Half way there

Hello readers,

     I’m so bad at this...... writing that is.  Both in the essence of writing well and in a timely fashion.  This post has been a very long time coming.  Since my last post I have started and not completed three different other posts describing how I’ve been progressing through my duel degree program.  But unfortunately I’ve either found the posts to be dull or I just haven’t gotten around to finishing them.  I’d like to say that it’s because I’ve been so busy with school, but really is that a good excuse to procrastinate in writing?  For me, no, it’s not a good excuse, and yet that’s what I have to go off of.
   
     I now find myself with a little bit of time to finally compile this post while I am on a small winter break and on family vacation in Arizona (and just kidding... I couldn’t even finish this while on break).  I am now half way completed with school and only have two semesters left of my second bachelors degree in dental hygiene.  How did that happen already?!  So what can I tell you about my schooling thus far?  I feel like there is so much to tell and yet not enough that anyone might find interesting.  I suppose the best thing I can do is to just start writing and see where my memory takes me.

     When I start up with school again next week (Just kidding, already started) I will have been in hygiene clinic seeing patients for a year now.  I have seen so many patients, both good and bad, and have been thankful for all of them!  I love interacting with patients and believe I am already establishing how I would like to continue interacting with patients in the future.  I love chatting with everyone and trying to make them at ease with me as a provider and feel at ease with being at the dental office.  I sometimes get in trouble with the timing of my appointments because I find myself talking with everyone too much and not actually focusing on the dental work that they are coming in for, which is both a good and a bad thing I guess. I feel like I’m getting better everyday with taking radiographs, charting my observations, exploring for calculus deposits, and doing a good cleaning.  I still feel like I have a long way to go in clinic, especially with February approaching quickly and my dental therapy classmates and I starting up in clinic doing operative work (aka fillings, etc.).  I’m very excited to begin this new chapter of clinic.  I have honestly learned to enjoy hygiene work despite my lack of enthusiasm for the degree when I first started school.  While I never thought that learning dental hygiene would be my cup of tea, I have already been able to see the advantage of recieveing a hygiene degree along with the masters in dentistry degree.  It will truely make me a more well rounded dental provider.  I’ve now completed a ton of classes, having thoroughly enjoyed oral anatomy, operative dentistry, radiology, pathology, anesthesiology, and even histology!  I have enjoyed various aspects of all my other classes as well, finally feeling like the education I’m getting in dental school is all information that I not only want to know but need to know.  As difficult as school has been thus far, it has been comforting knowing that this is where I belong.

     I should also mention that I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about my future profession as a dental therapist.  I’m really starting to get excited about the prospect of becoming a dental therapist.  I believe that there is a niche that a mid level and duel degree trained dental provider can help fill for people, and I’m excited to begin looking for ways to personally fill those niches.  There are so many people who are in need of dental care, and I believe I’m being prepared to step up and find ways to expand access to care.  I had been so excited for so many years to begin a career as a dentist, and now half of the way through school now I feel very great for the perpetration and encouragement I’ve gotten to prepare me to become a dental therapist.

     My classmates and I have all been working well together and getting along!  My dental hygiene cohorts will be walking with their bachelors in dental hygiene in May and will be fully completed in August.  While my fellow DT classmates and I will have also graduated from the hygiene program, we will continue on doing restorative dentistry and comprehensive exams.  At school I am currently acting as the dental therapy representative for CHIP (an inter collaborative group for all health sciences), am a DT Ambassador, and serve as the president for the dental therapy student association (DTSA).  I’m also a member so several other school and national organizations and try to participate in everything that I can while in school and on campus.

All in all, school is good, school is hard, and school is flying by!  I continue to be curious and try to work hard.  I’ll continue to attempt at keeping you readers posted, and hopefully find additional dental related things to write about.

As always, thanks for reading!  Enjoy some photos!

Finally...... I've been accepted

     Well it has been a long time coming, but I can finally write the blog posting I've always wanted to write about!  I finally got into school to begin my education towards a career in dentistry!

     But this comes with a twist....... despite the many long a challenging years of adding and trying to perfect my application to dental school, I have accepted an offer to take a seat in the University of Minnesota's Dental Therapy program!  I will finally be going to graduate school and I'll be staying in Minnesota.
                             


    What does this mean you might ask?  What the heck is a dental therapist?  Should you still be happy for me?  Am I still excited?  All very good questions, and many which I hope to explain further.

     First why don't I try and briefly set the stage for what I am about to embark on.  If you have never heard of Dental Therapy it is with good reason, because technically Minnesota is the only state to which the dental therapist can practice in the general public.  Alaska is the only other state to currently register dental therapists, but their scope of practice is very limited, essentially only being able to treat eskimos.  Anyway, back to the program I will be a part of.  Dental Therapy is a new program implemented to extend dental services to rural and underserved areas.  By becoming a dental therapist I will essentially be a midlevel provider of dentistry.  I will not be receiving a doctorate and becoming a full fledged dentist, but I will be able to cover many of the same practices as a dentist and still be able to host my own patients.  The program itself is very interesting as I will be taking part in the University of Minnesota's first ever dual program where I will be receiving my undergraduate in dental hygiene while also completing my masters degree in dental therapy, which all in all will allow me to better service patients which I am very happy about.

     So thence I am immensely excited, and therefore you should be very happy and excited for me.  While I may have been trying to get into dental school over these years I am not giving up on my dreams.  It took a lot of soul searching to decide to accept this program, which I am hoping to write much more about later, but I am currently just over the moon with excitement to begin school.

     I'd like to quickly share why I am posting to everyone about this news here for everyone to read.  When I first started this blog I secretly had the ambition of sharing more detailed information on what the road to dental school looked like, and then carry it on further into what it looked like to actually go through the schooling.  Now I will be able to achieve that goal!  I am hoping to extend this run of blog postings further in the upcoming weeks with further details about how I got to this point, why I made the decision I did, and what I hope the future holds!  But as for now, I felt it was time to let the world know of my decision and hopefully spread the word to those who care.
     To those who have mentored me, encouraged me, challenged me, and prayed heavily for me over the past 3 - 4 years about school and difficult life choices, I want you to know that I have not forgotten your commitment to supporting me through it all and I want this posting to be a tribute to you.  I would not be here without everyones support and I am so incredibly blessed and excited to announce that I made into the schooling I have so longingly desired.


     Here is to this new chapter of life!  I've waited long enough for this!

Few pictures of our new apartment

     I've had several people ask how our new apartment is treating us and have asked for pictures showing what it looks like.  So here you go!

2014 in Review

     Every year my mother-in-law writes a reflection letter for her family to send out to family and friends for a quick notifier of what went on through this past year.  While she always types this up, prints it out, and mails it to everyone for Christmas, I thought I'd take advantage of this poorly up-kept blog of mine to write my summery of good'ol 2014.

    At the beginning of this year Hannah and I were still living in Oak Park IL with Hannah still in school and in February I was starting my new internship with the Illinois Eye Bank.  I would end up having this internship working in the lab doing paperwork and cell counts become a job as a recovery technician trained to procure corneas from those deceased who were generous to donate.  It turned out to be a great job and one that I am certain has given me good practice for my aspiring career in dentistry.

     In May we were blessed with a second nephew McDonald named Calvin!  We have been super blessed towards the end of this year to be able to hang out with both of our little nephews frequently and I have really cherished the time we have spent with them and their mom & dad.  Watching those two grow and learn is absolutely incredible and constantly makes me reflect on what kind of children I might bring into this world someday...... but not for awhile yet so don't get your hopes up too high!

     Hannah and I spent our summer in the Chicagoland area as best we could.  July became a little difficult as Hannah was put in a elective rotation in the Minneapolis while I had to stay in Chicago to work.  That became a long month!  But we persevered through it!

     In the middle of August as we were beginning to gear up for Hannah's graduation in the very end of August and our move back to MN immediately following, I was presented with the shocking opportunity to join Paul Warneke on a delivery trip of the yacht he is employed to work on from the Galapagos Islands through the Panama Canal!  And luckily the timing was literally perfect so that I could go on the trip and still make it back in time for Hannah's graduation.  I had initially planned on writing a whole blog post devoted to this trip.... and of course I never got around to it!  But to summarize very generally, I never left the Galapagos.  Right as we were beginning to leave the engine of the ship broke down.  We spent the rest of that week trying to fix the engine to no avail.  By the time the captain decided the most reasonable course of action would be to hoist sail and just cruse to Panama without an engine, it was too late for me to join them.  So I stayed back a night and flew back in time for Hannah's graduation from PA school!
     And so Hannah graduated at the end of September.  Her mom, dad, and sister were able to come down for the ceremony along with my parents.  What a huge accomplishment to have made it through all those trying times, long hours, difficult faculty, and strenuous rotations!  But she did it!  Man, writing about this again make me so proud all over again.  Anyway, we spent that weekend following enjoying family and the last things we could in Chicago, but then off we went and moved right away that following Monday back to MN!.......... and to Hannah's parents house.......

     We knew we needed to get back to MN as soon as we could, but unfortunately that meant we moved back without any jobs lined up and with no jobs lined up we had no apartment lined up.  It took us much longer than we expected to find jobs and as a result we are still at Hannah's parents home but will be moving over these next few days.  Her parents have been incredible over the last few months with allowing us to live with them and change up their daily lives!  We cannot thank them enough for their generosity and patience.
     But how has been living with your parents-in-law you may ask?  Well let me tell ya, it hasn't always been easy.  But that's not really even so much because of them but because of other things.  They don't have any internet at their house, so essentially since September I have been living without internet which has been extremely difficult!  Another basic frustration has simply been the fact that I am living at their house which means its not my living space.  Not being able to put things where I want them or to have all of my things out has been hard, but nothing impossible.  Again, we have been extremely fortunate and we owe them big time!

     In October Hannah, my father, and I were given another great opportunity granted by Paul W.  Paul had to come back to the US for a course he was taking and by doing so the yacht was going to need a care taker in Panama City.  Since I had just been on the boat he suggested that I should come down and watch over it until the captain arrived and then I help him take it through the Panama Canal again. Since I had not started working yet and I knew I wouldn't have to for the remainder of Oct I said I would do it but that I wanted Hannah and my dad to come with!  My dad and I ended up going down a week earlier than Hannah who stayed back to finish paperwork for her license and to attend a wedding.  Once again things did not go as planned!  The captain ended up delaying his trip to Panama so we were unable to go through the canal.... it would seem I will never be destined to make it.  But to be fair, even if the captain had made it in time the engine was never able to be fixed while we were there anyway.  Over all it was a once in a life time trip even if we never set sail!  We were able to sit on the deck of a beautiful yacht everyday and read!  I was also planning on writing a whole blog about this trip as well..... but going back to the excuse of not having internet over the last few months its been hard to find the time!  I'll post pictures eventually.  Just know it was a great trip and I'm so thankful both my dad and Hannah were able to come along.

     What else..... as of late I have been working for Multicare Associates at 3 of their clinics as a Medical Transcriptionist for an Endocrinologist.  It's been an interesting job so far, going in with the doctor to do his charting and patient plan in live time.  It's honestly not the most luxurious job in the world, but I can already tell I'm learning a lot!  All the pharmacology I review daily is starting to sink in.  Hopefully this will me out heading into dental school....... if I ever get in.  I'm still in the running at the U of M (my #1 choice) and will hopefully hear good news at the end of January/ beginning of February.  If you don't see me write anything about getting in then just know I'll be spending 2015 crying incessantly.
     Hannah will be finally starting the job she has had for a few months now in the next few weeks, and I am so excited for that to finally happen!  If you have not already heard, she has been hired full time in the Entira Family Clinic system as a family practice PA!  It was SUCH a struggle to find a job and now has been SUCH a struggle for her to actually start, but that time is swiftly approaching.  Needless to say we are both excited for that day to arrive.
     Other news to top off the year with; Hannah and I are now the proud new leasers of a fine piece of GM industries, the 2014 Chevy Cruse.  So far we have been pleased with it and I certain hope we continue to be for a long time!  We are also in the process, beginning TODAY, of moving into our new apartment!!!  FINALLY!!!  We are going to have our own place again!  Obviously we are thrilled, even if we do have to move all our crap in sub-optimal temperatures.  We will post pictures of our new place soon, once it doesn't look like a tornado just decimated it.

     Over all, 2014 went by in a blur as most years normally feel once it comes to the end.  I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff that took place over the year..... but oh well I'm sure you have read enough!  Thanks for reading!

I'm headed for the Panama Canal!

   First of all, happy #sharkweek!
 
   Wow...... well I am just blown away right now!  Last night I finished purchasing flights for quite an adventure!  This is clearly a story that I have to share with you all.

     +Hannah and I decided to go to Winona fairly spur of the moment this past weekend.  With +Josh leaving for medical school, we decided it would be a good time to visit back home, and him specifically, before we move back to MN.  We did a bunch of fun stuff, but one of the highlights was the Big Brothers Big Sisters "Taste of Winona" event Saturday night that my whole family attended.

     I had been looking forward to this event all day!  But right as I was about to walk in with my family, I got a phone call from a strange number.  Since it was such a weird number, I decided not to answer it, mainly because I was just about to walk into the event.  But immediately after dismissing the call, my phone began to ring again from the same number.  I figured I had better answer since they were calling again right away.......  And thank goodness I did!!!

    It was +Paul warneke calling me with the offer for an adventure of a lifetime!  He had explained to me that, quite randomly and suddenly, the boat he works on was in need of a helping hand for their swiftly approaching voyage!  They will be setting sail from the Galapagos Islands to take the boat back to a harbor in Panama, sailing through the Canal.  And he wanted me to come and help!  He explained how he knew it was out of the blue, but they were willing to "sweeten the deal" if I could make it.  These are crazy times right now for Hannah and me, but at the same time, this was an offer just plainly too good to pass up on.  So, in the end, I'm packing my bags for a sailing trip!

     So what does this all look like?  They are disembarking on Monday (the 18th), so I have to get down there before then!  Unfortunately, this means I have to leave my recently acquired position with the Eye Bank earlier than I had wanted (aka this Friday already), but it's something that I just have to do!  And also a huge bonus to this particular trip is that I will be back in time for Hannah's graduation, her parents getting into Chicago, and to help get all our stuff packed before we move.  So it's almost perfect timing!  I will, although, be missing a wedding this weekend that I was very much looking forward to attending......... but I feel as though this trip will make up for it.

     I cannot believe I have been given this opportunity!  It almost feels like a miracle in a way.  In my opinion, I feel as though I have responsibly passed up several other chances to visit Paul.  With saving up for our wedding, traveling to visit Hannah while at school, not having a job for all of last summer, and for other various reasons, I have seen many other trips on this boat "drift" away from me.  So this trip almost feels like its a reward, and I feel tremendously blessed.  Thanks Jesus, you trickster you!

     SO!  This Saturday I will be flying out of Chicago to San Salvador, then from San Salvador to Guayaquil Ecuador, and then taking a smaller flight from mainland Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands where I will meet up with Paul!  To be honest, I'm not entirely sure the exact day I will be returning yet or the rout I will be traveling home, because we have to lock through the Panama Canal and Paul was a little unsure of how long exactly that would take....... but he was sure I'd make it home by the 25th at least.  So I'll get it figured out!

     Again, I feel so blessed for this chance.  I really need to give a HUGE shout of thanks to my incredible wife for being so accepting of me going on this trip and basically telling me I had to go on it.  It's in no way easy for her to have me going away for a week right now, especially since she has to stay here an finish school.  But I have been SO amazed by her loving support and her sincere encouragement.  I really do feel terrible for being asked to go on this trip without her, but unfortunately there is just no way around it right now.  I just wanted to publicly praise her understanding of it all, or at least her incredible performance in deceiving me!

     I am so excited and yet so nervous at the same time for this trip.  Traveling all that way by myself is kinda nerve-racking!  Especially traveling through these countries where I don't speak the language!  And yet, with true adventure there are always risks, and I'm confident that all will workout in my favor.  As long as I don't leave any of the airports and just sit and wait for my flights I should make it there with few troubles....... I hope.

     Well stay tuned everyone!  I will absolutely be writing again in a little over a week with all the details of my crazy adventure!

Some new adventures

     Hello once again everyone!  I know its been awhile, but there hasn't been much to report from the Chicago Degalliers lately.  Although I do want to give a quick shout out to +Alli and Matt Wagner for coming to visit us!!!  But what I mainly wanted to share were the events of last Wednesday (the 30th).

     I was at work and around 9am I got a very exciting e-mail saying that I have been selected for a dental school interview!  I was and still am so excited about this news and feel so blessed to have been selected so early in the interview process, for at least one school.  I'm obviously hoping for, and expecting, more interviews to come, but it is an incredible feeling to have even one chance to get into dental school.
     Dental schools are usually proceed with a rolling admission process, so for me to have an early scheduled interview is a huge bonus!  I hope I can make it count!

     So back to Wednesday, I was obviously riding the high of knowing I had an interview most of the day.  That was until I received a very disheartening e-mail from my manager at work.  I was notified that I will no longer be keeping my intern position at the eye bank.  In fact, I was notified that my last day would be Thursday..... the 31st!  Big heads up on their part.  I had heard mixed reports from my managers as to what my role would become beginning August.  I was in a tricky position for them at the eye bank.  I was obviously brought into the eye bank as a lab intern, doing random tasks and assignments to help out with daily flow of the place.  But more recently, I have been trained to do donor recoveries, to procure corneas out in the field.  This, I believe, put me in a unique place of being an intern in the lab and yet holding an actual employee position with the recovery team.
     When the option of getting my recovery training was first presented to me, I had come under the impression I was doing the eye bank a favor.  I had been led on to believe I would be continuing my intern duties in the office while also be given the flexibility to help pick up cases when the recovery team needed me.  Well, it turns out this isn't the case even if it had been when they first described it to me!  Evidentially my two managers made a decision to just have me be part of the recovery team only.  And I was pretty much notified of this with only a single day notification before I was "done" with the office.  So just to clarify, I have not been fired or punished, I've just been shifted into a new position.

     So what now?  Now I am a "full time" field tech.  I skeptically say full time because I have no set hours to work.  I am basically 100% of the time on call, without pay, and have to pick up cases when I am called in order to actually work.  While this is not exactly ideal, I think I'm alright with the whole outcome.  I honestly do enjoy the recovery work!  It's extremely interesting and exciting, and I'm very thankful they have given me the opportunity to do it.  Procuring corneas is way more fascinating than sitting at the office doing paperwork all day.  It'll certainly be tricky not having a "guaranteed" income for this month, but honestly, with +Hannah and I getting ready to move back to MN at the end of the month, I'm not going to be working with the Illinois eye bank at all soon anyway.  So we'll make it work.

     I'd also like to mention that while it was extremely unfortunate that they only gave me a one days notice about me ending my time in the office, I'm really not that mad about it anymore.  Wednesday night I was upset, but my Thursday morning I had realized this isn't going to be the end of the world.  The communication with me over the regards of my role has been sloppy, but I forgive them.  Like I said, I was a tricky employee for them I believe with the mixed jobs.

     I should also quickly mention that I've already been out on two cases all on my own over this weekend, so hopefully I'll continued to get calls!

     I have to admit, I'm going to miss working in downtown Chicago a bit.  I have always had such mixed feelings of enjoyment and hate for riding the green line everyday to and from downtown and walking all the way along Clinton Street.  But despite those mixed feelings, its hard to know I won't be doing it anymore.  I won't be seeing all the people I've come to recognize on the train or from my walk to work (who I make up various life stories and scenarios for), won't have to deal with walking through the hustle and bustle of Union Station people anymore or gazing up at Willis Tower while I work.  I had some fun with it while it lasted, and I'm glad I can say I did that in my life (work in downtown Chicago that is), but it's time is up!  But maybe I got out of doing that just in time, with two shootings happening within two blocks of work my last week there........... yeah I won't miss it that much!

     Aside from all of that and back to Wednesday night, I went to play tennis with my neighbor to try and get my mind off of work and school stuff, and another tragedy befell on me.  My wedding ring broke!  It had been coming and I obviously knew a wooden/antler ring would break eventually when I bought it, but it was still sad.  I'm also unsure if it is even salvageable, so I'm currently looking into replacements.  I'd definitely like another wooden ring though!

The two bands you see in this picture were very recently one whole ring!
Now they are separated wood and antler.

     Well, as for the rest of this month, Hannah will be finishing up her last rotation and then be graduating from PA school!!!!

     While we are obviously looking forward to moving back to MN, we have a lot of things we want to do in Chicago still before leaving.  It'll be an exciting month!

Thanks for reading and I'll be sure to post again soon!

Half written postings thrown into one!

Well I have started to write 4 different postings and never got around to finishing a single one…… so instead I’m going to combine them all here because some of them are so old now it just seems inappropriate to post them on their own.

     At the beginning of May I took a trip to the Boundary Waters in northern MN with my brothers, father, my uncle +Mark and a friend of my dad’s from WSU.  What an amazing trip!  It was so refreshing to fly out of Chicago and then within a matter of hours from landing I was in the middle of wilderness.  Although it was still chilly up there and some of the lakes still frozen it was a great time to go to the BW because there were no bugs!  Although we were only up there for a few days, it was adversely strange to fly back into Chicago after leaving such vast emptiness.  It’s funny how we often conceptualize camping as rugged, unclean, or maybe even barbaric.  But after coming back to Chicago, I started wondering if the modern populated city life was any different.

Anyway, the trip was SO much fun and I am already planning on going back next year.  There were many stories and highlights from the whole trip but I’ll share my potential favorite three.  One of them was taking a nap in my dad’s new Hennessy Hammock!  This thing is a hanging tent and one of the cooler things I’ve seen in a long time.  If you’re into camping, listen to me, never buy a tent again!  Those things suck!  The hammock on the other hand is #1!  I'll add a picture below.
Also, here is a video about it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqg4x443RmM&feature=kp
    Another highlight deals with fishing.  I’m not much of a fisherman, but to be honest, I was really hoping to turn that around on this trip.  So I bought a fishing license and did a good deal of fishing.  But if I wanted to catch a fish, +Thomas was like 300% more determined to!  He spent most of his time fishing.  Now +Josh on the other hand didn’t even buy a fishing license, the only one of us not to.  And one night he decided that he better at least cast a line from shore just to say he did while camping.  And after one mediocre cast he decided to do one more……….. and caught a darn fish……… Thomas’ and my expressions were palpably angered.  Classic!
   The last highlight was just plain silly.  One night we had asparagus for dinner and after we ate we were cleaning up and decided to throw the butts of the asparagus into the lake for the fishies.  But what it ended up turning into was a left-handed throwing contest between all the Dégalliers!  I thought is was super fun….. plus I won.

Here is an example of my dad's hammock tent!

     Another blog posting I began but regrettably never finished was celebrating +Hannah and my first year of marriage!!!!  YEEEAH!  We did it!  Only like 5 more to go before she leaves me for someone way less awesome. 

Our anniversary was on the 25^th of May and it was super fun!  We really had more of an anniversary weekend which was great!  We did so much!  We went out to luscious dinner provided from a wedding gift that we had stored away to use on such a night, we spent a day at the beach, we went shopping (“we” as in I was at least there), went on a water taxi ride, etc.  It was a really great weekend and I had so much fun just hanging out with Hannah.

To everyone who has asked or is wondering how the first year of marriage was here is an easy word for me to sum it up: HARD.  Now in case you take that the wrong way, it has also been SO incredible!  I love being married to Hannah and we have grown a ton together since tying the knot, but that honestly doesn’t make the whole thing one big walk in the park!  I know there have been a lot of external relational reasons to express strain on our marriage, such as times without a job, living in foreign territory, school, etc., but we have had things between us that have been strenuous as well.

I think the thing that has been the most difficult to adjust to is the constant decision making together.  What are WE going to have for dinner, what are WE going to do this weekend, how are WE going to spend money, what TV show are WE going to watch?  While dating these things obviously came about so we had practice in a way.  But now that we live together and we share everything, it seems at times like I hardly ever make decisions for just myself anymore.  It’s an interesting change of pace.  Lord knows, I can’t even imagine what it’s like having a kid!  Which is why I am formally deciding to never have any.  Not really…… maybe…..

But back to the point.  This last year in marriage has been fantastic.  It’ll be exciting to see what we’re able to do over this next year.  LUM YA HANNAH! 

     Oh!  Another sharing point is that while Hannah is currently gone from Chicago, leaving me to whither alone in grief and despair, she got her second rotation switched back to Chicago!  So I only have to be alone for one month instead of two!

But as for right now, I’m living in Chi-town all by my lonesome!  It’s really strange to be honest.  After I dropped Hannah off at her friend’s house to get a ride back to MN I went grocery shopping for myself.  It was really weird.  I didn’t have Hannah there to tell me I didn’t need something, or at least, I didn’t have her there to make me think for myself that I shouldn’t buy something to avoid her judgment!  And over the last few days it has been so odd to come home from work and just spend the night alone.  I never lived by myself before so this month is quite the new experience for me.  It hasn’t fully hit me yet that I won’t be seeing Hannah much at all this whole month.  It’s still too soon for me.  But give it this weekend when I don’t have work and I’m just hanging out the whole day alone, I’m sure the distance will take full effect.   

      Alright, well I believe that is enough for me to write right now!  Hopefully I'll have more to share soon, but until then, thanks for reading!