I think it going to happen

Hey Girls,
I think our house is really going to go through this time. I still haven't registered Ella for school just because I thought what is the point if another house isn't going to go through. today I called to find out what I needed to get to register her, so I am feeling confident about this deal. We would move in on the 10th and her school starts the 13th. So we are barely making it here for school. I guess that is what happens when you go through 3 contracts for different houses. Caden's first day is the 8th, not sure if we are going to make that since I would have to drive him from Mesa to Happy valley and 43rd. We are all really excited to be moving into our own house soon. We have had fun living with and close to Jeremy's family, but even so we are looking forward to our new house. It's on 35th ave and Beardsley, so not far from the old one. I'll tell you more about the house when it is really official.
Hope everyone is doing well. It is crazy how often I am reminded of you girls. Just little things every once in a while. I thought of you Karie, the other night because I had cheese and grapes for a snack, I think cheese and apples goes better together.
Miss you all,
Jill

some hope for a VBAC

Hey Girls!
Hope you are all hanging in there. I just love this blog and being able to keep in touch. I finally went to my Obstetrician and he is great. He is so kind and supportive, his views on OB are great. He said he would be willing to give me a trial of labor as long as it is looking like the baby isn't going to be 10 lbs again. I think that is fair. I am not sure I would want to have a 10 lb baby vaginally anyway. So he just told me to try and only gain 25 lbs. and to eat whole grains and no high fructose corn syrup. So I will give it my best. I do pretty good on whole grains but I have never realized what hfcs is in. It's even in my yogurt, I thought it was only in juices etc. 25 doesn't seem like a lot to me who gained 40 lbs last time :) but I am trying. The main thing I like about my doctor is he isn't pushy or opinionated. He wants to do what I want to do, it's just totally different from my AH OB experience. Here is a picture of my profile :)

hi girls!!

hi everyone! it has been so fun this morning reading everyone's posts! so fun to see everyone adn read about whats going on in your neck of the woods. Life here in Portland is great, we really love it--but i HAD to write when I read Amy's post and say i AM going crazy on many days!! this residency deal is tough--jason even said last night "the real "working" world and having a real job is kind of lame." ha ha! his first rotation was ICU so it was pretty rough, with the call nights every 3rd night and when he was home he was asleep. NICE! anyway, ann, i like what you say, that we take call EVERY NIGHT!! ha ha! so true.

ok, so i called kami this morning to tell her this because i still can't believe it--but, i looked online at the oregon eligibility requirements and we qualify for both food stamps and WIC!! what in the world!!!??! how do i explain that, "oh well, my husband is a doctor..." yet for a family of 6 we still qualify. yikes. but...after drawing up our monthly budget and seeing how tight it could get, i figure i'm going to go for it since we go through milk, cereal and apple juice so fast.

anyway, thought you'd all get a kick out of that. here i so thought we were DONE with public assistance, but not the case. oh well. we really aren't "real" doctors yet, are we? guess not.

hope you are all doing good today. jill, good luck with the house situation. how frustrating for you guys.
you'll all have to tell me how to post pictures, i'm new to the blog thing.
love, megan

going crazy

Is it just me or is anyone else on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Boy I heard all the time before we started school "medical school is so hard. a lot of couples get divorced in medical school." but nobody said anything about residency. medical school was a walk in the park compared to this. i never see my husband, and i know some of you have it even harder than i do. how are we going to get through this without eachother? this is the first month for crying outloud, and i already feel like i cant do this anymore. jenny, i dont think you knew how true the title of this blog was when you wrote it. "they're off playing doctor and we're home whinning about it." that is for dang sure. sorry to be such a downer. please tell me i'm not the only one having a hard time coping. hope you are all doing better or at least handling this better than me.

amy

Beginner Blogger

Okay, I just posted a comment. After I went to see if it posted, I realized it was under a response to one of Jill's post I think. You'll have to read under Hot in Arizona to get my update. I know now that I need to go under new post. I will get this blog thing down soon. Love ya all, Kami

Hey girls,
I just wanted to post quickly before I go to bed. It has been kind of crazy. Last Friday morning we got a call telling us the seller's lender didn't approve, the house we were buying was a pre-foreclosure and required lender approval before the sell. So tomorrow should be our closing date, and here we are just starting the process all over again. I was so depressed Friday I didn't even want to look at houses anymore. Sat. Jeremy and I went and looked at houses and found one. Hopefully it will go through, considering this is our fourth try. If we get it I'll put up pics. If it falls through again, Ella might have to be home schooled, while we continue living with my brother-in-law and family. It's crazy. At least their house is huge and on a huge acre lot so there is lots of breathing room, or else I am sure they would have kicked us out by now. anyway life is a little crazy with the whole house thing, even this house I don't want too get to excited in case there is the disappointment again, that would be horrible. Amy you are right maybe we should have just come up to ID. All well.
Goodnight girls, It's always good to hear from you all,
Homeless in AZ . . . still
Jill

AnnMarie in Spokane

O.K., I'll start off with the bad news first: I found some bad pictures of myself. Here I am with the greased ponytail, nasty camping look going on. Still, I'm holding a cute kid so the picture is not a complete loss.

2nd we have my wake-up look. Yikes, good thing it's kind of blurry. This was mother's day and the boys made me breakfast in bed.
But I did manage to find proof of what Andersen calls my "chipmunk smile." For some reason when I'm pregnant and my face gains a little weight I start doing this smile where my upper lip disappears and all you can see are my humongous front teeth. Unfortunately it's been making a comeback recently. My only consolation in this picture is Andersen's Bell's Palsy that made half of his face droop for a few months. It was like kissing a dead fish.
Pretty much this is the best shot of me right now (taken by Campbell). I'm the one on the left.
The good news is that we are finally all "moved in." Everything has a place and my "To Do" list is dwindling. We've done a lot to our rental in the last month. Here is a picture of Andersen cultivating our back yard so that we could put in sod. I couldn't let the boys go outside in the back yard at all. They kept stepping on glass and nails and finding all kinds of nasty things. Andersen didn't believe it was that bad until he cultivated and found a 5-gallon bucket of cement, some cables and cords, and a windshield scraper buried in the yard.
Here's a picture of the yard with sod. The other two boys are my sister's boys. We love playing in the backyard now.
Along with the outside we've been going crazy on the inside. The house had been newly remodeled, but we went a little nuts with furniture. It was nice to be able to buy furniture with the money from the sale of our house. Even the boys got some new chairs and a table.
Some other things that have been happening are Porter's birthday. He turned 6 July 3rd and we had a little party with my family that live in Spokane, too.
Then there was the 4th where the boys got to lite off fireworks. They thought they were pretty special lighting them. Here is Porter with a Jumbo California Candle. It doesn't look too dangerous does it?
And I've been a little hesitant to mention that Andersen's transitional year so far has been great! He works 8-5 Mon-Fri and gets the weekends off. In fact around here they refer to the internship at Deaconess hospital as Club 'D.' I love Spokane. Since he gets the weekends off we've been checking out all the local parks and lakes. This is a picture of the carrousel at Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane.
It also boasts a huge wagon slide. You can barely see them on the top.
That's Porter and I swimming in Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, just 30min. from Spokane.
And we just recently spent the day at Priest Lake, ID swimming and having a good time. We've actually been going to all these places because there is no A/C in our house and with temps hitting 100 for the past week we have been sweating to death in our house. And that's why I'm up so late blogging because it is finally cooling down in our house for the night.
Here is a little video of us playing at the beach.

Greetings from Greeley ;)

Hey Girls! it is so great to hear from more and more people, keep it up!
Here are some pictures of a SLEEPY Kyler, I think they are so cute!

He is getting better at smiling for the camera! Someone, i don't know who?? taught him to say "cheese" He just started saying that, and I never say that. He sure knows how to make a mess
Here are some pictures of me looking messy! I wanted post some classic post delivery pics but they are on file cause they are old and i am too lazy to get the CD.... sorry
This is me, Kyler and my half-sister Jacque. My dad re-married and his wife never had any kids. She is a cutie.
Anyway things here are going well. Slowly making some friends at church and thru the residency. Our intern class has gotten together several times and it has been fun. Although they are different than us we do have a lot of fun. We are even going to start a girls night with the female spouses and residents. I really like the resident girls and they said they could probably make it most months so i am excited about that.
In some ways it has been good to have no family around just for the fact that we do things together just the three of us and it has been really nice! I feel like we have grown closer as a family. Adam's call has turned out to be amazing. We thought he was going to have to be on call q4, which I know isn't alot to some of you and I will be praying for you and your husbands who are on call more than that!!
But they instituted night float so the call is less. And with a new baby coming that makes me worry less. All in all I have kept my expectations low and I haven't been disappointed ;)
I still have yet to get in at a doctor! I went to my family physician last week for a referral. The only time Adam can come is a week from this Friday and since it's an ultrasound one and I will be nearly 14 weeks, he really wants to be there.
I want to try for a VBAC and have tried to find a doctor who will do that. My family physician said the doctor he referred me to does them, but we will see. A 3rd yr. wife told me that the hospital doesn't do VBAC's here so I am feeling pretty bummed, but i will wait and talk to the doctor to know for sure.... there is another hospital 30 min west of here maybe they will. I am not totally against having another section but I would like to try if I can.
Anyway this is getting way too long :) Sorry!
I miss you all so much! I think about you tons and hope everything is going well for each of you. I am already ready for a reunion!!!!
I hope to hear from you on the blog!
Love, Rachel

PS. Ann I met your cousin Kristy Whetten, she is in our ward. She says Hi! She is so sweet. must run in the family!!
PSS. Hope this isnt too hard to read, I am not the most eloquent writer :/

OH, so bad pictures-and a few cute ones!

I've loved reading about every one's adventures-how fun! Ann, it sounds like you had quite the eventful night. It reminds me of when we were camping here in AZ and got woken up by the police at 3:30 am because there was a stabbing in the next campsite over and they needed to search our tent. It is amazing any of us stay safe with a bunch of wackos running around breaking windows and stabbing people-but it makes for good stories-right!?

I have to say that I have yet to experience the "bad" side of residency. Jonathan is still in orientation until August!! It has been so nice that they have eased him into it (I'm sure Jill, you feel the same). So far it is pretty much an 8-5 job-which still is about double the hours of 4th year med school! The best part is that he is SO happy. It is really neat that he has such a fun intern class-it really is relieving to know that he is with people that know him and treat him so nicely (that brings a lot of peace to a worrying wife). Starting in August he starts surgery which they say is one of the easier months-I have no idea what that is compared to. I am just so confused by all of the schedules and what everything means-we'll see. It was very fun to get his first "real" paycheck-we took pictures of course! He is still serving as the Young Men's president in our ward-I keep thinking they might release him, but nothing yet. Is it bad to hope for that??? (just teasing)

We are just all doing really good. Our kids are just getting bigger and funnier all the time. My mother-in-law always says that kids are the biggest waste of time. I'm afraid she is right-we sure spend a lot of time watching them and laughing. It seems like we've hardly had any down time at home. My little sister just got married on the 3rd and I was in charge of all the wedding-which was one of the most stressful things I've ever done. But everything turned out beautiful and luckily I got one REALLY bad picture of me while we were arranging the flowers the night before. We've got one more trip up to North Idaho and then we'll be so glad to just be home!

The first 2 pics are just HORRIBLE-the other 3 are of our sweet kids at my sister's wedding.

It's been so much fun to read about all of your lives and adventures! Keep posting! -Rachel

wild night

So I think the highlight of last night came at 3:30 when the doorbell rang and I looked out the window to see a police car out front. It turns out someone smashed in the window on Damon's car and someone else called the police on our behalf. I was just glad Damon was actually home last night or else I would've been so freaked out. I never sleep as easy when he's on call. Of course, the kids both woke up and we just stayed up till so we could take Damon to work. I was just relieved that it was only the car. The police man wanted to search the backyard because he thought the gate had been opened and some punk kids were hiding back there. It was pretty funny when he tried to kick it open and it didn't budge because it doesn't open that way. I don't know if we'll make the next episode of COPS or not. Everything was fine. The kids WERE safe in their beds, until the doorbell rang and that's all that really matters. Just life in Motown I guess.

I hope to hear from everybody soon. The boys do a better job posting on their blog than we do. I guess us mothers are take call every night (Damon hates when I say that).


Have a great day, everyone!

-Ann

UM PICTURES, HELLO!!

Just so you all know, I've recieved pictures from Maggie and Rachel M. THAT's IT! I'd love to make a new banner for us with pics of us and our kids and stuff.

So far so good here. James is working his third 30 hour shift and they've been bearable. He has been able to sleep some during the nights. James and Brett Banks are on the same ICU rotation and poor Brett has NOT had the same luck. Poor guy has had all sorts of admissions and no sleep and poor Kami is trying her best to get ready for her Triathalon this Saturday. WHICH, by the way, is HERE at Camp Pendelton! I'm watching her kids for her. GOOD LUCK KAMI!

I am anxiously awaiting the results of my last (miserable) gestational diabetes test. I'm assuming no news is good news. I'll let you all know if it's not. I have been having some wierd symptoms and I'm feeling like doing this again (being pregnant) for #4 might not happen for a LONG time if ever. It's really taking it's toll on me. 2 1/2 months to go! Neener neener Karie and Rachel! ;)

I made this page for an online scrapbooking kit club that I'm on the design team for. I know I already sent it to most of you, but just in case, here it is. In the journaling it says how we got girl's night going and that over the 4 years we had 37 girl's nights. Between all of us that ever came to girls night we had 49 children, 32 of which were born during med school. 17 boys and 15 girls. (and like 5 more on the way now!!) Plus it says lots of other mushy stuff like how you guys are "my girls" and we had lots of good times and great food etc.



My two little monkeys have enjoyed my new big tub more than I have so far... It's okay though I HATE cleaning it so that's why I don't use it! ;)



I'm weekly updating my personal blog if you want (and I know you do) more pictures and details of my life. http://www.jennymathews.blogspot.com/
Miss you all! Don't forget to send me pictures!

bucket heads

Hey Girls,

I guess it's time I try to figure out how to do this whole blogging thing. I have some dang ugly pictures of myself that I need to get on here in honor of Maggie. The first one shows just how saggy my boobs are after only two kids. Here we are all dressed up at the banquet, but I can't keep my eyes open. The last one is of my dirty kids with their "silly hats."

Things are going pretty well. Damon officially started residency a week ago. He worked 88 hours his first week and that was even with having the 4th of July off. We were off to a rough start, but things are going a lot better. We're just trying to stay busy. We have these crazy Greek neighbors that invited us over for the 4th of July. The husband, Boboo (that's the nickname for Bobby that his daughter calls him), is a close talker and a little nuts. I don't know how much of it was the alcohol or what but he went back and forth between Greek and English and almost killed us with a few of the illegal fireworks that "misfired." All in all we really like them and they have a little girl that's close to the kids in age, so we see them a lot.

My first experience with the ward wasn't so pleasant. And the second week wasn't too encouraging either. I felt like we were going to church in a foreign country. There are a lot of other young couples that are doing residency; we're just all really spread out. And the rest of the ward just isn't too interested in us once they find out we're more of "those doctors". Oh well. I went to the zoo with some of the girls from the ward last Friday and we had a good time. I just didn't realize how spoiled I was with our Midwestern group. I haven't organized any girl's nights yet, but I'll have to get working on it.

I hope everyone else is doing well. Maggie, I heard you mowed the lawn since Jason isn't ever home (I still read the boy's blog even if they can't read ours). It sounds like this month is pretty rough for a lot of you wives. Hang in there!

Take care,

Ann

oh yeah, thanks for all the concern and good advice with Hallie's sleep problems; things are going much better!

Camping and Lake

The top two pictures and left one of Taylor we went camping up near Flagstaff with my side, Jeremy was working. the top picture does not really do justice to how dirty I really was. My brother kept laughing at me, so he took a picture. Let me just tell I was brown and so was my shower water, just check out Taylor and his dirt, it was all over my shirt. My brother managed to bring up popsicles Fri. night and they were solid still the next day. He used dry ice, therefore making dry ice bombs, that is what Caden was looking at. they were really loud. Also The picture of my brother David with the helmet and Taylor. Dave is the one who fell. he is doing better but still needs a lot of rehab to get back to where he should be. And then the last pictures are at Woods Canyon Lake. We spent several hours fishing over two days, and not a dang fish. We still had fun. There is no way we would have lasted that long at the lake if Ella had come. It was just me and the boys, Ella stayed in Mesa so she wouldn't miss her cousins B-day party. Any way sorry this has turned into a novel. I just wanted to see more of myself on the blog.( jk) I miss all of you and I am jealous when I read about how you have settled into your new places. We are crossing our fingers that this house will go through. It is off the 17 and Happy Valley , since we all know Phoenix I can say the cross roads and you know where I am talking about. Again it is time to say goodnight. I can go on and on about random stuff.

Hot in Arizona

Hey girls I have been wanting to post some pics. But I am still learning the whole blog thing. My sister-n-law is an expert and has been showing how to put on pics. In Hawaii, Karie's sister Janelle gave us lessons, but i am really just holding the surfboard for the picture. And at the banquet we are a bunch of Hot Mamas. I didn't take enough of us at graduation, so this is the only one I really had of girls.
Life has been a little crazy, since we still don't have a house and it is suppose to be 117 tomorrow I have been going out of town a lot. we have been camping, to the cabin on my side of the family got back today, and I am leaving tomorrow to a cabin with Jeremy's side of the family. Jeremy came to the Mackey cabin but the rest has just been the kids and me and a whole lot of siblings. so maybe I will get a few more pictures up from our trips.

sorry, im learning how to use this. that is my house and a great hawaii picture.

hey girls,

i love hearing from everyone, i sure miss everybody. we are doing great, nothing too bad so far. dave works 12 hour shifts everyother day, and 8 to five the other ones this rotation. the new house is great, very hot though, our ac is on order. i thought we moved away from that.
happy 4th

amy

Okay okay okay

So this shouldn't be too difficult really. I know there are some bad pictures of myself on this PC that I've yet to erase. Here's a good one..



Greasy hair, no makeup, playing nick jr. with the kids... not sure why the heck James took it. Whatever.
This next one was actually taken at a photo shoot.... why in the world this one made the cut is beyond me. I'm looking like "huh?" Plus it really accentuates the oh so lovely gap between my two front teeth. LOVELY.



Anyway, those are the only two I could find real quick.

So, I think all our hubbys are now in full- swing intern mode, right? How's it going for you all? James started today and it wasn't too bad. He's got a room at the Base Officer's Quarters on Coronado Island and has a total of 4 days off this month. I guess this is supposed to be the worst rotation of the year. He works a 30 hour shift every 3rd day. ICK! He's missing the 4th and his birthday (turns 30)!! Oh well. We knew what we were getting ourselves into, right???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????