A little Zin and not so much Zen

Today is our 18 month anniversary.  Jay gave me a kiss as he left the house this morning at 5:30 for an ER shift in Phoenix.  I vaguely remember mumbling something.  Good-bye, maybe.  Drive safe.  It was pretty romantic.  I rolled over and went back to bed.  

 We "celebrated" last night (see the 1-8 above) by with dinner at Zinburger.  It's a heart attack waiting to happen so I guess it was only appropriate that Jay spent today in the Emergency Room.

a the breakfast burger complete with bacon, eggs, avocado and cheese

His first patient of the day was a code.  He drove past the accident/incident while driving to the hospital and the bagged the patient for duration of the code in the ER.  Additionally his patients included a few lacerations, a ruptured appy, threatened miscarriage, bowel obstructions, and ...you get the picture.  Meanwhile back  in Pima County, I took care of a few sick patients too, but thankfully not that sick. I celebrated by getting done at work before 4pm and going to the gym for a 90 min cardio/core work out. (Pre-thanksgiving work out).

We were lucky enough to celebrate at Zinburger with Jay's brother James and wife Emily (pictured below) and his sister Emily and husband Ben (not pictured).

I guess we did get some Zen moments with out their 6 kids there.

The results are in...

Jay got back one portion of his Step 2 boards. Test breaks down his aptitude for different disciplines of medicine.

Thankfully, this reaffirms that Jay is headed down the right path based upon his strengths (surgery).  And I think it is safe to say that no one should seek out Jay for mental health advice.  

A Summer Update

I think all that needs to be said: I'm surviving my first Arizona summer.  Should be an adequate update, right?  It's true-I'm not only surviving my first summer in the heat (and humidity) of Arizona, but I'm also training for a 1/2 marathon and once again flying solo again.

Here is our quick update-but actually kind of a long update.  Don't feel like you need to read it all.  I just haven't posted anything in several month.

Jay spent the month of May in Phoenix for his final rotation of his 3rd year.  It was a surgical rotation and one again he loved it!  He took the following week to finish up his 3rd! Wahoo!  One step closer to graduation.  The weekend he finished his surgery rotation, I flew to Colorado to see my sisters for a quick 48 hr trip.  We celebrated Heather's 40th birthday in Estes Park.  I came home to find that Jay had borrowed a carpet cleaner and moved all the furniture and washed the carpets while I was away!
A week later we took a quick weekend  trip to Portland for our 1 year anniversary over memorial day.  Despite being a short trip, we loved leaving work and school behind for a few days.  We love Portland/the Coast and love seeing family there.  (Oh and we like shopping there too...Columbia outlet always seems to call our name).  And somewhere in there at the end of April beginning of May I got called to be the second counselor in the YWs Presidency.

hiking at the Oregon Coast

Estes Park, Colorado with my sisters.  

Right now our anniversary seems ages ago.  Jay spent the entire month of June studying for Step 2 boards.  Last year he took boards 2 weeks after we got married.  He was determined to do better this year with extra time to study and less distractions, but studying 10 plus hours a day is mentally painful.  After 2 separate 9 hour test, his 3rd year testing was behind him we were on our way to the Northwest yet again for the 4th of July.  During the month of June I attended a nurse practitioner conference in Las Vegas.  It was a quick trip, full of great classes, and a beautiful hotel but the best part was catching up with friends.  I met up with Michael, a fellow EFY counselor from 8 years ago and Jann, a graduate school class mate who now lives in Vegas.  It would have been great to have Jay with me in Vegas, but he took one of his exams while I was gone.  Also, as a surprise for my birthday he deep cleaned the entire house.  I'm really enjoying coming home to a spotless house.

hiking in Mt Lemmon

Speaking at Girls Camp on dating and marriage.

birthday dinner with Marcus and Theresa

Jay and I got to take our first actual vacation since moving to Tucson during the 4th of July.  We flew back to Portland with another couple and spent a week playing.  We ran on the waterfront, wandered around Saturday's market and the farmer's market, ate at the food pods (multiple times), spent a day at the coast, went paddle boarding on Lake Union with Sheri, camped at the San Juan Islands, spent a day kayaking around Soucia Island, enjoyed fireworks with family, went berry picking, and spend hours catching up with family and friends.

hiking Ape Caves in Washington State

Seattle, WA

Kayaking in San Juan Islands, Washington

Crazy Yoga moves on the Portland Waterfront

Sucia Island Ferry.  It took us from Orcas to Sucia. 

We love hiking in the NW with all the beautiful trees!

Lake Union, Seattle  Paddle Boarding with Sheri

And with Jay

While in Portland, we found out that Jay's rotation in Tucson for the month of July fell through.  We were left scrambling for a last minute rotation.  Thankfully, a surgeon in Utah that Jay rotated with last year allowed him to come spend a month completing a surgical ICU rotation. It has been a hard reality for us to face.  It is another month Jay is away from home and the change happened in a matter of days.  We flew home from Portland on Saturday at midnight.  Jay caught a flight to Pennsylvania for a practical board exam Sunday morning.  He drove back to Tucson on Monday night and 10 hrs later his car was packed and he was on his way to Provo, Utah.  After he finishes his rotation in Utah he is off to Michigan, Pennsylvania, possibly Colorado and possibly Missouri for audition rotations.  I'm learning early on the life of a doctors wife.  We definitely try to make the most of the time we actually do get to spend with each other.  I'm flying up to Utah for a family reunion and will get to see Jay in between shifts at the hospital.  We are also running a 1/2 marathon together that weekend if I can survive the altitude change.  My goal is just to finish.  I've been waking up at 5 am on Saturday for long runs but it is still 80 plus degrees with 65+% humidity here in Tucson.  It is brutal.  On week days I run on the treadmill at the gym.  Thanks to the food network channel I can stay entertained while on my treadmill.

And that my friends is our update.

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.