darling Clare

Clare has been asking for a haircut for a while now. I have been meaning to call but never got around to it so about a week ago she took matters into her own hands and started trimming her own hair. She didn't do too much damage but it did help me remember to make an appointment for a real haircut! (she cut bangs herself and that is why she has bangs now.) My friend Lindsay does hair in her home and does a wonderful job. clare requested "hair like Mommy's so I can look beautiful too." She is so sweet.


She was very happy to come home and get ready for Halloween. She choose her purple dress and says she is Jasmine.


She wanted to show the back of her hair and just then Alexey jumped in the picture!


And a few more for good measure.

with pictures that I stole off the internet

Yes, I know the blog is lame and lacking in pictures. I sent the camera to New Orleans with Dave last week and he took no pictures of his trip. He still hasn't unpacked and I haven't used the camera at all so I am sorry to say I have nothing good to share.photo of new orleans' famous Bourbon street during the day. I am told it is very different at night!
Today I took Alexey to the wild Animal Park for the first time. It was so fun. She loved the birds and was pretty fascinated with the other animals. She kept making cute animal noises since she didn't know what else to say about all these animals she had never seen before. I was thinking that next year when Clare starts K I'll have to get us a pass to someplace fun and spend our mornings exploring the zoo and wild animal park or sea world together. Clare had fun too. It was the birthday of one of the gorillas so there were presents and confetti and lots of edible treats for the gorillas today. They were very active and fun to watch.

Tonight we went to see the President's Own Marine Band. Calvin listened to the 1st song and then laid on the floor under our feet and fell asleep! The rest of us survived 'til intermission. It was really fun and VERY good!

cute kids

Calvin only misspelled one word on his spelling test this week. It was of. He spelled it uv. He is getting better at spelling but I do enjoy the cute way that he spells words. My favorite used to be osum (awesome)!

During FHE I asked the kids what their favorite body part is (while silently saying a prayer that nobody would choose a part that is used for going to the bathroom). Clare said her favorite body part is the brain. Dave recently got brain and skull models so he can teach the kids all about what he does! I guess she has been paying attention!

Alexey is talking more and more these days. If you say, "Hi, Lex, how are you?" she says "good"!

who's smarter?

Having Dave home all week has been kind of fun; after the first couple of days when Dave thought he was going to die (he is for sure the most dramatic)! The past couple of days I have been reminiscing our college days together. So, for those of you who are looking for updates on the grandchildren, sorry to disappoint you but they will not me mentioned at all except to say they are all well!

I am going to write about some of my fond BYU memories, particularly the classes Dave and I had together. I am not offended if you choose not to read on. It is a fun journal entry for me. I will tell you that the answer is Dave. (just don't tell him -- he will enjoy it far too much!)

As first semester freshman at BYU Dave and I had a few classes together, BOM and chemistry. (side note: BOM class is where Dave fell in love with me at first sight!) We had a wonderful BOM teacher, Sis. Fronk, and for me rel 121 was an easy A. For Dave, it was a little more difficult. Maybe that is because he was paying attention to me instead of the class!! (yes I am totally cracking myself up). Chemistry was
the opposite. Easy for Dave and harder for me. We didn't know each other well enough to study together at this point.

Second semester freshman year we had BOM and chemistry together again. In Chem 106 we had a TERRIBLE teacher. Class was very boring and very dumb. So Dave and I would often ditch class and instead meet in the library to make out. Just kidding. We studied for an hour every day. Dave got an easy A in the class and I can't remember what I got. Maybe it was an A- or B+. I thought Dave was terribly wicked for encouraging me to ditch class and never had done it before or after but it turned out that the teacher really was worthless as a lecturer. He was a pretty nice guy though and was very lenient when I sprained my knees that semester.

While Dave was on his mission for 2 years I took a fast pace through my classes so that by the time he came home I was waaayyyy ahead of him in school :) and we had no classes together his first semester back.

However, one semester later as newlyweds, our BYU MAP paths did cross again. I was teaching his pre-med physiology class as part of my master's program. the first day of class, about a week after getting married, I introduced myself as Denise Dahlquist instead of Denise Gonda since all of my BYU email, records, etc. were still in my maiden name. This did not make Dave happy. Maybe he was still recovering from my slightly sarcastic suggestion that he should take MY name when we got married instead of his!

So anyway, to keep up appearances of fairness Dave got transferred out of my section of physiology class, but I was still able to quiz him and discuss the fun stuff he was learning.

Our final class together was an upper level biochem class during a spring term. This is definitely the most memorable! It was a very challenging and rewarding class. We studied a lot. I remember that Dave always understood the concepts faster than me and when we studied together he felt he was ready for the tests an hour or two (of study time) before me. I always needed more study time than dave to learn the required material. The tests were infamous for being difficult and tedious. I believe there were 4 test during the term. Tests at BYU are taken in the testing center which means you can go at any convenient time and there are 100's of students taking tests for 100's of classes. Dave and I went to our first exam together. After about 90 minutes I was done and sat outside waiting for Dave to finish. It took him 4 hours to finish the exam. This was the story for all 4 exams. I always finished very fast and it took him about 2-3 times as long. I was an exceptionally fast test taker and dave was on par with most kids in the class. This doesn't mean I am smarter, just faster. For me I either know it or I don't and sitting there all day won't help me come up with anything I don't know right off the bat. So, how did we do in this class? Well, on each test i got in the 85-92 %range and dave usually got in the 89-95% range, so our scores were always very close with dave scoring a little bit higher than me. Was it worth 2 hours in the testing center for 3 percentage points? Well, when we got our final grades dave got an A- and I got a B+. I knew that I would be right on the border and so when I got my grade I went to see the teacher. Dave thinks I begged and cried but that is not true. The teacher knew I would be in to see him since he saw as he split up the grades that Dave had an A- and I had a B+! He got a big kick out of knowing that we were taking the class together and competing for the grade! Everything that passed between the teacher and I was fair and square. I simply re-submitted a couple of my tests to be re-graded knowing that there were a couple of points here and there that could be retrieved. I am not usually a student that complains about every point but in this case those few points could make a difference. So, in the end, I was able to recover enough points and got an A- also.

When Dave entered med school, I had a lot of fun discussing various concepts with him as he studied different body systems, drug mechanisms and science foundations. At that point I could keep up on most conversations and with a masters in physiology I'd say I was even ahead of him in some (very few) areas. However, he quickly passed me up and now knows way more than me. His ability to study for HOURS and retain information is remarkable. He is hard working and brilliant!

quick update

Dave is getting better. Today he is back on (home) call and will hopefully be ready for full speed tomorrow. He was devastated to miss his sideline tickets to the BYU SDSU football game yesterday. So far nobody else is sick. I went on tamiflu as a precaution earlier in the week and got the H1N1 vaccine yesterday.

so sick

so dave has swine flu and I have never seen him so sick. I wish I would have sent him to a hotel Monday so he would not have brought his germs home but at that time I didn't know he was so sick. I am really hoping keeping him to his room will keep the rest of us safe. he is doing very cute things like texting me and calling me (from his cell phone in bed) on my home phone to deliver drinks and meds to him.

alexey got a black eye. She fell and hit a bench on the side of her eye and about 3 days later it turned into a black eye.

Dave and clare went to princess on ice. It was a 2 hour show. clare was on the edge of her seat the entire time. She loved it! Their seats at the show were pretty good. on the side but low.

Here is a pic - not a great one but I thought it was funny how tressel and the girls were all rolling around playing together. Dave weighed tressel today and estimates he is about 80lbs. He was 15lbs when we got him.
What would it be like to have a small horse in the house? Well, consider that and you will know what if feels like to have tressel in our house for the kids. He stands taller than Clare and Alexey and doesn't have to reach far to kiss Calvin's face! The kids are completely used to having him around and six months ago they were all 3 terrified of dogs. Speaking of 6 months ago, here's tressel in april and may when he was small. I can't believe how small he was. Now I see why people love puppies. They are so cute. (when I had a puppy myself I didn't really enjoy the cuteness because it was so much trouble)!!

living in my house

Dave - busy as ever. working at Children's hospital full time. recently treated a friend of the family (who fell out of the second story window). It was a good experience b/c it reminded him of how important it is to give special care to families/loved ones who have so many fears and questions that are all too often unanswered. Also reminded me to be proud of the good he is doing when he is away from home. one night when he was gone late my friend (the grandma of the kid who fell out of the window) called to thank me for dave's good work. It was a kind gesture on her part.

Calvin - still having some interesting sleep issues. This week one day he took a nap at 7am (who knows what time he had gotten up if he needed a nap at 7am?) and one day he went to bed at 5pm and slept 'til 6am. probably the best night of sleep in ages. He is a really good boy about staying in his room and playing quietly until 6am when he is allowed to get up. loves star wars, books, his friends and eating breakfast with dave in the morning.

Clare - loves her preschool and dance class and singing class. petite. great at coloring in the lines. sleeps with the lights on. very excited to have michigan cupcakes for her birthday. She has requested blue cupcakes with a yellow "michigan M" on them. Her b-day is NOV 21st the day of the mich - ohio state game.

Alexey - 18 months. discovered herself in the mirror. busy. crazy. daily tantrums, pulling hair, and hitting. learning new words everyday. no longer the easiest child (there is no easiest child..... maybe dave is the easiest child now).

Tressel - HUGE. STRONG. part of the family. still learning how to be a good dog. tall enough to eat off of the table without even reaching.

Ben - dave's youngest bro. 20 years old. moved in about a month ago. hoping to get a job. keeps his room clean and takes out the trash on trash day :)

San Diego discoveries

#1 Kate Sessions park! Absolutely beautiful with views of downtown, mission bay, Coronado, etc. Last weekend we had a gathering with many of the residents. Calvin and Dave and Alexey had fun on the slip and slide.







#2. Dancing with the stars. A fun event where one of Dave's attending Dr's competed (but didn't win -- he got robbed!)



#3. The longest wait in a dr's office I have yet to experience in SD or anywhere else. (Dr. Steven Cohen-- cranialfacial clinic at Rady Children's. He also happens to be one of the best surgeons in CA so must be why he thinks he can get away with it.) Since I don't feel like rehashing my afternoon yesterday I will just say that it was unfortunate for all parties involved. I had the unfortunate experience of waiting 90 minutes in a waiting room with three very hungry and tired kids for a 30 second consultation. Dave had the unfortunate experience of learning (I confessed to him when he got home) that his wife caused a scene after the above mentioned incident and embarrassed him in the office of one of the surgeons who he operates with on a weekly basis. I didn't really cause a scene I just told the staff and the dr. that they should run a better clinic and it is absolutely ridiculous to have people waiting over an hour for an appt. When we got home calvin crashed within a few minutes. Clare who does absolutely anything to resist bedtime was chipper and beginning her second wind.