Living in Limbo

We are currently living in limbo and it's becoming more and more difficult as the weeks pass by. We have yet to sell the house, therefore everything is on hold. We knew this could happen but living it and thinking about going through it are two totally different worlds and it's not fun. Trying to manage through plan A, B, C and D are tough so I'm going with the “one day at a time” outlook. There really isn't much we can do at this point, just wait and see what is meant to be. (I'm just really hoping that “what is meant to be” and “what I want to happen” align this time) For now I'm probably going to be a bit cranky and stressed out until things get settled so bear with me everyone.

My husband is officially halfway through medical school! He has been getting adjusted to being on vacation, by reading lots of non-medical books, helping around the house, and getting things fixed that have been a bit neglected. I've also managed to get him out running with me a few times! It's nice to have him around again, the first week we had an adjustment period....it was a bit annoying as he was kind of in the way but we're doing better now.

The kids have 2 weeks left of school and they are ready to be done. Hoping the weather will improve soon as it's been wet and chilly lately. The baby is growing and changing daily, she's started trying to crawl and pull herself up on everything! The last couple of nights she's been in bed by 6pm and sleeps until 7am! Such a good little girl!

On Mother's day I was honoured to run a 10km race with my Dad! He did so well and I was so proud to run with him and accomplish the run with him. It will be a memory I'll cherish forever and to have my mom, 3 girls, and husband to be cheering us on at the finish line was icing on the cake! Thank you so much!

We celebrated our 13^th wedding anniversary this week! It's amazing to look at what has happened in those 13 years - 3 children, 1 dog, several fish, 3 houses, a couple new careers, etc. I consider myself the luckiest girl ever to have such a solid, caring, loving, funny and handsome husband. I remember my dear friends' mom wrote in a wedding card to us that our love will grow stronger as the years go by, and back then I couldn't imagine loving him more than I did at the time, but I now know what she meant and it's so true! Every year and every hurdle we get over our love just becomes stronger and deeper. Thank you for being my best friend and going through life by my side, I look forward to the rest of our lifetime together!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

We are anxiously waiting for May 18^th, as this is the day my husband completes his last exam to finalize his 2^nd year of medical school!  Yay and it so happens to be my brother’s birthday as well J Not that we are just sitting idly around wishing time to fly by, oh we have lots going on, as most people do lately. That is how life goes now and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I must say that I am glad to have the month of April over with!  It was filled with flu bugs, a  lice infestation,  a fainting episode,   preparing our home for the market , having a man take out his road rage at me….agh the list goes on. You know how you just have one of those days? I had one of those months.  

I took my oldest daughter out for a shopping spree and dinner for her 11^th birthday celebration last week. We had so much fun! It’s so nice to get time one on one with her, we try to do this with our daughters as it gives you a chance to really enjoy each other.  We made our way to the mall and got some great outfits for her and then headed to the Wok Box for a late supper. We opened our fortune cookies and my daughter’s was “You will be successful in whatever you do.” I love that and this is so true, I am so proud of her and her accomplishments already but lookout world she has so much more to offer.  My fortune was a little unsettling “Be prepared to modify your plan.” Eek! 

We just listed our home and made the final decision to move back to Fredericton. I am really hoping this works out for us.  It’s been a great 2 years living here and we’ve met some wonderful friends and I’d highly recommend this lovely town to anyone but home is where the heart is and I miss it so much. I miss my family, my neighbourhood and friends, the familiarity of everything etc.  We spent many years making Fredericton our home and I hope we can ease back into it again.  I know that we will stay in touch with the close friends we’ve made here and I’m positive our girls will keep in touch with their sweet friends as well.  It will be OK. Who knows what is really in store for us? Some things are not 100% in our control and it is tough managing through that sometimes.

I am running a 10KM race on Mother’s Day with my Dad (and some of my running buddies will be there as well). Last week my hip gave out and I’ve been in pain ever since. For now I’m just going to keep at it and hope for the best. 

Hoping for a happy month of May filled with fun times!!  

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful Moms out there!!!

Happy Spring!!

I have never been more poked and prodded than I have in the last few months! Geesh, I can be sitting minding my own business when along comes my husband with his little Doctor hammer and asking me to relax! Ha…have you seen the new hammers? It is this long knitting needle stick with a small “tire like” thing on the end of it. Seriously how am I supposed to relax when I know he’s going to whack my funny bones with that thing! Luckily I have passed all the neuro assessments with flying colours, I am becoming more and more used to being a patient. He’s doing great by the way, working his butt off day and night but it’s absolutely paying off in his marks and his knowledge, this boy will be a wonderful, intelligent, and caring Doctor (not to mention handsome too ;-) )

We’ve begun the process of preparing to move back home. We’ve met with the realtor to list our home and have a few details to finish up on our home before we list it. Luckily my Mom and Dad are able to help get these things finished up as my husband is very busy studying for another exam coming this week. He also has his Objective Structured Clinical Examination(OSCE) coming up in mid May which is another pile of work to prep for(plus more poking and prodding of me and the kids). He really doesn’t like to miss out on doing our house projects but time is of the essence.

I’ve started coaching two of girls basketball spring league teams, it’s fun to get out with them. I haven’t had to drag our littlest with us yet but I’m sure there will be a couple of games that she’ll have to join us. She’s so easy I’m sure she’d love to come along with us. I’m also training for an upcoming 10KM run on Mother’s Day and I hope to run it with my Dad! I have a few weeks left to get my training in so hopefully I can do it. Not much else going on in our life , we had a wonderful trip to Florida in March to visit my parents. What a great time we had and it was so relaxing!

Our girls are all doing well and they are so much fun. They give us our fair share of difficult moments but it’s expected at their ages…so people tell me. But I cherish our happy moments much more than ever. I know we have good kids but wow they can be challenging to say the least. Our realtor who met with us last week commented on how calm and quiet our home was at the time and I informed her that this was not the norm and she replied “oh so you have a normal family too! “ oh do we ever!!

Two Thirds Through 2nd Year!

In less than 2 weeks my husband writes his big exam and his bell ringer exam (well that’s what I call it anyway) this signifies being 2/3 done his 2^nd year! Yay! While he slaves away at studying and “freaking out”, I’ve been busy packing and preparing for our muchly needed vacation south. I used to get all caught up in his stress and anxiety over exams but I’ve recently learned to not get so involved in that part of his life. It’s hard enough to have one parent in the house stressed and overwhelmed but to have 2 is not very helpful. Not that I don’t care but I know he will do well as he’s proven this to me several times over our life together and my time can be better spent in a supporting role instead. Still it’s not fun even thinking about the amount of pressure he has on him, blah.

We just found out that his first 8 weeks of his clerkship will be in Fredericton. So that is a big relief for us. To have our family unit all together when school starts will be a big help, seeing as we’ll be going through enough transitions at the time. Our oldest daughter will be starting middle school in a new school and our middle child will hopefully be starting back at her old school but it will be a new adjustment. So much has to happen between now and then though….baby steps, Christa, baby steps.

Speaking of baby, our little Ava is doing very well. She’s a little over 5 months old and smiling all the time. She has been making strange with many people but this seems to be getting better lately. She’s coming down with her first cold, thanks to me. We’re hoping to get her on the mend before we head south.

Our 2 older girls are growing up so quickly and I just can’t believe how fast things change. While they can both be a handful a lot of the time; I am so proud of them for who they are. They are both involved in helping out in various activities at school, have made such great friends, help out a lot in the house, and take such good care of their little sister. They so enjoy having a baby sister around and it has allowed us to see another side of our daughters. Having a third child was one of the best things that ever happened to this family. She’s taught us a whole new level of love and I am so thankful for all my girls. Now if I can just figure out how to get through the preteen attitudes and the sibling fighting it will be a perfect household. Ha…some things get easier while others get more complex and difficult.

I recently found an exercise routine online and it was called “Fab Ab February” It started with 10 second plank, 4 pushups and 10 situps, and it builds everyday (with Sun off) ending on Feb 29 with 2 min plank, 25 pushups and 100 situps. When I started this I was weak…very weak. The first night I thought I’d never make it through but I stuck to it and by golly today is the last day and I know I will do it. I liked it so much I’m going to build a calendar for the month of March to keep adding to it. I may not have great looking abs (remember I’m 5 months postpartum…yes I’ll use that excuse) but I am stronger. I’ve never been able to do 25 proper pushups in my life and now I can!! Lookout Michelle Obama… So if you’re looking to build your core strength just take a look below or checkout my workout board on Pinterest to get the plan. Stick to it and I know you’ll succeed!

Source: imgfave.com via Christa on Pinterest

Happy 2012 all!

I am really looking forward to what this year brings...more change and adjustment in life ahead. We are beginning to lift our heads and look at the near future, for the last 18 months I feel like we have been getting through life day by day with our heads down full steam ahead.

My husband just got his track selection confirmed. What does this mean? Well not a lot, yet (in my perspective...but apparently it is) It basically tells us which specialties he'll be rotating to over the next year. He got his first track selection and will be starting in Internal Medicine in September for a 12 week block. As to where he will do this, we're not sure yet...hopefully we'll know this by March.

So begins the process of "attempting" to move back "home". Since he will be on 6-12 week rotations, we've decided that it works best for us to be closer to our family as we will need a support system closer to home when he's in and out of rotations here and there. We are very hopeful that he can get some of these rotation placements in Fredericton but we have to wait and see. For now we will be preparing our house for the market and hoping we can sell our home by summer and move back.

We have lots of mixed emotions while going through this process. It's something I've been counting down since the day we moved here. But we have met so many wonderful families here that it's not going to be as easy as I anticipated. I know the girls are going to have a very difficult transition back, although they are excited to be moving back, they too have met some pretty amazing friends. But I know they will stay in touch with them and it will be OK. We've learned and grown so much from this move. We've also had our share of tough moments since we moved.

For the next couple of months we're focussing on the road ahead and enjoying the time we have here. As we have very well learned what we plan and what actually happens are two entirely different outcomes and we'll take whatever we are dealt. I've finally got back to a little bit of running but hopefully the short distances will soon turn into longer easier distances. But it feels good both mentally and physically to be on the move again and winter running is awesome (especially this winter)!

2011 Reflection

I am reflecting on the past year of our life. Considering last year's changes, I really thought it was not to be outdone but looking back on this year we have had some significant hurdles and amazing changes. Life sure does throw you some curve balls but how boring would life be if it didn't.

In January of 2011 I started into the year very energetically, signing myself up for the 100 day fitness challenge and looking forward to the year ahead. By mid January we found out that we were expecting our third child! While some may refer to this as a “mistake” or a “surprise” I like to refer to it as the “best gift since 2003”!! We always planned to have 3 children but after being sick for 3 years it became obvious that another child was not in the plans. Just another lesson in my “Never say Never” post :-)

In February my morning, noon, and night nausea kicked in. By mid February we told the girls the baby news and let them deliver the news to the rest of the family shortly after. It was a very exciting time in our household. By the end of February I started a job at a local elementary school working with kindergarten children. By the first of March I picked up every flu bug going at the school, it was like living in a cesspool of germs. March was a rough month of sinus colds and flu...blah.

My husband's dear Grandmother passed away in May. What a precious soul, she always had a smile and a quick witted remark. We all adore her and the girls have a special place in their heart for her. We wish our youngest child could have met her.

In the summer we took a trip to Boston and Maine. It was a fun trip but my husband stated he wouldn't vacation again with me while pregnant. It was really hot in Boston and we must have walked 20 miles in the heat and I was 7 months pregnant at the time so go figure. The rest of the summer was spent going back and forth to Doctor appointments and scans. I think I had 10 or 11 ultrasounds of this baby, every time they'd find something to bring me back the next week. It was concerning as there had been issues with amniotic fluid levels, breach, and heartbeat issues. But nothing that resulted to anything in the end, thank goodness.

September came upon us quite quickly and we eagerly anticipated the baby's due date of September 12th. Well that day came and went with no sign of Baby Wood. But a couple days later our youngest baby girl became part of our family and we became a family of 5. What an amazing experience and we just can't imagine our family without her.

As 2011 comes to an end I am thankful for all the changes life has given us and take them at stride. I am looking forward to what 2012 will bring, as I know we have even more challenges and changes ahead.

One never knows what truly lies ahead, so enjoy every moment as much as you possibly can and hug the ones you love just a little more often because we only get to do this thing called “life” once. I wish you a very Happy Healthy and Safe New Year!! May 2012 be filled with good health and happiness.

Three more sleeps...

Here we are mid-November already. Life in the Wood household is getting as close to normal as it will ever be. We are all finding our way in our new family unit. I'd be lying if I said it was an easy adjustment for all of us. Things are getting smoothed out but not without a few tough moments (or sometimes hours or days).

Our girls are managing well and they are in love with their baby sister. They both have their specialities when it comes to helping out and cheering her up. Recently she has started smiling and cooing and it is such a treat to watch her older sisters make her smile. It has been a huge adjustment for them in so many ways and we've had some hurdles to get over but I'm amazed at their love and support for this new little sweetheart. Our baby girl has been extremely good; she sleeps well and fusses very seldom. The first 6 weeks were very exhausting for me as anyone would expect. But I'm certainly not complaining. I've just felt the tiredness more this time around, I'm sure it has to do with having to go full steam ahead to make sure the rest of the family gets taken care of.

My husband is in full study mode. He writes his first exam of year two in 3 sleeps. We are all just as anxious as him to get it over with. This block has been on Neuro and I've heard more than I'll ever want to know about the brain in the last 12 weeks! He’s amazingly focussed and puts in such long hours of studying, we know he’ll do great. We’ve also been learning more about how things will work when he goes into Clerkship rounds next fall. So basically, next fall he will be working/learning in various hospitals around the province in 6-12 week blocks. Each block being a predetermined speciality/area for example: 12 weeks of surgery, 6 weeks of family medicine etc. This will continue on for 2 years until graduation. But for now we just need to get next 3 days over with :-)

The girls are enjoying their extra-curriculars both are in dance and basketball this year. We're only out 3 nights of the week and then again on Saturdays for games. So far so good.

That’s all for now folks, I’m going to go enjoy this snow day with my girls and we have an extra special guest with us for a couple of days…my mom J Today we have some Christmas baking in store!