April Fools' Disclaimer

In case you were wondering, our previous post for April Fools' was only partially a joke.  We are still very excited to be moving to Dallas, and we are also very excited to welcome Likely into our home.

Happy April!

As March comes to a close and we move into the exciting new world of April, we thought we would take the chance to get you all caught up on the world of Joseph and Maren. Our big news from March is that we finally closed on our house. That’s right, we are now officially homeowners.

The strange irony is that while we now own a home, it looks like it may be in the wrong location. On a whim, I decided to apply to Ross University Medical School in Dominica and they recently offered me a full-tuition scholarship with living expenses included. While we were very excited about UT Southwestern, we are now looking forward to avoiding the debt of medical school entirely while enjoying the Caribbean!

As we will be moving away to go to graduate school, tradition dictates that we can’t do so without making my parents grandparents in the process and making them travel to see their new grandchild. And while Dominica is further away than Columbus Ohio, we hope that both sides of the family will be willing to travel to visit the THREE of us. By way of introduction, this is Likely Muhlestein, so named from when we thought he/she was coming but were not entirely sure. Likely is likely to make his/her first appearance in mid-October.

Sign me up for that bandwagon!

So my little siblings all banded together to ask for a 'RipStik' and I discovered that they were actually a lot of fun. My older brother decided they were fun too, and decided to purchase one as well. The anti-bandwagon side of me decided that this was far too large of a crowd to join, and I forgot about it for a while. On a recent trip to visit the family, I came across theirs again and found it was still lots of fun. I started thinking I might be willing to get one in spite of their popularity. I mentioned this to my sweet wife, and was surprised to find this one day when I got home!! I've decided to call it "The GIMP" (not to be confused with the software) since its wheel clicks a little when it rides, but it still rides very nice!

ALS - Berkeley once more

Here are some quick pics from my research trip to Berkeley. If you want to do EUV optics, this is the place.

Our Texas House!! (Probably)

Well, we are under contract to buy this house in Irving, TX.  If all the particulars of the buying process go well, this will be our home during medical school.  It is a 5 minute drive from the park-and-ride train station and then a 10 minute train ride to the school.  These are the pictures from the listing, but we will try and get some of the ones that we took put on as well.

And the winner is... DALLAS!!

We have pondered and prayed about this one and we feel good about our decision.  We are going to move to Dallas Texas and I will go to UT Southwestern Medical School.  I am very excited and slightly surprised since I almost didn't even apply to UT Southwestern.  But in the end, the affordability, the advantageous real estate market, the warm weather, and the amazing green lined sky scraper won us over.  Now I just have to graduate from BYU...

Alamo!!

We are enjoying Texas and are currently enjoying the Alamo. If you've never been, you should. We'll post more from the trip later.

Moon Shot

Walking home from class I saw the moon acting as a backdrop for a pine tree and decided it was cool so I am now sharing it with ya'll.