My Frist Blog Tag

So I was blog tagged the other day. My husband informed me that now I am supposed to complete the tag by writing about the given topic (6 mystery items about myself) and then tag someone else. My husband says this is to much like a chain letter for him and that he won't ever do a blog tag (so for future reference, you might want to avoid "tagging" him), But whereas this is my first time being tagged I have decided to comply. So here it goes, 6 mystery things about me.

Mystery #1
I don't like clutter. Everything in our house has a designated spot. My husband can attest to this. I have a hard time seeing stacks of things lying about and often I can be found stacking up newspapers, books, or such at houses that aren't even my own.

Mystery #2
The first and only boy "I" ever kissed was Jacob. Since you will eventually comment I will explain the whole "I" thing. Another boy kissed me in college after I had "fallen asleep" during a movie we were watching. I wasn't really asleep (just closing my eyes because I was really tired) but I was so scared I just continued to let him think I was and never kissed him back. So I don't consider that my first time kissing a boy. On a side note, the first time Jacob ever kissed me I was also just as scared and reacted by laughing. And I seem to recall I also reacted the same way the second time he kissed me. Poor guy, good thing he really liked me.

Mystery #3
I tend to get very anxious when meeting new people. I wish I had inherited my mother's ability to chat with anyone. I once saw her carry on an hour long conversation with a man in the grocery store that asked her how to pick out oranges. She is amazing. Unfortunately I didn't inherit that skill and continue to work on my small talk skills. You should have seen me at all these interviews, I was a wreck.

Mystery #4
I never attended a high school football game. My husband says this only further sums up my high school experience. I was a swimmer and the swimmers at my school tended to pretty much only hang-out with other swimmers. I think it had something to do with the smell of chlorine. When I look back at high school I can sum it up rather quickly. Class, Swimming, Work, and Homework. That was pretty much my life. Ironically my college experience was about the exact opposite. It is funny how that happens.

Mystery #5
I would say I have a touch of OCD. For example, I have all of my families clothes (yes the children's and Jacob's as well) organized by type of article, season of article, and dressiness of article. They are also organized by color hanger and must all hand in one direction. I know, a little crazy, but I just can't help it.

Mystery #6
While in high school at worked at a local Arctic Circle. After a few months I worked my way up the mighty career ladder to "Night Manager" My memories of this place were great and all included the smell of french fries and greasy burgers. My husband often teases me about how fond I am of these memories and often refers to them as my "glory days". Well on our last trip to SL we were heading back to my parents when we drove by the old "glory days" location. I was shocked to find that my old high school happiness had been torn down to make way for a car lot. I have to admit that a tear escaped. And them my husband teased me again. I really had some good memories of that place.

So that is it. I have now completed my first blog tag. Now it is up to me to tag someone new and whereas I only know of one faithful reader that has their own blog . . . I tag Charlotte.

Oh Hillary

I was reading in a family practice journal this past week about Hillary's solution for the national healthcare crises. I was dumbfounded when she stated that one solution would be to get nurses to do more so that more people would have access to a healthcare provider. Now I don't know about the rest of the country outside of Kentucky, Indiana, Washington, and Utah but all those places are struggling with quite a shortage of nurses. Good research there Hill.

Later in the article she stated that her healthcare plan; "Will not be a government run program, unless you consider Medicare a government program". So now the woman is either a complete idiot or she is just so far removed from real life that she's useless as a political leader. Maybe in the future she can make comments like Baron Davis, who said; "there's nothing wrong with making $70,000 to $80,000 a year", and further display her removal from mainstream society.

Take your kids to work day

Kristian had his one year check-up today so I got to take him and Jessi (Melissa came too) to the clinic this morning. He's dropped a bit on his growth curve from the 90% line down to the 75% line (for both height and weight). He didn't like his shots too much but made it through without too much difficulty.

As if that wasn't enough I was able to work with my dad today. I have been working in the IHC clinic with Dr Bunker this week and today is Dr Bunker's day off so I worked with Dad all day (well until 2:30 when he goes home anyway). He kept introducing me to his patients and telling them that I'm coming back to town to take his place. It was pretty cool as most of them said they were looking forward to having me take over as their physician in the future. All in all it was a great day.

We finished up interviews last week with one at the University of Utah and another at St Marks hospital in Salt Lake. They both had some good things about them and some bad, but neither supplanted either of the South Bend programs on my rank list (Melissa is still struggling with her list). I ran into Mark in the University hospital during my tour, and we chatted for a moment before we both had to run to other areas. I had forgotten how much I love the University of Utah. Just driving through campus gave me chills. In about 20 years there will probably be some friendly encouragement for my kids to attend the U (unless they stay here and go to SUU which is completely acceptable).

We're looking forward to seeing my siblings as they trickle into town over the next couple of weeks.

Kristian's Birthday Post (Just a Little Late)

Our little boy is now a big boy. That is right, Kristian turned 1 years old on the 5th. I guess technically he has always been a "big boy" but now he is also a big boy in age. Kristian had a great birthday and didn't seem to mind to much that his dad was in Philadelphia flying back home from a test. We enjoyed spending his birthday with family from my side and all in all enjoyed ourselves.

I have decided to give a picture play-by-play of the traditional birthday events.

First was the Dinner. I decided on stew (mainly because it sounded good to me) and as you can see, Kristian was a big fan as well.

Then of course, we move on to the cake. Kristian's cake was a marvel of store-bought wonders. Spencer suggested the blue. Surprised??

At First Kristian did not seem to know what to do with his cake.

Then he taste tested the icing, just a little.

And That was All it took. He quickly went from picking with fingers to grabbing with his entire fist and shoving as much cake in his mouth as possible.

As you can see, Kristian really enjoyed his cake. And amazingly enough, (and to his mother's pleasure) there was not one crumb on the floor when he was finished. Like I said, He really liked his cake.

Once the cake was done it was off to the front room to open presents. Kristian really didn't understand much of the opening presents concept so his siblings and cousins were kind enough to "help".


I then quickly had to explain to his siblings and cousins that just because they "helped" Kristian open his presents doesn't mean that got to take Kristian's presents.


All in All, I think Kristian had a Happy 1st Birthday. Happy Birthday Son! We love you!!

We want a playoff

It's no secret that I hate the BCS. This year is quite possibly the worst ever. Now I'm not one to say that any team other than OSU and LSU deserve to be in the championship game (except for Hawaii, but that's another can of worms), but are those two teams really that much better than everybody else? Sure I think LSU is the best team in the country, but could they beat OU or USC right now. Ohio State only has one loss, but the little 10 is the worst of the BCS conferences this year. Do they really deserve a chance at the title more than a one-loss Kansas?

As far as Hawaii goes I get sick to my stomach when I think about them. They can do no more than win all of their games. Too bad the Florida game starts out next season instead of this one. My biggest complaint with the BCS is that until it is abolished no mid major will ever win the national championship because the voters just won't put them that high. Consider that the 1984 BYU Cougars won the national championship by cruising through the WAC (isn't that the conference that Hawaii plays in?) and beating Utah State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Michigan none of whom were ranked in the top 10 at the end of the year, though Pitt was ranked #3 when they played the first game of the season (Funny that Michigan was ranked #5 at the beginning of this season how did that turn out?). That schedule wouldn't make the championship game today because all the voters come from the BCS conferences and they wouldn't put them up there. We all know I like to diminish BYU football in any way I can, but they did win in 84 and the fact that that probably wouldn't happen today is a shame. One more point, those 84 Cougars were unranked at the beginning of the season. Hawaii climbed from 23 all the way to 10 during their undefeated season this year.

In the end Hawaii will lose to Georgia, Kansas will lose Va Tech, and Ohio State will somehow beat LSU because the BCS always seems to work out (5% of the time). Who's gonna argue against the Buckeyes if they're the only one-loss team in DIV-I football (except for Hawaii of course).

On a side note My test went well today and I'm looking forward to flying back to Salt Lake for Kristian's birthday tomorrow.

Too Funny Not to Post

MC Hammer Meets The Chiquita Banana Lady

So my solo was Thursday night, and I can not tell you how great Friday was without that hanging over my head. So if any of you are curious how it went I will attempt to illustrate the evening.

First off, I don't know what the costume lady was thinking. I am supposed to be dressed as a Nephite Woman. Jacob and I decided that I looked a more like MC Hammer crossed with The Chiquita Banana Lady. The pictures turned out poor but this might give you a general idea of what I looked like. Got to love the headdress, huh. It weighed like 10 pounds.

As part of the program they asked us all to sit on stools in front of the stage during the performance which turned out to be rather stressful as every time I looked up everyone was starting at me. (at least it felt like everyone was starting at me.) So the whole time I am trying to breath deap and stay calm and clear my throat. None of this actually happened.

So finally my music started playing. Luckily, as my song is sung to a child, I got to grab Spencer and bring him up with me. So then I am at the microphone and notice that all that stressing about clearing my throat was for not because now my throat was bone dry. (I don't know how that happens but it blew me away.)

Spencer held my hand and I began singing. Basically the rest of the song went fine. I did not forget any of the words, or get of pitch, or off the music at all, so that was good. I did however have to sing rather soft as my nerves were getting the best of me and I knew if I tried to sing any louder I would definatly crack. After what seemed like an eternity the song ended, I sat down, and began to breath again.

Afterwards several people came up to me and said I did great, (of course, it is a church function, what else are they going to say.) They all mentioned that it must be diffucult to sing a song that is so emotionally charged and they could tell I was feeling very emotional when singing. I didn't bother to correct them that it was nerves and not emotions, I figure let people think what they want to.

The other comment that I got from people was that it must also be difficult to sing while trying to keep my little boy still. I didn't bother to correct them on that either. The truth was that between the first and second verse Spencer looked up at me and said, "Mom, you are squeezing me to tight" He really was a big help to me to hide some of my nerves.

So to wrap up this rambling post, for my first solo, I think it went about par. I am still a little dissapointed because it did not sound as good as when I practiced at home, but what ya gonna do. Nerves are nerves. Everyone keeps telling me it will be easier next time. At this point, I have not decided if there will be a next time. I figure I will just enjoy this feeling of no singing stress for a while before deciding if I want to go through all of it again.

I'll be happy when....

I can remember numerous times in my life when I have said, or thought, I'll be happy... Some of those phrases have included the words; when I finish high school, when I leave on my mission, when I get a new companion, when I get home from my mission, when I get married, when I graduate from college, when I have a child, when I get into medical school, when I get out of medical school, and of course when I have a dime to my name. I was thinking about the many times I have been longing for tomorrow the other day and I realized that I am really happy now. Now I've always considered myself to be a pretty happy guy (though if you knew me in high school you would probably disagree...you'd be wrong), but Life is exceptionally good right now.

I live in the town that I love with a woman who saw too much of me during our first 3 years of marriage and too little of me during our last 4 and still loves me. I've got three kids who, for whatever reason, adore their daddy. I've got a future that is plotted out and excites me, and a past that is fun to look back on.

I just finished a rotation with a family physician here in Cedar and it was incredible. It's nice to find out that my chosen specialty is actually very fulfilling and enjoyable for me.

For the moment at least it's nice to see the grass on my side of the fence because it looks pretty green.