Growing up too fast already

Sorry it's sideways...can anyone give me some pointers about how to rotate it? Enjoy the video of sweet little girl!

Adventures in Arkansas: I'm not country enough for this!

Well, call me crazy. I took my 2 month old child to the state fair today, with my friend Sara and her 2 girls (2 1/2 and 3 months). It started out as kind of a dreay day, raining and cold. But Saturday looked like this too, yet we managed to have a fun day at the zoo. So we decided we'd brave the weather, hoping it would turn nice, and head to the fair anyway. To get to the fairgrounds, we learned you have to drive through the, ehem, ghetto. This didn't turn out to be eventful, but you better believe we locked our doors! Once we got inside the fair, after being turned away from about 10 gates that were closed, we were directed to the "parking lot". We knew it was the parking lot, because there were signs designating the rows and what lot it was, but there ended the resemblance to a parking lot. It actually looked more like...a field of mud. We knew this could get bad when we saw the tow trucks that were on standby! Now, I drive a V8 Ford Explorer. Pretty much a truck, right? The parking attendant waved me to a "spot", which was on the other side of a mud hole. And I got stuck. I've never been stuck in the mud before, so I was a little antsy about this, but the parking attendant (a true Arkansan...only had about 4 teeth. Seriously.) jumped right in behind me and pushed me out of the mud hole. I turned around to Sara, desperately trying turn her away from this madness, but she was already fishtailing her way toward me. We were both cracking up by this point, but still determined to HAVE FUN AT THE FAIR, by golly! At least the rain had stopped by now. We sloshed our way into the fair, wishing we had rubber boots, and had a good time eating good fair food and watching Kate (the 2 1/2 yr old) ride, sometimes cry her way through some rides. We also enjoyed the petting zoo and the lovely scent of livestock. Once we had our fill of the sights, sounds and carnies, we trekked 14 miles back to the mud field, er, parking lot and started praying we could get our cars out. Rather than slosh the babies through the mud to the cars, I stayed with the strollers while Sara got her car out onto the road. That Oklahoma girl can really work her Saturn through the mud, haha! She made it up on the road without getting stuck, and only minor fishtailing. Then it was my turn...I was nervous, but said a prayer and gunned it (but not too hard!) and sludged my way up on the road without getting entrenched! The parking attendants all cheered as Sara and I got our cars out of the mud hole...they even said they were proud we did it by ourselves, w/o the tow trucks! So we had a fun day at the fair...lots of great memories! Next adventure for us both: a serious carwash!

Sweet Audrey

Just had to add a few pics of the little girl!

Unnatural circadian rhythms and the Friendship Song

Blaine is now halfway through another week of nightshifts in the ER at Children's. These nights are brutal! But even more so for him, of course. It's been tough for him to adjust his schedule, trying to figure out when the best time to sleep and eat. When exactly is breakfast when you work 8pm to 8am? Working at night and sleeping in the day is simply odd and off-puttin'. Unnatural, if you will. He's always asking me what day it is...when the day changes 4 hrs into his shift, that's hard to adjust on the paperwork. But then after he sleeps, the day hasn't changed yet...confusing? Yes. Blaine is such a trooper though. Maybe cuz complaining doesn't do him any good- he still has to do the work. So I do the complaining for him. :) When he was in med school, my common phrase during a tough rotation was "I hate med school!" Sombody had to hate it for him, right? If he hated it, it would only discourage him. So I'd ask, "Have I ever told you I hate med school?" Silly, right? Coming from someone NOT actually going through it. When he was in his first week of orientation for residency (not the first week of work just yet!), I came up with a new phrase. You guessed it: "I hate residency!" We had a good laugh about that one. Complaining aside, I do encourage him through the hard work that he can get through it, and that it will all pay off...one day.

On a different note...the Friendship Song. Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold! Making new friends is hard. After the move in June, I sort of felt like I was in kindergarten again. Ya know, being the new kid in a new place and not knowing anyone? We joined First Baptist about the middle of July, and that's been fun to get to know people there. We're in a great Sunday school group. I think we're pretty much the young 'uns, but all of our friends have pretty much been older than us, so it's not a big deal. Plus we have a lot in common...there were 2 other babies born within 2 weeks of Audrey, plus several in the months before and after her. There's also some other medical people, and certain ones in the group remind us a little of people from Shreveport. Every Wednesday, several girls from church go out to lunch together, and I've been able to join them a few times, including today. It's been nice getting to know them and sharing about us too. I still have to remind myself that it takes a little time to feel like "one of the gang". Today was lots of fun, which prompted this post. On another friendship note, it seems I've found a kindred spirit in Sara Robertson. She's the wife of another peds resident, Chris. When I was big pregnant and had just moved to this new place, I would think of her to stop from feeling sorry for myself. :) She was not pregnant when they moved here...HOWEVER she just had a 1 weeks old little girl! Oh yeah, and a 2 yr old girl! We've been able to do a few mom things together and enjoy sharing momma-hood and being intern widows together. :) I'm not sure about the rules of wrapping up a blog post, but I'm done for now. Thank you, and I'll be here all week. (Feel free to comment on my nerdiness.)

Joining the world of blogging

So I've always had mixed feelings about blogging. Why would anyone care to read the random thoughts going around in my head? On the other hand, I enjoy reading others' blogs and sharing in their experiences. I've also recently realized that blogging could be quite cathartic, sort of a modern-day journaling experience. So, the end result of all this is, here is my new blog!

My goal for blogging is nothing formal. Mostly just a place to record what's happening in our family, and allow our family and friends to keep up with us. The move to Little Rock about 4 months ago now marks our first move as a family, which means we have lots friends that we had to leave behind in Shreveport. This move also represents the first time we've had to live somewhere that we didn't have any family in town = all the family is out of town. They're none to thrilled that we moved further away right before we had our first baby, so they can now follow Audrey B's growth and milestones. :)

I'm not going to make any big promises about this blog, but I will attempt to post regularly. I hope you enjoy following our adventures!