How Long Can One Hold Their Breath?

We have some exciting news! (Whoever may be jumping to the conclusion that we're pregnant, hold off, I don't have a death wish yet.) Yesterday Jeremy was offered a fellowship position here in regional anesthesia for the 2012-2013 year. For anyone not in doctor-land I will explain. After your 4 years of med school you apply for and hopefully get into a residency program. It's 3-12 years of on the job training, depending on what you're going into. If you want to specialize in your select field a fellowship is an additional however many years of more specific training. So you're still not quite finished with school, but it gives you more options down the road. Jeremy will be finished with his anesthesia residency in June of next summer. The regional fellowship has to do with specific nerve blocks - knees, shoulders, etc. After that we are still looking at a possible peds fellowship or maybe a real job, we'll just see what happens.

We are breathing a huge sigh of relief though, it took a lot longer than usual for the decision to be made and we were beginning to wonder if we'd be putting our house on the market this spring. I'm glad to know we are not and we'll be enjoying New England for another year. Jeremy has worked very hard for this and I'm proud of him.

Sweet Fruit of the Earth

After a week of feeling like I was losing my mind, we were blessed with Jeremy's parents coming to stay with us for a few days. I suddenly realized this house is easy and fun to run when there's four adults in the house. Besides trying to keep all of us sickies from going under (his parents weren't feeling well either), we went off to pick more apples and berries, then today we rode a train and merry-go-round with the girls. The above picture is at one of our favorite places to pick. That dog's not Pele, his name is Max, and he's seriously the size of a horse. His shoulders fall just below my hips. I'm a sucker for animals, but especially winter dogs.
Here's Katie enjoying the produce.

Sydney's the one in stripes. They love that they get to run all over and eat whatever they get a hold of.

There's Grandma and Grandpa getting a taste of things.

Cora steals my heart in this picture.

That is the infamous Connecticut River behind them. That was one of the rivers that just below us flooded out a lot of areas. We had two shopping areas that were under up to 5 feet of mud in some places. I was blown away at the destruction that happened. I'm sure grateful we were OK through Irene and I've been amazed as I watch so many people in all of the communities here really work to help each other out.

I don't know if you can tell, but there are berries smeared on Cora's face.

And Sydney can now scowl with the best of them.

This girl loves her merry-go-round rides.

This is the very end of the train they got to ride.

And my favorite picture of Sydney.

So just to cover some of the exciting events this last week. Our fridge has been dying since July. It went out completely Wednesday morning. I couldn't be grateful enough for Vicki and Jeff who were there to help with the kids and finding a new fridge while I was also getting what we could save to the neighbor's freezer. Jeremy was able to get a Dr's apt and found out he had some pneumonia in his lower left lung. Then we also had 45 lbs of apples. Between Jeff, Vicki, Jeremy and I we did our first canning adventure and canned 14 quarts of apple sauce. It's pink because of the apples we used and it is yummy. Vicki helped me get a MEGA jump start on the quilts I was working on for the girls, and between the four of us we were able to still feed the kids and walk the dog amidst all of this.

We've felt very blessed to have the family we do, especially when they help us really just enjoy our children. There is still so much that I want to talk about, but it's time to go to bed.

A Long Update

Urrr, so this is a month late. The above picture was Katie's birthday "cake," well, cupcakes. Yeah, her birthday was the beginning of August. She is now three years old.
We invited the neighbors over to help eat all of those. Too bad our freezer won't really freeze the ice cream any more and it was more like cold soup. Oh, well. The kids still ate it. I tell you what, I've got to set the expectations low so we're not stressing over big birthdays for all three.

This is our first attempt at a family camp-out. Smores were a favorite for Kate and Cora, though I have to tell you that was a very long night with all of us in one tent with no way to keep the girls from crawling all over us and each other. I think we slept in 20 minute intervals. But I am determined to try camping again with our family. Maybe not until next summer though.

Besides a family camp-out, I was also determined to take the girls to the beach. I could only pull that off with some help, so this is a friend from church who offered to come play at the beach with us. We took turns riding the waves. The girls at first were terrified, but as they realized it was fun to splash and dig in the sand, we ended up having a great time.

A friend told me there are places to pick peaches up here, and since I have such rotten luck finding decent peaches in the store, we went peach picking. I think one of my favorite parts was watching the girls eat the fruit. We've done some blueberry, raspberry, apple, strawberry, and peach picking this year. I've become a huge fan of pick-your-own. We've made some jam out of the berries and peaches. I'm starting to feel like a real New Englander.

We also went for a quick family "hike" around the house this last week when I was trying to figure out what to do with them for a half hour. This is off the side of our house.

I'm pretty sure that's Sydney.

Then this should be Cora.

All three of them can't get enough of their books, which has preserved their lives some days when they realize mom needs 3 minutes to herself for something and they go and look through all of their books. Cora and Sydney can now climb out of their cribs and pack and plays, which makes for some interesting messes. All three of them love to smile at me and walk away when I ask them something as if to say, "ya gonna make me, Mom?" And as we have been battling on and off with teething, runny noses, and who knows what else, these last few weeks have been weeks of many tears from every girl in this house. I think even the dog feels bad when she doesn't get walked as often.

I would love to say how much patience I'm gaining, and how adorable every minute is with these girls. But I don't know if I can. They are adorable and they do and say some wonderful things, but my patience has also been so put to the test when all three of them cry about anything. I'm getting the tiniest insight into what God really means when he says unconditional love. When you think about it, we're just as whiny as his children. We want things how we want them and fight any change that's not easy or what we want. Yet He still loves us and is so patient. So much more so than I. And that's why God is God. He can somehow handle and love all of us. Perfectly. I'm hoping to make it through these three and not damage them too much in the process.

On a side note, I auditioned for a group called the Handel Society. It's a community choir that's connected with Dartmouth. There are 75 members and it's the longest running community choir in the nation. I made it in as a first soprano. We had our first rehearsal last week. It's an awesome choir to sing with, but just a little intimidating. They take this stuff VERY seriously. It makes the music and the people there fun, but after not really singing in a group for many years now, I have to work pretty hard on the music. We're singing the entire Messiah at the end of November. I've missed singing in a choir. I'm excited to see how it goes.

I hope that's enough update for now. I really hope we can get everyone over their sicknesses (seriously, it's only the end of summer! Does this mean no winter bugs?). Jeremy's actually had it the worst. My poor Honey. For anyone who doesn't know this, residents literally have to be on their death bed to have a sick day from work. Is it now ironic that physicians, the guys we go to when we're sick, aren't really allowed to rest? Somehow, we will get through this. At least no one is vomiting.

Friends

This lucky man married one of my most favorite people in the world. Katie was my first companion as a missionary in Argentina. We worked together for 6 months. I learned so much from her and had so much fun at the same time. We've laughed a lot about how if we'd met somewhere else we probably would not have made the effort to become friends because we are so different at first glance. But as we got to know each other and found we felt the same about things that mattered, we became fast friends. I can't believe I forgot to get this post in the month of July. Katie got married in the Newport Beach, CA temple. That's a long way from New Hampshire. But by small tender mercies from the Lord, I was able to be there. I looked at flying out, driving out, flying someone out here to fly with me and the kids (Jeremy can't have any time off in July) and nothing was looking remotely physically or financially possible. Then my neighbor offered to take the kids. I flew out on a Thursday afternoon, was there all day Friday, then came home Saturday. It was awesome!

I was able to read the entire book, Jane Eyre while I was on the plane. There was a line in the book that seemed so fitting: "...there is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort." I stayed with an old roomate while I was there and visited with another dear friend from the mission. Between the wedding, Katie's family, and these two friends those words could not sum up the experience any better. I was on cloud nine being with people I loved so well and missed so much. I am thankful for all of the hard moments I have had to pass through at different times with each of these people as it seems to have sealed our bonds of friendship to that of family. Having friends to love and confide in, cry and laugh with, is truly one of the greatest treasures of this life.

This is a good picture of most of the Murdock clan.


We joked about her having all boys that I would teach how to build fires and I would have all girls and she will teach them how to shop and do their hair. So far it's looking like that might pan out....


Speaking of the stinkers. There is nothing the three won't climb. They are the best of friends and each others' greatest antagonist. They are adorable though. I might be biased.

This is the scowling picture I lost earlier. Little stinker.

Domestiwhaa??

I had hunted high and low looking for a dress with sleeves for Katie to almost no avail. I don't have the patience to keep looking, especially when it ends up being an on-line hunt, and she's at the age where it's hard to find as much used stuff because kids her age play so hard. To make a long story short I decided it would be better to make a dress. I've never made a dress. But I found a pattern and material and was pretty excited about it until I tried to read the instructions. I know the words were English, but I could not understand what it was telling me. I called a friend from church over who is an amazing seamstress and she gave me a little more liberty to use my own observations mixed in with the instructions. A few days later I had a dress made. But I hadn't put it together that the seems of clothes usually entail more than a single stitch. Her dress was unraveling after one hour of wear. Not so effective. As I was talking this dilemma over with another friend from church she offered the surger she was currently housing. After a half hour of work at my friend's house we now have a functioning dress.

I never would have thought I had it in me. I made a dress. I'm not making plans for prom or wedding dresses for these gals, but it does feel good to know I can supplement some of the basics.

Water is Good

This is week two of attempting this post and the computer is determined to thwart me. Consider my comments the cliff notes version of everything. Second week of July I took the girls to southern Vermont to visit family of a friend and we had a blast! It was so beautiful, I fell in love with Vermont all over again. We swam in the family pond there and there is something magical about diving into fresh water. Here's some pics of the girls in the water.

That's Cora's head above with Katie and this is Sydney below. Jeremy and I have been working with them and these girls are fearless in the water. That has its' goods and its' bads for now, but will serve us well later. Right now we do a head count every 5-10 seconds, which makes for very segmented conversation with anyone.

Cora, Katie, the three friends of theirs, and Sydney. They loved the popsicles.

And this beautiful lake before you is none other than Winnipesaki (I hope I spelled that right). We went there the next day with Jeremy to stay with his cousin's family for the weekend. It was amazing. Such a huge lake, but if felt like no one was there because of all the tree coverage and the shape of the coastline. The water was amazing to play in! Thanks, Sarah and Brian for inviting us!

Katie would run around holding a stick on her head and telling us she was a unicorn shooting water at us through her horn. Jeremy was reciprocating her love.

Cora.

We made it home again. I had an awesome picture of Cora scowling, but I can't figure this computer out and it got lost somewhere. So we have Katie above and Sydney below.

The water is such a nice break in the 95 degree weather (no one has central air here, except the library). Our kids are covered with bumps and bruises all the time, I feel like I'm doing a good job letting them explore. The girls still have a very small vocabulary. They say "hot," "woof," and "uh-oh." Mama and dada go in and out of being used for a person, let alone the right one. Katie can sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She and I were sitting on the porch watching bees get the pollen out of our lavender bush a couple of days ago. I've tried so hard not to teach her to fear bugs and it's so amazing to watch her watch the bees. She gets so close to them and just studies them. Then we talk about what she sees and it's so simple, yet so beautiful. I guess that sounds strange to many people, but I want my girls to know and understand how important every living thing in the world is. I want them to have that respect for life. And it humbles me to see that start to grow in them.

There's so much more I meant to post for the month of July. Right now I can hardly remember what happened. Katie's turning three next Saturday and I'm hoping I at least remember to get a cake-mix. At least we will be out of the three under three phase. Which was still a lot better than three under two. I better close. Here's to hoping for more postings in the month of August.