Vance and Debbie

Lisa's first four weeks

2012-01-15T12:02:00.013-07:00

The last four weeks of my life have included:

Doctors appointments, for me, for Lisa, for Vance...

An outing to Nordstrom without Lisa (scary!) She did just fine though!

Big Blue Eyes! Lisa is more and more alert every day. I love looking into her blue eyes.

Visitors, we had lots of family and friends come to show their support. Here is Lisa with her aunt Julie.

Sleepy Baby

Dress up time!

Play dates with Pearl!

I LOVE this picture of Pearl and Lisa. Mary Lynn has been a real strength for me these first four weeks, and Lisa leaning on Pearl reminds me of how much I have leaned on Mary Lynn. I hope that Pearl and Lisa become better and better friends each day!

I also went to work one day this week. Lisa was a champ! I have a lot of down time at work, so I was able to feed her while some experiments were running, she did great. She just chilled by the spectrometer... she is such a calm baby! (For now at least!)

Elisabeth (Lisa) Jane Mitchell

2011-12-29T01:55:00.005-07:00

On Sunday December 18th, 2011 Lisa entered our lives. She weighed ~7 pounds and was 20.5 inches long. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on. I never knew I could love someone so much. Vance and I are overcome with love for our baby girl. The following pictures were taken by my very talented friend Alana.

I wanted to record a few thoughts about how she got here. Little Lisa was frank breech throughout the entire pregnancy, so we scheduled an ECV (external cephalic version) on Wednesday December 14th to try and turn Lisa to a head-down position. The ECV procedure itself was not too painful (it was uncomfortable, but I listened to some music and used yoga breathing to relax and it was not too bad!), but was unsuccessful. We scheduled a c-section for December 29th (today!). At the time I was heart broken. I am not entirely sure why. I guess I just really wanted the experience of pushing her out of me. I felt frustrated that I had spent so many weeks attending a natural child birth class and that I had hired a doula, only for me to never even have a chance at a natural child birth. I was also disappointed with a much longer recovery time.

The next couple of days (after the ECV) I had a lot of cramping, which is a typical side effect of the ECV procedure. By Saturday the cramping had subsided, and I was feeling much better. Early Sunday morning (Dec 18th), I woke up to pretty strong cramps. I just figured that I was feeling more of the cramps as a side-effect of the ECV. I decided to take a bath to relieve my pain. When I got out of the tub, as I was drying off, I noticed some fluid trickling down my leg. At first, I did not think much of this... I thought it was just from the bath. I then walked into the living room when probably another 1/2 cup of fluid spilled out of me. At this point I started having thoughts that my water may have broke. I was a little unsure because I had learned in my Bradley class that for 80% of women, their waters break when they are between 6 and 10 cm dilated. As fluid continued to spill out of me, I called my mother and my doula to make sure that I was right in thinking that my water had broken. Both my mom and my doula agreed that I was in labor.

Vance and I quickly got our things together and arrived at Rose around 9 am. The nurse was very quick to get me admitted and prepped for a c-section. Because it was a Sunday and my doctor had gone out of town the previous day, I had to wait for the on-call doctor to arrive. Although the doctor was paged around 9 AM, she did not arrive until about 2:30 PM. This meant that I got to experience several hours of labor! I know it sounds silly to be excited about this, but it was an experience that I was truly looking forward to! I only dilated to ~3 cm by the time I went in for a c-section, so I did not get to experience active labor, but I did get to feel lots of contractions! I had previously hired a doula (Debbie Sheets), so it was great that she actually got to help me through a lot of the contractions.

Going into the operating room was a scary experience for me. There were so many people doing things to my body, I felt little to zero control over the situation. During the surgery, the surgeon and nurses were listening to a Christmas pandora station. As they were pushing baby Lisa out of me, "O Holy Night" sung by Josh Groban was playing on the radio. I felt like it was so fitting. Once the c-section was over, they immediately gave her to Vance and I heard her cry. It was a surreal experience.

After Lisa was born, and I had her in my arms, I felt silly for shedding so many tears over the fact that I was going to have a c-section. Once I got her here, I realized how much it just did not matter.

The recovery from the c-section was painful at times, but overall not too bad. I was unlucky in that 5 days after the surgery, when my staples were to be taken out, about 75% of my incision reopened. The doctor pulled the other 25% open manually, which I think to this day is one of the most painful experiences of my life. I currently have an open wound that is healing by secondary intention (from the inside out) which is slowing me down quite a bit. When this type of reopening occurs, the healing time is at least twice a regular c-section, and can be up to 3x as long.

I am very fortunate, however, that I have a husband that has been well trained in his general surgery rotations to care for this type of wound. He dutifully changes my dressing twice a day and has been so kind to me. He is the nicest doctor I have ever had in my life! My love for Vance has grown so much seeing him care for me and his daughter. I feel like the luckiest woman alive and I am grateful for this trial because of the increase love for my husband I have gained from it.

Becoming a mother has so far brought me more joy and been much more difficult than I had expected. I have never been so tired, but also never so happy. I have never felt so much pain, but also never so much joy. The past 10 or so days have been the best of my life.

Gratitude: Fall 2011

2011-11-28T08:42:00.014-07:00

This Thanksgiving I realized that I have SO much to be grateful for. I would like to share some of those things:

1.) A wonderful/supportive Family:
During the beginning of October, Vance took his Step II clinical exam in LA, California, so I got to visit my awesome sister! The weather was amazing!

Julie. Debbie. (28/29 weeks pregnant)

2.) Our beautiful baby girl, who will arrive in just a few weeks!!

My friend Alana was sweet enough to take some maternity photos for me, and they came out beautiful!!

Me (32/33 weeks pregnant)

3.) Wonderful friends!! I am so lucky to have the most wonderful friends here in Denver!!

Vivian. Mae. Ashley. Debbie. Rachel. Alana. Alexandria. (taken same day as above photo).

Mary Lynn. Debbie. (37.5 and 32/33 weeks respectively)

We have so much fun going to events with our friends in Denver. We went with the Olson and Barrus family to the punkin chunkin where pumpkins are shot off.

Josh. Vance.

Debbie. Alana. (I think I am 31 weeks in this picture).

Alana. Chelsea. Debbie

The following weekend, we went with Vance's family to the Zombie Crawl in downtown Denver.

There were zombies EVERYWHERE. It was surreal taking the light rail downtown filled with zombies. I felt like I was in another world.

4.) My wonderful Husband! I love Vance so much! I feel so grateful that I made such a great decision when I was so young to marry Vance. He works so hard and is so much fun!

Vance on Halloween (Which was also his first interview for surgical residency programs!) I think he looks so good in his new John Varvatos suit (Thanks Julie for the discount!!)

5.) Finally getting all of the baby stuff organized!! (Thank you to Alexandria for getting me motivated!) This black Friday weekend Vance and I spent most of our time washing baby clothes and building a wardrobe from IKEA.

Here I am 36/37 weeks pregnant posing in front of our baby girl's little corner of the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

An Early Birthday Present

2011-09-13T09:00:00.007-06:00

Almost exactly 25 years ago, my mother went into labor. My parents lived in Westminster at the time, which is quite a distance from Rose medical where I was supposed to be born. My mother had a doula (who my mom had also been taking child birth classes from) named Debbie Sheets. My mother called Debbie on her way to the hospital and told her to hurry because I was coming.

I didn't make it to the hospital. I was born on the corner of 17th and Colorado blvd here in Denver. Fortunately, Debbie Sheets happened to be in traffic right next to my parents. Debbie realized who was in the car next to her and rushed out of her car and over to my parents. My mom had already delivered me, but Debbie saw that I was blue and wrapped me in her shirt because she thought I was cold. Once Debbie had helped get the situation under control, my dad continued driving towards Rose. Debbie left her car running in the middle of Colorado Blvd (with her purse on the seat!!) to help me and the placenta get to the hospital safely.

Within hours the doctors knew that I had a severe heart condition, and that I was going to need pretty immediate surgery, which required a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, no one in our family had the blood that I needed. My father called Debbie and asked her if there was anyone that she trusted with her life with O-negative blood. She said that she was a match, and more than willing to donate the blood to save my life. My mother had picked out a few possible names (one of them being Deborah), and chose to name me Deborah because of everything that had happened.

. . . .

Fast forward 25 years, and I am now pregnant with my own daughter. Because I have been nervous about labor, my mother suggested that I take a Bradley method child birth class. My mom used a lot of methods with her 6 kids, and found that the Bradley method worked best for her. Because my hospital currently only offers Lamaze and hypnobirthing classes, I decided to google "Bradley Classes Denver." The first search result was Bradley instructor Debbie Sheets! I could not believe my eyes; the name Debbie Sheets is one that I know as well as my own. I called her to sign up for her class and began asking her if it was okay to take the class if I was not completely committed to a natural child birth, because I am a high risk pregnancy. She was so sweet and explained that many mothers take the classes to become more prepared regardless of their situation. She then asked me why I was a high risk pregnancy. So, I figured I should explain who I was. I told her that my mother had taken classes from her in 1986 and that I was born in a car... and before I could get much further she asked, "Oh my goodness, are you Debbie?" I could not believe it! She knew immediately who I was! She then told me her version of my birth story.

Yesterday Vance and I got to go to our first child birth class with Debbie. She has a pretty impressive resume including being nominated nationally for Child Birth Educator of the year twice. To get this type of nomination you must be nominated by both students and the health care community.

Debbie and Debbie

Debbie's class was so informative an fun! She is hilarious, and I am so happy that I am taking her class. The Bradley method class is actually 12 weeks long, and puts a focus on preparing your body for labor. We learned a lot of exercises yesterday to do to prepare. Vance was so funny, he did them too and was really good at the "hula" exercise. Pretty funny. I think that he is the new teacher's pet. :)

Also, as I am trying to document my expanding mid section, here is a picture of me at 25.5 weeks, taken this weekend.

25.5 weeks

Awkward and Awesome

2011-08-23T16:26:00.007-06:00

22 weeks (taken last Saturday)

So, I love the blog The Daybook. The author (Syndey) does this cute segment called Awkward and Awesome on a weekly basis. So, I thought I would give my top Awkward and Awesome items so far for my pregnancy.

Awesome:

1.) Welcomed wonderful physical changes. I love how my eyelashes are longer, my hair is thicker and holds a curl better than ever, and my nails grow super fast. Oh, and let’s not forget the ladies/tatas/breasts… they are looking better than ever! I went from a B to a D already!! (TMI??)

2.) Amazing generosity of people. I have always known that people are wonderful and generous, but I have been especially blessed during my pregnancy. One of my best friends here in Denver had a friend at work (who I have only met a few times) who is letting me borrow a ton of maternity clothes! How nice, especially because she barely knows me! Similarly, a different one of my best friends in Denver had a friend (who I have never met) who gave me a huge bag full of 0 to 6 month baby clothes and dresses! WOW! I am just going to try and pay the generosity forward when I can!

3.) Increased Appetite. Well, this one could go under awkward too… because I have had a few melt downs because of my appetite. However, I LOVE food, and now I get to eat more often! It is awesome!

4.) Thrift Shopping. Because I am pregnant, I have reallocated my budget in certain areas so that I can do some extra thrift shopping to look for cute books and stuff. You will never believe this, but I found 12 American Girl books at the Goodwill! Awesome! I have also found some beautiful vintage dresses for our baby girl, which I am SO excited about!

Awkward:

1.) Falling asleep randomly/Narcolepsy. For those of you who know me, you know that I already struggle with falling asleep randomly. It has gotten WORSE now that I am pregnant. I fall asleep while typing at work all the time. The worst was a few weeks ago when I was working with one of the Engineers in our lab group. He was talking to me and asked me to write down an equation. While I was writing the equation down… I fell asleep and drew a line across the page. Embarrassing! He was so worried, but I had just fallen asleep!

2.) Horrible Acne. I already look like I am 18, so it definitely made my situation worse when my face broke out horribly at the beginning of my pregnancy. To make matters worse, when I was only 10 weeks pregnant (still not really telling very many people), I had a lady at church come up to me and ask me why my acne was “horrible” (her words!). She proceeded to lecture me on how acne scars if it is not taken care of… and sold me a product! Wow.

3.) Yoga. I love yoga, and have continued to do it throughout my pregnancy… but some of the moves look and feel really funny when you are maneuvering around a cantaloupe in your belly!

4.) Amazing comments from people. While at a chemistry conference I was popping some Jelly Beans into my mouth. A girl I barely knew could tell I was pregnant and asked me (referring to my candy consumtion), “Are you worried about getting gestational diabetes?” Seriously?! I was so traumatized I could not eat any sweets for a couple days! (Which, was probably a good thing!)

5.) Realizing I know NOTHING about babies/childbirth. I am sure a lot of people feel this way when they are pregnant. You know it is bad when your own husband tells you that you should read a book on the subject! In my defense, I have a particularly knowledgeable husband when it comes to babies and child birth because he is in medical school.

6.) Siatica. Getting out of your chair at work or home, and realizing you cannot walk is pretty awkward. Luckily I have figured out some stretches that really help. Sometimes, the best thing for me to do is just to try to walk or run and the pain goes away.

To be perfectly honest, I am enjoying the Awkward aspects of pregnancy almost as much as the Awesome because the Awkward stuff make for such good stories! And, I love to have a good repertoire of good stories!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-08-15T17:45:00.004-06:00

Vance and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a baby girl this Christmas! I am roughly 21 weeks pregnant. I was waiting to post a picture of me for when I looked pregnant and not just like I ate too much mac and cheese (which, by the way, I have just discovered easy mac... that stuff is amazing!)... so you can be the judge. :) I took this picture this morning before yoga (6 am)... so sorry for no make up or smile!
Here is a picture of me at 8 weeks (also before yoga)... proof my bump is growing.

Everything health-wise is looking good so far. As many of you know, I have been very nervous to become pregnant... but I have been blessed so far. I am being monitored pretty closely, so that is comforting! As far as school goes, I still plan on finishing my PhD with the help of my awesome husband and my mother-in-law who lives just 15 min away.

Love her.

2011-08-04T17:31:00.004-06:00

I love those friends who even though you have not seen them face-to-face in 3 years (too long!) it is like you have never been apart. I have been so blessed in my life because I have MANY friends like this. I got to see my sweet friend Lisa a couple weeks ago, and it was so wonderful to meet her daughter!! It was great to be laughing so hard I was crying... just like old times.

EPR Symposium 2011

2011-08-03T08:49:00.006-06:00

Last week I went on my annual trip to Aspen to present my research at the Rocky Mountain Analytical Conference (which is basically an EPR and solid-state NMR conference). This is one of the biggest EPR conferences in the world, so we are lucky to have it so close by! I presented two posters, one on my main research (Rapid-scan EPR) and another on a side project (A S/N standard for pulse EPR) I have been working on with Wilmad Glass and Bruker (more of an advertisement for a product than anything). I unfortunately did not take very many pictures this year, but here are a few of the posters.

These pictures were taken on the last day of the conference, because I kept leaving my camera in the hotel room, so we were not quite this casual when actually presenting our posters.

Below is Josh presenting (or pretending to present) his work on relaxation times of nitroxyl radicals.

Debbie: Rapid-scan EPR

Mike: DEER (distance measurements) on tau fibrils

Virginia: Relaxation processes of DPPH

School has been going well, I get to go to another conference, the national ACS conference, in about 3 weeks. We are lucky that it is in Denver this year, so that makes it easy! So, the ACS conference will be my third conference this year. I really like going to conferences because I enjoy talking with other people who have a pretty good understanding of my research. Scientific research is annoying because it is so specialized, that sometimes you do not even understand some of the projects that are going on in your own lab group! This is especially true in a group like ours made up of theoretical physicists, electrical engineers, physical chemists, biochemists, etc. However, I think it is because of the diversity in my lab group that I have learned so much.

I feel like I can sort of see the end in sight. Not that I know exactly when I will be graduating, but I have been working consistently on my dissertation and I think that I will be done by the end of 2012 (December...hopefully). My goal is to complete a rough draft of my dissertation by April 2012 and give it to my advisors. I figure if I write down this goal I will be more likely to complete it.

July was a good month for Vance and me. Vance had an easier month made up of an EKG course and a little break. It was so fun to hang out with him. It was a little sobering when Monday morning he was back on the wake up at 4 am/go to bed at 8 pm schedule. I don't know if I will ever get used to it! But, come December Vance will be pretty much done with medical school! At University of Colorado they give medical students something like 120 days off in there 4th year so that they can go on residency interviews, take boards, etc. Vance is still planning on general surgery, so he is working hard to make a good impression here in Denver.

Red White and Blue

2011-07-13T17:50:00.006-06:00

Vance actually had a break in school, so we headed down to NM for the weekend. It was filled with seeing old friends, family, and lots of food! We celebrated Vance's birthday, went golfing, attended some BBQs, played board games, went to Twisters (yum!), and fireworks.

Movie Review: Waiting for Superman

2011-06-27T06:55:00.003-06:00

This movie is almost a year old, but I just saw it for the first time this weekend. This movie is a documentary about America's public school system. I found this film really interesting and sad, but I think that everyone should watch this!

The film follows several children in there struggle in public schools and their effort to attend a better charter school. I found that the main message of this movie was: the aspect of a child's education that has the greatest impact on their success is a good teacher.

As I watched this movie I reflected on my own education experiences. When I was in kindergarten to 2nd grade, my mother was my teacher. I don't really remember being home- schooled, but I do remember 3rd grade really well, and feeling like I had learned almost everything before. I had really good teachers in elementary school. When I was in middle school we moved to New Mexico. I went to a high school that this movie calls "a drop-out factory," meaning that the drop out rate is over 40%. I had several good teachers, but I also had some teachers that this movie would refer to as "lemons." I had few teachers in middle school and high school where the majority of the time we watched movies, and I really don't remember them teaching much of anything. I had one teacher in particular for freshman world history who was the coach of the football team. I don't ever remember him teaching us a thing. He would hand us work sheets and we would have to find the answers in our book over the course of the class and turn them in. But, I also remember amazing teachers like my math teachers and chemistry teachers in high school. I feel like I got a good education in high school. I do not think that I was disadvantaged when I got to college. I may not have known as much about chemistry as my peers in freshman chem... but while the other students were relying on their high school knowledge I had already developed good study habits as a freshman in college.

This movie also reaffirmed to me my desire to teach high school at some point. As cheesy as this may sound, I really want to make a difference in the public school system, and I feel like with some practice I could be a good teacher! I will still probably teach at the community college level when I am done with my PhD, but at some point I will teach high school.

Anyway, I hope that you will see Waiting for Superman! And, if you have, what did you think about it?

Breckenridge 2011

2011-06-20T08:46:00.013-06:00

A few weeks ago (after Vance took his Step II board exam) Vance and I had the opportunity to go to Breckenridge with several of our friends. My friend/tutoring client's family owns a home in Breckenridge and they gave us a great deal to stay a couple nights. Here are a few photos.

Shopping: Mary Lynn. Debbie. Rachel. Alexandria

Alana

We also enjoyed eating... a lot. notice the chocolate on my face.

Debbie. Mary Lynn

Me and Vance

The next day we went hiking, shopping, horseback riding, and more eating!

Vance and Me

Alexandria (who was glam as usual for the horse stables) and Lydia

Gavin and Chelsea

Mia on her pony ride!

Ryan and Rachel

Some of the group for dinner.

We had a great time and are so grateful for wonderful friends in Denver!

SO true!

2011-06-16T15:36:00.001-06:00

i about fell out of my chair laughing when my co-worker showed me this beauty. I'm annoyed because pinterest gives me an error message when I try to pin it. Oh well. It is from uproxx.com.

Love these.

2011-05-19T07:49:00.003-06:00

1.) Cool TV- We don't have cable/internet (we just use the tuning box) and a few months ago I found Cool TV. It is an ABC channel that plays music videos ALL THE TIME. And, it is not just music that is new, but is a wide mix. I always listen to it when I get ready in the morning. This morning I heard music from franz ferdinand, lady antebellum, journey, imogen heap, and some stuff I did not recognize. I love it!

2.) Pinterest- I am sure I am the last one to the party, but my friend Julie invited me and it is SO cool! You can pin pictures/posts that you love. I have discovered a lot of beautiful things on pinterest! I only have 3 pins so far. Kind of a pathetic start, but mainly I just like looking at my friend's pins.

3.) Martinelli's apple juice- Have you tried this stuff?? Not the sparkling cider, just the apple juice. I am not a huge apple juice fan in general... but this stuff is DELICIOUS. I feel like I am drinking a fresh crisp apple! Plus it comes in a cute bottle that is shaped like an apple. love it.

4.) Yogurtland. I have been talking about Yogurtland nonstop for the last year. My co-workers think that Yogurtland should start paying me commission for how much I talk about my love for this place. But, my love for Yogurtland only grows with their new delicious flavours. It is like that Brad Paisely song "I thought I loved you then." You know the one?? haha... pathetic I know.

5.) The recent rain in Denver. I never thought I would say this, but I am loving the rain we have been getting. It has been a fun change of pace and a great opportunity for me to use my two trenchcoats that get almost no use. Plus, it is so green! But, I will be happy when the sunshine returns too!

A few more thoughts on England

2011-04-14T07:46:00.002-06:00

I had wanted to travel abroad for a long time, so I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go to London and York. Traveling to England exceeded my expectations in some ways and in other ways I was a little surprised at how much America does things better. Let me give a few examples:

Stuff the England did really well:

Fresh/Healthy/Delicious/Cheap Fast Food: So many good places like Pret, EAT, Wagamama, etc. For London being the most expensive city in the world, we were able to eat really healthy on a budget (I was surprised!)
History: England has SO much history, it made me realize what a young country America really is. I felt a little confused, especially in York, seeing these really OLD structures, and then a car driving by... weird.
FREE stuff: All of the museums that we went to were FREE (Tate Modern, British Museum, British Library, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, John Soane Museum, etc.) The only places that we had to pay were The Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, which considering those were two of the best places we went, it was not too big of a deal. But each of those sites will cost you about $30.00/person!
Public Transportation: We could get anywhere in London really easily. My one complaint is that the doors on the trains close really fast, and sometimes without warning. This caused my mom and I to get separated once because the door closed right after I boarded. We did not have cell phones, so it was a little scary, but we found each other!
Chivalry: I was impressed by how often men gave up their seats on the train for woman and how people noticed if someone was pregnant or otherwise needed to sit down and men and woman offered their seats immediately.
SHOPPING: Harrods, H&M, Primark, Marks and Spencer, the list could go on and on. And this is not just true for London. There was an H&M in York too!
Tips: Love that waiters just get paid more and tips are optional. Downside is that the service is usually not as good (which is to be expected).

So, as you can see, in a lot of ways London exceeded my expectations. However I had a few complaints.

Stuff that England was not so great at:

Internet: I feel like in America WiFi access is ubiquitous. You can go almost anywhere and if you need the internet there is a Starbucks or a McDonalds or some other establishment that offers free WiFi. In London, this is NOT the case. I specifically picked our hotel because it advertised "WiFi available." Apparently, that means WiFi available for 18 pounds (or about $30.00) per day! Ouch. I have stayed in some pretty seedy hotels (one being in Blanding,UT) that had WiFi. This was a freaking 4 star hotel. come on. And all of the McDonalds/Starbucks/any other establishment charged for Internet access. I could not believe it. Luckily, there were quite a few Apple stores around, so I would head to one of those if I needed to send an email. (Which I did not feel bad about abusing at all because I am currently typing from a MacBook Pro.) Oh, and the train that we took to York also said "Wifi available" which meant shelling out 10 bucks to use the Internet for an hour. annoying!
Bathrooms: It is almost impossible to find a place to use the restroom without paying. Most of the bathrooms cost about a buck to use (Like in the Mall or some of the museums). Crazy! So, we just tried to be smart and use the restroom while we were at a restaurant or at our hotel.
Toilets: I seriously could never get a toilet in England to flush right. I do not know what the deal was. (sorry for TMI).
Water: It made me nervous that in most of the bathrooms the sinks said "do not drink the water." In America, water in any bathroom must be potable. this surprised me.
Customer service: I feel like no matter what restaurant we went to I got dirty looks and eye rolls if I asked for a cup of water. What was that about? I guess they probably had to go to a special sink to go get me some potable water. Oh, and if I asked a question to a Bus driver, I usually got yelled at. Why do people feel like they need to be mean??
False Advertising: We stayed in a "Bed and Breakfast" in York that charged 5 pounds for breakfast. Ummm... I am pretty sure that it is just a "Bed" not a "Bed and Breakfast." I feel like if that happened in America, someone would get sued.
Traditional British Food: Not a fan. Jacket Potatoes (baked potato) and Fish and Chips (Fried Fish and French Fries with salt and vinegar).

Sorry for all my complaints. I had a really good time, but going to another country helped me appreciate some of the really great things in America, and make me realize some areas we might be able to improve. I have decided that traveling abroad is kind of like skiing. I like skiing a lot once I am going down the mountain, but I don't love all of the work (getting all the ski gear on, traveling to the mountains, getting on and off the lift) that it takes to get there. Traveling abroad is like this. I had a great time once we were in London, but I did not love booking the flights/hotels, being in a plane for 8 hours strait, lugging baggage to the hotel, etc. But, like skiing, I am sure I will go back.

England

2011-04-11T15:23:00.025-06:00

Last week I had the opportunity to go to York, England to present my research. My talk at the conference went SO well! I was so happy! There were several professors that said really nice things to me about my research, so it was great. And, there is a professor from the University of Manchester in England who wants to come to Denver and have me help him run some of his samples on the spectrometer we are developing. so cool! Because Vance was in the middle of his internal medicine rotation, I went with my mom, which was great. I had not hung out with her in forever, so it was a great opportunity. We went to London for 4 days sight seeing and then were in York for 4 days at the conference. We saw a lot of wonderful sights including (but not limited to):

The Tower of London:

You know, the place where all of Henry VIII's wives were beheaded and where Richard III murdered his nephews... TONS of history. Oh yeah, and Issac Newton lived here too! (This was my one complaint about the Tower of London. Our tour guide went on and on about how Newton "invented" gravity. Ummm... pretty sure he didn't. He was just the one who gave a name to it. He DID invent a lot of important things, one being CALCULUS.)

Here is me on the bridge over the "Moat" My Mom and me in front of Traitor's gate.

The building in the back is where the Crown Jewels are stored.

Wandering Near our Hotel:

We stayed in a hotel right next to Hyde park, one of our first items of business was to go enjoy Kensington Gardens and go to Harrods. On our way, we found an LDS church!

Me in front of Harrods. Seriously the most beautiful store I have ever been in. The food halls were absolutely stunning. Considering a scarf costs roughly $2,000... all I bought was some yogurt from the Food Halls.

Westminster Abbey and Parliament:

The Abbey is one of the most beautiful buildings I have EVER been in. I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside, but it is probably best considering pictures do NOT do this place justice. I think Kate is a smart woman for choosing to be married here! We also went to mass here (specifically Evensong, a choral service), which was fantastic. The choir was made up of men and young boys... and we had GREAT seats. because we were the first in the "queue" we got to sit right next to the choir! I felt like an honorary guest!! Oh, and my man Newton's grave is inside, which was gorgeous. It was this big marble tomb, with a statue of him and two angels holding scrolls with calculus and physics on them. Loved it.

My Mom in front of Westminster Abbey

It was cool to see the Big Ben. We also saw the London eye, but neither my mom or I had any desire to go on it. Apparently it is the largest "sight-seeing wheel" in the world and cannot be called a Ferris Wheel for technical reasons. I bet the designer was pretty annoyed that it does not have the title of Largest Ferris Wheel in the World.

Big Ben and the London Eye

The British Library:

Seriously one of the best stops in London!! I cannot express how much I loved the collection here. We saw the Magna Carta, bibles that may have taken the course of one’s (or several peoples) lifetime to create. We also saw some of Leonardo DiVinci’s writings on the mechanics of balances, Original scores by Mozart and Handel, Mozart’s marriage certificate, Original copies of Alice in Wonderland, original writings by John Milton, a journal of Jane Austin, original copies of the Canterbury tales, it was amazing!!!

My mom in front of the British Library

The British Museum:

The oldest museum in the world! We saw the Rosetta Stone inside!

The Rosetta Stone

Beautiful Flowers!

We saw many other sites, but I do not want to completely overwhelm this post. But, the flowers were so bright and happy in England. And, did you know that daffodils grow WILD in England!?! Amazing!

Part 2: York

We took the train to York (it took 2 hours), which was so fun because we got to see a lot of beautiful countryside! I loved all the sheep, I felt like I was in a scene of that movie babe... you know the one??

When we got to York, we did a little sight seeing, including the York Minster. The York Minster was built in 1200 A.D. and is the largest cathedral in England! It is stunning, and gives Westminster Abbey a run for its money!!

Looking down the Oose River in York

The York Minster

Side View of the York Minster

Clifford's Tower, I love how the clouds look purple!!

The main event: My talk!

Like I mentioned before, it went better than I could have imagined. I feel like I represented my lab group well! Here is a picture below of me feeling relieved!

In other news: Vance only has 9 work days of his 3rd year left and then he is a 4th year medical student! I cannot believe it. I am so proud of how hard he has worked!

upcoming seminar

2011-03-21T17:45:00.008-06:00

Two weeks from tomorrow I will be here...

giving a talk about this...

I am super nervous, I usually just present posters at conferences, but the organizer of this conference asked me to give a 15 min talk. I am also worried because I currently do not have a voice, so I hope I will get it back in time!! If you are in the neighborhood, you should come watch my talk! :)

Book Review: The Luxe Series

2011-02-15T17:35:00.003-07:00

I am not very good at reading books. I have a hard time sticking to a book once I have started it. I am also not an astute book critic. I read books because I think that they are fun, not to pick them apart (although I may notice some flaws). I usually like to read very easy books because I read scientific literature all day. With that being said, I really enjoyed The Luxe series.
The Luxe series is 4 books total, and I think I read all four books in about 2 weeks, which is really fast for me. These books talk about Manhattan socialites in 1899. It is basically a romance novel, with some mystery added in. I absolutely LOVED reading about all of the clothing an imagining it in my mind. It was really fun for me. The books do have some flaws: the first installment is a little bit predictable, there are a lot of cliched romance situations, etc. However, I thought the author painted a beautiful picture of what was going on, which I really enjoyed. Have you read The Luxe series? Did you like it?
If you have read a fun book/series recently, let me know! I need a new book to read! (Or... I guess I could finish the Harry Potter series. I only made it halfway through book 4. I had a hard time keeping focused during that darn tournament. I am just not interested in sports at all! But now it has been so long since I read the H.P. series that I feel like I need to start all over! ...sigh..)

Ashley's Baby Shower

2011-01-24T16:28:00.006-07:00

I just love my friend Ashley, and I am so happy she is having a baby girl. We had a wonderful shower for her this weekend, here are a few photos, courtesy of Alexandria.

Ashley with the flower arrangement I made her

Ashley, being showered

BFFS: Rachel. Alexandria. Ashley. Me. Mary Lynn

(Doesn't she look amazing for being 36 wks pregnant?!)

New Specs

2011-01-07T17:46:00.005-07:00

I got new glasses that are SUPER nerdy that double as safety glasses, so that is cool too. I don't think people like them as much as I do... I have been getting a few interesting reactions. :) Don't worry, I got normal ones too. There was a buy one get one free special, so I decided to do something different with my free pair.

Also, speaking of nerdy things, my research has been going pretty well lately. I just got another 2nd-authored paper accepted and we are currently going through the reviewers comments of my first first-authored paper in this lab. Which is exciting. Also, I am working on yet another first-authored paper that we should submit soon. Graduate school is SO weird. The first-authored paper that I mentioned that we are about to publish was the result of literally 2 weeks of work. 2 WEEKS! However, the paper I am currently writing now, the research has taken 2.5 YEARS. Graduate school is like this weird mix of luck and hard work that I don't think I will ever get the hang of. Which, I guess I don't have to get the hang of it... I will be done in a couple more years (... hopefully...) and then I get to move on to the next stage of life (scary). My advisor told me that he really enjoyed his 3rd year of graduate school because you can just enjoy the experiments and not really have to worry too much about what is coming next. So, I guess I am trying not to worry too much about the future.

In other news, Vance is on his second-to-last rotation. CRAZY.

This whole grad school business is going a little faster than I expected.

My Nephew Kyler

2010-12-31T20:35:00.004-07:00

I got to babysit my sweet nephew Kyler today while everyone went to the movies. here are a few photos of us bonding. :)

We have been enjoying a wonderful holiday with Vance's family here in Denver. Happy New Year to everyone!

We all wish we were Anne Shirley

2010-12-13T17:10:00.002-07:00

So, my sister dyed her hair red, and I LOVE it! she is so gorgeous!!

Thankful

2010-11-22T05:00:00.002-07:00

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is this week! It has really snuck up on me this year! It has not been very cold in Denver this year, and Vance and I have been so busy with work and school that I have not even started thinking about the holiday season. I am thankful for so many things, but I wanted to share a few. (in no particular order.)
1.) My wonderful husband, Vance. He works super hard and never complains. I need to take notes from him!
2.) My family. I have a great family and great in-laws. My family is so supportive.
3.) The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4.) My wonderful friends. I am so lucky that I have had the opportunity to become friends with so many wonderful people. Another reason why I am grateful for the church... it is like instant friends! :)
5.) The opportunity I have to go to school to pursue a PhD and be paid for it. (I really should never complain about school, and I am sorry that I have complained so much!) :(
6.) My healthy body. I am continually amazed with everything that my body can do, and I am so so grateful for yoga, running outside, hiking, lifting weights, biking, dancing, etc.
7.) FOOD. glorious FOOD. Like what I am going to eat on Thursday. YUM!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hunny Bun

2010-11-18T04:59:00.011-07:00

I am currently obsessed with fashion blogs. I love them! And, I love getting inspiration from them. They help me see how I can take the clothes I already have and turn them into something wonderful. I also love when blogs have little tutorials. One of my favorite blogs is The Daybook. It is a fashion blog written by a BYU-I student, and it is super funny. In this blog, she gave a tutorial on how to do her famous bun. The best part about this hair-do: It only took me ten minutes, and I did it with my hair that had not been washed in a few days! Here is my version. I didn't do mine quite so high on my head.

I thought it turned out great, but it seemed like everyone was staring at the top of my head all day. You know the look... they look at your eyes and then they look at your head and repeat two or three times. It is the same look people give you when you have a leaf stuck in your hair or blueberries in your teeth. My main question is: do you think this look is too fancy for school? Or, as my friend suggested: do you think people are just not used to me dressing up for school and that is where the weird looks come from? If it is the latter, then I just need to start dressing up more often, because I get so much more done when I feel great!

Roommate Reunion!

2010-11-04T04:54:00.003-06:00

One really nice thing about living in Denver is that it seems a lot of my friends from BYU seem to be connected to this city. My old roommate Jill came into town and we were able to get together and catch up, it was great! Jill and I started dating our future husbands right around the same time and got married only a few months apart (she got married first). And lets just say that I have some catching up to do.... she has 3 beautiful children! They are absolutely adorable. It was so fun to meet her kids!

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-02T04:58:00.014-06:00

We had a great weekend full of friends, family, and competition! This weekend started off by me getting to meet Taylor Swift!

Okay, I am kidding. this is actually my friend Mary Lynn dressed up as Taylor Swift, but doesn't she look just like her?!

Grad Games

Grad games is a competition between different graduate departments. The competitions include jumbo hula hoop, wheelbarrow race, text book toss, etc. Because all of the graduate students that signed up for grad games work with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) we called our team "the radicals." (EPR studies paramagnetic molecules, which often includes organic radicals). It ended up being a lot of fun!

Ayisha and Prianka waiting for the 3-legged race to start

Josh showing his strength on the text book toss

The whole group:

Prianka . Mike . Josh . David (my brother) . Me . Ayisha

My dad also came into town this weekend because of work. I really lucky because my dad has to come to denver fairly often because of work and we get to hang out! My dad took us out to eat, we played games, and just hung out. We also got to hang out with my younger brother David, which was great because he is planning on going on a mission soon, so I won't get to see him as much.

Church on Halloween: Vance . Debbie . My Dad . David

We look pretty festive! Also, this is another one of my vintage dresses (bought at the buffalo exchange-mid 1950s)

Vance . Debbie

I will post pictures of our Halloween costumes soon! Hope everyone had a happy halloween!

Mnt Bierstadt

2010-09-20T14:01:00.005-06:00

I climbed my first 14er!! We went with our good friends Nate and Annelisa. It was SO fun! I think that I want to make it my birthday tradition to climb a 14er! There are not many experiences quite like being sung "happy birthday" at 14,000+ feet! Here are a few photos.

Annelisa was so sweet to make me cupcakes and four beautiful pot holders made from vintage fabric.

I unfortunately don't have a picture of Vance. I will have to post some of the video that we took because I know that he was in the video!

Vintage Dress #2

2010-09-13T06:37:00.003-06:00

This one is a goodwill find ($6.99!). I am not exactly sure how old it is, but I found other dresses of the same brand (Elizabeth Byrne) on the Internet that claimed they were from the early sixties and this brand does not seem to be made today. The size of the dress also gives me a clue. This dress is a size 12. The last dress I posted was a size 16. When I got my brown dress, I was talking to the owner of the vintage store, Boss, and she told me that back in the 50's the smallest size was a 12 and then into the 60s the sizes started at smaller numbers. So, the fact that this dress is a smaller size than the brown one but is still not my normal size 8 gives me a clue that it is pretty old. Thanks to Vance for helping me document my vintage dresses!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-09T08:14:00.009-06:00

We had such a good weekend! It started on Saturday we went to a wonderful BBQ with Lydia and Pavil our new russian friends at church. Lydia and Pavil moved here from Russia, and Vance has had a lot of great opportunities improving his russian because he does translating for them at church.

After I got back from the BBQ, I went shopping with my friend Virginia to Boss. Boss is a vintage store on broadway that is so much fun! They have all of the dresses separated by decade. Virginia got me this gem for my birthday! It is a dress from the late 50's. So fun! I now have 3 really great vintage dresses. I love vintage dresses because they are often more flattering than a lot of the current styles and modest too!! I decided recently that I am going to try to be more modest, so I got rid of almost all of my mini skirts (I kept one). This was really hard for me, because I feel like my best feature is my legs, so I love wearing mini skirts.

After Boss, we went to the Goodwill across the street. I am telling you, If you are ever in Denver you MUST go to the goodwill on Broadway and Alameda! It is the best one I have ever been to! They have tons of designer stuff for a few bucks! I got a banana republic shirt and skirt and I got a pair of really expensive jeans for 6 bucks! It was awesome! And I bought my nephew this awesome Star Wars shirt for a dollar.

After shopping, I got to go hang out with Vance and his family. Vance's sister Jenni came into town which was so fun because I got to see my nephew who is ADORABLE!!

Me and Vance (He is so cute in his new glasses!)

On Monday we went to the Taste of Colorado. We were smart this year, we ate before we went and just enjoyed the performances and the exhibits.

Here are some pictures of my cute nephew in the Star Wars shirt I bought him. I bought a 12-18 month shirt thinking that he would grow into it, but it already fits!

Isn't he cute?! And can you believe he is only 7 months old! He is already crawling and almost walking!

Me with the owl and the endangered bird exhibit.

Vance with his nephew. I think that Kyler looks so much like Vance, but it is hard to tell in these pictures. But he has reddish hair!!

a day in the life of research

2010-09-02T09:42:00.012-06:00

I am actually really enjoying my job lately. Things are working lately, and that makes me happy! Except for today. My spectrometer is not cooperating. This makes me sad. So, I thought I would give a description in pictures of my emotions throughout the day.

Come in. Half asleep. Happy to be here.

Something is wrong. The spectrometer is not working!

Oh no! What if it is my fault the spectrometer is not working!? Did I not shut it down properly last night?! What did I do wrong?!?!

Ugh! I hate Science! This is HORRIBLE!

Okay, maybe it is not so bad. But I wish I could figure out what is wrong!

An Idea! I think I know what is wrong!

It worked!!

I am currently in the stage of trying to figure out what is wrong. This is why I took a little break to write a post. I am hoping that our engineer will come help me soon. That is one thing I did not expect about graduate school. The amount of Electrical Engineering that I would do/learn. I am happy about it for sure.

Vance and I are doing well. We went to Mnt Rushmore during Vance's break. It was awesome. I need to blog about it. Vance is in his ER rotation right now, and he starts OBGYN on monday. Busy busy. He has pretty much loved everything that he has done so far with the exception of radiology. He knows he does not want to be a radiologist. He has not done surgery yet, but he is pretty sure he does not want to do that either.

I am also considering dying my hair. I have never dyed my hair before, but I would LOVE to have red hair. I just don't know if I could a. pull it off and b. keep dying it. The biggest reason I have never dyed my hair is the expense of keeping it up. Maybe I will just buy a wig. :)

Happy Thursday!

love.

2010-08-05T01:58:00.008-06:00

It is 2 am. I just got back to my hotel room at the EPR symposium. Everybody likes to go to the bars after the poster sessions, and I usually go so that I am not too much of a party pooper. So, because of the recent news today, we got on a particular subject, and it ended in me crying. Not because anyone was being mean, but mainly because I did not realize how emotional the subject was to me. I was very surprised when I started crying. I don't have particularly strong views of the actual ruling, but the issue in general is an emotional one for me. It is because of this issue that I have lost a close friend. It is because of this issue that I am sometimes afraid to tell people that I went to BYU for my undergrad, and it is because of this issue that I feel misunderstood as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love everyone. This includes people of all ethnicities, religious affiliations, gender, sexual orientation, occupation, the list could go on. I know that love is the most important commandment and that if we just focus on loving others and loving God, everything else will fall into place. I also believe in the importance of keeping the commandments. I know that as we keep the commandments, we are blessed. I know that our prophet receives revelation from God and that we should follow him. But most importantly, I know that Jesus Christ is my savior. And even though I am an imperfect person (very imperfect I might add) if I try my best He will make up the rest.

Jonathan's wedding

2010-07-06T11:48:00.005-06:00

I already posted that my cousin Jonathan got married, but I wanted to add some more pictures from the reception.

the happy couple.

they really are a perfect match!

awkward.

2010-07-01T17:01:00.004-06:00

I am sure, like usual, I am the last one to find out about awkwardfamilyphotos.com, but my coworker emailed me a bunch of them and I was crying I was laughing so hard! The Caption:
This poor kid dressed up as an elderly Smokey the Bear.

Hope you are having a good Thursday, and happy 4th of July this weekend!

Love my Dad!

2010-06-21T11:51:00.004-06:00

Happy Fathers Day, Daddy! I got this little gem of a photo in my inbox the other day. My dad was just honored with Broadcaster of the Year for New Mexico. My dad has done a lot for Public Television in New Mexico, and I am so proud of him! He basically was in charge of the conversion to HDTV for PBS in New Mexico. It was no small task! Apparently, it is pretty rare for an engineer to receive this award, so good job Daddy!

If any of you have met my dad, you know that he is certainly a unique, and fun guy! He is very talkative, he truly has a gift for conversation. He also is a great dad. He is super supportive in all that Vance and I do. He is supportive with all of his children! He tries help my sister network the best that he can to support her acting career... and he sends me chemistry things I might find interesting. He recently mailed me a book on Magnesium, because he thought I might be interested.

My dad also used to take each of us on Daddy Debbie (Or Daddy Julie/John/Nathan/David/Dorothy) dates. He would take us to breakfast and just talk. I really want that to be something that Vance does with our future kids, because I think that it really helped me foster a relationship with my dad!

Hepworth Family Reunion

2010-06-18T12:04:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago we had a family reunion! So good to see Family! Hepworth Grandchildren (missing four grandchildren, 2 spouses and one great grandchild)... but a pretty good turnout!

I will hopefully have time to write more about this later, but I got to go to Utah to go to my cousin's wedding and a family reunion. It was so fun, and the beautiful bride wove her dress (yes, she made her fabric on a loom!) The wedding was great, it was so great to see such a happy and perfect couple.

Wait... WHAT?!

2010-06-04T16:07:00.002-06:00

I have never heard of this happening, but do you remember how I mentioned I got HM on my NSF Grant? Well, I found out this week that a few people declined there NSF grant (due to receiving other grants and they can only pick one) and I was offered a NSF graduate research fellowship!!! I feel so surprised/shocked! This means that the National Science Foundation will now be supporting me through graduate school instead of the University of Denver. Plus, my stipend goes up significantly (yay!) and I get a travel stipend!!! (maybe I will finally be able to go abroad!)

I feel really fortunate/humbled. There are so many deserving people of these grants. Plus, these grants are kind of funny. They have to award so many grants to each state by where the applicant was born. So, if not very many people applied that were born in Colorado this year, I shot strait to the top! But, whatever the reason, I am so grateful that they chose me.

This is also a really huge honor for the University of Denver. This is the first time a graduate student at DU has received an NSF GRF.

It is also really great for BYU. There was recently an article posted about how BYU alumni received there most NSF GRF in one year than ever before (16), but now that I squeaked in, the total is up to 17!

Hilarious, but true

2010-06-01T07:47:00.005-06:00

My friend Ruth posted this... I hope she does not mind me stealing it. I just thought everyone should see it! :)

Now, I love my Disney princesses as much as the next person... but they really are not that great of role models! My favorite Disney princess was/is Ariel, and when I was a kid my mom HATED The Little Mermaid because it taught us to be disobedient. My mom told me that in the original story, Ariel died in the end due to her poor choices. Apparently, The Little Mermaid was supposed to teach children the horrible consequences of disobeying their parents. When my mom told me that Ariel was supposed to die, I cried!

Anyway, I don't think that when I was a kid I picked up on all of these things. I just liked singing the songs!

good food.

2010-05-24T12:58:00.012-06:00

Ever since my sister Julie had her gal bladder removed she has become a vegan/pescatarian (a vegan who eats fish... is there a name for that?) Julie has been telling me all about the benefits of being a vegan for a long time... but I was certainly not interested in giving up meat/cheese forever! But, in the last couple of years I have been eating more in a vegetarian type way. I figure if I can just eat meats more sparingly I will be feeling pretty good about myself. I have certainly come a long way, and eat much less meat now. (Vance is much more motivated about this than I am. He loves eating in a more earth friendly way!) So, I wanted to share a list of some of my new favorite foods.

Um... this stuff is DELICIOUS! just make sure that you get the original and not the vanilla. the vanilla is too sweet and I don't like it.

These burritos are the best! I love taking them for lunch! Definite plusses: All of the meat in these burritos are from farms which humanely raise there animals! Also, the burritos are based in boulder so they are local too!

I love these SO much ( i also love boca burgers... but I think that these are even better!)

Okay, so these are not healthy at all, but who knew that frozen tofu could taste SO good!

Larabars are also based in the denver area! I love these SO much because they are basically a bar made up of mashed dates and flavored deliciously! Below is the chocolate mint! yum! Plus, each bar is two servings of fruit! I had a roommate in college who's mom made this really good date candy, and this reminds me of it!

Edamame. Yum.

And of course all the fruits and veggies!

And, I have learned that Whole Foods actually sells a lot of these things CHEAPER* than what they are at King Soopers or Safeway (Except for the veggies, I get all of those from Sunflower). Who knew Whole Foods would be the cheaper option? weird. Plus, whole foods often has really great coupons for a lot of my favorite foods which makes it even cheaper!

* I guess to clarify, some of these items are the same price at whole foods and king soopers, but they go on sale much more frequently at whole foods/sunflower market.

Discrimination in Academia

2010-05-20T08:15:00.004-06:00

My husband's school did a campus wide survey (at the University of Colorado Health Science Center) asking students to state if they had heard any discriminatory comments and what group they were directed towards. Can you guess what group received the most negative comments?

Religious people/Christians (over half of the responses)

Surprised? I'm not.

The second question on the survey asked: "Why did you not report these comments?" Can you guess what the number one answer was?

Because the comment came from a superior. (I also was not surprised at this response).

I am so glad that University of Colorado did this survey because I think that negative comments towards religion are made all the time in academia.... especially in science. And I think that it is really wonderful that more people are becoming aware of this problem. I have witnessed it a lot in my experience at DU. I think that often times when these comments are made, the professor does not realize how hurtful they can be. So, awareness is a good thing. I just hope that DU will do a survey of this kind, because I am sure that they would get similar results.

I already did a post on religion in science so you can read more about my thoughts there.

family pictures

2010-05-18T07:50:00.007-06:00

Back in November, we took some (mitchell) family pictures that we just got back a couple days ago. It was a little hard to smile because it was freezing outside.. but I think they turned out pretty cute.

My very first Etsy purchase

2010-05-17T08:48:00.004-06:00

I have been wanting to buy something off of Etsy for months, and I finally did! I got this cute headband from this shop, and I could not be more excited! It was really fun and I feel great that I was able to support an artist! yay!

In other news, Vance is in his psychiatry rotation right now and he is really liking it. He is working with kids at a hospital in down town denver. He is seeing some pretty interesting/scary stuff. I am just glad that some people actually want to be a doctor. I could never do it. As for me, I am still plugging away at my research and just bought a laptop so that I can start working on my thesis. It is still a long way off for me to be done, but I think that I want to start writing my introduction to get going.

Trip to LA

2010-04-28T07:24:00.022-06:00

A couple weeks ago Vance and I went to West Hollywood, CA to visit my wonderful sister, Julie! We had a wonderful time. It was so good to catch up with Julie. Here is (a lot) of photos from our trip...

The first day that we were there Julie was filming a short film so we went and explored the LA area while she was filming.

Julie and Me

Vance and I excited to go explore LA in our very first rental car. Our first stop was the Crystal Cathedral (where they film the hour of power). It was really beautiful the inside reminds me a lot of the conference center.

Next Stop: Driving down the PCH to Laguna Beach! I have to say that Laguna Beach was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been (right up there with the Maroon Bells in Aspen!) The sad part is that pictures do not really do this place justice, but it was so beautiful! Vance and I just spent the day hanging out on the beach and eating fish tacos. It was such a peaceful wonderful day!

Vance and Me at Laguna Beach

I love this next photo of Vance. I just love the sailboat in the background!

. . . . . . . . . .

DISNEYLAND!

The next day, we went to disneyland! It was my first time going!!! (I know, crazy!) First of all, I want to say how much I loved disneyland. It was more magical than I had EVER imagined!! I have been to a lot of amusement parks (6 flags, etc) and I don't really like those amusement parks. The 6 flags type amusement parks are all about the thrill... and that is not really that fun for me and sometimes makes me sick. However, Disneyland is about the beauty, magic, art, and the aesthetics. Each ride is so intricate. Every ride has a story. There were SO many times where I was on a ride where I thought 'I wonder how the DO that!?' After much thought I think that my very favorite ride was the Haunted Mansion. I loved this ride so much because it was probably the most "magical." All throughout this ride I kept thinking how amazing it was! I loved when the ghosts were dancing and when a ghost sat in the seat with you. I loved it! I also loved Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates was also a very intricate ride... and I loved how long it was! And of corse, Indiana Jones. This ride really lived up to all of its hype!!! It was SO fun! I am so glad that I went on it twice because the first time I did not notice the HUGE boulder!

Honorable mention goes to: Splash Mountain, Thunder mountain railroad, Star Tours, Captain EO (with Michael Jackson), Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, and Tarazan. My overall favorite area of the park was Tomorrowland. I just cannot say how much I loved Disneyland. It was just so wonderful. I cannot believe that the tickets are only $72.00. For all of the free shows and how intricate the rides were I am surprised the tickets are not $200.00. So, overall I was VERY impressed!

Space Mountain

Autotopia

Ready to drive!!

Finding Nemo (I LOVED this ride... another one that was magical!)

Tarzan Treehouse (One of Vance's favorite)

Waiting in line for Peter Pan

Thundermountain Railroad

Indiana Jones

Tiki Room

Snow White

The only part of Disneyland that I was disappointed about was that I did not get to meet Arial. Arial is my all-time favorite Disney princess. I have seen the little mermaid a million times and I think that my love for red hair originates with Arial. :) Arial is no longer in Disneyland, they moved her to California Adventureland. :( I was so sad. Princess Aurora is my second favorite disney princess, but she was not at the park either that day. And, when I went to the gift shop to buy something Arial I could not find ANYTHING. The person that was helping me in the shop informed me that Arial was not a popular Disney princess. Are they kidding?! This cannot be true! And I know that it isn't because I heard at least two girls that day ask there daddy when they were going to meet Arial.

But, I did have a magical time!! And, if any of you are planning to go April is a WONDERFUL time. Vance and I did not have to even stand in any lines until about 11 am. Also, the longest line we stood in was about 30 min (Peter Pan). Most of the rides were 15 min or much less! It was great!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hanging out with Julie!

So the last 2.5 days we spent hanging out with my sister. I only wish I had taken some more pictures, we had a wonderful time. We went to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was pretty fun. I could not believe how close it was to Julie's house! Like a 5 min drive! The Jay Leno show was pretty great. Great band, Kevin Eubanks was so funny, and the preformance by Sade was SO good. The lead singer of Sade has so much poise! I loved it. The weak link of the show was definitely Jay Leno. I did not really think that he was that funny.

Julie and Me right before we left to The Tonight Show. Below is a picture of the towel I won for being one of the most enthusiastic audience members.

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Final Day-Hinking Runyon Canyon, Shopping, and Filming our first movie!!

Runyon Canyon was so fun. It was this beautiful hike right in the heart of Hollywood. I loved it! And it was such a good work out (probably the same intensity as hiking the Y)

After hiking we went Shopping at the Beverly Center where we went to H&M, For the Love XXI (The forever 21 accessory store!!! It was Magical), Heritage 1981 (owned by Forever XXI but is more country style), and Crossroads (Where I got a pair of Rock and Republic jeans for 30 bucks!) It was a great shopping trip. I LOVE hanging out with my sister. It was so good to catch up!!!

The last night of our trip (from midnight until 7 am) Vance and I had our filming debut! My sister was filming another short film that had a wedding scene. The director needed a couple as featured extras in the wedding scene. Julie informed the director that here sister and brother-in-law were in town, so the director said to bring us along! It was cool because I feel like I really got the LA experience because I got to see how a film was made and be a part of it! I have to say that being an actor is not all that fun. You have to do the same scene over and over again... and there is A LOT of waiting. Waiting for lighting, waiting for your scene, etc. I am sure that in the really big productions there is probably less waiting. Anyway, it was a really neat experience. And, because we had had no sleep, we slept like babies on the plane the next day! It was one of the best trips ever!

Oh, and today is Vance and my 3 year anniversary! I love you, Vance!

Eventful Day

2010-04-06T18:35:00.002-06:00

I just finished my Prop Oral. I was SO nervous... especially for the meeting after with my committee... but I passed (Yay!) My advisor also bought me an ice cream cake, so that was nice! I am on my way to get a PhD!

In other news, I found out today that I got Honorable Mention for my NSF GRFP proposal! I was surprised, and I felt... well.. honored! My scoring sheets were very complimentary. I got two "excellent"s and one "very good." My only complaint is I wish that I would have gotten some constructive criticism to know what I did wrong, but everything they said was so nice! I was very happy with honorable mention, but I think that my boss was a little disappointed. Oh well! :)

Next Stop... Disneyland! Yay!

Science and Religion

2010-03-31T07:58:00.007-06:00

Sometimes I miss BYU so much! When I think back on BYU, I have really good feelings. I loved BYU. I loved my roommates, I loved my friends, I loved the professors I worked for, and I loved classes.

Anyway, the reason why I am why I am writing this post is because I needed to take a break from studying and I have a few things on my mind. The biggest thing I miss about BYU is that in science, God was often part of the discussion. The mindset of most of my chemistry professors at BYU was that the more they studied chemistry, the stronger testimony they gained of our Heavenly Father. I feel the same way. The more I learn about the world around me, the more amazing it becomes to me, and the more convinced I am of a Heavenly Father who was the supreme creator.

If you think of something as simple as sugar chemistry, this can be illustrated. Your body can digest sugar polymers that are connected through alpha linkages such as in starch. However, your body cannot digest cellulose which are sugar polymers connected through beta linkages.

This is starch (well it is actually amylopectin) your body can digest this source of energy because your stomach has the proper enzymes to break the bonds (alpha linkages) holding the individual sugar molecules together.

This is cellulose. Your body does not have the proper enzymes in your stomach to digest the bonds bonds that hold the sugar molecules together (beta linkages) in cellulose. Cellulose is often the cause for unwanted gas. When you eat cellulose, the bacteria in your stomach feed on this source of energy because your body cannot. The bacteria give off smelly sulfur containing gases which can be a little embarrassing sometimes.

These two sugar polymers are almost identical except for the way the individual sugar molecules are linked together. Because of this small difference, we can digest one form, but not the other. Isn't that amazing?! Now, maybe you don't think so, but this is just one tiny example of how specific molecules must be in the body. Drugs are another example. In order for a drug to properly interact with a receptor in the body it must be VERY specific. These ideas fascinate me. The body is truly amazing. Truly. I believe that this would not have been possible without a loving Father in Heaven who is a supreme creator. I believe that Science and religion must coexist because I feel that science strengthens my testimony of God.

What about the fact that Science cannot prove God? Well, science really does not prove ANYTHING to be true. The professor that I worked for at BYU (Dr. Sevy) pointed this out to me, and I heard it again from Elder Richard G. Scott. Science can only prove when something is false; it can never prove something to be true. We can do many experiments that lead us to create theories and conclusions... but we could do an experiment tomorrow that could prove a theory false. Science cannot prove things to be true. However, through the Holy Ghost we can know things to be true. I have a testimony of this. Through the Holy Ghost I have come to the knowledge that Jesus is my Savior and redeemer and that I am truly a daughter of my Heavenly Father.

Since leaving BYU, I am still heavily immersed in chemistry, now that I am in graduate school. I really love University of Denver. I love that it is a small school and I love all of the people I have gotten to work with. They really are wonderful. There is just one thing missing. I miss being able to talk to people about Heavenly Father related to the science that I am studying.

I have been thinking about this for a long time. It came to my thoughts again last night when I was tutoring. The girl I was tutoring recently found out that I am LDS, and was a little shocked. She was surprised that I was a scientist who loves God. She informed me that she just finished writing a paper for some class about how science and religion cannot coexist. I politely told her that I did not believe this to be true and we were just going to have to agree to disagree.

I think that it is unfortunate that sometimes I feel a little bit looked down on because I am religious. I feel like people around me believe that it is not "cool" or "intelligent" to believe in God. I just want to say that I not only think that it is cool to believe in God, but I think it is intelligent and open-minded!

Sorry for yet another chemistry post. This has just been on my mind.

my pretty sister

2010-03-10T13:07:00.004-07:00

This is my sisters most recent headshot. Isn't she pretty?! Look for her in Iron Man 2 this summer! I get to visit her in just a few weeks!!

prop oral update

2010-03-08T16:22:00.001-07:00

I passed my preliminary meeting with my committee!!!! They all really liked my research proposal. They gave me ways to improve my idea, but overall it went well!! I am so excited! Just last week I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown because I felt that I was not creative when it came to science. I think that creativity is not something that comes naturally to most people, I think that it is a learned behaviour... and I think that I am learning how to be creative! I am so excited. Now I just need to learn A LOT about my topic so that I can be prepared to defend my proposal in April.

prop oral

2010-03-04T13:40:00.002-07:00

So, i have not posted in a while. mainly because all I can think about right now is my prop oral. This is a (very hard) requirement at DU in the PhD program. I have to come up with an original research project that is not related to my thesis project. I don't actually have to do the research, the point of the project is to work on your ability to think of and design a novel experiment. I am finding that I have a long ways to go in developing my creativity. One of my main difficulties is even finding a topic that I am interested in that I know enough about to propose a research idea. For example, I am very interested in transition metals in the body, but I have to be careful not to go too far into the biochemistry side of any problem because of my lack of knowledge in biology and biochemistry. The other frustration is that apparently to some of my committee members it is not simply enough to do something new, but it should be an original/novel idea. well, I just don't know if my project is going to be all that novel.

I have a committee meeting on Monday where I discuss my ideas for my prop oral. It is funny it is like a meeting for me to propose and idea that I will later present as a proposal. weird. I am super nervous and I am sure that I will feel much better once monday is over.

Sorry for the chemistry post. Oh, and about the new blog thing, this blog will be our blog. I am glad that I played with wordpress, I think that I may create a blog devoted to chemistry using word press. I have an idea to create a blog where I give tips on how to succeed in chemistry (it will probably just contain some of my observations from years of TAing and tutoring and taking chemistry classes). I don't know if anyone will even read it, but I see students making the same mistakes over and over and I wonder if I could help prevent some of these problems.

I will give a real update later, but for now, this is all that I can think about.

Oh, and I became an aunt earlier this month, that is pretty cool!

2010!

2010-01-05T08:49:00.002-07:00

Doesn't that sound so futuristic?? I think so! I just wanted to follow up with my new years resolutions from last year and write down some new ones for this year, because I read that you are much more likely to complete your resolution if you write them down!

Last years...Okay, these are not the most concrete resolutions, but I think that I did pretty well.

1.)Get my 5-a-day every day with a variety of fruits and vegetables. I worked really hard to get my 5-a-day, and perhaps I was not perfect but I am eating more veggies and fruits than EVER... I think the best thing I discovered this year was the big container of prewashed baby spinach at Costco. I was never a huge fan of lettuce... but I love big spinach salads with tomatoes, grapes, avocado, cucumbers, carrots, craisens, and feta cheese. Mmmm... I eat this almost every other day! (well the veggies/fruits change depending on what is in season).

2.)Work harder at school and work. I can always work harder at work.... this one I think I did not do a very good job on... but I did pass my qualifying exam (Which means I am officially in the PhD program) and I passed my first two cumulative exams... So I am on my way to getting a degree!

3.)Serve my husband more. Again, not too concrete, and I definitely could do a better job!

4.)Be kinder to everyone around me (especially family). I will keep working on this one!

5.)Make a better effort to contact friends from college and high school. Now this is the one that I am most proud of. Since I have lived in Denver, I have been much more able to see friends from high school... which has been great! Also since in Denver I have seen three of my wonderful college roommates, and just in the last week I got to see two of my best non-roomie friends from college! I still need to be better at calling people, but I feel confidant that I can continue these friendships for a lifetime! yay!

So, I am going to write down some 2010 resolutions... so I can follow up on myself next year.

2010:

1.) Read the Book of Mormon every day for 10 minutes

2.) Run a 10K

3.) See my sister Julie (have not seen her in almost 3 years!)

4.) Go to the temple once a month

Okay, hopefully I can stick to these! The only one I am really worried about is the 10K. I have been trying to train for one for a while, but for one thing, I am not a very good runner, and for another I got shin splints that prevented me from doing much for a while. But, I think that I got the shins under control, so hopefully 2010 will be my year to run that 10K!

Fiddlers Green

2009-12-04T12:59:00.004-07:00

One of Vance and my first dates was at a Rascal Flatt's concert at Fiddlers Green in Englewood. July 2006
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Over three years later Vance took me to a Brad Paisley concert at the same venue, it was fun to reminisce

September 2009

I don't really think that we look much different!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-04T12:16:00.010-07:00

Today I got to help my friend (another chem grad student at DU) who was having hand surgery by driving her two and from the hospital and staying with her for a few hours after the surgery. The big perk is that I didn't have to go to work today, I am just hanging out at her apartment and updating my blog and facebook!
We had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend. we went to Vance's aunt and uncle's home in Kansas. It was great because a lot of Vance's extended family also made the trip out. There were about 30 people there! We had such a wonderful time!
We came home after thanksgiving dinner and that night I went with some friends to the outlet malls in Castle Rock, which was CRAZY!!. THe outlet malls are only about 15 minutes from our house and it took 2.5 hours to get there!!! We did find some good deals though. I bought a bunch of baby stuff for my sister-in-law and a present for Vance. The next morning we went to the mall, and I will tell you that the mall is the place to be on black friday!! It was not crowded at all and there were great deals!! All in all black friday was a success, I was able to get all of my christmas shopping for my family done!!

On Saturday Suze and I threw Jenni a baby shower, which was a lot of fun! But, I have to admit that I am a little jealous that it isn't us who are having the first grand child and the first great grand child. Here are a few pictures from the shower.Playing who can drink out of the bottle the fastest.

The spread: we decided to go super simple we just made taco soup, punch and a cake. I think that it turned out so nice.

On Sunday we had an early Christmas. Both Vance and Jenni will not be home this Christmas so Suze had us open some of our presents early. Suze and Kirk give us pajamas every year, so we opened those. I got the cutest pajamas ever!

The girls in our new pajamas
So, that is what we have been up to lately... But tomorrow I am going downhill skiing for the first time in my life! I know, pathetic since I am from NM, went to school in Provo and am now in Denver and finally going. I am super nervous... Vance told me it is like ice skating and I am not very good at iceskating... but then again I have been going to Yoga for almost two years, so my balance is a lot better now then the last time I ice skated. Hopefully I will post on that soon. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!!!

No One Mourns The Wicked

2009-11-11T17:06:00.003-07:00

Vance and I went to see Wicked last Thursday, and I have to say that I LOVED it! I was a little nervous considering it has been the most praised musical from my friends, so I was a little worried I would be disappointed. However, it was better than I ever could have imagined! I loved the songs, I loved the story, I loved all of the references to the original Wizard of Oz! I probably should admit that my everyone in my family is a die hard Wizard of Oz fan. We watched that movie together many many times when I was young and I read the book by L. Frank Baum at a fairly young age. My maiden name is Gale, so I even share the same last name as Dorothy. Also, my dad loved the story so much that he convinced my mom to name my youngest sister Dorothy! So my sister is named Dorothy Gale, just like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz. Which is kind of a funny story because a few months after my sister was born in Nebraska, a tornado hit our house and our neighbors house taking part of our roof and our garage. Our neighbors also had a dog named Todo. Weird coincidence huh?! Anyway, I feel that my long love for the original Wizard of Oz contributes to my new found love for this wonderful musical!

I also thought that the musical was very thought provoking. Some of the questions that I thought of while watching the musical:
1.) Does no one really mourn the wicked?
2.)Does even the most wicked person in the world have someone who loves them unconditionally and would mourn them?
3.) Are we born wicked, or is wickedness a learned behaviour?
4.)Would I stand up for what I believed in if it would make me perceived as wicked?
5.)Why do the wicked sometimes prosper and the good suffer? Or do both suffer equally but it feels unequal because one is wicked and the other is good?
6.) Or, are the only people who are not mourned the forgotten rather than the wicked?

I am still thinking about these questions a whole week after I saw the musical. Probably because I still have the song "No one mourns the wicked" stuck in my head, which poses some of these very questions in the song. All in all it was a wonderful performance! I loved Glinda/Galinda she was probably my favorite character in the musical.

I hope that I have the opportunity to see the musical again someday!

September and October

2009-11-03T09:40:00.008-07:00

Wow, I guess it has been a while since I last posted! September and October were a lot of fun. I had a birthday party in September, it was really fun to see all of our friends in Denver. In September we also had the Stake Fair, which is always really fun but this year it was SUPER rainy! Can you notice the difference between the two pictures below?
Me. Ashley. Alexandria. Rachel

Rachel looks so good in this picture, she is 7 months pregnant in this picture!

At the beginning of october my Mom and Dad came and visited us for a weekend because my dad had a business trip. It was really fun to have them stay with us for a few days. We went to the art museum and took them on the lightrail. The same day I helped throw a baby shower for a woman in our ward, it was so much fun!

The next weekend Ashley, Alexandria, and I threw a baby shower for our good friend Rachel. (I am also her visiting teacher, but I am not a very good one, so it was nice to do something nice for her because she is always serving everyone else!)

At Rachel's baby shower

Then this passed week my Dad came and visited me again! Only this time it was REALLY snowy. We had a blizzard that hit last wednesday, the day my dad flew in. Luckily it worked out pretty well that his business meetings were downtown and he could light rail to and from the convention center. He stayed with us while he was here which was really fun. While my dad was here he bought me an early christmas present, a snuggie! It is actually a fun little thing to have. Vance thinks it is rediculous.

My Dad in Front of the Train coming
My dad forgot to bring a winter hat, so you will notice in the above picture he is wearing mine! :) The nice thing about Denver is that even though we get blizzards now and again, it is almost always so sunny! The snow from the blizzard is pretty much already melted, which is nice!

Last weekend was also Halloween. Vance and I went as Star Trek characters. Vance found the badges in a cereal box a few months ago so he saved them.

Halloween was a lot of fun! We went to a few parties, it was great celebrate this fun holiday with our friends. Happy Halloween everyone!

Rockies Game and Cake Pops

2009-09-11T07:44:00.008-06:00

On Wednesday my friend Josh Black invited me, Vance and Paul (another grad student) to go to the Rockies vs. Reds Game. It was so fun! Josh is a big Reds fan because he is from Indiana which was kind of interesting. Some people that we were sitting by (see guy in the white shirt in the background) were a little upset that Josh was cheering on the opposite team. I was getting a little nervous for Josh when the Reds took the lead. It was such an exciting game! The Rockies barely won in the last inning! Which, I think was a good thing for Josh. I think if the Reds had won, those angry Rockies fans may not have left him alone! (sorry for the blurry pictures, I took them on my phone!)

Me . Josh . Paul . angry fan in background

Vance and me

...........

Yesterday was one of my VT girls bdays so last night I tried to make the famous cake pop, I thought it was going to be so easy... but it wasn't. I made a HUGE mess! The end product looked like it was supposed to, but not worth the effort (in my opinion). Really the only problem I had was when I went to dip the cake pop they would fall apart. However, Vance loved them so much he wants me to make them again and again. We'll see. I think I really prefer a good cupcake and they are WAY less time consuming, taste better (not as rich), and have fewer calories. Really, I cannot see a pro for the cake pop. However, I do think they are a fun and cute idea.

The cake pop

My cake pops (I tried to make a heart shaped one, that is the funny shaped one on the left).

Everything else is going well around here. School has started again, which doesn't really change my schedule, but I did need to decide what field of chemistry I am going to get my degree in, and I chose inorganic chemistry (which may turn into bioinorganic). I am pretty excited about it! It is funny because when I started school I don't think that I expected to take this route!

Vance is also working hard at school and studying for his board exams which he takes in April. It is kind of exciting that in April he will be officially done with classes. I feel like we are almost adults! :)

shabby apple dresses

2009-09-05T09:54:00.009-06:00

Am I the only one who has never seen these dresses before? Super cute and super modest! I have never ordered a dress online before, but I think I just might. Here are my favorites:

So cute, right? This website also has a quiz you can take that tell you your body type and the dresses that are most flattering on your body type. I got an Apple body type, which I think is pretty accurate.

The only problem is that all of my favorite dresses did not fall under the Apple suggestions. Hmm... what to do!? Well, I have not convinced Vance yet of buying me one of these dresses but luckily my birthday is just around the corner! :)

Denver Health Care Town Hall

2009-09-03T12:33:00.002-06:00

I had the opportunity to go to a Health Care debate hosted by my representative today. I was a little disappointed because in two hours only 13 questions were answered and my question was the 14th! :( Here was the question I was going to ask:

How is congress making an effort to increase the number of doctors in America, especially primary care doctors?

I was upset that this issue was never brought up during the whole meeting. I was also upset with how much time was spent on each question. On one question congresswoman Degette spent over 5 minutes giving us a civics lesson on how the legislative/judicial/executive branches work. This really bugged me because I even know how those work and the only civics I have had was in high school. I probably wouldn't have been so annoyed by this if I got to ask my question.

The anger in that meeting was really incredible/scary. This one lady called me an idiot because I clapped for what I thought was a good point. I didn't really like that. I mostly tried to keep my emotions blank after that.

One thing that I did gain was a better respect for my congresswoman. I agreed with some of her ideas and disagreed with others, but I do genuinely feel that she is at least TRYING to do what she thinks is right. We agreed on two major issues: Health Care for all American citizens and no more people getting denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions. I also was impressed that she knew the bill quite well. There were several times when people asked questions regarding specific sections and subsections in the bill and she was able to answer them pretty easily. But one moment was especially funny when she said, "I know, the bill is really confusing." Hmmm.... I think so too!

It was definitely an experience! Yay for America where we have a wonderful Republic! :) (Is that the right term? I know America is not a pure Democracy, but then again the only civics I have had was in high school). It is exciting to see so many people passionate about there ideas. I hope that compromise can come from this health care debate and that America will be better for it!

Summer's over; Fall Begins

2009-08-27T09:15:00.010-06:00

I am a little sad that summer has come and gone so quickly. This past summer was Vance's last real summer break for the rest of his career! Well, it was not exactly a summer break. All summer long Vance was working on a research project with Down Syndrome, but he definitely had more free time. What I really miss is that every day Vance would work at my school so we got to spend a lot more time together when I was not working!

I am doing research full-time now. At first, this was a really big struggle for me. I really struggled with the loneliness of preparing samples and running a spectrometer all day with very little social interaction with others. Another aspect of research I have been struggling with is the feeling like I am not making progress. It is really difficult to repeat the same experiment every day for a few weeks. And, when you finally do make progress it seems anti-climatic. However, I must say that it has gotten easier, and I have become much more optimistic about the situation. Here are a few things that have made my time much more enjoyable:

1. Headphones- now I can listen to music while I am working up all of that data!

2. NSF Grant- I decided to apply for an NSF grant in November. And while I am sure that I will not receive the grant, working on the application has given me a lot of perspective into the importance of my research and that has given me confidence and increased interest in what I am doing.

3. Talking to people- taking a few minutes to go and chat with grad students in other labs has made all the difference.

4. Harry Potter- Often I do read ACS journals while I am waiting for samples to run, but Harry Potter is nice too! I finished the first 3 books and I love them!

5. Perspective- I am so blessed to be able to continue my education and get paid for it! A lot of people don't have this opportunity, so I am really grateful that I do! Also, at the beginning of this summer I was struggling with the thought that I had made the wrong decision to go to graduate school because I honestly felt like I was good at learning and teaching chemistry but not good at DOING chemistry. But, as always I am so grateful that I am married to the smartest man in the world. Vance simply said, "Isn't that why you are going to school? If you were already good at it you would not need to go to school would you?" So true. In the Visiting teaching message this month Robert D. Hales said that one of the attributes necessary to learning is courage. I just went visiting teaching last night and I really felt like the discussion was an answer to prayer. I am grateful for an awesome VT companion, Ashley! The Gospel of Jesus Christ only continues to bless my life!

Anyway, I think that my Debbie downer phase is finally passing and I am so grateful! I am not a sad person, I am a happy person!

Ashli and Andrew's wedding

2009-08-20T16:34:00.010-06:00

On August 1st, one of my very best friends got married. Ashli and I have been friends since my first day of high school. It was so fun to be able to be in her wedding! I was really honored that Ashli asked me to be her Matron of Honor! (Maybe that is why it is named that!) The wedding was absolutely beautiful and the reception was so much fun! In fact, the only problem with the entire day was the fact that I had about a gallon of hairspray in my hair! (Ashli was kind enough to pay for all of us to get out hair and makeup done... which was super nice except for the fact that I had a hair dresser that teased my hair up to the sky. I think he was a little offended when I asked him to take the hair down a few inches... and when I told him I went to BYU...oh well). Here are a few pictures courtesy of my wonderful Daddy!

Me as the Matron of Honor and my super supportive husband. P.S. I am glad I finally learned how to hold a bouquet AFTER I got married. Seriously in all of my wedding pictures it looks like I am using it as a microphone.

Ashli and my Mom... so cute I love this picture!

Me signing as one of the witnesses

The newly Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Garner!

Ashli walking down the isle. (She looked beautiful!)

So that was so much fun to go to the wedding. I don't have any pictures of the reception but they had it at Gardunos on the green. It was SO good and fun. Ashli's brother did an awesome job DJing. The only nervracking part was that I got to give a speech about Ashli. I think that it went okay, but I was super nervous! Congratulations Ashli and Andrew!

Blog overwhelmed

2009-08-03T08:58:00.002-06:00

So, I feel a bit overwhelmed at how behind I am on posting. I still need to post about:

1. Ashli's bridal shower
2. Blanding 4th of July Trip
3.Camping at Winterpark/Mountain Biking
4. Week in Aspen for chemistry conference
5. Teresa's wedding
6. Ashli's wedding

I'm not sure when this is going to happen! :[

Happy Birthday Vance!

2009-07-11T10:24:00.009-06:00

Vance just had his birthday! We had fun celebrating, but I did not take any pictures. :( Vance is my absolute best friend in the whole world! I am so thankful for such a wonderful husband! We have so much fun together. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of a Vance.

Just after a few months dating/talking

The Y
Halloween

Vance kissing with his eyes open

Engagement photo

Graduation

Vance in Med school

Anyway, Happy Birthday best friend! I love you!

Chicago!!

2009-06-25T09:39:00.028-06:00

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to reunite with my wonderful roommates Mollie and Jenae. We had originally hoped for a Riviera 92 reunion, but sweet lisa and jill could not come. It was a fun filled adventure. Jenae lives right in the heart of chicago, so it was so fun to really experience the city.

Day 1: we got to go shopping at all of my favorite stores (H&M and crate and barrel)

Me and Mollie in front of the 4 story Crate and Barrel. Isn't it beautiful!?!

After hours of shopping we decided to take a break and get a Chicago Hot Dog... Yum!

Really good, but not as good as J-Dawgs

Next, we decided to take a break for a while and relax. As we were heading to the art museum that evening, we noticed a premier at the AMC theater. It happened to be the Public Enemies premier with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale! We did not get that good of a glimpse of Christian Bale, but we saw Johnny Depp from just a few feet away! So fun!

Then we went to the Art Institute of Chicago... which thanks to Target, it was Free! I love free things! The Art museum had a lot of really neat paintings including American Gothic many Monet paintings and so much more! I felt educated. Me in front of a Jackson Pollock

Day 2: On Day 2 the weather was not as nice as we were hoping for. It was raining really hard and we decided that we would go and see a movie. We went and saw UP! in 3D. I absolutely loved UP! I could not believe how much I cried. I cried so much that there was mascara all over my face after the movie. :)

Mollie and me in our 3D glasses

Next we ate lunch at Potbelly. It was possibly the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. I think that it was the best food I ate the entire time I was in Chicago.

Next we went shopping some more and bought some of Garrett's popcorn (so good!) and then we got a pedicure... which was probably one of the highlights of Chicago... it was so nice to get a foot rub after all of that walking. That evening we went to the Art institute of Chicago again (because we did not have enough time to see everything the first time) . Finally we went and got some Chicago style pizza (deep dish).

It was pretty good, but it was a little much for me (a little bit too much cheese). We also took a Taxi home, which I think is my very first taxi ride. It was not as expensive as I was expecting!

Day 3: The last day was probably my favorite. It was pretty much a fun filled day. First we went to Navy Pier where we rode the Ferris Wheel

Picture I took while I was on the Ferris wheel

Next we took the trolley back to to Michigan avenue and then took a water taxi to the sears tower

The Sears Tower

Jenae and me on the water taxi

Next we ate Lunch on the 95th floor of the Hancock building. It was so fun because we had an excellent view of the city while we were eating! Our view for lunch

Finally we went to the beach to relax for a little bit followed by a wonderful concert in Grant Park Me and Mollie with the city in the background
The Bean at Grant Park

Day 4: I got to go to Church with Jenae and then I took the "El" back to midway. It was such a fun trip. I am so happy that we got to have a little reunion. I hope that we can do this every year and get the other ladies to come along!

Chicago!

2009-06-22T09:04:00.002-06:00

BFFs: Debbie. Mollie. Jenae

I just got back from Chicago last night. I will post more pictures soon, but here is a cute one of Mollie, Jenae, and me!

Washington Park and an Update

2009-05-30T11:55:00.004-06:00

My new favorite place! I started running around Washington park recently. It is so great! It is about 2.5 miles and absolutely beautiful! I have recently had more of a desire to run, so this has been a great place for me to go. I absolutely HATE running on the treadmill, something about your distance and time staring you in the face doesn't really appeal to me. But, Wash park is beautiful there is a large pond and tons of beautiful homes that you run by and dream about one day living in (that is until I found out that many of the homes that surround Wash park are in the 1 million range).
On a separate note, I will never have to go to a class again! I went to class for the last time on Friday and now it is just tests/writing/research for three years. I never thought that I would be so ready to be done with classes! Next week is finals, and then the following week are my qualifying exams (yikes!). The qualifying exams are kind of a big deal because if I don't pass I cannot enter the PhD program... I can only do the M.S.
Vance is also doing really well. Next week is his last week of classes. This summer he is going to do a research project on Down Syndrome. Vance's brother has down syndrome, so it is really close to his heart.
Vance and I are also going on several trips this summer. I am going to Chicago in a couple of weeks to hang out with roommates from college (YAY!!) Then I am flying down to Alb. in both June and August to throw my wonderful friend Ashli a bridal shower and attend her wedding! It will be a fun summer, we are really looking forward to it!

Grizzly Rose

2009-05-14T08:46:00.003-06:00

For any of you who live in Denver and enjoy country dancing, you have to go to the Grizzly Rose! Vance and I went last night and had SO much fun! The best part is that on Wednesdays the cover charge is free and they have a free dance lesson. Last night we learned East Cost Swing (which we pretty much knew all of the moves already, but it was fun). They played some DJ music and then had a live band! It was really great! For those of you who don't know, Vance is a REALLY good dancer. He made it to the semi-finals in the country polka at BYU's dance sport. I was happy to discover that neither one of us has forgotten too much even though it has been almost a year since the last time we went dancing. I cannot wait to go again!

Sometimes we can all be so silly

2009-05-12T08:29:00.003-06:00

Yesterday when I was teaching chemistry, a bunch of my students started talking about the mascot who was banned recently (I guess within the last year) named Boone. University of Denver is the pioneers, and they used to have this cute little guy as the mascot

Apparently, Boone got banned because he was not "inclusive." Basically Boone was not politically correct and did not represent University of Denver's diversity. I think that this is all a little silly. I graduated from BYU and I don't think that a cougar represents me as a student, or as a human for that matter. :) You know, I think that I am going to protest the Denver nugget mascot... I am much more intelligent than a pile of gold!

Crafty things I have done recently

2009-05-07T08:53:00.009-06:00

It is kind of funny. I always thought that I was terrible at art, design, and all things that related to it. This changed when I took floral design at BYU. I realized that I could LEARN how to be better at these things! I was able to put flowers together to make pretty arrangements and loved it! Well, recently I have picked up a little sewing. My relief society had a couple of lessons on how to make a rag quilt, and I made one! It was so exciting. I finished it about 2 months ago, but have not posted about it sooner because I made it for one of my very best friends from college, Mollie, and I did want to post about it until I sent it to her. Here are some pictures of my journey with my first rag quilt.

First I cut all of the squares out, and laid them out

Then I sewed all of the squares together

Then I cut little slits all around the edges and washed it

Final Product!!!

I have learned that I can sew! I cannot wait to tackle a harder project!
Also, I wanted to post some pictures from some floral designs I have made recently

I made a few Valentines presents for some of my friends here. This is one of them

This is an arrangement of flowers that I did just for fun, flash on cameras really don't do flowers justice sometimes

Anyway, I hope that I can do more fun things like this soon. And I have learned that operating a sewing machine is easier than a spectrometer! :)

Being a woman sometime pays off!

2009-05-06T17:13:00.002-06:00

I just got an award for being an outstanding minority graduate student!!! Yay for there being a lack of women in science.

2 year Anniversary

2009-04-29T19:38:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was our 2 yr anniversary! I just feel so grateful to be married to Vance. He really is my best friend and we have so much fun together! This is sort of a random picture that I really like from our wedding. Vance needed some help getting something out of his teeth for the picture. I am so good at taking care of him! :)

Brief but wonderful Trip to New Mexico

2009-04-27T07:34:00.012-06:00

My Grandpa Gale currently lives in Georgia and he was staying with my family for a couple of weeks, so Vance and I decided to go down for the weekend to visit him. I have not seen him in 4 years and Vance had never even met him! So, I think it was pretty wonderful that we were able to take this trip! The only sad part was that we were so busy, we did not have time to see any of our good friends in Abq. However, we came on a great weekend! It just happened that this weekend was my little brother David's prom, Dorothy's art show, and Dorothy gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday! How fun! Here are some pictures from the trip.

Dorothy. Grandpa. Vance. Me

Dorothy won 4th place in her student division! She was the youngest artist by about 5 yrs!

Dorothy actually did not even like this painting!

That evening was David's prom

David Gale. April Chavez

I snuck into one of the pictures! We had such a good time, I am so happy we visited my Grandpa and got to see all the fun things going on!

Cutting Coupons

2009-04-20T07:39:00.007-06:00

Vance and I recently started getting the Denver Post on the weekends. It is so great because every Sunday Edition comes w/ a huge pack of coupons! Also, some of the grocery stores around here will double your coupons up to 50 cents! (King Soopers does all the time, but other grocery stores will have specials when they will) So, on Saturday I took my coupons and went shopping and I saved over $18 with coupons! My total went from $50.00 to $32.00!!! This is so great because the Denver Post only costs about $30.00 for a WHOLE year of Saturday and Sunday newspapers. I just wish we had started getting the paper sooner! Another great place that I get coupons is off http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/ . This website is great because it always has coupons for healthy foods like yogurt and frozen veggies. Anyway, I just had to tell everyone I know! Most of us are in similar situations where every penny counts! Hope you are all having a good week!

Wonderful Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T14:28:00.010-06:00

I love this picture of Christ, we have it in our living room.

Yay for Easter! I had such a good weekend! It started on Thursday, my good friend from High School Ben Park and his lovely wife Catherine were in town in we went out to eat for Lunch. It was so good to catch up and to reminisce a little bit. My junior year of high school Theresa, Ben and I were basically joined at the hip, so it was fun to see him. That same day I got a free root beer float for filling out an alcohol survey and then talking to a counselor at DU. Unfortunately, when I marked "Never" for the Question "How often do you drink alcohol?" the counselor did not believe me. But, they gave me a float anyway! :)

On Friday we got together with some good friends (Nate, Annelisa, and Des) to watch Doubt. It was a movie that got nominated for a lot of academy awards. It was an okay movie, I don't know if I am actually recommending it, but It was a thought provoking movie. The best part of the night was the good food and good company.

On Saturday I had fun shopping for an Easter dress in the morning. I got this awesome dress from Loehman's for a great price. It may just be my new favorite store! Saturday evening Vance and I ate dinner at South Broadway Grill. It was SO good. Don't let the outside of the restaurant fool you. It looks kind of ghetto from the outside, but believe me it was wonderful! Next we went to an Easter Vigil at St. John's Cathedral. It is an Anglican Church in downtown Denver. One of my very good friends here Megan Griffiths was getting baptised, so I went to support her. The Easter Vigil was absolutely beautiful. It was so wonderful to be reminded of the creation, Jesus's ministry, and the resurrection. It was so wonderful to go to another church and see how similar we really are! It strengthened my testimony of the atonement and all that our church teaches! I am so happy that I went and I hope that I may get to go again one year. And, I was so happy for Megan!

St. John's Cathedral in Downtown Denver.

On Sunday we went to Church, which I loved. I went to the Gospel Principle's class taught by my good friend Rob and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" it was a wonderful way to allow me to keep thinking about Christ, and all that He did for us, throughout Easter! For lunch my fellow V-Hall 5th floor roomies Jasmine and Ruth, along with Jasmine's husband Dan, came by to visit our apartment. It was SO fun! Jasmine and I took calculus together our freshman year, and we used to have little study sessions. Ruth has always been the party planner, always planning get-togethers and reunions which I have really appreciated because I am not very good at it! Here are some pictures from the get together. These photos are courtesy of Ruth... Thanks Ruth!

Ruth. Debbie. Jasmine

We are sitting on our big red couch. We got this couch for free because someone that was moving did not want it. It is a fun couch, but it is really big. I always feel like a little girl when I sit on it!

Jasmine and Dan playing our piano

The Girls!

Sunday night we spent time with Vance's family. It was just a fun weekend. I am glad I got to spend time with some old friends and some new ones. And, this Easter I have gained a stronger desire to follow my saviour Jesus Christ. Happy Late Easter everyone!

I love teaching Elements!

2009-04-02T12:33:00.008-06:00

Monday was my first lecture /lab for the Chemistry of the Elements Lab. This is basically an inorganic chemistry lab for college sophomores/juniors. The above picture is the compound that we are going to synthesize in lab next week, Al(acac)3.

. . . . .

Last quarter I taught the chemistry for non science majors class, NATS. NATS was fun, but I really struggled with the students. Most of them were disrespectful, did not prepare for lab, text messaged and talked throughout all of my lectures, and cheated (A LOT). Just to give an example, last quarter at the first class I introduced myself, and told the students about my background in teaching and research. I told the students how I had TAed 6 chemistry classes at BYU and one physics class and that I had worked in a research lab for over 3 years which included a few publications. This one student raised his hand and said, "If you are so great at chemistry, why are you at DU? This is a school that is known for Law, Business, and International Relations, NOT chemistry." It was really depressing, this one student single handily devalued me to the entire class. After that one comment I lost complete ability to have any sort of classroom management because the students did not respect me. I was beginning to become really disillusioned with teaching.

. . . .

However, this quarter has been SO much better! I had my first lecture on Monday on naming inorganic compounds and all of the students were attentive, respectful, and were prepared for class! It was SO wonderful! It is so nice to teach people who actually are interested in the subject (Most everyone in this class are chemistry, biology or some other science major). I have regained faith in my ability to teach! Thank goodness. I really would not want to get a PhD for nothing! :)

Happy Spring

2009-03-25T07:49:00.010-06:00

Happy Spring! Well, it does not really feel like spring here. We had such a warm winter, and now we are getting cold days. I guess I cannot complain! :) I love spring though because it reminds me of when Vance and I got married. (only 1 month away from our 2-yr anniversary!)

So last week was Spring Break (sort of) Vance had the whole week off, so he got to play all week, but since I am a PhD student, I got to work in the lab during spring break. It is okay though, because I think that Vance works a lot harder than me, he needed a break more. Vance went and played golf, hung out with his family, went to Dave and Busters, etc. I got a cavity filled, worked in the lab, and got to watch Mona Lisa Smile (which is a very good movie by the way) with my friend Alexandria. It was especially fun to watch this movie because it is all about Wellesley College. One of the professors that I work for, Dr. Sandra Eaton, graduated from Wellesley in 1962, married a Harvard grad and then went to graduate school for her PhD at MIT. If anyone has seen this movie they will understand why it is pretty amazing that she went on to graduate school. But the movie was good because it showed lots of different perspectives. I especially liked the scene where Julia Stiles character explains why she wants to be a mother and a housewife, and how it does not make her any less of a person. The movie showed that different paths are right for different people. But this made me feel good because although I am getting a graduate degree, well I don't really intend on ever using it that much in the professional world. I am hoping that one day I will become a mother and a housewife who does some chemistry on the side!

So, a few new things have happened recently. Vance got called as the pianist in the elders quorum, so we thought this would be the perfect excuse to buy a piano! Apparently the recession is a great time to buy things! We got a beautiful piano that was built in the 1980s that is in great condition for $500! And that included the move and the tune! I should have taken a picture of it, but here is a picture I got off line of almost the exact model. It matches our furniture too!

So, we have been having a lot of fun playing on the piano. We have not gotten any complaints from our neighbors yet, so hopefully we are not being too loud! I am just so happy that Vance has a way to keep up his excellent piano playing talent!

Also, I cut bangs. That sounds like a strange statement because I have always had bangs (even when I was 5) But I got fuller bangs, and I really like them. Here is a picture, but I took it on my phone, so it is a little fuzzy.

The important part is that Vance really likes my bangs. This is a triumph for me because he is still mourning the loss of my 12 inches of hair last April.

In other news, I am teaching Chemistry of the Elements this quarter at DU (It is basically an Inorganic Lab class). When I was an undergrad it was my very favorite lab, so I am really excited. We are even doing a lot of the same experiments that we did when I took the class, so that is nice!

Well, I hope that all of you are enjoying your spring, for those of you at BYU with no spring break, I don't think it is all that great. I think I prefer the longer summer to having a spring break! We don't get done with school until mid-June!

Feeling Grateful

2009-03-11T11:54:00.002-06:00

I went to my biannual cardiologist check-up today. I feel so grateful because I am, according to my cardiologist, the healthiest patient with my condition that she has met! Things are looking up for the possibility of one day starting a family! :)

Red Dinner

2009-02-09T13:20:00.007-07:00

Vance and I got together with our good friends here in Denver to celebrate Valentines Day. It was really fun. Rachel cooked an amazing lasagna and we just had a great time. here are some pictures from the evening.

Rachel. Ashley. Debbie. Alexandria

The husbands- Josh. Ryan. Rob. Vance.

YOGA! After we were completely stuffed, we decided to do some yoga to work off the calories.

Rachel-Warrior 2, Ashley-Chair Pose, Alexandria-High Lunge, Debbie-Tree Pose.

It was so fun. I, by the way, absolutely LOVE yoga. I have been going to this class at DU on Mondays and Wednesdays. I am not very good (as you can tell from the picture) but I have so much fun when I go. I think that my new calling in life is to become a yoga instructor!

Anyway, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentines day! Make sure that you show others around you that you love them! I love all of you!
.

Oh and scroll down to see that I FINALLY posted some pictures from christmas!

Recent pictures

2009-02-09T12:49:00.018-07:00

I keep meaning to post pictures from our Christmas holiday/January, but I always forget to download the pictures off my camera, so here are a few!

Looking back on these Snowy pictures is kind of funny because it has been in the 60s and 70s for almost all of January and Feb! It has been Beautiful!

The day after Thanksgiving, Vance and I ventured into the snow to build a snowman by our apartment.

Isn't our BYU snowman cute?!

Wouldn't this be the perfect Engagement Photo!? (When Vance and I saw this picture it reminded us of engagement photos where one in the couple looks great, and the other is almost cut out).

Me next to the snowman, it is almost as tall as me!

JENNI'S BRIDAL SHOWER

About a month before her wedding, Suze (Vance's mom) and I threw Jenni a Bridal Shower. I did all of the food, and I thought that it turned out really nice.

The Beautiful Bride

Raspberry Cupcakes (mmm... they were good)

The whole Spread

Jenni's Bachelorette Party

Jenni and me in the Limo

It got pretty wild!

Christmas

All of the Mitchell Kids

Debbie. Vance. Jonathon. Jenni. Stacey. Jensen

Vance got me syphilis (the stuffed microbe) for Christmas and he thought that it was hilarious. He kept asking me to tell other people what he got me for Christmas so that I would say, "Vance gave me syphilis for Christmas." I gave the stuffed animal the nickname Phillis because it is too cute to be such a terrible disease!

Health Action Conference: Universal Health Care and Prioritization

2009-01-20T13:00:00.006-07:00

This is probably a post that should appear on Vance's blog, but I have been thinking about some of these ideas a lot.

So, on Saturday Vance and I went to this Health Action Conference at the medical school. Basically, all the speakers (including former Colorado Governor Richard Lamb)talked about ways that we can get involved in improving our health care system. Richard Lamb spoke a lot about a concept that intrigued me called "Prioritization." Prioritization is a concept that Gov. Lamb believes is necessary for universal health care. He believes that it is the comprimise between conservatives and librals for the health care crisis. Basically, it means that we have to give priority to some patients and not others. This is because if we gave health care to every person for every single reason, America would go bankrupt under a universal health care plan. So, we have to have some sort of system that gives priority to some patients.

One example he gave was that if you are over the age of 65, you would be denied major surgery because you already lived a full life. Or, if you are a smoker, you would be denied medical care unless you stopped smoking. Things like that. Gov. Lamb explained that prioritization is necessary for our nation to be able to afford universal health care. Apparently, this type of system is already in place in England and partially in Oregon. (In England, they deny a lot of procedures to people who are morbidly obese because the likelihood of them returning for more medical care is very high).

The idea makes sense to me, but I guess I just don't understand how it is put in practice. It would seem very hard to deny a 65 year old man, who has a 15 year old child, heart surgery because he is too old. Or are some 65 year old lives more worth saving than others? Like the 65 year old doctor vs. the 65 year old homeless person?

The logic of prioritization makes sense to me: don't spend 80% of the budget on 5% of the population. But, how does it work in reality? I honestly do not know what the answer is. I do not have any idea what is the best solution for the current health care crisis. I guess I am just grateful that I do not have to be the one to make these decisions.

Anyway, sorry to go all political on you, but these are just some things that I have been thinking about, and wanted to share.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T08:05:00.004-07:00

Today I am starting school back up again! I love new beginnings and the opportunity to improve! I feel a little overwhelmed with all that I need to post. I had a very eventful break, but it was fun! I want to share some of my new years resolutions.

1.)Get my 5-a-day every day with a variety of fruits and vegatables
2.)Work harder at school and work
3.)Serve my husband more
4.)Be kinder to everyone around me (especially family)
5.)Make a better effort to contact friends from college and high school

There are many more things that I want to improve about myself this new year, but there is no way I can list them all.

This quarter I am taking a computational chemistry class, analytical chemistry and biochem 2. I am pretty nervous about biochem 2 because I have seriously never seen any of the material before. But, I guess that is why you go to school, to learn new material!

Vance is starting his class "Blood and Lymph" I am not exactly sure what that consists of, but it sounds cool. Vance has been shadowing a lot of pediatric surgeons lately, which he has enjoyed. It was so exciting because one of the pediatric heart surgeons that he shadowed was the very same man that preformed MY heart surgery 22 years ago! For those of you who don't know, I was born in Denver, CO and had open heart surgery at the childrens hospital here in denver. I did not get to meet him, but I wrote him a thank you letter and gave him a picture of Vance and me. I felt a little sheepish... I mean what do you say to the man who saved your life?! I debated about giving him a present, but nothing seemed grand enough to repay what he had done for me. So, I figured my gratitude was the best I could give. It really is such a small world.

I hope that 2009 will be a wonderful year for everyone!

Movie Review: Twilight

2008-11-22T10:42:00.006-07:00

I saw it last night with some good friends, and I have to say that I liked it! I did not think it was as cheesy as the few segments friends had pointed out to me in the book. And, I stayed awake through the whole movie!

Probably the best part of the movie was all of the teenage girls who screamed every time edward came on the screen, when edward and bella kissed, and anytime any romantic thing happened... there was screaming. I think 8 dollars was worth just seeing all these crazed girls. It was really fun and funny. Alexandria and I just laughed the whole time at these girls!

ANTM!!!

2008-11-20T15:46:00.006-07:00

And the Winner is...

Mckey!

Okay, maybe I am incredibly childish because I still follow America's Next Top Model, but I was happy because this is the first season ever that the person who was my favorite won! I do think, however, that this cycle the contestents were weaker than usual. The final catwalk was almost unbearable to watch. But, I do think that Mckey is absolutely beautiful, she can atleast take good photos.

For the finale, we got together the girls that I visit teach along with my companion to have a non-traditional visiting teaching party. Plus, it was a little celebration for me finishing all of my finals! Yay! One quarter down... a lot longer to go!

Tomorrow, I am going to go see Twilight with my friends here! I have not read the book, but I am going to read the synopsis on wikipedia before I go. I think it will be fun!

Happy (Late) Halloween

2008-11-04T14:22:00.003-07:00

I forgot to take pictures for most of Halloween, but my coworker Valavan took some pictures at the annual Chemistry department Halloween party. The party was really fun. We carved pumpkins and just hung out. I really like it here at DU, everybody is really nice.
It is probably hard to see, but Vance and I are in the back, and on the far left is the professor who I work for, Dr. Eaton.

Here is Vance and me in our costumes. I look terrible in this picture, but it was the only one I had. I was mustard, and he was ketchup. I know, lame right? But, we did not want to buy a costume, and I did not have very much time to make something really creative. We had a lot of fun though. If you look closely, the pumpkin is supposed to resemble Harry Potter in honor of some of Vance's favorite books.

After the Chemistry party we went to two other Halloween parties with friends we had a lot of fun. The only sad (but kind of funny) part of the night was that Vance made several children cry at one of the Halloween parties that he went to. He borrowed a really scary mask, and scared a few kids. He even made a 10 yr old boy cry... that was kind of funny. Anyway, I hope that everyone had a happy Halloween!

Tagged!

2008-10-30T09:07:00.006-06:00

Ben Park Tagged me! I have to tell 7 weird things about myself.

1. I was born in a car on Colorado Blvd. in Denver.

2. I had heart surgery at the age of just 4 days old. (I have not had a problem since! I am so blessed to be alive!)

3. I went to a Catholic elementary school, and was in detention at least once a week. I also was never allowed to go to P.E. class in elementary school because of my heart. You probably never realized all the important skills that you learn in Elementary P.E. When I took Aerobic dance for the first time in college I did not even know how to do the grapevine. You learn that in elementary school P.E.!

4. In high school I was a choir nerd and a golfer! For Choir I went to All-State two years in a row. For golf I once took second place in a high school tournament with my all-time best score of a 92 (I have not golfed in over four years... :(...)

5. I have lived in 5 states: Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico (my favorite!), Utah, and now back to Colorado.

6. I absolutely LOVE to lift weights, I started over six years ago, and now I am hooked! I truly do think that everyone has that exercise that they absolutely love, and mine is lifting weights. And, it really is a myth that it makes people bulky! I am thinner now than before I started lifting weights.

7. I have never had a roommate that I did not get a long with and who I did not absolutely love! I feel like everyone has those crazy roommate stories, but I guess I got really lucky. Jean, Mollie, Jenae, Jill, Sarah, Lisa, Krista, Sonia, Jill R., Danielle, Vance... Not only are they the most wonderful people in the world, but every single one of them has been an example to me and has helped me strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ. And, I hope to keep in touch with all of them (well, Vance really should not be too hard!)

I tag: Alexandria, Julie, Cara and Rachel Hreinson. All four I have become friends with recently, and all four I would LOVE to get to know better! :)

Aliza's Wedding/New Mexico Trip

2008-10-14T18:05:00.005-06:00

So, I know it has been a really long time since I last posted... but life is busy! On September 20th we went down to NM to go to my good friend Aliza's wedding. She is a good friend of mine from high school. It was so fun to see her get married! The other great part was that I got to see a lot of good friends from high school that I have not seen in a while. It was great to see Theresa. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Here is Aliza and Her husband Nick (This picture really does not do her or her husband justice, but it is the best one I had.)

Old Friends! Vance, Me, Theresa, Nate (Theresa's Husband)

The trip was great. It was fun to see my family and take a break from graduate school! I will try to post more regularly in the future!

Teaching Chemistry for Non-Science Majors

2008-09-11T08:51:00.006-06:00

So, I got my assignment as a graduate student instructor. I am teaching "NATS" which is short for natural sciences or something along those lines. NATS is a class where business, art, and any other non-science majors learn about chemistry and physics. It is a required part of the GE here at DU.

I will be teaching them with about a half-hour lecture twice a week, followed by a two-hour lab. (They attend a more formal large lecture taught bay a professor, my lecture is to teach them about what they are specifically doing in the lab.) I was pretty surprised by the responsibilities, as I am completely responsible for the students grades. I am teaching two sections of about thirty students.

The challenge is to get the students excited about science. These students will almost all be freshman, who may not see the utility of a scientific background for their career goals. My goal is to show these students that no matter what career you choose, you need to understand the vocabulary of science. Businessmen often interface with engineers, chemists and physicists. Florists need to understand acidity to properly care for their flowers. Artists use chemistry to conserve paintings and to restore works of art. Archaeologists can use spectroscopy and other analytical techniques to determine if an artifact is in fact real. (I just went to a lecture on the Shroud of Turin, and how scientists are analyzing this artifact. It was fascinating.) And the list goes on.

I just hope that I can help these students understand why a broad based knowledge is such a wonderful thing. I am so grateful that I took child development, economics, history, and floral design in college. Those classes gave me the ability to relate and converse with others who may not be as perpetually immersed in science as I am.

Yay for learning!

Vance's Blog on the Denver Post

2008-08-25T08:25:00.004-06:00

So, Vance is writing for the denver post now. We are not sure how many people are actually going to read it, but it will at least be a good record for him! The website is ... for some reason I can't get the link button to work, so there is a link on the right hand side of the page. Enjoy!

The White Coat Ceremony

2008-08-15T15:03:00.010-06:00

Yesterday, Vance had his white coat ceremony. That is basically a ceremony for him to be inducted into medical school. All of the medical students walk across a stage, a professor puts a white coat on them, and then another professor puts a stethoscope around their neck. It was really neat. I was so proud of Vance!

Vance receiving the white coat.

Future Dr. Mitchell

Future Dr. and Mrs. Vance Mitchell (or Dr. and Dr. Vance Mitchell?? :) )

I love this picture. This is Vance's Dad, Vance, and Vance's brother Jonathan. Jonathan was so proud of Vance. He kept saying... Vance is my doctor. This picture really shows his character.

Us at dinner after the ceremony.

Also, I wanted to mention that Vance is going to start a medical school blog for the Denver Post! Vance's dad is one of the top reporters at the Denver Post, and Vance is going to write a semi-weekly blurb in a blog on their website called the Med-school Memo. I think that it will be really fun. Also, a good journal type for Vance. I will post a link when it is all set up. Everything is going well. Tomorrow the Simpsons (Roger and Lisa) are coming to Denver! I am so excited to see them. Lisa was one of the best roommates that anyone could ever ask for. (But I only had wonderful roommates... I was so lucky!)

An Answer to Prayer

2008-07-29T10:52:00.003-06:00

Today Vance found out that he just got accepted to medical school at the University of Colorado for the 2008 matriculation! His top choice! Although he feels bad for quitting Teach for America... this is his dream! He worked so hard! It is crazy because he starts medical school in less than two weeks on the 11th of august!

Denver

2008-07-17T12:19:00.006-06:00

This is the University of Denver

This is the Chemistry building. I think that the rounded front is similar to the fishbowl in the Benson building.

So I am now working at the University of Denver in a research lab. This lab focuses on Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR). We ultimately want to use EPR as an imaging technique for tumors. It is exciting. This picture is of an EPR spectrometer. The round hamburger looking component is the magnet. (This technique works based on the Zeeman effect).

Anyway, that is what is going on for now. I will post pictures soon of our new condo!

The Narrows: Zion's National Park

2008-06-30T11:49:00.005-06:00

These Photos are Laura and Dan Nielsen's. I hiked the Narrows with Laura, Dan, Chris and Hilary Verhaaren, and Sam and Stephanie Tartakoff. It was so much fun! I am glad that they let me tag along!

There were many obstacles to get through the narrows

It was gorgeous

yay! A waterfall!

Photos of the last couple months

2008-06-26T16:49:00.003-06:00

At our family reunion in Bountiful, UT

This is Vance and me at my convocation!

Our First Entry!

2008-06-26T14:25:00.002-06:00

So, now that we have been married for over a year I have been feeling like we need to start a blog. As much as I love facebook, I have to say that I finally feel that I am growing out of it!

Currently, Vance is in Houston, TX doing his Teach for America training. Teach for America is a program that is attempting to close the achievement gap between public schools in poor areas and public schools in rich areas. Currently, Vance is teaching 8th grade science for summer school in Houston. It is really hard, but he is enjoying it!

We are also getting ready to move! We are moving to Denver, CO in about 2 1/2 weeks! (crazy) So, vance comes home from Houston on the 12th of July and we are driving away on the 15th. It will be busy.

I will be starting graduate school at the University of Denver starting at the end of august, so that is exciting. I am still not sure whether I am going to get a Ph.D. or a Masters. We will just have to see how everything works out.