Welcome Tayscen Daniel Schroeder!

At 0933 Wednesday, June 20th, we welcomed Tayscen Daniel Schroeder into the world! He was 8 lbs, 2 oz and was 20 1/2" long. Meghan delivered Tayscen via a scheduled c-section. Due to the vast complications with Braylei's delivery, this was deemed a high-risk pregnancy. However, we were very blessed that there were no complications this time around! Meghan was never on bedrest this entire pregnancy (unlike last time), and she even drove out to our new house to sign the closing papers and everything the day before the delivery! Tayscen was born full term, had no respiratory difficulties, and no jaundice. Meghan healed very fast, much unlike last time, when she lost so much blood and was very weak for weeks. Meghan was up and moving around the same day, and the next day she was moving around with ease! Again, it was a true blessing to us, especially since I have been away with my military training.

Another surprising, yet truly wonderful blessing was that I was granted permission to fly home for the delivery. I left at 0600 Texas time, arrived at 0621 Phoenix time, and immediately headed to the hospital where Tayscen was born at 0933! It was very exciting indeed! I was able to be with them the whole day and through the first night. I had to leave again early the following afternoon so that I could return to my training, and although the time with them was short, it was so worth it! It made the biggest difference in the world and I will always be thankful to the company commander and the cadre (staff) for the opportunity to be present at my son's birth!

As of yesterday, Tayscen was now up to 8 lbs, 12 oz and is doing exquisitely! Braylei, meanwhile is adjusting very well to being a big sister. She loves to help hold him and get the diapers and wipes when he needs to be changed. We had been reading her a book titled "I'm a big sister now!" for the past month or so to help her get excited for her new little brother. Hopefully she will stay that enthusiastic about it!

Officer Basic Leadership Course

I am now in San Antonio, Texas (Boo, I know!) for my Army Officer Basic Leadership Course (OBLC) at Fort Sam Houston. I arrived on the 10th of June and I will get back on the 21st of July. As of today, I have three weeks left! I have learned a great deal thus far. It's crazy being thrown into the Army life of an officer, having all the enlisted soldiers saluting you all the time, and trying to recognize all the customs and courtesies in the military. The first couple weeks consisted of a great deal of in-processing and paperwork, and with 300 medical, dental, vet and PA officers, that translates into a lot of sitting around. We haven't done near as much Physical Training (PT) as I thought, but I have been running daily with Ken, a former Army Ranger who is also going to be a 2nd year at AZCOM. That has been good for me. As far as our PT test, I did better than most with the 2 mile, 2 minute push-up and 2 minute sit-up tests, especially considering the amount of time (or lack thereof) I had from the end of school to my report date. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Meghan and Braylei before I left so my workout time was reduced to before either woke up each morning!

We do a lot of classroom didactic study, as that has taken up most of our time thus far. However, we just spent a week and a half out in the field. There is a large military reservation on the other side of San Antonio that simulates what is like to be in a FOB (forward operating base). We had no showers (yuck!) or plumbing (go port-a-potties!), but there was water so we could shave, brush our teeth and wash our faces. We also had air conditioned tents, so that was nice. There were probably 30 of us per tent, so it was pretty large. The cots weren't horribly uncomfortable, and we were very blessed with cloudy/rainy weather the whole time so it wasn't too hot. While there, we did a lot of training, much of which was very new to me. We shot with a M-16 rifle, an M-9 handgun, conducted day and night land navigation, mounted (vehicle) land navigation, and urban tactical training (clearing houses and buildings). I did really well, getting perfect marks in all my land navigation training, and qualifying as a marksman with both the M-9 and M-16! I told Meghan that I'm becoming a real man out here! We had to return to Ft. Sam a day early due to heavy rainfall and flooding, but we are going back for two more days Monday, then we will have another full week after that which will all be medical related. We will be in charge of setting up a combat support hospital, transferring combat casualties (injured soldiers) to level 1 (battalion aid station) to higher levels. It has been a very good experience for me, but I will be happy to return back home! I will add pictures once I get back and develop the pics from my disposable camera.

Our First House!

We are very excited about our new home! We had been searching for quite some time for a home closer to my school in Glendale. It was becoming just too much to be driving 2 hours round trip every day. I was still doing fine in my studies, but it was taking away from family time too much. We weren't sure if we wanted to rent or buy, but we felt that it would be a good investment to buy. But it sure wasn't an easy process! For one, the market by my school is an expensive one. The houses we looked at were not in very good condition, or were very small. It's amazing how different a house can look in person from the pictures posted on the MLS! We were just about to give up when we stopped by a brand new housing development. We were told that we wouldn't be able to get in until November, but then we found out they had a spec home that would be done at the end of June. It was perfect. A brand new home that was bigger and cheaper than the others we had seen. Plus we were able to pick the upgrades, the carpet, tile, and everything else. The mortgage process was not fun as the in-house group did a very poor job. Needless to say we will be refinancing in a few months. However, that being said, it is now ours, and we will be moving in as soon as I get home from my military training! Braylei is excited as every time she goes out there she runs around and goes in her room, saying "my room!" It's super cute! Plus my commute time is greatly diminished, as it is less than 15 minutes from my school! So I can get to school earlier to work out and study, and I can get home earlier to spend with my family!

What the Scrud!?

Whoa! It's been forever and a day since I posted! Life has been unreal! So much has happened! So to start off, I'll cover Spring Quarter. This was by far my best quarter of the year! I did much better than the previous two, and I seemed to have more time for things. My study habits were a lot more focused, and I felt like I was spending more time with Meghan and Braylei! I was also diligent in keeping the Sabbath day holy and not studying on Sunday. This is a really hard thing to do sometimes, especially since we always had Monday morning tests. Plus, this quarter was tougher because we had more classes, and thus more tests. So we often had Monday/Friday/Monday test schedules, so I didn't get to really hit the studying for the Monday exam until after the test on Friday! It was really crazy! But everything worked out well in the end!

I also had a great experience with my preceptorship, Dr. Carfagno. He is a physician who is dual certified in Sports Medicine and Internal Medicine. I was able to see many different cases, conduct history and examinations on patients, and even sports physicals! I learned a great deal, and also gained many volunteer opportunities, like the Valley of the Sun half Marathon, and the Ironman competition in Tempe! I look forward to continuing learning under Dr. Carfagno's guidance.

Another really cool service opportunity came with the TOPS program, which stands for team of physicians and students. We conducted 1000s of sports physicals for an entire high school district in Phoenix. I myself performed over 20, which helped me greatly work on my techniques. It was a really cool experience!

I will definitely enjoy my time off from school, as we don't start up again until the end of August! But it has been a busy Summer, with moving, having officer basic training in Texas, the birth of our son, and so much more! But I will get to all of those soon!