Garrett's on call tonight so I think we are safe with having such a messy house for now. Now excuse me while I go get Ellie... she's taking stuff out of the trash (which needs to be taken out!).
Friday, January 14, 2011
Today...
....the house is a mess, I desperately need to go grocery shopping, and Ellie has one pigtail that has stayed in from yesterday.
Garrett's on call tonight so I think we are safe with having such a messy house for now. Now excuse me while I go get Ellie... she's taking stuff out of the trash (which needs to be taken out!).
Garrett's on call tonight so I think we are safe with having such a messy house for now. Now excuse me while I go get Ellie... she's taking stuff out of the trash (which needs to be taken out!).
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A couple things...
-Ellie is on an eating strike. She hasn't eaten a full meal in about a week. She's also been waking up and crying about 5 times a night. At first it was because she was teething, so I would go in there and give her some medicine and a drink and that would calm her right down. However, now I am pretty sure she's just waking up out of habit. I would ignore her, but I feel so bad for Abby having to share a room with her! Thankfully it's getting better though... last night she only woke up twice. And now she's mostly just waking up before midnight, which is nice because usually I haven't gone to bed yet. Either way though, it's pretty annoying. She's NOT a newborn, she shouldn't be acting like one by getting up multiple times a night.
-I am no longer working in the Primary at Church. I was sad to be done with singing time but they needed me somewhere else... Young Womens to be exact. I am the first counselor, which means I'll be mostly working with the 14-15 year old girls. I don't know any of the girls so I'm a bit anxious and I feel very overwhelmed. I will also have to take the kids with me to many activities and youth nights which I am not looking forward to. But we are only here for 5 more months and I suppose I can do anything for that long.
-I gained 1.5 lbs over Christmas break. Thankfully most of it is gone. It took me about a week after being home to get back into my healthy eating/exercise groove but it's finally back. Now if only Haley will stop making yummy treats...
-I just got a property tax bill for our cars. Maybe I'm naive but I had no idea that property taxes on cars were so expensive... we owe $300! I am NOT happy. They charged me for the entire 2010 year, so I need to call them and tell them to adjust the bill for when I actually moved here. I don't remember ever paying property taxes for our cars in Georgia.... either they don't charge it, or I am on a "Wanted" sign down there somewhere.
-I made this black bean & salsa soup for dinner a few nights ago and it was really good. I don't think Garrett enjoyed it as much as I did (too spicy) but I loved it. It was fast, easy, filling, and low on calories. I'll definitely be making it again.
-Abby has watched "Toy Story 2" every day for about a week now. I love those movies (and clearly she does, too!)... we still have to see the third one though. It's on our Netflix queue.
-We are almost done with season 6 of "24". It is intense! I love it.
-I called the pediatrician's office last month and scheduled checkups for the girls. They were supposed to be last week, but I called the day before their appointments to ask a question about Abby's shots (when I took Abby to get her flu shot in Dec, they told me she also needed to re-do her Hep B shot because it was originally given a few weeks too early (when she was 4 months old instead of 6 months). I am very angry at the Augusta pediatrician's office, if this is true. I need to call them and ask if they are messing up on all their patients. Plus, this happened 3.5 years ago.... and it's just now getting noticed?)
Anyway, I asked about that shot, and as I was about to hang up I said, "Well okay, we can re-do Abby's Hep B tomorrow when she gets her other shots at her 4 year appointment, right?" They said, "no problem." But then I asked, "So, this is all okay, even though she won't be 4 for another couple of weeks?"
"Oh, no," they said, "She has to be 4 to get her 4-year-old shots. If you come tomorrow and have them done, your insurance won't cover them, AND she will have to have them re-done after she turns four."
So of course, we rescheduled their appointments and we'll be going in after she turns 4. But I'm just SO ANNOYED at them because THEY scheduled her appointment! THEY gave me the date to bring in the girls, I didn't ask for that particular date. I am so glad that I cleared that up before dragging them all the way down there at 8 in the morning. And for the life of me I can't figure out why I didn't get angry at them on the phone and say, "Um, you scheduled this appointment. I would NOT have paid for those shots, just so you know. And I would have been very annoyed if my 4-year-old little girl had to get shots twice because you screwed up." But of course, all I said was "thank you very much for rescheduling" and hung up the phone. (I hate myself for that)
I guess the moral of this long-winded story is that *I* am in charge of my health care. No one is going to look out for me (or my kids) better than I am. I am in charge of knowing when my kids need shots, what shots they need, when their appointments should be, etc. I guess I just need to be more informed and more involved. Let this be a lesson to everyone!
And, I need to quit being such a pushover sometimes. Should I bring this to their attention when we go in for shots in a few weeks, or is it too late?
Maybe I can practice my aggression when I call their old pediatrician's office and ask why the heck Abby's Hep B was 2 months too early.
-And finally.... my dad + facebook = hilarious. But he doesn't have his own account so he does everything under my mom's name. It's pretty funny.
-I am no longer working in the Primary at Church. I was sad to be done with singing time but they needed me somewhere else... Young Womens to be exact. I am the first counselor, which means I'll be mostly working with the 14-15 year old girls. I don't know any of the girls so I'm a bit anxious and I feel very overwhelmed. I will also have to take the kids with me to many activities and youth nights which I am not looking forward to. But we are only here for 5 more months and I suppose I can do anything for that long.
-I gained 1.5 lbs over Christmas break. Thankfully most of it is gone. It took me about a week after being home to get back into my healthy eating/exercise groove but it's finally back. Now if only Haley will stop making yummy treats...
-I just got a property tax bill for our cars. Maybe I'm naive but I had no idea that property taxes on cars were so expensive... we owe $300! I am NOT happy. They charged me for the entire 2010 year, so I need to call them and tell them to adjust the bill for when I actually moved here. I don't remember ever paying property taxes for our cars in Georgia.... either they don't charge it, or I am on a "Wanted" sign down there somewhere.
-I made this black bean & salsa soup for dinner a few nights ago and it was really good. I don't think Garrett enjoyed it as much as I did (too spicy) but I loved it. It was fast, easy, filling, and low on calories. I'll definitely be making it again.
-Abby has watched "Toy Story 2" every day for about a week now. I love those movies (and clearly she does, too!)... we still have to see the third one though. It's on our Netflix queue.
-We are almost done with season 6 of "24". It is intense! I love it.
-I called the pediatrician's office last month and scheduled checkups for the girls. They were supposed to be last week, but I called the day before their appointments to ask a question about Abby's shots (when I took Abby to get her flu shot in Dec, they told me she also needed to re-do her Hep B shot because it was originally given a few weeks too early (when she was 4 months old instead of 6 months). I am very angry at the Augusta pediatrician's office, if this is true. I need to call them and ask if they are messing up on all their patients. Plus, this happened 3.5 years ago.... and it's just now getting noticed?)
Anyway, I asked about that shot, and as I was about to hang up I said, "Well okay, we can re-do Abby's Hep B tomorrow when she gets her other shots at her 4 year appointment, right?" They said, "no problem." But then I asked, "So, this is all okay, even though she won't be 4 for another couple of weeks?"
"Oh, no," they said, "She has to be 4 to get her 4-year-old shots. If you come tomorrow and have them done, your insurance won't cover them, AND she will have to have them re-done after she turns four."
So of course, we rescheduled their appointments and we'll be going in after she turns 4. But I'm just SO ANNOYED at them because THEY scheduled her appointment! THEY gave me the date to bring in the girls, I didn't ask for that particular date. I am so glad that I cleared that up before dragging them all the way down there at 8 in the morning. And for the life of me I can't figure out why I didn't get angry at them on the phone and say, "Um, you scheduled this appointment. I would NOT have paid for those shots, just so you know. And I would have been very annoyed if my 4-year-old little girl had to get shots twice because you screwed up." But of course, all I said was "thank you very much for rescheduling" and hung up the phone. (I hate myself for that)
I guess the moral of this long-winded story is that *I* am in charge of my health care. No one is going to look out for me (or my kids) better than I am. I am in charge of knowing when my kids need shots, what shots they need, when their appointments should be, etc. I guess I just need to be more informed and more involved. Let this be a lesson to everyone!
And, I need to quit being such a pushover sometimes. Should I bring this to their attention when we go in for shots in a few weeks, or is it too late?
Maybe I can practice my aggression when I call their old pediatrician's office and ask why the heck Abby's Hep B was 2 months too early.
-And finally.... my dad + facebook = hilarious. But he doesn't have his own account so he does everything under my mom's name. It's pretty funny.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
House Hunting: Must-haves, vs Want-to-haves
Well, I've officially gotten the ball rolling as far as house hunting in Florida. Yes, I'm probably crazy but I am just so excited! I contacted one of the guys who Garrett met during his interview a year ago, and his wife and I have been emailing back and forth with house hunting stuff. She is going to get me a list of all the other residents who are going to be selling their homes this Spring. Ideally, we'll be able to buy a home from a graduating resident but we'll see. It's still a bit early to really start looking, but I want the graduating residents to know about us and contact us before they list their houses with a realtor.
We still haven't talked much about what our budget will be. It's hard because that all depends on what interest rate we get, what kind of down payment we have, etc. We know how much we are comfortable spending per month, but we don't know what kind of "big number" that will give us. We also need to hunt around for physician loans - special mortgages available to physicians. They usually have very good interest rates even without a down payment. (Don't be jealous... it has cost us almost $200k to earn that physician loan!)
Like most people who are house hunting, I have a lot of ideas for what kind of house I want to buy and what I want it to look like. I have compiled a list of "must-haves" and "wishes".... let me know what you think.
And let me note that Garrett has not seen this list because he's on call right now, so... it may change dramatically once we actually sit down and discuss things (although, I do think we are in agreement about most of it):
Must have:
At least 3 bedrooms
A garage or shed (preferably a garage!)
No pool (I am not interested in owning a pool! I know, I'm crazy)
A dishwasher
Laundry hookups
More than 1 bathroom
Wish list:
Fenced-in backyard (with a nice fence)
A large-ish backyard (half an acre?)
Community pool
Community gym
Stainless steel appliances
A laundry ROOM (rather than a closet)
4 bedrooms!
Big closets and storage areas
Wood (or laminate) floors
White kitchen cabinets
Nice counter tops
A sunroom (these are pretty popular in FL so it shouldn't be too hard to find)
2 car garage (preferably one that DOESN'T stick out way into the front of the house, but I'd rather have a garage that sticks out over not having one at all)
front porch
NOT tile floors everywhere (tile seems to be popular in FL but I don't really like it in the living room)
A big pantry (walk-in a plus)
On a cul-de-sac
A citrus tree or two or three (how neat would that be??? Growing up in New England, I was always so fascinated by citrus trees... probably because I'd never seen one in real life! Same with palm trees... I think I was 20 before I saw either)
Avocado tree
Not an all-brick house (I really love siding)
10 years old or less
In one of the neighborhoods where most of the other resident families live
So clearly I have a lot more things on my wish list than my must-have list. I obviously need to have all the things on my "must have" list, and I would like to have at least 6 or 7 things from my wish list, but it doesn't matter which ones. Wouldn't it be great if we could find a place with most of our wish list items?? Crossing my fingers... :) Sometimes I feel like my wish list is way too long, but the reality is that I've seen lots of houses for sale in Florida that have many of these characteristics, and some of them are even in our budget (I think?). So I don't think I'm too off base... I just doubt we'll get them all in one house. We probably won't even get half. That's okay though.
What do you think? Anything I'm missing?
We still haven't talked much about what our budget will be. It's hard because that all depends on what interest rate we get, what kind of down payment we have, etc. We know how much we are comfortable spending per month, but we don't know what kind of "big number" that will give us. We also need to hunt around for physician loans - special mortgages available to physicians. They usually have very good interest rates even without a down payment. (Don't be jealous... it has cost us almost $200k to earn that physician loan!)
Like most people who are house hunting, I have a lot of ideas for what kind of house I want to buy and what I want it to look like. I have compiled a list of "must-haves" and "wishes".... let me know what you think.
And let me note that Garrett has not seen this list because he's on call right now, so... it may change dramatically once we actually sit down and discuss things (although, I do think we are in agreement about most of it):
Must have:
At least 3 bedrooms
A garage or shed (preferably a garage!)
No pool (I am not interested in owning a pool! I know, I'm crazy)
A dishwasher
Laundry hookups
More than 1 bathroom
Wish list:
Fenced-in backyard (with a nice fence)
A large-ish backyard (half an acre?)
Community pool
Community gym
Stainless steel appliances
A laundry ROOM (rather than a closet)
4 bedrooms!
Big closets and storage areas
Wood (or laminate) floors
White kitchen cabinets
Nice counter tops
A sunroom (these are pretty popular in FL so it shouldn't be too hard to find)
2 car garage (preferably one that DOESN'T stick out way into the front of the house, but I'd rather have a garage that sticks out over not having one at all)
front porch
NOT tile floors everywhere (tile seems to be popular in FL but I don't really like it in the living room)
A big pantry (walk-in a plus)
On a cul-de-sac
A citrus tree or two or three (how neat would that be??? Growing up in New England, I was always so fascinated by citrus trees... probably because I'd never seen one in real life! Same with palm trees... I think I was 20 before I saw either)
Avocado tree
Not an all-brick house (I really love siding)
10 years old or less
In one of the neighborhoods where most of the other resident families live
So clearly I have a lot more things on my wish list than my must-have list. I obviously need to have all the things on my "must have" list, and I would like to have at least 6 or 7 things from my wish list, but it doesn't matter which ones. Wouldn't it be great if we could find a place with most of our wish list items?? Crossing my fingers... :) Sometimes I feel like my wish list is way too long, but the reality is that I've seen lots of houses for sale in Florida that have many of these characteristics, and some of them are even in our budget (I think?). So I don't think I'm too off base... I just doubt we'll get them all in one house. We probably won't even get half. That's okay though.
What do you think? Anything I'm missing?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Hat tricks
If there is one thing Ellie loves, it's putting things on her head. Here's a little collection of pictures I've gotten over the last several weeks:
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Still thinking...
I'm still working on my resolutions. I'm going back and forth between making a long list of things (big and small) that I want to accomplish in 2011. Or, maybe I will focus on one different thing per month, hoping that by the end of each month that thing (or trait) will become a habit. Or maybe I'll just focus on one BIG thing all year and break it up into 12 smaller steps. We'll see. I have some ideas but nothing is set yet.
In the meantime.... here are some pictures we've taken over the last few days.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Movin' on up!
Today was a big day at our house: Abby moved up into the "Primary" program at Church - basically that means that she goes to a Sunday School-type class instead of the nursery (where all the toys are). And it just so happens that Ellie turned 18 months old yesterday, so she is now old enough to go to nursery! Didn't I plan that well? :)
It was so nice to be able to do music time in the Primary without Ellie hanging onto me or screaming that she wants me (I used to have to keep Ellie with me during the second hour since Garrett teaches a teenage Sunday School class, then he would take her during third hour). Garrett had to work today so he didn't get to see the girls in their new classes, but it was so cute to see them experiencing something new. Ellie did just fine in the nursery, probably because there was only one other kid in there (which I am so thankful for... I hate when the nursery has a ton of kids). Abby seemed a bit tentative about coming into the Primary (there were a lot of screaming kids at the beginning), but she did well and enjoyed herself in her class, too.
I can't believe I have a kid in Primary. Where does the time go?
It was so nice to be able to do music time in the Primary without Ellie hanging onto me or screaming that she wants me (I used to have to keep Ellie with me during the second hour since Garrett teaches a teenage Sunday School class, then he would take her during third hour). Garrett had to work today so he didn't get to see the girls in their new classes, but it was so cute to see them experiencing something new. Ellie did just fine in the nursery, probably because there was only one other kid in there (which I am so thankful for... I hate when the nursery has a ton of kids). Abby seemed a bit tentative about coming into the Primary (there were a lot of screaming kids at the beginning), but she did well and enjoyed herself in her class, too.
I can't believe I have a kid in Primary. Where does the time go?
Saturday, January 1, 2011
1.1.11
New beginnings!
To be honest, I've never really been big into making New Year's resolutions but I do it anyway because it feels like something I should do. But this year, rather than making a list of resolutions for the year, I want to focus on certain qualities/traits that I want to learn (or perfect), and focus on one of those per month. I haven't had much of a chance to think about them yet but once I have them set in stone I will share them with you.
Now I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and share some of the things we did in 2010, just in case you missed it!
January:
Garrett was still really busy with residency interviews. I was a single parent a lot during that month (and the month before that)
Abby turned three
February:
We watched a ton of Olympics
Garrett submitted his rank list for residency programs
March:
I ran my first official 5k
A huge sigh of relief when we found out that Garrett matched!
MATCH DAY!
April:
We spent a weekend in Washington D.C.
We went to Utah
We went to California
May:
Garrett graduated from medical school!
June:
We moved to Virginia
July:
Ellie turned one
August:
I hit a blogging bump so I started (and completed) the 50-day Challenge
September:
We spent a week in Pennsylvania with my family
We bought a second car
October:
Beach camping at the Outer Banks
November:
Ellie screeches. A lot.
December:
Garrett actually let me interview him here on the blog
Christmas in Savannah
Whew, it's been quite a year. 2011 is already shaping up to be a busy year
January: Abby turns 4
February: ?? Not really sure but I do know that Garrett has a good schedule - 4 days on, 4 days off.
March: Garrett will take a week-long vacation and we'll either go house hunting in FL, or to PA to visit my parents
April: Garrett will take another week-long vacation and we'll do whatever we didn't do in March
May: pack up
June: move to Florida
July: Garrett starts radiology!
August: we'll suffer the humidity of Florida
September: Abby starts preschool (maybe)
October: let's face it, we'll probably be suffering of heat still
November: ??
December: ??
To be honest, I've never really been big into making New Year's resolutions but I do it anyway because it feels like something I should do. But this year, rather than making a list of resolutions for the year, I want to focus on certain qualities/traits that I want to learn (or perfect), and focus on one of those per month. I haven't had much of a chance to think about them yet but once I have them set in stone I will share them with you.
Now I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and share some of the things we did in 2010, just in case you missed it!
January:
Garrett was still really busy with residency interviews. I was a single parent a lot during that month (and the month before that)
Abby turned three
February:
We watched a ton of Olympics
Garrett submitted his rank list for residency programs
March:
I ran my first official 5k
A huge sigh of relief when we found out that Garrett matched!
MATCH DAY!
April:
We spent a weekend in Washington D.C.
We went to Utah
We went to California
May:
Garrett graduated from medical school!
June:
We moved to Virginia
July:
Ellie turned one
August:
I hit a blogging bump so I started (and completed) the 50-day Challenge
September:
We spent a week in Pennsylvania with my family
We bought a second car
October:
Beach camping at the Outer Banks
November:
Ellie screeches. A lot.
December:
Garrett actually let me interview him here on the blog
Christmas in Savannah
Whew, it's been quite a year. 2011 is already shaping up to be a busy year
January: Abby turns 4
February: ?? Not really sure but I do know that Garrett has a good schedule - 4 days on, 4 days off.
March: Garrett will take a week-long vacation and we'll either go house hunting in FL, or to PA to visit my parents
April: Garrett will take another week-long vacation and we'll do whatever we didn't do in March
May: pack up
June: move to Florida
July: Garrett starts radiology!
August: we'll suffer the humidity of Florida
September: Abby starts preschool (maybe)
October: let's face it, we'll probably be suffering of heat still
November: ??
December: ??
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