The Faces of Tyler

Today is Tyler's birthday. To celebrate him, I want to show you some reasons why I love Tyler, and many of you do too. And simultaneously I'll be sharing why saying, "I'm glad he was born" is the understatement of my life.

He is fun. He likes to do fun things, smile, laugh and have fun!

He's working hard to be a great dentist and a provider for our family.

He loves nature and knows how to explore it.

He does things like volunteer to be a camp counselor for troubled youth.

He likes to be goofy too!

He puts up the tent when we go camping, regularly cleans our bathrooms, cooks a lot so I don't have to, and drives the majority of the time on road trips. I frequently get to sleep or nap while any and all of these things take place.

He's courageous and a little crazy.

He loves to attend to temple (and looks so handsome in a suit!)

He likes to try new foods and even tries to make an excited face any time I ask him to!

He loves kids and has lots of fun with them.

He loves our country, believes in it's ability to be and do good, votes, and is going to serve in the Navy for at least 4 years.

He likes musicals. (And even sings along to sound tracks in the car with me.)

He makes this face at special little moments that make him happy, but tries not to grin from ear to ear. And he willingly babysits.

He thinks he's really cool.
(Notice: Tube still at shore. He's posing hard core.)

He learns how to do, fix and, build new things.

He vigorously eats everything I put in front of him.

His face of pure joy is absolutely contagious and makes me happy deep down in places I didn't know I had until he came along.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

You're the BEST!

Harvest Time

Garden

We harvested the rest of our vegetable garden a couple days ago. Look at all these carrots!! We harvested twice before this with just as many too. We only planted one pack of seeds!



We even grew some lovers. :)




We also had a decent return on our cilantro seeds. Pumpkins and squash completely failed, another thing we planted never sprouted anything - don't even remember what it was, and the cucumber plants gave us one cucumber about the size of my fist. Granted, it was a very good cucumber.

Next year? Planting carrots. (Okay, I also want to try tomatoes.)

Composting

We started our very own compost pile! A few weeks ago Tyler & I went to a lecture and class on composting at Phipps Conservatory for our Friday night date. It was actually a very interesting lecture about how farming has changed over the past few centuries and how different farming techniques effect the soil.

I feel very resourceful (A) not sending so many leaves and table-scraps in plastic bags to the landfill and (B) getting free fertilizer out of it!!

The class price included a composting bin which is now happily sitting in our backyard. It looks like a 3-foot Darth Vador helmet. Way cool. Picture coming.

Fall Leaves

Despite growing up in the greenest state of the union, I have never seen fall leaves like this. (Until last fall of course.) We enjoyed them thoroughly last year, and were determined to get some delicious fall-leave pictures this year.

So one Sunday morning before church we dressed up in our best and when photo hunting. Unfortunately we didn't get any good ones that day, but we did find a great look-out park of the city!

Since then I've been carrying my camera on my person like a tabloid photographer in LA. I've found a few stunning trees.







What I really want, however, are some shots of entire hillsides covered in colorful leaves. I see them everywhere I go, but every time I try to take picture there are buildings, signs, and wires in the way. It just doesn't come close to showing how beautiful it is to live here in the fall. Advice happily accepted here.

Happy Autumn!

Columbus, OH

This past weekend we spent a little time in Columbus - and it was fabulous. Why Columbus? Two reasons: a party and the temple, both of which were facilitated by a lovely sleepover.

The Temple. Is there any place in the whole wide world more peaceful than the temple?? I don't think so. I love it there. It's my hideaway, my escape, my refuge. I love going there and feeling so close to God.

Of course I always love being there with my love too. I think we were able to make a significant decision through the experience, which is certainly a plus.



We also got to attend the temple with some of our old friends which was a special treat. They are wonderful people and it was so good to spend some time with them.




The Party. So it turns out that EIGHT people I used to work with in Provo are now living in Columbus. Amazing, huh? We decided it was high time to get together, so we did.

All the women in this picture, and 3 of the men served German-speaking missions and we all taught together in the MTC post-missions. Tyler, as you know, is one of the non-German speakers, and it turned out that the other one is in dental school too! Of course all the guys talked about was sports anyways. :)

True to tradition and culture, we had some bratwurst as the main course of our delicious meal. Next we talked, talked, talked. So fun.



The Sleepover. We were lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of one of the couples. They stayed up late for our arrival on Friday night, and still let us talk their ears off until some early hour of the morning.

The next day they fed us breakfast and lunch and took us to the ADORABLE German village in Columbus. We went to a bakery and bought pastries (YUM!!!), some bread and vanilla sauce (LOVE IT). The native German store-owner thought our host and hostess were native Germans as well (IE they speak amazing German). I'm so sad we didn't take a picture of that place! Next time.

They also took us to a crazy German-town book shop. Very fun. I don't have a picture of all of us, but here's one of their totally cute dimpled son.



Seriously? So cute. We got to read a bunch of car books together. My favorite thing he said is: "No, thank you." I never heard him say "No" alone - he's a very polite 2-year-old. So cute!


A great weekend. Thanks to everyone for getting together! And especially thanks to B & M for letting us stay with them!

My Parents Came to Town

My parents came and stayed with us for a week. Here's an idea of the things we did when we weren't at home enjoying Mom's good cooking or a competitive game of cards.

Aren't they cute?
This was at our Conference Brunch with all of our dental second-year friends (well, most of them). Unfortunately ALL my other pictures of that event are so pathetically blurry, that I'm too embarrassed to even post them. We had some great food and a lot of fun though! Thanks for coming everybody!



Kirtland. My mom's first visit here was as a teenager - a lot has been restored since then. This was a great day.

Phipps. Our first time!

This stem/trunk was amazingly large.

Pamela's. My mom and I shared the Morning After Special with the Strawberry hotcakes substituted in, and a side of Home Fries. Pretty much my mom's new favorite meal in the entire world. I knew it would be.

The Duckie Tour. This really was fun. Jackie and Tyler both got to drive the boat/bus/duck-thing! We learned random facts like Pittsburgh had the first US movie theater, the prison tucked between Liberty Bridge and 376 cost some ridiculous amount of money to build, like in the billions [who uses waterfront property for prisons?], and the Burgh has 427 bridges.

Ohiopyle. All the cute shops were closed (I guess for the season), so we just saw the falls.

Primanti Brothers. Another first for us. Interesting. An experience. Good even. Not going to become regulars though.

Falling Water. A very interesting tour and extremely beautiful surroundings.

The Duquense Incline. Of course from the top it's an incredible view. Actually riding the incline probably isn't worth the $4 round trip. I suppose you have to do it once.

All in all we had a great time!! I'm so glad they came and put up with our bomb-shelter basement bathroom. Thanks Mom & Dad. We love you!!

It was fake.

This was our 'fireplace.'

It simulated fire when electricity flowed into three things:

1. A white light bulb.
2. An orange light bulb - both behind coal-like molded plastic.
3. A small spinning device that had pom-pom plastic strings attached to it, which hit the 'coal' when turning, thus creating the 'crackling' noise. [Please visualize - you will laugh.]

Ingenious in many ways. Utterly pointless in the rest.

Tyler's been planning to tear it out since the day we closed. One lovely Monday, it happened.

The stones were glued to the wood paneling. We'll be removing that section of the 'wood' and putting in an entertainment center. TV is going downstairs!!



It took him about 4 hours to get it all down, and another few to get all the debris to the dump. He did a lot of sweating and accomplishing it made him (and me) very happy.

One Year & A Day

As of yesterday, I have been employed by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Simulation and Modeling for one entire calendar year. Not very long at all, but maybe worth a post.

Things I've Learned:

• Employers who require a Bachelor's Degree for administrative positions are crazy.
• I really enjoy blogging.
• How use Adobe InDesign, Contribute, and a little Dreamweaver.
• I never want to be a college professor, at least at a place that requires lots of grant-writing.
• How to edit websites (see SAM) and almost how to write/create a simple website (not uploaded yet).
• How to sit at a desk 37.5 hours/week. (We have 7.5 hour work days.)
  
• Pitt really does give their staff AWESOME health insurance.
• I really did love teaching school and I miss it terribly.
• How to use a WIKI.
  
• Pride seriously impairs progress.
• How to navigate Pitt's bureaucracy (kind of).
• Having an almost completely flexible schedule is something for which to be extremely grateful.
  

The Co-Workers:

This is my team a year ago. Each has a PhD in science or engineering (except me of course). From the left:

1. Kim - my favorite, Chinese born, but American citizen, married, two kids - whole family is bilingual in Eng. & Chin.
   
2. Karl - psuedo-boss, LDS so we have a common language, nice, way too busy
   
3. Ken - real boss, he's the guy from whom the absent-minded professor sterotype was created
   
4. me - should I cut my bangs again??
   
5. Richard - also married with 2 kids, 5 cats, Scottish, awesome accent, very nice, quite sleep-deprived, second favorite

Since then we've added 3 people to our team, but haven't taken a new picture.

1. Senthil - Indian, actually hard to understand because his accent is so thick, only non-married, cordial
   
2. Levent - Turkish, very smart, struggle with liking him
   
3. Akila - finally another girl, Indian, very nice, chatty

Conversation of the Day:

Akila: Nicole, you look different today.
Me: Oh, I'm not wearing any make-up. Haha!
Akila: I like it!!
Me: Really?
Akila: Yea, your eyes look smaller.

?????????????

I didn't know what to say. Truly. I think she meant it as a compliment.


What I Appreciate Most About Science/Engineering World:

It brings together people of every culture, language, religion, nationality, background, color, etc. These don't matter to a scientist/engineer. Sure they may talk about various ethnic foods over lunch, but when they're working, it really doesn't matter. Similarly, scientists/engineers are hailed for their skills and accomplishments in their field of study regardless of their backgrounds. To me, this is the atmosphere MLK, Jr. dreamt about.


Conclusion:

I'm very grateful for my job. I don't love it. I don't want to stay here forever. But I'm very grateful to be employed, that it's so flexible, and to have my eyes opened to University structure and the world of science.


Question:

Should I ask for a raise?