stream of consciousness...

just smeared a bug across my computer screen :(

steph's fan is blowing in the next room... it's getting HOT at night... summer :)

michael buble is wooing me as usual

a clean room makes everything happy

finished reading "blink" tonight... now i keep studying everyone's facial expressions to read their minds and wondering what everyone's first impression of me is... short? nerdy?

tonight i will dream of sPLA2, patman, phospholipid tails, and finishing my paper this week

it's hard to remember to clock in and out after you've been on salary for 8 months

reading emails from jenny makes me miss my little ones and wish i could give them a squeeze

why do i stay up so late? i blame it on my mother's genes

speaking of mumsy and popsicle, getting excited for siberia in august! :)

new addiction

WORDS WITH FRIENDS

it's taking over my life....

randoms

(1) I PASSED MY COMPREHENSIVE EXAM!!! basically this means my coursework is complete and i am officially a PhD candidate! sounds official eh? so now i only have my dissertation left to complete. psh that will be cake ;) currently, writing this paper takes up most of my day...

“MOLECULAR DETAILS OF MEMBRANE FLUIDITY CHANGES DURING APOPTOSIS AND RELATIONSHIP TO PHOSPHOLIPASE A₂ ACTIVITY”

Gibbons E, Pickett KG, Streeter MC, Warcup AO, Nelson J, Judd AM, Bell JD

(2) with the semester over I get to do research full time for the summer! i'm super lucky because i got a fellowship with the BYU Cancer Research Center....so they basically pay me more money than i would usually make to do the same research i would have done anyway! lucky me. (oh and they took me out to lunch at la jolla groves in the Riverwoods...BEST. SALMON. EVER....oh and the bathrooms were pretty shnazzy as well...bonus)

(3) I may or may not have tripped on like 3 chairs at once the other day while i was all alone in the lab. i may or may not have fallen HARD CORE all the way to the ground, right on my knee. i may or may not have a huge black bruise on that knee.

(4) my bro-in-law ryan and i decided which half marathon we're going to do this summer! the hobbler half marathon (no pun intended) is 12 weeks away so this was my first week of training! I've run 3 out of 4 days this week so i'm feeling pretty heroic. saturday  i'm running a 5k with steph in payson for her school so hopefully i can beat my sad rex lee run 5k time from march. (sidenote: it's super depressing to start running again after you've been slacking. hopefully my body will forgive my recent neglect)

(5) so i get asthma when i'm running...but the more i run the better it gets and it usually only lasts about 1 mile. who cares though...the funny part is what i think about when i'm running with asthma, all i can picture is a diagram dr. judd drew me of a glob of mucous in my airways hanging there making it harder for me to exhale. we called it the loogie explanation and got a good laugh out of it (because i wondered why mucous in the airway wouldn't prevent inhalation as much as exhalation ... turns out there's this thing called gravity making the loogie hang the way it does). disgusting i know. sorry about that. i may or may not have drawn this on the board during my final review for the physiology lab i TA. good times.

(6) one of the highlights of this week:

we got to meet the Guschins! they are my parents' good friends in Novosibirsk and were visiting the United States from Russia for their daughter's graduation. we had such a fun visit with them...they were so kind. it made me happy to feel a little more connected to my parents since they seem a world away. it made it more real that they're actually in Russia. a favorite quote from Brother Guschin: "your father IS russian...he is a russian man." :) so proud of my jukie and pops.

(7) When i was growing up, my mom would always make the 4 girls matching Easter dresses. they were usually the same pattern but different colors. it seems like annie was always blue, jenny always pink, and then abby and i were purple, yellow, or green or something. we were pretty cute. if i had old pictures on my laptop i'd put one on for your viewing pleasure. since i DON'T...here's one from THIS year :) some things never change...

(8) did i mention i bought a fedora? sometimes i'm random like that.

(9) i finally applied for my passport so i can go to Russia in August!! SO EXCITED.

(10) so i was just looking up something on Craig's List...and thought this was funny/weird. sorely tempted though. enjoy...

FREE PHYSICAL LABOR

My name is Mike and I'm looking to do some physical labor for anybody who needs it. Why am I offering this? Lifting weights is incredibly boring! I'd much rather help somebody move a bunch of bricks, dig a hold, pull some weeds/plants etc. The catch is it's gotta be something that will give me a good sweat so I can get a work out. I'm 6'3" and a big strong guy, so give me something difficult! I need to do this! Give me a call anytime, leave a message if I'm not there. I teach piano so that's the recorded message you'll hear when you call. Thanks!

cure for a bad mood

1) wake up at 7:30
2) run 3.4 miles with a cute friend
3) stretch
4) take a hot shower while blasting James Taylor (and singing along of course)
5) throw in a load of laundry
6) read the word of God
7) wear neon yellow shoes

loving today. the end.

easter thoughts

I'm a little late for Easter, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the Savior.

This week I've had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences with Him.

With both my roommates gone for spring break, the house has been really quiet...perfect for pondering.

First, I know He lives.

He lived, died, rose from the tomb, and lives today.

My Grandpa Glenn passed away ten years ago on Easter morning.

I know my grandpa has watched over me...especially on my mission.

I know resurrection is real and a gift to all.

This allows us to be reunited with our loved ones after our time here is done.

Second, I know He knows and loves me.

He has shared my joys.

He understands my pain.

He is as real to me as any friend on earth...maybe more so.

He has been there when I felt utterly alone.

He has filled the holes in my heart.

His peace cannot be replicated.

I know my pain is small compared to so many, but I know He understands it all.

His Atonement can heal anything, no matter how deep.

When I haven't understood others' pain or known how to help them, 

He has allowed me to feel His love for them...

and that changes everything.

Third, I know He paid for my sins.

He is infinitely patient with me...

with my stubbornness, pride, weaknesses, and slow learning curve.

He has welcomed me with open arms after I haven't acted the way I know to be right.

He has forgiven me and changed my heart.

His love and mercy make me want to be better.

Through His grace, He slowly shapes me into who I can become.

He gives me power to do things I cannot do on my own.

For these reasons, I will love Him forever.

For these reasons, I try to follow Him.

I'm not perfect at it, but that's why He is there in the first place.

Happy Easter :)

missing my dude

well i was just updating my little brother's  (haha or should i say younger brother since he's HUGE) mission blog and it got me thinking about him...and can i just say, wow i miss that kid!!! he reaches his one year mark on his mission on friday! it's gone by so fast.

i've called him "dude" since he was 4' tall and now he's a grown man over 6' tall! what a champ to grow up with 4 older sisters. we joke that he's the glue that holds us all together. he's the perfect balance for all of the girls with different personalities. i miss the little boy that showered 3 times a day on our motorhome trips and put a bandaid on the top of his head when he bonked it. i miss the little guy that used to fall asleep in the family room every night. he'd get so mad when we tried to wake him up and send him to bed. no matter who woke him up, he'd yell "stop it abby!" haha. he was always wise beyond his years, "we shouldn't be good then bad then good then bad...we should be excellent, excellent, excellent!" i remember when he got in a bike accident and i was so scared he wouldn't be ok. i miss watching the cheesy disney channel original movies together every month. i still remember coming home for sunday dinner one week in particular when i was in my first year or two of college and realizing, "wow, Josh is FUNNY!" you know when your younger siblings get old enough that age doesn't matter anymore and you're all just friends?  i miss him jamming on the piano and singing away.

anyway, that's my random ode to josh. i miss you dude!!!!!!!!

giving in to my brain

remember this post about how i have a short attention span and get distracted before a task is complete?? well i finally figured out today that i shouldn't fight it, but embrace it.  example: so i am working on my comprehensive exam (yeah everyone i know is sick of hearing about it but no worries...after friday we will never speak of it again), and I can work hard for about an hour and then i am done. meaning, even after taking a short break to recharge the brain, i just don't want to go back to that question i was working on. well i finally realized there are 7 questions in varying degrees of done-ness.  some are half done...some are done but could use some tweaking...some are almost done but just need one more thought. so turns out if i just switch off which question i'm working on every hour, then i never get bored!! exciting huh?? i have been SO productive today.

this blog is turning out to be liz ranting about nothing. sorry about that.

on a more exciting note, the soccer team steph and i are coaching has their first game in 2 hours! i'm so excited. did i tell you that we voted on the team name and it was unanimous? go LIGHTNING CUBS!!! (random i know, but they chose it and loved it).

mondays

what do your mondays consist of? today, mine is 6 hours of having my students pee in cups so we can measure the volume, pH, and osmolarity of their urine. did i mention i force one of them to drink a LOT, another to down a lot of Tums, another to eat salt tablets, and another to drink lemon juice? and by "force" i mean i ask nicely and they are happy to do it. good times. i love my job. jealous? :)

PS - the kidney is miraculous. it's amazing how every little nephron does its job so well to keep everything balanced so our bodies are happy. have you been grateful for your kidney today?

so sad how true this is

 

insight into liz's brain

so i'm one of those people who can't just do ONE thing. i have to be doing 10 million things at once. i start doing something, and then my mind jumps to something else i also need to do, then about 10 minutes later i think, "wasn't I doing something else?" so then i go back to the first thing, leaving the 2nd thing half done. then all of a sudden i think, "I didn't finish thing #2!"  This cycle can expand to five or six things! luckily, somehow, i usually get everything done...just snippets at at time.


today is a good example: i just barely turned in a research fellowship application (up to $15,000 EXTRA dollars next school year...here's hoping!) that was due by 5 pm today.  So obviously that was priority #1. It was one of those applications that couldn't just have everything in one document. They wanted a file with the proposal body, one with a statement of academic merit (whatever that means), an abstract, AND a curriculum vitae (PS - if you ever feel like you don't accomplish things, make a CV...nothing like writing down all your accomplishments to remind you your life is productive).  So of course i had a bajillion word documents open PLUS a thousand tabs open on google chrome. (do you always have a million things running on your computer at once like i do?)  also, NONE of these things were completely done, so i needed to put finishing touches on all of them.  so of course, i start editing the proposal, then remember "i haven't even started the statement of academic merit!" so i start working on that and i'm super productive for a good 30 min without stopping. then i get distracted by NCAA score updates. when i go back to word, i open the proposal and it hasn't made any progress since i wrote last and i think, "wasn't i just working for 30 min straight??" then i remember it was on the statement of academic merit! so then i start doing the proposal again, and then i got distracted by proofreading my CV! i'm telling you people, it was a crazy day. but i somehow got it all done. all is well. for now.

sidenotes: my ncaa bracket only stayed perfect for like 3 games. sad day.  also, hasn't the weather been GORGEOUS?? it makes me feel like this:

which reminds me...i just got passport pictures taken and they told me i couldn't smile and i definitely did not look as happy as i do above. i'm sure glad we smile in pictures these days (as opposed to the old days when everyone looked depressed in pictures like this...