Brief Update

Hey Guys! I am still around, regardless of how often my blog gets updated. Lots of things have been going on. As you guys know, I graduated in May. I have been working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at HOPE Research Institute for the last 6 and a half months. I really enjoy my job! I work on clinical trials in phase II, III, or IV with family medicine physicians. I see patients and collect data for new medications under the supervision of the principle investigator. My job is challenging and extremely interesting and I have met some really amazing people. I work four 10 hour days. I love my three day weekends, but my time seems very limited.

In September, we visited Utah. It was a short trip, but we enjoy any time we can get with family.
Brandon was kind of shy around Abby at first, but got over it as she swung from the bar on the swing set and launched the soccer ball across the backyard. He had such a great time playing with all of his cousins. He learned all about transformers from Zack and got a chance to lay down some beats for Seth on Rock Band.

Over the last three years, I have come to learn that Arizona is a lovely state. Besides the lack of green, it truly is beautiful. I can especially say that this time of year. The weather is so nice and it's more green now than it is in the summer. As a large desert, Arizona has many fun outdoor activities. One thing Sean and Brandon do is hunt for lizards. This little guy was crawling on our door one evening.

He was very cute, but we stressed him out. He shed or dispensed (however you say it) his tail. I was alarmed because the detached tail moved! It squirmed all over the place when we touched it. I felt so bad that we broke the lizards tail, but I was informed that this is a defense mechanism and he shed it to distract us. Very interesting stuff. I love the desert!

Brandon had a great Halloween. It took a little coaxing and an objective to get him out the door, though. Brandon is a very bright kid, but he sometimes needs a little extra motivation to get things going. I sat him down before we went out and gave him a mission. I let him know that I love candy. In fact, I love it a lot. I told him that I needed him to find me a candy in a gold wrapper. He took this mission to heart and went out seeking this gold wrapper goodness. He was excited about getting candy for himself, but was all about getting me my Twix!


This month, Brandon passed off the last level of swim lessons for his age. He's a pretty decent little swimmer and goes at it with lots of power. He doesn't just push off the edge and start swimming, he jumps into the water and swims as hard as he can.


Oh, and my really exciting news is: I'm going to be a doctor! I was accepted to Midwestern University here in Arizona and also to New York Medical College. I will start next fall for the class of 2013. I am still waiting to hear from other schools and we need to figure out logistics with Sean's job before we make our final decision on where we will move. I'm really excited about New York because of their joint degree program where I can also get a Master's in Public Health while I'm getting my MD. They also have an amazing anatomy lab and the opportunity to do clinical rotations in New York City. Midwestern is a newer school and has a very beautiful campus and we would be able to stay in AZ. As for now, I am accepting both seats. I can hold spots at multiple schools until May 15. We'll see where the next few months take us.

Meet Milo

We've been looking for a dog for about three months. I should actually say that Sean and Brandon have been looking. We have taken countless trips to the local pound, looking for the dog that would fit our needs. We needed a small dog and one that would be good with Brandon. We eventually bought our puppy from a pet store. His name is Milo.
Milo is a miniature pinscher and is about six months old. Brandon chases him around and teases him constantly. Milo gets back at him by taking Brandon's Webkinz kitty off of his bed and runs around with it. Brandon proudly calls him his little brother and asks me, "Why do brothers tease each other and are mean to each other?" They are cute pals.


The miniature pinscher was bred with rodent hunting skills and extreme loyalty. Contrary to popular belief, he is not a miniature doberman pinscher. The doberman pinscher was actually bred with the appearance of the miniature pinscher in mind. The two breeds are not related at all.

We are training him to be a social, well-behaved dog. He's a great addition to our family and we're looking forward to having him for many years to come.

Announcement

Brandon on the News

http://www.vimeo.com/887537

Spring is Grand

We've had a fun and busy last couple of weeks. Easter was a great weekend. We started with a soccer game on Saturday morning, followed by an Easter egg hunt. Brandon found his five eggs quickly, so we rehid them many times to extend the fun.

Brandon is growing up so quickly. He loves building towers and animals with blocks. The picture is fuzzy but I didn't have a chance to take any more, as this block was the one that made the tower fall. I am so proud of his growing independence. In the last two weeks, he has taken a huge interest in the alphabet. I gave him a notebook and he sits and writes the alphabet over and over. He's getting really good. He is sounding out words and read three or four words on a flier today without my help.

He loves playing soccer and loves the warm up games we play, like red light green light and shark and fish. Once we start playing another team, he withdraws and loses interest in the game. He tells me it's because he's not fast enough to score a goal. I have been assuring him that if he plays hard and doesn't give up, that he'll score a goal. Well, he finally took my advice today (second to last game mind you) and kept after the ball. He was super aggressive, stole the ball from the other team a number of times, and prevented them from scoring two goals. One time that he stole it, he dribbled through the other team and almost scored a goal. It bounced off the inside of the goal and didn't go in. He gained more and more confidence as the game went on. He stole the ball again and instead of dribbling right up to the goal, he kicked it from a little ways back and SCORED!! He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him. I know that he's good at soccer and I'm so happy he knows now too so he can enjoy the game like he should. Next week is our last game of the season and I now have mixed feelings. I initially didn't like coaching because of how much Brandon didn't enjoy the game. Today made it so fun and I would do it again if Brandon would have this attitude every week. I guess we'll see how it goes next week.

There was a news camera at our game from ABC news and filmed our team playing. The guy interviewed Brandon. He asked Brandon how he liked having his Mom as a coach and he said it's awesome! I don't know which clips will make the news, but it is supposed to air this Thursday. I will post the clip if it gets aired. One of parents knows the local sports anchor and he wanted to spotlight some "little sports stars." It will be a cute little piece to watch. I hope he got a clip of Brandon's goal :)

An Overdue Update

Has it really been that long since my last post? Well, we've been up to quite a bit in the last month. We celebrated Brandon's fourth birthday on March third. Sean was in Mexico, so we had grandma over for Brandon's favorite dinner and presents. When Sean got home, we had cake. It was fun for Brandon to be able to celebrate his birthday for a couple of days. His favorite present is a Hot Wheels stunt track.

Even though I only have twelve credit hours this semester, it doesn't seem to be any less time consuming than other semesters. I am graduating on May 8, so my hard work will pay off soon!

We were going to go to Utah for my spring break, but our plans changed. Sean was not able to take the whole week off, which made two twelve hour days in the car seem like too much. We then got an invitation to join Will and Kelly at Audrey's house in California! It's only a six hour drive there, so we loved that idea. We also loved the idea of warm weather and being with everyone. It was so fun to spend time with everyone. We went to Disneyland, the beach, and California Adventure.

You really can't beat a week like that! Thanks for accommodating us last minute, Audrey. The break was needed for all of us. I can't wait to do it again!

Soccer Fun

Soccer season started last Saturday, and what an eye opening experience! Sean is Brandon's coach and I am the assistant coach. Who knew that the other coaches and parents would be so intense about soccer for three and four year olds!?! Not us. We've been trying to keep things pretty laid back and it seems to be working for the most part.
Brandon really enjoys doing drills, but he doesn't like playing the actual game. At this level, the eight kids on the field all follow the ball around and even try to take it from their own team mates. Brandon just likes to dribble the ball from goal to goal and score. He doesn't like having to share the ball with the other kids, or being restricted to one goal. He hasn't been very enthused about soccer since our first game, and didn't even want to go today. I told him soccer is a really cool and fun sport. He did a little better today, probably because he knew what to expect. Tonight he said, "Mom, you're right. Soccer is a fun game!" I was relieved. Hopefully he'll keep up that attitude for next Saturday.
I don't have any real action shots, because Sean and I are on the field during the game. We have 12 kids on the team; I take six and Sean takes six and we play each other. We basically tell them not to touch it with their hands, to go toward the right goal, and to stay in bounds.
He smiled for this picture and then kicked the ball at my legs. He thinks he's hilarious.
Brandon loves having us as his coaches. I don't think we'll do it again, but it's fun for the time being. We're having our team pictures taken next Saturday at 6:45 a.m.. Is the sun even up that early? I guess we'll find out!

My Happy Birthday

This birthday was great! My parents are always really great at spoiling me on my birthdays and Sean does an amazing job spoiling me more. While in Utah, I played my parent's piano a little and realized how much I miss playing. I realized even more how much I have regressed. I haven't taken lessons since middle school, but I still played here and there as long as there was a piano around. I mentioned to Sean that I would like a keyboard for my birthday so that I could practice a little. Guitar Hero has done a great job filling the music void in my life and Guitar Hero is a fun game to play, but it doesn't really advance my music skills. Sean, of course, went out and got me a super nice keyboard! It's so nice that I have a hard time calling it a keyboard. The keys are weighted and have hammer action, so that it feels like you are playing a real piano. It also has a full 88 keys and a pedal. It has many features that are perfect for our lifestyle. It fits in our apartment, I can plug headphones in during Brandon's nap, it's not very heavy so we can move it easily with us, and it will never need to be tuned. I am extremely thrilled with it. I have also gone through my mother-in-law's music collection, so along with the sonata books I took from my Mom, I have plenty of music to play.
For my birthday, we went to dinner with our friends Ethan and Susie. We went to a Japanese grill. The chef was pretty good at entertaining us and Brandon loved when he flipped the eggs around and broke them. After dinner, we went bowling.Brandon was excited and felt prepared as he has played bowling on the Nintendo Wii a few times. Brandon soon realized it's a bit harder in real life. He got quite frustrated at first, especially because the racks do not shoot the ball very straight. Soon he understood that we all were quite terrible, and just had fun with it. Susie actually broke triple digits and outscored us all by a large margin. I did come in second and Susie and I were proud to beat the boys. They usually beat us when we play movie trivia games, so we not shy about rubbing it in.
Check out how far over the rack is from the center of the lane. It took some practice, but Sean was able to get the aim fairly accurate. Brandon did get a couple of spares! Thanks for a wonderful day!

Snow Days

We arrived in Utah late New Year's Day. We slept in a little after a fun day snowboarding in Flagstaff with Sean's co-workers and celebrating New Year's Eve with family. On our drive, we had a delay in central Utah. We ran over a small rock which got kicked up underneath our car, making a loud noise. Sean pulled off to the side of the road to see if there was any visible damage. After an inspection, we pulled onto some unpacked snow on the Uinta Flats to turn around. We sank to the bottom of the snow, placing our tires to the ground and the car frame on the snow. We tried to drive out (certainly all wheel drive could handle this!), which just put us down in the snow farther. We then got our snowboards out and tried to dig our car out. Realizing the task was almost impossible, we called the police for help. Before they arrived, a young man in a large red truck drove by and we flagged him down. He had a dog chain that we hooked to our frame and he pulled us out. We were so grateful!
The next day, Brandon was anxious to get out in the snow. Amanda, Lizzie, and Grace made a snowman a couple days before, so they just went out and played in the snow. Brandon loves having cousins here to play with all day. He especially loves their sense of humor. They find the same things funny that he does!
On Thursday, we went snowboarding at Brighton. The conditions were pretty decent, and amazing compared to Snowbowl in Flagstaff. I was happy to ride a quad and have a long run to make the ride up the mountain worth it. Will was our riding buddy and kept the day humorous. It was great to have a wonderful lunch in the lodge to make the day relaxing and casual. We're happy to be in Utah and looking forward to some more snow days in the upcoming week!