Big yawn.
4 months
sister to start a blog, so I told her I would start putting up her pictures. Her son was born the day after SM, and her second was born 5 weeks before GJ. We love cousins! So cute! So I am thinking about chopping all of my hair off short like that (though I am not ready to go blond quite yet) Good idea, or not? I may need to wait till I have lost more baby weight. 
SM finally said YES when I asked if he wanted to hold the baby. He had just covered himself in spaghetti and was stripped down to the diaper, but I had to take advantage while I could, but yes, he is normally wearing clothes. He likes to pull GJ's socks off and look at the baby toes! Its cute, I think he is warming up a little. He did enjoy mom only time on the front porch swing this morning watching the tractor move dirt around the new house across the street. When I was finally bored, he stood on a chair and watched it out the window for an hour! I never knew you could like tractors so much. Too bad he will probably be out there all day and the chance of a peaceful nap are not looking good. GJ seems to be off by just 5 hours, he sleeps all morning and was up till 1am. Fun times ahead I am sure.
I can't say that I like slimy pictures, but you have to have at least one. 
All wrapped up. He looks almost the exact same as SM I think. 
Me and GJ waiting for the wheelchair to take us out to the car. 
So SM finally came to the hospital and I tried to get him to sit with Tad and hold the baby, but he just got mad and kept saying "No baby!" 
What a cute little bug! An hour old. 
Please note the big zit on my forehead. Nice. 
With my midwife Diane. She is wonderful! 
Happy Father's Day!!!Thanks especially to the Preyer's, Schanks, and Moffitts for looking after SM during the whole thing, especially while he was sick! We appreciate it so much. We are so glad to have this new member of our family that we have been blessed with and can't wait to get to know him better. He has yet to really cry, eats fairly well, and mostly sleeps. I am sure that won't last too long! Thanks for all your love and support!
SM and a baby piggy (it gets over 200 lbs!) 
Pounding on a sheep, I am sure it loved that. 
Ethan wanted to get out of there at first, then didn't want to stop feeding the goat. 
Look, Ma!
So literally I am just hanging out waiting to have a baby. From working 40 hours a week to doing nothing but wait, its been quite a shock (I know, its hasn't even been two days). Tad and I went out to eat yesterday though and went and saw Pirates 3, which was long, but I liked it okay, but I think we both wished we had seen Spiderman. I am trying to convince him to take me on Thursday. SM and I put together the double stroller today, he had quite a fun time crawling in and out of it. Still not aware that someone will be sitting next to him all to soon. Why do only the ugliest clothes fit after 36 weeks? I think there is some kind of conspiracy. I need to go pick the bassinet up this week, but I am fighting it. For some reason, that one piece of furniture makes it all to real to me. There will be a baby sleeping in my room again. For who knows how long. There is so much to look forward too (like getting these feet so stop kicking my guts out) but also so much I know will be hard. I am such a fan of my bed and sleeping. I finally got a cute little Americana outfit for him to wear home from the hospital. I still need to finish his booties, so I better get back to organizing and preparing the house. If anyone knows of some good meals that FREEZE well, let me know, I am in desperate need.
Figure 6. Inorganic Phosphate and 24, 25(OH)2D3 cause an apparent increase in the levels of collagen II production when compared to the untreated control on day 11 post confluence. This, therefore, confirms that the ATDC5 cells exhibited a chondrogenic phenotype. The negative control was not treated with the primary antibody as a control for possible nonspecific binding of the secondary antibody.
The overall goal of this project is to contribute to the understanding of how fluid shear stress effects the differentiation of chondrocytes in an endochondral ossification pathway. A better understanding in this area will contribute to the basic understanding of the growth plate and developmental biology, as well as potentially progress tissue engineering strategies that involve the growth plate, bone fracture callus healing[6], osteochondral plugs[7], or even developmental biology of joints[2]. This project will focus on the general hypothesis that fluid shear stress modulates the differentiation resting zone chondrocytes.
Significance of the proposed work
This work is significant because understanding how mechanical stresses influence processes of natural development such as endochondral ossification offers better enabling tools to further develop clinical therapies. An individual will regulate endochondral ossification throughout much of his or her lifespan. It begins in the embryo with skeletal formation but occurs naturally throughout adolescence in the long bone growth plates, and perhaps throughout life in secondary growth plates like the temporal-mandibular joint. It also is a process that is utilized for healing large bone fractures via development of a cartilaginous callus. Incidents joint and cartilage injury are rising among young athletes in increasingly competitive sports programs, but little is understood how this over-exertion may affect their active growth plates. On the other spectrum, some youth suffer from an overly sedentary lifestyle and perhaps the lack of exercising their musculoskeletal system could influence their growth plate activity. The proper loading of a fracture callus could help improve bone healing. Osteochondral tissue engineering implants may be enhanced by understanding how to promote mechanically stimulated differentiation of the chondrocytes near the subchondral interface, like those found naturally in the growth plate. This study will directly address some of the basic fundamental challenges of these areas where basic understanding is lacking. The proposed studies are worthwhile to offer future benefits to these varied applications.
So while he has been grueling over that, I have finally finished SM's scrapbook. I know, it only took me two years! At least its done before the new baby comes. If you want to see it, you can view the PDF at baby book and put in my project ID # of 248592.
So we found a good deal and got a minivan. I had been searching craigslist for months and found this sweet baby. Its a 2001 Toyota Sienna and I love it. Mainly because there is so much room for my belly. It has a CD player and remote locks, which I have never had in a car before, so I feel very special. It also has a remote starter, which we had never used before till yesterday. I gave the keys to SM as we were walking into the house and he promptly started the car which I don't know how to turn off, so
I set the alarm off, which I don't know how to turn off either.
It was a very exciting 45 seconds. I found if you just push all the buttons though it turns off. Hopefully I won't need to do that again.
We just bought that from our friends who are moving and are very excited about the extra storage space and a place to put the lawn mower instead of crammed under the house.
It’s just barely June and it will be 90 degrees everyday this week. We can only water the grass Saturdays from midnight to 10am. Needless to say the new grass I planted is not going to grow very well. That isn’t the end of the world, as we recently discovered it may or may not be on our property. But aren’t my peas beautiful? I am very proud of them. SM will eat them raw, pods and all, so I am happy he gets some kind of vegetables, though he wasn’t too keen on the green beans, but neither am I. Not sure why I planted them, mostly because they are easy to grow. Tomatoes are coming along slowly along with the squash, but its early. For my first garden, I am pretty pleased. Now if we can just train SM to mow the lawn, we’ll have it made. For now, we will just have to use the bubble mower.
