One of the cutest places weve ever been to is a little town called Frankenmuth. It is a little german community about 15 minutes from Saginaw. They actually call it :Michigans Little Bavaria”. Our neighbor – Marge (who might just need a post all her own) kept asking us (with a very heavy northern accent) – “Have you been to Frankenmuth yet”? So we finally took the trip over there just a couple of weeks after we moved here. 

First stop was the Bavarian Inn. It’s a very authentic german restaurant – referred to us by Marge. It was so cute. The waiters and waitresses were all dressed up like the picture below. (Really they were!!!) I had chicken cordon bleu and Justin had some type of beef platter.
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After lunch we walked around downtown. Some pictures of Frankenmuth are below.
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And this was just ONE side of cheese! There were three sides!
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This is CHOCOLATE!!! This is at a fudge shop downtown.
 
 
Happy day after 4th of July day! We were sad not to be at the lake this year but thankful to get to see some fireworks – unlike last year! We started off the fourth by running around town doing errands. BUT to make it kinda special (since it was the 4th) we took Ellie with us. We tried to find her a new shirt to wear (because her old 4th of July shirt said Old Navy 2007) but everything was too small for her!! So frustrating. So she had to stay in her usual 4th getup of a red bandana collar (w/blue tag) and red, white, and blue lay.

We had also planned to make 4th of July cupcakes together. Homemade icing and all. It was SO much fun. Since we are so poor we have to think of creative (fee/cheap) things to do together. Like instead of going to the amusement park like we REALLY wanted to do. So cupcake decorating it was.

So after about 2 hours of cupcake decorating it was time for a traditional 4th of July meal. We had hot dogs (in the microwave though because we don’t have a grill) and baked beans. Oh and cupcakes for dessert. Baked beans are one of my new favorite foods. And they don’t even give me gas.

Then we packed our cooler bag (whoever got us that purple cooler bag – THANK YOU! We have gotten a lot of use out of it – its great!) and headed off to the fireworks. They started at 10:15 but we got there around 8:30. We took snacks and cards thinking we would need to be entertained since we were there so early. We were wrong. It was crazy out there. We were in a park type area by the river. So it was all grass and cars were everywhere. But these Michiganians are crazy. People think Arkansas is redneck. They need to come to Saginaw, MI. There were fireworks going off EVERWHERE. In the middle of cars (off of cars), in the GRASS, underneath powerlines, underneath trees. All kinds of fireworks – not just good ol sparklers. Speaking of sparklers, there was one point where this kid beside us lit FOUR sparklers at once – in his hand – and freaked out and just threw them in the grass – mid sparkling. I freaked a little. 

But the fireworks really were great. We were pleasantly surprised at how good they were. I hoped you all had a great 4th of July!!! Enjoy some of our pictures!
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Justins batch of cupcakes
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My batch of cupcakes
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Jenny and her dog Cosmo came with us. And Ellie of course!
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Notice all the smoke and FIRE around us?!
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Yes - I am wearing a sweatshirt!! It was about 65 degrees! IN JULY!!
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Trying to get Ellie to pose. She was more interested in giving me kisses (and people watching)
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Cant have a 4th of July post without a fireworks picture!
 
 
Our ride up here was LONG!! It took us about 14 hours – which we spread out in 2 days. We left my apartment in Little Rock on May 5th at 8:00 am. We had movers come and load up our moving truck the day before, meaning the only thing left in the apartment was our mattress. So we woke up at 6:00 and loaded the mattress up and then poor Justin had to hook the rental truck onto the car trailer. And then load the car onto the car trailer.

I say poor Justin because 1.) the trailer was very frustrating to deal with in an apartment community. and 2.)  because I am a horrible mover. You would think since weve moved 5 times in the last three years I would be a pro!  But NOPE! I get very attached to each place no matter how long Ive been there so the move is usually pretty emotional for me. And I never have a lot of patience when it comes to packing and loading.
Below are pictures throughout our day of moving…

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Justin underneath my car hooking it to the car trailer
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Can yall believe Justin drove this? I was very impressed!
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First stop - Missouri!
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Below are some videos I took while we were on our road trip. As you can tell – I got a little bored! Illinois was the worst. The speed limit was 55 mph on the interstate!!! And we had to go through some construction.
 
 
Im baaaaack!!!!! I have decided to start blogging again! Justin has been begging me since Christmas (seriously) to start writing again. So six months later…. Here I am! So let me give you a quick update….

Justin and I have been living in Saginaw, Michigan since the beginning of May. He is doing his Intro to Clinicals (5th Semester) here and will be done in August. When he is done we will stay in Michigan until he finds out where we will go for clinicals (Novemberish). Then HOPEFULLY we will be wherever that is for the next two years. 

Everyones number 1 question to us has been – So how do you like Michigan? Well – the weather is GREAT. Right now its in the mid 80’s with about 40% humidity. The people here are a lot nicer than we thought they would be but someone needs to teach them how to cook good BBQ and Mexican food. One thing that we love the most so far are all the free/cheap things to do on the weekends! I will post pictures and more on those later. 

The town we are in – Saginaw – has about 70,000 people. It has lots of little old houses and buildings and the area we are in (called the Tri City area – consisting of three towns close to each other) is called the armpit of Michigan. So as you can imagine by its nickname its not the nicest place ever but definitely better than Dominica or Miami (in our opinion). But if you really want to know what its like then come up here and see us!!! 

This week I will post more picture/videos about where we live, the trip up here, etc. so keep checking back!!   

 
Last Round! 01/15/2009
 

Okay, this is it... I’m in my LAST semester on the island of Dominica! Liz hasn’t updated the blog in a while, and since we can both write here, here’s another shot on my part.

Christmas Break:
We had a pretty good semester break! Liz was able to get away early in December with Ellie so she could beat the rush of students flying out. She went home and got to be with a couple of her best friends from high school. They spent a few days in Little Rock, then Kristen flew back to Atlanta. While Liz was in LR, she got Ellie’s annual checkup done at Dr. Bob’s. A few weeks later we got a call from Dr. Bob saying that Ellie’s heartworm preventative (Revolution) had failed and she was positive for heart worms! We are currently waiting on a confirmatory test from a second lab before Ellie starts any treatment. We decided it would be best to have Liz get an apartment in LR this semester so she can stay and take care of Ellie through the treatment (we suspect the confirmation will be positive). Ellie cannot get her heart rate up while on treatment since it is potentially life threatening. So, please keep Liz and Ellie in your prayers as they are back in the states to take care of this. Liz is also hoping to find a semi-part-time job to help pay bills and such as we have no formal income.

New Years Eve was a blast with one little exception!
We went up to Little Rock and stayed downtown after going to a NYE party at the Peabody with Brad and Erica. That night at supper was quite an experience too. We planned on going to our favorite hibachi grill, Seki Sui. Liz made reservations and everything! We get there and they wrote us down for the wrong time, and since we didn’t show up for our “time” we couldn’t get a seat (they were booked solid till late). We proceeded to call or drive to other hibachi grills in town to find out they too were booked until late that night. We were starving and ended up eating at a Mongolian grill. The food was pretty good and cheap, but it ended up giving Erica and me food poisoning. That was ROUGH!

Bad news #2: We had the opportunity to go see a specialist eye doctor in Oklahoma City one day. The bad news is that he diagnosed Liz with an eye condition we kind of feared she might have. Her brother Rob has the same eye condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa (or RP for short) For those who don’t know what RP is, here is some brief info:  Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of genetic eye conditions. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some sight all their life. Others go completely blind from RP. Progression of RP is different in each case.

RP is a type of hereditary retinal dystrophy, a group of inherited disorders in which abnormalities of the photoreceptors (rods and cones) or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the retina lead to progressive visual loss. Affected individuals first experience defective dark adaptation or nyctalopia (night blindness), followed by reduction of the peripheral visual field (known as tunnel vision) and, sometimes, loss of central vision late in the course of the disease.

Above: Normal Vision

Above: A patient with severe RP

We do not know the inheritance form that Liz has right now. She will go back to OKC for further testing. Hopefully it is the recessive form like Rob’s. Also, we do not know how fast it is progressing. That is something we won’t be able to find out for another 3-5 years when we are able to check progression with the baseline report we received over break. We look at this situation as an opportunity to grow and learn together. While it’s not something anyone wants, we feel that God has given us this hurdle in order to help us and others. Since there isn’t a current cure to stop the progression of RP, we are going to do our best to learn about the condition, stay up with the current material, and use our experience to help someone else if at all possible. Right now, Liz doesn’t have real serious symptoms. She was diagnosed with an early-moderate case. She has lost some peripheral vision (which she doesn’t really notice), but she has significant night blindness.

Back to some good news: We got to eat some really great food and see our families over the few weeks back. It was great to have Christmas at home. We played Wii non-stop it seems. I went on an 86 mile 4-wheeler ride with my buddy Xon and about 15 other people. It was insanely cold as we ended up riding after sun set. Also, My parent’s moved into a new house before Christmas and it’s amazing. I’m very proud for them. Dad also got a new pool table for Christmas and he’s a regular shark! I think I might have won 2-3 games out of the 15 or so we played. We played a mean game of Cranium at the Hale house too. Aunt Andrea, Lauren, Liz, Reece (who bailed out on us), and I won!!! We're the serious gamers though, I think. It was still fun.

Above: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Above: Good sports...

Finally, we would definitely appreciate any prayers you can give us. Living apart for 4 months, living on loans, going to med school (4th semester is no joke so far), caring for a sick dog, finding a part-time job, living with an eye disease and learning my Dad’s mother isn’t doing to well with her health has put a lot on us. It’s definitely something God can handle, and we ask for His strength daily. We thank you for your support and keeping us in your prayers. 4 more months and I will be back home to my wife! Also, we don’t know where we will be for 5th semester (for those of you who are wondering what we are doing after Dominica). We might be in Miami or Saginaw Michigan. Hopefully it will be Michigan, but that decision is up to some faculty members or random selection, nobody really knows?

-Justin

 
 

It’s 5:30 in the morning and I’m wide eyed. My body still has not been able to wind down from the buzz of adrenaline of the stresses of med school. Also, I think my body is still two hours ahead and I get up every morning at 7ish for class, so this is "normal" time for me... I started this blog as I was sitting in the San Juan airport on the 18th, and I was going to post from there, but the plane was early... Here’s what I was writing:

Craziest quote I heard today in the airport was from a girl who was probably 9 years old. She was walking w/ her grandmother and said to her: “You know, I’m probably going to drink so much that I will be an alcoholic”. Her grandmother replied: “I never want to hear you say that ever again!” To be honest, I don’t know anything about their circumstances or even their conversation leading up to that comment, but I wonder why such a young girl would say something like that?

Last night, I arrived in San Juan and went to the hotel and to eat a steak! Luckily, a couple of guys from my class had an overnight layover and we all split the room. They were going to spend the night at the airport, which is insane. So, as I flew into San Juan yesterday evening and I was a little emotional. Maybe it was the fact that I was one step closer to my wife, or maybe it was because I just finished a grueling 3rd semester and my brain was beginning the 3 week cool down? I believe it was because of Liz, really. You know the first thing I saw? A Cadillac Escalade! I immediately thought of Kathy (Liz's mom) when I met her for the first time. She rolled up in the McDonald’s parking lot in Ft. Smith in her Escalade truck (since I had never been there before we had to meet somewhere easy). She flies in, Liz hops out and Kathy yells: “I like yer truck!” Nice to meet you too...

Any way, being in Dominica makes me realize that we live in our land of excess... Have you ever seen the movie “Super-size Me”? Me either, but that’s all I think about when I walk through the airport, or go to a place to eat. There is just so much stuff in the states. All of the coke machines I have come across do not have anything less than a 20 oz. drink! I am not complaining at all, I guess, because that’s the culture we’ve grown to love and it makes us happy. Although I love America and American food, I really like the good cooking Liz has grown to be sooo good at making! She made me gain 10lbs. this semester, seriously! Also, I would have never thought I would take a girl out of her perfect world down to an island where you never know if you will have power or clean water that day. She has sacrificed so much for us in this past year and I am very thankful for her. I am also thankful for the support of our family and friends. It’s hard to believe we have been in Dominica for ONE YEAR! To me, the time has flown by, but I spend my days in the books and there never seems to be enough time to study all I need to study.

Okay, back to writing from Arkansas:In the few days that I have been back, I have had a great time with my wife, eaten entirely too much, made a 5 hour road trip to El Dorado from Ft. Smith, and have gotten to see my family (well, a lot of them). I thank God for getting me through Semester 3. Without Him there is no way I would have made it through. Really, Semester 3 was by far the most grueling and tough for me. I appreciate the prayers and support from everyone! I studied a lot this semester and Liz (and Ellie) were my biggest fans on the island. Thank you Liz, I love you!

I am including a picture (see above) from Google Analytics that analyzes our traffic flow to the website. As you can see from the US map there are people from many locations that visit our site. I have NO clue who many of you are, but I thank you for checking up on us. Feel free to leave us a message or email some time. I wanted to include a map of the world because there are visitors from all over, but it really didn’t look right. Crazy, that in one year we could have over 8,000 visits from all over the world to a blog that Liz initially started to keep our family informed of our life!

Have a Merry Christmas!

 
 

I leave TOMORROW!!!! Can yall believe it?? I am a bunch of emotions!! As you all know – Ellie is leaving with me. Please pray that I will chill out! Thank the Lord that Sarah will be with me to hopefully calm me down a little.

This semester has gone by extremely fast! Almost too fast. I have made a bunch of new friends who I wish would have gotten here my first semester. They are great. Two of which are my new accountability and prayer partners. Great girls! If only Sarah would stay ONE more semester life would be near perfect. The end of the semester has been pretty busy for us spouses. Parties galore! There is a new hotel/bar in town called Comfortel de Champ. The people that own it are great. They invited us over for a wine and cheese night last Saturday. We had a blast!! There were about 12 of us and we danced like crazy! We were prime examples of people who knew how to have fun without being drunk. Even though the pictures look otherwise.

Then the next day we went tubing down the river. Its about a 6 mile tube down one of the 365 rivers in Dominica. It was a blast! It’s a little faster than a lazy river with a few small “rapids” here and there. One of my friends fell out of her tube on the first rapid. Im not real sure how it happened – but it did.

Then Monday night we had a Christmas Cookie Swap at my friend Ashleys house. We all (well most of us) wore red and green and brought a batch of cookies (or fudge, cupcake, etc.), and then played a game called Garbage. My team lost but it was fun! I took my dads FAMOUS chocolate chip cookies (which I have almost perfected) and some peanut butter cookies.

LIFE IS GOOD!!

 
 

Well yesterday was Justins last day of class!!! Now its test time! Here is his test schedule:

December 8     Path Lab Final
December 11   Behavioral Science Shelf
December 15   Mini 3 Exam
December 17   Final Exam (cumulative of all semester)

On December 17th he takes his test at 8:00 am and then his plane leaves at 2:55 pm! We are so grateful he got this flight out. He was originally scheduled to leave on the 21st. One day he was just looking at flights – just in case - and found one seat left on the December 17th flight. He calls me and asks if he should book it and my reply was “ARE YOU CRAZY???” Duh!!! Of course I want to spend 4 more days with you! I believe with all my heart that God made him look for flights that day so he could come home earlier. 

I am coming home on December 10th (JUST ONE WEEK!!!). I am bringing Ellie home and I hate traveling with our dogs. It really stresses me out and I do not do well. I get sick and I will be nervous and worried about her until I see her out of her crate in Fort Smith Arkansas! Luckily Sarah will be flying with me until Dallas. She was originally leaving a little later but then changed her flight just for me (and Ellie)!! So she can help me with Ellie when we get to Puerto Rico, etc. How great is that? 

Also – Ellie cannot fly if it is over 85 degrees here in Dominica or Puerto Rico. So please pray that the weather cooperates. The Lord really has looked over us in all our traveling that we have done this past year. The dogs have done great flying and for that I am extremely thankful! 

One other thing – HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!! Her birthday was this past Sunday (November 30th) and she was 52!! She said this one was great because unlike the last two years – she didn’t just get out of surgery AND she has hair!!  I love you so much Mom!! Below are some pictures of my gorgeous mother!! Not many people can look as good as she does post cancer huh?

 
 

Let me first say that I have an amazing husband!!! He has been wonderful this past weekish. The spaghetti dinner - which was last Thursday – pretty much started off some kind of craziness in our house. I have bible study on Tuesday nights and this semester we have had 11 girls. Six of which are leaving and will not be here next semester. So the other five of us threw them a little going away dinner. We did lasagna but I just fixed the green beans, cookies, and of course – my specialty - sweet tea. Then the next day the cooking continued – for Thanksgiving. I cooked 4 pumpkin cheesecakes, sweet potato casserole, and corn casserole.

When Wednesday night got here I kinda lost it. It just hit me that almost everyone in my family was traveling to Jonesboro, Arkansas without me and Justin!! Usually Christmas is everyones big family holiday. Well – not mine!! Thanksgiving is huge in my family!!! This was also my cousin Josh’s first time to not be in Jonesboro. We are very close – like brother and sister. So he calls me Wednesday night and that helped nothing. We both had a large breakdown over the phone. This was around dinner time so Justin is home when the phone call is happening. So he offers to stay home and study (something that never happens because he gets distracted so easily). So I go in our bedroom and sit on the bed with Ellie to start peeling my sweet potatoes. I start peeling and they are white. So I thought well maybe when you break them in half theyre orange on the INSIDE. No such luck there. And then Justin was like – “Liz I think those are roots”. (Something kinda like a potato here). So I called my friend Ralna (who was with me when I bought them) and asked her what was going on. She then tells me not to worry – sweet potatoes are just white here. WHEW!!!  

So then practically right after that my dad calls and Justin answers the phone. On the other line was Dawson – one of my little cousins. He and Justin talked for a while and I just started bawling during this time. The kind of bawling that usually really only occurs when something tragic has happened. So then Dawson tells Justin that the little girls want to talk to me and Justin attempts to hand me the phone. Im not real sure what he was thinking. Im just shaking my head like do I look like Im in the kind of shape to hear there voices right now? So Justin tells my dad – “umm nows not a really good time”.

So I finish my potatoes around midnight and we head to bed. Thursday Justin just had class til noon. During that time Im laying on the couch watching the Macys Thanksgiving Parade and thinking – right now I should be eating my little cousin Garretts monkey bread. Justin came home at noon and then my cousin Richard Paul called. I attempt to talk to him but lose it as soon as I hear his voice. I got through it though. The rest of the day was continued cooking and even Justin shed a little tear or two. Justin ended up taking the whole day off.

We went to our friends house at 5:00 to help set up for all the people who were coming at 6:30. About 100ish people showed up!!! We were so crammed and there was SO much food!! It was a good time. 

So the reason Justin is so amazing is because through all this time he was basically my rock through everything and while I was cooking – he would come behind me and do the dishes! He was home when he didn’t have to be. He comforted me and didn’t treat me like I was acting like a crazy person. I am very THANKFUL for him!

Above: In my own little world - listening to music - peeling the white sweet potatoes.

Above: The white sweet potatoes. With one somewhat orange one. So weird...

Above: Justin trying to not get tea all over himself while Im driving - trying to dodge all the many potholes on the very rocky dirt road.

Above: One of THREE tables filled with food.

Above: Some of the people at Thanksgiving. There were also people outside, in other rooms, and on the other half of this room!

Above: Justin and I trying to organize the food.

Above: Justin and I during dinner. (My hands were a little sticky from desserts)

 
 

Justin has two tests this week. The first one is today at 1:30 (11:30 AM central time). Its called an ICM (Introduction to Clinical Medicine) Practical. Here is a description of what this practical entails:

He picks 1 out of 14 different tasks to perform on a patient. This includes General Survey, Peripheral Circulation, Detailed Radial Pulse, Blood Pressure, Cardio examination, Respiratory examination, Abdominal examination, etc.
Each includes a series of tasks you would perform to assess if everything is normal or abnormal. Then you are asked a secondary question regarding your understanding of what you just did.
The hard part is just remembering what to do for each thing, the proper order, and why you actually are doing something since you don’t know which of the tasks you will pick.

 Wednesday is his next test. It is at 1:30 also and is called a Behavioral Oral Exam. Ya know all those questions on that form you fill out when you go to the doctors office? Questions like family history, personal history, current medications, etc. Well Justin has had to memorize all those and his test is to ask all of them to a patient while a professor is in the room grading him. Its actually a lot of stuff to memorize!!!! He has been practicing “interviewing” me. 

 Justin has been very anxious lately about this semester. Please pray the following for him: 

 Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Thanks everyone! I will be home in 16 days and cant wait to see everyone! We love yall!!