June Wrap-Up, Mostly

Here is my monthly smattering of June pictures, up until the day we moved on the 24th...I still need some time to process that.  But, despite all the tears, June really was an exceptional and wonderful month.

My wonderful branch dinner group.  Our last dinner at Honey Pie Cafe, one of my favorites.  These women are exceptional, and I love them dearly!

My pie at Honey Pie.  Delicious.  Supposedly in the top ten pies in America, I believe it.

This is Darlene.  She went to church at the branch with us.  We all went over to visit her one evening in June and had a great time with this great lady.

Lunch with old co-workers from To The Pointe.  It was a fantastic afternoon; these women are wonderful!

Rachel just being cute, and sporting three different tutus.  

Mao and Yeng invited us and the Hassells over for Sunday dinner.  Those two are just wonderful people and we enjoyed our evening with them!

I was able to volunteer in Marshall's class almost every Monday for the entire school year.  I loved those 90 minutes I had in class with him.  He really loved it too.  

Marshall took a chess class after school for three weeks.  He loved it and was delighted that he got a medal when the class was done.  He has been waiting years for a medal!

The last day of school kind of passed us by because we had so many other things going on and were a bit preoccupied with the move, but I am so proud of these kids, they both had exceptional years.  

There was some excitement on our street one Saturday.  The kids were glued to the window after they saw a police car outside.  They became even more fascinated when a second police car pulled up and handed a rifle to another officer.  Seconds later we heard a gunshot, and a few minutes after that they carried a deer to the car and loaded it in the white truck.  Turns out the deer was badly hurt.  Though slightly traumatizing, it led to a good discussion.  

Another dinner with another group of friends.  Since December I have been in a Catholic Mom's Group that meets monthly.  These two women are a part of it and treated me to dinner just before we moved.  I loved these evenings, and this dinner was no exception.  

Sunday evening family walk at Elm Grove Park.  Its my favorite, as Rachel would say.

They can play so well together when they want to.  :)

We went to church with Omar and Victor in the branch.  We were so happy to have them in our new ward with us.  They are remarkable and we are so glad to know them.  

Father's Day dinner at the Hassell's, complete with sparklers.  

We met up with some of Bridget's school friends for a morning at the park.  These kids are the best.  We miss them, and their parents, so much.  

As a culmination of Richard's residency education, I made him give me an ultrasound at 29 weeks to make sure the baby is really a girl.  We can now say she is most definitely a girl.  :)  Marshall was especially looking forward to this as he had asked Richard to see his kidneys.  Marshall was riveted.  It was darling.  

Bob and Becky came out to help us move.  The night before we left we had dinner at Kopps; it was essential and also most delicious.  

Best buddies.  

Last Beach Day

Our last Monday in Wisconsin was a hot one, which was perfect because Anna and I had already planned to spend the day at Atwater Beach.  We were joined by other friends too, and just had the best, best time.  The water was pristine and the perfect temperature for the hot day.  It was pretty shallow too so the kids were able to go out pretty far.  We also had about ten minutes of some awesome waves, which the kids loved.  Reminded me of childhood visits to South Haven.  It was just a perfect day that we will always remember!

You can't see it, but Marshall had caught a fish in the bucket!  There were a lot of small fish swimming around and I think all my kids picked at least one up while we were there.  Something I would never do!

Going Away Party

Our last weekend in Milwaukee, our good friends the Hassells and Vanhilles, threw a going away party for us at Elm Grove Park.  It was a wonderful, wonderful Saturday evening, and just what we needed after a day of packing and working hard.  

The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and we were surrounded by people who had such an impact on our time in Milwaukee.  It was an evening we will not forget and always hold dear to our hearts.

I failed and never got a group picture, and I didn't even get a picture with everyone who came, but here is a sampling.  We love all these people, including those not pictured!

We have known Dianne and Nile for nine years!  Nile was just six when we moved here...six!  It has been great to watch him grow up.  The last couple of years we've gone to many sporting events for him and he is so thrilling to watch.  Tim and Richard also took Nile to a Packers game years ago and I have run two races with Dianne.  Dianne loves our kids, and they love her.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that Nile will be able to come out and visit us next summer.  We love them!  And Nile got teary eyed when we hugged him good-bye.  That's a real tug on the heart-strings when a big 15 year old boy is fighting back tears saying good-bye.  

Jessica has lived in Wisconsin almost as long as us, but I didn't really get to know her until the last two years.  She is remarkable.  She is a wonderful mom, down to earth, so kind, thoughtful and very helpful.  I am grateful for the good friendship we developed in just two years.   

What can I say.  Rachel adores Liam, and pretty much everyone else in the Vanhille family.  :)

Lindsay and her family go all the way back to our days in the branch.  She and I served in Primary and Relief Society together.  Bridget and her daughter, Catherine, were born just days apart from each other and they also did preschool together.  Her husband and I taught Gospel Doctrine together.  The Zundels are a great, great family.  

The Pitts!  We love the Pitts!  They just moved to Milwaukee one year ago, but we have loved getting to know them.  They are both so fun to be around and Jeremy has an exceptional sense of humor.  In just one year, we shared multiple holiday meals with them and loved every single one.  Anna and I hosted a baby shower for Renee and their baby girl is darling.  They are a wonderful couple and we love them both!

And we cannot leave out the Hassells.  Our dearest and longest Milwaukee friends.  I could write paragraphs about them, and I probably will later, but they are great in every way and our lives will not be the same without them around.  

Our three families were the last to close out the park after 9:00 pm.  The kids were in heaven running around the playground, and the six of us were in heaven talking and laughing.  A perfect way to end our last Saturday night in Wisconsin.  

Residency Graduation

Richard had his residency graduation the week before we left Wisconsin.  It was wonderful to have an evening out to celebrate all that he has accomplished during residency, and even the last nine years, and it has certainly been an accomplishment.

Richard and the other seven residents he has spent the last four years with.  Petar and Zach also did medical school with Richard and did their intern year together at St. Joe's so they did all nine years together.  What a journey!

Basically, for the last four years, Richard spent his days waking up before 6:00 and leaving for work at 7:00.  He had lecture every day from 7:30-8:30 and then he started working.  He had a different rotation every single month:  mammography, neuro, chest, bone, ultrasound, fluro, body, interventional...to name a few.  He spent most of his time at Froedtert, but also had rotations at the childrens' hospital and at the VA.  

We were lucky and usually had Richard home for dinner with us if he wasn't working overnight.  However, he had some rotations where we just knew his hours would be longer and we wouldn't see him until later.  

Before he took boards in June 2015, he also tacked on studying in the morning and at night for a solid year.  That meant he woke up at 5:15, left the house at 5:45 and studied at the hospital before lecture.  When he got home, we had dinner, he played with the kids for a bit, we would put them to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and he would study again until 9:00 pm.  He did this for months and it was grueling.

During residency, Richard also served on multiple academic committees.  This meant extra meetings, usually after 5:00 pm.  Overall, he enjoyed these committees, but he also had frustrating times as he saw how a large academic institution functions.  He did gain a lot though, and it gave him great insight into academic medicine.  

In addition to the daily work grind, studying, and committee meetings, Richard also gave multiple presentations on all sorts of radiology topics throughout his residency.  I spent a lot of evenings on the couch next to him while he worked on powerpoint presentations.  

This is Carla, the radiology program coordinator for 40 years.  She is one of the kindest, sweetest women we know.  She will be retiring in September, so Richard's class was the last one she saw all the way through their residency.  Richard was able to pay her a special tribute that night, on behalf of all the residents.  She is extraordinary and Richard is glad he was able to finish out his time at MCW with Carla around.  She made everything better.  

Richard also did more traveling during residency than I thought he would do.  Besides traveling two summers in a row for fellowship interviews, he traveled to radiology meetings and review sessions across the country.  This included spending four weeks in Washington D.C.  and two week-long review sessions right before the boards.  

The schedule of residency can be grueling.  We were lucky and had Richard around more than other residents in different areas of medicine, but he was still scarce and we got used to operating without him at times.  There were so many times he worked Monday through Friday, worked the weekend, and then worked the next Monday through Friday before getting a break.  Starting in July 2013 until February 2015 he took a lot of overnight call.  For part of the time he left at 7:00 am and other days he left at noon, worked a regular day, and then worked overnight as one of two radiology residents for the entire hospital, including the VA.  He would get home the next morning, usually around 9:00 am after having staffed out all of his cases with the attending radiologist.  

During his four years of residency, he read over 16,734 studies and took over 100 overnight calls at the hospital.  

This is Dr. Carrera.  He is the longest standing radiology program director in the country.  He is also an MSK radiologist.  He has been so influential during Richard's time here.  All the way back in medical school Richard asked him to his mentor and his help has been invaluable.  He has seen us through residency applications and two rounds of fellowship applications.  He is a remarkable man and has done so much for both of us.  

It has been quite the journey, that is for sure.  Richard and I both agree that if we could do it all over again we would, but we will talk our kids out of medicine!  In all seriousness though, this is not a journey that I would trade.  We have both grown so much as individuals, as a couple, and as a family because of this path we chose.  Richard has grown so much, learned so much, and honestly I am astounded at what he has accomplished over these last years.  He is remarkable and I love him!