PGY3

When dave gets home from work today (already been 36 hours) he will be done with his second year of residency. Another year down and still a million to go (or so it seems). Actually, we have 5 more years of residency and then probably a year of fellowship after that.

The next 6 months dave will work at the Children's hospital and have home call EVERYDAY! Technically he's supposed to have 1 day off a week with no pager (24 hours) so he gets from noon friday-noon saturday off. pretty sneaky way of not giving him a day off, eh? I would highly doubt that he'll walk out of the hospital at noon ..we'll see. If he does actually get out of there on time it could be a fun day.

Home call stinks 'cuz you always have to have phone and pager in hand, can't be away from a computer, or leave the 20 minute radius of the hospital. We will have to take 2 cars everywhere we go in case dave gets called in.

on the plus side, children's will be a new and interesting experience for dave, it is 10 mins closer than downtown UCSD, a new color of scrubs -- light blue I think.

It'll be interesting.

I'm pretty sure that after these 6 months we really will have the worst behind us.

here are some interesting thoughts to put the length of our residency in perspective. #1. My little bro will start law school this fall and will have a real job 2-3 years before we do. He is 5 years younger than us. #2. A 2009 graduate of high school can start college this fall and get a 4 year nursing degree. Then get a job at Dave's hospital and 4 years from now as a first year nurse make more than dave will be making in his chief year. That person would be 12 years younger than us. #3. When dave finishes residency we will have been married 15 years. #4. Alexey will be done with Kindergarten, Calvin done with 5th grade. -- and then the fellowship would/will be one more year after that. Sometimes I don't think I can make it. But I will.

love the beach

this morning we took an early beach trip. I think that this ( going to the beach first thing in the morning) will be my summer tradition this year because we beat the crowds and beat the sun and then we can come home and eat lunch and shower and start our day. I'm not really a big fan of sun on the skin of me or my kids.

I know it's bad as a parent to have favorites but I do have one. Alexey. I'm sure she'll grow out of it so I do think it is okay to say that right now she is my favorite. no contest. Just like I was the favorite of my parents (ha ha. jk bros)!

look at those curls. they are adorable.

she is always covered with bumps and bruises so I never have a perfect picture of her.

Calvin made a rock collection.

Clare played in the sand and made a silly face when I asked her to smile.

We enjoyed about and hour and a half of happiness before we had any meltdowns. That is about 87 minutes longer than we can go without a meltdown anywhere else. :)

utah trip

This weekend I took a quick trip up to Salt Lake City and Provo to visit some family and friends and also drop off Dan at BYU for summer term. It was a nice weekend and a fun get away for me since I didn’t bring any kids with me! Dave did a great job watching Calvin and Clare and Pete and Jessica adopted Alexey for the weekend (for her safety –3 kids is really pushing dave to the far limits of his parenting)!!

Highlights – visiting G. Joyce and g. Cal and having a Dahlquist family gathering for Father’s Day with all the aunts and uncles and many of the cousins
-seeing the Hawkes at their new home and spending time with their wonderful family. This picture shows on of the views. They have a view out of 3/4 of their house. The back of the house views the mountians and it is lovely too.
-visiting the Wickmans – my second family from the time I was about 3. It was fun to visit with Matt and Kerry and their beautiful girls. Matt is about 12 years older than me and 10 years younger than my dad. He and my dad were good friends.
- visiting BYU campus. It is just beautiful! All the construction that was going on while I was there has really paid off. Campus looks great. The cannon center and dorms are awesome! this is dan dropping off his tray at the cannon center. It is completely remodeled and pretty nice.
Here's the dining area.


-seeing G. Ruth and G. Bruce
-the breathtaking mountains. We saw all of them, from the foothills in bountiful to the mouth of cottonwood canyon, to utah valley mtns. All are beautiful. I Love the mountains.

dave loves it

For all of his complaining over the years and threats that I will be ugly if I cut my hair short I would say that he likes it the most! Actually Clare really loved it too. She says I look like Snow White. What higher compliment could there be than to look like a princess? I was a little unsure of it for the first couple of days -- but now I really like it!

new do

some before pics...

dear dave, won't this hair make a nice wig?

see you tomorrow! Love, Denise



for those of you that aren't dave...today I cut off about 12 inches of my hair and will mail it in to be donated...dave is on call and will have to wait 'til tomorrow to see me :) and so will you! Some of you might know that dave is not a big fan of hair cuts so, if you are wondering what dave thinks of me getting a hair cut I will tell you what he told me last week "I will still love you even when you are ugly." Isn't he just the sweetest thing?

byu i

I am registering Dan for BYU - Idaho....do any of you have class or teacher recommendations (for GE type classes)? thanks!!

save the date

5 years from now (the second friday in June) dave and Chiazo will graduate from their residency!!

Last night Dave and Chiazo roasted the outgoing chief resident, Min. They did a good job with their presentation, nearly killing one of the attending physicians who laughed so hard he turned blue in the face. It is always a great night to see the graduates and getting more enjoyable as we get to know the people in the program a little better..

The way this program at USCD neurosurg is set up the 7th year resident and the 2nd year resident(s) are paired up together for a full year and work as a team to run the main hospital. Dave will really miss Min as he has been an excellent resident, surgeon, teacher, and friend.


I had one of the my soon to be laurels do my hair. I thought she did a great job and it was fun to do something a little different. Last year when I went we had a 3 month old baby so I was (a little) chubby and not as put together.

beautiful clare

tball is over

Saturday we finished our t-ball season. Calvin had a good time hanging with his little buddies and occasionally I think he also enjoyed the baseball game as well. I really appreciate the coaches and parents who helped out so much. Dave and I aren't very good helpers these days since dave is never there and I always have 2 other kids with me so I especially appreciate those who are able and willing to coach and help on these teams.

some of the parents who had nice cameras forwarded their pics of the kids.



this was a common sight during each game.


especially when Calvin acts like this, it is nice to have patient and wonderful parents with a good sense of humor. For the first half of the season I dreaded going to the games b/c it is completely humiliating to see your child act so poorly but I guess I learned to laugh with the other parents and realize that he's just a kid and the #1 rule of little league is "have fun" -- I suppose it applies even if that fun is laying in the dirt.
During the last game he went so far as to take off his shirt and lay completely flat using his glove as a pillow and take a nap while he was playing outfield.

What a boy!

26.2 miles

Man, that is a long way!!

last weekend dave ran the SD rock-n-roll marathon. We went and saw dave at mile 12 and then at the finish line. At mile 12 (much further than I could ever run, yet not even 1/2 way through the race), dave looked great! He was in a good rhythm, on a nice pace and he was smiling! He reached out to give us high 5 and Calvin thought he was reaching out for a hug so Calvin walked out to him and nearly got run over since dave was not stopping for hugs.







AT the finish line dave was not so smiley! He looked like he might die. Here he is a few yards from the finish. I didn't get any good ones of the finish line, but Jessica my sis in law did so I might post more later.
You can watch a video of dave finishing the race here. you can search by his name or race # of 5263 you will see him lifting his arms above his head in the victory stance (except he is so tired he almost couldn't get them above his head)!!

I am so proud of dave for finishing, not dying, not breaking anything and not throwing up (lots of throwing up that day). I got teary eyed several times watching people running, knowing how hard they have worked to make it to marathon day. It was touching at the finishing line to see people help friends across whose legs gave out in the last 100 yards.

The announcer at the race said to the fans, "come on people, cheer! These runners have been running for 4 hours. that is a long time. most of us haven't done anything for 4 hours. Even a movie is at most 3." well, I was thinking that I have done something as hard as a marathon that takes just as much preparation, sweat, sometimes throw up, and then leaves you sore for days to come. That's right folks, giving birth. I am not joking. This is as physically strenuous as a marathon and can last even longer than 4 hours. It is physically as hard as it gets. I don't want to take away anything from those who run races. It is awesome!! i just thought I'd share my funny thoughts. I guess I was just really looking for an excuse not to feel like I need to run a marathon and I found a pretty good one. :)