Nate and his Qualifying Exam...

Well, I only had a few days to study for it after I fininshed my finals for spring quarter... bad time for a qualifying exam.... Well, I had my qualifying exam this morning at 9am (oral exam that my department gives at the end of the first year, in which they decide if they want to keep us). All of the professors finally showed up at ~9:10am. They were supposed to ask me about my research (and I was hoping to kill some extra time on that), but they decided to jump right into the questions. The first professor asked me a few questions about Fick's laws and had me solve a few diffusion questions. Fortunately they were all directly from the class I took from him last winter. Then the second professor (who taught a cell biology, which everyone was supposed to take, but I got them to waive despite the fact that I've never taken the class before...) started to fire away... I stumbled a little at first when she was asking about the methods used to discover aquaporins. The third professor tried asking questions about solution thermodynamics, a topic they don't even offer to the students, but that I had several years ago, but didn't understand... all he had to say every time I spoke was, "don't go any further, because you're just digging yourself deeper." He did finally ask a question at the end about time scales of a dyanmic mass-spring system. The cell bio professor finished up by asking a few last questions about the problems with implanting embryonic stem cells. Fortunately, I'd read about the associated issues in the past few days when I read ~2.5 chapters of the textbook. When they asked me to step out while they discussed my standing, I thought they might ask me to study thermodynamics again and then retake the exam or make me TA a class at best, when I walked in, they shook my hand and congratulated me on passing, then told me to get a thermo book and read it... I'm really glad they passed me, since my adviser said they were failing a surprisingly large number of students this year!
I came home tonight and found that I guess someone else knew I passed... I found a 6 pack of beer on my doorstep! (With a thank you note from a neighbor I've only met the other day when I found their keys in their mailbox, so I returned them) I'm sure glad that I was babysitting for a friend when they dropped the the 6 pack off... That would've been awkward saying "thanks, but I don't drink." Well, to the trash bin they go!

Nate's Top 9 from the Past 9

I always hate it when I'm reading a friend's blog and come to super long posts.... well, I don't learn from others' mistakes well, so here's a long post... I was thinking today about how my life has been so blessed with good things, great experiences and not-so-fun learning experiences... It's been 9 years since I finished highschool (good riddance), so I want to count down my favorite 9 experiences, periods of time, etc. since I wouldn't trade these past 9 years for anything.

9. Getting accepted into graduate school... that was a relief in Feb 2006 when I found out that I wouldn't have to find a job in sanitational engineering (garbage man) after all... however, I wouldn't wish the first year of grad school on even my worst enemy...

8. Summer studying in Israel, Jordan and Egypt (1998). Just after high school I studied at the BYU Jerusalem Center for a summer (my GPA never fully recovered, though...)

7. BYU - while I never intended on going there, I would not trade my educational experience with any other school... I had great teachers, true friends and expereinces I couldn't have had anywhere else. Best 6 years I've ever spent (I think I overstayed my welcome, though).

6. Family time and Road trips in Utah while at college there and in Washington while working there in 2005. I loved the countless trips to weddings, to national parks, and trips to nowhere in particular, but just to get away. I loved all of the trips with family or just the two of us .

5. Internships in Seattle and D.C. and living with Maria's family during it.

4. 2 years in Spain... While I struggled the first 6 months, the remaining 18 were the best 18 months of my life. I loved every day being able to get up and serve the people in Spain as a missionary. I loved the community service I participated in, the free smoking cessation courses I got to teach, the youth I got to help in the rough parts of town, the elderly people I got to serve, and most importantly the opportunities I had to share my testimony of how Christ is our Savior and that His church has been restored on the earth.

3. March 15th 2006... I hadn't been back from grad school interviews in Boston more than a couple days when Maria woke me up that morning, excited and nervous saying "Nate! Either I just wet the bed or my water just broke!" That was the first of what still seems like endless sleepless nights and continual chuckles about all the cute things Anabanana does and says.



2. July 25th 2003... I mean the 26th! sorry!... (quote from a mission reunion that got me in trouble)

1. Every day with my girls... I love them both with all my heart

Kristina and Keith's Li'l Katie

I know this announcement is coming a couple months late, but hey, I didn't have a blog before and I've been super busy... anyway, Kristina (my sister) had her first little bundle of poops and joy! Her name is Katie and this is the photo of her on her blessing day. Congrats and good luck!

Is is WWF or Night-Night Time? or is it both?

Anabelle has such a nurturing personality... or something. She is always so tender with other children and will comfort them and give kisses when they are sad. She also likes putting her animals down for a nap, and then she body slams them... poor unsuspecting animals...

Anabanana vs. the Slide at our Local Beach

Anabelle was timid at first last Saturday when we stopped by the local beach, but after we got her to go down the first slide, she went nuts! She kept running to the slide, plopping down and sliding down. It got to the point that she stopped plopping down and instead tried running down the slide until she fell... even though she landed on her bum and didn't hurt herself, we knew at that point that it was time to calm down and wrap up the slide fun... she thought otherwise to say the least! This video is just a clip of one of her early attempts at the slide.

Anabelle has a new friend named Audrey. After our neighborhood Memorial Day picnic we were walking home when suddenly Anabelle grabbed Audrey's hand and they started walking together. It took me a while to pull out the camera, but I got the last few seconds of it before Anabelle saw a neighbor's toys and made a break for them. Audrey's mom said yesterday that Audrey will walk up to other kids at the park and tries to walk with them too... Let's hope all of Anabelle's traits don't rub off on her...

This last year has been an amazing learning experience. It has not been easy and at times I've wondered, "what the heck did we get ourselves into?" Overall, though, when I look at Anabelle and she gives me that wide overjoyed smile I know that there is no place I would rather be! I love that little monkey. Being a stay-home-mom is the hardest job I've ever had; but it is also the most rewarding (and I have worked from everything including being a paralegal in a busy DC firm to an MTC teacher, so I don't say that lightly). Anabelle is now 14 months old and she is developing quite the personality. She knows about a dozen signs and about 40 words, so between signing and "talking" she makes her wishes pretty clear (most of the time). I must admit this has been my favorite stage in her short but very lively development. We are both learning so much. I can't wait to see what new surprises the coming years will bring.

Nu! Nu! Nu!

Yesterday Maria called me at the lab to give me the news... Anabelle had learned a new word. It was immediately apparent what she was trying to say when she would shake her head violently and say "Nu! Nu! Nu! Nu! Nu! Nu!" when Maria would try to feed her, keep her from getting into things, etc... It reminds me of Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail when Sir Bedevere is unable to say "Ni" correctly and instead says "Nu!"... however, even though Anabanana can't quite say the word yet, it already has the effect on us that saying "Ni" seems to have on people in the movie.
We realized today that she is, however, able to say "no"; this is always followed by her jabbing at her nose, though...
As soon as be can get a short clip of her saying it, we'll post it.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Why not.... everybody's doing it... if you want to be cool... just say "yes".... Well, I finally succumbed and started a blog. I'm Nate and I'm a professional student. I have a wife and child and we live in Southern California (despite the fact that we always swore that SoCal was the last place we'd ever move to).