Lots and Lots of New Posts Coming!

I am a blogging Fool! It doesn't look like it when you first glance at the blog, but I have added LOTS of stuff. Take a look at the labels and the blog archive to find everything I have added. I especially recommend the pictures of our Trip to Colorado (archived in July 2008) and some of the baby firsts are cute too! There is also a "video" label...I will try to label every video so that it appears there so you can watch the cuties in action. Some of my favorites are Nicholas and Christian dancing and Christian's interview. The one of Christian is funny because he refuses to say his name. He runs away when I ask him...classic Christian.

Anyway, take some time and get some reading in. Also, look for many more posts as I am attempting to get every photo/video in that I can to make this as complete as possible for the boys and for you, my family and friends.

Bye for now! Ed is kicking me off the computer...time for bed. :)

Accept My Apology

It has been brought to my attention that the blog is auto-sending some of you MANY posts because I have been furiously trying to get many old pictures scrapped/blogged on here. I have taken the liberty of deleting your email addresses from the auto-email for now. Once I have gotten most of the pictures done, you can let me know if you want me to add you back. If you don't mind the extra email and want me to continue emailing you automatically, please let me know that too. Since Mason likes a "prod" every now and then on the email, I have 'thoughtfully' left his email on there and am sure he will say something if the number of emails starts to drive him crazy.

Love,

Jennifer

Fellowship Applications Almost Done!!!

These past couple of months have been super-busy for Ed. He had been studying very hard for his exam that he took a couple weeks ago. Since then, he has been working on getting 12 applications in for Pain Fellowships he is interested in. The final list of places he applied is as follows:

• Cleveland Pain Clinic-Ohio
• San Antonio-Texas
• UCLA-California
• University of Maryland-Baltimore
• University of Pittsburg-Pennsylvania
• University of Washington-Seattle
• Johns Hopkins-Maryland
• Vanderbilt-Tennessee
• Med College- Wisconsin
• Texas Tech-Lubbock
• MD Anderson-Houston
• University of Pennsylvania-Philladelphia

As you can see, the places are all over the US map. We hope to start hearing things about interviews starting sometime this summer. Maybe, if there is any luck going along with this, we will have the interview process over by Fall and know something about where we will go in 2010. With everything being up in the air for interviews and with the added costs that they will bring, our travel plans for coming home this summer are definitely "up in the air." We will let you know more about what we can afford to do once we get more info.

Next on Ed's schedule is to continue working on his research presentation for his Miami conference that he will attend sometime soon. I am guessing that will happen in May, but I am not sure yet. He knows more about it.

The nice thing about all of this stuff coming to somewhat of a close for him (only to start back up again soon with the studying, I am sure) is that he is ALMOST done with his 3rd year of residency. Beginning in July he will be a 4th Year Resident!!! I am so excited for him. I know that it has been a long struggle for him to go through all of this training and I am happy that he will finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He is really excited and tired, all at the same time.

I just wanted to update you on how he is doing. He is working today and had a stretch of 16 straight workdays this month. Needless to say, he is tired most of the time, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he spends every waking moment he can devoted as a father and husband. He's a wonderful man, and we all love and appreciate him very much.

How This Will Work

I have been banging my head against a wall trying to figure out a way to get all of these memories in order. I have not found a way to file things away in tabs and I have so much stuff that I could never get them in order. I am not that organized. So, here is how this will work.

I will be randomly posting different past moments...and there will be some current updates along the way too. I am labeling each post with the Month and Year as a label, so if it bothers you to see these out of order (or if you want to go back to them) you will be able to select the label on the right column of the blog. (at least I hope so..HAHA! I guess I will figure this out through trial and error.)

Update: Jaidi has saved my sanity!!! I can now post these in order...so, here we go. The posts will not appear on the front page of the blog since they are in order by date (month/year). Just click down to the label with the year you want, then you can view them all. Thanks Jaidi!!!

Dear Family and Friends

I hope all is well in your worlds. A friend of mine recently started blogging and I am inspired by her. The blog that she is writing is more of a way to capture moments and remember them...almost a family diary with pictures. I have decided that I want to start doing that for our family so that the boys can read back and see these things as they get older. The other reason for doing it is so that those of you who may not see us everyday can check in on us. I selected blogspot.com for this because I can have the site automatically email you when I post a new entry. I was only able to select 10 of you, so if you find that you come and check in on us without my "prodding you" electronically, let me know so I can make room on that list for others who may need the old "kick" in the butt to get on the internet and check this out.

I do want to reserve the content on this site strictly for how we are doing as a family, so I will leave my complaints and the content that I share regularly with my readers on my other blog at Life's Ups and Downs. I have come to love ranting on there and sharing my life with my readers. (Yes! I actually have regular readers!!)

I will sign off for now, but please check back and see the beautiful, funny and sometimes embarrassing pictures of our family.

Valentine's Day Party

One of the activities that the boys got to participate in this February was the Alliance Valentine's Day Playgroup. My friend Krista offered her house and LOTS of kids and mommies came over to celebrate Valentine's Day. The boys had lots of fun doing this. They got to make a valentine for Daddy (we gave it to him over breakfast the morning of Valentine's Day) and they got to eat cookies! They were happy and on a sugar high by the time we left Krista's house. Here are some shots of the boys enjoying themselves.
Here the boys had finished making their cards and are enjoying their cookies.

This is one of Krista's little girls, Brynlee. N and her got along really well. She is just a little younger than N.
Look at that face! Need I say more????? That is Krista's other daughter, Addy in the foreground of the picture.

Interview of C