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Mormon. Husband, and Father. Graduate student pursuing a Master's in nutrition.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

11 Non-Stop Days

There is a lot to catch up on... I'll start with a follow-up from 2 posts ago. My legs aren't better. The backs of my knees, my knee-pits, still can not be straightened all the way, nor bent without pain. I have no idea what it could be, with still no apparent cause.


This may be old news to anyone familiar with myself, my wife, or my blog, but it turns out I really do want to be a dentist!
Sarah recently went to the movies with her mom...


Ok, time out. Here's a mini catch up. About a week and a half ago Sarah's mom, Gail, visited for 9 days. On the 9th day we took her to the airport and followed what seem to be barely-helpful-enough "departures" signs. We dropped her off, made toward the exit, then rerouted ourselves back into the spaghetti-like routes, this time through barely-helpful-enough "arrivals" signs. Two friends of mine from the mission, Matt and Ashley Harkness from Brighton, Colorado, came to visit us (and Oahu) for 2 days after their 5 days on the Big Island; their arrival was close enough to Gail's departure to be extremely convenient. Everyone is now in their respective home towns, and Sarah leaves for Texas tomorrow for a week.


Sarah..mom..movies... right... Sarah got popcorn. When you pay for popcorn, you also pay for that junk to be stuck in all your teeth for the rest of the evening. The next day came and she still felt something back there. She whipped out the flossers and went to work. She has a back tooth that was already difficult to floss because of a filling that mustn't have been smoothed out enough. Sarah, thinking it a kernel, wasn't as easy on it as usual. She ended up chipping out part of her tooth where there must have been a crack, not a kernel.


The story:
Sarah made an appointment, and the next day we headed to Kaneohe. I knew I was about to enter, for the first time since I decided I wanted to be a dentist, a place similar to the one I would spend my next 40+ years. Upon entering the office I thought to myself "oh gosh, this is drab... I already don't like it", I then had thought after thought about whether or not I could see myself in that office the remainder of my working career. I told myself to wait until we got out of that cramped waiting room with the hard floor, and past that door with the stained glass tooth on it. We did so, and I began to get more excited. Seeing the organization of instruments, the little work nooks, the decor, hearing the small talk amongst dentist and patient, as well as dentist and assistant, and finally seeing the dentist himself, helped me begin to feel a whole lot better. After actually meeting Dr. Briggs, I made sure to inform him that I wanted to be a dentist, and I asked if he minded if I got close to watch his work. He gave me the green light followed by tons of other helpful remarks and instructions. He was the coolest guy, in his 60's or 70's, and still practicing happily. I would ask questions and he'd pause his work to answer (I made sure not to ask during what looked like important parts of the procedure). He was more than happy to answer my questions and he genuinely seemed excited and obliged that I was so inquisitive. It's silly, but having decided on dentistry based on a series of impressions I had, made me pretty naive about what the career actually looked like. All that I heard and saw, with the exception of that waiting room, got me so fired up about this career path. So, I now have not only impressions to go off of, but I also have an image of the workplace from an angle just a bit outside of a patient.


Things we've done in the past 2 weeks: Pearl Harbor, Hiked Waimea Valley, Hiked Diamond Head, Hiked Manoa Valley, Hiked Chinaman's Hat, Waikiki Firework show, Snorkeling at Shark's Cove, Pali Lookout, shave ice in Haleiwa, campfire s'mores at Turtle Bay, surfed at Lani'akea, hung out with the turtles at Lani'akea, a blanket fort in our living room, a murder mystery dinner with neighbors, and played a sprightly game of Quelf.


Wikiki on the 4th of July. Something you only do once.

About 7 of them in all just chilling on the beach at dusk.

This dude was beast, and that's a tracker on the top one.

Sheet suspender to hanger to jump drive to screw. Genius.

OH! Most importantly, the baby is the size of a 13.5 inch Rutabaga. I don't know what that is, but last week it was a foot long ear of corn weighing about a pound.
Baby mama has gained about 13 pounds and is 6 months along (25 weeks).
101 days to go!

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