General Conference

Twice a year there is a worldwide conference, or General Conference, for our church, where we get to listen to our leaders – the prophet Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, the 12 Apostles, and other general leaders. We are nourished through five 2-hour long sessions of teaching, instruction, and testimony. It is a spiritual high for me. And we are enjoying that this weekend. It has been a wonderful time spent with my wife and kids. This morning we had a fun time cooking up some home-made waffles. We use 5 grains – wheat, steel-cut oats, barley, amaranth, and quinoa – that we grind into flour. Then we combine these with several other ingredients, like eggs, sugar, oil, salt, etc. This time we added in blueberries and used home-made blackberry jam as syrup, and they were delicious!

Yesterday morning we had a meeting with our home and auto insurance agent, who wanted to do an overview of our plans and suggestions of how we could improve them. He reminded us of some good things, like updating our life insurance, especially now that we have a home mortgage in addition to our prior possessions. In the afternoon we went to the Phillip’s house to play and watch the second session of General Conference. We took the kids to a park near their house to play. Spencer, the dad, brought a remote-control airplane that he had built and flew it around for the kids. We also played some football before returning home. Last night before the 3rd session of General Conference, called the Priesthood Session, there was a chili-cookoff at the church. There were about 10 entries, and they were all delicious. And then I was nourished spiritually.

We decided to do our family home evening last Sunday night, since our week nights have been so busy lately. We decided to have the kids start helping with chores. Steph made charts for each of them with pictures and boxes to mark. They each have tasks that are specific for them – such as picking up a certain room – and then others that they all work on – like cleaning up the toys in their room and asking mommy what they can do to help. If they get all the squares filled in for the week, they receive a special prize. They were all so excited to help out every day this week, and it really showed in how much cleaner the house remained. They filled all the boxes and so yesterday they each got to pick a special treat while we were at the store.

This week was much nicer at work. One of the 3rd years, our chief resident, was back from his elective, so we had enough people to cover the clinics. I had an afternoon of pathology, which usually ends earlier, and then one of my clinics finished at 3pm, so I was home both of those days around 5pm.

Monday night was my evening meeting with Dr. Brown. He showed several surgeries and taught the best ways to repair the defect made while removing the cancer. It always amazes me what can be done to fix those defects so that when healed they are hardly noticeable.

Tuesday night I had planned to do my Home Teaching visits, but both of the people we visit cancelled, so we will have to visit them another day.

Wednesday night Steph and I had a meeting with Kolby’s kindergarten teacher, Mr. Signorelli. We were able to see his classroom and learn the goals and expectations for his students. Kolby really likes kindergarten so far. He loves to come home and do “homework.” Since we had a babysitter, we went down into Fairport village, got some custard, and then walked around the village before heading home.

Thursday night I had a Boy Scout roundtable. The theme for this meeting was on adult training and awards. These are available so that those in charge can lead by example and have continual learning.

Friday night we were invited to play games at Lu and Dana’s house. Lu is one of the dermatology residents. We got another babysitter and went and had a wonderful evening playing Apples to Apples, Mad Gab, and Taboo, as well as spending time with and getting to know Lu and Dana and Morgan and Ellen and the others there.

This week the weather has been much colder, mainly in the 40-60s. The leaves on most of the trees have started changing color and falling off. It is so beautiful. The boys have had fun raking the leaves into a pile and playing in the pile. Steph got some really cute pictures yesterday with Courtland in the leaves.

Kolby continues to learn new and harder songs on the piano. This week he is playing “Old McDonald” and “Happy Birthday” among others. It is so fun to listen to.

Elijah loves preschool. He asks almost every day when he gets to go back.

Camden is still working hard on potty training.

Steph decided to cut Isaac’s curly hair yesterday morning. It got to that point where it was just too long to deal with. He looks so different now, but still so cute.

Courtland is now crawling and following us a little bit around the house. He crawled to the window this morning and pulled himself up onto 2 feet for the first time. And he just got his 2nd tooth today.

Steph is hooked on her family history work. She has started back into updating her file and trying to get it posted online on the church’s website, new.familysearch.org. She is also trying to put together a summary book from our blog for 2008 like she did for 2007. And this is all on top of all the amazing things she does every day with the kids. I love her and am so happy she is my wife.