Medical School Strikes Again...

It's that time of year again.  School time!  Medical school time to be exact.  At IU, we get the summer between our first and second years off and then never. get. another. summer. ever. again.  I spent my summer interning up at Witham Hospital in Lebanon, Indiana.  Great staff there, by the way.  I learned a ton and found out that even if I don't know exactly what specialty I want to go into, I like surgery and cutting things.  Good to know.  After my internship, I had an entire month free to do what I pleased.  That included:  sleeping. reading. eating. cleaning.  spending my hubby's hard-earned money.  Basically, that time off was lovely but I became bored suuuuppppeerrr fast.  I may have even cracked open a textbook.

You know when you go back to school in undergrad when you're super excited to move away from home and see all your friends?  If you're a nerd like me, you may even be excited to learn new things.  This year, I was literally dreading going back to medical school. 

See, my first year in med school was rough.  Crazy rough.  I was dealing with my hubby being away from me for 6 months, part of which time he was in basic and I got to talk to him once every 2-3 weeks for 5 minutes.  There were family issues.  There were health issues.  There was a whole slew of things on top of medical school.  Some people say first year isn't bad.  I say, first year is hell.  I have never studied so much in my entire life.  The amount of material med school throws at you is astounding.  It became a vicious circle of guilt:  I felt guilty when I wasn't studying.  I also felt guilty when I was studying and not spending time with my friends/family/husband/dogs.  I felt guilty all the time!  I also thought the entire class studied more and was smarter than me.  Med school students are way smart, yo.  I went from being one of the smartest kids in my classes to just being another number.  It was hard for me, clearly.  Did I learn a lot?  Abso-freaking-lutely.  Do I ever want to repeat that year?  No.  Did it make me a better person and someday, a better doctor? Yes.

This is a typical medical school study evening at the old apartment.  This is just me.

So, because of all this, I was DREADING starting second year and going back to the guilty, stressed, crazy lady I was during first year.  It started anyway.  I'm a week in, and I'm bound and determined to have better study habits and a better lifestyle than I did last year.  This means being super dedicated, even more so than last year, to studying and keeping up with the classes.  Am I already a little discouraged?  Possibly.  Neuroanatomy is already beating me up.  The first week wasn't too bad, though.  I'm hopeful that I can keep up what I'm doing now and start to study for Step 1 boards little by little.  I have some incredible friends that I've met at medical school who keep me sane and talk me down when I get crazy.  Thanks, guys.

Some of the awesome people who I've been so lucky to meet via med school. 

I look at Pierce frequently and ask, "Am I going to make it?"  He always gives me a resounding yes.  This year, I'm going to work on not asking that question and just believing that I can do this.  I can't wait to be a doctor.  Now, to go work on neuroanatomy...

Until next time,

jessica.eae

Featured Wedding!

Hey all!

My computer has been angry at me lately and doesn't like me uploading pictures or getting on the internet.  My hubby convinced me to buy a new laptop (I love my HP but it's 4 years old now) since I use it for school everyday.  Until that new baby comes in the mail or this one decides to cooperate, my posting may be a little light.

Today I have exciting news:  our wedding was feature on WeddingChannel!  Hooray!  Since I stalked so many wedding blogs, I'm so happy ours was featured.  I know you wanna check it out, so go here:  Jessica & Pierce's Wedding!

Yesterday a few of us girls made an amazing IKEA trip to West Chester, Ohio.  Details on that will be upcoming soon!  Our bedroom is almost done, wohoo!

Enjoy your weekend!  This is my last one before my second year of medical school starts.  Oh hell.

Until next time,
jessica.eae

Cedar Point...America's Roller Coast!

Back in northern Indiana, we don't have a ton of amusement parks to choose from.  There's Indiana Beach, but it's small and very country.  If you're looking for thrills, there's King's Island down by Cincinnati, OH or Cedar Point, up in Sandusky, OH.  For some reason, my family has picked Cedar Point as our vacation spot since before I was born.  I've been to Cedar Point every year I've been alive (so 23) except for two years in there.  There were many years that I went more than once, due to school trips and the occasional October Halloweekends trip.  This past weekend, we went to Cedar Point for this year's trip.  I invited a few friends who hadn't been to Cedar Point before or who hadn't been in a long time.  I realized how many family Cedar Point traditions we have, and how much we have learned about the park via our trips.

Because we have these traditions, it makes us feel closer as a family.  It's really just the simple things.  We always stay in Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point on the shore of Lake Eerie.

There are some great advantages to staying at a Cedar Point resort.  They are a little pricey, I'm going to warn you.  However, they are all nice hotels.  You're staying right there near the park, so when it's busy in the middle of the day and you're hot, you can go back to your room, grab lunch, hit the pool, and go back into the park.  As a resort guest, you get into Cedar Point an hour earlier than everyone else.  Time to ride the big rides like Maverick and Millennium with little to no wait!  Guests can buy park tickets at the resorts cheaper than anywhere else ($29.99 for a one-day ticket).  If you're going to CP for more than a day, the hotels are great.


We've had some great fun at Breakers.  We always eat at the T.G.I.Friday's the first night we get there and have one big meal all together.  My parents pay and spend an obscene amount of money for our dinners and drinks, now that we all can drink alcohol.  The past few years, we set up the dressers for beer pong in the room and get my parents to play, which is highly amusing if you know my mom, who is not coordinated in any way, shape, or form.  One year, a friend brought an air horn with him and would stick it into random rooms, blow it, and run.  Yes, I realize that's immature and such, but it was ridiculously funny at the time.  We've jumped on beds, broken coffeemakers, and annoyed each other by turning on and off TVs in opposite rooms.  Ahh, the memories. ;)

Cedar Point has changed a lot since we first started going.  The prices are ridiculous, so don't be stunned. It's an amusement park after all!  I recommend bringing lunch meats and snacks, as well as bottled water and pop, to save a little cash.  We like to snack a little in the park on traditional "fair foods" such as elephant ears, funnel cakes, corn dogs, and cheese-on-a-sticks, but we share with each other.  One of the best values in the park is the $6 BBQ turkey leg you can find in frontier land.  It's huge and feeds 2!

Turkey Leg Awesomeness from 2010.

Other tips:  Ride the big rides first thing in the morning or late at night.  People tend to go into the park by the Raptor and work their way back to Frontier Land and the Maverick, so go opposite the flow.  I've found that water rides are never a good thing, unless you go into the park specifically for them.  Backpacks/sunglasses are NOT allowed on Millennium or Top Thrill, and there are no bins to put them in, so rent a locker or plan accordingly.  As long as you get in line for a ride before the park closes, they will run you through.  Best times to go: Weekdays in May, early June, later August as well as Halloweekend Fridays and Sundays.  Sometimes, there's just going to be a lot of lines.  We just pick the rides we think are worth the lines and deal.  

Me and my pretty amazing Mom, little bro Andrew, and Dad in 2009 (Top Thrill in background)

The older I get, the more thankful I am for the 3-4 days we would go to Cedar Point every year.  It's so full of memories now that I get to relive every time we go.

Until next time...

jessica.eae

That Camo Part of Me...

When I was lounging around the living room, trying to think of a blog name that wasn't already taken (it was tough!), I wanted something to try and encompass the important things in my life.  I'm super obsessed with pink and clearly in medical school, so that was easy.  I also wanted to touch on what it's like to be married to the Air Force, which is were the "camo" part came from.  Pierce was actually gone this past weekend on his UTA (Google says that means "unit training assembly." Good to know, since we use that acronym all the time), so I decided to reflect on our past experiences with the AF.

Pierce surprised me one day our junior year in college and said "Hey, I think I want to join the military."  Of course, I freaked out a bit.  I had no desire to ever be a military wife.  Frequently, being married to someone in the armed forces means putting your life on hold for theirs.  I'm pretty selfish in the fact that I wanted a career, and I wanted to go to medical school.  After talking it over and reviewing our options, we decided on the Air Force.  Pierce's uncle was in the Air Force, his grandfather was in the Air Force, and he wanted to continue the tradition.  Instead of going the traditional route, he decided to look into the Air National Guard first, which would allow him to live here in Indiana with me as I went through medical school and still serve.  He wanted to work with planes in some fashion, ultimately someday getting a pilot's license.

He contacted a recruiter and the recruiter WAS AWFUL.  Horrible.  He never returned our calls.  He was unhelpful in every way.  I actually got so frustrated that I called the recruiter's office and bitched out his boss.  Don't mess with my husband's and I's lives in the way he did.  This went on for about 8 months.  Finally, we were so frustrated Pierce decided to look in the Air Force Reserves.  I didn't even know what the Reserves were, but they are along the same lines of the Guard: 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks throughout the year; however, the Reserves are controlled at the federal level and the Guard is more state-oriented.  He contacted a new recruiter who was amazing and, within a few weeks (with no help from the other recruiter, who actually withheld some of Pierce's paperwork and made the new recruiter make a 2 hour drive to retrieve it) he was sworn in.  This was about a year after he looked at me and said, "I want to be in the military."

 Pierce being sworn in.  He's in the dark blue and jeans.

After this, we waited.  And waited.  And waited to be told when he was leaving for basic.  The recruiter thought it would be towards the end of July, beginning of August.  I think one of the worst things about being in the armed forces is having to put your lives on hold while not knowing exactly when anything will be happening. 

We had already been engaged for almost a year, and was a planning a wedding for April of 2011.  The recruiter told us that we really should get married before Pierce left, for monetary reasons and peace of mind.  In the middle of July, he called Pierce and said, "You guys really should get married now if you're planning on it."  Pierce called me and I said, "Ok, let's get married next weekend.  Find someone to marry us."  So we did.  That's another story for another time.

A few weeks later, we were told that Pierce was leaving for BMT (basic military training) on August 17.  I started medical school August 16.  We said our goodbyes tearfully at the airport, and I didn't see him for another 8.5 weeks.  Ah, BMT.  I don't think you could pay me enough to go through that again, and I wasn't even the one at BMT!  I'll continue with this another time.

A picture taken at BMT by another AF mom at church one weekend.  This was the picture that got me through those 8.5 weeks.  Pierce is in the middle.

A quick little request:  one of my best friends has a cousin in the Army.  He is in the unit that was flying the helicopter that got shot down over in Afghanistan a few days ago, the helicopter that was transferring members of Navy Seal Team Six.  He wasn't flying that evening, so he is ok, but the pilot of the helicopter was his mentor and friend.  Please include the families of those lost in your prayers this week.  Things like that hit close to home for me and especially my friend's family.  There has been a college fund set up for the pilot's children under the name of Dave Carter Memorial Fund at 1st Banks in Colorado.  If you would like to donate, contact me and I can give you the info.

Until next time,

jessica.eae

Dresser Dry-Brush DIY

So now that all the awkward, nice-to-meet-you information is over, I get to post about something fun.  The husband and I have moved into three different places the past 3 years. Two of those were apartments, and we are currently renting a house.  Both apartments (especially the first one!) were fairly small, so we didn't have a lot of furniture.  Plus, we were finishing up college and planning a wedding so we didn't have the extra money to spend on nice furniture.  Now, we have a little extra money, but I've convinced Pierce that I want to redo the furniture myself, 'cause I'm all cool like that :)

First on the list:  new dressers.  We have been using one dresser and two of those plastic drawer things that you use in college.  I was dying to have my own dresser, and I'm sure Pierce was too.  I wanted something with good lines that I could utilize.  I came across these two beauties for $210 total:

 I loved the amount of drawers in this one, and the little details like the molding around the top.  This would be Pierce's, I decided.

 I had already started to take the tall chest apart, but look at those drawers.  LOVE.  This would be mine, naturally!

In love I was, so we rented a UHaul pickup and made the 5 mile drive to pick these up.  The nice lady who sold them to us had done a coat of black paint and slightly distressed them.  I didn't want black.  I had in my mind "chocolate."  But, since they were already painted, why not do some kind of treatment on them to let some of the black show through?

I googled and googled and read lots of painting tips and techniques.  I finally settled on the directions from one of my favorite blogs, Design Sponge.  We went to Lowe's and bought a quart of Olympic Premium Chocolate Pudding in Semi-Gloss, along with some good quality brushes and a quart of Minwax Oil-Based Polyacrylic in Semi-Gloss.  I also picked up some new knobs to pick up the future gold tones I hope to have in our room!

Since I'm new at this whole blogging thing, I didn't take a bunch of pictures (plus, clearly my camera is not high quality either).  Basically, I sat in our garage in the nasty heat and followed the instructions I linked to above.  It was pretty soothing because it didn't have to be perfect!  I would recommend from my experience to water down the paint to create a glaze of sorts.  I didn't do that, and I didn't quite get all the contrast I wanted.  I used a rag to blend some areas as well.  The less paint on the brush, the better!!!! Important to remember.  After that coat dried, I followed the instructions on the Minwax and did 2 coats of polyacrylic separated by a quick sanding.  Finally, I threw on the new knobs and ta-daa!  Dressers.  Distressed.  Love.

 

Pierce's done dresser, starting to accumulate stuff on top already :)

Close up of the knobs.  They remind me of knots ($1.23 each, Lowe's).  The drawers were not as distressed as I wanted, but oh well.

My beauty

I tried to keep the details still pretty distressed, to draw attention.  The paint looks darker in person.

Grand Total of this project:  2 dressers ($210) + UHaul truck ($35) + supplies at Lowe's ($70, but included plenty of leftover paint and polyacrylic, 2 paintbrushes that will be used multiple times, wood glue, wood filler, a fine sand block, a rough sand block, 13 knobs) = $305.  Considering I was going to buy 2 new dressers at IKEA for about $600, I'm a happy gal.  Plus, these have character!

Have you ever dry-brushed anything? Do you read craiglist everyday?  In another post, I'll show that we also scored two great chairs from the same lady who sold us the dresser that I'm currently redoing.  She had them laying around in her garage and I said "Can I have these too?" 

Until next time...

*jessica.eae 

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

Ok, first confession:  I've never written a blog.  Back in the good ole' days, I used to love, love writing.  Why start a blog all of a sudden?  Frankly (my dear), I need a new distraction.  I'm starting up my second year of medical school with little distractions to keep my life seemingly normal.  Last year, I was all kinds of distracted, with my husband at basic training and planning our wedding (more of all that to come).  So, new distraction = blog writing.

Basics of Me?
I'm a born and bred Hoosier (growing up with them Indiana boy on them Indiana nights!)
I'm a nerd with a biology/chemistry degree who's currently attending medical school.

That would be me.  Those bangs were a bad attempt at me copying Heidi Klum.

I'm married to an amazing man named Pierce who puts up with me on a daily basis.  He's in the Air Force Reserves and his day job is installing bathrooms and kitchens.

 A pic from our "real" wedding back in April.

We have two dogs that are our children.  They are both rescues.

 That would be Lady George AKA Lady, a terrier mix. She's almost 3.

This is Socrates AKA Socs.  He's a 1 year old Great Dane/Black Lab mix.  He's a little bigger now than in this picture.

I love a multitude of things.  Reading, cooking, decorating our home on a budget, projects, planning parties and events, football (Go Colts!), basketball, margaritas... the list goes on.  Hopefully this blog will be a place to learn a little about all of that.  I'm sure I'll throw in posts about medical school, the dogs, how we planned our wedding, and just about anything that crosses my mind.

Until next time... 

*jessica eae