Zach's Adventure

Well today started out as a pretty normal, boring day but that quickly changed around 3 o'clock. My phone rang and the caller ID said it was Zach but when I answered I was surprised to hear Zach's classmate, Brandon, on the other end. He told me that Zach had been complaining about having abdominal pain and that they were walking into Methodist Hospital's Emergency Room. Right away I knew he had to be in a lot of pain because Zach refuses to ever go to the doctor. I talked to Zach on the phone earlier that day and he told me that his stomach was hurting but he just figured it was because he was nervous for his practical. I guess the pain got worse during his practical and after it was over he threw up a few times and lost all the color in his face. It took me forty minutes to get to the hospital...longest forty minutes of my life. When I finally got to the hospital the nurse told me I couldn't go into Zach's room until one of the boys left. She went back to tell one of them to leave and when she came out she told me that they were praying for him and that one of them would be out soon. :) A few minutes later, Matt Butler walked out and told me that Zach was doing a lot better and they thought he may have a kidney stone. When I walked into the room Zach was just lying on the bed and he looked like he was in so much pain...I've never seen him like that. Brandon and the nurse told me that he was looking a lot better than he did when they first brought him in. They were getting him all drugged up on pain medication and then they took him away to have a cat scan. Let me tell you though, Zach gets really loopy when he is on pain medication. Some of the things he was saying were pretty funny...Brandon and I wished we had a video camera. All the test results came back about a half hour after the cat scan and the doctor came to tell us that Zach indeed has a kidney stone...not only one, but two. Poor guy. So now, he gets to wait patiently until they pass. Lucky for him, they are both small enough that he can pass them on his own. So that was our exciting day!

It's interesting how things work out though. Last week I put in my two weeks notice at work. Why? Well, a few reasons but mainly because I wasn't getting the hours I needed. This has been a struggle for about a month and I had the opportunity to take a job in a different optometry office so I accepted the job. This Saturday was supposed to be my last day but that changed when the owner called my manager yesterday and told her to send me home and that I didn't need to fulfill the rest of my two weeks. I found out that they laid 3 people off in the other office on Tuesday and so I was feeling really good about putting my two weeks in and already having a job lined up. Now, I am really glad that I don't start my new job until Monday so I can take care of Zach. I am so thankful for all the help we got today. I really appreciate Matt and Brandon for taking Zach to the ER and giving him a blessing. Brandon stayed at the hospital the whole time with me, which I am so glad he did because he was the one who asked the doctor most of the questions...things I wouldn't have even thought about asking. It was nice to have someone to talk to while we sat in the ER for a few hours also. When we got home Brandon's wife brought dinner over for us which was very appreciated since I had eaten since breakfast! We have had so many blessings in disguise the last few weeks...it's amazing how it has all worked out. Let's just hope these stones pass soon! Thanks to everyone who helped us out today. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was definitely different but very nice. Zach had a whole week off school which was nice for him but I had to work the whole time. He was able to study a lot though since the next 3 weeks are crazy busy for him with school. I did however have Monday off work so we went to this awesome outdoor mall in Collierville. We found some great sales so that was nice and then we ate at Olive Garden...yum! Here's a picture of me in front of some huge Christmas ornaments at the mall. Zach refused to be in the picture but he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, it was so nice outside.


We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Matt and Corinne Butler. They are also 1st year optometry students from Idaho. It was neat to actually cook part of the meal. All the food was delicious. It was a little weird not be with family but we were happy to be able to share it with our friends. After we ate we played a bunch of card games and just talked. Here's a picture of all of us after we ate.

14th Row, Center Stage, Funnest Concert Ever !!!

We went to Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T's, and Cute Is What We Aim For at the amphitheater on Mud Island. It was a beautiful night, and we were on a small island in the middle of the Mississippi River. You could see the city lights behind the stage. It was tons of fun! Cute Is What We Aim For was better than I thought they would be. They sounded great and were a lot of fun to watch on stage. Plain White T's was my favorite. Gym Class Heroes was hilarious! We almost caught one of their lead singer's shoes when he threw it into the crowd! Fall Out Boy had great special effects with bursts of flames, lights, and sparks, but they didn't sound very good live. Their ugly, black-haired guitarist was there with his girlfriend - Ashlee Simpson, but we wished they would have turned his mic off. He spouted off about hating the government, sports, and pretty much anything that is organized. He also had a terrible mouth on him. They should have just stuck to the music - we left early after hearing just a few of their songs. Luckily the other bands were amazing :)

2 Dozen Roses

A few days ago the Fed Ex guy came in to work to make his daily delivery of contacts but he had something extra with him--2 dozen roses with my name on them! :) Everyone at work was asking me if it was my Anniversary or if Zach done something that he was trying to make up for. Zach sent them for no reason--just to make me smile and I did! I just wanted to brag that I have the best husband in the world. :)

Memphis Directions

Zach and I thought this picture was entertaining. The road system is not set up like a grid but more like a circle.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Today was my day off work and Zach surprised me by coming home from school at noon and taking me to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. It's this really old southern home that has been turned into a museum. The collection of art includes a lot of Impressionism so that was awesome. The house is amazing. It is exactly how you would imagine a southern plantation. We walked around the gardens for about an hour and probably didn't even see half of it! We really want to go back in the summer when more of the flowers are in bloom. It was the perfect day to go though because it was 75 degrees with a nice breeze. We're glad that it is finally starting to cool down! Here's a few pictures from today.

White Coat Ceremony

So Zach had his big White Coat Ceremony on October 5th. The ceremony was about 2 hours long because the students from previous classes recognized teachers and then they recognized all the students that have received scholarships this past year. All of the first year students took the Optometric Oath. The cool part about that was the fact that the guy who wrote the Optometric Oath graduated from SCO in the 1950's and he was there to explain it to everyone. After they took the oath they were given their white coats. It was really awesome to see all the students walk across the stage after they were given their white coat. It's crazy to think that Zach has only been in school for a month and he already has his white coat.

Before the White Coat Ceremony I was able to go to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and listen to the assistant curator talk about Camille Pissarro, who is one of my favorite impressionist painters. There is going to be a big exhibit of his work through January so I am way excited about that. It was so fun to be able to just sit and listen to someone talk about art. I miss my art history classes so much so this was really nice. However, I was the only person in the room that was not in my 60's or 70's. Ha! After his talk I was able to spend about an hour and a half in the museum. Again, it was nice to just relax and look around. It's not a very big museum but it's decent.

Zach is still loving school. He is always busy studying for tests and quizzes but is doing an awesome job of spending quality time with me. :) He actually found a job that he will be starting next semester. He'll work early in the morning and will be doing all the maintenance work on the lab equipment. It will work out nicely because he will be able to work full time in the summer so he already has his summer job planned out. My job is getting a lot better, however, that was not the case last week. It was really stressing me out and I was feeling like I could never learn all the information. Last Thursday I worked in the other location in Midtown (the main office) and that was when I realized that I am really lucky to work with the people I do in Collierville. They are different than my past co-workers but they are a lot of fun at times. It's definitely still weird to make a Starbucks run instead of a sno cone run! This week has been stressful but more fun because I'm catching on to things more. I am doing really good pre-testing the patients and that is definitely my favorite thing to do. Now, I am trying to learn more about how to help patients pick out glasses. That will definitely take some time to learn. I have made 3 sales so far though. So, I am getting the hang of it...slowly.

It's crazy to think that it has already snowed back in Idaho and it's still in the low 90's and high 80's here in Memphis. Tonight has cooled down quite a bit and we may even be able to sleep with our windows open again! Hopefully it starts to feel more like fall soon though. It's still so green here, it's hard to think that it is actually October. We are definitely counting down the days until Christmas when we get to see everyone back in Idaho!! Hopefully the snow will still be there by the time we get there! :)

Memphis BBQ & Colombian Restaurant

So I thought I would take a shot at this whole blogging thing. This past week has been quite eventful for us. Zach had his first 2 quizzes which he aced both of them! He is currently studying for his first test that he has tomorrow. He is loving school which is great! On Thursday night all the optometry vendors from the area came to the school and gave away a bunch of free stuff. They also had discounted glasses and sunglasses there. Too bad we don't wear glasses...but we did get free dinner! Zach's name was called from the raffle 5 minutes after we left...he was so sad when he found out. We're not quite sure what it was he won but it was something like an ipod. Friday was Homecoming at the school which consisted of games, selling popcorn, and free BBQ-pulled pork sandwich, beans, and slaw aka coleslaw. You can always count on having BBQ at events in Memphis. I hope I get used to it because I'm not a big fan of BBQ.

I started my job on Monday and have come to realize that I have a lot to learn if I am going to stick with this. I feel like I'm going to a funeral everyday while I get ready since we have to wear all black. I look forward to my days off so I can wear some color! :) I mainly will be doing all the pre-testing on the patients for the doctor. When I'm not doing that I'll be ordering contacts, helping customers find glasses, helping patients insert and remove contacts (which I practiced doing on myself at work and was surprisingly good at it), and many other things that I'll learn about. I'm hoping that I will enjoy the job more when I don't have to ask so many questions. The 20 minute drive to work isn't too bad because I never hit rush hour but the drivers out here are seriously crazy. We found out tonight that no one has left SCO without getting in at least one wreck...scary!

Last night Zach and I went to a Colombian restaurant...which we will never do again. It was just a little too authentic for us. It's a good thing that Zach is fluent in Spanish since the entire menu was in Spanish and the waitress only spoke broken, southern English. Zach made a funny comment last night that Memphis is probably not the ideal place to learn English. When we left the restaurant last night I was shivering. Guess what the temperature was? 75 degrees. What has happened to me? We've only been here a month and I've adapted to the heat. I guess that is good but it will be hard when we go home for Christmas!! We actually slept with our windows open last night. It was nice to have some fresh air in our apartment.

So one thing that is very different here than back home is customer service. It is amazing to me how incredibly slow people are. There will be 10 people in line at a store and the cashier won't even try to hurry. All the while there will be 3 or 4 other employees standing around doing nothing. It is really weird. It took us over 15 minutes to get checked out of Ross last night. There were only 3 people in front of us with not a whole lot of merchandise. This will definitely take some patience on my part to get used to it.

I don't want to end on a complaining note so I will finish with the best news of the week. Zach surprised me with tickets to see Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, and Plain White T's in concert on Mud Island in October! I am so excited for this concert!! It is going to be amazing! Three of my favorite bands all in the same night! We miss home but we love Memphis for the most part. It is such a fun city and there is so much to do here. We would love some visitors though :)

Silver fire hydrants and Cicadas

Today marks the first time that I will attempt to create a blog that consists of more words than pictures. Two things that we have found interesting since we have been here is that all the fire hydrants are painted metallic silver, and the city is full of the bug pictured below. It's called a cicada, and they fill the trees here and make a loud sound that I find to be similar to the sound of a strong electric current. Many of the people who live here seem to be accustomed to the sound and even say that they no longer hear them, but to new comers like us, these bugs seem to only serve as an annoyance. The bugs are quite large (1-4 inches long), and on the same day that we took a picture of this one, I saw one perched in the hair of a guy who passed us in the street. I do not see how the man could not have felt something that big sitting on the side of his head!

I have successfully completed my first week of school and love it! I was even able to find time on Friday to play some racquetball with a few of the other students. Nikky has also made some great friends and is looking forward to starting her new job on Monday. Josh Davis, from Idaho Falls, is doing his externship at an Eclectic Eye that is at a different location, but it sounds like Nikky will see him every once in a while at staff meetings.

It's weird to think that when we're coming home from church at 11:00am, it's only 10:00am back in Idaho and many of our friends and family members haven't even left for church yet. I am really hoping to schedule my time well enough so that I won't feel the need to study on Sundays. I have watched the last three Braves games on TV, though, so I think I might have to give that up and dedicate that time to studying instead.

The bishop told us that he wanted to meet with us when we first arrived, but he wasn't at church today because he didn't feel well, and next week he is driving to Oklahoma with many of the other ward members to watch the BYU football game, so he will miss church again. That just means 2 more weeks of relaxation for us before we start thinking about receiving callings again :)

Our Convocation and White Coat Ceremony at SCO will be on Friday, October 5th. We are all looking forward to that. I always thought that students waiting longer to receive their white coats, but this timeline seems pretty standard among most of the medical field. We are not sure what we will be doing for Thanksgiving yet, but we are hoping to purchase plane tickets this week to come home for Christmas. We just need to check with Nikky's work to see what days we will be able to come. I have a whole week off for Thanksgiving and 2 weeks off for Christmas, so I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze a few rounds of golf in on the days we're not traveling :)

Our new apartment

More pics of Mud Island

Barbecue and Mud Island River Park

We just went to this barbecue with all the first year students today. Afterwards we went to the Mud Island River Park. Mud Island is in the middle of the Mississippi. The park has a huge scaled model of the Mississippi that shows all the topography, cities along it, and other rivers that run into it. It's large enough to wade in! Kids love it! You can also see the monorail that we rode across the river.

Redbirds game

Here are a few pictures for the Redbirds game we went to. It's a huge, beautiful stadium for a Triple A team. It's too bad more fans weren't there.

SCO

Here are some pictures of my new school!

First Week in Memphis

We finally arrived and are very thankful from the help of the Oswald family and the Bartlett 2nd Ward Elders' Quorum for helping us move in. Here are a few pictures from our first week: