friday favorites 11.30.18

What a week full of change this has been. I ended my first dental rotation and started my second rotation, only now, I'm not able to commute. Instead, I'm living away from my Husband and my pup. So this week has been a big transition. 

part two, round two

Here we go with part 2, round 2 of my dental school boards. Hooray for standardized tests. When I took the entrance exam for dental school, I postponed my exam over and over and over again...until I couldn't anymore. When I finally did take the darn test, I aced it and got multiple offers to dental school. A few years into dental school, when it came time to take the first part of the National Board Dental Exam, I was terrified all over again and certain that I would do horribly. But of course I passed. So when it was time to sit for yet another standardized exam for dental school, I finally convinced myself that it would be fine this time around. I've done this before.  

friday favorites 11.23.18

What a week this one has been. I finished out my first dental rotation, so I head off to a new clinic on Monday morning. On one hand I'm sad about leaving my current clinic that I have grown so fond of these last 8 weeks, but I also couldn't be more excited about the fact that I'm moving forward. Seriously, lots of transitions happening this week. Let's take a peak. 

a day in the life of a dental student: mission trip

Since this week is all about practicing gratitude, I thought that I would share a little more about one of the experiences in my life that I am most thankful for... my Dominican Republic Dental Mission Trip. This mission gave me a chance to combine two of my greatest passions, my desire to serve others through dentistry and my love of travel and experiencing different cultures. 

Each day of our mission trip, we visited a new location. And each day we were greeted by thankful hearts, as evidenced by the fact that the governor gave us his personal bus (featured above) to aid in our transportation. Below, I'm sharing just a glimpse into what a day on this mission trip was like. 

simple roasted butternut squash soup

Now that I'm living with Husband full-time, I almost never cook. He is the chef in our house and unlike me, he loves making gourmet meals with all the steps and a zillion different ingredients. I on the other hand, like to keep things simple.

This past week I was feeling under the weather. So much so that I even missed clinic and had them cancel all my patients, which I of course felt so horrible about. Though I think it was best not to share my fever. The only thing I was wanting to eat all week was soup, so I whipped up this easy recipe that is a favorite. 

why we're skipping thanksgiving

We are only a week away from Thanksgiving! Can’t you just picture it? That perfectly glazed golden brown turkey surrounded by a beautiful table-scape full of pumpkins and gourds and family and friends and all the best fixins. If this has your mouth watering and you heart bursting, if Thanksgiving is your thing, then more power to ya Sister. Get your gobble gobble on. I’m not here to judge. But for me, Thanksgiving never has been and never will be a good thing. 

Without ever really making a conscious decision, we slowly started skipping Thanksgiving. Small decisions at first that eventually turned into us out-rightly rejecting the holiday all together. This Thanksgiving is actually the first time we will even be in the country in years, since we were in Iceland last Thanksgiving and in Mexico the year before that. But even though we will be stateside for the holiday this year, we have no intention of celebrating it. And here’s why? 

october 2018//

Dear October, 

Can I please have a do over? Don't get me wrong, you were incredible, but it felt as though you went by far too quickly. And many of the things we had planned for the month never actually got done. But it does no good to dwell on what was missed.

friday favorites 11.09.18

Don't ya just love Fridays? What a happy sunshiny day! This week has been a frustrating one so I'm happy to see it end. Either the computer system was down, limiting access to patient charts OR we were short-staffed at the clinic. So it's been a rough week where even the simple things were unnecessarily difficult. 

But not to worry, there were still plenty of highlights to this week. 

Cuba Travel Budget 🇨🇺

Ah, Cuba on a Budget! You may have heard that Cuba is a cheap destination to visit. And that is both true and untrue. We went to Havana to mark a very special occasion with deciding to visit our 5th country together to celebrate 5 years of marriage. So we definitely spent a little extra and splurged on a few things on this trip, but still stayed on a budget. Let's take a peak shall we? 

Trip Length: 4 days & 3 nights for 2 adults 

Travel Dates: August 2018 

For simplicity, I've listed all costs in American dollars. At the time of travel 1USD was equivalent to 1CUC. Keep in mind that all totals listed below are for two people. 

sunflower fields forever

 You guys, I've been trying to get us out to a sunflower field for years. I'm not exactly a patient person, but even I have to admit that this was worth the wait. 🌻

Sunflowers are one of my favorites and always have been. So when I found out you could visit a sunflower field, this climbed to the top of my to-do list. For 3 years, we attempted to visit the sunflower fields in the Boston area while Husband was attending school there for his PhD. With me being in another state, we never quite got things right with booking flights though. I was always in town a week before the sunflowers bloomed or a week too late. I had essentially given up when I discovered a sunflower field near us and our new home state of Virginia. We decided to make this long awaited visit extra special by bringing our puppy along and doing an autumn family photo session here. 

Enjoy a full photo overload with pure golden sunshine! 

friday favorites 11.02.18

If you can't tell, I'm just a little bit excited that it's Friday! 

hanging up my dental loupes

How is it not Friday yet? 

Clinic this week has involved an emergency root canal, all the restorations, extractions, dentures, too much SRP for my liking, and treating kiddos.