A Day in the Life. . .

Your local pathologist is spending a wonderful week being on call. At any moment the pager will beep and I will be required to save a life with the volumes of medical knowledge that I have acquired over the past years.

Alas my time has come. The pager screeches and I have to run to the phone to here the emergency. Alas it is specimen receiving wanting to know if a blood clot needed some formalin. Not the life saving call. Maybe the next call will be more exciting.

When it comes to being a doctor, being a pathologist is pretty good. At BAMC we have to take a bus from Fort Sam to the hospital. I have seen many of my former classmates who are shells of their former selves. They don't smile, and look like they have been 8 months without sleep. They have saved many a life and have learned the ins and outs of working in the hospital.

For me it is different. I save a life by making a correct diagnosis. For instance, we get breast biopsies to help rule out cancer. When we find a small focus of cancer the patient will be treated and most likely be cured. Before this type of surveillance the cancer would have smoldered until it was symptomatic. At that point a cure would be very unlikely.

Good thing these biopsies don't come in at 3 O'clock in the morning. I will take my call and enjoy my family and I will let my friends in the other medical specialties save a life today.

Sam's Turn

We did Samanthas post first because it was her first birthday. Sam turned THIRTY on Valentines day(Samantha and Sam sharing a birthday is getting complicated).

This year, since Samantha isn't old enough to talk, Sam got to pick the food and the cake. Luckily for Sam, Samantha liked the Grindstaff Tacos. I can't do a full thirty year review, but I thought I would review the highlights.

Here is Sam with his Mom. This is one of the few baby pictures we have



This picture includes his Mom, Dad, Chelle, Scott, Sam and Matthew. Sam and Matthew are 18 months apart and Matthew is the baby, so He is somewhere around two years old.



Here he is on his mission . He went to Rochester New York. I don't know how he took this picture but it is really cool. He was actually caught arguing with himself. He was somewhere between 19-21 in this picture.



Here is Sam on the most important day of his life, March 3rd 2001. He was 22.



Here is Sam at 23, with Caleb



Here is Sam with Charlotte, he spent his 25th birthday welcoming her home.



Here is Sams 29th birthday. He was dissappointed that I didn't get him out of work that day. I didn't go to the Hospital until 4 p.m



May of 2008 Sam graduated from medical school.

Samantha is One

February-Here I am with Dad. He'll never get a better birthday present than me.



March-Even in Texas I loved being swaddled



April-Capturing some of my first smiles



May-Here I am with Mom at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. It is never to early for culture



June-Aren't these fat rolls amazing



July-Went camping with all of Mom's family. Don't ask me how I got so dirty.



August-Again I had to show off my fat rolls.





September-yep I'm only 7 months old, but I can stand up to things now




October-Who cares that I'm only 8 months old, I'm going to try walking




November-Who cares about Thanksgiving dinner, just give me some Legos




Getting ready for Christmas is very exhausting



Ha Ha grilled cheese sandwich, you are mine, all mine




One year and now I'm big enough to drive.

Our New FIVE Year Old

It's February 10th and here's the Birthday outfit. Just in time to run the air-conditioner for the first time this year. As an encore we'll go outside and run through the sprinklers!


The party theme was "Fairy's," so as part of the fun we gave the kids a bat to beat on the fairy. This may traumatize some, and lead to counseling for others (you know, support our local psychiatrist). In the end whenever you wack something and candy comes out it has to be a good thing.


Here comes the cake! Here comes the cake! Lets all sing 'cause here comes the cake.


There is nothing like the icing on the candles (It is even better then the icing on the cake.) (where's the ice cream?)


Here she is with her brand new scooter! It is just like Caleb's, but different.


We all love getting presents. Especially princess or fairy things.

Charlotte memories cont. 5th year

Here is Princess Charlotte celebrating her 4th b-day



Four days later she was able to welcome baby sister.



Here she is at Padre Island. We went camping for a couple of days. This is the closest to the water she would get. Most of the time she didn't want to see the ocean



She is back in Maryland again. This is at the DAR building (daughters of the american revolution) this is where Sams graduation was held



At the Moroni 4th of July parade. We were able to go back to Utah for a short visit.



Here is Charlotte at six flags. We enjoyed a good family trip there

Charlotte memories cont. 4th year

Charlottes travels continued through this year. Moving from Maryland to San Antonio. traveling to california and Hawaii. We went to Sea World and Disneyland. She even got to go on a submarine ride in Hawaii.

Charlottes 3rd birthday



In May we were able to go to California on our way to Hawaii. Charlotte loves her mickey hat and still wears it a lot




Yep she got a tatoo, at the polynesian cultural center



We stopped for a big family reunion at Sams parents on our way to San Antonio



Yep we are San Antonio-ians now




We got to see Christmas lights at the Alamo and riverwalk

Charlotte memories cont., cont. 3rd year

Charlotte celebrated her birthday with an elephant cake and lasagna



We have been lucky to have lots of visits from Grandma and Grandpa, this is at the national aquarium in Baltimore



We drove down to Georgia to see Sams parents for spring break



Again courtesy of Anheiser Busch we were able to go to Busch Gardens in Virginia



We took a trip to New York, luckily visiting Sams mission is the same as seeing the church history sites in New York. This is Charlotte in the Sacred Grove.



We went to Utah for Christmas meeting up with all of my family.



We were able to see the Christmas lights on the Washington D.C Temple, Temple Square and the National Mall. This is D.C.



Man all that white stuff, I think we have forgotten what that is.

Charlotte memories cont. 2nd year

We continued the traveling trend into her second year. Besides the things listed we took a trip to Utah and several into downtown D.C. Though contrary to our normal we had our holidays at our own home.

Her second year of life started with her 1st birthday.




We went to a Washington Nationals baseball game



Courtesy of Anheiser Busch we got to go to Sesame place in Pennsylvania



We went to Hershey Pennsylvania and visited a real chocolate factory



Charlotte had her 1st princess Halloween, she looks a little raggedy for a princess