Graduation Pictures

So, here are a few pictures from Michael’s graduation. It was really great that Michael’s parents, my parents, and my grandma were able to come for that special day. Thanks!

The Senior Dinner Dance

The week before Michael’s graduation there was a Senior Dinner Dance. It was fun to get dressed up for something fancy and do my hair up nice (even though I had to borrow a curling iron because we had already packed mine). That night we had fun talking with friends and the dinner was very good. After dinner we danced a little. It was fun to dance and to see our friends dance too. Oh, our camera has been giving us problems and taking really dark pictures, did anyone happen to get any better pictures of the group than we did?

(Well, I did it – I stayed up to a ridiculous hour, but I got caught up with posting our photos. Now I just need to add the ones from this weekend with our family in town and Michael’s graduation, once I have a chance to go through those ones).

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.

On Halloween

Here are pictures that we took on Halloween. That morning Michael and I went into the NICU and took some cute pictures of Isaac in his costume. And after spending the day with Isaac, we all met at the medical school with my mom and the boys for the annual Halloween party. The boys loved trick-or-treating through the medical school, and for the first year none of them were worn out and crying before the end of the night, so we actually completed the entire trick-or-treating route through the school. (Each of the kids filled their little pumpkin candy buckets twice, and we ended up with a grocery sack full of candy). It was a fun night for the boys.

Halloween Portraits

We went last week to have the boys' Halloween portraits taken, and we just got them today. I always enjoy taking the boys for Halloween photos, because it is one of the few occasions when we have individual photos taken of each boy -- usually we are trying to get a group shot of all the boys or of our entire family, which is often difficult in the end to choose the one shot that most everyone is smiling in and looking at the camera. But when we take the individual shots of the boys, there are often quite a few cute ones to choose from and they love to dress up in their Halloween costumes too. This year for Halloween Kolby is going to be Tigger, Eli is a dinosaur, and Camden is going to wear the adorable lion costume that my mom made when Kolby was 1 year old. And I am still crossing my fingers that this baby will either come a week or so early or wait until November 1st to arrive, so that I can enjoy celebrating Halloween with the boys too. But at least there are going to be a few Halloween parties for church and the medical school before October 31st, so hopefully I'll get to join them for at least part of the Halloween events, even if I happen to be in the hospital on that day. We'll see. Enjoy the photos.

Before and After

So, when I was pregnant with Camden, there were also seven other wives of medical students in Michael’s class who were also all pregnant at the same time. We had this photo taken of all of us at Katie Irion’s baby shower in April 2006, and we were all in order by our due dates.

Stephanie Bradshaw, Christina Nielsen, Jill Craven, Leslie Tyson,

Melissa Jay, Kim Morrison, Heather Vernon, and Katie Irion

Christina Nielsen has been trying since then to get everyone back together again to take a photo of all of us with the babies. A couple people weren’t able to make it when we took these photos again at Ian Nielsen’s birthday party so we’re going to have to try again when everyone is around, but it was still fun. I was feeling a little bit down, being the only one who is obviously pregnant again in the second photo, but I guess it's only fair since I was the least far along (least pregnant-looking) in the original photo.

Camden and Stephanie Bradshaw, Eden and Jill Craven, Ian and Christina Nielsen,

Ella and Leslie Tyson, Isaac and Heather Vernon, & Grace and Katie Irion

First Interview Invitation

So, Michael called from work to tell me that he got his first residency interview invitation today. It is for a transitional year in La Crosse, Wisconsin, about three hours from here. We had a couple friends from the ward go to La Crosse last year for their transitional years and they were telling us that it is a really family-friendly program and there are some nice perks, like really inexpensive resident housing. So, we were excited to get the invitation for the interview -- we have heard that he most likely won't get invitations for dermatology program interviews until November (and most of those interviews will probably be in December and January), but I hadn't really thought about the possibility that he might get interviews for some of the transitional year programs earlier. They gave him several different dates for the interview, and we are hoping that it will work out for him to do it on the 6th or 7th of November. So, keep our family in your prayers over the next few months that he can get as many interview invitations as possible, that the interview invitations he does get will not be on conflicting dates in different parts of the country, that his interviews will go well, and that we can match to a good dermatology program.

We Are So Blessed

So the weather outside is beautiful today. We had rain basically all week, so it is so nice to see the sun again. Today at church we learned about the light of Christ, how it is an innate gift that we are all born with, that the Holy Ghost uses it to touch our hearts and lead us to do right. In Sunday school we talked about the journeys of Paul into Macedonia and how he was always willing to open his mouth to share the gospel, and how we can try to be better friends to our neighbors and those we meet. Then in priesthood the lesson was on the living Christ and forgiveness, and how they relate together – it is only through Jesus Christ and His atonement that we can be forgiven and be made clean. If we want to be like Him, then we need to learn to forgive others. It was a great morning.

Earlier this week we had one of Steph’s family history professors from BYU, brother Minert, and his wife, over for some dessert as they were passing through Wisconsin. It was fun to see them and catch up on the projects he is in charge of at BYU and sharing what we have been up to since we saw them last a few years ago. I think it is so neat to have a college professor that gets to know their students so well and wants to visit them when they are in the area.

Kolby continues to improve at swimming lessons. Steph said that this week he only had the foam float belt around his waist and he was able to swim the width of the pool with basically no help. Eli is also one of the top in his class – he loves the water.

Yesterday I was in charge of a big activity over at the church building. We share the building with another congregation, so we split the grounds in half outside, and we are each in charge of weeding our half, so that is what we did yesterday morning. Like I said, it had been raining all week, so I was worried that we would be rained out and no one would show up. I said a prayer that the weather would be nice and that people would show up, and my prayer was answered – the weather was wonderful and we had about 30 adults (50 people with children) come, and we got everything done in about two hours. Now it looks great (at least our half of the grounds). :)

I took Kolby, Eli, and Camden with me so that Steph could have some time to work on Christmas presents for our parents and siblings – yep, that is right – Steph wanted to get them done early so that they could be done before she has the baby in October. When she puts her mind to something, nothing can stop her.

This week I think some more prayers were answered as we got some really good news. I received a letter saying that I was chosen to be a part of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the medical school honor society. This could not have come at a better time, since I am planning on submitting my residency application next weekend, and AOA is looked highly on in dermatology, so it should help us out a lot to be able to add that to the resume.

It amazes me when I stop to think how blessed me and my family are and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is always watching out for us and helping us when needed. I have a wonderful wife and three beautiful children; I am pursuing a career that I love and things seem to be working just when needed to help us get there; and we have the gospel to bless our lives.

Keep us in your prayers as we get ready to submit the residency applications – then the ball will be out of our court and we will have to wait for programs to invite us to interview. Thanks.

Another Radio Interview

"A Prescription for Health
Delivering health care to non English speakers can be challenging, but has been studied and mechanisms are in place to help. The pharmacy, though, is another area where problems still exist. Michael Bradshaw, a fourth-year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin is the lead author on a study of this issue. It appears on the current issue of Pediatrics.”

A couple weeks ago, Michael was interviewed by Mitch Teich of Milwaukee Public Radio about his research paper. His interview aired on the WUWM radio show, Lake Effect, on august 21st. We were pleased that this interview was a little longer than the previous one that he did for Wisconsin Public Radio – it ended up being about 11 minutes long, and Michael said that they included almost the entire interview. If you would like to listen to the interview, just click on the link below (this links to the entire radio show, but Michael’s is the first interview of the show).

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/18/1090312/Milwaukee%20Public%20Radio%20Interview%20of%20Michael%20Bradshaw%2C%20Aug%202007.m3u

Spiritual High

Well, another week has past and it is my turn to write. Today in sacrament meeting the topic was on the Savior and his perfect gift, the atonement. The thought was given that Christ has already given us this perfect gift, and so whenever we do anything, we should think if it is showing thanks for that gift that was already given. In Sunday school we are reading Acts and learned about the calling of the seventy, Stephen, and Saul (Paul). Something that I had not really focused on before was the verses where Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus, and as soon as Saul realizes who it is and that he has been doing things wrong, he says, “What wilt thou have me to do?” and so we were taught that this should be a goal for our lives, to be able to ask that question and then follow the answer. In the last hour we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and several stories were shared about temporal things that may have been missed out on (participating in a sports game on Sunday, etc.), but all of the eternal blessings that were gained for following this commandment.

Yesterday was our Stake temple day, so we drove down with Peter and Cynthia Hedgecock and their kids. Steph and I went through an endowment session first while they watched our kids. The stake had worked it out with the temple presidency so that we got to listen to counsel from the temple president for a half hour before doing the session. This is the second time the stake has done this trip this year (they have a third one scheduled in November), and they have been such spiritual rejuvenators. I learned so many things about the temple and how I can improve my life and how to better teach my children. I think I was on a spiritual high. After we were done, it was our turn to take the kids and keep them entertained while Peter and Cynthia had a turn. We also watched Tyce and Faith Kearl’s children so they could get a chance to participate as well. We had all three of our boys and their two kids in our minivan, so it was full. It gave us at least a glimpse of how things might be in a few more years when we have five kids (though thankfully by then all five will not be under the age of 4 like they were yesterday). :) We took the kids to the park and played on the playground and swings for a while. Then when they got tired of that we took a walk in the park. A little further down from the playground was a skateboarding park. No one else was there, so the kids had so much fun running up the ramps and then sliding down them like they were slides, though they ended up with really dirty pants because of the black dust on the ramps. We think the dirt was worth the fun we had.

This week was also my birthday – 27, wow, where has the time gone? I got lots of new clothes and a pillow. Thanks to everyone for the phone calls. Peter and Cynthia babysat for us because we had babysat for them the night before while they went to dinner for their anniversary. Steph and I enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, That’s Amore. Afterwards we saw The Bourne Ultimatum. It was action from beginning to end. (Thanks, Grandma Bradshaw, for the present of dinner and a movie for my birthday).

Friday night we met some friends at the park to play some sand volleyball. We got to meet some new couples in the ward that are starting medical school this next week. Steph had baked a birthday cake, so we took that to share. One of the new couples, Keith and Jana Wells, needed some help moving some furniture into their apartment, so we helped with that and then ended up at our place to play some games – Cranium and Scum.

School has not been too bad this week. I have off most Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons for “personal study time,” which has been so nice. I am in a community internal medicine clinic on Mondays and Wednesdays, and then I work at the hospital on Tuesdays and Thursdays, helping with pre-op physicals to clear people for surgery.

As part of the rotation, we have to do a hospice visit. I had mine on Wednesday and I ended up with a chaplain to do some home visits. It was quite a different experience from most “normal” days at school. The first lady we visited was dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is an end stage disease of the lungs. She was quite religious, and so the chaplain ended up sharing a story with her from the Bible about faith and hope and letting Christ into our lives. The second lady is dying from pancreatic cancer. Talking with the chaplain, I guess this lady was not as religious, and so the visit was tailored more to find out her goals, which centered on her family. The chaplain talked about the importance of meeting people on their level and helping them to cope with death the way they want to, being there to support them as needed. I was just reminded that patients have a “spiritual” side that needs monitoring and at times help with healing, and that if we as doctors can take time to help people with that aspect of their health, it usually helps their physical health as well.

Well, I think that is enough writing for now. Until next time, have a great week.

Michael's Wisconsin Public Radio Interview

Taking the right dose can be hard if you can’t read the label 08/07/07
“According to census figures, Milwaukee County has twice as many Hispanics compared to the state as a whole. And a study by the Medical College of Wisconsin indicates that for those who don't speak English, getting understandable health information can be difficult when it comes to prescription medication. Shamane Mills reports…”
running time 1:00

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/18/1090312/Wisconsin%20Public%20Radio%20Interview%20of%20Michael%20Bradshaw%2C%20Aug%202007.ram

The other day a reporter from Wisconsin Public Radio called Michael and did an interview with him about his research paper that was published recently. The story played on the radio and was posted on the Wisconsin Public Radio website. If you would like to listen, click on the link above.

August is Here

This week Michael started his ambulatory medicine rotation (which doesn’t mean that he gets to go on ambulance rides, like it sounds – it’s just another outpatient internal medicine month). He was pretty sad to have to stop his dermatology rotation, but this month looks like it is going to be a good one. Michael is lucky and will often have the afternoons off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this month, so that will be really nice. He will have lots of time to work on his application process and to spend time with the family. It was fun, on Friday he got home around 11 am and we had a great day. We took the boys swimming to the splash pool at Enderis Park. Camden has no fear of the water and loves to crawl right in towards the middle of the wading pool which is only a couple feet deep, but still too deep for him. And Kolby and Eli had a great time – I have never seen them actually swim under the water so much before at the splash pools. Eli kept jumping up in the air, landing on his bottom, and then laying back down with his face under the water. We all had a lot of fun there. Then we went to dinner because Michael got a free meal coupon for his birthday from Noodles and Company. And then we parked over by the Ronald McDonald House across from the medical school and went on a relaxing walk through the woods. Friday was a very fun play day for our family.

This week we also got several other things done. I finally had my wedding ring repaired at a jewelry store, since one of the prongs had bent a while ago. It’s nice to be able to wear that again. And I got my report made for my visiting teaching district. I have to say, I am glad to have this new church calling after being in the nursery for almost a year. On Wednesday we went for the family history enrichment group, which I messed up because I was thinking that it started later than it really did. So, we missed the rest of the group, but I did get some more family names prepared for temple work. We also went to the splash pool that day for playgroup, and the boys had fun playing with the other kids there. And Kolby and Eli both had their swimming lessons. They continue to do great – both boys are now good at doing “bobs” (dunking their whole heads under the water). It is also fun to think that Kolby will get to start a sport at the YMCA in a few months (they have to be 4 years old), and after we get back from our December-January Christmas trips Eli will be 3, so he will be old enough to join Kolby for his preschool classes at the YMCA too. That will be fun for them to go together. Well, on Thursday the boys also had their toddler art class, and I think this art activity was the most fun yet. They got to put their hands and feet in paint and paint on a big piece of paper along the fence. We stripped the kids down to their underwear so their clothes wouldn’t get painted, and most of them ended up painting their bodies too before we were done. For some reason, Kolby seems to like eating the paint – I couldn’t convince him to stop putting his paint-covered fingers in his mouth. Oh well, at least it was the non-toxic kind. (I posted pictures from the playgroup at the splash pool and the painting at art class down below).

And I can’t forget the big announcement: Michael’s research paper was officially published in the periodical, Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on August 3rd. His article is titled, Language Barriers to Prescriptions for Patients With Limited English Proficiency: A Survey of Pharmacies, and I think it ended up being 11 pages long, including several charts that Michael made. If you would like to take a look at the article, you can see the journal online at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/
Michael’s article is the fourth one listed on this main page for this current issue of the journal.

This week I also spent a while making a family budget in an Excel spreadsheet. I have a budget that will show the whole year, and it is linked to a separate worksheet for each month. We have made some predictions for how much money we think we will spend for things in the upcoming months, and then we can enter in information from our receipts and then compare the projected and actual expenses. At the end, I had fun setting up graphs that will show our spending for each month, and one for the rest of the year. (That made me think back to middle school when I would do a school papers and then my dad would teach me how to make a graph in Excel to go along with my paper, and I was always so proud because I thought my papers looked so cool).

Yesterday we got things done around the house and then we babysat for the Rahms in the evening. After they picked up their boys, we went shopping because Michael got some birthday money from his family. We went to Kohls and he ended up getting two nice dress shirts, two new ties, and a t-shirt. The boys were patient with us, because we ended up being there until 10 pm (which is way later than we usually ever have them out at night). On the way out, there were these cute stuffed dinosaurs on sale for $5 each and the profit from their sales went to education, so we splurged and got one for Kolby and one for Eli. They love them – Eli’s is a brachiosaurus that he named "Long Neck," and Kolby’s is a triceratops that he named "Sara" (like in his The Land Before Time movie). They slept with them last night, and haven’t stopped playing with them since (the dinosaurs even waited in the car for us while we were at church). It’s pretty cute. Well, church went well today. Camden actually fell asleep during the sacrament meeting, so it was the first time in a while that we didn’t have to leave during the entire first hour. Michael said the opening prayer, and several kids got up to share their testimonies today. Kolby liked watching the other kids, and he said that he could do that when he gets bigger. When we got home, the boys went down for naps, and Michael and I made a few changes to the page that I designed for his yearbook – so now it’s ready to submit to the school once we get back his professional portrait from the studio this week. And now Michael has fallen asleep on the couch while I’ve been writing this, so all of my boys are napping. Tonight should be fun too – we are going to the Hedgecock’s house for dinner, and they always have breakfast food for dinner on fast Sunday. Well, we hope that you have all had a good week too!

Family is Great

We just had a wonderful morning at church today. There was a combined third hour meeting, so Steph and I got to listen together. And Steph’s visiting teaching companion wanted to hold Camden for us the entire time, so we actually got to listen to the lesson. The topic was The Proclamation to the World on the Family, and we were taught two of the main doctrines that come from that proclamation: staying close to your spouse and learning how to cope with life’s challenges together as a couple; and the importance of nourishing and teaching our children from a young age. The bishop brought up the fact that statistically right now about 1/3 of the young men in the church are serving missions. He specifically pointed out that since we have three boys in our family right now, statistically only one of them would serve a mission if those numbers remain the same. And that this also affects the young women in the church when it comes time for them to choose a spouse and trying to find temple-worthy young men. The bishop wanted us as parents to think about what we need to be doing to teach our children so that they will want to make positive choices later on in life. Steph and I had some good ideas afterwards of things we can do to try and have more love and goodness in our home, including doing our family scripture reading as part of the boys' bedtime routine each night and trying to include them in the reading more, rather than just reading while they play on the floor.

The weather this week has been very pleasant. We took advantage of the good weather yesterday and met the Kearls at the beach at Lake Pewaukee. They have so much fun playing in the sand. We made an island for Steph to sit on and then the boys dug a “river” around her to trap her on her island. Afterwards we all went to dinner at Denny’s, since kids eat free on Saturdays – what a deal for our family.

I can’t believe it is already the end of July. It feels like I just started my dermatology rotation, and now I just have two days left. Maybe that’s because I’m having so much fun on this rotation. I continue to enjoy the things that I see and the idea of becoming a dermatologist just feels right. I have a presentation and my end of month test this week, so wish me luck.

I have also been working hard this week on my residency application. I met with my dermatology advisor, who I am also writing a case presentation with about one of her patients. She is going to write one of my letters of recommendation. I will meet with the dermatology chairman this upcoming week so he can get to know me a little better and write a letter – wish me luck. I am talking with one of the other pediatric dermatologists to see if she will write a letter for me. And then Dr. Flores, who I did my summer research project with during first and second years, is writing the other one. I have also been working on my curriculum vitae (in common terms, my resume) and a personal statement that we have to write.

Steph continues to stay busy at home with the three boys. They are always full of so much energy. They went to the zoo earlier this week, they both have swim lessons, and they have an art class every Thursday morning. And then Steph has her physical therapy each week to help strengthen her knee, which seems to be helping. Camden also got one of his front top teeth this week, and he looks so cute. And he waved at someone for the first time the other day too.

Monday night we had the missionaries over for dinner, and the message they shared for family home evening came from James in the New Testament, where he talks about the importance of going to the Lord for help, and then waiting for the answer to come, telling us how to act and what to say.

Tuesday night we went to JCPenny to get pictures of me for applications and the school’s yearbook. Normally when we go, it is such a chore just to get the boys to smile and try to get a decent photo. So I was expecting us to be there forever like always, until I realized that the photographer only took about 10 pictures and said we were done, all in about 5 minutes. It was great.

Friday night we had the Kearls and the Morrisons over for games. We played a card game called Red One that normally is meant for four players, but we tried it with six, and it actually worked fine.

Life continues to fly as we keep ourselves busy and enjoy the friends and memories we are creating out here in Milwaukee.

Yearbook Page

The other day Michael's parents got the new Harry Potter book for him, so on Saturday he spent much of the morning and afternoon reading it. He finished the book yesterday and said that he really liked it.

So, while he was reading on Saturday, I worked on making a yearbook page for him. For the medical school yearbook each student can design their own personal yearbook page. So, to start out I didn't really have any good ideas of how to design the page. This was the first idea I came up with, but I thought it was kind of boring:

But after adjusting the page all day, I finally ended up with this:

(you can click on the pages to zoom in)

I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. (The grey box is where his professional portrait will go – we are going to have that taken tomorrow). Michael still needs to sit down and make sure these are the photos he wants to use for sure, but I think it will look pretty much like this in the yearbook.

Derm Decisions

With Michael’s dermatology rotation this month he is working at a different hospital each week, and this week he was at Children’s Hospital. Children’s is supposed to be the busiest, and they have an evening clinic a couple nights a week, so Michael was going to have to stay a few hours later this week, but it ended up that lots of the doctors and residents were going to a derm conference in Chicago, so the evening clinics were cancelled and he had an especially light schedule this week (but the time that he spent at the hospital was very busy). He continues to like dermatology. I am very excited that he likes this specialty, because I definitely want him to go into something that he really enjoys, but it is nice that what he really enjoys also happens to be a specialty where eventually he could end up having a schedule that is really nice for our family.

When Michael first listed dermatology as one of the specialties he was interested in, I didn’t think it sounded too great, but it actually sounds kind of interesting, now that I know a little more about it. Michael said that one thing that he liked about it was that the problems on the skin often relate to other internal problems, so you have to know about a lot of different things. And you deal with a range from minor problems to all sorts of cancer. Michael also likes that he will get to deal with patients (and continue to build relationships with patients over time), but that there will also be opportunities to do procedures. And lots of people comment to him that they wouldn’t want to deal with the acne, but Michael has actually been alright with that part of it so far – he really likes that it is something that effects the self esteem of a lot of young people, but that there are several things that he can do to make it totally better (and in some of the other specialties you run into a lot of problems that you can’t fix).

I think this will be a good specialty for him to go into. Now it’s time to get ready to apply for residency programs. One thing that Michael has considered is having a different specialty (internal medicine) as a back-up in case derm doesn’t work out right away (because derm is a competitive program to get into, and we know several students who have not been accepted when trying for derm residencies). But since this month has started and we have seen how much more Michael likes derm than any other specialty, I think we are not going to do another program as a back-up. The thing we are trying to decide on right now is how to work out the applications for transition years. Dermatology is a 4-year residency program, but different programs work differently: some are 4-year programs, and others have it broken up into 1 transitional year and 3 more years of derm. So, the best thing for us would be to either do a 4-year program, or if we end up doing a transitional year, then we want to have the transitional year either be in the same location as the 3-year program or have the transitional year be here in Milwaukee and then move for the next 3 years, so we can avoid moving twice in such a short time. But since we are planning on applying for quite a few derm programs, we only want to get interviews for transitional years at the same places that we get interviews for 3-year derm programs, and so we will have to figure out the best way to work that all out. Anyways, we have lots of new things coming up that we will need to figure out before we are all set for the next step in our lives, but it already feels like we are almost to the end of medical school now. Pretty exciting!

Anyways, the rest of our week went pretty well. On Monday I had a WIC appointment, and the people there were really nice and it went well. Then on Tuesday evening we met with Kendra McMullin, a friend from church, who is a financial advisor and we ended up setting up a little life insurance plan with her. It was nice to sit down with her and get an idea of what we need to do in the next few years to start to plan for retirement too. On Wednesday morning we had a family history enrichment group that met at church so the moms could use the family history center and rotate babysitting the kids. I was able to get a lot of names prepared for temple work. That afternoon I had a doctor’s appointment, and everything is going well with the baby. And then Kolby had swimming lessons that evening, and he listened to his teacher very well. On Thursday I had physical therapy and Michael happened to get off work early, so the boys went over and played with him at the medical school while I went for my appointment, and then Michael went with Eli to his swim lessons that evening. On Friday Michael got up real early to go with some others to Chicago for the derm conference, and he said there were several interesting lectures there. That night after the boys were in bed, I went back over to the family history center and got quite a few more names prepared for temple work.

Then yesterday we went with Peter and Cynthia down to Chicago for our temple trip. It has worked out really well to go with them once a month and switch off babysitting so we can each go in together as a couple. Michael and I took all the kids to Costco while they went to the temple, and we got lots of comments and funny looks from people who thought we had 5 kids under the age of 4. We were able to stock up on lots of things like shampoo, computer paper, and baby wipes, and the kids were very excited for all the free samples they got to try (Kolby really likes going to the “treat store” by the temple). And we got a good scare at one point when Eli started choking on a piece of fruit, and nothing helped for about 15 or 20 seconds until Michael did a the full-on Heimlich maneuver several times. We were glad that Eli seemed just fine after that was over. Then we went back to the temple and Michael and I did baptisms. There were a few other people in there helping, and we got almost all of them done that we took with us – we ended up doing 86 names, I think. And today went pretty well too. The boys did well in church (except for Kolby needing a bribe of a treat to make him go into his sunbeams class), and I substituted in nursery while Michael substituted as a teacher in his priesthood class. Then Michael practiced after church for a men’s choir performance. I have been making bread since we came home, and my visiting teacher just left. All three boys are down for a nap right now, and in a couple of hours we are going over to Sonia and Devon Cole’s house for dinner, so that should be fun. Hope you have all had a good week too!

Dermatology is Great

So it is my turn to write about our week, but Steph has made my job a little easier, since she has already written about going to the zoo and how we celebrated on Independence Day. :)

This week has been a wonderful week for me. I started my dermatology rotation, and I am again loving life. It is so nice to be doing something that I am enjoying, that I look forward to reading more about when I get home, and that am excited to go back to the next day. It is also nice to have nights free and the weekends off to be with the family. Just this week I have seen so many odd things that can happen to the skin – I’m so grateful that I have healthy skin. I really like the complexity of dermatology – they have to know so much in order to differentiate the different rashes, lumps, bumps, etc., and then to know how to treat them. There is a lot of dermatology that is so new, with new drugs just coming out on the market to treat/manage currently untreatable/unmanageable conditions. I like that it has the feel of primary care with the day-to-day clinic work, interspersed with quick little procedures (shave biopsies, freezing, punch biopsy) and then more involved surgeries. I have decided that I am going to apply for dermatology for residency.

I came home Tuesday afternoon with two derm books, and Steph immediately took them from me and started looking through them. I think she has already learned more about derm than I have this week. It is fun that she is also excited about dermatology and interested in what I am learning. Tuesday was also a good day because we got our loan money for this semester, so we no longer have to live off the credit cards, at least for another few months. Yeah!!

Thursday night I got to take Eli to swim lessons, and we had so much fun playing together in the water. We stayed after the class for about a half hour just playing on the steps and near the wall of the pool. Eli loves to jump in and under the water.

Friday was only a half day in the clinic, so I got the afternoon off to be home. I stayed home and played with the boys while Steph went shopping for the next two weeks. She also got a video from Blockbuster, Flyboys, that we watched. It was based on a true story from WW1 – it was good, though a little slow and predictable.

Saturday morning it was my turn to help clean the church building. I also got the chairs set up so that we wouldn’t have to go as early Sunday morning. I spent the rest of the morning starting to fill out my residency application online. I am going to use July and August to try and get all of my application materials ready to submit. We can start submitting to residency programs September 1, so I want to have everything ready before then. That afternoon we took the boys over to a neighbor’s house to swim in their little outdoor swimming pool. I got in with all three boys and had a blast. Kolby and Eli had two little watering cans that they used to “water” daddy so that I would grow. It was fun. Then last night we had some friends over for dessert. Sandra Simon came with her son, and Heather Vernon and her son Isaac came – her husband is out of town for the month doing an away-rotation. Steph had tried a new recipe for an ice cream cake and wanted to share it with others. It was really good. We also played some card games and had fun talking.

All of the boys did really well at church today. The sacrament talks were about family history work and making sacrifices to go to the temple. We have another stake temple day coming up in August, so they want people to try and get family file names ready to take and do their work. Steph is trying to get some ready for us now. Then in Sunday school we talked about John 16-17, where Jesus talks about the importance of the Holy Ghost and His mission and atonement so that we can gain eternal life. We talked about the difference between the manifestation of the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the difference between knowing about Christ and actually knowing Christ, and then how to teach these things to your children. And then in priesthood we talked about the importance of faith and obedience, and how they lead to blessings; that faith always precedes the miracle; and that when we decide to follow God and His commandments we are not showing blind obedience, but faith obedience – we may not know everything, but we know that God knows what is best for us and we are using our faith to trust and follow Him. They were all really good lessons.

Well, I am going to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day with my family. Have a wonderful day.
Luv,
Michael, Stephanie, Kolby, Eli, and Camden

A Long Weekend

This week has been wonderful! Michael finished his trauma surgery rotation and had his test on Thursday, which he felt good about after he took it. We are both so relieved to be done with this rotation – and on to better things. (Wow – Michael’s now a 4th year – one more year of medical school to go!)

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, we all went over to the church and Camden and I went to an enrichment activity about family history. Most of the evening was an introduction to genealogy, so I just went to help out, but they also scheduled a time once a month when a group of us will be going to the family history center during the day and we can trade off babysitting so we can have some time to work on our research. I am excited because this should allow me to find the time to get some more names ready for temple work. While I was in doing that, Michael and the older boys went outside and helped as a group of church members pulled weeds around the church grounds. Michael said that they will still need to get together again because it didn’t all get done, but about ten families showed up to help so that is a pretty decent turn-out, I think.

Wednesday was a busy day. Camden had his 9-month-old doctor’s check-up in the morning, and he looks healthy and right on track with his growth. He now weighs 20 pounds 4 ounces and is just over 29 inches tall. A few hours later I dropped the boys off with Rachel Roberts and went for my first physical therapy appointment. I liked the physical therapist and she gave me some good information. Since then I have been doing several different stretches for about half an hour two times a day, and the pain that I had in my hip for the last week has gone away. My knee pain is still there, but hopefully it will go away soon too. Then that evening I took Kolby and watched while he had his swimming lesson. He has done so well this session with listening and doing just what the teacher asks. He did an especially good job of floating on his back this week.

On Thursday morning I took the boys to their art class, which they always enjoy. After Michael got home from taking his test and the boys took their nap, we went and got some fireworks. We found a good deal on a big pack of fireworks that was buy 1, get 2 free. When we got home, we took Eli to his swim lesson. Michael got to swim with him while I watched. And afterwards we went to a BBQ for the students who were all on the same track with Michael to celebrate the end of 3rd year. I only knew two couples there – the Cortezes and the Jays – but it was nice to meet some of the people Michael has been working with and have some time to socialize and play at the park.

On Friday we were thinking about going camping overnight because Michael had the day off, but then decided that it would be less expensive to just take a day trip. We ended up going to swim at the Lake Pewaukee beach, and it was a lot of fun (although I still find it a little difficult to call anything that is not on an ocean a “beach.”) But we all enjoyed ourselves there.

On Saturday evening we had our annual pre-4th of July BBQ and fireworks. There was a very good turn-out – there were over 20 adults there and tons of little kids. I love the summer time when you can do stuff like this and you don’t have to worry about how many people you can fit into your apartment. After eating, we gave sparklers to all the kids and they had a blast. Some of the little girls kept running around waving the sparklers like magic wands and saying, “Bibbity bobbity boo!” Afterwards Michael and Matt Vernon put on a fun fireworks show. Lots of the people ended up heading home before the fireworks were done, just because their kids were tired because we had to wait so long to start the fireworks because it doesn’t get dark until after 9:00pm in the summer. But it was a fun show – especially since the boys enjoyed it so much. Kolby kept naming all the different colors of sparks he saw, Camden watched with a smile from his stroller for the first little while until he got tired, and at one point Eli was so excited that he was jumping up and down and shaking Camden’s stroller. It was pretty cute.

This morning Kolby was kind of grumpy when he got up and he said that he didn’t want to go to church. I was telling him the fun things that we would get to do, like going to his sunbeam class and taking the bread and water for the Sacrament. When I told him about the Sacrament, he seemed to be happy to go to church. So, this morning we went early to set up chairs at church, but someone had already done it before we got there, so Michael played a few hymns on the piano until it was time to start. Everything was going pretty well until the young men went up to the front of the chapel to help pass the Sacrament, and then Kolby wouldn’t calm down. He said that he needed to go help, and when Michael told him he needed to stay in his seat, he said that Mommy told him he could. So, when I told him about taking the Sacrament in church, he thought that I meant he could be one of the young men who got to go help pass out the bread and the water to everyone in the congregation. He finally calmed down some when we told him that he could pass the bread and water to us after it was passed to our row. But he still wanted to go up to the front and help. The rest of the meetings went like normal. This is the fourth week in a row that Camden has been happy right up until the third hour of church, when he acts so tired and fussy that we have to take him out in the hall. Michael took him for me the last few weeks when he did this, so this week I said I could stay out with him. I did get to meet another new family in the ward while I was out there, so that was nice. After church Kolby’s sunbeam teacher told me that during primary there was a family visiting who’s son had recently been baptized. The boy was baptized in the Susquehanna River, which happens to be a significant location in the history of our church, so the primary leader was asking the children to guess where the boy had been baptized. So, his teacher told me that Kolby raised his hand right away and answered, “At a garage sale.” She said that he was very proud of his answer.

This afternoon we came home and water was leaking from the light fixture and wood work above our kitchen sink. We finally got a hold of the apartment maintenance worker, and he came and said that he will have a plumber come tomorrow, since it seems that it leaks more in our apartment every time our upstairs neighbors use their sink or dishwasher. Luckily, the majority of the water is dripping into our sink, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

This next week should be a lot of fun too. Tomorrow Michael has the day off because in his dermatology rotation they are training new interns tomorrow, so they aren’t going to have the students start until Tuesday. So we are planning on taking the boys to the zoo in the morning. And then Michael gets Wednesday off for the 4th of July, so we will take the boys to the parade in the morning, then to the annual ward party at the Twelmyer’s house, and then to see the fireworks in the evening. Hopefully the nice weather holds out. Well, we hope you all have a happy 4th of July!

Day at the Beach

Yesterday was Michael's first day off after his trauma surgery rotation, and we had a lot of fun. We drove out to Lake Pewaukee and had a fun afternoon at the beach there. We hadn't been there before, and it was a really cute little town with a nice little beach and some cute shops right across the road that were all decorated like old-fashioned store fronts. I was telling Michael that if we had to live in a small town, a place like that would be nice -- a little beach and cute stores and houses all overlooking the pretty lake. The boys loved wading in the water and digging holes in the sand. We dug a big hole and Kolby filled it with lake water, then Camden had fun sitting in it. Kolby was excited that we had made a "bathtub." We buried Camden in the sand, which he wasn't too excited about. And then we had lunch and fed some ducklings. As we were packing up the car to go home, Kolby and Eli found some ladybugs on some bushes. They were holding the ladybugs, and then when I turned around I saw Kolby smashing one on the sidewalk with his hand. I told him not to do that, and was getting him into the car, when Eli came up to me. He had a piece of a ladybug in each of his hands, and he said, "It's broken." Well, it was a very nice daytrip -- and all three boys were asleep in their carseats by the time we arrived at home.

Trauma is Almost Done!!!

Well, I’m finally home on a Sunday this month, so I guess it is my turn to write and say hi. Trauma continues to be busy, busy, busy. I had my last overnight call for this rotation on Friday (yeah!!), and just like the other ones, we were busy all night long – lots of accidents and lots of sick people. It has been an interesting month, with things that I will probably never see or do again in the future, so that has been cool. But the hours are just so long that it begins to wear on you by the end of the month. I just have a few more days this next week and then my test on Thursday.

This month I have learned that those who end up in our trauma bay do so due to a lack of common sense in a few different areas: 1) wear a helmet when you ride a motorcycle; 2) wear your seatbelt in the car; 3) don’t drink alcohol because it can lead to 4) knife wounds and 5) gunshot wounds.

Earlier this week we met with Kendra McMullin, a member from the ward that works with a financial company. She came to do a free financial needs assessment. Basically, they look over your current assets and your goals for the short and long term, and then they come back with things you can do to reach those goals. Some of their big messages are to pay yourself first, including life insurance, short term coverage (an emergency fund to cover up to a year), and then long term retirement savings. She had some really good things for us to think about as we will be getting into the salary stage of our life next year.

Steph took the boys to swim lessons this week and says they both continue to be little fish in the water. The boys also have an art class at a ward member’s house every Thursday morning where they do little crafts each week and have a fun time playing with the other kids.
Thursday night one of my home teaching families – the Stouffers – were moving to Ohio to start residency, so we helped them pack the truck. It is so weird to see all these recently graduated students leaving to start new adventures in residency, and then to realize that will be us just next year. Graduation is coming so fast – it is May 16, 2008, and anyone is invited to join us for that weekend.

It has been so nice to be home with the family today and to be able to go to church together – I missed that last weekend. In sacrament meeting we learned about the importance of fasting and fast offerings and keeping the Sabbath day holy – it is so nice to have one day a week set aside to escape from the normal routine and spend time at church feeling the spirit and being with the family. In Sunday school we discussed Matthew 25 that talks about the parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the talents, and the parable of the sheep and the goats. Basically, we have to endure to the end and constantly strive to do what is right and develop the gifts we have been given, and then use those gifts and abilities to help others. I missed most of the priesthood meeting because Camden decided he wanted to be loud and talk. So he and I walked around outside for a little to calm him down. Luckily the weather is so nice right now – I love it. This afternoon I went and visited with Steve and Kara Pothier for home teaching, and then our home teachers just left from visiting with us. We are cooking a roast and are having a new family, the Townsends, over for dinner.

Congratulations to Mel and Christian for finding out that they are having another boy – that is so exciting. And we love hearing from all of you and how your lives are going.

Bike Ride

Our neighbors moved and gave us their son's bike for Kolby. So after I put the training wheels on and lowered the seat, we decided to go out and try it out. Kolby was excited to have a new bike (and to try his bike helmet that he hadn't used before).

And Eli was excited that I told him he could have Kolby's old big-wheel tricycle. We rode around the apartment complex a bit and Kolby was getting the hang of it pretty quickly, so we decided to take a longer ride.

We set out for the elementary school playground a few blocks from our home. It took us over an hour to get there, and almost an hour to get back. But it was fun for the boys.


Hopefully they’ll all sleep well tonight after so much exercise -- which would be especially nice for me to possibly get a chance to sleep in tomorrow morning, since Michael is on another one of his long call days at the hospital, and we won’t see him until sometime tomorrow afternoon. Luckily this is Michael’s last long call day for this rotation.