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!

Friends

So, for some reason in the past two days I have become really friend sick. Yup..I just made that up, but "friend sick" is similar to home sick except I miss my friends. I have great friends that have been through so much with me and quite frankly I just don't see them enough. For 4 years I saw them everyday..multiple times a day. Now, Im lucky if I talk to them on the phone every few weeks. Life gets busy for all of us and there is no such thing as a "quick" phone call between any of us. I miss these girls to death:

Hopefully once I get done with school and settled in one place I'll be more available to talk and travel. I am still voting that we all plan a yearly vacation somewhere with just the girls. It is definitely needed!!

He's Alive!!!

I heard from the hubby tonight! Woo hoo!! He has been out in the field training since Wednesday. He got a quick minute to call me tonight and let me know he was okay! I was so excited to hear his voice. I just miss him TONS when I don't get to see or talk to him daily. He successfully landed his jump....not exactly the softest of landings according to him, but hey no broken bones. I cannot imagine jumping out of an airplane...I mean seriously there must be a better way! He will be home Saturday thankfully.

I had a bit of a rough day in the ED today. Let's just say it was poop day. Yup ladies and gentleman poo was coming from everyone. I had an elderly man who literally passed out while trying to push out a big one. Then the next guy couldn't poo at all...so much so that yours truely had to DIG it out. I'm serious. Then we had a couple little kids that just couldn't stop poopin'. Oh shit..literally. I was so excited to come home and shower today!

Sick World

I am completely exhausted!!! I have recently seen the other side of my job. I am used to being the provider, the one with the answers and the drugs. Well, unfortunately yesterday I was the sicky with two IVs in my arm stuck in a hospital bed. I prefer the other side of this agreement thank you! For the past 7 days, I have been stuck in the bathroom with some kind of stomach "bug" It went on long enough that by yesterday morning I was passing out from dehydration. No bueno my friends. It was not a pleasant time at all. My sweet hubby rushed home from work in his cute lil uniform (I just love him all dressed up in his work gear...but that's a whole other blog). He threw me in the car and off we went. 7.5 hours later we were home with drugs in hand!

Today I am a new woman. I am still in NC because I just didn't feel like I could be in a car for 6 hours today. I'll head back to VA tomorrow morning with Trek. I get to keep the pooch for the next few weeks because Chris is gone for the next 2 weeks doing training. I watched him pack up all his gear last night. UNBELIEVABLE. They carry so much stuff in a backpack the size of my largest rolling suitcase. It was packed FULL and he has to carry that thing on his back as he jumps out of an airplane. Talk about landing like a ton of bricks. My poor sweetie. I will let everyone know how the landing went when I talk to him. It will probably be several days before he is able to call. Until then, I will be thankful for not being in the bathroom 24/7!!

Here Comes the Bride!!

NEWS ALERT: My friend Laura Leigh Tappan...otherwise known as my heart and soul is going to be bride!!!!!!! Meet Laura:

Basically, Laura has loved me and been my friend ever since I was ugly with braces and REALLY bad clothes. We collected beanie babies together and prank called boys a lot. At 23, we still play dress up together!!! haha! She is amazing and has been the BEST friend ever for many many years. For this reason, I have no doubt that she will make a perfect wife! I am so excited for her (lets just say this has been a long time coming people!!) Yay Laura and Andrew!!! I can't wait for the big day!! Laura: I saved the lovely 80's wedding dress JUST FOR YOU!!!

Great Weekend

I must say this weekend was fabulous. Weather in NC was GORGEOUS!..so sunny and not too cold. Because of my ER schedule I got 6 days off this week and I spent them all with my boys. Meet my boys:

They are pretty freakin' cute if you ask me. One has a bit of a poopie problem and the other one takes up too much space in the bed. I'll let you decide which one is which! I spent a lot of time doing domestic duties this weekend. Oddly enough, I enjoyed it! I'm sure my mom probably wants to die hearing me say that since she knows after 28 years of cleaning and cooking it's not so fantastic. But seriously, for the girl who NEVER gets to play house and feel like a wife this weekend really made me feel wifely!



Thursday I drove down from VA after a fun filled night in the ER stapling heads and sewing up hands! Good times. I got home before Chris, so I got to greet him when he came home from work...a first!

Friday, Chris worked and I did house work and cleaned poop from our potty training puppy! Needless to say after about 4 messes on the carpet I was ready for Chris to come home and help!!

Saturday we took Trek for a hike. He LOVED it! He thinks he is bigger than he actually is. We met 2 great danes that looked very similar to horses. He played right beside them and never got scared. We were proud parents. Saturday night we spent some time in Raleigh with friends and family. Lots of fun!

Yesterday was really low key..and much needed. We bought a shampooer...again MUCH needed!! That lil gadget does just the trick for our poopy carpet! Chris and a friend went skeet shooting so we took Trek along. Not the best plan. We'll just say he is definitely not going to be a hunting dog. The gun shots scared him to death and he wouldn't get out of my lap inside the truck the entire time! Poor baby. And yes friends, I have been known to shoot a few flying objects myself!

Crazy New Schedule

I worked my first night shift in the ER last night. Let me just tell ya... my body doesn't know what's going on right now. I got home at 7am and went to bed and just woke up at 2pm for the first time. I feel completely unproductive. It was an interesting evening though. One of my patient's was actually from AR oddly enough. She was a truck driver that got was walking around the truck stop here in VA and got hit by another 18-wheeler. 1-2-3....OUCH! Lucky for her she only broke one rib. I had a crazy drunk lady come in too...she had no clue what was going on. She told us her "step husband" brought her...you figure that one out!

Chris called yesterday to update me on our lil boy! I feel like such a parent. haha! We get so excited when he does something new. He pottied outside 4 times yesterday! WOO HOO! It's a big deal. He also walked up the front steps..another big deal considering he is super scared of stairs for some reason. I can't wait to see both my the men in my life tomorrow!

I work again tonight...should be interesting! Hopefully I'll get some sleep in the on-call room so I can get up and drive to NC in the morning. We'll see how many crazys come in and wreck my plan!