Leather or Crystal?

Today is our third wedding anniversary. Yes, this is my favorite photo. I know you may have seen it before...

Our wedding day was my most favorite day ever. We had been dating for 10 years and were finally tying the knot.

And then we headed off to Hawaii for 12 days of relaxation, romance and sunshine! That trip was also partly cloudy... seems a theme with my vacation plans!

Anyway, I don't know how it has been 3 years already. It seems like just yesterday that we were just starting to date... back in the late 90s!

And here we are, 3 years married (13 1/2 years together) living happily in Ohio!

For some reason the 3rd wedding anniversary is leather or crystal. How odd! While we exchanged gifts of leather... this evening we decided to take them back and get something crystal instead. Liquid crystal that is. After all we are down to one laptop that frequently gets the "blue screen of death!" So this anniversary our something crystal will be an iPad...

Happy Anniversary to us!

Solo

It was just me here this week. Well, me and Hailey. It is nice to have a pet to come home to even when she wakes you up at 5am every day for breakfast.

J is off in Chicago for a surgical board review course where he is in lectures for 12 hours a day and dreading every minute of it. Even thought he most likely won't ever practice as a general surgeon, he is taking the board exam. I guess it can't hurt to have options.

In the meantime I was solo in Ohio where I filled my time with dinner dates with my Aunt and Grandmother-in-law, my friend Stacey, walks at the metro parks, cleaning, organizing, and some lounging by the pool.

It was weird being here all alone. I still feel "new" to Ohio... probably because I lived in Virginia for 22 years before moving. But I am working on making it feel like home. And it just takes a while... one day at a time.

The Celebration continues!

This past weekend was busy, as it usually is here at ECGML. It was Jared's last free weekend before his fellowship begins. Thus the need to continue the celebration that had started at his graduation banquet and make it a long 3 day weekend, well almost. I worked from home most of Monday while fighting a bad headache. 

We had a blast! The weather was amazing, who knew Cleveland was so nice in the almost summer? We hung out laying like broccoli and watching movies, had a day filled with sailing on J's boss' boat.

Met up with Matt for breakfast at The Original Pancake House, which has chocolate chip pancakes to die for!

And had an entirely too much fun and such a silly time hanging out with J's roommate from medical school, Steve, and our friend Katie. All I can say is there was dinner, cocktails, and dance, dance, revolution until entirely too late... we apparently thought we were 20 again. 

Super fun. I honestly don't know how I made it to work on Tuesday it was such a great weekend!

Fortunes

I collect fortunes from Chinese fortune cookies in my wallet. I try and remember to scribble the date on them and am always sure to eat the cookie first, otherwise the fortune won't come true. A few days before I got engaged back in 2007 I got this one... sorry, it is a little blurry...  It is weird and I'm not sure when or why I started doing it. I think it makes me feel good. To read those little clips of inspiration, hope or good things to come. Kinda like a horoscope but in a little after dinner treat. Man, why aren't they in cheesecake instead?

My favorite one so far has been this one... 

Sounds just like how I think!

Plastics

June is Jared's last month of his general surgery residency. Just seeing that in print is amazing. I am so proud of him... and so happy that it is done! I can't believe it has been five years. Five years ago, he became a doctor...

and ever since he has been working 80-100 hours a week. Learning how to be a surgeon, taking call, teaching other residents, medical students, and most importantly taking care of patients. How hard must it have been for him? I know it was tough enough for me just to be his girlfriend/fiance/and finally spouse along for the ride. People don't know. Really, they don't know how much doctors give of themselves, of their families, to help others. I am so so proud of him.

We celebrated his graduation this past weekend. There was a dinner with South Pointe Hospital employees and guests and then an after party hosted by J's uncle and a few of the other attendings. Here is Jared with his program director and fellow residents, minus Matt who was on vacation.

We had a great night at The Canterbury Golf Club after party with J's family, his parents came into town for the weekend, and friends, many who were also graduating. 

These four doctors started together as interns and are now surgeons, two general and two orthopedic.

They have a special bond that no one else will understand. I am so glad Jared had such good people with him on this part of his journey. And now, what is next? Plastics. Two years of training here in Cleveland in plastic surgery. I came home yesterday to another dozen roses and a cookie cake. We have a signed contract my friends! Definitely time to pop the champagne!!

Congratulations to my husband, who is a trained and soon-to-be board certified general surgeon...  Jared Storck, D.O.!

Dominican Republic

It was our first vacation just the two of us since our honeymoon, which was almost 3 years ago. Crazy how fast time flies.

We relaxed. We ate. We drank. We enjoyed the time away, the first time J has ever left the country! Where it didn't matter what day it was, what time it was, just that it was the two of us with no plans. We did however, miss the sun. Apparently, it was opposite day or days rather. Instead of being sunshiney and gorgeous on our tropical island... there was this sitting on us...

What ended up as the first tropical depression of the season... and instead there was a record heat wave in Cleveland... where it was sunny and 95 degrees! What can you do? Believe me if I could control the weather I would. Originally we had wanted to make our trip in March when we had enough of all the snow but we couldn't with our work schedules. Ugh! How annoying!

So we made the best of it. We smiled and had a few of these to ease our disappointment with the weather...

After all, it was an all-inclusive vacation! Bring on the drinks!

We had a few issues (other than the lack of sun) while on our trip, unfortunately. The drive to the resort was... um, interesting to say the least, we will just leave it at that. And we were put in the wrong room to start off with. There was also a lot less English spoken than advertised... luckily some Spanish language remains in my brain and I was able to communicate more than expected! We finally ended up getting in the right room and we enjoyed the huge pools, swim up bars, and good food for our 5 day, 4 night trip...

There were flamingos...

and rain storms to walk in after hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms and fantastic massages...

We had a romantic dinner the first night with musicians playing at our table. The second night was a Brazilian steak house where for some reason the waitress thought we were invisible and would never offer us meat!

And then, on Saturday up in the sky.... there was my favorite star. The Sun. It was unobscured for almost 6 hours. Hours of perfection. Of pina coladas, fresh squeezed orange juice mimosas, lounging on the beach, in the water, and just soaking up our trip. 

 We had delicious lobster lasagna lunch, Internet access! (which Jared loved), and silly swan towels appear in our room after dinner...

Our last night we attended a show at the main building where they performed a Michael Jackson tribute. It was pretty good... especially since they were lip syncing English lyrics!  

On Monday we got a few more hours of sun. We saw pelicans diving in the water for food, some topless ladies walking the beach. Um, no, not me.

and then a rain storm made us run for cover under a little beach hut.

 Before we knew it, it was time to head back. I had been hoping there was a chance Dad would be able to switch flights and fly us home since it is the same plane he flies but no luck.

So we made our way back... back to reality, and to a whole lot of sun in Cleveland!