got out the actual slide with the date stamped on the back. He thought it was Jillian, because my "eyes are squintier", my "face is rounder" and my "nose is fatter" than the baby in the picture. That Brad, he really knows how to sweet-talk the ladies!
Anyway, it is fun looking at all the old slides-sure brings back a lot of memories...

The Beverick Bunch

I just looked at a slideshow of current pictures of the cast of the Brady Bunch that was on AOL today. It brought back a lot of memories of rushing home from school to see the show. Since there were six of us kids-three girls and three boys, we each had our own character. Of course, after Joe was born, we had to make him be Alice (he never cared, because he was just a baby). I sure liked that show-back in the day!
Okay, I know we are a lot older in the "Beverick Bunch" collage, but these are the pictures I had to work with! I didn't have a family shot from back then, except one small low-resolution one that really did not work. Other than the 3 girls/3 boys thing, we weren't much like the Brady Bunch anyway, but it was fun!

Who's smarter-who cares?

I read an interesting article in the New York Times today. It discusses how men prefer to be smarter than the women they are with, and whether smart women should pretend to be dumber to allow the men they are interested in their illusions. I know the title mentions Hillary Clinton specifically, but it is not really about her so it doesn't matter how you feel about her or her political views.
I know that I feel self-conscious telling people (and not just men) what I do unless they are also in science, as it usually cuts a conversation pretty short. Even when I went for jury duty, the lawyer questioning me seemed incredulous that I was really a "science person". Why is that so intimidating? My mentor Kate says that it is because I am so "normal-looking and acting" as if scientists are a different breed or something! People do act differently towards me than when I worked at the Pizza House or at the fabric shop, even though I am still they same person-more educated but not smarter. I still think the same random things are funny, enjoy the same things I always did even if I have less time to do them and probably have all the same bad habits.
I am interested to see what other people think about this. Is what this article says true-or not so much? What about other relationships-does it matter who's smarter? There are many kinds of intelligence, so how can you tell?

Family resemblance?

I just had to download this recent picture of Austin (lower picture) that Jillian posted. He is always waving his arms around excitedly, just like his Grandpa Brad in the upper picture from when he was a baby about Austin's age. There is quite a size difference between the two, but they sure have some of the same mannerisms. Austin even likes to constantly "twitch" his feet when he is sitting just like Brad does. Inheritance is sure a funny thing.

Michigan vs. Ohio State: The Rivalry- advance screening

Tonight Brad and I went to an advance screening of "Michigan vs. Ohio State: The Rivalry". It is a documentary that will air on HBO next Tuesday Nov. 13th at 10:30PM. It really captures the football rivalry perfectly and I would recommend it.
Brad just got back from the theater, he had to go back to pick up his BlackBerry which must have fallen off during the show. I wanted him to comment on the blog since he has a lot of opinions (as usual), but since he doesn't want to I guess people will have to call him if they want to hear them :)

Actual bound dissertation

WooHoo! I got bound copies of my dissertation back from the bindery yesterday. It is great to have an actual book to look at as physical evidence of all the hard work I have put in over the past five years. Thanks, Brad, for helping me to pick them up and carrying them. There will be a copy at the U-M graduate school and in the CDB department as well as copies for Kate, all of my other thesis committee members and of course, for me :)
I also bought a copy for each of my daughters-Merry Christmas girls ;)
Can you tell I am excited?

a minor "Cleep"

I cleaned my study room this past weekend-what an undertaking! I got rid of 2.5 laundry baskets-full of journal articles and other assorted reference papers and information from my dissertation. I can actually walk into the room and see horizontal space! I can even walk into the closet now. It is amazing how a clean space can clear my thoughts as well. I tend to start feeling very flustered and agitated when things are in constant disarray, but sometimes I need to have items in plain view so I can refer to them at a moments notice. It is quite a conundrum. I do still have one whole file drawer full of alphabetized journal articles and two other drawers full of other papers, but they are all organized so I feel much calmer about that. Now I just need to tackle some of the other rooms (especially the closets) in the house-Brad and I both tend to be pack rats until we get fed up and do a major purge of all our miscellany. Caitlin calls it "Cleeping" from the old Clean Sweep reality television show. I think it is time now before the holidays get here...

End of an era

Caitlin received her senior pictures in the mail this week and put one in her school years collage frame. I am feeling a lot of emotions just now and it is hard to sort all of them out: pride, excitement, anxiety, nostalgia... I remember buying these frames when she was just a baby. While Jacki and Jillian had a few pictures in them right away, Caitlin's was empty for a few years. Behind the spot for each picture is a short motivational quote or poem. Now they are all covered up with their school pictures and my babies are grown. I am very proud of the women they have become, but I miss the growing up years. I am so glad that we have many memories to look back on, and many more memories to make ahead.

WEBS night out

Some of the members of our WEBS group at the U-M got together and ate dinner at Cottage Inn this week. It seems as if it has been forever since any of us got together as a group, and many of us are finishing our degrees and/or moving on to new jobs in new places. I am planning a holiday get-together, I hope some of us who have moved to jobs in new areas will be able to return and join us but most have moved to different states and even different countries. I am glad that I have been able to find a good lab with a very nice PI whose research I am excited about here at the U-M. It should be a good fit for me and I am looking forward to a new challenge, but it is still really hard to keep changing and saying goodbye to each other as we move on to new experiences.