I'm graduated from medical school!!

Well, it’s official. After four long, busy, difficult, yet fun years, I graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin with a degree of doctor of medicine (MD) with honors in research. What a whirlwind week of activities and emotions. My mom and dad and grandma Faun arrived Wednesday afternoon and Steph’s parents came on Thursday. Not only have we been happy to have family here to be with us during this special week and to have fun playing with the kids, but also we are grateful for the wonderful weather that they brought with them.

Monday was my last day of classes in medical school. My final lecture was on bioterrorism, specifically on anthrax, the plague, and small pox – interesting note to end on. We had our pass/fail final test Tuesday morning (I had to score more than a 64% in order to pass), CPR recertification in the afternoon, and then I was done. Wow!!

Wednesday morning we went with the Lythgoes to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and probably the most active I have seen the animals. The jaguar and the cheetahs were the best, prowling back and forth in front of the glass; the elephants were playing in the water and with sticks; the monkeys were swinging back and forth and putting on a show; and even the black bear came out to say hi. The boys always like the fish and reptiles building. We met up with the Hymases a little later and had lunch by the new flamingo exhibit. The kids had so much fun playing together. On Wednesday night they got to see Kolby and Eli in their swim lessons and then grandpa Dick swam with Kolby, Eli, Camden, and me for a while afterwards.

Thursday morning I went over to the school to get some pictures taken with several of the other graduates in front of the school in our graduation robes. We took the family down to the lakefront to see Lake Michigan and play frisbee and throw balls in the grass. Then we went across the street to the Children’s Museum for a few hours. We are really going to miss this museum that has so many fun and varied activities for the kids. That night was the graduation awards dinner held at the Italian center in downtown Milwaukee. We were treated to a very nice dinner and then several faculty, residents, and people in the class received awards from various departments. It was fun to be there with all the family members and we received some good advice from those who got the teaching awards.

Then it was here – graduation day. The morning was spent around the apartment and just outside, playing with the kids and enjoying time together. My mom made me a really nice embroidered picture of a lighthouse with a really cool quote from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson: “The lighthouse of the Lord beckons to all as we sail the seas of life. Look to the lighthouse of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost, but what its beacon light can rescue. It calls ‘this way to safety and this way to home.’” Steph’s parents got us a really nice new digital camera – a Canon G9 series with 12.1 mega pixels. It has so many buttons and gadgets on it that it will take me a while to learn just how to use it. And grandma Faun gave us some money to put towards a graduation present. Thanks to all of you for your generosity, and to everyone else that has called to wish us congratulations.

We headed to the Milwaukee Theatre just after lunch in order to take pictures with me in my graduation robes. Then I had to separate from the family to go to the graduate waiting area and to say goodbye to some people who I probably won’t see again. It was a blur of feelings, thoughts, and emotions. We were lined up and marched into the theatre. Our graduation ceremony is done in conjunction with those receiving a PhD, a MA, and an MS. The speaker focused on what a privilege it is to be a doctor – it is a blessing and honor that comes with a responsibility to always help and serve your patients in order to find true happiness in the profession. Then I was walking up to the stage, across the stage while they were saying my name, and receiving my diploma, signifying that I am now a doctor. There is no way that I could have got here without the help of my wonderful wife Stephanie and all the family and friends who have supported us over the past four years. Thanks to everyone who was able to come and participate – it was so nice to have family here. And again, thanks to all who have called or sent congratulations our way. It is still a little surreal to have the degree – I don’t think it has hit me yet that I am actually a doctor – hopefully that will happen as I start into my intern year.

We were able to drop the kids off at a babysitter (thank you Hedgecocks) and go to dinner at Bartolottas, and Italian restaurant in downtown Wauwatosa. Our reservation was for 8pm, but the party before us didn’t want to get up from the table, so we didn’t end up getting seated until almost 9pm. The owner came out and apologized, and we ended up getting 2 free antipastos (one a mix of meats, cheeses, and veggies; the other delicious calamari) and 5 free desserts. That was nice. The dinner was pretty good – I got a nice seafood mix with some swordfish, octopus, mussels, scallops, and prawns. And we just had a great time spending time together. Thanks mom and dad for dinner.

Saturday morning we took the boys over to the hotel to swim with the grandparents. Grandpa Dick taught Eli how to dive into the water and he did it right away with no fear. It was so cute to watch. Nana and Papa took the boys to the mall to Build a Bear and Camden got a puppy named Quinton; Eli got a bunny named Benjamin; and Kolby got an Elephant named Rutherford. You can squeeze the hand and the animal says, “Nana and Papa love…(and then the boys name).” They are really cute and the boys love them. Steph got a new skirt and shirt and I got some new Levis – thanks again moms and dads. We went to a BBQ for dinner at Enderis Park with several other recent graduates and their families. There was good food and fun times seeing some of these people probably for the last time. The Nielsens and Tysons gave us a really cute frame, with a picture of me and the boys and a whiteboard, along with this poem:
“When Daddy write his name, he always writes M.D. That’s so people all will know that he belongs to me. So, M.D. means My Daddy, or something just the same, and that is why he always puts those letters on his name. Some letters in his name are small but those are big, you see. He always makes them big like that because he’s proud of me.” Thanks you guys. After the BBQ, we rushed home to put the kids to bed, and with Tyce babysitting, we were able to run to the mall to see Prince Caspian. I really liked it, and what a fun and exciting weekend.

It is now Sunday morning and we are just about to head off for church. The roast is cooking and the potatoes and carrots are ready to be cooked; the rolls are rising; the cake is cooked; the kids are dressed; grandma Debbie is playing beautiful piano music; the boys are playing with the other grandparents; and it is just a wonderful Sabbath day that we get to celebrate as a family here at home and then at church. Both parents leave tonight and Grandma Faun tomorrow, which we are sad about, because it has been so much fun to spend the weekend with them. This just gets us so excited to come to Utah to be closer to all the family.

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been quite the week. Every evening we have had something scheduled, so it has been busy, but very fun too. Not to mention that May is a crazy month for birthdays and other celebrations in our extended family – Michael’s sister and her husband, Mel and Christian, had their anniversary last Saturday, my parents’ anniversary was Wednesday, my sister Michelle’s birthday was Thursday, my dad’s birthday was Friday, Mother’s Day is today, our brother-in-law Christian’s birthday is coming up on Tuesday, our nephew Jaden’s birthday is on the 24th, Memorial Day is the 26th, our brother-in-law Jake’s birthday is on the 28th, not to mention we are moving to Salt Lake on the 30th. Wow!

So, this week on Monday we had a fun Cinco de Mayo BBQ at Wirth Park with some good friends. We grilled and ate yummy Mexican food, played a bit of ultimate frisbee, let the kids have fun on the playground, and after everyone else headed home we took our boys and went on a short nature walk through the trees (the boys were excited when we saw deer on our walk).

On Tuesday we went over to the Nielsen’s house to play in their back yard in the morning. Then that night Michael helped give one of the OSCE tests to the 2nd year med students (he got paid $50 for each night he did it). After he got home, Grant Roper was kind enough to come over and study at our house while our kids and the Kearl’s kids slept and we went over to the Hymas’ place for a Wii party. It was a lot of fun to play – and to have the three couples together again one more time (since the Kearls are now in Utah for a wedding and we will be moving before Faith returns to Milwaukee).

On Wednesday we dropped the boys off at the Hedgecock’s house and went to the Senior Dinner Dance downtown at the Wisconsin Club. It was a nice dinner and we had a lot of fun talking and dancing with our friends from Michael’s class. It is weird to think that in a matter of weeks many of them will be scattered all across the country (one reason I am grateful for blogs – so we can all have a good way to keep in touch).

On Thursday Michael went and helped with the OSCE test again, and I took the boys with me to a 4th-year BBQ at the Nielsen’s house. It is always fun to get together and see everyone again, although it is always a bit more challenging for me to go places with the boys by myself, without Michael there. It was nice to come home afterwards, get the boys to bed, have Michael get home, and just sit down and do nothing really important for the rest of the night.

On Friday Michael dropped the Kearls off at the airport early in the morning, and then he told me that he was feeling a little sad all day since they left. At least we will have a chance to see them in Utah again after we move before they come back home. That evening we dropped the boys off with Jessica and John Gittens, and met the Hedgecocks at Habaneros for Peter’s birthday dinner. We mentioned to the waiter that it was Peter’s birthday, and he said they would surprise him with something. After a good meal, a group of waiters and waitresses came over and sang Peter Happy Birthday, and then they gave him a shot of tequila. We felt pretty bad – we expected ice cream! We were all a little relieved that the group of waiters didn’t stay at our table and cheer for Peter to drink the shot. The waiters did look at us curiously each time they passed our table for the rest of the evening, though, because the shot glass was still full. We snapped a couple pictures of Peter on our phone with his “first drink,” and then wrote a little note on the receipt saying that we appreciated the gift, but that we don’t drink. That was a pretty funny experience. Then we went back to our place and played a quick game before returning to retrieve our children from our babysitters. We stayed and talked a bit with the Gittens when we picked up the boys, and we have been wishing that we had gotten to know them better while we were here – they are so nice! Plus they had a little dog that Kolby and Eli absolutely loved (and Camden was quite afraid of). It was a little gray yorkie-poodle mix, and Michael has been talking about how cute it was since then. Kolby had started asking for a pet dog a couple weeks ago, and we saw another person throwing their dog a ball in the park yesterday and Kolby asked if he could have a dog to throw a ball to. I think we’ll probably have a dog or two eventually, but I was rather surprised that Kolby has started asking for one already – I didn’t expect that for another few years at least.

Yesterday morning we met Amy Rahm in Tosa Village where she took pictures of the boys. I really wanted some good shots of all the boys together (it is really hard to get them all looking at the camera at the same time, let alone smiling), and I think that she got some great shots. I asked her afterwards if this had been her most challenging shoot yet, and she said that it probably had – at least as far as getting all four boys to look at the camera at the same time. I am really excited to get the CD with the pictures in a couple weeks. I have always admired Amy’s pictures of her boys on her blog, and I was so excited when I found out that she was starting a photography business and that her prices were affordable. If you want to check out her photo site, it is: http://www.amyrahmphotography.blogspot.com/.

After the boys finished their lollipops (bribes for posing during the photo shoot), we dropped off Michael and the two younger boys at home because some people were coming to buy some things we had posted on craigslist, and the two older boys went with me to run some errands. Kolby got to pick out his new “big boy underwear” (boxers) because he had been dry with no accidents for a week. Kolby has been potty trained for a while now, but has been wetting the bed at night recently. The pediatrician told me not to give him any liquid for 4 hours before bedtime (except 2 ounces to drink with dinner) unless he was sick or we were outside and it was hot out. I feel kind of bad not giving him water when he wants it at night, but it worked. Not having anymore accidents is definitely worth it. So, after going to pick out his special new underwear, we went and sold a few games at a video game store – Michael was so excited when our friends gave him their old Xbox and games, and he played it for two days before the xbox started showing an error that we found out meant the hard drive was shot. Oh well. When we got home, someone had come by and bought my old computer from college, which was nice. We got all the boys fed and down for naps and then I actually took a nap – I don’t know how long it has been since I did that last. (Happy Mother’s Day to me!). Michael woke me up just in time to head over to the school for the MSSA closing social. It was fun to sit with the Hymases at the dinner and to have a chance to talk to some other friends there.

And this morning was really nice. The boys helped Daddy make me an omelet, and they brought me breakfast in bed. And they colored pictures and Kolby wrote “I love you Mommy” and Kolby and Eli both wrote their names on cards for me. What a nice Mother’s Day. After getting the boys fed, Michael has been reading our church lessons to me while I’ve been writing this morning. I guess we aught to start getting ready for church soon. Tonight should be fun too, because the Lythgoes are coming to dinner. Happy Mother’s Day to our moms and grandmothers too! We love you, and can’t wait to see you all soon at Michael’s graduation this week and as we move later on this month.

Pictures from the Children's Museum

We went a couple weeks ago to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum downtown for playgroup, and the boys had a blast. The indoor sand box is always a favorite, and Kolby especially liked the conveyor belt in the Curious George exhibit. Afterwards we walked over and our friend took our picture in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Since then, whenever Kolby sees commercials for the Curious George exhibit at the children’s museum on the PBS channel, he says, “Mom, we really need to go there again before we move!”

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm So Lucky

So, this week has been great. Not only have we got a lot accomplished with packing and posting things for sale on Craigslist.com in preparation for the move, we have also had lots of fun activities this week. On Tuesday Michael and I got to go to an award banquet downtown where Michael and some of his classmates were inducted into AOA, the medical student honor society, (thanks, Monica, for watching the boys!) Then on Wednesday morning we got to take the kids to playgroup at the McDonalds play area with the Kams and Lythgoes, which was fun. And, one day after taking Kolby and Eli to the grocery store with him, Michael came home with a bunch of pretty yellow daisies that he told me the boys picked out for me – how thoughtful! Thursday was my night out with Camden, and I considered taking him to the library, but thought that making him go somewhere where he had to stay quiet the whole time wouldn’t really be fun for him. So I took him to the mall so he could play at the little play area there. He wasn’t too interested in the play area, especially when the other kids playing there left, so we ended up walking the mall for an hour, and I let him run free and go in and out of many of the stores, which he just loved! And then on Friday I went to an MSSA scrapbooking activity, which made me want to take up my scrapbooking again (since it has mostly been on hold since Kolby started crawling). Maybe when we move and have a little more space I’ll be able to find a place to work on my scrapbooking sometimes. And then yesterday morning was the stake women’s conference at the church, which was fun to go for a brunch, a nice program, and a fun rummage afterwards. Then that night we went to a championship soccer game that Michael won tickets to when he signed up for some drawings at the KidsFest a couple weeks ago. The soccer game was between Baltimore and Mexico, and was a nice game to watch, although we realized that the boys aren’t really old enough to enjoy big sporting events yet, because we spent a lot of the game trying to get the boys to sit in their seats, trying to get Camden to stop crying, and taking the boys back and forth to the bathroom – that reminds me, another nice thing about this week is that Kolby and Eli have both been doing great on their potty training. We made a chart and each day that they are dry they get to color in a box. Once they have each been dry a full week, I told them that we can get them “big boy underwear” (boxers). They have both been so excited that neither of them has had an accident and we haven’t had to change a diaper on Eli (even during naptime or bedtime) for several days now. And having only two boys who need diaper changes is a lot better than three!!! And several times this week the Kearls watched our boys for us, and then we stayed after going to pick them up and played games together. It really is going to be hard to leave this place. And, to top off a great week, this morning, after getting up at 6am with Isaac, then at 7am with Camden, and 7:30am with Eli, Michael let me sleep in and brought me breakfast in bed at 9am. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful husband?

Ready for Retirement

This month has been so wonderful having Michael home with us for his vacation month. Not only has he been super helpful with the kids and allowed me to get a little more rest most mornings, it has been great for the boys and for me to just be able to spend time with him. I told him that I am feeling ready for him to retire so that we can continue having all this great time together as a family forever (I wish!). We have gotten all the planning done for the move and have started packing some things for Rochester this week. Planning for this move has been a little harder than past moves because we are sending half of our things and storing them in Rochester for a year and taking the other things that we will need with us to Salt Lake, so as we pack we can’t just throw everything into boxes, but need to decide which things we can get by without for a year and which things we have to have with us. But we are making progress – we sorted through our basement storage unit and our storage in the apartment, we have assembled a pretty good collection of boxes, we took many of the pictures and decorations down, packed the china, packed all the things we could from Kolby and Eli’s room, we went through all of our food storage and removed the items that would expire before we get settled in in Salt Lake so we can start using them, and we have packed what we could from the bathroom and linen closet, and a little from Camden’s closet, and I have started to post a few things for sale on craigslist.com. I think the next step will be to pack the odds and ends that have started to pile up in our bedroom since we started packing, then on to finishing Camden’s room. I feel like we’re not too far from getting the majority of the Rochester stuff packed, and then we can relax a bit more until we need to get everything packed after Michael’s graduation.

So, a lot of days this week were taken up by several hours of packing in the morning/afternoon with interspersed feeding, changing, and disciplining of children, and usually a fun family activity like some time spent outside (the weather has been nice) or games with friends. On Monday for family home evening we went over to Jacobus Park and took a little nature walk with the boys around a pond and through a wooded area to the playground and then back to the car, which was really nice. And when we got home Michael gave the boys a great lesson on the creation, after pointing out all the beautiful things on our nature walk that Heavenly Father and Jesus created for us.

On Tuesday I was able to go to the family history center in the morning for the German translation service that they provide a couple of days a week there. I took the scanned documents that I got from my grandparents’ house and the lady there was able to translate a letter and start into another document for me. So far most of the letters just list names that we know are family members from the last names, but the first names are mostly unfamiliar, but I am hoping that if we get all the letters translated that we will be able to figure out who some of the people were and how they were related to us. When my parents come for Michael’s graduation next month they are going to bring the pictures that they took of the headstones and the pages of the parish birth record book they found one afternoon at an archive while on their trip to the Czech Republic, and I can barely wait to see what those records show and am very hopeful that we will be able to find the names of some more ancestors when we look at those together.

Tuesday night was Eli’s night out with Daddy, and Michael had a meeting about student loans, so he took Eli with him. Eli colored during the meeting, then they both went to the library to read stories afterwards. After they got home, the Kearls came over and we had a fun night of games. Then on Wednesday evening Michael took Kolby, Eli, and Camden to the YMCA and I took Isaac with me. Michael swam with Camden while Kolby and Eli had their swim lessons, and then they all swam together. I went to an enrichment meeting at Sarah Lythgoe’s house about cooking with food storage, and I’m still trying to motivate myself to experiment with using some of the wheat and other food storage items in our everyday cooking. For now I feel like I want to keep trying to perfect my whole wheat bread first before adding something else to my ‘to do’ list.

Thursday night was a really nice break for us. After packing in the daytime, we got ready and dropped off our boys at the McMullin’s house and then went and picked up the Kearls. We drove downtown to the Marcus Theater and arrived just at the same time as the Hedgecocks. We all enjoyed a night out at the Orchestra listening to Holst’s “The Planets.” The music was very good. Afterwards we headed over to the hotel across the street for free desserts, which gave us a nice chance to talk to each other. After picking the kids up from the McMullins’, we ended up playing a few games over at the Kearls’ house before heading home late that night.

On Friday we continued to pack and we babysat for the McMullin’s to go out for a date that night. I think Michael enjoyed having an older kid around (their son, Tyler, is 10), because he pulled out his old Nintendo and they played an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game. After the other kids were all in bed we watched Jumanji – probably one of my favorite big kid movies – and it was fun to see Tyler’s reactions as he got excited and jumped up and down during the more intense parts of the movie.

On Saturday we had plans to go to the Hedgecock’s and the Kearls were coming too, and we were all going to enjoy pizza for dinner and play some games together. So, Michael was working on getting some laundry done and I was helping the boys when the Kearls called in the morning, and Faith and I ended up going shopping while Tyce and Michael took the kids to the playground. It was fun – I haven’t gone shopping with a friend (other than my mom) for about 2 years now, I think. After the Kearls headed home, we ate lunch and then Kolby and Eli played some Sesame Street games on the computer until it was time to go over to the Hedgecock’s house. We had pizza and played a few different games, in between playing with and taking care of the kids. It was pretty impressive – by the end of the night we had all the kids asleep at the same time in their two-bedroom apartment: Carter fell asleep in his crib in Peter and Cynthia’s room, and Camden fell asleep in our playpen that we set up next to Carter’s crib, and Nathan slept in Peter and Cynthia’s bed. And Jordan slept in his bed, and we set up blankets on the floor in Jordan’s walk-in closet and Kolby and Eli camped out in there. After Isaac fell asleep we moved him in his car seat into Jordan’s room too. Then, after Camden was asleep we moved him to a blanket on the floor and put Katie to sleep in the playpen. I think we’ve gotten pretty good at getting a bunch of toddlers and babies sleep all at the same time in a small space – we probably wouldn’t know what to do if we ever had a big house with lots of bedrooms and beds for all of us and our friends to use.

And today church went pretty well. The boys did very well in Sacrament meeting and we didn’t even have to leave the meeting except for one diaper change. Then, after dropping the older three boys off at their classes, we substituted for Amanda Hansen as teachers for her 5-year-old primary class. We had five kids in the class, and they made our job easy by all being very good for us. We taught them a lesson about the Holy Ghost and I think it went well. Teaching the children’s class sure seemed to make church go by a lot quicker too. Then, after we got home I stayed home with Camden because he fell asleep on the drive home and Michael took the other boys for a walk around the neighborhood (and gave me a chance to write this). And, just as I was finishing writing, Isaac just rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time (he rolled the other way a while ago, but hasn’t rolled this direction before). Well, better go get dinner ready. Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday!