Pet Wars!

Hi everyone. What a week! The job offer from USD marks a goal that I have been working towards for the better part of the last decade. It is really unbelievable and very exciting. Above is West and I sporting our new Coyote gear (thanks to GPops). Dalen and I are already dreaming of our new home. The home that we will watch West grow in and Copper have a ton of fun in.

West is getting so big, we decided to try out the next stage in the ExerSaucer (thanks to Aunt Shannon for one killer Christmas present). West is still not quite tall enough (sorry, Bean that might be Mommy's fault), but he is very close and soon will find tons of cool things to play with. What caught his eye today, was the USA/Canada hockey game...so it begins. If he starts to become comfortable playing in the saucer, it will help out his parents who will feverishly start pulling the house together to go on the market. If you are looking for an excellent two bedroom, two bath house in Hamilton, MT..we have a screaming deal for you! :)

Today also marks the last day on Montana Public Radio's pledge drive. I love pledge week! I know it is weird. But there is only one week out the year that they do this. In addition to the normal station swag and premiums, normal citizens call in and add additional premiums. It is so cool! At the beginning of the week, I decide how much to pledge in total and use it strategically. There are always challenges..ie if they make it to X amount of $, then a generous donor will give an additional $5,000. Then there are special things, like pet wars. The last Sunday of every pledge drive marks pet wars. You can call in and pledge for your animal, like the awesome CopperBear, and then the group of pets with the most pledges wins bragging rights for the whole year. Last year the cats won, much to Copper's chagrin. New to this year is that MPR is now streaming live. Follow this link, and then you can listen to the same programing that young West (and Copper) does. Every weekday at 4:00 pm MST is the Pea Green Boat and every Saturday morning is Kid's Corner. If nothing else, you can hear the unique and wonderful programming that we have become accustomed to! Have a great week everyone!

3 Month Old Baby Boy!

Today, Westin is 3 months old. Can you believe it?? He is such a big beautiful boy! He is doing so many new things now. Thanks to Dalen's efforts while I was out of town, Westin is on an actual sleep schedule. He goes to bed around 8:00 pm every night. As a result, Westin is much better rested and I am only getting up once or twice a night!

Last night we had a bit of a celebration (picture above is us going to the brewery for a celebratory beer). I got a call yesterday at work, and it was the University of South Dakota with a job offer! We are in negotiations, but I feel that all will go smoothly. It is very exciting!! I honestly feel that this is a place that I can thrive, even in this economic climate. Thankfully, Dalen is not scared to death of moving to Vermillion, South Dakota, located here. It does help that he gets a drift boat out of the deal :)-that aside, I am truly lucky to have such a supportive partner. While there is alot to be excited about, there is also stuff to stress about-selling our house, finding a new house, finishing up in lab, starting a lab of my own. You know, the small stuff. So on top of whatever jitters Dalen might have, he is also dealing with mine as well. I am glad that I have someone to remind me to enjoy the good stuff and the other stuff really and truly will work itself out.

Of course, Westin might grow up with a Midwestern accent and he might like hockey more than football....okay who are we kidding. I may not have a say over the accent, but the football thing is pretty unavoidable. We are headed back over to Vermillion in March to check out the area, some homes, and I get to pick out my lab space. It will be West's first adventure beyond Montana, well, beyond the Bitterroot Valley for that matter,..don't worry we will document the whole thing.

It's a B.O.B!!

While I was gone this week something absolutely magical was delivered to the house. Thanks to Pops and D, a burnt orange B.O.B Revolution arrived at our front door. I assembled the wheels yesterday and had Dalen check for safety today; we adjusted the harnesses to make sure the little Bean would be safe and snug and off we went!
At first West did not quite know what to think of it all, but then he became very calm. It was a chilly day, so we have him bundled in his wind proof snow suit. It is starting to feel like early spring outside...lots of sun, no snow and very dry. For anyone who has not driven a B.O.B, but have struggled with the lack of maneuverability of other strollers, the B.O.B is MAGICAL. It has shocks, it can wheel around a fire hydrant, tackle small potholes and shoulders of sidewalks. It can even tame otherwise unwieldy large CopperDogs. Our Saturday walks are going to take on a whole new flavor...Bring It On!

Hey, Mommy’s gone. It’s a vacation!

Well, maybe not. But, I think that it is evident that Westin thrived at Camp Dalen while I was gone.They tied flies, hung out with CopperBear, and even had tummy time.

On Friday, West tolerated 30 minutes of tummy time…this sort of endurance with tummy time is unheard of!

Here is the starting position:

Hey, there's Willis:

Cool, I'm lifting my head.

Yes, we have a very strong little boy.

I was very glad to be back safe and sound Friday evening. My baby boy was happy, my husband was happy, and the house was mostly clean :). As for University of South Dakota: Well, I never thought that I would say this, but I sincerely hope that I impressed them as much as they impressed me!

Missing my baby

Well, I have made to South Dakota all safe and sound. Freaking miracle, I tell ya. I got to the ticket counter yesterday morning in Missoula, and the woman said, "Oh, looks like they reissued your tickets incorrectly. You are not going to Salt Lake are you?"…Surprisingly, I did not freak out or read the woman the riot act. She actually remembered me from the previous week and the troubles with the airplane and how I was one of the few people that was not treating the ticket counter people with malevolent vitriol…like it was their fault the silly mechanic did not fix the plane, as if they wanted to spend their morning with grumpy stuck people…moving on. The kind woman asked me how my baby was and quickly fixed the ticket. Crisis avoided!

There are impressive amounts of snow here! Apparently, this is an extra snowy winter here in Vermillion. I would have pictures, but I left the good camera with Dalen in hopes that he would document every minute..okay that is a little excessive, most minutes of Westin's life while I was gone (with all of the copious spare time he will have caring for a 2.5 month old, all on his own). It does not feel that much colder than Montana. For you southern people, you won't believe me when I say that there is something absolutely exhilarating about stepping out in dry, cold air. It just makes me happy. Now dealing with wet, cold air, well that is different, and in a not entirely pleasant way. If Copper, the BearDog, was with me right now, he would be plowing through the snow mounds and happily burrowing in the snow. Vermillion is a small town, but larger than Hamilton. It is like a quaint college town. There is a mixture of gorgeous old brick buildings with more modern campus buildings, like the beautiful Sanford School of Medicine building. It is organized brilliantly and all of the lab space (like the one that I would have, if offered a position) is new and modern and CLEAN. I would not have to worry about who had the lab before me and what kinds of treasures are lurking in the corners of drawers. For example, when we moved to West Virginia, we were cleaning out the lab and I came across a very old vial, cryptically labeled M. tuberculosis. Needless to say, I donned gloves and a mask quickly and had a biohazard bag at the ready for the remainder of the clean-up. Good times, good times.

So far the science is good. I meet more of the micro contingent of the Division today. There are no department chairs, just a Division of Biomedical Sciences. So, if you want something, then you go straight to the Dean. The Micro group has been mainly gram positives..Strep pyogenes. E. faecealis, group a strep, MRSA, etc. They are trying to hire people with expertise in host-pathogen interactions..and this is why I am here. What is exciting is that at least two groups are starting to wade into the complicated world of co-infection.This is very exciting! In the lab, when we study infectious disease, you typically think of one type of organism infecting one type of cell or one part of a sterile animal. In real life, you have one dominant organism that is causing infection in the background of many commensals, or secondarily to the primary viral infection. You can see how it would be complicated, but I think you can also see how it might be important to start thinking about infection in this sense, because during an infection all sorts of things (including your normal flora) get way out of whack, initially by the infection and secondarily from the drugs used to treat the infection. Not many researchers do these types of studies, because well, it is complicated. Here, they are starting with primary H1N1 viral infections, and then studying a secondary infection with Group A Strep. They are starting to track why cells/hosts are more susceptible to a bacterial infection after an initial viral infection. Most of the deaths associated from H1N1 flu are due to a secondary bacterial infection. So far these studies are producing interesting and meaningful results. Because the science group is organized as a Division, collaborators are easy to find and work with. On this particular project, there is a viral person, a bacterial person, and a lung physiologist. I know that there is a woman here studying cervical epithelia, etc., so I can envision a similar collaboration with Chlamydia and trying to flush out HPV/Chlamydia co-infection types of questions. Are you all still with me or are you tired of all of the science??

I spoke to Dalen at least 3 times yesterday. Westin is doing brilliantly! He is eating well and napping well. I heard him cooing in the phone and I just wanted to hug and cuddle with him. I knew this trip would be far more taxing on me than my darling baby boy. I hope that Dalen had an easy night with little West. Yesterday morning before I left, West was being extra cute. He was a smiles and coos. It took a lot for me to just get ready so that I could leave on time. My baby is amazing. My family is amazing and I miss them all very much. Thank goodness that I am heading home tomorrow. Oddly, I only slept for 5.5 hours last night. Maybe it is nerves over the talk or maybe I am just used to the lack of sleep. Gotta go get ready now! Hope everyone has a great day!

Fat Tuesday

Today is Fat Tuesday. It always reminds me of my late Aunt Faley. The first Fat Tuesday that I lived in Morgantown, Faley sent me a King Cake so that I could share it will my fellow labbies. It was such a thoughtful surprise, and it made me feel so loved..its just what I always think about on the last day of Mardi Gras.


Okay, so if you guessed from the picture that we got a package o'love from Grandma Moore...well you would be correct! She quilted that super cute blanket that you see in the picture. West was happy pants about it all!

It was a delightful evening with my little boy. He helped me pack my suitcase. He got a bath, we cuddled and we played the bouncy game that makes him giggle so much. I promise in the next few weeks to try to get a video up of his giggles..they are truly the best. I am going to miss him (and Dalen and CopperBear) over the next few days, but I will back before I know it! Besides, I am really excited to meet the Division at the University of South Dakota. They are doing some really neat Microbiology there and I can't wait to learn all about it. Hopefully, I can sell them that I am their faculty candidate that they have always wanted....keep your fingers crossed! In any case, I am excited to go off and get my geek on. Cellular Microbiology is so cool!!!
One last picture of the cutest Bean in the world......

Presidents' Day

I have always been a fan of Presidents' Day, and not just because it is an official day off or a day of excellent sales. I love the legacies of both Washington and Lincoln. While I don't know enough about all of the skeletons in either of their closets (nor do I care to know), I truly appreciate what they have done for this Nation.

I had grand plans of still going into lab today, but West had something else in mind. We took him to the doctor this morning. No, his fever did not come back; we just did not want to be guilty of missing anything large or small. To show off how sick he was, he managed to giggle his way through most of the exam. He weighs 13 lbs and 7 oz. He has a gurgly stomach that may or may not turn into something. A small cough and sneeze-action, that may or may not turn into something..you get the theme. It is likely that he has his first minor virus that may just wind itself up OR down over the next few days....just in time for me to go out of town. This is NOT stressful for me at all. Thankfully, Dalen is so good about just handling these things without freaking out, that I know that West is in extremely capable hands. Yeah for Daddy's!As a side note, all of the drooling, fist chewing and chewing on anything that he can feasibly reach does NOT mean that he is teething..at least not right now. This news brought me GREAT relief, because as the breastfeeder of the family, you take ALL signs of teething (low grade fever, drooling, chewing, etc.) VERY seriously. Just to let you know that neither Dalen or I are crazy, the doctor did feel around for teeth....and not just to humor us. Seriously.

New trick of the day: Westin smiled at Copper today. We were not fast enough with the camera. West was hanging out in his bouncing chair and Copper came over to lick him, and West looked at him and smiled back. Very exciting stuff!

Happy Monday everyone!