End of October Happenings

The month of October is quickly coming to an end.  Only a week left, which makes me a little sad because October happens to be one of my favorite months.  But, with so much going on lately, it's difficult to dwell on the fact that it's almost over.

Josh is still on nights.  He starts a new service on November 1st, so I guess that's one reason to be happy that October is almost over!  Ryan and I have been busy busy having festive fall playdates with friends.  Last week we met at Nashoba Winery for a picnic and pumpkin painting with many of our little girlfriends.  The pumpkin painting was a good idea, in theory.  But real painting only lasted about 45 seconds.  I'm thinking art supply usage is still a few months off with this toddler.  We haven't quite mastered the concept that we don't eat paint.

There are now more leaves on the ground than there are on the trees, which provides lots of fun for Ryan and picture taking opportunities for me.  But it also means winter is quickly approaching and I'm not sure I'm ready for a Massachusetts winter yet.  Actually, I know I'm not.

We were also so lucky to have one of my best high school friends Alexa all the way out here from Seattle, Washington for a few days.  We hadn't seen her since December of last year so this was quite a treat.  She got to see what day to day life is like with a toddler.  Lucky her. :) Ryan now has a new BFF and we miss her already!

And now we are busy prepping for my birthday, last minute Halloween costumes, and most importantly, my parents arrival from California tomorrow.   This last week of October is definitely going to fly by.

Fall Family Photos

The minute I knew we were moving to Massachusetts, I had daydreams about doing some family photos in the fall foliage.  Massachusetts weather and a residents work week made it somewhat difficult to schedule, but we were able to take some pictures a couple of weeks ago amidst the beautiful fall leaves and I couldn't be happier with the photos from Emily at EESmith Photography.

She did a fantastic job working with my overall goal of finding the perfect spot to take some fall photos and getting Ryan to more or less cooperate for over an hour (not an easy task!) and she did all this at 36 weeks pregnant.  What a woman!  She specializes in newborn photography so if you are in the area and have a little one due in the near future, definitely check Emily's work out.  I have no doubt that one of these photos will be making an appearance on our Christmas card this year. :)

Happy Fall Ya'll!

An Apple A Day

Last week, some of my girlfriends took Ryan and I apple picking at Tougas Farm.   We were the virgin apple pickers of the group and now that I can officially say I've picked apples from an apple tree, (and so has Ryan for that matter) I feel like this needs to be a yearly tradition.  Do they even have apple picking farms in California?  I don't think so.  Guess we better stay in Massachusetts for awhile. :)

You could pick apples based on buying a "bushel," (20lb bag) or a "peck" (10lb bag) and then just fill your bag with as many kinds of apples as you wanted.  Side note:  I had NO IDEA how many different varieties of apples there are.  Of course there were the ones you normally hear of like Gala, Honeycrisp, and McIntosh but then there were kinds like Pinova (which tastes kind of like a pineapple) and Courtland (great for baking) and about 20 others.

It was so fun to walk down the orchards of apple trees while eating an apple right off the tree.  Ryan especially loved it.  She is quite a fan of locations where she can just run free, so the apple orchards were great.  Add the fact that she could carry around and eat a delicious apple....toddler heaven.

Of course, she was all kinds of sticky, sweaty, messy, and tired by the end of our apple picking adventure, but it was totally worth it.  We would definitely go back.  Hopefully with Dad next time!

True Life, I'm a Resident: An Entire Month on Nights

Every month, Josh switches services that he's rotating on.  For example, he started out on Vascular Surgery, followed by Thoracic Surgery.  He'll do other services in the upcoming months like Trauma Surgery and Surgical Oncology.  There are two different hospitals in which he switches back and forth between depending on the service he's on.

At one of the hospitals, people switch off during the week of taking the night shift, but at the other hospital, one resident is staffed for the whole month on nights.  It's nice on one hand because it means that certain months, Josh will never/rarely have to work a night shift.  But, pretty much every intern resident has to take their turn as the night shift guy/girl and October is Josh's month.   I've been dreading this month since we got Josh's schedule back in July. He works every Sunday night through Friday night for the entire month.  His only night off is Saturday night, but since he's doing nights all month long, it's near impossible to get off the night schedule for only one night a week.  So last night, despite the fact that he wasn't working, he was up until 4:30am.

What does that look like for family life?  Well, as you can imagine, it's not that great.  Really, residency in general is not that great for family life right?  But, we learn to work with what we've got.  We usually see Josh for 45 minutes or so in the morning when he gets home around 7am while he scarfs some breakfast err dinner?  (Sidenote:  Josh has lost over 20lbs since starting residency. I need to hop on this diet plan).  He sleeps most of the day and wakes up around 4pm where we get another hour or two before he goes in to work at 6pm.  It's tough, but this is resident life.

At least Ryan and I are going to have some visitors in the next couple of weeks to help us occupy our time.  One of my best friends Alexa is coming to visit for a few days followed by my parents at the tail end of the month.  We can't wait.

On another note, Josh got to do his first solo appi (the surgical lingo for an appendectomy).  He completed it all on his own from start to finish, with another surgeon in the room of course.  But still, my husband is just growing up and becoming a real doctor.  Hard to believe that four years ago he was prepping for Biochemistry and Anatomy midterms in England and I was wondering how we were ever going to make it all the way to this point.  Just goes to show that God IS Faithful.

Looking forward to November when Josh can get back to 80 hour DAYTIME work weeks and an entire week of vacation!

California Trip

Ryan and I got back from our 10 day trip to California this past Sunday.  We had such a great time visiting all of our extended family and good friends but were anxious to get back to our normal routine being gone for over a week.  Ryan did exceedingly well.  She really adapts to change like a champ.  Both a 3 hour time change, change in location, and lots of new (old) faces didn't really phase her, especially considering that she was getting her first canine tooth the whole time!

She is also such a great flyer.  A six hour plane ride with a 15 month old is a bit daunting for anyone but though I was exhausted from entertaining her the entire time, she didn't fuss once and I had a number of passengers comment on what a great little traveler she is.  I also got really lucky in that I got to have a seat for her despite not buying a ticket for her (makes a world of difference).   My advice for a long flight with a little one, lots of snacks, small new toys (try Target's dollar spot), an iPad with fun apps and a movie or two, and being ready to walk the aisles every hour or so.

Getting ready to deboard the plane. I think she was ready to get off!

Anyway, once in Bakersfield, we spent the week doing some super fun things like a dental appointment, hair appointment, and a trip to the DMV (enter extreme sarcastic voice here).  Haha.  We also got to visit with all of our friends and family that we hadn't seen in 5 months.  Ryan wasn't even walking when we left CA in May!  Her 3 older boy cousins, Caleb, Cole, and Jacob were SO excited to see her.

Ryan and Lala

Playing the hose water with her older cousins.

First ice cream cone

We also got to visit with one of my besties Andrea and her little guy Jeremiah.  She had him in May soon after we left for Massachusetts so this was my first time meeting him.  He's big (little) guy now!

Ryan got to enjoy so much time with her Grampy and Grammy Fairman, though they may have enjoyed it more. :)  We are so excited for them to visit us at the end of the month and experience an MA fall.  Especially since it was so warm in California still.

We got to see all of her aunties and uncles too.  They all spoil her with so much love.  As well as three of her Great-Grammas.  And no offense to any of our family, but she may or may not have loved hanging with my parents four little dogs more than any of them.  I think dog ownership may be in our future.

And perhaps tortoise ownership too.

What a great visit it was.  But we were so excited to get home to see Daddy and sleep in our own beds!

Headed to LAX on our way back to Dad!