Trip to NY
We're leaving in a few minutes after Jake gets home and loads the car for me. I spent the whole morning at home, cleaning up, doing laundry, and packing us for this trip. All in all, so far it doesn't FEEL as though I've taken a day off work!
It will be nice to go see the parents and siblings again. We haven't been back East since December, and probably won't make another trip out there until August. That is, if the baby is up to taking long car rides.
We're both getting over the worst of the crud. My cold lasted only about 3-4 days and today I'm feeling much improved and have a cough that sounds a lot worse than it is. At the least, it's productive in moving the mucus in my chest around. Jake is also MUCH improved over last Thursday night and still has the lingering sinus pressure/cough that I'm hoping he gets over quickly.
I gave my prosem for the training grant yesterday. My mentor said he thought I did terrific and the office manager also told me I did a good job. Overall, I feel all right about it. I feel similar to after my Pharm646 presentations where I think "Yeah, it was all right, but I could have done some things better". The TG director stumped me with a really easy question. It just kind of came out of left field: "What exactly IS a receptor?" It's a good question and something that not everyone in the room (hello, clinical psychologists!) would necessarily understand. It was COMPLETELY not a question I was anticipating and I spent some precious time thinking about how I would explain this concept in a non-scientific way.
I do think I did a better job of presenting my research in a drug-abuse light than the girl who went after me. Peggy had to ask her several leading questions to get Maura to say that their research did have a drug-abuse aspect. It's semi-important as we have to justify WHY we're being funded by this training grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Jake had his middle/high school concert last night and it was a HUNDRED times better than his previous concert in November. I saw so much improvement in all the groups, both performance and musicality-wise as well as general concert etiquette. So much better. I was really proud of him-- he's worked very hard with these students to get them to trust him and to enjoy and take pride in their music. I guess this was something the previous music teacher basically beat out of them-- the kids hated music and didn't think it would be any fun. I think finally they're seeing that Jake is NOT Mrs. V and that they CAN have fun and do a good job in music. I hope so, anyway. I'm hoping it gets easier on Jake as time goes by.
I reach 31 weeks gestation tomorrow. I can't believe that there are only a couple months left! I really don't feel grotesquely pregnant, although I suppose I still have lots of time for baby to grow to epic proportions in my belly. I'm feeling good and starting to get excited-nervous about the impending addition to our family. It's getting so close now.
I was thinking about it this morning and got semi-overwhelmed but-- so many people already care for and love this baby besides Jake and I. So many people are being so helpful and gracious to us and supporting us as we get ready to bring this baby into the world. It's awe-inspiring and overwhelming. We've received so much support already from friends and family, both material things and words of advice or really nice self-esteem-boosting comments.
We're very blessed to have the support system we do.
It will be nice to go see the parents and siblings again. We haven't been back East since December, and probably won't make another trip out there until August. That is, if the baby is up to taking long car rides.
We're both getting over the worst of the crud. My cold lasted only about 3-4 days and today I'm feeling much improved and have a cough that sounds a lot worse than it is. At the least, it's productive in moving the mucus in my chest around. Jake is also MUCH improved over last Thursday night and still has the lingering sinus pressure/cough that I'm hoping he gets over quickly.
I gave my prosem for the training grant yesterday. My mentor said he thought I did terrific and the office manager also told me I did a good job. Overall, I feel all right about it. I feel similar to after my Pharm646 presentations where I think "Yeah, it was all right, but I could have done some things better". The TG director stumped me with a really easy question. It just kind of came out of left field: "What exactly IS a receptor?" It's a good question and something that not everyone in the room (hello, clinical psychologists!) would necessarily understand. It was COMPLETELY not a question I was anticipating and I spent some precious time thinking about how I would explain this concept in a non-scientific way.
I do think I did a better job of presenting my research in a drug-abuse light than the girl who went after me. Peggy had to ask her several leading questions to get Maura to say that their research did have a drug-abuse aspect. It's semi-important as we have to justify WHY we're being funded by this training grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Jake had his middle/high school concert last night and it was a HUNDRED times better than his previous concert in November. I saw so much improvement in all the groups, both performance and musicality-wise as well as general concert etiquette. So much better. I was really proud of him-- he's worked very hard with these students to get them to trust him and to enjoy and take pride in their music. I guess this was something the previous music teacher basically beat out of them-- the kids hated music and didn't think it would be any fun. I think finally they're seeing that Jake is NOT Mrs. V and that they CAN have fun and do a good job in music. I hope so, anyway. I'm hoping it gets easier on Jake as time goes by.
I reach 31 weeks gestation tomorrow. I can't believe that there are only a couple months left! I really don't feel grotesquely pregnant, although I suppose I still have lots of time for baby to grow to epic proportions in my belly. I'm feeling good and starting to get excited-nervous about the impending addition to our family. It's getting so close now.
I was thinking about it this morning and got semi-overwhelmed but-- so many people already care for and love this baby besides Jake and I. So many people are being so helpful and gracious to us and supporting us as we get ready to bring this baby into the world. It's awe-inspiring and overwhelming. We've received so much support already from friends and family, both material things and words of advice or really nice self-esteem-boosting comments.
We're very blessed to have the support system we do.