Fall Ball

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Saturday night was the hospital foundation’s 2010 Fall Ball. They host this annually to induct person’s into their hall of fame. There is a speaker, wonderful dinner, silent auction, live music and dancing~you name it. We were told of it weeks ago and warned in advance that it was formal but not quite sure how much. Adam wore a suit and I a dress with 2″ heels. A car pulled in next to us and a woman got out with feathers in her hair and we immediately knew that we certainly were not OVER-dressed!

I had ordered my shoes online and had them sent to my sister’s address earlier last week and my 18 and 21 year old nieces saw me pick them up Friday night and asked if this was “uh, like a prom for adults?”. Turned out to pretty much be. And let me tell you….it was awesome.

There were truffles with a cute lil’ go box by our name cards at our table. The room was draped in chiffon from the ceiling to the floor. Live music all night. Prime rib was served and the speaker was LeAnn Thieman~AMAZING!

LeAnn Thieman is a nurse but is also a well-known writer and speaker. She wrote Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, in addition to many other of the Chicken Soup books. Most interesting, however is that she was one of just a few people that were a part of Operation Baby Lift in 1975 where she helped take 100 babies out of Vietnam to the U.S. She had photos where they literally took babies 2-4 per cardboard box in a cargo plane. Very inspiring.

There was a photographer there that took formals of each couple and I am told we will be receiving this in the mail. It was wonderful to meet my partner’s spouses and the other 270 people there!! As we dress up NEVER, Adam had his camera out OF COURSE and caught me coming down the stairs. Remember when I fell and broke my arm last March. Yeah, well that was the last time I wore heels. This was almost a fall but I caught myself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, one final photo of us (isn’t Adam a hottie!)…the night just confirmed even more that we realllly want to take dance lessons. Too bad we have never lived close enough to a bigger community that offers them.

First day of school….ahem, err….new job

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Adam couldn’t resist:

It went great. Everyone is very kind. My nurse, Janna rocks. My day was actually booked with patients (yay!). Best of all, my mama sent me a humongous plant. I think it is a peace lily and it is now time for me to go research on how to keep it alive. My nurse says she doesn’t have a green thumb either. The good news is that it is a very large plant for my very LARGE office. I’m going to get this plant it’s very own stand and Adam and I will pray for its well-being this very evening, poor thing….

We’re Here!

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Whelp, we made it! And our supplies for the next month are unpacked and we are fairly settled in, dogs and all! Adam even has his temporary “home office” set up, two computers and all. With a trip for groceries in the morning planned and then to my new clinic to move my stuff into my office we should be ready for Monday!

 

The place is a beaut. A quaint gorgeous bungalow type home that she has decorated with antiques. There is a bedroom on the main level that Adam is using as his office and the loft upstairs is where we are using for our bedroom. It is a really sweet place, though with little things scattered here or there that catch you off guard. For example I switched on a light switch and some lights turned on above some windows that you wouldn’t expect, ditto later on only under the stairs going down from the loft! Kudos to our realtor for taking care of us this month as far as putting a roof over our head all for the cost of only the electric bill and mowing the lawn~we are blessed! Here is what we saw when we walked in:

**Everybody loves BABIES!!!!**

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Yay!! We finally got our chance to watch it. It was only in the theater briefly here so we had to wait until it came out on dvd and I purchased it this week so Adam and I could watch it while in the hotel and it was everything I had hoped it would be!!!

Here is the trailer to just fill you in if you haven’t heard of it (it is only 2 minutes long)…It is a movie but has no narration.

There are a few things that we found so interesting but not at all surprising.

  • The births: the baby from San Francisco must have had something wrong (they didn’t show anything of that) but they showed all sorts of monitors hooked to her and IVs plus we noticed little bruises, etc. Were they pointing our technology in the US? We also noticed the birth from Mongolia to be a very detached birth. In that I mean the mother didn’t even hold the baby after birth. The most “skin-to-skin” type of birth (which research all over the world has shown is the best) was the one in Namibia, Africa.
  • Bonding with babe: Everyone seemed to bond with their baby pretty well except once again in Mongolia. That isn’t to say they didn’t it just wasn’t as frequent. In fact, that infant stayed on its back the majority of its infancy…on the same bed, literally.
  • Bathing: Mongolia was in a bucket. San Francisco in a shower, even a Hot Tub at one point! Namibia has pretty much no water so as gross as this seems the mother was literally spit cleaning the infant.
  • Toys: The infant from Namibia played with rocks, bones, sticks~even was teething on these. The one in Mongolia didn’t really play with anything as he was always bundled up tight on his back until he was almost a year old. The infants from Tokyo and San Fran had you name it at their disposal for toys. And, they went to all sorts of organized play groups as infants…and in each of these groups they seemed overwhelmed. In our favorite scene (close to the infants birthdays) it shows the infant from Tokyo sitting in her room surrounded by all of these wonderful toys and she is picking up one and can’t get it to do quite what she wants it to and gets frustrated and throws herself on the floor and crys, then grabs another and this continues on….and the movie flashes over to the infant in Mongolia who *SURPRISE* is no longer on his back but is now sitting up on the floor but tied to the bed so as not to get into danger I assume but he was able to reach a roll of TP and man oh man was he having a ball! He was giggling and smiling….all with a roll of TP. And they kept going back and forth between this little guy having fun with TP to the little frustrated girl in her toy-store like bedroom throwing herself on her floor over and over again.
  • Medical care: everyone had it except for Namibia. Even in Mongolia there was a nurse/doctor home visit that weighed the infant, etc.
  • Development: The producer did a good job at spanning across all four infants and comparing that they all do the same things at the same time pretty much no matter where they are EXCEPT for the infant from Mongolia. Poor guy….he was late to walk. And, I really really wonder if this isn’t because he spent probably the first nine months of his life bundled up tight on his back (in fact I am sure this is why). And is this how they raise their infants (as in a belief) or is it because his mama was so busy working outside~she was seen milking cows at one time??? The movie actually ended with the lil’ guy finally standing and gaining his balance….it was great!
  • Odds & Ends: Clothing is so over-rated. 🙂 These Namibians and Mongolians have this figured out….The mother of the infant in Namibia wouldn’t let his hair grow out. In fact she kept it short with a knife. I especially found the pacifier that they gave the Mongolian baby fascinating: it appeared to be a piece of intestine with a match stick to prevent him from sucking it to deep (ingenious!)-hee hee.

These are just a few of my observations that I can remember right off hand…a great movie that everyone should see. I have a friend that uses some of the Montessori principles for play with her little one. I like the one where you do not have gazillions of toys/books out for the child at any given time. They can get so over-stimulated. Adam and I talked a little bit about this actually last night after watching the movie and he was all about it….especially after the hilarious TP scene…

Overall I think in the US we are overstimulated and therefore it is hard for us in general to “slow down” for an extended period of time without getting antsy~and I am saying this as an adult so imagine this for our children. Are we providing so many organized events/activities for our children that we are stunting their imagination/creativity? From a medical standpoint this is something I have long-wondered and have wondered if this contributes to obesity in kids and maybe even some of the behavioral problems that parents come to me with all of the time?

Hmmmm….

And, the Mayflower departs….

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The carnival men came again Monday morning bright and early and worked miracles!! Even though there were 6 of them it took 7 hours this time and I am told they loaded 11,600lbs (yes that is eleven thousand six hundred POUNDS!!!).

I DID get my desk cleaned off Sunday night finally and this is what the office VERY quickly looked like after the semi arrived!

I spent the rest of Monday sitting on the floor in different areas of the house finishing up paperwork and other odds-n-ends until the movers finished and the Mayflower departed with our worldly belongings. As they left they said, “see ya in a month!”. I guess it will be the same crew that will be delivering to our new home next month.

So we are now officially in Lincoln and I guess “in between”. The dogs are being boarded at the vet. I am being boarded at the hotel while Adam is working during the day. 🙂 We will be going to our realtor’s home where we will be at for October on Saturday and Adam will be transitioning to “working from home” on Monday and I at my new job on Monday!! I’m nervous~hope they like me! But more than anything (and it is because of this we know that we are doing everything that He wants us to…I am VERY excited for this change!).

And, they’re off…..