Catching Up

You may be wondering what happened to me. I recognize that it has now been over a quarter of a year since my last post. I am living a fairytale life. I am trapped inside a tower and can't get out. My prince has come, but he supports me in staying in that tower, Moos tower, until I can learn all of the magical things it takes to become a dentist.

School is fine, it's not as bad as last year but I think that has more to do with the fact that I'm getting used to being beaten down everyday. I'm still trying to pace myself with twelve hour days but I'm really getting burned out. I suppose 30 credits in a semester will do that to you. There is a very good reason that interviewees only talk to fourth year students and not first and second years. I think if they did, no one would ever come to school; they would be terrified. I'm told it does get better ...it'll just get worse first with next semester and our first national boards exam. I'm shooting for next August; I've heard things get much better then.

After much pondering I've decided that my frustration cannot be avoided. Everyday I have to show up at school to learn about something I've never done before. Then we go up to lab and are expected to create the ideal of that principle. This is no exaggeration, on the first try we are shooting for something that is perfect. Day after day I come to the tower to attempt a new complicated process. Our instructors then come around, grade our product and tell us everything that we could have done better. Really though, my class has come a remarkable way in the last year. I'm looking forward to clinic when I have more than one opportunity to do each of these procedures. Granted, everything will always have a new element to it, but the entire concept won't be foreign.

I've discovered that I like running. Some days I feel like a slug, but others I find it quite satisfying. After sitting all day I crave being able to get out and move. When I was preparing for Officer Basic Camp we bought an ipod with a nike sensor. It's been a great way to run; it tracks my pace, distance and calories burned. I can then record them all on the nike website and track my progress. Like Brian, I have made great strides in my progress. I can run two miles with no problem and went for a six mile run this weekend. (My farthest run to date.) My favorite runs are those where Jason comes along and rides his bike beside me. Once the snow hits I'll probably switch back to swimming more regularly. (I'm afraid of slipping on the ice and doing something to my wrists.)

In other news we are enjoying our new home. Jason did a wonderful job picking it out. Our neighborhood is quiet and we have some great neighbors. We enjoy our new ward/congregation and are 95% settled. I figure the last 5% will probably take at least a year. I don't recommend moving in the middle of the semester, especially when you move in and the weather drops to 40 degrees. Trying to study while not knowing where your textbooks are is less than effective. This was our first year passing out candy together, we were a little concerned no one would show up but between 6:30 and 9 approximately 70 ninjas, fairies, hobos, dragons and what not came by. I'm looking forward to decorating the place for Christmas and hosting my family for Thanksgiving. The latter will probably involve somebody sitting on the floor since we should probably invest in a larger dining table. Perhaps something we didn't find next to the dumpster. (This was pre-craigslist though, it's essentially the same process.)

In other news, the crockpot has become my new best friend. Now that I definitely don't get home before seven or eight we are relying heavily on leftovers. I try and cook a few large crockpot recipes on the weekend while I'm studying and then we eat that the rest of the week for lunch and dinner. My goal is to cook a fair amount of Thanksgiving dinner that way as well so we spend less time in the kitchen and more time with family. We'll see how it goes. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Holidays don't get any better than family and food.

School is over... oh wait

So I finished my finals on Friday. It was five finals in five days plus three more the week before. I enjoyed being done and have spent the last few days cleaning up and taking care of normal life stuff that gets put off for months at a time. Now I feel ready to relax and rejuvenate before the next semester, small problem though - school starts tomorrow at 7:30am. At first I thought two days off would be enough, currently I'm still feeling fried. On the bright side I'm hoping this semester will be less intensive. What I mean is that hopefully when I leave school I will be done for the day. Classes go from 7:30am until 5pm most days; however, they are mostly clinical so I'm hoping there won't be as much late night bookwork. If nothing else, it's only seven weeks.

It's been so long since I posted I'm not sure what I filled people in on last. In January a fellow classmate and I accepted the challenge to train for a triathlon. I have sent in my check and should be participating in the "New Bri Tri" on June 6th. It will involve a 1/2 mile swim in a lake, 13 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. I've been swimming about 3 times a week since January, the weather just got better so I've been biking to school which is about 13 miles a day. The running has been more challenging to improve in. Jason has been biking while I run to encourage me and I invested in a nike + ipod sensor which tracks my pace, runs and distance. I can at least run the distance I need to, we'll see if I can after swimming and biking too. If nothing else, I should be well prepared for my physical tests for the National Guard when I go for Officer Basic Camp in August.

This past semester has been an interesting one. While my social life and Jason's have pretty much died, we have still managed to accomplish much. My friend and classmate Priya taught me how to make some awesome indian food which has been fun. Let me just say that chili powder from the indian store is much stronger than anything you normally get at the grocery store. I have survived school for another semester and have done a few other enjoyable things. I won't put all of the details here but I learned a lot more than I expected to about making dental crowns. They are much more complicated than you can imagine. We had a simulated patient we have been working on all semester and will get to see what my lab results will be when the next semester begins.

I've spent far too much time at a desk and in front of a computer this semester. Hence, I would love to tell you more but I can't stare at this screen anymore.

Happy New Year from Minnesota

Someday I'm going to enjoy these holidays at the end of the year again. Over the past few years I have both dreaded and looked forward to Christmas. I think it has something to do with the fact that nine of the last ten years I have had finals in December. These usually are close to the nineteenth leaving me precious few days to do what I hate most - go shopping for gifts. (I normally hate shopping, but even more so when the freeway is backed up because everyone is going to the mall.) So I spend the first part of my break preparing for Christmas and the rest trying to catch up on everything else that has been neglected during school. It's a good thing Ting and Murphy are such good kids otherwise we'd really be in trouble. I finally got my grades back on Friday - there is room for improvement but I am quite happy with them.

School starts tomorrow and while I've had a really nice week and a half....I'm still fried. I'm usually excited and ready for new classes, right now I'm not ready to start over again. Clearly I survived last semester but it was kind of painful. Jason keeps reminding me to take it just a day at a time which is really excellent advice. Jason has been a wonderful support to me through dental school, I can't imagine going through this without him.

I spent Christmas day with my family in Madison and went cross country skiing while Jason worked at the referral clinic. Jason and I should both have skis in a couple of weeks which I am very excited about. The key to surviving the winter is to find some redeeming qualities about it. For me, I'm hoping it will be cross country skiing.

The 26th I drove back and Jason and I flew to San Antonio, Texas on the 27th. We had a wonderful Doolittle family reunion and celebrated Jason's dad's 65th birthday. I have a bunch of very sweet nieces and nephews who are definitely all boy. We went to see the Alamo, look at some missions from the 1700s and of course gorge ourselves on barbecue and tex mex. I also had the chance to see two of my good friends from my BYU days which was a real treat. One of course being the fabulous red head Stephanie. I know you are all jealous that we got to hang out. We were discussing possibilities for our Crown 9er reunion. I make it down to San Antonio everyonce in awhile due to Jason's family. So that already puts two of our members in close proximity. Otherwise the state farm in Minnesota is probably the best in the country. Would could all hang out and drink lots of milk, enjoy butter sculptures eat things on a stick. It would be lots of fun.

Now that we have seen a little bit of sun and remembered what life is like without coats we are back in MN and bracing ourselves for at least three more months of snow. I'm hoping 2009 will be a good year. I'm grateful to have a husband who loves me, a happy and healthy extended family and the opportunity to further my education. If I can keep in mind that those are more important than the challenges I foresee in the next year - life will continue to be good.

Teeth and Stuff

It's hard to believe that it's been several weeks since my last post. The weeks are just flying by. Dental school is going well. I am currently dealing with a few adjustments. In the last two weeks I've had 13 credits added to my schedule. That currently brings me to 22 credits with a total of 24 to be completed by the end of the semester. The time consuming classes right now are histology, gross anatomy and biochemistry. I know you are all jealous and wish you could be in class eight hours a day with lots of studying afterward. I'm sure you will get by. My favorite class is oral anatomy. We learn about all of the tiny details of each tooth and then in lab, work on creating them from wax to internalize the information.







I've also started using the new dental simulation clinic at the school. The University of Minnesota has one of the only simulation clinics this advanced. It uses GPS technology to teach students proper ergonomics and appropriate tooth preparations for restorations. The GPS detects where the handpiece is placed and what plastic tooth material has been removed. The preparation is then simulated into a 3-D image on a computer screen which can be compared to an ideal preparation. It also offers objective grading. The experience has been pretty good. I find the computer feedback to be helpful - I just wish the handpiece wasn't so heavy.

Here is a link to a video to see what I'm talking about:

http://www.dentistry.umn.edu/news/tvspot/home.html

We started gross anatomy this past week. Yes, we do work with cadavers. We are very fortunate to have people who have been kind enough to donate their bodies to allow us to learn. It's tough work though and there is a lot of preparation involved and ridiculous amount of information learn. I'm also practicing with a choir that will perform for the memorial surface to honor the families of those who donated their bodies.

In other news I have found a wonderful opportunity for school. I will most likely be joining the National Guard later this month. It's a very family friendly and flexible option to fund school and serve the country. I will be working specifically in dentistry and the tuition benefits are good. There are a lot of details; but the basic idea is that I will be drilling once a month for the next eight years. (Four before graduation and four as a licensed dentist.) Following graduation I will continue drilling but have the option (or need) to be deployed as a dentist with the Army. If that were the case it would only be for 90 days and I can't be deployed for 18 months after that. I've put a lot of thought into it and Jason and I feel this is the best option for us. I look at it this way: I will owe my soul to somebody in order to pay for school. It's either the military for eight or the bank for much, much longer.

Jason and I had a wonderful anniversary. Autumn this year has been amazing. It is an unusally warm fall and the leaves are changing colors at a reasonable rate. (Some years they start and drop leaves within three weeks.) Life is good, albeit busy.

School Is Great!

I know that some of my posts have some sarcastic undertones. However, when I say that school is going great I really mean it. I have completed two weeks thus far and am having a blast. I have met some great people in my class. One of my classmates lives a block away and I have a fantastic group of girls to carpool with. I know it's early and our class is still in the honeymoon stage of school but I think there are some really sincere and good people in it. School feels very much like home to me. Between seeing old friends and faculty and being surrounded by a bunch of super geeks like me I couldn't be happier.

Our school schedule has started out pretty light with tomorrow being our first day of class from 7:45am until 5pm. (With an hour lunch break.) By October most of our days will be like that and the material will probably start to get overwhelming. As for right now the highlight of the weeks has been waxing up teeth. we are given a stump of plastic and with wax and carving tools create an ideal tooth. The idea is that by creating these teeth we may better understand the anatomy of each individual tooth. Needless to say some people are a bit frustrated considering this is quite different than typical classes.

In other great news I finished my first 5K run yesterday. I was definitely one of the slowest runners but I finished and walked only a small bit of the route. My main goal was to finish and run most of it. I feel like I ran farther than I expected to and fortunately finished far ahead of the walkers. It was the first annual Mouths in Motion walk/run put on by the dental school student association. (ASDA) All proceeds went to oral cancer research at the U. It was great to be out for a good cause and the weather couldn't have been better. The environment was extremely positive with plenty of cheering from fellow classmates, other dental students and faculty. Our dental anatomy professor Dr. Madden pledged to contribute up to a million dollars - a dollar for each dental student that finished ahead of him. Sadly, I didn't beat him - maybe next year.

Back In Minnesota

So, it's been a little while since I last blogged.  I am going to blame  that on moving and Murphy.  Each time I have sat down to blog this past week Murphy came and sat on the keyboard or right in front of it.  Currently, I am resting my left arm on his body and he is licking my right arm as I struggle to type over him.  If you push him off he just keeps coming back.

 

 

We were able to do a few fun things before leaving Milwaukee.  Here are some pictures of going out to dinner with one of the dental offices I worked at - Quinn Dental.  I also added some views of my operatory.  I'm really going to miss the great people I worked with at both offices and of course the windows.  There are no windows in the clinics and classrooms I will be in for the next four years.

 

 

Jason and I also made it out camping.  It's something we hope to do more of now that Jason actually has Saturdays off.  We went to Big Foot Beach State Park.  We met our goals of breaking in our new huge tent, eating smores and having a fire.  We even went biking and cooled off swimming in Lake Geneva.  (It's on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois.)  Unfortunately it was really hot and muggy and the mosquitos were unbearable; so we bailed a night early.  For car camping I thought it was a pretty lame site.  There wasn't any separation from one camp site to the next.  We might as well have been on a parade ground.  I don't mind roughing it but I hate pit toilets.  I can't help but think that something is alive down in them just waiting for me to sit down in the dark.  Jason thought I was nuts, but while he was sleeping I saw the sewage guy come to clean out the pit toilet. As I was watching he pulled out his tube from the pit then took a shovel and hit it a few times.  He then picked up some kind of large rodent (maybe a possum?) and dropped it off in a bucket.  I'm not crazy, these things do happen and apparently often enough if he's got a bucket for it.  To make things more exciting we had a woman stop at 10pm and yell at us while we were in our tents.  Apparently she is a professional storm spotter (she may have been drunk or just out there) and was concerned that we were going to have torrential storms that night.  (It rained but wasn't bad.)  We told the rangers about in the morning, I guess we just attract some odd ducks.

 

 

We've been in Minnesota for two weeks now.  It didn't take long to feel right at home.  There were certainly good things that happened to us while we were in Milwaukee; however we are much happier and more comfortable here.  (At least until the snow hits.)  Our move went well and we had some great people help us both loading and unloading.  It only took 80 minutes to unload everything from our truck and the U-Haul with the muscle we had helping us.  

 

 

 

Our location is great.  I went exploring this week and biked all the way to campus and back.  It will be a bit of a haul - seven miles one way I think.  I'm going to give it a go in good weather.  I doubt that I will make it through the entire winter this year.  The cities are a great place to bike - they keep adding all of these fantastic bike routes within the city so you can bike almost anywhere you want if you are willing.  It takes Jason six minutes to bike to work and we've been able to spend lunches together before I start school.

 

I had a great time sharing the fabulous cities with Jason's parents: Harry and Dianne.  We were able to do a fair amount.  Harry was super helpful putting up some artwork and other handyman sorts of things.  We did all sorts of things like furniture shopping on Monday and checking out the restaurant The Rainforest Cafe at the Mall of America.  Jason started his job on Wednesday so Harry and Dianne and I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, took a mini tour of my school and enjoyed a bit of antiquing in Stillwater. 

 

 

 

I'm really looking forward to starting school in the next week and a half.  The weather has been nice and I'm enjoying some down time before things get busy.  I had an enjoyable birthday with plenty of cake, ice cream and friends we haven't seen in a year.  I am also sporting a new bike helmet that I am super pumped about thanks to Harry and Dianne.  I now feel that if I were to really need to use it would actually do something for me.                                                                                                                                                                     

Dental School Updates

Friday morning (November 30th) I checked my email and opened a letter with the subject: Congratulations from the U of M School of Dentistry. I anxiously opened it and found out I have been accepted to the dental program for the class of 2012. (I don't like to think about that number because it seems so far away. It will come regardless of whether or not I'm in school.) Besides, it's a four year investment for a lifetime of benefits.

The initial email didn't actually have my name in it. So before I got too excited I decided to call the school and confirm. The admissions woman I've been working with answered right away. I told her who I was and she asked how I was doing. I said I was doing good (I know that's not proper grammar), and she responded that I should be. That's when I said, so the email is real? I was concerned it could have been a mix up of some sort. It's the real deal though, I'll receive my official letter soon and then I'll have 45 days to confirm my spot with a $1000 deposit. They said it was an exceptionally tough year and that I congratulations were definitely in order.

Before screaming to the world the good news, I wanted to hear back from Marquette first. (I knew they were sending out results to arrive in the mail on the first.) Marquette has placed me on a hold list. They are going to further debate my application and get back to me in the middle of January. Unless they make a decision earlier than that, it will have been past my deadline for Minnesota. I kind of feel like Marquette is playing with me. The interviewers were not the nicest when I went there and I think the admissions committee is toying with me to see how committed I really am. In other words, am I willing to risk losing my spot at Minnesota in order to get in there. While financially Marquette would make a lot more sense ... why would I turn down a school that's excited to have me for another that has been far less interested?

Nothing is final yet. I still have to achieve a certain grade in my biochemistry course before everything is official. (Due to the challenge of long distance learning and poor access to lecture presentations, this is actually a factor. I have two weeks until the end of the course though and then we'll know.)

Jason has been the best. This means that he won't be applying to all of the programs he would have if I weren't going to dental school. Minnesota has been good to us in so many ways albeit cold. We are confident that things will work out for him, either in obtaining a residency there or getting a good position. As excited as I am about being accepted, I am starting to realize that this is definitely not the easy way through life. However, it's a good choice for us and will open many opportunities for us to grow, learn and serve.

Marquette Dental School Interview

I was going to post pictures from Rachel's corpman school graduation and the NBA Bucks game we saw last weekend but ran into some technical errors. They will be coming soon.

Until then, I'm sure you are all dying to know how my Marquette Dental School went. I think it stunk. There wasn't a lot that I could do about it. Before the interview, I didn't know how a dental school interview could possibly go wrong...now I know. I interviewed with the only two women on the admissions board. They smiled when they greeted me but that was about it. They had a chip on their shoulder about my application before we even got started. I sat in a medium sized conference room that normally sits say 12. A chair was left for me at the head of the table and I had an interviewer on each side about four feet away. My file was out in front of them and the questioning began. It started out fine - but these two were definitely all business.

They asked questions like; what I thought would be the three most challenging aspects of dental school. (Balancing school/life, achieving a solid foundation for a career and I can't remember the third I responded with.) What do you think a dental school's responsibility is to its students? I replied that they should show a real concern for their students and help them receive the essentials needed to treat patients and inspire them to continue learning for the rest of their careers. They also asked an ethics question about a friend cheating on a test and what would I do about it.

Then things started getting nasty. Q: So what were you doing between 1999 and 2005? (Clearly they didn't look at my folder as closely as they said they did.) I reported that I really was in school, I had a full load each semester and that when I transferred I know longer had control of how quickly I would graduate. Q: We see that you went to Minnesota, why are you interested in Marquette? This is where the bulk of the interview was spent. Upon reflection Jason and I are pretty sure that Marquette has an inferiority complex and takes it out on Minnesota grads. There is quite a bit of rivalry between the two schools and I got caught in the middle of a feud. They asked me specifically if I applied to Minnesota. I said yes, but I applied to a lot of schools as an applicant it would be foolish not to in such a competitive field. Then they wanted to know why I would go to Marquette instead of Minnesota. (Notice the emphasis on Minnesota, not just another dental school?) I replied that I hoped the school would prepare a better general practitioner considering there are fewer specialties offered there and more work for the students. I also talked about academic inbreeding. The thing I wanted to mention least is what they liked most. I broke down and told them that Jason was doing his internship and that we wanted to stay in the area for him to do his residency also. They appreciated that it was an honest answer.

The entire half an hour was incredibly awkward. Like I said it was all business and nothing was sugar coated. Most interviews are warm and bubbly - our school is great please come here. This was more like you meet our criteria but we are going to see if you are going to burn us and go to Minnesota instead. There were frequent awkward pauses as one interviewer switched to the other for questions. They asked if I had any questions...I did. However, after I asked the first question I knew the rest weren't going to go well. I wanted to know if there were elective courses offered if I had a special interest in prosthodontics or endo etc. They became really defensive and went into this long spiel about how hard dental school was and there was no time to offer anything like that. (Here is the funny part: I know Marquette offers an elective research class, and other schools offer elective courses with the same tight schedules.)

I knew one of the Doctors worked in community outreach projects so I asked about that. (I wanted to know if it gave the real world experience with timing and treating patients that the school setting didn't offer.) She rolled her eyes and said she wished the admissions board wouldn't disclose her role in the school before telling me about it. Needless to say, I feigned not having anymore questions after that.

The interview with the dental students and lunch went well. No one else had a bad experience with their interviews though - they just went on about how nice their interviewers were blah blah blah. I did hear that one of the applicants has already received several denial letters. Hmmmm, that's not the type of thing you openly disclose, yet I'm glad she did. I haven't gotten any of those yet, I wonder if that's a good sign or if the schools I applied to just don't respond. I expect to hear back on how the interview actually went by the first week of December. Some friends of mine who go there mentioned that they can be pretty brutal on Wisconsin residents trying to determine whether or not they actually plan on going there. I can't say won me over after the interview but the facilities are nice and it is half the cost other schools. So there are the details for you. Hope you enjoyed them.

MN Dental School Interview

October 15th I arrived at the University of Minnesota dental school for my first interview. Generally, you only have a couple of weeks to a month notice before an interview to find the time and transportation to get there. I hadn't told my employers I was applying to dental school before receiving the invitation. My reasoning was there was no point getting anyone distressed if I never got an interview and it would be less embarassing than saying I hadn't heard anything yet. Since I've told them, both doctors have been very supportive and have started mentoring me. I've been more involved with diagnosis, surgeries and restorative information since then.

I drove up Saturday in order to be fresh and awake for Monday as well as to take the opportunity to see my some of my friends. I stayed with our good friends the Smiths and visited people from church, and the dental school Saturday and Sunday. My interview began at 8:30, so I arrived 15 minutes before hand. I chatted with the other candidates in the room until my interviewer arrived. I had half an hour to answer the questions that the faculty member had for me. The school compiles a list of questions each interviewee is asked to allow for comparison in responses. I had originally thought I would be able to ask questions during this time, but it was strictly time to allow them to pick my brain.

Many of the questions I was asked dealt with access to care issues as well as ethics. Clearly, two critical concerns to the field. I was asked what my solution to access to care was and whether it was the profession's or government's responsibility to address. (I said it was definitely the profession and the government shouldn't have to be involved.) I also remember three ethical scenarios I was given and then asked to respond to. These included: 1)what to do when students are badmouthing a patient with other patients in the elevator 2) how to respond to a classmate who is cheating and 3) what do you do if a close friend of yours is stealing hand pieces during your last year of school. The interviewer also asked me how I balance my life responsibilities, how I study and how I think I would do with a course load above and beyond any students have been exposed to before.

Following the interview I once again chatted with the other 8:30 interviewees until the 9 o'clocks were done. Considering we were all on our best behavior most of the interviewees were really nice except for a couple of overpowering girls. Imagine 12 guys and 5 girls in suits and you have our group. We then observed in clinic for an hour followed by a tour of the school. I had seen most of what was on the tour while I worked there - but they have the ferrari of simulation pre-clinical labs now. It hadn't even been opened to the students yet. We are talking monitors at each station which have dummies with cheeks and computer sensitive teeth which give objective feedback on the dental work prepared by each students. It was really quite impressive. Following our tour we all had lunch together which covered financing your dental education seminar as well as a question and answer with two current students and a faculty member. (I promptly lost my appetite after viewing the cost of tuition for one year.)

I enjoyed myself for the most part. My interviewer said I did well and I feel like I presented myself as a strong applicant. There isn't anything I did that day I would change, now all I have to do is wait for the next step. If I get accepted as an out of state resident (there are less of these spots) I would know at the earliest by December. I'm happy to have gotten this far in the application process and think I will be satisfied with myself regardless of whether or not I get in. So one interview down, one more to go so far as I know.

In case you are wondering how Biochemistry is going - it stinks. Independent learning is a great option but it's not my style. I do best in a learning environment where I can work with other students, and directly contact instructors with questions as they come up. Having other students to compete against for a grade also doesn't hurt, it tends to be a great motivator for me. I know - I just have to compete against myself now. Biochemistry is an immersion science though, it's nearly impossible to do well without involving it in conversation with classmates as well as personal study.

In other news, Jason and I were able to attend a performance this week. The general dentist I work with is friends with a local storyteller and comedian named John McGivern. We were invited as his special guests brought backstage and all. He presented a show called The Wonder Bread Years - a nostalgic and humorous reflection on growing up in the sixties. While some of the content went over our young heads much of it had us laughing and enjoying ourselves. We even got twinkies to bring us back to our youth at the end. I wonder when the last time you ate one of those was.

Stuff and Things

I know it's been awhile since I posted, so this is quite the conglomoration of details.

I have included pictures from the Milwaukee Zoo. My family and I went on Labor Day. Jason isn't in any of the pictures because he was hard at work considering Labor Day and Memorial Day are two of the busiest of the year in emergency medicine. We chose to go to the zoo specifically because it was a location where we could get a wheelchair. You'll notice my sister Rachel has quite the boot and couldn't handle any activities where she would be on crutches all day. It's a pretty cool zoo with a great nocturnal animals exhibit as well as some other well done displays. Emily drove the wheelchair, and by some miracle no strollers or small children were hit. My dad even made it out with us which was really fun. (Rachel has currently moved up in the world and now has a walking boot for her broken foot.)



My parents bought me a sewing machine for Christmas this year and I have had a lot of fun working with it. A bunch of the women from church got together and learned how to make reversible skirts. I made one for myself and then my sister Emily picked out some fabric and designed one she wanted me to put together. You'll have to tell me what you think, but I think her prints compliment each other really well.



Now that the fall has begun I am starting my very last dental school pre-requisite. I have been downloading biochemistry lectures and trying to follow a regular schedule. My first exam will be this Thursday, we'll see how it goes. The exam will be proctored to me through the public library so it will be a regular testing situation, just in a different location. For the most part, the class has been very frustrating. The lectures frequently stop and it's nearly impossible to get through an entire lecture without some loss of information due to the sound skipping or the lecture slides blurring. Speaking of dental school, I am really looking forward to my interview at the University of Minnesota Dental School. Not only is it an honor to be invited, but it will also be nice to visit my old colleagues. As for the other schools I applied to I'm not so sure what will happen. Part of my application which was out of my hands was extremely pro-Minnesota. I don't know what other dental schools will think of that.

Work has been great. It's a really different clientele from the dental school but I'm enjoying it. I have a lot more exposure to working with kids now than I ever have before so it's been good for me. I went for a bike ride this weekend with one of the doctors I work with which was great. It's fun to have a lot of common interests with the people I work with and to actually get up and liking to work. They are both doctors I respect a lot and work well with.

Irish Festival

It's amazing how quickly the summer is passing by. I didn't really enjoy the first two months because searching for a job is similar to waiting for impending doom. Not in the sense that I don't like working - you just can't enjoy the time off because you never know how long you need to make your resources stretch. I feel like the coming of fall will bring the reality that we are really in Milwaukee for awhile. Everyone here talks about how much worse Minnesota winters are - I hope they are right. I officially signed up for my Biochemistry long distance learning class this week so there is no pretending that the summer will go on forever.

We have had almost nonstop rain since Friday. Despite that I still wanted to go to the Irish festival. It's the biggest in the world and the Trinity Irish dancers are well known world wide for producing the greatest dancers. So I got my mom and Emily to volunteer to come out with me and armed with umbrellas we headed out. (Milwaukee is known as the city of festivals. All summer long there are festivals each weekend ranging from music concerts to many ethnic festivals.) We stood in the rain for over two hours watching the Irish dance schools perform. It was definitely worth it - until the dancing ended and I was shivering uncontrollably. We searched for a comfortable tent but only found space on the outsides and finally left soaked. Due to the rain we left our cameras - sorry there aren't any pictures. To add to the excitement I left our lights on (which were on in the middle of the afternoon due to the overcast weather.) After several pleas we finally found a nice gentleman who helped us jumpstart the battery. (Jason bought this super cool emergency car kit so I had my own cables and lots of other stuff if I needed it.)

In other news I began a second job this week. I had a working interview on Monday afternoon and began Wednesday. This clinic is also in Glendale about a mile from our home. The office is two years old and new from top to bottom. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of their digital radiographs - their kind of an awkward transition between the old films and the new sensors but I'll get used to them. All of their charting is digital - I love that! I've been having a great time figuring out the software and trying to utilize all of it. They have an intraoral camera too which I'll get to use. This job compliments my job at the perio office which is Monday morning, Tuesday and Thursday. It makes for a ten hour monday but I still have Fridays off. Between the two jobs and the Saturdays I have lined up for the winter I should be averaging about 32-35 hours a week. Plus I might be able to pick up an occasional Friday temp day. It may have taken much longer than Jason and I would have liked, but I feel like it's been worth it to find offices that I am happy with the people and the quality of dentistry practiced there. (Especially if I end up working there for more than a year.) Due to my part time status at each office I have to carry my own benefits - but there are worse things in the world.

In other news - I'm married to a zombie, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Jason mentioned that he hates the four am shift. For the most part I like it. I actually get to remember seeing him when he comes home between eight and nine pm. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sleep, conversation at the dinner table isn't exactly captivating. It beats the other shifts though, we'll see how we feel a couple of weeks from now.

Here's my dental school update: schools are beginning to send me notification that they have received my first application. Hence, they are politely asking for more money and more essays. Couldn't I just take another test? Actually, that wouldn't be much better. My goal is to have all of these redundant essays completed by the end of next week. Wish me luck, it involves documenting every single extracurricular I have participated in within the last seven years as well as talking about what an asset I would be to the school and the professon. Should be fun.