Summer is Almost Here

This weekend has been wonderful. The weather has been nice (70s-80s), and this is my “golden weekend” for this month, which means I got the weekend off from work.

Tuesday we had the ultrasound that confirmed we are having our 4th boy!! It also showed that the baby looks healthy and well. That night we dropped the boys off at the Taylor’s house and then went to a meeting where they talked about strategies for eliminating debt and preparing for retirement. They had some good ideas of things that we can do once we start into a job so that retirement can be the “golden years.” One of Steph’s visiting teachers invited us to the meeting, and we are going to meet with another sister in the ward to prepare a financial needs assessment that they do for free. Basically it is a way to show how much you need to save each year to retire with a certain amount of money. We have heard from others in the ward that it is nice to do just to see what sort of things we will need to think about once we have a real job.

I was on call Thursday night, and I got two hours of sleep, which is a lot for this rotation. We see so many motorcycle and automobile accidents, and then gun shot wounds and knife wounds – those are probably the main things that come through the trauma bay. After this month I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get on a motorcycle again – I have seen too many people’s lives completely changed for the worse from these accidents.

Kolby had his last day of preschool on Friday for this semester. He gets a summer break now (and Steph gets a summer break as well), and then he will start back up in the fall. We will continue with the swimming lessons so that they don’t forget how to swim over the summer. We are going to try Kolby again in the class without parents in the water to see if he is now ready. Their new classes start up this next week.

So Friday I pretty much was asleep on and off for most of the day – Steph says I wasn’t much use that day because I was so tired. We did get the car dropped off to have the odometer/speedometer fixed and picked that up on Saturday. We have had to fix the brakes, flush the brake fluid, get an oil change, rotate the tires, and now fix the speedometer and odometer this month. Now hopefully the cars are all fixed up for the next several months. That night we watched Peter and Cynthia’s kids so they could go to a movie.

Saturday morning I went to a class meeting to help us get ready for the 4th year of medical school, mainly focusing on applying for residency and how to prepare our applications and then how to prepare for the interviews that will take place November through January. They gave some good ideas of things to do to show why we should be picked for interviews and residency programs. I can’t believe that we are already here. It is both scary and exciting. We’ll keep you updated.

Steph has put together chore charts for Kolby and Eli, and they get to fill in squares for helping with dishes, putting their toys away, setting the table, and doing jobs for mommy & daddy. If they fill in all their squares for the week, then they get a special prize. Their prize this week was to go to a playground Saturday afternoon and play on the slides. It was such a nice day and we had fun chasing each other around on the playground. Then we dropped the boys off at Peter and Cynthia’s so that Steph and I could go on a date to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We splurged and went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse (mmmmm!!!!!) and then we saw Spider Man 3. We had watched Spider Man 2 earlier in the week so we could remember the story. Three was pretty good, but we both decided that two was our favorite of the series. It was nice to spend time together with just the two of us.

Today has been another beautiful day. It was also nice to be able to go to church with the family. With the way my rotations have gone recently, I have had to be at the hospital a few Sundays each month. I think Steph is also very happy when I am here Sundays to help with the boys at church. They did really well today. They were in underwear the whole three hours without having an accident. The talks in sacrament meeting today were about the sacrament prayers, focusing on the promise we make to keep the commandment. One of the speakers read several quotes from the four most recent prophets about things they have commanded us to do. It was neat to hear revelation that we have received from these modern day prophets. In Sunday school we talked about Matthew 21-23, where Jesus teaches about hypocrisy and how we need to be careful that we don’t fall into the trap of saying or teaching one thing and then doing the opposite. And then in the last hour we talked about provident living and things we can do to prepare temporally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually for the future. Tonight we are having the Kearls over for dinner so that should be fun.

We hope all of your lives are as fun and exciting as ours. Keep us posted.

The Last Couple of Weeks

So, our family has been doing pretty well lately. I enjoyed a very quick trip to San Diego a couple weeks ago. My sister, Michelle, and I were both able to fly in and surprise my dad for his surprise 50th birthday party that my mom had organized. I took Camden with me, and our friends were nice enough to watch Kolby and Eli for us on the days that Michael had to work, and it is always easier to travel with one baby than with three.

While we were in San Diego, we got to go to my brother, Matthew’s, lacrosse game, and had the surprise party for my dad that night. On Saturday we drove up to Malibu, California and went to the Getty Villa, a large country home in a canyon that was designed with ancient Roman architecture and has been converted to a museum to contain the Getty collection of Roman statues and artifacts. It was pretty cool. Then we drove back that night and had dinner at the Chart House. The next day was Mother’s Day and Camden was kind enough to sleep in for me, and then my brothers brought me breakfast in bed – they are so thoughtful! We opened Mother’s Day gifts for my mom and Michael called and we talked, and then we were able to go to the beginning of church before driving to the airport. Although it was a lot of traveling for such a short trip, it was definitely worth it. Michael had a good time with the boys while I was gone that weekend too. They were invited to a BBQ Saturday and then to a dinner and games Sunday evening, so that was nice for him.

Last week Kolby had his speech evaluation. We got a progress report a few months ago from Kolby’s preschool program that mentioned that he had trouble enunciating his words, and so the doctor thought it would be good to be safe and have it checked out. His evaluation went really well. They did a hearing test, which showed that he can hear well, except he had some fluid in one ear, which is probably related to the cold he has had recently. Kolby really enjoyed the speech evaluation because it seemed like a game to him, with lots of pictures to look at, words to repeat, and questions to answer. They said that there is no problem with his speech. We have noticed that on some of his words that start with the letter S he has trouble pronouncing the first part of the word, so I made some flashcards with S-words, and we have been practicing saying them correctly. But we were glad to find out that there is nothing to worry about with his speech or hearing.

Last week we had several fun activities, including a birthday party for our friend, Peter, a trip to the zoo with Amy and Faith, and a new toddler art class that a girl in our ward started for the 2- and 3-year olds this summer. I also had another doctor’s appointment last week, and everything is going great with the baby. We have our ultrasound scheduled for June 5th.

Last weekend was kind of busy. On Friday mornings I take Kolby to his preschool classes at the YMCA, drop Camden off at their Kid Care, and take Eli to his swimming lesson. Eli absolutely loves the water – I have never seen a kid his age who enjoys jumping under the water or doing ‘bobs’ (holding his head under the water by himself) so much. We were about half way through the swim lesson when someone came and told me that Kolby wasn’t feeling well. Eli was rather distraught when we had to get out of the pool, and even more hysterical when we walked through the locker room and didn’t stop to take a shower first on our way to check on Kolby. Kolby was lying on the carpet in his class. He had a fever, but he was crying because he didn’t want to miss his second class in the gym. I took Eli back down and showered him off, then we went to get Camden, and I’m sure that everyone was staring at me: with my messy wet hair, Camden and all our bags in my arms, and two crying boys in tow. But after we got home Kolby got some Tylenol, they all went down for a nap, and Kolby didn’t seem sick again after that. I was glad that I didn’t have to deal with him being sick over the weekend.

Michael was on call that weekend, and he got home early Saturday afternoon, so we were hoping that he would get home early Sunday too, because our friends were having a BBQ dinner after church with all of the 3rd-year students and their families from the ward. Unfortunately, Michael had several surgeries on Sunday and didn’t get off until right when the BBQ was ending, but we really can’t complain, because in general his schedule has been so nice this month compared to most other surgery rotations we have heard about.

Well, nothing too major has happened yet this week. Kolby has enjoyed his preschool classes so far this week. His last class is on June 8th, and then we will take a break for the summer. With all the summer activities we have planned for the boys (weekly swim lessons, play group, and toddler art class), I think it will be nice to take a break from school until the fall. Last night I went to an enrichment group that a girl in the ward taught about being organized and cleaning. It was fun to get some ideas and talk to friends. And tonight I am planning on running over to the family history center. I need to get some names prepared for our temple trip on Saturday with Peter and Cynthia.

So, this weekend my parents are leaving to go to Europe, and they will be picking my sister, Jennifer, up from her mission in Germany in a week or so. We are so proud of her and all the hard work she has done there. And the boys are very excited to see their Aunt Jenn again.
Well, I hear Kolby calling me from the other room. Better go see what he’s up to.