2011 - 2013 -- MS1-2; classroom lectures
2013 - 2014 -- MS3; clinicals
2014 - 2015 -- MS4; audition rotations
2015 -- Graduate from med school!! (we will almost be 30 years old)
2015 - 2020 (years depending on specialty) -- residency (heading towards 35 years old)
By the time we are settled in and begin paying back all these student loans, we will be reaching 40. Just something weird to think about!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Saturday Mornings
Our new favorite thing to do is drive downtown to a cafe for an outside breakfast on Saturday Mornings. The weather in the mornings have been beautiful and so relaxing. Our favorite restaurant is Taverna. We order their $1 mimosas, New Orleans style beignets, eggs benedict, french toast, waffles, and the list goes on ... so much good food and great atmosphere! Saturday mornings have become our favorite quality team each week and we hope it continues in our new city too! Luckily, there is a Taverna there!
Today, we stopped by the Austin farmers market! We saw duck and goose eggs, tons of vegetables and fruits, homemade soaps, homemade dog biscuits, salsa, flowers, tamales, breakfast tacos, veagan cake and cookies. We could have done some damage there, but we just left with some organic tamales (pork and chicken) that we will be eating later tonight. Yum!
Trying to soak in Austin before we leave!!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Calendar and Book List
.July 5th - 15th Pre-matriculation Workshop
July 18th - 22nd Orientation
July 22nd - First Day of Med School
July 23rd - White Coat Ceremony
< 2 weeks off for Christmas >
< 1 week off for Spring Break >
< 6 weeks off for Summer >
If you see RED, that's not good. If you see BLACK, that's just a free study day.
(Be kind on the red days.)
This is the 2 page book list for our first year.
Love,
a Busy StuDoc
Sunday, May 1, 2011
God's next curve ball...
Welllllll... my car's brakes went out this week. Awesome. A pretty scary feeling when you are on the road! We took it in today to get an estimate on repairs, and now we sit trying to weigh the cost of getting the repairs or getting a new car. We already thought about getting a new car in the near future, but we were too busy focusing on moving and starting med school first. This could not have happened at a worse time. We start moving in two weeks, both our parents are moving before us, we work at completely different times (day shift, night shift, and weekends). So all of our spare time is taken up by moving, helping parents move, and dinner dates with friends here and there. It doesn't leave us much time to research cars together and test drive a few. However, because we work at different times, we would be able to get down to one car and make it work. Here's how: hubby takes me to work at 730, we switch at lunch and I take him to work, and I pick him up from work at midnight - Exhausted yet? Car buying would be a new process for us and we would definitely want to take our time and ask lots of questions. Those who know me, know I hate making rash decisions. But now we are thinking it might be better to buy a car now due to the fact we both have jobs and both have proof of income. We learned our lesson on previous blogs. Med school loans are not a proof of income and I am in currently in the job search. So waiting it out and taking our time might not be the most logical decision.
This was on our list of things to do - it is just happening sooner than we thought. God just keeps throwing curve balls at us and we are trying to keep up. Stay tuned for what happens next....
This was on our list of things to do - it is just happening sooner than we thought. God just keeps throwing curve balls at us and we are trying to keep up. Stay tuned for what happens next....
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Austin, Texas
Things to do in Austin before we leave...
- Running at Town Lake
- Alamo Drafthouse
- Driftwood for Salt Lick BBQ
- Float the river in New Braunfels
- Zilker Park
- Taverna for breakfast
- Watch the bats on Congress bridge
- Habanas
- Vivo's
- Amy's Ice Cream
Any other suggestions?
We have grown up in Austin, attended college nearby, gotten married in Austin, and spent our first married year in Austin. It will be sad to go, because no other city compares, but we are ready to leave and start this new chapter in our life!
We will begin moving to our new city on May 13th and our last day of work in Austin is May 27th. We have been saving up for quite a while to spend the month of June in our new city, going on trips, getting settled in, and spending time together before med school starts. The sad realization is we won't be spending this much time together for decades to come. The lifestyle of a physician, even after med school, is very similar to med school itself. They say med school prepares you to live on less sleep and master time management. So it isn't going to get easy anytime soon. I know that the month of June will be a month that we will remember forever - our last hoorah!
Our current work schedules have prepared us for med school. I work 8-5 and hubby works 2pm - 11pm (including the weekends). We are constantly missing eachother because of work. As frustrating it is, the silver lining is maybe med school won't seem so bad right off the bat. Yesterday, we had our first day where both of us had the same day off. I took the day off so that we could go to the dentist together. We haven't had a day off together and spent more than 24 hours together in months! We had a lot of fun, even though we just ran errands all day. It was just a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in June...
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Our first med school challenge!
This week has been absolutely crazy! A roller coaster to say the least. Everyday we get excited about something, and then we run into a speed bump. We can't stay too excited around here too long...
We have found out our first med school challenge - Student loans for cost of living can not be used as proof of income.
During this month we had 3 things to do: sublet our apartment out for the last 2 months of our lease, find a house in Ft. Worth, and find a job.
1. Sublet our apartment - this task had to be done before all the others. We have saved financially to have to pay 2 months rent (our apartment here and our new rent in Ft. Worth) for the month of July. It was important to us to move weeks before med school started so that we would be able to get acquainted with the new town and have some fun before medschool books was all he saw. In March and April we posted on Craigs List to sublet for June and July and got no bites. We finally decided to post May, June, and July and see if we get any bites for people who want to move in the end of May. We got some bites alright! Four people called/emailed in the first four hours and we are still receiving emails and phone calls. But everyone who called was asking if they could move in the last week of April?! That would be fine minus the fact that we would be homeless for weeks! We did weigh our options before we turned them all away - living with parents/inlaws until a home in Ft. Worth was ready. Next speed bump - both of our parents (who currently live in/near the same town as us) are in the process of selling their houses and buying new ones. Yes, all three of us are moving within weeks of eachother. Talk about bad timing. Then, God gave us some random guy from Wisconsin who wanted to move in the very last week May. He was happy he found a place and we were happy with the timeline. Yay!
2. Finding a new home - Our last blog was about buying or renting. And this is where we found out about our first medschool challenge. We talked to a loan officer and they found out that we would not be able to buy a home unless I (the non-student) could prove 3 months of previous income. Well, that is not going to work out because I have to quit and find a new job. Normal families move because of a spouse finding a new job and can/will provide income. In our case, we are moving because a spouse is becoming a student again. Good information. Now we know for the future. So moving right along...
We found a house to rent that was within our budget. The only downfall is the distance from the school. This was at first our number one priority. But we quickly learned that we were forgetting other obvious priorities - like safety. Our budget was reasonable, however the campus is downtown and within a cultural district. So all the houses we were looking at were over budget or in a rougher area. Kid you not, my husband said he didn't even feel safe leaving Boss (our dog) there, let alone his wife.
We finally found a house within budget in a great safe area that immediately felt like home. We didn't have our realtor with us since we were just paroozing after orientation on Saturday, so we weren't able to see the inside. We came home, told our realtor we were interested, it was still available, and we drove back up there last minute on Wednesday using our vacation work time to meet our realtor. We liked it. It fit. The end. We came back home to fill out the application. Next speed bump - the house was not listed with the application like the realtor had said. We were in contact with the realtor and he emailed us "Hm, that must mean it's not available anymore. I'll get with the realtor tomorrow and let you know." Seriously? It was available this morning and I wasted a vacation day for this. Awesome. So the agent said there was a mistake and it IS available (whoo!) and he gave us the application. We filled it out and good to go. Now here's the next speed bump: the application processor asked us if my job will be continued in Ft. Worth. Uh, no! - I'm in the process of quitting and job searching. So, buying OR renting - student loans is not proof of income. Good to know.
3. Job Search/Proof of income - We have been saving up a lot of money to really enjoy the month of June and get settled into the place we will call home for the next 4-8 years. It was important to me to spend time putting together and nesting our new home. One thing I learned from these past few apartments is if I know I am moving in 12 months, I will put off decorating and unpacking. To give you an idea, there are still a few boxes we never unpacked here. So, I juggled around the idea How do I start looking for a job but say I can't start for another 3 months or Find a job and then ask for 2 weeks off? We decided I wasn't going to crunch down on job searching until we got there. This will allow me to breathe a little bit and reduce some stress.
Then my boss at work informed me that she is trying to create a new position for me in their Dallas office. What an honor! Jumping right in, there is one thing wrong with the job - distance from Ft. Worth to Dallas is an hour job with no traffic, with gas prices going up and i'll probably have to buy a new car becasue mine is on it's last few years (which i'm not that upset about). My thought process - it's not like I have anything too exciting to rush home to - my husband isn't sitting at home awaiting my return. He's going to be studying and I'll still probably beat him home. This position has to be approved by our VP, HR dept, and our client so it is nowhere near 100%. But cross your fingers because the drive would be worth it in this economy and I wasn't looking forward to job searching and going through the learning curve again.
So back to our current situation... our application on our home to rent. So the application asks us if we are continuing our jobs in our move. So I say yes, (it's a possibility). Next speed bump: She replies asking me to get that in writing from my company. Crap! I tell her it is still being approved by HR. So now we are left with having a co-signer. This, I have learned, is something we will need to get used to during med-school. From my research, if you are in med-school you have to co-sign everything. Just think of those single (non-married) med school where all they have is loans and no 'spouse's income'. If they would rent an apartment or buy a new car, they still need a co-signer.
What a week, right!?! I find myself saying I just want to close my eyes and wake up and it's June. We can't wait!
Our advise so far - make sure your spouse has a job BEFORE looking for a place to live and/or have a designated co-signer for you throughout ALL of medschool.
We have found out our first med school challenge - Student loans for cost of living can not be used as proof of income.
During this month we had 3 things to do: sublet our apartment out for the last 2 months of our lease, find a house in Ft. Worth, and find a job.
1. Sublet our apartment - this task had to be done before all the others. We have saved financially to have to pay 2 months rent (our apartment here and our new rent in Ft. Worth) for the month of July. It was important to us to move weeks before med school started so that we would be able to get acquainted with the new town and have some fun before medschool books was all he saw. In March and April we posted on Craigs List to sublet for June and July and got no bites. We finally decided to post May, June, and July and see if we get any bites for people who want to move in the end of May. We got some bites alright! Four people called/emailed in the first four hours and we are still receiving emails and phone calls. But everyone who called was asking if they could move in the last week of April?! That would be fine minus the fact that we would be homeless for weeks! We did weigh our options before we turned them all away - living with parents/inlaws until a home in Ft. Worth was ready. Next speed bump - both of our parents (who currently live in/near the same town as us) are in the process of selling their houses and buying new ones. Yes, all three of us are moving within weeks of eachother. Talk about bad timing. Then, God gave us some random guy from Wisconsin who wanted to move in the very last week May. He was happy he found a place and we were happy with the timeline. Yay!
2. Finding a new home - Our last blog was about buying or renting. And this is where we found out about our first medschool challenge. We talked to a loan officer and they found out that we would not be able to buy a home unless I (the non-student) could prove 3 months of previous income. Well, that is not going to work out because I have to quit and find a new job. Normal families move because of a spouse finding a new job and can/will provide income. In our case, we are moving because a spouse is becoming a student again. Good information. Now we know for the future. So moving right along...
We found a house to rent that was within our budget. The only downfall is the distance from the school. This was at first our number one priority. But we quickly learned that we were forgetting other obvious priorities - like safety. Our budget was reasonable, however the campus is downtown and within a cultural district. So all the houses we were looking at were over budget or in a rougher area. Kid you not, my husband said he didn't even feel safe leaving Boss (our dog) there, let alone his wife.
We finally found a house within budget in a great safe area that immediately felt like home. We didn't have our realtor with us since we were just paroozing after orientation on Saturday, so we weren't able to see the inside. We came home, told our realtor we were interested, it was still available, and we drove back up there last minute on Wednesday using our vacation work time to meet our realtor. We liked it. It fit. The end. We came back home to fill out the application. Next speed bump - the house was not listed with the application like the realtor had said. We were in contact with the realtor and he emailed us "Hm, that must mean it's not available anymore. I'll get with the realtor tomorrow and let you know." Seriously? It was available this morning and I wasted a vacation day for this. Awesome. So the agent said there was a mistake and it IS available (whoo!) and he gave us the application. We filled it out and good to go. Now here's the next speed bump: the application processor asked us if my job will be continued in Ft. Worth. Uh, no! - I'm in the process of quitting and job searching. So, buying OR renting - student loans is not proof of income. Good to know.
3. Job Search/Proof of income - We have been saving up a lot of money to really enjoy the month of June and get settled into the place we will call home for the next 4-8 years. It was important to me to spend time putting together and nesting our new home. One thing I learned from these past few apartments is if I know I am moving in 12 months, I will put off decorating and unpacking. To give you an idea, there are still a few boxes we never unpacked here. So, I juggled around the idea How do I start looking for a job but say I can't start for another 3 months or Find a job and then ask for 2 weeks off? We decided I wasn't going to crunch down on job searching until we got there. This will allow me to breathe a little bit and reduce some stress.
Then my boss at work informed me that she is trying to create a new position for me in their Dallas office. What an honor! Jumping right in, there is one thing wrong with the job - distance from Ft. Worth to Dallas is an hour job with no traffic, with gas prices going up and i'll probably have to buy a new car becasue mine is on it's last few years (which i'm not that upset about). My thought process - it's not like I have anything too exciting to rush home to - my husband isn't sitting at home awaiting my return. He's going to be studying and I'll still probably beat him home. This position has to be approved by our VP, HR dept, and our client so it is nowhere near 100%. But cross your fingers because the drive would be worth it in this economy and I wasn't looking forward to job searching and going through the learning curve again.
So back to our current situation... our application on our home to rent. So the application asks us if we are continuing our jobs in our move. So I say yes, (it's a possibility). Next speed bump: She replies asking me to get that in writing from my company. Crap! I tell her it is still being approved by HR. So now we are left with having a co-signer. This, I have learned, is something we will need to get used to during med-school. From my research, if you are in med-school you have to co-sign everything. Just think of those single (non-married) med school where all they have is loans and no 'spouse's income'. If they would rent an apartment or buy a new car, they still need a co-signer.
What a week, right!?! I find myself saying I just want to close my eyes and wake up and it's June. We can't wait!
Our advise so far - make sure your spouse has a job BEFORE looking for a place to live and/or have a designated co-signer for you throughout ALL of medschool.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
to rent or to buy?
Pros of each:
RENTING PROS:
BUYING PROS:
- Monthly payments are like putting away into a savings account (towards your equity.)
- Job security – we know for a fact we will be in this city for the next 4-8 years if not longer.
- The thought of moving AGAIN in the next year makes me nauseous. I am a bad decorator when I know I am leaving in a few months. What's the point when it might not fit in the next place you live? I would love to finally settle in and buy curtains.
- Great time to buy.
- Sense of freedom to create your own.
- A landlord is responsible. StuDoc will not be accessible to do as many honey-to-dos around the house as he would like (as I would like). Therefore, it would be nice to have someone else responsible and to turn to. I like to think I can do a lot on my own, but lets be honest... I can't even reach the top shelf of the kitchen cabinets without climbing on the counters.
- A chance to figure out what is important to us when we do buy.
- We don't feel comfortable using our loan money given to us to buy a house. For example, using a loan to pay a loan. It is important to us to always live within our means and never take more than we NEED.
- Take the time to get to know the area (communities, school districts, all those things to consider when re-selling).
The ideal situation would be rent the first year and buy it the following year if we really enjoy the property. If the PERFECT house presents itself we will consider. Here are some things that are important to us while we are searching.
- Close to campus. – at our pre-orientation at TCOM there was one family who lived 2 blocks away and was able to meet and have lunch and dinner with her husband and their little girl on campus everyday. Another woman said that they bought a house in a cute little town outside of the big city and it was the worst decision they made. It took her husband 45 minutes to get to campus. What a waste of time driving.
- Backyard – a good backyard for Boss. This apartment dog deserves it! He will just need to learn to be a little more independent and not have to ALWAYS be around people. As cute as he is, this gets really annoying sometimes.
- Three-four bedrooms - It is important to this StuDoc to have a nice, quiet, organized study room. This will help our time management and give him a chance to spend more time at home. Since we will not be able to travel much, we want to have enough space for people to come visit us.
- Open kitchen - I have realized growing up how important having a large open kitchen is to me. When my brother and I would come home from college or family would visit, it was always the kitchen where we would meet, eat, and greet. It allowed my parents to make dinner provide snacks, but not be secluded from conversation.
It is exciting to think that we will soon be picking out OUR FIRST HOME.
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