Panda Goes to the Big Apple for Residency Interviews

The most expensive traveling of Seth's life has begun. Residency interviews have started and Seth is going on 16 interviews. SIX-TEEN. The week before Thanksgiving he hit up the northeast for three interviews...Cornell (Manhattan), Dartmouth (Lebanon, NH) and U of Vermont (Burlington, VT). He felt good about the interviews and seemed excited about all of them. He stayed with his good friend, Ryan Simmons and his wife Kimberly, in Manhattan and got really excited about us living there. That is until we found out we could live there, but go with out food, electricity, heat, clothing, and transportation. Unless Santa brings us a financial miracle, like the lottery, we probably won't end up going there.

Of course, what's a trip to NYC without a Panda pic in front of the Statue of Liberty.

At the end of this week, Seth is off on a Rock and Shock tour of the Southeast. On the way he's hitting up Phoenix and Taft and I get to tag along.


We really appreciate the friends and family who have offered their homes, guest beds, and couches for this interview process.

Back with a Mac

I'm back in blogging business. Mac arrived today and we couldn't be happier. Well, maybe a little happier. I bought a used one (it was our compromise) and it was supposed to have iPhoto/Movie on it and it doesn't. And the volume was being weird but I figured it out. Thanks Google.

Posts to come soon....maybe:

Taftman is 8 months old
4th Anniversary
Panda goes to the Big Apple
Good Riddance J&K+8

So tired. So very, very tired.

You might be surprised to know that trying to get over jet lag with a baby who is also trying to get over jag lag is not very fun at all. In fact, it's pretty miserable. Taft has been miserably tired most of the daylight hours and I end up putting him to bed about 5 or 6 because he is just a wreck. Then about 2 am he is ready to play and get going for the day. We've been home for three days now and this is how it has been each day. He's not napping much during the day, but will still only sleep from 5 or 6 until 2. He really didn't have much of a hard time at all adjusting to Belgium time, but he's having a heck of a time now. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him back on Utah time? I'm dying here.

"Simple Living Myth"

I waste a lot of time thinking about how my home looks, how I want it to look, and that having a home that looks like it was ripped from a page in a magazine would make me the happiest person in the world. I know it's vain and superficial, I don't know why I do it, I know it's not that important, but I still do. So what. I came across this little ditty today...I love how google reader suggests new blogs.  Do you think google reader can read our minds?

I think she was speaking to me.

"It’s fun to read magazines that give us tips and ideas, but don’t lose sight of the fact that these magazines are for entertainment, not for new standards of living.

In the pages of a home and garden magazine:

- Closets look more organized because the clothes are all matching neutral colors with plenty of space between the hangers.

- Storage containers are always pretty, and usually expensive.

- There are no tell-tale signs of little kids actually playing.

- The photos are executed by a professional photographer with a crew of assistants, stylists, and editors.

- The stylish furniture and products were borrowed for the shoot, and then later returned to the retailer.

- If the photos are taken in someone’s home, a team of professionals stepped in to rearrange furniture and temporarily take out the clutter.

If it was real, they would never tell you that if you own the right things, you’ll be happier. New boots are not a cure-all, they’re just boots. If it was real, there would be dishes in the sink from dinner, laundry from the baby, and a trail of toys from whatever game was made up today. Don’t think of those things as imperfections, be thankful for all the signs of life within your home." ---www.simplenotebook.org

Help Here

Since our laptop was stolen/lost (we prefer to think it was stolen) the day we arrived in this blessed EU, we've come the conclusion that a computer is just something we cannot live without. Since Christmas is right around the corner we've justified spending school loan money on a computer, wouldn't you? Here's the dilemma, I really want a Mac but they're quite on the expensive side. I've been trying to talk Seth into it but my only argument as been, "But I just really like the way look". I need a stronger selling point. After spending oodles of time on the in-laws Macs, I've realized I like iPhoto loads better than the Windows version, I think iMovie looks like fun, and I still just really like the way it looks. Sometimes when trying to sell Seth on the idea I use the word "aesthetics" to make me sound like I know what I'm talking about. I've looked all over Mac's website and I'm convinced, but how do I get Seth to want it just as much or more than I do?

Za Rheine in '09

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary early this year (Nov. 17) over the weekend. Seth and I went to Bachrach, Germany on the Rheine to spend Friday night and Saturday. T-bone stayed with Gram and Pop and had such a great time he didn't even realize we were gone. We had a great time too and found how strange is was to be able to go to bed whenever we wanted, sleep until whenever we wanted, eat whenever, and only had to worry whether our own bodies were cold. We spent Saturday riding bikes along the Rheine and "reconnecting". It seems like either Seth or I seem to say that we need to "reconnect" a lot. So we did. It was freezing but we still had a really great time. We were very grateful to have free overnight babysitting.

We stayed in the place behind Seth

The kind of picture you get with a bike, a backpack, and a self timer.

How fitting that this dog sign is a weiner dog.