Eli

So, our little Eli is getting bigger. He will be 4 years old in two weeks. He just “graduated” from his nursery class to the big kid primary class at church, and he enjoys being in primary like Kolby. On his last day of nursery his teacher gave us his star – each of the nursery kids have a star with their picture and some of their favorite things written on it hanging in the nursery classroom at church.

I also thought I’d post Eli’s name. In preschool each morning the kids start out the day by practicing writing their name. Eli has known how to write “Eli” for quite a while now, but has been working on “Elijah” since starting preschool, and is doing pretty well with learning his lowercase letters too.

Christmas Tree Question

Oh, does anyone happen to know of a nursery anywhere in the Salt Lake area where you can cut down your own Christmas tree? I remember doing that as a kid in San Diego and really enjoying it, plus I figured that a fresh-cut tree would last a lot longer than one that’s been sitting in a lot. I’m not too huge about the idea of getting a permit and hauling all the kids up into the mountains to find a tree (maybe when our kids are bigger some day), but if there was a nursery somewhere where we could cut our own, I’d be excited to find it. Thanks!

Count Down to Match Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plastic Surgery and Minivans

This week I started my last hard rotation of my last year of medical school. It is what the school calls the surgery sub-internship. I did my medicine sub-internship in September and that was very busy and taxing, so I assumed this would be similar. We enjoyed my free time last month and were preparing ourselves for having the kids not see much of me. So we were pleasantly surprised to find (at least this week) that things were not as bad as we had envisioned. True, I have had to wake up a lot earlier (around 4:30-5:00 each morning) and stay a little later, but it has usually been until 5 or 6 pm rather than the 9 or 10pm that we had thought. I only have to be on overnight call 3 weeknights during the month, and that is home call (which means I can go home and they will page me if they need me). I did my first home call Tuesday night and wasn’t called in. Then I have to go in 2 Saturday mornings this month, but I get all the rest of the weekend days off. That is mainly because there are two 3rd year medical students on this month as well, so we get to split up all the call between the 3 of us. I guess what I am saying is that I have had a lot more home time than we expected.

And the time at the hospital has been nice too. We have a really good team and everyone seems to get along great. Plus, I have come to find out that plastic surgeons get to do some pretty cool surgeries. This week I saw a couple of broken fingers that were fixed with titanium plates and screws; the start of breast reconstruction for a lady that had to have hers removed for breast cancer; a skin graft to a wound on a lady’s lower leg; and a medial thigh lift for a lady that had lost 100 pounds after having stomach bypass surgery and now had lots of leftover folds of skin. They have quite a variety of “toys” and so many things they need to know. So I have really been enjoying the time in the hospital as well.

I just wish the time would go by a little faster. This is because one week from tomorrow we will find out if we matched into a dermatology residency program, and one week from Thursday we will find out where we will be for the next 4 years (depending on how the match turns out). We feel really good about our choices, but it still is a time of high anxiety as we try to anticipate where the Lord will want us to be next.

This week we also had to make a big decision about our minivan. About 2 weeks ago the van was hit in the back while Steph was dropping off the boys at preschool. The insurance company of the man who hit the van had us drop it off at a body shop on Monday with the intent to replace the back door and bumper and gave us a rental car for a few days to get by. Well, they found that there was a lot more damage than anticipated, so ultimately, they decided that we could choose to have them do the work and give us the van back, or total the van and cut us a check. We think this mishap has come as a huge blessing, seeing as that van has given us so much trouble since we got it. So we plan to have it totaled, and with the money that they will give us, along with our tax refund, we decided to go out and look for a newer and nicer van to replace our old electrical lemon. We went out van shopping yesterday and found one that we really like. It is a gold 2001 Chrysler Town and Country Limited with automatic sliding doors, a 4 disc CD player, and many other nice gadgets and toys. And above all, it seems to run nicely and is in our price range. We are having the financial work processed this weekend, and if everything works out, we can probably get it sometime during this next week. We will have to make car payments for a little while, but it will be minimal because of the money we can put down. We are really excited for this change in fortune. Heavenly Father continues to watch out for our needs and finds ways to bless us when we try to do what is right.

We also had fun playing some games this week. We had the Kearls over Friday night and played lots of games. The kids get along so well and we have so much fun together. They watched our kids for us while we went van shopping Saturday morning, and then Tyce and I stayed at his place to watch some of the kids while Steph and Faith took the others to Sofia’s birthday party at Gymboree. Then we played some more games last night. It has been a very enjoyable weekend.

Monday for family home evening we decided to start memorizing a scripture each month, and we thought it would be good to start with the Articles of Faith, so we are working on the first one: “We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” I love these simple statements of what we believe. Steph did a lesson on service and we decided that we want to come up with a service project that we can do this next month for someone and help the boys to see how they feel when we do the service.

Today the theme in sacrament meeting was forgiveness. And in the last hour of classes we talked about repentance. In Sunday school we focused on some of the main teachings of Isaiah, including about temples, the gathering of Israel, and his testimony of Jesus as our Savior. I am so grateful for the scriptures we have and all the testimonies they contain about the mission of Jesus and why He should be of so much importance in our lives. We are so excited because Camden gets to start nursery classes next week – maybe we will be able to get even more out of our weekly meetings then!

Grey Hairs and Starving Children

So, the other day I found a grey hair on my head – and it was mine! I couldn’t quite believe it. I’m only 26. I told my mom, and she jokingly said that where there’s one grey hair, there are more. I told her I probably have four – one for each of my boys.

On another note, yesterday we were at church and I was in the third hour Relief Society class with Camden. Camden just turned 17 months old, and we are looking forward to the day one month from now when he will be old enough to start attending the children’s nursery class at church because he is ready to be with the other kids (and it’s rather difficult to keep him entertained in our classes anymore, so we’ve end up spending a lot of time out in the hallways at church lately). So, yesterday I was in my Relief Society class and I had already had to take Camden out in the hall a couple of times, so I was trying to make him happy so I could stay for at least part of the lesson. He found Ava Lundgren, and little girl who is two or three months younger than Camden, and he was very happy when Cassidy, Ava’s mommy, offered him some of Ava’s marshmallows. The problem is that Camden is just like each of his older brothers – once you give him food he will insist on consuming more and more of it, rapidly, until there is none left (and will likely be very put out once he has finished that you didn’t think to bring more for him). Now, this is not because we starve our children, although I’m sure it appears that way to the innocent onlooker.

I admit that I had forgotten to grab the snack container out of the diaper bag before that church class started, but any normal child would have been content by that time. In the earlier church meetings Camden had already consumed a couple of slices of homemade whole wheat bread, vanilla wafers, some of his brother’s animal crackers, puffed fruit baby snacks, yogurt-covered cranberries, and two cups of water. So, when we went into Relief Society, of course Camden quickly ate all of Ava’s marshmallows, then he motioned to Cassidy that he wanted more. Tiffany Egbert came to his rescue and offered him a packet of fruit snacks, which made him happy for the 2.3 minutes that it took him to finish off the bag. And soon after that we were out in the hallway again. You would think that if a child ate this much all the time he would be overweight (or at least content), but neither is the case. In fact, my three older boys eat as much as (or more than) Michael and I do at almost every meal. I guess they got their Daddy’s metabolism. I keep thinking, though: What are we going to do when we have four or five hungry teenage boys all at once who eat like this?