Hood Family

Anthony's sister and her Family (husband Dave, son Justin - 5, and daughter Hannah 2). We went to Houston to see them in May of this year and they came her this weekend for a quick trip to see the Grandmas. Enjoy the slideshow - we'll see how much i know about technology!

Inspired to write again.

So... I'm obviously not very good at this whole blogging thing - on average I have one every two months. My friend Adelle (whose blog is on my favorites to the right - and who has a much more interesting life and the cutest little girl - as well as a very old picture of us) does an excellent job of blogging and has inspired me to pick it up again. On the up side - not much changes in our house too quickly - we're very habitual creatures and keep a pretty tight schedule. Lets see... recently Anthony & I took a trip to Houston to see his Sister, brother-in-law, and two sweet kids. I've put some of the pictures on here. It was Loads of fun - little Hannah is just over one year, and Justin is a super smart 5 year old. We had a blast with them even though we only got to stay for a weekend (thank goodness for direct flights on Southwest - and funny flight attendants). Justin actually lost his first tooth while we were there. He and Anthony and Dave had a great time playing video games too - I could just picture Anthony as a kid doing the same thing. Justin also got really good at riding without training wheels while we were there too.

Other adventures - I had a meeting in the Windy City - it was my first of three trips to chicago this year and it was indeed windy. This first trip was for a meeting of APSA- American Physician Scientists Association - I think the link is to the right as well. It was a lot of fun to meet with other nerds from around the country! Chicago was wonderful - especially because it was cool and dry! Lake Michigan was this beautiful color teal green/blue - the picture really doesn't do it justice. Oh the shopping on the "Michigan Mile" is awesome too - they have a Garmin store, and Nike, and Apple, and Tiffany's :) among other things. Next time i go, i'm also going for business- another APSA meeting, but just exec for a day, so not too exciting- but the people really are great. Here are some of the pics from this trip:

The last trip of the year to Chicago will be fore the Chicago Marathon- terrified and excited about 26.2!! It should be really well organized thie year after the fiasco that happened last year. there should at least be plenty of water and gatorade. I have a friend at Michigan State that might get to come down and hang out with me a little during this trip.
At the end of this month Anthony & I are headed to the beach for a 2.5 day weekend - we are really excited about having the time off and love the beach almost as much as the mountains of Virginia! It will be a short but relaxing trip. .....Lets see - other updates .... we've added another member to our little family - We got another Golden Retriever named Porter (her whole name is Erin Porter - becuase we got her on St. Patrick's day and Erin is the poetic name for Ireland, and Porter b/c Anthony liked the name - she goes by Porter. She's really sweet and Gabby loves having a friend to play with during the day. We are officially at our pet limit- no more living things in this house unless they are human - otherwise we'll have to charge admission to the Gannon Zoo!! That's all for now - i'll try to do better with this - just in case anyone is interested :o)

It's been a while

So now that you've all got that song in your head.... (sorry to all the faithful readers - all two of you!) Life has been really busy and since we don't have real two legged kids and we live in the same city as most of the family - there's not much reason to blog really. none-the-less - here we are. Life's good. Anthony is on Peds wards this month and I'm in and out of town most of this month. I just got back from San Deigo Experimental Biology conference - San Diego was great - American Airlines not so much. We had to get back the same day we scheduled to get out, so... we re-booked through Southwest and flew through Oakland to Houston to New Orleans, then rented a car at 11:30 pm and drove to Jackson! YEah for American - I'll never fly them again! Yes i realize that all of the companies have problems - but it was rediculous! And someone owes me $575 for the extra travel that my poor Discover card has suffered. On the upside - Coronado Island right across the bridge from San Diego is wonderful - if we ever go back I hope to stay there. the breakfast buffet is amazing and you get to look over the pacific (see pictures below). Next I'm off to Chicago - which i'm also really looking forward to! I've never been there before and the meeting will be good too. We've got tickets to a baseball game the first night we're there. Unfortunately Anthony doesn't get to go to this one either. His next trip is on the CMDA mission trip to Mexico in May. WE also might get to go see his sister and our neice and nephew in Houston (Thankfully there is a direct flight to houston on Southwest from Jackson). And we're hopefully going to the beach at some point this summer. I think we've both been in Jackson a little too long and are going stir crazy - plus traveling is much easier pre-kids (no, we're not planning on any any time soon) and pre-clinical years.

Gabby's Birthday

Today our little girl, Gabby, turns 1 year old. We're still not out of the chewing phase, and we're down two window screens on the back of our house not to mention several boards off the back, but she sure is cute! Happy Birthday Gabby!!

Projects at home

I have all of these great ideas, but just can't seem to get them finished... or even started at this rate either. The next three things that are on my list:
1. Recover pillows for the couch. The covers I made and currently still have on them are really pretty, but they have too much blue. and now that the background of the cabinet is red, i want pillows that have more red in them. The sad part is that I've had the material for at least a month now, and still haven't gotten around to covering them. Hopefully this weekend, but we'll see.
2. Bookcase: I've got an old chest of drawers that is not being used any more, but is still in ok shape. It currently has four drawers. My thought is to take the drawers out. take out two of the drawer casings, and then put a botton in the remaining two places. so that it makes a two shelf stand. I could use it in my office/extra bedroom. I'll post pictures if i ever get around to doing this. maybe now that the weather is nice.
3. Rediculous weeds in the front yard. Like the rest of our neighbors, our grass is a nice shade of brown - really the whole front yard, EXCEPT for this large green tuft of clover-like stuff that decided to grow right in the middle of the front yard. First plan is to actually go out and cut it down or mow the yard. 2nd plan of action is to find some weed and feed stuff. The rest of the flowerbeds are ok. I'm expecting to see the tips of my bulbs in a few weeks - this will be the 2nd spring we've been in the house, so they should come up fuller this year (cross your fingers).
The problem with school ... and school ... and well... there isn't a lot of time for anything else, but no complaints. 3 years and ~4 months to go :)

It's a "good year"

We have much to be thankful for that we all too often forget. Current praises include:

• Anthony was just offered and accepted a two year fellowship in Endocrinology at UMC to begin Summer 2009. This will work out nicely because he will finish residency when I finish PhD work, and he will complete this fellowship as I complete medical school. So...we'll finally be sort of done with school.


• I just got a paper accepted to the American Journal of Physiology - Heart. I'll post the link as soon as it's up on Pubmed. This is very much a praise because to recieve one's PhD from the Physiology department, it is necessary to have at least one first authored paper in a peer reviewed journal. So now I just have to finish up my research, write a dissertation and defend.
  
• We finally found a collar that our dog can't chew through. It's metal :)

Current issues include:

• a potential rodent in our attic. I'll keep you posted on this one. I've never dealt with rats/mice/squirrels/or any other potentially rabid creature in close quarters in which it could die, begin to decompose and start to reek without our knowing exactly where it is. This could be really interesting. Today's quest is to get some of that sticky paper before I call the exterminator - because we're cheap - i mean thrifty!

Tagged

Thanks Maggie - So I was "tagged" for 7 things about me... which took me a while to think of... here goes:

1. I was a cheerleader all through high school and some of college. I started cheering at the YMCA when I was in 2nd grade: really cool red and white jumper and knee socks - I wish i had a picture for that one! - and no front teeth. It was great. For some reason though, I don't remember ever actually watching the game.

2. SPeaking of cheering: In 8th grade my math teacher (a hero of mine) introduced me to the movie "Rudy" and I thought from that time that I would go to Notre Dame to cheer. Well... I only made it to Millsaps, but I still root for the Fighting Irish in football season.

3. I'm a really slow driver. I've never gotten a ticket in the 10+ yrs of driving. I've only been in one wreck when a 40+yr old lady - who wanted to dress like she was 16 slammed on her breaks on Lakeland and the front two screws on my front liscense plate barely touched her car - she swore she had whiplash, but insurance was never filed :)

4. I took a belly dancing class once - never used it, but it was kinda fun and a little bit of an ego boost to be in a room of dancing 60 YO women in spandex.

5. I run for my heart (and my family, and my dog, and swimsuit season among other things). Early heart attacks are no good.

6. I have played the piano since I was in 2nd grade and minored in music in college. I tried the cello for a summer before medical school, but ran out of time.

7. Anthony and I met while volunteering at the Jackson Free Clinic. Then he came up to my lab to see me and I managed to stumble through all of my words. He asked me to coffee - like a good Presbyterian boy. I couldn't go because I had some family obligations that in retrospect did sound far fetched, and he thought I was trying to say no. Thankfully - he pursued me!

I tag Adelle J., Elise T., and Jeanann S.