"... so help me God."

It's official -- after an hour spent reviewing and signing documents on Monday (Jun 9), I raised my right hand and was sworn in as an Lieutenant in the Navy Dental Corps, followed by a few more signatures (pictured below). It was a neat experience, but like a lot of significant events, the moment passed by so fast, I'm not sure I'll really understand what happened until years from now, when I look back at where it all started! My parents drove all the way out from Maine to be there with us, and I'm very appreciative of their support!


So, next step: Officer Development School in Newport, Rhode Island, where I'll be spending pretty much all of July learning about how and what it means to be an officer in the Navy. Officer Boot Camp, if you will. I just hope I meet the physical fitness standards -- I never was much for pushups and situps!

After the commissioning ceremony, and since we were already in the vicinity, we all went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, where we spent a few hours wandering around all the exhibits with the kids. This is Lilly in front of a 1955 Corvette that Annie fell in love with ("Do you think they'd be mad at me if you took a picture of me sitting in the car?").

I'm not a huge car guy, but I have to say I admire her taste!

In the Navy

Yesterday, I finally got a long-awaited letter in the mail:



After six months of emails, forms, phone calls, forms, interviews, and more forms (not to mention a fairly extensive background check and physical exam), my application to join the Navy Dental Corps has finally been approved! On the other hand, I'm still holding back on my excitement because it's not a done deal just yet -- I'm still waiting for commissioning documents to come down from the Secretary of Defense, and all the while, my window of opportunity is slowly closing. I hope they make it here on time (i.e., in the next 2-3 weeks)!

If everything goes well, I should be commissioned as a Lieutenant in the USN in mid-June, and my Officer Development Training will go from June 23 to July 25. I guess we'll see what happens!

Camping

So, the first day of the camping season happened to coincide with the end of my "vacation" (in quotes because although it was a vacation from seeing patients in the hospital clinic, really it was an opportunity to be at school for classes 8-5, so I still wasn't at home much!).

Anyhow, as it was beautiful weather, we decided on an impromptu overnight camping trip to nearby Pinckney State Recreation Area. And when I say nearby, I really mean it -- the state park is closer than our chapel is! We all had a great time -- tinfoil dinners, Smores, pancakes, a lake nearby, and James got to experience sleeping in a tent for the first time. Not surprisingly, he ended up in his daddy's sleeping bag for most of the night -- and Wifey had a similar experience with Lilly over in the girls' tent!

All told, it was a great trip and we look forward to more camping to come over the summer!

My Work

So for those of you who are wondering what I do as an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident, here's an example -- this is a couple of photos I took on my phone in the OR quite some time ago -- the two guys operating in the background (far left) have just harvested a leg bone (fibula) and associated blood vessels, and the two guys sitting at the microscope are suturing in the vessels and plating that leg bone to reconstruct a jaw bone (mandible) that was partially resected because of cancer. Cool stuff, eh?

Note of Appeasement

Dear Family,

Under pain of death, I neglected my studies today in favor of editing 5 glorious minutes of video from Ethan's birthday party yesterday... inadvertently losing it all in one ill-considered click of the mouse. What survives is posted on James' blog.

Next weekend, perhaps?

Love,
Blade