Sacrifical Peeps

So we had a pretty good Easter this year. The night before Easter Becky got the easter baskets ready for the kids because I fell asleep. The next morning, the kids brought their baskets up to show us. The first thing that I saw were Peeps on a stick. I had never seen this before and I started laughing like crazy. I asked Becky what they were. She said that she hated touching the Peeps because they are crusty and gooey. To avoid touching them, she put them on the sticks. I told her that they looked like sacrifical Peeps and we laughed together for five minutes. Here are some pictures of the sacrifical Peeps.

The girls had a fun day. We had a easter egg hunt in our backyard and a scavenger hunt for an Easter Prize. The girls got new Easter dresses which is always fun for them since they love princesses and dresses. Here's a picture of them in their dresses. The lighting is not that good but they will only stay clean and with cute hair temporarily, so you have to take pictures as fast as you can.

Seasonal depression

We haven't posted in a while mainly because most of our family has been sick all week. Becky, Kaitlin and Camie all were sick with Influenza. They were in bed for about 3 days straight. I was the only one to get my flu shot this year, so I was lucky and didn't get it too bad. At this time of year most of us get sick of the snow and the inversion and are ready for spring to come. It has been worse this year due to all of the snow. I know that others have complained about the snow, so I have to also.

Most of the time I love running in the snow. I cannot stand running on the treadmill, so I bundle up and run outside. I must say that I am tired of it this year. There has been so much snow that the sidewalks are not clear. Running on ice is not too fun. You do use muscles that you never thought that you had though. I have only fallen on my face once so far. Here is a picture of me after running a week or two ago. When I left the house the weather wasn't bad and it was not snowing. After I got about 1 mile away, it started snowing like crazy with a strong wind. I could hardly see because of the snow blowing in my eyes.

We have tried to have some fun in the snow. This hill is close to our house so we try to go there and tube every once in a while. Kaitlin and Camie love going on the tubes all by them selves.

Well, hopefully we will have some sun and get out of the seasonal depression soon. Becky will post about Camie's b-day party soon. That's right, if we weren't crazy enough having Kaitlin's birthday party with friends, we had Camie's a few weeks later. I think that Camie and her friends had fun. As for the rest of us, let's just say that everybody became sick the day of the party.

Sugar Rush

Saturday was Kaitlin's 7 th birthday party, which we had at Color Me Mine. I decided that after the last birthday party we had for her two years ago, which ended with 10 manic girls beating a poor helpless piniata and grinding jolly ranchers into my carpet, that we would never ever EVER have a birthday party at our poor little townhome again. Instead, in my wisdom, I decided that this year we would escort 12 perfectly behaved children on a short leisurely drive to a very fun location where they would quietly and patiently paint their little works of art until the appropriate time came, and then we would quietly have cake and open presents and head on home. That was my vision. Beautiful, wasn't it. (Moment of silence, please.)

Unfortunately, things never go the way that I envision them. Picture this instead. 12 manic children, high on gummy bears, m & m's and soda running around, screaming at the top of their lungs. Begging for food. Asking for help painting their items. Begging for food. Asking for help making their princess fairy wands and animal puppets. Begging for soda. Running around the store chasing each other and laughing hysterically. Begging for cake. Attacking Kaitlin to try to help her open her presents. Chairs almost knocked over. Begging for treat bags and prizes. Sticky soda and cheeto residue all over the floor. In the car singing the "High School Musical 2" soundtrack at the top of their lungs, interrupted by intermittent shreiking and screaming. Coming home and waiting for parents. Finding three little girls in your bathroom closet standing in a basket of your dirty towels and underwear so they can hear themselves sing the High School Musical 2" soundtrack songs better. Need I say more?

All kidding aside, we had a wonderful day in which we celebrated 7 years with my beautiful baby Kaitlin. We all had fun and her friends were a joy. And the most beautiful part? I didn't have to clean up a thing!

It's all in the details...

I just received a package that made my day! A while ago I decided that I needed some new comfy shoes and the only place that I could find the ones I wanted was online at piperlime.com.

I ordered them and waited and waited for them to arrive. I was so excited when they finally came, but I have to say that I was more thrilled with the packaging then the actual shoes. This may sound stupid to some, but to the truly obssessive compulsive and anal people just like me, this will make perfect sense.

No more shoe boxes carelessly thrown into a larger box with papers strewn about and inflatable plastic cushioning. Instead, we have an incredibly cute little box printed with limes on the inside. Notice the tissue paper around the shoebox and the adorable little lime sticker on top. Not shown is all of the invoices tucked into a nice little lime green envelope, perfectly organized and easy to find. Joy, my friends, pure joy.

Oh yeah, here are my shoes.

Rob goes to the D.R.

In November I had the opportunity to go on a humanitarian mission to the Dominican Republic. I went there with an organization called International Aid Serving Kids (IASK). There were about 40 of us in the group and we went for 10 days. There were 3 doctors, 3 dentists, many nurses and students. We were mainly there to provide medications, dental work and treatment for children. We saw about 2000 medical patients during the week. It was a great experience. We were on the eastern side of the island. We mainly went to see the children whose parents worked in the sugar cane fields. Sugar cane is one of the major exports of the Dominican Republic. Most of the people that work in the sugar cane fields are from Haiti. The owners have built "homes" in the sugar cane fields for the workers. These small towns are called "Bateys". The home is 15 ft wide and 15 ft long. It has concrete walls and a roof. They can stay there why they work but once they get too old to work then they have to leave. They get paid about 20 dollars a week. I think that it is basically modern day slavery. There is no electricity in the area. Needless to say, there is a lot of sickness in the area. There are a lot of skin infections, allergies and parasites. Here are some pictures from the trip.

This is a picture of all the people lining up to be seen. It was chaotic sometimes but overall the people were very calm and civil.

Here's a picture of a whole row of the "houses."

Me in action seeing a little girl.

This is the view from our hotel. In the background is a Catholic Basicilica. This is in the town of Higuey.

These guys were so proud of their motorcycle and were begging me to take a picture of them so I did.

We divided up into 2 groups and went to different locations. Here is a picture of my group of doctors, dentists, nurses and support people.

The trip was mostly work but there was some play. On the last day we stayed at a resort near Punta Cana. On the left is a view from my hotel room. The water was clear and very warm. In beauty it is comparable to Hawaii but much cheaper.

Here is a stand close to our hotel. I guess this is the Dominican's version of Viagra. They were selling some type of sausage that is supposed to give you energy. I was not brave enough to try it as the meat was in the open air all day.

Overall this was a great experience. This is the reason that I went into medicine. Hopefully I was able to help some of these kids in the D.R. I look forward to going on many more trips like this in the future.

Welcome to the world of blogs

Well, we have finally ventured into the world of blogging. After spending time looking at friends blogs and having Becky hounded by her friends for not having a blog, we have finally given in to the pressure. We still are not sure what we are going to put on here, or why people would actually want to read about our lives, but we will do it anyway. We will attempt to put things that are interesting for friends and family to enjoy. Unfortunately, most of the interesting things that I see at work I cannot write about (that would be violating HIPPA privacy laws), but Becky always has things coming up as taking care of two little girls is always interesting.