May Days

The first 4 months of the year flew by! It seems that time just flies faster and faster the older I get. I know part of it this semester was due to the fact that I travelled rather extensively, much moreso than usual. I'm glad that May is here and travel is over for a while at least!

I've had a productive week thus far. My colleagues and I got an article together in a very short while and submitted to a journal on Monday. Amazing what great people can do when they set their minds to it! I also had 2 articles that were R&Rs (revise and resubmits) that I had hoped to have out a month ago, but with all the travel it just didn't happen. I'm happy to report that they have both been resubmitted this week! Let's hope they both get accepted!

I can tell that all my travel is having impacts on Callen. She has been really clingy for the past few weeks, and also not going to sleep well at night. It seems later and later every night before she gets to sleep. I hope this stage passes soon as she needs her rest! She was even grumpy this morning when she got up, which is unusual for her.

I'm hoping the rest of the month is as productive as this week has been! Here's to May days that relax, refresh, and rejuvenate...

Where Oh Where Are You Tonite . . .

If you grew up in the rural south as I did, you'll know the rest of the lyrics to this song. Any takers?

This semester I've travelled a lot more than I normally do. Thus far, I've been to:
- Orange Beach, AL
- San Diego and UC, Irvine
- Atlantic Beach and Triangle areas in NC
- College Station, Texas
- Washington, DC

I still have upcoming trips this year to the following locations:
- NC
- Atlanta (at least twice!)
- Vancouver
- New Orleans
- and perhaps others : )

I've been traveling so much that my daughter is asking me why I have to leave so often : (. Hopefully one day she'll understand better than she does now...

Where oh where are you tonite . . .

Trip Travails

We started our trek to NC last Friday. Before we left town Friday, a parent at Callen's school misjudged his turning radius and plowed into the back and rear driver's side of my car that morning. A good amount of damage but drivable thank goodness as we were taking it to NC.

We get to the beach Saturday early evening. After unpacking our car and playing with Callen some, we go out for a late dinner. We're crossing the bridge to the mainland when we hit something in the road. It was some type of strap with a big hook in it. Well, the hook punctured the rear driver's side tire! So, we put on the temporary spare as it begins to rain, thunder, and lightening. The tire that was damaged was a brand new tire! Less than 2 months old. Ugh.

Sunday we went to the beach and had a good time in the sun, sand, and surf. Some of my cousins came in around dinner time that day. Callen had a blast playing with her cousins Luke and Emily from Sunday night through Wed. afternoon! They were such great kids - never appearing to tire of playing with her!

Monday morning I start the dishwasher. A few minutes later my cousin walks in the kitchen and notices the floor is COVERED in water! The guys were out on their way to play golf and happened to call about this time. They didn't bother to come back and investigate what was wrong! We also had an issue with our disposal not working. Our local repair guy got it working but suggested replacing it soon. Then, last night I was washing shrimp to cook for dinner when I noticed water was pouring out on my feet. Oh yea, another plumbing issue! We have a plumber coming out in the AM to check out the dishwasher, disposal, etc. Yeah, more money, more money, more money!

Even with all these trip travails, we've had a great time thus far at the beach! The cousins left this afternoon and some friends come in this evening. Hopefully more good memories to come!

Here's to no more plumbing issues at our condo!

Pull Ups Be Gone!

While we were traveling in Utah a week or so ago (pix to be posted sometime soon), we thought we were out of Pull Ups late one night when we were heading to bed. It was SO cold outside too and we would have had to drive to a store to get some! We asked Callen if she wanted to wear underwear to bed and she said 'Yes'. So, we've been wearing underwear, rather than Pull Ups, to bed at night. She's done really well and not had any bed wetting accidents yet. Here's to hoping Pull Ups are gone forever!

Lesson Learned

Don't check your luggage if you think you might want to try to get on an earlier flight! According to the Delta people you can't switch! I have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and there was another connection flight that had available seats. However, the Delta reps said the only possible way for me to even have a chance to get on the earlier flight was to go back out to the luggage check area (so go outside of security!) and beg them to get it off, then go back through security, etc. She said the chances that they would do it would be very slim at best and given how long it takes to get through security she basically said there was no way I'd make the earlier flight.

What happened to airlines calling their luggage people and asking them to pull a bag?? I've had this happen numerous times in the past. I even told her I didn't care if my luggage went on the later plane. Nope - you have to travel with your luggage she said. I should have said -- well, what happens when the airline loses my bag and it doesn't travel with me? But, of course I didn't think about that at the time.

Shelia (stuck in Atlanta for another hour or so at least - ugh!)

Home Again, Home Again

We had a busy trip visiting relatives! Lots of time driving between places, but we had a good time while we were visiting with family. Callen enjoyed having little cousins to play with and older relatives to shower her with attention! And, her Aunt Suz to provide lots of new goodies for her to play with.

Unfortunately Friday night I noticed that she had a high fever when she was in bed. This persisted through Saturday. She felt miserable Saturday for a good portion of the day. All she wanted to do was lay on the couch and hang on me. I felt bad for her. It was a chance for us to all rest a little though. It was rather busy going from one place to another, visiting, etc. so a little down time was good for all of us. We went out to dinner Saturday night and Callen's Aunt Suz really helped to keep her entertained! Thanks Aunt Suz!!

Luckily her fever subsided Saturday night and by Sunday AM she was back to her normal self, which was good considering we made an almost 12 hour drive home on Sunday!

We're home for a while now. And, so much to do! Why does it always seem like when you go away the work at work and at home multiplies while you're gone? Maybe one day soon I will be able to find time to actually download all those great photos we took while we were away!

Visiting Relatives

This is a busy travel week for us. We're at my brother's house for a few days, then on to Bo's step-mother's family reunion. Lots of miles to drive yet!

This afternoon we were visiting with some family. One of Callen's little cousins is a little over 2. He and Callen had so much fun running (my brother lives in a rural area with a huge yard and lots of room to run!). There were also cows in a pasture next door. They had a blast going up to the fence and talking to the cows. They also saw a large frog. They were so cute hopping after it.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll actually take some pictures and be able to post them at some point this week! Here's to lots more fun times for everyone.

Back in DC Again

This makes twice in a 7 day period. I must say though -- the hotel this time is an incredibly neat old hotel - the Omni Shoreham. My room is huge, which is a nice change from the hotel last week!

I flew US Air today. As usual, both flight segments were sold out. I noticed that US Air lets you check one bag for free, but the second one will cost you $25! We were offered a beverage while flying, but no peanuts or snacks of any kind. I recall hearing that some airlines were planning to eliminate snacks. I have to wonder - how much $$ are they saving by not giving us a tiny bag of peanuts or pretzels?

I wonder what will be next -- some airlines are already charging you to check your bags outside the terminal. At the B'ham airport, Delta charges $3 to do this.

Any ideas what airlines will try to charge us for next?

How often ...

does work get in the way of things you want to do? This weekend we were supposed to be in NC at a mini-grad school reunion. Unfortunately, however, with me being sick week before last and then being out of town for a conference last weekend I was way behind on some proposal reviews that had to get done by today. So, we didn't go. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone, hanging out, and seeing an area of NC to which I had not previously been. I hope our friends don't think badly of us. I know they went to a lot of trouble to organize this. I hope the others had fun! Maybe Beth or Jammie will send us some pix so we can see all the fun stuff that they did.

Do you find that work gets in the way of doing things you want to do? I know I struggle with this a lot, especially as a parent. Work-family balance is very hard I think. Luckily I have a great husband and I don't worry about leaving Callen when I go out of town for work; but I do miss having those times with my family.

For those who work, how do you do the work-family balance? Does it get easier with time?

Catching Up on Pix

Some pix from our travels the past few months. I'm horrible about actually getting pix off the digital camera. I finally uploaded some today - 197!

Here's Callen in Seattle at the big music place (I forget the name now, but it was founded by one of the Microsoft founders - not Gates). Maybe Callen will grow up to be a drummer like her Daddy.




Here's Callen playing on our trip to Seattle.













I hope you can see the bright green color of the moss on these trees. It was amazing! We drove from Portland out to the coast one day and the color of the moss was so vivid. I'm sure my camera didn't do it justice.

Off the coast of Oregon are these huge rocks sticking out of the water. Very different appearance than the East Coast. A neat trip!

Callen eating a treat at her Valentine's Day party at her school, after just having had a haircut.

Callen at our condo in Atlantic Beach, NC in March.

Home Again

We spent the last 10 days in Portland and Seattle. We had a lot of fun; both cities are great but I think I like Portland better. Seattle was too big and the people we met didn't seem as friendly. It rained every day in Portland, but it usually only lasted a short while each time.

On Sunday we drove from Portland up to the coast of Oregon. It was a neat drive going through the mountains to get to the coast; we even saw snow on the side of the road at various points! The coast is very neat but very different than the East Coast. Lots of cliffs and rocks jutting out of the water. I'll have to post some pix later.

Bo had a conference in Portland. Callen and I went to the zoo one day. Portland has a very nice zoo, much larger than the one in B'ham. We enjoyed our girls' day out!

We did a lot of fun things while we were traveling, in between work and conference stuff. We rode planes, trains, a boat, a monorail, and Callen even rode an elephant all by herself (on an amusement ride). I'll hopefully post lots of pix soon.

Slow Posts

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but the last month or so has been really busy at work! I had a big NIH grant that was resubmitted for the final time on March 5th. During the final days of it, I also had to reviews grants for an NSF panel I was on in DC - 12 grants! I always learn a lot but it is a lot of work too! I flew to DC last week, got stuck in Atlanta airport due to the plane we were about to get on being struck by lightening (I sure am glad we weren't on it yet!), did the review panel for 2 days, then went to MD for meetings on Friday. I finally got home Friday night around 9:30 (only 2 hours late, instead of the 5 going to DC!). I was exhausted after the last few weeks.

Then, what do we do on Saturday? We get up and start getting ready to head to NC! I had to go into work for a few hours before we left but we finally left around 3:00. Bo was such a good husband to drive us to NC! We made it to Raleigh around 2 AM (ouch!). He flew home on Sunday and then Callen and I headed to the beach for the week. We've had a great time so far. The weather is phenomenal and Callen loves the beach and the sand! My friend Michelle and her dog CK came last night and hung out with us. Callen loved the dog and even helped walk him some today. Well, I'm not sure who was walking whom given that CK weighs almost double what Callen ways : ). Another friend and her daughter are coming tomorrow. It will be good to see them.

Although we're having fun, I find that I can't do the things I used to before Callen was born. There are some neat art and pottery shops in Beaufort that I always like to go to. We tried going in them today but I didn't want to have to buy something that got broken because Callen wouldn't not touch all the pretty objects. Yep, maybe in another few years or so we can try it. Or, maybe Daddy will come with us next time and Mommy can get to go shopping : ).

Here's to hoping the next few months are not as busy as the past few, and I can post more often!