Post Busiest Weekend Ever

Here's a photo from the day, in case you missed some pictures in the robe.  Emily insisted that I looked like Martin Luther.......I ignored her.
The day went really well.  We only had a 2 hour commencement service that (I was told) wasn't too boring.  Then we had an awesome fish fry at the Schwabenhof German Hall.  We also enjoyed some imported German beers, in addition to some Shandy.  Afterward we met up with the Brandt family and the kids got to swim in the hotel pool.
Saturday
I got up early and picked Heide up for some early morning shopping.  Afterward I joined Judy and my mom at the house for prep work for the party.  Unfortunately Bry was not feeling very well so he didn't have a very good day.
The party started around noon and we had lots of help setting up.  The aunts and uncles were terrific helpers.  The kids had tons of fun with bubbles, crayons and chalk.  The adults enjoyed visiting and eating the sandwiches and salads that we had.  It was terrific to see so many people from all different parts of my life: Family from AZ, TX, WI, MN and WI, friends from High School and Medical School, new friends from Milwaukee.  It was awesome to see everyone.
I'll blog later about the baby shower on Sunday, which was also a hit.
Packing Update: Emily and I have the whole kitchen packed and cleaned and will continue to make a dent in the bedrooms and other places.  The living space is getting smaller, but the TV and cable are still intact!

GRADUATION

Today is the day I go from

Mrs. Abigail L Polzin

to
Dr. Abigail L Polzin
Quite the change.  Don't you think?

Since this is my third name during my life, I'm hoping that the change will come easier this time.  I think it will since Bry is REQUIRED to call me "Doctor" whenever he addresses me.  The same goes for you-all.  Not kidding.

Today we have to survive a 2.5 hour graduation service, then we get to relax and celebrate Wisconsin-style: Fish Fry and Imported German Beers.  My idea of a good time.  If you can make it, you should join us.

Tomorrow is a party for the rest of the family/friends who I insisted NOT come to be tortured at the ceremony.  Can't wait to see everyone.

Onw Week....

 A photo from a Bachelorette Party last week.  Carolyn, Beth, Caroline, Goossen, Me

As of today the one week countdown to graduation begins.  Actually, it is a good time to look back too.  I can't believe it's been 4 years already.  Even harder to believe that I'm going to now have an income, a career and a life without school!  However, in my chosen profession, it doesn't get any easier from here.  This next year is going to be a doozie - and it starts June 21.

As my many roommates can attest (Jesse, Emily, Beth, Blake, Beth, Bry, Beth and Kiah, Jesse) I've spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears on my education.  It wasn't easy, but looking back I am surprised how easy it seems now.  And it all paid off since I will be starting my dream job in just a few weeks.  Of course, paycheck #1 doesn't come until August.  And there's a little thing called student loans that could run us up to $3000 per month!  Yikes. 

Tonight we're going to the Brewers game with the rest of my classmates.  We're excited to tailgate with everyone.  At the same time we're sad because it's the last time we're going to be able to hang out with a lot of our friends because they're leaving Milwaukee.  Tomorrow we're going to the zoo for another class event. 

Next week will go as follows:
Monday: 1/2 day of classes.  Not sure what else.
Tuesday: class test, CPR training in the PM, SUSHI with the regular sushi gang for one last Fujiyama fling!
Wednesday: NOTHING!  I think my parents come this day or Thursday, can't remember.  Maybe hanging out with some friends. Grandpa Schneider comes today too.
Thursday: Senior Awards Dinner - more family arrives including Emily and Aunt Judy.
Friday: Graduation!  Ceremony at 3 pm.  Dinner at The Schwabenhof for a fish fry with the fam.
Saturday: Graduation party at Greenfield Park from 12-3.  Going to get to see lots of friends and family.
Sunday: Baby Shower for my sister-in-law-to-be and then the packing begins!  I've hired Emily for a week to help me pack up the entire apartment - oh yeah, there may be some cleaning involved too.....

Honeypie Cafe

Honeypie Cafe was recommended to me by Alex and Tony - they frequented it about 3 times in 3 weeks right before Alex delivered Riley.  Since I had invited the pregnant pastor's wife, Bonnie, out for lunch I thought she'd enjoy it just as much.  We both had the pasty of the day - I had vegan vegetable and she had ham and cheese.  They came with soup or salad and we both had salad with a citrus-basil vinagrette.  Very delicious and pretty healthy too.  Then the healthiness disappeared when we stood in front of the glass case filled with made-from-scratch desserts.  Bonnie had Coconut Cream Pie and I had Pistachio Pie.  They were both delicious!  They both had a wonderful (unhealthy) grahm cracker crust that was my favorite part.  If I go back (I think Bry would like it) I'm going to try one of the amazing looking cupcakes.  The coffee was good too.

Last night was Senior Gala.  I had to find a different date since Bry was working late.  Shannon (one of the Philippines roomies) hadn't bought a ticket yet so I got to take her.  We had a blast at the Astor Hotel downtown and stayed out till 11.  I was the DD and had a great time with Megan, Caro and Shannon.

The New Car

I suppose we should introduce the newest member of our family - since we finally got some pictures of him.
He's a 2010 Kia Forte. He was purchased in March with <200 miles on him - most of those were put on by US when we were test-driving him!

wedding weekend

We celebrated the wedding of Bry's good friend from high school this weekend. Josh and Rachael had a gorgeous wedding and we had a lot of fun. We got to host Bry's other good friend, Jason, who was awesome enough to crash on our couch for 3 nights. He was informed he will have a whole guestroom to himself when he comes back to visit us! But actually we owe him a visit in Denver, CO and will be super excited to see the house he just bought.

We finished our visit with Jason by going to Milwaukee Public Museum for a peek at the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit. The exhibit was pretty cool - the tiny fragments of parchment that have been painstakingly pieced together, translated and preserved were pretty impressive. There was also a pretty cool collection of Bibles on display along with the fragments. Pottery and other items from the region were also available, but I wasn't as in to those things.

We had lunch at the Water Street Brewery. I had their Bavarian Weiss beer and Bry and Jason tried the home brewed Root Beer. We splurged on some appetizers (onion blossom and mozzarella triangles) and then had sandwiches all around. Hands down my favorite thing was the homemade chips - potato, sweet potato and beet chips! Beet chips my sound weird, but they were super delicious. Jason had a good welcoming to Milwaukee and the weather was gorgeous.

Otherwise I'm still a knitting fool. I'm working on a few more projects and have been trying to limit my trips to the yarn store. I start Preparing For Internship tomorrow. The beginning of the crazy graduation preparation begins tomorrow too. The one upside to the end of my vacation month is that I get to see all of my friends. I also need to start studying for ATLS and will be bringing along the training manual and my knitting to the course. Luckily it only goes until noon everyday.