Sydney's photography

Syd snapped this picture while on a hike with Jon after the ice storm last week. I think she's got a great eye!

Tina's new baby

Hot-lanta

We're done! Jon and I have offically finished all the tests of medical school! We don't graduate until June 2nd but no more studying (beyond what is needed to treat our patients in the next 3 months). The clinical knowledge exam that I took in Worcester last week was a 9 hr blur - well, 8 hours with 1 hour allotted for breaks. I'm actually okay on testing "endurance" but at the end of the day I can't remember having taken the test. It kind of like being on the highway and realizing that you don't remember the last 10 minutes, except that its 8 hours. But I have a sheet of paper that says I took it, so I guess I'm okay.

I have to share this, though - In the ladies room, (where I indulged and allowed myself to pee every 1.5 hours) there was this antibacterial hand soap with a label that read, "May kill almost 99.9% of many germs that might cause illness," ??? It made me angrier and angrier each of the 6 times that I saw it.

We then shot down to Atlanta for the clinical skills exam. It wasn't so bad (although Jon would disagree). He's much more meticulous than I am when it comes to patient care and the 15 minutes allotted for each patient encounter wasn't ideal, I'll admit. The day works so that you go into 12 fake exam rooms and interact with a paid actor (paid very well I might add...). They have some sort of problem that they're "coming to the doctor's" for and you have to figure it out and do the physical exam.....except that NOTHING is wrong with them on the physical exam because they are, in fact, paid actors. Then you have to write a note about them that someone who did not witness the interaction grades. The paid actor also grades your "performance." This happens over and over for approximately 7 hours.

We got to visit with our daycare provider, Tina because she was also in Atlant visiting her grandson, Josh. If I haven't mentioned Tina before on the blog, shame on me. She's a huge part of our lives. Syd's been going to her house for family daycare for about 3 years now and we all just adore her. Its the first daycare situation where I was able to feel comfortable away from Sydney and definitely the first situation where Syd didn't want to come home at the end of the day. We've been to 5 different daycares now and I think home based daycares are really hit or miss, but we feel so blessed to have Tina. Anyways, here's a photo of Tina with baby Josh.

Noodle crackin' later....

...is Syd's interpretation of the Aerosmith song, "Dude looks like a lady."

This is the debut of our new camera, which is basically an updated version of our old camera. We went to the Army vs. Holy Cross basketball game on Tuesday with my dad, Erin, Darcy, and my Uncle Dick (HC alum).

Don't forget to send us luck this week as Jon and I have some big tests coming up (I'm taking Step 2 on Thursday and then we are both flying to Atlanta on Friday for our clinical skills exam). Hopefully, we'll have some pictures to post from Georgia soon.

Broken!

No more pictures until we purchase a new digital camara. My 7-year old, formerly top of the line equipment is kaput. We won't post much until then....what good are words without pictures?

We hope your Holidays and New Years were as great as ours - we were fortunate enough to spend time with both the Tisdells, the Seymours and Syd spent some time with the Straubs as well. We also spent time with many of our friends that we don't get to see the rest of the year. It was great to see you Meghan, Shara, Anne, Anna, Bryna, Viveka, Laura, Alex, Seymours, Tisdells, Straubs, and McMennamens!