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.

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.

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.

Weakly Email

We’ll start with Christmas. We spent Christmas in Cedar City and it was wonderful. I haven’t spent the entire Christmas season in Cedar City in 10 years. It’s good to be home. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and they really got into Christmas this year. Spencer was very excited and helped Jessi to understand what was going on. Christmas is so much more fun with kids. My siblings and I decided to do some remodeling in my parents’ basement for their Christmas present (this is what we do when we can’t decide on a purchasable gift for them). The remodel turned out to be quite a deal and we had some minor (or major depending on who’s telling this story) setbacks, but when Melissa and I left on the 28th most of the sheetrock and the first mudding was done. Apparently Robert has had his hands full finishing up a lot of the work while everyone else is gone (he also put in a lot of time before Christmas with the plans). I’m told that it looks pretty good now and I’m excited to see it when we get back in a few weeks.

As I mentioned above we left Cedar on the 28th of December in order to start my ER rotation in South Bend in January. The drive across the country wasn’t too bad. We spent the first night in Grand Junction in the Esplin’s house. With Ryan and Becca being in Cedar for the New Year holiday we missed them, but Spencer sure enjoyed playing with Evan’s toys and Jessi loved sleeping in the princess room. We drove to Hayes Kansas on the 29th and took the kids to IHOP for dinner to celebrate our 7th anniversary. We’re actually hoping to have a real anniversary celebration in 3 years (I’m trying to convince Melissa that we should go spend that one in the Caribbean so any stories of wonderful winter seaside trips to help my effort would be welcome).

We had a wonderful treat on the next day of our trip. We drove to St. Louis and spent the holiday with the MacDonnells. The MacDonnells are our good friends from school and Greg is doing his Anesthesia residency there. You long-time email readers (that better be most of you) may remember the MacDonnells from previous emails and some of the adventures Spencer had with their twin daughters Rio and Rylee. We had a wonderful getting reacquainted and they were wonderful to put us up for a couple of nights.

We drove into South Bend on the 1st in a horrible snow storm. Thankfully we made it safely to our apartment just north of South Bend. There was so much snow that they were just plowing it into the middle of the streets making it impossible to make a left turn except at intersections. The kids enjoyed watching the tractors and giant snow blowers put all of the snow into dump trucks two days later.

My rotation is going well. I definitely do not enjoy emergency medicine as much as I once did. I don’t hate it, but the endless amount of work as well as the move em out attitude that is necessary in the ER is hard on me. It is nice to be in a busy ER where the physicians actually want me to do any stitching that comes in so they don’t have to spend the time to do it themselves.

Chain Letter

I don't forward chain letters (and usually dislike it when I get them), but I don't have any problem posting them on my blog and this one very much suits me. By the way we are safe and happy in South Bend and should be posting some next week.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something lik e this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.

How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" (She said the same thing when interviewed after 9-11)

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards. honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein