BrownTown

Today I am thankful for my patient, sweet husband.
Today I am thankful for a niece who calls me almost everyday to tell me the most simple things- today it was to inform me that she got the happy hands award on her report card! Way to go Jos.
Today I am thankful for the knowledge of the Gospel and how it helps me deal with life's surprises and sorrows.
Today I am thankful for wonderful friends who let us impose on them on Thanksgiving.
Today I am thankful for warm, gooey, homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Today I am thankful I was born to amazing parents.
Today I am thankful that I am sandwiched between two really great sisters.
Yes, today I am very thankful.

We entitled our community health and cultural diversity experience "Really"
because we had so many momment's where we would just look at each other and say, "Really???"

Here we are cleaning a wound of a man who had skin cancer
(I guess it had maggots in it before we got to it.) His bed was crawling
with ants and was wet with urine. He also had piglets and kittens
running in and out of his room as we cleaned it. So much for a "sterile" environment.

This was taken at our education fair in the town square in Madelena.
Carol is a nursing student at Fanor who also helped us translate and
the man on the right was the town's Dentist.

This was at a very poor part in Fortaleza. I hung out with these cute 3
kids while we took care of their neighbor because the house was not big
enough for more than 4 of us to be in there at a time. We asked them what
they had had for breakfast and they said gum. They didn't remember eating
lunch. We brought them fruit the next day and the little boy in the middle
ate two apples and an orange before I could even blink.

Really, need I say more, I fell in love with this little boy the minute
I saw him. He was obsessed with our camera's.

So, New Moon is out...I'm guessing most of you have heard about that...it's kind of tough to miss the frenzy surrounding it. So many (apparantly) hot guys without shirts...who to choose: Team Jacob or Team Edward? I think the choice is clear: Team Frank!



Personally I think I could skip New Moon and see "Firelight" instead. :)

Well, I just got off the phone with Linzi. I thought that I'd share a little bit about what's been going on with her over the past two weeks while she's been in Brazil. I haven't been able to get a ton of details about what's going on (you'll have to ask her when she gets back next week), but it sounds like she's having a great time. The picture below is with the group of students from Chamberlain that went down with her. They're posing in front of Fanor, which is kind of like a sister university to Chamberlain. A few of the students from Fanor have been traveling with them and showing them around and translating for them over the last couple of weeks.

Balihi the RogersandHammerstein Monster and Madame Garlique


Mummy Aldrinktotat and Angela Deth, DDS


Hannibal Schecter and Lizzie Bordeaux


Glumda the Wicked Witch of Depressed and Asthmadeus the Prince of Dimness


So for Halloween this year we thought it would be fun to have a murder mystery dinner at our house and then we found out they had one called "An Affair to Dismember" and were sold. It was really fun thanks to all the wonderful actors and actresses who portrayed their characters so well. Chris found out how hard it is to dress as a mummy and we found that our pathetic one-ply toilet paper just does not get the job done. He started unraveling even before he was done raveling and most of his costume was on the ground by the end of the night. After much investigating and interrogating, we found Hannibal the newly turned vegetarian cannibal guilty of murder. Thanks everybody for coming, we had a lot of fun.

So I just need to do a little venting because something happened today that really rubbed me the wrong way. It all started a few months ago when some friends of mine told me about a couple of 10K's that were happening in October. Well, time went on and I finally decided to commit to one and signed up for it and also selected the size of shirt I wanted.

So for quite a while now Chris has been wanting a computer chair. Apparently a stiff wooden chair does not meet his needs. So we have been looking here and there, but always came to the conclusion that it was not a need. Well, patience paid off the other day for us. I went to throw something away outside (here is where I admit that it was a dumpster I was walking to) and what did my eyes spy? 2 computer chairs just seated right next to the dumpster (not in it, just next to it you know). Chris was outside so I yelled to him to come and see. As we were examining the worth of the chairs and how we could look cool while stealing things away from the trash, our neighbor came outside and caught us in the act, the act of dumpster stealing. I can not say we were ashamed, for people always say that one's man trash is another man's treasure. Needless to say, after some Lysol and chloroxing, we have a new chair in our house!

Just wanted to share a few pictures from some weekend activities over the past few weeks. First, we went to a new park downtown called "CityGarden" (oddly enough, we found out about it after my dad read about it in the Deseret News and called and asked if we knew about it). It's just a few blocks from the Arch and has a bunch of interesting statues and art and a nice fountain to run through. It seems like a fun place to hang out, maybe have a picnic. The sumo-stretcher piece was my favorite (that and the random flamingos around...sorry no pictures).

So this weekend I finished (finally) my Internal Medicine rotation. It's the longest of the rotations this year, 3 months! I spent one month at St. John's doing outpatient clinics, one month at the VA, and this last month at SLU on one of the geriatrics teams (sorry Mom and Dad, Scott and Colleen, but it didn't quite entice me to go into geriatrics). I think it was a great way to start out the year, and hope that it was a good foundation for everything else this year. I took my Shelf exam on Friday and it was a doozy...I definitely could have used another hour to get through it. But as long as I did better than the 5th percentile I'll be just fine. Tomorrow I start my 6 week rotation in Family Medicine...I imagine that it will be pretty similar to outpatient internal medicine.

It's tougher than it looks for some of us :)

So now that Chris has started his clinical rotations, he has to wear his white coat every day. Keep in mind that they make the students wear the dorky, short white coat- to keep them humble I guess. (I think that a bunch of doctors got together and said, how can we make these coats so that they look horrible on whoever wears them. Oh yes, we can make them short and wide and make all the sleeves fit too short and put lots of pockets on it so the students think that they have to fill them with all the books and instruments they will need to impress us.)

So my question is how much does the typical med student weigh vs how much does he weigh when he puts on the pocket filled white coat?

so the other night Chris and I watched a 20/20 episode about a woman who had been abducted in a mail parking lot. Most of the show centered around her eye witness of the man and how she was able to describe him to a sketch artist. ...none of this really matters....but it led to later that evening when I asked Chris how he would describe me to a sketch artist (you know, in the emergency case that I was abducted and all of the pictures in the world got burned somehow).

Well, I was in store for a real treat. He thought about it for a minute and then said something like this, "Well, I would tell him that you have a long face, a thin nose with a jump on the end, brownish/green eyes, and a big smile, you know, with all of your teeth." Don't I sound attractive????

So a while back (and by a while back I mean sophomore year of high school) I got a passport because I was going to go on a school trip with my friend Kathryn to Italy and some other countries that I have forgotten over the years. I got a passport and new luggage, but then the trip got cancelled. Kathryn still went to Italy with some friends but I decided to save the money for another opportunity (a decision that I have regreted for many years). Well, 8 years later I have still never used that passport and I have never stepped foot out of the United States (unless you count Tijuana and I just refuse to because I saw nothing but dirty roads and dirty men).

Well, my time has finally come in a time when the old passport is no longer valid (due to getting married), the luggage is broken and the money is long gone. I got picked to go to Brazil for my community nursing clinical. We will be spending 3 weeks there and will be working in clinics in rural and metro cities. I don't know if I should be excited or scared but I can't wait. Please feel free to teach me any Portuguese that you know that may help me on my adventure! (I mostly need to know how to say Help, I am being robbed, Where is the bathroom, and perhaps, Where can I buy some chocolate)

So I just have to say that it is songs like this that give country a bad name. I heard this on the radio last night and had to come home and look it up. It is a disgrace. Perhaps you have had the chance to be as grossed out as me and if not, just click here:

http://www.cmt.com/videos/unplugged/trailer-choir/262542/rockin-the-beer-gut.jhtml?id=1592110

Highlights from this weekend:
-driving in Kirkwood and I mentioned to Chris that the Kirkwood farmer's market looked really busy when we drove by. His response to me, "Was it as busy as the market in Aladdin, you know, in Agraba?" So apparently we are comparing everything to Disney movies these days.....
-filling up with gas and getting hit on (I guess I should mention the fact that they were like 13 years old and they didn't whistle very well!)
-sleeping in for 3 days in a row
-actually being able to hang out with friends on Friday and Saturday night

One of the things that I've missed a lot while we've been out here in St. Louis is the raspberry jam my mom makes. It's like a little piece of heaven on a piece of bread. Nothing Smucker's makes can even hold a candle up to it. Anyhoo, I decided to get in touch with my homemaking side and try making some here instead of forcing myself to wait until December to have some more. It was actually pretty easy, and now we're stocked with jam that tastes a ton better than the store stuff (not quite the same as Mom's, but very good nonetheless). My little pyramid is meager compared to the shelves that Mom makes, but it will be enough to take care of us for a while.

After enduring the end of Linzi's semester, studying for Step 1 (why don't they send me my score already?!) and the facial hair associated with that, we got to go out to Utah for a couple of weeks at the end of June. It was a wonderful vacation...a much needed break from school. Here are some of the highlights of the trip, in no particular order:
1. Spending the weekend up in Park City with the Karrens. The hotel was wonderful, as were the Alpine Slide, trolley ride up to Main Street, and the fun time trying to find a place to eat dinner on Friday night (the karren women are to say the least- picky!). I especially loved getting demolished at fusball at the hands of Linzi...she's ruthless.
2. Critics Corner: "Up"--Great show; "Despereaux"--Good show; "High School Musical 1"--not too bad; "HSM 2"--Really, really, and I mean really stupid; "Twilight"--not too bad; "Traitor"--good show; "Forever Strong"--Great show...you should see Linzi's Haka Dance
3. Fathers Day afternoon. We were enjoying a nice afternoon game of basketball outside when one of the balls bounced into the garage. While getting it, I did not notice the pile of tile sitting near the door and sliced the top of my foot on one of the pieces. It was a pretty good cut. I was mostly upset that we were going to have to pay a ton of money to get it stitched up at an ER or something, but Carol Seely came to the rescue. She had all the supplies needed to fix me up, so we went over there, interrupted their afternoon, and she sewed me up like it was nothing.
4. Many hours of Wii fun...MarioKart, WiiFit, MarioParty and Bowling.
5. Backpacking with Scott, his funny sayings, snowcones, smores and fishing competitions
6. Trip to the Zoo with Utley's, Kristin, Eli and Hatty, especially when Sophie told me that the animals wanted to get out of their cages because they wanted to kill us. She wasn't afraid, just said it like it was matter of fact.
7. Multiple trips to the swimming pool.
8. Pedicures for the ladies
9. Golf at Bountiful Ridge with the Boys
10. Learning those "fun" Turkish Getups while exercising at Jason and Michelle's. (and the delicious breakfast that followed)
11. Running into the Darley's at the zoo and Allen's in Farmington.
12. Multiple Keva's and Great Harvest slices of bread.
13. No Humidity!!!!
14. Getting to go to Sunday school together (and even just getting to go to that and Priesthood meeting).

I'm sorry. That's what I want to say the most. The pictures probably say it all, but I feel compelled to write a bit. I'm sorry I used your name to describe the thing that inhabited my face and neck for the last five weeks. I even thought I was clever by calling it a "Boards Beard." As you can see from the pictures, I was clearly delusional to use that sort of language. Maybe something like "Pre-Boards Patches", "Studyin' 'Stache" or simply a "Study Buddy." Loved ones would ask me if I shaved parts of it to make it look as sparce it did...no, sadly that's all I've got. You probably just laughed at me. I know that you're proud of men like those below using your name to describe their facial hair. I can only dream of one day being able to grow something like these fine gentlemen.

One final goodbye to that thing of "beauty"

I've finally finished what has been the most intense 5 weeks of studying in my life. Last Saturday I took Step 1 of the Boards, a fun little 8 hour test. I'd spent the last 5 weeks spending about 12-14 hours a day preparing for the test, and still felt like there was a ton of stuff that I still needed to learn. But now it's all over and all I can do is wait 6 weeks until my score comes back to see how I did. I didn't feel like I kicked it in the face (sorry Jason, I tried), but I never felt great about my practice tests and seemed to do okay on those. Hopefully my score will be high enough to enable me to get into the residency that I want (and no, I still don't know what that is). I'm incredibly grateful for Linzi, though. She has put up with all my studying and absentmindedness with so much patience and support, even though she was busy herself with school and work. Thanks Linz.

I spent most of my time studying at a local community college. It was quite a unique crowd that was there. I'm going to miss the kid that said "I'll be back" to the library as he was leaving one Friday night in his best Terminator impression. I'll miss the kid that randomly stopped as I was eating lunch to show me a card trick. He was trying his best, but unfortunately I missed the climax of his performance as I was pausing my iPod to give him my full attention. Whoops! That was an awkward encounter, but I loved it! I'll miss the lady with really red hair that sat next to me as I studied and even said that she'd pray for me. I'll miss the kid that would drop out of a tree every afternoon at about 2pm. Why was he up there? I have no idea but it did brighten my day as I sat studying by the window to see a kid randomly fall from a tree and then just walk away as if what he'd done was completely normal. Anyhoo, I will not miss doing nothing but studying all day long, almost losing my mind. I won't miss getting a parking ticket on the one day I decided to park in the "visitor's" parking lot after avoiding it all summer because I thought I'd get a ticket. And I especially won't miss not being able to hang out with Linzi.

But now we're both done and get to go back to Utah for a couple of weeks to visit our families. It's going to be a great trip.

So you know your husband is studying for Step 1 if:
-you wake up to a strange woman's voice and then realize it is his alarm clock and it is talking about endotoxins and e-coli
-during sacrament meeting he leans over to you and whispers, "do you know what the kidney disease is that comes after e-coli 0157:h7?"
-you are constantly being interrupted (during a story you are telling about YOUR day)by him quizzing you about subject matter that your story reminds him of even though he knows you will not know the answer
-you turn down a girl's night to hang out with him and then he says, I have to finish taking a test first
-he starts using words like mittelschmertz and spinnbarkeit not in the context they should be (I will let you look them up!)
-you look over at him and he has a pen behind one ear and a highlighter behind the other (this is the case this very minute in fact)
-he is growing a hideously sharp beard/molesterstache......sigh....one day I will get my husband back!

So today the Anderson's left us....they just packed up their huge yellow Penske and drove away. We will miss our late weekend chats, watching Pete try to teach Chris how to play Halo (but Chris failing miserably), hearing Emily saying funny things like cash money, and seeing cute Abby who I am still convinced eats 24 hours a day! We just had to watch the season finale of Survior without them. As Heather would say, BOO! Good luck in Ohio, we will miss you!






We had a BBQ to say goodbye to all our wonderful friends and neighbors who are moving away this summer. Nick and Natalie were too good for our good old George Foreman grill, so they brought a real one to show us up. It was fun, but it sure is sad to see such wonderful people go.