Mike and Tina's Family Life

Airport security

2010-01-24T15:08:00.000-05:00

Wtf takes people so long to go thru airport security? its simple, untie your shoes and belt before you get there, empty your pockets into a bag while you're waiting in line, and put all your stuff into a basket. Then, don't stand there holding up the line putting your stuff back on! Take it off the xray machine and move on! Put your shoes back on down the hall!

GAH
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Calculator!

2010-01-13T09:56:00.001-05:00

Wow it's been a while since I posted! I'll need to update with lots of pictures of the new house!

But until then, has anyone seen or borrowed my TI-89? lol

Kelvin Update

2009-11-12T10:08:00.001-05:00

An update on Kelvin. I brought him to the vet this morning. The bandages are off and the pad actually looks really good. We are going to take the stitches out on Monday morning.

However, the skin on the bottom of his food, between the pads, inside the deep ridges is really really sore. In one place it even ripped open and is bleeding a little bit. The doctor thinks that may be why he has been limping and not putting pressure on it this last week. It probably hasn't helped that it's pretty much been bandaged for 3 weeks. Still not sure why he seemed fine and walking on all 4s on Friday and then so bad suddenly and heavily limping as of last weekend.

Have the paw in a light cloth they gave me and have neosporin on the underneath of the paw. Hopefully after a day or so the fresh air will help heal the torn skin and he'll be back on the foot no problem. Put a cone around his neck for today while I'm at work so he doesn't lick the new cut too much.

Kelvin

2009-11-05T12:52:00.001-05:00

Wow, I really need to make some updates, huh?

I guess I'll make this post about Kelvin.

Opening weekend of waterfowl season, I had Kelvin out hunting with me. Day went pretty well for him, though he still needs some more practice. We finished up around 10:30am and were walking back to camp. I let Kelvin run ahead and play with his brother, Ajax, like they usually do at the camp. They ran ahead and into the river, a place they've swam a hundred times. Kelvin followed Ajax, Ajax came out of the river, Kevlin followed and came out limping. I went up and found he had cut his front foot. The pad was almost completely severed. He also had a 3" gash on his opposite back leg.

Phil drove me and Kelvin in his truck to the Weedsport vet. He bandadged the front paw and stapled the back leg. He was pretty rough, but very cheap. He had me come back on Sunday morning to change the bandages.

On Monday I brought Kelvin to a new vet in Buffalo. Dr. Budick didn't like how the previous vet had left the pad hanging there to fall off and regrow so he kept Kelvin for the rest of the day. He put him under and sutured the paw.

He sent us with more antibiotics and pain medicine, and we came back in 7 days for a bandage change. Kelvin was doing great, putting some pressure on the foot even. By the 14th day and another bandage change he was practically normal, plus the bandage. He got the staples removed on the 14th day and we went home. That was last Saturday.

From there things have gotten not so good. For one, the 14th day was our last day of pain medicine. For two, Steve was laying on the floor next to Kelvin and something happened and Kelvin yelped. Between the two, one of them resulted in him being in a lot of pain now. He doesn't even let the paw touch the ground when he's walking, sitting or laying down. He lets the paw hang in the air at weird angles even when he's laying down. It's constanly trembling.

I'm going back to the vet at 7:30 am tomorrow...hopefully it was just the pain medicine and not a setback...

2 week travel!

2009-10-11T10:47:00.000-04:00

Okay everyone. Here's a great reason for a new update! I'm sitting in the buffalo airport on the way to a 2 week trip!

I'm first flying to portland before driving 45 min to stevenson washington for a 3 day work research summit!

At the end of the week I'm flying to detroit for a weekend hunting trip with the fatherinlaw and kelvin! Go kelvin!

Then I'm being dropped off in chicago to give a presentation at the Neuroscience conference.

When that conference is over next wednesday, I'm headed to baltimore to pack and load the house with the movies and finish some requested repairs.

Then tina and I are driving back up to NY to visit and take part in western waterfowl opening weekend!

Finally on th 25th I'm headed back to Buffalo! Back to work on Monday!

You all can keep track of my travels with lots of twitter/quick updates and a few big updates.

Mike

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Name plates

2009-09-17T08:57:00.000-04:00

Look what showed up on my desk today!

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Hunting

2009-09-16T23:05:00.001-04:00

Who needs special hunting grounds? Hehe

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Work!

2009-09-10T08:46:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted in a while. But I figured I'd kick off my attempt to get back into it with a cell phone picture of a section of my building at work from the parking lot across the street!

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Ch ch ch changes

2009-08-31T15:03:00.000-04:00

Well I know it's been a while since I posted and I'm sorry. I'm in buffalo at my new job with life technologies. I defended my thesis last friday. Lots of people came out to watch, celebrate, and help us finish the house. Hopefully next weekend I can get some pictures of the house up. Yes, I am here without tina and juliana but I'm hanging in there so far.

The job seems super exciting and I can't wait to actually get into some work besides getting started.

I'll update more soon I promise and keep an eye on the twitter feed here in the blog for short little updates!

Mike
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1st Bday pt 1

2009-07-23T12:04:00.001-04:00

Here's a picture of Juliana's first birthday party in Baltimore! The pink sash says "Princess"!!

Tina hired a face painter and she was a HIT! She was going to stay for 1 hour but was so popular we had her stay for two! We were also going to have her do spray tatoos but we didn't have any electricity at Down's Park =(. It was still super fun, though, even though the guys didn't partake!

Hmm...

2009-07-22T09:21:00.002-04:00

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've posted. For those who haven't noticed, I HAVE been quite active on twitter (side bar here on the blog) as well as Facebook, where I've posted a few paintball and Juliana pictures from my phone.

Things are moving along well here in Baltimore. Let's see...

I had an awesome tournament the other weekend. I probably played the best PERSONAL tournament day of my career. Unfortunately the team wasn't up to its usual strengths and we didn't make the semifinals =( Oh well it happens. What's worse, though, is that there weren't any photographers there so I don't even have any pictures of my awesome day!

Last weekend Tina's parents came down for a short weekend. They helped us set up Juliana's birthday party in Baltimore! Yes that's right, her FIRST birthday! The actual date is July 25th, but she and Tina are going to be out of town at ANOTHER pageant. Yes, I know I said there wouldn't be any more, but this WILL be the last one lol. Now she's actually old enough to tell if she enjoys it. She's still such a happy kid, I hope she does! Anyway back to the birthday party, we had it at Down's park and it was super fun! Tina's dad helped to cook all the hamburgers, hotdogs, corn, and beans and even though Tina got these itzy bitzy tiny bags of charcoal, we made it work! The dogs were a little bit crazy in their barking, but ah well they're dogs! At the end of the day we took them down to the dog beach and let them swim and retrieve a bit, that was fun!

Well, I'm supposed to be working on papers now. As of this morning, I have one paper published, two through 3 drafts and probably ready to be submitted as soon as the other advisor okay's it, one in it's first draft just needing a discussion, and the last review paper, well, that's not started yet, but it's okay because it doesn't need any experiments!

Let's see, we'll finish off this post with a picture of...the baby!

Mac and cheese

2009-07-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

I know I should save this for another day but I'm in a posting mood. On the way back from mike c's on sunday we stopped at seasons pizza and juliana ENJOYED some mac and cheese!

If you like this, just you wait for the blueberry cobbler videos hehehe
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Pretending

2009-07-08T09:07:00.000-04:00

For those that haven't seen the picture yet, I wanted to post this awesome picture of juliana from this week. Okay so the story starts with our visit to mike c. He had this 9" plus golden retriever that juliana loved and hugged and carried around. So when we got home we tried giving her the 12" dalmation steve had gotten her and the 6" black lab. Well she loved them just as much!

Anyway to the picture. At one point she carried them into the kitchen and sat in front of the dog food bowl! She proceeded to fill the bowl with the plastic tupperware top you see in the picture and even put the dalmation's head IN the bowl! Sorry I missed that picture but I had to hide to get this one and not interrupt her! It's only a phone picture but the best I have!

This is the first time I know of her pretending on her own and certainly the first picture I ever have of her pretending! Just feels so cool!
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Busy day

2009-07-02T08:35:00.000-04:00

So today, my lab went to the red sox vs orioles day game as a team builder. Well in the middle of it I had a phone interview, the second level of the process! I set up ahead of time a test call with tina making sure the connection was strong and quiet background noise as I sat outside in a picnic area away from the park. Of course when the interview came around there was difficult connection on the other side! We got thru it though and I think it went really well. We'll see if I get a call back. The job looks very exciting and challenging which is obviously a little daunting a change but I still hope I get it!

Anyway then I went back into the game and in the meantime the red sox came back to tie it and then I got to see them win in 11. So that MUST be a good sign right?

Here's a picture from our centerfield bleecher seats.

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Fixed

2009-06-19T13:11:00.001-04:00

Tire plugged for free. All it took was waiting for 3 hours but it was kind of last minute unscheduled hehe. Also a reminder to replace soon but I knew that. Got a good amount of work done while I was waiting too.
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Tires...

2009-06-18T08:20:00.003-04:00

Okay, so we had this perfect plan to use up the last bits of the life of these tires before replacing them when we go visit NYS the next month or so.

Of course that never works, right? That back tire has a slow leak. I have no idea from what or how. It lost 10-15 psi over night. Guess we're bringing it into this local tire place to see how it is. Maybe if I fill it up twice a day it can last up to Syracuse where the tires were cheaper haha.

Update?

2009-06-17T19:17:00.001-04:00

Okay, I know I need to get back to updating this. Let's see, we had an awesome trip to NY. My mom's doing great, which is even better. My thesis defense looks to be planned for a week or two before labor day. I'm starting the job search, which is really not too fun!

Oh, and I walked outside just now and Tina's rear passenger tire was completely flat. Oye. I filled it back up, and couldn't hear any leaks. I checked the whole tire and couldn't find any nails or anything. So I'm baffled. I asked her, did the car drive fine? "oh, yeah I guess it was a little funny from the baby sitter to home". Sigh. Unfortunately she needs to go to the gym, so I sent her off and told her to check it when she gets there and when she's done. I guess if it stays full that hour and overnight it's fine. At least we need new tires relatively soon. I was just hoping it would be another month or so.

Juliana and Kelvin

2009-06-03T21:24:00.004-04:00

A lot of people often ask "how is the Dog with the Baby?" I hear it pretty much every time we're out with both of them together. Well, for anyone who wants visual proof, here is one of the reasons you get a lab with a baby!!!

It's hard to video the protection aspect, but he'll like go and bark by her bedroom door if she's crying a ton and we don't take care of her, too!

Now I will admit he's a little more subdued than normal because there's far off thunderstorms, but still they play like this on the floor a lot! This is pretty normal for his laying on the floor with the baby behavior.

It's a pretty cute video! See if you can spot her giving him a kiss and saying her version of "dog." I'm real mad i missed him sniffing her head when she was sitting!

UT OH!

2009-06-01T13:44:00.001-04:00

GO STEVE!

2009-06-01T13:36:00.003-04:00

Lawn - For Grandpa M

2009-05-27T17:17:00.005-04:00

Like I said, most posts are usually something Grandma Mallore would be more excited about than Grandpa Mallore.

Well, hopefully this one is for him!

Last week I mowed the lawn on the angle! Yes, that includes all side yards on the angle regardless of being only 5feet wide haha! I took this quick as the sun was going down, so hopefully you can see my lines okay.

Interesting "lawn" type addition. This last weekend before I left for Boston, I took the hard top off my Jeep. Meanwhile, I let the soft top sit on the lawn to stretch out in the sun. It's been shown it's a ton easier to put the soft top on if it's gotten a chance to expand a bit in the sun after being rolled up all winter. Well, I got back from Boston, and there's a dead spot on my side lawn! I don't know exactly what it's from, but it's about 3' square, so I'm hypothesizing it might be from one of the soft top rear window! Maybe it made the sun concentrate like a magnifying glass and kill it! But, why didn't that happen with the side windows?

Paintball

2009-05-27T17:12:00.002-04:00

Well, haven't made a paintball post in a while. This weekend is GPL event 2. Not a national tournament, but it's a regional. I'll be playing 5man Sunday and like to ref on Saturday, but looks like I won't be able to because I missed the last ref training/practice. But, I think it was worth it because that day I got to go to Navy and watch 2 awesome games of lacrosse quarterfinals with Mike C and Preston! I also probably would have missed the fun times eating crabs afterwords at Arundel Seafood! Which reminds me, at the time, Tina and I had a little misscommunication about who was paying Preston for crabs, WOOPS!!! We'll just have to cover one of them at Fogo de Chao or something haha!

Here's an action picture of me at an official 7man practice. I love this one because I'm sliding in on my knee with my gun up and you can see the little broken paintball spinning beneath me!

Mem day at foxboro

2009-05-26T06:52:00.000-04:00

We thought the flag was going to be an epic fail based on how few people they had carrying it. Boy were we wrong!

Btw this is an update from my phone. No idea if the picture will work!

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Sigh

2009-05-18T23:06:00.001-04:00

Couldn't get terribly motivated today. That and needed to replace Tina's blackberry b/c the "K" key didn't work well and now I can't get it to resync with her work Calendar. The frustrating part is that theoretically I'm not supposed to be able to sync her work calendar, just the email, because of the type it is, but for some weird reason the sync actually was working before we had to change the phone, regardless that it wasn't supposed to! *sigh* grr. That kind of stuff frustrates me to no end

Oh and PS, remind me to post my post for Grandpa M!

Blog posts from my phone!

2009-05-11T15:38:00.001-04:00

Okay this is a test to make blog posts from my phone! Then I won't be limited to just twitter!
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As Promised...Another Video

2009-05-09T16:33:00.004-04:00

Juliana just loves the doggie lol. This one's long but it's so cute! So here it is as promised...Juliana and the dog bowl part 2.

Ticks

2009-05-08T14:10:00.003-04:00

Okay, between three over the past week transferred from Kelvin (my dog) to me and FIVE from Turkey hunting, I think I'm spent when it comes to finding ticks crawling on me for the season lol.

Luckily none had attached on yet.

I took a shower, but the trouble with that is I'm so blind without glasses/contacts that I can't actually see in the shower to check myself haha.

Anyway this is a pretty "ewe" post, so I'll follow it up tonight with Juliana and the Dog bowl pt. 2.

Oh and for those wondering, yes, I did really enjoy Turkey hunting even though it's early and we didn't even hear any birds and I got ticks haha. If it could be done without the ticks it would be one of my most favorite so far. Mainly because of the temperatures for Spring turkeys haha. I don't like the cold!

Though the time at Mr. Ambrose's camp was relatively nice weather.

Juliana and the Dog Bowl

2009-05-07T12:53:00.003-04:00

Here's the first of two installments of Juliana playing with the dog bowl!

I figured with the exciting post before this, you all would love to see a video.

And yes, my poor hunting dog has to eat/drink out of a PINK bowl...but it's only because I'm too ... thrifty to buy another hehe. Kelvin left his bowls up with his brother in New York. He just belongs with the family I guess lol. Always forgetting something when we visit!

By the way, if anyone wants higher quality versions of these videos I have them saved from my HD video camera on my computer. It's just way too difficult to post them online in the high quality size.

OMG I'M PUBLISHED

2009-05-07T12:36:00.002-04:00

http://www.springerlink.com/content/251545632518x1w7/?p=c95f9a728c0d473697b5a4b56e18aa1a&pi=0

More Brutes

2009-04-30T13:05:00.000-04:00

Haha, I made Gailon some pupils, and Cybana is like better than him!

http://gailon.mybrute.com/dojo

http://cybana.mybrute.com

http://noliag.mybrute.com

Oye

2009-04-29T12:52:00.001-04:00

Yeah I shouldn't find distractions, they're bad!

http://gailon.mybrute.com

Ahrg Allergies

2009-04-29T12:13:00.000-04:00

Trying to work on papers today, but my eyes are killing me from allergies. I really need to review my presentation and kill off a results section today. Hmm well we'll see how it goes!

D&D

2009-04-27T11:56:00.002-04:00

Okay, I know this is going to sound really geeky, but one thing I wish I had done at some point as a kid, (though I suppose I could do it now or in the future, it's not age related) is play paper D&D with a group of friends. Heck even a group that becomes friends lol. Ah well!

PhD Comics

2009-04-22T15:55:00.004-04:00

OKay, having the oversized picture in the blog was annoying me, so I took it off. You can access it at the link below!

Do you read them? I do. They describe a lifestyle I have lived for like 6 years. Here's one that has to do with things that have affected my family, too.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd042009s.gif

Post!

2009-04-21T10:03:00.002-04:00

Quick! Make them think I've been constantly updating this by posting another beauty pageant picture!

It's spring! Let's exercise!

Speaking of which, I need to mow the lawn lol

Sailing away

2009-04-09T21:08:00.002-04:00

If anyone didn't know, Tina and I are going on a family reunion cruise. Well, Juliana isn't going because they were going to charge us full price for her to come, even though 1) she won't eat any food and 2) she isn't allowed in the FREE daycare!

Anyway, here's a photo of her in swimwear at the pageant with an expression that pretty much says "what, you're not bringing ME???"

Hehe

Updates

2009-04-02T17:15:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I KNOW you all need detailed updates, but maybe I'll leave that for tina to fill in and meanwhile I'll try to just post pictures!

Here's PROOF that my daughter is perfect =) hehe

Okay okay...

2009-03-20T16:25:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't been good updating (again) but you have to admit I was doing really well there for a while!

For those of you who are missing Juiliana updates, just take solace in the thought that instead of working on the blog, I've been working on graduating =)

If you're interested next time you see me, I can maybe show you my "storyboards" I've made for the path to graduation. Basically they're an outline of the results sections of the three papers (plus a review article) that I need to write to graduate.

Hopefully when I present them to the two advisors they'll be like "YES Mike, looks great! No more experiments just write!"

Haha right, as if that's likely, but it's a good hope!

I'll update a picture once I sync the digital camera at home.

Too Smart...

2009-03-04T16:49:00.004-05:00

Here's a video I tried to take of Juliana. You see, she's too smart for the camera. I think she gets it partly from her Grandma H! If no one is looking, she'll scoot across the floor with superb crawling technique. Then, if someone is watching, (or especially videotaping) she'll just sit there and smile or army crawl instead of proper crawl!

In this video, I was using the dog bowl as bait. Man she loves to crawl across the floor to the dog food or water bowls! The first few seconds you can see her funny "straight arm crawl technique." But then kelvin decided to lay down in her path, and you see right at 30 seconds in what that turns into (hilarious! watch the dog!)

In all, its some pretty shaky camera work by me because I have to hide across the room and zoom in so she doesn't see me recording. That way she'll actually crawl a little bit before just smiling at the camera!

Dealers...Blah

2009-03-01T12:42:00.005-05:00

Okay so after the disappointing day at M&T bank stadium (where interestingly I saw not only Irv from the band, but also Steve P and Seth F from undergrad! That was so cool! I hope we can get together somehow/someway), I left early and tina, the baby, and I drove around looking at different types of 7passenger vehicles comparing them (because we DONT' want a minivan). We spent the afternoon driving around Ritchie highway and visiting a bunch of dealers to sit in cars. Anyway, we were having a decent time, visited a Honda dealer, really liked sitting in the Pilot, but then drove it and were like NO WAY! Well then we went to the toyota dealer and oh my gosh that was a horrible experience! More about that later!

Anyway, we sat in a 3 row RAV4 and it felt really awesome in the front seat and size wize, but when we sat in the second and third rows, WOA way too small even for toddlers! Then we started looking at the highlander and it was pretty good but then we had some problems so we left without making a decision on it and not even seeing the sienna. We did notice that the center seat in the second row (though a cool removable idea) seemed kind of cheaply made.

We moved on to GMC and sat in an Acadia, and liked it, though we didn't have time to test drive it. We also went to Saturn and saw the Outlook quickly, same basic build as the Acadia and liked it but didn't have a lot of time to compare it or certainly not to drive it.

We stopped by a Mazda dealer which was closed and really liked the shape of the CX9 from the outside. We'll have to stop by to get a brochure, sit in one, and maybe drive it and stop back by GMC and Saturn.

It's kind of funny b/c the CX9 and Tribecca seem like sister vehicles and the Acadia and Outlook are basically the same vehicle. So we picked kind of two vehicles that we like! I didn't like the floor matting in the Acadia, and who knows maybe when we drive it it'll be like the Pilot and a sudden "no"! It certainly is a larger vehicle than the Forester now. At least the CX9 and Tribecca seem closer in body size.

In all the really frustrating part is the gas mileage! I mean they all get about 16/21 +/- 1 or 2 mpg! That's horrible!

Anyway, the whole point wasn't to BUY a car. We aren't someone who just walks in and says "I'm buying a car today." (haha unless we just totaled one!) So instead we visit places, do research, sit in cars see if we feel comfortable in them and sit and think about it for a while. We aren't going to buy any time soon, but rather whenever I graduate. I probably won't want to drive the Jeep as a daily driver so we'll get tina a new/used 7 passenger like she's always wanted and I'll drive the Forester. What's wrong with that? Researching ahead of time about cars that will be used when we are ready to buy? Well, apparently the toyota dealer didn't like that! I'll post a letter Tina and I are writing later.

On a positive note, I did get to see the subaru leather and it does seem pretty quality and might not get ruined by kelvin's claws! I'll have to bring him in and see if he rips/scratches it though before I even consider buying one! That's something we'll have to compare when we make some more decisions...quality of cloth and leather in each brand of vehicle! We are very hard on our vehicles. We don't care about silly built in entertainment modules but we do care about how quality the seats are and if they'll last the hundreds of thousands of miles we put on cars!

Here's a baby picture!

She says "find me a safe car that I can beg to drive!"

House Prices

2009-03-01T12:41:00.006-05:00

Home prices...oye! Well, figures things are going bad there, too. I think the way prices are going in our area, whenever I do graduate and move, be it whenever in the future, we're going to be hard pressed to make the money I was hoping for. We'll probably be lucky to break even after paying the realtor fees. I was hoping so much that we'd get money out of this house for a downpayment, but I have a feeling we might not. Ah well we'll have to see whenever that comes around! Hopefully we'll need to be here long enough that home prices swing up considerably. I just hope whatever my job options are it works with the house!

Can we live here while we're trying to sell the house? hehe

Experiments

2009-03-01T12:41:00.005-05:00

So what else is going on...Ah work, it figures things like on friday happen in my luck! Both advisors agreed that if the experiment I did on friday didn't work, I should stop with the series of experiments as a proof of concept that I've been working on for weeks and put the experiment to bed. Well figures it worked just enough that I needed to keep doing them but not enough to be a positive final result!

She says "Daddy can you graduate so I can get my own cell phone?"

Auto Service

2009-02-27T14:52:00.003-05:00

Everyone knows you can haggle at the car dealer when you buy a car, right? (well besides saturn). Well whoever knew you could haggle parts at the service department? We were going to get tina's timing belt changed at the subaru dealer, then i called the place i go to get major work done on the jeep and they were going to do it and the waterpump and the drive belt for the same price, but it wasn't as convenient as tina dropping off the subaru at the annapolis dealer. Well when tina called to cancel the appointment at the dealer they asked why and she said as much and they went to the manager and came back to the phone and told her they'd do it for that price! wow! I wonder if we should haggle the service department more often haha!

Mmm Peanut butter!

Swimming Lessons Part 3

2009-02-25T10:39:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I cheated and this video is from last week, but we DID go to swimming yesterday!

Juliana can read! =)

2009-02-22T20:53:00.003-05:00

The Force!

2009-02-20T15:37:00.002-05:00

OMG!

Force Trainer

Mmm Puffs!

2009-02-19T17:09:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I haven't posted a video of this yet. I'm so proud! Juliana and I worked for a whole morning learning how to pick up puffs and eat them with her hands! Before when mommy worked with her she would pick them up and they would be stuck in her fist and she couldn't figure out how to eat them without punching herself! But DADDY got her to pick it up with her fingers! This video isn't the first time she learned it, but it's a great example of how far she's come!

Swimming Lessons Part 2!

2009-02-18T10:07:00.003-05:00

Juliana went to her second swimming lesson last night. I'm working on trying to get the video from my camcorder to the computer lol I'll get it eventually. I do have a picture which I'll upload later tonight. Tina thought she lost an earring in the pool, which obviously made for a frustrating night since it wasn't found. But this morning we found out she dropped it at the baby sitter, yay! So hopefully that's a good sign for her meeting today.

Videos/Pictures:
Here's a still picture and one of a few videos I took! I'll add some more videos over the next few days!

The things we give to our kids we can’t control...

2009-02-17T14:11:00.001-05:00

Here’s another mike’s random thoughts and rambling. You can skip over it to the bottom if you don’t want to read 2 pages of nonsense.

Having kids, you find yourself or other people saying a lot of things you hope that they get from the parents. Like oh I hope she gets her mother’s eyes, I hope she gets her father’s good looks (haha), I hope she gets my musical sense, I hope she gets your responsibility. Unless you have a genetic problem, you try not to or don’t often think about the things you DON’T want them to get. The things don’t want to pass down to kids but might not have any choice. You’re especially in trouble when you both have something, like a temper! Sure we hide it, but Tina and I can both get going and it is NOT pretty.

The past week or so has reminded me of one of what I feel is one of my uncontrollable downfalls (versus temper as something controllable) that I really hope Juliana is not stuck with. Sometimes, my brain gets jumbled when I’m too emotional or thinking too fast (or worse both) and it doesn’t translate correctly. My brain works too much for my mouth to understand and so what I say is nowhere near what I’m thinking, but in the communication it almost seems like it was correct. Or sometimes it thinks so much that it freezes from the bounceback of information that was supposed to be sent to the mouth but never came out!

Then I have to go back and fret a few days later about how I really meant to say it versus trying to remember what I said. Which is difficult when the mind thinks that it made sense to itself but doesn’t admit that the mouth didn’t actually say what it was sent. Okay that sounds normal I know, about thinking one thing and saying another, but I’m talking about the brain actually believing the mouth said what it was thinking. Anyway, then you have to go and figure out how to again talk to people who heard it while feeling that they’ll be stuck on the conversation the first way. How to get them to understand I want to explain the way I thought versus just changing the story. Why? Because people are skeptical like that, “oh he’s just using the extra time to change the story.” But that’s not what it is. The time was necessary to tone down the emotions and slow down the thoughts so that they all come out correctly. And goodness knows I’ve tried that just to find myself afraid the second time of messing up again and resulting in my brain scrambling and still not expressing it correctly. It’s a vicious circle.

I know there have been lots of examples in my past, but here’s what brought on my thoughts of Juliana’s fate. In small group last week I wanted to express how I don’t believe in the bible as a substitute for a personal conversation with god. Or that it frustrates me when it’s used as a replacement for god’s word. That it can be a crutch and people get stuck focusing on the bible and never complete their journey to god. And worst, that it scares me to think that people, and I fear sometimes affecting people I know and love, might sometimes overemphasize the bible and it could cause interference in their communication directly with god; that it scares me thinking that it could cause them to not get the full word through the distraction or noise in the conversation.

And that’s such a huge fear for me because it has taken so much of my effort to not be interfered in my own conversations with myself, others, and most importantly God. Sometimes I still fail to prevent the interference and it feels so catastrophic, whomever the conversation was with. So all those thoughts I want to express jumble through my mind, the feelings and emotions that go with the thoughts and it goes a million miles an hour like people have said my mind is able to do. They compliment my fast mind but they don’t have to deal with my downfall in trying to get all those feelings from my mind to my mouth. It’s like the interference I worry from the bible. My mind thinks and sends signals around my body at 1080p 5.1 surround sound and my stupid mouth is only able to talk in analog signal with rabbit ears. It’s why if you’ve ever seen me concentrate on saying something I’m not comfortable talking about I need to stare off in the distance and talk slowly. My brain needs to get rid of visual distractions and try to calm any emotions it’s having so that it can slow down and make sure my mouth gets the whole sentence or thoughts. But when the communication fails and there’s too much interference going on in MY head…what comes out instead are choppy bits of my thoughts like a simple “I don’t believe in the bible.” And in the ensuing minutes my brain is like “yeah I sent the right signal” and my mouth is like “yeah I said what you said” and 2-3 days later something’s bothering me and I think about it and I’m like oooh crap what did I say and what did I think?

So sure people can wish my mind on my daughter and children, but I certainly don’t wish the logjam of communication from the beautiful thoughts through to the world when things get confusing, emotional, and upsetting. Yes, I dream Juliana and all of our potential future children are blessed with the wonders of a mind that works as fast as mine does, I just hope they also get their mother’s articulation to express it in situations other than the controlled environment of the shower or before falling asleep.

Anyway, here’s a reward for reading all of that craziness and more about my head than you wanted to know:

New Cars

2009-02-17T11:23:00.003-05:00

So Tina and I looked at cars this weekend. She wants more seats in her car. We love love love our 2004 Forester, but when we have more kids, she wants more seats. So we started looking at 7 passenger vehicles. She doesn't like the idea of a minivan and doesn't want a truck based SUV; they're too big for her. We specifically looked at the Subaru Tribeca on Monday. It was nice we liked it. We definitely did NOT like the 09 Foresters. We don't like what they did to change the front body styles. Regardless, the only Tribeca's that don't take premium gas are the 08's and 09's. There aren't very many 08's and the 09's are pretty much all in leather! Well leather certainly won't work with young kids and a dog! Oh well so we'll wait for some 09 cloth to be made and become used over the next few years and get something a little while down the way.

Meanwhile I'm trying to come up with a list of other 7 passenger not-too-big vehicles for her to sit in and compare. So far I'm coming up with Ford Taurus X, GMC Envoy, GMC Acadia, Toyota Rav4, Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-9. I've never actually sat in any so I don't know how they compare size wise. I'm pretty sure we dont' like the feel of the Saturns. I've only sat in the Vue and it's nice but we like the Tribeca better. Still haven't sat in the Outlook.

Otherwise I also got to learn to change the manual transmission fluid in the jeep on monday with Tina's dad. that was super fun. Next time I'm hoping to relearn the oil change and coolant flush!

2004 Forester Example:

2009 Forester Example

2009 Tribeca

Gillmeister Family Photo Update!

2009-02-16T17:44:00.012-05:00

Thought it was time for a barrage of pictures for everyone who isn't lucky enough to see Juliana everyday like us! =) More to come later!!

I'll go waaaay back! First Halloween

First Thanksgiving!

First Valentines! First Swimming Lessons!

Opa (Grandpa in German) and Gramma H Visit!I can crawl! (kinda)

Spring!

2009-02-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

Spring is coming and it's SO exciting. I don't like winter so much b/c I don't like not enjoying being outdoors. I love the outdoors but when it's cold my nose complains and my fingers/toes get cold too quickly. The weird thing is that I would probably miss the winter if it wasn't there. I already miss the snow living in Baltimore.

Anyway, it was in the 70's this week and I LOVED it. Can't wait for more. Ah and the wonderful list of spring! Dog swimming, Baseball, Lacrosse, Paintball Tournaments, sandals, washing the car, mowing the lawn, ah the list goes on and on! Oh and reduced BGE bills haha!

Someday...

2009-02-12T10:58:00.002-05:00

Someday, I'll learn the trick to keeping this blog updated.

Maybe it's taking more pictures of the baby.

Maybe it's taking 5 minutes of the day to just let out what went on.

The problem with the first is that it requires transferring the pictures from the camera to the laptop!

The problem with the second, and partially the first, is that I often don't set up the laptop at home because we get home late or we're busy when we get home or we go out or other things. Another problem is I know most people who read this blog do so for pictures of the baby! It's not as interesting to hear the random thoughts from Mike's head!

So, rather than talk about this week's small group adventure, what are some interesting things Juliana has been doing?

Ah Wednesday we went to the grocery store. Mainly because we're pretty much out of everything we need for day-to-day living! Secondly I did it because Tina has been working till 9pm the past two nights =(. Also we have parents visiting the next two weekends so we need to stock up!

If you visit us, one thing that you might want to do is bring Juliana to the grocery store! She loves it! She doesn't care if she's hungry or dirty diaper or sleepy. When she's in the store she's alert and looking around and happy! I think it's all the colors of all the boxes and seeing all the people close up in the aisles.

I don't tend to go grocery shopping because I'm not usually out. It's some weird thing I think about not wanting to take the Jeep out if it's not already driven that day. Well I was picking up the baby Wednesday so I had no problem stopping at the grocery store! I had other things planned for that night like laundry and picking up the basement but the shopping was so tiring I couldn't even throw in one load! Oh well!

Giggles

2009-01-25T17:49:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately I didn't think to record this till we had already done it a while so the laugh isn't as big as the biggest I had gotten from her that day, but it's still really cute! Hope you all enjoy it =)

P.S. That's baby HannaH you hear in the background!

Sunny CA

2009-01-18T14:14:00.008-05:00

Well I'm posting here from California! It was kind of a last minute trip out to CA to visit Doug and Michelle and HannaH before Doug ships out. I'm really glad we made it out before he had to leave! T hey could be on a plane starting on Friday, wow. It was really cool actually we got tickets for about 250 per person inside a week before we traveled and Juliana didn't have to have a ticket. Btw if you haven't noticed yet I like her name spelled with two capital H's so it looks more like a palindrome!

Anyway it's 80 degrees F here and only in the 20's back in Baltimore! A great tradeoff even though I'm not paintballing haha! We're having an awesome time here. We all went to picnic on the beach and I put Juliana's feet in the cooold water. Her first plane trip went great! She pretty much slept through all the takeoffs and landings and was the star of the section of the plane when she was awake. I just hope that we can get a seat open for her again on the way home so we can sit together with her in the carseat instead of our laps. The flight to Philly from Baltimore was in a small plane so she was in our laps, though asleep. From Philly to San Diego there were lots of open seats so we got 3 in a row and one for her hehe. It's weird b/c she has to have the window seat. Probably something to do with getting out of the row.

She's currently sitting on my lap trying to help me write this post! Well that's all I can remember for now so I'll update again soon.

Ack!

2009-01-05T11:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, I can blame the lack of updates on the Holidays! I did get an awesome video camera for xmas though so I need to figure out how to transfer videos to here!

Let's see, Tina and I are trying to get back into the swing of full work and I need to work super hard to move the degree along. Which I should be doing now, so more updates soon!

Fall Days

2008-10-18T08:08:00.004-04:00

It's that time of year when things get a little cooler and the leaves begin to change! Here are a few new Juliana pictures! Our friend Karen and her cousin kindly invited us along on their recent Fall Day! We went to the pumpkin patch, baked pumpkin cake, roasted pumpkin seeds (we let Karen get her hands messy to get those =), decorated flower pots, pumpkins and picture frames! We even painted Juliana's feet to put her footprints on her flower pot and pumpkin! It was such a fun fall day!! Enjoy!

Just Juliana!

2008-10-08T21:44:00.008-04:00

And the reason everyone visits our site....

Juliana Rae =)

Mom G took this one of Juliana all dressed up! Isn't it soo adorable!

Thanks to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laurie for the Harley gear!
Grandma H and Great Grandma M dressed up this little angel!
Night Night!
Growing up so fast!

Great Grandmas and Grandpas!

2008-10-08T21:32:00.005-04:00

We visited Syracuse the weekend of September 27th! It was a wonderful weekend where we attended our cousins Kari and Jim's beautiful wedding, visited with family and Juliana also had many visitors who came to her open house hosted by Mom and Dad H! It was so awesome to see everyone!

Great Grandpa M!Great Grandma H!
Great Grandma A!
Great Grandma and Grandpa M!

Meeting Aunts and Uncles

2008-10-08T21:09:00.009-04:00

Whew! It has been awhile. Requests for more Juliana pictures are pouring in and I am happy to comply. Here are a few from the past few weeks of Juliana visiting/meeting more of her wonderful family!!

Meeting Some Great Aunts and Great Uncles
Aunt Sandy!
Aunt Ro!
Aunt Judy and Uncle Doug!
Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laurie!
Uncle Pat!

Aunt Jenny!
Aunt Michelle!
Uncle Jason!

Wee!

2008-10-08T18:57:00.002-04:00

Look ma, no hands!

Juliana got a new toy today! A chair to help her sit up! She loves it!

Woops!

2008-10-08T10:01:00.001-04:00

Know what I thought to myself this morning? "Holy cow, I haven't posted in the blog in a while!"

I guess the easy excuse is that we have seen family a couple times over the past few weeks!

I'll try to get some updates today about what's going on. Hopefully a few Juliana pictures, too! hehe

She talks up a storm in the mornings so maybe I can make a video on my camera and post that. Now that she's becoming more active, I REALLY need to look into a digital video recorder!!!

Woa!

2008-09-12T20:54:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture I stole from my uncle's facebook page of my dad, my uncle, their dog and a few cousins. I wonder which is which!

Weekend

2008-09-12T20:34:00.002-04:00

Horray! Today Tina's Grandparents came to visit for the weekend and later tonight Tina's parents are coming too!

Here's a picture of Juliana

Weekend

2008-09-08T13:18:00.003-04:00

Rough, but fun and exciting weekend!

I'll update with some more info of what happened, but here's a cool picture I took of Juliana and Tina along with a picture of one of the paintball problems!

Facebook

2008-09-05T18:01:00.002-04:00

Here's the link (I think) to my facebook page.

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=5408259&hiq=gillmeister%2Cmichael

You need to join facebook and then request to become my friend. Then you can see my pictures under my photos tab!

Might As well be complete...

2008-09-05T11:25:00.002-04:00

Let's finish off the complaining so I stop depressing people trying to look at my baby! I also really miss getting a phone call saying let's play video games...like Halo2 or XMen coops with Doug, who is stationed in San Diego with Michelle and probably will be coming back East close to when we move north *sigh*.

The person I do have to admit still tries to do a lot of those things is my brother. Usually I can call him up and say hey I'm on campus let's get a beer or lunch but I do know how hard he's working at class and he spends a lot of free time doing school work as he should so it's not yet exactly the same. Looking forward to seeing how things turn out when he graduates, depending on where all the families move to!

While I'm at it, can you hope Hannah decides to stall with me? Saturday's going to be miserable =(

Teaching

2008-09-04T16:50:00.002-04:00

Man, walking around campus today, looking in open classrooms, reminded me how much I used to enjoy teaching/TA'ing. Well, before I got screwed and forced to go do research at a different campus and STILL hike my butt back to Hopkins to TA, making me never available for my students which made me bitter.

Hmm, not sure the enjoyment of teaching is quite enough to send me to academics, though lol. I hate the thought of grants and publications!

Let me Emphasize that...BASEBALL!!!

2008-09-03T18:20:00.001-04:00

the orioles are having a double header on Tuesday 9/23 against the Rays, one ticket to two games and prices range from $1-$55, and every section in the house has available seats, anyone want to spend a day at baseball? Starting at 5pm probably till like 11pm. $1 upper deck right field, that's 50 cents a game! Or all the way up to sitting behind home plate!

A day of baseball, park food and beer!

Email/Call/Comment me.

Friends!

2008-09-03T18:11:00.002-04:00

Man, I really wish we lived closer or vice versa to Mike C. I mean, it's impossible to find friends like that. There's no one around here where I can just call up and say "hey, you want to spend Sunday watching NFL at a sports bar drinking beer eating wings?" or "woa look, the orioles are having a double header on 9/23 one ticket to two games and prices range from $1-$55, any section in the house, want to spend a day at baseball?"

Kind of like when tina said the other night "there's no one i can just call up and say 'I made a chocolate lava cake and need help eating it"

Just a little depressing sometimes.

BTW, the orioles are having a double header on 9/23 against the Rays, one ticket to two games and prices range from $1-$55, and every section in the house has available seats, anyone want to spend a day at baseball? Starting at 5pm probably till like 11pm. $1 upper deck right field, that's 50 cents a game! Maybe steve wants to go, though it is a Tuesday/school night.

Also frustrating Verizon wireless owes me $6 for improper charges but I can't figure out where it came from so no reason to call them to complain. Bah I'll just pay it i guess.

All for now! Check out facebook for lots of pics. You can even just make a name and not make a profile I think.

PICTURES!!!

2008-09-03T10:27:00.000-04:00

Pictures??? You want PICTURES??? Well, I've just uploaded EVERY SINGLE picture I have of Juliana to my Facebook! OMG!

Okay, so it certainly isn't as cool as tina's commentary, but it'll get you more pictures!!!

A Few More Pictures

2008-08-31T08:52:00.003-04:00

Week 4 and 5

2008-08-31T08:23:00.009-04:00

Juliana sure is growing fast! She had her one month checkup last Monday and she weighs 8 lbs 15 oz now! She is 21.6" long too! Going back to work this week was more tiring than I could have imagined! The new school opened this week and it was absolutely fantastic!! You couldn't ask for a better group of kids! It sure reinvigorated my love of teaching! I wanted to update everyone with a few pictures from this week! Enjoy!

Mike and Mike and the baby of course!
Juliana's First Baseball Game!
That's the life!

Meeting her cousins!!

Happy Birthday!

2008-08-26T12:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Juliana's 1 month birthday! Tina started working half time at the STEM high school and I get to bottle feed Juliana once a day while she's gone. This afternoon a little frustrating, going to a thesis defense of someone who came in the same year as me. Hopefully I can work out enough experiments to be done this may. Not sure though since things seem to be running in to trouble as usual for research. I should probably write my second paper, that would help things along.

More later, and some before, during, after pictures of our new bathroom!

Monday - Errands

2008-08-19T11:43:00.002-04:00

Today both Mike and I went to work. I took Juliana to a meeting at NCHS and she slept right through it! The new STEM school is opening and it is so exciting!

We then picked up Juliana's birth certificate, stopped by Hopkins and drove down to Glen Burnie. We ate at Qdoba Mexican Grill. We had Mexican Gumbo which was really good! It was the first time we had eaten at this restaurant. It is similar to Chipotle, but with a greater variety I think. Then we headed to Best Buy to look at LCD TV's. Mike wanted to show his dad the finer points of all of the LCD specs since they are looking to purchase one soon! Finally, we got some ice cream! Mom G and I had been craving it so it was pretty delicious =)

Juliana had been sleeping most of the day and suprisingly she still slept most of the night. However, when she woke up for her usual 4:30 - 5:30 feeding instead of going back to sleep she decided she should be up for the day! After awhile she got back to sleep though and so did Mike and I...for a little while longer!

Sunday - Delaware

2008-08-19T11:41:00.002-04:00

We went out to Delaware today to watch Mike's paintball team practice for the tournament. Mom and Dad G got to see Mike play for the first time. Mom G and I went over to the mall in Delaware for a little while too, but we didn't do much shopping. We stopped at Arby's on the way home and then had a relaxing night.

Well until Juliana decided to spit up all over in the middle of the night =) Babies will be babies!

Saturday - Coming and Going 3

2008-08-19T11:38:00.003-04:00

We took Juliana up to Robinhood Paintball Field today! She didn't seem to mind the paintball fire at all! It was nice to visit with everyone in the Paintball family too! When we arrived home, Mom and Dad G were back for another great visit! They were just arriving, but Steve was headed out to sea for his research trip. Everyone got to see each other for a bit and have a nice dinner out!
'

Friday - Juliana's First Movie

2008-08-19T11:33:00.002-04:00

Juliana went to see her first movie today! Star Wars Clone Wars came out and Mike and I headed over to Arundel Mills to watch it! It was really a good movie I thought. Juliana slept the whole time even through the loud battle scenes! I suppose it resembles night in the theater doesn't it!

A Few Week 3 Pictures

2008-08-13T11:53:00.006-04:00

Sweet Dreams...

Found my fingers...See how big I'm getting...

Watch me move! I'm Finding My Voice Too!

A Few Week 2 Pictures

2008-08-13T11:35:00.009-04:00

Wide Awake...

Grandma and Grandpa H...Grandma G and three generations...

A Few Week 1 Pictures

2008-08-13T11:01:00.009-04:00

We have had lots of requests for more pictures so I am going to do a few posts of just pictures for all of you fans out there!

In the hospital...
Arriving at home...Meeting Kelvin...Lots of rest...Pretty baby...

Tuesday - Mall & Movies

2008-08-13T09:48:00.003-04:00

This morning I got to take a nice long shower while Juliana took a morning nap. The simple things in life sure are enjoyable! We hung around in the morning while Mike went to work for a bit. Then when he arrived home, we went out to the mall!

I love Arundel Mills. It is all on one level and the stroller goes like a dream on the wood floors. We walked the whole circle, ate some lunch (crab pretzels!) and did a little shopping. Mike had a gift card to Best Buy so we picked up a few things! Mike got Zelda for wii (our borrowed one) and the video cables to make it connect in HD to our TV! He also got an SD card to save the information on for when we get a wii of our own, I mean a wii for the baby =) Wii has been really great for stress relief (especially for Mike) and for us to have fun together at home! Thanks to Mom and Dad H for letting us borrow it for awhile!

We also got an upconverting 1080 DVD Player. Obviously Blue Ray is best, but at $400 a pop, I don't think that was in the cards. For about $75 you can get a DVD player that converts regular DVD's to close to HD quality (it's really really good) and you don't have to buy a whole new DVD collection or an expensive player. Mike pointed out that really you should just buy a PS3 if you are getting a Blue Ray player...because it plays blue ray discs and you can use it for other things too! We are pretty happy with the one we picked as we watched the movie 10,000 BC on it last night and it turned out really nice quality.

We got milkshakes at Cold Stone before we watched the movie and then went to bed right after! We even got a pretty good night's sleep = )

The camera loves me....

Monday - Chicken and Crying

2008-08-11T18:34:00.007-04:00

First day back to work in a while! Well, except i only stayed for a few hours. Started some cell experiments and planned out work for the next few weeks. Hoping to ramp up the work and get really moving!

Then I came home and worked on my manuscript for Invitrogen.

Tina Edit: Mike C made us an awesome dinner today! It was called Smoky Mountain Chicken and it had chicken, ham, cheese, bbq sauce and more. It was really delicious. He sure is a great best friend! He looks so cute holding Juliana and she looks so cute in his hat =)

Sunday - Church & Paintball

2008-08-11T18:29:00.012-04:00

Let's see, need to make up a post.

Sunday I drove up to paintball for the first time in like a month and a half. Didn't play at all but got my tanks filled so i can tech my guns this week so they work for next week. Meanwhile, Tina, Mike and Juliana went to church. Oh we also went to a concert in the park with Mike! that was fun!

Tina Edit:
It was great to see everyone at church on Sunday. The concert in the park was nice too. It was at Columbia Lakefront. I didn't know they had so many things to do there! Juliana slept through most of it and then through most of the night too. She must have been tired. I think she must be the most well-traveled two-week old I know.

Here's some pictures from Church! Holly and Olivia got to hold baby Juliana! They were great!

Saturday - Coming and Going Again! =)

2008-08-11T17:53:00.004-04:00

Saturday was a good day! We spent some time at home in the morning and then went out to lunch at Acqua, a restaurant in the Hilton nearby. Being so close to Northrop Gruman and the airport, there are a plethura of options for hotels within a few miles. I had been there before with my mom for lunch and it is a very nice place! Catherine, Steve, Mom G, Mike and I sat outside with Juliana and she was very well behaved! The food was pretty good...Mike's crabcake was better than my steak sandwhich though. After lunch we came home and relaxed a bit before we had to take Mom G to the airport. She was sad, but they are coming back on Saturday! Grandpa G was grumpy last week because he hadn't gotten to visit yet, but he gets to come Saturday too!

Mike Takes over:
My mom went out to the airport and then mike came in! We had like 1-2 hours alone hehe.

Here's a picture of the icky cord that fell off finally on the 5th.

Here's a picture of her nice clean beautiful belly button!

Friday - A Fussy Day

2008-08-09T09:16:00.004-04:00

Baby was really fussy today which has been rare for her! Perhaps it was the very spicy soup I had for dinner last night! In any case, she was hard to comfort! She slept a little on and off and finally calmed down around 9PM. We did get a good night's sleep (only wake 1 or 2 times for her to eat) which has been a blessing! She's very quiet when she wakes up too, definately not one of those that screams to wake you up at night. That's nice for our guests!

Everyone has their good days and bad days! Juliana is two weeks old today! It's hard to believe she has been in our lives for only two weeks...it seems as if she was meant to be here always!

Mike Edit:
Look how strong her head was on 8/1, imagine how she squirms now a week later!

Thursday - A Day of Rest mostly

2008-08-09T09:11:00.004-04:00

Today we spend most of the day at home resting! We also went to the eye doctor where I found out one of my eyes got a little bit better, not that they were very bad to begin with! I also got a new pair of glasses finally (since I lost my other pair almost 2 years ago now). They look really nice, but I only have to wear them for far away! Then we went out to eat at Olive Garden! The baby slept through dinner for the most part, but I was pretty tired so we headed out without dessert!

Mike Edit:
Our Friend Karen from Tina's work came to visit on 8/1

Wednesday - Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-07T11:29:00.004-04:00

It's been three years since Mike and I said "I do" and I have loved every single day! Tuesday, Mom G and I went shopping to give Mike a quiet house to study in and I picked him up a new briefcase for his present =) Three years is the leather anniversary. Mike and I like to get gifts that match up with the traditional presents for each year! It has been quite fun so far! We celebrated at Outback Steakhouse (one of my favorites)! The have the best strawberry smoothies and we always get a bloomin onion! Even though Juliana ended the meal a bit hungry and fussy, we had a great time spending some time with each other!

Mike Edit:
Okay I'm running out of "new" pictures so i'll just throw up some old ones on these last 3 posts then start taking new pictures!

Taken on 8/1 Superwoman!

Well Wishes!

2008-08-07T11:26:00.003-04:00

I can't count the number of well-wishes we've gotten since the baby arrived! Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, we've heard from them all and love the cards and comments! Thanks everyone for the thoughtful words and we hope to have some more visits from you all soon!

Mike Edit:
Not sure what to post here, so i'll throw up some family pictures from graduation day!

Monday - Coming and Going!

2008-08-07T11:02:00.008-04:00

On Monday, Grandma G flew in to meet Juliana for the first time! We met her inside the airport with a Welcome Grandma sign and it was a good time! She loved pushing the stroller and talked about the types of paraphernalia they had when Mike was born! The technological advances in baby products are pretty amazing! Everyone always has these stories about in-laws and then there's all the jokes, but we are really pretty lucky! Our parents (both mine and mike's) don't feel like in-laws to either of us! We are just all family! It's such a wonderful thing!

My sister had to catch a flight out Monday morning to get back to work and my mom and dad had to leave for home on Monday too which was so sad! I miss them bunches already and I know they miss us too!! It was absolutely a godsend to have them here after the baby was born. There are no words to thank my mom for all she said and did without even any asking! Dad's have the best perspective on things and there are things only a dad can say and do that make the world seem like its all okay! I sure am grateful that I have the mom and dad I do!

We gave my sister a pretty pinky ring with Juliana's birthstone in a heart shape so she can always be close to her! This way she has the ring from my wedding and the Juliana ring too and she can still wear her engagement and future wedding rings of course! Sisters are a blessing!

Mike Edit:
Mom (G'ma) G finds out how nice our stroller is when she arrives at the airport! hehe

Sunday - Graduation

2008-08-07T11:02:00.006-04:00

On Sunday August 3, 2008 I finally graduated with my masters!! Like Mike said the ceremony was short, but I am so thankful to be finished especially with the push at the end to get everything done before Juliana arrived! A thesis, an internship, a 15 page case study, an e-portfolio with 40+ standards to meet...it sure was an adventure!

Even if I didn't win an award I am still pretty proud of my thesis. It was about the relationship between mathematics achievement on standardized exams and pull-out instrumental music instruction programs in elementary school! Believe it or not the students who received instrumental music instruction scored higher in the overall scores and all sub categories (though there were a few that didn't have statistical significance). Mike really helped me figure out all the statistics and of course he was so supportive!!!

It was so nice to have everyone at graduation (Mom, Dad, Becky, Juliana, Mike, Steve and Catherine)! They were so great to come and support me and I know everyone is proud of me too! After graduation we went to Bonefish Grill to celebrate! The food and service were really good! I would definitely recommend it! It's a step above a Ruby Tuesday or a TGI Friday, but a step below some of the fancier places. We had the baby there and she was great! She sure has been a lot of places for being less than 2 weeks old!

Mike edit:
Man it was hard taking pictures in that place. Here's a few, But no idea how they'll look!
I really wish the last one was in focus because I got them in the process of hooding Tina!

Saturday - Picnics at home!

2008-08-07T11:01:00.001-04:00

Saturday we got a chance to spend the day at home! We took a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some supplies! We made some delicious food and had a picnic here! Hotdogs and hamburgers for lunch and steak =) for dinner! Maryland corn on the cob, macaroni salad and baked potatoes oh my! Doesn't that make you want to come visit us! We also worked on Becky's save the date cards! They are so pretty! I am finally getting a chance to send out announcements/thank you notes for Juliana's birth! So don't forget to turn your announcement over when you get it to see the nice notes I wrote on the back!

Speaking of thanks, everyone has been really great since the baby has been born! We had some special visitors in the hospital, at our house and delicious dinners brought to us a few nights! We couldn't ask for better friends! Thanks Ben & Corie, Sarah & Andy, Diane, Alma & Rob for your love and support!!

Everyone from work has been great too! They call to see how I am and Karen even stopped by to see Juliana on Friday! I know it must be a lot to take on everything while I am away too and I really appreciate the time I have to spend with the new baby! I sure do have some really super colleagues!

Speaking of friends, I miss Michelle already! Best friends are hard to come by! She was so awesome while she was here. She kept me company and was there when we went to the hospital! Even though she must have been tired herself, she stayed with us the whole time!

It's been a great week and a day so far! New babies really are a miracle!

Mike Edit:
Hmm no picnic pictures, but here's one of Aunt Becky!

Posts We Missed!

2008-08-07T11:00:00.005-04:00

Even though Mike wanted to post everyday, I am going to update you on the days we missed! He has been so crazy busy getting ready for his exam!

Mike's going to add pictures as he can! I'm just putting together some words!

Here's a Random baby picture taken on 8/2

Oops

2008-08-05T11:49:00.003-04:00

Okay, sorry! So I missed a few posts. There was good reason which I can't update at the moment because It's still partially a surprise.

Let's see I'm studying my butt off and we did a parent swap. Tina's mom and dad went home to Syracuse and my mom flew down for the week from Buffalo. Her and tina and Juliana are going to the mall today so I can study hard.

Oh yeah and tina finally graduated with her masters degree in education with school improvement leadership concentration. It was a nice and short ceremony except that the department screwed up and should have given tina an action research award there's no way the 2 people who got the award could have done better than hers! Oh well.

I'll try to rustle up some pictures later today!

Edit: Okay here's the flowers I got tina:

1 Week!

2008-08-01T19:45:00.005-04:00

Today is Juliana's 1 week birthday! We went to the pediatrician today for her first appointment. We really like the doctor. She said we didn't have to wake her up to feed anymore because she is up beyond her birth weight! She's at 7lb 14 oz! We'll try to get a full night sleep tonight since it kind of seems like she'd sleep that long.

The doctor also told us to make sure when she's awake to do lots of tummy time so she isn't fussy about it in the future!

Here's a picture Tina tried to set up and a movie of something or other she forced me to post:

Um, Thursday

2008-07-31T18:15:00.004-04:00

Another daily update.

I went to Hopkins today. A bit frustrating because one of the professors on my committee was supposed to meet with me to discuss topics i should look at for my GBO but she cancelled on me and can't meet till next Thursday, the day before my exam =/

Oh well do whatcha gotta do! Study study study!

Here's another Juliana picture hehe

Juliana's First Bath

2008-07-30T14:27:00.004-04:00

Bonus post today! Juliana got her first bath! Here's some pictures and a short clip:

Comments!

2008-07-30T12:32:00.001-04:00

By the way, please feel free to comment back on our posts!

Daily Update number One!

2008-07-30T12:27:00.002-04:00

Okay! Here's my trial of starting daily updates for the Family!

We went to the park this morning. We walked with the Jeep stroller. Kelvin did AWESOME walking next to the jeep stroller. Better than the normal stroller I think. We got to the park but he didn't want to play fetch. I'm not sure if maybe it's because he was hungry because it was already 11:30 or if he was hot or hopefully not that he doesn't like fetch anymore!

Anyway here's a picture of today's outing!

JULIANA!

2008-07-28T12:26:00.002-04:00

Juliana Rae has joined our family!

She was born on July 25th, 2008 at 2:56 AM at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD. She weighted 7lb 9.09 oz and was 19.6 inches long.

I have lots of pictures, but I would also like to try to update this blog daily! In order to do that, I'm going to do pictures just a few at a time.

Here's some teasers!