Family Pictures

A while ago, a friend of mine let me know that her best friend from Texas, who just happened to be a photographer, was coming into town and was interested in doing sessions with other locals. I signed up thinking it would be great to finally get some pictures where we didn't look like a poster for birth control. My one regret from my wedding was not hiring a professional photographer and I don't want to have similar regrets as my family grows older. So we signed up and I had high hopes that my children would be cooperative and everything would go smoothly. Because family life is just that way....right?

The day of the pictures there was a extreme heat advisory. Rowan refused to smile and had a big fit. We were all drenched in sweat. I went home depressed, sure that nothing had turned out and that I'd just wasted my family's time and money. Still, I held out hope that at least one picture would turn out. I haven't seen all of the pictures yet, but the photographer just posted a sampling of that day on her blog. Considering the obstacles she had to work with, I am estactic. Thank you Kristen- you are a miracleworker!!

Check it out at http://kristendukephotography.com/

Subjected to being a Subject

This summer has been extremely flexible since Steve isn't teaching. With this being his last year, he is scrambling to get everything together to start applying for jobs this month. There's been a lot of pressure to get the dissertation going because the University of Illinois is facing some serious budgetary concerns. After Spring 2011, Steve probably will not have any funding- even his superior will be laid off following the fall semester. Things feel like we are heading towards a black hole and all we can do is run in the other direction as fast as we can. Steve even told me that universities with better funding are poaching the good professors from here because they know the U of I can't match their offers. Scary.

Anyways, the first step to getting the dissertation done is to run his experiments and collect the data, but that is dependent on outside factors, namely the availability of human subjects. Steve had hopes of getting people for his experiment over the summer, but we weren't sure if that would be easy since most of the students are gone. After a while we decided to enlist the help of some ward members to help bring those numbers up. I babysat for the parents and Steve ran the experiment. I may not know the ins and outs of psycholinguistics, but it was nice to feel involved at some level in helping his dissertation along. It was also nice to feel the support of friends around us. I'm going to miss this ward and little community of grad student families when we leave.

I should have gotten a picture of his fancy eye-tracking machine that he uses when I went- maybe another time. Here are the kids in another lab watching Scooby Doo while mom and I took turns taking the experiment in another room.




Steve still needs more people (native Korean speakers too!), so if you know of anyone or would like to do it yourself, please let us know! Free babysitting and money- how can you go wrong?

Whee?

My mom recently gave us her Wii. Steve and I have swore up and down that we would never buy a gaming system and I guess we've kept to that promise. We didn't buy it. Mostly I'm concerned I will have a family of gamaholics on my hands, but we're keeping that down by mostly renting games. Admittedly, it's been nice to make use of Netflix's streaming capabilities with the Wii and I've also learned that I am exceptionally well balanced and not too bad at yoga. Although my inflated ego quickly went down after the Wii told me I was 42 years old given my fitness level and body composition. Thanks Wii.

Speaking of getting old, I'm not very technologically advanced and it's starting to show. I've never sent a text message and my phone is just a phone. I recently got called into Young Womens and now I'm starting to see just how out of it I am. One of the first spiritual messages I heard in YW started "I was looking for apps for my iPhone and..." I'm out of touch- I get it.

I thought I was pretty well insulated from these kinds of thoughts, but now with this Wii in my house and being in YW, the assault is kind of brutal at times. I tell myself it's payback for laughing at my mom when she told us to turn off the computer because we were wasting the battery. The hardest part is when my 4 year old son, who has had just as much exposure to this gaming system as I have, tells me how to use it.

Thanks hun for keeping me on my toes.



Nadia doing her yoga poses?

Shopping Spree!

I love to shop. I love to shop at garage sales even more. Why?

16 Short Sleeve mostly Eddie Bauer Wrinkle-Free, Stain-Resistant Shirts, some Nordstrom and JoS. A. Bank.
9 Long Sleeve Eddie Bauer Wrinkle-Free, Stain-Resistant Shirts
2 Long Sleeve Claiborne Sweaters
1 Pair of Merrell Hiking Boots
10 Ties- some new with tags!

Retail cost?

$1600 is a conservative estimate. A few things have new tags and I looked the rest up online.

My cost?

$32. Seriously. Everything is in like new condition and I'm ecstatic. With Steve hopefully getting a job next year, this is a great time to get some fantastic business casual wear. Not to mention the fact that we just got rid of a ton of his old stuff because it didn't fit anymore. And I don't have to iron! Love it!!!