An update!

What have we been up to for the past few months? Here's a snapshot of the summer events.

In July, we went to South Dakota to visit with David's family. Most of those pictures are on the other computer, but here are a few. Some highlights from the trip were going to Boom's for sherbert cones (so refreshing on a hot day!) ...
Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa VE ...
And seeing our cute little nieces! Unfortunately, I missed out on taking pictures of the water skiing and bike riding! But we had a great time roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, singing, kayaking, and just spending time together. More pictures to come of the rest of the family if/when I find them!

I made a trip to LA last week for a conference at UCLA. So fun to be home! I flew solo because David had to work, so he was bach'ing it at home holding down the home front. Meanwhile, I was ...

Hanging out with the sisters, Fuyu and Erin at a frozen yogurt and cupcake dessert place ...

Visiting Jeff and Clara's new little guy, Elijin ...

Hello sister! I miss Clara.

It was so good to catch up with Clara and spend time together! And Elijin is a cutie!

Saw Chris & Bettina, Henry, and Mike, Em and Lana (old friends from UCLA Navs). Miss those buddies!

Proud uncle Chris ...

Proud papa, Mikey ...

The gang ...

Proud uncle Henry ...

Me and Em ...

Went to eat Korean BBQ with the family ... Yum ...

Kim chee, yum ... I miss Korean food.

Amy, Nick & Dani, and Kevin (our cousin) ...

Sat in traffic on the 405 ...

Yes, folks. My car is moving 0 mph.

Ate sushi with the girls from Mayo ...

Me and Autumn ...

Katie, Christina, and Andrea

Hung out with the Wu-boy family ...

the jon, Sarah, and Isaac ...

Me and the cutie ... i heart Isaac ...

Went to eat Japanese food with the seniors from church ... here's Grace looking at the big boat of food the ladies ordered with disbelief ...

Four little Japanese ladies ordered this ginormous boat of food.

Family! Amy, Dani & Nick, me and Mom

Dad and the ladies ... Terri, Nana, Grace and Grace

Sadako & Ottis, me and Mary ... love them.

Went to hear John Williams play the music of the movies at the Hollywood Bowl! So fun! The LA Philharmonic played while JW directed. The whole first half was from the Harry Potter soundtrack, so my sisters (who love HP) were thrilled.

This is what the bowl looked like when they were playing music from ET, Casablanca, Rocky, Gone with the Wind, the Godfather, etc.

And here's what the bowl looked like when they played music from the Star Wars soundtrack. I love the die hard Star Wars fans and their light sabers! It was so fun!

Very moving. I almost cried with joy. :)

And some old pictures from when Julia and Rhett came to visit and we went to the MN state fair ... Butter busts of the butter princesses ...

Brand new babies with wobbly legs ...

Cute miniature horses ... I like small things ...

And of course, fried food on a stick.

A sea of humanity!

And an old picture of what happened when David was showing a little guy in the emergency department that the cast saw wouldn't hurt. The cast saw looks and sounds like a circular saw, so kids are always afraid it's going to cut them. And usually it doesn't because it just vibrates, it doesn't actually rotate. But the one in the emergency department was old, and when David put it up to his arm and said "See, it doesn't hurt at all", he had to keep smiling even though it was so old that it got too hot and burnt his skin. Ack! Luckily, the ED got a new cast saw. :)

And that's our July, August, September update! Love and miss you all! :)

Happy 5th of July!

I really liked Wendi's family pictures from Keith and AD's 4oJ visit because they're all dressed in red, white and blue.  So fun!  I was lame yesterday and wore white and green to the BBQ at Katie and Jake's because it wasn't even on my radar.  Lame-o.  

An update from us!  Not much to write except that once again, I think weather in the 70's is perfect.  It got up into the 90's last week, and we were roasting.  Way too hot.  And to add insult to injury, our air conditioner is broken.  We'll get around to fixing it one of these days ...

I celebrated 4oJ by hanging out with some of my fellow peds residents and their spouses.  (Sorry, no pictures - we were just lounging, and I totally forgot to bring a camera.)  Katie and Jake hosted a fantastic BBQ, and Jake grilled up one of the best burgers I've eaten in a long time.  He says his secret is Worcestershire sauce and bacon in the burgers.  Bacon!  ha ha.  No wonder it tasted good.  :)  Also on the menu were sweet potato fries, grilled corn on the cob, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and gourmet chocolate and caramel ice cream bars.  Delish!  After a delicious meal, we played R0ck Band and sang our hearts out.  I think it's funny that a bunch of semi-professionals in their late 20's/early 30's were spending an afternoon playing R0ck Band, but I'll bet it happens every day!

David has been marching through a 72 hour shift of peds and spine "home" call this weekend.  He came home and slept from 2AM to 4AM on Friday and 10PM to 4AM last night, so we were thankful for that!  It's been a pretty busy weekend with the usual motocross accidents and a smattering of other traumatic injuries.  Words of wisdom from David as he prepared to go see two children with multiple broken bones in the ED - "Motocross should be illegal."  Just kidding to all of our readers who value their right to engage in dangerous activities!  

On a final note, I'm learning to chill out and let things go.  Today at the grocery store, I purposely chose a half gallon of neapolitan ice cream because it was extraordinarily cheap at $1.74.  Can you believe it?  I double checked the label and the price just to make sure I wasn't getting confused.  Too good to be true!  When I checked out, I wasn't too surprised to see that it rang up at $2.89, the price that all the other flavors had been marked.  I quickly did the math and figured that 3 extra minutes of my time and mental energy were worth more than $1.15.  So I walked away and didn't say anything.  

I know!  This is a new thing for me.  As I was leaving the store I thought, "I wonder what Tara would say about this?"  But then I came home and ate two carrots that have been sitting in my vegetable bin since April, so hopefully I can still be a respectable member of the sisterhood of frugal living.  :)   

Happy June!

This month has gone by pretty quickly as my days have been filled with random things (teaching PALS and NRP, getting jeopardized to the NICU, global health meetings, babysitting, baby showers, and pediatric nephrology) and David's days pretty much consist of the following: wake up, work hard, eat dinner, sleep, repeat.  I make a concerted effort not to let every post degenerate into a lamentation about work hours, but I will admit that I get a little teary eyed when our only interactions for the week are 15 minute dates in the cafeteria on call days.  Today is one of those days!  

Nonetheless, it's been a good week.  Some of the highlights for us were the following:

- Babysitting my little friend Henry

- Dinner with our Bible study group last Saturday

- A great night in the NICU (3 for 3 on umbilical lines and intubations!)

- Getting to do a lot of stuff in the OR like putting femoral nails in and things like that (sorry, I don't really know the details here, but he has been getting to operate which makes the long hours worth it!)

- Our fifth wedding anniversary

I'm very proud of my husband.  He works long hours because he takes good care of his patients.  We've got a date night planned for tomorrow (*fingers crossed* that I don't get jeopardized again).  Dinner and a movie sounds a little ambitious for a post-call day, but we'll see how it goes!  :)  

Ajit's Big Fat Indian Wedding

The title of this post is a shout out to David's Aunt Sheryl who doesn't read this blog but who really loves the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. :)

This past weekend was a whirlwind of reuniting with good friends, feasting on good food, and celebrating with our dear friend, Ajit (who also doesn't read this blog). On Friday, we flew into NY city and caught the train out to L0ng Island where the Kits picked us up from the train station. We caught sight of a Turkish restaurant on our way back to the hotel and enjoyed a delicious meal of chicken and beef kabobs, lentil stew, hummus, lamb stew, and more! So tasty, so filling. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Friday evening was the rehearsal and dinner, and we finally got to meet Ajit's beautiful bride, Jeny (who I just realized I don't have a single picture of!). We enjoyed seeing Ajit's family again and sharing a delicious Indian meal together. His parents and brothers are so great!

Wendi and me

Ajit, David and John

On the way back to the hotel that evening, we stopped at Dunkin D0nuts/Baskin R0bbins which made me happy. What a great combination! :) David and I shared an 0re0 sundae and thoroughly enjoyed it. :) That night, we enjoyed watching the basketball playoffs (no cable TV at home) and relaxing, and Tara finally arrived to join the party around midnight! Poor Tara - she had a long day! But we were glad to see her, and we all enjoyed sleeping in the next morning.

Saturday was the big day, and it started early for the beautiful ladies who woke up at 4AM to get their hair done. (Again, no pictures! Sorry!) The wedding was a traditional Indian wedding with singing in Malyalam and a variety of special ceremonial rituals that Ajit explained to us. One of them involved a necklace made of seven threads that he had to tie around Jeny's neck using special knots, and he said that if he didn't tie the knots just right, it would be a very big deal! Aah! The pressure! :) But he practiced a lot beforehand and did it just right. It was really fun to see all of the women in their beautiful saris and enjoy the celebration.

Tracy (Sujit's girlfriend) helped me put my sari together!

Tara, me, Elijah and Wendi



Tara and Elijah

John, Isaac and Wendi

Latova & Antonio, Sean & Steph

Ajit, the happy groom!

After an incredibly fancy reception with more good food, we all slept well that night. And we got to watch one more basketball game before saying goodbye to cable TV. On Sunday morning, Tara left at 3:30 AM or something crazy like that. I woke up blurry eyed to hug her goodbye and went back to sleep. We woke up a few hours later and took the train into the city to hang out with Kerri and Henry, friends from my home church.

We had a lot of fun trying to see the city in just a few hours! Some of the highlights for me were the T0p of the R0ck (city view from the top of the R0ckerfeller) and soft pretzels from the street cart. The T0p of the R0ck was really cool because I felt like I got to see all of NYC even though we were just in town for a few hours.

Henry, Kerri, David and me

Statue of Liberty, check!

Empire State Building, check!

Central Park, check!

Unfortunately, our beautiful day in the city was marred by what proved to be a very costly miscalculation on my part. For some reason, I thought it would be fine to leave midtown around 4PM to catch our 6PM flight. After saying lengthy goodbyes, grabbing a few soft pretzels and a gyro plate to go, and stopping for an iced coffee before entering the subway, we were actually on the train closer to 4:30PM. Still, I was unphased. I've never missed a flight before, and - to be honest - the thought that we could potentially miss our flight never crossed my mind.

When we arrived at the airport at 5:30PM, I figured we could just print out our boarding passes, breeze through security, and hop on the plane like we always do. Wrong! There were so many things that went wrong. Too late, wrong terminal, massive lines at the desk, check in kiosk wouldn't work, etc. And at 5:40PM, as we stood there sans boarding passes at the back of the 35 person line that was moving like molasses, it finally struck me that we were going to miss our flight. This may seem obvious, but I was completely caught off guard. In retrospect, I think I had the "it will never happen to me" mentality because, well, it's never happened to me. Until yesterday, that is.

So trying to muster up my last bit of resourcefulness, I called the airline to see if we could bypass the desk and simply switch our tickets to the next flight available. They offered me two first class seats on the only flight leaving that night for $859 each with nothing else leaving until the morning. Still feeling a bit dazed, David and I debated having to sell my right kidney to get back to work on time or face the powers that be with a last minute call to request more time off. Gulp! I said a quick prayer and started to feel a bit panicked by the lack of feasible options.

At that point in time, David suggesting calling for reinforcements, so we rang my family and had two people searching for possible tickets within minutes. (What did we do before the internet?!) My dad and sister found tickets for a reasonable price and promptly purchased them ... for June 21st. ha ha! There was some automatic populating of the dates, and they were so concerned with getting our names spelled correctly that they missed the date change completely. Luckily, my sister noticed it, and we were able to call the airline and get the tickets changed to the correct date without having to pay a service fee. (So merciful!) We had the usual delays and associated airport lag times, and 8 hours and several hundred dollars later, we were home.

A few weekends ago, David had a really busy weekend on call. There was an extraordinary number of serious motor vehicle accidents, and in 24 hours, the count tallied something like 17 traumas, 12 people dead at the scene, and three deaths in the ED. Thinking about all of that, I was reminded of all of the things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that there were a few seats left on that plane so that we could make it home in time to work today. I'm thankful that my first (and hopefully last) missed flight experience was on a domestic flight instead of an international one. I'm thankful that we were able to find reasonable coach tickets instead of having to pay big bucks for ones in first class. I'm thankful for safe travel and that God has protected us from serious illness and injury. So at the end of a very long day, we had a lot to be thankful for! :)

Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed.

Got back from our family trip to H@waii on Saturday morning.  Some highlights of the trip were seeing my grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins, getting some sun, taking a few hikes, eating delicious meals, reading books and lounging around, and going for walks with my sister.  

On the top of Di@mond Head

David and Hunter (my cousin's son)

Nick, Dani, Amy, Mom, Dad, Les, David

We took a red-eye flight back to L@X on Thursday night, and Amy got an entire row of seats all to herself!  She slept well.  :)  On Friday, we went to church and then hung out with my other cousins, Jay and Kevin, who happen to live in C@lifornia.  Then we caught another red-eye back home.  Our sleep schedules are a little off, but we're back to work tomorrow!  It was a great vacation, and we seem to have brought the warm weather back with us as it's been sunny and in the high 50's this weekend.  Welcome, Spring!  

Today, we celebrated Easter at Nick and Cassi's home - pictures to follow on Kristen's blog, I think.  :)  And a Happy Birthday to Melissa!  

Sleepy Saturday

Today, we're sleepy. :)

This week has been a little crazy. It was my last week in the Pediatric ICU, and my call nights were busy...clinic was busy...life was busy. I had some great opportunities to learn more about critical care and do cool procedures like putting femoral and subclavian venous central lines in...but all of this busyness made for very little sleep this week. I really like putting central lines in. Sometimes I think I should have done anesthesia just so I could have more opportunities to put central lines in. :) David was on hand call Wednesday and Friday, and I took call for the pediatric endocrinology service last night - all home call, but the pagers were fairly busy. He got up last night and went into the emergency department to see a patient - I don't even remember hearing the pager go off or him leaving!

We went in to round this morning and then headed over to Brandon and Kristen's new home to help them move in. Their house is beautiful, and it was fun to see them and a bunch of the people in their class. Brandon sent David home early to get some sleep, and we promptly zonked out on the couch (David is still there). Now I'm just watching the U Conn and Mizzou game, eating leftover Indian food from Monday, and enjoying sitting around at home in my sweats. A sleepy Saturday. :)

Today was "change of service" Saturday, so David said goodbye to hand surgery and started a new spine/tumor surgery rotation. In direct contrast to hand surgery, the spine/tumor surgeries tend to be long and kind of a big ordeal. When they do major surgeries requiring other services to be involved (e.g., general surgery to open the abdomen, urology to dissect out the urogenital system), they are often getting into the OR early in the evening to start their portion. I have a feeling I won't be seeing him quite as much as I did last quarter.

But we are looking forward to next Friday when we leave for Hawaii! We're heading out to LA on Friday and then to Hawaii on Saturday to see my grandparents with the rest of my family. It should be a good time as this will be Nick's (Dani's husband) first family trip with us and first trip to meet my grandparents. Can't wait! :)

The road trip week in review

Saturday, 2/21 - 9 hours on the road

We drove to Wichita to see Jason, Lisa and our little niece Alia!  So cute!  We had a wonderful time catching up with them and enjoying the warmer weather in Wichita.  We enjoyed pizza together on Saturday night, went to their church on Sunday, and had some Thai food for lunch before hitting the road again on Sunday afternoon.  It was a short visit, but so good!  

Jason, Lisa and Alia

Lesley and Alia (you will see a lot of these pictures)

Sunday, 2/22 - 6 hours on the road

We arrived in Dallas and were amazed at how HUGE it was!  And we were thrilled to see Christo, Melissa, Karuna, Luke, and their newest little one, Vivek.  It was wonderful to see them again and to hear about how they are doing.  Christo has many incredible stories about training at Parkland, and it was neat to hear about the things the Lord has been putting on their hearts and the ways they are getting involved in their community.  

Lesley and Vivek - I love snuggling with the babies!  

Vivek Joseph

Karuna and Cuddles.  Cuddles is the most patient and long-suffering cat I have ever met.  :)  

Melissa and Vivek

David and Luke doing a puzzle book.  We weren't sure if Luke would remember us or not, but he quickly warmed up to us and showed us lots of love by sitting with us to read books, do puzzles, and eat meals.  

Monday, 2/23 

Christo went to work, and we had a quiet day at home with the kiddos.  David and I took Karuna and Luke for a walk and a trip to the nearby playground - the weather was sunny and warm!  We enjoyed Christo's mom's delicious cooking.  David napped.  I went for a run and made smoothies with Karuna.  And then we went out on the town.  

Christo and Melissa took us to a great Mexican seafood restaurant, and I ordered the largest plate of paella you've ever seen.  It was delicious!  David also enjoyed his mahi mahi soft tacos and was the only person who actually finished his entire meal.  Good job, David.  :)  We then drove around Dallas and saw Parkland, the huge children's hospital (amazing!), and the location where JFK was shot.  Overall, we got a little taste of Dallas, and we left wishing we could have stayed much longer.   

Tuesday, 2/24 - 13.5 hours on the road

We left Christo and Melissa's home at 5AM to get an early start on our trip to Florida.  The drive through Texas and Louisiana was beautiful.  The roads were great!  The weather was warm and sunny.  And there was no traffic.  

Beautiful bayous!

Around 1 PM we were approaching New Orleans and decided to take a look around since we were in the neighborhood.  Christo had recommended a restaurant that was famous for its fish and chocolate bread pudding, and David had been eagerly looking forward to a tasty meal all morning.  As we neared the city, the thought occurred to us that it might be close to Mardi Gras.  It was a Tuesday...hmm...

We soon realized that we were the only two people in all of New Orleans who were unaware of the fact that Tuesday was Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras.  

As I drove off the freeway, I was greeted by hordes of people walking in the street.  My first thought was, "So this is what it feels like to be caught in a mob."  My second thought was, "I am so embarrassed to be sporting a Minnesota license plate right now!"  Needless to say, we abandoned the plan of eating lunch downtown and spent the next 90 minutes trying to turn around and get back on the freeway.  We happened to get stopped right at an intersection where a parade was passing through, so here are a few random pictures of some of the parade floats.  

There was a lot of craziness going on.  Tons of people walking in the street.  Tons of trash being thrown on the street.  I would have taken more pictures but was feeling a bit shy since we were sporting the Minnesota license plate.  

We soon got back on the road and made it to John and Wendi's just as the sun was going down.  John cooked a delicious Indian meal, and we spent the evening catching up with them and enjoying Isaac and Elijah.  And Scrubs!  I just realized I don't have any pictures of Scrubs.  Hmm.  See Wendi's blog.  :)  

Lesley and Elijah - he likes being swaddled

Elijah

Isaac - the happiest little guy!  
Wednesday, 2/25

We lounged in the morning and then went out to a restaurant with a "back porch" on the beach.  It was so nice and warm!  Beautiful weather!  I laughed when Wendi said that the outdoor eating places were probably closed off since it was too cold for eating outside and that the real Floridians were ready for the warm weather to return.  David and I both thought the weather was perfect and wouldn't have wanted it any warmer.  :)  Perfect weather!  

John and Wendi

Isaac thinking about whether or not he likes our waiter

The famous white sand beaches at Destin

David and Isaac

David and Lesley on the beach, enjoying the warm weather!

John, Isaac and David thinking deep thoughts on the beach

Enjoying our yummy fish sandwiches, the sun, and good company
John gave us a tour of his base, and we were really impressed by how big it was and what kinds of things they were doing there.  He mentioned that some of the pilots are a bit cocky.  After seeing those fighter planes, we agreed that we would have some attitude too if we flew them!  :)  They are huge!  

We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon (complete with a nap, of course) and then spent the evening in classic fashion with a delicious meal made by John (the best grouper I've ever tasted, grilled pineapple, shiitake mushrooms and broccoli, rice, and SUSHI!) and American Id0l.  *sigh* just like old times.  :)  

Thursday, 2/26 - 15 hours on the road

We left the Kits around 7AM and drove north through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois.  Most of the local radio programs were giving commentary on the current economic situation, stimulus plans, etc.  It was really nice to have so much time to just sit and listen to the radio - NPR, local talk shows, etc.  It made me feel like I was a bit caught up on current events.  Some of the programs had really insightful things to say.  I won't rehash every argument, but David and I had some good discussions about the role of government and our current economy. 

We would have driven all the way home except that we were deterred by a heavy thunderstorm in Illinois and predictions of freezing rain in Wisconsin.  We stopped a little north of Bloomington and spent the night at a hotel before resuming our journey the following morning.  The highlight of this part of the trip was seeing an entire city blackout when the power went out (presumably...David rejected my hypothesis that everyone in the city had turned their lights off at the same time) and sharing a pint of mint and chip ice cream while watching Sp0rtsCenter at our hotel.  

Friday, 2/27 - 7 hours on the road

We slept in and hit the road around 8:30 AM.  Drove north for a few hours and then stopped in Beaver Dam to see Mom and Dad for lunch.  Dad came home from work even though he had a busy day and hadn't gotten any sleep the night before (two OB deliveries kept him up all night)!  So it was a treat to see them.  And then we finished out the last 3.5 hours of our road trip back home. 

We had a wonderful vacation seeing some of our dearest friends and loved ones, meeting new babies, and making memories.  We were thankful for God's provision of many miles of safe travel, sunny weather, good food, and a place to rest our heads each night.  It was very, very refreshing.  :)