Give Me A "Break"

It's been an extremely busy, exciting, exhausting, and depressing last few weeks in our life.  For starters, we moved into a rental home in Paxton, MA which is a small (population < 5,000) town just outside of Worcester.  The commute for Josh isn't bad, only about 15 minutes.  Small town life will take some getting used to as there is no actual grocery store in Paxton nor is there a gas station but we have a beautiful home on a quiet, family oriented street with a big yard, garage, basement storage and more bedrooms.  After almost five years of apartment living, this home feels heaven sent.  It's absolutely perfect for a young growing family.

While this move was super exciting and needed, moving in and of itself is something I am SO OVER DOING.  Josh and I have moved every single year for the last five years.  Some have been big moves to different countries while others have been smaller moves to different apartments but moving is moving and it stinks.  Add in pregnancy, a toddler, and a resident schedule and let's just call it downright miserable.  We somehow survived packing, moving out, and moving in with the help of a few extremely generous friends who donated their time and muscles to our somewhat pathetic cause.

Home Depot with a toddler (and Dad).  Cause we all know this is NOT how it would have gone down with just Momma.

And just when I thought I could finally breath a sigh of relief and begin the slow process of unpacking and "nesting," and getting acclimated to our new home and town, S**T hit the fan.  Because that's how life usually works doesn't it?

May 28, 2015 in a splint

Ryan stepped off the single step of our new backyard and had a small (and I mean small) tumble.  But her left leg was at just the right awkward angle to fracture both the tibia and fibula.  Apparently, fractures like this are relatively common in toddlers but that doesn't make it any easier on her or I.  She is to be in a cast and non-weight bearing for 5-6 weeks which is hard enough on any active almost 2 year old, but being 29 weeks pregnant and having to carry a 30lb child around is definitely not an easy task.

And obviously as her Mom, I feel AWFUL that this happened.  I know it was an accident and there was really nothing I could have done to prevent it, but no one wants their babies to get hurt and we all know seeing children this young in a cast is not the "norm."  She's been in her purple cast for almost two weeks now and I have to say that overall, she's taking this whole thing like a champ.  She's slept pretty well at night and has gotten used to dragging her leg around or scooting on her bum around the house.  She really hasn't tried to put weight on her leg and other than a few moments of frustration each day, she acts as if nothing is different or wrong.  She didn't even cry when they put the cast on.  She just kept saying "I get purpuh. I get purpuh."

The fact that this happened in the summer definitely stinks.  They have waterproof sleeves for the casts, but with her dragging her leg around, she easily rips holes in the plastic and so I hesitate to let her take an actual bath or fully submerge her in the blow up pool.  However, we've still been able to  have some water fun outside.

We've also been to the park where she can at least enjoy some time in the swing.  Even though I know all she wants to do is get down and climb around with all the other kids.

Ironically, she's not the only toddler who has had a long leg cast in this family.  I had one on my right leg as a child to correct a foot that was kinked in during utero.  Though my leg wasn't broken, it's not exactly the childhood milestone of mine that I wanted her to emulate.

Mama and Ryan

So, life is what it is.  I wasn't expecting or hoping to break in the new house with a broken leg, but that's what life's thrown at us this month.  I know we aren't the only family that faces challenges and in the scheme of things, this isn't a huge deal.  It's sure to be a distant memory here soon.

Massachusetts Residents

So, we are officially Massachusetts residents now.  Weird.

First impressions of Worcester:

• SUPER green and lush
• Rains almost daily (even in summer)
• Cool
• Slower paced
• Friendly people

Ryan and I got here a week ago and Josh was ready and waiting for us at the Boston airport.  It was a long day of traveling, but Ryan did so well.  The most difficult part of our day was getting through the airport security.  I had decided to carry Ryan on me in the Ergo in order to have my hands free.  This ended up being a good idea.  What was a bad idea was having three carry-ons.  I looked like a straight up pack horse getting through the airport.  Ryan strapped to my front, diaper bag on my back,  duffle bag over one arm, and my computer bag over the other.  I was sweating by the time we made it to the gate but we made it on the plane and Jet Blue was so accommodating, putting us in a bulk head seat so Ryan could play at my feet.  They even gave Ryan a set of "wings" since it was her very first plane ride.

The flight was almost 5.5 hours, but you wouldn't have known that Ryan was even on the plane.  She played, socialized, and took a 1.5 hour nap in my arms.  I don't think she cried one time.  I couldn't have asked for her to be a better baby.  In fact, so many passengers and flight attendants commented on the fact that she was the most well-behaved, happy, good-tempered baby they had ever seen/flown with.  Way to make me look like Mom of the year Ry! :)

We were definitely happy to get to our new apartment and reunite with Josh, even though we knew it would mean sleeping on an air mattress.   The apartment is super nice, minus being a little "hotel-like" but we think that may be an East Coast thing and are sure we'll adapt to it.

We spent the week trying to get out and enjoy all that Worcester has to offer since our apartment was furniture less until this weekend.  We found a local park with swings, went on a couple little hikes near our house, and ate lunch down by Lake Quinsigamond.

We also went to check out the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital where Josh will begin working in a few weeks.  It's VERY nice.  Definitely a step up from ARMC county hospital.   And it's super close to our home.  So close that Josh plans to walk!!

Our stuff arrived on Thursday and we were definitely ready for it to get here.  A week without things is a bit challenging, especially with a baby.

We've spent the last couple of days trying to unpack and organize all of our stuff.  It's a process, but I prefer the boxes and chaos to an apartment full of nothing.  Massachusetts is starting to feel a bit more like home now that we have some familiar things and I assume it won't take long before we feel at home here.

Moving East

Have you ever had periods in your life that you want to speed up yet slow down simultaneously?

For instance, as a Mom, I feel like I am constantly anxious to get to the next "phase" of baby hood, always urging Ryan to do the next big thing, crawl, talk, eat, walk, etc.  I couldn't wait to have her sleep through the night, nurse a little less often, entertain herself a little bit more.  It's hard in the midst of the newborn stage to not wish for time to speed up, especially when you haven't had a shower in three days and the most solid meal you've had to date is half of a PB&J.  And yet, you want to keep them your little baby forever and you know you will miss the days when you can't just hold them in the crook of your arm.

Well that's how things are right now.  I want time to speed up and slow down.  We are moving to Massachusetts.  In fact, we moved out of our apartment in Redlands over the weekend and Ryan and I are currently shacking up at Grammy and Grampy Fairman's house.  As I type, my Dad and Josh are more than half way done with their cross-country trek via car.  Last I was told they are somewhere in Illinois.  Ryan and I fly East to meet Josh on Saturday.

Moving Day

Hitting the road!

I am ready for our things to arrive and to get settled in Worcester (apparently pronounced Wustah).  I'm anxious for the solo 5+ hour plane ride with a 10 month old to be over and of course ready to reunite with Josh and begin our new adventure in residency as East coasters.  It's hard for a type A person like me to be living in limbo land.

But, I also want time to slow down.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about living so far away from our friends and family.  Sure, we've lived in the UK and the Caribbean and so this should seem like nothing, but we didn't have Ryan then.  I haven't yet done the Mom thing in a place where I have little to no outside support.  And obviously, we are going to miss having our families in Ryan's life tremendously!

So, that's my dilemma, not totally ready to move forward and not necessarily wanting time to stand still.

In other exciting and noteworthy Scurlock family news, Josh received his diploma in the mail the other day.  Like he is for-realsies a doctor and we couldn't be more proud.  I probably should stop saying things like "for-realsies" now that I'm a doctor's wife. Oops!

And not to be one upped by my doctor husband, I've had a few Etsy sales since opening my shop The Dandelion Lane on May 1.  How exciting is that?!?!  If the doctor thing doesn't work out, at least we can count on my savvy business skills to keep us afloat, obviously. ;)

Transitions

You'd think I'd be a pro at them by now.

Let me let you in on a little secret...I'm really not. 

But I'm pretty good at hiding it to everyone except my husband.  Poor guy has had to deal with an emotional wreck lately.  I'm sure most of you are familiar with the ugly cry.  You know, the one where your face is all wrinkled up and there is snot dripping from your nose and you can't really understand a word the person is saying because they are about to hyperventilate.   Yeah, if there were an ugly cry award I would win.  Hands. Down.

I've moved to the UK, to the island of Grenada, and back to California in the last two years and for some reason, this transition of being back in America is equally as hard if not harder than it was when I moved to Europe.  I'm not even kidding. 

I'm crazy...seriously.

When Josh and I moved to Newcastle in 2010, I kept saying to myself only two years until we are back in the states.  The move to England wasn't easy.  I missed my family and friends, my car, American food, the sun, my husband and it took at least 4 or 5 months until I felt like I could call it "home."  Maybe it took until Julie moved there.  Ya, I'm pretty sure that was a big part of it.

Then we moved to Grenada and that transition was EASY compared to Newcastle.  We had already made friends (that felt like family), we had Toby, American food was abundant albeit overpriced, I was living in the land of sunshine, my husband was still MIA, but I also found LIMES and in that found my purpose in life on the rock.

And before I had time to blink an eye, the two years abroad were over. 

We've been living back in CA for four months and I am STILL trying to transition back to "normal" life.  This should have been the easy part!  I'm finding ways to fill my time by working at home, blogging, and taking care of my husband and dog but it's been hard.  Harder than I ever expected it to be.  There were nights early on in England when I cried for no reason other than the fact that I missed home and now, I'm back in California and I cry because I miss Grenada.  I can look at a picture, read a status on facebook, or watch a video of Kyla and tears stream down my face.  I'm jealous.  I'm so very jealous of the people who are still on the island, loving on those kids.  And I'm angry.  Angry at the people who are there and aren't loving on them because I wish so bad that I could be.  What is wrong with me!?!? 

I never could have predicted this two years ago.

I've talked to a few girls new to Grenada who are struggling with the transition to the island.  I want those people to know that it's a struggle for most people to deal with transitions. Whether it's moving to an island, starting a new job, ending a relationship, or moving back to your home state, change is just plain tough.  And I've told them it just takes time.  Time to adjust to new surroundings.  Time to make new friends.  Time to find new hobbies.  Time to develop new routines.  Just...time.  And here's the kicker, there's no time limit on time and there's no way to speed it up. Which really sucks by the way.

So I need to follow my own advice.  

Life must move on, move forward.  Change is the only constant and there's no way to run from it.  Especially not while on this medical school journey.  I have to figure out a way to embrace these transitions so that I can be thankful for the experiences I've had and look forward to the experiences that have yet to happen. 

Unloading the Crate

Remember back in May, when Josh and I were getting ready to leave Newcastle and I wrote this POST about packing up the crate?  Well, yesterday was the culmination of that whole mess.  Unloading the crate.  Only this time, it was about 30 degrees hotter, with what felt like 100% humidity, and our stuff was no longer together like it was when we loaded it, it was scattered all over SGU's campus.  And we had 19 pieces to find!  It was seriously like the "Where's Waldo" of box hunting.  If I thought packing the crate was chaos...well then unloading it was pure pandemonium.

Go find your stuff!!!

Our only saving grace in this whole mess was that we are renting our friends Lyndzee and Dustin's car for the summer and so we didn't have to deal with bargaining with a taxi driver or truck driver for how much it would cost to help us.  Although, it still took two trips to get our stuff back and forth to our apartment.

Poor Josh..so much loading and unloading.

Somehow, we managed to find all of our things in a timely manner.  And in all honesty, I really don't have a better suggestion on how to coordinate the whole crate process.  Jin, who is a student in Josh's class was in charge of the whole thing, and I think he did a fantastic job.  If I were him I would have been pulling my hair out! So thanks Jin, we really are so appreciative of the time and work you put into this for the benefit of all the students.  I am SO SO SO happy to have all my things from Newcastle!

Of course, getting our things back to our apartment was only the first step in the unloading process.  Our apartment here isn't huge, and it felt like a cardboard box bomb exploded in our living room.  However, opening up everything was almost better than Christmas!  "Oh there's my picture frames!"  "And my coffee pot!"  "Hey look, here's a spatula and a wooden spoon!!!"  I kid you not, that's how I sounded while opening up these boxes.  You would have thought Santa Claus himself was in Grenada. 

Box Explosion

And to my surprise, NOTHING broke on it's way from England to Grenada.  NOT ONE THING!  Even my full length mirror made it all the way across which is very exciting because full length mirrors cost a fortune here.  Everything's out of the boxes and now I'm busy organizing cabinets, hanging pictures, and making this place feel like a home.  Check back soon for "after" pictures.

Packing the Crate

Or, what I like to call...total and complete, somewhat organized chaos.  I have used this word a number of times in the last week or so as it seems to have become the theme surrounding our departure in the UK. 

As I mentioned yesterday, Josh finished his last final of year 1 in medical school.  Yahoooo!  I am so proud of him and his hard work.  Not to mention, he is rocking out some stellar grades this term!  So yesterday, before we could go and celebrate the end of the year, we had to head to Drill Hall one last time to load up the crate with all of our stuff to send to Grenada.  Hopefully, it's all waiting for us when we get there in June and didn't somehow sink to the bottom of the ocean. 

So anyways, the plan was that everyone had a specific time slot to bring their belongings at, the course reps would check that it fit into the appropriate size space, and then you would load your items into the crate.  Sounds simple right? ...WRONG! 

We arrived on time with our 60 cubic feet worth of stuff and it was pure madness.  Boxes scattered EVERYWHERE outside and inside the building, cabs and moving trucks pulling up, people unloading  their things from the cabs while others were loading stuff onto the crate, and basically people who have had very little sleep and way to much caffeine all week everywhere.  To say that it was crazy would be the biggest understatement of the year.

Some of us were working harder than others. :)

Smart Guy!

Julie and Kevin came to help us even though they just finished term one and will not be moving to Grenada until January.  We have such great friends here!

Our babysitter

Kevin was used for his muscles

Finally, all of our stuff made it on to the crate.  It was time to get some food and drink a cocktail or two to celebrate the end of the term. 

All loaded!!!

Josh and I only have a couple of nights left in Newcastle upon Tyne.  We really cannot believe our year here is over already.  We have made such great friends and our memories here will last a lifetime.  It is bittersweet to leave.  We are excited to be moving forward, but we are sad to be leaving the comfort of our life here and the first place that Josh and I lived together.  I'm positive that I will always think fondly of Newcastle upon Tyne, even if I didn't think so when we first arrived in August.  It is the end of our time here in Newcastle, but with that comes the beginning of our journey in Grenada.  Josh and I are both excited for what God has in store for us during this next year.  So stay tuned, this adventure has really only just begun!