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!

See-scientists do have a sense of humor

Yeah-I think it's funny :-)
BTW-Drosophila are fruit flies-and they are the model system that we use in my postdoc lab.

It's coming...leaving the nest

Caitlin will be off to college soon! She received her first semester class schedule in an email, along with links to building locations and professors. Her first Biology discussion session is with the professor for whom I was a summer intern back in 2001.

We also attended our area's sendoff party for first-year Hope students. She was able to meet some of her future classmates; one guy has his own web-designing business and is teaching himself Japanese. She even won a door prize-a Hope travel mug.

The sendoff was at a picnic shelter in Farmington Hills. There was a birds' nest in one of the rafters with baby birds in it (see photo above). They were pretty much overflowing the nest, so they must have been very close to leaving the nest, too (just like my baby). As I took a picture, the mother bird flew in to feed them and I got the shot just as they opened their mouths. I really like this picture; I wonder if the mother bird will miss her babies, too.

We're finally back - lots to catch up on.....

Wow...It has been over six weeks since we last posted. It hasn't been because there was nothing to post, but rather that we were too busy to write anything.....If you attempt to read the entire post, you may want to do it in a couple of sessions.....

And now a quick update on what we have been doing since the beginning of June:

June 4th - Caitlin graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School - Home of the River Rats!! The ceremony was long since they had more than 500 graduates. Caitlin went to the all night party afterward and had a great time.
June 7th - Caitlin had her graduation party in Sandusky at Chett & Matt's Pizza - Always a regular stop when we are in Sandusky. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends while eating lots of Hot Wing & Cheddar Pizza.

Week of June 9th - We had a new driveway poured this week. The old driveway was full of cracks and really needed to be replaced when we moved in, but we tried to put it off for a while. The city of Ann Arbor had gone around town marking sidewalks that needed to be replaced and they said that two of the ones by the driveway needed to be done. Since we had to do that, I got a whole bunch of estimates and found a very reasonable one. This company was from a small town south of Ann Arbor and has been in business for three generations but was still a small family business. I checked out their references and saw some of their work and they got the job. We now have a new approach, four pieces of sidewalk, a small sidewalk path to the front porch and new front step. This made a huge difference in the look of our property, especially since we replaced the garage door several weeks ago too. They admitted that they gave me a better price because we are the first house in our development and they wanted the chance to get more business in our neighborhood. It worked out for both of us....I got a real good price (and a nice job) and they were able to get several other jobs in the neighborhood. They were there for a couple weeks on all the other work they got.

Weekend of June 14th - Brad & Therese met Jillian, Britt and Austin in Toledo and piled in the van to drive to Mason, OH for the wedding of one of Jillian's best friends from college. (Caitlin stayed home with Buddy) We loved spending some quality time with Austin while Jillian and Britt went to the rehearsal dinner, etc. It was a fun trip and served as a warm up for the upcoming trip to North Carolina.
June 21st - Therese's cousin Tim and his family (from Texas) and her sister Jackie and her kids (from Virginia) were visiting Sandusky so her brother John hosted a small family reunion for those who could make it. We all had a fun time catching up and playing games.




June 26th - My cousin Kevin and his wife Robin along with their children Theo and Loren came to visit us while they were "up North". (Kevin and Robin are both Doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham). They spent some time with Kevin's family in Sandusky and did the Cedar Point thing. Then they drove up to Ann Arbor to spend a little time with us before Theo checked out the University of Michigan's Engineering School the next day. We cooked some ribs and chicken and had a lot of fun telling old stories and playing Wii Fit. They have a Wii game but have not played the Wii Fit before. They were pretty good at the games and we had a lot of laughs.

June 27 - July 7th - The family road trip to visit the Schreiners in North Carolina!! We had been planning this trip for months and figured it would take about 14 hours so we decided to leave on Friday evening when Austin was ready to sleep. We drove to Sandusky from Ann Arbor on Friday afternoon, put Buddy in the kennel, picked up a car top carrier from a relative of Britt's family (a whole other story). After getting everything securely attached, we packed the van up and headed south. I just got a new Dodge Grand Caravan Stow and Go a few months ago and it worked out perfectly for the trip. We were able to pack everything we needed (especially golf clubs) without being too cramped. The carrier worked out great and we never had a problem (thank goodness, because I wouldn't want Mark to find out about it if the carrier fell off or something crazy like that - I would never hear the end of it....).

I drove the entire way and Therese road shotgun while she felt the knockout effects of the motion sickness patch she used. Caitlin and Austin sat in the two middle seats while Jillian and Britt had a little extra room in the back three seats. When we got to Jacki and John's house, we parked, unloaded the van and never moved it again until we left for home. It felt good to have a week off of driving. Most places we went to required us to take two vehicles so we took John's big Ram truck and Jacki's new Toyota that she just got a few weeks ago.

One small problem when we unpacked - we found that a bottle of corn syrup had broken in the bottom of the Stow and Go sections and created quite a mess. Thanks to John's shop vac and lots of soap and water we got it cleaned up as good as new. (note to self - next time buy the Scotcheroo ingredients after you get to your destination.)


The week was probably one of the best vacations we ever had. We spent time playing Euchre, Phase Ten, watching John and Britt play GTA, golfing, playing cornhole, playing darts, playing Caitlin's new Nintendo DS, watching movies, cooking and eating a lot of food! Jacki made some great breakfast food - it was like being at a very nice bed and breakfast with an awesome rate! We went to play miniature golf at a pretty fun place and went to a very nice aquarium for one afternoon. Austin really liked banging on the glass of the huge tank and sharks swam by and he even touched a stingray in one of the tanks.

Jacki had set things up for us to get a family picture taken at the beach on Tuesday of that week. It was a beautiful evening and we got some fantastic pictures of the entire family as well as various group shots of families, girls, guys, etc. We ended up buying the rights to all the pictures so we could make use of Therese and Jacki's Photoshop skills to get copies of any pictures we wanted. My favorite is the entire family walking along the water and jumping in the air. Some of those shots turned out great.

While we were there, Jillian and Britt told us the big news - They are expecting again! After we returned, it was confirmed and the due date is 2/27/09. We all look forward to the new addition to the family!

While in North Carolina we went to visit Joe and Collette Samstag. Brad graduated with both of them and Joe is actually Britt's great uncle. Brad, John, Britt and Joe went golfing in the afternoon and later the others came to meet us and take a tour of Hatteras Yachts where Joe works. We were able to walk through several huge yachts to see how the other half (maybe .00001%) lives. One of the yachts was 110 feet long, but you can pick it up for less than $10 Million....They were incredible.

We then went to Joe and Collette's for a nice cookout and evening together. Joe pulled out a picture of the old "Vulture 50/50 club" from high school that he still has in a frame (if you don't know, ask me about it sometime.) I'm glad we had the chance to get together while we were there.
Austin decided to start walking the day we got back to Jillian and Britt's, so Jacki and John didn't get to witness that. He did learn to say "Jacki" while we were there, though :)



July 8th - We took Caitlin to meet her group to begin their trip to Australia. The trip was two weeks long with one of the weeks being World Youth Day that brought about 200,000 young people from throughout the world to see the Pope and take part in various activities. The first week was "Days in the Diocese" and Caitlin stayed with a family and took part in many activities and sightseeing. We only communicated by e-mail a couple times and have not talked with her since they left. We will be picking her up late Monday night (early Tuesday morning). We look forward to seeing all the pictures and hearing the stories of the trip.

While Caitlin was in Australia, she got the notice of who her Hope College roommate would be. Her roommate is from California and we e-mailed the info to Caitlin. The next day, we noticed that they were already friends on Facebook. Wow, this internet thing may catch on after all...haha


Week of July 14th - The Annual Ann Arbor Arts Fairs were held this week. There are actually four different fairs, and two of them are among the largest art fairs in the country-drawing exhibitors and attendees from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries. They say that about 500,000 people attended in the four days of the festival. Therese again had some of her artwork displayed and for sale at the BioArtography booth. She also worked the booth for several hours on Friday.
Therese and I went to the fair 3 of the 4 days and did not come close to seeing everything. On Friday night, Therese and I went to the fairs with our friends John and Lee Anne after a cookout at their home. It was a lot of fun and Therese bought a hand-painted scarf.



If you have read this far in one sitting I would be pretty amazed. Thanks for checking it out and have a great summer!

10 things about Brad

I have been "tagged" and have to provide some info about myself. Here it is. Have fun.....

1) All the males in my immediate family (Dad and 4 brothers) have 4 letters in each of their names; First Middle, Last and even Confirmation name. My Confirmation name is Eric – It fit in the numbering scheme and who hasn’t heard of St. Eric?

2) Many years ago when the group Hanson (MmmBop) was big, we took the girls to several concerts and needless to say their music was in our house all the time. I was actually a fan of their music and every day when I got home from work I would sing the title of one of their biggest hits – Where’s the Love…? It was a little embarrassing when we had company at the house that I didn’t know about.

3) Speaking of music, did you ever notice how many songs you can insert the words “Uncle Joe” in and make it rhyme? Probably not. I usually try to insert our kids’ names into songs when we drive down the road, but it is always easier to make Uncle Joe work for just about any song Try it sometime…(Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Uncle Joe!) – See, I told you ;-)

4) My left leg is shorter than the right and my right calf muscle is still noticeably larger than my left due to a childhood disease I had (Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease) when I was 7 – 10 years old. A few weeks ago I was with another person from my company from St. Louis who recently had a hip replacement. While discussing this, I found out that he had the same disease as a child. I have not had any problems with my hip and hope I don’t need that surgery.

5) People find it odd that I can cheer for The Ohio State University (by Birthright), Notre Dame (by Baptismal Rite) and Michigan (Geography and following the money trail – Therese received her Master’s and PhD from Michigan and is employed by the University). Most people that follow one of these teams hate at least one of the other teams.

6) When I graduated from High School, three friends and I bought a car for $25 (1963 Dodge 330 Special with a “Three on the Tree”!) and drove it all the way to Florida and back. When we got back, I drove the car in a Demolition Derby at the Erie Country Fair. Four years later I drove another car in the Demo Derby.

7) I did a parachute jump while I was in college. My sister Sharon, Mike Trautman and Rob Lauber (Rest in Peace) went to visit Kevin Roth at the University of Michigan and did the jump at a small airport near Ann Arbor. When we got back we were interviewed by the Sandusky Register and they had a big article in the paper with pictures. I am not sure if it was just big news in Sandusky or if it was because we had a relative working at the newspaper.

8) I was on the St. Mary’s 8th grade football team and even started a few games at defensive back although I weighed less than 80 lbs. soaking wet. When I went for a football physical the next year, the doctor said he wouldn’t sign the form because I was too small to play – That was the end of my football career. To this day, I am not sure if my mom told him to do that or not. It was probably a good decision but I was devastated. I still had a dream that I would hit a growth spurt and end up being 6’ 5” and 285 lbs. I am still working on the weight part, but I have given up on the height.

9) I have traveled a lot with my career as well as some vacationing. At last count, I have been to about 43 states and 10 foreign countries. Someday I hope to visit all of the states and more foreign countries. I would love to go to Australia- Therese was there last year and Caitlin is going there for two weeks next month. I am still waiting…..

10) Although many people think that mini-vans are only for soccer moms (Hi John) I love driving a mini-van. By my best estimate, I have had about 10 different mini-vans as my company vehicle over the years and even owned two other ones. These vehicles are extremely versatile and the one I currently have has a ton of nice features. Since I drive about 35,000 miles a year, it is important to have a comfortable, convenient and safe vehicle.

Fun and busy times-and Caitlin's prom and 18th birthday

Our family had a fun and busy Memorial Day weekend-sorry I'm just getting around to posting about it. After I am done here, I really need to get moving on a fellowship application that is due at the end of June. I am working at home today so that I will not be distracted. Hopefully, I will be able to get a draft ready by the end of this weekend.
Friday night, Brad and I went to see the "Dave Mason Band" at the Ark with Mark and Pam Keech. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a fun night; we had great seats right in the middle against the back wall so we could stand up without blocking anyone's view. The Ark brings in a lot of first-class acts, but only holds about 400, so it is a very small venue where all the seats are close to the stage.
Saturday, after her job feeding zebrafish, Caitlin got her hair and nails done for the prom.
Brad went to the store and ran other errands while we were gone-and bought a Wii Fit at Meijer's. We had heard so much about how hard they were going to be to find, but he found six of them right in the display case. He actually couldn't find anyone to unlock it, so he had to call the store to ask for someone to come back and help him! We spent the afternoon trying it out. The yoga poses especially should be a lot of help for Caitlin to regain her balance, but everything we tried was fun.
Caitlin and her friends met for pictures, then went out to eat at Mediterrano's and to the prom.
She looked beautiful and had a fun night-to see more pictures from this weekend, click on the "flickr" icon on the right side of the blog.
Brad and I had run into our friends John and LeeAnne the night before on our way to the Ark, and they invited us to a barbecue at their house. We met their friends Mark and Elphie and we all had a fun time watching the Detroit Red Wings on TV.
Sunday, Brad and Caitlin went to pick up Caitlin's friends Lindsey (Peanut) and Kristen (Blizzie) in Lansing (they came from Holland to meet halfway) and brought them back here. We then drove to Brittan and Jillian's house in Sandusky and played Wii Fit for awhile. Brad and I had bought a toy keyboard for Austin and he had fun playing with that. We cooked out and had an ice cream cake to celebrate Caitlin's birthday-which was the next day when she would be at Cedar Point with her friends. Caitlin and her friends stayed at Grandma Eileen and Ralph's, while Brad, Buddy and I stayed with the Gill's.
Monday, Brad dropped the girls off at Cedar Point, and we all played Wii Fit for awhile. We then decided to get outside because it had turned into a beautiful day after an early morning thunderstorm. We walked around downtown Sandusky and the dock, then stopped by Toft's for ice cream.
Caitlin called from Cedar Point and was not feeling well, so Brad picked her up early. It was her first time going on rides after her surgery, so maybe she will have to ease more into that kind of thing. Brad and Caitlin picked up a "Hot Wing and Cheddar King Kong Pizza" at Chet and Matt's (no website, sorry) when they went to pick up her friends and we ate some of that before we headed home.
Tuesday, Brad took Caitlin's friends to meet their parents in Lansing and it was back to work.