A new approach to our blog + current life events

I have been following more and more blogs lately, and have decided to post regularly to our own blog. I have found that blogs are much more interesting to read when posts come up in a scheduled manner. So, today commences my attempt to post every Friday! You'll also notice that with my new resolution to post once a week I've made some changes to the formatting and look of the blog. We haven't posted in a month, and there has been lots going on we have yet to update you on.

Christine is at MGH fighting Stevens Johnson Syndrome

As most of you probably know by now, my sister has been at Mass General for 2.5 weeks now fighting Stevens Johnson Syndrome. When this came on, she was thankfully still living with David and I and so we were able to observe the onset of her symptoms and I was there to call 911 when her tongue swelled and she was having difficulty breathing. SJS is a very serious allergic reaction to medication, and from my understanding it is basically an autoimmune response. The layers of the skin separate, causing a full body rash that eventually blisters, sores in the mucosal areas, and general inflammation. To read more about her progress, visit her blog: http://christinesjs.blogspot.com/

Adopting our foster dog Pepper 

A little over 6 months ago we wrote a post about welcoming our foster dog Pepper from Poodle Rescue of Vermont's care. Pepper was battling Blastomycosis, a dangerous fungal infection. He has been with us ever since, and just recently received a negative test result for the infection - meaning he is on the road to recovery. He finishes his Blasto meds in about a week! During his time with us, Pepper has grown very attached to us and we have grown very attached to Pepper. In addition, everyone in our family thinks he is just the best. At first, he and Ash didn't get along very well and never seemed interested in playing with each other. Recently, he and Ash started chasing each other around the house and wrestling on the bed. When Pepper first came to live with us we were adamant that we would not adopt him as we didn't want to permanently have two dogs at this point and time, and if we did ever adopt a second dog we wanted it to be one who Ash enjoyed playing with. However, we never imagined that Pepper would be with us as long as he has been, or that he would become so integrated into our little family. Therefore, this past week after he and Ash started getting along better, we made the leap and filled out an application to adopt him. Because of his medical issues it will take awhile until the process is finalized, but we are now officially a two dog family! Hang on, here we go.

Videos of Ash and Pepper playing: 

Getting my PhD

I have officially set my defense date for July 10th of this summer, and will plan to continue working for my advisor until the end of August. With Christine's unexpected SJS I am a bit behind in terms of my thesis progress, but I'm hoping I can begin to pick back up and work extra hard to make up for lost time. After I finish with my lab in August I will take some time off for the wedding/honeymoon, and then will hopefully find a post doc in the Boston area. I have begun my job search now, but have yet to contact anyone or share any resumes. I'm looking to do work in medically related microbes and systems biology modeling, but I'll have to see what is available. As a back up plan / side job, I am planning to do some contract editing - I really enjoy writing and editing and seem to have a knack for it. 

House stuff 

We haven't done TOO many things since the big kitchen project, but David is puttering around as best he can on the smaller things. We have fertilized the lawn so instead of dry grass and dirt we now have a thicker dark green lawn to enjoy. He also planted grass seed in the back by the patio, and now that its warmer we will begin to choose flowers to plant along two of the patio edges. Also, David is starting to think about our "fence project", which will involve installing a gate and fence around the back stairs to  make a bigger doggie play area and make it so that we can take them out the back door without a leash (because everything will be enclosed). Currently, we do have an enclosed area for the dogs to run around in, but it doesn't connect to the house door so we need to walk them to the enclosed area before letting them loose. 

In terms of the kitchen, we have two more cabinets to clean out, some more shelving/cabinetry to install, light fixtures to install, excess grout to clean from the tiles, and stools to purchase for the counter. As is though our kitchen is AMAZING, its so functional and beautiful and clean - we both love it. David did an outstanding job, and we are very happy with the layout we chose. Once we finish the kitchen and outside area, our next projects will be repainting the living room, redoing the walls in the dining room and bedroom, and building a built in larger built in closet/wardrobe for the bedroom.