Chris' Basketball League and Sledding
Chris’ Basketball
Chris played in a competitive basketball league on the Navy base with a few medical school classmates including Jared Chugg, Matt Laudie, Steve DeMartini, Paul Lewis, Mark Childress and Patrick Dean. They had a very successful season and quickly became known as one of the top teams.
The Montgomery Village Ward also had a really good team led by Chris, Dave Gover, Doug White, Brian Breinholt and Jared Chugg. They went to the Regional tournament and ended up taking second place, losing a close game in the title game to their rivals. So fun to go and sit with all my friends and watch them play!
Ryan’s first Sledding Experience
We are blessed to have a lot of great friends here in Maryland. Chris is part of a 5 person carpool with the 4 other first year medical students in the Montgomery Village Ward with us. They take turns driving one day a week, leaving the family car with their wives for the other 4 days every week. Most of the time, they are good influences on each other, spending all day at school to make sure classes are attended and a lot of extra studying gets done. But every once in a while, they need a break.
They drove home early on Friday and we all met over at Sean and Deanne’s house to go sledding. They have a big hill by their place. It was snowing, but we bundled Ryan up in a snowsuit that my Aunt gave us. It fit him just perfect. Chris and I took turns holding him on a big black inner tube. It was so fun and Ryan loved it. He just kept watching everything with big eyes. Then we went back to their place for hot chocolate.
Our Weekend
Friday night Chris and I watched ER, taped from the night before. Then we watched the first half of Titanic. We hadn’t seen it since the theater so we thought it would be fun to watch again.
Saturday we cleaned, organized some closets, Chris studies a bit, I finished the 7th Work and the Glory book, Chris taught be how to play cribbage, we finished watching Titanic and then we went over to the Chugg’s house to play Liverpool Rummy, Yahtzee and watch “What about Bob?” It was a fun day.
Sunday was relaxing. Sunday night we worked on our budgets for the new year. We are really trying to cut down on our spending. We are trying to be really tight with our money right now because we are going to put $4,000 into our IRA accounts next week. We make the least out of everyone of our friends. They are all either prior service (so they get paid more) or they have no kids and have a second income.
Ryan
Ryan is now enjoying “oatmeal cereal” every night. He loves it. Pretty soon we will start giving him some fruits and vegetables. Today he was sitting in his crib while I was packing for our upcoming babysitting trip. He was holding on to the railing and pulled himself up to a standing position. I was quite amazed. He was so proud of himself, it was cute. His teeth aren’t bothering him as much anymore and he is sleeping better. I think he will have fun with the boys I am babysitting.
Babysitting in New Jersey
I flew up to New Jersey to babysit 5 kids for a week while their parents went to Hawaii. The first day went smoothly enough with some occasional fighting, teasing, crying and yelling. I spent my time overseeing homework, making dinner, organizing showers, reading stories and saying prayers with the kids. They were finally all in bed at 9:00pm when the school district called to inform me that school would be cancelled the next day because of the snow that was beginning to fall. The kids were ecstatic, but this was not what I wanted to happen.
Thursday, I spent 2 hours in the morning trying to get the right boots, ski pants, gloves and jacket on the right kid. Then I enjoyed 2 hours of peace until the kids got too cold and finally came back in, dumping their snowy outfits into a massive pile while running towards the Nintendo while fighting about who got to play first. Friday was an exact repeat with school cancelled again.
Meanwhile, Chris was dealing with the same storm alone in Maryland with the electricity off for nearly 12 hours. The house was freezing and he had no food. His car was low on gas, but all the gas stations were closed because of the power outage. He risked running out of gas by driving north until he finally found a gas station with the power on. Then he continued driving to join me in New Jersey.
Saturday is “chore day”. I have never heard more moans and groans in my life. It was a long day.
Sunday we had a very smooth morning while everyone quickly got ready for church except for Bryan, the 10 year old boy who decided to sit on his bed and announce his plans to skip church. Chris and I both tried to coax him to get ready. Chris also had a long discussion with him about choosing the right and setting an example to his brothers. Chris then carried him to the phone to call his parents to explain why he was not going to church. That didn’t work, either. Finally, we announced that we were leaving him. I was going to drive the rest of the kids while Chris stayed to try and talk him into coming, but at the last moment, he stormed out of the house with socks and shoes and tie in and and got in the car. We looked at each other in relief and looked at Ryan knowing he would never do anything like that when he grows up.
Monday, the kids finally went to school. Their parents arrived home about 1:00pm and we drove home to Maryland with our much deserved check in hand. It was so nice to get back to our own house. Ryan is sick today with a runny nose and he hates it when I wipe it. This is actually the first time he has been sick.
Letter from Chris - January 31, 1999
Today was a wonderful Sabbath day. I was recently called as the second counselor in the young mens presidency and we were assigned to speak in sacrament meeting today as a presidency. I spent a lot of time thinking about this assignment this week, spent a few hours writing my talk last night, and then brushed up on it a couple times this morning. It went extremely well. I talked for about 14 minutes about the direction we are going to take the Young Mens program. I found so much information and had so many things I wanted to share that my problem last night was cutting it down to the ten minutes I was supposed to take. I obviously never got it that low. I talked about the Book of Mormon, being a disciple of Christ being our best selves, becoming Mighty Men, and The Standard of Truth. I put a lot of effort and prayer into my preparation and it all paid off as my delivery went well. I felt very good about it and everyone commented on it.
The Young Men President Scott Bishop and the 1st Counselor Doug White also spoke and the YM sang the song “High on a Mountain Top” to my accompaniment. The entire program was wonderful. Our Stake President, President Harman, was in attendance and after the meeting he told me that it was the best sacrament meeting he had ever been in. That was an incredible compliment coming from him. Then tonight after a Stake Meeting, his first counselor approached me and told me he had heard about our wonderful meeting. I was happy the people enjoyed it. The spirit was very strong. I choked up a number of times while testifying of truth. It is a wonderful experience for me to have this calling and to associate with wonderful leaders and great youth.
In church, I also taught priesthood and almost had to teach Sunday School as well. I had two meetings this morning and then a Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting tonight for 2 hours during the Super Bowl so it was a busy day. I usually have so much time to spend with Lisa and Ryan on Sundays but today that was not the case. I missed that. They were both in bed or ready for it when my day was finally through. My meetings were also quite enjoyable. I learned a lot and found ways I can do more in my stewardship. It is essential that I become my best self and one of the Lord’s mighty men.
School is going very well right now. I continue to get A’s on all my tests. However, in the next 9 school days we have 3 huge tests so it will be difficult to ace all 3 of those. I can only do my best and that will suffice. I enjoy school even more this semester because there is no Biochemistry. All of our classes are challenging but very interesting.
Last Friday night, Elder Russell M. Nelson responded to our invitation to speak to the medical students in this area by spending the evening with us. We all had the privilege of meeting him and shaking his hand after which he spoke to us about medicine and the church for just over an hour. The chapel was full but that was quite a small crowd for an apostle of the Lord. It was wonderful to be there. We had quite a few nonmembers of the church who we invited to come and I couldn’t help but beam with pride throughout Elder Nelson’s talk because I was so happy to belong to the church he was representing. He is an amazing man. He was a Cardiothoracic surgeon in his profession before his call as an apostle, and his accomplishments in the medical field alone are extraordinary. Throw in all his church responsibilities and the incredible work he has done there and we have a truly mighty man. One of the mightiest on the earth today.
Ryan is growing up so fast. He learns new things every single day. In the past week, he has learned and mastered crawling backwards, sitting up from a laying down position, pattycake, saying Dad, and clicking his tongue on demand. He is so adorable. He is the life of the party wherever he is and the funny thing is that he knows it. We had a bunch of people over on Friday night for ice cream and he entertained us for a long time. It was also long past his bedtime but he couldn’t miss the party. I love him so much. He makes me so happy all the time.
Lisa has been busy with numerous projects lately. She has moved ahead with my mission scrapbook. She has done most of the work, but I coordinate the things I want remembered and write little excerpts to include. It is looking awesome so far. I am excited to have that done and Lisa will do it in a way that will be so fun to show everyone. I am so grateful for her and her desire to do this for me. She has also joined what could be called a Family Home Evening club. She and a bunch of friends in the ward are gathering every month and sharing ideas and putting together FHE lessons and packets. It is a great project and of course is perfect for Lisa. She is so good at that kind of stuff. All the other women are jealous of her amazing skills. What can I say, she is an amazing woman and I love her.
Chris