Update from Mike

Hello everybody. Both Katie and Maggie are sick today, and I was asked to stay home from church to help out. Right now they are both taking a nap, so I thought I'd use this little bit of time that I have to post about whats going on in my life. It seems like all Katie posts is pictures of Maggie, and I would like you all to know that other things are going on in our lives besides Maggie being very cute.

First, Katie is rocking it being a stay at home mom. Before she had Maggie, she told me she was excited to stay at home partially so that she could learn all these talents and skills that she always wanted to have but never had the time to develop. I laughed at the time thinking that her goals were a little lofty, and that she wouldn't have as much time as she thought. But I have been very impressed with how much she has been able to do with her time. She has jumped completely into sewing, and constantly has three or four projects going on at once. She is getting very good at it. She also has really gotten into baking (something she has never been good at), and has successfully made bagels, kaiser rolls, and baguettes  She is also dabbling in photography at the moment. She does all of this while having 4 church callings, exercising, substitute teaching twice a month, and rarely missing playgroup. She is so productive I sometimes think that she is the one that should be in medical school.

My life right now is busier than I ever remember it being. We are in the middle of classes right now, but perhaps more important than that is that we have our big STEP 1 test coming up in June. Its basically the biggest test of medical school, and really determines what kind of residency I can get into. Its a 8 hour test that covers everything we have learned and everything that we should have learned in our first 2 years. I feel the time crunch right now, and am trying to fit in 15 hours of study for  STEP on top of learning the material we are supposed to learn right now. There really aren't enough hours in the day to get done what really needs to be done, and I have never wanted a time turner from Harry Potter more than I do now. On top of all of that I have spent a lot of time getting my research I did this last summer polished up. I present a poster tomorrow as part of Student Research Week, and I'm about to finish the paper, after which we are going to try to find a journal to accept it. Its an interesting project that dives into how people perceive their weight. Despite all of this I find time to play church ball once a week and intramural basketball once a week. Its been hard at times to enjoy the whole thing this last month or two, but I'm trying hard to realize every day that I'm at a place where I'll never be again, so I need to appreciate it.

Maggie is as cute as ever, and my favorite part of each day is coming home to play with her for a few hours.

Anyways, thanks for suffering through my novel.

Mike