Match Day...

I'm sorry for the radio silence.  I'm back to working on my master's, and I feel like I'm living out of my car most of the time. I'm gearing up for Snow day #5 since Christmas Break.  Sadly, my house is still not clean.  However, I have gone through my entire closet (clothes to be coming soon, family!) and finished our taxes. The house will be done tomorrow...

Anyway, I've had so many questions on this... so here's what has been on our minds the past few months.  After driving 6,000+ miles, it's sometimes exhausting hearing things like, "has he heard anything yet?"  I completely understand why you would ask, but I think it gets annoying because we don't know what to say about the whole process.  Here goes my elementary understanding of the process...

First, some definitions:
Residency:  A 5 year program that gives a small stipend.  For the first time, Scott will be referred to as Doctor, have a longer white coat, and we won't be paying the school for him to get some experience.
Transitional Year: His first year of 5 years.  Because he's going into a specialized field, they use the first year to acquaint you with a variety of jobs in different aspects of the medical field.
Combined Program or Categorical Program: A residency program that includes the transitional year in the same hospital.  In our specific field, this isn't common (meaning we have a good possibility of two moves very soon).

Now, for the algorithm (After all of my math courses, this algorithm makes complete sense, but gives me goosebumps every time).

Our side of the Algorithm:
Scott sent out a good chunk of applications to residency programs of our choosing.  We chose based on their record, their "name", and most importantly, their location (see last post). We heard back, and set out on the interviewing journey. Unfortunately, most programs are not combined, so we had both the transitional year interviews and the main residency interviews.  Now, we are currently assembling, disassembling, revising, and finalizing our residency rank list.  Here, Scott and I scrutinize each place based on their pros and cons to develop some type of ordered list of our favorite places.  If we really don't like a place, we can't put it on our list because there is a chance we could get sent there.  So, we only rank those places that we are comfortable living and working.  For me, most include a job change (or 2) ... so it's all rather baffling.  Then, for each place, we create a separate transitional year list.  So, if my rank looks like this: "Awesome, Good, Semi-Good,"  I then have a separate rank for Awesome's first year: "Awesome #2, Good #2, Semi-Good #2."  Once we are satisfied by our list, we can submit it to the website.  Then, as the game plays out, you call, pray, and send notes indicating that you think of them highly.  It's a game in every sense of the word, except that you have to wait months to figure out if you won and it's not much fun.

Their side of the Algorithm:
While we're fumbling away, they are doing the same.  They decide if they want to rank each applicant.  Many will rank 6-10 people for each 1 spot.. but you are at home praying that they choose to rank you high.

Once deadlines have passed, the computer starts the algorithm.  If Scott's #1 ranks him #1, then we're done. Or, the algorithm continues.  It goes to person #2, and if person #2 ranks #1 first, then they match.  It continues all of this until most people are matched.  Then, it repeats for the transitional year.

Dun...Dun...Dun... Match Week!On Monday,  March 17th, we are notified whether or not we matched.  Daunting, right?  You're given a note saying "Congratulations," or "Sorry." If you receive the "Sorry" letter, you go through the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP).  In a way, this is like a mini-match, where applicants who didn't match try for places that didn't fill their open residency spots. It is unlikely that you interviewed at this program or had even thought of living there. Boy, I hope we are not in that position.

On Friday, March 21st, we have a fancy lunch.  Here, they tell you where your next 1 & 4 years will be.  There's no "accepting" or "denying" the invitation.  You are going there.  That's it.

The hardest part is the unknown.  I'm a planner... so it kills me that we have no idea what we're doing next year until March 21st.  Then, once we're at that date, it's all depicted for us.  There's no stage of "warming up to the idea." It's just important we are both on the same page and willing to go wherever we're sent and hope that it's one of our top choices.

So, there you have it.  If you'd like some explanations without my commentary, visit this site.  They offer some great, in-depth explanations of the whole process.  If you browse long enough, you find out that there's a good chance we will go through this again for fellowship.  If you ask us about this, sorry in advance for the vague answers.  We don't really know what to say.  It could go really well, but we don't want to spend time really hoping and praying that we get sent to our top choice.  What if we don't?  Who knows...

Lately.

I know, I know... I've been MIA lately.  Action definitely describes it. I've spent many, many late school nights at school getting the year up and running, working my once-a-week second job, and trying to figure out this whole year of med school.

...And what a year it is.  We're quickly approaching the heavy interview season.  Let me describe how this works.  Scott has applied to many programs.  With his desired career choice, he applied for two programs. The first is considered a transitional year.  For the first year of residency, he'll be gaining experience in all different types of general medicine before going on to more specialized training in later years.  Some places offer training with residency and transitional year combined, but most want you trained somewhere in your first year before going into the program.  We're eagerly awaiting both, as we'll be finished taking out loans and finally starting to feel as though we're both in careers.

He will be interviewing at more than 15 locations.  Now, some med students map looks crazier than ours... that's for sure.  We like our families, so we want to stay relatively close.  Therefore, we only sent out applications to those states in the Midwest.  Despite having a close-to-home map, imagine traveling all over these states in one month.  One long month of food on the go and sifting through many albums on the iPod... all to get dressed up in a fancy suit and have your next years of your life in the hands of interviewers.  Eeks.

Here's his destinations.... we got all the way to Destination Y on Google Maps.  We could add "Z" and another 325 miles when you factor in our annual trip to Canada for New Years.

Yep, that's a whopping 6,344 miles and 97 hours in the car (please let the weather stay nice and our cars stay working).  Because Google Maps was getting angry at me, I didn't factor in any special trips back home to see the lonely wife and cats.

So, busy months ahead.  The good news? You'll probably get some blog articles while I'm home.  At least, that's the hope. What do these interviews amount to? Match day! I'll explain more on that once Scott and I get over the fact that we're adding that many miles in the snow to our vehicles.

As for the wife? I have school until 9pm the next week as I meet with all my parents for conferences.  Then, it's Thanksgiving break. :)

Lots of love,

Step 2 [in progress]

Good Morning!
I have yet to succeed at Scott & Selena Sundays (see last blog post), but I'm close. Today was more appropriate.

Scott is off and started in his Step 2 exam.  While we got there approximately 45 minutes early, he officially started 10 minutes ago (at least, according to the paper).  Meanwhile, I'm at the mall to waste 9 hours.  I know, what husband would send their wife to the mall for nine hours?! I think it's just his way of making up for all the studying time in our home the last few weeks.  :)  I'll get to the Step 2 exam in a moment, but first, my current situation:

In preparation for the day, I charged up my laptop so that I could work on my job at Barnes & Noble for a while on my laptop. However, I plugged my laptop in the outlet that is also for the lamp at home...meaning it is controlled by a switch, which was turned off because it was night time. So, I get here to a completely dead laptop.  Thus, I got out of my comfy chair and set out to look for a place with a plug.  Of course, Barnes & Noble strategically place their plugs so that they are behind a bookshelf, or in front of a teller so that they can "monitor your usage.".  Ugh. So, for those that know me well, I'm sure you can picture this... I'm currently crouched in a corner on the floor mooching both the internet and the electricity from a plug that has just enough room for the connection.  Thankfully, it's upstairs and in a corner of a weird book section, so maybe I'll go unnoticed.

Anyway, here's a bit about Scott's exam.  It is scheduled for 9.5 hours.  I drive him to these tests so that he doesn't have that stress, but they make you leave your phone in the car (which he did before he could see my nice reminder about relaxing)... so I'm just going to assume it will take him 9 hours to finish.  During that nine hours, you have to strategically plan to take short breaks for food and bathroom. But, you also don't want to take too long on breaks so that you have time to review your answers before submission.

There's so many factors that go into prepping of the test... not to mention the grueling 16 hour study days for the last month and a half (no joke).  First, the packed food. You can have a tiny locker for snacks.  So, we covered some basic food groups with the list: pbj sandwich, cheez-it's, granola bars, banana, peanut butter M&M's (necessary), coke, gatorade, water, and a nice surprise note from me.The morning is killer, too.  So many decisions... like what to wear.  Seriously, Scott analyzed every article of clothing to make sure it was the most comfortable.  Then, there's the morning routine.  You basically stress yourself out making sure that your bodily functions are working okay so much that you cause said bodily functions to start acting weird...causing panic (Scott's family... I'm sure you're getting a laugh here). Needless to say, it was a stressful morning.  But, he's in, surely doing amazing, but analyzing every question with second guesses.

Send lots of prayers and thoughts for Scott today.  We'll leave for Chicago tomorrow for yet another test on Wednesday. This one is much lighter and said to be easier, but it's yet another hoop.  Friday is "us" time before he leaves for Cincinnati, so I'm patiently and eagerly awaiting that date night.  

Orie & Floyd are sad to see study time go away for a bit.  I have no idea what they'll do without Scott for a month. The boys have been in heaven, as this has been a month of lots of cuddle time while he sits at his desk.  They have quite the routine.

I heard the comment box works down there, so feel free to give it a try. ;)

If it ain't the cat's MEOW!

Believe it or not, that is an expression of disbelief.  Not sure of the origin, but it seems appropriate for this post.

To be honest, I'm almost embarrassed to be back here. It has been over a year.  In that time, I've moved to a new (but familiar) city, started and finished my second year of teaching fifth grade, been through two summers, traveled to the west coast for the first time (!), and have probably juggled life's big mysteries several times.  Okay, maybe not the last one... but we've been trying to map out our futures. Sorry, family, this isn't a post with a baby announcement.

I'd say the biggest announcement is that we've tackled third year medical school.
In short,

Pros:

• Schedule varies so much that while some months seem unbelievable, the lighter rotations are so welcomed
• Leading to more "us" time
• Had a relaxing spring break
• Clearer future ahead
• Step 1 is over! 
• Better stories

Cons:

• Step 2 is looming
• Residency is drawing close, so every step/misstep is a big deal
• Residency choices attract more stress
• Away rotations are coming up!

I've kept busy as well.  Last year, I tackled multiple jobs at once keeping me busy, but I'm ready to relax a bit.  I seem too young to say that, but I welcomed the opportunity to work from home most of this summer.  I feel like I can finally clean up and cook some decent meals. 

Here's an update on our boys.  Orie Porie is still...well... Orie, and the Floydster has quite the personality.  I recently bought them a new toy, and Floyd is downright aggressive, but Orie has trouble knowing how to play or gracefully snag the toy (he spends more time dancing in circles). 

 This is pretty lame and lacks detail for the first post back, but I hope to update more regularly and regain my four followers! Blog posts/Facebook tells me to update you of all my goals to keep myself accountable.  I'm going to shoot for one a week.  So, now it's up to you to hold me accountable.  Maybe we should start Scott & Selena Sundays.  Post Secret had some luck with their Sunday-only blog posts.
 Thoughts? (Disclaimer: Great start - it's Saturday.. but I'll be out of town tomorrow... ).

Happy early Birthday to my Mother in Law & and Happy late Birthday to my niece... and Happy early/belated Birthday to everyone else since I missed it over this past year.

I would love to hear from all of you,

Parenthood?

Don't get your hopes up.  I'm sure many of you saw that title and got a little giddy, excited, nervous, dumbfounded, annoyed, etc. But, that's not this post at all.  After my last post, I figured I was in need to give my small audience a little humor.

First, I am no where near ready to have kids.

That being said, I have learned a lot about my future parenting skills through my first year of teaching.  First, let me start by saying I am scared to death of being that teacher parent.  I have high expectations of my students and while I'll have high expectations for my child, at this point, I would have a hard time separating parent-mode and teacher-mode.  

But, throughout my first year of teaching, I've learned several things that I MUST teach/do with my child before sending them off to a teacher... I feel like I need to create a different tab on my blog so that I can make this an ongoing list.  ...Sounds time-consuming, so I'll do it here for now. 

Objective #1: Require my child to be aware of current events.
Trust me, I don't expect my child to want to watch the news.  But, I can settle that a few different ways.  They could set the table while the news is on, I'll subscribe to a magazine like Time for Kids, or simply force them into discussions at the dinner table about what's going on around the world.  Why? Consider these teachable moments.

• While introducing our Social Studies unit on explorers and looking at a world map... "I've always wondered, what's on the other side of the world?"
  Clearly, we have some students in our society still debating whether the world is flat or round. 
• While discussing past wars and how they compare to the current one....  "I don't get it.  Are we the Iraqis?"
  Nope.. we're still known as the Americans.

Objective #2: Teach child to understand the difference between private and public family facts.

Ha, this one is obvious to just not do.. but I had to find a way to share it.

• While doing an opening activity where you go around and share interesting facts... "My interesting fact is that my mom has been married 6 times."
  ...You're right, Billy, that is interesting.

Objective #3: Thoroughly explain troubling events.  
Caution: This may be offensive.  I want to make it clear that s/he was totally serious when s/he said this and didn't understand why it would be so offensive.  S/He really wasn't trying to be funny and truly did have a misunderstanding

• I don't even remember what we were discussing that brought this up. "I don't understand why we spend so much time searching for the cure for cancer.  I already found it."
  "Oh really? You have? What's the cure?"
  "Hair extensions and wigs." 

If you're a parent and reading this, take a few moments and simply talk to your child about what's going on in the world or clear up misconceptions.  Remember, I teach fifth grade. :)   Despite the terrible things that I hear kids say, there are these candid moments that make me love teaching students of all different backgrounds.   Hope you enjoyed these as well.  I'll keep thinking of more to add. I'm sure there are plenty... I just need to write them down.

I'm Alive!

Wow! It's been so long since I last wrote an update. Clearly, there's a lot of updating to do.  But, I need to do some checking in so that my extended family and friends know that I'm still alive.  Hi Grandpa!  That said, expect this blog to be a lot of rambling.

This post in a single picture.

First, I'll admit it.  I failed at my New Year's goal.  It was too ambitious for this year with all the traveling.  I still try to cook, but I'm at the point where buying a weekend's worth of food for two people is about the same as eating out.  Any greens don't last until the next weekend and we certainly can't eat them all in one sitting.  I did make some grilled chicken, mashed 'taters and asparagus so that Scott could have decent non-frozen leftovers, but I think we waste a lot of food.  I think I've done a new recipe every month like my goal states, but I haven't documented it or put much creativity into it. It's just new to us.

The driving back and forth combined with sleeping in 2-3 different places is starting to get old.  Really old.  I used to appreciate the drives.  I'd catch up with the news on NPR, relax from a stressful day, and if I'm lucky, watch a sunset/sunrise.  Now, it's construction season! Ugh.  I don't think there's any possible thing that can make driving through construction multiple times per week exciting.  But, I'm listening to new podcasts and updating my iPod to accommodate the additional half hour or more of time.

More so than the construction, I feel like I'm literally going crazy sometimes.  For any frequent traveling female, I have no idea how you live out of bags.  I tend to wear the same wrinkly clothes over and over (I suppose that's just me being lazy) but lately I have been forgetting items.  Take today for example.  I woke up and realized I left pants at home.  Therefore, I had to dig through my closet at my parent's to find something suitable.  I ended up with an old skirt... thank goodness I haven't changed sizes much since early college.   Then, I was at school and noticed the beautiful weather outside.  Over the weekend, I saw it was going to be a nice week so I packed running clothes.  I spent a good chunk of time convincing myself I was going to run while at school (I don't particularly love or even like running).  I went home to go forth with my plans and guess what?! I only have dress shoes.  Since I haven't mastered running in tennis shoes, I'm certainly not going to upgrade to heels.  Alas, I'm stuck here blogging and trying to convince myself to do something like a workout DVD (boo!).  I don't think I've worked out in like 2 months.. (and I'm left wondering if that is or isn't an exaggeration.  Yikes!)

Overall, I'm finishing up my first year of teaching and Scott's in his last week of his second year of med school.  Don't celebrate yet, while I'm wrapping up school, he'll be in his intensive study period.  Then, it's the STEP 1 Board Exam.  The score, combined with some other things, help determine you're likelihood of getting where you want for residency.  So, it's pretty stressful.  About 8 weeks left until both of our first actual week long break.  We'll be moving to Kalamazoo during that short break, but I plan on enjoying every waking minute of it.  Then, it's right into the Kalamazoo hospitals for rotations and me into my summer jobs.

All in all, we're nearing the end stretch.  We found our place for next year (contract pending), and are excitedly awaiting living together both on the weekends and during the week.

Now, that I've updated you... stay tuned and I'll try to write a more enjoyable post.

January in Review

Phew! We made it through January.  Going into January, I was dreading the month: terrible weather, crazy schedule, getting back into the groove, etc.  First, let me say how relieved I am that we skipped the terrible weather.  I did have a treacherous longer than necessary drive, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Once my winter break was over, there were only three January weekends left.  Here are how those went for me:

First weekend - spent the weekend at the Devos Place/Amway Hotel to talk to Fair enthusiasts about the possibilities of using QR Codes in marketing.  Luckily, I was able to have Scott tag along with me to this conference.

Second weekend - I took around 42 middle schoolers to Shipshewana to a water park/hotel for the weekend. While this was fun, it was entirely exhausting.  I am happy to say that it went very successfully thanks to some great leaders and even more entertaining students.

Third weekend - I went to a Youth for Christ conference to get energized to spend more time with the kids that  I spend the second weekend with.

All were very refreshing, and fun weekends... but boy, it left me exhausted.  Needless to say, I failed at my New Years goal.  I guess I fall in that 92% of American's who fail at their New Year's Resolutions (statistic heard on the radio...).  However, I think the above clearly states why I wasn't making elaborate meals over the weekend.  Cooking was about the last thing on my to-do list.  I did try two meals this past weekend...ad I'm not joking, they were disgusting.  I was going to just post them for the sake of meeting my goal, but I figured it wasn't fair to you if I posted and convinced you to make something I found disgusting.

Anyway, I successfully made a delicious meal last night, and figured I'd share. :)

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu w/ Mashed Potatoes

Chicken Cordon Bleu
Ingredients:
(I estimated most of my amounts, but I'll estimate for a serving of 4)

• Chicken Breast (however many people you're serving)
• Black Pepper
• Dash of Salt
• 1/4 cup of Swiss Cheese
• 2 tbsp. Reduced-Fat Cream Cheese
• 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), divided
• 1/2 cup chopped ham

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit 

1. Salt & Pepper Chicken Breasts on both sides

2. Combine Cream Cheese and Swiss cheese in bowl (mine came out like a thick paste)

3. Combine bread crumbs, about an 1/8 tsp. pepper, and 1 tsp. EVOO in another bowl
4.  Heat remaining 1 tsp. of EVOO in an ovenproof skillet

5. Place chicken in skillet and brown on both sides (about 2 minutes per side).  Once done, move chicken to the center of the skillet so that they are touching.

6. Spread cheese mixture on chicken (it was really thick... so I used my hands)

7.  Sprinkle ham and then top with breadcrumbs

8.  Bake in the oven until chicken temperature reaches 165 degrees (about 7 minutes). 

9.  Enjoy!  

Next, Delicious Parmesan Potatoes! :) Seriously, they are yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of Yukon blend potatoes
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• You can add 1/3 cup chives, but I didn't have any
• Salt and pepper to taste

1.  Boil potatoes in salted water until you can break apart with a fork

2. Mix everything else in a bowl

3. Add potatoes and mix with a potato masher (I don't have one... so I just used a low speed with a blender)

Voila - you have a delicious meal.  :)  I paired it with steamed veggies and bread. If I made this again (which I will), breadsticks would have been a better bread pairing.   It was delicious (and we have plenty of leftovers!)

P.S.  I had a chocolate craving for brownies topped with 1/2 cup cream cheese,  1/2 cup powered sugar and strawberries.  I liked it. 

Let me know if you try it. 

In other news, Scott has been extra creative lately.  If you're a facebook fan, I now have a more creative timeline header. 

Now, on to make some homemade chicken wings for the Super Bowl (speaking of which, I'm not too excited about either team).

Feel free to pin the recipe above to pinterest:

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Love,