Second language

I don't know if I have mentioned it, but back in the day, I worked in a lab.  

The lab was a molecular physiology lab at SIU.  I spent my time pipetting tiny amounts of all kinds of things for a couple of the medical school professors.  I did a lot of lab prep and some research for them as well.  

We grew cell lines and studied breast cancer. 

We studied gene regulation/expression.

I really liked it, but in the end decided a PhD was not for me.  

  

I worked with all sorts of people at the lab.  Mike and Jodi were the professors and the brains behind the operation.  Phil was a full-time researcher working on his own theories as he earned his PhD.  Ramya was a PhD candidate from India.   And there were plenty of us that worked in the lab while we were finishing up our undergrad.  

One of my favorite co-workers was a Japanese girl named Takumi.  

She was so sweet and quite funny.  Sometimes it was unintentional because of cultural differences.  

When I ran across this picture the other day I laughed out loud.   

That is a tub of diluted bleach solution. 

Damn you English.

A mustache bash!

On Saturday the sisters threw my baby shower.  When they were trying to decide a theme, pinterest provided inspiration for a shower that was suited for a little gentleman.  And what do we all know the manliest of men rock.....a mustache!

And so it was decided, a mustache bash was officially put on the books for baby Clifford Stuart.  

Or, the super tough version, baby Cliff Stu. 

The decorations were adorable.  Thankfully we have a mom that has everything you could ever need for any situation imaginable.  There are no plastic table clothes here ladies, we used manly blankets.

The centerpieces turned out great too.  Mustaches for every guest, and the game we played was "name that famous mustache."  

Don't be sad if you weren't there.....play along now!

#1.  Borat...aka Sasha Baron Cohen

#2 Kylie Daniel...I mean, Mario

#3. Ron Swanson

#4.  Burt Reynolds

#5.  Snidley Whiplash

#6.  Charlie Chaplin

#7.  Salvador Dali

#8.  Geraldo Rivera

9.  Tom Selleck

#10.  Hulk Hogan

How many did you get right?  And did you for a second think Charlie Chaplin was Hitler?  I know ya thought it.  You goof.

Speaking of goof, you don't come to a stache bash to be serious.  The guests were all expected to get a little manly.  They obliged. 

I LOVE baby Evelyn's stache!  Too funny!

Penelope played along too, while trying out some of Cliff's stuff...like his stroller, and his blankets.

(could she be prettier?)

The sisters and I took an opportunity to rocked the look.....well, except for Maggie.  

Luckily, retakes were allowed...but that only gave me time to fail....

We did take a minute to get together all us girls for a family picture.

And the occasional close-up of sweet Ollie.

After all the tom-foolery we got down to the business of opening presents.  Tons and tons of presents! 

I honestly can't believe how many gifts Cliff and I received.  

I was overwhelmed.  

I was humbled by how generous my family and friends are.  

I tried to say thank you....but instead I just stood in front of everyone and cried at them.  

My hormones failed me.  

Maggie came to my house after the shower and helped me organize.  (I somehow have managed to have no pictures of my opened gifts whatsoever...but I will post some.)

Zac helped me put together Clifford's rocking chair...then he got out the monitor (we got a fantastic video monitor) and spent 20 minutes zooming in and out and showing me how it looked like the videography from the movie Paranormal Activity.  

It was a great day.  I could not ask for more.  Really.  I am spoiled.

But I am also so prepared for Ford now.

The OCD control freak in me is loving it!.....And also drove me to do all Cliff's laundry, sanitize my whole breast pump kit and pacifiers, organize all of his clothes by months, prematurely pack his diaper bag, and start my thank yous before I would let myself kick it for the rest of the evening.  It is a blessing and a curse I tell ya.
  On the up and up, the thank you cards I made turned out well.  Most guests are getting a mustache card that says either "mustache gracias," "mighty kind of ya," or "much obliged."

Gotta keep it manly, and classy, over here :)

It's Kramer Time

Well folks, it's that time of year again.  Aside from the slew of birthdays actually on the 10th, I have a lot of important ladies born around me.  My sister-in-law Sara had a birthday yesterday and today, on good ol' Friday the 13th, is my best friend Courtney's day.   I wrote about her last year to celebrate our 26th birthday.  This year we have reached the ripe old age of 27.   

She and I have both had a lot of changes over the last year.  The most important probably being the new additions to our families.  Courtney has been married for 5 years I think...yes 5.  This is a picture of Court and her husband Matt.

Aren't they cute?  I know, they totally are.  Imagine my excitement when she shows up to tell me she was having a baby.  SO PUMPED!

Then I got more excited as she got bigger.

And she got great maternity pictures that made me kinda stop hating maternity shots.  

Plus, how could you not love a girl that is so happy she can't stop her happy-squinty-eye when she holds your nieces. 

And truly loves and appreciates the handmade things you work on for her baby.

I'm so glad she has a fantastic babe of her own now.  Hazel Jane is beautiful.  She even trusts me enough that she let me adjust baby Hazel to help her go to the bathroom.  She says I can adjust her everytime I see her...and I love being able to take care of Hazel in a way most others can't.  It makes me feel special....which makes me feel dweeby to write, but it's true.  

When Courtney called me yesterday, I was so thrilled to be able to tell her to "Get excited, I am carrying Hazel's future husband, Cliff.  She responded, "OF COURSE you are.  Of course you are having a boy and of course he will be Clifford Stuart."  We both agree, the marriage of Cliff and Hazel will be epic :)

So happy birthday to my best friend.  I love you dearly.  I am lucky to have you and can't wait for you to be the mother of my daughter-in-law.  It's happening.  For sure. 

Plans

I saw this little sign the other day.  It spoke to me. 

It is so true.  I just returned from a weekend in Carbondale visiting my college roommate.  She and her husband live there and he works for the college.  I can't count how many times I said "I don't wanna go." This is in no way a reflection of my feelings for Chelsea and Andy.  I love them dearly and would gladly see them daily.  It is a reflection of how I feel about having to physically move myself.  I keep asking Zac to work on figuring out teleportation for me...but he says he is busy.  

I laugh at this, but it is a little sad.  I am 26!  When did I get so old that the hours between 11 and 7 seem like they were never meant for anything other than sleeping and the prospect of having to be outside of my comfort zone seems almost offensive?  I like to pretend that it's just the pregnancy.  If I were not so pregnant, I wouldn't have taken a nap on Chelsea's couch Saturday afternoon. It's a lie.  Baby has little to do with it I am afraid.  I have simply turned into a slightly antisocial homebody.  Case in point, yesterday my sisters had a WildTree tasting party at their house.  I wanted to tasted the food, I wanted to go, I simply wanted to go at my own convenience and in my pajamas.  I think part of it had to do with the fact that my size bigger jeans weren't dry, so I had to squeeze my pudge belly into my smaller jeans and I thought I might just pop a button at anytime.  And again, the other part being that I am a lazy antisocial girl.  

So that's what I have been dealing with lately.  I can sleep 12 hours in a day and still need a nap in my car in the park at noon.  I come home from work and sit in my chair until hunger inspires me to move.  And I celebrate cancelled plans because that means staying at home and changing into yoga pants.  Lazy is what it is about right now.  I am a lazy old pregnant lady.  What up.

The Levi's of the world

How many of you, while growing up, were told by your parents that people judge you based on the company that you keep?  I know I was.  I'm not saying that is untrue.  It is most certainly true.  When I was in high school I had a few friends that most parents would consider "undesirable."  I had a few friends that were in trouble every weekend, that were arrested frequently, that had drug problems, that failed out or were thrown out of school.   And I loved them dearly.  When I moved back to town after chiropractic school, I found them again.  A few are still giant messes.  A few still struggle with problems with drugs and alcohol.  I know what people may think when I am seen with them.  But what other people said never mattered much to me.  I think the heart of a person matters more than their actions...we all make mistakes, we even repeatedly make the same mistakes.  So while everyone else was worrying about what effect my friends might have on me, I was hoping they might see the effect I have on my friends.  

At New Hope we have started a new series.  It's a study of the book of Mark and Sunday's sermon was another great one.  We studied the second chapter (which you can read with a quick google search..it's not long) and there is one section in there that hit home for me.  It is the section, verses 13-17, where Jesus call upon Levi and eats with "unfavorable."  Levi was a tax collector in Capernaum.  Taxes and tax collectors were just as hated then as they are now.  They often made themselves rich at the expense of those around them.  This, of course, doesn't matter to Jesus and he calls upon Levi to follow him.  The following happens...

¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

 ¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Read that last verse again....

Maybe as Christians it is not our job to tell people what is right and wrong, but to love them in spite of their wrongs.  Maybe we are not meant to look down on others, but rather to reach down to others and help lift them up, help influence them to make choices with more wisdom.  Should I tell my friend the next time I see him drunk again that he needs to get his life together, should I lecture him about his mistakes or should I simply offer him a shower, a decent meal and a cup of coffee? 

 I struggle with that.  I want to lecture.  I want to point out fault.  I want to direct and control and "fix" other people.  But that doesn't work and I think I've gone about things the wrong way.  I think maybe instead of being another person to point our failure, I should be the person that emphasizes the victories.  That says words to help build up and not tear down.  That is my struggle and what I've been thinking about over the last couple days.  I am thankful for a church that has a message that makes me think about it for a few days.  And I am thankful for my friends.  Especially the ones that others don't love so much, because they help me to see the important things in life.  So I will treasure my friends.  I will trust them when others may not.  I will do my best to help the Levis in my life cause I am sure at one point or another, I've been the Levi to someone else.  

Hazel has arrived

I posted last week about my best friend being in labor....and she was...but they weren't interested in heping the process along, so she was sent home from the hospital.  Courtney toughed things out at home until last night when her water started leaking.  Off to the hospital they went, she was dilated to a 6 and 100% effaced.  Fast forward to 2:30 this morning and Hazel Jane has made her appearance!  She is so much bigger than I would have guess at 8lbs 13oz.  She is 21 inches long.  I had told Courtney a whle back, that I predicted Hazel would be born on the 7th...I was close!  The best part, this is her husband Matt's Grandma's birthday.  I'm not sure how old Rosemary is today, but I already know her favorite present!  I get to go meet her tonight....so send a shout out to God and tell him to move around my speeding ticket prayers to today (and everyday really...lead foot, it's my worst habit).  Enjoy the few pictures I have for now.

Hazel Jane

Courtney and Matt

Hazel and Aunt Michelle