Camp Grandma

Lucas is spending the week at Karen and Paul's since luckily for him and sadly for us we are working too much this week to take care of him

ourselves. I've been getting daily updates and he is very obviously having a fantastic time. I'm loving the pictures and thought I would share.

Helping grandma clean but not hard enough to be able to earn clothes. But of course naked cleaning is the best.

Drinking early in the morning with Uncle Mike.

Wonder what Nash thinks about his couch being stolen?

And even without Daddy you are not safe from being tickled. The end is my favorite.

What happens when I'm on call

With permission from Matt I had to share this email he sent me on call the other day:

"Yes yard fairy; our fairy mowed, weeded, weedwhomped, weed killed, and then some. I did help the yard fairy with the garage. Cleaned everything out, swept, blew; sweated like crazy. Went to Target, picked up 2 new shelves, spent money (sorry). Went to Lowes, got tool hanger, more weed killer, spent more money (sorry again). Came home, put the new shelves together, put up the tool hangers, got everything up off the floor and organized. Awesome. Spent an hour looking at the back yard and talking about what to do with it. So hot out. Mom told us there was some water in the unfinished part of the basement. Crap, but whatever. Went down to check it out on the way to the backyard to haul rocks. Found a small puddle of water in front of the dryer. Yes, dryer, not washer. Trying figure out where it came from, thought the dryer hose felt heavy. Pulled it off, realized it was full of lint. And water. Crap. Completely pulled it off and threw it away. Looked in the dryer vent pipe. Full of wet lint. Double crap. Pulled the vertical pipe out. Took a wooden pole to clean it out. Worked okay, not great. Took a look in the pipe running to the outside. Eesh. Not good. Tried the wooden pole. Minimal improvement. Back to Lowes. New dryer connector, duct tape, and what can only be described as the worlds most awesome pipe roto rooter, spent even more money (seriously, REALLY sorry). Roto rootered the vertical pipe. Cleaned TONS of lint out. Sweet. Next up, the horizontal pipe. In goes the roto rooter, get out a lot of lint, then, just stops. Double crap. rotor rooter from the outside. Lots of difficulty, then break through. Pull out... pine needles? Mud? What the hell? Bird must have nested in there at some point. No joke. Spent the next hour roto rootering and getting more mud out. Shit was raining down on us. Like, probably literally fecal matter. Real nice. Spent the next hour doing that. Made it MUCH better, but not perfect. Getting an extender kit this week, going to work on it more Wednesday when my parents come back up. Dryer is fine, but have to wait till Wednesday to use it again (sorry to keep apologizing, but sorry). On the upside, clothes should dry MUCH faster now. So we have that going for us, right? Parents just left, just showered, going to now melt into the couch. Sorry I haven't been able to talk earlier, been working all day. Your son has been adorable though. Such a little mimic. Thinks he's super cool, too. Keeps clapping for himself. Hope you're having a good night. Missed you lots today."

Email cracked me up. Bottom line, I now have a fantastic garage as compared to the trash dump it used to be and a functioning dryer! (And a very sweet husband and very sweet in-laws. Thank you!)

What's for dinner?

Mom and dad are just not fast enough when it comes to getting dinner on the table. Sometimes you just have to take care of it yourself.

Teen & Tot

My parents and my sister just visited us for the weekend. How cute are these pics of Lucas and Jen? I love my two babies!

And a couple of other pictures. I should submit this next one to be the next CeCe's ad. Mmmm, so good.

And some pics with his favorite "ma" (we're working on the "O" in Oma).

India's Bachlorette & Our Travel Disaster

Part I: The Bachlorette

One of my closest friends India is getting married in July and we spend Memorial Day weekend in my roomie (and bestest friend)'s gorgeous house on Kiawah Island in South Carolina to celebrate with her! Stay tuned until the end to hear about the typical Israel travel luck (I just couldn't bring myself to start with that story since the awesome weekend definitely overshadowed the traveling)... why did I have to marry into that travel luck?

We had a fantastic time at the beach, going out in Charleston, hanging out at the house, and just having some much needed girl time. Here are some pics of my lovely India and our great weekend.

India, our future president (of the US of A that is), and bachlorette:

Emma (I think it was you?) talked a couple of guys into taking one of their horses out of the stable for our bachlorette. Not a tough feat for her.

And here India is with the Charleston fire department:

And all of us. Emma and I may have had a little crush on one of them. You can guess which one. :)

A beautiful day at the pool and beach:

The gorgous club pool on Kiawah:

Some cuddle time for me and Chetna:

Goofing in Whitley's family's elevator (yes, you heard right, elevator)

Picture before our fancy dinner out. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Herndon!

And my favorite. Whitley and her brother Will singing a Karaoke duet. So cute. Jenny, will you be my little brother?

Most of the details will have to remain under strict lock and key. We all promised. :) We had a great time. Thoughts on location for get together 2011, girls?

Part II: Traveling with the Israels

... I think I never quite understood until I was part of it...

PS: This is the short version. The long version was even more painful. Promise.

And on a different note. The quick story of our traveling disaster (if you're still with me). Matt traveled to NYC for the weekend for the Britt's (India's groom's) bachelor party and we by coincidence had ended up booking the same flight for our Nashville -> Atlanta leg. Long story short, our flight first got delayed, then got diverted to Huntsville (which I was initially excited about since that was the current location of my sweet baby) where we sat on the ground for an hour and a half without getting off the plane before arriving in Atlanta several hours late. By that time I had missed my flight and was unable to get on any other flight that night. My husband got super bonus points because he gave up his flight (which was still there) to stay with me. Bad decision. The hotels were all super full and it took us calling 12+ hotels to find a room. We finally arrived at the hotel at 2 am after a 1+ hour long wait on the wrong shuttle, a ride on the wrong shuttle, a rude receptionist at the wrong hotel, and then a ride of the right shuttle to a mildly sketchy hotel. We slept for 4-5 hours and arrived back at the airport only to find out that now Matt's flight had been cancelled. We thought we would never get anywhere. There may have been some tears (me, not Matt...surprise I know). We finally ended up on flights and go to our respective locations by about 1-3pm in the afternoon. Good thing that it was a three day weekend. Only non-stop flights from now on. On the way back we had to sacrifice fake chickens (inside joke...no worries) to make it home. But we did. And we had fantastic weekends so it was all worth it in the end!

PS: We are so thankful for my brother-in-law Mike who was trying to bail us out of the flying mess from his computer at home. You have a real talent Mike. I am starting to understand the importance of it!

Looking forward to the wedding. Los Angeles July 10th!!! (We have a non-stop flight)

And the PICU begins...

I survived day #1 in the ICU. I got to the hospital a full hour after my co-resident and still managed to leave before her so I guess you could call that success. We have a sick bunch of patients. I am starting on the cardiac side of the ICU and will switch to the medicine side in about two weeks. I'm sure Matt would be loving these babies but me... not so much. Just to give you an idea of our kiddos: two of my eight patients this morning have their chests still open post-operatively, one has a Berlin heart (a device that acts as the left ventricle until a donor heart is found for transplant), and one is three days out from his heart transplant. So far things have gone okay, but we'll have to see how call goes tomorrow. I hear that's the crushing part. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

On a lighter note, I have lots of stories from memorial day weekend: getting stuck in the airport, seeing my favorite college girls, and celebrating India's upcoming wedding! Stay tuned for (selected) pictures and stories once I have time. It's only 8pm but time for bed so I can survive my 30 hour shift tomorrow. Boo.

Congratulations Matt!!

Matt will officially be a cardiology fellow at Vanderbilt starting July 2011!!

I am so proud of you, sweetie! It takes a lot to be a star resident, get ready for fellowship, be a wonderful husband and dad all at the same time and you manage to do it every day. Lucas and I look forward to taking this next big step with you. And we're excited to stay in Nashville. I was ready to buy those parkas for Michigan but am glad that we won't have to.

Heart the heart!