We had a wonderful visit home last week and enjoyed every minute of it!  Not only did our newest nephew Jaiden get discharged from the NICU finally, but all of our siblings were home too so it was great to see everyone!  We had a lot of fun, but sadly forgot our camera.  I know, it's quite tragic.  Luckily, I did steal a few pics from my mother-in-law and Ronny and Monika's camera so we'd have some pictures from this trip!  I've posted just a few so far but there are many more..... especially of Baby Jay! 

    Tragically, only one day into our trip home, I started to get a sore throat which progressed into a not so fun cold, followed by the pukes!  I hadn't thrown up since middle school... now the streak is broken.  8 times in a row.... it was gross.  Luckily I felt pukey when I laid down that night, so I moved the trash can by the side of the bed just in case, completely thinking I was being silly since I really don't puke.... but then I did.  It came on horribly suddenly but was sort of a creepily good feeling because my stomach felt a million times better when I was done.  Bob was a trooper and managed to keep from puking himself and offered to hold my hair.  He took the trash out right after I finished so we didn't have to spend excess time with the horrid smell, then tried to warm me up as I laid their shivering for the next few hours.  I'd never really had "the chills" before, but man, it was bad.  I was in my pj pants and 3 shirts and under all the covers, including an electric blanket, and still just shaking.  Bob heated up the rice bag in the microwave for me too, which along with keeping even my head under the covers, finally warmed me up enough to stop physically shaking.  Not fun.  Luckily the pukes were over and done with in one night so I just had a cold after that, which is starting to finally fade now...  The worst part about this timing is of course Jaiden!  I held him the first day we were there because I was still feeling fine, but then once I started feeling the cold coming on I didn't want to get near him so I missed out on holding him... at least everyone else got plenty of turns and I'm really glad I got to hold him a bit the first day!   

   In more fun news, we got to see the Jeppsens which is always a treat, and we brought Mady's birthday present which was AWESOME and she loved it!  Unfortunately it was almost too small for her.... it's a big inflatable inner tube that you run inside of like a hamster wheel kind of...  we took some pictures on Bob's mom's camera but I'm not seeing them right now... eventually we'll post those too. 

   We made bread and cinnamon rolls and threw a surprise shower for Jen for their first bay boy who's due in August too, so that was a lot of fun!

 

We spent some time with the Poteets and my family too which was great... there's never enough time when we're home but we sure love being there!  It was sad to come back and head back to work this week!

 

   I was on call last night so I got off early today, but I still have a lot of notes to do, so I'm going to go finish.  Hope you're all having a great day and I'll add more later!

~Cathy

We had such a great time last week while we were home visiting our families!  We took tons of pics as always and believe it or not this is way less than 10% of them but we hope you enjoy them!  We'll add more to this tomorrow but I worked almost 30 hours already in the short time we've been back so I need to sleep!  Hope you're all enjoying your summers! 

Wow, we're back from Jamaica!!  Erica and Josh's wedding was beautiful and we had an amazing time and even got a bonus vacation to Phoenix!  (Our flight was late gettting to Phoenix so we missed our connection and ended up staying the night there)  Anyway, we had a great time.  We went on a boatride through a luminous lagoon where the water glows at night thanks to some bioluminescent microorganisms and we climbed a waterfall and flew through the top of the rainforest!  The longest cable we flew down was 1000 feet long and it was sooooo much fun!  The Jamaican people were really friendly and our hotel was great!  We stayed at the Sandals Inn in Montego Bay and there are 2 other Sandals resorts in Montego Bay that you can go to for free and enjoy all their stuff too, so we took their shuttle back and forth and played at all 3 hotels.  We snorkeled and saw seahorses and trumpet fish and lots of colorful fish and coral, went tubing, rode their paddle boats and kayaks, and spent a lot of time in the pools and at the beach!  We played a lot of shuffle board too, which is actually a lot of fun!  They had pool tables, darts, and ping pong all over too so we were very entertained the whole time!  And because it's "all-inclusive" there were snacks and drinks all day long--we drank a lot of virgin pina coladas and strawberry daquiris this trip!  We just had such a great time.... Thanks so much to Erica and Josh for having their wedding in Jamaica and giving us a great excuse to go!  (And a little more color than we've had from this Tacoma weather!) 

  We saw a little bit more of the island when we went on our different excursions and our guides were great about filling us in on things... most of the houses we saw had rebar sticking up all over and one driver explained that interest rates are really high in Jamaica so few people can afford to take out a loan to build their homes so they just save up their money and build what they can and stop when the money runs out... then as they save more money they add on... so you start with a one-room home and it gradually grows... interesting--hence they don't have the debt issues we have here in America! 

  So many stories and so little time...I'll add more later but for now, we hope you all enjoy the many, many, pictures!  We took close to 400 and I really tried to only put a few on here...  Hope you all have a great day!

love,

 Cathy and Bob

P.S. Congratulations to George on finishing his Masters today!!!!!! 

  So I'm in Tacoma, Washington now doing a Peds GI rotation and my first day is off to a good start.  Yesterday I flew out and did have a 3 hour delay at the Vegas airport so that was a flaw but at least the flight was uneventful and they didn't lose my luggage!  My car and room were both ready and waiting too so that was good.  I did have an unpleasant seating arrangement on the flight but there are worse things.... the flight attendant asked me if I would give up my 8th row window seat for a middle seat in the rear of the plane because a kid was afraid of flying and crying and was seated away from his parents so of course I complied, but when I passed the kid, he was my age!  And completely crying because he was so scared!  So that's weird... then I got to my new seat and ended up being squashed between two large folks who were both overflowing into my space and the lady snored the whole flight except when she was eating her stinky cheese/super-oniony/peppery sandwich and the guy had the worst halitosis I've ever experienced and was a big mouth-breather so he polluted my whole space... Also they gave us $6 snack vouchers in Vegas because we were so delayed so I had a Cinnabon which is just too much grease and sugar and totally was tasty when I ate it but gave me a bad stomachache as I sat on the plane and I was already nauseous but the smells just made it that much worse!  Anyway, I survived and it still beats my lost-luggage Philly trip by a long shot.  So I'm all unpacked and settled in here and have a PRIVATE bathroom so that's a plus compared to last time!  Woohoo!   Hope you're all doing well and I DO have Monday off for Columbus Day, so that's nice, especially since Bob comes on Wednesday through Monday!