New Natalie photos

I was looking back through some old posts, and realized I haven't put any pictures of Natalie up in over a month! So, here are some new ones of her.

When Natalie was at my parents' while we were in Australia, they took a few pictures of her on the digital camera. I like these 3 the best:

Natalie & Rizzo: there must be something interesting out there!

"I've got my juice & my bag; I'm all set!"

Aunt Carrie, Great-Aunt Jacki, and Natalie

My parents bought Natalie a new toy! It's either a scooter, like below, or you can convert it to something she can push. We're calling it "The Bug Mobile". :)

Natalie really liked this hat that Evan bought in Australia

"I've got my dolly and my milk; I'm all set!"

I took this picture just today. Natalie sure does love to sit in a chair and "read" a book! That's definitely a habit we are encouraging!

Sydney Australia

I didn't realize quite how much in my original post about Australia I had ended up already telling you about Sydney! So, I'm not going to do a big post about it.

Basically, we went to the Blue Mountains on Monday, April 6. I put up my favorite pics from that day already; here's two more:

We then went to Sydney from Tues-Friday. We did so much! Visited the aquarium, walked through the central business district, saw the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, the Botanical Gardens, the Sydney Zoo, Manly Beach - everything we could! Again, I already put those pictures up in my April 15th post. Here are a couple more from our time in Sydney that I really liked:

The Sydney Opera House at sunset

The Opera House with Harbor Bridge in the background

The ocean at Manly Beach

Evan and I on our dinner cruise our last night in Sydney.

Melbourne Australia: The Wedding

We started off on Friday April 3 (day of the wedding rehearsal) by touring through the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. On one side of the Gardens was the Shrine of Remembrance: a memorial for all the wars Australian soldiers have fought in. It's a beautiful memorial.

Evan and Scott in front of the memorial.

We then toured through the Botanic Gardens, and got caught in a huge storm! Fortunately we were able to wait it out at a cafe in the gardens; I got a couple of shots of the rain pouring down. I think you can see it here (you can also see how pretty the gardens are, although this is only one small portion!).

That night was the rehearsal dinner; the best shot I got of the evening was this one taken of Evan and I. It was a great night; lots and lots of toasts, slideshows of Claire & Todd, great food & wine. They don't normally do rehearsal dinners in Australia, but Claire's family all agreed it's a great tradition!

Finally, wedding day (April 4, 2009)! It also happened to be Todd's birthday. So, a doubly happy day! Here we are before the wedding (see how nervous Todd looks!).

I already put up a few pics of the happy couple, but here are some more from the wedding. This one is Todd & Claire signing the legal forms after the ceremony (that's how it's done in australia).

Claire's parents, Claire & Todd, Todd's parents

The Happy Couple.

Great toy website

I heard of this great toy website through a friend of a friend. It's called babyplays.com. I had been meaning to sign up for a while, and just got around to doing it today!

Essentially, the site is like Netflix, but for toys. You sign up for whatever plan you'd like, and you get to choose from 4-6 toys at a time, that you can either keep for 30-60 days (or keep some longer if you'd like). I went with the extended play plan, as it was the cheapest/month (even though you have to sign up for 6 months). We get 5 toys shipped to us (at no extra cost), with a return box including free shipping. Natalie can play with the toys for at least 60 days (less if she's not enjoying them, more if she is), then we send them off and get the next ones on our list.

I've picked out some really great toys for her. Everything is plastic or wood, so I can easily wash it down before she plays with them. Another thing I like about the site is the large number of Melissa and Doug toys they have; they make all wood (natural) toys for kids to play with, so I don't have to worry as much about lead paint from China. Because they're better quality, they tend to be more expensive, so we don't really have any. Now Natalie can have a bunch!

The other thing I like is that we won't have 800 kids toys hanging around our house as Natalie outgrows them. I have quite a few things from when she was a newborn-6 month age, that she just is too old for now. And yes, the next kid can play with them, but storage is starting to become a problem. Now it won't be! I will likely buy her some of her own toys still, especially if there's one from the site that she REALLY likes, but we can cut back on that now and save money that way.

I'll let everyone know how it works out! And thanks to Kathy & Eric again for paying for the first month as a birthday present to Natalie - I didn't just take your money! :)

Melbourne Australia: Days 1 & 2

Tues, March 31: We arrived in Melbourne. After some time to freshen up at our hotel, Todd, Evan, Scott & I headed out to see some of Melbourne. I already showed you a pic of the Yarra River, and an aerial shot of Melbourne. Here's one more from that first day:

Evan and I on a pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River

Wed, April 1: A group of us headed out to the Yarra Valley, not far outside of the city. We started the day at a nursery/restaurant/gift shop.

Yummy pastries!

This cookaburra hit me in the head while flying to a branch next to our table

We saw 4 different wineries, all with beautiful views
1. Yering Station

Also taken here was the picture from my first Australia post of the group shot of everyone.

2. Chandon

Beautiful view from the Chandon winery

Road leading away from Chandon.

3. Tokar, where we had a very yummy lunch

4. Warramate, Todd & Claire's favorite

And ended the day by going to Sky High to see the surrounding area, but it was so hazy we couldn't really see anything. So, here's Evan at the building:

And then saw Claire's parents' beautiful house up on the mountain

My job interview

I traveled to Newport News, VA on Sunday for a job interview. The position is tenure-track professor in the Psychology Department at Christopher Newport University. CNU is small (about 3500 undergraduates), and really really new! It's only 50 years old (next year is 50th anniversary), and the current president has spent the past 12 years getting lots of money for the school. Because of that, about 75% of the campus is new buildings. They've expanded a lot, from a commuter school for local residents to a well-known campus, with lots of kids coming down from Northern Va. I was very impressed by how pretty the campus was, and how nicely the area is turning around!

Sunday night three faculty members took me out to dinner. It was nice to get to meet two of the people I had spoken with during my phone interview prior to the full interview day on Monday. Dinner was relaxed, and we didn't have any weird lulls - lots to end up talking about. They asked me some "get-to-know-you" questions (like "what's the weirdest job you had?" - I of course talked about my many years in movie theater management), and I was able to ask them some questions about the university in general. Plus, we went to a really yummy Thai restaurant. :)

Monday started with my talk. I gave about a 40 min talk on my research. I was asked to speak as if to upper-level students (say a senior seminar), not to colleagues, so I "dumbed" it down a little bit. I hope it was what the faculty wanted! There were 7 of them there; 5 then stayed to interview me. They had some questions about my research, which was good, and then I think I was able to answer all of their interview questions sufficiently. Of course I second guessed my answers the whole drive home, but I think I did the best I could!

We then went to lunch (there's a Panera right across the street from campus - yum), and I then went and spoke with the Dean for the college of arts & sciences. He's retiring, so meeting with him was interesting! Since he's on his way out, he basically told me to ask whatever I wanted, as it wouldn't go any farther than him. Not being sure how much I trusted that, I still tried to keep it nice & professional. He did ask me some really good questions about my research, and how to explain to students' parents why having me at the university would be beneficial to their students. I think I answered it well, and he said he learned a lot by talking to me! I also noticed he had dog pictures all over, so I happened to drop into the conversation something about my dog, and we talked about dogs for a while. Yay shmoozing. :)

I got a brief tour of the Psych building from the dept chair, but we were running late so I was then shuttled over to the Provost's office (who was also running late). Meeting with him was more formal; he had a couple of questions for me (similar to the dean), and then told me about tenure path, salary, plans for the new science building (to be moved into in 2012!), etc. And he said that the startup money I think I'll need (about $10K) would be no problem! That's exciting.

I then met with a few students, where we asked each other some questions. They seem to really like it at CNU, and they told me flat out they liked my answers about how I would teach certain classes, how I would involve students in research, etc. Hopefully they'll report good things to the committee! We finished the day with a campus tour and a drive in the local area so I could see where some faculty live. The suburban areas are really quite nice! If only we could afford to live on the James River... :)

All in all, I think it went well. The committee is making a recommendation to the Provost's office by tomorrow (Wed), and then whoever they choose will hear from the Provost's office. I hope it'll be within a week or two; longer than that and I'll assume they've offered the position to someone else first.

Evan and I have a lot to think about if I get the offer. I'm a little nervous about the teaching load (3 fall semester, 4 spring semester), but there's a good mentoring program and lots of help offered by other faculty to get new faculty through. It would be a big adjustment, but I really feel ready for it. I'll keep everyone posted...

We're back!

Ok, 3 weeks since last post. I have good reason: we were in Australia (as I stated in my last post). I didn't do the smart thing like my friend Becky and schedule posts to go up while on vacation; instead, I left you all with nothing. Sorry!

Australia was amazing. I'm putting a few teaser pictures in here now; I promise to get more in here once I figure out a better way to post many without taking up tons of space.

We spent 5 days in Melbourne (March 31-April 5). We saw the city

Top: Yarra River, which runs through the city
Bottom:a view of the city from the Eureka 88 building, tallest in the city

Visited with Todd (Evan's brother who lives there and we hadn't seen in almost 2.5 years!) and met our new sister-in-law Claire (she's lovely)

Spent time with the family (both in the city & in the Yarra Valley, full of wineries)

Top: Evan's aunt & uncle; Claire's mom Lynne; Lynn & Doug; Scott; Todd, me & Evan at Yering Station winery
Bottom: Todd, Scott & Evan in Melbourne.

And ending with Todd & Claire's beautiful wedding.

On Sunday night (April 5), we flew to Sydney. We were picked up by my friend Leila from high school and her husband Pete (an Aussie). We stayed at their house Sunday & Monday nights. On Monday, we spent the day in the Blue Mountains, only about 40km west of Sydney, but took about 1.5 hours to get there. It was like being in a whole other country! So beautiful.

Top: the "Three Sisters" rock formation
Bottom: mountains, forests & canyons

Top: Pete & Leila Gunning
Bottom: Evan and I

On Tuesday morning, Pete drove us into downtown Sydney (we stayed in the Ibis hotel in Darling Harbor, in the central business district of Sydney). We were there from April 7-10. We had most of Tuesday to wander the city, including a trip to the aquarium

and the Sydney Botanic Gardens

We don't have signs in the US like this, do we?

and our first look at the Harbor Bridge & Opera House.

We spent Wednesday at the zoo, where I pet wallabees

and we saw giraffes with the best view of the Sydney harbor:

followed by more time in the Botanic Gardens, where I got to feed wild cockatoos!

And I got this really cool shot of one flying:

Thursday we went to a nearby beach (Manly beach; you get there via ferry)

And finished the trip with a sunset dinner cruise around Sydney harbor.

We then got home on Friday (after about a 30 hour travel day!), where my parents were waiting for us with Natalie! Being away from her was hard, but it was best. My parents took such good care of her (thank you Mom & Dad!), and she had so much fun with them. They said she was really good - I assume they weren't lying! And really, given everything we were able to do, I think Natalie had more fun staying at the OBX than dealing with the flight, jet lag, and so much wandering around.

But it was SO GREAT to get her back. We missed her! She grew in those 2 weeks, her hair is longer, she understands so much more, and she's got a bunch of new words! She says my parents' dog's name (Rizzo), Calla, down, water, and thank you! She also understands commands, like "no touch", "wash hands", and is doing all kinds of typical toddler stuff (bringing things to us, loading up boxes and removing everything again, testing her boundaries, etc).