Cute customized shoes

How cute are these shoes?! I know some of you know Melony and probably already saw this on her blog, but if not check it out! She got the project from this blog's post. I am not super crafty and doubted myself, but after reading the step by step instructions think it's pretty straight-forward. So yeah, maybe I'll try it one of these days! Anyone else in? :) Basically she Mod-Podged fabric onto a cheap pair of flats so you can customize your shoes. Pretty sweet. Hope you all had a good Sunday! For anyone wondering, I survived my lesson and it went well--lots of participation from the RS sisters so the time went quickly--hope everyone else teaching was as lucky!

~Cathy

The Christmas Letter for anyone who missed it

Sampert Family Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas! We hope you’re enjoying the season and all is well with you and your families! Things are well here—busy as always, but good! I’m now in the last 6 months of my residency which is pretty exciting! We also have BIG news—I found out yesterday that I got my fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology!!!!!!!!!! (Fellowship is 3 years of training in a sub-specialty after residency) It’s pretty uncommon to get selected for fellowship right out of residency in the Army, so we were NOT expecting this at all, but even more surprisingly, I was selected to get a funded spot at a civilian program, which means that we can go anywhere! There are 50+ Peds GI fellowships so we’re narrowing it down now.

The Army will fund me wherever I’m accepted, but my friends/colleagues who’ve received this opportunity in other subspecialties have had their pick, because essentially I’m free labor—the Army will still pay my salary and like residents, fellows do quite a bit of work! This opportunity is especially reassuring because the majority of my friends have been deployed within 6 months of graduating residency, so we were a

bit anxious about the prospect of deployment coming up soon for me,

but now I’ll be non-deployable for another 3.5 years until I’m finished

with fellowship, and then I’ll go for 6 months as a subspecialist instead of

12 months as a general pediatrician when my time comes! Let’s all keep praying

for world peace in the meantime! We’ll keep you all posted on the

search for a fellowship program—we’re looking at Salt Lake, Denver,

San Diego, Houston, and San Francisco so far, and would like to stay

West, although the majority of the programs are definitely out East..

In the meantime we’re so excited that the busy pace of residency

will soon be behind us! My fellow residents and staff are amazing

people, but being on call for 30 hours straight every 4th or 5th

day is not so great. Although I’ll still be busy as a fellow, I’ll take

call from HOME which will be an exciting transition! We’re looking

forward to getting to spend more time together starting in July! ☺

Bob is still staying busy himself, working for Bath Fitter

remodeling bathrooms and showers. He took a weekend

off this fall and put a new shower in for his grandma which

she loves, and he got to enjoy some time with his family

too. He’s stayed busy with projects around the house too,

and that trend will definitely continue as we get ready to

sell this spring! He’s still involved with the Scouts at church and

that keeps him pretty busy too. He’s had some fun camping

trips with them and went white water rafting this summer and

I’m sure will plan some fun snow trips this winter!

We were able to relax a little this year as well. With as much as I work, we try to make the most of the 3 weeks of leave I get to use each year! Here are the highlights:

March: I got to go to Alaska for work—I was in Fairbanks and it was very pretty even during the “melt” which the locals kept apologizing for—not as pretty as the winter or summer I’m sure, but I loved the highs in the 60’s! I was expecting COLD!

May: Alaska cruise with Bob’s folks! Despite never going there before, somehow I went twice in a few months! We had a wonderful time! The ship had tons to do so even at sea we were very entertained, and in port there was always a lot to see. We went to Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Glacier Bay, and Victoria, B.C. on our way back and had a great time. We saw tons of animals including a fair amount of whales and dolphins, and got see some glaciers calve too which was pretty impressive. We did a bunch of ziplines in Juneau, watched a lumberjack show in Ketchikan, did a neat wildlife boat tour in Sitka, and had fun exploring all the towns.

June: we went to the San Juan Islands for a weekend and kayaked with orcas, which was incredible!

July: I was home for a month rotating at Sacred Heart in their

PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) and Bob came out for a

week of it so we loved getting to see our families and friends

and watched the fireworks from the boat on Lake

Coeur d’Alene which is always a treat!

August: DC for 9 days to interview for fellowship (the Army

program is there at Walter Reed) and got to visit Cristy and

Nathaniel and a good friend from high school.

September: Home for a weekend for Joe and Sandy’s

wedding which was wonderful

November: Orlando for a week of vacation and went to

Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios, and had

a great time!

December: We’re excited to be home for Christmas and

look forward to seeing many of you!

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! We

hope the New Year blesses all of you and we’re grateful

for the many blessings 2009 has brought us!

Love,

Cathy, Bob, and Lilo

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 everyone! I can't believe it's here already... here are some pictures from our trip home for Christmas! We loved having a week off of work and getting to see family and friends, even though it went too fast as usual. We flew home with Lilo, so we didn't have to fight traffic or weather going over the pass, and it was nice and fast so we got more time with everyone! Here's our Christmas pic for this year. :)

Bob and his Dad helped with some of the Christmas cooking and they're LOVING it! :)

Bob's mom had hand surgery just before we came so I helped wrap her presents since she really only had one usable arm

Here is the wounded arm in its sling, as well as Carolyn with her furriest grandchild and my personal favorite, the Christmas tablecloth, I mean jumper! :)

Lilo opening her present!

Bob's mom got his dad a Wii for his birthday so we had fun playing it--Ron especially loved the bowling so we did that a lot

Bob demonstrates his sweet bowling skills

We spent a lot of time just sitting and relaxing which was great!

We went downtown and checked out the lights and of course had to take a picture in the sleigh

Lilo's fancy Christmas outfit from Ron and Carolyn

Bob and Lilo and I by the sleigh

More pics at the resort shops

Lilo always takes time to smell the flowers

We had a chance to visit with the Poteets a little bit too which is always great! Somehow I never take any pics of them so we took a few right before we left...

George and Bob

Here's my nieces in our presents to them--they loved the pearls, tiaras, and these microphones (also princess) and they light up and sing!

My fam on Christmas Eve

Bob's Mom got him this awesome hat to keep warm and with the flaps flipped up he looks pretty awesome --I have a hunch some of his firefighters would love to see the chief in his finest...

Christmas breakfast with Bob's folks and his grandma--french toast--always delicious!

We iChatted with Jared while we opened presents and he opened his, which was pretty fun, and incredibly confusing to Grandma

Christmas dinner! Cheesey potatoes and rolls and turkey for the meat-eaters and of course corn from their garden... We made cinnamon rolls too, but sadly I only ate 2 before we left... I'm sure somehow they managed to finish them off without us!

I got this cute pretzel rod/candy kit from my secret Santa at work and just made them last night. These Santas took forever painting the candy in the molds with a brush, but Bob loved his!

Just before Christmas my whole class and all the spouses went out to dinner with a few of our staff--here are the ladies!

Not the greatest pic, but somehow none of us are looking at the same camera...

Ok, so lots of updating to do still... Next I'll post our Christmas letter for anyone who didn't get it yet and thanks to everyone who sent us cards and letters and pictures! That's definitely one of my favorite things about this time of year--hearing from people you haven't heard from in forever and catching up with all they've been up to.

We had a fun New Year's Eve playing games and hanging with 3 other couples and just relaxing. I had to work at 6am the next day but got to nap a little the next afternoon so it all worked out. We also went to see Avatar in Imax 3D which was awesome! Definitely exceeded my expectations by far!

Hope you're all sticking with the New Year's resolutions so far! We haven't made any big ones so far... just the usual: eat healthier, exercise more, be more frugal, and just to enjoy every day to the fullest! We've enjoyed all of 2010 so far and are really excited to see where it takes us! Have a great day!

~Cathy