Friday Night Lights

Tonight Josh had the opportunity to volunteer and get a taste for sports medicine. He was an assistant for the Supervising Physician of a high school football game. Here's my boys at half time.
This photo was taken from across the field
Here is Josh assisting the Supervising Physician with a player who got a concussion.
Meanwhile, I took a picture of Heidi wrestling the boys.
Last, but not least, our happy little guy. His shirt reads "Quarterback (someday)"

Gettin Up

TAG.... I'm it

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1- starting the 8th grade

2- baby-sitting a LOT

3- singing in "Girl's choir"

4- crushing on Sam Stokes

5- reading my older brother Ethan's missionary letters from Manchester, England.





5 things on my to-do list today:

1- clean the bathroom

2- make lunch and dinner

3- make my bed

4- upload a video of Conrad onto here

5- buy some scraps of material for my Advent Calendar project





5 snacks I enjoy:

1- apples

2- yogurt

3- licorice, the whole bag will do.

4- crackers and cheese

5- broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and celery all dipped in ranch!





5 songs I know the lyrics to:

1- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

2- I Saw the Sign, by Ace of Base (don't you love them!?)

3- Bubblie Toes, by Jack Johnson

4- Livin la Vida Loca, by Ricky Martin

5- The Wheels on the Bus





5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1- Pay for all of Josh's schooling

2- Pay off my close relative's house

3- Hire a wardrobe and fashion consultant. (Sounds frivolous, but I really don't know what I'm doing anymore!)

4- Of course, after #3, go shopping!!

5- Save for future rainy days (something Josh has taught me how to do very well!)

5 bad habits:

1- Selfish actions

2-Picking at zits. It only makes them worse, I know, but it's like therapy for me... wierd, eh?

3- Indecisiveness. (which, by the way, is making me take a whole week to get this questionaire finished!)

4-Self-Loathing

5-Puttering around, deciding what to do. (Hey, that goes along with number 3!)

5 things I’ll never wear again:

1-Converse sneakers with curly hot pink shoelaces

2-Baggy Junkie Ugly Skater clothes

3-Diapers. I hope.

4-A wedding dress (Hey, that's a good thing to not wear again, I'm already married!)

5-Stir-up leggings with a leotard

5 favorite toys:

1- 4 Wheelers

2-Boats, to do some skiing behind

3-Speaking of skiing, I love snowboarding

4-Speaking of snow, I love tubing

5-Speaking of tubes, I love to ride bikes!

5 people I'm tagging:
Yikes. I don't know anyone in the blogging world besides Kim the girl, who tagged me, and Em, who is always getting tagged. So, I'll just suggest certain family members create blogs, and then, by the time they are blogging maybe I'll tag them again.
1- Brindy and Kim the boy
2-Jeni and Jason
3-Dave and Sarah
4-Jamie and Kyle
5-Jake and Lea

Sorry if I've offended anyone by not mentioning their name. I was just thinking of suggesting my family members that have kids to blog about! ha ha.

Joys of a Mom

Last night we had dinner with all of the other LDS first year medical students. Out of 5 couples, 3 have babies (me and Josh included). As we were sitting there talking about our kids with the child-less parents (they don't have kids yet by choice) I remembered what it used to be like without a kid. I often would get bored hearing about what somebody else's kid did that day. Now that I have a kid, it's a LOT more fun to talk about what they did that day! Especially when you have things in common with their kid, I might add. So, I piped out, "Man, you guys need to have kids. Life before we had kids was boring. Now we can talk about if they pooped today or not."

We find ourselves discussing that with our neighbors quite often, it's a really hot topic!

Here's something that's got me excited. I bought a new sippy cup yesterday, one with a straw. I bought it after seeing our friend's son Luke use it. He seems to like it. Conrad is not really a big fan of his sippy cup, and thus I don't think he's been getting enough fluids. So I bought one yesterday. I filled it up with formula milk right before dinner, and he slurped the whole thing down. I put some diluted apple juice in it, and it was gone by the time dinner was over with. My heart was soaring. Right now I am anticipating Conrad waking up so I can give him more!!!

Conrad hasn't been a big demanding eater, which has made me a nervous wreck at times. He's a bit small, so if I can get him to eat well life is good. So, this new sippy cup is going to make putting on the milk calories easier.

Conrad "Going Bananas" for a banana

This morning I decided (at the last minute) to record how excited Conrad gets for his morning banana. I waited too long, so he's a bit disheveled.

Test on Monday

I caught Josh while he was studying for his first test. Little did I know that ski goggles make a big difference to Josh while he is studying. I knew about the Dew, of course, I mean, who doesn't? ....but, Ski goggles?... hmmm. It's on Monday, we'll have to wait and see how he does.

Things I am doing now

1- Going running 3-4 times a week (ok, it's more of a jog, but heck, at least I am going farther than my mailbox! ...which by the way, I have my own and it's right outside my door!
2- Becoming Artsy-Fartsy! Yesterday I worked on my Advent Calendar Quilt for a total of 5 hours!!!
3- Calling up my friend Heidi sometimes as many as 6 times a day, ...BFF !! (ha ha just kidding) Generally we get together with our boys every day, very rarely have we missed a day.
4- Not nursing Conrad. At least, I didn't for like 3 days and now all of a sudden he wants to nurse in the morning again. I'm sure he misses it, but I guess that's part of the weaning process.
5-Holding onto Conrad's hands while he walks around, a lot.
6-Talking with Conrad much more. When I ask him if he wants a banana in the a.m. he starts saying "na na na na na" and smacking his lips in between. Yesterday I was giving him a bath and he was in a copying mood so I said, "Grampy?" He repeated back "Aaa-eee," he was copying the vowels!
7- Saying "no-no" all the time!!! I also use the sign when I say it, hoping to reinforce the idea to him.
8- I got a gym membership! They provide free day-care, so that will be excellent!! (well, day care is included in the membership cost, but it's only $18.75 a month for a WHOLE family!)
9-Loving my life! I have always just been content with life, but I feel that these extra things I am doing are contributing to my overall happiness.
10- Going to change a poopy diaper. Oh well, it happens.

Cowboy Bumper Pads

These crib bumper pads are HOMEMADE!

Not homemade by me. I canNOT take the credit for these, though I wish I could! I mentioned on a previous post how my friend Heidi has set a good example by working on projects. She finished this project yesterday and I asked her if I could take pictures of it, for the sole purpose of posting them on here, so I could show off what a crafty friend I have. :) Isn't she amazing??!

For the grandma's out there, here's a picture of Conrad and his buddy Luke. Luke just started walking yesterday, so I'm afraid Conrad's gonna get left in the breeze for a while until he can catch up! (Luke practically runs!!!)

Enjoying "his" Pie

I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner tonight, and Conrad really didn't think it was all that great.
Most of it just ended up on his forehead. At least I got a nice smile out of it though, right?

On a different note, and for all of you out there who know how anti-crafty I am, I worked on a craft tonight. It's a Christmas Advent Calendar, which requires applique quilting and sewing and buttons and artsy-fartsy-ness, all of which have never been a part of my life before. I owe the credit to my friend Heidi, who is also working on a project. She is motivating me to start working on projects, all through example, she is amazing. I will have to take a picture and show y'all a little piece of my craft. It's about 65% fun for me right now, the other 35% is anxiety about piecing it all together. Wish me luck!

I finally got the video to upload

Of Josh's White Coating Ceremony! It was pretty boring, but exciting that it has finally happened!
Here's what to look for in the video:
Josh is the first one on the stage (left side) and ends up in the center of the line. Then, as you watch the big screen, it pans over him twice. If you have a good speaker system, you might be able to hear Heidi and myself talking. We didn't say much, Heidi just said, "I'm getting some good ones," in regards to pictures. And I just said how handsome he looked!
SO, thereyago! Enjoy!

White Coating Ceremony

2 Little Walkers

YUCK!

I hoped this would never happen, but it did. We left the bathroom door open, I was getting dinner ready and Josh was watching TV. I thought Josh had an eye on Conrad, and Josh thought I was going to put Conrad into his high chair.
Pretty soon I heard faint splashing. I asked Josh if he knew where Conrad was, and he said "No, I thought you had him." We found him...

He was splashing his hands in the toilet.

What about Josh?

My mom asked some questions about Josh's first day of med school, so I thought I'd give everybuddy the info.
Josh can wear regular civilian clothes to school. They just have to be "Business Casual." Or he can wear scrubs.
His first day of school was just fine. He said it was just like any other regular school day. We also got good news the first day...Josh got a job. It's called the AV (audio visual) assistant. All he does is go to school 15 minutes early and sets up the equipment the teacher may need help with, like Power Point projectors, or TV and VCR's, or Overheads. He gets paid 40 hours a week for going to class (which isn't always 40 hours)! It's not that much an hour, but it's 40 times more than what he'd get for just going to school!
He car pools with 2 other guys from our townhouses, which helps us save on gas money, not that the DeLorean guzzles that much gas.
Things are going well for him, he's debating whether or not to get his MBA while in med school, too. So, that is the latest "problem." (not really a problem, just a matter of deciding).

I am good, too. Just so you know.

edited to add the fact that Josh actually is not getting paid 40 hours a week... that was a rumor he heard somewhere. He is actually clocking his hours. But, at either rate, we are still glad he's got that!!!

Another "First"

The other day, my neighbor Heidi and I took a walk to the library with our boys. It's very close. Anyway, to make a short story shorter, Conrad's already lost his first library book. We checked 2 out, so we've been reading "Mr. Brown can Moo, can You?" by Dr. Seuss, over and over again. I hope to find it soon so I can return the books and check out another book, Twilight, from my sis-in-law's book club.
So, wish me luck in finding Conrad's first lost library book! (note: don't worry, I'm not blaming Conrad, I'm sure it was myself that misplaced it somewhere!)

edited to add: I found it, on the next day, it was just underneath a bouncing chair toy.

A (part of a) Day in the Life of Conrad

They say that there is a window of opportunity for introducing your child to veggies
I wonder if I missed it. (do you see my OCD shining forth in that picture?)

Next, Conrad has found his favorite cupboard door to open


I promise this gets better...

And then climb inside....!!
Oh man, something is stuck.
I'm telling you, he really loves this one specific cupboard. I wonder why?

For Cindy, with Love :)

Here's your baby boy on his first day of medical school! Doesn't he look handsome? And so grown up!!! He thought I was pretty lame for making him take this picture, but I told him it was for you and he conceded. Happy first day of medical school, Josh!

The White Coating Ceremony!

All right, so I took video footage with my camera and have made 2 attempts to post it on here, so far, I've been unsuccessful with Photobucket, so I'll try again another time. In the meantime, I took pictures of the ceremony and here they are:
Here is Josh right after the coat was placed on his shoulders
Here is the whole class, all 251 of them.
Here is Josh in his class, our neighbor K is above and to the right with the yellow tie.
At the reception where everybody around us was aflame.
Us with our cool neighbors H and K, what great people they are!
We had a great time. Josh explained the whole evening as breathtaking. He was overwhelmed by the fact that it was actually happening, that he actually is really going to be a doctor. Monday is actually the first day of school, so maybe I'll take a picture and post it just to document his first day of school. (There's the Woodbury coming out in me!)

Solo in Tabernacle Choir

I just wanted everybody to know that my dad, yes, my dad is singing a solo on Sunday for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So, if you would like to hear my dad, yes, my dad, singing a solo for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir this Sunday tune in! Utah time it is at 9:30 am. Out here in Missouri it's on the BYU channel at 10:30 am. Too bad his solo is only a few lines out of a whole big song, but we'll take it! The song is called something like, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weap."
I'm DVR-ing it. Then I can show it off to all my Riverside friends!

Yikes

Well, we're speaking in church on Sunday. Topic: Let your light so shine.

If anyone has a good personal story, I would like to hear it so I may add a "personal story" to my talk! Everyone always likes to hear those.

Let me know, pLEASe!!

Thanks in advance

I think I'm officially attached

I had to go out on a limb and ask our neighbor to baby-sit for us this coming Thursday and do you want to know what I did?? I cried!!
Thursday is Josh's White Coat Ceremony, a ceremony where you get all dressed up, they give the 1st year med students a white coat in front of a ton of people, you eat lots of *****Five Star Buffet Food*****(too bad you couldn't be there Scott S.!), drink as much alcohol as you want, and dance. We will be participating in all but one of those things... seeing how I twisted my ankle. (ha ha, just kidding Mom and everyone else! No, we will not be participating with the "enlightened" people, hee hee).
So, anyway, we decided to ask a neighbor to baby-sit for us. Our next door neighbor seemed appropriate, seeing that they are only a wall away from us and they are awesome people.
Much to my surprise, when I asked the mom if she would baby-sit I got all blubbery and teary-eyed. I thought to myself, "WHERE IS THIS COMING FROM?!?" When Conrad was first born I had a hard time accepting the fact that he was my baby, and there wasn't a big emotional bond. I'm know, I'm a horrible mother. However, I've heard that that is not uncommon - which has given me peace of mind, knowing that I am not some psycho mother.
What made me feel even better about myself as a mother was the fact that I actually cried at the thought of trusting someone (besides a family member) to take my baby and care for him for all of 4 hours. I'M ATTACHED!!! I now officially feel the love that a mother feels for her baby. Even as I type this I'm getting emotional because I feel such a deep bond with him, stronger than I ever have with him. So, I'm officially attached!
On the flip side, to all of you out there that really care, we are weaning!!! I am excited. We're down to nursing once a day! I went all day today without nursing him, besides the very first session of the day, and he is sure loving his sippy cup! So, yipee!
I am finally feeling the joy of being a mother. I now understand the love our Heavenly Father has for us. If only everyone out there could have the knowledge I have, and feel the love our Savior has for us, the world would be a better place.

Conrad and his first friend Luke

Conrad's first "official" friend

Well, many of you know that we have moved 1100 miles away from our Utah home to our new Missouri home. We left behind our family members, and so we're turning our ward members into our family.

Right across the street from us in our townhouse complex there is a family just like ours. They're from Utah, they have a year old son, first year med students, and lots of other coincidental things! So, we've dubbed Conrad and their son, Luke, to be best friends. I know, I know, kids this young don't have best friends, but it is sure fun to watch them be silly babies together.

Last night we went over to their house for dinner and we got to watch them play together. I didn't take my camera over, so you'll just have to imagine this. We took Conrad's highchair with us so they wouldn't have to share one. We were sitting there eating dinner and Conrad was just kind of babbling away. Luke thought it was hilarious so he started babbling back at him. Luke's 2 months older than Conrad so he's a bit more advanced. But it was fun to watch them interact in their high chairs, babbling back and forth, with little Luke giggling every now and then.

When we first set them down on the floor to crawl around after dinner they immediately went to the other and gave each other a nice slobbery smooch on the mouth! It was funny because they held it there for a few seconds! Oh, if I only had my camera!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of more funny stories to tell as we spend the next 4 years together here in Riverside!

Turning into a

Couch potato. Thanks to our new Dish Network system with a DVR. We're just enjoying these last few days before Josh starts school and his life is filled all the way to the brim (maybe even overflowing).