Julie's last day of work

Tuesday was my last day of work :( It was bittersweet. I'm going to miss all of the people I worked with for the past 3 years, because the cases might be crazy, people are wonderful. It was sad because I haven't been on the cardiac floor for almost a month due to all the new people who needed cases, so many of the cardiac people didn't even know I was leaving. The Perfusionists threw a little going away party for me, which was so nice.

The Dynamic Quartet... when they're all together it only means trouble. And this day, you can tell they all had residents :) But they're definitely my favorite anesthesiologists.

From 2010 08_August

Jimmy and Paz kept me sane during crazy late night liver transplants.

From 2010 08_August

The views I stared at for hours waiting to save some cells on 8OR. This is downtown LA.

From 2010 08_August

The back side of the Beverly Center.

From 2010 08_August

Watching the new construction and playing where's my car? when I park on the top floor of the parking garage. I kept waiting to watch the guy who operates the crane climb down all those latters.

From 2010 08_August

People watching.

From 2010 08_August

But the coolest people are down on 6OR in the cardiac ORs.
Nicole, Dana, and Melissa.

From 2010 08_August

One of my favorite cardiac nurses, and scrub techs. Visi and Walter.

From 2010 08_August

I have to admit I'm gonna miss Bob.

From 2010 08_August

And Ray.

From 2010 08_August

Melissa (pretending to work), Ellie, and Paula our PAs.

From 2010 08_August

This is how people in cardiac surgery spend their time... standing in the hallway waiting for a case to start.

From 2010 08_August

This one is PRICELESS!! Our nurse liason, Chris, and Dr. DeCastro had NO CLUE I was leaving until I took the picture. You can tell by their faces, they were shocked lol.

From 2010 08_August

One last hug from Miss Patsi a circulating nurse. I'll miss her!

From 2010 08_August

Little fish in the making

On Sunday (our last day in Phoenix before we MOVE there!), Chris and I were packing up the house. My mom took Ryleigh outside to sweep the leaves... I look outside and this is what I see...

From 2010 08_August

My little fish decided she wanted to swim instead. She was so proud of herself.

From 2010 08_August

Splash Pad, Pools, and Waffle Blocks

We've been up to a lot, but we lost internet for about a week and finally found someone to borrow wireless from.

On Saturday, we went back to visit the new house we LOVE. They have a splashpad in the backyard and Ryleigh had a blast playing in it.

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

Later that night my brother came over. We went swimming and barbequed.

From 2010 08_August

After dinner, we were all playing with Ryleigh. My brother and I were having a discussion about whatever happened to those old little tykes short and squatty little people. And what appears in the waffle block bag...

From 2010 08_August

Little Tykes Little People!!

From 2010 08_August

I think my brother had more fun than Ryleigh building... must be the engineer in him.

From 2010 08_August

Ryleigh putting the finishing touches on Uncle Chris's creation

From 2010 08_August

Productive Day

We're in Arizona tying some things up before we move. Chris needed to register his car, so that was the first stop on our agenda this morning. We got his car registered, and meanwhile, got our new ARIZONA licenses.

Goodbye California Plates....

From 2010 08_August

Hello Arizona Plates...

From 2010 08_August

Goodbye California License...

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

Hello Arizona License...

From 2010 08_August

From 2010 08_August

After the DMV we went to see apartments/townhouses. We got a place we liked right across the street from Midwestern University. I can walk to work! The concept itself is just appealing. We'll see how often I do it :)

We stopped by Midwestern to drop off a copy of my contract to the program director, so he can speed up the paperwork process. He showed me my OFFICE, complete with a WINDOW!! Apparently a window is a hot commodity :) I got a list of classes, found out what classes I'll be teaching, got a list of all the students and the student's I'll be a faculty advisor for. It's definitely becoming more real now.

Then we went out to a new home community we've been eying. Over the past 2 years we have had multiple times when we thought we'd move to Arizona. We have been scouting the new homes for sale, and we have seen multiple developments come and go. There's a new one in Cibola Vista, not quite out as far as Vistancia. There's a big shopping center that just went in with all kinds of convenient stores (Super Walmart, Super Target, Kohls, Michaels, Home Depot, Lowes...). I've started to go to this area when I need to go shopping in Phoenix just because it's so well stocked and not very crowded most of the time. The new subdivision is right up the street. We had seen a few models by this builder a couple of months ago, but that community has now closed out. But the same models are being built (plus some) up in Cibola Vista. Chris and I were curious to see one of the one story floor plans. We knew they had one other model too, but we had already decided it was WAY too big for us... and then we saw it. We both loved the bigger model. It is big, but every room is just bigger. There is not a lot of wasted space and wasted rooms that we'd never figure out how to use. And it's not super expensive given all of the energy saving upgrades that are included (spray foam insulation, solar panels for water heating, electric, heating and cooling, etc.) So now that we're actually MOVING to Arizona, the reality of us actually owning a house is becoming closer. We now know what we want, we just are praying Chris can land a job soon so we don't miss out on this community as well.

All in a day's work... started the transition to becoming Phoenicians, found an apartment, and found the house we want to buy as soon as the next piece falls into place :)

Ryleigh update... oh and we're MOVING TO PHOENIX!!!

I have become one of those absentee bloggers who rarely updates. Time for some updates:

Ryleigh is entering the world of the 2's. She's perfecting the whining, and alligator tears. The art of saying "NO!" She's saying more and more words every day. She's figured out the difference between a bus and a tractor trailer (big truck). She knows what a motorcycle is. She calles it a "Mo-sh**". We refrain from asking her what a motorcycle is in public, for obvious reasons. She can count to 7. She's starting to get her colors down, but her default color is still "red". She's on a new "drawing" kick. Drawing used to mean coloring in her coloring books with crayons. Now it means using a pen and drawing on a blank piece of paper. She's all over the place. She's now trying to jump. She stomps her feet and says she's "tapping". Her new favorite phrase is "Oh-TAY!" and she says it with such enthusiasm. It's like you're suggesting something new and amazing every time. ("Ryleigh, want to go change your diaper?" "OH-TAY!!!") She's now outgrown everything except her 2T clothes and is moving into a size 6 shoe. 2 more months til Ryleigh's 2!!!

Here she is waiting for me to finish getting ready. She decided she needed shoes, and pulled them out of my closet. They actually match her outfit perfectly!

From 2010 07_July

I finally got the courage to try to paint her toe nails. I found some quick dry polish. She loves her "Pik (pink) toes!" You can also kind of see the necklace she made. I had some yarn and some pony beads, and she put all the beads on the (plastic) needle to make her first necklace.

From 2010 08_August

Here we are getting ready for a walk to the park. She had to have her hat on!

From 2010 08_August

And now for the big update. We're moving to Phoenix!! I got the job at Midwestern University as an Assistant Professor! We've known for a few weeks, but it just became official today when I got my contract! I found out on the Tuesday of my first call week. It was really what got me through the week of living off of naps alone. After they offered me the job, I had to be approved by the Dean in order to get a contract drawn up. The Tuesday of my second call week I found out the Dean approved me, so then a contract was going to be drawn up for me. I found out yesterday that the contract had been signed and would be on my doorstep on Friday afternoon. I got the okay from the program director at Midwestern to turn in my resignation to my boss. I'm SO glad that it is over with so now I can really be excited about this new adventure in our life. Chris put in his 2 week notice when we first found out I got the job, so his last day was today. He is looking to transfer with Bank of America and is already applying for opportunities in Phoenix. My last day will be August 31st. We'll stay through the holiday weekend, then move after the holiday. We're going out to Arizona next week to register Chris's car (his registration expires this month) and to look at apartments. We plan to stay in an apartment until Chris finds a job, then we'll start looking at buying a house.

Chris is already teaching Ryleigh how to say "Phoenix" and surprisingly she says it pretty clearly ("Fee-neh"). We are all excited for this next journey in our lives. We've been waiting for this for a long time and the time has FINALLY come!

Alright, so I guess it's time for an update. We really haven't been up to much except waiting. Seems to be the theme of our lives lately. We're definitely being taught PATIENCE.

As most of you know, I have been waiting for a position at Midwestern University to post for months. I knew they were going to have a position as the program director has been keeping me in the loop on the progress of it. It was just a matter of it being approved in the budget, then getting it posted, before I could apply. So on July 12th they finally posted the position. I applied and immediately scheduled an interview for July 20th. I decided to take Ryleigh with me so Grandma and Grandpa could have someone to play with, and Ryleigh could have a mini-vacation on an airplane. Ryleigh was very excited for the airplane. I have to say using a carseat on the airplane is wonderful, but traveling alone and trying to not whack all those early boarders who claim the aisle seats in the head while holding/coaxing a toddler down the aisle was a challenge.

The interview went well. I talked to a person from HR about benefits and did all the background check paperwork. I then was interviewed by all of the people in the cardiovascular science department. Overall, their questions made me think, but nothing outside what I was expecting. Then I met with the program director to discuss the position in more detail. The position is actually a level higher than I expected due to me having my masters degree. This also means more pay, which is significantly higher than I expected. Only negative was that he said 7 other people also applied for the position, but he thinks only half of them are serious about the position and I look better qualified than them. The other negative was that 2 of the 3 instructor went out of town the day after my interview for over 2 weeks :( They can't interview anyone while they are out of town, so I have to wait until August 10th for them to begin anything again or make a decision. So they don't know when they will make a decision. They say it will take 3 weeks from the time an offer is accepted until someone can start. So we're hoping this is our last month here in LA. Now we just have to wait some more.

We were just in Phoenix for a day and a half, but my brother Chris came over to see Ryleigh and I. We went out to dinner with my parents, Chris and my grandma. Ryleigh went to Build-a-Bear and made a "Monkey Woody" (pictures next time we got to AZ, he was left there). She visited the Disney Store and got a cute Minnie Mouse outfit complete with light up Minnie Mouse jellies. She loves wearing the shoes as dress up shoes around the house since they're still too big for her to really wear.

From 2010 07_July

So excited to climb and slide.

From 2010 07_July

Ryleigh doesn't swim, she just climbs in and out on the 1st step.

From 2010 07_July

Uncle Chris made her shoot some hoops.

From 2010 07_July

LOVING her sand and water table!

From 2010 07_July

See! She's getting some hair! It even curls in the back and around the ears

From 2010 07_July

She did go in the water! Not like it was a hard feat. The water was almost 90 degrees! Even I went in!

So back to waiting for a few more weeks. Hopefully we'll have some wonderful news soon. We've waited almost a year for it!

Aquarium of the Pacific - Happy 4th of July!

We decided to take advantage of me not being on call and Chris getting a 2 day weekend (he normally works on Saturdays) and decided to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Earlier this week we had to wonder whether or not we'd be able to go.

Ryleigh got sick this week. We weren't sure how much was teething (she's starting to get her 2 year old molars) of if she picked up a stomach bug. No one she was around was sick. She had no appetite, severely decreased her liquid intake, got diaper rash from hell. Her diaper rash was so bad she'd start freaking out whenever she had to go poop. It was so bad, Chris took half a day off on Friday, and I took the other half because we couldn't let the sitter have to fight and get beat up changing her diaper every 2 hours. After trying all our diaper rash tricks of the trade and trying out some disposable cloth diapers (gdiapers) for a few days, it cleared up enough to even think about taking her out today.

We got up early and got down to Long Beach around 9:30am. It was very overcast for most of the day and kinda chilly.

From 2010 07_July

(These were taken right before we left later in the day, when the sun came out.)

From 2010 07_July

Ryleigh liked seeing all the fish, but got a scared a few times when they'd swim toward her close to the glass.

From 2010 07_July

From 2010 07_July

Then we went outside and found out they had BIRDS!!! Ryleigh was so excited when she heard the "tweet tweets!"

From 2010 07_July

Checking out the birds in the cage with Dad.

From 2010 07_July

They had a bird habitat you could go in with lots of Lorkeets. They were gorgeous birds! They also had so much fun swooping super close to you. But Ryleigh was in heaven seeing so many birds!

From 2010 07_July

From 2010 07_July

From 2010 07_July

Right after the birds swooped down super close to our heads!

From 2010 07_July

We saw some sharks. This is a cute picture of Ryleigh asking Chris to pick her up. She puts out her arms and opens and closes her hands.

From 2010 07_July

Watching the sharks.

From 2010 07_July

Touching a Sea Star in the tide pool.

From 2010 07_July

Looking at the ducks. She really could have cared less about the fish if there were birds around :)

From 2010 07_July

Getting ready for the sealion show. We kinda caught the show by accident. We were wandering through the exhibit just above where the show was, and we lucked out on a great spot. The big sealion was right in front of and below us, so we got some great pictures!

From 2010 07_July

Waving

From 2010 07_July

Handstand

From 2010 07_July

We went back inside to see a few more fish.

From 2010 07_July

A really big spider crab!

From 2010 07_July

A really goofy looking fish. He looked like he was just floating there with his tongue hanging out.

From 2010 07_July

Then we went for a walk around Long Beach Harbor. We saw the boats, and had lunch. Such a great family day!!

From 2010 07_July

We went on the roof with Ryleigh to watch fireworks. We can see 4 or 5 shows from our roof. The closest was the Marina del Rey, but we couldn't see much once the smoke started blowing inland. We saw a little of Malibu, a little of downtown. And another show we weren't sure where it was, but it was just inland of us.

We had a wonderful 4th of July!