Match Day...And we are going to....

Stay right here in Columbus!!!!

Eric's intern year is at Riverside and his residency is at OSU in radiation oncology so that means we are in Columbus for another 5 years!!!

We are so thrilled for the next phase of our lives!

Match!

We matched, folks! That means we are definitely going to residency SOMEWHERE! We'll find out where on Friday... I'm pretty stoked to know for sure! :)

and don't worry, we will definitely be letting you know where...

5 years

I am jumping the gun since our anniversary isn't actually until the end of August, but a friend is sponsoring a group writing project (with prizes involved!) that just happens to revolve around "the next 5 years"... which really got me thinking about our upcoming anniversary.

5 years ago, Eric and I were still in Utah.

Now we're in Ohio.

5 years from now, we'll be where ever residency takes us.

5 years ago, we rented a duplex in Springville from Grandpa.

Now we rent an apartment in Columbus.

5 years from now, will we be renters or own a place of our own with a fenced in backyard? (pretty please...)

5 years ago, Eric and I were still undergraduates at BYU.

Now Eric is a 4th year med at OSU and i'm in a master's program at CSU.

5 years from now, he'll be an MD almost finished with residency and I'll be a master of humanities.

5 years ago, we were poor newlyweds.

Now we're even poorer, very much in debt not-so-newly weds.

5 years from now we'll have an income!

5 years ago, I was skinny and so was Eric.

Now, I'm not so skinny...and I think Eric might be skinnier.

5 years from now... hopefully I'm skinny again!... and Eric will most likely still be skinny! :)

5 years ago, we were a family of 2.

Now we are a family of 4.

5 years from now, will we be a family of 6?

5 years ago, we had children aged 0.

Now we have an almost 3 and a 3 1/2 month old.

5 years from now, Gwen will be turning 8, preparing for baptism. Both Gwen and Caroline will be in Elementary school. Weird.

5 years ago, I taught at the MTC and Eric taught Physics students how to be better writers.

Now we both teach ABC's, numbers, colors, animals, manners, potty training, obedience...

5 years from now, we will still be teaching all the above, plus a few more things.

5 years ago, we made sacred covenants at the alter of the temple.

Now we are striving to honor those covenants.

5 years from now, we will STILL be striving.

5 years ago, we were happily in love.

Now we're happily in love.

5 years from now... we will be even MORE happily in love!

I love my family SOOOO much! I can't believe how much life has changed in the past 5 years and I can't even really imagine what lies in store for us. Bring on the next 5 years!

Eric Makes Us All Proud

Eric makes me so proud.

I don't brag about him enough in this blog. Usually posts are dominated by kid antics, photos, or random musings of my own. But I really need to take this opportunity to share some of Eric's accomplishments in the past 2 weeks.

He not only got accepted into the Landacre Honor Society (a medical research honors society), but scored a 3,000 scholarship for his excellent research in Radiation Oncology.

In the same week, he presented a poster on his research and was awarded a 500 dollar travel award so that he could present his research at various conferences.

And that day was actually my due date. (Good thing she was late, eh? Eric wouldn't have been able to present if he'd been at the hospital with me.) So immediately after scoring these recognitions, we were greeted by our lil gal. Needless to say, the emails that floated around the department about Eric's awards and his new family member were pretty impressed with all his accomplishments! Well-deserved recognition, if you ask me. He has worked so hard this year to try and boost his match potential...and it is validating to see his efforts finally bearing fruit!

We are so proud of you hon!!!!

new catchup

as in "catch up" not "ketchup". Though I am a big fan of the latter on eggs and fries. :)

Gwen is WALKING for REAL this time! No more 'well, I guess 8 steps in succession counts' but the legit 'go everywhere standing up' phase has begun. And brought with it lots of fun and bonks. The fun is seeing her explore, eager to go EVERYWHERE now that she thinks she is AWESOME. I loved seeing her curiosity leading her through the Franklin Park Conservatory (the above photos with the train and the blue sculptures below from the Chihuly exhibit are from our excursion. if you look really closely, the buildings and castle with the train are ENTIRELY made out of plants!) going down all the 'jungle' paths and exploring every turn and cove. My camera ran out of batteries after only 5 photos, so you'll have to take my word for how cute she was. The bonks are not as fun, but definitely still visible. She's got a nice scab right next to her eye from a tumble on Thursday that kind of gives me the willies if I think about it too much and had 2 incidents at church today with musical instruments. Apparently pianos and organs have it out for Gwen.
On a cute note: she has become enamored of my earrings. Eric put some on for her, I think she was weirded out having it on her ear. My favorite is that in these photos, I managed to capture Eric sporting a flashing dangly earring! Check out the bottom right pic! You can also catch a glimpse of Gwen's 'touselhead' look with sweet lil semi-curls peeking out behind those ears... Also, she signs and says "Dank-doo"! It is precious! She had never signed or vocalized it until this week when suddenly she did both! Halfway down the stairs she realized she had forgotten her giraffe at the top. So she waved frantically and whined and luckily mom guessed correctly what was ailing her. I tossed the giraffe down to her, she laughed and grabbed him for a big hug, then promptly brought her hand up her chin and brought it down while saying "dank-doo" in this sweet sing-song voice. I was tickled to death! I love it! She also says "shoes" (and, yes, it really sounds like shoes), "kiki" (kitty), and "boo" (book), added signs for 'friend', 'fish', and 'kitty', and will bring me my winter accessories to put on when she is ready to go somewhere. I am so enamored with this gal, I can't even tell ya!

I sold 3 paintings this week, all to the same family. What a neat experience! It was really humbling, actually, that they would like my artwork enought to spend 70 dollars on it. That is not cheap. A good deal for 3, sure, but still a pretty penny. Very cool!

We had friends over for Korean food last night. So tasty! and FUN! We have such wonderful friends here in Ohio! Gwen's absolute favorite part was getting to hug the baby!...again, and again, and again... luckily her mom and dad didn't mind!

I think the pattern of posting on weekends might continue. Or maybe even every other weekend. This week I was miraculously empowered to finish 2 papers before Friday. With Eric on OB/GYN and having early, EARLY hours, it was challenging to fly solo to stay up really late at night in order to finish my work. Seriously, the Lord must be watching out for me. Everything just came together. It was beautiful. And hopefully I got good grades too. :) This week I've got another paper to mail off by Friday, then my In-Laws will be coming for a weekend visit! How exciting! I doubt I'll post during their stay, so this might be it until the weekend after that. Stay tuned.

Prayers for Eric

He's driving to Maumee tonight. Sleeping in a hotel. Eating continental breakfast.
and probably enjoy little of it. Because...


He's taking the BOARDS tomorrow!

Are the Boards Torture?

Sometimes I wonder. Waterboarding... med school "Board"ing... comparable? Okay, probably not. But I still feel bad for Eric when he has his brain stuffed at the end of the day and he still can't get over the hump on his practice test scores... Does it seem to anyone else that they are forced to cram in superfluous amounts of medical material that doesn't pertain to potential fields of interest? You know, like, if Eric is going in to Radiology, why would he need to know some of these crazy details about Alzheimer Disease, details about embryological development, all the pathology stuff and microbiology stuff that he'll never use, or even all the names of individual wrist bones? Wouldn't it make more sense, save everyone money, and streamline things a lot more to test them specifically on the field they are hoping to enter? Then doctors could really focus their study energy and master the material rather than cram it in for the exam and then forget it or never use it after that. Just a thought. *sigh*. Vicarious Board taking is painful... painful to watch him! Won't it be nice when these are behind us? But I'm going to take a cue from my dearest friend, Jennie H, and not venture into the dark realm of complaining. Afterall, even WITH the Boards, we are still blessed with a very good life.

Even so, I'd like your opinion, if you have one. Are the Boards torture? Or maybe it is just that all standardized tests are torture!