Steve and Emilee

If You Wanted to Know....

2011-11-15T13:39:00.003-05:00

Steve graduated from his residency at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) in June.
We moved from Birmingham to Chico, CA in July.
Steve got an awesome job as an Optometrist at Chico Eye Center, and it is going great!
I'm still a stay-at-home mom for the cutest and funniest little boy, Austin!
And, in April, we'll be having a
GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Alabama Bucket List

2011-05-29T21:59:00.005-04:00

We're getting ready to move now, and I had a few things left on my Alabama bucket list to do.

But before I get into that, I should probably mention that we are moving to Chico, CA! I feel like I am going home. I was so happy just that Steve had an opportunity to interview at a place in California, because there were a lot of opportunities that we heard about, but not a lot out West. I would have even been okay with it if we went elsewhere, as long as I knew we tried looking in California but it wasn't the right thing for us. Ultimately, I wanted the best opportunity for Steve wherever that might've been, but I'm so, so happy that it is in my home state!

So now to the bucket list: there were a few things that I felt like I just had to do while in The South. This Saturday, I crossed two big ones off my list! One of them was to see a Civil War site/reenactment. I heard of one that only happens twice a year, in Tannehill, Alabama. We went down (about 40 minutes away) and it was awesome! There were cannons, horses, soldiers all dressed up in authentic uniforms, and even a confederate band! We watched a battle (where the South rose again, I might add) and we drank "Ole Doc Bell's Wizard Elixir", aka homemade Root Beer and Birch Beer, and we loved it! On our way home, while watching the Alabama countryside fly by, we were sad to see many very large trees that were uprooted and blown over from the tornadoes, not to mention the homes that were damaged and rooftops covered by tarps.

The other thing we crossed off my bucket list was going to Bojangles (a restaurant chain here in Alabama, originally out of S. Carolina). So we did that on the way home, since we saw one right off the highway. It was so good! It was basically biscuit sandwiches and southern sides. But the best part? A fried sweet potato pie! YUM! Too bad I didn't know about these sooner....or maybe that's a good thing.

Check out all our pictures from the day, we can prove these have been crossed off the list! It's been a great Alabama weekend, and it's not even over yet!

2011-03-09T11:50:00.002-05:00

Wow, so in re-reading my previous post, right after I talk about academic stuff, blah blah blah....there are these glaring grammatical errors. Fantastic! I blame it on being sick at the time. Anyway, I read on someone else's blog a fun post idea: a 'like & dislike list'. I think I will make one of my own.

Likes:
*Spring
*Weather in the 60s+
*A just-cleaned bathroom
*A favorite TV show to watch just when the baby goes down for a nap
*A baby who loves to be outside just as much as his mom
*A room with lots of windows
*Singing with a choir
*Making progress on crafty projects
*Sunday naps
*Cookies without nuts
*Road trips
*Historical Sites
*Going out to eat
*Hosting friends/family at our house
*People who tell me my baby is cute
*Playing tennis in perfect weather
*The shampoo they give you before a haircut

Dislikes:
*Doing Austin's laundry
*Dishcloths
*Dog poop all over the area in front of my patio
*The last portion of cereal left in the box no one wants to eat
*Mealy bugs
*Overtime
*Cooking dinner
*No good prime time TV
*Moving
*Drying my hair (monotonous!)
*Allergies
*Cold weather
*Rude people
*Messes (mostly cleaning them up)
*Raw meat
*Houses painted ridiculous colors on the outside

Well, that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll be adding an addendum later.

Projects and the Good Ol' Days

2011-02-20T22:41:00.003-05:00

Well, it seems like we only get to the blog when we're sick--probably because it slows us down from the normal day-to-day. Today, we are all sick, including Smingers--he has sneezed in BOTH mine and Steve's faces during his kitty-cold, which is disgusting. Austin seems to be getting better, and Steve probably has the furthest to go, because he got the bug last. Since we missed church so we wouldn't get anyone else sick, I started going through my old stuff that I've been meaning to scrapbook, starting from when Steve and I started dating in college. It was so funny to look back on all that stuff--we were always writing each other little notes, scrawling little jokes on scrap pieces of paper. I even saved little post cards or plane tickets from trips we went on, which I am actually glad I did, because I didn't remember half of it! The only problem is, all these 8+ years later, I STILL haven't organized it into an actual book. (P.S., I am not a scrapbooker. If I can just staple them into the book with a few captions and headings, that will be a really great feat for me.) Let's hope that I can get this project done while I have time and the will to do it!

While looking through all the college stuff, I have to say that looking back, college was fun--but much funner socially than academically! Being very academically driven like I was, I took all my classes probably way to seriously. It paid off--I never even got a "B" at BYU-I, but I would get way stressed-out and study A LOT. So I am really content with my life right now and happy with what I'm doing now--taking care of Austin, deciding for myself how I will spend my time, and ever, ever grateful for finding something that I loved, getting a degree in it, and being able to use it in every day life however much (or little) I want! I love that there are so many opportunities out there to learn more about plants and ways to teach others about them too. I hope I don't take any of them for granted!

Bad Luck in Birmingham

2010-08-05T16:23:00.003-04:00

This post is called 'Bad luck in Birmingham' because between Steve and I, we've been to the ER 3 times in less than 2 months.

It started with Steve having a rather serious appendectomy at the end of June. So, I made him this sandwich on Thursday, and then he ate it on Saturday, and right after he began to complain he didn't feel good. I was feeling guilty that apparently my sandwich making skills are so bad that it basically tasted like a poison sandwich, especially when that feeling just didn't seem to go away for him! But then, when he woke up the following Tuesday morning with that sick feeling and a fever of 103, I said excuse me, but that is NOT still my sandwich's fault!

So Steve called in to a clinic and they said they'd get us in at 1:20pm (he called in around 7-8 am) but Steve said he'd be there sooner, and please get us in as soon as they could. We got there at 12:40, the only people in the office. Then patients began to show up, and we watched them call in one after another, leaving poor sick Steve to wait! Over an hour later, we were finally in a room and the doctor finally came in. When she realized how sick Steve was, she said "Why didn't you go to the ER?" Well, we would have if we would've known it would take so long!
He was so sick by that time, they called an ambulance to take him to the nearest hospital! The next 12 hours were a whirlwind. At the hospital, they did a CT scan, determined he had appendicitis, and performed surgery on him. I had a lady from church watch Austin while I tried to be calm and wait. I was told at about 9:30 pm that his surgery went well, but at 10:00 pm, they came back out to tell me that Steve had a bad reaction and his lungs filled up with fluid when they tried to take out his breathing tube. It was all very stressful, but the next morning they got the tube out safely, and after a brief stay at the hospital and some much-appreciated help from Steve's brother Rick who flew in, Steve was on the mend.

Fast forward to last Tuesday: we were eating at a local barbecue place, and I got a chunk of spare rib stuck in my throat. Despite how it sounds, this actually happens to me all the time. Truly. So I calmly went into the bathroom to do some of my usual tricks to get it down. While I was gone, the restaurant people seemed to notice something was up (there were very few customers that night) and they kept going over to Steve to inquire "if the meal was alright?" "how he was doing this evening?" etc. They were very chatty, but I was not in the mood to stick around, so we boxed up the food and made a hasty exit. Fast forward 12 HOURS. The meat would not budge, and I had been up ALL NIGHT. I told Steve at 6 am that we needed to go to the ER. Again, a whirlwind of ER tests, IVs and blood-drawing, and I was told I would need an endoscopy. I woke up from the process with my throat sore but un-blocked, a huge relief! And after a brief recovery and picking up Austin from Steve's work, where they had so kindly offered to watch him, I was able to go home. They told me that all this time that I've had trouble swallowing, I may actually be allergic to a variety of foods that cause my throat to swell. I had no idea...so we'll see after more testing.

The next Saturday, Steve woke up with terrible chest pain. Chest pain???! Haven't we gone through enough? So off he went to the ER for more tests, X Rays, CT scan, blood draws, it's all so familiar to us now. Turns out he has a lung infection, probably from the effects of the fluid that had gotten down into his lungs after his surgery.

But we made it through all of that, and would prefer NOT to see the ER for a loooong time now. Just as long as Austin doesn't have to see the ER, I'll be okay! He was so good for us during those tough times, too. Well, here's hoping for a more healthy 2 months in August and September!

The Mysterious Ways of a Baby

2010-07-14T00:17:00.002-04:00

I've never been good at keeping a calendar or scheduling my own life, but I'm a firm believer in getting your baby on a schedule. As my sister Carolyn so eloquently put it, "some people think your baby knows best what he needs. But no, he doesn't, because he's a baby!!!" They need structure and consistency to keep them content, and I believe that, because I've seen it first-hand!
I am going to brag a little now, judge me as you may, but Austin is a really good-natured baby. He hardly even cried the first 2 months of his life. He'd put himself down for naps, and suck on his hands when he was hungry--it was great!
Then 3 months rolled around. It's a little more work now! I find that it's like a mystery you have to solve to figure out why they don't want to take more than a 10 minute nap, or why they wake up at 4 am after weeks of sleeping until 6 am consistently. You look at all these clues--is he eating enough? Is he eating too much? Is he getting over-stimulated? Does he just not need very long naps to rejuvenate? Does he hate his crib? Does he get distracted? Or, if all else fails, blame it on the mysterious 'growth spurt'?
It is all very satisfying when you think you've got it figured out. Currently, I think my careful scheduling of the nap routine may have just worked itself out. Austin went from 10 minute naps to an hour and a half nap today! Triumph! But then, as one kink is ironed out, you quickly learn as a mom that another pops right back up, and you've got a new set of clues to try and piece together, and then a new solution to apply to it. Being a mom is hard work sometimes!

Here They Are!

2010-07-12T12:40:00.004-04:00

So here they are, pictures of The 4th of July, 2009, courtesy of Heidi! So much fun! Sorry Steve, they're mostly of the girls--I love it! Thanks, Snyders, for the fun get-together, I'm going to miss those times! But it is interesting to look back--last year at this time, little Greyson McLeod and Jack Schumers hadn't even arrived yet, and Jonnie at this age is the same age as Austin is now. Time flies, times change.

A Happy 4th of July

2010-07-07T00:41:00.002-04:00

Well, this year's 4th of July celebration was a little different for us; Steve had an appendectomy the Tuesday before the weekend of the 4th, and instead of going out to watch the fireworks, I went out to get poor Steve some pain meds. So I took a walk down memory lane to last 4th of July, which was really great and a special one for us. We spent it surrounded by friends and basking in the warm water of the Atlantic ocean, while we watched the fireworks light up the sky above. I suddenly realized, though, that we don't have any pictures of that fun weekend! Please, Florida friends, can you send me some pictures of last year's festivities? I'd love to have a few to remember it by...

Austin and his Binky

2010-06-19T01:00:00.002-04:00

So we've noticed lately that Austin has been grabbing onto his pacifier and putting it in his mouth. Since he is a little baby (he turns three months old tomorrow) and he's still trying to figure how to move his body, we thought he was just getting lucky. But then he kept doing it so we got the camera out to get it on film. Sometimes, however, Austin sees the big black camera and gets a little distracted looking at it. In this video you can see Austin pulling his binky out of his mouth, getting upset, then putting it back in and feeling better.
PS Sorry about the quality of the video. We'll try to fix it and make it better quality next time.

More Pictures of Austin...Enjoy!

2010-06-14T01:06:00.002-04:00

Happy 6 Year Anniversary to Us!

2010-06-11T01:31:00.003-04:00

I thought I would post a few relics from our past on this momentous day, June 11, 2010, a date that marks our sixth year of marriage. We have below a fun pre-marriage 50's Dance we went to in the Fall of 2002 up at BYU-Idaho:The actual wedding day: June 11, 2004, in Oakland, CA.Then Hawaii in 2005:
Graduation from BYU-Provo in 2006:

And now here we are, Memorial Day 2010, Dr. Steven Warne & Family!

What can I say, but that it has been a great 6 years. We have lived in three states, two graduations, four cars, six jobs, four homes, two cats, and one baby! And I really think it just keeps getting better as time goes on. I hope you know I love you Steve; let's keep the good times rollin'!

You Probably Know By Now: Baby Warne is Here!

2010-06-08T15:43:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I know everyone in the world probably knows we had our baby, because if not, he would have made a world record of being in the womb for, oh, almost exactly 11 months now. And we know that would have killed me, so let's talk about when he arrived!

Emilee in front of the hospital the morning Austin arrived

He was actually 9 days early. All seemed well--too well--as a matter of fact. I was dilated to a 4 at 36 weeks, and at 38 weeks I was at a 5, bordering on 6 to where my doctor didn't even want to check me for fear he'd break the water on accident and I'd have the baby right there in the exam room! The baby's head was down and at +1, and the doctor said, "Why don't you just come down to the hospital Friday morning, and we'll break the water and you can have this baby? In fact, you'll probably only be in labor for an hour. Mine and his (Steve's) job will be done quick!"
"Yeah, we'll go out and have time to play a round of golf after!" Steve replied.

Ha Ha. "Their job is soooo easy" I remember thinking to myself. But I was pretty happy with that--the quicker we do this thing, the better! But I also thought, if I'm so far along, can't the baby just come on his own, and we'll just wait for contractions?

But we decided to go in Friday, March 19. Turns out this was good, because they broke my water (I was dilated to a 7 already when I entered the hospital (no "real" contractions, no pain!) and there was some meconium in it that could have been harmful to the baby. Also, in hindsight, it seems that being that far along and not in labor yet is pretty rare, and once they started coming, they probably would have gotten very painful very quickly. As it was, they broke the water at 9:00 am, I got an epidural at about 10:30 am, it was time to push at 12:00 pm, and baby Austin Richard Warne was born at 2:35 pm that afternoon!

The details: He was 7 pounds 6 ounces, 19.5 inches long, APGAR score of 9.5, and one healthy, alert little baby! Here's newborn Austin: Proud Mom & Dad with week-old Austin outside of our Florida home

Residency News...

2010-03-06T23:12:00.003-05:00

Ok so today Emilee and I found where we will be living next year...get ready...wait for it...are you sitting down?...Birmingham, Alabama (cue banjo music). Any time Emilee and I mention the residency to friends and family they always have a lot of questions about it. I'll try to answer some of the common ones we get:

1. Where is it? Birmingham, Alabama, but more specifically it's at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. UAB has an optometry school and the residency is affiliated through that school. I will be spending most of my time there as well as other practices throughout Birmingham.

2. What type of residency is it? It is an accredited "Cornea and Contact Lens" residency. I will spend the majority of my time seeing contact lens patients and those with corneal disorders or infections.

3. How long is it? One year.

4. Is the residency required? Nope.

5. Then why in the world would you do it? To get specialized training in the area of contact lenses (more on this later)

6. Gross. How can you stand to go school for another year? I'm not really going to an additional year of school. As a resident, I will have already graduated from optometry school and earned my degree as doctor. This is my chance to specialize in a specific area which will open up more opportunities later in my career.

7. How much is it going to cost to you? Nothing, in fact I'll be a paid resident. However I'll be paid 1/2-1/3 of what I would have normally made if I started working with a practice after graduation. Completing the residency will pay for itself in the long run though.

8. Prescribing contact lenses sounds easy, why do you need to do a residency? The majority of contact lens patients are relatively easy fits. There is a small percentage of patients who require specialty hard contact lenses for certain corneal diseases. These patients have no choice but to wear hard contact lenses and require a doctor who is trained in fitting them in these specialty lenses.

9. Has the baby been born yet? No, but he keeps scissor kicking Emilee in the ribs.

Anyway, We're excited to move to Birmingham this summer with our little family. Where we'll end up after the residency is anyone's guess.

On Bedrest: May As Well Blog About it!

2010-03-03T11:36:00.002-05:00

Ok, so as some of you may have read on facebook, I am now on bedrest. I am 36 weeks and already dialated to 4 centimeters, 90% effaced. Blah, blah....it all just means I could go into labor, like, tomorrow, but no big deal. Except that I am getting Cheated out of 4 weeks of preparation for like, the biggest day of my life!

I had this great plan. It was all worked out. I was going to my last day of work this Friday. I was going to have a all-day birthing class at the hospital on Saturday. I was even going to teach Sharing time on Sunday. Was going to enjoy a really nice baby shower on March 14th put on by my good friends Molly and Barbara, and was going to generally enjoy three weeks of freedom and preparation until the baby decided to come perfectly, and ideally, on his Sunday due date of March 28, 2010. And then Steve would have his Spring Break all that next week where we would optimize bonding time and enjoy a liesurely introduction of the baby into the world with both mom & dad home full-time. Steve's mom would arrive March 30th to help with the baby and maybe some meals--life would be good.

Reality is I don't think he's going to wait that long! And of course, my doctor is on vacation, and I don't really like the one who is on-call, meanwhile. Steve has two really busy weeks of school this and next week, including ranking his residency choices by this Friday's deadline....

My desk at work is still a disaster and waiting for me to tie up tons of loose ends and clear it off for the next employee who sits there....

And, well, I guess that's life. Hope I make it a little longer, but if not, we'll still be so excited to meet this new little baby boy that is so eager to join us here.

The Best Four-Month Blog Lapse Excuse EVER

2009-11-19T13:24:00.003-05:00

Hello Friends,

So I noticed on a friend's blog a list of blogs she tracks and when they've posted last. The list was something like this:
Family is the Best
3 days ago

Happy Family
2 days ago

Family Love
4 days ago

Happiness is Family
14 hours ago

Families Can be Together Forever
2 seconds ago

Steve and Emilee
4 months ago

I noticed two things that seem to be a trend: Mormon friends' families are awfully happy, and I am a failure at keeping my blog updated like they do.

Well, I offer you The Best Four-Month Blog Lapse Excuse Ever: I have been pregnant for 4 months! AND....it's a BOY! (Now I know that would have been a lot more fun to keep everyone guessing had I posted something eons earlier like, "Girl or Boy, Place your bets 3 months ahead!" and then, "Girl or Boy, Place you bets, 1.2 Months ahead!" and then, "Girl or Boy, We are at the Dr.'s Office Right NOW, so you better guess already!" But this way, you are spared all that torment and you already know. Wasn't that easier?

(The truth: Just trying to feel better about my lame procrastinating.)

And more truth: Being pregnant makes me feel pretty unmotivated--which is pretty embarrassing to admit out loud, when all my friends use words like "nesting", "nursery projects", and "compulsive cleaning!" (Yes, I've heard all three from very productive pregnant friends.) So I keep thinking that I'll hit this phase......................................nope not yet....................................................................................aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....................how 'bout now?...............................................................................nope, still not. So, I'll let you know. Maybe. If I'm feeling motivated. You see this vicious cycle?

So while I'm here, I'll mention some fun facts about the last four months.

I felt baby boy kick me for sure the first time on October 23th, at 1:15 pm.

The very next week, we had our ultrasound where we found out he was a boy, to which we were both fairly shocked about. We had been thinking we were having the first Warne girl in the second generation of Steve's family. But, even more shocked were we, and not to mention the Doctor, to notice how obvious it was that he was a boy! ;)

When we were to go in to the ultrasound specialist, no joke: she told us she had a concert to go to that night and couldn't fit us in due to some botched scheduling. She asked, after we had told absolutely EVERYONE that we would know the gender that day, if we could reschedule for a WEEK later. Our response: Me: Almost crying. Steve: "Uhhhh...." and then altogether: "Umm, no, I think we really need to do this TODAY." Thankfully, the doctor came in and slapped her around a little so she timidly said she would go ahead with the ultrasound that day. Good thing, or patients in the waiting room may have seen a very ugly melt-down.

We have no boy names. The front runner was really a joke that I keep telling Steve will never actually happen, and that is: Don Carlos. Yes, Don Carlos Warne. You see? We got nothin'!

And if anyone is concerned about how the Fur Children (Smingers and Smokey Bones) are taking the changes, they have NO idea what's coming and how much less attention they're about to get! In another 4 months, I'll be picking up some cat Zoloft at the pharmacy.

Just think, if I don't write for 4 more months, I could be putting up baby pictures next blog! ;)

Leaf Attack!!!

2009-07-25T17:28:00.004-04:00

Just watch this clip.

A hit has been put out on Smingers

2009-06-28T23:00:00.001-04:00

The other day I got home early. I had just walked in the door when I heard: tweet. tweet. Tweet. Tweet. TWeet. TWEET. TWEET. TWEET TWEET TWEETTWEET!TWEET!TWEET!

And then BAM! Someone comes Busting in the cat door. An orange blur runs past me and up the stairs without missing a beat. Meanwhile, the birds are squaking and making a huge commotion outside and I knew something was going on. So upstairs I went to find Smingers, and there he was, and I knew: the stakes had been raised.

He STOLE the birds' baby!

He had it on the floor and was pawing at it, and it was helplessly tweeting. I immediately took it away from him, and he wasn't too happy to lose such a hard-earned prize, but I took it out and put it in a low branch of a tree. But as soon as those birds saw Smingers, and until this day, they zoom down and dive-bomb him until he runs for cover! He hasn't tried to fight back too much--he knows its pointless to fight when all the birds have a hit out on you.

Next time we're outside with smingers we'll try to get video of him bein attacked!

Steve and Emilee, Married Five Years: The Aftermath

2009-06-12T10:22:00.006-04:00

Steve and I just celebrated FIVE years together! Our first "milestone"! Let me begin with the a story about the breakdown of communication between us.

Did I scare you yet? No, it's a good story, really!

So last Wednesday night, Steve went to a 'continuing education' thing at the school, (because the education never ends, apparently) and I went out to crochet night with the girls (totally stunk at the pot-holder arts, let me tell you!). Anyway, we both came home late, and I realized we had no food for lunches. I told Steve we needed to go to Walmart.
Steve: Can you just go and get what you want? Oh, well, actually the Bishop just called and I have to go do some clerk stuff right now, it can't wait until tomorrow.
Me: Okay.
So I felt bad and I knew he really didn't want to go. So he leaves and shortly thereafter, and then I left after him to go to Walmart.

Fast forward one hour.

I come home with bags of groceries and set them on the kitchen counter to put away.

Fast forward five minutes.

Steve comes home with the same Walmart bags to put them on the counter...What?? Where did These bags come from??
Me: YOU went to Walmart? I just came back from Walmart!
Him: What do you mean? I was going to go after going to the church!
Me: What?? I was just there, I didn't see you!
Him: I was just there, I didn't see you either...
Me: What did you buy?

So here's what we bought. THE EXACT SAME STUFF.

The SAME Quaker Granola Bar Variety Pack:

The SAME 6-pack of Cheetos:

And the SAME choice of frozen dinners: Paninis.

So there you have it. Apparently Steve went in one side of Walmart and I went in the other--never even saw eachother. We may not know WHO'S getting the food, but we most certainly know what KIND it's going to be!!

So besides all that, we had a wonderful anniversary together: Steve getting me a dozen roses (my first roses from him ever! He usually picks something exotic, but it was fun that he did something spontaneous!) eating at Cheesecake factory, Steve playing basketball and me hanging out with the girls, taking the lazy kitties for a walk. Sure love that man, would've married him again in a heartbeat! Love you, Steve!

My parent's new yard

2009-05-19T23:53:00.003-04:00

This spring Emilee and I flew to California to help install the front landscape of my parent's yard. Emilee had spent hours designing it with plants that were native to the area as well as others that would add beauty to the yard. During Christmas break we went to various nurseries and made a plant wish-list, then Emilee incorporated those plants into a design. We also went to two rock quarries to buy boulders which we placed in the flower bed.

2009-05-13T21:36:00.001-04:00

Boards: I passed!

2009-04-27T23:52:00.002-04:00

Wow, I found out today that I passed part 1 of my optometry boards. WooHoo! Emilee and I were very grateful and that I passed and feel we were greatly blessed. I got a score that was very competitive and should help me should I decide to do a residency. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers on my behalf.

Sweaty Smingers

2009-04-21T09:43:00.003-04:00

I bet you didn't know cats can sweat--well, they can.

So, we decided that Smingers needs to be slowly acclimated to riding in a car. We're not THAT crazy, we just want to get him to be okay with idea, since he'll probably be forced to be in the car for a week when we move in a year. So, start early, we said. Drive around the block, we said. He'll get used to it, we said. Not so much.

As soon as we closed the car door, he went all tense. We started to drive, nice and slow. We were only going to drop off a letter and pick up a newspaper down the street--It was really probably only a 3 mile loop. He started to cry. It was the saddest, most pathetic "MEoooooh"'s you've ever heard. Then he started to get hot. I was holding his paws and they started getting all moist--eew, cat sweat! "Um, Steve," I said, "We probably better go home now, I think he might be sweating..." I think would both thought (in the Napoleon Dynamite voice): GROSSSS!

He finally became resigned to this horrific experience and smashed his head down in between the seat and the console of the car where the seatbelt comes out of and would NOT move. We finally got back home and opened the car door and he slunk off to sulk. Wouldn't even come around us for the rest of the day, and the following one as well.

What in the world are we going to do in a year???

Boards Update

2009-03-20T13:39:00.003-04:00

Well I took the boards on Tuesday and Wednesday. In total there were 500 questions divided into 4 tests with 125 questions each. The test basically covered everything I've learned during the past three years of optometry school. I had 3 1/2 hours to complete each test with a 1 hour break for lunch in between tests.

The exam was important to Emilee and me for a few reasons:
1) Each state requires you pass it to in order to be granted a license to practice optometry.
2) Nova Southeastern University requires you pass it in order to graduate from the school.
3) Board scores have a big influence on a residency placement. Higher scores make you more competitive.

I feel like things went well for me. As Emilee said in the previous post, I wasn't nervous, but rather anxious to start. I arrived early and went over a few last minute things, mostly optics equations that I had learned back in 2006 and haven't used since. Classmates slowly began to trickle in and then it was time to go check in and find your assigned seat in the auditorium. At this point most people were pretty nervous and you could almost feel it in the room. We were seated in the middle of a large auditorium that was built in 1950. Imagine sitting in the middle of the basketball court in the movie Hoosiers, that's what it looked like; even the lighting looked like it was straight from the 50s.

The test was administered the same way most standardized test are, with the proctor reading from a script for 10 minutes before you can break the seal on the test. "Do not begin until instructed to do so..." and "Read the directions to yourself as I read them aloud..." By the time the fourth test was administered I had it all memorized.

I broke the seal and began to take the first test. The questions were multiple choice and weren't too difficult, It seemed to me that there was a correct answer but also a very intriguing distractor placed there to cause you to doubt the correct answer. After a while I looked up at the clock and saw that I had been taking the test for an hour. I then looked at my test and saw I was only on question #41; only 84 more questions to go. Barf.

The optometrists who wrote the test questions really try to throw you off your game. They will give you five optics questions in a row then throw a crazy pharmacology question in there just as you are in optics mode. I guess they want to see how well you can switch gears from one subject to another. Are you Jeff Gordon or Ricky Bobby (the crazy Ricky Bobby who was just released from the mental hospital)?

After I finished the first test I exited the auditorium and went outside. Naturally everyone wanted to talk about the most important test in our lives thus far. Not me. I didn't want to talk about it at all. The reason? I didn't want to hear some random classmate say that I missed a question on the test. No one wanted to talk about the easy questions that everyone got correct, they wanted to debate difficult questions that no one was even sure what the correct answer was. It drives me crazy when I turn on SportsCenter and the topic of debate is, Who would win in a seven-game series, the '96-'97 Bulls or the 07-'08 Celtics? No one really knows the answer for sure, so why debate it? Same thing applies to the boards. No one really knows for sure what some of the answers to those difficult questions are, so why worry about it?

So I politely avoided discussing the test and went to Subway for lunch. I ordered a $5 footlong Italian BMT sub and wolfed it down like it was my last meal. After lunch I made my way back to War Memorial Auditorium to take part two of the test, I started to get nervous; not because I had to resume taking the test, but because I ate an entire 12 inch Italian sandwich. What was I thinking? Did I want to get heartburn or an upset stomach? I started planning my exit strategy should the unthinkable happen and I needed to use the bathroom. But luckily, I felt fine for the duration of part two of the test. Speaking of food, I was assigned the first seat at the front of the auditorium. When the test was passed out I received the top copy which came with a greasy fingerprint of the cover. I guess proctors get hungry too.

Part two began and ended for me in about three hours. I couldn't believe how exhausted, both physically and mentally, I was after finishing. Emilee came and picked me up and took me to a really cool ice cream parlor in Dania Beach called Jaxsons. It's been rated one of the top ten ice cream parlors in the nation. They make all of their ice cream from scratch and even make and their own sodas too (the root beer was awesome). We ate a hot dog and a sundae and then headed home.

That night it rained like crazy, I mean monsoon type rain. I was worried that the power would go out and the alarm wouldn't work, so I set my cell phone alarm too just in case.

I arrived the next morning at the auditorium for day two of boards. Traffic was bad due to the rain still coming down. The parking lot (if you can call it that) is a patch of dirt and weeds adjacent to the building. I parked but realized that I was in the middle of a huge puddle; I may as well have parked in Lake Michigan. I hopped and tip-toed my way out of the water, but not before completely soaking my socks. As I entered the building you could hear my shoes squish-squashing on the tile floor. I don't know about you, but it drives me crazy to have wet socks. I would have made a poor soldier or pioneer.

The second day of testing was much like the first. One difference was the downpour of rain on the metal roof of the building made for some dull background noise. I finished the test, ate a burrito for lunch (I know, spicy food again; not a smart move), then sat down to take the fourth and final test. Midway through that test I started to get a pounding headache, but I sucked it up and finally finished.

Glaukomfleken. What a funny word. Sounds like a German curse word; like maybe something you'd hear Hitler yell in a World War II documentary on the History Channel. It was actually an answer choice for one of the questions. I had no idea what the answer was to that particular questions, but I chose glaukomfleken as the answer (because none of the other answers made sense) and I have since learned that it was indeed the correct choice. There were number of questions like that, questions for which I didn't know the answer but I was able to logically guess the answer by a process of elimination.

Anyway, when I was all said and done, I left the auditorium with my headache and went home to rest. Again, I was completely exhausted and just wanted to go home and stare at the TV. So how did I do? I don't know for sure and won't receive my score until sometime in the middle of May. However, I'm cautiously optomistic that I did well enough to pass and I thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers you said in my behalf. I'll post again once I receive my scores and let you know if I performed like Ricky Bobby or more like the Rainbow Warrior (that's a Jeff Gordon reference for those of you not familiar with NASCAR).

What Day is It?

2009-03-17T09:40:00.005-04:00

So what is today you ask? St. Patrick's Day? Nope, that's not it...it's only the most important day of the last three years of mine and Steve's lives...The NATIONAL OPTOMETRY BOARDS. I write it in caps because that's how it sounds in my mind: THE NATIONAL OPTOMETRY BOARDS. Ooooo....may as well be Halloween...this is scary, everyone!

So I took Steve down to the War Memorial Auditorium--a fitting name for the memory of this test, I think--down in Fort Lauderdale. It was actually directly east of us, and not too far. I asked Steve if he was nervous while I was driving, and he said no; meanwhile, my stomach hurts the same way it would hurt when I would finally drag myself to the Testing Center at BYU. I'm more nervous than him! In fact, I was so focused on getting him to his test that I forgot my lunch today.

A few interesting points about taking the boards:
-You have to leave your phone at the front desk and take the battery out. Oh, and no smart phones. Some people must be desperate to cheat!
-You may not bring "good luck charms" to the test--no statues of saints, pictures of your significant other or dead grandmother, candles/incense, crosses, hearts, stars, and horseshoes, clovers and blue moons! Pots of gold and rainbows, and me red balloons! Okay, so I took some creative license to a few on those list...okay, most on that list, but yeah. No lucky charms. Well, I put a clover on Steve's shirt for good luck anyway. It IS St. Patrick's Day, after all!

Warne-Fowkes info

2009-02-16T13:52:00.011-05:00

How common is our last name? I found a cool website, dynastree.com, that shows the distribution of any last name in the United States. Here is the distribution of Warne:

Distribution of the surname Warne

Where does your name come from?

In the US there are 956 phone book entries with the surname Warne and approximately 3,445 persons with this name.
Thus, the surname Warne the 10100th most frequent name in the US.
People with this surname live in 47 states. Most occurrences are in California: 133.
Other states with lots of occurrences are Minnesota (79), South Dakota (60), New York (59), Florida (49), Ohio (45), Pennsylvania (42), Arizona (34), Texas (32), as well as Washington (30).

Here's the map and data about the Fowkes surname:

Distribution of the surname Fowkes

Where does your name come from?

In the US there are 283 phone book entries with the surname Fowkes and approximately 1,019 persons with this name.
Thus, the surname Fowkes the 28126th most frequent name in the US.
People with this surname live in 30 states. Most occurrences are in Pennsylvania: 56.
Other states with lots of occurrences are California (32), Utah (24), Florida (22), Ohio (17), New York (16), Massachusetts (13), Virginia (9), Texas (8), as well as Maryland (8).

Christmas 2008

2009-02-12T00:32:00.006-05:00

I know it's over a month late, but we finally posted some Christmas pictures. Emilee and I left sunny South Florida for, what now seems to us, cold California. Before we moved to Florida we used to look forward to California weather during Christmas break, but now daytime highs in the 50s are chilly to us.
We flew on the afternoon Christmas Eve and arrived in San Francisco later that night. We spend about a week with my family, which included Christmas, my parents' anniversary, and Dallin's birthday.
Emilee then made the two hour trek south to Coalinga while I stayed behind and studied for my upcoming optometry board exam. Emilee's parents had just recently visited us in Florida a few weeks prior and we had a nice time with them here. My next blog entry will be pictures of their visit.

Update: After posting this entry and looking at the pictures, I realized that there only a few photos of Christmas in Coalinga and several pictures of us in Livingston. The reason? Poor Emilee got very sick with the stomach flu the first night she was in Coalinga and was only able to snap a few of photos :(

If the pictures move too fast press stop and manually advance them

Thanksgiving 2008

2009-02-11T22:33:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving 2008 that we have been meaning to post for a couple of months now. In all, we had 17 total people including Emilee and Me. I baconed-up a 26 pound turkey and we all ate it along with great fixins and pies. This is the third year that we have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner and hope to keep the tradition alive for many years to come.

If the pictures move too fast press stop and manually advance them

Wow, Let's Do A Little Catching Up!

2009-01-30T10:41:00.002-05:00

Okay, so it's been 2 very busy months since our last post, so I better fill everybody in!

First of all, my mom and dad came to visit in December and we had a great time! They stayed for about 6 days and we went all over: The Everglades was our first day (I think this was their favorite--my mom and dad are totally into traveling to see natural land formations and places that are unique to different states. Hence, I have memories of going on vacations to Carlsbad Caverns, The Badlands of South Dakota, The Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Devil's Golf Course, Devil's Gate, Devil's Postpile....hmmm, why are there so many that were named after the DEVIL?? Haha...probably because those were the coolest formations....now it sounds like I'm saying the Devil is cool...I better stop now.) The next day was Fort Lauderdale Beach and Nova, where we met up with Steve for the Grand Optometery Tour. Then we did Vizcaya, Coral Gables and Miami Beach (I'm told Miami Beach pictures at sunset didn't turn out :( so disappointing, because that was a beautiful one!) The next day we went down to Bahia Honda Key, 30 miles north of Key West and a great beach! The highlight of the day, though, was DELICIOUS Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick Covered in Chocolate! It's to die for! Check it out...Largo Cargo, in Key Largo.

Anyway, it was a lot of sightseeing in a short time but it was lots of fun and my mom and dad said it was actually very relaxing--a real vacation before they are off to their mission....

Yes! They got their call! They're going toooooooo....

Recife, Brazil! A 18 month Temple Mission. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recife

Well, that's as much as I can do in one post!

La Clinica Revisited

2008-11-21T23:17:00.017-05:00

So I thought I would give an update on how my work in the school's clinic was going. Besides prescribing glasses for my patients, I've been able to diagnose, and in some cases treat, several ocular diseases and disorders (unfortunately there are some diseases that aren't able to be treated). Below are a list of some of the diseases that I've seen. This is by no means a complete list of diseases:

Normal, Healthy Retina

Diabetic Retina

AIDS Retina

Lupus Retina

Macular Degeneration

Glaucoma

Herpes Simplex Virus

Herpes Zoster Virus

Bacterial infection

And of course, glasses

The Adventures of Smingers!

2008-11-13T09:40:00.003-05:00

Quick update since our last post:
*Smingers woke us up in the middle of the night by playing with a GIANT moth.
*Smingers brought in a mouse and chased it around the kitchen.
*Smingers was named "The Mascot of Lakeview Courts" by his new friends, Larry and Lenora (our neighbors).
*Smingers got dizzy after spinning on the computer chair and fell down...on his neck! (No injuries, just laughs).
*Smingers jumped into the lap of a houseguest WHILE AT THE DINNER TABLE to beg for spaghetti. (I was so embarrassed! What, it's not like we don't feed him!)
*And finally, one of my personal favorites: Smingers got stuck on the roof of our townhomes and couldn't get down by himself. I went over to help, but he was just barely reachable on my tip-toes and hands over my head. So I went to get him around his middle, but he is so flabby that what we affectionately refer to as his "waddle" was shifting around and his lard fat was hard to hold on to! He did, however, make it safely to the ground after a shaky ride down.

That's the quick version of the adventures of Smingers. Meanwhile, Smokey Bones was cowering in the shadows growling about life and how hard it is to be a misunderstood cat. Well, maybe she wouldn't be misunderstood if she didn't change her mind every .7 seconds! Or if she could speak English! Gosh, is that so much to ask?

Larry and Lenora (mentioned above) were interesting to get to know. I met them the day after Smingers got stuck on the roof. I went over to see if he was stuck again because he didn't come to greet me when I drove up, like he usually does. Well, what to my wandering eye should appear, was little orange Smingers, and a guy drinking a beer! (Okay, so he wasn't drinking a beer, but it rhymed so well, and he looked like the type that might!) Umm, okay back to the story: This guy was out there in the parking lot, and there was Smingers, rubbing up against his legs and hamming it up. I told him that he was our cat and introduced myself, and he told me his name was Larry and his wife or girlfriend was Lenora. Now, mind you, Larry was this true Florida guy, the transplanted from New York type that enjoy the weather in their open shirt, hairy chest, gold chains-and-all type of guy....he's got this motorcycle that he tinkers around with all weekend (we know, he just starts it up, not to go anywhere, just to tinker with it all Saturday...and Sunday...all afternoon....yeah.) But he couldn't stop gushing about how nice this cat was..."what's his name?" "Smingers". "Oh, Smithers?" "No, Smingers." "Smengers?" "Yes, SMINGers." And Lenora even chimed in that he apparently comes in their house, and jumped up on her bed! Anyway, so they were quite a nice couple, despite Larry calling Smingers "Smithers" and "Smith" a few more times before we went on our way.

So, side note: My mom and dad are going to be visiting us in less than a month! They will arrive Dec. 3rd and stay thru the 9th. I am excited and hoping to show off good weather and a warm Atlantic Ocean...though it probably will be "cold" by then. I am also excited to decorate for Christmas in our new home, such great bannisters for Christmas garlands! We are leaving for California on the 24th of December this year (blah), but at least if it's going to be that late, I will be able to enjoy my festive decorations for longer to put us in the holiday spirit.

Fido the Iguana

2008-10-26T19:17:00.004-04:00

So yesterday Emilee and I went to a fruit stand in Hollywood to buy some fresh produce and a couple of pumpkins for Halloween. We got a little lost trying to find the place which caused us to drive back and forth down a busy highway as we tried to find the stand. I was a little annoyed with myself because I had looked-up the location online and should have known exactly where I was going.
The extra drive was worth it, however, when a taxi passed us in the right lane. I had to do a double-take as I saw a large iguana hanging its head out the window like a dog! Emilee and I couldn't believe our eyes. His head was bobbing back and forth and his hanging waddle thingy was flapping in the wind. I quickly gave my cell phone to Emilee and she snapped the picture below. It was one of, if not the weirdest things I've seen here in Florida.

Three Repairmen, One Day: The Saga Begins

2008-10-21T09:30:00.004-04:00

Saturday, Oct. 11th.
I'm about to host a lunch party. I have mopped the floors, put up Halloween Decor, picked up the living room several times, and wiped down the kitchen. When I start to get lunch ready, cupboards start falling off their hinges! Literally! I thought, Steve can fix it. But Steve didn't have time to fix it. I'll just call Wayne, the Property Manager, he says. Yeah, AFTER everyone sees this wonderfully clean kitchen....with stuff spilling out of these ghetto cupboards sagging on one hinge.

Thursday, Oct. 16th.
In the midst of the worst BYU game by far this season (and a few previous seasons), Steve noticed that there was a giant stain in the middle of our kitchen ceiling. We quickly realized this wasn't usual ceiling ornamentation. Steve got on a chair and touched it, and sure enough, it was wet. So adding to the frustration of the game, we realized there must be a leak. And not just a little leak, a big one. That got even bigger after the game. Time to call Wayne, who's still on call for the ghetto cupboards.

Saturday, Oct. 18th.
I was busy cleaning out our bathtub in preparation for someone to look at the bathroom pipes due to the leak. I started getting really hot in there with all that humidity, and I just couldn't cool down! I turned on the fan in our room, which connects to the bathroom. Still hot! So I turned the A/C down to 74--usually it's at 78, to save on our power bill. STILL sweating! Finally I told Steve, I'm burning up! I already turned on the fan and the A/C, and it STILL says it's 81 in here! Then we looked at each other.........*realization*. It's the A/C that's out. Wayne's on speed dial.

Smingers vs. The Giant Iguana

2008-10-05T22:06:00.005-04:00

Smingers is a very curious kitty and because of his such a friendly cat, he has actually made a few friends here in the neighborhood. There is a little Buffy-like dog who is his friend, as well as a black and white stray that comes around. And those are his animal friends, I'm not going to start with the humans he has befriended (let's just say one neighbor woke up with Smingers in her bed...). If Smingers was on Facebook, then he would be one of those people who tries to get as many friends as possible.
Well today Sming tried to expand circle of friends with one of the giant iguanas that hangs around the lake in our back yard. I don't want to give away what happens next, but keep one thing in mind, iguanas defend themselves by whipping you with their spiny tales. Enjoy--

It's been a while...

2008-09-30T22:08:00.003-04:00

Ok, so Emilee and I have been really busy (and at times lazy), so wehaven't updated our blog for a long time. So much has happened inthe last three month or so that I don't even know where to start.
Maybe I'll begin with our new house. We found a townhouse about 1/2 mile from our old apartment that was bigger, cheaper, and next to a lake. It was kind-of a hassle to move out of our old place and into our new one, but we think it was well worth it. Below are some pictures of our new digs:

Dallin's Florida Extravaganza

2008-07-07T00:46:00.002-04:00

Dallin's visit to Florida

2008-07-05T23:10:00.001-04:00

Here are some pictures we took on Dallin's recent visit. The rainy wet photos are of us in Shark Valley in the Everglades where we biked a 15 mile loop. There are some pictures of us lighting off fireworks and some pictures next to our apartment.

The Passing of an Era

2008-07-03T08:17:00.007-04:00

After driving the Lumina for five years and 70,000 miles, Emilee and I finally sold it a couple of weeks ago. The car had become unreliable the past couple of months due to some electrical problems. Some of the wiring harnesses had become brittle with the insulation beginning to to harden and flake off. One harness in particular began to arc and short out causing the car to die. The problem with replacing that harness is that it you had to remove the intake manifold to get to it, which would have cost more than the car was worth. Though it had electrical problems, the engine and transmission were in excellent condition and would have run for a long time to come.
I put an ad on craigslist.org and sold the Lumina a couple of days later to a person from Miami.

Before we sold the Lumina we were fortunate to buy another car. A member of our ward unexpectedly needed to move to the Northeast and wasn't able to take his Ford Escape. He tried to sell it for a couple of weeks leading up to his move, but had no success. He called me up the night before he moved and offered to sell me his Escape for about 1/2 the Blue Book value. We test drove it and decided to buy it. Initially I was worried about the gas milage that it was going to get, but I have since realized that it gets better gas milage than the Lumina. We are very happy with it as it's nice to have something bigger to haul stuff around and go to the beach in.

Same Story

2008-06-16T16:32:00.002-04:00

So if you look at the below post that includes the story about Pooh and the snake, just insert "Mouse with foot caught in a Mousetrap dragging himself around and squeaking" whenever I wrote "snake", and you'll pretty much have the gist of what happened last night.

My trip to Jacksonville, FL

2008-06-12T20:57:00.004-04:00

Johnson & Johnson owns a contact lens company named Vistakon. Their headquarters are located in Jacksonville, which is in the northeast corner of Florida. Vistakon paid for me and some fellow students to fly up there for three days of contact lens training and education. At first I was skeptical because I thought it would be a three-day commercial for Acuvue contact lenses, but that wasn't the case.
I flew in on Sunday afternoon, then for the next two days I attended training and seminars about contact lenses and new designs that are being developed from Vistakon and other companies. We fit real patients with new lenses and they seemed to like the comfort and vision they had with them in. They also brought lecturers in to educate us on improving our patient communication and gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant.
Johnson & Johnson and Vistakon are not hurting for money. The first night I was there I was given a $50 voucher for dinner at a Japanese hibachi steakhouse (I'm pleased to announce that I used $49.40 of it). Then the next night they paid for a fancy dinner at a beach-front restaurant. During the day I had access to all the food I could eat in their company cafeteria. The accommodations were very nice too.

A New One for Smokey Bones!

2008-06-12T12:30:00.004-04:00

Smokey Bones caught a nice big rat and called us in early one morning to see it. (It was dead, by the way). She decided she had no more interest in it and let us know she would relinquish her prize for us to do with it what we would. Of course, that meant Steve immediately disposing of it. GROSS!

On a related note, last night (our anniversary) Pooh came around in the middle of the night. She started meowing every once in awhile as I could hear her pacing back and forth between our room and the next. It woke us both up and Steve said "Ignore her, she's just hungry." Well, she wouldn't be ignored. She started meowing Louder. "Are you sure she's hungry?" I asked sleepily after awhile. "Maybe there's something wrong." Meanwhile, she's meowing and meowing, and heading toward our room again. "Yeah, she just wants food." Steve said between mini-snores. And then Smokey was in our room, MEOWING! "Look, you guys, LOOK!" And so I looked, and she has this nice long little black snake (see previous post of our old friend) that she has laid at the foot of our bed. "She got a snake!" I hissed, and this produces the desired effect. "Hurry!" But Steve is already up and picks that snake right up (I could never do this--too many rattlesnake in the Chicken Coop nightmares) to throw him outside. "Thanks, Pooh, but we don't want you to keep catching this poor guy!" He tells Smokey, as the embattled snake writhes in a scared way. It kind of struck me as funny, actually--a Snake, afraid of US! So out he went and Smokey Bones didn't even look at him twice. She just wanted us to know what a good hunter she is.

My First Day in la Clinica

2008-05-21T08:07:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was the first day I was able to see my first real patients. For two years I have been practicing techniques on fellow classmates, but that all changed yesterday as I was able to see total strangers.

My first patient was a 44 year-old male construction worker with a mini-mullet. He had bilateral bacterial conjunctivitis (eye infection) with his left eye worse than his right. I took a case history and performed pretesting (pupil responses, extra-ocular motilities, visual field testing, etc.) and did a slit lamp microscope exam on both eyes. I then instilled fluorscein dye in both eyes and looked at the corneal staining with the cobalt blue filter which allowed me to see any defects that the patient had as a result of the infection. It turned out that he had several corneal infiltrates, which are clusters of white blood cells that infiltrate the cornea in response to an infection. Corneal infiltrates are bad because they can cause a decrease in visual acuity because they can cause to overlying epithelial layers of the cornea to sluff off thus exposing the the cornea to further infection and possible ulceration. Infiltrates can also be one the pupillary axis and thus make it seem like something hazy is in front of the eye.

He was taking Vigamox (an ocular antibiotic) and Medrysone (steroid to reduce the infiltrates and inflammation). He had these medications from a previous infection. When I measured his IOP (intraocular pressure) I noticed that he had pressures that were about 30 mm Hg (about twice the average pressure). Since his pressures were high I told him to not take the steroid anymore because a possible side effect of ocular steroids is an increase in IOP. High IOP is worse than having corneal infiltrates and a little swelling so that's why I told him to stop using the steroid. The doctor wrote him a new prescription for Vigamox and I told him to come back the next day to check on the progress of his infection.

My next patient wasn't really my patient. It was another student's patient who spoke only Spanish. I was the translator during that exam. I love being able to use my Spanish skills and converse with the Latin people. They always seem so surprised that I can speak their language and are also very grateful. The only noteworthy finding was pterygia (see picture) in both eyes due to the patient being exposed to UV light in excess. The patient also had cataracts, which weren't that bad but were advanced for her age because of UV exposure. I was the only one in the clinic that day that could fluently speak Spanish, and because of that I was extremely busy as most of our patients didn't speak English (remember, Emilee and I live in Miami).

Is there a downside to being fluent in Spanish? The short answer is yes. I was so busy translating for other students and faculty that I wasn't able to see my own patients besides the construction worker that I mentioned above. Toward the end of my clinic experience yesterday, I realized that I needed concern myself more with practicing optometry and less with practicing my Spanish skills.

My friend Ben, who served his mission in Honduras, is starting a Spanish class for optometrists this summer. He asked me to help teach the class and I agreed. We start tomorrow and the class will last six weeks, during which we will cover how to get through an exam in Spanish with minimal confusion.

Here's a New One...

2008-05-20T08:40:00.003-04:00

Here's the latest catch, brought in by Smingers! He was real proud of it, prancing in with it flitting it's wings while hanging out of his mouth. Then he dropped it in the middle of the living room floor in presentation fashion, only to have it try to start trying to fly again! Steve took it went to let it go, and Smingers was so disappointed.

My Formal House, a Few Months Later

2008-05-12T10:01:00.003-04:00

Just to give you an idea how fast things grow here in Florida. The impatiens in the front are about out of season because of the heat, but they are still looking pretty good here. I was most pleased with how far along the back has come. If you look across the pool in the second to last picture, there is a lovely tree in the background that has very pretty lime, orange, and red tones to the leaves. It is a Queen Crape Myrtle, and you almost never see them as nice as this one. We relocated it from the side yard and all the leaves turned bright orange and red and then dropped due to the expected shock. But I couldn't believe how well it came back and how healthy all the new leaves are! This tree is one of my favorite things about this particular job. And, the flowers are a very pretty lavendar, matching closely with the ground orchids I put in the opposite corner.

Also, the Bulbine (yellow spike flower) and plumbago (blue flower) have really begun blooming as expected, and is giving the desired effect as a complementary pool backdrop. Watch out if you walk under those Coconut Palms though, heavy coconuts fall down in clusters unexpectadly on these particularly fertile specimens!

Look at What the Cat Dragged In...

2008-05-06T08:36:00.004-04:00

So here is the latest "catch" by Smokey Bones....brought in just this morning. Good thing she was making a big deal about it--meowing, thumping around--or else it could have gotten lost in our house! BLECH! I watched to make sure it didn't get away while Steve jumped out of bed and grabbed the closest shoe. WHACK! And it was all over. Pooh just couldn't understand why we would want to smash her prize!

I WON A TRIP TO TAMPA!!!

2008-05-05T18:23:00.003-04:00

So I FINALLY did it! I WON a radio call-in contest! I've been trying since we moved to Florida, because I was so amazed at the big ticket items they give away! So I'm going to recount everything as it occurred:
I remembered today that Majic 102.7 (The local Oldies Station) had emailed me because I am a member of their Majic Fun Club (just keep reading, being a member is worth it!) Their email conveniently gave me the inside scoop of exactly when the 'song of the day' was going to play (one of the perks of the Majic Fun club). Each day this week, they give away one prize of $500.00, and the other is a Tampa Bay 2 nights for 2 getaway. I always make a conscious choice to go for the trip, because it is something we usually couldn't afford. Today I took a breather-break from work around 4:40pm, when I suddenly realized the song of the day was supposed to play at 4:45! I rushed back to my desk and programmed the radio station number into my desk phone. (I got superstitious about using the office phone since on it I had been caller 1, 3, and 6 (and a one-time- winner-on-a-different-radio-station-only-to-be-thwarted-by-my-age, but that's a different story). So I started calling a 4:43. But the radio station was behind--it was playing some song by the Supremes well into the 4:45 minute, not the song of the day: 8 Days a Week, by the Beatles. So the song finally ended, and I rang once. Busy. Then I redialed...and it RANG! Then they were asking me my name, and I was wondering why. Usually the just say what caller number you are. Then I realized he was telling me I won! He told me all the stuff it included, but I couldn't even hear it. I was all shaky and was trying to remember my name and what radio station I was listening to since I knew they were about to put me on the air, and I was trying very hard not to embarrass myself! So from what I remember, I won a 3 day, 2 night two person suite at a Private Resort in Tampa Bay on a golf course and country club, including a Spa Package for two, at over $1000 value! We are attaching the link they gave me so you can all be jealous! Anyway, it is supposed to be available to us sometime in mid-June (sounds like it will work perfect for our annual anniversary trip!) So I was so excited, as you can tell, and it was the perfect anniversary/birthday present for us!
http://www.emeraldgreensgcc.com/index.asp

Emilee's Birthday

2008-05-05T17:41:00.003-04:00

So here's me on my 24th Birthday. I bought that pretty green shirt earlier that day with some money my mom sent in a card for my birthday. She also wrote a little poem to go with it that was funny and really nice.

Steve got me this ice cream cake (cookie dough!) and it was DELICIOUS! And look at all those presents in front of me! He got me a funny red shirt with my favorite quote from Talledega Nights (really the most memorable part of the movie) that said "I'm gonna come at you like a Spider Monkey!" and a crazy picture of a monkey. Then there was a gift certificate for a Deluxe Pedicure--Steve said he had the choice between a "regular" pedicure or the deluxe, and he chose the deluxe, so it looks like I'm all spoiled now. That would probably make only about the 3rd or 4th pedicure I've ever had!

Before I got to open Steve's presents, we went to have a Barbecue with all my friends. We had it at Elliott and Molly's place at their clubhouse pool, because there is a nice little nook there with a big BBQ grill area. Rob, Bonnie, and their twins Ben and Bella were there, Bryce and Brittni Hardy, Barbara and Pete Mills, Naomi and Marcos Aguilera, and some of Naomi's family even came when they got into town, and we had lots and lots of delicious hotdogs, Bratwursts, hamburgers, potato salad, yummy ice cream bar deserts, drinks and snow cones!

I wish I would have thought to take the camera for the Barbecue, it was a really fun night. Barbara and Bonnie got me a new purse and wallet (much needed, I might add, and they knew it!) Molly got me some tennis balls, with the promise that we would go play soon...I'll hold her to it! Anyway, it really was one of my favorite birthdays because I was spoiled all day.

Then I included a picture of Smingers because he does funny things.

Fur Children Update

2008-04-29T23:46:00.010-04:00

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

2008-04-29T23:32:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-29T23:27:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-22T13:21:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-13T23:57:00.011-04:00

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

2008-04-13T23:18:00.017-04:00

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

2008-04-04T09:41:00.002-04:00

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!

One Day When I'm Old....

2008-03-11T16:26:00.002-04:00

I thought this story on MSN was the best ever. I would love to help those old ladies out by clipping coupons...or on the other hand, I would help clip coupons for soldiers when I get old! I love coupons, and am really good at finding and organizing the good stuff (when I have time). That's really nice of them to do this too, because I'm sure it is not easy to handle scissors for those who have arthritis. So here's the link:

Elderly enlist as coupon clippers to aid militarySpread out across the U.S. is a small army of old ladies determined to do their part in the war on terror. Their weapons of choice: scissors and coupons.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23571516/from/ET/

And Now, a More Formal Miami Home

2008-03-11T13:07:00.005-04:00

Here is another House in Miami/Palmetto Bay. It actually turned out better than I expected, which is always good! The idea here was to create a formal front to match the Mediterranean feel of the architecture (tall front columns, raised roof) and the more northern feel of the large Live Oaks. This then transitions into a tropical environment in the back, with Coconut Palms, Foxtail Palms (one of my very favorites!) and even a Bamboo (look between the two Foxtail Palms in the next to last picture). The front came out looking extremely nicely done, thanks to my great foreman, Aniceto. The back needs time to grow in before it makes the impact I had in mind. All in all, it was a great transition for this landscape, and good practice in formal landscaping for me.

My Asian-style House

2008-03-05T13:29:00.004-05:00

So this was my first Asian-inspired design/install. Everything is very newly planted, so it looks small, but I'm hoping it fills in as nicely as I imagine it in my head. And I also hope that nothing dies due to poor maintenance. The landscaping was done for an upcoming wedding of the owners and we were able to get all the irrigation, landscaping, and lighting done just in time; it tooks us about 2 weeks from start to finish. I was really excited about how everything turned out--and I think I am liking this Asian style theme quite a bit!

More on the Kitties

2008-03-05T13:00:00.002-05:00

Looks like Pooh and Sming are up to their old tricks. Their most common is to come in their kitty-rigged door with a live lizard hanging out of their mouth, so they can (so thoughtfully!) share it with us and eachother. A nice gesture, although an altogether unsavory one (except for whoever gets to eat it!) Since they feel lizards are in mass demand and our reptilian friends just aren't cutting it on the "getting away fast enough" thing, the kitties are able to deliver us severed tails, limbs, and more recently, heads, in bulk. Recently Steve called me on the phone at work to tell me of his latest lizard episode. He described it thus: "I came in to the computer room, where I found a "STACK" of lizards behind the door!" Not only does this amuse me for the implied sheer amount of lizards, but that they had been carefully laid in a pile, no doubt for future enjoyment--much like I used to save bits of candy bars after Halloween just to say I still had some Halloween candy left.

Did I mention Lizards have an uncanny knack for seeming to be beyond all hope, yet disappear from their supposed "final resting place" to turn up as a camouflaged appendage to my kitchen houseplants?

Well, Pooh and Sming will probably find him again eventually.

E'panish

2008-03-03T10:45:00.001-05:00

I'm not one to browse youtube but someone sent me this link and I thought it was funny

JetBlue Flight Revisited

2008-02-29T23:32:00.003-05:00

One of the coolest websites that I've ever stumbled upon is flightaware.com. On flightaware.com you can track all of the flights in the air over the US at once, plus you can track the path of previous flights up to 4 months. The above picture is the path of our infamous JetBlue flight that Emilee and I took over Christmas. The plane was supposed to arrive in Oakland, but as you well know, it never made it. Honestly I thought that we had made it further along because the tracker that was on the plane showed us having made it to shore over Louisiana. Even though it doesn't look like we went very far we were in the air for 2 1/2 hours.If you click on the link http://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU271/history/20071222/0229Z/KFLL/KOAK you can see other flight info

Kitty Door

2008-02-23T23:50:00.004-05:00

Well we broke down and finally got a cat door for Smingers (the orange cat) and Smokey Bones (the gray kitty). Thanks to Carolyn and John for giving us advice on how to design it. As soon as I installed it Smokey Bones jumped up and exited, then re-entered, then exited again several times as if to say "I can't believe that I can come and go now as I please!" Smingers was too fat to jump up to the window, so I lifted him up there so he could check it out too. We placed a chair underneath the window so that he could get up there when we're not home. The unfortunate thing is that Smingers has gotten in a fight with a stray cat twice and has been bitten each time (on our front porch I might add). Since both fights occurred at night, he is afraid to go out after dark so he only goes out during the day. Lately he has been catching geckos and other small lizards and bringing them in to the apartment to play with along with Smokey Bones. I've found about five or six dead little critters in the house.

Valentines Day

2008-02-23T23:29:00.010-05:00

Here are some pictures from Valentines Day. Emilee made a delicious cake and I grilled the steaks (they were a little more charred than I would have liked). It was nice to take a night off from studying and spend it with Emilee.

Valentine's Day...Remember?

2008-02-14T16:32:00.002-05:00

Hi Steve, do you have anything to say to me on this very special day? (This is where you confess your love for me to the world on this great public sign-board, the world wide web.)

So it's also my dad's birthday today. What a great guy! Good ol' Dad, he would always give my mom a heart-shaped box of chocolates left on her dresser for when she would get up. I think he also wrote a love note, but my mom didn't let us read that, nor did she share the chocolates! Now that I'm older, I say good for her, because I wouldn't share them either!

I always thought it was funny that my mom got something on my Dad's birthday...poor dad, I bet he wouldn't mind a few delicious chocolates too! I can't remember if we really got him anything...probably garden gloves or work boots. That sounds pretty sad, but then again, my dad likes to garden and I think he's fairly pleased with some new, sturdy gloves or shoes.

So I won't put it off anymore...I bet Steve thought I wouldn't say it, but:

I LOVE YOU STEVE! Happy Valentine's Day!
I wish I had a candy heart to give you that said.....

"Page Me"! How romantic!

~Emilee

Smingers, IHOP, and Preston update

2008-02-12T17:44:00.000-05:00

So I love Chex Mix (Homemade Chex Mix, not storebought) I love eating it so much that when my Mom sent it to me on my mission in Colombia, I ate it all for breakfast. One time my Mom made it and left it on the kitchen counter to cool. I noticed that every time I would grab a small handful of chex and eat it as I passed. Well, Smingers does basically the same thing. He follows us around the apartment all night (when he's not sleeping) and every time we go to the kitchen he stops and eats a few bites of food. Ummm...don't mind if I do...

IHOP and Preston: Mom asked if we had been to IHOP yet and the answer is--not yet. We're going to go later tonight. Also, the reason we have a Preston, ID Webcam is because we both lived in Rexburg for a couple of years and now Miami for a couple of years. I love to see the contrasting climates and am glad that we live where it's warm

OTM 4 = Boooring!

2008-02-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

Sorry Steve, somebody had to say it!

Let's talk about our two fur-children, Smingers and Smokey Bones. Actually, Smokey Bones doesn't go by "Smokey Bones" anymore--we have (un)affectionately labeled her "Pooh" because she is so grouchy and ANNOYING ALL the time.
So these two kitties, Pooh and Sming are the most opposite kitties EVER. Sming is a very nice, Garfield Lard that loves to (in order) 1. Eat 2. Sleep 3. Eat 4. Run around outside 5. "don't mind if I do!" Eat

Pooh is a silver-gray kitty who is slightly fat (but wears her weight well). Pooh hates to (in order) 1. Be loved 2. Be picked up 3. Be loved 4. Be touched 5. Be nice 6. Do ANYTHING she didn't think of FIRST!

That being explained, I will be sharing many anecdotes on these two kitties and thought I would begin with this one.

Smingers wanted to go outside really bad this morning, but unfortunately, though he has a cat door out of our window 3 ft off the ground, cannot jump up to it due to his considerable girth. He finally annoyed Steve enough by crying, pouting, then pointing his nose to the window until Steve let him out. What a baby. I will be picking up some French Cries and Whaamburgers for him on said Hamburglar's Birthday.

It only comes one time a year...

2008-02-12T10:09:00.001-05:00

Today fat guys like Homer Simpson, Ruben Studdard, Meatloaf, as well as others are celebrating National Pancake Day by going to IHOP to get free pancakes. http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/

No word yet if McDonalds will be holding the same promotion on the Hamburglar's birthday

OTM-4 Class

2008-02-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

Dr. Cranadall is the instructor for our OTM-4 class. It's one of those classes that is fairly straight-forward and so I can type and listen at the same time without missing anything important. She likes to go lecture very slowly so I read ahead in the notes while she lectures. Today's lecture is on Cycloplegic refraction...nothing too stimulating.

http://optometry.nova.edu/faculty_staff/forms/crandall.pdf

My very first blog posting

2008-02-11T09:49:00.000-05:00

So I've wanted to start a blog for some time now and have finally gotten around to doing it. I just finished two tests (Ophthalmic Optics and Epidemeology) and had some time to spare time so I went ahead and did it. I just called Emilee at work and she's onboard with it. She has better writing skills than I do so I look forward to her posts.
It will take some time to get this thing up and running and interesting (at least somewhat intersting) so bear with us.