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.

Mini Golf and the Sculpture Garden

Friday night Jason and I made it to the Walker Art Museum for their summer exhibit: Walker Inside Out, Art Goes Outdoors.  They are doing a miniature golf set up.  Each hole was designed by an artist used an environmental theme.  Materials used were either eco-friendly or made a statement about recycling, water conservation etc.  We played fairly decently - no holes in one, but I did win by two strokes.

Can you find Jason?

 

Following our round of miniature golf we walked over to the sculpture gardens.  After five years of living out here I finally got to see it all.  That means another check on the list of things to enjoy out here.

 

Yes, that is a giant cherry on a spoon.

 

I think this swing/sculpture would be really cool in my backyard to be.  What do you think?

 

As a side I'm expanding my list of things I can do.  This week I successfully used a power drill without any mishaps.  (Now all I have to do is learn how to use a much smaller one on teeth.)  Additionally, Jason and I received a painting in a classy but battered frame when we bought our furniture.  On Dianne's suggestion I found some wood putty and using my paints and skills from my art class have made it look like new.

 

School orientation begins in three days - I can't wait!

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.                                                                                                                                                                     

Happy Birthday Becca!

(I wanted to just post this cute video here but I couldn't figure out how...later, later I will. For now follow the link, watch and enjoy!) ...yeah I figured it out...I'm so savvy ;)

Happy Birthday wishes to you!

Love ya!

Memories....

Colette posted this on her blog:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you!

I figure hey, lets run with this and post some fun reminiscences of the good ol' days in Crown Niner and in good ol' E. Richards.

Summer Happenings

Summer has finally arrived in Wisconsin.  During the last month of Jason's internship he started to get weekend days off.  Hence, we've been able to take advantage of many more things to do together here in the area.

 

Jason and I went to Polish festival on June 21st.  During the summer time Milwaukee comes alive and there is a different festival every weekend at the festival grounds which are on Lake Michigan in the third ward district downtown   These include major ethnic festivals like Summerfest, German, Irish and Polish festival among others.  We went and watched some traditional polish dancing and of course ate pierogies, polish sausage and saurkraut.  (Mmmm, I like saurkraut.)  Here are pictures from the dancing, Jason couldn't get over how tall one of the dancers was.  Later on in the show people from the audience got to dance a bit and I ended up dancing with the super tall guy - there must have been almost a two foot difference between us.  The group was made of some pretty good and very nice dancers who came from Michigan to perform.

 

 

While Jason was at one of his last Saturday shifts Rachel and I hit the Strawberry festival in one of the local towns.  There were surprisingly few strawberries at the festival.  I saw an occasional booth for strawberry shortcake and I two that sold pints of strawberries for outrageous prices.  Otherwise it has turned into a gigantic craft fair of sorts with music, fair food and entertainment.  It was huge, there must have been well over a hundred tents with everything from homemade soap to handcrafted wood toys, purses, etc.  We didn't buy much but we had fun looking at all of the artwork and just being outside.

 

July 4th I went out to be with my family while Jason saved lives at AEC.  We went canoeing at a place a couple hours north of Madison.  It's a popular spot where you start canoeing on a small river and get picked up by the dock a few miles down the river.  All in all it's close to a "three hour tour" that actually only takes that long.  Rachel was the skipper and through our fabulous team work we managed to avoid getting tipped out in the rapidly moving parts amongst large boulders and low overhanging branches.  (Trust me, not very many people in the group could say that.)  Following the trip we returned for a BBQ and fireworks that my brother Curtis made.  (He also "modified" a few other fireworks.)  That went pretty well, no one was harmed which was important, although we had to run and get out of the way of a few of the fireworks.  Mostly it was fun to see Curtis light things and then scream like a little girl as he ran to cover. 

 

The next day my family participated in the Sun Prairie Flags of Freedom parade.  My Mom entered us for her studio and we had a fun little group going along.  Rachel and I were pretending to sit for a portrait in the back of our "float"  (a red pick up truck)  One of the photographers had an antique camera he was using to pretend to take pictures.  My sister Emily walked along as well with an empty framed around her face as a living portrait.  My mom and another photographer took pictures of the crowd and later posted them on her studio website for people to come and check out.  (My dad passed out flyers w/ promotionals and the website:  www.suburbanstudio.com You can go under special events and type in the password "fun" to see photos.  We did it to get some more exposure for the studio, and I think it was a big success.  The site has gotten several hits since then and people have been calling the studio to ask about the pictures.  It was also great to be out as a family supporting my mom in her new endeavors as a small business owner.

 

Immediately following the parade (which was at 2pm - who does that?) my parents, Emily and I drove to Milwaukee to catch the Brewers baseball game.  Rachel went too but had seats with someone whe knew from the Navy.  Jason was able to join us for that and we were able to watch the game from the nosebleed section.  It was perfect, the length of the game was good, we got to see some good plays and we won in the bottom of the ninth against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 

Yesterday  Jason and I went out for a fifteen mile bike ride which was quite pleasant.  The weather was perfect and the trail we used is great.  We had planned on going camping but with the thunderstorms lately we bailed at the last minute.  So we have plans to get out before we move.