Zoolights!

This post almost doesn't need words. Except that it does, so that you can appreciate at least in part what a fucking godawful cold windy day we chose to do this. Otherwise it would just be the pretty. So, look at the pretty. And keep it in the back of your mind...freezing our asses off. Freezing.our.asses.off.

Senioritis?

Part one of the senior clinical exams was yesterday. I'm certain I passed 1 station, would be stunned if I didn't pass a second, and am really unsure about a third. It is normal at this school to fail at least one station, because they are extraordinarily picky. I would LIKE not to fail any of it at all, which does sometimes happen, but am somewhat resigned to having to take at least one section of this thing again.

I was finished with my round of harrassment by a bit after noon, so I went to meet up with the rest of the family, and we did the Christmas Tree thing. We went to a massive tree farm and drove around, found the kind of tree we wanted, walked around, found the exact tree we wanted (Boyness had very reasoned arguements about the tree he picked out...it had to be "tall because our ceiling is tall, maybe as tall as Daddy can reach, and then it can't be too bushy because if there's too much stuff you can't see the lights on the inside and the ornaments are hard to hang up..."). He kept vetoing his sisters' picks over such criteria.

At the tree farm:


Found it!



Erm, what a *loving* brother you have there, Bittyprincess:


Same tree, in our living room!


Oooh, decorations:






Anyway, the tree is home and in our living room. Much egg nog was consumed. A new tree stand was required, due to parts gone missing in the move. Many new scratches appear on my hands, although surprisingly not as many as last year. The tree is gorgeous.

This morning I run off for a second round of senior harrassment.

And in honor of the post title: I am having huge problems summoning the motivation to write my goddamned senior paper. Anyone care to do it for me? I was already supposed to turn the thing in but I just can't seem to make progress on it.

Harbor Tree Lighting

Every year, Santa comes to Gig Harbor on a fire truck. We went down this year to join in the festivities. The kids got a kick out of Santa on a fire truck (and out of him having a bit of trouble getting OFF the fire truck), there was a caroling quartet, and there were tree lights. The kids were mostly underwhelmed.

The only picture we got:

Boyness Birthday!

Boyness had a great birthday!

Making treat bags:


LOTS of balloons:


When asked what he wanted for his birthday, Boyness said "Fruit! and Friends!"


"And SMOOTHIES!"








We had a treasure hunt (that we were too busy running after kids to take pictures of after this):


Cake:


Mmmmmm, cake:



Pinata!


The pinata mob:

Basking

In the lovely warm glow of a Boyness Birthday Party that went very well. Aunty B and Uncle O, Boyness was so excited that he got a present from you, since he wasn't expecting one :).

And basking in the lovely warm glow of the car needing not a new transmission, but a new thing-that-joins-transmission-to-wheels. $160 vs $2000. Thank you universe.

Out with a whimper. Kind of.

Last hours of call and waters-broken primip is finally in active labor. Francesco is about to get off of work, so I drive with the kids to meet him there. We switch vehicles. I head on my way, am next to the mall in the left turn lane as MW calls and tells me she's started pushing, am I less than a half hour away? Yes. And then...

The transmission on the car goes out. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Francesco is luckily not too far away yet, and less than 10 minutes passes before he comes and we coordinate pushing the car (with the van...I was headed slightly uphill) into the parking lot.

Needless to say, I missed that birth. The last with this preceptor.

"Are you going to be OK?" asked Francesco...he almost never asks this kind of thing, I guess he usually assumes that I've got it handled or he can't do anything for me anyway or something, but he asked me then, so I must have looked like the shit I felt like. "Can we, I don't know, all get in the van now so you can go help out?" Pointless. Arriving after the birth when there is another student there already.

This was supposed to be my last one, though, and I feel like eversomuch shit. The nearly overwhelming feeling of that competed with the nearly overwhelming thought of how much this is going to cost to fix, and then I just couldn't think about any of it anymore. The kids and I went to the bookstore and Francesco called towing companies. The car is safely transported to the mechanic, now, who assures us that if it is complete transmission replacement that we require, he is now equiped to do it. This is someone we trust to do this monster repair right and cheap, and that is no small thing. It's still money we don't have, which will make an already lean holiday season even leaner.

I have no idea how we're going to do this coming week. Today, Francesco is off so I can take the van and strand him at home with the kids; tomorrow we are both off for Boyness' birthday. The remainder of the week we have wildly diverging schedules in hugely different places, and there is no way to do it with one vehicle. There just isn't. Mass transit? OMG we've never even been on the busses in this state.

At least I'm not on call this week.

Ah, the Weekend

I am in my waning days of on-call time with one practice. Last day, actually. I've liked working with them very, very much.

So anyway, on Friday, again sitting happily in the last bits of my on-call time for this practice, with nobody really looking like they were going to go into labor (three primips due two weeks from then), I thought it would be safe to invite ~L~s daughter G to sleep over.

Because we are batting 1000, ~L~ and I, with me having to call her to get her kids every time I babysit, my suspicion was pretty high, but I thought we'd make it this time. Fuck, the sleepover was even my idea.

So of course one of our primips goes into labor and another's water breaks.

Our trend of primips with speedy labors continues. This woman went from 0 - literally couldn't get a finger into her cervix - to baby in four hours. 9lb 4oz babe, intact perineum (I am proud of both of us for that one). It was a great birth, postpartum hemorrhage notwithstanding. She was completely asymptomatic - practically skipped off to the bathroom - after at least 1200cc blood loss (we couldn't estimate well, it wasn't contained on the blue pads and bedding and floor in a way we could get a number out of). The new student, who will be taking call after I leave mostly but was at this birth while the other student took time off call, was excited and clueless. I remember not quite knowing what to do like that. It seems so far in the past, now, and while at the time I just told her what to do ("[otherstudent], draw up pit please" "get a blood pressure please" "I need you to come assist me over here") it feels weird on reflection to be so far from where I was just over a year ago. And it feels weird to know that in a short few months, she'll be where I am.

Morning came, and I went and traded cars - my sedan for a van full of kids, mine plus G - at Francesco's work. We stopped at Trader Joes and forgot several important grocery items. Came home and let the kids have crazy/fun time. Enjoyed a visit from ~L~. Got to bed around 8:30, and true to form, a MW called the second I turned out the light. "Just an update," she said; apparently client-with-water-broken was contracting in a halfhearted kind of way. I went to bed fully expecting a call last night, but no, here we are at 9am and I have a full night of sleep behind me. That's the way to do it, eh? I'm hoping for an afternoon birth today. In the meantime, as much schoolwork and house organizing as I can cram into the morning without exhausting myself.

Life Craziness

My parents came to visit this weekend, which was great. The kids really enjoyed it. And my house is WAY cleaner. I have some photos somewhere. Figuring out where all my photos are and archiving them is on my to-do list, in a fairly low priority position...which means I may get to it sometime when I'm procrastinating doing something more important.

Like writing my senior paper...the rough draft is due Dec 4, which is impossibly close. I was going to do some of it over this past weekend, but I had two births and then my parents came to visit. Urgh.

I have a lot of school work catchup and oh-shit-I'm-falling-behind to take care of. And the clinical exams, fuck...we keep doing study sessions for these and sitting around practicing saying "we pretty much know what we're doing, why are we still feeling so unprepared?"

The kids did Thanksgiving themed art projects with my parents yesterday. It's a little absurd how much you love those crazy hand-shaped turkey feathers with "things I'm thankful for" written on them when it is your own children doing the project. BittyPrincess is thankful for "Tutu and Papa, Birds, Trees, My House, Cereal, Pink, and I'm a Big Girl." Boyness and Girliness are thankful for similarly predictable things. Oh, the mushy lows parenting has taken me to.

Reboot

I kept putting off restarting my blog, because of all the "catchup" I'd need to do.

So I'm skipping that catching-up part, and just starting again.

Yesterday, I started with a new practice. I'll be with them through August, which is after I graduate, but it's what I had to do to get a spot there and finish up my numbers.

I was quite comfortable at the old practice. This one is closer, and it feels good to jump in as a senior and feel pretty competent, but there is a lot of adjusting to do. Including 4 days a week of clinic. And hour-long appointments (which, IMO, is ridiculous, I greatly prefer 45 minute slots - I understand wanting to make space for your clients to talk and to deal with anything that comes up, but about 99% of the time you wind up talking about cats and who needs a new hamper). The charting at the new place sucks. Their supply closet is a wreck. They don't have an online schedule (working on it...). The schedule is hectic because they are changing locations. I remember feeling highly irritable the last time I switched practices, too, so I'm sure I'll settle in.

Oh So Neglected

My blog...oh so neglected.

The rest of my life, too, have no fear. Haven't put the pics from the Hawaii trip on my computer yet (it has been almost a month now, yikes).

Hawaii trip was great. Busy at clinic/births. The sun came out this weekend, which elevated my mood greatly.

More comprehensible updates to come. Maybe. When I have time.

The more there is to write about, the less time there is to do it. Crazy how life works out that way.

Friday, on the Lighthouse Trail

On Friday we left bridezilla et al to their last minute planning, and took a hike.

Clearly, BittyPrincess doesn't like her Uncle P...



...at ALL.



The view from low on the land-side of the ridge:



The kids managed to make the hike more difficult for themselves than it had to be:



Enthusiastic even in the heat:



A bunch of way-up-high photos:






At the first lookout on the ocean side of the ridge:





It was hot. I present...princess hiking!



First decent view of the lighthouse:



View of the shore from the top:



Goofballs!



Perpetual Motion Bittyprincess:



The whole crew:



More pretty:



Awwwwww, mother and son:



Boyness!



Clearly, BittyPrincess doesn't like her Tutu (grandma) either:



Or her Papa:





And, the picture to put all earlier cliff pictures into perspective...see that little light blue pool down there? There is a person swimming in it. If you blow up the picture real good, that person is identifiable as a couple of lighter colored pixels in the water.



We managed to avoid sunburn and narrowly escape heat exhaustion, before returning to the wedding prep nonsense. No pictures of our manicure/pedicure session (which I'm sure ~L~ will thank me for). I didn't take my camera to the wedding, either...not that I would have been snapping away as matron of honor or anything, but I am looking forward to seeing the photo album. The photographer was everywhere and I'm sure she did an awesome job.