Back in the saddle again

This month has been all about getting back into the groove of things after our fabulous time with family and friends over Christmas break.  Back into school, back into looking for a job, and back into doing whatever it is Whitney and I do during the day.  Things have been good, but it was pretty depressing the first couple of weeks we were back.  We have been fairly productive this month, though.

Ben's been working as hard as ever in school.  He has done awesome on his first couple of graded tests, which is encouraging.  He really wants to get into an ophthalmology residency (and I want him to get the one, yes, one only, ophthalmology residency in Utah), and he is going to need to do well to get it.  Whether he gets it will depend upon a few things.  One, he'll have to get in the top half of his class at least.  Two, he will have to do well on "Step 1", the first part of the boards.  You take "Step 2" closer to the end of medical school, and I guess there is also a "Step 3" during residency.  Three, he'll have to get some impressive extracurricular stuff under his belt too.  It's like applying for medical school all over again.  He likes ophthalmology because he is very interested in eyes.  It is a nice combination of things.  You generally work good hours.  You get some laid back time where you just have office visits.  And you get to do surgery, which is both interesting and lucrative.

Medical students kid that there are four residencies that are the most desirable.  It is called the "ROAD" to happiness.  "R" being radiology,  "O" being ophthalmology,  "A" being anesthesiology, and "D" being dermatology.  They are desirable because they are some of the highest paying medical jobs, and they are mostly 8-5, and sometimes less hours than that.  We'll see if things are not a bit less rose-colored in reality.    

I've had a fairly busy month.  I ran a half marathon last Saturday.  I did it in 1:55, which is 15 minutes faster than my last half marathon time.   I've also been doing a lot more with my calling.  I got called to be the Mia Maid Advisor in addition to being the Personal Progress leader.  I am in charge of one activity a month--the personal progress activity.  So, I did that this month.  I also did a big part of our New Beginnings Program, helped plan the last stake dance, and helped with the girls' camp fundraiser--a dinner and dessert auction, which actually turned out great.   That, in addition to applying for jobs every day, has made a busy month.

Whitney also had the blues for awhile after coming back to Texas, but I think she is back into her routine and pretty happy.  We signed up for a weekly gym class at the city rec center.  "Class" consists of playing with toys, balls, and trikes; jumping around in the large bouncy houses; crawling through a couple of little toddler obstacle courses; and doing a musical activity with the group.  She loves it!  It is one of the highlights of the week.  We also do a playgroup with a bunch of the women in the ward.  A couple of weeks ago I also started doing some routine little lessons with just her and me.  We spend ten minutes learning about a subject (that's the length of her attention span). So far we've learned about body parts, animals, and objects around the house.  Then we do either music time, art time, or puzzles.  Its been nice to have some structured play time.  It helps the morning go faster for me, anyway.

Whitney is also doing great with her walking.  She is walking most of the time.  She is also REALLY into bracelets, necklaces, and balls right now.  Its pretty fun to watch her walk around all decked out with bracelets and necklaces.

I'm working on posting some random videos we took this last month.  So, keep watching.