Monkeys in the morning

This morning when I came home from running, Scott was still asleep or laying in bed pretending to be asleep. Bruce and Phoebe were snuggled up in the crib making goofy sounds at each other and kicking their legs like babies (and as pictured above, Phoebe picked her nose too. awesome.). Phoebe had called to Bruce until he came in her room and turned on her light, then climbed into her crib. They laughed at/with each other for a few minutes before deciding it was time to get out of bed. Scott rolled out of bed and took over breakfast-making duties while I got a quick shower.
Good. morning.

In and Out

Ben is officially done with his mission. My parents picked him up on Thursday, crashed at our place that night, and headed back to Ohio on Friday morning. It was a fast trip, but Bruce and Phoebe were still happy to see Uncle Ben and Grandma and Grandpa.
Phoebe seems to think that because we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house when she opened her Christmas gifts, that all of the gifts must have come from them. When she plays with her doll house, she will talk about Grandma giving it to her. When they came this week, they gave Phoebe some new pajamas that she instantly fell in love with. When she wears them, she talks about how she got them from Grandma and Grandpa.

Phoebe Loves

Phoebe loves:
1. Books - Henry and Mudge, Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss, anything really. (in fact, she picked out a brochure about seat belts for her bedtime story)
2. Friends - Miss J, Quentin, and Asher are some of her current favs
3. Bruce - does anything he does, most recently screaming "NUTS!" at the top of her lungs and then laughing hysterically. Just. like. Bruce.
4. Food - rice and beans, yogurt (but only the expensive kind, of course), grilled cheese, black bean soup, all things chocolate
5. Clothes - sometimes partial to pink, and sometimes not. Always dresses herself now though, which means she is often half-dressed (see above photo).
6. Cooking - today she helped bake banana bread. She mashed bananas and then tasted some salt, and then some sugar, and then lots of chocolate chips.
7. Talking - after spouting more and more phrases each day, she is picking up real sentences complete with pronouns. "I do it myself" is a sentence I hear frequently.
8. Toys - play kitchen, princess castle, dolls and Lego guys are the in-toys with her right now.
9. Backpacks - she has a mild obsession with the hiking backpack and loves it when Scott carries her in it. She has a backpack for her baby dolls and takes them hiking around the house sometimes.
10. Cameras - she saw the lens and decided to smile and pose for this shot. Nice!

The Match

Scott wrapped up all of his interviews, so now it's time to put together our "match list." Scott ranked the programs that he visited, and each program will rank the students they interview. Everyone gets matched according to some magical algorithm that determines our fate. Scary.

Scott has his list, but I have mine too. While Scott's takes into account the training, the people he met on the interview trail, the sharpness of the residents, the hospital's atmosphere, etc., mine takes into account everything from schools to weather to general rumors and preconceived notions. Mine is not as scientific.

We won't be publishing our Match list (too many politics involved), but we'll let you know when we know - March 16.

p.s. we just got an email tonight outlining graduation. It's really coming!

The Return of the Scott

The past two weeks have been a blur. After our super-relaxing Christmas break, Scott's last residency interview trip sneaked up on me. Perhaps it was because it required looking at a whole new (2012) calendar? Or maybe I was in denial that life could get so crazy after being so laid-back? Somehow I just didn't register that Scott was leaving so soon.

Scott headed west and interviewed at four more hospitals. The interviews were spaced apart by a few days, so we could either pay to fly back and forth across the country 2-3 times or Scott could live on the cheap and play a bit between interviews. We chose the latter.

First he headed to San Francisco and interviewed at a few places, hiked the Redwoods, and generally enjoyed the 65-degree weather. He called me when he was hiking and told me how beautiful it was; I envied him as it was 9 degrees that day in Boston.

Next, Scott headed to Salt Lake City for an interview. He stayed with his sister Leslie, who ended up hosting a family reunion (again) as Lana, Nancy, Mark, and his parents came to visit. Scott got a solid dose of mountains and skiing before heading to the next interview in Seattle. He didn't have time to play in Seattle, but said it was actually clear enough to see the mountains when he was there (every time I'm there it's typical Seattle weather - overcast, rainy, depressing).

Scott finally came home after nearly two weeks on the road! He made it back on Saturday morning, just in time for me to pick him up and drive to New Hampshire for a half-marathon. I did this indoor half-marathon last year as it's one of few longish races on a Saturday between now and the Boston Marathon. This year, the organizers moved it from March to January and landed a local beer company as the sponsor. Naturally, it turned into a beer-fest. Perhaps one of the timing officials had a few too many because despite having computer chips on our shoes, they somehow lost track of how many laps we'd run. The track was an odd distance - 317 meters per lap - making it about 69 laps we had to run. I went with the strategy of looking at my watch for the first mile, then not checking at all and trying not to pay attention to the laps so I wouldn't be discouraged by the, "48 laps to go" announcement. I sure wasn't counting. But when I was told I had four laps to go, I was wondering how I could feel so awful and yet run so slow. I went across the finish line at 1:27, my slowest half-marathon ever. Maybe I did eat too many Christmas cookies this year. The results page says 1:26 (and a few days ago, I swear it said 1:23) and says another female wasn't far behind me (even though I passed her at least twice during the race), so I guess I'll never know what my half-marathon time was. I won a six-pack of beer, a shirt with the logo of the beer company, a hat that says "WILL RUN FOR BEER" on it, and a beer bumper sticker. Another runner was happy to take the beer off my hands, and Scott claims he's going to wear the hat sometime. "It's a nice hat," he argued.

We spent the rest of the weekend watching the Patriots pound the Broncos (poor Tebow), facing my needle-phobia by giving blood, going to church, assembling a shelf for Scott's ever-expanding textbook collection, and building a stomp rocket for Bruce.

Happy Birthday Elder Mars

This is a vintage photo of my youngest brother, the 10th of 10 kids, Ben. You might think that because he's the youngest, he is pampered, spoiled, and self-centered.Pampered? Maybe a little. Spoiled? Not so much that he doesn't appreciate it. Self-centered? Not at all. We definitely had fun together. During my last year of high school and for the next few summers, I took my younger siblings on "dates." We raided the Entertainment Book and collected all kinds of coupons for free stuff, and we would go out on the cheap. We would often go for a round of bowling (free for kids, coupons for the rest of us), then to a few restaurants (free pizza here, free fries there, etc.). The above photo is from a date where we went to a restaurant that offered free meals to anyone in a coconut bikini. Today Ben turns 21. He will not be getting drunk and having a wild party. Instead, he will be knocking on doors, talking to people about Jesus Christ, doing service projects, and studying scriptures. Ben was assigned to proselyte in the Hartford, Connecticut mission; since then, the Hartford area mission has combined with Boston. Elder Mars has been within a mile of my house and been in church buildings that we attend, but we have not crossed paths (missionaries aren't supposed to contact family other than a weekly email while on a mission). He finishes his two-year mission in a few weeks, and then he will get to stop by my house, say hello, and finally meet Phoebe (she was a home-bound newborn when he left). Happy Birthday Elder Mars!

Running nowhere

I hate treadmills. I much prefer to run outside where I can breathe fresh air, see new sights, run books to the library book-drop, watch the sun rise, chatter with fellow runners. But I hate not running more than I hate treadmill running, so I finally bought a treadmill. In my search for the perfect treadmill, I came across "treadmill desks" (pictured above). I laughed when I saw that picture, then showed Scott and laughed some more. I searched for something durable (it has to get me through the first year of residency) and reliable, with a good manufacturer's warranty in case I run it into the ground...And here she is, as beautiful as a treadmill can be. She will be here on Monday. I've already picked a corner in my living room and hung a Boston Marathon poster to stare at.

More setbacks on the family picture front

Setback No. 1: Bruce provoked Phoebe's wrath while she was sitting in a chair. She reached over and pulled his hair. He tried to run away, but her iron fist held tight - pulling her off the chair and face-down on the floor. She busted her nose and bled a lot, traumatizing the sweet teenage babysitter we'd left the kids with. This picture is three days later when the swelling had gone down a bit and the purple hues turned more greenish. Lovely.

Setback No. 2: Scott is out on the interview trail again. This time he is in sunny California, then off to snowy Utah, and then to rainy Washington. His interviews are spaced apart by a few days, but it wasn't worth traveling coast to coast several times, so this is a long trip. A few days ago, it was 11 degrees in Boston (not counting the windchill). Scott called to tell me about the beautiful 65-degree weather in San Francisco and how he was going to hike through the Redwoods. He will get his dose of the cold soon: he is off to Utah next and when he isn't trying to impress the big wigs at the hospital there, he will be skiing with Mark, hanging out with Leslie, meeting Lana's new baby girl, and pressuring Nancy into med school or some other crazy endeavor.