Monday, April 25, 2011

Thanks Lee and Cherry!

Thought you two might like to see this video. :-)

Click here to watch it on YouTube (for some reason I couldn't get it to upload directly to the blog).

love,
Jen and John

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Day In My Life

I was inspired by All Things G&D to write a post about a normal day in my life. Who knows, maybe I'll even document an entire week! Could be interesting. So here we go...


6:00am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze (don't remember hitting snooze).

6:15am: Alarm goes off again, apparently hit snooze again.

6:30am: John's alarm goes off along with mine, he starts rubbing my arm and trying to gently wake me up.

6:45am: John gets frustrated and insists I get up, I know he's right but I'm still mad, I grumble and stumble to the bathroom, take a 15 min. shower, think about how I need to start working out and tanning (bathing suit season will be here before I know it), get dressed (makeup/hair etc.), no time to fix breakfast- grab a Greek yogurt and mug of coffee.

7:30am: Head out the door with John, he drives while I eat my yogurt, we talk a little bit but mostly just listen to talk radio.

7:50am: Pull into the parking lot, start the 10 min. walk to school.

8:01am: Get into the building, get a lecture from John about needing to wake up earlier because we are now officially late.

8:15am: Our class president announces that our oral surgery lecture has been cancelled because the professor forgot about it, we're all pissed because we could have gotten an extra hour of sleep.

8:30am: Do a little "patient management" (aka go through my list of patients and write down who needs to be called/scheduled etc.).

9:00am: Go to the oral surgery clinic for day 2 of my 2 week rotation, see 3 patients- do an extraction. Almost pee my pants at one point during the morning... without giving any specifics lets just say that for a minute I thought we were going to have a scary medical emergency on our hands. Everything turned out fine though.

12:00pm: Go to a lunch and learn about patient management and patient retention, had 2 slices of pizza (blah, that bathing suit body isn't off to a good start).

1:00pm: Head back to the oral surgery clinic for the afternoon session, extract another tooth, the patient doesn't speak any English- fun, float around the clinic helping classmates here and there.

4:00pm: Review some cases with the oral surgeon supervising us, have a group discussion on odontogenic infections (fancier way to say tooth infections).

4:30pm: Get dismissed from oral surgery, head over to the general practice clinic to help John clean up from his afternoon patient so we can leave a little early.

5:00pm: Leave school, do the hike to the car, head to the VDA (Virginia Dental Association) building to help load some stuff into the new MOM(Mission Of Mercy) project truck.

5:45pm: Get home, veg out on the computer, become familiar with Dooce, snack on leftovers from my father-in-law's birthday dinner at P.F. Changs (last night).

6:30pm: John walks down the street to help his dad do some work on a house that they own together and rent out.

7:40pm: Do a little cleaning and discover that the vacuum cleaner is not sucking. Sad.

8:00pm: John comes back with DIL (dad-in-law) to show him our progress on a room we're redoing.

8:15pm: DIL leaves, and I fix the vacuum! It just had a clog, but I'm still very proud of myself. After my big accomplishment I decide to do some spakeling in the "in progress" room.


**I'd like to interject something... I was a thousand times more impressed with myself for unclogging the vacuum than I was for extracting those teeth... I paraded the functioning vacuum around the house with my head held so high. I'm ridiculous.**


9:00pm: Sit down at the computer to try and find the latest episode of Million Dollar Listing online (John watched it on-demand last night while I was sleeping on the couch and doesn't want to re-watch it... grrrr), couldn't find it, watch Private Practice instead, eat leftover mashed potatoes and peas.

9:40pm: Quit watching Private Practice, that show has gotten so ridiculous, start reading blogs.

10:00pm: Start writing this blog, it has taken longer than I thought it would. John is watching Top Shot, one of the contestants on the show is a guy that John went to high school with, Ashley Spurlin, he's in the elimination round right now. :-( John's feeling tense...... whew, Ashley is safe!

11:00pm: Thinking about going to bed (but might take over the TV when John goes to bed and watch Million Dollar Listing).
12:43am: Get out of bed to edit this post... I had originally written a little bit more information about the patients I saw today. Nothing much at all, but just enough to make me uneasy about the whole doctor/patient confidentiality thing. So I decided that if I was ever going to get any sleep I'd better drag myself out of bed and tweak the wording of a few things. Shew, sometimes I wonder if blogging is worth it. (never did watch Million Dollar Listing btw)


And completely unrelated to A Day In My Life today... here's a picture of us from the MCV Winter Ball that we went to on Feb. 25th. Again, I hate posts without pictures.
Us
ugh, I need to photoshop that shiny forehead out

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Today I Wore My Husbands Scrubs to School. F.

Just sitting there in class, minding my own business, listening to a lecture on nerve damage... I look down at the pen occupying the pockets in my scrub top and what do I see neatly embroidered above it... John Reynolds Dentistry Class of 2012. Bummer. I guess in the hurry of the morning I grabbed the wrong pair. It was bound to happen at some point. We each have 5 pairs of scrubs that are the exact same color (just different sizes... and with different names obviously). Every single day we were the exact same thing. After I get through these 4 years I swear you'll never catch me in "Hunter Green" (which is really much more of a kelly green) again.

Us

Anywhooo...

School as always has been kicking my behind lately. I wish I could come up with some clever way to blog about it without violating any kind of patient/doctor confidentiality. Because truth be told... as much as I love writing about my life outside of school it's the life inside of school that really "inspires" me lately. Inspires = fills-me-with-the-urge-to-write-big-long-(sometimes optimistic but often just bitchy)-posts. I wish I could just give all my patient fictitious names like Princess Buttercup or Cruella De Vil (guess which one I like better) and then blog about the trials they put me through. Not that any of this would be the least bit interesting to anyone besides a fellow dental student... but at least I could come away from the keyboard feeling at least a little bit lighter. Carrying the weight of all these experiences can feel so exhausting! Most of the time I make John listen to my rants but I know that's not always fair. He has to go through his whole day, dealing with all kinds of difficult situations that are no different than mine... but then he has to hear about all the stuff I had to deal with. By the time I finally get around to asking him about his day he usually responds with something like "it was fine" or "eh, nothing special". I know he has more to say.

So you see... I need to find away to blog about my life which includes a new marriage, an old house, 2 crazy dogs and DENTAL SCHOOL. Did you watch The Bachelor last night?? If you did then you have an idea of what I'm talking about. Ashley H. and Brad couldn't even make it work because he didn't see how their lives would fit together... because her life is so dictated by DENTAL SCHOOL. Which reminds me- they need to stop saying she's a Dentist. She's a student and the difference between the two is H.U.G.E.

I need to be in clinic in 3 minutes. My time here is up. Who knows what is in store for me this time...

k.bye.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Woo To The Hoo!

Oh glory day! I figured out how to upload larger pictures! This is my first, very small, step away from the cookie-cutter blogging that I've been doing. Like I said in my very first post, I am NOT computer savvy and the teeniest blogging task seems very hard to me. I still haven't managed to figure out how to get music on here. But that's okay... one step at a time.

So with out further adieu... a BIG picture!


Not going to end well

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Question for you...

My first question to you is this: Have you ever had such a juicy story to tell your girl friends, mom, husband etc... that you feel like you need a serious chunk of time to tell it?? And I'm not just talking about any ol' "time". I'm talking about good quality time. Time that is long enough that your story will not be rushed, time that will be uninterrupted, time during which you will have your listeners undivided attention for as long as you need it. Yes, that is some pretty intense criteria. But you know that you just can't compromise! This event/occurrence was so big that it really deserves to be talked about properly. You can't just glaze over the details and skip around the timeline. You need to sit down over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and elegantly divulge the information bit by bit until you have said all that you need to say on the subject.

Now my second question to you is this: Have you sadly never told your juicy story because your criteria bar for the "time to tell it" was too darn high!?! You never seem to have the quality time your looking for. So you keep holding off... and before you know it an almost awkward amount of time has gone by so now you REALLY better have some serious material to deliver. You couldn't possibly make them wait that long and then give them a quick and dirty, sub par conversation. Now that quality time is more important than ever! You've really built it up and have a lot to live up to! Ugh, days/weeks/months have gone by and it's just getting plain weird that you haven't said anything. Looks like you're never going to tell your tale. Bummer.

So over here on my side of the computer screen this little blog is my girl friend, mom, husband etc... and my WEDDING is the juicy story that I've put up on this super high pedestal. John and I were married on July 24th. I know it sounds sappy but it truly was the happiest day of my life. I wanted to write about the planning process after we got engaged. I wanted to post pictures of the flowers I was considering, the bridesmaid dresses I narrowed it down to, the venues we visited. I wanted create a mood board to show my inspiration for just about everything. I OF COURSE wanted to write about every detail of the day. How I felt when I was soaking in my bubble bath that morning. How Pamela (my MOH) and I thought the coffee was laced with something because it just tasted a little too good. How my mom stocked our "getting ready room" with tons of snacks and delicious mimosas. How I cried when I saw my little brother in his tux and shiny Converse shoes. How nervous and excited I was to walk down the aisle towards John. How fun the ride over to our reception was. How the weather actually got up to 106 degrees and our 5 tier cake melted as a result! How my dad made the best toast of all time. How during "Sweet Caroline" everyone out on the dance floor got in a big giant circle and started doing the can-can. How my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law. husband and I all crammed into the photo booth at the same time. How amazing our photographer was.

I became so overwhelmed that I did the worst possible thing... I didn't write one word, I didn't post a single picture. As far as my blog was concerned our wedding never even happened. I plan to change that very soon... but I'm lowering the bar to a realistic height. And it's possible that I may post more pictures and less words. Pictures are all anyone really cares about anyway right? Here are several little teaser pictures.......

photos by Don and Lindsay Mears at donmearsphotography.com

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

If you don't have something nice to say...





Wow, I must really have an opinion here if I'm actually writing on my sad little neglected blog about it! Today when I got home I did my usual computer routine... checked e-mail, checked Blackboard (all you fellow students know what I'm talking about), and finally checked my three favorite blogs: YHL, Bower Power and All Things G&D. YHL and Bower Power both had terrific posts about their fun weekend together; playing with tablescapes, introducing the babies etc. Very enjoyable for a fan of both blogs to see them unite for a post or two! Anywho, I was browsing through the comments on the YHL post and came across this snarky remark...

"Ugh. I could’ve done without this one. Two things wrong with that girl. One, she uses such crude/foul language (at the same time claiming to follow Jesus, go figure). Two, it always seems like her posts are copies of yours, just a few days/weeks later. I stopped reading her many, many months ago and haven’t missed her at all. Yes, I know, to each his (or her) own, but I, for one, am not appreciating the memory jog here." -Beth

Say whaaa??? Excuse me Ms. Beth, but was that really necessary? Did you think that the youngsters (as they sometimes are referred to over at YHL) would be super impressed by your insight and decided to refrain ever referring to the Bowers in their blog again? Like Sherry said in her polite response to your comment.... everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when your "opinion" can only be expressed in a way that completely shoots down someones friend you should know when to bite your tongue (or keep those fingers away from the keyboard). It's remarks like these that make me nervous that Sherry and John will stop posting about their personal lives and will stick strictly to only blogging about paint chips, caulking a bathtub and installing light dimmers.

So lets just say my feelings were actually a little hurt for Katie Bower! I thought about e-mailing the youngsters to express my disgust for Beth's comment and to ask why they didn't delete it, but pretty quickly decided that they really don't have time to deal with a "comment about a comment". So then I thought about posting my own little "response" comment, but again decided against it since the YHL blog is not the place to argue with someone about their lack of class. I decided that posting a short and sweet little comment on their site along with a nice big ol' link to my blog (most importantly THIS post) would satisfy my need to retaliate and defend my wonderful blogs. I'm pretty sure no one beside my mom will read this, but ya never know.......

P.S. since when are words like "poop" and "dang" considered crude/foul language that only non-Jesus following people would ever dare to say?


images from younghouselove.com and bowerpowerblog.com and plain ol' google

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Update

I have been a terrible blogger... what's new. John and I are in the home stretch!!! We officially have one more till we're DONE with our second year of dental school. Can I get a hallelujah!! This year has been tough to say the least. We're pretty much living one exam to the next... we cram... we take an exam... we recuperate (if we have time)... then we cram some more... take another exam... and so on and so forth. It has felt like a never ending cycle. We haven't had a ton of time for friends, family or much fun. I know, I know... cue the violins. I sound super whinny, I really don't mean to. I honestly wouldn't be giving an accurate description of our lives right now if I didn't mention how swamped we've been with classes, labs, exams, practicals, clinic etc. BUT despite how down-in-the-dumps I sound, we're really not down-in-the-dumps at all. Just pretty darn serious and in "get 'er done" mode. We have both been needing more alone time than we normally need... time to just veg out and unwind. Lucky for our house! Seriously, we both tend to gravitate towards house projects when we really need to relieve some stress so we've actually been doing some good stuff to the house. So like I said, lucky for our house!

John has been spending a lot of time in the garage working on a new workbench that he's building and I have been... give ya one guess... yep, painting. We repainted the front room and I'm now working on painting the trim and doors throughout the house. It has made such a HUGE difference. I didn't realize our trim was actually more of a brownish-yellow before, gross lol. But now it's become a clean and glossy bright white! It really looks great. It looks great on Maylene's booty too. She sat one some wet paint and is now sporting a white speckled rump. Haha, I should write a post tittled "You know you're a DIYer when..." and lead off with "Your chocolate lab is currently coated in Behr Premium Plus Interior Hi-Gloss Enamel Paint" lol.

Oh yeah, and then there's this little thing called a wedding... we've been working on that too. Actually it's all starting to really come together and I'm getting more and more excited! Here, I'll list all the stuff we have figured out so far (it'll make me feel like I've accomplished a lot): ceremony location, reception venue, food, drinks, my dress, band, flowers, photography, bridesmaids dresses and shoes, honeymoon, my veil, makeup for the girls, invitations, a photo booth, rehearsal dinner, registry. We still need to get rings and figure out the cake and the guys tuxes. And after that it'll pretty much be down to the little details like where I'm going to get my nails done and what kind of flower am I going to put in my hair. I'll have a lot more wedding dedicated posts as we get closer to it.


And just because I personally can't stand posts without pictures... Here's a picture that my cousin took at our family reunion at Fripp Island last summer. He found this little toy octopus on the beach. I think he's an artist/photographer in the making!