Hooray, It's February!

 Everyone told us the first six months of opening a practice are the toughest and the first year is really hard too.  So far, everyone was right!  My enthusiasm for February means we've got another month under our belt and are that much closer to the end of the six months of TOUGH.  I can already look back and see so much growth, both with the amount of patients Randy is seeing and how much he has learned.  I continue to pray all day for him.  I pray while I wash dishes, while I run errands, while I sit at red lights, and at every meal.  I wish I could have our office staff send me a text every time we got a patient so I wouldn't have to wonder, but that would be annoying and just make everyone super anxious with me so I resist.  But seriously, every day is a nail biter for me.  I wonder how long it will be before it won't feel that way?  {Don't answer that!}  But I'm also optimistic.  Randy is the best thing that ever happened to me and my life has been nothing but better than I expected since I met him so I'm counting on that pattern to continue with the practice.  Three months into this gig and Randy already made a profit for the month of January.  Seriously, no one does that!  I'm so proud of him.  But I haven't had the guts to ask him how much that profit was because it might only pay for a tank of gas but hey, a profit is a profit.
About nine months ago our friends got tired of Randy telling them all the reasons why he didn't think this practice was a good idea and they decided they'd take us out to dinner at the fanciest restaurant as soon as Randy was out of the red.  Randy told them to plan on April.  Well, Mr. Negative was wrong!  We went out to dinner last Friday at Montalcino Restorante Italiano.  The food was so delicious and Randy had to resist licking his plate and keeps talking about how good his dinner was so it was a great celebration.  We plan to go back when we celebrate that the practice will actually provide for our family of seven.  It will be sooner than he thinks!
We are getting ready to host an open house which I guess is pretty standard for specialty offices.  I'm channeling all my previous party planning expertise in hopes this open house will be one for the books.  But I'm so nervous!  Randy and I aren't known for throwing classy, pinterest-worthy parties.  They are fun, but definitely not fancy.  I don't even buy cute matching paper products for crying out loud.  Now I have to throw a nice party and make it look like a party planner did it all.  I'm so dead.
Here are some pics of the office which you can find on the website www.sammamishendo.com
It is not only beautiful but very calming.  Randy specifically picked the colors and artwork to soothe the troubled soul.  I think he nailed it.

The dental chairs are super comfortable and have memory foam type stuff in them.  I actually fell asleep during my root canal because I was so comfy.  And sleep deprived.

Tell me you like the stone because I love it!  I also picked it out as a last-minute design element.  I probably never mentioned that our architect/designer was indicted on 13 different counts of tax evasion.  We didn't find this out until we were finished with most of the design process so we just continued to move forward and he was relieved we didn't fire him (which wasn't really an option for us since our lease date was looming and time was of the essence) By the end we were doing everything without him so he could be in jail now for all I know.  Just one more thing to add to the drama of the build-out.

 This is the hallway leading toward the four operatories and the break room at the end.

 The front desk was my doing.  Randy left for a scout camp out while I had to finish hashing out all the details with the architect.  It took forever and then I had to race home, arriving minutes before Ethan's friends showed up for his birthday party I was throwing so that front desk represents a lot of stress for me.
I wish I had a picture of the bathroom because it's actually really pretty too and has a great story to go along with it.  I picked out a big circular mirror which I love!  Randy propped it up against the vanity while we stepped into the hall to get the hammer and nails and heard a huge crash.  We looked at each other in horror and froze.  We knew the mirror had fallen over on the tile floor and were sure it had shattered.  We walked back into the bathroom and lifted the mirror to see it was just fine.  That's when I knew my angel mother intervened because that mirror should have shattered in a million pieces and would've been the final straw.
The waiting room furniture and most of the final touches were picked out shortly after I had Henry which meant Randy and I were driving from store to store with a newborn.  I spent a lot of time nursing Henry in various parking lots in the Seattle area and using the Papa John's app on my phone to have dinner delivered to my neglected boys at home.  And all this was before I started daily radiation.  That's when things really got crazy.

The walls went in while I was in the hospital with Henry.  This is the first time all the boys saw the office space.

The hallway

The counter represents all sorts of "surprises" our designer put in the plans without telling us.  We've gotten used to them or removed what we could afford to remove. 

the bathroom tile that I picked out on a whim and Randy loves.  Probably because our designer hated it! 

Guess how much those glass doors cost?  I'll tell you.  $10,000.  

OK, now I'm feeling slightly sick as I re-hash the horrors of the build-out.  It makes my stress over the success of our practice pale in comparison.  It was a rough way to learn that we will NEVER EVER build a home. 

The Bathroom Remodel from Hell

My bathroom is finished.  Finally.  If I go into much detail my anger will consume me so let's just say we are glad it's done.  And I'm even more glad that I no longer have a toilet sitting in my bedroom along with piles of tile, grout, paint, boxes, tools, and bags of garbage.  Knowing the price of home improvement projects {both the cost and the stress} has changed my perspective on how I view my home.  I no longer look at a room and see all of its imperfections or even its potential to be what I want it to be.  It's good enough and it's going to stay that way.  Even if the house starts to crumble around me.  It is good enough!
I'm really wishing I had taken better "before" shots so you could compare the two.  I'm also wishing I had been home when Randy started to paint.  I like the blue paint but hadn't planned to paint the whole bathroom with it, but trust me, I'm not changing it!

 We walled in the shower because I absolutely loathed the glass that never stayed clean.  Or feeling like I was on a stage.  Do you know how many times my boys walk in on me when I'm in the shower?  They are happy the glass is gone too.

We kept the ugly shower head because it's pretty amazing the way it shoots out water a bunch of different ways and saved us couple thousand dollars.  And since no one sees it unless they actually get in the shower, I think it was worth it.  But yes, it's ugly.

I love this tub!  I've actually used it too and it was bliss.  And when the leaves are out, the windows overlook beautiful, green forest without a neighbor in sight so we don't have to close the blinds.  My second favorite feature is the new flooring.  It's tile, not wood.  I love it!  Randy hates it.  I tried and tried to find something we both liked and finally told him to suck it up because the ship lap tile was staying. 

I also LOVE the tub hardware.  It's my favorite thing about the whole bathroom.  It looks like an old fashion telephone and I smile every time I look at it.

We replaced the big mirror with two medicine cabinets so now we have enough storage space that nothing has to be on the counter {if I actually put everything away of course}, and we moved the lights which caused more drama, time, and money which just made me wonder something.  Do contractors purposely make mistakes just so the project will take longer and cost more money?  Hmmm..... 

So there you have it.  It's finished.

Brothers Night: A Christmas Tradition

If you asked my boys, they'd tell you Brothers Night is their most favorite Christmas tradition.  They've been talking about it non-stop in the days leading up to it with much anticipation and openly telling each other what gift they would like.  You can read the details about brothers night here. 

This year the restaurant of choice was I-Sushi, a sushi restaurant with a sushi-go-round.  It's been a long time since we've eaten at one of these places and Randy and I were probably more excited about this than the kids.  I'm glad all the boys love California rolls and even tried a few unknown items as well. 
After dinner we set off for Target.  Each boy knew exactly what to do.  They quickly grabbed their own basket and made a beeline for the toy section, quickly grabbing random items to throw in their basket to confuse other brothers as to what the actual gift might be.  Ethan took a long time trying to decide on the perfect gift for Landon while Parker pretty much played with toys the entire time.  It was a fun night and gets everyone excited for Christmas Eve when the boys get to open their gift from their brother.

So much sushi.  And cheesecake.  Apparently for our family they go together.

Bean was on a mission to get the best present possible for Landon.  I think he examined every toy on the shelf

Parker was more interested in playing with toys than shopping

In the meantime, I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything ready for Christmas before driving down to Utah for a few days, and getting back just in time for Christmas Eve.  You might wonder what would possess me to do such a thing but for the last three years my Dad has a tradition we refer to as The Christmas Bus.  Everyone gathers at his house, eats pizza, then waits for a school bus to pull up to the house.  The bus takes the family into the city, first to a homeless shelter where we drop off treats, gloves, and hats, and then on to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  On the bus ride home they drink hot chocolate while listening to the Polar Express.  My boys have been anxiously waiting to live close enough to Utah to attend this grand event and are over the moon excited to be a part of this tradition for the first time.  Utah has a couple feet of snow so the trip will be a blast, assuming we make it there in one piece.  I've got to practice putting chains on my tires before we head out and then I'll be ready for anything.  I love a good adventure every once in awhile.

So Much Stress!

Story time in my bed while dad was camping with scouts

Don't let this picture fool you into thinking things are blissful around these parts.  Yes, things were good when I took that picture but that was taken at the end of the most stressful weeks of our married life.  You know it's bad when I fed my boys cans of chili for dinner.  Seriously, how sick is that?  I found them in the back of the pantry left there from some scout camp out, checked the expiration dates and decided it was good enough.  I felt like I was feeding them dog food!

We are getting ready to put our house on the market which means lots of painting, touch-ups, repairs, cleaning, organizing, and moving stuff to our storage unit.  Throw in the training we are both trying to do for the Ragnar despite Mother Nature's efforts at setting new records for longest/worst winter ever, Ethan's first Pinewood Derby, Marcus's birthday, Randy wrecking his car {and my Chariot}, and a couple scouting over-nighters and you can see we have been one bundle of stress and chaos.
Randy is the man for surviving a grueling and stressful schedule for weeks on end, while building Ethan a winning car in the Pinewood Derby.  Don't know how he managed a win since he spent less time on this car than any in years past and the only reason I'm mentioning this at all is so I don't feel like a failure as a mother for overlooking a big deal in Ethan's life.

Ethan sanding his car in 25 degree weather

The proud winner of the Pinewood Derby

Cabin Fever reached new heights.  This kept them entertained for hours until some serious damage was done to the fireplace.  I should've known but oh well.  The fun was almost worth it.

Rock climbing for Marcus's birthday {Randy multi-tasked by checking emails and reading texts in between climbs}

Getting creative as I try to decorate my house without using personal photographs everywhere. Staging a house is NOT my strong suit!

I went to Landon's school art show covered in paint from painting his bedroom.  At least I went with the theme, right?

I organized and washed piles of baby clothes to give to my sister and donated boxes and boxes of old, worn-out boys clothes I should've thrown out years ago.  It made me so sad to get rid of the baby stuff but I don't have time to dwell on it now. 

Randy's car {and home office} took on my Chariot.  They both lost.  So so sad about my Chariot.