August 8, 2001

Yesterday we had orientation at the school. I way we because they didn't just do it for the students they also did it for the spouses of the students. Brent went to school in the morning and then at noon we were invited to come for a picnic. We had a choice of beef on a bun or chicken, potatoe salad, and a veggie salad. Bottle water, or cans of diet coke, coke, or mountian dew. What a selection! We were so pleased. Everyone is super friendly. We met so many people that I am really having a hard time remembering names and faces. There are a lot of members in our school. Quite a few in our ward, and still more in other wards. We can't beleive how many people are from Utah, and Idaho. A lot of the students have children too, so Liza has a lot of new little friends. After lunch we registered liza in the child care for the afternoon. The SAA (spouses alumni association) arranged to take toddlers and up for the afternoon so that we could listen to speekers and learn a little about Des Moines. Liza loved playing with all the children and I got a break and a wonderful afternoon that made me feel so at home here. All of the Faculty was sure to let us know that we are part of the school family too and that they want us to be involved in the lives of the students. They had their Marrage and Relationship counclers come and talk to us about how to keep your relationship alive through med school and how to understand and help your spouse deal with the stress of school. They also told us about things in Des Moines and I joined the SAA whilch will be helpful in the comming months. They gave us the heads up on story time at the libraries, all of the events going on around Des Moines. Just a ton of information that was so helpful. I had such a great day yesterday. I got to be buddy buddy with the Dean of the Osteopathic School. ( Brents Dean). All of the Faculty is curious about Alex and his monitor. He has made us quite popular with them. The Dean and I had a couple little talks and he is so nice and supportive. The school offers a free gym, and many other perks like that. There are also several buisinesses in the city that offer quite the discounts to students. There are so many great things about this city. I am really liking it here. We took a trip to the mall, and it has all of my favorite store in it. It even has a wonderful little dutch Chocolatiessarie (sp) that is the first thing that I have tasted in the states that comes anywhere near Calebaut (sp). For those of you in the states, it kicks butt on "see's". Anyway, Brent is happy to have found a stop and go where they carry "Crispy Cream Doughnuts." They don't have 7-11 though!! It is so hot and humid that we are sure glad we have really good air conditioning. I went to Enrichment meeting last night and never felt awkward or loansome for one minuet everyone is so friendly and talkative. In every place that we have had to go for help from a buisness, like bank accounts, insurance agents, health care, etc.. the people have been so nice and great. We are so pleased to be here. I told Brent today that maybe we had to live in Philly for a year to teach us how good we had it elce where. We loved our ward in philly and we loved our end of town. But the people in philly and the city of Philly,..... yuck..:-(.
Anyway, we are happy here. We love it so much and can't get over how nice everyone is. We were wondering today if it was something in the water. We concluded that maybe we should stop filtering ours :-) Well, I better go, but just thought I would drop a line to everyone.
OH YEAH! ALEX WEIGHED IN AT 9 lbs 10 oz today! YEAH!!!!!!!!!! He is looking so big and is actually getting little fat rolls on his legs, which look so weird to me. I am used to his little rail premie body. :-)

Comments:
Grandpa: Glad to hear that things are working out so well.