A week full of fun

Well, I guess it’s my turn to write. Steph did the blog 2 weeks ago and Kolby did it last week with her help. This was my last week in the outpatient medicine clinic. My schedule while on this rotation has been so wonderful. I am averaging about 45-50 hours per week, which is so much better than the 65-75 when I am doing the inpatient medicine and surgery rotations. I start surgery tomorrow, so this will be another longer month. But at least I have a week of vacation off, so it is really just 3 weeks – anyone can survive a hard thing for that long. And only two of the five remaining rotations are “busier schedule” ones – surgery and inpatient medicine, so things are good. Being in the clinic makes me realize how blessed my family and me are to be healthy and to have a good, steady job. We have so many patients that have limited or no insurance with lots of medical problems, and I just think how hard it must be to try and heal from problems when you don’t have the money to get the adequate treatment. It makes for some creative management to try and find ways to help these people with limited resources.

Steph got to see Amy Hymas really quickly on Tuesday morning before they took off back home to Milwaukee. It was fun seeing you guys – good luck with the match!! Then she had her ob/gyn appointment. She changed being dilated from a 2 to 2.5 – not much, but I guess it’s progress. I babysat the boys that night while Steph went and did a lot of her visiting teaching.

Kolby had piano lessons on Wednesday. He learned about the bass clef and how to draw it on the music staff, as well as his new songs. That night was Kolby and Daddy night, so we went to go see Madagascar 2 at the cheap theater. Before it started, I had some change, so I let Kolby ride one of those vehicles that move back and forth. He chose the helilcopter and loved it. The movie was ok – there were some funny parts, and Kolby had a good time.

Thursday night I had my first church basketball game of the season. I had not been able to make any of the practices so far, but I had a free night, so Steph and the boys came to watch and support. It was so much fun, even though it has been years since I played, and I realized fast just how out of shape I am. Just because someone is skinny doesn’t mean they are in shape. I was huffing and puffing with burning lungs after only a few minutes. We lost, but I still had a great time. Afterwards, we let the boys throw one of the basketballs around to each other, which they loved. I was so sore the next day – I guess that is a signal to me that I need to exercise more. I just need to stop being lazy. The problem is that when I have some free time from work, exercising is one of the last things I want to do. I would rather take a break by reading a book or playing board or video games. And it’s hard to justify leaving Steph with the kids longer so I can go and workout, especially after she has spent all day with them and would also like a break. It looks like this will need some more brainstorming.

Last weekend we met a couple at the temple and saw them again at the weekend church activities. Their names are Jared and Jill Owens, and they are our age and have 3 kids, a 6-year-old boy, a 3-year-old boy, and a 1-year-old girl. They were so nice to us and so we got their phone number and said we needed to get together sometime soon. Steph called them earlier this week and we decided to do dinner here Friday night. Steph made some delicious bruschetta chicken. We knew that they were like us when we asked if they wanted to play games afterwards and they said they had brought a few games with them in case we wanted to play. We let the kids play and watch movies while we set up a table and played a really fun card game called Wizard and had so much fun just talking and getting to know each other. The kids played so well together. It was so much fun to find another couple that shares similar values and loves having fun like we do. We were up playing and talking until almost 2am!! Thanks Jared and Jill for the wonderful evening of fun – we can’t wait to do it again.

Saturday was Eli’s 4th birthday – happy birthday Eli!! Steph had bought some chocolate milk to go with breakfast. When asked what special breakfast he wanted, Eli chose cereal. Then we gave him our presents – several more hard plastic animals to add to their collection – a pig, a horse, a polar bear, a bull, a cow, and others. We dropped off my car for an oil change and then met up with Grandma Bradshaw around noon at a Coldstone Creamery for ice cream cones – thanks so much grandma.

I don’t like taking the cars for oil changes because it seems like each time there is something big found that needs fixing. This time my car is leaking power steering fluid and the source of the leak is a broken boot, rack and pinion (whatever that is), which will cost around $500 to fix. Also, the coolant needs to be flushed, and a door handle needs to be replaced. Oh well, I guess that’s what you get with older cars. We got home from picking up the car and Jared and Jill were here with the kids to drop off a present for Eli – a kite, sidewalk chalk, and a little car. That is so nice, especially since we just met them last week. The kids got to play together for a little while before we had to go for dinner. Jill told us the name of their auto mechanic and also about an activity that they go to every Wednesday at the library, which Steph is going to try and go to.

We took the kids to dinner at Café Rio, which is so nice because as long as you dine in, the kids each get a free quesadilla. I tried their Mahi Mahi taco special, which was delicious. Then we took the kids to Toys R Us and let Eli pick out some presents with his birthday money. He chose a few more animals – African elephants and an Okapi (an African deer), two more I Spy puzzles, and two Disney movies – Wall-E and Sleeping Beauty. It was quite the busy day, but I think Eli had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who called and sent him cards this week – he has been carrying the cards around everywhere he goes, including to school, because he likes them so much. They just put a smile on his face because he knows he is special and loved.

I also had some birthday/Christmas money left over and so decided to get the Lego Star Wars game for the Wii. I tried it out last night and it is really fun. Everything is “built” with Legos, including all the characters. There are lots of puzzles to solve, and you can play many of the people from all 6 episodes.

Steph and I are planning on going to Rochester, New York, for a week in March to look for housing. We are going to take the baby with us, but not the other boys, so my mom and sister will be coming down to help Grandma Faun watch them – thanks so much you guys – that helps us out so much. Last night Steph and I purchased our plane tickets and car rental. Now we just need to get the hotel reservation. Hopefully we will be able to find some good choices while out there. We are leaning more and more to renting a house, unless we find something that is just perfect to purchase. We have been told that we should take a copy of our credit report. Steph gets a monthly update of her FICO score with one of her credit cards. We hadn’t checked my score since 2003, so we did that today to make sure that everything is good. Steph and I both have great credit, so at least there shouldn’t be a problem to qualify for a home loan if we decide to pursue that route.

Today was another relaxing Sunday that I got to spend with the family. Church was really nice. Sacrament meeting was so spiritual with all the testimonies that people bore. The lesson in Sunday school was on remembering the new covenant of the restoration, the Book of Mormon. I am really enjoying reading the commentary book that goes into the history surrounding the revelations received in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is so comforting to know that God called a prophet in our day to restore His church to the earth and to receive revelation that is relevant to our situations. I love seeing how Joseph Smith the man is becoming the prophet and mouthpiece of the Lord. We had a combined last hour meeting on the importance of missionary work and things we can do to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our friends and neighbors through love, example, and service.