I was talking to my mom a couple days ago about one of my friends and she reminded me of what amazing friends I have/had. I have been extremely blessed to be surrounded by absolutely astounding people that have truly made me a better person. Later this week I heard this song from Wicked and I was again impressed by the great people in my life.
In church they always emphasized the importance of choosing good friends, but I never really realized the importance they had on me until I looked back...
Sophmore year Andrea taught me that it is actually 'cool' to be good. Not that I would have done anything differently, but I definitely gained some confidence and pride in being obedient. It was at that point that I decided I didn't care what other people thought of me- I was going to do what I thought was right, no matter what. (at least I tried to)
Senior year of high school I had the option of taking a CNA class with Jamie and Shanna . I don't think I would have actually done it if it hadn't been for them. I had no idea what I wanted for a career, so I mostly did it to have a class with a friend. It's funny because that decision opened up so many career options that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
During college I had some pretty stellar friends. I can't even count all the things that they have taught me over the years, but I am so grateful for them in my life.
Senior year of college I had a friend who was also applying to PA school. Sometimes I wonder if I would have applied if it hadn't been for her because my whole application was all messed up and I had no idea how to fix it.
I know there are loads of other friends who have shaped and influenced my life. I could try to name them all but I know I'd miss a few...so I'm not even going to attempt it.
Last but not least, some of my best friends are my family members. I am so
so so lucky for them and their wonderful examples of faith and
goodness.
To all of you who have made me a better person...Thanks!
So this picture looks a little funny, but here are the people I've been working with for the past month. (Dr. Hinton, Angie, Karen). I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow I'm going to be able to deliver a baby on my own.
My friend Lori has a nephew that is doing a class project about flat Stanley. She asked if I would go on a vacation with him...so here's my picture with flat Stanley just before I went into surgery. Funny story real fast...So during one of the surgeries one of the nurses looked at me and said...do you use latisse or something because you have super long eye lashes. I actually had no idea who she was talking to so I didn't respond and then she said...I guess you don't and we don't like people who have naturally long eyelashes. At that point I clued into the conversation and gave the polite chuckle. I thought it was a nice thought though...but now the nurses hate me...not a good thing. ;)
So about 5 miles from my apartment in Blountville (pronounced bluntvol) is the Bristol Motor Speedway...ya know, where they have all those race car races-thingy. I don't know...but I had to find something cool for flat Stanley. :)
I have the best family and friends! I really do! On Friday I got this package from my friend Beth because she knew I would alone on Thanksgiving.By the way- it was delicious! How nice is that? Seriously! I don't think I could find better friends or family.
First day of my first rotation- Opening Scene:
(Dr. Jeff Hinton- OB/Gyn). He comes in quoting the Lord’s prayer in Latin and
he introduces himself and then says, are you catholic? Obviously I said no and
then he went on to explain that he wants to memorize the prayer in latin and
greek. Before we even go into a room he says, oh I have to show you this youtube video...
Oh
man- he quotes that all day! Seriously...he'll say 'yeah, yeah???' in that go voice all the time. It was annoying after a while and now its just funny because it's so annoying (if that makes any sense.) Clearly he is a pretty chill Dr which is nice for
my first rotation.
He also quotes this all the time too... "very very heavy bertation" And just FYI she wasn't having a stoke, just an atypical migraine.
So we finally go into our first room and almost immediately he says to the patient, 'you should name your child Malachi.' The lady gives him a weird look and then he says,'oh I think that
is a book in the mormon bible or something.' He then turns to the pt and asks if
she is mormon and then to me and asks if I’m mormon. When I respond in the
affirmative he says, Oh I’m going to have so much fun picking on you this
month. (First I'm thinking- I'm pretty sure that Malachi is in the REGULAR bible and then I'm thinking...oh great...here we go)Then he starts talking about our ‘special’ underwear. At first I was a
little nervous that he was going to get into all that stuff, but he didn’t
really- Phew! It looks like I’m going to have to brush up not only on my OB
knowledge but also my missionary-skills as well.
Since then he hasn't really brought up the church that much. He'll make little remarks about the church now and again and I'll roll my eyes or say, 'oh please'.
I've seen quite a few patients since then..tons and tons of prenatal visits, pap smears, and tubal ligations. I've seen a few deliveries, but my favorite have been the C-sections. SO cool! Probably the most surprising thing is how blue the baby is when they come out. I was also surprised that I'm not 100% averted to having children in the very distant future.
Overall the rotation has been a good experience. I've really enjoyed the people I've been working with (Dr. Hinton and his nurse Angie). Everyone is so nice and willing to let me learn (even the patients). Last week the nurse came up to me and said, why don't you just stay and work here. You're just so nice I just really think you should stay. Not to be cocky or anything, but I do think I'm a nice person, but I've been praying this past month that I could be a good missionary and nothing has happened. I'm just waiting patiently for them to bring up the church...but nada.
Today in church they were talking about the power of kindness and how you have no idea what doors you're opening with your kind deeds and that made me think of these missionary experiences. Perhaps my kindness is a missionary tool.
Living
with Zach is going well. He is actually really clean and respectful. When I was
talking about how I felt bad that he has the much smaller room he said, if my
wife were in this situation I’d want her to have the larger room that was
connected to the bathroom, so I’m glad you have it. I was really impressed when
he said that. It’s nice to be reminded that there are decent guys still out
there. It was weird however to have beer in the refrigerator.
This past weekend I went down to Raleigh to spend some time with Nate and Kelly and their kids- and I just have to say, what a great family! We partied it up and just had a great weekend.
funniest
part of the weekend: I bent down to give Lyla a hug goodnight and she
looked right at my face and pointed right to a pimple and said, what is
that???? (I didn't think it was that noticeable, but apparently it was)
Scariest
part: We watched Hide and Seek...creepy movie. Charlie...Charlie!!!!
And of course Nate kept turning off the lights and freaking me and Kelly
out.
Best part: During church Ruby was sitting on Nate's lap
and she totally reached out cause she wanted me to hold
her....translation: Lizzy is officially the favorite Aunt. YES!!!
These are just some pictures of people in my ward. (Darcie, Dustin, Amanda)
(Bishop Petersen-standing, Brother and Sister Steen)
Sister Petersen, Emily and her 2 kids Lizzy and John
Months before we left for kauai my Mom sent out all these planning emails about what we were going to do while we were there. At first she would just label them 'hawaii trip' or 'kauai' but then she stared labeling all her emails 'kauai revealed'. I didn't know why till we actually got to Kauai and I found out it was the name of my mom's travel guide book (ie our bible for the week). It just made me laugh that by the end we would all reference the book or ask what the book thought about EVERYTHING. I'm not lying- I don't think my mom ever left the apartment without her handy-dandy Kauai Revealed book.
A few of us at the SLC airport getting ready to start our trip...oh the anticipation!
I love this picture of Nate and Becca and myself.I know this is out of order cause it is at the Luau but I just like the picture.
I just think this is an excellent picture of mom and dad. What amazing parents!! The red flower...my mom found it somewhere and she just thought we should both include it in our pictures, but it wouldn't stay in my hair so she stuck it in my dress...it looks kind of awkward. I kind of felt like the girl on Ever After who stuck the feather down her shirt when the prince came by. Ha ha- i love my mom!!!
This is the waterfall/spa right by our apartment. Nothing can beat the actual beaches in Kauai, but the landscaping/pool area were definitely a close second. This is what I woke up to every morning. AMAZING!
Left: So this is us trying to find the 'amazing rope swing.' Little did we know that in order to get to the rope swing you had to jump off a 25 ft waterfall. You can kind of see the ladder in the back ground that leads to the rope swing.
Zip-lining was amazing! It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I can't remember exactly, but I think the longest one was over 700 feet. And the best part was that we looked pretty cool doing it :)
In the middle of our zip-lining experience we had a pool/lunch break. I don't know if you can see it in the picture by my brother is trying to dunk me in the middle of the picture. (I'm in the front left and you can see his knees coming up to push me down. Oh what a great brother. I just love that they never outgrow their teasing.)
Some other random things...jumping off more rocks, and hiking...I just realized that I didn't include any of the big group pictures mostly because I looked disgusting in them, and since this is MY blog- I dont' have to include them. The downside is that I realized I don't have any pictures of my brothers Matt and Scott...so sorry
On another side note- of the 8 women on the trip...4 of us (not me!) were pregnant. I just thought that was funny. Good thing they were all troopers and still went on hikes and jumps and stuff with us. K so not all the the prego sisters did everything, but they did most things which is pretty impressive.
So this past month has been kind of crazy. Boot camp has
kind of ruled my life a little bit.
I spent a week in the OR, which to be honest
was kind of cool. It was nice to have an idea of what I’m getting into. Not
knowing is the worst part of starting new things, and since so much of the next
year is going to be in the hospital, its nice having a little prelude to what
the next year will be nice. I got to see the robot surgery, hernia repairs and a
bilateral amputation. Kind of cool. Not going to lie. Going into some of the
more bloody surgeries I was a little worried that I’d pass out-which is a little
embarrassing and quite frankly- lame. The good news is that I didn’t…in fact I
kind of like the bloody stuff. That said- I’m no Meridith Grey, but it’s nice
to know that I’m not going to pass out at the sight of a little/a lot of blood.
So the pinnacle of boot camp was a
cumulative final that covered everything we learned over the past year. YIKES!
And guess who passed…yup, ME!!!!! Not that I was super worried, but it is nice
to have it out of the way.
Now that that is over, I start
rotations in a week from today. I can’t believe it! In fact I keep asking
myself, ‘what are you doing?’ Now that the stress of finals is over I’m
stressing out about rotations. Can I just say..AHHHHHHHHH!
