Residency Graduation

Woo hoo! It has finally arrived-- Graduation! We have known each other 10 years, almost, and all that time was spent in training. 2 years of undergrad in Utah, 4 years of Med School in Iowa, and 4 years of Anesthesiology Residency in Ohio. And we possibly could have added another year of fellowship to that. Time will tell if foregoing the fellowship was a good decision. But for now, this job in Phoenix sounds pretty darn good. It's a Level 1 trauma center, so William will be dealing with a lot of life and death situations, which is a good thing because he is used to this and will be able to keep up his skills, right out of training. All in all, we are excited to start this new chapter, so for the occasion, I flew back to Ohio to be there for graduation. Paul and Leilani watched the kids for the weekend, which was truly appreciated. (And I got my nails done by Jamberry-- Thanks, Vanessa!)

 

I am so proud of him, and of everything he has accomplished and sacrificed for a better life for our family. This isn't about money for us. It's not about keeping up with the Joneses, having a big house, buying a bunch of useless toys, and going on extravagant vacations. We want to give our kids opportunities and create memories. We want to help those in difficult circumstances. Work is going to be hard for the first couple of years, I'm sure, with William being on the bottom of the totem pole, but I think eventually he'll be able to have a little bit more time and freedom to do the things we want to do together, as a family. I'm excited!

Taylor's last day of school

Putting Taylor into the Special Ed program was the best decision we ever made. He overcame so many of his insecurities and is a much more confident boy than he was last year. Miss Victoria and Miss T helped Taylor in ways I could not. They were awesome teachers. I also think that being separated from Logan really helped Taylor. He wasn't always bossed around or redirected by him. Taylor got to be his own person. He got to speak and behave the way he wanted to, without feeling shame or embarrassment. I know Logan doesn't mean to make Taylor feel that way. He means well. He wants to help Taylor. But he doesn't always know how to do that. Logan has a red personality. He is very focused, competitive, spontaneous, witty, outgoing, and eager. He directs in ways he would want to be directed. But Taylor has a blue personality. He doesn't respond well to the "tough love". He needs loving encouragement. Taylor is compassionate, imaginative, detail-oriented, caring, and a dreamer. It's funny that Logan is so much like William and Taylor is so much like me. They are identical twins, but their personalities could not be more different. I love them both so much, and I embrace their differences and their sweet personalities.

 

Ohio --> Arizona

Planning our move was not easy. The timing was difficult to work out, and a lot of decisions had to be made at the last minute. We were really excited to sell our house in less than 2 weeks. It was a huge blessing, it really was. But we ended up with 10 days between the closing date and the date that we would start renting our house in Phoenix. And William would have to continue working for 3 more weeks after leaving the house. So we hired a moving company to load our truck and drive it to Phoenix. But it wasn't until 2 days before the truck came that we figured out when it would deliver our belongings. So we all stayed in a hotel for a week (William for 3). I planned to leave on a Saturday morning. Surprise, surprise: Tuesday evening, I got a text from Jody telling me she needed to talk to me over the phone. I sensed something was wrong, but not at all. She was worried about me driving 27 hours alone with the kids, and felt she needed to come out with me. I started bawling! Who does that? Who puts their life on hold to help someone in need? Especially someone who has a full time job, a husband, and 2 kids. But she felt strongly that she needed to do this. Her husband wasn't exactly on board with the idea, but she couldn't shake the feeling. So Saturday morning, I picked up Jody and we started our 27 hour long journey across the United States, though Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and finally Arizona. We drove 10 hours Saturday, 10 hours Sunday, and 7 hours Monday. Then I took her to our home (we peeked in through the windows), to our hotel in Scottsdale (where we stayed for 2 nights until we got the key to the house), to Café Rio (my favorite TexMex restaurant), and then to the airport, where we cried and held each other for 30 minutes. It was hard! We didn't want to let go. We didn't want to say goodbye.

Jody is the most selfless person I know. She is truly in touch with the Spirit. In fact, we had a really crazy experience on the first night. We were driving through Kansas, and it was getting late, and dark, and all the hotels in the city were booked, so we continued driving, when all of a sudden it started pouring. It was coming down so hard that Jody had a really tough time seeing through the windshield. I told her I would say a prayer. I prayed that the rain would slow down and that we would find a hotel. As soon as I said Amen, the rain came to just a sprinkle. And not 5 minutes later, we saw a hotel off the highway. I called and they had a room, which they gave me a discount on because of the crazy storm outside. And it was a storm, because around midnight we received an alert on our phones saying that there was a flash flood warning in our area. I am glad we decided to pray when we did. And I am glad the Lord not only listened, but also answered our prayer.

What a great friend to share this experience with. And what a great friend to do this roadtrip with. It was awesome to share the driving with someone, have someone with talk to, and someone to help out with the kids' needs. This drive could have been horrible, but thanks to Jody it was actually really fun. And the kids did awesome. It was usually just the last hour of the day that they would get a little crazy and loud, which is actually really admirable. They are great travelers, thank goodness.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saying goodbye to our first home

 

That's it! We said goodbye to our first home this May, and it was really bitter-sweet. Don't be fooled by our smiles, it was actually really hard not to look back as we were driving away. I loved our house- it was perfect. It's been a month now since we moved, and I still miss it. Renting just isn't the same. This house we are renting isn't ours. We're borrowing it. And we'll be leaving it in a year. But our Galloway house was ours for four years. It's the house that the kids will remember growing up in for the first few years of their lives. It's where Kendall learned how to walk. It's where they all learned how to ride a bike. It's where we created a lot of memories I will cherish forever. Now forgive me while I go cry my eyes out...

Logan has girlfriendS

If you ask Logan who he wants to marry when he grows up, 90% of the time, he'll say Julia, from school (the blonde on the bottom picture). But then I catch him being super flirty with other girls, like Kelly and Camille, who both have crushes on him. They follow him around everywhere, and it's really cute. I also think it's funny that he's after the one girl who doesn't chase him around. What a little player... Already!