Kitty-proofed

Otherwise titled "Why my laundry closet doors look like this:"

(That's a hair band, by the way, for those of you who may not recognize it. )

All so that this...

doesn't happen anymore!

The view from my front door

Looks pretty normal, right? Old Blue is holding strong--12 years old this year! And you can see they have finally cleared all the mobile homes from the property next door. They're going to be building new homes over there soon. But wait...is there something in that tree over there, something that just doesn't belong?


Well look at that! Somebody's fence found it's way 20 feet up into a tree!

We had a tornado come through last night, and Andre and I were completely oblivious until friends started calling and texting us asking if we were okay. We were fortunate to have absolutely no damage to our home or cars. And from what we've heard so far, there weren't any injuries, just property damage and some power outages.

The back patios/alley of the townhouses just across the parking lot. Some houses across the street had much worse damage to the siding and roofs.
Lightning is never supposed to strike twice, but what about tornados? 'Cause we are now under another tornado watch until midnight tonight. What is going on here?! I thought this was hurricane territory, not tornado alley!

When they let the animals out of the zoo...

Since starting my new career, I've gotten involved in the student section of the American Medical Association. Which means trips to Chicago (twice), Hawaii, Mobile, and Orlando where medical students from all over gather in one city to work hard and play a little. Or play hard and work a little. Depends on who I'm talking to :)

Our latest regional meeting was organized and hosted by Brody. We decided to hold it in Raleigh to make it easier for everyone to get to, and because there is much more to do there than here in G-vegas.
Now, fortunately for everyone, I don't have any pictures from the actual meeting. I do, however, have some shots of playtime. And I do mean playtime...dinner at the children's museum!

Why they won't let me start performing neurosurgery is beyond me. I mean, I wore personal protective equipment and everything.

Trying out a career as a weathergirl. I don't know that I have the hand-eye-camera coordination to do it justice--I was trying to point to North Carolina.

Dane was trying his best, but being as this exhibit was meant for children, he could only get from our shoulders to our noses in the frame.

I was just checking to see how many pounds the camera really adds to my butt. I have no idea what my friend Jenn was doing.

The Dress-for-the-Weather game. The mittens fit. The vest didn't.

My friend Megan. Slightly vertically-challenged.






On second thought, it may not be such a great idea to let over a hundred slightly cool-challenged (aka dorky, according to my husband) fun-starved medical students loose in a children's museum. Especially when there's an open bar during dinner.

A glimpse into the future...

Our church had a costume party this evening--I know, it's one day late in the Halloween department. But last night was for the kiddos, so tonight the adults got to have a little fun. The theme was "the 70's". So Andre and I decided to go as ourselves...in our 70's! Unfortunately (as already addressed in my very first blog entry ever) I am horrible about taking pictures, so we only got a couple of ourselves. But, here we are, 40+ years older...

Gramps is gettin' a little frisky!

This was toward the end of the evening, so Andre had already started to lose parts of his costume. He started off wearing his geek glasses (big black framed ones--sadly, we had to run to his office to pick them up before heading to church because he actually wears them sometimes!) and carrying a newspaper. And you can't see his high-water pants or black socks with sandals in these pictures either. And of course, I had a "pocketbook" filled with crumpled Kleenex and hard candy, knee-high stockings rolled down Mama's House-style and clunky Naturalizer shoes. Gotta love the Goodwill for costume parts! But the true secret weapon of both costumes was the almighty water balloon--multiple balloons, to be exact!

Ok, ok, I know it has been so stinken' long since I wrote last. But I've been busy. Really, I have. Since I last posted, I have done something incredibly amazing--and incredibly scary at the same time. I delivered a baby. A BABY!! Somebody let me be a part of something so...so...WOW! But I do have to admit, after I saw my first vaginal delivery, and then my first cesarean, I decided I never wanted either one to actually happen to ME. My husband, and my mother, will be happy to know that I have changed my mind and will be willing to have a baby. Someday.
Seriously, the last eight weeks on OB/GYN have been wonderful. I started out thinking that I might enjoy this rotation, but would never really want to do it for a living. Then I got in it and really liked it. Then I did two weeks on GYN surgery and thought--never, ever, ever. And now it's over and I already miss it. I don't really know what that means for my future career plans right now, but I'm staying open-minded.
I start family medicine on Monday. I'm hoping I get to see some OB patients in clinic. It's the only thing that is keeping me excited about the rotation.

p.s. Sorry there aren't any pictures with this post. Surprising, none of the women wanted pictures of what I was doing. Who knew?

Time flies...

It has been a loooong time since my last post--and yet it seems like just yesterday that I posted the pictures of my sweet niece. That day was my very first day of my first 3rd year clerkship, and orientation didn't start until 10, so I was killing some time that morning. Now, I have only two weeks left of my internal medicine rotation.

This first rotation has been scary, and fun, and nerve-wracking, and exciting, all at the same time--and I'm not even making any of the real decisions! But it's amazing how much I have learned in just a few weeks. When we first learn the physical exam, and for the first two years when we're tested on it, it feels like we're just going through the motions on completely normal, fake (aka "standardized") patients. And we really are just going through the motions. I felt absolutely zero confidence that I would be able to pick up anything abnormal--or that I would think something was wacky when it was completely normal. Students in classes ahead had told us that it's always that way--and then one day it just clicks. You listen to someone's heart often enough that you just know when you hear something off. I totally didn't believe them. Then it totally happened for me. I started to see and hear and feel some of the abnormal findings that we had learned about but never experienced. I am so loving this.

I have no clue what I want to do when I grow up. I'm kinda worried that I will be one of those students who loves every rotation and can't make a decision when it comes time for residency applications. I really do like internal med, and I never really thought I would. OB-Gyn is next, so it will be completely different and maybe I'll get a better idea. But whatever I choose, I have no doubt that this medicine thing is what I was made do.

p.s. I'll try to get some new pictures up soon. But I haven't had much time for fun pictures :)

Look at my little cutie-patootie of a niece! I can't believe how big she's gotten already!