4th and 18 no more (and an update sent by email for those who don't check the blog)

At long last I can wash from my mind the visions of Austin Collie getting behind the Utes defense on 4th and 18 for a gain of half the field. The last second touchdown of 2006 is but a memory now. I'm betting any Cougar fan would gladly trade those two games for what Ute fans are experiencing now. Though I must admit it's not quite so exciting for me the second time around.

We were fortunate enough to watch the game from start to finish at a friend's house. Being surrounded by BYU fans made it a little difficult for me to properly celebrate with each Max Hall miscue, but that's probably a good thing. I was very nervous when the Utah offense seemed to shut-down soon after the second quarter commenced. I had visions of a blow-out when the Cougars started to get on track and got a few defensive stops. When the second half started and the Cougars pulled within 3 I was pretty sure the game was going to get out of hand. The Utes hadn't done anything on offense, excepting one long pass play after an interception, for 45 minutes (real time not game time). Then, inexplicably, Max Hall decided to put his stamp on the game. The Cougars were running all over the field. So it is only natural that they would want to balance out their game (people try to do this with their financial portfolios all the time by selling their big gainers to buy more losers) by drawing more pass plays. At this point I think the Utes had already batted down 3 balls. We all know what happened next. For those of you who don't, Max Hall threw 4 more interceptions and fumbled the ball. The Utes capitalized and my memories were washed clean.

I think the Utes played a good game, but not a great game. Some of the turnovers were good defensive plays and some were just poor decisions (or mistakes) by the BYU offense. My sympathies to all you Cougar fans out there. I'm trying not to gloat, but I have two years of pent up rage just now being released. I'm also still perturbed by all the attention this Cougar team got during the offseason.

Now that I've bored half of you and offended the other half let's see what's going on here in South Bend.

I'm in my last week of OB call and while very taxing physically I have enjoyed the month for the most part. The attending physicians I have worked with have been wonderful. They've been very receptive to my questions and I feel like I have learned a great deal over the past few weeks. I haven't decided for sure whether or not I want to do OB as part of my practice for the next 30 years, but I'm leaning more toward that avenue now than I was a month ago. We'll see how I feel about it when I'm called in for my own patients rather than being on the floor for each 24 hour call.

Melissa continues to discover new aches and pains with each passing day. I keep expecting to come home from call to a house in disorder and children sacked out in front of the TV, but it just hasn't happened. I'm not sure why I expect this as it never happened with her 3 previous pregnancies either. She has kept herself busy with a variety of books and sewing projects as well as helping Spencer with his homework, encouraging Jessi in her lifelong battle with the potty, and keeping Kristian from breaking everything n the house. She is very happy here and has the best support group I could wish for. She constantly tells me of these wonderful women who continue to support and comfort her at playgroup, sewing group and whatever other group she can fit into the week.

Spencer is still loving school, though he does enjoy his Saturdays. He and I went over to the school the other day to fly his kite. I haven't flown a kit since I was a kid and I've got to tell you it was a lot of fun. His kite is a cheap flimsy thing we got from the dollar store, but it was very fun for both of us. I may have to buy a nicer kite when spring rolls around.

Jessi's relationship with the potty is on the rocks once again. She has done so well for the past few months, but apparently she's just not into it at the moment. She has a cold and her ears have been draining so I'm hoping that her her potty issues will resolve when her cold does.

As I mentioned previously Kristian gets into everything. It feels strange to us that he will turn 2 next week. The last time we had a 2 year we also had a 6 month old so this feels a little different. His babbling is becoming a little more understandable, but he has found that temper tantrums are the way to go most of the time. Compared to our other kids Kristian is exceptionally strong (and aggressive) If we leave the bathroom doors open he climbs until he can just reach the faucet then proceeds to pull himself up to the counter so that he can get into the cabinet and play with the toothbrushes. I was certain somebody was helping him get up there until I saw the feat for myself.

We very much enjoyed Mark and Krista's whirlwind visit for interviews. I think they enjoyed themselves as well and we are pulling for them to make South Bend home (for 3 years anyway). We are also looking forward to Doug and Maegan's visit for Thanksgiving (though I will spend most of their time here within the warm confines of the hospital).

We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and hope this finds you well.

Not in denial

Spencer: "Dad be quiet. I'm talking to myself and I can't hear."

With a statement like that who cares what the background story is.

Thank You Mr. Snowplow Guy

So Jacob was on call last night (so he isn't home this morning) and it snowed a ton. When I woke up I was in a rush to get all of the kids ready hoping that I could at least have time to clear a foot path for Spencer to get to his ride for school. We had bought snow shovels the other day and Jacob decided we needed a big one and a small one. He asked me (or kind of told me) to only use the small one and only throw a very small amount of snow at a time and only when necessary. (he knows my ability to over-do-it very well). I decided this was very good request and started shoveling with my small shovel in about a foot width swipes. About half way down one swipe of the drive I started to realize, at this rate, the footpath alone was going to take me all morning.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a young man pulls up in my drive with a plow attached to the front of his truck and lets me know "he's got it". He then proceeded to plow my entire drive in 2 minutes flat. I said thank you, over and over, and he said "No Big Deal" and proceeded to clear the driveway's of the condos across the street from us. The ones he gets paid to do. I felt such an overwhelming sense of gratitude to this person. So I did what all Betty-Homemakers do, I threw some brownies in a bag and ran them across the street to him and said Thank You again. I explained to him that I am pregnant and that his help was a huge blessing to me. He explained that when he saw me he just felt like I needed some help and then added that whenever he was assigned to this route he would make sure to get my driveway as well.

I am so grateful for tender mercies from my Heavenly Father. This morning was truly a blessing and I am so grateful for it. The young man kept telling me it was no big deal, but for me it was a very big deal. So whoever you are, thank you a million times over, Mr. Snowplow Guy!!

My greatest lesson in Life

So I've noticed there are basically two types of blogs; opinion blogs, and information blogs. This blog seems to have a pretty even share of the two because Melissa does a good job with the information/pictures that most of you care about and I tend to write more opinion posts that probably only appeal to a small portion of our faithful readers. So without further ado here is another pictureless post.

I've been reflecting a lot over the past month on my dad. The post some time ago about my sobfest home from the ER was caused by his diagnosis of Lymphoma. He has started his treatment and though it will be very difficult we all feel very confident that everything will turn out okay.

My dad and I have always gotten along really well. I consider myself lucky that I have been able to go to him for help at any time in my 31 years of life and he has always been able to give that help. It should come as no surprise that much of what I am I contribute to my father. If there was any time that our relationship was the least bit strained it was during my high school years. Ironically, over the last year I have realized that my greatest lesson in life started at one singular moment with my dad during those years.

I ran Track and Cross Country in high school, and at the time my dad was the girls' coach for both sports. Our distance coach in track was nonexistant so dad did a lot with the boys team as well. Track and Field in Utah consists of three major meets with a bunch of smaller ones thrown in for good measure. One of those major meets is the BYU invitational. When I was a junior I remember getting ready to run the 3200 (2 mile) at BYU. My best time was right near the division point of one heat to another. As is custom we embelished my time a little to get me into the faster heat. Up until recently I have considered this a terrible decision.

I started off the race doing well but as we got further and further along I got further behind the main pack of runners and I'm pretty sure by the middle of my 7th lap I was alone in last place. These guys were just better than me. Rather than give up I ran as hard as I ever had for fear of being lapped by the lead runner (I did avoid being lapped, but just barely). As I rounded the last turn on my 8th lap I was the only runner left on the track. I was getting the courtesy clap from most of the crowd. When I finished I found that I had run my fastest 3200 ever and it wasn't even close. I was devastated and embarrassed to have taken last. I gained no measure of comfort from the fact that I had done my best. My dad on the other hand couldn't have been prouder. In fact I can't remember a race in my high school career where my dad was more excited with my performance.

Fast forward to my senior year. Very early in the season I ran a 5 minute mile. Generally you can expect to improve quite a bit over the process of a season so the prospect of running at state and actually running well was not out of the question. Through no lack of laziness on my part that race was the fastest of my career. Though he never said much (and still doesn't) I'm pretty sure my dad was disappointed in my lack of progress that season. I had a great spring that year and actually placed well in a few races, but when I look back I know that I could have done better.

The lesson in all this, that I am finally beginning to see at 31 years of age, is that life is all about doing your best. The world tells us that success is defined by how well you do compared to everyone around you. You have to make more money than your neighbor. You have to be a better father than your coworker. Your kid needs to be the smartest kid in class. There is no truth in this way of thinking. Success is all about doing your best. It's not even about improving from yesterday, because that isn't always possible (another thing I have learned from my dad as he has aged and started going through Chemo). If I can look back at my day each night (or each morning after having been on call) and say that I did my best it is a good day.

In my race of life there are times I feel I'm running in first and times I feel I'm running in last, but for the past little while at least I feel like the Father who's watching this race is pretty happy with me because I'm staying on track to run my best time, and I think that makes my dad happy too.

Better Late than Never

So I have been meaning to post pictures of our trip to Cleavland and Halloween for quite sometime. So without further ado . . .

While visiting Cleavland we visited what Meagan called "Castle Park". Spencer was absolutely ecstatic to find that it was an actual old Castle ruin that everyone was allowed to look through. We followed that up with a walk through the near by woods and some major leaf collecting. If anyone needs any beautiful colored leaves for any projects let me know. We have more than enough for my plans. It was the absolutely perfect week to go. The trees we so beautiful. I can't believe how many colors we saw of leaves and the weather wasn't too bad either.

We also visited the "Kirtland" sites including the Johnson Farm, the Kirtland Visitors Center, the temple quarry, and the Kirtland Temple. Jacob and I had been to the Visitors Center before, but the rest of it was all brand new to us. The kids behaved pretty well throughout all of this and we were grateful for that. We only took one picture of all of this however (I don't know why, we just never pulled out the camera). The one picture we have is at the Johnson Farm. This is the Room that Joseph and Emma slept in the night he was drug from the home to be tarred and feathered. Spencer wanted a picture in it because he thought the floor looked like a giant checker board. We really enjoyed these sites and had some wonderful spiritual moments.

We also went to lunch while there to a little down home restaurant called RJ's. If you are ever in Kirtland it is the place to go. I had the best BLT I have ever had in my life. (Yes, it was even better than Angie's.) So to sum it up, we had a great weekend filled with loads of fun. Thanks again Doug and Meagan for being willing to show us around, again. You guys are the greatest!!

We enjoyed having my mom with us during this trip to Cleavland and then the week after. Thanks again mom for coming and of course, for your help in the kitchen. We miss you already.

So now on to Halloween.

The children enjoyed a whole array of activities the week of Halloween. We started with a Halloween Party for Wives club with lots and lots of Halloween Goodies. (and toys of course, which my children tend to notice more than the treats)

We had the Ward Trunk-or-treat as well. The kids had a blast with all of the activities. Their favorite was the balloon creations. Jessi got a princess wand and Spencer got a bat. They were so excited they didn't mind waiting in line for over 10 minutes for theirs. Then the trunk-or-treat began. We ended up doing this inside the church as they were concerned about the weather so the kids went around from chair to chair and loaded up on candy. Another fun evening.

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins. They were all excited to start until they remembered what was in the pumpkins and then they decided they didn't want to "help" as much as they offered. Spencer was excited to draw his own face on his pumpkin and then had dad cut it out for him. He chose to do a pirate face with a patch on its eye. Too fun!! Jessi and Kris just watched while we told them we were working on theirs. It kept them happy.

And we finally made it to Halloween. I stayed home to hand out candy which turned out to be unnecessary. Apparently the trick or treating in our neighborhood starts on the block behind us. Next year I won't be staying home. But I did get my book finished. The kids had a great time with dad and brought home quite the stash of candy. In South Bend you are only allowed to trick-or-treat from 5 - 7 which turned out just perfect for the kids. All in all, I would say it was a very happy Halloween for all.

And that about gets me through all of the recent pictures I have taken. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mark and Krista for their Residency interviews tomorrow. And then we will have Doug and Meagan for Thanksgiving. I am so grateful to have family that can visit us. It really is a blessing for us.

One last quirky story about me. 2 nights ago Jacob was reading a story to the kids at bedtime. It was called Mars Needs Moms by Berkeley Breathed. I was completely tear streaked by the end of it. It is a story of a little boy who is frustrated with his mom for always being on his case. One night Aliens come and kidnap his mom to Mars and he follows. On Mars he learns a valuable lesson (which caused the crying) but I won't give it away. It is a good thing the kids didn't ask me to read it because I never would have been able to get through it. I would blame it on the pregnancy but I am pretty sure I would have cried even if I wasn't pregnant. So if you ever want a good cry while reading to your kids, it will do the trick. (Still though, I loved the book!!)