No, it is not the last post of niblet.us, but given how often I’ve been posting, I could see how someone would think of that. We knew that 2009 was going to be a busy year and I think it lived up to the hype. Angie and I have been recounting the year all day and I am still amazed it was just 2009 Leo was born, Match day finally came, sold the house, moved, started residency and a new business, and generally settled back into Indiana.
I have been busy out in the shop making furniture and generally enjoying not walking through a half finished basement. Angie has kept busy with residency, but has been enjoying having the last week of the year off. Will made it through one Christmas and is gearing up for the next one in a few days and poor Leo is recovering from having tubes put in his ears early this morning.
I am not even going to attempt to recount the prior months here, but I am going to list out my resolutions for ‘10:
1) Get back in shape. I know I say this along with about 1 billion other people, but I have given up all soda (for months now), which was phase one, now it is time to kick in the exercise again. I am not sure I will reach my wedding weight when I was riding 150 miles a week, but I’d like to get half way there.
2) Go camping. This was a summer goal, but poor planning on our part never made it happen. Leo will be a bit older, so it might be more fun for the whole family.
3) Post to niblet at least once a month (we actually do rely on it heavily when we’re trying to figure out what we did with Will at certain ages).
4) From Angie: Try more ethnic foods (count this one as a failure from the start).
So there we go, some easy goals. I’d also like to add, complete all the tool projects in the shop, build all the furniture I have planned and make a billion dollars, but I am trying to be realistic.
December 31st, 2009
Will is going to be so happy this is done:
And I am going to be so happy he stops asking me when it will be done.
November 23rd, 2009
So Will and I decorated it, obviously.
October 11th, 2009
This could be the first peice of furniture that I have actually finished for myself. Everything else has been shipped up to my parents house or left in the old house. At any rate, it wasn’t too bad of a project and allowed me to test out the machines after moving them 500+ miles.
Outdoor Morris Chair
http://niblet.us/?page_id=451&g2_itemId=10463
September 1st, 2009
Back in the day, I think I posted about Will’s every cough and sneeze. He was the first grandchild on my side and the first on Angie’s side in a few years. We lived about 500 miles from any relative, so the constant posting of photos, blogs, and videos let everyone keep in touch. Leo, however, gets the short end of the stick. Even with the website move, the older videos of Will don’t work anymore. So other than YouTube, does anyone have a suggestion for a decent video hosting service? It will probably take me weeks to upload all the little videos of him and Leo.
Now back to Leo… If you ever watch Will when he was younger and experienced some of his… difficulties, and you can imagine a baby that is the exact opposite of that, then you have Leo. Everything from their eyes to their affinity (or lack thereof) for the bottle are on opposite sides of the scale. We have videos of Will crying because he couldn’t crawl when he wanted to. Leo would quietly resign himself to trying again. Will would scream bloody murder if he was laid down for a nap, Leo simply turns his head and goes to sleep (although neither have slept alone all that well until after age 1). Leo laughs and smiles, a lot, he is quite simply a happy baby.
I am not sure how I would have held up had they come in reverse order. In some ways, we thought if we survived Will, we can handle anything. Even to this day William is stubborn as a mule and generally goes to the beat of his own drum (he went to school today for a bike race and wore his helmet, even when all the kids stared at him, he was content to wear it). I am very excited to see Leo’s personality come out more and more as he gets ever so close to speaking. He flaps his arms and makes all kinds of noises, but no real words (in moments of duress and despair, he will say mum mum, but I think that just comes out).
There is some speculation as to the final color of Leo’s hair too. On some days it is definitely orange/red color and others I swear it will darken up and look more like mine (which has all kinds of colors, seriously ask people that cut my hair). He is crawling too. He went from a belly scoot to a full fledged crawl in a number of days. He can roll from front to back, but gets suck on his back and he can sit up without assistance too. He still seems to struggle with eating solid foods. He either really hates the taste of everything (must be a Beale!) or he just doesn’t get the whole spoon thing. In short, he is growing up rather quickly.
I can only imagine what its going to be like when Leo is old enough to run around with Will and come out to the shop with me. Switching back to Will, he has finally gotten the hang of potty training, although the accidents still happen. Nine times out of ten, accidents happen because he is stubborn and doesn’t listen to me when I tell him to go try. But what do I know, right? I am just his dad.
A note to facebook readers: Facebook changed the way they post things and when I linked www.niblet.us to my facebook page it never posted a news feed, but apparently it does now***. Just be aware that for whatever reason, the photos in the posting don’t come through the news feed, so to get the full effect, you have to go to www.niblet.us, should you care to.
***I’d prefer to post discreetly and not spam the hell out of everyone (which is basically what the facebook news feed is), but the link is convenient for a few people. It does worry me that my high school English teacher has the possibility of reading my horrific grammar and punctuation, but rest assured Mrs. B, I am much better at giving speeches.
August 26th, 2009
Well, that was difficult. I have to get over a huge hurdle in writing this post in that so much time has elapsed it becomes difficult to start again. Very similar when you get gung-ho to go to the gym and then you stop for a few weeks and it becomes easier and easier to ignore it and rationalize with yourself that you’ll start fresh the next week. Then about 5-6 weeks later, you realize nothing has changed and you’ve got even more work to do. So it is time for me to put in some of that work, so recapping the changes:
niblet.us
So after the move to IN, niblet.us hit some road blocks. I bought a new wireless router and the connection to the server would go down 2-3 times per day and only a power cycle of the router would fix the problem. So I returned the router and bought a different brand and that one seemed to grab a new IP address every night (for the none techies, lets just say it causes issues too). So while talking about all of this with Angie, she re-iterated she would be sorely disappointed if something happened to niblet.us. That comment finally pushed me over the edge to move the site over to a hosted service.
So after a long drawn out process, niblet.us was moved. Uploading the 6000 photos took some time and getting everything setup correctly just added more time. I finally got the major things right, but there are still numerous smaller things that I will try to tweak over time. I don’t like the color of the links in the photos section and all photos that were in the blogs have to be relinked. Not a big deal, but it will take some scrubbing. Nevertheless, it is close enough now.
The House
Well obviously we’re in a new house now too. We didn’t buy it as we were short of time to look for a house and at the time, our St Paul house had no hope of selling. In the end, it is not a bad house. It is much larger and has a huge yard which takes me about 4-5x to mow than the old yard. Will has a real room now and my office is in Leo’s room (he’s rarely in it anyway). Angie and I even have a half bath off the bedroom which I have pretty much claimed as my own.
We were given a nice swing set for the backyard and so far that is the highlight for Will. Although he claims this house has too many closets and he doesn’t like it, I think he’d miss his swing if we left for too long. Angie did all the painting in the house so when I eventually upload some photos, you’ll see it (I have to go through a process of re-arranging the albums as The House isn’t THE House anymore). I still have numerous things laying around that I think Angie wants me to hang up, but she is too busy working nights to ask anymore. There are also still boxes sitting around that need emptied or thrown out, so officially, we haven’t finished unpacking.
The Jobs
I can put jobs in the plural form now as Angie has officially started her residency. The downside is she started on nights in the ICU. Not fun for her or the family, but we only have two nights left and then she’ll switch back to days. I’ve been with the boys at night and during the weekends and with some help from the family the time with them hasn’t been too stressful. Bedtime is usually the most difficult as Will becomes very needed and usually has to go to the bathroom, have a story read, have toys found for him, and generally stays up too late playing in his bed.
As for me, I left 3M at the end of May. It was weird. I heard the door click and suddenly, I felt the weight of the decision. I realized I would never walk in those doors again and when I saw my house again it would likely be for the last time. I went home, checked every inch of the house and walked out another door. We signed our papers and before 4 o’clock we were on the road leaving MN for the last time. Every beginning has an ending and every ending brings another beginning. For me, that beginning is Alliance Cost Containment. The whole change was a big leap for me, but so far I am very glad I did it. I am really looking forward to the work I will be doing.
Misc.
So our new house is much like most of Indy and there aren’t a lot of sidewalks to walk on and certainly the road is busy enough to keep a lot of cycling out of my mind.
My new shop is tiny, but I have managed to cram even more machines in (which were the only things that caused the move to be any real issue).
I am really enjoying being so close to family and friends, but I do miss some people from MN. I also miss having the Menards 3 miles away and knowing exactly where I could find anything in the local Target.
I am happy to know I can have Steak n Shake anytime I want, but Texas Roadhouse excitement quickly wore off for me.
There is a Famous Dave’s here, but it seems to suck compared to its MN counterparts.
There are some pretty cool parks around us, but nothing like the Como Zoo and Como lake.
One of our neighbors made us an excellent peach pie, but they are older and I am not sure if they have any kids. Our other neighbor is really old. A vast change from our MN neighbors.
I kind of like not having to work on a house or look at all my unfinished work.
Leo is almost crawling. He has the leg thing down, but hasn’t figured out how to move his arms with his legs.
Since we won’t be away from our house for a week this Christmas, we will probably get a real tree this year.
This house has issues with ants.
Indy is kind of behind with the whole recycling thing.
Although I hound Angie about it all the time, I think the house does look nicer with paint.
We don’t have enough furniture to fill this house, so I am really eager to make a few things to fill the holes.
That’s it, I am calling it a post. Thanks for reading.
July 10th, 2009
Well here we are, less than two weeks away from the big move down to Indiana. So much has happened in the last few weeks, I’ve let all the possible blog topics just pile up. Much like my bills, I’ve ignored it until its past due. Nevertheless, there are no late fees with blogs. So let’s jump right into the recap.
Will turned 3. We hit the local Chucky Cheese (which I consistently referred to as Noble Roman’s and Showbiz Pizza) and Will got his much talked about “Shark Cake” (the sharks on the cake are “eating” Nemo gummy snacks). He seemed to enjoy the cake, but I think he was more excited to get the Lego Sharks off the cake.
Somewhere along the way we sold the house. I think we signed the papers in late April, and the house was off the market after about 2.5 months. Since we’re closing the day we’re moving back to Indiana, the timing couldn’t be better. As the closing date gets closer, I am realizing how much I am going to miss the house. Although, reality would have dictated a move (or a really large project) in a few years anyway. On the bright side, I am getting out before any major repairs are needed.
Angie is now an official med school graduate. It seems like ages ago when we first discussed her going to med school and she has accomplished her goal and then some. On the route of becoming a Dr, she became a catholic (not an easy task), married me (not an easy task), and had two boys (really not an easy task). She marvels me with all that she accomplishes and sometimes I wonder why she settled for a guy who procrastinates blog posts.
Speaking of me, I stood and watched Will put his hand down on the oven’s burner. We were making scrambled eggs and I pulled the pan to dump the eggs. He leaned in to see and minutes later his hand was a blistered mess. The Dr (not Angie) said he had 2nd degree burns all over his hand. The major spots were his finger tips, all down his ring finger, the heal of his hand, and his thumb. 
At this point the blisters are starting to come off which is causing him to slightly freak out. I will take that little bit of freaking out over listening to him in the back of the car clutching his hand saying “owie, owie, it hurts!” That was after the Dr visit when they wrapped his hand and he couldn’t ice it down anymore. The Motrin kicked in not long after that and he did pretty well the rest of the day.
Then we had Mother’s Day last weekend. Angie painted some pottery to commemorate our time in Minnesota. Since it was rather pricey stuff, Will painted a leaf and I watched Leo. The pottery has finished firing, so I will have to get some photos up of the finished plate and leaf.
That took me weeks to get out. Maybe things will change when I am unemployed in the coming weeks.*
*okay, I am not really unemployed, but I won’t be going into an office anymore.
May 18th, 2009
Well we made yet another trip to Indiana. Since about July of last year, we’ve been back 5 times and that is a lot when you consider I use to hate making the trip twice a year. It is going to be weird living there again and not having to show up two days early for family events and taking time off work to make the trip. I can’t imagine what I will do with those extra 4-10 days per year.
Well the trip home served a number of purposes. We had Leo baptised (photos pending). Angie and I looked for houses and, of course, we got together with the rest of the family for Easter.
The baptism went well. Poor Leo just couldn’t make it throught the whole thing though and fell asleep in Angie’s arms.
On the housing front, we saw a number of houses for sale and almost all of them were written off within ten seconds of walking in. It really bewilders me how my house hasn’t sold when I was looking at some real junkers for just slighlty cheaper than mine. Ultimately, and with no less than 2-3 days of debate, we decided to just rent a house. With our current house still on the market, it just didn’t seem like the right time to buy for us. Maybe in a year or two things will settle down and we can shop for more than an afternoon. Honestly, I am just looking forward to not having to work on a house and being to spend some time working on my various hobbies.
William spent the weekend playing with his cousins, eating candy, and generally crying about not being in his own bed. I slept with him the whole weekend mainly due to lack of beds and after the first night, he seemed to control his obsessive need to put his feet on my back. After that it wasn’t too bad. He did a couple of Easter egg hunts and with help from his older cousins managed to find a few.
Now perhaps I am just a tiny bit hungry, perhaps it is the spring weather, or perhaps I have just not been able to get back in the kitchen due to the need to keep it clean for showings, but I have a major hankering to do some cooking. Although I visit and poke around on various woodworking blogs and forums, its never really occurred to me to do the same for cooking. I found Pinch My Salt while googling around for biscuit flour and just her photos alone make me want to run to the kitchen and get started. Adding to that the labyrinth of information at the Good Eats Fan Page and I really just beginning to see the iceberg of information.
The issue I have always had with recipes on line, esp from places like Allrecipes.com, is who do you trust? I’d say about 50% of what I make only gets made once and I won’t go back to try it again (aside from biscuits and gravy). So if I am going to take the time to find and try a recipe, I don’t want it to suck. My sister Liz is usually a good barometer. She either has good sources or a better understanding of cooking basics (likely both) and when she makes something, its usually very good. Much like woodworking, I’d like to work with someone to learn some of the basic ins and outs. The cooking classes I have taken were always helpful, but since its been well over a year since I took one, retaining all the information that was packed in an hour class is difficult.
Now with the pending move, job change, extra kid, residency, and daily life, I am worried cooking is going to take a serious backseat. Already, I can say my consumption of McD-like food grossly outweights home cooked food. But I have fired up the grill a few times and added an excellent butter to my steaks, so I have to be happy with that. I’d just like to expand on that and get away for just eating mashed potatoes and bread with that meal (although my potatoes rock the block).
I think that is enough thinking aloud for now. Time to hit the grocery.
April 16th, 2009
Just wanted to document this wonderful day! I got my first choice for Ob/Gyn residency which was St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis. Jon and I were anxious for this day since oh, last summer, when I started seriously thinking about residency and where the best place would be. I happened to look at Ob/Gyn programs in Indiana and liked what I saw from St. Vincent’s website, but also noticed they only took 4 students (now 5) per year. So I decided I would probably have to do a rotation there to a) figure out if it was a good place to train and b) help them know me from Eve so I would have at least SOME chance at one of their spots. The only open time in my schedule was August and, of course, they told me they didn’t have any openings for an away student in August. I could have given up at that point, and part of me wanted to because I couldn’t IMAGINE leaving Jon and Will for a whole month to live in Indy and I didn’t know where the heck I would live there anyway. But I sent one last pleading email to the residency coordinator stating my case and to my surprise, she created an opening for me. I was shocked and realized it would be very impolite to now say “I don’t have the kahunas to come!”
Then, fate paved the way again. My sister-in-law Laura is a nurse and decided to do a little away rotation herself in Colorado and her apartment in Indy would be sitting empty in August. That was definitely a big sign that this was meant to be. Anyway, I got it all arranged and the day finally came for me to head to Indy. To think back to that day STILL makes my stomach churn. I literally vomited on the side of the interstate somewhere in Wisconsin because I was SO sad to leave my little Will who was 2 years 3 months at the time (plus I was 3 months pregnant and still a little nauseated). I cried and cried so much that I was a hazard on the road, and I had to call Jon at least 5 times to have him convince me not to do a U-turn. But eventually I arrived in Indy, eyes nearly swollen shut from crying, and I at least found a little piece of comfort in Laura’s apartment – pictures of Jon as a baby:)
The next day I headed to St. Vincent’s main hospital and the minute I walked through the doors I felt better. It felt like home. Statues of cute little nuns made me smile and feel at peace with my decision. The day kept getting better, too, as I met more of the residents who all seemed very much, well, like me. It was still an incredibly difficult month (Jon and Will came down for about 10 of the 30 days), but even though I felt so lost without my boys, I was excited to be “at work” everyday, learning from the residents, delivering babies, doing surgeries with the high-risk team, rounding, and seeing my Indiana friends in the evenings. I had a good feeling St. Vincent would take the cake in the end…
But for some reason, I still felt compelled to apply to lotsa programs and interview at 8. That’s not a ton – I think the average medical student interviews at around 5-12 places depending on how competitive their chosen specialty is – but it was again very difficult to travel all over pregnant and alone. A few places seemed promising but I always felt like I was cheating on St. V’s to even think about ranking them first.
Then came my St. Vincent interview. The night-before dinner was at one of the resident’s homes and as I headed there I said a little prayer that God would give me a sign if this was the place for me. I parked in front of his home and sat for a second in the dark and glanced up to see a bright shooting star. So God is cheesy, but I was thankful for what I considered glorious confirmation!! The next day I headed to the hospital for the interviews thinking it would be low-key considering everyone knew me….think again Ang! I was asked the TOUGHEST questions I’d been asked anywhere. Lots of ethical questions that I really wasn’t prepared for. Everyone was nice as could be, but they meant business. And you know what? That made me want to go there more. They challenged me when I thought I could be lazy, and if they do that for the next 4 years, I know I will be as well trained as I can be. I left there wondering if I had any shot after my bumbling replies to questions like “do you think children should be allowed in the room during childbirth?” and “how do you feel about prescribing contraceptives….what about abortion?” But I had faith that all the hard work and signs from above meant something. And today, I got my reward. Funny – my reward is going to suck around 80 hours out of me per week, but I strongly believe that I couldn’t be happy doing anything else. Hopefully my boys will realize that I’m not putting them second by accepting such an all-consuming career, I’m simply leading them by example. Go for what you want, pray and listen when God sends you signs, and challenge yourself to see how far you can go….but don’t worry, I’m looking for a home within 10 minutes of the hospital so Jon and the boys have NO excuse for not coming to see me on those long days and overnight stays!!
I also can’t end this without saying thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way, especially Jon. I don’t know how many times throughout the last 4 years I’ve said, “I just don’t know if I can DO this” and he always reassured me that I could. And that we, as a family, would make it through just fine. I can’t say that he is a patient person, but somehow he mustered the strength to be patient enough over the past 4 years as I did rotations with call every 4th night and spent most weekends studying only to fret for 2 days after the test and then repeat the whole process again…I’m so grateful, and I hope the support we receive from family and friends in Indiana will help him remain patient through the next 4 years as well!!
March 19th, 2009
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