Merry Christmas

Where to start? In 2014 we said good-bye to our townhouse, moved in with Sarah's parents, Scott started his 4th year of medical school, we lived apart for over 4 months while Scott traveled for school, and that's only the last 6 months! Don't worry, 2014 wasn't all work and no play. We went to Myrtle Beach for vacation with Scott's family, celebrated 5 years of marriage in Hilton Head, and even spent a day in Canada while Scott was in Michigan for school!

Photo Credit: Änalee Photography

What does 2015 hold for us? Lots of changes! We find out where we are headed for residency in February, Scott graduates from medical school in May, we move to wherever residency will be, and start a new chapter in our life!  As always, we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this time of change and transition. We couldn't do this without you!

Merry Christmas, y'all! 

The Motor City

I thought I'd share my thoughts on the cities we might move to come May or June 2015. I've visited Scott in every city he has rotated through (more on that process here). He started out the summer in Detroit and spent two months there. He rotated through three programs in Detroit that we could potentially move to in 2015. 

So Detroit. Every conversation I've had with someone about possibly moving there goes like this: 

Them: "So do you know where you are moving after graduation?"

Me: "Not yet. It could be Detroit or...."

Them: **winces** "You do NOT want to move there!" 

I would say 50% of the time that person hasn't even been to Detroit. They are basing their opinions off of articles, the news, and rumors. I was one of those people which means I had LOW expectations going to visit Detroit. I'm kinda glad I did. No, it's not New York City or Washington DC (or insert your favorite city here), but it's still a city with lots of things to do. Yes, there are abandoned buildings but you can feel the city renewing itself. So here are few cool things about Detroit. 

1. There are cute and safe towns/suburbs right outside of the city. We stayed in a town called Northville while I was visiting. There were so many beautiful Victorian Era houses. I could have died from all the character oozing from that town. They had a yummy pizza place called Pizza Cutter that we ate at twice. 

We also found the town we would try to live in if we moved to Detroit. It's called Royal Oak which I think would be fitting (Get it? The Kings would live in Royal Oak). It's a suburb with lots of young people and young families, good restaurants, a farmers market on Saturday and an antique market on Sundays. It's only 20 minutes to Detroit.

2. Arts and Culture. This city has a rich history of blues, jazz, pop, and rap. Not to mention it's the birthplace of the automobile industry. We went to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a Jazz Concert one night. It was so much fun! 

The mural inside where the concert took place was pretty fabulous. The music was too. As Scott would say, they were jammin'. 

That's not all Detroit has to offer. There is the Ford Museum (we didn't make it there during our visit), there is a HUGE Farmer's Market (we did make it to that and we had some amazing custard pie from one of the vendors), and even Eminem was in town for a concert (sorry to disappoint but we didn't make it to that either). 

3. Food. Detroit is melting pot of cultures. We had southern BBQ (it was AAAAH-MAZING), authentic mexican food, and, though I didn't get to go, Scott had some yummy sushi at a place called Noble Fish. 

Also, they have this new trend around Detroit of turning old service garages into restaurants. We went to one in Berkley (another cute town). They have American cuisine but with a flare. Also, two words: adult milkshakes. 

4. You can visit Canada! We only went to Windsor, Canada (across the Detroit River from Detroit) and I'll be honest, it wasn't very exciting. Being questioned by border patrol (or whatever it's called) was intense! 

We also had to buy gas in Canada and we had no idea how much money we were spending or how much gas we were getting! haha! Also, the speed limit was in kilometers, I know that's not really surprising but somehow I was.

That's us in Canada with Detroit in the background. 

5. Sports. Detroit Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings (hockey if you were wondering). The Tigers were in town while we were there and we were even planning to go to a game on Scott's birthday (shout-out to the best brother-in-law ever for getting us tickets). Sadly, Scott didn't get off until 9:30pm on his birthday so we missed the game!  

To sum it all up, Detroit was a pleasant surprise! I spoke with someone from Detroit and they said it's a fun city to live in but not a fun city to be a tourist. I would agree with that and it's all about expectations. If you ever visit, try to look at the city with an open mind and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised! 

Fourth Year

Oh hi there. Long time no see! I have lots of excuses why that is but the main one is:

it's Scott's fourth year of medical school.

I can't believe it! Anyway, I thought I would explain a little bit about what this year looks like for us. It's kind of complicated so bear with me. If I get something wrong you medical folks, forgive me.

Let's start with the basics. Scott is an osteopathic medical student (want to learn more about what that is? Go here). The other philosophy of medicine is allopathic which is what an M.D. trains in. After medical school both D.O. and M.D. go to residency. The length of residency varies depending on the field of medicine the student chooses. Once all is said and done Scott will be a fully licensed physician (same as any M.D.) but he will have D.O. after his name.

At both osteopathic and allopathic medical schools, there are 4 years of school. The first two years are in the classroom. The second two years are clinical rotations. There are differences depending on the school with how the 3rd and 4th year are laid out. For Scott, his 3rd year of medical school had 9 months of 1 month rotations in mostly primary care medicine (Family, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine). All of these month long rotations were set up by the school and all students had to complete the same rotations.

White Coat Ceremony 2011

4th year is a little different. At Scott's school and in the D.O. world (I don't know much about the M.D. process) the student schedules two week or month long clinical rotations in the first half of the year in the field of medicine they want to practice. Most of the time they schedule rotations at the residency programs they are applying to. These are called "audition rotations". The student spends two weeks to a month with doctors and residents at one of the residencies the students is applying to. This gives the student and the doctors/residents a chance to see if the student will be a good fit at the residency program. Often the audition rotation determines if the student is invited for an interview during interview season. Students typically schedule their audition rotations between July-November. Interviews begin in November and run through January.

Audition rotations can take you all over the country. Scott has audition rotations scheduled in Michigan and West Virginia. Because of the speciality Scott wants to do, we are limited to certain areas of the country. It's not like that for everyone.

Once the student is finished with audition rotations and interviews. It's time to rank the residency programs for the Match. The Match is what determines where you go to residency. The student ranks each program in numerical order starting with their first choice. The residency programs do the same thing to their applicants. Both the student and residency submit their rankings and some magical algorithm in a computer matches a student and a program based on the rankings both submitted.

At this time, there are two matches. The AOA Match (D.O.) and the ACGME Match (M.D.).  At this time a D.O. can participate in either match and can attend either a D.O. or M.D. residency. An M.D. can only apply to the ACGME Match because they have not been trained in osteopathic manipulation (Side note: in the next few years the Matches will be combined and there will only be one for both D.O. and M.D. students). The AOA Match is in February and the A.C.G.M.E. Match is in March. Scott is participating in the AOA Match this year so we will find out where we are going for residency in February 2015.

Mr. VCOM Pageant 2013

After the audition rotations, Scott will be back in the New River Valley completing the rest of his fourth year rotations in various fields of medicine. I can't remember all of them but I know Emergency Medicine is one of them.

Scott will finish rotations in April, graduates in May, and will most likely start residency in July.

CRAZY! 

Anyway, to sum all this up. Scott has been gone since the beginning of July and will be back at the end of November. We trade off who visits who and we Facetime A LOT. (What did we do before iPhones?). Because 4th year is so expensive with all the traveling, we downsized. I am living with my parents while Scott is gone and we have rented our townhouse to another VCOM couple. We will relocate in January to live with Scott's mom so Scott will be closer to the hospitals he will be working at in the New River Valley. We are so incredibly thankful for our families' willingness to let us mooch. Love y'all.

So, yeah, we are basically nomads with two cats in tow.

why not?

It all started with a New Year's resolution. More like a phrase, really. I wanted to take risks this year and step out of my well worn comfort zone. So I decided to ask myself a question each time an opportunity arose, and the question was "why not?" The purpose of that question was for me to examine why I was saying no and hopefully encourage me to say yes.

I put this to the test a couple of times in early January, I went riding on a scooter in the Bahamas, slid down a huge water slide (that may not sound like a risk to you but it's not my thing, people!) both of which I would normally say no to. In mid January, I decided to stop making excuses and start dancing again, because why not?  If you know me or my family, you'll know my sisters and I grew up dancing. After high school I went on to major in dance in college. I continued to dance after college but not nearly as often. After a couple of years my "real" job started interfering with rehearsals. I decided that it was time to give dancing up. So I stopped. That was in in May 2012.

Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil -1997

 Soon after college I started dealing with anxiety and even had a couple of panic attacks. It got even worse during the summer of 2012. Late last year, I started to see a counselor and began working on strategies to cope with my anxiety. Through that I realized that the start of my anxiety coincided with not dancing often, and then getting even worse when I stopped dancing entirely. Now, I don't believe that not dancing was the reason for my anxiety. I had a lot of life changes going on (getting married, graduating college, husband in medical school, new (stressful) jobs) but I do believe that I used dance to cope and relieve stress most of my life. Once I took dance out of the equation I lost my best coping mechanism.

Diamond Fairy in Sleeping Beauty - 2003

Thankfully, I have learned to cope with anxiety and stress without dancing (let's face it, my body is slowly deteriorating and it's not going to be able to dance forever!). In January, I decided I wanted to revisit one of my first loves - dance. I had taken a class before with a student organization on Virginia Tech's campus and decided I would try that again. I ended up finding a student organization specifically focused on ballet and my sisters danced with a couple of the dancers in the organization in high school. I contacted one of them and she gave me their class information. She also asked me to audition to be a part of their show in March. My first instinct was to say absolutely not! I knew I was out of shape and older than all of them. Yet, I asked myself the question, why not? I couldn't think of any real reason not to. What was holding me back was fear. I decided to audition and audition I did. They accepted me and thus my dancing career started again.

College - 2010

There have been days when my feet hurt, days when I was tired and felt too old, and days where I didn't feel like dancing. BUT through all that, I still felt joyful, exhilarated, and alive each time I danced! What is the saying? Absence makes the hear grow fonder? That's usually used in the context of relationships but it's true with almost anything. I took dancing for granted for so many years. Now, I appreciate and treasure each time I get to dance because I know what it's like without it and I know there will be a day when I truly won't be able to dance anymore.

To Build a Home - 2014 (photo credit: Kevin Dickel, photo courtesy of Ballet Project at Virginia Tech)

So ask yourself when an opportunity arises, why not? Who knows where it will take you. 

the happiest place on earth

At age 26, I can say I've been to Disney World! It was an experience, let me tell you. It MIGHT have been because we went on New Year's Eve. It was insanely packed and I thought I was going to punch a few moms in the face who insisted on trying to bulldoze me over with their child's stroller. We had longer wait times for rides and trying to get back to our car after midnight? It took us 2 1/2 hours! I felt like a cow being herded to my death! Yet, it was still a magical place. Cinderella's castle? loved it! Fireworks? It was like it went from night to day in 0.5 seconds! We met several really nice Canadians (who actually said aye!). Most of all Scott and I made some pretty awesome memories. Take a look!    

Top left is my "I feel self conscious and awkward face" 

Bottom left was before take off on the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland. 1.) Scariest ride ever 2.) I don't know how we both fit in that spaceship! 

I'm kinda lame, I know, but I love carousels! 

No visit to Disney is complete without some Minnie Mouse ears. Sequins make them even more awesome!

Can I be Cinderella? 

We will definitely go back someday. Next time not on New Years Eve! At least not unless we stay on the resort. We only made it to the Magic Kingdom this time so there is still a lot left to explore!

What's your favorite memory of Disney World?