Residency Graduation, Parent’s Night Out, Fellowship Interviews and CPE Classes…OH MY!!

We are puttering along this week.  I feel like we are moving along a little more slowly than we did last week.  Ed went to Pittsburgh for his interview on Monday.  He returned today and had really good things to say about their program.  The earliest we might know anything about this program is July 30.  His next interviews that are scheduled are coming in the second week of August. 

The boys and I are preparing for Father’s Day.  We cannot say much more than that, but we are having fun. ;0) 

Nicholas and Christian are learning about gardens and flowers and bugs this month with me.  Last week we planted beans in clear plastic baggies so that we could watch them grow.  This week we have one of them growing…I think the other 3 revolted.  Nicholas gets so excited when he sees them.  Everyday he says, “Look Mom!  Our seeds are growing!!  Come look!!” 

Ed bought the boys some “heavy duty” water guns today.  They went to the store while I was at my Avon meeting.  Personally, I cannot wait for a family water gun fight.  All I can say is Ed better watch out! ;0)

On Friday we are attending the Graduation for the 4th year Anesthesia residents.  They always have a dinner and give out awards and announce the new Chief Resident for the Anesthesia dept.  I am excited about going this year.  We have gone every year since Ed started residency.  The idea that we are almost done is wonderful.  It’s nice to see what the current residents will be doing and see where they will be residing after they finish.  It is amazing to think that this time next year, Ed will be done with his residency!!  YAY! 

The boys will be going to Parent’s Night Out at our fitness center.  They will feed them, entertain them, and provide lots of fun games.  I think they will enjoy it.  This will allow me to attend the graduation.  Ed is on call that night, but they are allowing him to go in at 10pm and attend the graduation. 

I started my CPE classes tonight.  I finished both of my assignments and am about to hit the hay.  The classes are on creating Video Podcasts for the classroom and on Teaching math to 4-6th graders.  I need the hours to maintain my Texas Teacher’s certification.  These two classes are 6 weeks long and will give me 48 hours.  I am taking them through TLC. 

Well, our update this week is pretty uneventful.  I am lacking my usual cheerfulness, because I am tired…I think.  A good night of sleep will do me good!!

Love you all!

Another Week at the Ozuna House

Well, another week has flown by! The boys and I have been without Daddy for the most part this week. He's managing to get through this weekend of awful call duty. He went in on Friday morning at around 5:00am and it is now 8:30am Saturday morning and still no sign of him. He should be home to sleep in a little while. He will sleep all day today and we will see him to eat and spend a little time with us this evening before he goes back to bed to start another call day/night tomorrow. He will be post call on Monday morning--he'll sleep and we will see him for dinner again. Then the new week starts for him. Thank goodness he is done Friday and we will have him all to ourselves for a week. The boys miss Daddy and so do I. :)

We have kept ourselves busy this week. Nicholas went to school Tuesday and Thursday. They are winding down for the school year. Next week will be a big one as we will have a trip to the petting zoo here in town, and then his graduation ceremony is Thursday. ;) I'll get pictures and video to share on both days. Look for it to come up next week sometime.

Christian and I chilled out most of the week. We went to the Falls every morning on schedule except for Thursday. Ed needed us to bring his pager and I wanted Christian in bed by 11:30 to let him get plenty of sleep before picking up Nicholas from school.

This morning the community center is having their Summer Kickoff Carnival. The boys and I plan to head out and spend the morning over there playing games. The boys are excited about it. This will give Ed a chance to have some peace and quiet in the house today while he is sleeping and it will get the boys out of the house without costing us money. Win-Win!

I have not cooked much again this week. We also did not make it through all of the meals I planned. I still have tonight and tomorrow, I guess. I improved on my freezer Lasagna, we had grilled steaks, fresh French Bread, and homemade mushroom and cheese pizza (YUM!). I love my breadmaker! The french bread and pizza crust are so easy to make in it. I made the pizza crust last week and froze it for this week. It takes me 5 minutes to put the french bread together and creates nothing to clean up except for the pan and it is nonstick! Score!!

Another thing I have been doing this week is messing with photo editing in Photoshop Elements 5.0. This is the program that I got for scrapbooking a couple years back. I like it, but I am still learning it. This is the first program I have truly had to work at learning. It is not as user friendly as other programs. The product is worth it, but if it were not for the free video tutorials that I find on youtube and other similar programs, I would be completely lost. Here are a few of the photo editing projects that I did this week.


This first picture is from the September 11th Memorial that is put out every year here in Lubbock. Nicholas and Ed and I went out there a couple years back and walked among the flags. In this pictures I played with changing the image to black and white and highlighting just the one flag with color. I later found a much easier way to do the same thing....whew! next time I will do it the other way. :)
This next picture was taken by Grandma last year when we went on summer vacation. My mother loves this picture and I hope she really likes the improvements I made on it.
This last picture is kind of "scrapbooked". It is my favorite picture of Nicholas. He had just turned 2 when I took this picture during a summer rain storm. He was having so much fun playing in the rain. Precious!
Here are the originals, just in case you wondered:

Family Update (not on Friday)

Hey Everyone! This week has been a tiring and trying week for the Ozuna family. Ed is working many, many hours. He's been out of the house by 5:00am and back home by 7:30pm or later almost all week (he got home at 6:30pm Friday). This has meant that although he has struggled to stay awake long enough to play with the boys (or just read them a book to put them to bed), most nights the boys only saw their daddy for about 15-20 minutes. I've tried to make things easier each night by having the boys completely ready for bed, dinner done, etc...but it doesn't make up for the lack of time that the boys have with Ed. Today he is on 24 (more like 28) hour call. This means he was out by 5:00am again this morning and will not be home until after 7:00am tomorrow morning. This will make for a pretty boring Mother's Day at our house, but I have gotten used to sketchy schedules. We'll celebrate, just not tomorrow. He will go back to work bright and early Monday...and resume this same schedule next week. Then, next weekend he will be on 24 hour call both on Friday and on Sunday...only to resume the work week again. Finally, on the 23rd of May, we will leave to come home and visit all the Grandparents for a week!!!

We are all looking forward to this time to both be home with Daddy and see our family. Ed and I will relish the idea of a night out by ourselves too.

So, what have the boys and I been up to this week? Well, Nicholas has been at school on Tuesday and Thursday just like normal. He brought home a "secret" Mother's Day Gift that I am not to look at until Sunday. I am so excited and I will get a picture of it and post once I have it in my greedy little hands. :) We went and worked out every morning this week (as usual). Christian and Nicholas both love to go to the workout facility each morning and play with their friends. Since we go at the same time everyday, they have made playmates with some of the other "regular" kids.

Today we went to the library and sat in for a book reading. The library was fun...the book reading, not so much. The man who is selling the book wrote it to help raise money for Dyslexia. That is a great cause! I actually saw the guy and the book at Hastings a couple of months ago. I looked through the book then, but unfortunately it was for an older kid. The paragraphs were too long and referenced things my 4 year old wouldn't understand. However, when you are read books, it can sometimes be lots of fun! We decided to listen to him read the story because the last time we attended a library story time it was loads of fun for the kids. Unfortunately this felt very impromptu...no chairs...guy didn't have his reading glasses...no one else showed up...he read about 6 pages before realizing he had not shown the kids the pages....and he stumbled through reading it. I am happy to say that my kids did really good throughout the entire reading. Nicholas actually stayed with most of the story after he started showing pictures. Christian was "all done" with the book much earlier than it took to read the book. We left when the reading was done and he did not sell a book to us, unfortunately.

I had almost an entire week of limited cooking. This has been AWESOME! I tried OAMC (once a month cooking) a long time ago and did not like it because it took so much time! Of course we also did not eat everything that we made. I brainstormed another idea last weekend and on Sunday last week I made one week's worth of dinners (plus a couple of double dishes to freeze). My goal has been to have no leftovers left in our fridge by the end of the week. I am trying to use all the food we make and spend less money while doing it. So far it worked this week and also allowed me to tutor without having to cook all at the same time during the day. This was nice because I didn't burn any of the food. This week we had Lasagna, Enchiladas and Pinto Beans, Grilled Pork Chops and Grilled Pineapple, and Chicken-Cheese-Rice-Broccoli casserole. We were also supposed to have a chicken soup, but I didn't realize when you cook a whole lime in your pot it bitters everything. Lesson learned!

Another thing I am trying to work on is using less ziploc bags. I would say that on average we use at least 20-30 bags a week (snacks, frozen foods, leftovers). Last week I read 2 things: a ziploc bag takes 1000-2000 years to decompose AND you can turn bags inside out and dishwash them on the top rack to reuse them. I tried this and it did work. The only problem with the method is that the water gets into the bags and makes a big mess when you open the dishwasher. So, I decided I am just going to try not using them. I made an inventory of all the items leftover in my fridge, and all the items in my freezer. I am keeping the lists on my fridge and I update them when things change. This has resulted in us not having thrown away leftovers...AND NO GROSS GROWTHS in plastic containers in my fridge!!! Yay! We are using less baggies and more plastic...and I am doing well with this so far!

Tomorrow's plan? Well, at this point I figure we will get out of the house and let Ed sleep. In the morning we will go grocery shopping. I will make all my dinners for next week (plus some other freezer items) tomorrow afternoon while the boys nap. Then Ed will wake up in the evening, we will have dinner, and we shall see what else we do! :)

To all of you out there, Happy Mother's Day!!

What a Week!!! Easter Weekend

Last week flew by! I once again missed Family Friday Update. I believe missing something that you started doing on a scheduled timeline 2 of the 3 times qualifies it for permanent rescheduling. With that in mind, you will just have to have Friday Family Updates whenever I happen to logon and write about them...and they probably will not occur on Fridays! It is pretty amazing that everything is on a schedule in my life...but not every schedule is followed. I think I really like schedules...or, maybe I like making them. :)

We started the holiday weekend off a little early by coloring Easter eggs on Wednesday. Ed was supposed to start his time off on Friday, but somehow we got a lucky break and he was off from Wednesday until today (Wednesday)-- A whole week!!!




Although I do not have pictures of it, Christian did enjoy coloring his Easter eggs. We had to be very careful about dropping them into the coloring "gently" though...he is not a gentle boy.


Such concentration from Nicholas here. He was very proud of his eggs.


Time with Daddy is always fun! Add a little painting or coloring of eggs and you have an instant hit with the boys!


We geared up for Christian's Birthday party which was held on Good Friday (also his birthday this year). Due to planning it on a major holiday weekend for some, we did not have much of a showing of guests. This was not a bad thing. The three kids had a great time. The little girl in this picture is our friend Evey. Evey's parents are Christian's Godparents. We have known them since college and they are about to be done with Medical School here in Lubbock.

We held an Easter egg hunt as part of the party games for the kids. I filled the eggs with LOTS of candy and hid them. Nicholas was great about letting the little kids get enough eggs. All three of them got lots of candy and had a blast hunting for the eggs.


This is a little out of order (I'm still learning on this Blogger thing). These pictures are of Nicholas's Parent's Day Out Preschool Easter Egg hunt. Since this is one of the few things that Ed can attend of Nicholas's many events this month and next, we decided to go and see the hunt. We were the only parents there as it was meant to be just a class thing...not a parental audience type of thing. I did one thing wrong. I FORGOT to mention to Nicholas that we were coming.

Oh My Gosh!!! He threw a tantrum when we showed up!!! At first he thought we were going to take him home when his Easter egg hunt was just about to start. I let Ms. Marcie take care of his hysteria. She calmed him down and after the Easter Egg hunt began, he started to become a nicer boy again. Whew!!! Future notice to all: Don't Spring any surprises on this boy. He doesn't like change at all!!!
That was our week/weekend. We are now halfway through this week and it is busy busy again. Ed's back at work as of today and works through the weekend. The boys and I have been going to workout in the morning and I have been tutoring like a mad woman to catch up from last week.

We will be attending some great events in the next few weeks. We have a field trip to a place called Kenny's Korral (a petting zoo type of place) and Kindergarten registration fast approaching.

Visit with Grandma!!

This past weekend I missed updating everyone on Friday for Friday Family Update. We picked up my mom from the airport on Friday and spent the weekend together. We ended up just spending good quality time together and with the exception of one trip to Walmart and Kohls, we really didn't go anywhere. It was quite nice! Ed and I did get a nice evening out, so that was a wonderful treat!!

Mom took some pictures of the boys playing around the house and of us playing Guitar Hero as a family. Here they are:

There were other pictures, but these were my favorites. Here are some more pictures I took today when we were playing around the house. In this first one, I was tickling Nicholas because he decided to give me crazy looks instead of giving me a good picture. This is what I got for tickling him! I need to do this more often!!

I love this picture! It took several tries, but I finally got a pretty good one of them together! This never happens. They decided to sit and watch TV together in the glider rocker. Too cute!!
Another pretty good one of them...however Christian looks a little uncomfortable. Also, look how much bigger Nicholas's head looks!!!

This next one makes me kind of sad!! Christian is growing up so fast and becoming a little boy instead of my baby boy!!! He turns two this Friday!!! Oh, and he is really tall for his age! He is wearing 2T and 3T shirts & 2T pants already!!! (oh, these sweats are huge on him because they are 3T!!)

Here is Nicholas being his silly self. :)
As is typical, we did not get any pictures of Mom at all. I will need to both remember and make her do this next time if it is possible. We want LOTS of pictures of the Grandkids with the Grandparents around this house!!! I wish I had more pictures with my grandparents now that they are both gone...so, I would like the boys to have as many memories on photo as they can of their loving grandparents.

Friday Family Update

So, I'm thinking I will start trying to give you an update of how our week has gone on Fridays. As I am typing this, I am realizing that I probably won't remember what we did the weekend before, but I guess we will all have to deal with my lack of memory. I guess the blogger in me will just have to improvise on that, huh? :)

This week has been interesting, from the weather to everything going on in our lives. First, I will say that apparently there are going to be blizzard conditions with snow drifts just 2 hours north of us today. With that said, we will probably get several inches of snow. It will most likely be more snow than any year we have been here...and all of it IN LATE MARCH!!! In my opinion, this just is not right.

Well, let's see what has been going on with us:

Nicholas:

• He danced with a dust devil yesterday at school. That is probably his biggest news this week. You can read about it here.
  
• He had Cowboy day at school this week. They made a vest and rode his stick horse. He participated in a 3-legged race. I really wish I had pictures of all of this stuff, but we weren't told about the fun events. I guess it sounds bigger than it probably was, but ironically the day he dressed as a cowboy is also the day he danced with the dust devil! How cool is that?
• Nicholas discovered how fun he and Christian's sandbox is. They have been playing in it all week. You can read about that here.
• They had a Kid Fit class at our new workout facility. Nicholas participated in that on Monday, but opted out on Wednesday because he didn't want to get out in the cooler weather without a jacket. His loss, I guess. They were not outside for more than a couple of minutes and then they went and played with the punching bags and on the Bosu Balls.

• Today he is excited by the prospect of making snow angels and surprising Daddy with a big snowball fight. We'll see if our Texas weather agrees with him. From the sound of the wind, he might just be playing in the snow this afternoon. The nicest things I can think that will come from that is them playing, me having hot chocolate, and the pictures that I will have to show you on here.

Christian:

• Christian had some new experiences this week. He went to the nursery at the workout facility that we joined Monday-Thursday this week. We would have gone today, but the weather doesn't look that great and I am a little lazy today. He had a rough time in the nursery, but by Thursday he was doing much better. He went from the constantly crying child on Monday to the child who was easily upset, but would still cook you hotdogs in the play stove on Thursday. I am sure it will get better as next week putters along. His behavior kind of reminds me of the stories I have heard about Eddie and Priscilla and how attached Eddie was to her when he was a little guy. When Nicholas was there with him on Monday and Wed, he did better...but as soon as he left on Tuesday it wasn't good. Also, when he left during class for his kidfit class on Monday it was not good. Christian just has to get used to being in the nursery, and it is only for about 1-1.5 hours everyday. I think it is good prep for him being in Parent's Day Out starting in the fall.
• He's wearing some 3T stuff this week. YES, He is THAT big!!! My almost 2 year old fits perfectly into 2T stuff and doesn't look funny in 3T stuff at all! Ha! I WILL NOT be buying shorts for him this year. He will just need a belt. :)

• Christian got his Birthday Sandbox this week! He loves digging and playing in it.

Eddie

• Ed got his fellowship applications in this week!!! Yay!!! One more thing down!
• He worked a lot (as usual)
• Oh, did I tell you he has lost 15 lbs since November??? That's wonderful for him! He's feeling great about it.
• Unfortunately, there isn't much else to write about him this week. He could probably add in his experiences in the hospital this week, but that would be about it. He works all the time, so most of what happens to him is left at work.
  

Jennifer

• As you have heard up above, we joined a new workout facility. I met with a personal trainer yesterday (it was included in our signup) and she gave me a workout schedule. I will be burning calories like never before on this plan...and revving up my cardio. I am siked about it.
  
• I have lost 10 lbs. since late December. (Woo hoo!)
• I was given a "promotion" of sorts with my Avon Admin work by our district manager. She is giving me more money a month for just a little more work each week. This is allowing me to tutor a little less (but have the option to still tutor for more money if needed). This is wonderful because now I am only tutoring 10 hours a week!!! I am excited about this. I am managing to tutor on Tues and Thurs nights and then have Sunday evenings for catch up in case I need to get in a couple more hours to make my 10.
• I signed up to be a contributor to a blog community of doctor's wives. That should be interesting. Most of the girls on there are wives of doctors still in training like Ed. The purpose is to provide support to each other when our husbands are not available to us.

Well, that is us for this week! I would love to see some comments to let us know how you are doing!!! Email me if you don't want to comment!!! Let me know if you want me to auto-email you anytime I add a new post to the blog!! We miss you all!