The older child is starting to become creative. Very creative. I'm almost afraid to see what sort of things she'll come up with when it comes to be time for free-writing class. Here are a couple of interesting examples, heard just today, as a matter of fact.

1. Getting Julia to use the potty is always a chore. I have to use all my parenting wiles sometimes to have her sit on the thing for more than ten seconds at a time. Which leads me to this evening's little exchange.
Me: Okay, before you get in the tub we have to try using the potty.
Julia: No! I can't!
Me: You mean "I won't." You can, you just won't. Just try, okay?
(I sit her up on her little seat and hold her there so she doesn't jump off. Turn up the bath water so that hopefully the sound will make her pee.)
Julia: I can't go!
Me: Just hold on. Try. Here, drink this nice, cold water.
Julia: I don't want it. It's not nice, it has hyenas in it!

Yes, that's right everyone, Duluth's water is fortified with nutritious hyena juice. Yum.

2. Sarah was quizzing Julia about one of our family friends. Sometimes J can be very opinionated about people and acts out to keep from seeing them.
Sarah: So, what about it? Do you like her, Julia?
Julia: No, I don't like her.
Sarah: Why? Is she mean to you?
Julia: I think she is.
Sarah: What does she do that is mean?
Julia: Every day, she gets a spider, and she puts it on my face.
Sarah: (trying very hard not to laugh and failing miserably) That is mean!

There are probably other examples but I forget. I'll have to start making a list and put them into a book for her. Maybe she can draw on it for excuses as to why she doesn't have her homework done someday. (My homework has hyenas in it!)

....the camera isn't unpacked yet...

Hi friends!
Well, we're home from our weeklong adventure. We spent a week of vacation time in greater Minnesota again, searching out future practice opportunities. I must say, this is much harder than I thought it would be. I always pictured us finding the perfect place to go....about an hour from the grandparents, a nice independent practice in an area with clean lakes and lots of trees...with a good school system, great citizens, a grocery store with cheap prices, a life-sized stuffed T-Rex on main street and unlimited Thomas the Train rides. (ok...that's in Julia's perfect place....) You get the picture.

Unfortunately, we didn't find that town yet. It seems that all the places we visited had some excellent perks. Each place had a major flaw, however...and it is really, really hard to consider all of these different parameters and pick something. I guess there's no way to know if something is going to work out well until you try it, but this is a big deal. Ideally, Mike and I don't want to move again until we are in assisted living. :) Every time I have had to make a big decision in life, there have always been limiting factors to help guide the decision. I only looked at one undergrad institution. I looked at two med school (most people look at ten) and three residency programs (many med students look at ten or even TWENTY). This is the first (and hopefully the only) time in my life when I've (we've) had to make a big decision and there hasn't been any extenuating circumstances that have limited our scope. Mike is a pharmacist and I am a family doc. There is an enormous, huge, great, giant, big, humungous need for rural primary care docs and pharmacists right now. How in the world do I pick a place? How does Mike pick a place? How do we AGREE on picking the same place?!?!?

...

I have no idea how we are supposed to do this. I tried using the radio for guidance. We were in the car coming back from Ortonville, and I said to God, "Please just let the next song on the radio tell us where to go. I don't care what it says, just TELL me." I kid you not, about two seconds later, the DJ came on to introduce the next song, "No Such Thing" by John Mayer.

ha ha ha, God. You are funny.

See you next week...

Well, our week off has finally arrived!!! We will be spending the next nine days with family and touring a few potential practice sites in rural MN. We'll keep you posted on our progress if we can get close to a computer. Have a good week and say a prayer that all the driving and interviewing goes over well...
THANKS!

Feeding the baby

Today, I realized that my Julia is growing up. For the last year or so, she has acknowledged her dolly's existence, noticed when she is absent, and sometimes carried her around for a few minutes. That's about it. The dolly never had clothes on and it didn't really have a name. Today, Julia's baby had a much more exciting time. She was rocked, dressed, and even shared some of Julia's Raisin Bran! Julia has started to talk to her dolly like we talk to Mary. I'm not sure what prompted this...both Mary and the doll have been around for awhile... I guess Julia must think that that's what we do around here: take care of babies. Sometimes, I think that's all we do around here. (I had the chance to go to Target tonight and it was like a little vacation, eventhough I had one child with me and all I needed to do was buy vitamins and paper towels.)

Halloween!!

Hi everybody,
Another Halloween, come and gone. Papa sewed costumes for the girls this year: you can see that Miss Julia is a cheerleader, and Miss Mary is a homecoming football. We (she) trick-or-treated for a whole hour this year, and rah-rah-sis-boom-bah Julia made quite the killin. I forgot how much candy you can acquire in such a short time on Halloween. We had to dump her bag of candy into our pillowcase every twenty minutes because the candy was too heavy for her. After one short hour of trick-or-treating, Julia's toddler-time patience expired and she made her Grandma Beth carry her home. It wasn't all for naught, however....Papa, Grandma, and I had our Just Rewards....after Miss Julia went to bed, we made a raid on her loot.

Julia poses with Aidan and Sawyer, the Twinkies baseball hunks...

Julia expresses her displeasure. She was NOT interested in snapping a cutesy little pumpkin guts photo this year. This Halloween stuff is serious business! Why are we still in the house at 5:00?!?!?!?!? We should already be trick or treating!

Here, Julia is modeling her cameo "HAlloween Delightful Toddler's DIsposition..." (HAD IT). She was practicing for her future as a head cheerleader...and we were her tardy squad members. It was now 5:05 and we STILL hadn't left for trick-or-treating....