Lucy, Pillows, and the Elections

It is getting way too cold way too fast. And unfortunately Lucy is the one really suffering here. If you remember, we buzzed her about 3 weeks ago and she has very little hair left. However, it is actually pretty awesome when we take her out to go to the bathroom.... no more sniffin around, takin her precious time. She is out, does her biz, and she comes running back. Potty time has gone from around 7 minutes to 3! You go girl!

We brought Lucy into our home about a year and a half ago. It was a very spontaneous decision and (with the exception of marrying David) has been the best decision we have ever made. She is so well mannered and just has so much love to give. I saw this comic the other day and it just melted my heart. This has Lucy written all over it.

 (Picture was taken from Prayerforce.org)

It's my day of birth coming up in a few days!!! I have been complaining to David that I think I am having a hard time sleeping at night because my pillow sucks. His family is NOTORIOUS for being perfect gift givers. They find something that you NEED but that you also WANT but wouldn't really think about getting for yourself. They are so well thought out! So David surprised me and we went Pillow shopping!! I was SOO excited!!! But, my question is this... why do they not provide a proper pillow testing station??? A pillow is like a nice pair of jeans, you don't leave without trying them on!! 

I didn't know David snatched this picture. But I am glad he did because I get a kick out of it. 

Is anybody else sooo ready for the elections to be over??!?!??!!?!? OH MY HECK. Iowa is a swing state so EVERY commercial we see is either Obama or Romney. 85% Obama, 15% Romney. Certain ones FRUSTRATE ME SO BAD. We watch Hulu and they will sometimes say "Which Ad would you prefer?" and all of our options will be for Obama... NONE!!! I WANT NONE!!! I would rather watch the youtube video "zit on my boyfriends back" twenty times. Seriously. It's been excruciating. It gets me riled up every time. Obama has had Morgan Freeman voice over one of his ads and even has had Jay Z on endorsing him. And that is one of my biggest frustrations... why is America looking at Morgan Freeman and Jay Z as the people that we look up to enough to sway our vote?? Why not somebody who has actually made a difference in the world? A scientist, a fireman, maybe somebody in the military?? UGHH. And then we get people tweeting out that "America seriously needs to reconsider voting for Romney because 'his' America is terrifying" I don't even think I need to go into that comment. So. Frustrating. 

I need something lighter to end this blog post on. Here is a picture of Lucy. She has the cutest habit where if she can be laying on both David and I, she will. Doesn't matter what crazy position she needs to be in, she will do it. So. Cute. The gray sweatshirt is me, and the khakis are Dave. Love them both so much!!!

Famous, embarrassed, pumpkins, and mis-use of dental equipment

David and I have been REALLY into The Voice this season.  I have a couple favorites, Avery is the first who is on CeeLo's team and also Collin McLouglin (He WAS on Adam's team and then Blake Stole him).We think Adam Levine is as cool as it gets SO we were thrilled to hear that Maroon 5 will be touring in March and they will be playing about an hour away.

On Friday we heard that our local radio station was giving away tickets to the show, so I told Dave that I was going to listen ALL day long and I was GOING to WIN. I was determined I was going to win. So I waited until I heard the Maroon 5 song and I then I started dialing. Here's how it went... busy, busy, busy, #8, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, #61, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy NUMBER 98. I had to be caller 100 to win. I was SO upset when he said caller 98! Called again. Busy. Called again... IT WAS RINGING!!! Then I heard someone on the other line say "Hello, who am I talking to?" It was right here that I realized I was CALLER 100!!!!!!!! I was freaking out. I SCREAMED into the phone. First of all, I have to say, I am SO GLAD that I was NOT on the air at this time. Because the DJ LITERALLY had to silence me to tell me that I had not WON anything. Yet. AND IT WASN'T EVEN FOR MAROON 5 TICKETS! It was for this thing called "Whole house room redo" and I won a key. Which means that I had to drive about an hour away to see if my key fits into the lock and if it did, I would win a buttload of furniture. Which would be cool. But, seriously, how did I listen to the radio all day long and miss that they were NOT giving tickets away?? I was so embarrassed. soooo embarrassed. But hey, on the bright side, I was on the radio! (thankfully after they edited it). YES. I am THAT Kami from Coralville. Don't be afraid to ask for an autograph. Ultimate fist pump.

In other news, David and I decided that we needed to carve some pumpkins. I always give David a hard time because whenever we decide to do something creative he always manages to take over and take complete creative control and ends up doing about 80% of it. I don't know if I can really blame him. He is much more of an artist than I. But I told him that we were getting TWO pumpkins this year so I can do my own! We were looking up some designs online and I decided that I wanted to do Jack the Pumpkin king. David pretty much told me "good luck" because he has tried multiple times and hasn't been successful. I think I can blame the Allen gene in me... when I hear I can't do something... I want to prove people wrong! So I decided I was going to do Jack. We started out with knives and quickly found that these "instruments" were NOT going to work. Luckily David brought home his dental waxing kit because he has a huge practical exam on Monday. Who knew that dental waxing tools were perfect for pumpkin carving?

To many of you, you know that David LOVES to pop zits. Probably his one and only vice. I have heard him say that to be a dermatologist would have been another field he would have liked to go into... JUST because he loves popping zits and pinching pimples so much. The problem is that he doesn't have too many of them. So what does he do? He comes after me. I always have one on my chin and on my forehead and he just loves to give me that I-am-staring-so-deeply-in-your-eyes-because-I-adore-you look that leads into him leaning in to pinch my pimple. and you know what? I am a baby. and it hurts. So I REALY don't like when he does it. The other day he came home with a SWAG bag from dental school. Little did I know that this bag came with a nice bottle of topical anesthetic. You know, the crap they put on your gums to numb them before they stick you with a needle? He told me that he had some gel that would make pinching my pimple not hurt so bad. I trusted him. And you know what? It worked! I didn't feel a thing!!! It does make me worry, though. To what point does this end??!?

Livin Life in the Midwest

It still is a bit surreal to me to think that we are living in the middle of the country.

Whenever someone asks where Iowa is I tell them that we live on MIMAL's face. And it surprises me EVERY SINGLE TIME when someone tells me they don't know what or who MIMAL is.

MIMAL!! Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana.

Or if you ask my niece, Ryann, we live in Oh-I-Ah. So when we first pulled our truck in on Saturday morning we found that there wasn't a convenient place to put our truck so that we can properly unload. So, David and I decided the best way to do it (perhaps not the most efficient) was to pull our truck right by the garage and unload it as quickly as we can because we would be blocking traffic. We worked so fast it was insane!

And that my friends is when I was introduced to the glorious FEELING of living in a humid environment. Sure, I've felt humid before when we traveled to Mexico and Guyana, but it's a whole 'nother experience when you know that you are going to live in and NEVER escape the humid air. That's really my only complaint. Well, that and the really eerie feeling of not having any mountains around you. There is literally nothing higher than us. That's a bit freaky.

We live in a town home complex that is HIGHLY populated with dogs. Which I first thought was going to be awesome, especially since we were having to separate Little Miss Lucy from her favorite playmate Maggie. Well, within the first month of us living here she got sick. She was throwing up at least twice a day and wasn't eating anything. One night she threw up 4 times - so we made a trip to the vet........ at 4 in the morning.... She picked up something from some dog around here. AND THEN!!! Five days ago David found a flea on lucy. A FLEA!!!!! She has never had fleas!!! Well, this is what happened...

yes. we buzzed her. David found a total of 8 fleas on Lucy. We got her on flea medication and we haven't seen one since. We caught it just in time! Crisis averted. 

Fall is in full swing now and the trees are turning all sorts of beautiful colors. It is such a sight to see and one of my favorite parts of living here in the Midwest. There are many roads that come straight out of Father of the Bride. You know what I'm talking about... the road's that are lined with breathtaking deciduous trees?

**And for the record, I actually picked up the term deciduous from dental anatomy! That's right! Baby teeth are actually called deciduous teeth! I'm gettin' to know my stuff! Mesial, distal, lingual, buccal, occlusal... those are the names of all the SIDES of one tooth!!

More later!

Orientation and First Week!

David started orientation two weeks ago. After the first day he was so jazzed about starting! I loved that!! To know that David is excited and happy is a great confirmation that not only is dentistry what he wants to do, but that he is going to love going to school here in Iowa.

He described orientation as "so different and I love it"

As soon as the very first day the Professors treat you like what you are, a professional. A future Doctor.

 First Day of School! 

I love that he has to wear scrubs everyday!! 

How cool is this??? That is Harky the mascot. GO HAWKEYES! 

It's really hard to tell from the picture, but if you look really closely you will find that is NOT a real person. 

ROAD TRIP!!

Can you call it a road trip if it isn't a ROUND trip?

Ugh. There just isn't really anything fun about being in a moving truck for 3 days (EXCEPT, it wasn't all that bad. Davids funny.)

We packed up our budget truck, put our car on the dolly, grabbed needed snacks, and headed out early in the morning to start our new adventure!

David started driving first. And if anyone knows David, he doesn't particularly LIKE to drive. Our first car (well, it was my car before we got married and he got stuck with it) was a VW beetle. TOTAL CHICKS CAR. So, I think he got used to me being his Miss. Daisy because he refused to drive that beetle. Anyway, this was a welcomed surprise.

15 miles down the road David hits a duck. A DUCK. I never even saw a duck the whole year we had been living in Leavenworth??? I have never hit a living thing in the car before so this started our adventure off on a rather creepy eerie note.

THEN, we are driving through Blewett pass (probably 25 miles from our starting destination) and David is in the middle of the climb and then the truck started to go really fast. He looked at me and said "I don't see the car" all of the blood ran from his face and he turned so scary white. I had never seen him SO PANICKED. He as quickly (as partially as safely?) as he could pulled over to the side. Got out and saw the car. The stupid dolly makes the car invisible in the side mirrors??? Who's crappy invention was that? So after that scary incident the passenger was deemed as captain of making-sure-the-car-was-still-attached. Not fun. AND we were driving probably 55 the whole time. LAME.

David driving. He is so cute in his glasses. 

That is what I call FLAT. and what others call Nebraska. 

But, we made it. No accidents NO tickets. SUCCESS!!!!

Dental School(s) Update

A lot of my blogging has been centered around David and his (our) dream to become a dentist. This is no exception. And it's long. Sorry!!!!

My latest post (back in January...........) said that we were headed to SO CAL for dental school at Western U. David applied to 13 different schools back in June of 2011. This WAS SUCH a long process and it was so nerve wracking since schools didn't even start until August of 2012.

14 MONTHS LATER.

SO, here's how it goes down. Dental Schools will interview you first before they accept you. Then, December 1st is the first day that Dental Schools are allowed to accept you into their program. David's top picks of the 13 were:
1. University of Washington 2. Oregon Health and Science 3. University of Iowa

David interviewed at the University of Iowa first, then WesternU in California, and last was the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Really, we would be happy ANYWHERE so we were really excited that he got these interview invites. Out of the three, his first choice was of course, Iowa.

He was first accepted to WesternU, so we put two seperate deposits down and started apartment hunting. I was really nervous about this!! I really did NOT want to live in Southern California. It was a really sketchy place!!!!!!! I was prepared for it... but apprehensive to say the least (this apprehension may or may not have started growing once I checked the pedophiles website in the area. IT WAS COVERED!!!! there wasn't a single spot that didn't have one of those sketchy triangle-pictures-of-your-future-demise things.) So I was (silently) praying he would get accepted somewhere else.

David was put on the alternate list at Iowa. There were over 3000 applicants for just 80 seats. We kept checking in with the dean of admissions and slowly started seeing his name get closer and closer to the top. It was in May that we found out that he not only was accepted into their program, but would be receiving a scholarship of $15,000 a year! We were THRILLED!!! I was THRILLED. Especially since I knew Iowa had the same atmosphere as Rexburg. I LOVED REXBURG!! So even though this was across the country, I was excited that we would NOT be living amongst the criminals. (my chance of getting shot by a drive by was reduced significantly)

About 4 weeks before school began David got a mysterious phone call. He answered it and whispered "OHSU" to me. My heart DROPPED. What?!? School starts in a month - why are they calling? They had a seat open up and wanted to interview 3-4 more people for a spot. Without hesitation, he made the appointment for the interview. I mean, his SECOND choice! We drove on Friday and spent the night with his Aunt and Uncle in Portland. I had the weirdest feeling as we were driving through Portland on Friday. I didn't want to accept this weird feeling and didn't say anything to David about it. As we were laying in bed and David was thinking about his interview in the next morning, we were talking about how grateful we were that he had been accepted to Iowa, and that we had been so incredibly blessed. But, he had the same feelings that I had while we were in Portland.

He went to his interview and rocked it. (It's David, of course!) But as we were driving home he told me that it would cost us an additional $100,000 to attend. He prefaced that with "I will go wherever you want me to go." I feel so lucky to have a husband who cares about where I would be the happiest, even though it is his education. But, I couldn't do that. I couldn't knowingly get into that much more debt when it will already be SO much money. AND, I know that David really wanted to attend Iowa. The feeling he had at his interview in Iowa was so great that he knew that was were he wanted to go. We decided on our ride home that we would go to Iowa. (I secretly was hoping David wouldn't have been accepted to OHSU so we didn't even have the temptation.)

A couple days later they called him and told him he had been accepted. This was the hardest week for me. I cried and cried and cried. I cried because in my heart I knew that Iowa was the better choice, despite my wanting to live close to my family for the next four years... I just didn't want to accept it. I knew that the Lord wanted/needed us in Iowa. We waited a couple days before we declined the offer. Once David sent the offer to OHSU, I felt instant relief and a feeling of comfort. This was the right decision.

Iowa is were we will be for the next four years... SO, I must blog!!

THANK HEAVENS FOR SKYPE.

Goals

Goals. In relief society they talked about how we should be consistently working towards some sort of goal. A big goal that I have is to keep up on the blog. For my own purposes, as well as for my friends and family. Sooooooo.... here comes a lot of posts to update on EVERYTHING.

Where have I been??

Holy smokes it has been such a long time since I've posted anything!

Sorry bout that.

There have been lots of happenings in the Summers household this winter. We have been relaxing in Leavenworth and enjoying amazing scenes of powder covered trees and white glistening icicles coming off the rooftops! The biggest news that I have to offer is this:

David has been accepted to WesternU College of Dental Medicine!!

Where, oh where, is Western University?

Here:

Southern California!

We are really excited! We are going in the middle of March to look at apartments and find the right place for us. This has been such a great adventure and I am so proud of David. We are still thinking about the University of Iowa, though. It would be cheaper to live, safer, and be right next to the ROMRIELLS (who we love!).

Either way, we can't lose!!

Best part of this? I've never been to disneyland and the school is only 35 minutes away!!

There has been one drawback to living in Leavenworth... we are seriously couple depraved. We don't have any friends our age!!! We are dying!! BUT... wonderful news! Kelly and Tyler Hesselgesser are moving closer to us!! YAY!!!!