The Fundicular

Me, my student and my colleague on the ski-lift thingy, going up the side of the mountain through Santiago's national park. It was soooo scary, but the view was amazing. The thought of being suspended so high above the ground, in a ski-lift thingy that is held up and moving across a thin cable...ugh...nauseating!

Sharon, pretending she was scared. She actually was voicing her fear before we got up there, but I was the one who started freaking out as soon as we got in!

A view from the outside...this is what we were riding in!

The Winery

This was how the vineyards looked at Concho y Toro, the biggest winery in Chile. There are rose bushes at the front of each row so that the parasites attack the roses instead of the grapes. They are at the end of the harvest, so most of the grapes were gone.

Wine barrels - that's me in the orange scarf.

Great dining

This was our first night out, at a little tapas restaurant. Tapas are little meals, and they are common in Spain.

This was the most classy Pizza Hut I've ever seen!

Chile

I've been in Santiago, Chile (South America) since Monday morning. I left Sunday afternoon (5pm) and arrived Monday morning, at 8:30am. It's neat, because we're in the same time zone, so there's no time difference between here and Pennsylvania. It's winter here, and they'll go forward an hour in the spring, when we go back an hour in the fall...there'll be a 2 hour difference between us in September.

I was asked to collaborate on a childhood obesity project here, with some colleagues of mine that I was in grad school with. It's a husband and wife research team...they are the sweetest couple you've ever met. Their daughters were in my study when they were still in State College (they left in 2000), and now their daughters are teenagers...it was crazy to see them all grown up.

I brought my student, Sharon, along with me, because she is interested in working with Latino populations, and she's fluent in Spanish. I speak enough Spanish to get by, but I've kinda been depending on her to help us navigate the system. When we haven't been working, we've been sight seeing...we went to the oldest winery in Chile, and yesterday we rode something similar to a ski lift up the mountain. The mountain separated the north and south sides of Santiago, and it was so beautiful.

This is one of the driest countries in South America, but it rained for the first time in months yesterday. Because they're surrounded by mountains, there is little ventilation, so there's a lot of smog...they only get relief when it rains, so yesterday was the first day we saw the Andes mountains, and they had snow on them! Tomorrow we'll take a tour of the coast/beach area, which is supposed to be beautiful even in the winter. By the way, winter here is like Fall in Pennsylvania...low to mid 60s. We'll be leaving on Sunday night and with all the stinking transfers, we won't be back in State College until late Monday afternoon. I love traveling, but it's the "getting there" that stinks.

Enjoy the pics.

Happy Day

Today we celebrated 4 wonderful years of marriage. It seems like we were just running around yesterday, trying to figure out where we would have our reception, and finally settling on a little bed & breakfast that doubled as a mini-farm (The Inn at Walnut Acres). When we went to look at it, there were huge turkeys running around, and turkey poo all over the ground. Plus, there was the unforgiving stench of cow manure. I remember feeling horrified for fear of what my city-slicker family and friends from New York would think. I had already dealt with them calling me cow country girl for years.

Anthony was out at the Inn at 7am on our wedding day, setting up tables and chairs...IN THE RAIN! I had a peace that morning, knowing that even if it was raining, we were still going to have an awesome time. It continued to rain that morning, but I remember looking out the church windows during the wedding ceremony and seeing the sun shining so bright, it made me squint. I thought, "the Lord is smiling on us." And the sun kept shining the rest of the day.

I sometimes wish I could live that day over again....I was so relaxed and happy. I married the most awesome man in the world...he is such a strong, honest, faithful, ambitious man, and words can't express how much I love him. Every year gets better and better, and I always thank God for the gift of love.

I am attaching 2 pictures from our wedding reception...ahhh, precious memories.

Blair County Arts Festival

Anthony and his band had a gig in Altoona, PA, at the Blair County Arts Festival. I was worried that they would get rained out, but it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon. The band rocked, as usual, and even though you couldn't tell from the crowd during the show, the applause and comments after the show let us know that they really enjoyed it. Anthony already had some comments on his website after the show from people who were there. I sang backup on a few songs, and this is the first time that I really felt like the band was having fun on stage. There was a guy there from the radio station, who was also a writer for the PA musician. He wanted a CD, and we heard that he played one of Anthony's songs on his radio show last night (Sunday). He sounded like he really enjoyed the music, and is planning on featuring them in his article next month. Wish you all could have been there!

Long time no...write

I can't believe it's been almost 10 months since I've posted a message! My last blog coincided with the beginning of this past school year, so I can understand what happened. Today happened to be one of those days when I don't have much of anything to do, so I'm really relaxed. I think I enjoy reading blogs more than I enjoy posting. I want to write more, but I think this whole blog thing can become a bit of an addiction.

There is nothing very new from us here in Cow Country, PA, other than making plans to fix up the fixer-upper we bought and haven't fixed up yet. Below is a picture of what our floors will look like in the next few months. It's actually one box of bamboo flooring that we bought to see how we'd like it. We had to take a picture to see what it would actually look like en mass, because it was hard to visualize it as a small patch against the carpet we have now.

The semester is almost over (next week), and this was a great school year for me, even though it felt busier than last year. I've been traveling a lot, as usual, and will be traveling every month for the next few months. All business, except for a person trip to visit Anthony's sister in Sweden that I'm tacking on to a business trip to Norway. Anthony will join me after my conference is over....I'm really excited about it. We plan to stay with his sister Miki and her family in Umea, Sweden for a few days, and then take a train trip through a few neighboring countries. We'll certainly have many pictures to share from that trip.

For now, a picture of our bamboo floor patch will have to suffice.

I'm almost 32!

Today is or was my birthday, and I got a lot of sweet birthday wishes from friends and family. I heard from a friend I went to college with, which was a surprise, and I got a sweet message on my phone from one of my favorite little people, Vidal. He sang happy birthday to his Aunt Lori and said "I love you!" at the end...so sweet. I spent the day in work-related meetings here in State College and in Harrisburg. When I got back to State College after 7pm, Anthony took me to a nice Italian restaurant. I am ending the evening with rasberry cheesecake as I finish my blog entry.

I'll be 32 years old at about 11:35 or 11:39pm...my mom couldn't remember. She was 38 years old when she had me, and had her last when she was 40. So, I guess I shouldn't worry that I'm 32 and haven't started yet. My mom had her 4th child by the time she was 32!!!

Anyways, it was a good day despite the business. I'll be off to a dance conference in DC this weekend, and then I look forward to having one day of rest before the semester starts again. Hmpf...not looking forward to that.

Not sure how he did it, but Anthony mistakenly posted a picture of him and his band members earlier tonight. Or maybe he did it on purpose and is not as modest as he makes me believe he is! Speaking of modesty, the picture above is me when I still had a little bit of hair. I have some friends who haven't seen me with my locks...I only had them for about 3 months! Kinda looks like little alfafa locks coming out the top.

Promo Pictures

Promo Pictures
Originally uploaded by anthonystaufferholysmoke.

Busy Days

I decided to write a few lines to give an update on our lives before things get crazy with the new school year. I have been constantly busy since I stopped teaching for the Upward Bound Program at the beginning of August. I have been writing all sorts of proposals for my research, and trying to finish up some papers I needed to revise. I've been trying to set up my lab, organize my class for this next semester, and organize my students. It's been non-stop, with some late nights and some days that I thought would never end!

The semester starts next week on September 5th, but I won't be teaching until Wednesday. I am teaching a course called Diversity and Health on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. there are 60 students registered for the course, and a number of students have emailed me to ask if they can be forced in because registration is closed. I'm looking forward to this school year; I don't have to prepare for my classes from scratch because I taught them before. I realized that I took my teaching WAY too personal last year, which I hear is a common problem with new faculty members. I felt like a failure at times, and began to feel emotionally spent whenever I even thought about my class. Teaching is not one of the major skills that the university judges my performance on, but it's hard to know that your students think your teaching stinks! This semester should be good though...this is the class I really enjoy teaching, and the students enjoy it as well.

Anthony and I have stayed busy...Anthony is busy practicing with his band for a show on Labor Day weekend, and he is busy with other music projects and other software and web design projects. He's been writing some awesome new songs, and his creativity seems to overflow at times. Work is going well, and he really enjoys his job now that he is doing exactly what he wants to do. Talk about God's favor...Anthony had a meeting with his bosses one day to let them know he didn't like what he was doing at work. In response, they changed his responsibilities to allow him to do more design work, which is exactly what he loves to do. Most bosses would have probably told him to suck it up or find another job. He is an amazing web designer..check out the webpage he made for my lab in the span of just a couple of days. http://bbh.hhdev.psu.edu/labs/fchl/

We've had some down time to just hang out around the house and with family and friends. We have been reading a book together, called "The Search for Significance," which has been difficult for both of us to read. We both realized that we have a slight, well, huge approval addiction, which manifests itself in a number of different ways in our lives. It is an excellent book, and I believe the Lord is working something out in us. The book is difficult to read only because it brings up some issues that you don't want to admit are issues for you, like how you determine your self-worth. Is it based on man's approval or the Lord's approval? As I evaluate my own self-worth, I realize that we are designed to base our self-worth on man's approval...how well we raise our kids, how well we do with our finances, how well we've done in school and at work, etc. We all know who we are in God's eyes, but when we don't see ourselves the way we think God sees us, the book says that we are essentially calling God a liar. He's either right about who we are, or He's wrong. Whoa. It's hard to stomach. Now I am trying my best to avoid situations where I am actively seeking out evaluations of my performance, like with teaching. This past year I worried so much about my evaluations from my students, and how that defined me as a teacher. Now, it's not that I don't care, but I'm not going to obsess over finding out "how I'm doing." I'm going to do the best I can, be a good steward, and know that everything I do glorifies God. Don't mean to get so spiritual tonight, but this has been an amazing ride, and it's only been about a week since we started reading together!

Well, enough about that. I'll end with a few pictures below from a baby-birthday party we went to last weekend. Enjoy!

Rebecca-moo

Our god-daughter, Rebecca, at her sister's birthday party. We are so in love with her. The other little girl in the last picture was one of the other little girls at the party who wanted to get in the picture.



 

Bethany's First Birthday

I now know that birthday parties for babies are really for the grown-ups. Last Sunday, we went to the first birthday party for our god-daughter's sister, Bethany. The pictures tell it all.

 
 
 
  

Lazy Sunday

Mom, Dad and Destiny came to visit from Lancaster County yesterday. Destiny has been longing for a swim in our pool. The Sessoms also stopped by for swimming. We had such a nice time...the weather was beautiful, but we were being harassed by the bees. This is the price I pay for loving flowers! The water was soooo cold, but we managed to enjoy it. Even our god-daughter Reid enjoyed the nippy water (see some really cute pictures of her below). We'll start with a picture of Mom and Dad getting a little lip-action in the pool. Awwww!

 

Laughing Waters

When I was on exchange in Jamaica, there was a waterfall that people swam in called "Laughing Waters." I asked one of the locals why they called it Laughing Waters. He told me to get in...I did, and couldn't stop laughing. Something about being in the water and feeling like a kid again...check out Mom and her laughter! Anthony is so strong with his big muscles.




 

Fun in the Sun

The kids and baby were having a good time in the water.


 
 
 
  

About 10 minutes later...

Reid actually fell asleep in her floatie. It looks like she's getting a tan! We were all amazed that she fell asleep with half of her body in the cold water!

  

Dance-Dance Revolution!

We ended the evening with our most recent pasttime...Dance-Dance Revolution (DDR). Mom, Dad, Vidal and Destiny were in the mix. Dad had a few problems catching the beat, but Mom had her natural metronome going and caught on quickly! They were dancing to "Play that Funky Music White Boy." Ha ha ha!

 
 
 
  

Recap on the summer that's almost over

Well, we've had an extremely busy summer. It began great, with the birth of baby Reid, but then became sour, when I had foot surgery the very next day. My foot is healing well, but I still have to wear athletic shoes until I get the ok from my doctor to transition into other shoes. I was part-time teaching with the Upward Bound Program this summer, but the workload made it feel like a full-time job. Upward Bound is a college-prep program that provides math and science courses to high school students to prepare them for the courses they'll be taking the following year in school. I taught research writing last year, and decided, for some odd reason, to teach Chemistry this year. Needless to say, it kicked my butt. I spent so much time preparing for class, sometimes up to 5 hours a night! All of that on top of running my research project, which turned out to be a full-time job as well. It was a busy summer, but I still enjoy working with the Upward Bound students. The Upward Bound Program ended last Friday, August 4th, so I'll be spending time these next few weeks.

When I wasn't working, I was in the garden or organizing things for Sunday School. As the heat of summer sets in, my flowers are beginning to die or stop flowering...I hate that. Soon I'll be shopping for mums to keep some color in the yard.

We are still working hard to be debt free, apart from our mortgage. This has been more of a challenge for me than for Anthony, especially during the spring and summer when I want to buy plants. We agreed that part of my extra salary from teaching this summer would be put towards flowers and mulch, which was great. We have been very disciplined with our budget, and we have been faithful in giving, and I know the Lord is pleased because He keeps throwing financial blessings our way. We are set to be debt free by December, which is a blessing. The only thing we're paying off now is the line of credit on our house. Next stop, a villa in the Caribbean! Yeah right...maybe one day though!

That's about all that we've been up to this summer. I'm looking forward to a few non-academic days this summer...I'll probably paint the living room! Oh yeah, you'll probably notice from the pictures that I cut all my locks off. I did it last week Thursday when I came home to find a bug and dirt stuck in my hair that I never even felt! I'm back to wash-and-go!

Lori

Fun with the Bullocks

The Bullock family (the couple that was in our wedding) had a bunch of couples over for a hangout last Friday night. It was a lot of fun, especially because we got to spend time with our 2 beautiful god-daughters, Reid (3 months) and Rebecca (2 years). We ended the evening with a Dance-Dance-Revolution battle. If you don't know what that is, it's an interactive game for the Playstation 2, where you follow the dance steps on the screen. Lots a fun, and even the little kids got involved!

 
 
 
  

Bar-Mitzvah

We had a good time at the bar-mitzvah for the son of Bennett, the drummer in Anthony's band. I realized how awesome it was to have this sort of "coming of age" celebration for a child...it really drives home how much trust and responsibility the community is placing in the hands of the child. Neat.