Where has all the time gone?

Last weekend was jam packed with "firsts."

On Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to go down to the lab and feed my crabs. And by bright and early I mean 5am. Yeah, I know. Ew. You might ask, "Why so early?" Well, the answer is Vancouver. A group of 5 of us decided to head up to Vancouver to celebrate one of the research group's experiment being completed. We had to catch a train at 9:21am in Mount Vernon, which is about 40 minutes from here. We wanted to arrive at the train station around 8:45. We had to leave at 8, which meant that I had to be at the lab at 6 to feed my crab babies. We got to the station just fine and had a nice train ride. It was the first time that I have ridden a train (that I remember). It seems like a great, but time consuming, way to travel.

We spent the day in Vancouver checking out the Vancouver Aquarium (another first for one girl in our group who had never been to an aquarium before!), navigating the bus system, and having fun! However, the trip was short lived. We spent the night in a hotel and boarded a 6:40am train back to Mount Vernon. It was pretty tough to get up early for that one.

Once we got back to Shannon Point, some people from the Canada trip and some who were at Shannon Point got ready to go to Friday Harbor. There is a ferry terminal just around the corner from Shannon Point, so we walked to that and took the ferry over to the San Juan Islands. It was my first ever ferry ride.

Friday Harbor was great! It is so beautiful there. We got some lunch first and then we went to the Whale Museum. Even though it was really cool, it was also kind of depressing to learn about the history of whaling and using whales for entertainment value. Then we got some home made ice cream, which cheered me up. :)

I was only able to spend a few hours in Friday Harbor because I had to get back to the lab to feed my crabs for the day. So, Shad and I headed back on a late afternoon ferry. When we arrived in Anacortes, we didn't really feel like walking back to Shannon Point on the road, because it is very hilly and tiring, so instead we decided to try the beach, which is quite easy to walk at low tide. Unfortunately for us, it was high tide! But it was ok. There was some splashing and crawling and stumbling - it was an adventure.

We got back to Shannon Point and, even though I was basically falling asleep on my feet, I had to go and feed my crabs. I kept myself alert by listening to Elvis. :)

Just as I was finishing up in the lab, I got a text from the other group that we left in Friday Harbor that their ferry was almost back and I drove over to get them using Sarah's car.

Even though I was dead tired, it was a great weekend and I'm really glad we did everything that we did. I am realizing more and more each day that there is only a limited amount of time left for me here - I come home in ~2.5 weeks! I feel like it is a rush to the finish line now, as I try to wrap up all my experiments, prepare a presentation, and write a paper, all while trying to spend time doing fun things with friends! I must admit though - I am excited to go home. I miss my family and the familiar surroundings. I also miss driving! I didn't realize how much I would miss that. I'm also anxious to get my wound taken care of when I return. I'll see my surgeon soon after I get back and we're hoping to come up with a plan that will permanently fix it, since nothing has worked thus far.

Thanks so much for reading - I hope you enjoyed it. To all of you who have prayed for my wound I say thank you and please continue!

P.S. MAJOR praise report: My dad got a job!!! If you know anything about this situation, you know that it had been a long time coming. And with the circumstances around the interview, type of position, etc. he should not have gotten the job, so we know that it was God's doing. Yay!

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 16:9.

I need that reminder daily. Since I have been at Shannon Point, I've managed to convince myself that I should go to med school in Australia, take a year off to teach English in Japan, take a year off to travel, take a year off to work, go to grad school for a marine bio Ph.D. (possibly overseas), and go to grad school for a marine bio masters. In that order.

I keep thinking about all the things that I could do with my life and worrying about what the next step should be. Why is it so hard to just be content with what is happening now? Why is it so hard to be content with not know what will happen next?

The only explanation I can think of is that I am human. Also, I'm too focused on things that I want to do and not focused enough on what He wants me to do. He could have it in plan for me to do any of the things I mentioned - or none. I won't know until it happens, I suppose.

For now, I'm going to focus on shorter goals, like graduating from Northwestern. Then I'll tackle what to do afterwards. Maybe thats not the best plan, but at least I'll be able to keep my sanity along the way!


Well, after that mind dump, updates! Everything is going well out here at Shannon Point. I have all three of my experiments running currently. They seem to be going well. Even though larval crabs are not the most interesting thing in the world, but its a good overall research and networking experience.

I'm having a lot of fun with the people around here. The other interns and grad students are great people to hang out with. We have a lot of fun going to movies, making dinner together, doing puzzles, and just haning out in general. Next weekend, some of us are going to venture up to Vancouver for a night and then over to the San Juan Islands and Friday Harbor. It should be a fun time. I promise I'll try to take some pictures.

Thanks for prayer about the wound. It seems to be closing around the edges! While this is a good sign, it would be counterproductive for it to close all the way, because it is not really healing depth-wise. If it did close up it could become a problem because it would need to be cut open again which couldn't be easily accomplished out here. So please pray that it doesn't get any worse and that it can be dealt with when I get back.

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. -- Proverbs 16:9

Molting crab babies!

I found molts today!

My crab larvae are coming along well in my experiment. All of the Unfed control group have died! While this sounds cruel, it is necessary for the experiment and they probably would have all died long ago if they were in the ocean anyways. Also, my non-toxic diet larvae have begun to molt. This means that they have passed into the second stage of larval development and gives me a comparison to the stage duration of the toxic diet larvae (a few of which molted today). I am excited to continue the experiment and eventually analyze the data I am getting to see what effect the toxins have. Next week I will start a new experiment that seeks to observe the differences in development of the larvae when there are differing levels of toxin present in the diet, which is also pretty exciting. I realize that this is super nerdy, but I am at a marine science REU, so :-P

As for general life stuff...

Yesterday all the interns and grad students living at SPMC had Thanksgiving in July! It was tons of fun. We had great, yummy food and a wonderful time of fellowship. I made some bread rolls from frozen dough that expanded so much that they were ginormous! I cooked some of them in muffin pans, two to a hole, and they turned out looking like this:

I'm sure you can imagine what they were nicknamed. Yep - butt buns! It made for an interesting dinner... Just imagine, "Can you pass the butt buns, please?" Haha. It was great.

For all of you who have been praying about my wound, thank you! My dad called my surgeon and he gave me some advice about how to clean it and put the wick in and this seems to be helping immensely! Not only is there less fluid coming out each day, but it seems like it might even be closing a little! I still have to see my surgeon right away when I get back and we will probably end up doing exploratory surgery to get out whatever is irritating it, but as long as its not getting worse, I'm happy. Please keep praying! I know that God will eventually heal the wound, either by a surgery or miraculously. Your prayers are always welcomed and greatly appreciated. :-)

So little time!

Gosh, it has been a long time since I have written a post. Sorry for all those who have been expecting an update!

Even though I feel like I'm not too busy, the time still seems to fly here. I think the main reason is because I have made some really good friends and I really enjoy spending time with them. But I'm also busy doing other things like working in the lab, preparing presentations, cooking, laundry, etc. And then there are the fun things to do around town. There is a great Farmer's Market in Anacortes on Saturday and Wednesday. I have been a few times and got some great stuff - some local raspberries, ice cream, a bracelet, and a bag of the biggest sugar snap peas you have ever seen!

Daniel and me

There have been a few highlights of my time here since I posted last. On the 4th of July, a bunch of the interns went to the Anacortes 4th of July Parade. While it was long and not that interesting, I did make a friend. The cutest little boy named Daniel (aka Bubba) was sitting next to me. I think he was about 2. Even though he didn't know me, he sat right next to me, often with his hands on my leg, and would jump up to collect candy when it was thrown into the crowd. He also tried talking to me and although it was mostly gibberish, we managed to have a semi-intelligible conversation. The best part was at the end of the parade, when he had to leave, he came up to me and gave me a huge hug and sat in my lap! Through this encounter with Daniel, I was reminded that children are such a blessing from God. While we can teach them, they can also teach us about trust and naïvety and love.

Another highlight was going to an outreach event in Anacortes. Shannon Point Marine Center often does outreach for kids to get interested in marine science by bringing marine organisms to them. This Saturday, we went to the Kids are Best Fest and took 4 tanks with us. I was only there for the morning, but I got to see the joy and wonder on the kids faces when they saw and touched the live seastars, scallops, crabs, etc. It was so much fun!

That afternoon, I met up with Eric Schaberg's parents, Betty and Terry, who live nearby in Mount Vernon. They were the nicest couple! They took me all the way out to Coupeville (about an hour drive from Anacortes) so I could experience the small tourist town, see some great views, and have lunch with them at a tasty café. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and fellowship with them. Also, on the way back from Coupeville, we stopped at a produce stand and I got a 1/2 flat of raspberries for only $10! I used some of them to make Raspberry Chiffon Pie which I will be trying tonight. Yum.

Update on the crabs: Two hatched on the same day (Saturday, of course!) and I was able to start my experiment! This makes me a little more busy, but not that much, so I'm excited to get another experiment going in about a week.

As a side note - for those of you who don't know, I have an open wound on my chest from a small complication from my surgery in December. Its been there for over 2 months now and refuses to heal. I've seen my surgeon several times and an infectious disase specialist and they're both stumped. I'm indefinitely on antibiotics, because that seems to help a little, but the wound seems to be getting deeper in the last week. This is not good. All you prayer warriors out there, please pray for healing and protection from infection (haha that rhymed) at least until I get back to MN and they can do surgery to fix it! I would hate for this to throw a wrench into my summer plans and force me to return before the internship is over or something. Thank you!

Thoughts from the last few days.

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted! Sorry.



Our view for lunch

I have been very busy since I last wrote. On Thursday last week we took a 5 hour boat cruise all around the San Juan Islands. It was great! The weather was really nice (PTL) and we saw some amazing things. On our way out we saw some seals and the fin of a minke whale. It was so cool. By about 11:20 we had reached a small island where we did about a 5 min hike to the other side and ate lunch. It was beautiful! It was sunny and there were sailboats and I was with friends. I wish we could have stayed longer, but there was more cruising to be done!




A cute little lighthouse we saw along the way



We cruised for another few hours and then we saw the most amazing thing: a killer whale pod! Being able to see a pod of the huge, amazing, beautiful creatures in the wild was fantastic! They were so elegant. It was also kind of sad though. There were a lot of whale watching boats around, but no coast guard or bay watch. This meant that none of the whale watching boats followed the rules about how close they could get or what they could do around the orcas. There were actually boats speeding through the pod at full speed! It was so sad that they were harrassing these animals and I wish there was something that could be done. Since we were following the rules, unlike everyone else, I didn't get any good photos with my little camera, but my friend Christina did and I'll get them off of her some time soon. :)

Friday was just another lab day waiting for my crabs to hatch to no avail.

On Saturday, we all went to the Anacortes Farmers Market. That was a lot of fun and I got some great fresh produce, including huge sugar snap peas and some local raspberries. Then, on Sunday, a group of us went out to a Thai restaurant in town. It was tons of fun and I got some great pad thai.

When I went into the lab today, I was greeted by the sight of crab larvae! On of the crabs had hatched her eggs over night! I quickly told Anna-Mai and Dr. Sulkin. They were both excited, too, but there weren't quite enough larvae for me to begin my experiments yet. Instead, I used this brood of larvae to practice moving the larvae around one-by-one and feeding them. It was fun. Even though I accidentally stabbed myself with a glass pipette that I was working with. I'm ok - just a little scratch.

On a side note, I have been constantly reminded of God's presence in these last few days. Not only have I been immersed in His creation in nature, but I have experienced His faithfulness in the group of people that He brought here. I keep thinking about how grateful I am that He brought this specific group of people together. They are all very kind, but some have different views than me. It is a nice challenge to stay true to His word while other around me don't. But despite their views, they are really interesting and kind people that I am glad I know. That doesn't really sum up well the way that I am feeling, but thats where I'm at right now. Wish I could articulate better.

Beautiful mama and baby deer that were less than 5 feet away from us! They were so cute and were washing each oter.