Chicago Conference

Cory and I were in Dallas last weekend for my Spring Break looking for apartments, and this week I continue my travelling tour in the Windy City.  I attended the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership in Chicago with about 10 other students in my program.  It not only was a great opportunity to network and learn about the industry of my future career, but it was also my first time to Chicago, which means I went full tourist on everybody.  We flew in on St. Patrick's Day, and during the week the river stayed green from when they dyed it.

I went to the Bean 3 or 4 times during my 5 days in the city.  I pretty much spent from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the conference, going to sessions, attending panels, etc.  I also was a program assistant, which is basically like an usher for certain sessions.  I signed up to work as a program assistant because my registration was reimbursed that way.  It was a great way to meet other students from around the country.  After 4 PM, though, I pretty much could explore the city.

I mean, it is pretty trippy when you walk underneath.

On the first night of the conference, there was an LDS reception.  The current ACHE Chairman, Ed Lamb, is LDS, so he invited all LDS attendees to his suite for a reception.  It was really cool to meet so many other members of the Church that also work in healthcare.  I met a lot of really successful people there.  Another night I actually got the chance to head out with Landon and Dr. Carlton (my academic adviser) and we went and did some work at the Chicago Temple.  It was a great way to gain some perspective during the whirlwind of the conference.

Before I left, Cory was telling me all about some deep dish pizza places I could try.  I have never had deep dish Chicago style, so I knew I had to try some.  Right next to the Hyatt Regency, where the conference was being held, was a Giordano's, so Parker, Landon, and I headed over between sessions for some lunch.  It was glorious.  I absolutely loved it.

On the last day of the trip, I attended my last session in the morning, and then spent my last day in the city.  We met up with a group of girls from the UAB MHA program.  I met a few of them at the case competition last month.  One was from Chicago, so she showed us some cool places.  She took us to the Hancock building, which has amazing views from the top deck.  

Yes, these are real photos from my phone!

We stopped by the bean for my third and final time, before heading off to the airport.

Here I am with Landon, Deepen, and David.  We were the last to fly out from the Memphis program.  I was glad to get back home to Cory.  Many times during my trip I though about how fun it would be to have her with me.  I had fun with the guys, but I have waaaaay more fun with Cory.  It was another realization of why I married her.  Exploring and experiencing new things with her is better than alone or with others.  Maybe if I come consistently to the conference every year, Cory could come with me and it could be an annual retreat for us.  That would be fun.

Spring Break in Dallas

After such a busy February, March is going to be a breeze.  I have a week off of school and work for Spring Break.  Cory and I decided that we would drive the 7 hours down to Dallas and scout out some places to live.  Buzz flew in from Idaho to watch Emmy so Cory and I could maximize our time.  Emmy is a fun travel buddy, but she is kind of high maintenance.  Leaving her with Grandma would mean she wouldn't have to be in the car driving around for three days straight.  In other words, she would be much happier.

Some friends in our ward, Landon and Kelsey Welch, know all about Dallas.  Kelsey is from Dallas, and her parents still live there.  They graciously opened their home to us so we could save some money not booking a hotel.  Her dad, Britt Berrett, is a very successful healthcare administrator, as well, so it was interesting to pick his brain a little bit and hear his opinion of UT Southwestern.

Cory has been so on top of researching our options for housing in Dallas.  It feels like we had looked at everything online before driving down.  Do we want to live close to my work?  Do we want to live near shopping?  Do we want to live in a suburb?  Where are the nearest parks for Emmy?  Where is there a library that does story time?  Where can we afford?  Does the place look disgusting?  All these questions and more were weighed.

Once we actually got to Dallas, we only had a handful of contenders to actually go and visit.  Some we marked off the list as soon as we pulled up, some we marked off after a tour, and a couple we thought would work perfectly well.  We didn't actually have a lot of time to "have fun", but I thought it was fun to feel like Cory and I were working as a team to plan our next move.  

We decided that we wanted to be close to my work so that I could spend more time at home, and not have to commute two hours a day.  Cory found a place a while ago online that we wanted to check out.  When we got there it was raining, and the managers said they couldn't give tours while it was raining.  So we waited in the car until the rain stopped and went back in.  We ended up really liking it, and decided that we would try to live there.  They won't know if they have something available until 60 days before our move-in date, so we will have to wait until May to find out if there is a vacancy.  If there is, we are moving in.

Our potential apartment is only about 10 minutes from my job, Bachman Lake Park is just down the road.  It has a children's play area and a library with story time. 

Also, only about 10 minutes away the other direction is the Argentina Bakery!  We kind of stumbled across it on accident, but I'm sure glad we did!  We got some facturas and empanandas for the road.  It was the closest I have had in the States to the real thing.  I am about 99% sure that the place is run by algunos de mis Argentinos queridos.  We absolutely will be frequenting the establishment when we move to Dallas later this year.

The Dallas trip was definitely successful.  I will say, though, that I lost count of the number of times that Cory said, "I miss Emmy" over the course of three days.  In her defense, it was the first time that she had been separated from Emmy overnight, so I will chalk it up to adorable mother-daughter bond.  When we got home, we opened the door and Emmy caught a glimpse of Cory.  She literally stood there stunned for about five seconds.  It was almost like it was the first time she realized that we were gone.  Once the initial shock was over, a big smile spread across her face and it was hugs and kisses all around.  Thanks again to Grandma Buzz for staying with Emmy!

UAB Case Competition

The last three weeks I have been spending a lot of extra hours preparing for the UAB Case Competition.  I was appointed team captain by the faculty to represent the University of Memphis, along with Parker Harris and Alicia Pacheco, in Birmingham.  

The UAB Health Administration Case Competition is designed to provide graduate students an opportunity to put what they have learned into practice with a real-life, real-time case.  Our team analyzed potential population health strategies for a large, integrated health system. We were given three weeks to analyze the case and develop solutions. We presented our solutions to judges made up of healthcare executives throughout the nation.

Basically all of February was spent by us meeting for hours up on campus to put together our solutions, financial forecasts, and projected health outcomes into a crisp 20 minute presentation.  Words don't really do that stressful process much justice.  We showed up in Birmingham very proud of all the work we had done, but when you put so much time in, you also want to win.

There was a nice dinner the night before the competition, and we drew numbers for our time slots. I actually knew quite a few people there.  A guy who served in Argentina with me was there on the Penn State team.  Overall, there were about twenty or so LDS guys all from different schools.  Thirty-eight schools had teams there, and only 12 would advance past the first round and into the semi-final.  Memphis has never had a team advance.

We presented the next morning in a small room to just two judges and really felt like we had done a great job.  We had practiced so many times, and worked through the nerves.  I thought it was our best run-through.  Dr. Powell (our faculty coach) was also in the room with some of our first-year students who joined the team as observers.  

In the afternoon they announced the semi-finalists, and we were one of those 12 teams!  We were over the moon!  Dr. Powell and Dr. Gentry (Division Director) almost couldn't contain themselves.  This is arguably the most prestigious case competition among MHA programs, and advancing brought a lot of prestige to our program, which will help us move up in the MHA rankings.  It felt good to be a part of the first team ever to advance from the University of Memphis.

We presented again in the afternoon to a panel of three judges and about 40 students in the semi-final.  Any students on a team that did not advance were allowed to watch the semi-final presentations.  We did another great job, and I could not be more proud of Parker and Alicia.  We didn't advance, but the eventual 1st place team was in our group.  

The actual competition for the two days in Birmingham was fun, but the process in the three weeks leading up to that was more what I will remember.  After you spend so much time with two people, it is inevitable that you become better friends.  Parker, Alicia, and I have so many inside jokes now, and we all learned more about what we brought to the table in a team project.  I thought we worked extremely well together.

I got a trophy!  Emmy was super proud of me.  I was only gone for three days, but I really missed my girls.

Our Little Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day from the Gilmores!  This little girl has our hearts and has taught us a lot about love.  She wore her heart sweater to church today, with her pink tights.

Diva.

Sick Days at Home

It wasn't long after getting home from Utah that we started to notice Emmy breaking out a little on her face.  We didn't think a lot of it, but it kept getting worse.  After some research and a trip to the doctor, we found out she had contracted a strand of Hand Foot Mouth Disease.  She had bad sores around and in her mouth.  Poor baby.  Mostly she was just zapped of energy and we could tell her mouth hurt her.

She recovered after about 10 days, thanks in part to her searching for remedies under the sink in our bathroom.

When she couldn't find what she was looking for, it was back to watching cartoons.

Watching cartoons always made me feel better when I was sick as a kid.  Emmy has fully recovered, by the way.

New Year in Provo

Fresh off our Christmas trip to Wyoming, we landed in Utah to bring in the New Year and to meet the newest member of the family, just five days old.  Cohen Jacob Tarabilda was born the day after Christmas, and the family was gathering in Utah to meet him.  He is already a chunky blond boy.  It was such a blast from the past to be around a newborn again.  He is a pretty cute kid.

But look at this girl!  Grandma Buzz is always good about taking lots of pictures, and she snapped this beauty.  It is my absolute favorite picture of Emmy.  She just looks so precious.  Those eyes.  Those cheeks.  Those lips.  My heart...

Emmy loved getting to know her new baby cousin.  Buzz rented out the Alumni House on 500 N. for all of us to stay in.  It was filled with BYU memorabilia, had enough rooms for everyone, and provided a place for us to all be together.  When Cohen wasn't with his momma, we would take turns holding him.  It was what we looked forward to during the day.  Emmy and I took some time right when we woke up in the morning to get some bonding time in.  

Here is a video of Emmy trying to show some affection to Cohen.  She is still learning how to be gentle.

Cohen is quite a bit different than Emmy was.  He is incredibly active.  I just remember Emmy melting into me when I held her.  Cohen is constantly moving his arms and legs around, stiffening up and then relaxing every so often.  It felt like he was always trying to break free of his swaddle, or my arms when I held him.  He is probably going to be a freak athlete.  Cory and I both enjoyed Uncle and Aunt duties.

Like I said, Emmy loved Cohen, but don't think she let people off the hook from giving her attention.  She made sure Uncle Jake still gave her bites of his dinner.  Buzz made her famous enchiladas, and had plenty of treats, cookies, and assorted gourmet hot chocolate flavors to choose from.  There is something satisfying about everyone having a cup of hot chocolate together at the end of the day, when you know it is super cold and dark outside.  We also watched movies, played Heads Up! and did puzzles.

In addition to hot chocolate parties, we were also having some pretty sick dance parties.  Cohen even joined in and displayed some impressive moves.

Aside from hanging together at the house, we also got reacquainted with Provo.  It was my first time back since leaving 18 months ago.  Cory had been back already, though.  I wanted to head back to BYU campus and take a look around.  It seemed like I was at BYU for such a long time, and at the end I was so ready to leave.  Coming back after all this time, though, made me really miss it.  All the nostalgic feels were getting to me.  We checked out the new Life Sciences Building.  I was in Life Sciences, but this building wasn't finished until I left.  It is massive and super impressive.  I had a very strange desire to walk around and figure out where I which parts of the building I would go to if I was still a student.  Also, I got a kick out of seeing all of my professors' names on the directory.  Cory was patient with me, but eventually I had to leave my nostalgic fantasy world.

We also took Emmy to the Wilk to walk around the bookstore, and we got a picture with Cosmo at The Wall.

We also headed to Provo Town Center to walk around the mall.  Emmy likes doing that, and it is a warm place to walk around and get the blood pumping.  Right when we walked in, we saw some motorized animal scooters and Cory suggested that I take Emmy on a ride around the mall.  I have to admit that I thought it would have been fun even without Emmy, but I let her tag along.

If you watch the video closely, you can see Emmy's facial reactions to riding around on our giraffe.

One of the nights, Jake and I caught a BYU basketball game at the Marriott Center.  They have a huge new video scoreboard.  BYU won and we saw Kyle Collinsworth record a triple-double, so it was a great game to go to.  It was nice of the girls to stay home with the babes so we could go to the game.  A different day we tried to return to favor by watching the kids while Buzz, Anna, and Cory all went to see the new Star Wars movie.  I will never be able to do as much for Emmy as Cory does, but I think it is alright for Cory to leave us to fend for ourselves every once in a while.  Mostly, Emmy took a nap while Jake, Cohen, and I watched a documentary on Jeremy Lin...so it was super strenuous.

We loved our time in Utah with family.  Buzz always puts a lot of thought into bringing us all together.  She has two grand-babies now!  I won't speak for Cohen, but we know Emmy always loves her special time with Grandma.

Of course, congratulations to Jake and Anna.  Cohen is just awesome.  They were also such troopers for staying in that house with the rest of the family.  Being parents for the first time and not even being in your home for the first weeks of your baby's life is not ideal, but they never complained.  We are excited to see Emmy and Cohen grow up together.

Here is proof that Cory was there during the trip!  We need to get some more pictures from Buzz that have Cory in them!  All the time with family has been awesome, but after three weeks of being away from home, it was time to head back to Memphis.  Emmy was very excited when we told her we were going back on a plane.  We won't show her reaction of when we explained that meant we had to leave Cohen.

Wyoming Christmas

Considering the six week vacation I get from school at the University of Memphis, and the realization Cory and I had that I will never again have this much vacation time around the holidays until I retire, we decided to go on a super vacation.  We decided to leave Memphis for three weeks and spend the first half in Wyoming with my family, and the second half with Cory's family in Provo.  Anna is due to have her baby boy on the 26th, so the family is congregating in Utah.  We actually flew to Utah and stayed a day before we headed up to Wyoming.  Seeing Anna at the end of her pregnancy reminded me of Cory right before Emmy was born.  It is such an exciting, though noticeably uncomfortable time.

Anyway, a couple of days before we left the cinematic event of the decade occurred.  Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens came out in theaters.  We waited until we got to Wyoming to see it.  I avoided the internet for the few days to make sure I didn't see any spoilers.  We got off the plane, ate a late lunch, and then I sat with my family without any electronics on until we left for the theater.  It was awesome.  Merry Christmas to me.  

Christmas Eve came and we kept to tradition and ate dinner at the Rib & Chop House in Cody.  It was Emmy's first time and she loved it.

It was a cold night, and I have to say that I had gotten used to the mild Memphis winter weather.  The snow on the ground and bite in the air does make it feel more like Christmas, though.

When we got home we all opened one present.  Our pajamas!  We changed and got a family picture.  Emmy's stocking was also the newest to join the bunch on the mantle, down at the very end.  I think we are a pretty cute family!

Every year my dad also hides a fake pickle somewhere on the tree in the family room for the grandkids to find.  It was Emmy's first year participating, but Rhiannon won.  She clearly was disappointed in the outcome.

I think it is an understatement to say that Cory and I were excited for Christmas morning.  Emmy's first Christmas will always be special, but she is just so much more interactive now.  I suspect that next year will be even more exciting, but this year was so fun because she was walking, and is much more aware of what is happening.  We recorded her coming out on Christmas morning and her reactions to her presents.

So fun!  You might remember our video from last year and me really wanting Emmy to at least grab some wrapping and tear it off her presents, but she couldn't really do it.  This year she had no problem.  It was mainly a challenge to keep her interested in opening all of her presents.  As soon as she opened one, she was content to just read it or play with it, with no care for the rest of the gifts under the tree.

The routine consisted of Emmy sitting in my lap while opening the present.  Then taking the opened gift over to Mommy for approval and further assistance to show her how to use whatever it was she had received.

Later in the afternoon, Grandma Wilma came over to eat dinner and spend the evening with us.  My parents recently moved her up closer to them since my dad has a very close relationship with the care center.  She now is just a two minute drive from them, but because of her limited mobility, and the fact that my parents' house is not wheelchair accessible, she had not been over to the house, yet.  She made it over for Christmas, though, and it was great to spend part of the day with her.

The day after Christmas Anna had her baby boy!  They named him Cohen.  We couldn't wait to meet him and introduce him to Emmy.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Lacey, and I sang a special musical number, "Baby, What You Goin' To Be", in Grandma's church service at the care center. Of course Grandma was crying before we even started singing a note.  Then she was was really crying once we were in the middle and near the end.  It must have really been hurting her ears.  We also sang in Sacrament Meeting earlier that morning.

We still had a few days before heading back to Utah, so we spent them playing games, watching movies, visiting Wilma, and keeping warm!  We discovered that Emmy really likes Adele, and loves singing along with Gigi Page.  

One day we loaded up in the car and drove to Red Lodge, Montana.  Emmy's first time in Montana!  It is a little town that has a couple of neat stores to walk through.  The best, though, was the candy emporium.  Barrels and crates filled with every type of candy, modern and retro, you could think of were in this place.  Emmy was so curious and wanted to grab at everything.

All the excitement at the candy emporium really took it out of Emmy.  She was having a hard time sleeping unless she was snuggled up with Mommy.

Uncle Chris had recently started a new job at a restaurant in town that had just opened up.  He created a lot of the menu and manages the kitchen.  He basically runs the whole operation, so we had to go down and try it out.  I was a fan of the pizza.

Before leaving back to Utah, we visited Wilma one more time.  We made sure to get a 4 generations picture, too.  

We loved our time in Wyoming.  I am obviously biased, but I love Christmas at home.  Some may think that my parents can be over the top with the decorating and the festivities, and I would agree.  Also, I love it.  Next stop: Utah! To welcome the New Year!

Christmas Dress

We are going to be visiting family for the holidays, so today was our last Sunday in Memphis before Christmas.  Therefore, Emmy wore her Christmas dress, and she is just about the cutest thing ever.  

She is perfecting her walking ability, and kept me moving throughout the building.

It was a little bit harder to walk on the smooth gym floor, so she sat down and played with her best friend Cameron Houston, who was in a Christmas dress of her own.  

We just wanted to share the cuteness with everyone!

Christmas Chocolate

My school semester is officially over, which means I only have one left.  I already have a job when I graduate.  My six-week long vacation just started, and Christmas is in two weeks.  Life is pretty good right now!  At Church we had our Christmas activity.  The theme was "Journey Back to Bethlehem."  The gym was transformed into the Bethlehem Market, and upon entering, we gave some canned food as our tax.  We were given some fake money and could spend it around the market on food.  Then we watched a reenactment of the Nativity.  Emmy loved watching all the kids dressed as angels.  The same night we headed to mid-town to my MHA holiday party.  Emmy was pretty popular there, as well.

The next night we had another party to go to.  It was an ugly Christmas sweater party at our friends', the Houston's house.  We found some pretty good sweaters at Goodwill.  Mine was actually a woman's sweater, but it worked.  We ended up getting a babysitter for Emmy.  She was not happy about it!

She is actually on the floor crying because Mommy was upstairs getting ready, and she wasn't allowed to be up there, too.  At one point, I also needed to finish getting ready, so I ran upstairs and left Emmy to play with her toys.  Literally less than five minutes later, we came down to find this:

Look at the guilt in her eyes.  Emmy somehow found a Hershey's kiss, unwrapped it, and got it all over her face, the couch, and the carpet.  I have no idea how one kiss could produce so much chocolate smear.  We were already late, but we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity.  She keeps us laughing with her antics.  It was her first chocolate of the Christmas season, and was clearly eaten with whimsical child-like abandon.

We had a great time at the party.  We played some fun games, ate some good food, exchanged white elephant gifts (selfie sticks were popular) and Cory even won the ugly sweater contest.  Ironically, you cannot see her sweater in the only picture we took (with the selfie stick).  You can see my woman's sweater, however.  Thanks to the Houstons for hosting all of us!

Mom's New Do

I was at work today when I got a text message from Cory with a picture attached.  She said something to the effect of "This just happened."  What!?!?!?! She chopped off all her hair!  The craziest thing is that she did it herself.  Later, she explained to me that she just was looking in the mirror and decided to do it.  I couldn't believe she did such a great job.  She was always one hot mama, but now she might be promoted to one hott mama.  I added a "t".

All I have to say is "Daddy like!"

St. Jude Marathon

Emmy has been loving her new car seat!  It is super plush and comfy.  This morning we all woke up early to head downtown.  We volunteered with some of Dad's co-workers at the St. Jude Marathon!  It was very cold outside, but we were all bundled up.

One of the water stations along the route was right outside the hospital Dad works at.  Dad and two other students in his MHA program that intern at the hospital handed out as much water as they could.  We ran out of water, so we just held up encouraging signs and cheered the runners on!

We are glad we could volunteer for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!

One Small Step...

Another major milestone has occurred at the Gilmore house!  Emmy has officially taken her first steps, without aid.  She is almost 14 months old, and we have been wondering when she would pop up and start walking.  We know quite a few kids that are younger than Emmy and already walking.  We are convinced that she was so chubby she couldn't figure out her center of gravity until now.  She has been pulling herself up on her feet for months, using the couch, furniture, walls, etc. to help her walk along, but when she runs out of support, she can't keep going.

We were at the mall earlier today, letting Emmy crawl around the play area.  She always likes being there and observing all the kids running around.  The way the play structures are laid out, and depending on where she crawls, we sometimes lose sight of Emmy.  So Cory and I were sitting and watching, when she crawled around the other side of the little house with a slide.  She likes going over there to watch kids slide down.  All of a sudden, I looked over and I could see her head bobbing around.  The only way that would be possible is if she was standing up, but I knew there wasn't anything over there for her to lean against, so my brain connected the dots and I shouted to Cory, "She's walking!"  By the time we shot up and got over there she had already sat back down, so we didn't actually see her taking steps.

When we got home we decided to put her to the test and practice.  We took a little video showing her walking across the room!