Austin's visit

Austin came to visit by himself for the first time last weekend and we had so much fun! Even though he hadn't seen us for 3 weeks, he came right to us with hugs and kisses when we met Jillian and Brit for the "switch" Friday night.

When we got to our house, he remembered where everything was and went right to his favorite toys. He is a great block tower builder! See how high his tower is-sorry Buddy is in the way so the bottom can't be seen. He likes knocking them down as much as he likes building them, though.



Every long object is either a bat or a golf club for that boy, and anything circular is a wheel. If he sees the camera, he immediately stops what he is doing and says "cheese"! (Austin loved chasing Buddy around yelling "Buddy" with the towel Buddy likes to chew, but we couldn't get a good video all weekend, because he kept stopping and saying "cheese" when we tried). When it was time for bed, he went right to sleep without a peep and slept all night both nights! Well, he did get up at 5:30 AM on Sunday, but he went down for a 45-minute nap at 7, so it wasn't too bad for sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum and he especially loved playing with the water table and the fire truck. The fire truck had a place to put balls down a hole, after which they went down a ramp and into a bucket. He played that game for quite some time, and even learned to take turns with some of the other kids there. He observed the older kids very closely and then copied many of the things that they did.













Austin also thinks that wet rocks are very pretty, just like his mom and his aunts ;)


After getting a tiny pumpkin at the Farmer's Market, and eating Thai food for lunch (his favorite was the mini-corn), he took a nap.

When he woke up, we took him and Buddy to Gallup Park, where there was a playground area and a big sandbox.




Austin even talked on the phone with Jillian and Brit when they called-he is so amazing-not that I am biased or anything ;)
Sunday morning, Austin and I made cupcakes. He had a lot of fun helping, but I think he decorated himself more than he did the cupcakes!




After lunch and a nap, we returned him to Jillian and Brit and ate dinner together at Chipotle in Maumee before heading home. It was a great weekend and we can't wait to have Austin visit again.

Here is a video of Austin and Buddy. Buddy already has the towel and Austin can be heard to say "cheese" at the very beginning. Yes, I am wearing Grandma Teresa's housecoat; it was just after we decorated the cupcakes.

lab logo

Here is a little logo that I designed for our lab. It is a fluorescent confocal image of the male germline stem cell niche in a Drosophila (fruit fly). I like the play on words-amusing on several different levels-well, it makes me laugh ;)

recharging

Yesterday, Brad and I went to a forum on human embryonic stem (ES) cells that was open to the public. At the reception afterward, we met a woman with breast cancer that was being treated by one of the organizers of the event. I had a nice chat with her; she was very interested in my research and the story of how I got to where I am. I have never worked with human ES cells, but I have worked with mouse ES cells, and studied the influence of steroid hormones (such as estrogen) on tumors. Her tumor is responsive to anti-hormone therapy, so we talked about that and her growing interest in the research science leading up to treatment.

I really felt a renewed sense of purpose after talking to her. Sometimes research can get very tedious and I have a tendency to get bogged down in details. I had forgotten how nice it was to talk to someone who wanted to hear about science without being afraid that I was boring her or worse-that she thought my work was unimportant or "funny". Well, since my current research involves dissecting out fruit fly testes to study germline stem cells, it can be amusing-but that doesn't make it any less important. I don't mind joking about it if I know that the other party is laughing with me and not at me.

Yesterday's brief encounter meant a lot to me and I felt recharged today and ready to face the next challenge.

Fun at Domino Farms

We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary on August 31st. Jillian, Brit and Austin were up for the weekend and we had a real nice time. We took Austin to the Domino's Farms petting zoo that is just a couple miles from our house. Austin had a chance to feed several different animals. He was a little scared at first but quickly got the hang of it and was pretty brave.

Austin - Chicken with the chicken

Austin getting brave!

Therese and Brad on the hayride.

Brad "wins" Tiger tickets

Brad won 4 tickets to a Detroit Tigers baseball game on a radio trivia contest. He had to answer 3 sports questions and they told him that he got them correct and won the tickets. He was driving to visit a customer and hung up after providing his contact info. As it turns out, there was a big hullabaloo with people calling in to tell them one of the answers was not correct. The question was about a former Michigan football player who set a rushing record with the New York Giants and he said Jamie Morris. He played at Michigan, works in the athletic department now and also works on some of the radio shows on that station. As it turns out, he only played with the Washington Redskins and the actual answer was Joe Morris (his brother - who played college at Syracuse)

Brad didn't know anything about this until the next morning when they were laughing about Jamie playing for the Giants - They even called him and had him on the air. Well, we still got the tickets and invited Pat and Rick Lenderman to the game. We had great seats and free parking right next to the stadium. The tigers lost to Oakland, but we still had a fun night.

Rick, Pat, Therese and Brad

The Rally Cap didn't work this time :(

Brad drives at Michigan International Speedway!

My company (White-Rodgers) sponsored a contest for my customers to win a chance to drive a NASCAR stock car at Michigan International Speedway through the Richard Petty Driving Experience. I was also able to drive one of the cars for 8 laps on the track and got up to nearly 140MPH! What an experience!!

Nearly 100 people attended and about 50 either drove cars or rode with a professional driver.

Brad climbing in.

Ready to race!

Richard Petty Driving Experience participants

Brad driving on the track!

Therese receives more awards.

Earlier this Summer Therese applied for and was awarded a prestigious NIH sponsored Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Center for Organogenesis. This will cover her salary and some travel expenses for the next two years and will enable her lab to have more money available for other research. Recently Therese attended the Cell and Developmental Biology Department annual retreat in Kalamazoo. During the retreat she was awarded the prize for the best research poster. In addition, she was on the winning team for the game competition and received another award! You go girl!