4 years...

Today is me and Jeff's 4 year anniversary. I cannot believe how quickly those years have flown by. I consider myself so lucky to have found someone that makes me this happy, and who is willing to put their life on hold while I pursue my dream. It stinks not being able to be together today, but hopefully this is the last time we're apart on our anniversary. It's pretty much impossible for me to put into words just how wonderful our time together has been, so here are some pictures to walk you through our adventures over the past 4 years.

I love you Jeff, with all my heart. Thank you for making me feel like I'm the only girl in the world. Here's to a lifetime of love and happiness together...

4th of July...

The first week of class came and went. It wasn't too terrible, other than the fact that I was going through a bitter/grumpy phase when it truly hit that I hadn't had a week-long break since April and won't be getting one until October. To some this may not seem like a big deal, but I rely on those weeks to help motivate me and get through each term. It didn't help matters that Jeff took the week off and was enjoying a vacation (that included time with Grady) without me. Jealous? Yes. Bitter? Definitely. Sorry to those who had to put up with my funk. Hopefully I'm over it now. My schedule (as of right now) is as follows:

Special Topics: Mon, Wed 8:30-12
Seminar: Tues, Thurs 9:30-12
Special Populations: Tues, Thurs 1-6
Diagnostic Imaging: Wed 5-10

Yep, I get Fridays off which I think is well-earned and deserved! Maybe I'll get a few weekend run-aways out of it. Any takers??? It's a quick 6-week term, so I know it's going to fly by and I can't wait to get out of the classroom.

For the 4th I went up to Kernville to spend time with Jeff and his family. I somehow managed to bypass terrible traffic and only took 30 minutes longer than usual. What a pleasant surprise! I got to hold my sweet little nephew for a little bit before Melissa and Derek left on Friday morning. Jeff and the boys went to the shooting range on Friday while I played with Sofia, Andrew and Jordan. Always entertaining! Saturday a bunch of them went white water rafting while I studied...it's a little too close for comfort for going out to the clinics and my fear of getting injured has greatly increased as the date approaches. We watched the fireworks from across the lake and even had glowsticks to play with while we waited for them to start. Here's a cool, yet creepy picture of Sofia playing with them...


Sunday we went for a sea-doo ride on the lake before heading out of town. I actually hit more traffic coming home than leaving town. Go figure. Then back to the grindstone and class in this yucky heat. Bleck! All in all a fun trip. It was great seeing everyone and getting away from the normalcy that grad school has become.

Oh yes...Jeff and I asked little miss Sofia if she would be the flower girl in our wedding. At first she said yes, then she said no and that Andrew could be the flower boy instead. Then I told her that the flowers were going to be pink, to which she gasped and exclaimed "YES!" Sofia promised to have the flowers fly all over me and make me look pretty. Love that kid! Although, I'm not sure who was more excited about it...Sofia or Betty! :)


Sofia will be joined by another little girlie near and dear to my heart, although I haven't asked her (more like her mom) yet. But I think the parties involved have a good inkling that it's coming. :) They will be absolutely adorable with Grady as the ring-bearer! Can't wait...just 2 more years! Haha!

Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th and managed to stay out of the heat. Now I should get some work done...

Comps...

Alright alright...I know I disappeared for a while, but let me tell you...I've been busy! So I will attempt to catch you up on everything. Let's see...

So "break" ended when I came back to school and began seriously studying for comps. And I mean seriously...12-14 hours per day of studying, practicing, quizzing, etc. You know it's bad when you realize it's 10 o'clock at night and you never ate dinner and didn't even notice. Lots of trying to remember information, laughing (nervously) when we came across something we never even remembered learning in the first place, and praying for the best outcome.

Monday was Neuro. They hired actors to be our patients, which I guess was a good idea. I had the unfortunate blessing of going in the first group, so my actor didn't completely have her story down yet and threw me for a little loop, but I just focused on what I knew and what I had figured out and tried to treat it as best I could. I was so nervous because I hate going first that I dropped my stuff on her when I went to introduce myself. Poor thing! The look on her (and my tester's) face was priceless. Oh yes, and Melissa...guess what the diagnosis was...MS! I thought of you! Anyway, I treated a Neuro patient with mostly Ortho techniques but completely justified it and proved that I was 75% competent. You should note that a 75% was considered passing throughout the week, so we kept saying that we only need to be 3/4 competent.

Tuesday was Cardio Pulm. We got to work with a partner for part of it, and although we're not sure if this was how it was technically supposed to be done, my partner (Heidi) and I didn't really let our professor direct questions to one of us specifically and helped each other out by finishing the other person's sentences. We treated our post-heart attack patient brilliantly and panicked when we got a "Do you think there's anything else you should do?". That's usually is a sign that you've forgotten something major and you better think quick. Turns out that what we did was too conservative, even though we followed it directly from the book, but it's always better to error on the conservative and safe side than to push the patient too far, so another passed test.

Wednesday was the written, which really is on a computer, but was a practice board exam. I ended up getting a 70% on it, which I'm quite content with since a 75% is what is required to pass the real board exam and I'm not even finished with school yet! Not to mention that with an exhausted brain, I know I made stupid mistakes, and really should have gotten a higher score. Plus they told us we should aim to get above a 60%...done and done.

Thursday was Ortho, which should have been my moment of glory. It was set up that you had to go through a bunch of different stations, and then eventually treat a patient which was your "partner" that you had to differentially diagnose and set up with a exercise program, etc. I got a patellar femoral syndrome patient, which probably means nothing to most of you. Should have been a cake walk, but then my tester decided to make me focus on the most random things and wouldn't let me do the standard treatment protocols. I made a slight error on one of the tests, merely a wrong hand placement, lost my confidence here and there and had to make pauses to think things out. At the end our tester asked my partner and I if we had anything to say for ourselves. Another panic attack...I told him that it was the end of a really long week and apologized for anything I had done wrong. Basically he told us that he understood how tired we were, but all in all was very impressed with our clinical knowledge and reasoning. So, in pure exhaustion, I passed the last one. Hooray!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that they "accidentally" scheduled class with a lymphedema specialist during all this (I thought of you, Becky), so we went to class on Tuesday and Thursday from 2-6. We were not happy campers. She was a nice lady, and we learned about the massage techniques and wrapping to do with these patients, but it was still the last thing we wanted to be doing.

Then I ran off to SLO on Thursday night to get in some more time with Jeff since it had been cut short during our "break". Ashley happened to be down there again so we had lunch, got a pedicure, and caught up on our girl time while Jeff was at work on Friday. And she also popped some terrific news...she's going to be moving back to SLO! She plans on attending Cal Poly's teaching credential program starting in January, and I cannot wait to have her back again! I missed that girl. Jeff may not be too thrilled, but I sure am! Jeff and I didn't do much all weekend. A whole lot of bumming around. We went to see Transformers, watched the USA vs. Brazil soccer game, and I tried to just let my poor brain recover. On my way back down I stopped and spent some time with my dad to try to make up for Father's Day. Had a good chat and dinner, and then was back on the road to school.

I think that about catches everything up. I will post my schedule once everything is finalized. Comps were definitely not fun, and I definitely made mistakes that I shouldn't have, but am overall pleased with how I did and am feeling confident to go out into the clinics. I will leave you with this sad note...It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that one of Jeff's family's dog, Molly, had to be put down during my comps week. She was an absolute sweetheart, full of snuggles and kisses, and she will be greatly missed. It was hard to maintain my focus knowing what was going on and trying to keep Jeff happy during comps. It's so hard to lose a pet. Miss you Molly-moo! *sigh* Anyway, hope all is well with everyone, and stay out of the heat!

Wanted: Large (Secluded) Estate...

I survived finals...HOORAY! It was rough, and I know I could have done better on all of them, but with the time constraints we were put under for studying, I did what I could. After a good night's rest I was off to SLO, along with 8 binders full of notes and my comps study book. (Look back a couple posts for a reminder on that one.) I don't think I got the best gas mileage in the world with all that added weight, but it was a necessary evil.

I studied while Jeff was at work on Thursday and Friday. Thursday I also went out to Arroyo Grande to check out a wedding location (The Cypress Ridge Pavilion) I had found online that looked promising. I'm not going to say that this place is completely off the list, but I'm quickly learning that what you see online is not necessarily what you get. It was as beautiful in person as it was online, only smaller and a lot closer to houses than I thought. See...


It's not being completely scratched off because of this, I would just have to make sure that none of the pictures would have these multi-million dollar homes in the background. But, it's in our price range (something that is not easy to come by) and near the beach, which would make it a lot cooler in July than a lot of other places. Anyway, we'll see on this one.

Friday my best friend Ashley drove down from the Bay area. We lived together in the dorms and during our sophomore year at Cal Poly. Then she studied abroad our junior year and lived in the sorority house our senior year. We call ourselves "sisters separated in the womb" because since the first minute of knowing each other, we had an instant and inseparable connection. We haven't been able to see each other since we graduated 2 years ago, so this was a long overdue visit.

On Saturday she went out with me and Jeff to check out another wedding location (Fleur de Lis Estate) in Atascadero. Another possibility that's not completely off the list, but has some faults. 1) the next door neighbor is pretty close and had has a fairly run-down house with some run-down cars to decorate the yard. Some may call it art, but I don't think it's what I had in mind for the theme and feel of my wedding. 2) the train runs close by and honked it's lovely horn several times during our tour. Jeff and Ashley had to point this out to me because I never even heard it. Maybe living right next to the tracks has made me immune to it. We could have the train whistle instead of church bells...maybe not. The cool thing was you could rent out the place for the entire weekend if you wanted. Oh yea, and it had a barn! Again, we'll see.

Sunday I convinced Jeff to drive us out to Arroyo Grande so they could check out Cypress Ridge while Fleur de Lis was still fresh in their minds. We also drove up See Canyon to look for apple orchards and grand estates to rent out. No such luck. So we decided to have lunch in downtown SLO and Ashley and I hit up one of our most favorite places...Cowboy Cookies! I can remember going there as a kid with my parents and eating warm melting cookies by the mission. Yum! Potential favor idea???


Well, Ashley and I were very content with this stop! Sadly, Ashley had to go. But we found out that we're both going to be up there in 2 weeks. Go figure! 2 years without seeing each other and then we get to see each other twice in the span of 2 weeks.

Monday I had to pack my things up and head back down here to school. Now it's back to studying for comps and trying to not think about wedding stuff. Easier said than done. Sorry for all the wedding talk. Just thought I would update on all that for those of you are interested so I don't have to repeat myself a million times. The quest for the perfect location is still on, and if you know of anyone with a huge estate that wouldn't mind renting it out to a poor grad student for her wedding, send them my way! :) Hope everyone's enjoying summer. Maybe this June Gloom will go away soon...

June already?!

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I guess time has just been slipping away amidst the sea of papers and clinic days. The weekend up in Kernville was fun. We went whitewater rafting and quad riding. Jeff and I also accidentally tipped a 2-seater quad over while making a 3-point turn on what looked like a level surface. Apparently it was still on an incline, but fortunately since we weren't exactly moving quickly, we are both fine! And that, my friends, is why you wear all the claustrophobia-inducing (in my opinion) protective gear! The boys also went to the shooting range, and we saw Night at the Museum. The weather wasn't too hot either, which was nice. A relatively relaxing weekend, and a nice getaway. Thanks Mike and Becky for the ride!

This past week seemed to take forever to get through, even though it was technically only 3 days of actual class. Tuesday I went out to a peds clinic and helped during a treatment session. I'm figuring out more and more that I don't really think that peds is what I'm going to end up in. Yes, I know my insanely huge love for children would make you think otherwise, but there is a lot more work and energy that goes into moving some of these kids. I'm just thinking about my poor back and body and trying to keep myself income-producing for as long as possible. We'll see...you never know where life may take me. But as of right now, I'm sticking with ortho. More guest lecturers (read: more dressing up), and on Friday we had a really awesome patient day. We had some patients with prostheses come in and we split up into small groups and rotated through them, asking them questions, assessing their mobility, and checking out their awesome equipment. Some of their stories were pretty amazing. One of the patients was a Paralympic athlete who even ran outside for us. She is also an actress/singer and has been on My Name is Earl. You can check out her website here. You should check out the video under the running section on her website...she's a world record holder, which is pretty amazing! I found her, as well as all the other patients who came in, to be incredibly amazing and inspirational.

This weekend was spent studying. Yesterday we had a midterm in Pharmacology, which who knows how it went. I really am not a fan of that class. I understand its importance, but I don't like it. We have our final practical for Gen Med on Thursday and a few minor quizzes and papers due. I'll also go out to another peds clinic on Friday. Other than that, it's just gearing up for taking 4 finals in 2 days next week. YIKES! Peds and Pharm are on Monday and Gen Med and Prosthetics/Orthotics is on Tuesday.

Hope all is well. I can't believe it's June already! I'm not sure where May went. Sorry if I disappear for a little bit. I can't guarantee what kind of time I'll have to update this during this week. If you need me, come find me buried under all my books!

San Diego, studying, and more...

Last weekend I escaped down to San Diego to get in a quick visit with Melissa, Derek, and Grady. I got to be a huge Grady hog, and it was wonderful! I love that little guy! And I can't believe how big he's already gotten...Melissa retired 2 outfits while I was down there. He moves around a lot more (his arms and legs that is), and likes just staring at you taking it all in. He was a smiling, cooing, hiccuping snuggle bug. I can't wait to watch him grow up. I can already tell he's going to be a lot of fun! I didn't take that many pictures...it's a little hard when your hands are full with him! :) It was kind of spontaneous and last-minute, so thanks Melissa & Derek for letting me come on such short notice!



On a school note...only 2 months and 20 days until I start my first rotation! I couldn't be more excited. You can tell the whole class is getting the itch to get out of the classroom and into the clinic. We're getting a little stir-crazy, finding it hard to focus, and all-around are tired and burnt-out. We've been having guest speakers almost every day, which means lots of getting dressed up to sit in class. Fun. We're spending some time out in Peds clinics on various days, and I don't have any today...meaning, I get the day off! Of course there's studying to do, but that means I get to fulfill my urge to bake, and that sounds just wonderful. And meet my new friend...


This is my study book for comps, and I will be spending a lot of quality time with it. And the reason it looks so huge...because it is! Close to 1000 pages of review material, study guides, and practice tests. Woohoo! Hopefully it will be my ticket to success in passing these stinking tests. Only time will tell.

Alright, back to work. I'll be heading up to Kernville with Jeff and his family this weekend. Enjoy your BBQ's, beach trips, pool parties, etc. this Memorial Day! Have fun and be safe!

Our welcome home committee...

These are our neighbors' kids Brian (left) and Anthony (right) who are some of the cutest, sweetest, yet wild and craziest kids I've ever met. They yell goodbye to us out the window every morning when we leave for school and come running outside whenever we come home. Anthony even does a happy dance when he sees me and comes running up to give me a hug. They always want to know what we're doing and where we're going. It's like having a mini set of parents!

We try to play with them as much as we can, usually soccer in our shared driveway or just being goof balls and running around like different animals or power rangers (I'm always pink), but they also know what "we need to study" means. We can always count on them for a few laughs when we're getting stressed out or need a study break.

Brian asked me today if he could spend the night at our house. Too cute! They like to come inside and check out what we're doing. I sometimes humor them and turn on music and let them have a dance party, but they usually get a little wild, so that doesn't last too long. They are also really fascinated by my trunk for some reason. Anthony tries to climb into it and Brian likes to take stuff out of it for me...not always the things I want to take out, but at least he's trying to help.

Anyway, thought I'd share our little smiling greeters from next door. If you come and visit, you'll probably get to meet them...or at least hear them! :)