We know how to celebrate

Do you remember how you spent your 11 month anniversary?  Because 11 months is kind of a big deal.  It is that last anniversary month you celebrate.  No one says, "I've been married 12 months."  After this it will always be in terms of years.  1 year, 5, 12, 29 years.

So here is to making memories-

We couldn't celebrate together,

So we got together for a hang out

And played dress up.  

Google chat doesn't get any funner than joining a hang out with us. 

Happy 11 months, even if it was 6:30 at night before we remembered....

Facetime

Jay is in Phoenix for the month completing a 4 week surgical rotation with a general surgery based residency program.  He has been up there one week so far and is getting first hand experience of what residency will be like.  

--up before 4 am twice this week to be to the hospital to round on patients

--24 hour call shift next week.  

--"pimp" questions from attending physicians, residents and other doctors

--eating on the run or never knowing when there will be a break in clinic or surgery to grab a bite

--"holding" it because once again you're never sure when there will be a break to take care of business

So for those of you who feel bad that I'm husband-less in Tucson-don't. I'm still getting 6-8 hrs of sleep per night.  And full rights to all blankets at night (not that I need blankets in Tucson at this time of year...)

Welcome to our Facetime life.  

What did we do before internet, cell phones and facetime/

It could be worse...like spending August-November in 2 different states.  Oh wait, we are doing that.  And this is just PRACTICE for the next 6 years of life.  Practice makes perfect.

Confession time

One of our 11 year old primary students astutely said:

"A prayer in bed is a prayer unsaid."

And truth must be known-I pray in bed. 

I think my poor habits started as a missionary.  I know.  Shocking.  But seriously, in Korea we didn't have beds.  We prayed on our tri-fold mattress on the floor every night.  I didn't pray next to it.  I prayer right on top of it.  And well, the habit was formed and stuck ever since.  And yes, has carried on into marriage.  Ugh.

So a decision has been made and a habit needs to be broken.  I'll let you know in a few weeks how it goes.  

And to think, all of these years (yes I arrived in the mission field 10 years ago this month) that none of my prayers counted.  Bummer.  I guess I have a lot of praying to do in order to make up for 10 years of unsaid prayers.  Thankfully prayers in the testing center, library and hospital have counted...I was definitely not in bed those times.  

Bending the Rules

I am about to break every rule and every vow I ever made before getting married.  I promised I would never become one of those girls.  And by those girls I mean one of those wives that gushes about how great her husband is and how much she adores, can't live without, and blah blah blah.  Trust me, I feel those things about my husband, but I feel that a public display or written essay of personal emotions can be saved for a personal conversation or a personal letter rather than displayed on social media.

With that said and with the statement that I am breaking my personal rules, I will keep my public discourse of emotions brief.

A few weeks ago Jay's sister was coming to town for the marathon and flying into Mesa, an hour and half north of us.  Jay didn't have clinic that day and wanted to spend the afternoon and evening with family in Mesa.  He decided to spend the night up there so they could talk late into the night, as all Robertson do, and then drive to his rural rotation the next morning which was 30 min north of Tucson.  Medical school doesn't offer many opportunities to see family in the middle of the semester so I was all for Jay driving to see his sister Emily who lives in Florida and Amy who lives in Gilbert.

I left for work that morning before 7am.  I said goodbye and knew that Jay was spending the night in Mesa--our first night spent apart since being married, for all you sentimental folks out there.

I came home from work to find a spotless house.  Jay did the dishes, cleaned the bathroom, washed and folded the laundry, organized all my shoes, and vacuumed the carpets.  He made the bed and left a pair of pajamas on the bed with a note-as pictured below.

Cute.  He wins brownie points for all of those kind acts, plus all that he does on a daily basis. His note to me said-I cleaned those house so that you could spend the evening doing something fun.

I laughed when I put on the pjs that night and discovered he had doused them with his cologne.  Funny boy.

Glad he is mine.

We do celebrate holidays...

...even if I haven't gotten around to posting about them.  Here are a few of the holidays we've celebrated in our first year of marriage.

Happy Chinese New Year.  A Korean holiday that I love because it is an excuse to find a new Korean restaurant.

 Happy Valentines day.  We made sugar cookies and decorated them to deliver to neighbors.  Sadly, by the time we were done, it was 9:30 at night.  We delivered cookies to Geri, who lives upstairs.  She was awake, but the single lady who lives next door didn't answer the door.

Merry Christmas.  Jay told me Christmas eve that he wouldn't be able to sleep in Christmas morning because he gets so excited for Christmas.  I told him the only present I wanted was to be able to sleep in because my shift starts so early at the clinic each day and I don't get to sleep in often.  At 6:45 Christmas morning I rolled over to see Jay standing over the bed looking down at me.  He told me I could go back to bed...at least I was warned.  We spent Christmas morning opening a few presents from each other, eating breakfast with a few other young families from church and hiking Blacketts Ridge in Sabino Canyon.  

Happy Thanksgiving.  There isn't a picture from the actual feast at James and Emily's house or with Jay's family in town, but we did manage to remember to snap a photo Thanksgiving night.  We spent Thanksgiving day playing soccer at the park with a few other families, preparing food for dinner and talking with family.  As we were leaving our house to drive to James and Emily's house with the meal items we prepared, we heard our upstairs neighbor.  Her family is from NM and we realized she probably didn't have anywhere to go for dinner.  We knocked on her door and invited her to come join the Robertson chaos of Thanksgiving and she accepted.  

Happy Halloween-No picture from the day.  We got really creative and dressed up in our matching blue scrubs and attended trunk or treat events at our ward building and with James and Emily and their kids.  We also chaperoned a Halloween stake youth dance the weekend before and also dressed in our scrubs.

Parents visit Tucson

My parents came to visit last weekend.  They drove through Tucson en route from Washington DC, where they served as senior missionaries in the Washington DC North mission, to Portland Oregon.  Since they were serving their mission when Jay and I started dating and got engaged and since both of us were busy in our respective schooling for the duration of that time, there was no formal meeting of the groom until the evening before our wedding.  My parents stayed for 2 1/2 days and despite rain and cold weather, we took them hiking up Madera Canyon where Jay could teach them a thing or two about birding.  Unfortunately, the cold weather and snow fall, (yes snow!) kept most of the birds away.

Mom and dad really wanted to attempted a jumping photo after seeing so many missionaries photos like this.  A partial success.  Dad got some air.  Mom was worried she was going to fall.  

Mom and Dad hiked 1/2 way and then decided to rest by a tree while Jay and I finished our hike to Bog Springs.  When we made it back to the tree where we left them, we found a message in the dirt letting us know they had started back to the car.  The arrows helped-thanks.  

Dad was a little tuckered out afterwards. 

An Arizona Woodpecker, maybe...

The weekend included mission stories, games, walks on the trails by our house, eating donuts and answering a lot of medical questions.

We welcome any other visitors that want to come and don't mind a couch or floor space in our living room.

Eye of the Tiger...

Benjamin Franklin said: 

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half-shut afterwards"

Jay's perfected.that one 

While on a cruise 1 month after getting married.  (July 2012)

On a camping trip 6 weeks after we got married down to Zion.  (July 2012)
We tried taking this photo 3 times before we gave up (laughing of course).  

A pre-marriage photo.  I guess he dated with his eyes half shut then too.  Oops. (Novemeber 2011)

Our Chinese new year celebration (February of 2012)

Eating at Zin Burger.  The egg on the burger = big deal, but not enough to open his eyes (Feb 2013)

It must run in the family.  Wesley has a hard time keeping his eyes open in photos too.  As long as he can keep his eyes open during surgery and examinations, he can close them for the camera.