Jake turned 2!!

Jake had his 2nd birthday a couple of weeks ago so I had his picture taken.  I am really happy with the way they turned out. :) He is such a goof ball.  I just love him.  He is silly, cuddly, naughty, goofy, and so happy.  I feel really lucky to have such a sweet baby.  I thought the train track pictures were a really cute idea.  Unfortunately he threw a two-year-old-sized tantrum right before and was in a terrible mood.  And he refused to give up that ball.  I brought it for a couple of pictures towards the end, but there was no way he was giving it back for the rest of the session.  I don't know how the photographer was able to get a single decent picture of him since he was running from one stop to the next at lightening speed.  He was doing circles around us.

Seriously?!

So I read this article http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20120727-eli-lehrer-your-doctor-makes-too-much-money.ece about how doctors and healthcare professionals make too much money.  I was so irritated by the end of it that I wanted to scream.  This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.  First of all, medical school tuition was much more than $25,000 a year.  Try double that.  And doctors have residencies they are required to complete, where other professions he is comparing them to don't.  Last I calculated, when Pete stays under the cap on hours each week (which they don't track because no one is going to be the guy who says, "Hey, I've worked too much this week.  I'm going home.") he was making 4-5 dollars an hour.  And the debt will take us much longer to pay off than this guy suggests.  In looking through job postings, I have never seen a job for a primary care physician making $200,000.  Plus, I think about the stress that some of these doctors are under; one wrong cut and the person they are trying to save could die.  That's a tremendous amount of responsibility that the average job doesn't have.  I liked this rebuttal that a physician sent in.  Especially the last paragraph because it is so true.  Same situation with teachers, too...  http://www.meandmydoctor.com/2012/07/setting-record-straight-on-doctor-pay.html?spref=fb&m=1&fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl

Phew.  Sorry for the rant.  Maybe at an earlier day, when I hadn't seen what I've seen or had the strain and stress on my husband and family that we've had, or packing around the enormous student loans, despite the fact that we lived on $20,000 a year during medical school, or heard the stories of patients spitting on my husband while he was trying to stitch up their gashed faces in the ER, or continually spent weekends, holidays, evenings, nights, parties, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, without my husband so that he could be in the hospital helping others, then maybe my opinion would be different.  But for now, you can't convince me that these doctors don't earn every cent of their keep.

San Diego

Wowsers.  It's been a long time since I've posted.  I hate that.  Then I feel all overwhelmed and irritated that I didn't keep up on it better.  Oh well.  You do what you can, right?

So Pete and I went to San Diego last week.  Alone.  Without kids.  None.  It was awesome!  Just to not have anyone hanging on me and crying and saying "Mom! mom! mom! mom! mom! mom!" 900 times was a much needed break.  Pete was presenting a research poster on the effectiveness of a boot camp-style training course they did last fall for the new otolaryngology residents at a conference down in San Diego, so I tagged along.  Pete's parents were nice enough to fly out and watch the kids while we went.  I knew the kids were in good hands and having a great time, so I didn't worry a bit.  About 20 minutes after we got to the airport and I had been reading a book while we waited at the gate I thought, "I feel so refreshed."  Just reading a book without interruption and being away from the kids for like an hour really helped!  Let alone having the whole weekend to myself. :)  Pete and I had a great time together.  We went to the San Diego zoo (Of course. Pete is a zoo junkie.), a Padres game, Old Town San Diego, the Mormon Battalion site, La Jolla Cove (beach with sea lions just hanging out.  So cool!) ate some great Mexican food, and had the biggest plate of yummy breakfast food I've ever seen (the pictures don't even do it justice).  We had a great time.

 French toast.  And it was so good!  Pete had biscuits and gravy with mashed potatoes and eggs.  I had a few bites and it was great.  We took our left overs back to the hotel and have them for dinner that night.

Here is a panda at the zoo. It was really cool.  It was laying back, just eating a bunch of bamboo, maybe 10 feet from us.  After living near the St. Louis zoo, which is awesome and free and cool, it is hard for me to get excited about zoos.  But the San Diego zoo was cool because you could see all of the animals really well and most of them were quite active.

Here are some pictures of La Jolla Cove and my super hot husband. :)

Here are some pics of Pete's parents with Jake.  I couldn't get pictures of the other two because they were busy running around.  The kids had a great time with them here.

Well there you have it.  Our trip to San Diego.

In other news, my children were driving me crazy today!  Argh!!  They were so naughty and were ignoring me and whining and screaming and sticking their hands in the toilet and scratching the paint on my new van, and not minding, and escaping time out, and making me crazy.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  It's gotta be.  Right??

My sister Shannon cracks me up.  I seriously look forward to reading her blog to see what she's up to.  She's just such an interesting person with an interesting life, which of course she doesn't think is interesting, but that's partly why it's so interesting.

Okay, I think I'm going to go to bed and start on life again tomorrow.  I'm done for tonight. :)

Little Climber

Jake is going through that stage where he thinks he needs to climb into, on top of, and over everything possible. It actually cracks me up. We put a huge basket on the stair landing to block him from climbing up the stairs. He somehow puts his little toes on the edge of the stair and then throws himself into the basket, climbs through all the shoes that are in it, and then climbs out the other end by the stairs, high-tailing it up the stairs as quick as possible so I can't catch him. He also likes to sit in his toy boxes and play with his toys. This is a picture of him sitting in my friend's cooler after a camping trip we went on. Funny. :)

I've been replaced...

I came up to bed the other day and this is what I found.

Wedding

Two good friends of ours got married yesterday evening (Matt & Stacey). Emily had the privilege of being one of the flower girls in the wedding. She was sick, so I was really worried that she wouldn't be able to make it, but she did great. The bride (Stacey) was so stunning and elegant. I had never been to a Catholic wedding before, so that was interesting. Matt is Jewish, so it was fun to see some of the Jewish traditions, as well.

Here are the flower girls with the bride before the ceremony.

So excited!

Emily and Jill waiting to line up for the procession.

Here they come!

The reception afterwards was so beautiful. It was definitely the most formal/fanciest wedding reception I have ever been to.

Here is Emily dancing with the groom (right before she collapsed & we took her home. She was SO tired!)

It was a really fun night (or really 2 nights with the rehearsal and dinner) with some great friends. I am so excited for Matt and Stacey and happy that they let us be a part of their awesome day. :)

Birthdays!

Pete and Jake share the same Birthday, August 22nd. Pete had most of the day off, which is a real treat for us. We went to lunch at a Sushi/Chinese buffet (Pete likes Sushi and the rest of us like Chinese).

While Pete was at work, the kids and I decorated the house. When he got home, we had dinner and then opened presents and had cake. I made Peter a dulce de leche cheesecake and Jake a baseball cake (pictures are on another camera and I haven't taken them off yet.) Jake enjoyed eating sweets for the first time. One of Pete's presents was tickets to a Red's game for the family. I'll post pictures of that soon.

These are my boys. Love them both so much! Anyone who knows Pete and me knows that we're a good fit; not in the sense that we're the same and go good together, but more like a jig saw puzzle where two different pieces seem to fit together. This baby is the sweetest thing. It's always hard to watch your baby get bigger, but with Jake, I am always just so grateful that he's with us and that he's healthy. Each day that he grows and I and see him exploring his surroundings more, I am reminded of that.

Here is a picture of Jake when he was a month old, buckled in the car seat to come home from the NICU. The picture next to it is how he looks now, 11 months later, sitting in his car seat. :)

(Don't mind his crazy hair and his crazy expression. It was nap time and he seemed really confused about us taking his picture!)