Christmas Train

All of us on the way into Christmas train! Grant had already heard the train, so getting him to look at the camera was impossible! Come on people, let's go!!!

None of my pictures turned out from the big train, but Grant wanted me to post this picture of him riding the little train!! He loved it!

This is where we enjoyed a delicious hotdog, french fries, water, cookie, and a can of coke. I haven't had a can of coke in forever, man it tasted great!!

I just love hats with ears!!

Waiting for the train!!

Riding the carousel!!

It was a last minute decision to go for my birthday because the weather was so nice that day. I'm so glad we decided to go, we had a great time as a family!!

Hot Topic: Health Care Reform

Well Joy got me all fired up again about the healthcare bill. I've been encouraging people to sign the petition to remove the abortion mandate from this crazy bill, but it would be great if we could totally get the bill scrapped. As a medical family, we did not spend all this time and money to be regulated by the government in how much we charge and how we treat our patients. The doctor knows best not some money hogging politician. Just ask people in Canada how they feel about waiting weeks, months, and sometimes years for procedures that could have saved their lives if performed more quickly. Not to mention that the bill will be telling my husband (OB/GYN) to kill unborn babies whether he wants to or not, and OUR tax dollars will be going to murder these innocent lives. The overall goal of socialized healthcare is to regulate the population by regulating who lives and dies, who gets treatment and who doesn't, why pay for treatment for someone who is just going to be a burden on society when we can just let them die and keep the population under control, same for those tiny precious lives that they will be taking, fewer mouths to feed.

Sorry to preach, but human lives are too important to allow Washington to sneak this bill in quickly. If you would like to help, please check out this site and sign the petition to at least take the abortion mandate out of this crazy plan.

http://www.aclj.org/

Also, it's so important to call your representatives in Washington and let them know that you want them to vote to not pass this healthcare bill, Obama is trying to get it rushed through before people figure out what is going on and realizing how it will affect them. Please pray that God will turn the hearts of America back to Him. With HIS help we can accomplish anything!

Graduation Festivities!

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get last week's festivities posted. Between being sick, everyone else being sick, my camera no longer allowing me to directly upload pictures, and life.....ahhhhhh! Now that I've gone to Wally World and gotten CDs with the last 278 pictures I've taken, here's what happened!

It all started off on Tuesday, May 5th with a fun SAA Dinner for the senior wives! We had a delicious meal at Johnny Carino's, got to catch up with people we hadn't seen all year, and get some great gifts. I'm really going to miss working on SAA things and hanging out with the wives, mom's and kiddos!

Now on to Graduation Week!

• The week started off with a wonderful picnic at Hunter Park. It was great to catch up with everyone, Grant got to play and see some little friends, and Tom got to eat until he was ready to explode.
  
  
• Thursday evening, the 14th, there was a beautiful banquet held at the elegant Double Tree Warren Place. The food was delicious and it was nice to have a date night together and get to dress up! There was also an awards ceremony, what fun!
  
• Friday afternoon at 1pm on the 15th, there was the Christian Medical Oath Ceremony for those that were interested in practicing medicine with their focus always on the Lord. The keynote address, by Dr. Miller, was one of the best things I had heard and really put into perspective the importance of being humble, letting God lead you in practice, and keeping priorities straight. I wish this had been the ceremony for everyone, because every doctor needs to hear that important message.


• Friday night! GRADUATION!!!!! So when we started out planning for graduation, there was going to be Grant, myself, my mom and dad, my Grandma and Grandpa, my Granny, my sister and her hubby, and my Aunt Pam.(10) Well, my dad found out he had a week of training out of state for a week -that week and my Aunt Pam, found out she had a conference that weekend and that meant no one would be available to bring my Granny to graduation either.(-3) Then Tom started feeling bad at the beginning of the week and shared it with the house, Grant, my mom and I all got it, of course my mom got it the worse, so she couldn't make it to graduation and Grant was feeling bad as well, so he stayed home with Nana.(-2) Next, my Grandparents found out we were sick and wanted nothing to do with that, so they sent all the presents in a box and said congrats over the phone. (-2) So once Friday night rolled around my Sister, her hubby and myself were the only ones in attendance, poor Tom, this is not how he envisioned graduation at all. Anyway, we had a great evening, I was soooooo excited for him and am ecstatic that I am now married to a Doctor!Man, I'm huge!

Presenting Dr. Thomas Howard!!!!!!

Since we thought we were going to have loads of company, we really worked hard baking, cleaning, and getting food together. Since none of us were feeling well, it took EVERYONE's help to get it all finished! hehe (I do have to say though, we all agreed it was nice to have a stress free week, without company, so we really relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.)

Could there be an 8th doctor in the family??

The Stepford Wife

So here is something super important that has been on my mind for a while. I want to know, when am I going to feel and look like a grown up? hehe Ok, so it's not really important at all!

I always ask Tommy, "Do I look like an adult?", "Does this outfit look like something a doctor's wife would wear?", "Are you really going to wear that? You're going to be a DOCTOR!". Maybe my problem is that I have this stereotypical picture in my head (that I've had since I started dating Tom). I'm an old movie buff and when I see living as a doctor's wife I see Doris Day and James Garner in the "Thrill of it All" - perfect hair, make-up, outfit. Husband in his spare time wearing his suit or smoking jacket around the house. Nanny taking care of the children and maid cleaning and cooking for our family! Me being involved in the community with different organizations, balls, and social functions and those around me in awe of how I keep it all together and of Tom's career. (Truly, this is my dream!)
Ok, someone slap me back into reality.

But really, I feel it is important to be professional looking and be involved in the career that my husband has chosen. I've lived in the "fishbowl" for quite a while now, I was very involved with leadership in college, and was constantly lectured in group meetings about how important everything I did was. Obviously, most people weren't listening and I was one of the only RA's that didn't get in trouble for drinking or doing drugs with students living on our floors. Anyway......I still believe it is important, not to be materialistic, but to look and act, more importantly, appropriately for the job, life, and respect that you want.

This weekend we ran into a 3rd year resident that I had never met before and I was shocked when Tom said that he was a doctor. He looked like a 17 year old, hoodlum, that had just rolled out of bed in his jammies, and thrown a hat on, backwards, might I add. But, I just thought, as a patient, if I saw my doctor out in public looking like that, would I still have faith in his abilities? Would I question his judgement on medical advice since his judgement on looking and acting professional was very lacking? I don't know, hopefully, I won't ever see my doctor looking like that and have to find out and certainly I won't be letting my hubby dress like that so any of his patients have to struggle with that dilemma.

So, I guess what I really want to know is, what should a cute soon-to-be doctor wear in his spare time? My husband wears jeans and Old Navy solid tees most of his time off, but cleans up super nice when we have a event that calls for a more dressed up look, and more importantly can put together an outfit on his own that makes himself look dashing. I certainly know that I could spruce up my wardrobe, some income will be nice in July, but try to look as nice as I can for different occasions and even to run to Wal-Mart.

Hopefully, we are doing our part to keep the "Doctor Stigma" alive and in a fashionable place. I'm going to get my pearls now to put on before I head to the bedroom for naptime. Hopefully Doris and James would be proud!