SWEET NEW RIDE

Ok, after you finish rubbing your temples and shaking your head at the goof-ball man in this picture...

Please take note of the the little gold car parked in our second assigned parking spot.

Yes it's true. We bought a car!

It's a 2002 Dodge neon.  It has 97,000 miles on it, cost us $1800, and really looks remarkably awesome (minus the dorky spray-painted black rims. Bleck!).

AND, it's the biggest purchase our 7 years of marriage has seen yet.  So it's kind of epic.  We have't officially named it yet (though Brinlee calls it Gold Car... nice and original), but we did put new plates on it.  So it's definitely ours!

Welcome to the family Little Goldie! 

Panties

Yes it's true.  We officially have a pantie princess!  

Brinlee is a potty champion!

Round 2 was astronomically better than round one.  I think I might have mentioned that our first attempt back in September was a little unsuccessful (read: a total, tearful traumatic disaster!).  Neither Brinlee or I were real anxious to try again, for a long time!

But we chatted with an aunt via Skype who is awesome at... well, everything!  And she got me re-motivated.  Brinlee seemed more ready, and we had daddy home, homework-less, and able to help for two whole weeks.  So we decided to give it another shot.  And TA DA!  It worked like a charm!  We hung up a chart for her to put a sticker on every time she went in the potty.  It was full in no time! She has been accident free for 10 days now and is in love with her new sense of independence.  And as it turns out, we are in love with it too.  I don't miss changing those diapers.

On Saturday was her one-week-accident-free mark, so we had an UnBirthday party.  She's been watching Alice In Wonderland and loves the UnBirthday scene.  It was perfect incentive.  We decorated, and had cake, and we even served tea (apple juice) from her little purple pot and used her little plastic dishes.  She was in heaven!

What a darling, awesome big girl we have!  The little stinker is growing up way too fast  :(  

But she is totally the best!

And she's totally proud of that.

Welcome Little One

We are officially a family of 4

Baby Sister is here!

McKenna Grace Borup

Born November 13th at 6:18 pm
7lbs, 13oz, 19 1/2 in

We are absolutely in LOVE with her!  We are working up a post with all the "fun" details.  But for now-

Everyone is home and happy, mama and baby are doing great, watching these darling sisters together is totally the best!, and we are all feeling so lucky and so blessed to have this sweet little spirit in our home!  

More Sugar and Spice

We spent yesterday morning at the doctor's office getting some pictures of our new little peanut.

She is a wiggler!  We were there for over half an hour trying to get the little squirmer to cooperate.  Sweet little thing  :)  She never did really hold still, but we finally did get some good shots of her.  We are 21 weeks along, seem to be growing just perfectly, and, did you catch? 

We are looking forward to another sweet baby girl!

Doesn't she look so sweet??  We are SO excited!  Tim had kind of known all along that she was a girl, and even though he will now be super outnumbered, we have been just giddy giddy giddy about having sisters!  :)  In fact, this has been playing in my head over and over.  Makes me smile!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG7x8HWbDzU

We have had so much fun with our first little lady, and the thought of two pairs of little girl feet running around our house is the best!  Brinlee doesn't really get the whole concept just yet.  But she does like to pat and kiss my belly, and likes to talk about the baby.  And she was excited when we gave her a piece of pink "baby sister" cake, of course!  She will be an awesome big sister.

Bring on more dresses and pony tails!
Girls totally rock!!!

So Happy, So Blessed

Last night when I left for work Tim and I had our fingers crossed,

and this morning when I got home we were making plans to move across the country!

Yes, the long awaited day has finally come.  Tim is officially a future doctor!  He’s such a cute smarty pants  :)  For the sake of reliving past stressful experiences that are now merely fond memories, I’ll go ahead and jot down a few fun notes.  

Tim first applied in October.  It’s an annoyingly long (and expensive!)  process.  You choose what schools you want to apply to and send in your initial application, then any school that thinks you’re worth a look sends you a second application.  Once you’ve sent that in, they decide if they want to interview you, and from there they decide if they want to offer you a spot… kind of a headache, super stressful, and lots of waiting...  I hate waiting.  Tim had picked out 20 different schools.  For a few months he checked his email about 50 times a day, filled out several secondary applications, and waited to hear.  His wife was very anxious.

By the end of January, Tim had two interview offers, both of which were for pretty impressive schools.  His first interview went well, but it was after the Ohio interview when he came home really anxious.  He felt like the interview went really well, he loved the campus, loved the program, loved the opportunities there, and loved the area.  OSU  jumped right to the top of his med school wish list and had him daydreaming about becoming a Buckeye.  The board of admissions said it would be a few weeks (March 11^th ish) before he would hear anything. 

And so, we waited,

“patiently”.

There’s something quite exhausting about getting a few gray hairs, losing sleep, having your thoughts preoccupied with one thing, being super irritable, and being stuck with nothing to do about it but wait.  It was a long few weeks… for both of us!  Needless to say we were ecstatic last night when Tim got a personal phone call from the dean of admissions at Ohio State University letting him know that he has been accepted into the 2014 class!

Even between the two of us, we don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all of the tender mercies we have seen over the past several months.  We are so excited and are feeling SO blessed!  Tim is such an impressive smarty pants and has worked so hard.  We feel like Columbus is absolutely where we are meant to be headed and can already see how the Lord's hand has guided us along the whole way.  We are so grateful for the opportunity and are excited for the new adventure.  Can't wait to see where the years take us!

Ohio here we come!

A Few Numbers

On July 

21

we ventured 

315

miles up to Montana where Tim spent

5

hours taking the MCAT exam for medical school.

We waited

5 

weeks for results and on Tuesday evening received 

1 

glorious email proudly displaying the rather impressive score of 

36

We didn't know much about this whole process until Tim was well into it, 

but from what we have researched, this score will serve him very nicely.

Needless to say I am 

1

proud wife!

Hello Baby!

The Borup Family is happy to welcome our new little peanut!

Brinlee Kay Borup

Born May 4th at 11:48 am
7lbs, 7oz, 18in

We LOVE this little lady and feel so blessed to have her in our little family!  We are home and happy, and mama and baby are doing great!  In fact, we're cooking up a nice juicy post with all of the fun details that I'm sure you are all dying to hear... stay tuned!

Blue? Or Pink?

"Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails" or "sugar and spice and everything nice"?

That has been the big question for a few weeks now.  After our original hopes for finding out the baby's gender turned out to be a false alarm, we have been keeping everyone in suspense and have been anxiously awaiting (read: been dying to know) the exciting news.  But, we are a little farther along now and are finally excited to announce that we are the proud future parents of a beautiful

baby GIRL!

Isn't she darling! She almost didn't cooperate with the ultrasound, she's kind of shy and quite a wiggler.  But she eventually decided to hold still for her close up, and even gave us a little wave!

We are pretty excited to be looking forward to a sweet little lady.  Girls have such sweet spirits!  And the little bows and shoes are so fun!  Besides, she already looks so darn cute!  :)  Now it's officially time to go shopping!! Looks like we're planning pink for Borup baby #1... so exciting!!!

Doubly Accomplished

We are getting things done over here and it feels so good!  Tim just received notice that one of his research abstracts will be appearing in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of Investigative Medicine... sounds pretty professional doesn't it?  We looked at the author index page last night and there he was, Borup, TC.  Super exciting!  AND I am now officially DeeAnna Borup RN, BSN!  While Tim was off internshipping, I filled my time finishing up the requirements for critical care nursing and management and just received notice that my information was cleared and my bachelor's diploma is on its way!  

I think this calls for some celebrating!  Frozen yogurt anyone?!  

And Mark It With a B

Well, it's official, Tim and I are excited to announce that we will be welcoming Baby Borup #1 in May!!! Little Bean got its first picture taken on Friday and looks just as snug and as happy as ever!

I am only about 8 1/2 weeks along and so far mama and baby are doing pretty good.  I've stayed pretty close to bed lately with some nausea and a few migraines.  And B has made it clear that he/she does not care for Italian salad dressing... but other than that we are pretty content.  We're just crossing our fingers that everything stays that way while we push through the end of this first trimester thing.

Little Bean is scheduled to be here May 15th.  I like May, it brings good things.  For starters, my grandmother, brother and I were all born in May.  And of course there's the arrival of May flowers, sunshiny weather, the "almost here" feeling of summer vacation,  and Mother's Day.  Plus there are already a few May cousins that B will be able to celebrate with.  What fun!

We won't know for a little while longer yet whether we're welcoming a girl or a boy, so I suppose if you have a vote you better get it in now (sorry Brian, I'm afraid no twins this time).  I think a grandma or two are crossing their fingers for a girl, but I have always thought it would be fun to start with a boy... and Tim is only anxious about helping with baby stuff if it's a boy ;)  We'll see I guess.  Either way we are anxious to get to know Baby B and look forward to our little family growing!

Here we go a internship-ing

Well exciting news here at the Borup home! Tim has been accepted for an internship with a physician in Indianapolis!!!! So i guess it's Indy here we come! :)

This physician is an organ transplant surgeon, which translates over into 'really cool things for Tim to see and do'! (I believe that's a direct translation) The details have just worked out too nicely to even begin to think that there wasn't divine hand in all of this, so we're really grateful for that and anxious to see where it will take us!

The only bad news is that now we only have a few weeks to lease our apartment, pack, finish up this semester's classes here and get across the country... slightly stressful.

Becoming Licensed

Well the blessed day has finally arrived. In my hand I hold proof that I am officially DeeAnna RN! Oh, that never gets old... it has such a nice ring to it, don't you think?

For the sake of reliving past traumatic experiences that are now merely fond memories, I thought I would update you on the pointless details of this, our most recent exciting news.

A couple weeks ago I went over to Boise to take the state nursing board exam... such a pleasant experience (read: miserable/not fun/never want to do again). I was nervous, but felt fairly confident. It was scheduled for a Tuesday and I had decided that Saturday evening was my cut off, after that I wasn't going to let myself study anymore. Everyone says a break from test material is the best thing for a tired brain right before a big exam... so I reviewed some testing strategies from my faithful Kaplan RN NCLEX book and hopped into bed thinking to myself, "self... you

spent the last year and a half working hard and studying,
passed the nursing program exit exam with more than proficient scores,
have put in 8 hours/day over the last month doing nothing but practice questions and exams,
have fasted and prayed,
have your lucky socks...

...this will be a piece of cake."

Monday night I tried to go to bed early but, to no avail... for some reason the nice sounding list I had gone to bed with Saturday was nowhere to be found, I felt totally unprepared and even almost got back up to study, so sad. I woke up Tuesday morning just sick to my stomach. I tried to eat - wasn't successful, tried to read - couldn't concentrate, I couldn't even sit mindlessly and watch tv. So I left 45 min early for my test...

...and 4 hours later I was done and even more miserable than before! I came home in tears just positive I had failed. I had never felt that badly after an exam in my entire life. I felt like I hadn't known any of the answers and my brain was like scrambled eggs. All I wanted to do was hit the books and get ready for the inevitable round 2. I called Tim and he told me I probably did fine and to just cool it, and my wonderful sister took me out for pizza, but I was a wreck.

Thursday morning I woke up and all I could think about was the fact that my quick results would be available at 11:00. I got up and barely made it to the bathroom before I threw up everything I had eaten the day before... classic. At the dreaded time I logged on and filled out the online payment ($8.00! so unfortunate), then hovered over the submit button seriously considering just waiting for the news to come by mail. But, recalling that it could take up to 4 weeks I decided to take my chances and...

I had passed! I couldn't believe it, such a relief!!!
Now it's just upward and onward from here I suppose

Hello Nurse!!!

YAY!!! I received my letter today telling me I am accepted to the nursing program!! I will be starting in January and couldn't be more excited!!! :) I have heard from other nursing students that I shouldn't plan on any sleep for a year and a half... and if that is indeed true I am not quite sure how I will hold up... but I'm anxious to see!