Trololo, Tonight-Bye-Bye!

CONGRATULATIONS CLINTON!! Clinton finished his LAST set of exams before his finals in May! All last week I think I saw Clinton a total of maybe 2 hours because he was gone all day everyday studying. His exams went well and I have my husband back (for the next week or so before he begins studying again:) I can't believe that his first year of medical school is already so close to being done. He has less than three weeks left of school! Weird! It is so weird to think that we have lived in Wisconsin now for over nine months. The time, for the most part, has passed rather quickly and we look forward to a school-free summer!!

Work has been going well for me. I actually had some communication-issues with one of the doctors get cleared up this week and I'm starting to feel a little more confident in my work. As good as my job is, it is difficult having to be an adult with responsibilities. Clinton and I were really wanting to be able to travel this summer and spend lots of time with family, but we will be here. However, with that said, we are so thankful that I do have a good job. We both know that this job was provided by the Lord perhaps family will come here instead! (hint hint!)

Well, this morning Clinton showed me a video on Youtube of a Russian man singing a song called Trololo. It is a very popular song right now, I guess. The singer is really weird to watch though, it seems his mouth never really opens and when it does, it in no-way matches what is apparently coming out of it. Have you seen this video? Please watch the whole thing.


Clinton is the KING of getting "catchy" songs stuck in his head and this one has been his song-of-choice for the last week or so. Well, apparently someone made a voice-over to add to this video to highlight the awkwardness of the singer. Clinton and I watched it this morning and we were laughing so hard. I thought I'd attach it for your viewing enjoyment!



Ha ha ha! Well, I don't know that I have much else to write about. The weather has definitely turned to spring and the flowers and blossoms are spectacular. I will take some pictures and post with next week's post.

Love from the Logans and I hope each of you have a great week!

Wise Counsel

Well, as predicted I really don't have much to write about. My week has been fairly similar to weeks past, however, I made a commitment to try and blog once a week, so here I am.
I had the opportunity to attend the adult session of stake conference last night and there were a couple of talks that really stuck out to me. In my ward, I am currently serving as the co-leader for Activity Days and I am also a co-teacher for the Valiant A class. I have never had a calling in Primary before, and now I have two! Anyway, one of the speakers spoke about the importance of our good influence and our responsibility to teach the youth to do hard things. He referred to a talk given by Elder Bednar at a youth conference in Minnesota a little while ago. Elder Bednar said that the youth of today are too soft. They lack the opportunities to work hard and learn the satisfaction of doing a good job. Their thumbs are so strong (texting, playing video games) that their chance for normal social skills are weakening. We need to teach the youth to do hard things.
So often, instead of giving the youth something difficult to do, we do it ourselves, because it would be easier than explaining it or faster than if they were to do it themselves. He cautioned adults that we need to teach our youth how to do hard things, but that we need to be there to encourage and uplift them, especially when those hard things arise. I thought that this was interesting because it really is easy to just do those hard things ourselves--spare the youth the frustration of learning and resolve the solution ourselves in a timely manner. However, when we do this, we are denying our youth an opportunity to learn responsibility and accountability for their actions, we are denying our youth the opportunity to learn to depend on the Lord, and we are denying our youth an opportunity to stretch themselves a little further and learn from their mistakes or feel the satisfaction of doing a good job. I thought this talk was applicable to all of us and I hope that I can do a better job at helping my primary kids learn to do hard things.
Another speaker spoke about service. She said that there are opportunities all around us and the time to serve is now. No time will be "the right time". Nothing will ever line up so perfectly that we'll think, "Okay. Now I have time to be charitable." Regarding opportunities for service she said, "If not now, when?"
Being married to a medical student and having 3 callings myself, it is easy for me to feel like I just don't have "the time" for anything. Yet, I know that I do and I know that when I serve others I feel happy. The speaker shared a quote that I think has now become one of my favorites. It reads,

"The one true key to happiness is to labor and serve for the happiness of others."

I thought that was just great. It is so easy to focus on ourselves and our inconveniences, however, if we get up and serve those around us we will feel happy. We will be happy and who doesn't want that?
I also had the pleasure of attending stake conference today with the Milwaukee South Stake (I'm in the north stake, but our conference was at 2pm and theirs was at 10am, so we went to it instead :) Elder Dallin H. Oaks was there as well as a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. I don't remember his name, but he gave a wonderful talk on faith and trusting the Lord. He said the Lord is mindful of us. He knows our needs and He will provide. He quoted the scripture about tithing from Malachi 3 and focused on verse 11 especially:

10 Bring ye all the ^atithes into the storehouse, that there may be ^bmeat in mine house, and ^cprove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not ^dopen you the ^ewindows of heaven, and pour you out a ^fblessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will ^arebuke the ^bdevourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

He testified that God would rebuke Satan, that Satan would have no power to destroy our good efforts, that he would have no power to destroy the blessings we are entitled and that the Lord would provide all we need--even with the power to do as the needs arise. He testified that the Lord knows what is before us and that He is setting in-place the miracles needed to accomplish our work. He testified that tithing is not a matter of money, but of faith. It was such a wonderful talk. I could definitely feel the spirit as he spoke.
Elder Oaks spoke about many things, but ended his talk with a reference to Joshua 24: 15

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, ^achoose you ^bthis day whom ye will ^cserve;...but as for me and my ^dhouse, we will ^eserve the Lord.

He said, "This is a time for choice. This is a time for decision." We need to decide today whom we will serve. He said that this need to choose wisely is not just quoted in scripture, but is found among patriotic men as well. He quoted Patrick Henry who said,

"I know not what other course others may take, but as for me--give me liberty or give me death."

He shared his testimony that this is God's work and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His gospel upon the earth today. We have a duty to God to use the Gift of the Holy Ghost we have been given to share that message with others. We need to open our mouths and speak about religion. We need to share literature with our friends and extend an invitation to them to come with us to church. We need to decide today whom we will serve.
Needless to say, I have been spiritually fed this weekend and have made some personal goals to be better and stretch a little further. I saw a link on Facebook that has the testimony of Elder Holland on the Book of Mormon. It was fantastic as a talk, and it is great as a Mormon Message. I watched the video and then posted my testimony next to it. I don't know if it will make a difference to anyone, but it felt right and good to me. Perhaps we can each be a little bit more bold in making it known who we have chosen to serve.

I posted the link below, and copied the testimony I posted on my Facebook profile.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCkKblIMfmjI&h=3fa6e5af6da3b58e713e460494d9c667

To those of my friends who have yet to gain an understanding of why Mormons believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was in fact a prophet of God, I urge you to watch this video given by an apostle of the Lord in our day. I too know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have read and prayed about it for myself and have received answers to my prayers. God is real, He loves His children and He continues to speak to us today through living prophets and modern revelation.

I think one post a year doesn't quite suffice...so here's another

Okay. Okay. Okay. I know. I know! It has been "forever" since I have last posted on my blog. But in my defense, I just don't have one, so there! And to those out there that think that I lead such an exciting life that "of course you have stuff to write about" well, you are wrong. My life is actually quite boring; I work, my husband goes to school and we have a dog that I take for walks 1-2 times a day. That is my life. Now, yes, there have been some changes since I last wrote, but I will tell you now that my posts will never be regular. I don't have much to say, but when I do and my siblings have been reminding me for months that I have something to say, then yes, I will eventually get around to writing on my blog. :) I do have a goal to write each Sunday, but that was set two Sundays ago, and seeing as how I didn't write last week, I don't know how well that goal is going to work out for me. With that said, here is what has happened to the Logans in the last 11 months.Well, Clinton graduated from PSU last June and his parents were able to come for his graduation. It was so nice to see them. We went berry picking, toured downtown Portland and accidentally took them to Pride Fest instead of the Rose Festival...I think we got the dates mixed up :) Anyway, we had a really great time with them and look forward to seeing them soon.

I'm sure this is old news, but we have in fact, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We moved here last summer, and before the festivities were over, we happened to make it to the state fair and tried some of the famous chocolate-covered bacon. Here's what we thought of it!

We also ate enormous creme puffs

I have now lived through a mid-west winter, and they are COLD! Not as cold as where my husband is from, but cold enough that I don't know why any reasonable person would choose to live here. And the WIND! Blah. It is rather pretty here though.

This is Door County, it is about 3 hours north of us, however, our fall looks very similar here

I love to take Peter on walks near our home along Honey Creek Parkway. There is a creek that runs the whole stretch of that road and the trees and shrubbery along there are always so pretty.

This is a junior high built in 1913 that has since been converted to a retirement center, it's on the parkway

Our neighborhood is very nice. We live in a retired/grad-student town. I feel very safe here. There are enormous houses all around us and the architecture on these houses reminds me of the types of houses that you only see in movies. Most of my walks consist of looking in peoples' windows to see what they have inside. Do they have a grand piano in that bay room? Are there bookshelves full of family photos or antique books? What kind of chandelier do they have in that tower of an entry-way? Overall, there is much to see just in my neighborhood and the nearby neighborhoods to keep one busy peeping for quite some time!

I started out working at a restaurant when we first moved here. I have always wanted to work in that industry, but soon discovered it was not for me. Perhaps it was the restaurant I worked in, Mr. B's Steakhouse. Don't let the name throw you, it was a very expensive restaurant with the best rated steaks in all of Wisconsin. However, there were only two types of patrons; those who could afford it on a regular basis so they treated you like slave you were to them, and those who visited for a very special occasion and were so thankful to just be there. I really hated it there. The hours sucked, I worked every night and every Saturday. So, the first job that came up that gave me normal office hours -- I went for it!I got a job at a home health care agency and loved it for the first couple weeks until my coworkers became comfortable-enough around me to start showing their true character. I had one coworker that I love and still talk to on a weekly basis if not more than that, and there were a couple more that I would call friends, but there were others who were just plain rotten. The gossip there was unstoppable, literally, I, as well as several others, went to my boss to complain and yet nothing was done about any of it, ever. It was a very negative work environment and soon I began to want to get out of there. After about 5 months of working there, my friend Kelli told me about a job that was opening up at the medical college.

It took me about 6 hours to complete the application process, I had a couple phone interviews, received an email that the position had been offered to another individual (it actually was for a position I had applied for about 5 months prior, within the same department but a different title and I just thought it was the same, but weird timing eh?) and then I received a phone call asking me to come in for an in-person interview. I couldn't believe it! Needless to say, I did get the job and I really do love it. I work in the department of Pediatrics/Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant at the Medical College of Wisconsin. I am the administrative assistant to the six oncologists, two psychologists and other various staff who work in oncology specifically. I am very busy, but I really love it. I am gaining so much experience, and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm working in a grown-up job.Clinton is about a month and a half away from finishing his first year of medical school. He says he'd like medical school a lot more if it weren't for the exams. They are tough and it sounds like they only get worse next year. I keep reminding him though that there have been thousands of other students who have been through it and survived just fine, so he just needs to take it one day at a time...and so far, he's survived!

This is Clinton and I at his white coat ceremony...doesn't he look handsome?

Milwaukee has a fair bit to see and we got a chance to see the Milwaukee Art Museum,

the Bio Domes
and now finally, we went to see Chicago!
(videos coming soon)

We live about an hour and a half from there and in the eight months that we have lived here, we have been once (other than trips to the temple). I asked Clinton to take me overnight for my birthday and it was really nice! Clinton scored an amazing deal at The Hyatt right in downtown Chicago. Our room looked like one of those you see in a magazine and the view was FANTASTIC! We were on the 21st floor and could see the river and the lake from our window. The weather had been about 65 degrees all week before we got there and the temperature went from that to about 30 degrees over night. We walked the Magnificent Mile (a mile of all the stores you could possibly think of all lit-up and fancy in the middle of downtown.) We ate authentic deep-dish pizza and LOVED IT. Even Clinton, who would rather anything than pizza, liked it. The dough was like sweet biscuits. Really yummy! Anyway, the next morning we woke up to a snow storm, so we decided to pack up our bags and head up the lake front on our way home. The homes were GIGANTIC! The only solace I had in looking at the homes was knowing that the first real earthquake or down-pour -- those homes were going down. I don't know what those people do for work, but I think it pays a bit too much. However, they were really fun to look at!

My parents just came for a visit a couple weeks ago. The weather had been so nice leading up to their visit, and as it usually does, got horrible the moment they walked off the plane. We got a chance to eat out (a lot), go to the zoo (they have a really awesome zoo here), sight-see and play some cards, and rest. It was hard to see them go, but I'm glad to know I get to go home again this summer for a bit and see them again!
What else?? Ummm...I think that may be it. Oh, I cut all my hair off again! Here are some photos.
Anyway, otherwise, we both miss our families horribly, and we are both certain we will not want to stay here when Clinton's schooling is complete, but in the mean time, of all the places where we have to live far away from family, Milwaukee really isn't a bad place to do it in.