Christmas Time

We were at the store yesterday buying some last minute items for our Christmas Eve dinner. M was pushing the cart and she suddenly became very excited. We then looked down the aisle and saw a very large man with long white hair and a long white beard. She was so excited. She became shy all of the sudden. She was a bit confused because he was not wearing his red suit. He explained that it was getting cleaned for the big night and actually bent down and let her pull his beard so she would know it was real. He said he hoped she was being good so he could visit her house on Monday night. It was quite the experience and he was very good with her. This is the first year that M is even somewhat interested in Christmas. She is very hopeful that Santa will bring her Shrek 3 for Christmas. Other than that she does not want many things. I guess that will change sometime in the near future. J and I got the best Christmas gift we could have received a little early. We found out we are expecting. I think we were becoming accepting that we probably would not have any other children, then it happens. J joked that it took over 4 years for M. over 3 years for this new baby, so maybe the next one will only take 2 years. We can always hope. We hope you all have a Merry and Blessed Christmas.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Thanksgiving Recap

Happy Holidays! We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were able to go to Utah for 4 days for Thanksgiving. It was great to be back in Utah and to see S's side of the family. We ate really well during our stay. We rolled into SLC around 5pm on Tuesday and went straight to Aristos (a Greek restaurant). We met S's parents and sister's family there for dinner. The following afternoon we went out to eat with some family at Los Hermanos. After lunch we went to Cabelas for the first time. It was quite the experience. The place is massive. M enjoyed the aquarium and the taxidermy displays. There was an exhibit of a stampede of animals from Africa. While standing in front of the display M asked, "Will they hurt me?" We explained that they were not real, but she looked skeptical and kept her distance. The next day was Thanksgiving. Most of S's family were able to gather at his parent's home to feast on turkey, ham, all the fixins and about 10 pumpkin pies for dessert (homemade of course). M loved seeing aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Friday we shopped at the outlet stores in Park City much to my delight. That evening we met some of S's friends and had dinner at a seafood restaurant. On Saturday, S and his parents watched the big BYU v. Utah football game while I went shopping all by myself at the mall. That was something I have not done since moving to Montana (home of no where to shop). The mall was so big I kept getting turned around. I went by the same vendor selling hair products four times. The salesperson finally got me to sit while they demonstrated their straightener/curling iron that was on sale for only $140 that day only. It was nice to get all of the Christmas shopping done. Now that we are back home, M keeps saying "When are we going to visit grandma and grandpa? They miss us" We will post some pictures later today.

Halloween

It was our first Halloween in Montana and we were prepared. I dressed up for the first time in 10 year and I was as S said "one hot witch." M and I were both witches. I bought 500 pieces of candy (just in case). Unfortunately we only had about 30 trick-or-treaters. I'll bet we get a few more next year after the word gets out that we were giving out hand fulls of candy to each child (I was trying to get rid of it.) M had a Halloween party and a parade at school. I took her costume to her at school and did her make-up. She loved her green sparkling face and did not want to wash it off before bed. S took her out trick-or-treating after work. It was so windy they almost blew away. M promptly ate all of the M&Ms out of her bag then helped me hand out the candy. She asked all of the kids in masks to "lift up you mask so I can see who you are." She would place three handfuls of candy into each bag. I think some of the costumes were a little too scary for her. When ever she saw someone she recognized she'd say "mom she lives at my school." We haven't been to many people's houses. I'll bet by next year she'll know where everyone lives. It was a nice Halloween. I have been scrapbooking a lot lately and I am almost caught up. I am looking forward to doing the Halloween pictures.

Like Residency, Only Much Better

Well I felt like I was back in residency this past week. I was in the hospital a lot. I was in the hospital with the exception of a few hours from Friday night at 10pm until Monday morning at noon. I did manage to make it to some church and a meeting, but was otherwise there. It was quite the experience. Most of it was dealing with OB patients. I have done 3 c-sections within the last week. I guess that is why I make the big money. I have really come to appreciate OB nurses that are comfortable with the process and monitoring patients. I had to do much of the monitoring myself. Today I have a clinic day off because I worked last Saturday at the clinic. I had to go into the hospital to see two moms, two babies, and then admit and elderly female. Life is pretty good. Luckily J and M are understanding. M is loving school. It is a much better experience for her than last year. She comes home happy and excited. They people at the school are wonderful.
M and J are very excited for Halloween. J is going to be a witch and the other night she was testing out make-up options. She is a trip. M was walking around the house with a long black wig on. Next week will be pumpkin carving time.

Love in the Air

M never ceases to amaze us. She is so funny and says whatever she thinks if she can come up with the words. She is doing so well and is expressing herself better each week. She is sometimes very blunt. They often come to the clinic when J picks M up from school. She loves interacting with the clinic staff and everybody else. She often tells me to "Go see some patients" when I am trying to interrupt her interaction with anyone else. She also tells me to "Get a kiss from mommy" when I ask her for a hug or kiss. It is always an adventure with her. We went to Great Falls to stock up on supplies at Sam's Club. We were getting some digital photos developed at a kiosk and M was in the shopping cart. As she normally does, she started talking to a lady waiting for the kiosk. The lady got a call on her cell phone and told M "Be quiet for a minute I have to talk" After she finished, M put her hand up to her head and started to talk. The lady asked her who she was talking to. She responded "Be quiet for a minute, I am talking to my husband, Shrek." We about died laughing. She is fixated on Shrek and Fiona. That is her reward for a good school day. She has been doing very well at school. Everyone is learning to love and understand her. She did have a little incident at recess. She had to go in to class early because she spit on a boy. She does this rarely when she is very frustrated and we have had multiple discussions about how nasty and gross it is. When she got home we were having a talk about it. I asked her why she spit and she said because he hit her in the face like this --> she then proceeded to punch herself in the face. We had to have another little discussion.
J is doing well. She had neglected scrapbooking for some time. Her new project is catching up. She hope to achieve this by the end of January. I am a bit skeptical. She enjoys it and has fun with it. She is also buying a lot of things online. I think it brings her joy to buy things. It tends to give me indigestion. Luckily the purchases are not huge things.
I am just living the dream at work. It has its ups and downs, but it is great. Life is so much better after residency. It is nice to really have a life. I get to come home for lunch with J on the days that I do not have a meeting at lunch and that is very nice. I am so blessed to have J and M in my life. Our clinic is have a "Biggest Loser" contest. It will be patterned after the TV show. There is cash involved, so I am very motivated. Hopefully I will be able to shed some of the extra pounds and get my boyish figure back.
Well, I have about reached my breaking point and I am unable to continue. Until the next post.

A Feeble Attempt

After reading the blogs of many of our friends we decided to attempt to create our own. I am a certifiable computer genius as is my wife. We are the Spanos family (S, J and M). We recently moved from South Bend, Indiana to Montana. Before that we lived in the wonderful state of Utah. We have been in Montana for about 3 months. We live in a metropolis. It is a town of approximately 3000. It is supposed to be very cold in the winter, but we will have to wait and see if that is the case. I work at a community health center as a physician. It is a nice adjustment from residency life. I get to do a little bit of everything (outpatient clinic, ER, OB, procedures, and now even C-sections). I enjoy the clinic and the people, but I am still trying to get into my groove. J enjoys exercising, baking, reading, her church calling, and spending money. Because of the lack of shopping areas within 100 miles, J has turned to internet shopping. M is our 6 year old daughter. She is in kindergarten. Her teacher is Mrs. M. M is lucky to have her as a teacher. She also has many other "teachers" that help keep her focused. She is doing very well. We were concerned about all day kindergarten, but she is adjusting very well. In stark contrast to her last year of school in South Bend, she comes home happy and positive. M finally became interested in movies/TV. One day while J and I were busy with projects, I turned on a cartoon channel on the television for M. Shrek was on and she was fascinated. She would become angry and irritated though when the commercials came on. She now watches Shrek, Shrek 2, and the Little Mermaid. It is a nice break. She would watch them continuously if she could. It is one of the few times that she is comfortable not having someone right next to her and quiet. It has been a nice reprieve at times for J. It is also a nice motivation. If she does not have a good day in school she cannot watch a movie when she gets home. School has been going well. She has her blow ups and becomes overwhelmed at times, but overall she is doing well. There was the incident with the scissors and cutting a little boys finger, but we will not dwell on the past. Well that is it for now. Hopefully I can transition blogging responsibilities to my wife.