Transmissioned

When I heard an ad on the radio the other day quoting that the average cost to replace a transmission for your car is $2,500, I laughed out loud. A couple weeks ago our big red car died, in our "new" garage. It was towed back and forth between several fix-it places until we were told it was indeed, the transmission. We were also told the price to replace ours would be right around $3,700. Now you can see why I laughed. After learning that the cost of a new transmission was significantly more than the value of our car, we started car shopping (well I guess you could call it, window, or better, screen shopping as we just looked a bunch on line) Luckily...the fix-it guy then told us that he could refurbish an old transmission for much much less. Thank you sir, we will pray that it lasts us one more year. After 2 weeks of borrowing a car and then renting one, we now have our own car back. It feels good. Sure, we haven't paid the bill yet but it feels gooder than it could have.

On a much brighter note, there have been plenty of other things to keep our little family busy. Such as this:

Happy 4th of July! We felt right at home watching them on the lawn of a Baptist church. Haylee thought the fireworks were a bit too loud, "but not the green ones."

And this:

We're still not quite sure what caused this horrible rash on almost every inch of Cambree's body and it went away after a couple days...but yes, it was quite a scare.

And the (free) zoo!

Another venture:

This is the arch, but just one, very small portion blown up. We visited but haven't gone up to the top...yet.

And this:

Our new couch!!!

Oh yes, and one of the most colorful "events" was this:

Hard to see how bad this was from the picture but let me just tell you, it was bad. My sister Mindy and her family stopped here on their drive out to Utah and we all drove up to Nauvoo to camp and see the pageant and all that. Just before we left our campsite for the pageant, Haylee was running with her cousins, tripped, and fell in such a way that her head/nose hit the bottom part of an open car door frame. Within seconds, her head seriously looked like a purple baseball had been inserted under her skin, it was that big! Just ask any one of the Saaris. Or any one of the pageant actors/missionaries who visited us before the show. One, in fact, insisted we visit the pageant medic tent. After looking in her ears/nose/eyes for BLOOD and asking me all sorts of scary questions and really bad signs to look out for, oh and for making me panic more than I already was, they let us go. Jason, my brother in law gave her a priesthood blessing right away and I am so glad he was there to do that! I was able to be a little calmer (just a bit) than I might have been. Haylee did not say a single word or acknowledge anyone's presence or anything at all (not even her beloved Jaina) for over an hour after she fell. You can imagine I was a bit worried. But then she was fine. Just like that. Wow. What a night.

Here are some more pics of the rest of our Nauvoo trip:

Mindy had the insight to request stories (from Mom) of our pioneer ancestors who lived in Nauvoo which we read while we were there. It amazed me how much learning about those real people who lived during those early days of the church made the city so real to me. It is a beautiful place with a staggeringly powerful history.

It was a such a wonderful weekend. Tired kids, tired parents, and a lot more driving than we planned on but so nice to be with family and to camp and to experience Nauvoo again. Thank you Mindy for convincing us to go and making it work. Looking back it makes me realize how much we will miss having that Saari family so close. Why do we always fail to appreciate things until after we don't have them???

Bump

Tonight, around 9:30pm

"Mom, Mom, Cambree's stuck in her sheets!"

Now picture, if you will, a perfectly made crib mattress, wrinkle free even...aside from a whining bump in the middle.

She did not like it that we giggled a little, ok a lot, before she was rescued.

How she got all the way under without pulling the sheets off (or disturbing them in any way) is beyond me but at this point, I should stop being surprised at anything that she does.

The Move II

When we moved from Provo to North Carolina 5 years ago, we made a top 10 list of things we'd miss and not miss and I thought it'd be fun to do again. This is mostly for our benefit so if something doesn't make sense or if it doesn't seem very funny, just remember it's included because it's funny to us.

Disclaimer: We do not claim that any of the following lists are all inclusive. We reserve the right to add to or change whenever we want.


Top 10 things we will miss about living in NC:

10 - The little blue dodge that served us so well (thanks again to the Brays, we love you!)

9 - The Raleigh farmer's market

8 - the Town of Cary (parks, roads, flowered medians, walkways, crime stats, etc.)

7 - College basketball (notice the color of the above title)

6 - Rita's Water Ice (especially a chocolate/lemon gelati or misto...try it!)

5 - Goodberrys!!!

4 - hushpuppies!

3 - friends!!!

2 - living close to my sister Mindy and her family

1 - THE BEACH


Top 10 things we will not miss about living in NC:

10 - BJ's extra long commute to and from school

9 - living in the dark (literally and figuratively speaking)

8 - walking through cobwebs to get to the car every morning (and afternoon)

7 - weak toilets (if you were lucky enough to use one at our place, you know what we mean)

6 - living close to the stinky dump

5 - the trains and all the bazillions of trucks that drove past our place 24/7
(they have damaged our children so much that the first time we heard thunder here,
Bree started signing "train" and "choo chooing" and Haylee rushed to see where the
train was)

4 - the lake in our backyard that never quite disappeared in between storms

3 - living on red money

2 - the STINKIN' mice!!!

1 - NO MORE SCHOOL! (well, sort of)


Things we are looking forward to in MO:

* getting to know our extra friendly Italian neighbor who thought to warn us that he plays his Italian music extra loud on Sunday mornings

* the zoo is free!!

* what it will be like to have a teenager living with us

* determining if St. Louis really is the Gateway to the West

* living on a street where (no exaggeration) we are the only residents without AARP cards (we're hoping their grand kids visit often)

* going to a Cardinals game and then proceeding to buy any and all kinds of wearable Cardinals apparel (flip flops, scrunchies and diaper bags included) as we see 80 % of the residents do here whenever we go out (except at church)

* experiencing a real, live tornado

* St. Louis BBQ anyone?

* day trips to Nauvoo

* a gallon of milk for $1.88...beat that North Carolina!!!

* biking to and from work

* going back to being a one-car family

* having a TV that doesn't get TV

* learning whether or not a yellow toilet gets dirty faster than a white one

* living close to a temple, again, and not having to call ahead to make appointments

Life After School

Many of you have wondered, what will BJ and Julie do now? I was accepted into a geriatric focused residency program at the VA medical center in St. Louis. Yes, we have already moved, we are working on a post about it. Anyway, to pass the time in NC between graduation and moving I studied for two more exams. They were the two required to get a license and covered everything I had learned about pharmacy over the past 4 years. Somehow I managed to pass and am now a licensed pharmacist. I also worked at Rite Aid as an unlicensed pharmacist. This provided us with a little cash to move to MO, some valuable experience and some entertaining stories.

One such story was quite the reality check for me. I answered a phone call from a doc who asked, "Is this the pharmacist?" My reply was, "uh...uh, yeah I'm a pharmacist." He didn't seem too sure that he was talking to a pharmacist but asked his question anyway. Fortunately I was able to answer it. The story doesn't sound that funny but it was since I was a new pharmacist unsure of myself in the situation and he was an oral surgeon who didn't call things in so he was unsure of how a phone call to a pharmacy was supposed to go.

So the residency program is a one year deal. I will be working at the VA with a geriatric outpatient clinic for most of my time. That means I will be seeing patients with chronic disease states that are managed by medication. I will be working with them to optimize there medivation regimin and hopefully improving their quality of life. There are a few months I may be doing other things to round out my education.

Most people ask if pharmacists have to do a residency. The answer is no, pharmacists don't, but if you want certain jobs they are highly reccomended if not required. I am still not sure exactly what I want to do, but I am currently leaning towards a clinical faculty position, which is one of those jobs that a residency is highly reccomended. During my residency I will also complete a teaching certificate program which can't hurt when looking to become a teacher.

The Move

So...the move. Crazy that something we thought about and stressed over for so long is finally over. Well, kind of. But yes, we made it safely here to our new home in St. Louis. Here are a couple things we experienced and/or noticed during our trip:

loading and reloading and shoving as much of our junk as possible in a too small truck and then having to leave a bunch of things behind anyway,

it is impossible not to have an "odds and ends" box

2-kid trikes can be transported on a trunk bike rack (although they do obscure your vision enough to make changing lanes a bit tricky)

worrying that Cambree had pink eye during the two days we were on the road,

noticing that BJ's sister Mindy doesn't believe her cell phone is capable of transmitting her normal voice,

Cambree deciding at a dirty gas station toilet somewhere in Tennessee that she was ready to start potty training,

how much more enjoyable it is to look at the hind side of a Budget truck as opposed to a Penske,

that, at least between the Triangle and the Mississippi, there are at least 3 x more Cracker Barrels than there are McDonalds,

a good friend's tip to number all the boxes and then keep a notebook with a detailed description of the contents is a fantastic idea! Just a suggestion though, make sure you don't pack that notebook away...ours is still missing!!!

So yes, overall, a good move. We were so blessed/surprised/very relieved to have so much help on both ends, including BJ's mom and sister Mindy, especially here in the near 100 degree heat!!! And, yes, MO is just as humid as it is in NC!!!

We are making lots of progress unloading and unpacking boxes to the point where our place has become rather homey. Luckily, we are now the proud renters of a house with a basement. It is the perfect place for all the boxes that we don't quite know what to do with yet.

So yes, the house. Everyone's most favorite aspect about the house is by far the backyard. It is fenced in, there is a beautiful wild flower bed, a swing, a porch that is ideal for our new mini pool (given to us by our neighbors) and some grass (even if it is a bit itchy and possibly full of chiggers).

We probably had more boxes labeled "kitchen" than all other labels combined...funny thing, the kitchen is the smallest room in the house

Yesterday I Learned...

...that changing a # 2 diaper is amazingly more difficult if you change it immediately after the wearer of that diaper consumes 1/2 a bottle of syrup. I guess I shouldn't have used the term "consumed" because I really don't know how much she actually swallowed. By the time I got to her though, she was pretty frustrated. First, the syrup was all gone. Second, her eyelids were stuck mostly shut. Her arms too were "glued" half bent at the elbows so that she couldn't really move them either. Her hair was stuck (literally) out straight. As I prepared her for a bath, I noticed that various rolls and creases in her body were also stuck together.

Yes, our "busy" little almost 2 year old likes syrup. She also happens to be a very good climber (I think she gets that from her rock climber uncle) and can pretty much get to whatever she wants. So she saw her chance while Mom was busy on the phone for 5 minutes.

There have been aftershocks too. Like, every time I pull out the toaster (which happened to be on the counter while Cambree had her snack) there is a puddle, if you can call it that, of syrup underneath it. I've tried to clean it out 3 times. Also, there is still all kinds of syrup somewhere inside the handle of the dishwasher so that every time we open it, our hands become covered in sticky gunk. Finally, each and every time someone goes up (0r down) the stairs, our feet stick to the carpet.

How grateful I am for the many opportunities my children give me to laugh each day. One kid just happens to give me more of those opportunities than the other one.

My only regret is not having a camera to take a picture of the whole thing.

5 years later...

So Jules and I move out to NC 5 years ago for me to go to pharmacy school. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years but it has. A few weeks ago I finally graduated from Campbell. For my 5 years of hard work all I got was 2 large pieces of paper and this funny looking hat.

At least Cambree liked the hat.

It sure feels good to be done with school though. OK almost done with school. I still have to pass my licensure exams. They shouldn't be too hard though. They just cover everything I have learned over the last 4 years.

Graduation day was nice. My Ma flew out along with my sister Millie. They tried to surprise me with my sister, but my Ma gave me a few hints and I was pretty certain she was coming. It was fun to see her even if I wasn't surprised. Jules' sister Mindy came over with her family to cheer me on and were very disappointed when they didn't get to really cheer when my name was called.



So the green thing around my neck is a hood for my Doctoral degree or Pharm.D. So I guess I got more than some papers and a funny hat. It also comes with the title "Dr." so if you feel so inclined you may now call me Doctor Beege. The yellow hood that Julie is holding is for my masters degree. That's right I finished two degrees in 5 years. What a haul that was.

People ask me how I made it through pharmacy school with a wife and two kids. Well here is the answer...

No, Seriously, I wouldn't have made it without her. In fact I am not sure I would have had enough ambition to get into school without her. I love my wife and I thank her for her support through out my last 6 years of school.