SCO LDS Picnic

Today all of the LDS couples from the optometry school got together and had a picnic at Shelby Farms. The food was excellent and the company was even better. Here are some pictures...

Some of Kinsley's little friends.
Mary, Lucy, Rhylan, Lousia, & Kinsley


Eric's Balancing Act

Kinsley was tuckered out by the time we came home.

White Coat Ceremony

This past weekend we attended Eric's White Coat Ceremony. The convocation included the presenting of scholarships and other awards, first year students becoming official and receiving their white coats, and everyone clapping for 2 hours straight. Thankfully, it was only 2 hours (rumors are that last year's ceremony lasted MUCH longer) but I still missed most of it because Kinsley was fussy. While Eric clapped, shook hands with the SCO President and the sponsor whose company funded the coats, clapped, heard a motivational speech by Tom Sullivan, and clapped, Kinsley and I walked around the foyer and outside.

It was also homecoming weekend so the ceremony was followed by a bar-b-q dinner and FREE beer!!! As much as we would have enjoyed watching the alumni and Eric's classmates get wasted and fall off the climbing wall, we chose to leave early to meet up with some SCO couples in our ward for ice cream.

Good Mom - Bad Mom

My mom told me that she wanted more pictures of Kinsley and less pictures of Eric and me (gee thanks mom). I told her that nothing new was happening with Kinsley and she said, "Just put pictures of her on the blog so I can see what she is wearing for the day." I am not that crazy but here are some videos.

For my computer illiterate mother, click on the play button and you may have to adjust the volume on your computer.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

So I'm upstairs, reading through old tests to prepare for tomorrow's exam when I hear "AAAAHHHHHHHH!" from below. First thought: Kiley saw a bug. Then I hear, "ERIC! HELP! GET DOWN HERE!" I begin wondering if somebody got into our house so I make it down the 14 stairs in 3 steps (nearly falling in the process) and sprint to the bedroom to find her completely shaken up.

"THE BIGGEST SPIDER I'VE EVER SEEN IS ON MY BED!!" (KJ) I put my arms around her and feel her shake uncontrollably. Goosebumps raise up on her skin as she begins to go into shock. At this point I wonder if one of the humonginormous man-eating "fishing spiders" (like the one we fished out of the swimming pool last month) made it's way into our house.

"IT WAS CLIMBING ON MY SIDE OF THE BED, IN THE BED! HOW IN THE H$!! DID IT GET IN HERE?!" (KJ) I kicked Kiley out of the room to prevent further profanities but knew she wouldn't be appeased until the thing was dead and in the toilet. Fortunately, I noticed movement at my feet and saw this friendly lil' guy, which isn't a spider at all:

Having passed my entomology course with an A, I was able to identify this as a harvestman, of the order: Opiliones. Most of you probably call it a "daddy-long-leg." To learn more about the MYTH that these are the most poisonous "spiders" in the world, check out:

spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

Like scorpions, ticks, and spiders, harvestmen belong to the class: Arachnid, but they aren't spiders (only 1 body segment and only 2 eyes on the "daddy-long-leg")

This is a picture I found online
of a fishing spider, but it's
a bit smaller than the one
found in our swimming pool.

So, our pet harvestman is now outside, looking for some insects to munch on. And now, I return to studying...

Eric Started School

Eric started school three weeks ago. This is a picture of his first day of school. He seriously carried this many bags (four) on his first day. I thought it was funny because it looked like he was going on a trip.


At freshman orientation Eric received a diagnostic kit and a trial lens kit. Like a 6-yr old on Christmas morning, most of his classmates dug right into their new kits the second they got home, but Eric tried to act disinterested. Finally, when his curiosity got the best of him (around midnight), he sneaked out of bed and spent two hours playing with his new "toys." I am SO relieved that Eric enjoys school! It would have been pretty upsetting to move all the way out here just to discover that he didn't enjoy optometry. He comes home everyday and shares with me what he learned that day. He also loves to use his retinascope to look in my eyes... I have an "eye exam" on a weekly basis.


He also comes home with interesting stories told by other students and professors. For example: A patient came into the clinic with a painful eye infection. The doctor wrote him a prescription and told him to "take two of these pills orally each day." On the bottle were the instructions to "take two pills by mouth each day." One may think these are simple instructions... A week later the wife of the patient called the clinic and said, "His eye infection is getting worse and his eye is in a lot of pain." The doctor asked if the man took the medication as prescribed and the wife replied, "Well, we couldn't understand why in the world you would take a pill in the mouth when the pain was in the eye. So we have been crushing the pills and pouring the medicine into his eye." Yes... this is a true story.

rated PG-13 for adult content

(Kiley will probably delete this post as soon as she realizes that I've posted it, so if you're reading this, consider yourself lucky!)

I went to the bank this afternoon to deposit four checks. One was from our dear friend S.M. After signing the back of each check and filling out a deposit slip, I handed them to the bank teller and said, "I don't know my account number because we just recently moved here and opened this account."

"I can look it up for you. What's your social? ..."

As I'm waiting for her to make the deposit and give me my receipt, she starts laughing and says, "Are you serious?! Is this for real?!"

Thinking she was asking if I really wanted to deposit the four checks, I smiled and said, "Of course, I need the money..."

Her eyes popped wide open and she seemed stunned... I glanced down to where she was pointing and noticed that S.M. wrote the following at the bottom left of the check "for: SEXUAL PLEASURES." When I finally realized that the teller was asking if THAT was for real, I was a bit embarrassed but answered, "Hopefully my wife didn't see that one!"

So, now my bank teller thinks I'm a gigolo.

~Eric

Kinsley Update

Kinsley recently had a doctors appointment and now weighs 9 pounds 1 ounce and is 21 3/4 inches long.

She loves to smile and she has the cutest frown! Eric and I always laugh when she pouts and frowns at us. The other day she would smile and laugh and the next minute she would be frowning. We think she will be quite the drama queen. She also started rolling from her stomach onto her back... I have a video of her doing it... but I haven't figured out how to put it on the blog yet... =)