Update on my Internship!

Hey, so you might be wondering what Emily has been up to and why she has not written a blog post in such a long time! (I thank Francisco for being such a good blogger and keeping it updated for our few faithful readers.)

Well, along with being pregnant and the joys that come with that, I have been spending my time learning the skills of a dietitian.

I started in January driving up to Salt Lake every day to the South Main WIC clinic. This rotation was 1 month long. WIC is "Women, Infants, and Children" and is a government supplemental nutrition program. While I was at WIC, I shadowed several dietitians, counseled clients on how to improve their diets using the foods that WIC gives them, and created several handouts and bulletin boards for nutrition education. I also taught a breastfeeding class!

Overall, I LOVED working at the WIC clinic. I loved the people I worked with, I loved the work I did, and I liked having the strict schedule of clients regularly coming in. We were always busy doing things that were fun! I could definitely see myself working at a WIC clinic in the future.

Next, I went to the Nebo School District in Spanish Fork. This rotation is 13 weeks and I am still here! It has been a ridiculously long time to spend in one rotation, but I have been trying to stay busy.

Some things I have done while here:
- Promoted National School Breakfast Week at a junior high where we played games, won prizes, and had music. It was pretty fun. Our school might be featured in the National School Nutrition Association Magazine next month-- we'll see! This was also featured in the Spanish Fork Net, a local (and very small) TV network.

This is one of the posters I made to advertise breakfast week. (The national theme was breakfast detectives and so we made it pink panther breakfast detectives because their mascot is the panther!)
The second picture is me and Alice, the lunch clerk who helped me pull this off! We are behind the mystery fruit booth where they had to guess what the fruit was. We had dates, mango, papaya, coconut, and Asian pears.

- I've done quite a few studies in the cafeterias looking at acceptability of the food. Those have been fun.
- My favorite part has been the child nutrition education segment of this rotation. I planned with teachers from all different grades to come and teach a nutrition lesson to their class(es). I LOVE teaching. especially nutrition. I thought I would like teaching elementary school best, but I found out that I really liked teaching the high school kids! Of course the elementary kids are ADORABLE and so sweet, but I think if I had to do this long term, all their comments and stories and questions would just drive me a little crazy. When I was with the high schoolers, I felt like I could be more myself. I could joke with them, be a little sarcastic with them, and really relate with them. It was nice to be respected as a professional and yet not feel like I was so much older than them.

So, I totally learned something new about myself! I would rather work with highschoolers than with elementary schoolers. (and the middle schoolers were the hardest!) Who woulda guessed? I could see myself working for a school district teaching nutrition classes to each grade level. That would be super fun!

Overall with this rotation, I haven't found a love for school nutrition or food service. Sure, it's a worthy cause to work on and always changing, but the atmosphere is just a little too laid back for me. It has taught me a lot though. I've learned that I DO NOT want to sit at a desk for all or most of the day. I hate that. I like to be with people and hopefully TEACHING people something. I feel a lot more comfortable discussing nutrition with people now.

Anyway, this internship has been fun. I'm excited to see more aspects of dietetics. Next is a long term care facility, an inpatient hospital, and a diabetes center! Fun stuff!

Arizona Trip!

My aunt, Ivan and Aprilee

Luke and I went to Arizona for my cousin's sealing. As a missionary in Colombia I used to tell some of the people I taught that if they got married in the temple I would come (at that time I didn't know I'll be living so far away). My cousin Ivan, his wife Aprilee and their 3 children were sealed for all time and eternity. Temple marriage, I believe, to be very sacred. I felt a great need to go. It was a beautiful sealing and it was touching to see how each child was sealed to them. I'm so happy for them, so happy to see how they live the gospel.

I can sincerely tell you that the 10.5 hour trip was WAY worth it. The Mesa temple is beautiful inside and I was able to feel a spirit of peace and happiness. I even remembered my own sealing and missed my sweet Emma even more.

The trip wasn't bad at all. Luke is just the perfect baby! Seriously he didn't cry once! My aunt Jacqueline and cousin Michelle came with us. Michelle did an awesome job entertaining him and she even taught him where his eyes are. My aunt Jacqueline can talk for ever and ever. I learned so much about my grandparents, how they met, how they raised their children, how they died, etc, etc, etc. It was very, very good.

Michelle was so good to him!

We had fun in Arizona, we even went to the pool because it was 99 degrees! Luke thinks he is a big boy and didn't want me to hold him. He would go underneath the water completely and I will have to take him out and he would just start laughing... what a turkey!

A quick update of Luke.

~ Knows how to turn on the laptop.

~ Knows how to plug in the mouse and the charging cord.

~ Knows how to put my phone to charge.

~ Knows where his belly button and his eyes are.

~ Knows what "zapatos" means. (shoes)

~ Knows what "vamos a orar" means and folds his arms. (It is so sweet to watch him do it). (Let's pray)

~ Knows what "siéntate" means and he sits.
~ Knows "Que hace el leon?" and he roars! (What does a lion say?)

~ When we say "ojitos" (little eyes), he starts blinking like crazy. I know it sounds really silly but it is so cute to watch.

~ Loves beans with rice. Seriously I need to take a picture of his face after he's done eating.

~ He speaks more Spanish than English I believe, in fact I don't think that he knows any commands in English. I seriously want him to speak Spanish. I know that he will pick up on English really fast. Being bi-lingual is a huge advantage and me being from Ecuador I have no excuse not to teach him.

Let's just say... we are going to have more pumpkins!!!! : )

How grateful we are!

I just finished going through our finances and I'm happy to see the blessings of Heavenly Father in our lives. I almost can't believe the numbers that I'm seeing. I'm grateful for all the grants, scholarships, and the opportunity to attend Brigham Young University (BYU). I'm grateful for the tithe payers that made possible the excellent inexpensive schooling that Emily and I have received. With both of our bachelors in science (BS) and Emily's $7500 internship by the time I start dental school we would only have close to a $3000 debt all together. I appreciate Emily helping me live a frugal life and a life within our means. We don't have fancy cars (nor a car payment), or cool phones or texting for that matter, but we do have peace of mind. Especially that neither of us is working (Emily is working for free), I can definitely see the blessings of tithing. We have everything that we need and some of the things we want, but keeping everything in perspective has been crucial. For some people paying 10% of their income might be hard or almost impossible, but for us it has been proven to be a blessing beyond measure. We don't feel poor at all, but rich in blessings. We are very happy!

Let him be little!!

Luke is pretty smart! No that I want to brag or anything... maybe just a little. Bye bye sippy cups and diapers!

Just kidding, he is still using diapers, it is a work on process though. Since he was a little sick we didn't work on it. He really doesn't like his sippy cup now. He wants a glass so we've been giving him a plastic glass and he does pretty well.

Here is a video that my cousin Steph, who lives in Miami, shared with me. I really liked this video.

Luke is growing so fast and I want him to be little for a little longer at least. I love him so much and I feel so blessed that I can be his dad.

Here is a video of Luke saying no!

Why is it so hard......

to go to school when this little guy is at the window!!!!

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be with him 24/7! I'll admit that sometimes I can get tired, but I love him! My time as a stay home dad is running out. I'll miss it.

I'm also sooo VERY proud of my wife and all her hard work. I am glad that she is doing her internship. If you think about it... being a new mom and finishing her Bachelors in Science (BS) degree was tough, but she did it! Way to go baby! I love you forever!

Dental School Journey

Who knew that applying to dental school would be so expensive, time consuming, stressful and expensive, did I mention that already! Well it is!!!! So far I've spent $4500-$5000 in this entire process. This includes applications fees, prep course for the DAT, registration for the DAT, flights, car rental, applications fee, etc, etc, etc. I'm super glad is almost over....almost...

I applied to 11 schools, got interviewed at 7 and got accepted into all of them. When applying I was considered a Utah resident (Utah doesn't have a dental school). That means that it doesn't matter where I go I'll be paying out state tuition which is usually $20,000 more per year . People made fun of me for applying to Baylor and Houston since they don't take a lot of people out of state. In fact, Houston only took 2 out of state students last year and Baylor only 5. I thought it was worth the change since tuition + living expenses is so much less for both schools, and it was only $170 more to apply.

Here is a list of the dental schools I interviewed at and the TOTAL cost for 4 years.

1) Baylor $165,776 (incl. scholarship for $50000, because I'll be paying in state)

2) Houston $233,044

3) Iowa $247,336 (includes a $60000 scholarship)

4) Oklahoma $360,000

5) Louisville $319,304

6) Maryland $372,856

7) Nova $389,376

I don't know why I keep going back and forward between Baylor and Houston!! I really like Houston and their new building, everything is going to be new!! I really liked the atmosphere there and how friendly students and faculty were. It is though $67,268 more expensive than Baylor.

Baylor is an amazing school as well, the only thing that bothers me a little is that they do all their LAB work (pretty much all of it), and that is really time consuming. I don't know if it's worth it to do all your lab work since dentist always send everything(crowns, bridges, etc) to a lab. Having Emily and Luke is a huge blessing to me, and I want to make sure I have enough time for them.

Seriously I don't know!!! It really boils to do I want to pay $67,268 for someone to do my lab work so that I can spend more time with family, or do I suck it up and endure 2 years of brutal lab work (That's why their labs are open 24/7 for no reason). Also the facilities are going to be way nicer at Houston. Baylor does all their lab work in the basement (no windows), Houston does them on the 3rd floor (with windows!) in their NEW building.

Wherever we end up going, I just want to say that I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for this blessing, my wife for her support and my little Luke for the inspiration, motivation he gives me.

I really don't know where to go, I will sure appreciate your comments about the schools, the city, whatever you know about Dallas or Houston.

School web sites.

http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu/ (Houston)

http://bcd.tamhsc.edu/ (Baylor in Dallas)

Cookie dough .... Anyone?

I can totally blame it on our oven! LOL

I am not a good baker at all! I mean how hard can it be to follow a 'simple' recipe, right? I have experience following recipes since I've taken Organic chemistry lab, but these cookies were something else!

I tried to make delicious chocolate chip cookies for Emily for Valentine's day and they just didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. Burned on the bottom and gooey inside!

Anyway.... I'll keep trying.

From right to left: 1st batch, 2nd batch, etc

deliciously uncooked! These cookies are great for milk shakes!

Luke and I visited Emily at work with flower and balloons. I tied the balloons to his wrist, it was so cute (sorry no picture on that). Afterwards We went to Tucanos for Emily's birthday. We ate so good. I love their fried bananas!

My little man

Next project: cheese cake

Interesting things about Luke.

1)He is not afraid of using the big toilet. He has gone number 2 twice this last week.

2)When he wakes up from a nap he sticks his fingers in his mouth, so I usually tell him "No en la boca" which means "not in your mouth". I thought he understood what I meant but he proved me wrong. The other day he had one of Emily's shoes in his mouth and of course I told him "no en la boca", he dropped the shoe and stuck his fingers in his mouth!! So I put it to the test and said again "no en la boca" and each time he will smile and stick his fingers in his mouth.

3) He is a little monkey. He can climb on everything!!! Nothing is safe on top of the table anymore. Is there such a thing as baby proof for chairs? Anyway.. he knows how to pull the chair out and climb on it to use the laptop! (I have a video on this, but I'm not planning to spent an hour uploading a 20 second video here)

4) He is really good at eating on his own. He wouldn't have it any other way.

It is so annoying to upload pictures... it takes for ever!!! I even resized them all! Why is the blog so slow???

Trial and error! ; )

"Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."

Potty training is going great! We've had too many accidents to even keep track (he's only 13 months) but I'm happy to say that all of them have been on the kitchen floor. I usually use chairs to block the entry to the carpet area (living room, stairs, etc). Luke thinks we are playing some sort of game where he is constantly trying to escape (with his butt naked I might add...) to the carpet area. I guess he doesn't like to pee on the floor because he slips and can't get back up. I am proud to announce that he has recognized when he needs to pee and doesn't feel like slipping on his own pee ; (. He's told me twice so far when he needs to pee. He started stomping his foot like crazy so I placed him on the potty and he went! You should've seen how happy I was and how intrigued Luke seemed to be. I praised him soooo much! Ohhh he is such a good little boy. I've also noticed that he doesn't really care if he has a diaper on so he won't tell me. Since I have to memorize tons of new words each week for anatomy it's hard to always keep an eye on him. I usually have him without a diaper the entire morning, while I'm preparing breakfast, doing dishes ( we don't have a dish washer so it takes for ever), and Luke is either eating, coloring or trying to escape.

As I was writing this post he was without a diaper and I noticed he was pushing! So I placed him on the potty and he went number 2 for the FIRST time!!!!! I am thrilled.

Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Being a little bit shy

Giving us his best rear view

Coloring

Coloring again

Just went number 2!

I'm trying to potty train him because all of my siblings and including myself were potty trained before 18 months, so I know it is doable. We'll see how it goes.

Next post...Emma's birthday!

Happy 50th Birthday Gramma!

Luke is QUITE the artist, don't you think???

Happy Birthday Ma! We love you so so much. We dedicate this post to you and your love and all that makes you, "you"!
We love your laugh.
We love your smile.
We love your sense of humor!
We love your style.
We love your need for new pictures!

We love your cooking skills.

We love your love!

We love your dedication to us.

We love your grace.

We love your spontaneity.

and here are some extra random pictures that I accidentally uploaded and decided to leve on because I know you love pictures of Luke!