Walkin in Memphis

Last Saturday Matt checked his email and had a letter from the school in Memphis, inviting him to call and make an appointment for an interview the next weekend weekend.  He promptly called them. They said they had one spot possibly still open. A man wasn't sure if he would be able to make it or not so they would let us know by Wednesday. So, all weekend and week we were hoping for a call but not sure if it would come.  Tuesday night we got the call and started making arrangements to leave the next evening. They asked that Matt bring along his family so they could meet all of us.  He asked if they were sure about that seeing as how we have a rambunctious 2 year old and a 4 month old, but they said they love little ones so it would be even better!  It was a busy hard day Wednesday.  Lots to do, little time to do it in, and lots of "help" from Heath. Luckily when I called my mom to tell her what our plans were she insisted on coming out to help and take me and the boys back to their place to play that night. That was a HUGE blessing! Thanks Mom! : )  Since Matt's young men were in charge of the activity at church that night we were going to be leaving after that was over (probably about 9pm) and head to my parents house for the night before heading to Memphis. But since my mom came and helped us we left with her and were able to spend some time with my family.  Matt followed later that night after the activity and packing his stuff.

Anyways, so Thursday morning we leisurely got up in Spfld, packed up the kiddo's and left for Memphis. It was actually a really really nice drive, it took about 5.5 hours to get there, but since we weren't in a huge hurry it was a really good trip. We stopped a few times along the way to get some wiggles out and feed the babe. Heath and Houston were so good. 

  Mammoth Spring Park

We got to our hotel about 4, got all situated then took off for a walk.  Our hotel was in downtown Memphis right next to the famous Peabody Hotel. When I was looking for fun free things to do in Memphis this was one of the number one things listed. Everyday at 11am the ducks that live on the roof of the hotel march into the elevator and ride down to the main lobby then march across the red carpet and into the fountain, then at 5pm they do the whole thing again in reverse.  We weren't sure if if was really true, but it was! Heath loved it.

After visiting the ducks we got in the car and found the school. Hopefully that took away a little bit of the stress for Matt. Then went to Olive Garden and had their unlimited bread sticks soup and salad dinner. Super Tasty! Heath enjoyed making a mess with ice cubes and Houston played with his rattle most of the time. Then we headed back to the Hotel, bathed the kiddo's and turned in early for the big day. 

Oh, on the car ride to Memphis we noticed Houston's eyes were pretty red and starting to get goopy.  When we got the the hotel Matt washed them with baby soap but by the time we got to Olive Garden they were horrible. We were a little hesitant about taking Houston to Matt's Optometry School Interview. "Hello I'm here to become an eye doctor, oh and this is my goopy eyed baby."  So Matt called our optometrist here at home, told him what was going on and he called in a proscription for us that we were able to pick up on our way to the hotel.

The interview itself went really well.  Heath and Houston were really well behaved (thanks to my fully stocked diaper bag of goodies) and the people at the school were really super nice.  They gave us a tour which Houston slept all the way through! Heath really enjoyed going up and down the flights of stairs. We were very impressed with the school. It's solely dedicated to optometry rather than being a medical school where you would specialize in Optometry. All the teachers are Optometrists.  Matt would only be learning the things that really apply to his field, rather than a bunch of other stuff that would be required for a degree.
They also have a really nice clinic attached to the school where students see patients from 2-4th year, so graduates have tons of clinical experience.  It seemed like it would be a really good fit for him and us. 

The only downside to the school in my opinion is the location. Its right in downtown Memphis. It was a bit of a culture shock to me driving around the outside of campus. We saw a person we weren't sure was a man or woman, but we were pretty sure was working the corner just a block from the school.  Most of the apartments near the school were pretty shady too. There are other parts of town though that are really nice so we'll see what happens. 

After the tour/interview we went to the hotel to try and get Heath to take a nap. (and hopefully get to take one ourselves) But after about an hour of him playing and being silly we figured it wasn't going to happen.  At the school they had given us a housing book and suggested areas to live so we decided to drive around and check some of them out.  Heath promptly fell asleep about 10 minutes after we got into the car, but we were able to find some really nice places, 

and we got to see Graceland.  Don't worry that I took a picture of the house just as that big red truck covered it up. : )

I was glad we looked around now we have a really good idea of what would work for us if we end up going there.

Memphis is known for it's barbeque so we asked around and decided to go to the Rendezvous  for dinner. It was just down the street from our hotel so we just walked. 

 It was super tasty! The restaurant is in the basement of a really old building so the atmosphere was pretty fun. They had so many people packed down there. Luckily they gave us a corner table so we weren't in the middle of too much commotion.

Well, that way we weren't bothering too many people with our commotion  I guess...

They had feeding people down to an art, we were in got our food ate and got out of there in about 30 minutes. It was great, anyone who had been out to eat with little ones knows the faster the better!  Since it was only about 6:00  when we finished we decided to go back to the Peabody Hotel to see if we could go up and see where the ducks live.

 Down in the lobby we stopped to watch the pianist. She was amazing, playing beautiful pieces while carrying on a full conversation.  She asked if we had twins, which I thought was pretty funny seeing as how Houston is a little can't hardly do anything yet baby and Heath speaks, but I guess they do look a lot alike these days. She sang twinkle twinkle little star just for Heath. He really liked it.

 We rode the elevator to the top floor and found the ducks out on the roof. I'm pretty sure their enclosure up there was nicer than any home I'll ever be living in.

 The view was beautiful. We could clearly see the Mississippi and skyline of Memphis.

On our way out we found these creepy little dogs.

 

There were several horse drawn carriages coming and going. Heath really loved watching the horsies walk up and down the street, but anytime we got close he would cry and say they were "Big Scary Horsies"   

Before turning in for the night we stopped in at a Denny's and got a hot cookie and ice cream. It was a pretty tasty end to a great day!

 The next morning we got up bright and early to pack up the car and then set off for the temple. I was going to go in first while Matt watched the boys.  When he got into the waiting area a really nice old gentleman offered to watch the boys for us so Matt could go trough with me. It was a nice thought, but he had no idea how much energy he was offering to try and keep up with. We just switched off which worked out really well.

 We had a wonderful time there! Our trip came to an end and we made the trek back home which also went really pretty well. The boys were great until the last hour or so, but we made it home in one piece.