Friends are the Chocolate Chips

...in the cookie of life.

We've been so blessed these last four years to develop many great friendships.  As the school year comes to a close and graduation gets closer we've been looking for every opportunity to spend time with our friends before we all move on to residency.  I haven't been great at capturing all the moments, but here's a few from the last few weeks. (thanks to those who I stole pics from, you know who you are! :) )

At Hilary's baby shower with some of the girls (hooray Jill is wearing some mighty big heels so I don't look like a total giant, thanks Jill!)

Celebrating Kevin's birthday at Benihana

Enjoying a Sunday bbq at Sean and Siri's

At the Glendale Chocolate Affaire with Hilary and Kalie

Big News: MATCH RESULTS!!

On June 4th Brett will graduate from med school and become a real life doctor!  Then, for the next 3 years, he will work as a hospital resident perfecting the trade of Family Medicine. 

For a few months we've been patiently waiting to learn where Brett (and I) will be spending these next three years.  Today was the day!

Brett matched to St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, AZ!!!

St. Joe's is a GREAT hospital, (ranked by US News as one of the best hospitals in the nation!) and it makes life a little easier that we don't have to start boxing up our things for a move.  Congrats Brett!!! I love you! 

Enjoying the AZ "Winter"

I don't think there is a more beautiful place on earth this time of year than good 'ol AZ.  As a result of the wonderful weather, we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, even if this sometimes just involves pulling weeds and pruning bushes.  Fortunately we've also found several fun ways to pass the time in the sun. 

We spent a fun afternoon at one of the ELEVEN Major League Baseball spring training stadiums here in the valley for some close-up baseball action. 

Some highlights:
 - Free tix courtesy of the Chamberlains
 - Watching the little boy next to us cheer on his dad (Milwaukee Brewers RF #1 Corey Hart) after he hit a home run

 - Delicious frozen strawberry lemonade

 - The random guy who asked me to hold his beer WHILE he took our pic.  I thought that might look a little suspicious, so the beer is strategically placed right behind my back.

We also spent an afternoon/evening hiking Greenway Park, one of the many preserved hills that exist in the middle of Phoenix. 

Some highlights:

 - Enjoying a picnic dinner once we reached the top

 - The beautiful bird's eye view of Phoenix

 - A cool breeze and warm sun

 - The unnatural "greenness" that all the recent rain has provided

Gotta love 70 degree winters!

$$ Wheeler-Dealer $$

Can I just say, I LOVE my wheeler-dealer of a husband!

One of the things I love about Brett is he is such a schmoozer and is always looking for a "smokin' deal."  (Seriously, that's what he calls them!)  Brett had previously decided that since we have HD tv's and a Blu-Ray DVD player, we needed to upgrade our tv service to HD too, but I had thought this was unnecessary.  Well, a few weeks ago we got a flyer for Dish Network taped to our front door that gave Brett an idea.  After seeing the ad, Brett decided to call DirectTV (who we get our tv service thru) and threaten to switch services even though we are actually completely satisfied with our service.  They transferred Brett to their manager and over the space of a few minutes Brett was able to finagle for all the HD tv channels, a second DVR unit for our bedroom that records in HD, and 2 months of all the premium movie channels, for $15 less a month than we were paying before.  Yes, you heard that right!  $15 LESS a month!  I don't know how that boy does it, but he always seems to get the great deals.