Puppies and Christmas!

Yes. We broke down and dressed our dog. Doesn't he look so cute though!?!?! We couldn't resist. Sydney and I swore that we would never become one of those crazy people who puts clothes on their animals, but seriously...he looks so good in his little sweater.

Don't I have the cutest Sydney and Fizgig? Syd and I have spent the weekend at Christmas parties. It's been a lot of fun and we appreciate the good food. We had a party last night at Dr. Johnson's house, my preceptor for the semester. It was a lot of fun and we helped set up their Christmas tree. Then tonight we went to Virginia Pallante's house, my project HEART leader for another wonderful meal. YUM YUM YUM. I think I really like food. So does my belly.

We had to move this week's Thursday basketball practice to Saturday because the building was reserved for a Christmas party on Thursday. So, I reserved the gym for Saturday morning, but when we got there we found a blood drive. :( So we tried another church & found another Christmas party in that gym. So I took the boys (Elijah, Eric, Yusu, Tay, & Raul) back to my house to hang out until the blood drive ended at 1pm. I'm really excited for the boys' basketball season. They are really really improving and are all great players.

Anyway, I wish I had some more pictures to post. I had some pictures of our dog walking activity 2 weeks ago at Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue, but I can't find them right now. Another time. I should be studying for my Respiratory test, but have no motivation. Happy Puppy Christmas!

I do want to credit Mr. Aaron Winder for the music selection. A great band. Now that I'm driving the YM around a lot, I'm finding more time for music.

Florida...for Thanksgiving?

So, Sydney and I really needed a vacation. What better time than Thanksgiving? We don't have any family close by, so we decided to trek on down to Florida and enjoy the beach and some warmer weather. We also decided to go to SeaWorld and Discovery Cove which was awesome!

Our trip started out like this. He was being such a cutie and totally knew what was going on once we started packing things up.


Then we were off. We drove down on Wednesday after I took my test that morning and Sydney finished her dog visits. We got on the road around 3pm. Got to Daytona Beach around 1:30am! Our plan was to sleep in the back of our Volvo station wagon to save on costs for hotels and such so we could spend them on nice eating out and fun activities. It totally worked out great. Our little make-shift bedroom was actually pretty comfortable. We just made sure the strategically place our "campsite" near a Walmart so that we had quick access to bathrooms and groceries! It was actually a lot of fun!
The next morning (Thanksgiving), Syd and I headed to the beach. The weather was so nice. The beach was beautiful. We mostly just slept for hours on our towels and enjoyed our relaxing.

I'm in this picture too!
Sydney will be so happy I put this picture up!

Thanksgiving dinner was at Hog Heaven, Real Pit Bar-B-Q (http://hogheavendaytona.com/). Delicious! The evening was spend in the Volvo with a movie on a laptop. Doesn't get much better for vacation.

The next morning was going to be a half day in Daytona and then we were off to SeaWorld! Once we got to SeaWorld though, it was raining mucho. Luckily it wasn't cold until we sat in all the splash zones and the FREEZING tank water cooled us down. It was tons of fun though and Sydney's first time. The shows were great and we got to see the brand new baby killer whale.

Rainy McRain!

The Manta Ray exhibit was freaking awesome. Little did we know that the next day we'd be swimming in the same tank as ones even bigger than this guy.
Sydney can speak to the animals.

The next morning we were scheduled for our day of luxury at Discovery Cove. It was so much fun! We swam with dolphins, snorkeled with giant sting rays/manta rays, fed exotic birds, lounged around, and basically had a blast! Very much a lot of fun!

Where we swam with the dolphins. Sorry folks...no cameras, and the pictures we take for you will be 1 million dollars. I expected as much. (actually I did, since I read about it before hand)

This little guy was a treat. We had little ID cards that got us all the stuff for free at the resort, and one of the birds in the aviary decided that I looked like a nice place to land and discovered the lanyard around my neck. Best perch EVER!

But his weight started to pull the lanyard down my neck. Didn't stop him. He had a good spot and he was staying there.
He promptly went to sleep.

I thought this little guy was going to be my new best friend. He probably stayed on my back like that for at least 15 minutes. When he finally decided his nap was over, he climbed to my shoulder and started nuzzling up to my face. I thought it was so cute, but then he took a dumb on my shoulder and flew off. Yeah....I know.

So, after our day at Discovery Cove, we ran back over to SeaWorld to see the dolphin show we missed the day before and then drove back home. It was a very fun and much needed vacation that was too short like always. We can't wait for Christmas, although our destination will be much less warm.

Jump Into FALL!!!!

I know. CUTE!

Like always there's been a lot going on lately. Our dog is getting cuter by the day. I'm getting really sick of school, and Sydney is working a lot. We could really use a vacation. We can't wait until Christmas break when we're coming home to Utah for a week. Also, we're trying to figure something out so we can get out of here the week of Thanksgiving. I want to drive down to Florida!

We had a great Halloween! Sydney and I had orange and green waffles. She had orange juice and I drank purple milk. We really got into the spirit of Halloween.

At the branch Trunk or Treat, the YM were in charge of a spook alley/haunted maze. This is it with the lights on. They made a huge maze that you had to crawl through out of old stage curtains and tables and chairs. It was a hit & everyone there loved it. Some of these boys have a future career working at haunted houses.

Leftover coffin from Oliver Sykes. We decided to put it to good use.

I made Sydney watch a SCARY movie! Hehe! This picture is priceless.

We also took care of our friend Morgan's dog, Kimber. She was a handful, but we had a lot of fun together, while he was enjoying himself in San Diego.
This picture is just to showcase how soft our doggie can get right after a bath and a brushing!
We made some caramel apples too! Sydney made M&M and I used Skor! YUM!

The best thing about this picture is that there is a hole in these jeans that the stick from my apple is conveniently covering up. :)

Last week we had a surprise visit from my aunt Claudia. She is travelling across the U.S. house sitter for people in some exotic locations and she decided to stop by on her way through Richmond. We were happy to haver her here and ate out at some awesome restaurants. This was at The Black Sheep. Easily one of our favorite places here. Those are Brussels sprouts that she is holding.

Sydney had a big sandwich! I had a fried bologna sandwich. They were all DELICIOUS!

All in all, it's been a good end of October/beginning of November. I can hardly believe that the year is almost over. Time is flying by. I registered for Step 1 of the boards that I will take this summer. YIKES! It makes me nervous!

Virginia HATES Pumpkins!

A little while ago, Sydney and I decided to get into the Halloween spirit and carve pumpkins and decorate our house all Halloween-like. It was great. If you see our previous blog post, you can see how wonderful our pumpkins turned out.

This is how our pumpkins looked 2 days after being outside.

The squirrels must be starving. 1 week later....

Virginia HATES pumpkins!

Also of exciting note, I Sydney and I destroyed the #1 team at bowling a few weeks ago. I bowled so well that I got my first bowling patches. I can't wait till Sydney and I get bowling shirts so I can sew on the patches. (1 patch is for a game over 225 (I bowled a 233), and the second patch is for a series over 600 (the total of all 3 games in one night, mine was 641).

Then just on Saturday, the 23rd, we had a youth temple trip to D.C. It was a lot of fun. The day started at 8:15am, when Sydney and I left our house to start picking people up, & we got back at 9:15pm. We had a lot of fun. Yusu and Eric from our YM came, along with my new counselor, a 3rd year med student Nat Mann.

This video is Yusu catching a grape in his mouth. We had a picnic with the YW at the little park areas just by the temple. Impressive catch huh?

After the temple, we decided to stay in D.C. for the day and visit the Zoo. It was great because it is free, but when we got there around 3:00pm, it was closing early for some "special event" at 4:30pm. We ran around and tried to see everything we could. We didn't end up leaving the zoo until 5:30pm. It was awesome.

A red panda of some sort.

Yusu and Sydney with the Komodo Dragon.

We ended the night with a delicious trip to A&W, where we ate our hearts out. Eric (a 15 year old boy who is 6'4" was randomly recruited by some guy at A&W to play basketball with some league. It was funny.) After A&W, Nat Mann wanted to visit one of his favorite restaurants, Checkers, while we were in Fredricksburg. So, we went for round 2 and had some more hamburgers. Eric had an entire 2nd combo meal. What a trip!

The week before for YM activity, we had a cooking night. Each boy chose something they wanted to learn to make & we helped them make it. Spaghetti, French Fries, Nachos (RoTel). It was a lot of fun. You can tell that the YM really like food. :)

Also, of excitement. We have learned we have mice in our rental house. What do you think?

Don't worry. In the last 4 days I've caught 6 mice. I know there are a few more, but they're tricky ones. I'll get them. One of the mice I caught only got his leg in the trap, so I had to take him out back. He became intimately acquainted with the heel of my shoe. That was disturbing.

Also, a few weeks ago, we received a present from our Sister Missionaries. It was very nice of them, but one of their little sticky things looks a little creepy. We love our Sister missionaries. :)

The door.

The "creepy" note. I feel like they're looking in on me showering or something.

All in all, Syd and I have had a fantastic October. Lots of busy stuff going on. Both Syd and I are perpetually sick this month. But, we're having lots of fun. Dog walking has been going great for Sydney. She has lots of clients and visits that keep her busy!

Hematology and Oncology are just as bad as everyone said. Blah! I've really been liking being in clinic though.

911?

Sydney loves her puppies! The two extra dogs are Tinka and Torino. They belong to Nikki, a girl in my class who "had" to go to San Diego to present a paper. Fizgig is jealous.

This weekend has been an exciting one! Not only did I finish our 3 week Renal course with a big test on Friday, but we've had some other exciting events. I did well on the test, maybe because I was on a lucky streak. The night before the test (Thursday) is the night of our bowling league, and I decided to go despite needing to study. It's a good thing. Sydney and I played the first place team and kicked their butts. I bowled a 233 and averaged 214 for the 3 games we play. Pretty good considering my average is only 155. Sydney also played really well. We're so clutch. Secretly the team we beat were so mad. We loved it!

Then we went to bed on Friday night around 1am. Bad choice. Our new puppies were so barky and whiny that we didn't get to really sleep until they quit around 3am. Then we were awoken around 5am to some yelling and swearing outside. Syd and I got up and saw 3 guys standing by their car parked right in front of our house. Things were getting heated and then 1 guy (a big guy) starting beating the crap out of another guy. The 3rd guy just stood there and watched while the big guy wailed on the other guy. Now, I've watched quite a few UFC fights on television & I'm telling you, I was very worried for this guy's life. We immediately called 911. First time for me. The guy is laying face down in our parking strip while the other dude is just beating on him. Shortly thereafter, the guy decides to split and heads out. The police get there pretty soon after. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep after that. Finally we got to bed & then Syd had to get up for a Pet CPR class. Barf!

At least there was the Legendary Richmond Branch Fish Fry to attend with lots of food and DELICIOUS fish thanks to Bro. Chambliss. It was so good!

The rest of the weekend we had a couple from South Dakota stay with us. The guy is interviewing at the medical school tomorrow, and Syd and I have signed up to host students who come to interview. The last kid who stayed with us was really nice and even gave us a bottle of wine as a thank you. This guy was weird. First, he said they would get here on Saturday at 2pm. Then he called around noon and said that they wouldn't be in till around 10pm and that he'd let me know when they got close. Well, 11:45pm rolls around and I haven't heard from the guy. This is considering that Syd and I got around 2-3 hours of real sleep the adventurous night before. We were ready to go to bed. Who doesn't call when you're almost 2 hours later than you said you'd be when you're staying at a stranger's house for free? Anyway, I called him & they showed up about a half hour later.

But life goes on! Syd is working lots and the puppies are great! We're starting Hematology and Oncology tomorrow. I've heard it's tough. Hopefully that is wrong. It's going to be a busy rest of the month. Youth temple trip. Trunk or Treat. Too much to do!

I'll take a picture later, but the squirrels tore Sydney's skull pumpkin apart while we were at church. :(

Pay Attention To ME!

This is the latest in a string of attention getting attempts. Yes, he is sitting directly on poor Sydney's head. Little Fizgig can hardly stand that I ignore him all day and just read books and listen to lectures. I made Sydney freeze for me to take this picture. Fizgig had no problem holding still. He was glad we finally were PAYING ATTENTION!

I love these two. Aren't they the cutest? I think so.

Happy Halloween!

We decided to take a study break the other night & head out to purchase a bunch of junk. Our goals; buy a bunch of stuff for packages for Tyson and Adam (our brothers on missions in Spain & Finland respectively) (Both of their birthdays happen to be in October), and get some festive Halloween decorations for our house!

We came back with a bunch of junk & a candy bowl just like one that my parents have.

What else is new? Sydney and I have decided to drive home for Christmas. Yeah. Even after I swore I would never make that drive again. It will cost 1/4 of what it would to fly home, & we wouldn't be able to bring our little pup (he's just a little to big for carry-on). We'll probably fill the rest of our car with other equally poor students who want to visit home for Christmas. Should be exciting.

Currently in school we are studying Renal. It's been a very nice change from Microbiology which I found very difficult. Lots more conceptual stuff instead of rote memorization. Test is next Friday, so we'll see how I like Renal after that. Most of our classes from here on our are just 1 cumulative test for the whole course which is a little nerve racking.

Tonight Sydney and I are the transport wagon for the youth costume party/dance. I already feel like such an old fuddy duddy when that's pretty much the plan for our Saturday night.

Last night we watched a really weird movie. Knight and Day. Tom cruise & Cameron Diaz? Huh? It was actually pretty entertaining and luckily didn't try to take itself to seriously. Not a bad flick if you're really bored & not looking for something life changing.

Finally, I want to pose this question to those who read this blog (which probably isn't much more than my mother).

What do you guys think about making it legal to sell organs? Currently in the U.S., this is illegal. The reason why I ask the question is because I've recently learned a lot about Kidney Disease & dialysis and learned that Medicare pays for a lot of dialysis. In 2007, $8.6 billion costs were reported to Congress for dialysis & associated costs. Amazing considering that despite these high costs, about 10-15% of patients on dialysis die each year.

The alternative is a 4-5 year wait on an organ transplant list. There is a large shortage of organ donors. What are your thoughts on making compensation for donating a kidney legal?

If only you could understand the cuteness...

The other day we were just sitting, & Fizgig decided to have a glamor shoot! I don't know what kind of mood he was in, but the pictures turned out FABULOUS!

Yeah. He's a cutie!

I've had enough of this studying! Play with me.

ALSO, This is quite cute!