Green, Purple, and Orange

Congratulations to my wonderful husband, Dr. Roberts.

Boise Trip and Car Woes

Brandon had an interview for an internal medicine residency program in Boise earlier this month. We were so grateful for the interview because it gave him a chance to visit his parents at home, which probably wouldn't have happened this year otherwise.

In other news our faithful Oldsmobile finally died. It's been sick for some time now and we knew this day would come eventually, but it was still sad. It was almost like losing a family pet; we've grown so attached to it. But, for all of our devotion, the anti-lock brakes haven't worked for over a year now, the hood release cable broke after an ill-placed rock found its way under the latch, rust was spreading from every seam, and 2... 3... I mean, all the hubcaps were missing. We were, however, getting fairly knowledgeable about car repairs, but our repair budget was quickly waning.
 

The one remaining hubcap - Brandon said it was tacky so we eventually threw it away.

Keeping it classy with a jerry-rigged hood release cable out the front grill.

We were very sad to see it go but grateful for the timing. Brandon has had a less busy rotation this month and he only had interviews at the very begining and very end of the month, so we had time to deal with looking for a new car. Brandon did plenty of reasearch and we love our Kia Forte. We hope it lasts a long time because we won't be ready to car shop again any time soon.

Utah Trip October 2011

I went to Utah for a week in October. Brandon stayed in Kansas City because, unfortunately, he doesn't get time off for vacations. I spent most of my time enjoying being an aunt. I realized there were many family members and friends that I saw and didn't get a picture of. It was great to be home for a few days. Enjoy the pictures below.

Comings and Goings for Brandon

This is Brandon. Melody has been great to take the reins on blog posting lately. We've been accruing lots of experiences that warrant a good blog post but neither of us have been willing to sit down and get it done. Now we have an influx. We tried to spread them out over a few weeks so as to not overwhelm anyone.

School is going alright, at the moment. The beginning of 4th year in D.O. medical schools is particularly full of things to get done on the side. I had three board exams to take. Two of those tests were multiple choice exams that I took at the end of June. If we missed updating everyone, I got the scores back a few weeks ago and I passed (in case that was a question for anyone else other than me). The third exam is a different breed of test where I got to travel to Philadelphia for a few days to interview and examine actors who are trained to portray real patients. I have yet to hear back on the score for that one, but I imagine it went alright. After the stress of that test was over, I hit the streets of downtown Philadelphia to see a few sights. I wish I could have spent more time there because the city is a hoot, for those of you who haven't visited. Next time I'll try to bring Melody along with me too.

Here are some highlights from the trip:



Once all that was over then I jumped right back into the next task which was to finish residency applications. Thank you to everyone who helped edit and proofread. Melody and I have been looking into which potential Internal Medicine programs we want to apply and, after several months of serious homework and debate, we've whittled down the options to our favorite 18. The majority are located in the west part of the country, but we are considering several here in the midwest as well. Applications are in now and I have heard back from four programs already to schedule interviews for the end of this year. We get really excited every time a new interview offer arrives. We're hoping for even more interview offers within the next few months.