And the winner is.....

OHIO!

So we will be moving to Columbus OH in a few months.  We are very excited!  This was Chuck's favorite program and where he felt that he meshed with the people the best.  We will be terribly sad to leave our dear friends, but a new adventure is always fun!  For your viewing pleasure, this is what Columbus looks like. 


I feel like I will have access to a lot of things.  It has a great zoo and aquarium, it is up in the top rankings in the U.S.  It is the largest city in Ohio.  I am sure there is more but I need to do more research.  We couldn't be more thrilled!

FYI It has been a good day:)

I don't know if I really told any of my family this, but today was a little teaser for Match Day, which is coming up on the 16th.  The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) sends everyone participating in the match an email saying if you matched or didn't match today.  If you didn't match then you will have to go through the process of finding a residency that has open spots that you could possibly be a part of.  Sounds like a really terrible process, and so much of a disappointment after going to school for pretty much your entire life, (Chuck has been in school for 23 years!).  I am really happy to say that WE WILL NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!  Yep CHUCK MATCHED!  Not that I had any doubt that he would.  I was more having nightmares that he hadn't submitted his rank list right and it never went through.  What a waste of a worry:)  Now we have to wait all the way till Friday to find out where we will be living for the next 3 years.  And can I also add how thankful I am that his specialty is only 3 years. Yay for Emergency Medicine!  Chuck originally wanted to do surgery, and then possibly specialize.  He had seriously considered Urology which, after all said and done could have been up to 6 years!  Not that I am bashing anyone that is doing a specialty with a long residency, I am just glad that we will be just 3 years and then life will 'begin'.  I say that because I feel like I could have been in school right a long with Chuck.  It has been such a long process and I am glad that it is coming to a close.  Chuck is, I believe, THRILLED it is coming to a close and very excited to move to the next step of his career.  I can't do a blog post without posting about Penny.  She is such a sneaky little girl!  This is what she has been up to. 

 Climbing on the piano 

(she shoves the rocking chair under the piano so it doesn't rock and goes from there)

Climbing into small spaces

This little cupboard holds our pots and pans and she pulled them out an decided to get in.  She was even brave enough to close the door and sit in there awhile.

And of course getting out of her high chair to get some playdough on the table.  These are in sequential order and she wasn't very happy when she got back in her seat.  I guess it was because the play-dough bucket wasn't opened. Or because she slid fairly fast in her seat and hurt her bum.  It is just CLASSIC Penny!

Penny has been a little cuddle bug lately.  She always wants to sit where Chuck or I am sitting.  I just wish I could get those dang pacifiers away from her! They drive me nuts, because when you can't find one, my sweet Penny turns into a demon child!  

Well check back on Friday as I will be telling you where we matched.  Oh the mystery:)!

A new hat, a mermaid, and peanut butter

I am on a blogging roll!  Not really I was just really excited about my new projects that I finished.  What do you think?

 Remember in my last post about how Penny uses the dishwasher as her stepping stool?  Well there just happened to be a jar of peanut butter on the table and there were spoons in the dishwasher, so....WHY NOT!? haha

 Oh Penny, you are so funny:)  You make your parents go crazy sometimes but you give us a mighty big laugh more than not!

Random things

Chuck has started a new rotation so we have got to see a lot more of him!  We decided to take advantage of the precious time and go out and about.  We went to the domes, which for those who don't know what that is, it is ecosystems in these giant domes.  They have tropical, desert, and floral show.  Penny has not been in to getting her picture taken so here are some ok pictures.

Penny's favorite thing to do as of now is open the dishwasher, climb inside and get into the cereal boxes on the counter.  I think it is funny that she figured that out.  She hasn't ever spilled the cereal so I don't mind,  but  I guess I am not fast enough to get her some breakfast.

The other day I had thrown out some old mascara.  Penny always watches me get ready in the morning and had seen me put it in the garbage.  I saw her get it out and put it up to her eye like she was putting on mascara and I just smiled at her.  Then she disappeared.  I didn't see her till it was too late!

She was not very happy to get her picture taken.  Mascara was all over her hands and in her mouth and as you can see she got one of her eyes eyelashes pretty good!  I was actually impressed that she got some on her eyelashes.  It is funny that I got this picture of her, because somewhere out there, hopefully just at my parents house, I have a similar picture of myself.  When I was little I got into my mom's makeup and had I think, bright shade of eyeshadow and bright red cheeks.  Originally my mom says that I smiled and then when everyone started to laugh at me and take my picture I got very upset.  I haven't been able to find this picture for a very long time, and wonder what happened to it...I would like to be able to show it to Penny one day and show her this picture of her adventures with mascara.  I scrubbed her face with makeup remover, (the mascara was waterproof!).  But she still had some on her one eye and for the rest of the couple hours at church she was blinking strangely:)  This girl is trouble!

Owl Hat

I had to post my accomplishment.  I have been trying for awhile now to find the cute crochet owl hat pattern.  I found some and was never able to get them to turn out the right size.  They always ended up being able to only fit a doll.  So I made it my own.  This is my first try at a hat, but I think that it looks pretty cute. 

Penny wasn't very cooperative with my picture taking.  What do you think?  I know it is rough but I am proud of myself for finally at least getting one done:)  You might be thinking that owls don't have ears but they have those 'horns' so that is why there are ears.

Christmas and Crochet

It has been awhile since I blogged, but for good reason.  A lot of things have been going on here!  We had Thanksgiving with some wonderful friends, the Pehrson's.  It was of course delicious, and the company was better:)  We had a mini road trip to North Carolina, where Chuck interviewed at Duke and Wake Forest.  I loved it out there, it was very beautiful.  I could definitely live there. We thought it would be a good idea to drive during the night when Penny was sleeping...bad idea!  I got terribly sick and was throwing up every half hour.  So Chuck got stuck driving most of the 15 hour drive.  Not to mention the fact that because of frequent stops, Penny decided to be awake from 1-6am.  Awesome!  But the trip was worth it, it will be something to talk about later in life.  Chuck is now done with interviews, HALLELUJAH! He is still up in the air about where he wants to  match.  Technically it is only a little bit his choice, but he said that almost every program he interviewed at would be a terrific place to go.  So that is very reassuring.  We won't find out where we are going till March.  Then we had Christmas.  It was delightful with lots of family time, good food and of course presents.  This year Chuck pulled out the big guns and got me a new CHI.  My old one was being held together with duct tape.  He must truly love me:)  He got some cool movies and an awesome back scratcher, gloves, scarf, clothes, what else can a man need!  Penny of course got loaded with toys!  She had a lot of fun opening presents and resorted to trying to peek the night before by opening Chuck's gift with a fork.  The thing this girl comes up with.  Then we had New years.  I stayed up till midnight and everyone else fell asleep, story of my life.  Not really though, according to Chuck.  He will tell you that I am always the one that falls asleep before 12, and that is very true statement.  What a whirlwind couple of months and a whirlwind year. I am sure that 2012 will be even crazier;)

 Penny with Santa at Branch Christmas Party

 Attempting to open presents with a fork.

How do you like those heels and skirt? haha

Penny loves her baby that Grandma B got her.  That is also one of her favorite words:)

Lately I have become an old woman and gotten into crochet.  I mean really delved deep into crochet.  I sometimes can't sleep at night because I am counting stitches in my head,  it isn't like counting sheep, or else I would be asleep a lot earlier. Here are my projects.  I don't really know what to do with all the things I am making.  I started out making food (not pictured) but liked stuffed animals better.

 Giraffe, with a very thick neck.  I need to fix that:)

 Hippo

 Dinosaur

 Penguin

 Jellyfish and Lion

There is a few projects that I have started and not finished because I messed up, but I have to say that I think my animals look pretty good for just learning how.  For some reason Penny won't play with any of the things I make.  She played with my peas in a pod but that is about where it stopped.  Well that is all that has been going on here.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!