Finished the Race

We did it. Well, mostly Josh. But we're here, all our stuff is inside our house (not finished unpacking yet... ) and we're all in 1 piece.

We made it to Josh's graduation, Amelia's 3rd birthday, Josh's 30th Birthday, DisneyWorld, and moved to St. Louis, all in the last 15 days.

I am starting to breathe normally. Did I spell breathe right? I have no idea.

Our house is so so so so so so beautiful. We scored with this house. It has some out-dated stuff, that's the only negative thing. Our first project will be to update the light fixtures. Then, we paint. There is flat paint all through the house (what a nightmare with kids).

The sellers were so good to us. When we walked in the door we found a note that read

"We left a few extra items around the house that we thought you could use. Everything was cleaned this week, except windows and draperies. We hope your family is as happy here as we have been. Enjoy!"

Besides toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms they left behind otter pops in the freezer, and a portfilio (on the kitchen counter top) titled "A History of Medicine in Pictures."

Does it get any better than this?!? It's seriously been a dream to move into this house. No dirty house to clean. Everything is in perfect shape. We live at the end of a cul-de-sac, with lots of trees providing privacy for our backyard. The previous owners must have been immaculate, detail-oriented people because everything is in great shape. Even the toilets are awesome! :) We have a bay window in our bedroom. We have a green house window in the kitchen. I could see myself living here for the rest of my life. Though we won't, our interest rates go up in 4 years. :) We are blessed.

Great Lengths

I had an emotional day today. 1 year ago Josh got some bad news.

1 year later.

This video just shows the very beginning of the graduation ceremony, with a processional being led by someone playing bagpipes and drums. In that moment, though, I was overcome with emotion. I get emotional again as I think about it. What a tremendous experience we have had through medical school. And to think we are done? Crazy. 1 year ago I was not sure if Josh would be graduating medical school, or if he would even be alive for this day.

I am a wimp still, but I feel going through medical school and having a husband being treated for cancer... life will be boring from here on out!!! What else will life bring to us? What else could be harder? DON'T TELL ME!!! I don't want to find out! Haha.

We are blessed. We have 3 strong, healthy, beautiful, smart children. We are moving to a place that I couldn't be more happy about. I am healthy. Josh is mostly healthy. (Besides his Mountain Dew habit he does alright). :) We have so many comforts under our roof. I have the right husband for me, who treats me well, loves me, and has taught me so many things about myself and life. Plus he is FINE! (FINE=hot and sexy and good looking). :) Isn't he?!?!?

We have friends! We have family!!! We have a support group all freaking around us. Even though we live out of state from our immediate families, we don't feel alone.

The next time I post, we will be living in St. Louis!!!

a Blessing

This is Conrad hugging Sister Svacina. She was the greatest blessing for our family back when Conrad was first going to nursery. Sister Svacina was the nursery leader. She did wonderful "ice-breakers," for the little ones to do right when they walked into nursery. Things like picking up pretend autumn leaves to put in a garbage sack, or scooping up cotton balls ... things correlating with the seasons. She was teRRIFIC!!! Imagine me screaming how wonderful she has been for us. She brought presents when I was about to have Ruby, even to Conrad and Amelia!!!! Conrad was a struggle getting to go to nursery so we are so lucky we had Sister Svacina in our ward.
Sister Svacina is also known as The Marble Lady. She came over bringing good-bye gifts. Big Bubbles, marble-ized balloons, a crazy happy dancing wind-up little person thing, silly straws... she is thee most fun person I have ever met. She carries around a bag with about a hundred zippers on it. Filled with fun silly little kid things.

After she left, Conrad followed Josh outside, and lo and behold Luke and Chloe were outside playing with their toys Sister S brought for them, too. (They are moving, too). Luke saw Conrad with his balloon and titled him his Balloon Brother. I had to take a picture with the 2 balloon brothers! They are pretty much brothers. Today they didn't play with each other for a long time. Tonight when Conrad was saying his prayers he said, "Thank you for playing with Luke even if it was just a little bit." Anyway... back to the point... we love Sister Svacina.

I am going to miss this place.

Canned Spinach, anyone?

Conrad saw canned spinach at Wal-mart. Popeye's face was all over it. He convinced me to buy it with a promise that he would eat it.
He ate it. And he said it was good.

I just don't get that boy.

just keep swimming

Happy Mother's Day yesterday!
I got a new set of Farberware, a sweet singing card from Conrad and Amelia, a nap, a hot breakfast, French Toast for brunch (!!!) and a yummy roast dinner... with rolls to boot.
I had a great day.
I organized the kid's closets, without my kids constantly there trying on their clothes and throwing them around. I got rid of 5 tall garbage bags worth of clothing. That is the greatest feeling in the world. Basically I worked on their closets for a total of about 6 hours. I organized the baby boy clothes (here's hoping!) up to Conrad's age, as well as the girl clothes. We had received a lot of hand-me-downs for the girls, so those took me longer to go through. Lots of mis-matched outfits for the same age group. Having simplicity is important for this scatter-brained momma. Also, the less clothes they have, the less clothes end up all over the bedroom floor. I do laundry at least twice a week anyway, so it's worth it.

Josh's CT Scan of his lungs came back clear! He had it done last week. There has been a small lesion or whatever on his scans and this time it looked less "conspicuous" than before. !!! The Dr. thinks it is a scar. Awesome news! We are fortunate to have such good health!!!

I need some help. Amelia is totally potty-trained. Through the night and all. She never wets the bed (knock on wood). But the last few weeks she has been having accidents during the day. It is so weird. She averages about 2 accidents per day. I thought she was just being busy or being lazy about getting to the bathroom. So I told her that each time she wet herself we had to go wash her off with cold water in the tub. She laughs and giggles, though, when it happens! "I like cold baths!" I'm thinking of going back to the positive reinforcement. So frustrating. She is not sleeping enough at nighttime. She's whiney and cranky all day. We try to get her to nap, failure.

Oh man. I have to go. There is no time for blogging. Too much to do.

Posing for Pictures

We've been getting together with friends a lot lately. Relishing every chance we can before we all move. In this picture we were getting together to celebrate Amy's birthday. She is the baby of the group. I think she just turned 18?
L-R: me, Amy (moving to Omaha) Kate (moving to Idaho), and Heidi (moving 5 minutes away from me!)
Our children. (plus an extra by-stander) :) Amelia almost didn't make it in the picture. Welcome to my life: this girl is at that stage. Yes, we are willing to sell her, maybe even give her away!!!

Tonight we got together with a lot of friends that moved here when we did (or are moving away the same year as us). On top is Amy. L-R: Amy, and Katherine. Bottom: Kate, me, Kim and Heidi.

Oops, this is the one I meant to put first. Kate, me, Kim, Rachel (aka Rosa), Amy, Heidi, and Katherine. I look sort of Dolly Parton-esque. Gosh, someone help me tame my cups!!! Seriously, I can't find anything to wear. We didn't get every Dr. wife in this picture... a few of us were feeding babies at different times. We missed Robyn, Lindsey, and Holly (who wasn't there).

The Dr.'s from either Josh's class or our neighborhood. L-R: Dr.'s Spendlove, Miley, McClintock, Shepherd, Baker, Blanchard. Front row: Jones, Washburn, and Kanooth.

Congrats Grads!!!

Getting stuff accomplished

Completed the temple run!
I didn't even notice my time. I had more fun talking with my running pals or goofing off. I was liberated, NO KIDS!!! hahaha. I wish we could have brought them, though. It was such an awesome thing to do!!!
I'm still trying to keep up the jogging. I weigh so freaking much right now! Luckily, I am able to because Josh has either had a late starting schedule... or, because he's ALL DONE!!!
By the way, I am becoming a lazy blogger.
Josh graduates in less than 2 weeks!!!
Then, Disneyworld!
Then, we close on our house and MOVE!!!!!!