Count Down to Match Day!

So, this week started out pretty busy (and kind of stressful), and ended up really nice. As I mentioned in my earlier post this week, we had to deal with all the financing for getting the new van and we are still trying to tie up things with the insurance company, but we are glad to be in a new van that works well (what a relief to have a car that doesn’t die when we stop at a red light and doesn’t need to be jumped if we leave the doors open (and the lights stay on) long enough to take the groceries into the house). After we got everything worked out with the van, got the house all cleaned up, and got past a few different days of a few of our kids being sick, it turned out to be a pretty good week.

The Egberts came over for dinner last Sunday night, which was fun to get to know them a little better. And I also had fun because we decided to get out the nice tablecloth and the china for dinner (we haven’t used the china for a while, but because Camden is in a high chair and Kolby and Eli are old enough now, and the Egberts’ kids are old enough too, so there weren’t any small babies to pull the dishes on the floor and break them). On Thanksgiving we set the table with the china and nice tablecloth too, and when the boys saw me get them out, they insisted that I get out the fancy candlestick I used at Thanksgiving too, so that was pretty cute. And our kids played great with the Londyn and Dyllin Egbert when they came over too. I think Kolby has a little crush on their daughter, Londyn. Londyn goes to Kolby’s gym class at the YMCA on Wednesdays, and this week I went to pick Kolby and Eli up from class and Kolby ran up to me and the first thing he said was, “Mommy, Londyn’s here!”

On Monday the boys missed preschool because Kolby woke up early in the morning throwing up (some kid at church the day before must have had a little bug or something). I wanted to stay inside that day, especially with Kolby having been sick in the night, but we had a WIC appointment that afternoon (the WIC office is only open two days a month, plus Kolby was acting totally fine during the day). So we went, and it’s probably a good thing that we got that done. And then we went over to the car place and emptied all of our possessions out of our old van. And then Michael was on call that night, but call hasn’t been bad this month at all so far. He is on call overnight, but this is one of the rare months in medical school that he is on home call, so they just call him in if they need him (which is what I assumed that ‘on call’ meant when we came into medical school, not the usual staying at the hospital overnight). Anyways, he hasn’t been called in yet, which has been really nice for us.

On Tuesday Michael got a little time off work in the day between surgeries and we went and signed the loan papers at the bank and then that night when he got home we went and picked up the van. It was great, except the radio needed to be fixed so we took it home without a radio while the dealer ordered a new one. Then that night Kolby and I had our night out, and we decided to go to the mall. I let Kolby pick what he wanted for dinner, and he got a burrito and a treat from Taco Bell (and I got to have Chinese food, which sounds much better to me than Taco Bell anytime). Then we went over to Barnes and Noble and Kolby played with the Thomas the Train set they have there in the bookstore for kids to play with. Then he picked out a few books and we sat together in one of the big comfy chairs and read them. Although it sure makes me smile when I see my little boys all getting along and playing well together or when I see one of the older ones being sweet to the baby, I have to agree with what my mom told me once: that she enjoys her each of her children individually more than all of them together. I think doing these little one-on-one nights with the kids once a week has been a really good idea so far, because we can do such simple activities with them and they still think it is the greatest thing ever to have alone time with Mommy or Daddy.

On Wednesday morning the boys had preschool and then they had swimming lessons that evening. Near the end of each session, the swim teachers hand out notes to the parents saying if the kids should take the same class again or move up a level in the next session. Kolby’s teacher said he is ready to move up, and Eli had a substitute teacher this week so we didn’t get a note for him yet. I had actually already signed the boys up to be in the same swim classes next session because it is so convenient for us to go and have them in their lessons in the same pool at the same time. The problem is that their lessons are from 6:30 to 7:00 now, and I was looking at the program for the spring session, and the class that the teacher recommended for Kolby is only during the middle of the day or right during our dinnertime. We’ll have to see what Eli’s teacher recommends and then decide if we want to change their classes for next session or not.

On Thursday I finished catching up on the housework that had gotten backed up with this busy week, even scrubbing the kitchen floor and getting everything looking nice again. Then we went over to Karissa’s house for Marcela’s baby shower. She is having a little boy, which will be so much fun. That night we had the Kearls over for games, which is always fun (although it might be nice someday to be able to afford a babysitter so that we could do things without our kids sometimes, but I do think that it’s pretty impressive that we can usually get all four of our kids and both of the Kearl’s kids down to sleep at the same time so that we can play games).

On Friday morning the boys missed preschool again because when I got Camden up in the morning I found that he had thrown up. After he got a good bath and some clean clothes he seemed just fine and didn’t act sick at all. That afternoon I made several cakes and decorated them for the young women’s fundraiser at church (and the next day I was able to ‘fix’ the frosting on two of them so they turned out better than the pictures I had posted earlier). Michael was on home call again on Friday, but didn’t have to go in, so that was nice.

Yesterday we got a lot of little things done in the morning that needed to be done. Michael went to the dealership and got the new radio put in the van, I went grocery shopping, Michael got all the laundry done, we cleaned the kitchen and picked up around the house, and I ‘fixed’ those cakes. On the way to the grocery store, I stopped at Kohls and they happened to be having a sale. I found some cute jewelry (thank you, Grandma Faun – this is what I ended up using the Christmas money for that you gave me and I had been saving up until I found something I really liked) and a shirt on sale, and I got Michael a few shirts on clearance too – I love the Tony Hawk brand of guy’s clothes at Kohls for Michael (especially when we can find them for a few dollars on the clearance rack). That night we went over to the church for our ward’s annual Chili Cook-off and the dessert auction fundraiser. It was fun to see friends at the party, and we were glad for the young women that the fundraiser seemed successful. (My cakes, by the way, did sell, even if they didn’t bring in the most money, but at least they didn’t have to return them to us because no one would bid on them). :) And after Michael came home and helped me get all the kids in bed, he was invited to go and play video games with a few guys from church. He said he wasn’t any good at the game they played, but it was nice to hang out with a few people that he hasn’t had a chance to hang out with in a while.

And today has gone pretty well so far. Michael had one of his home teaching appointments this morning and the boys are all ready to go to church. They have watched the Testaments church movie twice this morning (once in English and a second time in Spanish) while we finished getting everything ready to go. And Michael got the dinner started for tonight while I made bread. We are having corned beef for dinner (it’s my favorite way to have meat prepared).

I made my big batch of bread, and once again it didn’t rise as much as it should have. The bread tastes really good, but it only rises about as high as the edge of the bread pan and won’t go any higher than that. Last time I wrote about having trouble getting the bread to rise, several people gave me suggestions (thank you!), but many of them didn’t apply. I am using a Bosch to mix the bread, so it’s not a problem with the kneading process, and my mom just bought the yeast a few months ago, so the yeast is not too old, and she got me her favorite kind of yeast that she said doesn’t depend on the temperature of the water, so that shouldn’t be an issue either. I have tried letting the bread rise on top of the stove, on the countertop, and inside the oven at it’s lowest setting, and none has worked just right. So, I told Michael this morning that I am hoping the problem is just that our little oven cooks too hot or not hot enough, and maybe when we move we will have an oven that works better and that will resolve this issue. I would appreciate any other suggestions you have for me to try, though.

After church we are staying for choir practice because Michael is going to sing in the Easter program. Then we are having the Maases over for dinner. Marcela’s mom has come to stay with them for the next four months, and she mostly speaks Spanish, so I thought it would be nice for Michael to speak Spanish with her and make her feel welcome. Plus we haven’t been able to get together with the Maases lately, so it will be nice to talk to them again.

This week should be pretty exciting. Tomorrow morning at 11:00 Michael will get an e-mail telling him if he matched or not. Then on Thursday we will all go over to the school in the morning and sit at tables in the alumni center and wait while each student is called to the front of the room one at a time to receive an envelope telling them where they are going for residency. That is at 11 am also, and then there will be a lunch afterwards. And the Hedgecocks are being nice enough to watch our boys for us so that we can go out and celebrate by having a nice dinner out. Michael has been pretty anxious for the match the last week or so. I think he will feel a lot better after tomorrow when he knows that he did match, and is just waiting to find out where (hopefully). I have just been more impatient than nervous lately, since I am such a planner and I want to start researching for houses, school districts, moving plans, and everything else for the place where we will end up. We will be sure to let everyone know how it turns out.

Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest thing of all: Camden gets to start his first day of his nursery class at church today! He has been looking forward to this for weeks – going to the door of the nursery and watching the kids play with toys and sing songs, and then crying when he didn’t get to go in too. He will be in the same class with Eli, so that will be fun for them. I know he will just love it!

2.24.08

In some ways it has been really nice to not have church until 1pm. This way, we have a lot of time to just spend together Sunday morning. The boys play with their toys, I can read or write on our blog, and Steph can make her wonderful wheat bread – it’s great. And today is supposed to be the warmest for about the last 2 weeks. It will be the first time that the temperatures get above freezing. The sun is out and it looks really pretty outside.

Yesterday we went to Chicago with Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock to go to the temple. We wanted to go in order to think about the rank list that we will be submitting this next week for dermatology and transitional year residencies. We have our list of preferences and just wanted to see if any changes came to mind. We both felt that we should keep the list as we have it. Now comes the waiting game and trusting in the Lord that we will end up where He wants us. We will find out on March 20th where we will be spending the next 4 years.

Steph has a whole stack of family names that need their work done and we were able to get about 50 initiatories completed during the morning with the help of other people in the temple. The Hedgecocks took the boys to Chuck E Cheese to play while we were inside, which they loved, and then we took them to Costco. We had to pick up some wipes and the boys got to try all the foods they always have out on Saturdays. Kolby actually refers to Costco as the “treat store.”

After finishing at the temple we stopped at Ikea to look around. We had been told it was relatively close and I had never been to one before, so we thought it would be fun to go. The place is enormous. The boys really liked the kids section where they played in a tent and on some egg chairs. We were all pretty tired when we got home last night. We were able to get the house cleaned up after dinner and get everything ready for Sunday. This month has been nice for me to be able to help clean up some of the clutter that has built up over the last few years, especially with getting all the piles cleared up off the floor in our bedroom.

Steph got some nice frames for pictures of the boys (her Christmas gift from me that she waited to get until we returned from our trip). We hung those up in our front room Friday afternoon and they look really nice. Friday night we had a birthday party for Eli. His birthday was the end of January, but since we were gone we didn’t do a party. We had a “Thomas the Train” theme and let the kids play with all the trains and tracks. It was another excuse for us to get together with friends.

Thursday night was Eli’s night out with Stephanie. He had some birthday money from Grandma Faun and Grandma Bradshaw so they went to Toys R Us and he chose a doctor kit and the movie, A Bugs Life.

Wednesday night it was my turn to go watch Kolby and Eli at their swim lessons. They both are so good in the water. Kolby is tall enough to touch the bottom, so after his class he was jumping from the side into the water, which Steph said he was doing for the first time. And Eli loves to play on the steps and do bobs. And Steph already mentioned about the crazy police incident from later on that night. That gave us quite the adrenaline rush.

Monday night for family home evening we taught the boys about the plan of salvation. Kolby has been asking a lot lately about what happens after we die, so we thought it would be good to tell them. I used a paper and drew some circles to represent our pre-earth life with Heavenly Father and Jesus; our life here on earth where we are supposed to CTR (Choose the Right); life in the spirit world after we die, where we are waiting to be resurrected; and then life after the judgment and resurrection, where we can either end up in the Celestial, Terrestrial, or Telestial Kingdoms or Hell, and how we want to end up in the Celestial Kingdom where Heavenly Father and Jesus live. I’m not sure how much of it all they understood, but they seemed to like it. For the activity we had them practice writing their names.

This week we decided to get the exhaust system fixed on our blue car so it can pass emissions. We found a mechanic that we really like and who seems pretty honest about his work. He had to replace the catalytic converter, some tubing, and the air filter, and he even took it back to the emissions center and got it passed for us. We hope that if we can keep up with maintenance on that car then it will last us for a few more years.

Well I better go get ready for church. We have to go a little early today because I am singing with the choir. We are going to have Kyle and Tracy Jensen over for a delicious salmon dinner – they are one of the families I home teach.

Car Problems and Fun with Friends

I feel like we got a lot accomplished this week – I almost feel like we are getting back up to date with all the little every-day things we need to get done since returning home. This week I was able to cross a lot of little things off of my ‘to do’ list including updating our food storage inventory, organizing the baby’s room, printing and sending some photos to Grandma Bev that she asked for, e-mailing a bunch of old German family documents to my mom so they could prepare for their trip to the Czech Republic, – I am so envious that they have the chance to go to some of the towns our ancestors are from and they might even find the places where they lived – and I also ground enough wheat for a month’s worth of whole wheat bread – I’m determined to make a batch (6 loaves) each Sunday, and am very glad that the batch I’m making right now looks like it is turning out well after last week’s batch tasted good but didn’t rise very well (wow, can you say, ‘run on sentence?’). Anyways, it always feels good to cross things off of my list as I accomplish each task.

So, this week was a fun one. A nice thing about our trips is that we got out of the habit of watching very much television, and since we’ve returned to Milwaukee we’ve tried to continue that. We’ve had more time for getting together with friends and playing with the boys.

On Monday I dropped the boys off at preschool and then my visiting teachers came by before I had to go pick them up again. It’s been really nice this month because Michael hasn’t had to be in until 9am, so he waits with Camden and Isaac while I drop off Kolby and Eli at school, and then I don’t have to lug all four of them in and out of the car.

On Tuesday it was Kolby’s night. We decided to start having one night a week be an individual night for one of the kids to go out with a parent. Kolby went with Michael to run a few errands, and then they went and read books at the library. While they were running errands they got some pretty flowers and a fun new board game, Carcassonne, for me for an early Valentine’s Day surprise. I was very pleasantly surprised, and it was fun that Kolby picked out the flowers. Michael seemed to enjoy it a lot too, because he says that I am so hard to surprise, but I didn’t expect it at all.

On Wednesday morning the boys had preschool again, and they did great. Eli has done well with preschool, he especially enjoys having Kolby there with him. Most days this week they haven’t even made a big deal of me leaving when I drop them off – they just say goodbye and that’s enough for them. Then Wednesday evening Michael had an AOA meeting and he took Isaac with him while I took the other boys to the YMCA. Camden went and played at their kid care while I watched Kolby and Eli’s swim lessons. It is the first time that Eli is in a class with us in the water with him, and he did great. The teacher seemed surprised when Eli willingly dunked his head under the water right when she asked the kids to do ‘bobs’ and she asked me if he had taken lessons before. Kolby did great too. And the nice thing this session is that they are in lessons at the same time, and their classes are right next to each other, so I can pull up a stool and sit right in the middle of the two to watch them both. After their lessons were over they wanted to stay and play in the water and they played for about 15 minutes more before we left. Eli loves to play on the steps and go under the water with his eyes open the whole time and Kolby was excited that he is tall enough to walk on the bottom even deeper into the pool than he used to be, so I kept having to remind him he couldn’t walk all the way to the middle of the pool. They had a lot of fun with that.

Thursday morning we took Michael’s car into the shop because it had failed the emissions test earlier in the week. We paid them $30 to tell us that we would need to pay $1000 to fix the entire emissions system, $450 to replace a rotted out radiator, and $400 for a major tune up – all for the little car that we paid $1500 for a year ago. So now we are really trying to figure out what to do. Do we get a different car that is a little newer and might not have so many major problems for a while (although we couldn’t afford the payments on anything much newer than the one we’ve got), or do we put money in and fix the car up because people say Toyotas are good little cars and we could get a lot more miles out of it if we put some money into it (or it could continue to have major problems that would cost us even more), or do we just fix the minimum to try to get it to pass emissions for one more year and then face those problems later on, or is there any possible way to make one car work at least until we move in the summer (but getting the kids up early each morning and late each night to go pick up Michael from his Surgery Sub-I rotation next month just seems like it would be awful). So, we don’t know what we’re going to do yet. Yuck! We don’t have very good luck with cars.

On Friday morning I took the boys to preschool and when I came back out of the YMCA the back of our van was all smashed in. I didn’t really know what to do since no cars were near my van at all when I came out and I thought the other driver had left. So I just stood there for a while and the driver of a semi truck parked a few car-lengths away from the van came and told me he had hit it. (I was really glad it wasn’t just a hit and run). He said that he was unloading things from the back of his truck and it started rolling and he ran and got the emergency brake on just as it hit the van. At least it seems like his company will cooperate and take care of everything with the insurance, we just have to wait until after the long weekend to get things rolling on that. But for now we can’t open the back door of the van. Luckily there wasn’t more of a problem than that – I’m glad it didn’t break the back window or anything, because it had been so cold that driving with our kids in the van with a broken window would be unbearable. Anyways, one more bit of our bad luck with cars. Oh well. So, Friday night the Kearls came over and we babysat Nathan and Katie while they went curling and then they stayed for games after they returned and the Wellses came and joined us for games too.

And then yesterday morning Michael went and helped Bishop Park to move some of their stuff into storage so they can sell their house. They are moving to Washington this summer. After lunch we went over and saw the Wells’ home for the first time and we played some games on their Wii. Jana also got out her violin and played some songs for the boys, which was very impressive – she could play any song that we named and each one sounded great. She said she started playing just before she turned 4 years old, so I guess we are behind. We told Kolby he could start taking piano lessons after we move. After that we dropped off our boys at the Kearls and went out to dinner for our Valentine’s Day date. We went to Habaneros, which we would recommend. They had great food, and we were surprised at how nice of a place it was inside – from the outside it looks like a small place in this little strip mall with neon beer signs in the windows, but when you go inside it is a very large room with vaulted ceilings and much more authentic-looking architecture and decorating than other Mexican places we’ve been to out here. It was a fun evening out together. After that we went over to the school for their annual Variety Fest talent show. We have gone to it each year since we’ve been here, and it was a really strange feeling to look around and not recognize many people there and realize that we were some of only a few 4th-years there. It felt really strange to be the “oldest” and realize we are going to be done with all of this soon. Afterwards we returned to the Kearls and played a game of Carcassonne and watched a fun movie called Stardust before taking the kids home to bed.

And today there have been reports of a bad storm that is supposed to come in later on, so church was cancelled. It doesn’t look too bad out now, but there was rain this morning that is supposed to make things very slippery and later on there is supposed to be about 6 inches of new snow. So, this morning we watched on the internet the recording of President Hinckley’s funeral services since we were traveling on the day of his funeral a couple weeks ago. Now Michael is training the person who is taking over his job as the one who schedules all of the events in the church building. And later on the Hedgecocks are coming for dinner and then we are going to play games afterwards and the Kearls may come too. So it should be a nice relaxing day. The boys are napping now, which is always nice to have a little break. Hope you all have a nice week.

Last Week

The past week was our first full week back in Milwaukee, and we had so much fun playing games and spending time with friends. It took a few days to get everything unpacked and back in the right places. We also got the Christmas decorations down and put away. After taking all the Christmas boxes and luggage to our storage unit, we had room to finally move the piano out of our bedroom and back into the front room, which has been so much nicer to play. The boys always want to play with it too.

I started into my new rotation, which is surgical pathology. I am with one other student and we sit in a room and look at pathology slides with the residents and fellows. I am amazed at how fast they can look at a slide under the microscope and know within seconds what they are seeing. This is good for me to start getting used to looking under the microscope, since I will have to do this in my dermatology residency.

Last Wednesday we had a huge snowstorm that swept through the area, dumping about 12 inches of snow. There was also a really gusty wind, so being outside and on the roads was bad. The director of our rotation on Tuesday said to not come in Wednesday if the snow was bad enough, so I ended up having a snow day, which was so nice. Steph and I were able to get a lot of little things done at home that day and that night we had the Kearls over for games. We played out in the snow when they first got here and the boys had so much fun because there was so much.

Thursday night we went to dinner with Tyce and Faith to celebrate Faith’s birthday, which was Saturday. We went downtown to the Pizza Shuttle and they had really good gourmet pizzas – we got a bbq chicken, alfredo vegetable, and spinach with feta. We thought it would be more than enough food, but the boys ate so much, and there were no leftovers. They have definitely gotten their appetites back since coming home.

Friday was Eli’s first day of preschool. He is in the same classes with Kolby. We got some really cute pictures of him and Kolby dressed up for his first day. He had so much fun and loves school, especially since he is with Kolby – they are such good friends. Steph said that as soon as they got there the boys were off playing and didn’t need her to stick around.

That night the Kearls had asked us to babysit for them so they could go curling. We went to their house to help out, and when they got back some others showed up for cake and ice cream and games. By the time we were done playing Killer Bunnies, it was pretty late, and all the kids were already asleep, so we just decided to spend the night in their front room. It made me feel like I was back in college. Saturday morning Nathan came out around 6:30 with a little flashlight, and when he saw Steph sleeping in the recliner, I guess he thought she was his mom and got really excited that she was out in the front room. He came over and shined the light on her, but when he realized that she wasn’t his mom, he started screaming and ran back to his parents’ bedroom. It was really funny.

Saturday we got to listen to the worldwide leadership training conference over at the church. The topic was on raising a righteous posterity and the focus was on how to better help our kids to learn the gospel in the home and to make sure that we made our homes safe havens from the evils of the world. I thought it was neat how often they spoke about making the sacrifice of faith to have a family while still in school and not making a lot of money, and that if you would obey that commandment to multiply and replenish the earth, then you would be blessed immensely for it. As I look back on our marriage so far, I can definitely see how much we have been blessed and helped as we have tried to follow the counsel of the prophet and keep the commandments. In the conference they also gave advice on things to do to have more love and unity in the home. Steph and I are continually trying to improve on making sure that our children always feel loved and that we are spending good quality time with them. We decided to set up a weekly night out with one of the boys so that we could spend more individual time with them. We will start with Kolby this week. Saturday night we had Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock over for games and had fun catching up on each others lives for the past few months. They brought a new board game that is now our favorite game for the time. It is called Carcassonne and is similar in some respects to Settlers of Katan, but easier to explain and quite a bit faster to play. Basically, you take turn picking up pieces to add to the table as you build up cities with fields and roads and you get points based on what you build.

Sunday was probably the coldest day that we have had so far since being back – the high was only around 10 degrees, and there was a really cold wind blowing all day. Kolby gave a talk in primary on the topic of how the scriptures teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus. He said that his favorite parts of the scriptures are those about the Lamanites, and his favorite stories are Nephi building the boat, Noah and the Ark, and Ammon and the sheep. He wanted to do the talk without our help and he did a good job with the primary president helping him. I am really looking forward to next month when Camden will be old enough to go to nursery, because one of us ends up spending the hour in the hall with him because he just doesn’t want to be quiet. :) I also got released from my calling as the ward physical facilities representative and my assignment as the stake building coordinator. For now I will just be doing home teaching, which is different, especially since I have had those callings for almost the whole time we’ve been in Milwaukee.

After church we had dinner over at the Hedgecocks. Peter is an excellent cook and we love eating his food. He made us salmon that was so delicious. I had to run for a few hours to do my home teaching with Jason. We had fun catching up on the lives of Steve and Kara and Kyle and Tracy and their kids. When I got back to the Hedgecocks we got the kids in bed and then played another round of Carcassonne. We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends here in Milwaukee and are not looking forward to possibly having to leave them when I graduate.

Grandpa McIntosh also had his back surgery on Wednesday. It sounds like everything went well, although things were a lot worse than the doctors had thought once they got in and started working. He is out of the ICU but had to have a blood transfusion Sunday night. It is good to hear that he is continually improving, if not as fast as he had hoped. You are in our prayers grandpa and we hope that this will help to alleviate some of the pain you have been dealing with for so long.

We hope everyone else is doing well and love hearing from you.