Sophie's Baby Blessing

Today Sophie was blessed in church; Stewart gave her a very nice blessing. We are grateful to be her parents; she really is a good baby. Sophie was blessed in the same dress I was blessed in 28 ½ years ago. It was made by my Grandma Lucille Willard. I thought it appropriate for her to wear it seeing we named her Sophie Lucille, after both me and my Grandma Willard.

The only thing that could have made this day any better would be to have our families here to experience the joy of the day with us. Since we did not have any immediate family here with us Stewart asked his colleges from school, Joe Sorber, James Bishop, and Derek Rodeback to participate in Sophie’s blessing. These three families moved out to West Virginia at the same time we did, so in a sense we have all become each other's family out here. He also had his former counselor who served with him in the Young Men's Presidency when he was first called, Doug Bogus. He and his wife were the first people from the ward that I really got to know. Shortly after we moved here the Bishop and his family had a 24th of July celebration at their home, the Bogus’s came up and started visiting with Stewart and I as soon as we got there. Since then they have become great friends to us, we feel so blessed to know them. We also had the 1st counselor in the Bishopric stand in as well, Brother Robert Williamson.

It was a great day and we are grateful to all our friends that made it special. We know our families wanted to be here and were here in spirit, thanks for thinking of us, we love all tons. Since I know you all love pictures here are some pictures from the day’s events.

The Mustache

Last month was prostate cancer awareness month, aka Movember. So in honor of the month of November and in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer, all the guys who wanted to participate at the school grew mustaches. Stewart was one of them… below are the pictures I took to document his facial hair experience. All I have to say is thank goodness its December now… I missed kissing my freshly shaven Stewart.

First half of the month

Second half of the month

We're in Trouble

Sophie found her thumb this past week, at first I thought it was just a random thing… well I was wrong! I have caught her sucking her thumb several times since, I guess we have our work cut out for us getting her to stop this bad habit before it becomes a habit… wish us luck!

The Outcome

So my last post explained that last night Stewart and I learned where we would be going for his third year of medical school. It was a tense evening once the area we wanted as our first choice exceeded then number of spots available for that area. There were 18 spots and 21 people that wanted that area, so it was one of the sites that went to lottery. I was not nervous all day long, but once we got there and the area went to lottery I started to feel my nerves becoming unsettled.

The outcome however resulted in a big sigh of relief when our name was pulled out of the basket! So we are now moving to Beckley, WV about 45 minutes away from here. We don’t move until June, so that will give us some time to look and find a place to stay. It is a relief to know what the near future holds for us… I don’t enjoy not having a game plan. Stewart and I feel good about this decision to move to Beckley…I just hope Beckley is as nice to us as Lewisburg has been. Ciao!

Choices Choices Choices

Today Stewart and I will learn where we will be moving for his third year of medical school. For those un-aware, Stewart is going to med school here in West Virginia. Since the school is not located in a big city they are unable to rotate their students thru an adjoining hospital to fulfill the third year requirements. So instead his school has made arrangements with several different hospitals in West Virginia to take their students and give them hospital experience. We have been anticipating this day for a long while now; it will be nice to know where we are going… finally.

Because we wanted to make the best decision on where to move to Stewart and I have taken a few road trips to check out the areas and the hospitals of the sites were most interested in. We have been up north to the northern panhandle of WV and to the eastern part of the state, as well as to the western part of the state. It has been a process of elimination for us. Some areas we visited we loved the town and despised the hospital. Other areas we loved the hospital and disliked the town. We finally narrowed down our decision to a town called Beckley just west of Lewisburg about 45 mins away. But then again our decision could change before the end of the day.

One thing that makes this process even more nerve racking is that, just because we have an idea about were we want to go, does not me we are automatically going to that area. We are competing with 200 plus of Stewart’s classmates for these spots. Each site has a certain number of students that can go there. Tonight all of Stewart’s class will get together and each student will write his/her name down on the paper with their selected site choice. If more students write their name down then a site can hold, that site area will go to lottery. That means if there are 5 spots and 10 people wanted to go there, those 10 peoples names will be put in a hat, figuratively, and the first 5 names called will get that site, while the other 5 have to find a site they can live with, with the areas that still have spots available. This means Stewart and I could end up in an area we have not gone to explore if the area we want goes to lottery and we want to risk it. We have a plan A, B and C but if all those fail… I guess it will all work out.

Wish us luck. On a side note, because of all our mini trips to explore the areas of choice our little Sophie has been to FOUR different states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia) all before the age of one month old.

Oh one more thing, Stewart and I decided that it was high time to buy ourselves a couch. We have been using my old twin bed from my single days as our couch, and sense we both decided that we were tired of our legs falling asleep and being uncomfortable all the time, we went out and found ourselves couch. Really we found few couch's with a reasonable price tag, and then we asked Sophie what couch she thought she would like to color on when she got older... and went with the one she chose. Below is a before and after picture. ~HUGS~

Old Couch (PS. Stewart's Grandma Hudson, hand quilted that quilt... she is talented)

The New Couch!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Someone is excited for her first Thanksgiving... not that she gets to partake of any of the food this year. But her joy is contagious so we wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving.



Love the Norths