Jordan's New Ride...

In December Jordan and I traded in his Honda and my Highlander so that I could get my new 2010 4Runner, which I love! It rocks! One reason we were able to do that is that Jordan had a van for the business that he wanted to have "wrapped" so it could be a driving billboard. It just got finished last week! What do you think? Isn't it fun? It makes me want to go to the beach!

A new year...

On New Year's Eve, we got together with some friends and went to dinner with some of our friends at Loca Luna, one of my favorite LR restaurants!

After dinner Cara and Chance invited everyone over to their house. It was so fun!

Guy group shot...these are guys Jordan plays basketball with at Immanuel.

And the girl group shot! So much fun!

On New Year's day we headed on over to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl on January 2nd! It was freezing, but we had so many layers on, we stayed pretty warm!

Wrapped up at the stadium! This is how I stayed most of the game!

My best friend Lauren and her husband Brett's seats were right next to ours, just by coincidence! I was so excited! When we took this pic we were trying to be like Tyra and "smile with our eyes"...it was too cold to unwrap!

I don't have a lot of firm resolutions, but here are a few goals for 2010:

~Jordan, my mom, and I will run the LR Half Marathon in March. We've already started training!

~Jordan plans to do a sprint triathlon this summer. If the half marathon goes well, I'd like to try the triathlon too!

~I also plan to become a doctor this year :)

On the note of becoming a doctor, later this week we'll head out for another tour of interviews in Birmingham, Augusta, and Charleston. It should be exciting and exhausting. I am so thankful that Jordan can go with me everywhere!

First Anniversary

On December 20th Jordan and I celebrated our first anniversary! It was very exciting! It has been a great year for us!

Here we are before we went to dinner that night...

Traditionally the first anniversary is "paper", and that's what Jordan got me. He presented me with two envelopes. In the first was a piece of paper telling me we were going to spend a night at Big Cedar Lodge in a cabin! I was SOOO excited! The next envelope had a picture of John Mayer in it...meaning we get to see John Mayer in Memphis this March! YEA!!!!

I wrapped Jordan's "paper" in a book. Inside the book was a gift certificate for a private golf lesson, complete with video analysis! Haha! He was excited!

We went to dinner at Bonefish (yum) and then to a movie. When we got home we had to eat our cake! Surprisingly, it was still pretty tasty! Jordan is already trying to eat it in this picture!

The next day we headed up to Big Cedar. I was so excited...I love that place! This is the view from the balcony of our cabin...

Since we were there during Christmas, the whole place was beautifully lit at night! Soooo pretty!

Pretty tree in the lodge!

It has been an exciting year!

~Jordan became the owner of Tropical Smoothie Cafe

~We got to go to Destin for Spring Break in March for TSC training

~I finished my 3rd year of medical school and decided I wanted to become a pediatrician

~I completed Step 2 of my medical boards successfully

~Jordan learned how to install laminate flooring and did an awesome job in our kitchen, and just last week in our bedroom too!

~We got a new car! Jordan knew I really wanted a black 4runner, and I finally got it!

~We laughed a lot and learned a lot. We always have such a good time together!!! Can't wait to see what's in store with us for MANY years to come!

Christmas at our house...

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! It is seriously my favorite time of year. It is so festive and there are always fun things to do and see, not to mention I do love to shop! We put our decorations up the day after Thanksgiving so we could enjoy them all through December!

Kitchen table place settings

Our nativity. It was made in the Holy Land!

Christmas Village. Jordan started this collection for me a few years ago! I love the lights!

Our mantle. Macy and Ali have stockings of course!

Close up of the tree. See the Christmas butterfly on the right? I just found those this weekend and love them!

Trees never photograph well, but here is ours! This was my first year to use the colored mesh in our tree, I really like how it turned out!!!

A view with all the lights. I keep our lights on as much as I can! I wish we could have Christmas lights year round, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special!

I hope you are having a great Christmas season. The lights and shopping are fun but I am also thankful that we have this time to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and to spend time with family and friends!

Have a great week! Jordan and I are off to Louisville!

Interview Trail Part I...

Wow. 4 states in 3 days! We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Oklahoma City and Kansas City for my first two pediatric residency interviews. We left Monday morning for Oklahoma c

City. Lucky for us, most pediatric programs pay for our lodging which is awesome! So we got to OKC and found our hotel, the Sheraton downtown, right near Bricktown. We had some time so we walked around Bricktown. It is really neat! There is even a little riverwalk area! Very cool. Here are some pics from Bricktown:

Later that night we were invited to dinner with some of the residents at an OU physician's house. It was an interesting evening. There are many stories to tell, but it would take forever, so I will move on to my favorite part of Monday night...we got to see Meredith and Nathan!!! Yea!!! So exciting! It was great to visit with both of them! They drove us around Nichols Hills where they live, and also took us to see Chesapeake, where Nathan works. What an amazing place! It was all decorated for Christmas, and the entire campus looked like THIS:

Yea for friends! So glad to see you Meredith! Miss you!

I interviewed Tuesday in OKC, then we hopped in the car and drove to Kansas City! On the way into town, we stopped to eat some authentic KC BBQ at Oklahoma Joes, a famous BBQ joint in a gas station! It was awesome. Then we headed downtown to find our hotel, the Westin Crown Center. AMAZING. We had a corner room with a balcony (too bad it was 29 degrees). This is the Christmas tree at the hotel!

While I interviewed on Wednesday, Jordan took a little trip to Lawrence, KS, home of the Jayhawks, his favorite college BB team! Here a few pics from his trip!

The campus. He said it reminded him a lot of Fayetteville.

When we left Kansas City, we headed home but took a short detour through Tulsa to eat dinner with our friends Stephen and Mary. So good to see them! Sad I don't have a picture to share, but my camera battery died early!

Now the low-down on the actual interviews...

OU Children's (OKC): The dinner the evening before the interview really set the tone of weirdness for the interview. The program seems to be on the way up, but not nearly as good as ACH. They had an awesome new 10-story clinic building connected to the hospital, which was great. I didn't feel like I would fit in very well with the residents there.

Children's Mercy (KC): We missed the dinner the night before. Breakfast the morning of the interview was in the cafeteria at the hospital, and I have to say that it was the coolest cafeteria ever! It was set up like a diner with all the bright neon lights and red retro chairs! Very fun! The facilities seemed very nice. I think the program itself is very similar to ACH. They do less Heme/Onc in the first year, which is a bit of a negative to me because I like Heme/Onc. They just finished expanding their ER to 75 beds, which is huge. (Could be positive or negative, depending on how you look at it! More patients for great exposure to various problems, but more work and craziness when you are working in the ER!)

Overall I have to say that I thought Children's Mercy in Kansas City is very similar to ACH. It was great to have something to compare it to!

We are off to Louisville next!

Exciting November...

We have an exciting November ahead of us! Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to this month...

Black Friday!!! A few years ago we started participating in the early morning shopping madness that takes place the day after Thanksgiving, and I think it is soooo fun and soooo entertaining! I'm usually not looking for any particular deals, but we find some good things, and it's so fun to watch people running through the stores for what they want! P.S.--We are the ones waiting in the car, watching all of the people run inside once they open the doors. It's too cold to wait in those lines!

Thanksgiving! YUMMY!!!

Elton John/Billy Joel Concert!

Zac Brown Band Concert!!!

Another shopping event that I look forward to all year! Holiday House is a huge gathering of local vendors showing of all of the cutest stuff! A great place for Christmas shopping!

Razorback games! The South Carolina game this weekend was so fun! Can't wait for the rest! Go Hogs!

Have a great week!

Halloween!...

This year for Halloween we decided to have a little get together. Our original theme was dress as your favorite You Tube sensation! As you can see, we have several You Tube sensations represented, as well as infomercials, TV shows, and favorite movies! It was a lot of fun and thanks to everyone who came!

If you have not seen these You Tube videos, I recommend that you stop reading this blog and watch them ASAP!

"Grape Stomping Lady Falls" Yours Truly

"West Virginia Ninga" Stephen and Jenn

"Miss South Carolina" J-Rob

And a few that I just love, that weren't at the party...

"David After Dentist"

"Cubby-Single Ladies"

"Kick His Ask"

Have a great night!