A truly warm welcome from a snow-less Iowa. The grass is green with balmy upper 40 degree breezes. Holiday cheer abounds--only to be interrupted by the incessant phone calls from various political hopefuls campaigning for the upcoming caucus. This is the time every 4 years where we Iowans exercise our first right to choose our nation’s supreme executive. Lord help us....
Owen, now 6, is enjoying first grade. He has been working on a first novel entitled, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid of the Lost Tooth.” For those of you in the publishing industry looking for a new author this is a fascinating spin-off which is inspired by Owen’s first brush with dental maturity. The cheese touch returns again and hilarity ensues. Owen should be available for book tours after school gets out but only until the state fair begins. For certain his biggest accomplishment this last year was mastering both the original and double finger slaps several weeks before his older brother. Owen’s favorite event of the year was zip-lining in Costa Rica.
Zachary, now 10, has recently learned that in Iowa kids begin driving when they are 14. He has made his future car preferences known. Sounds like a lawn mowing business is in order. Z played his first season of tackle football, and it only took him 12 weeks of the 14 week season to figure out 2 things. First that he was bigger than all the other kids. Second that you can legally hit and tackle your opponents. Zachary’s biggest accomplishment was getting his first save in his first appearance as a little league pitcher this summer. His favorite event was, surprise, zip-lining.
Hillary, still 28, is in the throes of building a new home. This year the project has evolved from its existence as a hypothetical idea, to an idea that offended the future neighbors, to a moderately deforested mud hole, and to its present state as a giant mud hole with stones and boards. Hillary may have set our family record for travel this last year with trips to: England, France, and Iceland, followed by separate trips to Costa Rica and Panama in August. She still suffers from volunteeritis. If you have a cause and need a volunteer just ask Hillary, she probably cannot say no. Hillary’s biggest accomplishment, wining the freezing glacial water endurance test in Iceland. Her favorite event was our ski trip to Utah.
Jared, is very close to 40--and quite frankly it shows. First was his obsession with weight loss. Then he barely survives a small backpacking trip in the Uintas. Upon returning he had a nice encounter with his own renal calculus. (That’s a kidney stone for the rest of us.) The not so young doctor apparently has an unnatural fear of other doctors and all things medical. Fortunately he was able to have general anesthesia for the procedure where they use sound waves to pulverize the stone into “passable” chunks. As an anti-horder Jared is hopeful that we can simply throw away most of our possessions rather than have them moved to our new home when/if it is completed. His biggest accomplishment: boring academic stuff--papers and presentations that are so uninteresting to non-vitreoretinal surgeons that most people would rather scratch out their eyes than be subjected to them. Favorite event: watching people eat freshly deep fried sticks of butter at the fair.
We wish you a safe and sane 2012. Please feel free to drop in when you are in the vicinity. If not come visit.
Merry Christmas,
The Nielsen’s
Jared, Hillary, Zachary, and Owen
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Happy 2011!
Owen (5): AKA “Muchacho” is still the adorable family baby/mascot. He absolutely loves kindergarten and is excited to be a grader next school year. Owen loves to draw and color and is now also playing the piano. He had a great soccer season even though he spent most of the season running away from the ball. Except for his very picky eating habits Owen is probably the most normal member of our family
Zachary (9): His most favorite moment of the year was catching the only walleye on our boundary waters trip. He incessantly reminds everyone, including strangers, about this feat. While playing in one of Iowa’s pure clean rivers Zachary contracted E coli gastroenteritis and ended up spending the weekend in the hospital with bloody diarrhea. Almost a week later Zachary claimed he wasn’t feeling well enough to play in his baseball game. Jared assumed he was feigning illness to stay home and play with his visiting cousins. So, the good doctor ordered a full tank of Gatorade and, in overbearing parent mode, told Z in stern language to buck up and play ball. However Zachary wasn’t feeling well because he was severely anemic (Hgb <6), with low platelets and in renal failure. (That’s hemolytic uremic syndrome for the medically inclined.). He wound up in the hospital for another weekend avoiding dialysis but requiring blood transfusions. Fortunately there appears to be no permanent sequelae, except for a permanent ban on Iowa river swimming.
Hillary: Now that Hillary has both boys in school she has used up all her free time volunteering. Hillary simply can’t say no. The severity of the volunteeritis steps way beyond the reasonable bounds of this seasonal update. Hopefully there is some cure in sight. She has taken to joining the ladies for golf more regularly and will probably be besting Jared on the course soon--forcing him to take up another hobby. Her favorite moment of the year was a journey with some close friends to Hong Kong. Yes, Jared finally takes Hillary on a trip (sans children) to one of the most romantic cities in Asia only to make her stay in the YMCA. (Sadly, I am not making this up.) Other trips included: Florida Keys, Canadian Rockies, Boundary Waters, Utah, San Diego, DC, and a couple trips back to sweet home Chicago.
Jared: Had sort of a mid-life crisis when he realized that he was almost 200 lbs. This triggered some sort of a primal awakening to become a lesser man and he set out to lose his “freshman 15”. Actually he dropped both the 15 from undergrad and the 15 med school in about 6 weeks using his austere 3rd world diet. You don’t really want to know what the diet consisted of but he assures us that it did not require parasites. Professionally things are going very well. In fact he has become busy enough to take on another retina partner. He is fortunate to belong to a great group and is looking forward to another year of poking people in the eye.
Jared, Hillary, Zachary & Owen
Zachary (9): His most favorite moment of the year was catching the only walleye on our boundary waters trip. He incessantly reminds everyone, including strangers, about this feat. While playing in one of Iowa’s pure clean rivers Zachary contracted E coli gastroenteritis and ended up spending the weekend in the hospital with bloody diarrhea. Almost a week later Zachary claimed he wasn’t feeling well enough to play in his baseball game. Jared assumed he was feigning illness to stay home and play with his visiting cousins. So, the good doctor ordered a full tank of Gatorade and, in overbearing parent mode, told Z in stern language to buck up and play ball. However Zachary wasn’t feeling well because he was severely anemic (Hgb <6), with low platelets and in renal failure. (That’s hemolytic uremic syndrome for the medically inclined.). He wound up in the hospital for another weekend avoiding dialysis but requiring blood transfusions. Fortunately there appears to be no permanent sequelae, except for a permanent ban on Iowa river swimming.
Hillary: Now that Hillary has both boys in school she has used up all her free time volunteering. Hillary simply can’t say no. The severity of the volunteeritis steps way beyond the reasonable bounds of this seasonal update. Hopefully there is some cure in sight. She has taken to joining the ladies for golf more regularly and will probably be besting Jared on the course soon--forcing him to take up another hobby. Her favorite moment of the year was a journey with some close friends to Hong Kong. Yes, Jared finally takes Hillary on a trip (sans children) to one of the most romantic cities in Asia only to make her stay in the YMCA. (Sadly, I am not making this up.) Other trips included: Florida Keys, Canadian Rockies, Boundary Waters, Utah, San Diego, DC, and a couple trips back to sweet home Chicago.
Jared: Had sort of a mid-life crisis when he realized that he was almost 200 lbs. This triggered some sort of a primal awakening to become a lesser man and he set out to lose his “freshman 15”. Actually he dropped both the 15 from undergrad and the 15 med school in about 6 weeks using his austere 3rd world diet. You don’t really want to know what the diet consisted of but he assures us that it did not require parasites. Professionally things are going very well. In fact he has become busy enough to take on another retina partner. He is fortunate to belong to a great group and is looking forward to another year of poking people in the eye.
Jared, Hillary, Zachary & Owen
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