Top Ten of 2010

I feel like we've been a little weak in the blogging lately.  We have some pretty legitimate excuses (e.g., we're boring), but to make it up to you, here's our...

Top Ten Most Memorable Things From 2010

10. Döner kebabs .  Admittedly, we moved away from Germany in January of 2010, but döners are good enough to squeak a place on this list anyway.

9. Thanksgiving.  We mean Steph visiting, not the broken finger.

8. Culture shock.  Both coming and going.

7. Brandon became official.

6. 45-minute long church services.  In someone's living room.  With about six other people.  (The Church is true!)

5. Martha's Vineyard.  It lives up to the hype.

4. Kiddo turned two.  In Bosnia.  And he still got a rockin' birthday cake.

3. Croatia. Felicia's favorite place in the world.

2. We are FAMOUS!

1. The Bosnian experience. We would move back in a heart beat.  But it would be nice to have a paycheck next time.

Alphabet Rap

Kiddo doesn't know the typical alphabet song.  Instead, he sings this version (at least the first 20ish seconds of it).

And does a sweet robot dance while singing it.

Post-Op Check Up. Because We Know You Want to Know.

During church last Sunday, several people took the opportunity to tell Brandon of their own harrowing injury experiences.  One person specifically told us about how lovely the infection in their finger looked when the bandages were removed.  With this is mind, we definitely had some expectations for Brandon's first post-op check up.  Which means the check up was kind of a let down because his finger didn't look that gross at all. (Although, that being said, if you're squeamish at all, you may not want to view the rest of this post.)

The nurse cut the bandages off...

                                                

...and then the doctor came in and we finally got a look at Brandon's finger...

...and got the disappointing news that Brandon, in fact, only has one pin going down his finger, along with the internal sutures in his bone.  We thought there were a couple other pins in there, too, so it was kind of a blow to learn that there wasn't.  It made the story more exciting.  Btw--that black dot on the end of his finger?  Yeah, that's the pin.  Pretty unimpressive.

Anyway, Brandon's off his crazy pain killers and can fit his arm into his coat again now that his dressing is less bulky.  We go back next week to get his eight (at least that's the number I counted) stitches out.  Can't wait.

There Goes His Chance at the Pros

Brandon was asked to spear-head a Turkey Bowl for the men of some local congregations, so he was obligated to actually attend and show his skill.  During the last play of the last game Brandon was going to participate in, the ball was thrown in his direction. There was a scuffle between several players, but Brandon caught the ball.  And ended up with a broken finger. We spent the remainder of Thanksgiving morning in the E.R. where they took x-rays, gave Brandon a finger splint, and told him to see a hand specialist as soon as possible.

This picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving.  Brandon was trying to straighten his finger, but this is the best he could do, although the swelling had gone down considerably from the day before.

We saw a hand specialist on Tuesday (who took some crazy cool x-rays of Brandon's broken bones that we hope to get copies of) and surgery was scheduled for the following day.

Everything went well and the surgeon drew us a sweet picture of what the break looked like once he opened up Brandon's finger:

The top picture is the "before."  The bone of Brandon's finger was split open by the impact of the adjacent bone.  Fun.  The surgeon took the largest bone fragment he could salvage, as well as pieces donated from a bone bank, and sutured them together to fill the gap in the split bone.  Brandon has several small pins going through horizontally in that area to keep everything in place.  As well, there's a large pin going down the length of his finger to correct a couple other small breaks and to keep the finger from healing in a curled position.

Here's the end result.  Pretty hot.  We'll get a look at the surgeon's handiwork next week.  Can't wait!

Wiggin' Out

  

         

Obligatory Halloween Post

Halloween was a little lackluster this year (although pretty festive if you compare it to last year) and consisted mostly of us buying a bag of candy from Costco a month in advance (and then finishing it off a week before the holiday), attending the church Halloween party (Kiddo is a champion pumpkin bowler), and then pretending the holiday was over so we wouldn't have to dress Kiddo up again.

Yes, we are party animals.

After living in Germany (where they are very relaxed with children's activities during church services) and then in Bosnia (where we met for church in a living room with a handful of people who liked to help keep Kiddo occupied), it only took 5 months of having church in the States for Kiddo to learn to whisper during the services.

Finally.

At the Printer

Brandon is at the printer in NYC this week.  You may be wondering what being "at the printer" entails.  Brandon assures me it has something to do with editing and re-printing contracts and other tedious work.

But if you ask me, being "at the printer" sounds a lot like slang for "mafia hit job." Here's hoping Brandon makes it back in one piece!

The First Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Bosnia and Herzegovina

I know I am a couple of weeks late in posting about this, but I felt it was important to do so anyway.

At sunrise on Wednesday September 8th, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the preaching of the gospel--a practice usually observed before LDS missionaries arrive in a country for the first time--on a hill overlooking Sarajevo.  His visit to Sarajevo was part of a six country tour that also included Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Under Elder Nelson's direction, Elder Kopischke of the First Quorum of the Seventy organized the first Branch of the Church in Bosnia.

The people of Bosnia are loving, open, hard-working, and family-oriented.  It was not hard to love the few that we got to know well and, if we were able, we would not hesitate to live in Sarajevo again.  I can't tell you how sad we are for not being there to witness such a wonderful historic event for that country!  However, my feelings of love and gratitude for the Lord in choosing this time for the gospel to be preached in Bosnia (as well as the surrounding countries) are immeasurable!


Picture of the current Sarajevo Branch--which is a little bigger than when we were there--and Elder Nelson, courtesy of (now) Branch President Gary Sombke, second from the left.

Freedom! Er, I mean, Joy School!

Today was Kiddo's first day of the preschool he's doing once a week with a few other kids from Church. I'd checked out a couple of books from the library about it, so he knew what I meant when I told him he was going today. He was thrilled! Even more so when we got there and he saw the assortment of cars to play with.

(My little boy is all grown up!)

On the drive home, when I asked Kiddo what they'd done, he listed all of the different kinds of cars and trucks. I asked him if he'd learned about gardens (the theme of today's joy school) and he said, "Carrots!"

And that's good enough for me.

MVY

We are officially upper class: last weekend we vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Actually we had some friends get married there, but I think the very fact that we have friends that would get married at Martha's Vineyard indicates that we ourselves are socially elite. Right? Uh, right.

In any case, it was a fabulous weekend. It started out a little rocky (an accident on the freeway making us late to the airport, causing us to run to our gate only to find out that our flight had been delayed an hour because of a hurricane, and then the airline cancelling our connecting flight because we were the only passengers booked on it and we arrived 15 minutes too late), but we're so glad we opted to fly all the way to MVY instead of flying to Boston and then driving/ferrying the rest of the way because that little 9 passenger (10 if you include the pilot) was great! I've never been in such a small plane before, and it was a beautiful view of those Massachusetts islands.

Kiddo always reads the safety instructions.

After getting all dolled up, we headed over to the Old Whaling Church for the wedding ceremony. Kiddo was fine until he discovered that there was a step to get into our bench. And then all he wanted to do was jump off the step over and over again while we were in a 150-year old church, where every sound is audible for the rest of the audience (and the happy couple) to enjoy. So, he and I went outside to the front of the church and were the first to congratulate the bride and groom when they came out a little while later.

After that, everyone was shuttled off in buses to the reception where there was good food, friends, and a lot of dancing. Kiddo fell asleep while we were on the dance floor, so we shuttled back to the hotel where he slept the night away on the couch.

We said our good-byes the following morning and then spent the rest of our time enjoying Edgartown's lighthouse and beaches. Martha's Vineyard is quite the beautiful place!

Morning Jog

Kiddo is a runner by nature. He'd rather run than walk no matter where we are or what we're doing.

A couple of weeks ago, Brandon and Kiddo went for a walk which, of course, became more of a jog. They ended up jogging a mile away before Brandon convinced Kiddo to turn back.

Well, if Kiddo really wants to run, we might as well join him, right? So now it's become a semi-regular morning activity for the three of us. Kiddo chooses the route and sets the pace. It ends up being a few yards of jogging, followed by a minute or two of stopping to notice something interesting (or point out yet another car that is driving by), followed by more jogging.

We get plenty of funny looks and comments from the people we pass, but heaven knows I'm not the one who wants to run. Honest. It's my son.

Definition of Exhaustion

EXHAUSTION: noun The act or process of being extremely or completely tired...

...to the point where you fall asleep while sitting on the couch as your mother is exercising in front of you.

Fame is so fleeting

September's issue of Southern Living came out last week. I tried to hold on to our notoriety as long as I could, but it's officially September now, so I can't fool myself any longer.

Our month of fame has ended.

It was good while it lasted, but the world has already forgotten about us.

And I'm still trying to find a framing store that will do justice to page 28.

Great Falls

We've been wanting to see Great Falls since the last time we lived in DC, but never got around to it until Brandon happened to have a Saturday free of work last weekend.

Our day consisted of waterfall viewing...


...and trying to teach Kiddo the difference between hiking and running.



Kiddo made this last pose without any influence from us. Does it look familiar?

There's probably dozens of pictures of Brandon like it somewhere on this blog, including this classic from the second post we ever wrote, May 2006. Our boy's a chip off the old block!

The Price of Admission

For at least a few states, the last step in order to be admitted to the Bar is to fly to whereever you are to be admitted into, have an interview, and be sworn in. Even though Brandon passed the NY Bar exam a year ago, he had yet to take the final step of being sworn in. It's still a required step before you become officially admitted to the Bar, so last week we flew to Albany.

We checked into our hotel and then walked up to Empire State Plaza to find THE ANNUAL FOOD FESTIVAL! More than 50 booths selling food from places like Germany, Jamaica, and Peru. We listened to O'Death perform while eating kabobs and crepes and shakes. I regret that we were too full to buy the alligator nuggets. Curse our weak eating skills!

Kiddo was a trooper while we wandered around the city. Albany has some really beautiful architecture and has done a great job of keeping the buildings usable.

The next day was mostly waiting around for Brandon's interview (I'm using that word very loosely, since the man that talked with Brandon told him it was merely a formality) and then waiting around for Brandon to be sworn in. The actual swearing in consisted of all of the applicants standing in a group and then repeating after the official. It took about two minutes.

Who's that hot guy in the back? Oh wait!


Post-swearing in: It's over!


We were attempting to get Kiddo to stand by the flags for a picture by himself so that in 25 years, when he's being sworn in for something, we can look back and say, "See? You've been preparing for this day your whole life!" But I think he'd rather be a rock star.

The rest of our time in Albany was spent going to the State museum, wandering around the city, swimming, eating food nowhere near as good as what we had at the Food Fest, and lounging around the hotel.

Undoubtedly, Kiddo's favorite part of the trip was during the layover on our flight home. The police officer in the airport let Kiddo ride and steer the police cart and play with his crazy powerful flashlight. Our little boy was in heaven, and no longer wants to be a rock star. Now he's going to be a police officer.