A Flash of Summer!

JUNE: Paul started dental school...specifically gross anatomy. I'd post pictures, but I assume you'd like to keep your food where it is right now. The excitement of "getting in" quickly wore off once he realized how much he had to study!! It's a small class at MUSC...58 students...and Paul is making friends and putting his best foot forward with his teachers. Here's proof he made friends: Study buddies, Brandon & Shelly....taking a break.


Erika finished up two classes at the College of Charleston for her Master's in Public Administration Degree. She will be finished in May of 2010. Then we'll be one OVER-educated family for sure! She also went to a wedding (Bekah's), visited family in NY, worked several basketball camps, and managed to hold down a part-time job on some weekend...How does she do it?!?!?

JULY: A major rite of passage into the Lambert Family is visiting Dr. Lambert (Paul #1) and Marie at Flat Top Lake in "Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia!" We accepted the challenge and visited over the 4th of July holiday weekend with several other Lambert family members. Paul's younger cousin, Stephen, (a 4th year Med student at Marshall) couldn't make it because his wife was having a baby. Their first child came a little early, but he was a fighter...thus the name David, for King David of Biblical lore.

We spent the weekend with family relaxing, talking, eating, and going for boat rides. The fireworks were also pretty impressive for such a small town!








AUGUST: Can you believe it?!!? We've been married for a year already! It has gone by quickly, but we have definitely been blessed. There were some newlywed jitters to work through early on, and we've surly learned a lot about one another and marriage. It's been awesome to have your best friend go through all of life's adventures together. We are amazed at how God is teaching us to love Him by loving one another each day.

So to celebrate...nothing too wild this year. We went to a friend's wedding....


Went to church...in the SAME attire we wore to get married in last year (Ok, just Paul did that). Spent the day relaxing together, which has been RARE for us this summer. We went to Bocci's restaurant, the place we went on our first date exactly 3 years ago, and then to the movies. The night was capped off with "special" champange from Paul's mom, Debbie, and the top of our wedding cake we'd saved in the freezer (surprisingly good)!



UP NEXT:
PAUL - One more week of Gross Anatomy!! One week off, then right back to it for the Fall Semester

Erika - One more basketball camp at CofC this weekend. Then an exciting missions trip with our church to India. Please keep Erika in your prayers as she travels and works with kids who've never heard about Jesus (imagine the kids from the movie Slumdog Millionare).

Until next time....

Girls' Weekend in NYC

I've been in a New York state of mind.

Thanks to time off from my job, I've been able to spend a good bit of time in NY over the last couple of weeks. One weekend visit was for a friend's wedding--congrats Bekah & Alex! A second weekend was spent celebrating my 23rd birthday with a family girls' trip to the City. And after that, I made my annual summer trip home to the Upstate to visit family, friends, and South Jeff Basketball Camp.

I had so much fun hanging out in the City with Ma, Gram, and Casey. We weren't there for long so, naturally, Mom packed our itinerary full to make the most of our time:

FRIDAY

Visit Mom's office in Manhattan

Museum of Modern Art

WNBA Game at Madison Square Garden: New York Libery vs. Indiana Fever

SATURDAY

Walking Tour of Central Park

The Little Mermaid on Broadway

Shopping

Our first stop was Mom's Manhattan office to meet her colleagues. One of them told us to "enjoy the free entertainment...there's crazy people on the streets." Too true. On the City streets, there is always something to look at, something to watch, something to make you wonder.

We were pleased to find out that the Museum of Modern Art has free admission on Fridays. But unfortunately, everyone else knows that too. MoMA was super crowded! We had fun anyway. There were lots of things to take in and get the creative juices flowing. We all left the museum feeling inspired, like we could create some great piece of art on our own...which will probably never happen. The WNBA game Friday night had me feeling like I was back in my element. The game started off slow, but I didn't care because I was getting to watch Tamika Catchings play. She is my absolute favorite! The second half was a lot more exciting than the first, and the game went into OT. The Fever ended up winning by 1. And I saw my old buddy Allan Houston at the concession stand. Surely he remembered the time he and I met in the CofC weight room when the Knicks were in town for preseason training?!? Okay, probably not. But I pretended we knew each other anyway, and said hello.

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to head to Central Park. But after hopping on the express train by accident, we didn't make it there in time for the guided walking tour we were hoping for. We had all been to the park multiple times before, but wanted to see something new. Having missed the tour, we did our usual self-guided tour. This time, though, we did stumble upon some sights we hadn't seen before. The Conservatory Garden was especially beautiful on the sunny day we were enjoying.

That afternoon, we saw The Little Mermaid on broadway at the Fontanne. I know, I know...a Disney show! Little reputation among broadway snobs. But it was terrific! The spectacle was awesome, the music was great, and it's a beloved story. We had so much fun. Afterwards, we did some shopping in the rain. I was SO excited to shop at H&M and Zara, neither of which I have at home.

We ate at some really cool restaurants in Manhattan, all of which I would recommend. Celebrating my relatively new Southern-ness, we had lunch at Virgil's on Friday (http://www.virgilsbbq.com/). Saturday's lunch was authentic Italian at Terraza Toscana (http://www.terrazzatoscana.com/). And for dinner we had paninis, sangria, and chocolate at Ayza (http://www.ayzanyc.com/), a hip "Wine & Chocolate Bar" with a Warm Chocolate Molten Cake that is out of this world! Big thanks to Mom and Gram for treating me to a really fun weekend, ushering in my 23rd year!!

SEE MORE PHOTOS by clicking on the "Our Pictures" link at the right

DENTAL SCHOOL!!

Hide the children! DON'T open wide! The Medical University of South Carolina has decided to train Paul to become a Dentist. Hopefully his years of training will quell your fears of any scary images of him holding a high-speed drill in your mouth....we thank you in advance for your trust in his future abilities!

Quick story: Paul has been trying to get into dental school for...a long time! He's done all the shadowing, dental research (published in JADA), and dental lab work any school could ask for an applicant. And even though he has two master's degrees in business and health administration, MUSC saw it fit to make sure his science background was still up to snuff. So for two years he returned to undergraduate science courses at the College of Charleston (Erika's stomping grounds) and did very well!

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009 his grades became official and he was the first student in the class of 2013 to pay his matriculation fee and be given his orientation package. The Dean of Admission personally called Dr. Lambert (Jr.), Paul's dad, as a professional courtesy and was genuinely excited for Paul to have overcome so much and be giving this opportunity.


The Lambert family prepared a "surprise" party at Virginia's restaurant in downtown Charleston. Paul's entire local family (all 9 of them) came out to celebrate. Even Paul's uncle and aunt, Ed & Patty Balevic, sent two bottles of champagne to the table by calling in the order from their home in Charlotte NC...bravo!!

We were extremely excited about the news and realize what a blessing this will be in our lives. It was a true testament to God's faithfulness and perfect timing! If you could have seen the JOY on Dr. Paul R Lambert Sr's (the original dentist in the family), you would have known how many people had hoped and prayed for this day to finally come. We would like to thank ALL of you for your support and prayers....all these years :)

Hilton Head Getaway!

After an incredibly strenuous year of work, work, work...the Lambert's decided we needed a vacation! We had one week between the end of the semester before Erika's summer classes started, and before Paul's grades came out and determined if he got into dental school or not.

Erika suggested somewhere in Europe (Italy?) and Paul wanted something similar to their honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean. Then we realized that vacations actually COST MONEY, and we had to reevaluate our plans. Thankfully, Erika's cousins, Tom & Christy, generously offered a long weekend at their condo in Hilton Head. We accepted, Paul finished his final exam at 6pm, and we rolled out of Charleston at 7:45pm.

We took bikes, beach chairs, golf clubs, books, movies...etc. We were getting AWAY!

The island is the 2nd largest barrier island (on the East Coast?)....anyone know the first? It's extremely well preserved and protected from major development; that is if you don't consider a bunch of golf courses and bike trails intrusive.

We took bike rides, relaxed at Starbucks, went to the beach, took a sea kayak adventure across the intercoastal waterway, cooked dinner each night, and caught up on our favorite TV show "24"!


We had friends, Mark & Tiffany, come down for a little while too. Mark and Paul went to the driving range where they fully admitted to the staff that they were MUCH better basketball players than golfers. The humbling experience they called "golf" was a good time to catch up with each other. Erika and Tiffany spent their time having "girl talk" at the condo.

Monday morning finally rolled around, and so did the rain clouds. We had been blessed with perfect weather, so we knew this was our cue to leave! Plus Erika's classes started in the evening, and Paul's dental school decision came the next day...

John's Spring Break Visit

Recently, my "little" brother came to stay with us for a week during his Spring Break. I say "little" because, at age 15, he's nearly Paul's equal in size. John was excited to get out of the cold for the week, even though I kept insisting that it was cold down here too (65-70 degrees). We loved having him around. He was a good sport and went on the Historic Charleston Foundation's downtown House Tour with me (isn't that what little brothers are for?) We went shopping and played tourist a little bit. We took bike rides downtown and played catch in the park. John made his second appearance at the Lambert Family Easter dinner. And he got to play basketball with Paul--for real in the rec gym, and for pretend on the X-box. The boys went to a CofC men's baseball game one night when I had class, and on Friday the three of us went to the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament. Other than that, John just crashed on the couch and watched movies. What would spring break be without plenty of R&R?

We love you JT!

...see more pictures in the photo album at the right

Keeping In Touch

So, the world of blogging is varied in its purposes. People write blogs for all kinds of things. What's ours for? Well, it's certainly not because we think our lives are particularly interesting. But it is because we don't get to spend enough time with all of our family and friends. We want to keep in touch with you! I suppose this will become more important when we have kids (not for while yet!), but for now, we'll keep you updated on other things.

Paul and I have been married for a little over 8 months now... it's been quite a ride already, and we're learning more every day. We've experienced all the usual newlywed joys and troubles. With lots of grace, we're getting better and better at this crazy thing called marriage.

Currently, Paul is finishing the Spring semester at CofC, and his grades are looking good. So, if all continues to go well, he should be accepted into the dental school at the Medical University here in town. We won't know for sure until grades come out on May 12th. Once those are official, he will begin dental school classes June 1st. I am finishing my first year of graduate school, and getting ready to take a couple of summer classes. My full-time job with the basketball team is slowing down now that the season is over. And since I'm on a 10-month contract, I'm just tying up loose ends before I leave for the summer.

Happy Easter, everyone!


-Erika, Rikki, Smitty...whatever you call me