Trip to DC this summer

Any old friends out there living in or near Washington DC? We would love to see you. This summer we are spending a month in DC. Any favorite places we absolutely have to go to?

New Computer

Anybody who checks this blog ever may have noticed that we have been MIA. (Really, was Elena ever here enough to count as being MIA though?) Our old laptop (bought in 2004) was great and has served us well over the years, but is painfully slow for doing anything of any large scale.

Well, I've been eying parts for a new computer for quite a while, so I picked them out from Newegg and put it together myself. It should be able to handle some video editing.

I was going to put the specs up, but Elena doesn't want too much information out there on the web. I told her that we don't update our blog enough for anybody to be stalking us using it.

Easter

Here are some Easter pictures. We got together at a local park with some friends from church and their kids. We had an Easter egg hunt, which was not very fast-paced, given the oldest kid was only about one and a half. But we had a nice time with some of our friends.

First bike ride of the season that never ends

I don't want to rub it in anyone's face, but I went biking today in 70 degree weather. It was lovely. Surrounded by leaves and beautiful scenery. It was like being home in the Wasatch Mountains. Except for the terrain being completely flat. Kara even came along for the ride. Kara is the one on the left, covered by a hat. She enjoyed herself so much she took a little snooze. The little girl on the right is Esther, the daughter of a friend of mine. This was our first ride together and we hope to be doing this more often.

The only interesting thing about the ride was in passing major power lines we gathered an electric current. We kept shocking ourselves as we rode. The kids didn't seem to mind. Needless to say, we will avoid that portion of the trail.

I am still figuring out how to move pictures within a post so the other picture above is of Kara in new clothes from Grandma Baugh. Thanks Grandma! We love the packages you send.

Elena's first post of Cute stick figures and Kara

Okay, I am posting for the first time! Yea!
I am curious who actually reads this.
These are my little stick figures that I made. I have been playing around with different programs. This was easy and fun. I've been making these and others into decals for cars.

Update on Kara...
She is rocking on her hands and legs and reaching as far as her long arms can go. But, no crawling yet. I gave her a piece of banana today and she devoured it. Based on how fast she went, some might think I never feed her. This girl can eat! As long as there is food in front of her, she will keep on going. If I don't stop her, she eats too much and it ends up on my shirt. It will probably end up on my shirt anyway, but I can't help trying to save myself some laundry.

I love our healthy baby and her chunky monkey thighs.

I'll have to post pictures later. I'm having technical difficulty adding another picture.

PS3

I finally got my PS3 (well, in December). I used birthday money (thank you everyone), as well as a special that they were having.

I'm very excited and I enjoy it for the games, and it works well for watching home videos (my computer is too slow to run them), and streaming MP3's off of our computer as well. We also use it to watch Hulu on our TV.

We've also had fun playing games online, as well as video conferencing with Chris and Lanea.

Anybody else that has one, feel free to add me to your online list, my name is ABaMD.

And thanks again, everyone. I'm having a blast with it, and Elena has fun occasionally too.

Step III

Step III is the final examination you have to take to become a "real" doctor.

What constitutes a real doctor? Once I graduated from medical school, I was given the title of doctor. But people still asked if I was a "real" doctor. I never said 'no, I'm not a real doctor', but I would end up explaining that I'm a resident. Well, I'm still a resident, but now I'm considering myself a "real" doctor.

There are ways that people could construe "real" doctor. When people ask that question, it is loaded with what may be prejudices or concerns. PhDs and other doctorate degrees are doctors, and they aren't imaginary. However, some people when asking this question would not think that they are real doctors. An example, if someone has collapsed in a movie theater, and someone cried out "Is there a doctor in the house?", they mean a doctor with medical training. I think I would take an emergency physician, critical care doctor, or a nurse who works in one of those locations. I would hope any paramedics or EMT would step up, even if they aren't "real" doctors, because they would be more useful than I would be likely.

That also brings up other doctors, such as dentists, DO's, podiatrists and chiropractors. Where do they fall in the discussion of "real" doctors. Too much for me to get into, and my answer would be a definite, 'well, it depends'.

Online Version of Our Christmas Card

For those of you that we could not find your address, and who actually read the blog despite my poor ability keeping up lately. (I'll catch up soon, I promise).

The greatest thing about 2008 was… drum roll please
Kara, Kara and more Kara.

Andrew decided that Interventional Radiology (IR) is pretty cool.
Elena decided that IR takes more time than she likes.

Elena continues to push her clients at 24 Hour Fitness.

Laurel, Kevin and Claire came to stay for 5 months. It was so much fun.

Andrew and Elena took a stay-cation to Houston.
We couldn’t go far just in case Kara decided to come early.

Elena started a new hobby, vinyl lettering.
A website should be up by January. TexasLetters.com

Hurricane Ike. We lost our fence. Elena put it up without
Andrew’s help. Ike occurred during IR rotation.

Lots of visitors from Utah. Many more are welcome to come!

That was written by Elena, and I'll just defend myself regarding the fence, because they're bulding a new house behind us, and hadn't built their fence yet. I was waiting for them to build and fix it, which happened soon after. Also, Ike happened in September, and IR (interventional radiology) was October and November, but she did fix the fence in November, which I was on IR.

Always be careful what you put in your blogs, it may come back to haunt you.

Our friends in our ward have this post, and yes, that is my daughter in the second picture being forced against her will to wear a byu shirt.

http://mikeandmindywilliamsfamily.blogspot.com/2008/11/sad-day-to-be-couger.html

My cousin, Justin, is in Afghanistan serving our country. He's a great guy and I enjoy reading his blog regularly. His mother taught him well, and I even thought that she had raised him to be humble, but I had to raise my eyebrows back when I read this post.

http://452days.blogspot.com/2008/09/day-126-priceless.html

Well, we all know how that ended.
Max Hall isn't a senior, is he?...



Good, I'm glad he's not.
(who knows, that may haunt me next year)

Beast videos

As requested (it won the lates poll), here are some videos of beast. I will be holding another poll shortly, but I've been in need of catching up first. It's been a busy month.

Beast likes to play with bags. I know he shouldn't, but he doesn't. He got into the bag himself, the surprise is what I provided.



Beast cleaning himself



And here is Beast playing with the waist ties from my scrubs. The sound in the back is just a TV show.