Above: 2nd Semester class notes!!

Above: It even depresses Ellie to be around all those packets!

Well... It’s settled... I have finished my first year of medical school. A full year worth of school in 7 months and 21 days! Second semester really few by for me! I know it didn’t go as quick for Liz, as she was home alone while I was up at school studying. I thank her for her understanding and patience. Luckily, she had Sarah and the other spouses to do things with (Bible study, trips, etc.). I walked home after my exam and Liz was waiting on me. She said: “It feels like you’ve got to go take another test tomorrow doesn’t it?” The only thing I could do was laugh and say yeah, it does... That’s the thing about med school, it always feels like there is one more thing to do. I have to say that second semester was WAY better than first though. The information was not sporadic and everything flowed together really nice. I learned so much more this semester too. The topics were very interesting.

Again, I have to give this semester to God and the support he has given me. I thank every one who has helped me (and Liz) out whether it was a phone call, prayer, card, etc.

Right now, I just want to relax and not think about much... Maybe a movie will do?

Soon, we’ll be back in the states and headed to the lake!!! If you know me, you’d know that I’m pretty laid back and don’t let things get to me, but I have to say that I’m pumped about going home!

Well now my back is peeling and its so gross. I really hope it goes away by the time we go home. Thankfully it hasn’t been too sunny here so I haven’t had much temptation to go out in the sun. So heres my question – after I peel will it turn to tan? I sure hope so! 

Sarah and I have signed up to be on the RSO board next semester. We are in charge of Welcoming, Sponsorship, Fundraising, and the Spaghetti Dinner. It’s a lot of stuff. Especially the Spaghetti Dinner! RSO feeds the whole campus on one night of the semester. Welcoming includes doing the Orientation for the new spouses the first week of school. That should be fun. So all in all it will be kinda like a small job.

This morning we had another going away breakfast. It was for Michaela and Larissa. Larissa is the person who has motivated me to workout the past two semesters. I am really going to miss her. She is a very encouraging and fun person to be with! Above are pictures from this morning and also a picture of Larissa and I snorkeling.

Justin has ONE more test left!!! His 3rd mini of the semester. Its Thursday at 1:00 pm. Justins attitude has been great through all of these crazy tests! He has been very laid back and prepared. But he will tell you its only because this is not something he is doing on his own. God is his strength and his SANITY! All the glory goes to Him.  

We will be home on the 25th. Here is our schedule:
Monday 25th                Arrive in Little Rock at 5:00 pm
                                         Drive to Fort Smith
Tuesday 26th                Dentists Appt
                                         Dinner at Does!
Wednesday 27th          Dermatologist Appt (just me and mom)
                                         Eye Doctor Appts
                                         Birthday Dinner for Justin!
Thursday 28th               Fayetteville!!
                                         Hair Appt
                                         Lunch with Aunt Jean
                                        Dinner with Savannah
Friday – Tuesday          THE LAKE!!!!!!!
Tuesday – Thurs.          El Dorado
Friday                              Leaving for Dominica =(

See how fast its gonna go??? I have been praying that God will allow our time at home to go by as slow as possible! After this break we will not be home until December. Next semester will be my longest time on this island without a break and the longest time Ive EVER gone without seeing my family. I hope I can last – we shall see!  

Above: Breakfast at Ralnas for Heather (Heather is the girl on my right in the green dress)

Above: The truck we rode in to go to the boat!

Above: Summer, Maddie, Sarah, Me, Larissa, Ashley. This is the boat we went on to go snorkeling at Douglas Bay.

I cant believe Im going to say this but….. Im not EXACTLY ready to go home!!! Crazy right?? Through all these tests that Justin has been having I have actually been able to see him more than I usually do. We actually get to wake up and go to sleep together! The main reason I have been wanting to go home is because when on break - I will get to spend almost every second with Justin!

This past week has been kinda busy. One of my good friends Heather – whose husband is in 2nd semester – left for good Wednesday with her two kids, Grace and Ayden. So Tuesday we had a going away breakfast for her at our friend Ralnas house and then Tuesday afternoon Heather threw a pool party for Aydens first birthday. Justin came to the party so although it was sad that it was Heathers last day – it was nice to be with Justin. Friday I hopped on a boat with 5 other girls and went to a place called Douglas Bay to snorkel. I love to snorkel. However, I only lasted about 10 minutes Friday. There were jellyfish EVERYWHERE!!! So I didn’t want to take the chance of getting stung – so I got out! We laid out on the front of the boat for a while and I am TOASTED! This is the most burnt I have been in the 8 months that we have lived here. My face, back, arms, shoulders, AND legs are burnt. My backs the worst. Aloe Vera is my new best friend.

Justin has three more tests left!!! The first three he took went really well and we haven’t gotten the results back for the other three yet. He said that the Pysio and Biochem tests were REALLY hard but the Histo shelf wasn’t too bad. I love the quote that Kelsie said when she got out of the Physio shelf. She said “I feel like I haven’t been in med school for 8 months!”. Thanks so much for all the prayers because Justin has been so calm through all these tests and I have been so GLAD!! A lot of people just go some kind of crazy.  8 more days and were off!

Check out some new features on our site!!!

There is a new tab called “Other Bloggers”. It is a page of links to some of the spouses on the island that blog and some links are friends from back home. Erica and Brad – get in on the blogging world!!!

Also go to the “Pictures” tab and click on the link on the page. It will send you to a different website with some of our pictures on there. It is still a work in progress so bear with me please! You can also add photos to this website if youd like!  

The above picture is of Justin checking out the Anatomy test answers and a picture of a close up of the answers (looks hard huh? arent yall proud of him?) After the anatomy tests are over Ross posts the answers outside of the lab. Justin looks so happy because he did so well!! (yes – I made him pose for this one) We got some funny looks while taking it but Im just a proud wife! 

Justin had one test this past Thursday and then two on Friday so he took Friday night OFF!! We had great plans! We were going to play tennis and I was going to make some pizza when we got home. Well we go to the tennis courts right after Justins test and there were people on both courts and they weren’t leaving anytime soon. So we went to fill up our car with gas (which is about $6/gallon down here) and then went home – looking forward to a good pizza with pineapple and chicken! We got home and found out that a RAT had eaten a hole through our gas line – so all of our gas leaked out!!! Therefore – no pizza. So we decided to go eat at The Tomato – the most American restaurant on the island. They make good pizzas so we figured they would be the next best thing to homemade. We got there – no pineapple! So we had to settle for good ol pepperoni. After pizza we went home planning on watching a movie together. But I got sick. My stomach was killing me and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. So much for great plans!!!

We have found someone to watch Ellie over break!!! Well – GOD found somebody for us! Last night a guy named Robert called me and said “I heard through RCF that you needed someone to watch your dog over break” and I was like “yes…..” and then he was like “Ill watch her”! He said that our Pastor told him about us and we didn’t even tell Pastor Ed we were in need of someone! Awesome right? So he came over today at lunch and Ellie liked him and he seemed like he would do a really good job!! We are so THANKFUL! All the glory goes to God on this one. We have really been praying for someone to take care of her and we know a lot of yall have been praying too! Prayer works! The Lord cares about EVERYTHING in your life. Even my precious Ellie! Seriously. This dog is some kind of prayed for. Everytime she goes to the vet, gets sick, or whatever her need is, we pray for her. And so do our parents! Think about how prayed for our kids will be if this is how a dog is treated! We are so blessed. So since this post is about Ellie and Justin above is a picture of them on the beach about a week ago!

Below is Justins test schedule. His classes end this week! I cant believe its almost time to go home (20 days!!). Please pray for him through every test. Pray for God to give him the answers He wants him to have, pray for focus, pray for Justin to rely on God and not his own strength.

Thursday August 7th 1:00 pm: Neuroscience Lab Practical Exam
Friday August 8th 8:00 am: Histology Lab Practical Exam
Friday August 8th 1:00 pm: Anatomy Lab Practical Exam
Tuesday August 12th 8:00 am: Physiology Shelf
Wednesday August 13th 1:00 pm: Biochemistry Shelf
Friday August 15th 8:00 am: Histology Shelf
Monday August 18th 8:00 am: Anatomy Shelf
Tuesday August 19th 8:00 am: Neuroscience Shelf
Thursday August 21st 1:00 pm: Mini 3

A shelf exam is a 120 question test that’s a test of everything they have learned so far. Every U.S. school takes them. The main purpose of these tests are for the school to know how there students are doing compared to every other school. Schools in the U.S. do not include these test scores in their students final grade. However – Ross does. Of course.

 SO LOTS OF PRAYERS FOR JUSTIN PLEASE!!!!  

Justin and I have made a deal. Our deal is that if I blog at least two times a week until the break then he will get his eyebrows “professionally manicured”. We made this deal the night of our anniversary dinner and until this past week, I was doing pretty good. But he gave me an “extension” for last weeks since our internet has been done for two days. So from now until the break (21 more days!!) yall are guaranteed at least two blogs per week! Excited?

Last night we went to eat at a restaurant in Portsmouth on the beach called Blue Bay with about 15 other people for Andrea and Kyles surprise going away dinner. Andrea is in my bible study. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good. Well – my food was good. It was just chicken with a “cream” sauce on top. But it basically tasted like whip cream and garlic. Which I loved! Justin got the fish (grilled tuna) and said it was a little tasteless. Which is weird because if its one thing these people know how to cook its fish! Above are pictures from last night. The picture with the other couple is Andrea and Kyle.

Last night I realized how cool it is to live here (at times). Well – for instance, almost everywhere we go out to eat is on the beach. Not just a view of the beach – ON the beach. That is one of my favorite things about Dominica. All the restaurants are “open” (no windows/doors) and you can hear the beach while youre eating. Its so cool to be able to see the famous “Caribbean sunset” for 16 months!  

Well Ross just announced today that they will have a new campus in the BAHAMAS!!! It wont be until January 2009 so only the people who are currently in 1st semester can apply to go there. So we cant apply = (. It will be in Freeport Bahamas which is about a 30 minute flight to Miami. UGH!! Oh well. We just have to keep telling ourselves that for some reason God choose for us to be here. Even though were not sure why! We have not made great friends (except ONE – love ya Sarah!) (well and another girl who is in class with Justin so we don’t get to hang out – love ya Kelsie!) and don’t have much fellowship with other believers. We just don’t have the support system we had with our friends in Little Rock. But God is everywhere – even in Dominica! That is just what I have to keep reminding myself.

This past Saturday was the Intramural softball championship. Justin and I’s teams played against each other!! Heres the thing. Justin plays for his semester – 2nd. But I play for the 4th semester. Why don’t I play with his semester? Well because at the beginning of this semester a spouse who plays for the 4th semester team asked me to play with her. So I said yes. And Im so glad I got to play with them. They are a really great team and some of the most fun people Ive played with. We all got along great! I am going to miss them so much!! (Since their 4th semester they leave the island in August)

Anyway. We have played against the 2nd semesters twice before this past Saturday and won. But at the championship game they beat us. We really did play horrible. Almost everyone hit the ball straight to shortstop. Who played for a division 1 baseball team. So although the 2nd semesters think that they are the champions – theyre really not. Because we have beat them 2 out of 3 games.

So heres a funny story about the tshirts I hade made for our team when I went home. Justin calls me one day and says “We played 4th semester today and they beat us”. So I was like yay! We won the whole thing! And Justin did not correct me. So when I got our shirts made I had “Intramural Champions” put on them. Well when I got back I found out that we had two more games left!! One being the CHAMPIONSHIP game!! (which as yall already know we lost). WHOOPS!!! I will hopefully post pictures soon of my team (in our shirts!). I am waiting on someone to email it to me. So be watching out for it!

The above picture is of Justin and I’s anniversary dinner! I know – it shouldve been with the post that was done about our anniversary.

To the left is a picture of Justin speaking this morning. He spoke on encouragement. You cant really see it in the picture but behind him is a powerpoint presentation that I made for his talk!!

Also - in case you needed a laugh - check out this joke....

One evening, a family brings their frail, elderly mother to a nursing home and leaves her, hoping she will be well cared for. The next morning, the nurses bathe her, feed her a tasty breakfast, and set her in a chair at a window overlooking a lovely flower garden. She seems okay but after a while she slowly starts to lean over sideways in her chair. Two attentive nurses immediately rush up to catch her and straighten her up. Again, she seems okay but after a while she starts to tilt to the other side. The nurses rush back and once more bring her back upright. This goes on all morning. Later, the family arrives to see how the old woman is adjusting to her new home. "So Ma, how is it here? Are they treating you all right?" they ask. "It's pretty nice," she replies. "Except they won't let me fart."

Praises:

My brother Robbie has an eye disease called RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa). We have known about this since my 10th grade year (2000). He just found out Monday that it is NOT the kind of RP that will cause him to go blind! This is something we have been worried about ever since we found out that he had RP! Thank God for this good news!!!

 I had a spot on my arm that Justin made me get checked out while I was home. It was skin cancer but just a superficial kind – called basal cell carcinoma. So the only thing I had to get done was get it scraped off! Thank God that it wasn’t anything more serious!

Prayer Requests:

Justins Memaw was in the hospital for a little while and when she got out they had to put her in a nursing home. Please pray that her attitude toward being in the nursing home will get better and that she will be healed. She currently weighs about 90 lbs.

Justin speaks at our church service Sunday (tomorrow). Please pray that God will speak through him and his nerves will be calm. 

My friend Ashleys little cousin whose name is Joseph and is 4 years old was diagnosed with a brain tumor in November 2007 and after he had some treatments it was gone. But they just found out that the brain tumor is back and are now trying a research drug on him at St. Judes. Please pray that the new drug will work. For more info go to http://prayforjoseph.blogspot.com. It’s a blog written by the mother of the child and she is so awesome. 

We are still trying to sell our house. Please pray that it sells ASAP!!! 

Starting August 7th Justin has 9 tests. The last one is August 21st. Please pray that he will be extremely focused and will rely only on God during these tests and not on his own strength.

Please pray that we will find someone to take care of Ellie while we are gone for two weeks. August 24th – September 6th.