Operative Dentistry

I just wanted to write a bit about school just to make myself feel good. It is absolutely incredible how much information they are packing into our brains so quickly. I already have a pile of paper that is just my notes from class that is approaching 10 inches in height. Of course there is also text book material we have been required to read but just the notes from class are exausting. In a week or two of time we cover as much material as an entire semester of undergrad study. But with all that said, It has also been quite rewarding. The other night as I was walking in the rain from the Dental building to the medical library to study all night, I stopped and thought about what a blessing and a great experience it is to be here. I felt the rain on my face, looked at the stone spires on top the Medical School illuminated against the black sky like the cathedral of Notre Dame, looked at historic Kinnick Stadium, and pondered what a great experience this all is. Jessica and I have worked so hard to be in the place we are right now and sometimes its easy to get overwhelmed with everything, but its in those hard moments that I count my blessing and thanks Heavenly Father for what we have.

Now on a more fun note, I had one of my classmates take a picture with my phone of me working in class. We have a dental simulation clinic here at Iowa where we are able to work on a manikin head that has false teeth, real teeth glued into a denture, etc. We are learning how to drill cavities right now and its fun to actually be working like that. I'm getting pretty good with the drill so everyone needs to look out. Hahahaha. We will start doing work on each other next semester and I think we start working on real patients either next summer or for sure next fall.

The Slideshow Famine is Over

Here is a quick slide show video i made while Jess was taking a nap. She is still recovering from a bad cold. The film covers the boys from the time we moved to Iowa til now. I hope you will enjoy and not miss the boys too much. We will be home to visit soon enough.

To all the doubters

Here is phase II of our little project. We received phone calls and blog comments kind of doubting our painting skills and wondered what patterns we used, if it was paper or paint, some thought they were purchased. Well, to all the doubters, here is a picture of us working on it as well as the final product. We used those spongy ear plugs to do the solid circles and used a piece of construction paper rolled in a tube to make the hollow circles. Jess is so creative. They were both her ideas to make such nice circles. She is great. I love her so much. She has so many talents. You would not believe the fantastic scrapbook pages she has made for the boys. And now these block letters are memories that the boys can have forever.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Joe has been so great this weekend taking care of me while I have been sick. He has cleaned up, taken care of the boys, taken them to church by himself, and most importantly he has let me NAP! When I woke up from a much needed nap this afternoon, he had started my craft project for me to kill time. Well, I couldn't very well let him go at it alone! So this is what we have so far.

Close-up

And this is the crib set we tried to match.

Tomorrow for family night we are going to do "Noah".

Wish us luck!

Let me explain...

...no, there is too much. Let me sum up.
This past week or so has been fairly hectic, but i won't go much into it. Halloween was filled with many events that i will soon post pictures of, but I don't have any yet. I'll just talk about the important stuff.
Things I love about Joe:
1. He lives his life in a way that makes it easy for me to love him, trust him, and respect him.
2. I know that he would do anything short of chopping off his fingers to make me happy.
3. He loves being a father, and he is good at it.

Things I love about my boys:
1. They are giggly in the morning.
2. They look to me when they cry, because they trust that I can make it all better.
3. Noah sticks out his tongue a lot, and Ethan says "Dada" to get my attention.

Things I love about my mom:
1. She is so quarky that it would be impossible to describe her in one word.
2. She has found it in herself to forgive me for being such a wretched teenager.
3. She loves to laugh, even at herself.

Double Tagged

A few weeks ago i was tagged by my friend Trish to list 6 quarks about myself. I really wanted to do it,but i was about to post a bunch of awesome zoo pictures, so I waited. But then i got tagged by a different friend Tawnya for the same thing. So here goes, one for me and one for Joe. Our quarks that make us sooo different.
Our 6 Quarks:
1. For some reason, I get SUPER hyper right before bed time. I always have. I can remember when i was little, running down the hallway singing at the top of my lungs and then jumping on my parents bed and licking my mom's face. Ya, hyper may be an understatement. I have no idea why I get so wiggly and silly and crazy right before bed time, but i just do. I really cannot help it-I've tried. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep-bare minimum. Joe is just the opposite. If I wasn't there to bug him to almost death, he could crawl into bed and be asleep in less than five minutes. Every night is a battle...and I always win.
2. Joe is a planner. Every night as he is brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed he plans out his next day. What time he will wake up, what he wants to accomplish, and everything in between. If he has an open window of time in his planning, he fills it. Even on Saturdays! He hates waking up and not knowing what he is going to do for the day. I, however, hate being scheduled. It leaves no room for spontaneity. Sure I have things that I'd like to get done, but without the pressure of a deadline. There is nothing I love more than the complete and total freedom of an open schedule.
3. When I am meeting new people, and even with friends, I always feel like I have to watch what I say so that I don't offend people. It started in junior high when I told someone that "i used to be so nerdy with my glasses", and my friend with glasses really had her feelings hurt. I felt so bad, and I have always tried not to do that ever again. Joe has an interesting sense of humor sometimes, where he says rude things to people and tries to play it off as sarcasm. For example, Joe used to tell his/my family that he really didn't mind when their kids touched their nasty germy hands all over his stuff. But then he doesn't laugh it off after, so as to give the recipient the reassurance that he was only joking. The truth is, he really means what he is saying, but assumes that everyone will just think he's joking. It drives my crazy. If he ever does this to anyone, you have my permission to tell him that he is a jerk.

To Be Continued....

My Attempt At Greatness

A few weeks ago for my birthday, Joe bought me some wooden letters that spell out "Ethan" and "Noah". He also bought for me some paints in different shades of blue and brown/tan so that i could match the letters to the boys current crib sets. It has taken me quite a while to get started on this project, but late last night I found a website that gave me a renewed inspiration to get me going on these letters. Here is the link, you're gonna LOVE it:
http://www.pinktaffydesigns.com/room-decor-hand-painted-wall-letters-c-101_168_272.html
The design for the name "Tristan" matches the boys cribsets perfectly so I'm gonna go for it! Wish me luck!

Also, as a bit of news, I will most definately be needing to baby-proof since Ethan has begun to crawl. Just as i was typing up this blog and feeding Noah, I could hear Ethan's voice echoing in the bathroom. Naturally I got up to check on him and found him behind the toilet sucking on a Q-Tip that must have fallen from the bathroom garbage. YUCK!!! Somy question is: what am i going to need to baby-proof now, before I find out the hard way again?