The day after we got back to Milwaukee from San Diego we drove to La Crosse, Wisconsin for Michael’s last interview – for the transitional program there. On our way back from La Crosse we stopped at Wisconsin Dells for a little vacation at the water park there called the Wilderness Lodge. We had so much fun! The boys loved it, and I just wished we could have had a few more days to spend there. Here are our pictures and videos from the Dells.
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
14 March 2008
06 February 2008
La Crosse, Wisconsin Dells, and back to Milwaukee
So, I started writing our ‘weekly update’ in the car on our drive to Michael’s interview in La Crosse on Thursday, and I haven’t had a chance to finish it until now. So, I’ll go from where I left off. (Things have been crazy with being away for so long and then trying to catch up and get everything reorganized after returning home, and I am hoping to get back on a better schedule of Michael and I writing our weekly updates every week).
So, Michael’s interview went well in La Crosse. The night before his interview we went to visit some families who were in our ward in Milwaukee last year and are now in La Crosse for their residencies. We went to the Kennard’s house and visited with Julie and her kids, and Stephanie Sharp and her daughter came over too. It was nice to see them and for Michael to ask some questions about the transitional year program there too. Then we slept in the hotel in La Crosse that night (we were glad to find that it had two beds so that we didn’t have to have the boys in our bed with us). So Michael and I shared a bed, Kolby and Eli shared a bed, Camden was in the play pen, and Isaac slept in his car seat – I think it’s pretty amazing that we were able to get them all to sleep in the same room! In the morning the boys and I went back again to Julie’s house and Stephanie came over again too, so the kids had fun playing together while Michael had his interview. He said that the interview went well and he liked the program, all except for how cold it was there. But from the pictures we have seen it looks like La Crosse is a pretty place, especially in the Autumn, and Michael was interested when someone mentioned that it was a nesting ground for a lot of bald eagles in the spring time (his favorite animal).
After lunch we headed out for Wisconsin Dells, which is between La Crosse and Milwaukee, and is known as the water park capitol of the world. We were very grateful to receive so many interview invitations, but at the same time Michael and I were both happy to celebrate the end of this long process. It was a nice feeling to drive away from that last interview, knowing that we have done everything that we can and now we just need to wait and find out what happens on match day (March 20th).
So, then we had a fun little family vacation at the Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness resort, which was fun for the boys because there were all sorts of forest animals displayed in the lobbies and restaurant at the hotel, and they were very excited to ask me what each one was. We checked into our room and had a nice dinner, then get changed and went swimming at the water park. There were three water parks all associated with that resort, and each one was connected by walk ways through the hotel, so it was nice to see the snow through the windows, but not to have to walk through it to go swimming. The first water park we went to that night ended up being our favorite of the three. It had a lazy river with inner tubes that went around the whole room, a little toddler area with a little slide and swings that bounced in the water, a larger play area for older kids that had a huge bucket that dumped a thousand pounds of water every few minutes, and some big slides for adults that Michael went on. First we went on the lazy river – we each had a two-person tube and Michael had Eli and Camden and I held Isaac while Kolby sat on the other part of my tube. It was nice and relaxing, and Isaac was quite content for several laps around the river until we went under a little waterfall and he got wet. After that we wrapped him in a towel and he quickly fell asleep in my arms. Camden enjoyed the bouncy swings and Kolby and Eli each took turns going down the baby slide. Michael enjoyed some of the slides while I had fun watching the boys play. Then I took Kolby and Eli into the kids play area and we each went down a water slide that I thought was pretty big for them – it was about 20 feet tall and looped back and forth a few times – they loved it! And they really liked playing where the water sprayed out on them. Towards the end all three boys were getting closer and closer to the giant bucket of water each time it dropped. And when the park closed at 10pm none of us wanted to leave. The life guards even had to blow their whistles to tell the boys they had to get out.
So, our hotel room was a little bigger there – it had two beds and then it had an area separated by a wall with a couch that folded out into a third bed. Kolby and Eli actually slept there in the same bed so we had one bed that we didn’t use because Camden was in the playpen again. In the morning we went on a little tour of their timeshare condos (because they told us they would take $50 off our hotel bill if we took their tour). The condos were amazing – their 2-bedroom condo was nicer than our apartment and the 4-bedroom was amazing. And then, of course, they said all sorts of things to try to get us to buy into their timeshare plan, but we told them we needed to save for a house before we could do something like that. It was funny, because the lady said she didn’t want our house money, just our vacation money because this deal would save people money on vacations in the long run (I guess she didn’t understand that the one night in that hotel was our only vacation – other than staying with family for free – that we had taken in two years). After the tour we went to the second water park.
This one had a children’s area and toddler area that were similar to the first park, and it also had a ‘beach’ area with waves. And along with the adult water slides there was a family slide with a big raft for four people. The water was colder in the children’s area than in the first park, but it was warm at the beach, so we went there first. Kolby, Eli, and Camden rode in an inner tube and then waded near Michael and I when the waves started up. Isaac slept in his car seat on the side while we were in there (it worked out pretty well, but we found that a water park vacation would probably be ideal if our youngest child was at least Camden’s age – then we wouldn’t have to worry about the baby getting cold, having a dry place to sleep if he got worn out, or needing to stop and take a bottle). Michael went and did some slides, and when he came back I took Kolby and Eli on the family raft ride. It went through a large tunnel in the dark – the tunnel went outside the building and came back in, and it went pretty fast. I was actually pretty nervous going on it – I know there’s no reason to worry because hundreds of people have gone on the ride and been fine, but I am afraid of heights and even climbing the stairs (50 or 60 feet up) gave me butterflies. But I’m determined not to let the boys see my fear of heights so that they won’t miss out on fun things like that (and so they hopefully won’t develop that fear either). Kolby said he liked the ride but didn’t want to go again, and Eli loved it, so he and Camden went with me the second time. Then the boys went with Michael on some slides in the children’s area. Camden fell asleep in the stroller – it was pretty cute with him in his life vest, wrapped in towels. When he woke up he was cold and grumpy, and we decided to stop for lunch.
After lunch we went to the third park. It had a large beach area, a little toddler area, and some slides. That park was in one giant room with a glass roof so that people could get tan year-round and plants could grow indoors. So it was kind of fun to have palm trees and ferns growing around the seating areas. All three older boys really liked the little slide in the toddler area and went down it over and over. And Camden also found some play pipes with a big handle that he could turn to make water spray out, which kept him occupied for quite a while. Kolby liked the beach part, and wanted to play in the inner tubes there, but by that time Eli had gotten cold and was quite fussy, so we didn’t spend much time in that area. By the end Eli and Camden were cold and tired, and Isaac had to have a bottle, so we stopped for a dinner break. After dinner we only had a couple of hours left before the water parks closed, so we decided not to get everyone changed back into their swimsuits again. Instead we stopped at the indoor playground and let the boys play a while. Another incentive we got for the timeshare tour was 80 free arcade tokens, so we let Kolby and Eli play some games. They were excited to get tickets, and they traded them in for bouncy balls with plastic fish in the middle. They were all ready to go by the end of the night, and all four boys fell asleep as soon as we got them in the car. It was a really fun little trip – I just wished we had more time to enjoy it. We kept thinking that it would be fun to go back again with friends –especially since it is so close. We had thought that the Dells were 6 or 8 hours from Milwaukee before we looked into going there, and when we found out that it was only 2 hours from here, we wished we had made the trip earlier.
So, Sunday was our first official day back home. Church switched to 1pm, so we had some time in the morning to start getting organized after returning home. We unpacked all of the suitcases from our San Diego trip and started to put things away, although we ended up with piles of folded clothes, papers, and other odds and ends covering our bed (we slept on the couches that night before finishing putting everything away the next day). I wanted to make a batch of bread that morning before church, but ran out of time with all the stuff we had to do, so I’ll have to get to that another time. Church was really nice – so many people welcomed us back and seemed like they had missed us here. I kept thinking it will be difficult to move from our friends when we go for residency in a few months. Everyone commented on Kolby and Eli’s haircuts and how old Kolby looked. And a few people complimented me on how I looked, (since we were in the hospital so much after Isaac was born and then we left for two months, the last time most people here saw me I was pregnant, so I’m sure I look a lot different), but it was still nice to hear.
After church we had lunch and then tried to rush and get the Christmas tree and all the decorations taken down that were still up in our apartment. We almost got all the ornaments put away before the Kearls came over for dinner. It was fun to see them again. We put the kids down to bed and played a new game that we got for Christmas, Blokus, and then just talked.
Then Monday was my first real day back home with just me and all four boys. Kolby and Eli would have started their preschool class at the YMCA, but Eli had his 3-year-old check-up scheduled for that morning. We got off to a late start in the morning, and it was about 10 minutes until the doctor’s appointment, and I only had two kids ready to go. Camden was still asleep and Isaac was taking a bottle, so I thought I should be realistic that I wouldn’t make it to the appointment on time, and I called. I told them I could try, but didn’t think I would be able to make it, so they rescheduled. So I was feeling pretty bad that the boys were missing their preschool class and the doctor’s appointment, and I rushed and got them all ready super quick to see if we could still make it to the doctor’s office. I called several times before we left to see if we could still come, but their phone was busy, so I just decided to go. We got there only 10 minutes after the appointment time, but the receptionist told me she had already scheduled someone else for that time. She probably thought I was crazy when I started crying. I walked out of the office and calmed down, then I returned and told her I was just really stressed and rescheduled for later on. I wasn’t really stressed, but thought that seemed like the easiest explanation – it probably would have seemed even more strange if I had attempted to explain that on top of feeling bad about the boys missing preschool for no good reason, the idea of packing all the kids back into the car again and then having to get them re-dressed in all their winter layers and bring them all back to the office again later that afternoon for when we had rescheduled the appointment was just too overwhelming. But oh well, you just do what you have to do. So we went to the grocery store and got all stocked up after our trips. Then we went to Target to make a return and get a few more things. (Taking the kids home, taking off all their layers, and then just having to re-layer and get them all in the car again for the appointment later didn’t sound fun, so I was trying to stay out until the appointment, but just ended up wearing the kids out and coming home with a couple hours still to go before the appointment. I was very relieved when Michael got off early (he has a very nice rotation this month) and he kept the other boys while I took Eli to the doctor’s office. (I think I am getting into the hang of being back with all the boys now, and not feeling so overwhelmed by such little things). Eli’s appointment went well. He is healthy, and he is about 37 inches tall and 33 pounds. That night we finished putting away everything from the trip, which felt nice. And we had a fun little family home evening. We also moved the piano back out into the front room where the Christmas tree had been, and it’s nice to have that out again so Michael can play for us.
On Tuesday we had a good day at home, getting more things organized after coming home. That evening I went to a fun little enrichment at Julie Williams’ house where we made family home evening jars with ideas in them for family night lessons, scriptures, and songs. And last night we watched the news because it was Super Tuesday. I was disappointed that Mitt Romney didn’t do as well as I had hoped he would do in that part of the election, but it looks like he’s not dropping out yet. I hadn’t really researched the different candidates’ views on the issues yet, but I listened to a speech by Romney in December and was really impressed. I guess you never know how things will turn out.
This morning it has been snowing a ton. Michael and the other student in his rotation were told to stay home for the storm (which he hasn’t been told before on any other rotation). It’s been nice to have him home, for both of us to be able to get a lot done today, and the Kearls just called and are coming over tonight, so that will be really fun too. I’m glad we’re staying inside today. Michael ran to the store earlier, and I heard the tires spinning and went out to help him get out of the parking spot. I ran up and started pushing the van, and I slipped and my hand caught on the license plate holder. It cut my wrist a little and broke the plate holder in half. But we were able to get the van out. The news earlier was saying there is supposed to be up to about 20 inches of snow before this storm is over, so the preschool classes, swim lessons, and Isaac’s doctor’s appointment were all cancelled today. So, hopefully all of our Milwaukee friends are staying nice and warm inside today too.
So, Michael’s interview went well in La Crosse. The night before his interview we went to visit some families who were in our ward in Milwaukee last year and are now in La Crosse for their residencies. We went to the Kennard’s house and visited with Julie and her kids, and Stephanie Sharp and her daughter came over too. It was nice to see them and for Michael to ask some questions about the transitional year program there too. Then we slept in the hotel in La Crosse that night (we were glad to find that it had two beds so that we didn’t have to have the boys in our bed with us). So Michael and I shared a bed, Kolby and Eli shared a bed, Camden was in the play pen, and Isaac slept in his car seat – I think it’s pretty amazing that we were able to get them all to sleep in the same room! In the morning the boys and I went back again to Julie’s house and Stephanie came over again too, so the kids had fun playing together while Michael had his interview. He said that the interview went well and he liked the program, all except for how cold it was there. But from the pictures we have seen it looks like La Crosse is a pretty place, especially in the Autumn, and Michael was interested when someone mentioned that it was a nesting ground for a lot of bald eagles in the spring time (his favorite animal).
After lunch we headed out for Wisconsin Dells, which is between La Crosse and Milwaukee, and is known as the water park capitol of the world. We were very grateful to receive so many interview invitations, but at the same time Michael and I were both happy to celebrate the end of this long process. It was a nice feeling to drive away from that last interview, knowing that we have done everything that we can and now we just need to wait and find out what happens on match day (March 20th).
So, then we had a fun little family vacation at the Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness resort, which was fun for the boys because there were all sorts of forest animals displayed in the lobbies and restaurant at the hotel, and they were very excited to ask me what each one was. We checked into our room and had a nice dinner, then get changed and went swimming at the water park. There were three water parks all associated with that resort, and each one was connected by walk ways through the hotel, so it was nice to see the snow through the windows, but not to have to walk through it to go swimming. The first water park we went to that night ended up being our favorite of the three. It had a lazy river with inner tubes that went around the whole room, a little toddler area with a little slide and swings that bounced in the water, a larger play area for older kids that had a huge bucket that dumped a thousand pounds of water every few minutes, and some big slides for adults that Michael went on. First we went on the lazy river – we each had a two-person tube and Michael had Eli and Camden and I held Isaac while Kolby sat on the other part of my tube. It was nice and relaxing, and Isaac was quite content for several laps around the river until we went under a little waterfall and he got wet. After that we wrapped him in a towel and he quickly fell asleep in my arms. Camden enjoyed the bouncy swings and Kolby and Eli each took turns going down the baby slide. Michael enjoyed some of the slides while I had fun watching the boys play. Then I took Kolby and Eli into the kids play area and we each went down a water slide that I thought was pretty big for them – it was about 20 feet tall and looped back and forth a few times – they loved it! And they really liked playing where the water sprayed out on them. Towards the end all three boys were getting closer and closer to the giant bucket of water each time it dropped. And when the park closed at 10pm none of us wanted to leave. The life guards even had to blow their whistles to tell the boys they had to get out.
So, our hotel room was a little bigger there – it had two beds and then it had an area separated by a wall with a couch that folded out into a third bed. Kolby and Eli actually slept there in the same bed so we had one bed that we didn’t use because Camden was in the playpen again. In the morning we went on a little tour of their timeshare condos (because they told us they would take $50 off our hotel bill if we took their tour). The condos were amazing – their 2-bedroom condo was nicer than our apartment and the 4-bedroom was amazing. And then, of course, they said all sorts of things to try to get us to buy into their timeshare plan, but we told them we needed to save for a house before we could do something like that. It was funny, because the lady said she didn’t want our house money, just our vacation money because this deal would save people money on vacations in the long run (I guess she didn’t understand that the one night in that hotel was our only vacation – other than staying with family for free – that we had taken in two years). After the tour we went to the second water park.
This one had a children’s area and toddler area that were similar to the first park, and it also had a ‘beach’ area with waves. And along with the adult water slides there was a family slide with a big raft for four people. The water was colder in the children’s area than in the first park, but it was warm at the beach, so we went there first. Kolby, Eli, and Camden rode in an inner tube and then waded near Michael and I when the waves started up. Isaac slept in his car seat on the side while we were in there (it worked out pretty well, but we found that a water park vacation would probably be ideal if our youngest child was at least Camden’s age – then we wouldn’t have to worry about the baby getting cold, having a dry place to sleep if he got worn out, or needing to stop and take a bottle). Michael went and did some slides, and when he came back I took Kolby and Eli on the family raft ride. It went through a large tunnel in the dark – the tunnel went outside the building and came back in, and it went pretty fast. I was actually pretty nervous going on it – I know there’s no reason to worry because hundreds of people have gone on the ride and been fine, but I am afraid of heights and even climbing the stairs (50 or 60 feet up) gave me butterflies. But I’m determined not to let the boys see my fear of heights so that they won’t miss out on fun things like that (and so they hopefully won’t develop that fear either). Kolby said he liked the ride but didn’t want to go again, and Eli loved it, so he and Camden went with me the second time. Then the boys went with Michael on some slides in the children’s area. Camden fell asleep in the stroller – it was pretty cute with him in his life vest, wrapped in towels. When he woke up he was cold and grumpy, and we decided to stop for lunch.
After lunch we went to the third park. It had a large beach area, a little toddler area, and some slides. That park was in one giant room with a glass roof so that people could get tan year-round and plants could grow indoors. So it was kind of fun to have palm trees and ferns growing around the seating areas. All three older boys really liked the little slide in the toddler area and went down it over and over. And Camden also found some play pipes with a big handle that he could turn to make water spray out, which kept him occupied for quite a while. Kolby liked the beach part, and wanted to play in the inner tubes there, but by that time Eli had gotten cold and was quite fussy, so we didn’t spend much time in that area. By the end Eli and Camden were cold and tired, and Isaac had to have a bottle, so we stopped for a dinner break. After dinner we only had a couple of hours left before the water parks closed, so we decided not to get everyone changed back into their swimsuits again. Instead we stopped at the indoor playground and let the boys play a while. Another incentive we got for the timeshare tour was 80 free arcade tokens, so we let Kolby and Eli play some games. They were excited to get tickets, and they traded them in for bouncy balls with plastic fish in the middle. They were all ready to go by the end of the night, and all four boys fell asleep as soon as we got them in the car. It was a really fun little trip – I just wished we had more time to enjoy it. We kept thinking that it would be fun to go back again with friends –especially since it is so close. We had thought that the Dells were 6 or 8 hours from Milwaukee before we looked into going there, and when we found out that it was only 2 hours from here, we wished we had made the trip earlier.
So, Sunday was our first official day back home. Church switched to 1pm, so we had some time in the morning to start getting organized after returning home. We unpacked all of the suitcases from our San Diego trip and started to put things away, although we ended up with piles of folded clothes, papers, and other odds and ends covering our bed (we slept on the couches that night before finishing putting everything away the next day). I wanted to make a batch of bread that morning before church, but ran out of time with all the stuff we had to do, so I’ll have to get to that another time. Church was really nice – so many people welcomed us back and seemed like they had missed us here. I kept thinking it will be difficult to move from our friends when we go for residency in a few months. Everyone commented on Kolby and Eli’s haircuts and how old Kolby looked. And a few people complimented me on how I looked, (since we were in the hospital so much after Isaac was born and then we left for two months, the last time most people here saw me I was pregnant, so I’m sure I look a lot different), but it was still nice to hear.
After church we had lunch and then tried to rush and get the Christmas tree and all the decorations taken down that were still up in our apartment. We almost got all the ornaments put away before the Kearls came over for dinner. It was fun to see them again. We put the kids down to bed and played a new game that we got for Christmas, Blokus, and then just talked.
Then Monday was my first real day back home with just me and all four boys. Kolby and Eli would have started their preschool class at the YMCA, but Eli had his 3-year-old check-up scheduled for that morning. We got off to a late start in the morning, and it was about 10 minutes until the doctor’s appointment, and I only had two kids ready to go. Camden was still asleep and Isaac was taking a bottle, so I thought I should be realistic that I wouldn’t make it to the appointment on time, and I called. I told them I could try, but didn’t think I would be able to make it, so they rescheduled. So I was feeling pretty bad that the boys were missing their preschool class and the doctor’s appointment, and I rushed and got them all ready super quick to see if we could still make it to the doctor’s office. I called several times before we left to see if we could still come, but their phone was busy, so I just decided to go. We got there only 10 minutes after the appointment time, but the receptionist told me she had already scheduled someone else for that time. She probably thought I was crazy when I started crying. I walked out of the office and calmed down, then I returned and told her I was just really stressed and rescheduled for later on. I wasn’t really stressed, but thought that seemed like the easiest explanation – it probably would have seemed even more strange if I had attempted to explain that on top of feeling bad about the boys missing preschool for no good reason, the idea of packing all the kids back into the car again and then having to get them re-dressed in all their winter layers and bring them all back to the office again later that afternoon for when we had rescheduled the appointment was just too overwhelming. But oh well, you just do what you have to do. So we went to the grocery store and got all stocked up after our trips. Then we went to Target to make a return and get a few more things. (Taking the kids home, taking off all their layers, and then just having to re-layer and get them all in the car again for the appointment later didn’t sound fun, so I was trying to stay out until the appointment, but just ended up wearing the kids out and coming home with a couple hours still to go before the appointment. I was very relieved when Michael got off early (he has a very nice rotation this month) and he kept the other boys while I took Eli to the doctor’s office. (I think I am getting into the hang of being back with all the boys now, and not feeling so overwhelmed by such little things). Eli’s appointment went well. He is healthy, and he is about 37 inches tall and 33 pounds. That night we finished putting away everything from the trip, which felt nice. And we had a fun little family home evening. We also moved the piano back out into the front room where the Christmas tree had been, and it’s nice to have that out again so Michael can play for us.
On Tuesday we had a good day at home, getting more things organized after coming home. That evening I went to a fun little enrichment at Julie Williams’ house where we made family home evening jars with ideas in them for family night lessons, scriptures, and songs. And last night we watched the news because it was Super Tuesday. I was disappointed that Mitt Romney didn’t do as well as I had hoped he would do in that part of the election, but it looks like he’s not dropping out yet. I hadn’t really researched the different candidates’ views on the issues yet, but I listened to a speech by Romney in December and was really impressed. I guess you never know how things will turn out.
This morning it has been snowing a ton. Michael and the other student in his rotation were told to stay home for the storm (which he hasn’t been told before on any other rotation). It’s been nice to have him home, for both of us to be able to get a lot done today, and the Kearls just called and are coming over tonight, so that will be really fun too. I’m glad we’re staying inside today. Michael ran to the store earlier, and I heard the tires spinning and went out to help him get out of the parking spot. I ran up and started pushing the van, and I slipped and my hand caught on the license plate holder. It cut my wrist a little and broke the plate holder in half. But we were able to get the van out. The news earlier was saying there is supposed to be up to about 20 inches of snow before this storm is over, so the preschool classes, swim lessons, and Isaac’s doctor’s appointment were all cancelled today. So, hopefully all of our Milwaukee friends are staying nice and warm inside today too.
27 January 2008
Last Dermatology Interview
I had my last dermatology interview this week and got to see New York City for the first time – too bad I didn’t have more time to enjoy the sights. I guess I’ll have to return with the rest of my family so they can enjoy it too. I flew out early Tuesday morning on a direct flight from San Diego to JFK in New York – a very long flight, but nice not to get stuck in a layover city. I then proceeded to use the NY subway for the first time and did fine. I had to go straight from the airport to the interview dinner. The residents were really nice and the food was really good.
I stayed with a friend of a friend on the upper northwest side of Manhattan, just off of 168th and Broadway. Erin McKinley is a girl I have met on the dermatology interview trail, and she said if I ever got an interview in New York City to email so I could have a free place to stay. Well, it turns out that she was out of town this week interviewing, but she emailed some of her friends from school and found another couple, Jordan and Mary Jacobs, who volunteered to let me crash at their place. They are probably one of the nicest couples I’ve ever met and were so nice to let me stay and have a fun time while in New York – thanks you guys. They have an 8 month old, Manny, in a 1 bedroom, so it is pretty cramped, but they are on the 26th floor with a really cool view of midtown Manhattan.
My interview went well on Wednesday. I really liked the program, but it would be very difficult to live with 4 kids in New York City. The program offers subsidized housing, but even then a 2 bedroom apartment would cost about $2200/month – ouch!! (And there aren't any 3 bedrooms). But New York City is a cool place. After the interview, I walked along the south side of Central Park and over to the Rockefeller center, where I rode an elevator up 87 stories to get to the roof, where I was able to get an awesome 360 degree view of Manhattan, with the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty off to one side and Central Park on the other – way cool. When I got back to Jordan and Mary’s, they ordered some Dominican food and we had a fun night just talking and enjoying delicious food.
It has been nice to spend the rest of this week with the family here in San Diego, especially with the wonderful beautiful 50-70 degree weather. I have really enjoyed just getting up in the mornings and playing with the boys – both here at the house and around the area. Friday we walked to a park that is near the home and enjoyed the pleasant weather while the boys played in the sand and on the playground. Then we had some fun looking through some model condos there by the park – very nice. And yesterday was the 160th anniversary of the Mormon Battalion arriving in San Diego, so they had lots of fun activities for the kids down in Old Town San Diego. The boys got to make bricks, rope, biscuits on a stick that they could eat with freshly churned butter and jam, and pioneer dolls; play pioneer instruments; pan for 'gold;' and take pictures dressed at pioneers. Then we had lunch at a really yummy Mexican restaurant. Last night Matthew, Aaron, and I enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub while it was raining. We challenged each other to do different things in the cold swimming pool water (which was about 50 degrees), like sliding down the slide, or seeing who could sit waist deep in the cold water the longest – it was really fun.
It was also nice to go to church together today again as a whole family. I have been on or traveling to interviews for several of the past weekends so have not been with the family for church. We heard some really good talks on forgiveness and learned about the early life of Joseph Smith and his vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus that brought about the restoration of His gospel to the earth. Such a neat story.
I stayed with a friend of a friend on the upper northwest side of Manhattan, just off of 168th and Broadway. Erin McKinley is a girl I have met on the dermatology interview trail, and she said if I ever got an interview in New York City to email so I could have a free place to stay. Well, it turns out that she was out of town this week interviewing, but she emailed some of her friends from school and found another couple, Jordan and Mary Jacobs, who volunteered to let me crash at their place. They are probably one of the nicest couples I’ve ever met and were so nice to let me stay and have a fun time while in New York – thanks you guys. They have an 8 month old, Manny, in a 1 bedroom, so it is pretty cramped, but they are on the 26th floor with a really cool view of midtown Manhattan.
My interview went well on Wednesday. I really liked the program, but it would be very difficult to live with 4 kids in New York City. The program offers subsidized housing, but even then a 2 bedroom apartment would cost about $2200/month – ouch!! (And there aren't any 3 bedrooms). But New York City is a cool place. After the interview, I walked along the south side of Central Park and over to the Rockefeller center, where I rode an elevator up 87 stories to get to the roof, where I was able to get an awesome 360 degree view of Manhattan, with the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty off to one side and Central Park on the other – way cool. When I got back to Jordan and Mary’s, they ordered some Dominican food and we had a fun night just talking and enjoying delicious food.
It has been nice to spend the rest of this week with the family here in San Diego, especially with the wonderful beautiful 50-70 degree weather. I have really enjoyed just getting up in the mornings and playing with the boys – both here at the house and around the area. Friday we walked to a park that is near the home and enjoyed the pleasant weather while the boys played in the sand and on the playground. Then we had some fun looking through some model condos there by the park – very nice. And yesterday was the 160th anniversary of the Mormon Battalion arriving in San Diego, so they had lots of fun activities for the kids down in Old Town San Diego. The boys got to make bricks, rope, biscuits on a stick that they could eat with freshly churned butter and jam, and pioneer dolls; play pioneer instruments; pan for 'gold;' and take pictures dressed at pioneers. Then we had lunch at a really yummy Mexican restaurant. Last night Matthew, Aaron, and I enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub while it was raining. We challenged each other to do different things in the cold swimming pool water (which was about 50 degrees), like sliding down the slide, or seeing who could sit waist deep in the cold water the longest – it was really fun.
It was also nice to go to church together today again as a whole family. I have been on or traveling to interviews for several of the past weekends so have not been with the family for church. We heard some really good talks on forgiveness and learned about the early life of Joseph Smith and his vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus that brought about the restoration of His gospel to the earth. Such a neat story.
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.
04 December 2007
In Boise
So, we’ve gotten a little behind, since we usually try to write about our week each Sunday, and it is Michael’s turn to write this week but he has just been too busy during the days and too tired at night the last couple days, so I’ll do it this time. So, last week Michael had his first derm interview down in Texas, and he was really impressed with their program – he liked their emphasis on surgery and how family-friendly their program seemed to be. He was also attracted by the low cost of housing there [I told him that since we aren’t planning on settling in Texas permanently it might be difficult in 4 years to have to downgrade to a smaller house when moving to a different state, but still it might be nice to be able to afford a nice-sized house for a few years at least.] I also wouldn’t mind moving to someplace warm, although everyone says that some parts of Texas get miserably humid in the summer, but I don’t know if Temple Texas is in one of the more humid areas or not. So, we’ll see.
Camden had his 15-month doctor’s check up this week also (he’s not that old yet, but they scheduled it early so he could get his shots before we left town). He seems healthy, other than a perpetual runny nose, and the doctor commented that even though Camden seems so big for his age, that he is not as high up on the growth curves for his weight as he is for his height. Isaac also had his circumcision on Thursday morning, and it took me a while to calm him down after he had it, but he has seemed fine since then. I also had my 6-week check-up after having the baby (this sure was a week full of doctor’s appointments!) I was pleased to find out that I had lost all of the baby-weight from Isaac’s pregnancy (now I just need to work on the weight that I never lost from Eli and Camden’s pregnancies, but still I felt pretty good about that since I haven’t even been trying to lose weight yet with all that has been going on).
On Saturday morning we got up around 3:30am for our morning flight. We spent Thursday and Friday packing for the trip, and got it all into 8 bags (but it was really less than 8 suitcases, because several were just carry-on-sized bags that we decided to check rather than carry on to the plane). So we did pretty well – 8 bags, 4 car seats, and a stroller for a 2-month trip with six people – I even had room to pack my ski boots and ski helmet. So, we got up early Saturday morning and the Kearls took us to the airport, which was so nice of them to get up (and get their kids up) that early for us!!! We got on the plane alright and the flights went pretty well. My grandma was on the first flight with us, and she got off in Salt Lake. We had to rush in between our two flights because the snow in Salt Lake slowed down our first flight so they called a cart to drive us from one end of the airport to the other to catch our second flight. We were the last ones on the plane, and then after we got on it pulled away from the gate and sat on the runway for about half an hour before it was de-iced and we could take off. We got to Boise a little while later. All in all, it was a good trip – some of the boys cried a little off and on, but none of them cried for an hour nonstop (which has happened to me on past flights).
When we arrived, we went straight from the airport to a singing recital for Michael’s youngest sister, Mindy. Then we left after Mindy’s song so that we could go to a bridal shower for Michael’s other sister, Jennie, that was being thrown by her fiancé’s family. While I was at the shower, Michael unpacked all of our bags and the boys got to play with their grandpa. It is not as cold here as it was in Boise, and the boys have been able to play in the back yard a couple times, which has been really nice for them to get out. And we got to meet Jennie’s fiancé, Dalin, who seems like a nice guy. On Sunday we went to church, which went pretty well, except for Camden getting a bad case of diarrhea (caused by the antibiotic that the doctor gave us for his runny nose), but he has finally started to get over that today. At church we spent some of the time with the two youngest boys in the hallway, but got to attend part of all three meetings, so that was nice. We also got to talk to a couple old friends, and it will be fun to try to get together with them while we are here. That night we got to watch the First Presidency’s Christmas Fireside. We decided to watch it at home on the computer since taking the boys to church and trying to get them to sit still and quiet for an hour might be difficult. It was kind of crazy at home with the boys talking and crying, but we tried. After the fireside we went to Layne and Debbie Bennion’s house, Michael’s uncle and aunt, and got together for their annual tradition of hot chocolate and toffee. We got to see some of Michael’s cousins, and we talked with Becky and Neil Wall for quite a while. (It was fun to meet Becky after she and I have been in touch over e-mail for a while). We are planning on getting together with them sometime soon.
On Monday Michael started his derm rotation with Dr. Burr and he is enjoying it. Tonight he went to a derm conference in downtown Boise with Dr. Burr that is supposed to present a lot of really interesting cases, so it is nice that he gets to spend time this month doing what he is really interested in. On Monday evening we were invited to family home evening at Bryce and Emily Christensen’s house, but they called before we left to say their daughter had fallen and cut above her eye and they needed to take her in to see if she needed stitches, so we’ll have to get together with them later on. For our family home evening activity last night we ended up setting up the Christmas tree, and we will decorate it sometime this week. The boys should have fun doing that. Today we took the boys to the playgroup at the church, but it was cancelled because the carpets were being cleaned in the building so we took them to an indoor play area at a Burger King nearby instead. The boys had a lot of fun with that. When we got home I helped Debbie to get photos of all the family members for a calendar she is having printed. And now all 4 boys are napping – it sure is thoughtful of them to sleep at the same time so that I can write this.
So, Isaac sure has been great since we got here! When he was in the NICU they put him on a schedule of eating every 3 hours, and he had stuck to that schedule pretty much since then. So, after he got up several times the first night we were here, I decided that I needed to adjust his eating schedule. With my other boys I always nursed them every 4 hours from the time they were born, and they were fine, so I decided to switch Isaac to every 4 hours. I thought that if he acting hungry after 3 hours, we could just hold him and play with him to try to hold him off until it reached 4 hours since he last ate (because he is pretty content with being held, and he doesn’t cry much so I thought we could hold him off without much trouble). We did that all day and he did just fine with it, and then he went for 4 and 5 hours between bottles that night. The next day he did great again and last night he went for 5 ½ hours, got up once to eat, and then went another 5 ½ hours before he got up in the morning. I can’t believe what a wonderful baby he is. I guess, now that I think about it, all of my boys have been really good as babies, but I didn’t expect Isaac to switch his schedule so quickly just because I decided that he should. It has been nice to be able to sleep with minimal interruptions, and I hope it continues.
Oh, and Kolby said something pretty cute the other day. While we were having dinner Sunday night Dick asked Kolby what he learned in his class at church that day. Kolby told him about a song they sang about Joseph Smith going to Neverland. We all laughed and none of us could figure out what he was talking about. So, later on that night we were listening to Christmas songs and he said something about Joseph in Bethlehem – that’s what he meant earlier. How cute!
Camden had his 15-month doctor’s check up this week also (he’s not that old yet, but they scheduled it early so he could get his shots before we left town). He seems healthy, other than a perpetual runny nose, and the doctor commented that even though Camden seems so big for his age, that he is not as high up on the growth curves for his weight as he is for his height. Isaac also had his circumcision on Thursday morning, and it took me a while to calm him down after he had it, but he has seemed fine since then. I also had my 6-week check-up after having the baby (this sure was a week full of doctor’s appointments!) I was pleased to find out that I had lost all of the baby-weight from Isaac’s pregnancy (now I just need to work on the weight that I never lost from Eli and Camden’s pregnancies, but still I felt pretty good about that since I haven’t even been trying to lose weight yet with all that has been going on).
On Saturday morning we got up around 3:30am for our morning flight. We spent Thursday and Friday packing for the trip, and got it all into 8 bags (but it was really less than 8 suitcases, because several were just carry-on-sized bags that we decided to check rather than carry on to the plane). So we did pretty well – 8 bags, 4 car seats, and a stroller for a 2-month trip with six people – I even had room to pack my ski boots and ski helmet. So, we got up early Saturday morning and the Kearls took us to the airport, which was so nice of them to get up (and get their kids up) that early for us!!! We got on the plane alright and the flights went pretty well. My grandma was on the first flight with us, and she got off in Salt Lake. We had to rush in between our two flights because the snow in Salt Lake slowed down our first flight so they called a cart to drive us from one end of the airport to the other to catch our second flight. We were the last ones on the plane, and then after we got on it pulled away from the gate and sat on the runway for about half an hour before it was de-iced and we could take off. We got to Boise a little while later. All in all, it was a good trip – some of the boys cried a little off and on, but none of them cried for an hour nonstop (which has happened to me on past flights).
When we arrived, we went straight from the airport to a singing recital for Michael’s youngest sister, Mindy. Then we left after Mindy’s song so that we could go to a bridal shower for Michael’s other sister, Jennie, that was being thrown by her fiancé’s family. While I was at the shower, Michael unpacked all of our bags and the boys got to play with their grandpa. It is not as cold here as it was in Boise, and the boys have been able to play in the back yard a couple times, which has been really nice for them to get out. And we got to meet Jennie’s fiancé, Dalin, who seems like a nice guy. On Sunday we went to church, which went pretty well, except for Camden getting a bad case of diarrhea (caused by the antibiotic that the doctor gave us for his runny nose), but he has finally started to get over that today. At church we spent some of the time with the two youngest boys in the hallway, but got to attend part of all three meetings, so that was nice. We also got to talk to a couple old friends, and it will be fun to try to get together with them while we are here. That night we got to watch the First Presidency’s Christmas Fireside. We decided to watch it at home on the computer since taking the boys to church and trying to get them to sit still and quiet for an hour might be difficult. It was kind of crazy at home with the boys talking and crying, but we tried. After the fireside we went to Layne and Debbie Bennion’s house, Michael’s uncle and aunt, and got together for their annual tradition of hot chocolate and toffee. We got to see some of Michael’s cousins, and we talked with Becky and Neil Wall for quite a while. (It was fun to meet Becky after she and I have been in touch over e-mail for a while). We are planning on getting together with them sometime soon.
On Monday Michael started his derm rotation with Dr. Burr and he is enjoying it. Tonight he went to a derm conference in downtown Boise with Dr. Burr that is supposed to present a lot of really interesting cases, so it is nice that he gets to spend time this month doing what he is really interested in. On Monday evening we were invited to family home evening at Bryce and Emily Christensen’s house, but they called before we left to say their daughter had fallen and cut above her eye and they needed to take her in to see if she needed stitches, so we’ll have to get together with them later on. For our family home evening activity last night we ended up setting up the Christmas tree, and we will decorate it sometime this week. The boys should have fun doing that. Today we took the boys to the playgroup at the church, but it was cancelled because the carpets were being cleaned in the building so we took them to an indoor play area at a Burger King nearby instead. The boys had a lot of fun with that. When we got home I helped Debbie to get photos of all the family members for a calendar she is having printed. And now all 4 boys are napping – it sure is thoughtful of them to sleep at the same time so that I can write this.
So, Isaac sure has been great since we got here! When he was in the NICU they put him on a schedule of eating every 3 hours, and he had stuck to that schedule pretty much since then. So, after he got up several times the first night we were here, I decided that I needed to adjust his eating schedule. With my other boys I always nursed them every 4 hours from the time they were born, and they were fine, so I decided to switch Isaac to every 4 hours. I thought that if he acting hungry after 3 hours, we could just hold him and play with him to try to hold him off until it reached 4 hours since he last ate (because he is pretty content with being held, and he doesn’t cry much so I thought we could hold him off without much trouble). We did that all day and he did just fine with it, and then he went for 4 and 5 hours between bottles that night. The next day he did great again and last night he went for 5 ½ hours, got up once to eat, and then went another 5 ½ hours before he got up in the morning. I can’t believe what a wonderful baby he is. I guess, now that I think about it, all of my boys have been really good as babies, but I didn’t expect Isaac to switch his schedule so quickly just because I decided that he should. It has been nice to be able to sleep with minimal interruptions, and I hope it continues.
Oh, and Kolby said something pretty cute the other day. While we were having dinner Sunday night Dick asked Kolby what he learned in his class at church that day. Kolby told him about a song they sang about Joseph Smith going to Neverland. We all laughed and none of us could figure out what he was talking about. So, later on that night we were listening to Christmas songs and he said something about Joseph in Bethlehem – that’s what he meant earlier. How cute!
18 November 2007
Busy Week
This has been quite the busy week. Steph’s mom went home on Monday – we already miss having her here. The boys especially had so much fun playing with Nana. We are so grateful for all the help you gave us during these trying few weeks and can’t wait to spend more time together in January.
On Tuesday I took my second biggest test of medical school – it is called the USMLE Step 2 CK (United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step 2, Clinical Knowledge). I had to go to a testing center about 20 minutes away. The test consisted of 368 multiple choice questions divided into 8 blocks of 46 questions, with an hour to do each block – so 8 blocks total. You also get 1 hour of break time that you can use throughout the day as you want. Needless to say, it is a very long and mentally exhausting exam. I feel pretty good about my performance and hope that when I get my score back in the next 6 weeks it will reflect those feelings. :) Now I have some time off before the next “big” test – Step 3 of the licensing exams, which most people take near the end of their first year of residency (the internship year).
It felt so good to get that test done – no more having to spend every free minute doing practice questions online. Grandma Faun is here visiting and helping out with baby Isaac and the other boys, and she offered to watch the boys Tuesday night when I got home so we could go out to dinner to celebrate. We took her up on her offer and enjoyed a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Thanks grandma!
I had my first interview this week for a transitional year program at St. Luke’s, a hospital here in Milwaukee. Just as a reminder, I am applying to one year transitional year (intern year) programs and 3 year dermatology programs that will begin after I finish the transitional year. So far I have 6 transitional year and 7 dermatology interviews scheduled over the next few months. My first dermatology interview is the end of this month.
So for my interview Friday I had to be at St. Luke’s at 8:00am. There were 5 of us interviewing. This program has 13 spots available, and they said they interview about 80-100 people for those spots. They showed us a PowerPoint about the program, and then we were each interviewed by two doctors – the director and his assistant. One of the two had previously looked over our application and so already knew quite a bit about us, and the other was meeting us fresh for the first time – that way, they could get two different perspectives on us to help in choosing who they wanted. I think the interviews went really well and we had a lot to speak about in each one. Then we were taken on a tour of the hospital by two of the interns currently in the program, and then they took us to lunch, where we could sit and casually ask questions about the program. I am really impressed by this program – how much time and effort they put into the interns, the variety and flexibility of schedules, and how happy the interns seemed. It helps that several people in the ward are currently in the program or have been in the past, and so we have been able to talk with them and get their opinions, and everyone that has done that program really likes it.
Yesterday was our stake temple day. I ended up going down with a friend from the ward, Keith Wells, since both of our wives had just recently given birth and needed to stay home to feed the little ones. We had fun getting to know each other a little better on the drive down and back. I love going to the temple because I always learn so much while I am there and come back feeling so refreshed and full of peace. I can enter with lots of thoughts or troubles on my mind and leave with answers to my questions and feelings of comfort that things will work out. It is a small sacrifice to make time to get to the temple, but the blessings that come from the experience are so much bigger.
When we got back Keith helped me to set up our network between my laptop and our desktop so that I can print and share files over the wireless connection through the router (thanks Mom and Dad Bradshaw – we love it). So now I can sit on my couch in the front room and write things on my laptop (like this blog), save files to our shared file that Steph can access over on the other computer, or print a copy of my blog entry for Steph to add to the journal she is keeping of our blog entries – pretty cool. I love technology.
Today at church the theme in sacrament meeting was on gratitude – fitting, with Thanksgiving coming up this week. As the speakers were talking, I just started to reflect on all the things that I have to be grateful for. Heavenly Father continues to bless me and my family with all the things that we need. He makes sure that we are taken care of while here in Milwaukee, away from most of the family, with four little kids, surviving on medical school loans, and trying to get into a really competitive residency (dermatology). I am so grateful for my knowledge of a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows us personally and who we can talk with in prayer; of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, who sacrificed everything so that I can be happy and return to live with them; for a living prophet who receives revelation in our day to lead the church, for the scriptures that we can go to for answers to life’s big questions, and for all the blessings that come through the plan of salvation and being a member of this church.
Now we are listening to beautiful music by Jon Schmidt while I write this blog. Camden is dancing in the background and Isaac is watching with wide eyes. Sundays are so wonderfully nice and relaxing – a day away from the commotions of the world and everyday life; a day to spend with the family and just enjoy being together.
On Tuesday I took my second biggest test of medical school – it is called the USMLE Step 2 CK (United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step 2, Clinical Knowledge). I had to go to a testing center about 20 minutes away. The test consisted of 368 multiple choice questions divided into 8 blocks of 46 questions, with an hour to do each block – so 8 blocks total. You also get 1 hour of break time that you can use throughout the day as you want. Needless to say, it is a very long and mentally exhausting exam. I feel pretty good about my performance and hope that when I get my score back in the next 6 weeks it will reflect those feelings. :) Now I have some time off before the next “big” test – Step 3 of the licensing exams, which most people take near the end of their first year of residency (the internship year).
It felt so good to get that test done – no more having to spend every free minute doing practice questions online. Grandma Faun is here visiting and helping out with baby Isaac and the other boys, and she offered to watch the boys Tuesday night when I got home so we could go out to dinner to celebrate. We took her up on her offer and enjoyed a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Thanks grandma!
I had my first interview this week for a transitional year program at St. Luke’s, a hospital here in Milwaukee. Just as a reminder, I am applying to one year transitional year (intern year) programs and 3 year dermatology programs that will begin after I finish the transitional year. So far I have 6 transitional year and 7 dermatology interviews scheduled over the next few months. My first dermatology interview is the end of this month.
So for my interview Friday I had to be at St. Luke’s at 8:00am. There were 5 of us interviewing. This program has 13 spots available, and they said they interview about 80-100 people for those spots. They showed us a PowerPoint about the program, and then we were each interviewed by two doctors – the director and his assistant. One of the two had previously looked over our application and so already knew quite a bit about us, and the other was meeting us fresh for the first time – that way, they could get two different perspectives on us to help in choosing who they wanted. I think the interviews went really well and we had a lot to speak about in each one. Then we were taken on a tour of the hospital by two of the interns currently in the program, and then they took us to lunch, where we could sit and casually ask questions about the program. I am really impressed by this program – how much time and effort they put into the interns, the variety and flexibility of schedules, and how happy the interns seemed. It helps that several people in the ward are currently in the program or have been in the past, and so we have been able to talk with them and get their opinions, and everyone that has done that program really likes it.
Yesterday was our stake temple day. I ended up going down with a friend from the ward, Keith Wells, since both of our wives had just recently given birth and needed to stay home to feed the little ones. We had fun getting to know each other a little better on the drive down and back. I love going to the temple because I always learn so much while I am there and come back feeling so refreshed and full of peace. I can enter with lots of thoughts or troubles on my mind and leave with answers to my questions and feelings of comfort that things will work out. It is a small sacrifice to make time to get to the temple, but the blessings that come from the experience are so much bigger.
When we got back Keith helped me to set up our network between my laptop and our desktop so that I can print and share files over the wireless connection through the router (thanks Mom and Dad Bradshaw – we love it). So now I can sit on my couch in the front room and write things on my laptop (like this blog), save files to our shared file that Steph can access over on the other computer, or print a copy of my blog entry for Steph to add to the journal she is keeping of our blog entries – pretty cool. I love technology.
Today at church the theme in sacrament meeting was on gratitude – fitting, with Thanksgiving coming up this week. As the speakers were talking, I just started to reflect on all the things that I have to be grateful for. Heavenly Father continues to bless me and my family with all the things that we need. He makes sure that we are taken care of while here in Milwaukee, away from most of the family, with four little kids, surviving on medical school loans, and trying to get into a really competitive residency (dermatology). I am so grateful for my knowledge of a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows us personally and who we can talk with in prayer; of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, who sacrificed everything so that I can be happy and return to live with them; for a living prophet who receives revelation in our day to lead the church, for the scriptures that we can go to for answers to life’s big questions, and for all the blessings that come through the plan of salvation and being a member of this church.
Now we are listening to beautiful music by Jon Schmidt while I write this blog. Camden is dancing in the background and Isaac is watching with wide eyes. Sundays are so wonderfully nice and relaxing – a day away from the commotions of the world and everyday life; a day to spend with the family and just enjoy being together.
20 October 2007
First Dermatology Interview
Michael just got his first invitation for a dermatology interview at Texas A&M in Temple, Texas. He is waiting to hear back from them, and hoping for an interview date in the end of November. It is really exciting to get a derm interview, especially since we've heard that most derm programs don't send invitations until November. I wanted to keep track of his interview locations and dates, so I made a map of them and posted it down at the bottom of this page -- you can scroll all the way down to the bottom to take a look. Please keep our family in your prayers over the next few months as Michael gets more invitations and as he goes for his interviews that we will end up going to a residency program that is good for Michael and good for our entire family. Thank you!
09 October 2007
Random Unrelated Topics
So, I’m wondering if I started to feel Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday. You would think that by the fourth kid I would know for sure, but each one is different. It felt like the pain of contractions, and they were spaced out like Braxton Hicks, but instead of being a pain down low like with cramps, it was painful all over my belly. And they happened every once in a while all day yesterday. So, we’ll see. It’s interesting that I haven’t felt anything up until now – except with my first pregnancy, I felt the Braxton Hicks contractions much earlier on in the other pregnancies.
On a different subject, I think there is something seriously wrong with our VCR. We have a nice VCR-DVD player combination machine that we got when we were married, and we have really liked having the ability to play both types of movies. The DVD part of the machine is working fine, but the VCR has started having problems the last couple of days. A couple days ago I taped a show from tv and when I went back to watch it, every time I tried to fast forward through a commercial, the tape paused and wouldn’t let me hit play. If I stopped the tape it would let me rewind or fast forward, but even if I only hit the button for a couple of seconds it would quickly jump through most of the tape all at once. I figured that the tape was done for – we must have just taped shows on it over and over so many times that we needed to use a fresh tape. We tried that last night, but found that the machine had the same problem with a different tape. After messing around with it for a while, we finally found that the tape would only play correctly if Michael sat on the floor a foot in front of the VCR – if he would get up or even shift his weight a little, the tape paused. So, he sat on the hard wood floor last night for an hour while we watched our show that we had taped. It was actually rather comical to watch, although I’m sure it was less than comfortable for him. We have never heard of a problem like this before – any suggestions?
And on an entirely different topic, I had to mention something that happened to me yesterday. The other day I wrote a lengthy post about always getting negative comments from strangers about having all boys. So, I was getting all the boys out of the van yesterday morning to take Kolby into his preschool class at the YMCA, and a middle-aged man walked by and very jovially announced, “Three boys – you are so lucky! And probably another boy on the way. That is great!” I smiled and he just kept on walking by, and I felt like that nice comment from a stranger maybe (in some small way) redeemed all the other strangers who have said such thoughtless things when they saw how many boys we have.
Oh, and I just wanted to mention a cute thing Eli said last night. We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night to celebrate Michael finishing one of his Step 2 Board exams, (Pedros is quickly becoming one of our ‘favorite’ restaurants. Not so much because of the amazing cuisine – we like the food fine – but more because they keep sending us buy-one-get-one-free dinner coupons. They serve tortillas and chips and salsa and we usually take sandwiches and some snacks for the boys, and then Michael and I each order a meal and one of them is free with the coupon, so it ends up being a pretty cheep dinner for our family. No, we have no shame, we are not to proud to take sandwiches to a restaurant for our kids – but kids can be picky sometimes and not eat the restaurant food anyway, so why waste the money? We are just wondering how old our kids will get before they start demanding ‘real food,’ I guess when it gets to that point, we will just have to stop eating out altogether). :)
Well, I was going to tell about the funny thing that Eli said. We were at the restaurant and at one point in the meal the boys noticed a painting of a rooster hanging on the wall behind them. I said something about the rooster, and Eli said, “No, it’s not a rooster.” (I just assumed that he thought it was a chicken, and that maybe he wasn’t familiar with the word ‘rooster.’) Kolby told him that it was a rooster, and he said, “No, a moose.” I smiled and Kolby corrected him and told him it was a rooster again, and Eli said, “No, a mooster.” I thought that was pretty cute.
Ok, last thing. While I was writing this, Michael just called and said that he got another interview for a transition year program here in Milwaukee. It is at St. Luke’s Hospital, which is supposed to have a nice transition year. He set it up for November 16th. It has been nice to get a few invitations already. We’re just waiting until next month to start hearing back about dermatology residency interviews. Hey, here’s a question for any of our fellow medical students, residents, or fellows that may happen to be reading this: As you may know, most of the interview invitations are done by e-mail, and with many of the programs it seems that if you don’t respond to the e-mail invitation immediately, all the interview dates may already be full by the time you call. We heard of another student setting it up so that she receives a message on her pager when she gets a new e-mail (so she doesn’t have to worry about checking her e-mail every 20 minutes each day). Does anyone know how to do this? Is this something you do through your e-mail settings, or something extra that you have to pay for through your pager service (or both?) If anyone knows about how to set that up, that would be great, thanks!
On a different subject, I think there is something seriously wrong with our VCR. We have a nice VCR-DVD player combination machine that we got when we were married, and we have really liked having the ability to play both types of movies. The DVD part of the machine is working fine, but the VCR has started having problems the last couple of days. A couple days ago I taped a show from tv and when I went back to watch it, every time I tried to fast forward through a commercial, the tape paused and wouldn’t let me hit play. If I stopped the tape it would let me rewind or fast forward, but even if I only hit the button for a couple of seconds it would quickly jump through most of the tape all at once. I figured that the tape was done for – we must have just taped shows on it over and over so many times that we needed to use a fresh tape. We tried that last night, but found that the machine had the same problem with a different tape. After messing around with it for a while, we finally found that the tape would only play correctly if Michael sat on the floor a foot in front of the VCR – if he would get up or even shift his weight a little, the tape paused. So, he sat on the hard wood floor last night for an hour while we watched our show that we had taped. It was actually rather comical to watch, although I’m sure it was less than comfortable for him. We have never heard of a problem like this before – any suggestions?
And on an entirely different topic, I had to mention something that happened to me yesterday. The other day I wrote a lengthy post about always getting negative comments from strangers about having all boys. So, I was getting all the boys out of the van yesterday morning to take Kolby into his preschool class at the YMCA, and a middle-aged man walked by and very jovially announced, “Three boys – you are so lucky! And probably another boy on the way. That is great!” I smiled and he just kept on walking by, and I felt like that nice comment from a stranger maybe (in some small way) redeemed all the other strangers who have said such thoughtless things when they saw how many boys we have.
Oh, and I just wanted to mention a cute thing Eli said last night. We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night to celebrate Michael finishing one of his Step 2 Board exams, (Pedros is quickly becoming one of our ‘favorite’ restaurants. Not so much because of the amazing cuisine – we like the food fine – but more because they keep sending us buy-one-get-one-free dinner coupons. They serve tortillas and chips and salsa and we usually take sandwiches and some snacks for the boys, and then Michael and I each order a meal and one of them is free with the coupon, so it ends up being a pretty cheep dinner for our family. No, we have no shame, we are not to proud to take sandwiches to a restaurant for our kids – but kids can be picky sometimes and not eat the restaurant food anyway, so why waste the money? We are just wondering how old our kids will get before they start demanding ‘real food,’ I guess when it gets to that point, we will just have to stop eating out altogether). :)
Well, I was going to tell about the funny thing that Eli said. We were at the restaurant and at one point in the meal the boys noticed a painting of a rooster hanging on the wall behind them. I said something about the rooster, and Eli said, “No, it’s not a rooster.” (I just assumed that he thought it was a chicken, and that maybe he wasn’t familiar with the word ‘rooster.’) Kolby told him that it was a rooster, and he said, “No, a moose.” I smiled and Kolby corrected him and told him it was a rooster again, and Eli said, “No, a mooster.” I thought that was pretty cute.
Ok, last thing. While I was writing this, Michael just called and said that he got another interview for a transition year program here in Milwaukee. It is at St. Luke’s Hospital, which is supposed to have a nice transition year. He set it up for November 16th. It has been nice to get a few invitations already. We’re just waiting until next month to start hearing back about dermatology residency interviews. Hey, here’s a question for any of our fellow medical students, residents, or fellows that may happen to be reading this: As you may know, most of the interview invitations are done by e-mail, and with many of the programs it seems that if you don’t respond to the e-mail invitation immediately, all the interview dates may already be full by the time you call. We heard of another student setting it up so that she receives a message on her pager when she gets a new e-mail (so she doesn’t have to worry about checking her e-mail every 20 minutes each day). Does anyone know how to do this? Is this something you do through your e-mail settings, or something extra that you have to pay for through your pager service (or both?) If anyone knows about how to set that up, that would be great, thanks!
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!
02 October 2007
First Interview Invitation
So, Michael called from work to tell me that he got his first residency interview invitation today. It is for a transitional year in La Crosse, Wisconsin, about three hours from here. We had a couple friends from the ward go to La Crosse last year for their transitional years and they were telling us that it is a really family-friendly program and there are some nice perks, like really inexpensive resident housing. So, we were excited to get the invitation for the interview -- we have heard that he most likely won't get invitations for dermatology program interviews until November (and most of those interviews will probably be in December and January), but I hadn't really thought about the possibility that he might get interviews for some of the transitional year programs earlier. They gave him several different dates for the interview, and we are hoping that it will work out for him to do it on the 6th or 7th of November. So, keep our family in your prayers over the next few months that he can get as many interview invitations as possible, that the interview invitations he does get will not be on conflicting dates in different parts of the country, that his interviews will go well, and that we can match to a good dermatology program.
07 August 2007
Michael's Wisconsin Public Radio Interview
Taking the right dose can be hard if you can’t read the label 08/07/07
“According to census figures, Milwaukee County has twice as many Hispanics compared to the state as a whole. And a study by the Medical College of Wisconsin indicates that for those who don't speak English, getting understandable health information can be difficult when it comes to prescription medication. Shamane Mills reports…”
running time 1:00
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/18/1090312/Wisconsin%20Public%20Radio%20Interview%20of%20Michael%20Bradshaw%2C%20Aug%202007.ram
The other day a reporter from Wisconsin Public Radio called Michael and did an interview with him about his research paper that was published recently. The story played on the radio and was posted on the Wisconsin Public Radio website. If you would like to listen, click on the link above.
“According to census figures, Milwaukee County has twice as many Hispanics compared to the state as a whole. And a study by the Medical College of Wisconsin indicates that for those who don't speak English, getting understandable health information can be difficult when it comes to prescription medication. Shamane Mills reports…”
running time 1:00
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/18/1090312/Wisconsin%20Public%20Radio%20Interview%20of%20Michael%20Bradshaw%2C%20Aug%202007.ram
The other day a reporter from Wisconsin Public Radio called Michael and did an interview with him about his research paper that was published recently. The story played on the radio and was posted on the Wisconsin Public Radio website. If you would like to listen, click on the link above.
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