A house hunting we will go....

the view on the bridge going into Hampton, VA

Greg and I went house hunting in Hampton and Newport News, VA on June 19th and June 20th. We had 2 days to find a house to move into in about a month. For about 2 weeks prior to the trip I printed out all possibilities for rentals. I then had to call all of the "possibilities" and line up showings for each individual one. I had called a realtor to help us but she told me for one person to show us all the homes, it would cost us hundreds of dollars. So being the cheap people Greg and I are, we saved the dollars and I arranged all the showings myself. I lined them up starting at 9 AM on Friday and Saturday, spacing them in 45 minute intervals, until 4-5 pm. On Friday, I lined up 12 showings and on Saturday I lined up 3. In retrospect, someone should have told me I was crazy.

So Thurday afternoon after Greg and I had both worked a full day, we loaded up in the car with Ender's Games on the ipod and headed off to Virginia. We arrived in Hampton at 1215AM. We were both exhausted, quickly checked in and went to bed. We were up at 730 the next morning to be at our first showing at 9 AM. The house hunting was horrible. We are spoiled here in SC with our home - 2 car garage with garage door openers, fenced yard, large master bedroom, bathroom with dual sinks and clean carpets. Now I didn't think this was a lot to ask, but it is! We quickly learned after seeing our first house that clean carpets are not standard and people use garages for storing crap not cars. Even if there was a garage there, it didn't guarantee that there would be a garage door opener to go with it. Some houses smelt terrible, some houses were small, and one house had a kitchen about 5 feet wide. If only we could transplant our home up there.

the First home we saw:the kitchen was old and smelled, there were wires coming out of the walls...
this house is beautiful on the outside, disgusting on the inside.
with wall to wall mirrors in the dining room ( i think mirrors in the dining room are a common thing up there)

Now they weren't all that bad. We did find one we really liked, although the master bedroom was small and our 2 nightstands bedside the bed won't fit. It had plently of room for our things. You walk in the house and to the left are the stairs and to the right is a small living room attached to the dining room (this carpet is grey). Straight ahead there is a hallway with a half bath leading back to the kitchen. The kitchen is open to the great room with gas log fireplace. The owner must have a thing for blue b/c the kitchen has blue countertops and the great room has blue carpet with matching blue curtains. Odd I know... Up the stairs there are 3 bedrooms and a bonus room. The bonus room is the size of a bedroom (large enough for an exercise room). The spare bedrooms are a good size and will be ready for an guest who wants to be close to the beach. Outside is a large deck, fenced yard, and a 2 car detached garage. There is a breezeway connecting the garage to the house. Greg and I would be very happy with this home and we put in an application. There were 4 showings for this house on the day we saw it. I filled out the application (Greg was an occupant b/c the property manager said that since Greg wouldn't have a job up there yet, then he would bring the application down) and the property manager said all the applications go through the computer and out pops a number 1-100 for each application. The person with the highest number gets the house.

the outside..

the garage (note the breezeway from garage to house) the deck and back of the house. the yard, completely fenced in
blue carpets...
blue countertops, but nice size and open
We did have some backup options just in case we didn't get the house. We had 2 houses that were okay and then there was always the base. We talked with the base housing group who stated as an officer I qualify for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. We would be placed in phase 3 or phase 4 housing that is scheduled for demolition when the new officer housing is built. Supposedly this is very nice but you are not guaranteed to live there once your home is torn down. They said they would try to move us to a new home instead of another home that is scheduled for demolition. This can always be a backup....

A backup option, very dated on the inside though and we would only move into it if the owner replaced the carpets. There were holes, stains and very worn carpet in the house.

Graduation

Last week I graduated!!! On June 15th at 9 AM I graduated from residency. What does this mean? I guess I have learned enough about pediatrics that I can now take care of patients on my own. You would think that I would be done with residency the minute that I graduated but think again. I get to work a whole 2 more weeks. Sometimes when I see people in the hall, they ask "Aren't you done yet?" I then have to say yes but I still work up until July 1 when my replacements come.

the Y's in our program

With graduation comes party, after party after party. On Sunday June 14th, we had a intern welcome party and third year goodbye party. This is where we get awards for our accomplishments and the current 1st and 2nd years get to make fun of us for our quirks...AKA roast. I have many quirks but I was mainly made fun of being very efficient and popping up randomly finishing people's work for them. They also made fun of me for playing rock band and doing a mud run (a 4 mile run filled with obstacles in the mud- marine style). I really appreciate what all of the residents went through to roast us. They made a video - which is a first for our peds residents and the intro was a drive into work, parking, going to the cafeteria to get a diet coke and then up to the workroom. Very true, very true. (I'm gonna miss the free food).

Rebecca and I
Amanda and I

Rob and I (we have been in training - med school and residency - together for 7 years) Greg and I
Mom and I

The next party was the next day after graduation with refreshments for our family members that came to graduation. Greg was able to come and sit with the husbands of the residents - and he got to drink his morning coffee through the ceremony. There weren't any wives to sit with since the only guy in our program's wife was graduating as well.

The third years after graduation.


Killing some time waiting for graduation to start.

The last party of the week was our special third year party where the residents, their spouse, and a faculty member of their choice were invited. It was very touching and all of the attendings gave very touching toasts to the graduating class. I had two attendings there that I started med school with as my attendings. It was very special to have them there.

Greg and I on the roof top patio.

The third years.

Macgruber's surprise

One night Greg and I were watching tv upstairs in the bonus room and I hear Macgruber 's doggy door going in and out multiple times in a row. Then I hear a growl and the pitter patter of little feet. Then another growl and more pitter patter of little feet. I went down stairs to see what was going on and I peered over the stairs to look into the living room. I see Macgruber crouched behind the couch, pawing and then running around to the other side. Again he growls, paws at something and then runs around the couch again. Then I see it.... A leg of something. I called for Greg like any woman would. He came down and peered behind the couch to see this....

This toad could jump three feet in the air!!! We first tried to corral it out the back door with a broom and it jumped into the kitchen. Then we tried to capture it in a small box. It jumped under the sofa. We then tried to sweep it out from under the sofa. It jumped under the tv set. We tried to get it out from behind the tv, it jumped onto Greg (he screamed that this thing attacked him - probably one of the funniest moments of our marriage). After 30 minutes of attempts to get this toad captured, we finally managed to get in a huge moving box.

We still don't lock the doggie door and I'm sure we will soon get another type of visitor (like India's).

This is our living room after the toad. Good thing our couches slide easily on our floors. We had to lock Macgruber in his crate halfway through the hunt for the toad since he kept trying to play with it.

Moving with the Air Force

So we've had our first encoutner with the Air Force move. I had to travel to Columbia, SC to Ft. Jackson to attend a briefing on military moves. Almost everyone attending this briefing was in their military uniform and I was there in shorts and a t-shirt. I don't think anyone there really thought I was military. This lady came in and explained all the steps to getting your house packed up and moved from one place to the other. She wasn't happy with me because I asked too many questions and then I didn't know the address of our storage unit to put on the forms. She had to wait on me to call Greg to get the information for her. This process took 2.5 hours and now I am still having problems. We originally signed up for July 7th as our move date but now we are trying to get our move on June 29th. Hopefully our "assigned" moving company will be able to make the switch....

So this is how the move is supposed to go. They come out and do an appraisal of our house to see how long it will take and how much packing stuff they'll need. A few guys come out and pack up everything... Yes I don't have to pack a thing!!! (I do have to make sure everything is out of the attic and off the walls) Then they load it all up on a truck and take it to Virginia. It should be delivered in 7-14 days. I'll let you guys know how the move actually goes and Ill post picks of the packing.

MacGruber likes dangling things....

So our dog, MacGruber, likes dangling things or things that unravel when he pulls on them. A few examples we have learned that he likes are things that hang down in the closet. He stands up on his hind legs, grabs onto the article with his teeth and pulls. Why do I know this? I have seen him do it while in the closet putting things away one day. He loves pants with belts, belts, ties and long dresses.

Other things he likes are the table cloth on the kitchen table that comes down when pulled (along with everything else on the table) and the rug in front of the backdoor. It unravels when pulled on. My rug now has parts where there is no yarn. It's a sad site.

Oh the things puppies do...

Langley here we come

So on Tuesday 4/7, I received a call from the order office asking me what day I wanted to report to my new base. He asked me where I was going and I told him I had no idea where I was going. He told me that I was assigned to Langley AFB. Me, being the not so savy person, asked where is that? (i had Las Vegas and Florida on my mind). It is Virginia - Hampton, Virginia to be exact. (this is right by Virginia Beach right on the Chesapeake Bay). Nice, huh? We report July 15th. Once I got off the phone with him, I immediately googled Langley AFB. Here is what I have found out.

There are 6 pediatricians on this base, 1 nurse practioner, and a pediatric residency program (combined AF/Navy). There is inpatient pediatrics as well as a nursery. I have no idea what this means for me. I am still trying to get intouch with someone who knows what is going on that can tell me what is expected of me. Hopefully they can tell me soon so I can find out about housing, hours, pay, and call. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

All we can do is wait....

So I recently got an email that said that we have a few more weeks to wait until we get our assignments, which puts us right on time to find out sometime in April. Why did we have to turn in our rank lists in November if they weren't going to do anything with the lists for 5 months? But again, that would be too logical.
We are trying to get our house up for sale but the weather has not been cooperating. We still need to get the outside in shape before it goes up for sale, which hopefully will happen next week. We will keep you guys posted on how everything is going.