Birthdays and other celebrations

August and September 2011 were busy but fun months for the Hood household. We saw a few concerts (Ryan saw Muse at Lollapalooza and we both saw Incubus), attended a few work (Megan's) parties, and generally enjoyed the end of the summer in Chicago. We had a great time visiting Mom and Dad Hood (and their pup, our "sister" Zoey) in Bar Harbor in late August despite having to wait out a hurricane- luckily we had boat rides and Maine lobster meals to keep us busy. Labor Day weekend was a fun one, as Megan hit her 30th birthday and held a co-celebration with her friend from high school, Katie Herting. Her birthday also coincided with the first Notre Dame game of the year, which was a strange one, not only due to the unfortunate loss but also because a major thunderstorm caused an evacuation of the stadium at halftime (thank goodness for the hospitality of the Linebacker!). The next weekend Megan tested her old bones by running her first half-marathon, along with her birthday buddy Katie and with Ryan supportively cheering from the sidelines. After taking a week for her body to recover from the race, Megan flew out to Big Sur, CA for her cousin Kate Goldsich's beautiful wedding, where she had a wonderful time with the Desmond side of her family (and got to see Jeff hard at work in his long white coat- officially a doctor!). Cousin Ali started her freshman year at ND (a proud Farley girl) and Claire began her graduate program at Maryland- we are very excited for both of them! Notre Dame football has caused some emotional moments for us so far this season, and we're only 4 games in. Ryan has attended both home football games, with more to come. Go Irish!

Summer 2011

Wow, all of the sudden it's almost August! June and July were exciting months for us as it has been a busy busy summer.

June started off with some big career activities for both Megan and Ryan. Megan submitted her first NIH grant, which was a huge relief. In bigger news, Ryan finished his fellowship interviews and chose to accept a prestigious 1-year cardiovascular anesthesia fellowship at Texas Heart in Houston, which starts in late summer 2012. Unfortunately this means that Megan and Ryan will likely be apart for a year while Ryan is away, so they will both look forward to adding up frequent flier miles that year.

After all of that exciting news, it was perfect timing for the much anticipated Markey family trip to San Francisco and Hawaii! We had an amazing time checking out Jeff's "spacious" studio apartment in San Fran and exploring the city. Ryan even found an In and Out Burger to explore.


We sadly left Jeff behind in San Fran to head to beautiful Maui, where we had an incredible vacation that included snorkeling, hiking, film festival watching, and other exciting activities. It was a WONDERFUL trip and we couldn't be more grateful to Mom and Dad Markey for the great time. Thanks guys!




After returning from our exotic Hawaii trip, it was back to business as usual in Chicago for a few weeks. Megan and Ryan started running more regularly, with Megan beginning training for her first half marathon (Sept 11!) and Ryan being a very supportive spouse. We enjoyed a relaxed 4th of July holiday, including attending a house warming party for our friends Brooke and Mike. Megan decided it was time for more traveling, so she left Ryan as a single dog parent for 2 1/2 weeks while she enjoyed a great trip to Tennessee to visit with Notre Dame friends (including her friend Katie's two adorable sons!) for a weekend, then spent 2 weeks at a research training sponsored by the NIH in Warrenton, Virginia. Ryan celebrated his birthday with Loyola and ND friends at his favorite gourmet burger place, Kuma's and (later) began training for his fall soccer league with a work friend, Dan. Ryan also made a trip to South Bend for Grandma Buersmeyer's big birthday party and had a great time with the fam, including a trip to see the new Harry Potter movie.

As July comes to a close we are happy to have the family back together in Chicago and hoping that the crazy heat that has hit this summer is nearly behind us. More updates to come!

Where did May go?

This month flew by quickly! Likely because it included a number of short trips for a variety of reasons. Megan was in Washington, DC at the start of the month for a psychology conference. This trip ended up being more social than educational, as she got to see family (the lovely Claire Hood), college friends (Lauren, Train, and Colleen), grad school friends (Aaron and Lauren), AND internship friends (Karen and Nini). Hopefully they didn't get sick of her, because she'll be back in DC in July for 2 weeks!

The next weekend we traveled to Cincinnati to visit St. Louis friends Lesley, Anna, and Luke, plus their dogs Cookie and and Charlie, for a Kentucky Derby-themed party. Derby outfits were in full effect, and the weekend was a great one. The next weekend Tyke and Callie enjoyed another visit with Cookie when she came to Chicago with Lesley for a family wedding and stayed with us.

Over Memorial Day weekend we were back in the Cincinnati area for the beautiful wedding of Ryan's co-resident Kristin at her childhood home - complete with Skyline chilidogs at the end of the night. We hosted a Memorial Day party at our house later that weekend, and had a great time playing cornhole and catching up with friends.

This was also the month of graduations. Though we weren't able to celebrate all of them, we wished happy thoughts for Jeff's graduation from medical school, cousin Ali's graduation from high school, and our friends Mike and Gimpy's graduations from law school.

The start of June is gearing up to be very busy (with Ryan interviewing for and deciding on a fellowship position, and Megan submitting an NIH grant), with a VERY fun reward if we can make it to the 10th (San Francisco and Hawaii with the Markeys!). Looking forward to posting some tropical pictures soon!

Spring Breakin'

April was a very tough month for us. Ryan worked a whole two weeks. We got stuck in an all-inclusive resort in Cozumel, Mexico. We marked 3 years of marriage. And we spent time with the Buersmeyer clan. Rough times! :o)

Seriously, we had a good month. We had a wonderful time in Mexico with some of Ryan's fellow Loyola residents, including one couple that got engaged the first night we were there! We relaxed at the resort most of the time, though we ventured out to explore the island and get authentic Mexican food one day. All around a good time.

We also got to see a lot of our Buersmeyer family for the spring Blue/Gold Notre Dame game (where Ryan proposed 5 long years ago!). We brought the pups along, and they got to meet their "aunt" Zoey! Grandma and Grandpa B were nice enough to host all of us for the weekend. Other than the typical South Bend weather (cold and rainy), it was a great weekend, and it ended with a delicious anniversary dinner at the Chicago Firehouse with the fam.

We are recovering from a nice Easter that involved lots of sweets (Megan) and soda (Ryan) following a long 40 days of Lent. We spent lunch with some Notre Dame friends in Chicago, then celebrated the Blackhawks win at night.

Keeping our fingers crossed that warmer weather is up ahead soon!

March was a mad month

March seemed to fly by for the Hoods in Chicago - mostly because we have been counting down to our upcoming trip to Cozumel, Mexico. As we waited for warm weather, Megan watched the Chicago river turn green on St. Patty's day and we enjoyed watching KU and ND win a few March Madness games (too few games, but it was fun while it lasted). Ryan is loving his new technology toy (the ipad 2!) and happy to be nearing the end of his month working on the ICU, which included two weeks of working nights. Megan is similarly pleased to have recently submitted a grant application and have 3 journal articles accepted for publication. Ryan's applications for fellowship should be out in the mail soon - keep your fingers crossed for us!

Our families are making us proud yet again. Jeff found out the exciting news that he will be living in San Francisco for the next 5 years, after he matched to his top choice, the very competitive UCSF for ENT residency. And Laura recently published an article in the KU law journal! Writing is apparently in the family, watch out for that Markey family tell-all book coming out soon. On the Hood side, we were very excited to find out that Ryan's cousin Ali Buersmeyer will be heading to Notre Dame in the fall! We look forward to becoming Ali's "old cousins that are trying to relive college" for the next four years.

In other Markey news, the family trip to Hawaii in June is now in the planning stages! Should be a fun spring/summer for us. We'll keep ya posted :)

Nerdy and Cheesy

Sorry for the delay in supplying an updated post from us. February was fairly mellow around here. Ryan was studying for a big test (completed as of last weekend!) and Megan was immersed in research (leading a weekly mindfulness-based stress reduction group and prepping a few grant applications). Between all this nerdiness, we did manage to have some fun! Ryan whipped up an impressive chicken for Valentine's day after we recovered from a rich chocolatey brunch at Hot Chocolate the day before. Megan's February dinner club went to Melting Pot, a delicious fondue restaurant that is motivating us to break out that fondue pot we got from the wedding so long ago. We also got to enjoy a fun weekend with our friend Lauren Chamblee, who came to town for a weekend before moving to Washington DC for work. On another note, after folding and trying to find space for Ryan's ever-expanding t-shirt collection, Megan got started on a t-shirt quilt, and even after 13 shirts the collection remains a little out of control.

We've been extra proud of our siblings lately. Claire recently found out that she will be attending the University of Maryland for graduate school in the fall! We are so excited and happy for her, and can't wait to visit soon. In case you've missed updates from Jeff's recent adventure, we recommend you check out his blog about his trip to Africa (http://jeffmarkey.blogspot.com/), which allowed to us live vicariously through him for a month. If there is a Pulitzer for blogs, this would win it. We're also anxiously awaiting to hear about his residency match results next week (3/17). And Laura continues to be a great mom to little mutt Oliver, we miss them both!

Here's hoping the weather warms up soon!

Chicago Blizzard 2011

The crazy Chicago weather has given both of us a mid-week snow day, so it seems like a good time for an update. We are near the end of Chicago's 3rd largest snowfall at 20 inches in about 24 hours. As you'll see from the pictures, we had fun being home and playing in the snow with the pups, though we are not looking forward to digging our cars out for work tomorrow...
Our second visit with Jeff a few weeks ago was a good time, as expected. We even got him to sing the classic "We Are Family" (making his mother and aunts proud). He is now off in Zanibar, fighting 90 degree weather as we combat single digit temperatures in Chicago.
Megan's visit to Hoboken last weekend to see her friend Katelyn was a BLAST, as they got to explore the fun New Jersey neighborhood and ventured into the Big Apple for a bit too (see the pic with the Empire State Building in the background for proof). Megan and Katelyn discovered New York's oldest bar, McSorley's, where your beverage choices are either light beer or dark beer.
Despite our previous post about our Mexico diet, a snow day calls for homemade cookies. Off to bake!

The start of a new year...

2011 has started off well for the Hood family, as we work on bouncing back into a routine after enjoying wonderful Christmas celebrations with each side of our family. Ryan started the new year at the hospital, including being a part of the delivery of the first baby in Chicago in 2011 (delivered at 12:00:01!) while Megan celebrated with a group of fun girl friends (including Katie, Rachel, Angie, and Louise). New Years day involved watching a lot of football in our neighborhood with friends from Loyola, who happen to be the same group of people we will be traveling with to Cozumel in April for an Anesthesia conference (travel plans have officially been booked!). Other trips we are looking forward to include Megan's trip to Hoboken, NJ to see Katelyn at the end of January and a Markey family trip somewhere exotic (possibly Hawaii) in June. We can already tell it's going to be a rough year for us!
Speaking of Markeys, we've been lucky enough to get to spend 2 weekends in January with Jeff as he makes stops in Chicago on the ENT residency interview trail. He interviewed at 3 sites in Chicago, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he may be joining us in the windy city this summer. Of course that will be after he travels to Africa to deliver babies in February (he has a very boring life).
Probably the most exciting news of the month is that Ryan found out that he will be the co-chief of his anesthesia residency program next year! This is a big honor, and we are excited for his reign to start in the late Spring. One of the main roles of this position will involve creating the schedules for anesthesia residents, so while we would never encourage him to abuse his power, we are crossing our fingers that maybe he'll get some time off around the holidays this year... :)
Everyday things continue to go smoothly as well. Megan is teaching medical students interviewing skills (how to take a sexual history was the theme this term, always a little tricky) and preparing to begin leading a research-based group stress reduction intervention in February, in addition to seeing her usual patients. The dogs are healthy and doing well, if not a little bored due to the frigid weather outside. Though some recent heavy snows did lead to fun times running around in the park, including Callie learning "agility skills" on the jungle gym with Ryan.
Random notes from the month and requests for tips:
-We received Inception for Christmas, which reminded us what a great movie it is. Highly recommended.
-Megan is working on catching up on classic novel reading this year (Slaughterhouse Five and Catch-22 done so far, with some Jane Austen waiting in the wings). She's thinking of working through this list, but if you have any favorite classics that you recommend, she'd love to hear about them!
-Megan and Ryan have both begun our "Mexico diet" in preparation for our trip to Cozumel in April, which primarily consists of boosting our fruits and veggies and eating in more often (we apologize if we are a little cranky, probably means we haven't been getting enough carbs). If you have any favorite healthy/low-cal recipes, we'd love to know about them. We'll keep track of the ones we try at the bottom of the page.
Hope your year is going well so far!