Saying Goodbye

May and June are tough months for people in medical training.... we have to say goodbye to lots of friends!

This year, I said goodbye to two really good friends.

Allison lived just down the street from us, and Abbie is good friends with her oldest daughter who is the same age.  I will really miss Allison - she has been such a great friend!  She and her husband have been a big help to us, since her husband is also doing radiology.  They are moving to Seattle for a 1-year fellowship, but chances are very high I will see her again since they will likely return to the east coast for a "real job" in a year.  Also, her husband is doing the same sub-specialty that Garrett is doing (MSK), so hopefully in the future we can meet up at various conferences that our husbands attend.

 And, Leza.... Leza is awesome.  If you ever want to talk politics, talk to Leza! :)  Leza is one of the most generous people I know - she is always willing to lend a hand.  She's also hilarious!  We had a lot of fun together, and our oldest daughters are also friends.  Leza's husband has a "real job" in Phoenix (where they were both raised) so they are heading back "home" for good.  But, I will see her in January when she comes back for a "girls weekend" that we are planning in Orlando!

In total, we are losing about 15 families from the ward (some are pictured below), so it's a rough year!  The kids will really miss their friends and I know I will, too.  It's difficult to see people leave, but thankfully it's something that we know will happen so it's no big surprise.  For each move, everyone knows pretty much exactly how long they will be in a certain location, so it helps that no one is ever leaving out of the blue.  That makes it a bit easier.  Plus, now we've gotten to the point in our training where the majority of people who are leaving us are headed for real doctor jobs, so that's really exciting to hear about and see. 

And thankfully, we aren't just losing people.  Our ward will be gaining at least a dozen medical families that we know about, plus any other families that happen to move in throughout the summer that we don't know about (many people contact someone to ask where they should live, ask about the schools, etc.... but then there are always people who just show up, so that's fun too).  Most are medical residents, but we also get dental students and residents, law students, interns, and grad students. Three families are moving right into our neighborhood so that will be great for the kids.  We are excited to meet everyone and make new friends!

Weekend Recap

Garrett had a weekend off, and it just so happened that Rob did too, so... we made a mini-vacation out of it!

We were originally planning to meet up in Savannah, but plans changed at the last minute and the Egberts ended up coming all the way down to Florida.  We certainly packed in the fun!

Friday night we grilled out with them, plus we had the Greers over since they were with all of us in Newport News during intern year, so they know the Egberts too.  It was fun and we stayed up way too late hanging out.

Saturday morning, the kids were up early and we headed to the annual "Touch-a-Truck" here in town.  There were over 50 trucks for the kids to climb on, and lots of fun demonstrations and some neat information about each truck.

It was really hot outside but Olivia just chilled in her stroller:

After Touch-a-Truck, we came home, cooled off in the air conditioning, and had some lunch.  Then we headed out again - this time to the blueberry farm.

Garrett found some really big ones at the tops of the bushes:
                                               

I'm not really sure what this blueberry farm is for, or who owns it (it's not a u-pick farm).  But, once per year, there is a "neighbor picking" weekend.  Basically the main gate is just left open and people can have at it!  And, it's not really advertised except by word of mouth, so it wasn't too crazy. We drove around, stopping a few times to pick here and there, until we finally found a jackpot spot that people hadn't been to yet.  This blueberry farm is probably 50 acres of bushes, so there was plenty for everyone.

Still hot out....

Sooo good.... Sometimes I really love living in Florida!  We also went strawberry picking earlier in the week, so we've been eating berries like crazy lately.

After blueberry picking we headed over to our neighborhood pool to cool off for a bit.  Even Olivia went in the water (her first time).

Ended the day with pizza, always a favorite:

After Church on Sunday, the girls took a little nap.... :)

.... and then we headed out to one of our favorite spots to bring friends.  It's a large prairie (about 21,000 acres) that has alligators, bison, and other wild animals.

Unfortunately, it was so hot that most of the gators were in the water.  We did see an handful of baby ones, though, but nothing up on the trail or anything (we came here last October and saw a huge one right on the open trail, about 10 feet away from where we were walking).

Hmm.... maybe this should be my excuse, too.  I'm basking.

Looking for gators...

Came home, grilled out for dinner again, and then put the kids to bed and enjoyed some fresh blueberry cream cheese pie and played a board game.  Fun time!

Thanks again, Egberts, for coming down to Florida to see us!

It was good at the time

There's not a ton I miss about living in Virginia, but one thing's for sure:  We really, really miss our friends.

 (Hey... that's private!)

They got us hooked on Settlers of Catan, a game that I'll admit I resisted playing for quite a few years.  Hey, I thought it was like Dungeons & Dragons or something!!  But, it's not.  It's really fun. (No offense to people who play D&D)

The girls with their Care Bears

Bobby

We always made time for each other, which really wasn't very hard to do.  It was usually just a morning text to Haley (or from Haley): Hey, want to hang out tonight?  Come over whenever.


We had a lot of really late nights but they were always fun.  Clearly we had stimulating conversations:

Lots of trips to the beach:

Road trip:

(Yes, these pictures are in completely random order!  And, I'm sure there are a lot more pics but they are all in different places)

I miss Garrett and Rob bringing home fish for dinner (and having Rob & Haley cook us dinner in our kitchen!), watching tv together, playing Scrabble together on our ipods (as we sat around the living room chatting), being the only ones in the world playing Qrank, going to the beach and other day trips, making pizzas, watching the kids play together, going to D.C., sitting together at Church... it really was just the best!  It almost felt like it wasn't real life, in a way.  We hung out all the time (once, we hung out every single night for 8 days straight).  We didn't have a ton of responsibilities; Garrett and Rob didn't have to study every night (or, ever), so if the guys were both home from work we just got together.  We were all several hours away from our families, so we became like family.

It was such a unique time, and I don't really feel like our lives will be like that ever again, with anyone.  As our kids get older and our families get bigger, it's harder to make those "get-together-every-night-and-hang-out" friends (no, our family isn't expanding right now, I'm just saying).  Kids will have school soon, need earlier bedtimes, and they get to a point where they can't just go to sleep in any old pack n play and then get in the car to go home at midnight (unfortunately).  So, I just don't know if we'll ever meet another family that can be "those people" for us, and quite frankly I doubt we could be "those people" anymore, either.  And, that's why I say "it was good at the time", because I think we realized the gift we were given, and we really seized it and took advantage of it.  Before match day, I don't think any of us even dreamed that we'd end up in the same place for any amount of time (what are the odds, really??), but now I just can't imaging things turning out any other way.


(end cheesy post.  Sorry guys, I just had to do it!)

Pictures

(aren't my blog titles so catchy?)


On my "wish list" is a small digital camera.  Ours broke about six months ago, and when I got a new iPod Touch for Christmas I thought that it would do the trick.  But alas, it doesn't have a flash like the iphone does, so the pictures are pretty "meh" (and that's being generous).  Anyway, all I'm saying is that it would be nice to have a little digital camera to carry around, like on trips especially.  Garrett's big camera weighs a ton and I'm not very good at using it anyway.  So, I'm saving my money for one!  Then I can completely bog down the blog with more pictures.  Don't get too excited.

That being said,  I was able to get a couple pictures taken while I was in New Hampshire a few weeks ago (thanks Courtney!).

My brother's two little boys (with my parents).  They are so cute and so well-behaved.  I just love them.  I am so excited to see them again next week in Pennsylvania!

This is Linda... she was my YW leader and I can't even begin to tell you how much I love her!  She always has such great advice and knows just what to say to make me feel better about anything.  She also makes the best pies, and she made a special blueberry cream cheese pie for me!

Courtney, Sister H, and me.  Sister H is my friend Ashley's mom, and Courtney, Ashley and I were best friends through high school.  Ashley wasn't in town so this was the closest I could get to the "three of us". :)

me, Linda, and Ali.  Ali was my Primary teacher, but don't let that fool you - we're really not that far apart in age.

I wish I had more pictures - some of me and my brother, my sister-in-law, other close friends that I saw.  However, there were not many situations during this trip when taking pictures was very appropriate, nor did I feel like taking pictures too much.

This trip reminded me how lucky I am to have grown up where I did, and how lucky I am to know the people I know.  I had so many great influences there, and I had incredible youth leaders.  I am so thankful for things like Facebook, email, and blogs so that I can keep up with the people I love.  It was so awesome to be able to see people on my trip and know a lot of what they are up to and what's going on in their lives, even though I hadn't seen them in years.  It was nice that so many people knew things about me, too, from reading my blog and through FB.  I am determined that it won't be 5 years before I visit NH again (that is almost how long it had been before this trip).  Maybe one year?  My 10 year high school reunion should be next year, so maybe I'll try to go up there again for that.

Onto the home front.... I can't remember if I blogged about this, but a few months ago Garrett asked me to cut his hair.  It's really easy - he just uses the buzz clippers with a couple different settings (longer on the top, one length shorter on the sides and back).  Part of the "deal" for me to cut Garrett's hair is that he sets everything up for me (puts the right length on the buzzer, etc) and he also cleans everything up afterwards (usually.... I don't mind doing it either though).

This particular time, though, Garrett did not adjust the sizing.  So, when he was ready, I walked over to the buzzer, picked it up, and proceeded to run it down the center of Garrett's hair, from his forehead all the way to the back of his head.  I immediately saw the problem.  Unfortunately, Garrett did too.  Instead of the "6" length (one of the longest settings), it was set on a "2".  Yeah, it was pretty short.  Garrett was pretty annoyed at me for not checking the size first, and I was pretty annoyed at him for not having it ready for me like he always does.

Long story short: he hasn't asked me to cut his hair since.  Nope, Garrett has a new hairdresser these days:

Yeah.

I need to point out, though.... Garrett now cuts his whole head at a "3" length, so.... turns out he likes the shorter cut.

Vindicated.

Man Shower, the third

During medical school, a lot of our friends had babies.  Obviously the traditional baby showers were thrown for the expectant mothers (particularly if it was their first baby), whether they were having a boy or a girl.

However, I noticed a slight problem. Most of our friends had baby girls first, and some of them had boys second.  And since most people don't get baby showers for their second child (which, in my opinion, is perfectly fine), they weren't gifted many boy gifts (which are much needed, because you can't exactly use girl clothes for boys like you could use boy clothes for a girl.).

So, we had the idea to do a little twist for couples having their first baby boy, but who already had a baby girl -- Man Showers.  A couples shower, directed at the dad in celebration of his first son on the way.  We did our first man shower for our friend Bobby a few years ago, and another for Brian after that.  And I have to say... I'm a bit embarrassed to even link those parties because they were way fancier than my most recent shower, for Rob and Haley.  But, this one I hosted by myself (for the first time) and it was totally last minute since I dropped the ball on the whole thing (sorry Rob!!).  But, it was fun and Rob was surprised, so it was a success I think.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture but I made a big banner that said "Congratulations Rob, it's a boy!"  We played "Man Shower" games (obnoxious baby shower games that I normally hate, but guys like them so we do them).  I made my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert, which Rob always enjoys.  I invited a couple of their friends who are also interns at the hospital.

 Rob, the guest of honor, "chugging" Dr. Pepper from a bottle.

For the record, this is the game I hate most.  You put melted candy bars in diapers and people have to guess what kind of candy bar it is.  Totally gross and obnoxious, but guys like it.  ::sigh::

Fastening a cloth diaper to a doll.  This was a couples challenge and each person could only use one hand.  Fastest time won.

We also did a nursery rhyme quiz.  It was harder than it sounds. 

And finally, guess the baby food.  We had sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, squash.

It was a fun party and it's a good thing we did it when we did, because Haley was in labor less than 12 hours later and Bobby was born the day after the party!

Congratulations Rob and Haley on your first boy!