Camera found AND computer fixed!

Well, I should be getting some SERIOUS homework done, I'm giving a presentation Weds and I have, um, the title slide finished...but, earlier a lil bird told me about this AWESOME blog hop idea, and I was like, Oh, blog! It's been a while! So, in a nutshell, the last few weeks...camera found, then computer crashed, best friend had baby FAR away, a couple presentations, a few exams, more teeth for the babe, volunteer work, work work, and plotting a secret (from the kiddo) road trip!

Phew. Well, working on the getting pictures up annnnd maybe thinking of joining the latest hop by Megandvd@BeautyintheAttempt :)

Adios Appendix!

Well, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks around here, to say the least...I survived round two of exams and presentation nonsense...well, almost...Let's start with Valentines day. Have I mentioned how much I hate Valentines day? It wasn't bad tho. Husby suggested takeout BBQ dinner at home via candelight (with the Munchkins too, of course) which was probably the best idea yet. Since I have school by our fave BBQ joint I offered to grab it on the way home. Yum! He had his usual pile of ribs, and I tried something new, these crab cakes coated in pulled pork...Seriously. I kid you not. Now, I have been phasing meat and meat products out of my diet gradually, so I expected the tummy ache that ensued Monday evening. And I kind of expected it to linger into Tuesday, I mean, deep friend and pulled pork, I earned it. But come Wednesday it was like I was being stabbed in the gut over and over again, and I only made it 2 hours into my 11 hour day at work when the boss started calling the local urgent care offices to see who had what imaging equipment to figure out what meanness was attacking my insides.
Using Colleen and Lisa's differential diagnosis, we narrowed my RLQ pain down to ovarian cysts, appendicitis, or diverticulitis, I just needed someone to take pictures of my guts and tell me which one it was. No luck finding Urgent care though, so I had to suck up the copay and visit the local ER.
It was interesting. I sat there for a few hours being poked and prodded (OW) and then drank some contrast dye mixed with crystal lite that I was told would give me diarrhea. Yay. CT scan was inconclusive (and boy is that gonna cost me) and by the time the surgeon got there Jon had arrived. We opted to take the diagnosis of possible cysts since my WBC wasn't elevated and although I had about no appetite I wasn't nauseas or vomiting. They offered to keep me for observation, or take out the lil guy for kicks, but I had a big test on Thursday (covering intraabdominal infections, mind you, Irony!) and a presentation to give on Friday that I hadn't quite finished yet. My super nice awesome nurse was busy when it was time for me to go, so this other nurse tossed a bunch of papers at me including a prescription for half the NSAIDs I currently take, confused the hell out of me, and lead me to tears of frustration. Supernicenurse came back and apoligized, and I just hoped that I would never have to see any of them again.
Well, I was up a couple times during the night with the stabbing pain, which was worse despite my pile-o-pain pills (not the 400mg Ibu the ER doc offered me though, something about duplicate therapy he didn't seem to understand...)and driving to school Thursday AM was not a pleasant time. Not to mention the after effects of all that crap they made me drink for the imaging, I was a peach, for sure. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone trying to get a hold of my PCP at the VA to get in for an ultrasound to confirm the cyst hypothesis, or obtain some sort of referral to not have to pay thousands if I had to go back to the ER....To find out my PCP was leaving the clinic and they could get me in in MAY. MAY. MAY! I requested to leave a message for a nurse or ANYONE but since they didn't have me reassigned they didn't have anyone to direct my message to. Lovely. They ended up finding a cancellation in someone's day for next Wednesday, so I took that for the time being, and hoped the pain would go away.
I made it through my test. Not excited to see the grades on that one, a two hour exam and I left in about 40 minutes because I was pretty sure my guts were going to grace the classroom walls one way or another. Texted husby to meet me at home and take me back to the hospital. Once I was back in the ER with not-so-nice nurse taking care of me (luckily I felt to crappy to care) they did bloodwork and my WBC was elevated. They opted to inspect my appendix situation laproscopically, and told me they'd take it out either way, and got me ready for surgery.
So here it is, Saturday night, and I'm working on this recovery nonsense. It went really well, and although I'm super sore I no longer have this stabbing pain in my RLQ.
I just caught up on emailing all my professors to make up my work from Friday and for Monday and Tuesday, so that I could take it easy a couple days. Since my back is already in bad shape, this whole having my stomach muscles cut into thing isn't the best ever. I'll tell you what is the best ever though, my husby for attempting to take care of me, my folks for bringing me flowers, my friends for entertaining me and making us all dinner, and all the people sending warm get better fuzzies my way. Who knows, maybe I can get some lazy projects done the next couple days? Maybe?
:)

Since I'm changing it up anyways...Why not get some feedback?

First. Ever. Blog hop! Pending I can at least figure out how to connect after writing my "blurb"! I guess there's no time like the present to open up for feedback. The problem is, I don't know how to do a lot of the stuff, like add new pages, and pictures, and fancies yet! But, It'd be nice to get some direction for when I have the skills and the time...gentle direction, that is :)

I am so excited to be part of a very unique blog hop. Gail @My Repurposed Life and MeganDVD @ Beauty in the Attempt are hosting “The Bold and the Beautiful-your blog reviewed”.

Please take a look around my blog, check out the layout, pages, buttons, sidebar and gadgets. I would love for you to gently critique my blog. I’m hoping you will leave me some positive feedback about my blog. It would be great if you could give me constructive criticism but be sure to tell me what you like about my blog too! Do you like my pictures? Does my blog load quickly for you? How about the font? All tips and tidbits welcome!

Blogging thru my quarter life crisis...

So, I decided on my way home today that I am, actually, having my quarter life crisis. That's right, I plan to live to 108. Or I'm a late bloomer. Or both. :) I thought I bypassed it, we did so much so early, the marriage, the kids, the house, the school choices...But after going back to school last week and really having the hardest time EVER with it, I've decided that must be it. It's not just school, it's a lot of things, adding up.

It's not that I am having regrets, or feel like my life is not going as planned. I'm not unhappy or unsatisfied. Maybe I am just incredibly bored with the day to day of getting up and going to school. This is my 5th year, in a row, of being back in school; Aside from maintaining relationships I do very little for 5 consecutive years. I am bored out of my mind. Routine is just not really my thing, I guess.

I blogged a bit, over the summer. I committed myself to blogging more often, and I did, I just didn't post them all on here. When I went back to do upload them, they were lame or out of date or both.

I still want to be a pharmacist, I just have lost all momentum and desire to go to school. Jon suggested senior-itis, maybe that's it. It is my last year in classes. It's not too challenging academically.

I'm really struggling with how I will practice pharmacy in the long run. I love my job, but I think it's largely because I love where I work, I like being in the community, I like the flexibility, I like working long days and less of them. I don't know if I'd be as satisfied working somewhere else. It's hard to say.

I still love my house, I have about 2 billion things I want to do here. I also want a tiny house, I want to travel.

I think part of it is I'm overdue to leave the states for a bit. My passport expired, and I'm trying to make that make me travel in country more. Thinking of CA in December, for the ASHP conference. Which brings me to residency choices, and limits our family vacation options. Pfff. Maybe it's fitting that I feel I'm having a bit of a crisis. I might as well accept it and try to do something with it, right?

So...I guess that's where I am...

I just got a great idea!

So Jon's folks have one of those old beat up pop up campers that's been closed for a decade....Tiny house? I think so-oooo.

Seriously, I am obsessed. I can't even count the number of times I've picked up magazines or read articles on these small homes. I'm obsessed with storage. Not very good at it, I must admit. But my house is also gigantic. I really am considering applying this tiny house theory to my gigantic house. I mean it's not really that bad when you consider 3 families live here. It's not wasted space. Once I can get the funds together to make the improvements to make it efficient it will make more sense.

I sent Jon a text to ask if we could make a tiny house out of the camper. He didn't respond, yet. Either way it's something fun for me to think about :)

Summmmmmer

Finally, summer.

Rotation went well, the hospital was a little on the quiet side, but a good place for me to get my feet wet. I could use some more experience with sterile compounding before the boards, for sure. The drive was lovely, really, so much better than the highway. And, I got to do my presentation on treating rattlesnake bites. Not many practice settings around here would that actually be applicable...

The last week of the rotation was a bit rough, scrambling to get my assignments done, combined with Jon's grandpas passing, Mabel's birthday festivities, and visiting with out of towners. This of course would have been a lot easier to manage if the school was willing to accommodate life, as it happens, outside of school. I think I've ranted about that enough. The lack of flexibility in this program doesn't help to prepare us for the real world, but just limit us in the present. Bah.

My boss <3 was kind enough to give me Monday and Tuesday off to reattach my head before working 11 hour days the rest of the week. Getting some of that stuff done around the house, finishing up my defensive driving course online (Thank you Mr. Trooper, UGH) and resting up. Walks, leisure reading, lots of music. Breakfast with the kiddos, evening strolls with Tina. I hope that I can work out a 3 long day schedule for the rest of summer, I might be able to get a thing or two done. The gardens could use some help. Thinking about the crazy things I have put myself up to the rest of this summer, wondering which ones will pan out (can't post it online till all is said and done, ugh)....

Just got on blogger to check the CSA's blog, to see when the 2010 season starts (soon! so excited) On my summer lettuce kick, and this junk from wegmans is a good effort, but not quite summer tasty.

In other news, in addition to all the possible projects around the house, I'm considering vegetarianism again...Over the last month I imposed a no meat I have to pick off bones rule, and the more I think of it the more I'm not interested in eating cute things. Lisa (Check out her blog WaitingLisa) has inspired me with her meatless monday posts, and another friend just posted yesterday that she's going vegan. With farm season starting, it's a good time to change. Plus, it'll get me cooking more, which feels good right about now (although I'm not the best, my veggie dishes are always better than my attempts at meat!).

And, my little brother and my bestey are going to be in town over the summer!

And, Jordan at Greg'ry's hooked me up with some more brownie crust today! Reminder as to why I love the small town life.



Anyways, as usual, it's a lot of strange stuff for one post. But that's pretty much how it is around here. Off to retrieve Mabel from the tupperware mound, and get some more laundry going.

Hugs!

I like do nothing days

Next Monday, I start my IPPE2 Rotation at a relatively rural hospital pharmacy. I'm half excited, half just wanting to keep on chillin at home. Don't get me wrong, I've done a lot this week. And it's not that I don't want to learn about hospital pharmacy, it's interesting. It's just the commitment of having to do something, I think, that I don't like. This semester was ROUGH. It was enough just to get through it all, academically, and with all the changes at home and such.
New tenants, new job for Jon, new childcare arrangements, it all just makes my head spin again. I guess maybe I needed more than a week to recover?

Had a diner breakfast date today with the a Mabester and my friend Emily, it was nice. Came home, tidy-ed a bit. Tried to catch up on some emails (gosh I have such a short attention span for cleaning my in-box...) locate some of the paperwork I need for the hospital...Plotting a post dishes-nap bike ride for this afternoon, or whenever the sky looks convincing. It's just nice. Is this what being independently wealthy is like? Shoot, I'll take independently poor and embrace my free time! Pesky bills and such.

Found out this week that the hours for my summer intern program changed, not sure if I'll be able to get as many as I initially planned. So in addition to getting paid drastically less than the other interns at my company, my hours seem a bit in question. On one hand, it would have been nice to know so I could have planned a little differently. On the other hand, I don't think it changes much. Luckily I love my job and the people I work with, and the community I work in. It's disappointing, but the outcome is the same.

I find that times like this have me considering all the what ifs, if I had gone a different direction when I decided to go back to school. Thailand has come up a lot. So have other, more random things, like being a florist, or ethnomusicologist. Or just a homebody. I've been listening to a lot more music. Picking out random people to follow on twitter, or blogs, some pharmacy people, some people doing other things I have considered, that I have come across randomly over the years. I'm still happy with my experiences, sure, it's just interesting to consider. :)

Dusting off the blog...

I suppose it's about time for me to think about blogging actively again...Not today, but soon.
It's been a crazy few months, but there is some significant drama that I could use to vent about, and well I've really taken on a ton so far this semester, which might be of interest to some of the pharmacy kids out there.

Found out this fall that one of the P1s at school is pulling a Colleen and having a baby this summer! Best of luck to her. But really, if I can do it, anyone can :)

So basically, in the past couple of months, I've been in school, working, remodeled another apartment, gone through a couple of dining room paint colors....I joined the professional fraternity on campus, entered a boot camp weight loss competition, and managed to make my in laws so mad at us that it's been a silent few months!

And really, I think that's probably not the half of it.

So I guess I'll start filling in the details soon. I'm setting a blog once a week goal for the rest of the semester. We will see what happens I suppose!

But for now, diner breakfast is calling my name.