Soooooooooo.....I'M DONE WITH MY FINALS!!! Woo hoo, I'm totally and completely done with my first year of medical school, and I'm now foot loose and fancy free for the summer! Let me tell you people, it's such a beautiful thing to be able to live without the shadow of impending studying looming just over my shoulder. I breathe great sighs of relief and relaxation all the time when I happen to get a momentary panic about needing to crack open the books. A nice smile spreads over my face, as a I realize that I have no studying to do whatsoever......Ah, lovely.

At the moment, I am watching the Hills finale...well, actually I just finished the Hills finale and am watching The Yearbook, which is a somewhat silly reality show on MTV about a high school yearbook committee. I know, sounds like a thrilling concept. But after this past year, I will literally watch anything that Luke turns on. Poor Luke is recovering from a very major kidney infection right now, he is in bed sleeping hard. He is just miserable, so if you think of him say a little prayer for him. Pray that he will be able to keep some food down and that his kidneys will heal and his pain will subside. Flipper has been worried sick about him, and is actually sleeping with him. My poor guys.

Yes, yes, I do have the entire summer free. Until mid-August, I am free as a bird. I have a small 10-15 hour a week job dissecting bodies for next year's incoming first year medical students. I know almost everyone out there will find this a morbid way to spend my summer, but I get to choose whenever I want to go it which really appealed to me. And it's extra money, which we can definitely use for our anniversary cruise we are taking this summer. We will have been married 5 YEARS this June, I can't believe it! Our cruise actually is the first week of August, but Luke said that he liked having something to look forward to at the end of the summer. We are driving to Miami Beach where our ship leaves from, and along the way we will stop off in New Orleans for a couple of nights. We have never been, so we are excited. I have been looking forward to this trip since about February, I can't wait!! We will also be moving into our new house (unless something goes horribly wrong......pray, pray, pray it doesn't) by May 31, so I shall be unpacking and arranging and settling. I am super thrilled about this, since the house has been being built for my entire school year. I can't wait to get new furniture in that place and put all of our things where we want them to go. Once the house is done, I will definitely have all kinds of wonderful pictures to share.

I must go check on my patient now. He is my number one patient, and he always will be! And Flipper, he needs my assistance here and there as well. Mainly when he gets into a hill of fire ants and his paws and face swell to gargantuan proportions. Good night!

UPDATE!!!! UPDATE!!!! UPDATE!!!!

Ahh, finally....I'm back in xanga-land. I apologize for the delay in posting, I got a little busy this year, and since up to now my life has been much less hectic, I wasn't quite sure how to properly manage my time and xanga suffered. But now, I have an entire summer ahead of me with not a whole lot of commitment prior to August 9, so here I am - back in action.

Ok, so, let's see..........quite a lot has happened since Christmas. First of all, I was accepted into my medical school of choice, OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine (which you already know, anyway, but I'll still post it with pride)! Orientation starts August 9, so I basically consider August 8 my last day of freedom and true solitary house-wifedom. Well, freedom in the sense that all of my time will be devoted to studying for many years to come. When school starts, Luke will properly begin his writing career while working from home, and I will no longer be able to revel in the ample time I have had to do laundry, sweep, change the sheets, load the dishwasher, dust, bathe the doggy, update xanga, SHOP (hehe),etc. But I'm fine with that, I was cut out to become a doctor, it's exactly what God has always had planned for my life. Our family is and always will be a wonderful and unique one, and I'm proud of it.

Secondly, Luke and I have taken several vacations, just the two of us, which my husband has kept you informed of on his own site. In February, we traveled to Las Vegas by truck to pick up two motorcycle for my father-in-law, Kevin. It was quite an adventure, I tell ya, between the truck breaking down in Gallup, NM and Harrison the sad, homeless man trying to hitch a ride. But we came out of it all unscathed. It was very fun. Here are a few pics:

The broken truck.


Waiting for the broken truck to be fixed while enjoying Donette Gems.


Luke in his pj's at the MGM Grand. We had some kind of Hollywood-themed room, I loved it.


I had just completely sliced open my toe on a street grate because I'm so graceful, and after Luke consoled me, he decided it was a good photo op. So, I tried to give my best smile, even though I was still crying in pain.


On the way home. You can see the cycles in the back behind me.


In N' Out Burger!!!! Oh, how we love this place.


El Rancho Hotel, accomodation to the stars of old Hollywood. We stayed here on our way back, in New Mexico. Many stars used to always stay here, like John Wayne (it's rumored that he rode his horse up to the restaurant bar back in the day), Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Ronald Reagan and Kirk Douglas, among others. It was awesome.




Then, in March, we again were traveling, this time to Chicago. This was our fourth annual trip, and it was (as usual) a blast!







Our old hotel, which is now being renovated into an upper-class Holiday Inn Express. So sad.




The river is always green for St. Patty's Day. Chicago loves to celebrate that holiday. We went to eat at a fantastic place called Smith & Wollensky's later that night (it's one of our new faves), and I could see the bartenders were wearing kilts - don't get all worked up, I saw them from my table that was definitely not at the bar : ).










Our hotel this year, The Whitehall. It was beautiful, and we adored it..... but nothing is the Cass. Oh well. I didn't mean to yawn, and totally ruined the picture.


Luke contemplating life in the hotel lobby.


Outside the Museum of Modern Art.


Shopping and whatnot.




Our absolute favorite pizza place of all time, hands down.....Pizzeria Uno. I'd kill for it right now.


Poor Luke had to sit on a couch and wait for me to shop in Anthropologie. As you can tell, he'd had it.


The ride home, going through a Jack in the Box drive thru.


Ok, so...I hope that all these pics make up for my lack of correspondence lately. I promise to post much more regularly now. I plan to thoroughly enjoy this summer, relaxing, sleeping in, cooking all sorts of homemade dinners for me and the husband (because there won't be much of that from my end come August). There are family vacations planned, movies to see and this weekend, Luke and I are heading to Dallas for a little Memorial Day getaway. It should be a wonderful summer, and I'll keep you posted, I PROMISE ; ). Adios!