Lee and I lately

I do updates about the boys but I haven't given an update about Lee and I lately.

Lee is now a 3rd year resident! PGY3! we're in our last 9 months of residency! Whoa it's actually gone quickly, I can't believe it's almost over.  He is the chief resident and is staying pretty busy, but 3rd year over all has been much better than the first two and we have somewhat of a normal schedule.
It is likely that we'll be doing a global health fellowship next year, but there is a ton involved in that and it isn't official yet so I won't even bother going into it. haha.
After that we definitely plan on staying in Ft Myers.  We really love it here and are ready to buy a house and make it our permanent home!

This is Lee's 3rd season to be the doctor for a local high school football team. He's having a lot of fun with that and I can definitely see that being something we continue doing in the future.

We're both staying really busy with stuff at our church.  For the past year I have been the Sunday School teacher for the College and Career age group and after Houston was born Lee joined me to help teach because you know, I spend half the class nursing Houston typically. haha.  We try to get together with our college group a couple times a month outside of church too.
I help with the youth group on Wednesday nights and we are also apart of a parenting class on Sunday nights and attend Bible study every other Monday night! And Lee plays the drums a lot of Sundays and has lead worship several times to fill in for our worship pastor.
We are so thankful for our church and we love the people there.  It really has become like family! It makes me happy to know that Leo and Houston have so many people of all ages that care about them and that they feel comfortable with.  It takes a village they say.  Our church is a big part of our village for sure.

My MOPS group started back up about a month ago.  I'm a table leader again this year, which really doesn't mean a ton, haha.  I just have to be there and facilitate discussion and send out reminders and stuff.  Our first meetings have been really fun.  We also do moms night outs once a month and playdates.  I have made some really good friends at my MOPS group. I think we had 90 women sign up this year so there is never a shortage of someone to meet at the park or to answer a question I have about something in the area! I love that Leo gets to go hang out with friends for a few hours too.  He calls it going to school. haha

A few weeks ago Leo and I joined a gym by our house too! A gym with childcare! It's amazing! I've been going about 4x a week.  A friend and I go to a class MWF (pilates, abs, and Tai box) and I've been running and lifting weights ?! what! Yeah after baby #2 I definitely felt like I need some help in the muscle and strength department.  Lifting weights is actually pretty fun.  I have no idea what I'm doing... but I'm learning. And I can shower at the gym. That alone is worth the $30 a month, right?
Lee has been going before work in the mornings. He's the best.

And finally I reopened my Etsy store a few weeks ago too!
I had missed doing stuff with my hands.  I love crafting... but I don't love the messes I make all over the house. It's been steady these first few weeks. My garland that I make is by far my best seller, I really need to figure one out that I might be able to sell year round.  Everyone loves the pumpkins!
I am really excited though - I'm doing 2 craft shows in November!  I'm slowly working on extra projects in the evenings to build up some stock to have at the shows. I'm also working on using up all the supplies that I already have.  I.have.so.much.craft.stuff.  I'm starting on some Christmas stuff too.  Last year it got hectic for me and I ended up only making 1 Christmas item. Major fail.  I'm determined to do better this year!

So yeah, we're pretty busy, but I love it. I prefer being busy to staying home a lot... and thankfully thus far Leo and Houston either like it too or they at least put up with me!

Life update - Leo 19-20 months

I really  want to keep up with the monthly updates about Leo.  He changes so much and is learning at an unbelievable speed I want to remember when and how he changes.
But it's hard to actually sit down and write about it, especially now that I have opened my Etsy store!

I've wanted to have a handmade store for a very long time but the timing finally felt right a couple months ago - especially because we have  A LOT of expensive things coming up in our lives.  The biggest on the horizon being Lee's mission trip to Honduras in March.  It's a really great opportunity for him to go work in an overseas clinic that has been established for a long time and is sustainable... rather than just going into a place and treating people and then leaving them without a doctor again. It's a lot like the trip he recently went on to Nicaragua.

So back to my shop - I named it Sassafras Circle.
Coming up with a name was HARD.
Finally my sister mentioned using Sassy - which is what my nieces call me and then that evolved into Sassafras.  And circle because the main thing I make in my shop is wreaths.

Here's a few examples -

It's been a bit of a slow start, but I've had about 20 orders so far, so it's been worth it.  I hope it keeps growing and getting bigger and better!

I don't remember the last I updated, but Lee is now a 2nd year resident and staying busy with all his stuff.  We're in the middle of interview season - for residents to start next July and so Lee has been busy with reading applications and doing interviews.  Friday he's going to a recruitment event in Tampa and in December we're going to Amelia Island for Lee to go to a conference.  AND even more exciting!!!! With our credit card points we are getting 2 free tickets to Disney and taking Leo for Christmas on our way to the conference!!!
It will be my first time at Disney and Lee hasn't been since he was in the 3rd grade, so I'm pretty excited! and hello, free!!!!


Leo is now about 20.5 months old.  I really will try to do better with this updates... because I'm not exactly sure when he started doing certain things, but whatever.

He will not attempt to say any word you tell him to.  It's hilarious and adorable.  My favorite is getting him to say names.  He has a pretty big vocabulary now and can identify almost everything he sees..  He'll say and sign please and thank you pretty regularly without being prompted.  He only recently started saying thank you rather than just signing.  He says sorry so sweet and cute that whatever he's done I couldn't possibly be mad about anymore.... although it's usually because he's just gotten too rough and bit or hit me :/

He's completely potty trained while he's naked, but not at all while he's wearing clothe, underwear, or a diaper.  Something completely turns off that sensor that he has to pee when there is fabric touching him.  Oh well, he's still young and I'm not in a big rush to potty train him, but it is AMAZING to not have to think about diapers during the day while we're home.  If we stay home all day he only uses 2 diapers - nap time and bedtime.
He even attempts to dump his pee/poop into the big potty after he's done... which is sweet, but 1 time turned into a disaster when I didn't get to the bathroom fast enough.  I just leave the door open and he goes as he pleases on his little potty.  Well he started shutting the door when he has to poop (how does he even know?!) and so I let him be alone for about a minute and then go check, well a couple days I heard the big toilet lid open and got there in time to see him trying to dump his poop into the potty, hahaha, well one day I didn't and he missed. and it was a disaster.... and he was trying to clean it up. oh man. It was do disgusting but he was so cute trying to wipe it up.
I really have the sweetest little guy.  If he spills something he'll run and get a towel and try to clean it up.

Like I mentioned before he does sometimes bite or hit.   Like once a day or so if he gets overly excited or I'm ignoring him usually.  He plays a lot rougher with Lee, they wrestle a lot. But he never bites Lee, just me.  It's weird.  He knows he shouldn't and if I catch him in the act he'll look up at me with those big brown eyes and his mouth open with his teeth out like.... oooh yea, I'm not supposed to do this.
ugh. Oh well.  I don't think he's ever bit another kid, at least no one has ever told me he has, and he's getting much better with me too.

His favorite things to do are play with water, play with balls, run around wild at the play ground and slide and climb, and play his guitar and sing.  He's started mimicking Lee when he sings and will squint his eyes and open his mouth really wide.  It's hilarious and I've been trying to catch it on video.


We recently got back from a trip to Ohio to be with my sister Molly when he had her new baby boy Maximus.  I was able to be in the room when she gave birth!  And Leo was so sweet with the baby.
With his 2 yr old cousin Rynnlee.... not as much. haha. They were very competitive and I think encouraged each other to be a little more wild than usual.  But they had fun.  We got to go trick or treating with cousins and Leo and Rynnlee were Thing 1 and Thing 2.

We also spent a lot of time at my parents house and Leo absolutely loves loves loves my dad's animals.  I think the goats and the roosters were his favorite.  He would just run around and squeal.  He was so happy.  He really liked getting into their cages too. haha.  He would climb in and shut the door behind him.  What a weird kid.
He really bonded with my dad which was fun.  He'd wake up in the morning and the first word he'd say was Poppy?! and he'd want to go outside with him and ride his "tractor" - lawnmower and help him feed the animals.
He didn't care as much for the small animals - pigeons or baby bunnies.  He preferred the dangerous animals like big mean roosters or goats with horns.

We also got to visit about 4 times with my friend Michelle and her 3 kids and that was really fun.  I hope Leo grows up being close to his cousins and my friends from home's kids too.  It'll be nice for him to have family all over the place.
While we were in Ohio we met 4  new babies!  My nephew Max, my sorta family I'll call her a 2nd cousin kinda thing Addie, my friend Ellen's little guy Keegan, and my friend Caitlin's new baby girl Aaliyah.
I'm so thankful that surprisingly it's pretty cheap for me to fly home and I get to visit my family somewhat regularly... although I'm not gonna lie, I missed Florida.
We had really amazing November weather and it was in the 70s most days, but those cold mornings.... no thanks.  I decided that cold feet, cold toilet seats, being cold getting out of a shower - all those things  are things I do not miss at all.


And yea, that's about it.
Life is pretty good.  We're just trucking along and are starting to think about long term what we (Lee) want to do and where we'll live.  But for now we're enjoying life today.
I'm typing this while still in bed because after working several 24 hr shifts and another one tomorrow my husband offered to get up with Leo this morning and let me sleep in.
He owed me.
Hope he made breakfast!

Picture parade -

Residency 5 months in

Here were are November already!  It's hard to judge time going by here in Florida because pretty much every single day is just as sunny, warm, and beautiful as the last, but somehow it's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Lee is finishing his 5th month of residency today.
He has completed - in-patient medicine, sports medicine, pediatrics, another round of in-patient, and will start OB on Monday.

I wrote a post a few months ago about how things were going so far - here.

Overall I still can't complain too much about residency. I know many others who have it much worse than we do in terms of - schedule, program, coworkers, etc.
Lee is so far really happy with his decision to come here and so am I!

However, there are still a lot of aspects of residency that are no cake walk no matter which way you look at it.
Lee has been working A TON.  He recently did 20 straight days of about 5am-8:00pm... I'll let you do the math of how many hours a week that is (and how much over time that'd be in a normal job -no such thing as over time in residency) and that doesn't include travel time and all the text, email, pager answering, and studying he does outside of the hospital.

This past week was pretty rough, he went from Sunday - Friday pretty much without seeing Leo because he was only home when he was sleeping :(  But then he had Friday off and was able to spend the entire day with us.  As a bonus Leo randomly slept in until 8:30am! which NEVER happens, so he must have known we all needed a little extra sleep! (unfortunately I woke up with what looks like a case of mastitis.....ugh. but that's a post for another day)
It makes for long days and weeks when he is gone that much.  Not only do I feel like a single parent, but I miss my husband :( If we're lucky we get about an hour together before he falls asleep.  We're hoping next month will be better when he's on OB.  He'll be on call a lot, but he'll be at the hospital that's only 5 minutes from home so he might be able to come home more often/earlier!

Back in September Lee took (and crushed!) Step 3 during his vacation. He was a little worried about taking it so early in residency, but they were going to make changes to the test come the end of the year so he decided to take it early and, by no shock to me, did really, really well.  Although I'm not sure it really matters what their score is on that one as long as they pass.

A couple weeks ago he also finished up the season with his high school football team.  He really enjoyed working with them and being apart of their team.  They even gave him a polo with the team logo :)  He will probably/hopefully follow them all 3 years we're here.  Next year it will be more fun to take Leo to the games!  Surprisingly it's not that much fun to take a baby to a football game that starts the same time as bed time... haha.

Last week he worked at a special sports physical clinic for the athletes of the Special Olympics.  Stuff like that make me so proud and I know make his job so much more enjoyable for him.  A nice change of pace from the everyday and difficult patients.

In addition to all of this, Lee is really involved with the youth group at church,  He leads worship and teaches Sunday school for the teens on Sunday morning, and when he's able to be there on Wednesday nights he leads a small group of boys.  And helps me out in any way he can with projects I've got going on, like the block party or helps me think of games to play with the teens on Wednesday before the service.

And if you can believe it, he is still such a loving and thoughtful husband and father.  He always responds to my texts/calls throughout the day (maybe an hour or two later, but still) and on days he's going to get home really late tries to facetime with Leo.
He always brings me a surprise home from work to let me know he was thinking of me - usually a leftover piece of cake from lunch or a granola bar.  Those little gifts are the sweetest.
Friday, on his day off, all on his own accord he did about 4 loads of laundry - washed, dried, folded, and put away, while I was busy straightening up the spare room (recovering from Operation Grenada Child mess and preparing for all of our Holiday visitors coming up!).  AND then suggested we go to the fair in town because he knew I would want to go!!

I didn't intend for this to turn into a put-Lee-up-on-a-pedestal post, trust me he can get on my nerves from time to time and isn't always perfect, but am I blessed with this man and I love him so.

At the fair!! 

Residency is nothing like Grey's Anatomy

It's been a month since Lee started residency so I thought I'd give you a little update of what life is like for us.

Just in case you don't know - Lee is one of 6 first year Family Medicine residents with Florida State University at Lee Memorial Hospital (wow it is so hard to not say St. John Hospital anymore... you'd think the name would be easy for me? haha!).

After some orientation and training sessions, life saving re-certification courses (or something like that), and a trip to FSU in Tallahassee for more orientation and another test,  and probably lots of other stuff..... Lee began seeing patients this past month!

He is currently on in-patient medicine - which means he sees people that are patients at his clinic while they are admitted to the hospital.   In addition, one day a week he works in the clinic seeing patients that for the next 3 years will be his patients.  So when they ask who their primary care physician is they'll say Lee. Kinda cool huh?

I'll be honest, when I heard about the clinic days I thought like.... strep throat, ear infections, the flu... but he sees such a wide variety of illnesses and diseases.... and some really, really serious.  I knew he'd see this type of stuff in the hospital, but I thought the clinic would be more of a general learning experience about you know, how a clinic works... but it's really got him working hard and keeping him on his toes.
The hospital is the real world, life and death situations every single day.  Obviously this was the case during clinicals as well, but now he's a little more involved.  Now he's one of the decision makers.  It's stressful.

On top of this he also has certain designated nights where he is "on-call" which means if a patient is admitted to the hospital after hours he is in charge of seeing them and setting up their care.

Right now he is on day 6 of 12 days in a row.  Four of the past 6 days he has been on-call.
He's working a lot.
The past couple weeks most days he has left the house at 6AM and got home after 8PM.
Today however, he was on call but was able to come home around 2!  If they had got an admission he would have had to go back to this hospital but thankfully they didn't and he was able to spend some time with me and Leo... because if you think about it 6a-8p are all of Leo's waking hours :(

They passed a law not too many years ago saying that residents can only work 80 hours a week... but that is an average for the month.  This week he'll probably top 80 hours, but in a couple weeks he'll have a day off here and there so it'll average out.  Crazy huh?

And for days off.  He gets 4 per month.  Sometimes he'll have to work a couple weeks straight before getting a day off. :/
But, on the positive side he gets 4 weeks of vacation per year!  That's pretty good actually!
Unfortunately our first week of vacation this fall he is going to be using to prepare and take the USMLE Step 3.
Yes, here is a THIRD step to those awful tests. 

Anyway, there are a few plus sides to residency... mostly food.
Haha, but seriously.  They have a nice doctor's lounge where he can eat all his meals and get lots of snacks (he may or may not bring me home a surprise every day ;)
He has his own office and computer where he can work on patient notes.
They gave him an ipad.
He has a couple really nice new white coats with his name on them.  I've only seen them on facetime as he's yet to bring it home for me to see in person........... probably afraid I'll take a picture and post it online or something........... :) 

Overall for me, I don't have too many complaints about residency thus far.  He could be home more often, but this is what I expected and was prepared for.
Lee might have a different opinion... but I don't think that we've either one been too surprised yet.

We are so happy to finally be on the other side of medical school and no longer paying tuition and rather earning a pay check!  If you're super interested in what his salary is you could google it, it's public knowledge what residency programs pay.  And while it's not what people probably think of when they hear doctor, we are thankful!  The thought that every two weeks we climb farther and farther out of this pit of student loan debt is a great feeling.  

As for the title of this post...
I might have started watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix.
And I have a love/hate relationship with it.
I'm only on season 5 so no one ruin it for me (although lets be real all those #dontgochristina hastags on facebook a few months ago have at least let me know that she doesn't die yet... )
So while Lee is at the real hospital working hard and Leo is napping away I can be found watching this foolishness and commenting to myself - yea right!?  They would not let a resident do that!  

Matching for Residency!!

As you may have noticed I'm playing a little catch-up with this blog.  After having Leo blogging wasn't high on my priority list so there are a lot of things I skipped over.  Like when Lee actually matched for residency!

I wrote about applying and some about the interviews here, here, and here.

To recap for anyone interested - perhaps you or your significant other is applying to residency this year, here's a summary of what we did.

Lee applied to 57 Family Medicine positions.
He received about 40 interview invitations (lost count after a while and some were still offering interviews as late as January because they had cancellations and such).
Interviewed at 9 programs and ranked all 9 programs.  Lee knew he wanted to do a university program, but also interviewed at 2 non-university programs so he could make the best decision.
We decided we felt comfortable only interviewing at 9 spots after Lee's first few interviews went really well and we wanted to save money on the traveling expenses.

In the end we went back and forth between how to rank our top 3 programs.  The other 6 were much easier to rank.

Program A
University Program
Lee loved the program director, hospital, facilities, and opportunities available.
They would pay for moving expenses.
Offer a housing subsidy and great salary.
Close to the beach!

Program B
University Program
Lee was really impressed with the program and the director.
Close to my parents, in between both of our parents
In an area we are really familiar with and have lots of friends.

Program C
University Program
Close-ish to my parents
Housing subsidy - which is paid upfront in a lump sum at the start of 1st year!

It was a daily discussion of whether we wanted to be closer to friends and family or in the warm weather and near the beach!  We would have been happy with any of the 3 locations, but in the end we ranked them in that order A,B,C.   Program A being Florida State University in Ft Myers, Florida.

We were invited back to Ft Myers for a second look weekend so I was able to see the area and definitively said yes this is where I want to live. And thankfully Leo waited just a little longer because he was born 2 weeks later! 

We decided that now is the time in our lives to figure out where we want to live long term.  We already know what life is like in the midwest.  Been there, done that.  But we had never lived in Florida.  We knew that we liked the warm weather and I LOVE the beach, so we decided that we'd rank it top and if we matched there we'd give it a shot for 3 years, if we hate it at the end of 3 years we could always move back north and start over before Leo is even in school. 

After the 2nd look weekend we were pretty confident that if Lee ranked them #1 we'd match there... we bought a Florida State onsie for Leo and they included Leo's birth announcement in their monthly newsletter for the month of March!!
however waiting until March 21st to know for sure was agonizing!!

For those unfamiliar with the Matching process, they send out an email on the Monday letting the applicants know if they matched into a program, but they don't let you know WHERE you matched until the Friday.  If you find out that you didn't match on Monday you can enter the SOAP (or the Scramble as they used to call it) and it's a whole nother ballgame where you are looking for programs that haven't filled all of their positions.  My friend Stephanie wrote a great post about the SOAP, especially from the perspective of being an IMG. 

Thank goodness when 1pm on March 21st rolled around we received the email confirming we'd be spending out next 3 years in the Florida sun!! 

From the very beginning we have been so blessed with this program and all the people involved.
On Match Day the program director called Lee personally to congratulate him and let him know how excited he was to have him here.  The director was one of the big reasons we felt so called to come to Florida.  Not only is he experienced and directed a successful program in South Carolina before, but he is a Christian and set up a Christian residency program in Afghanistan, as well as does lots of mission work.  And Lee will have the opportunity to go overseas to work during this 3 years.

They set us up with a concierge relocation expert to help make the transition smooth.
They paid for all of our moving expenses - which meant we were able to hire a moving company to pack and move for us! Amazing, especially with a new baby!
They are giving us a housing stipend, which we found to be so helpful with the cost of living in this area.  We are able to live in a much nicer, safer area than we would have been able to afford otherwise.

There are about a billion other reason why I am so happy that not only we chose this program, but they chose us.
You can read more about the actual program in this news article that made the front page this week ;) 

And I promise to update more about Lee's new job and Leo and I's new life in Florida very soon!

35 and 36 weeks

These last few weeks are flying by!!
It REALLY helps to be busy.  I'm so glad I'm not sitting around counting the days.... although ok actually I am counting the days (25!) but you know what I mean.
I have 2 weeks left of work and 4 weeks left of school.  REALLY hoping I can get all my assignments done early or at least on time.  Stay comfy inside a little longer little one!!!
At work we've hired my replacement... although everyone keeps telling me not to call her that. haha. She's been great and I've been busy training her to do my job.  There are so many things to go over!  So we'll need at least another week, hopefully two to cover everything so she's not left in the weeds when I leave. Then I'll have two full weeks before the baby is due to finish school - which I need!  I have so many papers to write... yikes!

The past couple weeks have been great.
Two weekends ago I was able to narrowly miss yet another snow storm and go down to Ohio to see my sister and her girls one last time before they move to Germany for 3 years!  :(  Hopefully we'll be able to plan a trip to Europe in the future!!
Lee and I have also been working on getting the house all ready for baby's arrival.  I now have a packed hospital bag, with the exception of what I'll wear home from the hospital... still not sure of that one.  And all the baby's clothes have been washed and all his stuff has been assembled and ready to go!  He is definitely taking over our house! Baby stuff in EVERY room!

This past weekend Lee and I made a quick trip down to Florida to visit a residency program that he interviewed with for a second look!  I went to the doctor on Thursday to make sure nothing was happening and that I was safe to travel and he gave us his blessing and said to have fun! :) yay!
That doesn't meant that in the car on the way to the airport Friday morning I didn't have a panic attack when I thought about having a baby in Florida and how difficult it would be to get back to Detroit and how I didn't have any of my stuff with me.... thankfully Lee calmed me down and I boarded the plane anyway.  I'm so glad I did!  It was a great weekend and we LOVED Florida!

Anyway, at the doctor I had a nice low blood pressure, gained more weight than I care to admit (but will anyway), was not dilated,  and was measuring 35 weeks despite being 36.... so maybe this baby won't be a giant after all?! that or he's staying put for 40+ weeks....

So Florida!
When we left Detroit it was 1 degree... we landed in Ft Myers 3 hours later it was 81.  An increase of 80 degrees?! I've never experienced anything quite like it.  Even when we moved to Grenada from Ohio in January 2010 it wasn't that drastic... it doesn't often get down to ONE.
When we landed the first things we noticed were 1. the temperature 2. how green everything was 3. how clean the cars were! no salt and snow yucking up the cars!

The program had the whole weekend planned out for us and they did an great job of showing us all Ft. Myers has to offer, as well as their program.  Friday night we went to dinner at a bank, strange yes.  It was in the bank because the CEO of the hospital is friends with the bank president.  Whatever the case, it was very nice and we met a lot of people.
Friday night we went for a night swim in the hotel pool.... it was so nice to be weightless in the water.  For my future pregnancies I definitely want to be able to go swimming often.
Saturday morning Lee and I had breakfast together before he was taken to the hospital for some workshops and I was taken on a tour of Ft. Myers and the beaches with another spouse!  They set up for us to tour with a concierge relocation expert or something like that... she's a real estate agent too.  In the afternoon we met at a park to have lunch and hang out with all the other applicants and residents and program director.  Then Lee and I went looking at some apartment complexes in the area just to get an idea of what was available and the price range.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that we could get a 3 bedroom apartment with a pool, fitness room, tennis courts, washer/dryer, and dishwasher for not much more than we are currently paying in Michigan!! How is that possible? haha
Saturday night we went on a dinner cruise with the program director, hospital staff, applicants, and residents.  It was beautiful and the food was delicious.  After that boat ride I was totally convinced that I was made for life on the water as I didn't get a smidge of sea sickness - even at 36 weeks pregnant!   But after a long day of lots of walking and heat I was one tired girl and got a great night's sleep that night...
Sunday morning we had breakfast and went to church at Ft. Myers First Church of the Nazarene - which was conveniently located next door to some apartments we looked at!  Service was nice, but in true Florida fashion there were LOTS of seniors... :) I'm almost positive that someone we graduated from MVNU with's grandparents were in the crowd! haha!  After church we had lunch and hung out by the pool for for a while before heading to the airport to head home...
We arrived back in Michigan to several inches of fresh snow on the car and temps around 20, which is much more tolerable than 1!

Pictures from the weekend!!

And the weekly picture from 35 weeks!

I've sorta fallen off the bandwagon on that one.  There's a gap from 32 to 35, and now no 36... oops.
As you can see the jeans still fit!  What?! I am seriously huge and have gained a lot of weight and yet each week I can somehow button this jeans... maybe 37 weeks will be the week I no longer can.

I've kept up with the monthly pictures!  Here's January! 

How far along: 36 weeks 3 days 
Total weight gain:  32 lbs.  So my week of no gain was just a trick as my body was preparing to gain it all the next week :/ 
Maternity clothes: yes and no.  I have jeans that still fit and I bought a pair of shorts on clearance at Old Navy for my Florida trip - non-maternity but 2 sizes bigger than I'd normally wear.  And the dresses I wore are not maternity.  One is what I wore when I graduated college! 
Stretch marks: no... please not ever. 
Best moment of this week: escaping the cold and snow and spending time on a gorgeous beach? yes! 
Movement: Yes, he still likes to be high and push on my ribs 
Food cravings: no, unless sweet stuff counts but that's been a craving of mine for almost 27 years... 
Anything making you queasy or sick: no
Have you started to show yet: oh yea.
Gender:  B-0-Y!
Labor signs: no, but I think I've had a couple contractions! 
Belly button in or out: in, but the way the top is stretched in a really tight shirt it looks like it might stick out. 
Wedding rings on or off: on
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy!!
Looking forward to: staying home.... but not looking forward to all the homework I have to do... 

Residency confusion.

Today Lee is off on an interview at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis. Thankfully this was another interview he could drive to, it's about 4 1/2 hours away.
I can't wait to hear all about it tonight when he gets home!  This is his 3rd actual interview, and at this point he's been offered 20... we're going through deciding where is the best use of our money to fly to interview and what not.  Sunday he flies down to Florida to do a couple..... leaving me alone in cold Michigan. :/

People continue to be totally clueless and ask a million questions about the residency process.  I don't blame them, it's pretty difficult to understand if you're not living it every day.  But people assume that since Lee's going on interviews that these individual hospitals are going to offer him jobs.... complete with "offers"
Not so much.  I try my hardest to explain that we won't know anything until March.  We rank the places he interviews at in order of where we'd like to go most, they rank the students in order of who they want the most, and a computer literally "matches" us to a program.  We don't have final say.

Here is a pretty good explanation of the process if you're really interested http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f466940e4ec38ed51af32994bc6.r6.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/NRMP-Match-Process-Run-a-Match-Match-Logo.pdf

And I should note that not all hospitals have residency programs!  People ask why we aren't moving home.... well that particular hospital doesn't have residents!  That's reason #1.

Also, not all residency programs are created equal.  Some are university based (ie OSU Medical Center in Columbus), some are at really well known hospitals (ie The Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic), some are university affiliated (ie St. John's Hospital here is affiliated with Wayne St. U. but doesn't have a whole lot to do with the actual school or medical school), some are brand new this year, some have great  reputations, some have poor reputations, some take international medical graduates (IMGs) and some only take American students.... there are LOTS of factors.
This was not an easy decision.
So when you ask why didn't apply more places close to family, the reason is we wanted Lee to have the best opportunities for the best training and education.  And it doesn't hurt to go to an awesome program and have it look good for your career. Get me?

This year we find out on March 17th IF Lee matches to a residency.  March 21st we find out WHAT program he matches to.  If we find out on Monday that he didn't match then we have that week to scramble around and try to find a hospital, any hospital, with an open spot and beg them to take us.

Ah, I agree it is confusing.  If we weren't in this situation I would know nothing about it either.  They don't teach you all this stuff on Grey's Anatomy.

In other news,
Things with me are the same, I spent a lot of time over the weekend working on some nursery projects and I've decided to revive my old decorating blog for the occasion :)
http://kelseyinspired.blogspot.com/

Here's one of my projects I finished! 

Residency Interviews

So there are two things going on in our lives currently - baby and residency.

Two pretty huge and overwhelming things.

Lee is currently at his first interview in Columbus, Ohio today!  I'm so proud of him.
I wish I had words to explain how I feel about that man.  I know I say that I love him a lot and am proud of him... but seriously.
I am SO thankful every day of my life that he picked ME to sit down beside at freshman orientation at MVNU.  I am thankful that he chose me to spend his life with.
And he's cute.  Man is he cute.  He seriously gets cuter every single day... and let me just say that wearing scrubs only makes the situation worse!  The other day I saw him leaving the house looking extra adorable and joking I said "aw please don't let any nurses see how cute you are" and he said in a extremely unaware of his attractiveness type of way "oh don't worry none of them think I'm good looking.... just the 85 year old ladies that try to hook me up with their granddaughters."
um Lee that is because it is only socially acceptable for 85 year olds to comment on how cute one is!

Wow went off on a tangent there.  Ok back to interviews...

Lee currently has 17 interview offers and we haven't heard any rejections from the other 30 programs so we aren't counting them out just yet.
Unfortunately we do not have an unlimited bank account so he is not going to be able to go to all of these interviews, as we have to pay for travel expenses, ugh!
Good news is that every program so far has offered a free hotel the night before the interview, as well as a pre-interview dinner with a group of current residents.  So the money we're saving by not paying for a hotel room is going to be super helpful.

Oh! and did I mention that we paid our LAST tuition payment?!  We officially owe SGU ZERO money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We owe RBC Bank considerably more than that, but nevermind that little detail.
We now just need to worry about covering interview expenses, living expenses after the baby is born and I am no longer working, and moving to our new location/home in the spring!  And trust me this all looks like pennies compared to tuition....

Speaking of living... I will not be attending many of the interviews with Lee.  Sadly he gets to enjoy all these nice dinners and fancy hotels without me :(  I will stay in Michigan and work every single day/hour possible to save money to prepare for not working and this baby!  I'm hoping this pays off eventually with a great residency location and a house with a yard.  I don't ask for much, right? :)

Application Submission Day!!

Well Ladies and Gentlemen as of 9:05 AM this morning my husband has officially applied for residency!!
Now begins the waiting game...

We ended up applying to 57 places.

Why so many?
Well, as you know Lee went to medical school in Grenada, so he is technically an international medical graduate.  Some programs do not even consider IMGs... so we (he) went through the long process of figuring out which programs accept IMGs, which have accepted an SGU student in the past, which are good well known university programs, and which are located in areas that I do not absolutely refuse to live in.
And we came up with 57.

Soon (hopefully) the interview offers will come rolling in and my Lee will begin traveling to different programs... and I will sit and wait.

Where to live?

If you had the choice of anywhere within the United States to live where would you pick and why?
and you CANNOT pick where you're from and say "because it's home"
because obviously that isn't my home.
sorry Pedro, Ohio you're not even on the list.


Lee and I are going through our final selections for residency programs! 

His must haves include
a.) large respected university program
b.) close to an airport
c.) SGU students have matched at previously

My must haves include
a.) warmer weather than Michigan
b.) near the ocean if at all possible
c.) drivable distance from my parents.

What is a drivable distance to you?? I'm thinking less than 14 hours.
Somewhere I can drive to within one day.
And luck has it my brother lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
About halfway from a lot a places to my parents.  That solves that problem.

I would love to live in Florida, and coastal areas of -Virginia, North & South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. 
Specifically in Florida- Tampa/Clearwater, Miami (ok not so drivable), Tallahassee, Orlando, and Jacksonville.
Still on the list are Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Ohio.

On the list but I wish were NOT
Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and some east coast places that I don't exactly remember.

This is such a crazy experience... we could literally go ANYWHERE south of Michigan, and east of Texas. weird.

Almost there!

Hi! Exciting update!
Lee and I got our interview date for his Green Card!!!
You know how on the movie The Proposal they have to go through an interview to prove they’re actually married.
That’s what we have to do in just a couple weeks.  We also need to take pictures and any other evidence we think will support our case for the validity of our marriage. 
Lee said – can’t we just print off our “see friendship” on Facebook? Haha!

We’re really not worried, obviously we’re actually married.  I have about a billion kissing pictures to prove I love the man.
It is a little intimidating to go to the immigration office though.  The boarder patrol always give me creepy vibes.

If all goes well we should be approved and get his Green Card within a few weeks following the interview and Lee will be a permanent resident and legally be allowed to live and work in the US for 10 years!
Which the biggest advantage we will have is he will no longer need to be sponsored for an immigrant VISA by a hospital.  So he will not be restricted in who will take him for residency
Praise Jesus!

Anyone else ever dealt with immigration?? 

The Answers to ALL Your Questions!

People ask me the following questions ALL the time
(even if it's only been a week or two since they've seen me!)

so... is Lee finished now?
is Lee an American citizen?
what rotation is he in?
how is he doing?
how much does he get paid?
you're in HOW much debt?
what kind of doctor does he want to be?
long will residency be?
do you get paid for residency?
what is the residency process?
how much longer in Michigan?
where do you want to live?
when are you having kids?
how do you deal?!

and occasionally someone says - so what do you do? :)


I've decided to answer every single question as plainly as possible!  If you have anymore feel free to ask, I really don't mind answering, promise. As you may have noticed I have no qualms with personal questions about money or our lives.


so... is Lee finished now?
nope!  Medical School is still a 4 year degree process!  We began in January of 2010 and will finish January of 2014!!!  Lee is a 3rd year medical student (MS3).


is Lee an American citizen?
no my sweet boy is still a true Canuck.  He may never become a US citizen, we don't know.  We have applied for his Green Card so he can be a permanent resident of the US and not need a student or work visa.  This will greatly increase his options for medical residency positions because the hospital he applies to will not be responsible for sponsoring his visa.  Is it easier because I am American? Yes and no.  It's not easy, but me being American helps.  I am technically his sponsor, but to be a true sponsor one must make a certain amount of money for 3 year and have assets.  I have none of these (remember those 2 years on a tropical island with no job?) So we applied with a joint sponsor (a family member, THANK YOU!).  Lee had to do a physical exam and xrays to prove he has no diseases.  We had to have the pastor who performed our wedding write a letter saying it wasn't a hoax.  We had a friend who knows us well write a letter stating our relationship is ongoing and sound.  My boss wrote a letter saying I have a job and will make x amount of dollars. and lots of other personal things...
Lee goes Monday for his biometric exam - where they will fingerprint him and ask him lots of questions.
If that gets approved, as well as my sponsorship abilities we should find out sometime in the next 3-12 months!
One little stipulation is that he cannot leave the US while this is processing.  We live 15 minutes from Canada but he cannot cross the border until it is either approved or denied.  Here's to hoping it gets approved fast!
oh and it costs about $1,800 to do this. gross.

what rotation is he in?
currently he is in his Internal Medicine rotation.  It is 12 weeks long and is his last rotation of 3rd year! whooooo!!!!!
Here was his schedule for 3rd year -  (I may be off on these week amounts, I get confused if it was 4, 6, or 8)
12 weeks Sugery
6 weeks OB/GYN
6 weeks Psych
6 weeks Family Medicine
6 weeks Pediatrics
12 weeks Internal Medicine

How is he doing?
well if you know Lee you know what a hard worker he is.  Every rotation they have tried to convince him to go into that specialty because he would be so good at it.  His patients love him because he's so patient, thorough, and empathetic. The residents like him because he makes their lives easier.  We ran into one of the residents in the grocery store and he basically high-fived me for marrying Lee because he's that awesome (as if I didn't already know)
And he absolutely would hate for me to tell you anything about his grades or scores but I'll just say I know that the grade of A+ exists on shelf exams for a reason......

how much does he get paid?
zip, zero, zilch.  In fact since he is still in school we pay tuition. and a lot of it.

you're in HOW much debt?
for Lee's schooling we're going to end up in the ballpark of $200,000 in debt (hopefully less!)  Which truthfully is a walk in the park compared to some medical school grads we know and have talked to.  Residents at Lee's hospital think nothing of being $350,000 in the hole. yikes.
Tuition is twenty-something thousand per semester and we're paying for 10 semesters (I think).

what kind of doctor does he want to be?
we're pretty set on Family medicine.  Mainly for the lifestyle.  We want a family!  and Lee wants to be actively involved in all our lives too, so surgery is out. lol.
Family is also interesting to Lee because you see a wide variety of patients, you can have your own practice, and still have options to specialize in OB/GYN, Sports Med, or ER.  And you can work in a hospital if you prefer that to a clinic setting and do more internal med type stuff.

how long will residency be?
Family Medicine residency is 3 years.
We will begin residency in July 2014.  All medical residents, every year, begin in July.  Never schedule a surgery for the first week of July at a teaching hospital. It's apparently chaotic.

Do you get paid in residency?
yes!!! not a doctor's salary, but enough! average is between like $45-60,000 per year.

what is the residency process? 
well.... I don't know 100% yet.  That will be our life this fall. Lee will start applying this fall and will apply to LOTS of programs at hospitals all across America.  The average student applies to 70ish programs.  Out of that 70 hopefully lots of them will offer Lee an interview.  That will be Nov13-Jan14.  He will spend a lot of time and money traveling around to these interviews, impressing lots of people!  After your interviews you rank the program and they also rank you.  They compare up these rankings and in March of 2014 we'll enter THE match and find out where we're going!! We're hoping to interview at 10+ hospitals to make sure we have the best chance of matching and in a place we want!
Sadly, not everyone matches..... and you pray you're not the one.

how much longer in Michigan?
not completely sure.  Lee will finish rotations (4th year) around Jan/Feb 2014.  He will "match" to a residency program in March 2014, and begin in July 2014.  If we match outside of Michigan (please God) we will move a some point between March and July!  Probably depending on where (how far) and what my job situation.

where do you want to live?
south!! south of the Ohio River preferably.  It seriously makes such a big difference in weather.  I'm begging for Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, or Texas.  And my BFFFFFF Amber and her husband put Arizona and Virginia on their list and they will match in just a couple weeks! so where they end up will be added to my list of desired places ;)

when are you having kids?
someday!  Lee and I want a big family.  4+ kids so the sooner we can get things going to better according to my biological clock, but we definitely will be waiting until after he starts residency.  Why? someone in this relationship needs an income and I currently don't have health insurance that covers maternity care.  Pretty good reasons if you ask me.  So we will re-asses after July 2014 and see where I am with my career and my longing for Grenada.........

how do you deal?!
you know what, medical school sucks. suck suck suck sucks and we're poor and in debt... but everyday we get up and life goes on and we're genuinely happy and are trudging along.  Lee is so over school and the process, but we're 3/4 the way done and $140,000 in debt, so no turning back!  Someday, sommmmmmmmmmmmmeday, we'll look back and be thankful for this experience and the hard work will pay off.  But if one of my children says "I want to be a Dr. like Dad" hahahaha we'll probably discourage it.
When you're in love and married to someone who makes life easy, you'd be surprised at how much you can handle.  And I stay busy to avoid getting lonely!

so what do you do?
Well, I am still at the job I got the week I moved to Michigan, I am a Chiropractic Assistant, Front Desk, Office Manager type person.  It isn't necessarily glamorous, but I love the people I work with and LOVE our patients.  They really feel like family and I'm happy to come to work every morning.  My boss is super supportive and accommodating. I work 4 (long) days a week and have a 3 day weekend every week... which leaves time for me to do school. I'm getting my masters in Counseling/Human Services through Liberty University  (I work full time, go to school full time, and Lee is still usually busier than me if that gives you an idea) This semester I'm doing 12 credit hours.  Last semester I did 9 and felt like I handled it really well, so I upped it....... might not have been my absolute best move, but I want to finish asap!  Unlike Lee I'll let everyone know my grades, I worked hard for them! so far I've got straight As!
The plan is do do another full 12 hours this summer, 6 credits the first sub-semester of Fall and the second sub-semester do my big Capstone project!  And finish December of this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do Lee and I do together?
We are working with the youth group at our church.  There is a youth pastor, so we just assist and support him.  Lee is the Sunday School teacher and seriously is the best teacher I've ever had.  He's so good.  I look at him sometimes and am amazed that I get to share my life with him. He explains things to the teens and I'm like wow, wish someone had told me that when I was 15. We have fun doing other stuff with them like Wednesday night church and volleyball on Friday nights.
And we try to eat dinner together each night and go to bed at the same time.  So we  get about 2 hours together a day, which is better than nothing!

So, that was... long.
Anything I didn't cover?