two thousand fourteen

Well hey there blogland! 

I know I am officially the most infrequent blogger on the planet, but I have a few minutes tonight {while multi-tasking and watching season 5 of Breaking Bad, of course}, so I thought I'd write up a little post!

Here we are in November!!! Today I realized that 2013 is almost to an end, and that means that 2014 is coming! The thought of 2014 immediately got butterflies going in my stomach, because 2014 is the start of a new set of adventures for us! My husband and I both graduate in May, and we will officially be a Doctor and a Physician Assistant, ready to take on the world with big kid jobs! It's such an AMAZING prospect, because I have NEVER ever ever been this close to the end of the "school era" of my life. After high school, there was college, in undergrad I was preparing for PA school, and now...now it will be time to put everything I have learned to use! It's daunting and thrilling all at once!!!

So, here are a few updates: Tyler has decided that he definitely is going to be a Family Medicine doctor, and he is going to be *amazing* at this! He has such a heart of gold, and he wants to be able to touch the lives of people from all walks of life; young and old (and in between), typical children and those with special needs, healthy and those who require multiple interventions...he is simply going to be incredible! I have never had such complete faith in one human being as I do him. I can't wait to see what he accomplishes in his career! He is in his final year of medical school, has his Masters in Public Health under his belt, and is gearing up for residency interviews --- which start this Friday! He has interviews in California (near Sonoma, yes please!), Salt Lake City, North Carolina, and all over Colorado. 

We find out in March what residency program he gets in to, or where he matches. It's the most nerve-wracking day to ever be designed on this planet. Tyler ranks his residency choices, and the residency programs rank the students who interviewed with them, then some sort of matching machine (robot?) decides which student should be happily attached to which residency program. On "Match Day", you'll find me popping Xanax on a regular basis in order to suppress a series of panic attacks. My heart is already racing, I must remember to keep this phrase in mind come March:



An update on me: I have been having a WONDERFUL year out in the world of clinical medicine! Patients > Powerpoints. I learn so much more effectively when I have a face and a story to put with a diagnosis! Some months are more challenging than others...those of you who are friends with me on facebook know that October was brutal! I had 3 days off the entire month, and was working >70 hours a week. Yuck! 7 day work weeks??? Get real!!! I mean, part of the reason I wanted to be a PA instead of an MD is so that I could work like 3 days a week. This month, however, I am in a rotation that understands the importance of easing into the workweek and also having early release for the weekends - so I have half days on Mondays and Fridays! This is much more up my alley.

Clinic is great. Not only do I learn so many things every day, but I also have a new awkward experience every day. Maybe I should start a series of blog posts called "Awkward Mondays" or "Embarrassed Wednesdays" or "Tongue-Tied Thursdays"...because I seriously have some outrageous stories to tell you all. What do you think??? I might seriously do this. 

In a completely unrelated note, but in keeping my blog tradition, I have to share with you guys that I finished my 7th book of 2013 {FINALLY}. I literally read it at a snail's pace. Like if a snail could read, that's probably how slowly I read it. And the masterpiece that I just finished is titled, "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" - by the one and only Chelsea Handler of course. 


It was ridiculous. It was raunchy. It made me LOL and snort. It wasn't good, but it was funny. I won't likely be rushing out to buy her 3 (?) other books anytime soon, unless any of you can convince me that they're worth it, but I'm glad I read it. It provided some comic relief on nights I wanted to cry from the stress of clinic. 

I'm glad to be done with it because I have 3 books I have been dying to read! Next on my list are "Revenge Wears Prada", "Allegient", and "50 Shades Freed". Considering I'm only a little more than halfway through my goal of reading 12 books in 2013...I better get going so that I can get reading!

Hope you all are doing wonderfully :)

Cheers :)

loving life

Wow, this is my first blog post about ME, and not a book, in a very VERY long time. I have been incredibly busy since the start of Physician Assistant school in May of 2011, and blogging has most definitely taken a back seat to everything else in my life. I still enjoy blogging about the books I read though, because it keeps me mindful of my goal to nourish the inquisitive and creative part of me that likes to learn about things beyond medicine.

School has been SUCH an amazing roller coaster! The 2011-2012 school year was a whirlwind of science, new friends, factoids, diseases, factoids about diseases, tests, anxiety about tests, failure, depression about failure, success, relief, and collapse. 2012-2013 by comparison was a walk in a magical park filled with sunshine, frolicking baby animals, and world peace. But it was still hard. Now that I am officially in the 2013-2014 year of school (the last leg), I am just filled with joy every day that I have made it here! There were SO many times in my 1st year of PA school that I wanted to give up. Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (May = graduation), I am beyond grateful that I somehow persevered, passed all of my classes, and didn't end up in an insane asylum. Thanks to the assistance of my classmates, friends, family, husband, puppies, my treadmill, and Zoloft, I'm going to make it out of this alive.

I remember being 18 years old and wanting to be a Pediatrician. "But I'm not good at science," I said. So I diverted from that path for a while, only to realize at the age of 21 that yeah, I still wanted to be a Pediatrician. However, I learned about the great gig of the PA, and went that route. I did my first General Pediatrics rotation in June, and my heart was so happy each and every day I was there. I adored the kids and loved the opportunity to provide education to both parents and children about their development. I think it just might be the perfect fit for me!

Before working in General Peds, I got a variety of experiences in other specialties. Some specialties, really neat and useful. Others...not for me. I worked in Asthma and Allergy, Family Medicine, Peds Pulmonary (oh neat, asthma again), General Surgery (no thanks, I prefer my patients to be awake), Hospice (AMAZINGGGGG!!!), Peds Orthopedics/Sports Medicine, Peds GI (pooooop), and more Family Medicine. There, that's my resume.

In July of this year I got to work in the nursery at Denver Health, which was really fun. Most of you probably know that before PA school I worked as a CNA in the well-baby nursery at Rose. I have missed the little tiny peanut babies so much! So working in the nursery was like being brought back into my comfort zone. And while I adored the babies, I found that I need a little more variety in my population. Surprisingly, having your patients be babies who are o - 48 hours old gets a little repetitive.

I am now working in Peds Neurology - which is so cool. What is your reaction to the word, "seizure" ? Is it something like the hyenas' reaction to "Mufasa!!!" in the Lion King? Yeah, my reaction used to be like that too. Seizures are scary, because, well, we don't know many people in our day-to-day lives who have seizures. What I'm learning is that a) a seizure is not just a seizure, there are like 7,534 types of seizures, b) not all seizures are really bad, c) plenty of people with seizures have totally normal and fulfilling lives, they just have little blips in the brain sometimes (like a literal brain fart). Seems like common sense - of course kids with seizures lead pretty normal lives! But sometimes you have to really see it to believe it. I am working with a pretty incredible population. The kids are awesome, and the dedication these parents have to their children is beautiful. Being in this rotation makes me both terrified and inspired to become a parent. (speaking of babies - yes we still want them, however, now is still not great timing, so just calm down.)

Coming up in the remainder of my education, I will be journeying through: Internal Medicine, Peds Inpatient, Peds Dermatology, Adolescent Medicine, Salud Family Med (my "rural" month will be in Fort Collins! Ha!), Emergency Department, Psychiatry, and OB/GYN. I still have lots of medical flavors to experience this year, and I am excited for this opportunity! So that's me.

Then there's Tyler. He is doing amazing at life, per usual. Rocking his 4th and final year of medical school, got his Masters in Public Health last year in his spare time, and is applying for Family Medicine residencies. At some point in March we will basically be told, "Welp, here's where you're going to live for 3 years." Then we go live there starting June of 2014 until Tyler gets his Doctor training wheels removed (because being a resident is like being a toddler... super valid comparison I think). Tyler also has joined the elite 1% of crazies who run marathons, he ran 1 in 2012 and 1 so far in 2013. Ridiculous --- So just keep being awesome Tyler, not like you know how to do anything else :)

Then there's our puppies. Our sweet little furbabies that are now both 4 years old! They went to the vet today, and Gryffin is still stoned from the anesthesia from his teeth cleaning. We were also told today that Penny has abnormal liver function lab values today. Greaaaaaat. Our problem puppy is at it again! Crossing my fingers that her liver was just playing jokes, so we'll recheck labs in a month and tell the liver to behave this time. But they're both doing great, and they looooove the fact that daddy not trains for marathons. 

So that sums up the Aurora brood pretty well. On the off chance that we get out of the house for a few hours, you can find us at church or a pub playing trivia. 

Well, friendly reader, you're probably really bored by now, I know I am. So I'll sign off. Maybe now that I'm in the magical land of 3rd year, I'll keep up with my blog a little better! (no promises)

CHEERS (to love, life, and happiness!!!)

hello, lovely

Hello my beautiful friends! 

I can't believe I haven't been around since the beginning of March! 10 weeks since my last post to be exact. Apologies to anyone who truly missed my blog (probably no one, really, hahaha). But also apologies for not keeping up with what has been going on in your lives! I have missed so many book reviews and rants that I'm sure I will be catching up for DAYS on all of your blogs!

So --- drum roll, please.......I finished my first year of PA School!!! Barely. I mean, I can't believe I'm alive and didn't run away to Mexico to escape it all. I also can't believe I passed all of my classes. I also can't believe my marriage is still happy and intact with all of my emotional {perhaps psychotic} breakdowns and moodiness. What a guy. I have resolved to be superwife for the next few weeks while Tyler studies his butt off for Step 2 Boards for Medical School (poor guy, studying for an 8 hour comprehensive test on practically all of medicine --- ew). Somehow, 2 weeks of awesome wife skills doesn't seem to equal his 8 months of steadfast husband skills. I guess I'll just do what I can.

I want to tell you everything. About my frustrations with weight loss (ahem --- GAIN) this semester. About learning how to believe in myself. About allowing others to help me. About how if I didn't have 2 snuggly little dogs I would be a depressed heap of crazy woman on the floor. About how family gets me through. About my "spring cleaning" craze that is tearing through my house like a Martha Stewart tornado. About how I'm a nutcase because throughout all the stress --- I still managed to watch my shows, to get that escape from life for just 60 minutes.

I also want to know everything. About how Spring was for all of you. About what movies you saw. About what books you read. Probably half of you are pregnant now and I have no idea. (joking, kind of...at 26 years old, that seems to be the life theme these days). 

We'll get to all of it, because I actually have the luxury of time again. Happy to have a summer --- happy to have a new day :)

Cheers to having time to tell get to know each other again --- it's good to be back :) 

the end, the beginning

My last day of winter vacation.

I can hardly complain, considering I had an entire 4 weeks of glorious vacation from PA School. I enjoyed ev-er-y single minute of it. It was complete bliss.

I finally was able to clean my house. See my family (lots - I may have overstayed my welcome at my parents' house more than once). Spend time with my husband. WATCH MOVIES. I'm talking lots of movies. Even an XMen marathon with my little sister: I, II, III, and 1st Class. See some friends. Drink wine. Drink beer (I may still be hungover from New Years Eve). Read. Cuddle my dogs - for hours and hours every day. Laugh.

And I found out that my insomnia was indeed stress-induced (probably ISBM-induced to be more specific), like I thought --- I only took ambien ONCE over break!

I finally saw Soul Surfer and One Day (amidst a slew of other films I have already blogged about) --- movies I have been dying to see! And I must say that Soul Surfer is now one of my favorite movies of all time --- hands down! It is a movie with a Christian base, and it tells the story of Bethany Hamilton, a teenager who got her arm bitten off in a shark attack while surfing. Throughout the tragedy of the accident, Bethany never loses faith in God nor in her ability to make it as a professional surfer. With the help of her incredibly supportive family, she relearns how to surf, and indeed her dreams come true. This film is uplifting, encouraging, sad, and beautiful. LOVED IT. 

One Day, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, is a tale of love and friendship, and blurring the lines between the two. Anne Hathaway does her best to play a British woman...but the accent is just odd. Sometimes Scottish, sometimes American, sometimes British...mostly awkward. The movie wasn't all I had expected it to be. It was frustrating, not very romantic, kind of funny, and tragic. Not exactly my favorite ingredients for a win-me-over-rom-com. Did anyone else see it? What did you think?

I am so grateful for this time I had to reconnect with my loved ones, and reconnect with myself. Oh and reconnect with the blogworld, too :)

So, tis the end of my break. But the beginning of a new semester for me. A semester in which I hope to fare better than I did last semester (emotionally, grade-wise). One in which I will strive for that balance, and try to remember to smile and laugh more often :)

Cheers, and goodbye for now! 

trying not to fall

Hello out there, FRIENDS!!!

Wow - I haven't posted since I was on my little summer break in August! Been missing you and all things blogland! What have I been up to this fall? Essentially... I have been getting my ASS KICKED in PA school! Legitimately. I have never in my life been in a higher stress situation. 11 classes + a clinic day makes it real difficult for this chick to work on life balance. :/ 

So, as you know, I started that Body For Life program in August. My first 4 or 5 weeks were phenomenal! I lost 8 lbs --- success! But then...I failed my first exam in life ever. So, I decided to spend more time on school, and less time at the gym. But that plan proves to be a problem as well, because when I don't have the gym to let out my excess energy and stress, I am just a big mess. Crying nonstop, gaining some lbs back, and not sleeping as well. It's super frustrating. It's like I'm a pendulum, swinging back and forth between school, and living a healthy life. And my momentum gets me stuck on one end of the spectrum, and it becomes difficult to land somewhere in the middle. 

The word of the season is balance. And I'm on a constant quest for it.

Amidst my normal causes for stress, I have a Naggie situation to deal with as well. She has started blaring her TV at night, and then falling asleep to it. So I can hear it all.night.long. At first, I thought she was intentionally trying to ruin me. Now I think it's just that's she's becoming more and more senile and losing her hearing, and not realizing how effing loud her tv is. So I've had to call her and ask her to turn her tv down just to be able to sleep. 

Sleep is totally at the root of my problems. I'm anxious about school, so I don't sleep. Then I'm tired, so I can't study. Vicious cycle. But on Tues I'm going to my primary care physician to get a sleep aid, and hopefully that will help get me back on the right track. 

If I make it through the semester, I will have learned a lot of lessons about coping with high-stress situations. I need to do well in school, but I need to do the little things like walk my dogs, hit the gym a few times each week, cook with my husband, go to church, see my family every few weeks...  And hopefully my quest for balance will be fruitful at some point...I'm hoping sooner rather than later!

Until then, my mantra is "4 week Christmas break, 4 week Christmas break, 4 week Christmas break..."

(I did take a 24-hour break in Fort Collins this weekend --- lounge on the couch, watched Monte Carlo, lunch with my family...refreshing!)

home sweet home --- fall is in full swing at my parents' house!

My mom even let me eat off of my baby plate :P

Cousins playing vampires with candy corn, haha. 

Sister time reminds me to laugh more often, it's therapeutic :)

Cheers :)

camping with the chaps!

Happy Friday to you all!

So, on Monday and Tuesday I had my last finals for summer semester, and now I am free on summer break! I'm happy to report that I pulled As this semester - which is such a huge relief! It really bolsters my confidence in myself, and I feel ready to tackle fall semester [10 classes, integrated physiology/biochemistry...ick] - or at least as ready as I'll ever be!!!

Oh and if you're wondering about my blog post's title, the PA program I'm in is the Colorado Health Associate: Physician Assistant program, or CHAPA --> I call our class "chaps" :P

So now that I'm on my 12-day summer break, I am trying to squeeze in as much summer fun as I can! On Tuesday and Wednesday night, our little familia went camping up near Buena Vista with my PA school class. We had a really good time! And it was so blissful to be breathing in the mountain air without that little nagging thought of "I should be studying" in the back of my head. 

Ready to go!!!

Taking a break from the rain under a tarp :)

Beautiful Colorado sunset!!!

Glow stick time!!!

I love my class :)

Good morning, Colorado!

Sweet little Penny in her t-shirt [so she doesn't scratch her ringworm owies]

On a beautiful hike!

Reading Catching Fire creekside in the sun --- BLISS!

Sunset Wednesday night...so beautiful!

And last night was a girls' night out on the town with some of my coworkers from my job at the hospital before I started school. It was so wonderful to see my girls! I am still glad to be on my new adventure with school and everything, but I really really miss those crazy, beautiful, wonderful ladies!!!

This weekend is another camping weekend for us! So we're loading up the CRV and off to camp up the Poudre Canyon with my family!

Cheers [to freedom and beautiful Colorado!!!]

the hunger games

Howdy! 

Today I took Part 1 of my Anatomy FINAL [Hallelujah!!!], and I have declared the rest of today a closed book/notes day! Now, let me tell you a little bit about the hold Anatomy has taken on my life this summer. 2 hours of Anatomy lecture 4 mornings each week. 8 hours of scheduled dissection lab per week. But, you see, this part is sneaky. They schedule you for 8 hours, but one week my lab group actually spent 22 hours in lab. I keep waiting for that to be comical to me, but it's still too soon ;) 

Dissection lab was such an incredible opportunity for me for SO many reasons. Obviously, I learned a hellofalot! Like, a lot a lot. I am incapable of learning anything else right now, so don't bother to try to get me to listen to anything you might need me to remember later, because I most likely won't even comprehend what you are saying. It is such a blessing that my PA Program [yeah, for you new readers, I started school to become a Physician Assistant in June] has such an incredible lab opportunity. I am so grateful for the body donors for choosing to let me become educated so well on the human body. Being thrown into an interesting/uncomfortable-at-first situation such as cadaver dissection with 3 strangers also forces pretty quick bonding. So, from this experience, I made 3 really wonderful friends. What better way to get to know someone than stick them in a lab together for hours upon hours?!?! But here is a picture of my lab group, affectionately known as "Team Dubs" because we're the W last names in our class :)

This picture cracks me up, it's our typical attitudes during lab. Clearly, I was irritated often enough to earn the reputation a the one with attitude. Haha :)

Anyway [you know how I like my tangents], my point in explaining the time commitment of Anatomy to you is that it has kind of taken over my life. I was reading Anatomy terms/study guides every night before bed, and often dreaming about it. I even would startle awake in the middle of the night by a single anatomical word that seemed to be screaming at me in my head. Sound asleep one second, then "GUBERNACULUM!" and I was awake.

I mean, as nice as body parts are, I got pretty tired of thinking about Anatomy even in my sleep. So I decided to do a bit of light leisure reading before bed. I was thinking I would read for maybe 15 minutes each night just to calm my brain a bit, and direct it to thinking about other things. So I picked up The Hunger Games, a book I bought months ago that has been sitting oh-so-patiently on my bookshelf. Well, turns out that book is not the kind you read calmly for 15 minutes before bed! It is a *page turner*!!! I'm talking on the same level as Angels and Demons or Harry Potter #6. Oh yeah. I ended up reading it in 4 days just so that I could focus on studying again haha. I adored it! And here is my book review for you:

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

 Sometime in the future [no, this book isn't strange sci-fi futuristic], North America is destroyed by natural disasters. The surviving people live in Panem, a nation divided into a Capitol and twelve districts. The Capitol maintains its power over the districts in every way possible, and namely they do so by controlling the food available to its people. One way the Capitol asserts its power is to mandate the annual Hunger Games, a brutal fight-to-the-death between 24 of the districts' children. 

One girl and one boy from each district are chosen by lottery to go fight in these nation-wide televised games. Out of the 24 contestants, only 1 can survive. Katniss Everdeen is the book's protagonist. A 16-year-old girl who comes from extreme poverty seems the most unlikely of champions. She, and a classmate named Peeta, are chosen to represent their district in the Hunger Games. The desolate arena in which they are dropped into to fight for their lives holds every form of danger imaginable - and beyond. 


This book reminds me a bit of a cross between The Giver and 1984. It is suspenseful, involves a love story, yet is a wonderfully easy read. Central themes include the fight for self-preservation - both instinctually and societally. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a gripping read! Plus, The Hunger Games is coming out as a movie in March of 2012, and the cast looks phenomenal!You'd better read it before it comes to theaters!


The Hunger Games was my read #9 of 2011 [I think I might hit my goal of 12 books!], and it is actually the first of 3 in the series. I requested the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay from my school's interlibrary loan, and I can't wait to read them!!!


Anything exceptional you've read lately?
Cheers [to great lit!]