Happy Anniversary!

Our first anniversary was amazing :) I woke up to a few strategically placed, sweet gifts around the house with "Happy Anniversary" written on them. Included was a huge stack of printer paper (I've been printing A LOT of notes lately) since it is the paper anniversary. We got all dolled up and had a wonderfully romantic dinner at a nice restaurant. The Denver Broncos football team was there. After a wonderful dinner the waitress brought us a huge AMAZING piece of strawberry cheesecake and wished us happy anniversary, then several other staff came to do the same. It was so sweet to see the way Matthew responded when people asked how the first year went. I always feel so loved and cherished when I'm with him, and it was wonderful to have a night to celebrate us. The first year has been incredibly wonderful, and I can't wait for many more. I don't know how I got so lucky to have a guy who takes such good care of me, but also respects me, believes in me and supports me. I'm not sure I could be doing what I'm doing without him, or at least I'm glad I don't have to. This year has felt so natural, I can't imagine my life without him in it. I feel incredibly cheesy and hopelessly romantic writing this, but it is just so wonderful to be married to such an amazing man, who I can trust and love with all my being without any reservations. Tomorrow we go home for the wedding, and I get to see a lot of the family again. I am so lucky to have such amazing extended family. A couple girls in my class were talking about their in-laws who they don't much care for, and I felt so incredibly blessed to have the amazing in-laws that I do. Not only do I care for them, but I love them dearly. Oh, and I just found out I received an A on an INSANE paper I wrote a couple of weeks ago! Today, I feel like the most blessed person in the world :)

I'm a genius

Half way through the first term and I'm acing tests left and right! And now it's time for a beautiful 3 day weekend :) I spent most of my time this week studying for my test this afternoon so I need to catch up on some other things, but I think it will be okay. I'll be great to see the family next weekend, even though it'll be a really quick trip. Hopefully I'll get to see Mandi sometime soon too, I get to see Lysha and the kids when I'm home :) Sounds like they are growing really fast. Oh! And I just remembered I get to go dress shopping this weekend! That'll be fun.

I was planning on doing the Denver marathon in October, but I am so worn out lately I'm thinking of doing the half marathon and focusing on my speed. I'm hoping to finish in two hours. I feel kind of lame, but I figured I did one marathon this year already, so a half should be okay :) Then maybe I'll do the Colfax marathon next year. It's mid-May I think...

Anyway...just thought I'd check in :)

Surviving!

The fourth week of school is almost over and I am SO tired! I had two major tests this week and am now completely worn out. I need to get some major studying done in the next couple weeks to make up for the weekend I will miss when I go home, but it will be GREAT to see all of the family, and I'm sure the wedding will be amazing. It will be nice to have a mental health weekend, and I can study on the plane so it should be alright.

I am looking into doing my first clinical in Vancouver. We think we may like to live there when I'm done with school. It would be hard to be away from Matthew for that long, but the plan has always been for me to do clinicals at places we might want to live so I can make contacts. January would be a good month too because I could go home on weekends to help Janae and Auntie Kit with their wedding plans, and if Johnny gets married in January I will already be there, so that's just a couple less plane tickets to buy! It might actually save money, because I would already be there for Janae's wedding too. Anyway, that's a ways away and there's a lot of things left to consider before anything happens on that front.

Okay, time to study. It's never ending! I can't believe how much information has entered my brain in just three and a half weeks :P

Vancouver?

I have my first BIG exam tomorrow and I'm freaking out. A few inconsistencies between different sources for myotomes frustrate me, but as long as I have a source if it causes me to miss a point I can rectify the situation. Myotomes are more general anyway, it's not an exact science. Matthew's flight has landed and he'll be home soon so it'll be nice to see him :) Please send good vibes between 9am and noon tomorrow! It will be nice once the first one is under my belt. I'm hoping I start feeling better soon, I haven't ran in over a week. I'm debating if I'll have enough energy to do a marathon in October, I might have to do a half. I'm sure it will be okay. I've probably just been tired from being sick. The next two weeks aren't as intense at school as the past few have been so hopefully I'll have a bit more energy. I talked to most of the family yesterday and that was really nice. I've been looking into Vancouver, WA and I think Matthew and I could be really happy there. It's only 3 hours from home, under two hours from the mount Rainer where we love to camp, barely over an hour to the ocean, 15 minutes to Portland so he would probably have tons of job opportunities, plus the Columbia river runs through it and there's lots of lakes. Hopefully Matthew will like the idea :) Maybe I could do a clinical there and see how much I like it, and make some contact in case I do. I looked at houses too (I started researching Vancouver during my study breaks this weekend) and they are much more affordable than Denver, which I guess is obvious. It would be nice to be closer to family. It is still a few years away but now is the time to start thinking about clinical locations. Maybe I could do my first clinical there, then I would be close to home for Janae's wedding. We'll see! I'll talk to Matthew then talk to Betti. Of course if I lived there I'd have to pay rent. But my Elliott family has a cousin living in Portland....maybe they could steer my in a good direction if I/we decide to do that.

Boring blog, don't feel obligated to read

I've survived the first 20% of my first term! yay! It's supposed to be the most intense, so I am happy with amount of clearance my head has above the water right now. Still tons to do, but I don't feel behind, just feel like I need to keep working hard! I'm pretty excited about that! Of course right now in anatomy we have moved into the forearms which are a beast. I'm getting ready to spend yet another Saturday in the anatomy lab, but Matthew and I are going to a party for one of his coworkers who just quit, so I'll have a little mental health time. I went for a run this morning, I was planning for 6 but only did 1.5, I was mostly feeling great, but I hit the weights really hard on Thursday and my adductors were still super tight. I figured they would losen up but they were just getting worse, so I figured I'd give them another day to recoup. I was glad I did because when I stopped, oh man did they hurt! I definitely don't want to make things worse. Monday is my first official day of training for the Denver marathon! I am so excited :) My energy levels from week 1 to 2 of school are a lot better too, my body has adapted well to the long days and hard morning workouts, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Do people say stoked anymore? That was kind of fun to say. One of Matthew's close family friends just got engaged and is getting married either January or February, and we have weddings the first 2 weekends of February, both of which I am in and are people incredibly important to me (best friend and Aunt) so obviously that's where I'll be! I'd really love it if Matthew were there, especially at my Aunts, but we are going to have to start to pick and choose with all of these weddings. Lucky I'm in clinical all January and start classes on February 9th, so Auntie Kits wedding will come right after the first week when things aren't too crazy and there probably isn't a test the second week, and Janae's I'm hoping I can put in extra clinical hours early on and be there for her a few days ahead of time. So that was not a very exciting blog....I really should get a diary or something for all my unimportant thoughts that I think....as if everyone wanted to know my plans for the weddings ;) Well, I should try to hit the postoffice and the bank before I meet my group at the lab...I hope some of them are open.

I'm alive!

I promised Mandi I would try to blog more, so I will try to do some short and sweet ones more often! We had our first thunderstorm of the season today and it was wonderful, and the rain just started up again, yay! I love the smell of rain! School is going better than I expected. I know it's only been three days, but I'm happy with how well it's gone. I've studied for at least a few hours ever night and that's gone well. This weekend will be lots of reading and memorizing of anatomy note cards, but luckily most of it is fairly familiar, anatomy wise anyway. I have a HUGE reading assignment for my Monday lab on manual muscle testing, but that should be really interesting so I look forward to it. One girl already dropped out of the program yesterday. I'm not sure why. All I know is that during the cadaver lab she was having some problems and was pretty emotional and went home, then we found out today that a new student is starting tomorrow, yikes! That will be overwhelming for him! I really feel for the girl that had to withdraw from the program, I know it's likely there were other factors other than having difficulty with the cadavers, but it is so much work just to get into the program and she made it, only to have to withdraw. Maybe she is going to come next year, who knows her reasons, but I wish her the best of luck! That must have been a really hard decision. So far I have still been able to get to bed at a decent hour and get my runs and workouts in, thank goodness! Because everyone knows how I get when I don't get my workouts in... ;)

Good bye, and good luck

This will probably be the last time I blog for awhile. Tomorrow, my life as I know it will end ;) I'm excited and nervous, and not entirely sure what to expect. Annoyed with the commute and lack of wonderful solutions, but I'll figure something out. I'm stressed out before I even start and that's not a good sign! I should do some yoga. I need to clean so the house is a little less cluttered. I hear from everyone the first two years of all professional programs are pretty comparable in difficulty, weather it be physical therapy, dentistry, medicine, etc. So I guess I can just thank my lucky stars I didn't go into medicine and my clinicals are pretty much normal hours and not like 20 hour days or whatever med students end up doing.

Okay, time to go clean and shower and try not to freak out prematurely. Wish me luck! I'll need it. As if I didn't talk to those I love little enough already now it will be even less so...but in a few years hopefully that will change :) I'm excited! Really! You'll all have to come visit and take a tour of our campus sometime, it's amazing! Okay...calming down now....