Green, Purple, and Orange

Congratulations to my wonderful husband, Dr. Roberts.

Boise Trip and Car Woes

Brandon had an interview for an internal medicine residency program in Boise earlier this month. We were so grateful for the interview because it gave him a chance to visit his parents at home, which probably wouldn't have happened this year otherwise.

In other news our faithful Oldsmobile finally died. It's been sick for some time now and we knew this day would come eventually, but it was still sad. It was almost like losing a family pet; we've grown so attached to it. But, for all of our devotion, the anti-lock brakes haven't worked for over a year now, the hood release cable broke after an ill-placed rock found its way under the latch, rust was spreading from every seam, and 2... 3... I mean, all the hubcaps were missing. We were, however, getting fairly knowledgeable about car repairs, but our repair budget was quickly waning.
 

The one remaining hubcap - Brandon said it was tacky so we eventually threw it away.

Keeping it classy with a jerry-rigged hood release cable out the front grill.

We were very sad to see it go but grateful for the timing. Brandon has had a less busy rotation this month and he only had interviews at the very begining and very end of the month, so we had time to deal with looking for a new car. Brandon did plenty of reasearch and we love our Kia Forte. We hope it lasts a long time because we won't be ready to car shop again any time soon.

Utah Trip October 2011

I went to Utah for a week in October. Brandon stayed in Kansas City because, unfortunately, he doesn't get time off for vacations. I spent most of my time enjoying being an aunt. I realized there were many family members and friends that I saw and didn't get a picture of. It was great to be home for a few days. Enjoy the pictures below.

Comings and Goings for Brandon

This is Brandon. Melody has been great to take the reins on blog posting lately. We've been accruing lots of experiences that warrant a good blog post but neither of us have been willing to sit down and get it done. Now we have an influx. We tried to spread them out over a few weeks so as to not overwhelm anyone.

School is going alright, at the moment. The beginning of 4th year in D.O. medical schools is particularly full of things to get done on the side. I had three board exams to take. Two of those tests were multiple choice exams that I took at the end of June. If we missed updating everyone, I got the scores back a few weeks ago and I passed (in case that was a question for anyone else other than me). The third exam is a different breed of test where I got to travel to Philadelphia for a few days to interview and examine actors who are trained to portray real patients. I have yet to hear back on the score for that one, but I imagine it went alright. After the stress of that test was over, I hit the streets of downtown Philadelphia to see a few sights. I wish I could have spent more time there because the city is a hoot, for those of you who haven't visited. Next time I'll try to bring Melody along with me too.

Here are some highlights from the trip:



Once all that was over then I jumped right back into the next task which was to finish residency applications. Thank you to everyone who helped edit and proofread. Melody and I have been looking into which potential Internal Medicine programs we want to apply and, after several months of serious homework and debate, we've whittled down the options to our favorite 18. The majority are located in the west part of the country, but we are considering several here in the midwest as well. Applications are in now and I have heard back from four programs already to schedule interviews for the end of this year. We get really excited every time a new interview offer arrives. We're hoping for even more interview offers within the next few months.

Sporting KC, Chiefs, and Anniversary

At the beginning of August, Brandon's school gave us tickets to a soccer game. We were so excited to find out that Sporting KC was playing the Salt Lake Real. This was the first professional soccer game I've seen. It was such a fun game to watch. I had no idea I even liked watching soccer until that day. You can tell by the glistening that it was a hot day in Kansas City.

Later in August, I won tickets from work to see the Kansas City Chiefs play the St. Louis Rams. This was the first professional football game I've been too and we had a great time. It didn't hurt that we had amazing tickets. As you can see below they were $100 each. We got to enjoy the food and air conditioning on the inside of the suite and then step outside to be apart of crowd watching the game.

The day we went to the football game was also our 5 year anniversary of the day we got engaged. Brandon bought me these beautiful roses.

We decided to post a picture of us not sweating :) We took this picture last spring but hadn't found a good reason to post it.

Carter Visit

My sister and her family moved from New York to Idaho this summer. I was so grateful that they drove through Kansas City on their trip. They only stayed two nights but it was fun to see Daniel and Anna and play some games of Settlers in the evenings. Anna gave me a smile when they first arrived.

Daniel and I went to a park and wading pool on Monday while Katrina and Neal did their laundry.

Later in the day we went to the Indepedence Visitor Center and drove past the Kansas City Temple which is under construction.

We loved that Daniel slept on his knees with his rear in the air.

Good luck in Rexburg. Hopefully we can see you again soon.

Mid-July Vacation with Parents

My parents came for a visit this last weekend. We were so lucky they had time off their mission to come see us.  We also needed a vacation from day to day life.  Brandon was able to take a few days off to chauffeur us around. 

On Thursday we went to the Steamboat of Arabia, the Toy and Miniature Museum, Independence Visitor Center, and to see the Kansas City temple.

Friday we made a quick trip to Liberty Jail and then drove to the St. Louis Temple.  We spent that evening enjoying the Gateway Arch, the Westward Expansion Museum, and the huge Mississippi River.

Saturday we walked and sweated through the St. Louis Zoo.  I love going there.  This visit along with seeing all our favorite animals we got to pet the stingrays and watch the sea lion show.  It was a hot day and we only lasted until noon.

Thanks for visiting us, Mom and Dad.

♫ 'Cause it's Christmas in Kansas City... ♪

I realized after talking to a co-worker that my Christmas tree is actually a Hanukkah Bush because it is decorated in blue and silver. We had lots of conversations at work on why Christmas colors are red and green and Hanukkah colors are blue and silver. Maybe next year I'll add some red to the tree or maybe just the wrapping paper.

Brandon's favorite gift this year was a remote control helicopter. You can just see the happiness in his face. After crashing the helicopter into every surface in our living room he is getting really good at controlling it.

To entertain myself this Christmas, I made doughnuts from scratch. It was actually pretty fun and they turned out really tasty.

Holidays at Full Speed

Let's see. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, October. It doesn't seem long ago, really.  Let's hit the major holidays, I guess.

Halloween

Mark and Kristilyn bought us a pumpkin while they were visiting us. Here's what we did with it.

And thank you to the Hoopes for loaning us some costumes for the ward Halloween party. Brandon's got his glare on.

Thanksgiving

Melody cooked her first turkey.  We didn't get food poisoning or anything. It actually turned out to be quite a success.  So much so that we were too busy eating to take any more pictures than just this one.

Christmas

While Christmas technically is not here yet, we are enjoying the season. Here's a picture of our tree. Melody says that it looks the same as last year, but Brandon says that we need a picture because, hey, it's in a new place.

Family Visitors

The Eliason family came to visit us last weekend. We had a blast. The days were filled with listening to James and Grant chatter and giggle. I was amazed to hear them explain words like camouflage and automatic. The nights were full of donuts, chocolate milk, ice cream, games, and talking. It was so nice to share Kansas City with family. Thanks for visiting us.

Birthday, Baseball, and Bad Weather

We haven't updated for a while. Here's what's been going on.



Here's one of the news reports about the microbursts that we had. We're not sure if this video is going to work, so here's the website if you're really interested:
Semi-Interesting news article about our weather.

 

Happy Birthday to Me

Sort of.  I am officially 10,000 days old today.  In retrospect, it has been a well lived 27.38 years so I believe some thanks are in order:

First of all, a big thank you to my parents.  It's been a long haul, but you've been wonderful.

Second, thank you to Melody for putting up with me for 1,370 of those days.

And finally, thank you to WolframAlpha for making the math so effortless.

Vacation Pictures

Now that the move is complete, we had a few extra days that Melody could take off work so we visited family in Utah and Idaho.

Considering that we flew into Salt Lake we spent very little time there. We drove the first weekend to Boise to see my family, then the next week to Bear Lake with Melody's family. We enjoyed the good company, beaches, hiking, cave exploring, and overabundance of great food.

Here are some pictures of the main events (most of which turned into neice/nephew photo shoots).

Things we learned this week

• Sleep is only a luxury.
• It is hard to solve problems when sleep deprived.
• You come across a lot of problems when trying to work on projects.
• If you are looking for a one-day project, don’t refinish your hardwood stairs.
• It is important to know what kind of wood you are finishing when buying stain. We just guessed.
• It is time well spent to ask the advice of store clerks at Lowe's, Sutherland's, etc. for do-it-yourself projects.
• 2 Ibuprofen seem to work when you break a toe during a move.
• Friends are important, especially when moving.
• Always look in the back of the U-haul before driving away.
• When buying a dryer exhaust hose make sure it comes with connectors.

Haggling 101

Those of you know Brandon and me know that we are nice “blue” people. We worry about other people and about what other people think about us. Haggling is a hard thing to do. We hate it. The first job offer I received here in Kansas City offered me a low wage and I haggled for a hire wage. The outcome of that incident wasn’t good. They withdrew the job offer completely. At that point, I used an agency to find a job.

Brandon and I have been looking for a washer and dryer for our new townhouse. We decided that we should buy used because we don’t know what life holds in store and where and when we will move next. We spent some time on Craig’s List but those are first come, first serve and we will only have a moving truck on Saturday morning which limits our ability to buy one. While looking online we found a used appliance store and after work today we went to check it out.

We were greeted by a 7 ft tall, well-built man. He told us where the washer and dryers were and then followed us to the back of the building, ducking under the door frames. We picked the one we wanted and then I asked Brandon if we should try to get the price down. He was concerned that this was a business, not someone’s house. We decided to go for it anyway and I said I would do the talking. We showed the 7 ft tall man what we wanted and then mentioned that Craig’s List has them for $100 cheaper. He mentioned the warranty. I mentioned that the machines shouldn’t break down to begin with. Brandon asked about a dent in the machine and the man said it was already factored into the price. I suddenly realized that I hadn’t decided how much I wanted him to reduce the price, but I had already opened my mouth and out came, “well can you take 10 or 20 off the price?” I meant $10 or $20.

Hesitantly he said he would take 10% off the price ($34). Brandon and I agreed. After the fact we realized just how naïve we are. I think haggling takes some practice. At least we are learning to ask.

Historic Week

This week has been a historic week. Brandon took his last section final at KCUMB. Congratulations to Brandon! He still gets to study like crazy until he takes his board exams the end of June but at least most of the school work is out of the way. We celebrated by eating KFC at Maken Park(where else?).

Saturday we went to the ground breaking ceremony of the Kansas City, Missouri temple. President Ronald A. Rasband presided. Elder William R Walker, executive director of the temple department and Elder Donald Deshler of the 6th quorum of the Seventy and all their wives were also there. Only about 1500 people were invited to be on the temple grounds. The 11 surrounding stakes in the temple district watched the ground breaking by satellite at the stake centers. We got tickets to go to the temple grounds because a member of the bishopric wasn’t able to go so the Bishop asked if we wanted them. We got there around 8:45am. It was windy, cold, and dirty (but at least it wasn’t wet). Brandon’s suit will definitely go to the cleaners this week. The grounds are on a hill and we couldn’t actually see anything (choir, speakers, or turning of dirt) but it was neat to be there.

The rest of our week was busy as Brandon studied like crazy, and I babysat, made over 150 cookies, and we looked at townhouses and tutored.

New York

I went to Olean, New York to visit my sisters this past weekend. I flew out on Wednesday, April 21st. I flew through Charlotte, North Carolina which was exciting because I haven’t been to North Carolina before. Julie and Kristilyn flew in from Utah that night too.

We spent the weekend playing with Daniel and Anna, cooking, cleaning, playing games, and talking. I borrowed part of Julie’s blog that gives a quick update on Daniel and Anna.

Anna (14 months) needs a lot of attention with all of her special needs. She has a feeding tube in her stomach and Katrina has to hook her up about every 4 hours. She also has a lot of other seizure medications that have to be taken at certain times as well. Anna has little seizures throughout the day and at least a couple bigger ones even with the medication. Even though she is 14 months, she looks like she’s about 6-7 months old and has the developmental level between 2-4 months. She has an occupational therapist, a vision therapist, and another therapist that come in the mornings once a week and Katrina is working on getting some respite care so she can have time to get other things done like grocery shopping, cooking, etc. Anna can’t sit up by herself, but she can kind of support her head and turn it somewhat. She has the most beautiful brown eyes, cute button nose, and soft curly hair. She feels good to hold and doesn’t cry very often anymore.

Daniel (almost 4) is just as bouncy and energetic as ever, and just as adorable. He loves to be outside, so we spent a lot of time walking around the block or following him on his big wheel around the block when it was both sunny and rainy. He likes to tease and say, “Come on.” He’s also being potty trained right now and trying to have “perfect days” so he can go to McDonalds. He was really pretty good the whole time we were there. His favorite movies are “Mr. Kruger’s Christmas” and “The Restoration.” He has a lot of other cartoon movies, but doesn’t want to watch them. He likes to dance to music, play basketball in the back yard, and play kid computer games. He’s very social and doesn’t like to be alone. He would prefer to do everything with a buddy, and we took turns being that buddy for the whole weekend!

Daniel is so sweet and caring. As we were leaving Olean, Anna was upset to be in her car seat and was crying. Katrina held her hand and she quickly quieted down. As we drove to the airport, I started to cry realizing I wasn’t ready to leave yet. Daniel, who was sitting in front of me, heard me cry. He held up his hand and told me I could hold his hand. It made me cry harder. While I was there I was sneezing a ton because of allergies. I also cut my finger open. Daniel asked me at least once a day how my finger was and how I was feeling. He is very observant to others’ feelings.

The weekend wouldn't be complete without a crazy sleep walking event. On Sunday night I had a weird dream. In my dream I was in bed and I pushed the blankets onto the floor. As I did, I heard a baby cry. I got so stressed out because I thought I had just pushed a baby off the bed. In reality I was sitting on the bed and then stood up on the bed. Julie woke up and said my name. It kind of woke me up but not fully. I said "Help!" three times. She sat up and grabbed my arm and pulled me down onto the bed again. I was so stressed out. I laid there for a minute and then I realized I probably scared Julie so I tried to explain my dream but realized that it didn’t make sense and I didn’t really understand why I was so stressed out. It was so weird. I don’t think I have slept walked since being married. I guess I was just over tired.

Dear Melody

Dear Melody,

How have you been? I'm just fine, thanks for asking. A touch busy at times, but so are you, I hear.

I'm writting you to let you know that I have a couple of concerns that we need to address before they get out of hand.

First of all, we need to sit down and have a serious conversation about that blog of ours. I know that it's a sore subject around here, and I know that you think that it's my responsibility, but all this arguing back and forth about who is going to write the next post really isn't getting us anywhere. Do you know how long it's been since we updated? November. No really, November. You can take a look for yourself if you don't believe me.

Second, why so camera-shy lately? It must be your inner native-american that thinks that the camera is going to steal your soul. I have trouble repressing my inner native-american at times, too. How about this, I promise that if the camera ever steals your soul that I'll make it give it back to you straight away, honest.

Lately though, it's been getting out of control. I mean, I keep trying to get a picture of your new hair cut, but if you continue to dodge the camera or put your hand in front of the lens, your hair will grow back by the time I get a decent shot. So, I decided to take the matter into my own hands. Since you won't let me take a picture of you, I decided to have a local artist draw a sketch of you with before and after takes of your new 'do. I think that the results are fairly stunning:

Before	After

That's all for now. Talk to you soon.


Love, Brandon

As of late...

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great week. We both went to school and work Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday, I made crescent rolls, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and a vegetable tray. We ate Thanksgiving with our friends the LaBau’s. They made turkey and rotisserie chicken, more potatoes and rolls, green salad, pomegranate salad, chocolate pie, and pecan pie. We ate and then played Cities and Knights. Ethan (almost 2) provided most of the entertainment and wore Brandon out.

On Friday we went to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. They had Harry S. Truman’s coin collection, random bits of information, we saw Huey, Dewey, and Louie (unmanned, yellow, robotic trucks) moving the money from room to room since they don’t want people to move the money. On the way out they gave us $165 in shredded US currency. It wasn’t the most exciting museum but it was free and a place to go that wasn’t full of holiday shoppers.

Improving leaps and bounds from our tree last year, we also set up the Christmas tree that we bought after Christmas last year. Since we bought it in an after-Christmas sale, it has just been sitting in our storage for nearly a year building suspense, and this was the first time we saw it out of the box. It is a 6.5 foot pre-lit tree. We have silver tinsel and silver and blue ornaments.

On Saturday we had beautiful weather so we ate a picnic lunch and walked around our favorite park. The weather was so nice that we were comfortable in short sleeve tee-shirts. That won't last long, no doubt. We also spent our free time reading The Giver by Lois Lowry to each other. Neither of us had read the book in school so it was an interesting short read for our vacation time.

Also, on November 16th we went to AMF bowling lanes with Alec, Amber, and Ethan. We bowled for 2 hours and had a lot of fun. My legs were sore for days. We didn't get our best bowling scores ever, but we were sure happy to get out of the house for a bit.

Halloween

We have more to pictures to show everyone from our Halloween festivities. It seems like it is always feast or famine when it comes to updating this blog; hopefully no one minds. We tried to get a couple of pictures of us playing in front of the black-light but, as you can imagine, they didn't turn out so well, so all we have to show for the holiday is pumpkin carving.

I really think I've found my calling in life with this. It's too bad they don't have professional pumpkin carvers, because if it could support a family I just might drop out of medical school to go to pumpkin carving school. Too bad. It might not look like much this year, but give me a few more years and I'll be a natural.