Reunited.

From reading my blog over the last couple weeks, you may have noticed the absence of someone in particular. I mean, he's worked a crazy amount of hours this year and all the holidays so far too, but this time he was just gone.  For a month, to be exact.

All radiology residents have to do a month-long review course in Washington D.C., and Garrett was assigned to go in October/November.  He left a few days before Olivia's birthday and the class ends this coming weekend (he's not home yet).

My mom came down to Florida about 2.5 weeks after Garrett left.  We spent some fun days together and then I flew to D.C. to spend some time with Garrett while my mom stayed here with the kids!  It was awesome. I'm home now, trying to get settled back into "normal life", but I will blog about our trip soon.

Interviews

Garrett spent a little bit of time traveling in September, interviewing for fellowship positions.  I won't get into all of that in this post (I'll write one soon), but the interview process is OVER and he received (and accepted) an offer at a fantastic program.  Like, really really good.  It's the program we sent an application to "because it's one of the best programs out there", not because we actually expected him to get an interview, let alone an offer.  I'm really proud of him.

Anyway... he left us one afternoon to drive to an interview several states away, and Abbie was pretty sad, so she made him a card.

Remember him?

Remember Garrett?

To say that Garrett's schedule was crazy this last summer would be a huge understatement.

Let me put it this way: he came to church with us once.  Once, from June through August.  The girls and I were gone for 3 Sundays in July so that was partially to blame.

Or I could put it this way: he had ONE Saturday off, all summer.  ONE Saturday when he wasn't sleeping off a night shift or actually working a 13 hour shift, or away at a radiology conference.

And finally: We went to bed at the same time probably fewer than 10 times all summer.

His summer has consisted of pretty much straight night shifts, or mid shifts.  Noon-midnight for several weeks, 8pm - 10am for several weeks, and now midnight-9am for a month straight (six nights a week).  ONE more week left, though, so we've almost survived it.

In case you are wondering, no this is NOT normal for a radiology residency!  But his "class" only has 9 residents (they started out with 11), so they have to make up all the call and weekends that those two missing people would have worked.  It's a long story.  Yes, there are dozens of other radiology residents but a first year can't work overnight alone, for example.

It's been hard.  Honestly I didn't expect residency to be this hard (and I'll admit, I had pretty low expectations because I had heard all the horror stories... I just didn't think they really applied to us). It's hard to spend every evening by myself for weeks on end.  It's hard to keep the kids quiet all afternoon during the week, and all day Saturdays and Sundays when he's working the night shift.  It's hard to have to turn down invitations to hang out with friends because sometimes I just don't feel up to going somewhere by myself with all three kids in the evenings.  We turned down invitations to lots of fun Saturday activities (the beach, floating down the river, hiking, etc) that I just couldn't do alone.  And I really don't like going to church alone (but hey, I'm certainly not in the minority there, being without my husband at church!  It's just that I'm more consistently without my husband, I guess).  I'm just worn out.

Of course, it's not all bad.  When Garrett is home sleeping during the day and Olivia takes a nap in the mornings, sometimes I run to the grocery store or the library alone for half an hour.  That's nice.  Also, when Garrett isn't home for dinner I don't bother cooking anything fancy, which is a nice little break.

"They" say that it will all be "worth it" in the end -- when residency is over.  I assume that people mean that financial compensation makes up for all the time he's not around.  I just don't believe that anymore, I'd rather have him be here with us. I'd rather have the option of planning our lives around things that are important to us rather than his work schedule.  And I just wrote a huge paragraph about this but I just deleted it because this post is already waaay too long and I don't want to sound depressing.  That's a thought for another day.

Anyway.... SIX more nights of overnights!!!  Can't wait.

Another year down

July 1 marked the first day of Garrett's 4th year of residency. (!!!)

PGY-3 was a tough year (PGY = post grad year).  With more experience comes more responsibility, and this last year was pretty much the first year ever that Garrett wasn't near (or at) the bottom of the totem pole (medical student - pretty much the lowest spot.  Intern year - pretty darn low also.  Lowest, if there are no med students around :) .  First year radiology resident - you're pretty much at the bottom again.  PGY-3 - finally there is a class "below" you so now there is lot more that is expected of you!  This is all from what I gather, anyway).

So, Garrett's first year of radiology was pretty awesome and he had most weekends off, and only worked late maybe twice a month (they can't really work alone yet since they are so inexperienced).  This last year was pretty much the opposite and it feels like Garrett was working all the time!  Since last September, Garrett has worked a total of 16 weeks of night shifts or late shifts (late = around midnight or 2 a.m., depending on the rotation).  Not to mention all the weekends, at least one per month (weekend = 13 hours on Saturday and 13 hours on Sunday) and extra studying he has to do each night (he usually studies a couple of hours each evening).

So yes, last year was tough.  PGY-4 is shaping up to be even more tough, though.  For one thing, Garrett's very first rotation was.... nights!  The shift was Sunday night through Friday night, from 8pm - 8am technically, although he usually doesn't get home until around 9am.

He also does a month of nights later on in the year, plus has a month-long review course that he has to take in Washington D.C.  When he gets home from that, he works every other weekend for the next 4 months straight.

Also, some things in radiology have changed since he started the residency.  For one, he no longer has boards at the end of residency.  Nope, now it's at the end of PGY-4 instead.  Just a week or two ago, Garrett said to me, "You know, I have to take my boards in one year.  I know that seems like a long time away, but it's really not.  I have really got to start studying... a lot."  Sounds like this year is going to be a fun time!

And finally, he's applying to fellowships right now, so somewhere in there he's going to need to go to a few interviews and hopefully accept a position somewhere by the end of this summer.

It's not all rough.  He has Thanksgiving off this year, and will hopefully have Christmas off too. Also, I'm planning to join him in D.C. for a few days (all by myself!) so I'm looking forward to that.

We are so proud of Garrett and all of his hard work.  He is one of the smartest people I know and from what I have heard, he is a great doctor.  The career path he has chosen has not been easy but he has wanted to be a doctor from the time he was small, so it looks like he is living his dream (although I'm pretty sure 8-year-old Garrett didn't imagine it quite like this).

I can't believe that residency is halfway done.  Three years down, three more to go!  Here we go, PGY-4!

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!

The next step

Garrett has reached another "decision time" in his career: this time it's for his fellowship.

The people in charge of radiology residencies in the U.S. (I don't really know WHO these people are) recently decided that residents should wait 14 months after completing their residency to take their final boards.  This means that you don't become a board-certified for a whole year (assuming you pass the boards, of course).  And who wants to hire a radiologist who isn't board certified?  No one.  So what are you supposed to do with this random year of your life?  A fellowship.  Basically it's like another year of residency, but you focus on something more specific within the field.  Salary is essentially the same as residency.  Garrett is 90% sure he wants to do MSK (musculoskeletal).  Something to do with.... bones, I guess. (Seriously guys, I know nothing about what he does.  All I know is, now he can scroll through Netflix (and other websites) so fast that it makes my head spin.  I don't know how he reads that stuff... but apparently that's what he does all day so he's good at seeing things really quickly?

Anyway.  So it's time for some big decisions.  Even though he has two more years of residency left, radiology does their fellowship interviews early (like, starting this summer).  We'll probably know by September-ish where we will be going.  So now, we are trying to figure out where he wants to go.  It's kind of exciting, but really scary too!

We could maybe stay here.  That would be easy, we already have a house here.  No moving for just a year.  But, fellowship is also an opportunity to "get your foot in the door" and make connections for a future job.  Do we want to stay in Florida long term?  Not really... not at this point, anyway.  Maybe we'll change our minds. But hey... the job market for radiology is actually pretty sad right now so who knows if we will even have a choice when the time comes?  We really can't be picky.

We love the South, and I think I would be happy staying in this area of the country. I also love the idea of living in the Carolinas or even back in Virginia again, maybe. I also don't mind the thought of the midwest, but none of our family lives there and we really want to live near some family, on either side. Of course, I'm sure he'll apply to some of the "top" programs too... it's just too bad that most of them seem to be in places that we don't necessarily want to live.  Too cold, or too far, or just not interested.  A lot of them are in California, but Garrett said you can't pay him enough to live there (ironically, many of the fellowships there are unpaid, since you are getting the privilege of training there. "You're welcome for the job.")  So, California's out I guess, which is fine. And really.... it's not a huge deal to move somewhere that is not perfect.  It's only a year, and you don't have to stay and get a job in that area.

So, where do we want to end up for good?  In the South?  Texas? Arizona? The Carolinas? New England? Pennsylvania?  Of course, fellowship doesn't lock you into a certain place forever, and nothing is permanent. But it's crazy to think that we are finally starting to talk about "the end" of this whole thing.  Fellowship is the last step!  Residency is almost halfway done, just three years left including the fellowship.  Crazy.  It's really exciting, but scary too.  Big decisions ahead!

The last night

I did the math: Garrett has been working nights for 14 weeks total over the last 6 months.

Sure, only six weeks have been true "night shifts" - 8pm-9am, six nights per week.  But the rest have still been pretty miserable: either 4pm-2am or noon-midnight (but thankfully only 5 nights per week).  Still not much better, in my opinion.  The hardest was probably the noon-midnight weeks because the kids never got to see him.  Also, it really seems like Garrett's immune system decides not to work when he's on nights, because he always gets sick, which makes it even harder!  This last week he has been battling the stomach flu while working 13 hour shifts (you really can't take sick days when you are working nights because no one can cover for you).

Also, it seems like when he is on days, he gets scheduled to work an overnight shift during the weekend!  This means he has to stay up late on Friday night so that he can sleep most of Saturday, so that he can work all night Saturday night, then he comes home Sunday around 9 or 10am, sleeps for a little bit, but not too much, because he wants to be able to sleep Sunday night so he can go back to work Monday morning. 

I am so ready to put the last few months behind us.  It's been really hard on everyone.  "They" say that second year is the hardest for radiology residency, and we are definitely experiencing that! But April is looking promising... he just switched weekends with someone and so now he has EVERY weekend free in April (well, starting when he gets home tomorrow morning sometime).  That's exciting... because our yard is looking pretty sad right now.

I'm ready to start eating dinner together as a family again.  I'm ready to hang out with him in the evenings instead of being alone every night!  I'm ready to go out with my girlfriends while Garrett is home with the kids.  I'm ready to go to bed at the same time.  I'll get to start making my bed every day again (I haven't been able to since he's been sleeping during the day!). I will be able to text him during the day without worrying that I will wake him up.  Now the girls will be able to play as loudly as they want (well, louder than they have been!).  And now, hopefully Garrett's immune system will get back on track and he'll be back to normal too.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm complaining too much... just trying to document what our lives have looked like the last 6 months.  I'm so thankful that Olivia has been so good because I don't think I would have survived being all alone with a difficult baby.  I'm also thankful that I have such a hardworking husband.  He is really dedicated and, from what I hear, he is also very good at what he does.

It has been a long six months and I'm ready to move on.... for the next 11 weeks, anyway.  He starts nights again in July.  

Things

*We are doing fine down here in Florida.  My kitchen is still about 1/4 painted and I keep telling myself I'll get it done, but.... it's not happening.   Maybe next week?

*As for my 101 in 1001, I was hoping to start working on my 20% grocery reduction but I think I should probably have a set budget first, and I'm still getting used to the food costs here.  It's unbelievable!  I'm lucky if I can find milk for under $3.85... and that's just an example, because EVERYTHING is more expensive here.  I think that's probably because there is only one chain of grocery stores here, Publix.  Publix is like the most expensive "regular" grocery store there is (compared to Kroger, Food Lion, etc here in the South), so it totally stinks!  So basically, first I've had to "up" my budget from last year, so I'll see how that's working out, THEN I'll try to reduce it.  But to be honest I'm not sure it'll happen.

*My mom is coming to visit in late September... we are so excited and already starting to count down the days until she gets here.

*We are going to Savannah this weekend.  It'll be a short trip but it'll be fun because Garrett's grandma is in town from AZ.

*We just found out that Garrett has to work again this year on Thanksgiving Day, and the day after.  ALL day both days.  We're bummed, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  I mean, I could just drive up to Savannah but I really hate the thought of Garrett coming home to an empty house on Thanksgiving!  I think his shift gets done at 8, so we actually could celebrate this year (just a little late in the day).  Last year that wasn't a possibility because he worked until 10 pm on Thanksgiving, but 8 isn't too bad... right?  Still thinking of the options.

*Garrett's schedule isn't too bad so far.  He has to be there at 7 each morning and he is usually home by 6 or 6:30 (well, lately it's been around 7/7:30)... about what we expected.  I mean, yeah that's a really long day (especially since he doesn't really get a lunch break), but it could be so, so much worse.  He doesn't have to work weekends (yet) and that is wonderful and makes a huge difference.

*I'm a little sad that summer is coming to an end but really it won't make much of a difference here since no one's in school yet, officially.  The play groups we attend will be smaller but that's probably a good thing.  We had an end-of-the-summer pool party this morning with the play group from Church.  There were probably 40 kids there, it was crazy!  So, it'll be nice to have a smaller group.

*One thing I love about being a Mormon is that the world is small.  You are always meeting people who know people you know, and making connections.  When you are in the medical community, that world gets even smaller. UF is such a big place too that people are here from all over.... Madison, Milwaukee, Ohio, Phoenix, Provo, SLC, Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, Idaho.  There's a lot of "Oh, do you know...." so-and-so.  It's fun, and interesting to meet people from all over (especially since each person is from lots of places: the place they grew up, undergrad, medical school, intern year, residency, fellowship... these people have moved lots of times, so there are lots of connections to be made.)  Over the years I have met people who did school/residency at Dartmouth, so we've made connections and know some of the same people in New Hampshire.  Garrett's also been able to make connections with people who moved here from Wisconsin, where Garrett lived for 8 years when his dad was in medical school/residency. Small world - I love it!  As far as specialties go, Garrett's definitely in the minority as a radiologist, though.  Most everyone at Church is in anesthesia (1/3 of the anesthesia program at UF is LDS).

*My brother and his wife are have TWINS!  It's a pretty huge shock (twins aren't in either family) but I am over the moon thrilled.  I can't really speak for Mike (I think he's pretty nervous!) but I think it's pretty darn exciting!!

Well, that's all for now.  I'd better go - dinner is ready and I just glanced out the window... the girls are sitting in a dirt pile and pouring dirt over their heads!  Looks like it's a bath night (which Garrett gets to do, since I have to be somewhere at 7!).

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!)

Thoughts from Florida

Well, we are settling in to our new home here in Florida, and things are going well.  Garrett had 4 days of orientation, and then had a long weekend for the 4th of July, which we spent in Savannah.  We had a good time with the whole Woodbury clan, eating lots of BBQ and taking cheesy pictures in the pool.  Fun times.

18 months ago, when Garrett and I were discussing his residency rank list and trying to decide how to rank each program, Florida was consistently at the top for a few big reasons.  Those reasons included: affordable cost of living (generally true anywhere in the South, let's face it), "close" to his family (3 hrs away.  I've resigned myself to the fact that we will probably never live near my family, since Garrett hates cold weather), a large Mormon resident population, and free health care (free for all UF residents and their families).  These were all big deals for us.

On almost all counts, those expectations have been met.  We were able to buy a house, we already drove to Savannah once and the drive isn't too bad, our ward at Church could be called "BYU Student Ward PLUS" (plus 5-8 years.  Seriously, there are like 10 people total over the age of 40.  It's insane, everyone is a resident/resident wife.  It's like a student ward with tons of little kids added to the mix).  And, Garrett has already taken advantage of the health care since he was having back problems a few weeks ago.

So, I think it's safe to say that we are in the right place.  That's not to say that we haven't had difficult and trying moments over the last few weeks, though.  I would be lying if I said that there weren't moments of sheer terror at the thought of owning a house (so much responsibility), or wondering if we had made the right decision in coming here, or just questioning everything, basically.  We've had some difficult moments, especially when Garrett was struggling with his back and we were thinking that surgery would be in the near future (thankfully, it's probably not).  Everything also cost more than we expected it to ($900 to register our 2 cars and get new licenses....I almost had a heart attack). Life was really hard (it didn't help that when we entered our empty house for the first time, there was a giant cockroach on our bedroom wall... what a welcome.).  Seriously though, it was very discouraging.  There were also so many things in the house that had to get done (unpacking, etc), but so much had to be left undone for so long because they were two person jobs, and Garrett's back needed to heal. We also desperately missed our friends (still do!).  Oh, and I got pulled over for the first time ever (the cops are everywhere here).  It was rough.

But, I am an optimist (It may not sound like it, but I really am!).  Every day the house feels a little bit more like "ours"... not really because we're doing anything to it yet, but just because we've been here longer now and it just feels normal (I love normal).  We are starting to get a routine down, and the girls have made some friends (there is a girl Abby's age named Ellie.  Abby calls her "the real Ellie".  I guess our Ellie is pretend?).  I've even managed to do a few repairs around the house on my own, which is always liberating.

So.... long story short, we are surviving, we are busy, and things are improving.  I have yet to see an alligator, so that's a plus.  And yes, it's hot, but to be honest it's not as bad as I expected it to be.  It certainly doesn't feel worse than Augusta ever did.  Sure, it's humid (understatement), but that comes as no surprise.  Saves me money, since I don't have to buy lotion.

So there's my little (okay, kinda long) update about us.  Upon re-reading it, it does sound a little bit whiny if you don't really know me, so.... I apologize. I'm just trying to be real.  (A few months ago, a nice anonymous reader commented that I was "becoming very whiny and materialistic".  And even though they said that they would never read my blog again, I've really tried filter my posts, because it's really not my intention to whine.  It bothers me that I come across that way to some people.)

Next up: a book review.  Seriously this time.  I know I said that a few weeks (months?) ago, but this time I'm really going to do it.  It's a fantastic book, and if I had a money tree I'd buy it for everyone I know.  It's that good.

Rounds

Garrett just finished his final month of internal medicine!!  Woo hoo!!!  Here's to the end of 30-hour shifts!

Happy Black Friday!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving.  It turned out that Garrett didn't have to leave for work until 1:30, so we spent the morning together and hung out.  I did a workout video, he went running.  Played with the kids.  Once Garrett left for work, Abby and I made some chocolate chip cookies, which we then dropped off at the ER for Garrett and the other staff that was unlucky enough to get scheduled to work that day.  Unfortunately, we got there as soon as a couple ambulances were arriving so we only got to see Garrett for about 30 seconds.  Then we went home, I fed the kids dinner (grilled cheese) and put them to bed at 6:30 (it was a rough afternoon... they both have colds and it's making them (me) crazy).

Then, when Garrett came home a bit after midnight, I headed out and hit up some Black Friday sales!!  Haha just kidding.... I'm not that crazy.  I mean, I love a good deal as much as the next person (maybe even more), and I spent some time last week researching some of the great deals to be had (and let's face it, I was mostly looking at things for myself), but in the end there was nothing good enough to tempt me to face the crowds.  And to be honest, I don't ever see myself becoming a Black Friday shopper.  I've read the horror stories in the news, and seen pictures.  I hate crowds and I hate the "I-have-to-run-through-the-store-and-beat-everyone-else-to-the-electronics-section-before-everything-is-taken" feeling.  Online deals, though?  You can bet I love those.  But I still didn't pull out my credit card for anything today. (Although I can't say the same for Garrett... but that's for another post, I think.)

This year I am particularly thankful that Garrett has a job.  He's worked a lot this week, so it's in the forefront of my mind and the gratitude helps me not become bitter about it! :)  Seriously though, I am so grateful that he's working, and that he's in a job that is stable.  I'm grateful that he's in a chill transitional program that allows him lots of family time.  

This week I am thankful for Gmail video chat and Skype. We've gotten to "see" all my siblings and my parents over the last couple of days, and Garrett's parents and some siblings too.  So, even though we didn't go visit family this holiday, we still got to interact with them, which is always fun.

Today I am thankful for baby Tylenol.  Ellie is teething and it's brutal (for me.  And okay, for her too).  She was in rare form today and spent most of the day screaming and crying and whining.  Poor thing.  It doesn't help that she has a cold on top of it all.

Right now I am thankful for my warm bed waiting for me... and thankful that I'm not working a 10-hour shift in the ER, like a certain person I am married to.  Tonight around 9:30, my eyes were starting to feel tired and I was thinking about my bed, and meanwhile Garrett was loading up on Coke Zero to prepare himself for work at 10pm.  Sooooo not jealous of him.

Post call

Garrett enjoys a post-call nap while the girls (& their Mei Mei's) watch "Kipper" on Netflix.

I'm making this spaghetti squash recipe for dinner tonight.  I've made it before and it's so good.  Try it!

Take two

We visited Daddy again in the hospital tonight.  Abby's getting better behind the camera...

Garrett's almost done with his family medicine rotation, woohoo!  To be honest it really hasn't been that bad (says me, ha).  He's only had to work one Sunday, and he had the whole weekend off this last weekend.

It's the next rotation - ER - that I'm really not looking forward to.  Especially since he has to work the entire week of Thanksgiving, Monday-Saturday, with no days off.  I'm not complaining (okay, clearly I am) but that totally stinks!  I love Thanksgiving so much but it's looking like we will just have to celebrate it on a different day, maybe the next week.  Anyway, I should probably get used to it as I'm sure this is just the first of many times that Garrett will have to work on a holiday.  I'm just thankful that the girls are still too young to notice.

Does anyone have any great Thanksgiving recipes they want to recommend?  I am definitely planning to keep it simple - a small turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, a salad, a cranberry dish, and maybe this butternut squash soup (I made this last week and it's so good).  And one (maybe two) pies.  Of course, we'll be celebrating with the Egberts (hopefully) and I'm sure they will have some great recipes (no pressure, guys), but I'd love to hear what you all recommend.  Any favorite Thanksgiving dishes?

We visited Daddy at the hospital.

Tonight we went to the hospital to visit Daddy.  He's on call and won't be home until tomorrow sometime.

(Can you imagine working a 30-hour shift?  Going in at 7 a.m. and working until noon the next day?  I don't know how doctors do it, but they do.  Things are changing though, and this is the last year that residents will be allowed to work such long shifts.  I am thankful for that, but to be honest it didn't really matter anyway because they didn't have 30-hour shifts at Garrett's radiology program.)

Abby insisted on taking a picture before we left. (You saw in the last post video how much she loves being behind the camera.)

(Doesn't that puffy jacket make Ellie look like a marshmallow?  I love it.  She does, too.)

On the move

After weeks of packing, we finally loaded up the truck and made the 465-mile journey to our new home in Virginia.  It was sad to leave our home in Augusta.  We had so many friends there, and so many people in our situation that we could relate to (poor students with kids).  Medical school was hard (haha doesn't that make it sound like *I* went to medical school?) but we absolutely loved our time in Georgia.  Yes it was hot and humid and there really isn't much to do in Augusta, but we had people we loved there, and we made some great memories.  Such a fun time of our life!

But, life goes on and I am especially excited for THIS chapter because it brings a PAYCHECK!  (still waiting for the first one, but still.)

Anyway, back to the move.  We rented a 24' Budget truck.  For weeks, Garrett stressed that not all of our stuff would fit in the truck.  I knew it would be fine... we had spent weeks helping our friends load up their trucks, and we have (much) less stuff than some of them have.  Besides, we were already getting rid of tons of stuff not only for the truck space, but because we lost 350 square feet of living space when we moved here.

So, on a Tuesday morning some people from the ward came over and helped us load the truck (a surprisingly great turnout for a weekday morning, thanks everyone!).  We were DONE in about 1.5 hours and spent the rest of the day doing last-minute packing, errands, and cleaning.  The plan was to leave at 5:30 on Wednesday morning.

We rolled out of the driveway around 5:45 the next morning - 15 minutes behind schedule, but not too bad!  We were lucky enough to be moving to the same city as some of our best friends, the Egberts.  We decided several weeks ago that we would all caravan to Virginia.  It made it a lot more fun since we all had walkie-talkies.  Rob did a great job of warning us when a great mullet was on its way to pass us in the left-hand lane! (Thank you, North Carolina).

Garrett did a great job driving the truck, and towing his sedan behind.  That's Rob in the background with his Penske, towing his truck with the canoe on top.

My view for 465 miles.  Garrett set the pace for us all.  At first we thought that we'd have to go 55 the whole way (there's a governor on the truck), but thankfully Garrett found an override button that allowed him to go 70 - woo hoo!  Made ALL the difference.

My rear view - Haley was behind me and Rob was in the back of the caravan.

We only made one stop, somewhere in NC for lunch.

The girls did great in the car! I thought it would be rough because we don't have movies or anything but they did really well (although they didn't nap, which was annoying).  And we made great time.  We got to our new hometown in just about 8.5 hours - not too bad considering we took a long break about 2/3 of the way through.

When we arrived at our destination we decided that we'd go straight to the truck place and drop off the hitch and the car.  That way, when Garrett returned the truck later that night, he'd already have his car there to drive home.  Would you believe that that dang car wouldn't start to even take it off the trailer??  He'd been having some problems with it the week before we moved, and I told him that the last thing we want to do is haul a no-good car all the way up to Virginia.  I told him that it probably would break down in the first week we were there.  I was only too right... we couldn't even start it to take it of the trailer.  So, we pushed it off and left it there overnight, and I drove Garrett back the next day to fix it (YouTube has saved us hundreds of $$ over the last few months. Seriously.).

Anyway...... we got to our apartment complex and some people from the ward came to help us unload the truck.  It took a few hours but it went great - we were so thankful for the help.  It's amazing how much stuff you can have, even if you don't REALLY have a ton of stuff.  Does that make sense?  Let's just say, I'm glad we got rid of so many things before we moved.  I don't even remember half the things we ditched - that's how "important" they were to me.

So, that's our story about our move to Virginia.  WHAT A DAY!!  It was fun (traveling with friends and walkie-talkies), it was challenging (unloading boxes and dealing with 2 whiny kids with no naps), and it was awful (dealing with the car not starting when we got there).  And sad (I got some family news that was very upsetting).  Thankfully it's OVER and now we can just move on with the new chapter of our lives here in residency!  Let the games (and paychecks) begin!

I'll post some pics of our apartment complex/neighborhood soon!

Ready... set....

I can't believe we are moving in 2.5 weeks.  I think I'm actually in denial.  We haven't started packing (AT ALL.... we don't even have boxes yet).  We haven't rented a truck yet (hey, don't blame me, that's the man's job).  We haven't really started saying goodbye yet either (if I had my choice, I'd just skip that altogether.  It's easier to just leave without acknowledging anything, in my opinion).

We do, however, have a place to live!  We took a miserable trip up to Virginia early last week and spent TWO FULL DAYS looking.  I say miserable because: 1. it poured rain almost the entire time we were there, 2. all the places I wanted to check out got rented to other people right before we got there, 3. every house we saw in our budget was disgusting, 4. Abby was sick and coughing and although I should feel bad, I have to admit that I was just mad, because it was driving me crazy.  Garrett and I really hate sharing a room with our kids (they are noisy sleepers), and the coughing every 30 seconds drove me insane.  Also, since she was sick Abby was in a pretty whiny mood the whole time.  She kept begging to "go on the trip" that we had been promising her.  She didn't quite understand, no matter how many times I explained it to her, that we were on the trip!!  Poor thing has always correlated "trip" to mean "we are going to see grandma", so Virginia just didn't do it for her I guess.

Anyway, so yes we found a place to live.  It's a little 2-bedroom apartment about 7 minutes north of the hospital.  Not too bad.  It certainly isn't what we were hoping for.  To be honest I'm pretty anxious about living in an apartment complex.  I have only ever lived in one once, when I was a sophomore at BYU.  It was great, but I was single and living with girlfriends.  I'm not quite sure what to expect from an apartment complex full of people I don't know, with two kids to keep happy in a small space.  I'm anxious about noise from the neighbors, lack of privacy, finding a parking space, and safety. 

The the fact that it has two bedrooms doesn't bother me much at all.  I have always planned on my kids sharing rooms, so we're getting an early start and I like that.  I always shared a room as a kid - until I was well into high school, actually - and I think it's great for kids to learn how to share a space.  

We did find one very nice townhouse that had three bedrooms and a small fenced in backyard.  It was in a fabulous neighborhood, with a community pool and playground.  There were walking trails nearby, and it seemed so perfect.  However, it was at the very top of our budget - like, the tip top - and when it came right down to it, we just couldn't take it.  When we created our budget and decided on that number, we still had a couple hundred dollars left over each month, so we figured it would be just fine.  We were even pretty liberal with how much we expected to spend on our utilities, and we still came out with some left over.  However, we couldn't help but wonder if we were forgetting something, or if things would be more expensive than we thought, or if we will soon have a car payment (this is very likely).  So, we went for the cheaper option - the apartment.  And it was at the low end of our budget, so it's not like we're only saving a couple of dimes each month.  It's more like a couple hundred dollars. (I mentioned to Garrett that maybe I could have a small "fun money" budget with the money we are saving by living in the apartment.  ummm... no.  But it was worth a try!  I guess I'll just have to keep spending money on the sly.  "Oh these shoes? I've had them for months!")

Probably the main reason I was so frustrated about settling on an apartment was my own pride.  I guess I always thought that once Garrett was a doctor, life would be a bit easier.  I certainly knew that things would still be tight and that residency wouldn't be easy, but it's a little frustrating to go from a great three-bedroom home on almost an acre of land (during school), to a little 2-bedroom apartment (he's a doctor!).  One step forward, two steps back?  It kinda feels like it.

I have to say, though, that I feel good about our decision about where to live.  I feel like we made the right decision for us.  Another option (a house) was presented to us a few days later, but after a lot of discussion we decided to stick with the apartment still.  It's right.  And as everyone is saying, we can do anything for a year.  I suppose that's true.  I mean, if we were moving to a huge city, we wouldn't even have an option - it would be apartments all the way.  That makes me feel a little better.

One major bright spot about moving into a small apartment: we are getting rid of a lot of stuff.  If you know me you know that I LOVE to declutter.  I love to give things away, throw things away, etc.  It's awesome.  I really enjoy not having a lot of "stuff".  "Stuff" just wears me down.  It is so freeing to see trash bags full of things get taken out of our house.  I love it.

Now excuse me while I go call WalMart.... apparently you can call them during the night shift and request boxes, and that night they will set aside as many as you want and you can pick them up in the morning.  For FREE.  I love that word.

Match Day, by the numbers

We started the day with a brunch at someone's house, then all headed down to MCG for the big ceremony/party.  Afterwards we went to another person's house and spent the afternoon/evening hanging out.  The Match Day theme was "marathon", hence all the workout attire.

100 - percent chance that you will give in to peer pressure and cut your hair in a strange way (especially when your med school career is basically over anyway)  Brunch was crazy, to say the least.

1988 - the year I thought it was when I saw these guys

18 - radiology spots that Garrett ranked

8 - transitional/intern year spots ranked

170 - people in Garrett's 4th year class

about 120 - people who got their envelopes before Garrett (they pull them out of a big pile, in random order)

#1 - the spot Garrett got for radiology (Gainesville, FL)

#2 - the spot Garrett got for his transitional year (Newport News, VA)

3 - people we know coming with us to Newport News

about 1000 - high fives, shouts of joy, and hugs

(I still need a pic of Will and Paige!)

6 - different places we will all be scattered for the next couple of years

12 - ecstatic (and nervous!) people, ready for the next stage of our lives!

(Justin & Lindsay - Roanoke, VA and Memphis TN; Garrett & Hannah - Newport News, VA and Gainesville, FL; Rob & Haley - Newport News, VA and Charleston, SC; Rick & Kristin - Asheville, NC; Will & Paige - Kansas City, KS; Andrew & Jessica - Winston-Salem, NC)

Match Day was really one of the most fun, exciting days of my life!  Being in that auditorium with all those fourth year medical students opening their match envelopes was so neat.  There were lots of tears (mostly happy from what I saw).  It was just such a cool experience, and MCG did a great job of celebrating their students' achievements.  I am so proud of Garrett and what he has accomplished - I can't believe graduation is just around the corner!

Can you believe....

...that this guy is going to be a radiologist?  Me neither.

Match day post coming soon....

A sigh of relief

We got together tonight with our dinner group to celebrate a successful match. All six guys matched - we are all so proud of them! Now we just have to wait until Thursday at noon, when we find out where we are all going!

Congrats, guys!

Your future doctors of America!

Garrett - radiology

Rob - radiology

Andrew - pathology

Will - urology

Justin - ophthalmology

Rick - ob/gyn