I'm dedicating this post to my champion mom, who had brain surgery over the weekend. The neurosurgeon took out a tumor that was apparently closer to the size of a BASEBALL than a golf ball, which is the size he usually deals with. WUT. Mom. How?! How does that even fit in there? She's in rough shape so I haven't talked to her much. From the conversations I've had with my dad I think they found the tumor to be benign. But there was a bit of confusion and apparently the results came back malignant the first time? No one seems worried and it sounds like they're pretty sure it's benign, so we'll go with that. Half of her head is numb/paralyzed right now. They're working to reverse that, but wow. MOM. You need a nice long vacation after you recover from this. (Just in time for Italy, right? Take me with you!)
This week I'll post some pics from our time with the Haineses over the holidays. Next week I'll do a big post about Christmas in Washington with the Lamberts.
^^Should probably email this one to everyone. I'll get to it! I'm finding it hard to get pretty much anything done right now. That New Years flu hit me HARD. Still haven't got my energy back a million days later.
All of my siblings live in Utah Valley right now. I think I've taken that for granted, but I'm realizing how cool it is that it's basically a little family reunion every time we go visit. Now everyone just needs to stay put until we can make it back there in like 5 years. K?!!!? Jared was able to be in Utah with us for exactly one day when he got back from his away rotation in Spokane. The next day we had to drive back to Casper for him to work. Boooo, work is laaame. I'm about done with this medical training garbage. Someone get me a 2-week tropical vacation where Jared doesn't have to take any calls or record any notes. STAT. ANYway, my sis-in-law Amanda had the great idea to celebrate a Haines family Christmas during the one evening Jared was going to be in town. So smart. We ate great food and did some chimes in my parents' basement. With my mom's tumor and people moving all around, we kept it simple. Instead of putting up a Christmas tree, we put up a green stick and wrapped it with lights. Then we did a gift exchange and called it a night. It was low-key and perfect.
^^How stinkin' cute are these Christmas jammies Jared's mom got for Jack in France??! I die over them! And they are soooo soft. I did a photo shoot of him in them with my nice camera the other day. Probably will post them next week. Jack's not much of a shoes guy, but he was obsessed with these little elf ones. Until he outgrew them like a week later. He's growing way too fast!
^^Jared teaching Jack about hot chocolate.
After our wonderful Lambert Christmas in Washington, we made it back to Casper just in time for New Years. The biting winter wind and cold were a bit of a slap-in-the-face, but my parents and Tim driving up for New Years made it better. The last time they were up here was for New Years last year. This is becoming an excellent tradition! I would not advise a Wyoming vacation in the winter though, for the record. We tried to take Jack sledding in our neighborhood park one day. I think it was in the 30s, but the wind was so fierce that we only lasted about 5 minutes. Sleds were flying everywhere.
^^Uncle Tim and Jack with a snow drift to the face. It wasn't even snowing. The wind just picks up the snow already on the ground and whips you with it. Yay Wyoming!
We went to The Hangar the night they got here. It's an old airplane hangar turned restaurant--the only one in Bar Nunn. We're glad to have it here, even if the food can be spotty. Usually it's pretty good, but occasional we'll go on a night when the chef's having an off day and everything just"eh." This night it was pretty good! We had to take turns being dragged into the little arcade room in the back by Jack. There were a couple of car games and he loved sitting in the seats and playing with the steering wheels.
On New Years Eve, we ate a ton of food, played a game of Saboteur, and threw some boiling water into the outside air and watched it turn instantly into snow. We also let everyone sit around and watch while Jared and I opened our Christmas gifts to each other haha. Kinda weird, but they insisted we open them. We had limited space in our bags when we went to Washington, especially for the bigger gifts, so we left them behind. Jack especially loved the little basketball hoop from my mom and dad. My dad got a great video of him making a shot and then throwing his arms up in the air and clapping in excitement.
We went to bed at 10:00 on New Years Eve like a couple'a party animals. Poor Tim. His first New Year's Eve as a college student, trapped in Wyoming with his parents and sister and calling it quits at 10:00 p.m. It was probably for the best thought, since my parents weren't feeling great and Jack and I woke up barfing and flu-ridden the next morning. Such bad timing! I had some fun things planned to do with my family on New Years Day, but instead I spent the day trying not to die, and they booked it out of there mid-Jack barf in the morning. It was a good call. They for sure would've caught the virus if they'd stuck around. What is it with all the holiday barf-fests lately? This one wasn't as bad as the Thanksgiving barf fest last year that hit all of my extended family AND all of Jared's extended family while we were there, but still. Not a great way to celebrate.
^^Me low-key dying on the couch. This is the best group shot we could get before they left haha
Sickness aside, we're so grateful for all the family time we had at the end of 2019. I feel like I'm just hobbling my way through 2020 so far. Jared and I both had pretty big plans for this year, but if I don't start feeling like my old self again soon, I'm going to have to write those plans off. That's why it's good to have a Jared around--he'll keep this ship going forward even if I'm being dragged behind on a rope, just doing my best to hold on for the ride. Our biggest goal for this year is for Jared to sign for his first post-training job. Technically residency isn't over until mid-2021, but it would just be nice to have a job secured and maybe be getting a monthly stipend in the meantime. This is actually pretty normal timing for residents to sign for their next job, but we'll see. We basically have two requirements for Jared's next job: (1) a salary that will allow us to pay off Jared's student loans in under 5 years, and (2) stay in the West, and hopefully inch closer to family. If you have any family physician contacts, shoot their info our way in a comment or something! We want a niiiice sign-on bonus, a niiiice monthly residency stipend, a niiiice loan repayment package, and a niiiiice salary to top it all off. Not too much to ask, right?!?
