A Breath of Fresh Air

I started my penultimate month of OB on Monday and I had my first call yesterday.  I haven't had and OB month in almost a year so I was the tiniest bit nervous that I would feel like an intern all over again.  To my great joy I have found that OB is a lot like riding a bike.  Yesterday was a fabulous day.  The day was pretty busy with deliveries and triages, but it started out wonderfully.  The first delivery of the day was a couple having their first baby.  They were excited.  Grandma was there and she was excited.  Then I saw a BYU bag on the floor.  Come to find out they met at BYU and both graduated.  They almost kicked me out of the room when I told them I graduated from the U.

OB as a resident is so filled with babies that weren't planned and oftentimes not even wanted that it is incredibly refreshing to have a few deliveries with people who are genuinely excited and emotional about having a first child.  I remember that feeling when Spencer was born and while the birth of each of our children has been special the feelings leading up to Spencer's birth were unique and it was good to see some of that in the faces of that couple yesterday.

On another note I'm reading "The Undaunted" and it has been wonderful to picture the images of Cedar City and Southern Utah as I read.  I felt like I was back home when the characters were camping in Zion and making their way up Angel's Landing.

Who wouldn't miss that?

Lastly this song is on the playlist on the blog of one or our cousins and I really like it.  Sappy? Maybe, but oh well.

Disappearing 9 Patch by 90

Sewing night just finished but I am not tired. I am really excited because I just finished a big project in a very little amount of time. So here is the back story - On Sunday our Relief Society President informed us that the stake is going to be making quilts to help out with Humanitarian Aid. I figured this was right up my alley and so I volunteered to put together 2 tops. I spent Sunday night loitering through my stash (my favorite part) to find just the right color combinations and then Monday morning I was on the job!! Two day later I have 2 Finished Tops. They are both done in the Disappearing 9 patch pattern just on a slightly larger scale then I am used to working with. They end up being 90" x 90". Spencer says they are "Gigantor". I am looking forward to getting them tied with the sisters of the ward so I can bind them up with a scrappy binding I am making out of the leftover pieces of material. They will be so cute and I hope they brighten someones spirits that is going through some rough trials.

Happy and on call?

Second to last day of medicine call this month and I find myself with a smile on my face.  Is it because I'm almost done with the month?  Considering I start OB on Monday I don't think that is it (though I do prefer a month of OB to a month of medicine).  In reality my smile is because I found out last night that I passed step 3 of my boards.  What that means is I can finally get an unrestricted medical license.  No more nightmares of being an overeducated McDonald's cook for me.  It's a good day.

The reason this is important to many of you is because I can now get my Utah license (though I may have to wait until the end of this year based on Utah rules, I'll have to look into it) and with that I can call in prescriptions there legitimately.

Happy Quilting

So I finally opened an Etsy shop. It's not much to start with. Right now I just have some I Spy quilt packs but I do have aspirations to see it grow with some Quilt Kits and possibly a Quilt or two in the future. But I mostly want to keep it pretty low key. More than anything, I see it as a way to use up some stash so I can buy more :) If you want to check it out you can go here. It is called Happy Quilting!

Also, along that line, I told my mom I would post my most recently finished quilts so here they are. There is one "circle" quilt which was so much fun to put together and I am already looking forward to doing another one. There are also 2 "stacked coin" quilts using a large stash of scraps which was so much fun. I love to see them because I see 20 other quilts I have made. I already have another type of these in the works as well. Too Fun!! I have tried some new free motion patterns on each of these. I was a little shaky to begin with and not to pleased with the results but by the end of each quilt I was pretty darn happy with the results. Practice, Practice, Practice.

So anyhow, Happy Quilting!!

Free Write

I bought an Ipod Touch after Christmas this year and as I sit here listening to my Mormon Tabernacle Choir station on Pandora being piped through the little boombox by way of the Ipod I wonder how I ever got along without one in the first place.  Technology is kind of like that I think.  I hate cell phones and pagers, but after hearing a story of how my dad had to walk a mile to get to a working phone to answer a page some 20 years ago I figure they're not so bad.

I spent the month of December working with my dad in his clinic in Cedar City.  Quite possibly the best month of my life to this point.  There's something very exciting about experiencing a little bit of what the future holds and enjoying it, immensely.  The contrast between last month and this one doesn't hurt too much either (unless of course you happen to be in the midst of this month after having experienced last month).  Aside from being in Cedar for a month treating my future patients alongside my future colleagues I got to work with my Dad for a whole month.  

I think I've posted about my Dad's battle with cancer over the past year.  Last month I realized just how much of that battle I missed.  Everyday people would ask me how he was doing (great by the way) and I would answer sincerely that he isn't any different than he was when I saw him before he was diagnosed. Except maybe a little wiser and a bit more pensive.

While in Cedar we also spent a fair amount of time with my brother and his family.  Growing up I always loved the relationship my dad had with his older brother.  They were best friends and talked on an almost daily basis.  There were times that I wondered if I would envy that relationship.  I don't envy it one bit because I don't have to.  I've got 3 brothers who I love to talk to and spend time with and if all goes according to plan we'll be having a lot of brotherly gatherings over the next 40 years.  It's a good thing our wives get along so well.

Melissa got sick this past weekend.  She doesn't get sick too often, but when she does it's rough.  Most of the time I think it's my fault because it's the only way for me to see how much she really does and how little I do.  She spent a good amount of time in bed Friday and Saturday.  I changed two dirty diapers in a row for the first time in too many months.  I fed the kids breakfast and lunch.  I fed Kami her breakfast cereal for the first time (she's 10 months).  I got all the kids dressed.  I even took two of them to the Niles Ice Festival.  By noon on Saturday I was exhausted (though not to the point that I wouldn't trade a day of call for a day, or week, with the kids).  I ended up starting the laundry including all the linens in the house.  Melissa finished that project.  I had aspirations to make a dish for our dinner that night and ended up taking a bowl of cut up papaya and mangos.

We're in the new hospital now and it has created some interesting changes.  Driving across town between clinic and the hospital is anything but ideal and our residency lounge isn't very loungeable.  That said I love the new hospital.  There are windows everywhere and in South Bend that is especially important in the winter.  I have my favorite spots marked out and I make it a point to get as much work done in the sunlight as possible.

I've had a few more thoughts over the past couple of weeks, but they don't seem to be popping up at the moment so I think that's it for now.