Is there a toddler in the house?

I heard the distinct sound of dog food hitting the kitchen floor. I rounded the corner to find Corryn doing this:

























I said "Hi" in that tone of voice that says "oh my, what are you into..."

She very cheerfully replied "Hi!" and went right back at tossing handfuls of dog food on the floor.

So now we have to step around it until the dog eats it all. I mean, really why bother picking it up- that's what the dog is for-right?

Oh, those eyes...

Just a picture for Love Thursday

Love Thursday is back!!!

Well, it has been for a while and I'm just now managing to put a post together. I need to get back in the groove of it again.

Today, love is sharing pizza and applesauce with a friend. In the same bite- as in roll up the pizza and dip it in the applesauce and then eat it. Completely gross, but it worked for them. It's really just all about the friendship, especially when they both know that we will be moving a long way away in just a few months and they will go much longer between seeing each other.
















Happy Love Thursday!

Indiana bound!

The decision is made- we are headed to Indiana in the fall! Contract negotiations are complete and the credentialing process (to obtain an IN license and hospital priviledges) is underway. We are awaiting the final originals of the contract to arrive in the mail, but already have the electronic version. We are so excited!!! The end of training-- and a brand new beginning are just around the corner. I still maintain it is bittersweet for me leaving New Hampshire. It's a beautiful place and I have many wonderful friends that I am leaving behind. I know it doesn't end the friendships, but it does change them. Dillon asked if we could buy small toys that she could give her friends before we moved so they would remember her.

To add to the excitement, we found out last night that a family we are good friends with will be moving just about 2 hours away from us in Indiana at about the same time. We've already been making plans to get together with each other and with their good friend in Chicago to visit some of the fun stuff there.

So exciting!!!

An offer

We received an official from the hospital in Indiana today!

Choosing between 2 great choices is a great place to be.

Tagged #1

I've been tagged twice lately & am trying to catch up!

Veganbaby tagged me a couple of weeks ago to share 5 random/weird things about myself and to list the top 5 places I'd like to see again.

First the personal info...
1)I'm really noise sensitive. I hate continuous loud noises like a TV or radio- or 5 year old pretending to be a pterydactyl. It becomes especially problematic for me in the evenings when I'm tired.
2) I dislike playing with kid toys. This isn't to say I dislike playing with my kids- there are many, many things I do like doing with them- playing with toys is just not one of them.
3)I enjoy knitting. I'm painfully slow at it and if I had to clothe my family with my knitting, we'd be some cold folks. But I still enjoy it.
4) I once started working on a Masters in Public Health. I was having second thoughts about it starting the second term, but having to take a statistics course did me in. I passed the course, but realized that public health wasn't really what I wanted to spend my life doing.
5)I've lived in 5 states and will be moving to a 6th one in about 6 months.

OK- five places I'd like to see again. There are so many new places I'd like to see, but there are a few I'd gladly revisit.
1) Hawaii-- and can't wait to do it
2) New York City- in spite of the crowds and noise. I went in high school and would love to go again, but only for a short visit
3)Canada- have actually been a few times, but not to the really pretty/interesting/historic parts
4)California- spent overnight in San Francisco on the way to Hawaii- I'd love to see more of it-especially Northern CA
5)Washington DC- such a cool place-- to visit.

Yay for me! I finally did it. I think I'm supposed to tag 5 more people, but I'll have to come back to that.

Job search update #5001

Here goes-

The TN job was filled. No further explanation than that was given, so that's all I have to share.

Virginia- we have a official job offer and they have asked for a response within 2 weeks. It would be a good job in a beautiful place.

Indiana- Dave met with the new medical director (Stan) friday. It went very well. Stan told Dave he wants him to work for him, so essentially another verbal offer. He will be meeting with all the powers that be on Monday. Supposedly, we are supposed to receive a written offer within a week. As always, we'll see.

The good news is that it really is almost settled. Finally.

Happy Birthday 5th Dillon (a little belatedly...)

OK, so her birthday was February 15th. We weren't late celebrating it, of course, I'm just a little late in posting about it.

She's 5 years old! I can't believe it! She's such a smart, curious, BUSY kid, it's almost hard to describe her. She asks 10,000 questions a day, comes up with the great realizations from the things we read and the movies she watches. She's incredibly creative and really a pretty amazing problem solver-- for 5 years old. She learned her alphabet - upper and lower case- in about 3 weeks once she decided it was interesting. She now regularly spells things out from signs she sees and asks what word it is. She also learned how to use a computer with amazing competence in that same space of time. Well, except for when she erased all the icons off my desktop, but we'll just nevermind that. Just last week she started writing letters and can make most of them recognizably. She's a great big sister most of the time and can make Corryn laugh like no one else can- though she can get irritated with Corryn's crying like no one else as well.

Her current favorites: Horses, horses and horses. Dinosaurs and anything to do with the human body are a very close second. She loves Dave's stories from work. She likes to cook with me, except that she doesn't like to help with whatever I'm making, she wants to make her own. This leads to some really interesting (and usually inedible) concoctions. But she's so proud of them and has learned a great deal about cooking just from being able to play with spices, flour and water.

Her current least favorites: eating- she proclaims it boring, cleaning up, getting into the bath- then interestingly enough, also dislikes getting out of the tub, still hates getting her teeth brushed, loud noises and crowds.

Opening presents (with a little help...):

A dinosaur!

Birthday cake! She wanted to use Corryn's "1" candle plus four regular candles to make 5. OK, whatever, it's her birthday-

Horses, horses, horses....


Happy Birthday, my no-longer-so-little one!

Where I've been

Nowhere, really. Literally. I'm struggling with this winter. It's my last New England winter and it's a doozy. Someone told Dave that by mid February, we'd had 7 feet of snow. I totally believe it. I find it so difficult to get 2 young kids bundled up to go outside, when I really don't want to be out in the cold myself. The days feel endlessly gray- which they are when you have gotten this much snow. Of course, spending all that time indoors isn't such a good thing either, so it's kind of a no win situation. With Dillon's brain and body whirling around with ideas for things to play- and all the toys that go with the ideas along with the sheer destructive forces of the full-fledged toddler Corryn, the house is hopelessly messy. Not just the cursory "Oh, please ignore the mess" kind of mess that you say when someone comes over, but the kick something everytime you take a step kind of mess. I feel like I'm drowning in stuff sometimes. It's just exhausting. Warm weather - and the ability to get outside easily- cannot come soon enough. It will do wonders for my mental state.

To share in the joy of the snow for my non-New England friends, some photos:

This is the current view outside the kitchen window. The bottom of the window is about 5 feet off the ground from the outside. That hump at the bottom of the picture is the pile of snow that is now visible, between what snow has fallen in addition to what has fallen off the roof. Since the backyard is so shady, I bet it'll be there, albeit shrinking, until late May. I'll try to remember to document it.

Looking at the street that runs beside my house-

Looking across the street at my neighbor's house- really, it's there.