Thanksgiving 2009

I am really enjoying school, but Thanksgiving (as always) seems like sort of a cruel teaser for the Christmas break that is right around the corner. This year we went to Henderson, NV to be with Christina's family for Thanksgiving. We have had a really great time catching up with family and enjoying the time together. Here's a picture of everyone who was there.

Many of Chrissy's siblings were with their respective in-laws this year. Thanksgiving was a little smaller and quieter, but very nice.

Here's a picture of just one of the delicious pies we devoured.

It is a perfect pecan pie, that happens to have been made by Christina! She never liked nut pie until she had my mom's walnut pie, so she made it for her family with pecans instead. Yum!

Last night we saw The Blind Side, which EVERYONE should see. It's easily the best movie I've seen in a while. Today we are going to the Las Vegas Temple and tomorrow Chrissy is singing O Holy Night in her home ward, which is a Christmas tradition for them. Tomorrow night we go back home and back to real life. I am thankful for Thanksgiving!

Introducing Bishop NH

My first scientific paper is available online at the website of the Journal of Cellular Physiology!!! Click here to see it. My name is still not showing up on PubMed (a major database of scholarly research), but I imagine that will come soon. Here's one of my favorite images from the paper:

Sperry, R.B.*, Bishop N.H.*, Bramwell, J.J., Brodeur, M.N., Carter, M.J., Fowler, B.T., Lewis, Z.T., Maxfield, S.D., Staley, D.M., Vellinga., R.M., Hansen, M.D.H. 2010. Zyxin controls migration in epithilial-mesenchymal transition by mediating actin-membrane linkages at cell-cell junctions. Journal of Cellular Physiology. Early view. Published online November 19, 2009.

*Sperry RB and Bishop NH contributed equally to this work.

Since I copied this figure from the journal webpage, and since I can, I thought I'd better be the first to cite the paper. :-)

Kantorei!

Christina and I were accepted into a local community choir called Kantorei! We are very excited and feel like everything has worked out miraculously. Both of us had been missing Singers a lot recently. A friend of mine joined a choir and was looking at her performance schedule online. I recognized Kantorei on the list of choirs singing at the same venue, because Dr. Staheli had mentioned the group when we told him we were moving to Denver. We both signed up to be notified for auditions, but didn't expect to hear anything till next season, since the only advertised openings were for second bass and first tenor.

Monday we got an e-mail announcing special auditions by invitation only. I auditioned for first tenor and Christina auditioned for an alto spot that opened up unexpectedly. We met the directors last night at our audition and were impressed with their friendliness and flexibility. Since we weren't expecting anything until August, we were worried that Chrissy's pregnancy might prevent her from performing with the group. Drs. Larson and Pohlenz assured us that many of women in the group have children. Some of them choose to keep singing and others take a break. Whatever we decide will be acceptable.

We've actually never heard the group sing, but we feel like it is a good one. Dr. Staheli did mention them, which is definitely a good sign. Several alumni of Singers have been in the group. We love the repertoire they choose. They have been invited to sing at the South West American Choral Directors Association meeting in Denver this February. And lastly, they liked us, so they must have good taste. :-)

We are very excited to be a part of a high quality choral group again and feel so blessed that everything worked out okay.