Trip pics

Aaron and I at the airport before the trip - you have no idea how hard it is to get him to pose for a picture!



At the East Beach Grill where we ate breakfast - I had wheat germ pancakes there!



Rachael and I at Stearn's Wharf



Aaron and Rachael at the wharf



At the beach by Rachael and Justin's apartment



Sanford Winery north of Santa Barbara



Beautiful vineyards by the Sanford winery - gorgeous!



Joann cutting my hair



Something's Fishy - good sushi!



Outside the MGM Grand - we stayed in the MGM Signature Suites which are attached to the MGM Grand



By a Picasso at the Picasso restaurant in Bellagio

Mid-trip update sans photos...

Today is our last day in Santa Barbara - time flies! We have had a fantastic time here and we have done lots of things. I will post some pictures once we get home - I don't have the transfer cord with me right now. Anyway, Rachael and Justin have been wonderful hosts - they picked us up from the Santa Maria airport on Friday evening and drove us into Santa Barbara for some late dinner at the Brew House. On Saturday they gave us a tour of Santa Barbara, beginning with breakfast at a cafe on the beach (who knew wheat germ pancakes could be so good???), a trolley ride to Stearn's Wharf, the farmer's market, and a tour of State Street. In the evening we went to Bouchon, a French restaurant which is hidden away behind bushes so you'd never know it was a restaurant when you walk by it on the street! Very good food, good ambiance. Saturday evening we went over to David and Joann's house (friends of Rachael and Justin) to hang out on their patio - they are really nice! On a side note, the weather here is lovely - pretty much moderate all the time. On Sunday we went to a movie (do not see Stepbrothers even if someone will pay you to go... :)), then went to church, then to Palapa for very good Mexican food and margaritas. Monday evening we met up with David and Joann again for happy hour at the Hollister brew house, then we went over to their house again for stuffed peppers (very tasty :) ). Tuesday, Aaron and I drove around to four different wineries/vineyards to do wine tastings. It was beautiful driving - we headed up on highway 101 which is right by the ocean and next to the mountains - beautiful! We went to the Firestone Vineyard (all of you Bachelor fans may recognize the name), the Roblar winery, the Sunstone winery, and the Sanford winery. They are near different small towns, so it was fun to drive through all of them - some are quite tourist-y, like Solvang that has windmills and Dutch architecture. The great thing about the wine tasting is that you pay $10 and get to taste 6-8 different wines, then you get to keep the wine glass! Anyway, Tuesday evening we had Indian food at the All India Cafe - some of the best we've had. Excellent naan! Then we hung out with Rachael and Justin - played some Phase 10 (we've played a lot of Phase 10 this trip! :) ) and opened one of the bottles of wine we got at Sunstone. Today Aaron, Justin, and I went to Cajun Kitchen for breakfast (more wheat germ pancakes - different than the other cafe, not quite as good but still tasty). I got my hair cut this morning by Joann - you'll have to wait for pictures, but it's short! :) I like it alot, but I don't recognize myself yet in the mirror. We met up with Rachael for lunch at Something's fishy, a sushi bar. Really good spicy yellowfin roll and at half price! Nice! :)
So that is the trip so far - I am waiting for the laundry to get done so I can finish packing. Tonight we go back to Vegas - it's kind of weird to leave Santa Barbara and yet not be going home. Hope you are all having a good week!

Leavin' on a jet plane...

Aaron and I are leaving very soon to go to Las Vegas and then Santa Barbara!!! We are so excited!!! Our flight leaves tonight at 8:30 for Las Vegas - we are very excited to fly into the city at night to see the city lights. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update along the way, but we'll see!

Girls day

Yesterday my mom and grandma came down to Iowa City for a girls day. We went shopping - found some great deals for Grandma :). We had lunch at Quinton's, which is where this picture is at. I think it was a hit. :) Later in the evening we met up with Aaron, my dad, and Tyler at Biaggi's in Cedar Rapids (which took forever to get seated, but they comped us appetizers to make up for it!). It was a very good day!

Happy Birthday Rachael!!!

Tomorrow (Monday) is my sister-in-law's birthday - Happy Birthday Rachael!!! Hope you have a fantastic birthday and we are so excited to see you on Friday!!!

I'm still alive :)

I haven't blogged in awhile, I know. Here are a few updates for what has been going on with us lately. I painted the living room and kitchen recently with the help of my mother-in-law, and now it is "Lime Granita" - light green. :) I really like how it turned out. The living room used to be a golden yellow color which I never really loved even though I picked it out! Sometimes paint just doesn't quite turn out how you pictured it in your head. So after two years of living with the yellow, I am much happier with the green. I think it brightens up the room and makes it feel bigger. The kitchen used to be red (it was a bear to paint - it took three to four coats to keep it from looking magenta!) and I loved the red. However, with the oak cabinets and the 80's floors it made it feel kind of old, and again it made it feel darker and smaller. The green makes the kitchen feel really big, which was the first impression we had when we looked at this house to begin with. I think it was one of the major selling points for us! So I am happy how it has turned out. Now I need to look into some curtains for both the living room and kitchen... darn. :)



On a different note, Aaron's sister Rachael and her husband Justin came back to visit this past weekend.


They came back to Iowa City for five days, and then they are off to Davenport to see Justin's sister's new baby boy. While they were here we celebrated Rachael's birthday and I made her birthday cake - red velvet cake with pecan coconut cream cheese frosting. The cake was from my Grandma Trunnell's recipe, and the frosting was a Paula Dean recipe and I think they went well together. I told Aaron I may have missed my calling in life since I really like to bake things! (I could never make it as a baker - they get up way too early!) Here is the birthday cake...


I also made the cake with the traditional frosting too. I have to say, after trying both it is hard to decide which is better. I think it depends on what you are in the mood for.


Anyway, I had to throw in some pictures of Aaron and his dad making the pizza we had for Rachael's birthday dinner. It was really good! Pizza margarita (maybe that's not how you spell it) with homemade tomato sauce, homemade pizza dough, fresh mozzerella, and fresh basil (from the planter on my deck :) - it's ridiculous how much that little basil plant has grown!).



Well, it has been a good summer so far - I'm excited that I still have a few weeks left before I have to go back to school. We'll be heading out to California in August to see Rachael and Justin, and then we'll spend a few days in Vegas after that. We're excited for that! Hope you all are having a good summer!

busy night!

Tonight I worked at Redhead, waiting tables. We were super busy at one point tonight - the restaurant was almost full and I was working on my own tonight! Kim, the owner/chef had to help me run drinks and get orders in, and one of the regulars wrote up her own ticket so I didn't have to take their order! It wasn't too crazy except for that one point in time because about 5 different tables came in within about 10 minutes of each other! When people come in, I have to get their drink orders, get drinks, go through the specials, get their meal orders, and put those in to the kitchen all within about the first 10 minutes they are there. So that's where it tends to get backed up... :) However, with all the chaos, I doubled my normal Tuesday night tips so I can't complain!
I think I'm starting to get better which is good. My voice is coming back and I felt fine at work tonight. So yay. :)
Hope you all are having a great week!

Aaron's Birthday...

So I have never put any video on the blog so this is a test run... Happy Birthday Aaron!

Fourth of July weekend

Aaron and I had a good fourth of July weekend - we went to Guttenberg and saw most of my family (except my sister and her family who were off exploring South Dakota I believe?). It was not exactly how I would have wanted to spend the fourth, though, because I was sick! July 3rd I woke up with a bad headache and just felt miserable. Then, that evening I felt warm so I took my temp and it was 99.8 or something like that. On a whim I decided to check it a again, and it was 100.1. Uh oh! So I kept checking it and it went all the way up to 101 - while I was taking 800 mg of ibuprofen! Not good... The day of the fourth Aaron and I worked - he at the Marriott and I at Redhead, waiting tables. I made some good money, but then I was pooped out! We stopped at Wal-mart before we headed out of town, and I bought a new camera (the dogs basically ruined the old one). I'm a big fan of Kodak - they are so easy to use, they take nice pictures, and when you push the button to take the pictures, there is very little delay. So our new camera is the Kodak Easyshare M763, and I hope I like it as much as our old Kodak camera. Anyways, this is good news for you, my fellow blog readers, because now I have pictures to post to break up the monotony of words. :)

This is sick Megan, but the proud wife who made "dirt dessert" for her husband's birthday (we celebrated it early this past weekend with my fam). In hindsight, 6 packages of instant pudding should have raised red flags as to the amount of "dirt dessert" that it would make, but really, can you ever have too much dessert???

This is happy Aaron, very excited that his sick wife actually made dirt dessert for his birthday. :)

Aaron asked for a Honda VTX 1300 motorcycle many times for his birthday this year - somehow that doesn't quite fit in the birthday budget, but I think Mom and Dad had the right idea here... :) Someday, babe...

I have never seen a kid enjoy sweet things as much as my nephew Conner! As we were getting ready to sing happy birthday and then dish out the dessert, he would pull out a gummy worm and eat it, then another one. His brother Kyle didn't want anything to do with the gummy worms, but Conner said,"I like those worms!"

This is Conner eyeing the rest of the family getting dessert... Are they getting something I don't have??? I thought this was such a cute face.

Grandma says I need to get home more to see her. She's probably right. :) I think she is feeling much better because she was up and around all the time, doing dishes, folding laundry, playing with the kids. This is a good picture of her.
Anyways, it was a good weekend, and I did alot of sleeping and laying low to try to get rid of this bug. It drove me crazy all weekend because I lost my voice on the way to Guttenberg on Friday night, and I still don't have it back yet! (probably because I keep on talking :) ) Today is good for my voice because I'm home alone while Aaron's at work - the only ones I can talk to are Chewie and Reuben, and right now they are both napping. Speaking of Reuben and Chewie...

We've been driving all of our long trips in the car since the gas got to be about $4 a gallon, so Reuben has adapted to life in the back of the car (the seats fold down and open up to the trunk). His new favorite place to nap is in the trunk! He is a good car dog. Chewie, on the other hand...

not such a good car dog. He fights going to sleep - this is proof of that! I think he is worried he will miss out on something if he goes to sleep in the car.
Well, that was our weekend! This weekend is officially Aaron's birthday, so we'll have to see what I can come up with to surprise him a little. He always figures out what he's getting for his birthday, so I'll have to be tricky! :)
Hope you all have a good week!

It's officially summer!

Well, atleast that's how it feels. I'm sweaty right now because I went for a run this morning and then when I got home, Chewie smelled my shoes and he knew I had been outside... So he had to go for a run/walk too. Now I'm pooped! Poor Reuben - I think he could really do without walks altogether, but I would feel bad leaving him behind. Yesterday I took them on a really long walk - so long in fact that I brought them a bowl and a bottle of water so they could get a drink halfway through! Reuben ended up laying down about 5 times on the way back home from that walk. It was pretty funny - he would find a shady spot and just plunk down, like he was saying "I give up! I'm stopping right here and you can't move me!" So it took awhile to get home - I tried to tell him he could lay down in the AC sooner if he would not stop so many times, but you just can't reason with him. :) Today we went on a shorter walk than yesterday, so he only pooped out on me once. About 50 yards from our house. Again, you just can't reason with him.
Anyway, I think tonight we are having some friends over and are grilling out - reason #2 why it is officially summer. Yay for brats! :) Hope you are all having a good summer!

Strawberry shortcake!

I got home from school today and was watering my plants on the deck when I noticed some lovely red berries peaking out from the strawberry patch in the backyard. This is the second year I've had the strawberries, and they are doing pretty well this summer! I picked a cereal bowl full of strawberries today, so I decided to make some little Bisquick shortcakes to go with them. Yummy! There is just no comparison to fresh-picked strawberries - the store-bought ones aren't nearly as sweet... and the ones I grow are free. :)
Anyway, I have three tests left and a project to turn in before I am done with school for the year. Can't wait to be done!

Da... Da Da Duh Dump!!!

Silly title, I know. :) I went to the dump today because I cleaned out the garage. Hurray for me! :) It's probably my least favorite area to clean out, but it was the area in most need so I pulled everything thing out (and I mean EVERYTHING!) of the garage and swept and knocked down cobwebs. Gross. Aaron built some shelves in the garage awhile ago but we never got things organized on them - now I've have all of my "categories" organized, like painting things on the same shelves, gardening things on another, sewing stuff, etc. If nothing else, we should be able to find things easier and save money because we won't give up and go to Wal-mart and buy a replacement!
Anyway, every time I go to the dump I feel guilty because I feel like it's our easy way out of dealing with the crap we accumulate over time. I think that we should all have to take our garbage to the dump because it would remind us of how wasteful we really are! All of the plastic we throw away just sits out there in the landfill, poisoning the earth. Not a pretty thing to think about. It makes me want to buy less and use less because the trash doesn't just go Poof! and disappear when I put it out on the curb on Sunday night. It gets added to the pile of trash and just sits there, conveniently out of town so we don't have to smell it! Aaron and I have bought the reusable bags to take with us when we grocery shop - we still have the plastic bags at home from previous shopping trips but I use those as poop bags for the dogs. Once those run out, I think I may bite the bullet and buy the biodegradable poop bags!
Well, hope you all are doing well! I have Saturday and Sunday left to get stuff done before my last week of classes hits me!

No school this week...

So the dental school higher-ups have decided that we will not start back to school this week, but will start back to school on Monday. I'm really interested to see how this all pans out next week! At this point I'm prepared to make up a week at the end of school, but the e-mail I got made it seem like they might try to cut things back a little. I'm not crossing my fingers. :)
I reorganized the two closets in the living room today, and I put up two shelves in the closet under the stairs. Now all of our board games and cards are all tidy up on the shelves. :) I guess I have the rest of the week to work on the rest of our closets!
Hope you all are doing well!

quick update

I went to the Marriott this morning for breakfast - the water is going down enough that you don't have to walk through water to get to it! Hurray! :) Hopefully the water will continue to go down fairly quickly so people can get back into their homes soon and see what kind of damage has been done.

The river has crested.

Good news for the Iowa City/Coralville area - the Iowa River has crested. The Marriott has not flooded inside, however Aaron has had to walk through a foot of water to get in to work since there is no parking inside of the water. Apparently the Marriott is going to become the FEMA headquarters and some secret service people will be staying there - I'm not sure how bright of an idea that is when the Marriott is completely surrounded by water and there's nowhere to park where you don't have to walk through nasty flood water... but whatever. I can't complain because my husband is still working!
I got an e-mail today from the high-ups at the dental school saying that we may actually go back to school on Thursday. Sounds great to me! I would love to get two days of school in this week - it means we have less school to make up in July! It's going to be pretty stressful these next few weeks because we have a lot of projects to complete and final exams.
Today was Aaron's day off of work and it was nice to have the day off with him! We got to sleep in, I made pancakes for breakfast, we lounged around for a little while, then had lunch with Aaron's mom, tried to get to the casino (turns out you can't get there from Lone Tree! :) ), went to the casino (I didn't win... per usual :) ), had dinner at Sam's pizza, saw some friends, got some ice cream, and now we're home! Definitely made the most of the day!
Tomorrow - I want to go through some of the closets in my house. I think that there will be clothing drives and such for flood victims, so hopefully I can pull out some things that other people will be able to use. The older I get, the less of a pack-rat I have become. I used to save everything in high school - I have several boxes at my parents house full of "stuff" that was important to me. Now, I feel like if it's in a box and I don't use it, it can't be that important to me! I mean, I'm still sentimental about photo albums and such, and I will always keep some stuff like that around because it's always fun to look back at where I've been. But I think I'm starting to realize that more stuff is not always better!
Well, hope you are all safe and dry!

Sandbagging

These pictures are of the Marriott and the shops and townhouses across the street- Aaron still had to go into work this morning, but he wasn't cooking! Yesterday and today he was sandbagging for work - poor boy is very sore! Today I joined him in sandbagging, though I was only there for about 5 hours. It really felt good to be sandbagging because I've felt like I haven't been able to help out in any way with all of the devastation going on. I think all of this flooding is emotionally straining - there are so many uncertainties, even without our house being damaged by it. Aaron's work is very nearly flooded - tonight we stopped by and you have to drive through six inches of water to get in the hotel. We are definitely concerned about his working there in the near future - if the Marriott floods, will it be shut down for weeks or months in the clean-up process? Even if it doesn't flood, there is going to be a huge amount of clean-up necessary just to clean up all of the sandbags that have been laid down! It's concerning that all of the employees at the Marriott could be out of work for awhile. Really, there are going to be tons of people out of work in eastern Iowa - it's hard to wrap my mind around it.
On a different note, I missed my 5 year high school reunion tonight. Not a huge hardship, but I'm definitely disappointed to not be able to make it back up to Waterloo and see some of my classmates. There are no roads I could take to get to Waterloo without having to at least double the trip time, and that's just not practical or safe. I'm kind of on house arrest for the next week as I can't leave the area and I don't have to go to school! :)
Well, that's about all for now. I need to put Aaron to bed as he has to be at work tomorrow at 5am. Business as usual.

Flooding update

This is a picture of the street where my classmate lives. She is very fortunate in that she up the hill about 15 feet higher than the water. We are hoping we don't get anymore water, although we will probably get atleast another 3 feet by Tuesday.
The University of Iowa has canceled classes for next week, so it's a blessing and a curse for us dental students. We would have only had two weeks left of school - now we will have atleast a week off and then probably have to finish up the two weeks after that.
Anyway, we are safe and dry right now. The power is still on and we still have water -life is good!

Flooding!

Aaron and I are very fortunate to live in an area of Iowa City that has not been affected by the flooding. However, we have been affected by the many different road closures, and it is up in the air whether Aaron will be able to go to work at the Marriott in the morning or not. It is very possible that by the morning the Marriott could be flooded! Even if it doesn't flood, the roads to get there may be closed. One of my classmates is staying with us tonight - she lives in Coralville near an area that is being evacuated. She doesn't think that her apartment will flood, but she may not be able to get there because of all the roads that will be closed. Another one of my classmates called and said that their power is out - I am hoping we don't have to deal with that but we'll see what happens! The water is supposed to continue to rise in Iowa City until sometime next week.
Another classmate of mine lives in Cedar Rapids and she was evacuated on Tuesday. She said that the water has risen above her basement and into the first floor of her house. She and her husband just bought the house a few months ago! So sad!
Anyway, I think the University should cancel classes just because it is going to be so difficult tomorrow for many people to get to class. I will be trying to take the bus in - hopefully it will still be running!
Hope you are all safe!

...

Life has been pretty busy lately, although you could argue that life is always busy! Tuesday was Aaron's and my second anniversary - we ended up both working at the restaurant. How romantic! :) Just kidding. :) There's not a whole lot to do on a Tuesday night for an anniversary, and we aren't very sentimental, so we are going to Des Moines this weekend. Lucky for us, Aaron gets really good discounts on Marriott hotels now that he is working there full time, so we got a good deal on a hotel near the Jordan Creek mall. We just want a chance to relax a little bit! Friday night we are going back to Cedar Falls for our friends' wedding - should be a good time! Yay for being married! :)
Anyhoo, I had a bit of a scare this morning. I was eating breakfast when I heard Reuben upstairs rolling around on some of the dirty clothes in a duffle bag (he loves laundry, crazy dog ;) ). I didn't think much of it - he likes to get them just right so he can nap on them. Well, I heard him come down the stairs and I heard the duffle bag coming down the stairs with him. I got up to see this because I thought maybe he was dragging it down with his mouth. Turns out he had put his head through one of the duffle bag straps, rolled around a little, and wound up the bag so that the strap was tight around his neck and tangled with his collar!!! So my poor little puppy was on the verge of strangling himself with the duffle bag strap! I managed to get him untangled very quickly, and he was just fine. But it makes me glad he decided to come downstairs and find mommy!
Well, I think my laundry is ready to come out of the dryer, so good night to you all!

Work, work, work!

I feel like that has been the theme lately in the Brummer household. Friday night I worked with Aaron at Redhead - I was the "floater," meaning I got waters for tables, bused tables, did whatever the servers needed, etc. Then Saturday morning/afternoon, Aaron and I worked there again for a private graduation party, this time I served drinks and bused tables, etc. Then last night, I filled in as a server for the first time - it was a really busy night! We started out fairly slow - I had one or two tables at a time, then 7 pm hit and we got so busy! I think I had five tables going at one point, which is a fairly overwhelming for the first time serving! It's really fun for me to work at the restaurant though, because I get to learn all about the restaurant business. Anyway, it was a good night and I was really tired when I got home! I tried to go to bed when I got home, but I could not fall asleep for many reasons: 1. I smelled. And I could smell myself. 2. My legs were throbbing 3. My mind kept running all the night's specials through my head : "Maple braised pork ribs with blah blah blah." It was like my brain was trying to memorize all the specials exactly as they were on the board! 4. I drank Diet Pepsi all night when I was working - dumb. So it was not the most restful night, but thank goodness for the long weekend! Poor Aaron, he still had to get up for work at five this morning. Again, back to the work theme... :)
Hope you all have a happy Memorial Day weekend!

Finals are done!

Well, they were done yesterday, but I am just now getting around to blog... :) I had my pharmacology final on Friday, then yesterday I had my pros final in the morning and radiology in the afternoon. Today I just had to show up for clinic in the morning, but I wasn't scheduled for a patient so I got to leave. I have 10 out of my 12 requirements done for clinic, so I'm a low priority for scheduling. I think they have a hard time scheduling the D2 clinic, which is sad because it's free! However, I understand how annoying it would be to have to come multiple times just to get a couple fillings done. Anyway, I had the afternoon off, so I worked out, did a little studying for tomorrow's endo class, and then hung out with Aaron. It's nice to be done with tests for awhile - nice to have a life again! I have six more weeks of class left, but there are only a few more tests - one next week and then a few at the end of the six weeks. One of the classes, esthetic dentistry, is only a lab once a week where we are just graded on the project we do that day - no tests! We are pretty excited about that one.
Anyhoo, I don't have class on Thursday or Friday - hurray! On Thursday I am getting a massage and facial, courtesy of my lovely husband in celebration of being done with finals! Thanks babe! Then on Friday I am heading up to Cedar Falls to hang out with my madre for the day - should be fun! Saturday morning I want to work outside a little, clean up the front yard since now it's warm enough to plant some flowers. Should be a good weekend! Hope you all have a great week!

What a sweetheart!

Aaron may kill me for posting this, but I just had to share my excitement! So last night Aaron and I were out at Target and I saw this dress there that I really liked. They had my size in black, but I really liked the blue color. So I decided that I would look online and see if I could maybe order it in blue - when I checked, it said that it would take 4-6 weeks before it would even ship! So I gave up on the dress, but I was still kind of sad because it was a cute dress!
Today I got home from school and sitting on the couch was the dress in blue and a coordinating little bag from Target! I don't know how Aaron found it, but he did! So sweet... Thanks babe!
Here's a pic of the dress...

IV day

Today we had our IV practical for our anesthesia class. It's funny how if you let yourself get so worked up about something, the anticipation is worse than the actual event! I think this was the case for most of my classmates and me - today was not a day I was looking forward to and it ended up being - dare I say? - fun! :) Well, one of my classmates fainted just watching someone else start an IV, but she's the same one that started crying when she had to have the nitrous for our last practical, and last year she cried when she had to have several shots for our local anesthesia course. So, I guess you could say she doesn't like to be the patient. Good thing she's going to be the doctor! lol
Anyway, I had a patient this morning who needed one of his top teeth filled. Normally, when I do a procedure one week and do something similar the next I get faster, but today was not the case! Everything went pretty well until it was time to get the tooth ready to be filled. There are bands you place around the tooth to hold the filling in as you shape it, and there are wedges you stick on both sides of the tooth if you are filling both sides of the tooth. The wedges are important because they keep the filling material from being pushed down into the gums around the teeth. So today as I was placing the second wedge to hold the band in place, the clamp that holds the band popped right out of my patient's mouth and onto the floor! Oops! :) So then I had to start over and it was still not working how I wanted it to... Finally the instructor had pity on me and modified it with one of his neat little tricks. Ah, experience... So from that point on it went well and my patient has a shiny new filling! :)

Rain, rain go away!

It's raining again. Yuck. It was raining this morning when I left for school, then it cleared up over the lunch hour so I thought I might get a run in this afternoon. Well, after I got home from my pharmacology test, it started to rain again, so no luck! It rained yesterday and earlier this week - it has even hailed several times this week! And the worst part is that the ground is so wet it just can't absorb anymore water! The grass in the backyard is so tall but we can't do anything about it because it's still so soggy! Oh, there goes the tornado siren! Lovely.
Anyway, the pharm test was difficult - it's kind of frustrating because I put more time in studying for these tests and my grade is not showing it! Oh well...
Hope you all have a good weekend!

New Bed!!!

So Aaron and I upgraded to a king size bed and we are super excited! I was very excited to pick out new bedding, however, it was very discouraging shopping for a new headboard because they are so expensive! We decided to make our own headboard (and by we, I mean Aaron :) ), so we picked out some fabric, bought a board and some egg crate, and voila! A head board! Well, I'm sure it was a lot of work for Aaron to get it to just the right height for the bed and then attach it to the bed frame, so maybe not quite voila and done... :) I'm really happy with how it turned out! I think it goes with the bedding very nicely (which is from Kohls - yay for sales :) ).

workin' girl

Since I've been in dental school I haven't worked anywhere - it's been kind of weird not working. I worked at the ambulance service in undergrad, but I quit there once I started dental school. I guess I sort of have a job through the tooth project at school, although I don't see the money! It just takes some money off of my school loans, which is still helpful.
Anyway, tonight Aaron called me up from work - apparently they were short on help for servers, so I helped out the two women who are the usual servers. I've never waited tables before, so I just did what they told me too... it was kind of entertaining to do something I've never done before! I might help out there again - maybe more in the summer... we'll see. If I get free sweet potato fries, I'm pretty sure they could convince me to come back! :)

Nitrous update...

That was an experience! I've never had nitrous before - definitely lucky in that way that I haven't had to have anything major done. Well, I had my wisdom teeth out, but I was completely under for that so I didn't have nitrous then I don't think. I think it could be really overwhelming for a patient to get a high concentration of nitrous all at once, but if you get to the right concentration it is pretty relaxing!
Kate, the "prereq" for nitrous was getting shots in the mouth which was not fun. Nitrous was much better! We have to put IV's in each other in two weeks, and I am not excited about that. I don't think it will be that nerve-wracking for me to do it to someone else, but I am not excited to be someone else's guinea pig! Or pin cushion??? :) I'm sure it'll hurt some, but I'm sure I'll survive.
On a different note, tonight we had one of my classmates and her husband over to play cards. We have a pretty easy week at school, so it's nice to be able to relax a little! It was a good excuse to get the kitchen and living room tidied up too. (Thanks honey :) ). We played 500, which is not a game I grew up with. I am so used to Pinochle that I often play the wrong card because I have a different mindset. However, the girls still won the first game so that is pretty great! The boys won the second game - I blame it on being tired... :) Nah, they are very good competition. :)
Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

happy Tuesday...

It's been rainy all morning, and I really wanted to turn off my alarm this morning and go back to sleep! However, one cannot do that when there is going to be a patient waiting for you bright and early... There are good and bad things about being in clinic more and class less - more clinic means you can't skip! :) I had a good appointment this morning - very easy, so I was done by 10. I get to see this patient again in May, which is nice because it feels more like how private practice will be. I have to say that the very best part about dentistry is meeting new patients and getting to know them. I have really enjoyed working with them and it is very rewarding when I am able to fix a problem for them. (and it's especially nice right now, because in the sophomore clinic most fillings are free! So I get to give them a new filling for free... pretty fantastic. :)). Anyways, I have radiology at 1, and then at 3 I have an anesthesia class. Today in anesthesia we are administering nitrous to each other- I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Doggie Drama

Just when I thought the dogs were getting past some of their territory/dominance/aggression issues... Chewie and Reuben got into a fight yesterday - I think it started over one of their bones. I was in the living room watching TV and then all of a sudden I heard them start fighting and I heard Chewie let out a yelp. Turns out Reuben tore Chewie's ear - it wasn't a huge tear, maybe an inch and a half. It was on the back part of Chewie's ear, so you don't even see it unless you lift up his ear. It bled some so I put some flour on it and that seemed to help. I called the vet yesterday, and they said I could bring him in that day as an emergency or set up an appt for today. I wanted Aaron's opinion so I set up the appt for today. I took him in today hoping the vet would say they could do a little local anesthetic in that area and either stitch it up or just cut off the little piece that was hanging off. Alas, Chewie had to be put under because bassetts have a large vein that runs around the border of their ear that would have to be cut into, and the vet would also have to remove a little bit of cartilage and she didn't think she could do that without hurting him. So Chewie had a little surgery today and now he is all fixed up. Poor guy. He has a little shaved patch on his ear and on his leg where they put in his IV. When we picked him up he seemed pretty groggy, and now he is laying on the carpet on the living room fighting going to sleep. He has been VERY WHINY!!! I think it really bothers him that Reuben has so much energy and he is so sleepy! I think he will give in to his sleepy urges soon and that will be good for him.

Isabooscotti!

Well, that's what Rachael Ray calls it. Her dog is named Isaboo, and on one of her shows she made doggie biscottis. So today I decided to try to make them for my two sweet boys. :) Here's the recipe:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 T. baking powder
2 sprinkles of cinnamon
1 cup of chunky peanut butter
1 cup of milk
carob chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients; microwave the peanut butter for 10-15 seconds then wisk it together with the milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together. Form it into a 1-inch high log on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let it cool then cut into 1 wide strips and place on the flat side on the baking sheet; bake for 10 more minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack; drizzle with melted carob chips (you may need to thin it with some water). Voila! Doggie biscottis!

They turned out really cute - they look like little biscottis you'd get at the coffee shop, although you probably wouldn't want to eat them! I tried the carob chips and they are not very tasty! Nothing like chocolate! However, Chewie and Reuben love them, so that is all that matters. I really need to figure out how much it costs to make them - they might be cheaper than buying Beggin Strips! Reuben would be heartbroken if he had to live without Beggin Strips though...

Movie plug - we saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day this weekend, and it was simply wonderful! If you want to leave the theater with the warm fuzzies, go see this movie! It is funny and charming and actually sort of thought provoking. I enjoyed it anyway. :)

Well, one week until Spring Break! I can't believe how fast this semester is going - I'm not complaining. I can't wait for the warm weather to get here!

Yoga 2!

This morning I got up and went to another yoga class - for new people to the class, you pay $20 for the first week (normally it's $12 for students per session), so I figured I should get my money's worth! :) It was another good workout, although not quite as intense as yesterday. (Stace - I don't feel that tired afterwards, I just have to get re-hydrated!) I'm a little sore now, especially my legs and hips!
Kate - I think that alot of the cosmetic dentistry that they do on Ten Years Younger would cost the average person probably thousands of dollars alone, not to mention everything else they do on the show! I'm sure that the dentists donate their services for the publicity though. Just the fancy bleaching they do would be several hundred dollars, veneers would be thousands, and esthetic crowns would be atleast $1200 for each one - some of the people on the show have bleaching, veneers, AND crowns! It's crazy how much some of that costs! I think that most people don't need the crazy intense amount of bleaching that they do on the show. The Crest Whitening strips aren't as severe, probably a more realistic amount of whitening, and they are a heck of a lot cheaper! To each their own...

Yo-ga! Yo-ga!

Okay, that title is me making a lame pun on Animal House... Bad. Tonight I went to a yoga class at a place in Coralville - Bikram Yoga, where you do yoga in a room that's somewhere around 90 degrees! It was pretty intense, but I really enjoyed it. It's so crazy how you can use your own body as resistance and struggle so hard just to hold a pose. I mean, standing on one foot doesn't seem hard, but hold it for awhile with your arms just so and wow! Combine that with sweating like a fire hydrant, and I'm pooped! :) (Anyone who is a genetic Trunnell already has an excessive amount of sweat glands, so just imagine doing hothouse yoga... Atleast when you are in such a hot room, it seems like everyone is a sweat machine - it kind of levels the playing field for those of us who natural sweaters!) I would love to go back - I think I could definitely use the flexibility!
I had my pharm. test today - it went fairly well. Not as great as I would like to do, but I think that most people felt that way.
Have you seen the show Ten Years Younger on TLC? I swear they change the host every other day... But there is an episode on right now and the woman is getting her teeth fixed. It's so fascinating for me to watch this show when they have a "cosmetic dentist" doing different things to people. Many times they extensively bleach teeth in one sitting - I can't imagine the sensitivity that those patients will have when they go home! They also never say things like, "And by the way, your teeth are ridiculously white now, but in a week or two they will pick up some stain and won't be near as white." However, tonight the dentist said that the patient's teeth were "quite yellow and the bleaching will take care of that." Teeth ARE yellow. It's inherent to teeth! Now I'm not saying like Cheddar Cheese yellow or anything, but natural teeth have yellowish dentin with translucent enamel over top. They are going to have a yellow hue... I guess I'm anti-bleaching. Our society is so into chemicals and putting them into our bodies to make us look younger or sexier - Botox, hydrogen peroxide for bleaching, silicone for breast implants... How about this? Embrace your smile lines, brush your teeth, be happy with the body God has given you. I'll get off my soapbox now. :)
Happy weekend to everyone!

Hmph.

One of Aaron's and my favorite designers on this season of Project Runway just got kicked off the show - sad! Next week is the finale, so he was so close to Fashion Week! The other guy that made it to next week I don't think is as creative as the one they sent home. Oh well.
I have a pharmacology test on Friday - not going to lie, this class is intense! This class has five hours of lecture a week, so there is a lot of content on every exam. This exam is over analgesics, antimicrobials (antibiotics), and anti-cancer drugs. You may wonder why a dental student has to learn about chemo drugs since we will never prescribe them - apparently the reason is so that we are familiar with them when we have a patient who is going through chemo. Fair enough... :)
Well, I need to get to bed. I have clinic tomorrow morning and I get to see a patient I saw a couple weeks ago. Last appointment I replaced his old filling on one of his front teeth - it was a pretty sizeable one, so it was a bit of a challenge! Tomorrow's appointment will be fairly challenging as well I'm sure, as we are replacing the other front tooth's filling. The twist on tomorrow's procedure is that the tooth is also part of a bridge... Fun. :) I love clinic days. :) Tuesdays I'm in clinic but I'm assisting one of my peers - that is probably one of the most painful days for me because I WANT TO DO IT! :) You know on Grey's Anatomy when Christina always wants to scrub in on the "good" surgeries - I kind of relate. Watching is interesting, but doing is so much more exciting.
Hope you are all having a great week!

Weird Weather Part... 3,190,852?

So we've had lots of weird weather lately. Today lived up to another day of weird Iowa weather. It rained late morning into the early evening, then it turned into the heaviest snow you've ever seen! It seemed like the snow was falling as fast as the rain had been falling! I was really hoping it would just stick with rain and melt all of the old snow away... but no.
Anyway, it's just about midterms time... then it's on to Spring Break! Less than three weeks away! Aaron and I went tanning tonight sort of in preparation for Spring Break but also because this Iowa weather is depressing!
Well, not much else is new - we're a little boring during the school year!
Hope all is well with everyone!

Weird weather Part II

Another day of Iowa weather! This morning I woke up and looked out the window - about 8 - 10 inches of snow in my yard! Yikes! I thought they should have canceled classes, but they didn't so I got ready for school anyways. Aaron dropped me off at school at 8, and it turns out the lecturer couldn't get out of their driveway so I didn't have my first class! That was frustrating to get all the way to school and find out that I didn't need to be there until 9! Then, we had a lab scheduled from 9 - 12... the president of the university didn't decide to cancel classes until 9:30 so we ended up finishing up our lab project instead of going home right away. Still, it was nice to have the afternoon off, but it was rather annoying that they didn't cancel until 9:30. It didn't do us much good because most of us made it in by 8!
Anyway, it's been a good afternoon - we've gotten some good cleaning done. I cleaned the kitchen top to bottom today which makes me feel good. :) Aaron and I also worked on sorting out clothes and organizing our bedroom a little. It gets neglected when I clean normally because it's not really a place I expect other people to see! :)
Oh, I finally took down my Christmas decorations today! lol We don't have a tree, so it's not a whole lot of decorations - I just haven't gotten around to it until today! I figure it's about time... almost Valentine's Day!
Hope you are all having a great week!

Weird weather

We have had some of the weirdest weather this winter. Yesterday we got about 8 inches of snow in a pretty short amount of time. Today, we get rain! Aaron and I rode the bus to school this morning and we sat near the front - we could hear the radio traffic back and forth between the bus drivers and apparently a few buses got stuck today! Iowa City schools were canceled - Aaron and I were both wishing for a moment we were back in high school so we didn't have to go in to school today! :) I think we are supposed to get more sleety-snowy-mushy mix today, and if we are lucky it will freeze solid tonight. Exciting. We discovered last night that the person who plows the parking lot for the apartment building across the street likes to push the snow right out of their driveway and into ours... I was just thinking it was the city plows when they did the street, but Aaron actually saw the guy do it last night. I wonder if the guy is just on autopilot and doesn't realize what he's doing???
Anyway, hurray for the Giants, and good job to E-trade and Budweiser for having the funniest commercials. The stock-trading baby was hilarious. :)
Hope you are all staying safe and warm!

I passed!!!

My boards that is. :) I got the letter in the mail yesterday that I passed - it's kind of a confusing piece of paper because there is no big green word that says PASS, there's just a blank that says "status: pass." So hurray, I don't have to look at biochemistry ever again! :) (Well, I'm sure that's not true, but it's nice to think that :) ) Anyway, none of us in my class can figure out exactly what our scores mean - we are only the second class to take the boards on the computer, so all of the previous standards of what a "good" score is are out the window. I guess as long as you pass that's all that really matters!
Well, tonight I am making "Irish Stew." I got the recipe out of the Taste of Home cookbook I got for Christmas. It's made with lamb - something I haven't really cooked with before, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. It smells good right now! I'm going to make some biscuits to go along with it too. I think it's appropriate since it's a blizzard outside! The wind is ridiculous!
Stay warm everyone!

Thursday, thursday...

Kate - I made a mistake in the last post. The oranges were 10 for $2 - they would have to be the size of a watermelon to be a good deal for 1 for $2!!! :)
Anyway, it's been a good day. I was in radiology this morning and got to make some radiographs on a teenager getting some braces - good practice! Then I had a oral pathology lecture and pediatric dentistry lecture in the afternoon - both two great classes. I just really enjoy school lately - it's so different that last year at this time. I do not envy the D1's at all because they have so much going on right now! They have gross anatomy and dentures this semester - both very overwhelming classes. Last year's D2's said that pharmacology is a really hard class, but I just can't imagine that it could be worse than gross anatomy!
Well, I'm very proud of my husband. He came home today from work and started right in on his physics homework. Good start for the semester, babe! :)
I hope it warms up here soon!

another post!

What is this? Two posts in one day??? :) The holidays really did a number on my goals of eating healthy and working out; however, now I think I'm finally heading back in the right direction! Tonight Aaron and I went to the City pool and we swam for awhile - it was actually pretty fun! I am absolutely awful at swimming - I would swim a little, then try to catch a breath and I would end up gasping! :) I need some more practice. I think Aaron wants to go back again, so maybe we will make that into something we do every week. This semester is going to be very HARD to fit in time to work out. Aaron and I don't have the most compatible schedules, and it's hard to leave the house after supper to go work out!
Anyway, on a related note, we picked up some groceries tonight and they had some blueberries on special. I made some bran muffins (Mom's recipe :) ), and so I threw some blueberries in a few of them to see how they would turn out. They are pretty good! Oh, and Hyvee has Disney naval oranges - 1- for $2! Good deal! So I got a couple of those... pretty tasty... Okay, it's definitely time for bed, so good night all!

Back to school...

Aaron is back to school today- his first class was at 8 am! Lucky for him I didn't have to be at school today until 9, so I dropped him off. I think he is excited to go back and get his pre-dental requirements done. It will certainly be a busy semester with both of us back in school again! We both had yesterday off which was so nice to catch up on a few things. Maybe the university needs to move to a permanent three day weekend??? :) Anyway, it's nice to skip Monday and already be a day closer to the next weekend. Hope you all are doing well! Stay warm!

Tired...

It was a long day today! I was at school at 9 this morning to assist a fellow D2 in the clinic, had a "working lunch" where I made an impression and poured up a cast over the lunch hour (my cousin is a D1 so I was also showing him how to do that since he will be doing it tomorrow for the first time in his dentures class), had oral pathology, and then from about 3 - 10 pm I was in the lab mounting up extracted teeth into plaster casts that the D1 students will be practicing drilling on! I wasn't supposed to be there that long today - I was originally planning on being done around 4 or 5! Well, I have a sort of "job" through the dental school where a group of us take care of these kinds of projects for the faculty when they need extracted teeth for a project. There were four of us assigned to this project - me, my friend Christi (D2), and two D1's who are new to the project. Christi and I did half of the project last week but the D1's were unavailable to be trained then. We had a hard time finding a time when both of our schedules worked together, so this week I was going to meet the D1's after class and train them on how to do it and then they would finish up their half. Christi and I left our supplies in the lab that the D1 and D2 students use, but we put the finished casts in a cupboard there. Well, today when I went to get out the box to add to it, it was gone!!! I looked all around for it and I couldn't find it. I asked all sorts of people - faculty, the cleaning crew, the lab monitor, etc. and nobody knew anything! So we basically lost all the work that we did before, and the school is out about $400 because the magnets we mount in the cast are $10 a piece! Christi was taking her boards today, so she didn't get there until closer to 4 - she couldn't find the casts we did either. So frustrating!!! We ended up doing 85 casts today and now the project is done - Christi is taking them home with her so they don't go missing too! We are still scratching our brains wondering who would take them and why??? Who wants plaster casts with nasty extracted teeth in them??? And who would throw away $400 dollars worth of equipment? Bizarre...
So that is my day, I've finally made it home now and I'm trying to veg a little before I have to go to bed. Aaron was a good sport tonight and he brought up pizza for dinner - thanks babe! :)

What a weekend!!!

This past weekend was pretty jam-packed for us! I took my Part I dental boards in Des Moines on Saturday, so Aaron and I stayed there Friday and Saturday night. Aaron found us a really good deal through Priceline, so we got to stay at the Marriott near Jordan Creek mall! As it turns out, my parents were going to be in Des Moines that night too, so we had dinner with them and they got a room at the same hotel. We had lots of good dinner conversation, and then lots of good political conversation - Grandpa Trunnell would have been proud. Maybe a little shocked that there was no yelling or slamming of doors! :) Saturday morning Aaron took me to the test center and I got done around noon - pretty good for 400 questions! :) Then we got to spend the rest of the day as sort of a date which was nice - it felt like I hadn't seen him it all in the past two weeks because I had been studying so much! We saw the movie The Bucket List - it was really good and really touching actually! Then we celebrated being done with the boards by going to 801 Steak and Chop House downtown Des Moines (Rachael - I had to go somewhere I could wear my new dress! :) ). The food was really great! And really good dessert! Anyway, Sunday we got to sleep in and then we headed back to Iowa City. We had dinner with Aaron's parents which was nice because we hadn't seen them since we went to Florida with them! All in all it was good weekend and I am so relieved to be done with the boards. I don't get my score for another two or three weeks - right now I'm just hoping I passed so I don't have to study for those again! Hope you are all having a great week!

Sanibel trip

Aaron and I are back home again after our whirlwind Christmas tour! :) We went back to Cedar Falls the Saturday before Christmas, and we had quite the drive! Our normal hour and a half drive turned into three hours due to the weather... thankfully we got there safe and sound and had a very nice Christmas with my side of the family! Then, Christmas night we drove back to Iowa City to get ready to fly out to Sanibel, FL early the next morning. I ended up getting about 1 hour of sleep and I think Aaron just stayed up the whole time - we were pretty loopy by the time we got to Florida! Next time I think I will try to go to bed earlier! :) We had a very nice time in Florida - the weather was beautiful just about the whole time we were there. The day we left it rained and turned a little colder, like it was trying to prepare us for going back to the below-freezing temps of Iowa! Anyway, here is a picture from our last night there outside a restaurant called Matzaluna. Good pizza there!


When we got back home last night, our puppies were very happy to see us! I missed them while we were gone... I bought them shirts when we were in Florida (they are from target :) ). I knew Reuben's would most likely fit - it's an XL, but I had my doubts about the XL fitting Chewie (that's all they had). Chewie's shirt is pretty tight on him... :) Reuben's shirt says "Got Biscuits?" and Chewie's says "Go fetch yourself!"

Merry Christmas to all!

It's a wonderful feeling to be done with finals week, and now I'm back in Cedar Falls for a few days for Christmas. It's really nice to not have an agenda or have to do anything! :) I'm excited for our upcoming trip to Florida with Aaron's family - we haven't seen his sister and brother-in-law in a long time so it should be a great week!
Anyway, I hope you all have a very good Christmas and New Year's!!!

ice storm!

Sorry I haven't posted lately... Last week Grandma B. was down here in Iowa City for surgery on her neck so we got to see her and my mom a lot which was nice. She has gone back to Cedar Falls now and it sounds like she is doing well so that is very good news! These past few days we've had some really weird weather here. I think our first snow was pretty early, and now we have had a lot of freezing rain that just doesn't seem normal for Iowa. Normally it's just rain or snow, not much of a mix like we've had lately. Anyway, today we had the worst of the freezing rain I think and we lost our power from about 4 - 8 pm tonight. Aaron's parents had pity on us and had us come over for dinner which was very nice - I was really trying to think of what I could fix for supper without an oven, stove, or microwave! :) I'm very glad the power is back on so that the house can stay warm! On a related note, they canceled University classes this afternoon and evening which they rarely ever do. I was reading the university website and it made me laugh - it said that the only exception was the College of Dentistry! :) It figures... Well, I suppose all of the patients are counting on the students being there so it makes sense - still, it's kind of funny that they cancel class for everyone else but the dental students can still brave the ice! :)
Well, I have finals week coming up and the first of many tests starts tomorrow. Then one on Friday, two on Monday, one on Wednesday, and the last one on next Friday. At least they space it out! And then it's Christmas break! Hope you all are staying warm and your power is on!

Ode to Reuben

This is my little tribute to one of the joys of my life, Reuben. :) Reuby is such a simple boy - he really loves laundry, warm places, and sleep. So, when I did massive amounts of laundry the other day, he was in heaven! And then the other day one of the blankets fell off of the couch, and again he was in heaven. So tonight I decided to get a little crafty so I sewed Reuben a little flannel jacket - it's pretty funny! I have to get some Velcro at Walmart tomorrow to finish it, but I safety-pinned it on tonight for effect... I don't know if it will help keep him warm at all, but I like it! :)

Hurray!

Today I had clinic, and I finally had an operative patient! I think I blogged a little while ago that I was supposed to have my first patient two weeks ago (three counting Thanksgiving :)), but my first patient canceled. Then, my second patient canceled, and I was very bummed out! So, I was hoping that my patient this week would show up, and they did! Today was my first day of drilling and filling - I really wonder if my patient knew! :) It took a long time to do it all, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. And, I really enjoyed doing it, so it's a good thing I'm in dental school! :) If any of you need a filling, you can come see me and get it done for free! Plus, you won't be my first patient! :)

Tuesday night

and five loads of laundry down! Well, almost. There's still some in the dryer, but I think that still counts. :) I feel like I've been catching up on life this week and it's been good. I think there is definitely something to the theory that a clean house is less stressful. :) Today was a pretty good day - I got my grade back for my test I had on Monday and it went pretty well. We also got out early this afternoon - 2:45! So I had time to get a lot of things done, like the laundry... :)
Anyhoo, I have some really cute pictures of Reuben, but I have to find the cord for the camera so I can download them. When are they going to invent the wireless camera for lazy people like me? :) Oh yeah, I guess that's called the iPhone...
Well, Thanksgiving break is only a week away for me! Hope you all are having a great week!

Busy weekend!

How does the weekend go by so much faster than all of the other days??? It feels like it should still be Friday night, but it's already Sunday night. We've had a good weekend - lots of hanging out with friends. Thursday night we had pizza with one of my classmates and her husband, on Friday night we went out to a Japanese restaurant (Three Samurai) for one of my classmate's birthday, Saturday some of my friends from Cedar Falls came down to visit, Saturday night we met up with my old roommate and her new boyfriend, and then this evening we had dinner with one of our friends who used to live across the street! It's been a lot of fun, and surprisingly, I've got a lot done too. Today I reorganized some of the kitchen cabinets and such - I feel like I fight a losing battle against chaos in my house! :) But I read in a magazine that you should spend 20 minutes a day organizing one small area, and then eventually it will all be organized. Now, that may work for some people because they may have 10 areas that they need to organize and then they are done in a week and a half. I think it would take me a few months to accomplish it all... :)
Well, I need to get to bed. I have a practical test first thing in the morning. We have to prep a tooth for a crown (in the simulation clinic) and then make a temporary one... Hopefully all goes well and I don't mess up too much! :) Hope you all have a good week!

sorry...

It's been awhile since I posted last! But I am finally through all seven of those wonderful tests, and I just finished writing my paper that's due tomorrow... yay! I've had some issues with this paper... I started writing it this morning during my break between my test and class, and I saved it to the desktop of the computer at the library and then e-mailed it to myself. Well, I came back to the library during my lunch hour to finish it up and print it, and for some reason when I tried to open it, a different paper for the same class kept coming up! So that scared me a little, and I went back to the original computer and crossed my fingers... It wasn't on the desktop, but for some reason when I opened up the file from my e-mail it actually worked! I have no idea why it wouldn't work on the different computer - weird! So, all is well - I have my paper and it is done!
Tomorrow is my first day in my Operative rotation! I've been in Preventive (cleaning teeth) and Radiology (x-rays) already, so now I'm on to the drilling and filling part! Don't tell my patient tomorrow that it's my first day. :) I hope they show up! I looked at their chart a little and they have a few cavities that need to be filled, so hopefully I can schedule them back again a few times. We actually have a shortage of patients in the minor operative clinic - one of my classmates has only had one patient so far and he has had 6 clinic days already! So it's a big deal that I am actually scheduled for tomorrow... :)
Oh, one more funny thing. I got back my oral pathology test today (it was all short/long answer which is completely unusual - 99% of our tests are multiple choice) and the professor wrote a note on it: "Your answers are so precise and well worded they are like a beautiful poem." Oh how I wish you all knew this professor! Maybe I missed my calling in life - describing oral lesions??? lol
Anyways, I should be off to class... Hope you are all having a great week!

And so it begins...

The weeks of tests... :) Today I have my second microbiology exam. I'm not a huge fan of Monday exams because then I have to study over the weekend, and I am just too attached to my free time. Wednesday is Oral Pathology, Thursday is Growth and Development, and Friday is Perio Methods II. Good times. I can't wait. :) Most of my classmates are very stressed right now - many are planning on skipping a lot of class this week to try to study for all the tests. I would be more stressed, except what good will it do???
Anyway, Aaron and I had a good weekend... We met a few more people at our church on Sunday, so that is fun. We got invited to a pumpkin carving party, but unfortunately I had to study yesterday so we couldn't go. But hopefully when we have a little advanced notice we can go to some of these events!
I hope you all have a great week! Thanksgiving is coming soon!

Small group

Tonight Aaron and I went to a small group for married couples from our church. We've never gone before - mostly because we've been out of school, or I've had school stuff going on, we've forgotten, etc. So we finally made it tonight, and I think it was a really good time! We've had a hard time finding a church that really fits us and that has people who want to meet new people. Aaron and I met at a church here in town, but it felt like once we got married the married couples at that church didn't really give us the time of day. I know we are a fairly young couple, but to me it seems like that is all the more reason for the older married couples to reach out to us... But, that didn't really happen. So we tried a few other churches in town - one with really friendly people, almost too friendly! Again, we had a hard time finding people to connect with. Sometimes I feel like my career choice gets in the way of meeting other married women. I have never wanted to be a stay at home mom - don't get me wrong, I want to be a mom. And I have a bit of a mom complex because I sort of idolize my mom who has completed devoted herself to her family! Anyway, some of the couples Aaron and I have met along our church journey have been really nice people, but I felt like I couldn't get to know the woman because she already had all of her other mommy friends established. Or, if they didn't have kids, they weren't that far off from having kids, so their friends all had kids. So, all of this to say, I think we've found a church where we click. :) There is a big range of people who go to the church, but they have all been very friendly to us. And there are little things I appreciate, like in this small group there is a couple that is expecting and they also have a 18 month old - the couple get a babysitter so they can get out and be a married couple and the mom can have time where she doesn't have to be a mommy. I appreciate it as a relatively newly married person, and I think it is probably really healthy for them too!
I've missed having a community like this. I'm excited. :)

Oh Argyle!

Kate and Aaron match... how cute.

Chewie

He also likes the laundry... :)

It got a little chilly in our house...

So Reuben curled up on the laundry like always. But, Aaron decided that he should pile some laundry on top of Reuben to keep him warm... :) Reuben had a very nice nap!

I'm tired...

Today I am tired. It doesn't help that it is rainy outside - this is perfect nap weather! Last night Aaron and I put together his new office furniture that he got from Staples - quite the production! It all looks really nice, and the paint color he picked looks really nice with it all. I'll try to post a pic...
Anyway, starting next Monday we have 7 tests in 10 days - it's going to be a little hectic in the Brummer household. I'm sure it'll all turn out fine, but I'm not looking forward to all of the studying.
Well, hope you all have a great week!

Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener...

No, I did not audition for the Oscar Mayer song - these two pictures are from this past summer when we were in Milwaukee for Aaron's annual work meeting. The picture by the water is downtown Milwaukee after we toured the Northwestern Mutual home office, and then the other is at the "Garden Party" that Aaron's company hosts every year. Basically, they shut down the Milwaukee Zoo, put up five different huge tents with all different kinds of food, etc. And the Oscar Mayer-mobile was there. :) I hope we get to go again next summer!

Wednesday...

It's the first actual chilly day of fall here in Iowa City! I think it's in the 40-50's today, which is some of my favorite weather because I get to break out the warm clothes! Today I have a test in oral surgery - it's kind of funny because we learn about all of the techniques and equipment needed for it, but we won't use the knowledge until we start rotations next year.
Tomorrow I have my third patient - I will be cleaning their teeth. Hopefully it is an uneventful morning! Some of my classmates have already started in other clinics so they are already drilling and filling... I'm a little jealous, but it's nice to ease into clinic with some "easier" procedures.
More random pictures to come later...

What?

Reuben loves dirty laundry, especially when I have piles of sorted laundry on the floor. He got a little crazy this time and ended up with my shorts on his head! Isn't he so cute!

School, school...

So it's Monday - back to school again. Monday and Friday mornings are my second favorite time of the week because we have fixed pros (aka crowns) in the sim clinic. For some reason I really like this class - Aaron says I should be a prosthodontist since I'm such a perfectionist. :) I think it's interesting, but I don't know if I would want to only do pros all the time.
Anyway, we have one test this week but it'll be a hard one - oral surgery. I'm glad it's on Wednesday, because then Thursday and Friday aren't as stressful.
Well, I am off to study... Happy Monday!