Go together well

I will blame residency for another lapse in posting! The days (and many of the nights...) have been full, and as I move from one rotation to the next, I am increasingly pleased with my match in family medicine. It is very fulfilling, though at times overwhelming, to be a witness to the full range of the human experience. I get to be the first person to hold a newborn baby, to support a family through the dying process, and to be there for people at every stage in between. There are daily reminders both of how difficult and of how great life can be. Every day is an adventure! A few updates:  After 30 fracture-free years, Chris has broken both his collarbone and his right thumb this year, on separate occasions... In spite of his fragility, he has had a great time working as a junior high teacher. I'm more than halfway done with residency, which is crazy! I was elected as a chief resident for next year. Tessie is still awesome. Vermont has been super cold but with great ...

After a month of feeling constantly as though I was struggling to keep my head above water, I am feeling much more relaxed...at least in part because I am no longer working on the chaotic cardiology service! I have moved on to taking care of babies --two weeks in the NICU, then two weeks in the newborn nursery.  At one point during my cardiology rotation, Chris said, "Life is a lot more enjoyable when we view it as an adventure instead of as a chore." Which is very true--and easier to enact at some times more than others. But, in addition to being an adventure, life is a work in progress!  In a few days, it will be 7 years since the day Chris and I met at a bar in Granada  and our shared adventures began.  We've done a lot together since that time: we've traveled to 4 countries, lived in 4 states (and traveled to...20?), earned 5 degrees between the two of us, raised a puppy, and made lots of great new friends (while also enjoying our "old" friends)...

Five years ago today, two of my dearest friends got married! It's hard to believe how much can happen in five years! Vickie got a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California-Irvine, she and Dan had a baby (who is now one!), and they moved back to the middle of the country for Dan to get a PhD at KU in Lawrence, Kansas. I got an MD and MPH, got a puppy, got married, moved from Chicago to Omaha to Baltimore to Burlington, and started residency. Even crazier is that last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion! I wasn't able to make it home for the celebration, and I both can't and can believe that it has been 10 years. I have changed so much since 2003--and I can't say I'm especially sad that I wasn't able to see the temporary posting of the class of 2003 slideshow on the Sidney High School website ! 

Today is my brother Matthew's 23rd birthday! (My family prefers to have birthdays exclusively in the months of April and November .)  At some point, I started calling Matthew "Maffrew," which has subsequently been shortened to "Frew." I don't really know how that started, but I don't think he minds. At least,  I think he prefers it to "Math," which is what one of his kindergarten classmates called him.  ("Can I call you Math?" "No." "Hi, Math!") {me at 5-1/2, with baby Frew} When my parents told my older brothers and me that we were going to have another sibling, I promptly began to pray each night for a sister. In spite of the fact that my prayers were not answered, I wasn't all that disappointed in the end (as you may be able to tell from the picture). He even let me dress him up in a tutu and teach him ballet positions, so I really wasn't deprived at all.  We have missed him a lot sinc...