Yes, I'm an academic dork

Even though I'm sad that the lazy days of summer are coming to a close, I have to admit that I love this time of year.  By August, I'm sick of sweltering 100 degree days which make it too hot both inside and outside, and I am frustrated with my semi-successful attempts to be productive during the unstructured summer.  Fall is a chance for new beginnings and new opportunities. To me and probably to many others in the academic world, the beginning of fall semester is more about starting fresh and making resolutions than New Year's Eve is.

When I was a kid (and who am I kidding even as a teenager), August was the highly anticipated month of finding out your teachers and which of your friends were in your classes, getting your school supply list, and back to school shopping.  When I was a college student, August meant moving back to campus to friends and independence, new exciting classes, football season, and of course back to school shopping.

I love the fresh energy, excitement for new and old connections, and the anticipation of learning new things that floods a college campus in the fall.  I have to admit that I think that my addiction to the academic atmosphere and energy is part of why I got my PhD so that I never had to leave college. :)

This year as we head into mid-August, I'm just as excited but find that now I have all new things to anticipate and think about. Evan has added a whole new dimension to everything. (You didn't think I could get through a whole post without talking about him, did you?) I'm excited about teaching the same course again in the same format so that I don't have new course prep. I'm excited to meet my new students who are apparently very eager to learn because many of them have already emailed me. I'm nervous about sending Evan to daycare but excited (and feeling guilty about my excitement) to have long periods of baby-free time to get things done. I'm looking forward to seeing work colleagues more frequently again.  I'm nervous about how the schedule changes will affect Evan (and Scott & I).  I'm eager to get back into full speed on my research projects, and to make my first attempt at writing a National Institute of Health grant application.  I'm bewildered about how I can pay so much for daycare and still find times in which the daycare is closed and I will need to find a babysitter.  As you can see, I've got a lot on my mind.       

You know how they always play a rousing, energetic video right before a game starts to get the crowd pumped? Like the video they play at Allen Fieldhouse right before the basketball team comes out which always includes "The Shot" and gets the crowd on their feet and screaming? Well, I just watched this video of the beautiful KU campus (click here to watch) and I found it ALMOST as exciting as the basketball video. Now I'm totally pumped for fall semester.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

What can I say? I'm a self proclaimed academic dork, and I'm proud of it.    :)


And as you can see, Scott is also excited about the fall, and has dressed Evan accordingly.....

Evan Mendenhall- KU Freshman in 2012?

So I recently realized (or came out of denial) that the cost of daycare for one year for an infant is roughly equivalent to the cost of one year of in-state tuition at University of Kansas. With that scary realization in mind, I've decided that we need to find reasonable ways to decrease spending in our household. 

Things I'm doing in an effort to cut spending and save money in our household:
(1) Using coupons: Have any of you seen the show Extreme Couponing on TLC? Its about coupon obsessed moms who take binders of coupons to the store and buy tons of things they don't need (like 30 bottles of mustard) but get it all for practically free. Yeah, well after a couple of hours searching the internet trying to figure out how I can use coupons to get my groceries for free, I got bored and gave up.  I decided that's not me. I don't have the discipline or time to be that disciplined.  However, I'm still trying and hoping that my $2 of savings at each grocery trip someday adds up to at least an hour of daycare (Side note: If you haven't seen the show Extreme Couponing, you HAVE to check it out. It is pretty awe inspiring in a weird way.)

(2) Utilizing Groupon specials- I've been trying to use Groupon coupons to cut costs in other areas that tend to be extras. For example, they always have specials for good restaurants in Lawrence ($50 to spend at Teller's for only $25, $20 to spend at Genevese for only $10, etc). I buy those deals in anticipation of our rare nights out. Also I buy the Groupon deals for the local salons so that I can get my haircut at half the price.  If you have never tried Groupon, you should check out the great deals. The deals aren't just in Lawrence but can be found across the country (http://www.groupon.com/r/uu21476338)! But I have to warn you it can get a little addicting! I can't decide if I'm actually saving money or buying things that I wouldn't buy otherwise. 

(3) Planning the weekly dinner menu in advance: For the past month, I have been creating a list of dinner options for each week (quick & easy options and options that take more time). I go to the grocery store on the weekend and buy all of the necessary ingredients for that week's meals. Then each day we pick what we want off the list for that night's dinner. I think planning in advance keeps us from buying random stuff at the grocery store and overall gets us to eat better.  Now we don't have random nights when at 7:30 we are like "what do you want for dinner?"..."I don't know."...."I don't feel like cooking. Let's order a pizza."

(4) Buying generic brand stuff rather than name brand:  So I haven't been doing so well with this one. I've been trying to buy store brand stuff (like Dillons and Hyvee) rather than name brand stuff to save a few extra bucks but some stuff just is not the same!!! Its like eating a gourmet meal or eating cardboard. Dillons brand cinnamon rolls versus Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. No contest, Pillsbury wins out hands down.  The little doughman knows how to cook.

(5) Subscribing to Amazon Mom to get diapers and wipes:  Huge economy size boxes of diapers and wipes delivered right to your door at a regularly scheduled interval from Amazon.com. No driving, free shipping, great pricing, need I say more? (Plus it gives you free shipping on almost all other orders you make not just baby stuff!)

I know that the veteran parents out there are like "yeah, we've been telling you all along that kids are expensive."  Well its finally become a reality for me, and I welcome any and all suggestions on how to reasonably cut spending and save money! If you've got something that works for you, I invite you to share in the blog comments space. I'd love to hear it and others might too! :)

   

However if all this fails, I'm thinking we skip this daycare business and send Evan straight to college next year. It's the same cost so why not? I can write a kick ass application essay so he will get in. We will get him started early and have our own baby Einstein.

So we have started to prepare him just in case.......



The Classic: Good Night Moon



He's already a good student! :)

Evan Mendenhall- 3 month pictures

Here are a few (of the hundreds) of pictures that we have taken of Evan in the last month or so.

Great stickers that Heidi gave us so we can compare his size each month!

Evan loves to grab things now. This soft bear blankie is his new favorite.

Sleeping peacefully in his crib



Is he a Virginia Cavalier?



 

Or an Ohio State Buckeye?

Baby feet are just adorable





To Do List of an Academic Mom

So I find that people often wonder what I do as an assistant professor, and want to know what my typical day is like. Well the problem is that there is no typical day in the academic world! And I'm finding that the same is true for being a mom.

So instead of a "typical day", here is a glimpse at my current to do list as an academic mom.
*Disclaimer: It's summertime not the school year!*

• Fill out overwhelmingly LARGE packet of paperwork for daycare which includes intriguing forms entitled "Child's Personality & Behavior" and "Parent Participation Form" 
• Write and send a reminder email asking (begging) participants to complete my survey on Children's Mental Health Literacy if they haven't done so already
• Wash clothes that smell like spit up, poop, and wet dog (this never seems to get crossed off the to do list)
• Get long overdue oil change so car does not blow up. Is it just me or does 3 months seem to role around pretty quickly?
• Send polite (but nagging) reminder email to colleague who is long overdue in sending me edits for a journal article we are writing
• Clean the entire house....or at least the bathrooms and the kitchen where you can see the dirt. :)
• Respond to email from overachieving student who wants to know if she can have the fall syllabus two months early
• Create fall course syllabus
• Call doctor about green poop (Evan's not mine)
• Develop fantastic National Institute of Health grant application that will give me research funding for years to come, make me world famous, and most importantly ensure I get tenure (Gotta have a few motivating, lofty goals on the do list)
• Print some of the hundreds of pictures of Evan we've taken
• Use pictures to finish making Evan an absolutely fabulous baby book
• Set up course websites for fall courses
• Take out the trash (Also gotta have some easy ones on here!)
• write second blog entry

As you can tell, my blog has become an effective tool for procrastination...I'm even blogging my to do list instead of doing it :)

I landed in Mommyville not Oz

Its official....after a whirlwind three months I landed in Mommyville not Oz.

I've always loved writing and with the new addition of Evan in our lives it seems like a perfect time to start a blog to keep everyone updated. I'm not quite convinced that my life out in the plains of Kansas is interesting enough to warrant a blog but I figure at least my mom, my sister, and my best friend will read it or at least will tell me they read it to make me feel validated. (No pressure mom, Kate, and Heidi :) ).

So I have officially been a mommy for 12 weeks! At times, I still can't believe that Evan came into our lives almost 3 months ago but it definitely is true. He's already hitting those developmental milestones out of the park (tracking people and objects, lifting his head up, sleeping through the night, grabbing things, smiling and cooing at us). It totally makes sense to me now why people are always talking about how quickly kids grow up!
The end of the school year has ushered in an endless parade of lazy, relaxing summer days for us all. Scott is on summer break from his job as a high school athletic trainer, and I'm just doing a little bit of writing and research from home.  Usually the summer is our time for traveling adventures but this year we decided to stay close to home and let everyone come to visit us (or more accurately Evan). 

Since Evan arrived, I find myself slowly becoming the stereotypical mom. Its funny how quickly those mom behaviors kick in. I worry that he's too hot. I worry that he's too cold. I check on him when he makes too much noise. I check on him when he isn't making any noise. The other day I even caught myself using spit on my thumb to wipe something off his face...GASP!

As a new mom, I find that I am always pondering parenting questions. Here are a few that I've been puzzling over lately:
(1) Why do babies poop and fart louder than most full grown adults??? Or is this just my son??
(2) How is it that sometimes babies can sleep through the house falling down around them and then other times you can drop something three rooms away and they wake up screaming?
(3) How much spit up on the shirt (mine not his) is too much to go out in public?

Anyways....these are just some initial thoughts to get my blog going. Stay tuned for more to come......hopefully a little more interesting :)