A New Semester, a New Season

I know it's been two weeks since I last posted but it's been a slightly crazy two weeks so I don't feel too bad.

Some exciting news I have to share is that I got a job at the Dental School! I applied about two months ago and had basically assumed I wasn't going to be called back for an interview since I hadn't heard anything in so long. In the meantime, I was applying for a position at the Disney Store and was offered a job there. Before I could start at the Disney Store, however, I heard back from the school. After making it through the initial interview as well as a secondary, I was offered a position as a Dental Assistant in the Futures Clinic. It's brand new and had only been open for two weeks when I started.

My favorite part about my new job is that I love working with the Dental Students! Right now it's third and fourth years doing screenings (basic check-ups) on patients in the clinic so Robbie's class isn't in there yet, but we still get to have lunch together and go to/from school together. I've already gotten to know quite a few of the upper classmen and I can honestly say that Dental Students have the best personalities! You can tell that they are just loving what they're doing and a lot of them have great senses of humor. I will also admit that it's really entertaining to hear the staff's perspective on the students ("Just be patient with the Dental Students. They have a lot on their minds." etc).

For Robbie, the semester is moving ahead at full speed. In his Indirect Restoration class, they're working on crown preps and temporary crowns and in his Combined Removable Prosthodontics class, they're learning about the process of making Dentures.

We went into the lab one weekend so I could give him tips on making temporary crowns. (Finally, something I can help him with!)

The little purple mold is an impression of the tooth before it was prepped for the crown. You fill that little impression with temporary material and place it back on the tooth after it's been prepped and it gives you a temporary crown in the shape of the original tooth. Ingenious! The tooth on the counter is the temporary crown.

Here's his articulator with his denture wax-ups in place.

In other news, I've been getting to paint a lot lately! A couple weekends ago, I went to Altair's house to add Eeyore and Piglet to her baby room. I also offered to paint a mural at my friend Jeanette's church so I drove over there after work three days this week and painted for several hours. I'm really excited because Robbie and I have been looking for a church to call home ever since we moved and we are going to try going to this one on Sunday. 

The crib will go just below the characters.

Eeyore has always been my personal favorite. I even sleep with a stuffed Eeyore that I have had since elementary school! haha

They asked for the Denver skyline but since it's in a children's area, we made it colorful. :)

And now you know why I haven't written in a couple weeks! I definitely have to say that it has been a little bit of an adjustment going back to work after having not worked for a year. Over the past week, our apartment has gotten so messy because neither of us had the time/energy to tidy up much. We also ate out a lot more than we normally do because we didn't have time to go to the grocery store. Now that I'm done with the mural I will have a lot more time after work, but I still feel spoiled because I always went grocery shopping in the morning during the week instead of on the weekend when it's crowded. I'm sure we will find a good groove to get things done that we need to. I'm so grateful and excited for this job and even if that means our place is a little messier, we will survive just fine!

Hope you're all having a good start to the new school year!

Previous Post Was Incomplete

My previous post accidentally got published while I was only half way done with it, so if you read it before Saturday night, you may have noticed that I stopped mid-sentence. It's all done now though and ready to be read! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Start of a New School Year

I've finally made it to my 50th post and what perfect timing! I'm happy to announce that Robbie received notification that he passed the Part I Dental Boards! Part II of the Boards isn't until his 4th year so it's nice to have such a big test out of the way for awhile.

Here's a picture of the notice. I used Photoshop to highlight the important part.

Many of you may have a Dental Student starting their first year over the next few weeks so I just wanted to offer some encouragement today. Thinking back to one year ago, I had a lot of anxiety about what the coming months would bring. I didn't know what Dental School would be like for Robbie, how the time requirements would affect our marriage, and what specific challenges lay before us. If you're new to my blog, I recommend checking out my post on How to Thrive While Your Husband is in Dental School for a few concrete tips that could help you adjust to life with a Dental Student.

Robbie put so much hard work into his first year: weekend study sessions at Starbucks, hours and hours of lab practice, memorization, sweat, and a few tears. I'm realizing today what a special gift it is that I get to see this process unfolding. Yes, his friends and family likely notice how busy he is, but as his wife I bare a special witness to the sacrifice and endurance Dental School has required from him. I've been there when he was going through flash card after flash card of Dental Morphology and Pathology and Gross Anatomy. I heard his quiet mumblings as he recited things to himself to make sure he remembered what he studied. I've seen him when he's confident and seen him when he is in great need of encouragement. Most amazingly, I have been witness to the incredible power of praying together before tests and practicals, at the end of a long day, or just when we felt a little distant from one another due to busy schedules. I've seen God's truth and love obliterate lies, rejuvenate Robbie's spirit, adjust both our attitudes, and draw the two of us closer together in our marriage.

Your Dental Student will likely have days where they come home feeling like crap because of the overwhelming amount of information they need to study, because they feel like their lab work isn't improving quickly enough, or because they have two or three tests every week and just can't seem to catch up. One of your most important roles as the spouse of a Dental Student will be to find ways of setting up stones of remembrance. So many times in the Bible, God instituted ways for His people to be reminded of all He had done for them in the past. The Jewish holidays of Passover, Hanukkah, Purim, etc. and now the Christian holidays of Christmas and Resurrection Sunday are all dedicated to memorializing specific times when God came through for His people in miraculous ways. Another tradition from Biblical times is the building of stone memorials. Whenever God met someone or provided for them in a meaningful way, that person would gather stones into a pile wherever it had occurred so that every time they came back by that place, they would see the stones and remember what God had done.  [See Joshua 4 for a great example of this]

I would encourage you to find ways to memorialize the important moments of Dental School for you and your student. Take pictures, write in a journal, keep a blog, grab an actual stone and write the date on it-- whatever it takes to keep a record of those moments. In four years, you will look back and remember all that God has brought you through and agree with the Psalmist in saying:

"LORD, God of Hosts, who is strong like You, LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds you!" -Psalm 89:8

Back in Action and Puerto Rico Trip, Part 1

We're back from Puerto Rico and I just dropped Robbie off about an hour ago to officially start his second year! It felt great to get up this morning with him and have some breakfast together. We spent some time praying about the coming year before heading out. I'm definitely the type of person that likes having a routine so it was especially nice to be up instead of sleeping in so I could get some cleaning done around our apartment (I think we were still in vacation mode the last few days because it was a little messy!).

Puerto Rico was an absolute blast and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to travel somewhere tropical without spending a load of money. We decided to not rent a car while we were down there and did not have any problems getting around on the public transportation. I think we spent at the most $50 getting around. $40 of that was to pay for the taxi to our hotel from the airport and back only because you can't take luggage on the bus. The bus was only 75 cents per person and it went to all the areas where we were wanting to go in San Juan.

We stayed in Le Consulat which is a little boutique hotel about two blocks from the beach. Our first night there our airconditioner broke. We told them that morning before we went out for the day and when we got back it was already fixed! Talk about speedy! They also mopped the floors everyday in our room which was great because we dragged a lot of sand in from the beach. The room was a little small, but it was clean and comfortable and that's all we needed.

Our first full day there, we took the bus into Old San Juan and visited El Morro, a fort built by the Spanish in the 1500's to protect the port of San Juan.

It was only $3 per person to get inside the fort.

Here's the lighthouse that's within the fort walls.

This is looking back towards Old San Juan from inside the fort.

After touring El Morro, we walked back into Old San Juan and had lunch at a place called Mojitos. I had some delicious chicken with creole sauce and Robbie had the traditional Puerto Rican dish mofongo. Mofongo is a savory dish made with mashed plantains. He chose to have his stuffed with pork and it was absolutely wonderful! I also got a side of amarillos, fried sweet plantains which were our favorite part of the whole meal. You can see one of the amarillos towards the top left of Robbie's plate.

From Old San Juan, we took a ferry boat (50 cents each) to another part of San Juan called

Cataño to visit the Bacardi Distillery. We got there too late to go on the tour but they still gave us our two free drinks each!

I had rum punch and some sort of coconut rum something or other. They were quite tasty!

Robbie had rum punch and a Cuba libre (rum with coke and lime).

And that concluded our first full day in Puerto Rico. I'll write a couple more posts about the rest later.

Last Post Before Puerto Rico

We're leaving for Puerto Rico tomorrow night so I wanted to write one more post before we left.

Robbie took the Part I Boards this past Monday. I can't say he loved the experience (who would enjoy a 7 hour test?!) but it's nice to finally have them done after weeks of preparing. The day after he took the test, he seemed to have a bit of a mental hangover. Robbie felt the hardest part of the test was a section called "testlets" that described clinical scenarios and you had to diagnose what the patient had based off the description. All of his classmates that took the test before Robbie's group came out feeling like they completely failed and they have all passed so far. It takes about 2-3 weeks for them to give you your score so I will give an update when we hear back. I'm confident that Robbie passed just fine but I know he won't feel completely at ease until he gets it in writing.

We went up to visit our families in Fort Collins for a few days after the test. We also got to hang out with our friends, Dan and Chelsea (two of our favorite people!). I've known Dan since high school when we were in Student Council together and his dad is also the pastor of our home church in Fort Collins. He is like the brother I never had growing up and he's a huge nerd when it comes to animals and Disney. Dan met Chelsea in Hawaii and he seriously could not find a better girl. The first time I met Chelsea in person was when Robbie and I went to California and she was working at Disneyland so she got us in for free. Chelsea is sweet, intelligent, funny, easy to talk to, thoughtful, and wise beyond her years (not to mention she has hair like a Disney princess). Maybe that is why we get along with them so well... they remind us of Disney so much!

Here's Dan and Chelsea when we went with them to tour Celestial Seasonings Tea in Boulder, CO last year

Next time I write will be after we get back from our trip so hopefully I'll have a lot of fun pictures and stories to share! Robbie starts school back up on the 12th.