cheating

oh my.  I wrote the previous post over a week ago and it sat open in my browser the entire time, just waiting for me to upload the photos...but I still thought I should get credit for attempting to blog, and so I back published the date.  Haha, something only I would think to notice.  That should give you an indication of just how swamped life has been over here.  I am so fried that I don't even think I have uttered a coherent sentence all day.  I have been burning at both ends studying cardiology, and it is finally time for a break.  Woot!  I am so excited!  We had three exams yesterday and our final class of today was a timed/graded SOAP note for a patient with a complicated history and multiple co morbidities including two different types of cancer.  It was a rough one but I finished with one minute to spare...and then I realized I had forgotten to sign it as soon as I pressed send... ugh.  Oh well, you can't win them all! JP and I are headed out of town tomorrow for an international adventure to our neighboring country of Canada.  We are spending three nights in Montreal, hoping to wander around, eat tasty food and decompress.  Ahh it's going to be great! 

girl's weekend!

I can't even remember how long ago our girl's weekend was!  It feels like a million years ago, but I think it was probably about three weeks?  In any case, it was such a nice time.  We stayed in a gorgeous house on a lake with lots of space to spread out.  We made an exception to the girl's only rule and Oliver tagged along, he kept us safe from any potential intruders or squirrels.  Earning his keep! We didn't have much time, but we tried to squeeze a lot in.  We got out for a beautiful hike, donning some bright orange for the first day of hunting season.  Oliver looks like a fox when he is just sitting on the sidewalk in the middle of a city, so dashing stealthily through the woods with no bandana seemed like a bad idea...

What a long tongue you have! The better to lick you with my dear...

 Mom and Em on the AT!

It was way more impressive in real life than in this photo, but that rock with the ladder was basically vertical and while we were contemplating how to get O up it he took a giant leap and mountain-goated it right on up.  HA it was hilarious!  Em had to catch his collar so he wouldn't keep leaping down and up!

All in all it was a glorious trip.  Such a great blessing to be able to spend time with these lovely ladies when we are all so busy these days. I know Emily is already plotting our next ladies trip and I am sure it will be just as much fun as this one was!

ohhh sandy

Basically nothing happened where we live except for some vicious winds and rain.  My school got a little jumpy and cancelled classes Monday afternoon and all of Tuesday.  Some one must have felt a little sheepish when the sun came out early Tuesday morning and there wasn't much in the way of hurricane-type destruction, but THIS someone gloriously didn't have to go to school (and instead spent from 9 to 5 studying dermatology...but that's beside the point, at least I could wear my PJ's!). 

We had a hurricane (cyclone) party last night amidst the roaring winds.  Pretty much the only place we would have ventured out to would have had to have been within a four black radius, and as luck would have it Joe was fixing up some oyster mushroom risotto!  We tromped up the hill with hot toddy makings and purple carrots for roasting.  It was a nice little shin dig, topped off with a gluten free sour cream apple pie my brother made from my grandmother's recipe...divine!  I should have snapped a picture but I was in too much of a food coma. 

I've got some pictures to share from our girl's weekend, but I've got to run right now so here is a teaser from our hike on the first day of hunting season:

And a bonus one of Oboe cause he's a cutie and I take way too many pictures of him...

leaf peeping

 

I almost forgot to appreciate that I am back in a state that has full popping fall colors all over the place!! Both years I was in Colorado I somehow got it in my head that going up to the mountains would reveal glorious fall foliage, and both times I was rewarded with only evergreen and aspen yellow.  Beautiful in their own right, but not enough to make me feel like in the midst of my favorite season.  I feel like i just lifted my head up from my desk yesterday and all of a sudden everything was red and orange and yellow.  That could have something to do with how gloomy the weather has been lately, but I have finally noticed my fall surroundings, and they are beautiful!  I've got three pulmonary exams tomorrow, supposedly one of the hardest modules this semester.  I have been studying for them for three weeks and I think I am ready.  I KNOW I am ready for a little break of sorts.  Our next module is derm, which is much shorter and much less complex, and during which I am promising myself that I won't overstudy like I always do, and I will make a conscious effort to take time off.  To ensure that I follow through with that, my mom and sister are coming out next weekend for a girl's get away! Ohh I am more than ready for cabin-on-a-lake time and curl-up-with-trashy-no-knowledge-containing-books time and a fireplace to sit cozily by.  AH I am so excited, it's going to be great!  But for now, it is finally sunny outside for the first time in weeks and JP and I are headed to the beach (in sweatshirts and scarves) to get some much needed vitamin D!  Now, I will leaf you with some pictures...haha see what I did there?

 

it's fall and I'm not falling

We have reached the point where it's dark when I wake up and the sun seems to drop out of the sky closer and closer to 6:00.  Yikes!  We are streaming towards winter, and days around here have been cloudy and rainy.  Makes for some great buckle-down-and-study weekends, but is less advantageous when it comes to free time.  I'm happy it hasn't yet turned to snow though like many of my old haunts! 

We have been keeping our heads down lately, school is all consuming and JP has had a large increase in his workload, which has been keeping him at the office late more often than not.  I think we are just kind of in a slump of sorts, trying to figure out a good balance with the changes.  We are both looking forward to a small break around thanksgiving, and are hoping to get out of town for a few days.

I've been embracing fall in some respects though!  I baked some super delicious pumpkin muffins from a recipe I got online and modified.  I brought them to JP's work and even those gluten eating folks liked them!!  Last night we closed the weekend by making salmon and potatoes at Joe's house while our laundry was in the dryer.  How nice to live two blocks away from my brother! It was our first whack at salmon and it turned out great!  JP researched around and whipped up a maple tamari garlic marinade that was just splendid.

 
I've been doing well in all my classes, though they sure do keep me busy.  I'm keeping my motivation on track by volunteering to be in a panel for the pre-interview meet and greet that prospective students are coming to in a few weeks.  Can you believe it is already time to interview the class that will follow mine?!  It still feels so recent and sharp in my memory when I received my own interview invitation, and when I almost excitement-cried myself into an asthma attack when I was actually accepted!  The night before my interview JP and I went to the mixer and it played a huge role in affirming for both of us that we would be happy at UNE, and it certainly helped to calm my nerves before the big day.  I am super excited to hopefully help other students gain their confidence and help them understand what PA school is all about!

my first patient

Yesterday I met my first patient.  She was kind of the best first patient I could have ever asked for.  She lives in an independent living facility, is 96 years old and still sews.  In fact, she had sewn the very slacks she was wearing during our visit!  She warmed my heart, and overwhelmingly reminded me of my grandma.  Mostly she said she couldn't really complain too much (despite multiple medical problems that might hold a lot of people back), thought that people should really use their common sense more often, and said she must not have done too much that morning (aside from getting dressed, showered, ready for an appointment, making and eating breakfast, taking her meds, dusting her living room and raising the hem on her daughters skirt), because she hadn't even made her bed yet.  I told her I hadn't made mine yet either and she got a good kick out of that!

So you know what?  I think I can handle this whole patient thing.  I know I made some mistakes, and there were some questions we didn't get to or that I forgot to ask, but overall it went pretty well and really felt great!

She told my advisor that I was such a nice little girl and that I was doing a great job, but to be fair, to a 96 year old I probably still am a little girl.

white coats

We are knee deep in this semester by now, maybe even waist deep at this point with six exams behind us, and things are starting to heat up!  Just in school though, in life it is actually starting to cool down a lot and fall is in the air!! In any case, my attention span for things outside of school has gotten pretty short lately so I wanted to post some picture from my white coat ceremony before I forgot forever! 

My pops came into town for a long weekend at the beginning of September for a number of reasons, but come Monday afternoon chief among them was my white coat ceremony!  My school did an odd job of helping recognize us for our accomplishments, which was frustrating, and a lot of my classmates didn't have family come because the ceremony was at 4:30 on a Monday, so the presence of my own family meant that much more to me.  Emily came up from Vermont, Joe rushed back in to town from a gig, and JP even took the day off from work!  It was such a great feeling to have some of the people I love the most in the audience supporting me.  JP always tells me that I don't give myself enough credit for the things I have accomplished, so I really tried to take that evening as a time to recognize for myself all that I had done.  It was a long and extremely hard struggle to get to that point, and even though I know I am not even close to being done, putting on my white coat was such an honor and really helped to remind me what I am doing this for, and why I am right here in Portland right now.  I am just so grateful for all the support I have gotten from so many people in so many different ways! 

My dad brought his first white coat from Wake Forest as a surprise, and we proudly wore them to dinner together!  Having my dad at the ceremony was such an incredibly special gift for me.  It's hard to put into eloquent words how his fight with cancer has touched me, but to be able to share such a special moment with him, a moment that he shared with us when we were younger and he was in school, was just so moving for me.  My struggles and triumphs with PA school have brought our relationship to a different level somehow, and I am so grateful to have this time to experience this part of my life with him.  I am so, so fortunate.  If only my mom and Micah could have made it, the night would have been complete!  Although... since the ceremony was completely solemn and formal until they called my name to cross the stage and a small crowd loudly called out BOOOOOP! (in the Walsh/Buboltz tradition of embarrassing the graduate) I'm not sure adding two more voices would have helped the situation!