The Waiting Game...

33 days until we find out if we match.... 37 days until we find out where...

And we're just waiting...

sitting, and thinking, and waiting.

This has to be quite possibly the worst waiting game ever. Everything is a big fat question mark that you have absolutely no control over. No planning for vacations, no planning for birthday parties, no planning for anything because you have absolutely zero idea what the next few months will hold.

In the meantime I guess Daniel and I will keep having match day dreams/nightmares (yes we both have them at least once a week), keep getting rid of junk around the house (this will either make the move easier or our house cleaner), and I will keep completely wasting my time by looking at houses and school districts in all of our top 5 cities (it's how I'm coping.. just let it be).

Linking Up

I'm a big reader of blogs that are written by medical wives since we're right smack dab in the middle of our journey. Well a blog that I recently started reading, Medicine: A Love Story has started a link up on Thursdays.... and I decided I wanted to try to take part in it! I"m hoping to start writing more about our medical journey as the next 5 years are about to get nuts-o so I figured this would be a good starting point.... so here goes nothing!
  

This weeks question: What's the most interesting medical fact you've learned vicariously?

Being married to someone in medicine you learn a lot. I mean let's face it.... you're basically a doctor too (Daniel loves it when I say that). A few things super interesting, some things helpful, a lot of things you could care less about, and a ton of things that just make you say "ew". I'll start with a helpful fact I learned.... and then move on to something more exciting.... and "ew" fact.

Helpful fact: As I'm sure most moms were (unless they happen to be in the medical field too), my mom gave Tylenol the second my temperature got to 99.9.  "Got to keep that fever down!"  "Don't want to have a seizure!" Ideas that that were common in my house/family in general (and I still hear them anytime I tell them my little boy has a fever). But since I've been on this medical school journey I now know that fevers are great! Yeah, they mean you're sick, but you want a fever. I means your body is doing what it's suppose to and fighting the infection. So as long as you don't have a history of seizures, you're not in pain, and you're not rockin a temp of over 104..... it's probably safe just to wait out on the Tylenol.  Cue, "You're a crazy lady, I'm given my kid Tylenol right now" faces.  For me that's great knowledge since I don't like using medicine for myself (or little one) unless I absolutely have to :)

Now onto the part you've been waiting for.... my "ew" medical fact.  This will be short and sweet. Because I don't like to think about it....
While eating dinner I was putting butter on some corn on the cob (sometimes it's just necessary to make your healthy food a little less healthy) and Daniel, out of no where says.... "you know what cauterized fat looks like?"  and before I could even say "No...  I rather not know"..... he  splurts out "butter".
Nice babe, nice.

Naptime Update

Hello all of my non-creepy readers!!  Sorry about having to make reading the blog a tad bit more of a hassle with a password but a super, super creepy happening took place a little too close for home with a friends blog so I decided it was time to make this one a little more protected! Plus... I might as well make you guys work a little for all of the cute little boy pictures and tips I put on here ;)

Here's a quick update on what's been happening in the crazzzzy world that is our life this semester...

Me....
So I have two weeks left in my second grade classroom. Geez louise has the time flown by!  These last two weeks I'm teaching the class 110% of the time so prayers for me as i step into my new role!  Second grade has really grown on me and my class and coworkers are simply amazing!  I've survived second grade without being eatin alive but I think my heart is still with pre-k!  I have a class on Tuesday evenings that is kickin my tushy!!  It is a research class and it is IN-TENSE. It is taking a lot of my time. It's suppose to go along nicely with our student teaching.... but I feel like it is taking away from the experience a ton.  I am so wrapped up in getting stuff done for this research project that I can't give student teaching the attention it should require. It's pretty frustrating. But overall I am enjoying my time and my confidence has come back. One thing this experience has confirmed for me is that public schools aren't for me. I had always thought this but actually being in one has set my mind even more. I love the kids, love the teachers, but don't love the way the system works or their approach on education.Yesterday I took the last of my licensing exams. I'm waiting on the results of the last two (OSAT & OPTE) and if I passed I'll be on the last leg of being a certified teacher in Oklahoma :)

Daniel...
Daniel has now completed his time with OB/GYN, Pediatrics, and this week has started Psych. Luckily his schedule has yet to be real bad  so we've all been able to spend some time together each evening and on the weekends. I know things won't stay this way for long so I'll just enjoy it while I can :)  As far as what he wants to specialize in he's still undecided. I think he does know for sure that he rather work in a hospital setting than in an office. OB/GYN was actually really interesting to him.... and he's for sure not going to do pediatrics or psych. I think his heart is in surgery and if I was making bets on it I think that's what he'll end up doing.

Daxton...
Well I'm not going to post a whole lot on him because I gave you guys a pretty good update in the last post. But he's just as awesome as ever :)  He has the funnest personality and now makes this face at you when he wants you to laugh at him

He is signing more, all done, eat, and has done water a couple times. He has also started saying a couple 2 word sentences, "all done", and the other day "hi dada".   Our little piggy though has decided to become little mr. picky butt and only eat a select few things. Even things that he use to love he has decided are just disgusting. In my 13 month email from babycenter the other day though it mentioned this exact thing may be happening and that it's only a phase..... so I'm just waiting for that phase to end!  I also think he may be teething again which is a bummer but good thing all in one. This boy also loves his Mawmaw!! She came to visit us for a couple days and he was just in heaven the entire time.... I think he thinks she hung the moon... and I think she thinks he did the same :)

We also had a little parrot run loose in our house the other night.... I think we'll keep it :)

Our 12 Month Old

So it's pretty depressing not having as much time to blog anymore as I did this summer.... but tis life I guess. Well since our last post I have started student teaching (which has gone great and I am gaining my confidence back day by day.. more on that on another post), Daniel is finishing up his weeks of Pediatric wards (which he has decided is way to depressing for him), Dax has is still a rock star at daycare (I'm pretty sure he's a fav among the teachers), I have started my class on Tuesdays (which is going to be the DEATH of me), and then there was this little known event called, Daxton's first birthday!!!

That's right folks... I have a toddler.  Here's a quick run down of where our boy is at 12 months (that feels much easier on my heart to say than one).

* Walking... all. over. the. place..... and with this walking brings even more disaster to the house. I thought he was into everything before.... yikes... that's nothing compared to now.
* We are down to our morning bottle (which is going to be hard to break.... we both love that time a lot) and the rest of the day is finger foods, the occasional puree, milk, and water.
* As of yesterday he has two teeth! I thought we were going to have to buy this boy some dentures but turns out he just likes doing things on his own time :)
* He has a girlfriend at daycare..... they're often seen playing together and I caught them holding hands at the snack table yesterday....
* He just talks and talks and talks. He mimics pretty much every sound now and is super good at mimicking the tonation of your voice. It's pretty fun.
* It sleeping so, so, so good at daycare!! He takes an hour nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon!! This is way better than he ever slept at home! And did I mention it's on a cot?? Such a big boy! Bedtime is still great. He goes to bed between 6 and 7:30 and is up at about 6:00 in the morning.
* His favorite toys right now are balls (especially his ball pit), dump trucks, books, blocks, musical instruments, walking toys, and anything with a door that opens and closes. Bubbles are still one of his absolute favorite things too.
* His little personality is so funny. He's getting where he laughs at himself and will do things just to get you to laugh at him. His favorite thing right now is to pretend like he's eating. He'll hold food up by his mouth and make a smacking noise and laugh. Pretty. Cute.
* He is quite the dancer now and has moved on from the raise the roof move to full on bouncing my body.
* When we go outside of look out the window he looks up at the trees and says, "bird". Melts my heart.
* He has a yucky virus starting the end of last week until yesterday. Started with tummy nastiness and moved on to a nose that dripped like a faucet, sore throat, congestion, and coughing. Thankfully that's over.
* He will randomly walk up to you and lay his head over on you and say "awwww". It's. adorable.
* He's a climber. He tries to climb on anything and everything he can.... so daddy and I got him a toy made just for that for his birthday (more on that later too).

Here are some recent pics of our 12 months old....

sweet boy...

Mommy & daddy's entertainment

Dax's favorite hang out

My newest nephew Kason Ryan!!

Big boy on his birthday!!

and he's off....

Well I just got back from dropping Dax off at daycare for the first time in almost 4 months, and I"m not going to lie.... I cried all the way home, and probably will most of the time I type this.  Dax was in daycare for 6 months when he was little, but the majority of that time he was in a classroom right next door to mine and I could stop in and see him as many times as I wanted throughout the day.  At the beginning of May I quit teaching in order to make our move to Bixby and since then have been a full time stay at home mom.

It has been the absolute hardest job I have ever had, but by far the most fulfilling.

I have loved staying at home taking care of the baby and house more than anything. I love teaching, but have been my happiest and most fulfilled while staying at home. I know it's just not an option right now while Daniel's in med school but hopefully I'll get to do it again sometime in the future... and I can't wait for that day.

Monday I start student teaching. I'll do this for a semester and then will be certified to teach in Oklahoma (after I pass the OPTE & OSAT). To be completely honest I'm not really looking forward to this at all, which I know is an awful awful attitude to have (and I'm praying for that to change everyday). But like I said, I have felt more fulfilled staying with Dax than I ever have teaching, and I have never looked forward to teaching in public schools... it just doesn't go along with how I view education and learning.  I have also been doubting myself in my ability to teach more in the last few weeks than I ever have and that's not helping much with the attitude towards this student teaching experience. If I can make it through the first 8 weeks I think I'll be happier and look forward to it a little more.
My student teaching is broke into two separate experiences. The first 8 weeks I'll be working in a 2nd grade classroom at a HUGE (as in like 5 times as many students as I graduated with, and that's only through 4th grade) public school nearby.  The last 8 weeks I'm actually somewhat looking forward to. I'll be teaching a pre-k class in a private school that follows the Reggio Emelia approach to education (if you haven't heard of it, please, please check it out!). This is right up my alley and goes right along with everything I believe. We actually have Dax on the wait list for this school in hopes of starting him fall 2012.  I'm also looking forward to the fact that this is a Pre-K class because infants through Pre-K are my ideal ages to teach. If this was first I think the transition from being stay at home mom to teaching would be a lot easier.

Please continue to pray for Dax and I as we make this transition. I'm sure he'll love it and do just fine... so I guess most of the prayers should be sent my way. Pray for strength to do what's necessary for my family at this time, confidence in my ability to teach, and peace of mind and heart during all the changes this semester holds for us.
This was the verse in my devotional I got by email today from Parenting by Design.  So, so perfect.

Ps 27:13-14:  "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" (NKJV).

and the story goes from there...

To finish off my series on Daniel and I, I have a couple more special pictures to share...

While I was pregnant I was completing my last year at OU for Early Childhood Education and Daniel was completing his first year of medical school. It was a very, very busy and eventful year for us. We were both reaching a very big personal goal of ours while starting a brand new chapter in our lives as parents. One door was closing, while a million more were opening. Looking back I am so proud of both of us for remaining so dedicated and doing so well in school while having other big things on our mind (you know, like that little person growing inside of me). Without Daniel's love and strength and support there's no way I would have been able to do it. This picture was taken the day I graduated college, 6 months pregnant with our future little sooner <3 This little boy is 100% sooner born and bread.

And this my friends is our very first family picture. There are simply no words to express this moment. You can read my birth story here if you want to hear about this chapter of our lives. Who would have thought ten years ago, when we were only 14, that this is what the future had in store for us. Our story is far from being completed... but so far... I'd say we're on our way to our fairytale happy ending.

Happy three year anniversary love (yesterday). I love you more than words can express and I can't wait to see our what the next ten years has in store. 

Three years ago today, rehearsal was done, dinner with all the special people my life was over, and I was at my moms house with the best friends a girl could ask for trying to stay calm and rest up for the big day. That was nearly impossible, because I knew when I woke up in the morning I would be marrying the love of my life.

For our one year anniversary we went on a cruise with my brother and sister in law. It was the absolute funnest thing I had ever done! I had never been to the ocean before and neither of us had been on a cruise so this was a whole new, fun experience for us to share with each other. We ate way too much food, played BINGO with hundreds of other tourist, shopped, rode on a catamaran, snorkeled, laid by the pool, and watched the sun rise and fall together. It was 110% stress free and gave us time to really enjoy each others company before Daniel would start med school. We also knew that we would soon want to start a family so having a getaway like this was something we really wanted to do before then. It was the absolute best getaway possible.

A couple months after our cruise Daniel received his white coat and began his journey through medical school. Medical school was something that Daniel worked so hard for and seeing him start that journey was one of the proudest moments of my life.  This man surprises me everyday with how amazing he is and his love and compassion for people blows me away. He doesn't want to become a doctor because they make good money.... he wants to be a doctor so he can help the people who need it. If doctors got paid the same as teachers, there's no doubt in my mind that he would still do it. That is probably one of my favorite things about Daniel. How again did I get so lucky?

This picture is so, so special to me. This was taken Christmas Eve 2009, two nights before I found out I was pregnant. At this point we had been trying 6 months to conceive. I know that time is nothing compared to what many couples go through but it was still very hard for me. Month after month I "knew"  I was pregnant, but would end up being really disappointed each time. It was really, really tough. And this may be possible TMI, but we finally resorted to ovulation test in hopes that we would finally be able to start our family.  At the time this picture was taken I had a slight suspicion that I was pregnant simply because of the extreme exhaustion and headaches I was having... but tried hard not to get my hopes up again. Well the day after Christmas came and though I had originally wanted to wait a few more days before I took a test I just couldn't do it because this time something felt different. I woke up first thing in the morning, took a test... and waited patiently for what seemed like forever. When a faint line showed up I was ecstatic! I had planned out all these ways I wanted to tell Daniel but those all went out the window and I went and woke him up with the news. We were both really excited... but since the line was faint we wanted to make sure.... so I ended up taking two more test and sure enough they all had two lines. This was the day we had been waiting for and a day I will never forget. Our family of two was now a family of three.

Mr & Mrs

Day three... ready... set... go...

So Daniel grew up an OU fan and I an OSU fan (if you aren't from around here those are the two major universities in Oklahoma  and are huge rivals). In high school it was always fun on game day to watch and see who's team would win and then that person would rub in in the others face for an entire year, until the next game. Well when I started going to OU this boy quickly converted me into a die hard Sooner fan. For 4 years of our lives we spent every Saturday together during football season. We would walk to the stadium (about a 20 minute walk) four hours before the game started, sit in line for 2 hours to make sure we would get good seats, run to those seats once the gate opened with the rest of the sooner "cattle" running to stake their claim, and then would sit there in the elements (either 100 degree sunshine or 30 degree windchill) for two hours until the game started (if you've never been to an OU game in the student section it really is an event you MUST experience once... it's awesome). We would then stand for the entire game, about 4 hours, and yell and scream and high five as we watched our team win. It was always so much fun and I feel completed our college experience. It's another thing that will be really fun to tell our grand kids about one day.  OU football became such a big part of our lives that we actually decorated Dax's room in it.... complete with a mobile that sings Boomer Sooner :)

My family absolutely adores Daniel. He really is everything that I would hope my future daughter, cousins, and nieces find in a man and I think that's why my family loves him so much. My family loves going on trips together so because of that Daniel and I have had a lot of opportunities to go places together. One of my absolute favorite places to go is Crested Butte, Colorado. I've been there twice and have told Daniel that I would move there the day he says "go". This picture was taken on a family trip there where us and about 15 other family members rented a ski in/ski out condo and spent 5 days soaking up CB. It was so much fun getting to experience such a beautiful place with Daniel... and also a lot of fun watching each other bite it pretty hard a couple... okay maybe a lot, of times.

And then there was this. No doubt the second best day of my life, next to the day Dax was born. This was the day I married my best friend and showed all of our family and friends an outward expression of the love we had inside for the last 7 years.  It was absolutely perfect and everything I had hoped it would be. I always hear people talk about things they would have changed about their wedding.... but I can't think of one. I remember the doors to the chapel opening and seeing Daniel for the first time, and from there it's a blur until this exact moment in the picture. This was immediately after the preacher announced us husband and wife and was one of the happiest moments.ever. I remember looking around and seeing everyone that we love just as happy as us and feeling so lucky to share that moment with them. This picture is also really special to me because I feel like it really captures the feelings that we were both having at that very moment. Again, best.day.of.my.life.

A Growing Love

Well here's day two of my anniversary series for me and my hubby....

For our junior and senior year of high school Daniel went to Oklahoma School of Science and Math. During this time he would live in the dorms at that school and we would only see each other on weekends (if that) and could only talk for about an hour or so each night... usually over AIM. The first year of this was a rough adjustment for us and we ended up separating for about six months, the only time in the past 10 years we have been apart. Despite that time being the hardest, longest, toughest six months of my life, I think we can both look back now and attribute who we are and the strength of our relationship now to those six months being apart. Needless to say, after those six months we both new we didn't want to spend another day away from each other for the rest of our lives.

Senior year was great. Though we still only got to see each other on the weekends and occasionally throughout the week when I would bring him McDonalds for dinner, our relationship was better than ever. When he could, he would go to DCHS football games with me and I would go to events at his school with him. We went to each others prom and went to youth group together every Sunday at church. Summers were spent at the lake with my family, at church camp, or just hanging around at each others houses. Our youth group was just awesome and there's no doubt in my mind that our time there and at our AMAZING summer camp (Dayspring) played a huge role in the success of our relationship.

After graduation we decided to both attend the University of Oklahoma where we would spend the next five years together. Our freshman year we both lived in the dorms with awesome roommates and had the best experience I could wish for. Some of my favorite memories of college were late night runs to Burger King in the dorms and walking to and from the library late at night with sushi, coffee and other random snacks and studying in the private rooms with our friends Jacob and Shirlene. Daniel taught me a study ethic that I was not taught in high school and without him there by my side there is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have made it through college. He helped me and pushed me and always had confidence in me when I didn't. Daniel joined a fraternity and I joined a sorority that were both small and community service oriented and allowed us to have our own separate thing that we both loved and were passionate about, yet gave us chances to form memories together as well (this picture is from one of my sorority formal). College was an awesome experience and sharing all of those memories and the enormous amounts of growth that happened there with my love is irreplaceable. I think it will be so much fun to be able to tell our kids and grand kids someday about our times together in college... and I look forward to that so much!