Long time no post

To all who keep up with this, my sincerest apologies go to you.  I've been super busy with this crazy summer session.  It's only a month and a half long, but in this month and a half we have a lab for Theory and Methods and 3 courses (Evidence Based Medicine, Systemic Pharmacology, and Pathology).  Everything is moving so fast, and I feel like I'm running a marathon.  It will be over in 2 weeks however, and then I will have time to relax.  I have no idea what real time to myself feels like any more because even when I have a break, I'm thinking about upcoming tests, practicals, or papers, and it's difficult to just relax.

We have gotten some things done around the apartment though, so I wanted to share some pictures of the progress.  A while ago we bought some patio furniture as part of a gracious house-warming present from my parents.  Here is a picture of that.  It's really simple, but perfect for our small patio.

Two chairs and a small table.  That's all we need right now for us, but we can bring out more fold up chairs for extra seating when we have people over!

We haven't had much time or money to really decorate it, but there are some small things we've done here and there.

Lilies we got a Lowe's.  The flowers have since fallen off with all the rain and hot weather, but I have faith that they will come back and be pretty again

We found this jewel at Michael's for 50% off! :)  I want to get some more colorful wall decor to make our patio fun and colorful - perfect for entertaining!

  

We also got a pantry for the kitchen/dining room.  We were putting our food one of those bathroom decor pieces that goes over the toilet for extra storage.  It was tacky because it couldn't hold much and obviously, showed all of the unorganized food for everyone to see.  We're glad to have everything contained :)

Pantry!  It's a lot skinnier than I had expected.  The vase on the top is from decoration shopping with Tyler's mom, and the picture was given to us from some of our close college friends as a wedding gift.  It's a picture of the gang on the beach during spring break!

Now onto some more fun things other than home improvement.  Last Wednesday, some of our friends who live in houses on Mud Island hosted an "Around-the-World" party.  Each house represented a different country/ continent and served drinks and food accordingly.  Tyler and I missed the first two because he doesn't get out of class until 9pm, but we made it to the final 3: Italy, Mexico, and the Caribbean!  (The first two were Asia and Canada).  It was also Bryan's birthday, so later in the night when most people had left, we got some ice cream cake out to celebrate his big day :)

Bienvenidos a Mexico.  Tequila sunrises and corona were served along with chips and a guacamole dip!

Caribbean decorations at Erinn's house

Bryan's ice cream cake!

All the girls enjoying hunch punch in the "Caribbean".  There were little umbrellas in the drinks, so you might see some girls decorating their hair with them :)

The gang!

On Friday, we had a baby shower for Kristal.  She is in our class and expecting a little baby boy in September!  We played "Pregnant Twister" where you stuff balloons in your shirt and play twister.  I won!  :)  It was a pretty intense game.  The shower was a lot of fun and everyone chipped in on some nice gifts for the mother-to-be (and father-to-be of course... however, he didn't have much care for the baby things that weren't sports related haha). 

I made crinkle cookies from the Hershey's recipe book I got for Christmas.  They were super easy and DELICIOUS!  Everyone at the shower loved them!  Yeah for being able to at least bake - still working on the cooking!

Mom-to-be with the funniest present of the night.  One of our fellow classmates took all the handouts from our most annoying class this summer (Evidence Based Medicine) and used them to wrap her present for Kristal.  We're not done with the class... haha

Getting ready for pregnant twister

I HAD to put this picture up.  So when Tyler gets full, he can jut out his stomach and make himself look pregnant.  Who do you think is farther along?!  (unfortunately, the black in the fireplace behind Kristal makes it hard to tell how big she is, but she's coming along, and we're all excited!!)

So around the hard work and studying, I'm still trying to have fun.  But at least Theory lab is learning and fun!  We've been learning how to use the slit lamp.  It's basically a telescope that lets you see a very magnified view of the eye, and depending on how you angle the light, you can create a cross sectional view of the front part of the eye! It's amazing the detail you can see.  We also use very powerful lenses to be able to see the retina and optic nerve.  There's a 78 diopter lens and a 90 diopter lens that we use to look at the back of the eye and scan the retina for any bleeding or irregularities.  We just had the 78D practical and I will have the 90D practical next week.  I'm getting to school a little bit earlier than classes start to practice with a friend.  An unfortunate reality even though the views are awesome is that you have to be dilated in order to easily find and view the optic nerve, macula, etc.  So, needless to say, I feel like I've been dilated more often than not this summer, which doesn't make bright lights fun.  Let me just say that prescription sunglasses were the best investment I've ever made!

But now I need to go study for pharmacology.  I really like the class.  The information is interesting and the teacher is a breath of fresh air to the teachers we have earlier in the day that literally make my blood boil!  However, the list of drugs we need to know is unreal!  So I will be studying, studying, studying 24/7 until the big test on Monday!  Only 14 more days!!!!!  :-D