Lyra Elaine Anderson aaaand other things

Well since my last post things have changed-slightly. So in a continuation from my last post.. Christian got back from Ohio on the 28th of July and I gave birth on the 4th of August. One week later. I think we planned that pretty well :). Gave me sometime to finish preparing for the babe. Speaking of Lyra's birth. I'll try and keep it quick because it was quick. Saturday, August 4th we were cleaning out the cars and getting the car seat in and ready to go. So we got that done then finished a few odds and ends and pretty soon it was 7 at night. Kids were in bed and I realized I was having contractions and they seemed consistent so I started timing them. They were 10 min apart for that hour but the next hour they were 15 min apart so I figured false alarm. 9 o'clock they started coming 5 to 7 minutes apart. Text a friend to come stay with my kids and we got to the hospital around 10ish. They checked me and I was at a 5 so they decided they'd admit me but had to do the blood work then call the anesthesiologist and my OB doc to come in. Well they took me to a delivery room around 10:30 and started getting it all ready. With in the hour I told them the baby was coming. I had no epidural nor doc there. I did have a 2nd year resident and nurses but that didn't mean anything because of 'The Law'. Dang laws. They couldn't tell me anything nor do anything. So when I said I think this baby wants out, the resident checked and sure enough I was at a 10 and ready. Then she said... well I can't do anything so do what you feel like you need to. Panic struck. I felt like I was doing fine until she said THAT and all of a sudden I couldn't remember how to breath and pain seemed way more unbearable. What about breaking my water, what about the pain I'll feel when I rip, what about the calm, collected, smiling nurse that says "you're going to push in 3,2,1" and "you're doing great honey". So when she said do what your body feels like you need to do.. Well what the H*** does that mean? So I screamed. And there was a lot more of that coming. By 11:49 I had done it. Broke my own water (which you don't want to know about), realized that the only way to get rid of this pain was to increase it by getting the baby out.. so that's what I did. Later when everything was basically said and done my doctor waltzed in and said "Oh baby's here already. Well okay." and walked out. Thank you doc. Thank you. But the important thing is that Lyra got here safe and sound. SO Lyra Elaine Anderson was born at 11:49 weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long. The boys are in love with their little sister and are so dear with her it makes my heart melt. Love having kids even if pain comes in having them! Irony here.. Christian will be a doc in less than 8 months with the hope of being an anesthesiologist. Aaaaaand that is what I was lacking. Never again thankfully! Since then Grandma Anderson came to visit and help, Christian took boards (again-sort of), Christian left for Oklahoma for two weeks, Grandma Cannon came to visit and help, residency interviews have begun rolling in and we've booked our flights for UT for just after thanksgiving!! Picture overload to come :)

come fly with me

Life has been a little crazy since my last post but we've come along way as well. I'm no longer 20 weeks pregnant but 35 and counting. Since I last posted we've had lots of things occur. I was called into the Young Women's Presidency back in April, my mom and sister came to visit in May, also in May we went to visit the Thorley's during Memorial day weekend and my father-in-law came to visit in June. Christian also took half of his board test but then something happened and it shut down and all students taking the Complex that day have/had to retake the test. Sort of a major inconvenient but what do you do so he'll be 'retaking' it in August. Lovely. Also on July 1st Christian left to go to Ohio for the month. He'll be in Columbus these first two weeks and Dayton the last two weeks. He'll be back 11 days before my due date so hopefully he makes it back for the birth :) Both boys came 8 days early so we may be cutting it close but time will tell I suppose. Mean while Oscar, Felix, sister and I are just hanging out at the house. I attempted taking the boys swimming today but neither know how to swim and I can't swim being 9 months pregnant so that was quite the sight to see. We also went to a fourth of July party and I knew the boys were tired but they really wanted to see fireworks so we stayed longer than planned but when the fireworks started, aka: loud noises, both boys covered their ears and burst into tears and that was that for us all. You win some you lose some I guess. Now here's what you've really been waiting for...

Studying with dad

Boys being silly

Super Grover

Catching fly's

Confessions

The secret is out... I'm pregnant! Not only am I pregnant but I'm almost 22 weeks so we have found out what we are having and it's a girl! We've tried to keep it a secret because we are trying to be creative with the announcement out our pregnancies but it's getting to feel like "oh I'm pregnant, again-just add 'give birth' to the list of things I need to do in the future". So we waited till April Fool's Day to announce it hoping that would be a fun way to go about it. I think it worked for a minute or two. If anything confused family and then they didn't know what to believe but one look at me and I'm sure there would be no doubt. I feel like I've been showing since week 9. Maybe my body is just getting used to being pregnant and started moving everything around early or something. I think I'm finally getting past the sickness stage to where throwing up is more of a burden than part of my daily activities and I'm happy to take on that burden if it's not happening once, twice, three times everyday. So I'm officially due on August 9th and for anyone out there who knows what 4th year med school entails you will feel entirely sorry for me and I will whole-heartedly accept your condolences. However, things have really been falling into place for us and it makes me feel even more excited about this pregnancy knowing that it is really meant to be. So Christian's fourth year consists of out and audition rotations. Most students begin/leave home July 1st and get back sometime in October. Basically they jump around each month at different hospitals across the country hoping to impress them so to gain a residency position when we go to apply. So as you can see I'm due right in the middle of that. Well we began setting things up and it turns out if you do anesthesia you can get away with only doing two weeks at some hospitals vs. four weeks so that shortens our audition rotations by a lot. Christian managed to get two audition rotations in Ohio to do just two weeks each so he'll be there for the month of July then he had one for August but they told him it would be better to come in October (relief). Which means he'll do just a normal rotation at home during the month of August! But then he will be gone to Oklahoma for the month of September. He'll also do some auditions during October but we've lucked out to have a anesthesia residency spot only an hour away so he'll be able to still be 'home' sort of for October :) All in all Christian should be home for the birth and possibly the next few weeks and we couldn't ask for anything better. We are super excited to have this little girl join our family!

On Call

Here's what we've been up to... Christian is on the OBGYN rotation which has been fine but it keeps him more busy than other rotations which is expected. So here's our week and week to come...
Tuesday - On Call
Wednesday - Education night (meaning he's gone)
Thursday - On Call
Friday (today) - @ Jazz game in Philly
Saturday - On Call
Sunday - On Call
Monday - On Call
Tuesay - Scouts
Wednesday - On Call
Thursday - Home
Friday - On Call
And for me well someone has to be here to take care of the kids so here I am at home once again watching Anne of Green Gables tonight for... well let's just say it's not my first time seeing it. Oddly enough I haven't read the books but I did just start the first book so I'm really looking forward to reading that series. Anyway enough of my exciting life and on to pictures...






Ps. Uncle Steve gets home this month from the Philippines and we are so excited to see him via skype unfortunately but we'll take it! Thank goodness for modern technology!

About time...

It's been awhile but it's been crazy here so let me catch you up. We had Christmas just like everyone else but did you have two Christmas'? Well we did! Christmas morning we had the kids just open up gifts from the Cannon side of the family because the next day Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came to visit. We redid everything. Christmas Eve on the 26th and then Christmas morning again with all the rest of the presents. It was a blast to have G & G here celebrating the holidays with our little family. While they were here it was busy but relaxing. Activities we did were; spent a day at Aunt Heidi's, visited an Amish friend of Mike and Kelly's then did a little shopping, went to the Aquarium in Baltimore, did movie night and played at home. The kids loved having the grandparents here and it was fun to see them get to know each other better. Felix has always been hesitant with 'new' people but it was so fun to see him bond with Grandpa. Christian then started back up with rotations the day after we said goodbye to G & G. We also then started planning his audition rotations and other rotations for fourth year. Yikes!! Life sort of scared me when we started doing this. It seems like during med school there's an on off stress switch and you have no control over when it flips back and forth on you. First year I guess we had the stress of learning to deal with med school but we were in and just had to focus on staying in-no problem. Then second year it's the stress of were are you going to move to and the stress of moving-we did it, no problem. Then third year your living in a dream cause after those last two years you really feel like you can tackle anything and then those dreams are smashed because of fourth year stress. Oh well we'll get through it-everyone does right?! Here we are planning out audition rotations and I'm glad to say that they've gone smoothly and things are working out good but that's not the stressful part. Did you know that these places he's doing audition rotations at only take 1 or 2 people out of the probably 100's that apply for residency programs. ONE person are you kidding me?! How are you not suppose to feel stress over that?! Well here's to hoping. For now I'm just trying not to think about it and that seems to help. Also in other big news... while planning these audition rotations you have to plan them in the field that you want to go into so since that's planned that means we've chosen a specialty. BDDDDDDDDD (drum sound)... ANESTHESIA!!! Who'd have thought? Not us that's for sure but there it is.

Next, Felix is 15 months old! It has been so fun seeing him grow! He's such a sweet heart. He's been trying so hard to talk and actually does a really good job at it-well from what I'm used to cause Oscar could have cared less to talk to us. He didn't really start talking till like age 2. It's so fun to hear his little voice forming words.

I feel like I'm full of exciting news but to others it's pretty lame. So next on my list of exciting news (for me)... If you know my kids you know they are PICKY eaters. I've tried a lot of things to try and help out with this but needless to say I don't think I've been very successful. Until lately! Okay they are still picky (Felix not so much) but Oscar extremely BUT I just barely got them to eat boxed mac & cheese and chicken nuggets! Yay! I've always been so jealous when a mom can just whip up a box of mac & cheese or bake some chicken nuggets and bam there's dinner. No fussing over what they want to eat or worrying that they've been eating breakfast foods for all three meals of the day over and over again. We officially have some meats and pasta's in the food group now! Like I said lame maybe to other mom's but not to me. No sir-e.

Well that's about all of my news for these past months. Enjoy the pics and Happy 2012!!

good at dodge ball maybe...

Lots and lots happening. Christian finished his general surgery rotation and I'm happy to say he crossed it off his list of possibilities. I guess if he really loved it, I'd suck it up and be happy but knowing he doesn't like it I'm super duper happy. That's been our longest rotation by far. He also just finished Anesthesia and just started Radiology-both extremely easy rotations. I'm glad they've fallen around the holidays because he's been able to home SO much more!
Other things happening/happened. We spent Thanksgiving down in VA at the Thorely's and Callahan's joined us there too. So we had a house full of 6 adults and 6 kids; 5 being boys and 1 girl. It was such a blast. Oscar had a birthday! I have a three year old. Wow. Despite my hard work at teaching Oscar, he still can't catch a ball no matter the size. He's not even close. We're talking eyes closed so you know that's not going to get him far. Maybe I should try dodge ball instead. Felix got a hair cut but it's all so clear you really can't tell. Felix is starting to run. Well okay it's more of a speed walk but it's getting fast. Felix is turning into a climber and a punk-he'll grab one of Oscar's toys he's playing with, turn and run off cackling. Or he'll go to Oscar's tower he just built but stepped away from and Felix will slowly take it apart one by one waiting for a response from Oscar. Once Oscar sees and gets mad at Felix, Felix will then get up as fast as he can run away and cackle. Good news is Felix enjoys being tackled and so far no one's got hurt.


If I can't find Felix, this is were I look first. He's always escaping to the bathroom waiting for me to turn on the faucet so he can play in it. (See his little finger pointing to it.)

This is what Oscar does all the time. Swords, hooks, what ever weapon he has he sticks it in his pants or his underwear. I really should get him some sort of belt he can use for them. It's got to be uncomfortable.

So Christian was sitting reading on the couch and Oscar grabbed a book and sat by him, then Felix grabbed a book and tried to climb up so I helped him up. Love my boys!

I love when they decided to sit down and read together.

I couldn't ask for better boys.

Pictures, Temple, New York, Snow

First. We got family pictures! Thankfully my amazing new friend is a magnificent photographer and she snapped some shots of our family before we had a wonderful picnic in a beautiful park. She's also the one who took the pictures of Oscar and Felix from my previous post. Check out her blog for more of our photos here.



Then we went to the Temple with our wonderful friends, the Thorely's.


Boys got a little tired from running around, so what do you do? Well you lay on the ground of course. Oh, if we could all be like little kids again!

Then Christian and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Yay! Christian planned an amazing weekend. We went to New York (kid free) to see Wicked! Our friends kindly accepted to watch our kids for Friday and Saturday while we spend a night in the big apple. We headed out Friday morning and was planning on hitting the Temple but long story short it didn't work out too well mainly because of parking. So we found our hotel. We had a room right on 51th street so it was awesome! Everything was at our finger tips. We headed straight to Central Park and enjoyed a lovely walk then walked around more to see some other sites and visit stores till our dinner reservations at Vice Versa. People were great there and my food was delicious! Christian's food was not quite as good but still really good. Then we got back to the room and I saw on the news a storm was going to hit PA Saturday night so I thought, good, we should make it home before then. Then I wake up Saturday morning to find a text from our friends saying the storm has hit and it's a blizzard. Hmmm. That's no good. How are we going to get home? Well the snow storm hit New York around 11:30am that morning and we soon realized that we would not be going home. Roads were closed and the weather was awful. Moving on. During the time the snow hit we happen to be in a WONDERFUL diner called Ellen's Stardust Diner eating lunch. It was the most fun I've ever had at a restaurant. ALL the waiters are aspiring Broadway people and so as they serve and take orders they are singing and dancing full out. A glorified karaoke. (Cheesy? Definitely, but I loved it.) We had a few regular songs that were fun and enjoyable but we also had some great ones. 'Sweet Carolina' by Neil Diamond and EVERYONE in the diner was singing. We had a Frank Sinatra sort of voice sing 'Let it Snow' (very appropriate, I thought). Then we had a Phantom of the Opera song and the guy voice was amazing! He kept yelling 'Sing to me, my Angel'. It was awesome! Then we headed over to see Wicked. Amazing. More than amazing. I could watch it over and over again and the songs are more fun to listen to now that I've seen the show. I loved every minute of it! We then walked Times Square some more, grabbed dinner and went back to the hotel cause it was FREEZING and a mess outside. Sunday morning we got up early and headed home. Sure getting 'snowed in' in New York is fun but I think my bank account will beg to differ. All I can say is I hope our second loan disbursement comes soon. Yikes!

Cool side note is that New York hasn't had snow in October since before the Civil War. Wow! We witnessed history. So cool!








Our backyard looks so tempting. Snowman, here we come!

And what the heck, why not throw on another picture! Man, I love this boy!


Happy Halloween!

friends forever

Felix updates.

30 inches long
23 pounds
9 teeth
can walk-not that he does
climbs
says 'dada', 'mama' and 'na' which means banana or whatever your eating
loves stuffed animals
dances
hates bath time
plays hide-and-seek
lays his head on a pillow were ever he can
loves to be pulled around on a blanket by Oscar
loves for Oscar to feed him his meals and no one else
loves playing with whatever Oscar is playing with
basically loves Oscar to pieces

Sure life can go by fast but I've loved how quickly Felix has grown because Oscar finally has a brother to play with all the time and I love watching them play! They are great friends! Priceless.

done. done. done (well in one week)

done. Finished The Way of Kings.
done. Potty trained Oscar.
done (well in one week). Nursing Felix.

That third done is a little premature but I tell you there is not a thing in the world I'm more grateful for right now-have my body to myself. I tell you. I even thought about getting pregnant again hoping my milk would go away and I'd be forced to stop nursing but then I remembered that would just take longer to get my body back. At the same time I've never felt more blessed then to be able to nurse my kid for a year. I've known what it feels like to not be able to nurse your kid for one day and that wasn't the greatest feeling mainly because of the judgement calls that come from people who don't even know you. Not fun. But now I totally understand why people don't want to nurse their kids because there have been many days that I've wanted to quit and it can really put you through hello (minus the o). So I get it. Hey you had the kid right isn't that enough?! Do what you want. Anyway, I do feel blessed to have made it this long but that blessed feeling is fading quickly and I'm just plain old tired.

moving on. life is good. we're loving third year of med school. conference was awesome and I'm glad they never specifically mentioned pinterest-so my addition will continue. i think they'll need to put a 12-step together for me if i'm ever going to get over that addiction. oh ya. and we have another chef in the family.

So besides that earthquake that came on Tuesday this week and preparing for the hurricane that's going to hit on Sunday, here's what else we've been doing...

Got new couches!

No not good photography, just crappy picture taking skills but it turned out cool!

Boys playing together. I love these days!


Reading

and more reading... that's all we do here.

and sweet (sometimes silly) faces

august, really?

Okay, let's play catch up. Rewinding back to the night Oscar got home from the hospital (Monday)... So Tuesday we left for Kansas City, MO to pick up our van we had shipped out. That's right we bought a van! Wednesday, packing day. Thursday, picked up moving truck. Loaded it little by little each day till Saturday when we finished loading it. Picked up my mom from airport in K-ville. Sunday we headed out for Pennsylvania. Goodbye Kirksville! The trip wasn't too bad, LONG, but not bad. We did a 12 day and what should have been a 7 hour day that turned into a 9 hour day because of a toll road was closed. Really? We ended up having to make a u-turn and I thought it was tight in my van but Christian had to do it with the 24 ft truck while pulling our car on a trailer bed. I'm glad I was driving the van :) I made it to our house about a minute (literally) before the office closed thankfully or we would not have gotten our keys to the house. Few! Christian showed up about an hour later and we began unloading. My Dad and Sister showed at the end of the week and stayed for a week while we toured around a little. Then I flew back with my family for my grandma's funeral. We flew out on Sunday and the funeral was Monday so I thought I'd stay a little longer. I came back the following Monday and I'm in Vegas at 3:30 in the morning getting ready to be dropped off at the airport when I get a call from Christian (6:30 his time) telling me he was just in an accident. The one day he took our van to work because he was coming to pick us up at BWI after. He's fine but the van's going to need some work. Thankfully he was still able to drive it so he was able to come get me. It was great to be home! In our new home! We've been trying to settle in and get back to regular life. The van's fixed and good as new. And I'm glad we have a swimming pool in our complex because it's been deathly hot these pass two weeks but has now cooled off a little. We love it here in Pennsylvania so far and can't wait for the new things life will throw at us!

Life in the Hospital

As I was getting ready to take my boards, our family was hit by roughly seven plagues that I believe were originally intended for wicked Egyptians. When we got home from St. George, we found our land infested with cicadas/locusts. Then we each got hit by one to three diseases each (with the exception of Felix. Suspicious? I say yes). Looking back, I realize that its probably my fault. Kenna brought it up repeatedly that we should sacrifice a lamb and paint its blood around our door so the destroying angel would pass us by. I didn't listen to her. My bad.

So last Friday, I traveled to Jefferson City to take my boards for medical school. While I was half way through my 8 hour test, I called home to check up on Oscar. Turns out that he wasn't doing well and had to be hospitalized. He had originally had an ear infection but it had somehow transformed into a tonsil infection and a really high fever. After my test I traveled home and stayed with him that first night. In order to keep this blog post short so I can play some video games before Oscar wakes up, I'll summarize: really high fever, Oscar throwing up, nurse that doesn't know how to work the thermometer, more throwing up, Oscar not being able to sleep because of his swollen tonsils, more throwing up, vomit everywhere, more throwing up, me wanting to jump out the window from being so tired, more throwing up, his IV falling out and having to get another one at 3:30 AM, more fevers, massive frustration with the nurse, and more throwing up. I was expecting to have a wild post boards party but this was a little more than I had signed up for.

Today is day 4 at the hospital and Oscar is doing great! His fever is gone and he is back to being funny. If all goes well, we'll be out of here at five o'clock today! Happy times! Now if you'll excuse me, these video games aren't going to play themselves...


Some Pictures:

Felix is in the prison crib that they provided for him. He got some time off for good behavior.


Sick Oscar


Feeling a little better

change

I’ve never been good with change in fact for the most part I hate it. Weird since I used to work for the Who Moved My Cheese? company so you think I would have learned to embrace change and learn to love it. But nope, I still hate it. Ok ok, there is some change that can be good… changing a toothbrush, a dirty diaper, an outfit, the clock battery, a hair style because it’s no longer the 80’s (in fact, we’re no longer in the 19 something or others at all). But when it comes to a loss of something or someone change is no good. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I chose to marry a wanna be doctor but now that we are here, change is something that occurs all too frequently and I’m not always good with jumping on board. We’ve known for two years that we’d be moving this month, this year but little did I know that during those two years I’d gain friendships that I never want to lose. Jill Root and Melanie Peterson have been my family and best friends these past two years and I have grown to love these women immensely. They have been there for me when my family got the swine flu, when I gave birth to another child, when I had to have surgery after giving birth and countless other times. Well, Jill moved away on Monday and Melanie moved away on Tuesday this week and things just don’t feel the same. I know I’m moving too so things would eventually have changed no matter who moved first but nevertheless I’m sad. In addition, only an hour after losing both of my friends I got a call from my mom saying I just lost my Grandma. My Grandma had had a massive stroke a few days prior and so I knew this was coming. I’ve known since our visit to Utah a few weeks ago. I could see it in her face that she was taking in every moment and watching everyone. She longed to be back with her husband, son and many other family members and I’m happy for her. But I’m sad for me and my family. We will miss having her around, stubborn personality and all (hmm, wonder where I got that from?). I’ve loved growing up with my Grandma always a few minutes away and sometimes a bedroom away. I’ve loved her willingness to do anything you asked of her just so she can see the smiles on our face. I will miss you Grandma and I love you.

13 Years Later

It's taken 13 years but they are finally here and we get to experience them before we head to York.

Cicadas
Ours are a little more orange/reddish. But they tend to go to young trees and guess who has two big young trees in her front yard. Yes, that's right, me. These things are so stinking loud and they never stop making noise (or singing as they say). After some time they die and the bodies start to decay. Apparently when that happens it starts to stink. Not really looking forward to that part. Oh ya and as many as a million noisy male cicadas can gather in a tree over a single acre calling out for their future mates. Also they have their 17 year old buddies joining them and this is very rare. It occurs every 221 years. The last time it occurred was in 1777. The next time this happens will be in 2219. So glad I got to experience this...