Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Any Nerds Out There?

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

I saw this today and thought it was pretty cool. I think there are a couple other nerds that read this but I guess we will find out :) .

Scientists have found the first multicellular animals that apparently live entirely without oxygen. The creatures reside deep in one of the harshest environments on earth: the Mediterranean Ocean’s L’Atalante basin, which contains salt brine so dense that it doesn’t mix with the oxygen-containing waters above. Previous samples taken from the water and sediments in the basin showed that single-celled life was present, but a new study published this week in BMC Biology has identified multi-cellular animals that apparently live and reproduce in the sediments under the salt brine. Italian and Danish researchers describe three new species of tiny animals called Loricifera. The animals took up radioactively tagged leucine (an amino acid), and a fluorescent probe that labels living cells, evidence that they were alive when they were collected. The researchers also found examples of individuals that contained eggs and evidence of apparent molting, which led them to conclude that the animals spend their whole lives in the harsh sediments. The creature’s cells apparently lack mitochondria, the organelles that use oxygen to power a cell. Instead they are rich in what seem to be hydrogenosomes, organelles that can do a similar job in anaerobic (or oxygen free) environments. The find could help scientists understand what life might have looked like in the earth’s early oceans, which also had very little oxygen.

The Training Has Begun

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Susan and I are planning on riding the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer, and our training officially began this past weekend. We are planning on riding for 6 day with a total distance of about 469 miles, all in the mountains, so we have plenty of training left to do.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our training schedule and we got rained out on Friday.

Saturday was a little cooler than it has been but still not too bad so we were able to get in 38 miles.  Susan said that she had a new route that she wanted to try that she had driven the other day.  I was feeling adventurous so I said sure.  For those of you that don’t know, letting Susan pick a route and having her do it from memory is a BIG risk. She is still convinced that I am taking her new ways when we do our “normal” routes from the house that she has done hundreds of times now.  All and all the ride turned out nice.  We only spent about 4 miles on a 4 lane highway, and I only had to overrule her turn choice once. When we got on the highway I asked her if she knew this was coming and she said “no, I was listing to NPR on the way and not paying attention” which didn’t give me to much confidence that we would ever make it home. After we got off the highway was when I had to overrule the turn choice. I knew we were east of our house and she wanted to go east. Normally I would have gone with it because we could have gotten home (it would have just been a lot longer) but we didn’t bring food or money so we probably would have starved to death. For those of you that haven’t notices we aren’t exactly spindly little climbers and I proved this when we got home by eating a pizza and a half. Probably not the best way to lose weight before a ride like this but I still have plenty of time :) .

Sunday morning we went out early to try to beat the rain that was coming in. Of course as soon as we pulled out of the driveway it started raining. We decided to keep going and at least get in a short ride. In the end we made it 12 miles (we were originally planning on about 30), but we felt pretty good about it because 45 degree rain isn’t all that fun to ride in.

Random Update

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Here comes the stream of consciousness…

7:35pm: Anna is giving us (Paul and me) a silent treatment. She is no longer talking outside of school. You may want to pick up that Sign Language for Dummies book.

She is also playing softball this spring. Last minute decision this past weekend to sign up. Her first practice tonight was rained out. Gotta love these silly outdoor sports.

7:38pm: Anna just made an exception to talk to the dogs.

Paul and I went to the Eric Clapton concert on Monday night. Yep, a school night. We are paying dearly for it, realizing we are WAY to old for this rock star lifestyle. Got home shortly after midnight on Monday, Paul went to work at 8am on Tuesday, I took a half day (got my hair cut), but of course still got up with Paul. Cameras were not allowed, so excuse the low quality on the photo below, it is taken with Paul’s Blackberry.

Eric Clapton

You will just have to believe us that the tiny blob in the center is Eric Clapton

I went to Camp Crop A Lot this weekend: 48 hours of scrapbooking! Here are a couple pages I finished:

What cracks me up about these pictures is that Bluesy really does not like to sit right on the ground. Ever.

7:47pm: Another exception for her to talk to Tyler.

This weekend Paul and I have NO PLANS except a fundraiser party on Sat night and NAPPING. My original idea was to make a list of all the things we were NOT going to do, but that seemed like a lot of work that would only lead to lots of guilt. Spring forward is this weekend. Losing that hour of sleep really kills me. Which makes me kill Paul. Sorry kiddo.

After Camp Crop A Lot I came home and had the house to myself. I decided that it was a good time to paint the playroom (formerly known as Tyler’s bedroom). We kept the Carolina Blue color (despite the season), but it looks much better now. It was a surprise for Paul and the kids. Anna and Tyler declared it not a good present.

Anna’s first art exhibit

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This is the masterpiece!

The artist w her masterpiece

Anna would be on here writing the update herself, but she is currently typing up a novel of her life story. Seriously.

Congratulations to Anna!

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Anna was named Citizen of the Week at Northern Elementary School! Her certificate specifically says, “…for demonstrating Self-Discipline and Hawks.” Self-discipline was the character trait of the month in January. Not sure what the whole Hawks thing is besides the school mascot, but whatever. Way to go, Anna!

Ms. Sassafrass Citizen herself hiking w the dogs last month.

Simplified Concert

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Last night Susan and I went with our friends Wes and Julie to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger. For those that don’ t know Simplified they are a great band from Charlotte NC. I have been to see them live several times now and the shows have always been great. They were so good last night that we stayed for the whole thing and Susan wasn’t telling me we had to go. That means we didn’t even leave the club until 1:30 and she stayed awake the whole time!  It is 11:30 right now and she is still asleep so she is making up for it today.

Us with Clee Laster (vocals, guitar) and Chris Sheridan (guitar) from Simplified

Us with Clee Laster (vocals, guitar) and Chris Sheridan (guitar) from Simplified

Simplified

Simplified

Simplified

Simplified

My Two Cutie Pies!!

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

I think this is the best picture I have ever seen of Elli (besides that one of her and our mom at her wedding). And Sydney is the cutest baby ever so that is an easy one:

Sanders Hanukkah, part 2!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Paul and Susan on Christmas morning

This post has pictures that represent Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Just to recap, we had 9 celebrations in 11 days. For some reason I also thought that was a good time to do a home improvement project of painting all the door knobs. Which also means the latches, screws, etc. You probably realized that. Wish I would have…

Christmas w Steph, Roy, BizNKids, and MomMom, Dec 26

Point of interest on this photo–I THOUGHT both eyes were crossed. I did a redo for Paul just now, thinking my eyes were crossed again. No such luck. My sister was like this all the time from birth and had surgery to make her normal. Perhaps I had preemptive surgery to make sure mine did not wander…EVER!

Anna--Dec 26 Christmas; celebration #9

I just love love love this photo of Anna. You get glimpses of what she will look like as a young woman, yet she still has that baby look too.

Tripp gets a robot for Christmas!

Sleepy Becca posing for pictures

The robot Tripp got for Christmas was very cool, it even danced to a Duran Duran knock off song (sounded like the song, but like they changed it to not have to pay royalties). But then it started to somewhat stalk MomMom. Kind of scared us. Rebecca was SO sleepy, but she always wants to get a good picture. And the truth still holds–sometimes the kids like the box the toy comes in rather than the toy itself!

New Year’s Eve 2009. Basic math I should have realized when I bought the sparklers: [(Sleepy kids x bad weather so they didn't get any exercise for days) x (Paul has been w said kids for 80 hours x Susan has been sick for 80 days)] x fire sparks shooting off a stick = probably not a good idea. Not to mention I had accidentally sprayed some grass (and a little driveway) with my door knob project so Tyler of course wanted to prance there w his sparklers. He was drawn like a moth to a flame. (get it–flame??)

Skinned squirrels in the refrigerator. Seriously. Ugh.

Paul took Tyler hunting w some friends and their kids. Tyler was a little loud (lucky for the squirrels), but the others were more successful (unlucky for Susan). We had 6 dead bodies in the fridge. It was like The Soprano’s. Paul made fried squirrel, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and squirrel gravy for New Year’s breakfast. They say that how you spend NY Day is how you spend your year. God help me.

Sanders Family Hanukkah

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

We are not converting, we are celebrating Paul, Tyler and Anna’s birthdays and Christmas! We started way back in November (about 10 years ago it seems), we had Thanksgiving and visited w my family. But that last 7 days we have had 7 celebrations. Really 7 in 6 days–tonight is a bye night. Here is the summary:

Day 1, 12/17/09: Anna’s 8th birthday. Paul and I met Robin and Jason, and of course Tyler at Rio Grande for Anna’s birthday dinner. Anna chose the restaurant–Rio G won for the 3rd year in a row. I just LOVE this picture of Anna.

Anna at her Rio Grande birthday dinner, Dec 17

Day 2, 12/18/09: Kids Family Birthday Party. Stephanie and Biz planned a party for Anna and Tyler at their house. Sandie, Brandon, Haley, Hunter and Mom Mom all celebrated with us.

Tyler had a Star Wars cake complete w light up light sabers. Anna had a doll cake complete w Barbie-like doll you lifted out of the cake before cutting.

Day 3, 12/19/09: Tyler’s 6th birthday. Before we could celebrate Tyler’s birthday, we had to play in the snow! That’s right, we had about 7 inches of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. Then we met Robin, Jason and Lacey (their baby) at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Tyler’s day.

Anna, Tyler and Frosty. This was after sledding off the ramp Paul built for them!

Ahhhh, my NRA reps.

Day 4, 12/20/09: Extended Sanders Family Christmas/Susan’s half birthday. OK, 1 was celebrated a little more than the other, but still…

Paul and me before starting to open presents at MomMom's.

Day 5, 12/21/09: Susan’s manager Christmas party and Cole’s Annual Christmas party.

(photos unavailable, cameras confiscated by security, paparazzi bounced from property)

Day 6, 12/22/09: Celebrated Paul’s birthday at UNC vs. Marshall basketball game!

My first time in the Dean Dome! I mean... me doing whatever Paul wanted to do for his birthday!

Paul and I are vegging out tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, not sure what the plans are. Then we get the kids on Christmas Day about noon. Then Christmas w Steph and Biz, et. al on Sat afternoon! 9 events in 11 days! Whoooooo hooooooo! Keep in mind this was including 10 loads of laundry, 0 minutes of napping, 3 days of work (which included creating a plan to restructure our cardiac rehab program to make up for $96,000 worth of revenue that we cannot bill for in 2010 and 4 days of 11 state inspectors surveying our hospital), baking 120 cookies and only 30 minutes of physical activity and NO tears shed! Happy Sanders Hanukkah!

School Is Out Early?

Friday, December 18th, 2009

This morning we got a automated call from the school saying they were closing 3 hours early because of weather. I went to look outside and there was nothing. I picked the kids up at 11:15 and we are currently sitting at home with me wondering why they are out. It is 12:15 now and it’s 37 degrees and completely dry out! According to the weather channel we could get 6 to 10 inches later this afternoon and tonight, but school gets out at 2:15 anyway so I have no idea what the school board was thinking.

To make it worse the kids went at normal time on Wednesday and I know of at least 5 wrecks that morning because of icy roads. So I guess the take home message is that when the road are icy for sure it’s OK, but when it MIGHT snow they need to close early for safety.