Showing posts with label Move. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Move. Show all posts
11 October 2008
Feeling the Baby Move
So, the other day I was laying down on my back on the couch, and I called Eli to come over to me so he could try to feel the baby move. I put his hand on my stomach, but the baby stopped moving and he didn’t feel anything. Then he looked at me and said, “Mommy, the baby is in your neck!” I told him, “No, Eli, that is Mommy breathing, not the baby moving.”
24 June 2008
The Pod
Michael just took a couple of pictures of our “pod” that we packed up with our stuff for Utah. We didn’t think to take a picture of the New York one. They aren’t very big, are they? (They were about 6 by 7 feet). Can you believe we got all of our things into two of these? We just barely made it all fit, but it worked. And I bet you wouldn’t believe that the New York pod was even more full than this one – we ended up locking one of the doors shut and filling up the spaces right up to that door with little things, then closing the second door. But we were really glad that we made everything fit into the two pods, since it saved us a lot of money not to have to move and store a third one.
Grandma Bev
Also on our move, after stopping in Nauvoo we drove down to Kansas City, Missouri to visit my Grandma Bev. It was good to see her again, and to talk about genealogy together. We had a lot of fun, and the boys especially enjoyed hearing her stories that she used to tell us about “Freckles” the squirrel. Thanks, Grandma!
01 June 2008
We are moving!!
This has been a week of packing and moving. Monday, Memorial Day, was a day filled with packing. Luckily we were invited to a BBQ that night at Ken and Monica Theriot’s, so we had something to look forward to. The weather was perfect and the Theriots have a very nice fenced-in backyard that was perfect for kids to play in.
I was getting so tired of packing as the time got closer to move – it is what we were doing from the time we got up in the morning until the evening. This move was more difficult than previous ones because we had to split everything into two groups, one for
Packing continued all day Tuesday. Thanks to Amanda Hansen and Jill Hunter for watching the kids for a few hours so we could get more packing accomplished. The pods arrived Tuesday morning. They were not very big – only 6 x 7 x 8 feet, and we had to get everything to fit into just 2 of them. I was a little worried. We had some people come from church to help us pack the pods Tuesday night, and as boxes were placed out on the lawn, I started to panic, thinking that we were not going to make it fit, and we would have to use the 3rd pod. But miraculously, at least in my mind, we were able to make it all fit how we had planned. That felt so good. We were both exhausted after that long day.
Originally we had planned to leave
We met up with Jason and Amy Hymas and Jason and Marcela Maas at Hoyt park that night in order for the kids to play together and say goodbyes. It is still so weird to me that we may not see some of our friends from
Thursday we were able to finish getting everything packed and into the pods. Amy Hymas, Jill Hunter, and Amanda Hansen all volunteered to help Steph with cleaning the apartment, so I took all the kids (7 total) to the park to play on the playground and in the sand while the moms cleaned – thanks to all of you for your help. We were so blessed to be friends with all of you.
Then we got back, finished packing up the car, and left. We decided at the last minute to get a power inverter for my laptop so we could plug it into the cigarette lighter in the car and not run down the laptops battery. We also got a tape to hook into the car’s stereo system so the kids could listen to the movies. Then we got Mulan and
We got up Friday morning and finished driving to
This time we were able to stay at a hotel where we were able to shower and bathe the kids, which was wonderful. Yesterday we drove the rest of the way to Grandma Bev’s and got here in the late afternoon. She had dinner ready for us, and then she took us to Culver’s, where Aunt Amanda works, and the kids were able to say hi. We also stopped at the store to pick up some Benadryl for me. I am already taking Zertec for my allergies, but Grandma Bev has a cat, and my allergies have been so bad since we got here. I took the Benadryl and after a while it put me to sleep on the couch until we went to bed. Steph was able to video tape a genealogy interview with her grandma, and then she found some old German documents that her grandma had misplaced, which she is going over today to hopefully find out more information about her ancestors.
This morning my allergies were really acting up. I didn’t want to take any Benadryl because I didn’t want to fall asleep at church, but I finally took some, which helped so much. I was tired at church but didn’t fall asleep. In the Sunday school class we talked about Alma’s discussion of things that we should do to become members of Christ’s church, focusing on being a witness of Christ at all times and in all places, and what that means, and how we can try to be better at being a witness for Him. We are having fun being here with grandma Bev. Our plan is to leave sometime after lunch tomorrow and take 2 days to drive the rest of the way to
We have been so blessed as we have been able to reflect on all the people that have touched our lives over the past 4 years in
Michael and Stephanie Bradshaw
(801) 967-9974
08 May 2008
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!”
04 May 2008
Last Month of Medical School
This week I started into my last rotation of medical school – the preparing for internship course. This is just a 2 week lecture series – daily lectures from 8:30 to noon on various topics that the school feels will be most helpful to us in preparing for the intern year. I am amazed by how short my attention span has become for listening to lectures and wonder how I survived the first two years of lectures. :) The things they have taught so far seems pertinent and a good refresher, and it has been especially nice to see all my classmates that I haven’t seen for a few months or years.
Monday we went to the domes, since it is free for Milwaukee residents on Monday mornings. This is a set of 3 large dome-shaped greenhouses, each with a different theme inside them. One had a garden theme, one had a southwest desert theme, and one had a tropical theme. It all smelled really good and was quite pretty. We especially liked the tropical dome and so had lunch on some benches in there.
That night Steph and I were invited to dinner at an Italian restaurant with my dermatology advisor, Dr. Valerie Lyon, and her spouse, and another student that has worked with Dr. Lyon, Christine Palmer and her husband. I tried anchovies on pizza and conch (like the conch shell) in a salad for the first time. It was so nice of Dr. Lyon and her husband to treat us out.
We have started selling our big furniture on Craigslist.com and have had some success this week – we sold the bunk bed, a couch, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a small cabinet. If we can fit all of our stuff into one pod for long term storage in Rochester rather than 2, that will save us about $1000. We are going to put the “furniture money” aside and save it for when we get to Rochester to apply towards new furniture. We have also been able to get some more packing done this week and only have a little left to do after graduation. The apartment is looking quite sparse recently.
Tuesday night we met with Kendra McMullin, a resident wife in our ward who has talked with us before about finances and some suggestions to prepare for the future. She came this time to give us some advice of things she has learned since they started residency – things that we should and shouldn’t try to do once we are living on an income – I think she had some really good advice. She also gave us a book to read, called The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, and so far it is really good. He stresses coming up with a method to pay yourself first in order to have enough saved to enjoy retirement. I was also shown a new website this week, poormd.blogspot.com that a recent graduate from my school has put together on different financial topics and he and his colleagues advice – from Roth IRAs to renting vs. buying to what to do once you start earning an income. Steph and I also sat down this week and started to put together an Excel spreadsheet showing what our monthly expenses will be next year and what things we want to start saving for. I guess we are just excited to finally have a paycheck and to start saving for the goals that we want to accomplish in our life.
Wednesday we went to the playgroup at the park. The weather was almost perfect and the boys had so much fun with their friends on the playground and in the sand. Camden is now old enough to run around with the older boys and do most of what they do, so it is fun to watch all of them playing together. We packed lunches so we could eat there at the park.
Kolby and Eli continue to improve in their swimming skills. Eli was able to swim back and forth across half the pool with only a flotation assistive device that looks like a weight barbell – his teacher just walked in front of him to make sure he was doing ok. He is also almost just tall enough to stand in the water by himself, so he likes jumping off the side and then trying to walk from me back to the wall – it is really funny to watch since he is not quite tall enough. I swam with the boys in the water after they were done and we had lots of fun.
Kolby and Eli have been working on staying dry all the time for potty training. We decided to start a new chart, and if they went 7 days straight with no accidents, then they could get some “big boy” underwear – boxer briefs – from the store. They have been so excited to work on it, and Eli actually was the first one to get to 7 days, so we went to the store and let him pick out some new underwear. He was so excited. We also had a 2 for 1 at Noodles, so we packed dinner for the boys and Steph and I were able to enjoy a nice dinner for under $8. What a deal.
We have had some fun with friends this weekend as well. Friday night we had the Kearls and the Hedgecocks over for games and dessert. They have both watched our kids for us a number of times and so we set up to watch both their kids for them last night so they could both go on a date. Then, the Wells called and came over to do an ice cream bar and games, as well as helping to watch the kids. We had 9 children last night and they all did reasonably well together. We were even able to get most of them to sleep and able to enjoy playing some games. Steph and I borrowed an old Disney movie from the Kearls called The Happiest Millionaire that we finished watching this weekend and that was really funny.
Well, it is a nice sunny Sunday morning and the kids are getting a little rowdy, so I probably should end to go and help Steph get them all ready for church.
Monday we went to the domes, since it is free for Milwaukee residents on Monday mornings. This is a set of 3 large dome-shaped greenhouses, each with a different theme inside them. One had a garden theme, one had a southwest desert theme, and one had a tropical theme. It all smelled really good and was quite pretty. We especially liked the tropical dome and so had lunch on some benches in there.
That night Steph and I were invited to dinner at an Italian restaurant with my dermatology advisor, Dr. Valerie Lyon, and her spouse, and another student that has worked with Dr. Lyon, Christine Palmer and her husband. I tried anchovies on pizza and conch (like the conch shell) in a salad for the first time. It was so nice of Dr. Lyon and her husband to treat us out.
We have started selling our big furniture on Craigslist.com and have had some success this week – we sold the bunk bed, a couch, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a small cabinet. If we can fit all of our stuff into one pod for long term storage in Rochester rather than 2, that will save us about $1000. We are going to put the “furniture money” aside and save it for when we get to Rochester to apply towards new furniture. We have also been able to get some more packing done this week and only have a little left to do after graduation. The apartment is looking quite sparse recently.
Tuesday night we met with Kendra McMullin, a resident wife in our ward who has talked with us before about finances and some suggestions to prepare for the future. She came this time to give us some advice of things she has learned since they started residency – things that we should and shouldn’t try to do once we are living on an income – I think she had some really good advice. She also gave us a book to read, called The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, and so far it is really good. He stresses coming up with a method to pay yourself first in order to have enough saved to enjoy retirement. I was also shown a new website this week, poormd.blogspot.com that a recent graduate from my school has put together on different financial topics and he and his colleagues advice – from Roth IRAs to renting vs. buying to what to do once you start earning an income. Steph and I also sat down this week and started to put together an Excel spreadsheet showing what our monthly expenses will be next year and what things we want to start saving for. I guess we are just excited to finally have a paycheck and to start saving for the goals that we want to accomplish in our life.
Wednesday we went to the playgroup at the park. The weather was almost perfect and the boys had so much fun with their friends on the playground and in the sand. Camden is now old enough to run around with the older boys and do most of what they do, so it is fun to watch all of them playing together. We packed lunches so we could eat there at the park.
Kolby and Eli continue to improve in their swimming skills. Eli was able to swim back and forth across half the pool with only a flotation assistive device that looks like a weight barbell – his teacher just walked in front of him to make sure he was doing ok. He is also almost just tall enough to stand in the water by himself, so he likes jumping off the side and then trying to walk from me back to the wall – it is really funny to watch since he is not quite tall enough. I swam with the boys in the water after they were done and we had lots of fun.
Kolby and Eli have been working on staying dry all the time for potty training. We decided to start a new chart, and if they went 7 days straight with no accidents, then they could get some “big boy” underwear – boxer briefs – from the store. They have been so excited to work on it, and Eli actually was the first one to get to 7 days, so we went to the store and let him pick out some new underwear. He was so excited. We also had a 2 for 1 at Noodles, so we packed dinner for the boys and Steph and I were able to enjoy a nice dinner for under $8. What a deal.
We have had some fun with friends this weekend as well. Friday night we had the Kearls and the Hedgecocks over for games and dessert. They have both watched our kids for us a number of times and so we set up to watch both their kids for them last night so they could both go on a date. Then, the Wells called and came over to do an ice cream bar and games, as well as helping to watch the kids. We had 9 children last night and they all did reasonably well together. We were even able to get most of them to sleep and able to enjoy playing some games. Steph and I borrowed an old Disney movie from the Kearls called The Happiest Millionaire that we finished watching this weekend and that was really funny.
Well, it is a nice sunny Sunday morning and the kids are getting a little rowdy, so I probably should end to go and help Steph get them all ready for church.
27 April 2008
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?
20 April 2008
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!
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!
13 April 2008
Two Weeks of Vacation
I love having this month off for vacation. It has been so nice and relaxing to take time getting up in the morning, eating nice breakfasts with the family, playing with the boys, and just being home with the family. We have gotten a lot done over the past two weeks to get ready for packing and moving while still finding time to have some fun.
As far as moving, we have decided to try and fit most of our stuff into a pod that will be transported to Rochester, New York and then kept in storage for a year. Then we will try and fit the stuff going to Utah with us into another pod and our cars. We are going to try and sell most of our bigger furniture (dressers, bookcases, entertainment center, couches, table) in order to make everything fit, and then slowly purchase them again when we get to Rochester. This will help us to save quite a bit of money if we can use 2 pods rather than 3. We set a date to rent the pods for Tuesday, May 27, which will allow us a few fudge days to get everything packed before we have to be out of the apartment on May 31. Then, we are going to get a towing package installed on the back of our van and rent a car tow dolly from U-haul to tow our smaller blue car behind the van when we drive to Utah. That way, we can take a few extra days getting to Utah, stopping in Nauvoo and at Steph’s grandma’s house in Missouri (plus it will cost less to tow the car than to pay for gas to drive it). Steph also found some people in Milwaukee that had just moved here and were giving away their boxes, so we picked them up and have them ready to start packing soon. We also spent a couple of days cleaning out our storage units and trying to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over the past few years. That felt good.
It is crazy to think that we only have about 7 weeks left in Milwaukee. We are really excited to start this next step in our journey, but we will be very sad to leave all of the friends out here that have become our family while away from family. Thanks to everyone who has been so good to us, helping us out when needed and having fun playing games with us. We hope that we can stay in contact with all of them even though we will not be close by.
Speaking of the next step in our journey, we got all the paperwork this week for my new job as an intern at Intermountain Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got my contract that showed how much I will get paid (and let’s just say it will be so nice to finally be getting a paycheck again). I also got the form to pick my schedule preference, as well as all the stuff from human resources for insurance, lab coats, ID badge, etc. It is exciting to think that I will be starting as an intern in just a few months, though it was a little crazy to see the spot that I signed at the end of the contract with a M.D. after my name. I mean, I guess that is what I have been working for the past 4 years, but it will still take some getting used to.
Last weekend we got to enjoy watching the 168th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the internet on our computer. For those that may not know, this meeting occurs twice a year and it is a meeting of our entire church throughout the world. It is a chance for us to hear from the prophet and his 2 counselors, the 12 apostles, and the other general leaders of our church, to receive counsel and instruction that is applicable to us living in the world today. There are 5 two-hour information-packed meetings, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This weekend’s set of meetings was especially neat because a new prophet was sustained, since President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away earlier this year. The new prophet is Thomas S. Monson, and we each got a chance to show our personal willingness to accept this man as the living prophet of our day. A new apostle was also called, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I love these meetings because I learn so much and feel such a warm feeling inside as the Holy Ghost testifies to me that what I am being taught is true. I really enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk about testimony, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s about using self-discipline to stay the true course, Elder Jeffery R. Holland’s about the importance of continuing revelation, and Elder M. Russell Ballard’s about the role of young mother’s in raising a righteous generation of children. Our kids did pretty well, considering their ages, but there were still times that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention as I would have liked – I can’t wait for the Ensign to come out so I can reread everything that was taught.
Last Monday we decided to take a trip down to Chicago. We had heard that the zoo was free, so we drove down and found some free parking in a park just across the street from the zoo. We got to see the seals being fed and trained, Kolby and Eli chasing seagulls around while eating lunch, and some other cool displays (though the lion’s were not very exciting like they are at the Milwaukee zoo). My favorite was a pygmy hippo that the kids could get down in front of a glass window. The hippo kept trying to dig at the kids and they would squeal. It was really funny to watch. There was also a really cool jungle gym that was shaped like a giant tree, with leaves and netting for the kids to climb around in. After the zoo, we drove downtown and found a parking garage to leave the car and then spent the night walking around the city. We wanted to get to Navy Pier, and since we had been there before, we knew what direction to go. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up taking a wrong turn (though it wasn’t our fault because there were no signs posted saying that the sidewalk was going to end) and found ourselves on a bridge over the Chicago river, at a freeway entrance with cars whizzing past, and us needing to get to the other side. Luckily, there was some construction being done that slowed the cars down some, and then there were some nice people that stopped to let us by. We ended up safely at the Navy Pier and the boys had fun watching the giant ferris wheel and swings. Then we took a trolley ride back into the city to get us closer to our car. We had a lot of fun, though we were so tired on the drive home that Steph and I had to keep trading off driving.
Steph found a website called MilwaukeeMoms.com that has postings for different community events and there were 2 that we did this weekend. In the morning we went to a Kid Fest at the state fairgrounds in the exhibition center. They had all sorts of booths set up from different organizations all over the community, with candy and activities for the kids and drawings for the parents to enter. There was a kid’s circus where they took volunteers from the audience and dressed them up in animal costumes and then had them perform on the stage. We’ll have to post the video of Kolby and Eli as they danced around as horses on the stage. It was really cute.
We got a call from the Theriot’s, a family in the ward, asking if we could watch their 2-year-old boy over the weekend while they went to St. Louis to do some house hunting. He is a really calm and happy kid and has fit in real well with the other boys. They also left us with their X-box to enjoy over the weekend. We have enjoyed playing Tetris, Star Wars, and Cars together and with friends.
This weekend is our Stake Conference, and the other thing that Steph found on that website was a Methodist church that was doing a free babysitting night as a service to the community. We decided to take them up on the offer. We dropped the kids off at 5 and picked them up at 9:30. They fed the kids dinner and then did several activities with them. Steph and I were able to go to dinner at Uno’s and then attend the adult session of Stake Conference together. It was so good as we were counseled on ways to increase our faith and strengthen our families. We need to get the kids ready now for the meeting today at 2pm. We will have 5 boys under the age of 5 with us – it should be interesting. Hopefully we get something out of it. :)
As far as moving, we have decided to try and fit most of our stuff into a pod that will be transported to Rochester, New York and then kept in storage for a year. Then we will try and fit the stuff going to Utah with us into another pod and our cars. We are going to try and sell most of our bigger furniture (dressers, bookcases, entertainment center, couches, table) in order to make everything fit, and then slowly purchase them again when we get to Rochester. This will help us to save quite a bit of money if we can use 2 pods rather than 3. We set a date to rent the pods for Tuesday, May 27, which will allow us a few fudge days to get everything packed before we have to be out of the apartment on May 31. Then, we are going to get a towing package installed on the back of our van and rent a car tow dolly from U-haul to tow our smaller blue car behind the van when we drive to Utah. That way, we can take a few extra days getting to Utah, stopping in Nauvoo and at Steph’s grandma’s house in Missouri (plus it will cost less to tow the car than to pay for gas to drive it). Steph also found some people in Milwaukee that had just moved here and were giving away their boxes, so we picked them up and have them ready to start packing soon. We also spent a couple of days cleaning out our storage units and trying to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over the past few years. That felt good.
It is crazy to think that we only have about 7 weeks left in Milwaukee. We are really excited to start this next step in our journey, but we will be very sad to leave all of the friends out here that have become our family while away from family. Thanks to everyone who has been so good to us, helping us out when needed and having fun playing games with us. We hope that we can stay in contact with all of them even though we will not be close by.
Speaking of the next step in our journey, we got all the paperwork this week for my new job as an intern at Intermountain Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got my contract that showed how much I will get paid (and let’s just say it will be so nice to finally be getting a paycheck again). I also got the form to pick my schedule preference, as well as all the stuff from human resources for insurance, lab coats, ID badge, etc. It is exciting to think that I will be starting as an intern in just a few months, though it was a little crazy to see the spot that I signed at the end of the contract with a M.D. after my name. I mean, I guess that is what I have been working for the past 4 years, but it will still take some getting used to.
Last weekend we got to enjoy watching the 168th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the internet on our computer. For those that may not know, this meeting occurs twice a year and it is a meeting of our entire church throughout the world. It is a chance for us to hear from the prophet and his 2 counselors, the 12 apostles, and the other general leaders of our church, to receive counsel and instruction that is applicable to us living in the world today. There are 5 two-hour information-packed meetings, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This weekend’s set of meetings was especially neat because a new prophet was sustained, since President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away earlier this year. The new prophet is Thomas S. Monson, and we each got a chance to show our personal willingness to accept this man as the living prophet of our day. A new apostle was also called, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I love these meetings because I learn so much and feel such a warm feeling inside as the Holy Ghost testifies to me that what I am being taught is true. I really enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk about testimony, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s about using self-discipline to stay the true course, Elder Jeffery R. Holland’s about the importance of continuing revelation, and Elder M. Russell Ballard’s about the role of young mother’s in raising a righteous generation of children. Our kids did pretty well, considering their ages, but there were still times that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention as I would have liked – I can’t wait for the Ensign to come out so I can reread everything that was taught.
Last Monday we decided to take a trip down to Chicago. We had heard that the zoo was free, so we drove down and found some free parking in a park just across the street from the zoo. We got to see the seals being fed and trained, Kolby and Eli chasing seagulls around while eating lunch, and some other cool displays (though the lion’s were not very exciting like they are at the Milwaukee zoo). My favorite was a pygmy hippo that the kids could get down in front of a glass window. The hippo kept trying to dig at the kids and they would squeal. It was really funny to watch. There was also a really cool jungle gym that was shaped like a giant tree, with leaves and netting for the kids to climb around in. After the zoo, we drove downtown and found a parking garage to leave the car and then spent the night walking around the city. We wanted to get to Navy Pier, and since we had been there before, we knew what direction to go. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up taking a wrong turn (though it wasn’t our fault because there were no signs posted saying that the sidewalk was going to end) and found ourselves on a bridge over the Chicago river, at a freeway entrance with cars whizzing past, and us needing to get to the other side. Luckily, there was some construction being done that slowed the cars down some, and then there were some nice people that stopped to let us by. We ended up safely at the Navy Pier and the boys had fun watching the giant ferris wheel and swings. Then we took a trolley ride back into the city to get us closer to our car. We had a lot of fun, though we were so tired on the drive home that Steph and I had to keep trading off driving.
Steph found a website called MilwaukeeMoms.com that has postings for different community events and there were 2 that we did this weekend. In the morning we went to a Kid Fest at the state fairgrounds in the exhibition center. They had all sorts of booths set up from different organizations all over the community, with candy and activities for the kids and drawings for the parents to enter. There was a kid’s circus where they took volunteers from the audience and dressed them up in animal costumes and then had them perform on the stage. We’ll have to post the video of Kolby and Eli as they danced around as horses on the stage. It was really cute.
We got a call from the Theriot’s, a family in the ward, asking if we could watch their 2-year-old boy over the weekend while they went to St. Louis to do some house hunting. He is a really calm and happy kid and has fit in real well with the other boys. They also left us with their X-box to enjoy over the weekend. We have enjoyed playing Tetris, Star Wars, and Cars together and with friends.
This weekend is our Stake Conference, and the other thing that Steph found on that website was a Methodist church that was doing a free babysitting night as a service to the community. We decided to take them up on the offer. We dropped the kids off at 5 and picked them up at 9:30. They fed the kids dinner and then did several activities with them. Steph and I were able to go to dinner at Uno’s and then attend the adult session of Stake Conference together. It was so good as we were counseled on ways to increase our faith and strengthen our families. We need to get the kids ready now for the meeting today at 2pm. We will have 5 boys under the age of 5 with us – it should be interesting. Hopefully we get something out of it. :)
05 April 2008
Feeling Rather Gypped
I have been feeling rather gypped lately. It is not quite Spring yet here in Milwaukee (I don’t care what the calendar says), but I can tell that it is getting close. It has been up in the low 50s a few days recently, although it’s still usually too cold out for t-shirts. One thing that is kind of fun about Milwaukee is that after the snow starts to melt and you can see some of the grey, muddy grass again, once there is a good rainfall or two, the grass is noticeably greener overnight. It is nice to look outside and see green instead of grey. The grass isn’t bright green yet, but it does look much better after the rain this week. But I have still been feeling kind of gypped – I have officially survived the second snowiest winter on record in Milwaukee history (I don’t think we had quite enough snowfall to break the record, did we?), and now we are going to move next month before we have barely anytime at all to enjoy the nice things about Spring and Summer in Milwaukee. Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to enjoy summer in Salt Lake.
31 March 2008
Home Sick
This week was nice, especially since it was basically Michael’s last week of his plastic surgery rotation (officially, his last day is today). Then he is mostly done with medical school. He planned one if his vacation months in April so that we would be able to get ready for the move, and then in May he has a course called ‘Preparing for Residency’ that only lasts a couple weeks until he graduates on May 16th! So, even though he is getting tired of the very early mornings he’s had this month, it will all be over soon. And then he will get to catch up on some sleep (at least for a couple days, until we start using the month of April for packing, cleaning, organizing, and figuring out all the details for the move). Right now I think the plan is to try to find a storage unit to store the majority of our stuff in Rochester for a year, and just take the necessities with us to Salt Lake, so I have been attempting to make lists of everything we own, separating things into one column for taking to Salt Lake and another column for storing until we get to Rochester, and trying to figure out which items we can leave behind. It is kind of hard to try to plan what we could possibly need in an entire year, but we’ll figure it out, I guess.
So, on Monday the Kearls watched our boys so Michael and I could go to the annual meeting that the school puts on about financial planning and buying a house for graduating students. We felt like it wasn’t the best use of our time – the portion about financial planning was pretty basic and we felt like we already knew much of what they said, and much of the buying the house portion was over our heads or did not apply to us. But they did hand out a good booklet on buying a house, which might be helpful in the future. We are still waiting to receive the packet of paperwork from Michael’s program in Salt Lake with his contract and the insurance information so that we can make some more accurate financial goals for the upcoming year. After the meeting at the school, we watched Enchanted with the Kearls when we went to pick up the kids, which was fun (even thought Michael now needs to borrow the movie to finish the second half of it since he fell asleep on their couch midway through).
On Tuesday Eli had his night out with Daddy. They went to the mall and got food from the Taco Bell dollar menu and then went to Barnes and Noble to read books together. Poor Michael said that he was falling asleep as they were reading, and it got to the point that Eli thought it was a game because he had to wake Michael up so many times as they read. But Eli loved it – he has been asking about when his night out with Daddy would be for the last couple weeks.
On Wednesday morning I had a group of girls and their kids over to make a playgroup schedule for the next couple months. We haven’t had a playgroup for a while, so I figured if I wanted to have it I would need to take charge. We got a schedule made and I am looking forward to taking the kids to the activities, especially to the ones we have planned at the playgrounds in the area once it gets warm enough out. After the planning meeting, Faith stayed and Amy came and we all had lunch together with all the kids. It was a lot of fun, even though the kids made it a little chaotic. That evening I took the boys to their swim lessons and Michael met me over there after he finished with his meeting at school so that I could go to the second half of the enrichment activity where they were making a bunch of baby quilts as a service project. I picked up Amy and we headed over there in time to help with cutting and tying a couple quilts. It wasn’t too late when we finished, so Amy, Faith, and I decided to stop at McDonalds for an ice cream cone (and some time out without any kids). It was fun to sit and talk, but then when we went to leave I saw that the brake lights were on on my car (I had driven Michael’s car, which I’m not used to driving, and must have turned the lights to the wrong notch – which was frustrating, because I was very careful to make sure that the headlights had turned off because Michael accidentally left them on the other day and the car had died). So, our jumped cables were in the van at home and there were none in Faith’s car, so we left the little car there and Faith gave us a ride home.
On Thursday, when Michael got home we headed over to pick up the car. We got there and realized that we had left the car keys at home and were quite frustrated that we would have to go all the way back to get them, until we realized that they were actually in my purse, so that was a relief. We got the car jumped and let it charge while we went inside and got the kids some food. Then we rushed home and I went over to my visiting teaching appointment after helping get the boys in the house.
On Friday I really wanted to get out of the house and go do something, so after dinner we met the Kearls at the McDonalds on National Avenue and let the kids play in the two-story play area there. The kids had a lot of fun, all except Katie who threw up all over Tyce’s lap (it was kind of a relief that Katie was already sick, because Isaac had been spitting up more than normal that afternoon and I had wondered if he wasn’t feeling well, but at least that way I don’t think we passed something to their family – not on Friday, at least). After stopping at Target to pick up a change of clothes for Katie and Tyce, they met us at our place and we put the kids down to bed so the parents could enjoy some games. I’m so glad that we have been able to find friends who are like us: people who enjoy to do things with the children, but are still willing to take their kids anywhere and do anything and are not ruled by the schedules of their babies. (If we could only do anything with friends when all of our children were awake, in good moods, and not demanding our attention, we wouldn’t have any friends).
On Saturday morning Michael had to go in and do rounds for his last call day at the hospital. I was proud of myself because I got up and made the kids a big breakfast of eggs and toast then deep-cleaned the kitchen, picked up around the house, and helped the boys clean up their room all by myself that morning. Michael got home around noon and put the other boys to sleep while I took Camden out for his activity with me (it was supposed to be his night out on Thursday, but we had to rearrange because of my visiting teaching appointment). I took him to the mall and we found some flip flops for the three older boys, and he had so much fun trying them on – he was taking little tiny, quick steps all around and acting really excited. (No, it’s not really flip flop season yet here in Milwaukee, but I’m hoping that it will be sometime in the next month or two). We took longer there than I had planned because I checked several other stores to see if I could find similar sandals that were less expensive, but didn’t find anything else. I was planning on letting Camden push one of those little kid-sized shopping carts when I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, but he fell asleep in the car so I dropped him off at home so he could sleep and went back out to get the groceries. After getting home, getting all the groceries put away, cutting up some chicken before freezing it for meals later on in the week, and having some dinner, the Hedgecocks dropped their boys off so we could watch them while they went on a date. The boys had un playing with each other, and then the Kearls came over and when the Hedgecocks returned we all played games together again. It was a fun night.
And Sunday went pretty well. This morning I made bread (I have just about resolved to be frustrated with somewhat flat bread from now on) and I made a cake for dessert (it’s really hard to make a cake while on fast Sunday and not be able to lick my fingers or anything). We went to church and the boys did well in sacrament meeting. Then, just before our Sunday school class ended we found out that Camden had thrown up. (Sorry, Sister Cook!) After cleaning up the mess in the hallway and getting all the other boys out of their classes and into the car, Michael took them home. The third hour of church was a combined lesson on genealogy that I stayed for. Afterwards I got a ride home with the Hymases and when I got home all four boys were napping and Michael had picked up around the house, put away the dishes, and prepared dinner (what a nice break to get home and not have to worry about any of that). He said that Camden had gotten sick in the car a little on the way home again, poor kid. Our home teachers came over to give us a lesson and then the Kearls came over for dinner. Michael made corned beef and it turned out very good. After dinner Michael had to rush off to his home teaching appointment, and while he was gone I did the dishes, cleaned up the water the boys splashed all over the bathroom floor while I was doing the dishes, out the boys in their pajamas, Tyce read them all a story, I cleaned up after Camden throwing up again, and they all went down to bed just before Michael got back. Then we played some card games and a round of Carcasonne. It will be nice after today that Michael won’t have such early mornings so we won’t have to cut our nights short so that he can get enough sleep to get up so early. We got to bed around 11:30 last night, and then Isaac woke up at 1:30am. I got up with him four times before Michael also got up and we finally got him back to sleep. The poor kid – whenever our boys get sick with a stomach flu (or whatever it is they have) I just give them Pediatlyte or Liquilytes to keep them hydrated, but no other foods until they seem better so they aren’t throwing up constantly. So, we ran out of the Liquilites last night, and we gave Isaac water, which did not make him happy. And then this morning Camden was very mad at me because I didn’t give him his cup of milk when he got up. I called a couple friends to see if someone would come sit with the boys while I ran to get some more of the Liquilites from the grocery store so I didn’t have to take sick kids out today, but instead Kim Morrison offered to go to the store and pick them up for me. That was so nice of her! So, now that we are all stocked up, we can hopefully kick this bug before it spreads to the older boys or Michael and I. Wish us luck and a quick recovery!
So, on Monday the Kearls watched our boys so Michael and I could go to the annual meeting that the school puts on about financial planning and buying a house for graduating students. We felt like it wasn’t the best use of our time – the portion about financial planning was pretty basic and we felt like we already knew much of what they said, and much of the buying the house portion was over our heads or did not apply to us. But they did hand out a good booklet on buying a house, which might be helpful in the future. We are still waiting to receive the packet of paperwork from Michael’s program in Salt Lake with his contract and the insurance information so that we can make some more accurate financial goals for the upcoming year. After the meeting at the school, we watched Enchanted with the Kearls when we went to pick up the kids, which was fun (even thought Michael now needs to borrow the movie to finish the second half of it since he fell asleep on their couch midway through).
On Tuesday Eli had his night out with Daddy. They went to the mall and got food from the Taco Bell dollar menu and then went to Barnes and Noble to read books together. Poor Michael said that he was falling asleep as they were reading, and it got to the point that Eli thought it was a game because he had to wake Michael up so many times as they read. But Eli loved it – he has been asking about when his night out with Daddy would be for the last couple weeks.
On Wednesday morning I had a group of girls and their kids over to make a playgroup schedule for the next couple months. We haven’t had a playgroup for a while, so I figured if I wanted to have it I would need to take charge. We got a schedule made and I am looking forward to taking the kids to the activities, especially to the ones we have planned at the playgrounds in the area once it gets warm enough out. After the planning meeting, Faith stayed and Amy came and we all had lunch together with all the kids. It was a lot of fun, even though the kids made it a little chaotic. That evening I took the boys to their swim lessons and Michael met me over there after he finished with his meeting at school so that I could go to the second half of the enrichment activity where they were making a bunch of baby quilts as a service project. I picked up Amy and we headed over there in time to help with cutting and tying a couple quilts. It wasn’t too late when we finished, so Amy, Faith, and I decided to stop at McDonalds for an ice cream cone (and some time out without any kids). It was fun to sit and talk, but then when we went to leave I saw that the brake lights were on on my car (I had driven Michael’s car, which I’m not used to driving, and must have turned the lights to the wrong notch – which was frustrating, because I was very careful to make sure that the headlights had turned off because Michael accidentally left them on the other day and the car had died). So, our jumped cables were in the van at home and there were none in Faith’s car, so we left the little car there and Faith gave us a ride home.
On Thursday, when Michael got home we headed over to pick up the car. We got there and realized that we had left the car keys at home and were quite frustrated that we would have to go all the way back to get them, until we realized that they were actually in my purse, so that was a relief. We got the car jumped and let it charge while we went inside and got the kids some food. Then we rushed home and I went over to my visiting teaching appointment after helping get the boys in the house.
On Friday I really wanted to get out of the house and go do something, so after dinner we met the Kearls at the McDonalds on National Avenue and let the kids play in the two-story play area there. The kids had a lot of fun, all except Katie who threw up all over Tyce’s lap (it was kind of a relief that Katie was already sick, because Isaac had been spitting up more than normal that afternoon and I had wondered if he wasn’t feeling well, but at least that way I don’t think we passed something to their family – not on Friday, at least). After stopping at Target to pick up a change of clothes for Katie and Tyce, they met us at our place and we put the kids down to bed so the parents could enjoy some games. I’m so glad that we have been able to find friends who are like us: people who enjoy to do things with the children, but are still willing to take their kids anywhere and do anything and are not ruled by the schedules of their babies. (If we could only do anything with friends when all of our children were awake, in good moods, and not demanding our attention, we wouldn’t have any friends).
On Saturday morning Michael had to go in and do rounds for his last call day at the hospital. I was proud of myself because I got up and made the kids a big breakfast of eggs and toast then deep-cleaned the kitchen, picked up around the house, and helped the boys clean up their room all by myself that morning. Michael got home around noon and put the other boys to sleep while I took Camden out for his activity with me (it was supposed to be his night out on Thursday, but we had to rearrange because of my visiting teaching appointment). I took him to the mall and we found some flip flops for the three older boys, and he had so much fun trying them on – he was taking little tiny, quick steps all around and acting really excited. (No, it’s not really flip flop season yet here in Milwaukee, but I’m hoping that it will be sometime in the next month or two). We took longer there than I had planned because I checked several other stores to see if I could find similar sandals that were less expensive, but didn’t find anything else. I was planning on letting Camden push one of those little kid-sized shopping carts when I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, but he fell asleep in the car so I dropped him off at home so he could sleep and went back out to get the groceries. After getting home, getting all the groceries put away, cutting up some chicken before freezing it for meals later on in the week, and having some dinner, the Hedgecocks dropped their boys off so we could watch them while they went on a date. The boys had un playing with each other, and then the Kearls came over and when the Hedgecocks returned we all played games together again. It was a fun night.
And Sunday went pretty well. This morning I made bread (I have just about resolved to be frustrated with somewhat flat bread from now on) and I made a cake for dessert (it’s really hard to make a cake while on fast Sunday and not be able to lick my fingers or anything). We went to church and the boys did well in sacrament meeting. Then, just before our Sunday school class ended we found out that Camden had thrown up. (Sorry, Sister Cook!) After cleaning up the mess in the hallway and getting all the other boys out of their classes and into the car, Michael took them home. The third hour of church was a combined lesson on genealogy that I stayed for. Afterwards I got a ride home with the Hymases and when I got home all four boys were napping and Michael had picked up around the house, put away the dishes, and prepared dinner (what a nice break to get home and not have to worry about any of that). He said that Camden had gotten sick in the car a little on the way home again, poor kid. Our home teachers came over to give us a lesson and then the Kearls came over for dinner. Michael made corned beef and it turned out very good. After dinner Michael had to rush off to his home teaching appointment, and while he was gone I did the dishes, cleaned up the water the boys splashed all over the bathroom floor while I was doing the dishes, out the boys in their pajamas, Tyce read them all a story, I cleaned up after Camden throwing up again, and they all went down to bed just before Michael got back. Then we played some card games and a round of Carcasonne. It will be nice after today that Michael won’t have such early mornings so we won’t have to cut our nights short so that he can get enough sleep to get up so early. We got to bed around 11:30 last night, and then Isaac woke up at 1:30am. I got up with him four times before Michael also got up and we finally got him back to sleep. The poor kid – whenever our boys get sick with a stomach flu (or whatever it is they have) I just give them Pediatlyte or Liquilytes to keep them hydrated, but no other foods until they seem better so they aren’t throwing up constantly. So, we ran out of the Liquilites last night, and we gave Isaac water, which did not make him happy. And then this morning Camden was very mad at me because I didn’t give him his cup of milk when he got up. I called a couple friends to see if someone would come sit with the boys while I ran to get some more of the Liquilites from the grocery store so I didn’t have to take sick kids out today, but instead Kim Morrison offered to go to the store and pick them up for me. That was so nice of her! So, now that we are all stocked up, we can hopefully kick this bug before it spreads to the older boys or Michael and I. Wish us luck and a quick recovery!
25 March 2008
Snow, again.
09 February 2008
Thoughts on Moving
So, as Match Day is approaching I have been thinking more and more about moving. For those of you not familiar with how medical students end up in a residency program after graduation, here’s a quick explanation: The students apply for residency programs and then wait to get invitations for interviews. After interviews are over, each student makes a rank list of all the programs they interviewed with in order of preference, and turns in their lists in February. Each residency program also ranks the students that they interviewed. Then a computer takes all the lists and uses an algorithm to match every graduating student in the country with a residency program. Ideally, a competitive student would get their top choice, but many get one lower down on their list. So, on March 20th all the students come in and each one gets their name called and goes up to get an envelope that contains the results of the match. And that is a contract (you have to go at least for the first year, and you are expected to stay with that program for the remainder of the residency).
So, it is a very interesting time right now, while we wait for Match Day. We have quite a few choices of where to go, and most of them are very good programs that would be good places for Michael to do his residency. We are pretty confident that we will match somewhere, but we’re really not sure which program we are likely to match with. So, being in innate planner that I am, I have a bunch of different questions and thoughts all running through my mind about all the places that we might possibly end up:
• We are going to have to figure out all the stuff for school for Kolby wherever we go. We really aren’t old enough to have a kid old enough to be starting school, are we?
• If we went to Texas, I’ve heard we could afford a house, but would we be able to sell it without a problem when we leave after residency?
• If we went to Pennsylvania, how would it be living in a small town? We could do lots of outdoor things, except when it’s too cold in the winter. But we could also take trips and do all the East Coast stuff.
• How are we going to get wherever we go? We have the van and the car – and driving separately on a long move doesn’t really appeal to me. Is it worth it to take that car with us, or should we just sell it to yet another medical student? But we don’t really want a car payment at this point if we can help it.
• What if we happened to end up in New York City, how would we be able to afford to live there? But wouldn’t it be so cool to live near all those great sites in the histories of our country and our church?
• How is it going to be to move into a normal family ward after being here with all the other student families who are in our same situation? Are we going to be the only young family in the ward? Will we be the busiest/noisiest/wildest family in the ward with all our little boys?
• How humid is it in north-central Florida? Would the humidity be better than living someplace with a really cold winter? We could take a day trip to the beach. :)
• What kind of insurance coverage are we going to have, and how will I figure that all out?
• What if we went to San Diego for a year? There are so many things I would love about that. We would be with family, save money on rent for a down payment on a house, and be able to enjoy the beautiful weather there. Where would we put our furniture and the things we wouldn’t need there?
• If we move someplace for a transition year before the derm residency starts – it will take a lot of effort to get to know everyone and unpack and get settled in, just to pick up and move again a year later.
• Rochester, New York would be amazing, but cold. But when are we ever going to have a chance again to live on the East Coast?
• Wouldn’t it be cool to have a house and a yard? I could decorate and we could plant a garden and the kids could play in the yard. But we are pretty ignorant about buying a house – how will we figure all that out? We would have to buy all the big appliances and worry about maintenance and upkeep.
• What kinds of things are there to do in Ohio? I bet it would be similar there to Milwaukee.
• Maybe our van would actually run ok if we moved to someplace warm – it runs fine in the summer here, but in the cold winter weather it frequently needs to be jumped and lately has started to kill sometimes when we stop at traffic lights, even though we have replaced the battery several times and no mechanic can figure out the problem. We’ll see.
• Salt Lake would mean we could live in my grandma’s finished basement (which is larger than our current apartment), and save up money for a house. But the transition year there said their interns are busier at the hospital than some other programs – it would probably be ok, but Michael’s going to be gone enough as it is, so would I really want him to be more busy than he might somewhere else?
• Tonight the temperature here in Milwaukee is in the negatives. Just about any place would have to have a better climate than this, right? :) Too bad for the winters here – otherwise Milwaukee would be a rather nice place to live.
• How are we ever going to find friends as good as the ones here?
• I feel like there are so many things to be thinking about, and I am just scratching the surface. I wonder what else there is to figure out that I haven’t even thought of yet. I just have to keep myself from really thinking about it too much, since I can’t do anything but wait at this point.
I am excited about starting out someplace new, but at the same time I am feeling rather sad that we will likely be leaving our friends here in Milwaukee and will not see many of them again. This is an exciting time for us coming up, so it will be really interesting to see how it all turns out.
So, it is a very interesting time right now, while we wait for Match Day. We have quite a few choices of where to go, and most of them are very good programs that would be good places for Michael to do his residency. We are pretty confident that we will match somewhere, but we’re really not sure which program we are likely to match with. So, being in innate planner that I am, I have a bunch of different questions and thoughts all running through my mind about all the places that we might possibly end up:
• We are going to have to figure out all the stuff for school for Kolby wherever we go. We really aren’t old enough to have a kid old enough to be starting school, are we?
• If we went to Texas, I’ve heard we could afford a house, but would we be able to sell it without a problem when we leave after residency?
• If we went to Pennsylvania, how would it be living in a small town? We could do lots of outdoor things, except when it’s too cold in the winter. But we could also take trips and do all the East Coast stuff.
• How are we going to get wherever we go? We have the van and the car – and driving separately on a long move doesn’t really appeal to me. Is it worth it to take that car with us, or should we just sell it to yet another medical student? But we don’t really want a car payment at this point if we can help it.
• What if we happened to end up in New York City, how would we be able to afford to live there? But wouldn’t it be so cool to live near all those great sites in the histories of our country and our church?
• How is it going to be to move into a normal family ward after being here with all the other student families who are in our same situation? Are we going to be the only young family in the ward? Will we be the busiest/noisiest/wildest family in the ward with all our little boys?
• How humid is it in north-central Florida? Would the humidity be better than living someplace with a really cold winter? We could take a day trip to the beach. :)
• What kind of insurance coverage are we going to have, and how will I figure that all out?
• What if we went to San Diego for a year? There are so many things I would love about that. We would be with family, save money on rent for a down payment on a house, and be able to enjoy the beautiful weather there. Where would we put our furniture and the things we wouldn’t need there?
• If we move someplace for a transition year before the derm residency starts – it will take a lot of effort to get to know everyone and unpack and get settled in, just to pick up and move again a year later.
• Rochester, New York would be amazing, but cold. But when are we ever going to have a chance again to live on the East Coast?
• Wouldn’t it be cool to have a house and a yard? I could decorate and we could plant a garden and the kids could play in the yard. But we are pretty ignorant about buying a house – how will we figure all that out? We would have to buy all the big appliances and worry about maintenance and upkeep.
• What kinds of things are there to do in Ohio? I bet it would be similar there to Milwaukee.
• Maybe our van would actually run ok if we moved to someplace warm – it runs fine in the summer here, but in the cold winter weather it frequently needs to be jumped and lately has started to kill sometimes when we stop at traffic lights, even though we have replaced the battery several times and no mechanic can figure out the problem. We’ll see.
• Salt Lake would mean we could live in my grandma’s finished basement (which is larger than our current apartment), and save up money for a house. But the transition year there said their interns are busier at the hospital than some other programs – it would probably be ok, but Michael’s going to be gone enough as it is, so would I really want him to be more busy than he might somewhere else?
• Tonight the temperature here in Milwaukee is in the negatives. Just about any place would have to have a better climate than this, right? :) Too bad for the winters here – otherwise Milwaukee would be a rather nice place to live.
• How are we ever going to find friends as good as the ones here?
• I feel like there are so many things to be thinking about, and I am just scratching the surface. I wonder what else there is to figure out that I haven’t even thought of yet. I just have to keep myself from really thinking about it too much, since I can’t do anything but wait at this point.
I am excited about starting out someplace new, but at the same time I am feeling rather sad that we will likely be leaving our friends here in Milwaukee and will not see many of them again. This is an exciting time for us coming up, so it will be really interesting to see how it all turns out.
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