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!