...and we're back!

I'll get to some of the highlights and lowlights of our trip later. First, I wanted to share a fun activity I did with the boys right before we left last week.

We gathered up their pirate toys and my camera and went down to the beach. Max helped write a "script" and we set the pirates up and took pictures of them acting out an adventure: treasure hunt, sword fight, etc. We then came back and downloaded and subsequently uploaded them to Snapfish and made a little flip book out of it. It was a fun, relatively quick activity. We got the book out of the mail today and they love it. Here are a few of the action shots!

the big sword fight scene

end of the bad guysthe treasure

Gordon B Hinckley

I found out this morning that President Hinckley passed away last night. I was deeply saddened to hear this. I will greatly miss him, his teaching and especially his voice. It always conveyed to me the truthfulness of his words and through it the voice of God. Conference this April with be sad without him.Good Bye President Hinckley! I'll miss you!

What's That? It's Pat!

I used to love the SNL skit "PAT". So it made yesterday's experience all the more hilarious. I walked into the dental operatory (No its not a bad dental joke) and said to the seven year old patient's head in the chair "Hey big guy!" Then my assistant shows me the chart. On the patient label it said the name along with an "M" for the sex. Above said sticker she had written "female". And with that I began the dental visit confused as to if patient was a patricia or patrick. The name was not helpful in figuring out the gender. The child has short curly hair and was overweight with a higher voice. Only the voice made me think female. So the whole appointment I was careful not to use he/she, buddy/honey. It was very hard, I realized I use those terms a lot with my patients. The part that really made me think of the PAT skit was I kept asking questions in hopes of getting a gender clue. The best friends name was some weird name I had never heard of and was unhelpful. Favorite TV show also unhelpful: The Fairly OddParents. Also, the teeth didn't look either male or female. So the patient left and I was able to confirm that it was a girl.

The Freedom Trail

Our residency has a rotation where we go to Tufts School of Dentistry in Boston and teach the dental students on their pediatric dentistry rotation. So I was in Boston on Thursday for my last day of this rotation. I decided to use the chance without children and a wife to finally walk the entire freedom trail.
The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites, every one an authentic American treasure. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in 1958, when the wrecking ball threatened, the Freedom Trail today is a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond.

They have a red trail going throughout the city. Sometimes it is a painted line, but the majority is red brick. It was pretty cool thinking about all the history that took place where I was walking. I think the Paul Revere house along with the Old North Church, where he hung the signal lanterns, was my favorite. Near Boston common, where the trail begins, is the Park Street Church. Next to the Church is a very old cemetery, the granary burial ground, where many famous people are buried, including John Hancock (I think). The Union Oyster House is the oldest restaurant in Boston and the oldest restaurant in continuous service in the U.S. — the doors have always been open to diners since 1826.
Often referred to as “the home of free speech” and “the Cradle of Liberty,” Faneuil Hall hosted America’s first Town Meeting. Built by wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil in 1741, this imposing structure is the place where the Sons of Liberty proclaimed their dissent against Royal oppression
The trail ends at this monument to the Battle of Bunker Hill:

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" This order, found in a German Manual of Arms and believed to have been uttered at the battle by Colonel William Prescott, has come to immortalize the determination of the ill-equipped Colonists facing the powerful British Army during the famous battle fought on this site on June 17, 1775.
The Battle of Bunker Hill marks the first time Colonial forces held its own against the British army. Today a 221-foot granite obelisk denotes the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution.

What a wonderful, courageous, and fun history our country has.

Pictures on a Cold Beach

I took the boys on a walk this evening. It was very cold, but we all had fun...until they both started crying from the cold as we reached the doorstep. I took these pictures while they kicked ice into the water.
This was a little toy I found on the beach. I like it!

Secret Aspirations

...well not that secret...
I recently read one of my high school friend's, we'll call her Sara, Christmas Letter. I was totally jealous. Sara is attending culinary school. I love cooking and already have culinary plans for my retirement, in fact I might do it now if it wasn't for this dentist thing they have me doing right now!

So here is the plan: Upon retirement I want to buy a house on Clarendon Ave in San Francisco and attend the California Culinary Academy. Or maybe we'll buy a house (again) near the water in Rhode Island and I'll train at Johnson and Wales.

The point is I love to cook and have an underlying desire to become a chef!

*way to go Sara!

iuTWpeRvOh

For sometime now I have been meaning to write about something that annoys me i.e. the blogs that have the word verification for comments. It is so annoying to have to type all those funky letters just to post a comment. Come on people just lighten up a little and make it easier for me to post a comment. You do want comment don't you!?* Plus, on an ADA (Americans with Disability act) note, people who are visually challenged and/or blind can't leave comments when they run into it. Yes, they have programs that can tell you what letters are present, but my sources say it doesn't work well. So lets all make a new year resolution to remove the word verifications from as many blogs as possible. (Plus half the time I enter in the wrong letters, and I think its making me a worse speller!)


*More than once, I have been discouraged from leaving my witty comments.
**I do like the wavy pattern the letters come in!

New Year Photography

Emily did an excellent job filling my Christmas list. My favoritest one so far is my new camera tripod, it even comes with a little tripod in the big tripod's handle. So a few nights ago I went to Temple Square and took some picture of the SLC Temple. It was soo much fun! and cold. It was nice to have the tripod so I could experiment with different shutter speeds and aperture settings without getting blurry pictures. These are a few of my favorite ones.

Fae's Wedding

This is a slide show of my mother-in-law's wedding we attended in San Diego. The old(er) couple are Fae and John's young women and young men advisers from 50 years ago! They were very happy about the wedding.

Why Pediatric Dentistry?

People have asked me many times why I want to do pediatric dentistry, especially my Dad and brother who are general dentists. In fact just the other day I called my dad and his assistant answered and as she was about to take my message Dad says: Tell him I'm busy doing real dentistry! And when he answers the phone when I call he says: Hello Baby Dentist!

Well, yesterday the cutest thing happened to me and it illustrates why I love Pediatric Dentistry. My patient was a 2 year old little girl coming for her first visit. She started crying right as her mom picked her up to sit in the dental chair. I did a "lap to lap" exam, which means I sat facing mom who held her on her lap with kid's head on my lap. Mom holds the hands and I support the head. Anyway, she cried while I I cleaned and examined her teeth and
I sang Christmas carols, then put on a sticky Fluoride varnish. She then goes back to mom and stops crying and is fine. Appointment over. On the way out the little girl stops and looks up at me and puckers her lips up at me to give me a kiss. I leaned down and gave her a hug and she kissed me with her sticky fluoride lips! It totally melted my heart and made my day. It was so nice.

This is ONE of the examples of why I love to work with kids.

Cool Runnings Season 2

We just got two "big" snow storms. Not really big, about 8 inches each time, but remember we are a little state so it equals about 3 feet. No really it totally shuts down the state. Thursday it took people over 6 hours to get home from work! Luckily I had stayed home that day. =) So Max and I were able to enjoy the snow. Then today we got a call saying Church was canceled!!! I couldn't believe how wicked wussy this place can be when the roads get a little snow. So...we built an igloo, and had our own church time together with Christmas stories and songs.

Pinata Dangers

Some may say it isn't smart to stand near a pinata when there are 3-6 year olds swinging at it. I would agree, yet it was the only viable option.

Max had a great B-day last week and got to have lots of Dad and Max time, including a professional magic show! (It was really good/amazing, even if the lady magician was corny and wore strange tights!)

Photo Book

For the last two years Em and I have been dying to do a photo book of our 4 years in San Francisco. A few times I have started making a folder of photos we wanted to include, but never ended up doing it. Then recently while ordering some photo prints from Costco I saw that they had a photo book publisher. So I got recharged in my determination to make the book. Their software was very easy to use, but then I compared theirs to Snapfish and forced myself away from the easier program to Snapfish's due to a significant difference in price (Snapfish has a coupon code for 50% off! photobooknow I think). It was still pretty easy once I resigned myself to using the templates they provide.
(This is kinda what it looks like.)

So I finally finished the photo book today and it is being printed right now! I am so excited to get it. We loved SF so much and miss living their. We turned on our "Christmas By The Bay" Christmas song today and we again, like last year, teared up while we danced to it. We have so many good memories of living their and are excited to have it in a printed photo book. I'm already getting my ideas ready for our New England book!!

*The cover is an amalgam of our restaurant business card collection.
**I recommend using Costco if the coupon isn't available.
***We had Blurb before our computer crashed. I think I'll try it for the next one and see how it goes.

Pumpkin Bread

This is the best pumpkin bread I've ever tasted. I got it from the best nurse I've ever met. (She also makes the best Italian Meatballs.)

Pumpkin Bread

(makes 2 Loaves)

4 eggs

2 ½ Cup Sugar

1 Cup oil

1 ½ t Salt

1 t Nutmeg

1 t Cinnamon

Mix together above ingredients then add:

2 t Baking Soda

⅔ Cup Water

3 Cups Flour

1-15 oz. can Pumpkin Puree

350° for 50-60 min.

*sorry I'm not as good as Pioneer Woman and didn't take any pictures!

Christmas Bells Are Ringing

As we trimmed the tree I thought, hey we won't worry about Gabbers messing with the tree until next year! Wrong!

Photograph Debate

It is foam on a sandy beach. I'm just curioud if people think it is a good picture.

Please tell us what you think of this photo:
Em and I disagree about it and would like to hear your input. Good? Bad? Pretty? Lame? Thanks.

Christmas Cards

If any of you would like a Christmas Card please email updated address and phone number* to ems.important.stuff@gmail.com

*optional

New Teeth, Trauma, Malocclusions, and Defects

Gabriel now has his first two teeth! And he is within the normal range of 5-8 months! It now hurts when he bites my finger. His next ones will/should be the top ones at 6-10 months.

Sam had the family's first dental trauma when he walked into a door knob, chipping his tooth (uncomplicated crown fracture). (Notice the chocolate on Sam's lips.=)


His open bite has closed and he is now left with an overbite (overjet to be precise).

And not to be left out, Max has some unexplainable (so far) enamel defect on tooth #D.

Two weeks ago yesterday we were in Boston. When we got back I saw that my bag was missing. We thought that perhaps it somehow fell out of our van as people got in and out. Saturday Em realized that her wallet was gone. We put a few more pieces of the puzzle together and realized someone had taken them out of our car while we were parked next to Boston Common. We went through the steps of canceling credit cards, identity theft protection, witness protection, etc. One night I felt inspired to call the Boston Police and file a report. So 4 days after the incident I filed a police report without a whole lot of hope that anything would come of it. Two days later I had a message from the police saying they had my bag. Yesterday, while back in Boston I went to station A-1 and got it back! Here's how the other part of the report reads:

ABOUT 10:30 AM ON 11/21/07 OFFICER FOLEY IN THE AT55D WAS GIVEN A BLUE BAG BY AN UNIDENTIFIED PEDESTRIAN WHO STATED THEY JUST FOUND THE BAG IN THE PUBLIC GARDEN.
OFFICER FOLEY FOUND BOOKS AND PERSONAL PAPERS IN THE BAG. OFFICER FOLEY FOUND THE BAG WAS REPORTED STOLEN...PROPERTY LOGGED IN TO AREA A1 EVIDENCE ROOM AND SECURED ...

I got the bag back and everything was still there minus my iPod and Em's gift cards. Another amazing thing is Em's wallet was inside my bag. It was empty and then I found her credit cards and license in another pocket.

So...we are very very grateful and happy that we got so much back in the face of almost no odds in our favor!

So I'll add this "unidentified pedestrian" to Em's list of Random Kindness. Unless of course its the person who took it...

Thanksgiving Dinner- Take 6

Tonight's dinner marks the sixth Thanksgiving meal in the last 5 days! It was so good: Sandwich composed of dark meat turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and a side of sweet potatoes! Meal #5 was lunch today-turkey nachos! (they were actually pretty good). I must say though, that Emily's turkey skills are most excellent. It was done on time, looked perfect, was moist in all the right places and tasted wonderful (as is evident by my continuous consumption of said bird).

Happy Thanksgiving!?

A Great Fall!!

When we moved here this corner was inhabited by a dirty, children threatening, mosquito attracting Koi pond. We have since removed it leaving a large hole. This has become our dumping ground namely for leaves. So this leaf pile is actually about 3 feet deep. And the trees around our home still look like no leaves have fallen yet. So this is my last 3 hour leaf clean-up until the last leaf has fallen on our street!

Providence Photo Shoot

Downtown from the Eastside

Bank of America Building

Providence performing art center-PPAC

Providence

I like this one of Max taking a picture of the horseman.

Foliage in RI

I stopped and took these pictures on the way to work this morning. (Unfortunately as I tried to leave my car wouldn't start, but I got a pretty picture and eventually made it to work.)

Chicago

This past weekend I spent in the beautiful city of Chicago. I had a dental conference there and got to stay with Dave, Laura, and Eden. I hadn't seen them for almost 3 years. They treated me very graciously. They have a very cute apartment, decorated nicely and modern (Way to go Laura). I was privileged to be in the home of such a famous blogger! They even took me to one of the best breakfast places I have ever been to for lunch. (See side bar for my favorite dish).

My conference was as good and exciting as can be expected from pediatric dentists and endodontists. What I really enjoyed was walking around Chicago (and I walked a lot). I took the train down from the Dub's and then walked 30 min to the conference both days. When I got back off the train yesterday, and still today, my calves were sore and cramped!

Chicago is a beautiful clean city. Walking the streets, seeing the tall buildings, cool architecture, all the bridges and river, and lots of people filled me with an energizing excitement. There's so much going on, so much energy in the air. While walking around the city and figuring out the transportation, I had to ask quite a few people for directions and help. Everyone of them was kind and helpful. It may not have been a large sample size but it seemed to me, Chicagoans are nice friendly people.

Dave hooked us up with tickets to the Bulls opening game. We were in an executive suite for his company. That was awesome! Dave and I were huge Bulls fans growing up. His rooms was plastered with Jordan posters, magazine cut outs and every other "Shop" project in junior high was Bulls related. I think I made at least 20 Bulls insignias, wood and plexiglas!

I also spent the afternoon after my conference Saturday touring the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a very nice art museum. I loved the Monets, my favorite. Renoir was very stricking to me as were some others I hadn't heard of: Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. Impressionist Art seems to be my favorite. There were also some awesome van Goghs and Degas.

It has been an excellant trip. I only wish I had Em with me!!

Thanks Dubs. You rock!!