First Year....Nailed It!!

It is official, we finished the 1st year of medical school successfully! Josh passed all his classes in term 2 and after a short break, will start term 3/4 in July.

Enjoying some much needed R&R after a loooooong semester. 

I cannot tell you how relieved we all are. Phew! That was a hard semester. Many people from older terms told us that 2nd term is easier than 1st. They should be knocked up-side the head...and that's me being really really nice!

"Can you believe how hard Daddy had to work this term?!"

Josh had 4 classes, and while he did not have any labs, he did have small group discussions and a ridiculous amount of information to memorize. Some of the information was just a jumble of numbers and letters. The words on the page seemed to have 15 syllables and when spoken sounded made up. Who knows, they could have been?

can I help ya Dad?

Let me tell you, it's not easy being a med school student's wife. Sure it looks easy: days at the beach, the pool, exciting adventures...but that stuff is few and far between. Especially when you have 3 small children. It's not like I hike up to the waterfalls once a week or anything.

Not too long ago the question was posted on the SO Facebook page (Significant Others page): what do SO's do to pass the time here? Some of the answers were HIL-AR-I-OUS!! Obviously these SO's don't have kids because the responses were along the lines of: hang out at the beach all the time, better myself with learning to snorkel, take up a hobby like underwater basket weaving, go to school online, discover the meaning of life, etc.... (ok that last one might have been made up, and perhaps the basket one, who knows really).

Obviously they don't have kids, but I am lucky to have the cutest kids in the world, so I'm the lucky one. 

Side note: why do we buy toys? I was looking for a picture with all 3 and I found this one where they are all holding their breath waiting for the printer to spit out paper. They were actually fighting over who gets to take the printed paper out of the tray. A 100 page report would keep them busy for a while I think.

What do I do all day? I honestly think I'm busier now than when I was working. I'm more tired, that's for sure. There is a lot of cleaning, sweeping, laundry, sweating, dishes-doing, cooking, sweating, playing with the kids, yelling at the kids, sweating, time-outs, hugs and kisses, bug killing, internet browsing, sweating, daydreaming, more yelling, more cleaning, sweating, bathing, more cooking, driving kids to school and back, and then I collapse on the couch when they all go to bed. That's after the 5 times they come out for water, potty, etc.

A rare quiet moment. 

Through all of this, the toughest job is to take care of Josh. I need to make sure he's fed and ready to go with coffee, monster, lunch, and snacks, but that's not hard. I have to make dinner and try to keep the kids quiet when he needs a nap. Again, not too hard.

we do it all for Daddy

The biggest challenge is trying to figure out what I can do to help. This semester I was able to make vocabulary quizzes for him for Immunology. I am a teacher after all, and testing is what we do best. One night he read to me some cases for one of the classes and that was fun. At one point I was a pirate with a drinking problem. Excellent!! I certainly hope I helped...a little. Because what I'd love to do is take some of the burden of studying and memorizing off of him. He works so hard...12 hour days...just studying! Isn't that insane!!?!

and he works so hard for us

So I am a cheerleader. I encourage and I uplift to the best of my abilities. And then I hope it's enough.

"I can help too Mom"

I'll tell you a little secret too: I was horrible at this 1st term. Really bad. I'm not used to having to take care of Josh...he's a grown man for Pete's sake! But I'm getting better. There is always room for improvement, but certainly I'll have it down pat by the time we get ready to leave.

For now we will take some time to enjoy being a family again before that Daddy guy ducks out for 3rd and 4th term....the dreaded mother of all terms....4th term....ugh!

So in about a week we'll see you state side as we enjoy time with family and friends and get ready for year 2 of medical school.

the sun sets on 2nd term

Enjoy your summer,

Tarryn

PS: A special thanks to Josh's mom, Mary, for taking some of these pictures and sharing them with us. Thanks!!