Procrastinating by updating!

Hello friends! Sorry I've been absent from the blogging world lately, however, I have been keeping up to date with yours :) Life has been kind of hectic lately and I just haven't made time to update. But now I am because I don't want to go and take pictures of 130 gut samples...

1. First of all, I officially joined a lab and am starting to work on my actual PhD work. I am working in a lab where we study the relationship between the gut and bone loss. It sounds like a stretch, but it's pretty cool stuff. I am also working on a project on studying the benefits of probiotics on bone loss, but ultimately we would like to treat patients with diseases like IBD and Crohn's with the probiotics to increase health in both the gut and the bone. This is a shout out to you Taylor... I'm going to feed you bacteria some day!
While it has been really exciting finding a lab and joining it and finding a place here at MSU where I fit in and belong, it's also a really scary transition. I need to know things now. The current grad student is defending her work next week, then she is leaving for her post-doc at NYU. I will be second in command and one of the head honcho's around here. Kind of intimidating.

2. Sterling is gone again... He is actually traveling and away for half of the month in April. It's kind of crazy actually. Let's see, last weekend I dropped him off Friday morning to go to Gettysburg for the weekend (with ROTC) and I picked him up Sunday night. Monday morning I dropped him off at the airport to go to Seattle for a conference to present his research (from his masters work) and I get to pick him up Thursday night. Then on Sunday morning I will take him to the airport again to go to Virginia and I think I will pick him up next Thursday. Traveling man. It's kind of a prelude to what is on the horizon...

3. We have Sterling's leave date: May 23rd. Yeah, that's a little too soon for me. There is nothing I can do about it, but accept it and deal with it. Doesn't make it suck any less.

4. I am moving out of my apartment and into a house in a few months! Am I excited? So excited! The main reason is the fenced in backyard. My life will be so much easier! Especially with Sterling gone... that poor dog doesn't get nearly as much exercise as he would like so this will be wonderful for him. Plus I will have a roommate which will help when Sterling is away.

5. I am starting medical school in a few months. While I love the graduate program I am in here at MSU, I am so excited to start taking med classes. I mean, medical school was my goal for so long and now I am finally there! It's going to be hard (especially since I'm also doing grad school) but it will be so worth it in the end. Someday (in the far away future) I'll graduate and be able to do whatever I want... I just don't know what that is at the moment haha!

Okay, I think that I don't really have anything else new going on... so unfortunately, I need to get back to the reading and get back to taking pictures of guts (they are pretty cool looking though :))

Spring is in the air!

The weather makes me warm inside. I love being able to take my dog for a walk/run and not have to bundle up like I'm hiking through Antarctica. I know that we still have some cold days ahead, but I also know that spring is right on our doorstep!

Currently, I am still looking for a place to live come May. I think I may have found the house, but the landlord lives in Maryland which makes coordinating kind of hard. Because of this, I may have to keep looking. Is it too much to ask for a reasonably priced rental house with two bedrooms, a fenced in backyard, and a washer and dryer? I guess so. I am hoping to move mid-May so that Sterling can help before he leaves haha! 

On that note, I've come to terms with my husband leaving. I'm (for the moment) at peace with the fact that we won't be living together for the next six or so years. After getting together with some of our other married couple friends (who shall remain nameless) that are having some issues with their first year of marriage, we've realized that we have been building a really good foundation for our long-distance marriage that is coming up quite quickly. I'm not saying that I won't be sad/upset when he leaves or that I won't miss him terribly, but it's okay that he's going. Actually, it's almost a good thing (almost... but not really). You see, I finally met with the DO/PhD coordinator and planned out my next six years of school. Starting at the end of June I will officially have no life. Classes, research, and studying will consume me. While I would love to have Sterling around (because I think he's wonderful), I know that I would be distracted a lot. Mainly because we have so much fun together and I'd rather hang out with him than study. So for that reason, it's ALMOST a good thing he's leaving. Almost. Not really though.

Did I say we've been training for a half marathon? Well rather... we are starting to train haha! Basically I have to increase a mile a week to get up to 13 miles by race time. I'm hoping to have a rocking bod by the end of May for all the weddings I am in and this will definitely help. The warm weather also helps. Running on a treadmill stinks!

Okay, I need to get back to work/studying. As always.

An update

Right after that last post, we got Sterlings training dates.

He's leaving the end of May/beginning of June. We don't know where his base is yet, that news will come in March (which starts tomorrow, sick).

So first he starts off as an officer at LTC (the same training he went to two summers ago). The good news is that I'll get to talk to him frequently and he may be able to come up for our one year anniversary (awesome!). That ends in the beginning of August and then he'll have some time off (maybe come home...) and then he'll start his infantry basic training at the end of August. That will go until the beginning of December and then hopefully he'll get to come home for the holidays before he starts Ranger School in January.

It's real now.

Hopefully he'll get to stay in May long enough to do our half marathon (on the 22nd).

Okay, I need to study now. Le sigh, such is the life of a grad student.

I am an... Army Wife?

Army wife?

A few years ago, those words meant that you graduated high school, married and got knocked up (in no particular order) to a guy going off to basic. Don't get me wrong, I do respect those ladies... however, I had more plans for my life than to become a wife who stays home with her three kids whom she's had before she's old enough to even buy a drink to help comfort herself.

But then Sterling joined the Army and my life changed. I realized that the Army isn't just for people who don't know what they want to do when they finish high school. The Army isn't for people with no where else to turn. It's also for educated people. It's also for people looking to make a good career.

So I got used to the idea that Sterling was in the Army. But ROTC isn't the real Army (I like to say that he's playing pretend Army haha...) I got used to hearing him talk about his classes and his officers and yada yada. The Army had infiltrated our home.

Then Sterling and I got married and we got to explain to a lot of people our life plans. They always include him being gone for seven or eight years. But that's in the future. There is no reason to dwell/worry about it now. Let's just get married and have a good time with each other.

And that is exactly what we have been doing. Except... March is creeping around the corner and that is when he will get his first set of real orders. We already know that he is branching infantry (another thing I like to push to the future to worry about), but we have no idea when he will be leaving. It could be June, October, December, or any time in between or longer. The infamous Army waiting game.

I've been really good at putting a good face on about Sterling leaving.
First he'll go to basic officer leadership course (like basic training for officers) and that is about 3 months. Then he'll go to ranger school which is about another 3 months (I believe). Then he'll go to his base to train with his unit... we'll find out where this base is in March as well (right now we are thinking either Kentucky or North Carolina). Sterling tells me that all of that will take up most of his first year. Normally their second year out they get deployed for 9-12 months. Suck. Then he'll come back to live on his designated base. The thing is, for what Sterling wants to do, there are no bases in Michigan. Which is where I'll be. In school. Really busy. Then he goes back and forth between working on base and deployments until his time is up. If he makes it a career, that's eight years. If he doesn't, then that's five years.

All the while, I'll be back here in Michigan.

I'm refusing to get upset until it's actually something to get upset about. But it is really hard. I'm going to miss how much fun we have together. He's not only my husband, but my best friend. I'm going to miss sleeping with him.

It's hard to think about, but I've been thinking more and more on it lately.

One of the officers from Sterling's program said this to me at the Military Ball a few weeks ago:

"If it was easy, everyone would do it"

So true.

Valentines Day

I love...
my husband
Hankus Magankus
my family (including the in-laws of course)
my church, Riverview
my lifegroup
my graduate program
my electric blanket
chocolate cupcakes
black coffee
my kindle
crocheting
the beach
my bridesmaids (who I miss dearly...  including you Tay tay)
my CMU friends
my MSU friends


and most of all, my loving Father.


Happy Valentines Day everyone! Take some time today to let your loved ones know how much you love them :)

Bad mood... fixed.

I'm frustrated with myself.
The house is a mess.
I have no clue what is going on in my genetics class.
I have three papers to read before class tomorrow.
I have a meeting with my PI at 11am tomorrow morning and I need to get into work by 7am to get an rtPCR running (it takes 2 and 1/2 hours...).
I have a paper and a presentation next week that I haven't started on.
We need groceries.
The bathrooms need to be cleaned.
Laundry needs to be done.
Miles need to be run.

Being a good wife and a good grad student isn't easy work.

***************************************************************************

I'm choosing to not be frustrated.

It's just shoes clothes messing up the place, no biggie.

I should find a good reference text book for genetics to get caught up. 

Only one of the papers is going to be heavily discussed tomorrow, I can get that read by class time. 

My PI is super nice and she'll understand if I don't have all of my results ready. 

I have the rest of the week/weekend to get stuff done for next week. 

We have plenty of food and we're fine. 

Eh, they're not that bad. 

There are only a couple loads of laundry... it'll get done. 

Miles will be run. I've already done 11 this week. That's pretty awesome in itself.

My husband loves me as I am. I am a smart girl.

****************************************************************************

I'm in a better place now. It's amazing how you can talk yourself out of a bad mood :)

Currents (copied from Alex... she's so inspiring!)

Thoughts: I should be reading for my Microbial Pathogenesis class tomorrow instead of reading/writing blogs. 

I love tanning (I went this afternoon... glorious). 

Blessings: My husband. He keeps me motivated when I don't want to do what I should. Except right now because he doesn't know that I'm not working on homework...

Hank. I seriously love my dog. He has been really sick the past couple of days and all I want to do is cuddle up with him and love on him. 

Although I take it for granted sometimes, being in the DO/PhD program. Having my education funded. Being able to really make a difference someday (when I eventually get done with school)

Our lifegroup. We were so blessed to already have a home church and to meet 20-something year olds to share our lives with. No one in the group is the same and everyone brings something else to the table. All of them are wonderful people.

Our bridge card. I am so thankful that we have this aid this year. I was able to buy so much food to cook and freeze for the month and I know that not everyone can do that. Thank you tax payers.

Struggles: This new budget. I hate having an allowance. 

Committing to working out 6 times (with stretching and walking counting for 2 of those days) in preparation for my half marathon in May. But dang will I look good.

Loving myself so I can love my husband better.

Classes. Oh are they going to be tough this semester. So. Much. Reading.

Projects: Similar to Alex... I have a lot. Most of them have to do with crocheting. I too, am working on an etsy page. Though, realistically I won't have things up and going until summer time and by then who wants to buy hats and scarfs??

Here's some of the things I am working on though: Snowflake doily suncatchers, cross stitch "Welcome" sign, doily angels, shawl, fat bottomed purses, and some odds and ends jewelry making.

Favorites: As I said earlier, tanning.

Running (I did 4 miles earlier today)

Crocheting.

Reading my nerdy books (If you like the Lord of the Rings you would like this series: The Wheel of Time)

The piano music Sterling has on. Every song puts me in a place. The current one sounds like a lullaby... I feel like I should be going to bed. Soon.

My clean house and freezer stocked full of food. I took advantage of this three day weekend by buying an enormous amount of food and cooking a TON of stuff. I made lasagna, goulash, veggie bean chili, eggplant parmesan, taco meat, hamburgers, chicken breasts, meatloaf, butternut squash soup, tomato-avocado salad, salsa, and lots of sandwiches. Oh and for fun I also made (from scratch) chocolate cupcakes with frosting. My freezer is stocked for the month. This is such a relief. Also, the laundry is done, the floors are vacuumed, the bathrooms are wiped down... all that needs to be done is the kitchen. And I am not looking forward to that.

Desires: To be on a beach.

To not worry about student loans.

To know where I am going to live next year.

To be closer to my family.

To go to bed. I'm tizired already. Oh but wait... I have reading. Sick.

To see all my friends from MP.

And with that, I leave you to do that reading I've been complaining about. Ughhhhhhh. At least I have diet coke and chocolate cupcakes!