onomatopoopa

Remember the movie Groundhog day? Well the real Punxsutawney is even more quirky, but not nearly as big or nice as that. But if your idea of a good time is getting up at 3:30am to drive an hour from your hotel so you can freeze your butt off on the top of a hill four hours from any real city in the dark with thousands of teenagers college kids and fanatical old people -- well, you should buy a top hat and apply to the Inner Circle! We thought it sounded like a pretty swell time, and we were right. We didn't get pictures with all 32 groundhog statues, but we got most of them.













This one's for Diane. Go STEELERS!!













Finally, here's a video especially for Shawn:

Back in December Bart and I went to a special seminar organized by our stake to train us to be official SEPA VOAD (Southeastern Pennsylvania Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) volunteers. About one week later, we received badges that allow us special access to emergencies! In conjunction with this, SEPA VOAD through the Red Cross offered to give us more training classes.
So last night Bart and I became two of the newest people to be CPR certified. We spent 4 hours learning about rescue breathing, compressions, and saving people who are choking. We offered to do the mouth-to-mouth on each other, but they insisted that we use the Annie training dummies (see below). It was VERY informative and now we feel empowered to help in an emergency. I'm sure that we would still be terrified, but the extra knowledge will definitely help.

Today I spent the morning moving offices. Below is a picture of what my space looks like. You can't see the view of West Philadelphia out my window, but hopefully soon--right now I'm having trouble loading the video I took on the blog.

This next photo is a shot from my chair. Those are microscopes in that outer room. Jealous, Bart?

I'd like to thank everyone who made this move possible: NBME, CAL, SLF, SEI, AS, and a host of other abbreviations. Here's to the next few months until I have to inevitably move again!

Tons of great things happened today, so I have to acknowledge them officially on our blog.

1) Most importantly, Bart had a thesis committee meeting today and it went wonderfully. (I knew it would!) Bart is super excited (as am I--you can tell by the amount of exclamation points in this paragraph) because he is getting closer to writing not one, but 3 (!!!) papers that will hopefully be published in some awesome science journals, like the journal titled "Science." He still has to do some experimenting, but his committee said he is well on his way to writing that dissertation too!

**Note: I'm an editor, so I'm happy to help out, but first I should probably brush up on my science terminology so I know what the heck he is talking about. (Oh, Coach Ham, I hope your 9th grade biology class didn't fail me....) Congratulations Bart!

***Additional note: When Bart and I have this conversation in our house, there will be no child on Bart's shoulders.

2) I have been told where my office is relocating. FINALLY! I have been waiting for this news since I moved into my current office 4 months ago. Here are the awesome things that await me:

a) I will not have to look out at a monstrously depressing state-owned disabled people living center (PC term?) and will instead have a better view of West Philadelphia. (See theme song from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: "Chillin' out, maxin', relaxin', all cool; And all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school")

b) My office is still on the 6th floor, which means I won't have to share a bathroom with the patients. Eww.

c) I still have my own office--with a WINDOW!!

d) There are microscopes in the room outside of my office, so I can continually make Bart jealous.

3) Granny is moving to Utah in 12 days! I'm super excited for her new adventure. I hope all of her neighbors don't fight over being friends with her.

Sometimes I get tired of how much of life is just the same ole thing day in and day out. When you spend 8+ hours a day in front of a computer, I feel like that thought is justified. But one of my goals this year is to be positive. (I did a horrible job of it last night while I spoke with Bart on the phone!) So today I'm making up for it by reviewing all of the firsts that Bart and I experienced in 2008. Some of them I'm positive about and some of them I'm just positively glad that they are over.

January
-We took our first art class
-We finished reading our first book aloud together (The Other Boleyn Girl)

February
-Bart went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time
-Katie got called to teach Sunday School for the first time

March
-We celebrated our first anniversary
-We filed our taxes jointly for the first time

April
-We made our first move together to a new apartment
-We went to Boston for the first time to visit Julie

May
-We caught our first mouse in our new apartment
-Granny came to visit Philadelphia for the first time

June
-Katie got her first call to be Compassionate Service leader
-Katie saw Les Miserables for the first time and it changed her life!

July
-Our family got it's first job at a University--hopefully the first of many (for Bart that is!)
-We took our first spontaneous weekend getaway to the beach

August
-We attended our first NFL game
-Katie attended her first database training workshop (and hopefully her last)
-We took up swimming for the first time

September
-Bart presented his first poster at an international conference
-We attended Katie's first Mormon funeral--it was wonderful to celebrate the life of Bart's Grandpa Howell
-For the first time, we evacuated our house and carried around our 72-hour kits due to a fire down the street

October
-Katie taught her first Strengthening Marriage and Family class
-We heard the announcement about Philadelphia getting it's first LDS temple
-It was our first time to experience the Phillies winning the World Series

November
-Katie went on her first business trip
-Bart went to Atlanta for the first time and loved the friendly Southern people
-Bart met Katie's crazy extended family for the first time

December
-For the first time, we had FHE without two of the most adorable little Cambodian girls
-Katie went to Disneyland for the first time
-We went to the Melting Pot for the first time

I'm sure Bart has more to add, but he's in Cleveland, so I'm in charge!!!! (wah ha haaaaaa!!!!) I can tell you that I know for a fact that 2009 will be a year of firsts as well. Here are a few that we have already experienced or are looking forward to in the month of January:
-Bart will conduct his first Sacrament meeting, baptism, and in general, experience what being a first counselor in our Branch presidency is like
-We will go to Punxsutawney, PA for Ground Hog's day
-We will go to Scranton, PA to celebrate the wonder that is our favorite TV show, "The Office"
-Bart will finish his first collaboration with a lab at the Cleveland Clinic--good luck honey!!!