The Quick and Dirty

Once again I am back! Crawling out of my hole and re-entering the blog world! It has been far to long and it would take hours to adequately update everyone on the Petrancosta's life. So let's hit the highlights shall we??

• I'm living in Richmond practicing Internal Medicine until December
• I AM FREE FROM SCHOOL FOR LIFE AS OF DECEMBER 18TH
• Chris is still in North Carolina but we get to see each other every weekend
• I am currently job hunting...cross your fingers for a good one!!!!!
• We are in the process of painting EVERY room in our house....quite the project....hire someone please!
• We are headed to St. Louis in November for a wedding
• Chris is running 2 half marathons this fall!!
• I am planning a summer vacation with my best girls in the world.....MUCH NEEDED!
• My cousin Catherine started a blog about her adventures in South Africa check it out
• Lindsay and Ryan have an 80's cocktail engagement party on New Years eve! Can't wait!

So I think that's it! Boring post..no pictures. They will get better! I promise.

I'm So Excited!!!! And I just can't hide it!

Ok..if you didn't just sing the title of this blog and think of Saved by the Bell and Jessie Spano...you are worthless!!!!!! Anyway, I am leaving to go home on Friday morning and I can't freakin' wait!!! Chris and Trek drove down from NC today and are already hanging out with our family..so jealous. I have to work all day tomorrow BOO! Let me just say that my bags have been packed for a week now and are currently in the trunk of my car. ha! Excited? Maybe a little! It's going to be a huge weekend and so fun! Chris's mom turns 50, his grandmother turns 90, and The Outten women are going to find a wedding dress for Linds! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I ADORE my family and Arkansas and quite frankly I just live too dang far away. So the fact that in merely 1 day I will be home with all the things I love the most in one place makes me wanna jump up and down and scream! Can you tell I'm smiling?? Oh home!

Quick life update! I am now living/working in Maryland. I actually kind of enjoy what I am doing here. I am working in the National Naval Medical Center so I deal with soldiers coming home of Iraq and Afghanistan and their family members. I am learning a lot and to be honest some days are harder than others. The stories I hear and the things I see on a daily basis aren't always pretty, but they are real and it is the world I live in and work in temporarily. I am so thankful and proud of those people that dedicate their lives to service and am honored to treat their runny nose, broken arm, concussion or whatever.
Chris is still in NC. He has submitted a packet to be a member of a Ranger Regiment (Army lingo for more highly trained and specialized group). If he gets accepted we will be packing up our stuff and heading to Savannah, Georgia somewhere around the first of the year! I'm pretty excited for him. Not many guys get that opportunity and Savannah isn't a bad place for this Southern Belle...watch out Paula Dean!
I'm sure I'll have tons of pics from my glorious weekend to come! YAY!!!!!!

Beaches and Bachelorettes

I adore the beach. Let me just say that. I grew up near the beach in NC and got way too spoiled spending weekends at the beach all summer. Now that my sweet hubs has so kindly brought me back to my roots we get to go to the beach on weekends again! A couple weeks ago Chris and I went to Carolina Beach with a few friends and our sweet pooch Trek. Carolina Beach has a great section where you can just drive on the sand and back the truck up. We had a super stellar tailgate party beach side! Trek was obsessed with the water. He kept going out so deep..I was getting a bit nervous. He played so hard and was knocked out the whole way home. As usual, I didn't get a tan...I'm really over it people. My husband is basically black year round so no amount of tan on my white self makes a bit of difference...so I quit. No more cancer....bring on the SPF 50!!

Trek insisted on digging the biggest holes I have ever seen. He dug so deep so fast. The pictures hardly do them justice. We were impressed.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of celebrating my besties bachelorette PAR-TAY!!!! I went to Richmond and got to meet all of her VA Tech friends!!! It was too much fun! Lets just say we burned a WIDE streak through Richmond and my feet STILL hurt! We had a whole weekend that was full of girly fun all in Laura's wedding colors! I think Laura Leigh thoroughly enjoyed herself which is all we could ask for! Her wedding is in September and I can't wait to see all the girls again!! Here are some pics from the weekend:

I have tons more life updates plus so super great "patient of the week" stories. I'll get to it tomorrow because tonight I must study! boo!

Off to the Races

I have some great friends here in Virginia. All my girls and their men planned a great pre-birthday weekend for me. About 30 miles away in West Virginia is a horse racing track a lot like Oaklawn at home. They do night races for some reason so it was a little different. We had so much fun....didn't make a lot of money, but we still had fun. I got lots of birthday wishes and spent an awesome weekend with my precious man-cakes! Now back to work on my actual birthday....BOO!!!!

I must do better!

I tell ya what...I really suck at this blog thing. Once a month just really defeats the purpose of keeping friends and family updated on your life. As usual, life is insane and far from normal for the Petrancostas, but we are loving it! Just a quick recap: Since we got married in December I have lived in: Washington DC, Winchester VA, Richmond VA, Spruce Pine NC, Fayetteville AR, and Fayetteville NC. 6 cities in 6 months people!!!..can you say ridiculous?? It has been a challenging first 6 months of marriage, but it has been so fun too. Chris and I are getting to explore a whole new part of the country together. We hiked through the Blue Ridge Mountains and part of the Appalachian Trail a few weekends ago. The trail ended at a waterfall. We had a little picnic lunch and let Trek swim around. I just love our family!!!

I also got to spend a whole month at home in Arkansas. I missed my family and friends SOOOOO much and it felt amazing to be at home. I got to relive my 4 years in college for a few weeks which was much needed. While I was home I got to share in a HUGE moment!!!!! My sister and Ryan FINALLY got engaged! Yes people.....pigs can fly...hell has frozen over!!!!! This has been a long long LONG time coming and I am so thankful that I got to share in the special moment with them! They have set the date for July 10, 2010! I can't wait and neither can Linds.

All in all, life is wonderful these days. Chris and I try to see each other every weekend. For anyone who knew us before we got married you know that every weekend is pretty amazing! We can wait to get settled and really be married. Only a few more months of this moving around business. For now Chris is here in the US. He is part of a global response force so they could yank him up at anytime with just 48 hours notice. We pray that won't happen, but we are prepared if it does!

Ok this is a super long post, but I am going to start a new thing. Some of my friends like to mention a "friend of the week" or "cooking tips"...well folks I am introducing "PATIENT OF THE WEEK" I am finding that my patient's tell me WAY more than they should about their lives..and some of it is pretty freakin' funny. So I will share them with you.

Patient of the Week: 17 year old acne patient

This patient comes in for evaluation of her acne. She has tried just about everything and is ready to start accutane. For those of you not familiar with accutane, it can cause birth defects if you are pregnant and you take the pill so the government requires monthly pregnancy tests as well as birth control for girls using accutane. So 17 year old chic goes to pee on the stick and take the prego test. We ask her before if she is sexual active and she says no...great! Moments later the nurse catches me in the hallway with BIG eyes only to tell me that 17 year old acne chic HAS A POSITIVE PREGO TEST! UH OH! So we have to tell her....when I go in to talk to her I again ask if she is sexual active. "no" she says...well darlin' it's time to shoot straight cause your prego test is positive.YIKES! She freaks out...as expected. Then she proceeds to tell me quite possibly the funniest/ saddest thing I have ever heard. "No, No...you don't understand I am NOT sexual active. My boyfriend is..........I just lay there" I kid you not people...this actually happened!!!! My jaw dropped..I bit my cheeks SOOOOO hard so I wouldn't just burst out laughing. The nurse had to leave the room because she couldn't hold it in. I love my job!

Homeward Bound

The day has finally come!!!!!! I am so excited to be moving back to Arkansas..if only for a little while. I get to spend the next 3 weeks living and working in NWA. I haven't been back to Fayetteville for any substantial amount of time since I graduated two years ago. I can't even explain how much I miss that town and all my friends that live there. The trip is going to fly by and I am going to miss Chris and Trek so much, but I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I will be working with Ozark Dermatology Group learning tons about the skin. That probably sounds terribly boring to the average person, but I absolutely love dermatology and hope to make it my career.

Just a quick update of the past couple weeks.

I delivered 6 babies! CRAZY!!!! I have always heard that birth is a miracle, but let me just tell you..I love my Moma! Holy Crap people.......AMAZING. I learned so much and most likely had my mouth wide open in amazement for two straight weeks! haha! It was great.

Chris and I got all dressed up for his Brigade Ball a few weeks ago. Apparently it is a yearly thing, but it is the first one I have been to. It was really fun and I got to meet lots of other Army wives. Chris wore his dress blues for the first time since the wedding....as he was getting dressed he said "putting these things on again automatically makes me feel nervous!" hahah! GREAT honey just GREAT!

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!