January is here, and my family and I are now back in Cambridge after a busy time since my last post. Here’s a review of some of the things we’ve been up to.
Thanksgiving - We went to visit my family in Bethlehem, PA. This is where my Dad grew up and where his two sisters (and their families) and my Grandma still live. My parents and brother also met us there, so we were able to see most of my Dad’s side, which was nice. Usually we are in Bethlehem for Christmas (which sounds cool, doesn’t it?), but it was nice to visit during Thanksgiving and it is only a five hour drive from here in Cambridge.
New Club - I started a new Sloan club called “Sloan Student Moms Club”. It is still in its infancy (pun intended), but we had our first meeting and a few items I’m working to influence and change.
Stay-at-home Dad - We met another family with a Stay-at-home Dad! It seriously took six months to find another in Cambridge. Our friend Mary from Indy who is a second-year at HBS heard of their family, and a few emails later we met for lunch and then the boys also had a play date before Christmas. Their son is about a year younger than Nolan. Also, I heard that Cambridge has the oldest age in the country for first-time parents. Not sure if its true, but its believable with all the schools and industry in the area.
Finals - Finished up the semester with a few finals and group papers and projects. Ultimately it was not as bad as the rush at the conclusion of our LGO summer semester, but it was huge to be done with a busy semester with the crazy nine classes most LGOs took this fall. We did a project in our Organizational Processes class with a ‘large local software company’ that finished up well, which was nice. Wrote a group paper in my Drug Development class on Biosimilars. Learned more about this arena of pharmaceuticals, which was interesting. Finished Industrial Chemistry class (within Chemical Engineering department), it drew on a lot of dusty knowledge from the realms of organic chemistry and kinetics that I took TEN years ago. Lots of reading books from the library and trying to figure it out. This is only a brief recap of my semester.
Baby Leah - My brother-in-law Adam and his wife Amanda (Chris’s brother) welcomed little baby Leah Kate on December 9. This means I am now Aunt Kacey!!! and Nolan has a cousin! She is crazy adorable and has TONS of really dark hair (something she does not have in common with her cousin Nolan). We got to meet her two weeks later when she was still super tiny newborn. love!
Christmas - The day after my last final the three of us started our drive back to the midwest. We took two days to drive to my parents in Ohio - stopping in upstate New York on the way there with lake-effect snow and being unable to see the road at night. We spent the week before Christmas at my parents then the week after in Indianapolis. It was great to see so many of our wonderful family and friends during the break.
PLANT TREK - On January 3rd I left with Mr. Bradley on a flight from Indianapolis to Seattle for our first stop of the two week LGO adventure across the country. It was super sad to leave Nolan for two weeks - and my first time away from him overnight (really). Overall the trip was awesome and deserves its own post - if not several. A huge highlight of the program and completely fun and at the same time educational and interesting.
Week off - This week we have off between plant trek and next week’s interviews. I wanted to go back to Indy for a few days (where Chris and Nolan stayed during plant trek) to see a few friends that weren’t around during Christmas break and I also stopped by my old work to see friends and former co-workers. A good quick visit back to Indy then it was off on Tuesday to drive back to Cambridge. We stopped this time at my Uncle/Aunt/Cousin’s house in Ithaca, NY. This worked out well since we didn’t get to see them at Thanksgiving and also hadn’t been to see them since they moved to Ithaca when my Uncle and his lab went to Cornell. Wednesday night we returned to Cambridge and I was so happy to be 1. cooking in my own kitchen 2. sleeping in my own bed 3. with all our other stuff 4. see our cats again. Miss Chassitty (and her mom Noramay and Noramay’s boyfriend Wes) watched our cats this month while we were gone. She did a GREAT job and I was amazed how our cats were not crabby when we got home!! awesome!!
