My last post was in June and for some reason I thought tonight would be a good night to resume some blog postage.

Here's what I decided to do... I'm just going to vomit out in the form of text what has been going on in my life for the past 5.5 months.

June: So I passed boards (praise God) as seen in my last post and we had a wonderful time in Mexico.

July: Started my first ever rotation... in pediatrics. It was great, although I'm not sure that I would like only see kiddos all day.

August: My first Family Medicine rotation. I fell in love with seeing all different ages and people of different backgrounds. I learned SO much!

September: Family Medicine rotation number 2, this time with obstetrics mixed in. I was living in Ardmore, Oklahoma- 3 hours from home, but was busy busy. I delivered 6 babies (1st baby I delivered in pic) all on my own and first assisted with 4 C-sections. I performed about 12-15 circumcisions (totally solo) and saw a ton of patients completely on my own! It was wonderful- awesome to see how I can mix family medicine with delivering babies :)

October: My first elective rotation. I chose to go to the Women's Health Center at OSU and was happy to be back in my own bed with my husband and puppies. This rotation I saw mostly OB patients and found myself really missing all the other patient populations. I don't think I can do without seeing the elderly and kids.

November: The Present. This month I have been with OSU Family Medicine and am absolutely loving it! I get to see everything- from tiny babies up to old grandpa. I feel constantly challenged and am learning more than I ever imagined. And I just recently (last week) found out the Clint is accepted to LAW SCHOOL!!! This has been an amazing month- we have SO much to be thankful for.

Up next- vacation!!!! The whole month of December I'm off, probably for the last time for a LONG time, so I'm gonna enjoy.

We made it- we survived. LSAT, boards, then vacationing in Mexico. We made it and now it's back to regular life and waiting for the scores, ugh.

But first a photo montage...

The lobby of our hotel. AMAZING!! Everything was outdoors but the lobby was covered by the biggest hut I've ever seen!

Visited the Mayan ruins- super neat!

We went on an awesome tour of the island which was followed by fajita lunch on the beach- this beach, SO pretty.
Also on the tour we snorkeled at this beach...
One of the prettiest and fun places we have ever been! Beautiful water, wonderful people, and spending time with my amazing husband. Best vacation ever.

Coming soon... July 1st- Day one of Pediatrics Rotation

Pancakes Every Day

This video is kinda long, but totally captures it.

The Truth

Studying for the boards... what does that mean anyway? I'm supposed to "review" 2 (in my case 3) YEARS of information. And not just any info, it's tedious minute details about diseases most people (including me) have never heard of and quite frankly may not exist.

Anyhoo- I'm studying for this junk, and all I ever hear is that "you have to make a such-and-such percentage" on "such-and-such question bank" in order to pass your boards. I came across a blog last night of a previous medical student who posted his scores on such a question bank which were SIGNIFICANTLY higher than mine- and I freaked.

Now I'm to the point of "who cares?" That guy was probably a weirdie that can't speak to a bump on a pickle (I love that phrase) and I'm gonna stop comparing myself.

Really?

Probably not- I can't help it, but here is the truth... hopefully I pass.. the first time... and when I do I will promptly place exactly how I studied and my percentages on question banks. I'll title it "The Truth Part Deux"

I'm not posting now because, well, if I don't pass- that would just be embarrassing.

Lastly- I can hear you out there... your criticisms are coming through the loud and clear. Your saying "Well stop writing on this stupid blog and go STUDY!!"

Okay, I will. Right after I finish watching Medical Mysteries on TLC.

An update before the madness...

It's the last week of class.

I have a 7 days of finals followed promptly by ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and then board review. My birthday is unfortunately squished in somewhere.

June 15th is D-day, June 17th we're off to COZUMEL!

I'm thinking that in the next few weeks I'm not going to see a whole heck of a lot of the family, including Clint. I'm gonna miss you guys, but I'm guessing you're probably not gonna want to hang out with stark-raving-mad-med-student-before-boards me, excluding of course Clint who is forced to be exposed to me since we sleep in the same bed.

Regardless, it's almost over... sort of. At least on to another chapter.

I haven't posted in a long while and due to the fact that myself and another friend automatically assume that people are dead if they haven't blogged in a month- I'm posting. This weekend was nice and relaxing, except when Zoe scarfed down a fried chicken bone. Saturday she got really sick.

We stopped 4 times on the way to Dustin for her to "do her thing" and finally we ended up at the Vet. She got a shot and some antibiotics and seems to be doing fine now.Clint and I are assuming this is what it is like to have children, except that children can eat fried chicken and they feel uncomfortable about pooping on the side of the highway.

These pictures are not from that day- just thought I needed some flavor...

This is from Easter- Max enjoying the air conditioner :)

Hair update

I gave up the hair vitamins... they resided too far from my house and the discount was only in effect the first 5 days of the month.

So now I'm just taking a multi-vitamin. I thought I would include pictures of how far the vitamins got me in 7 months.

I really wanted to post pictures of me with a sad face and short hair and then a happy face with longer hair (a la every makeover show) but alas I didn't plan that far in advance.

So here I am in August 2009...

and me in February 2010 (poke fun all you want at my self portrait)...

Baby Rowan and Rotations

There was lots of excitement this week. Nephew number 3 made his appearance and less importantly- I FINALLY got my schedule!

Rowan: My sister did amazingly! She was induced at 8:30am and Rowan was here at 12:57pm! He is absolutely gorgeous at 8 lbs 15 oz with a full head of hair. Here he is...

Rotations: Everything turned out good. My first rotation is in pediatrics in July and I'm super excited! I do have to move to Ardmore for a month in October, but I think the rotation will be really great. However, as Clint put it, "you're gonna be gone your FAVORITE month" and this is true, but I will be back on the 31st and Clint has said he will do the Halloween decor.

November I will for sure be in Tulsa doing Family Medicine for Thanksgiving, and December is an elective month which is perfect. Unfortunately Clint's birthday is during Surgery (not good) and mine is during Internal Medicine (another not so good), but we will make it.

The last two required rotations are November-January of 2011/12 and they are in McAlester and Oklahoma City. I think I'm going to try and get both of these changed which hopefully will work out okay.

After that I'm just doing electives till I GRADUATE in MAY!!

Memory

I found this picture today. I think most of you know the story behind this but just in case you missed it- Maxie popped out his eyeball. Apparently Shih-tzu's have very "open" orbits, so with just a minute amount of pressure, their eyeballs pooch out.

This horrific event occurred on Thanksgiving of 2007, our first one married. We left Max at my parents and went to Clint's family's event. We think he pushed his head through the rod iron gate trying to follow us to the turkey. He didn't make it.

We came home to a googley eyed Max- not cute.

Off to the doggie ER where he was "bedded" next to a Pomeranian with the same problem. Apparently eye balls splooching out are common at the vet ER.

Thank God he was fixed and got to keep his eye, but the recovery was pretty awful.

Here he is...

And here he is from this Christmas. Back to beautiful baby Max...

Meatball Sandwich

So being a med student doesn't offer a person tons of time.

I haven't been grocery shopping in WEEKS- for real. We have no milk, the only bread we have is hoagie buns (not sure why), and half a jar of spaghetti sauce.

What's for dinner, meatball sandwich?

I found some frozen Schwann's meatballs in the freezer, stuck them in the microwave with the spaghetti sauce put them with the sauce on the hoagies and topped with provolone cheese.

They were SO good and super easy.

Necessity really seems to be the mother of invention. Please ignore the bite mark- I had to taste it before I felt the need for a picture.

* rotation schedules delayed AGAIN!! Ugh. Letting everyone know as soon as I do.

Valentines Puppy Bones

This week we had a Valentines Day bake sale to benefit Susan G. Komen. After thinking long and hard about what would be neat to make, I decided puppy bones would really get the donations going.
I had originally planned to make the biscuits and the icing myself, but do to my time constraints I just made the icing and bought a bunch of generic dog bones. I probably made about 14 bones and packaged them 2 by 2 for the bake sale.
They were gone in 10 minutes.
Oh crap. I was gonna bring the left overs home for Zoe and Max, and Lindsey wanted me to snatch some for Nuts. Plus I didn't take pictures of the first ones.
So I made some more. This time for every dog I could think of in driving distance (Sorry Tula).
Here they are...



I think I got everybody, all 3 of my mom's dogs, 2 of my sister's, Clint's parent's dog...

and of course Nuts, his was my favorite...

Recipe for Puppy Icing (mine is way different than the one I originally found)

• 4 ounces of Cream Cheese (original called for low fat, I just used regular)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon oil
• food coloring

T minus 4 months 5 days

As many of you know, I'm finishing up my 2nd year of medical school. After completing the required coursework we have to take a test to continue on to our last two clinical years, and then GRADUATE! I've really been in med school for 3 years as my first year was broken into 2 part time years- so needless to say, I'm ready to be OUT OF HERE!! But first, I've gotta take this test. In June. This horrible test in June.

Bright spot at the end of the tunnel? COZUMEL. Clint decided I deserved a vacation after working my little tail off, so we're off to Mexico in June. I can't wait to post pictures of our trip so I decided to chronicle where we will be going...

P.S. We were told our clinical rotation schedule will be out next week so I can update everybody on my life for the next 2 years shortly.

Surprise Baby Shower

About a month ago, my mom and I decided that Pandee needed a shower, a baby shower that is. She was worried about it being her 3rd baby and she didn't feel like it was appropriate, so we thought a SURPRISE shower would be the best.

We planned and planned. I called Pandee and asked if they wanted to go with Clint and I on a double date before the baby came. I already "arranged" the baby sitter (mom) and asked if they could pick us up.

The day of the shower, I called Pandee and said that Clint had gotten tied up at work and wouldn't be home till later- BUT that they should just come on in and we could hang out while we waited for Clint. This was apparently a bad idea. They ended up hanging out at their own house instead of heading to ours!

At about 8 o'clock they finally rolled in. And thought we had previously had a birthday party for which I hadn't taken down the decorations. Anyway, it all went well and Pandee got a lot of things that she needed.

Here's a couple pictures...

Doggie Dentist

The little ones went to the dentist, and needless to say Zoe was NOT happy. It started by me having to wake her up and pull her out of bed with Clint to get in the car and go. She was upset, but she managed. Then when we got to the vet, she socialized with everyone until I started out the door and she looked at me as if she were using her mind to set me aflame. Not good.
They both made it out of dentistry just fine, but really groggy. I included some pictures of the aftermath. There aren't any of Max because, well, he looked like he always does...asleep.

This is Zoe as soon as we got home. They both had to were little bandages on their arms where they put in the IV. Look how little her arm is!


Zoe was acting really weird on the drugs they gave her. She was so sleepy, but wouldn't lay down. This pic is of her begging for a bite of my soup, but she fell asleep sitting up and her mouth came open and her tongue pooched out. So pathetic.


After she became a little more coherent, I took off her bandage. They shaved her little arm and it was all bruised. Her arm is just a bone with skin over it so I'm surprised when I took the bandage off it didn't just crumble into pieces.

New Blog!

We FINALLY got our church blog started! It's probably going to be undergoing alot of transition in the next couple of weeks since it's just a baby. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

www.generateanecho.blogspot.com

Back to School Randoms

We started back to school, and the stress began.

The week before we came back I tried to get everything in order so I could start back and only concentrate on school.

Get my hair done (gray hair)... Check

Schedule my boards.... Check

Buy my board review books/prep course...Check

Take Zoe and Max to the vet for a check-up... Check

Re-take Zoe and Max to the vet because their teeth are so disgusting they have gingivitis and they will have to put them to sleep to clean all the barnacles off their teeth... not so much check.

This is the second time they have had to have their teeth cleaned. It's really pretty disgusting. I thought about taking a picture but after Zoe tried to bite me (she also has an ear infection), I figured it might be better for you just to imagine the crustiness.

Anyhow, I got alot done only to add more which always seems to be the case. Now I just need to keep myself from stressing myself, which is easier said than done. Here's what I'm working on...

1. Finding out my class rank. I don't really need it for anything I don't think, but the mystery of knowing is kinda compelling.

2. Not comparing my schedule to everybody else's board review schedule. There are some serious crazies in my class when it comes to studying for a test that is 6 MONTHS AWAY!

3. Stay relaxed, in any way I can. Last night I thought I would drowned my stresses in comfort food. I called Clint and said "We're having little kid food night- any ideas?" We ending up having sloppy joes, mac and cheese, cool ranch doritos, chocolate cake, and bud light (not something we drank as children). It actually really helped, it reminded me of old school slumber party!

Decided to add a picture anyway. This is not Max or Zoe but their teeth look just like this and I brush them!

This weekend was awesome, we had such a great time! See our trip through the pictures...

Clint and I in front of our gigantic hotel. It was huge and the grounds were all decorated for Christmas.




These are pictures of the INSIDE of our hotel. All the buildings are restaurants and shops, it was like a little village inside a big atrium.


This was the inside at night. It's kinda hard to see but there were bands of lights that looked like stars and in between were strands that looked like falling snow!


The night before the game we went cowboy boot hunting for Clint. He had been wanting some for awhile and we figured what a better time than in Dallas for a Cowboys game. This is a picture of our cowboyed up feet.


This is us in front of the new Dallas stadium, it also is gigantic and looks like a UFO. I guess everything is bigger in Texas.


Lastly, this is the view from our seats. We were in the highest deck but it was still impressive. The Cowboys won, mainly because we were present and screaming our lungs out (that's what we're saying anyway).

We're gonna party like it's 1929

Hope everyone had an awesome New Year's Eve and is ready for 2010! Some friends of ours hosted a 1920's themed party this year and we had a great time going back in time to go forward in time (he he). Tomorrow we leave for Dallas!!