May Recap

It can't be June already! I guess when summer never ends, you don't quite realize when it's starting again. In fact, it looks a little more like Fall around here since Summer means less rain some of the hillsides are getting tinged with brown and orange (just around the edges - it's still wonderfully green of course). We are supposed to be getting ready to move but the powers that be have been slow on getting us official orders so there is not much to be done but wait.

Ben - The highlight of May for Ben would probably be the discovery of his talent playing the ukulele. This ability should be no surprise as it runs in his blood (the Portuguese brought the ukulele to the islands long ago and his Portuguese-Hawaiian great-grandfather was a talented musician on Maui). So, on Mother's Day Eve the men at church organized a dinner for the women of the ward and the youth provided in-home childcare so that everyone was assured of having a great time at the ward function. It was held in probably the best located home in town with sweeping panoramic views of the ocean and mountains. The property and home itself are so beautiful it makes you sick to your stomach - in a good way. That was the scene. Following dinner Ben was able to join the entertainment of the evening which was kanikapila - basically a Hawaiian style jam session. After his performance with the group he was asked to be in the ward choir, invited to kanikapila at the beach on Memorial Day and given his very own ukulele song book the next day with the songs often played when they get together. I had a hard time getting him to leave so that we could relieve the babysitters and he admitted on the way home that "this was a rough one" meaning - he was already sad about leaving the islands but this just made it that much harder. I agree.

Work wise, since some of you have been, are in or are imminently going to be in the same position career wise and since that's where he spends most of his time let's report and commiserate. After Ben and I were just discussing how easy this general surgery internship has seemed (we expected the worst)(and it is relatively easy, because I do not see how he can get up that early and still come home with a smile on his face, then again, he's probably smiling cause he's finally home - whatever the reason he's made it easy on me) he started his neurosurgery rotation. After enduring demanding ICU, ER, Surgery and Medicine rotations I thought this one would be a good one to end with, however, on his first day, after being there since 5:30am he called at 7pm to say they were going into surgery and he'd call me when they got out. They got done at 3am. Thankfully, he didn't call me, nor did he come home. Since he had to be back two hours later, he made the right choice and stayed on some lovely bed at the hospital - either that or he has a mistress.

Miles - Still wears a size three diaper but is growing up and out. Can carry on a simple conversation and his favorite phrase, when he is the slightest bit disappointed, is "oh man" (said like Swiper on Dora except that he still won't watch TV (oh man) so I'm not sure where he learned it).

Avery - Graduated from her first year of Awana Cubbies. Is excited about moving to a new "island".

Me - May was not all flowers for me, in fact, I had one very bad day amidst some decent ones and a couple great ones.

Within 24 hours: I put a huge dent in our car while sidling up to what looked to be a harmless baby palm tree, my daughter broke one of my favorite dessert plates, our waterproof camera isn't actually all that waterproof, the dollar theater in town closed down and to top it off I realized, at the end of the day, that the shirt I was wearing all day is see-through.

However, I have a car, and the damage could have been much much worse, I still have 7 more plates and at least it wasn't my stoneware which I only have 4 left of, we have a DVD player to watch movies on and maybe me wearing a very sheer shirt made it a good day for someone else.

In other news, I finally lost all the baby weight from Miles.