Birthdays and Shower's

Our darling Sadie just turned 4 on Sunday March 27. She's been looking forward to her birthday for a long time! She is a joy to be around. Always has a smile on her face, loves adventure, and loves to help. We spent the morning opening a few presents from her grandma's, great and otherwise. :) Then we went to church, came home, assembled a pink poodle cake, wrapped presents, unwrapped presents, then had a few friends come over for cake and ice cream. Not a big party but I think enough to satisfy Sadie.We gave her a cleaning cart with everything a girl would need to clean. Sadie loves to help around the house and has mopped our kitchen floor by herself!









The YW in my ward threw me a "surprise" baby shower. It was so much fun! They played "pregnancy twister" strapping pillows to their mid-sections to simulate being pregnant. We had a diapering relay race to see who could diaper the monkey the fastest. Baby name scramble in which three teams had to come up with a name from some random letters. Of course there was food, and presents. They YW had gathered earlier and had made a couple baby blankets. They were darling and well done. Then they showered me with other gifts. It was a great day and I felt truly loved. I hope the YW know how much I love them, they truly are precious daughters of our Heavenly Father.Opening presents



Diaper Relay Race

Pregnant Twister

Brrr!

Nothing like waking up to a cold house. This morning I woke up, from a pretty good night for sleeping and thought "man it feels cold in here!" Especially after I got out of bed. I asked Eric if it felt cold to him and he said yes. Then we checked the thermostat. Sure enough, instead of our nice 72 degrees it was 60! I went downstairs to check our 20 year old furnace, original with the house, turned it off and on to see if by some miracle it would start up. No such luck. The pilot light which lights itself would not start. I called a few dear friends for furnace repairmen suggestions, one came right over to see if he could help, I have such good friends. He didn't have any success so we called a repairman. Turns out there were two broken pieces that needed replacement. Long story short we got a new furnace, water heater, and air conditioner. One stop shopping for us. It was only a matter of time before the others blew up.

Brooklyn thought the furnace was pretty cool and went downstairs the first couple days to check it out because it was "just so cool!"

Match!

Well the much anticipated day of Match has arrived. We had been told the news of our fate would arrive by email at noon today. A friend who was also waiting for the match called me at 8:30am to say the match email's had been sent out early. Eric and I were spending a lazy morning lounging in our bed. I quickly ran to get the laptop as he didn't want to use my iphone (can't imagine why it's got such a huge screen and all). Alas he opened the much anxiety causing (for me) email to discover what our residency fate would be.

The answer came as Sparrow! Eric's first choice. So we don't have to move. We get to stay in our home, surrounded by fantastic neighbors and and even greater ward and stake family. There is a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. I was willing to accept whatever decision came and have just been praying that we would feel good about the match.

Eric has been calm and felt at peace the whole time regarding match. I on the other hand have felt almost paralyzed worrying about what all would happen if we had to move, prep to get our house ready to sell, anticipating the arrival of our new baby, just overall feeling pressure to get the house in shape (not like I've been able to do anything about it other than watch it get dirtier as the floor gets farther and farther out of reach). It's a huge relief to know I can stay put and focus on getting ready for this baby to come rather than try and perfect my entire house (curse my perfectionism!).

Prayers are heard and answered. I'm very thankful and grateful for that!

So if anyone wants to come visit us, Cedar Point is only 3 hours away, the fall here has the BEST apple cider and donuts not to mention color, Mackinac Island is truly a treat. I'm glad to have more time here to enjoy the beautiful Great Lakes and get out camping!

Valentine's Day Not Just a Day For Lovers

Next week happens to be Valentine's day, or National Single Awareness Day as I used to call it. Not only is it a commercialized day for chocolate shaped hearts and love notes, it also happens to be a day of great anxiety for any 4th year DO students. Valentine's Day this year also happens to be Match Day, the day DO's find out where they will be going for their residency. A long awaited day. The preparation for this day takes months!

Here's just a glimpse of what goes on before Match day happens. First off, after deciding what kind of doctor you want to be you begin researching out the residency specialties and programs, then start applying for your favorite programs, hoping you'll get offered an interview. Then going through numerous interviews, hospital tours, wining and dining, you begin reflecting back on each program and your interview experience and finally having to rank the programs you would like to go to. Meanwhile the programs that you have interviewed with are also ranking you alongside the other applicants.

The programs can communicate with you if you are "very likely" "likely" "somewhat likely" or "not likely" to match with them. You as the applicant can say the same thing back to the program but are not allowed to say where you ranked one another. Then the deadline day for you to submit your rankings (about a month ago) and a month of waiting for a computer generated formula to determine your future and medical residency.

This is not a perfect system. It's more like a lottery really. There is the possibility that you will not match with any of the programs you applied to. If that's the case they have what's called a "scramble" where you and the programs are scrambling to fill all the available spots. All this will take place on Monday when you find out your destiny.

I think we are really hoping we'll match with our nearby hospital and program as that would allow us to stay where we are for four more years. If we don't we will move. The hours that residents are required to work and the short time off some places its 30 hours on and 10 off, having to commute an hour and a half each way is not conducive to living or having a family. We will definitely move so Eric won't have to drive far. I really don't want to be a widow and have gone through this lovely process of medical school for nothing. Although as much fun as it was to move with a 2 month old last time, I'd rather not. So I think I'm REALLY hoping to stay put. But it's not up to me.

So stay tuned for our Valentine's day/Match day our destiny is in the hands of a computer post sometime next week!

Grateful

Today I'm grateful. Grateful that Eric is not in Utah on a rotation. So grateful for what a wonderful man he is and such a wonderful husband. I'm grateful for my neighbor who snow blowed my driveway before we were even up. Grateful to have a warm house with heat and stocked with food. Grateful that I can stay home and watch the snow fall and drift and wind whip around my house. I'm grateful for 2 beautiful daughters who have so much love and enthusiasm for life. I'm grateful this pregnancy is almost over. I'm grateful for dear friends who love and support me and my family. I'm grateful for family. I'm grateful for the power of prayer. I'm grateful for facebook as crazy as it sounds and the connection and ties it provides me with friends and family. I'm grateful for washing machines and dryers. I'm grateful for my new couches, who knew how much you'd love a footrest? I'm grateful that medical school is almost done. I'll be even more grateful after February 14th when I find out if we are going to move or not. I'm grateful for medical care and the knowledge and expertise of doctors. I'm grateful to have a brother serving a mission for our church in Minnesota. I'm grateful for all wheel drive vehicles that ease my mind while driving in winter weather. I truly have much to be grateful for. I'm so blessed!