North Of The Border---August 20, 2006

Sorry I was too busy to post anything last week. I hope I didn't leave you on the edge of your seat!

The big news is I passed my board exams! For some reason, the board of examiners will not tell you your score unless you fail. So I don't know if I passed "by the skin of my teeth" or "with flying colors". We were informed that 81% of the students who took the exam (nationally) received a passing score. We will be getting more information about next year's clinical rotations this week so maybe I will have some news about that next time.

We attended the graduation ceremony for the physician assistants yesterday. One of our friends, Robert Jones, is in the class. Robert was specially recognized among the class as being a particularly suited role model for other physician assistants. Good job, Robert! He is going to work with a orthopaedic group near Springfield, Illinois, which is where he is from.

Both kids are registered and geared up for school to start on Thursday. School always starts on a Thursday here. Kirsten (8th grade) is in chorus instead of handbells this year and will be in Algebra I which is usually a course for high school freshmen. Caleb's teacher will be Mrs. Renaud (pronounced "Reno"). She was his 3rd grade teacher the year before last and we rather like her. Caleb is separated from his usual classmates this year, which we think will be a benefit. Behavioral expections of children seem alarmingly low here.

Cheryl's birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday, Cheryl!

Time for church.

North Of The Border---August 6, 2006

Kind of a slow week. It has been a little cooler, though.

Congratulations to Mindy and JD on the birth of their son! We trust all is well and hope you are able to get at least a little bit of sleep.

We went to the Iowa Cubs game last Wednesday (yes, we skipped bible study). Caleb had won 4 tickets from the public library because of the amount of reading he has done over the summer. Good job, Caleb! Angel Guzman was pitching for the Cubs and he has spent some time in the big leagues this year.

School starts this week in earnest for me. Most of the time is spent on clinical rotations but we have a little bit of class, too. The first course is Basic Surgical Skills where we learn aseptic technique, the instrumentation, all of the knots used in surgery, suturing, and even some of the surgeries themselves.

This week on Wednesday, besides being my 37th B-day, is also the 37th anniversary of Helter Skelter---the most famous of the Manson family murders in Los Angeles. For some interesting reading, go to http://www.findadeath.com/, click on "Directory", scroll down to "Sharon Tate", and click on it. Once there, you can also click on the words in blue to see various pictures. Some of them are very gory, so be forewarned. Another site is http://users.adelphia.net/~mansonmurders/index.htm and it's pictures are even worse.

Not much elso going on.