Studying: A Preparation for Finals

The craziness of the semester is magnified as you get to finals. This semester my finals are all comprehensive. While everyone class expects you to remember everything that they have presented to you, this semester my teachers are planning to see if this theoretical expectation is true! So I've be confined to the library to try and recall all of the information from this intense semester.

I've been fortunate to have a great study buddy through this semester. Whitney Jensen has been in my anatomy class and my microbiology class. So we've had a lot of information to review. It has been a blessing to have someone willing to put in so much time studying all of this stuff. Admittedly, most of our time has been spent studying anatomy concepts, especially relating to the tricky testing proceedure of the lecture portion of this class. Another large chunck of time has been spent in the lab going of thousands of anatomical landmarks.

Lucky for both of us we've found some other dedicated friends along the way. Rachel Solter was another dedicated student who has spent many hours studying and reviewing for these exams. (I'm surprised we didn't get a study room named after us in honor of all the hours we've spent there studying this semester!)

I'm grateful for the patience of my study buddies this semester. Thank you for all your time and patience as we've worked through this tidal wave of information and exam preparation.

(Posted 7/24/10 - Update: I ended up with C's on both anatomy finals, lecture & lab; C on my microbiology final, A on my physiology final; didn't take my psychology final because I had aced the rest of the class and was exempt.)

Gardening: Step 2

It has taken us a little bit longer than we wanted to get to this point in this year's garden. But the school semester has been grueling and has provided limited time to spend cultivating the soil. Michelle finally decided that waiting for me to actually form these rows was not getting anywhere and she took matters into her own hands. (I had actually created rows at one point but I didn't do a very good job and Michelle had erased my mistakes.)

Now I understand what a real row is supposed to look like. Deep furrows separating mounds of dirt where the plants will actually be planted. I also laid down the pvc pipe for the watering system.

Michelle has adjusted her garden rows so that each row will have plenty of sunlight and won't significantly shade the adjacent rows. Since some plants grow taller than other plants this planning takes great forethought.

And now we are ready to proceed to the planting stage!

(Posted: 7/24/10)

Hiking the Y - A Family Tradition

I'm not sure what the appeal is but our boys love to go hiking to the "Y". Maybe it's because the "Y" is sitting right outside our front room window and they can see it every day. Michelle has decided that she would like to branch out and discover other fun and exciting hikes. While I would tend to agree with her it doesn't change the fact that the boys keep asking for the opportunity to go hiking the "Y".

So here we are again. Aleky has decided that he is a big boy and doesn't need to ride is the baby backpack. So he heads off with the other boys to cruise up the mountain.


David and Donovan have designated themselves the official water carriers and insist on carrying the water backpacks on every hike. That isn't bad except the water goes with them, as fast and as far as they go, sometimes leaving the rest of us a bit parched. But who can deny that kind of enthusiasm?

While Aleky isn't quite as fast as his brothers he is not to be denied.


This year Aleky hiked all the way up to the "Y" on his own steam and back again! Holy cow, is my 2 1/2 year old son doing all of this? I'm gonna have to really work to keep up with them!

David Gets Stitches - Aleky Attacks

David is trying so hard to be a good big brother. But sometimes, despite his best attempts, his brothers can get the best of him. Today has been one of those days.

David was outside, swinging on our swing, minding his own business. From inside the house Michelle and I hear this blood-curteling scream, a sure indication of actually injury and pain. We race to the back door to see David holding his mouth and blood dripping all over!

"What happened?" I asked David. "Aleky...hit me...in the mouth." sobbs David in reply. This is obvioulsy perplexing, how could Aleky hit David to cause such trauma?

Michelle heads in the house to get a rag to cover the bleeding and I head for Aleky who thinks the park will over some sort of protection as he flees the scene of the crime. After several minutes the bleeding stops and Aleky is release from time-out and we finally think we've determined what actually happened.

As far as we can determine, David was swinging on the swing. Aleky was playing with his nerf sword (that he received from his Uncle Tristram for Christmas). This sword is missing the soft tip (due to some misguided teeth, prior to the accident) and has a pvc pipe through the center of sword which is now exposed. As David was swinging Aleky though he would hit this moving target with the sword. Not having success in stopping the swinging David, Aleky backed up and just threw the sword at David (we suspect). This airborne projectile's exposed pvc pipe hits a forward swinging David causing a fairly deep laceraction, lots of pain and blood.

Normally we wouldn't have been to worried about the laceration except that it nearly went through David's bottom lip. Although the bleeding had stopped we couldn't decide if this wound needed medical attention. In the end, because is was deep and on his face, we decided that it would be better to get it stitched up so it wouldn't be a huge wound (scar) later on.

Michelle finished getting dinner on the table, boys fed (including Quinten) and takes David to the hospital. I stay home and get the boys ready for bed. Little did we know it would take about 3 hours before he would finally see a doctor and get his 6 stitches. Had we known that from the beginning I would have gone and Michelle would have taken care of the other boys.

David was a trooper through it all. You can't really blame him for being tired at 11:00 pm. The worst part of it all was that this was David's VIP week at school. Tuesday morning was his day to introduce his family to the class. Due to the late hour for receiving medical attention, both David and Michelle had a hard time waking up the next day.

I was at school taking a test. Fortunately, I was able to race home after the test to get David to school only 30 minutes late. We postponed our family presentation for later in the morning when we could all arrive and be presentable. His presentation included a quick introduction of everyone and an explanation about his stitches ("My brother Aleky beat me up!"). The class was proud of David's stitches and at least 6 other students had to tell about their injuries that had previously received. We just felt bad that he had stitches and a fat lip during his special VIP week at school. (The swords have all been confiscated until further notice)

The Garden Begins Again

It's that time of year when we begin getting the soil prepared for the annual garden. Michelle has decided that we need to enrich the soil every other year. Apparently this is the other year. It's a good thing Michelle knows what she's doing, I'm just the grunt laborer.

We feel quite fortunate to have some wonderful friends. We were able to borrow a roto-tiller to get the soil mixed and ground tilled and ready for planting. Actually, this is just the tilled part. We still have to make the rows, lay down the watering system and get support fencing installed before we're really ready for this growing season.

There's something about seeing the ground getting prepared for another garden. We're excited about what we'll get this year. I think we're finally learning from all of our mistakes so this should be a good year.


(Posted 7/24/10)

Bowling for Family Home Evening

The other day our boys rediscovered the plastic bowling pins (and ball) and have been playing with them non-stop. Usually they are taking setting up the pins in our "bowling alley" in the basement. The last time they had the pins out Michelle had put "X"-s on the ground so the boys would know where to set up all the pins. She even place a "ball guide" on the floor showing the boys where to roll the ball to hit the pins. So the boys have been playing bowling (until the get bored and decide that it's more fun to play swords with the pins instead of simply knocking the pins over).

David has been begging to go bowling ever since this recent discovery. We decided that going bowling as a family would be a fun activity. I was especially keen on the idea because I've spent so much time studying lately that I feel like I don't hardly see my boys at all, let alone have any time for being a good daddy. This would be a chance to spend some time with them. And we've always had good memories when we've gone bowling. And we always do a lesson for Family Home Evening and this would add a little variety to our lives.

So bowling was our Family Home Evening activity. We started off with some well behaved boys, sitting quietly waiting their turn to bowl. That lasted for a full 30 seconds, until David wanted to throw the first ball and Donovan couldn't stand it standing still. Michael and Aleky were right behind and so the sitting thing and taking turns was a challenge.

Having completed an intensely close and competitive game, the boys come together just long enough for one picture. David still can't believe the score.

I managed to pull off a 100+ bowling game. However, the stunning victory came from Donovan. He did us the bowling ball ramp for most of the game but the final frames he decided he was big enough to throw the ball unaided. (David was also throwing the ball unaided for the last part of the game.) In the end, he almost broke 100 and he beat mommy by 1 pin! Way to go Donovan!!!

Based on our score it would appear that we all need to head to the bowling alley to practice our aim, throw, and sense of fun and togetherness. What good times for our family.

Storytime with Grandma Jones

And so the bedtime process has begun when all of a sudden...Grandma comes! We had a surprise visit from Grandma Jones tonight! Cheyenne and Larissa were with her too and their arrival put new life into the boy's sails. That's not always a good thing just before bedtime however.

Fortunately Grandma new just what to do. While Cheyenne and Larissa took turns holding Quinten, Grandma read a few bedtime stories to the boys. Each boy picked a book and they gathered around to hear each story. Only Aleky seemed to escape the quieting effects of story time.


Once the boys had calmed back down we finished getting them ready for bed. Grandma and the girls were only here for a short visit but all of us were very excited about their unannounced arrival. Hopefully we'll get another surprise visit in the near future. Thank you for stopping by.

Surprise Visit From Elder Jensen

What a hectic morning...

There I was lying peacefully in my bed when I happened to look at the clock...6:53 am! While that isn't very early it happened to be just 7 minutes before my first meeting of the morning. And as happens when you discover your about to be late I received that adrenaline rush and jumped out of bed landing perfectly in front of my closet (almost). Actually I just jumped out of bed and began to hurriedly getting dressed.

I aroused Michelle as I hurried down the hall so that she could begin getting the rest of the family ready for church (it takes us that long to get ready for church in the morning). Somehow I managed to arrive just slightly late for my meeting. At the conclusion of the meeting I raced home to provide what little assistance I could to help the rest of the family get ready for church. As usual, Michelle had everyone ready and waiting, playing quietly in the living room. I swallowed a quick bite to eat, brushed my teeth (finally), and grabbed scriptures and church bag. In spite of our level of preparation we managed to arrived at church in time for the sacramental hymn.

As we walked in to our usual seat on the second row we noticed that there had been a change in our bishopric! The seat usually occupied by Brother Brienholt was by a distinguished looked gentleman that looked strangely familiar. We quickly took our seats. The hymn happened to be the hymn we have been practicing as a family this past week during our scripture reading in the morning, "God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son (Hymn #187).

Our boys sang the first verse of the hymn, sat quietly during the passing of the sacrament and then busied themselves playing games on our phones during the talks (presented by our new High Priest Group leadership). Each person shared a shortened talk obviously leaving time at the end of the meeting for our visitor, but having missed the announcements because we were late we had to wait until this mystery speaker was announced.

Finally it was announced that Elder Jay E Jensen of the Presidency of the Seventy would be our concluding speaker! No wonder he looked familiar!!! He shared some great thought is just a few minutes. The main idea that I received from his talk was the parable of the pearl and the box. This parable was originally related by Elder Boyd K Packer:

“The parable: A merchant man seeking precious jewels found at last the perfect pearl. He had the finest craftsman carve a superb jewel box and line it with blue velvet. He put his pearl of great price on display so others could share his treasure. He watched as people came to see it. Soon he turned away in sorrow. It was the box they admired, not the pearl.” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Cloven Tongues of Fire,” Ensign, May 2000, 7)

Elder Jensen then related several examples of how we, as church members "admire the box" instead of "the pearl." Several examples, as I remember them include the following: Boy scout camp and girls camp activities are the box, the spiritual experiences are the pearl. The church buildings are the box, the gospel is the pearl. The temple is the box, Jesus is the pearl.

After the closing prayer, an eloquent oratory by Michelle, we expected the chapel to rush our position on the second row to shake the hand of this visiting General Authority. Surprising, we were not stampeded and we took advantage of our position to let each boy (except Quinten) to shake Elder Jensen's hand. After shaking the hands of the three speakers Elder Jensen came down from the stand and stopped at our row as we were trying to clean-up and repack our things.

Elder Jensen had some nice things to say to us as he surveyed our five boys and related his experience, having had 4 boys and 2 girls of his own and more than a dozen grand baby boys. He then asked my name and gave me a hug. It was a special experience to have those few special moments with someone of such spiritual stature. Both Michelle and I were able to feel a special spirit this morning.

Apparently Elder Jensen was originally scheduled for a large area training for the Eastern United States. But due to excessive snow those member's church meetings had been cancelled, freeing up Elder Jensen's Sunday. He had intended to visit a Spanish Ward in our area (not our stake) only to discover they were having ward conference. And having been acquainted with a previous stake presidency and thus being somewhat familiar with our ward/stake building he decided to visit us instead. We certainly feel blessed that the Lord would go through such great lengths to guide this servant to our ward to visit with me and my family (I'm just sure that's exactly why it happened...).

Regardless of the reasons or circumstances, this was a truly wonderful surprise visit from Elder Jensen. Once we got home we pulled out the recent Conference Ensign and showed the boys a picture of Elder Jensen and we had the opportunity to explain the various levels of church leadership (based on the row their picture happened to be in). What a fabulous Sabbath day.

Little Annie Oakley (Eleanor)

Our ward has a fabulous cooking group and every month Michelle wants to go and learn some new cooking tips, gather great recipes and visit with wonderful friends. Tonight was the night and she was really wanting to go but I've had a lot of studies, up-coming tests, etc. But I also knew it would mean a lot to her to go so I decided to sacrifice some study time to allow her the opportunity (I figured I could make up some of the study time over the holiday weekend).

Since I was going to be home I invited Eleanor to come over and play. From the pictures below you may notice that it isn't hard to babysit one additional child, especially if that child is a cute little girl. The boys were flocking to her where ever she went. Eleanor thought it was great fun to shoot the boys and watch the "die" and bounce up to be shot again (even better than an arcade game and it doesn't cost anything).

As you can imagine, Eleanor had plenty of practice and was dead on in her aim, killing all 5 boys (of course I wanted to play too, I just couldn't take a picture of me being shot). It worked out to be lots of fun. The boys were very disappointed when the finally had to go to bed (45 minutes after their regular bedtime).


Michelle had a great time at cooking group and I had a great time at home with the kids. It was so much fun I think I'll have to do it again sometime. Now let's see...when is my next vacation day?

Going to the Park

I've been studying pretty hard lately trying to handle 3 intense classes: anatomy, physiology and microbiology (and psychology but it isn't quite so intensive). This morning I took another anatomy quiz which included studying until midnight (again) last night and back to campus first thing this morning.

While that has been pretty tough Michelle has been stranded at home with 5 boys 6 years old and under. That may be slightly more intense than my rigorous studies. So after my exam I came home and let Michelle escape for a few hours. While she was gone I was able to feed my boys lunch and then go to the park. So off we went, Donovan, Michael, Aleky and Quinten to the park across from the church.

The boys had a fabulous time. And they were going full speed the entire time. I was able to catch a few precious moments.

Michael and Aleky wanted to swing on the swings like Donovan. So I gave 'em a push (or three) and they thought that was the best. That lasted for at least 3 minutes before they were off to more exciting parts of the park.

Donovan has learned how to pump all by himself and can get the swing pretty high. Here is an action photo of one of his dismounts.

The slides captured the attention of Michael and Aleky, especially Aleky. He was going non-stop the entire time.

This shows Aleky's mounting technique for sliding down the slides. (No, I didn't teach this to him...he figured it out all by himself.)

Ahhh....

All the boys were running full speed. This was my speed trap where I could catch 'em in action.


And I got a few precious moments in the sun with my boys! What a great mid-day activity.