Long Time No Blog

So I realized it has been many months since my last blog, and there has been a lot that has happened between then and now. and since I have 2 tests next week, I figure this is as good as any way to procrastinate the studying more.

We moved down to Lubbock, TX in the middle of July and I started school at the beginning of August. Our school uses a block system, so we have one class at a time that is very intense. We started out with Anatomy, which was tough, but I already knew a lot of it from the anatomy class I took at UVU last year. That really helped me out, since I found out that I was pregnant a third of the way through. The morning sickness was terrible throughout the rest of anatomy, which pretty muched killed any chance I had at doing well since most of our learning time was spent in the lab, the smell of which made me constantly sick. However, I still passed, with a relatively high grade for passing. I had hoped to honor, but I am happy with my passing grade. After anatomy, it was on to Biology of Cells and Tissues. This class has made anatomy look like a cakewalk. It is pretty much biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, and histology all rolled into one 9 week class. Think about taking an entire year of biochemistry and consolidating it into a week and a half, and that is how this class is. I have my 3rd unit test for this next tuesday, and then the comprehensive final on thursday. Our third unit was mostly histology with some cell biology, which isn't nearly as hard as the biochemistry weeks, so I hope to do well on this test. I can't wait for Christmas break, it'll be the longest break I have had from work/school since I graduated from college :)

Outside of school there hasn't been much going on. I've made a few good friends in my class that we go out with occasionally, although not as much as anyone would like because of school. Jase has been having a blast with his airsofting, he found a bunch of guys down here that like to play. He has been selling a bunch of guns down here and upgrading a lot of others, so that keeps him busy.

As I mentioned before, we found out I was pregnant in September, right after my first anatomy test. Our original calculations put my due date as April 12, but the ultrasound we had said it would be May 4. So our due date is pretty tentative, but it's probably closer to the May date than the April. We have our second ultrasound on Thursday right before my final, and hopefully at that one the baby will cooperate more and we can see if it is a boy or a girl. Jase really wants a boy, but I just want it to be healthy. For the most part I have been feeling fine, especially since the morning sickness ended, which conveniently was within about a week after anatomy was over. Since then, nothing much has changed. I lost a lot of weight during the first trimester, but I am gaining it back now. My scale at home is broken, which is probably good since that means I'm not constantly weighing myself, but I can definitely tell I'm getting bigger. I can't fit into any of my normal pants anymore, but I have discovered that maternity pants are comfy. Between my one pair of maternity jeans and my scrubs, I'm still set for a while. Good thing I'm in med school, cuz scrubs don't look nearly as weird here as in other places. The baby has started to noticably move, which is really cool and really annoying at the same time. I like being able to know that it is ok and actually there, not just in my imagination. But it tends to move the most at night, exactly when I am trying to sleep. So it keeps me awake and kicks me all night and I end up ehausted in the morning, when it stops. Of course at that point I have to go to school so I can't sleep. Tons of fun! I guess I need to get used to the sleep deprivation anyway, since it'll only get worse.

Well, I think that is about it for now, hopefully I'll remember/ have time to keep this updated more often!

OK so it has been awhile since I have posted, but nothing much has happened lately. Except that I got of the waitlist at Texas tech medical school! I'm going to Texas! Which is awesome not only cuz it's a better school, but also because I'll need half as much in loans as at Arizona. I am so relieved! Other than that it's life as usual!

I got a sexy new computer! Just thought I would let you all know.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series-tablet


Time for bed now!

Home improvements

So we are trying to get some projects done on our house that are long overdue, namely rebuilding the deck and retiling the kitchen and dining room. We pulled down the old deck a few weeks ago, with the intention of getting it done within a couple weeks. Things were going great until it started raining. Every one of our days off. We have finally gotten to the point where we have the base framed again and stained, but every time we plan on working on the rest of it it starts raining. Except today. Today it decided to snow. It wouldn't be that big of a deal except that we have to stain the wood before we build, and we can't stain it when it is wet (it would kind of defeat the purpose of the water sealant). So yesterday, when I found out it was going to snow today, I decided that I would start ripping out the kitchen tile instead. Well, after 5 hours of work yesterday and today, I am about 1/3rd of the way through the kitchen. I plan on finishing ripping up the kitchen this weekend while Jase is out of town and then hopefully getting started on putting down the tile in there. We got our house rented out starting in August so we definitely need to get all of this done by then, but I am hoping to get the tile stuff done by next weekend (the weekend of the 25th). We'll see how that goes.

I get my new computer for school soon, it's a sexy tablet computer that we are all required to get. It's pretty much a laptop but the screen can turn around and fold down and it has a stylus you can write on it with, so it's like a 160 GB notepad. Other than that cool feature and the fingerprint scanner (why we need that, I don't know), it is pretty much just a normal laptop for a ridiculous price. Oh well.

For anyone that hasn't heard yet, my bro is getting married! I'm excited to not be the only married kid in the family anymore. He gets married May 16. I got to watch him propose (aong with a couple thousand other people) while his band was performing at Fiesta, a spanish program at BYU. It was pretty cool.

We got a new guy at work since the only two microbiologists (me and Asher) are leaving for medical school in the fall. He's interesting to say the least, but it's kind of fun to debate with him since he is pretty much polar opposite in many of his beliefs from me on topics such as evolution (which he is very opinionated about and brings up at every break in conversation, yet he doesn't know much about it, so I think it's really funny.) The annoying thing about him is that he never stops talking. NEVER. Asher has not had a headache in years, up until the day that the new guy started, if that's any indication. And it's not only that, but he practically yells whenever he talks. So we have to yell to talk over him to talk to each other. Very annoying. Hopefully I'll get used to it, but if not, I only have to tolerate it for 87 more days (which includes weekends, days off, and holidays, so actually not even that much!) I think I can survive it knowing that.

That is pretty much my month in a nutshell, pretty exciting huh?

Wow, I just realized that it has been 6 months since I updated this blog. I suck at it, and it is only going to get worse, because (drum roll please)...

I GOT INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!!!!

Yes, that's right, after 3 years of trying, I have finally done it. I will be attending A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA), a newer medical school with a very inovative curriculum. From their website:

"SOMA has adopted a clinical presentation or scheme presentation model that serves as the foundation of its curriculum. This model is based on the various ways patients present to physicians. Collectively, the clinical presentations represent common patient complaints (e.g., headache, abdominal pain), abnormalities of physical examination (e.g., systolic heart murmur), or abnormalities of commonly ordered laboratory studies, (e.g., anemia, hypocalcemia). Altogether, there are approximately 120 +/- 5 presentations that comprise the SOMA curriculum. The presentations serve as a starting point for the generation of relevant curricular content."

I think this is an awesome way to go about this, since it will make it much easier to apply our education to practice. And I am not very worried about the newness of the school, since it was established as a branch of ATSU-KCOM, the founding school of osteopathic medicine, so they have had plenty of experience doing this. So I'll be spending my first year in Mesa, AZ, then they will be shipping us off to one of 11 community health centers all over the country to do years 2-4. I am sooooo excited about this!!!!!! Can you tell? I start July 20, so it's going to be a busy few months, what with moving, tryin to sell the house, and finding Jase a new job down there.

Other than that, life has been pretty much business as usual! I really will try to keep up on this better, but no promises!

Once again, I fail at updating...

Life has been pretty repetetive but pretty busy at the same time. One of the microbiologists in the lab left, so we're down to two. And with our audit coming up on the 15th, we are pretty hectic here. I've been working really hard to not pull too much overtime, since they really don't like that here. I just hope they find another person or two to start in here soon.

I have two more medical school interviews lined up, one on September 11 at Texas A&M, and the other on the 19th at Texas Tech. I really hope they go well, especially Texas Tech because I already know some people in Lubbock. I guess if it is meant to be I'll get in! I also have an interview lined up at a PA school in Pennsylvania, but that isn't till October. I think after shadowing PA's and MD's I have decided that my first choice is definitely MD. I know there are a lot of pluses to both, I just don't think my personality is such that I would be as happy as a PA. I jsut like to take charge and solve problems and I wouldn't get to do that as much as a PA. But if it is PA or nothing, I'll take it!!!

I started my anatomy class at UVU on Tuesday. I am so glad I am taking this all by itself and not with a bunch of other classes. I'm taking it cuz it's a prereq for most PA schools, but even if I do med school it will still be worth it cuz it'll make first year a ton easier. Anyway, I'm kinda scared cuz we learned a lot on our first day, and my brain isn't quite back into lecture listening mode...

Anyway, that is pretty much all the exciting stuff that's happening in my life lately! I'll definitely update after my interviews though!

Wow, I am terrible at this whole updating thing. Anyway, here goes...

4th of July weekend I went home to shadow some PA's my dad set me up with. That was cool, although I am leaning more toward being an MD instead after that. But we'll see what happens, I am applying to both so I'll go wherever I get in!

Lake Powell was fun, Kriton had a blast, pictures will maybe come later if I ever update this at home instead of at work :)

Breaking Dawn FINALLY came out! I bought it saturday at around 2, didn't start reading till about 4, and finished by about 4 AM. I would have finished faster but I still had wifey responsibilities to take care of, and lexa would not let me read in peace, she kept attacking my book like" look at meeee!!!! Stop reading!!!! I want attention!!!!" It was cute but annoying. Anyway, I think I am among the minority of people who actually enjoyed this book. I won't go into any more details unless asked, I don't want to spoil this for anyone :). Let's just say that I really enjoyed it, although it had a much different feel than the first three, and leave it at that.

Finally, I had a Medical School interview yesterday!!!! I was soooo excited to get it because it was the first interview session of the season, so I assume that means they liked me! It was at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (it's a mouthful isnt it?) I left Sunday Morning about an hour after I finished Breaking Dawn :) and got back last night pretty late. Needless to say, I am pretty exhausted. It was cool though, because there were 3 other interviewees there from BYU, and we were the only ones there not from Texas! I thought that was really cool. It was also cool that two of them had the same flight as me from San Antonio to Phoenix afterwards, and one had the same one to Salt Lake as well. It was nice to have someone I knew on the plane to talk to. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me!

So that's pretty much all the exciting points of my life recently, hopefully I'll have more news soon about interviews and stuff!