Shiny New Bikes

A couple weeks ago, Cody surprised me with a brand new bicycle. When I pulled in the driveway coming home from work, we both had shiny new bikes sitting there, just waiting on us to ride them. I was so excited! We had been talking about getting bikes for a few years, but we didn't have a place to store them. Once Cody got his storage building, we knew we had that problem solved, but bikes aren't cheap so it was something that was just going to have to wait. Cody received a check in the mail from the award he won at graduation, and he was willing to share it with me by buying us both new bikes. How sweet!

We hurried up and ate dinner, took Hershey for a walk, and got ready to ride our bikes through the neighborhood. Uh oh...my bike was too tall. "No problem," Cody said. "We'll just lower the seat." Uh oh...the seat was already down as far as it could go. Apparently, I am too short to ride a full-size 26" adult bike. When I sat on the bike seat, my feet couldn't touch the ground, by about six inches. You know, I have lived with being short my whole life and usually it's not that big of a deal to me. I have to get most of my pants hemmed due to them being about a foot too long, and I have to have Cody get things out of the cabinets on the upper shelves; I expect all that and I am used to it. But I didn't expect not to be able to ride the bike. It was so sad, because I was so excited about having a bike and going riding.

Well, we returned that bike to Wal-Mart, and went out in search of a 24" bike. It seems that this size of bike is rare, but it is even more rare when you are looking for something that doesn't look kid-ish. We had no luck in finding a bike that I would be happy to ride in any of the stores we looked at, but we did find one online at www.walmart.com. It was a great deal--you got free shipping and a $20 gift card. Plus, it's a pretty purple color! It only took about a week for my bike to arrive. Cody put it together for me as soon as it came so we could ride that night when I got home from work. Luckily, this bike fit perfectly. (But I couldn't be any shorter...the bike seat is down as far as it will go on this one!)

Most nights after dinner and Hershey's walk, we'll go riding through the neighborhood. It is a great way to relax and get exercise after a long day.

Cody's Bike


My Bike

Congratulations, Dr. Cody!

Well, it's official! After 4 years of hard work, Cody graduated med school on May 7 and 8th, and he is now Dr. Cody Wingler. I am so proud of him!

Graduation week was full of ceremonies and celebrations. Cody's parents came into town on Wednesday. Cody's mom and I baked the cake for his graduation party, which we decorated on Thursday morning. Thursday was also the awards ceremony, which my parents were in town to attend. Cody won the Edgar J. Beddingfield Family Medicine award for exemplifying qualities like those of the man for whom the award is named.

Cody officially received the title of MD on Friday morning during the ECU Convocation. This ceremony included all undergrads and graduate students for ECU, so it was held outdoors at the ECU football stadium. It was pretty warm that day, but our family was lucky enough to sit in a box in the shade on Club Level. We were even able to hang our sign (it said, "Congratulations, Dr. Cody!") around the box. Unfortunately, the students are not recognized individually--each college/division stands to be recognized as a group. (In a way, this was kind of nice because it would have taken forever to have all the names of the undergrads called out individually, but for 4 years of hard work, it kind of stinks not to have any more recognition than that.)

Saturday was the Brody School of Medicine Commencement ceremony. We had our family over to our house for a country style breakfast before we left to go to the graduation. Cody had lots of people cheering for him: his parents, my parents, some friends of Cody's family, my sister and her husband, his nephew, and of course, me! This ceremony was specifically for the medical students, so it was more personalized. Each graduate's name was called, and they went up to the front of the stage to be hooded. How special that moment was!

Saturday evening, we had a party at the house with all of our close friends and family. Cody requested that the food was catered from Moe's (which was very good, but we had enough leftovers for days). The party had a slight medical theme--a cake decorated like the Operation board game, party favors were prescription bottles with M&Ms, and signs around the house relating that area to an area in a doctor's office. All week before the party, there had been up to a 60% chance of rain for Saturday, but the weather turned out beautiful! It was a little warm, but once the sun went down, it felt really nice outside.

It was a busy and long week, but we are all so proud of Cody! He is going to make a great doctor!