The Weekend

Josh finished his rotation in Columbus on Friday and drove back to Saginaw to spend the weekend with us before heading to Indiana.  He gave me a little scare when he called me on his way and asked if I wanted the good news or the bad news.  The bad news was that he blew a tire out, which I will take over a car wreck or something like that I was imagining!!  I was kind of bummed that after stopping to get a new set of tires he wouldn't be home til late that night, but luckily he had tricked me into thinking he wasn't as far as he was so I was super surprised when he walked in the door before dinner!  Do you think these guys were a little excited to have their daddy back??

It was great timing for him to be home, there were lots of fun things going on and we packed the weekend full.  On Friday night after dinner we made a run to Culvers for concrete mixers.  Then Saturday morning we took the kids to Lowe's for their kid's workshop. 

It was so cute to watch these two working together

I mostly tried to keep Marissa from wreaking havoc and losing all our nails. 

The finished products, "creeper keeper" boxes.  Hence the scary faces.  The kids loved these boxes!

 We stopped by a birthday party, had lunch, and put Marissa down for a nap.  Then we carved a pumpkin with Shane.  We asked him what he wanted to carve his pumpkin into and of course he wanted to do it into one of his cars, Acer. 

So Josh sketched it out and we carved it and I think it turned out pretty good!

 Then we went to the trunk or treat and chili dinner at the church.  

I was so glad it was this weekend so he could do it with them since he won't be home for Halloween.

Sunday was the primary program at church so Josh got to hear Shane say his part, then he had to leave to make it to Fort Wayne on time to check into the apartment they're putting him up in (hooray for saving some money!)  We were a little worried about if Marissa would warm up to him again right away since it had been almost 3 weeks but that was not an issue at all!  It took about one minute for her to register that her dad was back, then she followed him around like a little puppy all weekend.  I was worried that she would have a meltdown when he left again, but I think it worked out good that he left during church so she didn't realize what was happening.

We had so much fun even if it was really quick.  It has been a little bit of an adjustment again today but I know now that for me it gets a little bit easier as time passes and we will be going out there this weekend.  Oh, and here's a belly shot since I had someone to take it of me.  I barely had anything the last time we saw each other and I think I shot out like 3 inches just this week!  This is me at 19 weeks, the belly is cute now, I am just scared that I will be huge by 40  this time around!!!

 

Since He's Been Gone

 Josh is on his last shift of his rotation in Ohio and will be home tomorrow evening!!  Well, just til Sunday when he leaves for another 4 weeks, this time in Indiana.  But we are excited and can't wait for him to get here!  It has been hard, but it is a lot easier when I keep us busy.  So we have been soaking up every last nice moment outside, going for walks and of course raking lots and lots of leaves.

And who can resist a good pile of leaves?

We hit up our favorite park as often as we can,

and spend lots of time with friends.  We went with some to the pumpkin patch again and the kids had so much fun tromping through the mud in the patch.

Shane was too hesitant to do this last year but LOVED it this year!

But this Thomas train is still the favorite.

Most days I do pretty good but some days I just feel sapped and feel bad because my patience starts wearing thin.  On one particularly hard weekend when it rained the whole weekend I spotted a break in the rain and told the kids to get ready to go for a walk.  Of course by the time we got shoes on, pottied, etc. it was raining again but I said what the heck and we went out anyway, then danced in the rain for awhile since we were already soaked anyway. 

I know so many people have had much harder situations and I really appreciate their strength even more now.  We have learned a lot from people about service this past month.  Josh has had a family from the ward there have him over several nights for dinner and send him with lots of food, which is no easy task on his diet and even more impressive because they knew he would only be there for a month but said they had had lots of friends go through medical school and have the husband be away and knew what it was like and just wanted to help.  I have been really grateful for friends who have us over so I won't get lonely or insist on taking the kids for a little bit so I can do something for myself.  We have been really impressed by these examples of people who show the Savior's love by really trying to find ways they can help someone, and we are inspired to make a better effort to do the same for others.

My Big Schoolboy

My little boy is growing up so fast!  He is loving school and it is going really well.  I mostly wanted a place where he could go for a couple days a week and communicate with other adults and follow a routine/structure, play with kids his age, and do some activities he might not be as interested in at home.  All those goals are being met and he is really happy, so I am happy.  We went on a field trip to the apple orchard a few weeks ago and it was a lot of fun for me to see him with his schoolmates and teachers.  Here he is making a craft,

helping make apple cider,

and of course his favorite, the donuts:) 

Here he is with class, there are 10 kids and 2 teachers.

He is smart, thoughtful, easygoing, genuinely sweet, and eager to please.  He is getting braver about doing things, sometimes with the help of a little bribe:)  He told me he wanted a chocolate nut bar after dinner so I told him that if he could climb something he had been too afraid to do before he could have one.  He started trying to climb this thing and the first couple times he would just slide back down and say he couldn't do it.  The third time he got almost halfway up and then slid back down dramatically and said "Splat!!!" in the sorriest voice he could muster.  I couldn't help myself and started cracking up.  He told me "don't laugh at me!"  but then couldn't help laughing himself.  Then he tried a fourth time,

and made it!  He was so proud, and so was I.  I love to see him doing things he thought he couldn't. 

While playing at this same park, he was playing in the sand and pretending to make cakes.  I would ask him to make me a chocolate cake or a pumpkin cake and he would pretend to do it.  He was making one and I asked him what kind it was and he replied, "it's gluten free."  I thought that was pretty funny because neither Josh nor I had ever said those words to him or really talked about it with him, but obviously he picks up on a lot more than we realize!  Then I laughed even more when he started making another one and said, "now I'm making a gluten four cake!"  Oh Shaners, we love you!!!

Exciting Times

Well folks, we are on the home stretch of this whole med school thing.  We found out last week that Josh passed both parts of his Step 2 exam, and he has been setting up interviews with residency programs.  He is having the (welcome) problem of trying to fit all of the interviews in and having to decline some.  He had his first interview last week in Cleveland and thought it went well, and really liked the program.  If he feels the same after every interview, which I have an inkling knowing Josh he may, there may be some tough decisions coming!  As of right now, he has interviews scheduled in:

Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Phoenix, Arizona
Las Vegas, Nevada
Muncie, Indiana
Aurora, Illinois
Waterloo, Iowa
Greenville, North Carolina
Saginaw, Michigan
Indianapolis, Indiana

He is really excited about pretty much all of these, and I am excited too.  He has worked so hard and it feels like it is all coming to fruition.  I just wish we were in the same state so we could celebrate!  But things are going really well at his rotation right now, he has had several of the residents tell him they really like him and are putting a good word in for him because they want him on their team.  That was one of the big reasons we thought doing this would be beneficial and I am just glad it is all working out that way, it makes it a lot easier to deal with him being gone.  These two cuties make it easier too, well maybe not necessarily easier, they wear me out!  But they keep me happy.

P.S. I have been talking to Shane about places Josh is interviewing and somehow he latched onto the idea of Iowa from the beginning.  Actually, I know why, because he thinks Waterloo is such a silly name and to him that is paramount.  He'll ask me all the time, "after the baby's born in March we'll move to Iowa?"  and if I even mention any of the other places he'll kind of groan and say "ugh, I just want to move to Iowa!"  This kid sure keeps me laughing. 

Weekend in Columbus

We had such a good weekend in Columbus with Josh. I think it was so good for them to see where Daddy is and of course to spend time together. It was also a good confirmation for us in our decision to have me stay here. We had a lot of fun, but I sure wouldn't want to be living in a hotel for a month with the kids! We drove down Thursday after school and got there around dinner time. We ate, hung out, and walked around some. (Pardon the crotch shot from Shane. I couldn't resist the opportunity to use that word though Shannon ;) )

Josh had most of Friday off because he was working that night so we took the kids to the zoo.  It is an awesome zoo, and better yet, it was "Experience Columbus" weekend so we got half off on admission!  Shane was so excited to see all the scary animals: tigers (that's him roaring while the tiger sleeps)

bears,

crocodiles,

 elephants (this one was huge!!)

gorillas (here he is doing his imitation), rhinos, lions, cougars, and even a komodo dragon.

The polar bears put on a great show for us, they were swimming all around and we had a great view when this one stopped on the glass right above us

and then started wrestling with the other one.

 These bats were the creepiest thing to me.

Marissa was so fun to watch too, she loved these little penguins,

 and the aquarium.

Isn't that sting ray pressed against the glass cool looking?

I hung out at the hotel with the kids while Josh worked that night, and we went out to check the town out some more until Josh got home and got to take a little nap.  We took the kids to a park to play for awhile then went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. 

This weekend was general conference for our church, where instead of going to church we stay home and listen to the prophet and church leaders speak via internet or cable.  I was not surprised at all to hear that Josh has made friends with a family at church the Sunday before (who, Josh?) and that they had invited us over to watch with them on Sunday.  It was nice to get the kids out, and also to be able to watch it because the internet in the hotel was so slow we could only listen and the speakers on his computer aren't very good.  They were super nice and the kids had a lot of fun there.  On Sunday we also drove by the Columbus temple and walked around the grounds some.

 Monday it was back to work for Josh so I took the kids to a huge mall there and we had fun (window) shopping and playing at the play place.  We met up with Josh for dinner near the hospital and then made the drive back to Michigan that night.  It was hard to say goodbye and know we won't see him again for a few weeks but I am proud of him and how hard he is working.

We really liked Columbus and I'm glad that Shane has an idea in his head of what Ohio is now since we've been talking about it a lot. 

Missing Daddy

Well, I made it through my first few days of being here without Josh!  He left on Saturday for his away rotation in Columbus, Ohio for 4 weeks.  I don't think it's really hit us completely yet, probably because I have been trying to keep us busy.  But we are driving down there Thursday after preschool and staying through Monday so I am looking forward to that.  Anyway, the couple weeks before he left he had a very low key rotation so we soaked in all the daddy time we could get.

Shane was so excited to have "boy time" with Josh at Lowe's on Saturday morning.  He took him to the free clinic they do for kids where they built a firetruck and Shane ate it up. 

We spent a lot of time at the park

 Marissa showing Dad how she does it...



and even more time in the backyard playing teeball.  It is one of Shane's favorite things to do now and I credit Josh to that!

And we did some good ole fall favorites like the apple orchard. (Shane's too busy scarfing his doughnut and Marissa is looking at who knows what but hey, I am actually in the picture because my husband was there!)

And also the pumpkin patch.  They loved it there, I think we will be going back many a time while Josh is gone because it is free and fun.  Of course, they are pretty easy to please, there was a little rock pathway when you first walk in and Marissa would have been happy if that was all that was there.  I had to convince her there were more things to see

Like animals

and things to play in/on

and of course giant pumpkins

 

We sure love you daddy, thanks for working so hard for us!