Kendalling Love

Waiting Game

2012-01-23T08:21:00.002-05:00

Monday at my 38weeks, 4 days appointment my blood pressure continued to be high so I was sent over to the labor floor for monitoring. Baby looked amazing, lab work looked great, and my blood pressure eventually came down. However, with its tendency to trend upwards lately and with the amount of swelling in my ankles (SICK!) I was put on bedrest until delivery. Bedrest as in you can potty, you can make a sandwich, and you can walk from couch to bed. It hasn't been easy and I will admit I haven't been the most compliant patient 100% of the time (doctors... and med students... make the worst patients, remember), BUT my blood pressure was much better on Thursday and the swelling in my ankles and legs has gone down so much that you can actually see my lateral and medial malleolus in my ankles again!

Mom got here Saturday and it has been so, so wonderful to have her here. I always thought when I was little that when I became an "adult" I wouldn't need as much "mom-ing" and would be fiercely independent. However, I think the older I get the more I realize I love being "mom'd" and sometimes being DEpendent is okay and kind of necessary. I hope baby boy feels that way about me for a really long time, and I hope I can be that for him.

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Brian and I had been moving all around the house with our sleeping arrangements because it seemed like anytime we would change scenery I would sleep well again! Our rotations include our bed, an air mattress in the living room we set up, and the couches in the living room right next to each other :) (Yes, he always moves to where I am to be next to me. Amazing much?) At first I was just super uncomfortable and think that's why I couldn't sleep well, but now I think it's just the sheer "forces of universe getting you ready for having a baby" thing. I pretty commonly go to sleep at midnight, wake up about 2, again around 4:30, then either lay there or nod off until 6 when I finally get up and call it quits for the night. Weirdly I'm not tired during the day, really... and I'm definitely an 8hrs a night person. Maybe this is a change of season in my sleeping necessities, which by all means would be very helpful here soon!

[Quick aside: Can you tell I'm bored?]

Baby's last load of laundry is done and he is now the proud owner of the most precious cowboy boots and crocheted converse sneakers (yes, crocheted by a lady at church!) I have ever seen. His room is all set up and ready to go, we have mirrors for tummy time, diapers & more wipes than I knew you could have at once (we received a mother load yesterday), and mostly a lot of love to give and a VERY anxious Daddy-to-be who keeps trying to convince him to come out and play and he would be SO much more comfortable and have tons of room here on the outside!

I've had on and off minor contractions for a couple of weeks now, but they have really picked up yesterday and this morning. I'm hoping that means we are moving FORWARD! Sometimes I wonder how your body is supposed to know how to do all this delivery of a human being stuff. Have you ever thought about that? It blows my mind. God's plan and craftsmanship of us is really amazing.

Brian's dreams of cravings finally came true a couple of weeks ago. He always wanted me to have the stereotypical pregnancy cravings of something like pickles & ice cream. Not necessarily pickles and ice cream specifically... just something that was totally outrageous and that I'd have to have an inner battle with myself about. i.e. "I want this, but I HATE this. I don't understand!" So the other day... he got his wish. I wanted a tomato. I don't like tomatoes at all, not even a little. I like ketchup- but HATE tomatoes. I pick them off my salad and dry off the leaf it was on; if it was on a hamburger or sandwich bun, the bread is completely unsalvageable because the juice has soaked into the bread. But for some reason on this day, I just CRAVED a wedge of tomato. Not a slice... a wedge. With the seeds on top. I know. It was a huge inner battle and I struggled for several days til we already had a tomato that Brian was cutting up for omlettes and he offered (let's be honest... there was a lot in it for him watching my inner battle, he was not just being nice!) to cut me a wedge. So I took it, and I salted it, and I ate it. And it tasted like everything I'd hoped it would. I would never wish the inner battle of craving on anyone though, it just defies everything you know!

He also has been searching for opportune times to tell me I'm nesting... he has always wanted me to be a nester in the later parts of pregnancy. To be honest- I really truly haven't been. He calls picking up after myself nesting... but um, that's just trying to be a big girl and having more time than usual. HOWEVER... this morning after my laying in bed from 4:30am-6am stent, I decided to get up and get on with the program because it was silly to keep laying there wide-eyed. I got up and IMMEDIATELY had a sense of things needing to get done. However... my nesting instinct this morning was not your normal "About to be a mother" or even "About to be a FIRST time mother" instinct. It wasn't even a "Good wife" instinct. It was a medical student instinct. My nesting was completely 100% geared around med school organization. I filled out clinical rotation forms, emailed all kinds of advisors and program administrators, looked up ACGME numbers, figured out how to print a list of all the residencies in our given specialties, and so on. It was outrageous. I've been putting these things off for a while and hadn't even thought of them, but this morning- it had to be done!! Lucky for me Med School Nesting coexists pretty well with Bedrest. :)

Doctor's appointment today (39weeks, 4 days) and due date is on Thursday! We will know more today after our appointment.

And there you have it:

The waiting game.

Baby Watch 2012.

Extreme Eviction.

Operation Get Him Out.

Wrapping up the 3rd Trimester

2012-01-15T20:09:00.005-05:00

38 weeks- baby bump

Daddy setting up your pack n play. You will sleep here in the bassinet portion when you first come home from the hospital, and the grey part on top is for changing your diaper. :)

Pack n play/ bassinet set up in our room and ready for you!

Bouncy ball stays in the living room now; we're trying all measures to move labor along!

Your carseat is all ready in the Acadia! And your little "papoose" I call it (tan item in the carseat), is ready too! You're our little winter Michigan baby and there will probably be snow on the ground when you come home!

Your closet is all washed and organized and ready for you to start wearing! Just because we are having a little boy and not a girl doesn't mean you can't be dressed well, still :)

We are so ready for you to be here, little boy. Each day we are getting closer and closer to meeting you and we are anxious to see what you are like on the "outside"! All the family (especially your Bear) JUMPS anytime we call them, all anxiously awaiting "the call"! Honey is coming into town this weekend even if you haven't made your appearance yet, and we will have your church shower on Sunday. It will hopefully help to start passing the time a little better, because we all know your Mom has serious control issues! Here's some things I want to remember about this final trimester and wrapping up carrying you while you grow...

-You hiccup like a champ. They are so strong your Dad and I can't even believe it sometimes. To be honest it's almost a little annoying now! I wonder sometimes if it's equally annoying to you. :) Every time you get them I always text your Dad and say, "Hmmmmm- do YOU have the hiccups?" and he will say, "Noooo, not me. Do you?" and I'll say, "Nope. Not me either. Must be Baby Boy!" and on and on. :) We get a kick out of it and are anxious to see if you hiccup so much once you're born, too!

-Your movements are so dadgum strong that they literally HURT now! It looks like you are a vampire baby trying to bust out on your own, sometimes! In the video below if you watch carefully you can see your wiggling around and scootching your bottom back and forth. We joke that you might be a swimmer when you get older because of how much you LOVE to kick and how strong they are!

-You really really REALLY don't like your space invaded, even still. If I am resting my arm anywhere near my stomach, you will literally focus your entire kick or scooch into that place and try to move me away! Sometimes we go back and forth and it's battles of the wills :) but sometimes I'm just so amazed that you can localize things that well already. :)

-You don't like being stuck and not being able to move around. At one point you were able to flip yourself out of vertex (head down) position, but you eventually settled back down that way. :) The other day you tried with one HUGE SWIFT kick to get yourself out again... but you're just too big for that now. :) Sorry baby boy!

-For some reason you think my bladder is the funnest thing on Earth to terrorize. I have yet to understand this but it seems like every time you find it again, you insist on punching it and kicking it and just love to make my life miserable. :)

-I don't think you like contractions very much, which breaks my heart. Any time the muscle starts to contract downwards, you kick at the contraction spot (just like you would at our hands or anything else in your space:)). I wish I could explain to you what's happening and tell you that it will be okay, but we're just going to have to trust that God will give you some peace, even as a little baby :) and that everything will be okay.

-I feel like a ticking time bomb these days. Or a pager. Same thing! If I don't go about my day like normal, then the days DRAG on and nothing gets accomplished. And yet when we do go about our days, it's ridiculous to think that any SECOND I could go into labor or my water could break. At our appointment 1 week ago (37weeks, 4days) I was 50% effaced but not dilated at all; tomorrow we have another appointment so we will see how things go. I don't dare try to judge you and think I'll know how you'll make your appearance. :) You are stubborn and like to do things your own way, so we are just waiting to see what that means for how you make your entrance into the world!

-I have the worst heartburn I ever thought could be possible. You better have some cute hair to show for it!

-We officially decided on your name. :) It had been our favorite for quite some time, but we didn't want to limit ourselves because we felt like we needed to meet you first. But as time has gone on, none of the other contenders seemed to fit you as well; and, both Dad and I kept thinking of you as this name without even realizing it... so we figured it must have been a good fit! We told our families on Christmas Day what your full name will be :) but they have been instructed to keep it top secret! We will tell everybody else once you are born and make your appearance into the world! Today your Dad hung up the letters of your name in your room, though... which makes it all a little more real!

-We sure do love you. We think (ha!) that we are ready for you to enter our lives once and for all. We are praying for you and can't wait to meet you, little one.

Love,

Mom

Pinterested...

2012-01-01T20:12:00.002-05:00

So I was interested in this Pinterest business after having semi- started it a long time ago and then ditching out when we made our move to Michigan and started our clinical rotations. I'm up and running now, though. :) If anyone has ideas or thoughts or how to make it "better" or "more useful" I'm all ears! For now it just seems like... surfing the internet with a place to put things? How is it different from just emailing myself the ideas?

You can follow me, if you want!, at: http://pinterest.com/bkendall07/

P.S. Somebody in the Kendall family has the hiccups... again... It's not Brian, and it's not me... I wonder who it could be...

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

34 weeks

2011-12-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

34 week ultrasound- baby toes; that's ALL he would show us!!

34 week baby "bump"... more like baby hugeness

We are 34 [and a half :)] weeks now! Cannot believe we are almost there (within reason). Last week we had another ultrasound (our 30wk one seen here was for funzies because that's the kind of awesome people we work with!) to assess his growth. My fundal height (size of your uterus) has always measured about 1.5 to 2 weeks behind what it should, so my OB thought we might as well just schedule a quick appointment to make sure he was growing as well as he needs to be. Let's just say he's doing JUST FINE. The kid's head (determined mostly by genetics) measures in the 92nd percentile. NINETY SECOND!! His body (which is what you look at for nutritional status and how they are growing) is just right at 55th percentile. And his little femurs (which often are lagging in gestational age comparatively) are at the 26th percentile. We also found out he is waaaay head down (for now at least... he has enough oomph to turn himself I think but we are hoping he stays put!) and already weighs 5lbs 2oz!! Another very exciting thing was once the ultrasound machine was turned on, she said, "Look there's some hair!" So our little boy has hair! Isn't that so cute?! He looks so much like his Daddy it's finally nice to have SOMETHING from his Mommy in play :) (Brian was bald and I had TONS of black hair when we were born).

Pregnancy thus far is still mostly just what we would have expected! We are very blessed to have had a pretty wonderful experience and especially that compared to other women and those who can't be pregnant at all. We are always mindful of that... that these aches and pains are blessings and some would give anything for them. I haven't had many problems with swelling unless I am working hard at school (i.e. week of night float, etc!) or am working hard at home (i.e. throwing a Christmas party at 34wks pregnant... mayyyybe not my best idea but whatev!). I'm definitely over the back pain... my lordosis (curvature of your back in pregnancy) is starting to feel a little outrageous and this little boy hanging out so low does not seem to help very much. I'm on a psychiatry rotation right now and it's been a blessing to have a much less physically strenuous job right now. After this one I will do a two week radiology rotation which will hopefully be around the same level of physical expectations. We are so blessed to be so supported by the staff here in Michigan!!

Poor baby gets the hiccups all the time. The funny part, though, is when he is throwing a fit in there- kicking and punching and moving all over the place... and then I feel him hiccup, so he stops moving completely and just hiccups for the longest time! It cracks me up every time. I always text Brian and say, "Baby just threw himself a fit into hiccups again." :) Tonight Brian found a used wrapping paper roll made out of cardboard and stuck one end on my stomach and through the other end blasted "Hiiii baby boy." Literally the baby went CRAZY- so much so I got dizzy and tried to calm him down by touching and patting on my belly! I could not believe it! Brian thought it was hilarious and I felt so bad for the kid!

We've got most of the decorative part of Baby Boy's nursery done now :) but are still waiting on his crib to be delivered!!! My dad (Bear) has now FINISHED the crib and it's getting the final coats of sealant on it! I have yet to feel any huge surges of nesting instinct... but today I did finally decide we should at least wash his blankets and onesie that we will be bringing him home in- so Brian did that while I wrapped some presents. As you can see, it was the cutest little load of laundry ever. :) Also- in college I always used to do a load of whites, a load of colors, and a load of maroons (Whoop!). I'm so glad baby boy's first load of laundry was a load of maroons!!

We also washed his "papoose" I call it- the cover that will go around and over his carseat so that he will be prepared for this cold Michigan winter! Poor baby has had to endure 115 degree heat the summer he was started and will end his gestation with freezing and subzero weather! He'll be a tough one, that's for sure!

It should also be noted that we got some boxes from Santa on our doorstep the other day :) and as Brian was opening it tonight... he said "Baby Boy has got more presents in this box than I have gotten from Santa in 4 years!!!" Of course I reminded him that Baby Boy's presents don't exactly cost what Daddy's presents costs... especially when he seems to have very good taste in fine appliances and clothing. :)

We're so excited to integrate you into "real" life, Baby Boy. We are a little nervous too... not knowing anything about parenting or about the person you'll be or how we'll not flip out over every ailment you have knowing full well all the "could be" diagnoses. We also don't know what's to come for our family... how Mom and Dad will make sure they continue their own dreams but make sure to make you a part of that dream without either of them being compromised. It's a lot to think about and on our minds pretty often. I hope and pray we always do what's best for you and that more than anything you know how very much we love you.

30 weeks

2011-12-18T21:56:00.006-05:00

30wk ultrasound video- baby boy caught in a yawn then rewinding on video to see him yawning in action!

30wk ultrasound- baby mid-yawn

30wk ultrasound- baby laying down sideways sleeping with his mouth open and his little tongue in view

30 wk ultrasound- always sleeping on his arms

30wk ultrasound- sleeping on his hand or showing off his muscles... one of the two!

30wk ultrasound- "Nom Nom Nom!" baby looks hungry!

30wk ultrasound- Mommy's favorite picture of him rubbing his eyes; "I'm seepy Mama."

30wk ultrasound- pretty lips like his Daddy

30wk ultrasound- a half smile that looks like he's up to no good!

30wk ultrasound- he is OVER all these pictures! and look at those cute little chubby fingers like his Aunt Lindsey!

30wk belly bump; he always sticks his little bottom out where the pointy part is!

You Know You're In Medical School When...

2011-12-13T09:36:00.002-05:00

During ultrasounds both parents are making statements like:

"What's the AFI?"

"How does his head circumference look?"

"Where's the placenta?"

"Is he vertex?"

"Is that his PDA?"

"Look, an open hand."

28 weeks

2011-11-13T21:43:00.004-05:00

28 week ultrasound- Baby's sweet face; word "face" is over his right cheek

27 week baby bump- hospital scrubs that I am slowly moving up in sizes of

Baby Boy is in his last trimester of growing and boy can you tell! His movements have definitely become less angry :) (although he still finds ways to be angry about being poked or monitored) and a lot more wiggle wormy as he starts to run out of room! Still though, anytime you place a doppler or a monitor or any kind of object (even just your hand resting) over somewhere in HIS space... he will kick RIGHT at the object until it is removed. :) Brian says his Mama does the same thing but we will just pretend we did not hear that!

We were really blessed to have one of the residents during my Night Float week at the hospital run over to the ultrasound room and shoot a quick picture of his little face for us at 28 weeks! I think it is the most precious little face, but our friend Jesse thinks he looks, and I quote, "like a warrior!" Brian likes that. :) Speaking of night float- baby was not a fan. I think he was just as tired as I was and his movements seemed to be the kind where you know the baby is tired but they're just not going to go to sleep.

He was also vertex during that ultrasound (meaning head down & not breech) which I am totally pumped about. Of course he could still flip around at this point, but as I told Brian- this kid tends to do as he pleases, so if he enjoys being head down I have a feeling he will stay that way. Brian is nervous about his head being squished :) and my Dad, Baby's Bear, told me "he is going to have a wicked headache after that!"

Brian and I still have our bi or tri weekly OB appts at home :) where a couple of times a week I will lay down and Brian will listen to the baby's heartbeat with the "My Baby's Beat" app on iPhone (awesome and totally recommend it!), then he'll measure my fundal height and try to see if he can determine if the baby is vertex still or not. His heartbeat is still running in the 130's to 140's and he has 10X10 accelerations on fetal monitoring (perfect for babies under 32 weeks!).

Baby's most recent development has been hiccups. Poor thing! He seems to get them a LOT and I haven't been able to attribute it to any certain foods I eat or anything. It's absolutely precious and seemingly miserable all at once, if that's possible. :) I've really been convicted lately about how much sugar he gets from me (biggest sweet tooth in the world, this girl) and I don't want him being born and becoming hypoglycemic in his first few minutes on Earth :( so I have really tried to cut back on sugar. Another official craving we are counting for this pregnancy is corn dogs. GROSS, RIGHT? I don't even know if I had eaten a corn dog in decades, literally. But this pregnancy it's like all I can do to not eat one three times a week! Disgusting, I know. And the cranberry juice cravings continue, too, just FYI.

Bear is in the process of making Baby Boy's custom crib out at the lakehouse right now, too. He has taken all week off of work to be working on it, in addition to the weekends he has already been working on it. It's SOLID, incredible wood and the stain is going to be beautiful. I can't believe how blessed we are that Daddy wanted to make this for us and for him. I am so excited to see the end product and can't wait for baby to sleep in it and grow up with it (it will be convertible to a toddler bed and full bed, too!).

As for me- I'm crabby. Poor hubs and poor colleagues of mine at school. I just have so little tolerance (not that I had much to begin with) and not very much stamina. However, I'm thinking that if the worst part of my third trimester so far is my attitude with some minimal to moderate physical discomfort (of course who is in medical school and doesn't have that?!), we're probably doing pretty well. :) As long as I can push off the total physical exhaustion then we are doing good! Not gonna lie though... if we could afford weekly... no make that daily... massages, I would be all over that business.

As we start to near the "end" of pregnancy with baby boy, I think the one thing I am going to miss is being able to share my day with him. He comes everywhere with me right now :) and I am going to miss having him there hanging out all day long and having to leave him at home. However, we are REALLY looking forward to snuggling him and loving him and holding him. Brian just wants to swaddle him and hold him like a football. :)

We realize with each passing day how blessed we are that maybe I'm a little uncomfortable and a little crabby and baby boy is still cookin'. Being on the OB/Gyn labor & delivery floor at the hospital and seeing all of the high risk patients, women with premature labor, early ruptured membranes, or bad complications makes you so grateful for the blessings of your own healthy pregnancy. Although after being there, I also know what NOT to do while in labor :) and how NOT to tick off the nurses and doctors during my stay! :)

We love you, Baby Boy!!! We cannot wait to meet you :)

23 weeks

2011-09-30T07:05:00.003-04:00

23 week ultrasound pic- Baby's profile looking to the right; his arm bone is up by his face

23 week ultrasound pic- Snuggled against placenta

23 week ultrasound pic- Covering his ears with his hands

23 week ultrasound pic- Hand & Foot

23 week ultrasound pic- Baby has his thumb up, clearly telling us, "Gig 'Em!"

23 week baby bump

We are very blessed to be using the OB-GYN group at Synergy Medical, which is the same group that we do our clinical rotations through. We were given the opportunity to do a few extra ultrasounds "just because!" So yesterday Brian and I went in and got to see Baby Boy again at 23 weeks. And ONCE again... he was snuggled back up against my placenta and just refuses to give us great face pictures. :) At the very very end he "threw us a bone" as the woman said, and gave us one shot but not without his hands covering his ears. :) Our favorite part of the ultrasound was baby showing us a "Gig 'Em"! Clearly he wants to go to Texas A&M as part of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2033 :) We love you Baby Boy, keep growing big and strong; stay put for a while and know that we pray for you and are so blessed to have you.

Just want to record this memory too... the other day the Men's Bible study for our church was at our house with Brian hosting. At the end of the night, one of the older men came up to Brian and said, "Brian, you're having a son, right?" Brian said, "Yes, sir." And he said, "Well, I want you to know that I am praying for your son, and I am praying for a good Christian girl for him. Because we need more good Christian families in this world." That makes Mom & Dad feel very blessed, Baby Boy.

Pregnancy in the First Part of Second Trimester

2011-09-28T08:58:00.000-04:00

I have hardly felt pregnant at all besides the whole losing half your wardrobe thing. :) We moved to Michigan at the beginning, so that was really hard to not be able to help Brian with things that needed to be lifted. But we were blessed to have church family helping us, and it got done in no time!

My first time to be asked if I was pregnant by someone I didn't know was at the doctor's office I am working at right now. I had a belt on higher up on my stomach and I think she was able to tell that way :) The second time was also in the same doctor's office a week later but this time there was no belt involved and I really didn't know if you would be able to tell. But a patient asked me if I was pregnant and I said yes :) Then she asked how far along I was and at this point I was a day away from 22 weeks, so I said, "Well, I guess I'm almost 6 months!" It was crazy to think that we are that far along!

As far as feeling him move... for a while now, since about 16-17 weeks, I have felt what I thought was him moving... but it was really more painful than it was ever cute. :/ I am almost positive that it's attributable to him moving though, because it always happened in the mornings when I would turn up the radio in the Acadia for him to hear, or when I was getting really hungry, etc. And it always happened in the same two locations for just a split second like movement would.

However, the first WONDERFUL time to feel him move was experienced with Brian! I was laying on the couch at 21 weeks and Brian was trying to use his stethescope to hear the baby's heartbeat (unsuccessful unfortunately, but it's still really early to be able to do that). He was pressing down really hard into my belly, and we were both waiting in anticipation for him to hear something, when all of a sudden he kicked THROUGH my stomach so that we could see it lift up!! The stethescope was pushed off my stomach and Brian gave me the most terrified look!! He said, "Did you do that?!?!" And I laughed and said, "How in the WORLD would I do that?!" We laughed so, so hard and it was so much fun to be able to experience that together! Oddly enough I hadn't even felt it so I wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't for SEEING it that day! That must have triggered baby to take no prisoners with his movement though! Because now he loves to just poke around and do flips and all kinds of things. :) The first time he flipped was in the middle of a Grand Rounds meeting being held by a local cardiologist in town. Maybe he wants to be a Cardiologist when he grows up? :)

We are really contemplating baby boy names right now. We have no stipulations of what it should start with or how many letters it will be or anything like that. Baby Boy- we do want it to be different, and we want people to KNOW who you are! We also want you to be able to carry it as a name whether you're working on Wall Street or as a professional football player or as a cardiologist. :) We keep thinking we need a feisty name, because you have really seemed to be a feisty fighter since the beginning of your existence! But Daddy has been reminding me lately that this snuggle bug of a boy that you are currently might mean that you are someone different than we have been anticipating! So we are just going to make sure we have a few options and will name you once we get to meet you on your birthday! We love you very much and I am really starting to get excited to know you!

20 weeks

2011-09-27T08:44:00.001-04:00

20 wk ultrasound- profile picture (head is turned towards the left) of sticking out his tongue (Daddy's personal favorite picture)

20 week ultrasound- Nuzzling against the placenta

20 week ultrasound- Sweet profile picture with his mouth open (Momma's favorite picture)

19/20 week baby bump

20 week ultrasound- baby's cute chunky leg

20 week ultrasound- baby boy waving hi

20 week ultrasound- precious baby toes!

20 week ultrasound- a sweet yawn where you can definitely tell he has Daddy's lips

This was Baby Boy's first ultrasound experience in Michigan. The special part about this one was that it was our anatomy scan to make sure everything looked healthy on baby, but also that Daddy is on his OB-GYN rotation in school right now, so he got to perform the actual ultrasound!! As medical students we would have been proud to show all his functioning organs and his brain and aortic arch and such... but they don't exactly print those out for you to take home :) I doubt many other parents-to-be would be as interested as we are! We were so lucky and got to see our boy for a solid hour while Brian, the resident, and another student took turns trying out the ultrasound on a very willing and understanding patient. :) We didn't mind at all though, because it just meant more time seeing him on the screen! He is definitely still a little boy! We were all looking at the screen at one point and he did a spread eagle, and we all at the same time (me, Brian, the midwife, and the resident) said, "WOH!" :) Good for him! He is also still very active! Without knowing what our doctor before has said, the midwife and resident both commented on how active he was and how it was really hard to get good pictures because of how he was all over the place!

Some new things we learned about our little one...

-He looooves to snuggle. Every time we see him, he is holding on to the placenta at the back of my uterine wall. He is always cuddled up to it! Even with our regular doppler appt at 22 weeks, you could barely hear the heartbeat because he's so far in the back and snuggled up. :)

-We think he has his Daddy's jawline.

-He has his Daddy's very prominent and German eyebrow line and jaw line.

-He has his Uncle Scott's (Daddy's brother) forehead

-He has his Daddy's lips

(... can you see who we think this kid is going to look like??)

-BUT! We think he has my nose. :)

-He still has attitude! As can be seen by the sticking-out-his-tongue picture. :)

Gender Party for Baby Kendall

2011-09-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

We invited our closest family & friends to join us in College Station, Texas (the city we fell in love in and the home of our dear Texas A&M) at the Benjamin Knox Gallery. We asked everyone, including us!, to wear the color representing what they thought Baby Kendall would

be! We had wonderful food (including pink & blue cheese! Who knew!!) and loved spending time with everyone before we made the trip back to Michigan. We had a sign-in sheet where everyone guessed baby's arrival date, height & weight, color of hair, & color of eyes; there was also a trivia game set out, and the prizes were Kendall-Jackson wine and Bankhead chocolates! There was a table set out for some of mine and Brian's old baby things, little outfits of ours (an outfit from Germany from his Granny & Papa and the outfit I came home from the hospital in), our favorite books from childhood, blankets, and our baby books (our Moms bought the same ones!). Everything was pink and blue; Mom and I had such a fun time decorating and getting all the food together for the evening. The tall centerpiece behind the cake was created custom by her (isn't she talented?? :)) and of course the cake was the main event of the evening! At this point only the doctor and the bakery knew what color was inside that cake!

The rest of the story can be told best in pictures & a video:)

Oh... and It's a BABY BOY! :)

A video of the big announcement!

16(ish) weeks

2011-08-17T21:16:00.006-04:00

16 week ultrasound, Freeze frame on my parent's TV from the video that was recorded. Baby is snuggled up facing downwards, head is on the left with a very cute little ear easy to see (I think it looks like my sister Lindsey's ears :)) and arms and knees are tucked in.

16 week baby bump picture in a maternity dress, definitely easy to disguise.

16 week baby bump picture taken right after the above one in a "normal" shirt. Bump is a lot easier to notice! Although it still just looks like post-Thanksgiving to me. :)

This week has been a big week for baby. We were in San Antonio to get some of Daddy's (as in Brian, not my Daddy :)) things and see some friends & family, and then we took baby to Houston and did lots and lots of "touring" while house-sitting for our friends Brad & Lauren, as well as went to Kristy's baby shower (for Baby Kendall's friend Madeleine!), and finally went to Jordan (friend from med school!) & Emily's wedding.

My yucky nausea continued into about 15 weeks but has gently tapered off once we left San Antonio & got to Houston, woo hoo! We're now into the phase of pregnancy where Baby wants WHAT it wants WHEN it wants it! I go from feeling great to SOLID HUNGER in literally 3-5 seconds. This has made things a little bit difficult :) but I think we (Brian and I, haha, because we all know Baby won't give!) are adjusting to it. I'm just a little nervous about starting on rotations soon in the hospital because I know it will be very long hours and there will be less than zero concern for my hunger issues. So I'm really trying to think of things that will pack on the protein and easily stay in my white coat pocket, while catering to my picky eating. :) So far all I've got is mini-Luna bars & cheese crackers (I don't like peanut butter which is very limiting!). If anyone has any ideas feel free to pass them our way! :)

At this ultrasound it was a very mixed set of emotions because we were excited to see the baby, but really just very focused on making sure the doctor could determine the gender because the party is this Saturday! At the beginning the doctor took all the measurements and the baby was measuring right on track and even a little older than my official due date says. It's little head circumference, biparietal diameter, femur length, and abdomen circumference were perfect! As the doctor got to trying to determine the gender the umbilical cord was in the way and the baby would NOT cooperate. Every time we go in Dr. New is always a little frustrated because of how much this baby likes to move around :) and this time was no exception! And of course like I said, to make matters worse the umbilical cord was in just the absolute worst spot possible! So the doctor stopped and said he would go and see another patient and wanted me to try to walk around and get the baby sloshed around enough to kick the cord out of the way so we'd at least have a shot for him to see the gender! So he left the room and I grabbed a diet coke (YUCK!) & a brownie I had brought (I had already had both but thought more couldn't hurt) and walked out in the hallway and walked very fast! I also prodded at my stomach the whole time, trying to get little one to get that cord out of the way. Then I came back and my Mom suggested trying to safely turn upside down, haha!, so I did a bear-crawl like maneuver in the ultrasound room which I am sure was very attractive. :) Brian tried to ask the baby nicely to do what we were asking but I reminded him that this little stinker tends to do what it wants and we more so have to TELL it what to do. :) So the doctor came back in and looked for a while and even tried to prod around himself but really just couldn't get the baby to cooperate. So finally at the end the doctor said, "Well maybe we can schedule you guys for later this week... Wait turn your head!!" and literally at that moment, baby cooperated. :) We couldn't believe it... so typical of this offspring of ours!! So we all turned our head and the doctor took a good look and took a freeze frame picture and wrote either "Boy" or "Girl" on the ultrasound, printed it, and put it in an envelope we brought! I made sure that we talked to each other loudly while he was typing so that we wouldn't be able to make out three keyboard clicks for boy and four keyboard clicks for girl :) We asked the doctor if he was mostly sure and he said, "Oh yeah, I'm sure" so that was fun to hear! On the way home from the appointment was a lot of mixed emotion because it would have been SO easy to just open the envelope and know :( but we know it would have taken away from the Gender Reveal party this Saturday and finding out that way we had already intended. We all were trying to "read" the doctor's words :) later on... and Brian and Tristan (my sister) got a "boy" vibe, while Mom and I got a "girl" vibe, and Dad just wasn't really sure. So let that go to show everyone- we had no extra help having been at that ultrasound!

The next time we update the blog we will know what you are, kid! We will look forward to your arrival either way- sports and camping trips and mud... or bows and cheerleading and clothes. :) Either way we are so excited to know just a little more about you. :)

Cravings & Aversions

2011-08-09T14:13:00.005-04:00

All I (or is it this baby?) want recently is:

1. refried beans. :)

2. hot chocolate. Need I remind anyone that it's been, literally, 105degrees in Texas almost every day this summer?

3. sweets. But Brian says it doesn't count because that's all I ever wanted my whole life. :)

4. tortilla chips.

5. a margarita. Obviously that's not happening. :)

Things I (or is it the baby?) can't stand the thought of:

1. yellow rice.

2. snow cones. The ONE thing I lived for during the summer; as in literally counting down the days until the stands would open. :( Such a sad day!

3. meat. Sometimes. Because I KNOW I need the protein I try to suck it up most of the time, but it never looks all that great. Barbecue doesn't stand a chance.

It will be interesting to see what you enjoy and don't enjoy when you come in to this world, Little One!

12 and a half weeks

2011-07-18T21:59:00.007-04:00

12 - 1/2 week ultrasound. Begins with baby's feet kicking, then arms squirm for a moment on either side of its bottom; Last is the baby's heartbeat at 155bpm. Doctor tells you what is what so be sure to turn on sound!

We ended up going into the doctor's office a few days early so that we can go out of town when our former appointment was scheduled for 13 weeks. It was only Brian and I this time and unfortunately we didn't get a new picture, but we DID get quite the ultrasound show!!! Brian was only able to capture the end before the doctor got the heartbeat, so I have posted that here. We laughed because he didn't go back to capture the profile because we think he was slightly frustrated with how squirmy and moving baby was! :) At very first look, we saw the most beautiful profile and a precious little nose- but already it was punching and kicking like crazy! Throughout the ultrasound we saw the femurs, the ribcage, both hemispheres of the brain, its stomach bubble, the bladder, the spine, and of course the arms. He even pointed out at one point when the baby made a fist and you could see its knuckles!

During the exam, the doctor literally said to me, "Once you can feel this- you're IN for it!" When the doctor tells you that at 12 weeks and a few days... oh man is it a little nerve-wracking! I ALWAYS knew since the day I found out we were pregnant that this baby was a fighter and was super-feisty, so I guess it is just confirmation that it really is the case! :) We are already trying to think of names that are easy to yell from across the room :) and names that are a little more feisty than they are sweet :) Crazy, but true!

My favorite part of the ultrasound is where the baby kicks its legs and then flaps its arms- love, love, love! Our next appointment will be at 16-1/2 weeks where the doctor will find out the sex and seal it in an envelope and we'll deliver it to a bakery. :) We're having a Gender Reveal Party where ALL of us (Brian & I included) will find out the gender on August 20th in the city we met and fell in love in... College Station, Texas (aka "Aggieland"!). :)

Telling the Family about YOU, Baby!

2011-07-15T14:17:00.006-04:00

I found out about Baby on Monday, and told Daddy about Baby on Friday after lunch. Friday afternoon was Lindsey's pinning for nursing school at Texas Tech- so we attended that. Afterwards we went to Rosa's for a quick dinner then headed back to Mom and Dad's hotel, the Overton, to have some neat cookies for dessert.

Lindsey and her boyfriend, James, went downstairs and brought up these gift bags (red with black polka-dotted tissue paper, Texas Tech's colors) to the room. She began to hand them out to everyone in the family- Dad, Mom, Tristan, Mommie & Papa (my grandparents), and also Brian and I so there would be no suspicion. :) Obviously mine and Brian's bags were empty and we were just opening them for show, haha! Lindsey went on and on about how this was just a little something for everyone thanking them for everything during her journey through nursing school, it really was no big deal, etc. Then she said we should all open it at the same time, and to go ahead...

So here is where the video ensues, but I will try to point out what is happening, haha! Mom had a positive pregnancy test in her bag and a Texas A&M tiny onesie that Brian and I bought earlier this spring for "someday." Dad was SUPPOSED to have a picture of what the embryo looked like, but ended up getting a I heart Daddy picture frame, haha! (Brian and James had packed the bags that afternoon and some communication was crossed over obviously! The frame was supposed to be for Brian :)) Mommie and Papa had one bag that had a Pregnancy Journal that my friend Brandy had given me as a gift for "someday" :) as well as my new prescription for Prenatal vitamins. Tristan's bag had the printout of my discharge papers from the ER and I had highlighted my name and the "Now that you're pregnant..." portions of the paper. Brian and I (and Lindsey and James) had thought that immediately upon opening the gift everyone would know what was going on, but no one really understood! Mom just stood there holding the onesie going "What???" and Mommie and Papa were very quiet, not understanding why Lindsey would give them a pregnancy journal! and Daddy only saw the picture frame so he was totally totally confused. It was finally Tristan, once she opened the papers and saw the highlighted part... that everything finally came into play! She SCREAMED at the top of her lungs and everything started going fast! Dad STILL didn't get it and at the time we thought I was about 7 weeks pregnant (remember that things were crazy, go back and view that post for more info :)), so Lindsey finally looked him in the eye and said, "Brittany's SEVEN WEEKS PREGNANT." and Dad literally fell back on the bed in total shock! Brian was in the corner video'ing most of this, and then James took over so Brian could be in the middle of it. We laugh though because everyone was coming up to me and hugging me and crying, and Brian was left over on the side for a minute by himself haha! Here's the video that we got of that evening :)

The rest of the evening we just spent talking about how and when and why and how and all the excitement of the night! At first I called the baby "Fetus" because I didn't want to get too attached, so Tristan did the same for me, but Mommie just refused and said "No, this is a baby!" That night Papa also leaned over to Mommie and said, "I'm okay being a bachelor in January" so we are still hoping that we will get a Mommie "nanny" for a while once the baby is born, just made us laugh the way he said it! Dad also kept saying, "Are you okay??" which made me laugh too!

That night for a few different reasons we just decided to tell Brian's family over the phone, even though we wish so badly we could have told them in person, too!! Brian and I called each of them and asked three questions! "#1. Are you alone? #2. Can you keep a secret? #3. Are you ready to be an uncle/aunt/grandparents??" From there we just left things within that tiny circle of people because we really wanted it to be special for whoever else we told and I had a fun idea for an email (since we of course have friends and family ALL over the States!) to send them.

It was so much fun to tell the family about you, Baby! We can't wait until you're here and we can introduce you to all of them!

Daddy 101

2011-07-15T14:13:00.000-04:00

Tonight, while he transfers clothes from washer to dryer:

Me: "Try it doing it one-handed like if you were holding a baby."
Brian: "Ok."
... ...
Me: "You're not doing a very good job."
Brian: "Well if you were a real baby I would put you on the ground."

Um, Fantastic.

Telling Daddy about Baby #1

2011-07-13T08:00:00.007-04:00

Tuesday that week, May 17th, was Brian and I's 3 year anniversary. We also give each other the "traditional" gift list of gifts for each year, and this year was either crystal or leather. I had really dropped the ball and forgot to buy his gift BEFORE leaving for Lubbock, so I promised him that I would get it to him as soon as he arrived. Of course, with this baby-telling now in the mix, that definitely helped out my surprise factor!

I told Brian we had to "go" somewhere for his anniversary gift, and Lindsey was going to have to drive us there since she knew Lubbock better than I. There was so much going on that Friday, so we had to make it a very quick trip (Linds and I had scoped out the location beforehand to make sure everything would work okay). He was eyes-closed the whole way and since we were in Lubbock, had no idea where we were going. When we got there, Lindsey got him out of the car, still eyes-closed, and let him to the front of the store while I went in to set everything up. As soon as he walked in, he could tell by the Starbucks smell, the sound of the music, and hearing escalators that we were in Barnes & Nobles. B&N has always been a special location for us- as it is where we have studied for many tests, and more importantly where we first met on a semi-date in College Station! Lindsey took him up the stairs and led him to the Children's section, where I had cleared a space and put a bench in front of their huge wall mural of trees and children and swings. On the platform there was also several Daddy books set up for him to see, and a giftbag. Brian opened his eyes and was VERY confused as to what was going on! I told him to look in the bag, and as he did he found a picture printed out of an embryo and I had written "This is what we think Baby Kendall looks like!" and the pregnancy test was in there, too. He was FLOORED. I was expecting maybe some emotional reaction, but he literally was in SHOCK! "WAIT, I'm GOING TO BE A DADDY? YOU'RE GOING TO BE A MOMMY?!" and then "When can we tell our families?!" haha! He was so flabbergasted and literally had to LAY DOWN on the bench he was sitting on for a moment so as not to pass out! We hugged and then went and bought his ACTUAL anniversary gift (a leather Bible!) and a simple toy we have always wanted our baby to have- the Sleep Sheep!

It was such a special time and I absolutely loved the way it turned out- it was very "us" and he was SO surprised! The hard part though, was that my whole family and grandparents were in town for Lindsey's graduation, but we weren't going to tell them until that night so we had to keep it secret again!

And of course, we were still in Lubbock for the whole ordeal. :) Good thing I was born & raised West Texan so at least there's a special place in my heart for it! :) Of course now there is a special place in both our hearts for it!

Finding out about YOU, Baby!

2011-07-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Some background...

Brian and I had talked with two couples that we have met over the years that are BOTH in (or were in) medical school, like us. We could talk to couples all day long where one or the other was in medical school, but really there is absolutely nothing like both being tied down to medical school and so we really wanted to trust those who had gone before us and knew exactly what we were up against when it came to medical school, residency, and beginning a job as a physician. We had always planned to wait until residency to have our first baby; however, after talking to both of these couples, neither of which knew each other, theyboth strongly urged usto try to have a baby in medical school first instead of residency. It totally caught us off guard, but we really took it to heart and started talking to EVERYone who mattered in the Ross U. School of Medical administration office in New Jersey to see how this wouldwork for us, especially for me, the momma. It turned out that this was something that happened fairly often and that there were already some procedures in place to ensure a very smooth transition. I also met a General Surgery resident who had a baby in college, in medical school, and in residency- and SHE said that the easiest transition was in medical school. As we kept talking to everyone, & explored our options in Michigan (because we knew we loved it there and wanted to stay), it really became apparent that this hospital was the perfect place to have a raise a baby for medical students, and that the program we would be with would be every bit supportive (something very uncommon in as conservative of a field as medicine is). I will leave the specifics of this baby's "coming to existence" for a non-blog conversation :) but let's just say... we were not expecting a baby this soon or this out of the blue!

Back to the story...

As I have mentioned before, we were in Texas for the summer, starting in April, to study for our big test, take the test, then spend some down time with our families and friends before the real challenge of clinical rotations begin in the hospital this fall. Because my parents were doing a complete and total remodel of their house in the middle of these weeks, and because there were several events that, being back in Texas, we did NOT want to miss (Lindsey's graduation from college, Parent's Weekend with Allison & Brian's family), we ended up traveling ALL over Texas and the DFW metroplex in the middle of studying for this test. (Side note: looking back, I believe God has a reason for everything, and as antsy as I get being in one place for too long, I think He did it for my own good.)

Two weeks before the test, I travelled to Lubbock with my sister, Lindsey, while she was in an NCLEX-prep class at Texas Tech so that I could get a different study environment for a while and spend some alone time with her. Brian and I had decided not to tell anyone about when we would start trying to have a family and just wanted to keep it for us. But for some reason on this trip I just had a desire to tell her; I asked Brian and he said of course, so I did. She was super-excited, to say the least. But I told her that it would probably happen towards the end of summer or fall, and we left it at that.

Saturday night, I shared a margarita with Lindsey. Yep. Monday night, I wanted a glass of wine with dinner, but I just didn't feel like I should without taking another test. We had to go

to the grocery store anyways, so I grabbed one and literally had ZERO inkling of it being positive, so much so that I almost just did it in the grocery store bathroom but they were closed for cleaning! So instead I went home and took the test and just threw it on the counter and didn't think anything of it. All of a sudden though, I started to see what looked like the vertical line that would make out a plus sign! OH MY WORDDDDDD. I thought, "There is absolutely no way I am seeing this right, I must be seeing a shadow." But as I looked harder, and looked at it from about a million angles I might add, it still looked like a plus sign. I opened the door, and walked out slowly with my hand over my mouth. Lindsey saw me and said, "Is it positive???" I said, "Lindsey, I think it's POSITIVE. Go look!" She looked and said, "Britt, that is positive. WE HAVE TO GET THREE MORE TESTS!" hahaha. I will never forget that part! The nurse in her yelling "We have to get three more tests!" So literally, we packed up and went to the grocery store and bought a pack of three while I chugged water like I was walking through the Sahara. We got home and the next one was positive again, and the third one was negative (most likely too dilute by this point!). We are both crazy medical people, and even though we knew what this most likely meant, we could not sleep that night until we KNEW. So we did what any normal, logical person would do... we WENT TO THE ER. I am not an ER person at all... but I was in Lubbock and obviously had no doctor or any ties to anyone I knew there at all, so ER it was. The people in there probably thought I was off my rocker coming in at 10pm at night for a serum HCG test.

We were taken back to the administrative office pretty quick for paperwork. While giving them my insurance info and reason for coming in, she asked if I was here because of an accident. And I said, "Well it depends on how you look at it." :) Haha! She laughed and so did my sister, and I think it lightened the mood a little. :) We were taken back and the nurse practitioner on duty had the nurse take my blood, and then we waited. Linds and I had both brought study material so I sat on the bed and worked on things as best I could and Linds did the same. The NP came back in, somewhat stoic, and said, "So were you TRYING to get pregnant?" What do you even say to that?! I briefly muttered, "Well um kinda, but..." and he said, "Well, you're going to need this!" and handed me a prescription for Prenatal vitamins. :) It was actually really awkward but I think he was trying to make it very special so Linds and I definitely appreciated that. :) As we walked out the doors down the hall the nurse said, "Congratulations!" and that's when it actually felt kind of real! Outside we took a picture (as secretly as we could, ha!) and I could not believe, first of all, that I found out in LUBBOCK, of all places! And that I had borrowed Lindsey's Texas Tech sweatshirt (sinful!!) to wear that day, so it showed up in the pictures! Mom later told me that she found out she was pregnant with me while in Lubbock, so that made it better. :)

Brian had told me a long time ago that once we were pregnant, he wanted a big production for telling him about it! He said that he had to plan the perfect proposal, so this should be something I should do for him. Ridiculous, right? :) So I had to wait a WEEK, until that Friday, to tell him!!! It was TORTURE! Luckily, I did have two friends who had known that we were nearing the "possibly trying" phase, and I wanted to save the fun surprise emails and calls for everyone else, so I texted them both at midnight with a simple text of "Are you up?!" Kristy texted back "Actually, yeah!" and Sarah texted back "Congratulations!" which absolutely cracked me up! So for the next week I had to keep it between those two girls and Lindsey, which was so hard to do! Lindsey also called her boyfriend that night, because we were going to need his help getting some "supplies" from my parents house in DFW for the big reveal that would happen that weekend. She called him and said, "We're PREGNANT!" hahaha! She forgets that well, SHE'S not pregnant, but she has always felt this baby is somewhat hers. :)

That evening was absolutely crazy and from start to end it was just a TOTAL shock to find out about you, baby! I could not wait to tell your Daddy and the rest of the people who love you already!

11 weeks

2011-07-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

11 week baby "bump"

I'm finally starting to feel like I am nearing the end of the first trimester. Although I still get tired every so often, and still have waves of nausea, it's nothing like what it has been in the past. I feel so much more like myself, now. Please excuse the self-portrait (I always said I would never do that... until I realized my husband is going to think I'm a moron for wanting to take a "baby bump" pic at 11 weeks!). And please excuse the workout clothes. And please excuse the red-hot face, I'm fine!, it's always been that way when I work out. And please excuse the crazy hair. And please excuse no make-up. :)

While I obviously do not have a literal baby bump yet, I am starting the phase of what a friend referred to as "you just look like you're letting yourself go". :) Lovely! It's enough to be uncomfortable when I button pants or shorts, but not enough to where I can't actually button them. It's enough to be yucky looking in a swimsuit, but definitely not enough to look cute and pregnant-like. Oh well, I assume all of that will come soon enough so I will just enjoy the belly fluff for now. :)

Our little one has internal organs now, almost all of them!!, and can move its little hands, and do "water ballet" and move all around! It's probably getting close to putting its intestines back into its body. Did you know that the intestines herniate out of the belly button while everything else develops then come back inside? :) That's probably a little medical fact that your OB wouldn't normally mention. :) It's also developing fingernails! (Juno, anyone??) And has started to develop the fine hair that will initially cover its body! And of course, who could forget, it has started to urinate and use those kidneys... and is learning how to swallow its own urine as it cycles the amniotic fluid. Lovely again!

Baby, we love you very much. Even if right now you're learning how to drink your own urine. :) Just make sure to kick that habit by the time you make your way into the world, k?

9 weeks

2011-07-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

9 week ultrasound. Black stuff is the amniotic fluid. The large bulge is the head is on the left, and the tiny thing poking out on the right is a little leg! The arms are there in the middle, and that's where it's heartbeat could be seen.

9 week doppler. The lines on the screen are zoned in on the baby's heart to better hear the heartbeat. Rate was 177bpm.

At our 9 week appointment we had my Mom and Lindsey, my sister, come with us, since they were close by! The baby's amniotic fluid amount is great, and to us it was the first time it started to look somewhat like a human being and less like a glob of something. :) The most exciting part was listening to the now- very strong heartbeat! It came in at a rate of 177bpm! At hearing that my grandmother, Mommie, said, "Sounds like a girl!" Brian was able to grab a video with his phone of the ultrasound monitor while the doctor got the heartbeat again for us. We love sharing it with anyone who will listen. :)

6 weeks

2011-07-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

6 week ultrasound. The black is the gestational sac, the top white part that looks like a thumbnail is the yolk sac and the bottom white part that looks like a cashew is the embryo.

The moment the ultrasound screen pulled up this time, we could tell baby had grown. We didn't have to zoom in as much, and you could definitely tell there was more white inside this sac than before. The doctor was immediately optimistic and shared in our enthusiasm that this was definitely a normal 6 week pregnancy at this point. As we kept looking, we started to notice a firefly in the middle of this little cashew looking embryo. The doctor pointed to it and said, "There's your baby's heart!" It was so, so surreal. You read about the development of the heart, you are tested on it, you know all the ins and outs and what's happening, but until you see your own child's heart beating after it started from nothing, words cannot describe the feeling! The doctor zoomed in and we listened and could hear the swoosh of a beautiful S1 and S2 heart sound! We were very blessed to get the opportunity to hear our baby's heartbeat and see it beat at only 6 weeks.

Afterwards, we were given all the Mommy gear and hospital information (even though of course we won't be delivering here, lovely!). Most fun of all was hearing a due date from the doctor! January 26th, he said! The first thing Brian said was, "A superbowl baby!" And I'm laying on the table, and I'm like, "Really?!?! That's the first thing you think about?!" I think it's great, though. :) This munchkin will come into the COLD and SNOW in Michigan! What a "Welcome to Earth" message like sub-zero weather and freezing everywhere!

This was also about the time the nausea started to kick up a little bit. :) I have never been to the point of literal vomiting, but the nausea at spurts throughout the day has been a little limiting. I also slept on and off fairly often. There was a week's span where the nausea and fatigue was so much that my Mom would joke that they would see me tiptoe into the kitchen for a bite or two of something a couple of times a day, then leave and be back in bed. :)

It was at 6 weeks after we heard the heartbeat that we told our very close friends and extended family our great news :)

5 weeks

2011-07-08T15:53:00.003-04:00

5 week ultrasound. The black pouch is the gestational sac & the white in the middle is the embryonic disc.

Being the feisty, crazy, makes-no-sense baby that this little one is, we had an appointment with my OB-GYN at 5 weeks for what we all thought would be a 10 week appointment. Yes, go figure that one! We still don't understand it at all!

Needless to say, when the ultrasound started, the mood in the room immediately shifted from excitement and anticipation to solemn sounds and comfort from the doctor. He said that the embryo looked to be more of at a 5 week mark. With that, and given what "should" have been seen at that appointment, he mentioned the word "miscarriage" and said that we would do bloodwork to see what exactly was happening.

Please keep in mind that this appointment was on Thursday. Not just any Thursday. The Thursday before the BIGGEST. TEST. OF. OUR. LIVES. that was that following Tuesday.

That day he drew blood for my beta-HCG levels and blood type (I could have told him I was A- if he would have asked!). That Friday we were called and told my levels were a "high normal" at 5,500 and that even if the levels doubled by next week like they were supposed to, we would have to be seen for another ultrasound to check everything. Brian and I were both devastated, as well as mad. From what we knew, and what we were told by a very close source who is a physician, one measurement of HCG means hardly anything. It's two consecutive readings that count, and they should be doubling. It was so frustrating to us that we were being lead to believe that this was a bad thing when in fact it literally meant nothing until we had the next set of levels. From the medical student perspective, we also knew way too much about what high normal's could mean.

That weekend was the absolutely most stressful weekend of my life, and I think Brian would agree. We were in the final days of studying for our US Medical Licensing Exam and were not sure whether or not we were pregnant or in the middle of a miscarriage. Brian pleaded with me to try to separate myself to focus on the test; but it was just impossible for him, and anyone else who hasn't experienced a growing life within you, to understand. As silly as it sounds, I felt like if I separated myself emotionally and mentally, that this baby would think that nobody cared for it. For anyone who knows me well and my "Christina Yang" from Grey's Anatomy personality, this was an emotion that I have never experienced and that only be described as a mother's love, I guess.

Tuesday we took our exam, and afterwards drove straight to the doctors office to have labwork drawn. Wednesday I was napping mid-day and received a call and ran outside to answer. The nurse said that the levels were now almost 25,000 (Whoop! A fighter!!!). But she still said the doctor wanted to do an ultrasound the next day to check on things. So Thursday we went in, still with no expectations because we were still not lead to believe that things were "okay."

That's where Week 6 will pick up...

Welcome to Existence, Baby!

2011-07-06T10:52:00.002-04:00

Brian and I have some exciting news...

After 3 years as a Family, we're becoming a Family of 3!

I'll update more soon; I'm so excited to start our story-telling here so Little One can read all about it when he/she is old enough!

Summer in Random Thoughts

2011-06-28T12:02:00.003-04:00

Summer is what it used to be! Finally!

We literally do whatever we want. All day. Every day. It's incredible!! And probably the last time something like this will ever make its appearance in our lives, but hey- we are loving it! Brian is at Mo Ranch this week (somewhere around San Antonio) playing with a bunch of the "kids" turned teenagers that he used to spend every summer with. I am home in Keller loving being with my Mama all day, and making dinner for Dad and Linds when they get home from work in the evening. Ah, the life! Mom and I are getting pedicures today, too.

This Thursday I will be driving down to San Antonio with Brian's sister, Allie. That night we are leaving for Seaside, FL for a vacation with Brian's mom's extended family. We are really looking forward to it. Luckily a 12-15hr. trip is NADA when you're used to 24hr. trips nonstop :)

Another thought... Barnes & Noble is a totally different atmosphere when you go there for leisurely reading than when you go there for hardcore studying. Such a pleasant place, it is!

We also had dinner the other night with friends from college, Joel & Lauren Bailey. Lauren and I were roomies and she and Joel are now big-timers in Dallas! He is an attorney working in litigation and she is an optometrist! We love spending time with them and always enjoy their company. Having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen wasn't a horrible way to end the day either :)

I would kill for Taco Villa right now. Why can't Dallas-Ft. Worth realize the importance that is Taco Villa and make. it. happen.?!

Keller's Sonic extends their happy hour until 4:30 pm instead of just 4pm.

One of my sisters started her very first nursing job at a prestigious hospital in Dallas this week. In the ICU. She's AWESOME. My other sister gets back on Thursday from spending 6 weeks serving and doing mission work in Africa. Incredible. My brother in law starts law school this fall. My sister in law got a great internship in Dallas this summer. We have a rockin family.

A weekend at the Bankhead Lakehouse cures many of stressors and frustrations. You should try it sometime!

And that's my randomness about summer. :) Hope everyone's summer is amazing and not too hot!!

Famous...

2011-06-19T23:55:00.003-04:00

...Okay not really. :) I knew Brian and I were a part of an interview that Ross did back in our second semester/ end of first year. And I knew eventually that we were in the full-page pamphlets that they hand out. What I didn't know is that apparently our picture is on their Informational slide show they present around the country (courtesy of a friend from grad school telling me that!) and that we are now on their website giving our little testimonial, too. :) I'm glad we can help, though. Ross U. School of Medicine has done so much for us and given us the opportunity to reach our dreams, together. We'd do anything for them, Anytime!

http://www.rossu.edu/medical-school/admissions/meetstudents.cfm

Roots

2011-06-10T11:59:00.002-04:00

My paternal great-great(ish)-grandfather, Claud Armstrong. He fought at the Alamo in Texas against Mexico. We Texans all know how the Battle of the Alamo ends... Texas lost, and it was not good for any of them. What storybooks don't mention, though, is that a few survived and were taken captive by the Mexican army there. They passed around a bag of beans, some were white, some were black. If a Texas soldier drew a coveted white bean, they were allowed to ride home to tell the people about what had happened; essentially, they were allowed to live. If a Texas soldier drew a black bean, then immediate death is what awaited him. Claud Armstrong drew a white bean... however, he gave that white bean to an 18-year old young soldier standing next to him, taking instead a black bean and an immediate fate.

My maternal great-grandfather, Sterling Stevens. He and his wife had 12 children in South Texas. They were farmers and dairy farmers and worked very hard for all that they had; they even owned a automobile, a big deal back in their day. When the Great Depression hit the United States, Sterling and his family were blessed to not be very affected by it. However, he decided that the car should go in the barn and be put up until others were able to get back on their own feet and the economy was back where it should be. Deeper into the Depression, Sterling noticed that milk was being stolen every night from his barn by a neighbor of his. Instead of locking the doors tighter, scolding this neighbor, or turning him in, Sterling made sure to set out enough milk every night for that neighbor and his family.

What a great set of roots I have on both sides of my family. Reminds me sometimes to slow down and spend more time trying to be a better person and a better Christian in this world like both of these men.

A real summer!

2011-05-31T21:02:00.002-04:00

We're done!!!! The first part of our board exams that decides whether or not we can become licensed physicians is over. Now is the waiting and watching and ENJOYING OUR SUMMER part! :) We are so excited to just be FRIENDS and SPOUSES and kick the study buddy titles out for a while. :)

The test itself was LONG. You hear that but then to actually experience it is a whole other thing. The test was seven hours and then we had about 30min. of break for lunch and bathroom. We both had headaches afterwards, needless to say. Results won't come out until July 15th or so, so we'll just be anxiously awaiting them but until then- just enjoying our summer! It's the first time since we started medical school (Aug. 2009) that we don't have to be anticipating or studying something! And it's the first time that I have had no school OR work since HIGH school!

We're looking forward to the summer- spending time with family, spending time at my parent's lakehouse, catching up on blogging :), working out whenever we want, getting tans, seeing our friends, date nights, 18 holes of golf, laying by the pool, an afternoon of tennis! The possibilities are endless.

Cheers to summer! :)

Exploring Dominica

2011-05-14T18:40:00.003-04:00

This is a perfect representation of the little Caribbean island we lived on for a a year and a half. What a blessing! We got to explore and do almost all the things he does (including that crazy Boiling Lake hike... an 8hr Stairmaster!)

Workout fail.

2011-05-06T16:59:00.001-04:00

I get carsick. Whatev.

But seriously... Who gets motion sickness on the treadmills and stationary bikes at the gym?

Workout fail at Larry North Fitness.

Quotes heard between my husband and I today

2011-04-20T17:12:00.001-04:00

[Sweet tea tips over in the Acadia]
Brian: "Oh no we need Napkins stat!!"

[Lady at Sonic asks if we would like a drink carrier]
Brian: "Nah, we have cupholders. And she has hands."
Me: "Like it's special for me to have hands??"

Brian: "I don't like the chunks of strawberries in that lemonade."
[I'm thinking he is crazy and how much better does it get than actual tiny strawberry pieces in your lemonade? So I suck on the straw and up comes a MASSIVE CHUNK of strawberry slimyness...]
Me: "SICK that's like a pulmonary embolus of chunkiness."

Texas, our Texas!

2011-04-11T15:29:00.001-04:00

We are back in our beautiful home state and couldn't be more thankful for warm weather, green grass, and flip flops! If you are in DFW or San Antonio or College Station please drop us a line, we would love to see you! We will be here until June 20 or so and taking Step 1 of our Board exams on May 31st!

Happy Spring!

Big girl paper

2011-03-20T14:07:00.000-04:00

Somehow I squeaked by in high school, college, my Master's program, and two years of medical school without having to write a paper more than 5 single spaced pages in length. I've finally grown up and wrote my first big girl paper, 20 pages long. :) Here's my title page, just for memory's sake down the line somewhere!

Pt with CC: “I feel off balance”

Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, M.S.

Ross University School of Medicine

Just enough wonderful.

2011-03-18T21:02:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been a serious roller coaster.

Bad grade on Midterm.
Good grade on a BioStat assignment.

Felt I was worthless help at the food bank.

Watched people appreciate the opportunity to get food at the Food Bank.
Gym scale says I gained 4 pounds.
We start a family prayer journal with little slots for "answers" when they come.
Red bowl mysteriously taken from potluck.

Realized there's only one more Match Day before ours.

Dr.'s office forgot to call in syringe prescription.
Grocery store sells syringes without a prescription.
Urine on my hand.

Got the feeling of being "plateau'd" in my studying.

Figured out a stellar study plan for Step 1 of our Board exams.

In couple's match for Residency, apparently there is always a "dead weight."

Stayed up until 2:30a.m. writing a 20pg paper.

Husband loses every last word of his 16-page paper.
I.T. dept tells husband nothing can be done to save his paper.
Dr. P gives husband an extension deadline on his paper.
Husband finds a program to get back a few pages of his paper.
Said program costs $70.
Sunday afternoon nap, woke up and it was lightly snowing outside.
Thursday afternoon, walked outside and it was a beautiful 60degrees.
Turn red in fury at someone flat out telling me "No" when I know I am right.

I learned ways to get involved with women in surgery.
I met some awesome women surgeons.
I performed a lumbar puncture on a mannequin.
I started a central line on a mannequin.
I intubated (on the first try) on a mannequin.
I learned how to give intradermal, subcutaneous, and intramuscular injections.
I learned how to place a foley catheter.
I learned how to start an intraosseous line (with and without a bone drill).
I learned how to splint a limb.
I learned how to start an IV drip.
I learned how to suture three different ways.

I learned how to deliver a baby.

God always seems to know how to give you just enough wonderful to get you through the wondering and wandering.

Comfort

2011-03-06T21:16:00.001-05:00

... Is having your Mama &Daddy in town, your Husband by your side, too much food and chocolate in your stomach, and a full day of shopping ahead. Ah, the life!

In the End...

2011-03-03T10:43:00.000-05:00

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln

Scrub Training

2011-03-02T09:54:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we had Scrub Training up at Covenant Hospital here in Saginaw with the director of our program at Synergy. We were able to get scrub-certified so that now whatever hospital we go to we are already trained in the art of scrubbing in. :) We were with a group so there is a picture of our group, as well as of our study group- Triple B! There are a few of Brian and I, in my extra large attire haha!, of course Brian's fits perfectly. :)

And no... that's not blood on Brian's scrubs, it's Iodine. :)

Portraits of Pancakes: Pill

2011-02-27T21:26:00.001-05:00

I wasn't feeling well... :) Looks like I needed some medicine in the form of a capsule!

You Know You're in Medical School When...

2011-02-26T23:44:00.000-05:00

... you remind each other that not having so much to talk about anymore isn't due to the fact that you're growing apart, but that you literally spend every waking moment of every day with each other engrossed in medical jargon and SOAP-note writing and differential diagnosis figuring out-ing. :)

Example from tonight:

Brian: "We spend ALL day together!"

Friend, Jesse: "Yeah, it's not like you can say 'How was your day?' ... 'You should know- you were there!'"

Full circle

2011-02-25T23:35:00.002-05:00

It's always funny to me how the things we pray the hardest for are the things that seem to be a nuisance or a source of stress later on. Am I the only one?!

Take medical school, for example. :) We prayed and prayed and prayed, so hard, that we would just be given the opportunity to attend medical school together. God blessed us with the opportunity, and we were SO thankful! Yet now... we are trying to put all our chicks or ducks or whatever in a row, however that saying goes :), and figure out where we'll be moving to in the next two-ish years, and it's a HUGE source of stress and not-knowing (which for Type A-me just isn't so easy of a pill to swallow). Literally in the past two days we have started to figure out how we were going to move to each of these sites (and I promise I'm not exaggerating):

-Atlanta, Georgia

-Chicago, Illinois

-Bakersfield, California

-Janesville, Wyoming

-New York City, New York

-Hoboken, New Jersey

-Danbury, Connecticut

-staying in Saginaw, Michigan

No joke. Between the types of rotations that need to be done to obtain a Texas State Board Medical Licensure (ACGME accreditation), and the schools that Ross offers these rotations at (a lot, actually), and the cities that have multiples of these within the same city (very few)... we are just worn thin on trying to make this plan work.

I think it's about that time to keep doing our research (our part)... but let God show us what's best and what He has planned for us (His part).

Either way- I have to remember how blessed we are to "have these problems," you know?

Portraits of Pancakes: Degree Scroll

2011-02-22T12:53:00.003-05:00

Brian made this pancake for me when we got back to Michigan after having been in Miami for a week. I took my Comp exam, and passed!, and so now I am the proud owner of a Master's of Science in Biomedical Science degree (what this picture is supposed to look like! Remember the old scroll degrees? Isn't he so good!)... as well as two cool little initials at the end of my name. :)

Life's about...

2011-02-14T22:19:00.002-05:00

-comfy sweats
-a husband watching "the bachelor" just because you want him to
-cuddling before bed
-nighttime prayers
-a smoothie and pretzels for dinner
-racquetball and aerobics classes
-one spouse calling the insurance company because the other can't stomach it at the moment
-hearing a murmur, crackle, and rail for the first time through your stethoscope
-special talents that make you, you
-cute names for grandparents, like GiGi and Honey
-being a family in your own way
-following the unbeaten path every once in a while
-sleigh rides through the woods for valentines day
-sisters, parents, and in-laws
-living your dream
-eating out more than you should sometimes
-unfailing love
-snow and sand
-being grateful and thankful more often that God has given you the blessings He has

--
Respectfully,
Brittany Bankhead-Kendall

Sent from my iPhone4

What's next for us...

2011-01-12T15:08:00.001-05:00

We've gone the slightly (to say the least) unconventional route of medical school and everyone keeps asking us "what is next" now that our first two years of basic sciences are over. So here's how it goes. :)

We finished our first "two years" of medical school in 16 months, actually. Ross puts you through your basic sciences with no break of summer so you end up finishing a semester early on an accelerated track.

Our third year of medical school starts Tuesday, January 18th! We chose the Michigan sight for this semester because of all the great things we heard about it and think that it will be a perfect way to start our clinical years.

We've been studying ever since the day after my [last] dental surgery for the Ross NBME Comp exam. It's an exam that we will take that covers the last two years of medical school. It's on January 24th, a week after we start school.

{In a slight addition to this :), Brian and I are travelling down to Miami January 10th through the 16th so that I can take a different Comp exam to finish up my Master's program that I completed in between undergrad and medical school. I did not pass the first comp exam as I was definitely not prepared for it. So we are making the trip down this time to Lord willing pass it and finally receive my M.S. degree! The classes are similar, but not completely the same, so I am really praying that my time in medical school has made me more efficient and better at studying and that I can pass this time!}

Finally, if we do pass our ROSS comp exam (are you lost yet? :)), we are eligible to sign up to take the USMLE Step 1 (our first of three board exams throughout medical school), which would be sometime in late May or early June. We are taking things one at a time right now, though!

I hope this helps everyone understand where we are at, and I will try to be better about updating as we move along in this process that is our dream come true! Come see us in Michigan! It snows every day and you get to wear cute jackets and boots! :)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-09T14:44:00.003-05:00

We have had such an amazing holiday season. From getting back to the States, buying our first car together (a 2011 Acadia that we LOVE!), and getting to spend time with both sides of our family, we had an absolute blast. Paul and Brandy were in Texas with us, too, and it was so much fun to show them our little Texas world. :)

While with the Bankhead's, we went to see "A Christmas Carol" in Dallas, had a Christmas party, played the first annual Christmas football game (Santa's vs. Elves), made a gingerbread house, watched old home movies, spent time with Mommie & Papa, ate at Cali Pizza Kitchen, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, the boys flew lots of helicopters like little boys :), we saw a movie on Christmas Day after Santa brought gifts, and Santa HIMSELF came to our HOUSE!!!!

We then drove down to San Antonio on Christmas Day and got to spend an amazing time with the Kendall side! We had an amazing brunch on Sunday morning and Brian was able to see a lot of his home church family from growing up. We had stocking exchange, and a chili & cornbread dinner with all of the neighborhood family that was to die for- including the dessert of cookie roll and ice cream! (Brandy's first Blue Bell experience :)) The next morning we ate breakfast at the Guenther House and saw a cute house and an amazing gingerbread house!, then headed back to DFW after a small :) stop in San Marcos for loading up with on-sale winter gear from the outlet mall!

We are so blessed!

Catching up...

2010-12-22T07:32:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone!

Life has been SO CRAZY lately! I'm so sorry I haven't gotten around to posting. As of this point, we are officially BACK in the United States for good! We are also officially 3rd year medical students!! And we are so so happy to be home for Christmas! Here's a few pics from our return home this past Saturday and a sneak peak at our brand new vehicle... a 2011 Acadia! We'll try to post more before the start of the next round of school! :)

Today

2010-10-22T22:33:00.003-04:00

Today I...

-woke up to a dripping/waterfall of an "Air Conditioner."

-sweated while walking a few hundred yards to class... in the middle of October.

-sat in one chair from 8am until 8pm, stopping only to eat lunch for 30 minutes.

-tried to think of how we can make our second Thanksgiving here really special.

-ate Subway for the gazilllllionth time.

-formed a new blister on my finger from writing too much.

-poured salt (literally) on one of the three ulcers in my mouth because for some outrageous reason it burns like nothing else, but then feels a little better for a while.

-thought about how I want nothing more than to go run like, 8 miles, with just an IPod and some good tennis shoes.

-learned about how there's such thing as "Jelly Belly Syndrome" & it doesn't have anything to do with a large tummy.

-was ecstatic that the Maid did the dishes so my husband didn't have to. Let's be honest... he does them most of the time.

-just needed to talk to my Mama on the phone without it costing international.

-tried to figure out the next two years of our life and where we'll be moving with my husband... it didn't work. We're back at square 1.

-tallied up the costs of what December through April will be to move to another country and buy stuff you need and take a ginormous test. It's too much.

-realized that we can't hold a tutor session for our Anatomy group on Tuesday night because they're fogging up campus with mosquito repellant (for the Dengue outbreak here) and nobody's allowed to be on campus. Stink.

-started to cry (yeah... I know) when I couldn't understand a word our professor was saying during the last lectures of the day.

-looked on Craiglist for housing and realized you can't differentiate the crazies from the legit sellers.

-remembered that my husband and I are healthy, as is our family, and we are blessed and loved and cared for by God and He put us right here, right now, in this very place for a purpose. I don't always get it, and I don't always do it very eloquently, but I think He trusts us to fulfill the plan He intended for our lives.

Success!

2010-09-30T15:14:00.002-04:00

Another "Hospital" day down... another success! Brian just shot me an email from the hospital in Roseau and said that he was randomly picked for surgery and got to see a lot of really great procedures. We were both so blessed to have such great experiences for our first time! Now it's a lot of studying this weekend, as our first exam is on Monday!

Also- we start the application process tomorrow for where will want to end up next semester- Saginaw, Michigan; Miami, Florida; or in Roseau (the capital city of Dominica). We'll keep everybody updated!!

That feeling!

2010-09-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

You know that feeling? The feeling of anticipation. That there is impending wonderfulness! That what's about to come is going to be nothing but great upon fantastic upon "iseriouslycan'twait!!!" I honestly have only felt that a few other times in life, including...

-3rd grade. There was a pep rally the next day. I had borrowed a cheerleader outfit and was going to get to "play the part." I was SO. EXCITED. I don't think my parents even knew, but I woke up in the middle of the night, went and found my cheer uniform, and patted it and laid it out all perfect just waiting for the next day to get there.

-Christmas eve. Every year. Since I can remember. Mom & Dad have made Christmas so exciting and so special ever since we were little. We still great presents from Santa, and on Christmas morning there is absolutely nothing better than the feeling of waking up, walking in the living room, and opening presents with my family.

-Anticipating the jet fly-overs at Texas Aggie football games. The Star Spangled Banner, standing on my feet with former students and Aggies from all over, a beautiful day, and two jets fly so close your hair moves.

(photo from my Senior year, on the field as a Maroon Out director in a time-out)

-We're driving down 836 in Miami. It's been a long day of Christmas parties at Brian's school. We're on our way home, and my phone rings. It's a 305 Miami number, and the person on the other end of the line is the man who interviewed Brian and I. He asks that I put the phone on speaker, and my heart starts to race and I get this same feeling. He tells us we've both gotten into medical school, the same medical school!

-The first day of school my junior/senior (I graduated in 3 years so that was the same day for me :)) year, when I put on a Varsity cheerleading uniform and started my goal of being a high school cheerleader out in the open!

(top row, fifth from the right :))

-It's our first day of medical school. Ever. We listen to them give the run-down of our syllabus that semester for an hour, and then Dr. Vigh takes the head microphone. He begins to give us the most inspirational talk about becoming physicians that I have ever heard. I got the feeling. :)

-I looked down at my ring on my left hand finger on September 17th, 2007 as Brian and I drove back to Miami after he proposed to me on Cocoa Beach. I knew then we were going to get married, have a wedding, go on a honeymoon, and spend the rest of our lives together. I felt the feeling then, too. :)

All that to say, yesterday was a huge amount of this feeling. :) We had our first visit to the hospital to do rotations, and I was giddy like a kid before Christmas! For patient confidentiality we can't say too much, but I will say I got to participate in a murder autopsy, as well as meet a patient with Atrial Fibrillation. It was a really cool day and reminded me for the 800th time why I LOVE medicine and why the hard tests and long days are so worth it!

Ahhhh.... it's amazing to love what you do and do what you love!

Break!

2010-09-02T07:42:00.003-04:00

We have had such a relaxing break from school for these past two weeks and have really gotten to enjoy Dominica and lovely Barbados :) where we took an all-inclusive vacation with our friends Paul and Brandy! I'm going to try to update as much as I can with all we have done this break- it's been all over the place!! From baking more sweets than we have in the past year, to getting our hair highlighted where Tiger Woods got married at the nicest resort in the Carribbean, to riding in a taxi with a man who called himself "Goose Man" and drove in socks and with a bat next to his right hand, to "Coffee Shop" day from the boys :), to a great day at our favorite beach in Dominica, to hiking for 8 hours to see one of the world's two boiling lakes here in Dominica!

Look forward to telling ya'll about them!

"Dominica Med School, Baby"

2010-07-18T12:04:00.002-04:00

If you want a little insight into what life is like at Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica- this is a fantastic overview! It's probably only funny to those of us who live here, but I wanted to share anyways! Enjoy!

You know You're in Medical School when...

2010-07-09T08:47:00.002-04:00

... the Pharmacology professor's wife sees you on the street walking towards your next study destination and says, "It's good to see you two not studying!!"

Daddy

2010-06-19T23:36:00.002-04:00

There are few words that bring me more comfort and feeling of protection, joy, and love than the word "Daddy." I really have no good words to describe the amazing relationship I have had from the very beginning with him. He is one of two people in this lifetime whom I value their wisdom and the way they have lived their life more than anyone else (he and my mom of course:)). He is so successful at what he does- started his job at the very bottom in the field working on oil rigs and is now a big-time VP for the Oil & Natural Gas company he works for in Dallas. We call him "Dale B. the V.P.!" He is well-respected and is always finding innovative ways to better his company and what he has overseen, whether in Dallas, Midland, Canada, or Argentina. I am so proud of him, no one talks more fondly of their Daddy than my two sisters and I. He was always our softball coach, taught me how to golf, was at our cheerleading events with bells on (sometimes literally!), helped me rig a waterballoon launcher to get tiny plastic footballs higher into the stands at home football games, went camping with Indian Princess with Lindsey and I, put our hair in ponytails that were hardly perfect, let us not shower when we didn't want to, laid to talk with us at night when we were scared or just needed his presence, fussed at us when we were (...and sometimes still are :)) late to church on Sunday mornings because of the four other girls in the house taking just a little bit longer. :) He and my husband are the best of friends and I am so thankful that the two most important men in my life can joke and be "dudes" together and love their time together. Most importantly he talked with me when I wanted to be baptized and was the one to baptize both me and my sisters into Christ. The way that he and Mama have led us to be the people who we are, who worship and love the Lord and each other, and give us that Bankhead name, is a blessing all in itself.

Daddy I love you so so much, I can't even begin to explain how much I adore you. Happiest of Father's Day's.

(And Happy Birthday!!!!! It's his birthday, too. :))

Where We Are

2010-06-16T21:41:00.003-04:00

We are so swamped it's not even funny. Whoever said third semester (the beginning of second year) you have more time... was SO not even telling the truth. However, tonight I am listening back and forth while working on study products to two different songs by Lady Antebellum that are not their most popular songs, but have so much sincerity and care in their words that I wanted to post them to share. Even when things are down and out and it feels like I have nowhere to go and am overly frustrated and tired and feel like I cannot go on... I need to remember that God and my husband Brian are there for me and will never falter in their love for me, nor I for them.

"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Lady Antebellum

"Never Alone" by Lady Antebellum

Victoria Falls, Dominica

2010-05-11T07:13:00.000-04:00

Before we left on break we had the chance to experience some more of our lovely home of Dominica for what it is- the Nature Island! We had really been wanting to do a hike to Victoria Falls, so us and several other families split a transport and made the hour and a half trip to the middle of the island to experience Victoria Falls!

The hike itself was incredible and I LOVED it! It was about 45 minutes to an hour each way, and so worth it! We were literally hiking through the jungle, the people leading us even told us to "Watch out for Boa Constrictor's!" We also hiked through water sometimes even waist to mid-chest deep, up and over rocks, over huge tree trunks that had fallen during storms, all over the place! It was so, so cool. At the end of it was a very beautiful waterfall, and some of the boys even jumped off near it! The water was REALLY cold, so I was not feeling so hot on getting completely in, but it turned out it didn't even matter. In the pictures you'll see that I am entirely soaked- that is solely by the wind generated by this waterfall and the water droplets it takes with it that stings your eyes and back if you even get within hundreds of feet of it!

After the hike we had brought a change of clothes and went to a really cool restaurant on that side of the island called "Riverside." It was completely outside on a porch and they grew all of their vegetables right there. It was a really great experience, although I now know I am not one for curry coconut chicken. :)

Overall we had a blast, and would highly recommend this hike to anyone who comes to sweet Dominica!

End of Year 1 Break!

2010-05-10T06:25:00.000-04:00

Over break I think we realized too late that we'd need a "vacation for our vacation" as everyone always calls it! We took a little mini tour-of-Texas while we were home and squeezed as absolute much as possible into our break so that we could see so many special people to us before things get even MORE hectic this Christmas when we get back to the States!

We started off in Dallas with my family and celebrated my birthday (24, woo hoo!) with some cookie cake and a nice 3-4hr. long dental surgery that day. :) Wonderful, right? It was pretty funny to hear some of the aftermath (including me calling my Mom and Brian "liars" because they wouldn't let me have cookie cake, waking up with crustiness all over my shirt and Mom telling me I had "tried" to feed myself chicken & dumplins, and spilling an ENTIRE BLUE COCONUT slush from Sonic ALL OVER THE CARPET- to which I the next day apologized profusely to my Mom and she goes, "Yeah, you said that, too." Haha!).

We spent the next several days getting doctors appointments and all kinds of errands out of the way, then Friday evening left to spend the night with Brian's brother, Scott, in Austin. We had a great time seeing his house there with his 4 other friends (ah, college life :)), had a great breakfast with him, and met up with his girlfriend Chelsea at a volleyball tournament that next day. Later on we headed down the road to San Antonio but not before stopping at the outlet malls to see if we couldn't find a few good deals for things that we needed coming back to the island!

That evening we had dinner with Brian's parents, brother & his girlfriend, the Kramme/LeGrand family, and had such a wonderful time! We stayed very late that night catching up with everyone, drinking coffee, having dessert, and really had a wonderful time. Later we got into College Station around 2:30 in the morning (go Hubs!) and stayed with my sister that night before going to church with her the next day.

After church we met up with my adopted brother Cameron :) and his fiancee Lacee at Freebirds- which was FANTASTIC! I have been craving Freebirds literally for years so I scarfed it down and did not even think twice about it! :) Afterwards we changed and met up with Brian's sister, who is a current student at A&M, and took a tour of our college campus which has really changed a lot in only the 3-4 years that we have been gone- it is crazy how time flies!! Allie was so sweet to take some pictures for us, since we never got to do that during our time together at A&M! Some of the ones I've posted below are from the Century Tree (which you CANNOT walk under alone or you'll have a lifetime of singleness! but if you do walk under it with someone you're destined to get married! :)), the Ross statue (notice all the pennies, students bring him pennies and other change and sometimes old credit cards for good luck on their tests!), and the huge new Aggie Ring replica at the Association of Former Students building (you're never an "Ex-Student" at A&M, only a former one!).

After taking pics and looking around campus we got to meet up with one of my most very dear friends, Lauren, and hang out at the Association a few minutes, grab an early dinner, and hang a little more at my sister's apartment. Lauren and I met in Spain and since then have dated, become engaged, and are now married to our sweet husbands who are also friends. We feel so blessed to have them as a part of our life. She is one of those friends who GOES there with topics of conversation that most people wouldn't, and for that I am so grateful to have someone so real and wonderful in my life! It was so nice of Lauren to drive in that day from Houston!!

That night we headed to a movie with Tristan, Allison, a friend, and Tristan's boyfriend Shelby. Afterwards we stayed the night at Allison's house, woke up and met up for breakfast at one of my old favorite study places, Sweet Eugene's, with both of our sisters and really really enjoyed our time getting to be with just them. After that it was time to say goodbye to our sisters and sweet home College Station!

When we got home, we were lined up for more appointments and more errand-running while we finished up our time in Dallas. I also got to go out one night with three of my college roomates and friends from church during my time at A&M! We went to Cheesecake Factory in Southlake and it was SO wonderful and such a blessing to spend time with them! They are such a wonderful group of girls and I so wish I could be with them more!

We managed to pack everything up for our one last trip back to Dominica for the States, and were super pumped that the next time we touch ground in December we will be home for good!

Thank you so much to everyone who made time to see us and love us and spend time with us over break! We so appreciate it and are so grateful to have you in our lives!

Me & Kristen at the Roomate dinner at Cheesecake factory:

Birthday Cake at Cheesecake Factory:

All the roomates at Cheesecake Factory, Lauren, Ashlee, Kristen, and me:

Pictures at the Aggie Ring replica:

Pictures at the Ross statue:

The Arches at the Quad:

H2O Fountain in front of the Chemistry building:

Our sweet Century Tree!:

For My Mama...

2010-05-09T06:05:00.004-04:00

To my Mama,

There are approximately zero words that could ever even begin to describe the love and admiration that I have for you and who you have been for me, Lindsey, and Tristan. From the very moment that I have memories, they are with you. When I think back to times of need, you are there. When I think to times of want, you are there. When I think of the little things, you are there. When I think of the big things, you are there. When I think of my attitude :) during high school and early college, I am embarrassed of how I acted, and yet you never ever stopped being my best friend or wanting everything in the world for me. When I finally came to later in college and realized how much of a blessing family is and how special it is that us five- you, Dad, me, Lindsey, and Tristan- have been BEST FRIENDS our whole lives... I know that we have you to thank for that, for always wanting that for us and for making sure in every stage of life we would be there for each other and need each other like families who are best friends should.

I will never be able to thank you enough for all you have done through our lives. You are my Mom, my absolute Best Friend, and I only pray that I can be half the mother to our children someday that you have been to me. I love you so much, Happy Mother's Day!

I love you, Mom!

Portraits of Pancakes: Ventricular Septal Defect

2010-04-29T07:04:00.000-04:00

Britt's guess: A heart!

What Brian really made for her: A heart... with a VSD!

The story: We had been studying hard for our finals and Brian thought that a little clinical correlate of a pancake was in order. This heart has a "closed" view of the top two atria, but then an inside view of the ventricles, where you can see the ventricular septal defect. I am adding a google imagine for comparison. He is talented, huh?!

The Jar

2010-04-23T11:11:00.002-04:00

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and start to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else -- The small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls."

The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, You will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So...

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time
to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.

"Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand
and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled.

"I'm glad you asked."

"It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

1 down, 3 to go!

2010-04-22T13:44:00.003-04:00

Guess what?!

After 112 hours (yes I counted) of studying SOLID (literally through some of our one hour dinner breaks even) for THREE weeks (yes, that would be 112 X 3 but I just think I don't even want to know that number)...

Countless Brittany breakdown moments...

A few tears shed here and there...

Lots of dessert to give us something to look forward to...

Waking up at 5am and going to bed at 11pm...

Millipedes in our bathroom...

A hot water leak over our fridge...

Brown muddy water from all the rain Dominica has been getting...

A Mini exam (over 6 subjects)...

Four Practicals...

Three days of Finals testing for six different subjects over 9 months worth of material...

WE ARE SECOND YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS!!!!!!!

Whoop! We are so blessed!

You know You're in Medical School when...

2010-04-10T13:07:00.000-04:00

... your husband wakes up and tells you this dream:

"So I had a dream that I went to the Shacks to grab some food and left you and Brandy (our other friend we study with) at the picnic tables talking. When I came back Brandy was gone, but you were smiling. I asked what was up and you said, 'Brandy and Paul are going to have a baby!!' I said, 'Wow that is great.' And you said, 'Yeah- and it was so cute the way she told me! She said, 'Guess what??... We've got a new patient to practice on!!'"

Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard when Hubs told me this. :) Only in the mind of a medical student!

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2010-04-09T13:05:00.002-04:00

... you and your husband get dressed in the morning, head out the door for class, walk all the way to campus, attend four hours worth of lecture together, leave the classroom to go have a meeting with another couple who has just graduated medical school... and only then, at 1pm that day, do you realize you are wearing the EXACT same thing.

Awesome.

Asking for Help

2010-04-02T21:36:00.004-04:00

Tonight I am sitting here, on the Friday before Easter, studying studying studying. Next up is Neurogenic and Myopathic Diseases. I just finished Temperature Regulation.

And yet... I just read about a young woman in Haiti who is in the most excruciating pain of her life. She has been in this pain for weeks now. She needs an orthopedic surgeon or a brachial plexus specialist who can help free her from this pain, otherwise she will live with it forever.

The Lord knows my heart better than anyone in the whole world and I know that He is feeling the hurt inside that I am feeling tonight. My whole life's goal for becoming a physician is to be able to yes, fulfill a dream of my own, but only in addition to working in Missions and helping the less fortunate. When I talk with Brian or others about choosing a specialty, how helpful it will be overseas for those who cannot afford healthcare is one of my absolute top priorities in thinking about deciding. I think surgery would be something so life-changing for those who cannot otherwise have the means to it. And so tonight, my heart hurts and the usually non-emotional me get teary-eyed because I cannot help at this point in life. Not financially, not skillfully, not emotionally, not at all.

I do realize though that sometimes it is just not God's timing yet for some, but perfect timing for others. So I want to provide the link to this missionary's page and if you can help in any way- whether it's helping find an orthopedic surgeon who can help, or a hospital who would be willing to do the surgery, I would ask that you try and make those contacts for this girl, Amanda.

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2010/04/from-barbie-heartline-hospital.html

I so do wish we were 10 years down the road so I could do more than just ask for help...

But then I realize that's what we're here. That's why I'm studying a little lecture over Neurogenic and Myopathic diseases. It's to help girls like Amanda in the many years to come.

Puppy Love

2010-03-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

There's just something about the special dogs in your life. They are so selfless, so loving, and full of so much personality for an animal! This post is dedicated to the dogs most near and dear to my heart right now.

This is Bella. I call her Bella-roo. Brian calls her Squeaker. Dad calls her Ca-Bella (yes, after the hunting store) and Pop-Tart. She is a tea-cup yorkie and the newest addition to the Bankhead family after Mom and Dad became empty-nesters. She is full of life and loves to be the center of attention. She looks especially cute in her cute collars and girly necklaces. :)

This is Bailie, a Brittany Spaniel. Her name comes from "Bien Amin La Vie" (or something like that :))which means "Sweetheart" in French (or so we've been told!). Her name is very special to us because our dog before Bailie, Schautzy, meant "Sweetheart" in German! Bailie was added to our family after our dog of very many years, Schautzy, passed away in Keller. It was heartbreaking and so sad (as any dog family will understand) but Mom and Dad immediately knew we needed another doggy around the house. And this time- she was an indoor dog! Bailie has many talents and tricks- probably the greatest of which was learning how to close the back door!! (Literally!) She thinks she is a human and will come and crawl in Dad's lap at night, or come sit on the back of the couch and CROSS HER PAWS and listen to us girls talk! I can't even make that stuff up! Bailie knows she has innate "bird dog" in her, because she just can't help but being attracted to all the fun wildlife out at the lakehouse. This picture was taken there. :)

This is my Harley. My precious, handsome Harley. My junior year of college a friend of mine wrote me a message on AIM that said he and his girlfriend had just got a free Golden Retriever and that I should totally look into it. HA! I hadn't even thought about getting a dog, but for whatever reason this really spiked my interest. I talked to my roomates, Chad and Chase (Chase is my cousin) and they were all for the idea and we agreed to share all the responsibility (yes, hindsight, I do not know WHAT we were thinking!!). So we drove out to this place outside of College Station where the puppies were. It turned out that a breeder of Golden Retrievers had just had a litter of puppies when Hurricane Katrina hit and had to evacuate the area, so they were giving these puppies away. After I saw Harley rolling around and looking up at me with his precious blue eyes I knew we could not leave him there. So we took him home, and gave him his first bath, and his name. :) After that Harley became the most important man in my life (for the time :)) and I loved him more than I even thought I could love a dog! He was such a good and mellow dog- his favorite music was Coldplay (no joke! He would waddle over to the stereo in my bedroom and plop down beside it, look at me then look at the stereo, look at me then look at the stereo, I would just on Coldplay's X&Y CD and he would lay down his head and go right to sleep!). He went with me to many camp-outs for tickets at Kyle Field, and was quite the little ladies man. :) He contracted Parvo Virus his first year of life, and was given a 50-50 chance of living, AND our condo that year was broken in to and we think Harley was kicked or beaten... so the poor little guy just has the most timid, precious outlook on life and is just about the most mellow and sweet thing you will ever meet! Unfortunately when I moved to Miami I could not take him with me, and of course we can't have him while in medical school because he deserves so much more fun that that. But very much a blessing was that Brian's family had a dog that could use some company and his parents were very gracious in letting Harley go live with them- such a blessing knowing that my precious puppy is being cared for and loved just as much as I would have for him. Here is a picture of that first bath with Harley (sorry about the no makeup thing), and a picture that my mother-in-law Linda sent just the other day of him all big and grown up and handsome!

Sorry to dish on the dogs in our life, but they are so much a part of our lives I don't know why I don't do it more often!!

Today, 2013

2010-03-15T17:42:00.003-04:00

If it's not one thing, it's another when you are talking about the road to becoming a physician. If you've followed along our journey for a little while, you probably know that we prayed and struggled and toiled and longed for the idea of attending the same medical school, and then it happened! But before that it was transcripts, or it was grades in undergraduate, or it was getting into the right Master's program, or it was which MCAT prep course to take, or it was where to take the MCAT, and the list goes on.

Today, after reading several of my friends' facebook statuses and blog posts, I realize that the next "goal" day we are anticipating is Today in 2013. On that day, Brian and I will find out IF we have matched in the Couple's Match for Residency. If not, we'll "scramble" as they call it, and try to figure out a place within ONE day that still has available openings for residents. If we do match, we will eagerly anticipate that Thursday where we'll find out where our first jobs as physicians will be!

In between then and now we have COUNTLESS more Mini exams here in Dominica, our first of many patient interviews, moving again across the world, deciding whether or not to take a Step 1 Board review class, moving from state to state, studying the entire holiday break for an exam, forking over literally thousands and thousands of dollars to pay for board exams, and the list goes on (that seems to be a trend :)).

For now, we will have faith that we are where God wants us to be. We will take it one step at a time.

And we'll work towards Today, 2013.

The Lost Art of a Ham and Cheese Sandwich

2010-03-10T10:08:00.003-05:00

My awesome friend Lauren recently posted this on her blog. She is the best and coolest teacher in all of Houston. :) She has given me permission to re-post it, although I have to admit I would have chosen turkey :). I hope you love her words and point of view as much as I did.

"Growing up, my dad made my lunch. Everyday I wanted a lunch, I had a homemade sandwich and snacks. I mean, I could buy lunch if I wanted, but why would I when I had the best sandwich ever? I know we already knew my parents were amazing, but what I didn't realize was what that sandwich represented.

Fast forward to today. I administered the TAKS test. I administered the 11th grade ELA test and the test takes all day. As a result, kids can't take a lunch break, so we bring in lunches for kids who want the school lunch. They eat at their testing desk. Kids can bring their own lunch and kids are even allowed, and encouarged, to bring snacks to eat throughout the day to help with their energy during the long day.

Today during lunch I saw something that I have never seen in all my years of teaching. I saw a student bring a homeade sandwhich. I didn't realize how rare it was until today. In a class of about 25 students, one student brought a homemade sandwich. It was in a container and he had a banana and some other snacks. You could tell someone cared if he ate well. One other student in the class had a sandwhich from Subway and almost everyone else took a school lunch and ate it with their bags and bags of junk food. On a daily basis I see kids eat and its pretty much school junk food: cheese fries, slushies, hamburgers, etc.

Isn't there something wrong with this picture? Not only is there a deeper issue of a lack of good eating habits, but I think something is very wrong with the lack of homemade sandwiches.

For me, my daily sandwich represented consistency, security, and loving parents. And today, I knew that someone cared about this kid. Someone cared enough to send him to school with a healthy lunch. Someone cared how he performed on today's test. Someone loved him and I saw it. I saw it all in the sandwich.

So my question is, where have all the ham and cheese sandwiches gone?"

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2010-03-02T13:54:00.003-05:00

... the conversation today, with my friend Brandy and the girl who sits in front of us, Stephanie is regarding Nannies and what kind we want and what they would be able to do and not do during residency night calls. :)

Portraits of Pancakes: Clock

2010-03-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

What Britt thought it was: A clock!

What Brian really made: A clock

The story: Medical school leaves you with very little time to spare every day. We fairly often just wish there was more hours in a day to do all that we want to do- both education and relaxation-wise. So Brian made me a clock to give me more time. :)

You know you're in Medical School when...

2010-02-25T20:47:00.004-05:00

You're exhausted beyond all compare...

You're up 6a.m. to 11pm/12 midnight every day doing nothing but class and studying...

You prepare for a tutoring session hoping it turns out okay, then realize people have been waiting for you for two hours so they could have a good seat...

You don't think you can possibly squeeze anything else into your head...

You don't know what to talk about when you're not talking about school...

And yet through it all, you feel MORE than blessed because God gave you the opportunity to do what you love and show people His love by doing it. You and your husband have wanted to do for as long as you've known the alphabet, much less before you even knew each other. What more could you want? :)

[Pictures from White Coat ceremony at the beginning of 1st year.]

We Need Recipes! Please Help!

2010-02-20T13:33:00.003-05:00

So seeing as 1. We are busy beyond belief with this little thing called Medical School, 2. We live in a foreign country on an island in the Carribbean that is 3rd world and have very limited grocery options, 3. I am a super picky eater, 4. We have the bare minimum in kitchen appliances (and by bare minimum I mean whatever Wal-Mart had for cheap that could fit in a barrel before we left Miami!) ...

We need recipes and HELP figuring out what to COOK during the week.

I am for real, I need your help. If you know me and read the blog, or if you don't know me and read the blog, any help ya'll could throw my way would be so, so, appreciated. No recipe is too mundane or weird or off!! We are tired of eating the same stuff and I am BEGGING for your help to figure something else out for us to eat!

So I will post the general appliances/pans we have, and what grocery options we will USUALLY have (even those can not be guaranteed week to week, fun right!). If you can think of anything that we could make, please post a comment here or email us at brittanyandbrian@gmail.com!!

Appliances: small crockpot, blender, skillet, 13x9" non-stick pan, 9x9" non-stick pan, muffin pan, small coffee maker, tea kettle, medium-size pot, strainer, rolling pin

Ingredients: chicken breasts, ground beef (sometimes), any kind of bean, any kind of rice, any kind of pasta, limited spices, garlic salt, olive oil, cheese sandwich slices, eggs, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit

[We might have other occasional ingredients so if you know of something at least CLOSE, please still let me know and I might be able to think of a substitute!]

...And no, I don't do fish or peanut butter. And yes, I know that's crazy.

Thank ya'll in advance! :)

Valentine's with My Valentine in Roseau, Dominica

2010-02-15T06:12:00.004-05:00

Brian and I were lucky enough to have ONE day off of school this semester! (More than we did last semester, due to the accelerated schedule we are on down here on the island.) AND if happened to be the weekend after a Mini exam, AND if happened to be the weekend of Valentine's! So my love and I decided that we wanted to do an overnight somewhere away from Portsmouth (our current city) but still on the island, and get away and just be us for a night! Brian found the Fort Young Hotel in Roseau, and we would absolutely recommend it to anyone who is down here and looking for a place to stay in Roseau! Good hotels are a little hard to come by (really, ANY hotels are hard to come by!) but this one was absolutely fantastic and exceeded our expectations!

Saturday we were picked up by a taxi (actually a huge van with air conditioning, doesn't get any better! :)), and made the trip to Roseau. We arrived, got settled into our room, and went out exploring. By exploring I mean we travelled to IGA grocery store and loaded up on groceries, but grocery shopping is ALWAYS an adventure here in Dominica! I also told Brian this was probably the one and only Valentine's that we will actually go grocery shopping as part of our weekend and love every minute of it. :)

Afterwards we carried them all back to our hotel, dropped them off, and went and had a snack and a drink downstairs at the hotel and watched some of the Winter Olympics (we don't have a TV in our apartment so that was a real treat!). Then we headed upstairs and I napped while Brian watched more Winter Olympics, and then we got ready for dinner!

Dinner was at the "Waterfront Restaurant" and was SO nice! We did not know Dominica had anything so nice! :) We were literally right over the water on a huge porch lit with candles and very nice linens and china. It was dark by this time, but the ocean was lit up from beneath us and there was a piano playing, as well as the waves crashing. I don't think it could have been any better! :) After dinner we came back to our room and sat on our balcony (see pictures below) and looked at the stars and just talked about life, our dreams, and anything else that was non-school related. :) That was a rule for the weekend- no talking about school! It was harder than you think because that is all we do!

Saturday we slept in and then had breakfast again at the Waterfront, then veg'd out and watched TV until it was time for our taxi to pick us up. :) I think the whole trip was less than 24 hours, including travel there and back, but wow was it a blessing and so relaxing and fun to spend time with my HUSBAND Brian, instead of my FELLOW STUDENT Brian. :)

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

View from our room towards Scottshead mountains as well as the pool deck (infinity edge) over the ocean:

Close up of the pool deck, notice the waterfall on the left side:

Self-portrait on the Jacuzzi deck:

Brian on our balcony looking towards the pier where cruise ships come in to Roseau:

Self-portrait on the balcony :) :

View from our Room:

The entryway, next to the arch that looks on to the jacuzzi tub, as well as one of the vanity areas:

Another vanity area:

The main room, again overlooking the ocean:

Another self-pic on the jacuzzi deck:

Portraits of Pancakes: A Smile

2010-02-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

Britt's Guess: A smile

What Brian really made: A smile!

The Story: We honestly cannot remember why Brian made me this smile, other than the fact that I was definitely having a hard day and he just thought I needed a smile. :)

Volcanoes, too!?

2010-02-12T08:58:00.003-05:00

So a while back I had posted about the earthquakes we had been having last semester. We even had over 20 little ones in one night! This semester we have had a couple of small ones, but nothing too big to really make a difference.

However, this morning in class I started hearing about and reading about people waking up with VOLCANIC ASH in their kitchens and apartments! And outside on the ground there is ash everywhere, and no one could figure out why! Well apparently "Mount Serrat" had a partial dome collapse last night (pictured below) and we got the ash from it! They have placed the hazard level at a "4" (I don't even know what that means) so hopefully that doesn't put us in a bad spot?!

We are still planning to go to Roseau this weekend for Valentine's Day, but man this Dominica-thing is turning out to be way more of a nature adventure than we ever planned for!

Portraits of Pancakes: Turkey Day

2010-02-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

Britt's guess: A turkey!

What Brian really made: A turkey

The story: This pancake was made on Thanksgiving morning, 2009. We actually had CLASS on Thanksgiving day, just like any other regular day! But of course we couldn't let it go by without some celebratory turkey pancakes, so Brian made these for us. :) The next night we had several of our friends over for a Thanksgiving potluck Dominica-style... the most RANDOM yet amazing assortments of foods and more importantly, great conversation and friendship to remind us what Thanksgiving's all about.

You know you're in Medical School when...

2010-02-04T18:06:00.002-05:00

This was a question I posted on facebook today and felt it was quite pertinent to our 'You know you're in medical school when' group of posts. :)

"True or False? Amino acid metabolism will matter when I'm actually in practice in 2018."

P.S. We are coming to you live from Room #14 with all the first-semesters that we tutor. I just finished giving a crash course on bone & cartilage and Brian is on to prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression. I do believe I got the better end of the deal. :)

Portraits of Pancakes: An Inhaler

2010-01-30T20:01:00.005-05:00

Britt's guess: A boot??

What Brian really made: an Albuterol inhaler

The story: Starting last Wednesday I didn't feel so hot. I wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like the beginnings of bronchitis that I had got around this time last year. So I sat out that day's workout and hoped I'd feel better soon. Thursday was a little worse, and by Friday I knew something was wrong and just wanted to get it taken care of because we have a big test coming up (two of them actually). I headed to the clinic by myself, got to the back, and told the doctor my symptoms. She listened for about a second at the apex and base of both my lungs, and immediately says, "You are really wheezing and are in the middle of an Asthmatic Crisis." It kind of took me by shock, you would THINK I'd be able to tell if I'm in the middle of an ASTHMATIC CRISIS, right?! She takes my Pulse Ox, which is slightly low, and then gets me to the back room. Of course at that point I text, "Come." to Brian, who immediately came, bless his heart! I didn't mean to scare him, I just didn't have enough time to write a lot of words and didn't want any needles stuck in me in a foreign country without him there, haha! So they get me going on a nebulizer treatment, while simultaenously having me take a HORSE pill that is UNcoated (YUCK) to start an antibiotic treatment, and then she is also finding a good vein to inject intravenous hydrocortisone to give my airways some relief Lord willing and get the swelling down. I finally finished with all of that treatment, and am now on another two weeks worth of tapering steroids, cough medicine, and antibiotics for the BRONCHITIS that she failed to mention, ha! After I found out, Mom had reminded me that this exact same thing happened while I was working and studying abroad in Spain- had to do the E.R., Epinephrine shot, whole 9 yards there, too, with an asthmatic crisis. So crazy! So of course today during brunch Brian had to make me an inhaler to capture the 'greatness' of yesterday and my ongoing battle with what sounds really intense as "the asthmatic crisis of 2010." hahaha!

Bearing your Cross

2010-01-23T19:10:00.003-05:00

We complain about the Cross we bear, but don't realize it is preparing us for a dip in the road that God can see and we cannot.

[Images and quote taken from a forwarded email from my grandmother.]

The Call

2010-01-19T16:37:00.002-05:00

Over Christmas break, my family kept talking about the "Celtic Women" that had been DVR'd and I had no idea what they were talking about. Apparently my Dad (yeah, my DAD!) showed my Mom and sister this T.V. special of this phenomenal group and of course we all had to watch over the break. They are incredible. I couldn't find the video of them, but listen to this song (click on the video below) and I promise you'll either get chills or feel your blood pressure drop about 20 points with how beautiful their voices are. Hope you like it!

Christmas in Texas (Part II)

2010-01-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

A lot of photos were added to Facebook recently that my Mom or Brian's aunt had taken, so I wanted to save those here as well. Here's some more fun from our break! Some of these pictures include Bass Hall to see The Nutcracker, Brian's family Christmas, snow on Christmas morning, playing "headless guy" with Brian's cousins Ben and Kira, Santa's Wonderland in College Station, celebrating Lindsey's college ring at Benihana's, Dad and Brian and Lindsey sledding in our subdivision, dancing at Billy Bob's with Daddy, the guys golfing in Yoakum, playing "Addison" dress up (ever seen Private Practice? :)) with my white coat and a new dress on Christmas, and my parent's house all lit up with lights (and our respective colleges :) Dad made those and you get one in the window AFTER you graduate!).

Snuba

2010-01-14T15:46:00.002-05:00

My Dad recently sent me an email titled "Ya'll rocked on this trip" and this picture was in the email. This was from our family cruise back when I was in my sophomore year of college. We did a four-day on the Carnival Ecstasy to Cozumel and had so much fun! While on the trip, Mom and Dad decided doing "Snuba" would be a fun thing that me and my sisters would enjoy, and they were so right! If you've never heard of it, it's basically the "in between" of snorkeling and scuba (hence the name). We had to take a quick 30minute class on all the precautious, etc. but then we geared right up, put some weights on our hips, and hooked up to an oxygen tank that moved with our whole group, so we didn't have to control it ourselves or anything. The cameraman under the water snapped this shot of Lindsey and I (she's on the left, I'm on the right). And it's such a fun memory to me, so I just wanted to reminisce and share. :)

And speaking of water and the Carribbean... just so everyone knows, we are entirely okay and the Earthquake from this week didn't affect us at all. All of our earthquakes were last semester, and the only thing that's happening here is the ocean being REALLY crazy with the waves and rough (you can hear it well past our apartment on inland, it's crazy!).

Blessings to you all!

2-column?

2010-01-07T16:45:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends,

Does anyone know how I can get back to Two-column blog format without undoing everything else I've done? Thank you :)

Love,

Britt

Christmas in Texas

2010-01-02T22:05:00.003-05:00

We had such a fun Christmas break. Christmas Party at the Bankhead's. Pretty centerpieces created by Mom. Eating more fudge than my tummy can possibly handle. Attending "The Nutcracker" at Bass Hall in Ft. Worth. Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Puerto Rico (thank you Daddy). White elephant gift exchange with Brian's family. Christmas with the grandparents (and a cruise to Cozumel in July!). Seeing a wonderful college friend, Ashlee. Having a tooth extraction and amoxicillin-resistant bacteria abcess (yeah). But mostly... just a fantastic time to relax, enjoy family, eat a TON (only because we can't have it normally!), and enjoy the luxuries that come with the U.S. Here's just a recap in pictures. Hope you all had a Happy New Year!

Dear Dominica

2009-12-18T09:50:00.002-05:00

Dear Dominica,

Lately there have been rumors flying around about you closing your one and only airport that us students use to get on and off the island. We've been told that your two political parties have been so on to one another that one party said he was going to fly in all your ex-patriots now living on other islands to vote in his favor. Then we were told that the other party didn't like that very much and threatened to go on strike at the airport so these ex-patriots couldn't get in the country. Turns out the United States of America doesn't like that very much, and told your airport people that if they shut down the airport where all their citizens are trying to get back to their own country, you would have to take it up with THEM. Trust me, you don't want to go there. The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is not who you want to mess with! As of today your gates are still open and planes are still flying in and out of your Jurassic Park runway. However, tonight is the elections and it has me worried that we won't be able to get on our plane tomorrow and get to Puerto Rico, where we then leave the next morning for the U.S. So please, please, please, just chill out and let democracy do its thing and let my hubs and I off this island so we can get HOOOOOME to Dallas!

Love,

Brittany

-ing...

2009-12-13T11:28:00.004-05:00

Listening... to Michael Buble.

Sitting... on Seaside Deck (again).

Finishing... looking over some Doctor/Patient/Society notes.

Waiting... on a turkey and cheese sub from Subway.

Contemplating... whether or not it's bright enough for sunglasses while studying.

Wanting... any Starbucks drink that tastes like Christmas.

Dreaming... about when we graduate at Madison Square Garden with two M.D.'s in three and a half years.

Gearing... towards temperature below 85 or 90 degrees.

Hoping... that Brian and I finish out the semester as strong as we started it.

Loving... the breeze today from the ocean.

Appreciating... that there's an ocean right behind me.

Missing... my Mom, Dad, and sisters in Dallas... and showers that stay hot.

Anticipating... Tuesday afternoon when we're done with Final Exams.

Longing... to go on another medical mission trip.

Wishing... there was a way to help the sweet doggies around campus.

Thinking... that I hope getting in and out of countries this weekend isn't too much of a hassle.

Wondering... if Brian and I are gonna punch each other in the face before medical school is over. :)

"...the small things from everyday life."

2009-12-09T08:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my husband's 26th birthday (Happy Birthday, Hubs!), and we took our third "Mini" examination (123 questions in 2 hours is hardly Mini, in my opinion). It was hard. It was REALLY hard. We have been devastated because we studied so, so hard for it. All we can do now is pray that we had the right thoughts and made the right decisions. We have our cumulative finals (one big test for all classes) next Tuesday, so we'll be spending the next week mulling over four months worth of material until then with our study buddy Brandy.

Wanted to leave ya'll with this, though. It's an awesome quote and sometimes just what you need to hear:

"Don’t think that love, to be true, has to be extraordinary. What is necessary is to continue to love. How does a lamp burn, if it is not by the continuous feeding of little drops of oil? When there is no oil, there is no light and the bridegroom will say: “I do not know you”. Dear friends, what are our drops of oil in our lamps? They are the small things from every day life: the joy, the generosity, the little good things, the humility and the patience. A simple thought for someone else. Our way to be silent, to listen, to forgive, to speak and to act. That are the real drops of oil that make our lamps burn vividly our whole life. Don’t look for Jesus far away, He is not there. He is in you, take care of your lamp and you will see Him.”

– Mother Teresa

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2009-12-01T12:15:00.002-05:00

Brittany: "Do you feel more attractive now that we're in medical school?"

Brian: "Yeah, I do."

Brittany: "Yeah, me too. I still can't believe we're 'medical students.'"

Brian: "Definitely. Do you realize that we're actually working on our M.D.'s right now?"

Brittany: "Wooooooooooh!!"

Brian: "YEAH. Crazy right?"

Thankful

2009-11-26T08:00:00.002-05:00

Thankful:

That today I get to dissect again on a cadaver than was entrusted by a generous man to five eager and enthusiastic medical students

That we are having a Pot-Luck Thanksgiving Dinner in Portsmouth, Dominica, West Indies Islands in the Carribbean with an incredible group of neighbors and friends with the most random assortment of food ever

We have a wonderful place to live even in a 3^rd world country, and (most of the time) have running water and electricity

For a generator, when the electricity is not working J

For an incredible education in Medicine with wonderful professors and great colleagues striving towards the same goal

For a dream come true to be studying medicine with my husband, something we prayed about for years

That we have the chance to move back to Miami and be with our “family” who we very much miss

For a marriage that is hardly perfect, but fun and FULL of lots of love, hand holding, kisses, pajama dates on a Sunday night, prayer, giggles, pancakes for dinner, study sessions, and big hugs.

That my country is free because of brave soldiers who are spending the holidays without their loved ones to make sure we can be safe in our own beds

For Facebook. Seriously! Without it there’s no way I’d know what was going on in my friends’ lives as much as I do.

For Brandy. She is a new friend here and person #3 in our “Triple B Study Group” (Brian, Brittany, and Brandy!). I have met few people like her and am so, so thankful for her friendship.

For the health of our families and friends because now more than ever we realize what a blessing it is to be healthy

That there are Christmas music stations online so I can have my fix of Christmas music while I study

For our Lord, who continues to forgive us and remain there for us to shower us with Blessings even though we’re hardly deserving

For an island to explore during our time off! And lots of other islands to ferry to and check out, too!

We're in school today 8-5. :) But we hope you enjoy your time off and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Spiders, Abcess, and Earthquakes

2009-11-20T15:51:00.003-05:00

Yes, by the title of this post you would think we had seen the latest poorly-made scary film here in Dominica (no, they don't make movies; and no, I don't do scary movies, anyways).

No, no. The title of this past is our past week.

One day last week I had noticed that there was the shape of a spider above our door where there is a glass pane. Brian and I had both looked closely and decided that it was definitely outside, and that most likely the cats around our apartment complex would take care of it as soon as it came down. The next day, we saw the spider in the exact same spot, it hadn't moved at ALL for the past day. We started joking about it, that we had a "Charlotte" above our door frame (like from Charlotte's Web). That night, though, it still hadn't moved, and I told Brian I really did want the spider down. That's when we figured out THE SPIDER WAS INSIDE THE WHOLE TIME. Not only was the spider inside the whole time, the spider was WAY bigger than what we had realized from the angle we were looking at. And not only THAT, the thing would not die! Brian tried to kill it and it just jumped down and hid in the door frame and Brian started yelling and backing up which scared the PANTS off me so I'm yelling, too! The neighbor hears us both and comes over to see what's going on and we're yelling, "Don't open the door!!!" It was so funny, right out of a movie. So Brian talks to him through the door about a plan of action, and eventually we close of everywhere in the apartment with magazines under the door and the whole works, then Brian slowly opens the door and lets the spider have it. Victory!! Then our neighbor said, "Dude, that IS a big spider!" So for now, victory is ours. And hopefully the rest of the neighborhood spiders and bugs catch the drift that we mean business! We've been fairly nice to the gecko's and millipedes in our apartment thus far, but if you have a poison in your system, you better stay away!!

Also last week I noticed that my jaw was starting to hurt like it had back in May of this year. I asked my friend, Ashley, who had lived before in Dominica as well, what her Dad thought I should do (he is a dentist) since I'm living in a third world country and had no idea what it is. So Brian and I ended up skipping classes on Friday (don't worry, we mediasited the lecture, later!) and travelled to Roseau to see a dentist there. After an xray and a scary few minutes, they told me that I had an abcess most likely from an old bad filling and will need a root canal. :/ MAJOR bummer! The doctor was pleasantly surprised that I hadn't started having a swelling face yet, so with my pleading he ended up saying I could wait til we get back to the States in December and put me on TWO rounds of antibiotics, which have made me totally sick at my stomach for the past few days. I would say a third world country, in the middle of medical school, is not the best time to get a tooth abcess. But I'm very blessed to have people like Ashley and her Dad to show me some guidance and for my Mom to help get things ready for when I get back to the States (and have my root canal at 6:45 a.m. the day after we fly in. YAY.).

A couple of days last week, we experienced a few "tremors" that we learned were small Earthquakes and were the talk of the school (we don't have much else to talk about here!). But then, on Wednesday morning this week, Brian and I got to school early and were doing some research for our PBL group, when the entire building (a BIG building) started shaking and the TV's overhead, and our laptops, and EVERYthing. Everyone in the class got SILENT and we all looked around as for the next 7-10 seconds everything kept shaking. Afterwards everybody was completely okay, but it was the most surreal experience for me, having never been in an earthquake before. Ironically enough, I was doing research over the effects of stress on MI's (myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks), and had found out that the numbers of MI's after natural disasters shoot through the roof, but luckily we're all young and recovered fast so I think we're good to go.

Tonight my friend Brandy and I are having another Girl's night and going to see Julie and Julia on campus, it's a serviced provided through Student Life and is super cheap and a nice welcome break! The boys are going to play tennis, too (her husband and Brian). This weekend is all about getting ahead for next week and preparing for all the many tests coming up!

We actually have class all this week and don't even have off for Thanksgiving Day! We'll be having a Pot-Luck Thanksgiving with some of our friends on Friday night and are really looking forward to some great food! :) Dominica-style!

We're so excited that this semester is almost over and that VERY soon we will be on a plane bound for Puerto Rico and then DALLAS the next day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

More About Us, Part IV

2009-11-10T13:37:00.002-05:00

If you could destroy a singe tape or cd that your mate plays, what would it be?

Metallica or any of that other hard metal stuff. He honestly has never listened to it much since we've been married, but I know he WANTS to every so often and I wish it just didn't even exist! (For the record, Brian said he would destroy "Anything Celine Dion." haha!)

If you could read the private diary of someone who you know personally, whose would you read?

My sister Lindsey, for sure! She is your CLASSIC middle child and has Middle Child Syndrome to the max! She is hilarious and totally out there (but very smart, for the record :)) and I would just love to know what is in her HEAD sometimes! (Don't worry, we tell her that all the time!)

If you were on trial and someone you know (who is not a lawyer) had to act as your legal representatvive, who would you want to defend you?
My friend Mando is in Law School, so technically he's not a lawyer yet. :) I know Mando from college at A&M, and goodness gracious that man will fight with anyone if given the chance! He's very open but is very skilled at driving home points that no one else would think to put out there or are too chicken to put out there. So I'd definitely want him.

If you could only have one piece of furniture in your home, what would it be?
A fabulous bed. Like a huge California King size with a beautiful headboard and then the fluffiest, most expensive comfy and soft sheets ever that smell like an ocean breeze. Of course we're in Medical School so that could be the exhaustion talking. :)

Just one of those evenings...

2009-11-06T16:20:00.003-05:00

Tonight, I believe, is just going to be one of those evenings...

We finished our second "Mini" (a test with every single subject's questions on it, there's about 125 and we have two and a half hours to complete the exam) with flying colors, and are just really feeling like we've got the hang of medical school down. We are so blessed and so grateful for our education here.

Tonight our friend Brandy is coming over because her husband Paul is still stuck in the States trying to get a flight home and she's been really bummed out about him not being home yet. So- we are having a Mexican fiesta! Complete with tacos (thank you Mom and Dad for bringing the stuff!), tomatoes, guacamole dip, Spanish rice, the works! And Brandy doesn't know it yet... but I'm making her a "Happy Late Birthday" chocolate cake... a very special rare find down here and I didn't even burn it with our gas stove! I think that's success. :)

Then at 7 we are going up to campus to watch the movie they are showing tonight... The Proposal! Brian and I LOVED that movie and cannot wait to go watch it again.

So tonight is just one of those evenings where I'm thankful for life, its blessings, and those I have to share it with!

Life's Greatest Lessons

2009-10-12T13:54:00.001-04:00

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35.. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere..
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd
grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2009-10-04T21:01:00.005-04:00

... test time has come and NONE of the vending machines have anything caffeinated. 7-up it is :)

... you have palindromes in your head more than normal words. These can include:

-Branches off the Axillary artery: "Screw The Lawyer, Save A Patient" = Superior Throracic, Thyrocervical trunk, Lateral Thoracic, Subscapular, Anterior Humoral Circumflex, Posterior Humoral Circumflex.

-Muscles of the Back: "I Love Standing" = Iliocostalis m., Longissimus m., Spinalis m.

-Names of the Carpal Bones: "She Looks Too Pretty, Try to Catch Her", but it stands for Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquitrium, Pisiform, Trapezoid, Trapezius, Capitate, Hamate

-Placement of Arteries & Nerves: "The Army goes over the bridge, the Navy goes under the bridge" = Subscapular Artery goes over Superior Transverse Scapular Ligament and Subscapular Nerve goes under it

-Placement of Muscles: "Lady between Majors" = Latissimus Dorsi between Teres Major and Pec Major

-Nerve Action: "5, 6, 7, Wings of Heaven!" = Cranial Nerves 5, 6, and 7 form to make Long Thoracic N. which when affected causes winging of the scapula

-Branches of the Brachial Plexus: "Three Musketeers Assasinated Five mice, Five rats, and Two Unicorns" = Musculocutaneous nerve is C5, 6, and 7; Axillary Nerve is C5 and 6; Median Nerve is C5, 6, 7, 8, T1; Radial N. is C5, 6, 7, 8, T1; Ulnar Nerve is C8, T1

-Deficiets in the Major Nerves of the Forearm: "Dr Cumab" = Dropped Wrist/Radial N. deficient; Claw Hand/Ulnar N. deficient; Ape hand or Benedict's hand/Median n.

-Muscles of the Hand: "Loaf" = Lumbricals 1&2, Opponens Pollicis, Abductor Pollicis Brevis, Flexor Pollicis Brevis are all muscles innervated by the Median nerve instead of the Ulnar Nerve in the hand

P.S. ... our first test went great. :) Thank you to whoever prayed for us to study well and diligently! Next test is tomorrow (Histology Practical) and our Anatomy Practical is the next Thursday. It never stops, right?!

Cake

2009-10-01T15:53:00.002-04:00

My Mom sent me this in a forward email and I love it. It came at such a perfect time and I wanted to share it with anyone else who might be as blessed by it as I was!

-------------

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.
"Yuck" says her daughter.

"How about a couple raw eggs?" "Gross, Mom!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! "

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2009-09-27T15:36:00.001-04:00

"... Microsoft Word doesn't recognize half the words you're writing. Every other word is 'apparently' misspelled." -Brian

More About Us, Part III

2009-09-25T14:42:00.002-04:00

"So, what made you decide to become a doctor?"

It is so stinkin cliche, but both Brian and I have literally known we wanted to be doctors since we were little kiddo's. At least five years old for me, and I think around the same age for him. I was always fascinated with science and the human body and the ability to literally give life or extend it for people- I love all that responsibility! (That's the first-born child in both of us :) haha!) I was cleaning out some old elementary stuff before we came here, and I found an old science packet of mine from 4th grade when we were doing the human body. I had got a 100 on it, but the great part is that all over the packet I had written these note-questions to my teacher for her to answer when she graded my paper! Like, "Ms. Henderson- Since your brain is connected to your back, is that why you can get paralyzed when you hurt your head?" :) lol. I should have just given up the fight to try anything else right then and there. Then there was that time in 7th grade when my family was living in Argentina and we attended a private school on the river. We dissected sheep's eyes to learn about all the different layers of the eye. I kid you not when I tell you that I TOOK THAT SHEEP'S EYE HOME WITH ME IN A KLEENEX TO SHOW MY MOM. I'm not even joking- can you believe that? That's sick, and ridiculous! In all honesty, I got to my junior/senior year of high school and realized I really wanted to look into everything that Texas A&M could offer, so my parents and I went around to the Education building, the International Business offices, the Biomedical Science building, and the Engineering department. Although the other ones were great in their own ways, nothing thrilled me more than walking down the halls of that science building... nasty smells and all. :) So from then on it was just a driven force of knowing that's what I wanted to do and that I'd have to work really hard and make that a reality! With Brian and I having that in common, it just adds a whole new level and dynamic to our relationship, especially now! It's the COOLEST feeling to have a soul mate who shares in ALL your same goals and dreams! What a blessing!

"On a comical note, if you could be any ice cream, what would you be and why?"

Hmmm... maybe I would be a sherbet so that I could be "low fat." :) In all reality, I would probably be chocolate with brownie chunks and chocolate syrup. I would just basque in my own choclatey-ness allllll day long.

"Lastly, what is one thing that you could not live without?"

Haha- funny question because living in a 3rd world country in the Carribbean reallllly starts to get you thinking about what you could and couldn't live without! Trust me... we can live WITHOUT a whole lot more than we ever think we can! Honestly, as cheesy as it sounds, I couldn't live without Brian. There's no way on Earth that I could be at the place in life that I'm in, being molded into something better like I'm trying to, seeking God like I should, catching me when I fall, or working as hard at medical school as I am right now without my husband. He is my everything.

You know you're in Medical School when...

2009-09-22T16:05:00.006-04:00

... you found out that the Center for Disease Control was actually WRONG when they told the U.S. to sneeze into their "elbow" to prevent the Swine Flu. What they meant to say was, "Sneeze into your cubital fossa!"

... you've thought your whole life that Popeye the Sailor Man had huge muscles!! When in fact, he probably had a ruptured tendon.

You Know You're in Medical School when...

2009-09-21T12:00:00.003-04:00

... you're super excited to wash the dishes because it means you get a break.

... you can tell your husband EXACTLY where you need your back scratched- "The medial side of the medial border of my left scapula, please!!" (...I for real said that.)

We're Alive!!

2009-09-17T21:18:00.003-04:00

We're still here! I promise!

Med school is hard. It's REALLY hard. Actually, it's not hard. It's just a lot of information. Us silly people and our complex systems down to the very molecules that make up our bodies. Did you know your doctor has to know that stuff? They do! Ask your doctor some time about the mechanics of DNA and your cell biology... it'll bring up bad memories. :)

By the way.. see that picture? That's somewhat the analogy they use for medical school. Take a giant fire hose, waterfall, massive gushing water thing of any kind. Imagine yourself in front of it and it gets turned on. Now try thinking about DRINKING from that "spout." That's what trying to take in all this information is like. :)

We're doing class every day from 8-12, sometimes later on, too. Tuesday and Thursday we have our gross anatomy lab, that has been going pretty well.

I have a blister that won't heal still... and even though I'm a medical student now- guess who I ask for what to do??? My mama. :) Don't laugh- you know you would too!

We had a great white coat ceremony and were very inspired to do good things and study very hard for all of our future patients and for the good of medicine. :) I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can!

Love to all! Gotta go and learn more about the mechanisms why necrosis is different from apoptosis. :)

P.S. Guess WHAT... There are about 450-500 students in our class (a lot, right? Yet we're still short on docs in the U.S... Anyways!). My last name is hyphenated, and Brian's is just... well, his last name. They start with completely different letters. So imagine our surprise when they do a random generator with names and we get put in the SAME LAB group (there are THREE, A, B, and C), and not only that... we are in tables RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER (out of TWENTY NINE TOTAL!). Then, today we get assigned to our problem-based learning groups where we'll be put in groups of eight and discuss a case study for different patients, have one faculty member per group, a very intimate kind of learning process. YOU WILL NOT GUESS WHO GOT RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO THE SAME GROUP AGAIN. I couldn't make this stuff up if I TRIED!!!!!! It's just hilarious to Brian and I, we still can't get over it. We're really thinking God must have big plans in store for us to practice medicine TOGETHER some day in the same group because even in the two places we thought we'd divide and conquer and spend a little time away from each other it just WON'T HAPPEN!!! Cracks us up. :) Good thing we love each other!!! :)

Here we go

2009-09-06T16:18:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is our very first day of medical school at Ross University School of Medicine. We have our books (all 240529 of them), our supplies (stethescopes, dissection kits, etc.), and our materials. We are nervous, anxious, excited, apprehensive, overwhelmed, overjoyed, ecstatic, realistic, idealistic... and just downright pumped that this day is finally here.

My parents and grandmother, and Brian's parents are coming down this week for the White Coat Ceremony that happens on Friday. It will be a busy week, but we'll be sure to keep you updated as humanly/med studently as possible.

As we walked back from lunch the other day, I saw a guy wheeling this table around on campus with what looked like a tarp on the top. As I watched him struggle to push it uphill, I realized that it was a body bag, and he was on his way to our gross anatomy lab. I stopped for a few moments and realized that this is very real. These are real people. Human lives. We're going to be expected to learn about and practice on HUMANS, God's most precious creation. What a joy to have that ability in your hands.

For now- it's more bookwork and studying than one ever thought imaginable. Here We Go!

And so it starts...

2009-09-01T07:30:00.000-04:00

[Note: This was written Monday afternoon.]

This week begins all of the "official" new student activities.

Last night we went to a new student social and bonfire at a restaurant on the beach. It was so, so hot and the music was pretty loud (isn't the purpose to MEET other students??) and we were basically just hanging out with people we already knew, so we decided to head over to the Student Center which actually ended up being closed. Since our apartment is so close, we asked Paul & Brandy if they wanted to come over for a while, and at that moment it started to POUR. Like, buckets. LITERALLY. We were all soaked by the time we got back to our apartment, but we all just laughed it off about how we are getting so used to cultural and geographical differences like that.

We also were able to pick up our white coats this weekend :)

Brian and I didn't know that Ross U. had white coats for us, so we had actually gone out and bought our own, had them tailored, etc. But... we have heard that the white coat you wear while here on the island is NOT the white coat you want to wear during clinical rotations in the States! So we are planning on sending them back to the States for safe-keeping and will use them once we get back. For now, we'll sweat and sweat and sweat some more in the school-issued white coats while we're here. :)

Tonight starts orientation! It's only 6-8:30pm tonight, but the rest of the week is literally 8-5 of orientation. I really appreciate everything they do in orientation though- on the schedule is everything from classes and registration, to professionalism, as well as things like fruits/veggies here in Dominica and how to overcome cultural differences. I know Brian and I are really looking forward to learning a lot this week.

We're still kinda nervous about starting school next Monday. Only 7 days to go!! Please keep us in your prayers!

Chapter 3: A Relationship That Spanned Oceans

2009-08-30T18:00:00.000-04:00

Brian left for Albania, and Britt graduated from college and started her Master's program in Miami. For weeks Brian told her that he wanted nothing more than to be in an official relationship with her, but Brittany was just not ready. She prayed about it, and he prayed about it. On April 13, 2007, Brittany called Brian at 12midnight his time. He was sleeping on the floor of an office because the Peace Corps volunteers were overnighting in a different city than where they had originated. The phone rang, and Brian eagerly answered. Brittany smiled, and asked him what time it was in Albania. "Ummmm, midnight," Brian answered. "Yes, so that would mean it is what date?" she asked. "That would mean it's the 13th!" (Our lucky number, as it is.) Brittany said, "Well, what are two numbers that you can combine to add and get lucky 13?" Brian thought for a second and said, "Ah-ha! '06 and '07!!!!" (their class years from Texas A&M). She laughed and said, "Yes, you are exactly right. And I think that is a great day to be an 'Us.'" He was quiet for a moment, and said, "REALLY?!" She said, "Really." From then on, they were committed to their inter-continental relationship that spanned miles, oceans, countries, time zones, and even continents. They knew that with God's help, they could make it work, but it would not be easy. But usually the best things worth having are worth working hard for. As phone bills got expensive, time zones started to wear on their ability to talk at all, and busy lives led to increasing frustration in making it all work, Brian found this poem and sent it to Britt to remind her of why they were making it all work:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If wishes worked like magic

And plans worked that way too

And everything you wished for

Whether good or bad for you

Immediately was granted

With no effort on your part

You'd experience no fulfillment

Of your spirit or your heart.

For things achieved too easily

Lose their charm and meaning too

For it is life's difficulties

And the trials we go through

That makes us strong in spirit

And endow us with the will

To surmount the insurmountable

And to climb the highest hill

So wish not for the easy way

To win your heart's desire

For the joy's in overcoming

And withstanding flood and fire

For to triumph over trouble

And grow stronger with defeat

Is to win the kind of victory

That will make your life complete.

-Author Unknown, sent to Brittany from Brian via email June 2007

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They found new and creative ways to deepen their relationship, including what they affectionately called "International Dates!" Brian sent Britt an email at 7pm, the time when the date started, of him standing at a door holding a flower in his maroon polo, ready for their "date." :) He called her and told her to get in her car and go to "their Starbucks," where they had first started to notice their feelings for each other. She went there, sat at a table alone, and called him, and they used up a whole phone card :) for their "date" as they chatted about life and everything else. They also realized on this date that their desire to both become physicians was going to be a very, very hard reality to achieve, as getting into medical school is hard enough, much less the same one as someone else. So from that day in May and onward, they prayed every single day for the opportunity to go to medical school together and conquer their dreams, TOGETHER, of becoming physicians.

As the fall went onward, Brian's grandmother become very sick, and he was given the hard choice of deciding whether or not to stay in Albania or come back to the United States and live in Dallas with Britt's family while visiting Granny every week to be with her and take her to her chemo treatments. Although he had wanted to be in the Peace Corps for the full two years that is usually required of a volunteer, he just could not let up the opportunity to go and take care of his grandmother while she had the hardest battle of her life in Texas. As hard as the decision was, Brian decided to stop in Miami and visit Brittany before continuing on to Texas.

Because Brian was still flying home from Albania as a volunteer, he had to fly to his point of origination, San Antonio, before he could go anywhere else. He flew to San Antonio, got to see his family for an hour, and was back on a plane to Dallas that night. That night, Brittany's parents, whom Brian had never met before, picked Brian up at the airport to take him to the place he would be staying overnight. Within the two hours that Brian met her parents, he asked them permission to marry their daughter... whom he had only been dating five months... but never dated in the same country as. Brittany's parents had been praying since the day she was born for the future mate that would come into her life, and that God would bless their relationship and he would be good for her. Somehow, they knew that this was Brian, and gave him their permission. Brian later called Brittany's two sisters and asked for their permission as well (having never met them), as family is so important to them.

Brittany met Brian the next day at the airport in Miami, and they shared an awkward hug in the middle of the airport. :) They went back to Brittany's place on Miami Beach that night and took a picnic out to the water and danced on the beach. But let's all admit- it was awkward! They were boyfriend/girlfriend... but had never looked each other in the eyes as such!! The next day, Brittany went to school and Brian stayed in the room. Brittany called Brian on her way to school, and they both agreed that for now, talking on the phone seemed much, much easier. :) After that day though, they began to grow closer and enjoy each other's real-life company more and more. :) The next day, they went out to the beach outside Brittany's apartment, and in the ocean, as they were playing in the water, after five months of dating, shared their very first kiss.