Let the fun begin! Yesterday was Paul's first official shift of his Emergency Medicine residency here in MN and we're off to a wonderful start. He had a busy night in the ER, got home around midnight, slept for a few hours before having to go back to work for morning conference, came home and saw the kids and I for 30 minutes, and is now sleeping again until he has to go back to work for his second shift in the ER. THIS is why we have not been looking forward to residency! But, it is my residency resolution to try to look at the bright side of things...we are now down to 2 years and 364 days until residency is over! :) Seriously, besides the long work hours, we don't really have much to complain about. We are happily married (most of the time), have three wonderful children (most of the time), are living in a great house with family nearby, and pretty much all of our needs are met. I am working on finding a church and establishing a social network here, but that is obviously going to take time.
The move to MN was mostly uneventful, which is a good thing. Kade did have to spent two days in the ER for an asthma-related breating issues when we arrived at our friends' house in Phoenix, but he is fine now. I took him to the allergist a couple weeks ago to get more allergy testing done and found out that in addition to eggs and walnuts he is also allergic to various molds, which is probably what triggered his past breathing issues in Hawaii and Puerto Vallarta. He also seems to react poorly to very dry climate conditions (hence the recent trip to the ER in Phoenix). We are hoping maybe the MN climate will ease his asthma symptoms since it is neither dry nor tropical (although the humidity this past week has certainly made it feel that way).
We are mostly settled in our new house. There is almost more room than we know what to do with, but the extra space will be nice when the kids are getting stir-crazy this winter. We got the basement gym and play area done (see the photos on dropshots), and also the fence up in the backyard. I even planted my first garden a couple weeks ago. We'll see if it actually produces any edible food! I think the backyard is going to be my saving grace throughout residency. The older kids spend half of their day out there (which means a little peace and quiet in the house for me!). The fact that all three of our kids go down for afternoon naps around the same time is also nice.
Kade was having some separation anxiety when we first moved here, but it seems to be getting better as each day passes. I hope to find some friends for him soon through storytime at the library and/or Sunday school at church. We just celebrated Jacey's second birthday on Sunday with my parents here. It's so nice to have our families be able to just stop by for a quick visit. We haven't had that since we've been married! Kye is rolling over, working on sitting up on his own, and is just starting on rice cereal (which also means the start of stinky diapers...oh joy!).
Paul tried to get as many home improvement projects done around the house as he could before he started his rotations. There is still quite a bit we want to do, but it's going to be a slow process from this point on. He'll be lucky to get sleep, let alone anything done around the house. He is excited to finally be in the ER training to do what he wants to be doing. He is also very excited to have his very own CrossFit gym waiting for him at home for whenever he gets a few spare minutes to go use it. I have already had a few sessions with clients down there, and I hope to do more. If I can just do one session a week, I could use the money I make to hire a babysitter to stay with the kids so I can get some time away from the house. There is a church volleyball league I might join, and once I actually make some new friends in the area maybe I can get some girls' nights out! I'm also in the process of trying to organize a residents' spouse group, which could be a nice support system for all of us resident widows.
The move to MN was mostly uneventful, which is a good thing. Kade did have to spent two days in the ER for an asthma-related breating issues when we arrived at our friends' house in Phoenix, but he is fine now. I took him to the allergist a couple weeks ago to get more allergy testing done and found out that in addition to eggs and walnuts he is also allergic to various molds, which is probably what triggered his past breathing issues in Hawaii and Puerto Vallarta. He also seems to react poorly to very dry climate conditions (hence the recent trip to the ER in Phoenix). We are hoping maybe the MN climate will ease his asthma symptoms since it is neither dry nor tropical (although the humidity this past week has certainly made it feel that way).
We are mostly settled in our new house. There is almost more room than we know what to do with, but the extra space will be nice when the kids are getting stir-crazy this winter. We got the basement gym and play area done (see the photos on dropshots), and also the fence up in the backyard. I even planted my first garden a couple weeks ago. We'll see if it actually produces any edible food! I think the backyard is going to be my saving grace throughout residency. The older kids spend half of their day out there (which means a little peace and quiet in the house for me!). The fact that all three of our kids go down for afternoon naps around the same time is also nice.
Kade was having some separation anxiety when we first moved here, but it seems to be getting better as each day passes. I hope to find some friends for him soon through storytime at the library and/or Sunday school at church. We just celebrated Jacey's second birthday on Sunday with my parents here. It's so nice to have our families be able to just stop by for a quick visit. We haven't had that since we've been married! Kye is rolling over, working on sitting up on his own, and is just starting on rice cereal (which also means the start of stinky diapers...oh joy!).
Paul tried to get as many home improvement projects done around the house as he could before he started his rotations. There is still quite a bit we want to do, but it's going to be a slow process from this point on. He'll be lucky to get sleep, let alone anything done around the house. He is excited to finally be in the ER training to do what he wants to be doing. He is also very excited to have his very own CrossFit gym waiting for him at home for whenever he gets a few spare minutes to go use it. I have already had a few sessions with clients down there, and I hope to do more. If I can just do one session a week, I could use the money I make to hire a babysitter to stay with the kids so I can get some time away from the house. There is a church volleyball league I might join, and once I actually make some new friends in the area maybe I can get some girls' nights out! I'm also in the process of trying to organize a residents' spouse group, which could be a nice support system for all of us resident widows.
Comments