I suppose it's about time...

Well, I've intended to start blogging for some time now...since technically we moved here in June : ) But, then I was back in Knoxille, gone to the beach, back to Jersey for a few weeks, then back to Knoxville, back to the beach, and then back to Jersey again.  All that to say I'm now 'officially' in New Jersey!  I still don't think it has set in yet that this is where we live now, but it's slowly getting more real.  So far, it hasn't been too bad.  I definitely have my sad moments (who gets teary eyed watching Kathy Lee & Hoda at UT??), but so far it's been a better adjustment that I would have guessed.  Of course, like I said, it's still sinking in that we live here, so it may just hit me like a ton of bricks in the next month or two!  I think it has been an easier transition because we have trips planned to Knoxville, so it's not like we moved up here and fell off the face of the earth.  We're getting to come home a week in October, then unexpectedly Michael got days off around Thanksgiving so we are going to be back for a few days, and we will be coming back New Years week.  

Just to give you a few highlights on our time here so far...

Michael is 'enjoying' residency : ) ...as much as you can 'enjoy' it I suppose.  His first year here will be the worst for him because he won't be doing urology all the time.  Years 2-5 will all be urology, and he'll enjoy that more.  This year he does 4 rotations of urology, 4 of general surgery, 1 of ER, 1 of ICU, 1 of internal medicine, 1 of an internal medicine specialty (he'll do cardiology), and 1 of something else I can't remember.  In his urology program, there are 3 other residents in his class, and the Lord really blessed us with great people.  They are all different but get along well, and they are willing to help each other out.  No one is just in it for themselves at whatever cost, so this will make the next several years much better than if it wasn't this way!  One guy is from Texas, another Chicago, and another LA area, so they have come from all around the country!  Michael's been working about the hours we expected, but I will have to say, I think it's been a little better than I had anticipated.  Maybe I just had made it so bad in my mind, but it's pretty much what I expected or better.  He also hasn't had to work as many weekends as I had thought, so that has been awesome!  He works 1-2 weekends a month just depending on the month, but that at least leaves us 2 weekends (if not 3), so that has been really good.         

I'm working on getting us settled in- the house is coming along slowly but surely.  I'll post some pictures sometime when it's a little more together  : ) I've painted the entire downstairs (twice) but I prefer not reliving that.  Why don't the colors look the same from my old house or why can't they even just match the swatch???  Anywho, I've started to tackle the upstairs, but so far the guest room and hallway are the only ground I've covered.  Thankfully I picked a good color the first time around on the guest room!  I got a job at Anthropologie (yay!) and have been working there going on 4 weeks now.  I really enjoy it and the people I work with, so I'm very grateful for that!  I'm also picking up a few hours here and there at a local boutique about a mile from my house.  It's a very cute store, and they carry a number of the same brands that we carried at elle.  I don't work there much at all, but when I do, I really enjoy the small, local store vibe that is similar to elle.  The owner works most of the time, and she has one other girl that is the main employee, so I basically just fill in if there's something that needs to be covered.  I joined a gym too that is about 5 minutes from my house, and while it's no Fort Sanders, it'll do while we're up here : ) They have a few of the same classes that I loved back at FS and a couple new ones that I've gotten into too (although one if particular makes me feel like I want to die when it's over).  I've done some yoga there, and there are lots of people doing headstands in these classes!  Yikes! that is a little out of my league currently, but maybe I'll work up to it : )  I'm not really sure how that actually works, but I'll let you know if I find out.  I also joined a BSF group up here, although I have to go to Delaware (I know that sounds odd) to go to class!  It's only about a 45 minute drive, so it's not too bad.  I tried going to a class that meets in the Philadelphia area, but it took me longer to drive there than Delaware!  Traffic was much worse, so I decided on the Delaware class.  It's much smaller than the group I'm used to in Knoxville, but the dynamic is definitely different so it's been neat to experience that.  There's actually a group that meets that does the discussion in mandarin- there are quite a few Chinese in the class.  My group is quite diverse- a couple younger people but more older women and different races and ethnicity's so I feel like I have already learned a lot from these women just because so many people are coming from different backgrounds.  So...between work, regular errands and life stuff, BSF, and going to the gym I'm getting into a bit of a routine.  I'm busy enough to not feel like I've got all this extra time, but not too busy that I barely have time to run errands, cook meals, etc etc.  I will say I have cooked a lot more up here than I did back at home!  


Now that I have my inaugural blog post, I'll hopefully start adding more soon.  When I decided to blog, I thought, "What am I going to write about?", so you'll probably see all sorts of stuff on here.  Updates on life & what we are up to here, recipes, visits, random info, etc etc, and I'll try to include pictures because that is always more interesting too : )  Well, that is the past couple months in a very small nutshell- I know there is a lot that I missed, skipped over, forgot, etc, so maybe those things will make it into future posts.  Until then, we love and miss you all!