A time for celebration

Even though this week was finals week for me, it was one of the best I've had in a while. To start, my college roommate Emily and her husband Ryan were able to bring home their new baby after many months on the adoption waitlist, I am so thrilled for them both and can't wait to meet Elizabeth Marie when I'm in Maine in June (check out their blog "Brinkley Parker"). I also found out that my sister Sarah got a management job for Aramark that she was hoping for, you rock girl! Shawn has completed his third week in his new planner position at Miller and is exceeding all expectations already (I knew he would), I am so proud of him. :) As for myself, I have successfully completed my first year of the PhD program (who hoo!), and I also have a meeting with the state public health veterinarian and the state pest management director to discuss a collaboration on a potential dissertation project on tick-borne disease in NC (probably Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever) I am so psyched!

Now that the semester is over I am planning to spend most of the summer working in the garden and catching up on some non-epidemiology reading. Any book suggestions would be welcomed! I will also be a TA for an online course for the Field Epi Certificate program, which is really nice since I won't have to commute into Chapel Hill except for maybe once a week. Of course, we'll also continue working on the mud truck over the summer (Shawn installed a new stereo and speakers today, now we can crank up that country music!), the next project is replacing the brakes.

As for the garden, we planted the tomatoes, green beans, peas, corn, cukes, squash and potatoes on Monday, the rest will go in tomorrow (no rain in the forecast, finally!) I also planted a bunch of gladiola bulbs in the front yard, but the bulbs were from Lowe's so I'm not sure if they'll actually come up or not, we'll have to just wait and see....