An 8 Month Update

There have been a lot of changes last 8 months of our lives, plus a whole lot of adventure.  We have been trying to squeeze in every possible amount of fun before residency takes over our lives.  Fun was definitely had.  Here's a quick run down of life month by month:

December: 

Jay spent the month flying out to several interviews for residency.  He had his last interview December 30th and then the waiting game began.  

We spent Christmas in Tucson and had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and program, which included a visit from Santa Claus, with Jay's brother's family. 
For our annual Christmas hike this year we hiked Wasson's Peak on the west side of Tucson. Can't hate 70 degree weather on Christmas day.

We drove up to Utah for the week of New Years.  I got my 3rd flat tire in 12 months while driving down the freeway in Utah.  Full blow out.  Dang Tucson potholes.  We replaced all the rims on the car since it was also the second time a rim was dented. 
We enjoyed cholocate dipping with the Robertsons on New Years Eve.

January

Best highlight-Yurt camping and cross country skiing at Lily Lake with our friends the Mechams, who were brave enough to bring their 4 daughters along, and the Burkholzs, Jay's old roommate from 2nd year in medical school. 

And since we live in Tucson and hiking season is in the winter we also hiked Picacho Peak and Sabino Canyon.  

February

The anticipated month finally arrived.  On February 10th, Jay had an email by 7:10 am announcing that he had matched into a surgical residency program at Mclaren Macomb in Detroit Michigan.  We feel truly blessed to have matched into such a great program and definitely recognized the hand of the Lord in how everything turned out.  Little did I know that the work of moving was about to start.  And that is a chore.  We had to figure out how to store all of our stuff for 3 months, move our belongings which included 2 cars and an expensive musical instrument across 2000 miles and find a place to move it to.  This was all very new to me.  

celebration dinner for residency at Elvira's in Tubac

Moving to Michigan means snow.  A whole lot of snow.  With this realization and also trying to figure out the safest way to move my harp across country, we decided to get a 4 wheel drive that would fit my harp. We found a great deal on a 2010 Toyota Highlander and sold Jay's Honda to my brother Geoff.  

March

Jay and I made one more trip to Haiti with our favorite team.  

As a late Christmas present, James and Emily made Jay and I a dinner in the wash with 3 very handsome waiters to serve us our food.  What a fun surprise and treat. 

When we moved to Arizona we made a bucket list of things we wanted to do while we living there.  We didn't get close to finishing that list, but we did make it to Sedona in March and loved having James and Emily and their 4 boys join us for the weekend.  It reminded me of the red rocks of southern Utah.  We loved hiking Devil's Bridge and swimming at Slide Rock.  It was a great memorable weekend.  

Cathedral Rock at sunrise

Our storage and shipping POD arrived March 29th.  We miraculously fit our entire apartment into a 7 ft x 7 ft x 8 ft POD. It was kind of like a really complicated version of tetris in there.  We were glad that we stuck to our mantra in Tucson-if we buy it we have to move it in 18 month-and therefore acquired very few extras.

Jay fit a bed, 2 couches, 2 dressers, a desk with chair, kitchen table and 4 chairs, a rocking chair and 2 shelves.

April

My last day of work was a short 4 hr shift on April 1.  (I needed to keep those benefits the month of April!) We were on the road by noon to Oregon via Utah.  We arrived at Jay's parents house around midnight.  We could have made better time except I was falling asleep and had to pull over around Filmore for a quick 30 min nap.  When I woke up it was snowing.  WHAT?!? I just left Arizona 10 hrs earlier and it was 90 degrees.  I didn't mentioned that Jay and I were driving 2 separate cars because we were delivering his Honda to my brother in Oregon. In Utah we met Julie's new baby, Evan and celebrated my brother John's birthday and had all the Utah Dougalls plus Heather's family there for a birthday celebration. We also hiked Y mountain and up Mill Creek and watched Grace play soccer.

Baby Evan

John's bday lunch gang exept john is out showing Jay is new car.

We then drove on to Oregon where Jay completed his last 4 week rotation with Dr Douville, a cardio thoracic surgeon.  It was one of Jay's favorite rotations and we are so glad we made this rotation happen. The Brennans hosted us for the 5-6 weeks we were in Oregon.  We enjoyed our late night Tillamook ice cream conversations, morning runs, day trip to the Oregon coast and Greg's passing out episode.  It's never a dull moment there.  

In April we also flew to Michigan,  met with a realtor and put an offer on a 2 bedroom condo in Chesterfield. 

 I tended Kathryn's kids for 5 days (she may not have me back after accidently putting cayenne pepper on her children's toast instead of cinnamon and sugar) while she was in Hawaii and Geoff's kids while he was at a conference.  We drove to Seattle to see Sheri post New Zealand and visit Jay's friend who was in the hospital after a serious biking accident where he suffered a severed spinal cord.  

May

SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER! 

We went to the oregon coast on Jay's first day off his rotation! 

The next day we had a flight scheduled to Cabo that got cancelled once we arrived at the airport.  We rescheduled for the next day and that flight had mechanical problems and was grounded! We got rebooked on a different airlines and made it to our final destination in time to enjoy 7 days relaxing in the sun. 

During all of this I was getting everything sent to the lenders and underwriters for our home mortgage. We signed official papers in Utah on May 22 and it was a done deal on May 23rd.  

Jay's graduation was May 28th.  His grandparents, parents and 3 of his siblings attended.  What a great accomplishment for him. One night a month or so before graduation he mentioned to me that this-4 years of intense school with no time to slow your pace, and show up to new rotations every month and figure out patients and doctors and computer systems-was the hardest thing he had ever done. I teared up for him at graduation thinking of all that he has accomplished and overcame in getting to that point.  

Midwestern graduation

And in the middle of all of that-we celebrated our 2 year anniversary.  We went to lunch at Zinburger with James and Becca and then had tuna steaks for dinner with James' family, Becca's family and the Thompson's from church. 

June

I have always dreamed of spending a month in europe and we made it happen post graduation.  We flew out the morning after graduation and spent 3 weeks traveling to Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice), France (Paris, and a 4 day tour of the countryside including Normandy and Mont St Michel) and Germany (Munich and Garmisch).  And let's not forget a little world cup soccer.  I'll write another post about europe.  

We flew home from Germany on Friday the 20th and drove across country arriving at our title company on June 23rd at 830 am to pick up the keys to our new condo.  Thankfully the power hadn't been turned off.  The gas company was able to come out that day to turn on our gas and the water company came to switch that over to our name.  Don't get me started on what a headache it was to get internet and a washer and dryer into our place but after 3 weeks it feels more like a home.  

July 

Residency officially starts for everyone across the country on July 1.  Jay's first rotation is Internal Medicine. 

I accepted a job at a local Pediatric and urgent care clinic a few miles from our house.  It's flexible hours and close to home. How can you say no to that.

We actually got to celebrate the 4th of July together!  I ran a 1/2 marathon that morning while jay was at the hospital.  I came in 3rd for my age group and won a hat. Jay didn't have to work that evening and we BBQ-ed with friends and got to watch some amazing fireworks over one of the lakes in Michigan.  

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.