A Long-Awaited Update

It's certainly been a while since I last updated, but to try to tell details of all that's gone on this past year would take me forever, so I'll highlight the big events. First off, Seth graduated and became a dentist in June 2011. He got two weeks off before his orthodontics residency at UCSF began, and we planned a detailed vacation that included traveling to Harry Potter World, Universal Studios, the Florida Keys, and then up to Olympic National Park. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a perfect, care-free getaway became a stressful mess when our rental car was broken into while we were stopped miami beach early into our florida vacation and all of our luggage was stolen. It was quite an ordeal for sure, but Seth and I were grateful that we were completely unharmed. We found it really important to keep reminding ourselves of how blessed we are and that, though many material possessions were lost (including Seth's brand new Nikon camera that he'd gotten only the week before) and we were forced to do many annoying errands to re-key the car, house, etc, what mattered most was that we were safe. We were also very blessed by a miracle that made the thieves miss Seth's wallet, which had also been in the car, so we were able to have money for food and a motel and even to have BOTH of our IDs (since I had put mine in Seth's wallet the day before when we'd been at the theme parks)!

We recovered from this ordeal relatively quickly, and Seth started his orthodontics residency this past fall as planned. He's MUCH busier than he ever was in dental school, but he's really enjoying the residency and likes that most of the work he's busy with is relevant to what he'll actually be out there doing as a profession.

After wanting a baby for quite a while with no success, we decided to go to the Reproductive Science Center in San Ramon to see what was causing all our trouble. The staff there was fabulous, and they quickly diagnosed what was making me unable to get pregnant and provided us with a couple trials of medications that could help. The second medication luckily worked, and we found out I was pregnant in september.

In November, I got released from my calling as the Relief Society President in our ward, which was bitter-sweet. Seth and I now teach the four-year-olds in Primary (and Seth also remains the Building coordinator), and we absolutely love serving together and teaching such dynamic, busy little personalities.

My pregnancy has been nothing but smooth... I really am that pregnant girl that everyone else must hate. I didn't have any morning sickness, didn't start really showing until I was about 6 months pregnant, and have really only had to deal with back pain, and then reflux and swelling of my hands and feet these past few months. Other than that, I've been able to continue with life as usual, including doing my normal weight and cardio circuit-training workouts (I did cut running at about 6 1/2 months because It brought on painful contractions). It was be amazing if all my pregnancies go this well!

Here's me pre-pregnancy (pardon the occasional midriff showing...I wanted to document exactly what I need to get back to):

23 weeks:

30 weeks:

38 weeks:

Sierra was pregnant at the same time I was, and she had a beautiful baby girl, seth and my first niece, in March. I am one lucky aunt, blessed with the sweetest, most beautiful nephews and now niece one could ask for! We sadly don't get to see them nearly enough, but I try to cherish every moment with them when we are in the same city.

Our baby boy is due June 6... only about a week away! We've had a couple fake-outs, with progressing contractions that then slowly taper off, which gets quite annoying. We are so ready to meet our Little Man (though we haven't settled on exactly what his first name will be). We are going to stay in our same one-bedroom apartment for the rest of our time in san francisco, since the little guy will only be barely two when Seth graduates. After considering many options, we decided the best thing was to give up our bedroom and turn it into a nursery/office. Seth and I are now sleeping on a sofa-bed we got made for the living room. it's actually surprisingly comfortable... just a wee bit short for Seth's legs, so he sleeps kind of at a diagonal. Other than that slight inconvenience, it's working out great. It's been so fun to prepare for Little Man's arrival, and Seth did a great job helping me decorate his nursery. I've included pictures of the nursery... but wish I had a better photo of what the bedroom looked like before the transition, but all I have is this funny one of Seth that shows the main part of the bedroom in the background:

And here's the room now that it's converted to a nursery/office combo:

I DID manage to get pictures of the living room pre-change, however.
Here's a before picture of the living room:

And the new living room/studio-like master bedroom (The Chest of drawers we had in our bedroom just goes perfectly below the picture with the red trees by the barstools, though not pictured here) :

So that's a summary of the last year's main events. Hopefully the next post won't be too far away, when our baby boy arrives!

Proud of my Sis'!

So I'm not even going to try to update about the latest happenings in Lucas Livin', but I just HAD to blog about my sister's latest creation! Sierra, my older sister, has created an AWESOMELY aDoRAblE company, called "Lollies". Check out their site at lollieslv@gmail.com. They look soo cute and yummy and are the perfect, affordable treat for any occasion! You're gonna love it!

As a short update on what's going on with us here in San Francisco, Seth is busy studying for the second round of Boards before he graduates from Dental School this June. Then, in July, he'll be starting the Orthodontics program at UCSF. So it'll be another three years in beautiful and entertaining San Francisco for us! I'm about to finish my Clinical Fellowship at CPMC Davies and am currently applying for full-time positions for after that is over and I become a fully licensed Speech-Language Pathologist!!! Exciting stuff!

Bring on the sCrUbS!

It finally happened! I officially accepted a Clinical Fellowship position at CPMC Davies Campus. It's such a relief to have the interview process over and to be able to move on with getting my license. I will start in July and be working Tues thru Saturday...I know..not ideal, but that's what you get when you work for a hospital... mediocre pay, lame schedules, limited/no holidays off, but great exposure to a variety of patients, great experience in high pressure environments, the opportunity to work with some real characters, and a GREAT addition to my resume. It'll be for 9 months, so if you were wanting to spend holidays with us, you better plan on hanging with me here in SF after I get off at 5pm :). I'm super excited to get to work with the team I did my internship with...they're awesome!

Exciting times for the Lucas family!

Seth and I have been soo busy lately, but it's all seeming to pay off this week! I will be graduating May 23 and am thus searching for a Clinical Fellowship Year placement, which is a 9 month paid position where I will be working under another speech pathologist's license. This is required in order for me to then earn my Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) and my own license to practice speech-language pathology. I've had three interviews already, and currently have one formal offer (California Pacific Medical Center-Davies Campus Inpatient Rehab) and one informal offer (Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California). I have always felt myself drawn to working with the little ones, so my first choice is the Hearing and Speech Center, where I would be able to work with children ages 19 months (approximately) and up, with even some adult patients possibly thrown in the mix. Some of my caseload would come from the auditory oral school at the Center (for children with hearing impairments) and the rest of my caseload would be from the general public that comes to the clinic. CPMC Davies is where I completed my hospital internship this past fall, and I really had such a great experience working with adult patients, focusing mostly on patients with traumatic brain injuries. It's a beautiful inpatient rehab facility and would be such a great place to work (if only they had kiddos too, it'd be perfect). So tough decisions will be made within the next week, but this is a spot I'm happy to be in despite the stress involved.

As if two amazing job offers weren't enough blessings for our little family, Seth just took the GRE today, a standardized test required for applying to orthodontics programs that he's been studying for for the past several months. He did AmAzInG!!! He only needed to get a 1200 to look good to schools, and the kid got a 1430 (710 on the math and 720 on the verbal)! I am so proud of him and so excited to finally have my husband back. I'm totally gonna get rid of those GRE study books as soon as possible since they are the guilty parties that have been stealing Seth away from me every day and night for all these months! So with awesome Boards scores AND these high GRE scores, Seth's chances of getting into the orthodontics program of his choosing just skyrocketed. We're pretty excited!

I was talking to Seth about all these blessings we've received lately and how I truly don't know what we did to deserve them. I am truly grateful to everyone who's supported our getting to where we are (family, friends, teachers, mentors) and am really excited for where we are in life right now. It's so exciting to have the world at our fingertips, and I'm looking forward to see what the next few years bring.