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!