Here are the rest of the photos from San Diego in January. The first few pictures are from one day that the boys were playing with the stroller and decided to take a walk (inside my parents’ house), and they wanted me to take pictures of them on their walk. Isaac enjoyed sitting in the stroller basket for that little walk too.
The next set of pictures is from a day that we all walked with my mom to a nearby playground at Patriot Park, which is a nice little park that is right next to the elementary school in my parents’ neighborhood (the school that Kolby would go to if we happened to end up in San Diego for Michael’s transition year). I loved the fact that we were playing barefoot in the sand while it was blizzarding at negative temperatures in Milwaukee.
And the next big batch of photos in this slideshow is the day that we went down to Old Town for the Mormon Battalion anniversary. There were all sorts of fun little pioneer activities that the boys had fun doing, including making their own rope, making bricks, making pioneer (boy) dolls, cooking their own biscuits, drinking buttermilk, dressing up like pioneers, and panning for gold.
I took a few pictures of Isaac in his blessing outfit that my mom made while he was laying on the blanket that my dad and all of my boys have used on their blessing days. I couldn’t believe it when I realized that I had brought that little blanket all the way across the country to use on Isaac’s blessing day and I had forgotten to get it out for the blessing. But I still had to have some photos of him with it.
And the rest of the pictures are of the little birthday party that my family threw for Eli the night before we left San Diego. He adored that Elmo balloon that my mom got him, and he even took it all the way through airport security the next day until it popped in the airport. He also got a really fun little train track for his train set that has gates that open and close and it makes different train noises. All the boys were excited about that toy.
That trip sure was fun! The only bad thing about it was that Michael spent so much time interviewing that once we reached the last week of our stay in San Diego I felt like we really got to start vacationing with Michael there too, and then we had to leave before too long. (Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining that Michael got several interview invitations, but when he’s away I always miss him).
So, there it is. All caught up on the photos from our trip. That wasn’t too much work to get those all posted. Now I just need to get caught up on posting all of the photos from the last two months since we’ve been back in Wisconsin.
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
14 March 2008
23 January 2008
This Past Week
So, we just got home from skiing in Mammoth Lakes, California over the long weekend. Michael returned to San Diego two days ago with my dad and Aaron because he had to leave for his New York City interview early yesterday morning. Mom, Matthew, the boys, and I stayed an extra day and returned last night. Mom and Matthew went skiing in the morning yesterday and mom came home and watched the boys for me so I could ski in the afternoon. There was nice new powder on the mountain and Matthew and I had a lot of fun skiing through the trees. (For anyone who likes to ski at Mammoth, we found a really fun run yesterday -- if you take lift #5 up and go off the back side of the mountain, after you get past the first part of the run that is a little steep, go through the trees over on the right side of the run and it is a very nice run, especially if there is a foot or two of powder on the ground).
Oh, and on Monday we had a lot of fun because Kolby got to go skiing for the first time. Kids under the age of 6 ski for free at Mammoth, so we took advantage of that. He was so cute in his ski clothes, helmet and goggles and all. And his little skis were so tiny. We rode up the gondola to get to the ski mountain, and that was a major highlight of the trip for him. Once we got on the hill, he had a lot of fun. My dad gave him a little ski lesson and he did well for his first time. He went up the little rope tow lift on the bunny hill a couple of times before he said he didn't want to do that anymore and we went on a chair lift up higher on the bunny hill. He saw some little jumps on the way up and said he wanted to do that. Then we went up Schoolyard lift and had a last good run down that hill. It's a good thing that my dad is such a good skier, because he was able to ski with Kolby and then kind of hold him up on the steeper part of the hill and get him to the parts that he could try skiing on his own. At the very end Kolby got tired and we took off his skis and Dad skied down to the bottom of the hill with Kolby on his shoulders -- I wish we had a video of that part. We did get some clips and photos of Kolby skiing which I will definitely post later on. That sure was a fun experience to see him ski -- Michael commented that he is looking forward to when we can ski with all of our boys.
Anyways, we left the cabin last night around 7pm and got to the house a little after 1am. We got the car unpacked and the kids in to bed, and I went to sleep around 2am. Isaac woke up to eat at 4am, and I woke up holding him on my lap on the couch at 5am and found the empty bottle sitting on the floor at my feet. Then, because Isaac has had a bit of a stuffy nose the last couple of days, he woke up at 6am and I got him to go back to sleep by giving him his pacifier. Then he woke up again at 7am, and since I could hear Camden starting to talk through the baby monitor I gave up on the idea of sleep and just got up. So I'm kind of out of it today, but that extra day of skiing was worth it all.
I wrote our weekly update on Sunday afternoon, so here it is:
Well, I am writing this on Sunday, January 20th, even though I won’t have a chance to post it until we get back to the house in San Diego and have internet access. Right now we are in Mammoth – about 6 hours north of San Diego – at my parents’ cabin. We got up here late Friday night and Michael arrived yesterday evening with my dad – Michael had an interview he was flying in from and Dad had a business meeting yesterday morning, so they came up later. It’s nice being up here. I think the thing I like the most about coming to the cabin is that there is no school or work or other errands to run, so everyone is together hanging out the whole time. There’s about 8 feet of snow on the ground outside, and some of us got a chance to go skiing yesterday. In the morning I went with Mom and Aaron while Matthew watched the boys and then Mom traded in the afternoon and Matthew joined us. I love to ski. We had a lot of fun, especially going off some jumps and doing quite a few black diamond runs. Matthew and Aaron have both passed me up – they are both faster and better skiers than I am now since I’ve been out of practice for a while (and I am more cautious than I used to be). But I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up.
Before we came up to Mammoth, we also had several other fun things happen this week. Last weekend we went to the stake conference meeting at my parents’ church. We really enjoyed the Saturday evening meeting, which focused on parenting. One of the speakers had five boys (so we felt like we could relate to lots of the experiences he shared). One idea that he shared was to not only have one night each week devoted to family time, but to have another night each week devoted to individual time with each child. We liked that idea, especially with all of our boys being so close in age. I think we are going to try doing that once we get back from vacation – one night a week one of us will take one of the boys out and let them pick a fun activity to do. That should be fun.
Since we last wrote, Michael has had several interviews. He has been to Cincinnati Ohio, Dayton Ohio, Spokane Washington, Gainesville Florida, and Rochester New York. He had good experiences at all of these interviews, and it looks like it is going to be difficult to choose how we are going to rank all the programs because there are so many good ones to choose from. And I am glad that Michael only has one interview left to fly to – he is going to New York city this week. Then the only others he has left are a transitional year interview in San Diego a few days before we leave, and one last transitional year one in La Crosse, Wisconsin that we are all planning on driving to as a family the day after we get back to Milwaukee.
On Monday Erin Devenberg, my best friend from high school, came and visited. She and her mom came and stayed for lunch, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to see her again, and she got to come back for another short visit on Friday morning before we left. I can’t believe it had been over four years since I had seen Erin before that – she had never even seen any of the boys before – but she moved to Redding (in northern California) several years ago and we just hadn’t been able to make it to San Diego at the same time since then. It was nice to talk and catch up on each others’ lives.
I have also had fun playing ping pong with Michael, Matthew, and Aaron several times. Mom and I had fun looking at some model homes and going on several fun shopping trips. I’m sure that there are lots of other fun things we did since we last posted, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Hope you are all doing well.
Oh, and on Monday we had a lot of fun because Kolby got to go skiing for the first time. Kids under the age of 6 ski for free at Mammoth, so we took advantage of that. He was so cute in his ski clothes, helmet and goggles and all. And his little skis were so tiny. We rode up the gondola to get to the ski mountain, and that was a major highlight of the trip for him. Once we got on the hill, he had a lot of fun. My dad gave him a little ski lesson and he did well for his first time. He went up the little rope tow lift on the bunny hill a couple of times before he said he didn't want to do that anymore and we went on a chair lift up higher on the bunny hill. He saw some little jumps on the way up and said he wanted to do that. Then we went up Schoolyard lift and had a last good run down that hill. It's a good thing that my dad is such a good skier, because he was able to ski with Kolby and then kind of hold him up on the steeper part of the hill and get him to the parts that he could try skiing on his own. At the very end Kolby got tired and we took off his skis and Dad skied down to the bottom of the hill with Kolby on his shoulders -- I wish we had a video of that part. We did get some clips and photos of Kolby skiing which I will definitely post later on. That sure was a fun experience to see him ski -- Michael commented that he is looking forward to when we can ski with all of our boys.
Anyways, we left the cabin last night around 7pm and got to the house a little after 1am. We got the car unpacked and the kids in to bed, and I went to sleep around 2am. Isaac woke up to eat at 4am, and I woke up holding him on my lap on the couch at 5am and found the empty bottle sitting on the floor at my feet. Then, because Isaac has had a bit of a stuffy nose the last couple of days, he woke up at 6am and I got him to go back to sleep by giving him his pacifier. Then he woke up again at 7am, and since I could hear Camden starting to talk through the baby monitor I gave up on the idea of sleep and just got up. So I'm kind of out of it today, but that extra day of skiing was worth it all.
I wrote our weekly update on Sunday afternoon, so here it is:
Well, I am writing this on Sunday, January 20th, even though I won’t have a chance to post it until we get back to the house in San Diego and have internet access. Right now we are in Mammoth – about 6 hours north of San Diego – at my parents’ cabin. We got up here late Friday night and Michael arrived yesterday evening with my dad – Michael had an interview he was flying in from and Dad had a business meeting yesterday morning, so they came up later. It’s nice being up here. I think the thing I like the most about coming to the cabin is that there is no school or work or other errands to run, so everyone is together hanging out the whole time. There’s about 8 feet of snow on the ground outside, and some of us got a chance to go skiing yesterday. In the morning I went with Mom and Aaron while Matthew watched the boys and then Mom traded in the afternoon and Matthew joined us. I love to ski. We had a lot of fun, especially going off some jumps and doing quite a few black diamond runs. Matthew and Aaron have both passed me up – they are both faster and better skiers than I am now since I’ve been out of practice for a while (and I am more cautious than I used to be). But I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up.
Before we came up to Mammoth, we also had several other fun things happen this week. Last weekend we went to the stake conference meeting at my parents’ church. We really enjoyed the Saturday evening meeting, which focused on parenting. One of the speakers had five boys (so we felt like we could relate to lots of the experiences he shared). One idea that he shared was to not only have one night each week devoted to family time, but to have another night each week devoted to individual time with each child. We liked that idea, especially with all of our boys being so close in age. I think we are going to try doing that once we get back from vacation – one night a week one of us will take one of the boys out and let them pick a fun activity to do. That should be fun.
Since we last wrote, Michael has had several interviews. He has been to Cincinnati Ohio, Dayton Ohio, Spokane Washington, Gainesville Florida, and Rochester New York. He had good experiences at all of these interviews, and it looks like it is going to be difficult to choose how we are going to rank all the programs because there are so many good ones to choose from. And I am glad that Michael only has one interview left to fly to – he is going to New York city this week. Then the only others he has left are a transitional year interview in San Diego a few days before we leave, and one last transitional year one in La Crosse, Wisconsin that we are all planning on driving to as a family the day after we get back to Milwaukee.
On Monday Erin Devenberg, my best friend from high school, came and visited. She and her mom came and stayed for lunch, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to see her again, and she got to come back for another short visit on Friday morning before we left. I can’t believe it had been over four years since I had seen Erin before that – she had never even seen any of the boys before – but she moved to Redding (in northern California) several years ago and we just hadn’t been able to make it to San Diego at the same time since then. It was nice to talk and catch up on each others’ lives.
I have also had fun playing ping pong with Michael, Matthew, and Aaron several times. Mom and I had fun looking at some model homes and going on several fun shopping trips. I’m sure that there are lots of other fun things we did since we last posted, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Hope you are all doing well.
10 January 2008
Interview Season
I am writing this while on the airplane flying from Denver, Colorado to San Diego, California. I was at a dermatology residency interview today in Madison, Wisconsin. For the last several weeks I have been flying to cities all over the U.S. to interview for dermatology and transitional year residency programs. I am half way done and have my last interview February 1. Last month we were in Boise for a dermatology rotation with Dr. Randy Burr that was so much fun. We had a great time with my family and enjoyed celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with them.
The day after New Year’s I flew to Washington, D.C. for a dermatology interview with Washington Hospital. My cousin Tiffany Perry picked me up from the airport and let me stay at her place. She also took me on a car-ride tour of downtown D.C., which was really neat. We parked and walked up to the Jefferson Memorial, but it was really cold out and we went home after that. My interview was on Thursday, so I got to experience getting around on the metro and bus systems in D.C. I managed to make it to my interview location and had a nice day.
I flew back into Salt Lake late Thursday night, where my dad picked me up (thanks Dad) and dropped me off at Grandma Faun’s house, where Steph and the boys were (thanks Grandma Faun for letting us use your home). Steph and the rest of the family had driven to Utah earlier in the day for Jennie’s wedding open house the night before her wedding.
We got up early enough on Friday to get the kids all dressed and ready to go to the temple. They stayed in the waiting room with Annette, Mindy, and some other cousins, while Steph and I were able to go inside the temple for Jennie and Dalin’s wedding and sealing ceremony. The ceremony was so neat and wonderful, especially since the man who performed the sealing was an old friend from when we lived in Utah several years ago. He gave some really good advice about learning to love your spouse even more as you came to know more of their faults and shortcomings. It is still weird to think that Jennie is now married – I still think of her sometimes as barely a teenager. But we are so happy for her and Dalin.
Pictures outside after the ceremony were crazy. We had gotten new white shirts for the boys to wear in the picture, but then it was so cold out that they ended up having to wear their coats. There was a cold wind blowing, which made the dresses and hair fly all over the place and kept the babies crying – hopefully they got some ok pictures. Then we went to a church for a wedding lunch and then later to Mel and Christian’s to hang out for a little. It was so much fun to see everybody and just enjoy a good time together.
That night we had to get everything packed up to catch a plane Saturday morning for San Diego. My aunt Sue took us to the airport (thanks Sue) and taught us a nice way to get through security more quickly. We made it down to San Diego without too much trouble and rushed back to Steph’s parents’ home. Once there, we quickly changed into our Sunday clothes, just as the bishop arrived. We did Isaac’s baby blessing on Saturday in the Chidester home, since all the family was together only for the rest of that day. It was so neat to have everyone together for that event. I felt impressed to bless Isaac with continued health and growth; with the knowledge of how he ended up here on Earth and how blessed he is to be born into a home with the gospel; that he will be a calming influence for the family and his brothers; that he will serve a mission and seek to marry in the temple; and that he will stay close to the Lord through prayer and personal revelation.
We had a little bit of time afterward to exchange Christmas presents – the boys got some trains and a train set that they love from Nana and Papa, and we appreciate all the other gifts too. Then the adults were off in the cars to Newport, about 1.5 hours north, to do a sealing session in the temple there. Our boys stayed with Matthew, Aaron and some family friends who are living with Steph’s family (thanks to all of you for watching them). We got up to the temple and Grandma Faun realized that she had left the paper behind that she needed – but the temple staff were still able to help us. For some reason there was a miscommunication about us coming, so they didn’t have us on their schedule, but then a sealer/recorder happened to still be in the temple just at the right time to help us. Everything seemed to work together so that we could get those sealings done that night, and we had a wonderful time spending the night together as a family. We realized that it was the first time in about 3 years that the entire family was together.
Sunday morning I took off early for an interview on Monday in Marshfield, Wisconsin and then the one today in Madison, Wisconsin. My flight went through Denver and was supposed to land in Madison, but due to fog, our flight was diverted to Chicago O’Hare. I was pretty flustered -- especially since we have made an effort to avoid the O'Hare airport at all costs after the last time I got stuck there and missed some interviews because of their delayed and cancelled flights. I had to then wait for some time to catch a bus up to Madison, which took about 3.5 hours to get there. In Madison I picked up my rental car and then drove the 2 more hours to Marshfield. I have never driven through such dense fog before. I was glad to have the GPS that I decided to rent along with the rental car, because otherwise I probably would have gotten lost. I had been planning on getting there around 3pm, but instead arrived at 11pm. I missed the dinner that night, which I was sad about, because that is when you get to spend time with the residents and learn from them in an informal setting what the program is like, but at least I made it there for the interview on Monday. Marshfield is a pretty small city – about 22,000. I really enjoyed my interview day there. The program director there is very committed to education and teaching residents to become excellent clinicians. They have a very strong medical dermatology and dermatopathology program, with an ok surgical derm portion, though not as much surgery experience as I would ideally like. They use an electronic medical record system and each resident is loaned a digital camera, a dermatoscope (kind of like a magnifying glass with lights that help you to look more closely at the skin), and a notepad laptop. The place seems very family friendly and has a very low cost of living. I liked it there.
Once done in Marshfield, it was back to Madison last night for another dinner. The fog was still present and made for an interesting drive – at least it kept me on my toes. After checking in at the hotel I walked to the Italian restaurant and met the Madison residents. We had a pleasant evening and then an enjoyable interview day today. All of the faculty again seemed very nice. Madison is a nice city, a little smaller than Milwaukee, but cost of living is about the same as Milwaukee. This program seems to have a little more surgery opportunities, but it might be a little harder to find a house that we could afford. This is going to be a tough decision as we try to decide how to rank all the different programs. There are so many things to think about – the program itself, the city and surrounding area, cost of living, schools, weather, and so much more. I am excited to find out in March where we will be for the next 4 years. We’ll continue to keep you informed.
The day after New Year’s I flew to Washington, D.C. for a dermatology interview with Washington Hospital. My cousin Tiffany Perry picked me up from the airport and let me stay at her place. She also took me on a car-ride tour of downtown D.C., which was really neat. We parked and walked up to the Jefferson Memorial, but it was really cold out and we went home after that. My interview was on Thursday, so I got to experience getting around on the metro and bus systems in D.C. I managed to make it to my interview location and had a nice day.
I flew back into Salt Lake late Thursday night, where my dad picked me up (thanks Dad) and dropped me off at Grandma Faun’s house, where Steph and the boys were (thanks Grandma Faun for letting us use your home). Steph and the rest of the family had driven to Utah earlier in the day for Jennie’s wedding open house the night before her wedding.
We got up early enough on Friday to get the kids all dressed and ready to go to the temple. They stayed in the waiting room with Annette, Mindy, and some other cousins, while Steph and I were able to go inside the temple for Jennie and Dalin’s wedding and sealing ceremony. The ceremony was so neat and wonderful, especially since the man who performed the sealing was an old friend from when we lived in Utah several years ago. He gave some really good advice about learning to love your spouse even more as you came to know more of their faults and shortcomings. It is still weird to think that Jennie is now married – I still think of her sometimes as barely a teenager. But we are so happy for her and Dalin.
Pictures outside after the ceremony were crazy. We had gotten new white shirts for the boys to wear in the picture, but then it was so cold out that they ended up having to wear their coats. There was a cold wind blowing, which made the dresses and hair fly all over the place and kept the babies crying – hopefully they got some ok pictures. Then we went to a church for a wedding lunch and then later to Mel and Christian’s to hang out for a little. It was so much fun to see everybody and just enjoy a good time together.
That night we had to get everything packed up to catch a plane Saturday morning for San Diego. My aunt Sue took us to the airport (thanks Sue) and taught us a nice way to get through security more quickly. We made it down to San Diego without too much trouble and rushed back to Steph’s parents’ home. Once there, we quickly changed into our Sunday clothes, just as the bishop arrived. We did Isaac’s baby blessing on Saturday in the Chidester home, since all the family was together only for the rest of that day. It was so neat to have everyone together for that event. I felt impressed to bless Isaac with continued health and growth; with the knowledge of how he ended up here on Earth and how blessed he is to be born into a home with the gospel; that he will be a calming influence for the family and his brothers; that he will serve a mission and seek to marry in the temple; and that he will stay close to the Lord through prayer and personal revelation.
We had a little bit of time afterward to exchange Christmas presents – the boys got some trains and a train set that they love from Nana and Papa, and we appreciate all the other gifts too. Then the adults were off in the cars to Newport, about 1.5 hours north, to do a sealing session in the temple there. Our boys stayed with Matthew, Aaron and some family friends who are living with Steph’s family (thanks to all of you for watching them). We got up to the temple and Grandma Faun realized that she had left the paper behind that she needed – but the temple staff were still able to help us. For some reason there was a miscommunication about us coming, so they didn’t have us on their schedule, but then a sealer/recorder happened to still be in the temple just at the right time to help us. Everything seemed to work together so that we could get those sealings done that night, and we had a wonderful time spending the night together as a family. We realized that it was the first time in about 3 years that the entire family was together.
Sunday morning I took off early for an interview on Monday in Marshfield, Wisconsin and then the one today in Madison, Wisconsin. My flight went through Denver and was supposed to land in Madison, but due to fog, our flight was diverted to Chicago O’Hare. I was pretty flustered -- especially since we have made an effort to avoid the O'Hare airport at all costs after the last time I got stuck there and missed some interviews because of their delayed and cancelled flights. I had to then wait for some time to catch a bus up to Madison, which took about 3.5 hours to get there. In Madison I picked up my rental car and then drove the 2 more hours to Marshfield. I have never driven through such dense fog before. I was glad to have the GPS that I decided to rent along with the rental car, because otherwise I probably would have gotten lost. I had been planning on getting there around 3pm, but instead arrived at 11pm. I missed the dinner that night, which I was sad about, because that is when you get to spend time with the residents and learn from them in an informal setting what the program is like, but at least I made it there for the interview on Monday. Marshfield is a pretty small city – about 22,000. I really enjoyed my interview day there. The program director there is very committed to education and teaching residents to become excellent clinicians. They have a very strong medical dermatology and dermatopathology program, with an ok surgical derm portion, though not as much surgery experience as I would ideally like. They use an electronic medical record system and each resident is loaned a digital camera, a dermatoscope (kind of like a magnifying glass with lights that help you to look more closely at the skin), and a notepad laptop. The place seems very family friendly and has a very low cost of living. I liked it there.
Once done in Marshfield, it was back to Madison last night for another dinner. The fog was still present and made for an interesting drive – at least it kept me on my toes. After checking in at the hotel I walked to the Italian restaurant and met the Madison residents. We had a pleasant evening and then an enjoyable interview day today. All of the faculty again seemed very nice. Madison is a nice city, a little smaller than Milwaukee, but cost of living is about the same as Milwaukee. This program seems to have a little more surgery opportunities, but it might be a little harder to find a house that we could afford. This is going to be a tough decision as we try to decide how to rank all the different programs. There are so many things to think about – the program itself, the city and surrounding area, cost of living, schools, weather, and so much more. I am excited to find out in March where we will be for the next 4 years. We’ll continue to keep you informed.
28 December 2007
Merry Christmas!
Well, we missed writing our weekly post last Sunday with Christmas this week, so I’ve got a little catching up to do. So, last week Michael finished up with another set of interviews. On Sunday, December 16th he flew from Milwaukee to Los Angeles for a derm interview with the Harbor-UCLA program. He liked the LA program a lot, and was interested in the large Latino population he would have the opportunity to serve if he ended up doing his residency there. He also enjoyed stopping briefly at the beach, which was about 30 minutes from his interview location. The only downside to the LA program is the fact that a decent-sized house would be a lot less affordable in LA than in some of the other places he has interviewed at so far, and the program in LA didn’t seem to be geared quite as much towards family as the Pennsylvania and Texas programs where he has interviewed. As much as I hate to admit it, we are starting to think about those other two programs a little more than the California one, just because we could get a house now and possibly save up a little more so that by the time residency is finished and we have a doctor’s income, we could actually afford a place in southern California. But it is still a really close decision – and he has several other interviews coming up, so who knows what our top choices will be in the upcoming weeks. Michael got another derm invitation today to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.
I am glad that Michael has been fortunate enough to receive several interview invitations, but I admit that I am looking forward to him being done with all the scheduling of flights, hotels, and ground transportation, having the shirts and suits dry cleaned, spending hours in airports with cancelled or delayed flights, feeling nervous before interviews, having him away on so many trips, having him tired from all his travels, and wondering where we will eventually end up. I am such a planner – I like to be in control and have everything in my life all planned out, but this is just something that I have to wait and see what will happen to us. I can’t believe, though, that match day is in 3 months – then we will know where we will be going. I am really excited to move into a house and start over in a new place. The one thing that we are not looking forward to, though, is the fact that it looks like we will likely be leaving the good friends we have made in Milwaukee. It’s kind of funny – when we left BYU, Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock were some of our good friends there and we thought we would never see them again. I was pretty sad when we left because I have never been the greatest at keeping in touch with friends after moving, and I thought that eventually we would loose touch. So, we were so excited a year and a half later when the Hedgecocks moved to Milwaukee for a summer internship and then returned again to Milwaukee the following year for a job. So, I keep thinking that all of our close friends in Milwaukee should follow us when we go on this next move – wouldn’t that be nice? Well, on to the other events of these last couple weeks:
Anyways, on Monday last week Michael had his UCLA interview and then flew back to Boise that night. On Tuesday night after we put the kids to bed, Bryce Christensen came over and we played a game of Settlers. And then on Wednesday Michael flew out to Salt Lake for a transitional year interview. He said the interview went well, and the only down side to going there for our first year is that they told him they keep their interns pretty busy at the hospital compared to some of the other places he’s interviewed at. But one big draw to going there for the first year is that my Grandma Faun invited us to live with her if we end up in Salt Lake – she has a full finished basement we could use that is probably larger than our current apartment, so having a year rent-free to save up for a house would be a pretty difficult offer to pass up. On Thursday evening Michael was supposed to fly back in to Boise in time for us all to go to the temple together for Jennie’s endowment, but there was snow in Salt Lake and Michael’s plane sat on the runway for 2 hours causing him to arrive in Boise about half an hour after the temple session began. I went and it was nice to be at the temple – Jennie and her fiancé Dalin were there along with Michael’s parents, Dalin’s parents, Dalin’s grandparents, and Dalin’s best friend who just returned from his mission in Ireland.
On Friday evening we played games with the family and then Michael and I went out to do some Christmas shopping late after the boys were in bed. And then on Saturday we got the boys ready in the morning and went to JC Penney to have their pictures taken. Grandma Faun gave us some Christmas money for the boys and we got them these adorable sweaters and matching hats, so we just had to have their pictures taken. It is proving more and more difficult to have successful portrait shoots of all the boys together with each baby we have. Oh well – I guess that if we give it a few years the older ones will start to be a little easier to photograph, at least. One thing we decided to do was take individual shots of each boy along with the shot of all of them together. We’ve never done that before except with pictures of them in their Halloween costumes, but I decided that I wanted one nice one of each boy. We got really cute ones of each of them, and I asked Michael to get me some nice big frames for the photos for my Christmas gift, which I am looking forward to picking out after we get back to Milwaukee. After having the boys’ pictures taken we ran all over the place to try to get all our last-minute Christmas shopping and errands done. On Sunday church went pretty well, although Camden spent the middle hour out in the hallway. But other than that the boys did pretty well.
And then Monday was Christmas Eve. That morning we took the boys outside in the back yard to play in the snow and build a snowman. The older three boys had a lot of fun, and Camden even did really well out in the snow for a while until his mitten kept falling off and his hand got cold and wet. I brought him in after than and Michael stayed out a little longer with Kolby and Eli. The three of them were running around and wrestling in the snow and for the first time neither of them were crying from the cold by the time they were done playing. I know Michael really enjoyed playing out there with them. Later on that evening I got a migraine headache, which is unusual for me because I haven’t had one of those since high school. I went downstairs and slept for an hour before Michael got me up. I came upstairs and it was really nice because Jennie’s fiancé, Dalin, came over with his parents, but his dad was dressed up in a full Santa Claus suit with gifts for our boys. That was so nice of him to do that just for us. The boys loved it. Afterwards, they watched from the window as they left and Kolby remarked, “Look, Santa has a car!”
After that I tried to stay up, but the migraine just wasn’t going away. I felt really awful, because I didn’t want to miss the Christmas Eve traditions with our boys, but I had to go back to sleep. My prayers and the family’s prayers must have helped, because half an hour later I got up for dinner and was ok the rest of the night, except for a pounding pain in my head whenever I bent over or stood up – but I have never heard of such a quick recovery from a migraine before. We had fried chicken for dinner and then we all got in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights. The boys were excited to see all the lights and I was surprised that none of the older three boys fell asleep in the car. When we got back to the house Santa had come and left two gifts (Santa always leaves a game on Christmas Eve at the Bradshaw house for the family to play together that night). There was a game that we could play with the boys and one for the adults. We played the kids game, a Disney Bingo DVD game that shows different Disney characters on Bingo spaces and the kids can find the characters and cover the spots on their Bingo cards. Kolby and Eli could actually play the game, and they have had fun playing it a few times since then. After the boys went to bed and the parents got all the gifts out and filled the stockings, we played the other game that Santa left – a fun new game called Blokus. And then when Michael and I went downstairs we watched The Singles 2nd Ward, which actually turned out to be a really funny movie – it’s been a while since I saw the first movie, but I don’t remember liking it as much as I did the second one.
The next morning everyone came upstairs at 8:30 and opened gifts from Santa. The Bradshaw family has certain gifts that are from Santa Claus and their stockings in the family room, then they eat breakfast and move into the living room to open the majority of the gifts from the family members under the Christmas tree. It has been fun to watch the boys this year as they start to understand more about the gift giving and the traditions of Christmas. Kolby especially is really starting to get old enough to really enjoy the holiday. We were blessed with many nice gifts from our family members, and we really appreciate everyone’s kindness.
The day after Christmas we took the boys to Barnes and Noble to meet Grandma Bradshaw and some of Michael’s cousins and their children who live in the area. Grandma Bradshaw wanted to get a book for each of the children, and they had fun picking those out. Then we went to make a couple returns and run a few more errands. I stopped at JC Penney to look at a cute dress I had seen there before (since I have some birthday money to use) and I happened to notice a sign that said there was a door buster deal going on so all the dresses were ½ off before 1:00 that afternoon. It was just before 1:00 when I saw that sign, so I quickly picked 4 dresses and went and bought them before the sale ended, and then I went and tried them all on. They actually all turned out to be pretty cute, so Michael talked me into keeping them. I think I will see if I happen to get enough birthday money to cover the cost of all 4 dresses, and if not I can always return one later on. But that was really fun, because I haven’t bought a dress in quite a while and I felt really pretty in all of them. It’s fun to get dressed up nice. That night after we put the boys to bed we went to Jennie and Dalin’s last indoor soccer game of the season, which was fun to watch.
Then on Thursday it was our 5-year wedding anniversary. When Michael came home from work he brought me a very pretty bouquet of flowers. And then Dick and Debbie were kind enough to watch the boys for us so we could go out together. We were originally tossing around the idea of going on a little cruise in January to celebrate our anniversary if we could find a good deal, but we decided that the cost of a cruise and getting me a passport just wasn’t realistic right now, and since we are only going to be in San Diego for 3 weeks we didn’t want to miss any of our time there. So, we decided to go out for a really nice dinner and see a movie instead. We got all dressed up and went for our reservations at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant downtown, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Then we went and saw National Treasure 2, which we really enjoyed and thought was just as good as the first one. It was a great night out.
Today Michael had a good day at work – he said he got to close up on several patients and he is feeling pretty comfortable now about his ability to do stitches. He usually gets off at 2:00 on Friday afternoons here, but he didn’t get home until around 6:00 tonight, and I was starting to get pretty worried about him, especially after I called and the office was closed. But I guess they had a longer day than normal to do some catch-up after the holiday and then Dr. Burr took him and the other student out for dinner, and he didn’t have a chance to call. I was relieved when he made it home safe.
Well, we are winding up our Boise leg of the trip pretty soon here. Michael will go in for his last day of work with Dr. Burr on Monday and then we will celebrate New Years. And on Wednesday next week Michael will fly out to Washington D.C. for another derm interview. Then on Thursday morning the boys and I will be driving down with the rest of Michael’s family to Utah for Jennie’s wedding. The reception will be Thursday evening, and Michael will have to miss that because he couldn’t get a flight back from his interview soon enough to make it to the reception. But he will get back to Salt Lake that night and then on Friday morning we will go to the wedding and to the family luncheon. And then we will fly out of Salt Lake to San Diego on January 5th. Busy, busy – never a dull moment.
I am glad that Michael has been fortunate enough to receive several interview invitations, but I admit that I am looking forward to him being done with all the scheduling of flights, hotels, and ground transportation, having the shirts and suits dry cleaned, spending hours in airports with cancelled or delayed flights, feeling nervous before interviews, having him away on so many trips, having him tired from all his travels, and wondering where we will eventually end up. I am such a planner – I like to be in control and have everything in my life all planned out, but this is just something that I have to wait and see what will happen to us. I can’t believe, though, that match day is in 3 months – then we will know where we will be going. I am really excited to move into a house and start over in a new place. The one thing that we are not looking forward to, though, is the fact that it looks like we will likely be leaving the good friends we have made in Milwaukee. It’s kind of funny – when we left BYU, Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock were some of our good friends there and we thought we would never see them again. I was pretty sad when we left because I have never been the greatest at keeping in touch with friends after moving, and I thought that eventually we would loose touch. So, we were so excited a year and a half later when the Hedgecocks moved to Milwaukee for a summer internship and then returned again to Milwaukee the following year for a job. So, I keep thinking that all of our close friends in Milwaukee should follow us when we go on this next move – wouldn’t that be nice? Well, on to the other events of these last couple weeks:
Anyways, on Monday last week Michael had his UCLA interview and then flew back to Boise that night. On Tuesday night after we put the kids to bed, Bryce Christensen came over and we played a game of Settlers. And then on Wednesday Michael flew out to Salt Lake for a transitional year interview. He said the interview went well, and the only down side to going there for our first year is that they told him they keep their interns pretty busy at the hospital compared to some of the other places he’s interviewed at. But one big draw to going there for the first year is that my Grandma Faun invited us to live with her if we end up in Salt Lake – she has a full finished basement we could use that is probably larger than our current apartment, so having a year rent-free to save up for a house would be a pretty difficult offer to pass up. On Thursday evening Michael was supposed to fly back in to Boise in time for us all to go to the temple together for Jennie’s endowment, but there was snow in Salt Lake and Michael’s plane sat on the runway for 2 hours causing him to arrive in Boise about half an hour after the temple session began. I went and it was nice to be at the temple – Jennie and her fiancé Dalin were there along with Michael’s parents, Dalin’s parents, Dalin’s grandparents, and Dalin’s best friend who just returned from his mission in Ireland.
On Friday evening we played games with the family and then Michael and I went out to do some Christmas shopping late after the boys were in bed. And then on Saturday we got the boys ready in the morning and went to JC Penney to have their pictures taken. Grandma Faun gave us some Christmas money for the boys and we got them these adorable sweaters and matching hats, so we just had to have their pictures taken. It is proving more and more difficult to have successful portrait shoots of all the boys together with each baby we have. Oh well – I guess that if we give it a few years the older ones will start to be a little easier to photograph, at least. One thing we decided to do was take individual shots of each boy along with the shot of all of them together. We’ve never done that before except with pictures of them in their Halloween costumes, but I decided that I wanted one nice one of each boy. We got really cute ones of each of them, and I asked Michael to get me some nice big frames for the photos for my Christmas gift, which I am looking forward to picking out after we get back to Milwaukee. After having the boys’ pictures taken we ran all over the place to try to get all our last-minute Christmas shopping and errands done. On Sunday church went pretty well, although Camden spent the middle hour out in the hallway. But other than that the boys did pretty well.
And then Monday was Christmas Eve. That morning we took the boys outside in the back yard to play in the snow and build a snowman. The older three boys had a lot of fun, and Camden even did really well out in the snow for a while until his mitten kept falling off and his hand got cold and wet. I brought him in after than and Michael stayed out a little longer with Kolby and Eli. The three of them were running around and wrestling in the snow and for the first time neither of them were crying from the cold by the time they were done playing. I know Michael really enjoyed playing out there with them. Later on that evening I got a migraine headache, which is unusual for me because I haven’t had one of those since high school. I went downstairs and slept for an hour before Michael got me up. I came upstairs and it was really nice because Jennie’s fiancé, Dalin, came over with his parents, but his dad was dressed up in a full Santa Claus suit with gifts for our boys. That was so nice of him to do that just for us. The boys loved it. Afterwards, they watched from the window as they left and Kolby remarked, “Look, Santa has a car!”
After that I tried to stay up, but the migraine just wasn’t going away. I felt really awful, because I didn’t want to miss the Christmas Eve traditions with our boys, but I had to go back to sleep. My prayers and the family’s prayers must have helped, because half an hour later I got up for dinner and was ok the rest of the night, except for a pounding pain in my head whenever I bent over or stood up – but I have never heard of such a quick recovery from a migraine before. We had fried chicken for dinner and then we all got in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights. The boys were excited to see all the lights and I was surprised that none of the older three boys fell asleep in the car. When we got back to the house Santa had come and left two gifts (Santa always leaves a game on Christmas Eve at the Bradshaw house for the family to play together that night). There was a game that we could play with the boys and one for the adults. We played the kids game, a Disney Bingo DVD game that shows different Disney characters on Bingo spaces and the kids can find the characters and cover the spots on their Bingo cards. Kolby and Eli could actually play the game, and they have had fun playing it a few times since then. After the boys went to bed and the parents got all the gifts out and filled the stockings, we played the other game that Santa left – a fun new game called Blokus. And then when Michael and I went downstairs we watched The Singles 2nd Ward, which actually turned out to be a really funny movie – it’s been a while since I saw the first movie, but I don’t remember liking it as much as I did the second one.
The next morning everyone came upstairs at 8:30 and opened gifts from Santa. The Bradshaw family has certain gifts that are from Santa Claus and their stockings in the family room, then they eat breakfast and move into the living room to open the majority of the gifts from the family members under the Christmas tree. It has been fun to watch the boys this year as they start to understand more about the gift giving and the traditions of Christmas. Kolby especially is really starting to get old enough to really enjoy the holiday. We were blessed with many nice gifts from our family members, and we really appreciate everyone’s kindness.
The day after Christmas we took the boys to Barnes and Noble to meet Grandma Bradshaw and some of Michael’s cousins and their children who live in the area. Grandma Bradshaw wanted to get a book for each of the children, and they had fun picking those out. Then we went to make a couple returns and run a few more errands. I stopped at JC Penney to look at a cute dress I had seen there before (since I have some birthday money to use) and I happened to notice a sign that said there was a door buster deal going on so all the dresses were ½ off before 1:00 that afternoon. It was just before 1:00 when I saw that sign, so I quickly picked 4 dresses and went and bought them before the sale ended, and then I went and tried them all on. They actually all turned out to be pretty cute, so Michael talked me into keeping them. I think I will see if I happen to get enough birthday money to cover the cost of all 4 dresses, and if not I can always return one later on. But that was really fun, because I haven’t bought a dress in quite a while and I felt really pretty in all of them. It’s fun to get dressed up nice. That night after we put the boys to bed we went to Jennie and Dalin’s last indoor soccer game of the season, which was fun to watch.
Then on Thursday it was our 5-year wedding anniversary. When Michael came home from work he brought me a very pretty bouquet of flowers. And then Dick and Debbie were kind enough to watch the boys for us so we could go out together. We were originally tossing around the idea of going on a little cruise in January to celebrate our anniversary if we could find a good deal, but we decided that the cost of a cruise and getting me a passport just wasn’t realistic right now, and since we are only going to be in San Diego for 3 weeks we didn’t want to miss any of our time there. So, we decided to go out for a really nice dinner and see a movie instead. We got all dressed up and went for our reservations at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant downtown, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Then we went and saw National Treasure 2, which we really enjoyed and thought was just as good as the first one. It was a great night out.
Today Michael had a good day at work – he said he got to close up on several patients and he is feeling pretty comfortable now about his ability to do stitches. He usually gets off at 2:00 on Friday afternoons here, but he didn’t get home until around 6:00 tonight, and I was starting to get pretty worried about him, especially after I called and the office was closed. But I guess they had a longer day than normal to do some catch-up after the holiday and then Dr. Burr took him and the other student out for dinner, and he didn’t have a chance to call. I was relieved when he made it home safe.
Well, we are winding up our Boise leg of the trip pretty soon here. Michael will go in for his last day of work with Dr. Burr on Monday and then we will celebrate New Years. And on Wednesday next week Michael will fly out to Washington D.C. for another derm interview. Then on Thursday morning the boys and I will be driving down with the rest of Michael’s family to Utah for Jennie’s wedding. The reception will be Thursday evening, and Michael will have to miss that because he couldn’t get a flight back from his interview soon enough to make it to the reception. But he will get back to Salt Lake that night and then on Friday morning we will go to the wedding and to the family luncheon. And then we will fly out of Salt Lake to San Diego on January 5th. Busy, busy – never a dull moment.
17 December 2007
Odds and Ends from this Week
So, today is Michael’s ninth day in a row of traveling for interviews. I am very excited for him to come home late tonight. Since last Sunday he has been to Danville Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Chicago, and he is in LA today. The interview that he missed last week in Spokane, Washington because of all the flight cancellations has been rescheduled for next month too. He has one more interview on Thursday this week in Salt Lake, and then he will be done until the beginning of January, so that will be a nice break for a little while.
I already posted several things this last week about Isaac’s trip to the emergency room and my car troubles, so there wasn’t too much more that happened this week that was very exciting. Isaac, by the way, hasn’t had any more problems since the day before we took him to the hospital – so I guess that he grew out of it like they hoped he would and he won’t be needing surgery. I’m still surprised that he recovered so abruptly, but I am definitely grateful that he did.
This week Kolby did get to go to a children’s primary Christmas activity at the church. He came home with a jar of chocolate chip cookie ingredients that he had put together. I was also able to take Kolby and Eli swimming at the YMCA again, and Debbie was nice enough to watch Camden and Isaac for me to do that. This time we spent a little time in the baby pool so the boys could play on the water slides, but we spent most of our time there in the kid’s pool where the boys practiced jumping in to me, doing ‘bob’s (dunking their heads under the water), floating on their backs, etc. so it was a little closer to what they are used to doing in their swim lessons at home.
I have been able to do a little bit of shopping this week. I got the boys’ Christmas gift the other night at the toy store. And I was also able to find some pants and white shirts for the three older boys so they have something nice to wear for the photos at Jennie’s wedding in a few weeks and they have nice new clothes for church. Before Michael left on his trip we found them all some really cute coordinating sweaters and matching hats. They are so cute that I had to schedule to have the boys’ portraits taken later on this week (they clothes are Christmas gifts, but I really wanted to have their pictures taken in them before they have a chance to wear them around and get them dirty). When we had our family photos taken last month we got a good one of all four boys except Kolby wasn’t smiling, so I am hoping to get one that they all look really good in this time. We’ll see.
Oh, and I think I am going to have to cut Kolby’s hair short. I have been growing the boys’ hair out for the last few months, thinking it might look cute in a little longer style. But it has started to hang in their eyes, so the other day I decided to trim Kolby and Eli’s hair. I trimmed it so it doesn’t hang in their eyes and I tried to even it out in the back so that it didn’t have that “bowl cut” look in the back anymore. It worked pretty well on Eli’s hair, but not so well on Kolby’s. I have been trying to bring myself to fix Kolby’s hair for the last couple of days since I did that, but I know that I will be sad to see him with a shorter haircut – they always look so much older when you cut their hair shorter. But I think I am going to borrow some hair clippers and see what I can do with it. I’m sure he’ll look great with a shorter cut – just maybe not so much like my baby.
This weekend we got to go to the church Christmas party too, which was a Saturday morning breakfast. Santa Claus was there and the boys all sat on his lap while I took pictures. This is the first year that Kolby was old enough to start to grasp the concept of telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He told Santa he wanted a train set with a special bridge. And when Santa asked Eli what he wanted, Eli repeated verbatim what Kolby had asked for. (I guess that makes it easy, since my mom found them a train set for Christmas).
I already posted several things this last week about Isaac’s trip to the emergency room and my car troubles, so there wasn’t too much more that happened this week that was very exciting. Isaac, by the way, hasn’t had any more problems since the day before we took him to the hospital – so I guess that he grew out of it like they hoped he would and he won’t be needing surgery. I’m still surprised that he recovered so abruptly, but I am definitely grateful that he did.
This week Kolby did get to go to a children’s primary Christmas activity at the church. He came home with a jar of chocolate chip cookie ingredients that he had put together. I was also able to take Kolby and Eli swimming at the YMCA again, and Debbie was nice enough to watch Camden and Isaac for me to do that. This time we spent a little time in the baby pool so the boys could play on the water slides, but we spent most of our time there in the kid’s pool where the boys practiced jumping in to me, doing ‘bob’s (dunking their heads under the water), floating on their backs, etc. so it was a little closer to what they are used to doing in their swim lessons at home.
I have been able to do a little bit of shopping this week. I got the boys’ Christmas gift the other night at the toy store. And I was also able to find some pants and white shirts for the three older boys so they have something nice to wear for the photos at Jennie’s wedding in a few weeks and they have nice new clothes for church. Before Michael left on his trip we found them all some really cute coordinating sweaters and matching hats. They are so cute that I had to schedule to have the boys’ portraits taken later on this week (they clothes are Christmas gifts, but I really wanted to have their pictures taken in them before they have a chance to wear them around and get them dirty). When we had our family photos taken last month we got a good one of all four boys except Kolby wasn’t smiling, so I am hoping to get one that they all look really good in this time. We’ll see.
Oh, and I think I am going to have to cut Kolby’s hair short. I have been growing the boys’ hair out for the last few months, thinking it might look cute in a little longer style. But it has started to hang in their eyes, so the other day I decided to trim Kolby and Eli’s hair. I trimmed it so it doesn’t hang in their eyes and I tried to even it out in the back so that it didn’t have that “bowl cut” look in the back anymore. It worked pretty well on Eli’s hair, but not so well on Kolby’s. I have been trying to bring myself to fix Kolby’s hair for the last couple of days since I did that, but I know that I will be sad to see him with a shorter haircut – they always look so much older when you cut their hair shorter. But I think I am going to borrow some hair clippers and see what I can do with it. I’m sure he’ll look great with a shorter cut – just maybe not so much like my baby.
This weekend we got to go to the church Christmas party too, which was a Saturday morning breakfast. Santa Claus was there and the boys all sat on his lap while I took pictures. This is the first year that Kolby was old enough to start to grasp the concept of telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He told Santa he wanted a train set with a special bridge. And when Santa asked Eli what he wanted, Eli repeated verbatim what Kolby had asked for. (I guess that makes it easy, since my mom found them a train set for Christmas).
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27 November 2007
A Busy Week
So, it has been a busy week. I think we will continue to be very busy until we leave on our trip on Saturday – there is so much that I’d like to get done before we leave. I guess we’ll probably continue to be pretty busy after we get there too, with Michael’s interviews and working at the dermatologist’s office and with all the boys. I guess with this many little kids we’ll probably be busy more often than not the rest of our lives. But we wouldn’t want things to be boring around here, I guess. :)
So, on Monday after taking Kolby to preschool I took Isaac for his follow-up appointment with the ENT doctor who did his surgeries while he was in the NICU. He said that Isaac has now recovered fully and can be treated like a normal baby his age. That was nice to hear. Then we stopped at the pediatrician’s office for a weight check, and Isaac had gained a few ounces from his birth weight. I wasn’t surprised that he had at least gained a little weight, because he has had trouble nursing so I had been pumping and feeding him with a bottle for almost a week at that time, so I knew exactly how much he was eating and he was getting enough to eat.
On Tuesday Michael had his second transitional year program interview here in Milwaukee at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He said that the interview went well, was pretty relaxed, and went by pretty quickly. He got home early after his interview, so he was able to go with me to an appointment at the hospital for Isaac to try to help with his nursing in speech and sucking therapy. There was a nutritionist and a feeding specialist who both work with babies who met with us and watching Isaac suck on a pacifier, eat from a bottle, and nurse. They were both really nice, and after watching him they said that he was efficient and he had a good sucking and breathing pattern, and they didn’t know why he was having trouble with the nursing. They didn’t really have any more suggestions for us, other than the fact that they said we should supplement with formula as needed so that he could have 4 to 5 ounces to eat at each feeding. They told us a nice little way to know how much a baby needs to eat: take the baby’s weight and convert it to kilograms, and that is about how many ounces they should have at each feeding. Isaac was a little over 4 kilograms, so we have been giving him breastmilk and formula since then, because I have only been pumping about 2 ounces at a time. (I’m sure you all really needed to know that – oh well). So, I have continued to pump since then, and I plan to do so until we leave town. Then he will at least get the breastmilk until he is six weeks old. One thing that sure has been nice this last week is that since Isaac has been eating from a bottle, Grandma Faun has been getting up with him to feed him at night so I can sleep. That sure has been nice to be able to get my rest at night so I can keep up with things in the daytime. Thanks, Grandma!
On Wednesday Kolby had preschool and then he had his swim lesson that night, and Grandma went with so she could watch him swim. Today I signed Kolby and Eli up for the winter session of preschool and swim lessons. Eli will be going with Kolby three days a week to preschool, which I think both of them will really enjoy, and both boys will be taking their swim lessons on Wednesday nights. It will work really well because Kolby and Eli will be in different classes, but their classes will be held at either corner of one end of the pool, so I will be able to go sit in the middle of the two classes and watch them both do their lessons, but we won’t have to go out two nights in a row. I think that will work out really well.
On Thursday we had a fun Thanksgiving day. In the morning Michael got up early and went to play football with the other guys from church, and he said he made a couple touchdowns. Michael roasted a turkey, and Grandma and I made a lemon jello salad with bananas that my great grandma, Grandma Moore, used to make; a fruit salad with marshmallows that my other great grandma, Mamaw, used to make; a layered green salad with peas, swiss cheese, and red onions that my mom makes; funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs. We decorated the table with a new tablecloth and we used the china. It was fun.
On Friday morning I took Kolby to preschool and when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying that preschool was cancelled due to the holiday and a lack of attendance. So I took him with me to the DMV because I needed to renew my license before we leave town (and the paperwork that they sent in the mail listed the holidays that the DMV would be closed, and only listed Thanksgiving but not the day after Thanksgiving), but when I got there they were closed too for the holiday. Kind of wasted my whole morning, but oh well. That night the Hedgecocks came over and the boys played together and we got to play a card game, which was fun. It was nice to see them again after a while.
And then on Saturday we got a lot of errands run and that evening after dinner we took a little trip to Cabellas. It is a hunting and fishing store, and Grandma told us that they have the best licorice that she has ever had (although once we got the licorice there, she said that the stuff they sell at the Cabellas in Utah was better than here). But it was a fun little activity (and nice to get the whole family out of the house). It’s not only a store, but they also have giant fish tanks with trout and catfish and other fish, and lots of animals (stuffed) – all sorts of animals from the forest, and a little section with African animals. It was a really big store – we didn’t even have time to see the upstairs before it closed since it was pretty late when we got there. But the kids had fun – that was our first activity with the entire family out of our house since Isaac was born.
Sunday was kind of crazy. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to Michael yelling for help. I guess Michael was helping Kolby and Eli brush their teeth before church and Camden walked into the bathroom and fell and hit his mouth on the edge of the bathtub. We know that cuts in the mouth bleed a lot, but his was bleeding more than any other injury any of our children have had in the past. After we got it to stop bleeding and got him calmed down, Michael took the older boys to church. I noticed that one of Camden’s teeth looked like it was pushed back a little further than the other ones, and I called the pediatrician’s office to see if we needed to worry about that, or if it didn’t matter because it was just a baby tooth. The doctor on call suggested taking him into the hospital to have it checked out just in case there was root damage to the tooth. So Grandma stayed with Isaac while I took Camden to the emergency room. They told us that his tooth cut almost all the way through his top lip when he fell, but that they rarely do stitches in the mouth because the mouth heals on it’s own so quickly and because of the bacteria there is a high risk of infection when they do stitches inside the mouth, so they will only do that if it is a serious cut, like a really forked tongue or something. And they felt the tooth and said that it didn’t wiggle at all, so they weren’t concerned about that. So I don’t know if his tooth did move, or if it was already a little further back than the others and I had never noticed it before. So Camden is fine now – but he still has a big fat lip. Hopefully that will go away soon. After we got home from the hospital we decided to try to catch the second half of church. I wasn’t planning on taking Isaac this week, but Kolby gave a talk in primary, so Grandma and I wanted to be there to see that. He did really well, it was very cute. Then that night after dinner we had the Wellses, the Kearls, and the Hymases over for dessert. It was fun to get together with all of them before we leave.
This week has been crazy busy so far, and I think it will just continue to be really busy until we leave. Yesterday I had to get all the errands run that needed to be done because I knew we would not have a car today because we had to take it in to have the breaks and rotors replaced. So yesterday morning I took Kolby to school, got stamps at the library, went to the DMV and renewed my driver’s license, went home to call the doctor’s office to get Isaac’s medicine refilled, went back and picked up Kolby from school, signed the boys up for preschool and swimming lessons for the winter session when we return in February, went and got ink for the printer, picked up some diapers at the store, and then went to pick up Isaac’s medicine. When I got home and helped Grandma to finish feeding the kids lunch and put them all down for their naps, Grandma said that my visiting teacher had come while I was gone. I totally spaced the appointment she had set to come visit with me. Ooops! It seems like with so much going on I can’t manage to remember everything that I need to. I was thinking that my visiting teacher is going to think I am a forgetful person, but I’m really not usually like that (but maybe now that I have four little kids I am going to turn into a forgetful person – hopefully not, hopefully I will feel less forgetful after a few months when things calm down a bit and we get into some kind of regular routine).
So, last night we did have some fun. After running a few errands we went to the McDonalds down in West Allis and let the boys play in the big play area there. It is a two-story indoor playground with tunnels to climb through and two big slides, and it was especially fun because Camden went up in the play area for the first time. The first time he went up with Kolby and Kolby helped him through the tunnels to the slide. Then Michael and I each took a turn climbing up and helping him get up to the slides. The boys really enjoyed that.
And this week we have a lot planned. Tomorrow Michael leaves for his first dermatology interview in Temple, Texas with Texas A&M. He has a dinner with the residents Wednesday night and then the interview on Thursday. On Wednesday we also have a doctor’s check-up for Camden and Eli’s flu shot. Then on Thursday I am taking Isaac to Children’s Hospital to have him circumcision done (they didn’t get it done before he was discharge from the NICU, so this was the earliest time that we could get an appointment for him). And then on Friday I have my 6-week check-up after having the baby. And then we will be leaving early in the morning on Saturday. Our friends, Faith and Tyce, were so nice to say they would take us to the airport. Our family is getting so big, that we will need to take two cars to get to the airport now – with our family, my Grandma, a driver, and all our luggage for a two-month trip there is no way we could fit into one car. I don’t even know how we are going to pack for this trip, but I guess I’d better figure that out pretty soon. Well, Isaac was asleep and he keeps flailing his arms about and waking himself up – I guess I’d better go swaddle him so he can stay asleep.
Oh, here is the talk that Kolby gave in church on Sunday: (I helped him a bit with the beginning and end of the talk, but he came up with all the things he was thankful for all on his own).
“I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have blessings in my life. I am thankful for my blessings. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I am thankful for my brothers. I am thankful for the temple and the church. I am thankful for our Christmas tree. I am thankful for my whole family. I am thankful for my grandma. I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for my manta. I am thankful for songs. And I am thankful for our food and our clothes. I show that I am thankful in my prayers to Heavenly Father and Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
So, on Monday after taking Kolby to preschool I took Isaac for his follow-up appointment with the ENT doctor who did his surgeries while he was in the NICU. He said that Isaac has now recovered fully and can be treated like a normal baby his age. That was nice to hear. Then we stopped at the pediatrician’s office for a weight check, and Isaac had gained a few ounces from his birth weight. I wasn’t surprised that he had at least gained a little weight, because he has had trouble nursing so I had been pumping and feeding him with a bottle for almost a week at that time, so I knew exactly how much he was eating and he was getting enough to eat.
On Tuesday Michael had his second transitional year program interview here in Milwaukee at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He said that the interview went well, was pretty relaxed, and went by pretty quickly. He got home early after his interview, so he was able to go with me to an appointment at the hospital for Isaac to try to help with his nursing in speech and sucking therapy. There was a nutritionist and a feeding specialist who both work with babies who met with us and watching Isaac suck on a pacifier, eat from a bottle, and nurse. They were both really nice, and after watching him they said that he was efficient and he had a good sucking and breathing pattern, and they didn’t know why he was having trouble with the nursing. They didn’t really have any more suggestions for us, other than the fact that they said we should supplement with formula as needed so that he could have 4 to 5 ounces to eat at each feeding. They told us a nice little way to know how much a baby needs to eat: take the baby’s weight and convert it to kilograms, and that is about how many ounces they should have at each feeding. Isaac was a little over 4 kilograms, so we have been giving him breastmilk and formula since then, because I have only been pumping about 2 ounces at a time. (I’m sure you all really needed to know that – oh well). So, I have continued to pump since then, and I plan to do so until we leave town. Then he will at least get the breastmilk until he is six weeks old. One thing that sure has been nice this last week is that since Isaac has been eating from a bottle, Grandma Faun has been getting up with him to feed him at night so I can sleep. That sure has been nice to be able to get my rest at night so I can keep up with things in the daytime. Thanks, Grandma!
On Wednesday Kolby had preschool and then he had his swim lesson that night, and Grandma went with so she could watch him swim. Today I signed Kolby and Eli up for the winter session of preschool and swim lessons. Eli will be going with Kolby three days a week to preschool, which I think both of them will really enjoy, and both boys will be taking their swim lessons on Wednesday nights. It will work really well because Kolby and Eli will be in different classes, but their classes will be held at either corner of one end of the pool, so I will be able to go sit in the middle of the two classes and watch them both do their lessons, but we won’t have to go out two nights in a row. I think that will work out really well.
On Thursday we had a fun Thanksgiving day. In the morning Michael got up early and went to play football with the other guys from church, and he said he made a couple touchdowns. Michael roasted a turkey, and Grandma and I made a lemon jello salad with bananas that my great grandma, Grandma Moore, used to make; a fruit salad with marshmallows that my other great grandma, Mamaw, used to make; a layered green salad with peas, swiss cheese, and red onions that my mom makes; funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs. We decorated the table with a new tablecloth and we used the china. It was fun.
On Friday morning I took Kolby to preschool and when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying that preschool was cancelled due to the holiday and a lack of attendance. So I took him with me to the DMV because I needed to renew my license before we leave town (and the paperwork that they sent in the mail listed the holidays that the DMV would be closed, and only listed Thanksgiving but not the day after Thanksgiving), but when I got there they were closed too for the holiday. Kind of wasted my whole morning, but oh well. That night the Hedgecocks came over and the boys played together and we got to play a card game, which was fun. It was nice to see them again after a while.
And then on Saturday we got a lot of errands run and that evening after dinner we took a little trip to Cabellas. It is a hunting and fishing store, and Grandma told us that they have the best licorice that she has ever had (although once we got the licorice there, she said that the stuff they sell at the Cabellas in Utah was better than here). But it was a fun little activity (and nice to get the whole family out of the house). It’s not only a store, but they also have giant fish tanks with trout and catfish and other fish, and lots of animals (stuffed) – all sorts of animals from the forest, and a little section with African animals. It was a really big store – we didn’t even have time to see the upstairs before it closed since it was pretty late when we got there. But the kids had fun – that was our first activity with the entire family out of our house since Isaac was born.
Sunday was kind of crazy. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to Michael yelling for help. I guess Michael was helping Kolby and Eli brush their teeth before church and Camden walked into the bathroom and fell and hit his mouth on the edge of the bathtub. We know that cuts in the mouth bleed a lot, but his was bleeding more than any other injury any of our children have had in the past. After we got it to stop bleeding and got him calmed down, Michael took the older boys to church. I noticed that one of Camden’s teeth looked like it was pushed back a little further than the other ones, and I called the pediatrician’s office to see if we needed to worry about that, or if it didn’t matter because it was just a baby tooth. The doctor on call suggested taking him into the hospital to have it checked out just in case there was root damage to the tooth. So Grandma stayed with Isaac while I took Camden to the emergency room. They told us that his tooth cut almost all the way through his top lip when he fell, but that they rarely do stitches in the mouth because the mouth heals on it’s own so quickly and because of the bacteria there is a high risk of infection when they do stitches inside the mouth, so they will only do that if it is a serious cut, like a really forked tongue or something. And they felt the tooth and said that it didn’t wiggle at all, so they weren’t concerned about that. So I don’t know if his tooth did move, or if it was already a little further back than the others and I had never noticed it before. So Camden is fine now – but he still has a big fat lip. Hopefully that will go away soon. After we got home from the hospital we decided to try to catch the second half of church. I wasn’t planning on taking Isaac this week, but Kolby gave a talk in primary, so Grandma and I wanted to be there to see that. He did really well, it was very cute. Then that night after dinner we had the Wellses, the Kearls, and the Hymases over for dessert. It was fun to get together with all of them before we leave.
This week has been crazy busy so far, and I think it will just continue to be really busy until we leave. Yesterday I had to get all the errands run that needed to be done because I knew we would not have a car today because we had to take it in to have the breaks and rotors replaced. So yesterday morning I took Kolby to school, got stamps at the library, went to the DMV and renewed my driver’s license, went home to call the doctor’s office to get Isaac’s medicine refilled, went back and picked up Kolby from school, signed the boys up for preschool and swimming lessons for the winter session when we return in February, went and got ink for the printer, picked up some diapers at the store, and then went to pick up Isaac’s medicine. When I got home and helped Grandma to finish feeding the kids lunch and put them all down for their naps, Grandma said that my visiting teacher had come while I was gone. I totally spaced the appointment she had set to come visit with me. Ooops! It seems like with so much going on I can’t manage to remember everything that I need to. I was thinking that my visiting teacher is going to think I am a forgetful person, but I’m really not usually like that (but maybe now that I have four little kids I am going to turn into a forgetful person – hopefully not, hopefully I will feel less forgetful after a few months when things calm down a bit and we get into some kind of regular routine).
So, last night we did have some fun. After running a few errands we went to the McDonalds down in West Allis and let the boys play in the big play area there. It is a two-story indoor playground with tunnels to climb through and two big slides, and it was especially fun because Camden went up in the play area for the first time. The first time he went up with Kolby and Kolby helped him through the tunnels to the slide. Then Michael and I each took a turn climbing up and helping him get up to the slides. The boys really enjoyed that.
And this week we have a lot planned. Tomorrow Michael leaves for his first dermatology interview in Temple, Texas with Texas A&M. He has a dinner with the residents Wednesday night and then the interview on Thursday. On Wednesday we also have a doctor’s check-up for Camden and Eli’s flu shot. Then on Thursday I am taking Isaac to Children’s Hospital to have him circumcision done (they didn’t get it done before he was discharge from the NICU, so this was the earliest time that we could get an appointment for him). And then on Friday I have my 6-week check-up after having the baby. And then we will be leaving early in the morning on Saturday. Our friends, Faith and Tyce, were so nice to say they would take us to the airport. Our family is getting so big, that we will need to take two cars to get to the airport now – with our family, my Grandma, a driver, and all our luggage for a two-month trip there is no way we could fit into one car. I don’t even know how we are going to pack for this trip, but I guess I’d better figure that out pretty soon. Well, Isaac was asleep and he keeps flailing his arms about and waking himself up – I guess I’d better go swaddle him so he can stay asleep.
Oh, here is the talk that Kolby gave in church on Sunday: (I helped him a bit with the beginning and end of the talk, but he came up with all the things he was thankful for all on his own).
“I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have blessings in my life. I am thankful for my blessings. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I am thankful for my brothers. I am thankful for the temple and the church. I am thankful for our Christmas tree. I am thankful for my whole family. I am thankful for my grandma. I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for my manta. I am thankful for songs. And I am thankful for our food and our clothes. I show that I am thankful in my prayers to Heavenly Father and Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
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