I'm a Graduate!!

My entire family being there made it so incredibly special for me!!  

Someone's Junk is Another's Treasure!!

Going home lately is always fun, sure its not the same because everything is changing including my purple bedroom being re-painted to a neutral tone.  But in addition due to my mom getting the house ready to sell I find all my treasures I had growing up.  I found my favorite toy of all time, the toy that inspired me.... that's right my Dental Barbie.  It had everything, including a suction, a cup to spit in and a water syringe along with a light, hand mirror, kids crest tooth paste, a clipboard and charts showing nutrition and tooth development.  Ok call me a huge nerd but it even had a little patient bib, how cute is that?  If you don't believe me this may seal the deal, the Barbie even talked to make noises for the suction and water and at the end it said, "Great Check Up."  This will definitely be making the trip across the country with me.  

I also found my pillow I had growing up, froggy.  The problem is, I do not know what to do with this stuff.  I do not want to get rid of my toys but at the same time I do not want to hull it across the country either.  I always thought all of this stuff would stay at my parent's house until I had a home of my own or a family of my own that I could eventually share with them.  I guess my mom moving changes all of that.


  Luckily I had all of these toys to distract me because I got the worst sunburn.  Its amazing how a cold shower and aloe vera makes it all feel better.  Lesson learned, reapply sunscreen after being in the water all day.  To top it off now its a running joke in my family how I am going to be deported when I move to Arizona, or how I could be the adopted child from Mexico when we take our family pictures for my sister's wedding.  My sister took this picture to illustrate that.


Oh well, I can't help it, I love the sun!!

Out With the Old in With the New!!

Friday we had our senior class banquet.  It was at the student union in this beautiful room called the cartoon room.  So many of us just come to class and clinic in our scrubs with our hair up where we rarely get to see each other fixed up.   That night we all got to put on pretty dresses and suits and everyone looked beautiful/handsome.  I got voted by my classmates as "most likely to marry a dentist."  For some reason everyone that knows I am studying to be a hygienist thinks it would be so nice to marry a dentist and have a family practice together.  While it would be wonderful to marry a dentist I sure would not work for them.  To spend time at work and home together would be to much.  Don't get me wrong when I get married I would want to spend as much time with my husband as I can but everyone needs a separate life from their spouse, right?  It was an emotional night, I think this was the first time we realized it was our last event together before graduation.  At the end of the night Vitamin C's song "Graduation" came on and sure it is a corny high school song but everyone knew the lyrics even Joe, but that one song made me lose it.  Our entire class put their arms around each other and we formed a circle on the dance floor and we just started swaying back and forth together.  I along with several of my classmates started crying.  I was looking around at all my classmates surrounding me and I wished I just had a picture memory so I could always remember that moment because at that moment it did not matter who was better friends with who, or who got the best grades in the class all that mattered was we were there together and that we loved each other.  Our class is very attached to one another and that is why I know without a doubt in my mind that I have made some wonderful lifelong friends.  

I took the first picture for you Kate.
And this picture is of me and one of my best friends from my class, Chris.  






Saturday I needed to go home and my mom was going through the attic to get rid of things before they move out to Arizona.  I had the opportunity to go through all of my old toys with my mom and I am surprised I did not choke to death as a child.  So many of my toys today would not meet the standard safety precautions of toys that are made now.  I had this play set that was called main street.  It had an ice cream parlor a post office and a fire station and a little road that passes through with cars that attached to a house.  Let's just say I was playing with my toys for hours.  My mom kept telling me to put things down and help her but I just could not help it.  I found my old water baby, my barbie dolls, my baby blanket, my doctor's kit, cash register and talking telephone and decorations that were in my baby room (pooh bear theme).  I found my restaurant food that I used when I would run my own restaurant from my basement.  I even found my old tricycle, even as a child I was destined to be a buckeye, I even had the license plate to prove it.

So many new and exciting things will be happening in the next couple of weeks which could not make me happier!!

Special K

Living in my dream world... oh I love when Special K is on sale, its my favorite can you tell.  People at the store looked at me like I was crazy... 16 boxes of cereal and 4 boxes of granola bars!!  Thank you Giant Eagle and to Candace for loving cereal like me to remind me of this great sale, I guess this could start my food storage ;)  I am one happy girl!!

I got discovered in Arizona!!

 This past week I made my first trip to Arizona with one of my good friends Callie.  Right when we got off of the plane I immediately had Callie take me to the prettiest site in Arizona... the Mesa Temple!!  No picture or no words could show or explain just how pretty it truly was.  The first picture is for you ST, wish you could have been there with me!!

The following day we went over to the Arizona State Dental Board to find out exactly what we needed to do for our license to transfer to Arizona and we probably should have done this at the end of our trip because it overwhelmed us.  Basically I am looking at about $3000 which includes license transfer, local and nitrous oxide re-licensing, jurisprudence exam and NERB evaluation.  When we walked outside even though it was probably the most beautiful day ever Arizona did not look as appealing as it did before we went in to the dental board.  I guess there is a price for everything, Arizona is worth it.

Later that day we decided to venture out on an hour drive east to go up the Apache Trail.  It is kind of nerve racking driving up the trail considering there are no guard rails and you could look out the window and see nothing but a drop off.  It got even worse when the road turned to one lane and people had to pass each other.  However, the view was completely worth it.  I got to finally see a cactus, not a Utah cactus that Esprit showed me in Utah but a real towering cactus.  I do not know why I am so obsessed with cactus because really they are kind of weird looking, prickly and definitely not the most glamorous plant but I just love them.  The view and the scenic drive up the trail was be-utiful.


We did a great deal of driving around looking at apartments, looking at different towns and pretty much narrowed it down to either Gilbert or Tempe.  I personally favor Gilbert the most, it is just so much greener than the other cities.  We drove up to Scottsdale and what a ritzy area, just there mall alone was big enough to probably fit two of our malls here in Ohio.  Of course all that was really at the mall are really expensive stores that I would never shop at but it was really neat to see along with downtown Scottsdale.  There were all these cute little stores, carriage rides, it was like I was looking for Sheriff Taylor to come walking down the street.  The best part of Scottsdale was trying cupcakes from Sprinkles.  This could be my new dessert fetish, their Lemon Coconut  cupcake made me want to get twenty more, completely delicious!!       

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens which was probably one of my favorite things we did because they just had so many cool looking plants there like Octopus cacti, flowering cacti, and this glass covered plant which was the coolest.  I got to also see more cacti in one day then I have my whole life so far.    

We drove up to Sedona and spent the whole day up there, it was a great drive partly because we left 90 degree desert weather and traveled two hours north and entered into the forest with slight snow on the ground in Flagstaff.  Sedona though was perfect weather mid 80s.  Sedona was not what I pictured it to be, I did not realize there was a whole town in Sedona I pictured it more secluded like Zion but I rather enjoyed seeing Main street with all the tiny shops and restaurants along with the houses there.  We went over and saw the famous church that is built into the rock called the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  When you walk up to go inside it looks like a mini Catholic church inside with candles and pews.  The Chapel overlooks this mansion that Nicholas Cage just bought.  They were doing some construction on the house but to me it did not look like it needed any construction, it was probably one of the prettiest houses I have ever seen, I think the landscaping added so much to the house with the huge waterfall in the front.

One thing I noticed about Arizona that is weird considering they have the most beautiful weather ever is that there are barely any ice cream places.  They have a great deal of yogurt places but besides Dairy Queen which I am not completely crazy about there were barely any places that served ice cream.  However, in Sedona I nearly stopped dead in my tracts because I was so excited that there was an ice cream place and not just any ice cream place but freshly homemade ice cream.  The place was called the Black Cow Cafe and it was just added to my most favorite ice cream flavors.  My heart still lies with Jeni's forever but since they do not have those in Arizona, I guess I will have to find my new place that I can drop $40 dollars a week at.  I think while away on this trip I was going through Jeni's withdrawal because I have never craved ice cream so bad in my entire life.  I am back in Columbus now and will never take Jeni's for granted again.

Another weird thing happened while in Sedona.  While eating our ice cream outside this man comes up to us and tells us he is this award winning photographer that is going to be publishing a book called, "Best Foot Forward."  He has gathered hundreds of pictures of interesting jewelry and tattoos on people's feet and asked if he could shoot our feet together.  It was completely weird and we didn't know if it was a joke or not.  He showed us is card and an advertisement for his book but the whole thing was weird.  Our feet were completely dirty from hiking in Sedona and mine were not even polished.  Callie was worried because two of her toes are stuck together which he found interesting.  He could have been a total foot freak for all I know but we thought it was fun so we humored ourselves and took the pictures.  We shall see if this book, fake or real ever gets published.  He did email me some of the pictures he took...  In all honesty I think he made our feet look really good.  Sedona was still incredible we did the Devil's Bridge hike.  At the very top is this bridge of rock you can stand on it was so pretty up there it felt like you were on top of the world.  

Arizona was everything I imagined and so much more I can not wait to move out there this fall!!  To make things even better that ended the trip with a bang my mom and her fiance drove out from Ohio and we met up in Arizona.  They are looking at property in Tuscan because they are also moving out to Arizona.  Couldn't be happier!!

                                      

Jeni's

So yesterday I had such a craving for Jeni's again so I went and bought 2 pints.  I was paying for them in a hurry and I did not notice how much it was I just gave my credit card.  I got a pint of cherry crisp and a pint of mango ice cream and I was looking at the receipt later that night when I got home and it cost $20 dollars.  Yes Jeni's is worth it but still that is a great deal of money to spend on ice cream.  I could of bought a t-shirt from Jeni's for that much.

I had a patient this morning and he had to be in his mid 30s and everyone who knows me sees that I look a lot younger than I am.  To make conversation I told him about Jeni's which he never heard of before and how I spent $20 on ice cream.  I thought it was a harmless conversation.  Right?  At the end of the appointment as I was giving him his cashier slip, he asked me if I would like to get ice cream sometime?  I didn't know what to say so I pulled out my fake boyfriend and used him as an excuse.  I felt bad, my mentor told me that what she does when patients used to ask her out is use flattery.  She would tell them how flattered she was for the offer but OSU's policy is that we can't date patients.  At one point a patient offered to stop coming to OSU's dental school for treatment to have a date with her?  I'm sorry I think I like my way better, sometimes people just can't take a hint so now I have to try and not tie this incidence to my favorite place in the world...... Jeni's!!

One Step Further!!

Today in class people started finding out about their board examination scores.  I knew mine had to be coming in the mail today but knew that our mailman in my hometown doesn't come until later around 3:30 or 4:00.  So from 2:00 to 3:26 I had to just wait, I literally just paced around in my apartment until I got the phone call, the one that made me the happiest girl alive!!  I passed my National Board Examination!!  A huge weight has been lifted from me and I feel like I can sort of breathe, well until clinical boards at the end of the month.  Until then I am one pretty happy girl!!

Just want to thank my two best friends for taking me out to dinner and for some Jeni's ice cream tonight to celebrate.  Let me just say, Cherry Crisp, Buttermint and Mango ice cream in a waffle cone completely made my night!!