Etsy Shop's

My sister-in-law Charlotte and my good friend Larissa have both recently opened shops on Etsy. If you haven't heard of Etsy it is like Ebay but everything is Handmade. I am excited for both of them and have added a link to each of their shops on the blog. Just surf down the right past all of the blog links and you will find a button link for each of their shops. Check them out when you get a chance. I have seen both of their stuff and have to say, they both make some pretty amazing, adorable products!!

Saturdays in September

So we have had some rather busy weekends in September. We started out with the backyard camp out on Labor Day, but I won't elaborate on that as it has already been covered. Are you ready for what follows??

The next weekend was a celebration for the opening of the College Football season. We attended the Residency tailgate that Jeff and Larissa put on. We were so excited to get the kids all dressed up in their ND appeal. I realized that morning that Kami didn't have anything to wear so I whipped up a new onsie for her. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

The tailgate was so much fun. Jacob had a great time chatting with colleagues and I was super happy to find that my new Twice Baked Potatoe recipe was an instant tailgate classic. On a side note - I realized recently that I really am my mother's daughter when it comes to food. I just can't seem to get enough of making food for get together. It really makes me happy when people enjoy the food I make. Okay back to the tailgate. It was a blast!! The kids (when they weren't being chased by bees) had such a great time and drank a lot of soda pop. Kami slept nearly the entire time and who can ask for more than that. After the tailgate we enjoyed the remainder of the day relaxing, as much as one can with 4 kids.

The next weekend Jacob and Clint went backpacking for 2 days. They had a great time, as you saw in the photos. But what was I doing during this backpacking trip? I was trying out my skills as an electrician. I can't say what a drastic change this was for me. We went from these retro, dirty, really outdated fixtures

To these very nice, very simple, very in style fixtures that carry the added benefit of having two light bulbs instead of one so they provide much more light.

Can I just say I love my new lights. Thanks to Adam and Mike who answered a few questions when things didn't quite look the way they had been described in the instructions. The other bonus of my little jaunt as an electrician is that it prompted Jacob to try his skills out the next week. He wired the bedrooms for light fixtures and I can not tell you how happy I am to get rid of the lamps that were in the bedrooms. Heaven!!!

The next weekend Jacob had Friday off so we headed to Chicago for a night in a hotel and a fun day to follow. The heading part was a little more traumatic than I on (Chicago traffic at 5:00 has made my husband promise he will never return to that city again), but once we arrived the good times started to roll. Sometimes I forget just how fun hotels are for kids. They loved it. We spent a pleasant evening playing in the pool and playing musical beds. Between the two double beds and the hide a bed there were a lot of choices. In the end, Jacob and I each got our own double bed and the three kids slept on the hide a bed. Sweet!!!

The next morning we geared up for what we hoped would be a fun filled family day. It turned out to be a day of mostly fun and some moments of frustration. We did our best with the frustrating parts and made the best of it. (at least we decided to make the best of it after realizing being frustrated with each other wasn't helping and there is nothing you can do about having to pay extra for full service gas or not being able to find a parking space anywhere in the entire city and ending up paying $20 for parking at what was supposed to be a free zoo, or having to return to that parked van two times because of potty accidents, or paying $20 to park at a tailgate.) Like I said, once we let all this good there was nothing but good times to be had.

We spent the afternoon at the zoo and the kids had a great time looking at the animals. I mean, what kid doesn't enjoy looking at animals? The kids favorite part of the zoo trip, however, had nothing to do with animals. It had to do with finding a giant human caterpillar trapeze zone. I lost track of how many times they plowed through this. And it was reconfirmed to us, once again, that Kristian is one strong kid. It didn't matter that he was to small to reach half of the platforms, he would just grab the wire next to it and pull himself up. It was hilarious.

After the zoo we headed to the White Sox stadium to attend the SUU Alumni Tailgate that was being held. My good friend from my college days, and the new SUU Alumni Director, Mindy Benson was in attendance. This was our main reason for the jaunt to the city and it was well worth it. It was so wonderful to get to catch up with her. You never realize how much you miss good friends until you get to catch up with them after a long time apart.

Kristian and Jessi struggled a bit at the tailgate because there was a live band near by and they didn't like how loud it was. Spencer on the other hand ran right over and became there number one fan. He danced to all of the songs and earned himself a turn on stage. That's right, the band asked him if he wanted to come up and shake the tambourine with them for a few songs. He was so excited, he went up and shook right with the beat. We think he got a little shy up there as he did not dance, but all in all he had a great time. When he was done his two songs the drummer gave him his drum stick and that made his entire week. He is taking it to show and tell tomorrow.

We were about ready to head back home (we weren't planning on staying for the game because it would be really late for the kids and the tickets were $30 and who pays $30 a kid when they don't even know what is going on) when we realized there was a rather large tailgate behind our vehicle and we wouldn't be going anywhere soon. It was then that the alumni head of Chicago realized they had some extra tickets and offered them to us. Jacob was in heaven. Suddenly all traffic concerns, getting up for church in the morning, and dealing with upset kids was forgotten. We stayed till the seventh inning stretch and were present for a grand slam. The kids did great and were happy to have so many new alumni friends willing to talk to them, play with them, and even take them out for an icee. Good times, thanks to all those that helped keep my kids happy which allowed us to be happy too!!!

The last weekend of September was spent in Ann Arbor at a Medical Conference. I was planning on doing something really fun with the kids while Jacob was in the conference but they deiced instead to spend an hour at the continental breakfast enjoying every breakfast food imaginable then two hours of cartoons spread out in the giant King Size Bed followed by lunch and then a four hour nap in the giant King Size Bed. I decided to take advantage of the quiet and read. Ah, you really cant ask for more in life. We got to enjoy some prime pool and hot tub time when daddy got back from the conference and all and all had a great weekend. And I decided that one day we will own a King Size Bed. Enough said.

So that is what we have been up too. Jacob is on Medicine this month so things should calm down a bit. We are getting very excited looking forward to a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Corry at the end of the month. The kids can't wait to show them their costumes.

So that is the update. Ever notice how all my posts are pretty much updates. Ya, that is because this is my journal. One day, I am going to be fun and off the wall like Jacob and post about something other than the going on of us. But not today.

A Sincere Quest for Approval

Sometimes I spend more time working on a title for my posts than I do actually writing (that may have already been very evident to any of you readers out there).

I've spent some time lately thinking about some of the things that motivate me and I've realized that while I think I do a lot of things for altruistic reasons I also enjoy the approval of others. I think to a certain point we all enjoy approval, at least from a select group of "important" people. Everybody likes receiving compliments. Nothing lights up Melissa like when I tell her how nice she looks (I'm unsure if her reaction would dim if I were to tell her that as often as I think it).

I've written (and talked to those who would listen) ad naseum about some of my difficulties with residency and one of those is the lack of external approval. There are no regularly scheduled tests that show me how well I'm doing. How healthy my patients are is an extremely poor way to measure my performance. I've learned a whole lot from all my mistakes over the past year and it seems that most of my feedback from attendings has come during those times, so rather than getting approval I get reproval. I'm not blaming anyone (except maybe myself for not complimenting others enough). It's just the nature of the beast. I think all jobs have a portion of this, though I can only relate to the hotel business and the pizza business. I think maybe this contributes to why I always wear a tie to my clinics and frequently wear a suit or sport coat. I'm pretty sure I'm better at being a doctor than I am at being a snappy dresser (What can I say? I am my father's son, sorry dad (Have you noticed how much I like parentheses?))))))), but I have gotten a lot more compliments on how I dress than I have on how I doctor.

The blogging world has shown me that I'm not alone in this quest for approval. Everybody likes getting comments. It means people are listening and by commenting the blogger feels validated, at least that's what I think.

I have an "important" person list of people whose approval I crave and as you know from previous posts Melissa and my parents are at the top of that list, but they are not alone. There are others, some who read this blog, some who don't and at least one who didn't but does now (he's pretty high on the list and has been for as long as I can remember).

There are probably a lot of people out there who are more self-assured than I, and there are probably a lot of folks who are less self-assured than I. Whichever of these two groups of people you fit into I want to express my appreciation for your time. I'm glad that you took the time to read this far. I'm grateful that you are a part of our lives. I'm grateful for those of you on the right who post from time to time and let us into your lives.

Without further ado here are some pictures from my recent backpacking trip in Michigan. How's that for a segway?

Best apple ever.

I look a lot worse for wear than Clint in this picture which wouldn't be too bad except for the fact that his pack was about 40 lbs heavier than mine.

Labor Day Weekend

There are pictures that go along with some of our activities this weekend, but you'll have to wait for Melissa to post them or go check them out on facebook.

We had originally planned to go camping at least for Friday night and most of Saturday, but found that all of the campgrounds around South Bend require one to make a 3 day reservation for the holiday weekend. Obviously we weren't going to be doing that so we had to make new plans. Having told the kids we were going camping I was in a bind so we decided to have a backyard campout on Friday night.

We figured Melissa could stay inside with Kamryn, while the rest of us spent the night in the tent. I set up the tent in the middle of the lawn and started a fire so we could cook our tinfoil dinners (I believe you are only allowed to have an open fire if it is 40 feet from the nearest structure so we certainly weren't following any laws there). After eating Melissa decided she didn't want to be left alone inside so we put up Kami's pack-n-play inside the tent and altered the sleeping arrangements a little in order to accommodate mom and daughter. Melissa and I sat next to the fire while the kids tried to stop playing in the tent long enough to fall asleep. The bugs are a lot louder here than back home. Waking up with the tent walls all wet with condensation was a little different. Other than those two things the backyard campout was a success. In the morning the kids got up and went inside to watch Saturday morning cartoons, you just can't beat that.

Saturday we went tailgaiting before the Notre Dame game. Always a fun time though the wasps made for some new excitement. We thought we might make it all the way through without anybody getting stung until Melissa put her hand on one as she was attempting to get up from the grass as we were packing up. The games went great all day on Saturday.

Today we went to get some new light fixtures at Lowes and on the way home we decided to brave the movie theater for a family movie. The cheap theater has 50 cent Mondays for families over 3 and we certainly have more than 3 of us. We had never taken Kami to a movie so we weren't sure how this would pan out, but she fell asleep 15 minutes into Ice Age and didn't wake up until we got home. The other three kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

I also went running this morning so it's been a great few days for us here.

Week 1

Week one of the 2009 college football season was a good one for me, and here is what I learned:

1. Boise State will once again be undefeated at the end of the season and once again will be shut out of the BCS.

2. Utah could be great this year, but their win against the Aggies proved about as much as Florida's win against that peewee team they played. The Utes made a lot of mistakes that they certainly won't be able to overcome in games against TCU, BYU and Oregon, but if they can find a way to win, as they did so often last year, they may find themselves playing for something bigger this year.

3. Notre Dame looks good and Weiss may be sticking around, but it is too early to tell for sure. Nevada plays in the same conference as Utah State and both are whipping boys for BSU. In reality the Irish should be favored to win all but one of their games this year and when they play that game against the Trojans we'll know whether or not they're for real.

4. BYU is a lot better than the media is giving them credit for. Oklahoma lost a lot up front and their receiving corps has been downgraded from last year, but their running game did next to nothing against the Cougars. Bradford played most of the first half and if not for the Cougars mistakes leading to Sooner scores this game would not have been so close. BYU was the better team last night. If the big three in the MWC can get through the season with only losses to each other it is conceivable that one of the three if undefeated may actually get a shot at the national title. Heck if Oklahoma deserves a shot for running the table from here on out then the team that beat them certainly merits some mention in the conversation if they are undefeated at year end. Unfortunately for Boise State the BCS will not be inviting two outsiders to their dance this year or any year in the forseable future.

5. Ohio State is a joke again. Here's hoping they lose a game or two so we don't have to watch them get embarrassed again in January. Oh yeah, the embarrassment comes next week with USC.