Happy 6 year anniversary to us

4/21/2006

Just Married!

Love from China!

Yet another reason why I love my job...

I'm sure you've all heard me talk about how much I love my job at some point! I knew, from back in early high school, that I wanted to work in the field of Psychology, and, from late high school, that I wanted to work within Sport Psychology. My entire 20s were devoted to graduate school - first a Master's degree at Boston College, then a CAGS and license at Boston University, then a Doctorate at Boston University. I took a little break in there to be a school counselor, but I KNEW I wanted to get my Doctorate, be a professor of Psychology, work at a state university, stay in Boston, work primarily with graduate students, and do research in the field of at-risk youth development through sport. And, happily, all of those things happened. UMass has completely aligned with all of my goals and interests. The biggest part of my job, I'd say, is researching, writing, publishing. All day long. Research. Write. Publish. What I talk less about are the two other components - service and teaching. Service refers to any work I do to enhance the program (I'm the program director), the university (serve on committees) the field (editing journals), etc. I could go on. In terms of teaching, I only teach graduate students. They are motivated, smart, and creative. They are also, as graduate students, grown ups, with lots of grown up stuff with which to deal. Some are getting married. Some have full time jobs. Others are raising children. All are busy. Which was why I was SO surprised last night when my Advanced Internship class walked into the classroom at 7 pm, yelled "surprise" and carried in presents and cakes for me! They had a surprise baby shower for me!!! What a group of stellar people. Those of you in graduate school right now can speak to how busy of a month April is. Classes typically end in early May, so April is the heaviest month of the whole year. These students are also graduating, so they're juggling their regular courseload with their internship hours and their final Capstone project. They're so busy.... I felt so warm and loved! What a class.

My creatively challenged brain has absolutely no idea how a student was able to make such a unique cake

Odds are, we've got ourselves a state school baby...

It's official!

Yunnan Province

We have just returned from a 5 day tour of the Yunnan province.  The long bus rides were tedious at times but the pay off at our destinations were well worth the road time.  The kids may say differently but I think they will actually look back on those long bus rides fondly someday.   I taught them euchre.
We had a local tour guide and a Gaoxin teacher come along.  The tour guide spoke English well enough but was not very confident in her English language skills.  When the students did not respond with 100% interest and attention she would think it was because she was not being understood.  This caused her some stress but she adjusted well and the kids gave her some encouragement.  The Gaoxin teacher was the younger PE teacher here, he smokes like a chimney.  He was lovingly given the name Young G. He was a great travel companion and the kids really liked him.  He did not speak much English at all.  Which overall was not an issue because he was willing to engage with the kids and speak Chinese to them.  He was also very patient with me as I stumbled through the little Chinese I could muster. 
The sights of Yunnan are hard to put words to and the pictures, I am afraid, do not do them justice.  The flora reminded me of the Rocky Mountains.  The villages felt very old but not run down.  You could tell that much the village was there for us tourists but that did not matter because it was a brand of tourism that seemed very genuine.  The handcrafts and the silver work was made on site by the person you bargained with and ultimately paid.  Lijiang village had this really cool series of small canals and streams weaving in and out of the streets  Very beautiful and functional.  The water was a cool site, but we also learned that the area was in the middle of a 2 year drought!  There was evidence of this everywhere, several pools and ponds were emptied to maintain the agriculture that was everywhere.  Seriously everywhere, every patch of land that could be irrigated was being used and even with the drought the gardens were lush.  Domesticated animals just roamed around and seemed to follow their owners to and from the fields.  Check out the photos link for pictures of Yunnan.  I added captions to almost all the photos.
Cheers!

Beginning the transformation

I've always taken pride in our little condo. It is cozy, funky, and completely all Laura & Brad. I never thought I'd be excited about changing it, but I am having so much fun thinking about where things will go once baby girl gets here, what needs to be donated, what should be offered to Luke, etc. This morning, I spent a few hours beginning the process of transforming our condo into a bit more of a functional space. Of all the things we own, from expensive electronics to 8 pair of track spikes, my favorite possessions are the two red chairs we bought over from Michigan back in 2003. One of my mom's friends gave us two free armchairs and Brad and I spent hours picking out red velvet material and reupholstering the chairs. Correction: Brad spent hours reupholstering. I cheered and supported. Both equally important roles. Looking at these chairs always reminds me of those very early days in Boston when we were absolutely broke, trying to figure out how to start a life together in a new place, worrying about grad school and new jobs and making rent, and missing our family. Now that we're bringing a new little body into the condo, we need to make some space, and, sadly, the chairs will have to be moved. While I'm going to miss watching Brad sipping his Sunday coffee in one of the chairs, every page of the newspaper sprawled across our study, with both cats sharing the other chair, I'm so happy that we've been able to find a new home for them: My Office!!! Now, the rest of the world can enjoy these cozy little red guys - well, by the rest of the world, I mean the 112 graduate students I advise. Hopefully, Brad won't miss them too much, although I'm thinking those lazy Sunday mornings of sipping coffee and reading the newspaper will be few and far between.

Other than the moderately emotionally traumatic move of the red chairs, everything else has been easy to scrap or donate - candle holders with sharp edges, extra rum (why do we have 5 partially finished bottles of rum?), some kitchen appliances, and a table or two.

Luke and I enjoyed our Easter weekend. We both got fantastic packages in the mail from mama Hayden (as did baby girl)! 

Luke and Laura's Easter treats from Mama Hayden

Baby girl's newest outfits - yes, that is a baby's version of a Facebook page! Mama Hayden has a silly sense of humor

Hmm... I think I'm getting a bit bigger :-)

26 weeks check up

Today was our monthly check up. Baby girl is 26 weeks and 2 days along and doing great. My blood pressure was the same as always - 112/60. I haven't gained any weight since my last check-up 4 weeks ago, but I gained so much during my first trimester that the Dr. isn't worried at all about the weight taper. In the past 2 months, I've only gained 2.5 lbs total, but I think I gained something like 11 lbs during the first trimester - who knows what my body is doing. Regardless, everything is good!

Baby girl's heartbeat is rockin' along. She is growing fabulously, the Dr. said. My next appointment will be when my mom is in town - yay!

The below picture was taken earlier today - I wore the same sweater as I did at 20 weeks so you can see the growth a little easier (yes, even us soft scientists make slight efforts to control variables).

26 weeks, 2 days along