We're done!

Today I am 16 wks and I'm feeling TONS better! Haven't thrown up in over a week! Woot!

15 wks

Still super tired and not back to eating healthy like I was before this sickness started (minimal food aversions). I'm not as bothered by strong smells anymore that send me sprinting to the nearest toilet or trash can. Such a blessing to feel semi-normal again! I know the fatigue and *ahem* lack of fiber are correlated. I figured that out sometime in 2005. I think I mentioned some of that in this post.

Charles is done with his residency! *cue Hallelujah chorus* Things should become more normal again and we can actually work on all our family goals we've had on the back-burner this last year. Last Friday was his end of residency dinner- semi-formal. You know I love me a chance to get fancy schmancy so everyone can whisper, "Wow, that's Charles' wife?" I kid...kinda.

Back to Charles- I don't fully understand everything he does at work, obviously. Sometimes he comes home and says things like, "If you saw what I did at work today you would have died." Some of those things have included: assisting a patient with an impacted bowel, a large obese woman with gangrene who had maggots in her hospital bed, crazy surgeries with blood squirting all over the operating room, etc. I'm not one of those people that likes gross things so I don't ask for details unless my curiosity is really piqued, which rarely happens on the topic of maggots and the like. Hey, that's why I didn't go into the medical field. Because he's right, I would die.

He's all grown-up :)

So, it was really meaningful to have his co-workers come up to me at the dinner and say things like, "Charles is an outstanding pharmacist. He's a really hard-worker. We're so glad he's staying on. He's our favorite resident." And then to hear them talk about the research projects they've worked on all year and how much his research benefited the hospital and their protocol. I am one proud wife.

Sadly, we didn't have anyone take pics of us. But, Charles snapped this one of me when we got home.

To celebrate his 2 weeks off (his first vacation in over a year) he went with the scouts on a 50 mile hike up the Applachian trail. He loves backpacking and hasn't done it for years so it was perfect timing for him. I'm happy he got to go.

Tomorrow the kids and I leave to meet up with him in Asheville, NC and then we're off to DC to sight-see and visit Cath AND eat Cafe Rio. Can not tell you how excited I am for that!!! Then down to camp on the beach on the Outer Banks. Yay for beach camping- one of my fave things I haven't done since 1999? And then we'll visit Ev and Mike in Raleigh and then back home.

Marathon

I realized that I never blogged about Charles' marathon back in November. He wrote about it on his running blog. Here are some pics.

We are so proud of him for accomplishing this goal!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

On Thursday, September 29, Charlie finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Azure. The night before I was at Target doing some shopping alone and came across a Wonka Chocolate Bar on clearance for a dollar something. Knowing they were about to finish the book, I bought it so they could eat it together in celebration of finishing it.

We told her we had a surprise for her and that every child who finishes the book gets a gift from Mr. Willy Wonka. "What is it?!" she exclaimed. When I brought out the chocolate bar to them she asked, "Is this really from Mr. Wonka? From his factory? How did you get it?"

Then we asked her to open it very carefully to see if there was a golden ticket inside. It was such a fun experience! We got her reaction on video. She was so excited! Doing stuff like this for our children reminds me how much I enjoy being a parent. Such a privilege and a joy! (when I remember moments like these :)

We plan on watching the movie (the old version as we already watched the new version with her before reading it) as soon as we can get it from the library. We've now started reading her 3rd chapter book: Charlotte's Web. We hope to instill in her a love for reading. So far, so good.

An update on the last post about her reading- she has slowly gotten over her fear of making mistakes. I have been making a conscious effort to point out the mistakes I make (losing my temper, making a wrong turn, forgetting something) to show her that everyone makes mistakes and that it's apart of life. Heavenly Father sent us here to learn from our mistakes. I think it's been helping her to feel okay making mistakes while reading; because she has been brave to tackle words like: kingdom, softly, telephone.

She's even been reading "Goodnight Moon" all on her own to Vince! She usually gets every single word right, but I think she's mostly reading from memory. 

Yay for reading!

Yay for acorns!

When I lived in Provo (Aug.1999-May 2008, minus 20 months in between for the mish) I could NOT wait for Spring every year. Winter seemed to last forever.

Savannah is the exact opposite. I can NOT wait for Fall. Summer seems to last forever. I want to wear pants. I haven't worn pants since April (and that was when we were in Cherokee for a week).

Today Vince had his 18 month checkup. As we got out of the car guess what we spied all over the ground underneath an oak tree? Acorns!!! That's the first sign of Fall. Azure and I were so, so, excited. Azure would have filled her pockets if she had any. Instead she picked one up and held it in her hand for most of the duration of the doctor visit. This is a happy day. Of course, temps won't get down into the high 70's until late September but, at least there are acorns on the ground. Right, right?!

Back to the doctor visit and a little update on Vince- He is 21 lbs and 30 inches. He got 2 shots while I nursed him. I only thought to nurse my babies while they get poked after I had Vince. I wish I had done it with Azure. It helps soo much! He only cried for less than a minute. He is also walking 95% of the time now.

This is beginning to be a random post but, I might as well report that since Charles is in the Bishopric he had a chance to be in charge of a Bishop Youth Discussion (kind of like a fireside, yet more informal) 2 Sundays ago. We were so thrilled to host it in our very own home. Having 10 young women and men here including leaders and parents was another testament that we made the right decision to move. We could have never fit all those people in our last place.

The topic was Facebook and texting. We had a wonderful, wonderful discussion with the youth about the pros and cons of both. It was so refreshing to be among the youth again. How I miss my girls! Though a lot of "my girls" are in Relief Society now. Crazy. Anyways, Charles challenged them to not log onto FB or text for a week. He made them a daily chart of activities they could do instead of checking FB or texting including: invite a friend to dinner, call a grandparent, read a book, do something nice for someone, etc.

The basis of the discussion came from this talk from Elder Bednar. Wow. It is one of my favorites on the topic of media. Worth a re-read or listen. We, of course, went along with the challenge as well. It wasn't hard to not text b/c I never text anyways but, abstaining from FB was a little difficult. After the challenge was over and I went back on FB for the first time I noticed how subconsciously anxious it makes me.  I knew I didn't really like FB to begin with but, pinpointing the anxious feelings was a real self-discovery. Now, I'm really limiting my time on there because I don't like to feel anxious.

The reward for completing the challenge was a cookie for each day. You could get up to 2 cookies per day if you completed the other activities in addition to abstaining from FB and texting. Last Saturday Charles and I baked about 200 cookies. At first it was a bit stressful. But, after we put the kids to bed and made our 2nd big batch it was fun. I thought, "We should take pics," but, this thought came during the stressful period and then it never came to fruition during the fun part.

The youth did great! There were a lot of cookies redeemed. And almost all of them get the grand prize which is a shopping trip to Goodwill. The boys get a tie and the girls get either a skirt or a dress. I love the youth! I really hope I can be in YW's again at some point. Maybe when Azure turns 12 :)

Quirks

You know your dad is (will be) an infectious disease specialist when you have the following conversation...

"Azure, what kind of cereal would you like for breakfast?"

"Super infection cereal."

Charles Stewart Jensen, PharmD

"He did it. He did it. He did it! Whoo!" *End Dora theme song*

This past weekend (Fri & Sat) Charles received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Friday was the hooding ceremony and Saturday the actual graduation. Miah and Trini flew out to support Charles and we were so happy to have them and show them around Savannah.

We are glad that Daddy is no longer in school! Though, I'm not sure if that will translate into him having more time with his residency starting July 1st and being in the Bishopric :) He has really done a great job being a full-time student while having church responsibilities plus a wife and children. We are proud of you Charlie!

And here's what they looked like 3 years ago just starting the Pharmacy School journey at his white coat ceremony. (Blogger won't let me upload the pic) We've come a long way! It's been a crazy ride. Mostly good. And we've learned so much more than just about drugs and how to dose them :)

*Stay tuned for pics of Miah & Trini's visit PLUS Azure turned 4 yesterday!*

Guatever

What follows is my version of events which occurred from February 11th to February 19th. Believe what you will.

As part of my schoolin' I spent the first week of my Travel Medicine/Infectious Disease rotation on a medical mission in Guatemala. My preceptor, a classmate, and I went with a group called Faith in Practice. We spent a total of 8 days in various places around Guatemala City. 4 days of clinic and 4 days of touristing.

Prior to our arrival, local volunteers and staff spread the word of our free clinics, which provided us with plenty of patients, ~500/day, over 2000 total.

There were physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, translators, etc. local and foreign, about 40-50 of us total. I worked in triage deducing where it hurt and herding people accordingly to general medicine, pediatrics, or gynecology. Turns out my gynecological vocab is sorely lacking as I did not regularly discuss menstruation or the like on my LDS mission. I also worked in the pharmacy dispensing and counseling. We started with quite an armamentarium of drugs which we brought in trunks. By the last day of clinic our supplies were severely limited and creativity was employed in filling the physicians' orders.

To my surprise, the majority of patients that came in were there for minor aches and pains ("me duelen las canillas" aka "my shins hurt") and most patients coming through the pharmacy received tylenol and vitamins. Although I was not disappointed with my original expectation of seeing a fair share of unique health problems. Several patients presented with fairly embarrassing infections of the genitalia, which made for interesting and candid counseling sessions by yours truly. One middle-aged man came in with rheumatoid arthritis that had never been treated, exacerbated by his occupation in agriculture. We gave him 2 months of steroids, but a lot of damage had already occurred and I hate to think of what will happen after he runs out. Almost every patient that came to the clinics received albendazole, which I refer to as the "spring cleaning pill," a single dose anti-parasitic drug that takes care of most worms and giardia to some extent. Many patients were referred for surgery in Antigua, where they could stay at the equivalent of a Ronald McDonald House, Casa de Fe.

All in all, most patients presented with disease states that are easily treated when there are means available to treat them. This is the problem in the developing world, I suppose.

If, for some reason, you haven't realized that this post has nothing to do with Azure or Vince and you are still reading, here is an abbreviated itinerary:

Day 1: arrival in Guatemala City, drive to Antigua (former capital of Guatemala, now a historic relic/tourist trap), nearly vomited during trip after eating mayo-heavy sandwich and contorting myself into rear-facing position in automobile. check into fancy hotel, eat fancy food.

Day 2: more tourism. tour of Casa de Fe and Obras Sociales. visit market, haggle/get swindled

Day 3: drive to our hotel at Puente Los Esclavos outside of Cuilapa, Santa Rosa.

Day 4: Clinic 1 in La Canoa ~ 20 miles from El Salvador border.

Day 5: La Canoa again. I feel like death, develop fever.

Day 6: I stay home while my colleagues save the world at Clinic 2 in Las Minas, an area outside of Casillas, Santa Rosa. Cold hands of death fail to relinquish their icy grip on my well-being.

Day 7: 85% recovery, I go to Clinic 2 for our final day of seeing patients.

Day 8: Return to Antigua.

Day 9: drive to Guatemala city airport & return home.

Our team blog

More team pictures

While this trip ended up being a financial money pit for an already impoverished pharmacy student, the experience solidified my desire to continually participate in these type of short-duration trips. Ultimately, our desire is to spend our geriatric era as full time medical/proselytizing missionaries.

Boring Dad Post, please disregard

Howdy, y'all. It's me-the guy who never writes posts, but occasionally appears in pictures as the disoriented nerd w/ glasses. As a proverbial "heads-up" to any interested parties, I'm currently working on applications for 5 different pharmacy residency programs. Interviews begin next month, after which I will hopefully be matched to a program in March to begin work in June. The Match is akin to going to Vegas and betting your life & livelihood on several numbers at the Roulette table. Unfortunately, I will not see any German duo-trained white tigers or French circuses in the gamble which will unroll over the next few months. I'm applying to programs in:

Tampa, FL
Savannah, GA
Winston-Salem, NC
Albuquerque, NM
Tucson, AZ

After and if I interview, I will rank the programs, and they will in turn rank me, followed by super computers meddling with my life and hopefully a happy outcome for all, world peace, etc. So there is a good chance we will live in one of the above cities come June. This may be joyous news to some, bitter melons to others. At any rate we are giddy, so stay tuned for utter and complete insanity to be unveiled as our lives are soon to be "flip turned upside down" in the words of Sir William Smythe.

Audio Assaults

When Azure was just shy of 2 months old, we attended a Matisyahu concert.
Vince is within 1-2 degrees of freedom of 2 months, so we took him to a free concert at Forsyth Park. G Love and Special Sauce were the headliners and failed to keep things as sanitary as Matisyahu had previously in West Valley City many moons ago. Thus, we departed.

Now we must decide what concert child #3 (at some far future date) should attend in their infancy. Please cast your vote.

Charles

Charlie's Blog

For those of you who don't know, Charles has started a new blog about his running goals/adventures. So, if you don't have enough blogs to read, add it to your reader. If you have questions about running or need inspiration to start running, leave him a comment.

Excuse me sir, your daughter's nose is bleeding

If you have read this blog and asked yourself, "what is that thing on Azure's lip?" don't worry, you are not alone. Whatever the outing may be, we are regularly confronted with persons donning facial expressions of concern and horror, who empathetically quote the title of this post verbatim. Aparently, the public wants to know just what is up with this child's nose. At this very moment, your question will be fully and entirely answered. It is a hemangioma. Some people call it a strawberry. Others a mango. Still others call it a bad omen. I prefer to call it a कारण-कब पाइप. Whatever you want to call it, just don't call it a bloody nose. The social safety net has struck again and we are pleased to know that if we ever needed assistance countering our daughter's epistaxis, it would abound. To the world and perhaps somewhat reassuringly to ourselves, we once again assert: Azure does not have a bloody nose.

Man vs Fisher Price

Swings are great. They enable parents to do things like bathe, eat, and update blogs. Unfortunately, some are not of the best craftsmanship. Our Graco swing donated by Uncle Cabe and Aunt Jenn self-destructed shortly before our move and it quickly became apparent that we needed a new one. During a visit to Dale and Kara's, Azure was able to test drive a Fisher Price "Rainforest" model swing. She was thoroughly entertained by it, so we knew what would be a sound choice when we found ourselves swingless. I set out to Babies R Us to purchase said swing while Deanna took care of Azure. I will now describe a fool-proof process of how to look like a fool.

1) Go to Babies R Us by yourself and be male.

2) Ask if you can buy the already assembled floor model rainforest model swing, complete with steel-drum jungle beats, toucan, monkey, and poison frog mobile.

3) Drive a 1986 Honda Accord LXI, and as you are buying the pre-assembled swing, think to yourself: "I'll figure out how to fit it in my car when I get out there."

4) Carry the apparatus in full view of the public out to your car.

5) Attempt to fit the awkwardly-shaped pacification device in your Japanese sedan.

6) Fail repeatedly at step 5

7) Forget to wear a belt the day steps 1-6 are performed.

Luckily, I found a button that collapsed the whole contraption and finally got the thing home. There are no pictures of the new swing to date, out of respect for the old swing. But here is a picture that finally answers definitively the question "who does Azure look like?"

Azure and Hasidic Reggae

Above and below are the views from our final resting place at the concert. It turns out that our seats in the third section were a scosh too boisterous and we moved up to the lawn seating, where Azure enjoyed the Torah-inspired raggae of Mr. Matthew Miller aka Matisyahu at volume levels below the pain threshold. Oddly, 1 inch speakers on a computer fail to capture the bass that an amphitheater is capable of producing. Aside from the general level of debauchery around us, we enjoyed the remainder of the concert and Azure was happy until hunger and sleepiness struck, luckily this was a place where feeding her publicly was not going to make people uncomfortable. After such an action-packed evening, Azure was pooped and slept for a record nine hours straight.

It Takes a Village

Azure is extremely excited to attend her first concert outside of the womb. So excited that we purchased tickets to see Matisyahu next week. Having questions as to the general procedure of bringing an infant to an outdoor amphitheater, I called the ticket office to satiate my curious mind. The following is an actual approximation of the conversation I had with the "ticket office lady."


TOL: SmithsTix, how can I help you?
ME: Yeah, I had some questions about the Usana Amphitheater. Are children allowed, and if so, do they need a ticket?
TOL: How old is the child?
ME: Ummm 2 months.
TOL: (pause) You DO realize that this is an outdoor venue and there is NO shade?!
Me: Well, the concert is at night.
TOL: (pause again) Well, yes you can take a child.

It's good to know that the public safety net will protect Azure from some of the errors we may commit as new parents. Stay tuned for a post on our experiences at the concert.

B-Logs are the wave of the future.

Up until this point in my life, I have chosen to steer clear of B-Logging, but because there needs to be a detailed record of Azure's shenanigans, it now seems the prudent thing to do. Please take the time to participate in the poll to determine who Azure most resembles. Results will be published and presented to Azure at a later date.

These pictures will lead you to the correct answer.