Ye Old Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Family and friends,

Here I start another Christmas letter for another year. We have been plenty busy this year with the many happenings we have had in the crazy year of 2009. The beginning of the year was kinda rough once again. We spent christmas with the Sloan clan, which was awesome. We got to see families new homes and see all the new things they have been doing. It was a long drive but we made it in one piece. The only bad thing about the drive was how windy and cold it was. But once we were there the fun never ended. We made snow forts with nieces and nephews and had snow ball fights in them and then a sledding trip with the little and big kids of the family. We truly miss being close to everyone. Once we got back to Des Moines it was back to work for both Travis and I. Travis was busy with trying to choose a rotation site and with the last semester of the ‘in class’ classes. I on the other hand stayed busy with the crazy retail business. I was asked to stay as a permanent part time employee at Bath and Body Works. It definitely doesn’t pay as well as some of the other jobs I have had but it is fun and I enjoy it. Even though the year started out good and we were getting ready to get into the swing of things again I should have known it was too good to be true. I came down with pneumonia in the beginning of January and missed 3 weeks of work because of it. I have never felt so horrible in all my life. There was some positive things to me being sick though. It was discovered that I have a autoimmune disorder, Hypothyroidism. I had never been checked for one before and it was just luck that she checked while I was sick. We were able to get the treatment started immediately and now I am on meds to keep my hormones in check.

Well after I was back on my feet life went on. I continued my Achievement Days with the young girls from our ward and Travis stayed busy with school. It was soon after the year started that we were told where we would be going for Travis’ third year of school. We originally thought we wanted to stay in Des Moines but after some research and fasting and praying we decided it would be better to head further east. So we waited to hear back from the school. Sure enough Travis was able to get his first choice to Dayton, Ohio. We were very excited yet sad to leave our friends in Iowa.

The rest of the semester was spent researching new places to live in a new state, lots of studying on Travis’ part and some laid back relaxation on my part. We were able to have a few last adventures while we were still in Iowa. We went to our last DMU Winter Gala which was a blast. We partied with good friends and danced until my feet about fell off. We also visited a cute community outside of Des Moines called Pella that is known for their Danish history and their tulips (and windows!). It was great. We did make a quick trip to Dayton to check out the area and to finally decide where we wanted to move. We were in awe with how beautiful the area was. It helped to make the move a little better knowing that the people were so welcoming and the town so peaceful. So the rest of the semester Travis studied like mad for his first Board exam and I packed like a crazy person.

Summer was an insane blur for the most part. Travis was crazy busy trying to study as much as he could before he took his board exam at the beginning of June. He was excited to have a week or two to relax before we got busy again. Since we were heading further east we thought it only fitting to make a huge road trip to see family on both sides. Travis’ family was already planning a family reunion for all the kids and their families. So since this was already planned we worked our plans around that. We saw the Sloan Clan in Lava Hot Springs in Idaho, my sister and best friend in Rexburg, my family in Placerville, and lastly our friends in Boulder. There was a lot of swimming, playing and visiting along with some long drives. It was a great break from our crazy busy schedules and we were sad to leave.

Once we got back to Des Moines we had to move fast. We had barely a week before we wanted to be on the road to Dayton. It was nuts. We had wonderful help from elders from our ward to help us load our moving truck so it was done a lot faster than if Trav and I did it alone. The drive was crazy. Since we have two cars now Travis towed one and I drove the other ahead of him so I could get the keys to the new place. All I can say is that I hate google maps, they really are not accurate anymore especially when you are trying to drive through big cities like Indianapolis and Dayton.

Once we got to Dayton or rather Miamisburg, (thats our town), the exploration began. Travis relaxed for another couple of weeks and helped me make our apartment look like a real home. We bought a new couch, new dining room table and even painted the dining room, kitchen and living room. The place looks awesome.

I was able to transfer my job at Bath and Body Works from Des Moines to here in Dayton. It made it a little easier to settle down knowing that I had a job even though I still looked for jobs in Agriculture. There was never any luck but I continued to keep a positive look on things. I really love this store. The people are awesome and the management is great. They notice and compliment on the good I do. It was an amazing change from the jobs I had in Des Moines. They even gave me a seasonal promotion to Shipment Team Lead. I am the head person who runs the back room. I am not seen most of the time but I am the one that makes sure you have the products out on the floor. I enjoy the responsibility and the hustle and bustle of it all. Travis has really seemed to enjoy the rotations he has had this fall. He started out with Family Practice then off to OMM, then Physical Medicine and Rehab, then Family practice/EM, then Surgery and the last rotation for the semester is Internal Medicine. I love hearing about all his cases and the things he learns. I love how he is chasing his dream to become a doctor.

Other than work we have our hands full at church too. I was asked to be the CTR 7 primary teacher and Travis was asked to be the Cub Master. I laughed so hard when Travis was called. Several wards we have been in have asked me to be in scouts and I always had an excuse, work. Well I guess they gave up on me and went after Travis. I really don’t know how he feels about it. I am getting used to being in Primary. I keep my cool most of the time but I do lose it sometimes on crazy days. I am learning to be patient and humble and I think that is what I was meant to learn.

The holiday season is kind of a sad one around here. We did not get to go home for Thanksgiving. For one we both had to work almost the whole week but we also are way too far away. We did have a fantastic meal though. We got together with friends that weren’t going home to Utah either. Each family made different things and played some games. It was relaxed and fun and then we were able to talk to both of our families to make sure they knew we missed them. Christmas is going to be the same. I have to work like a crazy person and Travis only has a week off so we made the sad decision to stay here. We are hopeful that even though we are away from friends and family we will make it a good memorable holiday. We hope to make some trips to see family next year but time will only tell.

We are so grateful for all the support and love from you all. We hope that the Christmas season finds you and yours healthy and happy. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you all.

Until next year.

Love,

Travis, Kamala, & “Rocco”

Okay Let's Catch Up!!!

Okay, I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything but I doubt you have even noticed, so here goes.

I have been insanely busy with work, and getting us ready for the holidays. There is really too much all close together so posting stuff was the last thing on my list of things to do so I apologize.

We will begin with the latest happenings in the Sloan (midwest) family.

Christmas was fun and even warmer than the last 3 we have celebrated. It poured down rain the entire day making the grass even greener. I was thrilled but Trav was bummed.

Our lovely mini tree with all our goodies.

I thoroughly enjoyed our traditional pancakes with strawberry breakfast. Yummmy!

Travis is the King of Pancakes in our house. He makes them so much better than I can.

This was the week before Christmas. There was a Christmas Tree lighting in a near by town so we went with our friends the Kraczek's to enjoy them. It was tons of fun and we even took a ride in a horse drawn carriage.

The freezing cold couples getting a group shot.

Thanksgiving feast that we shared with the Kraczek's. It was a feast and oh how it tasted good.

After being married for 5 yrs I figured that we deserved to own special place settings. I splurged a bit but doesn't it look good?

I know this one is quite old but I had to post it. As many people know Halloween is my favorite holiday so I had to post our porch decorations.

(we forgot to do pumpkins this year)

This was at the Haunted Hay Ride that a local fire station put on. The line was enormous so we ended up just chilling by the fire for a while instead of going.

Just decorating cookies with the Kraczek's.

Lastly we celebrated Travis' birthday at the beginning of October. As you can see he was a pretty happy birthday boy. Gotta love that handsome man of mine.

Well thanks for hanging in there and getting caught up with all our craziness. We have enjoyed our first semester here in Dayton, can't wait to see where 2010 puts us.

So Nothing Really New Here...

Life has been a little crazy. Full of long hard days for the both of us.

Travis completed his surgery rotation this last week. His hours were insane and he would have days that would start at 4:30 am and end after 7 pm. He had some really interesting cases and shared a lot of them with me each day. I am not sure if he is putting this specialty on his list of maybe's. I think it would be awesome but that is just me.

As for me I was given a promotion at work, which was awesome. I am now the shipment manager. I open the store and then get my team to process the boxes we get in each day. It is so nice to actually have a job that recognizes the good that I do each day. Boy do I wish that happened more often. At least it will make the holiday season go a little bit easier.

As for our little family, we are doing well. We try to make time for eachother and try to have some adventures. We did have one finally recently. We took a little trip to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were trying to find the place for me to get my ID. Well yeah, that was a lot harder than we thought it would be. We could never find the right gate to go to let alone the right building. It was a fun adventure and we were able to check out the BX and commissary while we were there. Other than that our days are full of studying and relaxation. We will have to let everyone know when something else happens.

Hey Guess What?

Yep we are still alive. We are just really busy.

As for church I really thought we would be able to make it a little longer without callings but boy was I wrong. I was the Achievement Day leader in Des Moines for a year so I thought I had earned a break. Well I have recently been called as the Valiant 7 teacher and Travis has been called as the Cubscout Master. It just makes me laugh that they finally got one of us in scouting. They have been asking almost every ward since we left school. I think Travis will do well.

As for work we both have been really busy. Travis has moved on from his Family Practice rotation in August, his Osteopathic rotation for 2 wks in September, then his Rehibilitation and Therapy for the later 2 wks in September, and now he is finishing his second month of Family Practice mixed with Emergency Medicine for the rest of this month. Now for me I am working around 20 hrs a week while also playing with horses with a friend of mine. Really there isn't much that I do. I do a lot of chilling and a whole lot of nothing.

The rest of our daily lives we do a lot of game playing, a lot of movie watching, a lot of sport playing. We just try to have as much fun as we can with as little free time that we have. I will try to keep the site a little more updated, including a birthday post for Travis.

Hmmm What have we been up too?

Yes everyone we are still alive. We have just been busy. What have we been busy with you might ask well...

Travis has been insanely busy with his rotations. He is has had a month worth of Family Practice, two weeks of OMT (bone manipulation treatment), and starting next Monday he will begin Rehab and Therapy. He has been enjoying his positions.

I have been working a TON! We have been changing up the store. I am trying to find something to add to the part time position at BBW. I enjoy the job it just doesn't pay that great and want some more hours.

On the days that we actually have some time off we explore the local trails. There is some beautiful trials around here and we are really enjoying the area.

Now on the days we don't go exploring I convince Travis to play tennis with me. Trav is much better at the game than I am but I am learning and actually win a few games every now and then.

The rest of my free time is spent working out at the gym in our complex. This is the best shape I have been in in a long long time.

So there you go, that is what our life has been like lately. We will have some real pictures of some of our activities soon.

Test Results

Since I know Travis wont tell anyone I am going to take that responsibility.

My wonderful, genious husband recieved his first board test results recently. No surprise that he passed but I wanted to let everyone know. So now Travis is working everyday on his rotations and is enjoying working with the family practice doctors that he is with right now. We will let everyone know how each one of the rotations go.

Our Friendly Visitors

Look what we had come visit.

When our little visitors first came by the mama had 4 little ducklings. These adorable little guys come by at least once a week for bread crumbs.

Well as time goes by the bigger the ducklings get.

They are so funny cause they will come and sit on your lap to get the bread crumbs.
They are adorable and I look forward to their visits everytime. I guess that proves that I really am a country girl. I told Travis that once we have our own place we are so getting ducklings.

The Painting Project is Finished!

Tada!! All done! I have really enjoyed this little project, ok it was kinda big.

Obviously this is the kitchen in a nice sage green.

One side of the living room in dark tan and light tan.
Other side of the living room in light tan.
And the dining room similar to the living room.
The complete finished products
You think we have a lot of books or what.
And look I finally got a real dining table. Our house looks all grown up now. I almost can't believe its our house.

The Projects I have started

Now this was the project that I was so excited about.

I have never been able to paint any of the rooms when I lived with my parents. Of course now that I am not at home anymore they have their own place and painting rooms. So since we are allowed to paint I was determined to make this place our own.

As you can see these are the before pictures and the kitchen is not ours it is actually the model that we looked at the first time we looked at the complex.

The dining room with Rocco supervising Travis as he tapes the walls.

One side of the living room.

And the other side of the living room.

We are grown ups now!!!

We have had a busy week. With this new apartment comes new appliances. Since this new apartment only came with hook ups we needed to find a washer and dryer. There really was no point in buying new machines since we aren't sure how long it will be until we have our own place. So we decided to just find a used pair for under $100 for both together. Travis is such good bargain hunter. However this time it proved to be a little iffy.

The washer is a whirlpool and was pretty clean and runs good, but the dryer well that is another story. It looked beat up on the outside but we figured we would take their word for it and it would work fine. Well boy were we wrong. I opened it up and found that the lent trap was rusted clean through and there was a mice nest all in the bottom of the machine.
We had to take everything apart and clean it. Starting with just vacuuming it out and getting out all the trash.

Then we had to scrub out all the urine that was left by the lovely rodents.

Needless to say I was not in a good mood as it took us 2 hours just to clean the dang machine.
You would also be surprised how much change we found in the dryer. I think it was like $1.89 or so. Enough for goodies.
Once everything was clean and parts were replaced we were ready to see if they truly worked. We made sure we stayed at home for the first loads to make sure nothing caught on fire. They look good don't you think!?!
Our next big adventure this week was the replace of our dear beloved ugly couch. We have had the good old thing for 5 years. We only paid $30 at D.I. for this couch that seemed brand new and has lasted wonderfully.
I figured it was time I deserved to have a real couch since we are moving to another new place.
This wonderful couch or sectional was about half off. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. We were just planning on looking for future reference, but when we saw this one we figured now was as good as any to make a life time investment. So what do think, you like it?

Awesome First Date in Dayton OH!!

This was an awesome day. We had so much fun. I haven't been to an air show in years and Travis can't remember ever going to one. We saw a flyer right after we moved in so we decided to take action and go.

The Brazilian Smoke Squadron came to Dayton again. It was awesome to see an Air Force from another country.

Go Brazil!!
This was in one of the cargo planes that you can walk through. I am right inside the nose of the plane. You can see how truly huge this thing is.
This was one of Travis' favorite planes. Aw my handsome airman.
Just giving us an idea what he would look like in a flight suit.

This is a video of the Brazilian Smoke Squadron. They were awesome!!

Of course the main attraction, the Air Force Thunderbirds. They are phenomenal.

(we have so many more pictures but for lack of time I have included some of the main attractions)

Taking the next step...

So we have officially said goodbye to our apartment in West Des Moines Iowa. We are now in our new home in Miamisburg Ohio.

Its crazy to think that we are on our second leg of the med school journey. I can actually see light at the end of the tunnel now. Yes I know Travis has residency after graduation but at least then I will know we will be in one place for awhile.

We really enjoyed our home in West Des Moines. We had good friends and wonderful things to do only minutes from our house. We did have a few things we had problems with concerning the apartment management. Lets just say I would not recommend that complex to anyone just because of the management. As we were walking out the door for the very last time I couldn't help but take one last picture of what we lived in for 2 yrs. We have some great memories of this place.

It looks a lot bigger without our furniture in there. This was about 5 in the morning when we left.

Now in Ohio we are excited to find all the free adventures we can have. There are so many parks and hiking trails throughout the whole area. This is a look out of just one of those. I have to admit Ohio has a lot more hills and trees than Iowa. We loved being in Iowa though.

We will miss you all and will be back to visit soon.

Our Last Activity in Des Moines IA

This was one of our last activities in Des Moines. And what better friends to have it with. We were able to finally attend the West Des Moines 4th of July Parade. Even it was raining off and on throughout the entire parade it was tons of fun.

We absolutely love being with our little friends Alec and Elyssa Parkinson. I just loved how we taught Alec to say hi to everyone to get candy. It was adorable.

We had to take a picture of this bike. There was 7 people on one bike all pedaling at once. It was amazing that they were actually moving, and picking up speed. Crazy!!

The two Parkinson men watch for next fun vehicle to come down the street and throw candy in our direction. We loved Alec's cone head.

This was just hilarious. He had absolutely no idea why we were all laughing so hard.

So he decided to share it with his sister. Now that was really funny.

Thank you wonderful friends for making our last few days in Des Moines wonderful.