My Little Waterbug

Today we made the our first trip of the year to Palos Heights Pool! We had so much fun there. Samantha was a little waterbug and didn't want to come out of the pool after 3 hours! I decided that we were going to walk to the pool. It's only about a mile away. So I packed everything up, put Samantha in the stroller and away we went. It was a beautiful day, we have had so many crappy days lately that I just wanted to be outside! We had a great walk to the pool. Samantha saw many butterflies, chipmunks, birds and airplanes. She was so excited! When sitting at the pool watching Samantha play, I sat back and realized how blessed I am. I'm able to stay home with my little peanut and watch her grow and learn new things everyday. She just amazes me with what she does and how she figure things out. I have a husband who is working so hard in his last year of school and will be able to provide for us. I have my family and my in-laws who are so loving and giving to all 3 of us.
Anyway, so we were at the pool for 3 hours and enjoying our time. I do have some complaints about the pool. I really think they should put an age restriction on how old the child is to be in the kiddie pool. I mean really do 10 year old need to be in there knocking over my child? I think every child who is NOT potty trained SHOULD have to wear a swimmer diaper. I can't tell you how many times I had to ask another child to give Samantha the toy back that she was playing with. I understand if she put it down and walked away, but grabbing it out of her hand is totally unacceptable. Some parents just don't pay attention to what their kids are doing and it irrates the crap out of me! We will continue to go to the pool unless things just get way out of hand. And if it were up to Samantha, we would have been at the pool until it closed! All in all it was a great day!

She finally got the ball

Having a good time with the bucket

just kicking in the water!

splashing...splashing

getting ready to head home!

Croup

This is one sickness I hope Samantha will never get again...but for some reason I don't think this will be the last time. It started last weekend when Mimi (Jim's mom) came home not feeling well at all...the next day I came down with it and then the following day Samantha got sick. She had a 102 temp for 3 days. Luckily, I had setup Samantha at a new peditrican here in Palos. The funny thing is, is that it is the same peditrican I had gone too! I LOVE them, so I wanted Samantha to go there as well. Anyway, the poor girl didn't sleep for 2 nights, she was up coughing, coughing, coughing...well you get the idea...all night long! Poor girl just didn't know what to do. At one point, we thought she had stopped breathing. We freaked out and called the peds doc in the morning. They saw her right away and came to the conclusion of Croup. So she has been on a steriod for a few days, we took some steam showers, her fever has broken, so I think she is on her way of getting back to herself!

On to 4th year!

Cheers...Cheers to the 4th years!!!

You have made it through another year Jim. Samantha and I couldn't be more proud of you. Just one year left and you will offically be Dr. James Kowalczyk!
Jim has finished his 3rd year and again, did very well! All of his 4 year rotations are set up and the light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter! Jim is still deciding if he wants to do EM or IM/cardiology or a EM/IM residency. He has various rotations setup in both of those fields, so hopefully he can decide which of these he likes better. We have offically left TN and are back in Palos Heights, living with Jim's parents for the next year. God Bless both of our families as we have invaded both houses with our stuff and Samantha's toys. I know they all couldn't be happier that we are back home, as I am, but I also feel bad that we have taken over! We will be here for the next year until we know where we are going to be at for residency...hopefully we can just stay put in our little suburb of Chicago. All in all the move went well. Jim and I loaded the truck ourselves...yes ourselves...our movers NEVER showed up. Thank God for Nick coming over and helping Jim move the big stuff on the truck! It took Jim and I about 8 hours to load the truck...it was a very LONG night. We drove the truck in on Saturday and then on Sunday we had a TON of help from family unloading the truck into our storage unit. Everything we need is unpacked and put into its place. I just keep telling myself this is only temporary and next year we will have our own house again. We are VERY grateful for our families and for them to allow for us to do this. It's going to be a great year! Onto EM Jim goes :)