Road Trip

So last weekend we went to a med school interview. That's right WE went to an interview! April and Suvi came along! It was great! We went to Touro University at Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine (TUNCOM), or at least I did, April and Suvi stayed in St. George and hung out with Sarah. I liked TUNCOM, they support Movember heavily- every guy I saw had a 'stache. And I liked the atmosphere and the emphasis they put on developing residencies in the area for the students to funnel right into. But when it come right down to it, I like the PBL program that LECOM has set up. So I think I'm still calling them my number one choice. Did I ever get around to telling the story of my LECOM Erie interview? I will check and update later. Hopefully.

So the big news is that on the way back from the interview we saw a charcoal gray Camaro and April said, "Getting one that color is like hiding your Camaro under a bushel." I was the happiest husband ever! My wife talks about cars! And she used her own type of description, which means she really likes cars, and she doesn't just watch Top Gear for me! So it was a pretty good weekend.

Busy busy busy.

So things have been crazy busy this semester. To illustrate: this morning I went to bed at 3:30 am when I woke up on the couch and realized that Suvi was asleep (that's normally April's routine but she was extra tired last night so I stayed up with the baby- for the first time if you realize that before this April couldn't sleep all the way through the night because Suvi needed to eat every 2 or 3 hours I don't know how she does it!), then I woke up at 6:30 and did my biochem reading, went to campus and turned in a library book, went to the bank, studied for my psych test, and then had class from 9 - 10. Then I wasted time after finishing my study guide by watching a full episode of Top Gear (I love that show!), went to work, went back to campus and studied for my test, took the test, and now I'm at home blogging before working on my biochem homework and fetching April Powerade, because she's feeling sick today. :( She's feeling extra sick, actually. So that's my normal daily schedule if you don't include the test or putting Suvi to bed at 3:30. Or the Top Gear, I almost never watch Top Gear nowadays. But this semester is almost over! Only one month left! Yay! So next semester I'll blog a lot more. See you guys later!

Big News!

Today was a good day. April spent the day with Ellynn and work was pretty good. When we got home April checked the mail and I watched Suvi (she is adorable!). Then April came in with a letter for me from LECOM, Erie. I opened it and it said, "Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for admission to the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) Class of 2016." Then there was another paper that said, "Congratulations! On behalf of the Admissions Committee, it is my privilege to extend to you the opportunity to join the LECOM Class of 2016. You have been admitted to the Problem-Based Learning Pathway." They actually put that in bold. I am SO excited! I am going to medical school! It is for sure now. I may end up going to a different school if I get an offer from one I like better, but I am going to med school. And LECOM is a good school! I will tell you more about it later (now it is after midnight and I need some sleep), but you should know that I'm super excited to go to this school.

On another note, today is the day that Suvi smiled for the first time. Her first real smile. Not because she had gas or happened to play with her mouth until it went up at the corners but a real smile! She is the cutest baby the world has ever seen! I love that little girl! Ok, we need some sleep now, but that's a pretty good day and I wanted to get the news out there quickly. Have a good night y'all!

This Week Has Been Busy

So this week started with me waking up at 4 AM and getting April and Suvi to take me to the airport. Then I flew to Florida! I've never been there before so I was excited. Heidi met me at the airport. Being a flight attendant she was able to meet me in Bradenton to support me in my application... and go to the beach. So she picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the beach where I promptly swam with a wild dolphin. It was amazing! There were also jelly fish there but they didn't sting. And we talked to some local guys about the area- they like it. We also spoke to the mother of a really cute little boy who spent a lot of time chasing sea gulls. He was 2. It was adorable.

I didn't have super high expectations about the school, since it's so new. They've only graduated 4 classes. But I was really impressed with what I saw and learned about the program they have there. This past year they had a dip in their board pass rate to 99% from 100% the last 2 years. Apparently there were 7 students at LECOM Bradenton that scored in the 99 percentile this past year on their boards. Those numbers pretty much blew me away. They also let us sit in on a PBL session, and I decided that I need to get in on that because that is exactly how my brain works. I loved it. And you're not going to believe this but the Dean, Dr. Shively, looks and sounds almost exactly like Dustin Hoffman! It was crazy! Also he's a really nice guy. Everyone there was nice. I think LECOM Bradenton (the little school that nobody has heard of) is now my number one choice. It's awesome.

Ok, I will tell the story of how the interview went at LECOM Erie another day because it's late and I want to go to bed but I still have things I need to do before I can. Good night!

Big News!

So has been a while since we posted here. We have big news. We have a daughter! She was born Tuesday September 6, 2011 at 12:48 PM. She was 7 lb 9.4 oz and 19 in long. She is the most adorable thing in the whole world. And she looks just like her ultrasound said she would!

So here's the story: On August 21 April started having pretty intense contractions at 6 minute intervals. They shortened to 4 minute intervals and then widened to about 8 minutes. For the next 2 weeks the longest she went without one was about 30 minutes. It was not a pleasant experience for her. On 9-5 (Labor Day!) her contractions started getting more intense and by the time we went to bed around 11 PM she said, "If these don't let up we're going to be going to the hospital tonight." I fell asleep and then about 1 AM they kicked into high gear. She had crazy hard contractions all night and finally woke me up at about 4:30 AM with the words, "My contractions are 3 minutes apart. Let's go to the hospital." We learned how to have me help her through this part and then she let me sleep through it!

We got to the hospital about 5:30 AM and when the nurse checked her she was dilated to 5cm. We were happy to not be turned away with news that she was at a 3 or something. So they put us in a room and she immediately requested an epidural. A very nice Nurse Anesthetist named Matt came and made her happy. Things slowed down a bit and she tried to get some rest. While she dozed I went downstairs to get some breakfast and when I came out of the elevator I saw a face between a plant a column. My brain said, "Hey, that looks like Kanani!" So I leaned to the right to see who was with her and my brain said, "That looks like Jeff!" So I went to say hi. And her water broke at 1 AM! So they were coming to the hospital to have a baby too!

So April's labor continued without incident (Hooray for epidurals!) until about 11:15 when she said she felt like she really needed to push. The nurse came and checked her and said, "You're almost there, but not yet." And thus it was for a little over an hour until she came at 12:40 and said she saw our doctor in the hall and it was time to push. April started pushing at 12:43 and at 12:48 we became parents! Suvi Darlene Willford came to us and she was perfect.

The next 2 days were spent in the hospital with the Hokis. Jeff and I ate breakfast and dinner together (hospital food has had some serious improvements since my last stay) those days, which was really awesome on omelette day where we got omelettes as big as my head with everything inside of them- they were delicious! We even took our first multi-family photo with all 6 of us!

And that is the story of how we became parents. We don't sleep much these days but we love our little daughter and find new things to love about her every day. Also April's sister Sarah stayed with us our first 2 nights home from the hospital to help April while I was at school and work all day, and her mom has been a huge help as well, getting supplies from the store all the time and generally being the most helpful grandma ever to have around these past days. And don't worry- my family has been about as good as they can possibly be from hundreds of miles away. Those first few days would have been nearly impossible without the breast-feeding advice we got from Grandma CiCi. And the ward here has really been great, even though almost no one knows us they have been bringing us dinners every night since we got home. Although nnow we have some dishes that we don't know where to return, we have felt loved and supported in this whole endeavor and we are so grateful for everyone around us who has been helping so much! Life is beautiful!

The Pregnant April's Lament

I have loved being pregnant. It is amazing to think of the little life growing inside me. I am so excited to be a mom. I love to feel our little one wiggle and move. And I have had a relatively easy problem free time. My body is (as Ben says) good at being pregnant. At this point I wish that it wasn't quite so good at it. I am tired. I am tired of being pregnant. Eight and a half months is a long time! The anticipation and excitement is driving me crazy. The hormones are unreal. And I really just want to see my beautiful little girl already. I guess this is another lesson on patience for me. I try to be really good, but it keeps coming back to haunt me. Stupid Patience! So just to keep you updated. I have been having A LOT of contractions - but unfortunately not the real kind. I have had some painful contractions but nothing going anywhere. So here I sit waiting! Trying to be the best patient April that I can be.

I Never Thought I'd See the Day

Today something crazy happened at work. So we all had to get there at 7 AM to clear the floor in A Bay because it was getting too crowded to walk. The morning was busy and productive, I finally got to finish that cutting order that I started on Monday, and then the whole world turned upside down. So Jon made me tell my favorite math joke again, even though he told me not to tell it to anyone the first time he heard it. Even though it's hilarious. Then I told Teran that I saw the funniest t-shirt ever the other day and it said, "Wanted: Schrödinger's Cat. Dead and Alive." Isn't that hilarious!? So he laughed and was like "That's a good one." So we started talking physics and then (are you ready for this?) he out-nerded me. He remembered the 6th type of quark that I always forget. The charmed quark. Then it turns out he's one of those that considers "dark" as a color option for quarks. Man, he really doesn't seem like the super nerd type to me, but you never know 'till you ask right? He also remembers more about supersymmetry than I do, but I know about the experiments and he's never done any of them, and certainly never done them in his basement with a piece of cardboard, a knife, and a flashlight (like I did on my mission). So I can still feel good about my nerdliness. But mark this day on your calendars for future years, Ben Willford got out-nerded at work. The end truly is nigh.

Live Every Week Like it's Shark Week.

Guys, I have big news! I got a job! Then I finished my secondaries for med school! Then it became Shark Week! Needless to say, it has been pretty awesome around here lately.

My job is at a place called Metal Mart. It's a giant warehouse filled with steel. Most of the stuff is either 20 or 24 feet long. It's all heavy, and a lot of it is sharp. I'm way more manly now than I was a week and a half ago. I'm pretty sure I grew a few more chest hairs to match the one from when I went fishing last month. I basically lift and move heavy things all day. I've already lost 6 pounds and April says I'm noticeably stronger than I was 2 weeks ago.

I finally finished all my secondaries! It took some doing. There was some hullaballoo at the HBLL about the printer not liking the PDF's from some of the schools, I thought I had to had a letter of evaluation for one of my top choices but it turns out that it's optional (even thought the website says it's not). It was pretty crazy there for a while. But now it's over and all I have to do is get some interviews! So if you're praying for me anyway, could you include that in your prayers? Thanks.

And last but certainly not least: Shark Week. Have you noticed that one time of year stands out among all the others? Colors seem brighter, people seem nicer, the weather seems to cooperate with whatever you want to do. And it's here again. Shark Week! Bless the Discovery Channel for inventing this wonderful holiday 24 years ago. And can you believe that only 1 other person I work with has even heard of Shark Week? Isn't that ridiculous? And here I thought I worked with men. Well, they have been educated, believe you me.

So I will try to keep this updated more now that I'm done with secondaries, but until then I will leave you with a bumper sticker that Isaac told me about. It said, "What you people call Hell, metal workers call a good day's work." This is true.

I am awesome.

Today I did something so manly, I think I grew a new chest hair. This morning I went to Scofield and went fishing with Ryan (April's brother). He taught me how fishing works. I caught a 14 1/2" cutthroat trout and a 13" tiger trout. Ryan caught a 14" cutthroat. And all of our bait. And some random stranger walked past who had heard the legend of Ryan Jones who caught a 6 1/2 lb trout the day before, but I digress. We went back to his place and he showed me how to fillet a fish. I even did one. Then I took them home and whipped up a delicious sauce for them. From scratch. Then I cooked them in the delicious sauce I made from scratch. Then I made some peas to go on the side. Then I served the meal to my pregnant wife who loved it. I MADE that meal. I caught the fish, made the sauce to cook it in and ate it. I am friggin' awesome!

Happy 2nd of July!

Ok, so I'm tired of writing about cool stuff that happened yesterday or earlier this week or whatever. TODAY we did some cool stuff. We slept in: always a plus. Then we tidied the house and April took a nap while a played Portal 2 (awesome game!) and then we went to the family reunion. It was so much fun! We played games, ate food, watched a family movie and i got to know some my new family a little better. For instance, Logan is considering aeronautical engineering as a major- I love that stuff! And Shiree went to Astro Camp (Utah's version of Space Camp)! I didn't know that there were actual nerds in my new family! So that was great. But the highlight of the day was the fireworks. Aerials are now legal so we went all out. We had fireworks that looked like the ones you see in serious shows. One of them was so intense could feel the heat from where I was sitting. I thought I would lose my eyebrows. It was awesome. Some of them were so intense you could feel the explosions in your chest. This year was the most memorable year of fireworks of my life. Hands down. Today was a great day.

It's July!

Ok so a few things have happened. Most notably Sarah got her mission call! And we ate pizza before she opened it. And my piece of pizza predicted where she would go! I was almost done and I looked at it and said, "Hey, my pizza looks like Virginia!" And she's going to Richmond, VA!!! She's going to love it. It will more foreign than she thinks.

Also, I started working at Country View again, just until I can find full time work that pays better somewhere else; we will have a baby to feed soon, and the CNA job just wouldn't cut it. So in the last week I've worked 3 nocs, two PM's, and an AM. My sleep schedule is nonexistent. My body is very confused. But it has been nice to see everybody again, even Hillary seems to be nicer lately.

Today before my PM shift I did some laundry (I was out of scrubs), and whoever used the dryer before me must have dried a chinchilla farm because there was half an inch of lint stuck to the trap. It was incredible.

Most recently (meaning right now) I am excited to announce that I have a book that is so good it keeps me up late at night giggling about having a book this good. It is fantastic. It's called The Wise Man's Fear and it's the sequel to The Name of the Wind, which was also amazing. You should read them. Soon. Good night.

MCAT Update

My score came in! I got a 27. Which is ok. It's not as good as I was hoping for, but hopefully it will be good enough to get me into med school. We'll see!

Hiking and working and exercising oh my!

Last Thursday, I hiked Y-Mt. with the Deans and (just to the Y) with my boss Justin and his wife Jackie. It was a lot of fun! We summited and made it back down in 5 1/2 hours! That's the fastest I've ever done it! And we spent probably an hour stopping for pictures and lunch. So go us! I also finally got a picture of the Y upside down! It's pretty awesome.

Apparently Stouffer's isn't hiring till next month, so I'm back working PRN as a CNA at Country View and I worked a PM yesterday. It was kind of fun to go back there actually. Kenzie and Monica were working and I like them both, so it was pretty nice. Kenzie told me about this website called bodyrock.tv that she's been using to exercise and it sounded pretty cool, so I checked it out last night. It's like a blog about exercising done by these two girls from the Czech Republic.

So this morning I used this new website to get myself a workout. Now I consider myself to be in decent shape, I hike mountains in my spare time right? Today I learned that this is not the case. I did the video for like 1/2 hour and it destroyed me! I did this one exercise that's supposed to use a sandbag as a weight, but I don't have a sandbag, so I threw some textbooks into my backpack and used that. It was awesome. It absolutely killed me.

Happy June!

Hey everybody. Last week we stopped by Wal-Mart for a powerade that I could take with me to the summit of Y-Mt. It was like 11:00 PM and there were only 3 checkout lanes open. There was a family at the lane to our left that had a 4 kids and a big mound of groceries (as you would expect for 4 kids) but the healthiest thing in the mound was a bag of bagels. They had freezer pizza, fruit snacks, sugar cereal, mountain dew, ice cream, you name the junk food it was on there, but no real food. It made me sad. I wanted to go over and put all the food back and get them healthy food that would have ended up costing less money and helping them live better lives. The dad was in one of the electric carts and he had a half gallon of mountain dew that he kept letting the youngest kid drink from. He couldn't have been older than 4 years old, and he was drinking mountain dew. At that age a soda like that has pretty similar effects to an adult snorting cocaine. And all this was just because the parents don't know any better. I decided that I want to start a charitable organization that will educate people on how to be healthy and save money in the process. So if anyone knows anything about starting up a charity, let me know.

Memorial Day

So today was pretty much the perfect day. We slept in, went to get some maternity clothes for April, ate lunch at her parents' house and then I played video games with Isaac (Portal 2), went to the park and threw the frisbee around, ate dinner, made s'mores, played knerts, and then played this game called Things for like 3 hours. It was fun, relaxing, and delicious. All with family. Great day. So I learned that you CAN have a happy Memorial Day without a barbeque. I did not know that before today.

It's over!

So I took the MCAT on Saturday. I'm finally done! I feel pretty good about it too. I think I did well. I just hope it was well enough to get me into medical school. That test was hard. I've been studying for it for the last 6 months, and for those of you who don't know I quit my job at the beginning of the month so I could study full time for the MCAT. It has been a month of 8 hour study days and several practice MCAT's. And it's gone by pretty quickly. Maybe because (with the exception of general chemistry) I actually like all the subjects on the MCAT. Either way, it's over now and I'm glad. Also the rapture was supposed to happen on Saturday and it totally didn't. Then I saw this billboard.

Posted on May 22, 2011 by LobShots

That's pretty good huh? So now I'm just working on primary applications this week. Oh, and getting a job, 'cuz, y'know, I quit mine. Ok see you guys later!

MCAT scariness

So tomorrow I take the MCAT. We're leaving for Idaho today and I'm going to be honest- I'm terrified. I just hope I do well. I've been studying pretty hard for a while now and I want it to pay off. I'll let you know how it goes after it's all over. So I guess I'l see you on the other side.

Holy Cow!!!

Ok big news! 15 seconds ago I felt our little girl move for the first time! She kicked twice at my hand. *pat* *pat* like that. It was amazing! And all I had to do was make noises with my mouth on April's belly until she woke up! And then squish her a little. Just a little. But then she kicked right at me! Most likely to say, "Hey! Cut that out! I'm taking a nap in here!" And it was the coolest thing ever! I cannot believe we are having a baby!

Pictures of our Little Girl!

WotD

eu·de·mon·ic

   [yoo-di-mon-ik] Show IPA

–adjective

1.

pertaining or conducive to happiness.

2.

pertaining to eudemonics or eudemonism.

Big news!

Ok faithful reader, we have big news. And you are excited to hear it! We now know the gender of our baby! We went to our doctor this morning, met with the ultrasound tech and through the magic of modern medical science we learned that we will be having a little baby... GIRL!!! That's right, I was right! April had to buy lunch afterward at Purple Turtle. I got the fish 'n chips. It was good. April got the fish sandwich, that was good too (I ate some). Then we went and got Magnum bars because they're delicious. That was my first time eating one. And Aprils first time since leaving Europe.

Ok, I know the question that is on everyone's mind is, "Have you picked out a name?" And the answer is yes! Now this is subject to change at any time, but right now we are thinking Suvi Darlene Willford. Suvi is Finnish for summer and is a popular name in Finland as well as the name of a girl April got very close to while on her mission. Darlene is a family name on April's side. So Suvi Darlene is the name we're going with.

So that's our news for today! Tomorrow I'll post a new word of the day (or WotD as I randomly decided to abbreviate it today), and it will be a good one. Actually I'll do that right now. I have a good one in mind. I'll see you in a couple of minutes.

Big News!

So the word of the day today has a special reason. Today is the day we find out if our baby is a boy or a girl! I am so excited! In 3 1/2 hours we will know if we are having a little Suvi or a little Shadrach (we'll call him Shad). So if you want to get your guess in, now is the time. This afternoon there will be another post with the news on it!

WotD

prog·e·ny

   [proj-uh-nee] Show IPA

–noun, plural -ny or, for plants or animals, -nies.

1.

a descendant or offspring, as a child, plant, or animal.

2.

such descendants or offspring collectively.

3.

something that originates or results from something else;outcome; issue.

Word of the day

Tomorrow's word of the day: mellifluous.

mel·lif·lu·ous/məˈliflo͞oəs/

Adjective: (of a voice or words) Sweet or musical; pleasant to hear.

One other thing

Oh! Something else I just remembered I wanted to say. There's a band called the Flobots and they have a song called Onomatopoeia and the second verse is an anagram repeated over and over. It starts with the line, "D.A.R.E. Drugs Are Really Expensive" and from there on out all the words start with the letters D- A- R- E- in that order. Isn't that cool? How do they do that? I like the Flobots.

Really!?

It has come to my attention that there actually are some people who read this blog. This is shocking news. Seriously, I thought that we had 6 "subscribers" because April has a lot of siblings and some friends of ours a while back thought we actually updated it sometimes. Now I've learned that there are people who read it when it gets updated. Crazy. So I will try to make it interesting.

Today at work I got to "train" a lady named Mery from Peru. She's been a CNA for 8 years. She's WAY better at that job than me. So today was awesome. I even got to take a lunch! Also one of our residents who is totally addicted to her pain pills decided she had to have a bed bath right. now. So we told her no and she did it herself. Amazing how she can magically do things when we won't but if she thinks she can talk somebody into doing stuff for her she's completely incapable of helping herself. Now her excuse is that she's completely bat-crap crazy. That's why she lives in a nursing home. It's not an Earth shaking experience for her to follow a man (me) around the hall saying, "You need to give me my bed-bath now. You need to give me my bed bath now. You need to give me my bed bath..." But imagine if you saw someone doing that in the library. Or at Wal-Mart. Ok, you're right on that one, but at a normal grocery store it would be crazy right?

So I got to thinking. Is there anything I could totally do for myself that I just won't? It turns out there is. There's actually a lot of stuff. I need to lose like 45 pounds and I just don't. I need to read my scriptures every day and not skip because I feel tired or hectic. I need to learn how to organize my house and keep it that way. I could go on, but these are going to start getting embarrassing pretty soon. So it turns out that whether you live in a nursing home or not, whether you're actually diagnosed with some kind of insanity or not, no mater where you are: you're human. Sorry. There's no getting around it. We all struggle with things. For some people it's trying to sneak more Oxycontin and get young men to give you a bed bath. For some people it's working too much and ignoring your family. For some people it's eating too much junk food and not exercising enough (that one's me). It's kind of weird how much you can learn about life from working in a nursing home. But maybe not. It's just life amplified. With no other distractors, like an ability to care for yourself, you can really focus on showing popular character flaws and gossiping. Thereby giving others the chance to learn from your life.

Ok, so this hasn't been the silly, happy kind of entry that I usually aim for, and I promise not to get too serious/preachy like this very often. Sometimes I see things and I just want to get them written down somewhere.

Happy Saturday!

So I didn't have to go into work today! Which is great because I have been super sick all week and I'm still not completely over it, but bad because we need money and I'm quitting after this week. So it will be interesting to see how that works out.

This morning we went to the Early's for breakfast and the Axelgards were there! But not the ones who used to live here, different ones! But they were really nice anyway. So after breakfast we went up to the Jones' and Isaac and I went and threw a frisbee around in the park. I love frisbee! Then we played a game on his Xbox called portal 2 that totally awesome! You are two robots that have these guns that make portals so if you shoot the floor and a wall you fall through the floor and come out through the wall! We had a lot of fun launching each other into various things.

Ok so I know this wasn't the most awesome entry ever, but I'm trying to get into the habit of posting more often. So to make it up to you I'll tell you a joke I heard recently. There were three Indians who were all pregnant. The time came for them to give birth and one lay down on the skin of a bear and gave birth to a son. The second lay down on the skin of a moose and gave birth to a son. The third lay down on the skin of a hippopotamus and gave birth to twin sons. This proves that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

Finals Are Over!!

So this past week has been the magical time of getting things for free! I told you the story about the bookstore gift card, but I didn't tell you what happened yesterday on my way into the testing center for my last final- Genetics. The class I actually liked this semester. And pretty much the only one. The student development class was useful, ochem lecture was pretty interesting, and the lab was cool when it wasn't frustrating. But I digress- on my way into the test I stopped by the vending machines for my good luck bag of goldfish (it's the cheapest thing in the machine, and come on- who doesn't like goldfish?) and they didn't have any! So I stood back to decide and there was a young looking guy who grabbed something out of the machine and then turned to me and said, "You know, I've got diner's plus and I'm not going to use all the money on my card before I leave town. You want something?" And then a light shone through the ceiling onto his head and showed me that he was an angel. And I said, "Sure!" So I got Sun Chips, Wheat Thins, and Pop Tarts! For free! It was awesome!

On a completely unrelated note I would like to point something out that people who have known me for a long time and haven't seen my writing will be confused about: my use of the Oxford comma. I used to hate the Oxford comma. With a passion. Isn't that how the debate over the Oxford comma goes? It's like with PC's and Macs. There are no people in the middle of the road. Just a sharp division with strong proponents on either side. I used to come down on the side against. Now I'm for. How is this possible you ask? I'll tell you. I read a book called Eats, Shoots, and Leaves which gets its title from the punch line of a joke about a panda bear. The author, Lynne Truss made such a convincing argument for the Oxford comma that she actually changed my mind. I have been for it ever since. For those of you who have no idea what this whole paragraph has been about, the Oxford comma is the comma before the "and" at the end of a list. Red, green, yellow(,) and blue. Like that. I have been convinced that it actually does clarify meaning and aid in communication, which is the purpose of language and therefore punctuation. Hence my stance. This has been a message from Ben's Soapbox of Idiosyncracy, thank you for reading.

Finals week

So we went to St. George last weekend to visit the Whites and Jared and Kelly came up with their boys too! It was great! And before we left I stopped by the BYU bookstore and sold my OChem book back and got $94 for it! That's way better than the $12 Bucks for Books tried to give me! And when I got to the front of the line I told the lady who was running the register how impressed I was with how fast they get the line to move, because it still impresses me every time. That line is LONG and I was only in it for like 15 minutes! And she gave me a bookstore gift card! So I went downstairs and bought some chocolate for the road trip to find out how much was on it. I was expecting $5, but it had $20! How awesome is that!? That's awesome.

So we went to St. George and Neil and I went for a bike ride on his road bikes and it was super fun! April and I totally need to get into cycling. Maybe using next year's tax money. Also we got to attend Elijah's 5th birthday party, which was super fun- there was a pinata and everything! And April showed off her mad kid-wrangling skills. Sarah even turned to me and said things like, "How come they don't listen to me like that?" and, "How does she do that?" And this is coming from a mother of 3 rambunctious boys and a 2 year old girl! April is going to be such a good mom. Makes me want to say, "That;s right- that's my wife."

So we got back late Saturday night and went to our new ward on Sunday, after going to our old ward so I could sing with some other guys in our sacrament meeting. We've been meeting Sunday afternoons and singing various things- including a really fun old school barbershop arrangement of You're a Grand Old Flag with so many scoop-able notes we almost get seasick every time we sing it. But in church we sang I Love the Lord which is an arrangement of Be Still my Soul with different lyrics and some awesome chords! My goodness, the harmony in this piece is gorgeous. I should find a link and post it on here. Ok- on to the afternoon!

So I need to stop beginning paragraphs with the word so. I mean it is informal writing, so I guess it doesn't really matter, but it's still annoying. Sorry about that. After church we went up to campus to meet up with April's family and then went into the MARB where our new ward has sacrament meeting. One of the girls I work with- Lyndsi- is in our new ward and it was really weird to see her not wearing scrubs! During sacrament meeting we got to bear our testimonies and introduce ourselves to the ward, and afterward there were like 5 guys who came and said hi who are all from Poway! One of them was in my ward when I was knee high to a grasshopper! That was cool. Then I got the full tour, a breakdown of my new responsibilities, an interview with the Bishop so he could make sure his new 2nd counselor isn't crazy, and I went home.

That's when the adventure started. I got home at 2:30 and by 4:00 I had a fever over 100. I took a nap and by 6:30 it went up to 102.7. Then it stayed there all day Monday and all day Tuesday (I had to find someone to cover for me at work and I didn't get to go volunteer at the family literacy center!). Now it's Wednesday morning and I still have a fever but it's under 100 now- 99.96! So that means that on Monday I got to take my OChem final (the American Chemical Society entrance exam) while hopped up on so many drugs I couldn't see straight. I just hope I did half as well as I think I did on that test. Now I get to take my OChem lab final and my Genetics test to day and tomorrow and I need an A on the Genetics test, because if I get an A then Dr. Maughan will write me a letter of recommendation for med school- and I need some of those! Ok, I need to start updating this more often so these entries are not so long. Until next time- Have fun you guys!

Man, when will I ever get good at this thing?

So you may have guessed that a lot has happened since the last time I wrote anything. Much adventures. yep. So the semester is almost over, and the basketball team made it to the sweet 16 this year, which is the second farthest we've ever gone and the farthest we've gone since 1981. It was exciting. Jimmer Fredette was named the national player of the year, which was exciting. Probably because of the game against UNM where he scored 52 points. By himself! And a tradition began this year that involves basketball. When our players are on the free throw line we put our hands in the air and if it goes in we clap and say, "Woosh, Cecil!" and point at President Cecil O. Samuelson, who then points back. So when President Samuelson came to my med school application class I asked him if we did that on the good points of his presentation if he would point back and he said, "Is that what you say?" I totally taught him a tradition he had already been participating in for 3 months! Man I'm cool. Let's see, what else...

I learned how to separate paragraphs in my blog. But not very well as you can tell from big mess up there. ^ Oh yeah and WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!!

We find out the sex in 3 weeks! I think it will be a girl and April thinks it will be a boy. We have a running tally on our refrigerator of what all our family and friends think too. So far girl is winning. So we are super excited about that. If you have a guess, anyone who should happen to read this despite our infrequent updates, leave your guess in the comments section and it will be added to the list on the fridge. Ok, I have some OChem to work on, but I will write sooner than 4 months from now, I promise! I have to tell you about the a cappella group I'm in now!

Happy Wednesday!

So today was good. I went out to scrape the ice off April's car like usual but there was no ice! Then I came back to the apartment and the door was locked! With my phone and keys inside. So I enlisted the help of my friend Brian Earley and broke into the bedroom window. Yeah, on the second floor. It was fun. Then I went to classes, and I learned that if I run from class to class, then I can get good seats. Then I learned that I'm really out of shape. So during my Organic Chemistry lab I found out that I'm the smart one that everybody comes to for help. Go me! I even had enough product (that I synthesized myself) to give some to two other people who needed some because of difficulties they had! (probably defective equipment, and yes it was approved by the TA's, I'm not a cheater) Go me!

Also, I heard a girl singing on my way to campus as she was walking away from campus and the only words I heard before she realized someone was around and stopped singing (social stigmas being what they are) were "maybe you're a rich man too". That got me thinking. I am rich. I'm super rich! I may not drive a Bentley, live in a mansion, or have power in the traditional sense, but I have things that everyone in the world wishes for. I have a wonderful wife, a job, a family that loves me, in-laws I get along with, great opportunities for learning on a near daily basis and a very bright future ahead of me. Life is great!

Here's a random fact for today: Gingko biloba is the missing link of the plant world. It has parallel venation like a monocot, but it has bark like a dicot. Weird huh?

My wife is sick drunk

So today we are feeling a little under the weather. We didn't even go up to the Jones' for dinner. Just now April noticed that our ravioli bag has "approximately 78 ravioli" and I commented that it was weird because when you use the word approximately it should probably be a round number. Then she started laughing uncontrollably. That was when I noticed that something was amiss. We weren't on a first date, so she wasn't pretending that I was funnier than I am. She wasn't high because I didn't smell anything weird. So that left sick, and apparently so sick that she was sick drunk, you know- where everything is funny and nothing really makes sense unless it's crazy? Like that. But then I said something else and she kept laughing and laughing. I didn't know what to do, so I just left her there and told her to make me ravioli. In a very mean fashion. Grrr. (that's my mean sound, it has an accompanying face but I suppose you can't see that- hence the parenthetical observation)