Pictures from San Francisco

My lady friends!!!!!

Pictures of challenge bowl which is like the National PA quiz bowl, our school won last year....not so much this year. Actually, "Midwestern" won which is where Brooke Mecher graduated from as a PA...CONGRATS!

New haircut!!!!

Starting Clinical Rotations

Celebrating finally being done...this was after our pinning ceremony and pledge to the profession...serious business.



Sorry it's been a while but I had 3 weeks off and went to FL to see the fam and then to CA for the national PA conference. I'm officially a 2 nd year and start rotations tomorrow. My 1st one is psych, then ER and then surgery. I'm super excited and super nervous at the same time. I'm posting various pics so enjoy :)




I'm finally done with didactic year!!!

Kickin in the Keys

Well Mike is now in the Keys, I've been here for 2 weeks. Summer camp is underway and it is going great, it's fun but it's exhausting. It's crazy hot here so it's nice that I live on the water. These are some pictures of me floating in front of the apartment and a pic my roomate took after I crashed after a long day of camp.

New Floors and End of Semester

Well Caroline was very busy the past week with finals, but she is all done. She passed and is now ready to start her internship rotations in June. Mike was very busy the past 3 days putting in new flooring in the condo. A big thanks go out to Nate Hickey for his help with the floor and for the use of his tools. Here is a before and after shot of the floor.

crazy days ahead

so these are out of order but the 1st and last picture is of me drawing an IV on my buddy adam and getting it on the 1st try!!! we had an open lab and just practiced all our skills..no not numchuck skills but blood draws, IV's, NG tubes, injections/shots etc.

this is just for fun, me in germany wearing my favorite red bathing suit with apples on it and red sandles to match...so hott!

these are 2 of my fave girlies at PA school autumn from california on the left and heather from CT this is right before xmas break hence the winter apparel (i told you these were old)


hey my peeps--
i really wanted to blog but i have no new pictures so i think i'll post some old ones. anyway, last day of class on friday...i have 5 finals in 4 days and of course am freaking out. i need lots of prayer!!! also, we have oral exams. those of you in medicine (brooke and joy) know what i mean. pretty much they give us a scenario and we have to figure out how to diagnose treat etc. out loud to a panel of professors. yikes i tell you. i know i owe some people phone calls and email and after this week i will try to get on that :) i will be in sunny FL may 14-23 so i hope to see or hear from some of you then. gotta go study...miss everyone a whole bunch!!!
caroline

splinting and casting lab

here are some crazy pictures of us learning how to put on casts and splints. we also had to saw them off each other...yikes! people don't really get cut because the saw just vibrates but we did have some burns from the saws..ouchies! it was a really fun lab. may 12th is my last day...we get "pinned" on our white coats as a sign of transitioning into our clinical year..can't wait :)

the countdown and some big news

hi friends---
so i have less than a month left of didactic year (the school part). our last day is may 12th and then we start our clinical rotations june 5th. we get 3 weeks off but for one of the weeks we go to the national PA meeting which is being held in san francisco this year.
i have some exciting news but somewhat sad news, michael recently got offered a job as a camp director (his dream job) of a YMCA. he is super excited about this opportunity because it's really difficult to get a supervisory position without previous experience or some kind of master's degree in management. the only tricky part is that this job is out in key west....so after praying and talking about it mike decided to accept the job as a temporary position for the summer and then he will come back to me. i'm very excited for him but it will be so weird not having him here. it will also be the first time i haven't had some type of a roommate. anyway, he will be living with a buddy that he graduated with from UF who recommended him for this job. so please pray and keep us in mind as we once again start a new adventure.
we miss our family and friends and love hearing from you guys.

st. patrick's day party during spring break

these pictures all came out mini-sized for some reason but these are my PA buds. this was right before spring break so everyone had a really good time.

anniversry trip continued

here's more pics of the bed and breakfast. after our horse ride there, we went shopping to the outlet malls...another fave activity of mine. we then went our for a nice dinner and headed back to our room for hot tub excursions by the fireplace...which both are a must in our next home.

the next day, we had anawesome breakfast made to order while watching the horses frolic...it was really nice. we then drove to maine for another surpise. we stayed and went snowboarding at Sunday River for the next 2 days...an awesome ski resort.

there was also a fireplace where we stayed and an outdoor hot tub which is key after a long day of snowboarding. it really was a great trip! i felt very pampered and relaxed.

3 years down a lifetime more to go :)

Surprise Anniversary Trip

March 8th was our 3rd year anniversary...how time flies! i didn't have spring break until march 15th or so and mike planned an awesome surpirse 3 day getaway for us. we left at 7am on tuesday and our first stop was at a cracker barrel for breakfast--which is my fave breakfast place. we then drove to new New Hampshire where we arrived at a bed and breakfast that was also a horse farm! i love horses so this was an extra great surpirise for me.


look at that beautiful view of the mountains.
here we are with my horsie. it was actually a beautiful day to go on a trail ride.



here is a picture of our...pretty posh suite. we had our own fireplace and gigundo jacuzzi tub. it was so fun to get away. mike brought bubbles and champagne and we had chocolate covered strawberries. is this romantical or what?

spring break

so i'm finally on spring break for this next coming up week (13-17th). it's so nice to be normal for a change. i cleaned, i baked cookies, took a nap and talked to a bunch of friends. i'm excited for school to be over (the class part) and to finally start my rotations. after this week i only have a month and a half left!!!! i have another break in may (2 weeks) but for half of it i will be going to the national PA conference in San Francisco. mike is enjoying his job as a children's counselor working at a crisis prevention service facility or something like that. basically, kids stay there for a max of two weeks to get them out of a bad sitaution, often brought there by their parents/guardians who don't know what to do or if a kid runs away from home etc. mike's actually takig me on a surpise trip tuesday-thursday to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary which was last wed. i'm super excited...he definitely gets mad browny points for planning a trip.

my turn

a tube down your nose, down your throat, and into your belly....fun times.

NG tubes

here we are learning how to put nasogastric tubes in each other....a wretchingly thrilling experience. it wasn't that bad for me but others were gagging profusely, vomitting and passing out. you do end up with a nasty sore throat afterwards. however, if you should need a NG tube or a urinary catheter i'm a proferssional :)

girls night out

here are some of the girls from my program. after a week of exams we decided to go out dancing and have a couple of drinks...we had a blast! mike went with us and it was so nice to do something normal for a change. unbelievably so this was only my 2nd or 3rd time going out since we've been here. we even ordered pizza when we got home.....i LOVE pizza, for a minute i felt like i was back in college or something.

caroline's day to day

well, i'm obviously in school for most of my life. i only have 2.5 months left of class and then we have a 2 week break in may and then i start my clinical year of rotations....crazy! right now i'm studying surgery, pediatrics, ob/gyn, psych, pharmacy and some other ethics type classes. i love surgery and am actually really enjoying ob/gyn as well. i also work in a cardiac ER on fridays so that's been really cool. i'm playing co-ed intramural bball and not much else going on besides that. we currently have no snow and the weather is 30-40ish. i miss friends and family a lot!!!!

here' a random picture of a sunset evening in italy summer 2004

snowy moments

more frolicking in the powder

here you can see the depth of the snow right outside of our door. we could hardly get it open. it snowed from 10pm sat. night until sometime sunday evening.

snow angels!!!!!!

we recently had a major snowstorm in CT and had like 15 inches of snow or something crazy. mike and i decided to go frolick and enjoy it while it's here :)