Spring update

Not flattering, but real: Me post-all-nighter with Richie at the playground with the girls (not shown :)
We went rollerblading...
And got caught in a rainstorm! Boy, was it fun!
Art Installation: Dinosaur Wedding by Vivian Gunn.

It's been a super long time since I've posted anything, even photos. I have been in work mode to the point where I sort of cut off all distractors. The reason I'm posting today is that I feel pretty cut-off from a lot of people and things I love. Certainly, I don't begrudge the intense learning year that's just passed, but I hope that relationships and outside interests will perk up again when I feed and water them.
What's going on right now is the conclusion of 1st and 3rd grades, lots of meticulous detail work at Bankhead Mfg., and Step II studying.

Vivian and Mazie have worked hard and done well this year. Vivian is a fearless writer. She will crank out a multi-page story without taking a break. Those are always fun to read - I'll try to post one. Vivian got a really cute discipline reminder that Richie and I had a difficult time taking seriously - "Whistling in hall." Yep. She's a whistler. We told her we loved to hear her happy sounds, but to please remember that the hall is a quiet zone. Mazie has had project after project after project this year. It's actually a running joke among third grade parents. She's built a shadow box of York (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition), she's illustrated a poster for Frightful's Mountain, she's made a diorama of the Washington, D.C. Mall. Her most recent project was "Become an expert;" she chose to make a poster about cartooning. I'll definitely post that one. Mazie and Vivian's birthday parties had to be postponed because Vivian got Strep throat the night before. I'll post photos after we have it, though!

Richie has just finished up a project with work that is a plate steel sign that commemorates one of the older retiring heads of the company. It's funny - the sign looks great judging by the photos I've seen, but the devil is always in the details. With the sign, the details apparently have nothing to do with the design of the sign - "that's easy" as Richie says. For this project, they decided that if they constructed the sign the way things are ordinarily constructed, it would end up looking like it was crying once oxidation set in and the rust ran down. So they modified the construction of it such that there's a complicated drill-hole pattern in the back that has to match perfectly between elements. It all came out great and the sign will never cry, but Richie was fretting over the drill hole pattern for a bit. That's just an example of the problems he solves at work.

We get a month to study for Step II, and I am trying to use it to its fullest. Step I studying whips us into shape for being able to put our heads down and chug through practice tests. It's actually pretty fun to synthesize disciplines and put it all together. I am feeling the weight of my education. I am not the quickest study in my class by far, but I have learned an incredible amount. The coolest thing studying for Step II versus for Step I, which was taken before Core Rotation year, is that I've actually seen most clinical scenarios that come up in practice questions. I'm thinking back to the patients with a gastric ulcers, the patients with diabetic ketoacidosis, the ones who suffered side-effects of medications. Learning really is different in context.

Thanks for reading and happy springtime!