Morris Family Update

For those just tuning in, we are here in Rochester, MN for year number 3 of Dave's general surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic.


Dave...
He is now on his Transplant rotation. It is 1,000 times better than the last three months of pediatric surgery!! He is not treated like pooh, but more like a human being, which is very refreshing for him. He may have moments of boredom, but for the most part, this is a pretty nice rotation. The schedule is even fairly decent most days, which is a bonus! (So you are not misled, when I say "decent," I mean the kids get to see him a few times a week and Dave and I get to have a conversation or two throughout the week.) Overall, Dave is fair to good. The general feeling of exhaustion, tiredness, drowsiness, and lack of energy is something he hardly notices anymore. As for extracurricular activities, when he is not working, he is sleeping, studying, or playing with the kids.


Jo...
I've been focusing a lot on making my house a home these days. Searching for inexpensive accessories, as well as doing lots of painting. I am neck-deep in paint these days. I have taken on the massive project of painting my entire house! Something I never thought I would take on because of the crazy high ceilings and such. But my friend encouraged me and so here I am. It has been a very satisfying/stressful project. I was just about done, but now I'm realizing that I don't love the color of most of the walls. It's much yellower than I thought it would be. It's looking like I will re-painting those! So I will be painting forever, it seems. It turns out it's good exercise, though. My arms are always sore from it. Which is nice...
I am also enjoying lots of great times with good friends here in Rochester. Friends are such a great blessing. They make all the difference in my sanity level. And these days, I'm mostly sane. Wow!
I'm also teaching soccer classes for preschoolers and having a blast with that. It's great exercise and a lot of fun. Sam and Sarah get to join me for some of the classes and they LOVE that.

Sam...
Speaking of friends, Sam is so blessed in this regard. He has two best friends, both girls! Melana Orrock and Rachel Eberhard. Both of them live rather close and so they spend lots of time together. These girls are wonderful. Dave and I are very grateful for the sweethearts that they are and both of us would take a bullet for these girls.
Sam is also LOVING kindergarten. He often tells Sarah that she should be very excited that when she gets bigger she'll get to go to kindergarten too. He tells her that it is so much fun. It's amazing to me how fast he is learning. He has made so much progress on learning to read! Very exciting. He loves his teacher and his classmates. He constantly refers to a girl named Tessa... Dave and I are wondering if he has developed his first crush. ;0 Which reminds me, a sweet little girl that went to preschool with Sam and is in our ward, (Hannah Melander) came up to me today to whisper something in my ear. I leaned forward and she told me that she was knows who she is going to marry. I said, "Really? Who?" She said, "Sam." I asked her how she knew and she said that her mom told her!! :) His future plans with Rachel are pretty much set in stone but I didn't have the heart to tell Hannah that.

Sarah...
A few more weeks and she will be three! She acts like a three year old too. She is really growing up. I have to say that she is very enjoyable to be with these days. That was not the case for a long time there, but I am sincerely enjoying her right now!! Sigh, what a relief! She's really gotten control of her emotions and you can see that she is very sweet and wants to be really good. She is a very smart cookie and know what's going on.
She has stopped napping, which turns out to be nice. We love having that time together in the afternoon while Sam is in school. It's been really special. Not to mention that without naps, she goes to bed at 6:00pm, which is wonderful!!
Sarah is also having a great time with her friends. She has a neighbor named Hailey that she just loves. They are the exact same age and they play together beautifully, often playing animal rescue. Oh yeah, Sarah is obsessed with Diego and Dora these days. She prefers Diego, but Dora will do most of the time. It's so cute! I'm loving this age!

So that's our family for now. Much love to all!