Cathy and Bob Sampert's space

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