Happy Valentine's Day -- 2010 Year in Review

Hello to our Friends and Family!

We are wishing you a wonderful Valentine’s Day and (in the same tradition as last year) taking this opportunity to catch you up on our 2010. We love keeping up with y’all and would like to hear from you about your adventures, too! Our new address is below- be sure to scratch out a note when you can.

The big news for 2011 is that we have moved back to Texas – specifically to Fort Worth! We are sad to leave friends and family behind in California but we are excited about being close to our Lone Star loved ones again. Plus, it gives us a chance to wear our cowboy boots more often! : )

Lynn completed her nurse anesthesia graduate program and is currently studying hard for her national certifying exam. She is really excited about starting a great job at Huguley Hospital (just south of Fort Worth) this Spring. Matt has been interviewing with hospitals in the Fort Worth area and should accept an offer soon. Rossi and Chloe are doing well - making new friends, running around like puppies and enjoying the park and woods near our apartment.


 

 Living in California was great, too. We were renting a house in Highland, about an hour east of L.A. It was a blessing to be only a short drive away to visit with Bob Bob, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Alice in Palm Desert. Over the year, many family members came out to visit. We always ate well and had a blast together!


Besides being close to family, one of the advantages was our proximity to so many great activities. We travelled to the Tournament of Roses parade, Temecula wine country, preseason football in San Diego (Cowboys/Chargers), a Jay Leno taping in Burbank, a movie premiere in Hollywood and celebrated the Fourth of July on Huntington Beach. Lynn’s TCU classmates were always up for fun, and we made new friends in Kee, Jina, Ashley and Jerry. What started out as restaurant sampling (including a chic frozen yogurt store and even trying ‘boba’) turned into varied field trips: seafood and kite flying in Redondo Beach, tandem bicycles on Venice Beach, and a memorable camping trip at Big Bear Mountain.

We had setbacks too. Lynn’s knee had been responding to physical therapy but scar tissue made it feel tight. So in April, we came back to Texas to get it cleaned up. Things went well, but the very first day Lynn began her clinical rotation in San Diego, a knee infection gripped her with pain. She was hospitalized twice and went through three surgeries and home therapy with a PICC line before she was clear of bugs. It was mid-September by the time she got back to San Diego, but Matt and Lynn’s Mom came out to visit her on Coronado and enjoyed sightseeing and fun bike trips to the dog beach. We made new friends there and fell in love with Del Mar all over again! Maybe someday we’ll have a house on the beach… : )

October was Lynn’s…um…second 29th birthday and she wasn’t quite ready for it but it came anyway. As it turned out, the day arrived in style. With a little clever planning by Matt, his parents and Lynn’s Mom, we treated the Birthday Girl to an exciting long weekend in Santa Barbara that included many wineries, cute brunch and dinner places and even a guided Segway tour.

We ended the year with a great ski trip, and two great Christmas celebrations (one combined with New Year’s Eve!) and a move halfway across the country to boot! (pun intended)

After a well earned graduation in December, we celebrated with a truly incredible trip - sailing the British Virgin Islands on a 46’ boat. Part of a five-boat flotilla, our crew bonded quickly during northerly swells, mooring exercises, dinghy trips and sailing wing-on-wing. After a few days on dry land in Puerto Rico (sitting by the pool and touring the forts) we got back stateside to unpack in our new apartment.

If you’d like to see pictures of our adventures, we’ll be slowly but surely updating our blog at www.LynnAndMatt.com. And we’d love to hear from you – Facebook updates just aren’t enough for some of us! So call or write us when you get a chance, and have a great Valentine’s Day and a fantastic 2011!

Sunny San Diego...round two

I finally made it back to San Diego for my OB anesthesia rotation at the Naval Medical Center.  Many of you know that at the begining of my first rotation in May, I got a septic knee infection and was admitted to the hospital, had three surgeries and was definitely out of commission for a while.  Thanks to some great great care from doctors and nursed (my husband, included!) I am much better now and was really looking forward to being back in San Diego!

Matt and I rented this cute little Spanish bungalo in Coronado for the month.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay.  It has two bedrooms, which was perfect because my mom came down to stay with me for two weeks.  And you know what they say...location, location, location!  It was wonderful--in one direction we were four blocks from the San Diego Bay which overlooks a beautiful city skyline and in another direction we were eight blocks from the Pacific and its powdery sand beaches.

The day after Mom flew here, we went garage sale-ing to find her a bicycle.  We found a great one for 50 bucks (and then turned around two weeks later and sold it for $40- what a deal!)  We had some time to ride together, but she spent the majority of her days toting the pups in their Burley all around the "island", especially back and forth to the dog beach while I was working.

 The pups always LOVE when their grandma is with them!

I am so behind on blogging but I hope to be able to catch up sometime soon...
Thanks for checking in on us!

Where in the world are Lynn & Matt?

Its been a while and many have wondered where we have been...



...at a beautiful Hawaiian waterfall?







...at a tropical botanic garden?







...at a historic medival castle?







...on a beautiful beach with a view?

Any guesses where we are?

...

...







I bet you didn't guess

Matt and I acted like kids and enjoyed a round of minature golf a couple of months ago--I just never got around to posting the pictures.

Hiking

I am so far behind on my blog posting. Hopefully I'll take the time during my recovery to catch up on some of our California adventures!

Last month, on April 10th, Matt and I took an impromptu trip up the mountain for a little hike around the lake with the pups. Matt wanted to really hike, but I was more interested in taking pictures of our beautiful surroundings. The dogs loved playing fetch in the lake and I loved the light as the sun set behind the mountains. We didn't get much exercise but I hope you enjoy the view!

Spring has sprung!

It is springtime in California and we were so happy to see all of the beautiful surprises in our yard. I love this time of year and I dare to say that Spring in Southern California is second to none!


We have orange and lemon trees and some fruit we haven't figured out yet! (like, what is a pomelo?) The trees are still producing fruit and blooming again! The air smells sweet, really, that's not an exaggeration and bees are busy pollinating. We have the most perfect calla lilies--even more perfect than I have seen in a florist!

We have enjoyed our time outdoors--even doing yard work! Our couch potato pups have spent hours basking in the sunshine!

Mom's Visit - Temecula Wine Country

Mom's last weekend here we decided to go down to Southern California's wine country -- Temecula. Matt and I visited Temecula once in 2005 when I was living in San Diego and we were eager to go back!

The first winery we visited was (in my opinion, the best) Callaway Vineyard & Winery. We got there in time for a few samples, then their guided tour of the winery. After we sampled some more and bought a couple of bottles, we had a wonderful lunch at their restaurant Meritage.

We visited a couple of more wineries then made a trip downtown for some shopping-surprisingly we didn't buy anything else!

I was a wonderful way to end Mom's January visit! We hope she is booking another trip out here soon!

Happy Valentine's Day - 2009 in Review

Miller Family Newsletter – 2009 in Review

Wow – what a full year 2009 was! We were so busy we didn’t even get our family newsletter out by the end of the year! So, instead, we have included our note while wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Many of the changes we experienced this year anchored around Lynn’s graduate school work. In August, Lynn successfully completed the very challenging classroom portion of her Nurse Anesthesia program. As a result, we made preparations for the next step – her 16-month-long clinical rotation. She was excited to get back to taking care of patients and get out of the study chair where she was beginning to grow roots!

The exciting part for us both was that this next stage led us to move to sunny southern California. This meant packing up all of our things, selling our house, moving 1,363 miles in a Penske truck and finally settling in to a new home for the rest of 2009 and all of 2010!


Although Texas’ home market did better than most during the recession, just the process of selling our home was difficult. Our demanding and finicky buyers and the process of concluding the sale long distance from California made us truly appreciate all the incredible help from our family in getting us to the finish line! Laura helped us move our two cars, two dogs and moving truck out – an incredible feat itself (thanks Mom). We found a nice rental home with a backyard for the dogs in Highland, CA, about an hour and twenty minutes east of Los Angeles. Lynn is 10-15 minutes from work in the Loma Linda area and Matt is travel nursing at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Fontana about 20-25 minutes from home. Rossi and Chloe, our little dogs, are adjusting well. They love their backyard and bark at the neighbor’s dogs when they get the chance. We take them to a dog park nearby and Matt jogs the neighborhood with them to wear them out.

Our new neighborhood is very pretty. We are not far from the beaches of Orange County, the wineries of Temecula, the casinos of Las Vegas, the skiing and mountain hikes at Big Bear and the desert parks and rock climbing in Joshua Tree N.P. One reason we opted for California was because it would also give us a chance to be near our grandparents, LuLu and Bob Bob, and our aunt and uncle, Bob and Alice, in the Palm Desert. We even stopped by to see LL & BB in our moving truck on the way to Highland!


In March, Lynn and Matt went to Galveston, TX for their spring break and spent a week sailing boats to get certified as bareboat captains. We weathered the wet and cold and bonded with our new friends, passing all the tests by the end of the week. We dream of chartering a boat somewhere warm for a few days when school is over and work allows… : )


Lynn had major surgery on her knee this summer – a planned event but difficult and involved lots of family support and physical therapy. She progressed from hospital bed to couch, wheelchair to crutches and in a short period of time went back to school/work. We appreciate all of the doctors, the nurses, the physical therapists, the classmates who wheeled Lynn around and all the other family and friends that provided love (and even delicious food!) to speed her recovery. She is still going to PT twice a week, but can ascend and descend stairs and even gets exercise on the Christmas present her husband bought her – a shiny new bicycle. We know it is a long process and Lynn may need another “scope” in the spring to continue progressing, but we hold hope that all this effort will allow her a more pain-free lifestyle. Lynn even talks of skiing sometime in the future – although her orthopedic surgeon still cringes at the thought!


Sadness descended upon us all in September when Matt's grandmother, LuLu, got sick. We took her to the hospital, but after only a few days we lost her. If there was any blessing, it was that she did not suffer and that many of her family were able to talk with her and visit before she passed away. She is greatly missed and we think about her all the time.


Other big events this year included going to Sacramento, CA for my cousin Lydia’s wedding and going to Charlottesville, VA for my brother Charley’s wedding. We had the opportunity to see Lydia’s husband Scott again and talk with more of the Yomogida family. We enjoyed a beautiful ceremony, ate fancy sushi and listened to traditional drum music. It was a fun time and Lynn especially enjoyed taking pictures of the event.


Matt was the best man for his brother’s wedding. His duties included successfully navigating Charley’s bachelor party in Las Vegas with no lost souls and delivering a few speeches at the rehearsal dinner and reception. We had a fantastic time- such a beautiful fall day in Virginia, and had a lot of fun catching up with family from all over the country. My brother’s new wife, Kristen, has been like family for some time now, but it was wonderful to make it official.


Looking forward, we have a full year left in California with many new adventures. We have had a few visitors already – Laura, PJ & Peter, Peggy, Cameron, Charley, Bob Bob, Raj and Rob to name a few and we look forward to more friends and family coming out in 2010. To answer a few questions many family have been asking, 1) We don’t know quite yet whether we’re moving back to Texas, on to Colorado or staying in California until we figure out Lynn’s work, but we’re up for any and all adventures, and 2) speaking of adventures, we may start thinking and planning to add to the family once we get other plans sorted out. We’re excited to make the most of our 2010, and look forward to hearing about your plans for this year as well. See our new address below and drop a line or give us a call so we can catch up!

Lots of love and Happy Valentine’s Day,

The Miller's