my new baby

Isn't my new baby pretty?!

it's my birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! I love birthdays. I keep waiting for the year that I will dread my birthday, but it hasn't come yet! I think I love the attention too much!

So far today:
- birthday hugs & wishes from my boys
- breakfast made by my boys
- flowers from a co-worker
- a card from my Mom & Gordie (THANK YOU!)
- e-card from my boss

I know that the boys worked on birthday projects last night while I was at choir. I can't wait to see them tonight!

a poem for us all

Here is a poem from my dear friend, Alexandra Pippitt. Alex is an amazing woman who is battling ovarian cancer. She is the strongest person I know. Here is a little piece of Alex to share with you all.

I Will Choose Joy

I will choose joy
Today at least.
Though I may soon fall into fear,
Though I beg to give up on hope
And hope for all around me.

I will choose joy
Now. But find it a gaseous emotion
Condensing as it can into terror, solid, cold
Immense upon my heart,
Freezing my lips from laughter.

I will choose joy
Again; for the others before and after
Because we all are dying
From life, and tests, and poison cures
that subjugate our will.

I will choose joy
For this moment--every moment I can.
And let choice lift me, lift us
While holding on.
While we still hope.

~Alexandra Pippitt, draft 12, 3/25/2006 5:00:37 PM

how does change influence you?

Nancy is in the midst of a Change Management class this week and she gleamed an interesting quote from her course that I have copied over here.

"It's not so much that we're afraid of change, or so in love with the old ways, but it's the place in between we fear... it's like being in between trapezes...there's nothing to hold onto."

I love this quote because it hits right at home for me. It is the unknown swinging between those two trapezes of what has been and what might be. That dangling is scary, but if you have built up enough momentum through desiring the change, thinking rationally about the change and where you currently are, and planning for the change, then you can be excited and avidly reach for the next trapeze.

Stop and think about change for a minute.

• Has fear of change ever influenced a decision?
• Have you ever been excited about a change?
• How were the experiences similar or different?

Whenever I think about change I am always reminded of Zulieka. Zulieka was a graduate student in the same program as me many moons ago (see previous entry relating to "Early Work"). Our program was a Ph.D. program rather than a Master's program followed by a Ph.D. The Master's were only given to those who failed their cumulative exams or for those "who couldn't handle" the program. Yes, the Master's degree was considered the courtesy prize by the faculty in our department. Well, one month, Zulieka had had enough of the experience and was choosing to leave the program with her Master's. She was a talented scientist and we all felt that she had a great career ahead of her. So, you can only imagine our shock when she decided to leave. I was so shocked that I wanted to talk to her and find out why she made the decision and how did she know that it was going to be better where she was going. I will never forget her response:

"You're right, I don't know if it is going to be better there, but what I do know is that I am not happy here. I am making this decision based on what I know and will deal with the unknown when I meet it."

Congratulations to you, Zulieka! I hope that you have landed on your feet and have never regretted your decision to graduate with a Master's degree. Something tells me that you are doing just fine!

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whining: colds and sleepiness

Warning: this is a venting, whining entry, so you may want to stop reading now!

This has been the winter of colds and the flu for me. I have yet another one! Should I consider this the 100th cold of the winter or should I count it as cold #1 of the spring. My whininess today wants to count it as the 100th! Ugh. Hopefully, it will be over quickly.

To add to the fun, we had a family emergency room run (all is okay, so I won't go into details) until 1:30, then the boys were up at 4:30, and the dog was up at 5:30. Perhaps the sleepiness is leading to the whininess. I will sign-off for now until my attitude changes!!!

feeling old or honored?

I decided to google my name the other day with following options: "Sackett, Marcella", "Sackett, MJ", and a few others. As usual, my scientific articles from graduate school, aka my former life, popped up, but another article caught my eye, "Cell-Cycle Progression and the Generation of Asymmetry in Caulobacter crescentus". If you are really interested in reading this article, you can find it here.

Well, this review includes a few references to my old articles. So, I decided to check out my reference numbers in the bibliography and then search for them in the text. The very first one I come across is

"Early work on CtrA showed that it...."

EARLY WORK?!? What? Have I been offically archived in the scientific community to "EARLY WORK"?! I have been trying to come to terms with what I have been feeling and I have run through quite a few different emotions. The first was a really strong sense of "where did the time go?" or "how old am I", but then I started to think about it and am actually feeling a bit proud. Does this mean that my work made a difference and that it was a jumping off point for other researches to investigate the mysteries of cell division?

spring follow-up

I posted this as a response to Minda's blog. She thought it sounded poetic, so I thought I would share it!

"Where are you spring?
My body senses you are near
because my eyes are goopy and my nose is running.
Why can't I see you?"

a task for you

Go outside and notice the buds on the trees! The willows are turning a vibrant yellow, the shrubs are turning bright red with sap, and the other trees are just bulging! Pretty soon, we will have the little, light green leaves that will turn into gloriously bright green full-sized leaves! Spring is here!

layouts for analysis

Below are my layouts for analysis. Let me know what you think my style is!



Here is Sample #1 of recent LO. It is a 12x12 of my youngest doing his favorite thing - digging and playing outside in his boots!



Here are my boys at the Morris, MN arboretum (gotta love it when small towns have a University in them!!).



This one is titled Vegetable Soup - they have silly cutouts at the arboretum that you can stand behind for an excellent photo opportunity!

I have to admit that looking at them, my style is simple with a splash of patterned paper (pp) and an embellishment here and there!

Admitting to Ourselves

My friend, Minda http://mindakms.typepad.com/mindathink/ has posted a challenge on her blog for us to figure out what a handful of her scrapbook pages have in common. One of the clues that she gave to me personally was that it related to my style. At first, I jumped back adn thought, "Am I that predictable?" But then I decided to think about it a little bit. Hmmm....my style...what is my style? I tend to think that I am trendy and keeping up with the latest techniques and styles, but I also tend to think of myself as skinny until I catch a glimpse of my reflected self in a window pane! So, it is time to take a step back at take a look at some of my work.

Keep watching and I will post some of my recent layouts and we can find my style!

I'm back and why I left

I'm back!! Yes, I missed the blogging scene too much to stay away. If that is the case, then you may be asking yourself "why did she leave"? Well, my friends, I hadn't written in my blog since January and on the other site, it was not free. I then started to think about joining Netflix and realized that if I sacrificed my blog, then I would be able to pay for most (okay, about 1/2) of my monthly dues! So, bye-bye blog. Luckily, Minda { http://www.mindakms.typepad.com/} knew that blogspot was a free site, so I am going to give this a try for a little bit!

Thanks for following me to a new site!!

Marcy