Graduation, White Coat Ceremony, and Callaway Gardens

A lot has gone on in the past two months......I graduated (well, I am technically not finished until August), Paul had a White Coat ceremony, we visited Callaway Gardens, and we have had to make several decisions that will affect our whereabouts in the Spring.

After 2 long years of OT school, I was finally able to graduate on May 8th! Here are my sweet friends from OT school. I could not have made it through school without them! I am really going to miss them!

And here are a few fun pictures we took to remember all of the good times we experienced in OT school!

At the end of May, Paul took part in the PT White Coat Ceremony where he was presented with a coat with his name on it.

During the middle of June we decided to go to Callaway Gardens for the weekend and take advantage of a stimulus package they were promoting. I grew up going on vacation to Callaway for the first 16 years of my life and had not been there in 8 years. Paul had not visited there in a long time either so we were eager to go back and experience all of the things we remembered and loved about Callaway. We rode bikes, took a peaceful boat ride, visited the Chapel, Butterfly Center, Horticultural Center, watched the circus, played putt-putt, shuffleboard, pingpong, and golf (Paul's favorite). It was wonderful to have such a great, fun weekend with each other and not think about school work! I must say, I cannot wait for the day where we will both be completely finished with school!!

The blog would not be complete without a picture of our sweet baby girl. Here she is with her daddy after he cut her hair. Does she not have the cutest face you have ever seen?!!

Where are sad that our time in Augusta is coming to an end in 6 weeks, but we are ready to begin the next phase of our lives. Paul will be completing a clinical rotation in Athens in the fall with UGA's Sports Medicine program. Then we will be moving to Atlanta in the Spring where Paul will complete his final clinical at Piedmont Hospital and I will be looking for a job!!! So many changes are coming up that we are excited about!!

Spring Time in Augusta.....nothin' like it

The Masters

It's spring time in Augusta, which means the flowers are in bloom, the rain showers are increasing and most importantly the Masters has arrived. After living here in Augusta for almost two years now, and with this being our final year in Augusta, we finally got the opportunity to step inside the gates and attend a Monday practice round. With camera in hand and wide eyed as a deer caught in head lights, we entered the gates of Augusta National at 7 am. It was as if we had entered another world stepping out of "disgusta" and into a golfers dream world. The beauty and the tradition surely exceeded our expectations. The fairways were groomed with perfection and the thousands of azaleas were in full bloom.

After looking through the gift shop and the trophy room for a few minutes we headed over to the par 3 course where we walked the entire course with the only restriction being to stay off the greens. Next we headed over to the famous magnolia lane where we took a picture next to the flowers in the shape of the United States. From there we stood at the practice range where we watched a few golfers warm up such as Trevor Immelman, the 2008 champion, and the famous Gary Player. Later we proceeded to walk the entire course following Gary Player and Trevor Immelmans group for the first 5 holes. Our lunch consisted of two Masters pimento cheese sandwiches, chips and a drink for cheaper than most fast food restaurants. For the remainder of the day and until 630pm we bounced from hole to hole spending most of our time at the world renown Amen Corner (holes 11, 12, and 13; hole 13 has over 1600 Azaleas on that one hole). Finally we ended the day with a treat from Tiger Woods playing 6 holes and then calling it a day. We spent the rest of the day walking around different areas and taking in all the beauty and watching some amazing golf shots. The pictures do not come close to doing it justice but that is all we have to share with you. This is just a few of the 200 plus pictures we took. To see more, email us or check out facebook.

Overall, it was an experience that we will never foget. If anyone ever has a chance to go visit, golf fan or not, we would definitely recommend taking the trip



In front of the clubhouse next to the flowers
outlining the US.


The end of Amen Corner, number 13 green


On the hill of number 16.


Standing on the Par 3 course


In front of the clubhouse


Tiger and Stevie on the number 13 green

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Renting Our House Out

Along with our great experience of attending the Masters, we then had to immediately vacate our home until the following Monday. We have been blessed, both last year and this year, to have the opportunity to rent out our house to patrons attending the Masters for the whole week. Last year we had a great experience with the tenants and this year even better. Four men stayed for five nights this year and they really impressed us with the surprise that we came home to. Not only did they clean and fold all the laundry and clean all the dishes (which was not in the contract), but they bought Natalie a big bouquet of flowers and they bought us two nice Masters glass mugs. In addition, apparently someone in the group is a good cook because they left plenty of food for us to make a meal on for the next couple nights. Needless to say we were completely in shock when we arrived home.

Hilton Head/Easter

After leaving town during the Masters, we went to spend some time with family and our nephew Matthew. Below is some pictures.


Matthew during putt-putt carrying
his monkey


Paul teaching Matthew to play golf
starting with putting.



He made it and was excited



The beach bum

Getting ready to jump really high





Matthew with the proud "me-ma-ma"



Out on the dock at Harbor town in Hilton Head


Easter 2009

Time for a breath of fresh air

Now that exams are over and we have a chance to come up for air from the stresses of school, we find ourselves with more free time than we know what to do with.  We have become so accustomed to the fact that our nights and weekends are consumed by studying, writing papers and reading about how to treat patients that now it seems odd to have all this free time for a month.  However, we absolutely love this time of year to be able to go travel and see family and friends.  This also gives us time to update our blog and share some events from this past fall.  

It started in August with a couple getaways before the full load of school hit.  The first was an outdoor man retreat to a small cabin in the woods near Newnan, Ga with the guys from our bible study.  The next was our fun little get away to Helen, Ga to celebrate our one year anniversary.  College football and intramural flag football were also a big part of the fall semester that allowed us an outlet and kept us sane from the stresses of school.  Natalie completed two clinical rotations throughout this semester, one with the Richmond County school system and one with Eisenhower Army Medical Center.  Paul received news that he will have his next clinical rotation as an intern for the UGA football team next fall for the whole football season (16 weeks) so we will be residents of Athens.  Overall, it has been a great semester and a great beginning of our second year of marriage.  Here are a few random pictures from the past couple of months.

  

    

The whole group at the "mantreat"

Skeet shooting at the "mantreat"

Downtown Helen

Our room that overlooked the river in Helen.

Taking in the beautiful scenery.

DPT 2010 "Unstable Cavitation" 

MCG Intramural Flag Football Champions 2008 

This is a team Paul played on "you can call me doctor" that was put together to represent MCG at the Georgia State Flag Football tournament in Athens.  All the teams there called them the old guys because they were the only graduate school in the tournament of 54 teams.  They ended up making it to the top 8 teams.  Not bad for a bunch of "old guys".  

Paul making faces at Matthew

Jazzy absolutely loves Matthew because nobody else in the family will sit on her level and feed her ice (her favorite) from a cup.  

"Here Jasmine, we can just share the whole cup but try not to get your head stuck"         -Matthew

This was the night before the Irelands left Augusta to their next phase in Birmingham, AL where Chris will be doing his clinical rotation at Spain Rehab.  

Natalie and friends at a Christmas get together.    

One Year of Wedded Bliss

After a summer of Natalie taking classes and Paul on his first clinical rotation at MCG's Outpatient Services, we went on a much needed vacation with our wonderful families. First, we went to Navarre Beach with Paul's familyand 2 of our good friends from Birmingham, Mark and Michelle Hamby. We spent the week hanging out on the beach, playing games at night, eating some good seafood and the occasional round of golf.

Our little family on the beach (Jasmine's first time on the beach)

We helped Mark celebrate his 27th birthday at the beach!

After coming back from Navarre Beach, we had a send off party for one of our dear friends, Andrew McElroy who is being sent to the United Arab Emirates with the Air Force for a year. We are going to miss him dearly.

Andrew and Ruth at the going away party.

After Andrew's going away party, we headed to Hilton Head Island with Natalie's family and friends. The guys played plenty of golf and we all spent fun times on the beach playing bocce ball.

The Patterson/Muchnick family at Hilton Head.

Our first day in Hilton Head on August 11, 2008 we informally celebrated our one year anniversary by going to dinner. We actually ran into two friends from Birmingham that got married on the same day that we did and were celebrating their one year anniversary at the same place.

Kelly and Jonathan Sawtelle when we ran into them on our anniversary

The top of our cake that we enjoyed when we returned to Augusta

Even though it was smashed, it still tasted delicious.

New Year's in Tampa

Back in January, with the beginning of a New Year came our eventful trip to Tampa, FL with the Patterson Family.  Our trip was filled with great seafood, fun events at the beach for the Outback Bowl, a trip to Busch Gardens, deep sea fishing, and a great win by the Tennessee Vols football team.  

The beach behind our hotel was the cite for the Outback Bowl events including this huge sand sculpture of the two teams logos.  

The view from the fishing boat on the way back to the coast after a long days work of catching fish. 

The trip was ended with a great game by the Vols football team and a short flight home in the plane.  

Up to speed...

After being married for almost 8 months, we've finally been pulled into the world of blogging. It's been neat to be able to keep up with Joe and Hannah despite there traveling quest over the past year. Even though we haven't been on a traveling quest around the world (yet), we thought we would begin to "blog" about this new season of life we embarked on just a few months ago. So much has happened in the past months but we will try to summarize everything up till now.

On August 11th, 2007 our journey began when we exchanged our vows in front of so many wonderful family and friends in Knoxville, TN. We were so blessed with a beautiful wedding and a nice, relaxing honeymoon.

After returning from the honeymoon, we have come to reside in Augusta, GA, home of the Masters. We both attend the Medical College of Georgia where Natalie is earning her Masters degree in Occupational Therapy and Paul is earning his Doctorate in Physical Therapy. The move from Birmingham has been difficult. We left behind so many great friends and a community we had grown to truly love. However, despite the tough move, God has provided us with a great group of new friends and so many other blessings in these first months of marriage. We continue to stay busy juggling the demands of graduate school with our new roles as husband and wife.

We also managed to squeeze in becoming a new aunt and uncle in the meantime with the addition of baby Matthew born to Michael and Jessica on June 25th, 2007. We look forward to watching him grow up and of course (Paul) trying to make a golfer out of him along the way.

Throughout the grinds of school, we have been able to spend our first holidays together as a married couple. We carved our first pumpkin together and even managed to put up our first Christmas tree in our new house in Augusta.

We are truly blessed and look forward to sharing more.

Until next time......