Three Months Later

Our new apartment! It's working out SO well. We love having other people in the house to hang out with and interact with - and they all love Sammy - who is walking!! He started taking steps at about 11 months (back in June) but really took off around his first birthday. Here are a few pictures of the living room. We have some furniture moving to do this month so I'll take more pictures as things get finished.

Graduation

I'll have to add some pictures from graduation when I get them. My camera died at the worst moment possible so my mom has the good pictures.

Alexi graduated from medical school last Friday (May 15) in the late afternoon. His parents, my parents, and my sister and niece were all there to see it. They do the med school graduation at Eastman School of Music downtown in the main theater. It was a really nice ceremony. Alexi graduated with a class of 89 students this year and there was an awards ceremony in the morning where he received two certificates for having completed the 'Academic Research Track' and the 'Medical Education Track'. The first was accomplished during his 'year out' when he did research in the surgery department. The second he completed by going to several seminars and lectures about how to teach medical students and he had to give a few lectures in some of the med school courses.

We're all so proud of him and can't wait to see what the Lord does with us next.

I hope that picasa link below works. Tonight our community group (old and new) threw is a going away party that turned out to be a surprise early birthday party for Sammy!! I LOVE our friends. We had such a good time. It was so nice of them to think to do the birthday party because we'll be in Boston for Sammy's first birthday in July and we won't get to celebrate with all of them. Leaving is going to be so hard!!

I also have to post pictures of Sammy's dedication last Sunday (May 3). Sam was one of seven kids to be dedicated that night, including his best bud Cameron!

Party!!

Going Away Party & Sammy's early 1st birthday 5-9-09

We're moving to Boston!! Alexi matched at the Brigham & Women's Hospital (a Harvard teaching hospital). It was the number one choice so we're thrilled!!!!! Match is INSANE. Everyone grabs their envelopes and then all at once everyone is yelling and screaming and you don't know where they're going until the list is sent out. It's a high energy event.

Now all we have to do is DOWNSIZE. Anyone need some furniture? We're probably going to have to move into a 3 square foot apartment. :-)

MATCH DAY DUN DUN DUN!!

Today is the day!! I thought is was March 20 but I was wrong. It's the 19th. In T-2 hours we find out where to go! We were talking about it last night (and I want a written record of this) and decided that every school on our list would be a GREAT place to be. We'll be happy no matter where we end up - and a great part of that is because we don't choose where we go so God wants us where ever we end up. It's nice to have such a big decision out of our hands.

I'll post again once we find out - but for now here are some SAMMY PHOTOS!!

He's not a happy child at all:
Nope, never happy.
See? Marshmallow man ate him. And his pants got all hiked up along the way.
Okay maybe he's a little happy. Check out the bottom teeth!!
Chillin in my crib with my super hat.

Dollars $$$$$$ and dollars

Our small group at church decided to do the "Financial Peace University" series this semester so for the last month we've been watching videos by Dave Ramsey, filling in our workbook, and doing homework - like coming up with a budget that puts a name on every single dollar coming in every month. We weren't able to make it to group on Wednesday night because we had to pick up Alexi's car from the shop and I had to be back to work by 8pm for some last-minute microscope time....so we listened to the CD together last night - the one on "dumping debt". I like a lot of Dave Ramsey's money philosophy and it's nice that he's laid out small steps toward what he calls "financial freedom" - but I REALLY liked the dumping debt session. Alexi and I don' t have a lot of credit card debt (just a small one we'll take care of quickly from our world travels last year) and we don't have huge car loans (just mine - which will be paid of within a year) - but we do have STUDENT LOANS. When Ramsey said that getting out of debt before you start saving for retirement means paying off everything except the house - we decided to consider that to mean that WE pay off everything except Alexi's medical school loans....our own personal mortgage. Thank God Alexi went to undergrad for free (smarty pants).

Until yesterday I had 4 student loans from undergrad - three Staffords and one private loan. All these are relatively small (certainly compared to Alexi's) since my dad paid for the majority of my college education (thanks dad!!). But what bothered me was that private loan I took out toward the end of my Houghton career to pay for a class that prepares you for the MCAT (the big test you take to get into medical school). It's funny now that I decided not to go to medical school and I still have to pay off that dumb loan - I think the total was $2500 to begin with. Anyways, the point - that loan is the only school loan I've been paying on while in grad school because I don't have to pay on any of them until I graduate. I'd put $50 here and $100 there over the last 4 years and last night after listening to that CD I looked up how much I have left on that loan - and it was only about $250 so I just paid it off right then and there! It felt so NICE to cross that one off the list!

On top of that - we're using the ancient envelope system with cash for some of our spending now and I've already found that I tend to spend WAY less when I'm using cash than when I'm using my debit card. For example, I'm much less likely to make impusle purchases at the grocery store or at Babys R Us if I have to pull cash out of an envelope that only has so much in it. I can remember my mom with those dumb envelopes YEARS ago when my parents were digging their way out of credit card debt - and it was so annoying when I wanted something and she would open the envelope and say "there's not enough for that this month". I hated it then, but I do know that they got themselves out of debt and it had a lot to do with my mother's discipline.

So far I'm really glad we're taking this class during this transition year in our lives. We'll be moving (probably) in a few months and Alexi will FINALLY have an income so we'll be more wise about how we use that money - and we probably won't be as quick to blow it all on flat screen TVs when we have a MOUNTAIN of loans to work through. It's pretty exciting to have something to attack together - and there will be a HUGE celebration when we've finally finished paying and we can use our money how WE want to - for Haiti.