Life updates and making preparations

I knew I had lost track of posting anything for quite some time, but had not fully realized just how long until a few folks asked if Ryan was going to write about his recent Birthday walk on the blog.

It's been nearly two years since I last posted anything after returning from my three week trip to Les Cayes, Haiti during my second year of residence. Third year of residency flew by as well. And at this point the most memorable events that year include hiking out West with Ryan in the Rocky Mountain National Park, my best friend from medical school, Griffin, getting married, and the birth of our niece Penny back in Georgia. Where does the time go? I'm fairly certain I will be pondering that for many years to come!

Ryan hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park

Griffin's wedding day

Meeting Penny Lane for the first time

Time has flown in the last two years. I completed my last year of residency in Internal Medicine in June 2016 and entered the new role of being one of the five Chief Residents. The five of us took the ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) exam in August, and thankfully each of us passed. We experienced significant challenges and great rewards beyond what we could have fathomed in our year of being chiefs in the Internal Medicine Department. It's truly been an honor to work and continue to learn in an place that strives to better educate our future physicians.

Jason Jones, Leslie Alexander, Kunal Sangal, Katie Price, and Jason Hopper

This past fall Ryan and I announced we were expecting our first child in April 2017. This news came in the midst of traveling around the Southeast interviewing for an Endocrinology Fellowship position.. and shortly after celebrating Nana's birthday at Tybee Island, where it was very challenging to keep the news to ourselves! On Thanksgiving Day surrounded by family, we learned that we were expecting a precious little girl.

"Waddle it be?" - Ryan seeing the pink icing just a split second before me

We found out in December that I had matched again at Wake Forest for my upcoming Endocrinology Fellowship, which will begin July 1, 2017. I am looking to these additional two years here at Wake as I continue my training to become an Endocrinologist.

And ever since finding out all of the exciting news above, I've been looking forward to this month of April with great anticipation. Nesting isn't everything, but it is very real. We started converting our guest bedroom into a nursery these past few months. Will plan to share photos of the nursery next time! We have been so very humbled by the love and support from our family & friends both here in town and separated by great distances. While I know one can never truly be quite "ready" for the birth of a child, the generous hand me downs, gifts, and prayers from our family & friends have certainly helped us prepare for her arrival. And now we wait with great anticipation to meet our daughter. Please keep us in your prayers as I know we are going to need them!

Life after Intern year

It feels quite odd saying this, but I have officially survived my Intern year. At times (depending on the rotation) the days seemed amazingly long and as if the year would never end. At times if felt like I lived in the hospital and was never able to see my husband or other family & friends. However, it now feels like the year flew by and I'm not entirely sure about this "being an upper level" gig that I have been plunged into with significantly more responsibilities added to my plate overnight. Due to starting a week early, I officially completed my Intern year on June 23rd. I had a week of orientation for becoming an upper level that, during which my Mom, Dad, & Mrs. Pat (Mom's BFF) were able to make a visit. Currently I am on an Musculoskeletal Elective Rotation and am in the process of becoming quite proficient in performing knee injections/arthrocentesis. 

Since the new Interns came to town, I have been able to meet several of them. And I will work with quite a few of them on my next rotation when I am on nights for 2 weeks as an upper level admitting patients overnight from 6:00 PM - 7:00 AM. After those two weeks of nights I will finally have a chance to visit my hometown back in Georgia. This past year has certainly been a rough one, but I survived. My schedule truly limited my travel abilities for seeing family. I have not been back home since October of 2013, and am really ready for a visit! This past year I worked both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Following that I had several rotations with tricky schedules (ie: working at night for 4 weeks straight and working in the Medical ICU). I already know I won't be home for Thanksgiving as I will be working nights during that time for 4 weeks, but am hoping to have Christmas off this year. This article gives folks not familiar with my schedule a bit more insight. 

I wanted to update you all on a few things we have enjoyed getting around to recently. My schedule as an upper level has quite a few more "golden weekends" aka normal weekends than Intern year allowed. Here are a few photos of what we have done so far with my extra free time. 

When my Mom, Dad, and Mrs. Pat visited we made a trip to Shelton Vineyards for a tour and tasting at the winery. We have visited some of the local smaller wineries, but this one took the cake. It was definitely the most picturesque one I had ever visited. We also had lunch at Harvest Grill located at the vineyard, which was delicious. 

For our second Golden Weekend (still not believing I am getting these... pinch me, I must be dreaming!) we finally finished painting everything upstairs in the house that we set out to paint roughly a year ago. We just never got around to the living room, and the "builder beige" was not growing on us. We are really happy with the results. Maybe now we'll finally put up some of the wall art in there for decoration. 

Wedding Shower

This past weekend Ryan and I traveled down to Statesboro to host a wedding shower for my brother Patrick and his fiance Heather. We had a ton of family and friends that attended the event, and it really was a lot of fun! This was the first shower I'd ever hosted before, so I was a bit nervous that everything would turn out alright. Especially when I was planning it from Macon!

I only managed to take one photo after I decorated the room at R.J.'s. Luckily for me Heather is a photographer, and she brought her professional camera! Here's some photographic evidence of the fun that was had.

Wedding Shower Banner - thank you pinterest!

Free Marriage Advice Collection & Amazing Cake Made by Sarah Roberts

My advice, "If your husband does the cooking, be sure to thank him by doing the dishes! And vice versa!"

The food spread. I was really happy with the color turnout of the turquoise punch. Koolaid's Blue Lemonade mixed with Crystal Light's Lemonade for the win.

Mita, our amazing server for the event. I worked with her back in the day during my younger years at R.J.'s. 

She is fabulous!

Ryan signing the signature mat.

Patrick, Heather, Coraline, and Eoghan

Mom and Dad playing one of the trivia games.

Me calling out the answers to one of the Wedding Trivia games.

Practice session for cutting of the wedding cake in the near future.

I am so happy for Patrick and Heather! I cannot wait to celebrate their marriage at the end of this month!

Fogarty Reunion

This past weekend was quite eventful! For the first time in my life (that I can remember), a Fogarty Family Reunion was attempted. There was a delicious low country boil at my Mom's Uncle Jack's house out on the marsh of Wilmington Island. We got to see many family members that we had not seen in years! One relative even flew in from Colorado for this festive occasion. It was a bit chilly, but we enjoyed a nice fire pit to keep warm at the outdoor gathering of the Fogarty clan.

We have my brother's fiance Heather to thank for the wonderful photos of the day. Patrick also took a few!

  

Nearly everyone there made it for this photo! Jimbo from Colorado is giving my brother Patrick bunny ears.

Dad playing this silly game called Half Rubber. Still not sure if I believe that this is a real thing. 

But it's on Wikipedia here, so it must be real.

 

Ryan and Coraline playing with the corn hole beanbags.

 

View from Uncle Jack's backyard. Beautiful.