Adjusting

I had forgotten how difficult it was to start all over at a brand new school. Learning to get around, getting in the right classes, knowing where to eat, where to shop, who to talk to...Good Grief! Without Tom I don't know how I'd do it. What I have found is that if you ask questions people will usually give you pretty good answers. A couple of days ago I was feeling kind of nervous about working with the cadavers in the anatomy lab and being pregnant. They are no longer using formaldehyde in the embalming process but they still use some pretty nasty chemicals. I was worried that being exposed to those chemicals for six hours a week might have some affect on the baby. Needless to say, all the other profs including my advisor felt the same way too. So now I am in Stats and will be taking the intensive clinical anatomy course this summer. Oh boy.

One major thing I love about grad school so far is the lack of testing! It's mostly reading, papers and presentations. I like this! I'm also taking a survey of forensic science and a topics in forensic anthropology class. Both are really laid back. The professors basically get to pick whatever topics they want to cover. We usually end up filling up the time with case studies and stories of really bazaar and interesting crimes/investigations. Not bad!

Michigan's Ocean

Yesterday was so beautiful Tom and I decided to drive 90 miles west of East Lansing to the Great Lake of Michigan. I wasn't expecting much, seeing as it was only a lake and my favorite place on Earth happens to be the Oregon Coast. I was pleasantly surprised, however, by the sandy beach and absolutely enormous scale of the water. Lake Michigan is so large it actually looks like and feels like an ocean minus the smell. There were even a few seagulls flying around. We ate at an ice cream place in the middle of nowhere that had the best ice cream. I may just may get used to this place!

Today, on the other hand, was completely different. It was the first day of class and it was one of those days that nightmares are made of. First off my schedule gave me a specific time to be in a specific classroom for anatomy. So another Masters student and I showed up early and to our dismay the instructor started the class by saying, "Welcome to Doctor Patient Relations." Huh? So to make a long story short we spent the next 45 min trying to figure out what was going on and in the end we found out they had just decided to change the time to an hour later. Apparently all 150 premed students were informed of this and the 4 anthropology students were not.

Later that day was the anatomy open lab where I had my first encounter with a human cadaver. Let me rephrase that...a lot of human cadavers. Wow, I don't even know what really to say. I think it may take me a few days to actually come up with the right words.

Here he is!

Isn't he adorable? He looks a little bit like a snowman at this stage. The ultrasound was taken at 17 weeks and I think the nurse said he weighed about 9 ounces at that point. It's amazing to me to see these pictures and think that that little guy is the one doing all the dancing inside my tummy.

Today was a rather interesting day. We had a severe thunderstorm go right over the top of us complete with high winds, tons of lightening, thunder that shook the apartment and even a small tornado. I had never been through anything quite like it so I was ready to run for the hills. Tom, on the other hand, was loving every minute of it. I swear...that man would tie himself down to metal post and let a tornado go right over the top of him for the love of weather.

I also made it to the bookstore today to buy my books for class. It is a good thing that two of my classes don't require books because the anatomy class books ended up costing $260.00 alone. There were something like 19 books recommended for the course but only four were required. Yikes! Well, I think I will go back to enjoying my last few days of freedom. Watching TV will soon be more of a privilege come Monday.

Okay...time for some ranting! It has come to my immediate attention that the health insurance industry in this country is a joke! One would assume that an industry whose main goal is to take care of the "health" of it's country would not allow pregnant women to go uninsured. Isn't it funny that it is against federal law to call pregnancy a preexisting condition and yet every single insurance company out there calls it one...with a six to twelve month waiting period. They have found so many ridiculous loop holes in this god forsaken system that they are actually getting away with it. I guess this is what happens when you allow your country's health care to be a "for profit" system.

Enough of that. On to happier news. I'm afraid Tom and I will have quite a rascal on our hands come January. It seems he loves not only to move around a little here and there but he also likes to dance, do gymnastics and occasionally try his hand at martial arts. I'm sure it will get more and more interesting as he grows. A new life is truly an amazing thing!

He budged!

This morning I woke up felling very strange. I was having this odd sensation that something was turning over and over in my stomach. And then it hit me...our baby was moving and I could finally feel it!!! When I finally realized this I just about attacked poor Tom and jolted him out of a very deep sleep. Pregnancy is so fun. =)

Day before yesterday Tom and I decided to explore a little outside of East Lansing and ended up in two different towns about an hour north of here. The first was called Birch Run and it had probably the largest outlet mall in the Midwest. It had everything...including a good portion of the population of Michigan. The next town was Frankenmuth which is home to the largest
Christmas store in the world. You really have to see this place to believe it. It's about the size of a Super Wallmart or Costco and has enough blinking and sparkling lights to cause a small seizure.

We also went on our first grocery shopping excursion. I think the homesickness really hit me when I found out they didn't carry Tillamock cheese here. In fact they didn't really have any good cheese at all. I think I'm going to have to go in search of cheese. I can't live without good cheese!

We're here!

We finally made it to Michigan! East Lansing is actually a really cute town. MSU, however, is much bigger than I had imagined. Tom and I finally got everything out of the truck yesterday and into our apartment. Like most university apartments it falls into the ghetto chic category of architecture from the outside. The inside, on the other hand, is great! New hardwood floors, new kitchen, small but definitely full of charm. The biggest challenge will be seeing if all of our stuff fits.

The four and a half days it took to get here were full of boring landscape, flat tires, tornado/severe thunderstorm warnings, and plenty of 100+ degree weather. I would say South Dakota wins for state with the least interesting stretches of I-90.

Everything is going really well with the baby. For those of you who don't know I had an ultra sound last week and it seems we have a big healthy BEAUTIFUL baby boy! When we get the scanner hooked up I will post one of the ultra sound pics.