Hundreds of Bugs, Dental School, Christmas & Our 2 year Anniversary

SO much news!!

First of all, I would like to show off my semester-long project:

These are my yummy bugs from my bug collection, where I had to collect 300+ specimens and they had to represent a large variety of Orders and Families. Soooo I have Cockroaches, Butterflies, Preying Mantises, Beetles, Bed Bugs, Bumble Bees, Wasps, Crickets, Grasshoppers, Fleas, Lice, and tiny tiny things like Thrips and Silver Fish. IT was NUTS! I did trade away some of my best specimens in order to have enough variety to get a good grade...sad...but it was worth it. So after all that work do I love bugs now? Yes. Yes I do. It convinced me that bugs are awesome regardless whether or not I thought the class itself was taught the way I would have liked. Plus, everyone in the class is in my program, and they are so fun!

Also, in other news, I would like to show off our very first Christmas tree. You see, the past two Christmases we have not had the opportunity/ money to get a Christmas tree, so this year I was extremely excited to put one up!!! We won't get to enjoy it on Christmas day, but the Homer's who are staying here while we're gone for their Grandpa's funeral will hopefully enjoy it.


So as you know, we have been dental school shopping, and have finally made the deposit and after hours of debating, crying, praying, and bouts of apathetic frustration we have made the decision for Richard to attend Midwestern in Glendale, Arizona. This was incredibly difficult decision because we wanted a balance of being close to home and provide Richard with great opportunities, and after visiting the school in Arizona (which is a very new school, and as a result we had very low expectations) we were really impressed and found that it offered some significantly great experiences. Sadly, it isn't near home, and that was a huge let-down, but in the end we feel like we have made the right choice.

A couple reasons why we chose it:

• Incredible clinical experience: It is the leading school when it comes to letting their dental students learn not only basic dentistry but also work that normally specialties would steal from them....such as root canals, implants and other advanced procedures. We honestly think this fact alone will put him ahead of the game.
  
• The curriculum is systems based, he would learn everything (histology, anatomy, physiology) about the lungs one week, then move on to the circulatory system, and then another system, etc. This is a great educational approach when you compare that to learning your histology separately from physiology and then later trying to apply those principles to the body parts you are concerned with.
  
• The breaks are pretty long compared to other dental schools. We would have at least a couple months off every summer, and two weak breaks from Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. This doesn't make up for the fact that we won't be near family, but it is definitely a nice plus.
• There is a continuing education center (for dentists that already have practices) located very close by where professionals from around the nation that are top in their field will teach classes on specific procedures that dentists can add to their practice and essentially earn more money. These classes can cost dentists up to 20 grand. The beautiful thing about this is that Richard would be able to take these classes for free as a dental student at Midwestern. Plus, the school invites these professionals over to teach the students about their specialties while they are in town.
  

We are excited to head North to Canada to spend Christmas with the Lows, which will be a special time since Richard hasn't done this with his family for 4 years. Between his mission, our marriage, and seeing my family last year, it has simply been a while! It will be my first Christmas away from home so I am really going to miss my family, but at least we got to see them over Thanksgiving break. That was so awesome.

Our 2 year anniversary is on this coming Monday. I still can't believe it has been 2 years!
We started off in the assisted living home and had many learning experiences, and learned how to live frugally and then when we moved to an apartment for the first time we really got in the groove of managing our own place and cooking our own meals, etc. We have really grown closer, and sometimes we are just silly weird goobers and I'm pretty sure if people saw how goofy we are together when we are alone they'd think we were complete idiots. Its ok though, we're still kids right??? We just know how to have fun together. That is my favorite part about how we've gotten closer---the fact that we can make anything fun!