Mission Safari: The Next Chapter(s)

Skiing Sammy and "Gingerman-ladies"

Below are two videos from our trip.  First is Sam skiing successfully down "Cubway Run" without falling.  Watch his delight at the end of the video...it's precious.  The second video is Amy helping Marti make "Gingerman-ladies" (AKA, Gingerbread Cookies).  Apparently the cookies are bi-gender!!

 

 

Sam's 10th Birthday

Well, we arrived home last night around 11:30pm after spending the past week in Gatlinburg.  We really had a great time.  We capped the week off by celebrating Sam's 10th birthday on Thursday.  That morning, Marti took him out for breakfast to the Logcabin Pancake House (he enjoyed it so much from our first day there, he wanted to go back).  Then after they strolled around town, Sam got ready and Ben and I took him skiing.  

Sam did much better this year skiing than last.  I'm sure the one hour ski lesson helped out.  After spending 6 hours at the slopes we headed back to condo and enjoyed a birthday dinner and of course cake.  I think Sam had a pretty good day.  

Below are some pics from the day.  I'll post video soon.  Enjoy.

 

More Fun

Tonight was awesome here. Late this afternoon, Sarah and I took a walk downtown (don't forget this is Gatlinburg so it didn't take us that long) and came across a wonderful little shop called the Black Bear Tea Company. It sells, you guessed it, tea. But it was an impressive little shop containing over 200 flavors of loose leaf teas from around the world. We spent half an hour being educated about teas, blends, herbs, flowers, and all things tea. Who would thought we experience that in the Smoky Mountains?!

After coming back to the condo, we enjoyed baked chicken and baked sweet potatoes. Then we played a variety of games; Hot Potato, Wii, Milles Bourne. There was lots of laughter (and of course a few tears...there always are with this group of kids). But really the highlight was Marti baking homemade Ginger Bread cookies. Even now the aroma of the baked goodies waft through the apartment. It was really cute watching Amy standing on a chair in the kitchen helping Marti. 

And now it is time for some well needed sleep. Sam turns 10 tomorrow. We have some school work to do until noon and then I'm taking the boys skiing.

It's Snowing in Gatlinburg

Yes, I said it's snowing in Gatlinburg instead of Williamsburg.  Why is that seemingly irrelevant fact worthy of a blog note?  Well, we just happen to be in Gatlinburg at the time I write this.  We came up last Friday (as noted in my previous post) and have enjoyed the week so far.  The snowfall right now is "icing on the cake" so to speak.

So far, I have done pretty well in getting my CME (continuing medical education) done each day while here.  I have 20 hours of audio lectures, as well as a 10 hour on-line course that I am doing.  But have been interesting and pertinent to my practice.

When not working on the courses, I've been enjoying my time with the kids.  On Saturday, the main highlight of the day was eating at the Lob Cabin Pancake House.  You can guess what we all ordered!  We've also spent time down at the pool, watching NFL playoffs, playing Wii, strolling around town, going ice-skating, and done some skiing. 

We have had a few mishaps though.  Sarah has had a rough couple of days with Pre-Calculus.  Yesterday, I had to change a flat tire in the rain.  But overall, it has been a pretty good week.

Now, I need to get back to my studies and complete one course (including an on-line test) and work on the other one so I can finish it tomorrow.

The Best Thing About Yesterday

The best thing about yesterday is that it is over!  Not that anything bad happened, but it was just one of those days that you were glad to see come to an end.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that after working a night shift we traveled 300+ miles to Gatlinburg, TN.  And maybe only getting two hours of sleep before trying to pack the Expedition had something to do with it.  Or maybe it was the fact that instead of leaving at noon like planned for our 8 hour trip we didn't get started until 2:30pm.  Or maybe the fact that the kids didn't particularly travel well impacted my feelings of the trip.  Nonetheless, we rolled into our condo around 12:30am and after unpacking the car, we didn't get to bed until about 2am.  When I turned out the light, I told Marti that the best part of the day was that it was over!  Praise God for little things like the end of the day!

Kids are Sanctifying

In church Sunday, our pastor gave an illustration from a recent "conversation" he had with his 2 year old daughter.  She recently learned how to say the word "help."  She is also independent.  For instance she can get out the plastic cereal bowl as well as the cereal.  But when she needs the cereal and milk poured, she looks up and says, "help."  

The other day our pastor was reading and his little girl came up with a Play-Do container and said, "help."  He opened it and told her to go back to the playroom to play with it.  A few minutes later she came back with the Play-Do in her hand and said, "help."  He figured she wanted help with making a few things so went into the room, stamped out a few things with the Play-Do and got ready to leave.  His daughter said "help" again and our pastor realized that not only was she saying "help" to get help, but also to communicate that she wanted him to stay and play.  He used this as an illustration to encourage us in our prayer lives.  He said that our Father in heaven understands that our prayer vocabulary may be limited but if we should just use the language we know and He will be able to discern just exactly what we need (whether it be help or the need to be in His presence).

That is one example of our kids sanctifying us.  I also had a recent episode with Amy that also taught me a lesson about our Father.  She recently dropped two of the Christmas ornaments and had broken them.  Both were Disney Princess dolls and both heads had broken off (not a pretty sight).  Nonetheless, when she dropped them and Marti saw them, Amy reassured her that "It's okay, Mommy. Daddy can fix them."  Happily I had some Crazy Glue and was able to indeed fix the ornaments much to Amy's delight.

I was amazed at her simple faith that despite the fact that something that was dear to her was broken she "knew" that her Daddy could fix it.  How I need that childlike faith when something in my life is broken!  I need to trust that my Father in heaven can "fix" the problem.

And so I'm thankful for my kids.  They teach me lots of lessons.  God uses them to sanctify me.  

Ben's Birthday Weekend

It has been a good, fun weekend here at the house. Ben turned 15 on Saturday (yeah Ben), but we started the weekend festivities on Friday night. Ben had his friends over for a sleep-over. They arrived around 5pm and hung out in his room until we ate around 7pm. Ben wanted a taco-bar for supper so we had a Fiesta Party, complete with Mexican dance music and streamers. After supper we even had a Mexican line dance which I hope to post in the next couple of days. While we put the girls down, Ben and his buddies watched Inception, and then stayed up til 2am playing Axis and Allies.

Saturday was fun as well. First, on and off throughout the day, we had snow flurries so that by evening we had a good dusting of snow. Ben chilled out most of the day, most notably getting out of doing dishes because it was his birthday. Then he watched some football before we went out to eat to Red Lobster. We came back to the house to give Ben his presents as well as eat his favorite cake, homemade chocolate chip cake. To end the evening we pulled out our home videos of when Ben was a newborn. The first video we had was when he was six weeks old. It was really cool seeing how much he has changed in the past 15 years.

Today we enjoyed the morning at church. In the afternoon, Ben and I played football with some of the guys at church. Despite the cold weather (30 degrees with a nice wind), it was much better conditions than when we played last week (raining with the temps in the 40s). Then, after coming home, we ordered Domino's Pizza and watched the Eagles and the Packers. One fun thing of note was that we used Skype for the first time tonight to call my parents and loved it. I know that shows that I'm a bit behind on the technology curve, but nonetheless, it was cool and we look forward to using more in the future.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now. After all that we did above (plus my 14 mile run yesterday morning), I'm beat. But I really enjoyed the whole weekend. Happy Birthday Ben.

OK, A Few More From Lake Gaston

We took a lot of video at Lake Gaston.  Sarah was watching some of the others and thought we should post a few more.  And so, in deference to her, here are a few more clips from our week.  Enjoy. (By the way, when you watch the Snowball video, check out how far Sarah throws the snowball!)

 

 

 

The Last of the Christmas Videos

I finally got a chance to upload a few of the Hutchison Christmas videos from our trip to Lake Gaston, NC.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, it was a lot of fun with a lot of memories made.  It was really great to have Grandmother there.  She looked great.  

There are two videos below.  The first is just a "highlight reel" from the trip.  The second is mainly posted for my dad.  His dog, TJ, and our dog, Jack came from the same litter.  They love to get together and play.  My dad just loves to watch them "wrastle." Hope you enjoy the video Daddy!

 

 

 

My New Schedule

For the past two years, I've been working 13-14 twelve hour shifts a month.  Not bad in terms of total hours per month or in the number of days off.  But, after a while, the 12 hour shifts drag on and wear you out.  You don't get to do much but work, sleep, eat, get up and repeat.  And despite the flexibility of less days of work per month, most of our group decided to go to a more friendly 8 and 10 shift system (though we will still work 12 hours on the weekends to decrease number of weekend shifts).

Anyway, today was the first day of the new schedule.  I worked the 7a to 3p shift.  It went really fast!  It was great to work hard for 8 hours and then walk out the door.  I had forgotten that the sun shines during day shifts!  Right now it is 7 pm.  Instead of finishing up my shift, I have been home since 4pm (I didn't get out until 3:30pm).  Since getting home, I have read the mail, gone on a run, taken a shower, changed diapers, helped make supper, ate, and now am sitting down to write this.  It might not seem like a big deal, but it is in our house.

I look forward to seeing how this schedule works out...I'm sure there will be some "hitches" in the days to come, but I think it is really going to work.