My New Love

There's something that has come into my life lately that I can't stop thinking about. Playing with. Talking about.

I got a new fancy pants camera and I want to shout from the rooftops! I love it so much! And I will totally forgive it for being a little hard to learn because it makes me so happy.

I have to thank my very willing model. He puts Gisele Bundchen to shame and he knows how to "find his light" :)

Bridal Shower

Last weekend I hosted a bridal shower for my friend Rachael who lives in Oklahoma. She is getting married in October! The couple loves to cook so I used a little bit of a cooking theme. My mom drove down with me to help me put the shin-dig together!

We don't travel light! Ha!

We had our car loaded down with stuff for the party: food, serving dishes, decorations, gifts, and lions and tigers and bears.

Here are the fresh flower arrangements we put together for centerpieces. We did a black, white and green theme so we had fake limes and pears from Hobby Lobby in the jars. And I love hydrangeas. LOVE them.

Instead of a guestbook I decided to have all the women sign a personalized apron for the bride. I thought it was more practical than an old fashioned guestbook and also went with our cooking theme!

We had a really beautiful spread for cake and food.

We had a lot of fun. Congrats again, Rach!

Life as a Medical School Wife

It has been on my mind lately to do a post where I share about having a spouse in Medical School. Joe graduated in May 2009 so we are still pretty fresh from him being in school!

Basically, Joe decided to stay near where we did our undergraduate work to go to Medical School. I think part of that reason was because I was still a student so I wouldn't be able to re-locate with him if he moved. But he loved the campus and he was impressed with the staff when he interviewed.

One of my favorite parts of the beginning of Medical School for Joe was when he had the White Coat ceremony where they gave them their first white coat and the students took their first oath. It was such a big moment in his career and I had seen how hard he had worked to get to that point. 

I don't know if it's the same for every school - well, actually I know it's not - but for Joe the first two years of school were almost entirely in the classroom or lab and the last two years were almost entirely clinical. I can remember when he'd have lab days when they'd work on the cadaver and he'd come home smelling really RIPE. Ha! I bet a lot of you can relate!

About midway through Medical School Joe really started to think about what he wanted to do his residency in. At first he thought he might like Neurosurgery so he did several rotations in both Neurology and Surgery and decided he didn't like being in clinic so he chose Anesthesiology (say that five times fast) because that meant he could do procedures all day in the OR. I guess he liked knocking people out! Ha!

My advice to anyone with a significant other in medical (or dental, or pharmacy or whatever! :) school would be to take the Step Exams seriously, do lots of rotations in many different things and also consider lifestyle when choosing a speciality.

I have to say though, I still feel like I have no idea what he's talking about or doing most of the time. If he can relate things back to Grey's Anatomy I'm usually pretty good but I'm more of a numbers girl and most medical things gross me out! Ha!

If you have a significant other in the medical field - please link up because I think it's awesome to hear how others have gone through the schooling.

Happy Friday :)

Hair-umentary

I've been wanting to do a "Hair-umentary" for a while now and I finally decided to go through all my old pictures and put them up!

My hair has always been just about BLACK - I've had it highlighted a couple of times but almost every single time it turns out orange because it's so difficult to lift the color. I would love to be a blonde or redhead but I guess I'll have to wait until I have white hair so I can dye it then! Ha!

I was born with a full head of black hair (and also looking a little Asian, no?)

As a toddler, my mom kept my hair in the Dorothy Hammil, even though it was about ten years after it became popular.

As I got a little older my mom let me grow it out with some bangs and we discovered the love of pigtails!

Sometime around the age of ten my mom decided to give my sister and I both a poodle perm and I'm sad to say I don't know where those pictures are. We would get gum and combs stuck in it. This was long before dreadlocks were in fashion, so basically I had a year-round rat's nest on top of my head.

In Junior High I finally decided to start growing my hair out, and honestly, I haven't had it short since.

By the time I was in High School, I had long hair that I would wake up early and curl with my hot rollers.

In college, I lived with a frizzy ponytail.

Or I just left it down and frizzy.

But then I discovered the Chi flat iron. It was a hair revolution!!

I had a short stint as a redhead (wig!).

Then, Reese Witherspoon showed up at the Oscars with bangs and my world was changed. I immediately cut some bangs into my hair!

I went back and forth between having short, blunt bangs and then hating them and growing them out. That's been the story of my life for about the last five years!

Currently, my hair is about the longest it's ever been. I'm sure it won't be long before I go back to some bangs and I'd like to chop some of the length off again. Stay tuned! Ha!

A Few Things

1. It rained so hard here last night that Boomer got so scared he busted through the zipper of his crate! Poor dog!! That means it's going to be an overcast day and I love it because it makes me think Fall is around the corner :) I'm so ready to bust out my sweaters! When do y'all do the closet switch-eroo??

2. I'm so excited because my Mom is coming to visit me this weekend and she's going to help me host a Bridal Shower on Sunday - you know I'll have pictures for you next week!! :) I'm doing a green-black-white color scheme and since the bride and her fiancee love to cook, I did the invitations in a cooking theme.

3. My calendar has never been so full in my life! I was definitely not one of those "over-scheduled" kids and as an adult I have a small number of close friends rather than a big group of acquaintances (are you like that too?). Anyway, I've never really been that busy. Until now! I have every weekend booked for the next month! I don't know whether to celebrate or go hide under a rock! Ha!

My 5th appendage, a Moleskine planner :)

Happy Tuesday!

Medical Wife

I have been thinking for a while that I'd like to do a blog link-up where medical spouses can share their stories and experiences as having a spouse in the medical field. Having a significant other in the medical field is definitely unlike any other profession because you deal with long hours, low salaries, lots of debt, losing patients, calls at all hours, moving for school, residency or a job... and the list goes on! I'm definitely proud of my husband for being a physician but it's not for the weak of heart! Ha!

So this  

Friday, August 27th I'm going to talk about our journey through medical school

and next 

Friday, September 3rd I'm going to talk about our journey (so far!) through residency!

I REALLY hope if you are a medical spouse you will join me because I love hearing how everything worked out for others!

I also felt like I needed to add that I know it sounds like I'm complaining about being a medical wife - but I promise I'm not! I know we are very blessed that Joe was given this opportunity and also that it took a lot of hard work on his part, not mine! (I can't even remember how many bones are in the human body! Ha!) I also know that every career is just as important and equally has it's own unique challenges. :)

First Day of School

I had my first two classes yesterday and it went great! In the second class the instructor made us go around and introduce ourselves and say what kind of graduate degree we are getting. Don't you HATE when you have to do that? The whole time you're not even listening to the other people because you're planning your script in your head of what you're going to say when it's your turn! Ha!

Here's what I wore:

Now for a complete switch of topics. I've been wanting to do a blog post on my experience with having a spouse in medical school and now in residency. I love reading blogs of other medical spouses because it's a career path with unique challenges. Also, I know several of the people who read this blog have a spouse or significant other in the medical field. So I'm going to do a link-up where you can share about your medical school and residency experience. I'll post more details on Monday but I hope you participate! :)

Happy Friday!!!

Five Dollar Bed Update and Other Stuff

I wanted to show you how my five dollar bed turned out! This might be my best garage sale bargain yet - it's antique and solid wood. I was so glad to paint it and replace the gross futon we had in our office. I hope I'm not the only one who still has their futon from college - but after eight years it was time for it to go!! Ha!

I think it turned out pretty cute. I didn't have it fixed up too much for this picture because I snapped this right before we had someone sleep on it. Last night my in-laws and brother-in-law stayed the night on the way to Oklahoma to move him in for college. Boomer Sooner!

Also, I have to report that I have lied to you. Inadvertently. I've said in several blogs that I hate baths and I honestly felt pretty strongly about it. I hated the idea of sitting in my own filth. But truth be told, I've turned to the dark side and I've started picking up bubble baths and bath accessories lately. I'm so ashamed to admit it, but I love my bath time! Ha!

Speaking of the bathroom, I think I'm going to try to talk Joe into painting it. I have been loving gray so much lately so I went to Home Depot and got a couple samples. What do you think? Is gray too cold for a bathroom??? I know most people paint bathrooms blues and greens so gray might be a little "out there" but maybe it could work? All of our tile and counters are browns so maybe I need something warmer? Help a girl out!

Today is my first day of graduate school so if you think about it, send me good vibes this afternoon! I hope I find all my classes and don't embarrass myself by showing up in my underwear (given the nightmare I had last night! Ha!)

Happy Thursday!

Book Club

A couple weeks ago my friend Shawna and I decided to start a book club. It's one of those things we've been talking about for years and just never did. Please tell me you do the same thing, and I'm not the only one who procrastinates on planning fun stuff like book clubs or vacations. Anyway, we decided to meet twice during the course of this Fall because we're just getting our literary feet wet, and plus, I live in Kansas and we're getting together at my Mom's house in Missouri. So we picked a book, The Secret Life of Bees, and I designed some invitations that went out in the mail last week.

Actually, choosing a book was the hardest part of the entire process because we decided we wanted something:
a) 300 pages or less
b) something that had chapter discussion questions (in the Secret Life of Bees there's some printed in the back of the book - score!)
c) a book we had never read before
d) and the author had to be available to sit with us over tea to discuss her work. Oh I'm kidding, I'm not Oprah.

So, our little club meets for the first time in about a month! Have any of you read this book? Are you active in a book club?

Fall Wish List

My first day of graduate school is one week from today and I'm in full SCHOOL mode. Which to me, really only means school shopping! Ha! Here are some things I'm hoping to get to touch up my Fall wardrobe...

1. A boyfriend blazer a la the Kardashian sisters. I love the 80s vibe and the rolled sleeves.

2. Some ankle booties that are pretty simple and easy to walk in!

3. A chunky new scarf. There's no better Fall/Winter accessory!

4. A new tote bag that I can double as a backpack and purse.

5. Black chunky cage or gladiator heels. To wear with skinny jeans and that boyfriend blazer!

6. A leopard coat. Oh yes.

7. A new watch. Last year I wore my white ceramic one through Winter but this year I want to switch to something more Fall-ish.

What are you wishing for this Fall?