Sunday, March 24, 2013

Pocatello- the LAST rotation!

So far this rotation has been flying by.
We are already down to 7 weeks left!
Chris works on the Indian Reservation at Fort Hall and is liking it.
He is never home later than 5:15 (usually earlier than that) and he has every Thursday morning off.
He doesn't have boards and residency applications, interviews, etc. to worry about anymore either!
It's been easy peasy, smooth sailing and I am loving it.

So far Pocatello has been very exciting.
Not.
The mall is ghetto and has about 10 open stores.
Herberger's (???)  is one of the department stores and Shopko is another.
No offense Pocatello, but I've never seen so many odd people in my life.
I've learned to go to Walmart at 9 am.

For our rotations outside of Salt Lake, we couldn't have picked bigger opposites.
Beverly Hills to Pocatello.
From mansions to mobile homes.
From palm trees and warmth to dead trees and cold.
From Rodeo Drive to the Pine Ridge mall.
From Gucci to Herbergers.

Anyway, the most exciting thing that has happened is that my friend Amy came up to visit.
She is a world traveler and was kind enough to lower her standards and come visit me in Pocatello.
The only thing we actually did while she was here was go to the Museum of Clean.
Yep, it is devoted to cleaning.
Brooms throughout the ages.

Amy was so nice to lug around the diaper bag for me since we forgot to get the stroller out of Chris' car before he left for work that day.

Londyn in an old school tub.

Amy playing the Toilet Toss.

Vacuum man.

Even though we did hardly anything I had a blast with Amy here! 
Thanks for coming up Amy and feel free to come back anytime :)
(I feel like I  have to bribe  people to come visit).

In other news, Londyn's hair is the bane of my existence.
I trimmed the top and I can't do anything with it now.
If I mohawk it she smashes it down when she headbutts my legs after crawling over to me, which happens anytime I walk away from her.
So please ignore it in all these pictures.
Or give me advice on what to do with it ;)

Londyn glared at us for taking her on a walk that was a bit windier and colder than we expected.
We had to put the shade all the way down to protect her.
It is way too windy here. 
-1 Pocatello.

I knew I would survive these 3 months in Pocatello when I found out there was a Cafe Rio here.
Now I just need a Target.
This was Cafe Rio at 6pm on a Saturday...we thought maybe it was closed when we pulled up because it was so empty!
+1 for Pocatello! 

Too kool for k-mart.
(-1 Pocatello...I need Target!)


Training our seal Londyn to do tricks.

Londyn loves to help us workout.
She is happiest when I hold her while doing squats and lunges.
It speeds up my workout since she is a 20 pound weight. 

Beep beep.

Londyn loves pushing this car-walker thing around.

So that is our boring life in Pocatello...
I have to agree that it is the armpit of Idaho.
But I do like that we are paying $1000 less a month for our apartment here than we did in Beverly Hills.
Yes, we really did pay THAT much. Ouch. It still hurts.
(+1 Pocatello).

8 weeks until graduation!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Nighttime Diaries...

At Londyn's 9 month checkup I asked the pediatrician how in the crap I could get Londyn to sleep through the night.
She was getting up 2-4 times a night at that point and on very rare occasions sleeping through the night.
He told me to try switching her bedtime (and naptime) routine around and nursing her at the beginning of it instead of at the end...so she wouldn't be nursed to sleep anymore.
It worked like magic!
I don't know why it made such an immediate difference but I am SO glad it did.
(I'd forgotten what it felt like to have energy.)
Now that I lay her down while she is still awake, she rolls around and plays for a while before falling asleep.
When she finally falls asleep she ends up in some pretty funny positions.
Every one of these positions is 90-180 degrees from where I laid her down*
The Exhausted Escapee
(You can't really tell but her foot is hanging out of the bars.)

The Scared Sleeper
*except for this one

The Headbutt

The Tap Dancer

The Skipper

The Headbutt 2.0

The Twist

The Rain Dance

The Wedge

The Dive

Close up.

Can't wait to see what tonight's crazy pose is!

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Residency

This little family of ours is moving to Kansas City, Missouri after Chris graduates!
Chris was picked to be 1 of 3 residents at the VA hospital there.
Chris is SO excited to do this 1 year residency; it was his #1 pick.
It is one of the most competitive residency in the country because it is one of the best.
We have heard nothing but RAVE reviews from former residents and they all say that it is worth the pay cut without a doubt.
It was a hard decision, but we decided a residency was the best thing for Chris (and for us) about a month ago.
We both knew Chris would regret it forever if he didn't do one.
It was even harder for me to accept that Chris would not be applying to the Salt Lake residency.
After the research he did we knew it was not a good fit for him and that he would hate everyday.
I know I will have a happy hubby in Kansas City and that he will love everyday.
We think/hope/pray this residency will open doors, pay off in the end, and maybe get us back to Utah one day.
Although it is not even near Salt Lake, I am happy Chris has this incredible opportunity and I am excited to see a new part of the country!



Congratulations Chris, you are amazing!
You achieve everything you set your mind to and excel at it.
There's no one else in this world that I would let drag me all over the country!
But maybe, just maybe, we could settle down after all this?!