Finally.

Well. After months and months of heart wrenching emails (and lack thereof), we finally know where we'll be living for the next 4 years! I was accepted to the medical school at Texas A&M this morning! We are still slightly in denial - thinking it's too good to be true, but we are beyond excited. My mind has been running a thousand miles a second ever since then, so sorry if my thoughts are a bit scatterbrained.

Although it was a long and strenuous path to hear this (I interviewed there last August) it made it all worth it. Plus, things have worked out for the best. I interviewed at the two medical schools back home in Alberta, but they rejected me which was very frustrating (don't come crying to me when you make your monthly complaint about physician shortages - not that I'm bitter...). If we had been accepted to both A&M and a school in Canada it would have been a rough choice to make. Just thinking about telling Grandma Shaw that I had the chance to live close by and I didn't would be awful. This way, we can be close to one side of the family, and the decision was made for us!

I had previously been accepted to Medical College of Wisconsin (in Milwaukee), which was a fantastic school, but it was far from family and it was fairly expensive. We were so lucky to have the peace of mind that we were going somewhere, but now we finally know where "somewhere" is. If you knew how many hypothetical situations Julie and I had run through up to this point, you would think we were absolutely crazy.

For those who don't know where Temple is (so everybody)

Although I'm going to A&M, I won't actually be in College Station where the main campus is. My first two years (which is mostly classroom stuff) will be in a small city called Temple. I'm not going to lie, it's basically in the middle of nowhere in Texas. I can't imagine much happens there, but after living in the abundantly happening place of Cardston for 18 years I can probably deal with it. The next 2 years (which is doing rotations in clinics/hospitals) will be in Round Rock, which is just north of Austin.

Scott & White Hospital in Temple. Apparently a great teaching hospital?

Anyways, that is the update for now. I'll throw in a picture of Ellie at the bottom here, because I know that's why any of our family reads this. We can't wait for this new adventure!

Ellie throwing up gang signs. Thug life.