Stewart’s Board Step 2

July 13^th, Stewart took his second board exam for medical school in Roanoke Virginia. He originally signed up to take the test with a classmate of his but a few weeks before his classmate decided he wanted more time to prepare and rescheduled his test for a later date. So instead of going alone, Stewart invited Sophie and me to tag a long. I was not big on the idea of us going along, since I knew Sophie and I would have to find something to do while he took his 8+ hour test; but in the end we decided to go and play at the mall.

We went up the night before and found a hotel near by the testing center and then went and scouted out the mall and a place to eat. Sophie loved sleeping in her very own full sized bed. I think she was still awake when Stewart and I feel asleep. The next day Sophie and I dropped Stewart off at this test, we then went back to our hotel had some breakfast and then got ready for our awesome (very long) day at the mall. We spent most of the day at the mall, mostly in Barns and Noble reading books or the children’s play area. By 3pm we were both tuckered out so we left the mall and found a park and took a nap. Afterwards we played at the park until finally Stewart called us and told us he was done. YIPPY!!!! We celebrated by going out to eat and then driving home to WV.

Stewart feels confident about his test although we won’t know how he did for a month or so. I personally am proud of him it took a lot of will power for Stewart to keep studying while Sophie and I were having fun at home without him. Congrats Stewart for getting past this hurdle on your way to becoming a Doctor. We are so lucky to have you as the man of our house. Loves!

PS. Stewart and I finally started year number four of med school, we graduate May 25, 2013. Woot Woot!!!!

Here are some pictures of Sophie having fun playing in the children's play area, she is growing up so much... 21 months old. 

PPS: Thanks for all those who left comments in my previous post. I am glad to know someone reads our blog. Your words are encouraging, thanks.

Where Have We Been?

That is a good question; I took a brake from the blog because I was mad at blogger. I don’t know if any of you tried to view the videos on the blog, but they won’t work, except for a few minutes after I load them. So after many attempts and reloading them several times I gave up and walked away. I am back now, but probably won’t try to post a video for a while yet. Besides I don’t think people actually read this blog, so we were not missed much anyway. But for our family’s journal sake I will update this blog and let all who read know what we have been doing since the last post.

June

- I sent my Young Women off to Girls camp; they had a lot of fun. Before they left we designed a ward camp T-shirt with a pirate theme and a flag to go with the shirts. Sadly I did not take a picture of the shirts or the flag, but they were awesome. I got to go up one day and visit the YW while they were at camp. I think they had a great time, and so did I.

- Stewart, Sophie and I went to the Columbus temple (that is our temple district and a 4 hours drive for us). We worked it out so that we could meet up with my cousin Mitch and his family. It was great to see them; we did a child swap so that both couples could go through a session together. It was good to see Mitch and Cassie and catch up with them. After the sessions we were going to go out to eat but Stewart was feeling sick so we decided to get on the road and head home before he got worse. I ended up having to drive his car which is a standard and has no cruse control; something I told him I would never do if he bought that car. I ate my words and did okay getting us home. It was a nice trip however and I am glad we did it. 

- We took a fieldtrip one Sunday afternoon to a friend’s small farm. We had a friend from church invite us to come out to there farm so Sophie could see the baby goats, bunnies, chickens, and puppies. We had a great time out there; they live in the backwoods of West Virginia in a town named Odd. We actually followed the family to their home otherwise we would have never found it on our own. Sophie loved the baby animals and has asked about them a lot since our field-trip. 

- We made a water trampoline! I saw this neat idea on Pinterest and thought it would looked doable so I found some painters plastic and our duct tape and went to work. Sophie loved jumping on it once she got used to it. It was a perfect fun activity for an extra warm sunny afternoon. Here is the link to the website where I found the idea:clumsycrafter.com

- On June 29 a derecho (fancy word for a type of fast-moving thunder storm) ripped trees and power lines down from Illinois to the East coast, sometimes cutting a swath 500 miles wide!  We were sitting at home on a Friday evening chatting with some guests we’d invited over for dinner.  The weather went from calm and sunny to the fiercest winds and rain I’ve ever seen in about 30 minutes.  Our power went out in the middle of the storm, but we didn’t think much of it, we expected things would be back to normal by morning.  The next morning I was out running some errands and I noticed that nobody had power.  Several miles away I found a few gas stations with power, but there were sometimes up to 20 cars waiting in line for each pump.  I was able to catch some news broadcasts on the radio and learned just how wide-spread the damage was.  Luckily our power was back on in just under 24 hours.  But we have friends who still don’t have power.  It has been 9 days of near record-breaking heat.  It’s been a trial for many people in the area.  Stewart and I have been pleased to be able to loan out our fridge space, the use of our washer/dryer, our electric plug-ins, and our cool basement to friends in need.

July Thus Far

- We had a great low key 4^th of July. In the morning we decided to go to a near by lake (Lake Stephens) to play on beach and in the water before it got to crowded. Sophie loves playing in the sand and sitting on the waters edge where the tide from the boats washes up on her. I did not want to get wet so I worked on my tan while Stewart and Sophie played in the water and had fun. We came home around noon and had lunch, and then we took a nap. Later that evening we set off a few fireworks of our own and then we watched the firework show put on by the City of Beckley. Our house is not to far from where they set the fireworks off so we just sat on our lawn and enjoyed the show. This was Sophie’s first year she got to stay up and see the fireworks, she loved them! She thought they looked like flowers and would yell pretty flowers after each one lit the sky. 

Frogs & Hot Dogs Over a Open Fire

We had beautiful weather today, a high of 85! Stewart decided to mow our lawn (the grass was up to Sophie’s belly), it has been raining non-stop this past week and our lawn needed cut desperately. Besides having trouble starting our lawn mower, cutting our grass was un-eventful… until Stewart found a frog hopping through the grass. Of course he had to stop mowing and catch it so he could show Sophie, who was interested in it as long as she did not have to hold it or touch it. She had fun making frog noises and Stewart had fun telling her all about frogs. At the end of our visual lesson on frogs we put him back where Stewart found him, and Sophie said “bye bye frog”.

Like I mentioned earlier it was a nice day so Stewart suggested we build a small fire in our garden area (before we plant it in the next few weeks) and have a hotdog roast. It was a spontaneous thing to do, and a lot of fun. Sophie has been Stewart's shadow all day; she loved helping Stewart roast our hotdogs and the marshmallows. It was a lot of fun, I am glad Stewart suggested the idea.  To bad we are planting our garden soon, otherwise I would be all for doing it again. 

Popcorn and Playing

The other day Stewart decided he wanted some popcorn so he got out his air popcorn popper and decided to pop some popcorn. Our little Sophie is eager to learn so she wanted to sit on the counter with Stewart and learn how the popcorn popper works. I thought the pictures I took were cute enough to share. 

Sophie loves to hide in my cupboards, there is one cupboard that she particularly likes when I am using my Crock-pot, I think she likes it the best because she fits perfectly inside when the Crock-pot is gone. I was doing the dishes one day while Sophie was playing in my cupboard; I guess Stewart decided that I should be in some of the pictures/videos and captured this fun video of us playing together. Enjoy!  

Nice Warm Spring Days

We have been enjoying the small moments we get to have family time. Stewart has been extra busy working in the ER this month; a lot of his shifts have been night shifts so when he comes home he goes to bed for half the day. We hardly see him and LOVE when he finds a few minutes to spend with us.  We often find ourselves on the picnic blanket outside in the front yard soaking in the sun and reading a book together. It is these small moments that I am sure we will cherish and remember for many years to come. I had my camera one day and thought I would post a few pictures of one of our relaxing family moments. 

Sophie's first picture she took by herself

Sophie playing with her daddy on the picnic blanket

She Runs & it's Cute

Spring came early this year and we have enjoyed the weather immensely. Since there is a walking trail in our back yard that follows a main road here in Beckley we often go down there and take a walk. The trail is nice but it would be nice if there was not a busy road next to it, but we work with what we have. I decided to take my camera with me on one of our family walks and I am glad I did; I captured a cute video of Sophie running and losing her britches. She is a small girl for her age, tall and skinny. She needs bottoms that are 18 month in size for the length but 12 month in size for the waist. I am always safety pinning her pants in at the waist. I am sorry the video is a little bouncy at times, but it is still blog worthy.