Weekend Getaway

It wouldn't be summer without a camping trip and last weekend we were finally free to get into the mountains. We left friday after work and got setup in daylight. We have a favorite camping area that we like to frequent and I believe this time we found an unbeatable site. We like to find somewhere we dont have to worry about the dogs being free so the more isolated the better.

This was our view, a perfect view of Longs Peak


Ashley did a stellar job with the food as I put her in charge of the menu and she also did all the cooking. Highlights included bacon, egg and cheese muffins with coffee for breakfast and steak and fried potatos for dinner.

Lilliann and Tinkerbell had a blast and 4 days later have finally picked up a toy at home instead of sleeping all day, they were worn out to say the least. They are great campers and the 4 of us make it cozy in our 1.5 person tent haha.


The weather didn't cooperate but we still had a great time. Saturday it poured, hailed, and stormed real bad for around 2 hours. It then let up and sprinkled long enough to make a fire, dinner, and s'mores. Then we headed for the tent for the night, it continued to pour through most of the night. We were both worn out, Ashley read some and we crashed. It was a great weekend spending quality time with my wife.


Here is a slideshow of the pictures, trying out new features.

This is funny for me

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

-Steve

Taking the Plunge

In my career field, you can take a test to get certified to be a Clinical Laboratory Specialist in Cytogenetics. If you don't have a degree in Cytogenetics, you have to have a Bachelor of Science and work in the field for one year before you can get certified. I was on track to take my test after one year, but then I got sick and put it on hold. Then I thought I wanted to be a nurse and not do this anymore at all. I decided that the pay raise was enough to take it anyway. I was still struggling with being stuck doing this forever, and my specific job being the only place in Colorado. Most certified people sit at their microscopes forty hours a week, and the uncertified people work in the lab. I don't like the microscope, and I am a born lab rat, so I don't want that to happen.

I had a conversation with my Operations Manager about two weeks ago, and she is thinking of making a new position, and she wants it to be for me, but I would have to be certified to do it. The job would be sort of an all around laboratory overseer. Not really a supervisor and not really a manager. But I would be in charge of everything that goes on in the lab. I pretty much already do this, but there would be more involved. We had a person that was a Lab Supervisor, and she quit, and they hired an Opperations Manager, but she is way to overwhelmed and has too much to do. She said she really wants me to be in charge of the lab since I know so much about it. It is nice when your manager thinks you are so good at something! I brought up my concern about being at the microscope all the time if I got certified, and she said she wouldn't let that happen because I am so skilled in the lab. Wahoo!

So two weekends ago I filled out all the applications, got my transcripts printed, and wrote the check. All I needed was my supervisor to fill out her part. Unfortunitely, it took her two weeks... All she had to do was write my hire date (August 7, 2006) and my job description (which we have on the computer at work). I thought it should take about 5 minutes... Anyway, she finally got it back to me and I mailed it in today!

I stood in front of the mailbox for a good 30 seconds before I dropped it in :) I know being certified doesn't mean I HAVE to do this, but it sort of feels like it. It takes 6-8 weeks for them to approve your application, I'm not sure why since its not a very big field. Once you are approved, you have three months to take your test. It is a two hour multiple choice test, where every question has more than one right answer, and you have to choose the best answer. I don't like that very much. You have to have a 75 out of 99 to pass. Of all the other people I have talked to, no one has ever known anyone that has failed except one lady at my work. So hopefully it won't be too hard. I studied for it a few years ago, and will probably wait until my three month window to start studying. No reason to cram now if it is going to be another six months.

Please pray a whole lot for this!

Ashley

Mountain States Genetics Conference

This past week was the Mountain States Genetics Conference here in Denver. It is a yearly conference for all states that have the Rocky Mountains in them. The top presentation this year was called Positive Exposure. It was fantastic! Everyone wanted to quit their jobs and work for this cause.

The presentation was given by a top fashion photographer that has photographed people like Cindy Crawford and Nicole Kidman and worked as Revlon's photographer for many years. He was always around beautiful people, and it had a certain impact on what he thought was beautiful. One day he was walking on the street in NY and saw an albino girl waiting for the bus. Even though she didn't meet what the fashion industry viewed as beautiful, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He knew she was albino, but didn't know anything about that genetic disease. He went straight to the library and got every book he could find on albinism. All the pictures he saw in the medical textbooks were awful. He contacted a NY albinism group and said he wanted to photograph some people. He published a few magazine articles of beautiful albino girls, and worked with the group to expose albinism in a positive way. It had great impacts on the albino community and gave them more confidence that they could still be beautiful even though they had a genetic disorder.

A few months after his magazine articles did so well, another genetic disorder (trisomy 13 or 18, I forget!) asked him to come and talk to their community, to show that they could be beautiful too. He looked them up in medical books as well, and found the same awful pictures. Most textbook pictures have a child/adult in their underwear, against a white wall, with a black bar across the eyes. How can people be confident with their disorder if they are viewed so badly? He presented his albino pictures to them, and took their pictures as well.

Many genetic disorders started to want him to come and speak, and organization Positive Exposure was started. He gave up fashion photography, and now only photographs genetic disorders. He travels all over the world to give positive exposure to genetic disorders. To see come really awesome photographs, go to http://www.positiveexposure.org.

One of the best and saddest stories he shared with us is about albino kids in Tanzania. They are hunted for their bones. Tanzanian witch doctors can make a special potion for you, but it requires bones of an albino child, the younger the stronger the potion. The kids are literally hunted. There is a school for the blind that is highly protected (fences, guards, etc) that parents will send their albino children to when they are born. (A lot of albino people have vision problems, but not all. The version that African people get, usually has blindness.) They teach song and dance at this school, as that is an important part of African culture. On the website there is a video of these children singing that is amazing. He asked them if they had ever competed, and they said "no, we are disabled." He was like that doesn't matter, you don't have to be able to see to sing! He entered them in a competition which they won. The video starts with the first time they sang for him, then practice before their competition, then the competition. The first time they did amazing. The practice you can tell they are really scared, but then they get into it. The competition is VERY moving. I got all teary eyed, and I never do that! They start out slow, then get more comfortable. When people start to applaud and cheer, they are TERRIFIED. They have never heard an audience before, and since they can't see, they didn't know there were 40,000 people there, and when they heard them clapping and cheering, they didn't know what that noise was! It is so sad and awesome at the same time. They freeze and start panicking, and their teacher has to go on stage and tell them what is happening. Then they get really excited and start singing and dancing, and getting REALLY into it. A really really great video!

This was a really awesome presentation, and I really recommend the website. They have traveling art exhibits, and you should definitely go if they ever come to your area! They are also working with medical schools to form a teaching curriculum and a few other things. It is a really great organization!

Ashley

Funny Article

Steve and I read a funny article last night about the biggest risks of doing things outdoor in Colorado. I thought I would post it on here since a lot of our family is very concerned every time we go to the mountains. Funny but true!

The original article is at http://www.gazette.com/articles/afraid-58603-camping-let.html, but I also pasted it below.

Ashley



CAMPING: WHAT YOU SHOULD REALLY BE AFRAID OF!

Let’s face it; spending a night out in the woods is kind of… scary. It’s dark out there. It’s lonely. Big creatures with sharp teeth and no regard for social norms lurk in the shadows. Who hasn’t felt the hairs on the back of his or her neck stand up at the cold feeling that something out there is watching? But consider this: Statistically, a person is more likely to be killed by mouse droppings or mosquitoes in Colorado than by bears and mountain lions. It’s not that there is nothing to be afraid of out there. It’s that we are often afraid of the wrong things.
We’ve busted out our own Out There Threat Down (with apologies to the “Colbert Report”) so when you’re lying awake in your tent, you can be sure you’re scared of the right threat.

THREAT NO. 1: THE Y CHROMOSOME

This tiny tangle of DNA that separates the men from the women is the most dangerous thing in the backcountry. It makes the hairier gender do really dumb things, such as climb mountains in thunderstorms, ski avalanche-prone slopes, and say things like, “Get a picture of me trying to ride this mountain goat.” Statistically, having the Y chromosome makes men three times more likely than women to be injured in the outdoors, and eight times more likely to be killed, according to a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health. Just to round things out, guys are also five times more likely to be killed biking, seven times more likely to be killed kayaking and 17 times more likely to be killed by an avalanche. The Y chromosome may also be a factor in Threat No. 2.

Best defense: Listen to your lady friend.

THREAT NO. 2: DRIVING TO THE TRAILHEAD

In Colorado, about 540 people die every year in traffic crashes. Almost half of them happen in highway like driving, where no intersection or stoplight is involved — exactly the type of driving most people do just before they go hiking or camping or biking.

Best defense: Slow down, pay attention and, for Pete’s sake, no texting while driving!

THREAT NO. 3: CLUMSINESS

The leading killer of people in the outdoors in Colorado is falling down, usually at a high rate of speed (say, from a mountain bike) or from a high place (say, a mountain), perhaps because of unrealistic assessment of abilities (see Threat No. 1). These fatal falls account for about 30 percent of all outdoor recreational deaths in the state.

Best defense: Accept that you are mortal, know your limits and act accordingly.

THREAT NO. 4: TREES

These pulpy predators are misleading because they appear not to move. Yet somehow they manage to hit skiers with alarming regularity and disastrous results. Skier-tree collisions are the leading cause of death at ski areas, making up about 7 of the 13 skier deaths in Colorado every year, according to the Colorado health department.

Best defense: See No. 3.


THREAT NO. 5: LIGHTNING

Colorado is one of the top states for lightning-related deaths. We get an average of 16 lightning injuries and 3 deaths annually, according to the National Weather Service. Statistically, people are more than twice as likely to be struck dead on a weekend afternoon in July than at any other time. Men are more than eight times as likely to be killed by a strike (see Threat No. 1).

Best defense: Do not hike or camp above tree line, on ridges or in open areas after noon if there is even the potential of a thunderstorm.

THREAT NO. 6: MOSQUITOES

West Nile surfaced in Colorado in 2003. Since then, the disease, spread by mosquito bites, has killed 83 people in the state. Only one in five people bitten by an infected skeeter will develop symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And only one in 150 cases will be severe. But a severe case can mean stupor, convulsions, coma and death. So, you know, best to take precautions.

Best defense: Long sleeves and lots of bug spray.


THREAT NO. 7: MOUSE POOP

The seemingly harmless droppings of deer mice can carry Hantavirus, a respiratory disease that is fatal in a third of all cases. Since 1993, it has killed 25 people in Colorado, according to the CDC. It mostly affects people in enclosed, droppings-rich buildings, but the CDC says anyone who comes into contact with mouse dropping in any setting can contract it.

Best defense: Look first before unrolling your sleeping bag. Do not hang out in areas that show signs of abundant deer mice, such as mouse droppings.

THREAT NO. 8: GUYS WEARING ORANGE

On average, hunters in Colorado accidentally kill 1.3 people a year and inadvertently wound an additional 12 with guns, arrows and other gear, according to the Division of Wildlife. Almost all incidents are hunter-on-hunter, and their kill rate is higher than that of mountain lions and black bears combined. Yikes.

Best defense: Know the hunting seasons and don’t dress like an elk — or a hunter, for that matter — during those times.

THREAT NO. 9: MARMOTS

OK, these chubby little alpine rodents have never killed any hikers, but in some areas they have been known to crawl into the wheel wells of cars parked at alpine trailheads and chew things. Sometimes it’s just the coolant hoses (the little buggers are said to like the sweet taste of antifreeze). But sometimes they chew the brake lines. Not such a good thing when heading down Pikes Peak.

Best defense: Always check for marmots — and working brakes — before driving off.

THREAT NO. 10: MOUNTAIN LIONS, BEARS, AX MURDERERS, TARANTULAS, FALLING INTO ABANDONED MINE SHAFTS, HILLBILLIES WITH BANJOS, ETC.

Statistically, people are more likely to die falling into abandoned mines than to be killed by a bear or mountain lion, or any creepy crawlies or creepy people. Most bear attacks involve bears looking for food and accidentally taking a bite out of a sleeping camper. According to the Division of Wildlife, 27 people have been injured by a bear in Colorado and one killed in the past 20 years. Keep food and cooking gear in a separate bag hung in a tree away from your camp. For lions, avoid hiking alone at dawn and dusk. Keep close watch on small children.

Best defense: Make yourself look as large as possible and slowly back away.