The Shopping List

We all know that men and women are wired differently. But just in case you needed a little extra convincing, let me tell you about the shopping list. Last Friday, our refrigerator was completely empty (save a bottle of hot sauce) so Rob volunteered to go to the grocery store. I agreed but said that I wanted to make him a list (to ensure that he came home with more than just cookies and beer). So, I made him a list and he went to the store and brought home everything I asked for and even a couple things I forgot that we needed. By all accounts it was a successful shopping trip. 

Later on that evening, I found this. This is the list that I made. At first glance there doesn't seem to be anything unusual about this list. However upon further inspection, I realized that what I thought were pen marks were actually slits cut into the paper. 

You may be asking yourself (as I was), "How did these slits get there?", "What do they mean?", "Is Rob trying to tell me something?". It took me a minute to piece it all together, but this is what happened (as confirmed by Rob the next morning). 

When Rob got to the store that night, he wanted to make sure that he got everything on the list. To do that, he decided that he better cross items off the list as he got them. Not having a pen on him, he did what any man would do and used his knife to cross things off. 

I can only imagine what the other shoppers must have been thinking. To his credit, he did get everything on the list. So, while his method may be unconventional (and possibly illegal), it got the job done. 

Crazy Eights

Today my grandma turns 88 years old. To say that I love my grandma very much is an understatement. Let me tell you a few things about her.

• Her name is Giacomina but everybody calls her Grandma Jennie.
• She is a first generation Italian American.
• Her pasta sauce puts all others to shame.
• If my aunt hadn't taken her lawn mower away, she would still cut her own grass.
• She would let me eat weird things like Vicks VapoRub and raw eggs when I was a kid.
• She can tell more embarrassing stories about me than anyone else in the world.

Here are some pictures of Grandma Jennie and Harper taken in May of this year.

Science Friday

This is a picture that I took at work today. Any guesses at what it is? I'll give you a hint, it's mouse tissue that has been fluorescently labeled in order to visualize specific structures within the tissue. The blue dots are the nuclei of the cells that make up the tissue and the green is marking a structure called the basement membrane. Ok, enough hints. Give me your best guess.

Miscelaineous Music October Edition Part 2

This is one of my favorite songs in the whole world. It's by a guy named John Mark McMillan. I like this song so much that I try to make a point to sing it to Harper every day. It's kind of become her lullaby. I sing it to her because I want her to know how much He loves her. As much as I love my little girl, He loves her way more than I ever could. And if I can somehow get that point across to her, I'm doing an ok job as a parent. 

Friends and Family

Matt, Heather, and Evan were in town to visit us this weekend. It was so good to see them. Heather and I use to work together, but we haven't seen each other in about a year (She just had to move away to accept some silly faculty position at a prestigious university or something.) In fact, the last time we saw each other, I was about 5 months pregnant and Evan was about 2 months old. How time flies. There are many things that I love about Heather. She's smart, beautiful, honest, funny, an amazing cook... (By the way Heather, can you send me some of those Bourbon Pecan things for Christmas this year??)  So instead of gushing, I'll just leave you with one of my favorite Heather quotes. One day in the lab Heather very matter of factly turned to me and said "When I win the Nobel Prize, I am going to wear a pink dress and pearls to make my acceptance speech." That pretty much sums it up. 

Here is a new Harper video. Below are my preemptive responses to questions/comments you may have while watching this clip.

1. Yes, Harper is perfecting a new trick.

2. Yes, I am aware that the couch slip cover in the background is hideous and doesn't fit. But trust me, what's underneath is much much worse.

3. Yes, that is our cat, Sage.

4. Yes, Harper is probably about to get a new tooth as is evident from the hand chewing.

5. Yes, Harper is also learning how to ignore her mother.  I think her dad teaches her the finer points of selective listening when I'm not around. 

Enjoy.

My Pumpkin in the Patch

On Saturday, our family celebrated Harper's first fall by heading out to the pumpkin patch. While this was Harper's first visit to the patch, it was Rob's first visit too. Growing up, my mom made a point of celebrating every holiday (and when I say celebrate, I mean celebrate). For each holiday/season we had a host of family traditions, and while I may have complained about them at the time, these traditions are very meaningful for me now. I hope to pass my favorite ones on as well as establish new family traditions with Rob and Harper. So... after explaining to Rob that 1. we were going to the pumpkin patch as a family and 2. we were going there to take pictures of Harper next to pumpkins that we had no intention of buying, we were off. Here's what our outing looked like.

Check out her 2 new teeth - she worked really hard for them.

I love this kid.

Harper was way too busy people watching to look at the camera.

Last shot of the day. She was done and so were we.

I saw something at work today that I keep thinking about. I was walking through the children's hospital and I saw a little girl (she couldn't have been more than 3 or 4) who had a medical halo brace on. These braces are generally used to allow cervical fractures to heal. The brace was just about as tall as she was and was literally screwed into her head. The thing that I keep thinking about is that this little girl who was wearing this monster of a brace had a princess tiara attached to the top of the brace and she was smiling from ear to ear. I walk through the children's hospital every day and every day I feel my chest get tight as I see sick kids who don't deserve to be sick and parents who don't deserve to have sick kids. And every day, I thank God that He has blessed our family with a healthy, happy, beautiful baby girl. I hope that when the time comes that I don't walk through the children's hospital on a daily basis, I will still be rawly thankful for the gift that God has given us.