Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes?

With Lemon Buttercream Frosting?

Yes, please :)

It was Edie's birthday on Saturday, so I had an excuse to bake!  Since I'm not much of a sweet-eater these days, I rarely make desserts unless they are for a function with other people that will eat them. 

Anyway, a bunch of us went for Mexican and there were cupcakes!  Maureen brought chocolate ones too, so we were overloaded with chips and dessert.

Edie blows out candles-she's seriously the cutest person I know.

And she does it WITHOUT setting her hair on fire, 

unlike me at my birthday.

Rob went camping at Oak Mountain this weekend, and I drove down for just a couple hours with our pooch to capture our friend Erica's first fishing trip!  Erica is from Mississippi, is 28 years old, and has never been fishing.  I seriously think this is some type of accomplishment.  So here is her first, REALLY HUGE, fish.  With the proud fishing guide.

I take credit for convincing her that cane poles are best.

I'm not even sure how this turned out blurry. Fail.

Bells had fun too, but ate a cricket and it was superdisgusting.

Happy Monday!

Melty in Houston

My trip to Houston was quite lovely. Houston is a huge city, and kind of smells.  But I had fun nonetheless!

Last Friday I flew out there in the afternoon, on an express direct flight with no air conditioning.  This was completely fine with me until it was time to land.  Then I was wondering if I could still brag that I have not been sick or nauseous at all.  The poor lady next to me was quite concerned that I would lose it all over the plane.  But I did not.  

Then I got off the plane, and there was no air conditioning in the terminal at baggage claim.  So I sat for a bit and sweated while I waited for my luggage.  

Then Kristin came to pick me up!  We checked into our hotel and went for a lovely dinner!  Since I'm very into salad, I had a big salad and some grilled Mahi. The next day we went to the zoo for about 3.5 hours.  The animals were even hot!  But we had a great time:

There was a sea lion show!  

Kristin is a huge fan of shows at the zoo.

"OHMYGOSH it sounds like they're having a thing!  Let's go seeeee!"

But I have to admit it was pretty good.

The zoo had two baby elephants!  This is "Tupelo" walking with his/her momma.

Treats! I love it when elephants look like they're smiling.

It was kinda gross when mom accidentally peed on the baby though.

 Probably the cutest human-nonhuman-primates ever.

 The "dissertation-writing lion".

The lioness tried to come snuggle but almost lost her head in the process.

 Baby bears! Squeal!

Use of tools at its best:

He was using a stick to dig frozen fruit juice out of tubes installed in the wall.

I love giraffes.  Probably because I wish to be tall.

 Melty.

 Melty x 2.

So then I tried to work out in the hotel gym but the air conditioning was out.  See the trend?

Anyway, we went for another great dinner (grilled salmon and salad) and said our goodbyes Sunday morning as Kristin dropped me off at the hotel for the conference.  

The conference was busy, and they seemed very interested in scheduling a 12 hour day with no breaks and feeding us a steady diet of fat and sugar.  But I managed to hoard enough fruit to keep me happy. And I skipped a couple of less relevant things to work out in the (air-conditioned and well-equipped) gym.  Plus my program directors stole apples for me from the front desk! They are the best!

Photos from conference (turns out "science talk" doesn't make for great pictures)-  Thanks to other folks in my program for sharing their pictures so I could have something to tell the internet machine about!

Everyone "presented" a poster. 

Christine:

Hope:

 Jessica:

 Me:

Tabitha:

The group.  Yes, our program is all females except for Scott, our evaluator.

Rob has been offered a spot on the estrogen wagon though, so we shall see!

So on the way back, Christine and I were on the same flight.  There was bad weather.  There were delays.  We got rained on while waiting for the shuttle. There was an hour sitting on the runway, and then a VERY turbulent ride and another difficult landing.  The girls across the aisle from me were super-interested that someone (me) might actually use the airsickness bags. By the time I made it to baggage claim, I wanted to die. 

But I was home!  Overall, a great time, but I was happy to see the hubs and the animals and I think I might remain grounded for a while!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

The countdown!

I'm back from Houston!  After pretty much an entire day of delays just to get on a 1.5 hour direct flight back to Birmingham, I arrived yesterday evening a little disgruntled and minus some coping skills.  But I'm back!  More on my trip later, because:

ROB SUBMITTED HIS DISSERTATION!

Photo Evidence:

It was finally finished around 9 last night, 

meaning it had to be emailed instead of hand-delivered.

Hand deliveries today, I guess.

Did I mention that last night when I got home he had been awake for

almost 36 hours?  Minus a power-nap, of course.

My husband's procrastination skills never cease to amaze.

So I'm extremely excited and proud.  Perhaps more excited than when I submitted my own dissertation.  To celebrate, we went to eat at Al's.  I mean, it was like 10 pm and we were both delirious, so my baked potato with broccoli and cheese was about the most exciting thing ever.

I would also like to mention the following, because more than one person has made a comment along the lines of:

"Oh, just wait until the baby comes, that's going to be really insane."  or "If you think this is huge, just wait til the baby comes."

I find these comments to be not only annoying, but belittling to this huge accomplishment.  Yes, we are so excited to become parents, and a baby is a huge (HUGE) deal. But guess what?  So is writing and defending a dissertation, earning a Ph.D.  This is huge, a day that we wait for our whole lives.  And it's got nothin' to do with babies. 

And the beast is turned in!  Less than two weeks till I can say, "I'm married to a doctor!"

Excitement.

Friday I am flying to Houston!  Houston!  (I'm no geography expert, but that's at least 100 miles away.) In June!  A pregnant lady!  Actually I just put that in there because people expect the heat to bother me, but it doesn't YET.  Ask me again in about 6 weeks. 

Anyway, I'm technically going for a conference but it doesn't start until Sunday night (scientists are not Southern Baptists, after all). 

So, what am I going to do in Houston?  I'm going to see my bestie, my roomie from college, Kristin! We might even go to the zoo! Abby, maybe there will be pandas!  If so, I'll try and do you proud with some fun snapshots. Whatever we do, it will be awesome.

I'll be in Houston from Friday-Wednesday, which means I'm going to miss Rob's first "official" Father's Day (the quietest one he will ever experience), but not to worry, his gift and card are wrapped and on the mantle for him to open on Sunday :)

AND I GET TO SEE MY BESTIE!  Can't wait, gurl!

Go Meat.

This weekend, Rob grilled a lamb leg.  He used indirect heat, something, something blah blah and it took forever and turned out f**king amazeballs.  And these are not words to just casually throw around.

It would appear that we like our meat a bit rare.

(It would also appear that I have failed at photography)

Meanwhile, Slick did this:

And Em and me continued to grow:

Happy Monday! Have a fun week!

half-baked.

Mini Muffin Emerald is 50% done baking!  I hope the last half is as easy as the first half has been.  I'm under no illusions and know that I'm extremely lucky.  I haven't puked once (really!), and am well within the weight gain guidelines, which hopefully means I'm doing something right.  I'm still kicking the asses of all my yoga students twice a week and making it to the gym a few times each week too, although I am no longer running.  I expect things to get harder, because I'll start getting bigger faster and the weather is only going to get hotter.

In other news, Rob's dissertation is due two weeks from today.  

I'll just let you sit back and think about what things are like at our house with a 5-month pregnant lady and a man about to birth a dissertation.  We can both be pretty terrible at times, but it's understandable and temporary :)

Happy Wednesday!

My First Music Teacher

I remember all of my music teachers, but my first piano teacher was by far the favorite.  Her name was Lori Spencer (Miss Lori) and she taught me for about 6 years.

Now that I have students that are moving on (Bryn and Kira are moving to New Jersey!), I hope they always remember their first piano teacher!  Yesterday was their last lesson with me, so we got in a quick photo op, with both me and with my dog :)

Bells usually makes this face when my piano students are around,

so this photo is completely appropriate ;)

I feel I look very teacher-ish in this one, somehow.