...he's also a Captain.

Even more reason to trust Dr. Steve: he's also been officially promoted to Captain in the Air Force. 

Though we won't begin our military service until after residency at Wake, the final activity of graduation weekend was a small promotion ceremony for the HPSP (military) medical students. There were two Air Force and three Navy in Steve's graduating class, and we all met up at the med school campus for their swearing in.

They repeated an oath affirming their commitment to honor and to their country and were each given their new titles (for the Air Force, this meant moving up from 2nd Lieutenant to Captain).

Then spouses or family members were invited up to pin their new bars on their shoulder (Steve went from single to double bars). I was kind of excited to get to do that for him. :) And, bless his heart, he even bent down for me.

Love that smile. :)

And then Charlie presented him with some rocks.

the (first) match day.

Blog, I feel like so much has happened in the last few months, I can't ever hope to catch up. We traveled something like 5,000 miles (cross country to Phoenix, up to Utah, back down to Phoenix and back home) in the last month and a half. Charlie turned 2. We found out we are going to have a new niece or nephew. We celebrated Christmas. We went to Las Vegas and had a family reunion. We celebrated New Year's. Steve had several residency interviews in a ton of places. Two of our Wake friends welcomed new babies. And Steve bought skinny jeans.

I don't even have our pictures uploaded from, like, anything that happened after the middle of November.

But I feel like I should write about the most momentous thing that happened for our future, which was the December military Match Day.

If you're not already familiar with the system, basically what happens for you to get a residency (your first post-med-school job) is you go to a ton of interviews at anywhere you applied that invites you. You scope everything out (area, hospital, etc.), talk to people, go out to dinner, and have a formal interview. Then you make what is called a "rank list," in which you rank from 1 to whatever (however many interviews you got) which residency programs you think are the dreamiest. The residency programs also make a rank list of the potential residents they think are the cat's pajamas. Then everybody turns their rank lists in and a big computer somewhere (or maybe small, it just seems like it should be big since it is deciding everybody's fate) runs an algorithm very much akin to Match.com and matches everyone up so that everyone (programs and residents) gets the best possible match. And sometime in March medical schools across the country have a luncheon on Match Day, at which they feed you and pass out envelopes with your dream date residency program inside, and at exactly noon everybody opens their envelopes and finds out who they are going to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance with where they are going for residency.

When you're in the Air Force health program, like we are, things are a little different. For Emergency Medicine (EM is his chosen specialty!) Steve had 4 options total for the military match: Texas, Ohio, Nevada, (all military hospitals) or a civilian deferment.  Doesn't sound bad, right? Except that there was this horrible invisible 5th option, which was that he wouldn't get any of those things and would get stuck doing a very general residency in "Flight Medicine" which would set him back YEARS on his career path to being an EM doctor. Years.

So, the week leading up to December 12th, he had the weight of a potential flight medicine match pretty much crushing the life out of him. I don't think he has been that attacked by med school since Step 1.

And then, that morning he walked into Gracie's room as I was sitting on the floor with the kids and said,

"I got it."

And I said, "Got what?" Because we weren't expecting an answer about the match for two more days.

And he said, "The civilian deferment."

So we posted on facebook and we celebrated and we had (metaphorical) big HUGE sighs of relief because STEVE IS FOR SURE GOING TO BE AN EMERGENCY MEDICINE DOCTOR IN JULY!

But uh, what's a civilian deferment?

Basically it means that for the next few years, during residency, the Air Force has nothing to do with us. They send us off on our own to do the regular match with all the rest of the future-doctors this March. So over the last few weeks Steve has been finishing up his interviews in places like Phoenix and Nashville, and in March we get to go to the little party on our second match day and get a little envelope that will tell us where we will live for the next three years!

And also, I hear the food is supposed to be pretty good. :)

The Wild Blue Yonder

Steve rocking his blues.

This is my man--in uniform. Doesn't he look sharp?

Two Fridays ago at midnight I got all dressed up--good makeup, heels, the works--and drove to the Greensboro to pick him up. I don't think I've ever understood the phrase "sight for sore eyes" until I saw him walking through the glass doors at the airport--heels be darned, I ran across the parking lot to him--and gave him a really really really good hug. And a kiss. Of course. But I could have hugged him forever. And it was pretty fun to stand next to him in his shiny shoes and nicely pressed blues while we waited for his bags to arrive. :)

He spent a month--from the end of May until a few days before my birthday in June--in Montgomery, Alabama at the Maxwell Air Force base, where he was fulfilling his required Commissioned Officer Training (COT) for his military scholarship. While Gracie and I were traveling, staying with friends and family, and trying to stay busy enough to get through a month without him, he was doing crazy rope courses, eating all his meals in 8 to 10 minutes (and they were huuuuge meals), and spending hour after hour in lecture learning about how to be an airman (they're not soldiers in the Air Force, FYI).

Dangling awesomely in his ABU's (ABU=Airman Battle Uniform, its Air Force for camo)

Their class of about 300 was broken down into three Squadrons (of 100) and then into smaller groups called Flights (15 people each), and he was Quebec Flight. They were the people he worked, played, ate, and lived with 24/7 for over four weeks, and they made a huge impact on his experience there. I am really thankful that he had a good, fun group that focused on keeping each other's spirits up and learning to work well as a team. He loves his Q's, and I love them for taking care of him.

I missed him like crazy, but I was really impressed by how well he did and how hard he worked out there on his own. He buckled down and really tried to learn everything he could and be a good example of a USAF officer. I am so proud of his dedication and motivation to do this up right when he could have gotten by with less work and effort. It has made me really feel like we are an Air Force family, and I'm proud to be able to participate in any small way in honoring our country and helping others protect our freedom.

AND, his flight did really well--they pretty much continually won the honor ownership of the coveted chalice (see below) for being top performers among their class and squadron.

Quebec Flight showing off their prize.

And p.s. did you know that Into the Wild Blue Yonder is the official Air Force song? If you check out the lyrics, you'll definitely pick it up.