.::Kris Graduated::.

I know youguys probably thought he didn't actually graduate because it's taken me so long to post about it, but the man did wear the gown and walk across the stage. And we were SO proud!
In fact, I really wish I had the cable to download video from my camera here in UT, because then I could show you how loudly Max was screaming for his daddy when his name was called. It was really cute.

Here he is just before graduation, in the room where they were all mingling and waiting. The light was obviously not so good, but oh well.

Does he look ready to graduate or what?

Here's Kris and one of his best friends from school, Jeff.

We had great seats during the ceremony and could see Kris right where he was sitting. They didn't start out with their extra robes on, they had to carry them up to the stage where one of the professors placed them over their heads. It was interesting. At mine we just wore ours. I guess these dentists think they're a little different or something... :)

Coming down the steps...a graduated man. Please note his shiny sneakers. We had to go buy new ones just before the ceremony because we had accidentally packed all his shoes except a pair of very casual sandals. At least he got some cool new shoes out of it!
At the end of the ceremony the audience was all supposed to wait for the graduates to leave the hall (oh, I mean the gym. We're pretending it's some sort of hall.) But Kris motioned to me that he wanted Max to come with him. So I sent him running over there. He was thrilled to parade out with his daddy. How special!
I don't know if you can see much of that in this picture, but at least now you know what it's supposed to be.

It was great. Actually graduating actually made the last four years almost worth it!! Just kidding, now that it's over I can say it was totally worth it. I'm just so proud of Kris for finishing it all, it was quite the big job and VERY stressful. Yay for being finished. It's an excellent feeling.

.::DONE!!!(well, almost)::.

Kris had his big live patient board exam this weekend. It was really really stressful and intense. He wasn't sure if he was going to have the patients he needed until early last week. But finally he found some people and it was all confirmed, which was a relief.
Even with trustworthy patients coming it was still a scary event. Everyone at school was really worked up and stressed out--people couldn't sleep or eat, they were breaking out in cold sores...all sorts of horrible stuff. Kris kept it pretty cool, but he was still really busy trying to get everything ready. And a little stressed too.

(I have to apologize, some of the pictures in this post didn't turn out so good--mostly the ones in the school. I'm very opposed to using flash right now, and sometimes I end up paying the price.)

Scary looking tools huh?
I assisted Kris. Which I was a little nervous about becuase I've only had one assisting experience before. And a lot of people we talked to were like "on no, don't have your spouse assist you. They're just way too invested in your success and so get all upset and worked up." or something like that. We thought, who better to help than the person that cares more than anybody else?
Anyway, we had a patient come in for a deep cleaning friday morning. The procedure went really well and the patient was such a nice guy. He was on time, patient and super cooperative. It took a long time because he had to go in to the graders before the procedure to be approved, then had to go in at the end and get graded. He got to wait in line for quite a while each time. We told him we were going to send him some money or something as a thank you and he refused. It was nice to hear that he felt like the free treatment was enough of a benefit. He was great and Kris did really well, it all went so smooth!
On friday afternoon Kris had to do a couple of root canals on some extracted teeth (yuck!) and I didn't get to help him. He said it went pretty well though.
On saturday morning we got up nice and early and dropped Max off with our friends the Stocks (the same sweet people that watched him when we went on our RI trip).
Then we headed over to the school to meet Kris's patient for the cavity fillings section of the test.

She was a teenage girl from our old ward. I guess the cavities she had were absolutely perfect for the test, "textbook" as they say. Once we got her in and all approved the procedures went nice and smooth. It was lucky that she had both kinds of cavities that Kris needed--a lot of people had to use two different patients which took twice as long. She was really patient too and sweet.

(kris getting an injection or something ready)
It made things a lot easier. Also her cavities were just like Kris expected them to be after he started working on them. A lot of people got in there and started working on their patients and then found out that the cavity was way bigger than expected, or there was something else wrong with the tooth or something unexpected that made things really complicated. We were lucky.
We were also lucky because of the following: 1.our cleaning patient didn't fall asleep in the middle of the procedure and jerk awake, spiking themselves with a sharp instrument and slicing a huge chunk our of her gums (not an allowable result)
2. none of our patients got arrested the night before the test, and so we didn't have to go and bail them out at midnight.
3. we didn't have to pay our patients
4. and more
obviously I heard some horror stories while I was waiting for patients to come out of grading. Yikes.
Kris got done with the cavities in the early afternoon and then we got to leave! All the rest of the poor people that had to use two different patients were still sweating it out. It was nice to be done early. We took our patient over to the crown center and got her some ice cream.
Here she is with Kris.

and here's the ice cream. An excellent reward I'd say.

(this is one of Max's favorite treats, "dirt and worms")
We went back to Stocks to pick up Max and this is what we found:

and this:

super, aren't they?

Notice how the superman shirt rides up so high on Max's little stomach. He's just shaped so much differently than their kids, it's really funny. They're all so slight and athletic. Not so much us in our family. The little boy on the left is six. He's only got like an inch on Max!
Anyway, he had a good time.
So we were done! And we feel good about it! And the assisting all went well for me (at least I think it did, I should probably check with Kris). I had no doubt in my mind that Kris was just going to pull it off and do a great job and that's what he did.
And I'm glad all those people telling us I shouldn't assist were wrong. It was great to be there helping him at such an important time.
And we're so glad it's over! The results don't come out for about four weeks. Now Kris just has a few requirements left to finish up. They're important, but he's pretty far along with them so hopefully he can get them done without too much trouble and stress. We'll keep you posted!

Yay!

We're really excited today because Kris got invited out to USC's pediatric dentistry program for an interview in November. By this time next year we may be blogging from the beach! Keep your fingers crossed for us.

So far he also has an interview in Buffalo NY and one in New York City that also has programs in Rhode Island and Alaska. We're still waiting to hear back from a couple of other programs and so could have some other possibilities eventually. Results won't come out until the very end of January. USC is our favorite prospect right now for sure. We'll keep you all posted.