a med school update....end of m3 year

on friday the mr officially finishes his m3 year of medical school. this past year has been the most intense, longest, hardest, and most exciting year yet. it is a big deal that we survived this year so i figured it was time for an update! you can read about our last couple of years here, here and here (and even before we started med school here)

this past year the mr has been doing rotation after rotation. a rotation is 4-8 weeks of working in some specialty. he did a little time in pediatrics, neuro, surgery, medicine and a few others thrown in there. there were some very long months where he was working at least 6 days a week, 15 hours a day, for 8 weeks straight! but luckily we survived all of that. i really only had a couple of weeks where i called home crying. 

we had heard a lot about 3rd year and honestly it was better than i expected. spence always put gwen and i first which really helped. he has done fantastic in all of his rotations so far! he has learned so much and has really enjoyed being in the clinical setting. i think this year, despite being super busy, was a nice change from day to day book work and classes. 

so whats next? spence will start his m4 year which is full of more rotations (but this year he gets to choose fun ones and ones related to his specialty choice), another round of boards, more research, residency applications, residency interview and the long awaited MATCH DAY!!!! 

what does he want to do? we're still not 100% sure on this one but...he does have a good idea. we've ruled out a few specialities like neuro, general surgery, ob/gyn, derm etc. but still have a few on the table. it has been such a fun process working through what the mr wants to do and what he would enjoy, excel at etc. no matter what he chooses i know we have an exciting future in front of us. personally i have a speciality i think he should go into but i'll save that until he decides for sure ;-) but at this point we can still be bought so if you want to choose his specialty you can for the price of our med school loans (they aren't that high....wink wink).

where will we be after this next year? this is one question i get asked a lot and one question i so wished i had the answer for. unfortunately we won't know until match day next march. at times it kills me not knowing and then other times it's exciting. we have a list of our top locations. honestly most of them are back west. we want to be closer to family. but we are being open minded. he'll apply to a lot of residency programs (probably around 50) and with that many we'll have to apply all around the country. so i guess we'll just wait and see.

do we still like chicago? oh baby we do! at least i do. i always knew i was a city girl and that i would like living in a big city but just recently i've discovered really how much i LOVE living in the city. with thinking about residency and moving out of chicago my heart breaks just a little bit. yes i want to be closer to family, yes i want to pay less in rent, and yes i do want a bigger place/parking spot. but i love city living. i would be very content living in the city forever (as long as we had the funds for a bigger place and a yard...which won't happen for some time...boo). but most likely that won't happen. so for the next year we're living up our time here. we've got a good list of things to do and see and places to eat. oh the food! i am going to miss all the fun places to eat out. this will most likely be our last summer in the city so we have big plans to take advantage of all there is here to do in the summer!

our day to day life is pretty much the same. the mr wakes up early to go to work. i spend my days with gwen, working a few hours for my same company, and we both stay busy with our callings (spence is still in the bishopric and i'm in the relief society presidency still). on the weekends that spence has off we like to go out and do fun things, adventures to new sites, date nights with friends or just the two of us, and show gwennie girl our little world. 

so here's to our last year of medical school!!! the past 3 years have gone by so incredibly fast. i am so excited for residency and for our future but i know i will miss our medical school days. we've made the most amazing friends, had some incredible experiences and have learned so much about life. i am so grateful to be on this road with my mr. it's a fun adventure and it just keeps getting better. 

m4 year...bring it on! you'll be full of fun surprises, planning, applications and adventures. and i can't even wait! 

just a few pictures that we send each other during the day | the mr. rocking his white coat at the hospital during a night shift // my life now....dress shirts for days // gwen likes to take selfies to send to her dad // a dr. selfie of the mr. on a private jet on his way to pick up an organ (poor picked on med student right???)

another year down in the windy city!

august 6th was our 2nd anniversary of living in chicago. honestly i can't believe it's only been 2 years. when people ask us how long we've been here my first reaction is to say 3 years. maybe thats because the mr. is in his 3rd year of med school. it feels like we've been here for so long mostly because so much has happened. 

this past year was the best yet here in chicago. well maybe the best subtract the winter. that was bad. but other than that it was an amazing year. 

we moved into a new apartment. we discovered our love of lickity split. we made new friends. we had great times with old friends. i started working downtown. we saw the bears play. we saw the cubs play. we survived the polar vortex. we survived the second polar vortex. the mr. finished year two of medical school. the mr. dominated his boards. we found out we were expecting for the forth time. we watched my big belly grow. we welcomed sweet gwen into our family. 

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i think it's safe to say this year in chicago will be one we will always remember and cherish. even though it was the last place i expected us to be, it has been the most perfect place for us to be! 

i can't believe we are more than halfway done with our time here in chicago. i'm both excited and sad about the idea of leaving. but luckily we still have some time!

so here is to another year in the windy city. i am excited for all the new adventures we're going to have and even more excited to experience this next year with gwennie girl added to the mix! 

oh and basically we're chicago experts now so if you want to come visit now is the time....we can show you all the good spots! 

a med school update...end of m2 year

as of yesterday the mr is officially finished with his m2 year. this may not seem like a big deal...but let me tell you it is! finishing m2 means no more science lectures, no more random small groups, no more monthly tests, no more late night studying for tests, etc. northwestern has taught spence all he needs to know (or at least we hope so). 

so coming from his very proud (and extremely biased) wife...he did amazingly! he is a smart man to start with but he has worked so hard to learn all he can learn and to truly understand everything he can about the body and medicine. it has been so fascinating for me hearing all he has learned. a few times lately he has been explaining something to me and my first thought "wow he really does know a ton" haha! 

we spent last night celebrating with our med school family. how grateful i am for awesome friends who are on this journey with us. we sat and laughed at the restaurant for hours. it was the perfect way to end the year. 

what now?

well the studying isn't over (and probably will never be). the mr. takes the "step 1" or first round of boards in april. this is a big test to prove he really does know stuff about stuff. this score will help determine the residency program he will go into. it's a pretty intense test. think about mcat but about 10 times more intense (or maybe i just think that).

so for the next 5 weeks my husband will be studying non-stop. we've made a plan to take an 1.5 hour break each evening to have dinner and go to the gym together. other than that i am giving my sweet husband to the books. i know it's only 5 weeks but this has been something super hard for me to accept. i love my time with my husband. so it will be hard, but so worth it. the better he can do on this test the better off we are for being able to make our own decisions on our future. 

while the mr spends his days (and nights) studying, i'll be working on long forgotten projects. i also have a huge list of projects for baby that i need to work on. i'll find some good things to keep me busy..hopefully!

after his big ol' test in april, the mr will start rotations. northwestern is kinda cool and has it's students start rotations a few weeks before "normal". this is to give them a few more weeks to add in some more rotations. this is great for us because we (yep we) have not decided what speciality spence will go into. i'm just so excited to see what he likes and what he doesn't. 

we've heard the m3 year is the worst. long hours, long days, long weeks of working in the hospital. i'm a bit nervous doing m3 with a newborn but we've going to work together has a little family and make it great. i've already promised the mr that if we only has 1 hour break at 1 am baby and i will come and bring him dinner. it will be a fun adventure! 

so we're slowly but surely making our way through this whole medicine future. we've been on this road for over 4 years now. crazy to think how far we've come. i'm so proud of my sweet husband for making the most out of these past few years. for working so hard and giving up so much so we have a better future. i am also so grateful that one of the main reasons he wants to be a dr is so that he can help others! how sweet is that! 

here is to surviving the next 5 weeks and starting m3. i think this year will be my favorite year. i'll get to see my cute husband in scrubs and we'll add a little bug to the mix. life just keeps getting better and better! 

another little med school update

a little while ago i did a "little med school update". since we are now almost done with year 2 i thought i'd give another update.

how is school going to spence?: northwestern does things a little different. spence started his second year of med school the end of july (too early if you ask me). he is what they call an m2. he has been doing much of the same as last year but this time with more research and clinical experiences. he is working on his second to last section. interestingly for us it is all about reproduction and infertility. it's now super helpful that he is understanding a little bit of our situation.  anyway back to school. he has one last section (after repro) and then he has one month to study for boards. he will take his boards in early april. 

he has been doing so incredible! i am so proud of my mr and all his hard work. life has picked up this year with school, church and other stuff but he has managed it perfectly. he loves learning and has learned so much. a few months ago i picked up spence after a test. he was on the phone talking to his good friend dan. as they were discussing the test and different problems i was blown away with all he knew. i could understand about 10% of the words they were saying. seriously that boy of mine is smart. 

he's gearing up for boards and is super nervous. his board score will help determine what residency program he gets into. i for one am not worried about spence and boards. if the last two years have given us any clues it's that he will do just fine. it's very obvious that heavenly father wants him here, in med school and to do well. he is working hard but we've seen blessings beyond what we could have imagined. 

the next four months are going to be a bit more intense than the last two years. he will be doing his normal study but add in hours of board study. we've got a good study plan in place. it's like we're back taking the mcat! 

do you ever see each other?: just like last year we've been able to be together surprisingly more than expected. unfortunately for us this is going to change real soon. board study and then 3rd year are supposed to be killer. so we're preparing for things. we're trying to take advantage of the time we have together. i just got promoted (more on that later) and with that comes a lot of new learning so we have plans to study together.

we still go to the temple every other friday night. this is such a special treat for us. i love just chatting and catching up on the 1 hour or so drive there. then on the way home we get to share our experiences and talk about our future, our blessings and basically how much we love our little life. it's my most favorite time with my husband. 

sundays are crazy with both of our callings (more so of the mr's) but we typically spend the evenings together, playing games, catching up with family and just being together. 

has spence chosen a specialty?: everybody's favorite question! mine too! he hasn't really decided on any one thing. i think we've both come to the conclusion that he would like (and be great) doing a lot of different things. we're buying books and gearing up for 3rd year. this is the year he'll start rotations and ultimately have to decide what he wants to specialize in. 

spence is always asking my opinion and discussing options with me. even though it's his future, his job, his life he wants my opinion. he keeps saying it's an us decision. i sure love that! i'm just excited to see what happens as he starts going through rotations. i have my suspicions on what he'll choose but i'll keep it to myself until he knows ;-) 

are we still liking chicago?: YES! i have grown so in love with chicago it's not even funny. honestly, at this point if it was up to me i think we'd stay and raise our family out here. yep, thats how much i like chicago. we moved to another fun neighborhood in july. its a bit further north than our old place and further from school and work but we love it. it's really family friendly, cleaner and newer. we have friends who live just right down the street. great restaurants right by and the most amazing ice cream place around the corner. 

this winter has been worse than last year but i've got some great boots and a warm coat. we've made some of the best friends and get together when them often. i have a great group of girl friends and we get together every other week to chat, watch movies, do crafts and just hang out. 

we also just got gym passes to the gym right around the corner. now if only it would open we'd be good to go ;-) 

i do miss family and i miss the sun during the winter  months. but all in all we love chicago. i think i love it a bit more than my mr. at this point we aren't really thinking of staying for residency. spence wants to move some place closer to family. and if we're moving i'd say somewhere warmer! 

how am i doing?: super great! life just seems to get busier and busier! early summer i was told my company might open an office in chicago. after a few months of back and forth they finally opened our chicago office in september. i was able to play a big role in getting everything up and running. i now work downtown with the most incredible view of the city! i wasn't sure i was going to like it at first but now i love working downtown. i don't love the commute but it's nice waking up each morning and forcing myself to get up and get ready. it's also nice being able to leave the office and really leave the office. 

i also just got promoted to an associate at leavitt partners! it's a big change but i'm so excited for it. i never expected to be working for so long but things have worked out as they should. heavenly father truly has a plan for me! i'm not sure of all the steps but it's been fun figuring it out as we go along. 

this new job will be more work and it requires that i step up my game. i'm excited for the challenge and the chance to learn and grow more. it's good the mr. will be busy studying so i can just join him!

so thats about that. we are loving life and still very much enjoying this med school journey. we have a busy couple of months with the boards ahead of us but it's fun at the same time!

so here is to finishing our second year of med school!

so it seems we've made it to a year

this week marks our one year anniversary of living in chicago. honestly i can't believe it's already been one whole year. so many thoughts run through my mind as i think about our last year in chicago. some days it feels like we just moved here yesterday. most days though i can't really imagine life not in chicago. 

this past year has been the best year and the most difficult year at the same time. i won't say worst year, it's not even close to that. but difficult yes. i won't lie. there are days when i cry myself to sleep because i'm so homesick. where i long for our days living in holladay. i didn't realize it then, but life was simpler.  we were just playing "grown up". here in chicago reality hit us. somedays harder than others. we're real lifein' it now. we are for reals "grown up". we're on our own out here. and while it's easy to say being grown up isn't all it's cracked up to be....most of the time it's pretty great. 

we're truly creating a life for ourselves out here. though we miss family and friends like crazy, and LOVE going to utah to visit, this is our home. this is where our life is. our daily doings and adventures happen here. i think i'm going to be a mess the day we have to leave this beautiful city. 

the past year we've explored just a small part of chicago. we've visited museums and tried to do a lot of touristy stuff. we've had many visitors and have loved showing off our favorite places. we've tried way too many restaurants but still have so many more to try. we've fallen in love with date nights downtown. the mr. has taken over med school and is now the big man on campus. i've mastered the whole "working from home" thing. i found a love of interior decorating. we've created little family traditions for the two of us. we've laughed. we've cried. we've had our share of heartbreak. we've had our share of hope and love. we've made the most incredible friends, lifelong friends truly. we've learned more about ourselves, our marriage and what we want out of life. we've learned to become "city" people. we mastered public transit and went carless for over 6 months. we've grown more in love with each other. we've fallen in love with chicago. 

this past year we've made chicago our home. we've made memories that will last us a life time. i'm so grateful to my sweet mr for moving us out here. for creating a good life for us and making each day a new adventure. 

so chicago.....we only have 3 years left (if the mr. doesn't decide to keep us here for residency). i thought that would be a long time but considering how fast year 1 went we are running out of time. i hope you help us create even better memories. i hope you will be the city where we have our first baby. i hope you keep the weather fairly mild like you have (pretty please this one). you are now home to a new adventure for work, more on that later. and you will be where the mr. finally graduates medical school. keep having fun things for us to see and do. we can't wait for another 3 years of incredible memories. 

thanks for being a part of our little family chicago. you will always have a place in our hearts. can't wait to see how the grows these next few years. don't get sick of us yet ;-)  

year one down......

(so excited to finally be on a plane together....boo traveling alone for work)

the mr. finally finished his first year of medical school. i still can't believe we've made it this far. it may seem funny, considering we still have 3 more years, but i really felt like we've made it. we survived. honestly i think we did much more than just survive. 

at this time last year we were still unsure about northwestern. we (okay mostly the mrs) was praying hard for a california school. as it turns out the lord had another plan for us. it took me a bit to get used to it but looking back i'm so happy things turned out as they did. 

so updated....

the mr. finished his first year of medical school. coming from his very proud wife he did incredible. he not only finished but truly excelled. i am one proud wife. i am even more excited about the fact that he still likes it. i think it's safe to say my mr. will for sure be a dr. one day. he loves what he is learning. 

i survived as well. i probably didn't excel as much as my cute dr. but i did okay. i have come to love life as a med student wife. and even more come to love chicago. didn't know that was possible but it happened. i've learned so much about my life, my cute husband, the medical world and life in general. i love how much i've learned in this past year. i know the mr. has learned a bit more but i like to think i've come a long way as well.

i was so worried about how medical school would be. i'll be honest, there were some hard days. mostly the first couple of months. that was for sure an adjustment period. but once we finally figured out our new life, school, studying and working from home.....we hit our stride. we've tried really hard to make a life for ourselves in chicago. it's home now and we love our little life. we've come to love city living and really enjoy the daily life of living in chicago. 

as of right now spence still has no idea what he wants to do. his problem...we likes too many things. it's been fun for me watching him learn about new specialties and realize he would be great at so many of them. we have ruled out just a couple of specialities. let's hope in the next couple of years we'll be able to rule more out. for now it's exciting (for both of us) to just keep learning and figuring out life. 

the day after spence's last test we hopped on a plane and headed to utah. we have 3 weeks here until we head back for the mr's summer research. it's been so nice being "home" with family. we've been taking advantage of having all our love ones close. i have also enjoyed being spoiled by my mom. sometimes i just need to be taken care of. my family sure knows how to take care of us. 

so i may be a bit mia the next couple of weeks. i'm enjoying family, friends and kneaders french toast. 

year one down....bring on m2 baby!!!! 

a picture on a rainy day

sometimes, during the day, while i'm working and missing my mr. med school, i get pictures like the one above. from my mr. telling me he loves me and he misses me. and sometimes, while he is busy studying, and being a good med student. i take some pictures and send them to him. just to remind him that i love him and i miss him. 

and sometimes, when i'm sad i don't get to see my mr that much. because of busy life. i smile. because sometimes a picture is enough. a perfect reminder of what a beautiful blessing my marriage is. a reminder to be grateful for the love of my life. 

a little med school update

i get asked this question a lot....
"how is med school going?".

so i decided to give our family and friends a little update on our life in chicago (aka med school life).

let me just start by saying it has been AMAZING. in our short 8 months doing this whole med school thing we've both grown so much. individually and as a family. we love chicago and are really just loving life.

(this photo was taken at the very beginning of our little med school journey 8 months ago)

do you ever see each other?: surprisingly more than we both expected. spence has been super great about managing his time and work. but, he always puts me first. which means the world to me. he usually wakes up early and heads to school. classes most of the morning and afternoon. then stays on campus until about 6. in that time he can usually get all of his studying done so we can have our nights together. friday nights we work at the temple. it's one of my favorite nights. we enjoy an hour long drive there, just the two of us. eat sandwiches in the car and just enjoy not thinking about work or school.

weekends are nice, spence will study saturday mornings while i clean and such and then we have date night saturday night. sundays are just us days. and i love it that way.

so all in all we do see each other a bit. my work schedule is crazy so it matches up. test weeks are different. spence studies till about 10pm each night and all day on saturdays. but i get to hang out with my girl friends so i'm not all alone.

is spence liking school?: i ask him this all the time. haha i worry he won't love it and then we're paying for something he doesn't love. but good thing he really does like school. he loves learning new things. he is always coming home to tell me about a new disease he learned about. one involved microwave popcorn and so now spence gets mad at me when i make some (which is about once a week). for the most part he is really liking school.

northwestern just started a new curriculum that has been interesting. they wanted to get their students in clinical settings starting year 1. this has been a good thing and a bad thing. spence loves working with his dr. in his clinic weekly but it does take away from study time. there are days where he is just wall to wall and then has the stress of studying. this part he doesn't love. it really is a more stressed non-stop lifestyle we are living. not ideal but we're working through it.

does spence know what he wants to go into?: nope, not yet. he has a few ideas and front runners but for the most part he is keeping an open mind. i love when he comes home after learning aobut a new speciailty. some really interest him while others don't. it's fun to see what he gets excited about. most recently they studied the lung system. a few specialties interested him in that area (don't ask me what they are called...i don't do medical talk). he is still interested in orthopedic surgery as well. ear, nose, and throat is on that list as well. it's fun having so many options.

he is doing research with a radiologist which is really cool. he doesn't love just pure radiology but interventional radiology interests him. either way the dr. he is doing research with is really great and told him he can help in any residency program he wants to go into. good news for us!

do we like chicago?: yes and no. for the most part we love it. and it's even better with a car (finally drove ours out during christmas break). living in a big city is really fun. there is always something fun to do. we are making our "chicago adventure book" and slowly working through different things. i hope we can make it through the whole book before we move (thats how many awesome things there are). we love living close to the lake. it is beautiful and a nice break from the tall buildings of city life. we live outside of downtown in a cute little neighborhood that we love. some fun restaurants and close to wrigley field. in the summer we can hear the cheer of the crowd! we also live about 6 blocks from a target. a dream for me.

we love going downtown and window shopping. we'll usually get some dinner at one of our favorite places and just enjoy the busy city. i love these nights. it's so fun to be downtown with everyone and be able to call this place home. it is nice to jump on the train and head home to a little quieter neighborhood!

but, we don't love the weather. i knew this would be the case when we were looking into california and arizona schools but it's the truth. hopefully it will start warming up and we'll be outside more. parking is also a pain in the butt. having a car is nice but we tend to not leave the house after 8pm in fear we won't find a spot when we get back. friday nights after the temple are the worse. we usually have to park a few blocks up which is actually a really good parking spot considering.

lack of good chain restaurants. this may sound funny to most people but we aren't really foodies. i love a good new place just like the next person but sometimes i just want to go eat someplace that is fairly cheap and i know what i'm getting. i want a zupas or olive garden. i guess chicagoians are more foodie than we are. but...we have found a few great places to eat that are our favorites. we're slowly getting better at trying new places.

how is our ward?: i love this question because i LOVE our ward. when we were first looking into moving to chicago we wanted to live in the downtown ward boundaries. after searching and searching we found our home. it wasn't in the downtown ward boundaries but we felt so strongly we needed to live here. so we figured it would be great no matter what. boy was i surprised. i felt so loved and welcomed our first sunday. we talk about moving but our rule is that we can't move out of our ward.

we have made the best of friends that are more like family to us. it's a small ward and fairly young (though not as young as the downtown ward). we have some great young families that we look up to as wonderful examples and who have the most hilarious kids. being in primary was our favorite. we were both called as primary teachers when we first moved it. we first taught the senior primary (yes the whole senior primary....3 kids) and then were moved to the sunbeam class (6 hilarious kids. see the age difference in our ward???). a few weeks ago i was called into the relief society presidency and have to say goodbye to our little sunbeams, which makes me really sad. spence is still helping out in the primary until they can call someone else. honestly i think he is better in there than i am. he is so great with the kids and they adore him.

how am i doing?: i am doing great. my job is keeping me super busy which is nice. i am so grateful for my job, those i work with and in all honesty my income. it is so nice being able to pay for our living expenses and some of spence's schooling. student loans help with the rest of his tuition but thats about it.

i have a great group of girlfriends that really help me out. we get together almost weekly and i love it. i love seeing spence finally living his dream. i do miss him during test weeks and when i travel but we're working on that. i have grown to love our "little" city and love exploring. we have big plans for this summer thats for sure.


so there you have it. 8 months in and we are doing great. northwestern was never our #1 choice but looking back it really should have been. chicago has been great to us. the school is incredible and is perfect for spence. our friends are our lifesavers and truly our chicago family. we are so lucky to be here, in chicago, with spence going to an incredible med school.

we can't believe we're almost through the first year. so strange to think this time last year we had no idea where we would be. now chicago is our home!

mr. md saves the night

so last night was a long night in the b. family household.
-burns
-breakfast for dinner
-cheesy netflix movies
-blessings
-tears
-and a lot of prayer!

you can read about it here!

mr. med school and his white coat

northwestern founders day ceremony was held on friday

aka spencers white coat

this was a special ceremony for all incoming m1's (first year med students).  it was when they received their white coats. after years of prep and applications and planning it was so nice to jus sit and watch. we were finally here. a day we have talked about for what seems like a life time. he may not be a dr. yet but this was the first big step forward. now, with his white coat he can go into the hospitals. help dr.s and treat patients. i loved looking at my cute man in his coat.

please excuse the heads in front of me....i was pretty far away and didn't want to stand up.

welcome to northwestern medical school. interesting fact...northwestern was the very first medical school to have clinical work included in the education. before northwestern med students just took science classes and called it go. they were dr.'s before even seeing the inside of a hospital. boy am i glad things have changed.

spencers mom flew out for the event. it was so wonderful having her with us. thanks to her spencer is here today. she and his dad put so much time, effort and money towards spencer and his education. thank you for getting my man to this place in life!

of course we had to run outside and get a picture in front of the water. we may not be in cali but chicago has great waterfront. thank you waterfront! boy does my man look cute in that coat!

the classic three. i have a feeling these three will be inseparable during the next four years. how grateful we both are for friends this early on. 

and the wives. boy do i need to grow a foot or two. how grateful i am for these girls. they are already my best friends here. girls nights are going to be in high demand with our boys studying late into the night.

in four short years a little md will be next to that name.

we finished taking pictures and headed over to a reception held in the med students honor. it was fun to see the sea of white coats, meet some of spencers friends and see what life as a med student will be like. we spent the rest of the weekend playing with mom!

so proud of my mr. med school

well hello there friend

(don't mind the sweaty faces...we got a good workout in)

we woke up this morning in chicago

decided to go for a run

ran to the "beach"

and fell in love

at least i did. the mr. has already fallen in love with this place

we've been mia for a few weeks while we've been packing, moving, unpacking and getting settled

it is finally feeling like home

never would i have thought chicago would be our home

but now i can't imagine having home be anywhere else

so excuse us for a bit longer....

we still have some work to do to get set up

(the mrs. still needs to unpack all her clothes...ugh)

we'll be back soon

with plenty of updates of the last couple of weeks

and our new place as it comes together

peace and love from chi-town

our new home...the story

when we started the med school application process i chose favorite schools based on where i wanted to live. when the mr. choose a school i tested it by looking up apartments. if i found some good options in a good price range it was a go. i did this for almost all of our top schools. except for northwestern. long story short northwestern was a late add. we know now that is because that's where were supposed to be but at the time neither of us considered living in chicago as an option.

spence got an interview, like so many others, and i was excited. at first i was thrilled about living in a big city but that was when other schools were in the running. fast forward to one month ago. we had a plan (or i did) that we were going to live in california. because lets be honest who doesn't want to live right on the beach. even though we had been accepted to northwestern i wasn't going to live there. i was set on my plan. turns out heavenly father didn't have the same plan. after some tears, confusion, and doubt we decided that we were meant to go to chicago. once i let that reality sink in i started getting really excited. it all seem to feel right. like it was our plan all along. 

there was (possibly still) an option of another school but to my surprise both spence and i would turn it down. we are so excited (to the point where it's almost all we talk about) to live in chicago. i wish i could have felt this way at first but i think i needed to learn a little faith, trust and patience. 

so once we officially decided that northwestern was our school it was panic mode. we made the official decision right before our cruise. then with a week without internet we were left with 3 weeks before move date. meaning 3 weeks to find an apartment. thanks to a huge blessing we met noly who became our agent.

noly sent a few options to look at on monday. that night we found our dream place. noly agreed to go see it for us the next day (because we can't afford a day off to fly out there...boo). so we put our trust in her and waited. tuesday she called me. it was perfect. but 7 others thought the same thing. we hurried and put in our application. and waited again. 

we searched for other options. some bigger, some nicer. but i couldn't get this place out of my mind. wednesday we received bad news. the place went to someone else. at this point i was done. i was tired and stressed and so sad. but we needed to find a place (before today i might add). so i found a few other options. 

that night noly called us. the contract fell through. now it was down to 5. we sent everything in again and prayed our little hearts out. this was our home and i just knew it. i couldn't imagine living anywhere else. yesterday we got the news....

we got the place!

we are now (or will be) the newest residents of cuyler in chicago's wrigleyville. we were beyond excited. it all feels just right now. i thought i would be living where the palm trees grow. looks like i'll be living where the buildings grow and the air is cold. we can't wait to move into our little place. we're paying a lot more for a lot less but we couldn't be more excited. plus we have this awesome little deck. wanna come have a bbq with us?

(there she is. and i won't even have to walk up 5 flights of stairs)

so there you have it. sometimes things don't work out like you plan. but in the end i think things are working out much better than i expected. we're packin' up and movin' out in 3 weeks. we're excited (and scared) but know it's the right thing for us. 

anybody want to come visit us in good ol' chicago come on out! we love visitors!

an update

ahh...
can life just slow down for a bit???

please please please!!! so basically we have been running none-stop for days. and we're not looking at a break for a while. i'm too lazy to post a much needed update (boston/nyc pictures anyone?) so this will have to do.

check out a teeny tiny update here....

and enjoy my beautiful self portrait skills.
i'm getting pretty good if i do say so myself. i just need to learn how to avoid the awkward long white arm...hum!

the mrs. rambles

this week's ramblings...

-sometimes the only thing you can do is cry. and i feel like i've done that a lot lately. nothing too dramatic  but moving out of state and still not having a place to live is a bit stressful. we move in t-minus 7 weeks (a little less then 2 months). i had my first realization this week of what it will be like living away from my family. and for one night i was heartbroken and a bit sad. but...after a good cry i was feeling a lot better.
we still don't have a place to live but we keep searching and hopefully the perfect place will just fall in our laps (or on our screen as we're doing this all online).

-when i was in jerusalem 3 summers ago (hate that it's been so long) i had the worst "homesickness" for my cabin. sure i missed home but for some reason jackson hole, wy just tugged at my heart strings. maybe it's because going to the cabin is a summer thing. whatever it was jackson hole has a huge place in my heart. well here is the deal...i'm feeling that same feeling again. spence and i are going to miss our annual jackson hole trip (we're moving that week...lame) and i can't get over my "homesickness" for my cabin. maybe we can convince our bosses to give us some more time off :-)

-in two weeks from today the mr. and i will be packing our bags for a glourious week aboard the royal caribbean oasis. the b.family is taking the whole lot of us (11 in total) on a cruise. i couldn't be more excited. it's about time i get working on my tan. i know we just took a little vaca but i think it's time for one more. feel free to come along. we're going to be enjoying endless amounts of food, musicals, flow-rider, mini-golf, beautiful beaches, snorkeling, and a whole lot more. plus a whole week hanging out with the family....what a way to say goodbye.

-southwest was having a sale on flights. $200 round trip chicago to slc. the sale ended yesterday. we forgot to get tickets. yeah...sad day.

-i fell in love with jcrew baubles when they started making their debut months ago. i didn't fall in love with the price tag. i may be a workin' girl but am about to me a med school wife. anyway i heard through the grapevine you can snatch a great deal on ebay. $15 later i had made my first ebay purchase. i couldn't be happier. here is me enjoying the simple pleasures of a new necklace.

so we're about to start the weekend. this week has been rough when it comes to med school prep but i couldn't be more grateful to my mr. he is constantly supporting me and lifting me up. he has his daily reminders that "everything will work out" and "we'll find the most perfect little home for us". how grateful i am for him. and for weekends!!!

i think we'll go swimming, or for a hike, or a picnic....or all 3!!! because it's summer and we can!!!

medical school update!

a med school update for the family.....

we are now up to 8 interviews
we rejected one of them
so that makes 7

some fun places
check it...

ucsd-san diego

ut southwestern- dallas, tx

u of rochester - rochester, ny

u of u - utah of course

northwestern - chicago

dartmouth - hanover (where is that)

duke - durham, nc

i'm super proud of my mr.
and super excited to see where life takes us
it's fun to talk about where we are going to be next year

we haven't heard from any schools yet
which is a good thing but yet bad for my patience
so lets hope months and months of hard work will pay off (and we can hear back before christmas)

and lets be honest....it is expensive to keep flying across the country

wish the mr. luck on his next few interviews!!!

because i can...

i'm going to brag a little bit

and lets be honest....it's mainly family who reads this so basically this is just an update ;-)

my cute mr. was in sunny san diego today

interviewing at ucsd

some stats from the trusty blue msar (med school go to book)

5,000 students apply to ucsd medical school

2,000 of those are non-resident (thats us)

700 are asked to come for an interview

94 of those are non-resident (thats the mr.)

so lets look at that.....

out of the 2,000 that applied not from cali

only 94 got asked to come interview

thats pretty amazing for my mr.

lets go to today....

the mr. interviewed with 11 others

they were all from schools like...

stanford

harvard

princeton

so yes.

my mr. got a really incredible interview

at an amazing school (ranked 16th in the country)

in a beautiful location (right on the beach next to torrey pines)

competing with top notch students

it's an understatement to say i'm proud

even if he doesn't get in...

this interview was huge and says a lot

so to my cute husband....

i am so proud of you. you have worked so hard and it shows.

congrats babe!!!

now get home so i don't have to be cold at night

lover you!

rewind to mcat days (so glad those are over) i caught the mr. in the middle of studying!) it seemed fitting for this post

another one

an interview at my favorite school....

yeah i guess thats okay with me!

so proud of the mr.

a med school update!

so most of the state of utah has the day off to celebrate pioneer day

but the mr. and mrs. don't....

good thing for me that most of the office (and when i say most i mean everybody but 1 other person) is out today so it's really quiet around here

so what have i been doing today?

working on secondary applications for the mr.

we thought the first ones were hard

try 5 different essays for each application

i wish i could help out on that part

anyways because i don't have my real computer (with tons of pictures to share and update you on)

i decided to update you on some of the schools we've heard back from....

here ya go!

some exciting schools! i'm so proud of my mr.

as for me....

i'm hoping for stanford or u of arizona....both in beautifully warm places and close to home

we are right in the middle of our 2 yr long application process.

its exciting to finally be where we are right now

now if only we could hear back about interviews and get those over with....oh well!

up a head this week:

graduation announcements

tons of pictures because i'm so behind

parties with good friends and great food!

oh and i almost forgot....

our first anniversary! 

yep, friday marks the day of our wedding

i can't believe it has already been a year

and boy are we going to celebrate big time!!!!

so happy pioneer day everyone

we'll be celebrating after work with good friends, fun games, treats and fireworks! can't wait

throw back vintage style

so a little while ago we went to a friends wedding

they had the most adorable vintage candy table

of course we filled up a big bag of fun candy and treats

well yesterday was some crazy day for the mr. and i

mr. took the mcat (he survived!)

and i went to job training (long story...)

anyways....when i got home we were both warn out, tired, minds going crazy etc...

we needed a do nothing night

and thats just what we had

starting with....

fun vintage treats.

remember those wax bottles filled with sugary juice?

well the mr. and never had one

so i made him throw a drink back ;-)

needless to say they tasted a lot better when you're 5

but it was still fun

i don't think the mr. will be drinking wax candy bottles anytime soon.....

now it's off to girls night

the mr. is camping with the guys and so we're celebrating the only way girls do!!!

ahh....we need help!!!

i need your help...

yep this goes out to all the blogging world

as most of you know my mr. is planning on going to med school

currently we have about 40 schools on our list

which is a no go because of the cost of applications.

so this is where you come in

we need advice (or mostly me)

of where to go to med school

do you have a brother/sister/husband/friend who is going to a great med school

did you grow up by one and can tell us about the area

or basically any advice for the application process (which i'm freaking out about)

i'm really hoping we can get some help and advice because currently we're going in all directions!

lets how this call to the blog world helps!

ps. i have some great pictures from a family night birthday celebration a week ago that i can't wait to post! yay