Last night we were watching a football game, and commercial came on for a well-known company. The tag-line for their product was to turn Thanksgiving into Thanks-getting. Clever...but in a way disturbing. The company is big enough that I'm sure plenty of market research and results from focus groups were scrupulously analyzed in the coining of this term. Getting. That's what's important. Really?

*******

I was driving with the kids the other day and Evelyn asked me how much money I made every day. I told her and she said "Wow, that's a lot" ("A lot" is a relative term). Then she said "That's pretty neat. You know why?"

"Why?"

The kids all responded at the same time with similar answers. Something like the following:

"Because with that much money you can help a lot of people."

*******

This was one of those parenting wins where it shows that something is getting through. We have tried to involve the kids a lot lately when it comes to our giving- from filling boxes for displaced families in Syria to buying Christmas presents for local families in need, to earning extra money so that we can take impoverished teens on much-needed shopping trips for new clothes, our kids have been a part of all of this and more, and have been able to see first-hand how their good fortunes can lift others as well. More importantly, they are starting to realize the contentment that comes from putting others' needs above their own. "Where much is given, much is required" is a mantra that will resonate in our home. At least that is my hope.

*******
This last weekend has been really good. On Friday and Saturday I had study club, where I got to do my first sinus lift surgery. Things went great, and hopefully within the year I will have done enough of these to introduce them as a regular part of my practice. This is exciting for me. I think I've mentioned it before, but ever since dental school I have wanted to drive my career toward the oral-surgery end of dentistry, and these plans seem to be falling into place nicely. Also, study club weekends are always rejuvenating. The camaraderie of the other doctors, the academic discussions, the reduced-fee services to our patients (we are learning, after all), and the hands-on clinical portions all mix together to remind me how much I really do love what I do.

On Sunday after church, Rachel and I took turns taking the older kids to Pizza-Hut to celebrate their reading achievements from school. I really like these one-on-one times; they are all too infrequent in a big, busy family, and it is nice to be able to have elongated conversations with the kids while doing something fun together.

I also took the older kids this weekend to see the NIC Chamber Orchestra perform their "Music Around the World" concert. It was fun, and the kids were surprisingly attentive. Toward the end they got a little restless, but hey, what can you expect from three kids under the age of 8? Jackson's biggest gripe was that they never had a song that featured "his" instrument- the drums. We'll have to watch some music videos of Rush for him to get his fill, I guess. (Mission accomplished. Neil Peart is officially my sons biggest hero).

Sunday evening we had a family Seahawks party on our new movie screen (yes, we have a movie screen in our house) with home-made pizza and ice cream with Seahawks sprinkles on top. Again, our kids were surprisingly attentive and asked intelligent questions about the game. It is fun having them grow up a little bit.

Today (Monday), Rachel and I finished going to all their parent-teacher conferences and came away feeling very lucky to be the parents of some pretty amazing kids. Like I said last week, Evelyn is way above grade level in pretty much everything, and is starting to really come into her own at school. She virtually danced around the classroom as she showed us all of her projects and her teacher said that she is almost always happy and fun to be around. This is welcome news to us, as you might remember me talking earlier about how Evelyn was going through a hard time (9/14).

Addy is also doing great, academically. She especially likes reading, has already passed off all her reading stuff for the whole year, and enjoys one-on-one reading time with the teacher while the rest of the class works on easier assignments. She is also making lots of friends, which is good to hear. "She is just a very sweet girl," is what her teacher had to say. And it's true. "Sweet" is probably the best word I could think of for her.

Jackson too, is doing well. He is a little quieter in class, but is very focused and extremely creative. He has formed a group of friends that his teacher calls "the art boys" who she has a hard time getting to finish assignments because of their excessive attention to detail and need to get things "just so." He is keeping up in other areas too, and has become the teacher's special helper when it comes to cleaning up. The one thing that he needs to work on is that he is really hard on himself when he doesn't get something perfect- an attribute that I think will push him to succeed, but which needs to be kept in check to avoid discouragement.

Well, the kids are starting to finish up their quiet time, so I'm going to go hang out with them for a while before Rachel gets home from work. They are out of school already for Thanksgiving break, and I have a shortened work-week which will be nice. We are looking forward to back-to-back weekends in Utah (with lots of driving in between), and the friends and family that we will be able to reconnect with during this time. It really is a good time of the year to be giving thanks- we have a lot to be thankful for.

Have a good week, and we'll be seeing some of you very soon!

Here's me and Ev when we went out to pizza. It's also our only picture for the week.

Normal big family doing normal big family things

It's about five thirty on a Tuesday morning and I am looking outside at our first snow of the year. It's already melting (I've come to appreciate the sound of water dripping off our roof through the drain pipe), but it's a better start than we've had in years past.

As for us, things continue to go really well. Our upstairs is almost completely furnished, but we're still waiting on some benches so I'm not allowed to post pictures yet. Also, I finally finished a big project I've been working on to publish in print the last three years of The Hazard Chronicles. I love having the hard copies, and they usually turn out looking great (patting myself on the back here). They are also a lot of fun to make despite the tedium of it all, since I am forced to go through every post that we have made and remember the events described in them. Man, it's been a crazy few years for us. Fortunately, 2015 is shaping up to be very different in a good way. I don't think I have felt this much stability in all aspects of life at any time...ever.

As for the week, it seems like we have been doing a lot

Last weekend we got a babysitter for Lindsey and everyone else went and saw Disney on Ice in Frozen. We all had a good time, but I think Jackson and Addy were the most impressed. It was really fun to watch their faces any time someone did a neat ice-skating move, or a new character came out, or a song came on that they knew.

Later in the week Rachel and I got out on a fun date where we bought barstools, ate at one of our favorite restaurants, and watched a movie in a real theater. And even though I just re-read that last sentence and it makes us sound really old and boring, we still had a lot of fun.

One of my favorite parts of the week was hanging out with Jackson on Saturday. He is in a city-league basketball game and I got to watch him play. He's pretty awesome. During the game he told me conspiratorially that he had a super power but that I couldn't tell anyone (so of course I publish it on the internet). His super power was that even though the other kids had their hands up, he could still see where he was going. Aha- so that's how he does it! Later that day I took him out to Pizza Hut to celebrate his reading achievements in school. On the way home he said "Dad- this is my favorite day ever because I get to hang out so much with just you."

It's stuff like that that makes it rewarding to be a dad.

Also, Evelyn had a movie night at her school this week that the whole family got to go to. We watched "Hotel Transylvania" and had a good time.

Speaking of Evelyn, we got her report card this week and she is way above grade level in pretty much everything. What I am even more proud of though, is our conversation last night. I asked her how school was going and she said "Good, but there is something I am struggling with in Ms. Jillette's class (GATE). It's really hard and I don't understand it right now, but I'll figure it out though. Ms. Jillette said she would help me, and I can work a little extra 'till I get it." That confidence is something new in her, and I hope it stays because I think it will push her farther in life than good grades ever will.

From her teacher: "Evelyn is a smart, quiet, and helpful young lady. I can always count on her to offer help to those who are struggling around her. Her compassionate heart makes her very well liked within our classroom. Evelyn takes her time on her assignments to make sure they are done just right. She is very artistic and focused to do her best at all times. I love having her in class."

Addy and Jack got their grades also. They are both doing well, though Jack seems to have a hard time with numbers. That's okay though- It just means that we  get to play a lot of BINGO at home with 1-20 on the cards. The kids love it! Their teachers didn't write anything about them on their report cards, but we have conferences coming up this next week so maybe I'll have more to say about them later.

Well, that's about it for this week: More of a log entry than any sort of deep insight into our lives. Put it all together though and I think it paints a picture of a busy family doing things that busy families do, which would be an apt description.

Lindsey is growing up! She walks around so much it is hard to keep track of her any more...especially when she finally figured out the stairs. Recently she has started to experiment more with her voice and it is fun to hear her say "uh-oh" every time she falls or drops something.

This was a Family Night activity where we took stuff apart to see how it worked (don't worry, the cord in the picture goes to something else).

Sculptures with Mama.

Pizza Hut with Papa

We came home from our date and saw "Evelyn's Flower Book" on the counter. "By: Evelyn of course!" I took a picture of my favorite page- "This is the walking flower. Yeah! I know it's pretty wired (weird), but it really does walk!"

Maren is rich!

Here's Jackson bringing the ball down the court for his team.

Have a good week!

The year before I graduated from high school, George Lucas began releasing the movies which told the story leading up to his Star Wars "trilogy" from the 70s. From what I could tell at the time, this was a big deal. Star Wars had been a pretty successful film, and these were supposed to be even better! Even in the small town of Rexburg, I remember seeing people lined up in front of the theater to see the first showing, some waiting in line for several hours, and many of them dressed up as their favorite characters. I wasn't too into Star Wars at the time (I'm still not), and I thought it was all a little bit silly.

That same year, Weird Al Yankovic released his most successful album ever, "Running With Scissors." The first track on that album was a parody called "The Force Awakens," a song who's success as a hit single was directly related to the new movie, and sung to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie." I remember getting a chuckle out of the song, and I even still remember some of the lyrics. I also wasn't too into Weird Al though (I'm still not), and I thought it was a little silly.

That song though, had a melody that somehow stuck with me and led me to the actual version of "American Pie." Now, I am sure I had heard the song before this point, but I had never before actually listened to it. When I did, back in 1999, I was completely blown away. Here, you had a country singer giving a beautiful history lesson on the history of Rock and Roll. Music was one thing that I was into at that time (I still am), and I thought that this song was a work of pure genius.

Since then, I have listened to a lot of music. I have learned the stories of a lot of bands, and I have even learned to play many of my favorite songs on the guitar. I don't know what it is, but Rock music, as a genre, as a cultural phenomenon, and as an "experience" is simply fascinating to me. It is fascinating to see the influence it has had over time, and how it, in turn, has been influenced and changed.

Why did I choose this time to tell about this? Well, I just finished my weekly lecture/assignment of "The Histroy of Rock and Roll" course as taught online at the University of Rochester, and I thought it would be a good way to open the blog. Also, I have been playing the guitar a lot lately, and so I guess music has sort of been on my mind.

Actually...about that. 

A few weeks ago I mentioned on our blog that I help with the music at the church our family attends (1st Pres. CDA). I have been hesitant to mention this too much on our blog, because I'm not sure how it will be taken by some people, but it has become an important part of my life so I figure I'll share. A few months ago I made a casual comment at a church social about how I liked to play the guitar. Well, one thing led to another, and soon enough I found myself on a stage in front of about 300 people. 

Over time, I have become a pretty regular part of the "worship team" (band), and I switch back and forth each week between playing lead electric and rhythm acoustic guitar. Our church has two different congregations (wards) that meet on Sundays, each with about 250 people. Our family attends the first one and then I stay through the break and play at the second as well. It works well for us. I have also gotten to know a lot of people through it, and have had a great chance to hone my musicianship. It has been a wonderful experience so far, and I look forward each week to finding out what we'll be performing the next Sunday.

Just as a disclaimer for those who hear "electric guitar" and immediately think of Angus Young, Slash, or Jimmy Page (at least that's who I think of), the music we play is pretty mellow. It definitely has a rhythmic or "rock" feel to it, as well as the occasional guitar solo (which I love), but there's no screaming or wild bends with the notes. For those who may be more familiar with LDS music- think about your EFY CDs as pretty typical for the type of music you would hear on any given Sunday. Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Like I said, it has become a fairly significant part of my life, if anything, because of the amount of practice that I have to put in each week to be able to not make a complete fool of myself :).

Other exciting news we have is that we got new furniture! This is a big deal to us. It is a signal that we finally think our kids are at a stage where we can start having nice things. That's all I'll say about that for now, since I want to include pictures of it on a different post (it's not totally set up yet).

I also guess I should write something here about Halloween Night. In our last post I showed off our pumpkins, but didn't mention costumes or trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun though. The weather cooperated and the kids got tons of candy. Early in the evening we went downtown (Coeur d'Alene), where businesses all hand out candy. There were tons of people there...and tons of candy! When we got home we went around the neighborhood and had as much fun looking as the decorations as we did getting candy. I have said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it every year it comes around- I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

Trick or Treating 

Rachel was a ninja turtle.

Lindsey was a cute (and warm) little unicorn

Evelyn at her school carnival

This was a fun activity- we are currently doing an "engineering" unit in family night (for Addy). This is us trying to build bridges,

Addy was heartbroken when we sold our old furniture. They were good couches. They were also good boats, good lava rocks, good forts, good shields, and good rocketships. Our kids have certainly loved that couch...almost to death. It was a hard day to see it go. I guess it's true that "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" (Seneca, as quoted by Semisonic). This one was particularly hard for our Addy. I can only imagine what she would be like if we had pets.

Well, I'm at work right now and I have about 20 minutes before my next patient comes in so I'm going to try to hurry and get this out. Otherwise, I don't think it will get done this week.

To start with, work is going really well. Financially, this will end up being the best month of the year (so far) for the office, and probably the best month of my life as far as personal income. That's exciting, but I hope that it doesn't raise too many expectations about me- the reasons I think we are doing well have very little to do with anything I am responsible for. What I am more proud of is the fact that we have an outstanding patient reschedule rate. That statistic means that we are awesome.

What's better is that things have settled down a little bit. I have Monday afternoons off again, so my work week isn't quite as full. It will probably stay this way until early next year, when I hope to cut down again to 4 days. We'll see what happens. Things are fairly sustainable now though, which is good.

Last week was a really good week with the kids except for a minor episode yesterday involving paint and the carpet...and the curtains...and the walls...and doors...and furniture. Other than that though, we had a lot of fun. Over the weekend we built a space ship and sat in it while watching Halloween movies. I saw "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" for the first time, which is sort of pathetic on my part, given the cultural influence the movie has had. Let me just say that Schulz and Melendez were brilliant cartoonists and I should have watched it sooner.

Speaking of great pumpkins- we carved Jack-o-lanterns this week for family night. At least the kids did. Rachel and I both want to do something a little fancier this year, but neither of us have settled on any ideas yet. Suggestions are welcome :)

The rest of the week can probably just be told in pictures. Also, I need to go. Have a great week!

Evelyn had an interesting idea- she cut out the teeth individually and skinned them and then stuck them back in with toothpicks. While this was done she joked that the pumpkin was getting implants. I guess she has a pretty good idea of what I do at work! Very creative.

Addy was trying to get the award for the happiest pumpkin

Maren was going for the cutest

According to Jack, he was going for the most artistic. And yes, he is familiar with Picasso.

Rachel spends time helping out in each of the kids' classrooms. This is on Maren's field-trip to the pumpkin patch.

Coincidentally, this is also on Maren's field-trip. It just that Jackson's class happened to be there also. Cool!

Rachel dyed her hair for the first time- blondish on the bottom fading into her natural color on top (in has a fancy name, but I'm not going to try to remember it). I think it is beautiful :)

This was a hike I took the kids on while Rach was working. They have known the story of Fred and Seltice (Frederick Post and Chief Seltice) for a long time, but had not seen the rock before where they supposedly signed a contract for the land that became our town. Despite the lack of historical precision, this is still a neat site to see, and a beautiful hike besides.

I wish I could make this easier to see. This is a collage of different decorations that Evelyn has designed and hung up in her room. The top says "The Joy Of Reading". The ones in the middle say "Read On!," "Write All Your Life," and "Learn!" The bottom has papers folded like books that spell out "READ." Can you tell what Evelyn's hobbies are? She reads almost a hundred pages every night. When I ask her questions, it shows that she totally understands what she is reading. I think it's pretty awesome. She is a child after my own heart :)

The weekly elephant.

The year was 1819. The days had just started to get shorter, and the air was starting to develop a cool crispness to it. On this particular evening late in September, the English poet John Keats decided to take himself for a walk near the town of Winchester. As he strolled down the countryside, he must have been thinking about a lot of things. He certainly noticed the fields ready for harvest, and probably pondered the delicate balance between the resplendent beauty of the season with the melancholy sense of finality that often accompanies it. He watched the animals preparing for the onset of winter, and perhaps considered the metaphors that could be drawn between the seasons with a life well-lived. He might have had other thoughts too- after all, who really knows what goes on in the mind of such a brilliant man? Either way, when he got back home, he sat down with a pen and began to write. 

Two years later the man was gone, but his work remained. The poem he wrote after his walk marked the end of his career. It is also considered by most critics to be one of the most perfect poems in the English language. "To Autumn" is a work filled with imagery and symbols- the work of a master wordsmith that few will be able to emulate. 

The subject of the poem though- Autumn- I think has inspired poetic thoughts from all who have taken the time to contemplate this magnificent splendor of the season. What is it about this time of year? Why do I find myself turning inward, evaluating myself on deeper levels than at other times? How is it possible to feel so overwhelmed by the excitement and joy of a season, while at the same time already mourning its loss? The season is so incredibly rich and complex and meaningful, and as I reiterate each year it comes around- I absolutely love it.

_____________________________________________________

This week has seen a lot of activity from our family. 

Thursday nights I play at a local racquetball league, where I mostly hold my own during the games but rarely end up winning. It's fun though, and I enjoy the company of the people I play with. On Friday evening Rachel and I went to a party/gathering of friends and enjoyed good food and conversation at their beautiful home while watching the sun set behind the river. Saturday afternoon I ran in a local 5k and ended up taking 4th place overall- not bad, even though I failed to hit my goal time by about 30 seconds. After the race I met up with Rachel and we went furniture shopping. Finding nothing, we decided to finish the night at one of our favorite restaurants, where we enjoyed the food while getting into a friendly debate about national politics. On Sunday we went to church where I have started helping with the music, and then went home and had a wonderful afternoon with a family walk and dessert night.

Also, this week we fulfilled our annual tradition of apple picking and baking! We did this for the first time the year we moved to Cleveland, and since then it has become a defining moment of Fall along with Halloween and Thanksgiving. As our family grows older it becomes funner as well, as the kids get into the action a lot more and have a fun time planning out what recipes we will make.

Can I also just say that I love going up to the orchard? It is like a giant harvest party, with music and games and autumn smells like caramel corn and apple cider and carnival rides and animals and everything a person could ever want from Autumn time all in one place. So much fun. Here are some pictures:

 

This is a "sandbox" of dried peas. It was sort of weird. As you can see, the kids are burying Rachel.

Our first creation: Apple Pie (Jack helped too, but didn't want to be in the picture). Today I am making Apple Fritters with everyone in about an hour when they get home from school.

I had to put this picture up as well. What you see here is a very happy man with his new Taylor Guitar. It is gorgeous and sounds amazing! For those who don't know, Taylor is like the Mercedes Benz of the guitar world. I have waited a long time to justify this one!

Things have been really, really busy lately. Too busy, in fact. I guess that's a very first-world problem to have, but I don't like it. Over the past year we have worked hard to achieve a sort of equilibrium between the different facets of our lives, and recently a few things have happened to upset that precarious balance. As a consequence, Fall is here, my favorite time of the year, and I feel like I have not yet had time to appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong- the changes are all positive ones, and most of the disruption is temporary. My new position at work has me doing 5 days a week instead of 4, and 3 of the the past 4 weekends have been consumed by large one-time events leaving either Rachel or I alone most of the time with the kids. These things have taken precious hours, or even days out of our schedules, and yet we continue to fit all the stuff we normally do into the condensed time in between.

I feel like I do when I'm running sometimes. Fatigued, but not yet wasted. I have the energy to move on, but sitting down and resting sounds like it would be really nice. Instead of stopping though, I find a point about a half mile away and promise myself that I will give everything I have until I reach that destination. When I get there, as long as I am not dead yet, I do it again, and again, and again. I can push myself for miles in this way. It sounds horrible, I know. But when I finally do get home then I feel a much greater sense of accomplishment about what I had just finished. Looking back, the run was better for having gone on without resting, and my body is stronger as a result.

Certain parts of this analogy break down, but I think it mostly works. We are mostly living week-to-week right now, just trying to tie all the loose strings together. So far we have managed. It's not fun, but the end is in sight. Starting next week I go back down to four and a half days. Neither Rachel nor I have any major trips or events for awhile, and we still have several weeks to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather before it starts getting cold. We are on the home stretch. Just keep running.

________________________________________________

As for this week, the big event was Rachel's four-day trip to Seattle for a work conference. I think she had a good time learning and hanging out with other interpreters. She has decided to pursue certification in legal interpreting, which is a credential that very few interpreters are able to claim. It'll take a while, but I am sure she'll do it. As always, I am proud of her.

In the meantime, the kids and I stayed home and had a "Papa weekend." Most of the stuff we did was pretty routine- we went to different parks, we went to church, we explored some trails, and we played games at home. One thing that stood out was our trip downtown (Spokane) for a dinosaur party. The kids loved this and got to make lots of arts and crafts. They also each got their own container filled with real fossils (mostly shells and stuff). It was fun and very cool.

During the week, Evelyn had her last cross-country race of the season. True to form, she ran in jeans and a large sweatshirt, and kept her hands in her pockets the whole time. It was raining and she said she was cold. Obviously she does not have a real competitive streak in her, and she didn't even come close to winning. She had fun though, and I guess that is what matters...or something like that. On the other hand, it's called a race for a reason, and eliminating the competitive aspect of it seems to fundamentally change the nature of the event into something it was never meant to be in the first place...but hey, what are you gonna do?

One thing that Evelyn is very good at is creativity. I have included a few pictures of some of her creations. She reads a lot and she will randomly write stories or research papers in her spare time. She reminds me a lot of a little boy I once knew a long time ago.

j

Winter turning to spring

I have written this post over and over again trying to figure out how to put into words what I want to say. At its surface, it's a pretty straightforward post about my career- some of the opportunities I have had lately and how much I love what I do.

But it goes so much deeper than that...

Almost exactly one year ago I was faced with the perfect storm of events in my life that sent me into a pretty deep spiral of depression. That's hard for me to say- I feel almost ashamed to admit it even though I shouldn't. It's true though. Through the culmination of many different threads of my life, I found myself in September 2014 staring into an empty future with no prospects, forced to admit to myself that I had been a failure, trying unsuccessfully to deal with the fact that I had let down virtually everyone around me, at a time when I felt like strength or support I usually drew from God or from family had virtually evaporated. It was pretty bad, and I  could seriously understand the strong desire people have to just unplug from the entire world and go numb.

But how do you write about that? You don't. Right off the bat, you have the problem of sharing too much personal information which makes people uncomfortable. Added onto this is the fact that many people will probably look at the situation, and instead of trying to understand will only find ways to cast the blame back onto a person for being depressed in the first place. This makes it virtually impossible sometimes to talk about difficult things. Like I said, I have written and re-written this post a dozen times and I finally concluded that it just can't be done. I'm sorry.

I do want to make one point though before moving on to the good part. Depression is a real thing, and for the person experiencing it, the world can seem very dark and hopeless. What I hope to show through the rest of this post is that things can get better. The future is always uncertain, and this reality comes as good news to anyone who finds themselves at a low point. So hang in there- I don't know how or why or when, but I do not believe that any emotional state can last forever- it is inevitable that things will get better eventually.

For me, this improvement happened over the course of almost exactly one year- specifically though, in the last six months or so. In that time I have seen dramatic increases both in my physical and in my emotional health, and today I enjoy a security and optimism about the future that has been missing for the last couple of years. Things are really good- and over the last few weeks they have gotten even better.

Let's circle back around now  to the beginning of the post- the part where I talk about how much I love my job. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity on this front, and I have not had the time to write about things as they have happened.

Let's start on Monday the 21st: We had a big team training on this day with everyone from all the offices. There was a lot of team-building and a lot of talk about how we can improve the dental experience for our patients. It was a fun and productive day. That night, all the doctors (4 of us) went to dinner at the Coeur d'Alene resort where we ate good food, talked more about the future direction of the practice, and considered finances and opportunities for buying in as owners.

Tuesday, Sept 22: At the end of the day I was approached by Dr. Loftus and asked if I wanted to become the head doctor at the Post Falls branch of the practice. Would I ever! I immediately accepted the position, and then asked how inappropriate it would be for me to do a happy dance :). This is a huge opportunity that makes it so that everything else can fall into place. I am super excited to be working with the team in Post Falls which is amazing at what they do and fun to work with besides. The office itself is thriving, but still has a lot of room for continued growth, and the financial aspect of this chance has put Rachel and me almost a decade ahead of where we expected to be at this point. The location of the office is just minutes from my house, and many of my patients are people who began with me years ago when I was working at Heartwood. Professionally, there are almost limitless opportunities for growth from this point, and I can honestly predict that I will be working in this office for many, many years. Like I said before, the future is always uncertain, but I see nothing right now that would prevent me from spending my entire career with Loftus. Admittedly, the business that is not without its faults, but I am extremely proud to be a part of it and look forward to contributing to its growth.

Saturday, Sept  26: Free dental day. Those who know me well know that I love science and could easily have gone into a career in either academia or research (or both). One of the big reasons I chose dentistry instead of this is that I wanted to be involved more directly with the application of this science when it comes to helping actual people. I wanted to be able to meet the individuals who I was helping and form relationships with them and make a difference to them on a personal level. Now, there are a lot of other reasons besides this that dentistry was a good fit for me, but this was a big one. Because of this, I love being able to work in a place that has the size and resources to be able to do significant community outreach. I was involved to a certain extent with the planning of this year's event, and it was fun to see things come together. What was even better though, was being able to provide services to people who ordinarily would not be able to afford even the basic level of care that we were offering. Without getting too political, I will say that I think America has made huge strides in recent years when it comes to health care, but continues to lag far behind when it comes to dentistry. This much seems to be indisputable. And while I realize that answers to these shortcomings will eventually play out more out in congressional committees than they will in private offices, it still feels good to at least be able to play the small part I am able to in helping the situation.

Last week: My first full week as the Post Falls doctor went great. The individual team members seem to all be reading from the same page, which makes for a seamless flow of patient care, and I think people are noticing in a good way. The culture of the office is fun and warm, and we even came in #2 on the leaderboard for our efforts on Thursday (a friendly competition between about a hundred different doctors/offices).

Friday/Saturday: Study club. Dentistry is cool. You will find many dentists who agree with this statement, although each one probably has his or her area that they like to focus on more than others. For some, it is the cosmetic cases. For others, it is orthodontics, or root canals, or dentures. For me, it is surgery. Explaining why would be like trying to explain why I like a certain painting or piece of music- it just seems to hit that sweet spot. I love the idea of a perfect marriage between good solid biological theory with sharply hewn hand-skills like precision or dexterity. Surgery requires both, and is where I find myself getting the most fulfillment with the technical aspect of my career. Because of this, I love, love, love going to study club (Inland Northwest Periodontal Study Club). Two days worth of presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on instruction in the area I am most drawn to make me a very happy dentist! Yesterday I got to do a new surgery that I have been wanting to learn for a long time- a certain type of gum graft- and it went beautifully. After a few more days like yesterday I can see me offering these to my patients fairly regularly.

In a nutshell- work is going really, really well right now. 

Other things are too. Check out these pictures of the week:

Evelyn had a big cross country race. She did considerably better this year than last, and was even excited about running. I think the refreshments were still her favorite part though.

Addy and Jack got a little practice in as well

I had to put this up that Jack and I made for family dessert night- cinnamon roll cake. It may be my new favorite dessert.

Our happy Lindsey at the park

This is at a big family BBQ thing with Rachel's "Moms that Rock" group. This is a good bunch of ladies and Rach has made some good friends.

If you can't tell, I am holding the playbill for Catch Me If You Can- the fun musical that Rach and I went and saw on our date night last week. We had a great time.