I'm Not Getting Fat

There's a baby in my belly!

Lish and I are so excited! I'm due December 1st (exactly two weeks after Lish's sister). We can't wait to be parents, and at the same time, we're quite nervous! But we know we'll be awesome anyway.

Goodbyes are Strange

Lish and I are packing up and moving on this week. In less than 3 days actually. It's strange. I finished up my last week of work last week. It went by quite slowly actually. But then Friday flew by. And Friday was a great day at work. My friend Michelle did a beautiful little set up for me in our break room. It was lovely and I truly appreciated it. (The picture isn't great because I took it with my phone.)Then I had to say goodbye to everyone there. And return my key. Yet I was the last to leave the building. I did a very sneaky job at setting the alarm and getting out with all the doors locked and no key. Very sneaky indeed.

Then we went to church today. Our last time in the Tallahassee 4th ward. My last time in this primary that I've been in for the past two years. The primary president had me come up during closing exercises to tell me thank you and to let all the kids say goodbye to me. It made me tear up. As I was making my way back to the back of the room, all the children were waving to me and saying bye. Before some of them left, they came up and gave me a big hug and told me they'd miss me. Made me tear up again. I had to say goodbye to so many people today, and our goodbyes aren't over. We'll have more tomorrow and Tuesday.

I'm saying goodbye to these people, knowing that I'll never see a majority of them ever again. It's so strange to me, to move on from this phase of my life and know that there is a possibility I'll never be back. I have some friends say to me, "Come back to visit." And I might. But I might not. I don't have family here, I didn't go to school here, and Tallahassee isn't exactly built for tourists. So maybe I'll be back to visit, but maybe not. I honestly can't say. And as excited as I am to be back in Utah and back with family, I'm really going to miss a lot of these people. There are some amazing people here and we've been so blessed and privileged to have built relationships with them.

So although goodbyes are strange and I am walking away knowing that I may never see them again, I know that the place I am walking to and the future we are working towards will be a wonderful one because of these people. They have taught me a lot about life and about myself. And I am grateful for their temporary presence in my life and I hope to run into them again sometime in the future.

Surviving with Some Sanity

Last week was a little crazy. You know those weeks, where the receptionist at work is sick and out for all but 4 hours of the 40 hour work week, so you have to play receptionist + your normal job, and you know you're moving in 2 weeks so you're packing, and figuring stuff out with the apartment management, and getting a moving truck, and trying to sell the scooter, and trying to figure out what's going to happen to your insurance when you quit your job, and trying to figure out what you'll need and what you'll store in the next year, and trying to spend time with all your friends before you move and before they move, and having to teach sharing time and give a talk in sacrament, and celebrating an anniversary, and putting in your two weeks notice at work, and knowing you'll have to train a lot this coming week since you had no time last week, and having the biggest primary activity we've had in the 2 years I've been in primary, and having to go to a baptism but showing up half an hour early because that's what they told me, and getting a sore throat on top of it all. You know those weeks.

Okay, I hope you don't know those weeks. It was a little crazy around here, but we've survived and we're making progress. And we'll survive this next week and the week after, and then we'll be relaxing just a little in Utah. We're living with Karen and Scott for the next year, and we're so excited! It'll be a great experience to be out there again and to be so close to family. We've missed them. A lot.

But leaving Tallahassee will be hard too. This has been our home for the past almost three years. Lish and I haven't lived in any one place that long since high school. And it's the place where we've grown so close to one another. We've made some amazing friends and met some wonderful people. So they will be missed. The thing I won't miss? Humid summers. I'm glad we're leaving while it's just in the high 80's. It's already hot enough and sticky enough for me. Give me that dry stuff.

All in all, we both have mixed feelings about moving, but we're getting more and more excited as we get closer. We're down to a week and a half! Can't wait to finish my last week of work this week and continue cleaning out our apartment!

Update on the Update-We're Moving!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are ready for the second installment of the Harris Family saga. We have decided to…insert drum roll here…move back to Utah for the next year! As I described in my last email, I was waiting to hear back about funding for the next year from a couple of different sources: the College funding I have received the last 3 years and a grant my mentor applied for. As it turned out, I was not able to receive funding from multiple sources per some College norm for graduate students. Additionally, my mentor emailed me this weekend to tell me that he did not think he was going to receive the National Science Foundation grant after all. Once you add this up, our decision was fairly easy to make so we can achieve our goal of getting me through school without incurring any debt.

So, Whit and I have already booked our moving truck and picked up a slew of boxes. We have decided to go ahead and move at the end of this month. (We are going to leave on May 26^th and get into Utah on May 28^th. I expect Collin to be waiting for me with open arms.) I only have funding through the middle of June and I told my College that I did not want to pay a full month’s rent to work for 2 weeks. They told me today that leaving at the end of May was fine as long as I did a couple of weeks or work from Utah to complete my commitment. Also, moving earlier rather than later will give Whit a chance to get started at her new job. And to top it all off, this means we can make it back to see Maggie and Brandon while they are in Utah for a wedding over Memorial Day weekend. (For those who don’t know, Maggie is pregnant which means she won’t be traveling much the next year and we will be too broke to go to Baltimore to visit, so we wanted to see them when we had the chance.)

All in all, Whit and I are excited to be closer to family and to see what the next year holds for us. It will be sad to say goodbye to our Tallahassee family, but if we don’t do it sooner we will have to later. We know it will be an adjustment from our independent life here, but we are extremely grateful for our family’s generosity and hospitality. In short, its time to warm up the oven Mama!

Stephanie Nielson

I'm not sure how to put videos from youtube directly on here, so I've just added a link. This video is amazing and if you have a few minutes, you should definitely watch it. What a beautiful story and a beautiful testimony this girl has.

Enjoy.

And here is her lovely little blog.

A Little Family Update

(This is an email Lish just sent out to our family today. Thought some of you might like to know what's going on as well. Beware: It's very long!)

Hello Family!

I hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying spring time. Whitney and I are trying to enjoy it here in Tally before it turns to the hot-box that is the summer. I figured it was time I sat down and shared all that has been happening with Whit and I these last few months. So much has happened that it has gotten to the point that I cannot remember who we told what, so if this is repetitive to you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones (or unlucky ones if you hate really long emails).

As all of you know, I went on the job market this last year to test the waters. Although I have only been working on my PhD for 3 years (a feat that normally takes 4-5 years), I had been lucky and was able to be in a position that I could have been done a year or so early. With this in mind, I sent out job applications thinking that maybe I could land a job earlier than anticipated. If not, I could extend my dissertation work and try again the next year without having a gap in my resume. The process has been pretty long as most applications for jobs that start in the fall of 2010 were due in the fall of 2009. I made what is called a short-list (the top 2-3 candidates for a job) for 5 different schools and was invited to visit their campus. And as Lady Fortuna would have it, I was offered one job at Gannon University in Erie, PA.

Although I was impressed with some of the aspects of Gannon, Whitney and I decided to reject their job offer. This was not a decision that was made in haste. We took ample time to sit and discuss, and sit and discuss, and sit and discuss (Whit can attest to this). I also ran this decision by my advisers and mentors and they were all in agreement about this particular position. Gannon University is a school that has its professors carry an extremely heavy teaching load. They teach what is referred to as a 4/4 load, which means each professor teaches 4 classes in each semester. (To put this in perspective, both BYU and FSU have their professors teach a 2/2 (this is offset by a heavier research load). Ideally, I'd like to be at a school that has a 3/3 policy. These universities focus more on teaching than research, but ask each professor to spend a more balanced amount of time doing both activities. I was lucky enough to make the short list for two schools like this (Towson University and The University of West Georgia), but did not get the job at either place. As another side note, The job at West Georgia was cancelled about a month ago due to budget restraints so we are glad we didn't get that offer after all!) The 4/4 teaching load is troublesome for a new professor who wants to move jobs within a few years because it sucks away anytime they may have to do research. Ultimately, this hurts their long-term marketability as they would not be a well-rounded candidate for a new job. With this in mind, we made the tough decision to say no.

Having rejected the job offer from Gannon, we moved into "What-Do-We-Do-Now" mode. Although we are not completely certain yet, we have narrowed our options down to 2: we will either stay here in Tally for another year while I finish and apply for jobs or we will move back to Utah for the year while I finish and apply for jobs. Our preference is to try and stay here because it would be a bit easier for me to finish if we didn't have to go anywhere, although I am very confident I will finish anywhere we go. The trick is getting the college to fund me for another year. Our college offers some students assistantships or scholarships to help them get through school. I was lucky enough to get one a few years ago. The problem with these assistantships is that they are only guaranteed for 3 years. Many students in the past have been able to secure a fourth year of funding, but like many institutions, FSU is experiencing budget retraction and there is less funding than there has been in years passed. Currently, we are waiting to hear if I can receive an extra year of funding. If that can fall into place, we will stay here. If not, we will head west. I have talked to my major professor (the guy in charge of my dissertation work) and he is very supportive of both of our options. In fact, he had to move the last year of his dissertation as well so he has been through this and knows how to work through it. To sum it up, we are not choosing between good and bad options, but good and better options.

I am confident that this next year will be great for us no matter where we end up. I experienced some success in a really tough job market and I will be a better candidate this next year with another year of work to put on my resume. We have thought a lot about these decisions and have received some great advice from people-in-the-know on these things. In fact, my major professor patted my back the other day and said, "You have made some tough, but really good decisions lately." That made me feel good, because it is easy to doubt decisions you make that seem so large and important. Thank you all for your love and support. The latest we will know about my funding here at FSU is May 10th, so we will keep you all in the loop as soon as we hear anything.

Love,

Lish

Silly Husband

I have a confession to make. Lish and I watch American Idol religiously. (No, that is not my confession.) My favorite part about watching American Idol? Watching Lish. Why? You'd know if you watched him too. Whenever they sing a song he knows, he always juts out his chin, sticks his tongue out a little, and mouths the words during the chorus. It makes me laugh every time. He reminds me of a little kid. I just love him!