I guess I will finally update our blog...

It has been quite a while since I updated the blog.  In the last couple months, things have been busy, mostly with Aaron working like mad which isn't very interesting.  For the most part, I feel like most days are the same, Aaron goes to work, I take care of Ethan and if we are all lucky, Aaron gets to come home from work, even more lucky if Aaron gets home at a reasonable time.  BUT, these are some of the highlights... Notice all have to do with Ethan. 

Ethan celebrated his first birthday in August and finally got a tooth a couple of weeks before.  I was starting to worry he was going to need dentures if they didn't pop out soon.  I guess though given the fact he likes to bite things it is good he didn't get teeth sooner.  How my sweet little newborn baby turned one I will never know.  It seems like this last year went by in a sleep deprived blur.  

Ethan and I went down to visit my parents for a week in late August.  It was nice to get away for a little while, but Aaron wasn't able to come.  We missed him but had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa.  

Aaron and I went on a hike one weekend, which I know doesn't sound big to most of you, but Aaron usually doesn't have time so it was nice to get up in the mountains and enjoy the fall leaves that were starting to turn.  

Finally, my baby is no longer a baby, he is a toddler.  Ethan learned to walk and is getting pretty good at it.  He also has started to throw tantrums and give dirty looks.  I am not such a fan of the tantrums, but I would get frustrated too if I couldn't tell anyone what I wanted or they told me no if they figured it out.  

Other than that, not a whole lot is new.  We are feeling more settled in our house and have started to meet some people in our neighborhood.  

Congrats my sister and her husband!

My one and only sibling just had her first baby this past week! We are really excited for her and her husband and are happy to have little Kaitlyn in the family. I can't wait to see her in person.

It's been a while

So it has been a while since we have posted anything new to the blog. I am doubtful I will actually post any pictures since I feel pretty lazy right now. We have been really busy the last little bit. We had my family in town for Aaron's graduation and threw my sister a baby shower while she was here. We then moved out of The Village and into our first house. Although we are excited to have a new place that we can make our own, I am really missing all our friends and the fact that if you were lonely you could just go outside and usually someone else was out there to talk to. Now I go outside and the only one I have to talk to is myself. Since I don't want the neighbors to think I am crazy I have to restrain myself from doing that. We took a quick trip after getting moved in to Yellowstone and then came home and have been trying to get unpacked ever since. Aaron has had orientation and officially started residency today so we are just trying to brace ourselves for him not being at home much after having so much time off this last month. Anyways, that is what is going on with us in a nutshell. I better get to doing something productive though while the baby is napping as it may be my only chance all day to get anything done. Once we are unpacked, I will post a few pictures of the house for those of you that are curious.

Congratulations Dr. Healy!

It is finally official, Aaron is now a doctor! Aaron, I am so proud of all of your hard work that has allowed you to accomplish such a great thing. I don't think many people know how hard it is and how much sacrifice it has taken to get to this point. I am so proud of you! Congratulations Doctor!

To My Mother

Hi Mom, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for all you have done for me. As I have become a mother myself this past year, I think I am only starting to understand all the sacrifices you have made for us. I now have an appreciation for all the sleepless nights and diapers you changed for us. I know now and understand the bond a mother feels with her children and how she would do anything for them. I appreciate all you have done for me and want to say thank you for being a great mom! Happy Mother's Day! I love you.

Linds

Leave of Absence

Hey all, guess what? This post isn't about how cute my son is (although he is pretty cute). It is about me. Yup. You heard me. So, I know a lot of you have asked me what is going on with my Ph.D., if I am quitting, if I am going to keep going, whatever. To answer your questions, I have decided to take a leave of absence from it for at least a year. Come the end of June I can focus on having a little time for me again. I am really looking forward to the break and feel like it is a great option since I am a little torn. I am so worn out but have put 4 years into it and am 2/3 done. It is hard to just quit something you have worked so hard for. I felt like a huge weight was lifted after talking to my advisor about the whole thing yesterday. Anyways, I will get to find out what it feels like to be a stay at home mom that doesn't feel guilty for neglecting her baby or work. It will be nice.

Moab Vacation

Since we ended up matching in Salt Lake, we decided that we would take the time we had planned on going house hunting somewhere else to go on a little family vacation and get some much needed time away. We headed down to Moab and went to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. The first picture is the baby in his hiking backpack. It was pretty nice and most of the time he spent in there he was asleep.

This next picture is of a couple of arches. I am too lazy to look up the name of them.
This is the baby's first swimming experience. He really seemed to like it and loved splashing around. Luckily the pool was about the same temperature as his bath water.
This is the babe and I up by Delicate Arch. He did remarkably well with the trip except for sleeping.
This was on the way down to Moab. I love this picture of him.

As far as other random tidbits go, the baby has started scooting/crawling around. He now follows us around. He is also 8 months old today. I can not believe how big he is getting and how fast it is all going. I feel like I blink and he is a couple months older. We are just trying to enjoy everything despite the fact it is just going too fast.

Match Day

Well, today was match day and boy were we surprised. For those of you who do not know what match day is, it is when medical students find out where they will be going for residency. Unlike pretty much every other profession on the face of the planet, you are assigned where you will be going in medicine. We were really surprised to find out that we matched to the University of Utah in General Surgery. We thought of all the places, we were probably the least likely to stay here since we have been here all along. I guess there is a reason that we are supposed to be in Utah, maybe it is the free baby sitting and green jello, I guess we will see. Anyways, if you thought you were rid of the Healys, think again, we are staying!

P.S. If you are wondering, we will be staying in Utah, NOT in student housing.

I should vacuum my floor

But that would rob my baby of the opportunity to develop his fine motor skills by trying to pick up all the lint. Maybe once he succeeds in picking it up I will change my mind.

I think I may have lost it

I went to our lab meeting on Friday, there was a new undergrad that I didn't know. I introduced myself to him and he said, "Hi my name is Steve" or whatever his name actually was, I don't remember. The fact I have no clue what his name is isn't the funny part though. For some weird inexplicable reason right after he said, "hi my name is Steve", I repeated it. I said the exact same thing. Why would I do that? I don't know, it just came out. He probably thought I was making fun of him... you know, like when you are little and annoying someone by repeating everything they say. I didn't even say sorry or make an excuse after either because I was a little too shocked I had just done that. Have you ever just said something and then had no clue why you said it? If I do something totally wacky like that to you, sorry in advance. I am just more than a little stressed so I guess it is starting to show.

(As a side note, I do actually think it is pretty funny in retrospect... Hahahaha. I guess I showed him who the senior grad student is... nothing like making an undergrad extremely uncomfortable right?)

My Soapbox on Animal Research

No, it probably isn't what you think. I am for animal research. Shriek! I know. What a horrible person I must be. Just to lay it out there, no I don't think we should do things that we don't have to test on animals, or do things that needlessly hurt the animal, I believe though sometimes, animals are needed in research. I just read some stupid post someone made on a bioengineering group page I am part of on facebook saying what horrible things we are doing to animals and how PETA says we are mistreating animals. It made me mad. While I do agree it is unfortunate we use animals, I think that people really don't understand much about what goes into animal research and all you have to do to make sure the animal aren't mistreated. Seriously, I could treat you worse than an animal and no one would care ... well, at least not anyone that regulates research and I doubt PETA would care either.

People just don't get it. When our lab got funding for a small animal MRI scanner (think mice, rats, and that sort of thing) people commented that it was a shame that researchers would waste all that money on give rats MRI scans and that we should be trying to cure diseases in humans. I wish I could brand the word RETARD across those people's foreheads. What do they think we are doing? Curing mice diseases. No, we are trying to figure out how to cure diseases or problems humans have. You can't take someone's sick kid and do experiments on them.

Just some things that animal research has given us:

Vaccines for: Smallpox, Anthrax, Rabies, Polio, Tetanus, meningitis, Hepatitis B
Insulin for diabetics
Anticoagulants (keeps blood from clotting in case you don't know)
Open-heart surgery
Pacemakers
Artificial hearts
Organ transplant
Penicillin
Blood transfusions
Treatments for cancer
Asthma inhalers
implants for people with Parkinson's disease
Anesthetics

Basically every drug you take, most medical devices, everything. I wish it were possible to do without using animals, but it isn't really. Anyways, I just had to get that out of my system.

Ethan Laughing

We took this little video of Ethan laughing the other day and thought you might like it. Apparently eating pretzels is very funny if you are two feet tall. He must take after his father because I hate the sound of chewing.

dear mayonnaise

Dear Mayonnaise,

I just want you to know I hate everything about you.  I hate the way you smell, I hate the way you look, I hate the way you taste.  You look like jarred pus.  I hate you.

Lindsey

Nate, this one is for you....

Dear Nate,
I think you owe it to your soon to be baby to get one of these to help keep him or her warm during those cold Iowa winters.  (http://www.togetherbe.com/default.aspx)

I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I ordered an extra large one in just your size :)

Your favorite sister-in-law,
Lindsey

In case you need help deciding what to have for breakfast...

For those of you who need help deciding what kind of cereal to eat in the morning. (We found this at http://topcultured.com/what-should-i-eat-cereal-edition-flowchart/) Awesome isn't it? Click on the image to be able to actually read it.

A better day

So I think today is going better already. I got to talk to Aaron and he is loving Stanford (which is where he is right now). He gets to come home tonight and I am excited. This whole interview thing has been rough on both of us. Luckily he only has one more left and it is at the end of the month so we have a little break from the whole traveling thing (he has been gone 10 of the last 11 days).

I guess I will add a little bit about Christmas since I haven't yet. We had a great Christmas this year. We were really glad to see my sister and her husband and spend some time with them. We got lots of fun presents but the best present of all was that I found out that I am going to be an aunt in July! (I am already an aunt, but not on my side of the family) Jen is having a baby and we are so thrilled for her and Nate! She has the ultimate in self control and isn't going to find out what it is. They want a surprise come delivery day. I don't think I could handle waiting. Here are a couple of pictures of the baby since he is by far the best looking one in the family :). He really liked the wrapping paper. The bottom picture is of him in a storage container. He did not like it and started to cry.

Hrumphf

So some day I will get around to doing a real post with pictures. I just have to vent for a minute, this is kind of a downer, so you can stop reading if you like. At four this morning I get an email from my advisor that wants to know if I can meet with him at 10 this morning. I call my mother-in-law at 8:15 and she is nice enough to hurry and get ready and head up to the U so I can make this meeting. I was supposed to be going to a seminar later at 11:30. I head to our imaging facility which I can't unlock the door to and no one is there. I figure maybe he is just running late. After sitting in the hall for an hour I just gave up. He never came. I go to the seminar where he shows up and decides to see if I can meet at 3. No, I can not. He wonders why I don't get work done. According to Elder Russell M. Nelson we need three things to feel joy in the morning, one of them being feeling good about the people you work with. Hmm, no wonder I dread working and the days I work....