As of Late...

KAITLYN:

A little over a week ago, Kaitlyn had an adenoidectomy and tubes put in her ears. The inflamed adenoids had blocked at least 90% of her nasal passage! 

All went well in regards to the simple surgery. I did unexpectedly tear up when the nurse carried Kaitlyn--screaming and crying--into the surgery room and I had to walk helplessly in the opposite direction.

Before surgery

In the car post-op. Talk about drugged up.

Her recovery has been quick. Besides the disgusting breath, which is a temporary effect, she's been great! It's amazing how my life's changed now that I don't have to wipe her nose every five minutes! I claim her speech has skyrocketed now that she's hearing well.

Snuggling in Skylie's bed tonight. I snipped the back of her hair last week to reduce the ridiculous mullet. I have mixed feelings. Good thing hair grows fast!

SKYLIE:

Exploring with Lillian

• Skylie is Skylie. She should be in bed now but is hiding next to me under a blanket.
• A few of her cousins came over to play yesterday. Skylie loved every minute hanging out with Meg, Jared, and Bethany. 
• On May 10 she and I went on a mommy-daughter date to the Indiana Museum of Art with the 8 to 11 year-old girls from our church and their moms. I love when I get me some one-on-one time with my children.

  

  Creating her own art at the IMA

  

  Playing with cousins yesterday. Someday Skylie will complain about all the pictures of her in her pajamas as a preschooler. That will be a good time to explain how determined she could be as a young child.

  
  

  

  Looks like Skylie has black eyes, but really she'd just gotten into my makeup!

ERIN:

• Sun and warm temperatures have finally hit Indiana, and I am soaking it up.
• I still teach two or three exercise classes a week at a nearby gym, Turbo Kick and cycling.
• I've been a counselor in the Primary for over a year now, and it just might be my favorite calling ever. I really, really love the kids at church.
• Monthly date nights are my new passion. And necessity. This past month Matt and I have ditched the kids twice! Once to attend the evening session of stake conference (a bi-annual church meeting). Another time to catch a movie and dinner with two of our favorite couples.
• With the exception of date nights, lately our family's been on a serious "no unnecessary spending streak" while we finish paying off our vehicles. The end is a few months away, and I cannot wait! In a 24 month period, we will have paid off about $20,000 of auto loan debt on an income that's been less than the median household.
• Our neighbors rock! One outfitted our front yard with perennials and mulch. Another neighbor gave me an all-inclusive kit for a vegetable and herb garden. I am so excited at their generosity and kindness.

MATT:

• This spring Matt was elected by the other residents in his program to be the Chief Resident this upcoming year. Beginning in July he will be assistant chief for six months, then in January he'll be chief for another six months. 
• He's loving psychiatry and says he's never regretted choosing this field. At one time he thought of specializing in child psychiatry. He's decided against that and is considering doing a fellowship in forensic psychiatry.
• At church he's a counselor in the Sunday School Presidency and he teaches the youth, as well.
• I'm often asked what Matt's work schedule is like. It's pretty much an 8-5 or 8-6 job. About once a week (either weeknights or weekends) he takes call, which means he stays at the hospital overnight and may or may not get sleep. He has an evening meeting once or twice a month. He's out of town at conferences a few times a year. For residency, I don't think his schedule could be much better.

Life is good.

Alive and Well

After being on a one month hiatus from blogging, I'm happy to report that we in the Pitcher household are all doing well. We survived/enjoyed the whirlwind month of:

1. Matt's graduation
2. Packing, moving our belongings into storage, reloading it three weeks later, moving it to Indiana, and unloading for the final time
3. Driving 40+ hours from Iowa to Utah and back to Indiana
4. Spending a blissful week in Hawaii sans Skylie
5. Seeing our families in Utah
6. Closing on our house and buying a second car all within three days
   
7. Settling into our new home in Indianapolis
8. Matt beginning his residency orientation
   

I will post more when I have a better Internet connection (we're borrowing a neighbor's wireless until ours is up and running), but we love Indianapolis, our house, the neighborhood, the ward, and I'm so glad we're here.

January Recap

Seems like it's been a while since I've blogged about what's going on in our lives.

In January we took a quick trip to St. Louis. It would have been awesome if 1) Skylie wouldn't have kept us up half the night, and 2) I didn't catch a 24-hour bug that made me sicker than sick.

St. Louis

A few weeks later we made it a visit to Indianapolis, Indiana. Fortunately this trip went much smoother! While there we saw a couple of Matt's cousins. Thanks for having us over for dinner!

David Pitcher, Matt Pitcher, and Joe Holland

Sometime in January a few friends and I hosted a couple baby showers for Amber and Tara. First-time mothers are always so beautiful!

Above: Amber's mother-in-law, Angie, Amber, Cassie, and me

I'm excited to say that thanks to my Wells Fargo discount, Matt and I are now members of Gold's Gym! That was Matt's Christmas gift to me, which I love! The gym at DMU is great, but Gold's offers child-care and is open early enough that Matt can actually work out before he has to be to his rotations. We also love the classes offered. Body Pump is my favorite, and it's especially fun when Matt and I attend the class together. One of my New Year's resolutions is to gain back some of the muscle I had before Skylie arrived on the scene and finding time to work out became a million times harder.

Matt and I are the new poster children for Body Pump. Have I not mentioned that I cut and dyed my hair and got ripped overnight? Oh, and we decided to go black. Poor Matt--bald at 28.

In other exciting news, come May 31, Matt and I will be vacationing on Big Island, Hawaii with Nate, Megan, Gavin, Amanda, and Nikki. (Thanks to Megan, the perfect vacation-planner.) I figure a celebratory trip is deserved after all the sacrifice and hard work Matt has put in for the past four years. And me too, of course!

Big Island

We won't find out until March 16 where Matt's residency will be, but I stumbled upon this house and am in love. It definitely needs some help in the paint department, but the backyard has me almost sold.

This might be our first place!

Matt's first rotation in January was pain management, and now he's working in the Emergency Room. Even though he works a lot of weekends, he's home more during the week which is great because he's able to watch Skylie a lot of the days I go into work. "Rock Star Dad" should be his middle name. Tonight, Super Bowl Sunday, he's working. Poor guy.

I'm still working for Wells Fargo and am teaching one kickboxing class at DMU. One of our neighbors is a single mom with a boy the same age as Skylie. What a lifesaver it has been to have a playmate seconds away for these cold, winter days!

It is freakishly amusing (and a little frightening) to see Skylie becoming a mini-me. She picks up on and copies so many little things I do. She is getting better at entertaining herself for short periods of time, and her latest obsession is watching Elmo. She's adjusted to her new babysitter so well--which I'm thankful for! I think she's hit another growth spurt because that girl is shoveling food into her mouth like nobodies business. During sacrament meeting today, Skylie loudly said, "Amen," after each person ended their testimony. So cute!

I would post a picture of Skylie, but every time I pull out the camera, she comes around behind it and wants to see all the pictures and videos. Mmm, not sure how to remedy that one.

Update

A few happenings I haven't mentioned are:

Matt

• Finished his last interview today!
• Got his test results back from a test he took in Philadelphia. It's official; Matt has no more tests as a medical student!
• Currently rotating at a clinic in Knoxville, but with so many interviews he's been MIA much of the time.
• Received 19 invites to residency programs, but he ended up turning 9 of them down since 10 programs are more than enough options for someone going into the field of psychiatry.
• In April and May Matt will be in South Africa with three of his med school BFFs. They'll be going on safaris (I imagine), but the purpose of the trip is to provide medical help. I'm wondering what cool trip I get out of this deal. Mmm. :)
• 
  

Erin

• Running around with a crazy girl named Skylie.
  
• Still working for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage doing web developing and working mostly from home.
• Beginning in January I'll be in the office on Mondays and Thursdays.
  
• For a while I toyed with the possibility of continuing to work part-time once we move in June, but I've come to the decision that I've more than paid my dues. Working from home is not all it's cracked up to be. Some days I feel like from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. (no kidding) I don't have a second to myself. Caring for Skylie, trying to be a good wife, cleaning up the constant disasters Skylie manages, being a good friend, and trying to be a reliable employee all at the same time is tough. And more often than not I fail miserably at all of them. But I try.

Skylie

Is there anything cuter than footy pajamas and pig tails?

Until tomorrow, adios!

Update

I've been meaning to post this for weeks and simply haven't gotten to it.

Matt:

• Finished his ob/gyn rotation at Broadlawns last Friday. He'd been on call for about 2 1/2 weeks straight, but fortunately hadn't gotten called in too much.
• Is studying hard for the second set of boards which he'll take August 17.
• Is preparing for the upcoming year or craziness which will consist of

1. Testing at DMU this week
2. Traveling for four months on three audition rotations (Texas, Michigan, Virginia), and one international rotation (South Africa)
3. Taking boards August 17
4. Flying to Philadelphia in October to take a physical diagnosis exam, something all medial students have to do before graduating (It'll be his last test as a medical student! Hurray!)
5. Applying for 50 some-odd residency programs
6. Flying to residency interviews November through January
7. Matching to a residency program early spring
8. Agreeing with me on the home I pick out :) (BTW: Last weekend we were at a BBQ at friends house. I said, "Matt, isn't it nice to be in a real yard." He responded, "Only ten more years, Erin, and you'll have a yard, too. That's all." I did not agree with him on that.)
9. Graduating med school the end of May

Erin:

• Still working (For those of you who try to remember my work schedule, I'll now be in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, now.)
• Found sitter for Skylie
• Got our blog printed into a book a few months ago
• Taking Skylie to splash pads, parks, and mall play areas every chance I get
• Trying to forget about the long three months ahead of me while Matt's out of state. I'm coping by focusing on how much less laundry and cooking I'll do. (That's not really working, considering Matt did the laundry last night. And made most of dinner.)
• Love teaching my Primary class and get a kick out of the funny things they say. See example below.

Each week at the beginning of class, I let the kids say one sentence about their week and one sentence about service they did that week. I've never heard so many run on sentences in my life, but that's the only way I've been able to remotely limit how long they chat.

Last week one seven-year-old girl told us about her week and was doing one of those long, "and I did this and I did ...and I did...and... and... and..."

Me: "Thanks (insert girls' name). Who wants to go next?"

Her: "Umm, excuse me. I wasn't done yet."

Where to begin?

So much has been going on this past month, I don't know where to start.

We spent the Holidays with family in Utah and stayed there until last Saturday. Good timing, right? We missed out on massive amounts of snow and crazy ice storms in Des Moines and only had to brave Utah's temperatures, which were usually in the 30's.

Matt's parents let us stay with them in North Salt Lake, but we were up at my parents' in Heber at least once a week. Laura, Matt's younger sister, and her family are living with Matt's parents right now, so it was great to have someone to hang with while Matt was gone—not that he was gone all that much. He did a four-week anesthesia rotation at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful. It was super cush. He left for the hospital around 7:00 a.m. and was home most days by noon, sometimes earlier. We all loved it!

My boss let me work from Utah the entire break (AKA 1-2 hours a day of actual work for full-time pay), which I didn't mind and my bank account loved.

Some memorable times in Utah include:

• Getting together with high school friends at Kim's parents' home
• Celebrating Christmas with both families
• Sledding behind the Tracker with Kim and Matt
• Eating lunch at Dairy Keen with high school friends
• Staying up with Tyler and Ginny until 3 or 4 a.m. on New Year's Eve Eve (We ruined our New Year's Eve, but it was totally worth it!)
• Playing basketball with Josh, Sam, Kim, and Matt
• Seeing Mark, Kyra, and Brielle
• Babysitting Porter and Savannah
• Seeing The Blind Side. Loved it!
• Having a date night with high school friends, college friends, Brad and Laura, etc.
• Dining with the Whiting's, Matt's friends from his mission
• Meeting up with college roommates at Café Rio
• Attending the temple as much as possible
• Touring model homes with Laura
• Helping my mom with her quilt
• Buying life insurance (We are worth so much more dead than alive.)
• Staying up with Brad way past his bedtime (until 9:40 p.m.), just because we were leaving the next day (Thanks, Brad!)
• Playing Rock Band, Wii Fit, Ticket to Ride

The month we spent in Utah flew by. Before we left for the Holidays I thought I'd be anxious to get home to Iowa, but that wasn't the case at all. I could've stayed in Utah a bit longer, but the day we drove back to Iowa I got super excited to see all our friends here. Is it weird that both Iowa and Utah feel like home?

Quick Recap

Thanksgiving... mmm...
The Rose's invited us into their home for a fantastic Thanksgiving feast. It was delicious, to say the least.

Black Friday shopping began at 4:30 a.m.
After hitting up Burlington Coat Factory and the mall, we came home $85 poorer but with a coat, hat, and gloves (all for my Christmas presents). Matt's Christmas gift is an iTouch. He says it's helpful for his rotations, but the fact that he can access game scores anywhere there's wireless is another perk. ;)

Skylie had her first sickness.
The poor girl got congested during the night after Thanksgiving and had a hard time sleeping for long periods for a few nights. (Hence, Matt and I had a hard time sleeping, too.) At one point her temperature got up to 100.7, but she was a trooper and stayed pretty happy. We're all glad she's doing better.

Thanks to the West Des Moines Library we're making our way through classic Christmas movies.

We've watched:
Holiday Inn
Elf
Home Alone 2

Up Next:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
A Christmas Story
It's a Wonderful Life
Fred Claus
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
White Christmas
Mr. Krueger's Christmas

Anyone want to join us?

We're looking forward to:
Church, work, and friends' Christmas parties
Seeing family for an extra long holiday

A Christmas Tree

Matt finished his psychiatry rotation last Friday and got rave reviews from the doctor he worked with. He was in a pediatric psych hospital, and kids would talk to him that wouldn't speak to the doctor.

To kick off the weekend Matt, Skylie, and I headed to the mall last Friday for the Christmas tree lighting.

• Later we played games with co-workers.
• Saturday Taylor Laurent wowed me during New Moon. Carmike Cinemas, I hope you like the puddle of drool I left on your floor.
• Our church's stake conference was awesome.
• A Christmas tree now graces our apartment.

Have I mentioned I love this time of year? Bring on the holidays!

Big Creek State Park

A week ago the weather was gorgeous, so Matt and I took advantage of it and headed up to Big Creek State Park on Saturday afternoon. I love Skylie's facial expressions!

In other happenings:

We:

• Stood in line for three hours to get the HINI vaccination.

Matt:

• Is heading into his final week of his psychiatry rotation. To show Erin what he does all day, he asked her the questions they ask the patients during their admittance exam. It made her think she should be admitted, too. :)
• Is home most days by 3:00 and has graciously taken on most of the cooking around here. Needless to say, we've been eating better.

Erin:

• Totally spaced that she had Veteran's Day off of work and didn't get a clue until she drove into the normally packed parking lot and only a handful of cars were in sight. Sweet surprise!
• Is working on the stake newsletter.
• Is figuring out Blurb so she can transfer our blog into a book.
• Read "The Wednesday Letters".

Skylie:

• Flirts with Logan and Taylor while the moms and dads go on date nights.
• Smiles a lot.

We Quit

We're all quitters in this family. It's one of many things we're united in.

ERIN: Resigned from teaching three fitness classes at DMU.

After working all day and then leaving Skylie for another hour or two so I could teach my classes became a drudgery. It was a tough decision to make, because who doesn't want to get paid to work out? But it's all about putting first things first, right Dr. Covey and President Monson? Besides I can now get my sweating for the day done when the little one's sleeping because...

SKYLIE: Quit waking up in the night!

Thank you Babywise, Miracle Blanket, Skylie, and Matt (he takes the 11:30 p.m. feeding often). Because of you, I went to bed at 9:00 last night and woke up on my own at 5:30 this morning. Meanwhile, an eleven week old baby snoozed in her crib for a couple more hours. I've decided the most beautiful sight is a sleeping baby in the wee hours of the morning.

MATT: Plans to throw in the towel regarding this med school business to pursue his dreams of being the next Ricky Martin.

Kidding! I couldn't really think of anything Matt's quit lately. I thought about trying to be funny by saying something like, "He quit wetting the bed" or "He quit wearing diapers", but I'm no good at potty humor (and he might not appreciate it too much). So instead I'll just tell you what I was going to joke about. That way I get my oh-so-lame wittiness out without risking anything. (It's a tactic I resort to often. Try it. It's fun.)

Rambling Update

1. I have to say, having a baby is the most incredible experience, ever. There’s nothing like it. Everything relating to labor, delivery, and post-pregnancy adjustment seemed easier than I expected it to be. I’ve had my moments of crazy emotions (one—two—maybe three depending who you ask), but all in all it’s been great :). Having a baby really has changed our lives. I can still do most activities I did sans baby, but some of my favorite things—running or going to the gym—can’t happen unless someone else is watching the little one. Come spring a jogging stroller will be a must.
2. Within a week I found out a few of my best friends are pregnant. I came home and told Matt, “All my friends are pregnant. I want to be pregnant, too.” He justifiably reminded me, “Erin, you have a three week old.” Point noted.
3. I honestly thought I’d be bored having a baby. What was I thinking?
4. I’m a web developer for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and on Monday I start working again. I’ll work for two weeks entirely from home, and after that I’ll work from home half the time and be in the office half the time. (We’ll see if I can stand to be away from Skylie that much.) Knowing she’ll be in the capable hands of LeiLani and Kristelle is making it easier.
5. I start teaching turbo kick and spinning on Monday. The plan is to teach three times a week, but with working full time and taking care of a baby I may have to nix those from my schedule. It stinks because I love it, but I have a feeling that something’s gotta give—and I can fit in early morning workouts easier.
6. Matt and I ate lunch at Taste of India for my birthday. That night he surprised me with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and made me dinner. Mmm, yum. The best surprise is what he wrote for Skylie—but she won’t get to read it until she’s 12. How cute is that?
7. Our friend from our college singles ward, Ben Tanner, came through Des Moines and stayed with us last night. Thanks for coming to see us, Ben!
8. I want to get back into running some races. Anyone know of some good ones coming up?
9. I rented and am reading/listening to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years. They might become "must haves".
10. We're excited to see some of our family in a couple weeks for Skylie's baby blessing.

"Staycation" Week 2

We missed not being able to see family this summer, but our staycation turned out pretty great. It's just too bad that it had to end. Matt started his pediatric rotation on Monday at Blank Children's Hospital and is sure he'll like rotations better than the first two years of med school.

A quick recap of our last week or so of freedom:

Wednesday, July 22

Thursday, July 23

Friday, July 24
We should've taken pictures before becoming drenched in sweat/water and getting helmet hair. But we didn't. :)
The only half normal picture we managed to get:So we figured we might as well just look goofy, since we're so successful without trying.
Saturday, July 25

Monday, July 27
America Party for new U.S. citizen, Nathalie
And Goodbye Party for Pinegar's and Racker's :(
{A few of us girls. Click to enlarge.}

Wednesday, July 29
BBQ to say adios to Rencher's :(

Saturday, August 1
Farmers' Market
Sister and nephew in town
Baby shower {pics coming soon}

Omaha Trip, etc.

I'm loving summer! The weather's perfect and Matt's 100% free for a couple weeks. I've been trying to think of fun things for us to do so Matt feels like he had some fun this summer (not that he's hard to entertain), but being almost eight months pregnant and having to go to work is a little limiting. Kayaking and rock climbing would be a blast, but I'm pretty sure since I can barely tie my shoes I wouldn't be able to scale a wall.

But despite the growing belly, we've managed to have some fun. Here's a recap of our time since Matt took Boards.

But with only 12 days left until Matt starts rotations, I think we need to take the game plan up a notch. :) Maybe paddle boats at Gray's Lake, a BBQ or two, quality pool time, bonfires, hiking at Ledges State Park, and I've been thinking that old school night games like Kick the Can and Capture the Flag would be awesome. (You know your deep down ten year old self is dying to play.) Anybody have ideas of other fun stuff we could do?

This and That Since Christmas Break

ERIN:

MATT: