Test time again

Well, it's about that time. William has a test every three-four weeks so when it comes down to the actual week of the test he has to study like a mad man. He got behind a little because of the white coat ceremony and all of our families being here so he had to work really hard this past weekend to get back on track. Saturday he studied at the hospital while I worked and then we went to his favorite place: IHOP! He came back to the house to study all night while I met Lauryn and her mom in Statesville (where her brother goes to school). We were able to make a trip to the wonderful world of IKEA. I found so much cute stuff that I want for our house and for our wedding reception! Here is a picture of the outside--once we got inside I was overwhelemed and had no energy for pictures, lol. I could buy everything in there or just spend 3 days looking at everything.

We also went to the Concord Mills Mall and I want to go back there also! It was a great time and I'm so glad I could have the familiarity of home with Lauryn and her mom! PLUS, we always have a good laugh :)

Sunday I helped William study all day and while he worked at the hospital I went to get us registered at another store but the scanners were not working so I will have to try again! We're wokring hard and studying hard this week and William takes his last test of the anatomy block friday. He is SOO VERY excited. Next Friday he will have a final and then the first week of November he will have his community practice experience. He has been assigned to Elizabeth City, which is about 5 hours from our house here in Winston, but I think he will learn a lot!

As a complete sidenote: We love when Charlie comes to visit us and here is a sweet picture from the white coat weekend when she was here:

White Coat Weekend

This weekend was so great that we were actually pretty sad when it all ended. Friday William was in school till about 5:00 and I also had to work. As soon as we were done, we ran and got William a haircut, and then came back to make last minute cleaning adjustments! My aunt, cousin, and grandma got here around 6:30 and we went and ate dinner at the lonestar (and it was probably the best steak I have ever had). We came back and hung out, looked at pictures, etc and went to bed because we had to get up at the crack of dawn for william's ceremony. He had to be there at 8:30 on saturday morning so our family that came in that morning had to leave their houses at 6:00am! What dedication that was! The ceremony was absolutely perfect. They gave some history of the school, one speaker talked about the medical profession, and then they actually got their white coats. Here are some pictures:

It's almost William's turn: He was color coordinated so well with a wake forest tie!

William getting his white coat!

And some family pictures afterwards:

My aunt, cousin, and grandma, along with William's family left Satruday afternoon. We stopped by the mall with them before they left which is always fun! My parents stayed the night and sunday after we got up, ate breakfast, and lounged around, we grabbed lunch and took it out to salem lake. After we ate lunch and walked around a bit, Mom and dad left and William and I went on the longest walk we've ever been on. We walked the trail around the lake which is multiple miles long. Needless to say, we were dead when we were done. Here are some pictures from the lake:

It was a beautiful walk, and we ended up being out there for like 4 hours, then we ran regular errands like the grocery store and came home. We had such a great time this weekend and we're actually feeling kind of bummed that we have to return to reality. My parents brought us some stuff, William's parents gave him a new watch and they brought me lots of birthday presents, we went out to eat a few times, and we just had a blast sharing where we live with our families!

FINALLY some relief

As you all know the last couple of weeks have been difficult times with everything we had going on. This past weekend was the weekend after a test which means that I get William all to myself and I don't have to share him with medical school studies. LOL We both needed this weekend to recover so it was SO nice!

Friday night we cooked dinner and went to the gym here at the apartment. I also progressed in wedding planning! Saturday during the day I had to work and William got to go the hospital and see his first autopsy. If you're like me that grosses you out but he LOVES it. He is really leaning toward becoming a forensic pathologist. If you get a chance to hear his stories they are really neat...a little gruesome but neat. ;-) Saturday afternoon we went for a walk on the greenway that runs behind our apartment. We're not sure exactly how long it is or where it eventually ends but we walked 5 miles of it and then came back for some pizza...terrible, we know. Here's one view as we were walking:

Sunday morning we got up and tried a new church which we really liked and we found out that a lot of people from the hospital go there. Here's a pic of us before we left:

We came back home and ate lunch, took a nap, and my favorite part of the weekend: We did our first registry at bed bath and beyond! It was SO much fun. I took my camera to capture some moments but I was too busy with clipboards and color schemes and chasing william down to stop him from adding one of everything to the list. :)

This coming weekend is his white coat ceremony so we have a lot of family coming in. He is SO excited so it should be great!