So soon, and not soon enough!

It is difficult to believe that Robb and I will be married in 26 days and that I just started my 9th Trimester at Logan (9/10!). We thought our engagement would feel rushed since we only had 6 months, but it has taken a surprisingly long time. Now we are one month away and I've got nothing left to do really, except wait (and I'm not very good at that!). School is going by quickly as well. Although I am in the middle of Tri 8 finals week we have already started Tri 9 clinic. I have a limited number of patients currently, so I am keeping myself busy here by blogging to avoid studying. It's not like a medical clinic where you can just hang up a sign and the appointment book fills up - we have to recruit. I wish school was closer to home so that I could get you folks to come, but I guess this is good practice for me. I will be working here until December when I graduate. By then I need to recruit and treat quite a few more patients and be here for an un-Godly amount of hours. Luckily we don't take classes in Tri 10, so that lightens the load a bit. I've been making excuses for 4 months now saying, well Ill try to get patients after I settle in at clinic, or after Boards, or after Easter, or after finals, or after the wedding/honeymoon. Those are all valid excuses, but once May comes, I'll be all out of them. Imagine if you had to give health talks, do screenings, or go door to door in search of people to come to your place of business. It is weird and uncomfortable. I love chiropractic, but marketing is now my forte. Oh well - it's not going to get any easier when we move to Oregon and I start my own practice. Enough ranting...what have you folks been up to??

Bridal Shower

Earl's Island Pavilion

Bridal Shower

Here is a picture from my bridal shower. Thank you to everyone who attended. I had a great time and it was great to see you all again! The wedding is going to be here before I know it. A six month engagement seems even shorter when you stuff Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Tri 8, Clinic, Board Exams, Easter, a church retreat and Finals in it! We are getting our invitations on Wednesday, so I can't wait to get them out to everyone! All of the plans are coming along great. We have all the contracts in order, so all I need to do it manage the final payments and tie up some loose ends. Mom and Grandma are taking care of the Ohio reception and Robb's Mom and Dad are planning the Oregon reception, so that takes a lot of work off my hands. The Ohio reception is going to be on May 24th - the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. It works out really well for us, but a lot of people already have plans made for that weekend, so we'll see. We are inviting about 100 people to attend and we are having it at a pavilion on our lake. I got my reception dress the other day. I ordered it online from Maui and it is great. Somehow I ordered myself an X-Small (which is rediculous! My computer must have scrolled when I meant to roll up the page or something). By the time I realized it the dress had left Hawaii, so I didn't open it and sent it back. The guy sent me a large on Friday and I tried it on and thought it was great. I ate Chipotle for lunch and was feeling fat when I tried it on later and realized that it was infact a medium, so it is again going back to Hawaii in exchange for the proper size. Other than that, things have been running smoothly. I bought my shoes and stamps this week, so I'm ready to go. I can't wait...74 days to go!

Crutches and a cast!

I had a really long version of this story, but then it spontaneously disappeared, so this is the shorter version...

On Saturday my rommate and I went sledding on inner tubes and had a great time, so Sunday I insisted that Robb join me. We had an awesome snowstorm this weekend, and we went to 3 different stores to find sleds, but settled on inner tubes, because sleds were all sold out.

I went down this awesome hill with trees on both sides, a bump at the bottom and a tree line soon after. It was so fun that I insisted that Robb try it too. He agreed and said he'd follow me down. I hit the bump, was thrown from the sled and rolled about 10 feet before hearing him yelling and coming down right after me. I tried to get up and run, but he was coming down too fast and backwards, and before I knew it, his legs clipped mine and I was in a heap on the ground. We hobbled home and had my roommate look at it. robb and I went to 5 different Walgreens before finding crutches for a 5'7" person.

Monday I went to school and my not-so-gentle professor/chiropractor assessed the damages. He also did a very painful procedure to repostion my meniscus. I ended up with a grade 2 sprain of my MCL, a torn meniscus, and a strained hamstring. A whole group of my classmates gathered around to soak up the learning experience and they all helped cast my leg from thigh to calf. Then another classmate cut it off with a bone saw in two places. This is so that i can slide my leg out for showers and daily physical therapy. I'll definitly be on crutches for a week, and hopefully after that I'll be able to hobble to Oregon for Christmas with the Heppners.

Robb feels terrible, but I guess it's best that way, so that I don't feel guilty for asking him to bring me stuff every 10 minutes. this isn't exactly how I pictured my Christmas break, but it is definitly one I won't forget!!

Bridal Shower?

Unfortunatly, I won't be home for Christmas/New Years, so I won't be attending a Reba Reunion if there is one. I am considering having a Bluffton Bridal Shower/get together in February on President's Day weekend though (Feb. 16th). Would you be available to come? Would it be easier for you if it was in Ft. Loramie or Bluffton?

Update: Finals week. Enough said.

The Ring

This is what my ring looks like! I love it! I'm not getting a wedding band because I think it is pretty enough already. All you Blufftonites are invited to come to Hawaii if you would like, just please let me know soon so that I can get you the details. The Ohio reception will not be on May 18th anymore. We aren't sure when it will be, but it will be later, either late May or early June. If you've moved recently, I might need you to send your addresses again. I'll let you know.

ENGAGED!!!

That's right folks - Robb and I are engaged! On Thursday night he took me out to dinner and then back to his house where he had candles and roses and champagne all set up. It was all very romatic and I cried and of course said YES! The ring is gorgeous! My computer has been broken for months now, so I'm not sure how to get you all pictures, but I will find a way. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we plan to get married on May 10th of 2008 (six months!) in Hawai'i. You are all invited to the ceremony if you wish, but we will also be having a reception in Ohio (likely Sunday, May 18th).
I'm sorry that it took so long to write this blog, but my friend Aaron Fisher flew in from Ohio to visit for this weekend, so I haven't planned anything yet. I will keep you all informed as I know more. YEAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grandpa

Last night my grandpa (the one you all knew from our Florida trip) passed away. He had a heart attack Monday night and there wasn't much that could be done after that except wait. He has had Alzheimer's for a long time and we knew that his heart was bad, but the anaethesia needed for surgery to fix it would have worsened his alzheimer's, so he decided about a year ago that he'd rather not have the surgery and just live out his life at home. My whole family was there when it happened (except me and Joe). I'm going home this weekend for the funeral.

Other than that I've been busy as usual. I'm still taking an un-Godly number of classes (13!) and now I work in the student clinic after school too. We are in the midst of midterms, which are never fun, but clinic is going really well. I really like it and my patients are awesome! In January I will be working in the outpatient clinic where I will have to recruit my own patients in the community. Once I get enough patients, adjustments, and hours put in there I will be able to do different internships in the area. It almost feels like I'm a real Dr. already! I love it!

Break!!

I'm finally getting my summer break just as everyone else is headed back to school. Tri 6 went quickley and in a few weeks I'll be started Tri 7, and that means it's time for CLINIC!!! I'm so excited! We start off by taking a huge test pretty much on everything we've learned to see if we are competent enough for clinic. Then we are given a handful of underclassmen as patients. We are allowed to recuit our own patients as well, but only upperclassmen, spouses or kids of Logan students. The clinic is 100% free, but no one is obligated to be a patient, so if we do a bad job or they are just not inspired to come, we loose them AND the adjustments that we should be giving them, which will add up to the 200 we need by graduation...not to mention the poor quality of life they will have as a result of neglecting their spine and nervous system year after year. I've been practicing on everyone I can get my hands on for the last 2 years, so hopefully, I will be a good chiropractor and they will love me and bring their entire family to be adjusted. I can hope at least!

This break has been enjoyable already. On Thursday I went to a business sucess motivational seminar called "Get Motivated!". I heard a bunch of great speakers like George Foreman, Zig Ziglar and Colin Powell. I'm a big Zig fan now. I was supposed to have a CORE retreat this weekend, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to low attendance. Instead I spent the weekend with Robb and we went to see one of his friends' band (Spotting Waldo) play at a bar. It was fun.

Sunday we went to a church that we heard was awesome because it has a fog machine. That Sunday they had no fog and we were disappointed. We recognised the pastor from those TV commercials about Jesus. That was pretty cool. He made everyone hold thier crackers and shots of grape juice for literally 15 minutes though, so that was annoying. It was a nice service that inspired me to be more excited about reading the Bible, so it was good overall. Then I said goodbye to Robb (he has to work this week) and drove to Ohio, but insted of going home I went to Columbus to visit my friend Aaron from High school. I was planning on only staying sunday night, but he conned me into staying an extra night by getting Clippers tickets for Dime a Dog night. 10 hotdogs and $1 later the game was rained out, so we headed back to watch TV.

Now I'm back home at the cottage and I'm going out with Dad for supper tonight. I always let Mom have dibs on 1st night, and Dad gets 2nd night, but since Aaron kept me in C-bus for 1st night, Dad still had 2nd night, which seemed like 1st night, and now Mom got rescheduled to 3rd night and she's not so happy about it because even though it's really only 2nd night, she doesn't like getting 2nd. Oh, the drama!

Either way, Tony Monnin (my second cousin) is getting married on Saturday and my nephew, Max's 2nd birthday is on Sunday. Generally I don't get invited to 2nd cousins' weddings, but since he is in my class at Logan ironically, I do. It's amusing to me that 2 people with the same great grandparents can live 15 minutes apart their whole lives and never speak until they move to St. Louis and decided to be chiropractors at the same school at the same moment. How random is that??

Finals Week

It's finals week again as I wrap up my Tri 6 summer courses (all 13 of them). Our practical exams are all finished, so now all we have is written exams, which won't be terribly difficult, especially since I just studied for all the practicals last week. Right now I have 1 done and 10 to go. WooHoo! Speaking of "woohoo", did I mention I am 1 month away from clinic!! White coat - here I come!

Even though the get-together fell through, I'm going home this weekend to see my brother. I haven't seen him since Christmas because he lives in Connecticut attending Hartford Conservatory of Music. He's 21 now, which is hard to beleive. Robb is coming home with me now that he won't have to hang out with the ladies all weekend. lol I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not sure why I always go home during finals when I should be studying, but it works for me. Sometimes it is good to get away and see the bigger picture. Life is so much more than school or chiropractic. As much as I love my profession, that's not the only reason why God put me on this planet.

Thank you all for your input about the children. I really do appreciate it. It is so much easier to avoid talking about because Robb and I don't get upset that way, but this postponing the engagement/wedding crap has to end sometime! We really like going to church together. I love the challenging messages and awesome praise and worship at his church and he likes the way my church gives you a lot of time to reflect and meditate. If we both could get it in our heads that we aren't trying to convert the other one all the time and we are just trying to bring the other to Christ in the only way that we know, I think things would mesh a lot better. He is the bee's knees to me, and I'm smitten, and I couldn't imagine any other alternative besides working this out together. :)

Blogging Maniac

Watch out ladies - I've become a blogging maniac. I've been so terrible at blogging this year, so I intend to make up for it. I don't have much new to say, and certainly nothing as exciting as Abby S's news.

Last weekend Kate, Randy, and Max came to visit. They flew in from Detroit on Friday, so I skipped class to pick them up. We toured the Arch (the day before it broke down stranding hundreds in the capsules!!), and Grants Farm and the Brewery. Robb joined us for supper and Ted Drewes custard afterwards. They all stayed at my apartment and enjoyed having a personal tour guide of the city. Max has learned a new trick. Not only can he say "abby", but every time he does he grabs his back and acts like he is in pain (either from chiropractic or he's in need of chiropractic). Then his dad laughs hysterically and Max gets the cutest little ornery grin on his face. He has been trained to be rotten and he doesn't even know it! We all had a good weekend and then they flew back home on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have tickets to the Cardinals game. I'm actually going to go on the field and sing God Bless America at the game (with 50 other people from church). Robb is going with me, but not singing. Actually, he has to close tomorrow at work, so he'll probably miss the singing part and the 1st inning. They are playing the Brewers, so they will probably loose, but Cards games are fun either way. 24 oz. beers for $8 - who can beat that...OK, pretty much anywhere can beat that price, but the atmosphere makes it worth it!

Robb and I are still at a loss about what to do with our kids. We talked with a priest last week hoping to get some words of wisdom, but instead just got, "Yup, the rules say you have to raise them Catholic". We are still praying about it. This will be my last weekend singing with the youth band at mass. That way Robb and I will be able to attend both his church's service and my mass together. I think that is what we need right now. It's hard to quit singing because I love it so much, but we are getting nowhere trying to live our faith lives seperately. Please pray for us, because we aren't getting engaged until we figure this out.

Alright, I should go to lunch now. Have a good day ladies!!

The Dirty Roommate

Remember that one time at Bluffton when Reba found maggots all over her room because of Ruth's food? Sadly, we too have been having bug problems. It started on the 4th of July with our BBQ and we had all these gnats afterwards. We figured it was because we had tons of leftovers on the counter. As we ate the food, the gnats weren't leaving, so we cleaned the counters. That didn't help. So we cleaned the sink and garbage disposal. That didn't help. We emptied the trash daily. That didn't help. I kept assuming my roommates were dirty and leaving nasty stuff in the house. One day I was making soup and I opened a sealed package of saltines and to my surprise found a little white worm crawling out through the holes at me. It was awful and I nearly puked. My crackers were infested. I looked in my cupboard and realized that there were a LOT of things infested. (Including a year-old box of crutons that Robb likes to snack on!) The more I looked, the more I found. We have a nasty popcorn ceiling and they were everywhere hiding up there. I threw out all of my food and cleaned everything with Clorox wipes, and now the gnat population is much smaller. They aren't gone yet, so I'm still super paranoid, but I think the worst of it is over. But now I'M THE DIRTY ROOMMATE!

A day in the life of Abby

Yesterday I woke up at appoximately 6:30 and took a shower. I slept through morning prayer with my roommate, but the need for extra sleep covered over the usual guilt. I didn't have time to dry my hair, so I went with the wet, semi wavy but not curly look. I ate some Ritz crakers in the car for breakfast. I attended 2 hours of lecture about the abdomen and 2 hours of lecture on X-Rays. It was dull and I fell asleep periodically, all the while studying for an exam later in the day. During lunch I went to a meeting of the Christian Chiropractic Club where we listened to a sermon that was awesome. I had leftover chicken, potatoes, and green beans for lunch. the sermon was all about how much we need God in our lives and as much as that makes a person feel unworthy and pathetic, it was needed. I went to an hour of eyes, ears, nose and throat lecture and finished up memorizing the procedure for abdomen and heart exams. After that I got gowned up and performed the abdomen exam on a classmate of mine and I missed 2 points for forgetting rebound tenderness and hand placement while examing the spleen. She examined my heart perfectly. After that I went home to talk to God and think about the sermon i heard. It was so good. then I slept for 3 hours until Robb came over and woke me up, told me how cute I am when I'm sleepy because I dont' talk back, and then we went out for pizza. Pizarellis is disgusting - a guy was picking under his nails with a fork right on the pizza making surface in front of us, but darn that is good pizza! While we waited we left and went to shoe carnival. I bought 2 pairs of shoes for clinic (in less than 5 minutes) and spend $60. After eating our pizza we returned to my apartment and watch a bit of "don't forget the lyrics. The girl was an awful singer! then robb couldn't stand it so he went home and I watched Greys and Brothers and Sisters on my computer for 3 hours while I wrote letters to Reba, Joseph - my Bangla pen-friend, and Harriet - from Uganda. I fell asleep at 12:00 and set my alarm for 5:30 AM for mass. No wonder why I sleep in class. How was your day?

Visit to Ohio

Thursday and Friday of this week was Homecoming at Logan, and since the hours of seminars didn't really excite me too much I decided to go home to Ohio for the weekend. Robb had a job interview, so I went home by myself. It is so nice to be home! I had almost forgotten how gorgeous it is out here at the lake with the sun shining, the flowers blooming and the birds chirping. I got to hang out with Mom, G-ma and G-pa, Dad and tomorrow I'm going to visit Kate, Randy, and Max. It has been so nice to just relax and forget about school and all that craziness and just think for a while. I love my life in St. Louis, but it is so nice to slow down a bit sometimes.
Your blogs are all so interesting to read! Reba, you'd better feel better soon! I just took a test over ears and from the little detail you've given maybe you had a middle ear infection (AOM), which finally caused your eardrum to rupture (hense the hurting, followed by draining and decreased hearing). If that is the case, the antibiotics should help and your eardrum should repair itself in time.
And can I just say that I LOVE LAURA'S NEW SWIMMING SUIT!!! HAHA - I'M NOT LAST THIS TIME!

Random Pictures

It's about time!!!

I'm so sorry it has been so long! I don't want to be one of those friends who falls off the face of the earth, but it seems that I keep proving myself to be just that! Ahhhh! So a lot has happened since I last blogged, so I'll fill you in...bear with me...
Robb moved!!! It has really been wonderful having him here. It definitly makes it that much harder to study, but I'm still pulling through. He got a job within the first week of being here, and we both really thought it would be a great opportunity, but it turned out crappy. What they failed to mention was that if he wanted to make any money he would have to travel out of state about every other week. That sort of defeated the purpose of him moving, so he started looking for a new job again. I know this is awful to say, but it's been really wonderful with him being unemployed. I've been on break for the last 2 1/2 weeks and we get to hang out everyday and eat together and play frisbee golf (it's our new hobby). He is working hard going to interviews and doing applications and everything too, but it is nice to enjoy our free time together. It has been a rough month and a half of dissappointments, but this week was really great and we prayed really hard and now he's got 3 really good opportunities to choose from!! God is so good like that! He hasn't decided which one to choose yet, but I'll update when he decides.
As for school...I passed the 1st round of Board exams and I just hit the half-way mark, so that is really exciting. I'll be the doctor of 1 patient this term and come this fall I'll be responsible for about 5 strangers/underclassmen in the clinic and then the last year is off campus at satallite clinics and then the last Trimester I can do it where ever I want...maybe Oregon? Who knows?!
Church is busier than ever. Our youth ministry put on a huge retreat in March where we get the 8th graders excited about Jesus and invite them to join our high school youth ministry program. We had 140 eight graders, 65 Freshmen and sophomores and 25 juniors and seniors in attendance with only about 10 adults. As if that wasn't rediculous enough, we run a separate retreat concurrently for the freshman and sophomores who have already been through it and are ready for a beefier message. It was awesome and God was definitly glorified though the chaos. Now our ministry has increased substantially and we can't fit in our house anymore. In addition, we have started using Facebook a lot, since the teens don't bother with e-mail anymore, so I just got on that and I think it will take about a year of non-stop friending and searching to be even remotely effective at keeping up with them. Plus, in the summer we tend to do more activities, since the teens aren't in school, but I still am, so it makes it difficult. Enough with my whinning - youth ministry is great and you all should do it - the rewards are incredible and you have no idea how big of an impact you are making on the next generation!!
My family is doing well. Max is getting so big!! Our cat died about 2 weeks ago. He was about 25 years old, which is nearly a record for cats.
That's about it for me. I'm sure there is more, but I'm sure you are tired of reading. I'll try to post some pictures soon. Robb and I have been trying to take a good picture for months, but we are awful at it!!! In every one we either look like stoners or we look obese...today we had the revelation that maybe we look that way because we are, but I don't want to admit that that might be true. I hope you all are doing well!!!

Furniture

11 days and counting!!!

This past week I set out to furnish Robb's apartment for him. My new favorite website is Craig's List.com. They have a page for all the big cities and it's like the best of the classified ads and Goodwill all in one! I found a queen sized bed, a desk, and a few other necessary items for great prices in the area. Now all these treasures are being stored in my kitchen until March 1st. (My roommates are such good sports!) I'm still looking for a dresser, but until the actual moving day and without a truck on hand I can't do much more than just wait...and try to do as much school-work now as possible, because I surely won't be interested in studying when he arrives!

Keep praying for us...this is going to be a huge step for us!

Further developments...

Robb has really been working hard to prepare for the big move. All in the last week and a half he has sold both of his cars and bought a new Honda civic (ok, not brand new, but new to him). He also made an agreement with his cousin Chad about all the furniture in the aprtment, so it is all taken care of! I found him an apartment with my classmate Ben, who is a great Christian guy who just happens to live about 3 blocks from my house (and about 1 block from my church). Could this get any better???? Oh, did I mention he also will have a pool? Yay!!!!!

19 days and counting...

HE'S MOVING!!!!!

ROBB IS MOVING TO ST. LOUIS MARCH 1st!!! I'm still in shock myself actually. We've talked about this possibility for about a year and it is finally happening! We (mostly he) still has a lot of stuff to figure out, but it is really going to happen - he gave his notice to work today! He still has 2 cars and a lot of furniture to sell, he needs to buy a new car and last of all, a new job here would be nice too! I'm going to find him a place to live (not with me, of course) and a new bed, etc. I can't wait! It is always wonderful to see him, but this is about 1000X as exciting!

If you all wouldn't mind praying for us this month as we prepare for this, we would both really appreciate it!