At the graduation dinner.
Mitch and Jack, the two chiefs for 2010-2011, and bestest friends.
I totally deserve a diploma, too, for putting up with being a resident's wife, but I just get to hold his for a picture...
Here we are the day we moved away from our house in St Louis.
A picture of our backyard during a rainstorm in May. We are really missing our quiet backyard 'neighbors' (and all of the not so quiet ones, too!)
Mitch is getting to do a lot of hearts and TEE, as they created an un-official fellowship for him in cardio-thoracic anesthesia. It's ACGME approved, so when he's got enough numbers, he'll get to be fellowship certified. The bonus to this whole fellowship, though, is that he's still getting paid as a clinical instructor (a basic attending's salary)! So, we don't have to slog through another year of trying to make ends meet.
We are renting our friends' house from med school. They bought here in Columbia for their residency and were unable to sell it. They're now in Logan, UT enjoying cooler, dryer weather. Brats. But at least we get to enjoy renting their house, so we can save up for another house of our own.
We are brats, too, I guess. We put our house on the market Tuesday May 24 and accepted a contract on it Monday May 30. It was just crazy fast. Especially because Memorial Day weekend was in there... so only one person looked at it, then he bought it!
We found out Mitch had the job on May 5 and I went into over-drive to get the house in tip-top shape for sale. Now, I had spent the last four years painting and doing projects with the whole idea of selling it and making it neutral, etc. But, once we found out we weren't staying at SLU (which is where we were hoping to have him work for a while), all the little things I'd been putting off had to be done quickly. We also wanted to finish off the basement. We never had enough money to get that done before, so we hired a crew to come in and do it all. They were great. Four of them came in and put up trim, crown molding, drop ceiling tiles, lights, hose bibs, a door and ran electrical in ONE DAY! It was just amazing.
The living room towards the front door (tv got moved to finished basement room). I loved how much more open and quiet it was once the TV was moved.
The dining room looking into the office
The living room from the front door.
The kitchen paint got changed from red to white and I added the Celebrate family, friends, traditions sign. I loved it after it had all the red accents.
The office (we took out the bookcase, which never could have happened with all of Mitch's med texts, but it looks really nice here. The red bulletin board was a wonderful surprise present from a friend who had already helped me paint a ton!
Of course, after everything was done, we really wanted to stay; it looked so nice!
We are enjoying our new rental. It's a LOT bigger and I can't believe how much quieter it is in here. May have something to do with carpet instead of all hardwood floors, but it also has to do with the kids being able to spread out. They'll become engrossed in playing and after an hour of quiet, I have to go hunt them down. I am so used to being on top of each other that it's weird not hearing every little thing that they are doing.
We've spent quite a bit of the time at the neighborhood pool. All three of the kids are turning into fantastic swimmers. Yes, even Amelea, who was terrified to even get her big toe wet last year is swimming all around under the water. And, even with SPF 50 on all the time, they all have the cutest tan lines.
Another thing I'm so excited about right now is .... BERRIES! They've always been a luxury, but now I can get them! I am so enjoying eating all the berries that I want. Oh, and the monthly steak nights are awesome! Another one of my biggest excitements since he's getting paid now!
