Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hooah!





Nathan is officially a dental student. Friday afternoon we attended his White Coat Ceremony. The White Coat Ceremony is a lot like a commencement ceremony, except backwards. Instead of saying, "Good-bye, hope you remember what we taught you," they say, "Hello, open your brain because we have a lot to put into it." Oh yeah, and they help you put on a white coat and shake your hand once it's on.

They had a few speakers, the dean, a few professors (dentists), and then a keynote speaker who is a very well respected dentist in the community. Then they had all the students stand and one by one they called the students up so the dean could put their coats on them.

It took place in a chapel on Case's campus. The chapel had wooden pews and Jeremy kept laying belly down on them so he could pull himself across them with his hands. Each time he'd say, "Look mom, I'm a fish!" It was really funny. It would have been even funnier if it wasn't during a ceremony where everyone was supposed to be quiet. Megan continually threw up one of the receiving blankets over Emma's head and then shrieked with laughter. Literally shrieked-the girl is a harpy sometimes.

Afterward they had a reception which was very nice. Yummy food, but I didn't get to eat much of it. We were busy talking to the Army guy. You see, Nathan has decided to join the U.S. Army. The Army will pay for his schooling, give us a signing bonus, and give us a monthly check. When dental school is over he will automatically have a job, we can pretty much decide where we want to live, the Army pays for the moving expenses, we will have health insurance, good pay with no student loans to pay back, no malpractice insurance to worry about, and the chance to take our kids to another country. There is next to no chance that we'd actually be asked to go over seas, but if Nathan and I decide we want to live in Italy for three years, we could. We prayed about it last week and both felt like it was the right thing to do. The Army, not Italy. Yet.







9 comments:

Amber Omer said...

Holy moly!! Wow! The army? Wow!

And congrats on the white coat! Looks good on ya!


...
Italy? Woohoo! Maybe we'll come and live in France for the same few years and you know, we can bash Europe together! But you'd have to learn French...to be cool.

optoblog said...

Fun times.
By the way, white coats get really dirty looking inside a warehouse type setting, so be sure to get a job inside a nice dental office. ;)

Kellie said...

We know that Nathan's decision to do the Army route is kind of surprising. It surprised us how good we felt about the decision. Normally we wouldn't even consider it as an option, so for both of us to suddenly be like, "Oh, this is what we need to do," is very weird.

Lisa said...

Wow! That sounds pretty amazing! You can definitely link my blog to yours, if I can do the same. I can't wait to hear about all of your fun adventures!

Leanne said...

AWESOME!!! Congrats Nathan! Thanks for the chat you guys! I miss talking to you and it was really nice to catch up "not on blog" love ya!

Dave Omer said...

Way to go, Nate!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, that is just unreal. I can't believe that, that Nate want to join the army. Really I can't see him in the army but that is my own thought.
The white coat a good color for him, he looks very professional.
We hope that all will go well for all five of you.
We love you! Keep in touch!!!

Kellie said...

It sounds more dramatic than it really is, I think. It's more like, he's working for the Army than he's joining the Army.

Tracey said...

I love that you respond with comments on your own blog - your hilarious! I was also shocked about the Army announcement, but I hope it's a good move. I am a semi-Army brat, so I know how it is. By the way, you should definitely go digital with the scrapbooking, once you get the hang of it, it's faster and cheaper.