Always use a cutting board, and other lessons.

Haven't been here in a while!  Apparently time flies when you're a medical student's wife...or maybe, time just really flies.  Either way, it's hard to catch everyone up to speed on our life in Nashville if I continue to fall farther behind.  So here's the fast forward - August -> October!


Always use a cutting board!

My dad's immediate response - "Now you know, always use a cutting board!"  Indeed, now we always do.

 As at least a few of you know, life got really exciting for a few weeks in the Thompson house right after Josh's white coat ceremony.  On what was supposed to be my second day of work at Barnes and Noble (the campus bookstore - yes, I have a job; see, we're catching up!), I had a small slip up while slicing a peach.  Where I had intended the knife to cut through the peach into the pit...it went through the pit and into my hand holding the peach.  Not ideal.  Thankfully, I have an amazingly perceptive husband who knew to answer the phone when I called him unexpectedly during class.  Thankfully, he had just finished his quiz.  Thankfully, running at full speed, it only took him 10 minutes get his important husband self home.  And a lot of tears and only five stitches later, we'd survived our first medical emergency.

Thanks, Mom, for the band-aids!  We used the whole box!

For those of you who don't know Josh and I well...here's where we differ.  When Josh dislocated his shoulder in the middle of the night in a dorm room alone in North Carolina, he spent an hour trying to fix it himself, woke no one, and took a bus to the emergency room.  When I had my wisdom teeth out in college, I cried and ate mashed potatoes for no less than ten days.  Needless to say, Josh and I had a lot to learn about each other and how we handle pain.  It took a very long time for things to settle back to normal after I cut my hand; so much so that we now refer to time as a "before I cut my hand" or after.  In my defense, it hurt, a lot.  But Josh did an amazing job taking care of us both!  He had to pick up a lot of slack for me, cooking, cleaning, driving, carrying groceries, washing my hair, buttoning and zipping my clothes, the list goes on and on.  I don't know what I would have done without him!  My hand is now almost entirely healed.  I think I got it good enough that I'll always have extra trouble opening jars and using that palm muscle, but that's life, right?


God always has something next for us.

Despite calling out of my second and third days of work, I did keep my job at Barnes and Noble and Josh and I both had a great time with me working there.  I worked with a lot of wonderful young people, many who were also new to Vanderbilt, and I got a really fun inside scoop on campus activities. Working at the campus bookstore really helped me get excited to be a Commodore fan, and I think it's a big part of why Josh and I ended up enjoying football season so much!  It was perfect when we found it because I applied as seasonal help for the beginning of the school year and football season, but knew that I'd keep looking for something that would make sense for me long term.

Josh took me to a very sweet congratulatory dinner on the
patio at Ted's.  It was one of our favorite dinners!

About two months ago, an opportunity came up for me to be able to work at the Vanderbilt Family and Child Care Center.  Basically, there are four daycares on campus for families of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Medical Center full-time staff.  I have loved working there.  The transition was definitely hard; working at a daycare is so very different from working one-on-one as a nanny, so I had some big adjustments to make, but as I've gotten in the swing of things, and especially as I've gotten to know each of the kids, I have more and more fun!  I've worked primarily in the infant classrooms with kids ranging from around four months to kids just over a year, and I am learning so much!  It's incredible to be able to partner with parents for so many fun stages - in my classrooms we have kids who are learning to roll, crawl, and walk, kids learning words and play, kids figuring out toys and soft foods, and so on.  I don't know what will make sense for me long term, but in the moment, I know that God has me here in Nashville as a spouse and cheerleader, but while He has me here, it looks like He has a lot more to teach me as well!


Thank You notes are not a strength of mine.

Preparing for the wedding, I read over and over and over, be organized about your thank you notes.  Don't get behind.  Don't wait.  Just do them.  Well they say that over and over again because they know we're going to be tired, we're going to be busy, and we're going to let ourselves get behind (we being brides everywhere, not just me - I hope).  I don't know what it was...fatigue from the planning process, the quick transition from wedding mode to moving mode, the act of moving in of itself.  I am sure there are plenty of reasons I could come up with.  Moral of the story - if you haven't received a thank you note for your wedding gift, it definitely got lost in the mail.  Just kidding.  I've made a big dent in the list, knocking them out each Sunday as we watch our Broncos win, but I'm surely not there yet.  Any brides-to-be reading this (here's looking at you, Lina), start writing now ;)  Any wonderful friends of ours who I haven't yet thanked, I am so very grateful and our Nashville apartment wouldn't be the same without you!

There's nothing like your family.

I already mentioned that Josh's parents were able to visit us in July.  We so loved having them here.  And once they left, we knew we could look forward to visits from my mom in September, and my dad in October.  Not only have we loved sharing this city and our little life with those we love, but we have also loved that we eat so well when we have family in town!  We can't wait for my sister Holly to visit us in March :)

My mom loved the live music downtown on Broadway!

My dad says he'll never forget that we got to see the Vanderbilt Commodores
beat the Georgia Bulldogs.  It was an awesome game!

Thanks for reading!

The South and I don't get along very well.

When we decided we were moving to Nashville, we heard over and over and over again about how different 'The South' was going to be from what I was used to.  I don't think Josh was really expecting any big changes having spent three years in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but I knew that I was in for some changes.  I'm still not really sure what everyone was expecting me to have to get used to, but I have started my personal list of reasons The South and I probably won't ever be besties.  (Sorry Amelia!)

From the Wikipedia Commons for The South

*I probably should mention that I have no idea if ANY of these things have anything to do with The South, or just Nashville, or just our block, or just my imagination.  But I'm going to pin them on The South anways.  Oops.

1.  Nashville stinks all the time!  And I mean, like, all the time.  Sometimes it smells like trash, sometimes it smells like stale Pirates of the Caribbean water that's been underground for 20 years, sometimes, it just plain makes you hold your breath.

When we first moved, I thought maybe it just smelled because it was hot.  Like they say Venice smells bad in the summertime because whatever it is that smells heats up or something, I thought maybe Nashville was like that.  Hot, humid summertime brings out the smelliest of her.  You'll also notice though, Nashville stinks when it rains.  It's like, rain hits the pavement here, and rebounds as noxious fumes.  No idea if that's true, but I promise, it's not nice.  And then, once it's done raining, all that moisture becomes hot and humid air, which smells more (see above).

So it smells when it's hot and when it's wet, I can handle that...but then, walking down the road, you'll inevitably cross horrid smells over and over for maybe no reason at all.  I have some theories.  I think the entire earth is molding under the surface here.  Sometimes when a moist leaf gets turned over in the mornings, you can tell it had been growing a lovely layer of mold on the ground side.  I bet all the bushes and leaves and grass and soil we walk by is just breeding nasty smelling mold.  I also think there is some kind of strange, waxy plant they use has a hedging plant (for instance, at the building I work at), that gives off a super nasty stench.  Maybe it's just the soil underneath, but I have a feeling there's something more going on.  You shouldn't have to hold your breath every time you walk along the hedge!

So not only are we battling these unknown, possibly moisture related icky smells, but we also have a neighbor who has decided to use her building's dumpster to deposit all kinds of spoiled produce.  I'm not sure if she lives there, or owns the building, or just picked a dumpster to continually dump her trash in, but about once a week, a lady in a red pickup pulls up to the dumpster and starts throwing heaps of bags of spoiled lettuce, or chunks of sweet potato, or piles of onions, or whatever, into the dumpster we walk by every day.  You can tell she's visited not only by the stench, but also because she often leaves behind one of those huge cardboard boxes they put watermelons or pumpkins or the like out in the store in.  Not cool, red truck, not cool.

2.  Rats and possums are not okay, ever!  Both are disgusting, neither are welcome, and both have been spotted alarmingly close to where I get in and out of my car (or close enough, at least).

First the rats.  One of Josh's friends suggested we all get hot chicken (it's fried chicken, not sure why Nashville calls it something different, but they do) and take it to Centennial Park (two blocks from the apartment) for a nice, outside, summer dinner.  Great idea, however, where we parked our little picnic happened to be in a pavilion that had been claimed by a large, yucky, disgusting pack of rats.  So most of us ate our dinner with our feet in our laps watching all sides of the pavilion as these yucky things ran circles around us and occasionally ventured across a corner of the pavilion and wayyy too close for comfort.  I'm pretty sure I made Josh carry me back to the car.  Lets just say we won't choose Centennial Park for any more evening meals.  NOT OKAY, NASHVILLE, NOT OKAY.

Disney possums from Bambi

As for the possums...they do not look like the sweet tree hanging friends from Splash Mountain or Bambi.  Or really, they do, because that's how I recognized them.  They're just not as sweet looking when they're real.  We pulled out of our garage the other night only to have, what at first glance could have been an extremely large rat, staring at us.  It only took me a few seconds to realize it was, in fact, a possum, and then panic regarding the fact that these creatures exist, and in close proximity to us.  And then, just last night, Josh slammed on the breaks as we drove home because something had darted across the street and almost met our tires.  This something being a HUGE, fox-sized possum that I am really, really glad didn't actually touch my car.  NOT OKAY, NASHVILLE, NOT OKAY.

3.  Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.  Ew.  Lets be honest.  I've never been good with bugs.  Honestly, I barely enjoy sweet, fluffy, house trained animals, but bugs are the far opposite side (surpassed only recently by possums).  And apparently, The South and bugs have a thing going on.  Because there are some nasty, huge, disgusting things here.  And not just, here or there you might meet a huge spider on your horseback ride through the jungle, but more like, you probably should always walk on the street side of the sidewalk because if you look too closely at the bushes, swarms of nasty red wasps might appear.  Or something like that.  All bugs make my list of not okays, but especially the nasty red ones.  The color is an indication that they should be far away from me.  But it seems both the nasty red wasps, and the backyard cookout loving nasty red flying beetle thing, are inevitable.  I told Josh if we're ever going to have a back patio, it's going to have to be screened in.  For this same reason, we have actually never opened our one apartment window - for fear anything might venture in.

It's probably worth noting that for approximately three nights, I thought that I might like lightning bugs.  See, my dad and I had never seen them before, and then when we came out here in June, we saw a few in the field on our walk back from dinner.  They were neat.  But not too many nights later, a friend of Josh's caught him one and let it crawl around on his hand.  This firefly went very quickly from cool, animated glowing orb like the one in Princess and the Frog, to nasty bug that doesn't belong anywhere close.  Magic gone.

 While The South and I might never get along, I am learning to overcome or avoid these new hurtles in order to appreciate the sweet things about living in Nashville.  And for the most part, I think I'll survive.  I might possibly require Josh to carry me through parks at night or throw rocks ahead of us as we walk down the sidewalk to our building, but I think that's a burden he's willing to carry.

I thought I'd end with a list of positives The South has added to our lives:

1.  Because Josh "made me move here," he has to let me eat good 'ole Southern Bluebell ice cream every night.  Serious deal.  It's what I look forward to every night.
2.  I really enjoyed the fresh Georgia peaches this summer.  I don't know if that's because they were better because we are closer, or just because it was a phase I went through, but I would still count it as a positive.
3.  I'm pretty sure fall is going to be breathtaking.  I mean, it's not here yet, but there are a whole lot of leaves here.
4.  I'm becoming a football fan.  Something about working at the school bookstore, living so close to the stadium, and being in the SEC has made going to games and rooting for the Commodores a highlight.  And somehow, that is carrying over to enjoying the Broncos and their awesome season start.  Which in total, is really contributing to our marriage, as it is really fun for Josh to share with me all his volumes of football knowledge.  :)

So I guess, in total, the good is outweighing the bad.  Thanks to Bluebell and the SEC.


Thanks for reading!

My husband is kind of a big deal.

His title, not mine :)  Though I do think he's right!

As I'm sure you remember, there was, of course, a reason for Josh and I to pack up our things, leave our *dream* jobs, and drive out to Music City.  I thought it was high time I highlighted that reason with some blog time.  As it turns out (okay, we really already knew this, we were just good at denying it), embarking on a seven year journey to earn (or support) an MD/PhD from an amazing school like Vanderbilt, is a really big deal.

I mean, we knew we were committed to his education, we knew that Josh would be offered some once in a lifetime educational opportunities here, we knew God was calling, okay, dragging, us out of our comfort zone, but I don't know that either of us really paused to reflect on a) what an honor it would be to join the Vanderbilt family, and b) what a full-time, all the time undertaking earning an MD and a PhD in just seven years would be.  We've now been in Nashville for 16 weeks, and I think we're just barely starting to 'get it.'

Maybe to help commemorate the beginning of Josh's medical career, maybe to honor my husband who has so much to be proud of, maybe just to continue to try to keep you up to date, here's a look into the beginning of medical school!

In light of what a big beginning it was, Vanderbilt, like many other medical schools, hosted a 'White Coat Ceremony' in July, at which point all the medical students are given their fancy 'pre-doctor' doctor coats.  There is something to do with the length of the coat and the importance of the wearer - in general, the longer the coat, the more training they have, I believe.  Josh and I had the privilege of hosting our first Nashville visitors for this important occasion!  Both Josh's parents and grandparents were able to venture to our new city, and we loved having them!  It was so fun to have Josh's grandfather here for the white coat ceremony, as he is also a doctor and shared with us the many things that seem to have changed, but also some of the foundations that will connect Josh with his own Papa's medical training.  When Papa was in medical school, if you were curious, they did not have a white coat ceremony - we decided this was a positive change.

Here is Josh's entire medical school class.  Some would call it the 'Class of 2017', but since Josh will be staying a few extra years for his program in order to earn his PhD, 'Class of 2017' doesn't seem quite right.

Josh officially receiving his white coat!

Here are the eleven students who are a part of the 'MSTP' program like Josh.
They will spend 6-7 years at Vanderbilt earning both MDs and PhDs for medical research.

We are so grateful for this group and the friendships that it has brought.  We have been so encouraged and supported by each of these students.  We cannot wait to see where the next seven years takes each of them and are excited to get to be a part of everyone's journey! 

It was such an honor to be there as Josh's wife, side by side with four of the most influential people in his life.  I can only hope to love and support him as well as you four have for the last twenty-two years!

But medical school isn't all white coats and fancy ceremonies.  We have a comfortable little routine here in our apartment that involves a lot, and I mean a lot, of studying.  There are some nights that I'll crawl into bed around 10pm, he'll sweetly take a break to tuck me in, and when I wake up again at 6am, he'll still be there, studying away.  He tells me he sneaks in beside me and sleeps a few hours before waking up early to get back at it...but I'm such a good sleeper, I'd never know the difference!

Some of my favorite study moments up to this point:

• Josh recently has been learning how to use his ophthalmoscope (aka eye-checker).  We spent an afternoon with the blinds drawn and lights off so that Josh could practice shining a rather bright light in my eyes and adjusting some dial that is supposed to help him focus on the veins in the back of my eye.  No telling what he actually saw, but I don't think I saw right for the rest of the evening.  Turns out, poor Josh's vision is so bad to start with, he seems to be at a disadvantage for checking mine.  We've heard that Belle, Josh's dog left in Denver, makes for a great eye exam...perhaps Josh will learn how to focus his eye-checker over Christmas.
• While preparing for one of his anatomy sessions, Josh kindly took his computer away from the kitchen table so as to spare me from catching a glimpse of the video on his screen.  From my post in the kitchen, all I could see was his face, expressing an unbelievable amount of disgust over whatever it was he happened to be seeing.  I am so thankful he spared me from a chance glance!
• Not too many weeks into his first class block, Josh's coffee mug spilled all over the inside of his backpack.  For days and days afterwards, we had an indescribable amount of pages laid out across our apartment so that his notes wouldn't mold in their little page protectors!  Boy, does this guy take some notes!

 Josh has an exam a week from Thursday, so I will try to snap a few pictures of what it means for this man to actually hunker down and study :)  Think of him and send any spare rest you may be accumulating his way!

Thanks for reading!

Living 'close' is really nice!

Absolutely the scariest thing for Josh and I in moving to a new city was making a decision about where to live.  We spent a very fast three days in Nashville in April as a little 'pre-honeymoon,' desperately hoping to find the perfect apartment that would meet all of our spacial, safety, cleanliness, commute-related, and budgetary needs.  If you read the last post, you already know that we ended up in an apartment that we love, but I don't think I mentioned how blessed we feel that we found this apartment in this location.

As we explored our options, we weighed the pros and cons of second bedrooms, gated access, saving money, and distance from campus.  The more we considered things, the more we realized how much our marriage would benefit if we could find ourselves somewhere close to campus.  Having both commuted 20-40 minutes to our respective jobs before, we knew that the shorter Josh's commute was, the more time he would spend at home, and therefore, the more time we would have together.  Ultimately, though unfortunately after we returned from our quick three day visit, we found the perfect little apartment that would put us right there next to campus.

Not being from Nashville, of course, we actually had no idea how close and how convenient the spot we picked has ended up to be!  As the wife of a medical student, I cannot tell you how thankful I am that Josh's classes and activities are literally a five minute drive (or 14 minute walk) from our front door.  For me, this has meant that when Josh has to be at anatomy lab at 5am, I can roll out of bed, drop him off, and be back in bed with another two hours to sleep.  Or, when Josh wants to print out his lecture notes at 10pm, I know he'll be home again before I've even finished getting ready for bed.  Or, if Josh has a pre-exam study session he'd like to attend in the evenings, he can still make time to come home for dinner with 'wifey.'  Am I lucky, or what?

Since I already gave you a tour of the apartment, I thought I would give all of you back home a tour of the neighborhood!  This should give you a little sneak peak into the in's and out's of our day to day :)  For those of you reading from Nashville, I suppose there's really no lesson for you here...but thanks for your new friendship and for reading along!

I organized the tour along the loop that Josh and I walk to and from school/work each day.  Yes, we walk together every morning.  It is the best part of my day.  Walking home tends to be a little warmer than I'd like, but I enjoy that also!

About two blocks from our apartment is a park and city monument called the Parthenon.  It is actually a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Greece built in 1897 for an extravagant fair that became a permanent landmark in Nashville, the "Athens of the South."  It's actually really beautiful when they light it up at night!

One night near the end of July, Josh and I saw a facebook post from a new friend that they were filming a scene of the TV show Nashville at the Parthenon.  We ventured the two blocks down the road and got to see 'Juliette Barnes' perform a scene for the premier of season 2!  Look for this scene in tomorrow night's premier and know that Josh and I were there!

Another two blocks from the Parthenon (an eight minute walk from our apartment) is my current place of employment - the Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt.  I'm loving working  about 30 hours a week in the Vanderbilt merchandise department.  I get to talk to prospective students and parents about the college search process and help organize piles and piles of Vanderbilt gear.  It's even helped me get excited about football season!

A few minutes past the Barnes and Noble would be my lovely husband's place of study.  Door to door, you can't get much better than his fourteen minute walk!  And he's been spoiled.  Anytime I haven't had to be at work myself, he's had a ride :)

And finally, the last stop I thought I'd include is the football stadium.  On the return loop from campus, the stadium is about halfway home (seven minutes walking).  You should see this town on game days!  Josh and I got season tickets, so I'm really enjoying getting to follow the team with him.  At the last game, he spent the whole second half explaining to me how football defense works.  It made for a great evening!  And it makes it nice that we can just walk over to the stadium and walk home, no traffic, no parking, no hassle!

Also nearby, but not pictured, are a ton of restaurants, a little grocery store we try not to frequent (it's over-priced and a little stinky), and a number of hotels.  We truly are right in the middle of things!

Who knows where we'll end up a year or two from now, but at least at the moment, our little corner of 'midtown' is better than we could have possibly imagined.  I imagine as the weather begins to change and the course material continues to grow, we'll only appreciate our 'nearness' more and more!

Thanks for reading! And for all the birthday wishes!

Sometimes, a little space is just enough!

If you talked to Josh and I before we made the move, you know that our biggest (superficial) concern was that we were moving into an itty bitty apartment.  Nothing like going from a bachelor living in a two bedroom apartment to combining closets while downsizing to 600 square feet! 

And so, Josh and I left behind A LOT, loaded up a 16' truck, and crossed our fingers that it would all fit!  And as we moved the first boxes in, it looked like it was going to be a little close.  In fact, even the movers were laughing at the already lack of space as they carried in our over-sized bean bag (don't worry, I made sure it fit!).

A photo before we started bringing all the stuff in.

I'm standing at the front door - yes, that's the back wall. No, there's not another bedroom somewhere.

We arrived to Nashville on a Saturday evening; we moved into the apartment the following Sunday morning.  Josh started orientation at Vanderbilt on Monday morning.  So needless to say, my dad and I did most of the unpacking.  We were conservative about space and creative in some of our placement.  I'm still sometimes surprised when I find an appliance in an unexpected drawer!  All that hard work paid off, though.  We found a home for everything that came out of these boxes!

We celebrated when the box pile got this small!

So, now that we've had plenty of time to unpack, arrange, rearrange, clean, rearrange, and clean again, I thought we'd give you all a tour!

Real time side note:  I just asked Josh how he was doing (he's studying like crazy) and he responded by turning on some scary rap music.  Must be exam week in the Thompson house...

This is the outside of our building.  One of those little windows provides our only natural light (when I remember to open the curtain)!   We're a 5 minute walk from the edge of Vanderbilt's campus, and about a 20 minute walk to where Josh actually has class.

 Here's a peak in.  I'm standing at the front door again.  Now with furnishings you can see we have a small entryway, and a long living room-kitchen-bedroom.  Plenty of space :)  We were pleasantly surprised by how much we like the polished concrete floors.  So far, no need for socks as the floor hasn't been too cold!

I stood up on the entertainment center (aka dresser full of kitchen appliances, pots and pans, and tupperware) to get this photo of our living room.  We love our wedding photos featured on the wall like that, and the paintings on the right were done by yours truly.  Thank you Pinterest!  The giant bean bag makes its home on most of our floor space, but we do love it!

 Here's from the far end of the kitchen (just before the bedroom).  There is a small counter between the living room and kitchen.  We thought it might make a good study space for Josh.  It turns out it is easier for him and I to eat dinner on the couch and leave the entire table as a desk for him.  Beyond that, there is very little cabinet space, no silverware drawer, and no pantry.  Like I said, we got creative!

 A long, deliberative trip to the Container Store added significant shelving space to our kitchen cabinets.  We managed to save the space above the microwave to serve as our pantry.  Our other strategy - always have some dirty dishes.  That way, the dishwasher serves as storage, rather than wasted space ;)  My favorite part of the new apartment?  Unpacking our dishes we received at the wedding into the cabinet.  You can't tell from the picture, but they look beautiful up there!

The other side of the kitchen - or Josh's desk.  We found a great silverware caddy to use instead of a drawer, and anything that didn't fit in the cabinets made its way to our Ikea shelf we brought out last minute.

 With limited square footage, the bathroom is significant space!  We've adjusted now, but we were both shocked that showers could feel so small.  I think the shower head is just a touch low.  The tiles along the mirror (which goes all the way up to the twelve foot ceiling) are beautiful!

From the far corner of the bedroom, this is all I could get in the shot, but you're not missing much.  Just the closet (see below) and the window are to the right of here.  We haven't even hung the pictures sitting on our dresser yet.  Oh well.

 Our closet.  And no, there isn't more.  Josh very generously gave me more dresser space, so he uses most of the closet space.  I don't know what we'll do when winter comes (sweaters and jackets are all under the bed), but for now, we're actually doing really well fitting everything in!  Again, we always have some dirty laundry helping keep space in the closet :)

I had to show you my very early birthday present!  I guess being a real adult means getting important things a washer and dryer for your birthday.  Thanks Dad!  We love them!

Lastly, I thought I'd give you a good picture of our sliding barn doors (just for you, Kim).  We only really shut them if Josh is going to be up late studying, and even then, only part way.  But they do make the apartment pretty trendy and urban, right?

And now you've seen way more than you ever needed to of our beautiful home.  Everything fit, we love how it worked out, and we're glad for even this much space.  We've even said a couple of times, better to be in a small apartment where Josh's studying never leaves him too far from me, than spread out in a big house, right?

Thanks for reading!

We struggle with 'keeping in touch.'

Surprised? Probably not.

Josh and I arrived in Nashville eleven weeks ago. And how many of you have we kept up to date on our transition and goings on?  Probably only my dad, and only because he has faithfully called me every day to help me from getting lonely :)

So, we've decided to start a blog.  Well, to help us communicate, and also because I need something to do (or someone to talk to) while Josh studies.

We hope that in keeping up with this blog, we can give all of you a peek into our life here in Nashville.  That peek, we hope, can come out of life's little lessons learned here at the intersection of new city, newlyweds, and new medical student.  I have a feeling there are far more lessons to be learned than I'll ever have time to share!

Tonight, I'll start only with the basics, and hopefully, over the course of the next few weeks, I'll get caught up to present.  Maybe then we'll feel like we've nailed this whole 'keeping in touch' thing.

So...here's the start to my catch-up!

Josh and I, in front of wonderful friends and family, were married on March 24th, 2013.  Denver surprised us with 12" of snow and a week of 12° weather, just for all of our out of town guests.

If we look cold, it's because we are!  But outside of that, it was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful weekend for us.  We loved sharing it with so many of you and are still so excited to be supported in our marriage by our friends and family.

Two days after the wedding, Josh and I headed out to Nashville, TN to look for an apartment.  We knew at that point that Josh would begin a seven year MD/PhD program at Vanderbilt over the summer, and were preparing for the move.  Following a few days in Nashville, we spent a week in Canada for our honeymoon, and returned to Denver to begin married life and the process of transitioning away from home.  Josh, my dad, and I left Denver on June 14th, with a truck filled with wedding gifts, furniture, and a whole love of 'stuff.'

We arrived safely in Nashville two days later, and thus have begun our transition to marriage, Nashville, and medical school.

Thanks for reading!