Graduation

Well, I guess I officially, more or less, have a master's degree now. I didn't walk, but we decided to go to the main ceremony today anyways, mostly to hear the commencement speaker: Bill Clinton. It's funny - I know people (from church) who absolutely refused to go because they didn't want to hear him speak and he was the whole reason I came. Well, and to get the program because my name is in it! I enjoyed all the speakers actually. All those speeches really get me to thinking about my citizenship and what I can do to be a better citizen - mostly, I would like to volunteer somewhere in the community and also I think I should start recycling and also, I really really need to get my act together and buy some reusable grocery bags - getting so many plastic ones just kills me every time (if anyone has suggestions). Anyways, here are a couple of pictures of graduation.

Oh, yeah, and the main reason I didn't walk is because I saw no point in buying a cap and gown if for some reason I went into labor early. But I haven't. So, at 39 weeks 1 day pregnant, I spent about 2-3 hours sitting in the tiny bleacher seats and then standing in a very crowded non-moving crowd for at least half an hour before walking back downtown. And frustratingly, I swear, if I am wearing a jacket people can't even tell I'm pregnant - arghh.

5 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I am skipping the picture - I attempted to take one, but they all turned out really badly, so to anyone who is interested ...

1. I love to learn new things, kind of like an obsession. In college, after they laid off our entire team at Sun Microsystems where I was interning, I spent the few weeks before starting a research job at school watching lectures on World History, the history of the english language, etc. I still love to watch/listen to lectures, whether at home or whether I am dragging Katsu to physics lectures on Sat. mornings at U of M or to medical lectures at Harvard Medical School.

2. I am compulsive about our personal finances and hate to spend money (but I am getting better ...). Katsu would probably say I am addicted to Quicken, but at least we have quite a bit of money saved up considering we are still in school and both students.

3. I like walking. I still walk to (and from) school almost every day even though it is 1.5 miles away (it is getting a bit more uncomfortable with just 3 weeks till the due date). In Boston, I would regularly walk 3, 4, or 5 miles just for fun, just to get out and see the city. I really want to live in a walkable city.

4. I like to cook, but I hate to cook for other people. I get really nervous about taking food over to other people or bringing a dish (unless it is a dessert) to a friend's house, because I worry they won't like our food. I really feel like I don't know what people like to eat. And we don't eat a lot of meat and we eat quite a bit of beans, so I think people won't like that. Seriously, it's like an anxiety attack trying to cook food for people.

5. I think I am a "mean" wife. At least, I think I expect Katsu to do a lot of stuff. For example, I expect him to do a lot of chores - taking out the trash, cooking a few times a week, cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, and taking care of the car are all his jobs. I also do not find him coming home late at night on a regular basis (i.e. later than 6 or 6:30) acceptable and will not accept this in the future either. He will have a family-friendly job and it starts now while he is in school. I think at least I have always made this very clear to him - one reason, I didn't like the whole med-school track. On the other hand, making big bucks is not the biggest priority to me. I can manage on not too much money (see #2). I guess I just think that other wives seems so much nicer to their husbands - doing all the housework, child care, picking him up from school (Katsu can take the bus ...), etc. and I am just not like that.

and a few others (I'll keep it shorter)

6. We plan on raising our kids bilingually - i.e. I need to learn Japanese ASAP
7. I have a HORRIBLE memory.
8. I am horrible at sports - basically all of them.
9. I have bad knees and kind of walk/stand funny.
10. My main goal in scrapbooking is getting it done and up to date, so I write directly on the pages without stopping to check spelling (or even the facts ... I get dates/people/things we did wrong all the time).

How much more time I have left in my program

Seeing as everyone seems interested, here's how it goes. I will be done with my Masters in a few weeks as long as I pass this class (shouldn't be a problem ...). PhD programs are not timed programs ... they take a variable amount of time depending on how your research goes, how fast you publish, etc. Ideally, the whole process should take about 5 years, giving me another 3 or so years until I'm done. I have just one class left, but then research looms ahead. I also have another set of qualifying exams to make sure I am an adequate researcher.

On a happy note, I just submitted my first paper last week to IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. I hope they like my paper and don't have too too many revisions and I can get it published this year!

An Amish Weekend

We decided to take one of our last weekends (6 weeks to go ... eek!) and take a day off of work and go to a Bed & Breakfast. So, we were off ... to Shipshewana, Indiana, a 2.5 hour drive from our home and home of one the largest Amish communities in the country.

We started off by driving through some backstreets where we saw the Amish farmhouses with laundry drying on the line and horses and buggies everywhere! We ate some great Amish cheese (yum! - any vacation that includes cheese must be a good one!). We visited the Menno-Hoff Museum to learn more about the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites. We shopped at all kinds of cute stores full of beautiful Amish furniture and quilts and all kinds of other knick knacks. We had a fabulous Amish dinner. And we stayed at a great bed and breakfast!

We didn't really take any pictures - a) because it feels kind of weird (and disrespectful) to take pictures of people like they are zoo animals, just because they are different culturally then you, b) also it was very rainy/misty.

But it was SO relaxing to go to sleep hearing the clip-clop of the horses going down the street, at least as often as hearing cars.

We also stopped by South Bend, IN on the way home to look at the Notre Dame Campus and visit the College Football Hall of Fame. Was that an adventure! The place was surrounded by teenage girls - I couldn't figure out why they were so interested in football, but it turned out there was some kind of prom dress give-away in the hall of fame. Thankfully, we went into another entrance and were able to see the Hall of Fame. Katsu loved it. This is a picture of Katsu outside there.

It was a great weekend!

Congrats to Me

I just found out this weekend that I won a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. I really didn't think I could possibly get it but I applied because my advisor wanted me to. And I am still in shock that I got it. Basically it covers tuition and a $30000 stipend for three years and makes it so my advisor doesn't have to find funding for me and I don't have to teach. Maybe I will get my PhD after all ...

The exciting news ...

My award

Funny (?)

As I was on the computer yesterday, Katsu (out in the hall) said something to the effect of "I can't wait until we have our second child". Considering we are still waiting for the first (6.5 weeks so probably 5-8 weeks more), I'm not sure how funny I thought that was. I guess he really likes the girl name we picked out and since it's probably 90% likely to be a boy based on what they said at our ultrasound, he'll have to wait till #2 (at least). I think he'll have to be patient. :-)

Tour of our apartment

After having been inspired by my friend Melissa we decided to give you a tour of our apartment. Unfortunatley, no voice over and no explanation b/c our digital camera doesn't have noise and we are not that cool. But here is our apartment - outside to inside. A nice little one bedroom.

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

A Sunday Evening with my boys

Menus

Over Christmas break as Katsu studied for his quals, I mostly rested and such. But I did get one thing done - a meal menu.

I have always been interested in doing this. Before, as I was thinking of going to the grocery store, I would pull out my cookbooks ... at least 5 or 6 of them ... and then a few hours later after imaging all the delightful dishes I could make, I would finally come up with a list of 7 or so dinner recipes and what to buy at the grocery store. A grand way to spend an afternoon, but perhaps not very efficient.

Then, during my first trimester, I was so tired that basically Katsu cooked every night. Katsu is a great cook, but after a few months, I was feeling tired of pasta with homemade sauce. So, my plan was to come up with a few weeks of planned menus with a variety of healthy foods. My goal was :
1 fish dish, 1 mainly vegetable dish, 1 easy (crock-pot or such) dish, 1-2 rice/pasta dish, 1-2 meat dishes, 1 bean dish.
I originally planned on coming up with four weeks, but we had too many favorite recipes, so we have a list of 6 weeks of recipes.

Then, I created an Excel spreadsheet of everything we normally shop for at the grocery store. I copied this sheet for each week and then underlined each ingredient that we needed for that week's recipes. Now, I just print off the grocery/menu list, go through the cupboards and see what we need and highlight it, and voila a week's worth of menus.

Right now, we just finished up our first six week run and it worked! It usually takes us a little longer than a week to get through a week's worth of recipes because things come up - ward dinners, busy evenings, eating out, etc. And sometimes we are lazy or things are out of season so we switch it up. But overall, it has made meal planning, cooking, and shopping so much easier.

And by the way, for those who didn't know, yes, I'm pregnant and I'm due May 4th, with probably a boy.

Pregnancy

Yesterday, we attended our first Lamaze class. I am excited about this - we really enjoyed the first one. I like our instructor. I also think it will be great for Katsu to learn more about the birth process. I am excited to learn positions and relaxation techniques to use during labor as well.

One thing I realized in my class is that I have had a super great pregnancy. We went around and shared good and bad things about our pregnancies. There was only 2 good things on the list (being excited and feeling baby's movement) and tons of bad things! Honestly, besides the atrocious round ligament pain I had in the second trimester and being tired in the first trimester and this yucky cold I've had for the last two weeks that I can't take medicine for, everything has been great. I don't have too many aches and pains, I didn't get too bad of nausea and only threw up once, I sleep pretty well, I still have plenty of energy to walk to school or do my Fit Mama pregnancy video, no cravings, not too moody, etc. etc. So, today I am feeling grateful.