suburb sellouts

Our offer on a house in a suburb of Memphis got accepted today. Thank heavens for this buyers market cuz this poor dental student family didn't know how they were going to pay for closing costs, but it turns out we don't have to pay any. Here's a picture. Coming from Huntsville we feel like suburb sellouts in this house, but we love the neighborhood, lots of tots running amok. Also it's just 10 minutes from my work and even closer to church and the temple.

Just Sittin' Around

Luke sits up now. He's pretty neat.

The Hale-Songers visit the Songer-Hales

Casey & Edith (my brother who is married to Joey's sister) represented both sides of the family when they surprised Joey by flying to Maryland for his graduation last week. They were just chillin at the house upon Joey's return from playing basketball one night. He walked in and did a double take when he realized WHO was here!

graduation morning - german pancakes on the deck


Joey graduates and gets hooded as a dentist
He also got a special award for proficiency in Endodontics


Katie couldn't be more proud of her husby


Family


Fort McHenry - "O say can you see..."


Rosalie learning about growing teeth at the National Museum of Dentistry


DC - World War II Memorial




DC - Smithsonian Natural History Museum


Baltimore Inner Harbor


University of Maryland Dental Lab


Double cousin bonding


Sunday afternoon Bocce


We are so glad that Casey & Edith could come and visit us! I gave Joey a projector for a graduation present and we watched lots of movies and random funny stuff on YouTube and had an outdoor cinema night on the big screen (a big white board from home depot nailed up to two trees). We also got in some BANG! and Ticket to Ride gaming. Good times.
WE LOVE YOU GUYS! THANKS FOR COMING!

Joey's Accomplishment

Joey is graduating from Dental School on Thursday and I wanted to make sure his friends and family knew how hard he's worked and what a great accomplishment this is. I'm really proud of him. You know the best thing about Joey is that he very seldom complained and made sure to spend plenty of time with his wifey despite his busy schedule. He is very good at leaving the stress at school and enjoying his family.

The school puts out a year book and does a highlight on each of the graduating seniors with their photo, family photos and a paragraph by the student. I thought some of you might like to read what he wrote:
"Well, these last four years have been a great adventure. You may tihnk by my cheery disposition that I enjoyed dental school, but inside I was crying. Dental school was hard. But thanks to the majority of the faculty that was so helpful and understanding, I was able to survive the minority of the faculty. Thanks also to those of you who cut out of lab early to play basketball and volleyball at the gym. That kept me sane the first couple of years. Though school was hard, I have loved these years in Maryland. We've had some great adventure and great friends. Katie, without you these years would have been a slow crawl through the bowels of hell. But you made these last four years the best years of my life. Now I know that, no matter where we end up, I'll be happy because I'll be with you. I love you and I love our baby boy, who I can't wait I can't to meet in December." - Joey Hale

Last night a friend and I threw a graduation party for a bunch of the husbands here and gave each family a little time to honor their husbands and dads. It turned out to be really fun. This is a slideshow I made for the event:

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR DEAR DEAR JOEY. MAY HE DRILL, FILL AND BILL UNTIL THE END OF HIS DAYS!!

conGRADUATIONs ems!

the yittle sis graduates. go aggies!

Prom Night Action

Yeah, I know we're almost 30 but don't worry - we can still get gussied up, get jiggy with it and bust some moves on Prom Night. Yep - it's the Dental Prom. I felt like we were on a high school date but I got to meet all of Joey's dental peeps, eat free food and dress up - it was actually really fun.

PROJECT: Baby Shower

My good friend Tristina is having a baby boy in July - baby Caelan. I'm so exicted for her because she is going to be such a fun and good mom and any baby in her family (the Neels) are automatic rockstars. So, to set her up we had a shower for her at my house. Let me just say that I sure wish she would have had this baby 4 years ago because our house has never looked so good. Honestly our back yard has always had potential but I'm afraid we are a little lazy and just left our yard ghetto. But thank goodness for dear Tristy and Caelan because it totally motivated us. Dave & Liz came and helped a ton the night before - painting, gardening, mowing, trimming etc. and we pulled it off. Tristy, the popular girl that she is, had a ton of family and friends come and it ended up being a great shower.

CONGRATS TRISTINA!

Woodstock?

We attended the annual dental picnic on Friday and there was a live band playing (some of the students doing cover songs). A few of us set up blankets and at one point there were 6 of us nursing at the same time. With the loud music, we felt like we were at woodstock - only if we were true hippies we wouldn't be using any covers. It's nice to have a lot of fellow mothers. I'm going to miss them!

Little Helen Homemaker

I got a sewing machine for Christmas and it still hadn't been touched as of last week. My friend Liz broke her right wrist right in the middle of working on quilting projects and needed some help. So, I decided this was as good as time as any to dive into the whole sewing thing. My friend Holly taught me how to make a rag quilt (a nice forgiving quilt for crooked sewers) and I did it!! It was actually not too hard and only took a few days. I got excited and even sewed Joey's pajama bottoms that he's been wearing around with big holes in them for probably a year now. So, I feel like a true blue homemaker now that I have joined the ranks of the sewing sisterhood.

Playdate

We had a few of Luke's friends over last week and I can't even tell you how funny it was to see these little boys together. I love little Parker and James. We had fun.

To see more pictures of Parker - see the Chad & Emily Burnham blog.

To see more pictures of James - see the Paul & Melanie Anderson blog.