The Fruits of our Labors

It's been another great week in Henderson, NV. We have had very nice weather. Yesterday we were babysitting some of our friends kids and they wanted to see our garden. I hadn't been out there for a couple of weeks myself so we took them out there. My goodness! We have celery growing out of our ears. I cut two stalks for them and two more stalks for the nextdoor neighbors and didn't even make a dent in it. The celery stalks are hugeamongous! I have never seen celery so big. Onions are doing well, Chard is doing great and we have a nice little tomato plant coming up that Daisy stepped on yesterday while we were out there. Oh well!

Friday night Laurie and I went out to see a shakesperean play - The Taming of the Shrew. It was out at Lake Las Vegas which is a ritzy area of town. We felt silly eating our picnic Subway sandwiches in front of everyone there so we scarffed them down on the way back from the show.

I am officially done with Orthopedic Surgery. The doctor I am working with gave me Monday-Wednesday off because he is going out of town for Spring Break. No complaints here! I am planning on repainting the red car over the next three days. Wish me luck! I had a good month and learned lots, but am very glad that I am done. I am just not a surgeon. Something about standing in one place working through a tiny hole or through a camera that just doesn't float my boat. Next month is ER. Should be a little more exciting I hope.

Daisy is working on potty training today. There is a big wet spot on our bed to prove it. She has been talking about wanting to go potty a lot over the last few days, so now is the time to start I guess.

On Friday, when I got home from work I walked in the door and Laurie was asleep on the couch. Fred said "Shhhhh Daddy, Mommy is sleeping and I am making a treat for her." Then he asked me to hold a glass of milk that he had poured all by himself while he carried a "snack" plate with an apple, some string cheese and about a dozen chocolate chips (all of which he had climbed on counters and gone through the fridge to find by himself) together with a "Valentine" which was a paper that he had cut out. Then he went over to Laurie and woke her up and told her that he had a valentine and a snack for her. It was pretty cute.

Laurie and I read a really fantastic talk by Elder Bruce R. McConkie this last week that you might enjoy about the creation and the fall. It is kind of deep, and very long, but I thought it was very good. Here is the link: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=5ed347f765adb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

We are doing great here in Henderson. We loved having Mom here last weekend. It was really nice to have her here and the kids loved it. Our escapade to St. Louis was fruitful. We put in an offer on a home that we both like a lot. It is spacious, sits on a hill, has a huge yard (compared to Henderson anyway) and reminds me a lot of Grandma and Grandpa Crocketts home (mostly the era, not so much the layout). We have yet to hear back on our offer, but are crossing our fingers that everything works out and in a timely manner.

Fred gave his very first talk today in Primary. It was about Prophets. He did a great job with some help from Mommy. He talked about why it is important to listen to the Prophet's voice and wanted to tell everyone about the story of Enos. He was really excited to speak in the microphone in front of everyone. Lets hope that enthusiasm continues for a few years still. Yesterday he helped me fix the car and managed to shift the car into neutral as I was hanging halfway out of the car working under the dashboard. I managed to lunge over to the driver's side and push the brakes with one hand before we got across the street and hit the neighbor's car (which incidentally is the same red color and has just about as good a paint job as the buick does). Fred is quite the artist these days and likes to draw pictures of just about anything he can think of.

Daisy is doing well too. She has more energy than I have in a whole week. Today I layed her down for a nap before church (because we have 1:00 church) at 10:00. I was working on my lesson for about an hour and a half and thought I should just peek in at the girls to see if they were still asleep. Nope. Daisy hadn't fallen asleep at all. She had pulled clothes out of her drawers, was half naked herself, had pulled most of the toys out of the toybox and was busy trying to figure out how to put a belt together.

Lucy is crawling all over the place and is getting into everything. We have to rebaby-proof our house again. The girls are pretty cute though. they are all sure growing up fast.

Last night Laurie and I went to a stake dance that was fun. We learned that I am a lousy dancer. I don't know what happened. Anyway, we are thinking about taking a dancing class together so we don't feel so self concious out on the dance floor.

This month I am doing a pediatric orthopedic surgery rotation with an emphasis on adolescent sports medicine. It is pretty cool. I have gotten pretty good at putting casts on little kids. I see a lot of high school athletes with knee and shoulder issues. I like working with the patients, but I have really learned that I am not cut out to be a surgeon. I enjoy doing the procedures (ACL replacements, lateral patellar releases, plica removals, OCD repairs etc), but I am not really into standing on my feet in one spot for 2-3 hours at a time. I would much rather be seeing patients in the clinic, shooting the breeze and seeing lots of patients in a shorter time period.

Yesterday Laurie found some nice fabric at a garage sale for pretty cheap, so her new project is going to be recovering our Futon.

Tonight we are having Maisy and Blair over for dinner again. Their birthdays are coming up so we are doing prime rib for them tonight. I love a good excuse to eat prime rib, plus they were buying. We have a new agreement with them. They buy and we cook. Blair is all for it and I am all for it.

I had a great idea for Maren and other missionaries. They could borrow a cute little baby from someone in the ward then just sit somewhere like the grocery store or in a park. Then all sorts of people will just come up to them and want to see the baby and tell them how cute she is. Bingo, you make a contact. It's brilliant!!! People are always coming up to us and telling us we have cute kids. That would sure beat knocking on doors. Maybe they could go on splits with a young mother that has a cute kid or something. I'm telling you, I think they could easily quadruple your contacts in an evening. Anyone with little kids can tell you it would work.