Moving and Mehico

So this is going to be like three blogs in one. I hope you have a little time to read. It has been a whirlwind three weeks. We moved on June 13. Here is an interesting story about the move.

So as most of you know we bought a double wide trailer three years ago and that is where we lived for most of dental school. Well back in March we put it up for sale. It sold in 6 days. Total blessing, right? Well the lady gave us $1000 down and we agreed that we would settle the balance and sign the paperwork on June 13. So about a week before we were supposed to sign I called her to make sure everything was still on. No problem, she told me how excited she was and that she couldn't wait to move in. Then on June 11th the lady called to ask about getting the eletrical switched over. She reiterated her excitement about moving in. Well the next day, on June 12 at about 8 pm I called her to see what time she was coming over the next day. As soon as I started takling to her she freaked out on the phone. "I am not coming tommorrow, I have been at the hospital with my husband for two weeks now an I am NOT coming tommorrow, blah, blah, blah." I asked her if tommorrow was a bad day or if she wanted to reschedule or what the deal was. She was like "No I don't want to reschedule, I am not coming and I just want to forget the whole deal...CLICK." She freakin hung up on me. So here we were, moving in 24 hours and now the house we assumed was sold is now back on the market. We didn't sleep that much that night. We prayed that something would work out. The next day we decided to try and hire someone in our ward to sell it for us. Well, right before I was going to call someone to sell it we heard a knock at the door. I thought it was our landlady but it was actually this lady that was going to buy it. She was like "Is this a good time to settle things?" My jaw about hit the floor, but I kept my cool and told her that now was a perfect time and we were expecting her. I guess my prayer was answered. She paid us and we signed the papers and that was that. She never mentioned the phone call from the night before so I never brought it up. Now a couple weeks later the checks have cleared and all is good. We are going to miss this old trailer. So we got moved to Georgia. I won't bore you with all the details as it was rather uneventful. Abby and Amy's folks came to help with the move and to help us unpack. (Thank you guys so much by the way!!) On Wednesday Abby and Shelda took the kids up to Tennessee for a week and Amy and I left on a Cruise. We sailed to the western carribean on a 5 night cruise. It was awesome. I really think that cruises are by far the best bang for your buck. our first port was Progresso, Mehico. We went out to see the ruins of Chitzen Itza. It was awesome.

OK I am totally ticked off. I just freakin deleted most of the pictures from our cruise. I can't beleive it. The only consolation is that we were pretty lazy about taking pictures and I only lost about 20 pics. The aggrevating thing was that they were of the ruins at Chitzen-Itza. Argh!!! Oh well I downloaded a few pics so you could see what we saw. Just imagine us in front of them.

This is the main temple. It is probably the most recognizable temple of all the Mayan ruins.

This was the hoop at the ball court. The ball court was just a little smaller than a football field.

Our next stop was Cozumel, Mehico. Here we rented a scooter and rode around the island. It was nice b/c we were able to get away from the crowd and kind of go at our own pace. We stopped at this little place and ate some mexi-food and did some snorkeling. A huge storm rolled in so we had to cut it a little short but, it was fun anyways. Then we board the ship and headed for home. It was so nice to have a break from the kids and everything. I had no cell phone coverage for the whole trip so we were truly cut off from the rest of the world.

It was nice to get home and see our kids. That was the longest that Amy had ever been away from them and the only time that both of us had been away together more than one night. They were so cute when we got back. Now that we are home it is time to settle in and get to work. I start work tommorrow. I am pretty excited but, I am a little nervous about the learning curve. It is always hard to go into a new situation and learn the ropes. Oh well.

By the way we made our first purchase this week. Washer and dryer baby. I got a subscription to consumer reports b/c I figured we were going to be making several purchases in the coming months. These were the highest rated W/D on consumer reports. Nice.

Beretta 92 FS

So happy graduation to me indeed. After years of pleading with Amy to allow me to purchase a handgun, the time has arrived. For graduation my folks gave me some money that I convinced them should go towards a gun. With the money in hand I told Amy that since the money was intended for a gun I had no choice but to go and get one. She grudgingly agreed and after an 8 day waiting period I am now a proud owner of my first handgun.

I have always like the look and feel of the Beretta but it didn't come in the caliber I wanted. I was looking to get a .45 caliber but ended up with a 9mm. I chose the gun I wanted over the caliber I wanted. I will eventually get a .45 but at least for the time being I have the gun that I want.

This particular gun has the distinction of being the officially issued sidearm of the US military. The military always used the M1911 (.45 cal) from WWI up through 1987 at which time they switch to this mamma-jamma. Anywho, I went and shot it yesterday for the first time and all I can say is..."sweet chicken."

Graduation

So it is officially official. I am a doctor. Weird to think of but it actually feels about the same. I still can't treat people on my own or write scripts but as soon as I get my license then I will have the real power. I just wanted to post a few pics of my graduation. It was really nice. My Dad and mom and brother Dan came out to visit. So now it is a waiting game until we move. I reserved the moving truck today for June 12. I am pretty dang excited to get on with things and get started making money. Well, I hope that you guys enjoy the pictures.

Me and my lab partner.
Reading the oath.

Me and a some of the Mormon posse.The Folks.

Remember Me

So I know that most of you have probably forgotten about me and my family, but alas, we are still alive and well here in Maryland. I know that it has been a long time since I blogged but I figured it was time for an update. The past few weeks have been great. I finished all my requirements at school. It is now officially a waiting game. I am completely done with school and tests and everything. Can you say good feeling? So that is the big news. Also Jackson had his birthday this last week. We had the missionaries, Calderwoods, and Wades over. It was pretty fun. I thought I would post a few pics from the past month or so.

The kids on St. Pattys Day
A close up of Jacksons shirt

Jacksons Bday cake. They are cupcake balloons floating in the sky.

Jackson getting his cupcake on. Me pile-driving Codys head into the dirt (Dang!!, I didn't realize how skimpy I was getting on top). In all fairness though he pinned me. My move probably wasn't legal wrestling.
Jackson goofing around.

Back when I was in Nam

Okay, so I appologize it has been so long since I blogged but a lot has happened. I probably could have blogged about allthese things individually but lucky for you I will just give you the readers digest version. So I passed my boards. We bought a new car. We decided that throwing 2 grand into a car that has 195000 miles, leaks anti-freeze, burns oil, and occasionally won't start was probably not a great idea. We got a 2009 Toyota corolla. It was actually cheaper than the 2008 and 2007 models. Weird but true. I think it helped that I was able to swing a sweet deal thanks to my friends at carbuyingtips.com. I went to Vietnam on my externship and Amy went to Abby's house in Tennessee for Easter. I will let Amy blog about Easter b/c I wasn't really there.

So Vietnam. I went with Operation Smile. They are normally only a surgical based organization that corrects cleft-lips and palates. They are running a pilot program for the last few years that is basically a dental mission. The dental mission provides emergency and preventative care to underserved people in Vietnam. It is the only dental mission that Op Smile has in the world. They are using Vietnam to see if they want to take it worldwide. Op Smile is a fantastic organization and they subsidized much of the trip. I payed $460 and they covered the rest: roundtrip air, 10 nights lodging, three meals/day, and cabs to and from the hospital. It was awesome. There were two teams that went. One went to Hue, Vietnam, and the other was in Hanoi. I stayed in Hanoi. I was bummed at first b/c Hue is much more rural but I ended up loving Hanoi.

This is John McCain's flight suit and parachute from when he was shot down and captured over Hanoi. Notice the blood on the parachute.

This is a picture from inside the "Hanoi Hilton" where the North Vietnamese imprisoned US pilots during the war. This is where McCain was.

This is a picture of a US plane that was shot down. It is on display at one of their war museums.

Team Hanoi and some of the volunteers

Check out this random volunteer's shirt. Go Ags!!!

Me on a motorbike. Everyone rides motorbikes over there. I took this little number for a spin.

Treating one of the kids.

This restraunt cooked the meat on a super-heated slab of granite at your table. No external heat source. It was pretty cool.

We went to Ha Long bay which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

A picture of the bay from the entrance to a cave that we toured.

Drinking a coconut on a floating house boat.

Ha Long bay at dusk.

Sea kayaking in the bay.

Getting my karaoke on. The vietnamese love their karaoke.

I bought some oil on canvas replicas. Two Van goughs and a Monet. $40 each. Pretty good deal I think. I have the guys website if anyone is interested. He can replicate pretty much anything.

W-MONK

So I meant to blog last Sunday but we have been super busy. I have my licensing exam this Thursday and our car died. Actually the brakes died and it was going to cost like $1800 to fix. We are looking to buy a new car. We have been busy with that. Anywho I thought I would post about Madison and her most recent accomplishment.

At her school they encouraged all the kids to bring a collection of 100 things to school to celebrate the 100th day of the school year. At first Maddy wanted to bring like 100 rocks but, then she decided to bring her piano books to show that she had learned 100 songs. She showed it to her class and everyone at her school was so impressed that Madison was selected to be on W-MONK. It is the school news channel. It is only broadcast to the school but basically Madison showed the whole school her music books and told about her song collection.

Now, being modest as Madison is, she didn't think it was important enough to tell us. One of Amy's piano students (a second grader) mentioned that she saw Madison on TV at school. So we asked Madison about and she simply said, "All I did was talk in front of a camera." She is so cool about things sometimes.

Jackson Walking

So I finally found a minute to update this blog. I have wanted to post this for a couple weeks now, but I am lame so whatever. Any way Jackson started walking about two weeks ago when he was 10 months to the day. Feb 24 2008. I took some additional video to show how he has improved. anyways, enjoy the video.

By the way, Jackson also cut his first tooth about a month ago. Trying to get a picture of this was practically impossible so unfortunately no pictures.