Two Weeks

We are down to the two weeks until we start the journey home to Texas! This next week will be my last at work. My replacement is doing well. We are at the point where she sits at the desk doing the work, and I sit back, bored to tears. It may sound enjoyable, but it makes for very long days. I've been helping others in the office out with any non-computer work they may have. Travis has one more week at his last rotation which is good. It has not been a very enjoyable experience. But that's okay because a joyous event is soon to happen. We are looking forward to seeing the families and making our way down to the Civic Opera House in downtown Chicago on June 1st for graduation! We have a rent house! It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath that comes with a washer, dryer, and refrigerator. This is a big deal since most of the houses we were looking at did not have these appliances. We have only seen pictures so far, but my in-laws were gracious enough to look at houses for us one Saturday. And I fully trust their judgement! One of Travis's classmates will be a co-resident with him at Kingwood. He has a wife and two little girls aged 5 and 7. Last week we had dinner together to meet everyone and get acquainted. In the course of the evening we found out that we will be living only a couple of streets apart from each other. I also think we may have scared the wife with stories of Texas (they are originally from Idaho). Still job searching--I have not heard anything as of yet. I have applied to a few different higher education institutes. Hopefully, something will start happening within the next few weeks.

Winding Down

It's hard to believe we only have about a month left in Illinois. I get more and more excited as each day passes. We are slowly marking things off our list. The packing process has begun. The girl who was hired to take my position brought me all the boxes she used to move here from Ohio. Everyone in my office has been notified to bring me any type on empty box. The best boxes are the ones that hold the reams of copy paper...and our office goes through those at lightening speeds! We have a possibility of a rent house in the Kingwood area. Travis's parents were wonderful and went down to Kingwood to look at a few houses for us. We have the lease application in and are just waiting to hear back. I will put up more information once we have confirmation. I have started the job search process. I'm having flash backs to 4 years ago when i went through all of this. I have a few prospects and applications out. Again, if I hear any news back, I will put more details up. I know this month will go by incredible fast. We are trying to fit in as many get-togethers with people as possible, but I'm realizing the weekends are few and far between.

The Cruise

We left for our 7 day cruise on April 8th and it was amazing! We had such a relaxing time, and it was exactly what we both needed. Our boat left on Sunday afternoon from Galveston port and returned the following Sunday morning. We decided to save some money and have an interior room without any windows to the outside. We decided that if we go on any other cruises, we will continue to have the interior room. When you turn the lights out it is pitch black; you have no idea what time of day it is--awesome!

Our first two days on the cruise were spent traveling. What was really amazing is there was always something going on somewhere on the boat. We received a schedule the night before to plan what we wanted to do. We decided to take it easy. On the traveling days, we typically found a spot on the upper deck and read/took naps. Although we did take breaks for lunch. We had heard from other about the amazing food on cruises, but were still blown away by the meals. Some of the meals we had included roast duck, crab cakes, lobster tail, and mahi mahi. And there was desert after every meal! The ship also had cafes that were open 24 hours in case you needed a snack in between meals...we were always too full to indulge in this.

Our first port was Roatan, Honduras. We signed up for a snorkeling excursion. This was a first time event for both of us. We were taken to a private beach cove to get ready for snorkeling and to relax on after snorkeling. We found out that the coastal area of Honduras, Belize, and Mexico is the second largest reef behind the one in Australia. It was quite a wonderful experience.

The next day we stopped in Belize where we went zip lining through the canopy. I was excited about this, but also a little nervous as I'm not a big fan of heights. However, once I completed the first line, I was hooked! We went down 5 lines and also did 2 short free falls. We both loved this experience and have decided that zip lining is a must for future vacations. After the excursion we received a Belize meal of chicken and rice and beans cooked in coconut milk. We were told that Belize has good hot sauce. Travis tried one with his meal that he loved. He bought a bottle of this hot sauce, as well as another one called Comatose...he has not tried this one yet.

Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We decided to take it easy this day and just do a little shopping. We found a few good buys. I bought two sundresses (of course I can't wear them yet because it's still in the 40's in Illinois). Travis found a great deal on an onyx chess set. I also bought a few bottles of Mexican vanilla. We then had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. It was called Pancho's Backyard and all of the seating was in an outdoor pavilion. The food was absolutely amazing! This place had some of the best guacamole. We returned to the boat around 1:00 and proceeded to take a 3 hour nap in our amazingly dark state room.

Each night after dinner we attended the show put on in the theater. They had a range of performers: one night we watched a magician; a couple of comedians; singers and dancers. On one night we went to the ice rink (yes, the boat had an ice rink). We watched a pretty good ice show.

We had a great room attendant who would leave us a different towel animal almost every night. My favorite was the monkey.

We came back refreshed and with a little more color...or in my case a few more freckles. It was a little difficult to get back into the swing of things at home. This was the most time I have ever taken off from this job, but I came back to everything in place. (By the way, this Monday is my last medical school interview day!) We had such a wonderful time and are hooked on the cruise vacation option!

Match Day Pictures

During the Match Day celebration, the University's photographer took many pictures to commemorate the event. She took quite a few of Travis and I. The pictures are located on the Rosalind Franklin University Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/rfums

Click on Scholl Match Day.

Look Out Texas...

The Bodekers are coming home! Today was the podiatry match day. We found out that Travis got his number one choice: Kingwood, Texas. We are so excited!!!

The school had a celebration for those that were able to make it to the school. The students received letters listing their sites. Practically my whole office came out to support Travis. There was a fantastic spread of food and the students received a special gift, a very nice business card holder.

It was very hard to concentrate the rest of the day; but my replacement started this week, and I desperately need to teach her as much as possible.

More reasons to celebrate on the cruise next week! We leave this Sunday. The next post should be overflowing with pictures!

Time for a Blog Change

With the imminent changes on the horizon, I decided it was time to revamp the look of the blog--no more dreary winter scene. The northern adventures are slowly coming to an end. They have been enjoyable, but it's time for another chapter in our life.

For quite a while I thought about a new title for the blog. Many different things came to mind, but just didn't seem right. Before I was married I had my single girl blog which I titled using words from a Harry Connick Jr. song, Wink and a Smile. I felt I would like to follow that trend and used Sunny Side of Life. I'm not sure who the original singer is, but I remember the song from O Brother Where Art Thou. I plan for the blog to be mostly about the sunny parts that life will bring us. That's not to say that an occasional grey cloud won't make it's way across the screen.

To those of you that see this blog, I hope you enjoy the changes that have been made. Stay tuned for the long-awaited residency announcement which should grace the front page of the blog on either Thursday or Friday!

Match Day Date

We found out yesterday that the match day has been decided. Match day will be next Thursday, April 5th! It's nice to finally have a date to look forward to. It's also right before we leave for our cruise which will mean we will have even more to celebrate. As soon as we know where Travis's residency will be, I will post it.

Fell Off the Bandwagon

Oh Dear! Well, at least I posted before a full year passed. I don't even know what happened. Perhaps it was the nice summer weather up here that pulled me out of doors and clouded my mind from blog posts; or the crazy travel schedule for Travis; or just my own forgetfulness. Either way, here is the long awaited update everyone has been holding their breath for (yeah, right).

Probably the best way to do this is with bullet-points (the avid readers will know this is my favorite way to post).

Travis
* Last time I wrote (back in May) Travis was finishing up his 4 months of away rotations (February-May). He was back in June for a Chicago rotation. It was great to have him home, but bitter-sweet when he had to leave again for 2 months. In July he was at Scott and White in Temple, TX and in August he was at UTSA in San Antonio. He was back here for September and October and then he completed his last away rotation in November at John Peter Smith hospital in Ft. Worth.

* In early January Travis took the second part of his boards exam. We found out a month later that he passed! Of course, there was no question that he wouldn't pass. A week after the test he and his other classmates had interviews for residency. The podiatry residency interview process is centralized: all, or most, of the programs come to one central site to complete the interviews. All podiatry students travel to this site. And where is this elusive site? Frisco, Texas! I believe Travis had 6 or 7 interviews (some places do not go to the interview process and instead interview students after their rotation).

* Right now we are waiting for the podiatry match to occur. Match is when the residencies are figured out. Each student ranks their sites and each site ranks the students. Then there is a process of matching. At this time there is not a set date for the match. We have heard it will be early April. This year they decided to change the process to allow students 2 chances to take the board exam---of course, this change would happen this year. As soon as we know where we are going, it will be posted everywhere!


* Once the test and interviews were over, Travis was so relaxed. He has been enjoying coming home and not studying. Video games have been played. He might as well get it in now, because the start of residency will be time consuming

Erin
* Not as much has happened with me. While Travis was gone in August, my sisters came up to visit. We had some great girl time...and we stayed busy. One day we went downtown to the Sears Tower (some may wish to call this the Willis Tower). Another day we went to the Six Flags up here--we got there when it opened and left when it closed. It was a great time, but man, they wore me out. :)

* Work has been good. I got through the stressfulness of fall. At least for the medical school program, fall is the worst admissions time--everything is happening at once! The interview season is winding down--only 5 more days over the course of a month. I have a couple more recruiting events to go to in the Chicagoland area: the first at University of Chicago and the last at Northwestern University. I have really been blessed with this job and the opportunities it has provided me.

* We just hired a girl to replace me. She will start in two weeks. My boss wanted to get someone in soon so that I would have a couple of months to train her. I've been busy getting procedure manuals and all other kinds of tips prepared. I'm trying to think of the best approach to explain all that is done in this position without scaring her away. :)

Us
* We were unable to make it home for Christmas this year. Travis had a rotation at Cook County Hospital in Chicago which was time consuming. On top of the rotation he was studying for boards and interviews. We were able to have 2 different Christmas celebrations with some classmates who were also unable to make it home. It was a little weird not being with family, but we realized this was, hopefully, not a common occurrence.

* On April 9th Travis and I are going on a cruise! Travis has the month of April off. We decided during our first year that we wanted to go on a graduation celebration trip. We have been saving up for about 3 years to make this happen. Neither of us has been on a cruise before, and we are truly looking forward to it. It is a week Royal Caribbean cruise leaving from Galveston with port stops in Cozumel, Belize, and Rotan. We will be sure to take lots of pictures.

* The winter this year has been very mild with very little snow. It's about time, Chicago! Even with the mildness for this area, it still was too cold for me. I'm ready for Texas winters!

* Travis's graduation is June 1st. Our families will be making the trek up here, and then helping us truck all of our stuff back to Texas. It's hard to believe it is only about 2 months away. Where did those 4 years go to?