June

I am starting today to play catch - up with our blog.  Here we go.


Texas
I was able to make a quick trip to Texas with out one of my kids for my Dad's Air Force retirement ceremony.  I flew out Friday, the 3rd.  I was really tempted to bring Elias with me but, came to my senses before I left.  It was a nice flight.  I was able to read and just relax.  My Dad picked me up in his low rider '61 VW rag top.  Love that car.  It was nice and humid but, not too hot.  Kami arrived about an hour later and then we drove to the farm.  It was so nice being around my family again, or at least part of them.  Wells, Anna, Austin, Thomas, and Adam were there waiting for us.  I love my little nephews.  Adam is only 4 months older than Eli, but weighs more than Asher!  Geri, Nate, and Alison were able to make it as well.  It was quite the party, even if Clint wasn't there.  His plane broke down and he was stuck in Indiana.  Jane officially retired from her career as a fourth grade teacher.  I don't know what the two of them will do with out having to get up and going at 4:00 in the AM anymore.  The weekend was spent eating good food you can only find in Texas.  I consumed a lot of calories and enjoyed every one of them.  We had doughnuts and kolaches from Bees both mornings for breakfast.  The highlight of the good eats was Babes, mmhmmm.  They start you off with amazing biscuits - really amazing, followed by a tasty little salad, and then comes the rest; green beans, creamed corn, chicken - fried chicken, chicken fingers, and smoked chicken.  We devoured all of it with very little manners.  Oh, and then we ordered fried peach pie and it too was good.  We did not forget to fill up on Blue Bell ice cream either.  Like I said, it was a trip spent eating a lot of calories.  We did a lot of talking too.  It was so nice just sitting on the couch talking with my siblings.  My Dad's ceremony was Sunday at 2:00.  It was pretty cool.  I was glad that I got to be there.  I found out as we got to his hanger that I was the official photographer.  Never again will I travel with out my camera.  Even though I was with out my camera, it was still fun being able to shoot the ceremony.  My Dad is pretty cool.  We headed off to the airport long too long after his ceremony ended to catch our flights.  Mine left first at around 6:30.  It was nice to be home and sleep in my own bed.

To-Do List

I am sitting on my couch eating pretzel sticks when I should be doing laundry (I am currently commando), or cleaning my house (it has imploded), or putting all of the items away from our $209.48 Walmart trip, or cleaning out my car (it is full of sunflower seeds), or interacting with my high maintenance 3 year old, or organizing my studio (I moved it downstairs) or a myriad of other things that are currently on my to-do list.

Patrick is on call tonight. He doesn't really have a day off. His post call day (tomorrow) is his day off. He should be home around 12:00. He still isn't sure what he wants to be wen he grows up. Any ideas?

I get to go on a field trip tomorrow with Micah and his class. I am looking forward to going. I haven't been on a school bus for years.

We spent all last week in Greensburg. Micah had Spring Break and so I took all of my projects with us and had Emmy help me finish them. It was quite successful. I got the boys baby books finished and Emmy put all of our family videos on my hard drive. The boys had a lot of fun. We drove to Pittsburgh on Thursday and went to the Children's Museum. I loved it! We spent a couple of hours playing there. They have an area set up with Mr.Rogers' Neighborhood. They have the original puppets and his fabulous blue sweater and blue Keds. The boys had a blast.

The sun is not shining today. It is also pretty cold. I think that I am ready to get off my couch.

Skunk

I woke up this morning at around 5:00 to a very unpleasant smell. Stupid skunk. The nasty smell even made it's way down to the basement. I have a candle burning. It is doing it's best to help with the odor but, the stench is still here. It is Saint Patrick's Day and I forgot to send Micah to school wearing green. He also went to school with some really bad bed head and a shirt that is a bit too small for him and is missing a button so he buttons it using the extra button that is sewn into the shirt.

Tired

Patrick is asleep.  I am tired.  Patrick has looked very tired these days.  He started GYN-ONC last Monday and really likes it.  He got to scrub in for a 12 hour surgery and enjoyed it. I wonder if I will ever know which specialty he is going to pick.  We thought we knew.  He starts L&D next Wednesday and is very much looking forward to that.  He does have quiet a thing for babies.  He gets this look whenever he is holding a freshie.  He loves those freshies.  Micah has had from Thursday - Sunday.  He missed school on Thursday and then I sent him Friday, but he came home looking pretty rough and had a high temperature.  He now has a little cough but no fever, so he is headed back to school tomorrow.  He is a good kid.  I love him.  We are going to be in Chicago the end of July.  Patrick ill be taking his Step 2.  It is an 8 hour test.  We are planning on going up the day before and hanging out and seeing the sites and then get a hotel.  During the test the kids and I can swim or play around in Chicago.  Sounds fun.  Can't wait.  My birthday weekend was simply wonderful.  Patrick got us a lovely hotel and dinner reservations to a lovely restaurant and I got to spend money on fun stuff.  I got a torch from Sur Le Table, now I am ready to make up some creme brulee.  Yum.  After we left our hotel on our own time and after sleeping and not having to take care of our three little boys, Emmy and I took off on another adventure.  We got to tour Kentuck Knob and Falling Water.  I was so excited to be there.  You enter the houses with such a great feeling.  It was one of the coolest things that I have been able to do.  Now I just want to go see more and more of his houses and buildings.  I will post pictures at a later time.  It is too late and I am too tired.

Thursday, March 9th

I am in bed. The boys and I had a good day. We played memory and go fish in my bed and then hey had a "sleepover" with me. They are so sweet. I love those little guys. Monday at Kroger the boys were being their lovely selves and Micah sang me this song "Mama, you are so beautiful. You are such a sweet heart!" End of Song. I quite enjoyed it as well as a fellow shopper. All that they wanted to today was cuddle with me. For crying in the night! Can't they come up with something else? What can I say, those boys make me laugh. Good night.

From the Mouth of Micah

A conversation I had with Micah after a day full of three boys climbing, kissing, cuddling, hugging, and mauling me.

Me: Hallelujah, Papa is home. You guys for the love, go cuddle up with Papa and maul him.
Micah: We can't do that, he is our Dad.

Micah has the day off. He and Asher are busy playing with their new Star Wars action figures. Elias is asleep. It is so gloomy and cold today.

Back to the Grind

On Tuesday Micah and Patrick went back to school and my mom flew home. The time that my mom was here was so nice. The boys loved having her here and had lots of sleep overs with Oma. She arrived Wednesday the 1st. She experienced Rita's and loved it. So much that we got it 4 times.

Patrick started his Psych rotation. He first day at Twin Valley is tomorrow. He is excited. They had orientation Tuesday and today they had lecture.

Patrick's little Rabbit died on Friday. It is being repaired at the dealership. I am looking forward to getting it back. It is so nice having two working cars. Too bad it cost so much money to get one fixed.

Asher had his ENT consult about his tonsils last Wednesday afternoon. His adenoids are still huge and given his history of crappy sleep they recommended he have his tonsils and adenoids removed. Hopefully this will help the little fellar. He is so cranky and up and down too often. His surgery is scheduled for the 30th this month.

My husband just walked in with an ALex's Lemonde Stand Gelatti from Rita's Gotta go.

Tired

Today we were inside all day. This was not fun. The boys didn't get out of their pajamas, neither did I. We watched a lot of PBS. Dinosaur Train and Clifford are amongst my favorites. We had cookies for breakfast and lunch.

Patrick takes his first shelf exam tomorrow morning for his IM rotation. His next rotation is Neuro/Psych. He is going to pursue Electrophysiology. An Electrophysiologist specializes in the hearts electrical system. They are experts in diagnosing and treating irregular heartbeats (arrythmias). They implant pacemakers and defibrillators. He is really excited and I am too. Here is our time line:

2012-graduate medical school
July 2012-start Internal Medicine residency
July 2015-start Cardiology sub specialty
July 2018-start Electrophysiology fellowship
July 2020-done

I will be 39, Patrick will be 37, Micah will be 15, Asher will be 13, and Elias will be 11.

My Mom is flying here next Wednesday. I am excited to get her here. We are planning on taking a trip to Kirtland, eating ice cream at Graeters, and eating custard at Ritas. She gets to stay until the following Tuesday.

Asher seems to fart a lot. Maybe I just notice it more because whenever he farts or burps he always says, entschuldigung (excuse me). I love it. I think it is so adorable.

First Day of School!

It is official. Asher, Elias, and I dropped Micah off at room 105 this morning. He is attending Wickliffe Progressive Elementary. His teacher is Mrs. Bauchmoyer. They call her Mrs. B. There are 20 kids in his class. His elementary is awesome. I have been very impressed with the faculty and how excited they are to be teachers. Micah is now home and is still beaming. He got a sand dollar from Mrs. B. Today was an assessment day,so he was only there for an hour and 15 minutes. There were 4 students in his group and they cycled around 4 different stations. Micah did his last station with Mrs. B. We were able to peek in and see him in action as waited outside the door. It was pretty cute. I loved seeing him hold his pencil like a big boy and work with his teacher. It made my day. I love that little man. He is going to do great.

There Is No Place Like Home

We are back from our trip to Utah. We took three days to make the drive which was nice. Thanks to sunflower seeds and Moutnatin Dew I stayed awake. It feels great to be home again. We arrived home Sunday. The boys were so excited to see their Dad. It was quite the trip. We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of family. It was nice to see the mountains again. We got a really good snow storm while we were there. Elias got to meet his Utah family.

Our last day there Kami hooked me up with a day at Mindful Women the spa where she works at. I got a massage and a pedicure. I loved it. Her spa is awesome. It was a perfect way to end the trip. She and Kaleb watched the boys while I was getting pampered. Thank you, Kami.

Good morning!

Asher's Diaper at the End of the Day

I Love This!

Busy Times

I have been dragging the boys around the past few days errand running. They are holding up pretty well. We have missed naps and even lunches. We just got home from VT and picking up a few items at the Home Depot. Elias is asleep and the boys are having some lunch. Yesterday was so warm, 56° and today it is warm again. It is so nice seeing the sun again. The boys played at our mall's indoor playground and then outside with William, Wesley, Isabella, & Tessa when we got home. They live just a couple of houses down from us, which isn't very far since we are in townhouses. They are really great neighbors and our boys love to play with them. The boys got nice and dirty from all of the puddles. Our neighborhood skunk was out and sprayed a few times.

I have been getting things ready for our roadtrip to Utah. We leave this Saturday. Micah is very excited. We were able to buy a portable dvd player which Patrick found a code for that will allow it to play region 2 dvds! I am very excited about this.

Elias is such an awesome baby. He has 2 3-4 hour naps a day and then he goes to bed at around 6 or 7 and sleeps until 5! He is so happy and loves to smile. I just want to eat him up.

Oh, really?

It was Sunday morning. I was on the couch talking to Micah and he told me the following information to me: You are messing up my life, you are messing up everything, aaahhhh. He is only 4. Shouldn't this be something he yells at me when he 16?

Today was BUSY. We were on the go ALL morning. The boys were so helpful all day. They are super patient and good with Elias. Tomorrow we have less going on. I hope to do something fun with boys.

It definitely isn't getting any warmer. Thank goodness we have passes to our science museum. We went to COSI last Friday and met up with Megan and her boys. It was fun a lot of fun. The boys played non - stop for 2 hours. It was such a cold day. I am STILL looking forward to warmer weather.

I am waiting on my husband. He has been studying since 7 am. It is 10:56. He is pretty awesome and quite the student.

Good night.

A Day at the OBGYN

The boys and I got to spend a couple of hours at the OBGYN office today - fun. My appointment was for 1:30 and since I am a new patient I needed to be there at 1:15. We were on time. I came prepared with a treat for Micah and Asher to eat during the appointment. At 1:50 I asked how much longer the wait was. She called in the back and apparently the doctor was delivering a baby. We eventually got in and had my consult with doctor, who was very impressed by my 3 little guys and told me how very cute they all were. By 3:15 all was well and we were on our way home.

Asher continues to meet with Susan, his speech therapist once a week for 30 minutes. She is great. We really like her. He loves it and eats up the one on one play time he gets with her. He has made some impressive progress and has been putting two to three word sentences together. His speech is moderately delayed because he is learning German and English at the same time. It is very common among bilingual children. It is pretty cool how their little brains work. At age two bilingual kids can seperate their two languages.

Elias is growing and growing. He tries so hard to laugh. He is very smiley and has the cutest biggest smile. His two big brothers love him and can't get enough of him just like us. He has been sleeping through the night the past few nights, God bless him.

It is almost time to register Micah for Kindergarten - holy crap, I can't believe it myself. We get to decide between two schools. There is an information night tomorrow at the informal school. I am excited to check them both out.

As much as I like the winter weather and the snow, I think that I am ready to move on to something a bit warmer. The kids are ready to ride their bikes and get swinging again. I could use the exercise as well. Emmy is letting me borrow her Body Bugg. I am excited to get started. I officially start tomorrow. My goal is to only eat 1200 calories a day.

Patrick just got home from. He had two test today, Psych and Opthoh. He passed both. That is always good news. Tomorrow he takes Endocrine and then there are just four more! He will be studying for the boards and takes them June 25th. The time really does go by fast.

The boys and I are taking a road trip to Utah 2 weeks from Saturday. We will be travelling with Emmy and her kids. It should be quite the trip.

I am thinking of heading to bed early. Here are some new pictures of da boys for you guys that don't get to see them enough. Good night.

Beyonce, Analise, Bruce, Maus, & Cool Guy

We finally have pets. We have 5 little fishies that are a part of our family making us now a family of 10. We bought them a few weeks ago at a cool store called Aquarium Adventure. It was a fun night. It didn't take us long to come up with names for them. Patrick and I named the two big ones - Bruce (named after his hero Bruce Lee) and Beyonce. The boys named the three little fish - Analise (Micah's kindergarten teacher he loves), Cool Guy (Asher's name for anything that is cool and a guy), and Maus (that is Elias' nick name). They seem to like their new home.

It has finally stopped snowing. We have gotten so much snow. We have not been too impressed by the citie's snow plowing. The drivers here don't do so hot with the winter weather.

Speaking of driving. Patrick and I recently received a ticket for $95.00 forwarded to us by my Father. Apparently one of us ran a red light. Due to the angle of the picture and our tinted windows we will never know which of us was driving. That is probably for the best.

I am trying to play catch up from the last time I blogged. I have a lot more to remember and to write about. But, now it is lunch time. Adios.

Da Boys

Update

Let's see, Micah and Asher are asleep and Patrick is in the office studying. Elias is kicking me and moving all over. He is so active. I am so ready to meet him and watch him. It will beat staring at my stomach and watching it jump.

I have a roast in the crock pot and it smells good. The boys were really good at church and looked so handsome in their outfits. I love dressing them up and doing their hair. We are still letting Micah's hair grow out.

Asher's second birthday is this coming Tuesday! He is definitely acting like a two year old - good or bad. We are having a family celebration on Tuesday and then a party with the Bludorns and Muhlesteins on Wednesday. We bought him a drum. We are expecting him to be thrilled to have it. He has been eying it for months and says drum and tries making a beat on everything. Micah also wants one. This could be the cause for brotherly love or some nice brotherly beating.

I am way beyond nesting at this point. Last night I vacuumed out the car and after washing all the car seat covers and thoroughly detailing each one of them, we installed all three in our car. Luckily they fit safely and nicely. The first comment Micah made when we got in the car was, "Hey, this looks like Emmy's car now!" No mini van for us, unless someone wants to donate a Routan. On to the nesting - I have formula up the whazoo in the cupboard next to newly washed bottles. His drawer and his closet are full of clothes organized by size, of course. His bassinet and baby swing have new batteries in them, the diaper bag is packed. We are ready.

Asher is now awake. He is so cute. I love his little voice. I will end for now and follow up later with some new pictures of the boys.

The Fireman and the Pirate