Love Like Enamel

Well, we made it, guys! Our Dental School journey came to an end faster than I could've ever anticipated! We had a crazy busy May and June that included Jubilee's first birthday party, Robbie's Senior Banquet and graduation, moving, Robbie's graduation party, and selling our house! Robbie received his dental license and is in the process of finding a job in the area. I am shocked at how suddenly things changed but even more surprised by how normal it feels to be done with that stage of our lives. Was that really four years? Is he really a Doctor already? Yes and yes!

DIY Birthday Sign

It's hard to believe our little Jubilee is a year old already! We had a great time last month celebrating her birthday with a British themed tea party. One trend I have been seeing quite frequently on Pinterest is the faux chalkboard birthday sign. Since I love crafty stuff I thought I would give it a try and write a post about how you can make your own! I had so much fun making it, that I made another one for my niece last week. Here they are side by side.

I'm waiting until closer to Olive's birthday to fill in some of the stats.

Party Planning

May is an exciting month for 4th year Dental Students and their loved ones! It's a time to celebrate the graduate for all the hard work they have put in as well as celebrate an end to the four years of insanity that we all just survived. With just one month to go, I'm well underway in the planning process for Robbie's graduation party (not that I've been working on this since December or anything *cough*). Here's what I've got so far:

THE INVITATIONS

10 Ways to Save Money in Dental School

I've had several readers ask questions regarding finances during Dental School so I figured I would write a quick post on ways we saved money while Robbie was in school.

Here are some ideas for saving money while still being able to have some fun.

A Wife's Guide to Surviving Dental School

In March of 2013, I wrote a post called "How to Thrive While Your Husband's In Dental School." It has gotten nearly 3000 views making it my most popular post by far! Three years later, with less than two months to go until Robbie graduates, I thought I would reflect on that post and see how my advice has held up. Let's dive right in!

Shutterfly Albums

I don't know about you but I take a lot of photos. Digital cameras are fantastic in that you can typically view your photo instantly to make sure no one was blinking but I feel like many of the photos tend to just sit on the computer (or cell phone), tucked away in a file that will rarely be seen or shared outside the digital world of facebook or instagram. I love looking through my family's old photo albums and I wanted something physical for Robbie and I to have so our kids would get the same experience.

Then I discovered Shutterfly. For the past 5 years, I have used this excellent website to create a photo album with all our favorite memories from each year. It has the artistic and creative qualities of scrapbooking but there's no mess and, in my experience, is much cheaper!

Start of the Final Semester

I currently have several things I'm excited about so get ready for lots of exclamation points!

1) Robbie started his FINAL semester of Dental School three weeks ago!

CU has eleven semesters in total (because they are kind of evil and don't give the students any summers off) and we only have one left. Where did the time go?

2) There are only 123 days until graduation!

I know because I have a countdown app on my phone. Robbie has asked me not to tell him the exact number of days because it stresses him out ("I have so much to do still!" -Robbie). What's nice is they have one month after graduation to complete any final requirements so I feel like that extra little cushion of time should help relieve the stress a little. For now, I will just share the countdown with you guys.

3) He took the NBDE part II at the end of December and received this in the mail!

Just look at how beautiful that is.