TW's Journey to a PA

First Semster of PA School

2014-07-11T17:00:00.002-05:00

Ok, so it's been awhile since I posted. It's also been six weeks since I started PA school. WHAT?!!! Where did the six weeks go?! Why haven't I been posting more about my experiences?! What the Hell?!

Let me begin now. Six weeks late. (sheepish grin)

June 2, 2014. A day that changed my life forever - the first day of PA school. Honestly, the first day was pretty boring. It was an orientation day full of a bunch of rules and explanations of what the next two years of our lives would be like, along with paperwork to fill out. We had a chance to meet our professors as well as introduce ourselves - that was so nerve wracking. A simple "Hi, my name is Tricia" with some quick facts about myself left me literally shaking! but it was fun to meet everyone. Tuesday started the first day of anatomy. Our anatomy class is structured as a hybrid, meaning our professor pod casts the lectures for us to watch the day before we go into lab to dissect. There are some dissections that we skip due to time restraints, so on those days we have a traditional lecture then go into lab and look at models. So, for the first day of class, we basically had an introductory lecture and then went and looked at a few models in the lab. Nothing special, just something easy to get us going and oriented with things. Wednesday we dove right in and started with a back dissection. There are six "tanks" (cadavers) with two groups of 4 assigned to each tank. Each group has an hour to dissect and we take turns on who starts first every morning, so some mornings I get to sleep in! The first day of dissecting was a little weird. It was just a lot different than what I thought it would be like, and it is a lot harder to find structures than you think. I honestly thought I would like lab more, but I really don't like to dissect. I like to look at the structures after they are found and cleaned up, but our body has so much fatty tissue that it takes forever to find anything. It is too tedious and time consuming for me. :o)
The first week of class flew by and took a lot of adjusting and figuring out, regarding how to study and what to study. We were all freaking out by how much material we had to know and in how little time we needed to know it, which is pretty common. We basically have to know a different body area every day, or put another way, we are learning in eight weeks what most medical students learn in one year. Needless to say, there were multiple freakouts per week/day/hour/min. :o) Our exams are every two weeks, and for the first exam we covered the back, chest and arm - learning all the nerves, blood vessels muscles and bones for each area. I am happy to report that I passed without having to re-mediate. We have to get an 80 or above on our exams or we have to retake them. If we get below a 72 we get an academic warning, and after four warnings we are kicked out of the program. This year they implemented a new policy that warnings are left on a students record even if you retake and pass the exam, so this adds a little more pressure.

Our class is pretty inclusive and helpful towards each other. I can be sitting at a table studying and another classmate will sit next to me and we can start studying. Then another group will come in and join us. Everyone has pretty much divided into their own little groups, but everyone welcomes anybody that wants to join in on the study session.

The second exam covered the head, neck and lower extremity with a little bit of the spinal cord thrown in. The triangles of the neck were covered in the last week before the exam and everyone was freaking out by how much information we had to know. A group of us stayed after class for three hours trying to get it figured out. I didn't do as well on this exam, but I still passed!

The third exam, which we took today, covered all of the cranial nerves, oral cavity and thoracic cavity. I won't find out until Wednesday how I did, but I am hoping I passed. We have two weeks left and one more test to go! until a three week break and before we start back up in August. My brother is going to visit for the first week and the other two weeks I am going to relax and enjoy it while I can! I have been working every other weekend over the summer, but I am really hoping I can quit it August. It worked out that I work on the weekends we have a test, so I don't have much to study those weekends, but when the fall starts, I am pretty sure I won't be that lucky. Plus, I don't think I'll have the energy. I am really hoping some things change so I can quit in a month.

Well, that is a very short and jumbled version of what has been going on the past few weeks. It has been full of a ton of studying, but it has all been a great experience. I will try to go into more detail in a couple weeks after classes end. :o)

Final Countdown....

2014-05-19T17:02:00.001-05:00

Now I have that song stuck in my head. Maybe I'll crank it up on my drive to school and run up the stairs like Rocky when I get there. :o)

So, I haven't updated the blog in awhile, mainly because nothing has been happening. I have been really enjoying my down time the past few months, working here and there and getting my nieces off the bus after school. My first day of class is June 2nd, and I can't believe it is only two weeks away!

I bought my anatomy books and lab coat I think I have everything ready to go. I already have my first reading assignment and will be doing my first bit of studying later today. Yes, I still have two weeks before class starts, but I want to figure out how long it takes me to read and take notes so I can figure out my study schedule. I also want to figure out how I want to do my notes, as I am pretty sure I will be doing them differently than I did in undergrad - mainly due to time constraints, you know the whole "study smarter, not harder" thing.

My first PA school books and lab coat!

It still hasn't really hit me that I will be a PA student soon. It still feels like a dream, and I admit I'm a little nervous about all the studying I am about to be doing. I know there is no way to prepare for it and it will take a lot of continuous adjusting, but it's the realization that I have no idea what it's really going to be like and that is the scary part. As "scary" as it all seems, I am excited to meet all my classmates and look forward to getting to know them better this next year. I don't make friends very easily, as I am a bit of a loner/wallflower/awkward person, but since we are all in the same boat rowing towards the same goal, I am hoping I will be able to fit in and make some friends. I was definitely NOT in the "cool" group in high school. I had two really close friends and I got along with everyone, but didn't fit in with any specific group. I'm sure part of it was because I moved schools the end of my sophomore year and you know how it is when you are the "new" person in a small school where everyone grew up together - the outsider. Hopefully there will be other dorks in the class I can hang out with. :o)

I talk about my workouts and such on this site, so I might as well continue. It's not like I have many people reading this anyway. ha ha
In order to keep on track with my dieting and training over the summer with classes starting up, I decided to join in on a couple of body challenges. One is through bodybuilding.com and the other is through drsarasolomon.com. My goals are to lose the last bit of fat clinging to my hips and thighs, as well as build my legs up a bit and start seeing more definition. Today marks the first day of both contests and they will run until the end of June. The challenges came at a great time as I have been pigging out on a lot of sugar and pizza and basically fell off the wagon. I needed something to motivate me to get back on it and stay on it.

Now, if only my front looked as good as the back.

Some random photos I wanted to share - I bought a really cool case for my phone and it came today! It's my school colors and I am sad by how excited this makes me.

I also made some homemade body butter using coconut oil and almond oil. It's so easy to make and I love how soft it makes my skin. Just whip up some hard coconut oil with a blender and add in a little bit of almond oil until it's nice and fluffy!

That pretty much sums up what I have been doing the past month or so. I also started a second part time job doing paperwork for a trucking company. I'm not sure how long I will keep it or how it will work out with my classes, but it would be nice if it all fit together. I only have to go to the office once a week for a couple hours to complete invoices and file. It's not bad at all, and the extra money is very much needed. The second week I started, one of the trucks was in a minor accident and is out of commission until his truck is fixed. There are only two trucks, so this cut my workload down to half for a few weeks. :o)

Well, I think I've rattled on long enough and I should start my reading. It's going to be rough getting back into the swing of studying!

High Five for Friday!

2014-03-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

1. Organization!

Now that I am not working full time I have had a chance to finally organize and de-clutter some things around the house. I went through the tote I had all of my school stuff in and purged all of my old notes and cleaned up my binders in preparation for classes. I moved them out of the tote and into a cupboard upstairs. I also bought some nifty little containers for all of our DVD's and I was able to get rid of the big shelves that took up so much space. I kept one shelf for all of our series sets and my workout videos and brought that upstairs. It feels so nice to have all the movies in one place! For the past year they were in limbo between being upstairs and in the basement.

I also rearranged some things in the kitchen to take advantage of all the cupboard space we have and to make things easier to get to. I also went through all of our pictures that were hiding in totes and put what I could in photo albums so we can actually look through them. I sort of feel like I am a pregnant women "nesting" with all the organizing I've been doing!

2. Finally after a year, I decided to hang a few pictures on the walls in the living room. I was really enjoying the clean look of bare walls, but with all the free time on my hands I finally decided to put something up. Part of the reason I didn't hang anything sooner, was because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. We only have a couple walls to hang stuff on, and one is pretty good sized and the other has an alarm system in the middle of it. I felt like I didn't have anything to put in the big space, and wasn't sure how to work around the alarm, but today I just picked something and went with it. Eventually I will get something else, but I think it will work for now.

3. On Tuesday, I met one of my future classmates for coffee. I was so excited when she messaged me asking to meet! We really hit it off and even talked about meeting up for dinner on Friday. I'm really excited that we got along so well, as we are the only two that live in Hutch, plus it will be nice to actually have a friend who lives in the same town. Neither of us have many friends, so I think it will be nice, plus and having a classmate live in the same town opens up study session options and we can even carpool, which will be really nice and save some money on gas.

4. I have been patiently waiting for our school packet to arrive, and in the meantime I have been perusing other PA blogs and forums to see what books everyone really recommended on top of the required books. One came highly recommended and was even required for some schools, so I broke down and got it. It is Study Without Stress: Mastering Medical Sciences . I have only read a couple of chapters, but so far it is really helpful. It’s a little expensive, but so far it seems worth it.

5. Monday the weather was so gorgeous! It was in the high 70's, so I took advantage of the nice weather and went and sat out on the patio. I let Bubbs run around the yard while I sun bathed and just relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon. I'm not quite ready for summer, but I would love if we had about five months of 70 degree weather. Would not hurt my feelings one bit!

5a. Last Monday, Brad and I went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. They had .99 margaritas and I had to indulge a little. They were so good! Recently, I found some tights to go with one of my sweater dresses, and since we were going out, took the opportunity to get dressed up a bit! This dress is so soft and with the leggings, it's so warm! I absolutely loved this outfit, but hate that I look a little poochy in the pictures. Oh, well.

Intermittent Fasting and Staying Fit

2014-03-06T09:35:00.004-06:00

Even though I have not talked about it on here in quite some time, I am continuing to work out and eat as healthy as I can - most of the time. I have been pretty good with the eating part until this past month. Sitting around the house and not having a set schedule every day really messes with my appetite and food cravings. I'm an intermittent faster and I recently switched to the Alternate Day Fast, where I eat a small meal (25% of my calories) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then three larger meals (125% of my calories) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and I keep Sunday a normal eating day. It's also called the Up Down Diet, and you can read more about it here. So far I have seen some good results with this lifestyle, however it's definitely a lot easier to do when I am busy at work and not sitting around the house! I have been playing around with fasting for about a year now. I started with the 16/8 – fast for 16 hours, eat during 8 hours, then moved to a 20/4 method, which I really like and will probably go back to once school starts, but I decided on the ADF type of fasting after reading this article from BuiltLean.com, and after Dr. Sara Solomon tried it and raved about her results. The article basically summarizes different fasting methods and looks at which one is better for losing fat while maintaining muscle mass, and it seems the ADF method is the better method. So far I like this method because it is kinda nice not having to worry about what to cook three days out of the week, it’s very flexible and I am really seeing results.

March 2014:

These are from August of 2013:

Last year in January I weighed 118 pounds, and today I weigh109. I went from somewhere in the neighborhood of 24% body fat, down to just under 18% and I can now fit into my "skinny" jeans that I haven't been able to fit in for three years. This isn’t a typical fad diet where you lose 10 pounds in two weeks, keep it off for a month or at least long enough to look good in that little black dress, then go back to your regular eating pattern to only gain back 15 pounds. It is a slow and steady, flexible lifestyle change. I try to eat as healthy as I can, but there are definitely times where I have a few pieces of pizza, or a burger or a candy bar. The things is, I don’t eat these things all the time and I when I do, I just get back into my fasting schedule.

On my "fasting" days, I like to eat a small pre-workout meal a couple of hours before my workout Research has shown that working out after eating a small meal helps burn more calories up to 24 hours AFTER the workout, versus working out on an empty stomach. Keep in mind, however, that working out fasted will help you burn more calories DURING the workout. I want to burn more calories afterwards, so I usually eat my small meal before.

My workouts are a combination of full body HIIT with and upper and lower body split for weight training. I rotate between Hot Body Method, Bender Fitness and ZWOW routines depending on the day. On Monday and Thursday I do the Hot Body Method workouts. These are pretty intense HIIT style full body workouts that vary between using bodyweight and weighted routines. They are pretty similar to the ZWOW’s, but I feel they are slightly more challenging. Wednesday I reserve for stretching or Yoga. Tuesday’s and Friday’s I do the Bender Fitness strength training workouts . She has a variety of workouts including HIIT and yoga, which I've done in the past, but right now I am using her weight training workouts for strength and endurance - Tuesday’s are leg days, and Friday’s are arm days. Saturday’s I do a ZWOW for more full body HIIT training, and Sunday is my rest day.

After the workouts I either do a finisher – a short intense combo for extra burn, or a mile run depending on my mood. I'll do a finisher if I don’t feel like running as they are a little more fun, challenging and sometimes shorter!

Here is a weekly breakdown:

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
Rest	Hot Body Method w/Finisher or run	Bender Fitness Legs w/run	Yoga Or Stretching	Hot Body Method w/Finisher or run	Bender Fitness Arms w/run	ZWOW w/Finisher or run

This was pretty much my schedule for the past month. I really like the combination of full body HIIT with the weight training. I feel like I am getting in the fat blasting resistance cardio I need, as well as the muscle building I want at the same time. It also makes for a bigger variety of workouts and I definitely won't get bored. My goal is to lose the rest of the unwanted fat around my midsection and gain a little more muscle in my legs and arms by June. Then, once I’m in school I can cut back my workouts to maybe three times a week and stay in maintain mode. The workouts I do are pretty short, so I feel that three times a week is doable… it’s just a matter of not feeling guilty that I’m working out and not study for that 20 min!

Work and Waiting

2014-02-27T21:33:00.000-06:00

Not much has happened since the last time I posted. I’m still waiting for the e-mail/packet from WSU telling me what the next steps are, what books to get and what equipment is needed. I’m actually excited to see the book list – how big of a nerd am I?

Brad finally went back to work and I have been filling in at the rehab house. One of the aids there recently had knee surgery and they will need extra help for a few weeks, so I decided to pick up a few to help out. I enjoy the extra money, but I was also looking forward to a little down time before school started. I wanted to use the time to go through our totes in the basement and organize things a bit, as well as go through all my old school supplies and books and figure out what I need to restock. I know I have three months before school starts, but I also know that it will be here before I know it! I think I only have a couple more weeks to fill in, so I better enjoy the extra cash while I can.

I haven’t been working a set schedule, and I am finding that I really miss having a routine. I’m the type of person that likes to plan and do certain things on a specific day – for example, I like to do laundry on Sunday that way I have clean clothes for the week. With this “fill-in” type schedule, I never know what I’m working until a day or two beforehand and it makes it hard to plan ANYTHING. It feels so weird to do laundry during the middle of the week, or to clean the house on a Wednesday. I know it sounds funny, but after seven years of working 8-5 with weekends off, aka being spoiled, it’s hard to get used to a fluctuating schedule. Even with the crazy schedule, the perk of getting home at 3:00 in the afternoon is pretty hard to beat.

Well, I think I’ve rambled on enough for now. :o)

It's Official!

2014-02-06T14:18:00.002-06:00

I'm going to be a PA! The phone call wasn't a dream!

I received my official acceptance letter in the mail last week and I promptly signed and sent in my deposit before they could change their minds about me. :o) I should be getting another packet in the mail that details what type laptop requirements we need, books, medical supplies, etc. in the next few weeks, plus the details on how to get the background check and immunizations done. It all still feels surreal. I can't believe that all my hard work finally paid off. I know I have a lot of hard work still ahead of me, but I know the net two years will fly by. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I know I still have a few months before classes start, but I I am already making lists of supplies I need/want to get and I have already ordered a new laptop. The one I have now is going on 8 years old and we are required to have laptops - not ipads or tablets, so I thought it was time to upgrade. I got a really good deal from Dell, and ordered the Inspiron 11.

I was planning on getting a tablet before I found out they changed the requirements due to the exams we have to take not working well on the ipads or tablets. One reason I wanted a tablet was for the apps availalbe for note taking and drawing, and because they are small and easy to carry. The Inspiron 11 is small and light, plus has a touch screen, so even if I can't some of the apps I wanted to try, I might be able to find something similar to use. I'm not sure how well it will work for classes yet, but I have 30 days to try it out and see if I like it and if it will meet the requirements. I also have a stylus and case picked out for it, but I'm going to wait to make sure I don't have to send it back before I order them.

It's been a month to the day since my interview and I can't believe how much my life has changed in that month.

In With The New

2014-02-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

I really meant to update this blog a couple of weeks ago, but once I tell you what has been going on you might understand why I didn't really feel like it until now.

I'll start off by saying that we spent Christmas with the in-laws and had a very nice time. We went up during the week and came back Friday, as I had to work my second job that weekend. Brad's uncle was in town visiting from Montana, so we did a lot of visiting and catching up, and of course playing games. When we go up to see Brad's family we usually end up playing Yahtzee, Boggle or some other game.

The following week was pretty uneventful and then January 6th was the big interview day. I sort of knew one of the girls interviewing, I believe she was in my anatomy class for a few weeks before she had to drop it. I felt more at ease and like I belonged there this time, compared to last year. I spoke more with the other interviewees and everything just seemed to feel right. I thought my interview went a lot smoother than last year, and I really like the two that interviewed me. The new chair was there and some of the changes he is making sound so amazing! I was feeling pretty good after I left, but you still never know what they think about you.

Then, I went into work on Tuesday. I was immediately called into my supervisor's office and given my pink slip. I was shocked and speechless. I had been there a month shy of seven years and they were firing me. The reasons they gave me were for not meeting performance expectations. In other words, nothing I did seemed to make them happy, and instead of communicating with me or explaining to me what they needed, they complained to our supervisor. I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure we all make mistakes. I can remember times when I fixed mistakes they made, but the problem I was having is my mistakes were being counted and tallied up. This past year I felt like I was being set up to fail, and that everything I did wasn't good enough. I am almost positive part of it was because they knew I wouldn't be staying there much longer, either I was getting into PA school or finding a new job. I had applied for a couple of jobs in Hutch almost a year ago, and ever since then, they started treating me different. When I told one of my people that I needed January 6th off for my interview this year, the first thing she asked me was "oh, for a job in Hutch?" I was surprised at her response and had to explain that it was for my PA interview. When I was told I was being fired, I felt so betrayed. If I was so bad, then why did they keep me around for almost seven years? Why did they keep telling me what a good job I was doing to my face, and then complain about me? The very same people that were helping me get into PA school were also digging me a grave. I heard that even they were surprised and unhappy about me being fired, but what did they expect? A big part of me is glad I don't have to work there anymore because I won't have to deal with a certain somebody anymore, but I am sad because I considered many of the people there my family. I know we will keep in touch, but I was really hoping to leave on a high note. All of my friends and close co-workers were saying that maybe this means I will get into PA school. Part of me was hoping that was true, and the other part was thinking, well, if it's not PA school, it's definitely a new career.

After I was fired, I decided that I was going to get back into IT, especially if I didn't get into PA school this year. I really enjoyed it and sort of kicking myself for getting out of it. I had about three weeks until I found out if I was accepted, so I bought an A+ certification book and started studying. It helped to refresh my skills and kept me busy enough to where I wasn't watching the clock or stalking the mailman. :o) I knew from the interview that on or about January, 24th we would hear something, so from that Wednesday on I nervously awaited the arrival of the mail. On January 24th, at 11:32, I received a phone call. From the director of the PA program congratulating me on my acceptance to the Wichita State University Physician Assistant's Program! When he called, he told me that he went over to my office to tell me in person, but learned that I was no longer there. In a way I was a little mad that the people that betrayed me got to find out before me that I was accepted, but I also thought that would have been a cool way to find out. I was so surprised and shocked. I thanked him a bunch and when I hung up the phone, I jumped up and down and shouted "I got accepted to the PA program!" and Brad picked me up and hugged me and then of course I cried.

So, this year started out a little rough, but as my friends and co-workers said, it was all because I was getting into PA school.

Out With The Old...

2014-02-01T13:17:00.001-06:00

I thought I would catch up by posting year old pics of the concerts we attended. :o) Nothing like being a little late. ha ha

As you may recall, last year for my birthday I won free tickets to see Chevelle in concert, along with Aranda. Considering I never win anything, I thought this was pretty cool. The venue was rather small, so no matter where you sat it was a good seat. The first two pictures are of Aranda, and boy are they entertaining! They had some local talent open for them, and I really wish they would have just had Aranda open because I would have loved to have watched them longer. They are a talented group of individuals and I would definitely go see them again. The last couple of pictures are Chevelle, and of course they were good. :o) I also won a "Meet and Greet" which essentially is you go shake the bands hands, take a quick picture and then go sit down. It was still a neat experience even though it wasn't what I expected.

Then, for Brad and Bo's birthday, I bought tickets to 3 Days Grace and Shinedown. This was such an awesome concert! I was more excited to see 3 Days Grace, but Shinedown was pretty awesome too. POD opened for them, and even though I didn't know much of their stuff, they still were fun to watch. Here are some pics of us patiently waiting for the show to begin:

And here are a couple of pictures of 3 Days Grace:

This was my first "big" rock concert with the whole pyrotechnics and the big stages. It was a lot of fun!

When Shinedown opened, the lead singer and guitarist popped up in the middle of the audience and pretty much right in front of where we were sitting. We left a little early that night because the weather was absolutely horrible and the roads were icy and snow packed. It took us almost two hours to get, something that normally takes us 45 min. I think it's safe to say that we all had a great time.

Another year gone.

2013-12-20T13:31:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I let another three months go by without an update. *hangs head in shame*. I don’t have a real good reason other than I have been extremely busy at work, and when I go home I workout, shower, eat then sit down/piddle around the house for an hour and go to bed. I usually update the blog at work (when I have a few minutes) because that is when I feel the most creative and in the writing mode, but I have been pretty swamped lately and haven’t had any free time during the day. Bad excuse, I know, but it’s the truth. The other reason I haven’t updated much, as I have stated in the past, is not a whole lot is going on. I’m ok with that. A simple life is better than a hectic drama filled one any day. I follow other bloggers and read about all the neat things they get to do and experience and how they don’t have to work because their blog is doing well and allows them to “work” from home. I would love to be able to do that, but alas, I have no blog-worthy talents. So I will just continue to bore my small audience with stories about my uneventful life and dream of being accepted into PA school. :o)

Since our last meeting, I have continued to work every other weekend at the rehabilitation house as a C.N.A, and for the most part I enjoy it. It’s more the getting up early on a weekend to work part that I dislike than the actual job itself. I really enjoy helping the patients heal and progress with their therapy so they can go back home to their normal lives. There is still a lot for me to learn in this role, and so much to remember, but I am enjoying it and hopefully will only have to do it for another six months.

I received my interview invitation and will be interviewing on January 6^th, so if anyone applied to WSU and has an interview on that date, maybe I’ll see you there! In order to prepare I had a mock interview with one of my co-workers and her PA husband, which I already blogged about, but yesterday I had another interview with a former PA chair. THIS WAS SO AWESOME! He asked me questions like they would in an interview, I would answer and then he would tell me what to make sure to include in my answers or not include. He asked me what questions I remembered from last year and then told me what they were looking for when they asked those questions. For example, they asked me to name something I recently learned to do, and to explain how I learned to do it. He said that they are looking for an analytic thinker, and to include words like analyze and examine. He was so helpful, I cannot stress enough how important doing a mock interview is! I am really kicking myself that I did not do this in preparation for my previous interviews as I think this could have changed a few things for me. “Not the best science grades, that’s ok, she was persuasive and confident enough and explained very well why she is a good fit and that she can make it. “ This was not me. The interview really is the biggest factor in getting in – don’t let anyone fool you.

Brad is doing well in his recovery. He is now able to lift 20 pounds and has started to work out on a regular basis. He should be released from work-comp in a month or two. He was also able to find a job selling insurance, so he has been studying up for the licensing exam, and once he has that he can begin training. This new phase in his life will be an adjustment for both of us. He has been gone during the week for most of our relationship, so to have him home every day this past year has been nice. I am an independent person, so I miss my alone time a little bit and having free reign over the tv remote, but it’s nice to have him home and to be able to do things during the middle of the week. I am really hoping this new job will work out for him and that he enjoys it. Especially if I am going to be in PA school next year and not working, he pretty much has to do well or we will lose the house and starve to death. No pressure. ;o)

Thanksgiving passed, and we didn’t do anything. I had to work and Brad was studying, so we just stayed home and chilled. We will be going to his mom/dad/grandma’s house for Christmas and will spend a day or two with them, then come home so I can work that weekend. Yay- Not! I’m just thankful that things are better this year for the holidays than last year.

And last but not least, I thought I would end this post with some candid photos of me at Halloween. I was dressed as Jim T. Chur – get it? Get it? gym teacher! Funny right?! Har har.

Every year at work we have a soup and chili cook off where

people can bring in their best soups and chili for us to vote on, as well as a Halloween costume contest. It is a lot of fun and the food is always delicious! and this year I thought I would dress up. It was fun!

My fat belly - I'm a dude, not pregnant.

Does anyone else think I bare a striking resemblance to Lt. Dangle from Reno 911?

Some other pictures from earlier in the year:

Serving pizza at Convocation – the welcome back to school event held every year (I was talking in the photo and thus the weird open mouthed smile)

Serving hot dogs at Welcome Fest – another welcome back to school event

See the theme here? FOOD!

Updates

2013-10-18T10:03:00.001-05:00

Ok, so I let the past few months slip by without any updates. Does that surprise anyone? What have I been up to the past couple of months, let me see….

I spent all of August and the first part of September preparing my PA application for submission, looking for a part time C.N.A. job and getting my shots up to date for a shadowing opportunity. I submitted my application and was verified in time for my application to be sent to WSU before their October 1^st deadline. I was a little worried that I waited too long, but the director of the PA program was willing to review my personal statement, so I kinda wanted to know if he had any input. Thankfully he thought it was good, or at least lied and told me it was, either way it is submitted and I can’t take it back. Now, I am patiently awaiting the arrival of the supplemental application which I believe should be next week. Once I submit the supplemental application, my whole application will be reviewed for an opportunity to interview. The invitations will be sent out late November and the actual interview will be held in January. There is so much waiting!!!

I also had the opportunity to do a mock interview with one of my co-workers and her PA husband. I can’t tell you how helpful it was! They gave me some pointers and tips, but said that I did a good job overall. I would really like to do one more in December or early January, depending on the date of the actual interview, just to get some more practice in.

The last part of September and early October was spent doing orientation for my new C.N.A job! I am working every other weekend at a local nursing home in their rehabilitation houses. I help care for people who have recently had some type of injury/surgery and can’t quite be on their own yet. The aids pretty much have to do it all, cook breakfast, housekeeping and patient care, so it can get pretty busy around there. I’ve only been working there for a month and so far I am enjoying it – of course the extra money doesn’t hurt. :o)

Nothing else has been happening – mainly because there isn’t much extra time for anything to happen, and because I live an unexciting life. I’m ok with that though.

PA School Application – Round 2

2013-08-23T09:31:00.002-05:00

This past month I have been working on updating my application and personal statement for submission hopefully the first week of September. I have also been working on setting up some more shadowing opportunities that will maybe lead into either volunteering or working as a C.N.A. My only hold up right now is waiting for a dr.’s appointment to get a varicella titer, which is scheduled for next week. Even though I am or have never worked in the health care field, working at a university has its perks. I work with a retired dean of students who loves to help students succeed in any way he can. What does this mean for me? He has taken an interest in my struggles and wants to do what he can to help me get into pa school. Sweet! He would often set up mock interviews for his students and he wants to do that with me and then give me some coaching/feedback. I know I should have taken advantage of this on campus when I was a student, but I just didn’t. Very dumb on my part – I highly recommend doing this to everyone who is going to interview for ANYTHING. Interview skills are very important and often neglected. This is often the only chance to sell yourself, and if you are not prepared to answer some questions – no matter how hard they are, then you are out. It all matters – clothing, posture, hair, attitude - presenting yourself confidently but without appearing cocky even though you may be nervous as all get out. It may all be an act on the outside, but you have to be sincere when answering questions or you will be doing no one any favors. I have received two interviews – one for medical school and one for pa school, and I am pretty sure my interviews are part of the reason I didn’t make it in. I prepared for them, but not well enough. I had some doubt about my pa application and didn’t think I would make it in due to the lack of healthcare experience, but in all reality, if I would have went into it thinking “hey, I may not have the experience, but I am a damn good applicant and I deserve this spot,” I may have had a better interview and possibly offered a seat in the class. I’m definitely going into this application season with a newer, better and stronger attitude. I am getting accepted this year or die trying.

Side note:

I had planned on taking some pictures of the rest of the house, but I ended up helping a friend paint some cupboards and ran out of time. I will see what I can do this weekend. :o)

Progress

2013-08-16T19:17:00.002-05:00

It's been a long 6 months, but I am finally seeing some real progress towards my fitness goals. I buckled down and changed my diet to be healthier and really focused on working out on a regular basis. You might not be able to tell in the photos, but I have lost an inch in my waist and thighs! This is where I like to hide my fat so I am very happy I'm finally starting to see a difference in these areas. My arms are more defined now where I am starting to see a little bulge in my triceps, and I have gained more muscle in my legs. Oh, and my butt is smaller and firmer, yay! I am beginning to think I may start doing a little light body building. I don't plan on competing or anything like that, but I would like to become as fit as I can and build a little muscle doing it. :o) I still have a long ways to go, but I'd say it's a good start.

The top pictures are from last week - Aug 2013, and the bottom three are from Aug 2012.

House Pictures!

2013-08-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

Finally!!! Here are some shots of the living room/kitchen/dining area. I will post some more this weekend after I clean house. :o)

Wildlife

2013-08-09T09:50:00.001-05:00

My grandparents, and at one point my parents, owned a pet store and I loved "working" when I was a kid. I say working because I mainly ran around playing with all the animals, but I did catch a few crickets for some customers. NO! I did not get paid for my job and yes, my grandparents had the labor board called on them once because I actually said I "worked" there to a customer. I was like 5 or 6, it wasn't like I really knew what I was talking about. Anyway, I love animals and the softer and fluffier the better. I always had a dog and cats running around the farm growing up and when I was a junior in high school I got my "own" cat. His name was Noah and he was a cool big black and gray tiger striped cat. When I moved to Tucson he ran away because he wasn't used to other people and my dad was looking after him. I was pretty heartbroken and when I visited my grandparents for Thanksgiving, I came home with this.

Remember when I said my grandparents owned a pet store? Well my grandma can sell you anything! She rescued "Sunny" from a friend who had a dog that liked to kill the barn cats, but since my grandma also had two dogs, he spent most of his time hiding under the couch. When I came to visit for turkey day I of course had to play with him and love on him, so when I was walking out the door she handed him to me in a box and said I think you should take him home with you. So, "Sunny" became Bubbas and has been my little buddy ever since. It will be 14 years this November!

The rental home we lived in for the past 6 years had a tree in the front yard and four in the backyard, so we would have squirrels and rabbits constantly running around our yard - and on our roof. Since they are so damned cute I would love to watch them run around and play. (Yes, I know I will hate them once I start a garden and planting flowers, but they are so soft and cute!) Since we built a new house, we had to start from scratch with our yard and thus we had no grass and no trees and I really missed seeing the squirrels and wabbits. Every once in awhile our neighbor would have a rabbit or two in his backyard and I couldn't wait until our grass started growing enough to have some in ours. Well after a couple of months our grass started growing and the bunnies hoped on over! Last night they were really close to the house and I caught a few pics.

Look at the cute little bunnies! They look so soft! I just want to reach out and pet one.

Yes, I wrote a boring long story just so I could justify posting pictures of cute bunnies on my blog. :o)

Workouts and Eating

2013-07-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I would share with you my workout and eating regimen only because I think I finally found something that works for me and might even give me my six pack abs...someday. :o) Most of you will want to skip this post and that is ok. I'm fine with that.

As you know, I am a pretty regular exerciser and somewhat a healthy eater. I know that I need to work better at both of these areas if I want to lose the fat I have slowly packed on around my waistline, and for the past six weeks I have been doing just that. I actually started working out more regularly the beginning of the year, but the past six weeks I have been strict to my schedule. I have also been trying a new eating approach and really paying attention to what my meals contain. I'm not really trying to lose "weight" as I am at a decent weight, I am trying to lose the fat and build muscle.

My workouts have been a combination of Zuzka Light's Power Cardio and Strength DVD workouts, Tatianna's (from lovingfit.com) upper and lower body workouts and interval cardio. I really like to use the DVD workouts during the week because they are short, about 15 minutes long, which is perfect because I do another 20 min HIIT combo on the treadmill afterwards. Tati's workouts are usually around the 30 min length and with a 20 min run afterwards it just made my weeknights too short, so I do them on the weekends. The HIIT (high intensity interval training) run combo that I do is 10 min of alternating 30 sec of a full out run with 30 sec walk, followed by 5 min of flat running.

My schedule is this:
Monday: rest or yoga
Tuesday: fullbody workout followed by HIIT run combo
Wednesday: HIIT run combo
Thursday: full body workout followed by HIIT run combo
Friday: rest or yoga
Saturday: Upper body workout followed by HIIT run combo
Sunday: Lower body - optional HIIT run combo

I have a calendar set up to help me keep track of which exercises I need to do for the week and it feels so great to cross them off and know that I actually did them! This schedule has worked out really well for me and I am noticing changes with my strength/stamina and the way I look. I am at the point where I am adding in some weights to my workouts which adds some intensity to the workout. I am also working out for six weeks, then taking a week off and doing nothing but yoga or resting. I want to give my body a break every now and then, plus it keeps me motivated.

As far as my diet goes, I have been doing intermittent fasting every other day (EOD). I tried the 16/8 combo but it didn't really seem to work for me. With the EOD method, I eat normal every other day and "fast" on the off days. I will explain what I mean when I say "fast" so you don't think I am not eating all day. To start out, I figured out what my calorie range needed to be on a normal day using this formula. Since I am trying to lose "weight" (more fat than weight) I cut the total down by 20%. It comes to around 1250-1300 calories. I don't really count my calories per say, but I try to use this as a guide. Now, my normal days I eat my normal calorie range, and my fasting days I cut my calories in half. Yes, I said half, and no I am not starving myself. Here's what I do: I fast on MWF which are the days I rest with the exception of Wednesdays when I run. So I'm not doing a super intense workout on the days I am fasting and burning myself out. I eat a small breakfast if I am hungry, and a larger lunch and then a smaller meal at night. The EOD fasting really calls for you to eat one large meal a day, but I have a hard time not eating at night, so I just eat a small meal. The reason I chose this method, is because the research stated those who did this method of fasting lost more fat and gained more muscle than other methods. So I tried it, and it works really well for me, but I am also going to take a week off the fast the same week I take off my workouts, just to let my body take a brake.

I have also been eating healthier. I have a portion of protein, veggies, fat and carbs with every meal and use my hands as measuring tools - 1 palm is protein, 1 fist of veggies (though i usually do two with a salad), 1 cupped hand of carbs and 1 thumb of fat. My meals are pretty similar during the week which makes it really easy to prepare everything for work, and the weekend they are a little more lax only because I cook for the family and they don't want to eat salads all day. :o)

I haven't measured myself in awhile, but I think I am down about a 1/2 -3/4 inches around my hips and thighs. I am finally able to get into my smaller jeans now without a muffin top! Plus, I am now starting to see definition in my arms, legs and abs. I still have a ways to go and it's a slow process, but it's working! Maybe I will get brave and post some before and after pics for y'all. :o)

I really enjoy working out and being fit and healthy, and I want to make this a permanent part of my life. I know it will be hard when I am in PA school, but a 15 min workout is definitely doable and will help me keep my sanity while studying. Not to mention if I can be in the shape I want to be in by the time I start, then all I will have to do is maintain which is a little easier. I can do this.

It's Been A(Long)while

2013-07-26T11:36:00.003-05:00

Sooooo, it has been forever and a day since I last posted on this sad little blog of mine. Quite honestly this year has been so full of bad things that I haven’t really wanted to talk about any of it because of how depressing it all was. And by depressing, I really mean I was depressed for at least the first three or four months. I won’t bore you with all the details but let me sum things up so you can finish reading this post sometime today. :o)

1. We finally closed on the new house (yes I will post pictures) on January 18^th. The week leading up to closing I requested a walk through. We did not get a walkthrough. There were some things that were not finished - some we knew about, some were a surprise. Then, a couple days after closing we received and invoice from our contractor asking for additional money. Our roof was missing shingles, and the shingles that were on would flap horribly in the wind. We asked them to fix it, but they said not until we get our money. There are a few other things that we found out were done poorly or incorrectly, so the first few months of living in a nice new home with so many flaws made me sick to my stomach. I wasn’t even excited to move in, and I’m just now starting to enjoy the house.

2. I finally found a part time job as a C.N.A. It lasted a whole two days. When I got the call for an interview, they asked me what hours I could work. I explained that I work full time in Wichita and wouldn’t be able to work until 6:00 pm, but could work until 10 or 11. They said that would be no problem. I interviewed, got the job and sat through two days of HR orientation. Finally, after all the paperwork and orientation, I was ready for work. I spent two four hour shifts training with another C.N.A and when I asked for the next week’s schedule, the scheduling lady said she needed to talk to the nurse in charge of things to see how they wanted to work me in. Well, they decided that since I couldn’t do a 5-10 shift, that they couldn’t use me. So I am still looking for C.N.A. work.

3. I didn’t get into PA school, but I honestly wasn’t thinking that I would. I took the opportunity to do a feedback session and found out what I already knew – I need to get experience. They also told me that my personal statement didn’t do a good job of explaining why I wanted to be a PA or set me out from the crowd. Even though this hurt the most, it was good information. Everyone that read my PS said it was great and well written, but apparently it wasn’t. Since I wasn’t having much luck with finding a C.N.A. job and with everything else going on at the time (read below) I decided to wait a year to reapply.

4. Brad’s job progressively worsened, and sometime in April (I think) Brad slipped on the stairs and tore the muscles in his back. He had to stay home for a couple of weeks. After about two weeks of unpaid resting, Brad was finally ready to go back out and his boss decided to take the truck in and have a few things done to it. So Brad would be sitting for another week. When that week was up, Brad’s boss kindly told him not to worry about picking the truck up as he wouldn’t be driving anymore and gave a really bad excuse. We were not surprised by all of this, but it would have been nice to know three weeks ago since Brad wasn’t being paid during this time.

5. Finally after a couple of months of searching, Brad found a job and started work again in June. The first day on the job he pulled up to an elevated scale and as he was getting out of his truck he fell. Five feet. Onto his side. He broke five ribs and bruised his lung and spleen. So, once again he is at home mending broken ribs for another month or two. At least this time it was work related and workman’s comp has been helping with everything.

As you can see this year has truly been a year of the unlucky 13. It just seemed like no matter how positive I tried to be and to look for the bright side of things, I just couldn’t find the light. It was all sucky. It still sort of is, but things are quieting down, Brad will go to work again soon and I decided to apply this year to PA school. The PA program just hired a new chair and I had the opportunity to meet with him and talk about my chances. He gave me some really great ideas to get the experience I need plus some other general tips and advice. He also said that I shouldn’t wait a year to apply and that if I want this, to go after it. There shouldn’t be any reason why I can’t get 100-200 hours by my interview in January. He even offered to practice interviewing me and wants to follow up with me in a couple months. This was a pretty big boost for me, and his pep talk really helped me get excited about this whole PA thing again. So I talked to Brad and I’m going to go for it. The next three years (one year of volunteering to get my hours and two in PA school) might suck a little, but it will be so worth it in the end.

That has been the past seven months in a nutshell. I will talk more about the house, post pictures and talk about a few other things that are going on at a later date, but I thought I would at least show my face on here and explain why I haven’t felt like posting much lately.

The Interview

2013-01-15T09:41:00.002-06:00

The day started with check-in at 8:30 and a program presentation at 9:00. We had an opportunity to visit with current first year students before the presentation and I learned a lot about the schedule and what to expect with the workload. After the presentation my group had a Q&A session with students where we were able to ask questions and learn even more about the program. After this I had my interview. I have to say that it was nice to have the interview right away, but after having a chance to talk to students because I didn’t really have a chance to get nervous and I think that helped a lot. Plus, the interview was over and I was able to focus on the rest of the morning. I didn’t really know what to expect with the interview. I mean, it’s an interview so there are always things that are given, but I had heard a few horror stories from previous students so I didn’t know what to expect. There were two interviewers; one was faculty and the other a PA from the community. This year they decided to go a different route with the questions and asked all the students the same 15 standardized questions. I felt that the questions were fair and pretty much just different ways of asking “tell us about yourself”. The first question of course was why do you want to be a PA, and even though I was ready for the answer, I wasn’t sure how in depth to go so I rattled on a bit and was hoping they would ask follow up questions if they needed, but they didn’t really and just moved on to the next question. I feel like I answered each question honestly and just tried to be myself. The interview itself didn’t see to take too long, and afterward we had a student presentation that talked about the program from the student’s perspective and of course it made me fall in love with WSU even more. After the presentation we had a tour which was led by one of my physics classmates from a couple years ago! She is such a cool person and she was very helpful. She said it took her a couple of tries to get in, and the main reason was because she didn’t have patient care experience. She said that if she would have had even a certificate, like a C.N.A license, it would have bumped her up into the acceptance pool because just having a license gives you an extra 10 points. This made my heart skip! The one area I was lacking in and the most worried about, might not be as dire as I first thought! I mean, even if I don’t get in I still have a job lined up to gain that experience, but it would sure be nice to be accepted this year and not have to go through another year of applying.

After the tour we had a short wrap up session where we had the chance to ask any other questions and then we had a little personality assessment we had to fill out and we were done! Now comes the longest two weeks of my life – waiting until the week of the 28^th to stalk my mailbox.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And some other stuff....

2013-01-15T09:03:00.000-06:00

So, I say this every time I post, but it has been a hellacious month. Let me begin my starting where I left off – my birthday.

The Good:

The Wednesday before my birthday I got a call from the radio station I listen to saying that I won tickets to the Chevelle concert the Saturday after my birthday! I was pretty excited because I never win anything and I completely forgot that I put my name in the drawing. Then, Friday (my birthday) I received another call saying that I also won a “meet and greet” with the band before the concert! Say what?!!! Brad and I got to meet the band and have a picture taken along with a personally autographed band photo. How cool is that? The concert was awesome and it was definitely a great birthday present.

I also finished off the semester with two A’s, woo hoo!

The Bad:

Well, even though the concert was awesome and it was a great experience, Brad and I didn’t have as much fun as we should have due to some other issues with Brad’s work. People that we thought were friends turned out to be really big assholes who were only out for themselves and to destroy Brad due to jealously and revenge. Some people were trying really hard to get him fired and the Monday after my birthday and the concert was a big meeting, so we had other things on our minds. The good news (sort of) is Brad still has a job. On top of everything else going on at his job, the new truck he has been driving for almost a year started to breakdown. This meant that Brad did a lot of sitting while it was being worked on, which meant less money for us to put towards the house and closing. The truck went into the shop twice and acted up a third time, so Brad was to take it to the shop again and get in a spare truck until it was finished after the holidays. Which brings me to -

The Ugly:

Because Brad was behind due to all the sitting around he had to do, he decided to work through the weekend before Christmas and come home Monday night and I decided to go with him over the long weekend. Well, I met Brad on Friday and first thing Saturday morning, some jackass truck driver decided to pull out right in front of us. The bastard didn’t even stop at the stop sign, just pulled right out and made a left turn. The problem? We were in the right lane coming straight at him. There were two options, hit his trailer full of cotton or hit the ditch. Thankfully due Brad’s quick thinking and skillful driving I am here to write this post. Brad took the ditch route and we hit the approach went up and over it, through a fence and came to a stop. We both had our seatbelts on and no one was hurt, but the truck was a mess. I immediately looked at the truck and to my amazement, the fucker kept driving. I picked up my phone and started running after him and tried to flag down a car because I knew if he left and we didn’t get a license plate or something, he would be gone and it would be a fight with the insurance company. To my amazement, no one stopped. Thank God we were not injured because I think we would have died out there waiting for someone to call for help. So, after a very long day and the guy we were delivering the hay to was sweet enough to drive us to Amarillo so we could rent a car and drive home. Not only was the accident a major event on its own, not having a truck to drive also meant that Brad was not going to be earning extra money which put us in another state of worry. The only good thing about the accident, yes, I said good thing, was Brad caught a cold Monday and I think it turned into bronchitis. So even if he had a truck to drive, he wouldn’t have been able to. Plus, it gave us time to get the flooring in the new house put in. So, even as messed up as it all was, it sort of worked out. The cops did end up catching the other driver, and he maintains that he didn’t see anyone coming (no shit!) and that he wasn’t there when we went into the ditch. He says we were going too fast for the corner and went off into the ditch. Now it’s up to the insurance companies, but I really hope Brad’s company insurance doesn’t let that one slide by.

The Other Stuff:

Due to the accident and Brad’s illness we spent a quiet Christmas at home and went over to a friend’s house for dinner. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas this year and after a really crappy December I was just ready to get onto the New Year. We spent the first week in January laying the floors in the new home and I finished up the tiling last week. I was so tired afterwards! I know that there are quite a few spots where I messed up the cuts, but I think did ok for the first time.

And with all of the above going on, I had an interview with an assisted living facility after Christmas and got a job offer last Friday. Orientation starts on Monday and I’m not sure how many nights I will be working a week, but it’s nice to know that I’ll finally found a job. Oh, and I also had my PA interview last week, but I will go into that in a separate post. :o)

Interview Invite!

2012-12-04T08:25:00.001-06:00

Yes, it has been almost a month since I last posted. I am a horrible blogger. Mainly because my life really is boring and normal. Ok, well that is sort of true as I received some pretty exciting news last week. I got an interview invitation!! Wooo! I got the e-mail last Wednesday after class on my way home. Thank goodness it wasn't during class because I wouldn't have been able to sit still or keep quiet. :o) My interview is on January 10, so I have about a month to prep. I am going to take advantage of the mock interviews my school does and brush up on the new health care act. Now that classes are winding down I am looking for a C.N.A job to gain some experience, so if I don't get in this year, I will have that under my belt for next year.    I'm so excited, I can't wait!

Also on the exciting news front, the painters are just about finished painting the inside of the house. After about three weeks of waiting and being at a stand still, they can finally move forward with cabinets and finish work. The bad thing about this is we will be able to start laying the floors once the cabinets are in. It's bad only because we are doing them ourselves, but I am actually excited about doing it. Does that make me weird?

Anyway, that is really all that has been going on. Brad and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. We celebrated over the weekend and his mom and dad stayed and his sister and two nieces came over for dinner. We had a lot of fun and dinner turned out quite nicely.

Classes are winding down - yay! I took my last chapter exam yesterday in statistics and I think I did well on it. The comprehensive final is next Monday, and my last chapter exam in pathophysiology is next Tuesday. After that exam I am a free woman! Woo! So looking forward to next week. :o)

This Friday is my birthday but we are not planning anything. Honestly, I would just love if Brad could be home Friday or early Saturday and have a nice quiet weekend together before things get crazy with laying the floors and moving.   This next month is going to be crazy and will fly by. Before I know it we will be moving in to our new home!

House Pics

2012-11-09T21:25:00.002-06:00

Living room

Kitchen

Dining area

View of living room from kitchen island

View of bay window in dining area

View of entryway and stairs

Second bedroom upstairs

Master bed and bath

Basement living area

Doors to third bedroom(on right) and office (on left)

Door to laundry room

Busy, busy

2012-11-09T21:06:00.000-06:00

So much has happened since the last time I blogged that I'm not sure where to begin! I was sick last week and I think it was due to me running myself ragged. Most of my time has been split between work and school with house decisions mixed in there. School has been really busy and taking up most of my time. I took my third test in each class this week and I this time I did well in stats, but not so well in pathophysiology. I am pretty sure I dropped my grade down to a B with that one, but I have one more test to help make up for it. Classes are going well, but I will be glad when they are done in a month.

Work has been very busy, which is making my life feel like it's on fast forward. Usually I have a little time throughout the day to relax and do things like blog, but lately it has been so crazy that I barely have a moment to check my e-mail!

Now, on to the big exciting thing going on in my life. The house. :o) Brad and I went over a couple weekends ago and I took a bunch of pictures. I think I will dedicate one single post to them alone. This weekend Brad and I are going to Lowe's to pick out some tile for the bathrooms and light fixtures. They will begin painting next week and it will be so awesome to actually see the color on the walls! I am really looking forward to when the cabinets get installed. So far it sounds like we will be moving in around the 15th of December. That is a guesstimate, but it's what I am planning on either way because I will be finished with finals and will be able to devote all of my time after work to moving everything over. It still gives me plenty of time to clean the old house too.

I've also been feeling the need to crochet lately. It all started with this picture from Kate over at The Small Things Blog.

I love the pattern and thought, I can make that! So that is what I have been doing off and on this past week. I had some yarn I bought awhile ago for a scarf but never found a pattern I liked, so I dug it out and started crocheting. I used up two skeins but it isn't quite big enough, so I will need to buy one more to finish it. Here's a close up of it so far.

I had to run to Alco for a couple of things tonight and while I was there I looked to see if they had any more of the gray, but alas no luck. I did however find another gorgeous color that I am dying to try this with this pattern!

I know this doesn't sound like much, but these few short paragraphs have really been hectic and have left me exhausted. I am definitely looking forward to next month when classes are done and we are all moved into our new home!

Odds and Ends

2012-10-16T13:01:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile, as usual, since I last posted but a lot has been happening! First, the house is coming along very fast, and Brad and I spent part of a day last week picking out cabinets, colors and all the fun stuff that goes into the home, and today I meet with the plumber. I haven't seen the house for a couple weeks but we now have windows and the outside of has been prepped for siding! I will take some pictures tonight and post them on here. The will soon be putting up the sheet rock and we will have actual walls instead of outlines of walls! I can't believe that in a few weeks we will be moving in to our new home! It's almost a little scary....

In school related news I had two more exams, one in each class. I'm not sure how I did on my pathyphys exam (I'm hoping at least a B), but I have to retake my stats exam. The majority of the class failed it, and even though I passed, it is low enough I want to retake it. The part I felt so unsure about was actually the easier part of the exam, and the part I felt confident on was the harder part. I haven't actually seen which questions I got wrong, but I am re-studying everything just to be safe.

And lastly, in other news Brad was home last week with a slipped disc in his back. He has been working a lot of hours to bring in extra money for the house and his body is not liking it at all. He works so hard and I am so proud of him. We went out on Saturday night for a date night. We haven't done that in a long, long time. It was nice to be out just the two of us at a nice restaurant just enjoying each others company. Things have been really stressful with Brad's job, my school and the house, it was nice to take a small break from it all.

I finally received my C.N.A license in the mail!! It's only oh, about a month later than when it should have arrived. I guess it is a good thing I didn't have a job lined up - in case you didn't know, you can work up to four months from the start date of the class without a license, and it has been five since the start of my class. I have decided to wait until January to look for a second job though. My stats class is a lot harder than what I was hoping it would be, and I don't want to sacrifice my study time. I'm thinking I might not take any classes next semester and I'll just work part time to get some experience and some extra money to put into savings or toward the house. The only other class that I want to take is pharmacology, but it's not required, whereas the classes I'm taking now are classes are required for the program. I doubt I'll get in this year so I will have time to take pharmacology later, I need the experience more than the class.

I'm rambling a bit, but I am tired and I'm at work sitting up front covering the receptionist while she is at lunch and wanted to update this thing with all the happenings of my oh, so exciting life. HA! :o)

Brag Post

2012-09-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

It’s been awhile, but things are trekking along at warp speed. If you are wondering where the Star Trek talk came from, I have been catching up on The Big Bang Theory episodes. :o)

Since I last posted I received both of my test scores back and I did very well. I was expecting a B and hoping for an A- in pathophysiology and I actually ended up with over 100%!! He gives us 10 extra credit questions at the end and it boosted my grade quite nicely! I now feel better about my study strategy and will continue with it. I was a little worried about my statistics exam, but I was able to pull an A-. I would have pulled an A if I would have read one question a little closer, but lesson learned. :o) I have a feeling that I will not be getting as high of marks on the upcoming exams, as this class is getting a LOT harder. I am having flashbacks to my physics class. *shudder* At least this professor explains things in a way that I can actually understand.

In other news, we have walls!! I have some pictures to post as well, but they are still on my camera. Brad and I went over and walked around “in” our new home earlier this week, and wow! It’s just crazy to picture what it will look like when the inside walls start going up, cabinets are being hung and the floor is being laid. It was really nice to actually “see” the space, because on paper it seems like it will be much bigger. It’s definitely not perfect nor huge, but it is perfect for a first home.

Catching up.

2012-09-14T08:28:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the hiatus. I have been really swamped at work lately and behind on my reading/note taking at home. I had a big pathophysiology test on Tuesday and after going camping two weeks ago I felt really stressed about being so far behind. I. was. freaking. out.!! I pretty much did nothing but study all weekend this past weekend and even though I was still nervous going into the test, I felt much better afterwards. I have heard that this class is hard and there is a lot to study, and there is, but I felt the exam questions were very fair and if you study the questions he gives with each section and take notes on the information he gives, there will be no surprises or difficult questions to deal with. I felt pretty confident through most of the exam until I got to one area I didn’t study as much. I took a couple of guesses, then erased, then guessed again, then erased again – you see the pattern here. I can’t remember if I finally filled in my first guesses or not, but I definitely didn’t do too great on those 3-5 questions. I won’t find out my score until next Tuesday, but I am guessing I have at least a B. (I hope!)

I have a statistics exam on Monday that I need to study for, but it shouldn’t be too bad. The material has been pretty simple so far, it’s just a matter of remembering some vocabulary, steps to conducting an experiment and a few math equations.

In other school related news, I finally received my secondary application questions from WSU. I have until November 1 to fill them out, but I would like to get them submitted by the end of the month. I‘m almost certain this won’t happen, but that is my goal. The essays are pretty typical, what volunteer experiences do you have? What leadership service do you have? I don’t really like these questions because I feel that this is my weak area mainly due to having to work full time while taking evening classes and only seeing my family on the weekends. I know I am missing out on a bunch of opportunities, but I want to spend the two days I have with my family, with my family.

And on the home front, we finally have a basement floor, which means they will start framing next week!

Garage Floor

Basement floor

I can’t believe how things are coming along. We are at the stage where we get to start picking things out, such as colors and wood grain and flooring, oh my! We have an idea of what we like, but we need to sit down and see the selection they have. We have picked out windows and made some changes and I am really excited to see how it turns out. Here is a couple of inspirations for the changes we made.

This is what we would like to do with the window in our closet. I love the little bench and the storage above the window. Ours will just be a regular shelf (to start with), but it will be perfect for Brad’s cowboy hats since I won’t be able to reach up there. Ha!

This is what we would like to do in the living room. We replaced the huge eight foot window two smaller windows, one on each corner so we can make a lovely window seat area. I just love this look! It makes me want to curl up with a good book. The best thing about this is, if you look closely at the benches, they are just a box sitting next to another box, which means easy DIY project! The hardest part will be figuring out how to make the cushion for the darn thing.

Well, I think I have caught you all up on my life for the moment. Hope I didn’t bore you too much!

Going and Going

2012-08-29T13:46:00.001-05:00

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything, but it has been rather hectic around here. Classes started last week along with our back to school celebration that we call WelcomeFest. This is the University’s way of welcoming the students back to school and also help new students meet people and learn about student life and activities. There is something different happening every day and night and it all sounds super fun! The only thing I help out with is the day all the different informational booths are set up outside along with a band and some games, and I help hand out free hotdogs. Every year a group from work coordinates our part with the WelcomeFest committee and we set up a hotdog stand. It is a great opportunity for us, the Foundation, to interact with the students and to share with them what exactly the Foundation is and does. Plus, it is a lot of fun!

Then this week I helped out with Convocation, which is basically a campus wide “pep rally”. We get to hear from the President, our student council and an alumni speaker. Afterwards the students line up for a free t-shirt, pizza and ice cream. This is the second year I have helped with it and I was part of the “crowd control” and helped to herd the students to their seats and then out to get their free stuff. Here I am hard at work with one of my fellow co-workers.

On top of all the extra fun stuff I have going on at work, I have also been delegated as the assistant to two more people, so I am now the assistant to five development directors. Needless to say, I have been quite busy with the added workload. On top of this, I am squeezing my classes into my schedule. My class schedule is MWF 9:30 -10:20 for statistics and TW 4:00-6:00 pathophysiology. Since the class only runs until 6:00 I am still able to get home at a decent hour, workout and have plenty of time to take notes and study. So far things are going well, but we haven’t had any quizzes or exams yet so my feelings may change in the near future. :o)

I mentioned in my last post that we were going to go camping, but we ended up not going. I wasn’t feeling the greatest so we decided to wait until this weekend, Labor Day, to go. I’m not crazy about going considering I will have to pack my notes along with to study and I won’t be able to watch any of my lectures. I know I’ll have a good time, but I am afraid I won’t get to do much studying, and by “get to” I mean “want to”. But I have to. :o( boo.

This past weekend I tried to catch up on some of my reading and Brad and Bo were sweet enough to go to the store for me. I can’t tell you how awesome that was for me. And on top of that they surprised me with some beautiful flowers.

I really love the orange roses! I felt pretty special when they came home with these beauts, plus they both looked pretty darn cute when they handed them to me. I think they were quite pleased with themselves and they had good reason to be. Don’t you think? :o)