5 years ago
Sunday, March 7, 2010
February 2010
This past month has been a month of changes. We began the month of February in Arizona, then went back to Utah to move, spent a few weeks there, then moved down to Arizona. We have now been in Arizona for about 2 weeks and what a two weeks it has been! Karsten now has his two bottom teeth – OUCH! Yep he bites sometimes. The teeth are super cute though and he is getting 2 more in on the top, one is almost poking through right now and the other will soon follow. Karsten is also learning how to crawl, he gets up on his hands and knees and stays there kind of deciding what to do next. Karsten can also pull himself up to standing, one of his absolute favorite things to do! One of the most fun developments though has been Karsten’s speaking…he can now say “Mamamama” aka “Mama” and “dddaaaddda” aka “Dad”. Well the words may not be perfect yet but they sure do melt my heart. In other news upon turning 7 months Karsten decided he no longer wants bottles and has taken up nursing…yes a kid who nursed a hand full of times in the first few months of life practically threw himself on me to begin nursing...interesting to say the least. I have really been enjoying the time nursing allows us to spend together as well as not having to pump and clean a bunch of bottles. We shall see how long this phase lasts. This past weekend my in-laws, who we are staying with, had Jon Schmidt stay at their house (see post below) and the kids had a piano and fiddle recital that was pretty neat. I have never seen Ryan’s siblings play in concert and it was fun to be able to see them perform. Ryan and I have been busy getting settled and figuring out housing and other things, I don’t feel like we have had much time to do anything, in fact the past two weeks are pretty much a blur and seem like they have flown by. Usually we would have called friends and family to visit but we have been so busy with things like the DMV, housing, work, etc that we have most of the day scheduled. In other words please don’t feel bad if we haven’t called we will soon. Here are some fun pictures from the past month. 
The Piano Recital
I know I am totally biased but I think this video is super cute. The blonde kid "rocking out" is Ryan's little brother, he is 11 years old playing in a group with mostly high school kids (older) and adults...and he played like a pro! Check out this short video. The song is called the Dumb Song and is by Jon Schmidt, the arrangement was by Alex Crandall, she is a cousin on my husband's side, she is in high school -- super talented.
This week the same little brother was on TV with the group, check it out: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid57706987001?bclid=55831969001&bctid=69365707001 For those who don't know Jon Schmidt, well you are missing out, check out his performance, he was at the concert this week and staying at the house with us. Jon is an aweesome guy and performer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw
http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php
This week the same little brother was on TV with the group, check it out: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid57706987001?bclid=55831969001&bctid=69365707001 For those who don't know Jon Schmidt, well you are missing out, check out his performance, he was at the concert this week and staying at the house with us. Jon is an aweesome guy and performer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw
http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php
Friday, February 5, 2010
In the words of Dr. Seuss – Oh the Places You’ll Go
So here we are, it is early February and already this year so much has changed.
Karsten is almost 7 months old, I can hardly believe it! At his 6.5 month check up he weighed 18 pounds and 4 ounces, talk about a chunk butt! Karsten was also 27 and ¼ inches long, which places him in the 75th percentile for his age…poor little guy slowed down a bit on that growing, we were in the 90th and 95th percentile until now..oh well his weight is average and his head size, surprisingly, is actually in the 25th percentile…never thought he had a small head.
Karsten has been doing lots of neat new things too. Recently Karsten has been more motivated to roll over, something that he previously could do but had no interest in doing. He can sit up all by himself for long periods of time, reach forward and grab a toy while balancing, push himself forward and on-to his belly from sitting, and the coolest thing….he started mimicking a crawl! Karsten can also stand up and hold onto the crib or couch with no support for a few minutes at a time. As my ears have recently been “feeling” Karsten is also actively teething, we can see his cute little pearly whites trying desperately to break skin…or gum…whichever comes first.
Early this week Karsten also started saying “mamama” which I of course understand to mean Mama…hey leave me alone with my delusions. Karsten also started saying daddadadda which we think is “dada”…again only a mother’s ears might hear this but that is good enough for me.
Karsten is wearing 9-12 month and 12-month clothes, like I said chunky butt. He actually seems big now, I look at him when other people hold him and he still looks somewhat tiny but not my little cuddly newborn anymore, now he is a baby with his own little personality and his own likes and dislikes. One thing I really do love though is that he has started reaching his arms out for me when he wants to be picked up, this just melts my heart…”mommy I want you now.” Oh what a wonderful thing to be a mommy and watch your little ones grow.
Karsten also likes to pretend that he will sleep in his crib, we have made it one night where he has made it until 7:40 am…pretty much all night. Most other nights Karsten will wake up between 4 and 5am and refuse to sleep in the crib… I don’t blame him our bed is pretty comfy.
In other news as some of you may know Karsten and I took a little “vacation” down to Arizona starting in mid-January. Karsten and I had a fun time driving down to AZ together, this was his first trip in his “big-boy” carseat, his first trip with just mommy, and his first time sitting in a high-chair at a restaurant….hey I gotta eat. While in AZ we had a good time with family and seeing a few friends when time allowed but we missed Ryan (daddy) a lot even though we got to see him on the webcam fairly regularly. At the end of January Ryan came down to AZ to join us for a few days then we headed back up to Utah this week.
While in AZ we got to enjoy the warm weather by taking a number of walks, see friends, eat yummy food, and of course see the family we love!
As many of you may be wondering at this point, or have heard rumors or half of the story, our lives are about to change in big ways in the coming months, let me explain and begin by saying “our marriage is fine, in fact it is great.” For some reason I have been asked a great deal lately about our marriage so I thought I would quash any rumors to the contrary.
So about a year and a half ago we embarked on this journey, moving to Utah and starting graduate school. We started the program feeling like the Lord wanted us to take this opportunity and to pursue this path, a significant factor in our decision to move and take advantage of the opportunity. When we came up to Utah we knew graduate school would present many challenges, but Ryan is a dedicated student, very smart, and was aware that the 3 years of school would involve major sacrifices and pretty much no life outside of school and vacations. The school that Ryan enrolled in is a 3-year program with block classes, this means that he takes 1 class at a time (like med school classes) and finishes that class in 2 weeks. He attends school about 8 hours a day and spent the vast majority of the evening and afternoon studying. When Ryan is not in class he is interning (working) or studying…or as I like to say sleeping. The school requires that students get a 90%+ on every single final (test) in order to pass the class, if you get an 89% or lower you flunk. Students are only allowed to “flunk” 5 tests per year. The first year and a half Ryan passed every single test with a 90% or higher, like I said smarty pants. Ryan’s school does not use any textbooks, instead they rely on PowerPoint slides that instructors create. Instructors are given pretty much no guidelines on their presentations, just told “teach this material” and when I say material I mean “teach cardiac pharmacology”…ummm hello what about that…everything?
During year 1 the average instructor used 50 slides of content per day that they sat and lectured to, occasionally they would have 100 slides per day. Now you might be saying “hmmm 100 PowerPoint slides isn’t bad” but when you consider those slides have every detail about drugs and the body on them at varying levels of detail and font plus if you have no other materials than those slides a 100 slides a day to memorize completely, that day, takes on new meaning. During this year most of the instructors in the first half of the year used 80 slides per day but recently they starting using 250+ slides per day to lecture to. One day Ryan came home, the instructor “covered” 300+ slides in a few hours – yes this is impossible to do with any level of “quality teaching”. So anyways Ryan has been left to memorize thousands of PowerPoint slides and interpret what random phrases instructors say mean and how to use them in clinical settings. Needless to say Ryan has been a bit stressed out with school.
The stress of school has caused us to make some tough choices about what we want to do with our future and how we want to live. We tried a few different approaches, pretty much everything we could think of to make it easier for Ryan to do well in school. In the end, after a lot of prayer and contemplation we have decided it would be best for Ryan to withdraw from school. We really feel like school is not our best option at this time, at least not this program right now. We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us and have helped us out when we have been trying out various approaches to studying.
We know that the next few years are going to involve a lot of challenges and that we now face some new stresses that we would not have necessarily faced had we finished school. Honestly though we feel good about this decision, it was not what we had in mind when we came up to Utah to go to school and it was not our first choice but we think it is for the best.
On a personal note, over the past few months I have really grown as a wife and a person because I have learned to see my husband in a new way, a way that has confirmed to me that he is the most amazing man I know and truly my eternal companion. Some might look at this decision and call it foolish, others might scoff and say that it is “stupid” – we are aware of these criticisms and understand their basis yet we still made the decision, and it was our decision to make. ….For all those who are wondering. Ryan did not flunk out of school, he is welcome to return and complete the program should he wish to do so at some point in the future.
In other words on some happy upbeat notes we will be moving back home very soon – YEAH! Good-bye icky cold weather! In fact good-bye “weather” in general! We are very excited to be moving on from this chapter of our lives, we are looking forward to having more time to spend together, more time with Karsten, and the ability to have the time together we have been missing over the past year and a half. It is so funny, one day a few weeks ago I had a dream where I got up and just started living the life I wanted to live, free from restraints and the rat race we so often commit ourselves to living. I recall telling Ryan about my dream and saying that it was kind of a funny dream to have. Well now we have the chance and are taking it. When we wake up each day we are going to live the life we want to live, no more rat race, no more just making due until we get the opportunities we want, we are making the opportunities. Will it be easy, no; will it be fun all the time, absolutely not; will we have a chance to start fresh and take different opportunities – yes!
So here’s to an exciting new journey and rolling with the hills and valleys of life!
Karsten is almost 7 months old, I can hardly believe it! At his 6.5 month check up he weighed 18 pounds and 4 ounces, talk about a chunk butt! Karsten was also 27 and ¼ inches long, which places him in the 75th percentile for his age…poor little guy slowed down a bit on that growing, we were in the 90th and 95th percentile until now..oh well his weight is average and his head size, surprisingly, is actually in the 25th percentile…never thought he had a small head.
Karsten has been doing lots of neat new things too. Recently Karsten has been more motivated to roll over, something that he previously could do but had no interest in doing. He can sit up all by himself for long periods of time, reach forward and grab a toy while balancing, push himself forward and on-to his belly from sitting, and the coolest thing….he started mimicking a crawl! Karsten can also stand up and hold onto the crib or couch with no support for a few minutes at a time. As my ears have recently been “feeling” Karsten is also actively teething, we can see his cute little pearly whites trying desperately to break skin…or gum…whichever comes first.
Early this week Karsten also started saying “mamama” which I of course understand to mean Mama…hey leave me alone with my delusions. Karsten also started saying daddadadda which we think is “dada”…again only a mother’s ears might hear this but that is good enough for me.
Karsten is wearing 9-12 month and 12-month clothes, like I said chunky butt. He actually seems big now, I look at him when other people hold him and he still looks somewhat tiny but not my little cuddly newborn anymore, now he is a baby with his own little personality and his own likes and dislikes. One thing I really do love though is that he has started reaching his arms out for me when he wants to be picked up, this just melts my heart…”mommy I want you now.” Oh what a wonderful thing to be a mommy and watch your little ones grow.
Karsten also likes to pretend that he will sleep in his crib, we have made it one night where he has made it until 7:40 am…pretty much all night. Most other nights Karsten will wake up between 4 and 5am and refuse to sleep in the crib… I don’t blame him our bed is pretty comfy.
In other news as some of you may know Karsten and I took a little “vacation” down to Arizona starting in mid-January. Karsten and I had a fun time driving down to AZ together, this was his first trip in his “big-boy” carseat, his first trip with just mommy, and his first time sitting in a high-chair at a restaurant….hey I gotta eat. While in AZ we had a good time with family and seeing a few friends when time allowed but we missed Ryan (daddy) a lot even though we got to see him on the webcam fairly regularly. At the end of January Ryan came down to AZ to join us for a few days then we headed back up to Utah this week.
While in AZ we got to enjoy the warm weather by taking a number of walks, see friends, eat yummy food, and of course see the family we love!
As many of you may be wondering at this point, or have heard rumors or half of the story, our lives are about to change in big ways in the coming months, let me explain and begin by saying “our marriage is fine, in fact it is great.” For some reason I have been asked a great deal lately about our marriage so I thought I would quash any rumors to the contrary.
So about a year and a half ago we embarked on this journey, moving to Utah and starting graduate school. We started the program feeling like the Lord wanted us to take this opportunity and to pursue this path, a significant factor in our decision to move and take advantage of the opportunity. When we came up to Utah we knew graduate school would present many challenges, but Ryan is a dedicated student, very smart, and was aware that the 3 years of school would involve major sacrifices and pretty much no life outside of school and vacations. The school that Ryan enrolled in is a 3-year program with block classes, this means that he takes 1 class at a time (like med school classes) and finishes that class in 2 weeks. He attends school about 8 hours a day and spent the vast majority of the evening and afternoon studying. When Ryan is not in class he is interning (working) or studying…or as I like to say sleeping. The school requires that students get a 90%+ on every single final (test) in order to pass the class, if you get an 89% or lower you flunk. Students are only allowed to “flunk” 5 tests per year. The first year and a half Ryan passed every single test with a 90% or higher, like I said smarty pants. Ryan’s school does not use any textbooks, instead they rely on PowerPoint slides that instructors create. Instructors are given pretty much no guidelines on their presentations, just told “teach this material” and when I say material I mean “teach cardiac pharmacology”…ummm hello what about that…everything?
During year 1 the average instructor used 50 slides of content per day that they sat and lectured to, occasionally they would have 100 slides per day. Now you might be saying “hmmm 100 PowerPoint slides isn’t bad” but when you consider those slides have every detail about drugs and the body on them at varying levels of detail and font plus if you have no other materials than those slides a 100 slides a day to memorize completely, that day, takes on new meaning. During this year most of the instructors in the first half of the year used 80 slides per day but recently they starting using 250+ slides per day to lecture to. One day Ryan came home, the instructor “covered” 300+ slides in a few hours – yes this is impossible to do with any level of “quality teaching”. So anyways Ryan has been left to memorize thousands of PowerPoint slides and interpret what random phrases instructors say mean and how to use them in clinical settings. Needless to say Ryan has been a bit stressed out with school.
The stress of school has caused us to make some tough choices about what we want to do with our future and how we want to live. We tried a few different approaches, pretty much everything we could think of to make it easier for Ryan to do well in school. In the end, after a lot of prayer and contemplation we have decided it would be best for Ryan to withdraw from school. We really feel like school is not our best option at this time, at least not this program right now. We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us and have helped us out when we have been trying out various approaches to studying.
We know that the next few years are going to involve a lot of challenges and that we now face some new stresses that we would not have necessarily faced had we finished school. Honestly though we feel good about this decision, it was not what we had in mind when we came up to Utah to go to school and it was not our first choice but we think it is for the best.
On a personal note, over the past few months I have really grown as a wife and a person because I have learned to see my husband in a new way, a way that has confirmed to me that he is the most amazing man I know and truly my eternal companion. Some might look at this decision and call it foolish, others might scoff and say that it is “stupid” – we are aware of these criticisms and understand their basis yet we still made the decision, and it was our decision to make. ….For all those who are wondering. Ryan did not flunk out of school, he is welcome to return and complete the program should he wish to do so at some point in the future.
In other words on some happy upbeat notes we will be moving back home very soon – YEAH! Good-bye icky cold weather! In fact good-bye “weather” in general! We are very excited to be moving on from this chapter of our lives, we are looking forward to having more time to spend together, more time with Karsten, and the ability to have the time together we have been missing over the past year and a half. It is so funny, one day a few weeks ago I had a dream where I got up and just started living the life I wanted to live, free from restraints and the rat race we so often commit ourselves to living. I recall telling Ryan about my dream and saying that it was kind of a funny dream to have. Well now we have the chance and are taking it. When we wake up each day we are going to live the life we want to live, no more rat race, no more just making due until we get the opportunities we want, we are making the opportunities. Will it be easy, no; will it be fun all the time, absolutely not; will we have a chance to start fresh and take different opportunities – yes!
So here’s to an exciting new journey and rolling with the hills and valleys of life!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa
Over the holidays we stayed with Ryan’s parents aka Grandma and Grandpa. Ryan’s older brother, Jason was able to come down from Canada with his wife, Callie and we were so thrilled to be able to meet her and get to know her better. We also had a fun time getting to hang with Ryan’s sister Tiffany and her boyfriend Tyler as well as Ryan’s sister Crystal. Ryan’s younger brother Cade and sister Courtney had lots of fun with Karsten and we enjoyed having them around too – thanks for letting us use your rooms guys!
During our stay we celebrated Christmas, Ryan’s mom crocheted hats and scarves for the kids…one went a little funky but it fast became the favorite funny item to wear. Callie got Jason a Cardinals jersey because he is a die hard fan…she put it on then sat around waiting for him to notice….needless to say we had to get him to look at her after about 10-15 minutes of everyone waiting….he was chatting.
The day after Christmas we had an open-house for Jason and Callie, we cooked and prepped the house then had a big party to celebrate their wedding. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the chance to formally welcome Callie to the family!
We really enjoyed being able to celebrate the season with our family and have the opportunity to be together.
During our stay we celebrated Christmas, Ryan’s mom crocheted hats and scarves for the kids…one went a little funky but it fast became the favorite funny item to wear. Callie got Jason a Cardinals jersey because he is a die hard fan…she put it on then sat around waiting for him to notice….needless to say we had to get him to look at her after about 10-15 minutes of everyone waiting….he was chatting.
The day after Christmas we had an open-house for Jason and Callie, we cooked and prepped the house then had a big party to celebrate their wedding. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the chance to formally welcome Callie to the family!
We really enjoyed being able to celebrate the season with our family and have the opportunity to be together.
Christmas with Nana
On Christmas day we had the opportunity to spend some time with Julia’s side of the family. We started out at Nana’s house and opened lots of presents then we went to great-great-aunt Barbara’s house! We had lot of fun playing with cousins and meeting new people. We also had a great time seeing family and enjoying the spirit of the season. Plus Karsten got lots of cool new clothes that he can sport in a few months when he is chunky enough to fit into them. Nana also got these talking Seaseme Street dolls, we got Cookie Monster, it says things like “I like to giggle, ha ha ha ha ha, Me love to giggle, Me love COOKIES, yum yum yum, burp, excuse me” – needless to say it is super cute Ryan and I love playing with it.
Nephews
Over the holidays we got to spend a little time with my nephews (Julia’s brother’s kids…aka the only nephews we currently have although we welcome more additions). Here are some pictures of Che (pronounced like “Shay”; 2.5 yrs), Rylan (2 weeks), and Karsten (5.5 months). I made the little shirts they are wearing with their first initials with the intent of taking pictures unfortunately I didn’t plan on having to compete with presents from Nana…oh well it was still fun. Towards the end of the time Che wanted to hold Karsten so we attempted to make that work because he wanted Nana to hold him so he could hold the “baby” --- it was really cute.
Friends!
During the holidays we had a number of chances to get together with friends and their families. Karsten is a very social baby, he absolutely loves other kids so he loved getting to see his friends too! Here are some pictures of us with the Hamelwrights, Cox family, and Tylers. Thanks to Kaylin, Zack, Eli, and Bronx for being good sports for photos!
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