Sherman and St. Patty

St. Patty's Day started a really fun week for our family. Andrew was on a rotation that took him to work for a week at his future practice in Sherman. Drew and I didn't want to be home alone, so we decided to tag along with Andrew. It was Drew's first road trip! It's amazing that someone who is only 20 inches long can require enough gear to completely fill up an SUV to be able to live away from home for a week!! But, we got it all packed up and we made the 3 hour trek to Sherman. Drew actually traveled really well.

It was an active week for us all! Drew's adventure started Sunday night with a true Cajun Crawfish boil at Bill's house (Andrew's future partner). Bill boiled over 100 pounds of crawfish for friends and family that night. It was kind of amazing for this non-cajun family! Drew didn't partake of the crawfish...but he had fun looking at them. They taste really good -- but it's best to eat them in the dark so you don't quite see what you're doing!

The rest of the week was full of meetings and planning for our future. Andrew loved getting work at the practice during the week. He shadowed Dr. Burilingame and met several patients who will become his patients when he starts work there in July. Bill, Bob, and Andrew took "white coat" pictures to use in their new advertising once Andrew comes on board. The pictures turned out great and Andrew was really excited to officially be in the group!

We went up to the practice for lunch on Monday and introduced Drew to everyone. There were so many friendly faces and people who were really excited to meet our little guy. Andrew is lucky to be working with such a great group of people!

The next order of business for the week was to check on the house. There was still so much that needed to be decided! We worked on plumbing, flooring, countertops, window coverings, paint colors....you name it, we had to pick it. The most fun part (for me) was our trip to Durant, OK to pick out our granite for the kitchen. Ashley Boothe (the decorator for Boothe Homes) went with us to help us make our choice. She also brought her 4 month old son Clay, so Drew had a playmate along! It was fun to think that Clay and Drew could be great friends since they'll be growing up in Sherman together!

Stephanie and Avery even came to see us in Sherman one day! It's going to be SO wonderful living only 1 short hour away from my sister! Steph hadn't toured Sherman yet, so it was fun to show her around. We looked at the house, ate lunch, relaxed at the hotel, tried to get a good "cousin" picture, went out for ice cream, and had tons of fun!

Drew and I also got together with some girlfriends of mine who lived in Temple but are now up in Sherman. Cheryl Plauche (Bill's wife) and Anne Turner (friend from Temple whose husband is now a Cardiologist in Sherman) met us for lunch one day. It was fun to catch up with friends and even more fun to know that there are already some friendly faces waiting for us to get to Sherman! Moving is much more fun when you already have a friend or two in town.

Before we knew it, our week in Sherman was over. It's such a bittersweet time of life. We're really thrilled about our future in Sherman and excited to get started up there, but we're treasuring every last moment we have here in Temple and the friends and the life we've built here over the last 6 years.