Nauvoo

With the last sane weekend I anticipate having in a long time (Labor day weekend before my first tests this week) Britta and I took a trip to visit the Nauvoo temple and "Old Nauvoo" with our new, good friends, Emily and Stephen Stacey.

We live about 90 or so miles from Nauvoo, and we are in fact in the Nauvoo Stake and Temple district, so this is likely the first of many temple trips to come.  The drive is fairly nice, with a few small towns sprinkled along the rural highway to keep your speeds down, and the drive lasts about two hours.

After participating in the 9:00 session (which we agreed was perhaps one session too early as we left at 6:15 am - it made for a long day), we went down to Old Nauvoo to visit the sites.  We ran into an old friend of Britta's at the visitor's center who was serving as a full-time missionary.  We had a great time and even bought 'World Famous Red Brick Store Rootbeer', (which ranks ahead of Mug, Barq's, and A&w, and perhaps better than IBC, but not quite as good as Henry Weinhart's).  We hit all the 'favorite' sites where you get free handouts: the bakery (for a gingerbread cookie and recipe), the blacksmith's (for a prairie diamond ring), and the brick yard (for a commemorative brick - which was also being sold at the Red Brick Store for $2.75, but we got ours at no cost).

All said, it was a great day, capped off by a good football game, but we were EXHAUSTED by the end of it all.

Living with Britta (a.k.a. living with Scott)

Okay, so yesterday Britta and I were watching the Olympics on TV - the synchronized swimming - and I was peeking over my shoulder to see if Britta was paying attention well enough (or not) so I could "sneak" to a different station with more testosterone on it.  The next thing I recall, Britta leans over and, with tears in her eyes and quiver in her voice, says, "I can't believe I'm so emotional about synchronized swimming . . . I keep choking up."  Now, I know that if I ever want to really reach that deep spot in Britta's heart and emotions, I just need to wear a swim cap, earplugs, and a nose plug while smiling and spinning in circles to music.  No more flowers on our anniversary from me.  This is WAY more economical for the same effect.

Also, at dinner yesterday, while I was leaving the table, Britta, speaking of her recent shopping trip, excitedly blurts out: "I got some more of that plaster crap!"

Stunned, I turned around and gave her my best blank expression, showing my shock and confusion, because I'm sure that plaster wasn't on our shopping list, and definitely not crappy plaster.  Britta insists that she said "plastic wrap" which was on our shopping list, but I'm not so sure . . . 

The Joys of Home Ownership

I feel like Scott and I can finally say we're grown-ups because we own our house and all it's little quirks, like a leaky toilet that only flushes on every other flush, like a crawlspace that floods with every rainfall, and like windows that are painted shut, just to name a few.

Here's Scott putting up fascia board in preparation for our gutters (to prevent the crawlspace flooding). Isn't he the greatest? Unfortunately the project has been put on hold because Home Depot (yay! We have a Home Depot here) has been out of the downspouts and gutter joints since we moved here. Another catch to our gutter project is a tree growing into the roofline of our house:

We realize that the tree (or at least this branch) needs to go because it's causing roof damage and preventing us from putting up gutters, but it's a little beyond our budget to have it cut right now. Do you think it's okay to wait until next summer to cut it? Does anyone know how fast maple trees grow?

White Coat Ceremony

Yesterday I participated in my school's white coat ceremony which represents the official start of medical school and the end of orientation.  The donning of the white coat symbolizes the student physician taking upon them the mantle of a physician for a life-long pursuit of learning and humanitarian service.  The coat is placed on us by the Dean of the school.

You also might notice that our coats are much shorter than those that are worn by the faculty and other doctors.  The symbolism of this is that with each step of our journey (school, internships, residency, and full-practice physicians) our coats increase in length commensurate with our skills, knowledge, and abilities.Really, I kind of look at this experience as a bright spot at the beginning of a very long and dark road.

 I am so grateful for my family and friends who have helped me get to this point, and especially for my beautiful and patient wife Britta (who will also be my patient de facto as I learn and need practice . . . hope you're ready!).  I'm sure I'll be even more grateful to you all when the road is completed.

Water Fun

Being a Minnesota native, I was raised believing that everyone had a cabin on a lake in northern MN, or at least access to one. I believed that the only fulfilling vacation included swimming, preferrably in a big lake with fun swim toys. I was also raised believing that the more family that could go with you, the better. Scott, on the other hand, has always had a fear of water. He sinks. I was delightfully pleased to discover that after spending time in my childhood version of vacations, some of the "up north Minnesota" has rubbed off on Scott. Not only did he overcome his fear of swimming in large bodies of water, by the end of the week he was racing me in the water... and winning! Not only that, he mastered captaining the rented pontoon boat. Here is his suave picture at the helm:

And here is one of the coolest "fun swim toys" for the perfect vacation - a 6-person floating trampoline in 20+ feet of water:
This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip - my niece Leanna:
The whole fam:

Luau in Minnesota?

During my family reunion the oldest grandchild had her 11th birthday, so we had to celebrate. The theme of choice? Hawaiian! In the picture below, you can see the birthday girl coming out of the cabin with a red hat. Scott got a kick of this picture because my dad was trying to get a good picture of Sofia (the three year old above) and Amber and I were trying to get her to wave her arms like a hula for the picture. Sofia resolutely wouldn't do it and kept saying "Sofie can't" (she in the speaking in third person phase). This picture caught just that moment. Kind of funny! (Not the most flattering picture of my sister and I!)
This picture shows the kids eagerly lining up for the piniata (hawaiian... mexican... who cares, right? It's still candy). You can kind of see the cabin we stayed in in this shot, too. It was huge! It was made of two halves that were joined by a little door in the middle like joint hotel rooms for a total of seven bedrooms - one with four beds for the older boy cousins all together. My mom and dad rented a smaller separate cabin on the same resort with two additional bedrooms. I have to give praise to my mom for finding such a great place for our family reunion!
Scott had a crush on my niece, Tova, and she had a crush on him. She followed him around the whole week and always wanted to be entertained by him, cuddle, or just hang out. It was totally cute.
Another shot of Tova.