Highlights from Year 2, Semester 3

I'm really enjoying my new built-in desk and decided to take advantage of this lovely Sunday evening by writing another catch-up post. Here are the highlights from summer semester of year 2 of Dental School.

1) CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE
After months of house hunting and paperwork, we finally closed on our first home in early June. Over the summer, we've worked on little projects here and there, slowly getting it decorated how we want it. There's still plenty of work to be done!

Move In day

Hanging some curtain rods. I love power tools.

Riesy loves her perch above the staircase

These are pull out drawers that have a base you screw into the cabinet. We found them at Wal-Mart and they made the narrow pantry so much more functional!

2) BEING AN AUNTIE
All three of my older sisters are now mommies which makes me super-Auntie. I can't get enough of those squishy little faces and every time we go up to visit Fort Collins, I'm shocked at how fast my niece and nephews are growing.

Went to the park with Ariane and Deborah

The niece and nephews with Altair and my mom

Holding my two squishy nephews

Grabbing breakfast with Deborah and Henry

3) COMIC CON
If you didn't already know Robbie and I were huge nerds, this will probably convince you. I had been to Star Cons as a kid (yup, I admit it publicly) but never a Comic Con. As this year marked the 75th anniversary of Batman, we decided we just had to go! My sister, Deborah, came with us along with my adorable nephew, Henry. Deborah dressed as Ripley from the Alien movies and made a sweet costume for Henry to match. Robbie and I ended up running out of time to make costumes so we decided to just sport some nerdy shirts and enjoy observing everyone else. We even almost got run over by Adam West in a golf cart! True story.

The cutest Xenomorph I've ever seen!

Robbie hanging out by the Batmobile

Me hanging out with Zangief from Mortal Kombat

A life-size functioning R2D2

I don't know which is better... the awesomeness of the Star Wars set or the fact that we got photobombed by Deadpool

4) NITROUS CLINIC
Robbie's class got to be in my clinic when they had their lab for administering nitrous oxide (aka. laughing gas). Everyone was laughing and saying silly things. It was probably my favorite day at work ever. Here's Robbie enjoying his turn:

5) CRAWDAD FISHING
Robbie's sister, her husband, and their two boys recently moved out of state. As part of their going away party, we had an epic water balloon fight followed by some crawdad fishing in the creek. I had never been crawdad fishing before, but it was ridiculously easy. All you do is tie a piece of hot dog to a string then throw the hot dog in the water and wait for the crawdads to bite. It doesn't take long before you feel a little tug on your string so someone gets ready with a bucket and you gently tug the hot dog upwards. The crawdad doesn't want to let go of it's prized hot dog so it lifts right out of the water with the hot dog! After playing a bit with the crawdads, we released them back in the creek.

6) ROBBIE SEEING PATIENTS
This by far is the most mind-blowing highlight of Year 2, Semester 3. Robbie has been doing fillings on real live patients! This part of school felt so far away when we first began the whole process but it has arrived in the blink of an eye. It's unfortunate that I don't have a picture to share (for the obvious reason of patient privacy rights) but he has already done 6 fillings and a crown! Hygienists can clean teeth and even Dental Assistants can place fillings, but only Dentists are allowed to drill teeth. He's officially Dentisting and I couldn't be more proud of all the hard work he put in to get here.

Guest Room Remodel

As you may know, Robbie and I purchased our first home a few months ago and it was... a bit of a fixer-upper. Prior to moving in, we were able to request a few improvements be made to the home such as having all new carpet and windows installed (the carpet was filthy and smelled horrible and the original windows were single-pane); however, there were still many projects left for us to complete ourselves.

By far the room that needed the most help was the guest bedroom and was the first project zone for me to tackle. Here is a before picture to show you just how terrible it was:

I don't know which is worse... the shamrock green, the Pepto-Bismol pink or the horrendous paint splatters that covered everything including the closet doors and window sill.

STEP 1: New Paint
In choosing the paint color, I was trying to keep in mind that this room will eventually be used as a baby room and I don't want to have to repaint. I chose a cheery green paint called "Rejuvenate" by Behr for the main walls and inside the closet I used a blue-green paint called "Aspen Aura." Here's the painting in-progress:

The green looks way more bright in this picture than it is in person.

STEP 2: REMOVE CLOSET DOORS AND REPLACE
The closet doors were beyond help so we decided to remove them completely and hang curtains with a tension rod in front of the closet. (see picture for next step to see a picture of the curtains)

STEP 3: WALL ART
I got the idea off Pinterest to hang a group of framed scrapbook papers as a cheap wall art. I chose to do a blue, green, and orangy-pink grouping. I love how it turned out! The frames were $2 each at Wal-Mart and I probably spent $3 total on the scrapbook paper for a total of $21. Another bonus is that I can change out the paper if I ever get tired of it!

STEP 4: BUILT-IN DESK
I've hated not having a desktop computer to use for the last several months, but Robbie and I couldn't decide what kind of desk to get for the Guest Room/Office. The day we took down the closet doors, I was struck with the idea of using half the closet as a desk space. I started planning out how I could build it, gathered my supplies from Home Depot, and went to work.

You can just barely see the edge of the 2x4 I used to support the front left corner of the desk

We used three shelf brackets to give additional support to the middle of the desk.

The final product

Here's the BEFORE/AFTER of the room as a whole:

That's all I have time for today. My next post will be about updating the guest bathroom.

Highlights of Year 2, Semester 2

So I know we just finished Year 2, Semester 3 and I'm a little behind on this, but I don't want to forget some of the great moments of Robbie's spring semester! This blog is, after-all, somewhat of a journal for us to look back on someday.

1) THE WHITE COAT CEREMONY
I wrote about this in a previous post, but Robbie received his White Coat in a ceremony marking the transition from student to Dental Care practitioner. His parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephews were able to come as well as my parents and one of my sisters. We celebrated afterward by going to a delicious Mexican restaurant called Ajuua!

2) GETTING NUMBED UP BY ROBBIE
I know this probably sounds crazy (especially to anyone not married to a Dental Student) but letting Robbie practice numbing me up for the first time was freaking awesome! It made me realize just how much I trust him and I experienced first hand one of the many skills he is gaining in school. What a long way he's come from those first days when he was filling in shapes with wax.

And he did such a great job, too! A tiny pinch but no real pain!

3) PRESENTATION FOR A.O.
Robbie joined a Dental Fraternity this year called Alpha Omega. They asked me to give a presentation about the rules of clinic, infection control, etc. because of my position as a Dental Assistant at the school. I had a great time prepping a PowerPoint and overall felt the presentation went pretty smoothly. I even threw in a few witty jokes for good measure.

4) BABY HENRY WAS BORN
Yes, I do indeed have another nibling! He was born in March to my third-oldest sister and he is absolutely adorable! How could you not love a baby who smiles so much?

 Are you overwhelmed by the cuteness yet?


5) OUR SPRING BREAK TRIP TO PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO
Jeez this is making me realize how behind I am on this blog. I didn't even write a post about our Spring Break trip! We went to Puerto Vallarta for 5 days and stayed at an all-inclusive resort (a first for me). Robbie's favorite thing by far about all-inclusive vacations is the unlimited quantities of food he has access to. And the hotel we stayed at did not skimp on the variety. Every day was a new buffet of deliciousness. We also got to go kayaking, shoot a little archery, soak in the sun by the pool, and even get a massage right on the beach.

The view from our hotel room

Yes, I am wearing a Little Mermaid shirt.

It had a swim-up bar just to the right of the picture.

The massage hut. It was glorious.

I honestly can't get enough of this guy! He is my favorite travel buddy!

6) SEARCHING FOR OUR FIRST HOME
Technically we didn't close on our house until the beginning of Summer Semester, but our search took up almost all of Spring Semester. Let me just tell you that the process of buying a home was a steep learning curve. I had no idea what a Conventional Loan was compared to an FHA loan. I had no idea how competitive and stressful the whole process would be. In the end it was well worth it and I feel like I am a little better at handling stress now.

I've posted this before, but this is right after we closed on our home.

Our cute little kitchen. The margarita glass was left by the previous owners when they abandoned the place.

Ah, this room. There have been some major improvements to this room since we moved in. I hope to write a post about the transformation as soon as I'm all done. The previous owners obviously let their child go nuts with paint in here.

The best improvement that was done before we moved in was having all new carpet put in. The former carpet was covered in mystery pet stains and wreaked like you wouldn't believe.

It was a hard semester-- probably the hardest of my life. But I'm beginning to see some of the ways God used it to mature us as a couple and we now are reaping the benefits of owning our first home.