Year in Review: October, November, and December

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! I am still on our Caribbean cruise, but I wanted to share the last three months before the start of 2015.

October
The highlight of October was the fall foliage cruise we went on to celebrate our five year anniversary. We had a blast exploring Boston before the cruise and visiting the ports of Portland, Maine, Bar Harbor, Maine, Saint Johns, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

November
Honestly, November was a tough month. Chris was gone nearly the entire month for interviews, and I confessed that it was hard to be apart for two weeks straight. Thanksgiving was amazing, though. Since all of my extended family is in Russia, we have spent Christmas and Thanksgiving with a group of Russian friends that might as well be family. Growing up, I had three close Russian friends. Everyone called us the Red Army. I got to see two of them for Thanksgiving, and we had a blast catching up with each other.

December
We had so much fun in December! Chris still had a lot of interviews, but I got to see him every weekend. We went to Baylor’s last football game of the year and got to see ESPN College GameDay on campus. We had several Christmas parties and went to a beautiful winter wedding. We capped off December by celebrating Christmas with friends and family…and now we are on a Caribbean cruise to bring in 2015!

Here’s to 2015!

December 2014 PopSugar Must Have Box Review

Hello, friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I am on a Caribbean cruise this week, but I wanted to share my December PopSugar box. This box is exactly why I love subscription boxes—I probably wouldn’t have bought any of these items individually, but I love everything in it.

Sparklepop Sydney Necklace ($42): This is such a fun necklace. I love the sparkle, and the length is great. It is a nice piece to wear alone or to layer with other necklaces. I will definitely get a lot of use out of it.

Canvas Dauville Platinum Bowl ($29): This bowl is an item that I probably wouldn’t buy, but I really love it. I am going to use it for some of my earrings.

SPUN by Subtle Luxury Speckled Metallic Scarf ($62): The scarf is my favorite item in this PopSugar box. I love that it is lightweight, and the sparkle is so pretty.

Smashbox Be Legendary Long-Wear Lip Lacquer ($24): I love Smashbox items, and I really liked this lip lacquer. It lasted a long time, and it’s a nice color.

Williams-Sonoma Cupcake Mix in Vanilla Bean ($14.95): I love to make cupcakes, and I will definitely use this soon! I think the packaging is really cute and would make a good gift.

Knot & Bow Gift Tags ($4): These are so cute. I love that they are blue, so I can use them throughout the year.

The total value of this box was $175.95 this month. I have now had the PopSugar Must Have Box for a year, and this is one is my favorite box so far!

What is your favorite item in this box?

Year in Review: July, August, and September

It’s been fun to think back on my year so today I am linking up again to share July, August, and September.

July
July is always my favorite month of the year because it include my hubby’s birthday, my birthday, and our anniversary….all in the same week. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned it on my blog before, but Chris and I were born two days apart (less than that if you account for the huge time difference!). His birthday is July 21, my birthday is July 23, and our anniversary is July 25. We actually hadn’t planned for our wedding to be the same week as our birthdays. The original plan was to get married in June, but July 25 was the date that worked out. Anyways, this year was fun because we both turned 25 and celebrated our five year anniversary. We love giving each other traditional gifts for our anniversary, and this year we enjoyed coming up with unique ways to give each other wood. Though it can be exhausting to have so many big days in one week (we call it our “super week”), we always have a great time celebrating each other.

August
August was my best friend’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to a winery. It was also the month that I started this blog. I had been reading blogs for years and finally decided to take the plunge. I am so glad I did! I was also excited about the start of college football and wrote why I thought it was the best time of the year.

September
In September, we started narrowing down the hubby’s residency options. It was the first time that it felt like medical school was almost over. He applied to residency in the middle of the month, and the interview offers started rolling in the next day. It was so exciting to see all of the schools that wanted to interview him. He has worked so hard, and I am incredibly proud! Here's an update on the interview process.

Merry Christmas, friends! 

I will be taking the rest of the week off to spend times with friends and family. We will be cruising next week, but I will have a few scheduled posts up (If it takes me a while to respond, that's why). I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing week, and I will see you in the new year!

Three Months from Match Day: Residency Update

Other than mentioning the interviews in my Friday Favorites, I haven’t talked about the residency process in a while. I can’t believe we are so close to finding out where we’re headed! Although I am doing better at living in the present (the holiday season has really helped with that), I am still eager to know if we are moving.

Here’s a quick explanation of the process:
Chris is specializing in radiology, which means he has to do a year of internal medicine (or surgery) before he starts his radiology residency. He has to interview for both internal medicine and radiology programs right now, and we will find out his placement for both on March 20. He still has a whole month of interviews in January, and he will have a total of 32 interviews by the time he is done.

Once the interview process is over, we will rank the programs, and the programs will rank Chris. On March 20, we will receive an envelope with one radiology and one internal medicine program on it….and that’s where we’re headed. Most residencies start on June 15 so we will have less than two months to move (if we need to).

Current thoughts: 
Though it is still hard for us not to have a lot of control over the process (since the schools ranking Chris is what will matter in the end), Chris and I feel pretty good about our top five choices. The top five choices are really different from each other in location and size, and there is still a chance that these will change since Chris has some interesting options coming up in January. I wish I could break them down and talk about similarities and differences, but I can’t write about it.

Right now I am in a weird position where I am so ready to know so I can start planning, but I want time to go slowly because life will be even crazier once we do know. Here’s to the next three months—I am sure they will pass quickly, and before I know it, I will be writing a post about where we’re going.

Friday Favorites: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the last Friday before Christmas! It’s so crazy to me that Christmas is only six days away. How is this year almost over? Anyways, I am so excited for next week and all the fun it will bring!

Here are my Friday favorites this week:

/ / One:
After today, I only have two work days until I am off till January 5! Like I mentioned last week, this is such a huge blessing, and I am so excited for time with friends and family.

/ / Two:
Like me, Chris is now done with interviews until January! January will be his last month of interviews, and I can’t even tell y’all how happy we both are about that! March 20 doesn’t seem so far away anymore.

/ / Three:
We leave for our New Year’s Eve cruise on December 28! I can’t wait to relax, spend time with Chris and his family, and enjoy that beautiful Caribbean water.

/ / Four:
I finished reading Keeper of the Light by Diane Chamberlain this week. I have loved all of the books I have read by Diane Chamberlain so far because of her complex characters and interesting plots filled with suspense (there is usually a big secret that comes out at the end).

The Amazon blurb for Keeper of the Light says: Dr. Olivia Simon is on duty in the emergency room of North Carolina's Outer Banks Hospital when a gunshot victim is brought in. Midway through the desperate effort to save the young woman's life, Olivia realizes who she is—Annie O'Neill. The woman Olivia's husband, Paul, is in love with. When Annie dies on the operating table, she leaves behind three other victims. Alec O'Neill, who thought he had the perfect marriage. Paul, whose fixation on Annie is unshakable. And Olivia, who is desperate to understand the woman who destroyed her marriage. Now they are left with unanswered questions about who Annie really was. And about the secrets she kept hidden so well. It was so good. I loved Olivia and Alec and thought those characters were well developed. I usually figure out secrets, but the secret at the end of this book was really surprising. Now I am reading the second book in the trilogy, Kiss River.

/ / Five:
Remember my what to wear for New Year’s Eve post? I ended up getting this dress and this dress. I figured that I can always wear the one I don’t pick for New Year’s Eve on a formal night on the cruise.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

Linking up with Lauren, Amanda, Karli, and Amy.