Fur Children Update

Our kitties, or "Fur Children" as Emilee likes to call them, absolutely love their cat door that we installed. I allows them to come and go as they please and let's them do their duty outside (no more litter box).
The only problem is the kitties keep bringing their prey into the apartment to play with it until they think it's dead. But really the little critters just pretend they're dead and then scurry off once the cats get bored and leave.
Here's a list of little animals we have found so far (note: these are only the ones we know about):


2 field mice







3 ringneck snakes










2 baby birds










1 Frog











And countless lizards and geckos

Finals Update

At last I'm done with my finals and my second year of optometry school is in my rear-view mirror. What started right after our Seattle trip last June, finally ended yesterday with an Anomalies in Binocular Vision final exam.
I did very well an my final exams--much better than I thought I would do. Many thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.
What's next? I start working in the clinic in a couple of weeks and I'll take a couple of classes this summer, but overall my schedule will be light.

Christmas Break Update

After a lot of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, the administration at school agreed to close the clinic after Christmas and give us a vacation until January 5th.

Christmas Plans

Ok so Christmas is eight months away but it's never too early to start planning our yearly trek back to California, especially when you're in the throes of finals and all you can think about is a vacation from school anyway.
I received this email from the Dean of Student Affairs regarding my national boards (NBEO) that are coming up next March:

Class of 2010-

As you probably know, KMK Educational Services has been contracted for the last several years to provide Part 1 NBEO reviews for our students. Students have been exceptionally pleased with this review and have found it to be very helpful in guiding their NBEO preparation.

We have contracted with KMK to provide reviews for the new Part 1 that will be held on March 17th & 18th, 2009. In order to provide a timely review, we have arranged for most of the review to be given during the month of December of 2008. The specific dates are:

December 3rd & 4th Wednesday morning and Thursday (will not conflict with clinic)

December 17th & 18th Wednesday morning and Thursday (will not conflict with clinic)

December 22nd & 23rd Monday & Tuesday (all clinics will be closed)

KMK will also return for one date in the spring, probably the first week in March, for a final review session.

Please take these December dates into account when making any personal commitments. Attendance will be mandatory and, in all likelihood, requests for excused absences on these dates will not be granted.

So there you have it, I have to be here in Florida through December 23rd. Also, I may have to work in the school's clinic sometime during the week after Christmas because the clinic will be open during that time. In years past the students have split the Christmas holiday with half of the students working before Christmas and the other half working after Christmas. But with the board review classes now scheduled before Christmas, I have a feeling everyone in my class will request to have the week after Christmas off. They can't grant everyone that request so about half of us are going to be out of luck :(

The Florida Keys

The famous Florida Keys are actually further from our home than I had realized. I guess that I had always thought Miami was on the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, but the keys are actually quite a distance south of Miami. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the first key--Key Largo. If we had wanted to continue on to Key West, that would have been another 90 minute drive!
Anyway, we had a blast down there with Raymond, Kendall, John and Carolyn. It was windier than normal, but that didn't stop us from renting jet skis and going out on the choppy water. We also stopped along the seashore and waded around a bit to see what we could find. We caught some crabs and teased the ones that we didn't dare pick up.
Raymond and Kendall left on Wednesday of that week, but we returned to Key Largo on Saturday with John and Carolyn and visited John Pennecamp State Park. The park contains a large coral reef as well as lots of shoreline to swim and explore. Unfortunately, it was windy and poured buckets of rain while we were there, but that didn't deter us from signing up for a boat ride out to another coral reef to see the famous Christ of the Deep statue. It's a large statue of Christ under water in the middle of the coral reef that has been there for years. The boat ride out to the statue was miserable to say the least. As we traveled in the boat we were pummeled with wind, rain, and crashing waves. Everything got soaked and I was afraid to get out my camera and take pictures. Miraculously, once we got to our destination offshore the wind and the rain was reduced to a sprinkle and then eventually stopped altogether.
We were able to snorkel around there for about an hour and see the statue. If you were really good at holding your breath you could dive down and touch the statue's hands. You can't touch anywhere else on the statue because there is fire coral growing on it and it's sharp, and it's a protected reef so you're not allowed to touch anything anyway--not even the sand on the bottom of the ocean. After snorkeling and before we headed back to shore, Emilee and I got seasick and were the only ones on the boat to lose our lunch over the side. We were surprised to see scores of fish come up to the surface and help themselves to our second hand peanut butter sandwiches. The captain of the boat joked, "Don't worry, it's the only hot meal those fish ever get."
I have to mention that on our way back we stopped at one of those road-side tourist shops that sells local crafts. We went inside and bought a frozen chocolate covered key-lime pie on a stick. That could possible be the most delicious thing that I've ever tasted. (Mom, I thought you would like to try one of those!). Emilee had actually been there before because she had done some work in the area and recommended that we stop there. We were glad we did!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and definitely want to go back. Here are a few pictures that we took:

The Everglades

This past March some of Emilee's family were able to visit. Raymond, Kendall, John and Carolyn all made the trip to South Florida. Among other things, we were able to visit the famous Florida Everglades. We went to a place named Shark Valley, rented bicycles, then biked around a 15 mile loop in the middle of the Everglades and saw some incredible wildlife. I was told that you could see over 100 alligators if you made the 15 mile bike trip, but I think we saw over 200! There is no fence or anything for that matter to keep the gators from getting you so it's best not to get too close (they advise you stay at least 15 feet away from the gators at all times). We had a good time and everyone stayed safe. Kudos to Carolyn for biking the whole trail while being pregnant; she's a trooper.

Finals

Well, it's that time again--finals are here for Steve (hence he hasn't posted a thing for a month!) so send him your positive brainwaves and prayers to get through the hardest semester of Optometry School! Once this one is over, I'm hoping for smoother sailing. I understand he won't have as many tests and projects, it will be more like clinical applications. So I am really looking forward to that, as I'm sure he is!