The art of procrastination

I would like to open by saying I've had a wonderful month since my thesis research proposal, during which I have not so much as looked at my thesis project. Now that my confession is out of the way, here's what I have been up to.
Mid-February Jason and I welcomed a new dishwasher and oven into our home. My mom says you know you're getting old when things like new appliances are exciting...which they were....so I must be old. This is one of my favorite pictures of the removal of the old appliances...as you can see, Kiki was very helpful in making sure Jason did things correctly.

Also exciting this month is that we've been planting a garden and digging in the flowerbeds. Other than having a sore back, I find digging in the flowerbeds very therapeutic. This is the first year I have aggressively attended to the flowerbeds. The grape hyacinth has become the bane of my existence. They had become so prolific they were choking out other plants, and not allowing me to plant new ones. So over the course of the past week, my gardening gloves, spade, and 5-gallon bucket have sifted through the dirt and removed thousands of the little bulby buggers. It's been rewarding, although now I see grape hyacinth bulbs in my sleep. On the bright side, I have planted another peony, relocated some hen'n'chicks, planted some hostas, several begonias, columbine, lily of the valley, bleeding hearts, and violas. Most of them are still in seed or bulb form, but hopefully I'll have pretty little plants in the next month. Most of them will also be perennial, so less work next year (I hope). I will include pictures in my next entry. Its hard to appreciate without knowing how much garbage I've cleaned out. Little plants will be more impressive. Jason has also assembled quite the grow-light set-up in the basement and has been babying some heirloom tomatoes. When the time comes we will probably have some extra plants if anyone would like to adopt one. So far the garden will have peas, carrots, parsnips, kohlrabi, lettuce, and tomatoes. We'd also like to try some kind of melon. 

Jason has gotten out on his first caving trip of the year and is gearing up for his trip to Cambodia for school. He'll be done in early May no matter what! Yay! I will be done as soon as I get my act together and stop gardening. Hmmm...gardening is way more fun that school.

Work has been super-busy. I'm helping a co-worker collect data she will use for her thesis project and we've been working some 10-hour Saturdays in order to get kids in when they don't have school. Keeps me busy cleaning data during the week. I'm a bit behind right now, but it's good job security.

I'm back on the wagon and going to the gym. Other than soreness which seems almost constant, it's been great. I even have gained a workout buddy or two in my co-worker Rebecca, and my former training client Jane. Jane...if you're reading this...you're my new favorite person. Kidding aside, Jane is one of the most dedicated almost-50-year old workout clients I've ever had. She also has a wealth of information on gardening which has been very useful this time of year.

The birdfeeder from my brother has also caught on. I've had Juncos, house finches, goldfinches, a woodpecker or two, chickadees, and a pair of collared doves.  Since I can't tell which dove is the girl and which is a boy, I've decided they're probably a gay couple. I've named the doves Bert and Ernie. Bert is quite obviously the one in the front of this picture. :) I'm also feeding more sparrows and starlings than I'd like to admit.

                                                                                                

As always, here's my current favorite picture of Kiki. *smile*

I hope you are all doing very well. Thanks to Melissa for visiting me in Utah! Congrats to Russ and Chica on their engagement and Congrats to Scott and Andria on their second little one coming this fall!

Take Care,

S.~

Weeeee!!

After a long time without a post I am long past due for an update...so better late than never...

December:

(Baxter Christmas at the Ranch)

The semester wrapped up well and Christmas was great! I spent lots of time making ornaments to put in my Christmas cards. I think I ended up making about 75 snowflakes, which was more ambitious than I had planned on being. Jason and I got to spend some much-needed time away from work with family here in Salt Lake. More specifically we made two trips to Logan, to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with the grandparents and family there, and then another trip the following week for the Simon/Baxter/Russak cousin Christmas. My homemade fudge was a big hit with everyone. What a good time! Even my Christmas gifts were well received...what a great way to end the year!

(Christmas card Ornaments)

("Hey guys...where are you going?")

January:

January started off with a trip to WI to celebrate a late Christmas with WI friends and family. Marion, Lee and Jeremiah happily accepted babysitting duties for Kiki (well...at least Jeremiah and Marion happily accepted...Lee tolerated). We flew out from Salt Lake on January 6th, which proved to be lucky because January 7th my parents got 8" of fresh snow and O'hare airport cancelled several hundred flights. So we spent our first day in WI watching it snow. It was Jason's first trip to the Midwest during the winter and the weather didn't dissapoint...8" of snow followed by high temperatures in the single digits for most of the week...luckily it wasn't windy...so it could have been worse.

(View from my parents' front picture window)

(Birdfeeder on my parents' back porch)

On the 8th we drove to Dubuque, IA to visit our friends Sarah and Andy, see their new house, and meet their new baby Henry. Jason got to spend some quality time with "the baby in charge" as he used to call her...who isn't so much of a baby anymore. Jason and Olivia got to play in the basement with toys and Olivia even convinced Jason to show off his dancing skills while Sarah and I visited upstairs. We were also in Dubuque to visit my brother, see his new house, and meet his girlfriend Jen for the first time. (Seems like a pattern in Dubuqe doesn't it?) He made us dinner which was really fun. On Saturday (the 9th) we drove once again, this time to the Twin Cities to meet our friends Melissa and Derek for lunch, although we didn't get to see their house, we did find out they are expecting a little one of their own. So maybe next time we're in the twin cities we'll see their new house and meet their new little one like we did while visiting Dubuqe! We were also fortunate that our WI vacation happened to be the same weekend my old college roommate Leah was getting married in the Twin Cities. So after our lunch with Melissa and Derek we went to the wedding reception of Leah and Chad. It was beautiful, and I'm still a little jealous of their January honeymoon in Hawaii. ;) The next day on Sunday the 12th we celebrated Christmas with the DeBaets side of the family. Jason got his first experience watching a Packer game IN WI. Needless to say there was quite a bit more noise than he's used to when he watches them here with me. Monday was a day to pack and regroup. We also took a road trip with my dad to visit my great grandma myers and our neighbor Valera Schuck in the nursing home. Monday evening we visited with my friends Rusty and Chica and got a tour of their new house. Tuesday the 12th it was time to head back to Chicago to fly back home. On our way we had lunch with our friend Larissa and baby Dane. She made us some excellent soup, and we got to see the amazing painting and decorating job she did on her apartment. We didn't know it at the time, but have since learned she's expecting baby Anderson #2 early this fall. What a very full and fun trip we had!

(Sunrise from my parents' porch the day we flew back)

Now that I think of it...cousins Ben and Melanie here in Utah also just bought a new house this past week that we will see soon, and Melanie has a baby due on the 14th...new houses and babies all around! So congrats to everyone on the new houses, new babies, and new marriages...well done!

Once I returned to Utah, the reality (and urgency) of school set it. I found myself with less time than I had planned on to get my thesis research proposal written and submitted. I scrambled and set up a committee meeting (*gulp*) which I've been somehow avoiding for months. The writing and preparing process left me sleeping badly, eating little, and waking up stressed out each morning. I did not enjoy it and either did the folks (namely Jason and my mom) who had to deal with me stressing, crying, and generally feeling crappy for a month. The good news is, that my thesis research proposal was officially over at 4pm today. So another small milestone has been accomplished. It went really well. My rehearsals in front of the cat paid off and my 20 minute speech was 20 minutes and 23 seconds long. The question/answer session that followed from my committee went well and I left feeling relieved and a little more confident about my project. Thank goodness! Thanks also to everyone who put up with me complaining, crying, being unproductive, cranky, posting dismal facebook status updates, inviting myself over to study, and turning down offers for hanging out over the past month. The bright news is that part of the project is over. I now need to finish analyzing my data and do a TON of writing before I defend my thesis (hopefully sometime early summer).

This weekend the plan is to relax. Thesis research proposal is done, the Olympics are starting soon, and it's Valentine's day! Jason and I are planning to go bowling with some friends this weekend. Monday we have off of work and are going to go for a couple's massage and out to dinner. The massage is my Valentine's gift to me....I mean Jason ;). Should be fun.

I think that's about all. I know I've probably missed a few things as it has been a very busy couple of months. Thanks for following along and continuing to put up with me and be supportive.

S.~

Christmas Time!

I'm going to cheat a bit, and first post the letter Jason wrote to include in our Christmas cards this year:

Greetings!

This has been a very full year for the newly established Baxter family. The largest event of the year was our wedding. We were able to introduce many members of Steph’s family to the joys of Utah. Rumors have been passed along that many of them will consider visiting again. We had perfect weather not only for the wedding and reception in UT, but for the WI reception as well. It was a great time, with both of our families finally getting to meet each other.

Steph and I then took a week-long honeymoon trip through California. We visited several well recognized places including Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Lake Tahoe, and the Golden Gate Bridge, just to name a few. We started calling it our “tour of trees”, after seeing Redwoods, Sequoias, Pinyon Pines, and even Joshua trees. For those who aren’t familiar, Joshua trees grow in the desert and look like something from a Dr. Seuss book. We took in a Vegas show on the way home, and ended the trip by arriving back in Utah with enough time to attend the annual Baxter family reunion. After a few thousand miles of driving, our back-ends were tired of sitting, and we were ready to be out of the car for a while. Luckily, we took a plane to Wisconsin for the second wedding reception and time with Steph’s family. My family, however, elected to drive to Wisconsin for the second half of the wedding month extravaganza. They did their best to stop at all the scenic points of interest, and had several planned detours on their route. They managed to put over 5,000 miles on the minivan in a few short weeks. They are looking forward to slower-paced future visits to the Midwest.

Despite my best efforts at delaying the inevitable, we added a cat to our household this year. We are now the proud owners of a 1 ½ year-old orange polydactyl (extra toes) tabby cat, who came to us with the name Kiki. She will play fetch with twist ties, which is her most interesting trick. She also occasionally races around the house, drifting around linoleum corners, and making frightening velcro noises on the carpet with her 24 claws. She has been entertaining to have around, and will probably get to stay.

Steph went on her first caving trip that required the use of ropes this year. On the upside, she enjoyed herself. On the downside, she may enjoy the climbing and rope work more than the actual cave exploration. I will have to see if I can further enlighten her. In other caving news, this year I was awarded a paid contract to work for the National Forest Service locating caves and other geologic features of interest in the Ashley National Forest. This should help cover the weekend costs of my chosen sport in the upcoming year. I was also called out to help with my first cave rescue effort this fall. I’ve found that 2am phone calls are rarely a good thing, and this event did not end well. It was a very sobering reminder of how fragile life can be, and how grateful I am to have our families to spend time with this holiday season.

The final topic of note from this year is Steph’s epic house projects. She repainted most of the basement, created a guest room, and turned the majority of the basement into actual usable space. She also decided that the sad-looking lawn around the house needed to be fixed and ended up tilling and reseeding the entire lawn over the course of the year. There were also several smaller projects like replacing bark/mulch in the flower beds, and establishing an area for next year’s garden. Now we just need to wait out the snow, and progress can be made again in the spring. I would like to be able to claim more than a supporting role in these projects, but most of them were accomplished almost entirely by Steph. My biggest contributions were purchasing the house a few years ago, driving the truck to deliver a tiller to our yard, and occasionally running a shovel/wheelbarrow.

The coming year should bring new adventures for both of us. We will start the year with our first visit to WI since the wedding (January 6th-12th) which will be my first trip to WI during the winter months. Additionally we are both approaching the end of our Master’s degrees in school, and excited to see what married life is like without dysfunctional school and work schedules.

We hope this letter finds all of you happy and healthy. Best wishes for a safe holiday season and a wonderful beginning to 2010!

Jason and Stephanie Baxter

Another Month...

Another month down. Or another month gone. It all depends on how I look at it. Another month down if I consider really wanting the semester to be over. I haven't enjoyed this one. I think my will to learn has been somewhat compromised. I will definitely need another break from school if a PhD is still in my future. Another month gone if you consider all of the work I've wanted to get done on my thesis this semester, and haven't been able to accomplish. Taking 9 credits of electives was, in hindsight, NOT a great idea. Ok, got the complaining out of the way in the beginning of this blog...hope you're still reading.

I will again this month include my favorite picture of Kiki. She's a lot of fun, and great company on nights when Jason is at class. I took her outside less this past month due to the changing weather; however during the one outdoor adventure we managed she was less than impressed with all the leaves in the yard. She found them noisy and generally unacceptable. We'll see how she feels about snow!

Work has been acceptable this month. I'm finally learning to do some new stuff so hopefully that will help with the boredom factor. It also helps that this week is our holiday bonus paycheck. I might be able to afford a Christmas present or two this year. :) I've been trying to cut back on hours in order to dedicate more time to school. So far I've managed to go from 40 hours per week to about 35 hours per week. I can't really say that it's helped much, but keep taking small steps right?

55 days (as of 11/12) until the next trip to visit WI! I'm excited, and have been so for about 3 weeks already. I'd really like to visit more than we do, however working around the school-year schedule has put a bit of a damper on that plan. It will be Jason's first trip to WI in the winter. He's been negotiating for warmer weather, or global warming, or some nonsense like that, because he feels it will be unbearably cold. While WI in January does have that potential, I think he'll survive. I am hoping for good driving weather though, so if everyone could keep their fingers crossed for us that would be great!

The lawn seeding from last month is coming up well. It's sort of patchy, but should fill in nicely next spring if we can keep the weeds at bay. While tilling knocked the weeds down, it will take some effort in the spring to keep them away. We've had to rake the leaves off the new seeding twice. The apple trees in the front just aren't giving up easily, and although we've bagged up a bunch of leaves already, it will probably take one more good cleanup to be winter-ready. Speaking of winter, I'm ready for snow, and it looks like we might see some this weekend! The first snow is always fun. It makes me think of warm blankets and hot chocolate and relaxing inside. Unfortunately this is not the case as often as I'd like and I'm sure I'll be reminded how much I dislike snow the first time I'm forced to go and scrape my windshield in order to slide to work. For now I will look forward to the "first" snow. :)
I hope this blog finds everyone doing well. Take Care!

Fall has Arrived!

So glad its finally fall. The mornings have been crisp and with the cooler weather I have been able to get to some much needed yard projects I've been putting off (more on that later!). I have also taken out my fall and winter clothes that I have missed so much! I never thought I'd be so excited to see long pants again. :)

Before big project news, an update on the painting projects. I finally finished off the basement laundry room in what will most likely be the last house-painting project for quite some time. The paint in this room was no better than any otherpaint in the basement, and there was an unusual color I can only describe as "dirty teal" on the cupboards. Much better with new paint!

Now for big project news...ever since moving into this house the lawns have needed some serious work. I dug and seeded the front lawn this past spring and now this weekend rented a tiller and did the entire back yard. It was one full day of work that left me tired, sore, and very satisified with my new lawn. I keep checking every 20-30 minutes to see if the seed is starting to sprout...but so far no luck. I'm pretty pumped for the first signs of grass though, and perhaps next month's picture will show some progress in that department.

In other news, it was Jason's 29th birthday today. A few weeks ago we went to see Jim Gaffigan as his official birthday present, however I also made him a ginormous cupcake with the help of a mold I borrowed from a co-worker, a cupcake shaped card, and a nice breakfast and lunch today. I also did all of his ironing while he was at class, which should score me some major bonus wife points. It's too bad when you get old enough that you still have to write papers and take tests on your birthday, which is what Jason spent most of his weekend doing. I think overall he still had a pretty good birthday though.

Tomorrow is my annual review at work. I'm trying to decide if this will be a good day to tell my boss I feel like I need to cut back on hours in order to finish school this millenium. Probably not. I'm also burnt out tracking data day in and day out. Problem is, right now there isn't anyone else to do my job which leads to great job security along with the monotony. If someone else could pick up some of my current duties, I feel like I'd be able to expand and do bigger better things, but for right now I'm stuck. Sounds like something out of a Dilbert cartoon I think.

On a somewhat brighter note, in a move towards mental sanity, I officially renewed my gym membership. My first workout last week was physically and mentally punishing, as I was brought face-to-face with how out of shape I've really become over the past couple years. It's going to take a lot of hard work to get back at it, but I'd like to think I'm up for the challenge. I've got all winter to make sure Jason isn't able to hike the wind out of me next spring. ;)

I am reminded again how fast time flies as I realize Jason and I have now been married 5 months. It's a little crazy to think about. We really should get around to ordering that wedding album one of these days however we're having one of those months (or a couple of months) where everything breaks. After discovering a flat tire several weeks ago at work I ended up with a complete set of brand new tires on my car. Then after sitting in line at a broken car-wash (another story completely) my car almost didn't start and I ended up with a new car battery. I went to make steaks one night for Jason after class and after 20 minutes under the broiler the steaks were luke-warm...leading us to discover the top heating element in our oven no longer works. Add that to the dishwasher making dying noises (don't worry the time it flooded the kitchen seems to have been a fluke), and we're having a very unlucky (and potentially expensive) several weeks.

I think that's the extent of news from here. I know I've rambled a bit this time, but hopefully you enjoy it nonetheless.

Take Care!
S.~

Where is Fall?

Mid-September already. Time does fly. Jason and I both went back to school in the past month, so if you haven’t seen or heard from us as much you may think is normal just rest assured we are probably either doing homework or frantically trying to keep the house in order, do laundry, house/yard-projects etc.

We're both excited for fall but here in Salt Lake with temperatures still in the upper 80's it seems like once fall gets here we'll proceed directly into winter. We'll probably have snow in the mountains again before we know what happened and here in the valley soon after. One sure hint of fall however is that football season is upon us! I'm not sure why I'm SO excited about football this year, but I won the football pool at work this week which always helps :). In case anyone wonders who to cheer for our teams include the Wisconsin Badgers, Utah Utes, Green Bay Packers, and San Francisco 49er's. I will also be watching Minnesota games to see Brett Favre (to put it nicely) "get his ancient rear end sacked".

Exciting news in Jason's world--he recently was awarded a government contract to pattern-search and report geological features in a large area of national forest a few hours East of here. The good news is he'll now be getting paid to hike and cave in an area he spent a lot of time in this spring hiking and caving for free. On the downside I might not see much of him come next spring-fall depending on how long it takes him to cover the area he's been assigned. I won't rule out going along on some of the shorter trips, but will probably elect to stay home quite a bit as well.

Over the past month I got some serious basement projects done along with a few painting projects just for fun (see pictures). New paint does so much to brighten up a room (even a dark basement room), and upstairs I’ve been working to get some sense of color coordination going. I’m currently working on painting the laundry room and making some wall-hangings for upstairs and will hopefully have pictures to include next month. Anyone on facebook has probably stumbled across some of these pictures however--for those who haven't--the first picture is of a pair of foot-stools I've had since college and recently painted to match one another. The second picture is a shelf that used to be an ugly brown that I patterned to match the footstools. The next three pictures are before and after pictures of the [sadly underutilized] basement work-out area. In the second picture notice the one stripe of new paint next to the window. Trust me when I say that the "before" pictures do not begin to do justice in showing how dirty that old paint was.

I will also include my favorite pictures of Kiki from the month. We recently got her a harness for out-of-doors adventures, and she spent part of Saturday happily hunting bugs in the grass. I also caught a picture of one of her favorite (and more curious) sleeping positions atop Jason’s old office chair. I only wish I could make all sleeping positions look as comfortable as she does.

Work is repetitive lately with a lull in data collection leading to lots of data analysis. With any luck I will get to start working on my thesis data in the next week or two. The only thing really holding me back from digging into my thesis at this point in my lack of available time to do a literature review. I’m going about this process completely backwards…I already have the data, but haven’t solidified a research question. Hopefully I will still manage to finish by May.

Another two new babies this month! Congrats to Andy and Sarah Kahler who welcomed Henry, and our front desk girl Alicia and her husband Corey who welcomed Owen! I won't admit to being baby-hungry quite yet, but perhaps after school is finished I will consider it :D. For now playing with everyone else's kids is just fine with me!

I almost forgot! Jason and I just purchased plane tickets to come home January 6th-12th. We realized it's not exactly on the holidays, but our vacation time for the year was severely depleted due to a little wedding thing that happened in May ;). WE are currently planning trips to Dubuque, and the Winkel-Hassler wedding, as well as a late family Christmas in Reedsburg on the 10th. Please pencil us in, and let us know what you're up to so we don't miss each other while crossing paths.

I think that sums up the last month in SLC. I hope you're all doing well. Be in touch!
S.~

Again already?

Hello again from UT! Just so everyone is aware, Jason's family on the Baxter side e-mails around a monthly blog known as the "cousin blog" that via marriage I am now a member of. I plan to post slightly edited monthly versions of my cousin blog entry on this blog...so here it goes...

Another month of many happenings! First off I would like to congratulate Andy and Lisa Baxter on the birth of little Jacob! I’m excited to no longer be the newest member of the Baxter cousin blog and look forward to reading his updates soon. The pressure has been taken off to produce the first Baxter great-grandchild!

This month we discovered that our cat Kiki likes ice cream. It started one night when I left my ice cream cone unattended for just a moment and when I returned Kiki was daintily licking it. “That’s cute” I thought as I snatched my ice cream back away. Since then eating ice cream in our house has become much more complicated. As it turns out Kiki was instantly hooked. Now the minute ice cream is being eaten she insists on sitting on your lap in the hopes of getting another lick. Convinced to not let our cat indulge in “people-food” there have been several instances when I have been forced to hold my ice cream bowl above my head in order to keep it away from Kiki’s persistence. Mind you Kiki isn’t dumb either…she is already fully aware that ice cream comes in dishes, cones, and sometimes even chocolate covered bars on a stick! In hindsight it makes sense cats would like ice cream since it’s basically sweet frozen milk, but at the time I was rather naïve as to how attached a cat may become to ice cream after only one try. Moral of the story: Don't do drugs.

We’ve made it up to visit Jason's grandparents' ranch twice in the past month (outside Logan, UT for anyone who cares to check a map). The first trip we spent a night at the ranch and then hiked to White Pine Lake at Tony Grove the next day (about 40min NE of Logan). The flowers were beautiful and the temperatures at an elevation of 8000 ft were around 15 degrees cooler than down below making it a pleasant 75 degrees. This past weekend however was a different story as our hiking plans were rained out (SNOW above 8000 ft in August?!?). Instead of hiking we decided to detour and take a driving/sightseeing trip instead. We drove up past Bear Lake and into Idaho…both places I had not previously been. The sightseeing was fun although the temperature sensor in Jason’s blazer was around 50 degrees for much of the day and at one point outside of Preston, ID the rain was pouring so hard there was standing water in the road. (You must understand any rain at all is an unusual sight in UT in August!) I was sure glad we decided not to hike! In several areas around Salt Lake we set record low high temperatures for the first week of August with a high of just 70 (20 degrees below normal) on August 8th.

Data collection for the latest research study at work wrapped up this past week. The picture I have included demonstrates the typical running setup. The red lights from the cameras in the background reflect off the shiny silver balls attached all over this kid as he runs on a treadmill with a built-in force plate. It’s the same technology they use in the computer gaming industry only we use it in the Biomechanics lab for research. Simply put, this particular study was looking at the differences in forces and movements between intact athletes and amputee athletes from jogging to top sprinting speed. Although the research questions are varied, I basically spend quite a bit of time either attaching reflective markers to half-naked study participants or playing an advanced game of connect the dots on the computer. School starts on the 24th of August….hopefully one of my last 2 semesters. If I’m lucky, the data we just collected will be the data I use for my thesis. Some of that should be shaking out in the next couple of weeks.

Last night was the annual summer picnic for Jason’s caving grotto—the “caver-geek picnic” as I lovingly call it. Had a great time hanging out, ate myself silly, and the weather was PERFECT….just the sort of summer evening we could all use more of!

I think that’s all the latest news. I hope everyone is doing well!
Steph~