I Did IT!!!

After a rather grueling 3 years of school (no breaks) I graduated on May 3, 2014!

It was surreal that day and even as I type this now it's still surreal.

On my way to be a graduate selfie.

I hadn't gotten my final grades yet so I was still nervous that I might randomly get an -A (thats how close I was) and not actually graduate Summa Cum Laude.

All the people.

Over the last couple of years I have felt kind of funny/weird when people asked me what I planned on doing with my degree because my answer was basically nothing. As I have had time to ponder that more I realize that just because I earned a degree that I don't immediately plan to use as a source of income doesn't mean it's any less valuable. 

An empty diploma case haha.

My baby!

 I won't lie aside from always liking school and always wanting to set a good example for my children my other big reason (and definitely more selfish) for earning a degree was to prove that I am smart to others. I don't know if I come across giggly or stupid or just plain blonde but over the years I have become more and more irritated when I felt like I was being brushed off or told I was immature. I do feel that I have always valued knowledge and strived to be intelligent and this was a way for me to prove it to myself and others officially.

We did it!

 Also since I didn't have the 4 and a half years it takes to earn an education degree I decided it was extra important that I get as high a GPA as I could. After many long nights, early mornings, and even more tears I can finally say I have a bachelors. 

This is Davie at our celebration dinner wearing the bow tie I made him. Isn't he a cutie.

AND last but definitely not least a man from the Toledo Blade started talking to me and I never imagined he was actually going to put me in the paper but he did! I'm famous!!

http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2014/05/04/UT-grads-overcome-barriers-ready-to-make-a-difference.html

Matching and Graduation and Moving

Oh, my!

 David's letter

The match results map. After looking at this we immediately knew we hadn't matched in Spokane which was our 3rd choice.

Yes it's true, I can finally say where we are going after medical school. At least for the next five years. David had his match day WAY back in March and we found out that he was accepted to an internship year in Columbus and Orlando, Florida's radiology residency. I was so very excited for David, the ONLY thing that would have made this news better would have been if Florida had an internship year in their program. I'm a little disappointed that we have to move twice in the next year, but I believe David is going to be so happy at Florida hospital. I had a good feeling about Florida all along, only at the time I thought I was crazy because it's farther from family and lets face it super hot and humid. 

After David interviewed in Orlando he called me up to let me know how it had gone and he was so happy (almost giddy). One of the program leaders turned out to be a stake president with 8 (yes 8) kids who had moved there from Arizona but loved it so much their family had decided to stay. That was good to know because that meant that he knew the school systems were good too. He also told David that Florida is one of the top three areas in America where the church is growing right now (I had no idea) and that their ward had had 105% attendance the previous Sunday. Can I just say that ANY reservations about my "crazy" idea to apply to Florida were almost completely solved by this ONE interview.

I had this picture as my screen saver for a while and it's so funny because Davie looks
annoyed but he was just trying to get down and run around.

David had also enjoyed his interviews with the other directors and met a fellow UT medical graduate who finished back in 2011with some of our friends. This is very telling though because David typically hates interviews. David can very easily come across as shy or possibly aloof when he is nervous, but he is neither. The hospital itself is part of the Adventist health system so David enjoyed the beautiful pictures of Christ in the building and the spirit he felt. He also said the hospital itself was beautiful.

The program is private so it is not connected to a college which means the classes are small (4 per class) compared to an average of 8-12 per class in medial college based residencies. The benefits are great, full medical for David and us, free meals at work, free parking as well as fun stuff like free tickets to NBA basketball games once a year. These things may not sound like much but parking alone in Houston Texas was $2,000 a year, it was a higher cost of living AND the salary was already less than Florida's. It adds up FAST.

When it came time to start writing thank you emails to the program directors David was doing it around 10pm one night. He sent one to Florida hospitals program director at like 10:01pm and within 15 minutes she had written him back! David has (and still is) always been a very humble person, probably too humble and this kind of response from a program director had him excited but I knew it meant something a little more.

To put this into perspective when David was applying for medical school the second time around it took his younger brother telling him that he wasn't "bragging" enough on his resumes before David added more about his achievements on the medical school applications. For us and especially for David his experience with the Florida program was positive from beginning to end which made our choice so easy.

Davie's celebratory lunch after Daddy's graduation

This whole matching experience is something I could talk a LOT about, but I will leave it at that because I don't want this post to become super long. We are so excited and happy to be going to Florida it is going to be our GREATEST adventure yet. And lastly I just have to add how proud of David I am because he has worked SO hard the last 4 years and for him to get his first choice in residency programs shows his dedication. Life is good. 

Finding Motivation

Is it just me or is the last semester of college/ school in general the HARDEST on the planet to finish? I seriously have NO motivation. I can't tell you how many things I was "so sure" I would have done by now. My only excuse right now is that David and I have successfully filled our new storage unit with boxes and packed just about EVERY unnecessary item in our house (for now). Which makes it sound trivial or unimportant, but it is quite a feat. Also the pictures on this post are just random ones from a University activity that we took Davie to and lunch with David earlier that same day.

 Oh Daddy! You are so funny :)

However my school school work? Well I'm not behind per-say but I am definitely not ahead, like I need to be/ really should be. Have I mentioned that I REALLY hope this little girl is at LEAST as good to me as Davie was, especially in the sleep department? I cannot wait until I do not have school. All you moms out there who get to deal with regular life, it may seem unfulfilling at times, however I can't wait until my house is a mess and my two kids have made getting things done impossible all day BUT I have NO homework. 

It's true, for whatever reason homework just tips me over the edge of overwhelmed-ness. I'm sure you can all relate to those days that by the time breakfast is over you've already given up for the day. Yea, that's probably been happening a little too often around here lately. I have so much to do that I do nothing, trust me it makes a lot of sense.

 I managed to get my 4.0 in summer and Fall and I am so unmotivated that I'm tempted to just let it all slide and get B's or C's my last semester because I could put in sooooo little effort and still graduate with a rather great GPA. Heck I could almost fail and still graduate and it's hecka tempting.

I guess this last part is where I should admit to some of the less great things that have happened around here lately. One of the reasons for not being able to get into my school work will is definitely physical exhaustion.

David and I have been packing, organizing, project finishing and cleaning like crazy people to get our house both ready to list, show, sell and baby ready. It very often feels like it's to no-avail and it leaves me wanting to COMPLETELY veg out when we finish for the day. Taking a book shelf apart and packing it's contents takes a while, and not all of the things in it need to be or should be packed just yet. This leaves us with the dilemma of where to store certain files, books, or folders in the meantime.

Gettting a little too excited over table hockey

Just in case you were wondering, yes he threw the stickhandle right after this picture.

 Also I figure once I have the baby these physical tasks are not going to be on my "able to do" list anymore.

Watching Daddy fetch the stickhandle

Pretending to be angelic until he gets his toy back. Davie actually did pretty good with the air hockey table and it was quite fun to see him play.
Not that I am doing so great with physical tasks right now anyways, I mean I did just pass 39 weeks this last Friday. So hopefully I won't be brain dead after this baby just physically out of the game for a while. Once again wish me luck!

It's All Downhill From Here

I have noticed lately that I log onto blogger a couple of times a week and I'm always disappointed when no one has updated. Sadly enough it's only been in the last week that I've realized how long it's been since I updated myself! I can't realistically expect all you ladies to update if I haven't even updated my own blog in over a month!!

Since my last update David has finished all of his interviews (about 20 total), I finished my Fall classes AND my incomplete which gave me a 4.0 for my Summer and Fall semesters. SCORE! Also I'm sorry you cannot read this, but I still have to share since my grades have been on my mind 24/7 for the last year.

As for Davie, he has thoroughly enjoyed his friends and teachers at daycare, so much so that he has quite literally broken down when I came to pick him up (where's the love kid?).

This is from October, his teachers send us pictures occasionally, they learned all about leaves. The cute little asian boy on the far left is named Henry and he is only day younger than Davie. Davie calls him Henny, and gets really excited when he sees him. One of the little girls in his class is named Sloane and Davie calls her Sloan-y, Davie really likes to say people's names. It has been fun to see him with others his age and he both enjoys and thrives in the company of others. Our house is truly a disappointment now that he knows other children exist haha. 

David and I got to enjoy a completely Davie-free evening (our first since our birthdays) last weekend at fancy restaurant in Toledo to celebrate the end of all things this semester. Thanks to the lovely Mike and Lauren Warden for watching him, you two have been such a blessing this year! The food was AMAZING and short of lobster I insisted that we both chose something off the menu that we would not ever normally get, this was a multi-purpose celebration so this dinner also encompassed our joint Christmas present to each other. I enjoyed the best fillet mignon I've ever had and David had an excellent New York strip steak. The celebration was extra fun because I made David ask the waitress to bring me my Coke in a wine glass. It's funny because as soon as you are pregnant people assume that's the only reason you are not drinking.

It was a little early since my grades had not posted, I hadn't finished my incomplete and David still had interviews the following week. David mentioned that while we were eating, but I insisted that we relax and enjoy our evening. Thankfully even though it was premature our celebration was validated later the next week when my grades posted, my teacher considered my work for my class complete and David successfully finished the last of his interviews. Technically David has one more interview for here in Toledo and a couple of others, but he only plans to attend the one in Toledo. My next semester is a measly 7 credits, which consists of my thesis and a adobe photoshop class (my first and only "just for fun" class). 

I would have to say our phrase to sum up this year TRULY is 

"We laughed, we cried, but we survived".

 I am very much looking forward to a NEW year, with LOTS of changes 2013 was not my most favorite year as of late.

A Week in the Life

This a glimpse of my week last week. AND  I actually have some pictures of myself on this post.

Last Monday was super gloomy but the cool weather was so WELCOME in my book. 

Sadly the day ended at a SuPeR hot muggy 94ish degrees Fahrenheit, whew!

Monday- 9:30- 10:45 AM is my Child development for early childhood educators

A great class, the teacher has a doctorate and yet she is still super nice and talkative. In fact one of my favorite things she has done so far was write the class an email and sign it- Dr. Kovach (aka Lisa). She's cool. 

This picture is from this week not last Monday because I forgot.... even though I go to this classroom twice a week. My thumbs up is because I waited (like a Dengus) to do my birth defects powerpoint until 40 min before class started. The thumbs up is because I finished at about 9:32, right as class started.

After my child development class I break until, 

2:00- 3:15 for Essentials of Helping Relationships

This class is for counseling majors and I have learned so much about communication with clients that I think is super useful in regular conversations with friends, family and anyone else you interact with. I chose it because if time allows in the future I have thought quite seriously about working for LDS services helping young women considering adoption. 

Check out that free campus nutrition up there! Cheetos, a cookie AND fruit punch soda, that's most of the food groups right there, trust me.

Gotta love waiting 20 some odd minutes just to get out of the parking garage. Also I have to say (at least here) college students are just about as awful as high school drivers. Its scary.

Tuesday- Is my BELOVED art class, from 9:00 AM to noon.

Seriously its my favorite 3 hours every week (minus family time obviously), and I NEVER would have guessed how much I LOVE it. We make curriculum lesson based on the little kid art projects we do in class, SOOO FUN!

This is my journal. We work on them for the first 30 minutes of every class. It's just an old library book that we get to paint, color, cut, tape, glue and write all over in, whatever we want. Let's just say I have gotten SOOOO many super fun ideas from this class of inexpensive things I can do with Davie after this semester ends. Have I mentioned that my teacher is the sweetest lady, and basically as long as she can tell you are putting forth effort you pass. Like I said I am in LOVE with this class.

 Don't you love the glasses I made this week? 

Wednesday- Is my NUTTY day. 

9:30- 10:45 AM Child development 

Then RUN for my 

11:00- 1:30 Applied Psychology for Educators class.

This class is awesome we discussed things like intrinsic motivation and all kinds of theories that relate to childhood cognitive development and working with kids at their level. It pushes my ability to remember at times but it too is a great class. 

Then from 2:00- 3:15 PM I have Helping relationships again. Afterwards I am exhausted. Between not really having a lunch break, walking between all the classes and actually using my brain I'm zonked.

Thursday- 9:30- noon Introduction to Education 

This is my "oh yea I procrastinated" face. Technically this was before the story I told you up above (that was the following Monday). Not the greatest habit but I finished my presentation in time and then I didn't have to present anyways because we ran out of time. I'm a little apprehensive about this class because the teachers have been grading 10 point assignments like they are some kind of involved reasearch papers and my grades have really stunk. It's just really frustrating that an intro level 1700 class might possibly end up being more difficult then my Educational Psychology class that is a 3300 level. So annoying. Have I mentioned that the teacher is pretty darn old and super long winded... bleh, longest 3 hours of the week.

Friday- My "day off" (yea right).

Davie made this last week, and I love his little hand prints.

I'll add a little about Davie in here now. I was taking him everyday while David was in Minnesota and it was so rough because his daycare is unfortunately NOT close to our house or my school. Thankfully when David got back he started taking Davie because his school IS super close to Davie's daycare. Saves my life every morning, I love that man! Fridays are about a 50/50 in terms of whether or not Davie goes to daycare and sadly as more goes on at school I think he will end up going more and more. Have I mentioned how happy I am with his current daycare. It's so wonderful and the ladies love him.

I have them fill out one of these just about everyday because I like to know what he has been up to. I debated on whether or not to share it because it has his diapers on here and I don't want to be one of those parents who does the "over-sharenting". If you look at the bottom you will notice that they circled happy and busy, they do that just about everyday and every now and then they circle curious too. 

This is the only thing I hate about daycare. Davie tends to breakdown afterwards. I can't decide if he's tired, hungry, suddenly under-stimulated so he gets annoyed or what, I just wish he was not a screaming ball of tears in an enclosed car on the way home. It's not exactly something I look forward to after being gone from him all day. Sad but true, thank goodness this ends after the second week in December. 

The Speed of Life

 Every time I think I want to blog/ I need to blog I start to think about ALL the many things I need to blog about and every time I never manage to get it done. Life at our house can be so SLOW in certain ways and yet I feel as though I'm getting whip lash from the lightning fast pace of other elements in our life. 

So what's new...

 David recently changed his mind about his medical future... while in Minnesota for his Orthopedics rotation. I was shocked, I have quite literally spent the last 4 years telling myself that if he wanted to do surgery that I would learn to be ok with that and we would make it work. I had barely come to peace with the decision. Not only that but I have also spent the last 4 years teasing him that he should go into every field that has cushy hours (like being an eye surgeon/ eye dr, can you say 9-5 no weekends??). 

 Then he calls me up and says "I think I really would rather do radiology"... Hallelujah!!! That was another field I was jokingly (seriously) pushing him towards because he has always had interest in it and the radiologists he worked with seemed to generally like him and be impressed with his knowledge. The biggest change in all of this is that come late September David will NOT be leaving me for Phoenix for another 4 weeks. YA YAY YA YA!!!! 

I literally could not be happier about the whole ordeal. Well the only thing that would have made it better would have been if he had decided before he left me for Minnesota 4 weeks ago :) But there's no need to bring that up. 

The radiology has a residency that is also basically 5 years long, so we won't be gaining any time there, but I have heard some good things from the people I know who are in residency programs and we are excited. I should also mention that radiology residencies require a score that is about 5 points lower that orthopedics (orthopedics is one of THE most competitive fields) so that is in our favor as well.

 

The biggest downside that I can foresee as of right now is the first year of radiology residency is called a transitional year so there is a possibility that we could end up somewhere for a single year before joining our 4 year program. I told David one of my big goals is to hopefully find a program that includes that first year in their program that way we can move to our next locale and just BE there for 5 years, none of this moving twice stuff.

Davie loves those fluffy dandelion seeds.

As for me I started on campus classes last Monday, and I love them. I really wish my life had been more compatible with on campus classes all along, seriously NOTHNG beats the classroom experience. I'm a pretty good go-getter when it comes to wanting to learn, but I love teacher and student/ class interaction. This semester is full with 15 credits and thankfully with Davie in daycare I have ample time to do homework in a quiet setting. I'm sad to be away from Davie, but I also feel like it's a really good change of pace for both of us since our house is so crowded right now.

Davie seems to LOVE daycare and has only cried twice in the last 3 weeks I have taken him (he went at the end of my summer term). The daycare is accredited which means they have some curriculum (whatever that means for a 1 and a half year old), there are less children per adult and overall I just love the facility and the ladies that work there. Davie is never dirty, cold or wet/ stinky when I pick him up and all the ladies always tell me how happy and busy he is all day, which really is another huge blessing. 

As for our visitors (David's brother and his wife) they are still hanging out with us and trying to be strong. It definitely gets crowded, but they are troopers and so are we. I keep telling them and anyone who asks that it's really only busy in the early morning when everyone is getting ready to leave, at night around dinner time and bed. Also with David gone there's technically only one more adult in the house than normal, so it's all good. It looks like they might be hitting another road block in the world of house buying so I just hope and pray it will work out for the best. 

picks the flower

dainty hold

licks it

realizes he's funny, then proceeds to milk it for all it's worth. What a ham.

I can still remember how amazing it was for David and I to FINALLY move into our condo after living with others (and we only did it for like 3ish? weeks). I think everyone who has lived with other people knows that amazing feeling of liberation when you finally get to move into a place of your own.

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed our most recent family pictures on here we got them done in June, so it's been a while already. AND believe it or not there are more pictures of Davie which I promise to do my best to publish shortly along with some great new stories about the little trouble maker.

Davie was seriously ready to scale this bridge and jump into the murky scum filled water below. It wasn't horrible water but it was plenty green.

This is his "someone is watching me face"

 I can't say I'm crazy about some of the one's David and myself are in I feel like our faces/ eye look puffy or something so feel free to boost my ego by telling me we look great.