A Little Celebratory Getaway

So I mentioned in a previous post that Lane has finished his residency. That pretty much means he will now be receiving normal doctor pay (woohoo!). He has also signed a contract with EMC. That's a group that staffs several hospitals in the area. So now Lane works at 3 different hospitals close by.

 

Anyway, we have a trip to Vegas planned to celebrate, but that's not until August. We felt like a celebration was needed a bit sooner, so we got a babysitter and headed to Dallas. One of his friends recommended The Rustic. It's owned by Pat Green. Glad we went there. The décor was really cool, live music, relaxed atmosphere. We ordered the Texas goat cheese w/ baguettes, the Rustic hamburger, onion straws & deviled eggs. Everything was delicious.

 

After, we hit up the mall and shopped til we dropped. Well it was all for Lane, but I enjoyed picking things out for him. This shopping trip was long overdue. I don't think Lane has bought any new clothes with the exception of a few t-shirts and jeans in 7 years. He hates shopping. Luckily we had a salesperson follow us around helping us gather what we needed. He ended up with lots of dress shirts, 2 pairs of dress slacks, 2 pairs of shoes, a couple ties, and a leather jacket (for me :)). We still need to get him a pair of casual khaki pants and some casual shirts, but that will be for another day. We were worn out!

I bought a Groupon for The Stoneleigh in Dallas. I was very pleased. It was a 1920's theme, but modern. Very cool décor. Breakfast was included & it was pretty good. But the best thing about it was that we were able to sleep in :) I wish I could have slept longer, but 8:30 is better than 6:30. It was such a fun little date with Lane and a much needed pat on the back to him.

 

 



Fabulous Fourth

 

 We had a great Fourth of July weekend. There were 2 incidents that could have put a major damper on things, but luckily they were both diverted. On the 3rd, we watched fireworks in Mansfield again this year. Before heading to the fireworks, we ate hamburgers at Amy's house. We had 4 families there. The kids had so much fun together. After eating, we walked over to the ballpark. There were all sorts of inflatables and even a snow hill. When the lights went off for the fireworks, that's when things took a turn for the worse. Regina & I were passing out glow sticks, Lane went to buy cotton candy, and Davis decided that would be a good time to disappear. Yep, in a crowd of about 10 thousand people, in the dark, in less than a minute. We immediately start looking for him. I head towards one of the bounce houses he was talking about earlier, but it had already been deflated & I didn't see him there. After searching for about 5 minutes & worrying that the fireworks were about to start, I found a policeman. Up to this point I felt like I was pretty calm. But when you have to give your missing child's description to a police officer, a whole new wave of emotion sets in. Luckily he immediately escorted me to another group of officers who were with Davis. That was a close one. I was a little surprised that Davis was not crying. For as much of a mama's boy as he is, I thought for sure he would be hysterical. But he seemed unfazed by the whole ordeal. I on the other hand was quite shaken up by it all. We headed back to our seats and were able to enjoy the rest of our evening drama free.

Our group of kiddos

My crew

 Making the trek to the ballpark .

 Arden & Elliot



You can see how Excited Elliot is in this picture.

 

 



 





On the fourth, we headed to Tool, TX. Lane's aunt lives there and invited all the family over. Things started off a little scary. Lane's uncle was heating up the grill and the propane tank caught on fire. Like a BIG fire. We're all sitting on the back porch by the grill when this happens. Lane yells, "Everybody run, it's going to blow!" So we're all taking off to the edge of the yard. I have Perry. Luckily Davis & Elliot were taking a walk with Alan, so I didn't have to worry about grabbing them. We jumped over the fence to get further away and waited for the worst. I felt like we were in a movie. You know, the ones where the people are running from the burning building & then it blows, sending them flying. And that's really what should have happened. No joke. But God was watching over us that day and nothing happened. Lane's uncle stayed with the propane tank & grabbed a nearby hose to put out the fire. Not the smartest move on his part, but at the same time if he hadn't, the whole house would have blown up for sure. In fact, for as big as the flames were and as long as it was burning before water got to it, I'm really surprised that it didn't explode. We were lucky! Other than that snafu, things went smoothly. We just hung out the rest of the day.



 Davis, Asher, Elliot, Perry

Asher is really into snorkeling these days. He looks so cute in his gear!

 Sparklers!



 



 



Residency DONE

Lane is officially done with his 3 year residency program. It's been a LONG road and we are thrilled to put it behind us. When you add the time he spent in medical school, it's been a total of 7 years. Another way to look at it is to say it's lasted our entire marriage. This last year has been particularly stressful because Lane has had extra duties as one of the Chief residents. To say it's been a headache for him is an understatement.

 

They had a nice ceremony at the Dallas Arboretum. It was a lot more entertaining than his med school graduation. They did a roast of each resident. When they applied to the program they had to submit a personal essay explaining why ER is their specialty of choice. They then took excerpts from their essays & pretty much used it against them. It was pretty hilarious. Lane received the "Tough on the outside, soft on the inside" award. They got the "tough" part from the portion of his essay where he talked about digging out the foundation for his house. The words he used sounded like they came out of a romance novel...very descriptive. They got the "soft" part from his fear of cotton balls. There is a medical term for it, but you'll have to ask him what it is.

 Residency Class of 2014

His friend Megan.

Us.