New Year, New Decade

New Year's Day was another beautiful day this holiday-not as warm as Christmas, but still bright and sunny. We went to walk around Creve Coeur lake again.  Ben decided he was going to run, so he left Maggie and me behind.  There's no way I can keep up with him running and Maggie can hardly keep up with me walking!!!!

The sun always shines on the righteous!!!!

I didn't get a picture of the waterfall at Christmas, so Maggie and I stopped by and got one this time

After we walked around the lake, we decided to go down to the arch.  It was really busy down town, I guess everyone was out enjoying the weather

It was still pretty chilly, despite the sun shining.  It was pretty windy and Ben and I had multiple layers on.  As we left the house, I asked Maggie if she was going to be warm enough and she said she was (I should have known better!)  I was embarrassed that everyone was wearing Winter clothes and she was in shorts and T shirt, so I ended up giving her my shirt (and then I was cold!!).  I told her to warm herself up on the arch!!!

The river was surprisingly high, I thought it would be much lower....

Ben and the arch

Now it's time to go back to work and hope 2020 is a good year

Bah humbug.....and some of it is gone.....

December 27 and I had nothing to do. So, I look around and decide that I might as well take the tree down. I had bought it before Thanksgiving, so it was pretty old and dry already.  I had everything taken down before the kids even got out of bed!!!!!

Everything back to normal....

However, even thought I took the tree down, there are holiday ornaments that stay up in the house all year round.  I figure if you like them that much, why store them in boxes for 11 months of the year?  Marie and I each got one of these when we were in St Charles years ago.  My one Halloween ornament that stays on the windowsill all year

I have a lot of Christmas ornaments that stay out all year, and I realize that most of them are from Garden Heights!!!!  I originally bought the yellow snowman for Jan and Julie, but it never left my possession.  I bought the reindeer this year

We first saw these figures on a wreath at the Botanical Gardens

The Ukrainian Santa came home with us when we got Ben

Trip to the Zoo

It was such a beautiful day on Boxing Day that Ben, Maggie and I wanted to be outside and so we went to the zoo. I cannot remember the last time we went to the zoo together.  Why do we always go in the penguin house?  It's always cold and really busy (and smells dreadful!).  We must really like penguins!!!!

Actually, I like the puffins more and most people just walk by them and ignore them.  Is it because they all turn their backs on the public???!!!!

The gorillas were being quite animated (for a change!!)

The kids let me go in the butterfly house, it's my favourite place at the zoo (and maybe because of the flowers rather than the butterflies, but I'll never admit it)

Christmas Day 2019

Well, I feel like I waited until the last minute to do everything this year, but eventually, I got everything done.  I guess I could have moved the stinky shoes from under the Christmas tree!!!!

 I even set the table on Christmas Eve so that I didn't need to do it while I was cooking

 Sam and I got up at our usual time-long before Ben and Maggie surfaced.  Maggie got up around 8 and just went straight for the TV as usual.  Ben never grows out of Christmas though, and was all about it once he dragged himself out of bed!!!!

 Ben passed all the presents out to everyone.  This was the first year he had bought something for everyone and he was very anxious to hand them out and get a verdict

 Ben bought Maggie a Jack-Jack Pez dispenser

 And he bought her this shirt, she hasn't taken it off since!!!!

 We bought Maggie this jacket-hopefully she will wear it !!!!

 Sam wanted a hat to keep his head warm in the cold weather!!!!  He wears it rather well.....

 Ben looks like it's all a serious affair!!!!

 Ben bought me an absolutely beautiful designer skirt, but it was way too short for me.  He sees me as a 20-something, 6 ft, 100 lb supermodel!!!!  I am always talking about how old I am and how I need to lose weight etc.  He always replies "oh mum, you're not old/fat/etc"  I need to remember that he sees me as doing no wrong and I should not talk badly about myself.
The weather was beautiful again this year-almost 70 degrees.  Ben sat outside on the patio sunbathing..

 Ben, Maggie and I went for a walk around Creve Coeur lake while Sam went bike riding

 Jan and Julie came for dinner.  We sat outside on the patio for a while, such a nice thing to do on Christmas Day

Yet another successful year

Garden Glow at MBG 2019

We all trooped to our 8th Garden Glow with Arline.  Even though it's pretty much the same every year, it's always a fun night.  I'm not sure the fountain at the entrance has looked like this before

These globes were cool and looked even better nestled in the snow

These always look lovely in the pools

I like the rivers of changing colour

These trees change color, but I like the white the best

The lights are always nice, but the lit-up trees are still my favourite

Nice lights on the house this year

Gate House

The SLU blue tree!!!!

This is the best.....

Mum and Dad's memorial

While I was with Marie, we buried Dad's ashes in a plot in the crematorium.  Dad had not wanted to have anything for Mum and they had scattered her ashes on the old bowls club.  Marie wanted to do something for both of them, so she got a plot and asked John's brother to do a marker.  It looks lovely and I'm so glad she did it.

She took some flowers up when she was in Loughborough, makes it look a bit more cheerful.

Random work stuff

Honestly, one of the best things about work (let's face it, THE best thing about work) is the people I work with.  We are spoiled in academia, we get to work with some very committed faculty and staff, and we have a new group of students every year.  Of course, it can be sad when the students graduate, especially the ones you grow close to, but that's the nature of what we do
When Angela left, she did warn me that I could never underestimate how lonely the position could be.  I will admit that I have felt that way at times in the past.  However, I had the advantage that I had been here for many years before taking over from Angela, and I think it wasn't as hard for me as for her.
I was lucky to spend some time with some of the new Dean's staff when I was in Phoenix and it's given me an opportunity to get to know some of them better.  They even come to visit sometimes, and apparently are sad when I'm not in my office!!!!  They even send me photographic proof!!!!

Photo op at the Dean's holiday party last Friday.  Me, Tyler (Asst Dean in Student Affairs), Chad Miller (Sr Assoc Dean of Curricular Affairs) and Hiral (Assoc Dean of Admissions)

Dr Willmore is stepping down from Admissions and Hiral will be taking over as of January 1.  Dr Willmore has done a huge amount for me with interviewing all the MD/PhD students and I have worked with him a lot.  When he is no longer on the Dean's Staff, we will have had a complete turnover of ALL SOM administrators in the past 3 years.  So, we are all relatively new.  We have no Institutional memory to prevent us making changes, but we have no Institutional memory to rely on!!

On a separate note, Scott is the awardee of a new Endowment Professorship in Pathology.  They had a really nice endowment ceremony on north campus that Scott invited me to.  Scott and I work together A LOT.  Not only are we in the same department, but we work on a lot of faculty issues since he is chair of the Faculty Assembly (I held this position until I took over OFAPD).  He's a mini-me!!!!!