"Son, she said, have I got a little story for you..."

What's up everyone? I started my internal medicine month, and yeah, it blows. But it amazes me that my 75 hour week seemed so painful, and Rob and Brandon are over 80 (100!!??) regularly. The other weird thing is how much I miss certain things about the University Hospital (Changing Medicine, Changing Lives...), like enough computers on all the floors, typing all notes on the system and using templates (as opposed to indecipherable notes written in the paper chart by consultants or whatever, Avagard outside every rooom, etc. I never knew the UI hospital was so nice.
Anyway, before Medicine started, Alisa and I had the chance to celebrate by seeing Pearl Jam at the Gorge Ampitheatre. It was crazy delicious. The end of their U.S. tour, 30th row fan club seats, dead center, one of the most beautiful venues to see a concert. They played for almost 3 hours and it was amazing. The only bad part was the heat - it was 105-110 degrees out in the middle of the Central Washington desert. Alisa really, really, loved being crammed in a row of sweaty, shirtless, pot-smoking Pearl Jam fanatics. Here are a few pics I took.

Beastly Progress

Today, in lieu of wit, I present a photo journal of...... THE BEAST!

Well, it doesn't seem to want me to upload a bunch of pictures. So, go to http://www.geocities.com/graciespage05/beast/beast.htm

May it make you glad to live in a condo!

Lost

First, a confession. I plagarized my last entry (head hung in shame) from Rob. He wrote it, I just posted it... without crediting him. HE is the one with the wit, not me.
Second, THANK YOU girls for your willingness to write letters for us again! I hope you still have the old letters so you can cut and paste a lot! We will keep you posted, of course.
Now, on to the dry, boring stuff: Life in Ann Arbor. What? you were bored already? Sorry.
Ann Arbor has been frustrating because I feel perpetually lost. As someone said the other day (I don't remember who, but I didn't want to PLAGARIZE again), it's like someone designed it while they were drunk. I know how to find about 4 streets here. Luckily, we live between Target and Walmart and have 2 grocery stores, a Lowe's and a Home Depot around the corner. So we are not starving. BUT I can't find anything in the poorly laid-out grocery stores, and I can't find anything in my mess of a house. Other than a tub of spackle that Grace is always toting around.
But there are plusses. We love our backyard, and spend many evenings there. Grace loves to collect rocks and pile them on the steps. There are nice people in the ward, but amazingly no other residents with kids. I have been getting to know some of the other residents' wives, there is a second year Uro resident whose wife has taken me under her wing, and they have a little boy a couple weeks older than Grace. We're going to their house this afternoon, in fact! We were going to swim, but it's raining. Again. No one told us that the weather here is like the Northwest, but with extremely cold winters. Gray, raining every few days. YAY. Oh yeah, I'm talking about plusses now. Umm, Rob has a golden weekend this weekend. We're going to spend it knocking the wall down, YAY!!!!! Rob would put that on his list of minuses, but this isn't his post... We really don't have before and after pictures of anything yet, since the only project we've really completed is buying new appliances. But once we do, we'll post them. Don't hold your breath or anything.
Ummm, I guess that's about it for now. I better go put up child locks (finally) so that Grace will stop throwing hairspray down the laundry chute.
Take care,
Julie

Nursing my Insecurities

As if I don't have enough emotional instability in my life (what with the pressures of trying to stay afloat on this blog), I have been called to be the Primary Chorister (try to hold back the smiles of sweet revenge, Julie). In the midst of trying to convince myself that I won't be doused with gasoline and burned alive for trying to sing in public, I came across a music video that made me feel infinitely more confident in my slightly tone-deaf, rhythmically challenged abilities. Special thanks to the "Hoff"...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836&q=jump+in+my+car

What?? Need more David? Try this on for size...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-720650682163363570&q=label%3Ada

Treading Water

I have to admit I approach the responsibility of posting on this blog with trepidation. I don’t know if I can deliver the wit/intellect combination supplied by all contributors thus far. On my family blog, respect is earned by merely being literate. I hope I have what it takes to be a valued member of the “frank4president” community. Bear with my feeble attempts at humor…

After a surprisingly peaceful 1700 mile drive to Spokane, our adventure began. We arrived at our new home, cozily nestled between a bowling alley and a payday advance loan center. We were welcomed to the block by a well-meaning neighbor who counseled us to leave our doors unlocked so that the local hoodlums could loot our car without burdening us with the added expense of replacing broken windows.

Now, you may remember me saying that I grew up being the only white kid on my school bus, and that most of my friends’ parents wouldn’t let them visit my neighborhood. I will admit the situation afforded me unique experiences that I now appreciate, but I’m not planning on giving my kids those same opportunities for social growth. We lasted ONE NIGHT at this place before ripping up our lease (so to speak) and moving out. It all ended well and we are now settled into a quiet, though less exciting, neighborhood in the ‘burbs.

Since then we’ve been busy establishing new haunts around Spokane. So far it strikes me as a nice sized city with plenty to do with the fam. We’re all happy and doing fine. In other words - Doing the bulldance, Feeling the flow.

I am alive... I think

I never liked being tired, and in the past have always prioritized sleep over most things in life. Although, now I am starting to realize that I am always tired no mater what, so in the few hours a week I am home, I often find myself cutting into my sleep to do less important things like: go to the bathroom, eat food, peek in at my sleeping children, remind my wife that my name is Brandon and yes I am married to her. Once in a while I even have the audacity to sit down and write a long overdue email rather than sleep after yet another 30 hour sleepless shift, after which I actually was able to go home because I gave up my meal times and any sitting the past 30 hours so that I actually finished answering my 100 pages, 10th trauma response for the night, and 8th post op visit on another services paitents. No, that isn't bitterness you detect, it is sheer love of the fact that I know people respect the honest hard worker job I provide as a intern. They always appreciate that I am working my absolute best and understand when I occasionally make a mistake. And as merciful as my senior residents are, they only blame me for their own mistakes and just plain bad luck 95% of the time. The 5% they actually only lear at me rather than telling me I suck as an intern. Man does it feel good to be loved. I hope everyone else is forming this special relationship with their colleges in medicine. Maybe next time I am delerious enough to forget that there is something called sleep and the 130 hour week rule I will drop another line and give you all great tips on how to let your senior residents understand how incompetant you are and know how to delegate off all of your responsibilities.
Thrilled to ge a "General Surgery Resident",
Brandon

Colony Inn Breakfast

Sorry, the title of this post has nothing to do with anything I'm about to say, it's just 3 words I like to occasionally ruminate over.

I'm glad to hear everyone is beginning to get settled. I guess it may take the rest of the summer for things to really get there, huh?. With the Reynolds moving to their real home and all the Jacksons remodeling. It was great to hear from you all recently, I already miss you guys huge. We need to talk sometime soon. Couple of thoughts: Europe sounds like it was . . . fun. We'll keep those tips in mind should we need them someday! Brandon sounds like he is working like mad (I'm sure Rob is, too). Just remind yourselves guys, how many people would give anything to be in your spots.

Anyway, I don't have anything too profound to say today. Things are great in Spokane. Alisa is now officially over her dreading the 2 moves, skeptical of living somewhere only 1 year, etc., and is loving it here. My program is great (private hospitals rule). I kind of feel like a 4th yr student still. My year consists of 13 different 4 week rotations. They gave me radiology to start, follwed by general ward medicine (but only 1 month of it all year!), and a bunch of stuff after that. They treat us well, we have tons of nice benefits (food, PDA's, etc), and so I don't think I could have ended up in a better program for me for my first year. Spokane and Coeur d'Alene and the area around here are awesome. I feel all this pressure to explore everything since we have such a short time, so we are working on it.

Hawaii update: I STILL can't quite wrap my mind around how fun that vacation was. I noticed a list of top 10 summer beaches on Yahoo this morning and Kaanapali was #1. I clicked on it and one user comment communicated simply but accurately exactly how I feel. "If you are going to travel to one place during your life time, maui is the place to visit. after visiting maui you'll see the world entirely different. make sure to go for five or six days so you can see the entire island. can't wait to go back." Amen to that. The more I think about future vacations with you guys, the more I think that Maui may not be topped. Maybe we should go back (I'm not talking about istead of our Meditteranean cruise, I mean future trips after that). Speaking of Hawaii - we need pictures! Remember, we would love copies of ALL the pics you all took (OK, I guess you can exclude any of yourselves that you hate, but that's all!)

That's about it. Have fun! Let's talk on the phone sometime.

One month ago...

This post was written a while a go on our laptop, which then ran out of batteries, yadda, yadda, so I'm finally posting it now. Enjoy.

Hey everyone,

Reynolds we hope you’re getting into your new routine and that the transition hasn’t been made a lot tougher by the move to Penn State and your having to find an interim place to live. Ringgers, we hope you’re firmly entrenched in the great Pacific Northwest.

You may have noticed based on the rather unintelligible title of Rob's last post, that it was a little bit hurried—that’s because we didn’t actually get the internet here at our house until Friday, so to check our email we’ve been sneaking up the road and sitting in the parking lot of the Marriott to take advantage of their wireless. It works fine, but there are always employees walking by giving you crusties…..

Things are going pretty well. Other than Rob taking the mirror off of a semi-truck with the back of our moving van at 2:30 in the morning in heavy traffic in Chicago, the move went pretty smoothly and we’re now elbow deep in old wallpaper and new paint. (Good news, the wall can officially come down) Anyway, we’re back on line here so we can now post at our leisure, which means we can finally present to you:

Roving Redheads Top Ten Tips for European Travel with Toddlers (also known as A Tale of Three Sickies—they were the best of loos, they were the worst of loos…)

1. Bring lots of Benedryl—philosophical reservations about drugging your toddler tend to fade at 2:30 in the morning when she is still insisting on either screaming at the top of her lungs or kicking the chair of the nice British man in front of you.
2. If your toddler refuses to eat anything--even string cheese--without throwing a fit, consider the possibility that she is getting her first molars.
3. If your toddler is going to throw up in her stroller tilt her to the side so she doesn’t throw up into the stroller itself.
4. Tip 2 isn’t well received on the London Subway, even if you brought along plenty of plastic bags.
5. Stomach flu can put a real damper on sight-seeing, so in addition to Benedryl bring lots of Phenergen and Lomotil.
6. No matter how fascinating your find museums, your toddler will either a) think they are really boring or b) try and do something that may get you all arrested like trying to swing from the ropes that surround very expensive pieces of art. If she is going to throw up in the museum cafeteria, try not to gross out the other patrons too much.
7. If your toddler is going to pass her case of stomach flu on to other members of the traveling party, try not to be the one that gets it the day you are going to be doing a lot of air travel.
8. If tip 6 doesn’t work remember 2 things, First, European flight attendants have keys to open the bathrooms on the plane from the outside and no matter what you are doing in there, they will open the door and insist you return to your seat if the fasten seatbelt sign is lit. Second, enjoy the time you do get to spend in the bathroom by reminding yourself that at least there is more leg room in there than in your assigned seat.
9. If you are going to go sightseeing on a Saturday in Austria and your toddler is on her second to last diaper remember that all stores in Austria close early on Saturday and don’t reopen again until Monday, so make sure you buy diapers before you head out the see the sights. This is especially important if you are going to be getting on a plane Sunday morning and could end up flying with a diaper less toddler. This is of supreme importance if one of you is making the same flight with a second round of stomach flu.


10. If you forget tip 8, keep in mind that while a swim diaper lined with a large maxi-pad sounds like it should keep your toddler dry overnight, it won’t.
11. If you find yourself in the situation described by tips 8 and 9, do two things: pray that the nice couple in front of you in line at the airport will also be traveling with a toddler and will have a couple spare “nappies” to give you and look for a German GI medication called NormalGut. (there may not be any active ingredients on the box that your recognize, but the stuff is magic—you’ll be eating fish and chips and strolling through Hyde Park in London in no time).
12. Bonus tip: There’s lots of amusing stuff in Europe to take your mind off things like diarrhea, vomiting and torrential rains so note things like the following: Austrian men love man capris, There is a German Iron Maiden cover band who is currently touring with an opening act call Sepsis. One of the major Austrian grocery store chains is named Schenker (say it out loud).
    
    So we did spend about half the trip in our hotel room with one of the three of us sick and terrible weather also kind of put a damper on the Austrian portion of things. However, the days we did get out were great and just felt lucky to be in such cool places and to have time to spend with family.
    
    

Oh So Chocolatey

Hey guys! How is everyone doing? Are we getting settled in?
Jacksons, we dying to hear how the renovations went/are still going. And pictures. You must post before and after pictures. Ringgers, how was your time in Bothel? The girls and I were in Seattle and up at the ocean in the last weekend of June for my Grandpa's 75th Birthday Bash. Wild times. I was sending mental vibes your way. I hope the kids are getting used to all the changes and you're liking where you are living.
We are doing good, just chillin in our rental house for a month and then we can move into our house like August 6th, I think. I'll take a couple of days to paint and then we'll move in. The house we are in right now is way farther away from the Med Center (along with everything else) then we expected. It takes about 40 minutes for Brandon to get to the hospital every (very early) morning. It's been raining here like mad. I feel like I'm in Washington! :) Lots of fun storms. But someone in th area has wireless internet, so we're mooching off that for the time being!
Brandon has been working like a mad man. Q4, I believe and has to get up at 4 each morning. Man, we better make a lot of money some day, that's all I have to say.
Our ward is very nice and very different than our last ward, which is both positive and negative but I think we're really going to like it. Brandon is going to pretend he's awake the Sundays he can actually attend, so he'll like it in his own way...hopefully with his eyes open, but I'm not holding my breath...
Ruby's doing good. We meet her Peds Endo doc tomorrow and we'll she what she says but we're not expecting anything earth shattering, just "Yep, she still has diabetes. Keep up the injections and blood glucose checking (or "gloo-close" as Ruby would say"). I'm hoping she'll let us stop checking her at midnight and 3am - it's like having a new born again. Yikes.
Ok, that's about it. Nothing major to report, I just wanted to see how everyone was doing.
Miss you all,
Annie and the rest of us