insanity, at times.

Goodness, I have SO MUCH to post about! Photos from my dear friend's baptism at the lake (brrr!)--which we performed all in Spanish, funny fluffy animal picks, lab news and general goings-on in the Strait household. Busy days.

But for now, how about a list of the things I've been up to that have prevented me from a complete installation?

-Leading a parent-teacher meeting for an amazing new project we've begun in the lab, partnering with an inner city Chicago high school (lots of opportunity to speak Spanish...!)

-The baptism of my dear friend Mercedes, from Cuba (complete with pre-baptism meetings, group recognition on Sunday morning and a post-baptism par-tay)

-Coordinating Mercedes' "sewing business" (anyone need curtains sewn? tailoring??)

-Society for Neuroscience annual meeting--where I'm presenting a poster, as well as an auditory satellite (where I also presented)

-Locy snuggling at Reid & Sam's (not nearly as much as we'd like)

-Press conference & interviews about our research (NPR Monday! will post the link...)

-Responding to reviewers & trying to get this paper out the door (ugh)

-Presentation on "Does music make us human?" at the Zygon Center for Religion & Science

-Coffee dates & outing here & there with girlfriends. And my man. And my dog (no coffee dates, just romps in the park).

Phewf. The short of things? I'm happy. Content with life. Pleased to be married to a man with a vision I am passionate about and pleased that he feels the same about me. Excited for what the future holds.

Must protect insurance companies.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Thank you, Blurbomat, for clueing me into this video! It's fabulous.

Announcing: Locy Paige Hamblet

News, news! Big, snuggly news!

Reid & Sam gave birth to the gorgeous Locy Paige Hamblet yesterday evening around 5pm via c-section. Drew & I waited most of the day with Sam's parents, Frank & Camille. Reid kept us posted via text messages and we jumped at the phone every time it made a "bling!" Sam was a champ, pushing for hours, but Locy was backpacked into the umbilical cord & just couldn't make it down any further.

She has the softest skin and a healthy head of light brown hair (yes, mom, it seems like it could have a hint of red in it). We see Sam & Reid all over her darling little face! She enjoys sleeping, eating and--most of all--pooping. That, my friends, is a true sign of being a Hamblet.

We got a few shots of Sam as well--who looked fabulous--but I haven't yet asked for permission to post "post-birth Mama." But trust me, she was there, eating ice chips and flexing her muscles. Way to go Mama Sam!

Changes, Changes...

Change is upon us--in many ways. Drew turned in his thesis for publication Tuesday, meaning I must now address him as "Master Drew" (isn't that what you call someone with a Master's?). We celebrated last night with Whole Food's exquisite whole fruit pie, French cider and plenty of congratulatory flowers.

Beyond celebrating Drew's completion of "graduate degree #1" we also took the occasion to celebrate other changes in our lives. With Drew taking on this new position at the church and a new program at the University of Chicago, a lot of newness is coming our way. He worked his final shift at Peet's Coffee & Tea yesterday and it was a bittersweet day, marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

Anne and Louise have been regular Peet's customers for years, usually visiting in the mornings after dropping Louise's older siblings off at school. I now teach Anne's older children piano lessons and love the friendship we have developed--our lives in Chicago wouldn't be the same without them! Louise is thrilled when she finds Drew's moped parked near Peet's because it means Drew's "slinging the bean" inside. Here she is posing with Drew on his last day of work while Drew makes Anne her final "Drew Strait Latte."

So onward we press. What a year we have ahead of us.

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Two birthday congrats today!

1. Daddy Kevin, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. My favorite father-in-law celebrates his special day today and we wish so badly we could celebrate it together. Yet another successful year, and much fun ahead! We love you, are thankful for your example in our lives and cannot WAIT to see you this December.

Here's a photo of Kevin with Drew, Drew's best friend Troy, and Duffy, Troy's dad, while at Priest Lake last summer.
2. Sister Sam, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Her birthday happens to border the due-date of our first niece/nephew!!). Sam, you have a big year ahead and we couldn't be happier for you and Reid! We are thankful to be so close to you for the birth of Baby Hambo and look forward to the many evenings of baby snuggling ahead.

Here's a shot of me with Reid (my brother) and Sam when in New Jersey a few summers ago. This evening followed a full day of riding roller coasters at Six Flags and watching Reid's baseball game (with Brent & Erin Raska, while they were at Princeton).

We love you!

Tennessee Chronicles Part I: Family Fun

Boy has it been a full few weeks! I kicked off the traveling season with a trip to Indianapolis, where I presented my research at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. Returning on a Friday, I drove straight to the dentist's office where I had some yucky surgery performed (I'll spare you the details!). In order to make my recovery a little less miserable, we packed up our bags as soon as I was mobile and drove to East Tennessee for a visit with my extended family, puffy cheeks and all. We had a lovely trip and they were very gracious with me while I healed. We were SO glad to have this time with family and can't wait to share with you about it!

I'll post some photos in three parts. Here I give you Part I in the Tennessee Chronicles.

We stayed with my Mammaw Lucille (my mother's mother) in Pigeon Forge. This is a hot tourist spot, just bordering Smokey Mountain Nat'l Park. Many of our other relatives (aunt & uncle, great aunts, cousins, second cousins, third cousins...) live in the surrounding areas (Sevierville, Dandridge, Gatlinburg, Seymour). We spent a fair bit of time driving around to our different relatives' homes to chat and see what they've been up to.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit my Great Aunt & Uncle Nina and Lawrence. They have apple orchards and honey bees and are situated on beautiful mountainous property. Below is a photo of Drew & me with Mammaw down below some of their orchards.


Here we are with Nina on her front porch.
Back in the "holler" (translates to "hollow" or "valley") is an old two-room shack that has a fair bit of history to it. This is the shack where my Aunt Nina and my Papaw (grandpa) Virgil were raised along with their siblings. Nina showed us where they fetched their water, how they kept their dairy products cold (in the spring) and told us stories about harvesting sugar cane & making molasses, among other things.

I have always admired my Aunts Nina & Ruby (her sister) for all they accomplished professionally. Both of them raised children while working full time as educators & educational administrators in addition to supporting their husbands in their agricultural and professional endevours. Beyond this, they had very little growing up yet built successful lives for themselves once they became independent. These are hard-working and highly capable women! One story they tell about their road to success is how they learned to read by exploring the newsprint that their mother stuck on the inside walls of their home for insulation. I found a spot inside the shack where you could still read the words on the newsprint and took a photo. It seems this print is from an old Sears catalog.


To the side of this house are stacks of honeybee hives. Drew had never seen these before and was enthusiastic about exploring them, though I made she he was careful to maintain his distance (allergy alert!!).
This was a sweet visit! We also spent half a day with Aunt Ruby and her daughters and had such a lovely time catching up. We can't wait to return!!

I'll close this post with a photo of my cousin Andrew playing with Mollie. Andrew and his brother, Logan, kept Mollie well entertained during our vacation. Drew & I had no idea she could play for so long and Mollie was thrilled by all the attention and Mammaw's fenced in backyard!

Pastoral Interim Team

Drew has recently been hired as one of four pastoral leaders for our church during an interim period of at least one year, while we make decisions about how to proceed now that our head pastor has retired. This new position is timely for Drew, having just completed his first seminary degree and ready for more intense ministry involvement (refreshed from our two years of intense work in the DR!). As we were meditating on "what next," Drew was offered this position.
He is honored to serve the church in this capacity.


Last Sunday's service was devoted to commissioning this new team. I was disappointed that it coincided with my departure for Indianapolis (for SMPC's biennial conference) but appreciated Peter's photos, shown here. Members of the congregation washed the new leaders' feet and the church prayed over them in an act of commissioning.

I, for one, am thrilled to see his pastoral gifts again in action and look forward to his leadership in this capacity.

Joel & Tori: Superstars

As I mentioned before, we LOVED having Joel & Tori with us a few weekends ago! I also mentioned that we are terrible picture-takers and made it out with... oh... NONE. But that one. With the red eye.

All right.

So Joel & Tori mercifully sent us the photos they'd taken and here they are! These two are from the motorcycle "really high & scary jump" Red Bull event.

Miss you two already!

Dowtown at Twilight

Charity and I spent a night at Taste of Chicago, which is a huge fair consisting of miles of food booths hosted by restaurants throughout the city. The even takes over a large part of downtown, near Buckingham Fountain/Jackson Avenue. The night we went featured a Counting Crows concert and we got front & center seats, close enough to see the lead singer's individual dreadlocks. We were sure to catch Mr. Jones and Anna Begins before weaving our way out of the crowd.

After spending our food tickets wisely (and carefully documenting each consumption with a photo), we wandered over to Grant Park to see The Bean and this new installment (I forget what it's called, designed to "frame" different views of the Chicago skyline.


We ended the evening at the Hancock tower (of course), where we took plenty of photos from the windowed bathroom (who needs to pay for an observation deck?!). Oh, Chicago. And oh, Charity! Can you believe we've been friends for 15 years now??

Zookeeping

While Drew's at work Mollie pines away. The other day I found that she'd dug out one of Drew's house shoes and snuggled up next to it by the door, awaiting Drew's return. A boy and his dog--so precious!


Tink seems to be getting more and more confident, no longer afraid of big groups of guests or shy with new people. For those who don't know, she was Hurricane Katrina kitty, caught up the storm but lived to tell about it. She was rescued & shipped to Chicago, where her previous owner adopted her. Her first year post-storm she spent alone, as her new owner worked long hours. She was very sensitive to noise and movement when we first brought her home (definitely skittish) but gradually became more and more comfortable--now not sensitive to much at all and desperate for cuddles and affection! Good thing we love to be providers of cuddles and affection. Here she is snuggling with me last night while I got into a new book.


I'm used to waking up with Tink snuggled in the covers by my tummy, or nestled down at my feet. This morning I found that she'd sought out a new snuggle buddy--she was so cute crammed between Drew & the pillow that I just had to snap a shot!

Oh, the adventures of zookeeping. Happy Saturday to you all! I'm off to work but am committed to spending at least some time in the sun before the day is through.

Lovely Summer

Visitors have legitimately made our summer this year. We have had such a lovely June and July, honored to play host & hostess to friends and family. We kicked off the summer with visits from Drew's parents and Charity. In the past few weeks we spent a handful of days with Erin and Brent Raska, who currently live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan (think "Gossip Girl"!) and are preparing to move to Zambia for the next year. Joel and Tori Barbour visited from Spokane for four days, during which we toured the city, ate deep dish, watched movies and--most importantly--witnessed a motorcyclist break the world record downtown for the highest motorcycle jump. Let me tell you, it was high (I watched from a distance with Mollie, from Buckingham Fountain)... although I found it funny that he was breaking his own record. We also had an evening with Jenna Bott, in from Kansas City--what a treat!

Unfortunately, we have all of one picture to show for our time with guests! Guess we were too busy having fun. Below, Joel & Tori's friends spent an evening with us in the city. Tori did her best to get Olivia, a darling 2 year old, to ride Mollie. I'm not sure Olivia was as excited as Mollie was about it (please forgive the red eye--we really need a new camera...!).

Chicago is so fabulous in the summer that is *almost* makes up for the horrendous winters. I've been camping, beach bathing, biking and BBQ-ing and I just can't get enough of the outdoors! Drew and I are looking forward to our anniversary camping trip later this month. What could be better than 'mallows, reading in the hammock and sleeping under the stars with my husband?

A Preggatini Shower

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing more photos from Nicky's baby shower, which I hosted a few weeks ago! Follow the link & enjoy...

My little piece of country

I am in awe of our little home here in the big city this afternoon. I returned from a beautiful walk with Mollie in the park, worshiped at church with brothers & sisters literally from around the globe (part of the sermon was given in Nepali) and am loving the "bit of country" outside my window and... ta-dah!!... inside my home!!

What is this bit of country, you might ask?? I'll not leave you in suspense any longer, dear friends. It's: A VEGETABLE GARDEN!!! A few of my neighbors adore gardening, so I'm accustomed to enjoying the fruit of their labors in the form of flowers in our front & back courtyards each summer (Drew mows the grass & I weed the front flower beds whenever I can carve out a few hours). This year we've started something new with the association dues. Ever since Drew & I moved in, the building across from ours has been abandoned--with weeds growing in the front lawn. We mow them periodically, but this year our neighbors took a rototiller to it and planted a community veggie garden! So far it's looking great, and we're welcome to the products any time. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons, herbs... love it! We have yet to taste any of the growth but love that we can see it outside our windows day in & day out. A little piece of country on the street.

And a little piece of country inside my home? Here it is:


It's my new windowsill herb garden! I'm hoping the new plants get enough sun (which definitely won't be the 6 hours of direct sunlight that's recommended). If not I'll transplant them to the street garden, but I just love having tasty (and attractive!) greenery around. We have a mysterious inedible plant (left), next to barely enough sweet basil to satisfy my pesto addiction, pineapple mint (it tastes amazing! I plan to make tea with it this evening), a weary cilantro plant, 2 kinds of parsley and salad burnet (which I'd never heard of before but now love in green salads).

In other domestic news? Made dinner for my neighbors who just had their first baby (Thursday!... after delivering dinner I got in some decent baby snuggle time), made new laundry detergent (I swear by the homemade stuff... works great & no phosphates!), bathed & brushed Mollie and now (*gulp!*)... time to tackle laundry.

Charity in Chicago

What a LOVELY past four days it's been! Charity is my best friend from high school--we've been through so much together & have a wealth of amazing memories. We now live beautifully different lives--she married her high school sweetheart and together they have three of the sweetest children you'll ever meet, a big garden & a picaresque home in Maine. I love to live vicariously through Charity.

I'll post a bit more soon, sharing with you some of the Chicago fun we had but until then, I leave you with a photo from our first day of Charity & Mollie posing at Northwestern with the Chicago skyline as backdrop. Wow I love my city.

'Tis the season for babies

This past weekend was wildly full. I had a blast hosting my special friend Nicky's baby shower for her & Eric's first little one, due this next month.  A photo of Nicky with the first few ladies to arrive is below (I'm still waiting on her to send me the rest of the photos... hint hint...).  As you see, they're all holding martini glasses (the theme was "Preggatini"... not too cheesy, right??)... we had many different "pregnancy-safe" drinks to choose from (accessorized with frozen babies in ice cubes... just because it's funny!) & enjoyed spending time together, celebrating Baby O who'll soon be here!

A month after Baby O's due date, my brother & sister-in-law will be welcoming their own little one into the world.  This babe will be both Drew's & my first niece/nephew and we can't wait to  snuggle him/her and watch Reid & Sam transition into parenthood (and my parents transition into grandparenthood!). They will be fabulous parents and this baby will undoubtedly be gorgeous, intelligent and athletic. 'Tis the season for babies, and we love it!