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I’m attempting to embark upon a new blogging effort via Tumblr. It has a great mobile app and makes it easy to post short snippets on the go.  Since I’m always on the go, I might actually post!

It’s a way for me to update family and friends on our goings on, keep in touch with the world, and record an accurate account of my day-to-day existence during this otherwise blurry, sleep-deprived period of life called residency, complicated AND made more wonderful by my husband and our 4 amazing kids.  Here is the new site for anyone who would like to follow us at Oodles of Pho:

http://oodlesofpho.tumblr.com/

A Halloween sneak peek.  I couldn’t convince Finley to conform to the under-the-sea theme; she made a good argument that magic unicorns don’t live in the ocean.  But the rest of the kids costumes are absolutely adorable together.

Here’s Fin, who wasn’t interested in wearing pants under her costume.  So she was a naked unicorn rider.

The cutest octopus:

The gentlest shark:

A crabby lobster:

Can you believe it?!  It’s my 31st birthday in 20 minutes and I’m only ~12hrs from finishing my last 30hr call shift of residency.  The work hour rules just changed again and my program is implementing them starting May 1st!  We still take call, sleep at the hospital, and all that, but the rules now require us to leave after 14hrs or something like that and be away for a certain number of hours before we can come back (that makes it sound like residency just improved…oh contrair, don’t be fooled; it’s just that the hours are more sporadic but still the same number per week in total).

Anyway.  I had just gotten to my call room a bit ago and was thinking “gosh, I might actually get to close my eyes tonight” then the caveat dawned on me…”if Sandy isn’t working on the oncology floor tonight.”  Sure as shit, pager goes off.  It’s nurse Sandy.  Super.  She wants a stool softener for a patient at 11 pm.  STAT stool softener!  I’m on it.  Goddamn, what a moron.  If she weren’t so freakin sweet about her cluelessness I’d tell her what I’m supposed to when these requests come through the cross-cover pager: that’s not an emergency, so it’s inappropriate to page me about it after hours.  The primary team can address it in the morning…the patient probably doesn’t care that she’s not going to have a BM in the middle of the night!  Ahh, but I’m a pushover.  So there’s likely some poor fool on the 10th floor who’s going to be pooping her brains out because her kindhearted, but brainless nurse, Sandy, just gave her a laxative that the wimp of an intern ok’ed.

In other news, there’s a squirrel I AM going to kill before my intern year is over.  I have a standoff with him every day, same time, same place on MLK blvd on my way to work.  He runs into the street, I brake, he stares at me, I stare back at him, he runs off as I come to a screetching hault.  I then cuss him out as I slam back on the gas, 40 seconds late to work.  One of these days I’m just going to swerve to hit him and be done with it.

Ahh, random midnight thoughts…

Here’s a funny one.  I try to multitask while I’m at the hospital since I have to find time to pump.  But I’ve learned one of the things I can’t really get away with is calling consults while my milking myself.  It’s the “err-ee-err-ee-err-ee” sound that just weirds people out.  (Well, people except Finley and Jack, who like to dance and drop beats to harmonize with the mechanical rhythmic sound of my breastpump).  I didn’t realize anyone could hear it over the phone until I’d already called numerous consults, attendings, etc. while pumping.  I finally dialed the operator at one point to be transferred to another department.  Just before he he was about to direct my call, he asked “um, by the way, what’s that strange noise in the background?” Without thinking, I answered, “oh, that’s my breastpump,” very matter-of-factly.  An awakward pause ensued followed by a hurried, “uh, transferring you now…” and then the phone line went dead.  Yeah, so no more pumping while calling for me.

Ok, it’s been 10 minutes since my last page from Sandy, so I think I’m going to attempt to lay down until she finds out her other patient normally takes a multivitamin his primary team has forgotten to order…

For the record, I’m still in my 20’s (for another 2 months anyway, but who’s counting?!), it’s just that my body creaks like an 80 year old’s.

Over the holidays, I decided what I really really wanted for Christmas was some dental care.  I have been uninsured since 6 weeks after Finley was born (and was uninsured leading up to becoming pregnant with her), and have not had dental coverage since we lived in DC.  So, it’d been about 4 years since my last teeth cleaning.  If you know me, you know I am OCD about my teeth.  So, that’s what I asked for. 

Then I learned there was a dentist in St. Augustine, FL who did teeth whitening for super super cheap.  So, being the practical person that I am, I decided maybe Travis and I should get each other teeth whitening for Christmas as a substitute for real dental hygiene since it would be cheaper (than x-rays & cleanings) and would at least guarantee us teeth that LOOK clean…just until we have real insurance and can afford actual dental care.  Well, the dentist took a look at Travis’ mouth, gasped, grabbed his little camera, and took a few pictures of the gaping HOLES in his teeth.  He took pity on us and decided to throw in x-rays for free because he was worried about our mouths.  It was then that he discovered Travis needs 4 root canals for his rotting teeth.  After I finished dry heaving in the corner, I asked him how much that would cost.  After he punched me in the gut with the figure, I burst into tears. 

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

He later told me, when I asked why dentists have such low job satisfaction despite it seeming like a pretty sweet gig, that my reaction is EXACTLY why dentists commit suicide all the time.  I felt kinda bad for HIM at that point.  But then he did MY x-rays and found that I, too, need a crown or possibly a root canal.  So yeah, dentists’ offices = misery for all.  Poor bastards.  He was SO sweet though and pretty much took care of us at cost; he advised us to get our procedures done at the local dental school here in CO.  It’s cheap, so there’s that.  Since that visit, a teeny tiny piece of Travis’ front tooth (which had been reconstructed, or whatever the dental term is, when he was a kid and banged his face on something for the millionth time) has fallen out.  It’s not noticeable to anyone other than me, but all I want for next Christmas is Travis’ new front tooth! 

Anyway, I hope by now you all know we are able to have a sense of humor about this kind of stuff.  Travis’ bacteria infested mouth has made for lots of jokes around here.  Remember that line from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, “he has termites in his smile, Mister Griiiiiii-INCH!”?  [And Lynn, mom, Yiayia, Grandma, etc, if you’re reading this, don’t worry about us!  Just laugh along because it is pretty funny.  We’ll be more than fine, and someday we’ll be able to afford the shiniest new teeth on the synthetic grill market…we’ll probably even be able to afford gold ones.  Let’s all just pray I match.]

So, our newest endeavor is P90X.  Heard of it?  It’s a kick ass workout plan that’s 90 days long.  We started last week and have been waking up at 5am to have our butts whooped by some dude in spandex.  We’ve been walking around holding our backs, unable to lift our legs, and hunched over like an 80 year old couple!  I almost peed my pants today during our “Ab Ripper X” routine because Travis’ body kept popping and cracking and I couldn’t hear the exercise instructions on the TV over the sound of his decrepit parts.  We laughed SO hard I don’t think we needed the actual ab workout dvd.  We’ve also started running again, in preparation for a marathon / half-marathon we’re running in April.  It feels awesome to be working my body hard again…even though I am realizing it might have limited mileage left if I keep this up!  I have a feeling our 30’s are going to be ROUGH;) 

Well, that was a random post.  Anyway, Heather made it to Colorado today and we’re off to Moab super early tomorrow, so I’m off to bed.  Can’t wait to be in Utah!  I doubt I’ll have access to my blog, but I will be using twitter so you can follow our adventures there if you’re interested.  Hope you all have a great week / weekend too.  Tomorrow will be 14 days till Match Day!

We’re off first thing in the morning.  Nothing like a little 13 hour road trip to kick off the holiday weekend…here’s just a little taste of what the inside of our minivan will sound like:

car-audio

We’ll be in the Twin Cities for the (very) long weekend.  We’re going to Godparents to Dominique and Kevin’s little man, Tomas, and have a fun-filled trip planned.  I don’t know how much time we’ll have, but I know I have lots of adoption buddies in MN and would LOVE to coordinate some sort of last minute playdate and get our kids altogether.  Anyone?  Drop me a comment or an email.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted something other than pictures, fluff or twitter fodder.  Life has been productively busy lately, but I do miss being in touch with my blogging buddies.  I hope at least some of you all are still out there (according to stats you’re there, but you’ve all been just as quiet around here as I have lately;).  Anyway, I’d love to hear from you all on this (hopefully fun) topic…

Travis and I talk about things on our life’s to-do list every now and then.  It’s kind of fun to talk about, if you’re a dreamer anyway.  Travis and I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience so much in our lives already, but we have lots more on our ever-growing “bucket lists.”   

Now that we have 3 adorable little anchors, it seems our bucket list grows faster than we are able to check things off of it.  I think we’ve been SO lucky to be able to continue to do so many things we love WITH our kids, but I’d be lying not to admit having 3 kids, 3 years old and under, is somewhat limiting.  Don’t misunderstand me; I’d never trade my life now for the carefree one I used to enjoy.  I feel fulfilled on a fairly daily basis and Travis has told me often that he loves his life right now too.  I have high hopes for our future, of course, but that doesn’t stop me from being totally content right here, right now.  And for Travis and me to say that is pretty huge because we are the dreamer / wanderlust types and living in the present, when our careers require really long-term goals and planning, has always been a challenge for us. 

I’ve enjoyed checking off some big “to-do’s” on my list like skydiving, working as a bike messenger, running a marathon (which was so fun I did it again and plan to do it a few more times), milking a cow, scuba diving the Blue Hole in Belize

climbing some of Colorado’s 14ers, and traveling tons in Central & South American, Haiti, Asia, Europe, & the US, and most importantly, becoming a mother (though only the “becoming” part was something I “checked off”; the real reward is in being a mother everyday).  But there’s still tons of things I’m burning to do…for example:

• sleep more than 4 hours / night two nights in a row – ok, that was just a joke…sort of.
• run a marathon in a Boston qualifying time (under 3:40)
• run Imogen Pass
• run Mongolian Sunrise to Sunset either marathon or ultra marathon (52 miles), depending on whether or not my joints have any cartilage left by the time I get around to that race.  I planned a trip to Mongolia a few years ago that started off with Travis and I running that event, then staying for the Nadaam Festival, after which we were going to buy 2 horses (they’re very cheap there) to travel around and camp for a few weeks.  Then we were going to hire a jeep wrangler and a guide and head down to the Gobi Desert.  Life took us somewhere else that summer, but someday we’ll do that with our kids. 
• learn to fly fish
• do a family cycling tour of Europe when our kids are old enough
• take a family trip to New Zealand, where we’ll rent/buy a mini RV and drive all over the country
• see Madagascar
• take volunteer-based trips to Africa and the Caribbean when our kids are a little older
• take our kids on a live-aboard dive trip to Galapagos Islands when they’re old enough to scuba dive
• take the kids to see my Motherland (Greece) and learn how to windsurf on the island of Paros. [These pics are from our last trip when Trav & I spent 1/2 of it with Yiayia and Crit, and the other half with Brad & Melanie]

• conquer my fear of public speaking
• teach at a medical school in Vietnam someday
• complete a tropical medicine fellowship in Peru or London
• become completely fluent in Spanish & Greek, and learn at least some Vietnamese (I’d say I want to learn Vietnamese, but I’m not sure that’s totally within my capability unless we lived there for more than 10 years!)
• take our kids to Cachiccata in the Peruvian highlands and build a small traditional home on the land the community gave us as a gift
• raise our kids overseas for at least some portion of their lives
• homeschool our kids for at least some portion of their education (maybe during the part of their/our lives described above)
• experience delivering a baby vaginally.  Weird, I know, since that’s the part of having a baby most people dread, and especially weird since I’m not even sure we’ll ever have a 4th child; the timing just doesn’t work out so well since we want to keep our kids close in age AND pursue our careers.  So that one may never happen and that’s totally fine.  I am SO grateful for the family I have, and for how each one of our children came to us (adoption and c-section).  I’m just saying, if we do ever decide to have a 4th AND all my wishes come true, I’d want to pop that kid out the old-fashioned way. 
• Obviously, it goes without saying that the top of my list would read: “matching into a dermatology residency program,” but everyone already knows that dream of mine.

So what’s on your bucket list?  If you could check off anything on that list, what would you most love it to be?  What thing are you most proud of having checked off already? 

As promised, I’m harassing you AGAIN about joining twitter so you can make it in time for our Kate + 8 minus Jon Jon & Kate Plus 8 Twitter Party!  So join ‘>twitter, then put your twitter link into mister linky below.  Make sure you “follow” all the other tweeters who are listed below too so we can chat all the way through J&K+8 tonight at 9EST!  Don’t miss it; last week was a blast. Oh, and our little hashtag thingy is #jk8, so put that at the end of your tweets…still figuring this stuff out myself.  Blind leading the blind here people;)  See ya tonight!

I haven’t taken a single picture in DAYS, and I haven’t written anything blog worthy either!  We have pretty much been spending every waking moment the kids are asleep working on our special house project.  I have chunks of skin hanging off my hands from painting, but it’ll all be worth it soon.  Plus, there’s nothing to take pictures of at the moment; it’s been chilly and dreary out lately.  Soooo NOT Colorado!  It kinda feels like I’m back in Providence, RI during the fall, winter, or spring. 

I can’t believe I’m actually blogging about this, but I can’t get over Jon & Kate last night.  HOLY CRAP, that was SO painful to watch.  Was it me, or does anyone else think there is no way in hell that marriage can be salvaged while cameras and a whole country are watching?  I felt bad for having any part in that last night…not that I could bring myself to turn off my own TV.  Traaaaaaain wreck!  But really, I was SHOCKED at how sympathetic I felt towards Jon!  I mean, he was the one caught out with a college girl, afterall, but Kate is just so nasty that I can only sympathize with her so much.  I think part of why Kate irritates me is that she takes herself SO seriously and wants to know why paparazzi are always following her??  Um, Kate, maybe it’s because you gave up that modest life you used to live when Jon worked as an IT dude and you struggled like a lot of America.  That life was replaced so you could have a TV show and a book deal.  At least Jon recognizes that these are choices they’ve made, this is the business they’ve made into a career, and the media spotlight is the result of their own decisions.  Kate is all, “oh, we’re such victims of the media, we didn’t ask for this,” etc.  I think the first step in saving their family might have been to back-out of their TLC contract and get out of the spotlight.  I feel dirty for gossiping, but the fact that these used to be real life, normal people just makes it so much sadder.  Who did you find most sympathetic, or did you feel equally awful for both Jon and Kate?  I’m afraid it’s going to turn even uglier very soon.  I hope they just put us (and themselves) out of our misery and boot the cameras…that might be the only way to give their family a fighting chance.

Ok, time to get on with my own life since all my kids are up and Travis is on his way to the library for the day.  As much as I truly love it, it’s kind of fun to escape my own life every now and then and focus on other people’s problems;)  I guess that’s why reality TV does so well!  Anyway, if you haven’t entered my Father’s Day giveaway yet, please go do it…today is the last day to win that awesome diaper backpack ($92 retail). 

I don’t have much time to write, but wanted to post quickly 2 very easy arts and crafts projects we did this week that were really fun.  They are both young toddler friendly, as long as you don’t mind working with glue.  Personally, I’m a bit like Miss Lippy (Billy Madison)…I’d happily have glue smeared all over my body so I could enjoy peeling / rolling / picking it all off after it dries.  So fun!  Anyone else weird like me?  Jack is not and totally freaked his $hit when he glue got on his hands.  I had to WORK to convince him it was ok to have dirty hands.  WTF?!  Anyway, I pretty much just let the kids go nuts with the glue a few paint brushes, then had sand and/or uncooked pasta for them to decorate their glue pattern.  Jack was super proud of his glue art pictures.  My biggest challenge was keeping Finley from eating pieces of the uncooked pasta off his project! 

So, we have been working on a CRAZY house project.  It is MASSIVELY transforming our home and I cannot wait to unveil it…but I won’t until it’s complete, which is still 2-3 weeks away.  Here is a clue, it’s a website from which I got many of my ideas and inspiration.  You guys are going to die when you see what we’re doing; it’s pretty ridiculous!

Oh, and for those of you who are interested, here is a blog my brother, Jeremy, and his 2 best friends from college are using to detail their adventures through Asia, and they’re on twitter too…in case you want to be amused. I think they just left Singapore for Cambodia.

Lastly, Granjoe is in town and the kids are loving the extra attention.  We are offer to soccer now with the kids (we start ‘em young here;)!

Just because he shows up to the block party with another well-dressed man, is an artist, talks with a gentle voice, and lives in a neighborhood with a large number of same sex couples, it doesn’t mean he’s gay.  Hence, don’t refer to his block party guest as his partner…his wife and 14 month old daughter just MAY be at home napping, and that guest might really just be a friend who is visiting from out of town.  I’m just sayin’…might wanna learn from the dumbass on my block who just made that mistake.  Oh wait, that was me.  Damn,  I. AM. A. MORON!

Now I know how that woman felt when she asked how far along I was and I had to tell her I’d delivered my kid 3 months ago!