ACSM Indianapolis

The American College of Sports Medicine recently accepted my thesis abstract for publication at their conference in Indianapolis. BYU paid for me to travel out there and present my research. It was an incredible opportunity, but I was extremely nervous about leaving Tate for three whole days. She is still nursing and has never taken a bottle well and I had never been away from her for more than a few hours. Plus, I would be missing her first birthday. Luckily Erik's parents came up from California to stay with him and help watch Tate and help us with a few projects at the new house. That helped ease my worries a little bit, I knew Tate loved her grandma.

I am so glad I decided to go. Indianapolis was one of the coolest cities I have ever been in. I had a great view from my hotel of the river front and the NCAA national headquarters. I saw tons of old friends from BYU. I learned so much from all of the sessions at the conference. Most importantly, my presentation went really well. I was nervous leading up to it because sometimes at these conferences people hash into each other and are extremely critical, but my presentation went smooth and everyone had great feedback and interest in the results.

I spent most of my time with Mike and Justin, friends from the Y who were working in the bio-chem and physiology labs the same time I was. I also met up with Merill and Rob, some of my best friends, and favorite people from our masters cohort. We ate at some great restaurants, walked around the city, got up extremely early one morning and ran a 5k through the downtown canal.

Even with being busy I got extremely homesick by the last day. I had never missed anyone as much as I missed Tate on this trip. I had to pump every few hours, which I hate, and I got a clogged duct which made everything painful. I missed her birthday, and she was learning to walk when I left, and had mastered it by the time I got home ans was running laps around the kitchen. The last day of the conference I could not pay attention at all. I went to classes, but all I could think about was going home. I was so grateful to be back to my little wiggles.

I have been trying to teach Tate how to hug basically since day one. She is not a cuddly baby and won't ever let you hold her tight. Her idea of a hug is to lock her arms out into your chest and violently turn her head away. But ever since I have come home from the trip she will run into my arms, squeeze me tight and rest her head on my shoulder. Everytime! So I guess she missed me too. She will not hug ANYONE else, including her dad, and she is totally a daddy's girl. If I would have known the key to teaching her to hug was to leave a few days I would have done it sooner!