Defeated!

Today I finished my last CLEP test. That makes my total school credits earned in the school year 2011- 2012 54! It was crazy tough and I studied so much that I never even had questions about certain topics that I studied, frustrating yes but I passed so not as much as it could have been. That is just how CLEP tests work you are required to know just about as much as possible and will be tested on 90 questions. As I walked out of the big empty science building (which also happens to be oddly empty in sort of a creepy way) on campus for the third and final time my mind was swimming. 

All I could think about were the LONG nights when I was still struggling with thrush or several of the more difficult stretches since I had Davie when I would stay up until 3 in the morning just to get homework done. 

My own little isolated corner of the library.

Then there was this last week of studying at the library and taking Davie to a sitter for 3-4 hours of the day. Davie did great he didn't cry when I left and all of his sitters said he napped and was not fussy. THEN this weekend Davie got his very FIRST fever.... really, the timing couldn't have been worse. Thankfully though Davie was getting better and his fever was completely gone by Wednesday. I just felt so bad leaving him even for the 4 hours to study when I knew he was all sad and not feeling well. And not that I didn't before but I have a greater respect for those of you out there who have to take your babies to daycare everyday. David's mom had to do it for a while and so did mine. 

All I can say is that it is has been TOUGH but soooo worth it. I was really questioning my ability to continue with school full time since Spring semester ended but now that I successfully finished that last test I am going to continue to try and graduate with my undergrad when David graduates from medical school. I'm half way done baby Wa-Hoooo!

The Other Side

In the middle of all the CLEP test madness some of our friends who had adopted a month before we had Davie were planning to be sealed to their baby in the Detroit temple.

 I seriously agonized over going, leaving Davie for that long with someone else when I should be studying had me feeling guilty (with a capital G), traveling and hour and a half, and of course NOT studying. BUT I decided to go. 

I was making pretty good time until I dropped Davie off and could not find my temple bag with my recommend in it. It's always in my car in the trunk and all the sudden it was gone! I searched and serached and then finally realized it was in David's car which was East of town and I needed to be going North West to the temple. I headed into town and by then I was fuming, I hated feeling so stressed and angry right before heading to the temple! By the time I found my recommend and was heading north I was 30 min late. I made sure to message Maria to let her know I was coming. I prayed the entire trip that my little temple bag car mix up wouldn't make me too late.

By the time I pulled up to the temple I was frantic and as I ran up the steps a temple worker was locking the doors. I managed to get him to oped the door and talk with me but when I told him about the sealing I was trying to attend he said they had just taken the baby into the room... NO! He let me in and I stood in the waiting rom but eventually went to the bathroom so I could cry a little but right as a grabbed some tissues to wipe my eyes a lady stuck her head in and said "is there anyone in here who was going to attend a family sealing?". YES!! Me, me, ME!

Thankfully my friend had asked the sealer ONE more time if they could check for me before they started so they had sent this lady to find me... crying in the bathroom, not my greatest moment. I was so relieved I was ready to cry again! I got to watch a baby be sealed to his mom and dad for time and all eternity and it was beautiful. It gave me a look from the other side of my situation with Colin and I got to see my two friends be sealed to their little baby. It was so amazing, I cried so more.

This is my other friend Keriann who got to attend the sealing. I am so thankful for a heavenly father who listens and hears our prayers! It was a great experience even if the first half was full of stress (and anger) it was worth it to go inside the temple and be with my friends on their special day!

Church Picnic

After I came home in July there was a church picnic for pioneer day. It was such a beautiful evening.

David and I wore matching stipes, not on purpose.

Some friends. 

Riding on Dad's shoulders

6 Months

I took Davie to the park for these pictures hoping to get some good ones of him sitting on his own but it didn't work out very well. Also this particular day was rainy on and off so it was revoltingly muggy. I was dripping by the time we left the park eekkk! Humiditly you are gross!

I really wish I had a second pair of hands. I tried to sit him on this log but he couldn't not balance long enough for me to get a good shot... it would have been so cute!

What a chub.

I sat him in the grass and he was kind of mesmerized.

What is this brown stuff?

No babies were hurt in this picture but he was a wobbly boy today!

He can now sit up on his own. Sometimes for a couple of minutes and sometimes a couple of seconds.

We have had some big changes this last month, heck within the last week! We are now officially feeding him solids at least once a day. The boy just eats and eats! Thus far he is already a fan of both green beans and peas so he is already doing better than his mommy and daddy. The only down side to the solids is he still is a spitter-upper. Gross.

He has now figured out he can roll over and will do it to get to something he wants. Since we got back from our trip to Idaho he has taken a nap ON. HIS. OWN. EVERY. DAY! It's true he has! Can I just tell you how happy that makes me? SOOO HAPPYYY!! Not only that but since we introduced the solids on a regular basis he has been sleeping better at night too. Just when you think you can't handle their habits another day they become whole a new baby. 

Davie LOVE, LOVE, LOVES, cans, bags, magazines and anything else that is shinny and crinkly. I like to tease that I am helping his literary skills by giving him magazines all the time and letting him rip them up and then eat them. 

Davie grabs EVERYTHING if it is in his reach you better hope you saw it first and that he didn't or that it isn't full of liquid. He has sticky little baby hands. One the things he has recently learned is fart noises. he will gum and drool all over something and then blow air on it to make a fart noise. I first noticed him doing it to his Bumbo, but he does it to his hands, your arm etc. It's cute. (Like father like son)

Ahh, my head is soooo heavy!

Ok Mom when are we done?

My very own baby doll. Oh I love this little boy!

This is the best one

A while back Davie learned to spit/ blow raspberries and then he stopped. Well on our journey to visit David's sister and Uncle Bern Davie learned to do it again. Only now he does it when he gets angry. This means that on top of him spitting up and drooling all the time if he gets cranky he now spits all over himself. Most people think it's pretty funny and it is but I am still waiting for the day that he doesn't soak every shirt he wears before noon.

This photo shoot is now over.

Oh hey Mom

I want that monkey!

Davie has started to play with toys, which is FUN.

Mmmm puff ball on a hat.

Sometimes when Davie is just playing he will hum which is adorable. I love it when he talks and babbles to himself and I really hope it means that he will talk earlier rather than later.  Occasionally we can get him to shake his head and he thinks that is pretty funny too. When his Dad first saw him after Davie's plane trip he asked him "Davie did you learn English while you were in Idaho?" to which Davie shook his head.

Davie would walk if he had more balance. I was about to give up on the idea of him crawling but he has decided that he does like his tummy again and has started scooting just a little to get to toys he wants that are close to him.

Now that we are back home I am so glad for the time David takes to be with Davie. They are so cute together and his dad is always coming up with new silly things to do with Davie. I am so blessed to have both of them. 

Hey monkey!

Get this monkey off of me!

I am just so glad for all these next phases to start. Now that he is old enough to cry it out a little every now and then when it's time for bed or nap it's so much easier to handle him. 

Never Coming Back

Every once in a while I get far enough behind in blogging I consider never coming back and then I look at Facebook and remember that I hate it. Davie and I just got back from our first solo flight out west on the 13th (it was midnight so technically the 12th, in my mind if I haven't gone to sleep its still the same day haha). It was busy, fun and successful. And that is about all for now, mostly because I should be in bed.

Instead here are some pictures of Davie "reading" the Skymall magazine on the plane ride home.

This happened with in 2 seconds of setting the open magazine in front of him. 

Clearly he was excited. His Grandma Warden would have been in fits of laughter as he grunted and growled at every page and eventually began to spit at them as he got cranky... he's a little too busy for his own skill set (good).

Eventually he had chewed on the pages enough that I had to pick them out of his mouth in little wet shreds. I love how his hands are blurs in these photos.

When we were done I just stuffed the ripped up magazine in the airplane chair pocket (my bag pack was already stuffed full). In the spirit of his grandparents "another airplane trashed". There's more to the story but this will have to do for now.

Step 1

For all of you non-medical school people I am going to explain more about what the step one test was that David recently took and the pictures are just some of my favorites of Davie and his daddy. In today's medical school world it is the single most important test you take. No pressure right? The test itself is on everything students have learned in their first two years of school, it has 7 sections with 46 questions each and it lasts about 8 hours. Fun times!

David took his on June 19th. He didn't find out what his score was until the 11th of July. A student's score is what determines their competitiveness when they begin to apply for their desired field of residency. As of right now David has fairly lofty goals he either wants to do interventional radiology, or orthopedics (I guess that one is fun because you get to use hammers, saws and/ or nails fairly often (sick)). That being said David has just barely started rounds and has only experienced first hand internal medicine and psychiatry. However after doing both of those rotations he is still completely uninterested in them.

On July 10th David called me with his test results and he had gotten a 253! Some of you might not know what that means so to give you an idea of he was aiming for a 240 and anything above was a bonus. When he told me his test score I was so relieved! Lost of exclamations in this post it was such an amazing day!!!

I hadn't really realized that I was nervous about his score until he told me and I instantly felt sooooo relieved, it was a great moment for us and our future. Another frame of reference for his score is that a 235 would be able to get him into a orthopedic residency pretty easily. I was and am SOOOO proud of David, he did so great! He deserved it after all his sleepless nights of anxiety and endless studying.

 Basically his score will ensure that no matter what he decides he wants to do he will be competitive when he goes to apply for residency. As a medical student he will apply to residencies he is interested in and they will interview him if they are interested in him. After that David will rate the school on a list from 1 to 10 and the residencies will do the same and hopefully the residencies gets the students they want and vice versa.

 For those of you who have already been through the process this is about the extent of residency and placement that I know so I have no doubt that I might have missed a detail or misspoken about the whole ordeal. So yea that's the basics of Step 1 and residency. Except for there is also a Step 2 which is almost as difficult and involved but it doesn't weigh in as much unless you bomb it.

 Davie was helping Dad fix Mom's lamp

 Mmmm, lamp.

 You're so funny daddy!

 Look at those monkey legs

 Move over dad!

I love this look on Davie's face when he is looking as his daddy.

Mr. Chubs