Science in mommy's life

Although my blog is primarily focuses on the events in our family life and especially Samantha's life, I wanted to share with you some news from my scientific life.




I received a letter today notifying me of the acceptance of a scientific paper that it took me years to put together. This paper focuses on the bodies early immune response to the bacteria, H. pylori. I used a mouse model to study how rapidly the body recognizes infection and specifically tries to fight the bacteria. H. pylori, seen in the photo above, is known to colonize the stomachs of approximately50% of the world's population and to be a major risk factor for gastric ulcers and gastric cancer.

The editor said, "I am pleased to be able to tell you that your manuscript, detailed above, has now been accepted for publication in our journal. Thank you for taking so much care with the revision. I hope you will agree that it has improved substantially."



This was a huge relief.

My scientific life is not just focused on research at this time, I am also teaching science. The semester started yesterday both at Vanderbilt and at Columbia State Community College. I will be a 'mentor' for the General Biology Labs at Vanderbilt for the first 5 weeks of the semester, and I will meet the students I am mentoring in lab next week. I am also the microbiology instructor at CSCC. I met my students at CSCC last night and I think its going to be a great semester.

Time with friends

Today I feel very blessed. We really are surrounded by such loving friends and family. We have had so many visitors this summer and are looking forward to even more as the fall approaches. Unfortunately for Heather and Ben who visited this week- its hot as blazes down here. They say we are going to get a cool down (we're talking 95 degrees as a 'cool down'). Anyway, I hope everyone has enjoyed their stay as much as we have enjoyed having everyone. Samantha was able to go swimming with Heather and Ben on Thursday and on Saturday we went to Opry Mills and Opryland Hotel. Samantha was such a trooper walking around with us all afternoon/evening. We were so exhausted and she was just beside herself. Poor thing got her head stuck between some rails trying to look a big fish. She loved the riverboat ride in the Delta and the horse both at Opryland and on the Merry-go-round at Opry Mills.

Ups and Downs

The last 24 hours have been full of ups and downs. Brad (my brother-in-law)'s parents were affected by the flooding in Ohio and they had 4 ft of water in their basement with all of their pictures, antiques and family heirlooms. His mother, Mary Ellen, fell at the end of a long day of cleaning and damage assessment. Praise God that her injury was not more serious (although she was unconscious for some time). She is home from the hospital recovering and some family and friends have now organized some clean up help.

Good news : My long-time friend, Shannon and her family (Joe, Michael, Anna and Benjamin) welcome the newest member of their family today. Alexandria Grace was born. She weighed in at 5lbs 10oz and 18 inches long. Both Shannon and Alexandria are doing very well. God is good.

A few tid bits...

Time flies when you're having fun. We had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Memphis with David's sister's family. Samantha was able to participate in Lydia's 5th birthday party (where they all dressed up as princesses). She had fun reading and playing with Mary Wren and Lydia. She is starting to get used to sleeping in the car...but we think she needs a pillow...what do you think?

The girls also enjoyed the Finley-Mashburn wedding, well most of it. We told them Princess Sarah was marrying Prince Joel and they thought that was cool. Samantha did not like the music -- she got really scared when the music started. We had to take her outside...and then when we dared to bring her back in all we hear from her was 'too loud, too loud'.

Coming home late Sunday made the transition into this week a little rough. In addition, David left for Sweden Tuesday morning so we were in a mad rush to get laundry and packing done. Despite that we did take a trip to the ice cream parlor Monday night for some family time before his trip. On the way there a soccer team was practicing and Samantha kept saying 'soccerball' without our prompting...maybe its in her blood! Hope so.

This week has some fun events planned too. My roomate, Heather, from Mount is in town and will she and Ben will be staying with us Friday and Saturday. Moreover, we are looking forward to George (our friend's baby's) baptism. Then on to next week....my teaching begins! Hope I can keep up with the Blog.

Family Ties

Today I am downloading my pictures from our trip to Ohio last weekend. The family is getting bigger and its really alot of fun...and tiring. We had a great trip to Ohio. It might not have been worth flying (time wise), but we really enjoyed seeing everyone and meeting Baby Clare. Samantha was much more timid around the dogs, but she did warm up to Doppie and Chesney again. She would say, "Come here" and signal with her hands. Grandma asked her if she was Italian. Samantha also enjoyed the pool at Aunt Heather's and playing dress up with her cousins. She played Tinkerbell on Saturday and Snow White on Sunday. Anna, Isabelle and Sophie really enjoyed showing her the ropes. Samantha cannot get enough of her Papa. He sang many songs to her and gave her piggy back rides. We celebrated 2 birthdays over the weekend too...Uncle Bobo turned 29...oh, goodness is he really my little brother?...and Anna turned 7, wow! The weather in Ohio was a great break from the heat here. We are still experiencing temperatures in the low 100s. On Wednesday, Grandma ever so gently told me it was 80 there when I called to tell her it was 107 at the Nashville Zoo!

Our next trip to Ohio will be for more happy family times....a celebration of Grandma and Grandpa's 60th Birthdays and Clare's baptism. Heather and Brad asked David to be her Godfather! We are so excited about that. Here he is holding Clare. (Well, theres a lot of Clare sleeping peacefully.) Doesn't she look like a Porcella girl!
We are headed to Memphis this weekend. We are looking forward to spending some time with David's family in the next couple of weeks. David also is headed to Sweden next week so please pray for his safe travels and my sanity.

5 Years since I 'borrowed' Ian's car

Most of you know the story of how David and I met while getting off the Pittsburgh city bus (PAT) one July evening. Well, after meeting on that day (and talking for just 10 minutes), we never made plans to see each other again. It was on this day, August 8th, in 2002 that I (with some encouragement from friends) left a note for David on a car with a Mississippi license plate. Little did I know it wasn't David's car, but Ian's car. Luckily, Ian delivered the note to David and well....the rest is history. Thanks Ian!

Chef in the making

Samantha has taken an interest in cooking. She spends more and more time in her kitchen, especially when I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. This weekend we very gently introduced her to the art of baking and food preparation. First, she used (store bought) cookie dough to make cookies. Then she helped clean the corn on the cob, and finally she enjoyed both!!

Its sort of fun to think of ways to get her to help in the kitchen, but it also leads to some disappoint now. Samantha always wants to help and when it involved boiling water----we're just not ready for that.

We are headed to meet Clare this weekend. I think Samantha will be thrilled to see both PaPa and BoBo again. She asks for them at least every other day.

No longer fearless?

If you have been following my blog, yesterday I wrote about Samantha's lack of fear in the pool. But her fearlessness has been exhibited in other areas of her behavior also. She grawls at thunder. She sleeps without a night light. She likes to check out bugs and then she stomps on them. She would walk on all furniture and jump off if she were allowed (and she does try). Samantha loves animals of all kinds even ones that are bigger than her. She will talk to any stranger that waves or says hi. Obviously, I am glad she is not 'afraid'. On the other hand, in my motherly protection role, I worry she is too bold and too friendly. But today at dinner I saw fear in Samantha's eyes. The ice maker was clicking (or knocking) periodically and she had this look of fear on her face. I said "Its just the refrigerator", and she said "no, door". I said "no, its the ice maker. Its nothing." She wimpered and said, "no, door". I said, "Samantha, really its okay. There is nothing behind the door," and she started to cry, "Door". So I went over and opened the door in the kitchen (it leads to the garage) to show her there was nothing there. She said "OKAY". I decided to point out other background noices in the house, "do you hear the clock?" "yeah" and from then on the knocking ice maker was the clock. I guess she didn't see the connection and possibly because she knows what a clock is and doesn't know what an ice maker is, she felt she could now identify the sound. She now probaby thinks there is a clock in the refrigerator and that the ice maker is something in the garage of which to be afraid. Don't you wish you could read their minds?

Fearless and Feeling good!

Samantha is feeling better after her brief illness last week. When we went to the doctor, we found out that she is 21lbs and 6 oz. I was shocked. I think I am getting weaker or something because I really thought she was gaining weight and this is about the same weight (within a few ounces) as 3 months ago at her 18 month check up. I do think she is taller and stronger (which are obviously not measured) so maybe its that holding this wiggle worm is becoming more of a challenge for my short body. She really likes her doctor- and he is really good with her. Before he checked her throat, which he knew she won't like, he checked her leg reflexes. She thought that was the funniest thing ever! Then she proceeded to try to take the rubber mallet and try to do it to herself...I had to stop her for fear that she would give herself a new bruise.

We went swimming last night at our friend's house and Samantha decided (without thinking of the consequences) that she wanted to retieve a ball that was about 3 feet from her floatation device. She jumped right off the device and into the water. I was only about 3 feet away and picked her right up. She had held her breath so she was shocked but not scared and wanted right back at the ball and on to the float. No fear.