Received

I got my receipt yesterday from Baylor and they said I won't hear anything until February/March. Here we go. Lots of nothing for a while. Surely having a house on the market and subbing a lot will fill the emptiness. December will fly, January will be super slow but I need to be pushing Erik to do our taxes so I can fill out my FASFA. 5 months of subbing (maybe?) then 2 months of summer moving and dental school begins. Really wierd, huh?

Flossing

There are a few things in life that are very simple to do, good for you, and in the long run, cost effective, but for some reason SOOO hard to actually do. Flossing is one. Spending time with God, at least where I am right now, is another. It's strangely so hard to get back on the wagon (?) but once you're on, it's fun and you look forward to the ride. I've hopped on and off for a while now, but there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be in for the long haul. Don't get me wrong, I really do think about God a lot during the day and sing to Him and pray, but really, during the life changing moments it's stupid not to really be studying and reveling in every drop of the Word that I can. I want the skills I gain in dental school to be used for His kingdom and to keep that focus, I, well, need to focus. I have this routine of putting my nightguard in denture cleaner to soak and then hopping on the computer to update my blog, for example, and check the 5 or so other sites I routinely go to throughout the day. At least 20 minutes. There is no reason I should be doing this and then lament the fact that I'm just not in the Word. So. Nightguard cleaning time is now sacred...set apart...holy. I have plenty of time to update this stuff later.

I Accept!

I sent in my acceptance letter to Baylor today with my first tuition payment...a deposit of $200. Small beans. I also mailed my rejection to Houston...but I held on to my SA letter per Erik's request and, well, just a feeling that it's a good idea to always have a back-up. Maybe I should send in the deposit. I'd have to cross out the check on the "decline" box and recheck the "accept" box. That would be kinda tacky. Eh, who cares? :)

I took my 3rd and final biochemistry test tonight after cramming alllllllll day. Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle really stink. Good thing I get to do it again next year!

I spent some time tonight perusing through Facebook looking for fellow members of BCD class of 2011. There were actually a few out there with me who have claimed it so very early and posted it for all to see on their Facebook page. Kinda fun. So exciting to think about all the new faces and personalities I'll be spending 4 years with!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

We're going to Dallas. I cried, we hugged, we laughed enough to ease the tension. We shared some really important things and made plans to let Erik win. There's no real solution to our problem, but it's one of those things that will go away with time. Eventually, we will joke about it without hurting any feelings, but for now it's hard. And that doesn't spoil things, it's just how it is. So one step at a time, we will begin to make it a reality. Which is really bizarre. I mean REALLY. It's so hard to imagine any of this really happening. But I suppose that's how it is with all the really big things in life. It's hard to imagine, but then when it actually happens we marvel at how it's nothing like what we imagined.

Hat Trick!

The Evidence

Drum roll, please....

Dear Abby,

Congratulations!!!

Your offer letter is in the mail. If you have any questions, please email or call my office.

Happy Holidays!

--Dr. Barbara Miller

Baylor College of Dentistry

Texas A&M Health Science Center

Dallas, Texas

bmiller@bcd.tamhsc.edu

214-828-8231

Accepted to San Antonio!

The message on my answering machine says this:

"Abby, this is Dr. Thomas in San Antonio. I wanted to call and say congratulations! I've put something in the mail to you. The acceptance letter includes a scholarship offer. And I very much hope that you're thinking about coming to San Antonio for the next four years. Please call me back and let me know if you have any questions at all. Again, congratulations! Bye."

A scholarship offer! Those are hard to get! The Lord is good and making my decision complicated!!! ; ) I can't wait to see what the letter says and what the scholarship offer is for. I have NEVER received a scholarship from a SCHOOL. Oh my goodness. I'm on this really weird almost crying, overjoyed, stressed out, relieved high and I don't know what to do so I'm going to paint. And celebrate tonight when we go out to dinner with the Roeders and Moores! I guess Will's dad might be my professor after all!

Ugh.

2 Days! A guy in class tonight said that UTHSCSA sends out their letters at midnight 12/01, so maybe Saturday? Ok, 3 days. Baylor will probably be forever late - like the 8th. Who knows? Ugh.

Torture

I might have a letter or two one week from today. For now, I cower in the study at my in-laws avoiding Omi's constant rambling and my bad chess pie. I pray that tomorrow I can get out away from her most of the day. I really would be doing much better if we weren't living with her for three days. Ugh. Let me say it again...ugh. Once this marathon is over, Monday will bring the week of anticipation. At this point, it really is just torture. In every way imaginable. I join my fellow applicants in SDN as we experience what no one else understands and think about checking the mail on that fateful day. And then the next day, and then again on Monday, and then...

2 Weeks

Gosh! It's really starting to get close! Well, TMOM went very well. When I got there on Friday, no one from Mandy's office was there yet, and there wasn't anything for me to do, so they sent me off to have lunch and return for instructions. It was so busy and crazy and it looked like each doctor had an assistant, so I didn't know what I was in for. When I returned, I found Lisa standing in the hall by an xray machine and I said hello and smiled and asked if anyone else was here yet. She said it was just her and Amy. I asked if she had been told what to do/where to go and she said someone said they needed an xray, but she didn't know how to use it. We glanced at the really cool new portable xray and shrugged our shoulders. I told her I was going to go find the lady I talked to earlier and that I'd see her later. No Mandy, no Ramona. That wasn't so bad. Upon finding Dr. Zinser, I was taken over to Dr. Doerre's chair. He seemed really nice and I asked him to help me get acquainted with the equipment. We were mainly doing restorative, so I was set. He was really nice, and once I got used to the new materials and his way of doing things we were on a roll! We worked well past five, including a quadruple surgical extraction with the very fast and very demanding Dr. Smith and around 6:30 it was time for dinner. Since Erik was working late, I stayed and ate and chatted with Dr. Doerre, listened to his advice concerning a practice, insurance, getting patients, etc. He begged me to return in the morning and help him out, but I told him I just couldn't seeing I needed to clean the floor for Erik. See, I forgot that when Erik is gone, I can't sleep, so getting up at 6:30 was out of the question. When I arrived at noon, he had a very faithful predent from Houston there and I was out of luck considering that there were somewhere around 40 predents from Houston and San Antonio vying for an opportunity to assist. I roamed and observed for a while, and feeling pretty useless, starting looking for something to do. I found my fellow orchestra member, Sandy, filing, so I joined her. In the midst of alphabetizing charts, the data entry team needed someone with dental experience, so I learned the Patterson software and started charting away. When things died down, I went back to the clinic area and continued observing, chatting with the other predents and making runs for instruments/materials when necessary. Overall, it was a great two days.

I left that Sunday for Dallas to visit Baylor on Monday. The day went very well, and I got my questions answered. I feel good about it now. I hope I didn't put Dr. Miller out by asking to come, but it's like Dad says, they need to let people shadow like I did, and it's a good thing I maybe started something new there. Heck, I'll let people shadow me next year! So Erik and I have some talking to do in two weeks. Two weeks, that's all?