Something new to do

The other day the guy that runs the slate (the clacking thing that's used to sync up the sound and video) was asked to participate in the scene they were shooting so I got to take over for him (a very nice guy, film student in Bozeman also an excellent juggler). This job is a little bit more complicated than it looks at first, there's more paying attention and writing things down than one would guess. Though no major errors slipped by, I've decided that it's best to leave the film making to the pros.

Here goes...

A lot has been going on. May was a busy month what with finishing school (for good), having some family for graduation (fun) and moving (fun in a lame kind of way). June has been exciting too so here's a quick rundown of what's been going on with a few pictures to bring sense to my rambling.

Graduation was a lot of fun. Mom and Dad came to visit and join the festivities along with Eric, Linnaea, Jordon and Andrea. It was great to have fun with them and show them a very little of the area we'd been in for the last four years. There were two graduation ceremonies, the first was strictly for our college and we were handed our hoods. The second included all the professional programs at the university and was really hot but not too long. I got the hood put on me and a real diploma! I hope everyone enjoyed it. Susan took off early to go and pick up the cool cake she'd ordered along with our friends for our delicious taco celebration after graduation with the Gerritsens. It was so much fun spending time with them again and with our families. We're going to miss the Gerritsens VERY much. I'm sure they'll do just fine in life and I hope our paths will cross again soon. We made a lot of good friends in our class partly because of the shared suffering and common lot I hope we can stay in touch. (ie. read this blog every once in a while) Staying in touch is something I've not been very good at.

(hood distripution)


(it's a phoropter! refractions have never been so delicious!)

A few days after graduation we finished packing (Susan had already started in April) and loaded up an over-sized Budget truck with our stuff and drove it all to Bozeman Montana (specifically my folk's house), just before a big spike in diesel fuel. I should relate also that providence was on our side the whole time. Many things worked together for our good on our move. We are grateful. We're also really thankful for my mom and dad who helped so much with the move and my brother Duane who even avoided leaving work early to help me unload into a storage locker. I hope someday we'll be able to take care of ourselves but I doubt it.

Our car took it easy during the move and spent the entire time on a rented trailer behind our rented truck. It's inactivity worked to its detriment however. If you're interested in a gross story about what got stuck and how it got out, read on otherwise, skip the colored writing and move on to Lucy's birthday party.

So, the Sunday morning after our move we piled into our car to go to church. When I started the car, a terrible thumping sound started to come from the passenger's side of the car. Startled, I turned off the car and tried again. The noise continued. Using a little reasoning I started down my list of differential diagnoses and started ruling them out. A kind of relief came over me when I discovered the noise subsided when I turned the ventilation fan off. The thumping increased in frequency when the fan was on high and decreased when on low. Something was wrong with the fan and the chances of our wheels falling off on our way to church seemed low enough to chance it. The next day, or was it two days, I decided to see if the problem was simple enough for a new eye doctor to fix or if it was one we could afford. I took parts off and kept track of most of the screws and weird little bolts under the dash and watched the fan motor gyrate rhythmically while I adjusted the speed of the fan. Looking back, I don't know why I figured I had to see it rattling and thudding around so much. After investigating further, I figured taking the fan motor out of the car and opening it up was too big a job for me, so I tried going at it from the air intake under the hood. After more parts came off and getting a little light down there I found the source of the noise. A little dead mouse and found its way into my fan and built a little nest. I guess thought the little mouse was not dead when it spent all afternoon and evening building a nest in a ford focus death contraption. Long story short, he's out and lysol was applied liberally to any vent I could reach. (thanks again dad).

Wow, that was longer than I expected. Anyway on to Lucy's big birthday celebration! Our little girl turned 3! and we had a party for her at the Missouri headwaters with both sets of grandparents, a great aunt and uncle, uncle Shawn, some cousins, Aunt Wendy and her little dogs too. We had a really good time. Lucy was very cute and grateful, she got lots of nice toys out of the deal too. Thanks to everyone who participated. We chased bubbles, played ball and frisbee and pin the bow on the princess. We had hotdogs (Dallin had to cook his own thank you very much) and an awesome princess castle cake. A little rain blew through at the very end and sent us home with full bellys and tired eyes. A good time.

(ta-dah, great job Susan!)


(worth a thousand words)




(pin)

(nice shirt, thanks Grandpa)

(fake food! she got some cool toy kitchen tools too, thanks everybody!)


(real backpack thanks Grandma)

While waiting for licensure to go through, I decided to look for some kind of employment both permenent after license and temporary to keep busy and get some of that elusive income. While perusing the classifieds I came accross an ad for auditions for a feature film being shot in Helena during June. After some emails, I figured it would be a fun way to spend a few days of June having never been in a movie. I have been in several plays and I even took an acting class in undergrad. Anyway, I was told the maximum amount of time commitment would be 10 days out of June. Shooting will be done on the last day of June, a little while before optometry licenses are issued. So, I headed to Helena and read some lines and was told I'd be called. I went back to Bozeman and filed an application with a temp agency, and started looking at local bike shops for a minimum wage-style job. Then I got a phone call and a script in my email inbox. After some thinking and stuff I decided to take the part they'd offered me: a slow guy. The slow guy does have a pretty big role though and so I've been at the dorms at Carroll college most of the days of June. Susan and the kiddoes came to visit a few days as well as Jordon and Andrea. It's been fun and interesting seeing what goes into puting a film together. All the work and organization has been pretty impressive. We've got a great cinematographer, sound guy, costume designer and script supervisor who all seem to know what they're doing. Seeing how it comes out on screen makes it look pretty good. I'm learning about apple boxes, lollipops, and C-47's (even C-74's). Also, Gaff tape is awesome stuff and I'll probably get a roll some day to keep handy. After seeing all that goes on in filmmaking and what's really important I think that when the credits roll at the end of a movie, the crew's names should come before the cast's. It's easy to say a movie was bad, but I bet you heard every word and all the images were in focus and smooth, lighting was probably great and things mostly made sense. You can read more about the movie shoot by clicking here. Anyway, Here are some pictures from when Susan and Lucy and Dallin all came and were extras also some of me on set.

(he's getting so big!)

(two lovely ladies on the carrousel)



("roll sound"..."sound is speeding", "roll camera"..."camera has speed" *marker* action)

It makes me think of the days I was thinking about becoming a professional actor. I'm really glad I didn't, being an eye doctor is much better, especially for family life.

These last few days Susan has been in Buffalo and Cheyenne Wyoming. I miss her and the kids but job prospects seem to be taking shape and the NBEO posted a passing score for me which is good. Things are going well for us in a way and we have a lot to be thankful for.

A brief post

So much has happened since our last post! I was waiting for some pictures to come to me but if I don't do something now I'll be way behind. So here's a minimalist's approach to a blog post: Just to whet the appetite:

May:
Graduation!
Move to MT
Lucy's B-day!
Audition for a low budget movie

June:
start filming

job search throughout and waiting and waiting for the NBEO to get on the ball

that's all for now, stay tuned for more later

a little catch-up

This is actually Susan blogging this time, not Devin.
I check back on our blog often to read the comments, so PLEASE leave a comment so I can enjoy the little squirt of excited I get when I see someone has been here. The comments are my favorite part about blogging. I'll try to do the same. Thanks for humoring me!

One night for family home evening we rocked out to some music in our living room. Although I didn't catch the best parts on this video, Lucy and Dallin were really gettin' down! It's awesome to have such energetic and playful kids!



I decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum on the spur of the moment Thursday. They both fell asleep on the way there after they ate their sandwiches, so they even got a little snooze beforehand. I couldn't have planned it better - wait, I didn't plan on them sleeping, but it sure worked out great. Can you ever plan on kids sleeping when you want them to?

It's a good thing we played in the water last b/c Lucy and Dallin were both soaked by the end!

Lucy reading to her baby to put her to sleep. Dallin liked the shopping cart. Just his size!

I couldn't for the life of me get Dallin to look at me with a smile for either of these photos. He liked the tool belt and hard hat a lot but put up with humoring me with the fireman jacket. I think he's adorable!

Lucy ate up the stage and loved the zebra costume. I couldn't tell if she liked her zebra striped face or not, but I thought she was pretty cute. Dallin had little whiskers on his face (I'm not very creative).

Since we have giant pieces of packing paper around, the kids love coloring and drawing on it. Here they're using up the last of their glitter pens so I can throw them away instead of pack them. I'm looking forward to unpacking the paper and seeing their cute scribbles.


Daddy and Lucy took naps together on the couch last Sunday and I couldn't resist the picture. Aahhh. Lucy LOVES her daddy.

We went to a minor league baseball game last Monday in Portland but Lucy's attention was all on their beaver mascot. We took a walk down by him to say hi. She was pretty shy but managed to get up the courage to shake his hand and tail and do a little jig for him. Since it was a Monday night not very many people were there and Lucy was so captivated by the beaver that we couldn't resist and moved our seat right next to him so she could enjoy him the rest of the game. I think I left the camera out in the car so I don't have any pics unfortunately. It was a chilly evening but we got free hot chocolate which Lucy and Dallin each drank their own entire cup of.

We're trying to do some more fun activities around this area before we leave. Portland is a fun town with lots to do, so we'll miss the entertainment. We even scored free tickets to a Trail Blazer game a few months ago through the laser eye surgery office Devin was externing at! We were on the "Lexus Level" (I know, we were important that night!) and got all sorts of free food. It was a close game, but the Blazers pulled it off in the end so it was exciting and a great memory.

Saturday we went to the Chinese Garden in Portland and enjoyed the beauty there. All of the plants, trees, rocks, water, etc. are very symbolic and it helped me appreciate the Chinese culture, traditions, and way of life a little more. This beautiful, peaceful garden is in the middle of downtown Portland so it's cool it can be so serene at the same time. It was beautiful. We'll miss a lot of things about this area when we move and a lot of people too. I just had to say goodbye this evening to a good friend whom I admire a whole lot. Bye Heather and I can't wait to check your new blog!

On a happier note, I'm looking forward next week to seeing a lot of friends we haven't seen since May of last year. It will be fun to visit one last time before graduation and see how their kids have grown. Wow! We're really going out into the real world now, huh?!

Unfortunately, no word yet on a solid job offer in Livingston, MT yet, but we're hoping for the best and know of some availability in Billings if Livingston doesn't work out. I'm looking forward to being back in MT near family and having a yard for my kids to play on this summer!! No more creepy people please!

When we hear back about a job we'll be sure to post!

Desert fun

We had ice cream sandwiches for desert the other evening. I love watching my kids eatting something they love b/c it's all buisness when it comes to eatting it. There's no throwing food on the floor or, "I don't want it. It's yucky." (doesn't that make the cook feel like cooking them yet another meal tomorrow:( ). Anyway, they had a great time enjoying their ice cream and Dallin tried to get every last lick he could out of the bowl as you can see by the chocolate on his forehead. They make life funny!





After the delicious desert I guess my kids thought they better check for cavities!

Daddy, Dallin, and Lucy had fun this afternoon playing dentist with a little keychain flashlight. I'm just about to throw the thing in the garbage, though b/c it is a source of "I want it. No, I want it. No, I want it." almost every day. It's so true that we buy kids all these expensive toys and then the ones they like the best are the free/cheap ones!

GOOD LUCK DEVIN ON PRACTICAL BOARDS IN THE MORNING! IT'S THE FINAL CHALLENGE AND I KNOW YOU'RE UP TO IT. I'LL BE THINKING OF YOU ALL MORNING. I LOVE YOU AND APPRECIATE YOU. GO GET 'EM!

Sringtime Posts....still

These are just some cute pics and a video I took of Dallin one morning when he was in a real playful mood. Boy, kids can be a lot of fun :)

Easter egg hunt in Oregon versus Easter egg hunt in Montana! Can you guess which is which?

Lucy and Dallin both love the bath! When I say it's bathtime they get super excited and bolt up the stairs to the bathroom. Dallin hasn't discovered the fun of bubbles quite as much as his sister has, though. He does have fun with them, but usually I think he thinks they're just a nuisance since they make it harder for him to find the toys.

Sringtime Posts

This is my (Susan's) first post, so I hope you enjoy my attempts. I was looking for my cell phone one day and after looking in all the kids' usual hiding spots I still came up empty. I finally had to put my tail between my legs and ask our neighbor friends to call it so I could find it. Although it took a few calls I finally found it and when I did I busted up laughing! Dallin loves to shove little things into this toy that blows balls out of the top and if they're not small enough they often get stuck about the same place as you can see my phone got stuck. The toy makers must have kids too b/c luckily they thought it through enough to make the toy so that it comes apart and goes back together easily. I just had to take the whole shabang to our neighbors to show them Dallin's handywork. We all had a big laugh.

A post at last!

It's been a long time since we've had a post, but that doesn't mean things haven't been busy around here. We're getting by and hoping for a job. The kiddos are doing great and are so cute to watch grow up!


Lucy is a terrific kid, but here's a picture of her being upset over something or other apparently at breakfast





Here's Dallin looking like a big boy!

When these two are tired of eating but not done, we'll make their food into helicopters for them to eat. I imagine this trick has been around for as long as helicopters (or longer). Now they've figured out how to do it on their own.

Bye-Bye Beardie!

these videos are dark but cute

Recap

beard from Sunday before Christmas to 1/18




over-worked and under-paid




we went to zoo lights










lotsa bounty

neighborhood Nick

Christmas Eve Dinner

So much has happened since my last post. I took part 2 of the national board exams and am waiting for the results (Feb 2 at the latest). We had a terrific Christmas even though we were disappointed that Linnaea didn't come on account of her fighting shingles (first picked up by an O.D. by the way as it started out on her conj). We welcomed the new year in Moses Lake with Jordon and Andrea and her family we had a great time and even learned a new card game called telefunque from Andrea's grandma. I didn't shave for my time off and had a good start on a beard so I decided not to shave it until boards results get back. (It's been a fun project I guess, kind of itchy and it's all anyone wants to talk about when they see you for the first time. I also understand that federal regulations limit pilot's facial hair because it can interfere with suction from their oxygen masks if they need them.) Dallin also started walking much better at Moses Lake and he loves it. I've been enjoying my rotation at the laser surgery center and I'm getting anxious for graduation. I've applied to some pediatric residencies and will hopefully have everything ironed out in March with them. Lucy continues to grow and is such a great little girl. She loves her family and wrestling her brother. She continues her tantrum hobby with some vigor however, but we're starting to see eye to eye more and more.

Thankful

I was lucky to get most of the week off for Thanksgiving this week. We had a terrific dinner at a family's house here in FG and had a great time complete with football and Xbox360. I've been thinking lately about all the things I have to be thankful for (ok everybody's doing it) and I thought I'd blog one or two. The big one weighing on my mind is my own little family. Wow, I never would have guessed it would be so fun to have a wife and kids. It makes all day worthwhile just to be able to come home to smiles and cheers and spend some time with everybody having fun. It's tough to describe but those of you out there who've been treated like the man of the year and felt that good ol' love at home know what I'm talking about. That said, this is a great country to enjoy that kind of feeling for a couple of main reasons: Number one, I can worship the Lord in a way that invites those loving feelings and deep changes into my home. The official stance of the country is that I should be able to do that. cool! Number two, for more than 200 years thousands of men have fought and died in brutal, painful ways to allow me the safety and security to enjoy my home life and rights of worship. I understand that many men and women have contributed in other ways to military protection of our country but the vast majority of those who have sacrificed their lives and futures have been young men about my age. I've always had a feeling of gratitude for these men, but now that I've had a taste of the pure joy life can bring, I understand more what these brave men have actually sacrificed. Their opportunity to see what I see and feel what I feel and do what I do has been set aside for mine and others' benefit. My prayer and trust is that the Lord will look on their sacrifices and those of their families will be honored for eternity and in many of them reveals a true conviction and love for God's children which will serve them well in the eternities. They can count on my gratitude when I meet them.

getting around

Dallin's never really crawled using any of the standardly accepted methods but he's sure cute scooting around the way he does. Plus, walking seems to be in sight soon!

Our cute kids

We took some pictures of the kiddos on campus a few days ago. enjoy!