friends and meat

It's been a good week, other than the fact that Josh has been all call all week. He's at children's this month, which is a busier call schedule and he has had to go in quite a bit. But aside from call, it's been a good week. Wednesday night was our second Bible study meeting for the Side By Side Detroit group and it went really well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the book and we had lots of great discussion. The book is called Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas and it's a book about how to support your husband spiritually. It's been really good so far. We had a great playgroup on Friday and then Side By Side also had a game night last night and that was a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying getting to know these wonderful women up here. =)

The weekend was particularly fantastic because one of my best friends came in on Friday night with her husband and we got to go to dinner and then spend the afternoon together on Saturday. Ruth and I have been friends since junior high and she's one of the few friends I can get together with and not miss a beat, no matter how much time passes between seeing each other. So great! So Ruth and Andy came up from Ohio on Friday night and the four of us went to dinner at El Gaucho's Brazilian Steakhouse, which was AMAZING. It's an all you can eat steakhouse where everyone is a set price and you get a salad bar that is out of the world and then an endless supply of perfectly cooked meats and mashed potatoes. The servers just walk around with like 17 different kinds of meat on skewers and slice it right off onto your plate. And all of the meat was really incredible... my favorite was the sirloin (melt in your mouth, perfect flavor) and the prime rib. I highly recommend El Gaucho's for a nice night out... it's pricey, but worth it for a special night. So Josh and Andy successfully ate a full serving of all 17 meats (as was their bet/challenge to each other) plus multiple servings of their favorite meats and Ruth and I saved room for our favorite ones, but still got stuffed. We did not have room for dessert, but that was ok because we also filled up on the fried bananas they kept refilling for us at our table and that was kind of like dessert. yum! So Friday night was a wonderful night out with great friends and then Saturday Josh got home from the hospital in time to spend the day with Ruth and Andy at our house before they had to go to a family get together in the area (which is why they came up this way in the first place). It was a great weekend! Josh is still on call today, so I'm thinking we'll just hang at home, get some stuff done around here and enjoy time together. It might be a good night to all cuddle up on our new playroom couch and have a family movie night. Maybe I'll get lucky and even get a chance to get to the grocery store. =)

Here's a flashback pic of me and Ruth on a road trip in high school.

This is my new couch that Josh picked out in our messy playroom. Not a great picture, but you can get the idea. BTW, I LOVE having a seperate playroom where the kids' toys are not on the main floor.

great weekend

(Thanks for the pictures, Laura!)

We made a trip to mom and dad's house and then Columbus for the weekend. I had purchased a sit n stand stroller from a friend in Columbus who found a GREAT deal on one for me and it gave me the perfect excuse to go visit friends. =) So we stayed at mom and dad's house on Friday night and made a day trip to Columbus to hang out with some of our best friends at Erin's house. The kids had a blast seeing their buddies and I very much enjoyed catching up with my girlfriends who I am constantly missing in Michigan. They were such a blessing to me and my kids during the time we lived in Columbus and there's nothing like reuniting with war buddies even if your war was just getting through daily life of residency with 3 kids. So, our weekend was great. We stayed at mom and dad's again on Saturday night and the kids got some fun time with them. We went to brunch with my parents and brother on our way out of town on Sunday morning and got back home in Michigan in the early afternoon to spend a good evening with Josh.

The only bad part of the weekend was late last night as Josh and I watched the health care bill pass. We are simply praying that God protects our country from the devastating potential consequences of this bill that truly steps on the toes of freedom and what this country was founded on. It is scary for patients and frustrating for doctors, and since our family falls into both categories, we find it terrifying. I still say we look for an unoccupied island and start a new country. Anyone want to join us?! =)

Side By Side Detroit

So as most of you know, we moved to Detroit in July of last year from Columbus, OH. We are so thankful that God provided the opportunity for us to come up here and transfer into a urology program seamlessly. It was a huge blessing. But like many wonderful, sweet things... there was hard part, which was that we were required to leave Columbus and all of the wonderful friends we have there. The opportunity and accompanying transition was bittersweet for sure. We have been up here for about 7-8 months now and are still desperately missing our group of friends in Columbus. But have recently found a new bright spot on the Michigan horizon. I managed to make contact with a couple of girls whose husbands are residents and med students who were interested in starting a detroit chapter of Side By Side, which is an offshoot of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) and is an organization designed to offer support and friendship for the spouses of medical professionals. Some people might not understand why we would need support. But let me just say that when you are moving to a new city every other year, your husband is working 80+ hours a week, and you don't make enough money to hire babysitters or get help (and your family is often on the other side of the country), you NEED support. There are few women who really understand what it feels like to eat dinner without your husband 5 out of 7 days a week, to spend holidays alone, throw your child a birthday party without their father in attendance, sleep alone every third night, spend 3 out 4 weekends a month alone with your kids and hearing about all the fun things your friends did with their kids and their husbands, manage absolutely EVERYTHING that needs to be done in your home, and the list goes on and on. I'm not complaining. God provided Josh's medical school acceptance and has orchestrated every step of his training since then. We are blessed. We also need support. God provided an amazing support system for us in Columbus that we will always cherish and love. And God is doing it again in Michigan and I am so excited! God is a faithful God! And He even cares that there are women in Detroit who are lonely and needing some friends. What a loving and compassionate God we serve!

I set out with my 2 new medical spouse friends to help start a Side By Side chapter in Detroit and we really were just kind of shooting in the dark. We had few connections and did not get a lot of interest from the local medical education programs or local churches. We scheduled our first meeting for last Friday night and showed up truly not knowing if there would be anybody there besides the 3 of us. We had passed out flyers and sent info. to as many people and places we could think of, but had no idea if it had gotten distributed effectively. We knew of only one other mom who had helped me plan playgroups that was definitely planning to be involved (who, BTW, I discovered on Friday is married to one of the wonderful med students who rented a room at our house and lived with us for 2 weeks during a rotation he was doing last year in Columbus, how funny is that?). There were 8 of us at that first meeting! And since that time there have been 3 more women who have connected with us. We now have 11 ladies to be the core of the Side By Side Detroit chapter! There are about 6 who have kids and are planning to participate in playgroup. That is an AMAZING start considering this is basically our first week in existence! I am thrilled and am looking forward to getting to know all of these women better. I am also reminded that God works things out and that we can trust him to provide, whether it's financially, emotionally, spiritually, or just because He knows you need some friends and a sense of community. I cannot wait to see how God grows this group and I know that He has big plans to meet the needs of women in the Detroit area and am thankful to be a part of what He is going to do.

The Flu and a Mouse

We had kind of a rough week this past week. Everybody was sick one way or another. Isaac shared a nasty cold virus with me that made the first part of our week kind of yucky. And then the stomach virus hit the house with full force toward the end of the week. Luckily, I did not get that one because I was pretty busy cleaning up the evidence of the bug from everyone else in the family. Isaac and Lilah both got it and then Josh had it over the weekend. yuk! Fortunately, Seth and Lilah were both in the clear by Saturday night because we had tickets to see Disney On Ice with our friends. Josh did not get to go because he was sick. So he stayed home with Isaac, who was also not feeling great and we used his "paid for" seat to hold our coats and bags. Not sure that was worth the cost of admission.... but whatever. =)

But we had a good time, even though Josh couldn't come. The kids loved the show and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the quality of the performance. Lilah LOVED the princess scene and Seth's eyes got huge when his personal favorites, the Toy Story gang, showed up at the end. Our seats were fantastic, 7 rows from the ice, so Seth could really see Buzz Lightyear do the flying spread eagle right in front of us. It was a lot of fun. And I have to admit that even at the age of 28, there is something about that magic mouse (Mickey) and the rest of the the Disney gang that still makes my stomach flutter with excitement. And even as an adult with my wide-eyed 3 year old "princess" in my lap, I caught myself dreaming of a career performing as Snow White in a skater's princess dress. (Snow White because she's the dark-haired, pasty white princess that I most resemble) haha... =) The only thing that was NOT magical was the $12 bag of cotton candy I had promised the kids before I knew the cost... and that was the cheapest treat option! Crazy!