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March 15-21

This week was finally the long-awaited national board exams. On Monday, Lezlie and I decided to briefly review and then treat ourselves to a manicure and pedicure to relax before the test. Tuesday and Wednesday I took the board exam with four sessions, 8:30-12 and 1:30-5 each day. The test was hard, but I think I passed (won’t find out until May) and it’s finally over. We celebrated what was left of Spring Break by meeting our friends from UNI, Jeff & Amy Muller and Mike & Maria Anderson in Las Vegas for a mini-vacation! It was all of our first times in Vegas, and we managed to fit a lot of fun into four days. We played blackjack, went to a dinner show, relaxed by the pool, ate at a buffet, got margaritas and took lots of pictures! We had a ton of fun and even managed to meet up with our friends Shane & Shaybree Goshon who were nearby in Arizona and came into Vegas for the night on Friday. While the Mullers and Andersons left Sunday morning to head back to Iowa, Nick and I didn’t leave until 11 pm on Sunday, so we had the day to ourselves to have some last minute fun.

March 8-14

Because national board exams for optometry are next week, I didn’t have any classes this week. Instead, Lezlie Jones and I went to the main library on campus every day (where we saw many other optometry students) and studied for 7-9 hours. We took a break for lunch (usually junk food), and managed to survive with coffee, diet Pepsi and candy to get us through. I tried to relax a little bit each night, but with the test coming up fast, it’s pretty stressful. A great surprise was getting a care package with study supplies and snacks in the mail from my parents. While I was studying, Nick found us a place to live in Miami and it seems great! We will be living in Miami November 2010-May 2011, and I can’t wait. We have a one bedroom apartment for a whopping $1085 per month! Miami certainly will be more expensive to live, but it should be an adventure. Since I was busy, Nick went to Illinois with his boss to help him repair a rental property he owns on Sunday, and I think he had a good time.

March 1-7

This week I really started to feel the pressure of the upcoming board exams in two weeks. But unfortunately I still had to deal with regular schoolwork, including two tests. Needless to say this week was full of studying. I was excited to get a fancy new coffee-maker, a single cup Keurig brewer this week. The coffee will definitely help me with the studying! Another exciting purchase was a new pair of flip-flops on sale for $5. It was finally warm enough to wear them as I went to the library to study. Despite my stress level, the dogs managed to find plenty of time to relax and nap on their regular schedule.

Catching up...

I haven't been very good about keeping up on our blog, but starting January 1st I have been keeping a sort of scrapbooking journal where I write our events of the week and add pictures too. I'm going to go back and upload those pages here so you can keep up with Nick and I that way. You should be able to click on the images to see them larger and I will copy the journaling here as well. Hope you enjoy!

All the supplies used to make the digital scrapbook pages are from ScrapGirls.com. If you want specific information about them, just let me know.

February 22-28

This week was the beginning of my marathon study sessions for the upcoming National Board Exams Part 1 for optometry school. The exam is March 16-17th, and this week I started the goal of studying every day until the exams. Monday afternoon I had to go grocery shopping at Kroger to stock up on basics. We try to eat relatively healthy, but we also don’t have a lot of time, so we do a lot of one-pan dinners and microwave meals for lunches. So my shopping list frequently includes fruits, veggies, snacks, and lots of things from the freezer section. Tuesday was my usual clinic day, but since the schedule was really light, I spent a lot of time studying for the Low Vision exam I had on Wednesday. The studying continued Tuesday night, and the exam went well on Wednesday. Wednesday night I went to a guest speaker for the Private Practice Club, where they served Fazoli’s lasagna for dinner. After studying boards on Thursday and Friday afternoons, I decided to take a break from studying with Nick to go out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse with Candice Olund, Thai Yue, Josh and Lezlie Jones. I was excited to order one of their famous Bloomin’ Onions for an appetizer. After dinner we went to the movie “Cop Out” with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. It was funny, but not one of my favorites. Saturday and Sunday Lezlie and I decided to leave our apartments and go to the main Herman B. Wells Library to study. Armed with gummi bears and diet Pepsi, we managed to make quite a bit of progress studying. Nick spent the weekend relaxing and playing video games with Josh. On Sunday, they went to the movie “The Crazies,” which was set in Iowa. Another exciting happening of the week was hearing about the renovations my parents are doing at their house. They have knocked down a wall to expand the living room, ripped out the carpet and ordered new, and repainted all the walls. Mom’s been sending me pictures to keep me updated on the progress, and I can’t wait to see it in person when we visit this summer.

February 15-21

Monday morning we woke up to a bunch of snow and it continued throughout the day and by Tuesday morning we had 10 inches of snow! What a contrast to the mild 60 degree afternoons in Mexico last week! As a kind of a “welcome back” to Bloomington, I also had two tests this week. The first was Monday night, so after class on Monday morning I crammed for the exam. It went okay, but not as well as I would have liked. Tuesday someone worked my morning clinic shift, so I hung out with Nick at home because Monday and Tuesday were his days off. After clinic Tuesday night we ordered Domino’s pizza with Lezlie in celebration of Fat Tuesday. Because of my two tests, I spent a lot of time studying, and Herky decided to keep me company under the desk by my feet. Thursday night was the second test of the week, and I celebrated by catching up on American Idol on DVR. Friday after class I met Nick, Josh & Lezlie for lunch at Arby’s, and then I had a hair appointment to dye my hair dark. It is a big change, but I love the color! Saturday was the annual optometry school dinner and dance, the EyeBall! It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and spend the night with my optometry friends. Sunday was kind of a lazy day as usual, but Nick decided to get a start on priming the walls in our apartment. We have to have them all primed back to a white color before we move out in April.