Today we can't go out in the weather, but I wanted to get out anyway. I remembered when I was young that my family would go on outings during October General Conferences where we drove somewhere for the first session while listening to it on the radio, eat our packed lunch, and ride back while listening to the second session. Well, I modified that to reflect the times and situation; we live on the East Coast and we already had Conference. From our house I drove over 2 mountain ranges and then turned around. I was awe-struck at the beauty. My crappy camera-phone might have well just taken black-and-white snapshots for the comparison to what I saw and what you see. I describe it as a panorama of tie-dyed cottonballs held up against the sky. I have never seen entire mountains and valleys clothed in this hippie-esque garb and it was breath-taking. I rode past the entrance to Skyline Drive, which can be driven from lower PA to somewhere in SC I am told, and the line to get on the road was a mile long. On my road, Highway 211, the trees curved in over the top of the road on both sides. It was like driving along a curvy driveway lined by technicolor puffs. Some trees had pink and red leaves on top and green on the bottom; others were flourescent yellow.
I started thinking about all the things I am learning since I have moved out here. Things like I prefer having all my kids around as opposed to the easier 1 or 2, like nothing chases the grumps or blues away quicker than listening to Hunter laugh his 5-month-old laugh complete with squeeks and grunts, like beating Alexis in Monopoly isn't as fun as watching her face when I land on her properties and have to give her money. After coming home Ethan pulled out a human anatomy book I had on the desk. He began looking at the pictures and surprised me by how fascinated he was at seeing the different bones and muscles. He showed Alexis a picture of a baby in utero and explained to her exactly what it was, a baby inside the mom before being born. My experience from today helped me to appreciate the experiences my kids are having. I want more kids. I see it as having a child for every stage of development. When Hunter gets into the toddler stage, bring on another infant. Plus it doesn't hurt that the older kids fight over who gets to feed Hunter the bottle. I hope that keeps up until he can hold it himself.
On a different note I have been looking up information regarding physician assistants to prepare for my interview next week with the program here. I heard they want to know what the interviewee knows about PAs as proof that they are walking into the program with their eyes open. Well, the average age of the first year PA student in 2007 (the latest data published) is 25. 66% of the students are female. 25% are married. It seems I might add diversity as a married male with children...who would have thought that single white females would be the majority?
Anyway, things are crazy as always. With work Chandra and I both have pulled a 16-hour shift within the last month, but we normally stick to 8-12 hr shifts at one time. We have Chandra's mother come over from MD about 1-2 times a month to help out since our schedules overlapped and no one wants to come over at 3 AM to watch the kids.
1 comment:
Don't you hate when the pictures don't give the view justice? It sounds like it was a lot of fun and a great way to get out of the house. I'm sure the leaves are gorgeous back east!
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