Accessorize on Me!!

I used to be a big tomboy. I had makeup applied to my face for the first time when I was 16 years old. I didn't really get the hang of it so I didn't officially start wearing makeup until I was about 18. I always hated dresses. My best friend said it looked like I was standing on third base at all times. Not a flattering image, I know. When I moved out on my own and saw more of the world than just my small town bubble, I realized that I needed to add a touch of femininity to my look. I took baby steps and one of the things I picked up along the way is my LOVE of earrings. I don't wear much jewelry besides my wedding rings and the occasional necklace, but you will be hard pressed to find a picture of me without earrings on. Some women are obsessed with shoes, some with handbags, but I will pass right by a Louis Vitton for an awesome pair of dangly earrings!

A few years ago I was at a festival and discovered the coolest earrings ever. I almost don't want to tell you what they're made of because I don't want to loose you. you may guess if you want...maybe I'll reveal it later!! Anyway, they are the most light weight and super cute earrings. I went a bit overboard and bought an entire lot of them once on Ebay. I have them in every color they make. The thing about the lot I got was it had 2 of every color so every time I open my jewelry box I see the sad earrings that want to be worn looking enviously at their same colored counterparts! I know you are wondering where the heck I am going with this, but bare with me here!! I want to give some of these earrings to YOU!
I found the picture of the earrings below on line since the ones I have are still cozy inside their individually wrapped bags. I even have a couple more colors than this picture shows. So I am giving away 4 pairs of these earrings. All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your favorite accessory is. Maybe I'll even give a bonus pair to the first person to correctly identify what they're made of!

You can earn bonus entries if you:

1. Follow my blog

2. Blog about it and link back to my post

I'm not technically savvy enough to tweet, so sorry about that!! Just leave me a separate comment for each one and good luck. The contest closes Tuesday afternoon at 4:44pm EST (I'm just random like that). I will choose the winners with that random.org thingy (oh I love that toy) on Tuesday night and the first person I draw will get first pick of the colors and so on!!

What do I do all day?

Heidi over at Sacred and Profane asked the question, "What do you do all day?". Apparently someone asked her a while back and she got a little offended, and rightfully so. I think stay at home moms are sorely underestimated. Some people think they lounge about eating bon bons all day, but those people have never tried it! I was only a SAHM for the first 3 months of Natey's life, and damn it, those 3 months were hard!! Taking care of him and trying to clean, cook, do laundry (that somehow tripled with the addition of one small being) and get errands done was exhausting. And that was with only 1 kid who was too small to make his own mess. I can't imagine the chaos that 4 children must create in a household. Let's just say, as much as I miss my boy when I am at work, I was a little bit happy to go back to adult conversation and a different kind of hard work.

Me and my co-worker Joyce at the Grand Opening of our new lab building

So, what do I do?? This is the million dollar question. I hate getting asked this because I feel like a smarty pants trying to explain it. I work for a biotech company called Amgen. We make bio-pharmaceuticals that you hope you never need. Our drugs are for people with cancer induced anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ITP (immune disorder where your body kills your platelets) and hyperparathyroidism. My title is technically Senior Associate in Process Development, but I like to refer to myself simply as lab queen. My grandma just tells her friends that I'm a scientist. In effect I am, just without the title and pay the title brings!


So down to the nitty gritty of what exactly I do all day...

I work in a lab.

I wear the white coat, protective glasses and steel-toed safety shoes.

I do not wear a pocket protector.

I design experiments and run them.

I use statistics to analyze my data.

I run ELISAs, Gel electrophoresis, DNA assays, and HPLC assays.

I write protocols, technical assessments and reports.

I do method qualifications and handle assay transfers to and from other sites.

I do endless trainings to keep up to date on all tasks I perform.

I receive and aliquot samples from 4 client groups.

I attend way too many useless meetings.

I evaluate new technology.

I travel to another site as the technical advisor for an automated piece of equipment.

I make sure our drug, Enbrel, is safe for our patients.

In a nut shell I wear many hats, and bless you if you are still awake after that list!! The best part of my job, besides making a difference in patients' lives, is the fact that experiments have down time. :o) The assays I run have incubation periods, some of which I use to keep up with all of you. I would never be able to blog if I had to read everything after I got home! My husband would never see me, my son would starve and I would probably not have started in the first place. So there you have it! That's what I do.

So tell me, what do YOU do all day??

I ♥ {My} Faces

I am not the best photographer. I don't have an awesome camera like many of my bloggy friends, although it is the only thing on my Christmas list. I rarely like pictures taken of me, but for some reason I do like this picture. It was taken about 3 years ago at one of my favorite places, Oregon. I was sitting in my dad's Winny looking out the window and just thought, "Hey, I'm having a good hair day, plus I need a new Myspace picture". I started snapping away and got one good shot. I have since ditched Myspace for blogging, but I still like this picture. Oh, I can't wait for my hair to grow back!

Head on over to I ♥ faces to see all of the photographers that are way better at this than I am!!

Snapshots of a weekend

Here is some random happenings from my weekend:

Friday evening I made homemade marinara, pasta and garlic bread. Everything got cleared off of the table except for the basket of leftover bread. I filled the bath and called Natey to come hop in. I hear the pitter patter of his feet and then I hear nothing. Those of you who know my kid, know that hearing nothing usually means trouble. I walk back into the kitchen and peer into the breezeway to discover this. Natey had climbed onto the table and was chowing down on the garlic bread. Note to self...the climbing has begun.

Saturday was gorgeous out, so we ran some errands, went to lunch and then took Natey to Big Truck Day over at the YMCA. They had all kinds of trucks and the kids got to climb in them and honk the horns, much to the dismay of some of the other kids who were cowering and covering their ears. Natey got to explore a fire truck, a dump truck, a school bus (I know, not exactly a truck) , a tow truck and an 18 wheeler. He was geeking out getting to sit in the seat and push all of the buttons. (Excuse this pic. It was taken on my cell since my camera was dead.)
Sunday I participated in the annual MS Walk. For those of you who don't know, I lost my mom in 2001 and she lived with MS for 15 years. We used to do the walk every year (that mom felt up to it) when I was younger so I started participating again when I moved to RI. I've done it 3 out of the last 4 years. The only year I didn't participate in was when I was 7 months preggers with Nate because Aaron thought 6.2 miles would be too much. Ridiculous for someone who was already doing 4 miles on the elliptical every morning, but he rarely puts his foot down about anything, so I gave in. :o) The walk is in Narragansett, right along the beautiful Atlantic Ocean.

I walk on a team organized by my friend at work, whose father also has MS. Yes it was a bit windy, as you can see from my crazy hair! Thanks to everyone who supported me in my walk this year. I raised $600.00 which is double what I raised last year. I plan to start a little earlier next time and raise $1,000.00 for the next one.

I leave you with a conversation I had with a very antsy Natey in the car:

Natey: No,no, no, no, mommy, no.

Me: No what buddy?

Natey: NO NO NO!! (as he thrashes side to side in his car seat wanting to get out)

Me: Why no, Natey?

Natey: Because, nooooo!

Spring Fling!

Sara over at Domestically Challenged came up with a fun idea she is calling her "Spring Fling"! Our challenge was to write a post about the girlie thing we couldn't live without. The fun part is we had to send our post to Sara and it is going to appear on someone else's blog. The even funner (that should be a word) part is, we don't even know where our own post will appear until we go hunting for it!

I got Lindsay from Short & Sweet and here's what she had to say!

I know the assignment was a “girlie” product I couldn't’t live without and I had mine all picked out and ready to post until something happened that changed my view on what I truly can’t live without.

Yes, that’s right. I can’t live without this unisex product. Especially, when I’m home alone with my 16month old son and I find myself stuck on the pot after he came and snatched the toilet paper from me and took off running. I tried to lour him with every other item in my grasp in exchange for the TP, but he had no part off it. When he would extend the toilet paper out (just enough) for my finger tips to touch it he would seize it once again and take off giggling.

Yes…my son has learned to mock and torture me…But 20 mins later… victory was mine…and I will f-o-r-ever remember to put the TP on the spool.

**************************************************************************

So go check out the Spring Fling and find my post. You may even meet other awesome blogging ladies along the way!

Funky Friday

It's Friday. I'm in a funk. I don't want to be at work today. It is supposed to get up to 70 degrees here. The first "warm" day and I'm stuck inside. I'm sitting at my desk in my gym clothes procrastinating. I keep telling myself I'm waiting for my coffee to digest before I head down to the gym. I've been here since 8am. I'm not even fooling myself with that one. I think I'll work out, do about 2 hours of work and then leave. Yep, that's my plan. Don't try to stop me. Unless you have a legit reason for me to skip the gym. No? Damn.

A walk in the park

Our vacation served 2 purposes, to relax and attend Aaron's brother's wedding. The first couple of days we were in San Francisco it was in the upper 50's to low 60's and really windy, but you would never have known that on Sunday. Barak and Sarah were married in the Shakespeare Garden, in Golden Gate Park, on the most beautiful day of our trip. There was not even a breeze and it was a perfect 70 degrees out. Sarah looked gorgeous, Barak was his usual loud but dapper self, and we managed to keep Natey quiet except for a couple impromptu, "Hi, uncle B"s during the ceremony.

I said we managed to keep him quiet, I didn't say how!!He made up for it with a minute long hug to welcome his new Auntie to the family.

All of the Scampoli boys in attendance that day (3 uncles were missing). (Aaron, Uncle John, Tom (FIL), Barak holding Natey, Ollie and Danny. Yes, my hubby is 1 of 4 boys and his dad is one of 5 boys and 1 girl! Do you think I have ANY chance of having a girl??

Let us pray. :o)

Nathan smelling grandma's flower just before he ripped it apart.

They had a small reception-esk picnic lunch at the park following the ceremony and then we had a formal dinner reception later that evening for close friends and family.

This kid can sure eat! He devoured that whole smoked chicken leg!

Congratulations Barak and Sarah.

You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
-- Sam Keen

Natey at 22 months

Two months 'til you're 2 my sweet boy!! I have started telling people you'll be 2 in June because, like I've said before, the months thing is getting old! The funny thing is, whenever I tell people you're not 2 yet, I get a look of disbelief and usually a comment about how big or smart you are for your age. I personally think you're a freakin genius, but hey, I'm your mommy and way too biased! Here are some of the things you do and say that I'm loving at the moment.

• Your understanding of sentences and their appropriate context is blowing me away right now. When something amazes you, you say "Wow, oh my goodness!" and, after a book we read yesterday it has become, "Oh, my goodness gracious".
• Here are some of my favorite things you are saying right now:

"What that kind?" (and insert any noun after that such as noise, which is the current favorit)

"Wha happened?"

"No like it!"

"Go away, momma, go away." (when I try to change your diaper or you just want to be a pill)

"Found it!"

"My do it!"

"Oh, man!" (Thanks Dora for teaching him this little gem, and yes he uses is at the right times.)

• You are obsessed with dinosaurs. T-rex is your fave, but you also have "ceratops" and "spinesaurus" down pat too. You get upset if T-rex isn't in the bath for you to wash him.
• You can now count to 10 in English and Spanish (thanks again Dora. At least something good comes out of your annoying show).
• You have finally figured out the fork should go straight in and not sideways, although you still spill a lot of food and usually revert to your fingers about half way through.
• The hitting is slowly getting better, but I feel we still have a ways to go to get through this phase.
• You learned your first country and capital. I am going to get a big laminated wall map so we can start this country learning project in earnest!
• You are doing great with the potty training. After 2 times of #2 in the little potty, mommy got grossed out and bought you a seat for the big toilet. I We like this much better anyway.
• You are so polite. You always say please and thank you. You even say, "No tanks" when you don't want something. It cracks me up every time.
• When you get upset, you do this pitiful whining thing and say, "crying, people sad". I think you got this from when I tell you not to hit because it makes people sad.
• You are obsessed with finding things as we drive. You love looking for school buses, flags and garbage trucks. When we see a flag, you immediately say, "more flags!" and will continue repeating yourself until I say, "Ok, lets look for more flags".
• You only sit still for 1 thing, and 1 thing only. "Toons". You could watch Nemo over and over and still want to watch it again. I am happy this is the case, because it saved us on the last cross-country flight.
• You are in a phase of wanting to hear me (or daddy) sing songs. "Need more song, mommy", is a phrase I hear often. When I ask you what song you want, you sometimes reply with things you like that aren't even songs. Mostly, it is Nemo song that is requested, so I made one up and you seem to love it.
• It also amazes me that you know the words to all of the songs we sing. I found this out one day as I was singing and stopped for a second and you filled in the words. Now I do it all the time because it is fun.
• Whenever we drive by a park you say, "Go in there, tube slide". This gets fun because I have to tell you every morning on the way to daycare that we can go in there later, but now we have to go to Rachel's house. This seems to appease you momentarily.
• You know your full name and I can hear you saying it in your crib sometims. It sounds a bit like, "Natan Thomas CamPOLI" (you really like to emphasize the ending)!

I love you buddy and all of the things that you do. You're so sweet and kind and it amazes me that you rarely cry. I love your sunny disposition and, even though you are crazy and some times exhaust me, I am loving every minute that is the Natey show!!

Happy Easter Bunny?

That's what Nathan kept saying all day. I tried to explain that he could just say Happy Easter, but the bunny kept on following. I gave up because it was cute anyway! I suppose I will save reasoning with him until he is actually 2. I have been killing you with long posts so I will give you the weekend in a nutshell...

We colored eggs successfully, well mostly

Nathan got an Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa and destroyed it in 2 minutes flat

Easter brunch, lunch, dinner that lasted 4 hours (could I be any more full right now???)

Bubble time with Papa

My handsome husband watching our boy play

Glittery Easter Eggs

And finally...

An almost in focus,

2 of us looking at the camera,

me making an only slightly stupid face

family shot