Rainier's Game and Flowers

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to lately! One of my fellow residents has all the birthdays in her family in May so she had a combined birthday party for everyone at once and her daughter Zoe was the star for sure! Check out the awesome fashion sense of a 2yo in action here. She's wearing her super-cute birthday party dress with even sweeter Barbie car crocs, her helmet which is covered in ducks, while riding her brand new tricycle! I also LOVE the birthday debris in the background! She had a blast and entertained us all!

This was our gift to Zoe which entertained us all to no end! His name is "Manely" and he shoots bubbles crazy fast!

Now some random flower shots. I really LOVE that everything is blooming right now! It makes me soooooooooo happy. The snow is beautiful in the winter, but here we don't have the constant snow cover like we do in Coeur d'Alene though. Fall is nice for the changing leaves, and late spring/summer are nice for all the blooms, but it's all the in-between seasons which are hard... the muddy yucky super-rainy time or even the cold winter time when there's no snow to keep it pretty and make it worth being so cold that make me so much more appreciative of the flowers this time of year and every moment of sunshine!

First up: This is my rhododendron Mom bought me for intern graduation last year. We went to a rhododendron ranch in Olympia that had hundreds of them, but in June this one had stopped blooming already, but the lady assured us it was a deep red, which is what I wanted. Not so much deep red, but I love rhododendrons anyway and it's beautiful in all its pink glory!

I have no idea what these blue flowers are, but they continue to spill under the fence from our neighbors and I love them. Bob mocked me for taking a pic of wildflowers that he had the nerve to call "weeds" but there really aren't that many blue flowers out there and I'm glad they've run amok. :)



Likewise, this guy is also a weed that sprouted up in the rocks by the fence, but also pretty :)

Now forgive me for the out of order-ness here... feeling a bit too lazy to re-organize them all! We went to a Tacoma Rainier's game with friends last weekend and had a great time! Every Friday night game has fireworks afterward and their kids were soooooooo excited for them and we were too! A few of the pics turned out so here they are!

Not a bad view from our seats--it's actually a great stadium where even the cheap seats really aren't that high up

This is "Rhubarb" who maybe is the long lost child of the Mariner's Moose, hence the smaller antlers? He was pretty entertaining--one of the top mascots we've ever seen! Super-energetic, with one of the best moments of the evening coming when he challenged an ump to a dance-off and they busted their moves all over! Every Rainiers game we've ever been to has included some impressive Rhubarb action!

The scoreboard in case you forgot where we were. :) They got beat eventually, but this is a nice memory of our lead!

Dorothy and I at the game--Dorothy's boy would only make goofy faces, so you only get to see the ladies!

Ok, time for more flowers, just what you've all been waiting for! These are some tulips I planted last fall! They're short and cute and popped up over a month ago!

More flowers out front--the blue ones are hyacinths I think, and the white ground cover is phlox maybe? I don't remember but very pretty. :)

The tree is so pretty right about now too, and the hydrangea in the background is blue and will bloom in a few more months. :)

Our house from the street, for those of you who haven't visited us yet!

Not the sunniest day, but I'm starting to get a bit nostalgic even though we're not leaving yet... we'll only be here another year and although we're pretty used to all the moves by now, I'm already starting to get a little sad to leave Lacey. I love all my fellow residents... our program is great, our staff are wonderful, and I'm going to miss everyone at work so much. We love having a yard, garden, flowers, and living fairly close to so much fun stuff and not commuting far to work, things that will all be likely to change wherever we go next, especially if we're lucky enough to go to D.C. if I get my fellowship.... It's way to early to be sad about leaving, but of course the biggest thing we will for sure miss wherever we go next, is being in the NW and sooooo much closer to our friends and family. We have loved being able to go back home and to have our friends and family come visit us so much more than ever before and we're really going to miss that. Ok, enough dwelling on the eventual move! We're just going to love every minute of our time here for now! :)

In other news, I'm rotating at the peds E.R. this month and it's been pretty neat so far--I've had a lot of practice at reducing fractures and casting so far, diagnosed a 3 year old with appendicitis, seen a LOT of worried well, a horrible burn on a kiddo who accidentally drank the parents' HOT tea, a little guy with serum sickness (kind of a late allergic reaction), a really impressive anaphylactic allergic reaction, a popcorn kernel stuck in an ear, a BAD outer ear infection in a kid who pierced himself, and a ton of other stuff. Every shift is entertaining and the staff are great teachers. I've learned a lot about doctor-patient interactions already too... it's amazing how differently parents react to the same news... I had parents of a little guy who needed surgery to fix an broken arm, and when I explained this they both burst into tears! I definitely understand having your little kid have surgery is scary and they felt guilty because they thought his arm wasn't that bad and didn't bring him in for a few hours and it was a mixture of a lot of things. And then another mom didn' t know what appendicitis was, even after I went through it in pretty detailed layperson terms, but told me that if I thought her 3yo needed a surgery that was ok with her. Wow. Some moms cry and tell me they're sure their baby is dying because they're just lying around after puking all day, while the kid is running around the room. Then, often the parents of the sickest kids come in after 4-5 days of a serious illness and aren't that worried about it... it's just really interesting. I'm definitely going to keep focusing on this during my month and just try to get better at reading parents and seeing how I can best reassure them and just better communicate with them because it's really amazing how different they all are, and how much different they are in the E.R. even from the outpatient world...

Otherwise not much is new! Bob went golfing yesterday and had a lot of fun--he's just started playing a little and is liking it. He went to Star Trek with friends while I was working on Friday too and loved it--everyone we know who's seen it has loved it. Any thoughts on this? I was never a Trekkie, but the previews really make it look impressive, and JJ Abrams is pretty awesome in general... hard to go wrong!

Does anyone else have bittersweet feelings about all the season finales right about now? I love our shows and will miss watching them every week, but on the other hand, we'll have so much more time once they're all off!

Last of all, Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!!!!!!!!!! I'm so grateful to have a mother and mother-in-law who love us both so much!! Thanks to you both, and thanks to all you mothers for all you do! As someone who works with kids all day, I see first-hand the fruits of your labors and what a difference a loving caring mom can make! Keep up the good work! We hope you all have a great week!
~Cathy