Robert's First Post

My disclaimer: This is my first experience blogging. Lindsay encouraged me to stretch myself and become a more well rounded man so here I go.

Med school has been amazing and overwhelming experience. I have enjoyed everything about it (cutting open cadavers, learning about diseases, and meeting patients). Although it can also be very overwhelming when I think about all the responsibility attached to the title of MD. I guess that is why I have about ten more years of training.
Life is very fulfilling when you are helping people, doing what you love, and being with who you love. Lindsay and I have spent some great times together and enjoy being out on our own. She is really incredible. I visited her school on Friday and realized how much disparity there is in NYC. People range from extremely rich to astronomically poor. Lindsay has decided to help bridge that gap through providing a quality education to underprivileged children in Brooklyn. The neighborhood around the school is rough to say the least. There are a lot of drug busts and gang shootings in the area but amongst all the signs of failure, Lindsay has a classroom full of children with hope.
It was a touching experience to go and meet her colleagues. It is great to see first hand that people can make a difference and give back to something greater than themselves.

Here are some pictures of our weekend (Mets game with some New York Friends, Lindsay's school)

Life in the Big Apple

We have lived here for a little over a month now it still hasn’t sunk in that we live in New York City and will be…. for 4 years! I guess it is because we have been too busy to notice. But so far, so good. This is what a normal day in the city looks like for me:

5:00 am- Alarm goes off
5:05 am- Second alarm goes off and I wake up
5:23 am- My devoted, supportive husband walks with me to the subway stop
5:25 am- We say good morning to our doorman and he replies every morning the same way “you two look way too happy for 5:30 in the morning!” and we give him a polite courtesy laugh.
5:33 am- I catch the express train to Brooklyn; if I miss this train I can kiss being on time goodbye
5:40 am- Open my current reading material and read, ready, and ready (currently reading: Nobody Don’t Love Nobody; story about an inner-city teacher.)
6:20 am- Switch to the “L” train where I am accompanied every morning by a crazy guy in all white who preaches to anyone that’ll listen. He is mad but occasionally has some insightful thoughts!!
6:25 am- Get off the train and walk as fast as my legs will move down one of the sketchiest neighborhoods in New York.
6:30 am- Teach my guts out.
5:00 pm- Look at my clock and can’t believe that the day is over and it is time to go home.
5:30 pm- Return home on the subway. It’s rush hour so massive amounts of people cram into each subway car. I am entertained by peoples’ conversations… usually about politics or…. Politics.
6:30 pm- Cook dinner… yeah you read correctly… I COOK!!!
7:30 pm- Robert comes home and we usually go work and a maybe a
-walk through central park
8:30 pm- sit in my favorite chair by the window overlooking the Hudson and debrief
9:00 pm- Shower and go to bed

The weeks go by extremely fast. Robert and I both love what we are doing. He is really busy with studying and is getting involved in free clinics, research, shadowing doctors and is actually playing a little Columbia rugby. We don’t see each other much during the week but savor the weekends and the time we do spend together. It is a good time in life for both of us and we are enjoying the adventures of chasing our dreams and being on our own. We have met some amazing people that will most likely by life long friends.

Here are some pictures of out weekend endeavors :

Robert cooking me dinner



Hanging out at Central Park




This was at Jones Beach on Long Island over Labor day. It is only an hour train ride from our house and it was a beautiful beach. The waves were huge and Robert was lovin' life! We were excited to find such a great beach and so close to where we live!

NYC

This week was busy! Robert was busy with his first week of orientation and Robert's parents came out for his white coat ceremony! Columbia rented out a boat and took all the students and wives around Manhattan! We had fun dancing and getting to know everyone.
I also had a great time at a baseball game on Coney Island. My principal took all the teachers as a team building activity! We stuffed our faces with the famous Nathan's Hot Dogs. I really really like the people I work with. We all get along really well and have lots of fun together.
It was a lot of fun to have Jon and Denice come stay with us. We went all around NYC and saw a Broadway play. Denice cooked us a REAL meal....it has been awhile!We are sad that the trip was so short but are excited that we were able to see them!

We Heart New York!!

My knight in shining armor showed up this weekend driving a Pensky truck! He was a little shaken from a 36 hour drive but I have never been so happy to see someone! We moved in and spent all weekend making our apartment a home!! We LOVE our place and still can't get over the beautiful view we have. We are excited for our adventures but still have movements when we think "what the heck did we just do?" :) Here are some pics of our new place:
Before:


After:

Happy Birthday to My Sisters!!!

Tomorrow is my little sisters birthday! Happy birthday Taren. The big 23! I love you and hope you have a beautiful day! Also a shout out to my sister inlaws Sarah and Stephanie... they also have August birthdays! I love you girls and am so blessed to have such amazing sisters in my life!
!

The Lonely Girl!!

Last Sunday I left for training for my new job in New Haven, CT. It has been a long but wonderful week. I fell in love with my job and the school I will be teaching at. They have my same values of closing the achievement gap and have accomplished some amazing things at their schools! I am excited to be part of their team. I will be working with some very accomplished teachers. I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do to keep up with them. Students from Yale started Achievement First therefore we had our training on Yale’s campus. It is the most beautiful campus.

I am now in Brooklyn where I will start my second week of training. I am missing Robert badly but I decided to make the most of this weekend. I ventured out and walked around time square. I passed a movie theater and saw the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants2 ad and decided that if I wanted to see it now was the time because there was no way Robert would let me drag him to it (usually I see chick flicks with my mom and sisters). I have never been to a movie by myself before but found the experience invigorating. I LOVED the movie, it reminded me of all my best friends. It made me laugh out loud and cry… which was a little weird because I was alone!

Then came the shopping!! I found an H & M… or should I say it found me!! I did some damage to the bank account but am going to justify it because I have a new strict dress code at my work! I miss my family already but am just going to watch a little Olympics and live up the New York life.

Our Bucket List for Utah!!

Who knows how long it will be until we live in Utah again... that's if we ever do live in Utah again. So Robert and I made a bucket list for Utah. We have been busy the last week trying to complete all the things on our list.
Some things on our bucket list:
Spend time with family
Hold baby Hailey
Hiking
Camping
4 Wheeling
Swimming
Star Gazing
Snow Cones

Some pictures from our bucket list:
Hiking
Visiting with my great grandma and uncle
Holding Hailey
Hanging out with my BFFs
Sleeping on the tramp with Julia (Chubby Bunny Contest)