Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving in Charleston with Britton's family. We gathered at Grandmama's house before the Turkey day 5K race with the other family race participants. (picture: Kathy, Foster, Leslie, Lauren, Britton, William, Billy, Julieann, Caleb). [For the record: Elizabeth and Joe met us at the race and Joe kicked everyone's butt.] After the race, we all went to Ann's house for Thanksgiving dinner (yum!) and then to Grandmama's for Thanksgiving Part II (barbeque? for Thanksgiving? sweet! bring it on!).

(We were terrible at remembering to take pictures with our camera so I may add more when I get other people's pictures.)

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

On Thursday of last week, Britton and I traveled to Winston-Salem for a residency interview at Wake Forest. On Friday, Britton interviewed at Duke in Durham, NC while I checked out a women's health PT residency program offered there. We were both impressed with what we saw at Duke, while Wake Forest also seemed like a nice option.

This morning I turned in my 3 official, signed dissertation papers on 100% cotton paper for binding. 85 pages each with 1 1/2 inch margins on the left and 1 inch margins on the right, Roman numerals to start, switched to Arabic numerals, on and on... there were five pages of instructions given to us on how the paper should be presented! Those who have been in my shoes are LOLing about pagination stresses, I know. Anyway, it feels even more official now.

I have begun reviewing for boards and will probably sleep with the book until I sit for the exam. ;-)

Free at last!

I am officially done with my dissertation and my defense went really well! The presentation was smooth and I wasn't even nervous because, after working on this for about 16 months, I actually know what I'm talking about! ;-) I received very nice compliments from my committee members and my program director and I am officially ready to graduate on December 15th! My wonderful husband is back home and we will celebrate tonight when Tabitha and Nima come over for dinner.

For the rest of the year, I will be working in the lab (designing and performing physical therapy interventions for people with neurological insults) and studying for boards. I will also be going to some of Britton's interviews with him and having a couple interviews of my own.

Precious!

Britton is in Nashville and I'm working on my PowerPoint presentation. Just sharing a new pic: My mom crocheted this big yellow blanket for me when I was about 15 and I'm sure she would be pleased to know that Samantha treasures it too!

November 4th, 2008 Barack Obama makes Prez

The line for free "I voted" Krispy Kreme donuts was long too!

This evening we watched the 2008 Presidential outcome with Alicia, Tabitha and Nima.

Voter turnout was higher than expected which is thrilling because it shows that people are tuned in and have an opinion. Some will be disappointed with the outcome and feel uncertain about the future. Others are excited, looking forward to this wonderful change of life.

We are, of course, referring to the election that appointed Samantha as our family cat [wink]. She ran a good campaign, supported mostly by representative Britton Crigler. Samantha won the popular vote by a landslide 14 to 3. She will strive to improve our health care by lowering our blood pressures, shore up our economy by going on a diet, and promote job creation by tossing kitty litter on the floor.

We are very pleased with the outcome! Thanks to all of you who voted!

Voting 2008

My friend Mary Carol took a year off from med school to work for the American Medical Student Association in Washington D.C. writing health care legislation. A citizen of SC, she drove down yesterday to vote early today. We decided to wait in line to vote together and catch up. We stood in line outside for three hours on this drizzly cold day!

Britton interviewed at USC today and he feels it went well. It was good preparation for future interviews.

Don't forget that there is still one more day to vote both here and in your district! Meow.

On Saturday evening we drove up to Greenville to have dinner with Foster (Britton's cousin and BM) and Leslie. We tied in our pool playing abilities and practiced complicated yoga poses.
We also booked our tickets to Ecuador! No puedo esperar!

Getting closer to graduation!!!

Yesterday was my LAST day of internships for the entire program and I got to celebrate with two PT student friends and my sweet hubby as treat-or-treaters showed up in small numbers at our house. I had a really great experience at this internship so it was a bit sad to leave but I'm really excited about having one more thing checked off my list. Now my focus is on finishing my dissertation (I defend on 11/13!) and studying for the boards (which I'll take some time in December...?).