First Day of School

Tucker and Lucy started school on Tuesday. Lucy started second grade and Tucker started kindergarten. I am not so thrilled that summer is over. Back are the days of early mornings, nagging, strict bedtimes, nagging, homework, nagging, carpool, nagging, making lunches, nagging...etc. Oh well, such is life. At least they are excited, right?

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

This little gem was forwarded to me by Jennette. Wow!

Arguing With the Nurse

Yesterday I had half of my thryroid taken out cause it was ginormous. In other words I had a goiter. Anyway it took me a very long time to de-grog from the anesthesia. Around six o'clock a pretty mean nurse came on and I got into an argument with her in a very grown up and mature way...or maybe it was the drugs...who knows.
-Well your husband isn't actually a doctor
-Yes he is
-No he isn't
-He didn't go to med school
-Umm yes he did. He's an md not a tech
-Well he doesn't see patients
-Yes he does
-No he doesn't, he sits in a dark room reading x-rays
-except when he does ultra sounds and interventional procedures
-Oh

I guess I showed her! She kicked me out of recovery pretty swiftly after that. I'm so proud of the way I argued like a first grader.

Atul Gawande

Yesterday Rob, his mom, and I went up to the Hunstman Center to hear Atul Gawande, author of Complications and Better speak. It was sooo interesting. I really highly recomend these books. Very interesting. Very enjoyable. It was really fun to hear him speak. He talked about (as do his books) the medical profession. One thing he talks about is the bell curve. There are a few doctors in all fields who have great outcomes almost all the time. The rest of the doctors perform in the big mediocre lump in the middle and a few are on the bottom end. Why? How can we improve performance? What if doctors had grades? Would anyone go to a C doctor? Would a C grade encourage a doctor to become better and earn an A? What are the A doctors doing differently than the rest? If all the knowledge and training is the same what is it about the A doctors that sets them apart? Or what about medical research. Would more lives be saved if we keep pouring money into a cure for breast cancer or would more lives be saved if mammograms were made more accessible, less uncomfortable, and cheaper? Should we spend more money mastering the knowledge and technology we have now or should we dump more money into more research which often leads to nowhere? He talks about a polio outbreak in India and the great attention to detail that goes into the "mopup" which prevents the disease from spreading. Basically he talks about his experience observing how effeciently conducted the effort to immunize 4 million kids in 48 hours in rural India was. It is really fascinating. He discusses all sorts of interesting issues and solutions and ethical questions. These books are worth the time (acutaly I read each in a day) even if your hubby isn't a doctor. I think that these would make fantastic book group reads. There is so much to think about and discuss. Anyway, it was fun to see such a great writer discuss his book.

At Long Last

Well our sofa finally arrived after a VERY ANNOYING waiting process (note to self: never ever ever never ever will I buy anything from Furniture Warehouse). It was a lot bigger scale than what we remembered and I swear our feet could touch the ground on the one in showroom....oh well. I'm glad it is finally here, and the Furniture Warehouse ordeal is over.

Look What Clara Can Do!

That Clara is a trickster. She is dying to crawl. I give her a month. Yikes, it is going way too fast!!!!!

Mrs. Wiese

Rob's sister Courtney got a job teaching US History and Geography here in SLC. The kids were very excited to go and see her classroom. Lucy got her Kit doll all dressed up for the occasion even.
We are excited for Court. Congratulations on your exciting new adventure!

Love and Marriage

We celebrated our 10th anniversary August 16 (by eating sushi, of course). Well who would have thought we would be oldy-weds? I suppose those with 20+ years under their belt's may not think ten years is much to brag about, but in the last 10 years we've:
- Both graduated from BYU.
- Survived Medical School
- Had a Lucy, a Tucker, an Anders, and a Clara join our family (definitely the highlight)
- Visited the Omaha zoo an inordinately high number of times
- Bought a house
- Bought a couch (which better arrive on Monday or there is going to be Hell to pay!!!)
- Made it through three years of residency
- Accumulated an obscene amount of debt thanks to med school
- Watched a ton of movies, listened to a ton of music, read a ton of books, eaten at least three tons of food
- Painted 1 apartment, one town house, and one split level house from top to bottom for ourselves (and painted a lot of other houses for a summer job once in Hawaii) Needless to say next time we need a paint job we will be hiring someone else, thank you very much.
- Watched 3 kids learn to ride a bike
- Watched 2 kids learn how to read
- Daydreamed of all the places we are going to travel someday, all the tomatoes we will grow someday, all the art we are going to collect, all the debts we are going to pay off, all the good times still to come....I'll get back to you on this topic in ten more years...

Not too shabby, at least we don't think so!

More Table Scraps

My parents got their spankin' new iMac yesterday, and now we are the proud new owners of an iMac. It is our first Mac and I am excited to figure out all of the fun features. This means I can post my own blogs!!!! Many thanks to Dad and Em for their technical support for my blog. Thanks Mom and Dad and Jayson for hooking us up!

Algorithm March

And are these Mormon Missionaries?

Table Scraps

Rob and I have no pride. We are like dogs waiting for food to drop. And a nice piece of meat just dropped. Thanks to the generosity of my sister Emily and her hubby Jayson we are the proud owners of a decent sized T.V. that even has speakers. They bought an uber-fancy system and gave us their not so shabby old system. We have had the same little T.V. for ten years. We bought it with wedding money. Anyway, to go with the new TV we went to Ikea and bought an entertainment center and bookshelves. We moved the upstairs couch and chair (hand-me-downs of course...if you are interested in their provenance they started with Grandma Green--Aunt Colette's mom-- then cousin Megan then sister Emily and now us) downstairs, and now our family room actually feels like a family room, rather than a yard sale collection of crap. Our new sofa for our living room is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday and suddenly we will be the owners of first-hand furniture!!! I may have to buy a gun to gaurd the couch from filthy children and evil-doers that want to destroy my new couch.






We also may soon be owners of my parents iMac as well. I jokingly planted seeds in my Dad's mind a month ago when I told him he should by a new Mac and give us their old one. He just well may do that, and I was only teasing. I'm a well trained dog, I guess.
Now let's see what else do we need? A new dishwasher? Yup...anyone needing a new one? We take hand-me-downs! Did I mention we have no pride?

Minimum Wage

Minimum-Wage Hike Celebrated With Name-Brand Ketchup

ICK!!!

Anders Sans Training Wheels

He did it. We took of the training wheels, and just like his brother Tucker did, he rode off like a madman! Good work Pono.

Happy Birthday Emmer June

Yesterday was Em's birthday but she was at girls camp, so it's okay if I say this a bit late, right? Besides late birthday sentiments are sort of my modus operandi. Anyway, thanks for embarrassing me during high school, and letting my self-righteous side really hone itself. I'm glad we got to grow up and become good friends. Happy Birthday!

Bless Shrubbie's Heart

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Georgie W. Bush
August 5, 2004

Well that just about sums it up, doesn't it?

Clara and the Gang

Three of the latest batch chillaxin'


Clara going down on some water