Thunder 2011

I've missed you blog!  Don't want to lose this.  I'm officially calling blogging a hobby.  And I don't have a lot of good hobbies so I need this.

Thunder went great this year.  It was cold and wet- so we unfortunately missed the air show, but we walked to the waterfront just in time to get a great view of the fireworks.  The crowds were sparser than I think I can ever remember, and the fireworks show was very well done. 

Saia really liked it.  His great-grandma Eva probably described his feelings of it best:  "in awe and/or scared-."  surely ambivalent things going through that little head.  I was trying to encourage him to cheer, and Jeff says he would occasionally let out a little "Yay."  Now when we've been passing the bridges from the interstates, he starts talking about the show.

I've got another couple posts in my queue that will come later.  Board studying is officially starting tomorrow :(, and today I'm finishing up to-do lists...

Isaiah at 2, spring time

I made Saia his own facebook page a couple weeks ago.  I think I decided to during a conversation with Chris about how some people do that for their kids.  The idea was so that we could tag him in all of his adorable pictures.  I also liked the idea because I could advertise what he’s been up to.  I intentionally try not to talk about him too much on my FB.  He may be a lot of my life, but a lot of the things we do together are pretty routine.  Plus lately I’ve been avoiding my fb page in general, so. 

ringling bro/barnum and bailey

 I like how on his fb page I can refer to the things we do as super exciting… like going to see trains, going to Cherokee park, going to his cousin’s or uncle Chriss’.  Or riding horses, going to his first circus, playing with Noodle at popo’s and nana’s.  Saia’s got a pretty consistent routine.  It’s fairly all over the place during the week, but consistent week to week.  It’s actually changing a bit starting this week, because Jeff switched to first shift, M-F!!

Sunday:                typically will be at home with me and Fejj.  We’ve been spending as much time as possible in the backyard which is fenced in so he gets to do pretty much whatever he wants out there.  We’ve got a toddler basketball set up, a little red toddler car, a sit-and-push toy, and a bunch of golf wiffle balls that he throws everywhere.  Kasha is usually out there with us too.

 Monday:              with Daddy til he goes to work, then aunt Jamie’s until I come get him.  He gets to play with his cousin Kamauri (2 ½ and loves Saia a ton) over there.  Maurmaur also loves Thomas just like Saia.  Daddy bowls Mondays so we’ve been spending a lot of Monday evenings at uncle Chriss’.

Tuesday:              Daddy takes him to daycare then I pick him up. 

Wednesday:      with daddy until he goes to work, then Popo takes him to Green hill hippotherapy and his house until I get him.  Starting in June, Saia will have daycare on Wednesday.

Thursday:            Daddy takes him to daycare then I pick him up.  Developmental interventionist and speech therapist come this day.  Daddy bowls on Thursdays too, so we commonly look for a friend to visit on this evening.  We’ve been visiting a friend of Chriss’ a lot lately who has a 6 year old girl that Saia loves to play with.

Friday:                  with daddy until he goes to work, and Popo comes to take him to his house.  Saia loves my parents house-  they are really attentive to what he wants over there (“attentive”), they have a great train set up he can play with, and they have a hyper little white dog.  Popo often takes him on walks to parks or takes him to see a train.

Saturday:             I want to sign Saia back up for swimming lessons.  Those will be Saturday mornings.  Last time we had them, Jeff never had a chance to go, but that should be different next time around (crazy).  This is the day I’ll typically try to match my dad by taking saia around the neighborhood to swing, see trains, visit the parks, go out for lunch.

Me and lists.  Sheesh…

Well I wanted to share some pictures, and I thought I’d advertise that he is sleeping in a big boy bed now.  It’s pretty cute.  We have to shut his door and wait for him to lay himself down, but he always does. 

Potty training isn’t really happening.  I’m still mostly focusing on getting him to talk about the potty (which he loves to do) and eventually telling us when he needs to do his business (which hasn’t happened yet).

He started saying I love you a month or two ago.  This video is a pretty cute representation of his speaking skills right now. 

Spring Cadaver Ball

I mostly want to share my pictures from last Friday. Album here.

wish I would've got a better picture of my dress.

I was a primary organizer for the fall CB, but you all missed out on hearing everything I did for that one.  For the spring, I was aware of the progress for organizing the event, but the only thing I did in the end was pick up the beer.  I wanted to take a picture but my phone busted while I was at the grocery.  Imagine me, all dressed up (still wearing flats at that point), with my hair curled and make up on, pushing a grocery cart at valu market with 5 30-packs of PBR and 5 30-packs of High Life.  And a guy from the meat dept pushing another cart of miller light and high life behind me.  I don't care for high life, but it was what my Pres asked me to get.  I don't know thought we should get it, but I returned the extras yesterday and out of the 20 30-packs, we had 7 leftover High Lifes.  Ouch.  Go PBR.

I cracked my screen a couple weeks ago after I dropped it without the case on. The first drop was pretty dramatic- it actually lost a chunk of glass and a part of the circuit board is showing above my screen.  Sure enough, a couple more mild drops added more cracks.  When I was in Valu market, I was holding my phone in my hand and foolishly pushed my cart with my phone in my palm.  big loud crack.  Now the touch screen doesn't work below the screen crack, so I can't unlock my phone.  I thought it was completely useless, but Jeff has taught me how to make calls with voice command, and he suggested I use iphone headphones to answer calls.  We are waiting for a new glass to come in the mail and hopefully it will work out.

Track selection

A couple weeks ago we finally got to do something all of us had been waiting for:  picking our tracks and laying out our plans for 3rd year.  We are finally escaping the days of hours tucked away in lecture halls and in lonely study rooms. In exchange, we get to actually be in the medical environment (in a sense, the "real world") and feel like we are reaching our goals...

I'm anxious and worried about how well I'll adjust.  But, I'm largely optimistic that the clinical years will bring good things for me.  Especially since they are so structured time-wise...  I still worry a lot about my background of knowledge, though.

the light is coming

My post-2nd year schedule:
c. April 26 - June 8: Step 1 study and test date.  I have my study schedule ready for this.  Do me a favor and try not to ask me about it too much-  I don't need the stress when I'm trying to relax (which will be on Saturday evenings and Sundays.  so if you do anything, plan on not seeing or hearing from me at any other time.  unless your babysitting lol).

June 9 - June 27: Hopefully lots of splurging on who-knows-what (Chicago trip?) in addition to booze.


June 28- July 2: Clinical orientation... whatever that means.

July 5 - Aug 26: Pediatrics - supposed to be good.  it will be nice to miss the flu season.  we'll get the GE cases instead right haha.

Aug 29 - Oct 21: Surgery - earlier than I really like to do it... but I'm going to do my best.  Sucks that our birthdays will fall in here.  I'm still in denial that my hours could literally be 5AM-5PM 5 days a week + call.  I just can't put that into perspective right now.  I'll be missing a lot of good weather.

Oct 24 - Nov 4: vacation week: potential elective time...Ortho? :)  Also could try ENT or something.

Nov 7 - Dec 16: Psychiatry:  ahhh, easy break just in time for seasonal depression and Christmas.  for my woes as well as others'.

Dec 19 - Dec 31: vacation weeks

Jan 3 - Mar 23: Internal Medicine: looking forward to the sampling of the subspecialties.  so many avenues. and rounds.

Mar 26 - Mar 30: vacation week, probably too late to catch the big east tourney... darn it

April 2 - May 11: OB/Gyn, not an easy rotation from what I've heard, but I look forward to the specialty exposures.

May 14 - June 22: Family medicine, probably either in Jefferson county or Madisonville.  If in Madisonville (I'll find out in a few months, possibly dependent on potential pregnancy), I'd totally try to get Dad to move down with me for 2/4 weeks so I can still see Saia half the time there.  And we'd go fishing a ton!  and Jeff could come a bunch and motorbike.  Madisonville could potentially be a lot of fun.  But I'd like the west end really.

August: due date for ERAS applications - date to pick a specialty by.

I ended up picking tracks based on the following priorities:
1) most interested specialties needed to be closer to the middle-ish... Surgery and OB/Gyn
2) wanted to be with people I liked and not overtly competitive.
3) wanted a primary care rotation before surgery.  IM would've been the best strategy but priority 2 overruled...
4)Save least laborious rotations for last in case we get prego, do peds as far away from a potential first trimester as possible

I've applied to be track captain for the rotations in either the fall or spring and am crossing my fingers.  I like the idea of immersing myself with a thorough knowledge of details of my tracks and this would facilitate that well.  Odds are 1/3 though, and I really am not sure what to expect; in med school, everyone is qualified.  And I'm not sure I'm much of an interviewer.

Well thats a nice boring school-focused blog.  I wanted to share the schedule mostly.  exciting :)