compliment?

the other night bill and I were hanging out both doing computer work when he reached over and started touching my neck and jaw. at first I thought he was pulling some sort of crazy move from The Bachelor until I realized he was moving his fingers in weird investigative ways. then he said “you would be a great neck dissection. everything is right there”.  and by everything I think he means - veins, lymph nodes, bones, etc.  gee thanks weyam! how romantic!

spokane, wa

wednesday night bill and I flew out to spokane washington to check out the city and for bill to chat with Rockwood clinic, a large multi-specialty group in spokane. it is still really early for bill to be interviewing/checking out jobs, but this opportunity came up and we thought we should check out the city now to know if it is even an option in the future. obviously moving 2,000 miles away from our families would not be an easy decision, but we have always loved the mountains and if we were going to move now would be our time.

at the end of june, bill will have one year of residency left.  we have two different options (well three if you count just starting work and not doing any fellowship training). one plan would be to do a one year otology (ear) fellowship in new zealand after residency. if we would do the NZ fellowship we obviously won’t be flying back and forth to look for permanent job positions so we would like to have that decided or nailed down before we leave. the other plan would be to go to a neurotology program (brain/ear surgery) in the US. those are 2 year programs and extremely competitive. the locations range from vanderbilt to LA to miami to columbus, ohio, etc. we won’t know exactly what we will be doing until late this summer. so stay tuned.

we heard about rockwood clinics from David, a friend of bill’s from residency. he was 2 years ahead of bill in the program and is currently finishing a facial plastics fellowship in florida and will be starting to work at Rockwood in July. bill spoke with the recruiter and explained that we would love to come and check it out. especially to see if it is even a  place we feel comfortable. so about 2 weeks ago we got the news that they would love to bring us out. they quickly booked the flights we wanted and before I knew it we were on the plane flying out west.

as we were driving to the airport bill called a friend of meg’s (my future sister-in-law) family. randi, who is a radiologist in spokane and used to work with meg’s mom, quickly told us we would be skiing on saturday (ie: get ready to ski your brains out). as I looked down at my cute books and trench coat I was convinced he was crazy. I then reminded bill we had our real estate tour booked for saturday morning. so we got on the phone with the realtor and asked her if we could move it to the next morning. she was great and said she would work on it. we got ahold of the recruiter and made sure she was ok with us switching some stuff around. everyone was more than willing to change things around.

we arrived in super super late and drove the 12 minutes from the airport to downtown (which I LOVE). we stayed at the davenport hotel, which was beautiful. we crashed and were up the next morning for a delicious breakfast at madelines. loving the latte and a quiet breakfast with just weyam.

lisa, our realtor, picked us up and took us on a community/real estate tour and it was fantastic. spokane is a great city. I loved the little neighborhoods, beautiful parks, waterfall rushing through downtown, cute local restaurants and cafes. it reminded me so much of the neighborhoods I loved in madison. overall, we felt really comfortable there. the only bummer was that it was cold and rainy the whole time. what I fell in love with was “my vision”. packing the kids in the jogging stroller and going to a park, café, or dropping them off at a nearby school. then heading out on a trail run in the miles and miles of trails they have in the city. it is protected land right in your backyard. I was smitten.

here is the start of one the paths.

thursday night we met with randi for an hour before we had hors d’oeuvres with the 2 ENTs and their PA. the meeting with randi was great because he was able to give us extra details behind rockwood, spokane and the hospitals in town (he just so happens to be the medical director for rockwood, but is part of a small group of radiologists in spokane). the two ENT drs for rockwood started on the same day 25 years ago and are sweet, but they fully admit they are very inefficient and will be retiring in a few years. it wasn’t the most exciting meeting, but we had been prepared for it.

friday, bill had a full day of meetings (CEO, COO, etc) and tours. we had breakfast at this adorable café-Rockwood Café.

I headed back to the hotel to workout and get ready for lunch with one of Rockwood’s general surgeon’s wife – kristin. it was a great lunch and she was able to go into details about schools, mom groups, churches, rockwood clinic community, etc. almost everyone we met with had moved to spokane and it was nice to see that they felt at home there without having family nearby.

friday, after bill’s meetings, we had arranged to drive up to Schweitzer (ski resort) to Randi and Erin’s condo. Randi would not be able to join us, but Erin was going to be there with their two young daughters. they insisted we come and told us they would have tons of stuff for us to wear. Rockwood was kind enough to pay for us to upgrade our rental to an SUV as we were worried about the amounts of snow they had up there. it was a good decision. they have had about 12 feet (!!!) of snow over the last few weeks. we drove through Coeur d’Alene and then stopped in Sandpoint to grab dinner. When we drove over the bridge into Sandpoint we were stunned. the views were incredible. a blend between the northern lakes of italy and switzerland. big mountains spilling down into this massive massive lake – Pend Oreille. after dinner we started the 30 minute drive up the mountain. as we drove the snow began to pile up. I really can’t remember a time where we saw so much snow. near the top the condos had snow up the sides of the door and garage so you just see the door peaking out. if they left the snow on the roof it was more than 10 feet high. we arrived and settled in.

the next morning we put on Erin and Randi’s gear and it fit perfectly (while mine fit pretty great because Erin is exactly my size. bill’s was a bit sloppier, but worked great.). we drove with erin and her girls up to the mountain and rented demo skis. we met up with her and a local skier jimmy and hit the slopes. there were fresh tracks everywhere and we had incredible fresh powder. the light was pretty flat and it was snowing during the first couple of hours, but probably some o the best snow I have skied in years. the best part of the mountain was the amount of kids and families out skiing. there is a big USSA ski team where kids as young as 5 join. it was a saturday and there were no lift lines. it is a large mountain, but felt like it was a local place. definitely what we would like if it were our “home” mountain. after skiing for the morning we had a great burger at this little place called the outback. again – not a huge swanky lodge, just a little joint. loved it. we skied a few more runs, but our sloppy rental boots were killing our shins. I have huge bruises on my shins from where I was cranking my boots tight enough so I could feel in control. we had to be at a nice dinner at 6pm in spokane so we packed up our stuff and took off. we drove along one part of lake Pend Oreille to see what it was like. ideally, we would like to have a place on water and that would probably be our spot so we had to check it out.

on the hill.  totally wearing one of their daughters (8 & 5 yrs old) old ski helmet. I have a super small beezer.

saturday night dinner was at a great local french restaurant called Sante. we went out with Sarah and Dan. Sarah is a pediatrician for Rockwood and Dan is an Anesthesiologist at Sacred Heart/Providence-a different hospital in town. Sarah is actually from Green Bay and went to med school at MCW where she met Dan. it was a delicious dinner and a wonderful way to end our time in spokane. so we are now flying home and I am journaling my thoughts so we can remember them years from now. who knows what our future holds, but we really enjoyed ourselves and I could see us thriving there.  bill and I had a great trip away. it is always wonderful to travel together and be able to hang out alone.

2 things. the kids were crazy happy to see us when we arrived home. it was so precious. the cutest was how excited they were to see bill. they think he is da best! also – if you live in rochester – can you please keep this “meeting with rockwood” on the down low. bill is concerned he is going to get a lot of flack for checking out practices so early (I tell to forggetaboutit – but he doesn’t like that). thanks!

washington d.c.

last weekend at this time bill and I were cruising the streets of georgetown alone. tonight we are up to our eyeballs in poop…don’t ask. amazing how quickly things change. anyway - bill was sent by Mayo to DC for a conference since he is the resident representative.  they put us up in the Ritz so that was a plus. I am so thankful that bill knows me well enough to continue to ask me to go on a trip with him. he knows that my first answer is not always the best one (to my credit…he started talking about this when the girls were 4 months old…I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t fathom how I would leave them at that point because I was still nursing so much). I am so glad we got to get away and I was more than ready to leave our wonderful little pooping munchkins. in fact, I didn’t even cry when we left or throughout the trip, which really surprised me. we didn’t take a ton of pictures, but here are a few.

we arrived super late on thursday night and on friday bill went to the conference and I slept in, worked out, had quiet time, slowly got ready and then met bill for lunch. after a delicious lunch he went back to the conference and I was treated to a massage by laura (she is the best monster in law), took a bath and hung out waiting for bill to finish. it was incredible to just do nothing!  the ritz we were staying at was about a 5 minute walk to the georgetown area of dc and it has tons and tons of shops and restaurants. that night evening we cruised georgetown and had a great dinner.   

saturday I convinced bill to skip the entire conference and we slept in until 9 (!!!) and then headed out to cruise the monuments. the weather was perfect – sunny and 60 degrees.  we were 5 minutes from the white house so we grabbed coffee and started our day from there. throughout the day bill would call D.C. the “paris of the US”, which kind of proved true. we had a great time just walking our way through all the monuments without any crazy agenda. we also happened to be in D.C. on a special weekend. friday was 11/11/11 – veterans’ day so there were a lot of memorial type items set out by all of the monuments.

this is a not very good picture of us in front of the white house. this is what happens when you let other people take your picture.

walking through a park on our way from the white house to the vietnam memorial.

in front of the lincoln memorial. I forgot how huge it was.

this is picture of the washington monument taken from the steps of the lincoln memorial. the reflection pool is under construction, which is a bummer, but it will be beautiful when it is finished.

lincoln.

this is the WWII monument. I thought this was really beautiful.

minnesota. every state has a pillar.

me with the washington monument coming out of my head (bill wanted it like this).

at the smithsonian.

a picture with a t-rex for charlie. we cruised the museum a bit and saw the hope diamond. the number of kids in the place reminded me of how happy I was to be traveling without mine. it is a ton of work traveling with kids and it was great to just be responsible for myself!

in front of the capitol. at this point it was almost 2pm and we were starving we had covered a ton of ground walking and were ready to chow. our friends recommended this delicious mexican restaurant and it did not disappoint. we ate our hearts out.

at dinner on saturday night. we had such a late lunch and must have really chowed down because we both were not that hungry that night. we sat down for a glass of wine and a little pizza around 9pm.

sunday, we got up and cruised around georgetown a bit before heading to the airport (where we got delayed – my first frustration of the trip). georgetown has this adorable little stream running through it. what a beautiful place!

in georgetown is the famous cupcake joint – georgetown cupcakes. we never went there, but were always amazed that it had a HUGE line outside it every time we walked by it (which was various times of the day). I still can’t believe people wait this long for a “famous” cupcake.

it was a great trip to get away with bill and we had a wonderful time. I loved sleeping through the night for the first time in 7 months! thanks again to my parents for watching our chitlins. we can’t wait for our next get away!

survived and thrived

they survived (my parents that is)! my parents took care of charlie, ellie and claire while bill and I went to DC (bill had a conference) last weekend. after looking at the pictures i would even say they thrived. I don’t know a ton of what they did, but their pictures were adorable.

I am so proud of my parents. they did an amazing job managing our hot mess. I was amazed to also come home to a clean house and my laundry done! thank you thank you thank you mom and dad for being so willing to come and watch the crew so bill and I could get away. we had a wonderful time and came back rejuvenated (well – for a day or so!). ok – back to the pics.

this is right before we left to go to the airport. my dad always likes to hold kids by their feet and have them stand free style. claire and g. pops were doing it really well, but the only picture I caught show her not standing. whoops.

bill showing off with ellie.

a sweet picture of claire sleeping.

eleanore – all smiles.

g. pops keeping the honey badgers happy. claire is looking at the camera.

I just loved this picture of claire.

guess who??

charlie learning to dip his cookies in milk. yum!

claire being a goofer. she is definitely the goofier one of the two.

ellie and g. pops after a bath. perhaps an early morning bath. my mom didn’t mention that they had some serious poop issues while we were gone until after we got home. she was kind because she knew I would get worried.

charlie learning to dress by himself. this is his “I’m trying to figure it out face”

happy ellie in her crib. she was probably supposed to be napping (according to my crazy schedule).

double duty.

my beautiful mom with her sweet granddaughters. ellie’s (polka dot) smile in this picture just cracks me up.

love this picture of ellie and my mom.

my parents decided to just strip the girls down to feed them. then they didn’t have to spot treat their clothes. not a bad idea, but then I would have to be undressing and redressing them all the time. it is like wrestling an alligator to dress/diaper/undress those two.

ellie’s calming pose.

claire being a goofer with her smile.

it’s official!

bill and I are real adults now. we finally have a headboard!!!

we have been wanting to purchase a headboard since we got married, but have never found one we liked and could afford. so glad we finally found one. I love it!

14 months & 4 years

wow - during the beginning of june charlie turned 14 months old and bill & i celebrated 4 years of wedded bliss :).

here are charlie and lily. it is harder and harder to get a picture without charlie moving. thankfully lily is obedient and just lays there!

i had to post this picture of charlie pointing at a picture of my mom (nana). ever since coming back from staying at my parent's house he has continued to go over to the book case he is not supposed to touch and carefully remove this picture frame and point at nana and repeat "nana nana nana". it is so sweet that he misses her and wants to point her out.

june 10th, 2006 i married my best friend. these past 4 years have been wonderful and we have been so blessed. i look forward to what God has in store for us in the years to come!

this year, we sat on our deck with charlie and enjoyed a glass of wine while admiring the new pot and flowers bill got me for our anniversary. i just have to say...i am hard core - no gifts for our anniversary. but my parents helped bill out so he could get me something because they knew he wants to give gifts and that i would return anything he bought me from our funds. thanks mom and dad and bill for being so thoughtful and loving!

our littlest trying his hardest to "pet" the flowers and not pluck them off.

a gorgeous hanging basket!