Jun

Posting Photos Online Requires a Mad Scientist Flowchart | Lifestream Blog.

This article is a couple of months old now, but I just stumbled across it this week … as I struggle to figure out how to balance personal/professional online presence for myself and also figure out how to put up content for our Girl Scout site keeping it both secure and easily accessible to families, this chart really resonated with me!

  

Dec

10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates.

  

Jan

This week’s topic is things I want to do in 2009. I like this better than the New Year’s Resolutions … ’cause they’re more specific, and they can just be for fun (which most of mine are).

1. Be a good coach – I got conned into coaching BOTH kids’ basketball teams this year! I have pretty low expectations performance-wise – only one kid on each team has ever played basketball before. My goal is to teach them to love the game, and hopefully make sure they know which goal is theirs! In all seriousness, my kids have played enough sports that I’ve seen a lot of coaches – some great, some absolutely awful. Even if I can’t be great, I hope I always am able to find something positive to say to each kid after the game, and to make sure they have fun, regardless of outcome.

2. Cosmo challenge – this one is for Craig, he knows what it means!

3. Watch either Kentucky or Vanderbilt win the NCAA championship – based on pre-conference play, this one doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, but you gotta dream! In the case of Kentucky, a follow-up to this one is that I’d like to watch a press conference where the UK athletics director fires Billy Gillespie.

4. Go on another sisters weekend with my sisters – girls, we’ve been talking about this for TWO YEARS, we gotta get our acts together and just do it!

5. Enjoy celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary

6. Join (or start) a book club – again, this is something I’ve talked to several people about, and just need to get my act together and do!

7. Be better about keeping the web page/blog updated – Facebook is great, and I have been doing more of that, but I know some of you want more details!

8. Go somewhere I’ve never been – that’s on my list every year!

9. Submit at least 5 papers for publication, and two grant proposals – need to kick my work up into a higher gear, and now’s the time.

10. Have a Passover seder or Rosh Hashanah dinner at my house – we have gotten out of the habit of entertaining, but I really like having people over, and holidays are an easy way to get back into that groove.

Will try to check back in over the course of the year to see how well I do!

  

Jul

Okay, so head over to TeamKirith Tidbits (our home page). I bought a new template from 11 Mystics – love, love, LOVE their stuff! Also love the ease of getting advanced features all the while be clueless as to HOW they happened – compliments of iWeb. Made some quick pages for Samara and Eli, too. Will be updating mine/Craig’s work pages soon. Stay tuned!

  

Feb

Testing…trying import into WordPress

  

Feb

Well, I have successfully switched over to WordPress for our blog! This is my very first post under the new system. This still feels pretty weird to me format-wise, but I am sure it’ll get easier as time goes on. Although the much-lauded “5 Minute installation” was definitely NOT the case with me, I think it had more to do with my web host than with WordPress.

I love Blogger, don’t get me wrong, and had been using it since it first came out – we were bloggers when blogging wasn’t cool! %-) But I was looking for something with more flexibility – customization options, something that would be a little less like “just another blog” that looks the same as everyone else’s, something in particular with more options for audio files. I looked at LiveJournal and the other Six Apart blogging packages, but in the end settled on this since WordPress seems to be the most powerful of the current crop, I can run it on my own server, and I philosophically am inclined toward open source packages.

So, here we are! Now to start tweaking…

  

Dec

Okay, most people on the planet already know about this site, but my obsession with memes (and with Letterman-style top 10 lists) led me to a site that posts a top-ten list every week. People respond to it, and then add links to their own lists. I LOVE LISTS!!! What a great idea. Someday I hope to develop my own meme list that people will use, in the meantime, I will just mooch off others who have good meme ideas already. Plus, it’s “just a list”, so it doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time – who knows, maybe I’ll actually do it every week! Stranger things have happened…

  

May

Okay, now that all that “Idol” business is over…

I knew when I heard about a “meme challenge” that it was something I needed to do! Craig teaches about memes in one of his undergrad classes, and it is an idea that has always fascinated me. Memes are just ideas, but ideas with the potential to cause CHANGE. Memes really are about *social* evolution – just as genes pass physical “information” from one generation to the next, memes pass information on, too. But they pass it much faster – transmission from person to person within a generation.

Anyway, I don’t want to get too philosophical here. The point is, there’s this MASSIVE scrapbooking site called Two Peas in a Bucket. They have a great store, plus it can be a great source of scrapbooking information and ideas, since people can post layouts they’ve done so that others can “scraplift” them. (Warning to the uninitiated: this site can also be a huge time suck! %-). A woman named Tenika, whom I’ve never met, has posted a meme challenge for bloggers on the site. Her idea is that we will have e-conversations in our blogs based on these weekly challenges that she posts. She actually started this last month, so I have a little catching up to do. So, here goes…

Challenge #1 was to paint online. Seriously. There is a site called ArtPad, and it literally lets you create paintings online. You can even frame it! I had much fun at this site!!! The rules for the challenge were don’t think, don’t judge, just do. I did the best I could, but it turns out: a) I suck at drawing; and, b) it is very difficult to use the mousepad on a laptop to create art. Oh, well. I finally settled on drawing a heart, which is a little lopsided, but you still get the idea. It’s in purple, my favorite color. Here is what mine looks like:

Very profound symbolism, eh? You can also view it “live” here: http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?iqnhm31ivs0c . The coolest part of all, when you click on the link, it actually shows me drawing it, the actual strokes I made with the little digi-brush!!! Oh, and one of the options at the site is to add onto other paintings – how cool is that?!! Who thinks up these things?!! I sense a lot of wasted time in my future playing on this site!

Okay, sleep time. Stay tuned for challenges 2 and 3 very soon!

  

May

Okay, I’ve decided to do a “Blog Challenge” to try to help me update this thing more often. We’ll get to that tomorrow, but first and foremost…BO vs. Carrie!!!

I gotta say, I’m very torn on this. Bo is, quite simply, HOT!!! Oh, and yes, he sings really well, too. But, for reasons I can’t even articulate that well, I just love Carrie. She has an amazing voice, and it just FEELS more right for her to win – she’s young, innocent, and exactly the kind of person this show is “supposed” to discover. Bo has been performing in a band for years, plus it seems like he just wants it less. Of course, as a lot of commentators have said, it doesn’t really matter who wins – they’re both clearly going to get recording contracts at this point. Still, it means SOMETHING to be THE American Idol.

Round 1 – both songs were wierd choices, but especially Bo’s. A ballad? His personality still comes through, but it wasn’t his best performance. Carrie’s performance was “pitchy”, but still – amazing voice. I agree with Simon, round 1 went to Carrie.

Round 2 – Craig is in the process of voting for Bo without even waiting until the end, or even hearing Carrie’s second song (we’re watching on TiVo with a slight delay, so we can vote whenever). I’m waiting until the bitter end to decide, since I still can’t make up my mind. Craig doesn’t like country music, and so he’s always been more of a Bo fan than a Carrie fan. Ok, Independence Day isn’t my favorite song of hers, but she did a great job. I’d say round 1 also went to Carrie.

Round 3 – man, this “inside your heaven” song is really sappy crappy. But, now that’ I’ve heard them both on it, I do think Bo did a better job on it. Okay, gott pause for crying kids. I love my TiVo!!!

Back – Carrie was REALLY off on that last song. Round 3 definitely goes to Bo. I think Carrie was just very nervous tonight. She’s just a kid after all! Craig got through once for Bo. I think in the end I’m going to vote for Carrie. I still just feel like she deserves it more. Simon agrees with me – always a good sign. But Bo is so fine…maybe I’ll vote for both! %-)

A brief aside – I saw something amazing today. A website that charges you $29.95, and claims to vote as many times as you want for the American Idol candidate of your choice. I mean, really – I like the show, but to PAY to vote? Especially to a service that can’t verify that it actually does what it says it will do? I don’t think so.

Okay, it’s done – I voted twice for Carrie and once for Bo. But I don’t feel like I’ll be disappointed whoever wins. I know I’ll be buying both albums from iTunes as soon as they’re released!

Leslie (& Craig, sort of), out!

  

Oct

Yes, it has been about a year now since we wrote any blogs or updated the web page. I’m not going to apologize – this past year was one of the most stressful we’ve had, though also wonderful in a lot of ways. Eli is over a year old now (!), and Sami is racing toward 3 with great enthusiasm (though she’s just learned to hold up her fingers and show people “how many” she is, so she will likely be content to stay 2 a little while longer). We are also homeowners now – finally! We absolutely love the new house.

We are also extremely glad to be having some “down time”. Yes, life is still hectic, but at least we’ve had a little bit of a break from major life events. Think about it – we’ve been married for 4 years now, and in that time we’ve had: two children (and a miscarriage before Sami was born), two deaths of close loved ones (my grandfather and Craig’s mother), and two job changes for me PLUS we’ve moved 4 times, and adjusted to Craig having diabetes. And that’s not even factoring in the (often major) stressors that we’ve helped our families and friends through. So, we are relieved that (for now) our stress is just mundane day-to-day things like kids having temper tantrums and deciding on what to have for dinner.

Oh, and since everyone keeps asking us – no, no more babies on the way, at least for now. When we got married, I originally wanted 4 kids. Now I’ve scaled back a little bit, but I do still want to have a third. I can’t really explain why, it just seems right. Craig says he’s up for it, too. Unfortunately, having kids is UNBELIEVABLY expensive (as most of you know), especially when they’re in daycare. Since we can’t really afford to have 3 in daycare (unless we want to eat beans every night and never go anywhere or do anything! %-), the current plan is to wait until Sami is starting school and then have the third one. But, a lot can happen in 2 years, so we reserve the right to change our minds.

So, moving on. I do hope I will be able to make more regular posts from now on. But no promises. I do realize as I get older how important it is to stay in touch with people, both for us as a couple and for the kids. I want them to grow up feeling loved by lots of people! Thus far, I’ve been pretty bad about keeping up with people, and I feel guilty about it. However, I can’t go backward, all I can do is go forward and try to do better now. So if you get a phone call or email from me and you haven’t heard from me in a while, try not to give me *too* hard a time!

  

Mar

I’ve been doing a fair bit of work on the web page, as you might’ve noticed, and also a lot of work getting our scrapbooks in order. Well, really getting the stuff that will *eventually* go in the scrapbooks in order. It is a big sense of accomplishment – almost like I have a prayer (albeit a small one) of actually pulling my life together. Who knows, maybe soon I’ll finish unpacking the last few boxes that are still lying around from when we moved! %-)

One of the things I’m most glad/relieved about, as well as proud of, is that I *finally* finished Sami’s birth story. I first wrote it down a few days after she was born, then kind of forgot about it in the aftermath of becoming a parent. I went back when she was six months old and added some details I had forgotten, and, again, essentially forgot about it. One of my friends recently asked if she could read it; plus, we are getting really close to knowing whether we’re having a boy or a girl this time. So it was very important to me to get it “done”. It’s pretty long, but I hope people will have a look at it. I have a different perspective on it now than I did right afterward, but I tried to be true both to how I felt at the time, and how I feel now. I realized in going back over it that a lot of Sami’s first moments are missing, because of the c-section – Craig went with her after she was born, but I couldn’t. So I have wrangled from him a promise to write his own version of the birth story. He says he will do it “soon”. %-)

I am very excited about the ultrasound on Friday. I wavered back and forth with wanting to know what we’re having, and not wanting to know. But, in the end, my curiosity will get the best of me. Maybe for our third child, I will want to be surprised, but this time we will find out. We’ve had an early ultrasound already, so we’ve seen the baby’s heart beating, etc. But it’s almost like it’s not realy until we know what we’re having. Of course, part of the reason is that Craig refuses to discuss names until after the ultrasound – somehow the experience of being pregnant and bonding with the baby becomes more intense for me once I know what to call the baby (at least that happened last time).

I’m just rambling now – time for sleep.

  

Jun

Hello, darlin’. It’s been a long time…sorry, we had a guest from out of town this past weekend and one of our stops was to the new Country Music Hall of Fame. Now I have country music on the brain. Anyway, it has been a while, as usual. Oh, well, what matters is, I’m here now!

I’ve just finished a couple of very big work projects, so I’m feeling less pressured than I have really since Sami was born. Who knows, maybe later I’ll even feel up to updating our web page! %-) Craig says I should turn the “Cute Sami Picture of the Week” feature into “Cute Sami Picture of the Month”. But I think it’s been longer than that now…

Speaking of Sami, she is doing *very* well! She is getting so big, we just can’t believe it – she’ll be 4 months old on Sunday!!! Time flies. We just picked up her 3 month pictures from the photographer yesterday, and they are absolutely precious – watch for them in the mail. I’ll be sending them along with thank-you notes which I haven’t gotten around to yet, and also with the 6 week pictures, which I never got around to mailing. %-) I do the best I can, I really do!

Our big news these days is that Sami will be starting daycare next month. She got “accepted” (whatever that means for a baby) at our first choice place, and her first day will be July 22nd, after we’re back from our summer vacations to visit family. I know it will be a good experience for her – research has shown that. Contrary to what many people think and what Republicans want everyone to believe , kids in daycare *at worst* are the same as kids who aren’t, and at best they actually develop better social skills and advanced cognitively relative to kids who have stay at home moms (or dads).

See, I sound defensive though, don’t I? That’s because I have surprised myself by feeling guilty about sending her to daycare. It’s not that I want to quit my job and become a “full-time mom”. No offense to those who do that – it’s just not my style. I worked very hard to get my Ph.D., I am good at what I do, and I love what I do. And it is very important to me to raise Sami as a strong, independent woman. But what Craig and I have done for the last 4 months is trade off days, so that at least one of us has been home all the time with her. So, I feel a little guilty that we won’t still be doing that. The reality, though, is that she will likely get more attention at daycare than she does with us during the days – we feed her and diaper her as needed (of course), and play with her when we can, but otherwise we have her in a bouncer seat or in her swing much of the day, while we struggle to get work done. Still – it pains me. And, even though he pretends to be the calm, collected, non-neurotic dad, it pains Craig, too. One of our developmental psychologist friends says that it will be a lot harder on us than on her. I’m starting to have a better understanding of what she means!

  

Jan

Well, I guess maybe we won’t do this *every* day! %-) We had a great weekend just hanging out alone together – all the more important since it may well be our last “childless” weekend together, FOREVER!!! What an overwhelming thought!

We’ve been having quite the adventure trying to find the perfect “coming home” outfit for the baby. Well, I use “we” in kind of a loose sense – Craig has come with me (without complaint) to each of the stores, offered some very good suggestions (such as not to get a pants outfit because the waist band would hurt the baby’s belly button where the cord was), and gives honest opinions about the outfits we find; nevertheless, he seems kind of mystified by the concept that we need a special outfit for bringing the baby home from the hospital.

I’m no longer going to my office, but I am trying to work at home to get as much done as possible before the baby comes. Craig is scheduled to teach this week and next week, and then he will get some time off to spend with the baby and me – he starts teaching again after Vanderbilt’s Spring Break (mid-March). Of course, if she comes early, things will have to shift somewhat.

Otherwise, the waiting continues. I still haven’t packed my bag to take to the hospital – somehow that makes it seem so real! My back hurts a lot, and I am getting more uncomfortable in general, but it’s not unbearable (at least not yet). I still feel like I’m not ready, but I’m not sure I will feel ready at all before she’s here…

  

Jan

An interesting idea. Let’s see how it goes. I just got home after a long day in Nashville. Now I’m looking forward to a long 4-day “weekend” of chilling and feeling the baby kick! But right now it’s time to go watch my time-shifted tape of “ER”.