I never got a chance to write anything last month as we didn't have internet at the apartment and the kids were a little crazy at the library to allow me to have 15 minutes to just type. So here is my overview of Indiana. I really, really liked it. The people we met at church and in both programs are very nice and I made quite a few friends in our short visit. Of course it was cold, especially when the wind would cut through you, but I think we can handle it. One of my favorite things to do was drive around and look at neighborhoods contimplating the prospect of buying our first home. (although I have to admit, it also scares me quite a bit.) Spencer and Jessi really enjoyed the trips to the library and visiting other peoples houses so they could play with some new toys. Of course we all enjoyed our trip to Clevland to vist Doug and Meagan. What a treat. So I guess to sum it up, I can see myself being happy living there for three years, now we just have to wait and see if they want us :)
Indiana was absolutely great, but there is definetly no place like home. It is so great to be back, having the kids sleeping in their own beds and in seperate rooms. Being in a one bedroom apartment got a little tight towards the end of the month and we are so grateful for the space to spread out again. We finally finished the last of the unpacking yesterday and we got caught up on all our "being back errands". It is funny how after a month of winging it how nice everyday routine feels.
Spencer and I got a great treat last night. We went to see Kaylee and MaKell (Spencer's cousins) dance in Sleeping Beauty the Ballet. I was a bit worried about taking Spencer but he really enjoyed it. Within 5 minutes he asked me why no one could talk, but once he got the concept that you don't talk in ballet, just dance, he really seemed to enjoy it. He liked me to whisper the story to him as we went along and when they closed the curtain he let me know that "he wanted to see a long movie, not a short one" and decided that we should stay put and wait for it to start over again. Mind you, this was a 2 hour performance. It was so fun to see Kaylee and MaKell. They did a great job and you could tell they have put in a lot of hard work getting ready.
Well the funeral for President Hinkley is about to start so I think I will sign off with a thought about the man. What an amazing prophet. We were lucky enough to be in his stake when we lived in SL and he would attend stake conference. The spirit is so powerful when he walk into the building and I will always be grateful for those experiences to hear him speak up close. The thing I will always remember most about President Hinkley is his great sense of humor, and his love and vitality for life.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Politics
Having watched the two national debates the last two nights (now that we are back home I am reestablishing my relationship with television) I am saddened at the prospect of having another Clinton in the white house. If I were a democrat I might vote for Obama just because I like him better as a person and if McCain wins the republican nomination I may vote for Obama anyway. Now that that's taken care I would like to express my views on two points brought up in every debate.
First of all this blip in the healthcare discussion concerning electronic medical records. I wonder how much time and money has been spent trying to determine how to best implement EMR into American medicine. Writing legislation to require EMR throughout the country is akin to requiring people to drive cars. Every family practice residency program that I know of is either already using EMR or has plans to implement on within the next year. All I know is EMR. Legislation for this stuff would have been smart 5 years ago, but now it's just a waste of time.
Second I'm tired of hearing about how Warren Buffett had a bad year last year with an income of $47 million and paid a lower percentage of that income to taxes than his secretary. The current tax changes that the democrats propose will not change that situation. Consider that Warren Buffet makes less than $200,000 annually in salary and like the rest of the top 0.5% of money earners in the country makes most of his money from investments. Raising the taxes in the highest tax bracket does very little to the tax burden for this subset of the population because dividends and capital gains are taxed at the same level whether one realizes a $6000 gain or a $60 million gain. My proposal is that anyone with a net worth over uh lets say $200 million be required to pay 50% of their net worth to taxes and the other 50% is to be given to the bottom 5% of wage earners in the country. Then make these people start over from scratch. Not only does this solution solve the budget deficit, but it also has the potential to wipe out the democrat party in 10 years when we see that current distribution of wealth returns, helping to prove the point that Robin Hood economics does not change socioeconomic status. One last point; at the end of this 10 year experiment I want to be king of America.
First of all this blip in the healthcare discussion concerning electronic medical records. I wonder how much time and money has been spent trying to determine how to best implement EMR into American medicine. Writing legislation to require EMR throughout the country is akin to requiring people to drive cars. Every family practice residency program that I know of is either already using EMR or has plans to implement on within the next year. All I know is EMR. Legislation for this stuff would have been smart 5 years ago, but now it's just a waste of time.
Second I'm tired of hearing about how Warren Buffett had a bad year last year with an income of $47 million and paid a lower percentage of that income to taxes than his secretary. The current tax changes that the democrats propose will not change that situation. Consider that Warren Buffet makes less than $200,000 annually in salary and like the rest of the top 0.5% of money earners in the country makes most of his money from investments. Raising the taxes in the highest tax bracket does very little to the tax burden for this subset of the population because dividends and capital gains are taxed at the same level whether one realizes a $6000 gain or a $60 million gain. My proposal is that anyone with a net worth over uh lets say $200 million be required to pay 50% of their net worth to taxes and the other 50% is to be given to the bottom 5% of wage earners in the country. Then make these people start over from scratch. Not only does this solution solve the budget deficit, but it also has the potential to wipe out the democrat party in 10 years when we see that current distribution of wealth returns, helping to prove the point that Robin Hood economics does not change socioeconomic status. One last point; at the end of this 10 year experiment I want to be king of America.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Visiting Kirtland (and some playoff ranting)
Lousy Chargers! Apparently they can take advantage when the Colts play a bad game, but when Tom Brady decides to have his worst game in recent memory the bolts develop an allergy to the end zone. Have I mentioned my hatred for the Patriots and Bill Bellicheat? The only solace I have is that the Patriots have been watching illegal film of every team for years so it’s only expected that the cheating should pay off sometime.
As I sit watching the halftime of the Packers-Giants game I can’t imagine another game in my life where I have been so excited to see the announcers because they all look so funny in the cold. Terry Bradshaw looks like he aged 30 year over night.
We’ve had a good week in South Bend. I worked the 7-3 shift this week so I was able to spend a lot of time with Melissa and the kids. This month has certainly confirmed my decision to pursue a career in Family Practice instead of Emergency Medicine. I still understand the draw of the emergency department, but it just isn’t my cup of tea. The thing about the ER is that it’s 98% monotonous and 2% sheer adrenaline, and the adrenaline tends to give me more anxiety than your average emergency medicine physician. The sheer number of Medicaid patients that come to the emergency department for hangnails has really started to bother me this month. I’m so glad that in the future Hillary will make it possible for more of the nation to be able to use the ambulance as their personal taxi. I may be a bit jaded, but I actually met a woman who missed every one of her prenatal appointments because she didn’t want to pay for the bus fare, but she brought her 5 year old daughter to the emergency department with an earache because the ambulance ride is free.
Cleveland has now been added to the list of places where the weekly email has been written. We made the 4 hour drive to Cleveland on Friday to come visit Doug and Maegan. They welcomed us with a bit of snow and some of the bitterest cold I can remember. We went out to visit the church history site in Kirtland yesterday. It was really cool. The kids got really cold when we would leave one building for another (I was somewhat cold as well), but they did very well with the 2 hour tour. It was a wonderful experience to feel the spirit in some of the rooms where so many revelations were received. During the video portion of the tour Spencer got very disturbed when they portrayed the story about Joseph Smith being tarred and feathered outside of his home. After regaining some composure Spencer told us that those bad men must be Lamanites (for those of you not well versed in LDS scripture Lamanites are a people in The Book of Mormon who are known through much of the book for their sinful ways). It’s going to make for an interesting discussion when our family scripture study gets to the part where the Lamanites are converted and become a righteous people.
In other scripture news we have been spending more time teaching Spencer the stories in the scriptures (rather than just reading a chapter while the kids play with their toys). He seems to enjoy it quite a bit and actually picks up a bit from time to time. The other day when Jessi threw a toy Spencer told her that she was going to be cut in half if she kept throwing toys. It took some time, but we finally deciphered his meaning when we were reading a verse that said that those who are unrighteous will be cut off from the presence of the Lord. We calmly explained to Spencer that Heavenly Father does not, in fact, have a giant sword that he uses to cut us in half when we aren’t good.
I think that’s good for this week and I need to get back to watching Brett (we’re all pretty tight here in the Midwest) and Peyton’s little brother duke it out.
As I sit watching the halftime of the Packers-Giants game I can’t imagine another game in my life where I have been so excited to see the announcers because they all look so funny in the cold. Terry Bradshaw looks like he aged 30 year over night.
We’ve had a good week in South Bend. I worked the 7-3 shift this week so I was able to spend a lot of time with Melissa and the kids. This month has certainly confirmed my decision to pursue a career in Family Practice instead of Emergency Medicine. I still understand the draw of the emergency department, but it just isn’t my cup of tea. The thing about the ER is that it’s 98% monotonous and 2% sheer adrenaline, and the adrenaline tends to give me more anxiety than your average emergency medicine physician. The sheer number of Medicaid patients that come to the emergency department for hangnails has really started to bother me this month. I’m so glad that in the future Hillary will make it possible for more of the nation to be able to use the ambulance as their personal taxi. I may be a bit jaded, but I actually met a woman who missed every one of her prenatal appointments because she didn’t want to pay for the bus fare, but she brought her 5 year old daughter to the emergency department with an earache because the ambulance ride is free.
Cleveland has now been added to the list of places where the weekly email has been written. We made the 4 hour drive to Cleveland on Friday to come visit Doug and Maegan. They welcomed us with a bit of snow and some of the bitterest cold I can remember. We went out to visit the church history site in Kirtland yesterday. It was really cool. The kids got really cold when we would leave one building for another (I was somewhat cold as well), but they did very well with the 2 hour tour. It was a wonderful experience to feel the spirit in some of the rooms where so many revelations were received. During the video portion of the tour Spencer got very disturbed when they portrayed the story about Joseph Smith being tarred and feathered outside of his home. After regaining some composure Spencer told us that those bad men must be Lamanites (for those of you not well versed in LDS scripture Lamanites are a people in The Book of Mormon who are known through much of the book for their sinful ways). It’s going to make for an interesting discussion when our family scripture study gets to the part where the Lamanites are converted and become a righteous people.
In other scripture news we have been spending more time teaching Spencer the stories in the scriptures (rather than just reading a chapter while the kids play with their toys). He seems to enjoy it quite a bit and actually picks up a bit from time to time. The other day when Jessi threw a toy Spencer told her that she was going to be cut in half if she kept throwing toys. It took some time, but we finally deciphered his meaning when we were reading a verse that said that those who are unrighteous will be cut off from the presence of the Lord. We calmly explained to Spencer that Heavenly Father does not, in fact, have a giant sword that he uses to cut us in half when we aren’t good.
I think that’s good for this week and I need to get back to watching Brett (we’re all pretty tight here in the Midwest) and Peyton’s little brother duke it out.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Floods
Aside from the New Evil Unpatriots (thought that one up myself folks) winning yesterday it has been a pretty good week for us. We are still in South Bend coping through the tremendous weather changes.
All of the snow that fell during the first week of the year is completely gone. We actually had a couple of days in the upper 60’s. That warmth combined with some rain has caused all kinds of flooding here. The St Joseph River is at least 5 feet higher than it was when I was here in September. Numerous houses and businesses have been evacuated and there isn’t a dry road in the vicinity. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor about three blocks from the river, however there is quite a bit of elevation change between us and the river so we are pretty safe.
Melissa and the kids have been staying home while I have been working various shifts in the ER. I assumed she would be extremely bored, however, she informs me that she is still so excited about having all this free time to relax and play with the kids that she hasn’t minded one bit about being cooped up in the apartment all day.
Spencer had his 5th birthday this week. Aside from my crises at realizing that I am the father of a 5 year-old child the day went really well. Spencer and I went to see the Bee movie with Jerry Seinfeld at the cheap theatre. We bought the biggest drink and popcorn we could and Spencer nearly finished both. He had a great time.
Spencer certainly showed his age yesterday afternoon during our trolley tour of South Bend (more on that shortly). Jessi was in a particularly loud mood and had been yelling quite loudly in her banter with Kristian and the tour guide (who was also a member of the faculty at the residency program) commented to Spencer how loud his sister could yell. Spencer responded by saying: “My mommy can yell louder, she yells in my face a lot.” Melissa was obviously mortified, but it was pretty funny.
The reason we were on a trolley in the first place was that we spent Friday and Saturday at the Saint Joseph’s hospital residency program 2nd look weekend. The residency invited all the applicant’s to come back to town for another weekend to take a closer look at the program. The activities included a trolley tour of South Bend, and most importantly, Notre Dame Campus. An interesting tidbit about the campus is that there are two decent sized lakes that used to be one lake. Apparently if a body of water is of a certain size the state takes possession of it, so in order to maintain ownership of the entire campus Notre Dame filled in a portion of land in the middle of the lake to create two smaller lakes that could legally remain their property. We also went to the college football hall of fame. That was somewhat enjoyable for me, but not as much as it will be when Doug comes to visit next year and we spend an afternoon in the hall without the kids.
We were privileged to spend the evening eating at a very nice restaurant while someone else watched our three children. The meal was excellent as was the company and we came home with a renewed excitement about the possibility of moving out here.
We are looking forward to our trip out to Cleveland to visit Doug and Maegan this weekend. There may not be an email next week so you better enjoy this one.
All of the snow that fell during the first week of the year is completely gone. We actually had a couple of days in the upper 60’s. That warmth combined with some rain has caused all kinds of flooding here. The St Joseph River is at least 5 feet higher than it was when I was here in September. Numerous houses and businesses have been evacuated and there isn’t a dry road in the vicinity. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor about three blocks from the river, however there is quite a bit of elevation change between us and the river so we are pretty safe.
Melissa and the kids have been staying home while I have been working various shifts in the ER. I assumed she would be extremely bored, however, she informs me that she is still so excited about having all this free time to relax and play with the kids that she hasn’t minded one bit about being cooped up in the apartment all day.
Spencer had his 5th birthday this week. Aside from my crises at realizing that I am the father of a 5 year-old child the day went really well. Spencer and I went to see the Bee movie with Jerry Seinfeld at the cheap theatre. We bought the biggest drink and popcorn we could and Spencer nearly finished both. He had a great time.
Spencer certainly showed his age yesterday afternoon during our trolley tour of South Bend (more on that shortly). Jessi was in a particularly loud mood and had been yelling quite loudly in her banter with Kristian and the tour guide (who was also a member of the faculty at the residency program) commented to Spencer how loud his sister could yell. Spencer responded by saying: “My mommy can yell louder, she yells in my face a lot.” Melissa was obviously mortified, but it was pretty funny.
The reason we were on a trolley in the first place was that we spent Friday and Saturday at the Saint Joseph’s hospital residency program 2nd look weekend. The residency invited all the applicant’s to come back to town for another weekend to take a closer look at the program. The activities included a trolley tour of South Bend, and most importantly, Notre Dame Campus. An interesting tidbit about the campus is that there are two decent sized lakes that used to be one lake. Apparently if a body of water is of a certain size the state takes possession of it, so in order to maintain ownership of the entire campus Notre Dame filled in a portion of land in the middle of the lake to create two smaller lakes that could legally remain their property. We also went to the college football hall of fame. That was somewhat enjoyable for me, but not as much as it will be when Doug comes to visit next year and we spend an afternoon in the hall without the kids.
We were privileged to spend the evening eating at a very nice restaurant while someone else watched our three children. The meal was excellent as was the company and we came home with a renewed excitement about the possibility of moving out here.
We are looking forward to our trip out to Cleveland to visit Doug and Maegan this weekend. There may not be an email next week so you better enjoy this one.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The biggest joke on the planet
That's right folks it's the BCS. Once again Ohio State proved that anybody can play in the national title game. Well actually not anybody, you do have to boast a pretty good record in a historically significant (though presently horrible) conference, and it doesn't hurt to be riding on the coattails of tradition (Why else is Notre Dame ranked so high to start each season). Then again what is the point of making it to the BCS championship game just to be the SEC's whipping boy 2 years in a row? I was overjoyed to hear the talk last night of Ohio State's prospects for next year, maybe Georgia can have a shot.
If only the NFL had a BCS system we wouldn't have to suffer through all these playoff games with lesser teams. The Patriots would have cemented their spot in the game 4 weeks ago against, let's say the Colts. We could all be using our Sunday's getting reacquainted with our kids and doing things more appropriate for Sunday's, but instead we're stuck watching these unexciting games just waiting for somebody to beat Bellicheat's team. If only.
If only the NFL had a BCS system we wouldn't have to suffer through all these playoff games with lesser teams. The Patriots would have cemented their spot in the game 4 weeks ago against, let's say the Colts. We could all be using our Sunday's getting reacquainted with our kids and doing things more appropriate for Sunday's, but instead we're stuck watching these unexciting games just waiting for somebody to beat Bellicheat's team. If only.
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