My Favorite Things

We don't often have fresh flowers around here, but they are some of my favorite things. The bright colors and exquisite details of the different varieties just make me happy, and I've needed the little boost they offer this week especially.

Watching my kids grow through new experiences is another one of my favorite things, and this week Bunch experienced her theatrical debut as one very happy nun in her school's production of The Sound of Music.

They did a excellent job with it...far better than the plays I was in during junior high. Her school has a top-notch drama teacher, and our schools are happily known for having abundant parental and community involvement and support. All the kids worked very hard and it was such a good experience that Bunch is thinking next year maybe she'll audition for one of the leads.

Below is a shot of the playbill with signed autographs from her fellow cast members, along with the flowers she was given. Thanks Bunch for brightening our home and our lives...you are beautiful...the Deep Beauty kind of beautiful ♥




Grateful For:
1) The goodness of my children
2) The goodness of my spouse
3) The goodness of people everywhere. I'm just grateful for goodness.

Yesterday was TEAONUI

Teaonui [tay-ow-new-ee] ~ noun
A Tahitian given name meaning "Dawn of an important day".

Teaonui is my darling nephew's middle name, but it also aptly describes yesterday.

For anyone who has any doctors or future doctors in their lives, I recommend reading "An Insider's Guide to the Biggest Week in Medical Education" which explains Match Day with great humor and clarity.

It was a very busy day too...which is why I just now added a photo to yesterday's post. Between the Match ceremony brunch and the match dinner in the evening, we picked up Bunch and Gator from their schools and took them to a frozen yogurt shop. After allowing them as many toppings as they liked (we never splurge for toppings), I asked if they wanted to enjoy their yogurts first before we told them the news. "NOOOOO!" thy both insisted. So Doc laid it out: "We're staying here. For all of it. We're not moving at all."

It took a moment to sink in, but they were so happy! Both had assumed we were moving for sure.

At the ceremony when Doc first opened the envelope, any disappointment at not matching at our 1st choice in Boston for the coming year was immediately tempered by the fact that we knew our kids would be thrilled about staying put. Especially Gator. He's been praying for months and months that we wouldn't have to move. Bunch had a more adventurous attitude about it, and was looking forward to parts of it in a way, but she's very happy to just stay here, too.

When we read the letter, I confess that tears sprang to my eyes. Part of it was probably just relief. Relief at knowing our future and having the ability to make plans is huge. And in that moment, my huge mental "Thing's I'm going to Have To Do" list just simply evaporated. No packing. No finding renters, or a place to rent, planning the details of two transcontinental moves in a year, or dealing with utilities, registering for schools, finding music teachers, doctors, dentists, etc.

But a tiny bit of those tears was due to the things that won't be now, either. Like living near the ocean and the amazing natural beauty of the area (I watched the sun set in Boston on Tuesday and rise there on Wednesday morning and was filled with peace and anticipation about more moments like that). Or getting to know the friends I made there better. I really liked them.

And my WORK! I was SO excited about not commuting by plane to get to work for a year. To have the luxury of just getting in my car and driving 20 minutes to the airport when I need to be there was so appealing. Especially after last weekend when I had to leave a day earlier than planned to make sure I'd get there because of canceled flights the next day, and then my flight was canceled, so I was scrambling to find ANYONE with an empty seat to any southern California airport that I could jump on. Ten hours after leaving home, I finally arrived, exhausted at the Orange County airport.

A dear friend offered to let me stay at her place, but she had to work early, so she enlisted her boyfriend to pick me up and drive me to LAX for my flight the next morning. We were about 40 minutes from LAX, in the far left lane of the 405 freeway, when there was a tremendous BANG and this happened:



After quick silent prayer and heartfelt plea for help, a tow truck arrived in record time, a kind stranger at the tire store offered to drive me to Long Beach airport, and from there I hopped on a shuttle to LAX and made it before the plane arrived.

All that just to get TO get to work.

It's not like that every time obviously, but you can imagine now why I was looking forward to just living at my crew base for a year.

But apparently we're meant to stay put, and I'm fine with it. Doc will have a much harder year at the program he matched into...it was his last choice out of all those he interviewed with in terms of the program, but he ranked it 2nd because it's here, and unless we lived by a crew base, moving would only make things harder for all of us. So we'll work it out, month by month, and soon we'll be looking back on the next year just like we have these past four years, and wondering at how fast it passed by.

As for today, it's the first day of the rest of our lives here. Time to run a few errands that I've been putting off, and then I think I'll start finally turning this house into a home. Our real home. More on that later...

Grateful for:
1) The kindness of all the people I met in Boston last December. I'm sad we won't get to be neighbors and better friends.
2) All the happy support we got yesterday. A special thanks to each of you bloggy readers, known and unknown, for all the feedback and good wishes. You're the best! ♥
3) Since we're staying, and thanks to Doc's parents, we're going to get new carpet!!! Goodbye nasty, ripped, stained, dirty, snagged carpet that I've just always tried to make peace with.

And The Actor, errr, DOCTOR Goes To...

Utah (transitional year) and Utah (radiology residency)!

We're stayin' put for the rest of our kid's childhoods. More later...

Grateful for:
1) my son's anxiety over possibly moving not actually resulting in vomit last night
2) my potential "to do" list just got a whole lot shorter
3) how ecstatic our kids were when we broke the news.

Changes Afoot

The past few days I've been caught in the crazy storm disruption messiness plaguing the airline industry. Not only has this winter been wrecking havoc with travelers, it's been exacting a high toll on the employees of the industry seemingly every other week. The people are worn out. It's like a battle most days, when hundreds of angry, displaced, impatient and disappointed customers are lined up in front of you and there's little you can do to make them happy. I feel pretty bad for gate agents, reservation agents and ticket counter crew members. Just remember when you're flying, they're doing what they can, as fast as they can, and it's not their fault. Because when flights are diverted or canceled, crews and planes are out of position and illegal to operate flights (we have federally-mandated minimum rest requirements governing how long we can be on duty), and everything is just insane.

But I'm home now, glory hallelujah. And things seem to be settling back down. During the trip my passport disappeared, which is causing me some stress. I just booked a trip for Doc and me to the Dominican Republic in May to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, as well as his graduation from medical school. So if it doesn't turn up right quick, I'll have to expedite a new one before then.

On Monday while I was away, my daughter was invited to a birthday party by A BOY for the first time. I knew this day would come, but I didn't expect it to hit just yet. I've met The Boy before, and he is a nice enough kid, and a lot of her besties were also invited too. They were heading to a roller blading and fun-center type place with his parents and siblings, so I was okay with it. But the party was the next day (!!!), so I wasn't even here for it. Bunch wasn't sure what to get him, so I suggested making a candy bar card, and by golly this is what that darling kid of mine came up with:


(note: I cut off the to/from lines for in case there are any SERIAL KILLER STalKeR types reading my blog).

Word is the party was superfunforeveryone and they all had a great time. I haven't seen my darling bunch yet...she's at rehearsal for the school play and tomorrow is dress rehearsal so I'm sure she'll be running late tonight. If you're in the area and want to see what is purportedly a WAY AMAZING production of The Sound of Music, despite that itis junior high, email me for info. Tickets are just $5.

And finally, the biggest change is that we are now down to mere hours, almost MINUTES, (it's actually 15 hours, 41 minutes and 23 seconds from this moment) till we find out where we'll be living for the next 5 years. I'm excited.

I made homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner...and yes, it's green. If you boil pasta in green water, it soaks up the water and turns green. And the sauce was easy enough to tint as well. I love my St. Paddy's Day celebrations and hope you've all had a lovely day.

I'll post The News tomorrow!

Grateful for:
1) Delta getting me on their flight to SLC today.
2) The sunset with all my favoritest colors last night.
3) Seeing the sunrise over the atlantic ocean this morning.

Who Needs Toys?

Gator truly has one of the most imaginative minds I've ever encountered. He's always coming up with something.



For example, who else has ever designed BINDER CLIP WARRIORS?



Capable of wielding MIGHTY Weapons.
(Is not the pen[cil] mightier than the sword?. And who can withstand the crushing weight of The Ball?!)



As his soldiers organize themselves, they prepare for a MIGHTY BATTLE.



Against...the Evil Paper Clip Army!
(Take pity on them...they don't stand a chance.)



Gator is the Great General. The order and discipline of his troops is impressive.
(Much more impressive than the usual state ofhis bedroom, I might add.)



Watch out Lego...Office Max might just take over your market-share.

Grateful for:
1) Creative kids. They surprise me regularly.
2) Laughter...especially the spontaneous kind.
3) My Dentist and dental insurance. I'm still numb up to my eyeballs, but in addition to a new crown, the two chipped and stained teeth I've been bothered by for over a decade are now flawless.

It's ALMOST like having a baby

When I was expecting both my babies, I was among the increasingly rare "I don't want to find out what we're having" group. In fact, during that time, I didn't know anyone else who opted not to find out the gender of their child before the birth (or at least try to find out. And sometimes they were told one thing but got the other. Ooops!)

Your mileage may vary, but I figured I didn't have that many more happy surprises ahead of me in life, and it just seemed like delaying finding out that tidbit of information would generate a level of anticipation and excitement for me that is elusive and hard to come by. I wanted that excitement all at once at the end.

That said, if there were an ultra sound place that would tell me where Doc is going to match for his Transitional Year and Residency, I'd have camped out on the doorstep of the office to be first in line.

This waiting thing is KILLING me!

To be fair, pregnancy lasts just 40 weeks. Medical school has lasted four years. And though here we are, winding up for the home stretch, it feels like that last month of pregnancy feels...where the being pregnant part is getting old, and you'd really like to move on to the being a parent part of the process.

Next week, on the 18th at 10:00 a.m. in fact, Doc will be handed an envelope which will finally reveal all, and that moment will change all our lives forever. See...it's almost like having a baby...via scheduled c-section! So in just over 200 hours, the waiting will be over.

I should try to adopt that same "I don't know, I don't want to know, and I'm fine with not knowing" attitude I came by so naturally back when I was expecting. After all, this is potentially the quiet before the storm. Right now, I can't really make any plans. I don't know if I'm going to have to kick it into high-gear and prepare for one move, or two moves, or if I'll just be staying put here for the next five years, in which case you can bank on me making some fun summer plans.

I'll certainly keep you posted.

Grateful for:
1) The unlikelihood of Doc not matching (despite his anxiety about this possibility)
2) Knowing that whatever happens, things always work out after all. And besides, my motto is now Come what may and love it.
3) That my blog will go with me wherever I go. Or don't go.
4) That even though my laptop broke a few weeks ago (hence the reduced blogging time lately), at least the information on it can be recovered...and now I have to get a new computer! (just as soon as I get some more money).
5) Spring is almost here. Yay!!!
6) I made these "Just for Fun" cupcakes yesterday and had a good time giving them away to people:

Click picture to enlarge. Which is your favorite?

The People Who Truly Know You

It's been an epic few weeks. I'm the second of five kids, and my three younger siblings and I haven't all been together in over eleven years. But they came for a visit from near, far, and very far, and we packed my house with cousins, aunties and uncles, and created some wonderful memories together. I was in heaven. Except when I was edgy or tense because of my shortcomings as a hostess. I'm so glad they're my sisters and brother!

There is something about quality time with The People Who Truly Knew You back when that is just different. I've got wonderful friends who have known me for most of my life. Some even date back to the pre-school era. But as close as we are, they didn't live in the crazy house with us, and I didn't share my experiences growing up, because frankly, as a child I didn't know that other families weren't like ours. That awareness came much later, when I started spreading my wings a bit.

The first night we were finally all in the same room, and our spouses and kids were all asleep, the four of us originals stayed up till almost dawn, talking about our past.

We shared so many stories that only those who lived there could truly appreciate. Somehow in the sharing, the pain shrinks just a little bit and it becomes just another memory. After all these years, we could even laugh over a lot of the experiences . It was good therapy and bonding time.

Ironically, during our time together, we got news from our older brother, the only one that wasn't with us. For reasons I won't get into, most of us have either limited or no contact with him, too. But he called our younger brother to let him know that our dad was in the hospital.

My reaction to this news was kind of strange...I felt disconnected from it, but also curious. Much like I think I'd feel if was the first person to happen upon a car accident. I mean, I hope he's okay, and am kind of interested in the details, but I'm not really emotionally invested in it. It doesn't reach me the way I think a normal daughter would be reached upon news of her father's ill health.

We "what if'd" about how we'd feel if he died, (his condition can be fatal, but doesn't have to be), and are all in different places about it. For me, I honestly don't know that I'd attend his funeral. Perhaps if it actually happened I'd decide differently--I have no idea how I will feel if when it happens. Maybe I'd make myself go...who knows.

So while we were all here discussing things and having fun together, our older brother flew out to our parents home for a few days to help out with things. As it turns out, our parents don't have a will (!?!?), and this experience was a bit of a wake-up call for our mother who, apparently, "isn't ready to take the reigns" when that time comes. I don't know that anyone ever is, but being prepared can certainly help reduce stress.

I clearly have a long road ahead of me still, with regard to my "upline" (as I think of them collectively). But for now, it was nice to have a chance to be together with my darling younger sibs after all this time.

Grateful for:

1) Fun museums, Chuck O Rama, bowling, snow angels, blue skies, Inlaws, sledding, static electricity, skiing, the temple, bottles, hiking, FroYo, burned rice, BUNK, singing 80's music, laundry machines, Tahitian dance, deflated air mattresses, awesome friends, space heaters, cute cousins, acoustic guitar, paper plates, smoothies, late nights, chocolate macadamia nuts, the color orange, trampolines, loaner cars/clothes & beds, In&Out, good health, cupcakes, two showers, long talks, a supportive spouse, and the worlds three best siblings!

2) A house that, though tiny, everyone was able to cram into.

3) Triangle of Life :-)

♥

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