{Life}: Med School Match Day.

Last Friday was a big day around here - Match Day! In medical school, there's a day that rivals graduation in terms of excitement. While graduation is special because you're at the end of school, you're a real doctor, you're moving on, match day is all about where you'll be moving on to.

Jake and I were so excited to be able to share this day with our families and very relieved/happy/ecstatic that Jake matched to his first choice, here in Memphis!

The way the match works is that you apply to all sorts of programs (30+) in your area (Jake's is internal medicine) and then they invite you to interview. From there, you interview all over. After that you rank your top choices, all while they are making their ranking of students that interviewed. Much like sorority bid day, what follows is a mutual match system. The Monday of match week you get an email letting you know that you matched (which Jake did, meaning he had a job!) but you don't find out until noon on Friday - everyone around the country finds out at the same time.

Jake's school does a ceremony at the Pink Palace with food and drinks, some remarks, and then the handing out of the envelopes.

THE letter:

Jake's sister and parents came to the Pink Palace with us:

There's a big map for pinning where you're going. People in Jake's class were spanning the whole US, California to the Northeast. Glad it is them, not me!

After the Pink Palace we went downtown for a little photoshoot:

Then to lunch at where else... our favorite, Garabaldi's. Had to celebrate with a tradition.

Then it was on to Muddy's, another Memphis staple.

After passing out in a food coma for a bit, we met my family and Jake's parents and sister for dinner at Boscos in Overton Square:

My parents got Jake a UT pullover:

The next day was the Caduceus Ball, an annual medical school celebration that honors the M4s after match day.

It was at Minglewood Hall - there was food, drinks, a band... lots of fun!

 The set up:

And finally, only so you can see my whole dress, a bathroom selfie:

A huge weekend celebrating Jake's accomplishments. We're so proud of him!!

In celebrations and successes,

{Life}: Homebrewing.

For Jake's birthday, I finally caved and got him a home brew kit. His friends have tried homebrewing and Jake loves to cook and drink beer, so I guess it just made sense. We always thought we couldn't do it because we didn't have a basement but for now we're using the front coat closet. Not sure what we'll do when summer hits.

Beginning of February, Jake made his first batch:

The guy at the homebrew store (Midsouth Malts - highly recommend them, it is a hole in the wall but the guy is very helpful) told us if you could make macaroni and cheese, you could make beer. It ended up being more like if you can make a semi-elaborate dinner but not bad at all.

A month later and Jake has his first home brew batch! We drank some the other night and I actually prefer it to bottled beer. And the fact that it is much cheaper per bottle (once you recover the cost of the starter kit..) sure doesn't hurt.

In home brew and hobbies,

{Life}: Happy Anniversary.

.. A little late posting here....

We celebrated our anniversary back in January, our 5th wedding anniversary followed by our 12th dating anniversary the next day (MLK weekend is always fun for us!). Always down for a trip down memory lane, I had to of course load pictures from the pre-facebook past of our dating and wedding history. Marriage sure is a lot of fun when you're married to your best friend!

Wedding pictures by Southern Design Studio, 1.17.09

And to go even further back... our pre-facebook dating photos.

First date - Christmas Formal 2001



Early in dating.. probably January 2002

 Jake with my first car -

Prom 2002:

Jake's first Christmas home from college (Dec 2002):

Christmas Formal 2002:

Winterfest 2002-2003:

Proom 2003:

First date party of college (Mad Plaid), September 2003:

Sigma Chi alumni event, November 2003:

Sigma Chi Christmas party, December 2003:

Sigma Chi/Phi Mu mixer, September 2004:

Sigma Chi Valentine's date party (with Beamer as a 5 month old puppy), February 2005:

Phi Mu Spring Formal, April 2005:

Sigma Chi Halloween Date Party, October 2005:

Phi Mu Fall Formal, 2005

And now to how we celebrated... It was a fun, long weekend.

I got surprise anniversary flowers at school:

We spent Monday downtown, catching our annual Grizzlies game:

Before the game we went to our favorite, Flying Saucer.

Walked down Beale Street on the way to the game..

Here's to another anniversary with my favorite guy. I'm lucky, indeed.

In loving love,