AAWD Senior Tea

Sunday afternoon UT's chapter of the AAWD (the women dentists' group) had a senior appreciation tea.  This has become an annual thing that we look forward to at the conclusion of a busy "dental school" weekend every April! 

Dr. and Mrs. Simon -- a restorative faculty member and his wife -- live in a beautiful Victorian home in the Central Gardens area in Memphis.  This is particularly special because there are so few Victorian homes here.  The city lost its charter just before the turn of the century during this architectural period because of yellow fever (hello, mosquitoes!), so very few Victorians were built, then there was a housing boom around the teens -- lots of craftsman-style houses here.  Makes their home unique as well as beautiful!

Mrs. Simon, Clair, me, Lauren, Nicole, and Ray -- our one male [student] member!

Mom was so gracious to come over and help me cook all day Saturday!  I could not have made so many great finger foods and desserts without her help -- and without Dad running to the grocery store too many times to count. 

the food at the party:

salty things and sweet things

Everyone seemed to have a different "favorite", which to me is always a good sign -- no one thing was bad and nothing outshone everything else!

Lauren was also a lifesaver!

 

How many people can you call on your way out the door and they will show up with beautiful flowers AND delicious food?  very, very few!  But we pulled it off, everyone had a great time, and the rain held off for us to take some beautiful pictures.

future pedodontists - so glad we get to keep them around for 2 more years!

some of the D4's

precious friends!

Nicole, me, Lauren, Clair, Jeni

Emily and me

Clair explaining the finer points of putting your hand on your hip in a picture.

LOVE this one of Jeni and me!

SRTA (the licensure exam) is tomorrow and Saturday for UT D4's.  (read:  STRESS, STRESS, STRESS!)  Happy weekend to everyone, and good luck to all of the D4's!

Dental Prom

Well, really, it's GV Black Formal, but who can resist calling something "Dental Prom" when your last actual prom was so long ago?  Prom does NOT stop when you're 18!

First, a short history lesson ... GV Black is the "Father of Modern Dentistry".  That about sums it up.  (see, I promised it would be short!)

okay, that's blurry, but it's ole GV teaching about a class II cavity prep.  this is a popular picture in the D-1 History of Dentistry class

So every year we have a formal named after him.  It's always a good time! 

This year Prom was at the Old Daisy on Beale.  There was a band, lots of food and drinks, the whole shebang!  A much-needed night of fun after a working hard since July.

  Beforehand several of the D-3's went to Nishel's for a little party. 

top:  Leslie told me she wanted a picture because I looked like one of the girls on Scooby Doo.  I don't remember which one now, but I did pose ... after she assured me it was a compliment.

bottom:  Ryan was tired of the "girl pictures", so he joined in

After eating lots of great food, we headed down to Beale in the middle of a storm.

ahh, Nish, what a great waitress!  I love Clair's face watching her.

Ashwani is always the life of the party

We had a great time Friday night until I went to pick up my purse to leave.  (cue theme music:  duh duh duh ...) And it wasn't there.  So I searched the floor.  Not there.  And asked the D-4 at the table if she'd seen it.  No help.  (I know, I know, you're saying why in the world did I leave it at a table?  Well, me and 100+ other females there, okay?)  So I searched.  And looked. And searched.  And asked.  And an hour later, when they were kicking us out (literally), resigned myself to the fact that it was gone.  Missing:  Hobo clutch, ID, debit card, iPhone, favorite lip gloss, car keys, and $60.  :(

Lucky for me, I have amazing friends.  I would have probably been a complete mess if it weren't for them.  I was able to call a locksmith from a friend's phone to help me get into my car that was parked in the garage up the street (I had both a set of spare keys and my apartment keys inside), and the amazing Ashley (see her in the cute coral dress above!) paid for it all and she and her boyfriend as well as a D4 stayed with me the whole time.  What a blessing they all were!  Like I said, I would have been a complete mess, and I am sooooo blessed to have such great friends!

Another small miracle -- Mom and I had made plans earlier in the week for her and Dad to come to Memphis Saturday so that she could help me bake for the AAWD Tea that we had Sunday. (more on that later!)  Thankfully, they were here to help me take care of cancelling my debit card (which the little thief attempted to use 7 times - yikes!), getting a new phone, etc.  I got a new driver's license yesterday and ordered a new clutch last night (and my sweet friend Jeni brought me new lip gloss Sunday!), so once that new debit card arrives I think I will feel like everything is in order again. 

Whew!  What a night.  Prom was fun though, until the end.  As Mom said so perfectly on Saturday, "that'll sober you up fast ..."  Well said, Mom, well said.  :)

Sundaes and Smiles

Once a month the UT chapter of ASDA (the student version of the ADA) goes to Memphis's Target House. In a nutshell, Target House is similar to a Ronald McDonald House - a home-away-from-home for families of children receiving treatment at St. Jude.  Specifically, these kids and their families are scheduled for treatment that will last more than three months.  (Read more about Target House here.)

These nights are so incredible!  There is a huge community dining room where we can gather, so we always bring either dinner or dessert and some sort of activity.  Last night we had ice cream sundaes with all of the toppings and made a "spring time craft".  Since the families are there for several months, we usually get to know them over three or four visits and get to keep up with their progress.  It's always fun to share in the excitement when a kiddo comes with news that they are waiting on the test results that say they are healthy enough to go home in the next week or two!  Those are the stories you focus in on when someone else isn't feeling so well from their treatment.  Here are a few pictures from last night. 

D1s waiting on our first friends to arrive

Success!

I asked these sisters if I could take a picture.  Sister in purple said, "NO."  Sister in pink said, "Cheeeeese!".  Now she's getting the look . . .

some dental students are artistically inclined - D2s made a dinosaur for Dr. Hatch

hat friends

Lots of fun for everybody!  Thanks to Target House and St. Jude for all of the amazing work that they do!

It's Wedding Season! And baby season, and concert season . . .

This weekend I had a wonderful quick trip to Jonesboro/Newport for the wedding of my precious pledge sister Marion Curtner (now Donat!).  Unfortunately, my camera battery died Friday night at our little cookout at the Rembert house, and I forgot to charge it before leaving Memphis Saturday morning, so I have a pic of Friday night, and none of the gorgeous wedding. Hopefully I can steal pictures off of facebook soon and post them.

the girls relaxing after another successful week!  Many thanks to all of the boys for taking pictures with 6 different cameras.

Since I don't have actual wedding pictures to post, I thought I'd share a little preview of what the rest of my "wedding season" looks like.  The best way?  My bulletin board! (I know, I know, I'm a nerd with a bulletin board, but how else is a girl to keep up with all of these pretty invites?)

barely any free space left!

starting at the bottom:  a baby shower invite for my friend Jessica and a save-the-date for my friends Jeni and Nate.  Unfortunately Jessica's shower was this weekend and I wasn't able to make it back in time, but we're all excited about baby Gambill in May!  Jeni and Nate are getting married in California but are having a big shindig in June for their friends and family.  I'm excited to celebrate with them!

YIKES!  okay, going clockwise from the top left:  the square ivory/blue invitation is Marion and Clark's. 

Next, the cream with teal (July 10) is another pledge sister's wedding, Hannah -- I'm lucky that she lives in Memphis and is in hygiene school at UT -- I get to see her a lot! 

Next, the blue square is Chelsea and Seth's save the date.  Chelsea is a sorority sister of mine, and Seth and I were on about a hundred committees together in college (okay, that's exaggerating, but it was a lot!).  I'm excited about their wedding in May - they're next! 

The invitation with the pink ribbon is a baby shower invitation for a classmate of mine, Madeira.  She's having a baby girl in June.  Brave woman!  She's the first of our classmates to actually have a baby in dental school, so we're all very, very excited!

The gold with blue underneath the baby shower invite is Marion and Clark's save the date.  I kept it because it had all of the hotel info on it, which I ended up not needing because I wanted to try to make it to Jessica's baby shower.  Fail x 2.  Those things never work out.  When will I learn?

And finally, baaaarely peeking out are two tickets to James Taylor and Carole King's Troubadour Tour in Nashville.  It's so soon.  I'm so excited.

Then, yesterday I got Chelsea and Seth's beeeeautiful invitation (not kidding, so pretty.  I had to send a picture to my mother it was so pretty).  So I cleared off the board tonight and hung it.

Happy celebrating, everyone!

[4/14] UPDATE:  the fabulous photographers from Benfield Photography have updated their blog with pictures from Marion and Clark's wedding for the last 2 days!  I contemplated just copying a couple, but really, you should just look at all of them because they are so great!  Check them out!  Really, it is worth clicking-on-over!

Easter Extravaganza

I love Easter.  I just do.  And this is one of the many, many reasons why:

my family!

It's one of the few times all year that the four of us are together . . . which is a shame because they are amazing.

And it's not just my family, but a whole group of families!  For at least the last 10 (12? maybe?) years we have celebrated Easter with lunch after church with the Dunns, the Lusbys, and the Tippits.  We also miss the Groves, who used to be in on the fun when they were in Jonesboro.  Once upon a time we easily had 25 people, but now with the "kids" in college/out of college/married/working/baby, the our crowd has dwindled to 17.  (For this year, anyway; who knows what kind of crowd we can get next?) 

The menu is the same every year.  You may call us boring, but we all look forward to it for months.  And really, we could probably eat PB&J, it's having everyone over that is the best part!

This year we tried to get some pictures of everyone's family - always entertaining.

Above: Mrs. Farmer and Mrs. Lusby; Greyson and Mrs. Dunn

Below:  Mrs. Marable, the Tippits

The Lusbys and Farmers

This is how the above picture started: 

Mrs. Farmer:  "someone, John, come stand over here"

John:  "where?"

Mrs. Farmer:  "here.  right here!"

(those are her hands and blue jacket; oh we laughed so hard)

Then we took the picture.  With difficulty, because all of the Lusby guys are TALL.  So Mr. Lusby says someone could have bent down.  I said I was thinking "sorority squat".  That comment led to this:

Oh, never a dull moment!

the Dunns; Mrs. Tippit slicing the bunny cake.  It is not Easter without a bunny cake!

my super-fabulous, almost-attorney big brother and me

with Mimi after lunch

The apron somehow never came off from prep work to eating to cleaning.  Oh, well!  Soooooo much fun and already looking forward to next year!