Friday's Love

Yesterday we went to the musical "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."  It was hilarious!  It hits on just about every love truth that exists from dating awkwardness, wedding craziness, to marriage, raising children, divorce and growing old together.  I think it's so funny because almost everything it poked fun of was something that you could relate to or knew about- it was TRUE.  Joel and I both walked away from that say, "I love being married.  I'm SO glad we don't have to date ever again!!!"  We've made a pact that we have to die at the same time as each other because there's no way we're ever going back to the dating days!  Bleh.

Embarrassing Love

Becky- While cleaning my house this evening I turned on my ipod and visited an old love- Ricky Martin.  It's one of those guilty pleasures that you probably shouldn't like but do.  I love his Spanish albums.  I was just remembering that before I left on my mission to Spain the very last thing I listened to was Ricky Martin - I know- it's ridiculous but true.  My sister is a witness- she was in the car with me on the way over to the church to get set apart as a missionary as I listened to his then brand new album for one last time.  Tee hee- I promise I like more "quality" music as well - I am a music teacher after all, but everyone has to have that embarrassing guilty pleasure.  Anyone else want to fess up about theirs?!!

Joel- OK Becky, I'll take the bait.  My guilty pleasure is naps.  I love them.  I'll take them any time, any place.  They make me happy.  I don't even have to be overly tired to relish them.  There's just something about changing into your PJ's in the middle of the day, snuggling into bed, pulling up the covers, and just saying goodbye to the world, knowing that when you wake up everything will be better, even if nothing has changed.  Naptime is sacred for Nathan, but it also approaches that status for Daddy.  After all, sleepiness is far from godliness.

Late Love

Becky- I missed blogging my love of the day yesterday.....Tuesdays are my very long days.  After 13 hours straight of middle school students (school, musical practice & then select choir rehearsal) I can safely say that my true love was my bed, and I couldn't be with it soon enough.  It's calling my name even as I sit here and type this, but I think that my love for today is laughing.  I love to laugh.  I suppose that seems random and odd, but there's nothing like a good laugh to brighten your day.  I think it keeps us all sane and when you can see the humor in life it makes life much more worth living.

Joel- Yesterday's love: I love my 4th year of medical school.  I'm mentally checked out and heading towards bigger and better things- Residency.  It's great!  Today's love: I love a freshly tuned piano. You never realize how it's slipped until it's put back into place.  Kind of like life only without the fee.

Residency Plot Thickens.....

NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL in Columbus, Ohio (the front addition is currently being built)

2 weeks ago- Joel threw me a curve ball- he says out of the blue, "I've got something to tell you.  I've been getting nudgings that maybe we should rethink Pittsburgh as our top choice for residency."  Once I picked my jaw off the floor I asked, "And how long has this 'nudging' process been going on?"  He had been feeling that way for a while, but thought he was making that up.  Well!  Curve ball indeed!  I told him the next time he got a "nudging" of any sort I would like to know about it a little sooner - pretty please (I had pretty much found real estate in Pittsburgh and was just biding my time until match day until this surprise came along).  

For some reason I was having a hard time regrouping and thinking of us in Ohio.  Mostly, I think I was upset that it would be a lot further to both sets of grandparents.  We talked about both residency programs again (it was a hard decision the first time around and this time was no different).  This past weekend we ventured to Columbus, Ohio to get a feel for the area.  I looked up a bunch of real estate, so we could get a sense of neighborhoods in our price range and we headed off to the Buckeye State.  I was just praying I would feel something, because up until that point I wasn't feeling one way or the other about which place we should live.  We drove to the temple that's just outside Columbus and that's when I felt it- that warm fuzzy sensation when you know that something is just, well - RIGHT.  I knew this was the place we needed to be.  

The funny thing about this is that we could still end up matching with our #3 choice and it really wouldn't matter the order of #1 & #2.  I realize that by saying what we are ranking it leaves us up for embarrassment if Joel matches with the very last program, but I feel like living life dangerously :)

Our residency list is officially submitted as follows:

1. Nationwide (Ohio State)
2. Pitt
3. Rainbow Babies (Cleveland)
4. Rochester, NY
5. VCU (Richmond, VA)
6. Syracuse, NY
7. duPont, DE
8. Penn State

(not ranking Akron)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, today is the official Day of LOVE!  Now I freely admit this day has not always been my favorite of holidays- (aka Single Awareness Day) and I've heard people complaining about the "commercialized love" portion of the day.  Where I used to work the guys used to always complain about being forced to do something on this day just because somebody decided to force a holiday on them.  While I understand the sentiments- my other thought was, "It wouldn't kill you to actually be nice and thoughtful to you wives and girlfriends for a change."  Anyway- I like to think of Valentine's Day as just another excuse to be reminded of how much I love the people that mean the most to me. I love my husband.  He is sweet, kind and thoughtful.  He's that way every day of the year, so it makes Valentine's Day even more meaningful.  This morning he let me sleep in while he took care of Nathan and then he brought me breakfast in bed on a heart-shaped tray.  It was cute and very much appreciated.  Joel is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me (Nathan being a close second), and I love him.

Joel- I love Becky.  Since I have known her, she has consistently been by best fan and strongest supporter (tied with my parents).  Throughout med school, she has always been willing to give up evenings and weekends to allow me to study or to be on rotation, she has worked hard to support us financially, and she has given me words of encouragement and believed in my abilities even when I doubted.  She is the best thing in my life (Nathan being a close second), and I am so grateful we can be together forever.

Lots of Love on the Trip

We love our GPS!  Joel gave it to me for Christmas with the realization that if we move this summer we will need to know how to get around our new home town.  It was a life-saver today.  We went to over 12 places in and around Columbus, Ohio today and it was swift and efficient.  It's kind of like the cell phone.  I fought getting one for a long time, but once I got it I couldn't imagine being without it.  How did we ever get along before these high tech days? Road maps, what?!

Snowed-in Love

Becky- It was an official snow day today off of school today.  It's been fun being trapped at home for the day.  While Nathan was napping I worked on the quilt for Justin and Jenny that I was supposed to be done with....last week.  :)  Which brings me to my love- I love quilting.  For those of you that knew me growing up you would know that I was the furthest thing possible from being craftsy, homemakey and such, but in recent years I've really enjoyed making quilts.  This was the last project I was feverishly trying to finish before Nathan was born.  I had ironed on pictures of my family years ago intending to make a quilt for my mom, but at the time I didn't actually know how to quilt.  When I finally learned how I decided to make some patches out of it to match her bedroom.  I got it done the weekend before Nathan was born....phew.

Joel- I love that Nathan slept through the night last night.  'Nuff said.

Monday Love

Becky- I love sleep!! They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I'm not convinced that it applies in this case. We had a 2 hour delay for school this morning and I got to sleep in until almost 8am!!! I've never loved sleep more!

Joel- I love forays into binge eating. We have been on this Biggest Loser diet for more than a month now, and it has been really successful. This weekend, though, we were up at the Stuetz grandparents, and, well, they have a greater diversity of food choices, shall we say. So I enjoyed hopping off the diet train and landing on the enjoy your food train for the weekend. The scale wasn't too happy with me, but I'm back on the diet train and all refreshed now. It was fun.