Turkey cookies and family pictures

So I guess it’s my turn to write the blog. I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week – time is just flying. I have now done over 4 months of my first year of the dermatology residency. Work continues busy but fun. I am continually amazed at how much there is to learn about the skin. At the same time, it’s fun to look back at what I’ve learned so far. Most days I have a conference in the morning from 8-9am, clinic from 9-12 noon, lunch from noon to 1pm, then clinic from 1-5pm. For the conferences we have lectures about general dermatology subject & basic science of the skin, meetings at the microscope, looking at clinical pictures and describing and learning them. Sometimes the faculty dermatologists give the lectures, and other times we the residents are in charge. I have been working on my first PowerPoint presentation that I’ll be doing tomorrow morning on Ichthyoses. You’ll have to look it up to see what they are – quite interesting. So each half-day is a different clinic with a different doctor. Some half days we spend with the pathologist looking at microscope slides; others are for reading and catching up on tasks. Almost every Monday night we spend with our surgeon who focuses lectures on topics related to dermatologic surgery. Twice a month we have an afternoon set aside for “Grand Rounds”, where difficult patients are brought for the entire group to see. We then discuss what they might have and try to come up with a plan. There are some crazy things that can happen with the skin. We also have a meeting once a month called “Journal Club”, where we meet at a restaurant with the community dermatologists to go over the latest news from the dermatology scholarly magazines, JAAD (Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology) & Archives of Dermatology.

Yesterday I went to the LDS cannery for the first time. Our church has a facility in Canandagiua (just outside of Rochester) where you can go and dry pack canned goods for cost. They supply the equipment and items to can in #10 cans – you just have to can it. Steph has been to one in Utah a couple of times, but this was my first time. They have quite the range of food items to choose from: wheat, oats, flour, rice, beans, sugar, potato flakes, apple slices, powdered milk, carrots, to name a few. Three of us from our church went down yesterday and it was a perfect number. One of us got the cans and then filled them up with the food storage item. The next person then added an oxygen absorber, placed a lid on top, and then used an electric machine to seal the lid (which was quite cool and fun to use). The last person labeled and dated the cans and then boxed them up. We worked for 2 hours and did 28 boxes (6 cans per box, so 168 cans) of wheat, oats, macaroni, and potato flakes. I also got a can each of refried beans, powdered milk, and apple slices to try. The amazing thing is that the majority of the things we can now have a shelf life of 30+ years.

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to JC Penny for our annual family picture. We have found a photographer there that is just amazing with our kids and can get them to all look at that camera. Well, she delivered again, and we got some really cute pictures of the whole family, then all the boys, and then me & Steph. I can’t wait to pick them up.

Last night we make turkey cookies. This is an annual tradition from Steph’s family. You take a cookie, smear chocolate frosting on top, place a Hershey kiss on one side for the body, place 5 candy corns on the other side to make the fanning tail, and then use some frosting to stick a red hot on the top of the Hershey kiss for the turkey gobbler. We are going to take them around tonight to several families in the neighborhood and ward to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.

I was asked to teach the lesson today in our Elder’s quorum meeting at church. It was based off the general conference article by Elder G. Whitney Clayton on the different types of burdens we are faced with in this life – physical, spiritual, emotional – and how we can overcome them through Jesus Christ and His atonement. It is so nice to know that Jesus understands what we are suffering and how we can deal with that problem. The burdens are a part of the purpose of this life, to help us to become humble and also empathetic towards others and their problems.

Steph and I have been going to a family history class that started last Sunday. The focus is on European records. Steph has been working hard on her genealogy, starting up a new blog and working with her mom on some of the records that they photographed while over in the Czech Republic. She also ordered a microfilm to our family history center that came this week, so she started working on that today after church.

The boys continue to grow and be so much fun. They are such good kids. We have really been enjoying letting a different boy stay up each night and doing a different activity with them, like reading, playing the Wii, or working on a project. Kolby is learning some Christmas songs on the piano that are so fun to listen to. Steph made up some flash cards for him with a different note on each one so he can start to learn the notes instead of just the finger numbers on the music. Elijah continues to learn new things at preschool. He was evaluated by a speech pathologist and is going to get some assistance to help with his lisp. Camden & Isaac love to play and are our big helpers, always trying to help with cooking or cleaning, etc. Courtland got his next tooth and may be toothing again. He is eating more and more regular food. He will probably be starting regular milk next month, which means we will be done with formula – so weird to think about how fast he is growing up.