What Being a Med Student's Wife is REALLY Like

When Jordan got accepted to medical school, I spent a lot of time googling "being a med student's wife" and other such queries. When I finally would find someone with a blog, their life looked so ordinary! They were playing with their kids, cooking, cleaning...doing all sorts of normal things. I wanted to know what it was like, and couldn't find anyone writing anything to give me that insight.

Now that we've been in this lifestyle for (almost) a year, I have to concur with all those other bloggers out there...it is normal and ordinary. But here are some things that I'm guessing a lot of non-med-student wives don't have to "deal" with:

Note: While some of these things probably won't seem positive, I'm extremely happy and content with our life...I think God made me this way because He knew what type of life I would be have. My personality and skills are a great match for being Jordan's wife during this season of life. 

Being alone. A lot. 
Jordan studies, all the time. Even when he's home, I have to pretend he's not home b/c a 30-second interruption from me wastes minutes of his time trying to get back into the groove of studying. Jordan loves to study late, so I usually go to bed alone, too. He always comes in for a 5-10 minute convo before bed and if he has time, we'll eat dinner together, too. But otherwise, I'm free to do whatever I want, which is okay for someone who enjoys alone time (that would be me) or the freedom to meet up with friends, run errands, cook, clean, read, workout etc without seeing what plans hubby has for us (also me).

Being the breadwinner. And the homemaker.
You are THE provider. It's a strange role for a woman (at least to me; I know other couples operate fine throughout their whole lives with the wife as the breadwinner). I'm pretty old-fashioned, so I never "expected" to be in this position, but you know what? It's okay. I squint at that teensy tiny light at the end of the (very long) tunnel, where someday I'll be a stay-at-home mom (don't get any ideas people).

In the meantime though, I'm also the homemaker! Studying takes A LOT of time, as I mentioned before, so the only household chore that is TRULY hubby's is the garbage. When it's ready to go, I gather it up and set it in front of the door for him to take out. I grew up with this same mentality though (my parents have the same "traditional" mindset), so it seems normal to me that the house (apartment) is my responsibility. That's not to say that Jordan doesn't help out when he does have time - if I ask (when he's on a break from school), he's been known to vacuum, fold laundry, make the bed, sweep the floors, and even clean the toilet on occasion.

Having the yearly loans be more than the yearly salary. 
I know, a lot of you have home loans that are far more than your yearly salary. I do think that's different than having school loans...I joke a lot that I'm building a house in my husband's head, but it's not exactly a house we can live in. And I'm not sure what the interest rates are on home loans nowadays, but our student loans are at 6.8%, which means the loans from this 1st year alone have already accrued more than $1500 in interest (and we took them out less than a year ago!).

We don't really feel too daunted about this though...not b/c he's "going to be a doctor someday" as people are always saying if we talk about loans. But b/c we've already had to tackle a big chunk of loans. I had $20,000 from undergrad that I paid off in a year on a $30,000 salary. Jordan had $100,000 from undergrad that we started paying in April 2010. We only have $12,000 left to pay - and I'm still working on it, with plans to have it gone in a year. (Not that we're at all looking forward to paying back $200,000+interest of loans from med school...we just know that we'll manage.)

Being a constant cheerleader.
Medical school is stressful. And daunting. And hard. Really hard. As the other half that's not being assaulted by crazy amounts of knowledge every day, about the only thing I can do is encourage him. You can do it! You're almost there! You're 25% done! You're 50% done with 1st year! You're almost 100% done with 1st year! I believe in you! You're smart! I'm so proud of you! Sometimes I feel like a broken record, saying all this stuff again and again to him...but I believe it. I'm so ridiculously proud of my hubby.

Being outgoing.
This goes along with being alone. I may be an introvert, but I DO enjoy time with friends. ...and when you've moved to a new place, you have to go ahead and make friends. Now, for extroverts, this wouldn't even make the list - they love getting to know people and hearing their stories and so on and so forth, and while I do, too, it's exhausting to me. A good exhausting, but still exhausting. So much social effort has to go into making new friends. And, as mentally exhausting as it may be, I'm super thankful I made the effort and have friends here in KC.

Being frugal. 
Being frugal is one of my hobbies, but I don't think it comes as naturally for other folks. Despite everyone saying that "someday he'll be a doctor and you'll have lots of money", we need to be conscious of where we are at right now. We don't want to plan for something that isn't a done deal (who knows how much docs will make in the future?) and we need to be good stewards of what we have right now. If we're taking out more in loans than what we make in a year, it hardly seems right to "waste" a bunch of money. (Everybody's definition of "waste" is different when it comes to money...Jordan will tell you I fall in the extremely-conservative-almost-crazy category.)

So there you have it. A few things that are "different" about being a med student's wife. But, really, it does just seem normal and ordinary, like I'd discovered in my own research before starting out on this journey.

Thoughts? Questions? Anything you want me to elaborate on or are curious about?

The Perks of Being a Med Student

While there aren't many perks to being a med student (come on, people, they study 50billion hours a week, cut open cadavers, have tests every 2-3wks, and...that's about all I know about med school. Sounds terrible to me.) spring Follies is definitely something that is looked forward to.

All dressed up and ready to go!
Can you tell the hubs is ready for a fun evening off?

You may have already guessed from looking at my fb pics, but it's jokingly referred to as med school prom.

I'm not sure what other people's proms were like - maybe they were different in KC, Cali, Vegas...anywhere except middle-of-the-cornfield-SD... - but Follies wasn't anything like any type of prom I'd experienced.

We took the shuttle from KCUMB to Arrowhead Stadium, where Follies was taking place in the North Club. The whole area was full of tables of all sizes - 4 tops, 6 tops, high tables, regular tables - decorated with a variety of centerpieces...candles....um...lots of other cool, sparkly things, but candles were at our table, so that's what I remember, hehe. This was a formal event, which you probably guessed, so all the girls were in cocktail dresses or long gowns. The men were seen in suits, tuxes, even tuxes with tails!

Our catered, buffet-style dinner menu:

One of four buffet lines.

FOLLIES 2013 MENU SELECTIONS

SALADS

Italian Chopped Salad with grilled chicken, bacon, blue cheese, tomato and pasta with a honey dijon vinaigrette

Southern Salad with baby field greens, assorted berries, spiced pecans and blue cheese with white balsamic vinaigrette (gluten-free and vegetarian)

Served with warm artisan rolls and sweet butter.

ENTREES

Peppercorn-Crusted Tri-Tip Sirloin with rosemary demi and horseradish cream (gluten-free)

Grilled Salmon with lemon buerre blanc (gluten-free, Lenten)

Penne Pasta with spicy marinara, asiago cream fresh basil and spinach and shaved parmesan cheese (vegetarian)

SIDES

Au Gratin Potatoes with four cheeses and fresh thyme (vegetarian)

Bistro-Roasted Vegetables with the season’s finest fresh herbs and olive oil (gluten-free, vegetarian)

I didn't try everything, but what I had was amazing: Southern salad, sirloin, roll w/ sweet butter, and bistro-roasted veggies. YUM.

As if a dinner like that wasn't amazing enough...

Brownie Sundae Bar featuring chocolate chunk brownie and blondie bars served with warm vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, toasted peanuts, fresh whipped cream and assorted toppings

After gorging ourselves (okay, that might have been just Jordan - he said he ate 4 brownies...before dinner) we got in the always-long line for the photo booth. WORTH IT.

Then it was time for Follies Videos. This is the big part of the night. Students make lip-syncing videos and then compete to win...something. Bragging rights? Here's a few of the videos from last night:

Harlem Shake - At the beginning of this video, they'd in OCS (osteopathic clinic skills) lab doing the lymphatic or "pedal" pump...yes...that's really a "doctor treatment"...

Dr. Olinger vs. Dr. Shnyra - "Movie Trailer" featuring 2 KCUMB professors

YouTube Mashup - in this one, the guy sitting in the back of the school's fountain is a professor, and the guy wearing the gorilla suit is also a professor...hehe...

This is from last year...but I think it's hilarious - the bald guy in the white coat is one of the professors, the other people are fellows (so, not students): Busta Move

More friends!

The Larsons!

As if everything else we'd already eaten wasn't enough:

LATE-NIGHT SNACK: Extreme-Loaded Mini Dogs

Picnic Dog with beans, BBQ sauce and all the fixin’s

Frito Pie Dog with chili, cheese and Fritos

Mac-N-Cheese Dog with gooey macaroni and cheese topped with Fritos

Taco Dog with all your favorite taco toppings

I didn't eat any of these, but Jordan had 2 and a mound of mac&cheese (which I had one bite of...amazing) and he thought they were awesome. 

After videos, the dance started and we left shortly thereafter. My hubs is not much for dancing, and honestly, I don't call my heels "killer heels" b/c I look killer in them. 

We had a fab time, and I almost wish it was more than once a year! I like excuses to get all prettied up. 

The Final Stretch

It was the last week of Musculoskeletal, which really just means that the hubby and I were like ships passing in the night. He's been studying his brains out. (Hopefully not literally, because I think he'll need those for his tests on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...) He spent the weekend on campus, 9:30am to 10pm yesterday and 7:30 to who knows today (I picked him up for church and dropped him off afterwards). I'm excited for this section to be done...I've barely seen the man!

I kept busy with a few things this week:

Pampered Chef Show

I had my first KC PC show...and we had a lot of fun - and ate some delicious German Chocolate Lava Cake. My host is one of my new friends here in KC, and (so far) she's getting at least $165 free. That's one of the things I love about PC - the company does a great job of making sure that hosts really get a lot of benefits.

Scentsy Party

Chandra had Scentsy party, so I ventured to Blue Springs after work one evening for delicious PC appetizers (since she's a fellow consultant) and fab-smelling Scentsy. I splurged ($5, hehe, but anyone who knows me knows that IS a splurge for me!) on a new scent: Apple Press (described as the smell of crisp fall days: crunchy apples, juicy pears, and just a hint of the last full roses of the summer). I love apple-scented candles and soap. Yum. I also won (I know, I know "I win everything") Snowberry (A luscious blend of loganberry, strawberry, peppermint, and zesty cinnamon)...cinnamon is my other fav scent for candles.

Gospel Community Group

I brought the treat this past week - Lemon-Strawberry Crumble Cake - and enjoyed fellowship and a discussion over last week's sermon. So very glad for this group. This week we start meeting (occasionally) as women/men only...we get to choose what book of the bible we want to study together. 

Babysitting

I watched Heath & Amber's (my community group leaders) 4-month-old while they went to a movie. But first, I enjoyed delicious, homemade chili (thanks, Amber!) with them before they went out. Graeme liked me for about 30mins after they left (he was laughing and laughing and playing so nice!) and then I was not his fav. I think this just means I need to hold him for at biblestudy - he's like the happiest baby on Thursday evenings!

Cooking

Yeah, it's like a weekend thing for me. But I love it. I made a chicken, veggie and rice soup (added a little curry paste to give it the kick hubby likes!) and today cooked up an easy tator tot casserole. 

(Deep) Cleaning

This is not a weekly thing. I always keep things picked up and the kitchen clean, but I don't vacuum/dust/clean bathrooms/wash floors every week (although my amazing mother does!). However. Next weekend, mom (and brother! and sister! who I haven't seen since JUNE!) are coming to visit, so in anticipation of that, I spent a couple hours cleaning the apartment.

...I'm getting slightly bored with my weekly recaps...what things do you wonder about our life here in KC?

Short & Sweet

This week was (slightly) more low-key than last. Here's the highlights.

Pampered Chef Meeting
I went with another PC consultant and med student wife (AND fellow South Dakotan) to a cluster meeting. It's so great seeing the different ways that we can do our biz and to get ideas for my own biz. I'm excited to say that my first KC PC show is tomorrow night!

Weekly Work Wandering
Once a week, I'll be traveling to Peculiar, MO to work onsite at our clients' office. Upside: Jordan tells me that I have my bosses may have suggested me to work there because I have a great personality for it. Downside: It's over an hour from our apartment.

Gospel Community Group
Still feeling so blessed by this group. We were small and intimate this week - our hosts, two others and me. We enjoyed coffeecake, coffee and great conversation over last week's sermon. So looking forward to next week.

Date Night: Em Chamas 

Thanks to a Groupon bought before we moved to KC, we dressed up and gorged ourselves on meat - top sirloin stuffed with provolone cheese, Em Chamas' special picanha, garlic-rubbed picanha, beef medallions wrapped in bacon, chicken spiedini (a-maz-ing), marinated chicken wrapped in bacon...the list goes on...

Neighbors
After living here for over three months we finally spotted our neighbors! After sharing his beer-buying success ($6/12-pack...even I think that's worth buying beer...), Jordan offered one to our neighbor (and I met their super-cute two-year-old). A few minutes later, we heard a knock on our door and our neighbor said that he was from Mississippi and that you can't let one gift go without giving another in return...and then he gave us some ground deer meat!

Home-cooked Meals

Left: Hubby's fav brownies with peanut butter frosting. (When I make these, he eats them for breakfast.)
Right: After hearing mom say she made goulash, I made some, too (with the aforementioned deer meat).

(A few of) hubby's lunches for the week: goulash and brussell sprouts. Packed and ready to go.

Babysitting
I watched Zach & Kody's adorable two-year-old Leah while they went out for their 5th anniversary. We colored, played catch, played dolls, played with my earrings, watched Beauty and the Beast, and played with the "duckie" for over 30mins. Hilarious.

See that shadow? There's a two-year-old in this duck hamper. 

Redeemer Fellowship
As we're working through 1 Corinthians, we were on 8: 1-13 today. Here's some nuggets from my notes:

• You either worship Jesus or you are an idolitor. You are always worshipping something - is it God?
• Do everything you do to proclaim your exclusive allegiance to God.
• Don't do anything that will make anyone think that they can server God and another (god).

Zona Rosa Afternoon
With the nice weather, I met up with Kody and Leah to enjoy KC's Zona Rosa outdoor shopping. I didn't buy anything, but enjoyed some time outside and some girl time.

The Hubby
I haven't seen much of Jordan lately - he's up to his eyeballs in muscles, nerves, and arteries (actually, I think that goes all the way to the top of his head...). He's still feeling super blessed and enjoying what he's doing. But, I know he's really looking forward to this section being done (word is, this is the hardest one of 1st year). Prayers are appreciated as he finishes up this taxing section! (Final on Oct. 18.)

Time Flies When You're...

...BUSY. That pretty much sums up the past two weeks. Here's what we've been up to:

Jordan: MEDICAL SCHOOL                                                                                      
Yes. It deserves all caps. It's pretty much the ONLY thing he's been doing. Right now, he's locked away in our 2nd bedroom (aka his office) studying away for his midterm tomorrow. I know - he's only had 2 weeks of class and he already has a midterm!? Yes. Ridiculous. KCUMB blocks are 4 weeks long - after the 1st 2 weeks you have a midterm, after the 4th week you have the final. EEK. Jordan likened med school to being accustomed to always drinking out of a water fountain and now you're expected to drink out of a waterfall. All the time. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you how much he LOVES it. He's still so excited. Stressed, but excited. Life is good.

Betsy                                                                                                                            
I've been up to far more than one thing (unlike the hubby), so here's my quick list:

Quartermaster Marketing
I can't foresee a time that I'll EVER be bored here. Reminds me of my days at VC...but better, lol. Basically, this year-and-a-half-old ad agency has been run by creatives until now. (I say until now, b/c I started 2 weeks ago and a very experienced account director started 1 week ago - I've already decided that I'm going to be a power team with him...likened to the days of the DD & Betsy team...but not as awesome as the two of us together, of course.) There's not much in place for processes or prioritization or organization or...well...you get the picture. There's a lot to do and I'm ready to do it. It's stressful, but it's good. The worst part is the 40-min commute in the AM b/c of rush hour traffic...in "normal" traffic, it only takes 15-20mins to get to the office.

While at work, the team has also been taken out twice by our boss as a Welcome lunch for Jeff and I. I picked Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop for my welcome lunch and enjoyed splitting Thai Lettuce wraps with chicken served with carrots, bean sprouts and red cabbage ($7.99). It came with a peanuty sauce. They were delicious, but after the mess I made with my very first ever attempt at eating a lettuce wrap (and seeing how skillfully the other 3 girls enjoyed theirs) I didn't opt to tackle it a 2nd time. At my co-workers recommendation, I chose the lunch special Drunken Noodles ($7.69) (Chicken, wide rice noodles wok-tossed with Thai basil, peanuts, bean sprouts, scallions, Chinese broccoli, lemongrass, green and red bell peppers and egg). While delicious, I think I'd try something else my next time there. 

This past week we went to Manny's Mexican Restaurant and I wasn't impressed at all. I ordered the Fish Tacos ($8): Corn tortilla stuffed with breaded cod fillet and topped with lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream & longhorn cheese, served with your choice of beans or rice. Not delicious. And my first one wasn't spicy (which is how I like it) and my second one was full of jalapenos (so I couldn't eat it). And the salsa that came with the chips at the beginning tasted just like...marinara. I'm not kidding. Don't go here. Nothing about it impressed me.

The Other Half
The Other Half is the name of the KCUMB spouse/partner group (and I came up with the name!) and I helped with our table at the KCUMB Activities Fair. We had cookies for the med students and we passed out flyers about our upcoming picnic. I met a couple new med student wives and saw a lot of the med students that I'd already met. Afterwards, I met Jordan in the student lounge for dinner.

Redeemer Fellowship Community Picnic
Because KC is so big, our church had 4 picnics around the KC area. Our community picnic was about 5mins from our apartment and I was debating on going because I was going to have to go alone...I'm sure glad I did! I met 2 other couples around our age and live within a few mins of us, and the girls took my phone number down to (hopefully!) get together in the future. A 2nd-year's wife also introduced herself to me; she lives super close to us and I was excited to find another med student wife so close by.

Babysitting
Last Saturday I watched 2 adorable boys (4yrs and 5months) while their mom photographed a wedding at Union Station and their dad studied for his midterm (the 2nd years had their midterm last week Monday). We played lots of catch, pirates, school bus, board games, iPad, read books...I was exhausted at the end of the day. Four-year-olds NEVER run out of energy!

Oh - before I babysat, I met up with Deanna at Burrito Brothers to meet her boys. Think Qdoba or Chipotle, but better. So delicious. I'd go definitely here again.

Pampered Chef
I had 4 online/Facebook shows this month and made over $300! All of my hosts got $25 free, 20% off anything in the catalog and 1 item (or set) at 50% off. Plus the August host special on knives AND 3 colorful fall products for FREE ($26.50 value). I'm still trying to book stuff for September, so if you want to do an easy online show, let me know!

Cooking
I've been cooking up a storm! BBQ pork shepard's pie, pork roast with potatoes and carrots, thai peanut chicken stirfry, sweet & sour shrimp stirfry, deviled eggs, creamed cucumbers...next up is buffalo chicken lasagna!

SD Friends
Thank goodness for FaceTime! I've been able to catch up with 5 different friends from home - phone conversations are great, but you really feel like you're right there with them when you can see their face!

KC Friends
Audrey works weekends and evenings, which means we don't have much of a chance to spend time together...boo. On one of the evenings she wasn't working, she came over for a bit to catch up and enjoy a good glass of wine. We let our hubbies stay focused on their studies at the school.

Jordan & Betsy Dates!                                                                                      
We may be busy, but we made time for a few dates!

Affare
White linen tableclothes. Cloth napkins. Dimmed lights. We didn't know how fancy it was going to be when we bought this Groupon a couple months ago! Our Groupon included 2 glasses of wine, 2 entrees and 1 dessert. The only thing that wasn't mentioned on the Groupon or on the restaurant's website was that this was a SMALL plate restaurant. Hm. That would have been nice to know. (and, you'll notice it IS now listed on their website.) We decided to order one other thing since it's probably going to be the only time we're at this place...aka...out of budget. But, the food was phenomenal. Not joking. We totally recommend it for a fancy date night. Be prepared to spend $80-$100 if you're going for wine, dinner, dessert. You also get a bread basket of fresh homemade pretzels and butter and a tray of olives (kalamata and green). Our server brought us seconds of both.

Believe it or not, we took some pics.

Lump Crab Salad in a roasted red pepper roulade, frisee lettuce, madras curry paint  $15
Yum. This was the "extra" entree we ordered - so, it was the only thing we had to pay for outside the Groupon.

Seafood Allerlei in liaison with lemon risotto  $15
Salmon (2-3 small bites), halibut (2-3 small bites), 1 shrimp and 1/2 scallop
This was the perfect size for me - risotto is filling, and I tend to not be able to eat my whole
entree when it's ginormous. And, this was fabulous. Out of this world fabulous. I'd pay $15 to eat this again.

Slow-Roasted Wacholderbeeren rubbed Elkloin, bing cherry sauce, Butterspätzle  $16
This wasn't my favorite, mostly because I don't like meat all that much, but Jordan really, really enjoyed this.

German Guglhupf with Raspberries and Woodruff, yogurt mousse and Grand Marnier  8Yum. So delicious. But next time I'd opt to try a different dessert...mostly because this one was so small and our waitress had told us that some of the desserts are "as big as your face". 

Blue Koi
Only one other person from our class at Tri-Valley lives in KC...which is actually pretty unusual that even ONE other person does, considering there were only 64 people in our class. Matt suggested we meet up for dinner and we were more than happy to go wherever he recommended. We met in Midtown at Blue Koi - and it was worth the wait (about 30-45mins for a table). Matt and his girlfriend Isha, and Jordan and I split 2 delicious appetizers: pics courtesy of the Blue Koi website.

Crispy Tofu with Spicy Awesome Sauce $5

Lightly sauteed dumplings with chicken, pork and shrimp. $6.50

 The "Awesome Sauce" with the tofu really IS awesome. I'd definitely order that again. The dumplings weren't my fav, but they topped everybody else's list and I definitely didn't think they were bad - I ate two!

Fire Bird Duck:  Boneless roast duck sautéed with chili pepper, scallion and bamboo strips.  $13

This was Jordan's entree and unfortunately he wasn't very happy with it. The sauce had a ... bad ... flavor. I don't know what it was, but I tried it too and didn't care for the taste.

I had Chicken with Chinese Curry Sauce ($13):  Ginger, onion, mushroom, snow peas pods and fresh basil sautéed with sesame oil till fragrant, then simmered in lightly spicy Chinese curry sauce. No pic for this on the website. It was fantastic! So, so good. I ate it for lunch again the next day. Yuuuum.

We had a really great time and before we knew it, it was after 9! Jordan had to get back to studying, so we called it a night and plan to get together again in the future.

The Other Half Picnic
It was raining last night, so the picnic turned out to be an indoor event at KCUMB. The turnout was GREAT and I met even more med student wives. Dinner was bbq from Dickey's, so Jordan got to cross another bbq place off his list. He studied in the library while I visited. I'm looking forward to more of these events!

And this was AFTER lots of people had left! 

_______________________________________________________________________________

That's the rundown of the past two weeks! I wasn't kidding about being busy! (I also cleaned the apartment from top to bottom...floors and everything [Okay, not everything...I didn't dust....] in anticipation of my parents coming to visit next weekend. If you know my mom, and many of you do, she cleans the ENTIRE HOUSE from top to bottom every week (and yes, she DOES dust), so I wanted to have an equally...erm....sort of...clean apartment for when they visited. I also went grocery shopping, did the laundry and a few other errands. And uncle Pat & aunt Kathy (& Greta!) took me out to dinner at Em Chamas Brazilian Grill - talk about spoiled!

Okay, friends and family. I'm going to try to blog more than once every two weeks...it took me two hours by the time I rounded up pics, looked up websites, etc... And I probably don't have any readers that read on through this entire ridiculously long post! I'll try to do better. It'd probably be easier for everyone!

And I didn't even blog about church - GAH! Church has really been FAB these past few weeks...but I've GOT to work on some other things yet today, so maybe church will get a post all on its own!

The White Coat Ceremony

 

Thursday the 9th was the KCUMB White Coat Ceremony where all the MSIs (med student 1 - 1st year students - 1st years) received their first white coat as they embarked on their journey to become doctors. It's a very high-class, almost sober, ceremony. The students wore suits (without suit coats, since they got their white coats) or black dresses and had the opportunity to be coated by a physician of their choosing (such as a family member, close friend, etc - the person just had to be an MD or a DO). Jordan asked my uncle Pat, who lives on base nearby, to coat him. We had a lovely evening, followed by a fantastic reception put on by KCUMB. The speakers at the ceremony were excellent, and if you have time, I'd encourage you to watch the ceremony. Jordan is in one of the 1st 5 rows (I think) to be coated, so he's right near the beginning of the coating. Many thanks to the fabulous Aunt Kathy who took all these photos for me. You all know how terrible I am with getting pictures for you all to see...without her, you'd be stuck with words again, and for this post, that'd be WAY boring.

Jordan's mom, brother and I, ready to leave for the ceremony!

Lisa and I waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Jordan being "coated" by Uncle Pat - Jordan is the last guy, next to the girls, at the end.

Jordan's first moments officially coated - he's on the screen in this pic, too.

The class of 2016 repeating the Oath of Commitment (below). Jordan is in the center of the screen.
As I embark upon the study of osteopathic medicine at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences’ College of Osteopathic Medicine, I will enter into a relationship of mutual respect with my teachers and my colleagues to enhance the learning environment and gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes of an exemplary physician. 

I accept responsibility only for those matters for which I am competent, maintaining the trust expected of a physician. 

I will be ever cognizant of the human and medical needs of each patient acknowledging that healing also involves the spirit and that a physician must exemplify humane, holistic and compassionate care. 

I will value the knowledge and wisdom of the physicians who have preceded me and endeavor to contribute to this tradition. 

I will recognize my strengths and my weaknesses and strive to develop those qualities that will earn the respect of my patients, my colleagues, my family and myself. 

I will continue this learning throughout all the days of my life. 

Audrey and Josh, two of our new and dearest friends here in KC!

After the ceremony, we went to a reception at the Muehlebach Tower in the Marriott in downtown KC. Talk about wow. They had musicians playing - a banjo and fiddle (mabye? It was "country" music, or maybe bluegrass would be a better term) - the centerpieces were things like tumbleweeds, sprigs of cotton, wheat, corn stalks and other things that would say "rural" or "country". It was beautiful. And the food. So delicious. It was heavy hors d' oeuvres; everything was a small portion so everything could be enjoyed. The traditional veggies and dipping sauce, yellow watermelon made an appearance here, corn fritters, fried green beans (amazing), mini chicken pot pies, braised short rib (omgosh. so. good.), mashed potatoes with parsnip (and I thought I loved mashed potatoes before), potato wedges (with sour cream, cheese and bacon), mini pulled pork sandwiches, root beer floats, brownie truffles, apple pastry, pineapple upside down cake...I'm sure I'm missing something...but it was fabulous. KCUMB did an amazing job. It really made this all so real!

A Meeting of the Minds

On Thursday we ventured to south KC to meet up with some of the med students. The Foundry was the place of choice and Jordan enjoyed 2 different types of beer and I had a half-priced Appletini ($4) and a Hippie Dip ($6) (amaretto, cranberry juice, orange juice...and maybe rum?). Both were good, but being the type of person who'd rather spend $12 on an entire bottle that will last for many drinks instead of 2 drinks and a tip, I still thought we were wasting our money a bit - but that's not the point of the evening.

It was actually a pretty big group that got together - and this was the first time they'd all met each other, so it was fun to be there for that. I wasn't the only non-student there, which was nice. Amazingly enough, we met another student and his wife who are from SD! And, another strange coincidence, the wife sells PC...like me! We were like-minded on a lot of things, which I'm sure comes from being from SD. We're looking forward to getting to know them more.

The group was 15-20 people, so it was hard to talk to everyone, but our table quickly went deep - they (the med students) started discussing Obamacare, so that conversation went on for quite a while. We also learned about a really cool-sounding psych museum in St. Joseph's that we're planning to visit next week. Other topics included religion/what church to attend, where everyone was from/where they live in KC, their journeys on getting accepted to KCUMB and their disbelief at actually starting med school in a few weeks.

All-in-all, it was a great night and we're looking forward to more like it. It's hard to believe that by this time next year some of our best KC friends may be right here in this group!