Getting Ready to Move

This week has been a whirlwind of packing and getting last-minute things done before our move, with some fun thrown in here and there. On Sunday afternoon Michael’s parents and my parents each left, and on Monday Grandma Faun left too. We were so glad that they could all come for Michael’s graduation!

On Monday Michael got his graduation gift from me (and we used the graduation money from Grandma Faun and the money Michael had earned by helping give a test to the 2nd-years a couple weeks ago, and it was still a pretty big splurge – but Michael really, really wanted it and has worked so hard through school these last few years that I figure he deserves to spend some time just relaxing and having fun). So, I got him a Wii. I was always one of those people who swore our children would never play video games (although I do have a secret love of Tetris). But I do like that the Wii has fun sports games that get you up and moving, and that since it is wireless the kids can play too without accidentally stepping on the chords and turning everything off – Kolby is an expert at bowling already! So we have the sports games and Mario Kart, which is a fun racing game – as long as we steer clear of the killing games, I don’t think it’s bad to sit down as a family or with friends and play some games. Plus, Michael was excited to find out that he could play the games online through our wireless connection with his family and friends who don’t live nearby – he has already played the racing game with his dad in Boise, and with the Hymases. So, needless to say, Michael was pretty excited about that gift.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the family history center and had the sisters there help me translate some of the German records that my parents brought back from their trip to the Czech Republic. I am so excited to sit down and figure out how all these ancestors connect, and my mom said she might even be able to come up to Utah once my brothers’ school gets out, and we can both spend some time at the family history center working on it together – it’s so fun that my parents are both getting interested in family history too now.

I have been quite busy this week also selling lots of our furniture and some other smaller things. This week we sold the entertainment center, the kitchen table, another table that we had in the basement, an end table, the breadmaker, and the car. Now we just need to sell the couch, and we will be set as far as the big things go. We’ve also been doing all the last minute things that come with moving – canceling our YMCA membership, getting transfer papers for WIC, getting the tow hitch installed on the van so we could tow the car on our move, making last-minute doctor’s appointments before we move and have to switch doctors, making big batches of soup to try to use up the meat in our freezer before we move, getting oil changes and check-ups on the cars before moving, finding out that the car had some major problems that we didn’t know about that made it un-drivable and would cost more than the cost of the car to fix, posting the car on sale for craigslist for $350 (hoping that we could get more than just $100 for it), having 30 or 40 people e-mail us about the car the night we posted it online, taking one last trip to the Chicago temple before we move, canceling our reservation to get the tow dolly from U-haul to tow our car to Utah, and having someone come to our house as soon as we returned from our temple trip and offer us $500 for the car and then paying us and taking it off our hands right away. Although we were not planning on having to get another car for Michael once we move to Utah, I guess if you look at the bright side of things, we will no longer have to tow the car on our drive to Utah, so that will not only save us a little gas money, but we will also not be limited to the 6 days that we would have had to get to Utah to drop off the U-haul tow dolly, so now we can choose to stay an extra afternoon or an extra day in Nauvoo or at Grandma Bev’s house on our drive out if we feel like it. Also, it was a little annoying that we had just paid to install the tow hitch on the van and we won’t be using it now, but I guess we will tow whatever car we get on our move to Rochester in a year, so the hitch won’t go totally unused.

We have also had some fun this week. Tyce came over and played a bit on Monday night after we put the kids to bed, and the Hedgecocks came over on Tuesday night after Kolby called and asked if Jordan could come play (Kolby and Eli get really excited lately when we let them call their friends on the phone). On Wednesday we got to go to a playgroup at Enderis Park, where we saw Marcela Maas and some other friends. Michael also took the three older boys swimming on Wednesday night while I repaired furniture to get it in good enough shape to sell it. At the playgroup that morning Marcela decided to organize a BBQ for the next night as a little going away party with some friends. She called everyone and got it all organized, and we were surprised at how many showed up since it was planned at the last minute. It was nice to be able to see lots of our friends and enjoy some time together, although people didn’t linger for long after dinner since it turned out to be a very cold evening. After the BBQ, the Hedgecocks stayed to play and Jana and Marie Wells came back over after dropping Keith off at the school to study. Michael figured out how to play the Wii with the Hymases on the internet too that night, so that was fun also.

And today will be our last day at church in this ward. I’m sad to be going, although I’ve kind of been getting used to the idea since Michael matched, so I’ve not been feeling quite as sad lately as I was at first. And this week will continue to be busy too. The pods arrive on Tuesday and we will have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to pack everything and clean the apartment. The pods will be picked up on Friday before noon, and we will head out then. We are planning on stopping in Nauvoo, Illinois for a day and then stopping and visiting with my Grandma Bev in Missouri before driving the rest of the way to Salt Lake.

Oh, speaking of Salt Lake, I sat Kolby and Eli down the other day and explained all of our moving plans and answered their questions, and they seemed to understand and accept everything, except there was some confusion about moving to Salt Lake. Apparently Kolby thought we were moving to a place with water, since it is called ‘Salt Lake.’ I explained to him that there is a lake, but that it’s not right next to Grandma’s house, and the rest of the conversation seemed to go pretty smoothly. I think that the boys are starting to understand the idea of moving, although they keep asking me every once in a while if we are moving back home after we live at Grandma Faun’s house – I think Kolby thought we were going on another extended vacation until I recently told him we would have a new house in New York after we live in Utah. I haven’t mentioned to them that they won’t be seeing their friends again, though. I don’t know if I should say anything about that before we go or not – I’ll probably just tell them today that they need to say goodbye to their friends before we move. Hopefully that goes pretty smoothly too.

Boy Oh Boy!

A couple weeks ago we babysat for the Kearls and the Hedgecocks because we owed them both for watching our kids more than once. It seems like it is harder and harder for Michael and I to ask anyone to babysit for us anymore, because we have a couple of good friends who we know we can always count on to watch our boys for us if we need them too, but we don’t want to take advantage of their kindness and ask them too frequently. And then most other people we have asked to babysit for us have never asked us back to watch their kids for them, so we don’t feel like we can ask them again. We just have more kids than many of our friends do, so it’s hard to ask people to take on so many little boys all at once. And I guess people don’t ask us to babysit for them because they think it would be too many kids for us, but these photos will lay those fears to rest. So, to all of our friends who read this, please, ask us to babysit – we are always looking for opportunities to trade babysitting with friends.

Anyways, coming back from that little tangent – we watched the Hedgecocks’ and Kearls’ kids, and the Wellses happened to come over that night and brought ice cream, so we ended up having ice cream with all the kids. With our boys and Marie Wells, there were 9 kids total, but it made it a lot more fun to babysit with friends over while we did it.

And the video at the end is from a different night, but it shows a typical game night at our place before we round up all the wild children and put them to bed so that the parents can enjoy some games. The boys (and Katie) will often run back and forth from the bedroom to the living room, and lately they have started yelling things while they run, like “Fire!” or “Tornado!” But a bunch of little kids age 4 and younger yelling “Tornado” sounds a lot like “Tomato,” so I had to grab the camera and catch that on tape. Pretty cute! But, of course, it didn’t take them long to realize they were being recorded, and then they all stopped running to pose and act silly for the camera. Isn’t that always the case – when I want to catch something on video, they stop whatever they are doing and pose for the camera, but if I wanted to take a cute picture of them, they would probably start running around the house.

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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!”

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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.

Car Problems and Fun with Friends

I feel like we got a lot accomplished this week – I almost feel like we are getting back up to date with all the little every-day things we need to get done since returning home. This week I was able to cross a lot of little things off of my ‘to do’ list including updating our food storage inventory, organizing the baby’s room, printing and sending some photos to Grandma Bev that she asked for, e-mailing a bunch of old German family documents to my mom so they could prepare for their trip to the Czech Republic, – I am so envious that they have the chance to go to some of the towns our ancestors are from and they might even find the places where they lived – and I also ground enough wheat for a month’s worth of whole wheat bread – I’m determined to make a batch (6 loaves) each Sunday, and am very glad that the batch I’m making right now looks like it is turning out well after last week’s batch tasted good but didn’t rise very well (wow, can you say, ‘run on sentence?’). Anyways, it always feels good to cross things off of my list as I accomplish each task.

So, this week was a fun one. A nice thing about our trips is that we got out of the habit of watching very much television, and since we’ve returned to Milwaukee we’ve tried to continue that. We’ve had more time for getting together with friends and playing with the boys.

On Monday I dropped the boys off at preschool and then my visiting teachers came by before I had to go pick them up again. It’s been really nice this month because Michael hasn’t had to be in until 9am, so he waits with Camden and Isaac while I drop off Kolby and Eli at school, and then I don’t have to lug all four of them in and out of the car.

On Tuesday it was Kolby’s night. We decided to start having one night a week be an individual night for one of the kids to go out with a parent. Kolby went with Michael to run a few errands, and then they went and read books at the library. While they were running errands they got some pretty flowers and a fun new board game, Carcassonne, for me for an early Valentine’s Day surprise. I was very pleasantly surprised, and it was fun that Kolby picked out the flowers. Michael seemed to enjoy it a lot too, because he says that I am so hard to surprise, but I didn’t expect it at all.

On Wednesday morning the boys had preschool again, and they did great. Eli has done well with preschool, he especially enjoys having Kolby there with him. Most days this week they haven’t even made a big deal of me leaving when I drop them off – they just say goodbye and that’s enough for them. Then Wednesday evening Michael had an AOA meeting and he took Isaac with him while I took the other boys to the YMCA. Camden went and played at their kid care while I watched Kolby and Eli’s swim lessons. It is the first time that Eli is in a class with us in the water with him, and he did great. The teacher seemed surprised when Eli willingly dunked his head under the water right when she asked the kids to do ‘bobs’ and she asked me if he had taken lessons before. Kolby did great too. And the nice thing this session is that they are in lessons at the same time, and their classes are right next to each other, so I can pull up a stool and sit right in the middle of the two to watch them both. After their lessons were over they wanted to stay and play in the water and they played for about 15 minutes more before we left. Eli loves to play on the steps and go under the water with his eyes open the whole time and Kolby was excited that he is tall enough to walk on the bottom even deeper into the pool than he used to be, so I kept having to remind him he couldn’t walk all the way to the middle of the pool. They had a lot of fun with that.

Thursday morning we took Michael’s car into the shop because it had failed the emissions test earlier in the week. We paid them $30 to tell us that we would need to pay $1000 to fix the entire emissions system, $450 to replace a rotted out radiator, and $400 for a major tune up – all for the little car that we paid $1500 for a year ago. So now we are really trying to figure out what to do. Do we get a different car that is a little newer and might not have so many major problems for a while (although we couldn’t afford the payments on anything much newer than the one we’ve got), or do we put money in and fix the car up because people say Toyotas are good little cars and we could get a lot more miles out of it if we put some money into it (or it could continue to have major problems that would cost us even more), or do we just fix the minimum to try to get it to pass emissions for one more year and then face those problems later on, or is there any possible way to make one car work at least until we move in the summer (but getting the kids up early each morning and late each night to go pick up Michael from his Surgery Sub-I rotation next month just seems like it would be awful). So, we don’t know what we’re going to do yet. Yuck! We don’t have very good luck with cars.

On Friday morning I took the boys to preschool and when I came back out of the YMCA the back of our van was all smashed in. I didn’t really know what to do since no cars were near my van at all when I came out and I thought the other driver had left. So I just stood there for a while and the driver of a semi truck parked a few car-lengths away from the van came and told me he had hit it. (I was really glad it wasn’t just a hit and run). He said that he was unloading things from the back of his truck and it started rolling and he ran and got the emergency brake on just as it hit the van. At least it seems like his company will cooperate and take care of everything with the insurance, we just have to wait until after the long weekend to get things rolling on that. But for now we can’t open the back door of the van. Luckily there wasn’t more of a problem than that – I’m glad it didn’t break the back window or anything, because it had been so cold that driving with our kids in the van with a broken window would be unbearable. Anyways, one more bit of our bad luck with cars. Oh well. So, Friday night the Kearls came over and we babysat Nathan and Katie while they went curling and then they stayed for games after they returned and the Wellses came and joined us for games too.

And then yesterday morning Michael went and helped Bishop Park to move some of their stuff into storage so they can sell their house. They are moving to Washington this summer. After lunch we went over and saw the Wells’ home for the first time and we played some games on their Wii. Jana also got out her violin and played some songs for the boys, which was very impressive – she could play any song that we named and each one sounded great. She said she started playing just before she turned 4 years old, so I guess we are behind. We told Kolby he could start taking piano lessons after we move. After that we dropped off our boys at the Kearls and went out to dinner for our Valentine’s Day date. We went to Habaneros, which we would recommend. They had great food, and we were surprised at how nice of a place it was inside – from the outside it looks like a small place in this little strip mall with neon beer signs in the windows, but when you go inside it is a very large room with vaulted ceilings and much more authentic-looking architecture and decorating than other Mexican places we’ve been to out here. It was a fun evening out together. After that we went over to the school for their annual Variety Fest talent show. We have gone to it each year since we’ve been here, and it was a really strange feeling to look around and not recognize many people there and realize that we were some of only a few 4th-years there. It felt really strange to be the “oldest” and realize we are going to be done with all of this soon. Afterwards we returned to the Kearls and played a game of Carcassonne and watched a fun movie called Stardust before taking the kids home to bed.

And today there have been reports of a bad storm that is supposed to come in later on, so church was cancelled. It doesn’t look too bad out now, but there was rain this morning that is supposed to make things very slippery and later on there is supposed to be about 6 inches of new snow. So, this morning we watched on the internet the recording of President Hinckley’s funeral services since we were traveling on the day of his funeral a couple weeks ago. Now Michael is training the person who is taking over his job as the one who schedules all of the events in the church building. And later on the Hedgecocks are coming for dinner and then we are going to play games afterwards and the Kearls may come too. So it should be a nice relaxing day. The boys are napping now, which is always nice to have a little break. Hope you all have a nice week.

"Mommy, when will I be 44?"

So, the other day we were driving home from a dentist appointment and Kolby and I had an interesting conversation.

Kolby: Mommy, when will I be 13?
Me: Not for a long time.
Kolby: When will I be 44?
Me: Not for a really long time.
Kolby: Mommy, will I die when I’m 44?
Me: No, Kolby, probably not.
Kolby: Mommy, when will I be 99?
Me: Not for a long, long time when you are a grandpa.
Kolby: When I am 99, is that when I am going to die Mommy?
[At this point, I was curious what brought this up. I wondered if he remembered us telling him that Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of our church, had died and maybe that was why he was asking about death].
Me: I don’t know. Kolby, why do you ask?
Kolby: I don’t know.
Me: Kolby, do you know someone who died?
Kolby: No. Well, Jesus died, right Mommy?
Me: Yes Kolby, but then he was resurrected.
Kolby: Mommy, kids don’t die, do they?
Me: Usually kids don’t die, usually people don’t die until they are really, really old.
Kolby: That wouldn't be good if a kid died, huh Mommy? . . .

So, I happened to mention this conversation to Jana Wells, Kolby’s primary class teacher from church, and she said that last week their class talked about the plan of salvation. They talked about people getting bodies and coming to earth, living their lives, and going to Heaven after they died. So maybe this sparked Kolby’s questions.

It’s just kind of funny, because Kolby’s favorite ‘game’ to play with me is “Emergency or Not an Emergency.” We take turns talking about different things and then saying if they are emergencies or not. Like I ask him if a car running into another car is an emergency and he says yes, I ask him if a fire on trees is an emergency and he says yes, and I ask him if he falls off his bike and scrapes his knee if that is an emergency and he says no. This all started a while ago when Kolby came home from his preschool class one day and told me that he learned to call 911 for an emergency, and I asked him if he knew what an emergency was and he said ‘no.’ So I decided he needed to learn what it was so we wouldn’t have problems with him dialing 911 for any little problem. I never knew it would turn into his favorite game. But it is interesting, because for Kolby everything is very matter of fact. He doesn’t seem concerned about the emergencies at all, he just wants to know which things are emergencies and which ones aren’t. That is how the conversation was the other day. He didn’t seem phased at all by the idea of dieing, he just wanted to know when it was going to happen. It’s so interesting to see how the boys think as they start to get older and learn more about how things work.

A Busy Week

So, it has been a busy week. I think we will continue to be very busy until we leave on our trip on Saturday – there is so much that I’d like to get done before we leave. I guess we’ll probably continue to be pretty busy after we get there too, with Michael’s interviews and working at the dermatologist’s office and with all the boys. I guess with this many little kids we’ll probably be busy more often than not the rest of our lives. But we wouldn’t want things to be boring around here, I guess. :)

So, on Monday after taking Kolby to preschool I took Isaac for his follow-up appointment with the ENT doctor who did his surgeries while he was in the NICU. He said that Isaac has now recovered fully and can be treated like a normal baby his age. That was nice to hear. Then we stopped at the pediatrician’s office for a weight check, and Isaac had gained a few ounces from his birth weight. I wasn’t surprised that he had at least gained a little weight, because he has had trouble nursing so I had been pumping and feeding him with a bottle for almost a week at that time, so I knew exactly how much he was eating and he was getting enough to eat.

On Tuesday Michael had his second transitional year program interview here in Milwaukee at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He said that the interview went well, was pretty relaxed, and went by pretty quickly. He got home early after his interview, so he was able to go with me to an appointment at the hospital for Isaac to try to help with his nursing in speech and sucking therapy. There was a nutritionist and a feeding specialist who both work with babies who met with us and watching Isaac suck on a pacifier, eat from a bottle, and nurse. They were both really nice, and after watching him they said that he was efficient and he had a good sucking and breathing pattern, and they didn’t know why he was having trouble with the nursing. They didn’t really have any more suggestions for us, other than the fact that they said we should supplement with formula as needed so that he could have 4 to 5 ounces to eat at each feeding. They told us a nice little way to know how much a baby needs to eat: take the baby’s weight and convert it to kilograms, and that is about how many ounces they should have at each feeding. Isaac was a little over 4 kilograms, so we have been giving him breastmilk and formula since then, because I have only been pumping about 2 ounces at a time. (I’m sure you all really needed to know that – oh well). So, I have continued to pump since then, and I plan to do so until we leave town. Then he will at least get the breastmilk until he is six weeks old. One thing that sure has been nice this last week is that since Isaac has been eating from a bottle, Grandma Faun has been getting up with him to feed him at night so I can sleep. That sure has been nice to be able to get my rest at night so I can keep up with things in the daytime. Thanks, Grandma!

On Wednesday Kolby had preschool and then he had his swim lesson that night, and Grandma went with so she could watch him swim. Today I signed Kolby and Eli up for the winter session of preschool and swim lessons. Eli will be going with Kolby three days a week to preschool, which I think both of them will really enjoy, and both boys will be taking their swim lessons on Wednesday nights. It will work really well because Kolby and Eli will be in different classes, but their classes will be held at either corner of one end of the pool, so I will be able to go sit in the middle of the two classes and watch them both do their lessons, but we won’t have to go out two nights in a row. I think that will work out really well.

On Thursday we had a fun Thanksgiving day. In the morning Michael got up early and went to play football with the other guys from church, and he said he made a couple touchdowns. Michael roasted a turkey, and Grandma and I made a lemon jello salad with bananas that my great grandma, Grandma Moore, used to make; a fruit salad with marshmallows that my other great grandma, Mamaw, used to make; a layered green salad with peas, swiss cheese, and red onions that my mom makes; funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs. We decorated the table with a new tablecloth and we used the china. It was fun.

On Friday morning I took Kolby to preschool and when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying that preschool was cancelled due to the holiday and a lack of attendance. So I took him with me to the DMV because I needed to renew my license before we leave town (and the paperwork that they sent in the mail listed the holidays that the DMV would be closed, and only listed Thanksgiving but not the day after Thanksgiving), but when I got there they were closed too for the holiday. Kind of wasted my whole morning, but oh well. That night the Hedgecocks came over and the boys played together and we got to play a card game, which was fun. It was nice to see them again after a while.

And then on Saturday we got a lot of errands run and that evening after dinner we took a little trip to Cabellas. It is a hunting and fishing store, and Grandma told us that they have the best licorice that she has ever had (although once we got the licorice there, she said that the stuff they sell at the Cabellas in Utah was better than here). But it was a fun little activity (and nice to get the whole family out of the house). It’s not only a store, but they also have giant fish tanks with trout and catfish and other fish, and lots of animals (stuffed) – all sorts of animals from the forest, and a little section with African animals. It was a really big store – we didn’t even have time to see the upstairs before it closed since it was pretty late when we got there. But the kids had fun – that was our first activity with the entire family out of our house since Isaac was born.

Sunday was kind of crazy. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to Michael yelling for help. I guess Michael was helping Kolby and Eli brush their teeth before church and Camden walked into the bathroom and fell and hit his mouth on the edge of the bathtub. We know that cuts in the mouth bleed a lot, but his was bleeding more than any other injury any of our children have had in the past. After we got it to stop bleeding and got him calmed down, Michael took the older boys to church. I noticed that one of Camden’s teeth looked like it was pushed back a little further than the other ones, and I called the pediatrician’s office to see if we needed to worry about that, or if it didn’t matter because it was just a baby tooth. The doctor on call suggested taking him into the hospital to have it checked out just in case there was root damage to the tooth. So Grandma stayed with Isaac while I took Camden to the emergency room. They told us that his tooth cut almost all the way through his top lip when he fell, but that they rarely do stitches in the mouth because the mouth heals on it’s own so quickly and because of the bacteria there is a high risk of infection when they do stitches inside the mouth, so they will only do that if it is a serious cut, like a really forked tongue or something. And they felt the tooth and said that it didn’t wiggle at all, so they weren’t concerned about that. So I don’t know if his tooth did move, or if it was already a little further back than the others and I had never noticed it before. So Camden is fine now – but he still has a big fat lip. Hopefully that will go away soon. After we got home from the hospital we decided to try to catch the second half of church. I wasn’t planning on taking Isaac this week, but Kolby gave a talk in primary, so Grandma and I wanted to be there to see that. He did really well, it was very cute. Then that night after dinner we had the Wellses, the Kearls, and the Hymases over for dessert. It was fun to get together with all of them before we leave.

This week has been crazy busy so far, and I think it will just continue to be really busy until we leave. Yesterday I had to get all the errands run that needed to be done because I knew we would not have a car today because we had to take it in to have the breaks and rotors replaced. So yesterday morning I took Kolby to school, got stamps at the library, went to the DMV and renewed my driver’s license, went home to call the doctor’s office to get Isaac’s medicine refilled, went back and picked up Kolby from school, signed the boys up for preschool and swimming lessons for the winter session when we return in February, went and got ink for the printer, picked up some diapers at the store, and then went to pick up Isaac’s medicine. When I got home and helped Grandma to finish feeding the kids lunch and put them all down for their naps, Grandma said that my visiting teacher had come while I was gone. I totally spaced the appointment she had set to come visit with me. Ooops! It seems like with so much going on I can’t manage to remember everything that I need to. I was thinking that my visiting teacher is going to think I am a forgetful person, but I’m really not usually like that (but maybe now that I have four little kids I am going to turn into a forgetful person – hopefully not, hopefully I will feel less forgetful after a few months when things calm down a bit and we get into some kind of regular routine).

So, last night we did have some fun. After running a few errands we went to the McDonalds down in West Allis and let the boys play in the big play area there. It is a two-story indoor playground with tunnels to climb through and two big slides, and it was especially fun because Camden went up in the play area for the first time. The first time he went up with Kolby and Kolby helped him through the tunnels to the slide. Then Michael and I each took a turn climbing up and helping him get up to the slides. The boys really enjoyed that.

And this week we have a lot planned. Tomorrow Michael leaves for his first dermatology interview in Temple, Texas with Texas A&M. He has a dinner with the residents Wednesday night and then the interview on Thursday. On Wednesday we also have a doctor’s check-up for Camden and Eli’s flu shot. Then on Thursday I am taking Isaac to Children’s Hospital to have him circumcision done (they didn’t get it done before he was discharge from the NICU, so this was the earliest time that we could get an appointment for him). And then on Friday I have my 6-week check-up after having the baby. And then we will be leaving early in the morning on Saturday. Our friends, Faith and Tyce, were so nice to say they would take us to the airport. Our family is getting so big, that we will need to take two cars to get to the airport now – with our family, my Grandma, a driver, and all our luggage for a two-month trip there is no way we could fit into one car. I don’t even know how we are going to pack for this trip, but I guess I’d better figure that out pretty soon. Well, Isaac was asleep and he keeps flailing his arms about and waking himself up – I guess I’d better go swaddle him so he can stay asleep.

Oh, here is the talk that Kolby gave in church on Sunday: (I helped him a bit with the beginning and end of the talk, but he came up with all the things he was thankful for all on his own).

“I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have blessings in my life. I am thankful for my blessings. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I am thankful for my brothers. I am thankful for the temple and the church. I am thankful for our Christmas tree. I am thankful for my whole family. I am thankful for my grandma. I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for my manta. I am thankful for songs. And I am thankful for our food and our clothes. I show that I am thankful in my prayers to Heavenly Father and Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

Busy Week

This has been quite the busy week. Steph’s mom went home on Monday – we already miss having her here. The boys especially had so much fun playing with Nana. We are so grateful for all the help you gave us during these trying few weeks and can’t wait to spend more time together in January.

On Tuesday I took my second biggest test of medical school – it is called the USMLE Step 2 CK (United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step 2, Clinical Knowledge). I had to go to a testing center about 20 minutes away. The test consisted of 368 multiple choice questions divided into 8 blocks of 46 questions, with an hour to do each block – so 8 blocks total. You also get 1 hour of break time that you can use throughout the day as you want. Needless to say, it is a very long and mentally exhausting exam. I feel pretty good about my performance and hope that when I get my score back in the next 6 weeks it will reflect those feelings. :) Now I have some time off before the next “big” test – Step 3 of the licensing exams, which most people take near the end of their first year of residency (the internship year).

It felt so good to get that test done – no more having to spend every free minute doing practice questions online. Grandma Faun is here visiting and helping out with baby Isaac and the other boys, and she offered to watch the boys Tuesday night when I got home so we could go out to dinner to celebrate. We took her up on her offer and enjoyed a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Thanks grandma!

I had my first interview this week for a transitional year program at St. Luke’s, a hospital here in Milwaukee. Just as a reminder, I am applying to one year transitional year (intern year) programs and 3 year dermatology programs that will begin after I finish the transitional year. So far I have 6 transitional year and 7 dermatology interviews scheduled over the next few months. My first dermatology interview is the end of this month.

So for my interview Friday I had to be at St. Luke’s at 8:00am. There were 5 of us interviewing. This program has 13 spots available, and they said they interview about 80-100 people for those spots. They showed us a PowerPoint about the program, and then we were each interviewed by two doctors – the director and his assistant. One of the two had previously looked over our application and so already knew quite a bit about us, and the other was meeting us fresh for the first time – that way, they could get two different perspectives on us to help in choosing who they wanted. I think the interviews went really well and we had a lot to speak about in each one. Then we were taken on a tour of the hospital by two of the interns currently in the program, and then they took us to lunch, where we could sit and casually ask questions about the program. I am really impressed by this program – how much time and effort they put into the interns, the variety and flexibility of schedules, and how happy the interns seemed. It helps that several people in the ward are currently in the program or have been in the past, and so we have been able to talk with them and get their opinions, and everyone that has done that program really likes it.

Yesterday was our stake temple day. I ended up going down with a friend from the ward, Keith Wells, since both of our wives had just recently given birth and needed to stay home to feed the little ones. We had fun getting to know each other a little better on the drive down and back. I love going to the temple because I always learn so much while I am there and come back feeling so refreshed and full of peace. I can enter with lots of thoughts or troubles on my mind and leave with answers to my questions and feelings of comfort that things will work out. It is a small sacrifice to make time to get to the temple, but the blessings that come from the experience are so much bigger.

When we got back Keith helped me to set up our network between my laptop and our desktop so that I can print and share files over the wireless connection through the router (thanks Mom and Dad Bradshaw – we love it). So now I can sit on my couch in the front room and write things on my laptop (like this blog), save files to our shared file that Steph can access over on the other computer, or print a copy of my blog entry for Steph to add to the journal she is keeping of our blog entries – pretty cool. I love technology.

Today at church the theme in sacrament meeting was on gratitude – fitting, with Thanksgiving coming up this week. As the speakers were talking, I just started to reflect on all the things that I have to be grateful for. Heavenly Father continues to bless me and my family with all the things that we need. He makes sure that we are taken care of while here in Milwaukee, away from most of the family, with four little kids, surviving on medical school loans, and trying to get into a really competitive residency (dermatology). I am so grateful for my knowledge of a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows us personally and who we can talk with in prayer; of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, who sacrificed everything so that I can be happy and return to live with them; for a living prophet who receives revelation in our day to lead the church, for the scriptures that we can go to for answers to life’s big questions, and for all the blessings that come through the plan of salvation and being a member of this church.

Now we are listening to beautiful music by Jon Schmidt while I write this blog. Camden is dancing in the background and Isaac is watching with wide eyes. Sundays are so wonderfully nice and relaxing – a day away from the commotions of the world and everyday life; a day to spend with the family and just enjoy being together.

Camden's 1st Birthday Party

Camden gets Birthday Kisses from his Brothers:

We had a little birthday party for Camden last night (his birthday is on Thursday next week, but this was Michael’s last day off of the month). Amy and her kids, Christopher and Maria Teresa, came and so did our friends, Jana and Keith Wells. After the kids played Simon Says and Shoots and Ladders, we sang Happy Birthday to Camden and he got to eat his cake. We have a family tradition of letting our kids have their own cake on their first birthday, and both Kolby and Eli were pretty hesitant to eat their cakes on each of their first birthdays – they only ate about one piece each. Camden was a little hesitant at first with his cake, until he realized that it was food, and then he really went at it. He sat on the table for a long time, eating and playing in the cake – and by the time he was finished, he had probably eaten about half of the cake. We were surprised that he didn’t get sick afterwards. “Happy Birthday, Camden!”

Before:

After:

A Good Week

So, overall we have had a nice week. Last Sunday we had a new family in the ward, Dustin and Jandee Anderson and their kids, Isaac and Emma, over for dinner. Jandee invited me to bring our kids over to play at their house the next day, so we went and did that after our WIC appointment Monday morning. Camden fell asleep in the car on the way over there, and he ended up sleeping in a playpen the entire time we were there. Kolby and Eli had so much fun playing with Isaac. The boys went outside to play with squirt guns in the yard, and ended up having fun watering the plants (and each other) with the hose. And that night, after Michael got home, we went to the Kearl’s house for Nathan’s 2nd birthday party. Tyce and Michael swam in their blow-up pool with all the boys, and Amy Hymas came with her girls a little while later. After cake and ice cream, we put our boys to bed over there and played a game of “Killer Bunnies” (a card game) with Faith and Tyce. It was fun, but I’m afraid I was kind of a party pooper because I was getting a cold, so I was tired and just wasn’t feeling very good.

Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Our friend, Kendra, came by that evening and dropped off our life insurance policy. It was interesting to see – there is a “preferred” category that saves you a couple dollars a month if you are in good health, and you have to be within a certain weight range for your height to qualify. There are no exceptions for pregnancy, so I was automatically disqualified until I get back to a normal weight at a later time. Michael had a nurse come for a short physical a few weeks ago, and he qualified for the preferred status. But he was right on the lower border of the weight range for his height. So, when Kendra came this time, she said that they had just created a “preferred plus” status that could save people a couple more dollars if they were even more healthy, but we knew right away that Michael didn’t qualify for that one, because he would have had to be around 10 pounds heavier. Oh well.

On Wednesday I went to Amanda Hansen’s baby shower in the morning. There were lots of people (with lots of kids) there. And I watched Chelsey there for a little bit while Amy had to run to an appointment with Emily. That went well, although it gave me an idea of how it will be once I have one more kid to watch – I am always counting heads when we are with a big group of people to make sure I can see all of my kids. Michael got home early that afternoon and watched the boys while I went to my physical therapy appointment. I talked to my therapist and told her that my knee has improved since I started going, and though the pain hasn’t entirely gone away, most of the time it doesn’t bother me a lot, so I was thinking about stopping the physical therapy. She actually agreed, since it seems like I have hit a plateau for the last few weeks – she just said to continue with my stretches and exercises and to let her know if the pain gets worse or if I have any other problems. So that will be nice to have one less appointment to go to each week now. That night I took Kolby for his swim lessons, and then we went for a late dinner out. Michael had some more birthday money from family members, plus he had a coupon for a free meal at a Mexican restaurant we like, so we went and did that. (I wonder how old our kids will get before they will no longer tolerate us taking peanut butter sandwiches for them to eat at restaurants while Michael and I use a buy 1, get 1 free coupon and have a really cheep meal out?) That dinner was fun, and the boys were very well behaved at the restaurant.

Then on the drive home we were looking at the YMCA fall program, and we noticed that they are now going to be charging a fee for their preschool program that was originally no extra cost besides our membership fees. (If you want the details, you can see the post down below this one). Anyways, we have been kind of frustrated since we found out about that, and trying to decide what to do for preschool for Kolby now and for Eli this winter after he turns three. We were talking today, and I think our plan at this point is to wait a little while and see if the YMCA happens to get enough complaints that they might lower the fee (although we are not holding our breath for this to happen). But I think what we decided is to probably continue using the YMCA’s preschool program, even with these new fees, and just not sign Kolby up for as many classes as we had originally planned. Plus, we figured that we will be in Boise for the month of December and in San Diego for the month of January, so we won’t sign Kolby up for the second fall session of preschool at the YMCA, and we won’t be signing either of the boys up for the first winter session because we won’t be back in time, so I guess that will be less money we will have to pay. I know that lots of the area preschools that our friends are using are much more expensive than this one, even with the YMCA’s new fees, but it is still a lot more than we had planned on. But hopefully by sending him to fewer classes and not signing them up for every session this year, we will be able to make it work. We’ll see.

Thursday was a pretty relaxing day for me. Michael got done at the clinic and got home early, so I didn’t have to take the kids along for my doctor’s appointment, which was nice just to take some magazines and just read for fun while I waited. I had my glucose test, which is where they make you drink a bottle of this glucose drink that tastes kind of like semi-flat orange soda, and then you wait until exactly an hour later and have your blood drawn. So, my appointment was short and everything is going well with the baby. And they scheduled my appointments through the end of the pregnancy – so I am now scheduled to go every other week for the remainder of August and September, then to go in once a week through the end of October. So, after that I just waited until the hour was up for my glucose test, and then the nurse called me back to draw my blood. Apparently that nurse wasn’t an expert at drawing blood. I told her that people often had trouble when drawing my blood, and after she tried once in each of my hands, she got another nurse to come in, and then my midwife walked by and said that she would do it. She got it on her first try in my arm, but still had to wiggle the needle around a little to get it all, and I now have this huge purple bruise on my arm that everyone keeps asking me about. One of my hands and my arm hurt the rest of that day, but luckily that didn’t last. But my midwife told me that next time I should tell them that I need to be sent down to the lab to have blood drawn.

That night Michael took all the boys to the YMCA. He dropped Kolby and Camden off at the Kid Care and went to Eli’s swimming lesson with him, so that I could go to an enrichment group. It was a fun activity for cooking group where everyone brought salsa and recipes to share. And then Friday was Debbie’s birthday. Happy Birthday! We called and sang Happy Birthday to her, and Eli was so cute – he knew all the words and was singing along with us for the entire song.

On Friday night Michael went with Tyce Kearl, Jason Maas, and Ryan Bagley for a fishing trip. They slept that night on the boat that belongs to Tyce’s uncle down on Lake Michigan at the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. The next morning there was a bit of a storm and it was very windy with large swells, and Michael and Jason both ended up getting sick, but Michael said it was fun other than that part. They ended up catching a couple of trout and a large salmon that everyone ended up splitting up – and Michael is in the kitchen right now trying to de-bone the fish so it will be ready to prepare for dinner sometime soon. They got home Saturday evening.

Saturday morning Faith and I met at the zoo and the kids had lunch there and then we mostly stuck to two of the indoor areas – the family farm and the big cats exhibit – since it was a rainy day. On our way out, Kolby asked when daddy was going to be home. He knew that Michael was salmon fishing, so he asked if we could have salmon for dinner that night. I told him that we probably wouldn’t have it that night, because it would take too long to prepare. He asked why, and I explained to him that you can get sick if you eat the fish without cooking it first. And he said, “Yeah, if I didn’t cook it, the salmon might bite my tongue when I try to eat it.” I thought that was pretty cute!

That evening, after Michael got home, one of his school friends, Xandie Gold, came over for a little while and brought her 4-year-old niece, Star, who was visiting her for the weekend to play with our boys. They played well together and then the Kearls and the Wellses came over a little later and we all had some cake I had made with fresh apples in it (I was very proud of myself – I made cake from scratch for the first time ever, and it turned out pretty yummy, if I do say so myself). After Star and Xandie went home and we put our kids down to sleep, we played Apples to Apples and Scatergories. Then they went home after a few hours, because Michael and Tyce were still pretty worn out from their fishing trip.

And today church went pretty well. Camden was so tired – we have 9am church and he has gotten into the habit recently of taking a nap around 9:30am on days when we are at home. I got him to sleep a couple of times, but he is so used to napping in a crib that he woke up each time I got him to fall asleep in my arms. But then he did pretty well later on – I didn’t have to leave my Relief Society class until the last minute or two of class – which is the longest he has lasted that third hour of church in the last several weeks. The boys are all down for their naps now, and Michael has been working on dishes while I have been writing this. Now he is fixing a picture that my parents gave us for our wedding – it is a large framed painting of Christ, and a while ago we noticed that the picture had slipped down behind the mat so it was hanging funny in the frame. It has been that way a while, so that will be nice once he gets it straightened. He is leaving for his home teaching appointments in a few minutes.

This week should be good. Michael’s rotation this month has been a really nice schedule for us. And some time in the next couple of days my former BYU Family History Professor, Brother Minert, and his wife are going to be in Milwaukee, so they said they will give us a call and stop by and that should be nice to see them. And Matthew’s birthday is Wednesday, Happy Birthday Matthy!!!

Spiritual High

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

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

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

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

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

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

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