>> Thanksgiving Highlights <<

My Thanksgiving post got preempted by the chin injury, so here's a quick late report on how our day went.
We got invited to breakfast at the Bhesanias. When we lived in our last house they were our across the street neighbors. They're wonderful. We had some delicious breakfast with good company. The Bhesania's daughter Amy and her husband Jason are some of our best friends out here, so it was really fun to get to hang out. Their other daughter Tina and her husband were also there along with their 6 yr old Brett. Max and Brett had an absolute blast playing together, and Brett was a really great playmate--really patient and kind to Max.
Brett and Max drinking delicious juice:
Brett, Mehroo and Max:
We played a little ping pong, and then we had to head out to our next appointment!
It took all three boys to play Amy! Next we headed out to the Biggs family thanksgiving get-together. For those of you that don't know, the Biggs family is my great-aunt on my mom's side and her family. They all live out here and it's so nice of them to always involve us in their family events!
We had a great time. Kelly came with us because Lechelle was out of town. It was really fun to get to spend time with Kelly, but we missed Lechelle!
Max really enjoyed the pin-ball machine in Aunt Jeanie's basement. It was tough to get him out of there, even for pie.
Max likes turkey!
Here's Max and his 3rd cousin (is that right mom??) Mallory. I'm afraid he might have taught her a few things her parents may not have wanted her to know--like jumping down multiple stairs at once! I love this picture though.
Later in the evening we went to have desserts with a couple from the ward. They have a 18 month old daughter who adores Max. It was really fun to relax and enjoy just getting to know them a little better. It was nice to have Kelly there too.
We had a great thanksgiving this year, although we missed all of you loved ones we didn't get to see.
We were thinking of you! And now we can say Merry Christmas!!

**You Should See the Other Guy**

So at the end of the BYU vs. Utah game, Max got into a fist fight with an unruly Ute fan. He got a mean uppercut to the chin that resulted in this:
and this:
But you really should see the other guy.

OK, obviously I'm just kidding. Right after the BYU game yesterday Max was walking around with his pants down around his ankles. Kris went over to help him get his pants up--chaos ensued and giggles and shrieks suddenly ended in screams as Max ended up face first on the hard wood floor. It's tough not to end up that way when you jump up in the air and somebody has ahold of your legs.
So he ended up with a split-open chin. I don't have any photos of that, hopefully you understand.
Since it was saturday night, of course we couldn't get ahold of his doctor and ended up at the ER of the local children's hospital. I was afraid we'd end up waiting there for hours, but luckily it was pretty empty and they took us straight in.
Here he is getting a sticker for allowing the nurse to take his temperature orally instead of rectally. yay!
(Thank goodness for Camera-phones or else how would we document our lives??)
They put some topical anesthetic on his chin and let it sit for about 30 or 40 minutes. Luckily there were about 6 sponge-bob episodes on in a row while we were waiting. Otherwise I don't know if we would've made it.

After they thought his chin was numb enough they strapped him down to a "papoose board" and started into working on him.
The doctor seemed pretty new and pretty nervous. Her hands were shaking pretty bad and she was slow. But she did a good job. Kris held Max's legs and Max screamed as loud as he could the whole time. I was holding a towel at about his nose level so that he wouldn't be able to see the doctor working on him, but I got a little woozy three quarters of the way through and had to turn the job over to someone else and sit down.
Once they finished up and let him sit up he was ok. And once they brought him his orange popsicle he was extra ok.
When we left he burst out of the hospital doors yelling, "My chin is FIXED!!!" and Kris said "That is why I want to go into pediatrics. You can be basically killing a kid one minute, and then three minutes later when you're done he's the happiest kid you ever met. That's fun."
I was just glad his chin was fixed. It took three stitches. But that's nothing a little McDonald's can't fix, right?
Ah well, all's well that ends well as they say. I just can't wait until I get to take him to the doctor's to get the stitches out! I'm sure that'll be fun. Wish me luck!

==] Happy Thanksgiving! [==

Here's hoping everybody has a happy and safe thanksgiving, and eats just enough but not too much!
Happy thanksgiving from an indian:
also from a pilgrim:
Also a couple of small turkeys and one big turkey:
If you can't tell it was "thanks" week at Max's school. They talked about what they were thankful for, and pilgrims and indians. They had a big thanksgiving feast today with turkey and yams and cranberries and pumpkin pie. Yum!
This is my favorite thing he did this week though:
After I saw this adorable drawing we walked home from school. I asked him what he was thankful for. He said "my family!" (ohhhhhh!!) Then I asked him if he knew what a family was. He said "Yes, it's mommy and daddy and Max."
That made me so happy!! I love that he knew what he was saying and he meant it. It's amazing! I'm grateful for my family too. Grateful for my Max and Kris.
Happy thanksgiving! Love to you all!

..Pancake Breakfast Anyone?..

Welcome to sunday morning at the Hendricks home. We like to make pancakes for breakfast any sunday that we can. This week was no exception.
Max is very helpful. He's a quick and thorough mixer, and some of the stuff actually stays in the bowl these days.
He was really happy he got to help--last week the first thing he did was grab a huge handful of flour and stuff and chuck it on the floor. He was quickly banned from helping. He was very careful this week. Well, careful is relative......
I don't have any pictures of the finished product--just the process. So you'll have to just imagine how delicious they looked. And they were delicious.

Instead I'll leave you with a couple of pair of buns.
Cute huh?

New York Interviews

As many of you already know, I went to New York this past week for a couple program interviews. I started in Buffalo, at Buffalo Women and Children's hospital. I liked the program pretty well and they "wine and dined" us to the extreme. We went out to an expensive restaurant and had an all you can eat and drink party. It was fun, but uncomfortable because you have to talk to each resident and try to convince them that you're cool enough to be picked for the program. Meanwhile, there were ten other people trying to do the same thing.
The next day, I had my personal interviews, a tour and we went out for another wine and dine session. The program sees a lot of patients and is very busy. It was cool to go there.

Crazy enough I ended up staying 1 night with one of Ginna's high school friends Kirk Chambers. He and his family live there because he is playing football for the bills. It was really cool of them to let me stay, especially since I didn't even know them. Just a month ago or so, I went to L.A. and I couldn't get a friend or relative to let me stay despite calling just about everyone we knew. Instead I spent a small fortune on a hotel, where I stayed alone for a week. The Chambers were really nice to me and it made me feel more comfortable in Buffalo. Plus everyone at the program thought I was cool since I was staying with one of the Bills.

I was able to take a little trip to Niagra Falls, albeit at night. I took a picture, got a little wet and cold and went back to the car.

After Buffalo, I flew to NYC for an interview in Brooklyn. It was a big interview because it was for 3 programs, Brooklyn, Rhode Island and Alaska. It turned out that one of the girls who had interviewed in Buffalo with me was interviewing at NYU and we were on the same flight. We ended up sharing a cab into the city and she showed me a few places since I couldn't check into my hotel until later.

NYC was a lot busier than I ever imagined. I knew it was fast and furious, but really, I was amazed. I stayed in Brooklyn on a military base that had a deal with the hospital. I took the subway and did a lot of walking while I was there. I really like that and wish I could take the subway every day.
I spent my first full day at the hospital observing in their clinic. It was tiring, but really fun. The program was so different from the other programs I have been in. Day two was my interview day, which was also long. I spent about 6 hours at the hospital trying to do everything I could to get myself a position at one of the programs.
But, the most important thing I did was go to a concert to celebrate after a hard day of interviewing. I saw the Mingus Big Band play at the Iridium Jazz club. When I was in college, I loved this band. I listened to the albums hundreds of times. I got a seat in the first row with a student discount. The show was amazing. I never imagined that I would get to see this band play live so closely.

I spent the last day of my trip walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan replaying my interview in my head a million times. NYC is really dirty and busy and rude. I was a little scared that we might end up there, but if it happens I'm sure we'll do great. My goal was to get us into a program and that may have worked out.
I bought some souvenirs and did some other shopping. Below, I put up a picture of ground zero. I stretched my hand through a tear in the covered fence to get the picture. It was intense to see the actual WTC site.
I finished the trip with a social gathering at a bar in Brooklyn where a bunch of goons--applicants competing for my spot--kept interrupting my conversations, pushing me and everyone else away from the program's residents so they could monopolize the face-time. I made it back to the base around midnight, showered and set my alarm for 3:30am. The cab came at 4am and I was back in KC by 10:15, in time to walk home from school with Max.

It was a really great trip and I liked all the programs a lot. I really hope something can work out for me at one of the Lutheran sites, but we won't start counting chickens until January 28th. (that's the official results day)

-} Oh the Things Kids Say {-

If you take a moment to watch this Sesame Street segment with Elmo and Whoopie, you might start to understand why Max decided to point at the African-American man sitting in our pew at church on sunday, and rather loudly say "Hey, he's black! Black is beautiful!!"
This was only shortly after he asked me whether that same man was Jesus.
I'm not sure whether any of that was overheard or not......

--Huh huh and a Walk Home From School--

Max learned about huh (the letter H) last week. Or wait, I guess it was the week before last. His teacher somehow made a deal with the calendar and got Halloween scheduled during Huh week. They had a great time on Halloween and carved pumpkins and made finger puppet ghosts and even got sent home with a couple of treats.
Besides that during huh week they got to talk about hamsters, hippos and horses. One of the teachers brought in her pet hamster for the kids to observe. That was really exciting for the kids, probably not so much for the hamster.
They ate hummus (really??) honeydew melon and havarta (sp?) cheese. I've never heard of havarta cheese, and in fact it could be something entirely different, like humbolt cheese or something. All I know is that it started with H!
And would you join us for a walk home from school?
Here's Max at the end of our street, ready to sprint. He's been into running or skipping or galloping home lately. This is a run.
There's a house halfway down the street where the yard is lined with big rocks. Max has to walk along the rocks every time we go to or from school. I usually hold his hand so there are no crashes.
After the rocks we visit the dog that lives two houses down from us. Her name is Galaxy and she's very very cute. I scratch her ears and she gives Max a kiss on the hand.
Then we head home. The biggest challenge for me is keeping Max on the sidewalk and off of people's lawns and front porches. He's making good progress though and we usually really enjoy our strolls to and from school.
We made it!! Here's Max on our front porch steps holding a "glass art" project from Guh week.
Thanks for walking home with us!

~~Hair Can Be Scary Sometimes~~

I was getting a little tired of my hair. It was pretty long (by my hair's standards) and I was just getting the itch to do something with it. I just didn't know if I felt good about cutting it shortish, after growing it out for so long. I like my hair to be long. But anyway, I was really feeling the itch. So, I came up with a compromise. Bangs. Yikes, right? But I've seen a good amount of bangs around lately, especially once I started paying attention to see if there was a look that I liked. You can do a lot of different stuff with bangs, if you know how.
So I just went for it. It made me a little nervous, but I went for it anyway.
I think most of youguys know what my hair looked like before, but I know I don't put a ton of pictures of myself up here, so just in case you're unsure, here are a few before pictures:

























































Some of these pictures show my hair better than others of course. Since I'm the family photographer, pictures of my are a little tough to find (which is pretty ok with me usually).
So anyway, I figured hair grows back and I went for it.
It was a little scary to see my hairdresser girl chop off the front of my hair. I mean I'm pretty brave, but I haven't had real bangs since I was about 12. I was scared that once it was all done I'd look 12!
So anyway, she finished up, and I thought it looked ok, but weird and different for sure.
Kris came home from school that day and gave me the weirdest look! I don't think he liked it at all. He says he likes it now, but....
So here are some after pictures. I'd love some opinions from youguys. After having the bangs for about a week and doing them several different ways, I think I like them. Not necessarily so much that I'd keep them for the rest of my life, but I don't hate the way I look. Which I guess was a risk, so I'm lucky! But hair grows back even though it might take a long time.






























Sorry, I know that was a lot of pictures, but I want fair educated opinions.
But really, where's Nick Arrojo when I need him? Probably in New York hanging out with Kris!