A New Semester

I am embarrassed about my lack of blogging in 2009.  My blog sabbatical is over, so here is an weekend update.

We are two weeks into the semester and the tests begin this week.  I have Histopathology on Tuesday and Anatomy II Wed.  Rachel and I have had a nice weekend, and have spent some good time together and with friends.  On friday night, a couple from school, the Carter's, had some people over to play games, so we went over to Brookside and hung out with them.  Last night we went to Jay and Katherine Thorpe's house and ate an absolutely delicious meal and played Mexican Train dominoes.  Sadly, Rachel beat me. 

School has been going well, and I wanted to update you on the latest news from UMKC.  At the start of the year, we were given some of our "operative lab equipment."  It was funny because everyone was really excited to get the tools, but had to keep the "cool facade" to prevent looking too dorky.  I brought mine home to show Rachel and take a picture of.  This year, we 

have a class, called Operative I, where we have been learning how to cut the different typ

es of tooth preparations.  So far we have done two different types of preparations, and it is more difficult than I first imagined.  On the left you can barely see the small hole in the second to last bottom molar.  This is called a Class I buccal pit. I turned this on in on Wednesday.  I am enjoying these classes this year, because it is truly "real" dentistry, and not just biology.  Everyone says the practicals are difficult, so I have been trying to practice a bunch, and work on my hand skills.  This week we are starting to learn how to perform extra and intraoral exams and charting, so my partner Matt and I will be doing that Friday.  

These are my lab tools and typodont in the 

background that we work on.  

It has been a very cold weekend and has snowed a little bit.  We are expecting some more either today or later in the week.  Rachel and I are hoping for a blizzard.  

...and with winter comes sickness

David has now gotten through his first week of classes this semester and he seems excited. Hopefully he'll be able to post and tell you something about it this weekend. At school this week we had TONS of kids home sick. I sent a couple kids home during the week and JoAnna and Pat had a lot home sick. It has truly amazed me this year that so many people try and send their kids to school sick. They think that it's not a big deal because their kids will only be there maybe two or three times that week. So they think, "Who could they infect in such a short time?" But they forget that if everyone looks at it like they do, the teachers are surrounded by sickness 24/7!...I have strep throat again! We've had 5 total cases so far (in all three classes), but I was the first teacher to get it. One little girl's mother called and told us that the doctor had told her that her daughter's throat was so swolen that he didn't know how she could even eat. Of course she had been at school all week and only stayed home on Friday. You can probably look back a few posts to the fall and see when I had it last time! I was able to get to the doctor quick this time and get on medication, and I've almost been on it 24 hours. So hopefully it'll start working quick and David and I can enjoy the rest of our long weekend. David has been a great nurse and we're both praying that he doesn't get it too.

Welcome Winter

This week I have been getting used to getting up at 6:00 again. It has been really good to be back and with the kids though. David has done more home repairs this week and has fixed our back door. It looks as good as new! He also put a new window in the basement and re-did our weather stripping on the door from the kitchen to the backyard. I have put up new stuff in my room at school for winter thanks to Mom buying me the great bulletin board stuff! I think it looks really good. This Monday David goes back to school. He will be in class from 8:00-5:00 three days this semester, but gets to start working on teeth a whole lot more. Kansas City is really cold right now and it is going to be 0 degrees some mornings this week! Here are some pictures to keep you updated and hopefully David will have some times to post about his classes sometime this week.

David fixing our door.

This is the set that Granny bought me for Christmas!

Sooie made herself comfortable in my lap and feel asleep looking like a baby.

My new bulletin boards!

A Fun Saturday

Today David and I got to sleep in and then we decided to drive the forty minutes to Lawrence, KS, to see the KU campus. It was really pretty and felt a lot like the UofA (although not as good of course). We drove around and found a place to take a picture with the stadium in the background. I thought it would be fun to see the Pi Phi house but we couldn't find it, so we asked these guys walking down the road if they knew where it was. We chose them because they looked like Fraternity guys. They knew exactly where it was and pointed us in the right direction. We found it and it was very pretty. When we got back into town I worked on some resume stuff while David fixed the dry wall in the garage. It looks so good and feels like a totally new garage. We also managed to go to the grocery store (the Hen House, or as Dad says, "The Chicken Coop") and buy all of our dinner groceries for the upcoming week. When we got back we made a Kahlua cake and got to use our bundt pan for the first time. I got the recipe from the recipe book I was given at my kitchen shower and the recipe came from Laura Hudson Pace. It has been a great day and we are extremely thankful for this relaxing time before things pick up again.



At KU. We tried to get the stadium, but couldn't quite do it. The campus sits on a hill.



In front of the Pi Phi House.



We wish we had before and after pictures, but doesn't it look great!?




David with the fresh Kahlua cake! (Or Kahlula cake as Nick would have it)

It's 2009!

We're back in Kansas City! We had a wonderful Christmas in Little Rock, Charlotte, Arkadelphia, and Ruston! On our way back to KC we stopped in Fayetteville and had dinner with Lauren and Justin Davis. It was SO great to see Lauren and get to hang out for just a little bit. We're going to try and see each other more this semester. Over the break we went to Haley Culp's wedding and got to see a lot of people that I graduated with. It sure was great to see Luke Porter. :) For New Year's Eve we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Chris and Sarah Price and then came back to our house and hung out until the New Year arrived. David and I are more than excited to have a couple days to relax and do nothing together before I go back to work on Monday. David goes back to class on January 12 and my grad classes start January 20. We were thinking that we might grill tonight and have a nice dinner together at home. Christmas was so much fun with everybody and we loved being at home. Can't wait to see everbody soon!

On the way to North Carolina to see Granny and Grandad.

My beautiful new room at home!

Out to dinner with the Davis'!

Outside the Cheesecake Factory with Chris and Sarah.