The doll that grandma made

Wren turned 4-years-old on August 29th.  She was so ready for her "burt-day" and it happened to fall during our marathon interview trip.  Grandma and Grandpa Platt met us in Boise and, per request, we all celebrated the day at Chuck E Cheese.  Grandma Chris made the day special with homemade cupcakes and lots of presents.  Grandma Chris knows Wren (and her mom :)) and got her super fun Melissa and Doug stamp kit, jewelry kit, and hand mirror.   We got to dance with Chuck E himself not just once but twice. The kids played tons to games and we adults ended up with tickets spilling out of our pockets.  Talk about excited to spend those tickets!  Did we earn the X Box?  The stuffed animal?  Better-- The tickets bought 1 spider ring and 1 tootsie roll (or something like that....:)).  It was a fun day.

I, of course, got no pictures.  

We weren't done celebrating our special girl, though.  When we got home, I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and peanut ice milk.  And our best buddies the Knudsons and the Whitsons came over to eat and celebrate.  I can't find all the pictures I took of that little party (I know, don't tell me some organizing needs to happen....don't I already know it. deeply.)     But I did find the two gems above.  Wren's gift from Granny Lori that day, was the handmade doll in the pictures.  My mom thinks the doll was made a long time ago by her grandma, Lenna Hiss.   Grandma Lenna was a big part of my mom's life and  my mom carries her name, Lenna, as her middle name.  Wren's middle name, after her grandma and great-great grandma is also, Lenna.  

This doll, was a labor of love, way back when.  All the details and features of the little blond 1920's style girl are hand stitched into cream fabric.  When my mom found it, it was stained and in bad repair.  But, after a complete washing and restuffing, it is beautiful.  You can see from the pictures how the newest Lenna feels about it.  

But enough about the days and on to our girl.  Our Wren girl is such a joy.  She is a doer, a crafter, a reader, and a caretaker.  She is still a lover of ears, belly buttons, babies, her thumb, bags, and collections she creates.  She has beautiful blond hair.  Loves going to school and always talks back to Dora.  And this girl is a singer!  She loves to sing me songs about the gospel that she makes up herself.  She has got her doctrine spot on, I must say.  

We love her so very much or, as we say at our house, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. 

Happy Birthday to our Wren!

Ranking the Possiblities

So here's the report card on the great cities we got to visit.  Reminder of the things that we were looking for:

• Easy distance/travel to both Platt and Lawrence family
• A great job that pays well (right?) that Steve ADORES
• Awesome Library (for Loni)
• Water aka lake, river (for Steve--current owner of 2 canoes :))
• A temple, preferably in the same city or in easy travel distance
• Great schools
• Good training for the kiddos in dance, piano, instruments
• An agricultural community (so really I just want a local, awesome CSA box available--and raw milk!)
• Costco
• Good restaurants
• Fun outdoor recreation year round--hiking, skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding
• And Ross, as in Dress for Less  :)

Wenatchee, WA was our first stop and we. loved. it.   So much. 

• There was an awesome hospital, pay was pretty good, benefits were great, people were a little formal but great.  
• And then there was the town: beautiful mountains, River cutting through the middle of it, awesome local market on the river open year-round, agriculture EVERYWHERE (its the apple growing capital of the US and there is a bread baker who grows heirlom grains--squeal!!!), Costco :), Ross, and really wonderful, kind people.  
• Tons of our door stuff to do: ski resort right outside of town, a beach for the kiddos, lakes as well as the river....
• REALLY good restaurants and a Cafe Rio, which doesn't rank on REALLY good restaurants but hey, its a plus.  
• BUT temple is over two hours away, its 14 hours from mom and dad Lawrence, 5 from mom and dad Platt, the library is disappointing.

Coeur D'Alene was stop #2.  And we liked it.  Actually we called this one the wild card.  The job opportunity was so open, Steve really could do whatever he wants.  

• The job was different and a really open opportunity working for a private group.  Steve really liked the people he would work with (couln't have asked for nicer people!), didn't love the hospital but the pay and benefits were great.  He could be the hospice director.
• The town is lakes and pine trees and beautifulness, it feels like a bigger town, being right outside Spokane with lots of strip malls and big box stores.  And its so close to Spokane that has a temple, a large airport, ballet, amazing music lessons..the works.  
• There are a lot of outdoor things to do; ski areas are a little drive but there are lakes everywhere and even an amusement park.  
• Coeur D'Alene has an awesome charter school that is #12 in the nation.  #12.  Awesome.  
• The library is the most beautiful library I've seen.
• There are some great restaurants....though we stopped at a sushi restaurant and were asked to leave because the chef hates it when people tap their chopsticks.  Not. Child. Friendly.

Boise was fast.  We were only there about 3 hours and we pretty much knew right away it wasn't for us so I won't waste your time.  

And last but not least Twin Falls.  Our last stop.  And, we liked it, too. (Just a thought, if places and especially people weren't so nice this whole decision would have been SO MUCH EASIER.  Curse you super nice people and beautiful places.) 

• Hospital is new and gorgeous (seriously), pay was awesome, Steve liked the peeps, and they may need a palliative care person, which Steve love to do.
• The town is flat. There is a canyon with a river and two (hence, Twin) waterfalls.  Costco, TEMPLE in town!! (can I get a woot woot! Do people even say anymore....I'm little embarrassed) modest farmers market made up by the fact that there is agriculture EVERYWHERE and even a  mennonite population nearby, downtown is...struggling, but there is shopping.  
• There is a good restaurant.  
• Its 3 hours from Mom and Dad Lawrence and 8 from Mom and Dad Platt.  
• Obviously there's water fun (barrels anyone?) and skiing is an hour away.

So friends, tough decisions ahead.  Thoughts?

Interview Trip #1 or Here We Go Awkward Dating Again and PICTURES!

Just when you think you've seen the back side of an awkward date for the very last time-for all eternity really-here we are doing job interviews.

Pray for us.  No, really.

I would love to meet someone who loved dating.  You know, the whole "so....do you like me?"  "Do I like you?"  "Are we good for each other?"  thing.  And the constant putting-my-best-foot-forward-no-seriously-I'm-always-smiling thing.   I think about it, and I'm exhausted.

For this family of Platt, I'm expecting the last week of August to be just like a series of "dates."  We are interviewing at positions in 3 cities in Washington and Idaho and doing a check out of one more city/hospital position (they didn't get back to us in time for a full blown interview).

Watch out Wenatchee in Washington and Coeur D'Alene, Boise, and Twin Falls in Idaho because we are going to be checking you all out quite seriously.  I told you we have a long-ish list of criteria that we have used/are using to decide about the locations.  I won't bore you with where each city stands (at least not just yet) but I am going to share just few of the things that are so important to us that they are must haves:

• Easy distance/travel to both Platt and Lawrence family
• A great job that pays well (right?) that Steve ADORES
• Awesome Library (for Loni)
• Water aka lake, river (for Steve--current owner of 2 canoes :))
• A temple, preferably in the same city or in easy travel distance
• Great schools
• Good training for the kiddos in dance, piano, instruments
• An agricultural community (so really I just want a local, awesome CSA box available--and raw milk!)
• Costco
• Good restaurants
• Fun outdoor recreation year round--hiking, skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding
• And Ross, as in Dress for Less  :)

Its not too demanding of a list, right?  Like I said, pray for us.

In the mean time, how about some pics of this Platt family lately.

Ice cream after t-ball

The rest of the family

Say cheese

Look at that hit!

Aunt Gen, Ford and Leo

Picnic at the park

First time ever for Saturday night curlers--a Lawrence girl tradition

Ignore the creepy eyes.  He is SO into Pokemon right now.  Showing off the collection.

I told you I wasn't done with the bath.

Cousin bath!

Judd at the sand box.

Sweet girl.

Grandpa Brian with the kiddos.

The Green's last day with us.  Judd posed for the picture :).

Gran and Ford-man

Gran and Grandpa Matt's last morning.

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Grown up life aka Steve is looking for a real job

So I realize that I mainly post about my kiddos on this blog.  But so many of my family that reads the blog is far away and not in the day to day of our crazy Platt life, so I thought I would let you in on a few of the biggies going on right now.

This is our last year of Steve's residency in Wisconsin.  And we have loved this city and his program, the people and Wisconsin in general.  But here comes the end and the big question of where we go now is beginning to take over a big chunk of our thoughts.  First things first, though.  We've gotten lots of general questions about what kind of a doctor Steve is, what he wants to do, and where we want to go.  Here are a few answers for yas.

What kind of a doctor is Steve?
 Steve is doing and Internal Medicine residency.  With Internal Medicine you can be a clinical Internal Medicine doctor--in fact, you may have one as your primary care doctor.  With Internal Medicine you can also specialize and become anything that has to do with the trunk of the body, so Cardiologist, ICU doctor, Hematologist, Allergist, Ear Nose and Throat doctor....tons and  of different specialties.  Now Steve doesn't want to be a specialist or work in a clinic.  He is going to be the last option, an Internist at a hospital or what we call a hospitalist.

What is a hospitalist?
If you ever have to be admitted to a hospital, you have had a hospitalist take care of you.   Any admitted patient is first assigned an Internal Medicine hospitalist doctor.  That doctor is the main primary care doctor during a patient's stay.   He does your general care and medicine and coordinates any other care from other specialists or surgeons you might need.

Freeeee timeeee
So, a hospitalist job is pretty awesome.  You get to take good care of sick peoples and because the work is so demanding most hospitalists work one week on and one week off.  So every seven days we could have our Steve all to ourselves.  Sounds pretty darn great!

What that means for the Platts
Well, with the end of Steve's training comes real life.  We are looking for a grown up job.   Or actually Steve is and I'm looking for a life for our family.  And both are just an ideal in some yet unknown place.  Weighty decisions, folks.


So for the next little bit I'll be posting about how we are narrowing the search and the places and cities we are looking at for our home.  Please, if you have any good thoughts or advice or ideas for future homes, I'm open!  Leave a comment and wish us luck!

Wren + Makeup = 45 year old woman

Steve and I decided about 6 months ago that we wanted to get to know our kiddos better.   So we began dating...our kids.  At least once a month (a.k.a. when Stevo has a day off) we each get to take one kiddo (plus Ford....who is still a bit of a tag-a-long) on a special activity of their choice.

Yesterday I got to be our Wren's date and we went to the Clinique counter :).  We got blush and lip gloss applied by ladies in long white coats.   And then we went to the dollar store and she got to pick out her very own make up.  

It was all I could do to convince her not to bring all her make up to church.  We compromised with her taking only the lip gloss.  Let me tell you about those extremely glossy lips next to me on the pew.

But after church she let loose and there were several hours of makeup application.  About half way through I got this picture.  It doesn't do the artistic expression justice.  Purple and black eye shadow.  Orange blush from eye to jaw.  An extremely healthy dose of pink sparkle lip gloss.  

It really adds a few years to the Wren-girl.  If you come to my house and are greeted by a 3-foot tall middle-aged woman, its just my almost 4 year old daughter. :)

A man and his rocking horse

Hey guys, some days, you just gotta ride.

Belated Easter Pics

Easter 2013.  Dad had to work all day.  Boo.  The Easter Bunny came.  Horray!  Everyone ate ridiculous amounts of candy.  Especially Ford.  No really.  Ford thought he had died and gone to candy heaven.  Here are a few pics of our Easter festivities.  

 The Easter Bunny showed up at our house this year!  Judd got a Nerf gun. Talk about ex.cit.ed.  We have a good Easter bunny. (toot, toot :))(that was me tooting my own horn, just in case you didn't get it)

 Wren got a Melissa and Doug pizza.  Melissa and Doug, its an obsession.  For the mom/EB, I mean.  Though Wren thought it was pretty cool, too.  (toot, toot)(now I'm just making myself laugh, ok, I'll stop.)

 We hunted for eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden all over our living room.  The EB knows that Wisconsin at Easter time is maybe not the best outdoor hunt senario.  You'll see why if you keep scrolling down.

 Finding the eggs....

 Not really looking for the eggs but trying to eat all the candy that will possibly fit into my mouth at the same time.

Now that is a lot of eggs.

 All of our colored eggs.  And the daffodil that I have to buy every year.  Can't wait until I can have a yard full of them!

 "Here's all my eggs."  The next few pics are from the Easter Egg hunt we had with a few families the day before Easter.  Look closely and you'll see why, with all the snow melting, WI is not ideal Easter Egg hunting ground.  On a side note:  We learned that Platts are not aggressive in the Easter egg hunt department.  There were TONS of eggs and we ended up with about 6.  total. 

 Easter egg hunt at the park, or lake, as it were. 

He's probably thinking, "Yeah, where is my shoe..."  He thinks that a lot.  

And we come down to the Easter-clothes-before-church pictures.  I may have the most beautiful kiddos in the whole world.  That said, doesn't this picture remind you of Despicable Me just little bit?  

"Its so FLUFFY!!"  

Not sure Ford is appreciating it.

And Ford lets us know he doesn't appreciate it by showing off his super effective "I'll just slide out from under this" manuver.  Judd and Wren don't seem to mind :).   One more major side track here: Do you see that awesome Japanese doll on the shelf behind them?  Just a random tidbit but it was part of the decoration at my parents wedding.  My dad served his mission in Japan and so my parents had gorgeous Japanese decor at their wedding.  And now that doll that was there at the beginning of my parents married lives gets to sit in our house and be beautiful while reminding us of the family we love so much. It makes me happy and its red, which also makes me happy.  Just thought I'd share.

So we sure had a happy Easter and as Judd so appropriately reminded me, "Easter isn't about candy, Mom, its about Jesus."  So very true.  I am amazed at how motherhood strengthens me in ways I wasn't planning on.  Teaching my sweet children about their Savior, remembering with them the events that happened each day of the holy week--I want so much for my children to feel a testimony of Jesus and amazingly, my own testimony grows.  Jesus is my Savior.  He lived, He suffered for my sins, He died, and He was resurrected.  And because of Him I can change, repent, have a body again, and be with my family forever.  I am so grateful for my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.