Masters of Delayed Gratification

I don't remember who it was, but during medical school one of my friends said that at graduation in addition to our M.D. degrees we should also get a Masters of Delayed Gratification for having to put off so many things while we completed our training. As my wife put it last year when I told her I had been asked to speak in church about the benefits of education, "We don't know yet, you haven't graduated."

With graduation finally nearing we decided to make a few purchases to take to Japan with us. Last month we decided to buy some new living room furniture and a computer armoire. We made multiple trips to multiple stores trying decide what to buy. I had to convince my thrifty wife that it really was OK to buy the furniture she wanted even though it cost more than some other furniture that she liked. Finally, she decided to buy the
furniture she liked (seen here). While we were shopping with Aubrey in tow, she fell in love with a little oak rocking chair just her size. After spending a lot of money there, Di suggested that I ask the salesman if he would throw in the rocking chair for free. You should have seen Aubrey's eyes light up when she saw me walk out of the store and pick up the rocking chair.

















For those of you who have been to our home please remember the messy desk in the study. Now you will note the very nicely contained mess in the armoire. Di wanted one as soon as we moved in, but Scrooge that I am I made her wait until now to get it. As usual she was right. It really is nice to be able to close a door on the mess.


















Well I have other things to go do now (read that as go to the outlet mall and spend even more money). One nice thing about moving to Japan is there won't be nearly so much shopping to be had--I hope. Maybe later I will blog about or trip to Ikea last weekend--Eat your heart out Mel.

Yellow Belt for Jonathan

Well it has been five months since I posted last, so I thought I would give it another try.

Last week Jonathan took his test for his Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He spent a lot of time practicing his Korean vocabulary and his basic forms and step sparring. I just thought you might like to see some of the pictures. (Isn't he cute?) During the test they were asking the group of white belts about the vocabulary. Jonathan's was usually the first hand in the air. To pass he had to break a board with a side kick. He did it his first try. Some of the older students, e.g. adults, had to kick it several times to break the board.

It was also fun to watch Aubrey during Jonthan's test. As he was on the floor doing his forms, she was there by us doing her version of the same thing. She really is his number one fan.