il gatto di combattere

Baby Judah

2012-01-24T13:37:00.003-06:00

We are very pleased to announce the birth of our

beautiful baby boy

Judah Rosenaldo James Umbriaco

born January 13th at 8:39 am

7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches long

Judah- "God be Praised"

from the story of Leah in Genesis 29

inspired by Tim Keller's sermon "The Girl Nobody Wanted"

In Jake's family, the oldest son and daughter have two middle names representing both sides of the family

Rosenaldo- after Erin's Grandpa Vigil

James- after Jake's paternal grandfather and dad

He is healthy and we are all very happy...and sleepy

Check out a sneak peak of his newborn pictures at: http://www.aimeefullerphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/meet-judah-pearland-texas-newborn-baby.html

Boulders Beach & Penguins

2011-09-19T20:00:00.005-05:00

Just up the coast from Simon's Town is Boulders Beach

...where a colony of African penguins live

...which made Jake very very happy :)

We were able to spend several hours enjoying the penguins up close as they wandered freely

posing

singing

waddling around the beach

and the rocks

and going for a swim

Here we are venturing into the cold waters of False Bay (the Indian Ocean side)

More amusing warning signs

We really enjoyed our time with the penguins!

The Cape Peninsula

2011-09-14T11:30:00.002-05:00

As part of our Cape Town trip, we rented a car and spent a day driving around the coast, including to Cape Point, the Cape of Good Hope, Boulder Beach and some of the beach towns. We were also able to stay a couple nights enjoying one of these lovely beach communities.

the entrance to Cape Point

pointing the directions and distances to al the world's major cities

the old lighthouse

the new lighthouse, ship wrecks litter this coast

the Cape of Good Hope

Rachel and I being brave and heading down into the frigid water...and demostrating all the places Chacos go

enjoying the beach, and only the beach due the water being full of jelly fish and cold...

until we saw this baboon who stumbled upon a watermelon half left on the beach...he was very content until the rest of his large troop found him and came running over the hill towards him and us, yelling...and we all became very scared...and started moving as quickly as possible towards the car

...due to signs like this one, which are posted all over

Simon's Town

Our lovely Guesthouse in the fishing town of Kalk Bay

and the view of Kalk Bay

our group enjoying a lovely fresh seafood dinner

next up...Jake's favorite part of the trip :)

Cape Town Harbor

2011-08-23T20:34:00.001-05:00

More of lovely Cape Town, including a wonderful cruise of the harbor...

Table Mountain

Nobel Square...honoring South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. De Klerk, and Nelson Mandela.

Dolphins

Beautiful Sunset

Up next...more animals, or maybe an exciting post from Jake...to encourage people to start reading our blog again :)

Table Mountain

2011-07-28T19:30:00.003-05:00

We were blessed with a wonderfully clear--table-cloth free--day to see Table Mountain in Cape Town

How the non-ambitious who don't have all day to hike, get up on top

View of the bay

Many varieties of pretty succulents

Rock Dassies--their closest relative is the elephant!

My fellow residents- Sara, Rachel and Susana

note the World Cup Soccer stadium (round building to left near water)

another lovely view of the bay

Encountering Cheetahs

2011-07-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

We've been absent for a while from the blogging world...there are reasons for that, but we'll get to those later. In recent days I have finally been sorting through more photos from our trip to Africa. So picking up where I left off...

One of the other great perks about visiting Spier Winery is that they have a Cheetah Reserve. As the population expands and more land is being settled for agriculture, the cheetah is one animal that is becoming extinct due to loss or habitat and natural prey, and therefore increasing conflict with humans. So Spier houses a Cheetah Reserve that takes care of rescued cheetahs (mostly rescued as cubs) and does a lot with education and awareness to protect cheetahs. It was very interesting to learn about.

This is a Turkish Anatolian Shepherd dog, which the rescue group breeds and places on area farms as guard dogs for the livestock as part of the cheetah protection effort to help reduce the conflict between cheetahs and farmers. They are very large dogs!

This is Joseph...he is 9 years old...and I was able to "encounter" him at the outreach :)

If interested, you can read more about cheetahs and the reserve here: http://www.cheetah.co.za/default.html

It was a really cool experience!

The Randomness of Jake....

2011-04-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

Oh Reader.....

It's been awhile since we last talked.... you know... really talked. A lot of things have changed for me recently. I got the new iPad (which I'm blogging from currently). I got paid on the 7th, and the iPad 2 was released on the 11th.... I don't believe in coincidence... so I took it as a sign that I should purchase it. (At this point, it would be appropriate to begin praying for my wife.) I'm not entirely certain that Erin shared this vision, but I'd like to think this device has enriched our marriage, and I'm sure that the benefit of hindsight will convince her of the wisdom of my seemingly capricious purchasing decisions.

As you may have noted from prior blogs, Erin went to Africa for 5 weeks. During that time, I went to India for 10 days (didn't get sick!), came back for a week, and then went to Africa for 10 days to visit her.

India was crazy intense. I remember being in Rio, standing near the richest mall in South America which basically runs up to the favelas (the poorest part of Rio), and thinking how strange it was to find those things juxtaposed. Well that was India except in mind-blowing proportions. Mumbai is the location of the most expensive residence on the planet (a billion dollar home) that overlooks the largest slum in the city. I was sitting on a bus on the way back to a hotel and was struck by a man sitting on the side of the street (Indian-style ironically)in front of a marquee. He appeared to be suffering from some sort of physically debilitating condition, and as he stared off through my bus into the distance, I realized that he was all alone. It's quite striking to be in a country that hosts a billion + people, in a city of tens of millions and to find yourself completely alone. India was a beautiful and devastating experience for me....

Africa was a different sort of crazy. I got the opportunity to travel with Erin and 3 other (female) doctors. Now, I'm a pretty good sport, and I'm on record as having a fondness for Gilmore Girls, shopping, and plucking my eyebrows.... but things start getting a little crazy after ten days in Africa as the lone dude with a four-pack of lady doctors (by which I mean doctors who are female... as opposed to obstetricians/gynecologists.... just for clarity, all four doctors are pediatricians).

We started our journey by traveling to Kruger - a game reserve that covers a big chunk of NE South Africa. Our guide was a really nice dude who had the most curious idiosyncrasies. For instance:
1) He was able to spot the most minute details while driving our safari vehicle. He would stop on a dime to point out the world's smallest tortoise crossing the street (like less than 4 inches across... small). He pointed out fresh rhino markings, and other a sundry curiosities.
2) Our guide/driver's proficiency in spotting small things was somewhat overmatched by his inability to spot very large things.... like Elephants. I mean, who doesn't love a midget turtle? But seriously... when on safari, one would like to see big animals like elephants.
3) Our driver was a fit young (early 20's) dude who had worked all sorts of interesting jobs -something about putting dead fish in the water to draw sharks to those 'dive with the sharks in a tank' attractions off Capetown.
4) He also had the most spectacular combination widow's peak uni-brow that I have ever witnessed. I mean, his uni-brow itself had a widow's peak.... it was glorious... like the South African equivalent of a really awesome mullet... it spoke deep things to my soul, and I'm ever-so-thankful for witnessing it.

In other news (no particular order):
Erin decided to re-pot all sorts of plants which means I was stabbed by multiple succulents.
Battlecat (who has taken up residence perching Snoopy style on top of our couch) pawed me in the face and gave me a very cool... but very temporary scar.
I started a new gig at Chevron.
Erin started night shifts in the pediatric ER. I'd like to punch night shifts in the face... but the physical embodiment of night shifts remains elusive.... you've been warned night shift.
Nate Dogg died.
Erin went to DC
I went to CA
We both went to Boston
We saw a dude wearing a Wayne's World hat on the train.
In Boston I wore dress shoes as I had some meetings to attend.... it was sleeting all evening and through the next morning so my shoes got soaked. At that airport I took off my drenched shoes to go through security, when I tried to put them back on I realized that taking them off had shredded the insoles... and i had to throw them away. I feel like this incident justifies the shoe shopping I did the week prior... in fact, I now consider my shoe shopping to be prophetic.... and now I'm wondering if my laptop is going to explode because I bought an iPad...

I'm officially done with all coursework at the end of this month. At which time I plan to read more, spend time with humans, and start a non-profit group to send tweezers to South Africa.

Spier Winery

2011-03-26T17:07:00.008-05:00

on the referral of my clinic preceptor, we spent the day at this beautiful winery in Stellenbosch, South Africa

the Visitor Center with the vineyards in the background
the Tasting Room Our Group- Rachel, Sara, Jake, Susana and I-all my fellow residents
except Jake of course, who deserves a medal for traveling with 4 women
lunch by the lake
it was a beautiful summer day in January :)

Swaziland

2011-02-16T20:42:00.008-06:00

I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Swaziland, Africa in January to do an away rotation at the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Clinic there. Swaziland is a small country and has the highest incidence of HIV in the world. It was very interesting to see the manifestations of HIV, especially in children as it is so rare in children in the States, and to see the success stories of anti-retrovirals! Here are some pictures from my trip: The beautiful clinic

The waiting room on a not so busy day...

The clinic's multidisciplinary team often saw well over 100 patients a day. And the model of the clinic is very cool in that while it's main focus is children with HIV, they also provide care for the family members of the children seen there, including prenatal care.
The front desk triage area...at the end of the day, normally the bins were stacked with charts.
The pastor's wife of the church we attended...volunteering in the pharmacy
Though it was summer there, it was also rainy season...and this is what the weather looked like the majority of days we were there. It was actually rather cool temperature-wise, and we would have to remove multiple layers off the children to examine them.

As usual for Jake, a picture of children playing the greatest sport on earth :)

Playing games and singing "The World's Greatest" at Teen Club, the clinic's support group for teens with HIV.

The NICU of a local hospital...essentially a very warm room.
an empty children's ward

My favorite part...playing with the children in the hospital :)
Finally some picture of the Swazi countryside

We had a really great trip and I so thankful I was able to go.

Jake also joined me at the end and we went on a fantastic vacation in South Africa, during which we took a zillion pictures...hopefully I will be able to sort through them and post some of them!

"Winter in Houston"

2010-12-23T21:23:00.004-06:00

some photos we have taken this month...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

NYC

2010-11-17T21:00:00.004-06:00

I finally was able to drag Jake to NYC for vacation last weekend.

We had a great time...walking around the city, catching up with friends & seeing the sights...

including walking the Brooklyn Bridge

Times Square
Radio City Rockefeller Plaza...where they were putting up the huge Christmas tree and ice skating Top of the Rock with our great friends, the Sokol's!

We also ate an abundance of good food at famous NYC sites

...we thank everyone for the suggestions!

After waiting in a much shorter line at the Brooklyn TKTS booth, thanks to a tip from our friends, we were able to see a couple great Broadway shows. We especially liked Promises, Promises with Kristen Chenoweth and Molly Shannon.
One night we also went to a pretty awesome Jazz Club and enjoyed the music and watching people dance...apparently Emma Stone was there...

And on Sunday along with enjoying the wonderful fall colors in Central Park, we were able to see Jake's very favorite man, Tim Keller....preach in the flesh!
All in all a really great trip!

In other exciting news, I have officially survived 5 weeks of Pediatric ICU!

Utah Part 2

2010-09-23T17:00:00.002-05:00

Later in the week, Jake was able to join me and we had more adventures.

We got to spend a day with Jake's parents and brother, before heading to Duchesne for my 10 year Class Reunion and to visit my dad.

We again headed to the lake and enjoyed some of my favorite activities...
We have yet to convince any of the additions to the family to try skiing...

but I got to ski with both of my siblings
and we even convinced my dad to ski, which I don't think he's even tried in years! Jake spent some time learning to drive the boat...in anticipation on my hope that we one day own one :)And it was the best time of the year for visiting Duchesne, as the Duchesne County Fair was underway...and we got to go the rodeo! A favorite activity of Jake's...he even dressed up for the event

Utah August 2010

2010-09-18T17:45:00.001-05:00

Recently I was able to spend some time at home in Utah visiting family.

It was an activity packed week and we did many fun things together.

We went hiking in Milcreek Canyon a couple times and saw lovely views of the city and nature

We went to the Hogle Zoo

We went to Lagoon where little Elli enjoyed all the rides

We went to the lake and enjoyed the water and the sand

and just in general enjoyed my super cute niece and getting to be together

San Antonio

2010-09-03T09:00:00.002-05:00

Any time I get both days of a weekend off, a "golden weekend," I always feel like we need to do something exciting and use it well...as they are so rare for me during residency. So this past weekend we had the opportunity to go to San Antonio with our friends Kyle & Beth.

in front of the Alamo
a really old tree within the Alamo
hanging out along the riverwalk
a pretty view of the riverwalk riding in a riverboat
eating at Mi Tierra
the pardilla for four we ordered for dinner the first night...which I think could have fed eight!
We stayed at a nice B&B type place right near the Riverwalk and spent much of our time wandering along the river, we also ate entirely too much, learned all kinds of crazy things about each other, and overall had a really great weekend!

A Project Completed...

2010-08-27T14:08:00.003-05:00

I finally completed my first blanket on my new machine--a Utes blanket for Jake. My sister came up with the idea and made my mom one a couple years ago, which Jake really liked. It took me multiple months, as I don't get to sew very often these days, but I was able to finish cutting the rag border last night and washed it today!

GO UTES!

Puerto Vallarta

2010-08-07T17:05:00.001-05:00

To celebrate the end of internship, we went to Mexico for a nice relaxing vacation. We chose an all-inclusive resort and did very little other than watch a lot of World Cup Soccer and lounge by the pool/ocean. We really enjoyed getting to slow down the pace of our lives and just be together and have time for each other.

Seeing as how we didn't really do anything, we have only a few pictures to share.

A view of the resort from our balcony.

The shoreline at dusk.

Jake lounging after dinner.
Us

Blogging

2010-08-02T21:37:00.008-05:00

Lately, we just haven't had the motivation for blogging...

For example, the gardening post I created in June...

I just didn't get around to posting it,

and so many things have changed in the garden since then...

such as the tomatoes mostly died after days of drenching rains...

but now my zucchini plant is really taking off.
Here is some of my garden's produce:

And sadly we still haven't posted about Machu Picchu :(
I think about doing so...but just haven't.

This should be a lighter month for me (though the craziness begins again for Jake), so maybe sometime soon I actually will.

The summer for us has been filled with soccer--with the World Cup, MLS All Star Game & the Dynamo games...Here are some recent pictures:

More Gardening

2010-08-02T20:00:00.000-05:00

the tomatoes continue to grow...they are nearly taller than the fence,

and we had to add a trellis for the more vine-like cherry tomato.

i also cut the basil way back prior to taking this picture,

and had enough to make a whole jar of pesto

the zucchini plant continues to grow underneath the large tomato plants

a baby pepper for jake

i have been enjoying lots of cherry tomatoes...

all by myself as my Italian husband doesn't like tomatoes!

too bad my mom isn't here to enjoy them with me,

as its still been so cold in utah her plants are still tiny

pretty succulents given to me by a friend
...and my favorite, my lilies have bloomed...
i just wish they would bloom all summer

No Longer 28

2010-06-09T22:23:00.006-05:00

The 100 days all in our household were 28 years old

(either in dog or human years) have sadly passed...

and now we are celebrating birthdays!

Happy Birthday!

to Battlecat

and to my Wonderful Jake!

3 Weeks and Counting...

2010-06-01T17:44:00.004-05:00

Today I began the last rotation of my intern year...

its hard to believe its almost over...

only 22 days and 5 more calls to go!

And then hopefully a nice relaxing vacation...

*****

And though next year will bring its own challenges,

among them the NICU (which I start on) and the PICU

it will also bring some things to look forward to,

most notably an away rotation in Swaziland, Africa

at a Baylor Pediatric AIDS Initiative Clinic!

SLC

2010-05-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

When we went home for Jake to run the half-marathon, we got to spend a quick weekend with the family, most notably our adorable niece... We went swimmingand swinging

and Easter egg hunting
and overall just enjoyed getting to be together!

Growth

2010-05-14T20:00:00.007-05:00

Its been quite the season of growth for both of us...its hard to believe that intern year is nearly over! Its also that season in Houston again...we'll see how the plants fair this year.This year I planted plenty of tomatoes of course, along with zucchini, peppers, basil & sage.
The current state of the garden...with baby tomatoes and pepper flowers.
I often forget how fast things grow...things seem to grow especially fast when you are away on vacation! My roses are in full bloom...and the lilies (my favorite) are starting to bud
In other exciting news (and this picture is especially for Jess)...

I finally succeeded in growing the famous Texas Bluebonnets :) And finally my cute puppy who likes to come out and garden with me.

Our New Car

2010-05-10T20:28:00.003-05:00

On the list of things we've been meaning to post...after all the issues we had with our jeep, we finally bought a new car, a 2010 Subaru Outback!

Long Overdue

2010-04-19T22:01:00.007-05:00

We are long overdue to blog...

We have several things we could blog about,

but have been too busy as of late...

even as I write this, the list of things I must accomplish tonight is long

however, to tide you over until we find some time,

here is a photo of Jake running near my mom's house

for the half-marathon in SLC this past weekend

He has now completed 2!

my mom has walked the half-marathon for 3 years now...

the original plan had been for me to run with jake,

but given that I have run not at all during this year of residency

i thought it unwise...but somehow my mom still convinced me to walk it with her

here are jake and i bright and early at the start lineand here we all are post-finish...yay!

(all cell phone pictures, so sorry for the poor quality)

Modern-Day Slavery

2010-02-09T20:50:00.012-06:00

Over the past 6 months, I have become increasingly aware of what an enormous problem slavery continues to be in our "modern and enlightened" age...including in the United States.

It is estimated that more than 27 million people in the world are enslaved today.

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear the founder of this organization, David Batstone, speak about the issue:

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

Mr. Batstone is a Christian, and he said many profound and powerful things that night, including:

-As followers of Christ, we are to be agents of change, redemption & justice in this world, just as Christ is and was in His ministry on earth.

-Why do we have the presumption that our gifts are for our own benefit & wealth?

-Your vocation should be to use your passion and skills to meet the needs of the world (which includes your own community)

*****

Houston is one of three major hubs for human trafficking here in the U.S., but the chances are high, that wherever you live, people are living as slaves: http://www.slaverymap.org/

A recent article in CNN about the issue and another organization that is working to combat it:

www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/08/cambodia.wus.child.sex.trafficking/

There is opportunity for all of us to take action on this horrific issue...starting with becoming aware of the issue. Even further by then letting that knowledge influence how we live, for example as consumers. One of the projects the Not For Sale Campaign is working on is: http://free2work.org/

In their own words, this website is "a strategic tool to bring justice to people in labor bondage and empower individuals to be conscious consumers." (They hope to eventually develop an app for all cell phones where you could scan the item's tag in the store, and get information on how the product was made, the policy of the company regarding child labor, etc.)

We should all be appalled by the reality of this issue...I hope we don't continue to pretend it doesn't exist or is worlds away. How will the knowledge of this reality impact you?

January's Exciting Events

2010-01-30T13:55:00.002-06:00

-jake completed a half-marathon...in under 2 hours no less

-erin circumcised 2 baby boys

(this is quite an accomplishment in a hospital with a predominately Hispanic population; I had zero opportunity for circumcisions my first month on newborn)

-we paid off our car

-we started paying back student loans

- jake preached: http://kaleohouston.com/mp3/Kingdom%20Demonstrations.mp3

-erin finally purchased a fancy new sewing machine, after looking and saving for 1 year +...and now that the material has also arrived, i hope to furiously sew jake a university of utah blanket in the next few days before i start a very busy rotation

-we were invited to sit courtside at a rockets game (for one quarter), and saw former Ute Andre Miller play up close

Hiking

2010-01-15T19:00:00.001-06:00

Another winter adventure from our trip to Utah...hiking in Milcreek canyon with my family...pictures from the summit of our hike...sadly it was not a good day for viewing the city

the lovely inversion that gets trapped by the mountains and blankets the city in the winter

Hanging with the Allen's

2010-01-13T21:25:00.000-06:00

What happens when there is a baby around...we apparently didn't take pictures of anyone but Elli at Christmas

This was among the first gifts she received with other clothes...but she decided she really like this outfit in particular and walked around with it for a long time. We finally had to hide it to get her to open anything else.

We finally got her to start opening other gifts...and as soon as she saw the picture of the baby on the box she became very excited.

Elli with her new baby

Hanging with the Umbriacos

2010-01-08T18:00:00.003-06:00

Getting to meet Andy
Jonathan & Christina

Amy & Joe

Joel & Amy

Jake learning to hold a baby
the children
and a very rare picture of Joe & Maureen together

Elli with Santa

2010-01-06T17:00:00.000-06:00

Another trip to Utah meant more time with the niece! We took her to meet Santa Clause. She didn't scream, but she really wasn't sure what to think :)

Christmas in Utah

2010-01-04T19:51:00.006-06:00

I was among the lucky few residents who got time off for Christmas AND we were able to go home to Utah to spend time with family! One of the highlights for me was that I finally convinced Jake to try skiing! So Jake took a lesson and Josh & I hit the slopes of Brighton.

Joshie & I riding a lift
Jake skiing
My mom came along to hang out and take pictures. The day was complete with a fist fight between a teenager and a man approximately in his 40s in the lodge.
The best part is that Jake said he would go again!

St. Louis

2009-12-21T17:00:00.004-06:00

To finish out my first week of vacation during internship, we headed to St. Louis to visit Jonathan & Christina, who have recently moved there to attend Covenant Theological Seminary. We of course went to see the St. Louis Arch...the Gateway to the West. We first visited the museum and then all crammed into a tiny claustrophobic elevator and went to the top to view all of St. Louis.
We then went to see Martin Luther and beautiful Concordia University...because they find it prettier than the one they actually attend...
In addition, we went shopping at the large Galleria, had dinner with some of Jake's cousins I had yet to meet, ate at Blueberry Hill and just did a lot of hanging around--which was very nice!

Jake's parents and Joel came to visit for Thanksgiving...and we had a nice time doing a lot of shopping. Well really them more then me as I was working...and not crazy getting up at ridiculous hours! Sadly it seems we didn't take any pictures.

Since then we have returned to the grind. Jake has just finished his first semester at Rice and is now taking finals and I have returned to the public hospital for several rotations--including newborn nursery and the wards, which I am enjoying very much! Sometime in there we also made a very very quick trip back to Utah for my friend Jessica's wedding. Though a quick trip, it was great to again get to see my niece and catch-up with many of our college friends and at the wedding I had the honor of watching Texas win a big game along with their truest fans the Tottenhams! In addition due to being on call, staying up way too late catching up with friends, and going right back to being on call...I caught a cold (likely RSV) from all my sick babies :( Thankfully I am now getting better....and I think we are now caught up.

Milcreek Canyon

2009-12-19T17:00:00.002-06:00

One of the joys of getting to go home is getting to hike...in the snow! And to top it all off there were still a few trees with beautiful fall colors still in the city

Elli's 1st Birthday

2009-12-18T17:00:00.003-06:00

Little Miss Elli turned 1 a couple weeks ago, and during my vacation, I was able to go to SLC and celebrate with her.
She enjoyed all the attention she received, but wasn't quite sure what to make of the cake...

Her very favorite present was a baby doll with a bottle Sydney gave her

She also got to hang out with the family

The baby doll remains a favorite...she likes to feed the baby, then burp the baby...as well as give her hugs and kisses

She also really likes to read, especially this nursery rhyme book
and ride her rocking Caterpillar
I can't believe how fast she's grown!

A Little Behind

2009-12-17T20:27:00.003-06:00

We've been busy and gotten a little behind in blogging...the happy news is we are working on some new posts...and maybe we will post them before Christmas :)

As you can see: it sucks as it cuts

2009-11-30T07:24:00.002-06:00

Dear Reader,

Sorry this blog has descended into the land of infrequent posting lameness.... we have tons of stuff to throw up here. It's not you, it's us... it's what we're going through right now. You've been great and we'd really like to still be friends. We just need a little time.

Theoretically - I have Friday off... if that materializes I resolve to post some lusciousness for your reading/viewing enjoyment.

Warmest Fuzzies,

-jake and erin

Soccer Balls

2009-10-25T20:41:00.002-05:00

We've had a brief respite in our crazy schedules...last weekend we both worked/went to school Saturday morning and had Sunday off...which gave us a whole day and a half to spend together! It was wonderful! We went to the Museum of Natural Science to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit, got to spend some time with our neighbor we miss so much who was in town visiting and go to the Dynamo game...

where for the first time since he joined the league David Beckham actually played in the Dynamo vs. Galaxy matchThen this weekend was Intern Retreat in the Woodlands...which meant all interns got to not work from Friday at 2pm to Sunday at 2pm! It did include some lectures and exciting team building activities...but also included significant others and free time at a nice resort and meant I got to miss part of my Friday call! (Unfortunately I left the camera in the car the whole time.) Now going back to work tomorrow will be hard.

However, now the count down to my scheduled vacation begins...only 16 days and 2 calls to go!

Working

2009-10-03T16:59:00.003-05:00

That's really all we have been doing...and it is keeping us quite busy. Jake is also very busy with school; but he likes it a lot, so that part is good.

I have survived my first call month! And now am on to the next...
I will be very glad when November comes and I get a break from working 30 hours straight every 4th day and spending the night in the hospital.

Otherwise, no new news from us...

Growth

2009-09-11T18:49:00.009-05:00

things i've been growing this year...

basil plant-which has produced much yummy pesto, zucchini plant, and a pepper plant; all in the new planter built by jake :)

first zucchini flowerscrazy yellow cherry tomato vine that looks dead...but keeps growing and growing and growing

roses

succulentsnow a monstrous zucchini plants that keeps falling over when it rains
baby red pepper baby zucchini
new fall tomato plants

The Last Golden Weekend

2009-08-30T21:36:00.017-05:00

This past weekend was my last golden weekend (meaning I was off both days of the weekend) for quite a while, so we thought we would take advantage of it and do something fun to enjoy it. So we packed up the dogs and took a short roadtrip to Corpus Christi to hang out on the beach. Jake and Battlecat driving...unlike Kelsey, BC is not a big fan of the car, she seems to get carsick and prefers to look out the front window when we're in the car
First we headed to Mustang Island where there was a lot of beach and not too many people...so we had lots of room for the dogs to run and play. They had a really great time!
Kelsey swimming- she is rather brave and will swim out to us...BC seems to want to, but is easily frightened by the waves, so mostly stands and watches and slowly creeps forward

Jake and the dogs being eaten by a shark. This was a rather popular store entrance it seemed. And note BC did not go inside it, she was quite frightened.
at the downtown beach

in front of the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay, a WWII era aircraft carrier

Finally us hanging at the beach, watching the dogs play.

And now the real work of residency begins...my first inpatient month and my first month with call--every 4th day overnight in the hospital with only 4 days off for the entire month; I hope I survive it!

As an update, swimming reaggravated Kelsey's limp...it had improved, though not completely, with the rest and medicines...and now we have to start all over again :( And we are now on day 27 of eyedrops for BC...but her eye is now healing.

Poor Dogs

2009-08-08T14:07:00.009-05:00

Our dogs have both been rather ill lately...its sad and costly. Battlecat, who tends to be our more illness prone dog, suffers from allergies each Spring (if there is such a season here in Houston) & Summer, which this year have been particularly bad, requiring her to take Benadryl twice a day since the end of April. In addition, she has already had two severe allergy flare-ups which have required her to do a steroid taper and antibiotic eye ointment.

Kelsey, who has previously been perfectly healthy has also been experiencing some health issues. In early June she got an outer ear infection, and for about the past 6 weeks has been walking with a limp. The limp seems to bother her only occasionally--usually she still wants to run and jump and play--but it looks very sad. Initial evaluation from the vet was that it was probably some soft tissue strain and she needed to rest--which how you make a 3yo dog who loves to run, jump and play with her sister rest is rather tricky. When it didn't get better after many weeks, the vet said we needed to evaluate it further to make sure it wasn't something more serious with xrays. So Kelsey had xrays this week...which showed nothing serious in the bone or joints...so still probably soft tissue strain/sprain. Now she is supposed to really be resting (NO jumping, running or playing...pretty much only laying down with short walks to go to the bathroom), while taking a dog anti-inflammatory/pain reliever (like ibuprofen for humans). How we will accomplish this I'm not sure...the vet's recommendation was to keep the dogs separated and Kelsey pretty much constantly in her crate (which she has not been in at all now for more than a year). On top of this, her ear infection has returned.

And now, here is a recent picture of Battlecat, not wanting to open her right eye...so newly diagnosed on Thursday...Battlecat has a Corneal Ulcer (sore in the clear outer covering of eye...exquisitely painful in humans) from all her constant allergy-related eye scratching...AND she continues to scratch...she pretty much directs her dewclaw directly into her eye. I have been trying to keep a sock on her paw, we'll see if it works. Next we are going to an Elizabeth collar...which is sure to make her very pleasant.

Here is the current dog medicine regimen at our house:

Morning: Battlecat- 2 benadryl tabs, 1 pain pill, 1 eye drop; Kelsey- 1 pain pill, ear ointment

Afternoon: Battlecat- 1 eye drop

Evening: Battlecat- 2 benadryl tabs, 1 pain pill; Kelsey- 1 pain pill

Night: Battlecat- 1 eye drop; Kelsey- ear ointment

In short my dogs have become very high-maintenance! Hopefully they both feel better soon!

More Pictures of My Niece

2009-08-01T12:20:00.008-05:00

because she is super cute...and getting so big. She really enjoys reading books, dogs, and recently enjoyed her first boat ride

Alaska: Glaciers

2009-07-16T20:15:00.003-05:00

Finally, photos from our Alaskan cruise with my mom and grandma in May.

Alaska is very beautiful...I especially loved the combination of huge mountains right on the water. One of our favorite parts of our trip to Alaska was seeing a few active glaciers. Our cruise ship journeyed up Endicott Arm Fjord one day for an up close view of a glacier. We even got to see it "calve"--watch/hear a piece of it break off and fall into the ocean.

Entering the Arm

Beautiful glacial carved U-shaped valleys

Waterfalls and lots of floating ice...which seals use to sun bathe

Approaching Dawes Glacier

Close-up view of the edge of the glacier

The family in front of the glacier.

We also were able to visit Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau

Sea Lions & Whales

2009-07-16T20:10:00.001-05:00

Another favorite part of our trip was getting see some wildlife...we saw mostly seals, sea lions and humpback whales...including a calf and its mother. We saw these both from the cruise ship and we did a Whale-watching excursion in Juneau. Sadly, we didn't get to see any bears or Orcas. Here are a few of our best photos.

On the Ship

2009-07-16T20:05:00.002-05:00

A few pictures of how we spent our time on the ship

*Eating- the food wasn't as good as I expected from what other cruisers had said, maybe mostly because I am scared of buffets...which was probably a good thing; but we did have some nice dinner meals.a poor photo which shows the great table with a view we had for dinner, so we could continue whale-watching and observing the beautiful scenerya few pictures from one of the formal dinner nights

*Exercising- we walked around the track on the top deck and visited the gym a few times (Jake & my mom more than I)

*Playing cards *Whale watching...

*Jake & I also spent a lot of time re-reading Harry Potter 6 (and then 7) in preparation for the new movie :)

Ports of Call

2009-07-16T20:00:00.005-05:00

Here are a few photos of the ports we visited along the way

*Icy Strait Point- near Hoonah, AK , a Tlingit village

*SkagwayWe were able to ride the Whitepass & Yukon Route Railway, which is a rather steep climb and has interesting gold rush history. Below a view looking back at the port and cruise ships from the train *Haines- on the recommendation of one of my friends who used to live there, we took the ferry from Skagway to check out Haines. It was also a very beautiful little port town with lots of dogs and friendly people....and home to a huge Bald Eagle Preserve.

AND there was a beach...and the weather was beautiful and there were lots of kids out playing in the water...a site we never considered we would see in Alaska!
*Juneau- our final port was Juneau, where unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore the city, but we were able to go on a whale-watching tour, which also included a trip to Medenhall Glacier and a yummy Salmon lunch at Orca Point Lodge.

Ciao Babe

2009-07-13T20:26:00.011-05:00

This weekend I flew to Denver to help the Duncan's and Jenkins' move to Louisville for Seminary (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). Corey asked me if I was up for a road trip months ago and as a special bonus - Amie and Jared decided to move at the same time. I was greeted at the Denver Airport by two 26 ft moving vans each towing a vehicle, and the Jenkins truck towing a boat.

This was a pretty special trip for me. It was very cool to be able to spend so much time with people who've meant so much to me in my spiritual growth. To be able to be with them on their way to seminary was a beautiful thing. I found out about Salt Company (the campus ministry at the Univ of Utah through which I came to faith in Christ) through Amie. Our first year at school she was roommates with a friend of mine from high school. I got to know Jared through Salt Company and became good friends when he and Amie moved back to SLC. Jared and Amie took over leadership of the Salt Company after Erin and I moved in 2005 and I was so encouraged knowing that they were there. I knew Corey from Salt Co also... but we fell in hetero-love when we went to Italy together in the Summer of 2002. Corey and I spent the summer working with refugees... we shared a small one bedroom apt with another guy and that combination of stench and closeness has a way of bonding people.

Kansas is not interesting in the least in terms of scenery. The coolest thing about it was the signs. This one is for the 2nd friendliest yarn store in the universe... bold claim. We also saw signs for a live 5-legged steer, and the world's largest prairie dog.

Corey is demonstrating safe-driving techniques and flawless concentration.

After unloading Corey's moving van - we all went to visit a purveyor of food and beverage in their fare city. Here's a picture of Amie and Jared. (Happy 7th Anniversary!)

And here's one of Corey and I.
Here's a picture of the new Duncan abode. I'm not sure if Jenni will be mad at me for posting a picture of her house before she's even arrived in Louisville.... but I think we both now that it will be 2012 before the Duncan's update their blog again... so I feel safe in doing this.

Anyway - we had a blast on our roadie... we ate a lot of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies thanks to Jenni (who outsourced this task to the Wolff twins... thanks ladies). We got to hit up some authentic KC BBQ, and the four of us got to share a room at a Motel 6 complete with sketchy dudes hanging outside the hotel late at night, roaches, and what looked like blood in the bathtub and toilet seat. Road trips are awesome.

Good luck in Seminary Duncan's and Jenkins'! We're proud of you.

I'm on a boat.

2009-07-08T20:28:00.002-05:00

Erin and I went on an Alaskan Cruise the week after her graduation. Erin likes to go through all of our pictures and select the ones she likes the best... this picture wouldn't make the cut. But she's at a mtg tonight... so at least for a couple of hours I give you this:

Summer Flowers

2009-07-06T22:58:00.005-05:00

a random little post of pictures of some of my pretty flowers...it seems I haven't taken any pictures of my roses or garden this year...but my favorite flowers are lilies...and I have been taking pictures of them

this lily has been especially surprising this year, it was a birthday gift...and strangely the first 2 years I had it it bloomed solid yellow...and then...this year it decided to bloom the color it was supposed to be, a very beautiful purple

p.s. for those that have been asking, thus far I am surviving and enjoying internship! it does help though that I have started on an easy rotation without call :)

Graduation

2009-06-27T15:01:00.008-05:00

in front of Jones Hall after graduation

My actual big moment for those of you who could not be there

My with Mom, Grandma & SiblingsWith Jake's Family

With my Dad and his parents

Another Chapter Begins

2009-06-23T19:19:00.006-05:00

Around graduation and the weeks since, people keep saying to me..."You're a doctor...how does it feel?" In truth it has all been rather surreal...especially considering that I haven't actually been working for months, but rather playing :) But interestingly, the thing that made it seem real to me was when I went to buy new long white coats.

Tomorrow my residency officially begins...I will go to clinic in the morning...and I will be a doctor. Though I officially became a doctor a few weeks ago, tomorrow it will be real.

I will introduce myself as the doctor, I will write orders or prescriptions...and no co-signature is necessary, mine is it!

Naturally I am very nervous, but this is it...I am a doctor.

London

2009-06-21T00:00:00.010-05:00

We took it pretty easy while in London and did lots of relaxing...we definitely didn't get to all the great things there are to do in London, but here are the highlights of what we did do:

We rode the London Eye and saw great views of the city. We then visited Parliament and heard Big Ben (we did NOT however see Big Ben...as Big Ben is the actual bell, not the bell tower), saw Westminster Abbey, and walked along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square...stopping in at a pub to enjoy some fish & chips...which we ate a lot of...because British food is rather blah in my opinion...

We visited the British Museum and saw impressive relics from Egypt, Assyria & Greece, including the Rosetta Stone & the Elgin Marbles (taken from the Parthenon). And where Jake apparently took many many pictures of me reading the tour book guide to the museum exhibit...

We visited the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels and an exhibit about King Henry VIII & the Tower Bridge, followed by a river cruise along the Thames....on which we saw the not at all impressive London bridge.

We went to the theater and saw a play with excellent reviews, which it turns out was a very vivid portrayal of the sexual awakening of adolescents. After which we discovered that Brits apparently don't eat late at night...they only drink--the bars of all the pubs and restaurants remained open...but the kitchens were all closed.On our last day we went to Buckingham Palace for the famous changing of the guard...but alas the guard decided to change that day without all the fanfare...much to the disappointment of the kazillion people crowding the gate to see it. And finally much to Jake's pleasure we did lots and lots of shopping!

Grand Canyon

2009-06-17T16:23:00.009-05:00

It's been a while I know...but we have been busy...and traveling a lot (Grand Canyon, London, and an Alaskan cruise) to take advantage of the last much easier months of med school before the super craziness of residency begins. Updating the blog has been on our list of things to catch-up on...but at this point, seeing as how I have already started orientation for residency and officially begin working next week...I'm not sure if we will be able to completely catch-up on all our fun adventures and life events...but I will at least make an attempt, starting with our first trip--which was to the Grand Canyon with Jenny & Richie.

We actually backpacked down into the canyon to the Colorado River, camped, and then hiked back out the next day...a round trip hike of 17 miles! After finishing we all felt very accomplished...and very sore! But are very glad we did it, and that we did it while we are young. We all agreed to very seriously consider the mule trips should we return in the future :) We then spent a short amount of time on top at the South Rim and in Las Vegas before having to head home.

Jake & Richie hiking down into the canyon on the South Kaibab TrailTaking a break along the trail

Jake & I along the Colorado River as we began hiking day #2

Richie & Jenny and the halfway point of the Bright Angel Trail on hiking day #2...4.5 more miles to the top

On our hike out, another hiker volunteered to take a picture of us; another man walking by said very seriously you may want to take one more step closer to the edge...and then he started laughing...but we almost did...and all that night I had nightmares about how we fell over the edge

Jenny & I just as we finished the hike at the Bright Angel TrailheadOne view of the Grand Canyon's vastness
Richie falling over the edge while Jake looks on :)

All of us overlooking the South Rim

Memorial Day at Surfside Beach with the Family

2009-05-25T18:08:00.001-05:00

Congrats to My Mom

2009-05-08T13:37:00.008-05:00

My mom graduated yesterday with her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree...Congrats to her for this great accomplishment!

And look at my beautiful niece...she is getting so big...and she LOVES her daddy!

Jake & His Friends

2009-04-26T21:43:00.003-05:00

We gathered today to say goodbye to one of my classmates/our friends with other friends from church as they prepare to move to Pennsylvania/Delaware for Residency. As we were celebrating their move for Residency, the party was medically themed and we all dressed up in scrubs...Clint & Jake borrowed some of mine...Jake wore Christmas Cookie Monster & Clint wore lovely pink flowers...I think pink is a good color for him :)

Spring

2009-04-20T21:30:00.005-05:00

We have had an uncharacteristically Spring-like Spring season here in Houston...with very nice weather...but its all too quickly coming to an end. This year I convinced Jake to build a planter for me to plant zucchini in; I also received an Earth Box for my birthday, which is supposed to grow fabulous tomatoes.

Then when my mom was here I convinced her to help me plant everything :) We planted tomatoes, green peppers, basil & zucchini...and now the zucchini has sprouted, so hopefully it will grow well in its new planter.

And a few pictures of the dogs looking at me quizzically as I talk to them from behind the camera

NASA x2

2009-04-12T17:47:00.008-05:00

This week I had the opportunity to go to NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) twice. On Wednesday I went as a chaperone on an exclusive tour with Baylor's Saturday Morning Science program--a program Baylor sponsors each spring for middle & high school students from the lower income Houston schools--to encourage their interest in science. We listened to talks about what projects are currently underway at JSC and were able to meet a few astronauts and get up close tours of an area where the astronauts train and the different Mission Control areas. It was very interesting, especially getting to see it all up-close. Then my mom came into town for the weekend and had never been...so we went on the traditional NASA JSC tours.

Full-size Shuttle Mock-up on the training floor.
An Astronaut showing us the inside of a shuttle mock-up & the TINY living area where 7 astronauts live for 2 weeks on shuttle missions. Behind him are the sleeping hammocks where they strap themselves into sleep.The shuttle toilet...apparently both men & women stand to urinate in space...and each are assigned a personal funnel.
My mom in front of a plaque for the Apollo Mission Control Center.
As part of the exclusive tour we were able to go into the Historic Apollo Mission Control Center...from where all the Apollo Missions to the moon were controlled. Here I am sitting at the desk Apollo 11 & 13 (as well as many others) Flight Director Gene Kranz sat at during those missions.

My mom in front of the Orion at the JSC Visitor's Center- the next spacecraft that will take man back to the moon
The Orion Mock-up on the astronaut training floor

International Space Station (ISS) Mission control--with live pictures of ISS on the screens.

with former NASA astronaut General Charles Bolden...who incidentally will also be the speaker at my graduation in May.

Match Day

2009-03-19T14:33:00.008-05:00

It's finally official...I matched...I will be doing residency in

Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital!

Here are a few pictures of the festivities:

Tearing the paper off the board to reveal The Match results at 11am

Everyone searching for the envelope that holds their future...
Lori & I with our Match Results.

She is headed to Baylor in Dallas for Pathology...just as she wanted :)

Jake & I with my Match The Matthews' Family with their 1st choice Match in Emergency Medicine in Delaware
With Luke & John- 2 of my classmates with Utah connections (both BYU grads...boo!), and nearly the only 2 Mormons I know in Texas,

a very strange thought, being from Utah...

(and now they are both leaving)

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

2009-03-17T22:39:00.003-05:00

Erin and I have just returned from our first ever trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
The HLSR happens for a month every year - it's time for big hair and big belt-buckles....
Whenever the rodeo is in town, the population density of trucks increases exponentially.

We're not what you might call: 'Rodeo Folk.' There's a reason we've been here for almost four years and never attended - in spite of our curiosity. This year however, fortune smiled upon us and we got some free tickets from my work - so we went with a couple of work friends (Sarah and Kellen). In the evening there's your standard rodeo entertainment which consists of all manner of quadriped being ridden by all manner of human with various ropes and spurs thrown in for good measure.

The bull-riding, bronco-riding really freaks me out. I'm 'risk-averse.' There's a fine line between being manly and insanity... for me a bull trying to trample/gore you is on the wrong side of that line. There was this amazing chariot sort of race... a chuck wagon hitched to four horses taking on 2 other similar rigs. The winning chuck wagon finished with only three wheels and while I'm not an aficionado of the chuck wagon/rodeo circuit - I must say that it seemed like quite a feat.

By far the sweetest thing we saw was: Muttin' Bustin'. The concept is genius (potential social service/child labor issues aside). Here's what you do - grab a sheep, put it in a pen, strap a 4-5yr old kid to it's back... and open the hatch. The sheep comes shooting out and the kid is just holding on for dear life. They're not sitting upright on these things mind you... they're clinging bear hug style. Phenomenal. Our children will train on Battlecat and Kelsey until they are old enough to bust their own muttins. The little 5 yr old girl who won was hanging on the side of the sheep for the better part of the length of the stadium. She was interviewed afterwards and asked what she thought about winning to which she replied: I feel Happy.

After watching interviews with the professional rodeo folk - this gal was the most gifted orator of the bunch.

The calf scramble was also something of a spectacle. 28 high school FFA kids, 14 calfs... I guess they were suppose to subdue the calf using various wrestling (wrastlin' in rodeo vernacular) maneuvers and then tie it's head up somehow and drag it into a squared off area where adults would further tame the beast. Winner gets a gift certificate for a calf (who knew?) that they can raise for a year and show at next year's event.

The evening was capped by a performance from every one's favorite Aussie singing sensation: Keith Urban. I'm going to go ahead and admit that I am completely ignorant to all things country (western?). The only thing I knew about this dude was that he is married to Nicole Kidman who was apparently in the house (I'd like to think she'd heard tale of the muttin' bustin'). Anyway Mr. Urban did his thang from a rotating stage. Kellen commented that Urban looked like one of the guys from the Goo Goo Dolls... and one of the backup guitar players looked like the other guy from the Goo Goo Dolls so we may have uncovered a conspiracy.

At the beginning of the show Urban kept asking for the crowd to sing along... and there was silence. It was funny awkward - which is the best kind of funny in that setting. Later he pranced around the stadium switching between guitar and vocals flanked by 17 stage-hands and one dude who for some reason was running around with his mic stand.....I mean... he had a wireless mic... is that necessary? Perhaps Keith has a history of elbow/wrist related injuries... I don't know. Anyway we left during a song that had the lyrics: You can take your cat, just don't take my sweater... or something to that effect. I know I'll be considering the impact of those words for some time.

So the Rodeo.... good times. Looking forward to getting more into muttin' bustin'.

Happy Birthday

2009-02-26T19:15:00.003-06:00

Kelsey is 3 years old today!

Just in Case You Didn't Know

2009-02-17T21:16:00.002-06:00

This month I am back to sitting in the classroom all day, 5 days/week, which after 2 years of not being in the classroom, is very hard to do, even if the material is interesting. I am taking an elective called "Intensive Course in Tropical Medicine" towards completion of the international health track here at Baylor...and have been learning more about all kinds of diseases we rarely see in the US (though we do see some of them here in Houston, where we take care of a large immigrant population) & looking at stool samples under the microscope for parasites! Nematodes, Cestodes, Flukes, Spirochetes, Rickettsia...Fun, huh?
At least its my 2nd to last rotation of medical school!

On a mostly unrelated note, we were at a friend's birthday party the other night...and several of our friends like to ask me medical-related questions, so I was answering some question which somehow lead to a discussion of how locating the urethra in women can sometimes be difficult...which lead to me providing 2 examples in which this is especially true...one of which was a story my friend Jenni recently shared with me...which I won't share here, to spare the faint-of-heart readers of this blog the details...to which one of the boys responded, "What? Girls don't have prostates?" Much to my amusement :)
Then a later that evening, all this was being relayed again to another guy who also seriously responded, "What? Girls don't have prostates?"
So just in case you didn't know...Girls don't have prostates.

Our 5th Anniversary

2009-02-17T16:22:00.012-06:00

Jake and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary recently! We were able to go to Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, spend some time exploring 2 Texas State Parks/Natural Areas--Pedernales Falls & Enchanted Rock--and stay at a beautiful B&B: http://www.absolutecharm.com/2Sstrs_ShnnnsSteMain.html

Below are some pictures:

Pedernales Falls--which as Jake so kindly pointed out in his sermon, though pretty, it cannot begin to compare to the falls of Iguazu :)

Enchanted Rock- a huge pink granite dome

And of course we took time out to watch our Utes dominate in the Sugar Bowl!

In other happy news, I passed Step 2 CK!

Playing in the Snow

2009-02-03T19:41:00.008-06:00

We had beautiful weather and a lot of fun playing in the snow

Snowshoeing in Mill Creek Canyon on the Pipeline trailMy mom's dogs Alli (& Aspen) love to play in the snow with us

Cross-Country Skiing

My mom, Aunt Marian & I

Jake crashing down a hill
Me crashing down a hill

Hanging with Family & Friends

2009-02-03T19:33:00.008-06:00

We went home to SLC this past weekend to meet our 3 month old niece, Elliana...and we also got to hang out with many of our family & friends...

Jake with baby Elin Duncan
Jake & his dad showing their Ute pride Our niece EllianaElli with her mommyElli with her daddyElli with my dad
Joe, Joel & AmbrosiaAnd while we were there my sister Jenny bought a pretty new car

Live from the SLC

2009-01-30T15:19:00.003-06:00

Erin and I are in Salt Lake for the weekend to meet our niece, Elliana and hang out with the family.

Our church website got it's groove back... at least a partial groove... like a white guy's groove (a la the dude in the Bosstones videos....anyone?).

So for anyone who's interested in such things - I had the opportunity to preach a couple of Psalms the past two weeks at church - and the audio can be found here:
http://kaleohouston.com/podcast/

I spoke on Psalm 3 and Psalm 8 - Psalm 3 focuses on deliverance, and Psalm 8 is a song of praise to God that centers around the question: What is man?

Erin and I went snowshoeing yesterday and cross-country skiiing today! We're headed down to Layton tonight and I am really excited to hit Burger Stop for a caramel snickers shake.

Greetings Readers

2009-01-19T21:35:00.005-06:00

Hello friends,

It's been awhile. Erin and I have been out of town a lot - and now that we're back we've been updating our budget... which is depressing. But on to better things: Erin and I went to Fredericksburg, TX for our 5th year anniversary. Upon entering Fredericksburg, TX city limits, I was pulled over by a bike cop... not that type of bike... I mean a bicycle cop. Apparently U-Turns are taboo in Fredericksburg... FYI. We went to Enchanted Rock and Pedernales Falls State Parks - we bummed around the town of Fredericksburg, and we watched our Utes destroy Alabama in the Sugar Bowl (on TV)!!!!!!!!!!

In more recent news - I preached last Sunday on Psalm 3 and am preaching this Sunday on Psalm 8. I'm told that the message last Sunday was recorded successfully - but our church's server is down... whenever that situation gets remedied I'll post a link to the message.

This Sunday I'm being presented to our church as a pastoral candidate. The church will have two weeks to raise any issues with my candidacy and then I'll officially be a pastor of Kaleo Church!

Also today we got a new vacuum - A Dyscon DC17 Animal. I don't know what's wrong with me - I think I'm going through male-o-pause - it's an after-effect of prolonged exposure to craft stores. Similar to being a 'nevernude' male-o-pause is not yet recognized formally by any medical body - but nonetheless effects thousands of men. I share my story for all of you who were too ashamed to openly admit your affliction. Solidarity - my feminized brethren! Because we stayed here for Christmas - we were the grateful recipients of a lot of Christmas cash and have been pondering what to do with it. For reasons unbeknownst to me - I've been overcome with the desire to get a device that can actually clean our rugs and couches - freeing them from the fur-laden bondage of Kelsey's white coat. I've wanted a new home-theatre system for a long-long time. When our DVD tray opens... it just closes again -quite randomly. I'd say it functions properly one out of every seventeen times... I want one with wireless speakers and Blu-Ray.... home theatre systems are cool - it's cool for a guy to want one right? Somehow - I couldn't shake the desire for clean floors. I've been reading reviews of these things, trying them out in stores, and trying to convince Erin that we desperately need one.

Our friends Kyle and Jamie got a Dyson and love it... they gave us a hot tip: your 20% coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond will work on one of these beauties. That only fueled my quest. I was reading some reviews on Amazon.com and someone commented that Bed, Bath, and Beyond will honor the 20% coupon after price-matching so for weeks I've been scouring the internet for a deal on a Dyson. Yesterday - a light shined on my home cleaning darkness... Sears is having a 3-day sale... $90 off Dysons. Today I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond... they price-matched our vacuum - and took 20% off the discounted price! Plus I had a $50 gift card I got from work! (Sometimes at work we get gift card credits and can use them on all sorts of stores... I willfully chose Bed, Bath, and Beyond over REI, Adidas, and Borders.... this affliction is really messing with me). We got a sweet deal and I came home and vacuumed immediately. This is the first time since we got our rug downstairs that I can see the rug - it's usually caked in dog hair even after several attempts with our old vacuum. Even my toes noticed a difference walking on the rug - it feels like new!

In between trying out our new vacuum and walking the dogs I cooked dinner for Erin. Man - I'm domestic.... I wonder if my chest is going bald?

Well.... Erin and I need to turn in early tonight. She's taking her Step 2 (Medical Board) exam on Friday and has been studying like crazy.

If anyone is interested in starting a male-o-pause support group - feel free to leave a comment. Maybe we could get together and do something manly... or at least talk about manly things in between unloading the dishwasher and trying out new recipes.

-jake

Happy Holidays

2009-01-04T21:26:00.007-06:00

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all our friends and family!

Due to all our recent travel, we stayed in the very balmy Houston for the holidays this year. It was very different to be away from our families, but we got a tree this year and we enjoyed being together. We made lots of sugar cookies and yummy enchiladas.

The dogs enjoyed Christmas as well....Kelsey picked up her whole stocking and carried it around, they played with new toys and enjoyed candy cane bones.We hope you all had a great holiday season and look forward to a wonderful new year!

Buenos Aires

2009-01-04T20:20:00.007-06:00

The last stop on our Argentina trip in pictures...

Obelisco on Avenue 9 de Julio 'the widest street in the world'
Jake & I in front of the Casa Rosada (government house) in Plaza de Mayo

The colorful neighborhood of La Boca
a music performance in the streets of San Telmo...with accordions (for Joe)

Street "art" in the San Telmo neighborhood in Puerto Madero after a yummy steak dinner
Recoleta Cemetery
Enjoying a cold one in Palermo
Enjoying a Tango show at the famous Cafe Tortini

Building Stencil Art for Joel

Iguazu National Park

2008-12-26T16:33:00.013-06:00

After our time in Salta, Jake was able to come down to Argentina for a few days to experience some of the beautiful country with me. After a 20+ hour bus ride for Lori & I and 12 hours of flying for Jake...we met in northeastern Argentina. We were able to spend a day seeing the beautiful cataratas (waterfalls) of Iguazu which split the border of Argentina and Brazil and stretch for more than 2km. Another awe-inspiring part of creation...

Quebrada de Humahuaca

2008-12-19T22:02:00.012-06:00

Another beautiful place north of Salta that we were lucky enough to get to visit, thanks to Dr. Diaz...who took Wednesday off to drive Lori and I there with two of the residents.

Described in the guide book as "a harsh but vivid landscape, a dry but river-soured canyon overlooked by mountainsides whose sedimentary strata have been eroded into spectacular scalloped formations that reveal a spectrum of colors in undulating waves."

Entry into the Quebrada At the crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn

Monumento a la Independencia in the village of HumahuacaView of Humahuaca from the top of the monument

Iglesia de la Candelaria in Humahuaca

Lori, Cecelia & I next to a giant cactus in Humahuaca

More beautiful rocks & colors

We had a really great time getting to see more of beautiful Argentina. It is again a place my husband would love; the colors were amazing and again the pictures do not do it justice, (especially as most were taken from a speeding car).

Argentina Week #4

2008-12-10T20:52:00.009-06:00

Not much to report this week, in terms of work. Monday was a holiday in Argentina and we left Thursday afternoon. And Dr. Diaz decided that we really needed to see Quebrada de Humahuaca before leaving Salta and very kindly decided to take us there on Wednesday. So essentially we really only worked on Tuesday, where we were in the consultory at Savia, and then we went to see the newer public hospital (pictured below)....which was a vast improvement over the old children's hospital we had seen before...and closer to being on par with Ben Taub.

We finally also did one other must before leaving Argentina this week...we tried Mate! Mate is a very strong green tea, made of yerba mate, which traditionally is sipped communally from a hollow gourd with a filtering straw (a bombilla). It is usually made with hot water, in some regions they add sugar , and in some regions cold water is used and lime juice is added. It is the national drink of Argentina, (as well as Paraguay & Uruguay...and is also common in Bolivia, Chile and southern Brazil) and nearly literally everyone drinks it. At the Family Medicine meetings each week they would share mate...and when Dr. Diaz and her family took me to Cafayate, they also drank it on the way. Lori, being a tea drinker, really liked it; it was quite strong for me. But we both brought it some home, so let us know if you want to try it.

This ends our Salta adventure. Look for pictures of Quebrada de Humahuaca and our adventures with Jake in Iguazu & Buenos Aires soon...

Argentina Week #3

2008-12-08T14:49:00.009-06:00

This week we were again at Savia, the private clinic where Dr. Diaz works. We spent our time in the consultory, in English and Resident classes, and studying Spanish. Unfortunately, Lori was sick with a cold for a good part of the week :(

Lori and I giving one of the several presentations they had us give about our families, where we are from, etc. This presentation also included the structure of our school system and similarities/differences we had observed between their medical system and ours.

Seeing more Salta sights...

Dinner at a traditional restaurant with traditional Argentinian food-including empanadas, humitas & parrilla (grilled meats)...and traditional Folklorica music and dancing.

Dinner on the Plaza with the residents.

"La Caminata"

2008-12-06T20:46:00.007-06:00

One Saturday morning, we participated in Savia's "Caminata" or Walking Activity they hold to encourage and teach their patients to exercise. We walked about 30 minutes from the clinic to a park, where they had a guy lead the group in some stretches and aerobic activities for about an hour, then we walked back to the clinic. They had about 50 patients show up, which was pretty impressive.

Lori & I with 3 of the residents: Gladys, Emilse, and Cecilia

Quebrada de Cafayate

2008-12-06T11:54:00.012-06:00

Last Sunday Dr. Diaz and her family very kindly took me to see some of the beautiful country around Salta. Sadly Lori was unable to go as she was sick. We went to Cafayate, Argentina's second center for wine production. The road there from Salta goes through the spectacular Quebrada de Cafayate with beautiful colors and rock formations. It reminded me a bit of home...Utah. It is very sad that my rock-loving geologist husband couldn't be there with me...but I took A TON of pictures for him, and hopefully one day we will return, as there are many areas like this around Salta.

Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat)
inside Garganta del Diablo with Dr. Diaz and her family

Anfiteatro (Amphitheatre)

there were local musicians playing in the back of here and the acoustics were wonderful

El Sapo (The Toad)

Cafayate's Cathedral

A Local Bodega (Winery)- that of course offers tastings, which were very tasty indeedEspecially for Jake, Paul & Kevin E.- there also happened to be a llama near the vineyards, which Dr. Diaz's daughter was very excited about
The Vineyards, as it began to rain

Large Cacti

More of the Quebrada

Unfortunately, I don't think most of the pictures do God's amazing creations justice. Northern Argentina is beautiful...you should all come and see if for yourselves!

Argentina Week #2

2008-11-29T13:33:00.015-06:00

I had a great second week in Salta. We were able to spend time at two different public health clinics in two poor communities on the outskirts of Salta, where we saw many more pediatric patients and participated in public health efforts, including vaccination campaigns, home visits, and a class on preparing for labor & delivery...all things I am interested in and enjoy.

I don't think Lori was as excited about these days as I was however...

Public Clinic #1: where we went with Dra. Oliva, she spends most of her time working in public clinics, but also works 1 day at Savia

A poster in the clinic encouraging breastfeeding, it essentially says: "Want to give your child what is best? Breastfeeding is all that is necessary until 6 months."

Breastfeeding is extremely important for nutrition in these poor communities, and is much more natural and open here--as it is in most countries--than it is in the US.

(There was also a much more graphic one showing a mom breastfeeding right after birth, but I knew some of the blog readers wouldn't appreciate it as I did)

After clinic, we went door to door in the community with Dra. Oliva and one of the nurses looking for men between the ages of 16-39 who hadn't yet received the Rubeola Vaccine (last year's campaign was for the women these ages). We vaccinated people at their homes, walking down the street, in their place of work...including at the butcher shop. It was hot, but a really great experience (and a little scary because of how they handle their sharps...they recapped them and put them with the rest of the trash in a plastic sack)!

Lori putting alcohol on a piece of cotton to clean the arm Me giving a vaccine

Each Wednesday morning, we attend English class with the residents...Andres, the boyfriend of one of the resident's, who is a vet, is the teacher.

Public Clinic #2: at this clinic we didn't actually spend any time in the clinic, but spent two days going out with the community health workers on home visits. We checked on people who were ill, pregnant women, and kids who were underweight and nutritionally malnourished, and we gave rubeola, yellow fever, and tetanus vaccinations.

The community health workers carried backpacks with a cooler for vaccines and all the supplies to prep the vaccines, things to measure height & weight, oral rehydration salts, packages of vegetable seeds to give to families, and huge binders as they were extremely meticulous in their documentation (and much safer with their sharps--they had small sharps containers). In their work room at the clinic they had these elaborate display boards of how many women in the community were pregnant, which nutritional category the children were in, who had TB and which stage it was in, etc. and a large village map, all colorfully divided up by which healthcare worker was responsible for which parts. This was also a really interesting and great experience.

Two of the community health workers with their backpack and scale deviceWeighing a little girlMe giving another vaccinationHomes in the community

Below are more posts about the more touristy things we have been doing in our spare time...

Central Plaza & Its Attractions

2008-11-29T13:32:00.008-06:00

The Central Plaza, Plaza 9 de Julio (Argentina's Independence Day): the Cathedral, several museums, a theater, and many restaurants form the square around this plaza. Conviently our apartment is just 1.5 blocks away. There are always lots of people and dogs hanging out in the plaza, so its a nice place to be.

Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana (MAAM)- museum about Inca culture and the Andes mountains; displaying the mummified bodies Incan child sacrifices found in the nearby mountains.Salta's Pink Catedral and altar

The Plaza's Christmas tree
Lori & I enjoying dinner on the plazaIglesia San Francisco- another nearby landmark church We joined the residents for an evening out in happening night area of town...this street was packed with tons of people...the evening didn't begin until midnight, and when Lori & I left at 2am the dancing part of the evening had yet to begin...This is one of the residents and her boyfriend with Lori

Quebrada de San Lorenzo

2008-11-29T12:26:00.007-06:00

a cloud forest reserve near Salta in San Lorenzo...with hiking trails and bird-watching

with our host, Dra. Nora Diaz

Changing of Guard

2008-11-28T21:08:00.014-06:00

at Cabildo de la Ciudad in the Central Plaza

Honduras

2008-11-22T20:43:00.027-06:00

I had the opportunity to go on the fall Baylor Shoulder to Shoulder trip to Santa Ana, Honduras October 25th - November 6th for another international medical rotation with several of my classmates. The Baylor Family Medicine Department takes faculty and students to the village two times each year and is working in conjunction with the community and Dr. Carol Gomez, a local physician and her pastor husband, to build and staff a clinic there. It was a wonderful opportunity and we had a great time!

You can read about the Baylor Shoulder to Shoulder Foundation here: http://www.bcm.edu/familymed/international/s2smission.htm

We flew into the capital city, Tegucigalpa, and then traveled by bus for approximately 9 hours, mostly on mountainous dirt roads to the village, near the border with El Salvador. The new clinic was at a stage where we could use it this trip, which was exciting, but also a lot of work! We had a medical team consisting of 3 attending physicians and 9 medical students, 1 dentist, 1 optometrist and 3 optometry students, and 4 translators (from Tegucigalpa). We held clinic for 8 days and saw 455 patients in just the medical clinic, from Santa Ana and 31 of the surrounding villages. We also set up and ran the new pharmacy, and had the opportunity to work in the dental clinic giving anesthetic injections, pulling teeth, and prepping fillings. In addition each afternoon, we sent teams on village visits to see patients who were unable to leave their homes and do some community health education. We also sent students to continue the Justa Stove Building projects--building stoves that vent to the outside so that there is not smoke in the house--and held a day long nutrition course for the local community health workers.

Beautiful mountains (scattered with little houses) on the way to Santa Ana.

Colomoncagua- the nearest town, where Dr. Gomez and her family lived. It was around 3 miles from Santa Ana, but at least a 45 minute drive!

Santa Ana & the walk to clinic each morning-scattered with people, cows, horse, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats
The New Clinic in Santa Ana, still under construction, but usable by Honduran standards. It will be very nice when finished and will include a dormitory for visiting brigades.

The Clinic waiting room (note the gigantic ladder in the middle of the room, sometimes also visited by dogs & a patient consult room

The Pharmacy &
The Lab, from which we were able to do a few simple tests: hematocrits, gram stains, wet mounts, UAs, and urine pregnancy tests

Me pulling teeth...Dr. Johnson probably pulled hundreds of teeth!
Where we slept- in a house in tents, for protection from mosquitoes

The Pila: water is Honduras is a precious commodity...so they fill up these concrete basins, called pilas with water, and then use it for washing dishes & clothes and bathing. There are clean buckets and dirty buckets; only the clean bucket goes into the water and you use it to fill the dirty buckets and use the water from the dirty buckets for whatever the task is. The girls were lucky enough to have an actual shower (very cold) out behind the house, but the boys had to use the pila for bucket showers.

How we got around on the rough dirt roads, to village visits, etc.: piled in the back of small trucks....banging into each other and holding on very tightly over all the many bumps and steep hills. One of the roads we frequently traveled
On Sunday, our day off, we were able to visit a beautiful waterfall near Colomoncagua. This is the medical team in front of it.
Crossing the bridge across the river dividing Honduras and El Salvador on an afternoon hike.

And finally, my favorite picture from the trip...a home visit to an older woman suspected of having chronic osteomyelitis. We were all gathered out in her dirt courtyard, with her husband and her many grandchildren, and animals. In this picture Dr. Pierce and Kjirsten are explaining how she should take her medicines. I love it because it really captures a piece of what the experience was like--out in very rural country, with very limited medical resources, serving a very poor population.

The plan was to begin treating this lady with antibiotics, and then hopefully she would be able to get a ride to the nearest hospital for after the rainy season when the river went down for x-rays and further treatment.
(Not in the picture, but present in the scene was a pig...who kept trying to eat the skirt one of the granddaughters was wearing!)

Below, more pretty Honduras scenery...we saw some gorgeous sunsets (The pictures are not great though because they were taken from the back of a bouncing truck)

Argentina Week 1

2008-11-22T19:02:00.010-06:00

Our first week in Salta, Argentina has been adventure. It is a nice colonial city and everyone has been very nice...but we are definitely making some adjustments. For one, our Spanish is not great and their English is not great either, so we have been spending many hours studying Spanish--which is good because that is one of the major reasons we came here. However our heads hurt from trying to focus so intently all the time. Already though our understanding has vastly improved, now we just need more practice speaking.

The other major difference has been the hours they work. We usually go to clinic in the morning from 9am-1:30pm, then have lunch from 1:30pm-2:30pm, then go to our apartment for a few hours, before returning to the clinic for more consults from 6-8pm, sometimes followed by a meeting, with dinner usually between 9-10pm. We are not used to working such late hours...

A view of the center of Salta from the window of our 1st apartment

Our apartment, located near the central plaza, which with the exception of a shower which does not drain well, is very nice.

This is the clinic where Dr. Nora Diaz works and where we will be spending most of our time, doing consults with family medicine doctors and 4 residents. It is a private clinic which serves the lower working class, and has within it a variety of different specialties. It is located about 8 blocks from our apartment, so we have been able to walk there each day.

The consultorio area for Family Medicine (Medicina Familiar) & Pediatrics

We also had the opportunity to visit a public pediatrics hospital on Thursday, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me...it was archaic and made Ben Taub look fancy in comparison. Other activites this week have included attending a conference of all the Family Medicine residents in northwestern Argentina, attending a congress of physicians about healthcare in Argentina, and attending a preparation class for expecting mothers (the topic-what to pack in the hospital bags). Next week we are going to spend some time at a public clinic.

We have been able to see some of the city this week, on Thursday morning we took the teleferico up to Cerro San Bernardo to see outstanding views of Salta and the surrounding mountains with one of the residents

At the top, they had a nice park with a system of waterfalls
Cool entwined trees

Futbol stadium for Jake

P.S. GO UTES!

SleepOut Update

2008-11-20T21:15:00.006-06:00

Sleep Out was this past weekend. It was the coldest night this year (36 deg) which scared off some of our would-be sleepers. Nonetheless we raised over $60K for SEARCH! The Kaleo Team was in the top 10 for fundraising and we had about 180 people spend the night in the park to help us raise awareness about homelessness in Houston.

One story about the night:

I worked the registration booth for most of the evening - not all that glamorous - I missed the program for the evening, but I got to meet a lot of people and hear a little bit about why they were sleeping out with us.

The Registration Booth

After the program had ended and we'd cleaned up most of the registration area a couple of people walked up with sleeping bags. As most people were sleeping in teams - we asked them what group they were with. The women replied she was unemployed - somehow she and her friend had heard about the event and made their way down to support the cause. They'd also heard we were taking donations and she pulled out her checkbook and wrote us a check for $20.

$20 was probably the most modest donation we received on the evening - but for me it was the most meaningful. On a night about raising awareness and developing empathy for the homeless... on the coldest night of the year - I was really moved that two people who don't know where their next paycheck is coming from would show up to support the event and insist on giving donations. $20 isn't a lot of money - in the grand scheme of things - her gesture was symbolic to me of her hope. Hope that her money and time that evening was well spent to help hurting people.

Sleepers - we were joined by CEOs, members of Houston City Council, and everyday folks.

Heres a link to a local news-story about the event. It was linked on the front page of yahoo.com Monday morning!

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou081116_mp_cold-weather-group.1bb33848a.html
Thanks to everybody who supported the event.

What the Dogs Got in the Mail

2008-11-10T20:39:00.003-06:00

Silly...

Elliana Mae

2008-11-09T22:10:00.003-06:00

1 John 3:11-4:6

2008-11-02T21:08:00.006-06:00

Here's a pic of the new parents with Elliana!

Our pastor came down with laryngitis this week so he asked me to preach. 1 John is an interesting book for me to preach out of. Paul's thought progression is linear - but John's is more circular. He introduces topics and then leaves them and returns later on.

The text: 1 Jn 3:11-4:6 is intensely practical - and really focuses on how we love God and our neighbor. I had some technical difficulties with the lapel mic so I'd started into the first couple of minutes and then started over... and that's where the audio picks up. The first text referenced is 1 Cor. 13:4-8. Just a little fyi in case the opening is confusing.

Anyway - here's the link:
http://www.kaleohouston.com/mp3/called_to_love.mp3

grace and peace,
jake

We've got a niece!

2008-10-28T21:34:00.005-05:00

Tonight at 6:47PM - our niece Elliana Mae Allen made her grand entrance into the world. 6lbs 14 oz, 19.5 in long - Joshnita and Sabrina are doing well by all reports. Congratulations!

In other news: Erin is out of town for a very long time - which makes me very sad. Right now she's in Honduras (for two weeks.... then Argentina for 5 weeks) with other Baylor students and doctors providing medical aid in remote villages.... and by remote I mean: no access to internet or phone. I'm really not a fan of the complete lack of communication - all the mundane things in my life become funny and vibrant when I can know I can tell Erin about them when I get home. I've pretty much just been hanging out, eating Pumpkin Pie, and listening to sad guy music for the past couple of days.

On to other things: I've been really fortunate to have opportunity to work with a local Homeless Agency called: SEARCH (http://www.searchproject.org/) since I've been here in Houston. This June I hooked up with a group of people trying to organize a large-scale benefit for SEARCH. Over the course of several months this project has really crystallized and I'm getting really excited about it. The idea is to get volunteers to raise $100 to sleep in a box overnight in order to raise awareness and heighten empathy for the plight of the homeless in our city. Right now there's over 14,000 homeless in the city of Houston and 2,000 are children under the age of 5. That's my entire high school full of kids with no place to sleep. We've been working to put together an entertainment program for the evening leading up to the sleep out - and this week we confirmed that one Mr. George Clinton will be performing.

I'm really pumped that George Clinton is going to perform and I'm excited for the media attention this event will grab. After Hurricane Ike - the homeless situation is even worse. There are so many people in need and organizations like SEARCH do an amazing job of providing comprehensive care to get people back on their feet and into stable jobs and homes.

If you're inteterested in checking out sleepout - we have a website (http://www.sleepout.org/) and if you're super interested in sleepout you can check out my fundraising page at: http://www.firstgiving.com/jakeumbriaco

It's sleepy time now.....

Lessons in Flower Arranging . . . and Kyle & Beth's Wedding

2008-10-20T20:40:00.010-05:00

Recently I had the opportunity to help one of our friends from church, Jody, do the flowers for the big wedding of our other church friends, Kyle & Beth. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, interesting to learn, and the end-product was very beautiful. As an added bonus, we got to stay and visit with Brandy!

Jody & Dawn working on the reception centerpieces
The guest table arrangement
The church arrangements...these were wired to long candle holders on the end of the pews, unfortunately I don't have a picture of the final product, but it was beautiful
Mother's bouquetsOrchid hair clips for the groom's nieces a bridesmaids bouquet
the major reception centerpieces--curly willow with orchids and hanging candles, which transformed the ballroom
Jake & Clint
Jody & Clara

Jason & Julia
Clara kept dragging Jake out onto the dance floor :)
At the end of the reception, in apparent New Orleans tradition and because Beth loves beads, we tossed beads at the happy couple as they left. This is what I did with my beads when I got home :)

Glacier National Park

2008-10-05T18:39:00.012-05:00

My Mom, Allie, Aspen, and I took a drive up through Montana and to Glacier National Park...it was beautiful, especially with all of the fall colors, perfect weather, and amazingly clear water.

Lake McDonald

Going to the Sun Road...which winds up and down through the park

U-shaped Glacier Valleys

Lake McDonald again

A great sign outside of Polson, MT--great advice

Jonathan & Christina's Wedding

2008-10-05T18:24:00.009-05:00

We recently got to go home to SLC...to celebrate many big family events...which kept us very busy!

Jake with his brothers, Joel & Jonathan
Jonathan with Aunt Dorothy who traveled from the UK for the event
the wedding ceremony
Jonathan & Christina with Jake's parents

Joe, Aunt Dorothy, Kathy & Maureen
the wedding party
the brothers
Jake, Corey & Aaron
Jake with Sarah, Robyn & Jamie
CONGRATS JONATHAN & CHRISTINA!

Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

2008-10-05T18:23:00.003-05:00

Baby Shower for Sabrina

2008-10-05T18:18:00.002-05:00

One Reason I Love Utah

2008-10-05T18:12:00.003-05:00

My Mom's Garden

2008-10-05T18:00:00.005-05:00

GO BRONCOS

2008-09-23T12:52:00.006-05:00

Thanks to the return of our electricity, we were able to continue with our travel plans...

Our first stop was Denver, where we met Jake's Dad & brother Joel for the Broncos vs. Saints game on Sunday.

In front of Invesco Field at Mile High
The Broncos in action
The view from our nosebleed seats

Three Umbriaco men watching the game

The Broncos won--off to a good and rather lucky start--and the game was an exciting one to watch with many touchdowns scored and we all had a good time. We'll leave it at that and not let Jake post his pessimistic comments about his love-hate relationship with the Broncos.

While in Denver we were also able to have a wonderful dinner prepared by Jake's aunt with his aunt and cousins. And we went to church with our friends from college who now reside in Denver, Chris & Becky Dean.

Ike Photos

2008-09-23T11:55:00.017-05:00

Pre-Ike Winds

Hurricane Ike & Our HouseWet floors at as Ike blows water through both of our doors...and us trying desperately to use all of our towels to soak it up and sweep it out into the garage from 1:30-5;30am

Post-Ike in Our House & Neighborhood

Jake & the dogs trying to get a walk in during the post-Ike drizzle

Trying to ring out many sopping towels

Wet carpet ripped up from our closets

There used to be a fence there A neighbor's dinosaur yard art down--looking like Jurassic Park

Hanging Out At Our Lucky Friends' House with Electricity

All in all we have survived our first hurricane and are grateful that the damage was not worse (all of our windows and roof are intact) and that we again have electricity!

Thank you to all of our friends with electricity who opened their homes to us and shared their electricity with us (especially washing load after load of sopping stinky towels!). My grandma doesn't read this blog, but she will be very happy to know that the one frozen thing we managed to save by shuttling it from freezer to freezer with electricity after the storm was the green chili which she imports to me :)

Let there be light!

2008-09-17T11:01:00.003-05:00

This blog comes to you from our couch! Our power is finally back on!!!!!!

Ike Update

2008-09-13T19:34:00.003-05:00

We're still kicking.... bottom floor is now dry... lots of soggy towels, soggy dogs, and soggy Umbriacos. Our friends have a generator so this is just a quick update to assure you of our continued existence. Radio says power will be out for up to a month... that would suck.

All for now.

hurricane

2008-09-13T05:15:00.002-05:00

it's about 5:30 am here and we have power again, at least for a few minutes.
we are currently okay...but the hurricane is currently over us and we have lots of rain coming through both of our doors fast, as the rain and winds are ferocious and ...and now standing water in most rooms downstairs. please pray for us

Ike Fest

2008-09-11T13:03:00.003-05:00

It's Thursday afternoon and I'm off of work for the weekend.... something about a hurricane.

Currently the dogs are passed out in their usual outposts (lovesac and couch) and I'm watching The Office. Erin and I were trying to figure out our weekend commitments but Ike has pretty well cleared our schedules. I'm looking forward to some quality reading time afforded by the inevitable power-outage and I'm also looking forward to quanitfying the magnitude of my B.O. from a weekend free of AC as we ride this thing out.

Expect an update when we emerge from the water.

Peace Out.

On Canine Faith

2008-08-28T21:03:00.003-05:00

I'd like to preface this post by saying that we love our dogs and they are very well behaved as canines go.... and I know that Kelsey has some separation anxiety issues that we're trying to work through as a family - so the following tale is more or less my fault.

Today I came home from work to find that my Study Bible had been shredded. I did not request that it be shredded - although I didn't explicitly tell the dogs not to shred it either so I can see their side of the issue.

We talked about it: My point of view is - While books are in fact for consumption (especially the Holy Writ) this consumption is more mental than physical. Battlecat and Kelsey disagreed...

To date they have consumed a fair number of books that I really liked. Here's a sample:

Reformation Study Bible (ESV)
NIV Study Bible
MacArthur Study Bible (NKJV)
Bavink's Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation
Chapell's Christ Centered Preaching
Raymond's New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith

Together they have consumed a pretty significant amount of theological works... including three translations of the Bible... and it makes me wonder. Are my dogs burgeoning prophetic agents? Am I going to get thrown down upon Balaam and the Donkey style (Num 22)?

Right now Kelsey is sacked out on the couch and Battlecat is asleep on the Love Sac.... I found various portions of Haggai strewn about the room and no doubt eating the Old Testament will make one drousy....

In addition to various texts on faith - the dogs have shown they have a remarkably diverse palate when it comes to VHS. We went through a phase where both dogs roamed the house freely while we were out... this phase didn't last too long.

We have a box of old VHS tapes that we keep behind the TV and each time we returned we'd invariably see pieces of their cinematic fare distributed across our floor. I think the girls secretly yearn for a more old-school reel type of format and were eating VHS out of protest.

One of their first VHS meals was: Beaches. This was the first indication I had that they were in fact agents of the prophetic. Beaches is like a multi-hour trip to the craft store... the one where Erin just wants to look around for ideas. My Mom liked to watch Beaches when I was little and I believe we had the soundtrack on tape because the first time Erin put in the movie - I... to my complete horror - knew all the words to all of the songs.

We tried to duct tape the VHS box closed but to disastrous results. Mallrats and BASEketball were also eaten and I came to appreciate the inner-turmoil that rages within a canine. The constant struggle of light vs. darkness... chick flick vs. movies that don't suck. At that time they'd only eaten two of our Bibles and I'd like to think that after today's feeding they'd make better decisions if presented with the VHS box.

All in all I'm sort of bummed out about my Bible but I take great solace in this passage:

Matthew 5:6 -
Blessed are those hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Clearly our dogs are hungry....