I am alive!

To much surprise based on my current lack of blogging....I am alive. My life has been so busy lately that I haven't had time to breathe much less write about my daily activities. I have finished my first 3 rotations (Pediatrics, Emergency Med, and Surgery). I have traveled to Nicaragua. I have practiced my baking skills. And most importantly I have spent some awesome quality time with my favorite 2 boys! So here is a brief update!

Rotations

I have 4 more to go!! I start OB/GYN next week in Hickory, NC. It should be quite the experience considering I have never had the pleasure of delivering a child! I'm sure I'll have TONS of stories! haha. I just finished up my surgery rotation in Richmond, VA. IT WAS AMAZING. I learned so much and got to do so much. The doctors I worked with were excellent teachers and encouraged me everyday. I was really sad to leave them! I thought about writing some of my funny stories from that rotation on the blog, but I figure most people don't think the blood and guts I deal with on a daily basis is very cool! haha. I can hear Meredith and Collin now "that's nasty..I don't want to hear anymore...so gross Staysh"

Nicaragua

I spent last week in Nicaragua with 46 of my classmates. We saw about 2500 patients for the week. It was an incredible experience to say the least. The people there have so little and for me it felt like we were giving them nothing, but they thought we were giving them the world. We travelled with 1,000s of medications and some terrible spanish! haha! We were in different "clinics" everyday. Most of them were just empty buildings without air conditioning in 102 degree heat! I was sweating in places I didn't know I could! haha! Here are some pics of my trip.

We attended a true Nicaraguan church service on Sunday!! So cool.

Everyday we showed up to clinic and there were LINES of people waiting to be treated. It was so overwhelming, but we saw every single patient before we went home for the day.

We traveled in this truck EVERYWHERE! There really aren't paved roads in Nicaragua so we were all very dusty by the end of the day!

I brought a 5lbs. bag of dum-dums with me to clinic everyday. The kids LOVED them. They don't get loved on very often and they certainly don't get candy so the suckers were a big hit!

The last day we hiked up an active volcano called Cierro Negro. It was an intense hike up, but the lava rocks were so dense that it felt like sand on the way down so you can't just walk down. We had these snowboard like things that we had to "ski" down the volcano. It was so fun!

My boys:

Last but not least! I have spent some great weekends in some wonderful weather with my favorite boys. Chris recently got a promotion and is no XO of his company (kinda like being Vice Prez). He went from leading 30ish men to over 100. And as with any good promotion, he got a bigger office! woo hoo! haha! He has really stepped up to the plate and is doing so well. I am a proud wife for sure! The pooch is growing so big!!!!!! He really isn't even a puppy anymore. He spent 3 weeks in doggie boot camp learning to behave properly! He is WAY better than he was before he was trained, but he is still very stubborn. We love the lil guy so much!