Amber's Update

So, this whole blogging thing is new to me; as Lawson stated before I do think it's a little lame. However, I have been proven wrong before and so, in the spirit of past lessons learned, I will give this a try.

For those of you who haven't heard from us in a while... everything is fine. We are both so crazy that we have little time to interact with anyone, even each other! There are days when we just grunt as we pass in the hallway. But you know what? We may miss each other, or wish we had more time to spend together, but if we can make it through school together, with no problems, we can be OK through anything!

Oh, while I'm on the subject, Thanksgiving is actually the anniversary of our first date. Thanks to a sneaky mutual friend we ended up having our first date over turkey dinner.

Soon you will have the opportunity to hear all about our struggles to find a suitable location for L's residency and my grad school, and I'm sure you'll get to know all about the exciting home hunt that will take place later this winter after we find out where we will be placed for L's rotations. So brace yourselves, I'm sure it will be a riveting tale!

Daddy's Girls II

Cohiba is actually getting better about sharing space with RJ

This is how RJ stayed for about 30 minutes after coming home from having her "lady" surgery

Cohiba & her princess pillow

Cohiba watching one of the presidential debates...she's not a McCain fan.

RJ loves laps

Where We Live Now

Cumberland Gap, TN…it’s hard to describe the area. It is rural Appalachia at it's finest...small, but not too small. The mountains are beautiful, the people are pleasant, but there ain’t too much to do. With that said, I feel blessed to have been given the time to get to know my Nana and learn more about my roots. I’ll post some pictures of the town.


This is a picture taken out of our kitchen window

This is me, Hydia and Linda in front of the Cumberland Gap Post Office.

At one point in time this was Hunley’s Diner which was ran by my Nana and Papaw

This is the overlook at Clinch Mountain

This is one of the barns at school. It’s pretty awesome to be standing on the 2nd floor balcony at school taking a break and seeing the beautiful surroundings….cows and all.

This is my school…Lincoln Memorial Univeristy – DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM)

This is the Kitts Cemetery in Grainger County. It is one of my family’s cemeteries. I'm not related to everyone buried here, but quite a few (20+) are my ancestors. The tools in the picture have been at the cemetery since my father was a young boy.

Peter Hunley is my….I think…Great, Great Grandfather

I’m a direct descendant of Willis Akin also, I need to check with my dad to remember how

Daddy's Girls

This is RJ, can you see why we now have two dogs?


We call this one "Plotting RJ's demise"

Where to start?

I'm not sure if you all know this about me or not, but I hate to write. So be patient with my grammar, spelling, and general flow of words. My initial instict with this blog is to catch people up with us, but we've been in Cumberland Gap for 16 months now and that adds up to a whole lot of catching up. I'll do my best.


SCHOOL
I will be finished with my pre-clinical sciences in May of 2009. It's been a crazy road up to this point. The pace is unbelievable. The saying I've heard over and over is "Medical school is like drinking water from a firehose". That about sums it up. There have only been a few concepts that have stumped me, it's just a matter of the volume of material you're expected to absorb in a very short amount of time.

I start rotations on 29 June 2009. I have picked Cleveland, TN as my core site, but we will find out on 12 December if we've be given our pick or assigned another core site. Amber has been great about this whole process, she is so laid back and open for adventure. I, on the other hand, get a bit uptight when I think about the fact that I have no idea where I will be living in 6 months.

Other than actually making it through, the two things I am most proud of thus far are the student organization I founded and being named male student of the year for our first year. The student organization is called the Health Equity Club. I'll put a link to our website. http://www.lmunet.edu/dcom/hec/index.htm

Me & Jessica (female student of the year)

Amber's schooling is going great. She constantly amazes me with what she can accomplish. She has made the Dean's list every semester. This while taking a full load of course work, working two jobs, and putting up with me and our menagerie. I'll wait and let her catch you up on the specifics of her experiences thus far, I just wanted to tell you what she wouldn't and how proud I am of her accomplishments.