The Match!

(This is long, but there are tons of pics at the bottom if you want to skip down there.)

Unless you've gone through it yourself, it's difficult to describe the match. I will attempt to try.

Justin started interviewing for residency spots in November. It is a frustrating process because it's not like a regular job interview. In a regular job interview, you interview and you hear back in a few weeks with the job saying either, 'we like you, you're hired' or 'sorry, keep looking'. In medicine, you interview at several places and then you rank them. 1 being the place you'd most like to go, 2 being your second choice, and so on. Then, all the programs that you interviewed at rank the applicants they interviewed. 1 being the person they'd most like to hire, 2 being the person they'd like to have second, and so on. Then, all this information is entered into a computer which generates a 'match'. I don't understand the specifics of how it works or why it has to be this way, but it's been going on like this for years.

Interview season ends in January and our rank list must be submitted in February. Then we wait. And wait. And wait. We wait for two things. The email that tells us whether we matched or not (we got that on Monday, and were very happy to find out that we DID, in fact, match), and then the big day itself - MATCH DAY!

In the days leading up to today (Match Day), Justin and I haven't been sleeping well. There's been a lot of anxiety, excitement, nerves, and panic attacks. Justin and I have been having a lot of 'what if' conversations. Basically, it's like waiting for Christmas when you're a little kid. You get nervous excitement in your gut because you know something amazing is about to happen and you, almost literally, cannot wait!

The closer we got to match day, the more anxious I became. I tried to keep myself busy with little things (I don't think my house has ever been cleaner). I tried reading books (I read pretty fast, but I think I set a new record). Basically, I was doing anything I could to keep my mind off of the upcoming match. Nothing worked.

Last night I woke up at 4 a.m. and was unable to go back to sleep. I was too excited. This morning seemed to drag on and on! I swear, one hour felt like 5! Justin and I kept checking the time. We'd swear that 30 minutes had passed only to discover that it'd only been 5.

Finally, it was time for us to go pick Clayton up from school and head down to UVM. When we got there we got caught up in the nervous excitement. All of Justin's classmates were there, anxiously waiting as well. There were also spouses, children, parents, friends, and students from other classes there to share the excitement as well. The excitement in the air really was palpable. It was pretty amazing!

At 12:00 the students were invited to race to their mailboxes and grab their letters and find out where they were going. It was a MOB SCENE! Because it was so crazy, the kids and I stayed behind. Justin promised to grab his letter and bring it back to us UNOPENED, so that we could all read it together. Waiting for him to come back was almost excruciating. Finally, he returned. He opened his letter and we learned that we will be spending the next 3-4 years at...

(drum roll)

...MEMORIAL HOSPITAL in SOUTH BEND, INDIANA!!!

It was our first choice. We are over the moon. I can't stop smiling/laughing/crying/shaking. The anticipation has been building for so long that I'm almost not sure what to do with myself anymore!! (Pack, I suppose.)

I am so proud of Justin and how hard he's worked over the past four years.

Now, without further ado, here is picture overload from Match Day:
Me and the kids waiting inside while Justin parked the car (parking was CRAZY today)!
Noah doing what he does best. (We're trying to break him of his thumb-sucking habit, but it's HARD! He's dedicated.) The excitement was a little lost on the kids.
Me and the ever-lovely Miss Jo, who was such a trooper because she didn't get to nap at all until after the match.
Waiting...
Justin and our friend Chi...I mean Chris...I mean Chi Chi...I mean Chi-tah...
The view from above.


Clayton and Noah. I realize now who it is that never looks at the camera...
These are SOME of the kids in the class. There are 21 total! WILD!!
This was how we kept them busy while we waited. Gotta love a good rock fountain (even if my boys got really messy playing with it)!
Justin at the mailboxes waiting to get his letter. I'm glad the kids and I decided to wait elsewhere, that looks so crowded and squished (I think we'd have lost the kids for sure)! Also, thanks Vanessa for taking most of these pictures!
I look ridonkulous in these pictures. But I'm so excited/happy/relieved that I'm going to blame my crazy expressions on my emotions.
Justin opening his letter.
Reading: Memorial Hospital, South Bend, Indiana!
I feel that this picture doesn't do justice to our emotions. I was and am so overwhelmed with joy and relief and I don't think it translated onto the picture.
Justin and I. So relieved. So happy. So excited. So proud.
Justin putting his pin in South Bend!
The letter. 4 years and it all came down to this:
HOORAY!

So there you have it. Match Day. It's been quite a rush. The adrenaline has been pumping so hard for so long, and now that it's over I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to take a long nap.

Bottom line: We matched. To Memorial Hospital. In South Bend, Indiana. We're estatic.

St. Patty's Day!

I love holidays! Big, small, made up, real, you name it, I love it! I especially love it now that I have kids and that my kids are old enough to share my excitement.

A few years ago we started a St. Patrick's Day tradition where the kids decorate a special 'treasure box' the night before. Then we leave it in the moonlight and, when they wake up in the morning, the box is GONE! During the night, some tricky leprechauns took our treasure box, filled it with treasure, and hid it! We have to hurry and find our treasure box because, if we don't find it before the sun goes down, the treasure box will disappear and our treasure will be lost forever! Those sneaky leprechauns do leave clues though, as to where they hid the box. This year they left a trail of white shamrocks to follow (we were confused as to why they didn't leave green shamrocks until we realized that those leprechauns were out of green paper and didn't realize it).
Usually the leprechauns aren't too tricky, but this year they must have known that Clayton and Noah were old enough to follow several different trails in order to find the right one, so they were VERY tricky this year! There were trails going off in several different directions!
Funny story: when I woke up the boys this morning (the trail started in their bedroom) I gasped and said, 'Oh no! What happened here!?!' Clayton, my anxiety-ridden child, bolted right up and cried, 'My bed got messed up! Oh no!' I chuckled to myself and explained that beds were allowed to get messed up when you slept in them, then I pointed out the leprechaun trail and Clayton went from anxiety to excitement in no time at all! The boys following the trail. They got misdirected a few times, but they perservered, continued on the hunt, and were rewarded for their efforts!
Noah's sweet sleepy morning face.
They finally found the treasure box! Clayton was so excited! He's at just the right age for things like this. I love it!!
Not sure why this is sideways. Oh well. Inside the box were treasures indeed! There was a green shirt for each of the boys, a green dress for Josie, and candy a plenty!
After we found our treasures, it was time for breakfast. However, imagine our surprise to discover that those leprechauns turned our breakfast green! For the third year in a row! Man, those leprechauns are sneaky!!
The boys are HUGE fans of green breakfast. They ask for green milk all day. I think it looks a little disgusting, but they love it!
The food they had was green eggs, green milk, and green muffins.
My handsome boys in their new green shirts. Thanks leprechauns! After I took the picture, Clayton asked to see it and his reaction was, 'Hey! We're both looking!'. I guess you can tell how rare it is for us to get a picture where they are both looking!
Josie in her dress. Very festive!
What a sweet girl!
It was a great morning. I'm so glad that we have this tradition. I love doing this with my kids!

On a completely different note - we find out TOMORROW where we are going for residency!! I'm so excited I can hardly sit still! So stay tuned!

Clayton's Concert

I have SO much to post about and the trick is knowing where to start. First, we had been computer-less for about a week, which was kind of nice but it's pretty great to have it back. (What did we do before email!?!) Second, my 30th birthday ROCKED! I think 30 is going to be pretty awesome. Third, Vanessa and I went on an amazing road trip to Boston! I have so many pictures of that trip and I plan on doing that in my next post (so you have something to look forward to). But, what I decided to start with is Clayton's concert!

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Clayton's school. The class sizes are small, the school is so open and parent-friendly, the teachers (especially Clayton's) are wonderful and loving and very accessable, and they love to give the kids opportunities to showcase themselves! Last night they had a concert for grades K-2. Each grade level sang a few songs and then they sang two songs all together. Even though we didn't find out about this concert until the day before (thank you Clayton, for never bringing paperwork home), we were all really excited to go. Clayton was excited to be the center of attention, Noah was excited to 'go to school', Josie was excited just to get out of the house, and Justin and I were excited to see Clayton perform.

So, without further ado, here is a clip from the concert - I'm NOT a videographer so if you get motion sick, you may want to skip it. It's about 6 minutes long, so you don't have to watch it, but it's pretty great (says the biased parent):

Justin's favorite song of the night: The Cat Came Back. My favorite: Tingalay-oh. Noah's favorite: BINGO. Clayton's favorite: Magic Penny (which we didn't record, but it's his favorite because, 'it's the shortest').

Clayton is in the front row on the far right. Yes, he is wearing snow boots. He had left his shoes in his classroom and there wasn't enough time to grab them before the concert started. Ah, my little Napoleon Dynamite...

Noah just looks so into the music here. What a great audience!
After the concert we decided to celebrate Clayton's musical debut with ice cream at Friendly's.
Clayton knew that he wanted chocolate ice cream with M&M's in it.

Noah wanted chocolate ice cream in a cone. He didn't eat the cone, but he was pretty happy with his choice. I now present to you the BEST. PICTURE. EVER. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Joker:
Josie was pretty happy to share with me and Justin. However, whenever I tried to take her picture, she got this crusty face. (It's okay girlie, I would be frustrated if someone tried to take my picture with ice cream all over my face too.)
It was a great night. We are so proud of our fidgety singer (if you saw the video, you know what I'm talking about). He sang so well and so loud! I'm really glad that we found out about this concert! Great job Clayton!