We've been told by quite a few people that when your kids turn 5 you start to get your adult life back.  This weekend we're seeing evidence of it.  Grayson got himself dressed both mornings, made himself breakfast this morning (stacks of Ritz crackers with turkey and cheese) and has mastered the cd player.  He also made a music request:

If you don't look ...

It doesn't seem like it's been since October since I last posted, but we've been busy. We're getting pretty comfortable in Lafayette. The adjustment from house to apartment hasn't been too difficult. If anyone wants a house in South Bend, though, we've got one on the market.

Now that I've really been diving into my Master's project I'm finding that infectious disease research is more challenging in some ways than I had considered. One trick is that I am using molecular techniques, so I have spending a great deal of time extracting DNA and running PCR. PCR basically looks at a segment of DNA unique to an organism and, if that segment is present, multiplies it exponentially so that it can be detectable. The organism that I am working with is present in the samples that I've been running. This is good news for me. I have a project that is more likely to receive funding to continue and that means that I am more likely to be able to convert directly to the PhD research. The challenging part is that it's out there. It is a zoonotic disease, which means that it affects humans as well as animals, and we've been missing it in Indiana. We suspected this, which is part of why I have the funding that I do now, but it's one thing to accept it in theory and another to recognize that it is out there. It's too early in the research process to predict any outcomes or concrete next steps. I'm hoping to have a publication from the first part of the project ready in the fall and I'd like to present a poster at AVMA 2013, so I'll have more to share. In the meantime, I keep being reminded of the truth that if you don't look you're not going to find.

What We've Been Up To

We had some birthdays!

In June Grayson turned 4, which is amazing to us.


The beach party was ended by thunderstorms, but we had a good time with our extended family.



In September Talia turned 3. It's hard to believe that she's already 3, but half the time we catch ourselves thinking that she is 4 like Grayson.


The weather for the picnic at the park was more pleasant. Grayson had fun terrifying us with his climbing skills while the girl of the day preferred the slides.



My brother Dan got married this summer!





A couple of weeks ago we checked out places to live and a new park in Lafayette.

The Why Behind The Change

"At heart I am a generalist. In my years of veterinary practice I have been able to explore several medical disciplines and have been fortunate enough to work with creatures weighing grams and those weighing hundreds of kilograms. I have been able to save lives and borne the responsibility of ending them. At the end of each day I am left with questions. I view a graduate education as a means to further explore these questions and the next step in a career focused on understanding the intersection of animal, human and environmental health and mentoring the next generation of veterinary practitioners."
This is the introductory paragraph to the Statement of Intent that I submitted with my graduate school applications. I have always known that I would want to leave the practice environment someday. Oddly enough, when I started college small animal practice was close to the last place that I wanted to be. Most of interests in vet school were linked with the small animal program, so I ended up with good training in small animal medicine spiced with lots of exotic pet and zoo experience with some fun lab rotations thrown in. The molecular biology clerkship was great. The microbiology clerkship has been helpful in practice and I still want to culture everything (how did someone think to check what kind of bacteria grew in a heartworm?). Government and Corporate Practice and of course the externships at Brookfield Zoo and the Duke University Primate Center (now Duke Lemur Center) opened my eyes to how much is out there and what the possibilities can be.
The problem is that I get intellectually itchy. I like new things, even if I'm bad at them for the most part. And have I ever got questions! What was going on with that tiny cluster of leopard geckos with gout (different homes, same origin)? What impact are those Quaker parakeets having on their newly adopted cities? Are we potentially selecting for genetic issues in the captive endangered species that we hope to reintroduce? How many Baylisascaris larvae are lurking in the soil in rural versus urban areas? How prevalent in canine brucellosis in our shelter population? Why exactly do eosinophils spike in response to both allergens and parasites (and why won't they get the hell out of my son's esophagus)? Unfortunately, it's seriously cost prohibitive to do a good literature review as a practitioner (or at least as somebody who wants access to conservation and ecology and behavior and general biology journals in addition to the medical ones that I subscribe to). This combined with some other personal factors has me feeling like my performance in practice isn't where I want it to be. I'm not interested in running a business and I think that the best way for me to advance professionally is to take a slightly different direction. So, I'm going to be teaching in the Brown Mackie tech program this fall and I've been offered a graduate position in comparative epidemiology at Purdue for the spring. I will be looking at the incidence of Q-fever in goats in Indiana. I'm reviewing my goat medicine and getting pretty excited about the directions the research could take. We're also looking into the logistics of the move to be certain we can make that part of the change work. My goal is to end up at a college or university, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully this makes some sense to everyone, but you can let me know if you think I've lost my mind.

Talia's Supers

So Tony was asking Talia about heroes and villains today. This a not very correct transcript, but you'll get the idea.

Tony (T) - "Who is your favorite hero?"

Talia (t) - "Robin."

T - "Who else?"

t - "Batman"

T - "Who else?"

t - "Marco Weeo. He's a good guy."

T - "What does he do?"

t - "He can walk. He can run. He can play. He has a long nose like a kitty and a long hair and a cheek and some hair."

T - "What else does he look like?"

t - "A dog that has some teeth and a long tummy."

T - "Tell me about your favorite bad guy ..."

t - "The Gaga. He just takes one and hits at people. He doesn't listen to Kitty. He got a button that fights kitties over there. He does to take something with a pullup with Woody on it. AND he takes kitties from Mommy's work. He does not take any toys 'cause we fight him to his house. It is Flash's house.

Next time we'll learn about Circus the Clown.

Too Much Time

It's been almost a year since either of us has updated this and I suspect that we've lost our small following of friends. We've not been stagnant this year, though. Really, how can anyone with small children be stagnant. I think that's why there have been no postings. Honestly, I should be working on another project right now but the results of that we be foundation shaking for our little household and I'm feeling slightly hesitant about it tonight. Until I'm able to share more, here are some pictures of this past year:

Poor, neglected blog

Dear Loyal Blog Readers,

Apparently I'm averaging monthly updates. This is a good thing because it means that there is nothing overly dramatic/traumatic going on, but it amazes me because there seems to be so very much going on. Talia and Grayson are busy, busy, busy being toddlers and this entails a lot of running around, bruises and (currently) joyfully tossing cds out of the changer. It's hard to not to laugh at their not socially acceptable antics. It was especially difficult when I caught them pulling cds out, came towards them full of righteous parental indignation and Grayson scurried backwards and pointed his finger accusingly at Talia. She looked up at me with a face full of joy and pride and tossed the cd to the ground.

Grayson has an imaginary cat friend called Nemo. He has also named the bulldog on his pajamas Duckie. This is a big step as all previous dogs were called Walter after Tony's mom's dog. Talia is fascinated by eyes, teeth and her own belly button. She is due for her first haircut as soon as we have a weekend when we can go as a family. Grayson will likely not need a haircut until he is five.

My friend Rachel had a beautiful baby girl this week. While she is on maternity leave, I'll be working some extra shifts. I realized today that this will put me back on the schedule I originally had as a sprightly new veterinarian. It'll be interesting to see how these next 2 months go as I am optimistic, but no longer sprightly! I'm really happy to help her have the time with her family.

That's all all for now and I'll catch you again next month!

Amy

P.S. Have some cute pictures!