Finals Week!

Well, I've been busy studying for finals and doing clinical check-offs, etc. so this past month flew by! I have so much to update! I've got one last week and then Colby has 2 weeks left before Christmas break- we are so excited! Until then, here's some to tide you over. On the night before Halloween, we had some friends over to watch the Ranger's game and then did some pumpkin carving. It was lots of fun- we had the Ozarka dot there representing, the Jolly Green Giant (and oh was he green-all over my house, ha!), Ketchup and Mustard, NBC and Conan, cute hippies/protesters, a penguin and Colby and I were "Ranger's fans." Yah, boring but we had better ventures planned for the next day!

 On Halloween day, our small group helped host a booth for the Trunk & Treat and we were Super-hero alley with games of search and rescue, Feat of strength (car bean bags and buildings), water gun shooting the flame out, and balloon animals. Well you know exactly where this gal was. My mom didn't give me those cool kits in my Easter basket for nothing- I whipped out balloon animals all night to the point of getting blisters on 3 of my fingers-ouch! I was pretty itchy the whole time and I thought it was because of my mask. I kept asking Colb if his was bothering him. By the time I got home I had a raised rash all over my face, neck, hands. I took a Benadryl and that seemed to help, but it was not fun. As I was laying in bed and going through my last thoughts of the day (you all know these moments) I say to Colby, oh my gosh, those balloons were made out of latex weren't they?!? And I am totally ALLERGIC to Latex as evidenced by my breakouts at the hospital. Ha! Lesson learned!

 Here's part of our booth with Mario, the Princess, The Hulk, Cobra, and Superman 

The Incredibles!

 

Some of the games

And drumroll for our costumes...................................

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! We were Raphael and Michaelango. Really Donatello was my favorite and Leonardo was Colby's growing up, but we chose based on which was easiest to create the weapon-ha! I think they turned out fun, after a little tweaking!

Here's the first proto-type...yah...not so much, haha! He's such a good sport- Love him!
 My dining room was probably thanking me for not using the cushions!

Makes you want to bust out with "Totally Awesome dude!" "Gnarly!" Or order a pizza :)

 More to come! Until then, pray for our studies and sticking it out these last few weeks, thanks for blessing us!

Christmas Cards!

Christmas Cards are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season! I love looking at cute photos of families, couples, kiddos and seeing updates from friends. I keep mine all displayed throughout the month so that I can enjoy them.  I have already received a few and am loving it! Can't wait to do ours after my finals are done!

 How classy is this?

I've used Shutterfly for many past photo projects. Their photo books are awesome and print with such great quality, make great gifts and are such a great alternative to scrapbooking-not my area of expertise! I'm wanting to use a great service this year to make our cards and know that they will be a memory to cherish! You can personalize and make your own card sparkle! I think it'd even be fun for future birthday invites or to share a little love in February! How ever will  I choose? I especially love the ones that allow multiple pictures so that I can include a few that we have taken during the year, and aren't necessarily formal pictures!

And as an added bonus, they are offering free cards for bloggers! They are already so affordable, run many promotions with free shipping and discounts, so what a deal! The photo upload site is also really nice because you can upload in a large amount instead of one at a time, and you can share albums with friends so that they too can order prints-how handy!

McDodi's Farm

We went to the yearly party out at McDodi's Farm that's put on by a physician for the med students and spouses. It was fun to get out into the country, see the pretty horses, enjoy the bonfire and roast smores, and go on a hayride!

Giddy up!

 Piled into the hayride

 Sweet friends!

 Campfire goodness

 Lovelies

Baylor Homecoming!

Well, we were blessed to be able to go to Waco for our 5 year Homecoming reunion at Baylor. It was lots of fun! We went to the Henderson's house on Friday night and caught up with friends, attended the parade in the morning, went to the Kappa alumni brunch, and then headed to touchdown alley for the Kappa Tailgate. The game was lots of fun, except the weather. Oh my goodness, a monsoon passed through Floyd Casey- on top of us! So we were a little soaked (and freezing!) and had to go home and change clothes. It was still a blast and a Bear victory, making us Bowl Eligible for the first time in a long time- so an exciting win! Got to catch breakfast with Goose on Sunday morning before heading out of town. A great weekend, but it definitely made me miss college! And made me feel old seeing all the college kids- oh well, such is life! :)

Kappa Float- Yay! I love Pooh!

 Kappa Brunch

 Wow- have taken lots of photos here! :)

 There are actually 7 people in this picture! Can you guess where they are? Hint- not in my belly! :)

 Tailgate- Sic 'Em!

 Roomies!

 My favorite Bear!

 And...soaked! Go Bears!

 Finding friends and sharing an umbrella

 Bears Win! Outfit #2

 B-A-Y, L-O-R, Baylor Bears, Fight!

Life as of Late...

Well, we've been trucking along lately with our busy schedules. Hard to believe that September has almost come and gone!!! I've been chomping at the bit to put up my fall decorations...Fall is my absolute favorite! I love the colors and the flowers, pumpkins, etc. I'm going to wait until October 1st and for when it's not 98 degrees outside, ugh!

Today marks Colby's halfway point in his Internal Medicine rotation and he will switch over to county hospital on Monday, which will be a big difference from his current private hospital. I've been at the same county school-based clinic and have loved it!! I've only had a handful of families that speak English, so it's been fun to brush up on my espanol. The best part is the independence and how my preceptor hands me the chart and that I'm expected to go in and see the kiddo by myself...yikes!


Colby's highlights: Diagnosing an appendicitis in FM and sending the pt. off to the ER before his attending even came to look at the patient, diagnosing a DVT, the "80 year old lady" (no explanation needed), having a husband of the wife he was rounding on ask him "for his business card" to which Colby explains he is a student and doesn't have one yet. I'm sure there are more that I'm leaving out but I'm so proud of him and all he is learning. I wish you could see him and how cute he looks everyday in his business attire with his white coat! :)


My highlights: Sports physicals (hernia checks, gross), Finding a bead in the ear of a 3 year old kid who came in for something unrelated and actually having to remove it- oh, kids...they have been cracking me up! That mama was shocked to say the least! Seeing the large population of overweight kids, having to tell parents about their kids having diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.-very sad, bug bites, diaper rash, broken bones, "my tummy hurts", and really just getting a lot more comfortable with answering questions (when should my baby...?). I tell you what, this will both a blessing and a curse when its our turn, cause even though I've been ingrained with all of this knowledge for school stuff, I'm going to be calling on all of my mama friends for help with all the practical stuff...whew! 

* And I should note for the many moments btwn the 2 of us where we're excited b/c we know what we're doing, there's a WHOLE lot left to learn and many more "I'm an idiot" moments, ha! Hopefully that ratio will slowly change.

That's about all until my next post which will be Fall! Yay! I'll leave you with a few pics from a Rangers game that we went to a few weeks ago, we just love them and for $10 tickets, you can't beat it!

Colby with Dr. Gramer and Chau on Family Med

 

Me and sweet Ashlee

 

 The crew, a mix between med school and Bible Study group

 Camille and Phillip

 These two are trouble right here... :)

"I have called you by name and you are mine!" -Isaiah 43:1

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day weekend together. We left FW Friday night as soon as Colb got home from the hospital and headed to San Antonio for a good friend from Baylor's wedding. We haven't been back to SA since we moved 2 1/2 years ago, so it was weird seeing all the changes, but great to get to see good friends. We stayed with 2 of our besties Mychal and Marcello and got to love on sweet Luka all weekend. He is just precious and we are so happy for them! Rocky and Ellen got to reunite and play together also! Saturday was spent seeing a few friends (wish we could have crammed in more!) and then we went to Rebecca and Jaime's wedding that evening. It was beautiful and so great to see Baylor friends! And it was probably one of the most unique weddings that we've been to! Jamie is from Australia, Reb is from SA, and they met at Oxford in London! So there were people there from all over the world and it was so fun to hear everyone talk in their various accents and terminology, ha! Sunday we weren't sure what our plans were until Colb heard back from his resident and got the clear that he didn't have to round Monday morning since he was on call that night- whoohoo!! So we packed up and headed out to Houston to see Emily and Joe and my little sister Hope. We had a great visit with them, since we hadn't seen them since Easter, and won't again until Christmas. They let us crash their dinner party and it was fun to meet some of their H-town friends. We drove back on Monday morning and Colb went in for his on-call shift at 5. It was a perfect long weekend together and much needed!

Luka- cutest little dude!!

 Colby & Luka (3mos)

 Sweet Luka

 Enjoying the wedding reception

 Leah!!!

 Jaclyn, me and Reb- the gorgeous bride!!

 Goose and Jill

Favorite Quotes?

When Colby and I first set up the blog (back when we were moving to stay in touch) brainstormed for several days to try to think of a name. This being back when he actually posted on the blog! We went back and forth and finally decided on Simply Stated because we wanted our blog to be just that...tell it like it is with whatever that may be. I don't really get the chance to write and express what's going on all the time and it often becomes a picture update instead, and I don't get to update that even as much as I would like, but I am grateful that our blog is just that..still simple!

So...I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but under the title (yes the very boring non-blog header title) I often put quotes up there. I've put scripture, ones that represent what is going on in our life, ones that inspire me, ones that make me smile, etc. And lately, I haven't changed it! And I looked at a couple of the websites that I usually find a quote and I've got nothing. So, I know that many people have favorite quotes. Will you share those with me? I'm needing some inspiration! :) 

Colby finished his last day of Family Med today, takes his shelf exam on Friday and I start school again on Friday, gulp. Last, if you think about it, I'd appreciate prayers for some of my patients and their families...lots of sick kiddos and work has been very difficult lately.