This week is all about Evelyn. Nobody really planned it that way- it’s just how things worked out. But hey- I can roll with that.


First of all, she had her book fair. Let’s step back a little bit though to something that happened last month. In Evelyn’s class, she is supposed to read a minimum of 300 minutes each month. There is a little calendar that gets sent home with her and we are supposed to keep track of her time, and then if she reaches this goal at the end of the month she gets a “puppy prize.” Puppy prizes are accessories that adorn little stuffed puppies that the kids get- things like nametags, toys, etc. For those kids who do exceptionally well, there is also an end of the year “puppy party” that they get to go to. Her class just started doing this last month.


Last month was crazy for us. I will be the first to admit that Evelyn’s studies were probably the last thing on my mind as we went through our practice merger, and consequentially she didn’t end up getting all of her minutes in. At the end of the month, she did not get her puppy prize. And she was devastated. She cried and cried, and even wrote an email to her teacher explaining the situation. The teacher responded and told her that it was okay, and that the future was bright for her and her puppy if she could get all her minutes in for the rest of the
school year.


Since that time, Evelyn has become a reading machine. She got almost all of her minutes for the month of November done in a single week. She reads every night for 30-60 minutes, and reads stories to the other kids whenever she gets a chance. I am very impressed with how fluid she has gotten, and it is fun to listen to her.





So, early this week I had the privilege of taking her on a daddy-daughter date to her school’s book fair. We did crafts together, played in the bounce house, looked at her book reports, and bought a few books to give to her teacher. I am one very lucky dad, that’s for sure!




Besides reading, Evelyn is very artistic. She loves drawing and coloring, and is very proud of her masterpieces. This week she decided that she was going to have an art sale in our front yard. We told her that it was pretty cold out and probably not the best season, but she was unfazed by these minor logistical difficulties.


She prepared all week, building her “portfolio,” and then on Sunday night she set up shop on a table in our driveway and started waving at cars. In all, she made $1.25- all of which came from our own family- but when it was time to come in she was still in high spirits and excited to continue the sale on other days. She sure is persistent!




Finally, it was Evelyn’s turn this week to do Sunday dessert night. She surprised me when she announced that she wanted to do cantaloupe and pineapple. I didn’t really think that was a dessert, but it was her night to choose so that is what we got. When it came time to present the dessert (after our family dance party),this is what we saw:




In short,Evelyn is awesome. I am so lucky to have a little girl like her, and it is fun to watch her grow up. I sure love her.


As for other news, there isn’t much to tell. I spent the weekend at an apologetics conference I was invited to for Evangelical Christianity. It had some pretty heavy hitters present, and it was both entertaining and interesting. I am glad I went. Just a note to Evangelicals: the open acknowledgement that a good education is the most threatening thing to your worldview ought to raises some eyebrows. The fact that it doesn’t is very disconcerting. That’s all (well, that’s not all…but that’s all I’ll say here). Anyway, Addy and Jack are loving their pre-school
and went on a field trip this week to see Seusical the Musical. Rachel and Maren really enjoy their one-on-one time during the kid’s school, and Lindsey really enjoys drenching all of her outfits in spit that smells like a mixture between vomit and rotten fish. She also really likes smiling at us, which helps to make up for the putrid throw-up all over everything. In short, life is good for us.


Have a good
week!

Not much to report this week.

I did my first on-sight of a 5.12 this week, which I thought was pretty cool. I have also made lots of climbing friends over the past year, and it has pushed me to be better. I'm hoping to be working on hard 12s by this Spring.

At work, Rachel is getting qualified as a "Solo V.I." which means that she can work any time she wants, with or without a partner, day or night, for as long or as short as she wants, while at the same time getting paid more for it.

Work is good for me.

Evelyn got her report card- she is above grade level in everything. That is not a surprise- she works so hard and is very motivated. She has taken to reading to herself in bed for at least 30 minutes every night and I am constantly amazed that I have a daughter who is so smart. It makes me feel old.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving with family.

Um...nothing else really. Here are some pictures of a hike we went on by our house. We live in such a beautiful area, and it seems we are always stumbling on these new places. This particular hike was up by Lake Pend Oreille- about 35 minutes from us.

Life is good! Have a good week!

We just finished out family dessert night (Hot apple cider, homemade pumpkin pie thanks to Addy, and ice cream), the kids are in bed, and I finally have some time to sit down and write. All I can say is that you’d better take a deep breath. There is a lot to cover in this post.

To start, let’s talk about my work. I promised that I would address this in the last post, and now that things have reached a good stable resting point, I feel like I can look back and tell the story.

So…two years ago Rachel and I started our own business- Heartwood Family Dental. To do this we purchased another office in town that was going out of business. Because of this we were able to get it for a pretty good price, but along with this price came a lot of work. Work that we were more than willing to do, I might add. It was a long shot, but we figured we were young and that now was the time to take long shots.

To put things mildly, it was a wild ride. I can’t help but draw an analogy to kayaking here, because that is something I am familiar with. For all you kayakers out there, this might help you understand.

Imagine that you are scouting the biggest rapid you have ever done. Up until this point you have kayaked a lot of rivers before, and you are confident in your skills, but at the same time you realize that there is always an element of unpredictability that could throw things off at any time. And if you are honest with yourself, it is this unpredictability that makes the river a challenge, but at the same time, it is this very thing that keeps you coming back over and over again.

Anyway- you are scouting this rapid, and you can see your line. You have identified all the spots where you could run into trouble, and you have made back-up plans just in case you do happen to find yourself in a position you don’t want to be in. You get back into your boat and make sure your spray-skirt is on tight. You check your life jacket and helmet, mentally rehearse the moves one last time, and then launch yourself into the current. All you can see at this point is a horizon line, and the river tends to take on a glassy appearance just before the drop that gives the illusion of serenity. And then the fun begins.

That was two years ago, and it was crazy. Like most good rapids, things didn’t go exactly according to plan, and we found ourselves just struggling to stay afloat for much of the time in the beginning. We also had a few other big disturbances in our lives during this time that made things even more interesting, and there were definitely days when we thought that we might not make it.

But we did. And as we moved forward we grew stronger and more confident in ourselves and in each other. We also found that the challenges we faced brought Rachel and I extremely close together as a couple and as a family. There is something about facing adversity together that does that, I think. But face it we did, and we learned and grew more out of the first several months of our business than I thought was even possible. It was incredibly scary, and incredibly rewarding, all at the same time.

And then, like a kayaker who is totally in her element, the rapids started to feel more and more familiar. We found that we had come to a place where we were back in control, and for the first time is a long time we could relax our white-knuckled grip on life. This time was pure enjoyment. Things were going well for us. I was building my reputation in the community, we were financially stable, and things just sort of started working on their own. It was nice. Finally, we were at a place where we weren’t acting reflexively at all anymore- where instead of being pushed around by the currents, we could finally chart our own course and reflect upon where we wanted to go. Only then were we able to come to a very important realization.

We were on the wrong river.

It was a nice river, for sure. It had a lot of good rapids, and it had taught us a lot. I’m sure if we had stayed on it, that we could have continued to have adventures for a long time- and it would have been fun.  But in the end, it wasn’t going in the same direction we wanted to be going, and the longer we stayed this course the further it seemed we were getting from where we actually wanted to end up. To drop the analogy for a while and put this into real-world terms, I was finding more and more that as much as I loved dentistry, I did not want to own a dental practice. There are certain stresses and conflicts-of-interests that come with ownership that I could do without, and I found that I was feeling a sense of isolation not having other dental colleagues to work with on a day-to-day basis. These things, along with a few others, forced us into a very difficult decision with no easy answers. But after much conversation, introspection, and prayer, we finally decided to get out and hike back to the river where we felt we were supposed to be.

That is where we are now. It is hard, because in some ways we feel like we are starting all over again. This time, however, we have with us all the hard-earned lessons and experiences from the past two years to ensure that we are in control. Of course, there will always be unpredictable turns, but we have learned not to be scared of these turns anymore. At this point we feel extremely confident that our decision to merge our practice together with a larger one will end up being the best decision that could have been made for ourselves, our patients, and our family. We are looking forward to the future- full steam ahead!

And that is all I will write about that.

Moving on, we just finished a great week with Marissa and Wesley, who have been visiting us at our home. Of course they brought a bunch of new table-top games with them for us to try out, and we had a lot of fun every night sitting around trying to conquer the world (or something like that) while enjoying the good company of people who we see far too infrequently. It was good having them.

Also, we obviously just had Halloween. Seeing as, in the vast pantheon of American holidays this is the one that stands far above the rest as my favorite, I could not miss the opportunity to write about it here. I mean seriously- how cool is it that we have a whole day- which for some becomes a whole season- just to look at our deepest fears and laugh at them in face? When else can we go out of our way to frighten small children (only to reward them with candy) without fear of having the police show up at our doorstep? What other holiday allows kids to run screaming to the houses of complete strangers demanding goodies, only to be met with smiling faces of people who are all-too-happy to oblige during the only day of the year which still truly presupposes community involvement? And when else do we get to send our kids to school dressed as their heroes, famous super-villains, ghastly phantoms, or even as figures unique to the fantasy-world that lies inside their heads, with no fear that they will be mocked or asked to face the much duller reality of the schoolroom? Finally, what other great American holiday can do all this with the beautiful backdrop of the vibrant colors, crisp sounds, and savory tastes and smells of an autumn time which is in full swing. The answer is that there isn’t one. Halloween stands alone in this category- it is a holiday that nearly everyone can identify with, from young to old, from religious to secular, and from red-neck Idahoans to the capitalists on Wall Street. There is something for everyone, and I LOVE IT.  

Of course we did jack-o-lanterns, and the kids all got to dress up in their costumes. Halloween night saw a light drizzle of rain, but it was mostly warm and didn’t seem to stop anyone from getting out on the streets. After our kids were tired out from running around (they lasted three full blocks this year), we picked them up in the car and drove to our church where there was a huge party going on. They had bounce houses and games galore, and of course more candy to hand out by the bucket load.

It was a good night.

Well, the only other thing I want to mention is a drive we went on last Sunday. We ended up at a little spot in the mountains that we just sort-of stumbled on. It was next to the river, and the kids had fun throwing rocks and making boats. They also went exploring and discovered a wild apple tree. How did that get there? I’ll admit, I thought it was a little strange to be walking through groves of pine and aspen only to see a lone apple tree standing in the middle of a grassy meadow. It was like something from a fairytale. Not ones to miss out on opportunities like this, we all quickly picked the ripest fruit we could find and then ate it while telling speculative stories to each other about how the tree got there. Our kids are all getting to be fun ages where this kind of thing is common, and I have truly come to enjoy getting out and doing things with them.

Oh. One more thing. Tonight we were eating chicken for dinner and it was the first time our kids had eaten drumsticks. In the middle of dinner, Adalie stopped and looked at her food with a critical expression. Then, in a very confused way, she asked “How did a bone get in my chicken?”

Yes- we live in a post-modern, industrialized, skinless, boneless world. For the most part, I am convinced this is a very good thing. Sometimes though, it makes you stop and wonder what isn’t making it through.

Well, Have a good week!