Our New Baby

Okay, that may be a little dramatic.  It's just a car.  

A silver 1999 Mazda Miata.

Why, you ask?

Well... basically because James needs a commuter vehicle and the motorcycle isn't cutting it.

 So last Friday James proposed the idea of selling the motorcycle and buying a small vehicle for commuting.  He thought a Miata would be fun.  Less than a week later we have one.  

The motorcycle is up for sale.  We have someone coming to look at it tomorrow and if that doesn't work out, there's a guy who wants to buy it the next day. 

If you want to know any real information about the car you'll have to ask James.  I don't know anything about it except that it has tan leather interior, tan soft top with glass rear window, low miles, been garaged it's entire life, new tires, Bose sound system.  What else?

Oh, I know the kids love it!

We had about a half hour drive to get the car.  On the way back home the kids each got a turn to ride in it.  We had to stop at the half way point to switch kids.  I now have the "uncool" car.

Father, Son Hiking... Again

 James and Logan went hiking again.  This time it was to Elk Mountain. 

 It was steeper than their last hike, but had much better views. 

 There's not too much I can say about it since I wasn't there, but I hear Logan did amazing.  He never complained about anything and he climbed like a mountain goat. 

James gave Logan a little tin and he used it to collect interesting things he found on the hike.  The first thing he did when he got back was show Taylor and I his treasures.

I did suggest that James come up with something he could do with just Taylor.  She's going to complain one of these times.  Hiking's not her thing though.  Her attention span isn't that long. 

She and I went on a bike ride while the guys were off hiking.  She loved that.  She kept saying things like, "Mom, this is the first time you've worn a bike helmet."  And, "I've never seen you ride your bike before!"  And, "I can't believe you're riding your bike with me!"  

Yes, it's been awhile, but come on, you're making me feel bad!  My rear end could only take a few minutes on the bike.  I guess it has been a long time.  

I should ride with the kids more often.  I'll get right on that... just as soon as my bum isn't so sore! 




 

Back to the Drawing Board

or 

"External Rotations"

Take 2

Well, that was fun... dreaming of all the new places we could go during rotations.  Then we started doing some number crunching. 

Miles to Pennsylvania: 3000

Days to get there: at least 4 

Price of a U-haul: $1500

Price in fuel: $1500

At least 2 nights in a hotel (this is assuming we could stay with family in Utah & CO on the way out): $200 - $300

Food along the way & until we unpack the kitchen: $200 -$300

So just to get to Pennsylvania would cost roughly: $3500

Then of course, we'd have to do it all over again on the way back. 

Miles to Oklahoma: 2000 miles

Days to get there: 3 

Price of a U-haul: $1200

Etc.

Etc. 

Etc. 

Miles to Colorado: 1300

Days to get there: 2 (we're getting better)

Price of a U-haul: $1200 (the same as going to Oklahoma)

And so on...

And so forth...

Basically, we decided we just couldn't afford to go across the U.S., especially when there are really good rotations much closer to home.  

  So now our map looks like this.

* Salem, Oregon (RED - Indian Health Clinic)

* Eugene, Oregon (BLUE - a group of private practices)

* Roseburg, Oregon (RED - VA Hospital)

*Bandon, Oregon (GREEN - Private practice)

Oregon.  We do still have back up plans if these don't pan out, some of which are in Washington, Utah, and Colorado.  While we won't be traveling the country, we'll still have grand adventures seeing more of our own state.  

There are many advantages to staying in Oregon.  This is where we want to end up.  We love Oregon and want to live here and raise our family here.  If we do all our rotations here, we'll meet lots of optometrists who have practices all over the state.  Hopefully this will open doors and make connections that will result in a job after school and in the end, that's what is most important.  

We'll also get to experience living in some of these areas we might settle in.  We'll already know the area and have a better idea of what parts we'd want to live in. 

Plus,

Miles from our house to Salem, OR: 50 miles

Days to get there: 1 hour

No hotels

Can drive there to pick out an apartment to live in

Can take all our stuff, no need for storage unit somewhere

Cost of U-haul: $130 (and that's for a truck twice as big as the one we would have taken back east).

No need for a utility trailer to haul the motorcycle

$3500 vs. $130  

Hmmm.  Can't really argue with that.  

So the Internal rotation lottery will start everything off in just a few weeks.  Then we'll know if we will have an internal rotation or not and whether we'll need to go back to the drawing board again or not.

When I explained to Logan that we'd probably be staying in Oregon for our rotations, he whined, "Buuuut, I wanted to travel the wooooorld!"  

This from the kid who hates change and anything new or different.  He was finally up for an adventure.  That's okay.  I think it will be adventure enough, finding a new place to live and moving every 3 months. 

 

External Rotations

Something we've been looking forward to our entire time in optometry school is 4th year.  Not only is it the last year we'll be doing this, it's also the year James gets to do external rotations or Preceptorships, they're called.  They are mostly external, meaning they are all over the U.S. and Canada, even in Germany and Asia.  There are also some internal rotations, but we'll be trying to avoid those.  

So, Rotations.  It's exciting and dreadful at the same time.  It's complicated and it can be a gamble.  We've been listening to others talk about picking there sites and where everybody ended up and so forth for over 2 years now.  

Finally it's our turn!  We got our list of 113 preceptorship sites, that's not including the internals.  Some of them are right out for us because we're not single or we're not Canadian or we don't speak Korean.  So that helps narrow things down a little bit.  

So what I did was made a list of all the sites we're interested in and just for fun (and to help explain it) I put them all on a map of the U.S. 

It's complicated because there are different kinds of site, represented by different colors.  James has to go to at least one BLUE or Primary Care site, and at least one RED or Ocular Disease site and then there's a GREEN and PURPLE.  He can do just one of those or both if he wants.  Or he can do another Blue or Red instead of the other Green or Purple one he'd be lacking, or he can do an ORANGE, which is an internal rotation.  Like I said, it's complicated.

Internal rotations are the clinics that are in the area and affiliated in some way with Pacific University, I believe.  There are 32 internal spots that have to be filled.  The students can volunteer for those sites, but if not enough people volunteer, than they start randomly choosing people.  

The risk is that if you don't volunteer for an internal you might like, than you could get stuck with one nobody else wanted either.  You could also get stuck with it being a middle rotation.  For example, you move away to do your 1st rotation and then have to move back to Forest Grove for your 2nd rotation and then away again for your 3rd and 4th rotation.  So everyone wants to do their internal as a 1st rotation or not at all.  

There are 4 sessions for rotations, 3 months each.  A few rotations are 2 sessions long or 6 months, but we're not interested in any of them.  What James IS interested in is Ocular Disease.  So we tried to find the sites that will offer the most of that.  

Each site has a page of information that tells us the percentage of Primary Care, Contact Lenses, Ocular Disease, etc. that the practice sees.  It might tell a few other things too, like the days and hours of the clinic or that they will be splitting their time between 2 clinics, or that they will have to present a case study or a paper, etc. 

 So for the BLUE, Primary Care sites, we've narrowed it down to our 5 favorites, in hardly any particular order:
1. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany.
     (near the border of Germany & France), because Germany would just be way cool!


2. Northeastern Tribal Health in Miami, Oklahoma.  Yes, there really is a Miami, Oklahoma.  It's in the very North East corner of Oklahoma, about 1/2 hour from Missouri.  

3. Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.  It's basically on the outskirts of Washington D.C.  How amazing would that be.  The kids and I would constantly be gone on field trips.

4. United States Air Force Academy Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  

5. Eye Care Group in Grants Pass, Oregon.  It's a "teaching clinic,"  whatever that means.  I thought they were all teaching and learning, that's kind of the point.  

So there's our Plan A - E for BLUE, which we're told is a good idea to have.

 For the RED Ocular Disease sites, we like:
1.Lebanon VA Medical Center Eye Clinic in Lebanon,  Pennsylvania (only 1/2 hour from Hersey, PA.  I see more field trips in our future if we end up here). 


2. Ophthalmic Consultants of CT in Fairfield, Connecticut.  


3. Lexington VAMC in Lexington, Kentucky.  


4. Sierra Nevada Health Care System VA in Reno, Nevada.  


5. Lake Havasu City, Arizona. 

And for the GREEN, Other Specialty, we're thinking:
1. Bandon, Oregon.  James would have to work in 2 different clinics, one in Bandon and the other in Coquille.  


2. Riverbend Eye Care in Bend, Oregon.


3. Dixie Eye Care in St. George, Utah.  (Hopefully this one won't be during the summer months, if we ended up here). 


4. Archdale Eyecare in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

As far as PURPLE OD/MD Co-Mgmt goes, it's mostly surgery.  James isn't interested in doing surgery, so even though we chose a couple of sites (that don't do surgery) we probably won't end up with these:
1. Hoopes Vision in Salt Lake City, Utah 

2. Retina Institute of Hawaii in Honolulu.  (Bummer)!

There are also some sites in Utah that would be great places for James, but Utah is generally very popular.  All the students who are members of the church want to go there.  So we're trying to avoid the Utah sites.  They'll go to lottery and we could lose.  I hope we don't have to lottery too much.  It's so stressful.  If we lose, then we're scrambling to find another place.  

The one thing I've decided though, looking through these sites, is that there are so many good ones.  It was hard to narrow it down to the ones we did choose.  So I think, I hope, that no matter what happens we'll be happy and we'll have a grand adventure and James will gain all the experience he needs.

The whole lottery and selecting process will take a couple of weeks.  Wish us luck!  

 Where do you think we should go?

 

 

Hiking

Logan & James went hiking together Saturday, just the two of them.  James took a few pictures.  Yay!

 Logan loved it!

Apparently it was super steep though.

 He was excited to use his Camelbak. 

Logan says his 3 favorite things about the hike were:

1. He got to be with Dad.

2. There were lots of tree roots to climb around on.

 3. He liked playing on the tree branch. 

They're planning on hiking again soon!

Meanwhile, Taylor and I went on a bike ride/walk.  Taylor rode her bike and I walked & jogged next to her.  That's what I do for exercise, so it wasn't new and exciting or anything.  We had fun though.  

I also cleaned the outside of the refrigerator.  The top, sides, and back behind.  I pulled the whole thing out and scrubbed the floor under the fridge.  (I only found one magnet, one pencil and one Nerf bullet.  Not bad).  I unscrewed the back plate, that covers the fan, and cleaned in there.  

I don't know when that was cleaned last.  It was jam packed with dust.  At least it's clean now and I feel better.  I'm getting in the Spring Cleaning mode and I need to keep it going.

So that was our "fun" Saturday.  At least we ended it with a little picnic outside.  I hope your Saturday was genuinely fun too!

 

Time Flies...

when you're busy.  And it's been busy around here.  James finished 2nd year and got his white coat.  We had a week together with no school and then we were right back into it.  

A couple of days after the White Coat Ceremony we went to Roseburg for dental appointments.  It was the first time the kids had ever been to the dentist.    

Logan was anxious, but he was super brave.  He not only had a cleaning, but he had x-rays and sealants too.  He did awesome.  I'm so proud of him.   

Taylor was her usual brave self.  She had x-rays.  She was great.  She just did everything that was asked of her.  

I totally spaced taking any pictures though.  You'll just have imagine the kids laying back in those big dental chairs with a paper bib around their necks, spitting into those small straw suctions.  Then again, maybe it's okay that I didn't get pictures.  


The next day we went to Bandon with James' dad, to spend the day there.  

It was a gorgeous day at the coast.  This is Face Rock, out there on the left.  It was really windy, so we bought a kite. 

Taylor got tired of the wind and went back to watch from the safety of the car.

Logan enjoyed climbing rocks and running in the wind.

While James and his dad tried to get the kite to cooperate.

The next day James made dinner for us all, an early Mother's Day gift.  He made Chicken Cordon Blu.  It was delicious.

The kids came home from church on Mother's Day with cards for me, telling me how much they love me.  

 Logan's card says: 

"Mom, you are the best at: teaching.

My favorite thing to do with you is: play Sorry.

I love when you: play games with me.

If I could give you anything in the world it would be: love.

You are more beautiful than: me.

I promise to: love you forever.

I'll always remember: that you love me.

I love you more than: toys."

Taylor's card says:

"Mom, you are the best at: washing the dishes.

My favorite thing to do with you is: play games.

I love when you: give me flowers.

If I could give you anything in the world it would be: flowers.

You are more beautiful than: flowers.

I promise to: unload the dishwasher.

I'll always remember: to help her.

I love you more than: toys!"

I'm glad to know that they love me so much.  I love them more than anything, more than words can express.  I'm grateful my kids are still young enough that they like to snuggle and hug and kiss and tell me that they love me.  I never want that to end, but I know it will someday.  Teenagers just don't snuggle with their parents much.  

And of course, I also got a flower at church.  Taylor asked me why I got a flower.  I told her it was for Mother's Day.  She then asked, "Why did they give you a dead flower for Mother's Day?"   I looked down at the tiny, wilted flower in the dry soil and wondered the same thing.  A little water revived it though. 

The Saturday after Mother's Day was graduation for all the Pacific University students.  All the guys who were 3rd years when we were 1st years, were now graduating.  It was the first time we actually knew several of the optometry graduates.  It was great to see it and remind myself that we'll get there someday too.  I tried not to be jealous that they were done and we still have two years left.   It's going to be a great two years though, full of learning and adventure, so I don't really want to skip them.  

It was also graduation day for James' sister, Sarah.  She's worked long and hard and was also graduating from Pacific University.  She's a teacher now!  What was nice was that the graduation was in Forest Grove and we were able to make a big family day of it.  It was wonderful.  I'm so excited for Sarah!   

Congratulations, Sarah!  Way to go!

For Memorial Day, James got Monday off, so he came up with a brilliant idea; to go visit my parents!  He was out of school Friday at noon, so we took off.  I don't think I'd seen my parents since New Year's Day.  

It's a long, but beautiful drive.  We love hanging out with my parents.  The kids play and make a mess.  We try to get them to clean it up.  It's barely controlled chaos, but it's fun.  James and I get to play poker with my parents.  They're the only ones we ever play it with, so we all stink at it, but it's still enjoyable.  It's laid back and all in good fun.  Not competitive or anything.  We just laugh a ton.  

I wanted to do something special to teach the kids about Memorial Day.  I was thinking about going to a cemetery and doing a scavenger hunt, looking for dates that were during wars and such.  But I didn't end up doing that.  Hopefully next year.  

We did go to the Memorial Day parade in Klamath Falls though.  It was very small, but the kids enjoyed it.  It was short enough that the kids didn't even get a chance to complain about being bored.  

 Taylor at a tiny, little cabin that now sits next to the Klamath County Museum.  This is where we waited until the parade started.

On the other side of the museum there were some old vehicles and equipment, such as this train caboose.  There was also an old horse drawn wagon (horse-less now, of course) and an old firetruck. 

A military truck in the parade.

Another vehicle from the parade.  

The parade last about 10 mins.  So we stopped at a park on the way back to my parents house to let the kids run out some energy, since they'd be in the car for about 5 or 6 hours later that day.

Now we're back home and trying to get into a routine again.  James will be in school all summer, so I'm going to try to keep up some schooling with the kids.  It's proving to be hard, with errands and exercising and the nice weather.  

It just makes for busy days.  And soon Logan & Taylor will have friends who are out of school for the summer and want to play at all hours of the day.  I can see already this is going to be a challenge.  But life is full of challenges as they say and this is one challenge I'll willingly take.

 

 

 

White Coat Ceremony

The "White Coat Ceremony" is another milestone, a rite of passage, and a reason to celebrate.   James is a 3rd year student in optometry school now.  This means he's in clinic, with real patients, doing eye exams.  Part of being in clinic is dressing professionally, in shirt and tie and wearing his white coat.  

Getting the white coat is a big deal for us.  The school makes a whole evening of the event.  

 The white coats, awaiting their owners.

James approaching Dr. Smythe, the Dean of the College of Optometry, to receive his white coat.

 Putting his white coat on for the first time.

"The White Coat Ceremony is a 'rite of passage' for students beginning the study of medicine that encourages a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine.  

"The authority of dress is serious and purposeful, not social, casual, or random.  The uniform should convey to even the most anxious patient a sense of seriousness and purpose that helps provide reassurance and confidence.

"The white coat is the cloak of compassion."  

James' parents came up for the event.  The kids went to a babysitter.  I wanted to take Logan to the ceremony.  He would have loved seeing James get his white coat, but I don't think he would have enjoyed all the talking and waiting before and after his dad's 15 seconds of fame.

 Congratulations James, on earning your White Coat!!!

Some Hawaiian classmates made yarn leis for all the students, so that's what that red & black thing around his neck is.  

"Leis are symbols of love, of a spiritual meaning or connection, of healing, and of respect."  So that's a pretty neat thing to receive also. 

I made a cake for the occasion, a white cake with white frosting and white ice cream.