2 years.

i'm emerging from [grad-school-induced] radio silence to say that i am in love with a wonderful person. we have been together for seven and a half years and as of today we've been married for two of those.

christian, you are my world. it is a privilege to be your partner in life. and who knew it could be this fun??

here's to us on our anniversary.

Warning: one cannot simply watch one episode of Downton Abbey

I have a huge paper due this coming week that I've barely started so obviously it would be the weekend I decide to watch ONE episode of Downton Abbey while I do dishes and become absolutely engrossed - I've had it on my 'to watch' list forever. This whole TV online thing is a blessing and a curse but mostly a curse (to productivity at least). This show is every bit of naughtiness and craziness of soap opera dramas and trashy TV that I cannot stand to watch unless set in early 1900s England.

I'm already a PBS nut and in love with period TV/films/books. I should've known I'd be headed down a slippery slope. "Just one episode..." Who was I kidding? Reminds me of when I started watching Mad Men in early 2011....a sad (or awesome?) 6 days in sweatpants in front of the TV/computer. Sigh. I think I may need a media time out. It's hard when you go to school online, though. It's not like you can just open all your paper stuffs and walk away from the computer for a while. All my instructions, lectures, assignments...all online. I guess in the scheme of things, though, I'd rather my Achilles heel be awesome TV (with arguably some sliiiiiiight educational value??...Am I stretching too far here?) than stupid old Facebook.

It doesn't help that I've been sick on and off all week. And Christian was in LA over the weekend presenting his research at the American Heart Association Resuscitation Conference - have I mentioned lately what a proud wife I am? I'm usually less-than productive when he's gone.

All right. I suppose now there's nothing left to do but to do it. I'll try to use my less-than-legal means of watching season 3 episodes as a break time reward. Wish me luck.


XO,
Ash

ZOMBIES!

[BEWARE: PHOTO HEAVY!!!]

The past few years we've made it a tradition to have friends join us in Phoenix around Halloween for some scary movies and haunted houses - there are a ton of them up here. And by 'we' I mean everyone else because I don't do haunted houses (and I only do the scary movies with the lights on). What can I say.....Halloween can be fun but the super scary stuff just isn't really my shtick. So last year when everyone came up we decided to hit up the downtown Phoenix Zombie Walk. We had a great time and everyone talked about joining in next year.

So this year, we did! Well, again...they did. I know I sound like a party pooper but I didn't feel like getting all made up and someone had to document the fantastic-ness. My sister, her fiancé, Christian's brother, and our friends Clinton and Courtney made up our troop. 

Transformations:

 

Christian decided to just zomb-ify his Halloween costume. World, meet zombie Lloyd Dobler. Unlike at the Halloween party we went to last night, his costume was a huge hit....mainly with the 30-50 year old crowd but a hit nonetheless. He even got videotaped by the news. :)

 

We had a great time. Clinton, Courtney, and I tailed along and took photos where we could. Christian got stopped by people for photos a lot. Then we went to Z Pizza for some chow and ice cream next door. The boys went for the chocolate covered bacon for the first time. They're not sure if they liked it or not. :)

 

 

They're all at the haunted house now then it's Paranormal Activity 3 when they get home. I miiiight just get sleepy and hit the sack when that goes down....

Hope everyone is enjoying their Halloween weekend. We sure are!

Love,

Ash and Vies (she hates wearing it but she'll let us drape it over her)

PS - Hi Dad! Happy Halloween! Enjoy dressing up like a pilot. We miss you. :)

Monthly update time!

How sad is that?! Well, I suppose it happens when you're a husband/wife grad student team. I'm exhausted just thinking about the last month, as I'm sure Christian is as well.

A few fantastic things:

• No more surgery! Christian took that Surgical shelf (no score back yet but I'm sure he destroyed it) and said farewell to our least favorite (so far) rotation of clerkships. He is now weeks into his internal medicine rotation and might I say I much prefer this one. Chris is learning a lot and rocking it out, as usual. I'm so constantly proud of him. 

• Two of my oldest friends got married! And to each other, no less! Megan and Kyle and I all had classes together from Freshman year of high school and Megan and I were lucky enough to get into nursing school at the U of A at the same time! They got married in Oceanside for my very first beach wedding experience and it was beyond fantastic. And to top it all off, I got to enjoy some time more old friends from middle school (hi Sam!), high school, and nursing school. I had a wonderful time...the only thing that would've made it better was if my husband had been been able to join me. 

  

• We're halfway through my semester! Semesters are an odd way to describe each "term" I complete for school because we don't typically get breaks between terms so they keep going and going, meaning they start and end at odd times of the year. Somehow they caught up to normal school-like schedule so I'll finish this semester the middle of December and get the holidays off! This is unlike last year when the semester started in November and rocked right on through the holidays (which was miserable).

• I am enjoying my clinicals. So much. Every day I'm in the clinic I feel like I do a little better. I've started inserting IUDs (one of my first "big-girl procedures") and am enjoying seeing patients more than ever.

Breastfeeding PSA poster at my Indian Health Services clinic.

• The weather is feeling more and more like fall every day! (And then less and less like fall for a few days, then more and more like fall again - typical Arizona). Christian has had the yard done for Halloween since the week after his birthday, although it is still a constant work in progress - the neighbors just got their stuff up a few days ago and he has a list of things he needs to add to our yard now. 

We are basically plugging right along. This is always a nutty time of year for us (and everyone else). Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in as much fun as possible while maintaining our super grown-up responsibilities. Our aspiration in life.

Happy fall to all of you.

XO,

Ash, Chris, and Vies

It's my husband's birthday, y'all!

IT'S MY HUSBAND'S BIRTHDAY. And although I've sucked at updating the blog lately, which I will try to rectify next week, HE IS AMAZING AND DESERVES A CAPITAL LETTER BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT ON ALL INTERNET MODALITIES.

Christian Jordan, I love you with every fiber of my being and I sure do love being your wife. I am SO proud of how hard you are working right now...I know it's tough and I know you're ready to move onto something else (me too....this surgical rotation can die a slow painful death for all I care). You are SO close to being finished with the two roughest rotations of 3rd year. You're a rockstar. You're my rockstar. Happy 26th, my love.

Us, one month after his 19th birthday. We were cute babies, right? 

LOVE,

Ash

National Breastfeeding Month!!!

Hey folks. It's National Breastfeeding Month! Read more about the conversation and ways to participate here. I am extremely passionate about breastfeeding and providing breastfeeding support - my FAVORITE part of my job is helping teens explore and establish breastfeeding. Watching their continued success months down the road is one of the most rewarding experiences as a nurse, lactation educator, and childbirth educator.



If you or someone you know is pregnant or breastfeeding and needs help and support, La Leche League International is a wonderful resource with support groups meeting all around the world.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.


Love,
Ash

dreams.

[I sit down on my brother's bed where Christian is napping - we're at my folks' for a short weekend visit after I attended a breastfeeding conference down here all day Friday. Christian is sleeping, which is what you do with your spare time when you're in medical school.]

I nudge him a little.
Me: "Chris.....honey......"
Christian: (eyes still shut) "What?"
Me: "I think we should get ready and go hang out with your parents for a while."
Christian: "We won't have any insulin if we go over there....."
Me: "What???"
Christian: "What??? What are you asking me?"
Me: "Your parents' house?....."
Christian: "Oh...yeah, sure....20 more minutes...."

Bottom line: he is constantly dreaming about being at the hospital. I remember when I started working in the ICU, I had the worst dreams about forgetting to do things for my patients or missing things in my assessment that turned out to be crucial.  A few times I dreamed that I was taking care of a bunch of kids I went to high school with in my ICU. Very weird. Or sometimes I'd wake up in a cold sweat having dreamed I left the hospital to go to lunch (which you cannot do) and just didn't come back until the last hour of my shift. It's crazy how much stress will manifest itself in your dreams. I hope they let up a little for him soon.

I found in the past year working in public health and childbirth education I just dream about pregnancy. Being pregnant, being in labor, breastfeeding my babies, other people being pregnant, attending other people's births...I'm unsure how much of that is my inner midwife and how much of that is having a loving husband and 25-year-old ovaries controlling your dreams. I can say that as a birth enthusiast it's hard to complain about dreams like that. Much better than dreaming your old ex-boyfriend from sophomore year of high school is intubated and on an insulin drip.

Anybody else's work manifest itself in their dreams?

Finals week is upon me. Surgery rotation is upon Christian. God help us both.

Love,

Ash

Guess who caught the first baby?

Yesterday Christian caught his first baby and was absolutely in love. He remembered everything about the parents and the baby's name and how much he weighed. I told him to be careful or he'll catch the fever and we can only handle one birth worker in this family (but who knows!?). He has his shelf exam - the exam after each specialty rotation - coming up so we're both spending the weekend buried in books.

First semester clinicals are winding down for me. I have learned so much and am starting to actually feel like a student midwife. I also love that I am now more helpful in the clinic than a pain in the butt. I take patients off different schedules and see them on my own, which really lightens the load for the other providers. I am so lucky to have been invited to stay at the same site for my second semester ambulatory care clinical (pretty much the same stuff as this past semester) - this means not having to re-learn a different EHR, not having to develop a new relationship with a different preceptor and provider. I am thrilled, I love my current site (and my many preceptors in this huge practice...I regularly rotate with 4 different midwives). I'm now just counting down to December when I get to start catching!!! AHHH! So exciting (and I can't believe that Christian beat me to it!).

Survived!

I survived my test (got an A!), got everything done I had on my list for the week (there was a lot), and I got to see Batman with Christian. Absolutely zero complaints here. As part of one of my last minute projects I've been uploading our honeymoon photos so I can print some and put them in an album. I enjoy looking at these so much! We had such a fantastic trip - almost entirely thanks to all the wonderful people who contributed to it. Thought I'd share some of my favorites before I head to bed. 

I can't believe we're inching towards that 2 year wedding anniversary....and I can't believe I'm married to this guy, I'm still in shock. I do truly love him more today than I did then (which I did not think was humanly possible). Don't you just love digging up old photos (old being a relative term in this case)?


Night.

Ash