Life By An Inch

Thanks Lee and Cherry!

2011-04-25T23:21:00.003-04:00

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

A Day In My Life

2011-03-22T22:05:00.020-04:00

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.

ugh, I need to photoshop that shiny forehead out

Today I Wore My Husbands Scrubs to School. F.

2011-03-01T13:32:00.005-05:00

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.

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.

Woo To The Hoo!

2011-02-26T10:32:00.004-05:00

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!

Question for you...

2010-10-14T18:07:00.008-04:00

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

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

2010-10-13T17:42:00.009-04:00

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

Update

2010-04-28T15:12:00.004-04:00

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!

Out With the Old

2010-01-24T15:02:00.007-05:00

So a little bit ago I posted some before and after pictures of our living room and den... well the "after" pics of the den are already out of date and are the new "before" pics. We took out the old giant rug that had been christened by our dogs more times than I'm willing to think about, cleaned up the floors, and put in a new rug. It's amazing what a huge difference it made! So here's the new before and after...

Before

After

Tufting Out a Headboard

2010-01-16T13:54:00.012-05:00

John and I both like to read before bed but without a headboard to lean against we were always ending up in a pillow battle... whoever took longer brushing their teeth would usually hop in bed only to find that their pillow had been confiscated by the other and used for extra "head propping". So my fiance built a beautiful headboard covered in chocolate brown microsuede fabric and gave it to me for Christmas (he now has more upholstering experience than I do). It's nice and tall and super comfortable to lean against. We decided that tufting it would make the wonderful addition to our room even better... so guess how we spent last Tuesday night? Tufting. When some friends called that night to see what we were up to there was a slight misunderstanding when I said we were "tufting our headboard"... apparently tufting and testing sound a lot a like over the phone, heh heh. Anywho... here are a few pictures and tips in case anyone else out there is tired of stacking pillows against a bare wall just to get their bookworm lean on.

First we bought 10 "Half Ball Cover Buttons" and covered them with leftover fabric (the same fabric that the headboard was covered with). That part was fairly simple... cut the fabric into circles, wrap it around the smooth top portion of the button, and snap on the back of the button. We then threaded wire trough a little hook on the back of the buttons; the wire goes through a hole in the headboard and is then wrapped tightly around a screw just underneath the hole. This holds the button down nice and tight and makes a little tuft. We then took some measurements, decided where we wanted the buttons to be, and marked spots all along the back of the headboard. John then drilled holes where the spots were (from the back of the headboard straight through to the front). Just be sure to hold the fabric tight and drill slowly as you poke through the fabric.The only problem we really encountered was getting the wire to go all the way from one side to the other without getting caught up in all the padding. It kept bending before it made it all the way through to the other side. This step probably would have been easier if we had drilled bigger holes (note to self). BUT we rigged a little tunnel system that helped guide the wire. We tried a regular straw but that we too big so we used a straw from a juice box which just barely fit. It was much easier to thread the juice box straw from one hole to the other than it was the wire... so all we had to do was place the straw and then fish the wire through it. (can you see it in these pictures?)

We repeated the juice-box-straw-threading-wire-technique 10 times and voila!!We have a comfy cozy spot to read before we hit the hay.

House Updates

2010-01-11T19:32:00.027-05:00

Since we moved in together back in June we've done lots of home improvement projects... some that were done start to finish in a day or so and others that have been worked on bit by bit for months. But as dedicated as I am to fixing up our house I'm not so great at taking pictures of everything. So tonight I went around and snapped pictures of 2 big room makeovers; our living room and our den. Lets start with the living room (or what we called at the time the Blue Room) before pics....

(yep, that's a microwave and a toaster oven... on TV trays... yikes)

And... drum roll please.... after!

The pictures on the wall were inspired by a YHL post on making art out of just about anything. I took some picture frames that were collecting dust in our catch-all room... I mean our office... and stuck in some pictures from a vintage alcohol advertising 2009 calendar.

I was so excited to fill up a blank wall without spending one penny! The 2 big additions to the room were gifts from our parents. The awesome love seat was given to us from John's dad. Thanks Keith! And this gorgeous wine cabinet was a gift from Santa (my mom and dad).

Thank you thank you! Moving on to the den... I didn't have any great before pictures but you can kinda get an idea in this picture that we took back in December. Our dogs had a big surprise for us when we came home from school one afternoon. They had gotten into a box of old family ornaments and crunched them up into tiny bits allllll over our house (the den was the may scene of the crime though). As if chomping on glass wasn't bad enough, they also (I'm assuming) spent an entire day walking back and forth across the glass bits. I was ready to roll up the carpet and hall it to the dump but John talked me into attempting to clean up the mess. To our amazement there was only one teeny tiny drop of blood on the kitchen floor. Our dogs are like cockroaches, indestructible and incredibly resilient. So here are the befores...

And here are the (very recent!) afters!...

I'm thrilled with how everything turned out... er, I mean how everything is coming along. These rooms will probably never officially be "done". We'll always keep making improvements and changing things around. It's just in our nature I guess... always looking for the next project. Now that we've gotten a pretty good handle on the front portion of the house it's time to make our way down the hall! Our bedroom, the office and the guest bedroom haven't been touched yet. Stay tuned!

A fence, a hallway, a wedding, and some dentures.

2009-11-21T15:22:00.011-05:00

Just wanted to write a quick update on all the goings ons in our school/wedding/DIY/dog-filled lives. A great big, giant, HUGE thing happened today... John and his dad finished our fence!!! Blood, sweat, and tears (literally) have gone into this fence project and I can't even describe how happy I am to have it done! You see, we have a very spirited (and athletic) golden retriever that has an incredible knack for busting out of our yard and venturing into the street, neighbors yard, etc... We know he wouldn't hurt a flee but we also understand that our neighbors shouldn't have to put up with a random dog peeing on their crate mertyl or tagging along on their evening walk. It has led to months of frustration and battles since we can't exactly keep Agent locked up in our house all day but we also can't spend tons of time with him outside (our school schedule alone keeps us away from home the majority of the day). Having a 6-foot tall privacy fence should finally do the trick as long as he doesn't learn to dig his way out.... if that starts happening you can plan on seeing a "Dog For Sale" post (John- I'm only kidding). So next step is to install a doggie-door and let Maylene and Agent self-regulate their outside play time. I'm A-OK with this more hands off approach! We've also spent the last week fixing up our hallway by ripping up the carpet, re-painting it with the Coconut Milk color that is in the bathroom, and hanging new pictures. The pictures are of a hawk that John photographed while we were on a white water rafting trip in West Virginia last May. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out although, according to my fiance, we now have a "lack of color" issue. The hallway was street-line-yellow before soooo.... yeah. If it were up to me I'd probably have browns, tans and creams on every wall so I'm glad that John forces me out of my comfort zone and pushes my creativity buttons. Maybe we'll pick a bold runner or something (although, again, I would probably rather pick a natural jute material). As far as wedding updates go... we have picked the ceremony and reception locations and are in the process of picking out a photographer and finalizing the wedding party. The ceremony is going to be at Trinity United Methodist Church. This is the church that John's family goes to and is the same one that his sister Keri was married in. Our reception will then be at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens (only about a 10 min. drive from the church). I was sick with swine flu a few weeks ago so while I was stuck on the couch I started our wedding website... www.mywedding.com/boylandreynolds it's not finished by any means, but it's a start. This week is the beginning of our finals. We have a fixed prosthodontics exam and a cariology exam Monday and then an occlusion lab exam on Tuesday (making a bite guard) and a removable prosthodontics lab exam on Wednesday (finishing up our dentures). I had NO idea what all went into making dentures... let me tell you, it is not an easy process!! So please people, I beg and plead... for your sake and mine... brush and floss your teeth so that I don't ever have to make a full set of dentures for you! It involves hours and hours of work for me and the lab technicians and about a dozen appointments for you! I promise you it's much easier to just brush your teeth twice a day... or even once a day is probably enough to keep those suckers in there.

All Hallow's Eve

2009-11-01T15:49:00.006-05:00

Just a couple of pictres from our Halloween :-)

Pumpkin carvings of the Maylene and Agent

Jon and Kate Plus 8... the reunion.

Finally, Finally!

2009-10-30T13:17:00.011-04:00

I'm finally posting pictures of our bathroom (the entire reason this whole blog thing started... googled "small, old, black and white bathrooms... ended up on younghouselove.com ... decided to start my own blog, yadda yadda). So here we are... before, during, and after.

We're very happy with how it turned out! Now maybe someday I'll get around to posting all the other projects we've done... installed a new storm door, finished the kitchen, re-did the living room, installed half a fence etc. So a bit of news... looks like my blog will no longer be just a "home improvement" blog, it's also becoming a wedding blog! Yep, John and I got engaged at the beginning of October. Can't quite describe how excited I am (and I think he is too) :-)

Dental School... You Are Not My Friend Today

2009-10-01T12:50:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting in the library with 9 minutes until pharmacology starts... had to get a quick vent in so that I can move on with the day ::takes deep breath::..... ARRRRRRRRRRRGH! whew, better now. 4 hours until fall break. It can't come soon enough. I promise a much happier (and interesting) post should be on here soon. Perhaps about our new kitchen island... or our bathroom remodel ::wink wink::

My Apologies

2009-09-25T10:29:00.015-04:00

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry for neglecting you over these past few months. Like always life has been jam packed with school work, house projects, and trips. To summarize: 3 weddings, 1 funeral, 3 beach trips, 1 Mission of Mercy Dental Service Project, 1 Maylene back in Richmond, 1 bathroom makeover, about 7 exams... whew! Sadly I am terrible about remembering to bring my camera on all these activities. But luckily I'm a good facebook stalker and can steal other peoples pics!....

First there was my brother's catch of the day at Fripp Island (Beach trip #1)

Then there was lots of Kylie lovin at the Outer Banks (Beach Trip #2)

Next, it was off to Wise, VA for the Mission of Mercy 2 and a half day dental service project. It was an amazing experience! I wish I could post more pictures because just the one does not do it justice... watch this video to find out what the MOM project is all about (you have to click the "View Video" link on the left of the page) and then click here to see more pictures for the Wise project that John and I were at this past summer. (I'm the one in the maroon shirt in the waaaay back to the left of that first picture... that's the only picture I made it in lol).
Right after the MOM project we started our second year of dental school and then spent that following weekend having a good ol' time with our friends at Cate and Andrew's beautiful wedding (oh! and my 23rd birthday happened somewhere in there!)

We then attended wedding #2 and got to spend the weekend with my family.

Then we traveled up to Annapolis for Tina and Nick's wedding.

After this came Labor Day and beach trip #3 at the Reynold's beach house in Va Beach, unfortunately this was very quickly, and unexpectedly, followed by the funeral of what sounded like an amazing young man (John's cousin) that sadly I never got a chance to meet. We spent this past weekend in Winchester with the group in that previous picture visiting different wineries in the area... obviously we had a wonderful time. I'll post pictures of our bathroom makeover another time, for now I'd better get going on the laundry and packing for yet another weekend trip. We're headed home for the VT vs. Miami game (and more importantly the chance to introduce the Reynolds and the Boylands)! Tailgating, turkey legs, Enter Sandman, Maroon Effect, Blacksburg in the fall, Mom, Dad, Joe, John's family, hopefully Colorado (college friend),.... cannot wait for tomorrow!!!

Recent Projects

2009-06-27T16:19:00.021-04:00

June has been a busy month for us so far! Between finishing pathology (aka learning more about cancer and the negative effects of smoking than I ever wanted to), a family reunion (aka 16 hours in the car, it was well worth it though), and moving in together (aka trying to smush all our stuff together) I've gotten way behind on posting pictures. So here are a few before and afters (and some in betweens).

We built a little fence to go around one of our veggie gardens... first step was to pull nails out of all this old wood that we used. Then we had to cut the wood into small boards.

Can you believe John just sat back and made me do all the work!?! ;-) Kidding... he was busy teaching me how to use the tools, doing most of the cutting, and taking these oh-so-lovely pictures of me.

There he is.

And the finished product!

Next project was ripping up the carpet in the front/living room/blue room... it has many names.

Never did get a great "after" picture of the carpet ripping project. But we'll be doing more stuff in that room so just stay tuned.

Whew! This post put up a fight! I'm still getting the hang of blogger.com. Some post go smoother than others. I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and get back to unpacking/cleaning/organizing etc.

Should Be Studying

2009-06-03T20:04:00.004-04:00

Thought I'd take a quick break from carcinoma memorization (always a thrilling topic) to write a "preview post". Whenever I get a chance aka tomorrow when this exam is over I'll post pictures from our project filled weekend. Friday after class we built little fence for our vegetable garden to keep doggies out and Sunday we ripped up the carpet in the "front room" of John's house. Two things we had been itching to do! I know you're shakin in your boots with excitement.

p.s. Today I ate a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich. I'm currently taking a pathology course which is the study of diseases so naturally I'm going through a phase where I think I have every disease that I study. Today I managed to convince myself that because of my lack of meat intake I'm not getting enough iron which means that my poor little hemoglobins can't bind enough oxygen and therefore my brain isn't getting enough oxygen and that's why I'm doing crummy on all my exams. And hence the chicken sandwich. Looks like the year of vegetarianism is over.

Finally Had Time To Post Something

2009-05-27T19:43:00.012-04:00

John and I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We left after class on Friday and went straight to West Point where his family has a house on the Mattaponi River. The weekend was filled with boating, meeting new people, laughing at Kyle's (John's baby nephew) nonstop cuteness, a few river house projects, and time to just veg out. Sadly Tuesday was spent studying for a pathology exam which we then took this morning. Lets just say I'm less than thrilled with my results but c'est la vie. I tried my best. My less than stellar exam was then followed up with an afternoon in the clinic practicing administering local anesthesia on each other. Gave two shots, got two shots in return. My nose and lip felt all tingly and fat for about an hour... not something I'm in a hurry to experience again. Needless to say I was in much need of some retail therapy by the end of the day so I took myself shopping. Between gift cards and some awesome discounts I managed to only spend about $23 and here is what I got........... 12 cloth napkins, 4 napkin rings, 1 little spice jar, 1 larger spice jar, a grill basket, 4 glass storage bowls, a tea pot (finally!), 2 decorative cups/candle holders (super excited about these for a very specific reason), a garden tool, and 2 flower pots. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself ;-) So why the excitement over the cups? Well if you're even half as obsessed with This Young House as I am you should be very familiar with these specific 2 cups/glasses/candle holders (still not sure what they are) that seem to pop up all over their house! I swear you can spot these two little cups in almost every other picture taken in their house (whether featured in a magazine or posted on their blog). You could seriously play "Where's Waldo" with those cups on their website. Apparently they give a room/shelf/table etc. that just-a-little-too-lovely-for-real-life-but-perfect-for-a-magazine vibe. You know the vibe I'm talking about. I told myself if I ever found decorative pieces even close to those cups I would buy them right then and there, no questions asked. Lo and behold as I'm browsing the shelves at TJ Maxx I look down and see two little cups staring up at me. So I made my purchase..... no questions asked. Just to take it a step further (probably too far) I'm going to give you a taste of what I'm talking about (mom you already know).

The next 3 pictures are various spots in their house where the cups showed up:
And here are my cups:

Does it look like it's out of a magazine?? Does it? Does it? Okay... so not really. But I'm telling you these little cups will fulfill their picture-perfect destiny someday.

**pictures taken from the This Young House website** (not sure if that's necessary but better safe then sorry right?)

Garden Pictures!

2009-05-19T16:32:00.014-04:00

I was finally able to post pictures of our little vegetable and herb gardens :-)

Garden #1 Before...

Getting ready to do some tilling...

Garden #1 After (it's bright out here!)...Garden #2 Before...Garden #2 After...Herbs...A few extra things...

Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow.........

2009-05-15T13:09:00.008-04:00

So I actually get to check something off my "To Do" list. I love it when that happens!! John and I planted our veggies the other day. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green pepper, chili peppers, edamame, cucumber, and a bunch of herbs. The herbs are looking a little traumatized but other than that everything seems to be doing okay. The trick is now teaching Agent (John's golden retriever) not to go sniffing around the delicate little plants too much. Thank goodness Maylene (my pup) isn't living with us yet! The garden stands a chance with Agent but Maylene thinks she's Queen Bee and rules don't apply to her. I'm about to head back to John's for more yard work aka fun in the sun. I'm just so glad to finally be outside and out of the classroom/lab/library that I could careless what kind of "work" we're doing. Oh yeah! We started a big experimental project yesterday that we're super excited about... concrete countertops! After much debate about a kitchen island (should we have one? should we buy one? build one? how?) we've decided to try to build our own. The base will be made out of wood and the top will be made (if all goes well) out of concrete. So yesterday we began making a small section that we'll definitely use if it turns out right but if not then it's not the end of the world.... just a couple bucks (literally) down the drain. We may have to tweak our method a few times to get it right (or scratch the idea all together). BUT if we can pull it off it should look pretty aaaaamazing! We're taking plenty of pictures along the way but I'll wait till the whole thing is said and done to reveal those. That's it for now!

P.S. My computer is being sooooo slooooow at the moment so I'll post garden pics later.

Getting to know you....

2009-05-12T13:18:00.017-04:00

Time for the introductory post as promised... and I know mom is the only one reading this but I don't feel quite right just jumping into things without some form of salutations (it's the ocd side of me coming out). So as I mentioned in the "About Me" that you'll see to the right of this post (I feel like a tour guide) I am 22 years old, live in Richmond, VA, and am currently working my booty off trying to become a dentist so in 2012 I can sign my posts "Dr." Jenni! Overall I'm really enjoying dental school although it definitely has it's own special way of getting under my skin at times. I'm sure there will be plenty on that later. So a quick re-cap of the past 5 years:

Graduated high school, Pamela moved to Michigan, started college (Virginia Tech), decided to go to dental school, met Will, decided medical school sounded better than dental school, worked at Bath & Body Works for an awful 6 months, declared my major (Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise), took a zillion classes, spent a summer studying abroad in Paris, decided dietetics sounded better than med school, became a Wellness Peer Educator, almost called the whole health profession thing off to pursue a career in interior design, switched back to dental... then med once more, April 16th happened, spent an amazing week in MI with Pamela, began studying for the MCAT, halfway through began studying for the DAT instead (yep... went back to the dental school idea), applied to dental school, Will and I went our separate ways, interviewed at VCU and Penn, fell in love with Penn, chose VCU, graduated from Tech, got a puppy, started dental school, puppy had to go live with Mom and Dad, Joe joined a band, started an Outdoors Club with Disa, fell in love with John, survived the first year of school (barely) and here we are!

And yes, that was very "Marley and Me" inspired. I swear I do have a life beyond school... I think. Now what is the opposite of a recap? Hmmm.... Well here's a glimpse into the future (obviously no pictures this time): Taking NBDE (National Board Dental Exam) Part 1, moving in with John, bringing the puppy back to Richmond, family reunion with Dad's side in South Carolina, week at Nags Head with Mom's side, a couple of weddings, a visit from Pamela (fingers crossed) and hopefully LOTS of time spent at the river, doing fun projects on the house, and playing outside. Activity for the day: planting a vegetable garden! Maybe I'll even take pictures and post them (my poor little blog is a This Young House wannabe).

So I'm Not So Computer Savvy

2009-05-09T12:29:00.002-04:00

Well I was going to make my first entry a little introduction about myself but now all I can think about is how crummy I am with computers! So I'll rant about that for just a sec... My computer expertise doesn't go much further than Facebook and a word document here and there so this blog may take me a while to master. Surely I'll get there eventually (fingers crossed...)! Introductory post next time...