A Joyful July

I cannot believe that June is in the past and the days of summer are quickly coming to an end. Even though it is barely the middle of the month, we have already accomplished so much! Here are the highlights:

Visitors...The day before July 4th, my mother-in-law drove 11 hours to spend the week with us. We spent the 4th at church, shopping, and eating burgers with homeade fries. We had an early night because the next morning we went....

Canoeing...About twenty people from our house church (ages 5-53) spent the day on the Buffalo River. It just so happened to be Phyllis' birthday, and she experienced her first time canoeing! We had a hostess cupcake that we lit with candles and everyone sang happy birthday to her when we stopped for lunch. Who could want more than that?

The river was absolutely gorgeous!! I didn't want to risk flipping our canoe and ruining my camera (and we almost did just that if Phyllis hadn't saved the day) so I have no pictures. :( The boys, and two brave girls (NOT me), jumped off of some bluffs that were in the 60 ft. range. I did join in for the rope swing which was a lot of fun. Each of the six kids were thrown into a canoe, so almost all of them had 3 people a piece. It was a 10 mile journey and we were quite warn out when we finished. Afterwards we all stopped for a mexican dinner and then some Sonic ice cream. The perfect day. And Happy Birthday, Phyllis, thanks for being willing to put your life on the line in a canoe with me on your birthday, and thanks for being a wonderful mother-in-law!

Window Treatments: The day after canoeing, Randy had his first day of school as a D3. Us girls went to work making window treatments for the new home. On tap was a permanent shade to go over the glass of our front door and also some fabulous curtain panels for the dining room. You'll have to wait to see pictures, but they are the perfect mix between girly-hippie-neutral-and-earthy...which probably makes absolutely no sense.

White Coat Ceremony: The main reason for the trip to Memphis was for Randy's white coat ceremony. His dad flew in from Alaska to join us, and my parents drove in from Nashville. We had a home-cooked meal at the apartment together and ate the rest of Phyllis' birthday cake (I didn't let the hostess cupcake be her only birthday cake, but made a real, sugary, yummy chocolate cake mid-week) Friday morning was the ceremony and I have it somewhat documented in pictures. Bottom line is this...Randy is now Student Doctor Randy Hartman. I know he hates recognition, but for all the hard work he has put in to get to this point, he deserves much more than a white coat. To him, the real reward will be that he now gets to work on patients. (We have cards to give out and make appointments, so let me know if you need any work done)...

Shaking hands with the deans after just getting his white coat.

University of Tennessee Dental Class of 2012...all 76 of them.

Close-up to find Randy.

Yay! So proud of him!..oh, and Amber cut my hair in July, too :)

Randy with his mom and dad.

Randy and I with my parents.

There he is...unwilling to look or smile for a camera.

Our dear Memphis friends, Josh and Amanda.

Matt, Josh, Tim, Patrick, and Randy...these guys have been through a lot together.

And now here they are with the women who have gotten them to this point.

Ceremony brunch time.

Candid...something was funny I guess.

Family portrait...doesn't Jack look thrilled for Randy's big day?

Mother and son.

Typical Randy face.

Good Food: One great thing about having guests is that you always eat good food. We had both Central and Rendezvous for the barbeque fix, but the best by far was Jerry's Sno Cones. As we were driving them all there, we could see on their faces that they were a little worried. However, we pulled up to the hot pink stand and found crowds of people already waiting. Our guests were extremely satisfied with their delicious treat...who knew snow cones could be so good?

This picture is for you, Kelsa, they have their Where The Locals Eat sticker up!!

Ab.so.lute.ly De.lic.ious!

I guess my mom was a little shy of her blue tongue, but the rest of us are proud!

Touristing: To end the trip, we did two, no three!, of the most touristy things in Memphis...saw the Peabody ducks, walked up and down Beale Street, and ate barbeque ribs at Rendezvous. Trip to Memphis complete.

2 Year Anniversary: This past Monday, July 12, Randy and I celebrated two years of married life! So much has happened in two years, yet it seems impossible for that much time to have gone by. If anyone had told me several years ago that I would be married to a dental student (excuse me, student doctor) living in Memphis, owner of a home in a run-down neighborhood in urban Memphis, actually enjoying Memphis, and attending a house church where we sing Swahili worship songs I would tell you that you had lost your mind. The part of owning a cat I could imagine, but not all the rest! It's funny how God has his own way of leading you through life, and I could not be any happier or more willing to see what He will do with the rest!

After trying to go to a nice restaurant that I have had a gift card for for almost a year and finding it to be closed, we had dinner at Carabba's and then got my favorite (TCBY) for dessert.

Self-timer shots...definitely not the best. Notice Randy "Huck Finn" in the bottom photo...it was a Memphis flood as we were coming home from dinner!

The End.

D2 is THROUGH!!

D ONE is D-O-N-E and now D2 is THROUGH!!!

Hallelujah!

While Randy does not get quite as excited about these things as I do, I can tell he is happy that the summer is here and that he is now officially a third year dental student. That means his post graduate career is halfway over! Only two years left!! The best part is that these next two years will be what he has been looking forward to most...working on patients. First up? Me, of course! Did you SEE all that plaque? Yuck!

After Monday, I will be enjoying summer as well and Randy and I are looking forward to visiting with family, going to a Reds game, and spending time at King's Island this summer. Unfortunately for him, summer ends in July. I, however, will have until August!

GV Black Formal

a.k.a. Dental Prom!

First, we left Jackie at home...
Then, we set off for the night with our good friends, Matt and Kari. Matt is in Randy's class and Kari is a dental hygienist...they are engaged and get married next summer. Before the actual formal, we went to eat dinner at Ban Thai.

All dressed up...you should have SEEN the dust on Randy's fancy shoes. He made the comment that they looked like they hadn't been worn in years and I said, "they haven't! 2 years to be exact!"

Oh, Ban Thai, how I love you. One of my top 3 favorite restaurants in Memphis. Others? Central (of course) and Happy Mexican.

Matt and Randy...not quite ready.

Better?

Me and Kendall...her husband is president of Randy's class. Kendall is going to be the next Martha Stewart, I believe..

Kari and I. We had so much fun going with them...too bad the rest of our group didn't come!

Future Dentists of America...Matt, Randy, RJ, Burton.

Me and the hubby. We actually danced! We had tons of fun...truly! Randy even dipped me several times and brought me back up! Only bad part about the dance floor was that a girl spilled her beer on the back of my dress. But I guess that's the price I had to pay for the night.

Last picture I took with these girls was at a 5K race...boy do we look better! :)

Me, Lauren, Julie, and Kayla...check out the guy behind us

Dental Prom Pose? Check.

Burton (rocking the bowtie) and Randy

Another guy behind us...oh well, still a good picture.

Excitement for passing Boards?

Randy, Nia, Burton, and Matt.

After telling Randy I was going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight, we left the Daisy Theatre on Beale Street and went home for the evening. Now it is a rainy study weekend and I am going to curl up on the couch with a book.

Short and Sweet!

Randy passed the National Boards for Dentistry. Yay!! Now he can continue on in his hopes of becoming a dentist! (I know you are all relieved..)

Now he has to finish up the semester, enjoy some summertime, and then get his white coat before learning the good stuff (i.e. actually working on patients).

And he WILL need patients, so anyone that wants cheap dental care and can come to Memphis for it, we hope to see you soon!

Updates!

The last day of March madness is here! Randy is DONE with his boards! A man of few words, when asked how the test went, he only said "It is what it is". I translate to mean that it went well, but now we have to wait 3+ weeks to hear results! You'd think after seven and a half hours in front of a computerized test it could just spit out the results, but no. I am just happy he can relax now!

Remember the post about the little things and my sweet hubby digging through the recycling bin for bottles? Well, here is our Message in a Bottle art history project! Each one is of a different artist and each contains a letter from the student! Cute, huh?

Last weekend I ran in a 5K. Now I have not run in YEARS! I guess I kinda got burned out of being Coach Tucker's daughter who everyone thought would be super fast and barely finished the race without wheezing uncontrollably. Well, I'm back! Ha! Not really, but I did participate in a 5K in Millington with three of my good friends here in Memphis. The race was for Mitochondrial disease, and since most people don't know what that is, it was named the Mito-What? 5K. The exciting part is that I got a medal...yes, a medal! A third place medal to be exact! Did I do that well? Not really compared to cross country time (I did break 30 minutes which is kinda what I wanted to do in my head) but it felt great to me! I was so proud of myself, and Randy saw me finish (well, actually he was talking so missed me run past him) and said it was "inspiring"..yeah, right! Now, I have a bronze medal to show for it and he wants me to run more! Don't think I'll run much more, especially in Memphis heat, but fun to know that I still have a (little) runner left in me!

I am so proud of us girls, we did it!
Last update: I've been sewing a lot more. I've been inspired by Phyllis and a teacher at school who does quilts, and so this weekend I sewed a quilt top (one row still left and then I'll have pictures), a surprise for a birthday coming up, and pillows out of some fabric I fell in love with when I picked out the fabric for the parsons chairs. It reminds me of a batik (when you go to church with 12 Burundis, you fall in love with their wild colorful batik prints) but has such subtle color. I used the fabric from the parsons chairs for welting and voila! I still have a LOT to learn, but am getting there!

Note: I do not advise sewing when you only have one room available (Randy was still locked up studying at this point) and a JACK CAT on the loose. He almost lost his paw several times!

Sewing perfectionists, please don't start too long at this pic! :) The tiny bit of a pillow in the top right doesn't have a pillow form in it yet, that's why it looks so flat!

He's a Jumper!

This morning started off like any Saturday morning. A good breakfast, reading, and being lazy until time for our newest part of Saturdays...working out at the UT Health/Science center. After meowing at us one too many times, Jack got his wish and went out on the balcony. This is a normal thing for him, and he has even been left out there for 2+ hours one day because "someone" forgot to let him in. Well, about 15 minutes after putting him out, we were starting to get ready to go and I went to let him in.

No Jack.

Seriously, nowhere.

I look over the edge, and do not see him. Keep in mind we live on the THIRD FLOOR.

Therefore, our Saturday morning was spent in search mode for our beloved little furry son. After looking 30 minutes, we were ready to give up. We did find a stray cat hiding along the way, but no Jackie. Finally, I was talking to Randy from the ground while he was up in the balcony, and all of a sudden, Jack decides to pop his head out of the bush directly below the balcony.

Now, I don't know how we missed him there, or whether he jumped on his own free will after a bird or fell. But, thankfully, he had not ventured far and was in no means hurt from a 3rd floor jump. The question is, Will he ever get to go out on the balcony again?!??

Since we got to workout like planned, we also had to go up to Randy's locker. This was the first time I really saw a sign of my husband being a dental student. He has not one, but two lockers full of teeth (both real and fake), weird liquids and clay-like substances with paint brushes that make me think they throw in an art class or something. At one point, Randy was offered a chocolate donut, but of course I could not accept. What's funny is that he had to do a little work and gave me the choice of holding either the donut or a container full of extracted human teeth. Despite my love for chocolate and my incapability of eating it, I chose the donut.

I was very excited to see the dental work that keeps Randy so busy. And very glad I am not the one who deals with teeth.

Dear Self

Okay, so I had to force Randy to let me write this, but because so much family will (hopefully) be reading this, he finally caved in. When Randy was a senior at Granville High School, he had to type up a letter to his future self that would get mailed to him in five years. Well, last week, Phyllis called to say that the letter had come in. Randy was confused at first but then remembered and couldn't wait to hear what he had wrote to himself as a high school senior. The following is exactly how he wrote it.

Dear Self,

This is Randy, which is actually you. You are Randy. Right now I am sitting in the computer lab on the last day of high school. Craig and Cody are behind me. Do you remember them? Probably not. Anyways, there are some things we need to go over. You should have a hot wife by now. An engagement to a hot woman would also be acceptable. If you don't have a hot wife or a fiance, you are a loser. You need to step it up. You should have also completed your first four years of college. You need to be starting your future career by now. Back here in high school things are finally over. These had to have been the four longest years of my life, our life. I am so glad high school is finally over. I couldn't wait to get out of Granville. College has probably been a lot of fun, but by now you should have been accepted into a new college. And hopefully you are still living near Nashville. If you have done all these things then keep up the good work. Nice talking with you.

Love,

yourself

Completed four years of college? Check.

Accepted into a new college? Check.

Remember Craig and Cody? Yeah.

Hot wife? I hope so.

Still living near Nashville? Close enough.

2009 Highlights

Ok, so here are the Hartman Highlights of 2009. I always like doing things like this, because, as Randy puts it, I'm a "reflecter and planner" while he is an in-the-moment kind of guy. Here are my reflections...

(and another thing my husband stated was that I was going to forget something and hurt someone's feelings...I hope that isn't true, but please forgive me if it is)

In no particular order, here are the most memorable moments of 2009:

*Randy and I both turned 24 (not that monumental of a birthday)

*We bought our sectional for our living room, and sit on it daily

*Surprisingly, we had the same spring break, but don't really remember where we went..Nashville? Granville?

*Randy finished his FIRST YEAR of DENTAL SCHOOL

*Our nephew, Grayden, turned 1

*I read the entire Bible using the One Year Bible plan

*Randy did his first "lesson" at our house church

*We both learned Swahili worship songs

*Visited CANCUN in the summer

*I enjoyed my first summer off as a teacher

*(before that) I survived my first year of teaching! pheew

*I was a part of a dear friend, Sarah Kate's, wedding to an Australian mate

*We said goodbye to two good friends who moved to Knoxville

*CeLeBrAtEd our 1st Wedding Anniversary!

*Attended the annual lakehouse trip @ Parkers

*Gr'pa (on Randy's side) turned 80

*Attended Peggy (Randy's aunt) and Phil's wedding reception at JackAss Flats

*Attended Sandi (my aunt) and Jack's wedding in Nashville

*Our nephew, Luke, turned 1

*I was selected to be the Alumni Artist at my alma matter, FRA

*My Volvo got a new transmission

*Slumcat Jack turned 1

*Hartmans' 1st visit to Memphis

*We started to "go green" and recycle

*Thanksgiving in Nashville

*Christmas in Louisville

*Mamaw (on Randy's side) turned 80

*Randy went on his first hunting trip

*I had my first sickness as a teacher and was given my first antibiotic

*I gave my first final grade of a "C" in art

*Jodi and Matthew became temporary Northerners and moved to Cincinnati

*We continued to use the same box of garbage bags we got from Sams in our first month of marriage

*Although married to a "student dentist", neither of us had a single visit to the dentist

*We saved up 60+ Central cups...Randy claims we'll need them when we have kids?!?

I know not all years will be filled with so many "happy" moments, but it is nice to know that while you can include a trip to Cancun on a big list, you can also include something as silly as saving plastic cups...yet that is what most of my days are about...the little things!

Now, I hope a snow day (or more) is in my future for 2010! Happy New Year!

Give Me a 'G', Give Me an 'O'...

GOOO Bobcats!  

Well, although I might be an energetic person, I have never, ever in my life been a cheerleader.  At the ripe, old age of 24, however, I am becoming one.  Actually my title is only "cheer sponsor" and I am splitting the job with another coach and only committing to two practices a week.  I not only feel it is my "civil duty" to the school, but I think it sounds like a little bit of fun.  Sure, I will complain some nights when I get home at 7 o'clock and Randy and Jack are lounging on the couch, but all in all, I think it will be good for me.  I feel a little bit as though I have 'sold my soul to the devil' because if you think about all the drama of middle school...and multiply it times a million... you have middle school cheerleaders.  It will make for good posts I'm sure, and probably enough drama to fill an issue of Star magazine.  More to come on this whole cheer business...

But for now, we must talk about TRIVIA.  Last night, some dental students and wives got together at Swanky's Taco Shop in Germantown for a night of trivia.  I had never really been a part of something like this, and boy was it packed.  We got to chow down on some Mexican food while playing which was a definite perk.  The boys decided on a name that I still do not know the meaning of, but it is supposedly a dental term...thus 'Furcation Invasion' became our team name.  Two of my favorite team names of the night were 'I Poked Your Mom on Facebook' and 'Fat Kids Win in Seesaw'.  

Let the games begin...

We started out doing really well...We went into half time at tenth place out of about 28 teams.  After halftime we found out a category would be art...(I had told the team that the only two areas I could contribute to were art and food, so I started feeling some pressure).  We wagered the full 9 points on the question about which famous artist made VanGogh cut off his left ear.  Well, I immediately wrote my answer and had the first name right but the last name WRONG!  I failed my teammates and my many years of art history.  Good thing I don't have to teach it in middle school.  Anyways, after several other questions like "Name 4 out of the 5 hosts of Family Feud" and such, it was time for the final question.  We wagered the full 20 points on our final answer, got it right, and the game came to an end.  Team Furcation Invasion did not win but did get FIFTH place!!  Out of 28!!  We decided that on weeks that the boys don't have a test we will be back to Swanky's and eventually win.  The prize?  $75 dollars to spend at the restaurant...which split 8 ways is less than $10 dollars a person.  But we do it for the sheer satisfaction of knowing random trivia.

Here are some pictures: