Thursday, December 23, 2010

Breather

Finally getting a good night's sleep, and a day off from the hospital so I can write a little bit.
Kristi and I have had a very busy final year in Ohio. The kids have all been very active with tennis lessons, horseback riding lessons, football, soccer, hiking, school, and taking care of me when I stumble home to study or prepare a lecture before I rumble back to the hospital.


We have been in Ohio for 4 and a half years now, and are getting excited about leaving. Not because we don't like it here, but because it just hasn't felt like home to us. Interviewing out in Prineville, and just being back in Oregon made us both realize that it is really home for us. We will definitely miss lots of things about Ohio. Here, we are just so close to so many amazing things and places. We have a great church, good medical care, wonderful parks and libraries, lots of good zoos and science centers to visit, and museums all over.

Kristi and I were able to get away this year to interview at two places, and she also came with me to the annual conference of the American College of Surgeons in Washington, DC! That was fun. The conference was a bit of a zoo, and I wasn't really impressed with the quality of many of the lectures that I attended, but there were some neat ones, and our spare time was packed with sigh-seeing. Was really neat to visit so many fun places where so many imposing historical events and people have been. We toured the Capitol, the White House, the National Archives, National Library of Congress, National Museum of Art and the other Smithsonian Museums on the Mall. Kristi went back to the Holocaust Museum as she has read lots of books about it this past year, and saw lots of things without having to hear me whine about having to use the bathroom or my feet hurting, or hear about how hungry I was. Was also nice to not have the kids to go with us this time, but in a way would have been really fun to have them experience it with us, especially the older ones.
I think our favorite part of the trip was getting to see the National Portrait Museum, where they had a very large exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings (from the private collections of Spielberg and Lucas mostly) and many we had not seen before. We also spent a day at Mt. Vernon, and that was also really fun.
Now we are getting ready for Christmas, Pati's birthday, and thinking that not too long from now we will be selling our house here, packing up some of our things (hopefully we can leave lots of it here) and heading back home to start a new life together.
I read today a really good article in The New Yorker by Atul Gawande, and if you get the chance it is worth reading. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you the link, or just send you the article. It is on end of life care, and how to approach it. Not something in the Christmas spirit, I know, but something I think we all should think about more and have nailed down ahead of time.

Looking forward to a good next 6 months of getting lots of loose ends all tied up as I have a medical license to obtain, cases to finish up, lectures to give, house to fix up and sell, belongings to pack up and move, need to find a place to move to, and of course the biggest exam of my entire life in the board examination which I will take and hopefully pass in August.


Leaving this time with a quick picture of Kristi and I at Mt Vernon. Will see what I can do to post something after Christmas so you all can feel like you were here.

David

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

It's A Birthday!



They let David come home for a few hours on his birthday. Long enough to eat some pie, open some presents and get a few hours of sleep. He gets Christmas off this year but seems to be paying for it already, although technically he is supposed to pay for it over New Years when those who don't get Christmas off take their time away from the hospital.
All he wants for his birthday and Christmas is some sleep I think.
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Wrong season, I know.




Need to get pictures of the recent snowstorm off the camera and onto the blog, but I just found this picture from the kids triathalon in September and really like it. Just posting it really quick.
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Monday, November 01, 2010

Weakness

"...And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for us according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27

It really is good news. These verses are ministering to me this fall. I am so different from what I should be, so far from what I ought to be. Each new responsibility reveals a new area of sin in my life. I am so much worse than I thought. It is embarrassing to admit that I knew I was a sinner. I just didn't really understand that I was totally depraved.
Nothing like having children to reveal your own selfishness and utter inability to handle anything like a Christian.
It is late at night and for some reason I am especially prone to despair over my shortcomings and failures at this hour. Probably because it is the first time all day that I have had to think of anything beyond just surviving and trying to get even half of the things done that need doing....let alone doing them NICELY!

I remember how impacted I was the first time I read the book "If" by Amy Carmichael.
One section in particular:

"If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water however suddenly jolted."

There have been alot of jolts in the past several years (days) and I often spill bitter water. I wish that I didn't.

I am grateful for a God who helps me in my weakness. I am grateful that His Spirit intercedes for me according to the will of God. That even though I don't know what to say or what to ask for He talks to God for me and says "This is what Kristi is trying to say, this is what she means." I am grateful that I can cry out to God and that He intercedes coherently for me.






Monday, October 11, 2010

Busy

After a slow moving summer the fall has moved along at a fast pace. Since the end of August we have spent 3 or 4 nights a week either at football practice or watching a game. Every season is different and this was a good season of learning and growing and responding. We were proud of Alec and the way that he played, the way that he practiced, the way that he listened, the way that he responded to hard things.
It is always a bump to move up to another league and start at the bottom. 3rd graders rule, 2nd graders don't. Alec was one of the only players who could reliably catch the football in the game, for the most part his league does running plays.



His coach this year took the time after the last game to hand out awards and verbally praise each player for good character and right responses. I think it meant alot to all the boys (and it reminded me of the quote from Charlotte's Web: "It is very satisfying to receive an award in front of alot of people".)


September was full of big events that we haven't even mentioned. The kids were apart of three races - Jan and Alec ran the mile race for Crisis Pregnancy Center and did GREAT! They both got to participate in the Akron Kids Triathlon were they swam 100 meters, biked 3.5 miles and then ran 1/2 mile. It was an exciting day and they did very well.


That picture is the only one I have on this computer of the Triathlon....Anne was helping me take pictures.

And then all the kids got to participate in the Kids Run for the Akron Marathon. Just a 1K but special for Anne and Pati since they can run it too. They both ran the whole way without stopping. I found out later that Pati did it because I told her that if she didn't run the whole way she wouldn't get to have the prize at the end. I meant that I wasn't going to carry her, but she took what I said literally.


Anne was behind the big kids and ran ahead of me and Pati so she ran to the finish line by herself and right into a huge crowd of people. We couldn't find her anywhere. After some anxious minutes we found her. She didn't consider herself lost, had navigated her way through the crowd over to the building where you picked up your prizes and then back out into the crowd where we found her. At least SHE wasn't scared!

But the real accomplishment was David finishing his run in 3 hours and 6 minutes. Quite a feat for someone who works so much that he has to train by running to work at 4:00 in the morning and then runs home after working for more than 30 hours. Doing long runs whenever he could steal the time on a rare day off. We are all pretty proud of him.


Grandma Copper came out to visit and help out. She stayed with the kids for several days while David and I enjoyed some time away at a Surgery Conference in DC. They had fun and we had fun. It was a good break!



Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Books


In this picture is one beginning reader and one that is rarely without a book. I got excited while looking through a booklist for third graders today. Most of the books for school I simply get from the library. That is one incredibly wonderful thing about living here - the library is "probably the best that I know of". We go at least once a week and pick out way too many and fill up the corners of time with stories and facts (If you are Alec). But this year I find myself itching to buy books. I used to be a book collector. I thought that I was over it: I haven't had much time to read, we have lived places without much storage and we don't have bookcases for the books that we DO have. But tonight I was looking at this reading list and really feeling the urge to buy books for us to enjoy and keep. I am resisting the temptation. It just isn't necessary when there is a great library down the street.
There are a few books on the list that will be challenging reading and I really do think that those would be worth buying. David's sister Robyn bought Jan a pretty copy of "The Secret Garden" when she was a baby. There is something about a beautiful book that makes you want to read it, even if it is a little hard to get into at first. We are finally reading that book together (it will be performed as a play in town this fall and we get to go) and the kids are fascinated. Really fun.
My Dad bought me a pretty old book for Christmas when I was 5. It was called "The Lost Cricket". It was a collection of old fashioned short stories, mostly with a moral to them. He read them to us at bedtime and noted in pencil at the end of chapters the date we read them together. I love that book, still have it and have read some of it to my kids.
One year my brother Nate paid for the "Book A Month" club for me. I received a leather bound classic every month for 12 months. I am sure it was expensive - but they are so pretty. I never would have really WANTED to read "The Three Musketeers" if it hadn't just been so beautiful!
Jan is interested in storyline - she likes to read and then come to the kitchen or wherever and give me a blow by blow of what is going on in whatever she is reading. I am always surprised by how much she remembers out of books that she has read several months or even a year ago.
Alec is interested in facts and humor. If it is humorous he will read it, enjoy it, repeat it. I can't wait until he can read Patrick MacManus, it will be fun. He really is not able to read the books containing facts about sports and science easily yet and this frustrates him. We will work on it this year.
Anne just wants to read. I feel badly about this because I have no doubt that she would be reading well if I had given more time to it last year. She surprised me by sounding things out on her own and starting to read short words without help. This year I hope to help her out more.
Pati is different. She likes to be read to, but only if it is a one on one activity. If it is a group activity she will take a book, go to another room and "read" it, aloud, to herself. Sometimes this is so entertaining we will stop what we are doing and go and listen to her.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

End of Summer


We are gearing up for school but it is not quite here. Looking forward to it but enjoying the last days of summer. The lake swimming is over, it closed last week. We were there alot and Pati can dog paddle and jump off diving boards now and I almost don't worry about her.


David has been working more than even he is used to. I have begun to count down the months...no more July's in residency. We are almost to the end of the last August in residency. We all feel really proud of him and are looking forward to the possibility sometime next spring/summer of getting to see him more than an hour or two a week.


Alec turned 7 in July and Anne turned 5 in August.
Pati is already deciding what she wants for breakfast on her birthday:
"When IS my birthday Mom?"


Everyday there are things to learn and to work on. Some everyday lessons for the kids and I are summed up:

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth."
"Be ye kind one to another, tenderearted, forgiving each other."
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them."

Every day I am humbled by the fact that I am right there with them, dealing with daily frustrations and irritating people and situations and disappointing circumstances and my natural responses are BAD! So we are working on acting like we follow Jesus and asking forgiveness and having to forgive and treating other people like they are more important than we are. And we aren't very good at it.

The last few weeks in church we have been hearing preaching from Romans 8. We like it that "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!" That good news is almost too good to be true.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Summer

From July 2010

Glow stick "earrings" during the Fourth Of July concert. David couldn't make it this year so we left him in a deep sleep and headed out to picnic at Blossom. We agreed that it wasn't as much fun without him, but we did have a good time.


This was the first Fourth Of July concert at Blossom that all the kids really enjoyed all the way through.


Been berry picking a couple of times for strawberries and raspberries. Had fun making jam.
Really enjoying the swimming at the lake, running through the sprinkler, hiking and not doing pages of math every day.



David is working hard. That was the last fourth of July weekend that he will spend on call as a resident. Happy thought.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Easter

Such a beautiful day for Easter. Somehow, David was given the day off on Sunday! The kids were pretty proud of the cross they made. This year, they didn't really need help with it. I think I have mentioned it before but we read through "Journey To The Cross" by Helen Haidle this year, just like last year. Such a good preparation for Easter. It gave us a better understanding of what was going on. All day on Friday Jan and Alec were thinking and talking about what was going on during what time ("Jesus was walking out of the city with the cross now....It was dark now...Remember, there was an earthquake right now?").
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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Gorillas



For the last week Pati has been praying for all of the "little baby gorillas and the mom and daddy gorillas that they would be safe....". At breakfast we try to use the Voice of the Martyrs prayer map and the kids and I read up on a country and find out how we can pray. We had been reading about Columbia and had spent some time praying for the guerilla fighters there and for the people who are terrorized by them. Pati has been praying for baby gorillas ever since then and we all try to keep straight faces. Makes me think of the verse in Romans "...for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...".

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Monday, March 22, 2010

Could It Be Spring?

From March 2010


Jan turned 8 on the 5th of March. She has grown so much this year, I feel really proud of her and enjoy her company and help very much. She works hard at everything she does and many things that do not come naturally to her she learns to do just by sheer determination. This year she has begun to read for pleasure, because she is interested herself. She is rarely without a book. She has even tried walking places while reading which I would not recommend. I appreciate her hard work around the house, her kindness to her brother and sisters and her spirit of adventure! We had a wonderful day on her birthday. I think she did too. David was home and took her out to breakfast. This next picture is of Pati, all dressed up to go with them out to breakfast. It was hard to get across to her the concept that she wasn't invited.


Grandma and Grandpa Copper were here for her birthday which was so exciting we didn't even need any other company to make it a party! Jan wanted to take them out to the Nature Realm here and feed the birds by hand.







Kind of a funny looking party (the cape and pink gloves should be explained I think: We had been watching the Zorro movies made in the 50's. They are black and white and you can't tell what color the gloves really are in the movie. Alec is not worried about the color of the gloves, he is just glad that he is getting to be Zorro for once. Being the second born he usually has to be the corporal, Tonto or Little John, it is rare that he get to play the actual hero.)

This next picture is so funny to me. Anne is trying to help Grandpa know exactly where to put the tail. Putting things in their right place is really important to her and this game drove her crazy. She couldn't even bring herself to play it. She wanted to, but every time she put on the blindfold and knew that she couldn't put the tail in precisely the right spot she would burst into tears.


We loved having Grandpa and Grandma Copper, and we always hate to see them go.


They stayed with the kids for three days while David and I went out to Oregon for an interview. We had a wonderful time being away and they seemed to have a great time without us.


Since my parents got here the snow started melting and it has been above freezing every day! I don't have the courage to put away the snow clothes yet but it is nice to know that if it snows it can't last too long.
The kids and I got to spend the day at a nearby living history farm last week and watch different demonstrations about how pioneers and Indians made maple syrup and sugar. It was fun to see and much better than reading a book about it. We went out on a rainy (cold) night watching for migrating frogs and salamanders. Every morning when the kids get up they like to spend time before breakfast sitting quietly by the window to watch the birdfeeder. There are many different kinds and they are learning to identify them. When Grandpa Copper was here they had out the binoculars and were sneaking around from window to window watching a Cooper's Hawk hunting in our backyard. That kind of school is terrific.




Monday, February 08, 2010

winter storm

More than a foot of snow fell on us Friday evening and early Saturday morning. We had fun digging out the driveway. The snow is so dry that the kids could really move alot of snow. We dug some forts out of the snow in the yard but it is too dry and cold to pack snowballs. We got a hike in on Sunday with David, although he ended up pulling the little girls on a sled. I will have to post more pictures later.
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Monday, January 25, 2010

Mid-Winter

From Winter 2009
I think that Pati thinks her name is "PatiNO"! Her siblings say it so often, many times in chorus. When Anne is really upset with her she calls her "Pati Carne Elena Gonia"! I have never met such a determined persistent and undeterred individual. Night time is the only time she really takes a break but she has been up nearly every night for a week with a miserable cold. Now Alec has the cold and Anne is getting it. I am sure that Jan is in line for it too. I am singing the winter blues right now.
From Winter 2009

Pati had her third birthday two days after Christmas with a "Frincess cake". The cake is gluten free and it truly was good. Extra exciting because that is the first gluten free egg free rice free cake that I have ever made that was good. It has always been birthday jello or ice cream cake or cupcakes before. We will do it again for Anne's birthday!
Alec is anxious for a sign of spring. He has asked every day since the snow started melting if spring is here. We are having a little warm spell but I think it is supposed to snow tomorrow. There has only been one chance to break out the ice skates so far this year so we are hoping for some more freezing temperatures.
David is studying hard for his yearly exam which he will take on Saturday. Sometimes I am just amazed at how well he holds up with all of the unrelenting demands that are on him. After a weekend of little sleep because of coughing children he was up at 3:30 this morning to work until 1:00 tomorrow afternoon, come home to sleep until Wednesday morning when he has to do it again. He doesn't get a day off this week so he will have to try to catch up on sleep and talk to us another time :/
We are well into the swing of school and lessons and activities and stay busy enough that getting sick throws a monkey wrench into our weekly schedule. I feel amazed that Jan is halfway through 2nd grade and Alec is halfway through 1st.
We hear of possibilities of visitors from the west this spring and we are looking forward to them and the better health that usually comes with spring and summer very much.