News of the Decade!

Dr. Nelson has been accepted as a resident into the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Program at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY (about 40 miles north of Manhattan). He begins the program on July 1, 2011, and we will be moving up there towards the end of June. We are thrilled. Peter has paid a very steep price to follow his dream of becoming an oral surgeon. A few of his colleagues have not yet been accepted into OMFS programs even after internships and other similar grunt work as GPR's (general practice residency - one year positions in hospitals as dentists). So, we are very grateful and very blessed. The best part about this whole thing is that 1. Allison gets to quit her job and 2. she gets to own a puppy! Westchester is a more affordable place to live with more wide open spaces. We'll have to buy a car, of course, so its ironic that we just got rid of ours a year ago. After four years of dental school, two years of internship, and the upcoming four years of residency, this is truly the news of the decade! Congratulations Peter on all of your hard work, dedication and persistence. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. :)

The Joy Monster

Last night Peter exclaimed aloud, "this family history indexing is really bringing a lot of joy into my life!" Is that an adorable quotable or what!? He's been online frequently this past month, indexing names and learning everything about his new calling - Family History Coordinator/Supervisor. He has three people he coordinates with, trains, and "supervises," in addition to working with the family history missionaries in our ward. He is planning a training meeting next week, but plans on working one on one with new members or anyone who is interested. His biggest accomplishment to date? Getting ME signed up to index names! I enjoyed it as well, and hope to lend some reconnaissance to deciphering Italian, French and Spanish surnames from the Census. There's even a point system for indexers: so far I have one point and Peter has 300. Thus, he currently has more joy than me. Watch out - as he'll be contacting you soon!

MLK Day

Six years ago on MLK Day, Peter came to AZ to visit me to check out the "love connection," as we'd been emailing for months and hadn't seen each other in almost 5 years. We hiked Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale. It was unseasonably hot - a record temp of 81 degrees (in January!?) The heat must have sped things up because we ended up having our first kiss atop the mountain. Peter's still embarrassed that it happened publicly. Ah, the memories. It was a perfect day.

This year our definition of a near perfect MLK Day is a bit different: We slept in, went to the gym, attended a waffle brunch and pigged out (amazing syrup recipe below), then Peter took a nap while I watched a BBC mini-series (highly recommended: Berkeley Square, 1998), then we took a walk, went to a birthday party, walked home, ate some supper and I finished watching my mini series until late while Peter was on line. Fabulous! :) How was your holiday?

Marcus Bowers amazingly sinful syrup recipe:

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

Bring these three to a boil, then add 1/2 tsp. baking soda + 1 tsp vanilla; stir

Voila!

More Mama Mary pics...

Mama Mary in Manhattan

Many of you may be aware that my mother-in-law was here to visit us the week before Christmas. Oh, what a blast we had, frolicking and scampering about the city! We went to the Statue, Ellis Island, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, 5th Avenue, the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center, Times Square, several Cathedrals, Trinity Church, St. Paul's Cathedral, City Hall, Waldorf-Astoria, Tenement Museum, the MET, Central Park, the United Nations and out to dinner! Peter and I were so blessed to have her here. Peter didn't like the Rockettes but Mary and I loved it! Maybe the cost-value ratio didn't equate ($69 a piece). Anyway, one particular adventure involved Mary and I stumbling into St. Patrick's on Christmas Eve, 45 minutes before the Children's Mass - an annual tradition involving a procession of kids taking baby Jesus to Bethlehem. It was pretty cool, even though we were stuck in the very back and couldn't see much. We enjoyed the familiar Christmas hymns and scriptures. It was an international experience in typical NY style, as Christians from all over the world were in attendance. Thanks for coming Mama Mary! XOXO

Girl Fight on the Subway

Crowded subway, very crowded subway. Thursday morning, 8:15am commute. Two girls standing behind me, discussing who knows what. I'm reading my book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Cannot help overhearing conversation because its happening 14 inches from my ear.

Her: "What the $%^@ am I going to do? I mean, F- %$^&, $%#^ F- (0!l;@l, #3$%@@^$%; so then he was like, F- $%@1!8&5, and I was like$%@$!!&*4%. F-------
ME: "Nice Vocabulary."
Her: Excuse me!? F-%^#&^*!@!2K! repeated three times.
Me: There's no need to be hostile, I simply requested that you watch your language.
Her: Its a free country. I can say whatever I want.
Me: Well, I'm just sad. For you. And your vocabulary.
Her: Go on back to reading your book, or we'll show what we do to girls in Brooklyn (clearly in reference to my book title)! $%!#@4F-K%^. Sniggering obnoxiously with her friend.
Me...staring: Seriously? WOW. You really should consult a dictionary and get over the unnecessary hostility to polite requests.
Her: #$56@787W#45@#........ you get the idea.

Yes, I know I was self-righteous. Yes, I know that I didn't handle it very well. Yes, I know that I should "get over" the F-bomb being dropped every 3 seconds all round me as a part of the NYC experience. Or should I? Hmmmmmmm..... I just had to vent. And I can't help but think of President Kimball's experience in the hospital when he asked the nurse to not take the Lord in vain. What would the prophet have done in this experience? Its hard to know what to do in these situations that perpetually disturb my peace with very belligerent people. AAARRRGGGHHH. Thats all I really wanted to say. Please validate me. :)