And we're off!!!!!!!

Well this week sure had it's share of ups and downs. Putting Blitzer down at the beginning of the week was extremely hard. The mood was pretty gloomy around the house. When Friday rolled around, we were all looking forward to date night and finding a way to lift our spirits a bit. The phone started ringing early Friday morning from Dave's Cinnamon Toast Studios clients (his creative productions and web design business), and the day started off to it's usual routine . Dave put four medical school applications in about two weeks ago, and we've been anxiously awaiting...well the unknown really. Neither of us have been through this process before, and we didn't know how long everything would end up taking. Dave had two interviews (one for St. Matthew's University on The Grand Cayman Islands, and one for The Medical University of the Americas (MUA) on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean). He felt great about both interviews, however the Dean of Admissions from MUA informed Dave on the spot that he was granting him admission for the May '09 start date immediately. That's right... DAVE GOT INTO MED SCHOOL!!!!! I am so stinkin' proud of him, I can't express it adequately. What I am proud of is that he is chasing a goal and dream that he's had for years, and he's doing and is willing to do the hard work it is going to take to achieve it.
His first day of classes start May 4, 2009, so we only have a few short months to get everything in order. Good thing we already have all of our passports! We also need to insure financing in order to go, so that is one of our top priorities in the next week or two. We will be on the island for 20 months (until January of '11) for coursework, and then come back to the U.S. for 2 years of clinical rotations probably in the Northeastern states. We are thrilled, humbled, grateful, and excited for this new adventure that awaits us. So get ready to come and visit us on St. Kitts and Nevis...the island of rainforests, reefs, and ruins!

So long ole' boy

Yesterday was a sad day. Dave had to put his family's dog Blitzer down. He had a good run, though. He was a "German Shepard" (or so they were told, but he really didn't look like a German Shepard), and he was almost 11 years old. I'd say that was pretty good. We miss him terribly. He was the most gentle dog I have ever seen. He was so good with the grand kids, and I always trusted him around Mia, and that's a good feeling for a mother to have. Dave's nephew Steele would even ride him like a horse around his parent's house and poke is eye almost out and Blitzer wouldn't do a thing about it.
Some of my favorite memories are:
-When Dave and I were dating, we'd take Blitzer on Sunday walks down to Mesa High School and let him run free in the baseball fields. He loved running and feeling the wind in his fur.
-We took Blitzer hiking with us around Arizona. He did an awesome job climbing the rocks and getting around the mountain. He left tons of hair in my car from that day and I kept finding Blitzer hair on my clothing at work for weeks after that. It brought a smile to my face every time.
-He was a good listener. He would just stay right there and listen to whatever you wanted to say. He never offered advice, gave his opinion, or interrupted you with an experience he could relate to. He just listened and sat by you.
-He loved food. Just like me. You could get him to do anything by saying, "Blitzer!!! Hot Dog!!!"
-He was a good swimmer and he and Mia got to have swimming days together last summer.
-He just wanted to sit and be with you wherever you were. He would quietly sit in the room you were in and just be. It was nice to feel like someone wanted to be around you just because.
-He was a good camping buddy. One time when we took him camping with us, it started raining in the middle of the night. He was sleeping outside our tent protecting us (ha) and started jumping on the tent...on my side!!! I was 4 months pregnant and it was an unpleasant way to wake up in the middle of the night. He was just scared of the weather, I can't blame him. We let him in and he slept great.
-Even though he got some flack for his common sense from some members in the family, we think he is the one having the last laugh. He knew how to get what he wanted, and he wasn't easily deceived. When he'd stand by the door to go out, you could say "Macaroni. Monkey. Pool." and he wouldn't move. But you'd say "Out!" and he was out the door. Same with "load!" to get in the car, or "go to the bathroom!" and he'd do it. We think he was pretty smart after all.
-Our last favorite memory was his sleeping patterns. He spent his days going from room to room around the house trying to experiment with different sleeping positions. It was comical to walk in a room and see his legs up in the air and be totally out.
We sure will miss him, but we know he's in a better place now having all the hot dogs he can handle.

There's still some cowboys out there

Last weekend my sister Heather got engaged to her sweetheart Shaman. He is a sweet, kind, fun guy that will fit in beautifully with our family. Our family actually met his family in 1991 while stationed in Hawaii!
Anyway...my favorite part about their engagement story is actually from the night before they were engaged. Shaman drove over to my parent's house to talk to them and ask permission to marry Heather. He was so dazed (as MOST men are when they are going through this weighty process of proposing) that he didn't pay attention to his speed as he left my parents and headed to Heather's house. While driving through a little town that pulls you over for literally going 1 or 2 miles over the 30 mph speed limit, there was no hope for Shaman as he raced to Heather's going 50 mph. The cop did his cop thing and finally came back to Shaman's car to hand him his ticket. As he did so, Shaman profusely apologized and said, "I'm really sorry officer. I just got done talking to my girlfriend's parents about us getting married and I'm proposing tomorrow." With that, the cop said, "Well in that case..." and tore up the ticket. That's good stuff.

My name is Mia, but you can call me Ms. Filhart

Mia has begun copying a lot of what Dave and I do. I guess you can tell that we are on the computer in the Family Room quite often. She was all over the computer when I had left it for a second, and this is what I came back to when I returned. She happened to wear a little blazer and skirt that day, and she looked like she was prepping for a business meeting or something. She already started dusting (stay tuned for footage on that!!!!), and I'm working on her learning to mop. Hey-she's almost a year old, and she initiated earning her keep. I'm just facilitating it.

MCAT Tackled

Dave is a stud!!! He finally took the MCAT for medical school this morning. This has been years in the making, and he finally did it!! Yeeeooowww!!!! I am so proud of him for overcoming his anxiety and taking the test. I got up extra early to make him a big breakfast and pack lots of snacks, and while we were sitting there at the table I asked him what time it was. He said "quarter to 7." For a split second I panicked because he needed to be on the road by 6:30 to be safe. I quickly looked for a clock and saw that it was 6:15, not 6:45. I looked at Dave and he says "Crap. I'm gonna fail this thing." Good thing telling time isn't on the MCAT.

Vietnamese (Chinese) New Year, throw up, a passport, and poop-lots of poop

This week's updates are coming to you filtered. I will not gross anyone out too bad, but life around the Filhart house has been very...ahem...eventful. That's it, eventful.

First of all, I finally got Mia's hair into a rubberband. It was difficult because her hair is so fine and she is a little squirmer. It looked horrible, but its a start. I don't think she really cares either way.

On to Chinese/Vietnamese New Years. Since we couldn't make it to Vietnam to spend the holiday with Dave's family, we went to Mekong Plaza to celebrate and try and win a Toyota Camry. Say what? We ended up eating Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) at Unphogettable (yes, that's the real restaurant name), and then wading through the million people to find a spot to hear the big raffle results. uggh. So we wait for about an hour, all the while listening to classic Vietnamese jams performed by local vietnamese bands and burning up because there are about 10,000 too many people crammed in this place. The big moment arrives, and they spend 30 minutes talking about how the raffle will end up working, and then announce that two more fashion shows and performances will take place before they do the raffle. I was annoyed, but I didn't have to even open my mouth because everyone started booing and yelling at the organizers. I just looked at Dave and thought "I'm glad Mia doesn't understand Vietnamese yet" because I was sure there was plenty of "potty words" being thrown around. The raffle finally happened, AND WE didn't WIN. We didn't even buy raffle tickets, we put four in that our friends gave to us. We would have felt bad if we had won.

Mia wore a traditional boy's outfit for the New Year pictures. That's about right. She's going to get back at me one day.


Here is Mia before her "Let me see how much I can throw up and poop" week. I think she got sick from Unphogettable.
I have never seen, smelled, and touched sooooo much poop in my whole life. Huggies suck. Our trash doubled this week, and I've done laundry 3 times (when I usually only do it once a week). Poor thing. So we thought to cheer her up, we'd go get her passport picture taken.


Dave is working tirelessly on med school applications, and I'll tell ya...we'll get in where we can get in, when we can get in. We are willing to even go abroad to get this show on the road. So Mimi was a big girl and got her picture taken and went to the post office to finish her passport application and get that mailed off. She is ready for travel internationale at the ripe age of 11 months.
I'm pretty sure that cheered her up because she hasn't pooped since.

This Week's Updates

Mia is pulling up and cruising around everything. She could care less about all of her toys because she's more interested in crawling to the ottoman to walk around it for hours. She has also decided to change her nap schedule yet again. This change is not that bad because she's been playing around in her bed for like oh...an hour to an hour and a half. Is that bad? She doesn't cry, she just walks around, talks, and looks around. How do we know this you ask? We kind of set up the web cam one day and watched her on the laptop out in the family room. It was hilarious. Ooooo-she is just delicious.
Some exciting Mia "first's": Laughing at a story with me, cruising, waving "bye-bye," getting into everything, crawling on her hands, and reacting to "little piggies." I'm working on her first word being "mama," naming parts of the face, and baby sign language. She's not really buying any of those whatsoever...
On to Dave news. He is a stud. He has been studying extra hard for his big MCAT test next Saturday. It will be a big relief to be able to make some decisions and continue this crazy thing we call life. He keeps me laughing, and honestly, he doesn't need me to teach him any lessons because he manages to keep himself in check. He has "flashes of brilliance" (as he puts it), but he is usually humbled immediately to keep him from becoming too arrogant. I love him.
I am still going for my half marathon the end of February in Dallas. I definitely can say that ANYONE can become a runner. I am up to 4 miles each weekly workout and 6-7 for a long run on Saturdays. It's really fun and I'm feeling great. I have no desire to ever do a full marathon, but I am excited to do this half marathon. Things are plugging along-I just can't believe Mia is almost a year old! LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Got your year supply?

Dave came home tonight with 2 bottles of squirt, a movie, and a box of oreo cakesters. I have been dieting since the beginning of December, so these indulgences are a little out of the question for me. After I politely declined, he said, "But I want you to be happy-I can see the hunger in your eyes." Ah-whaaa? To which I replied: "I am not starving. I could go months off of my own fat storage and be fine...wait!!! I have my own year supply...I am a WALKING year supply." I never looked at chubbiness this way before...

Out of Control

Yesterday at church Mia was NUTS. Our church changed to 2-5 pm...yes, right in the middle of nap time, so this will be interesting. During Sunday School, Mia was crawling, pulling, sucking, clawing, licking, and twisting anything and everything. Dave leans over to me and whispers "I think Mia has entered a new phase." To which I replied "Out of control?" To which Dave replied "Whoa...that's out of control!!!!" Meaning my breath. I could not stop laughing...okay okay, so if you can't laugh at yourself, you're not livin', you know what I'm saying? Thank you speariment gum for being my emergency friend.

A future in...

Did we mention Mia loves to dance? I think she's a natural for sure...

Goodbye to our Jen!

We love our gym. It is less than a mile away, and the child watch is the cleanest, friendliest place ever. One of our favorite girls, Jen decided to move back to California...and oh how we will miss her! She loved Mia and was so kind and fun to us. Good luck in California Jen!!

Christmas in Arizona 2008

We spent Mia's first Christmas at home in Arizona this year. We made sure to continue some of our family traditions like making perogies and corn chowder...

Perogies are a Ukranian dish that Dave ate a lot on his mission in Canada. Becky's Nana Wendt made the best corn chowder ever, and has been a family favorite for years.

Aunt Heather, Shaman, and Justin along with Kerstin, Matt, and their kids came from Texas to visit. We loved going to the Mesa Temple Lights and spending quality time with them and making memories. It was so fun to be so close and see each other whenever we wanted.

Mimi is our little dancer. Any time there is music on, she is all smiles and wiggles. We got a few last minute shots Christmas Eve in front of the tree getting ready for Santa to visit...

And of course, Mia had to have her good night bath before Santa came. She is the cutest little little ever. We love her to BITS!!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

I love getting ready for Christmas. I love the music, the feeling, the excitement, the shopping (bargain of course), the parties, and the food. Having Mia has taken it to a whole new level this year. All of these things are amplified and Dave and I have a renewed sense of the Christmas spirit because of our little Mia. We visited Santa, got all "gussied up" to go to a few holiday parties, and are dreaming about Christmas dinner when we get to go off our diets for a day and hog on. Can't wait. Seriously. Doesn't Mimi look beautiful in her little holiday dress? I couldn't pass up it's $3.00 price along with $6.00 red one for Christmas Day. Ahhh this recession is actually working in our favor...

The Happy Baby

Mia is such a happy baby. It takes no effort to get her to smile and interact with ANYONE!!! She especially loves to be held while you dance around and sing. Her latest accomplishment is "trying" to hum/sing along with me when I rock her. It is hilariously cute and I love it. After her morning feeding this morning I wanted to sit and hold her a little before putting her back down to sleep, so I started rocking her and humming Christmas songs. She was so tired, but still tried little hums with an occasional "dada" in a very exhausted attempt. It is ad.or.able. I love being a mommy.

Thanksgiving 2008

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Texas to spend the holiday with Becky's family. We got to stay with Aunt Heather and Justin, play with cousin Katy, went fishing of course, and oh yeah...eat tons and tons of food. Dave made a late night run to the store one night and came home with donuts, soda, sausages, and tons of junk food. It was fun but gross as we all sat around at midnight and binged. Needless to say, as soon as we got home from the trip we started our 1200 calorie diet. Mainly out of disgust.


One of the days we went down to Brackenridge Park by the Zoo downtown and fished. It was a gorgeous day and felt like Fall!! I couldn't capture the colors with the camera, but it smelled crisp and Autumn-like, and I just knew Mia was fully enjoying herself as she kicked back and let the boys do the work. Good girl.

Becky Invents a New Word!!! -CORPY (Kor' pee), n., adj, pronoun, verb, and the word PARADIDE (par' a dide)n., 11.26.2008

Becky invented two words yesterday, the first one is Corpy, pronounced Kor'pee. It basically can be used in any grammatical fashion one wants to, as long as it is negative. example usages:

1. Stop being so corpy.
2. Man, that's hard corpy.
3. You corpy.
4. That's habius corpy!!
5. Corpy, come here!

Hopefully this will be in Webster's in our lifetime.

How it started: We were about to enter the Wal Mart in San Antonio, and I was in a mood (surprisingly) and Becky goes, "Why are you so grumpy" and I go, "What is corpy?" So my misunderstanding her came into an invention of a new word. Please Feel Free to use it!!!



Also, last night when Becky stole my pillow to nurse a crying Mia, and I got upset, Becky goes: "Welcome to Parenting!!!" And I go, "What is PARADIDE?!! STOP MAKING UP WORDS!" So my misunderstanding her well, she invented another word...and after some pondering, I concluded that it was a mixture of the words parenting and paradise, with a splash of the word made famous by S. Covey, "Paradigm."

Is my wife a genius or what? She birthed two words within 16 hours, Corpy and Paradide! I love you baby!

Long live Corpy, and Paradide! World, feel free to use 'em. Your welcome Mister Webster.

love,
Davey Baby

I'll tell you, there is nothing sexier than when I saw my Baby handling firearms! I'm so proud of you Becky!! Love, Dave xoxoxo




Pistol Packin' Mamma - Becky Schoen from David Filhart on Vimeo.

My Dad was so kind as to share with us his expertise in fire arms and give us some lessons.
My Dad is a very wise man, and told me "Guns are like fire extinguishers, maybe you'll never need to use one, but when you do need to use one, you really need to use one!"
Thanks pappy, I love you, -Dave
(above is a little video of my Dad schooling Becky Boo in the fine art of smokin' a sucka! It was on this past Veteran's Day at Four Peaks, Wes, Mary, Steele, Gideon and Mia were there too. It was fuuun!) p.s. Aren't Arizona winters absolutely beautiful? I love the Desert this time of year!!!!



Isn't MiMi so cute with her little ear plugs? I thought this picture of her and her mother was absolutely adorable!

Love,
Dave

It all started with a cough...

Last Wednesday morning I woke up with a cough...you know, the kind that feels like there's something in your throat. Crap. I knew I was getting sick. So Wednesday, Thursday, and into Friday I was coughing, sneezing, and feeling a little feverish. Then Mia started teething again (she already has four teeth, and I think I can see two more coming in on top. Cute little 8 month old, I think she's going for an award.). Needless to say, we all haven't been sleeping good and so we decided to...REDO THE FLOORS IN OUR KITCHEN!!! Isn't that the best idea??!!!? So after the weekly garage sales Saturday morning, Dave started in on the floors. I'll leave all the details out, but let's just say it's Monday afternoon at 2:30 and I'm listening to the buzz of a sander as I'm typing this. Don't ask.
ANYWAY...we're totally exhausted last night going to sleep, and I'm enjoying that Mia is sleeping better and I get a break. Dave and I are laying there holding hands, talking and laughing right before we drift off to sleep. When all of the sudden Dave flicks his hand (the one I'm holding) and goes "Was that a bug, what was that?" Then I feel something on my wrist and jump out of bed while Dave is yelling "Turn on the light! Turn on the light!" I turn on the lamp and to our horror and immediate eebie-jibbies, we saw a bug slithering around the bed BY OUR HEADS that looked something like this:
OH MY GOSH...we're both totally grossed out and start itching all over. We pull all the bedding off and look all over the room to see where this little pest decided to come from. Then the imaginations start going, and of course we have to say everything out loud. Dave starts talking about the bugs going in our ears, noses, etc. while we're sleeping. We laid there laughing and itching trying to fall asleep for a while. I can't even start to name all the morals to this story, but that's the latest in our adventures.
p.s.-are you itching yet?

Halloween 2008

For Halloween Mia was a little Chick-literally and figuratively:). She was a typical kid, screaming every time we put her in her costume, but she did great for the rest of the time. (p.s.-for those of you that have been asking, yes this is one of the chairs I redid from DI. I will never recover chairs again.)

Dave had his Bruce Lee fix for Halloween-good thing I kept my Flapper wig from Halloween '01.

Yummy. Yeah-I can't resist. These are Dave's karate pants from before his mission. They are a size 28 and they wouldn't lace up, but he squeezed them on for that night and actually wore them out. It was so freakin hilarious, it felt great to laugh really hard. I love you, Dave.

Okay...he really wanted to be Tom Cruise from Risky Business, but I just couldn't be seen with him at a church function this way. So I made sure to put it on the worldwide web instead.??!!? Hey-it gave me a laugh especially because I didn't know what he was up to so quiet in the bedroom putting this together.

Pumpkin patch-well sort of

Dave, Mia, and I went to Schnepf Farms on Thursday to experience a real Fall pumpkin patch. Mia loved it-she thought the traveling performer and dog show from San Francisco was interesting, a little desperate, and sort of sad. This guy had some fun tricks, but his props were sub-par and I guess dropping his flaming sticks while juggling wasn't in his routine necessarily. We started sweating a few minutes later on our way to the pig races in the 95 degree heat, and found a scrap of shade to sit under while we watched the pigs and goats race around an old track yelling "suuu-weee!" From there we headed over to the petting zoo that had "germ" signs posted all over it, so we cautiously walked Mia through for experience sake and noticed that she was ready to fall asleep, so we hurried over to the "pumpkin patch." There were hardly any pumpkins there (take a look at the background of Mia's pumpkin picture), so we gathered a few together for a photo-op with Mimi and took a few pics while she was falling asleep. Oh well, I guess this isn't Roloff Farms in Oregon, it's Arizona.