We're Alive!!!!!!!

Yes, we are still both surviving the cold up here in Minnesota. We have been a little lax at posting anything but you know how busy life can get and we kept putting things off. I think that we promised to do better a few months ago, so I won't promise anything, but I will try to keep the updates coming a bit more often. We are both doing well. Mike is making his way through his first year rotations and eagerly awaiting July when he begins the anesthesia program. I am getting busier working as a personal trainer at the Rochester Athletic Club. Tux, our new puppy, is adjusting to life in the Baker house. Being a dog is such a hard life. Eat, sleep, play, poop! If only we could all live like that! Right on cue, Tux just fell asleep next to me on the couch. He is still recovering from his "surgery". Yes that one! He gets his stitches out tomorrow which I'm sure he will appreciate, although it didn't slow him down any.
We are all excited for our upcoming vacation. We are going to the Caribbean! I cannot wait to bask in the warmth of the sun, especially after just shoveling snow off the driveway AGAIN!!!!!!! Caribbean, here we come! We'll be sure to post our tan pictures. They will be much better than our pasty white pictures!
Speaking of pictures, here are a few pictures that have accumulated over the last few months for you to enjoy!

Bringing Home Tux!

So we brought our new dog, Tux home yesterday! He's been a handful but lots of fun. He does a lot of eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeing. Imagine that! He's starting to figure out the whole house training thing, but it'll probably take a little longer before we can put the stain remover away. There's also some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch and of the Jack-o-lanterns that we carved on the slide show.

Baker Update

Sorry everyone! I guess it's been over a month since we've posted anything. We have been busy getting settled into Rochester. As you have seen, we have had a chance to go on one vacation which was awesome. Out big news of the month is that we are getting a new addition to our family!!!!!!!!! No we are not pregnant. But we are getting a puppy!!!! We are naming him Tux since he is black with a white neck and chest. He is a lab mix and was left abandoned in a farmer's field on Halloween. We won't pick him up for another 10 days, but we are both very excited. We are now busy cleaning and puppy proofing the house. I am a little nervous never having had a dog, but I figure a puppy will be good practice for when we have a baby!!! I will be sure to post a picture when we bring him home. Maybe having him will make us blog more often since I'm sure we will have some stories to tell living with a 3 month old puppy. Wish us luck!

What we've been up to

Well, as you can probably guess from our pictures, we were on vacation last week. I had 2 weeks of ER at the beginning of the month then we had vacation. We decided to drive out west. First we spent a couple days at Jason's (Mike's cousin) house and visited with Mike's Aunt and Grandparents. It was the first time that Cori actually met them because they don't travel anymore. We had a very nice time. We then went to the black hills and spent the rest of the week camping, hiking, and sightseeing in Southwest South Dakota. It may not sound like the most spectacular vacation spot, but if you've never been, it's a truly beautiful part of our country. It is amazing to think of the diversity of God's creation after visiting the Masai Mara in Africa this spring and contrast it with the rolling Black Hills.

We spent 4 nights camping in a tent and only got rained on the last night! Otherwise we had absolutely perfect camping weather, cool nights, and warm days. It was interesting because both of us had been to the Black Hills as kids with our families. We went back and saw Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse carving, Devil's Tower, and the Badlands together. We put over 2000 miles on our rental car!

We got back home and Mike has had another week off since he hasn't been called in to work this week! It's been very nice getting to spend more time at home together and get some things marked off the to-do list! We are really enjoying Rochester and if anyone feels up to traveling to Minnesota we would love to see you.

Pictures from our vaction!

Back to Blogin'

So obviously it's been a while since we've updated our blog. Apologies all around. Lots has happened since our last update. First, we are all moved in and settled in our new house here in Minnesota. It's been great and the best part is, my drive to work is less than 3 miles! A huge improvement to the 30 miles I was driving in Atlanta. I also started working at the hospital. July was spent on the general medicine service. This month I have been working in the ICU, which as you can imagine has been busy. I really enjoy the ICU though, much better than general medicine. It has been challenging though, because people do tend to die in the ICU which I have experienced first hand already this month. Cori was searching for a job last month and actually ended up with 2 jobs! She is working at the Rochester Athletic Club on their fitness floor, and also at Ann Taylor Loft in the mall. It's been good so far because they're both flexible part-time jobs. And of course, Cori loves the discount at Ann Taylor Loft! We have really enjoyed Rochester so far, and the weather has been tremendous (we'll see if we're still saying that in February!) We'll try to do better at keeping this updated.

We're Yankees Again!

Sorry we haven't written anything for awhile. Since we got back from Africa we have been a little busy. Mike graduated from medical school and is now a doctor! Then we packed up and moved back up north to Rochester Minnesota. And yes, it is cold up here. I miss the warmth of the South already. Can't wait until winter. Mike and I drove up to MN, unpacked the moving truck, put our stuff in storage, and then went searching for a house. Our realtor Esther was great and showed us 17 houses in one day. We found a house we both liked and put in and offer which was accepted the same day. We are closing on June 9th which worked out really well because Mike has to take a class on the 10th and 11th. It is funny how things work out sometimes. Everything just fell into place with the move, the house, our closing date, etc. You can really see God taking care of our every need. We are both excited to move into our new home. And, it looks like we have renters for our townhouse! Thank you Lord! Thanks to everyone else who was praying for us during our move and in this transition time. They have really been answered.

HOME!!

We made it!! We got into Atlanta this afternoon and are safely back home in Kennesaw this evening. We are looking forward to a good night sleep in our own bed tonight! Thank you for all the prayers.

We're on our way home!

We are leaving kijabe today. We are both sad to leave but happy to come home. We have met some amazing people here and have made some great friends. We will get home Saturday afternoon and will let you all know when we have made it. Please continue to pray for us for safe travels.

The Battle Against the Bugs!

Happy Monday! Our weekend went well. Friday, as expected, Mike got maybe three hours of sleep. He was at the hospital until about 3 and then went back around 6 I think. I'm not sure. I was sleeping! Saturday we went shopping and went up to RVA to watch the rugby scrimmage. It looks pretty tough! I don't think I want to play. On Sunday, we got to sleep in and go to a later church which was a good things because Mike has not been feeling well. After a good nights sleep and a few naps, he beat his bug and is feeling much better. My bug however, was not so easily defeated. For the past week or two I have been getting these bug bites all over and they really itch! I wake up in the morning and find new ones so we figured they must be coming from our bed. Mike, however, has zero bites. We have changed the sheets and I even started going to bed wearing long pants tucked into socks, and a long sleeved shirt tucked into my pants. I know what you're thinking, I was looking GOOD! Even that didn't work. In fact I think the bugs liked a challenge because I think I got more! I counted my bites and had 38 included the 10 just on my stomach. I had had enough. Yesterday we washed all of the sheets and blankets and mattress pad in hot hot water. Then, Mike took our bug spray with deet in it and sprayed the mattress. Then, our neighbor gave us bug killer spray and we sprayed some of that on the mattress too. Then, I ironed the mattress pad and sheets. ( I am never ironing again!) Then, we had to wait for the mattress to dry before we could go to bed. Mike had soaked it with the spray! We finally got into bed and low and behold, today I woke up, and NO NEW BITES!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! That doesn't mean the existing ones don't still itch, but no new bites is a very good thing. I hope it lasts. I just thought you would all get a good laugh out of my misery and our bug killing antics. And just so you know, we never actually saw any bugs in our room or bed so whatever bit me is still a mystery. At least for now, we have won the battle against the bugs. Hopefully our victory will last.