The Engbers Blog

Jon and I both love to do puzzles, but since we often had homework to do over the past couple years, we have not been able to assemble very many puzzles together. While we were shopping today, we saw some puzzles for sale and decided we were both in the mood to start on a puzzle project! Hopefully we can get pretty far on it tonight and tomorrow or I have a feeling I may be finishing it on my own while Jon gets back to the books:)

After another week of work and school, Jon and I are enjoying the weekend! Tonight we decided to use some of the gift cards we have acquired and went out to eat at the Olive Garden :) It was very delicious. Yesterday I decided to be brave and get my haircut. I thought I could hold off long enough until I was home again and my cousin Julie could cut it, but I needed a change. Well my experience finding a new haircutter did not start off too great. Lets just say the first lady I went to did pretty much nothing and I went out looking worse then when I went in. I probably should have said something - I know- but I didn't want HER to try and fix it - she was bad! Anyway, I put it behind me, went to a different place with a more reputable looking haircutter and now I am feeling pretty good about my new "do" :) Although, from now on I think I will plan a haircut with Julie whenever I am home. (Don't worry Julie, you are still the best!) My new haircut.

***We have had quite a productive weekend. Besides going to the apple orchard on Friday, Kevin also came at night to bring the other portion of our new desk. The first time we had tried to assemble the desk one part was broken and so we had to reorder it. Thank-you to Kevin for making an extra special trip so Jon could study and Erin could do her scrapbooking on our new desk! In the future I will post a picture, but it is slightly-ok largely- an unorganized mess right now as we are trying to fill in all the shelves and drawers. ***On Saturday, the Hawkeyes played their rivals the Iowa State Cyclones and we were lucky enough to get tickets! It was a great game to watch and we had a great time. We even got sun-burned because it was such a nice day. Why no pictures??? Well I went to take a picture and realized I had left my memory card from my camera in the computer after downloading some pictures Friday night. Can you believe I could do such a thing?!?! UGGGGHHH! ***We have found a churc...

We liked going to the apple orchard outside of Sioux Falls so much while we were living there that we decided to try and find an orchard around here. After a long week of studying for Jon and a week of working for Erin, we decided to go today and check out Wilson's Apple Orchard outside of Iowa City. The orchard had over 150 different varieties of apple trees and was 87 acres. Needless to say, we were pretty impressed. We were able to take our own little bucket, head out on the trail, and pick our own apples off the trees. They told us we could even taste any of the apples we wanted to - just pick one off the tree and take a bite. Our favorite apples were the Honey Crisp and Gala brands. We had a great time and it was nice to get some sunshine again today! The only disappointment: NO caramel apples for Erin - maybe I will have to make my own.

A beautiful day at the apple orchard together!

. . . walking through the apple trees

Picking the Perfect Apples

The past couple weeks it has really started to feel like fall here. The weather has been amazing - sunny, 70-80 degrees and NO wind:) Fall is my favorite time of the year, especailly when the leaves on the trees start to change colors. Today I looked out the back window and saw the leaves on one of the trees starting to turn yellow and orange! (hence the picture) I only hope the fall season lasts long enough for us to enjoy it before we have to think about snow.

Leah and Trav were home for the weekend also, so we all got a chance to stay at Erin's parents newly finished house. Here is a picture of us on Sunday night watching "the race." Our brother Scott has taught us to become Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans.

On Saturday morning before Jon and I left for home we decided to walk down our street toward the football stadium to experience the Iowa Football Mania. The sidewalks and streets were lined with fans wearing black and gold. There was little shops and tents set up selling T-shirts and other hawkeye apparel. Here is the Iowa Hawk Shop. You can see the newly remodeled part of the stadium sticking up behind the shop in this picture. GO IOWA!!! When Jon and I got back home, we were welcomed by other Hawkeye fans as well.

My first two weeks of medical school went surprisingly well. Sure there were times when I wondered what I had gotten myself into - like when I was still in the anatomy lab at 6:30 PM studying for my first quiz. But most of the time I feel very fortunate to be studying medicine at such a great school. So far the workload has been tough, but far from unbearable. I am taking 5 courses the first semester (the same as every other student): Genetics, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Foundations of Clinical Practice (FCP). I start class at 8:30 every day except Tuesday, which starts at 10:30. Wednesday and Thursday I am at school until 4:30. Monday and Tuesday afternoon I have anatomy lab, but we rotate every three weeks. So, because I had lab this week, I get the next two weeks off and will be done at 12:30 on Monday and Tuesday. Our first test is two weeks from today and we have a test every Friday from then until the end of the semester. The advice that we have been told over and ...