So we're just starting to make the switch....  Blogspot here we come!  We just barely have begun this transition, so we'll be posting new stuff there, but there's really not much there yet, so don't get your hopes up!  :)  No pics there yet, just a music player and a fun background... eventually we'll get it a little fancier!  Here's the link: http://samperts.blogspot.com/

 

  Otherwise we're just hanging out and enjoying our Sunday!  We are making cinnamon rolls which are always enjoyable and I'm listening to the last few hours of Eclipse and making cards.  Looking foward to starting Breaking Dawn soon!  :) 

   Our dogsitting is over so Lilo's happy--Harley went home this morning so she's back to her spoiled ways....

Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday!

~Cathy and Bob

So I'm doing peds cardio this month and life is good!  I'm done by 4-5 every day, have weekends off when I'm not on call (I only have 2 calls all month) and I'm learning a lot.  Heck of a deal all the way around!  Also, I get to sleep in--I have to be at work at 7:30 instead of the usual 6am for in patient rotations... Yay!  I do outpatient clinic next month so my hours will be similar which is great! 

   We're headed home in a week to visit the fam again so that will be fun, then we're coming back this way to go visit Forks, AKA the Land of Twilight!  We're looking forward to some time off! 

   We've been keeping busy lately--I went to a fun card class and made some cool cards last week, and we've spent some time going to all the local festivals lately.  We went to the Lakefair in Olympia 2 weeks ago which was a big outdoor streetfair thing with rides and stuff--mostly just GREAT peopel-watching--Olympia's always good for that.  Lots of hippies and just eccentric people in general!  Then we went up to Bellevue last weekend for the Bellevue Arts Festival--another street fair with lots of local artists displaying all their stuff.  Nothing we couldn't live without but all sorts of entertaining!  Of course being in Bellevue was also a great excuse to go to Maggiano's, our favorite! 

   Other excitement recently, which I can't believe I waited til now to mention, is my iPhone!!!  It's literally the most amazing toy I've ever had.  It can do anything.  I am constantly impressed with its mad skills.  One of my favorite news apps is a program that finds restaurants near you and you just type in what kind of food you feel like and shake it and it gives you the name and map for a restaurant near you in that category.  If you don't feel like that one, you shake it and it just keeps showing you others!  How cool.  So that's keeping us super-entertained! 

    We also have a Wii Fit now, so that's been tons of fun too! We play at least every other day and have learned a LOT about each other, including that Bob secretly has MAD hula hoop skills!  Who knew?  I am also a naturely gifted ski jumper, which some of you may not have been aware of!  :)  We've had a good time with it and it's pretty cool how the more time you play and the higher scores you get, the more different games you unlock!  I also like how it tests you and then gives you your Wii Fit Age... Bob was 54 once, which was pretty funny!  We definitely feel better about spending time together doing this since it is a little exercise too--you're not just sitting around, so that's something. :) 

    Other fun stuff--I volunteered my medical services at a Boy Scout Camp earlier this week and it was a ton of fun!  It was Webelos, who are 9-10 for those who don't speak Cub Scout, and I had a great time canoing, shooting BB guns, doing some archery, and going on nature walks with them!  One of the most entertaining parts was definitely the first aid/safety class where the instructor was trying to teach them about what to do in a fire.... they had a great time ranger crawling along the floor (to stay under the smoke of course) and an even better time during the "what not to do" portion where they ran around freaking out about the fire.... what a fun age.  :)  There was no real work for me there--there were a few twisted ankles/headaches, but nothing more intense than that.  This also got me out of the clinic and into the sun for three whole days, so I'll definitely be volunteering again next year!  :) 

    Not much else going on--we're dogsitting Harley again, the most obese minpin you'll ever see, but he goes home tomorrow--it's been funny to see Lilo get a teeny bit agressive with him!  He's visited us 2-3 times before and she tolerates him, but this time she's been growling a little at him (while she smiles and wags her tail) whenever he tries to get too much attention from her people!  If he jumps up on us she's immediately in a closer position and growling a little... just funny since she's always so mellow and immediately submissive to other dogs!  Makes us realized how spoiled she is though...

    So I'm thinking I might switch to Blogspot since it's a lot easier to navigate/add cool things to than these MSN spaces... I'll let you all know when I get to that point...Also we're thinking about going private... keep out the creeps, ya know. 

   Finally, Yay for Twilight!  Thanks to Mandy, Brooke, Tamara, and the millions of other friends who all kept telling me these books were awesome and especially thanks to Brooke and Jesh for sending me the mp3's so I could listen to the first 3 books!  They have made my drives everywhere WAY more fun!  I still have a few cd's of the 3rd one to finish before I start the brand new one that came out today, but I'm planning to buy it on iTunes before we drive home next week so I can listen on the way!  Bob has a job WAY far awsay on Friday os we'll probably get a late start and he'll be tired so I'll be driving so it will definitely keep me awake on the long drive! 

   Hope you all have a great weekend and we'll see many of you soon!

~Cathy

We had such a nice weekend!  We both were able to get Thursday AND Friday off, so we left to drive home on Wednesday night and it was great to be home for a little longer!  The occasion was my best friend Mandy's sister Cristy's wedding, and we were so glad to be able to be there for her big day!  

The itinerary was not as packed as usual: Thursday we just relaxed and I went to Cristy's bachelorette party that night which was really fun--they did an after hours spa party so we were the only ones there and got to do everything we wanted for one price unlimited times... so nice!  There was this awesome massage bed that was soo relaxing, a "detoxifying footbath" and foot massage that was great (but the water turned really gross from all the "toxins" the ioniezed "ray" was drawing out of your foot pores... my water was rusty brown and GROSS!), these crazy things that you stand on and they just shake you, a dry sauna, etc and it was really relaxing and nice!  We had really nice snacks there and opened all Cristy's fun presents for their big night and really had a great time.  It was relaxing and a great ambience, but it was just so nice to get to hang out and chat with everyone! 

On Friday I played frisbee golf with Carolyn and 2 of her friends and it was really fun!  I'd never really played before but there are a few courses around town and Carolyn's friend Laura's boys and hubby are very into it so she had very professional discs--she had drivers (heavier and thinner to go further), mid-range, and putters (lighter and thicker for short throws) just like in regular golf.  Carolyn liked it so much that she persuaded Jared and Bob to play 2 more rounds with us after we got back.  Good times!  Then on Friday evening we had a BBQ with my family too and my grandma and Bob's Grandma Zellma were there, along with 2 of my 3 brothers, and although my brother Paul was working, his wife Lesley and their 2 daughters came, so that was fun.  We had a nice time and the weather was great. 

 Saturday was Cristy's wedding and I definitely cried throughout her sealing, but did a fair job of super-blinking to keep from becoming blotchy "I've been crying" Cathy.... she was just so ecstatic and looked so beautiful and the sealer said so many wonderful things and it's just such a nice reminder of your own sealing and all that it represents each time you go to another sealing.... Cristy said on Thursday that she was so excited for the wedding, but even more so she was excited for her marriage and just felt more right and calm about each day... so cool.  She's pretty much the most saint-like person I've ever known (she could always see the good in anyone) so it's awesome that she's finally found someone worthy of her and who makes her so happy.  Although we don't know Nathaniel very well yet, it's obvious how happy he makes her, so that says it all.  I think the coolest part of their story is that they met in DC, and Cristy went there after finishing her dietetics (nutrition) degree at BYU, because it was a great opportunity for an internship, then has stayed there working for the last few years, and we're always asking her when she's moving back, and for the last few years she's felt really strongly that she's being prompted to stay there.... she wasn't sure for what, but felt like that was the answer every time she prayed about it.  Obviously she was meant to stay to meet Nathaniel!   She met him while he was taking the discussions and and now have been dating for about 20 months and he seems like a great match for her.  It's just so nice to see her so happy!  Her dress was also amazing and definitely perfect for her... I'll put a few pics here later this week!

   Last night we all went to see Get Smart and it was great!  Very funny, although mostly slapstick, but entertaining.  Then today we drove back after breakfast with my family.  As always, our weekend went too quickly, but it was great to see so many friends and family in such a short period of time!  It was way too short of a visit with our always beloved Poteets who were very busy helping make things perfect for Cristy and Nathaniel, which they did a great job of, it was great to see the Barlows, Rach, and even the Browns at the reception!  We wish as always that we had more time to spend with everyone, but it was great anyway. 

So I start back in the NICU tomorrow and the interns start Tuesday, so I'll be all alone doing all the work tomorrow!  Then I'll have some help on Tuesday, but they won't really know what they're doing, and I'll have to kind of orient them before I leave post call at noon... Wednesday will be a better day since I'll be there all day so I can settle them in a bit more.  I'm excited but also a bit intimidated to be the senior resident! Hope you're all well and beating the heat!  It's TOASTY here, but we're so glad it's summer! 

~Cathy and Bob 

 

Sorry it's been so long since we've updated this!  I'm sure you've all been dying in suspense to know what we've been up to these days!  I'm at Children's Hospital in Seattle this month, so they have an apartment in Seattle for us to stay at so I'm only home a few nights a week when I'm post-call and my days are pretty long and I hardly ever get to sleep on calll... it's been a crazy month.  I've learned a lot, but I've seen a lot of really sick kids this month and I'm ready to get back to the healthier ones!  Not quite yet though.... in July I'm in the NICU again, but I'm not an intern anymore so that's fun!  I only have 4 more days of internship left, and only one more call night!  So that's pretty exciting.  We had our intern graduation earlier this month already and had to wear our dress blues so that was pretty cool--it's definitely our neatest uniform.  Mom and John came out for graduation so that was fun.  We went to the Olympia Farmer's market, on a short hike at the Nisqually nature preserve, did some Wii bowling, and they came to an after graduation barbecue with all the other interns and to the farewell dinner for the seniors where we watched the video roast we did of them so that was fun.  We also made a brief expedition to a rhododendron ranch, which was fun, especially because they bought me a red one!  It's done blooming for the year already, but we found a nice place in the yard for it so we'll enjoy it next year! 

   We also made a trip to Portland for the Memorial Day weekend, so that was great--I never have a whole weekend off of work so that was a great treat!  We had a good time checking out the rose garden, the arboretum, the science museum, and the zoo.  We brought Lilo too so she had a nice trip.  We ate some really good food but did a lot of hiking/walking around during the day so we didn't end up doing too much damage. :)  We met up with Carmen, Bob's old boss from Vegas, who lives in Portland now, so that was really fun. 

   We planted the garden a few weeks ago and stuff is finally starting to pop up so that's nice!  We've got corn, potatoes, green onions, carrots, peas, strawberries (I ate the first 2 today!!!!) and I planted some watermelon, but it is NOT popping up... I guess it's not warm enough.  It's always fun to see things grow!  My lilies are getting ready to bloom, roses are blooming, and many other flowers too, so the yard is getting colorful!  We tore out the raspberries earlier this spring so we expanded that area out a little bit and planted tons more corn than last year which is exciting... we sure love our corn!

    We had a very fun double date night last night--I was on call Friday and post call yesterday, so I drove back and took a nap while the boys went mountain biking, then Tamara and I went to Color Me Mine and painted some pottery which was a lot of fun!  We had the boys meet us when we finished so they could see our creations and then we all went out to dinner and it was great.  Good times were had by all!  We've had a nice relaxing Sunday but I'm not looking forward to my long drive back in the morning... at least I'm almost done there!   I'm done with Children's this Thursday and we're headed home for a brief weekend visit so that's our big upcoming excitement!  We're hoping we'll get to see some of you then!  And we'll be able to catch Cristy's wedding too which is great! 

   Hope all is well with all of you!  Happy Anniversary to Ronny and Monika a little bit ago, Happy Birthday to Monika today!  Sorry that I've been a card-making slacker lately... all I can say is 80 hours a week of work and many hours a week commuting leaves me with NOT ENOUGH time period!  Looking forward to enjoying the summer and being a 2nd year! 

~Cathy

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

So all the news is family-related right about now.....

    Bob's parents came to visit last weekend--Ron had an asbestos conference/recertification in Portland (talk about toxic fun!) so they stopped up to hang out with us and take in a Mariner's game.  It worked out so well.. I was on call Friday but slept an hour or so and was home by 9am because I got my work done early, then we had a nice breakfast and headed to Seattle to eat and walked around Seattle Center a bit enjoying the 82 degree (NO JOKE) weather and sunshine before heading to the game!  The Mariners won and it was a great game and we had excellent snacks and looked great in our jerseys!  :)  NICE.  Then we came home and I slept for a good 11 hours, which was pretty much awesome, then we had a nice breakfast together.  Then Carolyn and I played some Hand and Foot while the boys dug up some of our raspberry bushes and some flowers to take back with them.  We had a nice visit and it was fun to see all their pictures from their recent visit to the Jeppsens too! 

 

 

 

 

      In bigger family news, my brother got married!  He and Lesley decided to get married officially before their big ceremony this September, so Congratulations to them!  John, my stepdad, has his minister's license that I believe he got online for a friend's wedding a few years ago, so he married them in their living room.  Mom said Paul was dressed up, but was in his socks.  Way to keep it casual Big Brother!  That's how he rolls.  :)  My stepdad thought the cake was pretty hilarious so here it is:

 

 For those of you who couldn't guess from the picture/don't know, Paul and Lesley have a daughter together, Addison, who's almost a year old now. If I had any pictures of the ceremony I'd post those but I didn't even know it happened until I talked to Mom a few days ago!  I guess this is what happens when you live a few hundred miles away!

 

     The Jaiden update: he's doing great!  He had a second laser eye surgery on Wednesday for his ROP (retinopathy of prematurity--a problem with the back of the eye that happens to premies d/t all the oygen they require early in their little lives).  They also fixed his hernias and it all went well.  The pediatric ophthalmologist will check his eyes again soon to see how that part went, but he's already eating and off the vent so that's pretty huge... hopefully he'll keep doing great and be discharged while we're home!  He weighed 5 lbs 7 oz today!  He's gaining so well... a long ways from the 511g he started at! 

 

      In personal news.... I have a HOLE in my tooth!  Yes, many of you would call this a cavity, and I'm guessing it probably is, but ew!  I could feel a rough spot that felt really sharp on one of my top molars so I kept rubbing my tongue over it, as you do when you have a feeling like that, but it wouldn't move, whatever it was... so when I got home I washed my hands and felt it with my finger and it was really rough!  I looked in the mirror and could see a good sized hole, the edges of which were what I was feeling!  Then over the course of tonight, 3 tiny pieces of tooth have come out from this freak hole.  Of course this would happen on a Friday night.  So on Monday I'll go back to the dentist at work I guess... YUCK!  I think they open at 7am so maybe I'll just skip morning report and try to get this fixed before my first patients come in at 9am?  Yikes.  I'm falling apart.  I've had a RIDICULOUS amount of dental work this year, including a root canal and crown and it just doesn't seem like I should have another thing to fix!  I guess I should be grateful that my teeth were kind enough to wait to crap out until I was active duty and wouldn't have to pay for it... If you added the actual cost I would have paid for all my dental care, prescriptions, and eye surgery from this last year I'll bet that adds up to more than half the salary the Army pays me!  Whoah. HOO-AH!  :)  The good news about my tooth craziness now is that it actually doesn't hurt at all.  I will focus on that and be grateful! 

 

      So Bob's bowling with the guys from Elder's quorum and I'm just relaxing since I'm not on call til tomorrow so that's nice.  I finished my presentation this week for the NICU and OB/GYN conference on Wednesday--I have to do a formal presentation in front of a few hundred people.... gulp.... I will be glad when Wednesday morning is over!  At least it's all done and ready to go... It's only 17 power point slides, so that shouldn't take me more than 15 minutes, right?  Hopefully there are no sharks in the audience... cut the intern som slack, right?  :)  The better part of next week is that we're coming home!  We're planning to leave as soon as I get off Saturday morning.... I'm going to sweet talk one of my comrades into doing 3 South (Newborn nursery) that morning so I can just leave after signout hopefully so we can get home in time to catch some of the partying with the Poteets since we're arriving just prior to their big birthday week!  We'll just barely miss our niece Maddy's birthday (on the 21st) and in other birthday news, Happy Birthday to Erica soon too!  (Also the 21st!)  Kayla's birthday is soon after theirs too--big birthday week!

 

       Ok, that's all the news... Our weather has gone back to normal after our one nice day and it's supposed to freeze tonight and snow above 500 feet.   Silly weather.  At least I wasn't working for our one nice day!  Hope you all have wonderful weekends!

 

Here's B on her new Big Wheel from her favorite aunt and uncle, Maddy and Brooklyn and Kai all ready for church, and Jaiden 2 weeks ago--he's even bigger now!  :)

 

 

 

We had a great weekend with a whole day and a half off for me!  I was on call Friday, but off by 9am on Saturday and only slept a few hours and then we went out and about and had a great time!  My call wasn't too bad--a lot of little stuff but no admissions--I was on the peds ward, not the NICU, so that was a nice change, especially since the NICU exploded after I left!  Thursday was my last day there, and I was off at noon since I was on call on Wednesday, and all the babies were fine.  Unfortunately, 12 hours after I left, the babies went crazy!  2 babies who were pretty stable when I left were suddenly VERY SICK and one had to be transferred to another hospital even!  Then, 2 more very sick babies came... one who was only 24 weeks, and another who was 32 weeks but only 630g, which is the size of a 24 weeker!  :(   Hopefully they're all doing better by now, but YIKES!  Apparently the babies needed me.... The ward was a nice change... happy healthy kids (relatively anyway!).  I only had to go to the ER once, and the kid they had me see looked GREAT so I sent her home, which is always nice! 

  Anyway, after I got home and had slept a bit we went and played mini golf at a place called the "Putting Zoo" in Puyallup, which was great fun, not just because of its cheesey name, but it really did have a lot of good obstacles on both courses... the first one was far too challenging for me and I had a few 7's, but I beat Bob on the second course!  Then we went and had Chipotle for dinner and enjoyed National Treasure 2 at the $2 theater in Federal Way.  A very fun Saturday!  Today we watched conference online and I scrapbooked a little bit, we watched No Reservations, which was cute, and we played Monopoly, which went well for a while, then Bob got me... I made a bad trade early on which I never really recovered from... :) 

  Lots of good news this week, so congratulations to Cristy and Nathaniel on their engagement, to Katrina and Chris for the upcoming bundle of joy, to the Jeppsens on their upcoming baby boy (although that's slightly older news!), and to Jaiden on hopefully leaving the NICU in the next month!  (And for now being 4 and a half pounds!  That's great!) 

   Hope you all enjoyed your weekend! 

   ~Cathy

So to preface this, just accept that I ALWAYS have crazy dreams.  Usually quite abstract improbable things that make little/no sense, but this was definitely up there in that spectrum! 

     I think it started when my friend Erica emailed me last night and mentioned that they're thinking they'll wait another year to try to get pregnant because residency is just too stressful and breastfeeding is a big job in and of itself, so even though she's totally baby hungry she thinks it's for the best, but she said if her husband could get pregnant and breastfeed they'd totally do it now!  I guess I was pondering that more than I thought I was because last night I totally dreamed that Bob was having our baby!!!!  In my dream we were in the delivery room and Bob was screaming in pain and I felt terrible and had all this guilt that I should be having the baby!  Then he pushed the baby out really fast and there was just a nurse and I in the room and no OB or peds people!  Somehow there was no umbilical cord to cut and the baby was just out and the nurse started freaking out because he wasn't moving or crying and I yelled, "Just stimulate him!" and took the baby from her and started rubbing him with a blanket and of course he cried right away and was fine!  The other funny thing is that it was a 27 week premie.. how very specific, huh  Somehow he was totally fine though and I remember thinking, I just want to take him home now and not stay in the hospital or have Bob stay!  Then I woke up.  WEIRD.  I haven't told Bob yet--he's still at work--but I'm sure he will be very amused by this.  I'm sure there's lots of symbolism in this dream!  Obviously it suggests I'm a little baby hungry myself, and probably Bob having the baby is representative of how I don't think it's something I can do right now, but the whole thing is pretty crazy!  The stuff with the nurse is straight from work... every delivery they call us to where they're "failing" a resuscitation the situation's always the same... the L and D nurses always forget to stimulate the baby!!!!!!!  Basic newborn resuscitation is SIMPLE.  Stimulate and warm and suction that baby!  That means you turn the heat on before you put the baby in the crib so it's warm, you remove each blanket/towel as you wipe off the slime, and you just rub that baby over and over to make him/her cry something fierce, because that's how they clear their fetal lung fluid and do well!  Nearly every time they call me in when they tried to do the initial resuscitation and get concerned that the baby's not doing well, it's the same thing.  I walk in and there are 8-10 nurses around the crib, holding oxygen on the baby's face and doing nothing else.  Baby is inevitably lying on the first cold wet blanket/towel, the bulb syringe is still in the package because no one even opened it, and they all have this look of horror in their eyes.  Sometimes they're even shouting at each other in panic while everyone does NOTHING.  Nearly always it ends the same way... I push them out of the way because no one wants to let me in, even though they called me to help!  Then I take away the oxygen (From the bright pink baby) and start rubbing his/her back and a blood-curdling cry flies out and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.  Usually I suction the mouth and nose a little, do a quick exam and then reassure the parents that all is well and leave.  Sometimes I try to politely remind the nurses what the most important parts of newborn resuscitation are.  Usually they interrupt me several times while I'm helping the baby to tell me he/she needs oxygen.  Usually I just smile and say, "I think the baby looks great, but thanks!" 

    The fact that we had a micro-premie is probably just representative of my fear of bad things happening to me because I'm an over-worrier and I know all the bad things that can happen, because I see it at work.  Wanting to leave is probably because all the parents I see just want to take their babies home!  Even babies born at 27 weeks, which is 13 weeks early, for those of you counting!  AKA, babies who typically have to stay in the NICU a minimum of 3 months.... most of those moms want to take them home in the first few days so maybe this means I'm still an empathetic person and feel their pain and I'm not totally jaded yet?  Hopefully!

  Ok, just thought I'd share my crazy dream.  Hope you all had a great day!

~Cathy

We had a great Easter weekend.  I was on call on Friday so off by noon on Saturday AND I actually slept about 3.5 hours so I was actually functional when I got home!  We drove up to Ikea and got a few more things (file cabinet, lamp and lampshade, etc) and stopped at the Rainbow store so I could jump on the trampolines! 

                                                                  

So that's a long story... basically, they make these awesome trampolines with no exposed springs to get your legs caught in and a really great protective cage that's soft and you can bounce into it and not hurt yourself... anyway, we spent some time at the Puyallup fair this summer talking to the sales lady there because they had a booth, but at the fair all their trampolines were locked up and she couldn't find the key to let us bounce!  So she said to stop by their shop and we could try them out, but we hadn't ever done it, but Bob was feeling agreeable so we stopped and it was great fun.  :)  I bounced for a good 1/2 hour and was good and bounced out.  Unfortunately, their trampolines are very expensive.  The special at the fair was $1200, but now they're down to $950, but Costco has them online right now for $800 delivered, but that's still way too much for a toy especially since we live somewhere it rains all the time.  (Although it's totally rust-proofed!)  Not to mention that our neighbors would always want to jump, and it would be so hard to stop them... these do have a strong zipper that you can put a lock through on the cage part, so we could definitely lock them out, but I know they'd want to jump, and I know I wouldn't want them to die in our yard.  Especially because as a pediatrician I'm supposed to be morally opposed to all trampolines!  (Every year the American Academy of Pediatricians lobbies unsuccessfully to have trampolines banned from being sold!)   I personally think trampolines are great, and the fun/exercise totally outweighs the injury-potential.  The majority of injuries are kids going off the trampoline, landing on their necks while trying to flip, or colliding with each other when multiple people jump at once, all of which are solveable probleems, especially with this awesome trampoline!  The cage keeps us in, the zipper part allows parents to more easily control whose jumping when to make sure they're jumping only 1 at a time and supervised, and if the kids really want to do flips, sign them up for gymnastics first so they can learn how to do it safely.  These are my thoughts.  Back to if we had a trampoline...  I would be fine with our neighbor's kids jumping one at a time if they had a parent to watch them, but like that would happen.  So I'd either never use it or always have the neighbor kids bothering us to jump.... Or we could build a higher fence so they'd never know about it!  :)  I definitely miss Vegas with the Sky Mania... for those of you not in the know, it's basically a warehouse that's one huge trampoline where you can go and jump for an hourly rate... it's pretty sweet.  There's also an area roped off just for trampoline dodge ball, which is of course quite fun.  So yeah, no trampoline for us yet, but someday!!!!

    After that we had lunch at Chipotle which was great as always, especially because last time we had Chipotle I brought my leftovers to work for dinner on call and clumsily spilled the whole thing (except literally 1 bite) on the floor!  So sad.... this time that did NOT happen, I'm proud to say!  I successfully heated up my leftovers at work today for lunch with no spillage whatsoever!

     Next we wanted to go race Go-Karts, but when we went to the place, the guy told the people in front of us that without reservations they wouldn't have a spot for them until 7pm!  It was maybe 2pm at this point... crazy.  Who would have thought you needed reservations for that?  So then we went to some batting cages and a driving range and hit lots of balls.  I hit a golf ball crazily far to the edge of the driving range and smacked a big metal pole and it made a huge "DONG!" and everyone cheered!  It was hilarious.  We are definitely no pros, as Mans and George know since they've seen us in action, but we had a great time.  Bob is way better than I am and hits them REALLY far.  Mine cut all over the place!  Someday we'll take lessons.... I'll bet we could get great prices on lessons at the golf course on post, but it's really a matter of time... I can't be a doctor and not golf, right?  

    So then we rented a movie and got groceries for our Easter feast and headed home.  We got Enchanted, and we had low expectations but actually were pleasantly surprised... you already know it's cheesey from the previews, and it was, but it was entertaining.  We had a nice relaxing evening and just enjoyed relaxing together after our busy day and week.

    This was the first Sunday in 3-4 weeks where I wasn't on call the night before, so it was the first time in forever that I didn't fall asleep in church!  The past few weeks have been bad... after being awake for 30 hours, I just bob the whole time!  This week I definitely got more out of it and it was nice to catch up with some people since I never see anyone since I'm rarely there/or am there for only Sacrament!  (After falling asleep in the first hour of meetings, I'd usually go home and sleep the past few weeks) 

   Then we came home and I made gnocchi and Bob made rotisserie turkey and we had rolls and garlic asiago cheese bread and it was delicious.  We found some exciting desserts at the store because we couldn't decide on what we wanted to make for our Easter dessert, so Bob picked cheesecake and I picked a dark chocolate torte, but we didn't thaw them soon enough, which is all for the best because we were way too full.  Around 8, Bob pointed out that they had to thaw in the fridge for 4-6 hours... so looks like we'll be enjoying them tonight! 

     We had such a nice Easter together, but more than the anything else it was just nice to be together.... I only have another week and a half left of the NICU then my hours should significantly improve!  Woohoo!   I can't wait.  I do the NICU again in July, and that will come fast, but the next 2 months coming up are both clinic, so I'll enjoy a normal schedule for a little while!  We hope you all had a great Easter weekend too!!!!

  ~Cathy

So yesterday was my day off and I got my hair cut and highlighted which is always fun, and it's definitely shorter, blonder, and spunkier than I had intended, but it's always good for me to go to a hairdresser who's a bit more autonomous because I'm too indecisive to really ever know what I want to do.... I enjoyed my day off and can't wat til next Monday now.... Hope you're all having a great week so far!

Hey there everyone!! Things have been busy here as always!  I just got back from my 8 days in Texas for my training down there, and worked 5 nights in a row in the ER prior to that, then I started in the NICU on Friday when I got back and was on call there Saturday so didn't get home til noon yesterday.  I went to the first hour of church then came back and slept since I was falling asleep the whole time!  Now I just get to relax a little though because Monday is my day off, so that's nice!  (After 16 days of work in a row, I'm overdue!)

       My C4 thing in Texas was actually pretty fun (C4 = Combat Casualty Care Course)  Basically it was trying to teach us about operational medicine and better prepare us for when and if we get deployed.  It was tri-service and doctors, dentists, and nurses, so fun to meet a lot of new people.  I made a few new friends--2 Navy girls and an Air Force guy who were all in my "hutment" (little shack we lived in).  Unfortunately, Jamie lives in Florida, Colleen is in San Diego, and Brock is in Ohio, so the 4 of us will never hang out again probably.  Hopefully our paths will cross again someday.... we'll see.  Definitely a situation of the people you're with making all the difference in how much fun you have, ya know?  Other people complained the whole time and did not enjoy the week at all, but we just joked around together and had a lot of fun, which made a huge difference.  The weather was crazy though... San Antonio weather is nuts... it was nice and in the 60's and 70's during the day in the beginning, which was great, then Monday when we went into the field to camp in tents it was down in the teens/low 20's that night with 30 mph wind gusts which made it ridiculously cold and our tent was old and the flaps wouldn't close all the way so the wind just blew in all night and we just had one thin sleeping bag each and MAN was it frigid.  Definitely the coldest night of my life and I was sure I was going to wake up with frostbite..... My toes couldn't move!   Then the next 2 days got up to 80, so I got a little sunburned!  We did some cool things though... played a lot of war games and practiced taking care of the wounded a lot.  There was this cool tactical simulation center they've made which was in a huge warehouse that they've remodeled the inside of to look like a battlefield and the lights are off but there are strobe lights and smoke and there are people firing blanks all around and our mission was to go rescue and treat our wounded comrades so we went in with our team and an infantry guy who went ahead of us and shot the bad guys and then we went and dragged our people to a safer zone and started treating them, then they got evacuated to the Battallion Aid Station (the most forward mini-tent-hospital we have in a war zone) where we treated more patients and stabilized them for transport.  At that part they gave us 5 minutes to stabilize them so they'd be ready to get in the helicoptor to be transported to the bigger hospital for definitive treatment.  The people we were treating were these awesome mannequins that talk and breathe and have heartbeats and you can start IV's on, needle decompress their chests if they have a pneumothorax (collapsed lung), intubate if they're having trouble breathing, do a surgical cricothyroidotomy if you can't intubate (cut a little hole in their neck and put a tube in it), etc.  So neat.  They also had "blood" so one of my patients had his leg blown off and "blood" was spurting out of his stump when I first walked up!  It stopped once my tourniquet was tight enough which was pretty cool. 

    Basically, it was just really nice to get out of the hospital for a week and not be doing hospital stuff.... even though we were still doing health care I guess, it was definitely different, and it's always fun to meet new people... I did miss Bob and Lilo and it's definitely nice to be back and he definitely missed me because he's been so extra sweet since I got back!  When he picked me up at the airport he had 2 presents for me even!  He bought me the new Jack Johnson cd that just came out and went to the Kohl's near the airport and got the silverware we've been hunting for for the last 6 months!  We first found it at our Kohl's when it was 50%off but we just weren't sure if that was really the pattern we wanted, but of course safter deciding, we've been looking ever since then and they never have that pattern in!  So that was fun.  Then we had dinner at Chipotle which was delicious as always.  While I was gone he started re-doing all the kitchen cabinets!  He's making great progress and they look great.  They were just light colored wood, and he's adding crown molding above and below which looks great, and doing grooved vertical slats kind of like wainscoting on the sides and fronts so they have some texture and painting them white.  We had talked about doing this a while ago but hadn't really come to a final decision about anything so he just started.  I love that he's like that!  I'm so indecisive and will just hem and haw and think about things forever but he just decides to do it.  :)  That's what's great. 

            Ok, hope your Monday is off to a great start!  Here's a picture of a similar door front to what Bob's doing.  Looking good!  We'll put pictures on the blog when it gets closer to done. :)  When we looked at prices for refacing our cabinets it was pretty ridiculous, but this is a really low cost way to do it and it's looking great!  He put the trim pieces on to frame it after laying the panels on and it was done!

  ~Cathy

P.S. I didn't take very many pics in TX at all, so those of you craving "Cathy plays war" pictures might be a bit disappointed.  When I do develop the 3 I took on my little disposable camera I'll definitely scan them in though! :)

This morning was very bad.... I forgot completely that I had clinic!  I have my continuity clinic every Wednesday morning this month, but somehow I totally spaced it and was just thinking I had my ER shift that started tonight at 5:45 so I slept in!  I woke up at 9:15 to my pager going off and when I called back it was one of the docs asking where I was!  Then I got another page from someone else right after wondering the same thing.... YIKES.  I got dressed and came in really fast but was so flustered.... that's the worst way to wake up!  I've been sleep-deprived forever because of my shifts, but also because my stupid cough wakes me up so much, and last night I actually slept through the night for 12 hours!  The one night it would have been helpful to wake up early!  So it goes.  Luckily, one of the docs saw my first patient for me and that was really really nice of her, so I saw the rest of my patients and it all worked out.... Now I'm home for lunch and to read a little before my shift at 5:45.  I definitely need to make cookies for her or something... UGH.  I hate being late!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm so on top of my schedule because it's always changing... I check my schedule every night before I go to sleep but somehow I just blew it.... What's done is done and I can't fix it but it's sure frustrating! 

   Hope all of you are having a MUCH better day....

   Overall I'm enjoying my rotation in the ER because I've seen some cool stuff.  What I think is cool is often synonymous with what most people would define as GROSS, but that's ok.  I've seen a cut off finger (dang those table saws!), cowpox in the eye and an arm  (a soldier who's roommate just got the smallpox vaccine, which is made from cowpox--he wrestled half naked with his roomy shortly after he got the vaccine and hence the lesions), a few heart attacks, (including a 16yo with a true heart attack--that was actually the week before my ER rotation--I admitted him to the ICU), oral cancer (a woman who came in for low blood sugar--I found the lesion and had to tell her it was probably cancer), a woman who died of a terrible clot (who I wrote about before), and a lot of routine stuff, including a lot of people who have come to the ER a LOT less sick than me! 

  Time to go back to work... just had a break to eat lunch in between.  Have a great day everyone!  This is a great video if you have a few minutes: reall good basic life advice/philosophy:  http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Hope you all enjoyed the big day yesterday!  I have the worst cold I can ever remember having, and yesterday was probably the worst I've felt yet with this awful cold, but my ER shift was done by 3pm so we both got home MUCH earlier than we usually do and had a nice relaxing evening at home together which was so nice.  Bob brought me some nice flowers, including a stargazer lily, which is always my favorite, and we had our heart shaped pizza (a Valentine's tradition we've kept for the last few years) and watched a movie.  I coughed and sniffled a lot, but it was still just nice to be together.  I'm lucky to have such a sweet husband who puts up with my whining and takes care of me when I'm feeling so bad.... he made me tea and cleaned everything up and has really just been great while I've been sick..... I'm finally starting to feel a teeny bit better today though, so I won't be so needy or whiny soon!  :)  I definitely did not feel at my peak of attractiveness this V-Day... I have a nasty raw nose from my cold--I brought a stack of Puffs with me to work yesterday and set them by my computer in a nice neat stack, but while I was in seeing a patient, one of the docs decided to go on a cleaning spree and threw them all away!!!!!  Despite all my round the clock cold medicine, my nose is a FAUCET so I must have blown my nose 50 times in my 10 hour shift.... so needless to say, I was pretty ticked that she threw away my PRECIOUS Puffs and I had to use the sandpapery hospital tissues......  I'm also coughing so hard that I almost throw up several times a day... definitely concerns the patients when I have to stop my history-taking for a coughing fit!  Many many old folks have made the joke that I should be the patient.... 

     So my ER rotation is going well overall, but it definitely reminds me every day why I picked Peds...... too many old people in the ER!  They have so many problems and there's no way to fix them all!  And of course there's the death thing.... My patients never die.... until now, I've really had great luck and only ever witnessed one patient die, and it was horrible, because it was a baby when I was on my OB rotation in med school, but that number doubled this week....   Her name was Mary,  and she was a very nice 74 year old woman who came in with her son because her legs were "a little numb."   She wasn't a complainer at all, but she was VERY sick.  I took a quick history, but already knew it was BAD.  I couldn't feel pulses on either of her legs and they were white and cold.  She could only move her right leg a little, and couldn't move her left leg at all.  I couldn't get a reflex on either leg when I hit her with my hammer (see, ther IS a reason we do that!).  She was pretty alert and told me her legs had felt a little achy and numb over the last 3 days and it was getting worse, and since she'd had a history of strokes before, my first thought was that maybe it was another stroke, but it was weird that it was both legs because strokes usually affect one side of the body.... Further history led me to discover she was on a blood thinner because she had chronic a-fib (top of her heart doesn't squeeze well, just wiggles irregularly, so blood can pool and clot there) and then I knew what we were dealing with.  A bedside ultrasound revealed our worst suspicions.... she had a HUGE clot in her abdominal aorta (big artery that carries blood to your lower half) so there was virtually no blood flow to her body below the waist, hence her cold pulseless legs she couldn't move.  We called surgery immediately and they took her to the OR to take out the clot, but all the ER staff told me as soon as I started explaining what I was concerned about that she was going to die.  Unfortunately, they were right.  She made it through surgery, but the following morning she had a massive heart attack and they weren't able to resuscitate her after 30 minutes of CPR.  I'm sad that she's gone, but it doesn't seem real because I was talking to her when they were taking her to surgery and she was still so coherent.  At least I was nice to her.... some of the ER folks are pretty abrupt, just because it's their job to get people in and out as fast as they can, but I'm still pretty naive and really tried to reassure her that we were going to do everything we could for her.. hopefully her last few hours were a little less stressful because of that...   To add to the sadness, her husband came in the next day with chest pain... no doubt from his broken heart!  Also his bone pain--he has bone cancer and will be joining his wife soon.  He kept saying he hoped he'd be with her soon.  Definitely tough to see this kind of stuff.  Makes me long for the kiddos.... at least I still have my continuity clinic once a week.... this week I had a few of my favorite patients too--my friend Liv, one of the other interns, has a 9 month old Zoe, who's in my clinic and it's always fun to see her and her fun parents!  And one of my favorite teen patients, who's LDS too, and was going to BYU Idaho came in for a physical because she's going to China, so that was fun to chat with her about that.  You all know I love to talk, but I also love to fix things, and kids are so fixable, so it's great.  I know it's cheesey, but I really feel like I can make a difference every day so it's great.  It's fun to teach new parents the basic stuff, it's nice to be able to reassure them about what's going on and how we're going to fix it when they're sick, and it's fun to help teenagers stay on track and just encourage them because you remember what an insecure time in your life that was when you were trying to figure everything out....  

  Ok, enough rambling.  Sorry I haven't updated this more often!  Things have been busy.... Bob and I both had a day off together recently and went snowboarding, and we're both off on Tuesday and going again--twice in one season!  This never happens... My boots have been rubbing my ankles raw the last few times we've gone so I've been wanting new ones for a while, and we found some nice Morrow ones for $30!  So I'm excited for my feet to be cozier for this trip too!  We're going with a few other peds residents so it should be nice!  Speaking of the other residents... our only outings kind of revolve around them... on Monday we went out to trivia together--there's a place in Steilacoom (15 minutes away from us) called Jake's, where they have trivia on Monday nights and our team almost won.... but as Ricky Bobby says, "If you're not first, you're last!"  We just watched that tonight again and it always makes me chuckle.... if you haven't seen Hot Rod either, that's the same kind of funny.... we laughed through 90% of that movie!  Ok, time to go take more cough medicine and go to bed.... Hopefully I get well before I go to C4 (Army training stuff) in San Antonio in 2 weeks!    We're sleeping in tents in the field the whole 9 days so it will probably be rainy and cold.... Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and I'll be healthy and the weather will be good--cross your fingers!

   Lots of people have asked about Jaiden, so here's the update: He's doing really well!  It's like he just doesn't know how premature he is.... he's just on oxygen now and off the ventilator completely... that's pretty huge!  His grandma's pretty certain he smiled at her today too so that's pretty cool... He's still tiny, only 1 pound 13 oz, but I'm sure he'll be gaining more soon... he's been fighting pretty hard so far!  He had heart surgery to close up an extra blood vessel in his heart and is recovering well.  He's definitely a trooper! 

   Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for reading such a LONG blog! : )

This month has flown by!  Bob and I have both been busy at work, as always.  He's busier because he's still installing bathrooms in one day for Bath Fitter, but also is an "apprentice plumber" now so he's doing a lot of the plumbing for his jobs too, making his days a bit longer.  I'm on the ward (inpatient peds unit) this month, so I've been working 80 hours a week as usual and on call 1-2 times/week so it feels like I just eat and sleep here.  Last Saturday (a week ago) we went to Maggiano's and had a great dinner and then went to Ikea afterwards and found a sweet new bookshelf for my scrapbooking/study room so that was nice.  The week before we went to Seattle to the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center which was really cool--the centerpiece of the whole thing is a 3-story tall sculpture of different musical instruments that all play!  Pretty impressive both to look at and to hear!  We had lunch at the restaurant there which was really good, then went to a home show a few blocks away at the convention center.  That was a ton of fun too just to look at all the cool stuff we'd like to have someday/do to a future home!  Probably not planning to take on too many projects here both because of time constraints, but also because it's in decent shape already, and we're not too likely to really up the resale value by doing much to it, especially since we'll only be here another 2.5 years before the Army tells us where to next. :)  After the home show we wandered around an upscale shopping center nearby and saw this sweet penguin made of random pieces of metal.... I like things made of other things.... at street fairs/art shows I always like the things people make out of collections of other things...   Although we've been busy we've been making the most of our free time--I was on call Friday for both of our Saturday outings, which meant that I was sleepy and fell asleep in the car both times, but we still had fun!  This weekend I was on call Saturday, which meant that I fell asleep in church yesterday.... whoops!   I did wake up though and am still glad I went.... I probably didn't get as much out of it as I would have had I slept well on call (stupid E.R. paged me 4 times all a few hours apart about stupid things.... if it was a sick kid I actually went down to see that's one thing--that's what I'm there for!  But of course it wasn't...) but I still got something out of it.  :) 

    In family news, Baby Jaiden (Ronny and Monika's baby and our newest nephew) is still fighting--he's now 5 weeks old and slowly getting bigger and doing more on his own... he's been off the ventilator for about 2 weeks now and is on CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) to help him breathe--it kind of just keeps his lungs inflated and helps him exchange oxygen better.  CPAP is great though--typically babies go from the vent to CPAP to just  a little oxygen through a nasal canula and then to room air so he's making great progress especially considering he's only 27 weeks gestational age now (still won't be full term for 13 more weeks).  Keep him in your prayers.

    Hope you're all enjoying your day!  Today is my day off so I'm trying hard to not think of all the things I should do, but to instead relax and have a little fun.  I definitely need to run today though because I've been slacking in that department lately with my busier schedule! 

~Cathy

P.S. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention the weather!!  It snowed last night!  There was a good 1-2 inches covering everything when I woke up!  It's definitely starting to melt in the sunshine now, and at home our parents said they got about 20 inches this weekend, so not quite the same, but snow here is a huge novelty so I'm excited!  :)

In less than an hour I'm having my eye surgery!  How exciting is that?  No glasses or contacts for me after today until I'm in my 40's-50's and might need reading glasses!  And a nice bonus of all of this is that I'm required to take 5 days off of work for this so I don't go to work again until Monday!  Hopefully I'll be feeling well and be able to see well enough to do some scrapbooking and make some more Christmas cards over the weekend!  My visiting teacher is going above and beyond and driving me to the hospital, waiting while I have my surgery, and then driving me home, so that's really nice!  (It was hard enough to find anyone available during the day to pick me up, but even more so someone who could get on post, so she suggested this)  I'm sure I'll be catching up on my sleep for the next few days so that will definitely be nice too!  Hope you're all having a great day and next time you see me my eyes will work MUCH better!
~Cathy

Hello again everyone!  We've been BUSY lately, as you probably guessed by our lack of bloggage!  We've been having a great time though.  Bob's parents and his sister-in-law Monika, and our nephew Kai all came out for Thanksgiving so that was really fun!  We had way too much food as always but it was just nice to not be working and to enjoy some time together!  I did have to be on call Friday so I worked my 30 hours but then had the rest of the weekend off so it wasn't too bad.  We even did a little Christmas card-making so that was fun!  We made some very cute cards so you're all in luck this year! :)  Unfortunately I missed the joys of Black Friday shopping due to my call on Friday, but Bob and his parents were nice enough to get a few things for me while they were out so that worked out well for me! 

   So work is going well... I was on the NICU last month so my hours were much crazier and Bob was working a lot of hours too so we both were not home that much but it definitely makes us enjoy our time together that much more!  And it makes us really look forward to internship being over!  My hours will be much better next year!  Now I'm back in the outpatient clinic this month so I"m working 7:30-5 most days and only have call once a week most weeks so that's much better. If I'm not on call I get weekends off too.... what a crazy concept!? 

    We're hoping to get our Christmas tree up this week and our lights on our house too, but it was raining cats and dogs today so we'll definitely wait a bit!  We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hopefully we'll see most of you in less than a month--we'll be home for Christmas!

~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!