Winter is Coming

Whew, that was a tougher week than it should have been. I think I expected everything to be perfect and wonderful because Jared started a new shift where he was supposedly going to be working half days for two weeks. Well, two half days came and went, and then the rest of the week Jared had to work long full days. This next week will be the same, plus Jared is working a 24-hr shift into Saturday, so there goes the last of our fall weekends together. To make matters worse, after our two nice half days were up, I came down with a terrible cold and Jack starting cutting three new molars. So I was sick, Jack was grumpy, and there was none of the assistance from Jared that I thought I'd have this week. I thought I'd mastered setting aside all expectations as far as medical training goes, but I still have some work to do on not getting my hopes up. At least we were able to make the most of those two half days. On one of them we spent the afternoon up in Casper Mountain, as we knew it was going to snow the next day and this would probably be our last chance.

It does all of us a lot of good to get up there in the fresh mountain air and hike around a bit. This day we had the entire mountainside to ourselves. Jack loved flying through the leaves and throwing and jumping off rocks. It's a 30-45 minute drive to get up into Casper mountain from our house. Someday when we're buying our forever home, we want to be a 15-minute maximum from the nearest mountain. (p.s. I'm writing this post while Jack "naps" in his room. I just heard some very loud meowing coming from his crib, haha. He just learned how to meow and it's hilarious because he sounds like an actual very loud cat.)

Jack is a big fan of being spun around like this. All day long he holds his hands up for me to grab them and asks to do "Mo Bo" (motor boat). We spin around and around until I'm too dizzy and can't anymore, and then he pitches a fit because he wants to keep going. Toddlers are fun.

This will probably be our Christmas card picture this year. Jared has another tough rotation coming up, and then we're gone for the rest of the year. Another reason it's been a tough week--I think it really sunk in that starting in November we'll be doing the nomad thing again for 4-5 months, and I'll be doing the single parenting thing for half of that. Ugh. It's difficult to feel settled into a place when this sort of thing happens yearly. Hopefully some good will come of it though. Jared's hoping to get to know all the family practice doctors in Evanston during that time and sign for his first post-residency job in the spring. Maybe in Wyoming, possibly in Utah, and potentially somewhere else entirely. I'll keep you updated!