Match Day! | March 16, 2012

The day we'd all been waiting for finally arrived! (I figured it's better late than never to finally record it!)

We had a fairly good feeling of where we would be going, but it was still fear of the unknown, what ifs, etc. It was an exciting day for everyone and you could just feel it in the air!


Here's our little group minus Nate and Katie. Med school would NOT have been the same without these friends! Out of these 4 guys, all of them got their #1 choice - way to go!!! From L to R - the Blacks are doing family med in Provo, the Toensings are doing radiology in Loma Linda, CA with their prelim year in Richmond, the Richeys are heading to Indianapolis for pathology, and we are headed to Texas :) It's so sad we'll be spreading apart, but I know we'll all keep in touch.

The chaos inside!

As the students arrive, they each put a couple dollars into a big pot and whoever gets called last gets all the money. We weren't last, but very close! We were waiting very impatiently... the envelope.....





and.........

SCOTT & WHITE IN TEMPLE, TEXAS!!!!!!!


We were so relieved to finally know where we were going!! It is such an exciting time for everyone and it's fun to see where we will all be heading! Looks like we will be cheering on the Aggies! (Scott & White is the medical program affiliated with Texas A&M) I immediately got online to book a moving truck, register Britton for preschool, and planned a flight to finalize details on our house. (more on that soon...)

Med school is full of countdowns... interviews, acceptances, tests, boards, waiting for certain loathed rotations to be done, step 2 of boards, interviews for residency, match day and finally graduation, with match day definitely being one of the most exciting and anxious days to date. Congrats to all our friends!!!

the warm days of march

Our little town home neighborhood has been a great place for us to live. Our apartment backs up to the big field where everyone places, so every afternoon all the kids run wild while the moms (and 4th year dads :) ) chit chat on picnic blankets for a few hours. The kids are always fascinated with any kind of mud puddle and I love the outdoor time my boys get. The neighborhood kids are adorable and I'm really going to miss having so many friends literally just feet from our back door!

Bryce and Chris are the 2 4th year dads that got lots of outdoor play time this spring. It was great having B home more after interviews were done! All the other wives didn't believe they were even in school- haha :)

Can you get much more handsome than these 2?? :)

These are some of the usual kids that are often running around like crazy in the afternoons. Emi and Britton were even born on the same day!

We tried to stay busy the last few days before Match Day to keep our minds off things. We headed to Maymont one pretty afternoon to feed the animals. Britton still doesn't really like getting his hands licked but Damon was loving it! This kid is fearless!

Ha - he would not pay attention long enough for Bryce to get a picture of him looking - so this is what we got :)
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Richmond is full of great parks. We are going all the time to get wiggles out, and it's a great way to keep them confined so I can snap some pictures of my cutie pies. I always feel so bad that I spend so much time on other families' photos and not enough time keeping up with mine. It's a resolution of mine this year...

I love these shots of the boys "driving" while Bryce chats away on his phone in the back seat!

As Britton is getting older, his eyes are getting so light. I don't even know what color they are anymore because they are almost gray they are so light. No more baby blues, but they are still so pretty. Damon, however, has the deepest blue eyes I've ever seen - they are almost purple they're so blue! My silly boys...

Damon's eyelashes are unreal. I really hope if I have girls, they will get these same eyelashes because they are just beautiful! Yes, I'm jealous of my 1-year-old's eyelashes... :)
As I've said before, this kid is fearless! Britton for the most part liked to stay nearby and didn't really wander too far. Damon, however, will walk away, turn around to see if I'm coming after him and bolt in the opposite direction laughing hysterically. 2nd child thing?? It's pretty dang cute...

girls night in charlottesville! march 3, 2012

I love these girls! The Mechanicsville girls needed a reunion, so we decided to have a girl's night out in C-ville, since it had been far too long since we'd gotten together. Deborah drove down from Maryland, Kar and I drove from Richmond, and Kelly and Lorel only live a few houses down from each other. We went to dinner and stayed late chatting, then walked around the outdoor mall for a little bit, then headed back to Lorel's for treats and more chit-chatting!

From left to right: Deborah, Lorel (and her cute pregnant self!), me, Karley and Kelly.



Anytime Kar and I get together, we have to reenact our slightly neurotic, totally perverted, balding, Russian piano/choir teacher.  He made Kar's choir sing totally inappropriate songs for their performances, then straddle the piano bench as I played.... hahaha.... so gross! And, no, I'm not joking. I definitely got good playing under him though- he's a music genius!


I am soooo going to miss these girls when we move!!! I just barely got back in touch with Kelly 2 years ago after too long apart, Karley and I have been such good friends since we were just tiny little things, and Lorel and I have basically been sisters since I was about 7 - grew up together, lived a block from each other in Provo while our hubbies were at BYU, moved back to Virginia the same summer for Craig to start law school and B to do med school, our first babies were born 3 days apart... it's kinda crazy. :( So sad to think about that... We gotta live it up while we can!

the cold days of march

The beginning of March came in pretty cold, but we didn't mind. Between preschool, lots of going to the gym, swim lessons, soccer practice, and the many things on our to-d0 lists, we don't get many days where we can stay at home in our PJs, so we soak it all in while we can! This was also around the time when I was studying for my nail exam (the written part). My boys sure do look cute in their jammies, if I say so myself :)

Britton is a great big brother in the ways of showing Damon how to get into mischief. What 14 month old doesn't need a lesson on the proper ways of popping a balloon?

Britton loves taking pictures. We really need to invest in a child-proof camera for him because he would constantly be taking pictures with my camera if I let him. He's not too shabby either!

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Bass Pro Shops is the perfect place for boys to get some wiggles out. Our normal route when we go there is fish tank, toys, fudge sample, nascar display, walk upstairs to see the stuffed bear, play the shooting arcade games, then back down to walk through some boats. We've done this enough where Britton just leads us around the store and knows exactly where to go. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but the boys love it, so we keep doing it! :)

 

Aww, I love their brotherly love!

Bryce loves to make our kids look like rednecks.... coon skin hat and a pop gun on a 1-year-old. Gotta love it!

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To carry on the weird weather from February, it also snowed in March. It didn't last long, but the boys got outside early enough to build a lone snowman.

 

Damon woke up from his nap just in time...

And of course big brother brings him outside with no pants and no shoes! Boy will be boys...

I love these snowball pictures!

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 And our days are becoming more filled with these items...