Doc is officially a Doctor!

This weekend was FULL of events to celebrate all of Doc’s hard work over the last four years.  A cocktail party with classmates, an awards banquet, graduation, and a party with friends and family all in 4 days! 

We both are so proud of where we are as a family right now and amazed that we came out of medical school so strong.  Doc has really come into his own as a person as well as a professional and watching him receive his doctoral hood was one of the proudest moments of my life.

Doc becomes….Doc….?

Watching Little Bird clap as they read her daddy’s name was even better.

What amazes me more than anything is that Doc managed to triumph over med school despite everything else we have been through the past 4 years. 

We:

• got married the Saturday before a major biochemistry exam
• bought a dog – learned that puppies are almost as bad as babies
• survived a week of no electricity in the 2007 ice storm catastrophe
• lost Doc’s incredible grandmother
• endured a 3 month stint of me being sick and having to drop out of school (thanks birth control)
• assembled furniture with very poor instructions
• survived several crappy hourly jobs
• endured each other’s over told and bad to begin with jokes and anecdotes
• mastered Wii Sports
• went through the joy of discovering that we were expecting for the first time!
• dealt with the pain and anger of losing a child in pregnancy
• went through the joy of discovering we were expecting again and watching that child move, kick, punch, grow and eventually holding her in our arms
• Gained a niece and nephew
• Moved 4 times
• managed to get me through school and I started my career
• bought our first home

When we got married and vowed “in good times and in bad, in happy and sad” I don’t think either of us had a clue as to what was in store.  We thought that the biggest journey we were on at that time was medical school, but looking back, it was almost as though medical school just played in the background of everything else in our lives.  We couldn’t imagine that we would reach the end of Doc’s medical school journey feeling as though we never missed a beat. 

They say internship, this coming year, is the worst.  I say bring it.  The world is our oyster, and I have an epi-pen.  So try as it might, it will not strangle us…and if it tries, we’ll adrenaline rush the hell outta that sucka!

Some people ain’t me

You may have heard that one of the famous playwrights and musical masterminds of the day passed away recently.  In his honor, NPR has been talking about some of his most famous projects lately, one of which being the musical Gypsy.  They played this excerpt from the song “Some People” at the beginning of the musical that I love.  Gotta love Rose’s sass.

 

Bernadette Peters in the revival of Gypsy as Rose

Anybody that stays home is dead
If I die it won't be from sitting
It will be from fighting to get up and get out!

Some people can get a thrill
knitting sweaters and sitting still.
That's okay for some people
who don't know they're alive.

Some people can thrive and bloom
living life in the living room.
That's perfect for some people
of one hundred and five.

Questions I never want to be asked again.

1.) Are we doing anything today?

Um…YES!  When do we sit and do nothing all day?  Even on days I feel like absolute hell, I have a fun and education and relevant video with projects for us to work on afterward or an interesting article for us to explore.  AND I write what we are doing EVERYDAY up on the board so you can read it when you come in. 

2.) I was gone yesterday.  Did we do anything?

Yes.  We sat and cried because you weren’t here and we didn’t know what to do.

3.) So wait, do I get a bad grade because I didn’t do the assignment?

No!  Full points for not doing your work!…OR you can go to homework center and finish the assignment for full credit because that’s how freaking nice I am.

4.) You never told us that was due today?

You mean the three emails home to your parents and five days of telling you to write it down in your planner completely escaped you?  Seriously?  What ELSE can I do to help you remember this stuff.

I honestly never respond with the snarky stuff I want to, but as the end of the year approaches, and kids get antsy, and I want to spend time with Doc and Little Bird before Doc starts residency…I’m thinking about it.

Don’t Run a 5K with Bronchitis

Because you end up wheezing really badly after the first 2k, and you don’t stop having problems breathing even if you walk the last 3.

Proof ladies and gentlemen, that I am not superhuman and should listen to my husband and NOT try to prove otherwise.

Stupid Pride.

At least my next 5k time cannot be much worse.  It’s hard to do worse than 40 minutes.

That said, I still beat two of my students and several of their parents.

Sad.

The Hunt

It’s been a while since I’ve posted pictures of the little lady, so here is what Little Bird has been up lately.

 

We have spent some time at the softball fields watching my kid sister rock the just off teeball world as her team attempts to make plays, swing bats, and pitch.  Little Bird’s favorite thing is to grab the fence and scream at the players (thanks Grandma…).  She does sometimes yell “GO GO GO GO GO!” which is awesome.

 

Last weekend, we were our usual busy traveling family.

 

We went to Lawton, OK for wedding #4 of Stouties (people who lived in Stout Hall at OSU).  It was stress-relieving to relax and spend time with old friends.  Little Bird danced it up – just ask anyone who was on the dance floor at all that night – and even enjoyed her first official father/daughter dance.  After the wedding, we drove home to the sounds of my Percy Jackson read aloud voice (I do a mean Tyson) and a spectacular lightning display.  Oklahoma is blessed with beautiful storms.

 

Then, what seemed like too few hours of sleep later, came Sunday, and even though it wasn’t Little Bird’s first Easter, it was absolutely her first time to have a clue as to what was going on.

And the first big egg hunt she got to participate in!

Rain and cold couldn’t stop this determined munchkin.  SHE WAS DETERMINED TO GATHER!

We also got to spend some time with our handsome nephew Jake!  He’s about a year younger than Little Bird but it seems like he’s grown so much!  He will play and laugh and respond now, so we had some good quality bonding time!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend.  I know I ate too many peanut butter eggs…which means success!

Little Bird Learns to Egg Hunt

Job Security

….must be nice.  Anything a teacher has is really temporary unless they can work long enough to have tenure…which might be going away anyway.

To all my friends in education,

Hang in there!  It sucks to be us right now.  Cuts get tighter, classes get bigger.  The lucky few that find jobs have little security beyond their contracted year.  But what we do matters.  What we aim to do is one of the only things that can save education.  Budget cuts, higher standards, tests, new management – none of that can save education.  What we do each day in the classroom, that can.  We can make a difference in the way we teach, love, and help our students grow, the rest is out of our hands.

Here’s to having a job next year. 

My thoughts are with us all.

Keep fighting for your right to make a difference.

Keep filling out those applications.

And if you get a chance…write your state congressman and tell them to freaking do something.

Little Bird’s Enchanted Forest

Now that we can paint the walls of our home, we are ready to create a paradise of a bedroom for Little Bird.  We decided to go with an “enchanted forest” theme, so we’ll hang butterflies and birds and trees, the whole shabang!

So this weekend, we began the transformation and painted the room!

You can see that the green we picked for the wall color is SUPER VIVID!  You can see that it fits the color scheme of what we have pretty nicely.  It’s still pretty bold for me right now, but when all of the wall décor, ceiling effects, and permanent furniture is added, I think it will be downright magical.  We used the Olympic Zero VOC paint, and there was almost NO smell at all.  It wasn’t until we had nearly finished painting the room we noticed any odor and it was fully gone when it dried – no lingering nasty smell or dangerous fumes.