Pics from Joe's White Coat

So I've finally pushed through my laziness and uploaded pictures from Monday's white coat :)

Obligatory back to school pic

Announcing himself!

Shaking hands with the Dean

Proud mama

Happy couple :)

Mom and son

The three of us

I also mentioned that Joe got a super special gift in honor of his white coat ceremony.

A few months ago, I read a post on my favorite fellow dental school wife's blog. Ariel at Love Like Enamel (AWESOME name, BTW) had an idea to give her husband a journal with letters of encouragement/advice for him to read when dental school got rough. 

I LOVED the idea, and immediately e-mailed a bunch of family and friends and asked them to submit letters, photos, quotes, etc. so I could create a scrapbook of encouragement for Joe. I figured the best time to give him the scrapbook would be on the night of his white coat. 

Boy oh boy was putting that scrapbook together TOUGH. Since Joe wasn't in school, it was nearly impossible to carve out time to work on it without arousing suspicion. A couple times I rented horror movies and said I was going to watch them in our room (knowing full well he wouldn't step foot in the room since he hates them so much). Besides that, I just took advantage of any time he needed to run a quick errand and made some excuse as to why I couldn't come (headache, cramps, didn't want to crate Buster) and then would whip out the supplies.

I actually used the date night jars as an excuse toward the end. Knowing that I was going to give him two homemade gifts before school, I figured I'd tell him I was making him a surprise. That way, I didn't have to come up with creative ways to get myself alone. While I hated sacrificing the surprise of the jars (the jars themselves were secret, the fact he was getting something wasn't), it was worth it to keep the scrapbook secret.

He loved it :)

Thanks to all who sent contributions :)

 

My New Normal

This picture is going to be my new normal for the foreseeable future. Feeling particularly clingy to my husband last week (knowing his time with nothing to do but hang out with me was coming to a close real quick), I joked that I'd have to camp out in his office when he studies so at least we'd be in the same room together.

He got so excited, I didn't have the heart to tell him I was kidding.

It's actually not a bad idea. If I am reading or blogging or even watching Netflix on my computer (with headphones), why NOT physically be in the same room as Joe. Maybe it will help keep us from feeling distant. Heck, I got everything I need: my hubby, my pup resting between my legs, and my lap top. He's even playing Italian music tonight - the music of my people - to welcome me to his office ;)

White Coat Ceremony

It's official! Joe not only had his first day of class yesterday, but he is a coated dental student! After years of working toward this goal, the day finally arrived. I couldn't be prouder :)

***Side Note*** For those curious about our path to dental school, click on the "Our Dental School Journey" tab above ***End of Side Note***

I have pics from yesterday, but took them on my fancy camera and didn't have time to upload them before I left for work this morning. I promise to post them in the coming days. 

Right now, I'm posting this from my phone as the girls sleep. I pray they sleep in late this morning, I don't know the last time I was so tired. Between the early hours for this job and the late hours with orientation events, I've been getting about 5 hours of sleep a night (6 if I am lucky). Some people can survive on that; I am not one of those people. I need a solid 8 hours ideally (or 7 hours if all you care is that I am moderately pleasant). Anything less? Beware.

The good news is that yesterday was far and away the best day of nannying yet. The girls were AWESOME and I felt like I am finally in a groove and have established my authority. I'm wanting children of my own again haha.

Anyways, back to dental stuff.

Joe's mom flew in Sunday night so she could attend the ceremony, and I am so glad she did. Some people aren't lucky with mother-in-laws, but I hit the jackpot. I love having her around and Joe (of course!) loved having his mom at such an important event. Unfortunately, work and school meant she spent more time with Buster than us. The upside of that is she was bored and taught him how to high five; it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. 

The ceremony was really nice, and I definitely got choked up a few times. Luckily, trying to take pictures distracted me enough that I wasn't a blubbering mess. The stage lighting was awful, and I had a hard time getting good pics (as you'll soon see). 

***Side Note*** Speaking of, it's high time I practiced some of the camera skills I learned in my photography lessons. Once my lessons finished I was back to using the auto-mode 100% of the time (lazy, lazy me). ***End of Side Note***

After the ceremony, we went to dinner and then headed home for some wine and Joe's super special white coat present.

"What present?" You ask?

You'll have to wait until tomorrow. I am hearing the pitter-patter of little feet... 

Here's hoping it's just their cat. ;)

Scattergories Date

We officially did our first date jar date night!

Last Sunday, Joe drew from the yellow jar, assuming that we'd have time this weekend but not TOO much time since his mom is coming tonight and we needed to do some deep cleaning.

He drew the Scattergories date - which I was really excited about:

Here's how the date worked. Yesterday afternoon, Joe rolled a Scattergories die to determine what letter dictated our night.

He rolled an "R" and we both breathed a sigh of relief, since we feared a much more difficult letter. Then, we set the timer and each tried to come up with date night plans starting with "R." You can see the categories and our answers in the picture below (good luck reading Joe's doctor writing lol).

After comparing answers and coming up with a few *better* ideas (okay, fine, we cheated a little), this was our date night plan:

Clothing - Red
Main Course - Ribs
Side Dish - Rolls and Roasted Potatoes (I realize now we could have said roasted anything... haha)
Dessert - Reese's Ice Cream
Drink - Root Beer
Music - Rock N Roll
Movie - Robin Hood - Men in Tights
Activity - Rummy
Alcoholic Drink - Red Wine

We decked ourselves out in our finest red clothes (red PJs for me and a red shirt for Joe) and enjoyed our movie and dinner.

Unfortunately, after a few glasses of red wine we decided we were too tired to play rummy and listen to rock n roll, so sometimes this week we'll be playing :)

Joe just pulled this week's date and I'm really excited because it's Christmas night! Christmas movies, Christmas cookies, and ugly sweaters. Stay tuned for details of the night itself :)

Week Re-Cap

That's me!

I haven't been very good at blogging this last week because work, dealing with Buster's separation anxiety, and trying to support Joe through orientation has taken up pretty much all of my time.

So I'll hit on the highlights (and lowlights) of each and try to be better next week.

***Side Note*** As a follower of blogs myself I hate when my favorite bloggers aren't consistent. Though I doubt I can count myself among anyone's favorite bloggers (yet? or is that wishful thinking?), consistency is still important. ***End of Side Note***

Work

As previously mentioned, I'm going to be vague about my nanny job for the privacy of the family I am working for. This was my first full week, and it was a doozy. The girls don't start school until September, and so they are home all day long. This means my days are about 10-11 hours (once school starts I'll have a 4-5 hour break in the middle of the day). They needed me for a bit yesterday, so I did get to go home early on Wednesday and Thursday, which was awesome since I had errands I needed to run and a dog I needed to rescue from our bathroom (more later on the dog).

Going from working 0 hours a day for 5 months to 10+ hours a day is not an easy adjustment. And starting any new job is always rough. This combination didn't make for a super week, but I am sure next week will be better.

I do have to say that I didn't realize how difficult nannying would be. I worked at an after school program after college and it was cake compared to this (mmm cake). I can't really pinpoint the reason it's so hard (maybe it really is just the long hours and fact I'm learning as I go?), but I found myself wondering a few times this week how moms and dads (especially stay-at-home parents who are with their kids 24/7) do it. It's not that the girls are bad, they are super cute and very smart, it's just HARD and a lot of responsibility.

I think these feelings depressed me a bit this week too, which probably didn't help the whole adjusting to work thing.

My whole life all I wanted to be was a stay-at-home mom (SAHM for those of you who don't read a lot of mom-blogs). I've been counting down the days until Joe and I can start a family and have worked out budgets so that we can see if having kids at some point when he is still in dental school is even feasible. After this week, I don't mind waiting, and even told him if we had to wait until after dental school I'd be 100% fine with that.

This scares me, as my identity is so wrapped up in being a "future SAHM." What if I can't hack being a SAHM? What if I don't like it? I always thought my stress and anxiety was mainly brought on by not doing what I wanted with my life (being a SAHM), but what if NOTHING will make me happy? Not a happy thought.

Buster

As I mentioned in my last post, we are having trouble with Buster's separation anxiety. When I came home on Thursday he had pooped in the bathroom and tracked it everywhere. He also covered the main mound with his towel, so after I had cleaned up almost everything and went to move the towel to his bed, I had a nice little big surprise.

He also found something to rub his nose on in the bathroom and injured it further. Also, based on the placement of his toys it looks like he is neither playing with his toys nor laying in his bed. We think he's just crying at the door and jumping up and down in the bathroom (he used to jump up and down at the shelter and Joe found a blood mark on the door pretty high up - we assume from his nose). I mean, seriously, it's like a crime scene every time we come home.

Not true, but made me laugh

My friend Erin gave some great advice about getting a child gate so he doesn't feel so confined. Given Buster's proclivity to jumping, though, I'm sure he'd clear it in a hot second.

Since the bathroom isn't helping and we can't chance him getting poop all over our bed again by leaving him in the bedroom, we decided we are going back to the crate. At least in the crate he doesn't poop, he's safe (if we can figure out how to protect his nose), and he seems to settle down eventually. When we come to get him out he's usually laying there pretty calm.

I also contacted a dog trainer and am going to read some books on separation anxiety. This little pup is costing us a pretty penny, but we love him so much we don't care.

Hmmmm. Wait a minute. I may have had another "aha moment."

I've always been a person who likes dogs, but said I'd never put up with BS from one of my own. I would see people baby their animals and put up with bad habits, etc. Behaviors in another animals would drive me crazy, but Buster doing the exact same things I find cute or, at the very least, easy to forgive.

Example? I sometimes let him lick my fingers after I eat (*hangs head in shame*). Are you kidding me? If I saw someone else do that I'd roll my eyes and think they were insane.

It must be the same way with children. So even though nannying is tough and scaring me a bit from having kids of my own, I'm sure I'll find that I love them so much that the hard times won't be so hard. It'll just be different.

This actually makes me feel better. Blogging is SOOO therapeutic ;)

Joe

Joe's orientation went well. He's really excited about school starting and more confident than ever that he made the right choice picking Penn.

There were events at night during the week and we attended most of them so we could get to know people. I was EXHAUSTED from work, but went anyway because it's important to start these next 4 years off on the right foot and I was hoping to meet other dental school wives/girlfriends/etc. (which I didn't - wah wah).

It's tough not to have any friends in Philadelphia. The other dental students are very nice and include me in things with Joe. Once school starts, though, it's not like they are going to have free time to be my friend. And if they do have free time, that means Joe will also have free time and I am sure I'll be desperate for some quality 1:1 time with him. I started a Facebook group for significant others of Penn Dental Students, but only one guy has joined it.

Oh, well. At least I have Buster ;)

Last Day of Orientation

Today is Joe's last day of orientation and I can't believe how fast this week has gone. He's mostly been excited about orientation and starting classes on Monday, but we've had some Buster problems that have been stressing him out. I want to try to solve these problems ASAP.

Since I go to work before he leaves and get home after he does, Joe's been doing the brunt of Buster duty. The poor pup isn't used to being in a crate so long, and even though we thought we had successfully crate trained him, he's regressed in a major way. He looks like he's been rubbing his nose on the crate and has a sore on the top of it. He also annihilates anything he can reach from inside his crate (even though he isn't at all destructive outside the crate) and somehow is able to thump the thing up and down when he knows we haven't left the house yet and is trying to get our attention.

Since I can't stand for this little face to be sad (let alone HURT!)...

...we tried shutting him up in our room instead of the crate so he had more room to roam and could lay on the bed, etc. He didn't seem to like that much either, as he went potty all over the place and then walked in it - leaving little Buster poo-prints on everything. 

After that we decided to try to shut him up in the bathroom (much easier to clean up in there and less for him to get into- thanks for the advice mom). That seems to be working MUCH better- no accidents and he's not ripping up his bedding. But his nose looks worse, and I'm not sure if it's just because it's healing and itching so he's irritating it or if he is hurting himself out of anxiety.

I just feel so bad for him. Any advice out there? 

He's a perfect angel except when we leave... have we just spoiled him with too much love? I heard that dogs who think they are pack master have serious separation anxiety, but in every other way he seems to get that he's the bottom of our "pack." 

I really need to figure out some solutions here, Joe doesn't need the added stress and I want a happy pup.

Orientation Day 1

Yesterday was Joe's first day of orientation. He got his test schedule for the entire year and it's pretty frightening, but he's taking things one day at a time. That's one of the (many) differences between him and me, I would have already read that thing cover to cover and probably made some kind of test calendar. A pink and chevron calendar, of course.

So far the people we've met in his class have been super nice. And they all have very VERY impressive backgrounds (which I guess makes sense when you are at an Ivy). We met up with some people over the last week for happy hours and even hosted a little get together for the season premiere of Breaking Bad. Now that everyone is in town, the school has events every night this week so people can get to know each other. All of this has resulted in me eating (and drinking) way too much. I hate that my weight loss is being derailed for now, but I know I'd regret not taking part in these get-to-know-people events. Joe and I aren't the greatest at making friends (despite us being totally awesome haha) because we are real homebodies. We're forcing ourselves to really put ourselves out there. So far it seems to be working :) 

Not much more to report- but I'm sure there will be as orientation week progresses!

Repli-Kate: Date Jars

Date jars having been popping up A LOT on Pinterest, and I've always thought it would be fun to make one for Joe and me. We make a point to have a special date night every month, and usually it winds up being dinner and a movie because we are too tired or rushed to come up with something more unique.

Since I want to add some variety to our dates, and because I want guaranteed time with Joe every week when he is in dental school, I decided to make date jars as a gift for Joe before school starts. The idea is that he'll pull a date every Sunday night and, based on what it is and his schedule, we'll figure out when we want to do it that week. That also gives me time to make the necessary reservations or buy the necessary ingredients/supplies/etc.

In total, there are 104 dates so we can do one a week for his first 2 years of dental school (the first 2 years are the busiest by far).

With most of the jars on Pinterest, colored sticks or papers are used to indicate how expensive a date is. While money is something we are definitely careful with, I knew that while Joe is in dental school it's more important for us to choose a date based on how much time it would take. Those weeks where he has three tests? Maybe he only has an hour to spare for an activity. Those weeks where he miraculously has some extra time? Great! A several hour date it can be.

I used green, yellow, and red to indicate how much time I expect the specific activity to take. Green is 90 minutes or less, yellow is 2-4 hours, and red is 4+ hours. Obviously, there are many more green and yellow dates than red, I'm realistic ;)

Most of the dates are pretty inexpensive, but I did throw in a few higher-cost ideas. Because of the time and money restraints, and the fact that I wanted a lot of them to be things we can do at home, many involve cooking special dinners and watching movies. Though not THE MOST creative ideas ;) given how busy Joe will be, eating dinner together and watching a movie will feel special.

One thing that really annoyed me about seeing these date jars on Pinterest is that few (if any, honestly) had a full list of the activities they included. This meant spending hours trolling blogs online trying to find lists of date ideas to get inspiration and ideas for my own. So, because I'd hate anyone to ever spend that much time coming up with ideas ever again, I'll include my list of dates here :)

All 104 of them :)

***Side Note*** You'll notice I'll use any excuse to make us put on costumes. Joe should be trilled haha ***End of Side Note***

Green Dates (90 minutes or less)

Puzzle	Let's put on some music and put a puzzle together
YouTube Video Session	Let's get our laughs on with a marathon of funny YouTube videos
Write Bucket Lists	Let's plan the rest of our lives together
Paper Mache Masks	Let's cover our faces with paper mache and make some wicked cool masks
Thrifting	Let's go thrifting! We each get $5 to spend on the other person
Breakfast for Dinner - In PJs	Let's get our PJs on and have breakfast for dinner - complete with cartoons
Picnic in Clark Park	Let's pack a picnic basket and head to Clark Park (if the weather doesn't permit, we'll picnic on our living room floor)
Dance Party	Let's party like it's 1999!
Video Game Marathon	Let's hook up the Playstation and you can teach me some Madden
Game Night	Let's play some board games and pig out on pizza
Cookbook Dinner	Let's grab a cookbook and randomly select courses for a 4 course meal - then we gotta get busy cooking!
YouTube Dance Lessons	Let's prove we don't have four left feet between us. Swing? Tango? The Macarena?
Formal Night	Let's dress up in our finest attire and eat by candlelight - at home
Indoor Camping	Let's build a tent, make s'mores, and tell ghost stories
Photoshoot	Let's grab the camera and get some fun shots of each other
Tennis Match	Let's grab the rackets and hit the court
Wine Tasting	Let's pair wine with cheese and chocolate - yum
Personality Tests	Let's take some online personality tests and see how compatible we are on paper
Pudding Pictionary	Let's use our fingers to draw in pudding - whoever said you can't play with your food
Basketball	Let's play a game of HORSE and/or shoot some hoops
Coffee Date	Let's head to a local coffee shop for some caffeine and conversation
Dream Home Blueprint	Let's map out our dream house
Paint Portraits	Let's each try to paint a portrait of the other
Ice Cream Sundae Night	Let's forget dieting and make decadent ice cream sundaes
Beer Pong	Let's practice our pong skills - you are a college student again
Minute to Win It	Let's look up some Minute to Win It games and try our luck at them
Restaurant Replicate	Let's replicate a meal from a restaurant we like - but try to do it better
Record a Music Video	Let's bust out the camera and record a music video
Record an Infomercial	Let's pretend we're on HSN and record an infomercial for a product we own
Record a Cooking Show	Let's pretend we are on The Next Food Network Star and record a cooking segment
Would You Rather?	Let's get to know each other a bit better...
Paint Coffee Mugs	Let's draw/paint on a coffee mug for the other person
Rap Contest	Let's channel our inner Snoop Dog and see who can come up with the best rap
Play MadLibs	Let's lie in bed and play MadLibs
Paint By Numbers	Let's try to stay in the lines...
Joe's Choice	Let's see what Joe wants to do in 90 minutes or less
Cookie Cook-Off	Let's see who can make the tastiest cookie
Play at the Playground	Let's channel our inner child and swing, slide, and monkey around
Make T-Shirts	Let's decorate T-Shirts for each other
Dollar Store Hunt	Let's go to the dollar store with $4 each, 15 minutes, and a mission: (1) Find the worst gift (2) Find the best gift (3) Find the ugliest item (4) Find the best value
Make a Buster Calendar	Let's grab our cute little pup and take photos of him for a Buster calendar
Flip a Coin	Let's let fate determine where we eat tonight. We'll get in the car and flip a coin every 30 seconds. Heads we turn right, tails we turn left. After 15 minutes we eat at the closest restaurant
Needlepoint	Let's make some inappropriate needlepoint
Kate's Choice	Let's see what Kate wants to do for 90 minutes or less
Card Night	Let's play some card games

Yellow Dates (2-4 hours)

Chopped Challenge	Let's see who can find the most oddball mystery ingredients
Iron Chef	Let's see which of us will be the next Iron Chef of Spruce St.
Mob Night	Let's dress up like mobsters and enjoy some pizza, gelato, and chianti as we watch The Godfather
Mini-Golf	Let's hit the links... well, the little links
Bowling	Let's strike!
Dave & Busters or Chuck-E-Cheese	Let's try to win enough tickets for something better than a temporary tattoo..
Ice Skating	Let's FINALLY go ice skating
Go to the Zoo	Let's visit the animals at the Zoo
Blast From the Past - Kid	Let's pretend we are kids again - we'll eat kid foods and watch kid movies / TV shows
Blast From the Past - Teen	Let's pretend we are teenagers again - we'll eat pizza and watch our favorite movies / TV shows from when we were in junior high and high school
Sports Movie & Food	Let's watch a sports movie and eat foods you'd find at a concession stand
Restaurant Hop	Let's go to three restaurants tonight: one for an appetizer, one for an entree, and one for dessert
Theme Night - Italian	Let's go to Italy! We'll eat Italian food and watch a movie that reminds us of Italy
Theme Night - Western	Let's go partner! We'll eat like cowboys and watch a Western
Theme Night - French	Let's go to Paris! We'll eat French food and watch a movie that reminds us of France
Theme Night - Mexican	Let's go to Mexico! We'll eat Mexican food and watch a movie that reminds us of Mexico
Theme Night - 1950's	Let's pretend it's the 50's! Get in costume while we watch a 50's movie, eat 50's diner food, and maybe even have living room sock hop
Theme Night - 1980's	Let's pretend it's the 80's! Get in costume while we watch a Brat Pack movie
Theme Night - Halloween	Let's get our spooky on! Regardless of the time of year, let's put on a costume, watch a Halloween movie, and carve a pumpkin (or watermelon if pumpkin is out of season)
Theme Night - Christmas	Let's do Christmas in July...or March...or whenever you pull this. Christmas movies, ugly sweaters from the thrift store, and Christmas cookies
Theme Night - Disney	Let's watch a Disney movie and eat Monte Cristos
Theme Night - Hawaiian	Let's go back to the setting of our honeymoon - we'll eat some Hawaiian cuisine, watch a movie / TV show that takes place in Hawaii, and wear our swimsuits
Mystery Science Theater	Let's find a dumb movie and Mystery Science Theater the crap out of it
Penn Museum	Let's visit the Penn Museum and learn something
Driving Range	Let's see how far we can hit a golf ball
Cake Decorating	Let's make a couple of cakes and decorate them Ace of Cakes style
Mad Scientists	Let's look up a science experiment online and try to replicate it
Dueling Piano Bar	Let's have a jolly ole time at Jolly's Dueling Piano bar
Food Network Copycat	Let's watch a random episode of a Food Network show and make a dish that was featured
Italian Market - Buy Dinner Fixings	Let's go to the Philly Italian market and find the makings for dinner tonight
Comedy Night	Let's belly laugh tonight watching some stand-up
Invent a Board Game	Let's get creative and invent a board game that can be played by two people
Joe's Choice	Let's see what Joe wants to do for 2-4 hours
Shakespeare Night	Let's watch two Shakespeare movies: a classic version and a modern re-telling (eg: Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You, Othello and O, Romeo and Juliet and Romeo + Juliet, etc.)
Dive Bar	Let's go to a dive bar and play billiards and/or darts. Oh, and drink cheap beer.
Rocky Horror Picture Show Night	Let's do audience participation at home - bring on the toast, newspapers, and water guns. And Time-Warping is mandatory
Batting Cages	Let's hit a home-run
Scattergories Date	Let's roll a Scattergories die and then everything we do must start with that letter.
Double Feature	Let's see two movies in a row at the theater
Pat's vs. Geno's	Let's decide who makes the better cheesesteak
Kate's Choice	Let's see what Kate wants to do for 2-4 hours
Nickelodeon Night	Let's watch shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark, Rugrats, and Doug. Might we find some Legend of the Hidden Temple?

Red Dates (4+ hours)

TV Marathon	Let's get in our PJs, order delivery, and watch at least 5 episodes of a TV show we've been wanting to try
Movie Marathon	Let's get in our PJs, order delivery, and watch a trilogy. Star Wars? Back to the Future? Hangover? Toy Story? There's a lot of options...
Shooting Range	Let's see whose the better shot
Paintball	Let's get out some aggression
Philadelphia Museum of Art	Let's add some culture to our lives and go to an art museum... or two
Theater Night	Let's test the theory that "All the World's a Stage." If it's true, we shouldn't have trouble finding a play to attend...
Historic Walking Tour	Let's learn more about our new city!
Mini-Road Trip	Let's figure out a place within 2 hours of Philly that we want to visit for the day
Casino Night	Let's try our luck at SugarHouse
Join the Circus	Let's learn how to fly through the air with the greatest of ease in a trapeze class
Go Rock-climbing	Let's go climb a mountain - a faux mountain, that is
Joe's Choice	Let's see what activity Joe wants to do that will last over 4 hours
Comedy Club	Let's get our laugh on and go to a comedy club
Improv - ComedySportz	Let's see whose line it will be...
Brewery Tour	Let's learn how beer is made... and then drink some
Kate's Choice	Let's see what Kate wants to do for 4+ hours
Whitewater Rafting	Let's get an adrenaline rush (weather permitting)

Any other ideas for dates out there? Leave me a comment. I can always add more for years 3 & 4 :)