Life is good.

Doug is busy with all things Dental School. I even spent a few hours one night researching a bunch of dental schools and their applications—I want to be in the loop too. He's busy with school, observing dentists (he needs around 100 hours of observation hours), and preparing for the DAT (the dental school entrance exam). He's taking a free practice DAT test Feb. 24, and then he takes a really-expensive-but-you'll-die-if-you-don't-take-it prep course through Kaplan in the Spring. He can start applying to schools around May and he'll take the actual DAT exam in June. I guess it should be a comfort that the men and women who mess around with your teeth have to work for it. All these details and paperwork must weed out the weak.

As for where we'll head to dental school, only time and admissions committees will tell. We've narrowed the list down a bit to schools in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and others I can't think of. Yes, that's a narrowed down list. I'm leaning towards giving Doug a taste of the east coast, but let's get real—we'll go to where it feels right.

On a side note, one of my goals for the year is to floss at LEAST every other day. You'd think a future dentist's wife would floss more often. Maybe it's only when you get the free floss that you really get on top of that.

In other news, Doug loves his job again at the MTC. I've become a bit bored in the evenings, but I've taken up knitting (a result of many of my assignments at work), organizing, and even exercising from time to time. Life is good.

Christmas Extravaganza

Christmas was indeed an extravaganza! We spent the first week, including Christmas Day, with my family in Rhode Island. All of my sisters and their families were there (making it 22 people total in my parent's house!) and we had a blast. We even got to drive down to visit Jake in his hospital in Philadelphia. He's simply adorable... we even got to hold him! Doug had great exposure to the east coast, hitting RI, CT, NY, NJ, and PA all in a matter of days. He tried his first cheesteak and put his hand in the Atlantic for the first time.

The second week we headed to Washington to be with Doug's family. His brother and sister were home with their kids, so it was great to be there with them too. We played games, snacked, watched movies, and then snacked some more. It was awesome. We also headed up to Aberdeen, WA for our final Open House (we tried to make our wedding last forever, and we succeeded). It was great to see where Doug grew up and to meet his friends. Out camera died before we could take pictures in Washington... bummer! But all in all, our Christmas break was a hit!
Fetching Our Christmas Tree with the Help of a Gigantic Santa

From what I recall, Jeff provoked him. But who can be sure. :)

Doug meets the Atlantic Ocean

Travis and Phil Workin' It (our Church is right by the beach... hence the formal wear)

For some reason there were hundreds of starfish washing ashore. This picture doesn't do the weird event justice, but oh man it was bizarre! A native Rhode Islander on the beach said she'd never seen anything like it before.


Crazy Christmas Morning

Cheeseteaks... we didn't eat at the best place in town (we basically brought baby Jack and baby Chase into a bar for lunch), but it was good enough.

Dunlop Sisters and Jake

Weird angle, but he's looking at me so I like this one. Obviously.

He is SUCH a cute boy!

A Taste for Wine... AND MURDER!

To properly celebrate my birthday and my friend Sarah's birthday, last month we did one of those murder mystery games. It was set in a vineyard, so we drank lots o' martinelli's, dined on cornish game hens, and accused each other of murder. Just the basics. It was way fun. My name was Tiny Bubbles and Doug was my lyin', cheatin' boyfriend. And for the record, I was innocent. Jake on the other hand...
Jake & Melissa

Jack & Doug

Sarah & Dave

Lest you think I like to post glamour shots of myself, notice Dave in the background. Good times.