I planted blueberry bushes in our front yard this weekend. It was hard work, but it's good to feel I accomplished something useful for our home. And the kids love blueberries!!! It's springlike weather here so it's a little early by midwest standards, but here it's perfect for planting. It will take 3-4 years for them to produce a crop of blueberries. That is hard for the kids to understand. But in a few years, we will have 5 trees making blueberries!! That is one of the great things about the Northwest, it's berry country.
I also spent 45 minutes trimming all of our rose bushes down. Roses grow very well in Portland. BB may have mentioned the famous Rose Garden in Washington Park here in Portland. It's beautiful. We also went to the Columbia River Gorge to Wahclenna Falls, but as we forgot our camera, BB cannot blog about that trip.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Vacation in Kansas
I have been really stressed out since I booked our vacation, trying to plan on seeing everyone and keeping everyone happy. Last year wasn't that bad because we didn't try to go up to Iowa to see my dad. My dad flew out here so it was ok. We just stayed in KC, while BB drove up to Iowa to see his sister and friends. Since my dad cannot travel to KC anymore, and he will not be flying to Portland either, I wanted to go see him. But 6 days is not enough time to do all this, so I am stressed out. We have to see my sister and her kids in KC. Woogy and Nibbles would never forgive me if they didn't get to go see their cousins. My step-mom gave me some good advice: focus on having fun on our vacation. So I am going to try to be ok with not seeing everyone and still keep everyone happy???
Monday, February 18, 2008
My job
I just wanted to clarify something I mentioned in my last blog about my job.
At my last job in KC, I used to work in Quality Control. My job was very necessary and it required a great deal of skill, but scientifically, I wasn't doing anything new and exciting, just the same thing week after week so product could be sold and the company could make money.
My new job is totally different. Not only am I in charge of the lab (lab manager), but I am allowed to learn new things that could potentially make me a great deal more marketable, in respect to my skills. One thing I always wanted to learn in KC was how they make the recombinant vaccines that we sold. A young woman in research would tell me about how she always loved working with DNA and that her job was just what you always wanted. She would tell me about the cloning, not in detail, but it fascinated me. I never dreamed that I would learn molecular biology to any great depth.
But my current boss is allowing me to learn as much as I can, so that when our current expert decides to go back to Japan, which he will, that he has someone who can do his cloning and mutations. So to say that I am excited that I am learning this is an understatement. It is something that has interested me for 5 years, at least. Today was my first experiment on my cloning project. I am really hoping that it goes well and that I don't fail.
At my last job in KC, I used to work in Quality Control. My job was very necessary and it required a great deal of skill, but scientifically, I wasn't doing anything new and exciting, just the same thing week after week so product could be sold and the company could make money.
My new job is totally different. Not only am I in charge of the lab (lab manager), but I am allowed to learn new things that could potentially make me a great deal more marketable, in respect to my skills. One thing I always wanted to learn in KC was how they make the recombinant vaccines that we sold. A young woman in research would tell me about how she always loved working with DNA and that her job was just what you always wanted. She would tell me about the cloning, not in detail, but it fascinated me. I never dreamed that I would learn molecular biology to any great depth.
But my current boss is allowing me to learn as much as I can, so that when our current expert decides to go back to Japan, which he will, that he has someone who can do his cloning and mutations. So to say that I am excited that I am learning this is an understatement. It is something that has interested me for 5 years, at least. Today was my first experiment on my cloning project. I am really hoping that it goes well and that I don't fail.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Day Present
This Valentine's Day, BB got me a present I didn't know I wanted. He had gotten this movie, "Stardust", on the Queue about 2 months ago and I loved it. The kids did too. I had forgotten all about it actually. Until I was presented it today with some flowers for Valentine's Day. I was quite excited, having forgotten how much the family enjoyed this movie. When Woogy saw it tonight, he really wanted to watch it again so we broke the no TV rule. Why did I enjoy this movie? Well, if you haven't seen it, it's quite unique. As unique as "Willow" was 15 years ago, another favorite of mine. I don't know why fantasy movies appeal to me so much, but they always have. And this is quite the fantasy. To fictionalize a universe where a fallen star is a beautiful young woman who can "shine" and whose heart, if eaten, brings eternal life? I think I may have to go get the book and see what this author has to offer, Neil Gaiman.
I know this is a pretty weak blog, but life is pretty normal and good so I couldn't think of anything else interesting enough in my life to blog about. If anyone really wants to know what is new in my life, I may start doing a new type of mouse dissection at work soon (that would be 3 dissections I do then) and next week, I am going to begin my first project of genetic cloning/engineering a new CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cell stable cell line with an acid sensing ion channel type 2a inserted. But it will be trial and error, mostly error at first, I am sure.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
God is good
We just had a wonderful answer to prayer last night. We have been having real problems finding a babysitter since ours moved in November. We found someone, but she wasn't our first choice. Her house is quite a drive, and hard on BB to drive out and back 4x on MWF for Woogy's preschool. She smoked as well, but her rates were very reasonable, $1.50/hour. Cheapest babysitter ever, I think. But we still have been looking to replace her these 3 months, mostly because of the distance. We have had no luck. One lady seemed promising, but she cancelled our interview and never returned our calls?? Another lady was really close and we went and visited her house, we called her references, and when we went to call her to say we wanted her, she had already found some others kids before us. First come, first serve.
Since we started using this new sitter, she has needed alot of time off, mostly to go to court or go on job interviews. She is being forced to pay child-support for an older child no longer in her custody. We have been patient as she tells us she is looking for a graveyard shift job to satisfy the court but still watch her kids and our kids during the day. She finally told us yesterday, that as of this Thursday, she is most likely starting a full-time job and we needed to find another sitter, fast!!
Since we have been in the market these last 3 months, BB and I panicked yesterday. I had already took my lunch break so I only had 15 minutes to surf the web for a sitter before I went home yesterday. I found one number to call, I scratched it down and called on my cell on the way to pick up the kids. She seemed nice, 4 blocks from our house, so I said I would stop by in a few minutes. The kids really liked her place and the other kids there. I couldn't get Nibbles to leave. She is a very nice christian lady. She gave me some references but she warned me that several other people had contacted her too (I had told her how we had lost that one sitter by waiting too long!). So I rush home, make the phone calls, get all the calls back with excellent references. Now BB gets home and we decide if we can negotiate her to $600 a month instead of $675, we will hire her. We call her and after about 10 minutes negotiation, she agrees to our price and we have a sitter! Praise God!
Since we started using this new sitter, she has needed alot of time off, mostly to go to court or go on job interviews. She is being forced to pay child-support for an older child no longer in her custody. We have been patient as she tells us she is looking for a graveyard shift job to satisfy the court but still watch her kids and our kids during the day. She finally told us yesterday, that as of this Thursday, she is most likely starting a full-time job and we needed to find another sitter, fast!!
Since we have been in the market these last 3 months, BB and I panicked yesterday. I had already took my lunch break so I only had 15 minutes to surf the web for a sitter before I went home yesterday. I found one number to call, I scratched it down and called on my cell on the way to pick up the kids. She seemed nice, 4 blocks from our house, so I said I would stop by in a few minutes. The kids really liked her place and the other kids there. I couldn't get Nibbles to leave. She is a very nice christian lady. She gave me some references but she warned me that several other people had contacted her too (I had told her how we had lost that one sitter by waiting too long!). So I rush home, make the phone calls, get all the calls back with excellent references. Now BB gets home and we decide if we can negotiate her to $600 a month instead of $675, we will hire her. We call her and after about 10 minutes negotiation, she agrees to our price and we have a sitter! Praise God!
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