I don't know if anyone else is like me but I get stuck on a song for a couple of months. What I mean by that is when I find a song I really really like, I replay it over and over again for a couple of months. My poor poor roommates!
Anyway, so here are some of my top songs....
1. R. Kelly's 'World's Greatest': Freshman year of College...everyone on my hall got to enjoy this one with me. :) I was also really into the song 'you're beautiful'...but his voice...yeah, it got a bit annoying so I didn't want to put that one up.
2. Jesse Mccartney 'Beautiful Soul': Sophmore year. I also really got into the N'Syn christmas CD that year.
3. Matt Nathanson 'Come on get higher': Summer semester 2009- Tara
4. Bruno Mars ' 'Just the way you are': Fall 2010
5. Beyonce 'If I were a boy: Fall 2011
6. Sugarland 'Stuck like glue' : Fall 2011- Mostly because of the Sing off- Pentatonix sang it and then I watched the music video and I just loved it.
7. Currently I'm stuck on a couple of songs. I have the sheet music for the Rascall Flat's song 'Bless the Broken Road' so that is always in my head because I play it on the piano. The other one that i really like is Gavin DeGraw 'Not over you'. Don't worry there isn't a deeper meaning or reason- I just like it.
January rolled around and I got to start a new
rotation-my second primary care at Roanoke Family Carillion Clinic. It was this
nice large office that was mostly run by residents. There were 40
doctors/residents on staff…which is kind of a lot. My schedule had me with a
new person every 4 hours. It wasn’t until the end of the 2nd week
that I had repeats. So basically, every day was a first day. AWEFUL!I hadn’t realized how important personal
relationships are until this rotation when I had none. I was literally having
to introduce myself constantly and I just felt like I had no connections. But
then by the 3rd week I started to get to know some of the attending and
they would say hi and I can’t even tell you why, but after that I just felt so
much better about the whole thing.
I
also got to go to the Virginia Tech vs. BYU basketball game. Now, I'm
not really into basketball, mostly cause I never really watched a
game...but it was pretty exciting. I particularly enjoyed the fact that
we were completely surrounded by Tech fans and so when we would cheer,
it would pretty much be just us cheering, but who doesn't love standing
out/being the center of attention- honestly :). To top it all off..we
won!!! Go Cougars!
(Me, Hanh, Amanda, Grace)
Lastly, I used to like dentists...until yesterday. I had no complaints and I just went in for a cleaning and then they start telling me all the things that are wrong with my teeth. I went in and they did a complete
mouth xray thing (which took forever). I’m used to the 4 xrays, but no…18
xrays later- Ugh…anyway, after the hygienist looked at it she started asking
about my front bottom tooth. She eventually just came out with it and said, well it looks like you have an abscessed tooth and that
you’re going to need a root canal. Say WHAT??? I’m 23 years old, why would I
need a root canal? So a year ago I had a couple days of super bad tooth pain.
It hurt SOOO bad, but then it went away and I thought, I must have irritated
the nerve and whatever. But apparently that was my nerve dying.
At the office I was acting all fine, but as soon as I walked out I called mom
and I just started crying. It sounds ridiculous, but I was really upset that I had 'bad/dead teeth'. I know they are just teeth- but to have one that died…that
just sounds so sad doesn't it? It was one of those moments where I would cry and then be
fine and then I would start crying again, but meanwhile I’m thinking- this is
ridiculous, I know I shouldn’t be crying.
From this I learned a couple of things...first- I don't like dentists. And second- I have a renewed desire to floss my teeth daily. I'm pretty good about brushing my teeth, but they effectively scared me into flossing more often. Job well done dentist- but I hope you know that doesn't mean we're friends!
In December
I had my first primary care rotation. It was here in town at an Urgent Care with Ken Anderson. It
was an awesome experience, but it didn’t start off that way. On my first day I
locked my keys in my car. How embarrassing is that? I’ve never done that
before. What made matters worse was that my cell phone and wallet were also
locked in the car. So I had to walk back in and tell them that I had locked my
keys in my car. The nurse was super nice and called her husband (a cop) and ask
if he could unlock my car. He couldn’t because too many people had their cars
ruined that way. So I had to look up my roommates’s phone number on LDS.org, but it
was the wrong number so I had to call her mom. Awkward!
A couple of minutes after I got off
the phone I realized that I had worn my heavy coat into the office and low and
behold- my keys were in my jacket. I was even more embarrassed to have to call
Laurice’s mom and tell her that I didn’t need her to come and open my car. And
of course the only phone that I could use was the one right where everyone was
standing so everyone heard that I had lost my keys…. in my jacket. By the end
of the day I had forgotten about it until a nurse from the other side of the
office came up to me and said- oh I’m so glad you found your keys. Thanks SO
much for reminding me that I’m a dork- and informing me that the ENTIRE office
of 30 people knows that I’m a dork. Don't worry though- the month ended really well. (picture: Dr. Tims, Allison-lab tech, Cindy- RN, Ken-PA; we're standing in front of the urgent care hall way. We had 4 rooms plus a treatment room for suturing etc.)
Earlier
in the month I was feeling sad that my roommate and I hadn’t put up any
decorations. Don’t get me wrong, I had put up lights in my room in November,
but we didn’t have anything else in the whole apartment. I remembered seeing a
Christmas tree at the church in the priesthood closet and I knew that no one
was going to use it so I went to church one day and took the tree. To clarify,
I didn’t steal it, I just borrowed it and to be honest, I’m so glad I did. I
had no idea what a difference having a tree made. Every morning I would turn on
the lights and read my scriptures or study by the tree…I just loved it. That to
me is Christmas. And you just add a little Kenny G and you are set. Mom and
becca also sent me a package- a stocking filled with the 12 days of Christmas.
It reminded me of all the times that I had help put those together for the
missionaries and I always thought they were really corny, but I really enjoyed
it. I found myself looking forward to opening a little something every night.
It also made me look forward to next year when I can actually be home for
Christmas.
For Christmas I went down to Nate
and Kelly’s house. It was SO nice being around family and it has been
especially nice to be around Nate and Kelly.
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
I
also got to go to the Virginia Tech vs. BYU basketball game. Now, I'm
not really into basketball, mostly cause I never really watched a
game...but it was pretty exciting. I particularly enjoyed the fact that
we were completely surrounded by Tech fans and so when we would cheer,
it would pretty much be just us cheering, but who doesn't love standing
out/being the center of attention- honestly :). To top it all off..we
won!!! Go Cougars! 
For Christmas I went down to Nate
and Kelly’s house. It was SO nice being around family and it has been
especially nice to be around Nate and Kelly. 
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. ;)
