A Surprise

A couple months ago Josh and I were surprised when we discovered this:

That's right, we're expecting baby #2!!!!!!

We were pleasantly surprised and so thrilled because we didn't have to do any fertility treatments! We are happy to have two kids close together! We had already planned on doing IVF again, and we are very happy that we won't have to pay for the expensive treatments now. We have been greatly blessed.

 

I just had my first ultrasound today and it was amazing to see this little life that is growing inside me! Plus, the temperature was in the 70's today so it's been a very good day. :)

I am 12 1/2 weeks along, due October 8th. I've been feeling tired and sick, but not so sick that I haven't been able to do my regular activities. I look forward to feeling like my normal self within the next few weeks though!

Hair

Today I got a haircut. Not a big deal, it was just a trim. But getting a haircut always makes me think about my hair.

You see, I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. I don't have easy hair to deal with, but when it's all done it can look really nice! It's thick, shiny, full of body, a good color. But, it takes a lot of work to get it looking nice!

My hair is really thick, and there's a lot of it. Every time I get my hair done the stylist will say "boy, you sure do have a lot of hair!" This means it takes a long, long time to dry. My hair is also pretty curly. This fact may not be obvious to a lot of people because I straighten it most days. But I straighten it because it's not all curly. I would love to wear my hair curly every day, but the top layer of hair is pretty straight while underneath there is a lot of curl (which became much curlier after I gave birth to Owen!). It really doesn't look that great, and it will be flat by the end of the day.

My thick, curly hair combination makes doing my hair a big hassle! I'd love a hair style/hair type where I could just let it air dry or do it in 5 minutes. Instead, it takes me so long to blow dry, then straighten with a flat iron. I'd say at least 20-30 minutes, which is way too long since I have to shower and apply makeup too. With a 1 1/2 year old begging for attention, taking this much to get ready is really difficult!

To make things easier I try to only wash my hair every other day, though I still might run a curling iron through it to get rid of bed head, but that's still much faster. I've also tried to quicken my routine by not completely doing my hair every day. The results aren't very appealing in my opinion!

blow dried only

air dried

scrunched with hair product and air dried

blow dried and straightened

Aside from being both blow dried and straightened, I think the scrunched with hair product looks the best. But with all the hair product I'd have to wash my hair every day. When I'm lazy or not going anywhere for the day I might air dry only, but then I feel frumpy and it bugs me. And I've thought about cutting it shorter to see if that helps but I've had shorter hair and I think I look better with longer hair.

So, for the most part I'll probably have to accept the fact that I'll be spending 20-30 minutes on my hair for the rest of my life! *sigh*

Lake Geneva

The traditional way to celebrate the Match Day is to get really drunk. Well, we opted for a more family-friendly way to celebrate so we went up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for a night. It's about 1.5 hours from here on the Wisconsin border.

We had so much fun! We stayed at Timber Ridge Lodge and Waterpark. It came recommended by a friend and we're really glad we went there. All the rooms are suites so our room came equipped with a kitchen, living room, separate bedroom, and big whirlpool tub. I think Owen's favorite part was when we all went "swimming" in the tub.

Then the hotel had a big indoor water park with lazy river, slides, and pools. Owen loved the lazy river and had a blast in the little kids pool! He got cold pretty quick though so we didn't stay too long.

Next door to the hotel were horse stables plus they had ducks, peacocks, goats, llamas, and a donkey. We spent part of our morning there and we all loved seeing the animals. The area around Lake Geneva is pretty and the weather was really really nice too!

On our way home we stopped for lunch at a Cheese and Brat Stop restaurant. We thought it summed up what we think of Wisconsin culture (that and beer we're sure!). We all ate greasy greasy food!

Our trip wasn't complete without a stop at the Jelly Belly Factory! We saw more jelly beans than I've ever seen in my life. The half hour tour is taken on a train ride around their warehouse where you watch tv screens to learn about the history of Jelly Belly and how jelly beans are made. Did you know, the Jelly Belly company was first to make the candy corn? And it takes about a week to make a jelly bean? The best part is the tour is free, and you get a sample of jelly beans at the end!

Owen did not want to wear his hat!

Our Fate Has Finally Been Revealed......

We'll be moving to.................

Albuquerque, New Mexico!!!

We're very excited, it was our #1 choice.

St. Paddy's

When it comes to St. Patrick's Day, Chicago really knows how to have a good time, and so do we! Actually, this is the first year we did anything more than just wear a tiny bit of green.

Over the weekend Chicago had its annual river dyeing and St. Patrick's Day Parade. I have wanted to see the green Chicago River ever since we moved here but I always had to work in years past. This year we were finally able to go, and despite the cold and drizzle it was so much fun!

Boats go out on the river to sprinkle the top-secret "magic leprechaun" dye into the river. It's magic because it starts out red/yellow on the surface then mysteriously turns neon green in the water! It's really fun to watch.

(and don't worry, it's vegetable based, not harmful to anything, and only lasts a few hours)

Getting started...

Getting greener...

Wow, look how green the river is!!!

Owen had so much fun watching the boats, and especially the bagpipers who were down below.

These boys were all so cute together!

For St. Patrick's Day we also wore green, drank shamrock shakes, and found a great deli, Manny's, where we ate corned beef for lunch, traditional St. Patrick's Day food. I don't think I had ever had a corned beef sandwich before, and it was so good! I could go for another one right now. :)

(not my picture, but taken from the deli website, so this is exactly what ours looked like)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We Matched

Josh got official word today that he matched into an emergency medicine residency program! I wasn't worried that he wouldn't match, but it's nice to know he for sure has a job.

Now we just have to wait until Thursday to find out where he matched. If it goes like my dream last night, we'll match to a 12 year program in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

(That was a nightmare!)

Stay tuned to find out where we'll be going!!!

Happy 8 Years

Eight years ago today I married the man of my dreams.

I was ready and excited for our new life and adventures together.

Well, it's been an awesome eight years babe!!! I love you!!!

Videos of Owen

Here are some videos of Owen so family can see some of what Owen likes to do now.

He loves his puzzles and shape sorter. He's really good and fast too. He likes to play a game where he'll put a shape on the wrong spot on purpose, shake his head 'no' and keep moving it til it's on the right spot. He can correctly identify circle, square, triangle, and star.

He loves to sing songs and play out the actions. His favorites right now are ring around the rosie, five little monkeys jumping on the bed, five little monkeys swinging in a tree, this little piggy, and the itsy bitsy spider. His other favorite song is twinkle twinkle little star and when I start singing it he'll run to get his nursery rhyme book and he'll open to the page with the star on it.






(sorry you have to hear my singing voice)

Spring will be here soon!

This past week the weather warmed up a little, and its started to give me happy spring thoughts! I know I shouldn't get too optimistic too soon because March always plays this nasty trick on us where it warms up, just to drop back to freezing later. But for now the temps have been in the 40's and it has been sunny (though rainy today) which means the snow is melting! There are little patches still here and there but most importantly we can see the grass again. Yesterday I walked somewhere in flats with no socks! I still needed a warm jacket but was happy to wear cute shoes. :)

Really, this winter has been pretty mild overall, probably our most mild of the four we've spent here. Less ice, less brutal wind, way fewer days below zero. It's been especially mild compared to last winter, so we here. We're sure glad we missed last year's winter and got good winter for our last year here!

Josh has Friday's off this month (yay!) so in honor of the warmer weather we took a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We hadn't been since before Owen was born, so this was Owen's first time there. When I was pregnant I couldn't wait til I could take Owen to the Lincoln Park Zoo, so this was fun to finally do it! Owen had a great time. We brought a stroller but Owen wanted to be a big boy and walk/run between each thing. He loved it. Here are some of the animals we saw.

 The lion came out for us right when we walked up! He gave us a few good roars too. Owen was fascinated.

 

Owen trying to climb through the animals. Don't worry, no big animals on the other side. They were all behind glass. (I know my mom well enough to know she will worry about that!) 

I had a hard time taking a good picture through the glass. The gorillas are my favorite exhibit. They are such powerful animals!

Ok spring weather and spring flowers, hurry up and officially get here so we can do more things outside!!!

Family Pictures

While we were in Arizona for Christmas we had pictures taken with Josh's family at the Mesa Arts Center. I think they turned out nice. Thanks Tara!

http://tarabowmanphotography.blogspot.com/

http://www.photosbytmb.com/

 

 

Fourth Year

We've often heard from med students and medical residents that the fourth year of med school is the best year! Several people have told us how they had it so easy and were home all the time and were able to travel before their killer intern year. Well, the first half of fourth year we weren't believing them! Josh was so busy with clinicals, with two away rotations, and with a whirlwind month of interviews. But now we are finally believing them!

Josh's schedule has been so nice lately. In February he only had two classes and no clinicals. This month is the same, plus he is going to start working as a TA for a class but it only meets once a week, and he'll get paid for it! Right now he has every morning free, and he even gets to eat lunch at home with me! He's worried he'll get bored, but I'm lovin' it. He does work out at least once a day if not twice, and he does prepare for his classes. But, if I need to run errands or go to an appointment it is SO nice not to have to worry about taking Owen along or arranging for a babysitter. I know I'm getting very spoiled! :) We hope to make the most of this luxurious fourth year by doing lots of things together, maybe evening traveling somewhere (we'll see). But then I know come intern year it's going to be a big dose of reality for the both of us!!