My Life

Spring Break here in Lexington. We were supposed to be in South Carolina this week with the Hamilton's, but my pregnancy issues quickly nixed our well thought out adventure. We started planning back in July 2008 and worked it out so that Rich and Todd both had the same week off during the boys' spring break. Todd had to move a conference department meeting to a different week and Kristi stood her ground when Todd's brother was planning his wedding and it was going to interfere.

It was just destined to be perfect, since so much had gone into making it just right, but that wasn't the case for us, but I'd trade the trip for a healthy baby and I know they completely understand.

Kristi found an adorable beach house that was right on the water near Charleston at a great price (Kristi is the QUEEN of bargaining....) and we were going to drive there with them yesterday and arrive today. While I didn't mind not having to endure a 8 1/2 hour (10 for them) drive with the kids while pregnant, when I called her today and they were on the beach gathering sea shells, I do admit that I was a bit saddened we weren't there to share it with them. They also are going to stop at the Biltmore in Ashville, North Carolina on the way home and take a tour. I have wanted to do that for as long as we've lived in Kentucky, so I can't say I wasn't a bit jealous. Hopefully they'll have such an amazing time they want to repeat it next spring and do round two with us. One can hope.

Instead of listening to the soothing sound of the waves crashing on the ocean, I do get to enjoy an entire week with my husband home. That is a rare treat. We have a small to do list with Rich doing the majority of work (reseed the front lawn and hill and mow the back lawn) but for the most part it will be spent making memories with the kids. Today Rich took all the kids to do Laser Tag. The place was closing, so they'll have to go back tomorrow, but they ate dinner at Dairy Queen, which was a fine feast to them. We also will take them to see Monsters Vs Aliens, practice baseball with Josh, have Trey's piano lesson, go to Keeneland tomorrow for breakfast and watch the horses work out (races begin on Friday), watch Trey's soccer game on Saturday and sleep in whenever possible. It will be a wonderful week that will pass far too quickly.

The biggest event of the day was Rich mailing his application for a neuroradiology fellowship in Cincinnati. After slaving over his personal statement and CV for weeks, his information is offically in. We still have one more year of residency here at UK, but the match is early and it felt great to get it submitted. We still have the option to stay at UK and do a year fellowship in musculoskeletal radiology, so we'll have to see what Cincinnati says. I feel like Rich has been in training forever (and I know people have told my mom the same thing!), but someday it will finally come to an end. We have been married for 12 years and in school for 11. I can't imagine it any other way, but will embrace it and love it when it finally comes to a close! Two more to go!

Pregnancy things are going well. I had an ultrasound last Wednesday which was the girls birthday. I was praying for good news and knew that would be the perfect way to start their party day. After a weekend of intense bleeding old hematoma blood, I was sure things would look better. The clot's size had decreased by half. Two weeks earlier it measured 10 cm by 3 cm. This time is was down to 5.5 cm by 2.5 cm. The perinatologist was pleased with the change, but still concerned about possible preterm labor issues or premature rupture of my membranes (amniotic sac), but these things have been a worry since the beginning. Now we just have to wait and see if more clot will pass or the body will absorb the blood. I have another ultrasound a week from Wednesday. It think things should go well and I'm very optimistic. I had them double check our baby was still a boy (he is) and they did the 20 week fetal anatomy scan. He looked perfect, which is such a relief. Rich was able to read out with his attending and meet us in the parking garage and push the girls in to the appointment. We all had a good laugh when I told Brynn to look at the baby on the screen and she said, "It so pretty!" and it was a picture of the baby's forearm. She certainly is a radiologist's daughter.

As for my activity level, I am slowly doing more. While pushing strollers or grocery carts is out of the question as is lifting the girls or vacuuming, I can get around and do most things around the house with the help of the boys. Trey is 9 1/2 and Josh and Matt are almost 8, so they really have stepped up and starting doing jobs that I assign to them. On Saturday they mopped the kitchen floor, vacuumed the carpet and helped put away laundry. I cleaned two bathrooms and did more laundry and made dinner. Rich helps out with cooking, cleaning and getting the girls to bed whenever he is home. It really has worked out well and been a great teaching opportunity for the boys. Being responsible is something they just have to learn and this has been the perfect time for some serious practice.

I do have some funny stories regarding going out the the boys. I do not go anywhere alone with the girls anymore. Nope. Brynn likes to run and thinks life is a big game, and the fact I can't pick her up or chase her pretty much means we are confined to our backyard or house. Fine by me, since we can get out when Rich is around. I can go out with the boys while the girls and Rich were asleep last week since Rich was on night call, but again I am limited to what I can do.

Last Monday I took Matt with me to go to the mall to grab a few things at the Disney Store for the girls and then had him drop off a package at the UPS store that was too heavy for me to lift. Matt hauled around our sack of princess attire with out complaint and enjoyed some 'special' (alone) time with mom. Then we went to UPS. The box was huge and quite heavy. It was full of new maternity clothes I needed to mail back to the Gap. I did not desire to walk around a mall by myself with limited time/stamina hunting for maternity clothes (I gave every thing I had away after the girls were born!) so I just bought it all online when they had a 30% off sale a few weeks ago. Knowing that I had about a 1 in 5 chance something might fit, I bought a lot and sent 3/4 of it back. Poor Matt was the one who had to drop this massive box off. He couldn't get his arms around the square box and had to keep stopping and adjusting it so it wouldn't hit the ground. When we finally reached the door he couldn't feel his arms anymore. What a saint. As I held the door open for him the man and woman in the store were smiling at us. The woman said, "Wow, what a big helper you have!" She looked at Matt and said, "You have some seriously big muscles!" (I am sure they watched us through the large windows making our way in.) Then the older fella in the back chuckled and said, "People wonder what we did before we had TV remotes. We had children!" He was obviously referring to my resistance to lift a finger while Matt could barely manage the box. I seriously wished I had a sign on my chest that read- Pregnancy problems: cannot lift- but we just laughed and smiled and quickly left the store. Yup, I had better watch out of social services will be knocking on my door inquiring about my child abuse.

I also went to the grocery store with Josh. He is by far my biggest, strongest helper and never complains. We were desperate for food. Rich was asleep and I knew we'd starve to death if we didn't make a quick grocery run. In fact, that morning we discovered we were out of milk, eggs, chicken, beef, bread, bananas, pop (staple for me) and cereal. We ate frozen burritos and water for lunch and Rich used milk from the girls sippy cups in his oatmeal. That act alone showed how desperate he was. Anyway, we went to the store and Josh pushed the cart and gathered things as I stood by and pointed them out. He lugged milk and oranges and juice and pop and Gatorade and meat and soon we had a cart filled to the brim. He pushed the cart to the check out and began unloading it onto the belt. I put a few small, light things up, but mainly stood with credit card in hand while Josh emptied then refilled the cart. It was so obvious I wasn't helping and I could only imagine what the checker was thinking, but really who cares. Josh was very sweet and willing to help and it is only their opinion that truly matters. It's all for the best cause and thankfully won't last forever. Thank heavens for kids that can help out when I physically can't.

One last thing. I know I already wrote a lengthy post on UK's former basketball coach Billy Gillispie, but the hysteria has reached an all time high here as details are beginning to emerge that Memphis's head coach John Calipari is set to accept the basketball vacancy as early as today. He would be a PERFECT match. He loves to be idolized and worshiped and the UK fans are ready and willing to do just that. A 5 million dollar a year deal doesn't hurt either. Tonight on PTI Tony Kornheiser said Calipari could make UK a final 4 contender in as little as two years. That to UK fans is like a song sung by angels in heaven. The ESPN analyst compared it to Christmas Eve for UK fans. "It's like you've seen the presents in the closet and know what you are getting, but you can't wait to open them." A local radio hosts thoughts were played on SportsCenter. "Louisville loses and we get Calipari. Things only could have been better if North Carolina would have lost." The SportsCenter anchor had a good chuckle and said, "Well, that gives you an insight into the mind set there." It wasn't hard to know what he was really thinking- what a bunch of nuts! I think the whole thing is such a circus and I would love to see Rick Pitino share his spotlight with the likes of John Calipari. Drama for sure.

Oh, and just for the record I am 0-4 on my Final 4 picks. Painful. Very painful. And I did so well up to the Sweet 16. There's always next year.

Hope wherever you are the sun is shining and you are having a wonderful day, just like we are here in Lexington.