learning to write

For the last few months my primary task has been to finish my master's thesis. The research has already been approved and I've defended everything before my committee, I just haven't finished writing it all out. My adviser has been very "hand's on" in this aspect of my research, to the point where each sentence has to be *perfect* (by some mysterious standard in his mind).

To give you an idea of how painstaking this process is, for the last 7 or 8 days I have been exclusively working on ONE PARAGRAPH. Today, he called me into his office to go over it. I was very nervous, my stomach was churning as he was reading it- I just knew he was going to send me back for another week of revising. But to my amazement, he liked it! He actually gave me a complement on it, probably the second or third he's ever given me on my writing. And he mumbled something about how great it is to see his students growing and learning to write! It made me feel pretty good. :)

I'm sure you're just dying to read this paragraph. So here you are. Enjoy! It belongs in the Discussion section of my thesis.

One could argue that observed induced accelerations may be confounded by contributions of neighboring muscles activated by electrical spillover. In this study, the targeted muscle was electrically stimulated using fine-wire intramuscular electrodes while surface electrodes were used on the neighboring muscles to monitor unanticipated activity. A common cross-correlation approach was used to evaluate the degree of synchronization between signals, a characteristic of crosstalk. Correlation values less than 0.6 indicated marginal synchronization between stimulated and non-stimulated muscle activity. In a study evaluating the presence of electrical spillover between surface electrodes, Farina et al.(2004) demonstrated that spillover signals contain primarily non-propagating signal components with differing shapes and frequencies than those of the stimulated muscle. Considering these properties, we further assessed the relative signal magnitudes to indicate whether there is significant presence of unintended muscle activation in nearby muscles (Levin, Mizrahi et al. 2000; van Vugt and van Dijk 2001). An average of non-stimulated to stimulated EMG ratio of 0.2 or less was calculated for each surrounding muscle, a value considered a negligible contribution (Levin, Mizrahi et al. 2000). Given the correlation and ratio calculations as well as the selective measures taken during the protocol, it is highly unlikely that the electrical stimulation resulted in activation of non-targeted muscles.

I'm off to work on another paragraph (8-10 more to go!).

outside

What a beautiful weekend we just had! It's gotten me soo ready for summer! On Saturday, we visited with family and attended an exciting Reds vs Cardinals game.

David, number 8, was a star player. He had 4 great hits and played outfield, first base and pitcher!

He had several excited fans cheering him on.

Great game, David! We had fun watching you play.
To see a cute improvEverywhere little league game, check out Best game ever.

It was great to finally be outside in short sleeves. On Monday, we played tennis, went bike riding and jogged. And now we're back to this...

It's almost June! I hope it warms up soon!

helping out

Last week I took a day off to help out Robin and the kids.

It was so fun to see the kids with their baby brother! Here's 5 year old Hannah...

2 year old Micah...

And I didn't get a picture of it but during nap time, 6 yr old David read 2 books to Andrew as he sat wide-eyed and happy on the couch. It was SOOO adorable!

It was a gorgeous day so we played outside for a while. Thanks for letting me help out! When can i come back?! :)

witnessing the wonder of weddings

We had the privilege of celebrating marriage of a good friend this past weekend!

The ceremony was so moving. The bride was stunning (the groom cleaned up well too)

And the reception was sooo much fun! I think our table had more fun than the bride and groom even had. :) We played games, had tie tying lessons, left the couple some interesting marriage advice and ate way too much delicious food.

Congratulations Jerek and Den! (lol- you had to be there!) ;)

Two weekends ago I participated in a Victorian High Tea Wedding Fashion Show at church. The gym was beautifully decorated and even had a runway. Each table was decorated by a different hostess who brought her own fine china for us to use. We had some yummy sandwiches, frozen fruit cups, tea, and cake.

The High Tea started out with a "silly" fashion show including a *ball* gown, *spaghetti* strap dress, and even a 24 carrot gold necklace. :)

The real fashion show included wedding dresses from many eras, starting from present day, all the way back to the late 1800's. I modeled an 1875 BLACK wedding gown! Despite not being able to breathe freely (it was a bit tight!), it was a real treat to be in it! You could certainly tell it was an ornate and gorgeous gown for that era.

My BFF Erica was on the committee and did an outstanding job of decorating and hair styling. Here, her husband surprised her with a rose during a barber shop quartet- I happened to be standing nearby with my camera :)

It's been a lot of fun getting dressed up and hanging out with friends. And I love that I have at least two more weddings to look forward to this year. Yay!

an aunt again!

On Wednesday, we welcomed little Andrew Joel into the world! He is our fourth nephew.
We have 7 total now who call us aunt and uncle!

He is a healthy 8lbs, 4 oz, 20.5 inches.
Robin looks fantastic and is really enjoying her time in the hospital!

Andrew has some adorable expressions! (See proud and sleepy daddy in the background)

Earlier that day, Andrew's older brothers and sister practiced writing his name.

We stayed just in time to watch The Office together!

Andrew was very fun to hold. He is so small, so precious, so soft. We hardly heard him cry in the couple hours we were visiting.

We love you Andrew! We are so blessed to have you in our family.
Love, Aunt Betsy and Uncle Adam

intelligently designed

Can you guess who this is?

It's me! It's an MRI of my brain. I had it taken a couple years ago when I was a subject in an experiment for other grad students. I just did a follow up session and they gave me my MRI files to keep.

These pictures blow me away for two reasons.

First, they illustrate how incredibly complex our bodies are and how there's just no way that we humans could have developed gradually over time from lesser organisms! From the few neurophysiology classes I've taken, I've discovered how far we've come in understanding the brain and it's inner workings. But even more significantly, I've realized how much we still don't know about our brains or how matter and scientific processes work to form abstract things such as emotions, desires, motivations, and state of minds. The only explanation is that we were created by Someone infinitely more powerful and glorious than us...

The second thing that blows me away is how far our technology and knowledge has come in the recent years. It was only a couple hundred years ago that scientists began cutting people open just to figure out what made us tick. And now we've developed ways to look inside humans and see in real time what our bodies are doing. I say this not to glorify man, but to glorify God since HE is the one that has enabled our understanding to increase. HE is the one that gave us the ability to think, reason, and draw rational conclusions. HE is the one that intelligently designed us (His intelligence is infinite). But I also believe that He, in is magnificent grace, designed us intelligently (our intelligence is microscopic) so that we can continue to magnify His name as we slowly uncover His greatness.