Spencer to the Rescue

Spencer: "I really want a Diego chair."

Dad: "We don't always get what we want. I really want a truck."

Spencer: "Maybe you can ask Santa for a truck."

Dad: "That's a long time to wait."

Spencer: "Yeah, and mommy won't let you get one."

Dad: "yup."

Spencer: "Maybe you'll just have to wait until mommy dies to get a truck."



At least I can get some consolation from my new truck when Melissa passes.

Desert Creature

I've lived in South Bend, Kentucky, Brazil and Massachusetts. Each of those places has vegetation that you just don't find out west (I don't count the coastal states), and they are very beautiful places. I have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) living in those places, but I am a Desert Creature.

I'm in Tucson for a CME until Monday and I love it. I went out on a hike today called 7 falls. It was an 8 mile round trip up a canyon (I've gotten more exercise in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 months). It was awesome! Not a lot of people like the smell of cactus and sagebrush, but I love it.

The first picture is just to prove that I was really there (I probably should have wiped some of th sweat out off of my face, but that just adds to my enjoyment of being somewhere that isn't 20 below). The rest show the falls and the canyon. The pictures actually loaded in reverse order so you get the end first.


The trail actually is above the cliff on the right side of the picture below, but as I missed it I had to climb those rocks on the right to get up to the falls.
This last picture (or first depending on how you look at it) was just after I missed the trail going up the side of the mountain.It was a beautiful hike. I spent a little over 2 hours getting to the falls and about 1 hour getting back down. I also learned some Spanish this morning. All in all a good day.

There are only two good things about not having Melissa and the kids here with me. One of those is that I get to go on 8 mile hikes up canyons in an afternoon (no chance that happens with 3 kids). The other is that it won't be quite as excruciating to leave Tucson because when I get home I get see Melissa and the kids and I really miss them.

ABC tag - for all you anxious fans out there.

A - Attached or Single: Attached and thankful for it. I'm pretty sure I would die of starvation or aspergillosis without Melissa.
B - Best Friend(s): Melissa and her three children (for those of you who may have stumbled on this blog and are now wondering if I married a woman with children from a previous marriage, they are my kids too, but from time to time I refer to them as her children. Usually when they are being bad.)
C - Cake or Pie: No cake will ever rival a good pecan pie.
D - Day of Choice: Saturday unless I am on a medicine or OB call then Saturday is my least favorite day.
E - Essential Item: Chapstick. My phone used to be essential, but ever since starting residency it seems to resemble a ball and chain and I leave it behind whenever I can.
F - Favorite Color: Olive (Melissa tells me that is a type of green and that I may or may not have a suit in this color)
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Melissa doesn't allow me to eat these anymore as we had an unfortunate experience once when I left a bag on the dash of the car during a hot day. All the worms melted together and I was left with a sour gummy mass that I proceeded to eat over the next week. Melissa was thoroughly grossed out hence the ban on gummy items for me.
H - Hometown: Cedar City, UT - also referred to as Zion or the promised land
I - Indulgence: Blog tags
J - January or July:- This one might have been closer had I not just lived through a week of subzero temperatures. July for sure. If I can convince Melissa to spend a couple of weeks in January down in the southern hemisphere for the next 30 years it might become close again.
K - Kids: I like 'em most of the time. (Don't go commenting on how the tag wants to know how many kids I have, you all know how many kids I have. Heck some of you get to see them more than I do. It's my blog tag and so I decide what it wants to know and on this occasion I think it is asking me if I like kids.)
L - Life is incomplete without: Love - How's that for sappy? Though it is how I feel, being a man, I had to qualify the answer lest my manhood be challenged.
M - Marriage Date: Generally I think it is a good idea to take a date to a marriage so I have to say yes to this one. I took Melissa to a marriage before we were married and look how that turned out. I don't recall any of our guests bringing dates to our marriage 10 year ago.
N - Number of Siblings: 20 - 3 brothers, 2 sisters, 5 brothers-in-law, 7 sisters-in-law, 3 friends who are like brothers.
O - Oranges or Apples: it depends on the orange and the apple. Oranges in Brazil are tasteless. Red delicious apples are no longer delicious. A good fuji beats a bad florida orange, but in the end it all comes down to laziness and since eating an apple requires much less work than eating an orange I have to go with apples.
P- Phobias or Fears: Social gatherings by myself or when Melissa is involved in a discussion without me. Seriously I don't know how to take care of myself anymore!
Q - Quote(s): "(") .................................................That was very Ryanesque if I do say so myself.
R- Ring size: Depends on the finger
S - Season: There are a lot of seasons that Melissa uses that I like, but since I don't often know which tastes go with which seasons I'm going to have to say salt. For those of you who were looking for a weather season on this one you need look no further than letter J.
T- Tag 3 Friends: The three people I would like to tag would be Bob, Doug, and Ryan because I think their responses would be even wittier (I think highly of myself) than my own and there fore very enjoyable for me to read, but since I know they will never participate in blog tags I will tag no one. Plus the fact that I don't think they will ever read this (see next letter).
U - Unknown fact about me: I think I've done enough of these blog tags that I've pretty much gotten out all the unkown facts about me. Oh wait I've got one. I watched North and South the other day with Melissa and liked it. There goes that manhood thing again. It's a good thing that no men read this blog anyway.
V - Very favorite stores: Home Depot, Lowes, Ebay
W - Worst Habit: Blog Tags. Actually I am sort of an internet addict. I can spend hours on end surfing around the net jumping from news sites to sports sites to shoping sites (though I rarely buy anything). Fortunately we are now in American Idol season so I can surf in peace while Melissa watches the four judges critique the performances. Speaking of AI I can't stand the new judge. She's every bit as dumb as Paula but with an attitude which just makes her painful to watch.
X-ray or Ultrasound: Now this is the dumbest question I've ever come across in a blog tag. Who likes one radiological study over another, ironically I was asked by the radiologist yesterday which part of radiology I liked best, but that is another story. The point is that x-ray and ultrasound are used for entirely different reasons. Now if you were asking me if I would rather have x-ray vision or ultrasound vision I would have to say flying.
Y - Your Favorite Food: Alaskan King Crab. I must be getting less lazy because a few years ago my favorite food was Lobster for the sheer fact that eating crab is so much work, but it's just so good that I can handle the work to get to that succulent feast inside, or maybe it's because I'm wider than I was a few years back and eating crab gets the nod for the exercise factor.
Z- Zodiac: I hate astrology. Depending on the source for the calendar I fall into Aquarius or Pisces. Searching for both signs on wikipedia today I find Aquarius: January 20 - February 18, Pisces: February 20 - March 20. Hold on a minute wiki folks I was born on February 19th! Stupid zodiac. I think I'm going to make my own Mountain biking, dad, doctor, Ute fan sign henceforth known as mobaddorute. That's right folks my zodiac sign is mobaddorute. Any of you out there born on February 19th join me as a mobaddorute for we determine our own destiny...... mobaddorcougs not allowed.

Some more Home Projects

Having the second look progressive meal at our house was a great motivation to get a few projects completed. We, mostly I, decided that before everyone came it would be nice to finish putting up the crown molding in the dining room, do the finish work on all the crown that we had put up in the house (this included mudding, sanding, and painting the joints in 4 rooms) make the valance for the living room curtains, sew and hang the curtains for the living room and dining room and recover the pillow for my Queen Anne chair to match the curtains.

So some of this was done very last minute but I am happy to say we completed it all. Jacob actually designed, fabricated, and upolstered the valance in the livinig room. I am very impressed with his work and it is nice to know if the whole doctor thing doesn't pan out we always have something else to fall back on. Thanks to Tracy for lending me her sewing machine when mine decided to be stubborn and send me into crying fits. (no this isn't an exagarration, there were many tears shed.)

So without further ado, here are some of the pictures. Sorry they are horrible quaility, I am no photographer. I also added a picture of the boys room with the bunkbed in it. We got the loft bed for a steal and a few coats of black spray paint and it looked brand new. The boys love it.

This close-up gives you a better look at the crown and the colors of the curtains. Just in case you happen to be my mom and care about those things.

Happy Birthday and Surgery Spencer!!

Spencer's 6th birthday was on the 10th, the same day as the St. Joseph Residency 2nd look. Because of this, Spencer got to have quite a stretched out birthday celebration. He started the morning by trying to make sure he told every person that came to our house for the progressive meal (about 45 I would guess) that it was his birthday. One of the applicants brought their daughter and Spencer was so very happy to make a new friend.


That afternoon daddy took him to the College Football Hall of Fame for the final portion of the progressive meal. Spencer was very excited that this part of the day was kept for just him and his daddy. I am told they had a great time, that Spencer ran into his new friend again, and there were several pictures taken. Unfortunately none with Spencer in them, just lots with this particular helmet in it. Surprised??

Upon returning from the Hall of Fame it was present time. We let Spencer open his presents from family and he was very happy to have received exactly the presents he had picked out at the store a few days earlier. Then it was off to Burger King, where he got his very own kids meal. He was highly disappointed in the quality of the toy however, and decided those toys in kids meals are just dumb. I believe we have said this just about every time we go and remind them we don't buy kids meals, but it is nice to have it confirmed.

After a great meal, at least in the kids eyes, we dropped the kids off at our friends the Larsen's. Jacob and I had a very nice meal at the Tippecanoe Restaurant for Second Look. The kids had a great night and Spencer was very excited to get a cupcake that even had a candle and then get to have fun with play dough until we got there. (I don't have play dough at our house, as I hate the stuff, and so Spencer is in major play dough withdrawals) Thanks Clint and Becca, you guys are the greatest.

On Monday we finished up the birthday festivities with a small party. The original plan was for the family to go to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate but when Spencer found out it would be a family night out and no friends he absolutely turned it down. I told him that things had and would be really crazy and I wouldn't have time to throw a big party for him. He still stuck to the party idea and agreed to the guest list remaining at only 5 friends. I must say I was disappointed that I could not persuade him to do Chuck E Cheese (easier for me) but the party turned out great and he was very happy so that made it worth it.

He decided on a Batman party and had all of his friends dress up as their favorite superhero. They all looked so cute. We played Batman games, ate a batman cake, Opened some great superhero gifts, and all and all a great two hours of fun for a 6 year old boy. Thanks to my friend Amber, she threw a Batman party for her little boy and posted all about it on her blog including the games she played (I was so glad I didn't have to think up my own games) and how she made an amazing butter cream icing transfer for the cake. Once Spencer saw the pictures of that amazing cake he decided he wanted one just like it. So here is my first attempt at a butter cream icing transfer. It isn't perfect but I learned a lot while doing it and thought it was a lot of fun to do. I think we might be making more of these in the future. Thanks again Amber. And thanks to all of Spencer friends and their parents for helping to make Spencer's birthday a great year.

Spencer followed up his birthday celebrations with Surgery on Wednesday. Kristian was super sick the previous two days and so Dad stayed home with him while I took Spencer to the surgery center. The surgery was outpatient and we to fix his "pee pee hole". The surgery went very well and very quick, Spencer was very good and brave, and came away with a lot of stickers and even a flower that he so sweetly gave to Jessi. Spencer was a "little" upset the first few times he had to pee but that ended soon and now he is very happy to be feeling much better, and so are we. Kristian is also pretty much over his sickness so we are once again, a healthy family. For a few days at least. :)

BooYah!! Rick Reilly knows what's up with the Utes.

I've always liked Rick Reilly, and his recent article on the BCS and the Utes is no less than awesome. To get the true picture you really need to read it outloud. Actually I've done that for you below. Enjoy.


Here's the link if you want to read it

Here's another great article from the Washington Post



I do know how to say Amish, but I didn't want to rerecord the whole article (the current recording was my third attempt and I'm not sure Melissa would have allowed a 4th)

Addendum:
The sportswriters voted Utah to the number 2 spot. Only 16 of the 65 writers had the guts to make the right choice. What a crock. Has there ever been a year in the history of college football that ended with only one undefeated team and that team finished 2nd? There have been other undefeated teams to not be ranked number one, but if a team is good enough to be number 2 what rationale keeps just one one-loss team ahead of them?

Once again the BCS has proven to be the worst thing to happen to college football in my lifetime, and complain as they may, 48 national sports writers had a chance to make a statement, and do the right thing but they couldn't.

College football has officially fallen to the level of gymnastics and figure skating in my ranking of sport, just above synchronized swimming.

In the end I'm proud of the Utes. Two undefeated seasons in five years. I'll take that over a one-loss BCS champion any day of the week (honestly), and though I would have like to have the AP vote I'll settle for the national championship as given by Rick Reilly.

So many Celebrations all Mashed into One Post

What a whirlwind of festivities we have had over the last few weeks. The last "non-sports blog" left off the day before Christmas Eve with Jessi's ear surgery. Her recovery was quick and we were all up and ready for Christmas Eve. I spent a very enjoyable portion of the day in the kitchen singing along with Christmas tunes and making dishes for the Christmas Eve party we would be attending. The kids spent a good portion of the day asking me when it would be time to go to their friends house.

The time finally came and we all loaded up to go to the Brady's for a Christmas Eve feast and program. A feast is putting it lightly, we had an extraordinary meal complete with all of the trimmings and then some. The kids then decorated cookies for Santa and Kristian served as a human vacuum for to clean up all of the sprinkles off of the tables. I wish I would have got a picture of it but I cleaned him off instead. What was I thinking. It was then time for the Christmas story so we dressed up the children in their assigned characters. Spencer was a wise man, Jessi and angel, and Kristian was a sheep but quickly decided he would rather be a fireman and just sit on Dad's lap. There were several families in attendance and it made for a wonderful Christmas Story. The picture just doesn't do justice of how many children were trying to get in around the baby. So Sweet. Thanks again to the Brady's for having us over. We had a wonderful evening!!

At the conclusion of the party (and after Jacob got in a few game of Foosball) it was time to head home for our own Christmas Eve Traditions. We read the Christmas story again, said our family prayer, and then let the kids open their PJ's. This year they received two pairs. One that I had made and then their pair from Grandma Corry. They were very excited about both and I must say, I was very excited that the pj's I made fit well and the kids really liked the material they were made with. (side note . . I have since washed the boys pj's and they shrunk, big time, sigh. ) We then got the kids in bed and amazingly they all zonked out within about 15 minutes so that Jacob and I could set up all of the gifts and follow them to bed.

Jessi woke up first on Christmas morning at 8:00 am. I don't remember the last time I got to sleep in on Christmas morning but I must say it was rather enjoyable. She then woke up Spencer and Kristian and we all headed downstairs to open stockings and presents. The children were so fun this year. They all understood the "opening presents" idea and were very happy with the gifts they had received. I think they also liked that their presents kept coming around quickly as there was just us. It was a great Christmas morning filled with lots of smiles and lots of joy.

After presents we had a big breakfast/lunch followed by every toy being taken out of its box, set up, played with for a few minutes, and then moving on to the next. By nap time, we were all still in our pj's and ended up staying that way for the day. Our Christmas day was spent playing with the kids and generally relaxing. I am so very grateful for such a wonderful Christmas day. I don't think our first Christmas alone could have gone any better. (Not to say that we didn't miss family, tremendously, but it was not as hard as I was imagining, thanks to good friends and great kids.)

The Christmas stuff all came down over the next few days. It normally hangs around a bit longer but this year I wanted things back to normal asap as we still had a lot of celebrating to do. On December 29th Jacob and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. Jacob got me a dozen roses, my favorite, and we celebrated with dinner and a movie. I don't remember the last time we went to eat with just the two of us, but I think we have decided we need to do it more. It was so, so, so enjoyable. I can't believe what eight years have brought us. I love you sweetheart and am looking forward to many more years together.

Our fun filled festivities don't end yet. New Years was celebrated at the Kindred's for a Japanese New Years Party. Once again, there were lots of us (40 something) in a home celebrating the new year together and once again, the food was amazing. I wish I would have remember the camera. Thanks Larissa for having us and putting out such a great spread of delicious Japanese delights. Jacob loved the shrimp tempura. (it's one of his favorites) We lasted till about 9:30 and headed home, put the kids to bed, and Jacob and I followed them straight to bed. I believe we said happy new years at about 10:00. Ah well, the sleep was nice.

Our final celebration was two days later. We hosted a Bowl Game Party to celebrate the Ute's Sugar Bowl appearance. Once again, there was great food involved in this celebration as well. I think this is trend. Our good friends, and BYU fans I might add, came and we all had a great time watching the game and laughing at Jacob's tension. To say he was wound up would be an understatement. Luckily the Utes came out big in the first quarter scoring 3 touchdowns and then held the lead for the remainder of the game. It ended at 12:00, I went to bed at about 12:30 and Jacob came up about 3:00 I think. Lots of post-game highlights to watch.

So that is where we are now. We have a few more festivities to gear up for now. We are hosting a portion of Second Look for the hospital on Saturday so that is prompting us to finish some more home remodeling projects. There will be pictures to follow on their completion. Saturday is also Spencer's 6th birthday. The original plan was Chuck E Cheese as things are a little busy but he let us know at Family Home Evening last night that he wanted a party and no matter how I tried to make Chuck E Cheese sound better he would not be detoured. So apparently now we are doing a small party for Spencer sometime between second look and his surgery on the 15th. Ah joy, At some point our life will slow down. But then it wouldn't be near as fun.

So there you have it. Way to much information for one post but what ya gonna do.

The logical National Champion

As if we need more reasons for the Utes to be national champions I'm going to spell it out logically.

The Utes are currently ranked 7th in the AP poll. The loss of Penn State and the win over Alabama automatically drop those two teams below the Utes. Here is why the Utes deserve to be ranked above the remaining 4 teams.

Florida lost to Ole Miss who lost to Alabama who was beat by Utah (by a larger margin than Florida beat them I might add).
Oklahoma lost to Texas who lost to Texas Tech who lost to Ole Miss who lost to Alabama who lost to Utah.
Texas lost to Texas Tech who lost to Ole Miss who lost to Vanderbilt who lost to Tennessee who lost to Wyoming who lost to Utah.
USC lost to Oregon State who lost to Utah.

Utah lost to NOBODY!!!!

More arguments for a Ute national championship

The BCS is a joke so we'll move straight to the AP title. That's the one that crowned the real national champion back when the BCS went with Saban's LSU Tigers. This year there have been 5 different teams ranked number 1 in the AP poll. Every one of those teams was undefeated until Florida took over the spot in the last week of the season. The only reason there weren't 7 different number 1 teams is that Penn State and Texas Tech both lost before Alabama (both teams were ranked above all one loss teams at one point in the season).

There is no doubt that if Alabama or Penn State were left as the only undefeated teams in FBS they would be national champions. The argument goes something like Alabama and Penn State deserve it if they can make it through their grueling schedules, yet both teams have a worse Strength of Schedule than the Utes.

The Utes beat 6 bowl teams this year. They went 3-0 against BCS ranked teams. When looking at the big schools it's rarely a one year deal, we look at how dominant said team has been for the past few years and that factors into the equation. The Utes have now gone undefeated twice in 4 years. They have won 8 straight bowl games and own the nations longest winning streak at 14 games. When talking about the national title there is an argument against every team in the nation except the Utes.

As if you need any more support for the Utes they also beat Oregon State and from the look of things this bowl season it appears that the SEC and Big 12 may not have a stranglehold on the best BCS conference.

In the end they are undefeated and they finished the season by spanking the team that held the top spot in the AP poll and the BCS for 5 weeks this season. That's a recipe for a national title if I've ever seen one.

National Champions!!!

My rant for a playoff will come next week, but tonight we watched the national champions beat Alabama. Utah finished off a perfect season by beating a top 5 team. There remains one undefeated team in the nation. Now I could understand the Utes getting left out of the championship conversation (as they will) if they squeaked by the Tide. Maybe if they won on some trick plays like Boise did a couple years ago people could say they got lucky, but Utah beat Alabama and they beat them good. The Tide averaged 160 yards a game rushing in the "powerful" SEC and they mustered 31 yards against the Utes. Even the two touchdowns Bama scored showed how good the Utes played. One came on a punt return and the other after a fumble gave the Tide a short field. The Utes stifled every drive the Tide attempted. This was nothing short of a beat down and the Utes deserve the AP national championship. There is no longer an argument against the Utes this year.