This week was not a good week as far as the job searches go for both me and Duane. Let's just say we have had our share of disappointing and discouraging news this week, which leads us both to question why we ever chose this science career path in the first place. Basically, due to government funding issues of scientific research, lots of budget cuts are going on across the nation. To make a long story short, Duane's lab has lost a significant amount of funding, which means that there is no longer any money to support the work going on in the lab. Which means there is no money to pay the employees. Which means that Duane needs to find a new job pronto. So this all came as a shock to us this week, so we are now full steam ahead looking for a new job for Duane that he can start at the beginning of March, as that is when his lab's funding will expire. As for me, I had my phone interview for the Assistant Professor position at Elon yesterday. While I feel certain that the phone interview went well and I was responsive to the questions I was asked, I am not sure how enthusiastic I am about this position now that I know a bit more about it. The search committee will be making decisions about who to bring on campus for in-person interviews over the next few weeks, so I should know if I made it to this next stage of the interview process by the beginning of February. If I am offered an on-site interview, I will certainly go and keep an open mind, but I will not be disappointed if I don't ever hear anything else from this position. So I suppose I am just neutral at this point. So of course, all of this has made me rethink things yet again. I am not sure what to do with my career. Stay in academic research, try my hand at strictly teaching, or look into industry? I continue to waver in my decision... So anyway, that is an update on our current job status, such that it is. Please continue to pray for us that something will work out for both of us soon...it is getting very discouraging and frustrating, as I mentioned earlier!
On to Sarah...no real exciting happenings in her life this week. She had her 15 month checkup today (although she is now almost 16 months old), so I can share her stats with you. She weighed in at 20 pounds 5 ounces (25th percentile), she was 30 inches tall (50th percentile) and her head was 18 3/4 inches (STILL in the 90th percentile there)! So she is still a munchkin! At least we finally broke the 20 pound mark! It was an uneventful visit this time...no shots, so that was good! In other news, her little personality is developing and she is getting more chatty these days. Some of her new words are "mill" (for milk), "mooooo" (for the cow), "baaaaa" (for the sheep), and "qua-qua" (for the duck). She can now point to her tummy if you ask where her tummy is, and she enjoys pointing to everyone else's tummy, too, by pulling up their shirt and sticking her finger in the bellybutton! We have been working with her on the parts of her face, but so far, she says "eye" and then points to her ear. That is her response to everything related to the face, so clearly we have some more work to do. She is getting good at stacking her blocks and she can correctly complete a couple of her basic puzzles. As for her personality, let's just say that she has recently developed quite a fiesty little attitude. When she wants someting she just yells "mama" over and over until either Duane or I magically figure out what it is she wants. Recently, her obsession has been animal crackers. She wants to eat them ALL THE TIME, and when we won't let her eat them (because it will ruin her next meal, for instance), she throws a FIT! She stands in front of the pantry trying to open it, SCREAMING to the top of her lungs, and then finally throws herself down on the floor and cries when she realizes she isn't getting a cookie. Following the doctor's orders and information I have read in parenting books and magazines, we have been ignoring her when she is in tantrum mode. So when she gets like this, we just walk away from her and usually Duane and I end up laughing our heads off because seeing her throw these fits is slightly funny. And if we didn't laugh, we'd go insane! So needless to say, Sarah has turned into quite the little drama queen...the doctor said that from now until 18 months will be a challenging time, as this is the age that all babies start to test their limits. So we are just preparing for this to continue, at least for a while.
I will close with some photos of one of our recent trips to a local park. Sarah LOVES to swing (as you can probably tell), but she wasn't so sure about the slide!
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