"Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match!"

Well, our matchmaker really pulled through for us! We are staying at UVa for George to do a three-year Emergency Medicine Residency!

For those of you unfamiliar with how Medical school and residency work, I'll try to briefly explain. To become a doctor, you must complete four years of Medical School. When you graduate, you are officially a Doctor, but cannot practice until you have completed some kind of residency. A residency is a program that trains doctors in specific specialties, such as surgery, orthopedics, family medicine, or (as in our case) emergency medicine. 

During your fourth year, students apply to different residency programs across the country. You send in an application and the programs interested in you call to schedule an interview. You then rank all the places where you interviewed and submit a list with your first choice being ranked #1 and so on. The programs also rank the students they interviewed and submit their lists of who they want to join their team. These lists are all put through a computer program which then "matches" each applicant with a residency program, attempting to give as many people their first choice as possible. It's not like applying for colleges where you could get multiple acceptances from which you pick. You are told which residency program you will attend. Nerve-wracking, huh?

Every medical student across the United States receives their Match letter on the same day. Here at UVa, all the students gathered together on March 16th to get their letters.

It was quite the party! The excitement was palpable. There were people dressed formally and those with crazy costumes. Some people had brought their family and children and others were there with friends. There was loud music playing and everyone was shaking hands and talking. It was a lot of fun and very, very hot.

Waiting for the ceremony to start.

Lance was at school and my good friend Jamie was watching Jude. Cole came along for the ride and slept through all the music, cheering and clapping.

After the Dean and a few other people said a few words, they called the students one by one down to the front to get their letters. The letters are placed in a bag and pulled out at random. There is a tradition here at UVa that when you are called up to get your letter, you place $1 in a box. The last person to receive their letter gets to keep the $145 (or so), I guess as compensation for having to wait the longest.

George making the long walk up...

Hugging the Dean of Medicine.

His letter!

After everyone has their letter, the Dean offers a toast (hence the champagne) and everyone opens their letter at the same time. 

It was crazy! Everyone was yelling and cheering and crying. Some of the students were dating and had tried to "couples match" at the same school. I know that at least two of these couples did get their first choice at the same school.

George had known for a while that we were staying at UVa (the doctors here told him that they wanted him to stay and if we ranked them #1 we were guaranteed a spot in their program), but it was still exciting to be there and open his letter.

That night we celebrated by going to the X Lounge with the Elmers and Baileys for an hour or so to enjoy some food and drinks with the other 4th years.

Chris Bailey, Aric and Melissa Elmer, Rachel Bailey, me and George at the X Lounge.

Afterwards we all went to Outback and had a great time hanging out sans children. The Elmers are staying at UVa, too, and we're so happy we get to spend more time with them!

Congratulations, George, on matching into your program. It has been (dare I say) fun traveling this long road with you. You've done an amazing job juggling school and family. Thank you for being you, for being the wonderful husband and father you are. I am so proud of you and excited to meet this new stage of life side by side!

Spring Fever

I know, I know. I just did a post about our little snow storm a couple weekends ago, but with the weather up in the 70's consistently in the past week and the trees starting to flower, I can't help but think Spring is on it's way.

We've been plugging along here at home, trying to find a good groove while we adjust to having Baby Cole in our family. The boys have been doing a great job and I think Cole gets more hugs and kisses from Jude and Lance than I can count. Jude especially is very loving and will tell me daily, "I love him! I love him!" It warms my heart. Lance has been great with him, too, and will ask to hold him and will love on him when he gets home from school. Love my boys!

Here are some family happenings from the past couple weeks:

Jude has discovered he LOVES to "wash dishes". Anytime I start the water in the kitchen he runs in, pulls out his little stool we keep next to the fridge and will start working away in the sink. Yes, we usually end up with a large puddle somewhere on the floor, but he's happy and it's cute he wants to help.

On this particular day, I decided to clear out all the clean dishes in our rack and then stood back to see what he would do. He proceeded to "wash" all the dishes in the sink and place them one by one onto the drying rack. It was so cute! What a sweetheart of a boy. He really is my little buddy during the day when Lance is at school.

 

Lance's school had an art display at our local Mall, so George and I went on a date one night to go see it.

I didn't realize they were taking it down the following day until my neighbor told me, hence the trip to the mall without Lance. He was at his dad's house that weekend, so he missed it. Sorry, Lance! Great-looking penguin, though. :)

Jude continues to make us laugh with is bright, silly personality.

George and I couldn't stop laughing one day when George put Cole's little pant on Jude's head. Crazy boys!

We've gotten into a bad habit of watching way too much TV in the mornings while we get ready for the day, so last week (in an attempt to escape the lure of the Disney Channel) I walked with the boys to the Rotunda on The Lawn. It's a little over a mile away so it was a good workout to push both kids in the stroller.

We enjoyed a lunch sitting on the lawn.

Cole decided to wake up and take in the great weather.

We walked around the Rotunda and looked at the pretty trees and buildings on The Lawn.

Cole was a trooper.

And here is the wonderful stroller we got for Christmas from my sister! It's been a huge help carting the kids around and has encouraged me to make excursions on foot to instead of driving. Thanks, Amy!

Cole is starting to wake up a bit more and interact some with us. He's even starting to smile!

He has a sweet personality and is usually content to just hang out in his little seat and take in all the new noises and sights. We love our Baby Cole!

 

Speaking of babies, Jude has decided he misses being the baby of the family. He'll remind me he's still my baby by doing this:

He climbs into Cole's little rocker, sticks the pacifier in his mouth and makes baby crying noises while he rocks away. Jude, as one of my favorite books says, "as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

 

A few days ago the JPJ had a Monster Truck show and that Friday they parked one of the monster trucks at the Taco Bell that's just down the hill from us. Our friends told us about it, so when George came home from work we walked down to see what it was all about.

 

Jude liked the huge tires and kept trying to climb inside.

Lance thought it was neat the car's name was "Grave Digger". He rode his bike while we walked.

And, since it was right there, we got some dinner at Taco Bell. 

 

How did Cole feel about the experience?

I think this speaks for itself.

Tiny toes

Precious.

Snow Day

Last Monday I got a call at 5:30 in the morning. School was cancelled for the day because of snow! I hadn't heard that there was supposed to be snow, so it was a huge surprise for us.

Lance and Jude were both thrilled and by 10 a.m. we were all dressed and ready to enjoy the second (and probably last) snow of the year.

We don't have a sled, so we improvised.

George and Jude were pretty successful using the plastic lid to a large bin. Jude thought sliding 10 feet down the little hill next to our apartment was the greatest thing ever.

Lance, Killian and Kendall all gave it a try, too.

Look, Mom! Snow!

Yay! No school!
(Love the outfit, Lance. I later wrestled him into some appropriate snow attire, but I guess he was just too excited when we first saw the snow and grabbed the first things he could find. I mean, he didn't even zip up his jacket!)

George tried to pave the way to make the plastic lids slide a little bit farther.

It worked a bit. :)

Jude was in love with the snow. This is the first winter he has been aware and able to play in it, so it was a treat to watch him soaking in all the fun.


George had a break-through idea and remembered we have an inflatable airplane toy for the pool. If it works in water, it should work in snow, right?

Jude sure thought so.

As did Lance.

We got tired of playing on our little hill, so we walked down to our neighbor's hill a couple buildings away.

Killian and Kendall brought out their sled. Perfect since it could fit all three of them at once.

Lucy and Bennett came out to play, too. I think we had five or six kids on the sled at one time.

Cole took it easy and stayed warm inside Jamie's house while we played outside.

And it wouldn't be any kind of snow day without building a snowman.

George, Lance and Killian worked together to roll an enormous snowball into the bottom of the snowman.

It was huge!

And everyone else helped to shape the rest. Jamie was nice and took some pictures so I could be in it. Thanks, Jamie!

Killian, Jude, Kendall, Lance and Britton with our snowman. Lucy and Bennett were too busy sledding to stop and get in the picture. :)


Finally, as tradition in my family whenever we had a snow-day, I made some homemade bread and the kids had it for a snack before bed.

Now I understand why my mom always loved it when we had a snowday and everyone got to stay home. It was a great day!

Show me your mussels!

While we were up in Ashburn last weekend, George made dinner for his family on Sunday. We had mussels and clams. Now, I'm not a huge "clam" kinda girl, but these were amazing! George seems to have the ability to take foods I don't particularly care for (like lamb or goat cheese) and make something that I actually end up craving.

"De-bearding" the mussels.

Before he cooked them, he let them sit in a sink full of water and flour. Supposedly it makes them open and spit out the sand that's inside.

Ready to eat! George cooked them in a white wine reduction with a sort of roux made from onions, garlic and tomatoes. You add cream to the reduction after the mussels are finished and serve them together. Amazing! Honestly, my mouth is watering just thinking about this.

Can I just tell you how fabulous it is to have a husband that not only can cook but loves to cook? Lucky, lucky me!

Rub a Dub Dub...

...my three men in a tub!

Last weekend we were up in Northern Virginia to help celebrate Callie's 8th Birthday. The night after the party the boys needed a bath, so I bathed all the boys at the same time.

It was Cole's first time in a real bath and while he wasn't too sure what was going on, he liked it a whole lot better than his freezing sponge baths he'd had up to this point.

Lance was a huge help and held Cole the whole time so I could wash him. Can I tell you how fabulous it is to have an older kid that can help out? Love it!

All wrapped up and ready for bed.

Love my boys!