Summer Vacation!

A couple of weeks ago we were able to get away for a week of vacation to northern Minnesota.  After much debate about where to go on vacation, including ideas like Florida, California, Colorado, and driving a rented RV out to Glacier National Park, we finally settled on something a little closer to home.  A few days of searching through vacation rentals later, we found a cute little one bedroom cabin on Turtle Lake, about half an hour north of Grand Rapids.  We spent a week just relaxing and enjoying each others company after so many years of busyness and non-relaxing.  We read, swam, spent time in the hammock, went on walks/runs (Matt), grilled, made s'mores every night, and played!  It was perfect! 

This is a rather lengthy post full of pictures and videos, be prepared!

 Our little cabin, called the "Timberdoodle."

 This was taken standing on the dock, looking up at our cabin.

 And this was taken looking down at the dock from our deck.

 The bedroom.  Charlotte loved climbing on the end of the bed and then flipping up onto the mattress.

Here's Charlotte's "nest" by the windows in the bedroom.

 The kitchen and dining room, with the table overlooking the deck and the lake on the left and the living room to the right.  The whole interior was newly remodeled and we think we might have been one of the first people to stay in it since it was redone.  Charlotte told me "Mom, I think one other family has stayed here before.  There's just a few crumbs under the couch cushions!"  :)

 The dining room with the living room behind it.  Since we don't have a TV at home, it was fun to have a flat screen TV and dish network while on vacation.  We watched a couple of movies and several episodes of "Chopped" on the FoodNetwork (our favorite show to watch on Hulu on our computer at home).

 Eating supper our first night at the cabin!

 And then s'mores at the bonfire!  Behind Charlotte's chair you can see a brown furry thing--a St. Bernard named Daisy who belonged to the lodge on the other side of us.  She was really gentle and Charlotte LOVED playing with her and throwing sticks for her to fetch.

 First morning at the lake.  We usually went out to either just sit on the dock or eat our breakfast or for Matt and Charlotte to fish off the end of the dock.  This is my favorite time of day at the lake!  I said to Matt on the first morning, "I know we didn't know what kind of vacation we wanted at first, but now I know, this is it.  This is exactly the kind of vacation we needed and wanted!"

 Looking up at the cabin from the end of the dock.

 It usually didn't take her long to put her swimming suit on each morning!  You can see a green coffee cup sitting on the dock, which means it's still pretty early!

 Hanging out in the hammock.  Of course, safety is our number one priority, as you can see by Charlotte's water wings!  You never know when you might need them in a hammock!

Charlotte and Mama rocking on the swing.

 Daddy gives the best spins in the innertube!

 Hoping to catch the big one!  They did this most mornings.

 After a few casts, we decided Charlotte wasn't really ready to have a hook on her fishing pole, so Matt took the hooks off but left the lure on.  This lure became a close companion for Charlotte which she named Bethany.  Bethany and Charlotte spent many happy hours together the rest of the week.  Charlotte loved to cast and then reel in to make Bethany go swimming.

 Most of the time when Matt caught a fish he would let Charlotte help reel it in.  She was so excited!  And she wanted to touch or hold every fish; not a moment of hesitation or worry about the slime.  Atta girl Charlotte!

 Charlotte took this of her own feet one day.  She loves to take pictures.

 Mid-afternoon ice cream snack on the deck.

 Of course, no vacation at the cabin is complete without bringing your Cinderella costume and doing a little ballet...

 There was a fabulous playhouse which we shared with the next door neighbors (one family owns both cabins and rents them out to vacationers like us).  The family renting the other cabin had a 3 1/2 year old boy, Wesley, and they loved playing together!

 Inside the playhouse.  It had a great little kitchen set and table, a loft with a sleeping bag, and a little pretend school with a desk and paper/markers.  She could have spent the entire week in there!

 Suppertime!

 This was the biggest fish they caught.  I think Matt estimated it around 20+ inches?

 Of course Charlotte wanted to be the one to throw it back in!

 We rented a canoe one day and paddled around the lake.  We were told of a geocache on one of the little islands.  Luckily it was a small enough island that we could find it without using a GPS.  Charlotte picked out a silver star necklace in the treasure chest and we left some rubber worms in exchange.

 She sat in the middle of the canoe and had a great time!  Baby doll Emma also came along for the ride.

 Family self portrait with Mama holding the camera out in front of us.

 Reeling in a fish!

 

 There it is!

 She was so proud of herself!

 Click on this one to make it bigger and check out her facial expression!

 Oh she had so much fun swimming!  And the water was actually pretty warm.

 Another good size fish.

 This was a perfect vacation for us, exactly what we wanted!

36-37 weeks

We're closing in on the end of this pregnancy already!  I'll be 37 weeks this week, which is technically considered full term.  Of course, we all know that babies come whenever they feel like it, so we're not making any predictions about when this little one will show up!  I could end up going almost two weeks past my due date, so we could still be looking at 5+ weeks before we meet the baby.  Anyway, here's a picture of us at 36 weeks.

Also, I forgot to post the ultrasound pictures of this baby at 20 weeks.  Whoops. 

 Little tiny baby feet.  Can't wait to kiss those little tootsies soon!  Also can't wait for those little tootsies to be unwedged from under my ribs...

 Face profile with an arm up next to the face.

 Another profile picture.

Hard to believe our family is going to welcome another little one in just a few short weeks!

Charlotte and I set up the Pack and Play in Mama and Daddy's room last week (our version of a crib, since we move so often we didn't want to schlep a crib around all over, we just use a Pack and Play).  I didn't mean to set it up yet but rather just take it out to show Charlotte and then repack it more compactly.  But she likes to put her animals and dolls in it, so we just left it up.  We are otherwise not terribly prepared for this baby's arrival...Haven't done any baby laundry yet.  Haven't bought new cloth diapers yet (our old ones unfortunately did not fare well enough to use them again for another child).  Haven't picked out names yet.  Well, that's not exactly true.  We have a first name for a boy picked out and we have about 6 or 8 first names for a girl that we like.  We are currently pretending that the baby is a girl and using one girl name per day as a trial to see how we like it.  At the end of the week we should have a better sense of which name(s) we like best.  And we have no middle names chosen yet.  

Luckily, we learned with Charlotte that you actually don't need all that much for a new baby.  It needs something to eat, a safe place to sleep, a few onesies, and a few blankets.  Oh, and if you want to take the baby home from the hospital, you need to have a carseat.  :)  So I guess we're actually pretty much set.  I once had a patient who worked for the government office that deals with birth certificates and whatnot and she knew EXACTLY how many days she had before she MUST choose a name for her baby and she planned on taking her sweet time to decide on a name.  We won't leave the hospital without naming the baby though, I promise. 

What's next for our family?

Many of you may already know, but many of you may wonder what we are doing now that we've graduated from our residency.  Read on to find out!

Short term:  Matt is now working at the Owatonna Clinic (part of the Mayo system) as a Family Medicine doctor.  He will mostly be doing acute visits (meaning less high blood pressure, diabetes, annual physicals, etc--hooray!).  He is fortunate to be working only 4 days per week, so we will get some much needed family time.  Kristi is now fulfilling her desire to be a stay-at-home wife and mom.  She has wanted to do this since Charlotte was a baby, but was encouraged by many people (including Matt) to finish out her education and training.  So now that residency is over, she is taking advantage of this time to be home with Charlotte and then in a few short weeks, baby Wiggles!

Long term:  We are working towards moving to Ethiopia to live and work!  We have been moving toward this goal for many years and we're so close!  We traveled to Ethiopia spring 2011 to check out a potential location and we loved it!  This past winter we were accepted by our missions organization, SIM (Serving in Mission).  We anticipate being able to leave for Ethiopia sometime between January and July 2013, but those plans depend on lots of details that we have very little control of!  Matt will continue working at the Owatonna clinic until we're ready to leave.  Kristi will be whittling down our possessions, packing, planning homeschool for Charlotte, etc.

We are starting with a two year term serving in rural Ethiopia, in a town called Langano.  Town might be too strong of a word since there isn't actually a town of any sort, it's really just an area where some people live.  :)  We will both be working about half time in a small clinic, while the other half of our time will be spent taking care of our kids and homeschooling Charlotte (no formal school there for her).  We anticipate serving in Langano much longer than two years, but we will start with that to see if it is a good fit for us and if we are a good fit for them!  We will be joining a team of Americans and Ethiopians, who are serving with SIM in several ways--the clinic, a kids soccer camp, and a school (not one for Charlotte though).

There are lots and lots of things we could tell you about our lives and anticipated work there, but it would be easier to have you check out our new Ethiopia website where we have explained lots and lots of this.  The address is www.FloreksInEthiopia.weebly.com.  There are many tabs on the website to explain various things and with lots of pictures to look at too.  There is a tab labeled "Blog" where we will be posting stories and news updates.  We will still be keeping up this blog for more personal things/stories/pictures for our family and friends.  You'll just have to check both blogs for all the latest with our family!

 

This is what typical homes in Langano look like.

 The clinic where we'll be working.

 The clinic has three exam rooms like this, a labor and delivery room, small lab and pharmacy, and one small room for keeping sick patients overnight.  The nearest hospital is an hour drive away.

 

 This shows the top 10 diseases for the clinic, broken down by age (5 years to adult in the middle column, under 5 years in the right sided column).  Malaria, GI parasites, respiratory infections, and diarrhea are the most common things we see in the clinic.

 A very sick 6 day old baby that we took care of.

 I was able to deliver a baby while we were there!

One of our Ethiopian teammates, Asse (Ah-say), broke her arm while we were there.  Matt diagnosed the break with an ultrasound machine since we don't have an X-ray there.  Then we casted her arm and left instructions when to take it off after we left.

Our house in Langano is right next to Asse's house, so we'll be neighbors!  She is an amazing soccer player and coach for the soccer camp.

 The people on the right are our team leaders, Shane and Allyson Smith.  They have three kids, two of whom are pictured here (Mia and Moses).  We LOVE our team!

We are so excited to continue on this journey toward serving in Ethiopia.  Follow along with us on this blog and at www.FloreksInEthiopia.weebly.com!