Ali’s Life

This has been an amazing year. I can’t believe all that has happened. New job, new home, and of course new baby!

Kaylee will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. The time has FLOWN by since she was born. She’s already smiling and laughing and really starting to interact with the world around her. And she gets cuter by the day, I swear! ^_^ She likes to hang out in her bouncy seat and watch us. She also likes her tummy-time mat and huge triangle stuffed block thing that she can slide down by wiggling on her tummy. She’s sleeping better, although we still have some rough nights (like this past Tuesday night, when she pretty much wouldn’t sleep all night! Ahh!) Ethan and I are tired of course, but also really enjoying her. Sometimes I think she gives me more energy than I used to have. lol.

I’m back at work now. Transitioning to being back at work has been hard, I miss her during the day, especially on days like today when work is really quiet (Macalester is on winter break). But knowing she’s home with Ethan for a while yet makes it better. We’ll see how I feel in February when I take her to daycare.

I think my body is healing quite well from the birth. I got back on the ice for the first time at 5 week post-partum and it was GREAT. My team isn’t doing too well this season, but I’m just glad to get the chance to play. I’m working at getting back into shape. I’m back into most of my pre-pregnancy clothes, but I still have more to loose before I’m satisfied. I want to hit my goal weight by my friend Josh’s wedding in early May.

With the New Year almost here I’ve made 3 new resolutions:

1. Get down to my goal weight by May 10th

2. Breastfeed Kaylee for at least 6 months, but try to make it to 1 year

3. Write and submit a presentation proposal for the next IALLT conference.

Happy New Year!

Kaylee is now 3 weeks old and Ethan and I have learned a lot about parenting a newborn over the past 3 weeks. Kaylee is being breastfed, and after a few latching stumbles at the beginning she has been doing wonderfully. Now we are also feeding her pumped milk from a bottle to get her ready for when I return to work in December. At her 2 week appointment she had gained 4 1/2 oz over her birth weight, which is excellent. Overall she is a very good baby. She doesn’t fuss much, although she does prefer to be held rather than sleep in her crib, but she’s getting better at that.

Our sleep schedule is totally crazy right now (I am writing this post at 3 am for crying out loud!). When Ethan is home it is pretty easy to take shifts and both get enough sleep, but during the week when I’m home with Kaylee it gets harder. Luck for me, my family has been amazingly helpful. My mom has come over a few times to watch Kaylee, and has helped me with housework. I don’t know what I’d do without her. I am so glad we moved up here to Apple Valley!

I start back to work part time a week from Monday, then full-time after the New Year. Ethan will work part time while I am, then be home full time for the rest of January. So that means Kaylee doesn’t go to daycare until February, which is good because at this point I can’t imagine her at daycare, I hope by February I feel differently. I do look forward to going back to work while Ethan’s home with her though. I love spending time with her, but I am going a bit stir-crazy being in the house all the time.

Having a baby is hard, but totally amazing. She is so adorable, it’s unbelievable! I love looking into her cute little face, kissing her cheeks, and snuggling her. Right now she’s sleeping soundly on my chest. People always think their kids are the cutest, but seriously, SHE’S SO CUTE! She has her dad’s eyes and my mouth and dimple. I look forward to watching her grow up and seeing what other parts of Ethan and I emerge in her.

She is so worth all the pain and stress of pregnancy. It seems crazy, but I actually do want to do it all again in a year or two to give her a little brother or sister. heh. If you had asked me in the third trimester I would have told you I never wanted to be pregnant again. But babies are amazing and just make life shiny.
We are posting pictures every week on http://gallery.ethanet.com, so please take a look!

On Saturday, November 10th, 2007 at 6:37 pm Kaylee Rose Sommer was born! She was born via emergency c-section after 14 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing. It wasn’t the birth I had wanted, but Kaylee is amazing and I love her to death. The first week with her has been tiring but magical. She’s so cute!! Pictures are available at http://gallery.ethanet.com.

I started my maternity leave today. No, the baby is not here yet, but I planned to start my leave on her due date anyway. Working while 40+ weeks pregnant would just be a bit too much for me. So here I am. The baby is less that 4 hours away from being officially “late” and as there are no signs of real labor yet, it looks like she’s going to make it. I am extremely anxious for her to hurry up and get here, as is Ethan. If she is not here by 41 weeks (next week) I will be induced. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it’s nice to know that the end is in sight, even if it might be a full week away.

Once she’s born I’m sure there will be lots of e-mails going out, and pictures thrown up on gallery.ethanet.com, and if I manage to bring my computer to the hospital I might eve get a blog post up before we get home. But no promises. Right now all I can think of is holding my little girl. It is extremely frustrating that there is nothing I can do but wait, but that’s how nature designed us crazy mammals, I guess. I’ve tried eating spicy food, taking walks (I have clocked so many miles at the Mall of America, it’s getting kind of sad), and all that stuff to no avail. I guess she just takes after her mother (I was something like 18 days late) and I will just have to be patient.

Hopefully this is my last post as a pregnant woman! Take care!

Since my last post I have started working at my new job at Macalester. I’ve actually been there over 2 months now. I really like this job. September was a bit stressful, especially with the added stress of pregnancy, but I got through it and I think I am really getting into the swing of things. It has been good to get to know my coworkers, the faculty I support, and the students who work for me. My coworkers in ITS are pretty awesome. They are really fun to work with and have made me feel very at home in the department. I am still getting to know the faculty (there are so many of them!) but the ones that I have gotten to know are nice and interesting and generally enjoyable to work with. And my student workers have been great to, although I still hope to get to know them a lot better over the course of the year.

So all in all I am happy and settled into my new job, and Ethan and I are all settled into our new house in Apple Valley. We even have the baby’s room all ready for her. I have a little less than a month to go until her due date, and I am getting really impatient. I can’t wait to meet her, and hold her, and do all those parenting things. I also can’t wait to be not pregnant. 9 months is just too long, man. But I’m sure she’ll be worth it. ^_^ Once she gets here I will be taking 6 weeks off of work, and then go back in late December. It’s weird to take off so much time so early in my career at Macalester, but that’s how things are so I’m sure it will all work out fine.

So that’s the short version of life these past few months. I hope that once Kaylee is born I will take the time at home to keep this updated and post lots of pictures of my baby girl.  Keep looking at my website to see more pictures and updates and stuff.

This past weekend was MiniCon, the longest running sci-fi convention in Minnesota. Ethan and I attended, and shared a room with our friends and fellow Carleton alums Matt and Kelly. Part of sharing the room was co-hosting a room party on Friday and Saturday night. We did a Firefly/Chinese theme, and served tea and Chinese snacks. It was fun, although tiring. I’m not used to staying up that late. I was also involved in two panels, one I was really on (Star Wars at 30), and one I just moderated (Raising Kids in Fandom). They both went well. The con overall was good, although I was really burned out by Sunday.

On Sunday Ethan and I left the con earlier than planned and met up with my parents and brother at the zoo. Then we went back to their house for dinner. Dinner was really good, so I ended up eating a bit too much, and regretted that on the drive home. hah. My own silly fault.

I think the stress of the con (mostly eating badly and getting not enough sleep) has taken its toll, and I think I’ve come down with a cold. Whee. Today is going to be a long work day, I think. I need a nap.

Well, the state tournament did not go well for my team. We ended up with a record of 0-2-1, which tied us for last place with Synergy (the team we tied). It was unfortunate and sad, but there’s always next year. Hopefully I will get to see my teammates for a golf and bbq party in May. Now that the hockey season is over my weekends seem suddenly very free. This weekend I am going to Matt & Kelly’s for a little party, but that’s all I have planned. It’s kind of relaxing. It’s good that I have free time this weekend, because I haven’t started on my Chinese homework for Monday yet. heh.

Last week Ethan and I went to Chicago. Ethan was doing a poster session at the EduCause conference and I was tagging along. I had never really been to Chicago before. I have driven through it, and I went to the out-skirts of Chicago for an orchestra trip in 9th grade, but this was my first time downtown. It is a pretty nice city. We had wonderful weather and a beautiful hotel, so it was overall very nice and relaxing. I got to see Yi, my good friend and roommate from college, and that was great. I hadn’t seen her since my wedding. We had a nice steak dinner then got drinks at this place with an amazing view of the city. That was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Now I’m back at work. Gustavus is approaching midterms, so things are a little busier than normal this week and next. The first week of April is spring break for students, but i still am working every day but Friday, which I am taking off so I can have an extra day at MiniCon (Minneapolis’s longest-running sci-fi convention). Last year Ethan and I took spring break off to travel to Japan, but this year we’re doing our main “vacation” after school is out, to go to the Star Wars Celebration IV in L.A. and then to Boston to visit friends, and New Hampshire for my cousin’s wedding. It should be a fun trip. I’m hoping to get a costume sewn for the Star Wars convention, but we’ll see if I have the time, what with work and class (I am still taking Chinese).

Well, that’s enough for now. Have a good weekend!

A lot has happened since I last posted, almost 2 moths ago. I don’t even know where to begin! The Chinese class I was teaching went very well and I was quite pleased at the progress the students were able to make in such a short time. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to travel to China next year with the Gustavus Orchestra. The details are still sketchy, but I believe we will be spending most of the time in Beijing, with a short trip to Guilin. It will be cold (we’re going in January!), but I love China and it will be so much fun to help introduce a large group of students to China and Chinese culture. (I am specifically excited about explaining squat-toilets. hehe) There are a few students who I have worked with who might be going, and they are both awesome, so that will be nice too. Also, hopefully Ethan will be able to come. Last time I went to China Ethan stayed home and was jealous of all the good food I was eating. So this time he really wants to tag along.

Also, since I last posted the regular hockey season has come to an end. We ended in 4th place (out of 12) with a record of 14-4-4. (good thing I’m not a superstitious Chinese person, or that would look really bad…) The state tournament starts in a week. We will play three games, against Synergy, Mystics and Blast, and our record in those 3 games will determine if we make it to the championship or consolation games. I hope we do well, although I’m nervous that we have forgotten how to play with 10 skaters and will get tripped up by that. We have a practice this weekend, hopefully we’ll get some good practicing done, practices are a bit hot-or-miss with us…

Other things that have happened since January… well, we had a great Lunar New Year celebration at my parent’s house, with lots of fun decorations and good food. I tried making steamed dumplings for the first time from scratch, and although I learned some lessons about not over-rising or over-steaming them, they were tasty. We also had Ethan’s home-made jiaozi (pork dumplings), mapo dofu, Chinese broccoli with garlic and oyster sauce, rice, and egg tomato soup. I will post pictures in the picture section soon!

Also, Ethan and I went to MarsCon last weekend. It was fun. The media guest of honor was Don S. Davis who played General Hammond on Stargate SG-1. It was cool to meet him (I spoke to him while waiting for an elevator) but he was a little weird. The story of how he just sort of fell into acting was pretty funny. Basically he got his first part because he was the only guy strong enough to lift the female lead (she was very tall), and he hadn’t wanted to be in a play at all, he just worked on the set. Anyway, it was interesting to hear him talk. And it was fun to see friends and meet new people at the con parties (we hosted a MiniCon party room, which was a nice laid-back party). I was really tired though, so it wasn’t the most exciting con ever.

The spring term is in full swing, both at Gustavus where I work, and at The U of MN, where I take an evening Chinese course. At work I’ve been helping/co-teaching/guest-lecturing in Mark’s Intro to East Asian history course. It has been fun, even if the class isn’t organized the way I would have chosen. Today we had a fun activity where the students debated the importance of the influence of China, Korean and indigenous culture on Early Japan. I think the Korean group won the debate, but they did have a debater on the team after all. In the class that I am taking at the U, we just had our mid-term on Wednesday, which was half oral (a 2-3 min presentation) and half written (listening, writing, and reading comprehension). It was not too bad, I am hoping for a good solid A. ^_^

Now I should get back to work. Hopefully I will get back into the habit of updating this website. I will be adding New Years pictures soon, and look for a new section coming towards the end of April.

It’s been a while since I last posted. The holidays have come and gone, and while they were generaly very nice, I was a bit stressed and am somewhat relieved that they are over. I got some very nice presents from my family, including a video iPod from Ethan that I loooove. (Although I’m far away from filling up and I keep forgetting to rip the videos I want and re-sync it.)

Now that it’s January, my J-term Chinese course has started. It is going really well. I am having a lot of fun teaching it and the students are learning really fast and seem to be having fun. We’re 2 chapters in right now with no problems, so it looks like we will be able to keep to my schedule without any problem. Actually, I almost feel like we could be going faster! I sort of wish I had kept that 6th chapter on the schedule. But 5 chapters in 3 1/2 weeks is still pretty good.

Tomorrow my class has a guest speaker, Zhao-laoshi! He was the prof who lead my seminar trip to China in 2002. The trip was really amazing (see “Tianjin Seminar” on my webpage for more). I really am looking forward to seeing what he does with my class. And I’m excited to havea day where I don’t have to really do any prep. heh.

Hockey-wise, there hasn’t been much going on since the last post. I played in my high school’s alumni game, which was fun. It was neat to see some of the people from high school, although it was too bad that there weren’t more people from the first few years. I was the only one from the first team there, and Trickey and I were the oldest ones there. I would love to see what some of the older alumni are doing now a days… Anyway, I also had an Arrows game this weekend, against ATvantage. We had beat them solidly before, so we were a little over-confident. We won 6-5, which was waaaaay to close for comfort. I played the first 2 periods as a forward (and got 2 assists) and the last period as a D. Tiring game, but I’m really glad we pulled it off. We’re tied for 3rd now with the Blast. MCM and the Mystics are ahead of us (Mystics are still undefeated. grrrr) We really can not aford to loose any more games if we want to be placed in the top 2. I would LOVE to get ahead of MCM this year.

Anyway, I should get back to work. Hopefully I will get back to posting a little more often, so stay tuned. ^_^

This past weekend was a good one for my hockey team. We won both games, the first one 5 to 4 against the Shooting Stars. I got a goal that game, and an assist. But it was a kind of frusterating game because the otehr team was cherry-picking a lot. But it was still really fun to win. And it was my first game with my new skates. They’re Bauer Vapor XXX. So light, so awesome. Might need to rocker them a bit though.

Anyway, game two of the weekend was an eve bigger win, 4-0, against the AtVantage. I got 2 goals and an assist, also cool. (Looking at my stats I should work on getting more assists. ) It was at some really weird ice rink in St. Paul. Being in WHAM has introduced me to many different ice rinks all over MN and WI.

It is that time of year when finals begin to impact those of us in academic settings. At work this means more students in the lab doing oral recordings and finishing websites. For my academic life this means a presentation tomorrow and exam in a week and a half. So overall things are getting stressfull. I don’t know how I’ll get my christmas shopping done on time! But I  will, and I’ll be able to enjoy Christmas break even more as it will really feel like a break from school. ^_^

Ok, I’m a little loopy from all the Chinese studying and I think my English is coming out funny, so I’ll stop here. Have a good week.