BUSY

So I'm taking a break from my pile of things to do, but just wanted to let you all know we're still alive! Things have been busier than usual even. I'm in the NICU this month so my schedule is pretty full, and I have some research projects that need to be submitted 1OCT that I'm trying to wrap up. Basically, life should get a lot mellower in the next week, but until then we're pretty busy! We haven't been up to much fun lately because of all this, but we did go to the Puyallup Fair about a week ago and that was a lot of fun--we ate all sorts of great Fair food and enjoyed some pretty great people-watching. Bob drove home to remodel a shower for his grandma, which she really liked, and we're still playing softball on Tuesdays--tonight is the playoffs, so we'll see if we make it! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the start of fall! It's cooling off here--it was 64 inside this morning, so I just turned the heat on for the first time of the season! Have a great day.

~Cathy

P.S. I found out there are 4 applicants, counting myself, for the 1 Peds GI fellowship slot.... so we'll see. I'm pretty confidant that at least one of those people is probably higher ranking so I probably will be headed elsewhere next year, but we'll find out in December!

DC Zoo

Ok, I'm trying to limit my excessive picture posting, so here are a few fun ones from the DC zoo! I saw a fair amount of neat birds hanging out around the zoo, including this cardinal!

This emu was hilarious--a crazy guy kept "playing" with him, running back and forth on our side of the fence, and the emu would run with him every time, opening his mouth like he wanted to bite him!

The red panda is my most favorite zoo animal ever! How could you not love that adorable face?

They had a very nice elephant house--they had a lot of room and looked pretty happy :)

The pandas were soooooo cute!

Sorry they're both sideways.... couldn't figure out how to fix it in the video--the panda's just eating bamboo but he's so cute! And the elephant is squirting water on his feet and is also adorable. :) The red panda's not really doing anything but being unbelievably cute... hence he's my favorite zoo animal!

Hiking Noble Knob

I know I've mentioned many times how much I LOVE summer here, but I gotta say it again! Summer here is the best... makes you forget all the gloomy rainy/cold days and just LOVE living in such a beautiful place! I had the luxury of an entire weekend off, so as usual we tried to pack it full of fun! We haven't hiked much this summer at all, and were thinking Rainier was our goal, but there are no dogs allowed in Rainier, so we found a great hike with good views of Mt Rainier off a forest service road. The road looked fine, and we only had to go 6 miles up it, so it didn't seem like far, but WOW. There were some massive potholes and ruts that nearly swallowed our little Civic. Brought back memories for both of us of an attempted night hike with the Poteets from the magical summer when George's Monte Carlo lost its directionals on a tough forest service road! Luckily the turn signals still work, but here's a shot of Cheree, Buddha, and Bob by our fearless car at the start of our hike... or actually where we wrongly presumed the trail started! Turns out it was a little further up the road, but we had a nice stroll through a beautiful meadow with tons of wild strawberries (tiny) which we sampled before we headed up to the real trail. :)

Here's a nice view from the actual hike--Rainier in all its glory! Such a nice clear day!

The trail ahead

More Mt Rainier

Sadly, the snowcap of Rainier blends into the sky on this one... it was pretty in real life

Cheree and I with the dogs--they had a great time!

Bob, Lilo, and I

The view the other direction--I love that it looks like the wilderness goes on forever--makes you feel like civilization is much further away

Lilo was a tough pup and hiked all the way up with us (~4 miles?), but during our snack stop she crawled inside Cheree's backpack, so I traded her packs and carried Lilo down since she didn't want out--she LOVED it and just peeked out the backpack like this the whole way down. Everyone we passed smiled a bit at her silly position...

It was a great hike! We love the Northwest and it was great to have some time off to get out and enjoy it! It was good for Lilo to hang out with Buddha too and realize that not all big dogs are going to eat her. :) He looks a little like her friend Cynder from Vegas too, which helps. We had fun hanging out with Cheree too--not often we're both off of work at the same time! Hope you're all enjoying your weekends!

More DC pics!

I know you've all been dying for more pics from my DC trip, so here they are! I was surprised when I uploaded these that I'm already at 21% of my total space allowed for my blog! Whoah--apparently I'm filling this up fast!

As usual, I was not savvy enough to upload these in appropriate order, so it's basically backwards, but you get the idea!

This is a beautiful building behind the White House where visiting dignitaries allegedly stay

Random statue of our nation's pasttime where I'm posing with the pitcher (and obviously preparing to throw a fastball)

The Red Cross building, as the symbol indicates :)

Where I took my White House pic from

Not too shabby of a pic through the fence from so far away, eh?

World War II was really a beautiful memorial--Cristy and I are super-sweaty in the 90+ degree heat with HIGH humidity, but at least it doesn't show too much in this pic! We definitely saw many folks that day who were not so subtle with their sweatiness...

These are stars on the wall behind this pool of water and they represent those who lost their lives in WWII. The waterfall at this pool draining sounds like quiet applause which seemed pretty appropriate to mark all their sacrifices

Lots of great quotes all around this memorial, including this memorable Eisenhower D-Day speech excerpt. No pressure guys--just the eyes of the world upon you!

A fitting quote about the impact women had in this war

I know it's silly, but I really thought the drains were pretty!

The view toward the Lincoln memorial--WWII is between Lincoln and Washington, so this plaque says, "Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth century father and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle during the second world war and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: a nation conceived in liberty and justice"

Pearl Harbor

The flagpole had all the uniformed services' emblems, so here I am on the Army side of course :)

Cristy took one of me with every state I've lived in, so starting with the present, here's WA!

Vegas baby! We sure loved the sun there!

Good memories in Vallejo too!

The homeland

(I'm sure some of you are noting the lack of NY--I'm sure we took it, but I'm just not finding it! :) )

Cool emblem on the ground

Center of the monument--everyone is soaking their feet because it's so hot!

There's a Pacific and Atlantic side surrounding the fountain to represent both fronts


Prior to WWII we saw the Korean War Memorial

Here's a reflecting pool near the wall

The figures in the wall were really cool and textured too, but it was also impressive that it was reflective so everyone passing by was on the wall too

Many female figures demonstrating their involvement in this war

At first it's odd to come around the corner and see these statues in the bushes, but it's pretty powerful close up. For me it was kind of eery to see that the statues' boots and ponchos and field gear are all really similar to the stuff I wear now and have worn on field exercises--things haven't changed that much

You all know this guy, right?

Lots of people on the steps of the Lincoln memorial

Statue at the Vietnam Memorial

This is a really neat memorial given the political climate surrounding that war and the very harsh returns those soldiers had... a far cry from the welcomes soldiers in prior conflicts had, so I definitely understand the personal significance this memorial has to many people who lost loved ones or had loved ones or themselves were directly affected by this, but a lady yelled at me for smiling there! I'm proud this memorial exists because I think it represents how despite our differing political viewpoints, we all agree that we should support our soldiers defending our freedom who are just doing what was asked of them. So Cristy took my picture by the wall and I smiled. Reflexively for a picture, and yes, because I think it's a pretty neat thing that we did create a monument for all those soldiers who gave their lives in Vietnam, but a cranky lady passing by was VERY offended and said, "I don't think it's appropriate to SMILE here!" as she rudely passed by.

Here's my offensive smile--how dare I

All around the mall we could see the Washington monument, so sorry there are so many pics of it here!



with the reflecting pool--surprisingly shallow!

Cristy and I

Another nice shot

So now you've seen tons of monuments! I really had a great time and there are more pics to come of the zoo and the museum of medicine. It was really nice to stay with Nathaniel and Cristy and to see all the monuments too--I really have a greater appreciation for our country's history and all the soldiers who lost their lives to protect our freedom. I think I had a deeper connection to that aspect of all these monuments this time around as I get closer to finished with residency and deployment becomes a more real possibility. I'm definitely grateful to be an American and recognize how lucky I am!

In other news, today is our 7 year anniversary! It's gone really fast and it's hard to believe we're at 7 already! I'm so very lucky to have found Bob and to be able to spend every day with my best friend. We've had some great adventures already and they've all been better because we've been together. Thanks for always putting up with me Bob--I love you!

Hope you all have a great week!
~Cathy

DC!!

So here are a few pictures from when I was home in July--as I said, I didn't take near enough pictures, but at least I did take a few! Here's Me, Mandy, and Brooke after a delicious Olive Garden dinner:

This is at Mandy's birthday party at Honeysuckle--what a beautiful day!

Now on to DC! I'm out here for 9 days interviewing for fellowship at Walter Reed for Peds GI. (Fellowship is 3 years of extra training after residency to get board certified in a subspecialty in medicine) I'm staying with Cristy which is great fun, and we've seen some sites! Here's Cris with FDR at his memorial!

He seems so friendly!

So this is a depression era tribute and I had to lighten it up a little with my antics

Me and Cristy

Gotta love Eleanor... seems so very nice--definitely one of my favorite first ladies

The Jefferson Memorial at night--so pretty!

Ditto for the Washington monument--the sky was really reddish purple and I'm glad it showed up a little in this picture!

The front of the Jefferson memorial

So my interviews for fellowship have gone well so far but it will totally depend on who else applies so we'll see. It's very rare to get to do fellowship straight out of residency but we'll keep you posted! I'm here til Wed so I've got lots more sites to see with Cristy but it's been a lot of fun so far! I made her gnocchi tonight with indoor s'mores for dessert so at least we're eating well! :)