Jaicie's Birthday Party

We had a wonderful birthday party last weekend for Jaicie. We had to work with the little bit of time Justin had off. We were fortunate to be able to have her party at my good friend Alicia Gustafson's House. They have a beautiful home and yard and we had a really fun party!



We enjoyed some water games. Between the trampoline with a sprinkler underneath and the blow up waterslide, the kids had a blast!

Today is actually Jaicie's birthday! It is so hard to believe that my little girl is 6! She has grown up so much. Just recently, she has really turned into a little lady and Ij ust love it. When I was little, in order to go anywhere with my grandma when she was visiting, I had to promise to be a lady. Jaicie, for the most part, would get to go, because she has really turned into one. We got her a few new outfits for her birthday, and they make her look so grown up. It scares me sometimes! I am so proud of Jaicie and the great example she is to her little sister and brother.

Happy Birthday Jaicie!

Away Rotations, Housing Warning

So Justin and I have an upcoming trip to Utah. I have posted about it before. Anyway, I post this not for the pity but for the awareness and warning to be shared.

We arranged housing. We found it on CraigsList under Sublet/Temporary Housing. The rentors name was Donald Spencer (Alberto Arias). He agreed to rent us his high end condo in SLC for a great price of $650 for the entire month of August. He rented the unit as a vacation rental for $45 a night. So the $650 was a great deal. We shared a bunch of emails back and forth. At one point he called us and spoke with Justin for a few minutes. We made all the arrangements. Donald Spencer was really nice and really easy to work with. Justin and I both felt really good about the arrangement. We felt like we were doing the right thing. We signed a contract and agreed to his conditions for the money. He asked that we send him a money order for $250 for the rental deposit which would go towards the $650 rent. He also asked that we send a post dated check for $300 to him. This was for the security deposit and would be returned once he verified that the apartment was left in proper order. Donald claimed that he was on a research sabatical in Dallas and would send us the keys. One June 21, he told us the keys had been mailed the day before. The keys never arrived. We repeatedly sent emails asking about the status of the keys and for a contact number for him. He never responded. Looking back now there are many things to question that we should have looked into further. But we were trusting and I guess pretty stupid. As we have looked into Donald Spencer we have found out that he does not own any property.

So if you are looking for temporary housing...Here are my 2 cents...
1> Be wary of CraigsList.
Clearly we were to trusting. I know they warn you, but you really need to be wary and look into everything you can!
2> Do your research on the rental/owner. Ask the renter for some sort of proof that he has rights to rent this property, or the name of someone who can verify that they live there. Maybe a copy of a statement with his name sent to that address, I don't know, but find some proof that they have the right to rent you the property.
3> Make sure that you have full contact info before agreeing to a contract.
4> Be wary if they ask you to send the money to a different address. Donald Spencer said he was living in Dallas, but was going with Alberto Arias (who was listed as a co-owner and whom I assumed was his boyfriend) to visit his sick aunt in Massachusetts.
5> Make sure when renting in a temporary housing situation that you keep good records of everything that took place, every phone call, email, exchange, check numbers, money order receipts and so forth. We were lucky that we had all this.

I am assuming that we have lost the $250, which is awful, but we are fortunate that is all. As I said, I don't post his blog for any pity for our situation. We have been lucky enough to be able to work everything out despite it. I post it so that everyone will be aware. And I hope that when people do searches on Donald Spencers name they find this blog post and do not rent a vacation rental from him. Obviously that is probably not his real name...If it is, I pity him when the FBI gets a hold of him. He cashed the Money order which was made out to Donald Spencer and or Alberto Arias, so I am hoping maybe one of those is his real name...but lets not be ridiculous.

Just be aware when you are renting for away rotations. Luckily we have been fortunate to have some friends in SLC who are letting us stay at their house while we are there, Even the kids and I while we are in town. So thanks to them! It means I can actually see Justin for a minute or two while in town! :) Good luck to anyone reading this looking for housing!

And just for some further info: Here are the pictures he sent of the unit and the original posting on CraigsList (Now removed...wonder why)

Reply to: hous-nqqeg-1202055119@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-06-02, 2:47PM

45 per night
Fully Furnished One Bedroom Apartment, Discounts on Extended Stays
ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED
Bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living room and den
45 per night and discounts on extended stays!
Living arrangements are really nice!
Located in the heart of Salt Lake City!
Major discounts for extended stays!
Looking for renters for now!
UTILITIES INCLUDED!

• Location: Salt Lake City
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Original URL:http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/sub/1202055119.html

The email we communicated with him on was dspencerinc@gmail.com

Cereal

Collin has discovered the cereal cabinet...Here is one pic, but Justin pulled the camera out to late!

From Collin and the cereal

I sense a moment like this coming up...

From Collin and the cereal

This is Justin, looking as mischievous as Collin was looking. Collin was literally crawling into the cabinet trying to pull out the cereal. I can only imagine that a picture like this will be posted of Collin in the very near future.

If I remember the story right...Justin tried to blame Brett...Does that sound about right? Twins...Brothers...mischievousness...sounds like Justin...

Collin is fun and I enjoy the personality that he has and he is! He is so easy to laugh with and smile at. He can cheer me up anytime!

Catch up...Again!

WOW! It seems that I just can't get caught up on my blog posts these days. I catch myself up and then miss posting anything for a few weeks!

On June 22 was Felicity's 4th birthday. It is so hard to believe that she is four. She has the attitude of a 16 year old and the determination of a 25 year old. Okay, so my numbers may be a little askew, but none the less, it is hard to believe that she is ONLY four and ALREADY four. She is definitely my fiesty Felicity who's Four...I was trying for some alliteration there, but couldn't get it out right! Her birthday was a ton of fun! We got together with some of hers and our friends and went swimming at bodyworks for a while and then we met back at our place for hot dogs, cake and presents. It was a blast! Her are some fun pics from her party!

For the most part, the rest of the time has been interesting...to say the least. A portion of it, I will post in this blog, a portion in another!

So on the 25th of June while trying to do laundry and pack and get ready for a weekend trip to visit with Paul and Karry down in Alpine Texas...I managed to overload the washer...overload it much more than I should have...Seriously though, it really didn't seem that full...maybe it was just the blankets wrapped around at the bottom, I don't know...But regardless of the whys, I burnt up the engine of our washer...Yes, burnt it to a crisp. Justin walked into the laundry room to find little visibility in the 4 ft by 6 ft (Maybe) room. There was smoke billowing out of the top of the washer and we are really lucky that there wasn't a fire. When i walked out of our room I walked into a thick cloud of smoke and was really scared. Luckily we were able to get it stopped and save the clothes...unfortunately, the washer did not have the same fate. While we were able to unload some of the clothes and finish the spin cycle, we were not able to use it again. The laundry fairy didn't make it that night to finish what we couldn't, and so we dragged it to Alpine with us and shared many thanks with Paul and Karry for letting us wash 2 loads of laundry while visiting. We had the whirlpool guy come out to take a look at it and that took until Wednesday or Thursday. He said it would cost at least 400 to fix the motor, but there were also many other problems that would need to be addressed if not now, in the near future. All in all to keep it running well, we would be looking at more than $600...So we decided to forego the repairs and we just shopped for a new one. In the end we found a great top loading GE that is energy star certified and relatively highly rated by consumer reports (yes we did our research). It took another 5 days though to get it to our house. ON Tuesday night, a week and a half later, we were finally able to do some laundry and have clean clothes again...Well we did do some in the interim...we have good friends! :) I love our new washer though! It is amazing! Not only is it saving water and energy on the washer side of things, but because it spins the clothes so thoroughly, it is also making our dryer more efficient and the clothes actually get dry in one dry cycle...MIRACLE i know!

Anyway, now that I have bored you with that news...here is a pic of our pretty new washer and a link if you are washer shopping!

A little Behind

It has been a whirlwind of a month. So many things have been going on that I have just never taken the time to blog about all of them. So here is a quick update...

My surgery recovery has gone well, on June 4th I was able to say for the first time in exactly a year that my stomach did not hurt. It did not even remotely hurt. Not a cramp, not a pain, nothing. It was better! I can't thank Dr. Loveless enough (and the team in the ER) for taking care of the problem and getting the IUD out! In the end, the big question is would I recommend the Mirena IUD? Yes actually, I would. Despite the problems and pain that it caused me, I still think it is a great BC and really the perforating the Uterus problem, really doesn't happen all that often.

Collin's BIrthday

Also on June 4, Collin turned one. It is unbelievable to think that he is 1! He had a great birthday and we all had lots of fun! We played in the sprinklers and pool in the back yard. We enjoyed a cake, and Collin enjoyed his own. We even saw some magic tricks! Collin magically threw his plate and cake off his high chair tray and it landed face up with no mess on the floor. Stunning magic from a 1 year old! He has finally mastered the real crawl--up on his hands and knees. He stands up well and walks around furniture. He has a little toy that he can hold onto and walk and he does really well on that! All in all, he is doing well. His check up was good as well. He has a big head, but what Pierce child doesn't right? His weight was good, about 23 pounds I think and he is tall. His head is about 99%, his weight and height are right about average, his height maybe a little above.He loves real food and thinks life beyond the bottle is great! He has also mastered holding his cup while sitting and still being able to drink out of it! YAY! He loves facing forward in his car seat and thinks his sisters are the greatest!

Justin and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 8th. We had a wonderful night out on the 5th, and Justin was on call on the 8th. It is hard to believe that it has been 7 years, and also that it has only been 7 years! It seems like just yesterday we got married, but at the same time it seems like we have always been together. 7 Years has only brought us closer together and brought us more in love than ever before!

I had the opportunity to go back to Chicago this past week. I attended the American Medical Association Alliance meeting there and had a wonderful time. It had been nearly 15 years since I had been back and it was wonderful to see the city again. I had a wonderful time with all of the Texas delegates and getting to meet all the other national delegates. It was such a wonderful opportunity for me. I had a wonderful time!

Yesterday was Justin's birthday! As he sang "Happy Birthday to Me, I'm Done with Year 3, I look like a Doctor and soon I will be!" Clearly, along with celebrating his birthday yesterday, he also took his very last shelf exam for his third year of Medical School. He has begun all his countdowns to Match day and graduation. (March 18 and May 22 respectively) He officially has 8 rotations to do and he is done with Medical school. This summer willl begun the application process. Which will include applications to about 35 programs, and hopefully lots of interviews that will cost way too much. But we are looking forward to the process and the decisions that will need to be made!

All in all, it has been a wonderful month. Lots going on and thus no posts for nearly a month. But we have enjoyed all of it and can't wait for what the next year will bring to us!

Surgery update

I thought that everyone might want an update on the surgery from Friday.

I reported to outpatient surgery at 6am. Surgery wasn't scheduled until 8:30am. I got all the pre-op stuff done and then got to chill in the room while waiting for surgery time. I watched the news and Good Morning America for a little while. The anesthesiologist came in and told me what to expect and then at 8:15, they came and rolled me directly into the OR. They gave me the "happy" medicine, that was supposed to help me relax. Apparently it worked. I wasn't nervous to begin with, but I guess it did its job. Not five minutes later i must have been out. I remember them having me move from the bed over to the OR table. I remember laying down and the next thing I remember is waking up asking for Justin. THe nurse told me that I needed to calm down and that Justin would be able to come see me once I am moved back into outpatient surgery. I told them that Justin is able to calm me down. I was freaking out a bit I guess, because next thing I know, Justin is in there with me. I heard the nurse mention to him that I said he calms me down. I was pretty out of it, and pretty nauseous. I got lots of Zofran, I think two doses, and then I got some phenigran later. I was pretty drugged up for a while. I finally got to go home at about 3:45, once I was finally able to go to the bathroom and keep a little bit of something down.

As it turns out, there was an adhesion, but it was from 22 years ago when I had my appendix out and wasn't causing me pain. The culprit was my Mirena IUD. Apparently there is a very rare side effect that the IUD can perforate the uterus and lay to rest in the peritoneal cavity. Well, my little IUD perforated my uterus and embedded itself in the peritoneum. It had been out of my uterus long enough that spot where it went out of my uterus had already healed over. Apparently my body was still getting some hormones from it, just enough to keep me from getting pregnant. I am so not ready for that yet. All in all, we are lucky that it wasn't more than it was. It could have caused a lot more problems.

I had a great team of doctors that did a great job and took great care of me! I do have pictures...If anyone wants to see them, but I thought I would leave them off for those with weak stomachs...not that they are gross, but really, do you want to see my uterus? :)

Utah in August

Okay, we are officially going to Utah in August. Well Justin is for sure going and the kids and I are going to try and go. But if anyone knows of some cheap housing for the first 2 weeks of August in the SL area, please let me know!