Happy New Year!

I don't know why this is so hard for me to keep updated.... my time has become a little more flexible, so maybe this is the year - one post a month, or more!  We'll see, only time will tell.

Ryan - he is on the major residency countdown!  A zillion dollars later, and a zillion photos/phone calls/fingerprints later I think he finally has both his KY and IN physician licenses.  Now he will turn those over to his office to get hospital privileges in Evansville (EVV is the airport code and much easier to write, get used to it!)  Also he fills his evenings with reading in preparation for his board exams in May.

Anna - in December our sitter called the office and informed me the girls were safe, but I needed to come pick them up immediately.  She had had an anynomous phone call placed with the state informing them she had too many children in her home daycare setting.  She is working to get properly zoned and certified to continue to the day care service, but it forced me into an early retirement!  I'm okay with the change and it decreases my feeling of constantly rushing around trying to get the girls to the sitter then back to the office.  I do miss my ENT friends and the adult interaction it provided.  But in the end, it is great to have more time with my girls, and we are having all kinds of fun trying to keep ourselves entertained on these cold, snowy days!

Caroline - is now in school 5 days a week.  She goes M, W, F in the morning and T/Th afternoons.  The afternoon session is a pre-K preparation program with a small class and only one teacher.  I think she's really enjoying the more focused learning and is able to work on some really cool projects.  She's also started back dancing at Lake Erie Ballet each week with her best neighborhood buddy, Ellie.  They dance 1.5 hours on Tuesdays and seem to be loving it!  Between school, dancing and a few fun classes at the YMCA she's growing up quickly before our eyes.  She's also wanting to write more often and is very curious about letters/numbers.  The teacher side of me is really enjoying this new learning that she's creating.  We are trying to read chapter books together, and best of all - she's trying to give up sucking her thumb while listening to a story!  And New Year's Eve, she was running thru the house and perfectly rammed her head into a corner.  Ryan and Mark Steehler got to practice their sewing skills on her forehead... not the exact New Year's Eve we were planning.  At least we all survived, kind of!

Audrey - is more chatty everyday.  When she is spoken to, she usually tries to repeat a word or two expanding her vocabulary more each day!  She and Caroline are doing a better job of playing together, and when a war erupts over a toy I simply pack it away in a box... they can play with it again in EVV! :) She does love her baby dolls and books!  We are reading more each day.  And she's even starting to recognize Elmo, therefore I can leave her to watch the show while I get a shower!  Yeah!  She's still the happy go lucky kid and just has such a cheery disposition.

Charlotte is tolerating the cold weather, but misses her daily visits from our dog friends that live close by.  We are all ready for the warmer weather to arrive, but I think Charlotte is counting down the hours!    She doesn't get as many naps anymore now that we are home all day, we are wearing her out!

I Hate Cancer

This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I love that there is pink in every window, on every sports player and in all of the magazines.  It is amazing the support that is shown in every imaginable way.  But still, why do we have to celebrate it?  It is time for this nasty disease to be gone.

I lost my Mom to cancer.  A college friend passed away last month from a reoccurring brain tumor.  Ryan's cousin lost her second round battle to breast cancer earlier this week.  It's just too much!  Too many people are being taken away unnecessarily by such a horrific disease.  These patients battle in such a graceful way and are put through so many terrible treatments.  I'm just ready for it to be gone.  Polio, small pox, they've been eradicated.  I hope in my lifetime this is as well.

Okay, enough of a soap box.  I wanted to let the Blog world know that we have made our choice for careers... Evansville, IN here we come!  Ryan has joined a private practice and will be one of four ENTs.  The group has hired another fellowship trained Facial Plastics guy that will begin the same time as Ryan.  We are pleased with the opportunity for growth, the location of Evansville in relation to family and our happiness with the city itself.

We have been getting our house ready for the market in the spring.  Amazing how you get the energy to fix all of those little things you keep walking past, but never stop to fix until you know it is time to sell!

Big Decisions

So now we are down to two.... jobs that is, for anyone reading!

Last weekend we drove to Fishers, IN outside of Indy.  We got to enjoy a little time with Ryan's family and ditched the girls to head south to Evansville.  (The girls couldn't have been more thrilled, apparently they didn't even ask for us the morning we left!)  The Palmers have some great neighbors with kiddos a little older than Caroline... she's thinks they are fabulous!  They are just sweet kids that are nice to put up with the "little kids."  They have a trampoline in their back yard and Caroline officially mastered the forward roll while she was there!


Evansville is a private practice in a town at the tip of IN, larger population in Erie and MUCH better winters! : )  (Nothing above I-70 was my vote to keep the winters at bay!)  We had an incredible tour of the city led by the partner Ryan would be joining.  I met up with Sally Becker - the Mom of a very good college friend, in fact, Anne is the first person I met at DePauw!  Sally raised her family in Evansville and used to work in corporate relocation, so she obviously knows the city from many points of view.  

Now we are waiting on Franklin, TN (satellite of Vanderbilt) just 20 miles south of Nashville.  It will be an interesting week if they come back with an offer.  We need to quickly get down there to see the practice and make some big decisions!

It really is a very exciting - albeit incredibly stressful.  Ryan and I talk about the options constantly and our views are swung back and forth depending on the day/conversation/current frame of mind.

Stay tuned to see what happens. Any insight is most appreciated!

11 Months, Let the Countdown Begin!

We have officially begun the final year countdown in Erie.  11 months.  Gotta find a job, survive another year of preschool, Ryan study/take boards, list/sell house, find new house, move!  Just a few things on the do to list... oh well, they will all get figured out one step at a time.

Ryan: He currently has three interviews: Nashville (Franklin) TN, Evansville, IN and Oklahoma City, OK.  Each job brings a different aspect of a medical practice and now it is a matter of figuring out what he wants most out of his career.  Lots of great options!

Anna:  Enjoyed a great summer with the girls.  I've worked mainly 3 afternoons a week which has given her lots of time to hit the pool, play dates with friends and just being around home.  We've met some new families in the neighborhood which has helped our social life!

Caroline: Currently at Dance Camp.  She's ready for the school year to begin and to bring back dancing on the weekends.  She did figure out how to swim underwater this summer and has realized it is almost easier than swimming on top of the water.  We love seeing her confidence grow and it's more fun than ever to take her to the swimming pool.  Daddy is going to all of these places to find her the "best kindergarten teacher" so that the move won't be as scary for her next year.

Audrey: Moving target!  She is more sturdy each day with walking.  She's also learning that grabbing some Caroline hair when her big sister is bothering her is a very effective way to get the big sister to stop what she is doing!  The kid is scrappy that's for sure.

July was a month full of visitors.  Pal started it off just in time to help us celebrate Ryan's birthday weekend.  We invited the other residents over for cake and it was a lovely afternoon for a little day-drinking birthday fun.  Mimi and Popop arrived the following weekend.  We hit the frozen safari (i.e. free ice cream) at the zoo and then went blueberry picking on Sunday.  That evening Gayle, Georgia and Hampton Boyd arrived with Fran Gerritz.  They had been at a family reunion in MD and took the extra time to trek it up to Erie.  We showed them the highlights in a short 24 hours, but had a great time letting the kids reconnect!


Those are the highlights from the last month.  Hard to believe this final year has begun, very bittersweet in many ways.