Ryan's Graduation

Hip-hip-hooray! Ryan has graduated from UCLA Orthodontics! It has been 11 years in the making, and now Ryan is a full fledged orthodontist. I am so proud of him. After 4 years of undergrad at the University of UT, 4 years of dental school at UCLA, and then another 3 years at UCLA doing a residency, he is done!!!

I won't go into all the drama that has surrounded his graduation. I get extremely fired up over the injustice of it all, but the short version is that they added to his thesis project after it was already completed. His program director told him this 4 weeks before graduation. So wrong. But, nothing we can do about it. Trust me, we tried to fight it and unfortunately lost because we have no power in the situation and don't want to take the time and energy and money to pursue it legally. Although, I would bet we could make a really good case and win. Whatever. Hence, we're not 'actually' done for a few more months, but still.

For the graduation weekend, both my parents and Ryan's parents came into town. It was a lot of fun. It is a great dynamic between all the in-laws, although at times I thought my head was going to pop off my shoulders out of exasperation. For example, graduation morning we were in the car and stopped at McD's to get breakfast since everyone was running late. Ryan was already at UCLA, so it was just me with the two sets of parents and JR all crammed into a mini-van. We're at the drive through, which wasn't working, so a person was standing outside instead. It was honestly like being in a car with a bunch of 10 year olds who had no mental filters and were just shouting out whatever thought they had in their head about the menu and what they thought each other should order, etc. I finally turned to all of them and said something like, "ok, all of you, BE QUIET!" I then turned to the attendant and said, "Sorry, I'm with my parent AND my in-laws withOUT my husband!" Everyone in the car started busting up laughing. It was ridiculous! Anyway, we had a great time. While we were all together on Saturday, we went to the Train Museum at Griffeth Park and then my Dad gave a great driving tour of old Pasadena and all the huge homes. On Sunday afternoon, we went to Malibu to look at the Adamson House. It was incredible! Check out the website for better pictures and the story behind it.

http://www.adamsonhouse.org/

The whats next question has been looming over us for a while now. We thought we were headed back to SLC, but then with the switcheroo the program pulled, we had to turn down the job and start back at square 1. We have felt very blessed though to have other opportunities open up and will be finding out in the next week where we'll be for the next couple of years. It seemed too daunting to commit to a community and buy a practice right out of school, so we're pursuing a couple of options as an associate and also with some of the bigger companies that offer 2 year contracts. This way we'll be able to get a handle on student loans, build up some savings, and really narrow down where we want to be long term. We'll keep ya posted!