Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother’s Day! There are so many women who have had a great influence in my life – especially my mom and my wife, Stephanie. But also, grandmas, aunts, teachers, and others. I love this day when we can think of them and all they do to make life wonderful. We listened to a wonderful talk at church today. It was about the eternal role of mothers and how it supersedes any earthly glories that can be found, including fame and riches. Satan has done much to try and diminish the divine role that mother’s play in the human family, because he knows that it is only in eternal families that we can find true happiness. I know that all girls may not get the chance to be mothers, but they still all play an amazing role in our lives, of which I’m grateful.

Today is also a beautiful spring Sunday (finally!). We had the rainiest April on record here in Rochester; it is so nice to be able to spend some time out in the backyard with the kids and our dog. We just got back from a walk around the neighborhood. There was a light breeze, the flowers are all beginning to bloom, and it was just beautiful.

I just got done with my dermatology surgery rotation for the past month. It is called Mohs surgery after the surgeon who came up with this method of removing cancer. The goal is to take the least amount of normal skin, while still removing the entire cancer. This is especially useful for places where there is not a lot of skin to repair, like the nose, ears, and around the mouth and eyes. We have an amazing surgeon here and I am learning so much from him. He is an artist when it comes to the repairs he does after removing some pretty bad skin cancers from patient’s faces. I look at the spot where the cancer was and repeatedly wonder how it can be closed and still keep things looking normal; yet that is what happens, multiple times daily. So cool.

The most common type we deal with is called basal cell carcinoma. About 1 in 5 Caucasians in the US will get at least 1 in their lifetime – so pretty common. At least they are not really dangerous – just more of a nuisance, because they will continue to grow and grow until they are removed – but they don’t spread to other areas of the body. Then there are squamous cell carcinomas. These are also pretty common and come from long term sun exposure. They can occasionally spread to other parts of the body, so we try and get them out as quickly as we can to prevent that. And then there is melanoma, the one that scares people (and rightly so) because people die from it. There are other less common ones, but we don’t see them as often.

For Mother’s Day I decided it was time to get Steph’s wedding ring fixed. The band broke back when we first moved in here (almost 2 years ago), and we just haven’t gotten around to fixing it. So we got a babysitter and went to a jeweler yesterday and dropped it off to have it fixed. That will be nice. Then we went to Men’s Wearhouse and DSW to look for some new dress shoes for me (so I can have them to wear when I go to interview for a job in San Diego). We had a coupon and found a great sale at Men’s Wearhouse, so we ended up with 2 pairs of shoes, one dressier and the other a little more casual, but still nice, for the price of 1. In the afternoon we took the kids to Lollipop farm (an animal shelter), where they were able to see the dogs, goats, sheep, llamas, horses, pigs, and cows. There is a large open fenced in area where they keep the goats and sheep. You can go in there and walk around with them and pet them. It was so funny to watch the kids chase the goats around.

Last week we weeded the flower beds, picked up some free mulch and filled in all the flower beds (what a lot of work) – we were tired, but it looks so nice now. This week I got the front and side lawns mowed (the back was still too wet and muddy) and then put some weed killer out.

Thursday night was Kolby’s open house at school. We all got to go and see the things he has been working on. He got to show us his classroom, some of his daily activities, and then some of his “special” activities, including gym, music, art, library, and computer. He got to bring home a kidney bean plant that has been growing in his classroom. He also had some presents for Steph for mother’s day. And then Steph had a date with Eli on Friday. She got to have some snacks with him in his class and he gave her some things he had made for mother’s day.

Steph also had her Enrichment activity Thursday night. She learned about different websites that can help to save money through different coupon deals. She said it was quite informative.

I was able to attend the young men’s activity Wednesday night. They had invited a Jewish rabbi from the community to come and share some things about his religion. A few months ago we had done the same thing with a Catholic priest. It was a chance for the boys to ask questions about other religions, as well as to share some of our beliefs. I was amazed that they read each week from actual scrolls that are hand written in Hebrew (talk about a tough time winning a scripture chase with scrolls ). It turned out really nice.

Steph has joined a stay at home moms’ playgroup and has been enjoying getting to know other moms from the community. She has even volunteered to help with their planning committee to come up with future activities.

Kolby and Eli were supposed to have their first soccer game this weekend, but because of all the rain, the practice and game were cancelled (we’re still waiting to see if/when that will be made up). Since it was cancelled Friday, we took them over to the elementary school and they practiced in the field near the playground and then played some freeze tag.

I have also been spending some time this week at nights with the boys before bedtime. We pull out the hideaway bed in the couch and read together from the Magic Tree House series. We just started book 10 tonight. The boys really look forward to this, and it is so much fun to have them all together on the couch while we read. I sure love my boys!