Catching Up...

It has been a LONG time since I posted anything even remotely interesting. A few months ago between rotations we took a long weekend trip to Irvine, CA. It was so much fun! We spent a good portion of 2 days on the beach, went to the Newport Beach temple, and enjoyed some good food. (For more details of the trips see the pics) It was a much needed trip and was a good break before I started my dreaded rotation. Right after returning home I started my internal medicine rotation which was not fun and I was counting down the days from day 1. Anyway I survived and am now loving my current rotation!! I am finally excited about being a PA again! In other news we close on our house in less than 2 weeks!! We are so excited to move minus the added responsibility and extremely long commute I will have. We are soooo excited to have company come visit us as well!

This is what Benjamin looked like the morning we were supposed to be leaving for Irvine. Needless to say our plans had to be slightly modified.


On the beautiful beach. I think Irvine is going to become our destination of choice in California now. It was a perfect location!

More relaxing on the beach.

I'm not quite sure this picture does the waves at this beach justice. We decided to go check out the beach called The Wedge which is famous as a surfing beach because of the gigantic waves it gets. We read all sorts of articles about how a lot of people are injured at this beach because they try to surf or boogie board and the waves are so big and crash so close to the beach that they slam people down into the sand and they end up with spinal cord injuries. So anyway, needless to say we decided to leave our boogie boards in the car for this beach. However, after realizing the waves were a little calmer that day and seeing other people out swimming in it Benjamin decided to give it a try and made it out fine. The key was getting out past where the waves were breaking. After seeing Benjamin's success I decided to give it a try as well. Big mistake! After getting a little ways out a huge wave started to come in, I yelled to Benjamin "should I go in or try to go under it?!" Well I took too long to make a decision and the wave churned me around in the sand for what felt like a long time. Benjamin, who was far enough out to miss the wave, said when the wave finally went down he could see me crawling along the beach. I had lost my hairtie and my hair was all knotted up. It was quite the adventure!

At the Newport Beach temple. I just realized I didn't actually do my hair for our entire trip. Haha, I guess I was too lazy. I swear I don't look this bad all the time. :)

And lastly, I have the sweetest husband. During my last rotation I had a horrible day, I just wanted to drop out of school and forget the whole thing. When I got home this is what I found. Benjamin had gotten me those nice flowers and some oreos! :) It was such a wonderful and perfect surprise!

Per the request of Benjamin we are making our blog private.  So if anyone actually looks at it ever (I know, I haven't posted in a long time) be sure to let me know so I can send you an invite.  Thanks!

This and That

Well I had a week off that was unexpected since my first rotation was cancelled and we had to scramble to find another one which I will be starting tomorrow.  I tried to take full advantage of the week by getting ahead with my studying and doing some fun things.  

Right before church.  We matched on accident so I wanted to take a picture.

I felt like doing something productive that wasn't studying so I made this shirt for Claire.  It was a lot of fun.  I wish I was more crafty so I could do this more often!

Last Saturday Thomas, Benjamin and I went golfing.  It was a lot of fun even though the course wasn't the nicest.  The weather was perfect though!

Look at that form!

Bad Luck

I don't think I could get any more unlucky.  This has been an extremely stressful week.  When I called up the contact at my first rotation they told me they had a scheduling conflict and weren't sure if I would be able to go there afterall.  Well this was on Tuesday, less than a week before rotations are to start!  At this point I still felt pretty calm since they had 4 days to find me a new rotation.  Well it is Friday and I still don't have a rotation for Monday!!!  I think I am the only one in a class of 85 without a place to go on Monday.  How can I be so unlucky?  It is looking like I will still be in orthopedic surgery hopefully starting on Wednesday or Thursday but nothing is confirmed.

Trip to Iowa

I had a week off before my rotations start so I decided to head to Iowa to help with the planning of Rachel's wedding.  We had a lot of fun.  I managed to make some bracelets for the bridesmaids and help my mom shop for a dress (although she didn't get one while I was there). Mostly it was just fun to be able to spend some time in Iowa when it is warm.   I absolutely love how green it is in Iowa, I miss that a lot living in AZ where everything is brown.  Here are just a few pictures from the trip.

My parents and I right before I left.  It was nice to spend some time with them without the craziness of Christmas.

Playing some badminton.  Notice all the green grass and trees!

Just a fun picture after church.

Rotations!!

The time has finally come, they have given us our rotation schedules for the next year!!  After postponing the event several times they finally decided to let us find out where we are going to be starting in June.  I have been very nervous for quite a while so it is nice for it to be done, although now I can focus all of my energy on being nervous to start the rotations!  It is really unbelievable to me that in 5 short weeks I will be scrubbing in and assisting in shoulder and knee surgeries.  That's right, my first rotation is in orthopedic surgery!!  I am super excited to be able to do my surgery rotation in orthopedics.  It will be a crazy 6 weeks because I only spend one day a week in the same clinic, the rest of the days will be spent driving across the valley to spend half my day at one of five clinics the doctor works at and the other half of my day at a different one.  I guess the new car will come in handy.  My second rotation is in Emergency Medicine so they are throwing me into the most intense rotations first.  I was really blessed and got all of my rotations relatively close, besides the a couple in which the doctor has an office here and in the East Valley.  Anyway, I also get to do a rotation in rheumatology and one in sports medicine!!  I am really excited and nervous for all of them and hope that I am more prepared than I feel!

New Car!!

Well we finally bought a new car.  Benjamin had been researching all the possible options for several months and we had test driven a lot of them and finally decided on the Honda CRV.  We secured a price before going down to the dealership in hopes of making it a quicker trip.  However, we ended up spending 4 hours down there!  We really love the car and are happy with our final decision!!  Now we just have to try and sell my car since the dealership didn't offer us enough for a trade-in.

St. Patrick's Day

I don't know why but St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorites.  I think it is because I like Reuben sandwiches and for some reason this is the only day the whole year they are allowed.  :)  Or maybe it is because when I was little I used to love to search the grass for 4-leaf clovers during recess.  I was always searching for the luck of the Irish.  ;)

In our St. Patrick's Day green!

This was our dessert - Pistachio pudding with fruit on top!

The Duck Pond

March is a beautiful time to be living in Arizona!  The weather is just perfect.  We have been taking full advantage of the weather by going to the park more often.  We have a really fun park with a duck pond about half a mile from our place.  It is really pretty and quiet.  It is one of the reasons I love it up here in Glendale!  There are so many parks that are more than just a little playground stuck in the middle of a neighborhood.  Plus, any parks that had ponds in Tempe where we used to live were always too crowded and loud.  

The other day we made foil dinners and went to the duck pond and had a picnic.  I just love this weather!!