Sea World

During most (not all!) residencies there is an opportunity for the residents to moonlight. Moonlighting is working as a physician at a facility outside of the residency hospital - typically in an ER. It allows the residents an opportunity to spread their wings a bit and learn to work without their attending physicians watching over them. It's good practice for life after residency. Its good for life during residency too...because moonlighting = $. Plain and simple. It also means more time away from home as it is working hours in addition to normal residency hours. So that's a bit of a balancing act. Money is nice. But family time is even nicer. At Joe's program third year residents are allowed to moonlight.  For our family Joe moonlighting has meant we have a little breathing room this year. All those little extra hidden costs that pop up suddenly - while still annoying - don't stress me out. $5 shirt for this activity? Ok. Another $10 for this school function? Alright. Too tired to cook dinner? Chinese take-out to the rescue. Those kinds of things. Oh and I've also allowed myself to buy baby wipes instead of making them. After an entire decade of making them it's a nice break. 

Aside from buying our much needed new-to-us mini van our biggest splurge thus far has been taking our kids to Sea World for a day during their fall break. None of our kids have been to an amusement park before so this was big stuff for our family! And the best part was we surprised them with it. We told the kids we were going camping. Loaded them all up in the van early in the morning and drove them to Sea World. They were clueless until we pulled into the parking lot! It was the best. (Well except Charlotte having a fever. That was sad.) I even splurged and bought meal passes for our family. So for the first time ever I wasn’t lugging around an entire day’s worth of snacks and meals and beverages in my stroller. I didn’t have to convince my children that squished pb&j sandwhiches and bruised fruit was a great meal while they longingly eyed the multiple concession stands full of pizza and hot dogs and ice cream and soda. It truly was wonderful. Far less healthy. But magical none the less:)

We were in the park from the moment it opened until closing. And then we did take the kids camping! 

Next up on our moonlighting funded adventures...flying to Minnesota for Christmas!!! Me + 4 kids on 2 flights with a 50 minutes layover. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

P.S. While the day was really fun. And I delighted in watching the look of pure joy on my kids faces, I’m not sure I’m ready for Disney. I mean in theory I want to take my kids there (eventually). But in reality it sounds exhausting! And like a lot of work. Vacation and work should not be mixed in my opinion. Thankfully they haven’t even asked. But when they do it will take A LOT of convincing. 

Fall Break 2017

Months ago Joe requested the week of Thanksgiving off because the kids' schools are on break that week. And believe it or not we had all these kids so we could spend time with them. And I do mean we...not just me:) Initially it looked like he had the week approved. Then the chief residents told him that too many people had the week off and he couldn't have the week off. He would have too choose a different week in October. But the thing is the kids didn't have time off in October. Taking a week then would have completely defeated the point of Joe's vacation week. Grrr. To say I was incredibly frustrated with residency and threw a big fit (in the privacy of my own home and out of ear shot of my children) would be an understatement. There's a reason residents are called residents. Because they practically reside at the hospital. And our kids are really noticing this. They need dad time. They already get plenty of mom time. Everyone has had their fill of mom.

And then we got a little miracle. One of the chiefs offered to switch blocks with Joe - allowing him to take vacation in November. Family time was restored!

Honestly we didn't know what we were going to do with that week. We just knew we needed time together. A few weeks before Joe's vacation week a friend asked me what we were going to do. Charlotte heard the question and answered for me. She informed our friend that we were going camping because "that's what we always do for fall break". If by always she means one time two years ago...then yes, yes that is what we always do:) All the kids seemed excited about the possibility of camping PLUS I know from experience that Joe relaxes more if we actually leave our house for his time off so I booked our campsite and packed our gear. Ok the packing I did the night before. Nothing like procrastinating big time. But we made it. And had a grand time. 

The campground  was one that was recommended to us by church friends. Joe and I didn't love it, but the kids did. Not enough privacy for our liking. But they loved the "forest" behind our site and spent hours finding, collecting, and trading sticks. We also went on a few "hikes" as a family. 

Basically we relaxed together as a family. No schedule. No phones. No outside demands. It was lovely.

The days were perfect. Low to mid 70s. The nights were COLD! Tent camping in the low 30s is not for the faint of heart. Levi slept great all night in his pack n play. The rest of us...not so much. Joe and I have an air mattress and each night we ended up with cold little bodies in our sleeping bags with us. We are thinking it might be time to invest in more air mattresses and sleeping bags that zip together. 

Friendsgiving 2017

Last night we hosted our third and final residency FRIENDSGIVING event. And it went off without a hitch! No yelling at my husband and kids like a maniac. No mild panic attacks. And no sink gravy. Third time really is a charm:) Our only "problem" was that we had TOO MUCH FOOD. Like seriously too much food. Pans and pans of leftovers that are currently filling my fridge and part of my freezer. The major item that we had too much of this year was mashed potatoes. That's because last year we ran out of mashed potatoes so I may have gone overboard on assigning the mashed potatoes this year. First year we ran out of dinner rolls...so of course second year we had way too many rolls. Sometimes I panic a little;)

People. People. People everywhere! Our house isn't really meant to host dinners for 70+ people but we make it work.

I'm fairly certain that this kid spent most of the evening digging in the sandbox and/or eating pie. I don't think he actually ate a decent meal, but I can't say for sure. I know he didn't starve and I didn't stress. We call that a holiday meal win!

I do know that I actually ate this year...at the beginning of the meal with our guests. Historically I would be too busy to eat and just grab a plate of food as the dessert came out. But not this year. This year I ate when the food was hot and fresh. And it was delicious.

EM: Lifeguards of the short end of the gene pool since 1967.

I have wanted to make party favors since year one. This year (with the help of moonlighting money) we made that dream a reality. A couple nights ago Joe and I sat down together and decorated mugs with funny quotes about emergency medicine, fall, Thanksgiving, friends and direct quotes from attending doctors. They were a big hit with the crowd. Speaking of crowd, I think I counted 72 people in attendance. Our record breaking year! Being an EM crowd not everyone was there at once. Some had to come early, eat and leave to start their shift and others came later after their shift ended. We attempted a group picture when most people were there. This first one is the one I took - to get the shot set up.

And this next one is the one the medical student took. Disappointing.

 (I might still be a little bitter about his sub-par photography skills)

One of the cheesy quotes on a mug was "Friends are the family you choose". In this case "Friends are the family residency chooses for you" feels a little more accurate description. But seriously I am very thankful for this "family".  That girl in the bottom picture...she's a second year resident and mom and a phenomenal friend. On her one day off during MICU she took my girls for the afternoon so I could get the house ready for Friendsgiving with a little less chaos than usual. That's a good friend.

Residency chose a pretty amazing family for us and we sure are going to miss them when this whole thing is over.

This girl is my favorite turkey. And I sure am thankful for all the crazy energy she adds to my life. Even if she exhausts me most days:)