Halloween 2008

My Halloween morning started early with a test in my Nurse Anesthesia research class. Next was Dr. Barcellona's Advanced Anatomy & Physiology class. Lectures are usually pretty dry, but today he showed us a great video of "the kind of patients we would encounter"--very funny, people are idiots! Dr. B. also had his two front teeth blacked out--I'm not sure that I have ever seen him smile that much. Those of us that were in the holiday spirit took this picture during our class break.

Matt and I had a pretty low key evening with the pups. We all dressed up (kind of) and passed out candy to the kids. We have a good neighborhood, so we saw lots of kids in cute costumes. We heard a few say, "Hey, they have the good stuff!" I guess you can't go wrong with chocolate.

At the end of the evening Matt took me out to our favorite little sushi place. The restaurant is family owned and many of their kids and grandkids stopped by after trick-or-treating...very cute. The food was yummy as usual and we both ate way too much!

Halfway there!

Well, today I finished my third round of tests. We had an Advanced Anatomy & Physiology test on Friday and today was Advanced Pharmacology. They were both tough and I'll find out how I did tomorrow.

My desk does look a bit like a pharmacy...here is how I am staying awake and half-way sane!

Matt gave me these beautiful double tulips to sit on my desk. He is the best and the most supportive husband. I couldn't be doing this without him!

Texas State Fair

On October 12th, after most a day of studying, I met mom at the State Fair in Dallas. I always enjoy going to see the new cars, animals and shows. I usually enjoy all of the fried food, but I have to admit that I didn't eat anything--not even a Fletcher's Corn Dog! All this school stress has my stomach in knots. I did treat myself to one of Tom McCain's hand carved horned frogs to add to my TCU collection. We enjoyed ourselves anyway and ended the night with a ride high in the sky on the Texas Star Ferris Wheel.

Grandma's 75th Birthday Celebration

Friends and family gathered at Dad and Deborah's house to celebrate Grandma's 75th birthday on October 11, 2008 (a few days early). These reunions are few and far between so we enjoyed catching up with everyone.

All the grandkids pulled together to make Grandma a big scrapbook "Grandma's Brag Book" with many pictures and memories to never be forgotten. She loved it!

My 28th Birthday!

Wow! I'm feeling old...I know, 28 isn't REALLY old, but these past couple of months in school have been tough and I'm getting gray hair!
Today I had my second Anatomy test--on my birthday. Can you believe that?
Anyway, I came home to this great display of love and affection---PRESENTS from near and far!



Matt thought that he should get my birthday started by giving me my first present, but I was still buried in my notes.



The dogs (especially Chloe) are great helpers when it comes to riping paper.





So, great minds do think alike. Mom and Matt both got me beautiful China cup and saucer sets, which proves that they really do know me. I love hot tea and right now I am becoming dependent on it to stay awake for hours of studying!




Okay, here is another tasty beverage I like!
Some of my good friends met us at Abuelo's for Happy Hour and dinner. It was so nice to relax.

The perfect ending to my 28th birthday celebration. Matt's acoustic rendition of Happy Birthday.

Blessing of the Animals

This evening at TCU's Robert Carr Chapel they held the 4th annual Blessing of the Animals service. This year Matt, Rossi, Chloe and I attended. I have not ever heard of any service of this kind, but after researching it I found that there are services nationwide on or around the 4th of October.
This location is really special to us because it is where our marriage was blessed over a year ago and now our beloved pups were blessed there too!
There were many dogs in attendance, a few cats (on leashes!) and one turtle that the little girl took out of the basket so, "he could hear the service". It was conducted like most church services: music, prayer, scripture, short message and individual blessings for each of the animals. Luckily, we had beautiful weather too.

And a visit from SuperFrog!