Last day of medical school!!!

Today was Mike's very last day of medical school. I can't believe it!! Where did all the time go? Here he is at the beginning of medical school:

Look at how little Bailey is... she has gotten so big. 

Here he is today, before he headed off to his last day of being "student doctor Waters." Same white coat, just a lot dirtier. 

There have definitely been some really rough times- before his first set of boards, Mike was gone for 10-12 hours everyday, including Saturday. However, this last year has been awesome. I'm afraid we've been seriously spoiled before his intern year. We only have a few more months before his 80 hour work week begins. We've got to enjoy it! Congrats Mike!

The price of peace and quiet

A few days ago, I was enjoying a very rare moment of peace and quiet, by myself. Bailey and Avery were miraculously playing with each other. There were no screams, no fits, and no one crawling all over me. In the midst of packing and the stress of moving, it was a surprising oasis in my day. And then I got up and saw this:

Oh well. It was still totally worth it.

R.I.P. Dora

Five or six weeks ago, we got a tadpole. I was teaching the preschool lesson about the letter T, and I thought it would be a great to teach them about tadpoles. Bailey was thrilled to have a pet tadpole, and name him Dora. Avery was totally in love with him. Every morning she would ask for, "Fish, fish" and feed him way too much food. The only spontaneous "I love you" out of Avery's mouth went to the tadpole. I try not to be jealous.

This weekend we went to Cleveland for our niece, Hannah's, baptism. When we came back, we discovered Dora on the carpet. He was turning into quite the big jumpy tadpole, and I guess we filled his container up too much. Mike went  to pick him up, and he was still alive! We put him back into his water, where he swam around crazily.

That night, in her prayers, Bailey said the sweetest thing. "Please bless Dora that she won't be died." Sadly, Dora didn't make it. Bailey was, of course, very sad, but didn't want to participate in the Dora's flushing ceremony. (We also had a goldfish who died a few weeks ago. Bailey was very concerned that we flushed him. "How can he be resurrected out of the toilet? He can't be resurrected if he's in the toilet.") That morning, when Avery woke up and asked for, "Fish, fish" I had to tell her that the fish went bye-bye. She threw a small tantrum with lots of "No! No!" and them moved on.

Poor Dora. I feel terrible about it. I guess I'm not very good at keeping animals alive...

The breakfast of champions is...

... can you tell?

Nutella and bannanas. What more could a three year old and an nineteen month old ask? Or me for that matter? I should have taken a picture of Avery when she done- I could have eaten her. She was covered from head to toe with Nutella. Yum!

Ode to the Lender

Here's my ode to our lender

who sits, with great splendor

having power to say

"yea" or "nay."

Make haste, if you please

give my mind greater ease

the slow pace of this loan

I cannot condone.

With a house contract signed

and communication misaligned

our fears will abound

til the lender is found.

 This wait is too long,

we fear it'll end wrong

our good credit is sown

please approve the loan!

House Shopping

This weekend Mike and I headed to our new hometown to look for a house. We were super excited, and relieved that everything came together. You would not believe how hard it is to get a loan in the state of New York. Mike and I talked to at least six loan agents before we found one who got it done. New York does not offer doctor loans, and to get an FHA loan, you HAVE to have two pay stubs. They don't make it easy. I'm actually very grateful that we found the right loan agent. I really think we were being watched over and taken care of.

Now might be a good time to talk about the TAXES in New York. (Lori- maybe I'm supposed to learn something and change my more liberal political ideas.) The taxes there are crazy. Really. On a $150,000 house, they are at least $4000. That is a nice car payment. Every month. New York also has the highest upfront fees and taxes when buying in house in the United States. Let's just say we were very surprised at how much we had to have upfront. It's amazing anyone in New York can buy a house.

We dropped Bailey off in Cleveland on Thursday, and continued on our way to Syracuse. Avery was a dream. She is turning into a car riding pro. On Friday, we looked at the nine houses that met our criteria. There were some very interesting houses. My particular favorite was a four bedroom house with one of the bedrooms off the middle of a staircase. It had obviously been built there after the fact. Also, it advertised a two car garage, but there was literally no way to get to the garage. It was purely for storage. Another bedroom was actually in front of the master bedroom, and you had to walk through it to get to the master bedroom. It was hilarious. I was laughing for about an hour. Other awesome houses had carpet in the kitchen, laminate squares in bedrooms, and awful "new" bathrooms and floors. I'm amazed at people's taste. Avery continued to be the perfect baby. She didn't slow us down at all. I was very impressed with how easy it was to have her along.

On Saturday, we made an offer on this house:

This house has four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a fenced backyard, and an unfinished basement. This house is in move-in condition, only a block away from a playground, and walking distance from the amazing grocery store Wegman's. We made our offer, and they didn't get back to us until this morning with a counter offer. Now we are just trying to decide what to do...