Another End of the Year Report

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s time for another annual report of the Sloan’s adventures – Ohio edition. We hope this letter finds you all in good health and happy times. We’ve had a few changes and travels this year.

Kamala finished another holiday season working retail at Bath and Body Works last January. She was manager of shipping and restocking. She did great in the position, but was definitely ready to be done. Her hours got cut a lot after the holidays, but she luckily found a job working with horses at a barn and is very happy. In the summer she was teaching several children riding lessons in weekly summer camps, enough so that she was able to quit working retail. She continues to teach private lessons along with training horses to sell.

As for me, I realized what I wanted to be when I grow up (finally) during my first pediatrics rotation in January. I finished my third year of medical school and passed my boards, then spent the summer and early fall doing audition rotations to interview at prospective pediatric residency programs. I spent a month here in Dayton Children’s Medical center, then a month in Travis Air Force Base in California, then a month in Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Kamala took some time to travel as well, spending a couple of weeks with her family while I was in California (I got to visit them on my weekends off too) and then she spent a week with me while I was in San Antonio, TX. We were able to visit all of the missions in San Antonio, including the Alamo, as well as walk the historical river walk (which was even beautiful in pouring rain!) I was glad to be home again after two months away.

We got a new addition to our family this year also, Curitiba (aka Cheeba). She is a tortoise-shell kitten we got to keep Rocco company. She grew up fast, but still has a lot of kitten spunk in her. She loves to wrestle stuffed animals!

Rocco has had his own trials this year. He’s had to spend the night at the vet and get fluids infused and had a month or so of painful urination, poor kitty!

And our latest news is that I have received the results of the residency match, and I was accepted into my first choice for residency in Wright-Patterson pediatrics program. We are very excited to know where we will be for the next three years, but sad that it won’t be closer to home.

So, that’s our news this year. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying this wonderful season. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Until next year.

Love,

Travis, Kamala, “Rocco” & “Cheeba”

And the Results are In...

And the results are...

Dayton Ohio!!!

We are so excited to being staying in this area for another 3 yrs.

Travis starts on the 1st of July 2011 and finishes residency in 2014!

I never thought this day would come. Well Dayton locals I guess you haven't gotten rid of us yet and family I guess this means you need to come for a visit.

Oh happy day!

Good luck to the rest of the med students out there.

Adventures of November

In all honesty November was kinda a lame month. Nothing really is new around here.

Travis started a new rotation in Neurology, which he hasn't done yet. He found it very fascinating and came home with lots of interesting stories. He also started playing on two indoor soccer teams with a friend of ours. One team is 30 yrs and over and the other is a little younger. It's fun to go watch the play. However the older guys are kinda lazy and are really hard to watch. The younger guys all work together and are really fun to watch.

As for me I just continued training horses and teaching lessons. I tried to get as much done with my Mary Kay business as well. It is really awesome not working retail during the holiday season though. I am able to set my own time schedule, what's better than that?

As Thanksgiving rolled around we had to face the decision that loomed ahead. Since Travis only got a 4 day weekend off and since we live way the heck out here we had to stay home once again. It's not all that bad though, we still had fun. Once again we paired up with our friends the Kraczek's, and made dinner together. It was tons of fun and there was tons and tons of awesome food. It is so awesome having friends that we can claim as segregate family. We are both so far away from our families so we need each other. Of course we missed all you family members and can't wait until we are closer and can be there for as many holidays as possible.

Our Options

So We, meaning Travis, has applied for 3 different military residencies. Being in the military the match for residency is done a lot earlier than civilian matches.

This means that a panal sat down and looked at Travis' test scores, application, recommendation letters and evaluations from the audition rotations. They then ranked him against other applicants in the pediatric position. Once everyone is ranked then they are placed into the spots that are open. We had to turn in our top choices and so here we go. I will just give you my opinion on each spot since the big day is coming soon.

#1 Choice is Dayton OH

To believe it or not we really love Dayton. I know it is super far away from home but it has the best program, the barn I love working for, a ward and stake that are very welcoming and supportive, friends that have become as close as family and my personal favorite, the snow doesn't stay that long (the winter is pretty mild here). The list goes on and on with everything that we love about the area.

#2 Choice is Portsmouth VA

This choice is on the list because it is comparable to the program in Dayton. The area is smaller, is gorgeous and has mild temperatures. The big plus if you ask my family, is that it is near the ocean. This one is a bit farther away from home once again but it would be pretty to visit. *hint*hint*wink*wink*

#3 Choice is San Antonio TX

Well what to say what to say. I think the big pluses for this location is that it is the closest to family and a ton of job opportunities for me. The base is nice too, just really really big. We are just small town people so it was a bit much at times. But it is closer to family.

#4 Choice is Washington D.C.

Ok in all honesty I didn't even know this was on the list. Don't get me wrong it would probably be fun to live in such a busy city, but...it's so busy! The reason Trav put it on the list is cause he needed to fill 4 slots and I will not move to Missouri. There are only so many Pediatric programs in the USAF. That's ok, we'll just hope we get somewhere else.

Adventures of October

Another month filled with adventure. We weren't quite as busy as the past few months but we still had a lot to do.

The first of the month was filled with teaching lessons, attending Mary Kay training conference, and most importantly celebrating Travis big 3-0. I wanted to do something fun for him since Travis had been gone for so long. So with the help of a friend we made an awesome cake. My friend Beth is an amazing cake decorator. I made the cake and she made the design. Since Travis is a major Transformer fan we had to make the cake that would show this.

We also went out for a dinner after the cake was made. It was a little late since we started on the cake a little later than expected, but hey it looked awesome and we had fun with friends.

After the birthday celebration we were off to another adventure. Travis had to take his second round of board exams and the only place for a D.O. student to take it is in Philidelphia. So off we went to see a place we had never been to. I tagged along to do some sightseeing, and sights I did see. While Travis spent 8 hours taking a test I was out wandering. I was blessed in being able to see awesome historical sights. I spent the day on a 5 mile hike around Valley Forge. It was incredible, beautiful, just plain amazing.

When Travis was done with his test we went to see if we could see the Liberty Bell. Well that didn't end up happening since he was done when all the business were closing. We still saw Independance Hall though and even saw the US Mint building and the tomb of Benjamin Franklin. Pennsylvania was gorgeous and we enjoyed our 2 day stay.

We then headed to Portsmouth VA for another interview. We hit Washington D.C. on the way through Virgina. I have never been to this great capital so I was excited to see it all. It's a little unnerving to see sights that I have only seen through movies. I have always dreamed of seeing these sights, it was awesome to finally get that chance. Travis decided to make it a little more interesting and rented bikes to make the trek to see each monument easier. I loved it, I had never seen so many monuments in one place. After a crazy day running around like crazy people seeing as much as we could see we headed off to a new location.

Travis had an interview at a Naval Base in Portsmouth VA. They have a mixed Air Force/Navy pediatric residency program. We wanted to be able to have enough choices for the match day that is coming up in December. Travis really enjoyed his interview and said that the program is really good. The area is really pretty and the town is small with bigger cities near by for shopping.

Overall the trip was awesome and the month was a success. On to a new month, lets see what adventures it has in store for us.

Adventures of September

The month of September was supposed to be relaxing and rejuvenating. Well that really didn't end up happening.

Pictures will be coming soon

I ended up leaving for California 3 days early because I was really having a rough time with a few things and needed to be around family that loves me. It ended up being a good thing because my Grandma Pat ended up being admitted into the hospital right before I got there. She had been struggling with taking care of herself so mom and dad had moved her in with them. The weekends where Travis would visit she seemed to be ok until right before I left. She was hallucinating and forgetting a ton. When I got there she was already completely confused, she was calling me by my youngest sisters name. We all got to see her at the hospital as a whole family. It was the first time in years that all of us kids were home at the same time. It was really a blessing that we were all able to see Grandma. Mom and I had plans to get pedicures and to relax with visiting with family and all. That all changed.

Through out the first week I was home we visited grandma and to work on some of her personal stuff. We were able to have a little bit of fun. Mom, the kids and I visited Travis at the AFB to get a look at the area. We visited an air museum, AFB hospital and of course the beloved Jelly Belly Factory. Things were relaxed enough however everyone knew things were not likely going to change with my Grandma. My dad and Travis left the following weekend. Travis headed off to the next audition rotation in San Antonio Texas. I still had a week left in Cali. So I went to a dance with my baby brother, who is 15, and took a girls day with my mom and youngest sister. Well the one day we had to ourselves is the day we found out that my Grandma had passed. She had declined so fast and there were no answers in why she did pass, but at least we know she is out of pain. We planned the service and somehow mom and I had the program planned along with a neat photo collage of my Grandma's life. It was a really good service and am so grateful that I was home for it all to support my family. Sadly I wasn't able to stay much longer. The service was on a Friday and my flight was on Sunday. I was on my way to Texas.

I spent several of the days in Texas sleeping, trying to recover from the last week in California. Travis still had shifts at the clinic but he was normally done by 3pm so we had plenty of time to explore San Antonio. Our first stop was the highly talked about "River Walk". Its an area were the city was built around the river that runs through it. Several buildings are original from when the missions were built. It was raining cats and dogs so in the pictures we are a little wet. Everything was so green.

We also took a day to visit the string of missions. They are all state parks but yet the convents and chapels are still used. The agriculture was incredible. It's amazing how they designed their buildings so many years ago. Of course after our day long exploration of missions we had to visit Travis' favorite type of restaurant. Fogo De Chao is a Brazilian steak house that serves authentic Brazilian food. As soon as Travis saw it we had to eat there. He even found someone from the area he went on his mission to. I love watching and hearing him speak Portuguese. I can tell it truly makes him happy.

I really wanted to visit the temple in San Antonio, however since we both were flying we didn't pack the right clothes and the temple doesn't rent any so we had to settle on just wandering the outside and seeing the view of the city.

I only was there a week but I were able to see quite a lot of the area. We even were able to see old roommates that live in San Antonio with their families. Sadly I forgot to take pictures to remember the fun and games that we enjoyed. To the Welch's and the Todd's I say thank you for letting us visit. We had a ton of fun and we hope we can do it again soon. I left Texas that Sunday and had to be without Travis for 2 more weeks. Nothing fun happened while he was gone. All I was up to was teaching my private lessons and doing a few facials. It was great to be home.

Adventures of August

So during the month of August it was pretty mellow.

Travis was busy finishing up his audition rotation at the Children's Hospital here in Dayton. It is a joint civilian/military residency program. So if it goes well he would be a military personnel at the hospital. He would be active and he would have time in the clinic on base.

He was really excited at the end of this rotation. He says that he is 99% sure he wants to do pediatrics. However he still had a Family Medicine rotation that he left for half way through August.

This rotation was is California, Fairfield to be exact at the Travis AFB. It is only about 2 hours away from where my parents live. So he spent almost every weekend up there with them. The rotation wasn't bad. It was a lot of refilling prescriptions and physicals. It pretty much solidified his decision in pediatrics. Although he did have a chance to visit the pediatric clinic at the hospital and said it was very promising. It could be a possible future placement after residency. I know my parents would love it if we moved to Cali.

As for me I have just been finishing up teaching horse camp at the barn I work at. We have camp for kids Monday through Friday where we teach kids the basics of horseback riding. We had been going since June and we were done at the end of August. We had a camp out for our volunteers that have helped us through the whole summer. It was the last week of camp and we wanted to celebrate being done. It was awesome to just take an evening to just have fun.

The other good thing was that I scheduled 2 private lessons for the rest of the fall and spring.

The rest of the month was spent with me missing Travis and me getting ready to visit Travis and my family in California. I couldn't wait to get away and have a vacation of my own.