2009 Recap

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Another year, another post?? Well, hopefully in 2010 I will average more posts than one per year, but no promises!! In the past 14 months (gasp!) since I last updated, time in Team Williams land has continued to march on. Here's a recap (which will be exceedingly boring to most people, though I'm sure the only one still checking for posts is my mother- Hi Mom!!):

December 2008- Ron and I took a long weekend trip to New York City.

Ron and I at the Westin

It was my first time to NYC, and I vowed it wouldn't be my last! We survived a blizzard, saw the Rockettes, hung out with one of Ron's besties Kenny, and took a helicopter ride over Manhattan!

I was dazzled by the Rockettes

Kenny and Ron in Grand Central, the first & last time Kenny has ever been there...

Our helicopter ride

The view from the sky

Made it home just in time to take a Christmas tour of the southeast... stopped in Atlanta, Guntersville, Birmingham, and Montgomery to spend the holidays with our families.

The Sisters and Their Men

Aren't these treats supposed to be for Santa?

January-February 2009-I learned that real life pediatrics in the winter is no joke!! Working through lunch routinely during flu season wasn't much fun, but I was still loving my patients and my job. I started working with my new nurse, Candice, who replaced Shay (my original nurse) when Shay went back to nursing school... Loved Shay, and loved Candice too... unfortunately for me, but happily for her, Candice and I only ended up working together for 6 months because she had a sweet little baby!!! Also sometime in winter I found out that I PASSED MY BOARDS!!!!!!!! YAY!! After all the stressful studying that I did for this test, I am so relieved to not have to take it again. I am still shocked that I didn't fail! :)



March 21, 2009- In the first bike race of the season (regular racing, not paralympic), Ron gets taken down in a crash. I had decided I didn't feel like going, so he had driven over to Atlanta early that Saturday morning. Not long after I knew the race was to have begun, he calls me... not good. He was on his way home, saying that he crashed, and that he thought he needed stitches in his elbow and that his wrist was broken. I met him at my office, thinking I'd be scrubbing down his road rash and maybe stitching up some skin, but oh. my. gosh... His arm had "obvious deformity"... (Warning- there are graphic pictures below that even make me squimish!)



...and after washing out a few of the more minor wounds, I started unwrapping the bandage on his elbow... when flesh gaped open revealing the bones beneath, I paled, wrapped it back up, and took him straight to the ER.

The Elbow

There he was X-rayed, rinsed out, and stitched... and shot up with pain meds, antibiotics, and a tetanus booster.

Poor thing...

His distal radius was in several pieces, and after visiting the local arm specialist ortho surgeon, we were sent to Dr. Gary Lorie in Atlanta.

See the pieces of the radius (the big arm bone)?

A pretty major surgery followed, and six weeks in an external fixator that looked straight out of "Hellraiser."

Post Op Films

Poor Ron. His racing season lasted less than 15 minutes. I learned that I am not a very good nurse.

Checkup to tighten the screws!

So excited for surgery to finally get the pins out (which was in May...)

April 2009- Though the arm thing stunk, Ron and I enjoy this spring (and summer!) spending more time together than we ever had before. Between crazy residency schedules and bike racing every weekend, we didn't realize how much fun spring is without all that stuff. We were missing out! We enjoyed spending time not only with each other, but also with our new Auburn friends- Scott, Dave, the Clark's, and the Worthy's. A highlight was 280 Boogie...also it was fun attending Athens Twilight without the stress of Ron racing.

Ron, Bud, and Scott at 280 Boogie


Eddie, Ginger, me, and Rob at Twilight

May 2009- I turned 30!!


We spent the weekend at Lake Martin with all my girlfriends from residency, their husbands, and their babies!!


This wasn't planned for my birthday, but it worked out nicely! Our group had had quite a little baby boom over the previous year... in 2008, our beach trip was 7 girls, 7 husbands, 1 baby, and one baby in utero... this time, it was 7 girls, 7 husbands, 5 babies, and one in utero!! You-know-who was the only one without a baby... But I had fun playing with them all...and Ron even held some, even with the scary arm pins that were still in place at the time! I'm breaking him in, little by little...

Clockwise from top left-Sarah and Leyton, me, Heather and Maggie, Chrissie and Owens, Mary Halsey (with Alonso on board!), Mindy and Hadley, and Reyna and Natalya.

Leyton, Natalya, Halsey, Owens, Hadley, and Maggie

Ron with Leyton, Owens, and Natalya!!

Later in the month, we really enjoyed a Coldplay concert up in Bham with a couple of my new
partners.

The following weekend, we moved out of the little rental house and into our (hopefully!) Forever Home!!
We love it... it is in a great neighborhood with lots of families...it has the room we need as we (hopefully!) grow as a family over the next years, and it's just cool!!

Screened in Porch

We love that it has a lot of room for entertaining... and a jetted tub just for me!

Kitchen

But our favorite part is the three fireplaces, especially the one on the back patio! Yeah, not moving again for a long time...

Living Room

Back Patio

June 2009- With Candice leaving for baby-preparation, I got another new nurse, Ashley, my third in nine months! We hit it off immediately, and I hope that we will be a team for a while!

Ashley, Candice (and Baby Hudson), me, and Shay

Ron also returned to Camp Sunshine for a week in June... he'd missed a year due to training for China, and he needed this time for his spirit.



He came back refreshed, but with some nagging left sided back pain that I attributed to crazy camp antics and getting back on the bike after all spring off...


July 2009- Ron's back pain worsens, and it becomes clear to me that it is something more than just musculoskeletal pain. After a nightmare trying to get him into a doctors' office here as a new patient, I finally give up and order blood work and an Xray myself, and I don't like what I see. He had a shadow on his left lung... of unknown significance. It looked weird to me... I called the radiologist to see what he thought, and he said it was just a shadow from his chest wall (ok...?), but it didn't turn out that way. Ended up worsening over the next few days, with poor Ron having horrible pain at night accompanied by night sweats... with his past medical history and our recent trip to China, the differential diagnosis was just too broad for comfort. He ended up having a 300ml pleural effusion that had to be drained (thanks Justin!) caused by a pneumonia... but we never did figure out the pathogen or why on earth this happened. Although we were thrilled that it wasn't cancer related, it was a setback superimposed on the setback of his arm... made for an unhappy Ron.





August 2009-Swine flu pandemonium hits the US, and finally, our clinic. I had only taken one vacation day since starting work (to go to NYC in Dec), and had previously planned a long weekend in Destin with Ron when the swine flu fears exploded in Auburn/Opelika. I was laying out at the pool while my poor partners worked though lunch and stayed late. I heard rumors through Facebook of full parking lots with cars lining the street in front of the office too... and felt a lot guilty, but I was glad I was out of there! It was plenty busy enough when I got back to make up for it though... because of H1N1, it was the busiest summer the clinic had had in recent memory. Glad for our newest partner, Brooke Taylor, who had just started in July, bless her heart. She's a trooper!!



September/October/November 2009- Let football season begin!!


We were unsure of what the season would have in store for Auburn with a new coach and everything, but Coach Chizik brought it! It was a STRANGE season weather-wise, with rain during more games than not, including the monsoon that was the West Virginia game, and cold, but not much hot, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Especially Ron.

Ron and the Smoker

Tailgating became his new thing... our friends own a huge meat smoker, and every week, we'd plan a gameday menu... Boston Butts were a favorite, as were wings, beer can chicken, and sausage.

Bud making pancakes at the one Tailgate Brunch (Auburn-Alabama game)

We had quite the setup, week after week, including the smoker, two big flatscreen TVs for watching the early games, a stereo system, and lots of friends and food! We had houseguests most weekends, including Jenn and Fred, Dan and Becca and the kids, Chrissy and Philip, Elizabeth, Shannon and Brian, and mom. Missing this year was my dad, who had to have surgery early in the season, so he sat out this year from buying tickets. He did great though, and I expect him to be a fixture next year! Auburn is fun (though crowded!) during the Fall, and it was really great seeing Ron develop into a football (ok, who am I kidding?) TAILGATING fan!


November 2009- In her quest to get her pre-baby body back, my "old nurse" Candice invites me to come with her to the gym. It was all I needed to get me going... Heavier than I'd ever been before, and angry at my closet for shrinking all my clothes, I needed someone to help me get started. Bless Candice!! I start going to the gym in the mornings before work, and actually enjoy it! Kinda. I do start feeling better though! And I especially fall in love with Zumba class on Saturday mornings. I can't make it to most other classes during the week (they are all at either 5 in the morning- um, no- or 4:30 in the afternoon!), but this one is a never miss if I'm not on call! Anyway, so slowly but surely I am trying to get in shape. Also in November, Ron quietly had a birthday (36!), and we enjoyed Thanksgiving in Prattville with my extended family.

Thanksgiving with all my "little" cousins- Chelsea, Sam, me, Jessica, and Trish

December 2009- It was a short work month for me...another beautiful thing about having a large practice is that we all get to take a week off at the holidays. My week was the week before Christmas, including Christmas itself and even our anniversary (our 6th!! Man, where have those years gone?). Ron and I went back to New York City for a few days again, and had an even better time this year! I studied for this trip, and had dinner reservations all mapped out and everything. I actually think I'll do an entire separate post for our trip soon, so that's all I'll say about it for now. We (barely) made it back in time for Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, I really enjoyed decorating the new house this year! Last Christmas we were in our little rental house in Auburn, and the tree and ornaments and decorations were all in the "Mobile Attic" in the driveway... it was sad. Not this year!! The tree went up, as did some new decorations for the multiple mantels inside and outside the house, and the wreaths and lighted garland for the front too! The poor little inflatable reindeer was cute for a few days before springing a leak and going to reindeer heaven...

We enjoyed Christmas with our multiple family units, and I was thrilled to get a new Kitchen Aid mixer and a new digital SLR camera!

Gary, Connie, Michelle, and Ron


Us at Christmas Eve at Butch's


Ron and Grandaddy on Christmas Morning


The Loot!


Christmas Dinner

My Mixer!


Its first use...making a pumpkin cheesecake!

I put them both to use immediately. Ron is getting a Big Green Egg (surprise!!), but it is on back-order and still hasn't arrived! It was back to work for me on the 28th... and what a busy week it was. Now over H1N1 for the most part, our babies and children have moved on to RSV. Oh joy. I was off for New Year's Eve though, but for the second year in a row, Ron and I were asleep at midnight. Am I that old??


January 2010- Nothing too earth shattering has happened yet this month... mainly I'm just working and trying to keep up my gym habit. So far so good. We did go for a long weekend to Birmingham, and got to hang out with the Tatum's, the Blackman's, the Tracy's, and my dad. I used our time together to get some photography lessons, and got some good pictures of Moss Rock Preserve and my dad's cats.

The new camera at work...

We also visited some of our favorite restaurants that we miss desperately. We love Auburn, but wish we had more culinary variety here... we have a few standouts (um, pasta night at Ariccia anyone?), but mainly there's chicken fingers, pizza, barbeque, and bad mexican. Though no mexican restaurant is good compared to Sol Azteca in Ron's mind!! We've been trying to cook at home more, which I've always wanted to do anyway, so I guess it's a good thing in the end. In other news, Ron is currently attending his first paralympic training camp (in California this time) since his bike wreck and pneumonia... he says it was his fitness wake-up call. Looks like I may have another gym partner when he gets home! I think he's being hard on himself as usual... he's just now starting to get back into the training mode after the badness that was his health this year.



What else can I say? This post was LONG but hit the highlights of 2009. Here's to a healthier 2010, and more exciting adventures!!

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~Edgar Guest