Phew!  I hope I don’t have to move again for awhile!  I am finally finished unpacking, now there are some minor organizing tasks to do.  Of course, the printers are not hooked up yet.  We need them networked, and the data port we want to use is broken so the vendor has to come out to repair it.  They are scheduled for today or tomorrow.  Since I left early today, I do not know if they made it out yet.   Also, the phones are not yet straightened out so I check my voicemail throughout the day as I am just not going to run to the other cubicle to answer the phone.

Leo has been eating constantly again and has yet another tooth coming in so more nights of little sleep.  But we made it through the week.  I am taking a couple of days off next week, and I am certainly looking forward to that.  Maybe I’ll be able to get a few things accomplished at home….Maybe.

This past week has been incredibly busy.  My office is moving tomorrow, so I have been packing.  We also had an audit and had to pull and copy all contracts for the past 12 months to send off to corporate. 

Leo has been teething and having a rough time of it at night which has led to a lack of sleep for me.  Last weekend was bad for him with a teething fever, but that darn tooth is finally poking through.  He now has six teeth, 2 on top, 4 on bottom.  We also started baby swim lessons at the aquatic center.  It is more of getting them used to the water in a safe and controlled environment.  The family pool is very shallow on the ends so the little ones can even lay down without submerging themselves. 

My Tadpole

And Satuday was spent running errands…dry cleaning, shoe repair, post office, supplies for Thursday’s program.

Today I am relaxing, updating my blogs and doing a bit of stitching.

When this started off, I was going to make vegetable stuffed raviolis, but Leo needed to go down for a nap, and we had no bottles thawed.  So I took him to the bed to nurse and ended up taking a nap myself.  Not being entirely coherent upon waking, I decided to nix the ravioli idea and just use bowtie pasta I already had.

• 4 medium pieces of chicken
• 2 medium zucchinis, chopped
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 can medium black olives, pitted and cut into halves
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 16 ounces pasta
• shredded Italian cheese mix  
• ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 cup chicken broth

Boil chicken in a stock pot until thoroughly cooked.  Do not drain.  Set aside to cool.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium-low flame and add garlic.  Saute until garlic is just translucent.  Add carrots to skillet and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add zucchini,tomatoes and olives.  Take a cup of broth from the chicken pot and add it to the skillet.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.  Remove chicken from water and shred then add to skillet.  Add pepper to taste.

Add enough water to chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to directions.  Drain pasta and return to stock pot.  Add contents of skillet and stir until well mixed.  Spoon into bowls or onto plates and garnish with shredded cheese.

Notes: I used chicken legs as  that is what I had on hand.  For the cheese, I like to use a mix of Parmesan, Romano and Asiago.  I am a big fan of garlic so adjust to your taste.  Onion could also be added and sauted with the garlic.  I leave it out as DH doesn’t care for it.

Here is hoping everyone had a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.  Having had the occassion to visit Home Depot this weekend, I would think not too many people were relaxing.

We spent Saturday and Sunday helping a friend paint some rooms in her new condo.  Leo had a hard time being away from home though, so I spent as much time consoling him as I did painting.  We also had confirmation of why he was miserable Thursday and Friday as tooth #4 appear Saturday.  We decided to take the coast road back home to enjoy the ocean views.  We were at Topanga Canyon before we knew it and turned inland there.  Since the route took us near to my parents’ house we stopped there so I could return their keys.  We stayed for a bit and had dinner then drove home.  Leo was very happy to be home!

We all slept late today and took a long morning nap as well.  Tooth #5 broke through today.  Little man now has four bottom teeth and one top tooth.  He had a big lunch then took a good afternoon nap.  I was able to get some laundry done and put aside a bunch of stuff for Goodwill.  There is still quite a bit to do.  I certainly won’t be able to manage the rest tonight.

Leo’s third tooth poked through Wednesday, which explains why he needed so much snuggling early in the week.  Suprisingly enough, this is another bottom tooth.  The top ones are formed and making their way down.  Tooth number four should appear any day now. 

He is also getting ready to crawl.  Over just the last couple of days he has been getting up on his knees more and more and starting to rock.  Once he does start crawling, we will be albe to find him by the trail of drool in his wake.

Since I signed Leo and I up for parent/child swim classes, he needed swim diapers.  I had seen some at Toys R Us that were okay but not what I was looking for.  Disposable swim diapers are not something I am willing to do.  So I visited the online store Soft Cloth Bunz. 

From there I bought some adorable Imse Vimse swim diapers in both the black lizard and red lizard prints.  We, of course, had to try them on as soon as they arrived.  Here is my little man modeling the black ones.

If you are like me, Mondays are just tough days. It isn’t that I do not like my job. I actually love my job, but I love being home and cuddling with my Leo even more.

I did go, though. Overall, it was a normal work day, although I did give my boss grief for calling when he is supposed to be on vacation. The thing that need attention is being take care of, so I called him back, told him to go back up the mountain with his family and enjoy himself. That man desperately needs this vacation.

I also had my first Community Emergency Response Team training class today. Since the hospital requires all employees to take Fire and Life Safety training, we began with what is normally class #3. The training is taught by the city Fire Department who are always an entertaining bunch. We will take one class a month through January, at which time we will be CERT Certified.

After the class, I struggled to get through the rest of my day as the afternoon sleepiness came on. I made arrangements for a meeting at the other facility for tomorrow morning. As I was packing up the paperwork I need for the meeting, I discovered that Leo had left me a goodie in my bag…

Leo's Rattle

We need to start by understanding what an adult stem cell is. An adult stem cell is

a cell that has not yet generated structures or manufactured proteins characteristic of a specialized cell type.

These cells are essentially blank slate building blocks for the body that reside in specific places throughout and are used by the body as needed to generate new tissue, etc. Research has been done since the 1960’s to find ways to grow these cells into specific types of cells for medical applications such as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease.

The hope is to be able to understand how stem cells become other types of cells and to be able to reproduce the effect in a laboratory. The newly developed cells could be used in cell-based therapies and possibly to grow new tissue and even organs.

Blood-forming stem cells are currently the only ones used here in the States. The applications are bone marrow transplants and treatments for blood diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma.

The major technical challenge in using adult stem cells is the collecting or harvesting of them. As only a few reside in each tissue type there are limitations to the amount of harvestable stem cells as well as concerns regarding the comfort of the donating patient.

Research is ongoing, and there are many clinical trials in progress. For the most part, stem cell donors are required to either be the patient receiving cell-therapy treatment or a close family member.

The National Marrow Donation Program (NMDP) has a registry for people to donate blood-forming stem cells as well as bone marrow. Donating blood-forming stem cells is not an invasive process. The drug filgrastim is taken for five days before the donation. The actual donation process is much like donating platletes where blood is removed from the donor at one arm, run through a machine to separate out the stem cells, then returned to the donor via the other arm. Another source of stem cell donation accepted by the NMDP is cord blood.

A newly discovered source of stem cells is menstrual blood. Scientists in Japan utilized human stem cells harvested from menstrual blood to repair heart damage in rats. Another study discovered that these stems cells grow quickly and have the potential to be developed into different types of cells not just blood related cells. This makes these stem cells particularlyvaluable and viable for many medical applications. While this research is only in its infancy, it brings new hope to the battles against a multitude of diseases.

A company call Celle is offering women the ability to bank their own stem cells. A woman uses the Celle Collection Kit to collect her menstrual blood in privacy then sends the collected blood to Celle’s collect center. There the stem cells are extracted from the blood and stored for future needs. This is something of an insurance policy should a woman or one of her relatives suffer from serious injury or be aflicted by a life-threatening disease. C’elle Client Testimonial

Sources:
National Institutes of Health
MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas
National Marrow Donation Program
C’elle

The Sponsor page (formerly Your Ad Here) has been updated with some new advertisers and links.  A big THANK YOU to all who click through. 

Here is a limited time special from REI:

Here are some cool speciality stores for those who have kids.  With August being a month with 6 birthdays in our household, I try to keep track of things like this.  It is also handy for some early Christmas shopping. 

Disney’s Cars

Narnia

Curious George

Fantasy

Diecast Models
diecast

Other than the REI limited time offer, these links will also be available on the Sponsors page.

I took this photo a couple of days ago and had to share. 

He’s my sweetie!