SNOWY HALLOWEEN!!!

That's right, today is a SNOW DAY! It has snowed about a foot and campus is closed as of yesterday at 1:00 pm. It may even be closed tomorrow. Here's a picture of the snow drift in front of our door before I shoveled it:

Here's the snow piled up on our newly stained deck. Glad we got it stained before the weather hit!

I am grateful for the snow. We have had fun together at home today. All the time I think of things I would like to blog about, but I don't usually find the time to do it. Perhaps someday you will get to hear my thoughts on cadaver dissection, my excitement about a lab I may rotate through, my experiences with my new clinical preceptor, or my gratitude toward our excellent ward. But not today. Instead of trying to catch up with everything, I am just going to start where I am, and cover those topics if I can.

So for the Head and Neck unit of Anatomy, several guys from class vowed not to shave their heads or necks for the three week unit and have a beard-off. Here is mine (the day after our test, with my neck shaved).

I know the toothbrushing is sort of weird, but it's the best picture I have of the beard. During the week, my beard shrank to a goatee, a mustache (for five minutes) and then to nothing in preparation for our Halloween costume: Edward and Bella from Twilight. If you look closely in the first picture, you can even see my sparkly skin.

Here's a picture of some food we brought to a Halloween party with some med school friends. There was supposed to be a contest for the spookiest food, so we brought eyeballs served on cross-sections of arms.

Also for Halloween, my parents came in town for a night and we saw Wicked downtown. It was even better than I imagined it. I'm glad they made it out of Denver before the worst of the storm.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Happy Halloween to everyone!

Vail

This weekend Chrissy and I went to a retreat in Vail for the Cell Biology, Stem Cells, and Development (CSD) Graduate Program retreat. It is beautiful there and the pictures I will post do not really do it justice. We both enjoyed the talks and I am particularly excited about potentially rotating through the lab of one of the speakers. Chrissy and I ditched one of the talks to drive up to Vail Village, which is where all the condos and shopping areas are in Vail. We had fun just walking around and enjoying the scenery.

We have also enjoyed watching the semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints yesterday and today. Hurray for live online streaming (we don't own a TV). We missed being with our friends and family for the conference but we also enjoyed the time together.

-Nick

Terrorists in da 'hood

So if you haven't heard, one of our neighbors is a terrorist (or at least a suspected terrorist). He's a young airport shuttle driver who is being tried for being involved in a terrorist plot. I'm pretty sure he was my shuttle driver when I came to interview. I had no cash so, as a tip, I offered him a card to receive a free video from the Church, but he seemed offended and informed me curtly that he was Muslim. Anyway, it may or may not have been him, but it's crazy to think about it.

Yesterday on the bus, I didn't notice anyone I thought was a terrorist, but I did fear for my iTouch, my Macbook, and my life (just a little). When I boarded the bus, two guys were talking about how many of their friends from jail they had seen on the busses that day. They were talking pretty fast in Ebonics, so it was difficult to understand--it really is like another language. Anyway, I heard gang names dropped and talk of illegitimate children, drugs, etc. Then another guy came on the bus, who I am pretty sure was under the influence of something. He sparked a debate with the first two about who was the best rapper in the history of the world--50-cent or Tupac. The debate became quite heated and people from the back of the bus started to weigh in as well. I was in the middle of what I was afraid would become a physical brawl. The first two men got off the bus and then, after they calmed down a bit, the remaining debaters discussed the inconvenience of having to take public transportation after they lost their licenses for DUIs.

I'm not in Utah anymore...

My new addictions!

Completing my very intense, very fulfilling masters degree and diving right into--well--nothing, particularly, has been a bit of a struggle. School gives every day meaning and purpose: there is always something to be done for classes, some test to prepare for, some concert program (in my case) to be polishing, etc. etc. etc.

So, after 20 years of being a student, I landed with a thud in this thing we call "free time," and I had no idea what to do with it. At first I wandered aimlessly around our new house and checked my email too many times a day, but as the weeks have passed, I have slowly rediscovered SO MANY things that I love to do--so many things I have a passion for. Here is a quick rundown of what I do to occupy my time these days:


Cooking! Well, when I have enough first-trimester energy for it :) I already posted about my cookbook-reading craze, but I just had to reiterate what a joy it is for me to cook right now! Fast forward 7, 8, 9 months, and I know this enthusiasm will be greatly diminished by the brand new baby that will demand so much time and energy. But right now in this brief season of pure self improvement and indulgence, I am loving it. And I especially like it when Nick comes home to a nice warm meal and tells me how much he loves it.

Reading! I unpacked our books a few weeks ago and decided it was high time I read the many classics I placed on the back burner for all these years while textbooks and music took over my life. I can't even begin to count the number of times I had this thought: "Wow, I wish I had time to read for fun." Happily, the time is finally here! I learned that my Ward Book Group was reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, and I eagerly consumed it in a matter of days. I have since started reading Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (oops, I was definitely going to read that before going to South Africa 2 years ago!), but even that has taken a backseat to my newest addiction...

Family history work! Oh my gosh, if you haven't checked out the new family search website, you NEED TO!! It is so awesome. I used to be a family history consultant, and I knew this database was coming down the pipe. But until I got on the website myself, I didn't realize how much it really offers. In a nutshell, it combines everything from the old website, and I get to streamline the information into my very own family line that all my relatives can see and work with (it was a serious headache to share pedigree information before). Best of all, it is very easy to see what temple work needs to be done. Awesome! Check it out if you haven't already: https://new.familysearch.org/

Blogging! Okay, that's obvious! But it has to do with something else I have been terrible at for a long, long time: keeping in touch with people. I have written more letters to missionaries in the past 2 months than I have in the rest of my life combined (sorry to all my older brothers!!). I have also called and emailed people with our baby news, and I have enjoyed renewing past connections with old friends. I am going to see an old BYU friend tomorrow, and I didn't even realize she was here in Colorado until last week! I also have high hopes of sending out a Christmas Letter for the first time this year. We'll see how that one goes!

These are the jewels I have rediscovered and reconnected with. "Free time" is not as bad as it seemed initially, and I know that it will be hard to come by as my life is filled with new responsibilities and purpose (particularly next April).

For now, I can't get enough of it!

Big news!

We are pleased to announce that we are expecting a baby! The due date is April 15, and we can't even begin to express how excited we are.

I have been feeling great, overall. A bit nauseous occasionally, but it never gets too overbearing. And I haven't thrown up yet--unless accidentally gagging myself with my toothbrush last week counts :)

We are so excited to be parents!!! We'll keep you posted as the baby grows (and as I grow) over the next 6.5 months.

Accepted at last!!!

In all the stress of medical and graduate school, I had sort of forgotten about the manuscript I had been trying to get published for the last year. Dr. Hansen said he would take care of continuing to revise and resubmit, so I quit worrying about it. Well, on Friday I checked my e-mail in the dissection lab and was surprised to see that our manuscript has finally been accepted! I was so excited I couldn't focus on the dissection for probably a half hour afterwards. It feels like I'm a real scientist now that I'm actually going to have a publication. I'm not sure when it will actually be published, because the acceptance is pending minor revisions. Also, I think they plan the issues months in advance--the November edition of the journal is already available online. But anyway, I'll be sure to post a link when it is available so you can all see my pretty pictures. :-)

How to post a comment...

For all you readers of our blog (and I know you're out there) I thought I'd figure out how you can post without an account on any of the sites listed in the drop-down menu for comments. Just select "Name/URL," from the menu, type your name in the "Name" section, and leave the URL blank. Type your comment and click "Post comment." You will be asked to type the warped text to make sure you're a real person. And you're done! Hope this helps.

-Nick