Pomp and Circumstance

We graduated!!!  How lovely.  April 6, 2012 right on time.  It was great to finally be wearing those black robes and hats and all....but not as great and finishing my last FINAL!!! (It was in physics, in case you were wondering)

We sat by our good friends Levi and Ally Daugherty.  He and Austin completed many of their pre-med classes together, did research together, grew mustaches   All things manly men do.  Now they are off to Alaska and will be applying for med school as well! Good luck, fellas!

Our parents and siblings came up to celebrate with us.  I love having family bustling around, using each others curling irons, chatting and such. My mom made a beautiful red dress for me and Mary gave me pearls from her trip in the Philippines.  

But best of all, Austin graduated Cum Laude!   What a smartie-pants.  I'm so proud of him!

This was the only pic I could find that had family in it...I'm sure Lowell has more I can peruse later

Que Sera, Sera

Austin likes to randomly create these video journal entries and I think they are incredibly endearing.  It reminds me of my Grandpa Sara (prounced Sera...like the song) who passed away in 2010.  He filmed everything; Christmas, birthdays, pulling teeth (he was the family's unofficial dentist and paid handsomely), Fourth of July, you name it.

I miss my Grandpa.  He came from New York, his parents where straight off the boat from Italy, and grew up Catholic.  He ran away from home and joined the military when he was 18.  Met my grandmother while at Hill Airforce Base, decided to join the church while he was over seas.  He lived a wonderful life.  He loved technology, four wheeling, traveling, John Wayne movies, Popsicles, and grandkids.  Our birthdays were a few days apart. Mom doesn't think so, but I know we share the same Italian (very Italian) nose.  The song "Que Sera, Sera" meaning "Whatever will be, will be" reminds me of him.

Whelp, that was a tangent :)  Here's the video Austin made. You can tell we've lived in the desert all our lives, the rain makes us giddy.  Don't mind the kissing.  It's what we do.

I should have been an English major

The focus of our lives the past several months (er...years) has been to get Austin into med school.  The routine for entry essays goes something like this:

1.  Austin writes first draft

2.  Heidi critiques.  Not to mince words, I tear it apart. 

3.  Re-write, rip apart, repeat (we have done over 50 essays this way)

I like our system.  If Austin is having a hard time coming up with "What has been your most challenging moment in your entire existence?" (In 1,000 words or less) I write up a rough draft and he changes it.  I'm glad we can tag team.  I always want to be his go to gal.  

One key factor we have found (to all you married couples applying for med school) is that I can not tell him to his face what needs to be changed.  Feathers get a little too ruffled that way and personally I prefer to keep my marriage intact.  We use the comment option in Word.  It makes it a little less personal that way.  You're welcome for that free advice. 

All in all Austin is actually incredibly good at taking criticism.  And I am incredibly good at being totally honest with him.  So we're a good match. 

THE list.  We made deadlines for ourselves to have all these primary and secondary applications in by their respective dates.  DONE!

So far in the running:

Des Monies: Requested an interview

University of Colorado: Requested an interview

University of Utah: Requested an interview

John Hopkins: Pending

Unfathomable: Without Fathom

I have 6 months of serious blog catch up to do; internships, med school, vacations, other related awesomeness to document.  To the day in fact.  My last post was March 28h.  But, I do not feel eloquent or witty today...or for the past 6 months come to think of it.

Except for the fact that I have a strong desire to quote Megamind today, which is incredibly comical in our house and gets Austin to laugh every time,  there is little creative energy happenin' here.

I know that after I post this I will desire to write again.  And so, in an effort to reverse psychologize myself I am posting this.

Awesome and more descriptive posts coming soon.