My Man

At first Cody was skeptical and 

not too thrilled about this business endeavor. 

Now? I'm happy to report that he is 1000% supportive and my rock as we navigate our new journey together. Last night I arrived home from Las Vegas to a delicious dinner, clean home and all the Disney laundry completed, folded and put away.

He also helped Brinley pack for her week long Washington DC trip, got kids to dance classes and performances AND reports indicate that he did the girls hair and packed great lunches too. 

This morning I came upstairs after a yoga practice and look what I found waiting for me?! I love him profoundly! 

His unwavering support and encouragement are a beautiful gift!

Sweet & Silly

My husband is so SWEET!

Last week when the girls and I came downstairs in the morning we happened upon these.

Reason #34545634 of why Cody gets up at 5am every morning = to buy his girls flowers.

Guess who won the "LAH" award on Sunday??? He is proudly displaying in on his bedside stand
(well, actually, when he left it lying on the floor in the family room I snatched it up and placed it on his 
bedside stand to so as to keep it properly glorified and desirable)

Avery started bawling when the announcement was made that Daddy had won the award.

"But Mommy, parents can't win the award, only the children, only the kids in the family!!"

She had been working exceptionally hard at showing love throughout the week,
which can apparently be quite the task. Well, the rest of us were happy that Daddy won the award.

My husband is also quite SILLY.

The other evening after dinner I asked him to  

put the tomato paste in a glass container.

Well, he did just that!

Cody makes me laugh, often lately.

 He is one of the funniest people I know, 

which may come as a surprise to those who don't know him well,

however, his calm and more serious demeanor makes his humor all the more hilarious.  

He also gave me a lovely lesson on how to spell the word "Pinterest" last night patiently explaining the evolution of the word, why it's used the way it's used, etc...
Thank you darling for this very important spelling and history lesson.
I will now change my misspelled "pintrests" on the previous post. 

Reason #323452345 of why I love my husband = he is much better at spelling than I am. 

Hip Hip Hooray

Dearest Darling Husband,

In the past 9 years, since the time you began medical school, there have been many, many exams to study for and several of those exams have been board exams. 

You have always been diligent at balancing your numerous roles while undergoing rigorous studying routines, however, the expectations placed upon your shoulders for this exam have 

far surpassed any other while at the same time

the other life roles which you now carry are more demanding then they have ever been in the past.

(Brinley, Daddy, Avery 2009)

Since December I've observed as you have pushed the limits  

of physical, mental and emotional capacity.

Day in and day out you have put one foot in front of the other even in times when making 

that next step felt overbearing.

During this time not only have you undergone hundreds of board reviews, listened to thousands of lectures and studied countless cases in a variety of medical textbooks in addition to working and moonlighting

BUT,

since December you have also continued to make our family your priority. 

You have thought of ways to lighten my physical and emotional load. 

You have listened to my struggles and born my burdens. You have continued to be an 

involved father, brainstorming ways to make our home run more smoothly, playing with the girls, encouraging them with Saturday chore packs instead of doing Saturday studying. You have continued to attend to your church calling including weeknight evening meetings 

and teaching classes on Sunday. 

 

 (Cody and Brinley 2004)

 It was heartwarming and par for the course to see you this morning spending the last few moments of potential study time playing "Pretty Pretty Princess" and " Guess Who" with Avery and Aspen. The tears in Avery's eyes as you pulled away represent our girls  

profound love for their Daddy.

At times during this demanding medical journey I've worried about you...your lack of time to re-charge, to emotionally let loose; yet it has been through the experiences we have shared on this journey that I have come to deeply respect and admire you.

 It warms my heart to think of this challenging time in our lives being behind us,  

yet I am thankful for the unity we have developed by enduring it.

Certainly through this process I have done much more complaining, and you much more listening. 

You have never expected a spotlight, a pat on the back or a hip hip hooray, yet I feel that 

no one is more deserving of just that than you are right now!

 I am your biggest fan my darling and I will be there in spirit cheering you on!

XOXOXO,

Your wife

PS- Today I watched THIS video and felt like the luckiest woman in the world 

because I married man just like the one in the short film.

Post Call

After working a 26 hour shift most residents would opt to
engage in that little activity we call
SLEEP.

However, upon arriving home this morning after said shift
Cody decided to take the girls on a date to the zoo!




I encouraged him to rest when he arrived home and go with the older two later in the day during Aspen's nap time, but he insisted that
his desire was to take all 3 girls.

Yet another reason I love my husband!

PS- My determination for a complete recovery by Monday did not happen.
Good news = Crutches not needed anymore. I can walk with the use of my walking cast/boot.

Home Again

Our main squeeze has arrived home safe (happy sigh of relief) and sound.
One month ago we stood on the front porch and waved good-bye,
with tears in our eyes.

Cody spent 4 weeks in Washington, DC to participate in a mandatory radiology pathology training course. From 8-5 he enjoyed top-notch lectures presented by Physicians flown in from various parts of the nation.

Before coming home he took a quick trip to Boston to be a presenter
at the yearly Pediatric Radiology Convention!

This past year, in all of his spare time, he has been compiling years of medical data and producing (along with the head physician of pediatric radiology at our local children's hospital), research on
Ultrasound-guided Percutaneous Therapy for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Say that 10 times fast!




The girls missed him terribly, so did I.
Brinley was certainly the most aware and often tearful about his absence.

So glad to have my best friend back!
Now we need to find space in our medically overloaded bookshelf for the over 1,400 pages of notes he brought home from the course.

Pager Danger

After a LONG day of work dashing Doctor Young arrives home late, after the kids are in bed.

He is starving and eats dinner.

Approximately 13 minutes later his pager beeps. Then beeps again.

He returns the page and spends the next 11 minutes talking doctor language.
Most words in this special language are unrecognizable to the untrained ear, my ear is definitely untrained.

I secretly love hearing him talk doctor language. I see him in a different way, somewhat in awe at the wealth of knowledge he has packed into that brain of his.

Then reality hits and I think about how he arrived home at 4am the night before after working a 21 hour day and slept a measly 3 hours before scurrying out the door to another very long day.

The hospital has yet to provide a
1-800-youhavehadtodealwiththiscrapscheduleforwaytolongandnowobamaisyourpresidenthahaha
type of hotline.

But if his pager calls him into the hospital tonight I might need one.

Perhaps I ought to create a 1-800 service for resident families to call and unleash their frustrations to a third party listener. If I were a customer my conversation might go something like this:

"I am frustrated but it's not my husbands fault. He has been exhausted for only the last oh 8 years or so. Frankly I thought I was in recovery from my previous 'TODTS' (ticked off due to schedule) state of being. Apparently I am wrong because tonight he called for the 2346345 time and said "it's not looking good" and I know what that means and I was ticked off, again. Everyone says "oh it's going to be so worth it" and I could not agree more, yet that still does not make things any easier when my kids are crying because they wonder why Daddy is still gone."

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And now I digress. What debt of gratitude we ought to have for our government representatives have created THIS incredible bill. Go back, click on the link and take 10 minutes to get informed on what they really want to do.

There is something fundamentally wrong when the President of our great nation has his own agenda which happens, on our case, to be far from the agenda of the American people.
Wasn't our government system created to represent the people?

Needless to say we are thrilled about the recent election in Massachusetts.
Scott Browns win, along with the string of republican victories prior to his ought to be sending a VERY clear message to Mr. Obama and his cohorts.

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And yet I recognize that this is but a small trial.
Other women are building mud huts to create barriers of safety for their children.
And Stephanie is still in immense pain.
And so, in spite of my sweetie's schedule I LOVE MY LIFE A LOT!
And I love my husband a LOT too!

Today I made...

THIS and put it

HERE.

Our front room is so sad during Christmas time because most of our decorations land in the family room where we spend much of our time.
So today I decided to add a some reindeer cheer to the decoration-less room.


PS-

Thank you dear for risking your life once again to beautify our home for
the Christmas season...

and no it was not funny when you pretended you were falling off the roof while the girls and I helplessly looked on from the window.

GO BUCKS

Cody has wanted to take Brinley to a game since we moved here.
This Saturday that dream came true.

I was confident she would last one quarter, if that, in the freezing cold...
she surprised us all by insisting to stay until the very last play.

Cody said that she was entertained by everything but the game.
The big screen, cheerleaders and by Brutus the mascot.

Reports are that she emphatically sang along to all of the fight songs and
joined in on all of the cheers!

Go "O" hio

It was a fantastic daddy-daughter date!

Tomorrow morning Cody and I will be flying HERE. Stay tuned to find out why.


And last but not least, here is the picture of us with our Parenting HERO
John Rosemond.

I will be finishing the book in hand on the flight tomorrow. Can't wait!