kingsley adventure

eli and i got to do a little dog-sitting this week

                  

our friends went on a little trip and when they mentioned babysitters kingsley requested us!.  and i must admit we did have a blast with him.  my family had a dog for a few years while i was little, but he went to live in colorado with some friends.  my sister was tired of chasing him all over the neighborhood since he knew how to jump the fence and would do so everyday.  he was meant for some more open land.  eli’s family had a dog for 13 years and so he was little more of an expert than i.  i must say i enjoyed joining the dog walkers’ life for a few days.  he cracked us up when he tried to make friends with dogs 4x his size and they were the ones to run away from him!  amazingly for two people out of practice, we only had one fiasco.  the first day we came over to visit he was chewing through the couch cushion. needless to say we did not want to be responsible for a destroyed sofa and decided to place the couch on the the kitchen table (wish i had taken a picture) and poor kingsley was forced to sleep on the floor.  we hope he will still be friends with us…

                                                                                    

Can I get you anything?

So I haven't really said much about my new job. So far it certainly feels like a whirlwind. First of all, I really do enjoy what I do. I can't say that I love it yet. But I am sure I will someday. Everyday it gets better and better.

Before I started working I understood some of what I was going to do-I knew it would be challenging and very hard. But I don't think I could ever anticipate how much responsibility I feel every time I step into the hospital; Sometimes I think I literally I can feel a pound of bricks sitting on my chest. People put their lives in my hands everyday and I feel that weight. Most of the time I am glad I feel like that; the last thing I want to do is get casual. But other days I think my mind is going to break from thinking and concentrating for 12 hours straight. I really am learning what I am made of and how to persevere.

Speaking of persevering. I have met a variety of families who really understand what it is to persevere way more than my tiny stresses in life. I took care of this family last week who child has cancer and yet I think this mom is the nicest lady I have met. At one point I was in the room setting up some medications on the pump and she was headed downstairs to get something from the cafeteria. She asked her daughter and the grandpa what they needed and then looked at me and said "can I get you anything?"

I honestly was speechless. I was thinking-you have a young child who has a serious life illness, a family at home, and I am sure many many other stresses and you are asking me what you can get for me! I wanted to sit her down at that moment, tell her to relax, and let me get her something!

Can you imagine having that attitude when you have a very young, beautiful, and very sweet child who has a very serious kind of cancer? I honestly think the families with these attitudes must be getting strength from somewhere, something, or someone outside themselves because I don't think we as human beings are be able to cope with an event like this by ourselves.

springness

yo. it is springtime here in dc and it is so incredibly beautiful. after the crazy snow/ice and nasty winter, we forgot how incredibly green this place is. something about going outside and feeling warmth as you brace for the cold is just nice. we’ve been having fun trying to enjoy as much time as we can outside. there was the cherry blossom festival which was so beautiful, but so incredibly crowded as it happened to occur during spring break so it was dc people and tourist central. what a cool gift from the japanese people though, it is quite a phenomenon to just see white blossoms everywhere you look.

the nats are back. the season started (i am talking about the washington national baseball in case you’re lost). it is fun to have the crowds walking through our neighborhood as they head to the stadium, and hearing the roar of the stadium. hopefully they’ll pick it up this year with some new pitching and some pretty good players. we went and saw them play the red sox in the final exhibition game (i think the begged boston to come and play as they new it would bring a lot of people). sure enough, the park was sold out and sadly like 60% of the fans were decked out in red sox garb. i felt bad for the nats, so i left my red sox stuff home and wore my nats cap.

things are going good around here. it’s going to be a fun spring/summer. come and visit!

this little guy was so awesome. he was taking a picture and so I made Julie run over and act like i was taking a picture of her so i could get a picture of him. it ended up looking even cooler as it looks like he is just taking a REALLY close up picture of julie.

nats vs. red sox

nothing like the green grass a the ball park to bring in the spring. get out and enjoy spring! oh, and pray for fesenko and koufus to turn into superstars by tomorrow night. read about julie’s bday below.

24skis

I’m a bit late getting to this. But Julie had an awesome birthday. It included breakfast at a little diner on Capitol Hill, some presents, and the traditional fajita dinner (Julie’s mom made her fajitas on her bday every year since she can remember so I am doing my best to keep the tradition alive. Julie usually makes herself a strawberry pie (I can’t even help with that part…it is her thing), but she couldn’t find any Danish Dessert (which apparently is THE only option), so she made a raspberry cheesecake instead which was pretty tasty. The funniest part of the day was when I gave her her presents. I was looking for a box out in the recycling and I found a laptop computer box that someone had just thrown away. So I put Julie’s presents inside of it to throw her off. It was still too light, so I wrapped my laptop up and put it inside so it weighed just right. Anyway, she got really confused and then the look like “why in the world would would you buy this” she finally figured out that is was actually my computer and then found her presents below in the box. Julie is really fun to try to trick, not sure how much she likes it, but I get a kick out of it.

note the confused look.

Julie rocks. She is just an amazing girl. Those kids at the hospital are so lucky to have the world’s best nurse at their service. I can already tell that she is making their lives brighter every day. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch her work her magic. I will have to dress up like a doctor or even better, a male nurse someday and shadow her. Julie makes me so happy. She’s willing to push herself and try new things and learn. I love that so much about her.  I am lucky to call her my wife. Happy Birthday again Julie!

who was this kid?

Being married to someone is such a funny thing.  You meet, decide that you actually want to be together forever, and then start this new life.  But, what about all those years before you met?  Today I started looking through Eyre pictures and found this little guy.  So many things I recognize like how he likes to play with his ears. Or how his eyes get slightly squinty when he smiles.  Or how he gets mad when people try to feed him (just kidding, i really don’t know if he likes that or not). But there are so many things I would love ask. Like, what is that kid thinking as he he throwing a fit on his moms lap(and how is that mom still smiling)?  What is he going to do with hammer?!? What does it feel like to have your eye swollen shut?  Obviously, I’ll never know that two year old or have him answer these questions, but it sure is fun to see him and a little of his personality captured.

sakura – japanese for cherry blossom

Gotta love the people of Japan. They gave these trees to the US in 1912 and they’ve become quite the attraction. This past week in DC has been absolutely gorgeous. Everywhere you look, something is blooming. More pictures to come soon, I just wanted to give you a little preview. The crazy winter we had here in DC has made me appreciate springtime more than ever. The warmth, the blossoms, the green, baseball (Pres. Obama is throwing out the first pitch at Nats Park in about an hour, I can hear the bustle outside as the crowds make their way in), we went to see the Nats play the Red Sox on Saturday (the final exhibition game). You can’t beat a baseball game on a sunny spring afternoon. It is supposed to be 88 here tomorrow!