News at Last

After a long spell of mundane and less than noteworthy days in our lives (ok, that sounded really depressing; things are good, but unchanging) we are back with another post.

I (Sterling) applied to the three 4th year externships for my program in the past two months. I noted in a previous post that I was going to apply to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, and a children's hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. These ended up being the only places I applied.

I sent in my application to Cincinnati in the middle of October and the one to the hospital in Omaha on November 1. This week I was offered an interview in Cincinnati for the middle of January. I have not yet heard from the hospital in Omaha and have been struggling to wait patiently for news. In contrast, I sent my application to the Mayo Clinic on November 13th, and received a call the next day offering a phone interview. The phone interview was the following week and two days later I received a call offering an onsite interview for December. I was very grateful for the speed with which they were conducting the application process, not to mention impressed with the program.

Through an amazing set of circumstances, I heard from my mother that one of my second cousins, Katie, I knew well from years past lived in Rochester, Minnesota. Even more ironically, her husband Doug, whom I had met once, works at the Mayo Clinic as an Audiologist. Needless to say, I called them after receiving an offer for the phone interview and asked about Rochester and the Mayo Clinic. Doug helped me to learn about the Mayo Clinic and their externship in order to decide whether it was the right fit for me. What a blessing it was to know someone working there and in the city.

The phone interview was twenty minutes long. Questions regarding Audiology were fired at me by six committee members. Luckily, I was forewarned by previous students who had applied there and was not surprised by the structure of the interview. I thought the interview went well and was pleased to find out two days later that I was being offered an onsite interview.

The onsite interview was rescheduled due to midwest weather, big surprise, for a week later than the original date. I went to the interview on Tuesday this week, December 15th. I was able to have dinner and family night with Doug and Katie on Monday. It was fun to spend time with their family. Katie was her optimistic self and talked as though I had already received the externship. I was not so sure. They have three wonderful and rambunctious children; therefore, family night was a new but fun experience for me.

Onsite interviews were conducted with two other students and myself for one position. The interview began at 8:30 Tuesday morning and ended at 3:00. I met with the heads of each division of Audiology separately and had time to observe shortly in the diagnostics clinic. The clinic was state of the art in my mind compared to what I have experienced. Although, that was not very unexpected as it was brand new. The first day in the new clinic was Monday. I did not know what to expect, but was surprised by the structure of this interview. The purpose seemed only to be to get to know me. They were all very kind and I was impressed with the calibre of the people working there. At the end of the day I felt I would consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to work there.

Surprisingly, I had the opportunity of meeting the other two students interviewing. We had lunch together and talked for a short time. They both seemed great. At the end of the interview I felt that it had gone well, but I could not imagine that the other students did not do well also.

Two days later I received a call from the Mayo Clinic offering me the externship position. I felt really blessed. I feel really blessed. It is hard to ignore the Lord's blessings in my life when I receive such an outstanding position at the start of my career. I hope I can take advantage of the opportunity and learn all I can.

So we will be in Rochester Minnesota come next June, 2010-May, 2011. It is great to have friends in the city already and we are excited to live near Doug and Katie and their family.

Stiff Competition

I never thought I would have to compete for Sterling's love, especially not with a 5 year old! While we were on vacation, I quickly learned that I am not the only one with an eye for Sterling. I have a niece that decided Sterling was her "honey" (as she called him often) and nothing I could say or do was going to change her mind.

If I sat next to him on the couch, she would jump on his lap, nestle her head in his neck and say, "Hey! that's my honey." If I gave him a hug...same reaction.

Let's be honest people, I couldn't just break it to her harshly, I tried to ease her into the idea that he was my husband. I tried a bunch of different tactics, none of them worked, and in the end I had to let another girl have the love and affection of my husband for a day.

Take a look for yourselves, it doesn't look like she is going to give me any room to step in. Oh well, it makes Sterling feel good that his nieces and nephews love him.

BBE or Best Burger Ever

My nephew, Clark Kent, as he likes to be called these days, really enjoys watching TV shows about cooking. Evidently he watched an episode of some show where they made hamburgers that are large enough to feed a family of four and just as filling. He calls them BBE's and if you simply call them a hamburger he acts as though he doesn't know to what you are referring.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the BBE's from start to finish, pre-digestion.

Chef Kent showing off his stuff

Chef Kent cookin' it up on the grill

Sterling and Clark opening wide for the first bit

Me mid first bite

Mom trying to smash the burger and bite at the same time

The BBE's were really good and consisted of at least 1/4 lb of burger, roast beef, turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, mushrooms, ketchup, mustard and of course the buns.

Clark Kent is willing to talk to any and everyone about the burgers so if you are interested, just let me know!

Go West Young Man

Our latest vacation consisted of lots of driving, a little bit of family and tons of fun. I learned a couple of things while we were gone.

1. The drive from Iowa to Wyoming is not fun! We've made the drive three times now and it seems like each time I learn the same thing, 16 hours in the car is not fun.

2. Spoiling nieces and nephews is awesome because you don't have to deal with their tantrums later.


3. Family really is the most important thing in my life.



Unfortunately we didn't take a picture with my entire family and so you get a picture of Sterling and I with some of our nieces and nephews. Sometimes you just don't think of the family picture thing until it's too late.

Anyway, we spent time in Wyoming, Montana and Arizona. We attended baseball games, county fairs, we went horseback riding, we went to a play and so many more things. I can hardly wait to tell the stories of our fun and post the pictures.

Stay posted, there is more to come.

Future Plans

It is funny to look back and realize that we have been in Iowa for two years now. I am half way done with my Doctor of Audiology (AuD), and some exciting parts are coming up. We have really enjoyed our time here in Iowa. However, I have to admit that I am becoming anxious to move on to some place new and exciting. I have become accustom to moving frequently and have come to enjoy it. I had not lived in the same place for more than one straight year for six years before we moved to Iowa. These past two years in Iowa now seem like a long time even though they have been great.

I thought that I would let everyone know about what may be coming in the next few years of our lives. I am currently preparing to apply for placements for the last year of my doctoral program. The last year is a full-year externship in which I work full-time. I can complete that externship anywhere in the United States. It is exciting to consider all of the possible places we may be living in one year and the possible externships I could obtain. Most of the externships begin during the summer months. I will start my externship in the summer of 2010, in less than one year. I am considering placements in Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, Oregon, Ohio and Massachusetts. Those of you who know how indecisive I am will appreciate the magnitude of the difficulties I will face in making the decision. Cylynn is willing to move anywhere. She claims to be so impartial or apathetic to where I decide to go that it is sometimes frustrating. Sometimes I wish she would make the decision for me so that I do not have to make it myself. Stay tuned to hear where we will be in a year. I will find out early next year (February or March).

I will also be doing some traveling as part of my program for conferences and humanitarian work. I will be in China for a couple of weeks in May next year providing hearing aids to orphans and educating doctors on Audiology. I will also travel to Arizona and possibly California for conferences. This year will be full of traveling for interviews and school. Luckily I like to travel.

Following the AuD degree, I have the option of working as an Audiologist or continuing for a PhD in Audiology. Another decision to be made. Unfortunately, I seem to have a change of heart or mind every other day. The PhD would be an extra two years following the end of the AuD and would be back here in Iowa.

Anyway, just thought I would give an update on the current and future plans for our family.

New Posts are Fun

Well everybody (especially Hollie), the moment you have been waiting for...Sterling and I finally did something fun and worth posting about. We just returned from vacation and took plenty of pictures of family and of all the fun we had. Stay tuned for exciting updates on our vacation and our otherwise monotonous lives.

My Little Doe-Doe Bird

When I was in 9th grade my sister Jaycia gave birth to a little boy that would soon become one of my very best friends. From the time Joseph was born I loved him so much and as he gets older I find so many reasons to love him more. We had so much fun together during his stay over the holidays. We played basketball, performed baptisms at the Nauvoo Temple, threw rocks into the Mississippi river, counted the number of grapes that he could put in his mouth without choking (he manged 50), laughed together on more than one occasion and most of all just enjoyed our time together. So without further introductions, here he is, my little best friend.

Christmas In Iowa

Shortly after Sterling and I were married we decided that spending Christmas together as a family and starting our own traditions was very important to us. This year we were able to start that process and were lucky enough to have Mom, Dad and Joseph here to celebrate with us.

It all started as we dug out our christmas decorations, all of them are on our small end table. Next was the purchase of our first Christmas tree. As you can see Sterling was so happy about the purchase that he gave our tree a welcome to our home hug (perhaps this was not his idea but with a little bit of coaxing from me he conceded). We decided to decorate it "old-school" style by stringing popcorn onto thread, adding some candy canes and putting the cards that we received onto the tree. In the beginning I was saddened by the fact that we would not have all of the fancy decorations that I remember as a child and yet the simplicity of our decorations was absolutely beautiful.

Christmas this year was so much more than I could have ever imagined!

A Family Full of Sleeping Beauties

Who knew, and if any of you did, why did you not inform me that sleeping can ruin a life?! Not that sleeping is ruining my life, but let me tell you how much a regular sleeping schedule has prevented me from getting things done.

Now as a little background I want you to realize that I come from a family that can sleep almost anywhere, especially if we are just sitting around. The following pictures are proof and once you enjoy those, I will explain to you how sleep has taken over my life.

On January 10, 2009 the company I work for had an annual company party. For whatever stupid reason, that I cannot yet explain, I volunteered to be hypnotized as part of the night's entertainment. I had a feeling that it might not work, especially since I think hypnosis is a hoax, so I wasn't too worried. To my relief there were 36 chairs set up on the stage and when they asked for the volunteers to come forward, I happened to be one of four people that walked on stage. This was not a good sign!

I am happy to report that I was not hypnotized and thus I did not make a complete idiot of myself as many of the others did. However I believe that a part of me was affected by the hypnotist.

At the end of the entertainment he did gave each of the participants a bit of hypnotic therapy and tried to help them with a specific problem in their lives that they were having difficulty dealing with. Many of the participants talked of relieving stress, getting more sleep, quitting smoking and one guy even said that he would like to stop yelling at his kids. This is where the curse of sleep comes into play.

Up until this point I was fine sleeping anywhere between 3-5 hours every day. After my body was rested I would wake up, make dinner, clean house, do my visiting teaching or anything else that I needed to accomplish. After the company party that night my life has completely changed. I am now sleeping anywhere from 10-12 hours every single day and now I cannot accomplish a single thing.

I work 10 hours each day, sleep for 10-12 hours each day and if you can do math at all you will conclude that I am left with 2-4 hours to accomplish whatever is on my plate for the day. Picture with me then, if you will, what my life looks like now...I barely wake up in time to make dinner for Sterling, doing the dishes after dinner is out of the question because I have to go to work, hanging up my coat before I fall into bed and fast asleep seems like such a hassle and oh so many more things. Doesn't this just sound like I'm living the dream? Well quite honestly the only reason I'm living the dream is because my life in spent in my dreams as I sleep it away.

So to that life that I once lived where I accomplished much, I say to you...COME BACK, I MISS YOU!!!

Christmas Time is Puzzle Time

The title of this post was coined in 2007 when the family got together in Bear Lake, Idaho. Justen and Sterling were fairly new additions to the Wisniewski Family and had never really spent much time together. Both of them are quite reserved until they get to know someone and so the first impressions were interesting.

As Jaycia tells the story now, Justen wasn't exactly sure what he thought of Sterling until...the puzzle was opened. That is when Justen discovered how intensely focused Sterling can be. Sterling worked on the puzzle from the time it was opened until it was finished. People would be getting dinner and Sterling would be working on the puzzle. People would be sitting around visiting and Sterling would still be working on the puzzle. I assume you can see the pattern and this is how "Christmas time is puzzle time" came to be.

This year proved Justen right. We got three puzzles for Christmas and Sterling and mom finished two of the three while the family was out here visiting. I never stayed up long enough to witness their obsession but Joseph did tell me that on at least one occasion (although it was probably more) Sterling and mom stayed up until 2:00 am working on one of the puzzles.

Thanksgiving in Chicago

This year Sterling's birthday was on the Saturday following Thanksgiving so we decided to take a trip to Chicago and celebrate. Sterling was going to be in Chicago the week previous so it just made sense to spend it there.

The preparations for the week vacation started with a detailed plan of our dining. I compiled a list of restaurants where we would be dining for the week. I planned the week around our dining experiences as that did seem like the most important aspect of the trip.

We ate at some amazing restaurants and when we weren't eating we were enjoying all that Chicago has to offer. We walked around Millenium Park and attended the Adler Planetarium, the Science and Industry Museum, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Christkind Market and of course the best of all, Wicked.

Desire, Not Motivation

Shyla asked a valid question, does a couple of days actually mean weeks? Perhaps I shouldn't have misled you by saying "a couple of days." Anyway I am now updating the blog so I hope that all of you that read this pathetic blog are pleased. Where do I begin?

Sometimes We All Need a Little Nudge

Thanks to Emily I will be updating our blog within the next couple of days. I have been lazy lately and blogging seems so difficult. Perhaps I need to remember that a post doesn't need to be wonderful it just needs to be posted.

Thanks Em!