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!

Texas Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to make the trip down to Austin to spend it with Cory's Dad's side of the family.  We have never really spent a holiday with them, and we are within a day's drive of Austin.  From Memphis it was about a 10 hour drive.  We were concerned Emmy wouldn't be up for that, so we left home at about 10 pm and drove through the night so she could sleep.  She slept a good bit of the drive, but was awake for the last 3 hours or so.  The last hour and a half were brutal.  Cory could not console her no matter what we tried.  It was so sad, but we were so close, and exhausted.  Cory barely slept, and I drove the whole way.  When we finally made it, it was nice to have other people who could entertain Emmy while we recovered.

I didn't grow up with brothers, so it is always nice to visit Austin and have Logan want to play basketball with me, or play Mario Party with Davis and Noah.  Even on my zero hours of sleep I was ready to hoop it up.  Emmy watched Daddy and Uncle Buckets play for a while.  I should have worn shorts...

The morning we got there Davis got some important mail.  He received his official acceptance to the University of Texas--Dallas.  If he decided to go there, we can have him over for some family dinners!  

Later in the afternoon, after a quick nap and shower, we all had a fun time playing at the park across the street.  Grandpa pushed Emmy in the swings and played on the jungle gym with her.  She isn't quite comfortable going down slides face-forward legs-first by herself, yet, but she will go down backwards feet first on her belly.  

While Grandpa and Mimi K kept Emmy entertained, the rest of us got in touch with our inner-child.  Cory, Davis, and Logan all rode some horses while I dig some deep digging in the sand.  It was a blast.

 

You may remember that last year, on Emmy's first Thanksgiving, we ran/walked a 5k with her and she won an award for being the youngest racer.  It just so happened that Cory's family participates in the Shady Hollow Turkey Trot every year on Thanksgiving, so we could keep the very new tradition of a Thanksgiving 5k alive!  We woke up on Turkey Day and put on our running shoes.  Cory and I ran/walked while pushing Emmy in the stroller.  Here are the Schiess/Gilmore family racers, post-finish.

We spent the rest of the day watching parts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show.  I love watching the dog show.  Then we sat around the dinner table and each expressed what we were grateful for before chowing down on Thanksgiving dinner.  It was definitely a successful holiday.

Of course, the next day was Black Friday, and Cory and I thought about making some purchases.  We have never braved the crowds, but had looked into buying a television for our bedroom.  We thought we would go to Sam's Club or Best Buy to snag one.  Well, Cory decided to check one last time online for the prices and discovered that for the T.V. we wanted, we didn't have to go into the store.  We could get the discounted price and free shipping ordering it online.  Deal.  That's what we did.  

Later, to get out of the house, we thought we would go to Buy Buy Baby and browse around.  Little did we know, they were also having a Black Friday sale, and there were no crowds.  We remembered how terrible the car ride was with Emmy, and quickly decided that we should capitalize and get a forward facing car-seat.  Behold, Emmy's new car throne.  It is huge and cushy.

When we actually got it home, Emmy was more interested in playing in the box.  She made it her own little clubhouse.

With our trip coming to an end, Cory and I decided that we would try to go on a date while we had the free baby-sitting.  We got Emmy in her jammies and handed her over to her uncles' care while we were out.  

We decided to head over to Gourdough's, which is a place in Austin that uses donuts in all of their dishes.  I didn't need much convincing when Cory brought it up.  They had donut burgers, donut sandwiches, etc.  We decided to just go with some classic dessert donuts, but what came out were large, gourmet masterpieces.  It was awesome.  The perfect way to cap off our trip to Austin.

We loaded up the next morning and headed back to Memphis.  We drove through Dallas and scoped out our future hometown a bit, but mostly we were just trying to get back to Tennessee ASAP.  Emmy loved her car seat, but not 10 hours worth.

Muddy's Cupcakes

After all of the travelling for my interviews, and my girls being in Utah for a week, it was nice for all of us to be home a relax for a couple of weeks.  With the recent news that we were going to be moving to Dallas, it set in that meant we were leaving Memphis.  We decided to start a Memphis Bucket List and try and hit some local favorites every once in a while.  Tonight was Muddy's Bake Shop, said to have amazing cupcakes.

Emmy approved.  She usually does approve of anything sweet.

Girl's Week in Provo

While Daddy was gone for the week interviewing with hospitals, Mommy and I went to visit Aunt Anna and Uncle Jake in Provo.  I had a great time.  Mommy pushed me around BYU in the stroller , and I got to see where Mommy and Daddy met and went to college.  We got to eat lunch in the Cougareat!

It was so fun to see Aunt Anna and hear Mommy talking with her about my new cousin on the way.  My face says it all: I am ecstatic!

We also went to watch Uncle Jake's intramural game, but it was so cold outside!  We finished off the day with some Brick Oven pizza.  I tried to smile for the camera, but got a little distracted when someone said we were getting free root beer!

I loved Utah, but missed Daddy!

Administrative Fellowship Interviews

We primarily use this blog to post about family life and updates at home.  I think it would get kind of boring if I was posting about school or work all the time, but every once in a while it spills over into family life.  I started my second year of the MHA program, ending my summer internship with Methodist and starting a graduate assistantship with them.  All that means is I am doing the same thing with them, just part time while I go to school.  Part of the second year experience is stressing out over getting a job after graduation.  

The more I have learned during my program, the more I have realized that an Administrative Fellowship is probably what I should try to do, and what would be best for my career.  An Administrative Fellowship is a post-graduate experience meant to give the fellow greater exposure to the complete continuum of healthcare administration.  It is kind of like a practical capstone to the degree.  I wanted to apply to some because I thought I could get more experience and greater exposure to different aspects of the industry.  I also thought it was the way to go because people have described it as a springboard for an early careerist.  Organizations bring on fellows not only to teach them, but to groom the future leaders of their organization.  During your time as a fellow, you shadow and work with the top executives of the organization, so naturally when opportunities in the future come along, it is beneficial that they already know who you are.  Taking an entry-level job at an organization isn't a bad thing, but I suspect it would take a lot longer to advance your career, because very few senior executives know you.  I was excited to look into the possibilities, but was also cautioned by numerous people that fellowships are extremely competitive, and there are a limited number of them for the 1000+ MHA graduates every year.

Long story short:  I applied to fellowships around the country.  I sat down with Cory and we looked at locations of different fellowships.  We then whittled it down to places we could actually see ourselves living, and I looked into the opportunities.  Mostly, we knew we didn't really want to go further East, away from family, but if the opportunity was there, we would consider it.  I applied to 11 fellowships across every time zone.  It felt like applying to schools all over again.  I wrote personal statements, cover letters, updated my resume, got letters of recommendation from Marty Keith (my boss at Methodist), Dr. Carlton (my academic advisor), and Dr. Gentry (the Division Director of the School of Public Health).  I sent off all my packets and waited to hear.  It was an exciting and anxiety-inducing wait.  Right off the bat, the first place I applied to in Fort Collins, Colorado emailed me and said thanks but no thanks.  Super great feeling to start off the process.  My mind was flooded with thoughts about it being too competitive for me to even get an interview.  I then had to remind myself that I couldn't be a fellow at every organization, and would need to be patient.

Fast forward two months from sending in my applications and of the 11 organizations, 5 had asked for a phone interview.  Each rejection to my application was a blow to my ego, but I had to just forget it and keep moving forward.  I had phone interviews with Salem Health in Salem, Oregon, Multicare in Tacoma, Washington, UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas ,Texas, IU Health in Indianapolis, IN, and Methodist Le Bonheur in Memphis, Tennessee.  I work for Methodist currently, so I was thinking I would at least get a phone interview.  Salem emailed me pretty quickly afterward saying they were going with other people.  It was my first phone interview for a fellowship and I knew I didn't perform as well as I could have.  They ended on a curve-ball questions that I just floundered through.  It was a good learning experience.

 The other four phone interviews went really well!  I advanced to the next round with all of them.  UT Southwestern then had me do a Skype interview, which also went well, and then they had me do a two hour leadership assessment test online to send in for them to analyze.  It was kind of intense, but I kept making it through to the next round so my confidence was building.  The four remaining organizations all contacted me to fly me out for on-site interviews.  Cory and I were very excited, but bummed that my first interview would be over Halloween.  The day before the holiday I got on a plane to Tacoma, Washington, for a two day interview with Multicare!

It was my first trip to the Seattle area.  Tacoma was overcast, but I guess that is to be expected.  My hotel room had a view of downtown and the water.  Once I got there I found out they were going to hire two fellows and five of us were at the interview.  They told us over 80 applied, and we were their top five.  It felt good, but I also thought how if you were their #3 greatest candidate you still got nothing.  They talked to us a lot about "fit", and how at this point they knew we had the credentials and whatnot, but just were looking for the greatest "fit", which more and more became some ethereal, abstract unknown that flowed all around us, like the Force.  

That evening they took us to dinner at the Lobster Shop down on the water.  I hate seafood, and was worried that they would already sense that the Fit was not strong in me, but I got the salmon and everything worked out.  The dinner was with about 12 of their past fellows, dating back the past 6-8 years.  It was a really good sign to me that the fellows were all still working with Multicare after the fellowship and had great positions.  After dinner they took us back to the hotel.

The next day was a marathon of interviews.  They started at 7:30 in the morning and every thirty minutes I rotated to someone new.  That lasted until about 4:30.  It was crazy, but I enjoyed it.  The more I met people and learned about the organization, the more I was excited about possibly working there.  After the interviews I had some time to kill before my flight home, so I drove around town with the current fellow and another candidate.  The weather was a lot nicer and we went down by the water, which was beautiful.  I thought about the possible reality of moving my family to the Pacific Northwest.  It was definitely closer to family and more familiar to our Western roots.

After just a day at home, I was on another flight to Dallas, Texas for my next interview.  It was my first time flying on Southwest and I did not know about the whole seating arrangement thing.  The gate agents saw me coming a mile away, looking confused as I gazed at my boarding pass.

Dallas was a very different experience from Tacoma.  It started out similarly.  I headed to the hotel from the airport and hung out dinner.  I then was picked up by George from UT Southwestern.  In the lobby of the hotel I met another candidate for the fellowship.  It was from George we learned that there was one position being offered and we were the two candidates.  No one else was bring brought in.  It may not seem like it, but it felt like a very different dynamic.  The odds were definitely better, but competing head to head felt more confrontational, like I needed to constantly be measuring myself against the other guy.  He was extremely nice though, it wasn't uncomfortable talking with him.

We went to Avanti Ristorante, a fancy Italian place. UTSW started their current fellowship program just a year ago, so there wasn't a large group of alumni to eat dinner with.  It was just us, the current fellow, two directors, and the Vice President who acts as preceptor to the program.  The VP spent most of the dinner asking us questions.  It was clearly part of the interview process.  

The next morning was very relaxed compared to Tacoma.  They didn't pick us up until 11:00 AM, so the morning was completely free.  Then we got a tour of their brand new hospital, and it looked massive on the outside.  Everything is bigger in Texas, right?

After the tour, I had just one panel interview with four people.  It lasted about 45 minutes.  I felt very at ease.  Then it was over.  Nine hours of interviews in Tacoma, 45 minutes in Dallas.  It was after the interview that this whole process started to become a whirlwind.  I was sitting in a room with the other candidate, chatting about the day and our MHA programs, when the preceptor VP came into the room and explained to us that we both did very well in the interviews and they wanted to expand the program and bring on two fellows this year.  In other words, we both were going to be offered the position!  I was a little bit in shock.  I had only come out of the panel about 25 minutes before.  HR reps came in and explained the details of the offer to me, and said they needed an answer by the end of the week.

I was so excited to call Cory and tell her the news.  What started out as me thinking I was just going to apply to places to see what happened, assuming I was not going to be offered a very competitive fellowship slot, was now a concrete offer.  It was exhilarating and a relief.  I got on the plane home and offered some prayers of gratitude.  Cory and Emmy were actually out of town in Utah when I got home, but that was fine because the next morning I was supposed to be on another plane to Indianapolis for an interview.

At this point, I was trying to figure out what the appropriate course of action was.  I emailed Tacoma and explained that I had received another offer, and would need to decide by the end of the week.  If that was too soon for them to make a decision, I understood, but I would wait to hear back from them.  Then I had to decide how to handle the Indiana interview.  It was too late to cancel the interview. I was supposed to be on a plane in about 8 hours.  I thought, "Maybe something similar to the Dallas interview will happen, and they will give their decision right after the interview."  There was no dinner scheduled when I got there so I walked around Indianapolis for a while and saw some cool things, like where the Colts play and where the Pacers play.

I also saw Monument Circle.  The weather was uncharacteristically warm.  In my hotel room that night I got an email back from Tacoma saying they were going with other candidates.  I weirdly felt sad about it, even though I had another offer and I really liked Dallas.  Then about 10 minutes later I got another email from one of the people I interviewed with in Tacoma explaining that they heard I didn't get the fellowship, but they thought I was an excellent candidate and wanted to fly me back out to interview for a position in their department.  It was flattering, but I wanted the fellowship experience.  The next morning I ran the gauntlet of interviews, similar to Tacoma.  Nine hours of a new person every 30 minutes.  I loved the people and the organization, but knew that I probably wasn't going to work there.  

I got home from all the travelling and waited until the end of the week.  I didn't hear from Indiana, so I accepted the Dallas position and contacted Indiana to inform them of my decision.  I also had to tell Methodist about my plans.  Their interview wasn't for another two weeks, so they were really out of the game.  

All of that was just to let you know:  We are moving to Dallas, Texas next summer!  We are super excited.  Dallas was at the top of my list when I started the process and I can't believe things worked out the way they did!

Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween!!!

This Halloween was a little different than we expected.  I was out of town for an interview so we didn't get to spend it together (more on that in the next post).  We had a whole family costume planned out with me as Peter Pan, Cory as Wendy, and Emmy as Tinkerbell.  Maybe next year!  Instead, Emmy donned her birthday Frida Kahlo costume and Cory was a ballerina.  They were still the cutest!  Cory took Emmy to the Trunk or Treat at Church, and they had a great time!

Cory made festive cupcakes for the party.

From the sounds of it, Emmy had a pretty good time trick or treating and playing some of the fun games they had for the kids.  She even won some prizes!

After the party, Emmy continued to celebrate under Mommy and Daddy's bathroom sink.

I wish I could have been there, but I'm glad that they had a good time.  We always know that Emmy has had enough when she sleeps through a changing.  It feels good as a parent when your child sleeps soundly.  

Pumpkin Patch

Halloween is next week and we realized that we never got a pumpkin!  We heard from some friends about a local pumpkin patch so we decided to check it out.  It was fun to take Emmy to pick out a pumpkin.  She also loved riding in the cart with the one we picked out.

They had a plenty to choose from, and had a few games and even some rides for the kids.  We didn't ride anything, but the atmosphere was fun.

Emmy was just tickled the entire time.  She was so excited at one point that her shoes flew off.  

It was fun to get into the Halloween spirit.  We got home and carved the pumpkin to put on our porch.  We named him Frankie.

 Feels like Fall in Memphis!