Speedy

White Coat

Last Saturday, Phil was inaugurated into medical school with the White Coat Ceremony. Apparently, it's a big deal, very similar to a graduation ceremony with better, more interesting talks, and fewer students.  Since we didn't have our camera at the time, I'll have to humor all our 3 viewers with video.  We took this following the ceremony when all of the new medical students congregated outside to meet with their families.  The ceremony took place in Baldwin Hall, at Truman State University, the local undergraduate liberal arts university.  Really pretty campus.

Phil has really enjoyed his first week of class. He is not feeling overwhelmed or crazy. . . yet.  In fact, he feels really comfortable with all of the material (minus his embryology lecture today) because it's all been pretty much a review.

This afternoon, the three of us had a lot of fun at Taste Of Kirksville.  It's an annual event held in the gym at A.T. Still, for the first year students to see all of the clubs and organizations available to them.  Every association at ATSU sets up a booth around the perimeter of the gym, and you can walk around and talk to second year students in the clubs, and, if you bring money, you can sign up and join the ones you want to.  

Today, Phil joined the AMA (American Medical Association), MOSA (Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons), the Sports Medicine Club, OTM (Manipulation club) as well as the Family Medicine club and LDSSA.

I also joined a club, the SAA (Student Advocate Association).  The SAA is awesome!  I've already met a lot of the current and joining members, and Gabe and I went to Playgroup yesterday.  This is an organization for the spouses or partners of students.  We get together often to exercise, to activities with kids, make meals for moms with new babies, make meals for student club meetings, attend workshops to become educated about the medical field, and just get to know each other.  We have free access to Kirksville's Aquatics Center and the gym/rec center (I can take spinning, pilates, zumba, weight training, etc... classes).  All of the spouses of students are soooo nice and most have kids or are pregnant. 

Back to the best part of Taste of Kirksville.  In the center of the gym, many of the restaurants and vendors in Kirksville set up booths for sampling.  Only, this is not Costco sampling.  This is full-plate sampling!  Enchiladas, pizza, calzones, steak, chips & salsa, popcorn, strawberry lemonade, brownies (and these are just the ones we had)!  Gabe got a balloon from someone and that made him happy for awhile, but he got tired and cranky before we left.  My favorite t-shirts from the event came from the OBGYN club.  One of the t-shirts said: "Stirrups aren't just for cowboys."  Another said: (front) "I'm at your cervix." (back) "We deliver."  They made me laugh pretty hard.

Ok.  One more video from tonight.  I was laying on the ground and Gabe was climbing over my body to get to toys on the other side.  He's basically standing up and crawling at the same time.  I kept laughing and thinking to myself how cute he is, and then I remembered the video camera.  By the time I got it out, though, he was whining and ready for bed.  He doesn't climb over me in the video, but you get the idea.  Oh, and please mute it, so you don't hear my voice :)

K-Ville

We're officially in Kirksville (that's Kirksville, Missouri) now.  I've sort of dropped the ball on keeping up this blog for two reasons:
1.  No internet in our new place until now
2.  I left my camera cord that connects to the computer in Utah, so pictures will be few and far between since I'll have to get them put on a CD at Walmart (yes, there's a Walmart here) before uploading them to my computer
However, I plan to do better to keep the fam/friends up-to-date!

Recap from our pre-move:

Gabe was shivering, so Jackson wrapped him up

Messing around with Mitra

Grandpa Ross wants Gabe to be a DJ

Saying goodbye to great-great grandma

Farewell to Skye

And I thought we would have a half-empty truck...

Kirksville

What do we think of Kirksville?  . . . We love it, absolutely love it!  It's a small town, but not too small.  All the houses are old, but unique.  The two universities here (which are both only a couple minute's walk from our home) create an interesting climate.  We're in a family ward, but there are lots of students (mostly married, and some with a kid or two), so we'll have people to connect with.
Our duplex is AMAZING! We were kind of scared driving into the city for the first time, never having seen the place before.  But, we hit the jack-pot with this place!  It's huge, compared to our last apartment, super-clean (it's only 4 years old, and they just re-painted), bright, a 3-minute walk to campus for Phil (it is literally THE closest place you can get to A.T. Still. . . who knew?), and we have a washer/dryer, dishwasher, AC (works great).  All for cheaper than our moldy old place in Provo.  Gabe's got tons of space to run around, and his own bedroom! No pictures of the duplex yet, but once I have some, I'll post those puppies!\\
Love the ward, love our home, love the city!

Thousand Hills State Park - 8 minute drive from home

Updates: Gabe got his first tooth, has learned how to roll the ball "back" to me (he gets it to roll, but the direction is usually off), and he is trying really, really hard to crawl

Tried to capture the tooth, but his tongue is always in the way

Rocks back and forth on knees, but either gets scared or faceplants it (as shown)

Wash Hut

I just changed the background on our blog -- to one of the templates already on the website.  I love this background!  These washing machines are the exact ones we used for 3 years at the WASH HUT on the corner of 600 North and 500 East in Provo.  I wanted to include a picture of the actual building, but couldn't find one online (quickly), and now I'm kicking myself for never having taken a picture of this blessed landmark.  Fond memories.  Phil and I met at the Southridge Apartments right next door to the Wash Hut.  We would do our wash at our apartment's small laundry room, where the washing machines only cost $1.  Then, we would heave our wet and heavy clothes over to the Wash Hut, where you could get 10 minutes in the dryer for just a quarter.  After we got married and moved several blocks south, the Wash Hut was still the closest place to do laundry, so we continued to take our clothes there until we moved out of Provo.

Chunky

We're so happy that we have a chubby baby!  I haven't seen his neck in months and the tire he has around his middle makes finding diapers that fit nearly impossible.  Abbas, my step-dad, calls it his "Gypsy belly."  Last year, while I was pregnant, I started praying for a chubby baby, primarily because our baby would need to be big if our plans for this year's Halloween would work out.  I won't unveil our plans yet, though... Anyway, here is a sampling of Gabe's rolls and chunks from his 17-pound body:

This picture was taken several weeks ago, but it really accentuates the belly!

His legs get stuck in his Bumbo

Gabe Jeter

Gabe got a new baseball hat from his Grandma and Grandpa Wells.  He's ready to go play some ball.

New Firsts

Gabe had a doctor's appointment yesterday (shots included - ouch!), and we got the go-ahead to start giving Gabe solid foods.  Our trial run was last night.  I think he likes the cereal, but he purses his lips so tight and spits out everything we succeed in shoveling in.