Seeing RED on April 1st

My mind has been dreaming up April fools jokes to play on Shawn for the past couple weeks. After many ideas, I came up with one that would have him seeing RED.
The timing of him being post-call worked out just right, so as he was dreaming away,
the kids and I drove to the clinic and hijacked his office.
Maddie and her mad skills of hacking was able to come up with the pass word and
we successful in changing his screen saver.
When Shawn left for work the next day, he called us and I had given instructions to the kids
to answer with the UTE fight song. Then the 2nd and 3rd time we gave out indian whoop cries.
I better start now, working on next years idea......any thoughts?

Dinner with Dad

What does a mom do when Dad is on call every other night?
She makes dinner arrangements at the local hospital cafe.
The kids enjoy the smorgasbord of all the choices,
and then they all burn off late night energy by
attempting cartwheels down the underground subway.

Pow Wow!

With our 2nd year in Residency coming to a close next year (June 2011 but who's counting) and one more year left, that moves Shawns group up to the Big Man on the tote um pole. The old move out the middle move up and the new ones move in.
Shawn was approached and asked by the FM coordinator if he would be willing to campaign to be FM Chief. (now long ago we had discussed this and decided that this wouldn't be something for us..me...or the kids, funny how things change.)
Shawn said he wouldn't decline if he was offered the position.
Many in the FM group wanted and campaigned for this position and then it was whittled down to 4 prospective candidates and in the end after a quick deliberation a new Chief was feathered.



CHIEF RESIDENT DUTIES
*Arrange the Family Practice Residency call schedule for residents and distribute information to the Residency Coordinator no later than one week prior to end of academic month.
*Serve as a liaison between the faculty and residents on issues as needed.
*Serve as a role model for more junior residents.
*Assist with the coverage and coordination of vacation schedules for residents as needed.
*Assist in the coordination of the residents’ practice in the Family Practice Center by working with the nursing and patient care staff, in conjunction with the Family Practice Center Coordinator.
*Provide assistance in coordination of the family practice inpatient service with provision of supervision for more junior residents.
*Coordinate Journal Club with input from residents and faculty, including scheduling of physician faculty and resident participation.
*Attend Graduate Medical Education (GME) committee meetings and Family Practice Center meetings as a resident representative, and record and distribute minutes of Meet with the Director conferences.
*Assist with orientation, including presentation of one orientation lecture.
*Organize and delegate activities for the annual resident retreat, graduation, Welcome Picnic and other functions.
*Support regular noon conference attendance, including documentation of attendance roster, and serve as a model for daily attendance.
*With direction from Residency Faculty, address discipline issues, e.g. professional behavior, attendance, call issues, etc.
*Attend one Chief Resident leadership conference per year.

*Try and figure out how to include above new responsibilities in addition to being a
Husband, father to 5, work in the yard, help with household duties, go to the gym, attend church, prepare lessons, throw the football, take my wife on dates, see the kids play their sports, read books with the family, vacation and many, many more unlisted duties.

I think we are going to see Chief Mack stepping it up this year. Just when we thought we were on the down hill slide...things just got crazy busy.

Sledding Memories

With temperatures peaking in the low 30's it was just like a heat wave coming thru.
We gathered up our snow clothes & sleds headed out for the nearest hill. Two houses away!
As we made the trek up and down the hill I couldn't help but be think back on many good memories of when I was young and my Dad would plow the snow with the tractor and build a
gigantic snow mound that we would climb and then zip down the pasture hill.
I remember my Sister and I having matching Brown Bib overall snow pants.(mine had a small tear in the bum where I had snagged it on the barbwire fence.) Brown suede mittens and a rope that Mom had tied attaching one mitten thru our coat sleeves and tied to the other mitten. This way when we took our mittens off they wouldn't get dropped and lost on the ground. (now they have mitten clips, mom was ahead of the times.)
I had a blue striped knit hat with a very large pom pom, Becks was Green.
We would wear ourselves out each day after school, and on weekends.
Now as I watch my children trudge up and down the hill with a sled in tow I smile, wonder and HOPE that they too will look back on their sledding days with a smile and fond memories.

Christams Card Pictures

Oh the fun and stress that comes with Christmas Card Pictures.
First deciding do we want it Nice and Fancy, or Casual and Relaxed?
Do we have it in Color, or Black and White?
What to wear, matching or christmasy?
Finally ya get to a point where you must make decissions cause the
mailing deadline is aproaching and everyone is tired of all the photo sessions.
These out takes make me smile. Hope it puts a smile on your face too!





The end results didn't turn out too bad.

"Older" Self Propelled Snow Blower

This is the man-powered Snow Blower.
Today we woke up to a bit of snow.
The weather was at a high of 25 (not to bad)
and the winds were gone.
Glad to have a good husband who was Jonny on the Spot
at clearing our drive way and side walk.
xoxo Love ya.

Trim the tree....or just plug it in

What better way to spend a Family Home Evening.

Shawn took the older girls and they assembled the tree.

I took the two Reds and they helped me make Gingerbread ornaments.

I took this idea from my creative gal pal Brooke.

Heres the Recipe:

1/2 C. Applesauce 1/2 C. cinnamon: Mix well. Roll out on cookie sheet and press with a cookie cutter. Poke hole in head with straw for threading a ribbon threw to hang from tree. Place in 200* oven for aprx. 30 min. till hard. ( or just leave out over night)

The Reds had a blast making these, and they made the house smell like Santas bakery.Can you see the Magic of Christmas working?

What could have been more fun than to get Dad & Mom to kiss, and kiss under the kissing ball.

8 hours later

Saturday and Yesterday we were able to watch our Prophet & Apostles teach us.

I always look forward to this time with excitement and a bit of unease.

The excitement comes from hearing the words of our Heavenly Father and to be directed

on where we need to improve and also love of what we have accomplished and are becoming.

The unease comes from thinking HOW am I going to be able to feel the spirit and learn with

our kids locked indoors for each session.

Maddie had made a choice to watch every session which I am so proud of. I don't think I accomplished this until I was out of High School and married, even then I may have dozed off. Something about those older men, and their soothing voices can rock you off to dream world.

I think Shawn also had these same thoughts, because he came home from the grocery store on Sat. with plenty of Diet Soda to keep us all awake and alert.

I had popped some popcorn and we settled in for round one, two, three and four.

In the past we have tried all different attempts with the kids. We have gotten coloring books, and activities. We have tried to swap every other speaker and so we each could get a bit of conference in. We have tried to put them all to nap early. This year we didn't really prepare to deal with the kids. I was a bit anxious at first and then by some mighty miracle THEY BEHAVED! I am not kidding around here folks. I mean they sat and listened, and played quietly. Some of them even folded their arms when the prayers were said.

I believe the Lord wanted us to hear what the apostles and prophet had to say.

Shawn and I were able to feel the spirit and hear them testify of our Savior.

A couple of speakers that stood out for me were, Elder David Bednard and Jeffery Holland.(I will expand on their talks later)

The older I get, and the more I feel the pressures of raising good children into incredible adults the more I feel I need to hear conference and seek for greater learning from our leaders.

Now just to put a McManus reality to this all...after 8 hours we all needed to get out and be free of the couch. Thank goodness the weather was calm and we were able to release the kids onto our local bike trail.

What a wonderful way to end a fantastic weekend.

What a game to start off the BYU football season.
Shawn has National Bowl game in his sites.


One of the perks of living in the "mission field" is being able to have the Missionaries over for
dinner, and have their teaching spirits amongst us. They had to wait on the front porch till Shawn came home from work.

Birthday Celebration. Give him Chocolate cake and he is happy!




Finley....what can I say this girl
lives up to every bit of that red hair.



And this little Prince is such a joy. Squishy Squishy.