Our New Addition

No Melissa hasn't had the baby yet (September).  We got a truck today.  That's right at the ripe old age of 34 I officially became a truck guy.  When my younger brother bought his first truck he told me he used to go outside just to look at it from time to time and sit in the driver's seat.  I completely understand that now.

As you know I'm not one for pictures, but this is a momentous occasion so I took a couple.

All tucked in for the night.

End of an era and the beginning of another.

I should really update this blog more.  It seems I read that on a lot of blogs lately.  I'm not sure I'm going to update any more frequently, but I do have some thoughts to write about the last month.  Sorry no pictures just a lot of words.  Feel free to just skip this post and read the next one in a couple of months, or you can jump over to Melissa's quilting blog that seems to get a lot more traffic than this one does, maybe I should give away some free stuff, or not.

A little over a month ago, just after the last post in fact, Melissa and the kids left South Bend for Cedar City to get moved into our new house in Cedar Knolls.  That was a much harder day than I anticipated, and the next two weeks until Melissa came back for graduation dinner were filled with studying, dollar movies, and quite a few trips over to the Larsens who were so good to take care of me.  I cooked biscuits on tinfoil for a few meals and ate at the hospital frequently.  I spent my last night at the hospital in order to have access to the internet as we shut off our ISP before Melissa left.

I was overjoyed that Melissa actually came back to get me and we spent our last day together in South Bend.  That last day was filled with mixed emotions.  I love South Bend and it was hard to leave.  If we weren't coming back home to Cedar it would have been excruciating.  I already miss some of the joys of South Bend daily.  Some of those things I had always anticipated and some I have surprised me.  I always knew I would miss the green everywhere, but I didn't realize how I would miss the early morning mist each day.  Of course I miss Lake Michigan, but contrary to what the Midwesterner's believe it's no Lake Powell.  Of course I miss my friends and we really made some good ones during our 3 years.

My arrival in Cedar City has been filled with mixed emotions as well.  I was unprepared for the anxiety of taking over a full practice.  It's not like starting residency because I know the medicine now and I'm not lost for what to do I've just felt overwhelmed at times at the magnitude of messages and labs, and orders and such that come with a full panel of patient's, most of whom I have yet to meet.  The nice thing is Dad is always a phone call away if I have any questions that need answering.

We had our annual Family reunion that I have missed for the past 3 years and it was great to be back.  I won the horseshoe tournament that in the past was a big deal, but this year was somewhat anticlimactic.  All of my siblings save Doug were present and we missed him dearly.

There are a lot of great things about being back home.  Two of those things are my Dad and my older brother.  Since I got home from my mission I've wanted to live closer to my brother and it almost happened that first year, but he had to up and move to Wyoming.  Maybe that is part of my disdain for that state.  We did live in Cedar for a year during medical school shortly after Robert moved home and that was great, but now we're here for good and it is wonderful.  I've enjoyed running with Robert and his daughter (only on short days, my feet can't take the long days yet) in the morning.

I've got boards coming this Friday and I'm somewhat nervous about that.  Hopefully they go well and my studying pays off.