A week in Rochester (MOTHER OF ALL BLOG UPDATES)

Since our life is currently consumed with the effort of preparing to move five hours further away from Rochester, we decided to take the opportunity to visit my Ancestral Home for a week. Though we didn't get to see Everyone and Everything and can't keep the furious visiting pace we used to, we enjoyed seeing a lot of people and places and managed to not make a vacation more stressful than regular life- an accomplishment!

We started with a day at Dad and Kate's (Grandpa and Morai's) to decompress from the long drive. On Wednesday, June 23 we headed up to St. Catherine's in Canada to see my Grandma and Grandpa Revell. Miles was happy to be reunited with his great-grandparents, who adore him! Back across the border, we spend Wednesday night at the Cornell cottage in Barker. It was Miles' first trip to Lake Ontario and it was very solemn for me to bring him. It was at nearby Baehr's (who are celebrating their 20th anniversary! I've been enjoying their sugar cones since I was eight!!) that Miles had his first ice cream. It was a hit.

At the Lake, we strolled around some familiar sights. If you're not a member of my family, these might not mean a lot to you, but here are some old and new sights at Lighthouse Christian Camp, as they were a couple of weeks ago:






From Barker, we went straight to Chris and Michelle's house, where we enjoyed some friendly revelry. Michelle even took us to Wild Wings, the raptor sanctuary where Michelle volunteers. We got to see hawks, owls, eagles, a bobcat, and others in their aviary houses, and even saw Hunter the barred owl up close!

(A picture of Hunter I robbed from WW site.) We all had so much fun there! A bonus, unexpected adventure.

On Saturday, we made it to my cousin Rebekah's graduation party. We are so proud of her! She's off on scholarship to Robert's Wesleyan this fall where she will undoubtedly continue to astonish us all.

Back in Dad and Kate's house, Miles enjoyed time with dogs (he's recently learned to sign "dog" and in their house, there was lots of opportunity to practice). We also had a little early celebration of his one-year birthday (unbelievable, isn't it?) He really seems to appreciate all his gifts! The cupcake was... a little less appreciated. Between it being nearly bedtime after a long day of fun, and the cupcake and frosting being SO FOREIGN in their ability to coat his hands and stick up his teeth, and the fact that the whole room was starting at him and laughing... well, we had a small breakdown to manage. Oh well. It was a practice run for... this Thursday! Wish us luck on this ambitious cake and large first birthday party!

We are working hard on our move, to explain our silence on the blogosphere. I (Lissa) have a NEW JOB to report! working at Virgina Tech's Office for Students with Disabilities. This was just the one I wanted; I'm thrilled. Jon is enjoying his last break for a while (probably next summer will see him working) and Miles seems to be enjoying a respite from the Molars of Death so that he is, currently, about the happiest and sweetest tempered little one year old you can imagine.

Here we go! Cheers everyone!

In Which We Look At Where We Shall Live

We went to Blacksburg, and we took some pictures.
First, Virginia Tech's campus:

The Drillfield

On the left, the April 16 memorial, on the right, Burruss Hall

Burruss Hall, again


Miles, pushing his stroller around a lot


The Library


The Library doors (How medieval looking)


Torgerson Bridge

All buildings have a facade of what's called Hokie Stone. This gives the entire campus a uniform appearance, and it also makes it all look way older than it actually is.

Some sights around Blacksburg:

The Farmer's Market


The view (from our hotel room)


The public library


The beginning of the Huckleberry Trail, which extends a few mile south

All in all, we've become more excited about moving. The public library and farmer's market are fantastic, and the Huckleberry Trail (part of the rails to trails movement) is right downtown. It looks like we'll be living about a mile from the library, and less than a mile from the market, downtown Blacksburg, campus, and possibly church.

The air was noticeably cleaner and less humid, good for all of us. And we love the mountains. It's hard to believe that we only have six weeks left in Maryland. We'll make the most of them.

Highlights

I know we've been rather.. absent. But Miles rocks on, crawling 90 miles an hour and practicing his walking:



He's also been enjoying his first spring and early summer. He surely can't remember green leaves and warm weather, as he was a hibernating infant. Here are some summer adventures: a pool party, a day out in Annapolis with his new bff, David Brown, and general enjoyment
outside:

Excitement!!!

Look who likes cantaloupe! There are more pictures, really.


First, the backstory:
As many of you know, we've been trying to move out of the Washington/Baltimore/allergen corridor since we married and chose to live here. It hasn't worked out, obviously, as we're still here. I (J.) applied to Cornell in 2006, certain that they'd accept me. I didn't get in, so I applied to CUA as a library science student, hoping that it would bolster my applications the next time around.

CUA was all good and fun (some classes, anyway), and I spent Fall 2008 applying to five different schools: Cornell (again), Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. After visiting three of five (the Ivies), the rejection letters came in, all on Fridays: Cornell, Penn, Pitt, then, after a suspenseful, hoping-for-irony wait, Harvard.

Several weeks later, Virginia Tech accepted me (on a Wednesday). At this point, it was early May 2009. M. was coming in two months, and I had already signed my contract for work the following year. So I deferred, hoping that VT would be able to offer me money or an assistantship (which waives tuition and pays a small stipend).

So, in the first week of April 2010, I got a letter from Virginia Tech, the same letter I had received a year earlier, informing me of my acceptance into the program (which I already knew about), and that they could not offer me any funding.

This time, I knew better than to let that slide. I started asking questions. VT informed me that the STS department (I'll explain in a bit) couldn't offer an assistantship, but I might find one in another department. So I looked, and looked, and couldn't find anything. Meanwhile, I was applying to every job opportunity I could find--I think I sent my resume to 40 different places. I finally found two assistanships--one doing research on gendered knowledge of sustainable agriculture (which sounds awesome), and one at the library's Science and Technology Reference Desk. I applied to both, and within 24 hours of applying I received an email telling me that the research assistantship had just been filled. So my options are down to one lonely possibility.
To make this tale shorter, I was invited for an interview, and I was offered the assistantship. This was the only thing holding us back from VT; now we can afford to send me to graduate school. In the fall, I'll be working at Virginia Tech's library while taking classes toward earning a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies. We're moving to Blacksburg, Virginia, in August.

This has been a tremendous hurdle, one that's taken us four years to jump. We've been praying for a way to move out of this area, both for health and finances, and we'd just started changing our attitudes about living in Maryland for a long, long time. Now, we have the reason to move, and we're waiting patiently on finding a job for L., childcare for M., and a place for us all to live.


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