Merry Christmas!

Music at Christmas

I've participated in the Christmas music program at church just about every year since I was old enough to participate.  When I was ten I was the "official" page turner of our church choir just so I could sing with them.  Even though I'm always a participant, today was only the second time I've been the one who actually put together and organized the Christmas program.  I don't get to do as much with my music these days as I would like, so I really enjoyed putting the program together and starting up a ward choir again.  I love Christmas music, so this was even more fun than usual working with the ward choir.

One perk of being in charge is that I can assign my husband to sing (cue my evil but loving chuckle). He sang an adapted solo version of "Manger of Bethlehem."

One of my favorite quotes from the Christmas program narration:

Sister Jo N. Jepson, former member of the General Primary Presidency taught us how make the birth of the Savior relevant and motivating in our always busy and often distracted lives.  “I believe that each of us can re-create that familiar scene in Bethlehem in our own lives. We can have a star to follow just as the Wise Men did…The scriptures can light our way, and our testimonies can be a light from within. The voices of angels can be the voices of our beloved prophet and His servants. We can kneel at the feet of our Savior just as literally as the shepherds and the Wise Men, but we do it in prayer. The gifts we bring are our talents. We can shout ‘Hosanna’ like that angelic choir and spread the good news by bearing our testimonies. Each new day is an opportunity to bind ourselves to act according to what we know.  By works of righteousness, we can come unto Him each day of our lives just as if we had trod in our sandaled feet the rocky path to Bethlehem, holding a staff or bearing gifts.

“I pray that Heavenly Father will help us be wise men and wise women—wise enough to accept His invitation, nourish His word, and follow a ‘straight course to eternal bliss.’  May we all cheerfully answer, ‘I’m coming.’”

A Mini-Job Update

We thought December would be the big month for movement/news on the job scene, but the timeline keeps getting pushed back.  Here are just a couple of updates:

-Joel heard back from Penn State Hershey, and they ended up having a candidate interview in December, so they won't be deciding on the second round of interviews until January now.

-Joel had a phone interview with Cleveland Clinic over the Thanksgiving holiday and he felt good about it.  They will be finishing up their phone interviews this month and hopefully Joel will be a part of their first round of interviews in January.

-Joel also applied to 3 more job openings:
Mesa, AZ
Detroit, MI
Des Moines, IA
That puts him at a total of 44 CVs sent out.  Nice.

Ornament Time

I love the holidays.  I don't know what it is about a Christmas tree that makes a home feel even more homey (haha- that's probably not a word, but you get what I mean).  Everything feels a little more comfy cozy. 

Here are the ornaments we added to our collection this year:

Little Man: His ornament was actually made of Legos, so he got to put it together (which he loved). 

Little Lady:  Rainbow Dash! 

BB: Elmo!

From our vacation in Minnesota this past Summer:

Little Guy's "1st Christmas" ornament has yet to be purchased.  Sorry, Little Guy.  We'll get on that before it's Christmas - just probably not this week.  I also need to come up with a stocking holder for him as well. 

November Stitches

This month in the Peace Circle we were asked to make 2 Wonky Roman Stripe Blocks.  I've made variations of this block before.  I like them, because they're a good use of strip scraps, particularly left over bindings.  She just wanted a gray background and any bright strips, so it was pretty open.

Our do.Good Stitches Circle is taking a break in December, so that's perfect for me.  We'll reconvene at the beginning of the new year.

For the Want of a Job

I suppose I should update the job search even though I don't feel like there's much to say.

He did go to Penn State Hershey for the first round of interviews.  He was one of about 5 people.  The problem is that we have absolutely no idea how he did, so it's hard to say if they'll call him back for a second interview.  Most pediatricians are nice, so even if it was the worst interview in the world they would still say nice things to you, so it's hard to gauge what they actually think of you.  The only thing for certain is that he should hear back either way the first week of December. 

Besides that, he felt the need to take another look at more possible places to apply.  He sent his CV out to the following places last week:

Omaha, NE
Oklahoma City
Iowa City
Buffalo, NY
Gainesville, FL
Little Rock, AR
St. Louis, MO

He heard back from Omaha and Buffalo.  Neither are currently hiring.
He also heard back from UNC yesterday saying they still don't have a job opening either.

We were just commenting that he's up to 41 CVs sent out with only one interview so far.  Those aren't great odds.  Joel was joking that I should start checking out street corners here in Columbus to get ours reserved for this Summer in case the job search falls through.  I probably should be more worried, but for some reason a sense of peace about the situation has come over me, and even though it makes absolutely no sense, I feel like it's all going to work out.  I have absolutely no idea how, but in the mean time I'm not willing to let anxiety overtake me.  We'll just keep waiting, keep following up, and most definitely keep praying.

Another One Bites the Dust

Look who has officially joined the ranks of wearing glasses in our family!

I was surprised, but he was excited about getting glasses.  I think he was feeling left out that Little Lady and Mom and Dad all had them.  He's near-sided just like his parents. 

 He particularly loves his glasses because they are blue camo.  When he first got them he kept lifting them up off his eyes back and forth to compare.  He said, "Wow!  I can see so much farther now."

Aperture

This week's photography homework deals with aperture (controlling the size of the opening in the lens which controls the amount of light that hits the digital sensor).  I had to play around with the Depth of Field (distance in front of and beyond the focused main subject).  Basically, the higher the DoF number the more of the picture that is in focus and the lower you go the more the background is blurred.

I practiced with a tree in our backyard:

DoF 36: Just about everything is in focus

DoF 10:  The focus is mostly on the leaves in the front

Here is my actual homework assignment that I turned in at DoF 5.6  (the lowest setting my camera will go without a zoom lens):

I got good reviews.  He suggested that next time I explore angles to see if I could get the background to be a different color than the color of the focused subject, but that the technique was correct.