so long, farewell

Memorial Day weekend found us in Kennewick bidding farewell to Ma and Pa Ottley who have sold all of their earthly possessions and are heading to London for the next two years. They’ll be serving a mission for our church. They both spoke on Sunday and let me tell you, there wasn’t a dry Ottley eye in the house. And there were like 40-something Ottley eyes. As Adam’s Dad said in his talk, they’ve been preparing for this mission for 35 years and I couldn’t imagine a couple better suited for the job. Then on Sunday night we reviewed all the British swear words so now I think they’re really ready. 

On a sidenote: I’m totally digging this sequence of pictures of my SIL Cindy. Gotta love that Tri-cities wind. Over the weekend she made me a solemn promise that she would never read my blog.

 

 Who’s laughing now, Cindy?

on beyond med school

Something Adam's going to be doing a lot less of in the near future...

and not just because he's about to get awesome at golf.

Well, folks. The end is near. It's crazy to think that this time next year we'll (probably) be packing up and shipping out to who knows where. But we have a lot to look forward to this year. Fourth Year is Third Year's cooler sexier cousin who is extremely charismatic, naturally athletic, and is often referred to as "the hope of the family". She's also a very busy year (but not like that! she's incredibly chaste...practically a pillar of morality). People are constantly asking us where Adam will be/when he'll be there/what he'll be doing/can they please have some Methadone. Of course, we're happy to educate them but it has gotten a teensy bit old. Which is maybe why we've started exclusively hanging out with doctor friends. So here is a tentative timeline of what we (ok, mostly Adam) will be up to next year. Now you can print it out and hang it on your fridge so you'll always know what Adam's doing at any given moment. And more importantly, when he can start prescribing you the drugs.

June 15th: Last day of 3rd year! Wahooo! We survived!
June 18th-July 6th: Adam has 3 weeks off to study and take his second board exam
July 5th: Adam takes Step 2 of his boards (say a prayer/light a candle/send him good vibes if you please)
July 9th-August 3rd: Pediatric sub-internship at Seattle Children's
August-September: Adam does more peds and non-peds rotations (peds rehab, peds head and neck surgery, radiology)
September 1st: Adam turns in his residency applications to all the pediatric residency programs he's interested in
October 22th-Novemer 18th: Adam does an away pediatric rotation at Children's National Hospital in Washington DC
mid-November-mid-Decemberish: Adam interviews at residency programs who are smart enough to be interested in him
January-May: Adam continues to do more rotations but with much less pressure (peds urology, neurology, peds ICU, emergency medicine)
March 15th: Match Day! The day we find out where Adam will be working and we'll be living for the next 3 plus years! Also, probably the day I get an ulcer.
June 1st 2013: GRADUATION!
mid-June: move?
end of June: I kiss my husband goodbye and promise to write...he starts residency.

 So, there you have it. The road is long, but we're told it's worth it.

the trail to fame and glory

 

 

 hey lil s'mores baby!

 hey lil hillary step!

 

 

Adam and I spent the last two weekends in a row on a camping/hiking/spelunking extravaganza. This is a pretty big deal for me because Adam and I went camping all of two times last summer and both times I vowed it would be my last camping trip. It was "too cold! my back! my neck! I'll never recover!" But I guess I'm not as high maintenance as I thought because I was actually quite comfortable on this trip. I've discovered that the secret to my success is: a sleeping bag laid out, then an air mattress, followed by a 15 degree sleeping bag that I sleep in, all topped off with our spare comforter. Oh, and don't forget the two pairs of socks, spandex, sweat pants, and hoodie over a long sleeve shirt. And a pillow is essential. There. Now we're ready for some camping!

We went with our friends Brent and Courtney who are working on a pretty intense bucket list. Highlights of this trip included: Mount Storm King, the Hoh Rainforest (where we encountered lots of supposedly aggressive elk that we were cautioned to stay either 100 or 1000 feet away from, but ended up having to share the trail with), the Pacific Ocean (which I've never actually seen before! "Whaaaat?!", cried Courtney) Mount Saint Helens, and Ape Caves.

My own personal highlight of the trip was when Courtney dropped all but two of the hot dogs on the ground and then proceeded to eat one of the dirty ones on principle to prove that it was "no big deal, guys.  People eat stuff off the floor all the time". Except this wasn't the floor. It was a dirty, ashy campsite. No one ended up eating those 2 clean hot dogs anyway but I'd like to think we all learned a pretty valuable lesson that night.

someone else's baby

Sometimes I get it into my head that I can do crafty things. I'm not talking about re-upholestering a chair or decoupaging a mail box. I would never be ambitious enough to try the first and I leave the latter to my mother in law.  But simple as these projects are, I always start out with such high hopes and then end up near tears within the hour. This year, for Kai's birthday, I decided to make him a mat to drive his cars around on. As was the case with every other project I've ever started (see: our entire wedding), I dreamed the dream (or in other words I had the vision) and Adam ended up swooping in and saving the day with his patience and excessive attention to detail. He's a catch, that one. I'm not sure how long it ended up taking us but I can tell you how long it didn't take us which was 1-2 hours. Why do the internets always lie? But it's done and I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Oh, you were hoping for a play by play? Lucky you. (PS...I should warn you that if you don't like seeing pictures of adorable babies in diapers you should stop reading here)

 let's start at the very beginning 

(btw...I feel I should clarify that our apartment is not normally this messy!)

back when I was still doing the majority of the work

 it's like watching Michelangelo, no?

 eh, viola

 are you dying yet?

 surveying his kingdom

 

 

 aaaaand he approves

I really really like my job. When I first started nannying for this family, I assumed it would be temporary until I could find something else. But then I sort of fell in love with this kid. And I mean...what's not to love?

• He enjoys waterboarding his bath toys
• When he gets mad, he screams really relevant things like "MOMMY AND DADDY ON AN AIRPLANE TO JAPAN!" or "IT'S TIME TO GO TRACTOR TIPPING!"
• He's a huge bookworm
• He can't quite pronounce the word "truck"
• When he has something cheesy on his plate he eats like a champ, but pretends he doesn't remember how to hold a fork when it's something less desirable. (just mad I didn't think of this first)
• He can sing "Popcorn Popping" better and with more true feeling than our 5 year old Primary kids
• He loves to get all up in other kids faces and say "baby!" while petting them on the head. This often includes kids who are older than him
• He thinks I'm hilarious 

I know he's not my baby but really he's my baby

honest with a chance of bitter

Everyone, everywhere is raving about how nice the weather has been. Sunny, warm, and bright now that we've all springed (sprung?) forward. But here in Seattle we're gearing up for another 3ish months of winter.
And that extra hour of daylight? It's really just an extra hour of gray, overcast skies.

Before I moved to Seattle, people warned me about how much of a struggle the weather would be. I was a little curious about how well I'd be able to handle it since I really really hate rain. I mean really. There is nothing romantic about it for me.

This being my second full year in Seattle, I think I'm ready to give an assessment. I'm starting to recognize a pattern that goes a little something like this. In August, when my family back east is complaining of high temps and higher humidity, I thank my lucky stars that the PNW never really gets above 80. In the winter, I may even be found saying things like, "oh, it's not so bad. Everyone else is stuck inside because of snow and we have rain but so what? At least we're all stuck inside together!" But by the middle of March I am cursing Mother Nature under my breath and, if last year is any indication, I'll be unabashedly flipping her off by the beginning of June.

I take great solace in the fact that after this, we have only one Seattle winter left. But that also means we only have one Seattle summer left. Yikes! I'm already starting to feel panicky that we won't be able to check off all the things on our Seattle bucket list. TGIFY! (thank goodness it's fourth year)

dog days

Last week I got lots of concerned calls and texts about the PNW snowpocalypse. Thanks, guys! But don't worry, we stayed safe and warm. In fact, last week was arguably the best week of my life. Adam plugged away at the hospital but I was dog sitting for some friends of ours who got a new puppy for Christmas. As evidenced in the pictures below, I didn't move much in the 96 straight hours I was there. As also evidenced, Chewie is a very social puppy. As not evidenced but please don't be fooled, his name is very fitting. RIP two pairs of socks and one shirt.

Evidence:

Tuesday night

Wednesday afternoon

Saturday morning

3 seconds later

I had already planned on taking advantage of all the luxuries which our apartment cannot boast: a fireplace, a TV, Netflix, books galore, a dishwasher and of course, a pup. What I hadn't planned on was running out of Downton Abbey episodes by noon on the first day and running out of clean unders while my car was still immobile. (tmi? apologies) It was a great week and now my brain is yelling "puppies, puppies, puppies!" (too bad my husband is a self-proclaimed country boy who doesn't believe in indoor dogs)

Oh and babies, babies, babies! Adam and I have a new niece coming any day now (she makes 19!) My bffaeae Brittany and her husband Steve are expecting their first little one in July and Morgan and Wade are doubling their family size in May! Now if I can just get all these babies to move to Seattle...

State of the Union

Yeah, we're still good.