Movin' on up!



Our stuff w/o furniture



We’ve been waiting for this day for the past four years. We are finally in a house with all of our own belongings. We don’t share any walls with a neighbor. There’s no one pacing the floor above us like a caged tiger at 3am. I don’t have to take off my high heals when I walk around to be courteous to the person below us… The apartment chapter in our lives is OVER!





We found a great little house in a quiet subdivision to rent on the north side of Branson. We’re away from all of the tourist action but close enough to town and the hospital to still be very convenient. We moved in Thursday and have been unpacking since. Today, I finished the kitchen. We still have a few things being brought up by family but the bulk is washed and put away.

It took a 16 foot moving truck to fit 98% of everything we own. There are few delicate wedding gifts still in route but the rest is here. Scott and his brother Brian did super hero work moving everything in and out of the truck. I’m still shocked nothing was broken, scratched, or damaged in the move. I thought I’d be doing well to make it up here with two unscathed dishes-- but all is well. They were amazing!

We got our bedroom suite put together but we’re still short a mattress. It should be here next week with our chair and a half. Until then, we’ll be camping out in the living room floor. Our couch was gifted to us by my Marma and makes me feel that much more at home. We purchased an entertainment center that is going to require an upgraded TV-- Scott is so disappointed ;) There are a few things we’ll need to change and buy but all in all we’re settling right in.

Our wonderful realtor has done a great job of taking care of us including having her son mow the yards and ordering us pizza our first night in town. We owe a big thank you to Kay Fridley and Right Choice Realtors.

Scott is signed up for the NAPLEX and is about to hit the books hard to study for the next two weeks. He starts as a pharmacist at Skaggs Regional Medical Center the 13^th of June. I’m going to get our house set up and puppy settled in (in July) then start looking for a job myself. I feel like a little bird fluffing my feathers and settling into my own little nest. It gives me such a deep sense of joy and gratefulness. My cup runneth over.

If you want our new address please let me know and I’ll get it to you.  I'll post more pictures of the inside and out once we get it more together.

Love you all,

S/A

Dr. William Scott Hickey

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

I am happy to announce that Scott has done it! He graduated from pharmacy school. Four years at the U of A for his BS in Biology followed directly by four years of pharmacy school. He has worked day and night studying, drilling, and reviewing nonstop. --Believe me; we got married three days before he started pharmacy school, he has earned every letter behind his name.

This past weekend we got to celebrate his and his classmate’s grand accomplishment. Scott was already in Little Rock last week doing a three day review for his board exams. I joined him Thursday night after packing as much as I could for the move.

Friday night was their convocation ceremony where all the doctoral pharmacy candidates were hooded. This was a much smaller, personal ceremony since it was just the pharmacy class (about 120 students). Saturday morning the college of pharmacy hosted a lovely graduate’s brunch in down town Little Rock. It was a very nice way to start a fun day.

Saturday afternoon was the UAMS commencement. This was a serious affair. There were over 900 students whose names were called, families cheered, and received their doctoral certificates. 900. This means in order to get out of there in a timely manner, the announcers called one name every 4-5 seconds. I took my Kindle along for the ride.

Below are the two videos of Scott being hooded and of him receiving his diploma. Forgive me screaming in the latter-- I was a little excited :)

CONGRATULATIONS WILLIAM SCOTT HICKEY, PHARM.D.

I know he was able to breathe a deep sigh of relief after it was all over. We are all so proud of him and his hard work the last four years. Now we get to start the next new exciting chapter in our lives. We are almost ready to go. Packing has been a nonstop process-- especially with trying to time moving trucks, deliveries, and loading around little things like tornadoes and other natural disasters.

We couldn’t have made it through the years though, without the unwavering support of our families and friends. There are so many people who were essential to us making out of UAMS alive. We are forever grateful to you all for being there for us in so many ways. Thank you, thank you!

Love always,

S/A  

Mexico!!!

Ole!

Hola our dear friends and family. We missed you all very much. I can sum up our latest adventure to simply amazing. In celebration of Scott’s graduation from pharmacy school we (and several others of his classmates) headed south of the border. We stayed in a resort 45 minutes south of Cancun and about 20 minutes north of Playa Del Carmen. The Hotel Catalonia Maroma was the perfect tropical get away for us to get to relax on the beach in the Mexican sun, eat all the delicious food we could manage, and make some amazing memories with wonderful friends.

There is so much that I want to tell you all about so, I feel it would be best to break it up into three sections: Food, Friends, and Fun.

Food

Since it was an all inclusive resort there was no shortage of great food. I’m fairly certain I ate my body weight in watermelon every day. There were five restaurants on site and we got to enjoy each of them. They ranged in formality from the ever casual buffet line to the super formal that only serves tiny food on oversized plates. All of it was delicious! I didn’t eat much meat while we were there but Scott reports it was all fantastic.

Every night we all went back to our rooms, cleaned the sand out of our nooks and crannies, and got gussied up for dinner. I think my favorite restaurant was Tortuga. They had this great green soup that made me hesitate but turned out delicious (still not sure what was in it but I was led to believe it was supposed to be veggies)! Scott’s favorite was the Italian place called Toscana’s and their great desserts.

Speaking of meat in Mexico… the resort had quite a bit of wild life roaming the property. Some of the most popular residence was the Quati Mundi. They reminded me of raccoons, but somehow cuter. They were everywhere ranging in size and age from the obviously older and fatter “Papa” Mundi (as we fondly called them) to the tiny litters curious babies. There were also iguanas, lizards, and supposedly a jaguar somewhere in the forest that bordered the resort. Raar!

Friends

Our group had a total of seven on the trip. None of us got arrested or killed; I think this qualifies the trip as a great success. But seriously, we managed to have blast doing nothing! There was plenty of time to read good books, soak up the sun, and enjoy a few cold drinks. Five of the seven were graduating pharmacy students so this group really deserved to relax.

I don’t swim in the ocean due to a paralyzing fear of things sneaking up on me, but the water was gorgeous to look at. Once, I was basically carried out into the water and if you want to know how that ended-- find a cat, fill up your bathtub with water, and throw it in. The only time I “willingly” got into the water was to go snorkeling (something Scott has always wanted to do and desperately wanted me to do with him). If that boy didn’t believe I loved him before… There was one time we saw a huge fish and I jumped out of the water and over Scott to get away from it. Not my thing to say the least.

We brought sleeping in, lying around doing nothing, and sun bathing to a new level. Bliss!

Fun



Sexy Euro Speedo

 Now, at the resort we knew we would be in a language minority, what we didn’t know was that while about half the people spoke Spanish, as expected, the other half spoke French. While the language was beautiful the European Speedos on overweight, hairy, aging men was not. But something the French did do right was beach activities—more specifically, volleyball.

At first we approached it as a spectator sport but were eventually drawn in. The language barrier didn’t matter when all you have to do is hit a ball. After a day or two, some of the guys started taking it seriously and volleyball became more than a past time—it became a mission. It was a great way to lose yourself while having a blast in the sun.

The resort also made sure to have games and activities each day. Somehow, all three of us girls got roped into an obstacle course around the pool one afternoon.  It involved a surfboard, jump rope, flippers, and lots of water. On another occasion Scott got up to get a drink and didn’t come back for a while. Eventually, I got curious and went looking for him. To my amusement I found him with his feet tied up and staff members throwing balls at him and seven other bound people. Turns out it was a harmless game of human bowling. You had to dodge the ball and be the last man standing. 

Everything went smoothly. We had perfect weather and an all around wonderful time. My high school Spanish blended with my college German did us next to no good, but a friendly smile went a long way. We had the graduation trip they greatly deserved.

All our love,

S/A