Meet Your Members Monday

Sasha Big Hair, SAA Vice President 1. Where are you from originally? Tishomingo, OK 2. What's your student's name and what year are they? Ross Riddle MSII 3. What/who made you join SAA? I wanted to support Ross and learn more about the Osteopathic field. Plus, I wanted to meet more people and get more involved. 4. What is your #1 survival tip for med school? Plan Plan Plan! I invested in a great planner and scheduled all of my student's tests, breaks, and school events. It makes living with a med student more manageable. 5. If you were an animal what kind would you be and why? I would be a tiger! They are tough and beautiful! 6. How would you describe yourself in 3 words? Competitive Ambitious Hospitable 7. What was the most embarrassing (appropriate) moment of your life? When I was in 8th grade I got a head injury at a track meet, was rushed to a hospital and got 11 stitches. To this day my old track coach tells that story to prevent the same injury. lol! 8. If you were to win the lottery what would you do with the money? I would donate some to charity, pay off my debt, and invest it for the future. 9. If we were to look in your refrigerator right now, what would we find? fresh fruit and veggies, eggs, cheese, condiments, chicken, and turkey! TRIVIA QUESTION: What year was Elvis' first EVER concert? 1954 CORRECT!!

Meet Your Members Monday!

Amanda Lee, SAA President

1. Where are you from

Calera, OK

2. What's your student's name and what year are they?

Brian Lee, MSIII

3. What or who made you join SAA?

Spookoween--Holly greeted me with a smile and told me that SAA was not only there for our students but also for us wives! I was having a hard time transitioning and getting used to the idea of Brian being back in school after 6 years straight of being in school and she really helped make me feel like what I was doing was important too.

4. Do you have kids and if so how many?

Harmony-8 (going on 13), Spencer-4, Scout-1

5. If you were a superhero what would you want your superpower to be and why?

I'd say it is a tie between being everywhere at once and never having to sleep which actually go hand in hand :)

6. Have you ever had to get stitches? If so how old and what for?

Nope!

7. If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?

I would love to have met my great grandmother. She was an avid softball player up into her 60s. She pitched an all girls team (mostly made up of her daughters and daughter in-laws) and won most of them! She was a full blood Choctaw Indian and was a spit-fire!

8. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Reese Witherspoon hands down!

9. If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?

Spending every waking moment with my family visiting the world and making memories

RANDOM TRIVIA QUESTION:

What's the only animal in the world that can't jump?

elephants :)

CORRECT!!!

(Man I really thought I’d stump you on that one.)

All That Shines

The OOA 111^th Annual Convention Formal Dinner was amazing! The ladies looked beautiful and elegant in their attire, and the men looked snazzy in their tuxes. It was nice to dress up for the evening and enjoy the events of the night. We enjoyed drinks and a cheese bar at the reception; afterwards we sat down to a lovely decorated table where we feasted on filet mignon with delicious sides and indulged in sweet pecan pie! We watched as some of Oklahoma’s finest D.O.’s received their awards for all their hard work and listened to heartfelt acceptance speeches. After all was said and done, attendees listened to live music performed by The Wise Guys and danced the night away! It was an exciting event and I was glad to have been able to attend! - Sasha

Bandanas, Bingo and Balloons, Oh Boy!

The Oklahoma Osteopathic Association had their annual convention in Norman, OK from April 27^th -30^th. Over 400 doctors attended the convention along with their spouses. The Advocates to the OOA had close to 50 members attend the different events. Four members from OSUCOM SAA attended; Jammi Bailey, Leslie Stair, Lynsie Harmon, and Sasha Big Hair.

The Advocates have a booth in the exhibit hall where they raffled a mink coat, 42 inch TV, iPad, Kindle, beef and more! They also take silent auction bids for many great items. SAA members helped run the booth and sell tickets for the raffle. It was fun to meet the doctors and spouses who came by the booth and to get to know all the Advocates. Many friendships and connections are started at the conventions.

Dinner is always followed with dancing. Thursday was a casual hoedown with bbq and cobbler. Hay bales and bandanas decorated the outdoor country themed area. Two steppers were dancing and swinging their partners around to a live band. SAA helped sell bingo cards to the families who attended the Friday night dinner and dance. Supporting the Advocates who in turn support our SAA is rewarding and fun. The fun didn’t end after the auction and bingo; the SAA members got busy on the dance floor and worked of the yummy food. Lynsie and James Cyrus, Dr. Scott & Janell’s son, won the ‘twist’ dance competition. They were also the youngest ones entered!

All SAA members are welcome to attend the convention. The AOOA rent one room for SAA members to share and the OOA pay for all our meals and entrance into the different events. I can’t wait to go next year and see all my Osteopathic friends!

Valentine's Dinner

Get together with your friends and student for our annual Valentine's Dinner at Los Cabos on the Riverwalk at 6pm on Thursday, February 10th. Drop your kids off at Jim & Bekah Petersen's house after 5:30 so you can have a night of just you two--plus your 16 closest SAA friends, of course. RSVP to Desiree.

Settling in - an invitation

Hey Everyone,

MSI brought us many changes - new routine, "single parenthood", new place to live, new crazy Tulsa drivers, new job (for me)... so much change in so little time. It took a while to get settled again.

One of the hardest things for us to do was find a new church home when we moved to Tulsa. J and I have different denominational backgrounds, and we had attended a Korean church, a Latino church (that turned international), and a Baptist church since we were together. In Tulsa we opened our horizons and attended literally more than a dozen churches of all backgrounds and denominations near our apartment before finally - a year later - settling on our church home. We love our church, SHBC - it has really become a family to us. It is located at 56th & Lewis, fairly close to I-44 and Riverside area of town. We had never considered SHBC in our search because we lived in South Tulsa, but a friend's invitation opened the door and we felt at home. :)

This Sunday is SHBC's Fall kickoff, and I just wanted to extend an invitation to anyone who is looking for a church home or even just curious to come and join us. I know from experience how it can feel to visit a church where you don't know anyone, or no one even realizes you are visiting. We'd be more than happy to be a friendly face and host you for the day at SHBC - sit with us, join our Life Group, and make you feel at home. They are having a special preview day with continental breakfast, inflatables for kids, and open house style Life Group before worship. The breakfast stuff starts at 8:30, Lifegroup at 9:30, and Worship at 10:30. No strings attached - but if you'd like to join us, please email me at flyingajoshi@gmail.com and We'd be happy to meet you there and be your "hosts" for the day. If you can't make it this week but would like to try another time, that's fine too!

God bless!

Desiree

If you want to learn more, go to www.shbctulsa.org or find the Southern Hills Baptist Church page on Facebook. While you're at it, find me on Facebook. :) Hope to see you there!

One Person's Junk

So, I have some things that I would like to get rid of, as I am sure most of us do. I was thinking that maybe we could have a large group garage sale. We can either use the money as a fundraiser or just give the money to whoever brought the item. If we have one large sale then we can take out an ad in the newspaper during someone's neighborhood garage sale day. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have some stuff hanging around that you don't want or could you use some extra cash for that summer vacation?

Housing Options

In case any new students are interested in renting options (or current students looking to move), there are some great houses for rent here http://www.tulsapm.com/

The site lists three in Jenks (two in our neighborhood, Churchill Park) for $1200 - a great deal considering most houses rent for $1400+ here. The neighborhood is absolutely wonderful - safe and very quiet. It's about 15 minutes from school in no traffic and 20 minutes during rush hour (right off of I-75).

We rented a tiny apartment our first year and were so burned out on the lack of space that when our house back home FINALLY sold (1 year + on the market), we then bought a house and long story short, it burned and we are buying another. If I had it to do over again, I would rent, rent, rent!!! All the joys of home ownership, without the pain of getting a loan or trying to sell it when you go into residency! :) (We made double house payments the first year of med school - it nearly killed us waiting for our old home to sell).

I just wanted to share!

Join our blog!

After receiving some great input about our blog, we realized other SAA members did not have the privileges to post! I have sent invitations to all our members but please feel free to email me if you never received one or are new to SAA and want to share your thoughts. We don't mean to exclude anyone, it's just Google's way of keeping things straight.

Also, it was great meeting so many new people at Admitted Student Day last Saturday. Holly, Jammi and I had a great time and are so glad we were able to answer some of your questions--the change to medical school can be a bit overwhelming! We're looking forward to seeing more of you all in the future.

Hang in there, everyone, it's almost Spring Break!!

12 Types of Med Students

Desiree found this and passed it on. Is your student any of these? Can you think of other classmates that are? Have fun!



Comic courtesy of Michelle Au, doctor blogger of theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com

10 Ways to Embrace Change

At a recent SAA meeting, some of us were talking about the stress in not knowing what our student plans to specialize. We agreed that, while we'll support our student in whatever decision they make, we need some time to "prepare" for such a change. Maybe it's moving away from family or simply away from Tulsa, or starting with a new schedule that isn't the comfortable routine we've fallen into.

With that said, I came across this article from Real Simple and it seems to address some of these issues of "change" nicely. Enjoy!

10 Ways to Embrace Change

-Amy (Scott, MSII)

We're Here... Now What?

Playing at fountain park (Riverside & 41st)

So the semester is in full swing, and you have time on your hands without your student... Maybe you're even new in Tulsa... what to do while your student is in the library all day (and all night, and all weekend?) Over the past year, Alex (now 17 months) and I explored (and fell in love with) Tulsa! Here are our recommendations:


 1) Invest in a zoo pass ($60) and an aquarium pass ($85).

 In addition to many day trips by ourselves or with friends, one of the great benefits of having a pass was being able to rescue my husband from the library after a big exam - even if only for an hour or two - and go to either the zoo or aquarium (which stays open late on Tuesdays).

  2) Library story time.

 Tulsa has an excellent library network and we often went to story time. Just pick your nearest library and search for "storytime". Our home library was Hardesty, which has an amazing children’s center.

 3) Sanity Saver?

 I found that the YMCA Childwatch program offered the most reasonable childcare (FREE with family membership) and allowed me to work out in peace! They offer assistance for families who qualify (if you’re living on med school loans, you probably do!)

 4) Cultural Excursions

 We took advantage of last-minute free tickets to the Tulsa Ballet (keep an eye on your student’s email!) The Philbrook Museum is free the 2nd Saturday of every month – the museum is wonderful, but the outdoor gardens are even more impressive. The Gilcrease Museum offers free admission on the 1st Tuesday of each month, but I haven’t been yet – want to join me?

 5) Riverside Park(s).

  I know warm weather is fading fast, but I can’t help mentioning the amazing parks on Riverside. There are playgrounds at 19th, 41st, and 96th street on the east banks and 21st street on the west bank. Our favorite by far is at Riverside and 41st. In addition to its awesome family friendly playground and unique fountain / water displays that are kid friendly even for the littlest ones, the location is not far from the medical school, which again, makes for a great place to pull off a short kidnapping of your medical student. If you have more time, check out one of the pink bicycles you can “rent for free” by swiping your credit card. We also love Hunter Park, west of Sheridan on 91st (playground, splash park, and dog park), La Fortune Park, north of 61st on Yale (playgrounds and walking trails), and Woodward Park, 21st & Peoria (picnicking and rose gardens).

 I know this only skims the surface of what there is to do in Tulsa, but these are awesome opportunities for outings with the kiddos OR just some one on one couple time (well, except for maybe story time…it’s up to you!)

What are some of your top places to go in and around Tulsa?

Happy Long Weekend!

We want to wish everyone a great weekend as we all enjoy summer's last hurrah. The past few weeks have been quite crazy and we hope you get to spend some unhindered time with your student--no pressure to return to studying, at least for a couple hours :)

If you're staying around town and looking for things to do, Urban Tulsa has a great columnist that does an awesome job summarizing each weekend's events. Or, if you're going away, let us know where you went and if you would recommend it to fellow SAA members (especially weekend escapes).

Have a great Labor Day everyone!