Tribute to 9/11

Five years ago, I posted the lyrics to a song I had written on 9/11. I made it a goal to get the song recorded and released before the 10 year anniversary this year.

Little by little, I got it recorded and have recently released it online. From now until September 11, it will be available to download for free from CD Baby.

Feel free to pass along the link:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chrishartwell3

(It should be on iTunes and other digital download sites within the next week or so, but why pay for it when you can get it for free?)

One Year Behind Me!

My first academic year as a PhD student is finally behind me. While I am still working and doing research, I have no classes over the summer. So things are a little bit more laid back.

The first year was tough and a lot of work, but surprisingly not as difficult as I had envisioned. I think the fact that this is something I really enjoy helps me to focus the time and effort necessary to complete my classes and research goals well.

If you remember my previous post on my goals at the outset of the program, I have the following to report:

1. I wore a tie at least once a week throughout the academic year. Though, now that it is summer, I am much more casual in the office - sometimes even wearing short, and t-shirt, and/or a ball cap. I haven't decided if I am going to re-institute the tie rule again next year. Any thoughts?

2. I successfully made it through the academic year without buying lunch. Once that goal was set and the other students realized it was a serious commitment, it was pretty easy to stick to. And having frozen burritos and Ramen noodles in the office in the event that I forgot my lunch helped as well.

3. I didn't do any schoolwork on Sunday. I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to read an article, do some research or write part of a paper on Sunday, but I refrained. And with all As so far in the program, I am certain that I have been blessed for it.

4. The goal was to treat school like a job. And maybe that is why it hasn't seemed overly difficult. I have forced myself to focus and put in time that I know I haven't done with my previous college degrees. Now that it's summer, I am treating it less like a full-time job and more like part-time job.

5. I take the bus nearly every day to and from school. Sometimes, if Deidra is out running errands or shopping, she'll pick me up at school. Other times I bring my running clothes to school and then run the 3.5 miles home at the end of the day.

Next year will bring with it the final year of coursework, and then the all-inclusive comprehensive preliminary exam comes around about this time next year. If and when I pass that, I am basically done with classes and will spend the next 2-3 years focusing solely on research, teaching, and my dissertation.

I am open to suggestions for revising my goals and/or introducing new goals for the next academic year. Any suggestions?

2 Months Old

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little girl?

Trapping greens

When Deidra's parents were here, one of the many things they accomplished was the building of these 4'x12' vegetable traps in our backyard.

With retractable lids covered with chicken wire, the traps are specifically designed to only trap live produce, while allowing birds and animals to escape safely and humanely. (The construction design was inspired by dolphin-safe tuna nets.)

As you can see, we've already captured some lettuce, carrots, spinach, radishes, onion, peas, and peppers so far. We have also put in some bait that will hopefully attract some cucumbers and squash. And no squirrels, rabbits, possums, chipmunks, or birds have been harmed in the process.

What's the square root of 676?

We like using SkyMiles. Help us get more!

I have entered a contest for 100,000 Delta SkyMiles. After a few days, our entry has moved from about 5,000th place into 219th place. The top 4 get 100,000 SkyMiles. I know it's a long shot, but I thought I would try anyway. Plus, I haven't blogged for a while, so this was a good excuse!

If you have a Facebook account, you can click on this link, allow the application, and vote for us. You should see this pretty little face when you do:

You can vote once a day, so keep the votes coming! Thanks!

You can copy and paste this link if the links above are not working:
http://apps.facebook.com/dreamredeem/gallery/view/categories/1_2_3_4/6417

Welcome to Fatherhood!

Warning: This posts contains references to infant bodily functions and is not for the squeamish.

I had one goal for tonight - to mow the lawn before it got dark. Just one goal.

Deidra was going off to a Relief Society meeting and I volunteered to keep Amelia here while she was gone. As long as Millie got fed before Deidra left, I figured I had a good 2-3 hours of a content, sleeping baby while Deidra was gone. It was the first time Millie and Deidra would be separated, and while Deidra was a little nervous, I assured her that I would be okay.

Somebody should have checked with Millie to see to get her thoughts.

Millie had been recently fed and was contently sitting in the front room in her bouncer when Deidra left at 7pm. Thinking of my one goal, I quickly accounted for what I needed to do to get the lawn mowed:

1. Change a stinky bum.
2. Put Millie in her PJs.
3. Swaddle her in preparation for bed.
4. Rock her to sleep.
5. Put her in bed.
6. Go mow the lawn (checking on Millie periodically).

I was convinced I could accomplish these tasks before it got dark around 9pm, and I got started in on the checklist. The first thing I did was pick up the bouncer, Millie and all, and walked into her room. I put Millie and the bouncer down on the floor and went about getting a new diaper and getting PJs ready. I then went to grab Millie, but before I got to her, I saw a stream of milk launch out of her mouth like water from a firehose. I had no idea that one little body could hold that much fluid, and that it could all leave her body so quickly.

If only I had know that this was just the beginning . . .

I quickly got her burp cloth and cleaned up the bouncer, her blanket, and her face as well as I could. I threw the blanket and burp cloth into the hamper and set Millie down on the ottoman of our glider to change her bum. I knew there was trouble as soon as I took off her pants and saw the mustard color seeping out of her onesie. 

Great! Millie's first blow out, and it happens on my watch! 

I got the new diaper and PJs out of the way and carefully undressed Millie, throwing her pants and onesie in the hamper along with the blanket and burp cloth. All this was done one-handed, while holding her feet up with the other hand to keep the blowout from contaminating the ottoman or anything else in the vicinity. I grabbed the wipes and before long had her bum spotlessly clean. I reached for the new diaper, and just at that moment, pee starts flowing like a dam just broke - all over the ottoman. I didn't know what to do, so . . . I didn't do anything and just let her do her business. No use wasting a brand new diaper when she's already peed all over the ottoman.

Plus, we were planning on refinishing that ottoman anyway, right?

Once she finished, I cleaned her off and put on the new diaper and pajamas and put Millie immediately into her crib. To her credit, even though she was wide-eyed and alert, she contently lied there in the crib while I washed out her soiled pants and onesie, applied stain remover, and put a load in the wash. Then I  took a wet hot rag and scrubbed down the ottoman. Finally, I washed the bouncer cover in the sink and hung it to dry.

Almost immediately after I finished these chores, Amelia started to cry. 

I guess she missed me, or she felt bad about putting me through all this. At any rate, she didn't want to go to sleep, but she would stop crying if I held her. So we just sat on the glider and read a couple of stories and chatted for a while. As her eyelids finally started getting heavy, I looked at her and just started laughing, thinking about everything that had transpired. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her that she was a little stinker, but that I couldn't help but love her all the more because of it. As soon as I said this, she got a silly little grin on her face and let out a few giggles. And my heart fully melted.

She fell asleep soon afterward and I put her in her crib, the adventures of the evening behind us.

And I even had time to mow the lawn.

Way to go, Deidra Zoe!

I am writing this blog post as I watch my wife and baby girl sleeping all snuggled up together. Dang they're cute!

Deidra and I welcomed Amelia Grace Hartwell into the world today at 12:09am. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20.5 inches long. And, of course, she is the most beautiful baby ever born into existence!

And while I am a new proud father, I am also an amazingly proud husband. If men had to go through what women have to go through in carrying and delivering a baby, I'm pretty sure humans would have been extinct long ago.

I was thinking of childbirth in comparison to running a marathon, since it takes so long and is so exhausting. However, I have come to realize that a marathon is about 100 times easier. Childbirth is like running an ultra-marathon that you can't really train for, you are not sure when it will happen, and you don't know how long the marathon is going to be. So you just keep running and hoping that somehow you'll reach the finish line. Oh, and did I mention that you have to sprint up increasingly steeper hills for bursts throughout the marathon at increasing frequent intervals?

But the pay off at the end of childbirth is much more rewarding (and a heck of a lot cuter) than a medal!

So, good work Deidra! You are an amazing woman. And good work little Millie, because I'm sure you've had a rough day as well. And rest on - I think you've both earned a peaceful sleep.

(P.S. I am sure more information and pictures will follow at some point soon!)

Mission Areas - Volume 1: Salem, IN & Louisville, KY

When I began my two-year Mormon mission In the Kentucky Louisville Mission back in October of 1996, the first area I was sent was Salem, Indiana. I spent about four months there before being transferred to a different area, and had never been back until today.

Since this upcoming week is my Spring Break*, we decided to take a weekend trip to the National Maple Syrup Festival in Medora, Indiana (see Deidra's 12x12 recap review). And, since Medora is only a half hour away from Salem, we decided to stay the night and go to church in Salem this morning.

I recognized a few of the old timers in the congregation, but a lot had definitely changed. The congregation is smaller than I remember, but I guess that might be because there are now two congregations where there used to only be one.

After church, we went to the city center, where the courthouse stands.

As a missionary, we had an apartment on the square, directly across from the courthouse. At the time, it was above a nice, fun little flower shop. Apparently, now it's a sketchy bar:

Our final stop before turning around and heading home was another 45 minute drive south into Louisville, Kentucky. About a year into my missionary service, I spent a couple of months in the Louisville suburbs, but it was the quickest and least memorable area of the mission, so we didn't even bother stopping. However, we did stop to admire the Louisville temple. It was built long after I had ended my mission, so this was the first time I had seen it.

Until the Indianapolis temple is built, we may make Louisville our usual temple destination, since it takes about the same time to get there as it does to get to the one in Chicago, and it's a much nicer drive.

(P.S. Don't hold your breath for the future installments of this series. I figure about one mission trip per year is all I can expect Deidra to humor me with.)

* As  a PhD student, "Spring Break" basically means you still have to work, write papers, perform research, and attend meetings, but at least those pesky classes won't bother you.

No Go BOGO

We've all seen the BOGO (Buy One, Get One) ads in mailers, commercials, storefront windows, etc. To me, that means you buy one at regular price and get one FREE!

Unfortunately, there's been a trend lately that defiles the 4-letter BOGO moniker by offering a deal that is much less enticing:

Yeah, Payless, I'm talking to you.

And sometimes it's even worse:

Buy one, get one 25% off? That's hardly even a deal! LAME!

Ok, random rant over.

Happy Valentine's Day to me

I take the bus to school. And because I have class early in the morning this semester, that means waiting outside at the bus stop in zero degree weather before the sun has even come up. Brrrrrrr! That means stocking cap, winter coat, scarf, and gloves. I have even taken to wearing my snow boots to school so my feet don't freeze.

Once I get into the Krannert building and start to warm up, I can shed most of the extra clothing. The only problem are the boots. I am stuck with clomping around in them all day, even though I don't even go outside much once I get on campus. And when I heard a friend and fellow PhD student tell me that he kept a pair of slippers at his office, I was immediately jealous.

But because my wife is awesome, she convinced me to go slipper shopping. After an unsuccessful attempt to locate slippers on the clearance rack at Old Navy, we found this pair of slippers on clearance at Kohl's for less than $10. They quickly became my early Valentine's Day present. I couldn't wait to get to school today and try them out.

The verdict?

They were so warm and toasty - and much more comfortable than my snow boots. I was sad to leave them behind and put my boots back on as I left at the end of the day.

I highly recommend that a pair of slippers come standard at every office desk.

2010 Blog Awards

I thought it was interesting to look back at my blog for the past year and pull out some winners, losers, and statistics. So here you go:

The "Post with the Most" Award: The most commented post was, by far, the "Again" music video.

The "States that Rate" Awards: The top 5 states viewing my blog are (1) Utah, (2) Idaho, (3) California, (4) Michigan, and (5) Washington.

The "Googled & Oogled" Award: The search term that brought the most people to my blog in 2010 was "five guys vs in n out," thanks to this 2009 post.

The "Send 'em My Way" Award: The top referring website from last year was Deidra, closely followed by Whitney. I have a feeling it might have something to do with a trip to Paris we took together in January. They were too lazy to blog about it, so they just sent their readers to me. :-)

The big winner . . .

The "Peoples' Pick" Award: My most viewed post of last year was Part I of the Paris Trip (the prior award may have something to do with that). But, as with most sequels, apparently the fourteen subsequent Paris posts didn't bring the audience back.

And the big loser . . .

The "Viewed by So Few" Award: My least viewed post of last year was my call out for fantasy football.

Travel Tip from El Cheapo

Some of you may have read about my beverage of choice when flying, and I am proud to report that I held strong with the Cranapple again during our holiday flights. But today, I want to talk about the other part of the snack & beverage service. Yeah, it's the snack . . . how did you know?

It used to be that you were simply given peanuts, but now there are usually choices. On Delta flights (I don't really fly other airlines too often), the choices are always: peanuts, pretzels, and cookies. So which do you usually go with?

My el cheapo travel secret is that, if you're cool about it, you don't really have to make a choice!

Picture yourself in your seat as the snack and beverage cart draws near. You hear the flight attendant asking your fellow passengers what drink and what snack they want. (This is where I start to get a little nervous, because I feel like I'm about to get away with something.)

All of a sudden it's your turn.

"What can I get you to drink?" the flight attendant asks.

"I'll take a Cranapple."

That's the easy part. Just a simple drink - nothing out of the ordinary. Then comes the question you've been waiting for.

"Would you like a snack? We have peanuts, pretzels, and cookies."

Non-chalantly, you reply, "Can I get one of each?"

BOOM! Triple snack deliciousness, baby!

Usually the flight attendant doesn't mind, and it kind of catches them off guard. The next thing you know, you've got all three snacks piled on your tray table like a feast fit for a king!

(And then you realize how much you spent for the flight, how it's an hour and a half late, how you had to cram all of your belongings into a carry-on so you don't have to pay for checked luggage, and then how your all the overhead space was already taken up before you stepped on the plane and you had to check your bag anyway . . . all of a sudden your feast looks a little smaller. But at least it's a victory! And you want to tell all seven people that read your blog about it, so that they, too, can partake of the goodness.)

Anyway, for some reason, it really does make me nervous. Just ask my wife. Sometimes, if I don't think I'll be able to pull off the trifecta, I'll respond: "Can I get peanuts and cookies?" (Pretzels aren't integral to my snacking pleasure - just an added bonus.) Though, to be honest, I've never had a flight attendant shut me down on any request yet. Maybe as this becomes common knowledge, they'll have to crack down. And then I'll curse the day I ever posted this blog post.

But, until then, enjoy the triple snacking crown.

Fantasy Football 2010 Champion

After eight years of heading a fantasy football league, including six years of the WEPCO league, and after years of enduring injuries, archrivals, and curses, I finally took the championship trophy in fantasy football. Not that anyone cares (nor should they), but I just wanted it stated for the record.

P.S. Thank you Michael Vick, for making it all possible.

Top 10 of 2010

Following in the tradition of last year's post, the following are what I consider the top ten accompishments, creations, experiences and highlights for me of 2010:

10. Bizarre HR blog: I'm pretty much the worst blogger around, but it was fun to create a blog about something that is a large part of my previous, current, and future life at work and school. I keep emailing myself ideas to add to the blog, and someday I might even post them on the blog!

9. Having my gall bladder removed: Hopefully that means no more sleepless, pain-filled nights.

8. Releasing "Iris": I have long wanted to record a number of cover songs, and when I won the opportunity to release a free single on CDbaby.com, it gave me the opportunity to start with this Goo Goo Dolls cover. (It is now available on CDbaby and on iTunes.)

7. Completing a Children's Book: I got the idea for a children's book 15 years ago and I started writing it about five times since then. This year, that became one of my Sunday activities. I wrote a little here and a little there, and eventually it got completed. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.

6. Recording the video for "Again": Sometimes I miss the time for personal creativity that I used to have when I was single and in a dead-end 9-5 job. (Though that's about the only thing that I miss.) So I had to make use of a full Saturday with nothing planned and Deidra away. Now the only problem is coming up with a good idea for follow-up video . . .

5. The Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race: Running almost 200 miles in about 30 hours. I don't really think I ever posted about it on this blog, but you can read recaps from other members of the Wilkins Wonders team here, here, here, here, and here.

4. Paris: My first time outside of the U.S. that was not tied to some sort of school excursion. Deidra was the queen of planning a great experience. Who needs a live tour guide when you've got Rick Steves? It was great to spend the time with Deidra and with Whit & Brian. It's probably my favorite vacation ever (so far). About 1/4 of all of my blog posts last year were spent recapping the trip because I thought it was so awesome. Next up? Convincing my dad that we should take a family trip to Norway (where he served as a missionary many years ago).

3. Expecting our First Baby: Ok, so many of you (my wife included) might be thinking, how can this NOT be number 1? . . . Well, to be honest, I initally had it there, but then I realized that it still seems kind of surreal to me, and it's not like it has impacted our lives all that much so far. But don't worry, my guess is that baby girl will be at the top of the list next year.

2.  Buying a House: It's quaint and it's old, but it's been well maintained and it's ours. No sharing walls and no landlords to deal with.

1. Starting my PhD program: We moved from Utah to Indiana, and I feel like the rest of my life has now been put in motion with the start of this degree. I'll spend 4-5 years working on the degree so I can find a job as an Assistant Professor, the next 7 years or so working toward tenure as an Associate Professor, then a few more years working toward becoming a Full Professor, and perhaps even a few more to become Chaired Professor. It's kind of crazy to think of my next 20 years mapped out like that, but also comforting to know I've got a plan.

Daddy-daughter duet

It's stuff like this that makes me even more excited to be a dad:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

One semester down . . .

The grades are in and it looks like I have successfully completed my first semester at Purdue, and I even found time to attend a couple of football games.

It actually went by a lot faster than any previous school semester, so I am hoping the rest of the program will fly by just as fast.

No one wants to see this picture

(please disregard the chubby belly - it's the off-season for running.)

I don't know why I feel the compulsion to post my battle wounds on my blog. It's actually quite nasty. Maybe because I think these wounds could give me some street cred if they are mistaken for gunshot wounds. Maybe because I'm glad that I won't have a huge scar like my dad from having his gall bladder out. Maybe because I'm jealous of all the attention Deidra's belly is getting these days. Maybe I'm just bored.

At any rate, I am feeling much better today than the past couple of days. I think I might actually survive and heal.

Nurse Deidra

Deidra and I went to the surgical center at 7:30 am, where I got paperwork done and was prepped for surgery.

At 8:30 they knocked me out and performed the surgery.

At 9:30, I awoke (kind of) and was taken to my recuperation station, where Deidra joined me. For the next 2 hours or so, I was in and out of consciousness, while sipping water and subsequently throwing it up (only once, though). And Deidra was patiently waiting for me to get up the energy to get out of there.

At about noon, I successfully took a whiz (yes, that's really the test) and we finally got the okay for Deidra to drive me home, where I promptly fell asleep again.

Throughout it all, I am feeling actually quite well, though that's probably got something to do with being drugged. I think it also has to do with having the best home nurse I could ever hope for. Deidra has been tireless in answering my beck and call, and even knowning what I need before I have to ask for it.  I keep telling her thank you and it feels so insufficient. I definitely love that girl!

I should be taking notes so that I can be half as good to her come April.

Clear liquid diet

My meals for today were as follows:

Breakfast: Jello, apple juice, and cherry pomegranate crystal light
Morning snack: peppermint tea
Lunch: Jello and chicken broth
Afternoon snack: Powerade
Dinner: Jello and chicken broth
Dessert: Two popsicles

Who knew that chicken broth could be so tasty? I guess it's all perspective.

I also had 10 ounces of magnesium sulfate solution to help it all wash out.  Mmmm tasty . . .

The gall bladder surgery is tomorrow morning, and I'm just excited to get to eat real food again soon.