Begin at the Beginning

I caved. Here's our blog. This summer Jared and I finally left Rochester. We ended up in New Jersey. Not exactly where we wanted to be (i.e. West, preferably of the Mississippi, better yet of the Rockies). Oddly enough, we really like new Jersey. Once you accept the fact that people drive like hyper aggressive maniacs and have zippo patience, you can feel free to embrace the land of Bon Jovi. (People who shamelessly loves Bon Jovi that much can't be all bad right?) So far the weather here is way less wretched than Rochester. I see the sun a lot. It makes me happy. Sun is good. Ah, for the simple pleasures of life. Elise is nearly 18 months old. We only have one more week of busy wriggling nap-less child at church before we can drop her on the good folks at the nursery. Yay nursery! Elise should like it in there. She's constantly trying to escape into the nursery when we are out on "hall patrol". We made our first stab at Christmas cards this year. We went and got pictures taken and everything. We may even get cards made. Maybe next year. The pictures are below. Enjoy because you probably won't get actual cards. I think I have about 10 addresses for our friends and family combined. Let me introduce our family. Some of you only know one or the other of us. Jared is a science nerd. He works at Rutgers University's New Jersey Center for Biomaterials. Technically he's an assistant professor in the chemistry department, but he's really their pet Biologist. They're working on a government grant to try to build a stable cell based scaffolding for bone regeneration, specifically in the skull. It's cool stuff. Some lab they are affiliated with in Cleveland is working on spray on skin cells for burn victims. Jared did his PhD work on brain tumors (glioblastomas like the kind Ted Kennedy had) and a childhood disease that I can pronounce but won't even try to spell. It is caused by degeneration of brain cells. Very interesting but very sad in both cases. I'm a former history teacher. Now I'm a stay at home mom. Occasionally I can teach a dance class or a yoga class to keep my hand in. Right now I'm the Gospel Doctrine (Sunday School) teacher. I really like it. It's a bit intimidating though. Our ward is the Princeton (yes, as in University) 1st ward. There are lots of very smart people in my class. Most of my church knowledge consists of what I didn't sleep through in early morning seminary. This year has been a struggle as I don't think I've ever read the Doctrine and Covenants from end to end. Not even in seminary. At least I haven't caught anyone laughing at me openly. Elise is, so far, our only child. And a very expensive and time consuming child she was too. I have a solid three years of pre-pregnancy shots and doctors visits to guilt her with before we even get to the delivery room. She's a happy sunny little soul. She loves to be startled and does all sorts of crazy silly things. Her favorite activity is getting into the laundry closet and pulling out her summer swim diapers. After randomly distributing them around the house she'll put one on like a hat. Weirdo. She also likes to collect acorns and store them in her purse. She like to push them under the couch cushions. Maybe she's part squirrel? I thought I 'd be bored staying home but I don't know what I'd do without her.