Social Butterflies

Things continue to move forward for us at a breakneck pace. Can’t believe September is here and gone! October is an easier month for Rob since he is switching from ER to Pain Management and Anesthesia. He will spend two weeks on each and it is more typical 8-5 office hours Monday through Friday. St. John was really nice to ask before they made the schedule for this year if anyone had anything big going on during the year and tried to schedule residents for easier rotations if they had a baby or wedding. It is really nice for him to have an easier schedule after the ER month. We still have some big difficult months coming up like IM and ICU so I know we will have to get used to him being gone a lot but having him home to help with the final projects before Bella gets here will be really nice. This month we had so much fun hosting two sets of visitors to the Cleveland area and spending time with residency friends as well.

September 9-11 a group of our Chicago friends came out for a visit. Brian, Libby, Gil, Kara, Jeff, Little and baby Hunter made a trip out for the weekend. It was great showing them around the city and spending time catching up. Sadly, it rained most of the weekend but it did clear up enough for the guys to catch a round of frisbee golf while the girls grabbed a coffee at Root café. I didn’t remember to take too many photos over the weekend but it happened to be Jeff and Little’s 2 year wedding anniversary on Sunday so I did grab a photo of them when we were having brunch at the house and also got a photo of the whole family decked out in their Bears gear! (see below) Too cute! We really don’t get to see this group of friends often enough and loved that we got to see everyone before the baby gets here.

Happy 2 year anniversary!

Hunter on Jeff and Little's anniversary

Bears Family!

Hunter wants Mitchell's ice cream!!

The next weekend, my brother, Neal, and his girlfriend, Ashley, came out for a few days. They had a bit of a longer drive coming from D.C. but they made it out around midnight on Friday. Robbie had to work all day Saturday so I took them to to Cleveland hot spots including Westside Market and a store called Big Fun on Coventry street that I knew my brother would love. Big Fun has toys from our generation like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, California Raisins, Carebears, My Little Ponies, Atari and Nintendo games, and even Troll playing cards (which I bought to send to my sister since she used to collect them…long story here but I make fun of her about this whenever I get the chance. She was obsessed!). There are some other great little boutique shops on Coventry street that I thought Ashley would like so we spent the early afternoon shopping and catching up. As we’ve been discovering Cleveland I have been bookmarking places that I want to take friends/family and it is so much fun to have people come visit and check it off my list. Sunday we grabbed breakfast at Root café and got to hear about Neal’s latest book project. Book number three already - I am seriously so proud of that kid!! With Neal and Ashley so close I am sure we will be seeing them more in the future and I hope a D.C. trip is in the cards this spring since Rob has yet to see this fabulous city!!

Not so sure about Cleveland I guess?!?

Me (36 weeks), Neal and Ashley

I also got the joy of showing my friend Joslyn the trees a few weeks ago as they began to change colors. Living in the southwest has deprived her of one of my absolute favorite natural wonders: leaves changing in the fall! We went for a walk in the metro park last week and it was adorable. She is so excited about this season of the year and I love it because even after 28 years of life I get almost as excited every single year. I just love it! It was nice having someone along who didn’t get annoyed by my enthusiasm. When Rob and I go out for walks I think he starts to tune out my exclamations over every single tree that is turning. I just can’t help myself… I am glad over the next few years I will have a little girl to jump in the leaves and carve pumpkins with!!


After several months of trying to coordinate dinner with two of the other residents, Jess and Adam, we actually managed to get all three resident schedules to line up in order to grill out at our house. We had them over to our place last week for a brief dinner after Jess had to work late. It was great to see them and catch up but it is amazing how difficult it can be to try and coordinate 3 resident schedules! Jess and Adam are from North Carolina and as we were saying goodbye outside Jess asked if it was cold enough to snow yet. We definitely laughed at that comment and assured her it would get much, much colder before it snows!!

Jenay, Joslyn and I were able to meet up at Panera one day for a girls’ lunch and managed to snap a few photos since we never know when I might have the baby. Check them out below! Jenay is also really showing by now so it was fun to “introduce” our girl babies! Jenay and Chris were also able to come over to our place for the NFL season opener earlier this month which was a lot of fun. We don’t have too many channels on our TV but at least the big games come in clear!!

Me and Jenay with our girls!

38 weeks and 28 weeks

Joslyn, me, and baby Bella

Just this past week my friend Katie was traveling through on business and was able to make an overnight stop at our house. It was so nice to be able to go for a walk with her and catch up like old times. It was a fun surprise that work took her to Cleveland before the baby gets here so we were able to have girl time without a baby in tow!