Shenanigans...

What do two residents do in the middle of the night at the hospital when all the patients are tucked in safe and sound?

This....

Erin Wambolt Thomas M.D. = My Boss Lady

Paddling my way around.

So sophisticated.

Psych admission?

Yes, we ride the floor washer & waxer, which we have affectionately named 

The Zamboni. 

These lovely rides are only spotted in the hospital in the wee hours of the morning. Glorious....

For more information on this machinery, you can visit this site.

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas as she graduates from residency in 24 hours!!

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones....

Anybody remember that one? Now its stuck in my head.... My current residency requires all interns to write a case report and present the case in the form of a poster to senior faculty for judging in a friendly competition among residents. This is the sort of project you hear about from day 1 of residency and must have in the back of your mind, because everyone wants a good case. Well, my case has nothing to do with my long term career goals as it involves a surgical/gynecological procedure and bone infections, not skin, but I like to think its a pretty good case. In layman's terms, its about a healthy woman who developed infection in the bones and joints of her sternum and collarbone with bacteria that usually lives in the female genital tract after having a simple gynecologic procedure = extremely rare; I actually couldn't find any other cases like ours. I presented it yesterday, so we'll have to wait and see what the results of the competition are. I'm not a great, or even good, speaker, so I'm not expecting anything, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm innately a competitive person so I can always hope. However, I was selected to submit my case to be presented at this year's Annual Alabama Chapter meeting of the American College of Physicians. Its a 4 day meeting at the beach (<-key word).  If I never bring either of these topics up again on the blog, it means that I didn't win anything in the poster presentation competition and my case was rejected from the conference. We shall see :)

My Poster

Aaaand, thank you George (who I'm pretty sure has no idea how to even find this blog on the internet) for proofreading everything for me! I couldn't have done it without you :)

1 more night of night float left after tonight!!!

Yay, I won't be living like a vampire anymore.

Then, its on to Surgery. Yikes!

I'm an Aunt!

Welcome to the world Charles Alan Turnham!

Born on March 23 at 10:58pm

6 lbs 7 oz 18 inches

1 hour old

 

 

2 days old

Me & Charlie

I know I am biased, but I think I have a super cute nephew. Nice work Chris & Erin. Kudos to my sis-in-law. She went all natural with pitocin drip for 2 days!!! She is amazing! All went well, and they headed home from hospital today. George and I visited Sunday afternoon, and I can't wait until I get to go back and stay for a week. This is the first grandbaby in our family, and he is going to be seriously spoiled :) Of course, my dad is smitten and took 1 billion pictures. Let's just say Charlie is going to have a well documented childhood. I'll be sure to post more pics once those get uploaded!

Well, its been a little over a year....

Needless to say so many things have happened. I originally started this blog when George and I were interviewing for residency. I was traveling and it seemed like a good activity to take my mind of the stress of the year.  I'm not sure why I didn't keep it up, but I'm going to try to do better from here on out. I obviously can't cover everything thats happened in a year, but I'll attempt a rough outline of what has occurred since my last blog.

Bachelorette party in March 2011 in Nashville...priceless. Awesome trip! Thanks girls! I'm ready to do it again.... (I know we have a full group shot somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.)

Match Day in March 2011. George joined me for my Match Day at UAB. We really had no idea where we'd end up, although we wanted very badly to stay in Birmingham. Our parents, Chase & Rebecca, and Kori all came to support us on that special life-defining day. We matched here in Birmingham at UAB for Internal Medicine and Dermatology, and I matched at Baptist for my transitional year. What an exciting/relieving day. Still one of the happiest days of my life! (Sad, we didn't get a pic with Rebecca & Chase...)

Mom & Dad

Announcing our match on stage.

Me & Kori

Recreating the moment backstage where we opened our envelope and found out where we matched.

My med school buddies, Cassi & Elizabeth.

First time home owners:  After finding out we were staying in Birmingham, the hunt for a house began. My "Aunt" (my mom's cousin's wife) Kathy was a fabulous realtor. She found the PERFECT house for us. I was in love the first time I walked in. We made an offer that night! Neither George or my parents had seen the house, that's trust. Thanks guys. We're still loving it!

Going to the chapel: We got married on May 7, 2011! It was a so great to be surrounded by friends and family during such a special time. I could do 5 posts alone on our wedding weekend, but maybe I'll save that recap for our 1 year anniversary post since its already so close :)

Rehearsal

Honeymoon: We went to Italy for our honeymoon! We visited Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice in that order. Once again, I could do a post on each city, but I'll save that for later. To sum it up, we LOVED Tuscany and Venice. Rome was fun too, but we were still adjusting to the culture so I don't think we took full advantage of it. The Vatican is amazing. Florence was not our cup of tea. George described it as a real life Disney World, but now we've seen The David, which was impressive, and all the other must sees.  We definitely want to go back!

Vatican

Gondola ride in front of the Rialto Bridge in Venice

 Honeymoon, part 2: Once we were back in the states, we were able to go down to the beach with some friends for a little R&R from our honeymoon. Traveling in Europe is exhausting, but fun. We love going down to the beach. George spends his days fishing and I spend mine sitting and reading.

One of my best friend's got hitched: Raj married Nital in Chicago the weekend before we started our intern year. Raj and I joke about being twins since we've been in the same classes/career goals since freshman year of college, yet we are both so different. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but once in a lifetime experience. George and I loved every minute of it. Raj's family has always treated me like one of their own, and I am so grateful for their friendship. And I was just as excited to be adding Nital to our clan! The two of them are perfect for each other, and I know Nital and I will become just as close. Love that girl. All this was followed by a reception in Birmingham, too.

Intern year begins: Although I had dreaded my intern year since day 1 of medical school, it has not turned out to be so bad. I rotate between Princeton and Trinity on a month to month basis. George is at UAB.  I've enjoyed the folks I work with and the change of scenery from UAB.

One of my best friends, Kori, moved to Mobile. I was super sad to see her leave Birmingham, but she is doing great in Mobile and getting to spend lots of quality time with her nieces and nephew.

Susan's Wedding: Pretty sure I never call her Susan, but I thought I'd refrain from calling her Mac on the blog. She and Taylor got married at, in my opinion, the best venue EVER, Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, SC. I am seriously obsessed with this place. It was the lap of luxury, which we know I love. George wasn't able to get off work, so mom and I made it a weekend getaway trip. I am so glad we went! It was fun to have that special time together with my Mom and just as exciting to share Susan's wedding day.

Hurricane Irene hit that weekend. Turns out it went north of us, despite being predicted to hit straight on. We had a beautiful weekend!

The resort lets you borrow a car for the day to drive to Hilton Head. I now want one...

Our Cottage

Lunch in Hilton Head

Halloween: I was a busted pinata, and George was a wife beater. Get it? haha. Hudson was a lobster.

Girl's Trip: Spent the weekend in North Carolina with my best friends from college. I wish we could do this more, because we always have a blast. Its like being back in the KD house everytime.

You can read more here.

Christmas and NYE were pretty low key this year. George worked through Christmas, but here are a few pics I could scrounge up on my phone.

Christmas card!

 BCS National Championship Game, AL vs LSU: George was invited to go the game with his best bud and from the stories I've heard, they had a blast! It was a miracle that he was able to go with his work schedule, and I was so thrilled for him that it worked out.

Here they are on TV!!

Babies galore....

-Two of our good friends from college, Jeris & Jordan, had twins in November. I've had some days off during the week, so I've enjoyed getting to go spend some time with them during the day! Two looks like a serious handful. Kudos to J&J.

-Rebecca & Chase welcomed their second son in January. Baby Liam is as just as cute as his older brother. Whenever I get a hint of the baby bug, I go plant myself at their house for a few hours. Thanks for the therapy! We love those little boys like they are our own.

-Raj & Nital welcomed their first son in February! Aarav decided to make his appearance a few days before the baby shower I was co-hosting for his parents, so we didn't get to have it, but we're all glad he's one healthy little boy.

I love playing all these little men!!

My sister-in-law Erin is expecting the first grandchild in our family (tomorrow!!), so we threw her a baby shower in Montgomery. It was so much fun planning it with her other sister-in-law Denise, who is always a good time. Mom and I have had fun buying everything to spoil this little boy.

DIY Project: Rachel lead us in installing a backsplash in my kitchen. My mom, Rachel, and I spent 2 days getting this beauty installed. It really was a lot easier than I expected. You can read more about it on Rachel's blog here.

Before = Boring

I was the tile cutter.

Rachel placed the tiles.

Beautiful.

After.

One of my lifelong friends from home, Caroline, is expecting a baby boy next month, so we hosted a baby shower at my house last month. It was so much fun to get everyone together to celebrate Baby William. Even Price came in from Texas, which always makes for a good time! Can't wait for him to get here! She and Grant will be great parents. They recently moved into our neighborhood and we're so happy to have them close by!

The Hostesses

Read more about Caroline's shower here! 

Hudson turned 4! In February, Hudson celebrated his 4th birthday. What a blessing he has been to us. I love that dog so much.

I am sure I have left out many many things, but this is the overall gist of our year. I'm currently on night float, so I've been lucky to have some downtime at work, which has allowed me to put together this post. I'm going to try to do better this year!