Here are the pictures from the day we spent in Chicago a couple weeks ago. We had fun at the Chicago Zoo, and then parked downtown and walked around the city (my favorite thing to do in Chicago). We ended up at Navy Pier and the boys loved seeing all the sights. Everyone was worn out by the end of the day from having so much fun and doing so much walking.
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
29 April 2008
13 April 2008
Two Weeks of Vacation
I love having this month off for vacation. It has been so nice and relaxing to take time getting up in the morning, eating nice breakfasts with the family, playing with the boys, and just being home with the family. We have gotten a lot done over the past two weeks to get ready for packing and moving while still finding time to have some fun.
As far as moving, we have decided to try and fit most of our stuff into a pod that will be transported to Rochester, New York and then kept in storage for a year. Then we will try and fit the stuff going to Utah with us into another pod and our cars. We are going to try and sell most of our bigger furniture (dressers, bookcases, entertainment center, couches, table) in order to make everything fit, and then slowly purchase them again when we get to Rochester. This will help us to save quite a bit of money if we can use 2 pods rather than 3. We set a date to rent the pods for Tuesday, May 27, which will allow us a few fudge days to get everything packed before we have to be out of the apartment on May 31. Then, we are going to get a towing package installed on the back of our van and rent a car tow dolly from U-haul to tow our smaller blue car behind the van when we drive to Utah. That way, we can take a few extra days getting to Utah, stopping in Nauvoo and at Steph’s grandma’s house in Missouri (plus it will cost less to tow the car than to pay for gas to drive it). Steph also found some people in Milwaukee that had just moved here and were giving away their boxes, so we picked them up and have them ready to start packing soon. We also spent a couple of days cleaning out our storage units and trying to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over the past few years. That felt good.
It is crazy to think that we only have about 7 weeks left in Milwaukee. We are really excited to start this next step in our journey, but we will be very sad to leave all of the friends out here that have become our family while away from family. Thanks to everyone who has been so good to us, helping us out when needed and having fun playing games with us. We hope that we can stay in contact with all of them even though we will not be close by.
Speaking of the next step in our journey, we got all the paperwork this week for my new job as an intern at Intermountain Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got my contract that showed how much I will get paid (and let’s just say it will be so nice to finally be getting a paycheck again). I also got the form to pick my schedule preference, as well as all the stuff from human resources for insurance, lab coats, ID badge, etc. It is exciting to think that I will be starting as an intern in just a few months, though it was a little crazy to see the spot that I signed at the end of the contract with a M.D. after my name. I mean, I guess that is what I have been working for the past 4 years, but it will still take some getting used to.
Last weekend we got to enjoy watching the 168th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the internet on our computer. For those that may not know, this meeting occurs twice a year and it is a meeting of our entire church throughout the world. It is a chance for us to hear from the prophet and his 2 counselors, the 12 apostles, and the other general leaders of our church, to receive counsel and instruction that is applicable to us living in the world today. There are 5 two-hour information-packed meetings, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This weekend’s set of meetings was especially neat because a new prophet was sustained, since President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away earlier this year. The new prophet is Thomas S. Monson, and we each got a chance to show our personal willingness to accept this man as the living prophet of our day. A new apostle was also called, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I love these meetings because I learn so much and feel such a warm feeling inside as the Holy Ghost testifies to me that what I am being taught is true. I really enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk about testimony, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s about using self-discipline to stay the true course, Elder Jeffery R. Holland’s about the importance of continuing revelation, and Elder M. Russell Ballard’s about the role of young mother’s in raising a righteous generation of children. Our kids did pretty well, considering their ages, but there were still times that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention as I would have liked – I can’t wait for the Ensign to come out so I can reread everything that was taught.
Last Monday we decided to take a trip down to Chicago. We had heard that the zoo was free, so we drove down and found some free parking in a park just across the street from the zoo. We got to see the seals being fed and trained, Kolby and Eli chasing seagulls around while eating lunch, and some other cool displays (though the lion’s were not very exciting like they are at the Milwaukee zoo). My favorite was a pygmy hippo that the kids could get down in front of a glass window. The hippo kept trying to dig at the kids and they would squeal. It was really funny to watch. There was also a really cool jungle gym that was shaped like a giant tree, with leaves and netting for the kids to climb around in. After the zoo, we drove downtown and found a parking garage to leave the car and then spent the night walking around the city. We wanted to get to Navy Pier, and since we had been there before, we knew what direction to go. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up taking a wrong turn (though it wasn’t our fault because there were no signs posted saying that the sidewalk was going to end) and found ourselves on a bridge over the Chicago river, at a freeway entrance with cars whizzing past, and us needing to get to the other side. Luckily, there was some construction being done that slowed the cars down some, and then there were some nice people that stopped to let us by. We ended up safely at the Navy Pier and the boys had fun watching the giant ferris wheel and swings. Then we took a trolley ride back into the city to get us closer to our car. We had a lot of fun, though we were so tired on the drive home that Steph and I had to keep trading off driving.
Steph found a website called MilwaukeeMoms.com that has postings for different community events and there were 2 that we did this weekend. In the morning we went to a Kid Fest at the state fairgrounds in the exhibition center. They had all sorts of booths set up from different organizations all over the community, with candy and activities for the kids and drawings for the parents to enter. There was a kid’s circus where they took volunteers from the audience and dressed them up in animal costumes and then had them perform on the stage. We’ll have to post the video of Kolby and Eli as they danced around as horses on the stage. It was really cute.
We got a call from the Theriot’s, a family in the ward, asking if we could watch their 2-year-old boy over the weekend while they went to St. Louis to do some house hunting. He is a really calm and happy kid and has fit in real well with the other boys. They also left us with their X-box to enjoy over the weekend. We have enjoyed playing Tetris, Star Wars, and Cars together and with friends.
This weekend is our Stake Conference, and the other thing that Steph found on that website was a Methodist church that was doing a free babysitting night as a service to the community. We decided to take them up on the offer. We dropped the kids off at 5 and picked them up at 9:30. They fed the kids dinner and then did several activities with them. Steph and I were able to go to dinner at Uno’s and then attend the adult session of Stake Conference together. It was so good as we were counseled on ways to increase our faith and strengthen our families. We need to get the kids ready now for the meeting today at 2pm. We will have 5 boys under the age of 5 with us – it should be interesting. Hopefully we get something out of it. :)
As far as moving, we have decided to try and fit most of our stuff into a pod that will be transported to Rochester, New York and then kept in storage for a year. Then we will try and fit the stuff going to Utah with us into another pod and our cars. We are going to try and sell most of our bigger furniture (dressers, bookcases, entertainment center, couches, table) in order to make everything fit, and then slowly purchase them again when we get to Rochester. This will help us to save quite a bit of money if we can use 2 pods rather than 3. We set a date to rent the pods for Tuesday, May 27, which will allow us a few fudge days to get everything packed before we have to be out of the apartment on May 31. Then, we are going to get a towing package installed on the back of our van and rent a car tow dolly from U-haul to tow our smaller blue car behind the van when we drive to Utah. That way, we can take a few extra days getting to Utah, stopping in Nauvoo and at Steph’s grandma’s house in Missouri (plus it will cost less to tow the car than to pay for gas to drive it). Steph also found some people in Milwaukee that had just moved here and were giving away their boxes, so we picked them up and have them ready to start packing soon. We also spent a couple of days cleaning out our storage units and trying to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over the past few years. That felt good.
It is crazy to think that we only have about 7 weeks left in Milwaukee. We are really excited to start this next step in our journey, but we will be very sad to leave all of the friends out here that have become our family while away from family. Thanks to everyone who has been so good to us, helping us out when needed and having fun playing games with us. We hope that we can stay in contact with all of them even though we will not be close by.
Speaking of the next step in our journey, we got all the paperwork this week for my new job as an intern at Intermountain Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got my contract that showed how much I will get paid (and let’s just say it will be so nice to finally be getting a paycheck again). I also got the form to pick my schedule preference, as well as all the stuff from human resources for insurance, lab coats, ID badge, etc. It is exciting to think that I will be starting as an intern in just a few months, though it was a little crazy to see the spot that I signed at the end of the contract with a M.D. after my name. I mean, I guess that is what I have been working for the past 4 years, but it will still take some getting used to.
Last weekend we got to enjoy watching the 168th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the internet on our computer. For those that may not know, this meeting occurs twice a year and it is a meeting of our entire church throughout the world. It is a chance for us to hear from the prophet and his 2 counselors, the 12 apostles, and the other general leaders of our church, to receive counsel and instruction that is applicable to us living in the world today. There are 5 two-hour information-packed meetings, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This weekend’s set of meetings was especially neat because a new prophet was sustained, since President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away earlier this year. The new prophet is Thomas S. Monson, and we each got a chance to show our personal willingness to accept this man as the living prophet of our day. A new apostle was also called, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I love these meetings because I learn so much and feel such a warm feeling inside as the Holy Ghost testifies to me that what I am being taught is true. I really enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk about testimony, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s about using self-discipline to stay the true course, Elder Jeffery R. Holland’s about the importance of continuing revelation, and Elder M. Russell Ballard’s about the role of young mother’s in raising a righteous generation of children. Our kids did pretty well, considering their ages, but there were still times that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention as I would have liked – I can’t wait for the Ensign to come out so I can reread everything that was taught.
Last Monday we decided to take a trip down to Chicago. We had heard that the zoo was free, so we drove down and found some free parking in a park just across the street from the zoo. We got to see the seals being fed and trained, Kolby and Eli chasing seagulls around while eating lunch, and some other cool displays (though the lion’s were not very exciting like they are at the Milwaukee zoo). My favorite was a pygmy hippo that the kids could get down in front of a glass window. The hippo kept trying to dig at the kids and they would squeal. It was really funny to watch. There was also a really cool jungle gym that was shaped like a giant tree, with leaves and netting for the kids to climb around in. After the zoo, we drove downtown and found a parking garage to leave the car and then spent the night walking around the city. We wanted to get to Navy Pier, and since we had been there before, we knew what direction to go. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up taking a wrong turn (though it wasn’t our fault because there were no signs posted saying that the sidewalk was going to end) and found ourselves on a bridge over the Chicago river, at a freeway entrance with cars whizzing past, and us needing to get to the other side. Luckily, there was some construction being done that slowed the cars down some, and then there were some nice people that stopped to let us by. We ended up safely at the Navy Pier and the boys had fun watching the giant ferris wheel and swings. Then we took a trolley ride back into the city to get us closer to our car. We had a lot of fun, though we were so tired on the drive home that Steph and I had to keep trading off driving.
Steph found a website called MilwaukeeMoms.com that has postings for different community events and there were 2 that we did this weekend. In the morning we went to a Kid Fest at the state fairgrounds in the exhibition center. They had all sorts of booths set up from different organizations all over the community, with candy and activities for the kids and drawings for the parents to enter. There was a kid’s circus where they took volunteers from the audience and dressed them up in animal costumes and then had them perform on the stage. We’ll have to post the video of Kolby and Eli as they danced around as horses on the stage. It was really cute.
We got a call from the Theriot’s, a family in the ward, asking if we could watch their 2-year-old boy over the weekend while they went to St. Louis to do some house hunting. He is a really calm and happy kid and has fit in real well with the other boys. They also left us with their X-box to enjoy over the weekend. We have enjoyed playing Tetris, Star Wars, and Cars together and with friends.
This weekend is our Stake Conference, and the other thing that Steph found on that website was a Methodist church that was doing a free babysitting night as a service to the community. We decided to take them up on the offer. We dropped the kids off at 5 and picked them up at 9:30. They fed the kids dinner and then did several activities with them. Steph and I were able to go to dinner at Uno’s and then attend the adult session of Stake Conference together. It was so good as we were counseled on ways to increase our faith and strengthen our families. We need to get the kids ready now for the meeting today at 2pm. We will have 5 boys under the age of 5 with us – it should be interesting. Hopefully we get something out of it. :)
24 February 2008
2.24.08
In some ways it has been really nice to not have church until 1pm. This way, we have a lot of time to just spend together Sunday morning. The boys play with their toys, I can read or write on our blog, and Steph can make her wonderful wheat bread – it’s great. And today is supposed to be the warmest for about the last 2 weeks. It will be the first time that the temperatures get above freezing. The sun is out and it looks really pretty outside.
Yesterday we went to Chicago with Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock to go to the temple. We wanted to go in order to think about the rank list that we will be submitting this next week for dermatology and transitional year residencies. We have our list of preferences and just wanted to see if any changes came to mind. We both felt that we should keep the list as we have it. Now comes the waiting game and trusting in the Lord that we will end up where He wants us. We will find out on March 20th where we will be spending the next 4 years.
Steph has a whole stack of family names that need their work done and we were able to get about 50 initiatories completed during the morning with the help of other people in the temple. The Hedgecocks took the boys to Chuck E Cheese to play while we were inside, which they loved, and then we took them to Costco. We had to pick up some wipes and the boys got to try all the foods they always have out on Saturdays. Kolby actually refers to Costco as the “treat store.”
After finishing at the temple we stopped at Ikea to look around. We had been told it was relatively close and I had never been to one before, so we thought it would be fun to go. The place is enormous. The boys really liked the kids section where they played in a tent and on some egg chairs. We were all pretty tired when we got home last night. We were able to get the house cleaned up after dinner and get everything ready for Sunday. This month has been nice for me to be able to help clean up some of the clutter that has built up over the last few years, especially with getting all the piles cleared up off the floor in our bedroom.
Steph got some nice frames for pictures of the boys (her Christmas gift from me that she waited to get until we returned from our trip). We hung those up in our front room Friday afternoon and they look really nice. Friday night we had a birthday party for Eli. His birthday was the end of January, but since we were gone we didn’t do a party. We had a “Thomas the Train” theme and let the kids play with all the trains and tracks. It was another excuse for us to get together with friends.
Thursday night was Eli’s night out with Stephanie. He had some birthday money from Grandma Faun and Grandma Bradshaw so they went to Toys R Us and he chose a doctor kit and the movie, A Bugs Life.
Wednesday night it was my turn to go watch Kolby and Eli at their swim lessons. They both are so good in the water. Kolby is tall enough to touch the bottom, so after his class he was jumping from the side into the water, which Steph said he was doing for the first time. And Eli loves to play on the steps and do bobs. And Steph already mentioned about the crazy police incident from later on that night. That gave us quite the adrenaline rush.
Monday night for family home evening we taught the boys about the plan of salvation. Kolby has been asking a lot lately about what happens after we die, so we thought it would be good to tell them. I used a paper and drew some circles to represent our pre-earth life with Heavenly Father and Jesus; our life here on earth where we are supposed to CTR (Choose the Right); life in the spirit world after we die, where we are waiting to be resurrected; and then life after the judgment and resurrection, where we can either end up in the Celestial, Terrestrial, or Telestial Kingdoms or Hell, and how we want to end up in the Celestial Kingdom where Heavenly Father and Jesus live. I’m not sure how much of it all they understood, but they seemed to like it. For the activity we had them practice writing their names.
This week we decided to get the exhaust system fixed on our blue car so it can pass emissions. We found a mechanic that we really like and who seems pretty honest about his work. He had to replace the catalytic converter, some tubing, and the air filter, and he even took it back to the emissions center and got it passed for us. We hope that if we can keep up with maintenance on that car then it will last us for a few more years.
Well I better go get ready for church. We have to go a little early today because I am singing with the choir. We are going to have Kyle and Tracy Jensen over for a delicious salmon dinner – they are one of the families I home teach.
Yesterday we went to Chicago with Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock to go to the temple. We wanted to go in order to think about the rank list that we will be submitting this next week for dermatology and transitional year residencies. We have our list of preferences and just wanted to see if any changes came to mind. We both felt that we should keep the list as we have it. Now comes the waiting game and trusting in the Lord that we will end up where He wants us. We will find out on March 20th where we will be spending the next 4 years.
Steph has a whole stack of family names that need their work done and we were able to get about 50 initiatories completed during the morning with the help of other people in the temple. The Hedgecocks took the boys to Chuck E Cheese to play while we were inside, which they loved, and then we took them to Costco. We had to pick up some wipes and the boys got to try all the foods they always have out on Saturdays. Kolby actually refers to Costco as the “treat store.”
After finishing at the temple we stopped at Ikea to look around. We had been told it was relatively close and I had never been to one before, so we thought it would be fun to go. The place is enormous. The boys really liked the kids section where they played in a tent and on some egg chairs. We were all pretty tired when we got home last night. We were able to get the house cleaned up after dinner and get everything ready for Sunday. This month has been nice for me to be able to help clean up some of the clutter that has built up over the last few years, especially with getting all the piles cleared up off the floor in our bedroom.
Steph got some nice frames for pictures of the boys (her Christmas gift from me that she waited to get until we returned from our trip). We hung those up in our front room Friday afternoon and they look really nice. Friday night we had a birthday party for Eli. His birthday was the end of January, but since we were gone we didn’t do a party. We had a “Thomas the Train” theme and let the kids play with all the trains and tracks. It was another excuse for us to get together with friends.
Thursday night was Eli’s night out with Stephanie. He had some birthday money from Grandma Faun and Grandma Bradshaw so they went to Toys R Us and he chose a doctor kit and the movie, A Bugs Life.
Wednesday night it was my turn to go watch Kolby and Eli at their swim lessons. They both are so good in the water. Kolby is tall enough to touch the bottom, so after his class he was jumping from the side into the water, which Steph said he was doing for the first time. And Eli loves to play on the steps and do bobs. And Steph already mentioned about the crazy police incident from later on that night. That gave us quite the adrenaline rush.
Monday night for family home evening we taught the boys about the plan of salvation. Kolby has been asking a lot lately about what happens after we die, so we thought it would be good to tell them. I used a paper and drew some circles to represent our pre-earth life with Heavenly Father and Jesus; our life here on earth where we are supposed to CTR (Choose the Right); life in the spirit world after we die, where we are waiting to be resurrected; and then life after the judgment and resurrection, where we can either end up in the Celestial, Terrestrial, or Telestial Kingdoms or Hell, and how we want to end up in the Celestial Kingdom where Heavenly Father and Jesus live. I’m not sure how much of it all they understood, but they seemed to like it. For the activity we had them practice writing their names.
This week we decided to get the exhaust system fixed on our blue car so it can pass emissions. We found a mechanic that we really like and who seems pretty honest about his work. He had to replace the catalytic converter, some tubing, and the air filter, and he even took it back to the emissions center and got it passed for us. We hope that if we can keep up with maintenance on that car then it will last us for a few more years.
Well I better go get ready for church. We have to go a little early today because I am singing with the choir. We are going to have Kyle and Tracy Jensen over for a delicious salmon dinner – they are one of the families I home teach.
12 December 2007
Update on Michael’s Travels
So, we posted what Michael wrote on Sunday about traveling to Pennsylvania for his interviews, and I thought I’d give a little update on how his travels went. After spending 12 hours in the Chicago airport, having his first flight cancelled, his second flight that he was on stand-by for to full for him to get on the plane, and his third flight repeatedly delayed for hours and finally cancelled due to mechanical problems, Michael was ready to give up on the interview in Pennsylvania altogether. He decided that there was no way to get to Pennsylvania in time for the interview the next morning, and started making plans to try to get to Washington state for the transitional year interview that he had scheduled for the day after the Pennsylvania one.
But he talked to the airline one more time and they were finally able to work out an early morning flight for him on Monday to get into Philadelphia. The airline put him up in a hotel Sunday night and he got 3 hours of sleep before getting up for his flight in the morning, which was delayed an hour because of fog. He got to Philadelphia, spent an outrageous amount of money on a rental car (because he had to pick it up in Philadelphia and drop it off in Harrisburg where he would be flying out the next day). He drove 3 hours from Philadelphia to Danville, PA, and had his interview at 1 pm (the interview was originally scheduled for 8 am, but they were nice enough to stick around and do it later for him). He said the interview felt a little rushed because it was later in the afternoon, but other than that it went great and he really likes their program there. He also said that Pennsylvania was a beautiful place and that he was told that the small town there was very family friendly and that the other residents there had been able to obtain inexpensive housing without difficulty. I asked him later if he would rank the Texas derm program or the Pennsylvania derm program higher on his list at this point, and he said he wasn’t sure – I guess it’s better to have lots of good programs to choose from than to worry about possibly being placed in a bad program that we don’t want.
So, after his interview he drove to Harrisburg, where his flight was cancelled. He knew he was going to miss his interview in Spokane, Washington the next day, but at least the program coordinator there was kind and said that he could reschedule that one for January. Since the original plan was for him to fly back into Boise on Tuesday and then fly out to Milwaukee on Wednesday, he tried to get them to let him fly straight to Milwaukee from Pennsylvania and save himself so much travel time, but the airlines would not allow that. So he tried to get a flight back to Boise so he would be here for his flight out to Milwaukee on Wednesday morning. They told him that they were going to charge him for that flight back to Boise, but after a long time on the phone with a number of supervisors, they told him they would let him fly back here without charging him, but just this once (which is ridiculous, because they cancelled his flight in the first place, so I don’t see how they could think they were justified in leaving him stranded on the other side of the country). But he finally was able to get them to let him come back – he spent his entire day yesterday on the airplane flying to Washington D.C., then to San Francisco, then to Boise. He got here after 7 pm last night, and left early this morning. He just called to say that he arrived in Milwaukee with no delays or other problems, so that’s a relief.
So, this week he has his Milwaukee derm interview, a Chicago derm interview, and a Los Angeles derm interview, and then he will return to Boise for a couple of days before going down to Salt Lake for a transitional year interview. Then he will not have any other interviews until January, unless any more get scheduled before then. Oh yeah, and he got one more derm interview invitation the other day to Cincinnati, Ohio. Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers these next couple of months as Michael continues this interview process that he will not have any more major travel problems and that he will be able to get to all of his interviews safely.
But he talked to the airline one more time and they were finally able to work out an early morning flight for him on Monday to get into Philadelphia. The airline put him up in a hotel Sunday night and he got 3 hours of sleep before getting up for his flight in the morning, which was delayed an hour because of fog. He got to Philadelphia, spent an outrageous amount of money on a rental car (because he had to pick it up in Philadelphia and drop it off in Harrisburg where he would be flying out the next day). He drove 3 hours from Philadelphia to Danville, PA, and had his interview at 1 pm (the interview was originally scheduled for 8 am, but they were nice enough to stick around and do it later for him). He said the interview felt a little rushed because it was later in the afternoon, but other than that it went great and he really likes their program there. He also said that Pennsylvania was a beautiful place and that he was told that the small town there was very family friendly and that the other residents there had been able to obtain inexpensive housing without difficulty. I asked him later if he would rank the Texas derm program or the Pennsylvania derm program higher on his list at this point, and he said he wasn’t sure – I guess it’s better to have lots of good programs to choose from than to worry about possibly being placed in a bad program that we don’t want.
So, after his interview he drove to Harrisburg, where his flight was cancelled. He knew he was going to miss his interview in Spokane, Washington the next day, but at least the program coordinator there was kind and said that he could reschedule that one for January. Since the original plan was for him to fly back into Boise on Tuesday and then fly out to Milwaukee on Wednesday, he tried to get them to let him fly straight to Milwaukee from Pennsylvania and save himself so much travel time, but the airlines would not allow that. So he tried to get a flight back to Boise so he would be here for his flight out to Milwaukee on Wednesday morning. They told him that they were going to charge him for that flight back to Boise, but after a long time on the phone with a number of supervisors, they told him they would let him fly back here without charging him, but just this once (which is ridiculous, because they cancelled his flight in the first place, so I don’t see how they could think they were justified in leaving him stranded on the other side of the country). But he finally was able to get them to let him come back – he spent his entire day yesterday on the airplane flying to Washington D.C., then to San Francisco, then to Boise. He got here after 7 pm last night, and left early this morning. He just called to say that he arrived in Milwaukee with no delays or other problems, so that’s a relief.
So, this week he has his Milwaukee derm interview, a Chicago derm interview, and a Los Angeles derm interview, and then he will return to Boise for a couple of days before going down to Salt Lake for a transitional year interview. Then he will not have any other interviews until January, unless any more get scheduled before then. Oh yeah, and he got one more derm interview invitation the other day to Cincinnati, Ohio. Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers these next couple of months as Michael continues this interview process that he will not have any more major travel problems and that he will be able to get to all of his interviews safely.
11 December 2007
December 9th, 2007
I am in the Chicago O’Hare airport waiting for my connection flight to Harrisburg, PA for a dermatology interview tomorrow in Danville, PA, about 1 hour north of Harrisburg. My scheduled flight to Harrisburg was cancelled due to bad weather out there (I think), and I got rescheduled for a flight later on tonight and put on standby for one later on this afternoon. So I get to spend the afternoon in the airport. :) Hopefully I get there ok.
Our family is now in Boise for the month of December and has been there for a week now. I am doing a month-long rotation with Dr. Randall Burr, a dermatologist that I know here, and I started with him on Monday. This week has been really fun as I have been able to follow and learn from him and help out from time to time. He has a very busy clinic, with regular clinic days on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and then surgery days on Wednesday and Friday. He sees about 70-80 patients/day on his regular clinic days and does about 15 procedures on his surgery days – probably the busiest dermatologist I’ve seen. He loves what he does and is very good at it, so it is really nice to learn from him. Mostly I have been shadowing, but sometimes I take patients back to the rooms and get the history of why they are there, and then on the surgery days I have helped with cutting sutures and have even had a few chances to suture myself, which was really fun.
Tuesday after we finished with clinic I went with Dr. Burr to a monthly dermatology conference that is held at St. Luke’s in downtown Boise with all the local dermatologists. Several bring in patients with really hard or odd skin problems, and the group talks about suggestions of what those patients might have and how to treat and help them.
I also got a few more dermatology interviews this week – to University of Rochester in New York and University of Florida in Gainesville – so now I have 10 total dermatology interviews. We are so excited. Steph and I have spent a lot of time this week working on flights, hotels, and rental cars for all of these interviews. I also wrote my thank you notes to my interviewers at Scott and White in Temple, TX for the interview I had there last week. This next week is pretty busy with interviews: I am flying today to Danville, PA for a dermatology interview tomorrow; to Spokane, WA tomorrow for a transitional year interview on Tuesday; to Milwaukee, WI on Wednesday for a derm interview on Thursday; driving to Chicago, IL on Friday for a derm interview on Saturday; and then flying to Los Angeles, CA next Sunday for a derm interview next Monday – whew!! After returning to Boise for a couple days, I will have a transitional year interview in Salt Lake City, UT, and then I will be done with the interviews I have scheduled so far for this month, and will have a little break before the interviews start up again in January.
We have also had some fun this week with friends from Boise. Last Sunday we went to Layne and Debbie Bennion’s house (an uncle and aunt) for toffee and hot chocolate after the First Presidency Christmas devotional. We met with Neil and Becky Wall (one of my cousins) and decided to play games together this week. We ended up playing Cities and Knights of Catan with them at their house on Friday night after putting the kids to bed. It was really fun. Earlier that afternoon, we took the kids to the YMCA to swim. They have an awesome toddler pool at this YMCA, with slides and fountains and water at a perfect height for our boys. They also had a waterslide that I could go down with the boys on my lap (one at a time) that was so much fun. We’ll definitely be returning there to play some more.
Thursday night we went over to Bryce and Emily Christensen’s house for dinner and talking. Bryce and I went to high school together. They have two children as well, so our boys had fun playing with them. Kolby and Eli are usually pretty good about not getting into too many things. Camden is our baby now who loves to get into everything and either try to tear it up or eat it, so we had to watch him. Kim Woodings (another friend from high school) showed up after dinner, and we all had fun just catching up on each other’s lives, since it has been two years since we had seen any of them.
Yesterday we took the boys to the dollar store so they could get little Christmas presents for each other. I took Kolby with me and Steph took Eli with her so that the presents they chose could be a surprise for each of them. They really enjoyed that. Then we ended up at the mall and found some really cute sweaters and hats for the boys (using their Christmas money from my parents and Grandma Faun). I also found some new shoes for work. The brand is Dansko, and several people over the last few years have recommended them to me because they are so comfortable to wear, especially when you are on your feet all day for surgical procedures, and especially for someone like me with plantar fasciitis (pain in the bottom of my feet). The only reason I hadn’t gotten any before is because of the price – about $120. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $30 on shoes before, but my feet have been aching so much lately that I need something. The salesman said I can wear them around the house for the next few weeks to try them out and see if I like them, and then return them if I don’t, as long as I don’t wear them outside. And he said they are supposed to last 10-15 years, so we’ll see. I tried them around the house last night and they were really nice.
My parents took us and our boys to see The Bee Movie yesterday afternoon. It was cute and I think the boys really liked it. Then we went to dinner last night at Cass and Marci Smith’s home. They used to live in Milwaukee and recently moved out to Boise for him to start his first job as a pediatric gastroenterologist (a gut doctor). They have a beautiful home and we had so much fun catching up with them and our kids had so much fun playing together.
Well, I'd better go check and see if any of the flights or gates have changed – they seem to like to do that at the Chicago O’Hare airport. Hopefully I get to Pennsylvania in time for my interview tomorrow.
14 October 2007
Rainy October Sunday
So today has been a wet Sunday. We got up early to get everyone ready for church and then hurried over to set up chairs and practice our choir song before performing today. I think the song turned out really well – it was “Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah!” to a beautiful organ accompaniment that was arranged by our choir director. I ended up coming home early with Kolby and Camden because Kolby had a temp of 102 degrees F and he wasn’t too happy. With some Ibuprofen and rest hopefully he will be feeling better. He first got a fever Friday and had it Saturday morning, but then he was ok the rest of Saturday and today until we got to church. I hope he feels better soon.
Last Sunday night after watching General Conference, I drove down to Chicago to stay the night in a hotel for a test on Monday. I went down Sunday because I had to be at the place at 8am Monday morning. This was for my Step 2 clinical skills test, which is a required pass/fail test to graduate from medical school and is given at only 5 locations around the country – thank goodness for us that one of those places is Chicago. For the test you see 12 standardized patients. With each one, you read a sign outside the door with some general info of why that person is here, then you have 15 minutes to get a history and do a focused physical exam pertaining to their complaint, as well as explain to them what you think is going on and your next steps. Then you exit the room and sit down at a computer (or you can write on paper if you want), where you have 10 minutes to write a note of your encounter, with a section on what the patient told you, one on what you found on exam, one on your up to 5 top thoughts of what is going on, and one for up to 5 things that you would do next (x-ray, blood test, ultrasound, other exams, etc.). There were a couple breaks throughout the day, so the test ended up taking until 4pm and then I had the drive home. I feel really good about the test, so hopefully it turned out well.
When I got home we went out to dinner at Pedro’s to celebrate since we had a 2 for 1 coupon. Kolby told us that he could eat the chips and the tortillas, but not the salsa, because that would make his fishies sick. We asked where his fishies were, and he said in his tummy. When we asked him how they got there, he said they were there since before he was born. And since then he has been telling us that he needs water for his fishies every time he is thirsty. He is so silly – I don’t know where he came up with that idea, but it is pretty cute.
This month I am doing a rotation called Promoting Health in an Urban Underserved Community through the department of family medicine and the center for healthy communities. I work with another medical student, Lindsay Haus, and we are in charge of putting together several different health presentations for some underserved housing communities. This week we have been working on one for Pain Management and another on Arthritis since we are presenting these topics this next week. We also have to prepare one on Healthy Aging and another on Bipolar disease. Throughout the rotation we also attend some of the meetings with these communities to hear about the different projects that are going on to help improve the health of the community members.
Tuesday night we took the boys to JC Penney for Halloween pictures. Kolby dressed up as Tigger, Eli as a dinosaur, and Camden as a lion. We took photos of each of them separately and they turned out so cute – we can’t wait to show you all when we get them.
Friday night I went to an elders quorum activity – it was a Nintendo Wii golf tournament over at the school. I was so excited because I hadn’t yet played a Wii but had heard they are really fun. One of the guys who is a manager for Chipotle provided the food. About 30 people showed up. Three people brought their Wiis and 3 projectors as well to have different games going on at once. We played 4 at a time, and the top 2 in each group moved on in the tournament. Out of the 16 that played, I ended up in 3rd place – pretty good for never having played before. The Wii is so much fun and such an ingenious idea – you have to swing the controller to hit the golf ball. There are other games that we played that night as well – bowling, tennis, and boxing, and they were so much fun.
Saturday I volunteered at the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured. I hadn’t been back since my 2nd year of school, so it was interesting to be the senior student there. Basically, a 1st year student gets the patient and finds out why they are at the clinic and get their vitals (temperature, blood pressure, height, weight). Then they meet up with a 2nd year who goes back in with them and gets a more detailed history of what is going on. Then they get a 3rd or 4th year (me) and we go back in to do the physical exam. And finally we get the doctor who listens to what we have done, adds any other insight, and then teaches. The ideas behind the clinic are to help the underserved and to teach and learn. It was so much fun to be the senior student and spend time teaching my first and second year students. It was also neat to see how much I’ve learned since I have started medical school.
While I was at the clinic Steph took the boys to a farmers market to get some pumpkins for us and for some ladies at the Meta House. The girls in the ward a doing an activity with the women of the Meta House, a place for women who are recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, where they will be carving pumpkins. Several of the women there have never carved a pumpkin before - how sad. Anyways, Steph got 3 pumpkins for us and 3 to donate to that activity. Kolby and Eli were so excited to show me the pumpkins they had picked when I got home.
Last night we had a dinner and choir practice over at the church to get ready for today’s performance. We did a potato bar that was really good and then had a fun time practicing together. Then we had the Kearls and Wells over for games last night. We played an old game that Steph got from her grandma called National Geographic. The point is to identify different pictures from around the world to fill your portfolio with the required items. Steph just thinks it is so funny that we are playing this game from her childhood, especially since it was made in 1990 so the map is totally different from how things look today. But we still had a lot of fun.
Well, I am going to try and take a break and relax now before we have to start getting things ready for dinner. We are going to have the Wells over so that should be fun.
Last Sunday night after watching General Conference, I drove down to Chicago to stay the night in a hotel for a test on Monday. I went down Sunday because I had to be at the place at 8am Monday morning. This was for my Step 2 clinical skills test, which is a required pass/fail test to graduate from medical school and is given at only 5 locations around the country – thank goodness for us that one of those places is Chicago. For the test you see 12 standardized patients. With each one, you read a sign outside the door with some general info of why that person is here, then you have 15 minutes to get a history and do a focused physical exam pertaining to their complaint, as well as explain to them what you think is going on and your next steps. Then you exit the room and sit down at a computer (or you can write on paper if you want), where you have 10 minutes to write a note of your encounter, with a section on what the patient told you, one on what you found on exam, one on your up to 5 top thoughts of what is going on, and one for up to 5 things that you would do next (x-ray, blood test, ultrasound, other exams, etc.). There were a couple breaks throughout the day, so the test ended up taking until 4pm and then I had the drive home. I feel really good about the test, so hopefully it turned out well.
When I got home we went out to dinner at Pedro’s to celebrate since we had a 2 for 1 coupon. Kolby told us that he could eat the chips and the tortillas, but not the salsa, because that would make his fishies sick. We asked where his fishies were, and he said in his tummy. When we asked him how they got there, he said they were there since before he was born. And since then he has been telling us that he needs water for his fishies every time he is thirsty. He is so silly – I don’t know where he came up with that idea, but it is pretty cute.
This month I am doing a rotation called Promoting Health in an Urban Underserved Community through the department of family medicine and the center for healthy communities. I work with another medical student, Lindsay Haus, and we are in charge of putting together several different health presentations for some underserved housing communities. This week we have been working on one for Pain Management and another on Arthritis since we are presenting these topics this next week. We also have to prepare one on Healthy Aging and another on Bipolar disease. Throughout the rotation we also attend some of the meetings with these communities to hear about the different projects that are going on to help improve the health of the community members.
Tuesday night we took the boys to JC Penney for Halloween pictures. Kolby dressed up as Tigger, Eli as a dinosaur, and Camden as a lion. We took photos of each of them separately and they turned out so cute – we can’t wait to show you all when we get them.
Friday night I went to an elders quorum activity – it was a Nintendo Wii golf tournament over at the school. I was so excited because I hadn’t yet played a Wii but had heard they are really fun. One of the guys who is a manager for Chipotle provided the food. About 30 people showed up. Three people brought their Wiis and 3 projectors as well to have different games going on at once. We played 4 at a time, and the top 2 in each group moved on in the tournament. Out of the 16 that played, I ended up in 3rd place – pretty good for never having played before. The Wii is so much fun and such an ingenious idea – you have to swing the controller to hit the golf ball. There are other games that we played that night as well – bowling, tennis, and boxing, and they were so much fun.
Saturday I volunteered at the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured. I hadn’t been back since my 2nd year of school, so it was interesting to be the senior student there. Basically, a 1st year student gets the patient and finds out why they are at the clinic and get their vitals (temperature, blood pressure, height, weight). Then they meet up with a 2nd year who goes back in with them and gets a more detailed history of what is going on. Then they get a 3rd or 4th year (me) and we go back in to do the physical exam. And finally we get the doctor who listens to what we have done, adds any other insight, and then teaches. The ideas behind the clinic are to help the underserved and to teach and learn. It was so much fun to be the senior student and spend time teaching my first and second year students. It was also neat to see how much I’ve learned since I have started medical school.
While I was at the clinic Steph took the boys to a farmers market to get some pumpkins for us and for some ladies at the Meta House. The girls in the ward a doing an activity with the women of the Meta House, a place for women who are recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, where they will be carving pumpkins. Several of the women there have never carved a pumpkin before - how sad. Anyways, Steph got 3 pumpkins for us and 3 to donate to that activity. Kolby and Eli were so excited to show me the pumpkins they had picked when I got home.
Last night we had a dinner and choir practice over at the church to get ready for today’s performance. We did a potato bar that was really good and then had a fun time practicing together. Then we had the Kearls and Wells over for games last night. We played an old game that Steph got from her grandma called National Geographic. The point is to identify different pictures from around the world to fill your portfolio with the required items. Steph just thinks it is so funny that we are playing this game from her childhood, especially since it was made in 1990 so the map is totally different from how things look today. But we still had a lot of fun.
Well, I am going to try and take a break and relax now before we have to start getting things ready for dinner. We are going to have the Wells over so that should be fun.
07 October 2007
First Week of October
Well, this first week of October has been much more relaxed than the schedule we were on for Michael’s rotation last month. He is now doing one of his elective rotations called “Promoting Health in Urban Underserved Communities,” and he has basically had a 9-5 schedule with a lot more flexibility to get time off if he needs to, which is nice because he is taking one of his Step 2 Board exams and we are expecting the baby to come this month.
So, this week was pretty uneventful. Kolby had preschool, which he always loves. It is interesting because his classroom teacher is blind, although I don’t think that the kids really realize this. On Monday Kolby wanted to take a cut-out of a footprint that he made in his church class to show his school teacher. He was showing it to her at the beginning of class, and she was asking if she could hold it, asking what color it was, and telling him that he must have big feet if it was traced from his foot. And he loves his gym class too. Often we go about 15 minutes before the end of class and if they are wrapping up a game that is not very structured, I will let Eli join in with Kolby and the other kids. They have played freeze tag a couple times and the boys really like it. Kolby seems to be one of the only kids that really comprehends the idea – many of the others just kept running after they were tagged without waiting to be unfrozen. And on Wednesday when I went to pick him up, Kolby and another little boy named Simon were running around holding hands and they came up and Kolby told me Simon was his best friend. I let Eli run around with them, and they were holding his hands and playing great with him too. I think Eli will really enjoy going to the classes in a few months – he will be able to start in the winter session once we get back from our trips, since he will be 3 years old by then.
Well, on Wednesday I hit 36 weeks with this pregnancy. So now I have just over 3 weeks to go. I am glad we waited a while in the beginning of the pregnancy to announce to people that we were pregnant this time – I know that it’s all in my head, but it really seemed to make the remainder of the pregnancy go by much quicker than with earlier pregnancies when we announced it soon after we found out. So, on Wednesday night Michael had an AOA meeting, so I took Kolby to his swimming lesson. He is doing great. They have these little float belts that they put around the kids’ waists to give them confidence, and the kids all swam the length of the pool with those on several times in this week’s lesson, then at the end they swam a few feet from the edge of the pool to their teacher with no float belts, so that was pretty cool. It is fun to see Kolby’s confidence increase as he is now really learning how to swim.
On Thursday morning we went to the Twelmyer’s house for the family history group, and I was able to help Sister Twelmyer to learn how to search for some ancestors on the IGI online so that she can prepare the names to take to the temple. Later that afternoon I had my doctor’s appointment – I am down to the last month now, so I am having an appointment every week – and Michael was able to join us for the appointment this time. Everything is going well with the baby, and I am dilated to a 2. (I don’t really care if I’m dilated much yet or not, except that my midwife had mentioned that they would induce me a day or two after my due date, if it goes that long, but that if you get that far and are not dilated at all, they might not do it as early. So anyway, I got her to commit to inducing me on November 1st if I haven’t had the baby by the due date, which is nice to have a final date set). And Thursday night Michael took Eli to swim lessons, and said that they had a lot of fun.
And this weekend has been spent watching General Conference on the internet. The boys kind of had a rough time sitting through the first session yesterday, but it seems like they are getting used to the idea of sitting quietly and watching the 2-hour sessions at a time, and they have done pretty well today (as well as you could expect for a 2- and 3-year-old, and Camden napped through most of this morning’s session). After the last session that will be starting up here in a few minutes, we will eat the roast that Michael has prepared for dinner and then he is going to head down to Chicago. He got a pretty good deal on a motel room, so he can drive down tonight and not have to get up super early in the morning and he can avoid any bad traffic tomorrow. In the morning he will take one of his two Step 2 Board exams. It is the one where they have different standardized patients and they are graded on how they give exams and take the patients’ histories. So, hopefully he will have a safe drive down there and back, and his test will go well. Then I think we are planning to go out to dinner as a family when he gets home Monday evening to celebrate him finishing his test.
So, this week was pretty uneventful. Kolby had preschool, which he always loves. It is interesting because his classroom teacher is blind, although I don’t think that the kids really realize this. On Monday Kolby wanted to take a cut-out of a footprint that he made in his church class to show his school teacher. He was showing it to her at the beginning of class, and she was asking if she could hold it, asking what color it was, and telling him that he must have big feet if it was traced from his foot. And he loves his gym class too. Often we go about 15 minutes before the end of class and if they are wrapping up a game that is not very structured, I will let Eli join in with Kolby and the other kids. They have played freeze tag a couple times and the boys really like it. Kolby seems to be one of the only kids that really comprehends the idea – many of the others just kept running after they were tagged without waiting to be unfrozen. And on Wednesday when I went to pick him up, Kolby and another little boy named Simon were running around holding hands and they came up and Kolby told me Simon was his best friend. I let Eli run around with them, and they were holding his hands and playing great with him too. I think Eli will really enjoy going to the classes in a few months – he will be able to start in the winter session once we get back from our trips, since he will be 3 years old by then.
Well, on Wednesday I hit 36 weeks with this pregnancy. So now I have just over 3 weeks to go. I am glad we waited a while in the beginning of the pregnancy to announce to people that we were pregnant this time – I know that it’s all in my head, but it really seemed to make the remainder of the pregnancy go by much quicker than with earlier pregnancies when we announced it soon after we found out. So, on Wednesday night Michael had an AOA meeting, so I took Kolby to his swimming lesson. He is doing great. They have these little float belts that they put around the kids’ waists to give them confidence, and the kids all swam the length of the pool with those on several times in this week’s lesson, then at the end they swam a few feet from the edge of the pool to their teacher with no float belts, so that was pretty cool. It is fun to see Kolby’s confidence increase as he is now really learning how to swim.
On Thursday morning we went to the Twelmyer’s house for the family history group, and I was able to help Sister Twelmyer to learn how to search for some ancestors on the IGI online so that she can prepare the names to take to the temple. Later that afternoon I had my doctor’s appointment – I am down to the last month now, so I am having an appointment every week – and Michael was able to join us for the appointment this time. Everything is going well with the baby, and I am dilated to a 2. (I don’t really care if I’m dilated much yet or not, except that my midwife had mentioned that they would induce me a day or two after my due date, if it goes that long, but that if you get that far and are not dilated at all, they might not do it as early. So anyway, I got her to commit to inducing me on November 1st if I haven’t had the baby by the due date, which is nice to have a final date set). And Thursday night Michael took Eli to swim lessons, and said that they had a lot of fun.
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. __ . __ . __ . __ . 
Eli decorating cookies . __ . __ . __ . __ . __ . __ . Eli licking his frosting
On Friday morning, after I dropped Kolby off at preschool, we went to Jill Hunter’s apartment for some fall activities for the kids from the apartment complex. All of the kids went outside and collected fall leaves, and then we went back in and they decorated cookies that were shaped like leaves. Eli had fun doing that. Then on Friday night we went to the Townsend’s house for our ward dessert groups, and the Sanders family came too. We had banana splits and had fun talking with the adults while all the kids played.And this weekend has been spent watching General Conference on the internet. The boys kind of had a rough time sitting through the first session yesterday, but it seems like they are getting used to the idea of sitting quietly and watching the 2-hour sessions at a time, and they have done pretty well today (as well as you could expect for a 2- and 3-year-old, and Camden napped through most of this morning’s session). After the last session that will be starting up here in a few minutes, we will eat the roast that Michael has prepared for dinner and then he is going to head down to Chicago. He got a pretty good deal on a motel room, so he can drive down tonight and not have to get up super early in the morning and he can avoid any bad traffic tomorrow. In the morning he will take one of his two Step 2 Board exams. It is the one where they have different standardized patients and they are graded on how they give exams and take the patients’ histories. So, hopefully he will have a safe drive down there and back, and his test will go well. Then I think we are planning to go out to dinner as a family when he gets home Monday evening to celebrate him finishing his test.
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Eli, Mommy, and Kolby watching Conference
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention that Michael got another interview invitation this week. He got an e-mail saying that he is on the early invite list for the transitional year program in Salt Lake, and that they will let him know the dates for that interview shortly. So things are all going pretty well. I’d better run get the computer set up now so we can catch the last session of Conference. Hope you all had a great week!
15 July 2007
Derm Decisions
With Michael’s dermatology rotation this month he is working at a different hospital each week, and this week he was at Children’s Hospital. Children’s is supposed to be the busiest, and they have an evening clinic a couple nights a week, so Michael was going to have to stay a few hours later this week, but it ended up that lots of the doctors and residents were going to a derm conference in Chicago, so the evening clinics were cancelled and he had an especially light schedule this week (but the time that he spent at the hospital was very busy). He continues to like dermatology. I am very excited that he likes this specialty, because I definitely want him to go into something that he really enjoys, but it is nice that what he really enjoys also happens to be a specialty where eventually he could end up having a schedule that is really nice for our family.
When Michael first listed dermatology as one of the specialties he was interested in, I didn’t think it sounded too great, but it actually sounds kind of interesting, now that I know a little more about it. Michael said that one thing that he liked about it was that the problems on the skin often relate to other internal problems, so you have to know about a lot of different things. And you deal with a range from minor problems to all sorts of cancer. Michael also likes that he will get to deal with patients (and continue to build relationships with patients over time), but that there will also be opportunities to do procedures. And lots of people comment to him that they wouldn’t want to deal with the acne, but Michael has actually been alright with that part of it so far – he really likes that it is something that effects the self esteem of a lot of young people, but that there are several things that he can do to make it totally better (and in some of the other specialties you run into a lot of problems that you can’t fix).
I think this will be a good specialty for him to go into. Now it’s time to get ready to apply for residency programs. One thing that Michael has considered is having a different specialty (internal medicine) as a back-up in case derm doesn’t work out right away (because derm is a competitive program to get into, and we know several students who have not been accepted when trying for derm residencies). But since this month has started and we have seen how much more Michael likes derm than any other specialty, I think we are not going to do another program as a back-up. The thing we are trying to decide on right now is how to work out the applications for transition years. Dermatology is a 4-year residency program, but different programs work differently: some are 4-year programs, and others have it broken up into 1 transitional year and 3 more years of derm. So, the best thing for us would be to either do a 4-year program, or if we end up doing a transitional year, then we want to have the transitional year either be in the same location as the 3-year program or have the transitional year be here in Milwaukee and then move for the next 3 years, so we can avoid moving twice in such a short time. But since we are planning on applying for quite a few derm programs, we only want to get interviews for transitional years at the same places that we get interviews for 3-year derm programs, and so we will have to figure out the best way to work that all out. Anyways, we have lots of new things coming up that we will need to figure out before we are all set for the next step in our lives, but it already feels like we are almost to the end of medical school now. Pretty exciting!
Anyways, the rest of our week went pretty well. On Monday I had a WIC appointment, and the people there were really nice and it went well. Then on Tuesday evening we met with Kendra McMullin, a friend from church, who is a financial advisor and we ended up setting up a little life insurance plan with her. It was nice to sit down with her and get an idea of what we need to do in the next few years to start to plan for retirement too. On Wednesday morning we had a family history enrichment group that met at church so the moms could use the family history center and rotate babysitting the kids. I was able to get a lot of names prepared for temple work. That afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment, and everything is going well with the baby. And then Kolby had swimming lessons that evening, and he listened to his teacher very well. On Thursday I had physical therapy and Michael happened to get off work early, so the boys went over and played with him at the medical school while I went for my appointment, and then Michael went with Eli to his swim lessons that evening. On Friday Michael got up real early to go with some others to Chicago for the derm conference, and he said there were several interesting lectures there. That night after the boys were in bed, I went back over to the family history center and got quite a few more names prepared for temple work.
Then yesterday we went with Peter and Cynthia down to Chicago for our temple trip. It has worked out really well to go with them once a month and switch off babysitting so we can each go in together as a couple. Michael and I took all the kids to Costco while they went to the temple, and we got lots of comments and funny looks from people who thought we had 5 kids under the age of 4. We were able to stock up on lots of things like shampoo, computer paper, and baby wipes, and the kids were very excited for all the free samples they got to try (Kolby really likes going to the “treat store” by the temple). And we got a good scare at one point when Eli started choking on a piece of fruit, and nothing helped for about 15 or 20 seconds until Michael did a the full-on Heimlich maneuver several times. We were glad that Eli seemed just fine after that was over. Then we went back to the temple and Michael and I did baptisms. There were a few other people in there helping, and we got almost all of them done that we took with us – we ended up doing 86 names, I think. And today went pretty well too. The boys did well in church (except for Kolby needing a bribe of a treat to make him go into his sunbeams class), and I substituted in nursery while Michael substituted as a teacher in his priesthood class. Then Michael practiced after church for a men’s choir performance. I have been making bread since we came home, and my visiting teacher just left. All three boys are down for a nap right now, and in a couple of hours we are going over to Sonia and Devon Cole’s house for dinner, so that should be fun. Hope you have all had a good week too!
When Michael first listed dermatology as one of the specialties he was interested in, I didn’t think it sounded too great, but it actually sounds kind of interesting, now that I know a little more about it. Michael said that one thing that he liked about it was that the problems on the skin often relate to other internal problems, so you have to know about a lot of different things. And you deal with a range from minor problems to all sorts of cancer. Michael also likes that he will get to deal with patients (and continue to build relationships with patients over time), but that there will also be opportunities to do procedures. And lots of people comment to him that they wouldn’t want to deal with the acne, but Michael has actually been alright with that part of it so far – he really likes that it is something that effects the self esteem of a lot of young people, but that there are several things that he can do to make it totally better (and in some of the other specialties you run into a lot of problems that you can’t fix).
I think this will be a good specialty for him to go into. Now it’s time to get ready to apply for residency programs. One thing that Michael has considered is having a different specialty (internal medicine) as a back-up in case derm doesn’t work out right away (because derm is a competitive program to get into, and we know several students who have not been accepted when trying for derm residencies). But since this month has started and we have seen how much more Michael likes derm than any other specialty, I think we are not going to do another program as a back-up. The thing we are trying to decide on right now is how to work out the applications for transition years. Dermatology is a 4-year residency program, but different programs work differently: some are 4-year programs, and others have it broken up into 1 transitional year and 3 more years of derm. So, the best thing for us would be to either do a 4-year program, or if we end up doing a transitional year, then we want to have the transitional year either be in the same location as the 3-year program or have the transitional year be here in Milwaukee and then move for the next 3 years, so we can avoid moving twice in such a short time. But since we are planning on applying for quite a few derm programs, we only want to get interviews for transitional years at the same places that we get interviews for 3-year derm programs, and so we will have to figure out the best way to work that all out. Anyways, we have lots of new things coming up that we will need to figure out before we are all set for the next step in our lives, but it already feels like we are almost to the end of medical school now. Pretty exciting!
Anyways, the rest of our week went pretty well. On Monday I had a WIC appointment, and the people there were really nice and it went well. Then on Tuesday evening we met with Kendra McMullin, a friend from church, who is a financial advisor and we ended up setting up a little life insurance plan with her. It was nice to sit down with her and get an idea of what we need to do in the next few years to start to plan for retirement too. On Wednesday morning we had a family history enrichment group that met at church so the moms could use the family history center and rotate babysitting the kids. I was able to get a lot of names prepared for temple work. That afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment, and everything is going well with the baby. And then Kolby had swimming lessons that evening, and he listened to his teacher very well. On Thursday I had physical therapy and Michael happened to get off work early, so the boys went over and played with him at the medical school while I went for my appointment, and then Michael went with Eli to his swim lessons that evening. On Friday Michael got up real early to go with some others to Chicago for the derm conference, and he said there were several interesting lectures there. That night after the boys were in bed, I went back over to the family history center and got quite a few more names prepared for temple work.
Then yesterday we went with Peter and Cynthia down to Chicago for our temple trip. It has worked out really well to go with them once a month and switch off babysitting so we can each go in together as a couple. Michael and I took all the kids to Costco while they went to the temple, and we got lots of comments and funny looks from people who thought we had 5 kids under the age of 4. We were able to stock up on lots of things like shampoo, computer paper, and baby wipes, and the kids were very excited for all the free samples they got to try (Kolby really likes going to the “treat store” by the temple). And we got a good scare at one point when Eli started choking on a piece of fruit, and nothing helped for about 15 or 20 seconds until Michael did a the full-on Heimlich maneuver several times. We were glad that Eli seemed just fine after that was over. Then we went back to the temple and Michael and I did baptisms. There were a few other people in there helping, and we got almost all of them done that we took with us – we ended up doing 86 names, I think. And today went pretty well too. The boys did well in church (except for Kolby needing a bribe of a treat to make him go into his sunbeams class), and I substituted in nursery while Michael substituted as a teacher in his priesthood class. Then Michael practiced after church for a men’s choir performance. I have been making bread since we came home, and my visiting teacher just left. All three boys are down for a nap right now, and in a couple of hours we are going over to Sonia and Devon Cole’s house for dinner, so that should be fun. Hope you have all had a good week too!
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