Clinical Site!

Today Katherine gave us our first rotation clinical assignments. I got Swedish Medical Center at First Hill, which is exactly what I was hoping for :-) I wanted to do Swedish for my first rotation because it's one of the busiest imaging centers in the Northwest, so I will learn a LOT. Plus it's right downtown, and depending on what hours I have to be there, Jay and I might be able to carpool in and then I can take the bus home. How awesome is that?

I'm really nervous about starting clinicals, but really excited too. I'm mostly nervous because there will be such a big break this summer before we start on September 15, and I'm afraid I'll forget all I've learned in the month that I won't have held a transducer in my hand. But I am excited to actually get into the "work" environment even though I won't be getting paid :-). Katherine said we should be starting to scan a little bit by the end of the first week, and scanning through our own exams by the end of the Fall quarter. That seems so fast to me - I just hope I'll be ready.

The girls went to a concert last night and got home tired but having had a good time. Kelsey is downstairs resting right now while Megan is reading on the front porch. We bought tickets to go see the Storm (women's basketball) play while Brianna is here. We always like to go see them, it's a lot of fun and I think more fun than men's basketball. And since we won't have the Sonics anymore after this season, the Storm will be our only basketball choice anyway. Frankly, I'm much happier that it's the Sonics leaving and the Storm staying.

Going to start the turkey burgers for dinner. Later!

Finally summer

I'm writing this blog while sitting on the front porch enjoying an absolutely gorgeous Sunday morning. We've finally hit summer here in Seattle, so each day is blue skies, sunshine, a cool breeze, and a temperate 80 degrees. As I heard someone say yesterday, summer in Seattle is my favorite week of the year.

We redid our porch yesterday. Since we don't really have the funds to landscape the backyard the way we would like, we decided to concentrate on the front of our house. So we got some outdoor rugs for the porch floor, some of those cool solar shades to pull down in the afternoon when the western view bakes us, a couple of new chairs and tables and some cushions and pillows and lots of flowers. I feel like a genteel old southern woman now when I sit out here. All I need is a mint julep. It's so pretty. We worked really hard from when we got up until around 9:30 when we finally got to shower and take the beagles for their promised walk. So today we're going to take it somewhat easy. I have some school work to finish and Jason is going to rig up something to attach our portable grill to the back porch, and we have some grocery shopping to do, but other than that it will be an easy day compared to yesterday. We may even take the beagles to the park if they're good :-)

Next Saturday Brianna is coming so this week I have to work on getting the spare room ready for her. We figured she'd probably sleep with Kelsey most of the time, but we want to have a place for her to get away for a little privacy if she needs it. The girls are so excited for her to get here, and we have all kinds of fun outings planned....outdoor movies at the Space Needle, Pike's Place market, Seattle Center, the dogpark, Greenlake where maybe we'll do some paddleboats, Golden Gardens park - which is the closest we have to a beach here - where hopefully we'll be lucky enough to grab one of the firepits and have a cookout on the beach. I think she'll have lots of fun the 10 days she's here, and we're all looking forward to it.

Happy 4th of July!

Oh my...has it really been almost two weeks since an update? And with so much going on too.

Let's see...I'll just start with random things.

Megan had a baseball fly into her windshield while driving past Greenlake this past Monday. Luckily it didn't come through and she handled it like a champ with no other damages due to her flying off the road in shock. Luckily the Little League coach came out right away and they're going to pay the deductible ($250) and insurance will cover the rest. All Star Auto Glass was already at the house on Tuesday and fixed it right up. Megan is such a magnet for that kind of weird stuff.



I've started my last quarter, and had my first test tonight which went well. It's hard to believe I only have 5 weeks to go, and then I get to actually go and scan on real people. How scary. My carpool friend has volunteered her husband's scrotum for the whole class to practice on. We'll be doing that on Wednesday. It's very kind of him to offer himself up like that, because without him we'd have no practice on testicular scanning, which is apparently something we'll be doing a lot of in the hospital.

Jason and I took a quick ride to Snoqualmie Falls last weekend - it was really hot and quite a hike down to the water. I had no idea that we would actually have to climb over a railing onto the rocks, and I had worn my travel/hiking skirt that day. I wasn't going to do it, but I knew Jay wanted to so I braved it and made it, and it was very cool. The hike back up was a bit rough and I had to stop and rest a couple of times, but it was a nice way to spend the day outside and celebrate summer finally coming to Seattle.

Here's the very clear warning about staying on the boardwalk and off the rocks:



Here's what everybody thought of that:




And here's the falls, with a fisherman:



Jason got a promotion! He'll be leading the new physics team, so he'll be managing about 3 people. I'm very excited for him, and proud that he's doing so well at work. Even though he apparently acts like a big giant grouchy old man, (or crotchety old curmudgeon, take your pick) they do appreciate that he does good work. And he gets a salary bump, which is always welcome, although we have no idea how much. It'll be a grand surprise.

We had our three year anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special though, since our trip to New Zealand is like our special birthday, anniversary, Christmas gift to each other for like the next three years. We'll probably go out to dinner at some point but that'll be it.

Speaking of weddings, Jason is headed to Wisconsin on Saturday to go to Ben's wedding. I couldn't go because I have class on Monday and the wedding is on Sunday with no way to get back in time for school. I'm sure he'll have fun though visiting with Ben. It's supposed to be pretty hot in Wisconsin. He'd better pack shorts.

Another random thought, and I know it doesn't matter to any of you...but the car next door has this really annoying car alarm that has been going off EVERY FREAKIN' NIGHT/MORNING for like the last 10 days, and it's driving us crazy. 1:15 am, 4:30 am, 5:45 am, 6:00 am - it's always at least one of those times and most nights/mornings it's two of those times, and why won't the college kid that owns that car disable it or something? I don't know how much longer we can take it. I think we'll have to start leaving passive aggressive notes on his windshield.

Last thing: Jonathan made it to New Zealand and blogging about his year abroad here if anyone is interested. Look for a cameo appearance by us at the end of August!

I Don't Want No Scrubs

Today was the start of summer quarter - last one before clinicals start! It's only 7 weeks, so real short. Lots of lab this quarter so we can get as much scanning time as possible before we have to do it on real patients. Our instructor told us that we have to start wearing scrubs to school, just as if we were in a hospital setting, so Heidi and I went scrub shopping after class. They really do make some cute looking ones! I got two pairs of pants and three tops, and that'll be my outfit three times a week until mid August. Yay, elastic waist pants!

Meg comes home tomorrow - we've missed her. Kelsey was in Aberdeen with her friend most of last week and is enjoying her summer break so far. Jay and I are counting down the days until we go to New Zealand....his boss is actually moving there too, he got a job working for the company that will be doing the new Hobbit movie. Jason is immensely jealous and said we should look into moving there as well. If I didn't have another year of school.......but Kelsey said even though that would be kind of cool, not a lot of bands tour New Zealand so she didn't think she'd be up for that. Looks like we'll stay here a while longer :-)

And to end the day...beagle porn:

Glamping Report

What a great weekend. The weather was absolutely fantastic - really, the first nice weekend we've had this summer. It was warm and sunny and so relaxing. We left the house right on time at noon and were on the road to Anacortes for our 1.5 hour drive to the ferry terminal. Got to the ferry and got in line with all the other mainland people looking for some island fun.


Loaded up the car on the ferry and had a lovely one hour ride across the strait to Friday Harbor. Then it was a mere 10 minute drive or so to the Lakedale resort. Check out our Glamping Tent!




And the view from the front of the tent across the lake to the lodge!


Lovely, isn't it? We made hamburger foil packets for dinner and smores for dessert, courtesy of our cozy fire, and enjoyed some cosmopolitans courtesy of Smirnoff. By the time we were ready to go to bed it was FREEZING! We utilized both the duvets and some blankets and were soon warm and toasty.

One bad thing about camping is the close proximity of neighbors, especially those with young crying children that like to get up at 6:30. However, we managed to block out the cries and sleep until 10:30. We missed the continental breakfast because we slept so late so we used our shower tokens (2 dollars for 5 minutes of hot water), got dressed and headed to town for breakfast. We ate at this cute restaurant right on the water and celebrated my birthday morning with champagne mimosas and a great breakfast in the sun.


The rest of the day we just explored. Drove around the island and just stopped wherever we felt like it...stops included Lime Kiln point, where we watched for whales and saw a lighthouse (and a dolphin and a sea lion, but no whales), then we stopped at the English Camp, where the British were stationed during the 50 year "Pig War" that decided which country the San Juan Islands would belong to (we won!), and finally Roche Harbor. Roche Harbor is on the opposite end of the Island from Friday Harbor and is a really cute quaint little town. We sat on a deck by the marina and had some beers while listening to some live music and watching the boats.



We came back home fairly early on Sunday, since we managed to wake up early enough to catch the breakfast and the 11:00 ferry service back to Anacortes. It was a wonderful birthday weekend and very relaxing.

Oh, and grades - I'm still waiting on one, but it's two A's and two A-'s so far.

One down, Three to go

Vascular final today - absolute killer. Probably one of the hardest tests I've ever taken. I have no idea how I did, but not my best work by far. I'm pretty sure I passed though, and therefore passed the class so I'm not super worried. Just glad it's over. Tomorrow is the Echo final, Wednesday my Pathology final, and Thursday OB/GYN final. I sure hope none of them are as tough as the one I took today. The Echo final won't be bad I think - and our teacher is treating us to pizza after the test is done, and we'll eat while we grade it so we'll know our final grades right away. Cool.

Can't wait until Friday, and off to San Juan Islands!

What a week

The quarter is winding down but the work is definitely getting harder. These past two weeks have been a blur of tests, tests, more tests, and other projects. It was nice having 4 days off for Memorial Day but I spent most of it studying. Okay, we did take Saturday off and enjoyed our super weather, so it wasn't all work. Kelsey got a new mattress set since Memorial Day is apparently the time to buy mattresses. Hers was so old and ripped up I can't believe she was still able to sleep on it. But she says her new one is awesome. Too soft for me though. She just gives me the eye when I ask her if it's too soft for her, so I guess that means it's not.

Meg is doing really well in school still...she got a 96 on her math test the other day! Math! How exciting is that. Both girls are doing so good and we're so proud of them.

So my car went in for the 90k checkup two weeks ago. I specifically asked them to check the struts for me. They did all the stuff that comes with the checkup and tune up and told me that the struts were weak but not leaking and did not need to be done anytime in the near future, but would need done at some point. So we paid around $1200 for the work that they did do, and left. We ordered 4 new tires online because they also told me at the dealership that I needed two new tires, so we decided to replace them all at once. Called after the tires were delivered to the house, and made an appointment to go have them put on. They called later and said that I needed to have my struts replaced immediately, and also a CV boot needed to be replaced right away too because it was cracked. Something they NEVER mentioned when the car was there TWO WEEKS ago!

Total for new struts and new CV boot...$1400. I said to just put the tires on, I was picking up the car. I did some research for a good mechanic in Seattle, and found reviews for this little Japanese man with an auto shop downtown that apparently does everything he can to keep the costs down. So I have an appointment there on June 17. I only have to drive a few more days until then so I'm hoping that nothing major will fall off or fly out of the car before my appointment. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be able to do the work for less money than the dealer. I really want to keep driving my car for another 7 or 8 years if I can....it's all paid off, and only has 98000 miles on it after 9 years, so I might be able to do it, especially here where the bus is such a great option. I'll keep you all updated, I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat to learn the outcome :-)

It's Hot

Yesterday a strange glowing orb appeared in the Seattle sky...one we had not seen for quite a whle. In one day, the complaints in the house went from "I'm cold" to "It's hot in here".

Temps hit 85 for us yesterday, with more of the same forecast today. That's it though, it'll be back down to the mid 60's by Sunday and next week more rain. But we'll enjoy it while we can...we plan to either go to Golden Gardens beach today, or may head down to the University Street Fair to hang out for a while. Yesterday Megan and I took the dogs to the park. Anyone who's been here over the summer knows that on sunny days, Seattleites head outside to lay around like pale fish and soak up some Vitamin D. Here's a picture of one of the local parks, which looks the same as every stray piece of grass available yesterday.



Last week was rough on all of us I think..I had three tests and they were all pretty hard I think. It's a relief not having to worry about tests today. Meg is having a rough time with the no smoking, but she's hanging in there for now. Jay is back to crunch time at work so he's putting in long hours again. Kelsey is just counting down the days until school is over :-(

Mom is having a carotid-to-carotid bypass on Wednesday. They elected not to do any open chest surgery, which I think is a good thing. So they'll just run a bypass from her left carotid artery, which is still working pretty good, to her right carotid artery, and hopefully that will better perfuse her brain and she'll be good to go again. She said yesterday that she's hoping to go home either today or Sunday and then back on Wednesday for the procedure. We'll all think good thoughts.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and mothers-to-be) I know! I hope you have a wonderful day today and that you're all spoiled by those around you. I am going to spend my day studying for the three tests I have this week, while my girls have promised to make dinner and (maybe) clean the house. I'm crossing my fingers :-).

Home from Baltimore

NOTE: I do not have any pictures, because we forgot our camera. I know, we're idiots, so sorry.

It was definitely a whirlwind weekend. We got up super early on Thursday morning (3 am!) to catch our 6 am flight to Atlanta, where we met up with Susan and John. The flight to Atlanta was decent because we got exit row seats, plus a two seat row so we were all by ourselves...and Delta has this cool thing now where you have a personal video player for each seat and you can play trivia with the rest of the plane. Jay and I made a decent showing in trivia, never winning but always in the top 5 or so.

After we got to Baltimore, we hit a grocery store and then made dinner for the Weiler clan (Susan, still need that orzo recipe!) and then we hit the RV to sleep. On Friday, Susan and I went to the bridal tea while the Weiler boys went to a railroad museum. The tea was really nice and I think Kristen appreciated the bead ceremony thing we did.

After tea we dropped some people off at their hotel and then went in search of a mall because I forgot to bring my black dress shoes for the weekend. Once we actually found the mall, after a quick trip to Camden Yards (lost), Susan got a dress and I got a pair of shoes in less than 20 minutes. When we got back to the Weilers, Jason had found my black dress shoes in another bag. Bummer - another pair of shoes for no reason :-).

The rehearsal dinner was at the Holiday Inn at the airport, where just about everyone was staying. There were a lot of people there - almost half of the wedding invitees I think. We finally met up with Hugo and Mary there. Mary got her hair done differently and it looked really cute.

Saturday we met picked up Mary and headed to Inner Harbor. It was cloudy and cool when we first got there, and looked like rain - and Kristen had an outdoor wedding planned. After we walked around a bit and had lunch, it turned into a pretty nice day. We dropped Mary off and headed back to the Weiler's to change, and then were ready to go at 3:23 - and then discovered that the wedding was at 4:00. So there was a bit of panic that we were going to be horribly late because we didn't even know how to get to this place. Turns out we got there at 3:45 with plenty of time to spare, as we were actually early compared to most guests. Met up with Grandma Flo, Ron and Gail at the wedding, and that's who we sat with at the reception.

The reception was lots of fun, with tons of swing dancing. We tried, but we were terrible at it so no swing dancing for us. We took advantage of a couple of slow dances but that's about it. There were lots of Kristen and Bob's friends from the dance scene there though, and the band was the Boilermaker Jazz Band, and I guess they're pretty well known in the dance world - so everyone had a great time. We got home around 10:30 or so, chatted with John and Raellen for a few minutes, and went to bed.

Sunday was leavin' day - Susan and John had a pretty early flight, so Mary came by around 9 and we had a huge breakfast at the Weilers. She stayed for a bit then took off to drive back to Pittsburgh. Jay and I enjoyed the sunshine and the quiet for a few hours then Jonathan and some of his friends came to pick us up and take us back to BWI, where we sat with them for awhile and had some lunch. The plane took off at 6, we were back home here at 10:30 and the weekend was over.

Whew, that was a lot to cram into a few days. So glad I don't have school until Wednesday. I'm now going to listen the lecture I missed on Thursday and work on my paper. In my pajamas. Which is how I plan to spend the day.

We're a lot like you

These ads by local insurance company PEMCO are hysterical, because living in the PNW for about three years now, I can recognize almost every one of these profiles. I think we used to be profile #100 but I might be turning into #23 now. Anway, worth a little time to look at if you're bored, and appreciated even more if you've been here.

Not much going on

We finally had a nice day yesterday. The sun was shining, it was about 76 degrees, just all around nice to be outside. I took Megan into the lab at school to practice scanning the abdomen. I think she had fun looking at all of her organs...she certainly seemed surprised at where most of them were located! When we got home we did some yard work and walked to Safeway to get some stuff for dinner, then we watched Ocean's Thirteen. Kind of boring, but that's how we roll.

Today was spent mostly studying, with a trip to the grocery store thrown in. We had awesome savings today, spent $87 and saved $123. We stocked up on hamburger this time around too.

Jay went to an office party on Friday night, a kind of going away thing for someone who is leaving the company. Apparently a couple of coworkers insulted his Paradise Air shirt that he got in Hawaii from the hang gliding place. They told him it was ugly. Ugly! What the?.... He was quite understandably a bit ticked off. I personally think he has much uglier shirts than that one.

I have a couple of tests on Wednesday, and we start a new vascular class tomorrow, but then we're taking off on Thursday morning for Baltimore and Bob and Kristen's wedding. We're looking forward to seeing the family, and really hoping that Mary and Hugo can make it so we can see them too. I'm glad my tests are this week so I don't have to worry about them while I'm gone. I do have a midterm in echocardiography that following Tuesday, but I'll have plenty of study time on the plane.

That's it for the update, and don't say you weren't warned by the title that it wouldn't be too exciting :-)

Happy Birthday Megan

Today is Meg's 23rd birthday....holy cow! I can't believe she's 23! Seems like just yesterday she was a little girl in pigtails and red rhinestone shoes. She wanted me to make her favorite meal for dinner so we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes and rolls and salad, and a birthday cake. Here are some pics of the day to enjoy. First off, Megan and Luke get ready for the salad course:



Kelsey and Ayla goof around:



Seattle hail - in April. Come on!



Meg opens presents after dinner:



Cake time!





All in all, I think it was a pretty good birthday. Even Zac enjoyed it:

Beagles, beagles

Sometimes they're just so cute you have to take many pictures. So I'm sharing some of them with you. The quality isn't great because they're all cell phone pics, but you get the gist.

Zac tends to the really cute pictures.....



....while Trixie is more a camera ham.





Sometimes they're worth all the trouble. Sometimes.

And the winner is.....

I've decided to go into General instead of Echo. What that means is that I will get certified in Abdomen or OB/GYN instead of the heart. My ultimate goal is to work in women's health which I would do with a General tract instead of the cardiac tract. I'm really happy and excited about my decision - it feels great to have finally made up my mind. I've been to three General labs so far and I'm really enjoying it, even if we're just doing liver, pancreas, and aorta right now. But I'm actually finding what I'm looking for, so that's a lot of positive feedback for me.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice while I struggled. I know I made the right decision for me, no regrets. At least not yet :-)

Things are status quo here. Meg is working a lot this week, so isn't around too much. Kelsey had her first match the other day, but it rained the whole time so she came home soaked and cold, and they lost too. Jay got his raise, which was bigger than we expected, so that was cool. Tonight we're having Bengal Tiger takeout, and by Saturday it's supposed to reach 71 degrees. Life is good.

Back to school

The week is almost over so Megan and I both are into our new quarter. She has a 9:00 class every day which I think is tough for her but so far so good. I'm taking both labs, echo and general, for the next two weeks before I make my final decision as to what I want to specialize in. It's such a difficult choice, because there are advantages and disadvantages to both of them and I want to make sure I make the right choice for the future. I envy my fellow students who are so passionate about one way or the other and don't seem to be waffling like I am. Although the more I talk to different people the more I see that a lot of them are kind of going through the same thing, but they've just been able to make the choice easier than I have.

Jay has been continuing to work absolutely crazy hours, but I got him to promise to come home for dinner tonight....which will be the first time in almost a month I think. It will be nice to have him home, but Megan has to work tonight so we still won't have a full table :-(

We got new dishes last weekend from Pottery Barn - they're awesome. My dishes were getting pretty dinged up...lots of chips on the edges and knife scratches in the middle. The new dishes look so brand new I hate to use them. They're pretty simple looking, all one color (actually 2, because we got 2 different color to mix and match)..putty and cocoa. Anyone that has been in my house can appreciate my continuation of brown and earthy colors for just about everything. Anyway, they're really nice and we like them.

Greetings from Austin

Even though I'm leaving tomorrow. It's been a great trip though and I've really enjoyed getting to know Ripken more and meeting Riley, who is absolutely adorable. Tonight is our last night, and we're having dinner at some hamburger place by the water. I've eaten so much though since I've been here, I'm not sure I need dinner again for a week.

Ripken is so much fun, and is really good with everyone. It didn't take any time at all for him to warm up to us this time, and he even threw an "I love you" my way every now and then. Oh, and he said to me "you're sunshine". Now how cute is that?

Riley is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen (exceptions are my own girls of course), who dresses entirely in pink, everyday. But she is bubbly and happy and just quite joyful. She prefers an upright position when not napping, so she likes to be walked or to be in her little walker thing and then she's perfectly content.

We've mostly hung around the house, although we did see Jack and Pat and went to dinner with them, as well as visited them in their house in Dripping Springs. I think we've had two trips to Target and one to Costco, and Kristin and I had to hit Walgreens for emergency butter on Easter Sunday. Other than that, we've enjoyed the Austin weather from the backyard, complete with firepit and grown up drinks at night.

Got my grades today, all except for one of them, and I got all A's this quarter. Yay me!

One of the many reasons why I don't shop at Walmart:

Next time I update I'll be back in Seattle, surrounded by beagles and love.

Dinner Date

Jay and I went on a double date tonight with my carpool buddy and her husband. We had dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant down the street and we had a lot of fun. It was nice to socialize with another couple, because we do that so infrequently. I think the only other couple we've done anything with is Simon and Darci and that's usually with a bunch of other people. I'm hoping we'll get to do it again soon.

Kelsey is getting ready for Spring Break, which is the first week in April. She starts practice for the golf team tomorrow. Whoo Hoo. Megan has her Math final on Thursday and turns in her last essay in English this week, then she has break. Not sure what she's planning on doing but I know it will involve marshmallow fluff.

I have a final tomorrow in scanning lab, where I'll have to show the teacher all the views I've learned, and then I have a final in Echo class, which might or might not be hard and then a last test in Pathology Wednesday and then on Thursday I'm off to Austin.

Grocery store today was another big score...spent $112, saved $121. Another Whoo Hoo. Yeah, boring but such is my exciting life.

My name is Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y

And I am addicted to Guitar Hero. Somebody stop me before I strum again. I can play that game for hours and hours and never get tired of it. I played for about 5 hours tonight. Over 7 hours on Saturday. And the only reason I don't play more is because other people want the TV.

Next week is the final week of the winter quarter. We have a final in Echocardiography class, and a last test (but not a final) in pathology. Then we have a week off for Spring Break (hello Austin!) and then Spring Quarter. It looks like it's gonna be a killer this time. I'm so looking forward to break though, and meeting my new niece, and watching Rip drive his car.

Megan can't take me to the airport on Thursday because she has a Math final. Hmmmm...looks like Jay has to take a long lunch and get me there. That shouldn't be too much of a problem since he's been putting in massive hours these past couple of weeks. I sure hope he gets a break soon too.

POP - all better

So my foot was still hurting this morning. Actually I slept really well last night and I thought that it was all done with the pain, but as soon as I walked downstairs I knew it wasn't to be.

We took the dogs for a quick walk around the block and then headed to the grocery store, with me limping (not badly) and still in a bit of pain. Then we came home and cleaned the house. Afterwards, Jason was setting up our new receiving and asked me to plug in my iPod to see if the connection worked okay. I sat down in front of the HugeAssBankOfElectronicEquipment and connected the iPod and felt this POP in my ankle. The pain flared for a moment and then it was Gone Baby Gone. I could hop up and down on my foot and turn it all around in all directions and no pain whatsoever. Whoo Hoo! So I'm better, and no doctor needed.

Oh, and a couple of good movies this weekend...Gone Baby Gone (for reals this time) was pretty good, as was Eastern Promises. The latter is definitely not for the squeamish, but if you're a fan of Viggo Mortensen, it's highly recommended.