Baby Patrick is here!!

My good friend Naomi and her husband Matt, welcomed their first child into the world last Thursday the 19th! Patrick James O'Reilly. I was so sad not to be there, but hope I can visit soon! You can look at their blog - The O'Reilly's - for pictures of Patrick - He is precious!

Spring Break 09

Well, my last Spring Break is almost over... and it didn't even feel like a break! I counted my Las Vegas trip as my fun and decided to work for free AGAIN for more hours - in the AU student pharmacy this week. I finished my 40 hours today...still have 85 left to do, which will have to happen after graduation. :-( It wasn't too bad, just standing on your feet for 9 hours a day is not the most fun...
A few exciting events of the week...went to the AU Men's Basketball game on Tuesday night (NIT)- it was exciting but disappointing at the last second - we lost by 2. The place was packed and it was good to see some familiar faces. Wednesday night my mom and I went shopping in Montgomery - got a few staple items, including a dress for graduation which was exciting! Thursday night I got to see my old roommate Ashley Pickers and catch up with her life. This afternoon I started babysitting for the Speaks (4 boys) and will be here all weekend - it's bound to be fun and adventuresome.
Today my mom and I found the place I will probably be living next year! We spent some time searching the internet this week and I came upon an ad on Craig's list that ended up being a great deal. It is a brand-new condo in a gated community that is only 7-10 minutes from the hospital! I'm planning on signing the lease next week as I think it is a great place, location, price, etc and we won't have to make another trip to Charleston. It really is an answer to prayers. You can check it out at: www.ownregatta.com
I start my LAST rotation at Rite-Aid in Crestline on Monday...fun, fun!

Pictures from Vegas

Here are some of the pictures from Vegas... the golf course was beautiful!



And this is a video from the beginning of day 2 - announcing Will

Las Vegas video

Charleston here I come!

I matched with my first choice - MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina)! I am excited about the opportunity but also nervous at the same time. I really appreciate how supportive my family and friends have been - they all think Charleston will be a great opportunity for me and a great place to come visit! I received the email about 8am this morning right before I went to rounds. But, I was SO distracted during rounds as I was texting everyone to let them know and also to find out where all of my other pharmacy friends matched. A few got their first choices, a few their 2nd/3rd/4th and a few didn't match and will be trying to "scramble" for a position at a program that also didn't match some of their spots. All that to say, I am very blessed to have gotten my first choice and am confident that this was the Lord's plan!

Stay tuned...

Match day is tomorrow!! So glad it almost here as I am very ready to know where I will be next year. I still have no clue what I'll get, but I know any of the choices will be a great opportunity. The matching service posts the results at 11am central time, but they try to send you an email sometime in the morning before 11. So, hopefully I can sneak out of rounds to check my email - but at the latest, I will know at 11am...crazy! I'll post the results as soon as I can!

Wi-fi on a plane

How cool is this... I am on a southwest flight right now using the free wi-fi on my I-touch! This is the flight they are testing it out on... Anyway just left vegas and I'm due into bham at midnight... Tomorrow is going to be a long day at work. Vegas was fun but the golf was a little disappointing- for Will at least. He did not play his best the first day shooting 8 over and we thought for sure he would turn things around the next day - he did improve by two strokes with 6 over sat but today was a nightmare as he finished 11 over and the team didn't finish that strong either. The guys enjoyed the course but know they have a lot to work on. This was their first tournament of the spring season. I'm glad I got to see him play but hate he didn't play his best. We didn't have much time to do other things in vegas but I finally talked my parents into seeing the "O" show last night and it was great!! Highly recommend it. Well I will post the pictures tomorrow. Got to get back to the last 100 pages of the last twilight book, breaking dawn. Cheesy books but entertaining...

Headed to Vegas baby

I'm at the Bham airport headed to Las Vegas today for Will's tournament. The tournament is called Southern Highlands Collegiate, hosted by UNLV. The play days are 3/13 – 3/15 and the scores can be found on www.golfstat.com if you are interested. It should have a good field; Will is excited about playing. Last year Charlotte finished 2nd. It will be interesting to see how competitive they will be this year. My parents arrived there yesterday and have already found my recommendation to stay at The Bellagio to be enjoyable. I looking forward to joining them. I made sure to pack plenty of green, white and black for the course and no AU gear, as Auburn will also be playing in this tournament. Probably the one time in my life when I will be cheering against my Auburn Tigers!

Amy's in Africa!

So, my good friend Amy has been in Ghana, Africa for almost 2 weeks now. You can check out her blog at www.amykinafrica.blogspot.com or on the link to the right. She is working at the Baptist Medical Center in northern Ghana for a her elective rotation - I had the privilege to meet the pharmacist and doctors she is working with on my trip to Cote d'Ivoire this summer - they all came to the IMB meeting. I know she is having a great experience - can't wait to hear more about it!

Rank List

Well, it's official - i turned in my rank list yesterday. Still unsure about it, but I trust the Lord will place me where He wants. I put 1-MUSC/Charleston, 2-Vanderbilt, 3-UAB, 4-Wake and 5-UNC-chapel hill. I'm really hoping I get one of the top 3, but I know I will be fine at any of the programs. Now I just have to wait until Wed, March 18th at 11am to find out!

Decisons, decisions...

Still struggling over what order to rank the residency programs in. I have a tenative order, but at any moment in the day I could talk myself into one program more than another and totally change the list. This week, as I have prayed over the situation, I have found more peace - in knowing that His purpose will prevail, whether it is my choice #1, 3 or 5. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" Pr 19:21.
I was reading a few chapters in Elizabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity today and these few sentances just stuck out and really spoke to me... "the heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go, than they care about getting there?"

Lunch with Campbell

Today I got off work early and was able to eat lunch with Katie and Campbell at Moe's. Campbell overheard the employees saying their traditional "Welcome to Moe's!" - she then turned to me and said, "Welcome to Moe's Jess!" It was precious and the highlight of my day!

Flight/Trip Cancelled and SNOW!

Well, as I was about to get in bed early last night for my 6am flight out to Denver, I checked the flight status and my flight from ATL to DEN was CANCELLED!! I have to admit I was somewhat excited because I was dreading the trip a little bit...didn't really feel like I would end up going there anyway (for many reasons). So after about 2 hrs of calling, busy signals and holding, I spoke with someone at Delta and had the choice to delay the trip a few hours or just cancel it all together. I went ahead and cancelled because I figured i would get to Atlanta and get stuck there today. It was a good choice as I checked all the flights this morning - old and new - and they were all cancelled! I feel like this poisition was not where the Lord would have me for next year and I'm thankful to have one less choice for my rank list. Even the guy on the phone with delta said, "yeah - you better stay home, this is not meant to be." Now if the rest of the choices would be so obvious...
Anyway, so I woke up in Birmingham to snow!! We've gotten about 2-3" so far. It's beautiful and I'm glad to be here and not traveling.