Playing Catch Up

It's been a year since I have been on here.  Didn't I say last time I posted I promised myself to do better?  I don't even know what happened.  Well, I take that back...lots of crazy life happened.  Since I last posted we literally been all over the place.

 Let me give some back story. Spring of 2011 we were supposed to have matched into a residency program, but we didn't.  We don't have great luck with matching, going all the way back to the mock match for rotation sites of 3rd and 4th year medical school.  So, Ben entered the Dermatology match (which is separate and later in the year).  We focused all of our efforts on that and with no residency to start in July, we scrambled into a traditional rotating internship back in Missouri where Ben had done the first two years of medical school.  While in Kirksville (we made some fabulous friends and had wonderful neighbors!) we learned that all of our viable Dermatology residency options were either closing their program, absorbing residents from closing residencies, not taking any residents for the following year, or were not able to accept as many residents as they initially planned.  So we were once again without a plan.  We decided then to re-apply for the regular MD match for Radiology (which is Ben's true medical passion). Might I just add that applying and interviewing for residency is a very expensive, grueling, and stressful process! Ben did this a second time while in the middle of a grueling internship year. Thankfully we matched into Radiology in Ohio that time!

Here's the next crazy part of the story. We were going to have a year off between internship year and starting residency, during which time Ben planned to moonlight at rural hospitals.  So with time on our hands and no July 1, 2012 residency start date, we took a long cross-country road trip from  Missouri to Utah to Idaho to California and back to Missouri.  We were gone for at least a month going to family reunions and visiting all our other family and friends.  The twins were amazing little road-trippers! We all had Disney's Tangled memorized by the end of the trip. LITERALLY. My grandmother passed away while were in California and I am so grateful we were able to be there to say good-bye and go to the funeral.  While we were on our crazy long sojourn to the west coast we learned the disheartening news that most of Ben's moonlighting opportunities had fallen through.

The day we got back to Missouri we found out that Ben's last work opportunity for his year off was no longer viable.  So after several months of no work (internship ended in May), no future prospects for another year, and no family nearby, we began to panic a little.  We had been praying for miracles left and right regarding Ben's work for a long time, and those few days were no exception.  And I will tell you, God is a God of miracles.  THE NEXT DAY we got a phone call from the Radiology Residency program Ben was scheduled to start a year from then in 2012, and they said, "We had someone drop out of your original residency year.  Could you start this year and how fast can you get here?"  I will never forget the surroundings of that phone call.  I can close my eyes and see the kitchen, see Ben standing there with the phone pressed to his ear, see his eyes widen and energy flow into him, and feel the hope rise in my chest when I realized what was happening.  So, the next three days we packed like fiends, then drove out to Ohio that weekend to find a home to purchase and in live in for the next four years.  We found a home in two days, then drove back to Missouri to finish packing and move.  We weren't able to close on the house for another seven weeks, so I stayed at my parent's house in California for that time while Ben stayed with good friends in Ohio and started residency.  At the end of those seven weeks Ben flew out to California and we went on a much needed vacation to Cancun, Mexico with my parents.  My fabulous siblings took turns watching the twins while we were gone! The day after we got back from Cancun, we flew to our new home in Ohio to start a new phase of life!

We are now living in Ohio and Ben is in his second year of residency.  He loves his job and we feel so blessed for all the answers to our prayers we received.  We miss family dearly, but we do love Ohio. So that's the story!  Now for pictures to illustrate the happenings over the last few years! I tried to just pick a couple pictures from each event to summarize, but they ended up being in no particular order and I for purposes of printing my blog later I wanted them on here!  So sorry for the randomness!  But you'll get some nice flashback photos :)

I can't believe I never posted pictures of when Ben graduated from medical school.  I am so proud of him.  He worked so hard and it paid off.  You are amazing Ben.  This is Ben with his best med school buds.  They studied together every day.

Way to go Dr. Ben!

This was celebrating the twins' first birthday in California.  Can you tell they loved opening presents? ;)

Some everyday pictures from when we lived in Kirksville, Missouri for intern year 2011-2012.

The twins' first birthday party that we did back at home in Kirksville.  TOY STORY! I think they would appreciate this more now than they did then.  As I type they are watching Toy Story 2.

First time eating cake, and going all at it!  They devoured it!

Bath time!  This was also in Kirksville, Missouri 2011-2012.

I took the twins running with me a lot while we were in Missouri for intern year.  They were always such amazing troopers.

More of intern year in Missouri.

Halloween 2011 in Kirksville, Missouri.  Angry Birds!

For another trick-or-treating event I dressed them up as a Cardinals baseball player and a ballerina. Look how tiny they are!  I just want to kiss those 1 year old cheeks again.

One of those winter sicknesses.  It was more than they could handle.  While I was cleaning up puke they just laid down on the floor and passed out. I think the cold floor felt good on their feverish bodies.

Summer of 2012 we took our massive road trip across country. In these pics we are visiting Boise.  The kids loved going on rides on Grandpa's tractor.

Aunt Loree.

Bear Lake Carter Family Reunion 2012!

My Grandma Johnson passed away while we were visiting in California.  While it was hard for Ben to be out of work with no prospects, I am so grateful we were able to extend our trip in California by many weeks so that we could be there to say goodbye to my amazing grandmother and be there for her funeral.  Elva Johnson was a vibrant, warm, loving woman that I love dearly.  She is such an example to me.  This was the display at her memorial service.

Below is her Family Tree represented in pictures.

More pictures of our Bear Lake Reunion.  We had a BLAST!

My awesome sister-in-law Alexis took these fabulous pictures.  Look how curly Luke's hair was back then!  Love those curls.

My awesome parents.

I ran my first half marathon back in May of 2012.  I loved it!  It was the Garmin Marathon in "The Land of Oz" (Olathe, Kansas).  My race was called the "Wickedly Fast Half"  and the full marathon was called the "Munchkin Marathon". We had a huge group that trained together, some of us did each race.  I am so grateful for these awesome ladies!  Above, Morgan was my running buddy!

Here's some pictures of our Summer and Fall 2012 that we spent a great deal of in California.  Some of these are from the Summer, some from September and October while I lived there and Ben had started residency out in Ohio. We LOVED spending time out on the boat and with our dear family.  Luke and Anna love the boat.  Anna is a die hard tuber and Luke loved swimming in the lake.  Anna even fell off the tube while riding with Granny.  She was a little upset, then she wanted right back on!

Luke's first haircut, Summer 2012. Even with a sucker, a show, and Mommy's lap, he still did not appreciate the haircut!  Poor lil' guy!

The twins' 2nd birthday!  We celebrated in California. Unfortunately Ben was in Ohio for this, but we tried to get him as involved as possible with Skype and pictures!  Tangled was the theme obviously!  I had awesome help from my Mom and family.  It was a blast!

All the cousins drew these pictures and cards for the twins.  So precious.

My sweet Mom was so helpful while I lived there without Ben.  She went out with me and the twins all the time so we could get out of the house.  We went to the Folsom Zoo one day and the kids loved it!

Mom treated us to a ride on the little train they had there.  Even though Ben and I were apart, I absolutely cherish these times I had with my parents.

Daddy came to visit once while we were apart.  The kids were in heaven.

Our much needed vacation to Cancun after being apart for 6 weeks!  The water is seriously THAT blue.  There's no filter or anything on these pics.  I was amazed at the water there and white white sand.  Absolutely gorgeous! We had such a fabulous time.  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!

Parasailing

Our gorgeous resort.

Chichen Itza

Bubba Gumps for dinner!

Xel Ha.  This place was awesome.  An all inclusive day: food, snorkeling, tubing down the river that meets the ocean, cliff jumping, and zip lines into the river.  It was a fabulous day.

The beach at our resort.

The twins' actual birthday fell a few days after we moved to Ohio as a family and got into our recently purchased home.  Here's the twins on the day with a little bday brownie.

Winter 2012-2013 in our new backyard!We braved the Ohio cold all winter long out on the swing set because we were so stir crazy!

Anna expressing her style. April 2013.

Winter Fun=Boxes :)

And Spring 2013 finally came and Ohio was beautifully green again!

Enjoying their first ice cream from the neighborhood ice cream truck!

Love this picture!

Playing with their friend, LB, Ben's co-worker and our good friend's daughter.

Buddies!

Oh and these are some free photos I had taken of the twins around their 2nd birthday.  Very out of order :)

Grandma and Grandpa Nasman visited us in the fall of 2012.  The were with us for Thanksgiving.

We cut down our Christmas tree while they were here.  The twins enjoyed riding on the tarp.  There was actually a newspaper photographer at the tree place while we were there and she took pictures of the twins on the tarp and they got featured in a local newspaper!!

More winter 2013

Christmas 2012: we stayed in Ohio and had our first little family Christmas.  We enjoyed it, but we missed family too.

Anna's style once again :)

And then Summer 2013 came and we loved it!!!! With a little pool in the backyard, a wading pool perfect for toddlers around the corner, and a park around the corner.  We loved the sunshine!

Why we should all have a twin: buddies.

The wading pool around the corner.

Our block does an annual block party at the end of summer every year.  It is a blast.

We visited Ben's sister Lacy in Virginia over Labor Day weekend.  She took us to lunch, the science center, and her local lake beach.  We enjoyed every minute!  Thank you Lacy!!

This is how the twins go running with me now :) Still little troopers! Bu man, are they getting heavy to push!

At play group we go to every Friday morning.  We have some wonderful friends here in Ohio.  We feel so blessed!

Luke's first big head injury.  He was so excited to play on the play place at Chik-fil-A andhe slipped on the stair going up to the tubes.  It hit his bone above his eye just right.  He was a tough little guy: cried until he puked, then was totally fine and pounded the rest of his chicken nuggets.

The faces of Anna!

Don't mess with this princess!

Anna yelling into the fan.  Voice buffeting 101. Ben and I just can't get over this picture!

Sweet little, adorable boy.  They are just growing up too fast!!  Life is wonderful, despite its challenges.  We love our beautiful children.  How could you not love those cute faces? :)