Alumni Banquet

Every year our school has a fancy shmancy dinner for all of the graduates at the Ritz Carlton. It is by far the most elegant place I have ever stepped foot. Glistening china cabinets and chandeliers twinkled on the walls and ceilings, casting a warm, inviting glow. Fine linens adorned the tables. Scrumptious foods tickled our palates. Delightful company filled the halls. It was an unbelievable evening that I will never forget. We almost didn't attend, but received word that it would be in our best interest to go. I am so glad we did! It turned out to be quite an eventful night. Here are some of the pictures from the evening.

The Dental wives take one last shot together.Here are the folks at our table for the evening: The McDonoughs and the Ences (+Mark's Mom and Dad, not pictured)With the Carpenters (moving down to our old stomping grounds in the barrio of Escondido).The Shelleys (moving to one of my other stomping grounds: Evans,GA. Clint reported for duty in the army the day of graduation! Good luck!)Heidi Ferre (see the post about our dental school adventures in the "Dental Wives Club" post)The Pypers: Musical geniuses and all-around great people. Congrats Kendall on your award. He was honored for his ethics in dental school, and much deserved. He bailed me out on boards and gave me a fantastic patient to do the perio section. Good luck in Oregon.Christine Miller, one of my great instructors and mentors in the community service organization called SCOPE... And Rhonda Bowen. I can't even begin to articulate how much this woman helped me through. She is also a wife and mother (of three gorgeous kids) and another feisty Mormon Mama. We shared lots of good times and bad, and had a standing lunch date every Monday to eat salad and vent. She'll be near where we will ultimately settle down... She in Napa and me in Santa Rosa. I look forward to being your colleague!My classmate and good friend Cynthia Wong with two of our instructors from Group IV: Dudley Cheu and Gitta Rajapour. (I probably butchered the spelling on that.) All were great to work with. And Cynthia was great to have fun with!

Russ Homer and Clint Shelley looking fierce.Vicky Tran: My roommate for Asilomar and an ASDA conference in Phoenix. A great friend and beautiful person. So glad she was there in the sim lab, as we were surrounded by boys.

Here are a couple of those boys: Jake Yetzer and Bryce Williams... Two stellar human beings and freakishly smart! I got to work with these guys a lot, because we were all gunning for specialties, and ended up working on group projects together. Jake even survived a Berger family Thanksgiving during second year. Must've been something we fed him, because he ended up as the valedictorian! Congrats Jake.

Ben Mishler snuggles with Mick Reynolds. We are a very loving bunch at Pacific.

Here they are in a little less affectionate pose with Matt Nielson. I tried to get Matt to snuggle, too, but he wasn't having it. I guess all those years in the bishopric steered him straight.

The girls get down (sorry Bethany, Katie, Christina and Kelti... I sort of snuck up on you in the dark.)

It is Finished

Finally!!!

Graduation has come and gone. It was over in the blink of an eye. A whirlwind weekend full of laughter and tears. Family and friends gathered together to celebrate a bunch of folks in funny looking hats. Pomp and Circumstance.

It's over. I don't feel miraculously changed, as I thought I would. Somehow, I had built the occasion up in my mind to be a life-altering experience that would cause a remarkable mantle of wisdom to fall upon me... Nope. Just a piece of paper that says I'm a doctor now, and not even a real sense of closure yet because it's so surreal. I keep pinching myself, thinking at some point I will wake up, standing in a ridiculously long line waiting for sterile instruments... or back in an auditorium with professors droning on about demineralized tooth enamel... but I'm not going to wake up into that reality (at least not at Pacific).

I don't have much time to be reflective. It is on to the next challenge: A pediatric residency at UCLA that awaits me in just two short weeks.

But, Oh! Man! This was a fun dream for the last three years!

Stay tuned... So many pictures and so many posts yet to come.

Nato Potato

We officially own a teenager now.

With all that's been going on lately, the poor kid hardly got any recognition on his B-day. (His birthday was on the 8th, which was the last day of the boards, and a night when I came home exhausted, curled into the fetal position, and cried softly to myself as I fell asleep on the couch at 6:00 p.m.). Wayne got him birthday pie because Nate is a cake snob. So around 7:00 we lit the candles, sang the birthday song, and then I passed out again, still on the couch. The only thing he asked for was to go see "Kung Fu Panda". We took him the next night, and it was HYSTERICAL, by the way! But I still feel like the kid was gypped. So Nate, this is my lame attempt at making up for your lame birthday. Hayden and I are going out this afternoon to get you a real present, and here is a little bit of gushing from your Ma:

Nathan is a great guy. And I use the word guy, rather than "kid" intentionally. He's not much of a kid anymore. He's grown so much over this past year (all by himself...no growth hormone injections needed). His voice has changed. His attitude has changed (*clenched teeth*). His smell has changed... But he is still a good guy to the core. He loves his family dearly, and we have a great understanding of one another. He has a strong personality and leadership qualities. I love you tremendously, Nate! Now, my son, use your powers for good. And never join the dark side.

I wuv you, my Widdle Punum!

Our Morning Banter

Poor Wayne. This is what it's like being married to a dentist...A daily dialog that goes something like this:

"At Pacific, we grow people and along the way they become doctors.'' --Arthur Dugoni

Boards are finished. Scan-trons are a thing of the past. No more clinic. No more sterilization woes. Our patients have new doctors to take care of them. Lockers cleaned out. Badges and keys handed in.

We're outta here...

In a few more days, you can call us doctors!

Congratulations Pacific Class of 2008!!!

Here's the official word:This is the envelope that contained the glorious news.

They Put My Son In a Skirt and Let Him Bang Sticks Together

Every year, Hayden's school puts on an International Festival as a fundraiser for the school. It's genius. They raise something like $80,000 in a single day every year. They sell food from various countries: everything from homemade Mexican food (really good stuff!) to Fijian desserts. They have various booths with games from different countries. Always a hit, of course, are the ginormous bouncy thingys. There is a silent auction with everything from spa weekends in Napa to greeting cards handmade by the kids. They have a raffle for all sorts of donated prizes. You name it, they have thought of a way to raise money and squeeze it into this one day. And the amazing thing is, the whole community comes out for it. It's huge! And the genius part is, they have entertainment provided by the kids (Here is where the skirt and the sticks come in...), so just about every family in the school is willing to come to the festival to see their kid perform.

Each class chooses a country to represent and perform a musical number based on that country's culture. Their music teacher, Mr. Matthews, is a featured singer in the San Francisco Opera. He comes in and teaches them the songs, and the kids do a GREAT JOB and sing their little hearts out for this oh so talented educator. This year, not only did Hayden get to sing, but he was able to perform a dance (banging sticks together) in the traditional Brazilian fashion. If I can ever work out the glitches in blogspot, I will upload the video.

Gotta love this picture demonstrating the proper use of the white man's overbite. (That's how our less rhythmically gifted race expresses how we are totally feeling the groove!)

Trois, Tres, Three

Shellie, tagged me. So here is my attempt at answering the following prompts in the most thought-provoking manner possible. (Since I'm relatively new to the blogging world, this is my first official tag... I feel so cool!)


Name 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself...

3 Joys:

• Singing. I love to sing. Used to be pretty good at it, but now I just squawk at the primary kids every week and dance around like a monkey to keep their short little attention spans focused.


• Nature. I love to walk in the woods. I am not necessarily a very "happy camper..." as there is a wide distinction between trying to sleep with cricket noises, and just having a quiet moment in the woods to listen to them for a little while without distractions. I love the way the woods smell. I love the way snow absorbs all sound. I love the way sun feels on my face when it filters through the treetops. I love the way mountain rivers feel instantly cold in the springtime. I love the way wildflowers can completely blanket a hillside and make it look purple or orange or yellow, depending on the seeds that happened to blow onto that soil and thrive. I guess I'm a bit of a hippie at heart.


• Family. (Duh!) I have a good one. I love my boys (all three of them). I love watching my sons grow up. I love to think of what they will become as they continue to grow. Will Nathan really become an astronaut? Will Hayden be a bridge engineer? I'm not really all that consumed with what profession they will enter, but with the idea that they find something that really brings them joy. Will they be integrous and valuable members of society?
  
  

  And where do I even begin with Wayno... my self-sacrificing stud? So glad to be his companion for eternity! We have grown as a couple so much over these past 15 years. I sure do love him... even if he looks like Rob Schneider and "The Rock's" love child

3 Fears:

• Feet. Hate 'em!!! I dig around in some really putrid, festering, nasty mouths, but show me an ingrown toenail, and I'll be retching and heaving in no time. I HATE FEET!


• My Room when it's messy. I actually wake up with night terrors when my room is a mess (which is often in our little apartment with no storage space). I dream that someone has walked into my room in the middle of the night for an inspection of sorts, and it actually causes me to wake up in a sweat.


• Smelling funky. It would cause me great distress if someone said, "Man! You stink!"

3 Goals:

• I'm about to finish #1: Graduate from dental school, fully sane and competent. Now the fully sane part is debatable, but I think I'm a fairly safe beginner as a dentist. I suppose the next goal will be to get through my pediatric residency.


• Visit Machu Picchu. Lots of places to see in this lifetime...That one is at the top of my list.


• Try not to be a fat old lady. I will not delude myself into thinking I will ever be super thin. I like food too much and dislike exercise about as much. So I just hope to maintain.

3 Current Obsessions/Collections:

• Jewelry. Not the good stuff. Just cheap, fun jewelry to match with every outfit.


• Blogging. Gives me an outlet for my stress.


• Digital Photography. It's like a scavenger hunt for me. I love to take pictures of random textures in nature and architecture, in particular. I take my camera just about everywhere, just so I can get shots like this (I would never have taken pictures of pond scum with traditional film).

3 Random/Surprising facts about you:

• I was once a Milli Vanilli groupie. My girlfriend and I made brownies and brought them to the hotel they were supposedly staying at. They weren't there.


• I talk and sometimes walk in my sleep. I once woke up in the back of my closet, wading through the clothes that I had dreamt were the vines of the jungle. Wayne and I once had an entire conversation while he was talking in his sleep too (except he was dreaming he was in "backwards land" and kept speaking in this weird incoherent language that was actually backwards English).


• I was once put in a body bag and taken away in a hearse. During my senior year of high school, I played the victim of a drunk driving accident and had blood (ketchup) smeared all over me and then scraped out of the front seat of a banged up car that had been part of a real fatal accident (somebody's front teeth were still stuck in the dashboard).

There ya have it! Now I tag Kelly, Tracy, and Rhonda. I'm hoping this gets around to lots of people on my list, because it is hard to pick... I think there would be a lot of clever answers to these questions.