Aakre Adventures: Normal

We recently had a glimpse of "normal". It was a brief and fleeting season, but now that we are living out of suitcases again I have time to reflect on it. Here's a little of what our six weeks back in Rochester looked like.

We drove home from our 9 week stay in Jacksonville on May 1 & 2. Some might consider survival as the only goal on a 1,400 mile road trip with a toddler, but not Ben. He strategically planned the timing so we would go through Chattanooga, TN in time to catch a Lookouts game. The Lookouts are a Double-A affiliate for the Minnesota Twins. We got to see Byron Buxton, who of course as we all know, was called up to the Major Leagues this week. I'm sure we all will be able to tell our grandchildren where we were when we heard that Byron Buxton was called up to the Majors. Maybe that, too, is just my husband. The game was a great break on the trip. We got to enjoy the gorgeous weather and Scarlett burned off all her pent up energy climbing up and down the stairs.

Engel Stadium: Home of the Chattanooga Lookouts

Scarlett playing with her cousin

The first week back to reality left me in shock of how much you can get done in a week! No more lazy beach days for us. I unpacked our car and the 8 boxes of our things FedEx delivered, worked a shift in radiology, had a couple overnights with my niece & nephew while their parents were out of town and shared my testimony of what God has taught me during the season of residency at my Bible study.

While in Rochester I have had the wonderful opportunity to be apart of Side By Side Ministry. The Bible study is attended by >100 doctors' wives in various seasons of life. It has been such a blessing to learn from and be encouraged by other women who completely understand the "luxury" of sharing your husband with medicine. Of course I had all the time in the world to write my talk, but my love for public speaking left me writing it the week of. What I shared centered around Isaiah 41:13. The verse has been an anchor for me during the difficulties of residency. It reminds me that we have a personal God, and although He may not take away our troubles, He will help us.

What better way of celebrating being home for 5 days then to go on another road trip!? Scarlett and I went to Iowa for Mother's Day weekend while Ben was working. It was great to see not only my mom, but both of my grandmas and aunts. Scarlett got her hands dirty helping grandpa put fish in my parents' pond. And, of course, all good trips to Iowa involve a tractor ride.

Great Plains pizza for Mother's Day with both sides of my fam :)

Grandpa's helper

May brought many celebrations involving cake... and family, of course family is more important than cake. Ben's cousin got married, his niece turned 2 and my grandpa turned 80. My cousins from Boston and Houston even made it home for my grandpa's birthday (or did they come home for the cupcakes from Scratch Bakery??).

Scarlett playing with her Great Grandpa Jim. She'll tell you he's 80 and acts like it's the biggest number ever :)

Big birthday girl!

We also persevered through four house hunting trips to Mankato. Buying a house is actually nothing like House Hunters on HGTV. In fact, the whole experience may leave HGTV off my television for quite a while. We looked at 30 homes and finally found what we both wanted! Once our offer was accepted we decided to celebrate by going to Minneapolis to have dinner with friends and see The Script. The concert was at the State Theater which was built in the 20's and only holds 2,000 people. We saw The Script last year at Target Center which holds 20,000 and it was not nearly as great as seeing them at the State Theater. Special thanks to my old coworker, Julia, for not only watching Scarlett so that we could go to the concert but to go to our housing inspection earlier in the day.