59 Days!

Shooo... It's been quite a while. Things are changing quickly which is a good thing. Also a scary thing because there are many, many loose ends, but it'll all come together.

Basically to catch everyone up on our lives lately, we're both trying to get jobs and we're looking for places to live. We're moving back home to Georgia. We thought about it, prayed about it, cried about it, and decided that as much as we love the idea of Charleston, it's just not where our families are and as it turns out, that's a deal breaker for us. It makes us both sad. Charleston was a dream for us for so long. I guess it's what kept us going during the hard times in school. We would day dream about our future there on the ocean and we'd feel better, even if just a little bit. But that's that. We're coming home. So anyway, we've I've been back and forth to and from home about a gazillion times trying to prepare for our future in Georgia, but we still haven't smoothed out all the wrinkles so that's all I'm going to say about it. I'll update more once we've got more definitive plans.

One of the more fun and specific reasons for going back home has included going to one of Lindsay's bridal showers! It was beautiful, and I was so excited to give her something that was kinda special and something we both loved! Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the shower. That's Lindsay's fault. :)

Not related to a visit back home, but just something fun, last Thursday Adam and I got out of the house to go see a Trombone Shorty concert! It was amazing!! We were both so glad to be able to go thanks to my amazing preceptor on my trauma and burns rotation!

He was very talented with the trombone and trumpet! I'm pretty sure this is a shot of him circle breathing. He literally played one note for like 3 minutes with circle breathing! It was seriously amazing and outrageous.

This is us after the concert. We decided to go to Walmart to pick up some pizza. Adam hates Walmart. Hence, his face.

On Sunday of this week we went to the Oak Mountain Fall Festival, but it turned out to be kind of a dud. :/ Oh well. I did, however, get a foot long corn-dog AND a fried snickers out of it! That was fun. :)

I guess that's about it for now. I'm getting worse and worse about blogging these days but I've got a lot going on at school and at home. I'm also trying to ween off my readers (all 20 of you) because I'm fairly certain after PA school, I'm going to retire Heads and Tales.

Anyway, happy fall, y'all.

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Georgia, Georgia, Christmas, ...Georgia, and Clinicals!

Oh my goodness, it's been quite a long time. So much has happened since then, so here's a very quick recap:

After Adam's actual birthday, we drove home for a surprise 30th birthday party for him that Tammy and I had planned. Although I don't think he was 100% surprised, I know he thoroughly enjoyed seeing and visiting with everyone.

This is the only decent photo that I got. :(

After Adam's birthday, we came back to Birmingham for another two weeks before we trekked back to Georgia for Christmas. During this time I finished the didactic phase of PA school. Holy mother, there is no better feeling. I really think this deserves it's own line, so I'll say it again.

I finished the didactic phase of PA school.

 For a while it didn't even seem real. Like it hadn't clicked yet or something. I was excited ... kinda, but I guess I was also distracted by Christmas crafting and things of the such. But after the new year, it really started settling in. And it feels real, real good. I'm pretty sure I've said that PA school for me feels analogous to climbing a mountain. Well, I really think I've made it to the top. I know that most may see graduation as reaching the top, but in my opinion, coming back down is half the battle. Clinicals = traveling down the mountain. Real life will continue once I've accomplished and attained this monumental mountain known as PA school. Real life starts on the other side. Adam and I are so ready for it! Less than a year!!

 (This is our "holy $&!%, we're about to treat real life patients??" face.)

So after school let out, I had LOTS of crafting to get done. What better way than to do it with friends?? So I had Katie and Casey over. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Casey, but she helped me with my wreaths again. I was pretty happy with how they (and everything else) turned out!

These are Katie's craft projects. I think they turned out great!

I made these a few days after our crafting party:

I guess it's hard to tell what's going on with the wine bottles. I sprayed them with adhesive and put Epsom salt on them to give them a snowy effect. 

So I was pretty busy during my break before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we made our way to Georgia for what felt like the billionth weekend in a row. Christmas morning we started at my parents' house and then went over to Adam's parents'. Adam sent me on a super cute, super fun, and super creative treasure hunt for my Christmas present from him. I loved reading his little rhythms and solving the puzzles which ultimately lead to my new pearl stud earrings! I love them. :) He's been watching a lot of White Collar, the TV show, lately so he might have been prompted to do this because of that show. Either way, I loved it!

We came back to Alabama the weekend after Christmas, and then (surprise, surprise) drove back to Georgia the next weekend. We had not one, not two, but three parties to attend. We made it to all of them! And we had a great time. We drove straight to Bryan and Whitney's Friday night for Bryan's 30th birthday party and spent the night. Then on Saturday we drove home to my parents' and that evening we went to a wedding reception and ended the night at Lindsay and Jon's engagement party. We had a great time at both events!

On Sunday we came back to Birmingham and that next day, I started my clinicals! I'm already a week in! It's been terrifying, exhausting, empowering, amazing, exciting ... tons of emotions. This next year is going to be so different than what my classmates and I are used to, and we're all looking forward to that. Can't wait to continue and try out all the different specialties. It'll be a new job every five weeks! Very exciting. 

One of the gifts my mom gave me for Christmas is a daily devotional book called Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I'm only on day 12 (because it's only Jan. 12th...) but I'm absolutely loving it so far. Every day I find that it definitely applies to me, and I'm excited to see how it continues to line up with my life right now and in the future over this next year. I know it'll make clinical year even easier and more enjoyable. Less than a year left! It's exciting to think "this time next year..." because this time next year I'll be finished with school and will either already be in, or will be shortly moving to Charleston. Woo!! Exciting things to come!

I'll leave you all with this photo of my sweet niece, Emma-Grace. She had a wilms tumor, but has been cancer free for two years! :)

Have a good evening, friends.

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Thanksgiving and Adam's Birthday

I know, I know. I didn't finish my 30 day countdown. But I have a valid excuse. I was with family that I don't get to see everyday and, therefore, didn't open my computer much to blog. My apologies. But to sum up those last three days, I am very thankful to have spent an entire week back in Georgia at home with my family, visiting with friends, and helping both mine and Adam's parents put up their trees. Marley and Lucy loved it, too.

Blurry, but Lucy is a little dancing dog.

So let's see. As I mentioned in my 30 days of thanks, my parents came to our apartment the weekend before Thanksgiving. Their visit had two purposes. 1) to help me decorate our little apartment for Christmas and 2) to take me back home to Georgia with them. I'm so glad my mom was here to help decorate because everything looks SO MUCH cuter than it did last year. I need an experienced veteran's eye for this sort of thing apparently.

Anyway, over Thanksgiving break I studied and did a lot of crafting for a couple of different things. My nieces and oldest nephew and I made glitter Christmas ornaments. I made one for myself and one for my sweet friend Katie. My PA school girlfriends and I did a secret santa gift exchange (don't worry, we've already exchanged. No secrets being prematurely revealed here) and that was one of the gifts I gave her.
Can you guess which one is mine?

Yep, Katie's a Clemson girl.

Lindsay had my name and she gave me these two things:

I think these both sum our friendship up perfectly. We both LOVE Christmas, and we both love drinking wine together. :) I had been on the lookout for a new special wine glass, so she got me one! Love it. 

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving break. The other craft I was working on was a ten day countdown for Adam's 30th birthday, which was yesterday!

Before and after they were sealed. He got a clue each morning as to what he would get for that day. 

So yesterday he came home for lunch and I gave him his real birthday present. After that, things started getting much more exciting. His mom ordered a bouquet of balloons for him so I picked them up and took them to Adam's work.

While I was there, I took the opportunity to decorate his truck. :)

Rickie had decided a few weeks ago that he really wanted to surprise Adam for his 30th, so after Adam came home from work, Rickie jumped out of the spare bedroom! They decided to head out together to pick up Chinese-to-go and then I got this picture in a text:

So we had Hooters for dinner. Oh, and we topped off the night by watching the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. I think Adam enjoyed his 30th birthday. :)

You know I can't write a post without at least mentioning school a couple of times. So we're FINALLY in finals week. I have two left, one tomorrow and one Friday. And then I'm finished with didactic forever. I cannot even believe it. Not even a little bit. I remember how I felt this time last year as I was finishing up my first semester of PA school. Being at this point seemed entirely too far away back then. Ugh, that makes me cringe. I count my blessings every night and am SO thankful that I'll never have to do that over again. Ever.

Two. More. Days. Oh, and only 368 days until graduation!

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And so it begins...

I very specifically remember the now third year PA students telling me that this semester wasn't supposed to be that bad.... Yeeeaaaahhh, I'm really not sure what they were talking about with it not being "that bad." But I suppose I've made it through three others so far, so what's one more, right?

Anyway, let's talk about my Labor Day weekend! I'll just fast forward through Saturday very quickly. We had a few friends come in from out of town, and we had a few other in-town friends come over to watch the UGA vs. Clemson game with us. Unfortunately we (UGA) lost, so we'll just continue on so as to not dwell in the sadness.
On Sunday, we rented a boat on a small lake south of Birmingham. Katie and Chris joined us after church. I'm gonna have to be honest, it was most definitely a P.O.S. boat ... but I LOVED it. The scenery was beautiful -- there was no development on the lake other than the property for the boat rentals. And there were very few other boats on the lake. Here are a few pics.

 Sooo, there was this rope swing. :) Poor Katie has a pretty awful past horror story about a rope swing. She at first decided she was gonna do this one, but I think after she got up there she started having flash backs and decided against it. After hearing her story, I would have too. Lucky for me, she didn't tell the story until after I had gone three times. :)

Chris and I were the only two to actually do it! And it was my first time ever! But I wouldn't do it without wearing some kind of water shoe, so I slipped on Bryan's way-too-big-for-me keens, tightened them as much as I could and then just went for it! This video was my third time doing it.

To answer Katie's question, yes, I hit bottom every time. That water wasn't very deep, maaaaybe 5' (and that's being generous), but it wasn't unsafe by any means. It was so fun!! I'm super glad I did it. It was the perfect cherry on top for our boat ride around the lake. 

As country-bumpkin as the boat was, it was most definitely my favorite part of the weekend. I will absolutely be going back to that lake again!

On Monday, Adam and I spent the day recovering/cleaning/relaxing and studying. It wasn't very exciting, but it was just what we needed. 

And then Tuesday was my birthday!! Happy birthday to me! :) I had over a hundred texts, private messages, wall posts and phone calls! You people must really love me. :) :) It's funny how being in PA school changes birthday celebrations. PA school was mean to me on my birthday. See, we have simulation lab on Tuesdays, and I was selected (not even because it's my birthday ... it must have been because I'm just lucky) to be in a group of four students to treat a fake robot patient who presented to the ER with right sided paralysis. My group and I thought we did well until we found out that apparently we took too long to order a CT. Ugh. But that's how it is for everyone. You get into this room knowing you're on camera and all of your classmates and professors are watching you, and you do your best not to freeze!

But anyway, my sweet PA school friends baked me a cake, which definitely made my day better. :) 

That of course brings me up to now! We actually finished up a class today and have a final for it a week from tomorrow. I kinda love knocking stuff out within the first three weeks of the semester. Feels good checking things off my to-do list. Anyway, we start writing our thesis this semester, and the tests start pretty heavy next week so without further ado, I'm gonna go study!

G'nite!

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He is risen!

Jesus is risen and alive!

For reasons that I'll explain in just a moment, Easter this year is more significant for me than ever before. Last year is definitely a very close second, but this year takes the blue ribbon. Where do I even start to share this journey? Well ... I guess somewhere close to the beginning.

All my life I've been taught to treat others as you wish to be treated, to be kind and honest, sincere and giving. I've always had God in my life someway or another but I never attended church regularly growing up. I would go with my cousins to vacation bible school, and I'm pretty sure I said the "come live in my heart and save my soul" prayer at least 5 or 6 times. When I turned 15, I started attending a baptist church that some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins attended and it was here that I completed my first actual bible study. Shortly after, I asked my parents to start coming to church with me, but I knew if they were going to come they'd want to go to an episcopal church. We had visited one a few times over the years during my childhood, so that's where Mom, Dad, and I started attending regularly. Not too long after we started going, I decided to join the youth group and signed up to go on a service mission trip with them to Equador. Mom and I were baptisted in this church, which made us members, and I became an acolite for some of the services. Unfortunately, sometime after that, the minister left and weeks following, we all found that we didn't enjoy the services quite as much as we did before he left. We stopped going to church eventually.

There's a huge gap in my story here. I went to college and forgot about God, like many young people unfortunately do. I remember there was one period in time when I applied for a part time job as a medical assistant. I knew this would be the perfect job for me to gain experience for PA school and I needed a job for some extra money, so it was perfect! Well, I didn't get the job. I was so angry with God for letting this happen. He knew how badly I wanted and needed it and He still didn't give me to me (but reflecting back, why should He have given it to me? I hadn't made Him a priority in my life. Now I see that God had his perfect plan and perfect timing all laid out for me. I didn't need this job to get into PA school -- "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11). I stopped praying and I didn't care anymore. Maybe I was depressed, but I remember life sucked around this time. Adam and I started fighting more and things just fell apart. Finally, I decided to give in and apologize to God. I remember it had something to do with a friend's facebook "about me" section. She mentioned that she loved being so aware of God and all of His blessings and her prayer was to never lose sight of that awareness. It made me sad in my heart that I wasn't experiencing that, so my prayer at that time started out as me asking God to mold my heart and help me to want him in my life again. I honestly can't remember how long it took, but my heart did change. God was working in my life. He helped me find another part time job in college that I learned so much incredible information from. More life lessons that anything, but I'm so thankful for that time and that experience. 

After I graduated college, I was still praying, but I never opened my bible, only went to church on occasion (read: maybe twice a year?), and still didn't really have a strong relationship with God. I knew that it was growing, and I could recognize that it was stronger than it had ever been before, but it really just wasn't what it was supposed to be.  Cue Adam and I getting engaged. I had known for a long time that I really wanted Father Peter (the minister that my family loved from the episcopal church) to marry Adam and me so I emailed him and asked. He required pre-marital counseling but he agreed to performing the ceremony. I guess that's neither here nor there, but it's was still sentimental to me. :)

Anyway, two weeks before the wedding, I flew to Kentucky for a business training, and at the end of the week I went to visit a good friend and meet her husband and baby boy. Before I knew it, the three of us were having a pretty intense conversation about our testimonies and our relationships with God. That night was one of the most profound and shaping conversations I have ever had in this regard. I realized that night that although I had absolutely no doubt in my heart, mind, or soul that Jesus Christ was my personal savior and that I was going to heaven after death, my relationship was still at a level of infancy. I was not shining the light of our Father and showing the way for others. They both strongly recommended that Adam and I find and join a church. As some point in this conversation, my friend (Whitney) mentioned Athens Church (Whitney's brother was a student at UGA at that time, and he had mentioned this church to her). Meanwhile at work, I had been having some conversations about church with two of the girls I worked with and one of them was attending Athens Church. One of my parents' neighbors also went there, and they had suggested that I check it out as well. 

Fast forward a year. Adam and I are already married and have been for maybe 9 or 10 months. We still hadn't joined a church, but the conversation I had with my friend and her husband in Kentucky was still weighing heavily in my mind and my heart. I finally decided that Adam and I were going to visit Athens Church. Man oh man, we have not looked back since!! Although we don't still live in Athens, there is a church here in Birmingham that shares Andy Stanley's messages. It's called Redstone Church. But when we can't attend Redstone, we watch the messages online.

Andy Stanley with Northpoint Ministeries is SO incredibly gifted with public speaking, sharing God's word, helping people live meaningful lives, and being the salt and the light of the world. I realize that I don't have much experience with churches in my past, but hands down these messages are the best, most delightful, most spiritual, most meaningful messages I've EVER heard. Every single Sunday I learn so much about God and the bible from Andy. My prayers are more meaningful. I can feel that my heart is changing, not because I want it to, but because once again, God is shaping and molding me. I find myself thinking about his sermons throughout the week ... they don't leave my mind at 12pm on Sunday as soon as church is over. I know that I still have many struggles with things that I don't understand, and I still have much growing to do as a disciple and follower of Jesus, but I also know I'm on my way. God is always on time with his perfect plan. My story is still being written. 

(Back to the top) ... So yes, thanks to Andy Stanley and his teachings, Easter is more significant to me than ever before! As I was saying, I still have struggles understanding God's plan and His timing but this is really something I shouldn't question. He has never failed giving me everything I've ever wanted, but these things aren't always received on the timeline that I want, therefore, I have to practice patience during these opportunities. "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9. 

Adam and I both think that everyone should watch this particular series called "Christian." I can't even begin to explain it's meaning, but I strongly encourage you to at least go read the synopsis! Here's a link for you all. Click here and enjoy!

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#springbreak!

I'm most certainly not doing as good of a job this semester at updating my blog weekly like I did last semester ... it's for the best, though...

Anyway, let's see ... what's new? Well, I'm currently on Spring Break!! We've all made it this far and it's w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l. Oh my gosh I can't even tell you how relaxed I've been so far this week and this past weekend. It really is a great little break.

So this past weekend we went back home to spend some time with our families. That's basically exactly what we did, and it was really nice. I got to see all of my immediate family (with the exception for my brother, who's currently deployed), some of my extended family, and we also spent a lot of time with Adam's family as well. Adam, the pups, and I all got hair cuts which was nice, my Mom and I went shopping for scrubs ... all in all it was a great, relaxing weekend. It really made me miss Athens, which was the first time that had happened. I couldn't believe all the change that's going on. That place is REALLY growing. It's unbelievable. Meanwhile, Birmingham is bankrupt and of course very stagnant. Seeing how much Athens has changed hurt my heart a little. :/

Now Adam and I are back in Birmingham and I've been being extremely lazy ... catching up on TV shows and movies that I haven't seen yet, sleeping in really late (because I can!), and cleaning a little bit at a time, just so I can feel somewhat productive. I've studied a little too. I plan on picking up the pace on that a little later in the week ... after all, I do have two tests next week, but let's not talk about that.

Hmmm ... what else, what else? I have 7 weeks left in this semester, only 5.5 weeks of classes. It's absolutely flown by! Nothing like first semester, which literally dragged by. Ok so the weeks went by quickly, but being in the midsts of that first semester was just so painful! It was a giant miserable tornado of medical knowledge that kept slapping me in the face and beating me upside the head; there was so much to take in ... too much! It became difficult to see anything other than blackness. Soul sucking Dementors. Death. I didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel; I didn't think there was an end ... to anything. At all. It felt like I was in this eternal damnation. Wow, I think I was more depressed than I knew ...

But then came Christmas break, and I slowly began to realize that I DID survive the tornado. Over the next three weeks of break, my battle wounds slowly started healing and the dark cloud lifted. The birdies began to sing again, and then there were blue skies! The blue skies have thankfully stayed. This semester has been much, much better. I can see light at the end -- it's definitely faint, and far away, but I'll get there. Summer semester is going to be SO much fun, with rotations in the ER and OR ... and after that is fall semester. In the fall I'll be a second year PA student, and that'll be my final didactic semester before clinicals. And as scary as clinical rotations are going to be, they're also going to be SO MUCH FUN!

So ... here's to staying strong over the next 7 weeks. :)

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Christmas Break

Just like that, I find myself two days away from starting my second semester of PA school. I'm so ready to OWN this semester. Things are going to be very different. I won't be the little weak newbie that I was last time. Nope. I'm ready. Plenty have gone before me and survived, there will be more after me, the important thing to keep in mind is that I need to keep on going.

So, I have TONS of recapping to do so without further ado ...

The first week of break, I cleaned our apartment like a crazy person. I had seriously neglected our home during finals. I literally don't think there was a single exciting thing that I did. No wait! I did have lunch with Mallory and Grayson. :) It was fun hanging out with them before they took off for Christmas break.

When Friday finally got here, Adam and I packed up the dogs and drove to GA. It was so nice being home, but we were only there for a quick second. Saturday morning we went to Columbia, SC for Chris and Katie's wedding. It was so much fun! Here's a picture of Casey, Katie and me in our signature pose. :)

After we left the wedding, Adam and I drove to Charleston for a few nights. Thankfully, some of Katie's amazing friends let us stay in their house in Charleston while they went home for Christmas. More on that in a minute. So, Adam and I have tossed around the idea of moving there after I graduate, but neither of us have ever been so we wanted to go exploring. After having been, it's safe to say we LOVED it. It wasn't really what I was expecting. I thought Charleston would be more like Savannah, GA ... after all they are sister cities. But in my opinion Savannah is more sophisticated, southern money, aristocratic. Charleston seemed a little more fun loving, laid back ... kinda like Key West meets marsh land. 

While we were there, we drove around a whole bunch just to visit the different islands of Charleston and to sight-see. We really liked Mt. Pleasant, but apparently according to Chris (Katie's new husband -- they both lived there. In fact, that's where they met!) James Island and Johns Island are cooler. I guess this means Adam and I have to go back sometime to explore some more. Dang. We ate at some fantastic restaurants, and I would especially like to give a shout out to Fleet Landing. It's a neat little hole in the wall kind of place right on the water. It's in downtown Charleston. I've never had shrimp and grits that delicious in my life - and I LOVE shrimp and grits. And the view was beautiful. We sat outside with heat lamps and blaring Christmas music and actually saw a dolphin swimming right outside the restaurant (which is apparently normal there). It was absolutely perfect. 

So this house we stayed in - it was on James Island in a super cute neighborhood. Two of Katie's friends live there, Jordan and Molly. Jordan just recently graduated from MUSC and is now working as a PA! Unfortunately I didn't catch what Molly does. :/ Anyway, if you will remember in my previous post I mentioned that I saw a sign, and that's where the "She" poem/book came from. Well here's the explanation for that ... so, hanging in one of the bathrooms of their house is this painting.

I hope Jordan's sister doesn't mind that I just posted her art on the internet. :) Anyway, when I saw this hanging in their bathroom, I realized that all of my hardships from this past semester were in my head. I can do this and I will make this happen. It's as simple as that. So I went to look up this quote and I found that it was from the book/poem that I blogged about before. I thought the whole thing was inspirational, so I hope you enjoyed it. :)

After we left Charleston, we went home for Christmas and I got to meet up with some friends back home. It was great seeing Carly and Jenn and Kelsey and Ashley! I've missed all of those girls. And then Friday night and Saturday we hung out with our big group of friends. I know everyone had a great time that night ... let's just say memories were definitely made ... for some of us. ;)

Unfortunately Sunday we had to drive back to Birmingham because Adam had to work on Monday, but he had Tuesday off! And lo and behold, Rob and Jenny happened to be in town! So we celebrated New Year's with them here at our apartment. And on Thursday I hung out with Katie all day and we took back some wedding gifts and bought some other stuff. It was fun helping her spend hundreds of dollars. :)

So this pretty much brings me up to here. My brother is coming to stay with us for the next few days (his army reserve unit is stationed near here), which will be fun! And I guess that's pretty much it. I know there's a lot of boringness in here, but I didn't want to make anyone feel left out! :)

Ugh, I just realized the next time I blog, I will have completed the first week of this semester. But that's ok. Bring it on.

Later friends!

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Early Thanksgiving and Christmas Decor!

Adam, the pups and I went home this past weekend to have Thanksgiving with my parents since we're flying to Arizona for the rest of the week. It was a nice, refreshing weekend. I got my hair trimmed and touched up, Mom and I went shopping, and then we had a delicious dinner. It was a perfect weekend just hanging out with my family. Thankfully we only have two days of school this week, and then the other Thanksgiving festivities can begin! We actually have a lot of traveling to do over the next few days, but it'll all be worth it.

So before we left Birmingham last Friday, I decided to do something that I knew would make me happy ... and since it did make me happy, I really don't care if you think I'm crazy. I put up Christmas decorations!! :) :)

So, this is our Christmas tree (obviously). I wanted to show the glowing lights, but also just a regular picture so you could see our ornaments and tree decor. Mom and I bought the tree topper this past weekend, and I really liked the idea of it because it was different. I also thought it would add more height to our cute little tree. I'm actually not sure how I feel about it. Part of me likes it, part of me feels like it's a little too Harry Potter-esk. The star to the left of the tree is what usually goes on top. Maybe I'll leave it for a few more days to figure it out ...

This isn't everything I've put out, but I didn't want to bore you with the rest. :) Anyway, happy holidays!!

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