Doctor Tinajero

After 4 years of really hard work, Adrian graduated from medical school!! He was required to go back to Kirksville to walk, so that's what we did. We decided to pack and move at the same time. Instead of driving to Missouri, then back to Utah, then 2 weeks later drive to Florida, we just stopped in Kirksville along the way to Florida. Stopping in Kirksville only added about an hour on to our trip to Florida.

The KCOM class of 2015's pictures was up on the wall. Since Adrian was class Vice President, his picture was privileged to be in the middle.

Come graduation morning, we knew we needed to get to the auditorium early to get seats together. We arrived about 45 minutes early and the only seats available were on the third road, which happened to be the front row where they allowed people. So, we got a front row seat!! The kids were restless. It's hard for them to sit still for so long. But, they actually did really great!

Here's my attempt to entertain Malachi by taking selfies. 

Levi did not feel so well. He had a stomachache. He did pretty good though sitting through the ceremony.

Here's Adrian receiving his "fake" diploma. They mailed us the real one later. 

Here's Adrian getting the hooding on.

We are so proud of Adrian. Everyone all around was happy and excited.

Levi still did not feel well and was sad for all the pictures. 

Here is Trevor Wright and John Vashaw. They were Adrian's best studying buddies. 

The new doctors with their wives.

Adrian with his cousin Gaby and aunt Rosario.

Adrian with his cousin Edgar.

It was a happy day all around. It was fun to see his classmates and those we associated with that we had not seen in 2 years. Adrian did say that he was not as happy as he thought he ought to be. He still feels and little disappointment and discouragement about not matching and not knowing what his future holds. He saw all his classmates who knew what field they were doing and where they were going and he felt a little excluded, like he'd been put back a bit. Hopefully we find a new track soon and understand why we did not match.

Another big move

Our original moving plans for residency was to rent a large moving truck, tow Adrian's little eclipse and I would drive the Corolla with the boys and follow the moving truck. Once Adrian wreaked his car, our plans were tweaked a bit.  We then planned on Adrian driving the moving truck and me driving the Corolla with the boys. Adrian would then buy a commuter car once we got to Florida. Well, my dad had an idea of selling our Corolla and buying a truck and trailer to move ourselves instead of renting a large moving truck. The moving trucks were $4,000 to rent for what we needed. We would move now, in a year and then in 3 years, with each move potentially costing us $4,000 just to rent the moving truck. So, in the long run of paying to rent moving trucks we could put the money into our own truck and trailer and have something to show for it in the end. 

So, we made a  bold move and sold our Corolla and bought a truck and trailer. It was hard to sell our Corolla. It was newer and very reliable. We ended up buying a  2011 Ford F250. It was a fleet vehicle so it had a lot of miles despite it being fairly new, and because of that we paid a bit less. We also bought a 20 foot enclosed cargo trailer. They each needed to be tuned up for the long drive across country but they both ended up working very well for our needs. 

Since we were very limited on space using a 20 foot trailer instead of the 26 foot moving trucks like we were used to, we had to downsize our belongings. We sold our dinning set and couch we bought new 4 years ago. We sold all of our dressers, treadmill and other random items that were big or bulky. Surprisingly it was not hard to let go of a lot of our stuff. That's all it is, is "stuff". I gave most of our baby items to my sister who expecting her first child including all the kid clothes my boys have grown out of. We were able to fit all our belongings into the trailer. We weighed the trailer at a weigh station and it weighed almost 9,000 pounds. 

We survived our big move from Cedar City, Utah to Port St. Lucie, Florida. It was about 2600 miles. We were on the road for 10 days. The first day we made it to Colorado, almost to Vail. We were in the truck for 12 hours only stopping to get gas. The truck's evap system did not work well so it took us 20-30 minutes to fill the truck with gas each time. The boys had been sick just prior to having to leave and still sick for the first few days of our trip. I had games planned that for the boys that they played, but the biggest life saver for the trip was the dvd player to watch movies. The second day in the car was worse for the boys. They were sick of being in the car and they just wanted to get out and play. We were still in Colorado the first time we stopped for gas that day. Adrian noticed the caps over the wheel bearings to the trailer had popped off and grease had flown out all over the rim of the wheels. He came to me when he noticed and said this was really really bad. I could hear the stress in his voice. He was imagining every possible scenario he'd have to do to fix it. He figured he and my dad had put too much grease in the wheel bearings and that had popped the caps off. We were able to find a NAPA auto parts and the nice guy who worked there told Adrian his caps were just loose and they popped off. We easily bought some new caps, pumped a little bit more grease in and went on our way. It was really NOT a big deal at all :) We stayed in Salina Kansas the second night after another 12 hours of being in the car. We left early the following morning. I wanted to meet up with my friend from Missouri that afternoon so we left the hotel at 6 am. We just woke up the boys in their pj's and strapped them in the car, accidentally leaving Levi's new shoes. 

We met up with my friend Danielle in Columbia Missouri. She was my neighbor while I lived in Kirksville and I had not seen her in two years. We went to the park, got lunch together and walked around the mall for a bit. 

After Columbia, we had a short drive to Kirksville, Missouri. Adrian graduated on Saturday May 16th  and he was required to walk so we were forced to go back to Missouri for that. There was graduation events all week long. There were meetings that Adrian was required to attend so we had to be in Kirksville for a few days. Kirksville is such a small town that all the hotels in town were booked for graduation and we had to stay in Macon which in 30 minutes south of Kirksville. Levi was feeling awful and started to complain of a sore throat and stomach ache. Adrian stated that's classic symptoms and strep throat in kids so we had our Cedar pediatrician fax over an antibiotic to Kirksville. The pediatrician is a KCOM graduate and Adrian also rotated with him so we were lucky Levi did not have to go in anywhere to be seen, the pediatrician must trust Adrian's judgment.

Adrian's extended family from Georgia came to see his graduation. I'm glad they came because all of Adrian's classmates seemed to have loads of family there. I'm sure Adrian's parents and brother would have come if it were possible. My parents were able to watch it live online, unfortunately, Adrian's parents were not able to watch it online, though they tried.

We decided to head off to Nauvoo one afternoon since it was so close. Adrian's family is not LDS so he thought they might like to see a bit of church history. We arrived just as the last horse drawn wagon was leaving for a tour. Levi did not want to go on a wagon ride so Adrian stayed with him and the rest of us went. It was a tour I had never been on before so it was great for me. I hope Adrian's family got a good impression of the church. (This picture is not of the wagon we rode).

Here's Adrian's aunt Rosario and cousin Gaby by the Nauvoo temple. Our trip was cut short by the weather taking a stormy turn. I knew tornado conditions were forecasted for parts of the United States, so we were all a bit nervous with the dark clouds. We ate dinner and headed home.

The whole time we were in Missouri it was rainy weather. That made everything so green, greener than I remember it being when we lived in Missouri. 

After graduation on Saturday we went to Thousand Hills State Park. We rented a boat and some fishing poles for an hour. Levi threw a huge about not wanting to get on the boat and hating the life vests. But, eventually we all boarded the boat and departed. Both the boys loved being on the boat. Levi enjoyed it so much he's been asking to go for a boat ride here in Florida. Malachi is not a fan of life vests. His kept creeping up and making it hard for him to move his head.

Here's Adrian's cousins Edgar and Gaby.

Saturday evening we drove to St. Louis and stayed the night there. We wanted to take the boys to the St. Louis zoo the next day since admission to that zoo is free. But, the boys were so grumpy from traveling and being off their routine that we did not want to extend the trip, even for a day of play. We just wanted to get home and start getting settled in. We drove all day Sunday and stayed the night in Monteagele, Tennessee. It was a very sketchy Super 8 motel. After we had settled in Adrian and I both had bad feeling, so Adrian went and got the shotgun from the trailer and slept with it by his side just in case something happened. Nothing did of course. Our sleeping arrangement for the whole trip was 2 queen beds in the hotel rooms. Adrian slept with one child and slept with the other. We figured they would fight too much if they were put together. We traded off who slept with who. Levi was not bad to sleep with. Malachi on the other hand moved a ton during the night. The first night he even rolled off the bed, poor guy. Malachi likes to be right next to you/half on top of you while you're sleeping. Nobody got good quality sleep the whole trip.

After Monteagle, Tennessee, we drove a couple hours to Atlanta, Georgia where Adrian's cousin Edgar lived. We stayed with him for a few nights to visit. Edgar and his wife Sandy have two little boys who are close to Levi and Malachi's age (Eli and Aden). The boys all played well together. Adrian played with Edgar's boys and it didn't take long for them to warm up. Here's a picture of Adrian and all the boys. They all just naturally sat down by Adrian. 

We went kayaking at a lake by their house. Here's Adrian and Levi.

Here's Adrian and Malachi.

Levi received a remote controlled car (Killer Whale style) for his birthday. It's called a Morphibian because is floats and zooms around in the water as well as on land. All the boys loved this car. It stopped working after they submerged the controller and car in the water. They did not seem to care that it would not go on it's own. They pushed it around by hand on land and in the water. It started working again after everything dried out.

After a few nights in Atlanta, we desperately just wanted to get to our new home. We had wanted to stop in Savannah Georgia because I had heard it was so pretty there. We ended up just scrapping the trip and we drove all night long and arrived in Port St. Lucie at 8 am. We drove at night hoping the boys would sleep all night, and they did for the most part. When we arrived we did not have keys to our new house and had to wait for the real estate office to open. We were able to open the garage window and get into the house. Our first impression of the house was that it was dirty. It was a bit irritating since we spent days cleaning the house we just moved out of and now we had to clean this new one before we could unload boxes into it. There was a dead frog on the kitchen floor and a couple live lizard running around the house that I had to catch and release outside. Adrian stated he's never cleaning a rental house again after we leave because clearly no one else seems to do so like we do.

We were very blessed to get into this house. As we were looking for homes we had called the local bishop here to ask what neighborhoods were good and bad to live in. He put us in contact with a real estate agent in the ward who helped us secure the house. We were really discouraged at first. For weeks and weeks we looked at available rentals, but there was nothing that met our needs/wants. We wanted a 3 bedroom single family home preferably with a garage for $1,000 or less. We could find no homes like for the price we wanted. It seemed all 3 bedroom homes were at least $1200. We also needed a house that had a place to park our gigantic trailer. As time went on we started to settle for looking at 2 bedroom houses that were within our price range. Then one night a 3 bedroom house that was 1700 sqft with a single car garage popped up for $1,000. Adrian called the real estate agent late that night and she had us fill out the application and she would go check out the place in the morning. She went early the following morning and was quite surprised at the place. It was in good shape, large, had a place to park our trailer and was only $1,000, which she said the price was unbelievable. As she was leaving the property another real estate agent showed up to show the house to some other people. She immediately got in her car and drove as fast as she could to put in our application at the real estate office. Right after she did two other people came in behind her and put in an application for the same house. We were very blessed and got the house!! Another incredible thing about it is that they were willing to wait 2 weeks to start the lease for us, putting our move in date at May 15th. Everyone else was going to make us pay for the full month of May.

The day we arrived our bishop came over to meet us. Later, the Elder's Quorum President came and helped up move boxes in. We are amazed at the help we received before anyone had even met us.

Levi's 4th Birthday

We had big plans for Levi's 4th birthday because his last two birthdays he never got a party. Adrian wanted to invite his friends from his primary class and have a pinata at the park. But, as his birthday got closer, we realized that May 11th was the day we would hit the road for the big move. So, we celebrated early. We were so busy finalizing the packing and cleaning the house that we didn't have time to plan a party with friends. We had a family get together instead. That whole day Adrian and I were finishing up the cleaning of the house we were moving out of. My mom took both boys and made Levi a cake. Levi had told me he wanted a "construction cake" that was blue on the inside. That is just what he got!!

We sang happy birthday and he blew out his candles. He and Malachi ate the blue cake and loaded up one toy tracter with it. Then they would drive it over the table a bit and uload it on someone's plate. It made quite a mess.

He got plenty of gifts, the most he has ever recieved before for his birthday. Mainly because this is his first birthday he's ever had when extended family has been around.

After his party Adrian and I had to go back to the house and finish the last bits of cleaning. My mom put the boys to bed and we all stayed at my parent's house since everything we owned was now in the trailer ready to move. Our last day in Cedar was Mother's Day. 

Spring 2015

Spring started out with Adrian being in Las Vegas for a month. He was doing a rotation there in the Pediatric Intensive care unit at the University Medical Center. He stayed with my aunt Bonnnie and uncle Richard who live in Vegas. He had to work a very hard schedule. He worked a resident's schedule which was about 90 hours a week. They even had him working 30 hour shifts. It was after working a 30 hour shift that Adrian wreaked his beloved eclipse. He was turning left and got T-boned. He called me immediately after and told me he had wreaked his car. He sounded very calm and not in shock at all. He later told me he had been feeling like he was going to wreak his car and after it happened he thought "ok, now that's over with".  I was very surprised he sounded so collected. He did a quick assessment of himself and determined he had no injuries. He did have some glass impaled in his skin that he took out and he did feel some muscle soreness later from the impact. His car was a total loss and luckily the insurance gave us some money for it. 

This accident came shortly after he found out the news of not matching to a residency spot. Poor guy. It was really hard for him going through these hard trials being away from his family. While he was in Vegas he had to work on his birthday. Since he was away from us my aunt and her family took him out to dinner and got him a birthday cake.

Once he was done with his rotation in Vegas, which was shortly after his birthday, we celebrated his birthday here at home. We went riding 4-wheeler near Kannaraville and cooked a dutch oven dinner of chicken and potatoes. Complete with a dutch oven cobbler and some ice cream. The boys love to have adventures. Malachi especially loves riding 4-wheelers and motorcycles. My dad had a shovel with a short handle that was just Levi's size and Levi enjoyed digging holes. Since it was also around Easter we did an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Levi loved looking around for the hidden eggs and was really excited to have an Easter egg hunt. Malachi was only a little into it. I don't think he really knew what was going on. He did love the treats inside though. 

We colored Easter eggs with my family while Adrian was in Vegas. Adrian was away last year when we colored eggs and he still has never colored Easter eggs  in his life. We rolled our eggs with Cari and Camber down a small hill by the dikes. 

We had on our bucket list to go to Bryce Canyon before we moved to Florida. I had only been when I was a small child and do not remember that experience. We went with Cari, Camber, Jana and Mason. We all piled into Jana's Tahoe and rode together. 

It was very pretty. It looked perfect to me, like a picture, not real at all. Went to the main lookout and then we hiked around part of the rim for a while. Malachi's favorite part was seeing the horses from people riding horses through the canyon.

We had a restaurant recommended to us to get some pie there. So we went out for pie afterwards. Levi was so tired he fell asleep on the table. The drive was 1.5 hours each way. The boys did not like being cooped up in the car that long. I knew the drive to Florida was going to be a hard one just by this little drive to Bryce Canyon. 

We went to Sand Hollow with Cari and Cambree. It was absolutely perfect weather. We laid on the sand and it was not too hot and not too cold. We took a lunch and had a picnic by the lake. The water was a bit chilly and I did not plan on us getting in. I did not bring swimming attire  for any of us. I should have known that I cannot keep these boys out of water. They were both soaked by the time we were done. It was a great time to relax. We were the only people there for most of the time.

It is very hard to pack with two little  boys running around and me having to attend to them. So, Adrian went on a 4-wheeling outing with my parents, Jana and Mason. They spent most of the day out and had a great time.

Packing this time around seemed a lot harder than times past. Usually I have to start packing a couple months before the move because I have no help. But, we procrastinated this time since Adrian was off to help pack and my parents were around to watch the boys. We waited to start until the last two weeks. We got so sick of having to pack every day. I was very glad when all the packing and cleaning was done. But, that also meant that it was time to move.

Winter Activities part 2

There was a ward Elder's Quarum activity to go ice fishing at Panguitch Lake. Adrian went with Levi and took my dad. It was a bright sunny day and they enjoyed fishing. Levi enjoyed playing with the others kids on the lake. At one point he stepped into an open hole and got his leg wet clear up to his waist. Levi said he wanted to step into the hole and get wet, so he did it. Good thing it was very warm. Levi loves eating donuts and here he is after eating a powdered sugar donut at the lake. 

Adrian had a lot of free time with his last rotations. The winter weather was pretty mild and we decided to head south a bit to Snow Canyon State Park. I knew the boys would love the sand dunes, and they did. The first thing they did was kick their shoes off. Levi ran all about, up and down the hills. 

Malachi liked to crawl on his hands and knees for a bit. He liked to slide backwards down the hills.  We burried the boys in the sand, had races running down the sand hills and went for a hike on a paved trial.

We walked quite a ways hiking down a paved path. The boys rode their bikes down the whole way. Malachi kept trying to ride his bike off the path. We think we have a future mountain biker on our hands who likes to ride in the dirt instead of the pavement. After we turned around and headed back, the boys ditched their bikes and Adrian and I had to carry them.

We had a lot of fun. All the boys love getting out of the house and going for adventures. The weather was wonderful especially being in the middle of winter.

We had another ice fishing trip to Panguitch Lake. It was my dad, our whole family and Aydri. We drove the 4-wheeler out on the lake towing the sleigh. The weather was not the best. It was cloudy and windy, but we never got cold. We had an ice fishing hut to warm up in and a stove to heat up lunch. 

At one point Malachi got really grumpy because he was tired. He fell asleep on Adrian and Adrian was able to lay him down in the sleigh so he could nap.

 We did catch a few fish. The boys both like reeling in a fish. 

Here's little Malachi and me right before heading to church. It took him a while to warm up to like being in nursery. But, by the time we left, he was doing really well. 

We went with Cari, Neal and Cambree to Kolob Canyon. It was a nice sunny day and we hiked a couple miles to a lookout.

The boys are good hikers. They do, at times, get tired. But, they enjoy being out and exploring. 

Sundays at our house are very relaxing after church. It's kind of a mad dash in the mornings, but the afternoons are lazy. While Malachi napped, Adrian fell asleep, and Levi fell asleep on top of him. The boys love Adrian. Anytime Adrian is home they have to be with him. So, I was not especially surprised to see Levi asleep on top of Adrian.

The boys are hardly ever dressed at home. I always dress them in the mornings and they always perfer to be undressed. So they run around the house undressed and occasionally open the back door to play outside. The cold never even bothers them :)

Here's Malachi at Aydri's special agent Spy birthday party. It's been so fun being close to family this year and being able to go to birthday parties and family get togethers.

We even had a Valentine's party where each couple told how they met and we played minute to win it games. We all had a good time.

Here are the boys while mama does the shopping. Papa watches them while they browse the toy isle. This is good entertainment for the kids for a good 1.5 hours!

Residency Match and an uncertain future (Adrian's view)

It has been a while since I wrote an entry, most of the ones in our blog are written by Tammy; of course, I agree with them is just that I don't always have time to write and she does a better job. However this entry is important as it has been difficult for me and I hope that it will help me overcome future challenges and I certainly hope that in the future I can look back at this and realize that "it was not as bad as it feels now".
The title of the entry gives a glimpse of what I am writing. This started in early March 2015 when I was rotating as a 4th year medical student in Las Vegas. It had been over six months since I submitted my application for residency to 50 different programs all over the US for OBGYN. I went to 8 interviews and for the most part I think I did everything possible to successfully match. The rotation in Las Vegas was difficult, mostly the time commitment; I was working 80+ hours each week. During my second week there (2 of 4) it was the week when I was supposed to receive an email on Monday (March 16) as to whether I matched somewhere or not, then on Friday (March 20) I would receive an email stating which program I matched into. I remember very clearly that Monday, I was tired, going through rounds and trying to pay attention while I was constantly looking at my phone to see if I got a new email. The time slowly came and to my great surprise, I did not match. I had two residents working with me who were wonderful, the whole time they were very optimistic and excited. Once the time came, they early asked "so did you match?". I could not even respond, my heart was broken and I could feel tears down my face. They immediately knew what it meant. I remember going to the bathroom and basically breaking into tears and crying inconsolably. I am not even sure now why I cried, most of have been the overwhelming feeling of emotions and panic. I did not what to do, my arrogance to that point had convinced me that I was never going to have to go through this, I did not plan to the "what if". I mean, most medical students successfully match and most make it to their 1 or 2 choice. Why not me?? It is a question that I still can not answer.
Well, I had to scramble which basically meant to apply to all open programs. There was no open OBGYN spots so I applied to some preliminary surgery programs, some radiology programs and even a couple family medicine programs....nothing. It was Thursday night and I had not found any place that would take me. I was desperate and totally devastated. I am not sure if I could even convey what I felt that moment. To most medical students residency match is the "ultimate goal" of years of studying, huge amounts of debt, frustrations, etc. To most medical students it means knowing where you will live for the next few years, it means some kind of stability, perhaps a first home, perhaps closer to family. I then looked up DO programs who did not fill on the DO match a month earlier and I started sending emails and applications to Traditional internship (TRI) programs. I could not see myself doing IM or family Medicine which was most of the open programs. So I applied to TRI spots since TRI is a year long where you rotate to different fields and basically you have to reapply for residency the next year. It was not the best option but it was all I had. Perhaps I should have applied to IM or Family med, I don't know.
I probably sent emails and applications to 10 or so programs. I received phone interviews for 4 programs and basically offers for 3. I had to decide very quick and the programs too had to pick someone really quick. So there was not time to think about options, or compare programs, etc. I was offered one position in Port St. Lucie Florida and two in Brooklyn NY area. I quickly google cost of living in those areas and it was obvious that I had to pick florida (the cost of living in NY would have been impossible for a family of 4). So there I was taking  position for TRI in Florida. Even right now (june 9) can not believe this happened to me and that now I am in Florida.
I have no idea what I am going to do now, applied to OBGYN again, another program?? I am not sure and to make it worse I have to start the application cycle again in July.
I met a physician in Cedar (Dr. Rand Colbert, dermatologist) while I rotated in his clinic. He happened to be in my ward in Cedar and during the last few months he was our home teacher. He has been very optimistic and supportive as he can during this time in my life. When I told him that I did not match, to my surprise, he was happy that I did not. He said that he felt OBGYN would not have been a good field for me and that now that I have an extra year I can apply to other fields that may be better. I was thankful for this advise and optimism but it is hard to believe I could do other "more attractive fields" when I have been a barely average student (on paper) to this point. I don't have the awesome test scores, I was not top of my class, I don't have some cool research paper...I supposed if I did, maybe I would have matched into OBGYN.