Tribute to Ryan (my brother-in-law)

"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing . . . but to turn it into glory." -William Barclay

Last month was Ryan's birthday and Sherrie had come up with the idea for this poster and I was able to lay it out for her to give to him as a birthday present. I just wanted to say that it is such a joy to celebrate Ryan's successes. These are pics of Ryan after he finished his first Ironman. I have had the privilege to watch him train over the years for half-ironman and ironman competitions and I have seen first hand his dedication, hard work, and perseverance in accomplishing his goals. It is incredible! Ryan, thanks for your example. It has been awesome watching you pursue your dreams! I hope it was a good birthday.

Oct 09

October was a great month! I should have written about it sooner, because I've almost forgotten how wonderful it was!

It started out crazy. The first week I had to finish a graphic design project that was due in September but was pushed to October due to the LeAnnyPop job. It was the final draft of the A Walk to Remember booklet that I've been working on with my Aunt Patty for years. It's embarrassing to say, but yes, it's true. Years. I think I started working on it when I was preggers with Asher. Needless to say, it was a very time intensive, well researched booklet about the founders of Santa Ana, California, which contains tons of pictures and a walk-along map so that you can read the histories as you follow the various tombstones in the Santa Ana Cemetery. It felt good to finally finish the final draft and actually read through it in it's entirety. It is fascinating! When it was done, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. However, somehow I don't think it is out of my life forever. It is still waiting for the approval from the Orange County Cemetery District and the funding to get printed, so I have a feeling it might return to me for a final revision. Below is the cover.

So the reason why this month was so great was because, once I finished my design jobs, I really got to sit back and relax and spend time with my family (which was greatly needed!) Aaron's Family Medicine rotation was heaven! He worked from 8:30am-3pm and had all evenings and weekends off. I was seriously falling in love with his schedule or maybe it was that I was falling in love with him all over again, because we actually got to spend time together. It was so much fun to relax in the evenings. I love watching him play with the kids and the other good thing is that when my husband is not stressed he is more than happy to cook dinner whenever...and he is mighty good at it too:) From a wife's perspective, I would really like it if my husband chose family medicine. It seems to be a great lifestyle! It may not pay as well as other specialties that Aaron is interested in, but it would meet our needs and give us a lot of family time and that is a VERY precious commodity. A girl can wish, right? The only downside to the rotation was that his assignment was in Webster Groves and since we had one car, that meant a ton of driving for me. It was great when Aaron could just take the car and we could stay home, but 3-4 days a week, we needed the car and would have to drop him off and pick him up. I don't think I've ever driven so much since we moved here! Whoa nellie! Of the last two rotations, Aaron preferred Family Medicine. I think he liked seeing a variety of diseases and working with people of all ages.  The doctor he worked for was great and she thought it was hilarious that Aaron had a knack for diagnosing goiters almost daily. Also, my favorite story from this rotation would be when the doctor sent him searching for cervix that didn't exist. Yeah people, you really should include the fact that you had a hysterectomy in your medical history!

Last month I got to run my 2nd and 3rd 10Ks! For those that didn't know, when I moved to St. Louis the first med wife I met, Mindy, happened to be a runner and I was thrilled that she would let me come run with her. I have come a long way since that first run when I could barely run 3 mi, but we have been running ever since and it has been wonderful. Anyways, we decided that we had gotten a little lazy since our last half-marathon in April and decided we needed a new goal, so back in August we planned to run 2-10Ks in October. It was really fun because we invited a ton of friends and got a great support group going. On the the 10th we ran in Edwardsville and on the 24th we ran in Chesterfield. I was happy that I PRed in both:) It felt good to push myself a little bit harder each time.

Edwardsville "Route 66" 10K (My time: 55:58)

Chesterfield "Gumbo Flats Pumpkin Run" 10K (My time: 54:00)

Probably, the best part about October was General Conference, all the fall festivities and Halloween of course! We loved General Conference this year and were happy to report that we were able to watch all the sessions even with 2 crazy kids. I will definitely have to go back and review the talks, but we did feel the spirit greatly in our home and have felt the increased desire to come closer to Christ. We got to go to Six Flags for one last trip to experience Fright Fest. Asher got to go on a field trip with his preschool to the Stuckmeyer Farm where he got to go on a hayride, play in the corn maze and pick out a pumpkin. Our friends from Chicago got to visit for a weekend to share the woes of residency:) The kids got to dress up a ton for Halloween. We went to Boo at the Zoo,  Halloween Party with our playgroup, Birthday Dress-up Party, Asher got to dress up for his Halloween parade at preschool, Truck or Treat church activity AND for a neighborhood potluck/trick-or-treating. Phew! I was very proud of myself that I made Asher's Joker costume. I had been sweating bullets over how it was going to come to be, and finally decided that I should just try to make it myself. I think I had sewing angels, because it turned out better than I had imagined.

Here we are: Batman, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and the Joker!

Sept 09

Seriously, September ended up being the busiest month of this year thus far. Wow! I'm so glad we got through that one! First of all, for anyone who hasn't realized yet, Aaron is in his third year of medical school which means that we are over the hump, but in the most challenging year of our medical school experience. I wish someone would have told me that the first two years are like the golden years. How wonderful it was to know what to expect, what Aaron's schedule was, when he would leave and when he would be home. I like being able to know what's up and plan accordingly. That is the biggest difference with third year. I NEVER know when Aaron will be home and what his schedule will be. Pretty much the best way to avoid disappointment is to expect the worst and hope for the best. Never plan on him being there, but be pleasantly surprised when he is. Does it sound bad? Ok. It hasn't been that bad. YET. (keyword=yet). We have made it through Internal Medicine which really wasn't THAT bad. It is challenging and busy and sometimes weird hours and getting used to my husband being on call is hard AND getting my 2 kids ready for and taken to church on Sundays can be really challenging, but we survived and I guess I'm stronger than I think. It always amazes me to look back and realize how this journey is molding me to be a strong, independent woman and mother. I'm learning to appreciate every moment I have with my husband, but be strong enough to handle it when he is gone. However, I am by all means NOT super great at this. I am getting better, but I couldn't take all the credit without thinking about all the amazing friends that I have that help carry my burdens and help me when life gets tough. I seriously feel blessed. So that was an unexpected schpill. Anyways, on with the events of September.

1. Aaron's Last Month of Internal Medicine
...was spent in the bowels of the VA Hospital. Of the 3 month rotation, this one was the most difficult. Mostly because he had to be there early, which means I had to forgo my normal workout routine and Asher started freaking out every night at bedtime. He hated not seeing his Dad in the mornings and started refusing to go to bed because he didn't believe Aaron that he was going to go to bed too. On top of that, Aaron was on call every 4th day. This was HARD and way too often for my liking! Inpatient at the hospital is NOT my favorite. Anyways, the good news is that the whole thing ended on Sept. 25th when Aaron had his shelf exam. Whew! Even though his experience taught him that he never wants to do internal medicine again, I was so proud of him that he did so well on his test. He said it was one of the hardest tests he's taken and he was shocked to get his scores back and find out he was in the 99th percentile. I'm so happy his hard work is paying off. p.s. I love seeing Aaron dressed up as a doctor. Sometimes I get glimpses into the future of what it might be like when he really is a doctor. It is thrilling to see my husband's dreams and career goals come to fruition.

2. Babysitting
This school year has had a new twist. I've decided to help a single mom in the ward by picking up her son from elementary school everyday and watching him from 3-5pm. It is hard giving up the freedom and flexibility in my schedule, but all-in-all it has been a great thing for our family. Asher LOVES his new friend. Of course he loves playing with older kids so that is great, but just the little time he spends with him everyday is helping Asher to mature a lot. I often hear Asher refer to him as his best friend "in the whole wide world" which is SO cute.

3. Asher started preschool
I was really back and forth about this decision, but in the end I finally decided that preschool would be a really great thing for Asher. He LOVES the structured activity and I think it is really good for him to learn to take instruction from other adults and I can see that the positive reinforcement is helping him to improve his behavior. I feel like he is having the realization that all the things that I have been trying to teach him at home are really true and are expected from him by other adults and in other settings too.

4. Strides 4 Kids 5K Race
This year was the second year that we helped organize and put on this event. (Strides 4 Kids is an organization of SLU Med Students raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.) It is a ton of work and is something that you have to plan for a year in advance. This year Aaron and I were in charge of advertising and design. Our job was getting the word out and doing the website, flyers, and other design needs. With the big board test in the summer and the beginning of third year, this was much more challenging than we thought. (At times, I think us wives felt like we carried the stress and the burden of the work.) Since I did a lot of the pre-race work, I was able to run in the event with some friends. We had a good time, the event was a success, and we were excited that we had a lot more sponsors this year and raised more money for our cause. Yay!

S4K Volunteers and a grouchy Asher:)

5. LeAnny Pop Couture
Really the reason I had a crazy month is because I took on a corporate identity design job, and because of a trade-show they were doing, I had some pretty intense deadlines. Since I don't really have time to work, me taking a job entails pretty much not sleeping and neglecting all my responsibilities. i.e. cooking and cleaning, etc. Factor in the part that Aaron was on call every 4th day and had a big test on the 25th equaled utter chaos and major sleep depravation in my home. However, the good thing is that I loved the job and had a really fun time working on it AND my children were angels for the couple weeks I was working on this. The job included logo, business cards, hang tags, etsy banner, packaging stickers for paper bags and tissue paper, and a 2'x3' oval hang sign. Phew! It felt great to finish. This gives you an idea of what it looked like:

6. Esther is walking!

As soon as she turned 9 mo (in August) she started talking her first steps and by the end of September she is really walking around. It is so fun seeing her become more adventurous as she's transitioning from crawling to walking and it is so weird to see this little person following me around the apartment on her feet!

Worst Blogger Ever

OK. I'm still waiting for my award for "Worst Blogger Ever," but it still hasn't come. I'm awful at this. I like blogging, I like reading other people's blogs, I think about what I would blog if I did, but it never translates. I never get around to it and basically there are just many more important things that I end up doing. I keep trying to decide whether to pick back up again, start over, or just delete this one and forget about it...but alas, here I am, and I decided to just make a deal with myself to blog once a month. Really, the main point is for far-away friends and family to know what we're up to right? Right. Ok. So I can post once a month. That's my new goal. Here we go again.
p.s. I find it kind of amusing that Esther is almost a year old and she has never even made her debut on this blog. Maybe my real award should be for "Worst Mother Ever." Ha! I had a friend point out the other day that I don't even have any pics of Esther on my walls. It's still just Asher. Good thing Esther isn't even old enough to notice:) Wow...I am so behind...

Happy Mother's Day!

Asher's mother's day present for his grammas:)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Merry Christmas

Well, we are pretty lame. Despite our best intentions, we were unable to mail out any Christmas cards. We did however have our Christmas letter written. You can download it here.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. If you can't view it, comment and let us know.

We love you! Merry Christmas!!

The Robinsons

Paul Chretien leads a DOUBLE LIFE!!

My suspicions were proved correct that Paul Chretien is leading a double life. I am not at all pleased with either presidential choice this year (Obama/McCain), in fact I really dislike both of them. That being said, I have been trying to decide who to vote for. I have been struggling with voting for the lessor of two evils, or voting for someone who I really want to be president. Anyway, in my search for my presidential candidate, I came across the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr (who I actually like) and realized that it wasn't Bob Barr at all, in fact it was Paul, leading his double life as a third party presidential candidate. Well Paul, the cat is out of the bag. I really hope you come clean with all this now. :)

Paul as presidential candidate Bob Barr


Paul (Bob) posing for a photo-op


Paul as "grandpa Bob"


"Doctor" Paul Chretien