According to Rachel, this week we were "lame-o" picture takers. Sorry.

But it was still a great week (we just don't have any proof). There are three major things/events that happened this week.

First of all, our house is finally starting to look like we are getting ready to move out. Although we still have about three weeks before we actually drive away from Cleveland, we are trying to get an early start on packing to make things easier for us. Also, we are selling a bunch of our stuff on Craigslist. Consequentially, our furniture is slowly being replaced by boxes of stuff and our basement is filling up with already-packed items. It is an exciting time.

The second big thing was my Senior dinner. This is a big "we-did-it" celebration where we get to dress up and go hang out with all our future doctor friends and commemorate a great four years together. Besides the food, there is also a video that the class put together to remember some of the highlights of being a dental student. It was fun to be there and to be able to bring Rachel to see this other side of my life that she isn't super involved with. It was a little weird for me to think that she didn't even know the majority of these people, some of whom had become close friends of mine, and that they hadn't really seen her either.

There was also an award ceremony at the dinner where I was presented with an award from the American Osseointegration Society for outstanding achievement in the field of dental implants. I didn't know this was coming and I was sort of surprised, but I am also excited because I have done a lot of extra work in this area and it's good to see some recognition for it. I also set up my first appointment as a real dentist this week to place an implant as soon as I receive my dental license. This is all pretty crazy. And really cool.

The third noteworthy event this week, of course, was Easter. On Saturday we went to a big community Easter egg hunt. It lasted a total of 15 seconds and was possibly the scariest thing I have ever been a part of. Kids can be crazy. It was sad too, because after all was said and done, Addy, Jack, and Eva were just standing there looking a little bit shell-shocked and wondering what had happened. They had no eggs in their baskets.

They weren't the only disappointed children, so the organizers agreed to have a second "egg hunt," and this time, we got to be in the front of the stampede. Great. Now, besides being sad about not having any eggs, my kids are going to be trampled by their own kind. Awesome.

But Rachel had things totally under control. As soon as the announcer said "Go," she was running full-speed onto the field with a kid bouncing and dangling under each arm. It was really impressive, and I can tell she had been working out. She then started scooping up piles of eggs and guarding them with the tenacity of a mother bear protecting her cubs. I think she even made one little girl cry by growling at her. But it was all worth it because in the end she had created a "safe harbor" for our kids to pick the eggs up and put them in their baskets without running the risk of certain death at the hands of a greedy 5-year-old. By the way, we usually don't believe in sheltering our children, but desperate times call for desperate measures and in the end we came out unscathed and, believe it or not, smiling.

So, that was our week. Like I said before, no pictures. We do, however, have one movie to show you. These are Addy and Jackson's "exercises." They are going to be in great shape if they keep this up! Next Easter they will be ready!

-Movie coming soon. Check back later if it isn't up yet. We'll get to it. I promise.-

It is 10:15 at night. I have this nagging feeling though, that if I do not do the blog tonight, that it will not get done. Also, this week actually held a few blog-worthy events that I want to make sure I get down before they seem insignificant. So here goes...

First of all, Jackson does an amazingly cute impression of a lion. He makes claws with his hands, puts his arms up over his head, and growls. When he does this he sounds like an old man who has a chain-smoking habit. It's pretty good, and I sure do love my Jackson Man.

Next: Adalie is really good at signing "I love you." It has sort of become our thing. We will look at each other and sign "I love you," and then touch finger to finger, and then run our fingers up each other's arms and tickle each other. I know it sounds super cheesy, and it would be if Adalie were, say, my girlfriend in high-school. But she is my 1-year-old daughter who I cherish and who has found a cute way to connect with her daddy so I will embrace this. I sure do love that girl.

Evelyn got to go on a date with both me and Rachel this afternoon. A friend works for the Cleveland Orchestra and she got us tickets to "Peter and the Wolf." So today after church we put Addy and Jack down for nap time and brought Evelyn to the show. She loved it! She was very good for the whole thing. The wolf music sort of scared her, but at the end she said that the wolf was her favorite character. On the way home we had fun looking for "popcorn trees." I sure do love that girl.

Also, I think I will have the "Peter" theme in my head for the next two weeks. Drat! (I've been looking for an excuse to use that word.

Evelyn also got to host a "Tangled Party" this week. Shannon (Rachel's sister) sent her the movie "Tangled," along with a Rapunzel costume, several Rapunzel accessories, and some candy. Well, it just so happened that this package arrived on the same day that we were babysitting several of Evelyn's friends. So that night we had 8 kids at our house (including ours), and we had a movie night. It was fun, and I actually ended up liking the movie more than I thought I would.

Rachel spent most of her Saturday attending a workshop for interpreting. She had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The most important thing that I think she learned, however, is how good an interpreter she actually is. I am so proud of her accomplishments in this field and I think that it is very cool that she has this part of her that she can develop totally for herself. She does so much for me and the kids that it makes me happy when I see her doing this. I know she loves it, and it makes me love her even more.

As for me, I attended my first deaf performance on Saturday. It was a story-teller, and the tables were sort of turned because this time they had an interpreter there to help the hearing people who didn't know sign language (me) to follow along. It was actually pretty good. I don't think I have ever seen someone be so expressive without using any words before. Pretty incredible. It also looked pretty exhausting.

And that pretty much sums up our week. We have just started packing for this move but we still haven't totally figured out how we are doing it yet. Actually, we don't even know if we will have a place to move all of our stuff too. The next month is going to be very interesting. The next three months, even more so. Life is exciting.

Here's me and Evelyn at "Peter and the Wolf"

The Tangled Party

I just had to put this up. She has been able to say her ABCs for some time now, but I still think it is super cute every time. The dress she is wearing is the one she got from Shannon this week. And yes, Addy and Jack are crying in the background.

This week was busy. Now that we have a destination and a time frame it seems like the days are going by twice (three times?) as quickly as before. It also seems like we have twice as many things that we need to do every day in preparation for the big move.

One topic that seems to be prevalent in our conversations is exactly how we are going to go about this move. We could rent a moving truck and tow the van. That would be the easiest thing. The other option is that we could pull a trailer with our van which would cut the cost of the move in half. The only thing is that we would then have to sell a bunch of our stuff (a trailer is obviously much smaller than a moving truck) and then re-buy it all when we get to our new home. I've made a spreadsheet and everything, and this option seems to make a lot of sense except for the extreme amount of stress that it would involve. Also, this option is a little less predictable and may end up costing more in the long run. Oh the dilemma. I think we'll probably end up going with the truck, but I am sure that I will be second-guessing myself all the way to Idaho. I just hate it when I know I could be doing something a better way but I am not.

Despite the seemingly busy week we had we were still able to get out for some leisure activity. Yesterday we went to the zoo for the first time of the year and that was a lot of fun. I like zoos. I really am intrigued with the animals there and it is made even better by the fact that we have three children.

Evelyn: Look Jackson, a lion. Lion says raaaaaaarrr!
Addy: Raaaaaaarrrrr! giggle giggle squeal!
Jackson: (frantic wide eyed pointing) duh duh duh duh duh

Very fun.

Have any of you seen the movie Cinderella? You know the part where the mice are bringing the key up the stairs to rescue Cinderella. When Gus (the fat mouse) sees how many stairs he has to climb he does this same frantic noise- "Duh duh duh duh"- as Jackson. I think about this every time our Jack gets excited about something.

Since Rachel and I didn't get a date night this week we decided to create our own. After we got home from the zoo we fed the kids and got them off to bed a little bit early. Then we made a gourmet Italian dinner for the two of us and ate it by candlelight. Afterwords we watched a chick-flick. I have to say it was one of the best "dates" I have been on lately.

Well, I need to go. Evelyn just announced that she made us dinner. "Macaroni and Cheese" made out of nothing but water! This will be interesting. Here are some zoo pictures of our week. Enjoy. Evelyn "Riding on her camel." She says this ALL THE TIME. Ever since her first piggy-back ride. "I'm riding on my camel. I 'm riding on my camel." I have no idea where this came from. I had no idea she even knew what a camel was. But I am her camel when we are playing games, and anything else she can "ride on" also becomes her camel. She is so weird.

Every once in a while we experience big, life changing events that mark a significant change in our lives. I have had several of these events that have moulded me into who I am today.

The first truly life-changing day of my life was probably the day I got on an airplane headed for Brazil to serve a two-year mission for my church. It was scary and I didn't really know what to expect. I was going into something that was totally new for me. Today I look back on those two years as the time that, more than any other, shaped the person who I am. Brazil is where I learned how to be a grown up. It is where I learned the importance of relationships, how to form them, and how to keep them. It is where I learned how to be confident in myself as well as how to trust in others. It is where I learned how to set goals and how to make them come to fruition. And of course, it is where I truly learned the importance of God in my life and where I made the decision to give Him a very active role in everything else that I do. It was life-changing.

The next big change, I would have to say, came when I met Rachel. We met in a dance class and soon started dating. Rachel was the best friend I ever had. I think that after just a few dates she probably knew and understood me better than others who had been a part of my life for a much longer time. At the same time, I felt like I knew and understood her better than anyone else I had ever met. Our relationship was "synergistic" in that our differences seemed to make each of us better. We always knew that we loved spending time together and that a lot of our interests coincided, but as time progressed it became clear to both of us that we, in a very real way, completed one another as well. And that we loved one another very, very deeply. And so we got married. That was one of the best days of my life.

I would say that my acceptance into dental school marked one of these life-changing days as well. I had applied to several schools and each one of them had invited me to an interview. I was confident that I could get into any of these schools that I wanted, but I was about to put that confidence on the line when we both had the strong impression that Case Western, here in Cleveland, was where we were "supposed" to go. I clearly remember the afternoon that I systematically went through the list of schools and called them saying that I would not be interviewing. I had a clear vision in my head of me, standing in the middle of a circle, with several pathways extending out from it. With every phone call I made, a stone barrier blocked off one of these pathways until there was only one remaining. Case. This is the path we felt we should follow. The only thing is that we had yet to be accepted. And so it was with a little bit of nervousness that I opened the letter that I received from Case on December 1, 2006. Of course that letter held the happy news that I was "in" and that I would one day achieve my goal of being a dentist.

Of course the births of each of my three wonderful children have marked life-changing events for me. As I look back I realize how much my life, up until that point, centered around me. Of course Rachel was there too, but we were so much alike that it seemed the same. When we wanted to go rock climbing, we did. When we didn't want to wake up early, we slept in. When we decided to go on vacation we got in the car and left, sometimes for weeks at a time. Life was spontaneous and fun, but in retrospect, it was also a little empty. Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson have each taught me the amazing joy that can be found in giving your life totally to someone else. Sure it means that we can't do some of the same things we used to, but it is so totally worth it. The other night I was laying on the couch and Evelyn came and put her arms around me and told me she loved me. That in itself is worth all the sacrifice in the world. I have tried before to explain on this blog, but I just don't think that words can do justice to the amazing feeling of happiness that comes from being responsible for another person's well-being. It is truly life-changing.

So you are probably wondering why I am writing all of this touchy-feely stuff. Well, this week we had another one of those life-changing moments. I got my first real job. Here is the story.

Over the course of the last few years Rachel and I have had countless discussions about where we wanted to live. Whether it be Colorado vs. California or Idaho vs. Oregon, we have spend hours and hours comparing different places. And then one day, about 8 months ago, it hit us both at the same time. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The thought that we had was closer to a prompting than and idea, and since then we have had several strong impressions that this is where we were "supposed" to live. So the decision was made. The Hazard Family would be from Coeur d'Alene.

For the past 8 months I have been doing everything I can to network and get my name out to potential employers in this area. There were two major problems to this: First of all, I am currently living on the other side of the country. Second, my target area is small and a little bit saturated with dentists. I started out by sending hundreds (literally) of unsolicited letters and emails to anyone I could find in the area who might be able to give me a lead on a possible job. Obviously, most of these turned out to be dead ends. But a few people actually responded and said that I might try talking with so-and-so. Now that I had a reference, I could call so-and-so and say that I was referred to them by a colleague. This was obviously much better than just blindly sending off letters. And so the process continued. But although I was able to build an impressive contact list from these efforts, I still had very little in terms of possible places of employment.

The whole time we were doing this I was watching graduation arrive ever quicker. I was one of the few people left in my class who still didn't have plans for work, and I was starting to get a little nervous. After all, in 6 months I needed to start making payment on my student loans (which are substantial). Finally, through a lot of correspondence with a lot of people, I was able to plan a trip to the area to interview for three different jobs. One of these jobs was "perfect." The other two were just jobs that would allow me to get into the area (and pay my bills). If we didn't see any results from these interviews then we were going to go to "plan B" and begin looking in other places.

Well, this week we found out the results of these interviews. All three jobs extended offers for me to come and work. We talked about it, prayed about it, and in the end decided to take the "perfect" job. It is actually just across the Idaho/Washington boarder and will be a short 15-20 minute commute from our dream home (that we are still looking for) in Idaho. The hours are great, the dentistry is EXACTLY what I wanted, the location is perfect, and the pay will allow us to live comfortably. I could seriously not ask for anything else. This is life-changing. I have a sense that we are finally settling down. We are looking to buy a home that we will live in indefinitely. We are going to say "The Hazards are from Coeur d'Alene." It happened. After a lot of sincere prayers and hard work it really happened. We are so blessed. Here is a video I put together of the area. I don't know any of the people in this video, but they look happy!

Other things also happened this week. Actually, it was a rather eventful week. The job thing just sort of seemed to overshadow everything else. Here are some other pictures:

We went to a play-gym where the kids had a great time.