10 Years

Today is our 10 year Wedding Anniversary!!!

So what have we been up to in 10 years . . . . Lets See

4 Children (Spence, Jessi, Nader Man, and Bubbles)

4 Vehicles  (Probe, Saturn, Caravan, and our new favorite, Yukon, alas for Jacob, no truck)

5 Moves (Which doesn't sound bad until you realize several were back and forth across the country)

3 Degrees (1 for me, and 2 for Jacob)

10+ Family Vacations ( when you live in tiny towns you get to travel when visitor's come :)

0 Mom and Dad Vacations (although soon to be remedied with our trip to Jamaica)

Some tears, a lot of laughs, and even more love!!!

It truly has been a Wonderful Journey!!  Can you imagine what this picture will look like in 10 more years??

Technically this picture is at a 9 years but it is the most recent shot I have :)

Christmas 2010

Christmas came and went so fast.  We had a small Christmas at home and although we missed friends and family, we still managed to have quite a lot of fun.  Here are some of the highlights :)

We made this gingerbread house on the 23rd :)

They are so proud of their finish product.

This is what it looked like on the 24th.  Pride goes out the window when there is candy to be eaten.

Sitting down to our Roast Beef feast :)

Attacking the North Pole Toffee cake for dessert.  Notice that big brown lump on the table cloth, ya, Jacob missed his plate with the gravy :)

Christmas morning brought gifts from Santa that the boys were so excited about.

Jessi had a Barbie Christmas.

As you can see, she is a big fan of Barbie as each new doll got a hug.

Kami loves babies and carted them around all morning.

She even got a set of twin babies as my mother and I tend to shop alike :)

After presents it was bundle up time to try out their new bikes and scooter.

Jessi even has a bike for her Barbie doll on her Barbie bike.

Kristian got a new Norte Dame coat for Christmas and was a big fan of it.

And when he got tired of riding he resorted to snow angels.  Very festive.

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year.

Kristian is 4

Okay, so this is a little late, but better late than never right.  The weekend of Kristian's birthday we were in Indianapolis for a CME for Jacob.  We had plans to go to the Children's Museum and the Zoo but the traffic and snow put a damper on those plans.  (and honestly, I should throw in a lack of enthusiasm from Mom and Dad as well.)

So to celebrate, we ended up having a family dinner when we got home.  Kristian picked pancakes (shocker) and daddy made everyone happy with "pick your shape" pancakes.  Then we followed it with some cake and ice cream.  Unfortunately, this was not as big a hit as the pancakes.  While making the cake I came to find we had no eggs.  It's Sunday so I don't want to run to the store, and honestly, I wouldn't have had time even if it wasn't Sunday.  So Google to the rescue, or not  :(  When they say that milk works the same as eggs they are wrong.

That's okay, because presents followed and Kristian quickly forgot that his cake tasted "sticky".  He got a puzzle and a bull dozer.  He loves both.  Seriously, I think he has put that puzzle together twice a day since.

Happy Birthday Nader Man!!  We love you!!

Matched

I finished "Matched" today.  I really liked this book and I'm anxiously looking forward to the second installment next year.  I like the world created in this book.  It makes me think, and unlike so many books out there "Matched" doesn't hold even a hint of vulgarity. 

When I was in middle school I read "The Alliance" by Gerald Lund.  To this day this is still one of my favorite books.  The society in "Matched" shares the same aura as the alliance did for me. 

It's funny because as I read this book and contemplate choice I see how this can be seen in our world.  Because of my beliefs I see a world that becomes less and less about choice when I choose a path that limits freedom.  I see a world where we relinquish control of our own agency to others based on bad choices we make.  At the same time I think of my best friend in medical school.  Being an atheist, he would say that I have already given up control of my agency to the rules and regulations of my religion. 

So Ally, if you happen to read this in the next month or so, thank you for this book.  I'm excited to ponder on the thoughts that it has placed in my mind.

To the rest of you, I highly recommend this book.

Ask For Miracles

One of the things Melissa and I have always prided ourselves on is not airing our dirty laundry.  We tend to keep things between ourselves and fix our problems (my problems as is often the case) without eliciting outside help (if it can be called that).  Today I'm going to air some of that dirty laundry to illustrate a point.

The day after Thanksgiving Melissa had gone out to catch some of the Black Friday Sales and in the process had left her purse in the car of a friend.  Rather than get it the next day we decided to pick it up a couple of days later when we would again meet up to watch the Utah game.  This wasn't too big of a deal at the time but as the hours wore on I remembered that Melissa keeps her life in her purse (doesn't every woman?).  She had to borrow my wallet on numerous occasions and at one point she took my keys to run an errand.  This bothered me a little bit, but it was nothing I couldn't handle (or at least nothing that I should need to handle). 

It was in this ever-so-slightly frustrated attitude that I found myself as we were getting ready to go watch the game.  Melissa was doing her best to get the kids ready to get out the door and we all got into the car.  As I reached into my pocket for my keys I found that I had only the Saturn key, but somehow the Yukon key was not there.  I was furious and, with my tone, blamed Melissa for losing my keys.  I went back into the house to look for the keys and slammed the door on my way in.  Melissa began searching the Saturn hoping the keys had fallen out of her pocket.  She found the keys and we attempted to enjoy ourselves for the rest of the evening knowing full well that my little theatrical production with my temper had put a damper on things.

Fast forward to Monday night.  After a good Sunday and a lot of appologizing and soul searching I decided to teach the kids about anger and what it does to the spirit in our house.  We had a very good discussion and I felt a need to try to roleplay our little misunderstanding in the car from the previous week and see if the kids could help me to find a better way to deal with the situation in order to diffuse the situation.  I was feeling pretty good about where we were at this time and was probably even a bit proud of myself for helping us all to see how much better we can do with contention, especially myself.  I asked the kids if they remembered what happened and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Do you kids remember what happened the other night when we got in the Yukon and couldn't find the keys?"

Spencer: "Yeah, mommy lost your keys and you got pretty mad."

Me: "And I got out of the car and went toward the house.  Do you remember what happened next?" At this point I was fully expecting Spencer to tell me how I had lost my temper and slammed the door walking into the house.

Spencer: "I said a prayer that we could find the keys and mommy found them in the Saturn."

Have you ever had one of those moments when you feel completely humbled and in awe at the people around you?  This was one of those times.

I've learned a lot about Charity since Monday and I'm trying to learn from my son to pray for miracles because I believe in a God who's just waiting for me to ask.  A man without God is just a man.  Left to my own ways I will stumble and fall as I try to maneuver life, but with Deity as my companion there are no impossibilities.

I hope Genius is Hereditary

Melissa left about 30 minutes ago to take Spencer to Cub Scouts and I have spent that time going through comments on the blog in an attempt to post some of my all time favorite comments from the past year.  After I got 24 of my favorite comments good and ready to post my cell phone rang.

Melissa was calling because she couldn't get the car started in the WalMart parking lot.  A fun little fact about our Saturn is that often times when the steering wheel gets locked the ignition locks as well and it takes some serious fidgeting to get the key to turn. I've gotten pretty good at it but there are a few occasions where it actually takes a few minutes to get the car going.  I gave Melissa my tried and true instructions and she hung up so she could have both hands free to work the ignition.

when the phone rang 2 minutes later I was expecting her to have succeeded in her endeavor.  She had indeed succeeded and the car was running nicely.  She told me that she decided to start everything from the beginning and upon removing the key noticed that she had in fact been trying to start the Saturn with the key for the Yukon.  I told her I was going to blog about it when I was on the phone with her, but I'm not sure she believed me.  Won't she be surprised?  I'm a little worried she may not like the title.  I guess we'll see.

Now as I already have the list I'm going to post my favorite comments from the last 6 months.  Some I liked because they were nice.  Others rang true to me in some way, but most were just funny and made me laugh.  I hope you enjoy.

Hopefully it will eventually turn out the same way for Spencer as it did for me.

You look a bit like a parolee.

In all fairness a yo-yo can be awfully scary some times

I needed that today

That's WAY less weird than shaving your legs. 

I just love watching you turn into dad

She's amazing, you know

I'm all about re-starts.

Have I told you lately that you have cute cute cute kids?

I love the rain background.

(this one made me smile because Melissa got made at me when I changed the background to what it is today)

you've made me cry and laugh all in one day

The Canadians are praying for you

supporting something coming out of BYU?

All you need to do now is follow it up with a dessert of butter marinated marshmallows!!

Thanks for the much needed smile you just put on my face. 

What's up with all your friends being named Becca?

 "This is Jacob. Jacob had a difficult time deciding on what to blog about but narrowed the decision to sports, finance, or medicine, all of which are good options for Jacob. After a long, drawn out, unnecessary, and make believe thought process Jacob has decided to blog about sports. No offense to finance or medicine but Jacob feels that sports gives Jacob Corry the best opportunity to affectively occupy his time."
Oh yeah Cleveland isn't over it yet!!!!!

(this may be my favorite comment of all time, thanks Doug)

 why is that mommy freaking out?

Seinna and Honda both make an 8 person minivan

If you want an SUV that's fine but the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna have options to seat eight.

I do have to fight for the mini van! I love our van! 

We drive a Pontiac Montana, which seats 8

(I had no idea minivans were so polarizing)

Blessings; I'll be praying for a safe pregnancy.

I was just concerned that your blog had been hijacked by a quilter

So there you have it folks.  Maybe I'll make this a yearly thing so you can all strive to be on the list, or maybe not.

Christmas Letter

It's that time of year again where we send out the family Christmas letter.  If you have received one in the mail in the past you will most likely get one again so you may not want to spoil it by reading it here.  If you haven't received one in the past and would like to now and in the future send Melissa an email at happyquiltingmelissa (at) gmail (dot) com.  At any rate here it is.

Dear Family and Friends,

                I find that the tone of the Christmas letter is set by the outcome of the Utah-BYU football game.  Those of you paying attention may have noticed that you didn’t receive a Christmas letter from us last year.  Coincidence? 

                It has been a wonderful year for us here in South Bend.  I occasionally like to refer to myself in the third person when writing the Christmas letter so don’t let that get to you.  Maybe I just miss Karl Malone.

                Jacob is currently halfway through his third year of a three year family practice residency.  It has been a long road and hard to believe that a real job awaits in Cedar in July, but the road certainly has had some wonderful adventures.  The call schedule has improved and the work hours have gone down which has given us more time to enjoy each other and explore.  It has been a joy to visit Palmyra, Kirtland, and Nauvoo among other locations over the past 18 months.

                Melissa continues to find more hours in the day to complete her many responsibilities and hobbies.  She has developed a love for quilting and spends any available time designing and putting together quilts.  She is a regular contributor to the Moda Bake Shop which apparently is a big deal in quilting circles.  Somehow she still finds time to cook, clean, teach, serve, chauffeur, you know, be a mother.

                Spencer turned 7 in January and has been preparing for his upcoming baptism throughout the year.  I can’t remember the last testimony meeting that Spencer didn’t open.  Most times this goes very well, but there was this one time when he gave a 2 minute sermon on Moses.  We had lesson on testimony the next day and he has since humbled his parents numerous times with his understanding.  Spencer is a faithful Ute fan.

                Jessica (Jessi) turned 5 over the summer and started Kindergarten.  She loves her teacher and we’ve been told the feeling is mutual.  She hasn’t grown out of her princess phase, but to our utter delight she has added a Barbie phase and should be very excited when Santa shows up this year.  Jessi is also becoming quite the clothing connoisseur and often tells me when my tie doesn’t match my shirt.  I really don’t know where she gets it because I’ve been married 10 years (on the 29^th) and Melissa has never noticed.  As the apple of her father’s eye Jessi remains a loyal Ute fan.

                Kristian (Nader) has fully embraced his role as man of the house while his older siblings are at school.  He is currently excited for his 4^th birthday that we will be celebrating the first weekend of December.  Much to his father’s chagrin, Nader, is not a diehard Ute.  He has fully embraced the Irish of Notre Dame and made sure I knew it that fateful Saturday earlier this month.  He did pull for the Utes last night so I’m not ready to disown him yet.

                Kamryn will be two in March.  She made it to the 18 month mark and things have been almost smooth sailing since that time.  As many of you may know, I love all my kids, but I don’t always like them much before that 18 month mark.  We’re hoping Kami starts to speak a little more in the coming months, but for now we’re just enjoying the mumbles and smiles.  Kamryn is still undecided as to her collegiate allegiance, but I have a hunch where she’ll fall.

                Sometime over the summer we were ecstatic to find that Melissa was again pregnant and began preparing for the arrival of our new addition in February.  As it turned out things didn’t quite go as we planned and Melissa miscarried in early fall.  This has turned out to be a growing experience for our family and we were blessed to feel the Savior’s love in our home in ways that we had not previously experienced (or maybe just hadn’t recognized). 

                As we look back on the year and see the blessings that have come to our family we are so grateful for a loving Savior and his sacrifice for us.  We look forward a wonderful Christmas season and wish you all the best as well.

Love,

Jacob, Melissa, Spencer, Jessica, Kristian, and Kamryn

P.S. For those of you who are worried about the brainwashing of my children I would remind you that I was among the Cougar faithful for the first 19 years of my life, so you needn’t give up hope on my children, just yet.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Jon Madden Would Be Proud

So Nader has a thing with the word boom.  I think this is mostly my fault.  The other day he had on two different socks so I asked him why his socks didn't match.  He promptly kicked up one foot then the other and said:

"See dad, Boom and Boom."

That was it, no explanation just boom and boom.

Tonight at dinner Kristian finished then walked up to his mother and dropped his pants, underwear and all and as he made a pelvic thrust, "BOOM".

Little did his mother know that I had removed his band-aid from his upper thigh and he didn't even cry so he wanted to show off his accomplishment.

If I had a video of this episode I wouldn't post it on the worldwide web but I would treasure it for years.

If you don't understand the title you need to go to the following link and if you can't fathom watching the whole thing, other than the fact that you would missing a hilarious part of life, you should go to the 1:45 minute mark and watch the 10 seconds that follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBW7ysPcbT0

Spencerism

The other day we were reading about the afflictions of the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.  Spencer asked what afflictions were and we started into a discussion that ended with us agreeing that afflictions are hard things that happen to us.  Spencer expressed understanding then said the following.

"Dad, I have affliction time with Kristian."

Of note, the two prayer episodes in the previous post were brought on by Spencer's "afflictions".

Lessons Through Sports

You'll have to forgive me for the story I'm going to spin here, but Melissa's at a meeting and I have some time to write while the kids watch "Spirit" (not a fan of that movie).

Yesterday was a bad day for me.  You're probably thinking that I'm going to go off on flags that weren't thrown in the south endzone or how the luck of the Irish showed up on 6 plays through the entire game and resulted in 28 points or how the Utes won every statistical category in the game except for the mistake categories and the final score.  You'd be wrong if you were thinking that.  Sure that stuff boils my blood, but had I stayed home and watched the game on the TV I'm sure I would have been yelling at the TV pointing out all that stuff to no one in particular and when the game was over I would have moved on just like last week.  I wasn't at home.  I was sitting in the stands surrounded by ND blue and gold.  I didn't spend too much time yelling because I didn't want to embarrass myself.  Unfortunately the gentleman sitting (standing) next to Melissa did not share my restraint.

Never in my life have I been so offended at a sporting event.  The vulgarity, obscenity and bigotry portrayed past (but because of) us towards the visiting Utah fans was amazing and I was steamed.  There wasn't another bad fan sitting anywhere near us and actually everyone else was quite pleasant so I'm certainly not disappointed in the general atmosphere at the game, but this particular fan ruined my day.

When we got home I was a mess.  Last week I was frustrated with the Utes and the result of the game.  Yesterday was different I was down, depressed and angry.  I let that man get to me without knowing it.  When we got home I noticed my camera wasn't in my pocket.  After checking the car and calling some friends to see if they happened to pick up our camera I was convinced that it fell out of my pocket at the game and this fan had to have picked it up and put it in his pocket because "that's the kind of guy he is".

Some time ago Spencer was having a really hard time calming down before Family Home Evening so I asked him to say the prayer.  He refused and we spent the next 10 minutes talking about how the most important time to pray is when you don't want to.  In the end he said the prayer and told me he felt better afterward.  Fast forward to Friday night.  Spencer was very frustrated at having to stop his movie and go to bed.  As we knelt for family prayer I asked him if he would "like" to say the prayer.  He looked at me after 20 or so seconds and said "I don't want to, but I know I should because I don't want to".  He chose to say the prayer Friday night.

As I prepared to go to church this morning my thoughts were taken back to the talk given by President Uchtdorf during the Priesthood session of General Conference this fall in which he said the following:

"Perhaps there is no better laboratory to observe the sin of pride than the world of sports. I have always loved participating in and attending sporting events. But I confess there are times when the lack of civility in sports is embarrassing. How is it that normally kind and compassionate human beings can be so intolerant and filled with hatred toward an opposing team and its fans?

I have watched sports fans vilify and demonize their rivals. They look for any flaw and magnify it. They justify their hatred with broad generalizations and apply them to everyone associated with the other team. When ill fortune afflicts their rival, they rejoice."

I listened to this talk on the way to church this morning and initially I felt vindicated by the words.  That man sitting next to us was the person President Uchtdorf was talking about, and yet, this talk was given during Priesthood session not in the general session.  This wasn't a talk for the world, this was a talk to the  Priesthood holders of the church.  This talk was given to me.  Then I remembered Spencer's words "I don't want to but I know I should because I don't want to".

I listened to the words as though they were directed to me and I found new meaning.  I realized that I'm the man he was talking about as well.  Did I not hate that fan for his words and actions?  Did I not falsely accuse him of stealing my property (I found the camera this morning on the front lawn, it had fallen out of my pocket on the way into the house last night)?  Was not I the one that was so prideful to take offense at his comments.  He didn't ruin my day I poisoned it myself.

Yesterday was a rough day for me because of me, but today was a good day for me in spite of me, and I have sports to thank for that (and a very humble son who amazes his father each and every day).

The Blacksheep

I've successfully indoctrinated the older two but Nader is Irish through and through, and he's rooting against the Utes today.





I'm secretly hoping that Nader's love of all things Irish will keep me from getting scowled at when we go run errands today before the game.

10 hours later, game over, dad mourning and what do I get from my second son? "Dad who was right and who was wrong?". Taunted by a 3 year old.  Does it get better than this?

Some Technical Difficulties

So if you have surfed back through some posts you might have noticed that any picture I have posted from before November are now gone.  Ya, I had to change my email address (as you probably already know if you read this blog) and apparently deleting my old email broke all of the links to the pictures posted under that email login.  Ya, I was pretty upset over this (It happened on my quilting blog and the MBS as well.)  I have spent quite a bit of time this weekend putting all of the pictures back on my quilting blog and redoing my MBS tutorials and am now here.  (Ya, I suppose that might be messed up to do my quilting blog before my family blog but come on, we all know about my quilting addiction ).  So my plan is to slowly try and locate all of my old pictures and relink them again.  It is gonna take time, but it is what it is.

So we're moving forward!!

Costumes and the Camera

So what do the two have in common?  Apparently they can't be in the same room at the same time.  We did not take a single picture of the kids in their Halloween costumes.  I know, we are horrible parents.  And seriously, it is not for a lack of them being in their costumes.  We had a Halloween playgroup, a Ward Trick or Trunk, and Trick or Treating.  We just always forgot the camera.


I did remember to take some pictures during our annual pumpkin carving.  Do I get points for that??

Spencer and Jessi weren't to sure about sticking their hands in the "guts" but they eventually tired.

Kristian on the other hand just started to cry at the thought of sticking his hands in the "guts".

Don't they just look adorable.  Spencer went for a slightly scarier approach but the rest of them still like smiles :)

So to sum up Halloween  -  the kids had a blast, we have way to much candy in the house, and I am so excited for Thanksgiving :)

Oh - And just for kicks - this is what my big toes look like right now.  I had my ingrown toenails cut out yesterday.  (Thanks again Clint)

Breakfast with the Kids

Last year we had some friends living here in South Bend who made it a goal to go to the temple at least every other month.  I was impressed with their dedication and Melissa and I decided that during third year we would make the same goal.  Now I'm not going to say driving 2 1/2 hours to the Chicago is a great and wondrous sacrifice, especially when I have personally known some of those people that get talked about in conference.  You know the ones, they save for a year just to get enough money to take the 3 day bus ride and spend a day in the temple so they can be sealed then get back on a bus and are back home within a week.

For a kid who grew up 45 minutes from the temple and lived within walking distance of two temples for 4 more years of my life the 2 1/2 hours to Chicago is a big deal.  The biggest hurdle is what to do with the kids.  Seven hours is a long time to burden a friend with my kids.  You can always go on a Saturday and take turns doing a session while simultaneously taking turns entertaining the kids for two hours, but that often leads to arriving at the temple frazzled or quickly losing the wonderful spirit after leaving the temple.

We finally decided to bite the bullet and get a hotel for our temple trips.  There's a really nice Fairfield Inn (another time maybe I'll write about how much I love the Marriott chain of hotels or maybe I can just tell you that I really love the Marriott chain of hotels) less than half a mile from the temple that has a great breakfast.  So we leave after clinic on Friday and one of us catches the Friday night session while the other watches TV as the kids drift off to sleep then in the morning we split again and one of us catches the early session while the other sleeps in with the kids and gets breakfast.  This works because we cross a time zone going to Chicago so even if traffic is bad we still have 4 hours from the time I'm done with clinic until the last session at 8.

So with that picture painted I must tell you about breakfast.  It has come to my attention that I have two completely different sets of children based on their attitudes and this is never more apparent than at breakfast in a hotel without Melissa at my side.  The last time I took the kids to breakfast they screamed and yelled and ran around.  There was milk on the cereal on the floor and scalding hot chocolate on Kristian.  At times I'm proud of myself just to see that all 4 are still alive today.  Today was different.  All four kids were well behaved.  They all did exactly as I asked.  They waited patiently for me to get them some food and even Kamryn sat happily eating her yogurt.  The only spill we had was when I was mixing the hot chocolate and splashed a bit on my pants.  It was glorious and I can't wait to tell Melissa all about it when she gets back this morning.

Another funny thing that happens is the reactions we get from the other hotel patrons at breakfast.  When we were in Nauvoo Melissa took the kids to breakfast and was told that she had wonderfully behaved kids (nobody said that to me last time).  Today I had two older couples who complimented me on my beautiful family and one lady said the following to Spencer: "Isn't it nice that dad is taking you kids to breakfast while mom gets to sleep in?"

I'm imagining my siblings laughing out loud now after reading that last sentence.  I may have a few decent qualities, but we all know I'm certainly not that guy, at least not yet anyway.

Beard

I'm medicine chief this month.  What that means is that I have my pager on my hip 24 hours a day 7 days a week and I get paged with all new admits to the medicine service.  I spend my days rounding on the patients on the medicine service.  It's not my favorite rotation so to express my joy I decided to stop shaving 20 days ago.  Unfortunately today I have to go get a passport picture so I had to shave and decided to document the process.

Baking with a Giveaway!

I am so excited!  My second Moda Bake Shop Tutorial came out today.  So why am I typing this here and not on my quilt blog?  Because I am doing a giveaway along with it and wanted to make sure you all get the chance to enter.  So just jump over to my quilting blog and leave a comment for a chance to win!

It's Booked!!!

We just hit the confirmations on Flights and Resorts.  We are going to a Jamaica All-Inclusive Sandals Resort in January to celebrate our 10 year Anniversary!!  I am so excited!!  Jacob is stoked to find that he can even wake-board.  That's his idea of all inclusive!

Riding a Bike

I am happy to report that Spencer learned to ride his bike completely by himself.  He started.  He stopped. He pedaled and he was happy through it all.  This has been a source of frustration for me for the past year.  I've done a lot of running up the street behind him holding his seat and watching him wobble back and forth only to come crashing down on some lawn.  At one point we got to where he could ride pretty well in a straight line, but he could never get started on his own and his stopping consisted of a sort of jump off the bike when it got slow enough for him.  

A little while ago I was surfing around bicycling.com and I came across the video below.  I decided to give it a try yesterday.  You can actually buy kids bikes that don't have pedals, but I just decided to remove Spencer's pedals (see my previous post on bike tools).  He started out going down with his feet on the ground just like in the video.  After a few runs down the hill he got up the guts to lift up his feet.  We then went to a bigger hill and he made it down fine.  When he mastered the balance we put the pedals back on the bike and he coasted down the hill with a few pedal strokes at the bottom through the grass.  After two more of those rides Spencer decided he wanted to start on the level ground so we went to the paved basketball court and he started up pedaling his first try.  

From start to finish was less than 45 minutes and Spencer was doing figure eights in the parking lot.  I will never run behind another child's bike again.  I really wish we had taken the camera so I could make my own video.  Maybe we'll go back and teach Jessi this week.

Spencer and Soccer

Spencer was finally interested in participating in organized sports this fall so we put him into a soccer league.  It is pretty laid back, they don't keep score, everyone gets to play every position, and mostly they just encourage the kids to have fun.  Spencer is loving it!  Now how do I put this next part - Ummm  he isn't very good, at all.  He is sort-of afraid of the ball so he mostly just dances around the outside of the pack of kids going after the ball.  It is pretty hilarious.  But once again, he is loving it.  He does show some improvement from week to week so we are hoping by the end of the season he makes contact with the ball a few times :)

One proud kid in his cleats and shin guards.  He was pretty excited about the "gear" needed to play.

He loves playing goalie!  I think mostly because it doesn't involve running.  And I know what your thinking, how can you play goalie if you are afraid of the ball, pretty much just like this, spending more time playing with gloves than watching the ball.

I didn't realize how cold it gets at 8 in the morning in October.  This is us getting ready to go to the soccer game.  Good Times!

Good Things to Come

Saw this Mormon Message today.  One of my favorite talks of all time.  We've all been there at some point haven't we?

Obsessions

Those of you who are my Facebook friends (and still check Facebook) may know that Melissa bought herself a new pair of gloves yesterday.   Not just any gloves mind you, these were quilting gloves.  Now by a show of hands how many of you out there knew that there was such a thing as quilting gloves?  I had no idea, but I have spent the last day wrapping my mind around quilting gloves and let me tell you it brought a smile to my face every time I envisioned it, but seeing the gloves in action made me laugh out loud.  

Wait for it

I'm gonna get her a bandanna and some shades and then for Christmas we're going to look into retrofitting her Bernina with a V-Twin for a little more power.

Now lest you think I am picking on her too much I understand I have my own Obsessions as well.  I recently bought a road bike which will make 9 bikes that I have owned since High School.  I currently only own 2, having sold 3 bikes to pay for my road bike.  I have two pairs of cycling shoes, 3 jerseys, 3 pair of shorts, 2 pair of gloves, one pair of sunglasses, one helmet (I have broken two others over the years), a toolbox full of bicycle-specific tools, a truing stand, a bike work-stand, and a shed full of spare parts.  As if all that wasn't enough I was planning on shaving my legs yesterday but I couldn't find a razor.  

We all have our vices and if Melissa wants to have some funky gloves to make her feel cool while quilting then I'm all for it.  (She says they help a lot....so do smooth legs.)

Destinations

My sister recently posted about her 5 favorite vacation places in the US .  Now I haven't been to as many places in the US as Charlotte, but I have been to quite a few.  The more I thought about my list the more I realized that I am becoming my father.  I picked my top 5 based on places that I would like to go next week if given the time and money to do so.  So here it is.

1.  Lake Powell - I love everything about the lake.  The recreation is awesome, but that's not all.  The beauty of the canyon that can be experienced so many different ways.  Hiking, boating, boarding, cooking, swimming, fishing, how could it not be number 1 on the list.

2.  North Fork/Zion Canyon - Sure this is home and I will probably visit the area at least once a week for the next 40 years, but I love it. It helps that my favorite activities include camping, dutch oven cooking, mountain biking, and hiking.  There really is only one place in the continental United States that I would go rather than here which is why it is number two.  Someday I hope to do a multi-day hike from the place this picture was taken to the bottom of Zion Canyon (seen in the distance).

3. Oregon Coast - The only thing that you can't find in the Rocky Mountains is the ocean and the Oregon coast brings the mountains to the ocean.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  We went camping here (are you noticing a theme) while we were living in Yakima a few years ago and it was great.  Walking on the beach with the kids in the morning made me want to rush home and watch Goonies.  I think I even saw a pirate ship coming out of a cove in the fog early one morning.

4. Seattle -  This is the only city that even makes the top 10.  I'm not a city guy.  South Bend is too big for me, but Seattle is great.  We spent a week in Seattle in a hotel less than a mile from Pike Place Market.  It was a blast to walk along the pier and take in the atmosphere.  We took a boat out onto the Sound and gazed on the Seattle Skyline, by far my favorite skyline (though Chicago is pretty cool too).  We didn't get to eat as much seafood as I would have liked to, but I'm hoping to do that someday when we go without the kids.  Of course it helps that our visit to Seattle included 4 straight days of sunshine.  It rained as we were driving through the mountain pass.

5.  Yellowstone - I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was a kid, but I'm itching to go back.  I assume if you've gotten this far you can understand from my earlier choices why Yellowstone makes the list.

I realize that my top five are all out west.  What can I say I love it out there.  DC, Boston, Chicago, Niagara, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Smoky Mountains, the great lakes, they're nice, but if I never visit any of those places again I won't be disappointed about it (I would like to go back to Maryland, because I have some pretty cool relatives out there that are really fun to visit).  I've never been to Maine and I can't remember Florida or the Atlantic Coast very well so there's hope that someplace east of the Mississippi might make the list, but I wouldn't bet on it.

As I write this I do remember a quick visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and that was pretty cool.  It might have made the list if I made it to 6.

So there you have it.  Feel free to disagree with my list (heaven knows Melissa probably does).

And for you Canadian readers out there, I'm really looking forward to spending some time in the Canadian Rockies and BC.  From what I've heard they might crack the list if it was a top 5 of North America.

Choices

Melissa and I were talking the other day about how good life feels right now.  She was paying the bills and noticing how different things are now than they were a few years ago.  Our tight budget has become somewhat looser.  Our ability to save for the future has increased and our stress concerning financial emergencies has greatly decreased.  It's funny how easy life often seems when things go according to plan.

Things didn't go according to plan in August and for a time life was hard.  On a bad day Melissa might say that it is still hard and she certainly has her hard days, but they are getting fewer and farther in between.  It is often said that through trials we are strengthened and while I don't know if I am any stronger I do know that we, as a family, are stronger.  If nothing else at least our little ones are more prepared for the winter if our heat should go out.

Sometime in 2011 we will face the decision of whether or not to continue trying to have children.  2 months ago the phrase "trying to have children" was foreign to me.  We decided to wait a few month, at least, before making any decisions because Melissa's not ready now and truth be told I'm probably not ready either.  That is not to say that we haven't discussed the future.  We have.  There has been a lot of pondering and a lot of prayer concerning our family.  At this point I don't know what the decision will be, but I am excited to make the choice.

I love the choices in life.  I love that I have the ability to make decisions that will affect me tomorrow as well as 10, 20, 50 years down the road.  It scares me at times, but it's a good scare.  Maybe Melissa has me to blame for what transpired in August (not really) because I am scared of the future as it seems normal.  All our big choices seem to be behind us.  I chose to go on a mission.  I chose to leave Cedar for school.  I chose an eternal companion.  We chose to go away to medical school and then after spending a wonderful year in Cedar City we decided to leave again for residency.  Along the way we chose to have 5 children and found out that we are not always in control.  All but the last of those decisions have gone pretty much according to plan and nothing too unexpected has happened during that time.

I often imagine my life (and for the past 10 years, our life) as a line on a graph that is heading upward much like a graph of the stock market (one of my own measures of success is comfort in your own dorkiness).  As I have approached each of the above choices there has been a right decision and a wrong decision for me.  Not that the opposite decision was inherently bad, just that it wasn't the most correct decision for me.  One choice keeps my graph going up while the other does not or if it does it does so in a less steep curve.  My graph is changing now.  I now see two different colored lines on the graph and try as I may, I can't compare them to each other with any degree of usefulness.  This decision coming in a few months is different for me.  After praying and pondering and fasting and talking and crying I have come to the conclusion that there isn't a wrong decision.  I'm not even sure if there is a better decision.  I feel that this decision is one to be made based on what we want and that feels so strange.  Melissa tells me she is scared to face it, but for whatever reason I'm super excited and I can't explain why.

Labor Day Camping

Over Labor Day we went camping with our good friends, The Larsen's, to the Brown County State Park.  Everyone had a blast!!  We ate, sight-saw, hiked, fished, biked, played and relaxed, with a lot of emphasis on the ate and relaxed part.  Seriously, whenever we go camping we eat 10 times better than we do at home.  The Dutch Ovens were always cooking something including - Lasagna, Ribs, Potatoes, Chicken Stir-Fry, Breakfast Casserole, Cinnamon Rolls, and German Pancakes.  And the best part of it all, Jacob does the cooking and clean-up!!!!  Here are some of my Favorite Pics from the weekend with appropriate captions.  By the way, I really like this new post editor that blogger has - Thanks Emilee for mentioning it!

Dad made the best ribs ever!! MMMM Good!!

A Lookout Tower!  The kids called it their castle!

Kami took a fall the first day, her nose got the brunt of it.  

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The kids playing at the Look Out

Brown Eyed Dudes Rule!

This is where you could find the kids most of the time.  The scooters were a big hit!

This is where you could find the parents most of the time.  Chillin and Cooking!  We really ate well!  

No trip with the Larsen's would be complete without game night! 

On the trip home Kami screamed  for about 30 minutes and Kristian did this.  It was pretty funny.