For Starters

My friend encouraged me to start blogging and just before beginning this blog, I looked at her blogspot. The last entry was a tag that I think makes a great blog opener!

20 years ago - I was twelve years old and in the seventh grade. I had already been initiated into the Young Women. I was playing the piano, the violin and singing. I also played basketball and volleyball (and a little softball). I thought I was going to write a book, like Anne of Green Gables or Pride and Prejudice. I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed.

10 years ago - I was trying to adjust to real life after only a couple of weeks of being home from Austria where I had spent a year and a half as a missionary for the LDS church. I had ridden my bike through the hills that are alive with the sound of music in Salzburg. I had climbed several mountains in the Alps of Innsbruck. I had just enjoyed a magical Christmas season in Vienna teaching about the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas (and enjoying the Christkindlmarkt at the Rathaus). Now I was trying to reconcile myself to doing "nothing" important other than working and exercising to lose some mission weight.

5 years ago - I had been married to the love of my life, Mark, for three and a half adventurous years. My first child, Carston, was almost seven months old. After Mark's graduation from BYU a few months prior, we had moved our little family to Nashville, TN. Mark was working as a research assistant at Vanderbilt University in order to improve his resume for medical school. We were living in a great apartment near the Warner parks in Bellevue. We were enjoying being parents and not having homework or the necessity to study hanging over Mark's head when he got home each evening. I still hadn't finished unpacking from the move and had a few boxes shoved into the corner of our living room. We have moved far too many times in our marriage!

3 years ago - I had 10 month old twins, Jackson and Peyton, that were exclusively nursing (which made getting out difficult) and bringing a lot of happiness to their parents and their big brother, Carston. We had moved to Metairie, LA about seven months before for Mark to attend Tulane Medical School. We were enjoying our first year in the Big Easy as I struggled to care for three children two years old and younger. I had just discovered that I was pregnant with our fourth child, which was a happy surprise, and I was so sick!

1 year ago - We had moved into our first house 8 months before and were loving having a home to call our own in Metairie, LA. After Hurricane Katrina had turned our lives somewhat upside down, we were grateful to settle down again. This house has been such a blessing! We had also added to our family (we tend to do that) and were enjoying our sweet 15 month old son, Grant. I was only a week and a half away from delivering our fabulous #5, Benjamin Calder. I was feeling very pregnant and ready to give birth. I figured I had paid my dues over the past five years and deserved for this baby to come earlier than his due date. Luckily, he came 11 days early, March 16th, and started out his life on my good side:)

So far this year - I am learning what it will be like to have Mark doing his residency in orthopedic surgery. He just finished his surgery rotation, which he has been enjoying for the past two months while I have attempted to learn to run the show on my own at home. We are starting to plan Mark's fourth year of medical school, including away rotations, his MPH Capstone project(Thesis) and vacation time before graduation. We are starting to realize that, although we still have plenty of rotations left, the end of medical school is in sight. The beginning of this year also marked the mid-point in my parents' service as mission presidents in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission.

Yesterday- We got up EARLY, as we always do since we have four boys who think it is good to wake up before 6 am because it gives you more time to play. Peyton, as usual, slept through the yelling and inevitable growling for a good half an hour -- good for you Peyton. We got the kids ready for church, ate breakfast and slid into the chapel our usual five minutes late. (My habit of being late is an entirely different subject to explore at another time.) We enjoyed hearing a few words from testimony meeting, in between the incessant noise our kids were making. We did everything we could to make it through the meeting without a major catastrophe. We made Grant stay in the chapel for the entire meeting, which was a triumph on one hand and a total disaster on the other. After church we felt our usual relief that we had survived. After nap time, we went over to a friend's house and had a great time eating some really good food and talking with them while our kids threw dirt all over their yard and themselves.

Today - Mark got off early to go to orientation for his neurology rotation. I got all of the kids fed and ready for the day and ran out the door without a minute to spare. We dropped Carston off at school and went to the gym so I could get a much needed work out. We came home, had snacks and Benjamin went down for his morning nap. After picking up Carston from school, we had a great surprise when we got home: Mark was home from orientation and had the rest of the day off to study and be with us. After lunch, Jackson, Peyton and Grant went down for naps. I read to Carston, as usual, while Mark bonded with Benjamin. After naps, Mark made a nice spaghetti dinner while I cleaned and worked on laundry and this blog. We just enjoyed a nice family home evening about making good choices and Mark left to work out. So, I am having alone time. There is something so magical about a quiet house full of exhausted, sleeping children. I love sneaking in their rooms at night to kiss them, fix their covers and whisper in their ears that I love them and that they are my dreams come true.

Tomorrow - I will start over, with a clean slate. I love the idea that I can try to be a better person every day. I will attempt to have no expectation whatsoever about what time Mark will come home. I seem to have a better attitude if I keep it that way. Jackson and Peyton have playschool for a few hours in the morning and Carston has his long day at preschool. So, I'll have the morning to focus on playing with Grant and Benjamin and to run errands that have been waiting for one of my Tuesday/Thursday morning breaks to be accomplished. I also need to make bread and want to be able to make a few batches of strawberry freezer jam in the early afternoon, if Benjamin will allow.

This year - Mark will be doing his Neurology and Psych rotations and then he'll do Pediatrics. The kids will finish up playschool in mid-May and will attend a couple of weeks of summer camp in June and July. We are planning for Mark to take the USMLE Step 2 in the summer and then we'll do some away rotations. We have no idea how much time we will be spending in Louisiana and have wondered if we ought to sell our house as well, but it doesn't feel right for us yet. We are planning on doing a rotation in Utah around Thanksgiving time and one in Oklahoma just before the Christmas break so that we can spend the holidays with our families.

For those of you who have now survived me rambling on and on, kudos and please know this will be the exception and not the rule.