Robinson

Resident Life

2011-09-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

I've graduated medical school and have already been in residency for 2 months!

I spent the month of July in Vascular Surgery learning all about bypass surgeries, AV fistulas, abdominal aortic aneurysms, etc. I was overly anxious in "stepping up my game" to take care of patients. Most importantly I learned that time management is going to be one of the most important skills to master.

During August I worked on the Orthopedic service spending a lot of time in OR doing joint replacements, arthroscopy, and fixing fractures. Outside the OR I have learned more about performing knee and hip examinations. My personal area of most improvement has to be shoulder exams. Who knew that joint was so complicated? Shoulder pain can be caused from arthritis(2 possible joints), rotator cuff tears, labral tears, or tendinitis.

Poor David has been left to fend for himself since I'm out of the house at 5:30 am and don't get back until 7pm. Once I do get home, I make him be my test patient for practicing examinations. In these two months he has expanded his cooking repertoire and adjusted his sleep schedule for the new resident schedule. Hooray for husbands!

Guilty

2010-02-15T12:26:00.001-08:00

I am guilty of neglecting the blog, but today my guilt has finally moved me to post an update. During one of the weekends in January David and I both had a Friday off and decided to visit the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Here is our day in picture form:

David standing in front of the museum and some other building in the square.

The entrance to the museum.

One of the first things you see after you enter are these

wonderful shallow reefs with brightly colored coral and fishes.

See there, underneath the lights? That's where you see the coral and fish. The death star-like globe on the left part of the picture is the planetarium. We watched the "Journey of the Stars" on the 75 foot wide screen. It was my first planetarium experience and I will say that I enjoyed it very much.

The aquarium portion of the museum included tanks of the Phillipian coral reef and the Northern California coast. In the California Coast exhibit they had lots of rockfish. And the coral reef exhibit had brightly colored fish, including small neon pink fish.

I think these are rockfish.

The only picture from the entire day with both of us in it.

The four-story rainforest is all contained within this giant dome. They maintain a temperature of 80 degrees and humidity of 80%. It did a number on my hair.

This is on the fourth level in the "canopy" of the rainforest.

There were 100's of butterflies fluttering around.

This is what the "The Living Roof" on the building looks like. It is completely

covered in plants and the windows over this hill open and close

to maintain temperature or ventilation within the building.

After the museum we headed over to the Cliffhouse for desserts. The walls

facing the ocean are all glass and you get to watch the waves crashing into

rocks and large ocean liners make their way towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

I had meant to take pictures of the desserts before we began eating them.

As you can see we got to them before the camera could.

So yet another fun day trip with my handsome husband within San Francisco. David's birthday is coming up and he is determined to go on a trip somewhere. We will see where that takes us. Any suggestions for him?

The Killers

2009-11-06T15:14:00.000-08:00

Today I got out of clinic early, so I have cleaned my house and now have some extra time to make a post. Way back in September, David and I went to The Killers Concert while they were here in the Bay Area. We had tried to go to some of their previous shows but one was sold out and the other was on a Sunday. After two failed attempts I was very excited to be going to show. I bought the tickets back in June and didn't give David a chance to object to the purchase.

Come to the week of the concert and David came down with a cold. We nearly nixed our plans of seeing the show due to David's cold and overall exhaustion. Thankfully he toughed it out and we had a blast! The groups playing before them included The New York Dolls, who were also great to see since we were somewhat familiar with their music.

The Killers played so many of our favorite songs and it's always fun to be singing along with a crowd of 25,000 people. Everyone knew the words to Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me and When You Were Young.

Both the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers, and the original bass player for The New York Dolls, Arthur Kane, are mormon. Which I love! Too often I get caught up in thinking that Mormonism is a culture, instead of a religion/belief system. Maybe this stems from being too critical of myself, but I appreciate the talent and choices of these individuals. Arthur Kane was featured in a documentary called New York Doll that tells of his life as a member of band, his current life situation and his dream of reuniting the band some 20 years after they disbanded. (It's really good.)

I believe I have come to love going to concerts. If they weren't so dang expensive I'd go to a lot more. Last weekend I tried to buy Taylor Swift tickets but apparently she's hotter than I thought. I tried buying tickets within 2 minutes of when they became available and was told there were no more tickets available. Later that evening David heard San Francisco's R&B station playing a Taylor Swift song, I guess that shows how popular her songs are.

Halloween & School

2009-10-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

I am in disbelief knowing that I'm well into the middle of my 3rd year. School has changed now that I have clinic 4 days a week and only having to go to the classroom on Thursdays.

This month I am working in the Surgery Department at St. Mary's hospital. So far it has been fantastic! I get to scrub and assist with ANY surgery that occurs in the hospital. So far I have helped remove an appendix, drain a lung abscess, and mesh a skin graft! I wish there were

pictures to help share my experiences you will all have to imagine. (update: today I was able to watch a 2nd toe transplanted to replace a thumb that had a mishap with a saw. Crazy!)

David and I had a great Halloween week. We had to forego our annual trip to Half Moon Bay to pick out pumpkins, but we managed to carve pumpkins with our friends from school and visit some festive neighborhoods on Halloween night.

Tennessee Valley

2009-09-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went for a little hike with Rob & Candi. Tennessee Valley is the name of the trail that we took and although it was a short walk we saw plenty of wildlife. We spotted a coyote on the drive to the trail head and Rob nearly stepped on a snake at the beginning. The trail ends at a little secluded beach that is contained by large bluffs on both sides. It has been so nice to have all of David's family nearby to do things together. It makes doing things, like hikes, alot more enjoyable.

New Arrival

2009-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today we welcomed the arrival of a new nephew! Here is as picture of baby Dallin:

Home Improvement

2009-06-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

David and I have been working on several home improvement projects lately. We have found that working on the house can be tough when both of us have other responsibilities during the day. But during the process we have learned a lot and now possess a large collection of tools. One of the most frustrating aspects of home improvement is the many unexpected trips (and expenses) one makes going to Home Depot or Lowe's to get something for the project you intended to start that evening. Or even more frustrating is finding tools that would have made the job a lot easier if you had known about it before!

However with my family coming at the end of the week we have been working overtime trying to finish some of the projects that we have started.

For this post we will concentrate on the progress of the floor.

We began with ceramic tile that can not be described by color, yellow vinyl flooring and pink carpet. The strangest thing to us about the flooring in the house was that there was carpet in both the dining area and vanity area.

Demolition is both the easiest and hardest part of the entire process. In the beginning you get a dramatic change in a short amount of time. But once all the large pieces are gone it takes FOREVER to clean and prepare the area for the next step.

p.s. below you can see the pink carpet...who does that?

Done with the easy part...At this point we had to scrape all the previous thinset off the concrete subfloor. At this point we did not our way around a home improvement store yet. We figured that it was a small area and we'd simply scrape off the ridges in no time. Wrong! We spent several nights chipping away at these stubborn ridges with a hammer, pry bar and small 3" metal scraper. A week after finishing scraping all the thinset off the floor we saw the actual floor scraping tools at the store which would have made our lives easier for those few days. Not only did we find the actual tools for the job but we also saw that you could rent the various specialized tools at the store! Oh well, the job was at least finished. Next David put out some self leveling concrete to even out the two concrete slabs that run through our unit.Finally, some tile on the floor!

The dining "room". ;) That pink carpet keeps rearing it's ugly head into all my progress pictures.the kitchen. please don't judge the mess. We are living in a full on construction zone as you can tell by the choice foods on display.Finally inserting all the cut edge and corner pieces. We are almost finished! The past two days we have spent grouting the floor and I am amazed at how much work we have done ourselves. Our house looks much better with some updated flooring. Now we just need to get rid of the rest of the pink carpet.

I just got done reading Anita's post about this gloomy June weather and I could not agree more! A couple of weeks ago we were driving to Dave's parents house via the Golden Gate Bridge. I could not believe how foggy it was for being in the month of June! Hey California, Where's the sun?

3rd Year

2009-05-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

I finished the last final of my 2nd year on Thursday. It is amazing how fast time has gone by and how much I have learned since starting medical school. This morning I got to start my 3rd year at San Francisco General Hospital. I was so nervous this morning getting ready and driving to the hospital. The first day at any clinic because you don't know what you're expected to know, what type of patients you will be dealing with, or even where you are going. I felt a little overwhelmed walking towards the hospital this morning, unsure of where I was supposed to be.

San Francisco General Hospital is a very large teaching hospital and a large portion of the personnel there are still students in medical school or residency. It was very cool to walk into the hospital this morning and step into the elevator filled with residents and attending physicians. It felt almost like being in Grey's Anatomy or Scrubs. Anywho...back to my day.

Everything turned out fine and we were able to see three patients in just under 4 hours. (Would you be patient enough to spend over an hour with your doctor? I don't know if I would have exhibited the same patience our patients had.) However, it was a great experience for us as students because we were able to ask questions and discuss the pathology with the doctor while the patient was still in the exam chair. I'm current completing a biomechanics rotation so we talked alot about how an individual's foot architecture can make them more prone to experience problems(i.e. pain) in their feet. We'll be learning alot about orthotics and how to properly utilize orthotics to help stabilize these feet.

So it was a fantastic start to my 3rd year and 2nd half of medical school. I am so glad to be able to have these experiences and learn from so many people.

Getting My Craft On

2009-05-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, tonight I took a break from studying to package a gift for some friends that are expecting a baby. I made a baby bracelet earlier this week and needed to package it before the baby girl makes her entrance into this world. With my infrequency of crafting, my projects don't always turn out cute. Perhaps I will finish some more crafty projects this summer.
David and I also celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making some fajitas for dinner. For some extra oomph & kick I added a jalapeno to the onions & bell peppers. I found out that that was going a bit too far. The fajitas weren't so spicy while eating them but I started to feel some strong heat after I finished my first fajita. My lips were tingling for an hour after dinner. Note to self: no more jalapenos with fajitas.

Washington

2009-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Things have gotten really busy around here as I prepare for Finals and we have started a few projects to do around the house. Before all this, I got to have an awesome spring break where I traveled home to Washington & spend over 5 days with the wonderful people I call my family. Here are just a few of the things I got to do while home.

I hung out with Keldon & Carter and show them some of my tools and dye Easter Eggs.

Collin & I went with Grandma & Grandpa Gibbons' to his PT appointment and then got to have lunch at Zip's. Grandpa told me they had the best fish & chips he has ever had...and he was right! If it had not been for Granpa's suggestion, I don't think I would have ever tried their fish & chips. It was also nice to spend some time with Grandpa without alot of people around. During our day together, I did find out that my great grandpa was a Utah State Senator. (How did I not know this before!)

I had lunch with Carmen & Kendall and they accompanied me on my business dealings during the trip. These two girls are goofy and can not make their mind up on anything! It took over 15 minutes for them to decide where to eat. I only bring this up because we were in Pasco, had we been in a big city like Seattle or SF maybe I could understand. But perhaps this is why they're so easy to get along with. The picture below not only demonstrates how gorgeous my sisters are but also the not-so-fantastic photo skills of my little brother.

Some other quick highlights: Going to lunch with Dad. Play basketball with the family. Jumping on the trampoline. Getting invited to a party ;). Riding Collin's motorcycle. Watching Collin's Soccer Game(where, I might add he had 4 assists). Attend Kendall's track meet(who won her 4x1 relay). Helped Carmen with her resume (to finish her senior project). Eating really good food made by Mom. Feeding my aunt's longhorn steers. Dying peewee eggs. Eating Easter Eggs. Getting a Easter Basket. Going to church on Easter Sunday with my family. We did so much more than that, but that's all I can remember for now.

I had such a great time while in Washington. It was so sad to have to leave to return to school, but I am so excited when I will be back home for an entire month in August for school!

I also found out that United Airlines will now have a direct flight from San Francisco straight to Pasco, Washington. You have no idea how excited I am to be able to get home in as little as two hours. All I can say is Hallelujah!

While home I did receive some very helpful tips & advice on texting from two very knowledgable professionals. (Although the advice came after they made fun of me & my (ancient) phone.) But I thought I would be generous enought share some photos of the two professionals honing their craft.

Lucky Me!

2009-03-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I am the new owner of a Pharmacopoeia!
It will come in very handy during clinic!

I was pretty happy to start my weekend with this grand purchase.

At the Shark Tank

2009-02-14T08:31:00.001-08:00

David and I attended a San Jose Sharks game a few weeks ago with Rob & Candi. The Sharks have had been playing an awesome season going 22-1 at home thus far into the season. Many of our other professional teams have not done so well(aka SF 49ers, Oakland Raiders, GS Warriors), so I was stoked to see a game that I was sure we were going to win.

Once the game started there was not an empty seat in the entire "Tank" and we scored the first goal within minutes. By the end of the 2nd period the score was 3-1 and I was excited to win. In addition, if the Sharks scored 4 goals everyone gets free Round Table Pizza and this family loves Round Table! So with only one goal left to get in the last period I was sure we were going home with a late night snack. Unfortunately, the opposing team did not give up and they ended up tying the game at the end of regulation. The game ended up going into overtime and we still did not score. Our hopes for free pizza were dashed, but hopefully we hoped the sharks would prevail in the shoot out. In the end, the sharks let us down and the Carolina Hurricanes went away with the only 2nd visiting team win at the Shark Tank this season. I was blamed for the loss after excessively talking about going to a game where the home team wins.

Oh well, we had a blast with Rob & Candi who drove over an hour just to come to the game! The Sharks had an awesome home crowd and it was so much fun watching & cheering. One of my favorite parts was the crazy loud foghorn that goes off after a Sharks goal is made and that crowd goes crazy making large Jaws motions with their arms! It was definitely one of the best sports events I have been to!

I'm hoping my siblings can appreciate the name of this country radio station. ;)

San Francisco

2009-01-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago David and I went for a walk in the Presidio in San Francisco. It was a really nice sunny day and we walked along the Promenade near Chrissy Field. We have not done much exploring around the Presidio before. We found out there's alot more to discover just in that one park in San Francisco.Enjoying the January California weather.

Nerd Alert! David and I have been trying to remember to

bring our binoculars with us to various places and events.

Surprisingly they are VERY nice to have!

A nice looking palm tree.

Our favorite encounter: The life size Yoda fountain in front of the LucasArts complex.

It was a very fun walk and gave an awesome view of the Golden Gate Bridge. When we have visitors we typically take them to the actual Golden Gate Bridge to walk on the span....but I think we may take them here instead. You get a beautiful view and it's not quite as scary since you're not 100' in the air. I can't wait to return on another sunny day.

Were you aware that...

2009-01-06T18:32:00.000-08:00

Appparently flip phones are totally out of style and make you look like you have a really old phone. One of my classmates told me that. Wah!

One More

2008-12-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

Just one more final to get through this afternoon. Can't wait til this is over.

It's Hip to Be A Square...Right?

2008-12-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

The other night I was telling some story about things that happened in class that day with a classmate. Here is how it went down:

Me: Today (insert name) said this really funny comment in class.

David: (insert name)? I haven't heard much about them. Are they Cool?

Me: ...umm...I don't know.

David: Are they nice?

Me: Yeah... But wait, do you realize who you're asking to determine if someone's cool? I'm like the only girl who's married and doesn't drink, smoke, or dress in cute trends. I'm like one of the uncoolest people in the class.

David: I guess you are pretty mild compared to everyone else.

Me: Hey, It's hip to be a square! (jokingly)

David: Oh my gosh, you are a square! (not so jokingly, more like teasing)

Me: Oh Thanks!

In honor of our conversation:

I'm in the throws of final exams and have spent too many hours cuddling with textbooks and notes instead of David(who happens to be a lot softer and more responsive than paper). Finals are not the funnest thing to endure, but it definitely forces one to review all the material that has been taught over the semester. For too many classes, it is the time when that tricky concept finally "clicks" and it totally makes sense. I've taken four finals and have just five left for next week. After Friday afternoon I will officially be on Christmas vacation and I can not wait to get to Washington to see my family!

A New Place

2008-11-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

David and I have bought our first home! We bought a one bedroom/one bathroom condo that needed a bit of TLC. So we have been working in overdrive the past 3 weeks whipping this place into shape. Thus far, we have stripped the popcorn ceilings, retextured the ceilings and painted our bedroom.

Thankfully we have gotten enough work done to get all the plastic out of the house; unfortunately the plastic is still on our balcony. You say you like the chandelier?

Too bad we got rid of it. This a picture of the bedroom in the state that we inherited it. Originally the blue that is in the closet was everywhere! You can see it underneath the paint in the bedroom hallway and bathroom. The kitchen and living room were originally a lovely canary yellow color.

The current state of the house:

We are living with alot of dust. As you can see in the picture below it looks as though it is snowing inside. This should be getting better in the next few days.

After clearing out the construction mess we have cleaned the carpets and are ready to paint the rest of the living area/kitchen.Here you can see the "construction stuff" on the balcony. We have a long way to go but are happy with the progress we've made in the past few weeks.

We have had a busy fall and have so much to be thankful for. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner, the San Francisco International Auto Show, seeing Twilight with my sister-in-laws and David's mom this coming week. I think it's going to be a good week.

I Voted This Morning!

2008-11-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Did you vote today?
Now we just have to wait. (sigh)

What I'm Praying About Today

2008-11-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Red Bull Soapbox Derby

2008-10-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday David and I went to the Red Bull Soapbox Derby in San Francisco. We stationed ourselves at the top of the course and watched each of the teams perform their skit/dance before pushing their car down the course. The teams were judged on three criteria: speed, creativity & showmanship. Nearly half the cars had to do with some San Francisco landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge & TransAmerica pyramid building. There was a huge crowd of over 75,000 people and the weather was unusually warm for SF. Red Bull has done several events in San Francisco since we had moved to the area, but this was the first one that David and I have gone to. This team was called the Master Blaster...initially David thought it would having something to do with the character from Mad Max. The cart's stereos on the side of the opened like doors to make one giant bratbox from the front. The beginning of the course. The course had 2 turns and 1 jump that covered 3 blocks of Dolores Street.My favorite group were called "The Tree Huggers" and had a car that resembled a log. Their music and skit was really good. They ended up finishing 2nd(Yay!).We could see the fog coming in from where we stood during the races. For all the sun we received on Saturday, Sunday was really cloudy...even in Oakland.

Pumpkin Picking

2008-10-14T20:10:00.001-07:00

David and I completed our annual trip to Half Moon Bay to pick some pumpkins out for Halloween. This year we were able to meet up with David's Mom and two brothers' families. Not alot of time to talk...enjoy the pictures.

Starting the morning with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Sweet & Yummy :)

Hiding in the corn field
The whole crew(minus David taking the picture)
Our niece, Laneah trying to pick up a pumpkin with all her might.
Talk about an awesome view from a pumpkin patch

David hauling our bounty to the cars

We always have a great time visiting Half Moon Bay, but it was definately much funner sharing the day with family. Candi & Rob have just moved back from England and we are excited to have all of David's family within a close vicinity to go on fun outings like this.

Pumpkin Picking also means that the holidays are just around the corner and I can not wait to be done with my current semester.

so this was pretty short, but I must return to studying.

We have had an excellent Summer

2008-09-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

A picture summary of our summer happenings:

Bodyboarding at Santa Cruz and Aptos Beaches with Rodriguez familia.

The sunset from Berkeley Marina while the Rodriguez familia was in California.Evidence of how spectacular our 4th of July was. Firing Roman Candles on said holiday.
We attended a 49ers game. Brrrrr...it was really cold& windy!
The very next day we headed to the California State Fair. The sweet petting zoo that even had wallabies and deer.

Adorable baby piggies that had just been born that morning.Equally adorable calf that had a cast for a tight achilles tendon.

A self-taken picture at the 49ers game.This summer was fantastic for several reasons. #1)I was able to spend alot more quality time with David. With no school to stress about we were able to do alot of day trips on our weekends. We got to go to the beach in Aptos, eat in North Beach in San Francisco, and go the state fair. All were fun, memorable trips for me. #2)I got to spend over a month of my summer with my family. They came to visit us in June, David and I went to Washington for the 4th of July and I returned to Washington for the annual family vacation at the Oregon Coast.

Unfortunately this was likely my last true summer, next year I will be doing clinics 4 days a week and will not have the luxury of spending so much time having fun. David has been a perfect gentleman and husband by allowing me to play all summer long while he diligently went to work everyday. He's the best and I wish there were more ways to show him how much I appreciate his support. Now it's time to dive back into schoolwork and look forward to future adventures.

Rodriguez Family Visit

2008-06-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past week and a half, David and I were able to have Carmen, Kendall & Collin come stay with us here in Oakland. They flew out to California the evening of their last day of school. We had tons of activities planned out for their week long stay but got off to a rough start. On Friday we had planned to take the siblings to this arcade called Dave & Buster's and the Chabot Space Center where they have free telescope viewings on Friday and Saturday evenings. Neither of those activities worked out and luckily we came across a park that we decided to explore. So Friday was nothing like I had planned/imagined, but things were much better for the remainder of their stay.

On Saturday we attended our local farmer's market where we bought some produce and ended up exploring another park called Tilden Regional Park. That evening we attended the San Jose Earthquakes soccer game against LA Galaxy. Getting into the game was a little stressful, because parking was tight and the ticket lines were very confusing but once we got in it was so much fun! We had great seats, the stadium was packed (unlike an A's game) with lots of families, and it was a great match. However, I did feel bad for the Earthquakes goalie since they did lose 3-0 to the Galaxy. Lastly, watching David Beckham play only added to the fun. Carmen & Kendall were intently watching him after the game waiting for the moment Beckham would take off his shirt through a set of binoculars and the zoom of their camera!

I hope that Carmen, Kendall & Collin enjoyed their stay with David & I. We definitely enjoyed having the company and planning events that we would not normally go to. I think I'll post some of the other things we did in the coming days.

White Coat

2008-03-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last night was my white coat ceremony for school. It is a ceremony that marks the transition from class room learning to clinical learning. I will be beginning my clinical rotations this summer and my first rotation is at homeless clinics in San Francisco. I am excited for finishing my first year in May! This year has gone by so quickly and I have learned so much! I can't wait for the many exciting experiences & opportunities that I will encounter over the next few years.

The evening included a dinner/reception following the ceremony. David's parents were able to attend & sat with my classmate Mark & his wife who are also fellow BYU-Idaho graduates.

Good Weekend, but Sad Day!

2008-02-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

David and I started our 3 day weekend by visiting the Oakland Zoo on Saturday. The zoo had a really nice children's area and the weather was perfect! (I have a hard time remembering that summer is still a ways off.) It took us less than 3 hours to see every exhibit. We happened to be at the elephant exhibit just 10 minutes prior to their feeding, so we decided to wait & watch. It turned out to be very uneventful as the zoo keepers came out to throw diced carrots on the ground everywhere! These elephants must be overfed, because they did not care that new food was coming out. (How ghetto is this: At the ring tailed lemur exhibit there was this family who's kids threw cheetos into the pen! And the mom didn't even care, if that had been my child I would have been mortified. Good thing the lemurs didn't like the cheetos after tasting them.)
Sunday afternoon we explored a town called San Ramon that is approximately 20 miles from our current apartment. Driving around the town we came across many new housing developments and were curious enough to take a tour of the model homes. The homes were all beautiful but my favorite house was this one. (A girl can dream right?) After seeing all these spacious homes I was very anxious to find a way out of our teeny apartment. I spent a large portion of my weekend looking for houses on the internet to come to the conclusion: We can't afford anything in California right now!

And this evening, David and I were headed out of our apartment building to meet his parents for dinner. As we exit the securtiy gate of our apartment complex there's a large concrete stairway. I don't know how it all started but I must not have been paying attention or trying to hold too much stuff on the way out to the car. On the first step... I tripped and began thinking, "This is gonna hurt". Luckily I was able to keep all things in my arms and save myself by grabbinh onto the metal railing. But in the act of saving myself, my favorite shoes are ruined. Sad Day!

Juno

2008-01-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

David and I saw Juno this weekend & thought it was a really good movie. We really like Michael Cera and Jason Bateman from the old TV show Arrested Development.

Arrested Development was about this wealthy dysfunctional family and I can not begin to describe how fun & hilarious the show is (since I'm not so funny myself). The family has intricate, quirky characters and you get to know their personalities as the show progresses. In the tv show Michale (Jason Bateman) is George Michael's (Michael Cera) father. I just had to bring it up because I was reminiscing after seeing Juno on Friday. If you ever decide to watch the series you must start at the beginning.

Here is a clip of one of the running jokes in the series: The Chicken Dance.

P.S. It's probably much funnier to me...but I like it.

Eek, It's been a while

2008-01-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

David and I are back into our regular schedules of work and school. We have been home for two weeks, but I have been really sluggish adjusting to my new schedule.

We enjoyed being in Washington for Christmas. For me, it was a WONDERFUL break from school and studying. We were fed very well and we had laughed A LOT together. Below is a picture of us all holding our 'sibling' gifts that we opened on Christmas eve. Luckily, due to a flight cancellation & Pasco airport being tiny, David was able to come snowboarding with the family. After scrambling to get some snowboard gear for David, the weather & snow were perfect that day. We had a lot of fun with the entire family...and having Mindy, Melissa & Brooke there made it even better. Kari and I learned that we should have our husbands snowboard together and that her and I should stick together since they are far better/braver than us. (I too switched back to skis the next time I went.)
After David, Kari & Zac had left Pasco on Sunday morning the house was really quiet. After church Kendall had gone to a friends house, Carmen went to work, the parents were napping...so Collin & I went for 4-wheeler rides in the snow. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that. Anyways, while I was still the home the Woodward family invited our family to check out the new arrival of chicks in their new chicken coop. They had received 103,000 baby chick that day and I got to see them all! Within this one coop they will raise 200,000 chicks at once. So we took pictures with the little chicks and looked around this 'state of the art' barn with automated feeders, waterers and most importantly pooper scoopers! As soon as I got back, I attended my dear friend, Stacey's baby shower. Stacey and I worked together at Genomic Health, Inc. Our desks were right next to one another and we would talk all day while doing our work. We got to be great friends and I miss being able to see her on a daily basis. She has not found out the sex of the baby so I got her something nonspecific but really cute from this store, where I would shop more often if I had little ones of my own. Currently, David's brother Rob and his wife Candi are visiting from England. We spent the entire last weekend with David's family. On Saturday we attended a NBA Celebrity Game at the Oracle Arena.(Go Warriors!) We attended since admission was only $2 and parking was free. I did not know many of the celebrities but my favorite basketball player, Monta Ellis, was one of the coaches. yay! So that's what David and I have been up to. I am hoping to post more often....as it seems I am always trying to catch up.

Our Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a lot of fun with my family visiting from Washington. We had the traditional Thanksgiving spread with David's family at their home in Corte Madera.

Rodriguez Family in front of the Oakland Temple Wednesday Night

"Digesting" Thursday afternoon

In keeping with Robinson family tradition David, Dad, Collin and myself went to the San Francisco International Auto Show. The rest of the family saw Enchanted (which they said was VERY good.)

A very flashy car I found with Collin at the SF Auto Show

Kendall, Carmen & Mom saw enchanted at the Grand Lake Theatre Friday we headed into San Francisco for shopping. We also visited Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square. We got to see lots of Holiday displays including the Union Square tree, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel's Sugar Castle, Ghirardelli Square's tree and the Holiday Village at the Hyatt Hotel. Usually the high end department stores (Neiman Marcus, Saks 5th Avenue, etc) have fancy animated window displays, but there were no such windows this year. very disappointing.

Taking "Bart" into the city.

The 500+ lb. sugar castle at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel

Can you spot my dad & Collin? ...what a goober.

The kiddies in a streetcar on The Embarcadero.

At Pier 39 in front of Alcatraz

Collin being scared by the "Bushman" near Fisherman's Wharf

Waiting at Ghirardelli's

I wanted to include a picture of my Foghorn Sundae! (It's the best!)

We had great weather all weekend, and it was the first time that my family has been able to see the entire Golden Gate Bridge. The other times they have visited the bridge was engulfed in fog. Saturday we ate lunch at In-N-Out and stopped by The North Face Outlet store in Berekley. We had a lot of fun showing my family our new apartment and to share with them our experience of living in an urban city.

Our Halloween Festivities

2007-10-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

This past weekend David and I visited Half Moon Bay to pick up some pumpkins and enjoy a small day trip. We stopped at four different patches. The first two patches we visited are situated right across the Highway from one another. Theses two were my favorite patches because of the way they were decorated. It's also where all of the pictures came from except the one with both David & I. We didn't get to pick out any pumpkins here because we had both forgotten to get any cash before leaving and had to use the little cash we did have for the bridge toll. So we ended up getting all of our pumpkins at a place called Bob's. We opted for the smaller pumpkins/squash this year. The hayride at the Lama's Farm

The Pastorino Farm Storefront

A very neat train ride at the Pastorino Farm

David and I at Altara Farms

David at Bob's Pumpkin Patch

Our 2007 Pumpkin Collection

This past weekend I attended a school Halloween party with some of the girls in my class. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in probably over 10 years, so I had nothing in storage and had to come up with a costume last minute...and so I ended up as a witch. Apparently I wasn't a very believable witch because I was constantly being asked what I was supposed to be. My friend even asked me if I was supposed to be the girl version of The Hulk. (Yikes!)

Better luck to any of you that are dressing up this week and Happy Halloween!

Carmen's Soccer

2007-10-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Carmen had an awesome soccer game this past Thursday against the Richland Bombers. Pasco won the game 1-0 in double overtime and Carmen was mentioned in the evening news. Everyone in the family was so excited by it David and I received three separate calls to tell us the good news. You can see the video here.

Congratulations Carm and good luck in Regionals!

Hip Hip Hooray....an A!

2007-10-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

This past week was painful with 5 big tests in 6 days. But I am happy to say that I have finally gotten an A on an exam! Now I just need to raise my other grades.

This weekend David and I are going to go to Half Moon Bay to get pumpkins. Last weekend they held the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival where they hold a "Great Pumpkin Weigh Off" to determine the year's largest pumpkin. This year they had the biggest pumpkin EVER! The winner's pumpkin weighed over 1,500 pounds. Unfortunately I was too busy studying to attend the festival but I'm looking forward to visiting a few of the ornate pumpkin farms.

Life in Oakland

2007-09-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

So I have been in school for three weeks now and I am loving (most of) it! While working over the past year I realized that I was not ready to join/stay in the workforce. I'm excited to be back in school even though it has required a LARGE time commitment of my part. At the end of my program I will have a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree and will be be more commonly known as a foot doctor. I'm enjoying my classes since they all directly correlate to the human body. I've met wonderful people in my classes that will help the next 4 years fly by much faster!

We have finally settled into our apartment & neighborhood. We live in a nice area called Lake Merritt. We even live next to the historic Grand Lake Theatre. It's a movie theatre that has preserved the interior from 1920's. There is a farmer's market right across the street from the apartment every saturday with fresh fruits & veggies!

Last but not least, out ward is fantastic! I was relieved after attending our new ward for the first time. We get to meet in a building right next to the Oakland temple! Everyone is super nice and excited about coming to church! This past weekend our stake had Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voice host a fireside. Everyone was encouraged to bring a nonmember friend and it was a huge success. I'm looking forward to more pleasant experiences in this part of the world.

After reading Nicole's blog I was reminded of how I know Heavenly Father shows me he's aware of my needs. This past week at church I have found out that our new bishop grew up in Pullman, WA and his wife is from Yakima. There's another girl from the Othello area and yet another girl that David had known at BYU-Idaho. David often teases me for being a little too attached to Pasco, WA and after hearing about all these Washington/BYU-Idaho roots, the smile could not be wiped from my face! David just chuckled at my reaction. I really believe this is a method that Heavenly Father calms my nerves about being in a new place. I think this all sounds silly written down... but I really am grateful for the many ways we are shown unconditional love!

Sorry for the long post and no personal pictures :(

Fair

2007-09-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I was able to make another trip home and see Carmen, Kendall & Collin show their hogs at the Benton Franklin County Fair. They all did really great and Kendall's hog received 3rd place out of 300+ pigs! I love going to fair and seeing all the different animals and being able to enjoy an elephant ear or funnel cake once a year. One of my favorite animals are the miniature cows. The last picture is me with a cow that was just over a year old and that's as big as she gets! I'm hoping that one day I can own a small herd of the adorable things.

A few pictures from Kari's wedding

2007-08-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a majority of the pictures I took with my own camera during Kari's wedding day. I thought I would have been better at taking more photographs, but was just too busy trying to stay cool.

More pictures from Oregon Coast

2007-08-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this last one came in blurry! very frustrating.

Sorry, no time for words

2007-08-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

These are all from our Oregon Coast trip:

Catch up

2007-07-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

I've finally found some time to sit down and make a post for the blog this morning. David is currently in England for his his brother's wedding. He left on Wednesday morning and will be back Sunday evening. It was going to be an interesting trip since his brother, Rob, had been in a Vespa accident June 23rd, two weeks prior to the wedding. He was released from the hospital on Wednesday, July 4th and they got married July 6th. (YEAH!) I can't wait for David to be back. I've realized that I do not like being all by myself in a house in California. and get this! this morning on the answering machine was left the following message: This is a message from the Atherton Police Department. Yesterday July 6th a gardener spotted a mountain lion on "__" road. Please be cautious and aware as you exercise outside and especially keep track of small children..." (keep in mind that Atherton is less than 5 square miles)Yikes! that gave me a small heart attack this morning. but i'm okay now.

So this past month has been really fun! David and I went to the beach. There was no sun and it was cold so I refused to enter the water. but David threw around the skim board for nearly an hour while I lay on the beach under a blanket. After walking up and down the beach and visiting the boarkwalk we tried going to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz but the line was over 2 hours long. So we'll attempt that some other time.

I attended the Gwen Stefani concert with some friends. It was a blast! In the picture above is Becky, Nidhi and myself. I have not been to that many concerts and I'm 23! But I could not believe how many kids (like 6-11) there were. And there were some groups of 11 year old girls by themselves!!I just couldn't believe that parents would bring their kids to an event with copious amounts of alcohol/weed/smoking!

And last weekend we attended LDS night at the SF Giants game. We went with a friend of David's who just graduated from BYU-Idaho. We rode the train(my fave!) in to the game. Our seats were on the third level just three rows from the very back of the stadium, but we had a gorgeous view of the bay and we even spotted the Oakland temple from our seats! David and I shared some delicious Garlic fries. The Giants ended up winning the game and I'm thinking I'd like to go to another game before the season ends.

And lastly, I'm so happy I get to come home this Friday! Wa-Hoo! I'll be coming home for Kari & Zachary's wedding. I've heard that many of the cousins are going to be in town! And that makes me pretty excited too.

See you all in Washington!

Monterey Visit

2007-05-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

So three weeks ago David and I got to spend the weekend in Monterey and Carmel! That area is just gorgeous and is definately a place everyone should visit. We weren't very good at planning out activities for our weekend, so we ended up in Monterey early Saturday afternoon with an entire afternoon to kill. After eating we walked past the Monterey Bay Aquarium and came across black light miniature golf! We thought we'd kill some time and it ended up having SO MUCH FUN! I hope you all don't think i'm terribly immature for the these crazy things i think are loads of fun. I ended up taking a TON of pictures during our round of 18 holes because each hole was insanely cool. I must say it was the highlight of my Saturday. Second place was probably enjoying my Foghorn Sunday at Ghirardelli's.

On Sunday we decided to drive through 17 mile drive to get to the smaller town of Carmel. We only took the small portion of the drive next to the ocean, but along the way we got to see some pretty beaches, gigantic ocean-side homes and I was able to see some baby seals! (Dave was driving and it was through a section that we couldn't stop and look.) We also stopped at the Pebble Beach Golf Clubhouse and walked around the shops and eventually down to the course that is beach side. We ended our mini vacation walking down the main street of Carmel which is lined with all sorts of eccentric little shops. We couldn't have asked for better weather and we wished we had brought our beach gear with us.

One of the beaches on 17 mile drive

David at the Pebble Beach Golf Course

One of our signature 'taken by ourselves' photos

Saturday Fun

2007-05-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday David and I had a bery adventurous and fun day. We woke up early on Saturday and headed to Half Moon Bay where we went horseback riding on the beach! I had a horse named Bonita and David's horse was named Caddie. Our ride took us along a trail at the top of a bluff over the ocean and then we eventually were able to ride on the beach. The waves were absolutely great! I don't really know how to describe them and the picture don't really do a lot of justice.

After our horseride we drove down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz for lunch. At the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz the temperature was 80 degrees and the beach was packed with beach-goers! I wish I had came prepared, but we had expected our horseride to be foggy and cool, and didn't bring any change of clothes.

But it got me really excited for next week, when David and I are headed down to Monterey to celebrate our 2nd anniversary!

Rodeo

2007-04-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last night David and I attended the Grand National Rodeo at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. It was a lot of fun to do something country after living in the city for six months now.

It was Cattleman's night and we got to see a few extra things that aren't normally in a rodeo. There was a quarter horse show, chuck wagon races and a cattle herding demonstration with these two little doggies named Smary and Hub. There was even a concert after the rodeo, and we watched Montgomery Gentry perform a few songs.

My favorite thing from the night was the livestock parade. There were at least 40 animals including goats, sheep and steer walked around the perimeter of the ring. There was this one adorable lamb that was a little smaller than the other breeds and was a chocolate brown color. I just thought he was really cute. After events like this, I find myself telling David that I want to buy a ranch and take care of cute cows, pigs and horses.

Beard Papa's

2007-04-03T19:39:00.001-07:00

Beard Papa's is this bakery chain that sells only cream puffs and eclairs. I had my first taste last week when I tried a chocolate cream puff. Since then I have convinced David's family how yummy they are, and tonight his mom bought enough for everyone. Lucky Me! They bake the shells in the store and it smells so good enough to make your tummy ache. The shells are filled after you place your order so the bread isn't soggy by the time you eat it. I wish you could all try it.
Wait! If you ever come to visit me, I'll be sure to have some at my house or I'll take you out to try your very own beard papa cream puff or eclair!

Mavericks at Half Moon Bay

2007-04-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

David & I went for a Sunday drive out to Half Moon Bay, which is about 20 minutes from the house. David loves going out there to watch the waves at this famous surfing spot called Mavericks. From what he tells me, there's been waves over 100 feet high at this place and there's an annual pro surfing event here. It is quite fun to make the short beach hike and watch these massive waves crash against the rocks. David is getting really anxious to hit up the beach this summer. I think I would be excited too if I could handle the seawater.

Here's some more pictures from out trip to Mavericks today. One of the pier and the other of the rocks in front of Mavericks.

I like going to Half Moon Bay to see these small farm roadside stands selling fresh produce along the highway. These quaint farms sell all sorts of produce including flowers, pumpkins and christmas trees. They decorate their stands for all of the different seasons, however, Half Moon Bay is the location of a huge annual Pumpkin Festival and they go all out! Thes small stops practically become amuzement parks during the fall. I posted the picture below so you can get a small idea of how fun it was to go and pick out a pumpkin last year.

Summer

2007-03-31T09:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when the sun starts going down later, there's fantastic spring days, and inside I can feel that summer's coming! This year's a little sadder than others because I'll be working most of the summer. I am excited for my vacation time when I'll be able to make my way to Washington! I know that I'll be coming for Kari's wedding and hopefully for the Oregon Coast Trip! (I can't wait!) There's also lots of things to do here in California, so I know I'll survive.

Hi family!

2007-03-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

So we're going to try out this blog thing. I'll try to get up some posts & pictures up soon.