North to Alaska

Home for the Holidays!
We flew up on Saturday, amazingly smooth... no missed or delayed flights! And got in late Saturday night. Then we spent Sunday and Monday with Lucas' family relaxing, eating, playing pool, and planning Rachel's wedding. LOTS of fun! Then on Tuesday we headed down to Kenai to spend the next couple of days with my family. Before we left Anchorage we stopped by the Alaska Wild berry Company to pick up a few belated Christmas gifts and had a little fun with the bears.... (see pictures below) So far in here Kenai there has been lots of good food, Catan, and good company. There is something so comforting about being in the house I grew up in with all of my immediate family close. Here are a couple of pictures....

Christmas Festivities

This last weekend we went to our friends, the Morgans', Christmas party. There was lots of good food, wine, and company! There was a white elephant gift exchange... guess what I got? A SNUGGIE!!! Oh my gosh I just about died laughing!

Then on Saturday night I went out with the hockey ladies! We had Italian... yum! This week I have 2 quizzes, an extra credit assignment, a test, and two article reviews to do. Ugh. 3 more days and then I get a 2 week break! And on Saturday we head home for the holidays!

In other exciting news, as of last Sunday I am officially a 3rd year, and I graduate in 363 days!!! Woo-hoo!

Thanksgiving Fest 2009

In true holiday fashion we headed down to Charlotte to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. It was really great getting to see my dad and Joyce, all my aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins and extended family. We got to show everyone pictures of our new house and then we stuffed ourselves to the gills!
Then on Saturday we hosted our own Thanksgiving dinner with some of our good friends. Our friend Chris Via single handedly ate half of the 24lb turkey I cooked; I've never seen anyone eat so much turkey! We had lots of yummy food including turkey and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pineapple stuffing, asparagus, corn, cheesy broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls.. yum! The green bean casserole was kind of a disappointment to me...last year I found out that I am lactose intolerant and realized at Thanksgiving last year that that includes the cream of mushroom soup in classic green bean casserole (which is my favorite dish at Thanksgiving) So this year, I decided a couple of months ago to make my own cream of mushroom soup with lactose free milk and do a test run with my soup. Well, it turned out great, so I froze some of the soup to use for our Thanksgiving... well, it was thawing on the counter, fell into the sink, and Lucas thought it was old food and bye-bye went all my hard work. *sigh* I ended up buying some organic cream of mushroom soup and using that instead, but it just didn't taste right. Oh well, there's always next year. Hope your holiday was just as merry!

A Time of Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches I find myself full of gratitude; I have a wonderful husband, a loving family, great friends, Lucas has a job, we have a roof over our heads and food in our tummies. God is truly faithful. I feel like recently God has been trying to tell me something; that everything is perfect in His timing. Today, after searching for the past two years, we found a church body to belong to. On our way out today I said to Lucas "maybe God didn't let us find a church all this time because He knew that eventually we would buy a house in Winston" and then low and behold, we loved this church! It was almost like God was speaking through me to me and I didn't even know it! There are other things that I want and am having a hard time waiting for; but even though my emotions may not always be on the same page, at least my head knows that God is in control and has a perfect plan for us. There is so much peace in knowing that.

I also remember 2 years ago when we were first moving into our rental, crying that we knew no one to ask to borrow a truck; I remember for the first time feeling so alone, so far away from all of our friends and family. Several times in the last couple of weeks God has blessed me by showing me how He has provided us with friends and a place to belong; we have had more people than I can count offer to help us move into our new house. What a difference 2 years can make, and how faithful that God has made a home for us here. So today I am thankful... overwhelmed with gratitude for the mighty God that we serve and how He loves us and provides for us, small and insignificant though we may be.

We bought a house!

So last Sunday we went to an open house and ended up falling in love with this house... so we put in an offer! They ended up counter-offering with us back and forth a couple times but in the end, we bought a house! We won't be closing until January 5th because they are waiting on their new home to be finished, and we will be out of town for half of December anyways, so it all works out well. I am so excited!!!

Back to School

Well, clinical #3 came to an end, I had a week off, and today was my first day back in class. It was kind of weird to be back in class after being in the clinic for so long, but at the same time, it felt like I'd never left. (Lucas says to tell you all that he's awesome) The only really new and exciting news with us is that we have decided to stay put in North Carolina for the next 3-5 years. Since Lucas is going to be hired full time with Volvo and will be able to take graduate classes paid for by Volvo, it doesn't make sense for us to leave in a year when I graduate. Also, it seems to make sense to stay put until everyone else in our families has a better idea of where they will be settling. So all this means that we have been looking at houses... and we are pretty sure that we will be putting in an offer on one sometime this week! I will keep you all posted with pictures and what not once things are more definite... or if they fall through and we need to keep looking!

Bring on week 8

Oh my goodness, I am on week 8 of my 3rd clinical... I can scarcely believe it! I am so excited to be almost back to living at home! And I am almost a 3rd year PT student... my, where does the time go? I don't really have anything spectacular to report... My sister is getting more and more prego by the minute, my brother won state championship in football last week, and we have started to look at houses to buy.. hopefully we will be ready to purchase around January or February of next year. Because we DON'T want to live in a subdivision, finding a house that we like that is within reasonable driving distance that is in our price range is beginning to prove a challenge. Pictures are from 2 weekends ago when we went wine tasting at a gorgeous vineyard in Winston-Salem. That's all for now I think.

October

So, what can I tell you? It's kind of crazy how now that I am past halfway it seems as though time is flying by. This week is almost over as I am taking Friday off to see Tiesto in Charlotte, next week I get to watch one (possibly two) brain surgeries and on Friday I am presenting on the anatomy of the brain. Then, the next week is my last week! I am very excited to get to live with my husband again! In other news, it looks like Lucas is going to finally be hired on with Volvo as a fulltime employee! Hopefully (we'll keep our fingers crossed) all the paperwork should be done by December, January at the latest. Can you believe that starting in January I will be a 3rd year DPT student? I can't! Where does the time go.... ?

Halfway

So life continues here in Greenville . I am still very much enjoying my time here (well the hospital anyways) but like I said last week I am tired of driving and really missing Lucas. I keep reassuring myself that there are only 4 more weeks. And then I remember that that means I'll be going back to class as well. Ugh. I can't win can I? I worked 7 days in a row last week with one day off for me to run back up to Greensboro to get my crown fixed and then run back for me to go back to work on Tuesday. It will be worth it though since I get next Friday off to go to Charlotte and see Tiesto (a famous techno DJ). Nothing else really to report except that tomorrow I have my midterm evaluation meeting with my clinical instructor and I'm supposed to have decided what to do my inservice presentation on by then... no clue.

Life goes on...

Hmmm..... what can I say? I had a good week #3 at my clinical... none of my patients were harmed (thankfully) and I got to spend a wonderful weekend watching the Aliens trilogy with my incredible husband. Aside from that, I am growing tired of not seeing Lucas everyday, driving every weekend, the numbness in my toe (and calf), and today on my drive back to Greensville my "permanant" crown fell off... less than a year after I got it put on.... WTF?!?! *sigh* life is good.... but still stressful.

A little bit about where I'm at now...

My current clinical is in Greenville, NC (about 2 1/2 hours away from where we live) and I am doing inpatient rehab which means that I work with patients in the hospital who are medically stable but need to work on building up their strength before they can go home. Most of my patients are neurological patients, meaning they have some sort of brain or spinal cord injury. I also work with patients who may just have a lot of medical problems and need a lot of assistance, such as people with multiple injuries from a car accident. So we do fairly basic things like practicing walking, climbing stairs, working on balance, and sometimes learning to use and maneuver a wheelchair. So far it is going really well but I've had some rough days... there is so much to learn about being safe and not hurting your patients while trying to challenge them to do something that is difficult too. On Monday I had my first patient fall; that is never a good feeling. Everyone assures me that I did everything I could have, but that it just sometimes happens... but it is still hard not to feel responsible or like I should have done something different somehow. Despite that incident, I love the hospital and the facility in which I get to work.. there is so much equipment to work with, and the people are really friendly and wonderful to work with. If this hospital was in Greensboro I would be applying there for sure!
Outside of clinical life is going well too. We got our tickets to go up to Alaska for Rachel and Jordan's wedding today... I am glad we will get to be there for this special event! Lucas and I are handling the distance well, I think better this time since being together for 2 weeks in Italy and my being able to come home on the weekends helps a lot too. Otherwise, I'm keeping busy trying to exercise daily and I'm currently reading a book called "Love life for every Married Couple" by a chrisitian doctor about how God has designed every marriage to be a love affair... So far I don't think some of the priniciples really apply to us (it's geared towards couples who are struggling) but it still has some really good points and lessons to be applied to our marriage. That's all I've got for now...

The Inevitable

Well, it finally happened. I dropped my first patient. I knew it had to happen eventually but I think that part of me was really hoping that it never would. Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most is that I'm pretty sure the patient did it on purpose. So there you go; I feel like crap. That's what's new in the life of Rachel.

Transitions...

It's weird to think that we've already been back over a week and that I've moved to Greenville and have already finished a week at my new clinical site; man does time fly! Our last day in Rome was very relaxing... in fact, other than seeing the San Calisto cattacombs, we pretty much didn't do anything; probably the perfect way to end a busy trip. In the meantime I have moved to Greenville, NC to complete my 3rd clinical rotation at Pitt Memorial Hospital. So far, I love it. The hospital is massive, the rehab gym is phenomenal, and my CI (clinical instructor) is a lot of fun. I also love that Greenville is only 2 1/2 hours from home so I can go home on the weekends without much hassle and see Lucas and all our friends. This weekend I went home and we went to a charity event to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. I got to catch up with the Morgans and the Tishlers, so it was a good time.
As I reflect upon our trip to Italy I find that I am surprised at which moments I remember with the most fondness. For example, especially after visiting the cappucian crypt, I did not anticipate the overwhelming sense of faith and peace that I felt while visiting the catacombs of San Calisto, where archaeologists estimate around half a million Christians from 140AD to 350AD were buried, nor did I expect to remember eating dinner sitting on a curb watching a turd float by as one of my favorite moments. Lying on the grass in the field of miracles, gazing up at the Sistine chapel, listening to music watching the sun go down over St. Mark’s basilica at the Café Florian, dancing with Lucas in San Marco square, sleeping every afternoon in Rome, sitting on a curb eating a goat cheese and prosciutto sandwich with local workers, and realizing how much Lucas loves me after he lost my laptop are some of my favorite memories of Italy. It’s interesting that while seeing the Coloseum, the Pantheon, and so many other sites were amazing, they don’t compare in my memory to the moments I shared with Lucas. :) I have almost completed uploading photos to our shutterfly account, if you would like to see all of the pictures I took, click the link here: http://lucasandracheldargis.shutterfly.com/

Rome: Day 4

It was a good day. We began by sleeping in… oh glorious sleep how I have missed you! We had a leisurely breakfast and then meandered over to view the pyramid followed by St. Paul’s basilica. Compared to some of the other sights we’ve seen on this vacation, neither one were jaw dropping, although St Paul’s was an incredibly beautiful church. The pyramid, which was built as Gaius Cestius’ tomb and is now part of the Aurelian wall, had a protestant cemetery behind it which we also visited. The cemetery is also a cat sanctuary/shelter so I had fun petting the kitties (I miss mine!) Next, we attempted to see the Cappuccian crypt, a crypt decorated entirely from the bones of more than 4,000 monks, but it was closed so we retreated to our hotel for a picnic lunch in our air conditioned room. After lunch (and a quick siesta) we headed back to the crypt which Lucas found fascinating and I found very disturbing. Afterwards we hopped on the metro to return to the Vatican to see St. Peter’s basilica and marvel at its monstrosity. The truth is that while it is breathtaking and vast we both felt that it was rather over the top. However, that is apparently the style of the Baroque period in which the majority of the church was constructed. The sheer size of the church is incredible with the letters on the wall standing over 7 feet tall! The real highlight was also seeing Michelangelo’s Pieta, the sculpture of Mary holding Jesus’ crucified body; Michelangelo sculpted this when he was 24 years old… incredible! To end the day we visited the Borghese gardens and then found dinner in a quaint, but tasty, pizzeria.

Rome; the Eternal City

Where do I start? So much has happened in the last 3 days that I don’t even know where to begin. Rome is slightly overwhelming and definitely awe-inspiring. In a city with 2.6 million people and a 2,000 year history it’s easy to feel small and insignificant. In the last 3 days I have seen things I have only dreamed about including the Coloseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, Palantine hill, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, the Vatican museum, and the Sistine chapel. Today I stood at the very place where Julius Cesar was burned, yesterday I stood in front of the tomb of Raphael in the Pantheon, and on Sunday I stood beneath Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel. Each day has been special and memorable and there is still more to see! Tomorrow we are going back to the Vatican to see St. Peter’s basilica; the largest church in the world, and later the cappuccian crypt, the villa Borghese gardens, and St Paul’s basilica.

We have been trying to take things slower in Rome since we have more time here. We have been doing only one or two sites in the morning and then retreating to our hotel room for a nap and to escape the grueling heat; it is truly unbearable. Then we head out again to see something else, have dinner, and explore some other corner of Rome. Last night we hired a local artist to sketch my portrait, something I have always wanted to have done. It was very intense being the focal point of an artist, and Lucas videotaped his sketching so later I got to see how he did it also. We think he did a very good job, but made my chin more pointed than it is ;) You are welcome to judge for yourself the next time you come over. Well, I think that’s all for now…

Florence

Day One: What a stressful day we had! We got up at 7:15 in order to eat, pack, and catch our bus to the train station to catch our 8:59am train. We became worried that we would miss our train when we didn’t get on a bus until 8:10 or so, of course, all worry was in vain as we made it to the train station by 8:40 and were waiting on our train to arrive when Lucas realized he left his backpack, with my laptop in it, on the bus. *Sigh* then the drama began. I won’t pretend that I handled the situation ideally, but we did handle it in the best way we knew how; which basically meant I yelled and cried and Lucas apologized and comforted me. We missed our train trying to track down his bag and in general trying to locate a number or someone who might be able to help us. In the end we waited at the train station and checked every #11 bus that came to the station until the next train to Florence at 11:59. At 11:30, with still no bag, we found our platform and I sat with bags and waited on the train while Lucas went to see if any more buses came in the next 10 minutes. Wouldn’t you know he returned with his bag and everything still in it just 15 minutes before our next train arrived! That, my friends, is a modern day miracle! I couldn’t believe it, God is so faithful! I couldn’t imagine trying to replace a brand new, $700 laptop anytime soon.
So we were finally on our way to Florence, only 8 Euros poorer and only 2 hours behind schedule. We arrived at 2pm and found our hotel, the hotel Andrea, a quaint hotel in true Italian style (meaning it’s small and very old fashioned). Fortunately the hotel recently installed an elevator so we didn’t have to haul our luggage up the 3 flights of stairs to where our hotel was located. We checked in with no problems, went straight to shower (we had run around all morning checking buses and Florence is HOT), and then had to get the desk clerk to show us how to turn on our AC (turns out it has a remote). Then we decided to wander around and get our bearings. We ended up exploring some local street markets, the Duomo, the Basilica di Santa Trinita, and watching the sunset over the Arno River. Be sure to check out our breathtaking pictures and the picture of Splinter, the oversized Italiano river rat that lives there!

Day Two: Oh my feet are killing me. We did a bunch of exploring today which was a lot of fun but my feet are starting to revolt! We began the day by sleeping in to a decent 9:00 (we are on vacation after all) and then enjoyed the complimentary breakfast and coffee in the little dining room near the entry. They had a nice assortment of cereals, pastries, rolls and cheeses, and my favorite… coffee. I also had a lovely cheese Danish… yum. We started our touring by walking over to a fort which turned out to be just an old fort; nothing to see on the inside, and then proceeded to the Santa Maria Novella church which was closed… so we headed on to the mercato centrale and checked out the local produce. For lunch we ate at this hole-in-the-wall that Rick Steves suggested and had procutto and goat cheese sandwiches on homemade bread sitting curbside with locals… I thought it was yummy and quite the experience. Throughout the day we also saw the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, the Chiesa di Ssan Michele, statues in the Palazzoo Vecchio courtyard.
At 2:00 we had reservations to enter the infamous Uffizi gallery which houses famous works of art by Rembrandt, Leonardo DaVinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo. We spent a good 2 hours exploring and appreciating the progression of art from medieval times to the Renaissance and beyond. Fortunately we had a great audio guide to help us better appreciate what we were looking at. After the Uffizi we walked a couple blocks over to appreciate the Chiesa di Santa Croce to see the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo (plus an amazing church). Apparently the pope had wanted Michelangelo to be buried in Rome but the Florinians stole his body away in the middle of the night and had him buried in Florence as he had requested while alive. And Galileo had been exiled due to his outrageous thinking that the earth revolved around the sun. It wasn’t until 100 years after his death that he was moved to this honored tomb. At this point we retreated to our hotel to rest before venturing out for dinner. We found a quaint café and had brushetta, salad, lasagna, and wine… yummy!

Day 3: What a great day! We decided to make today a leisurely day since yesterday was pretty crazy and headed straight to Pisa to view the infamous leaning tower of Pisa. We enjoyed an hour train ride to Pisa viewing the incredible countryside and arrived at the station in Pisa at around 11:30. We decided to walk to the tower, about a 30 minute walk, getting a feel for the small town. As we rounded the corner in contemporary Pisa, suddenly, there was the tower looming crookedly over the town. We spent the next couple of hours taking our “holding the tower up” pictures, perusing the souvenir stalls, and laying on the field of miracles that is home to the leaning tower, the baptistery, and the duomo. We then headed back to the station, stopping for lunch along the way at a pizzeria where we got 3 pieces of pizza (2 for Lucas, 1 for me) and a bottle of water for less than 5 Euros and then got some excellent cherry gelato next door. After the train ride back we retreated to our hotel for a quick 20 minute rest break and then were off to the Piazzale Michelangelo and the San Miniato church.
After catching our bus, we made it to the San Miniato church just in time for the daily Gregorian chants that are sung every evening at 5:30; it was soooo beautiful. To hear the Latin being sung in a massive church with amazing acoustics; incredible. Next we headed out to get some breathtaking pictures overlooking Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo. Finally, we caught a bus back and got dinner at a little place we found with an all you can eat buffet for 6 Euros-that is a steal here! The food was actually quite good if not a little different. We sampled potatoes and hot dogs (weird combo), sautéed veggies, sausage and tomato tortellini, and several different pasta salads. After dinner, we called it a day heading back to our hotel to pack up and get an early night’s sleep to hit Rome, and hopefully the Vatican the next day.

Verona the Quaint Home of Romeo & Juliet

I can’t believe how quickly our vacation is flying by! Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Verona and checked into our hotel the Maxim. The hotel itself is very nice but we are far away from any of the main tourist attractions which has its pros and cons. Fortunately, we didn’t really have any problems finding and checking into our hotel. The hotel clerk, who was very friendly, referred us to a local market for packable snacks for the opera that evening and suggested a local pizzeria up the road for lunch. So we first headed to the restaurant for a late lunch where we had very good pizza and wine and then headed back to the hotel for a nap! Neither Lucas nor I had slept very well the night before and were in desperate need of some extra sleep especially since we knew we would be staying up late for the opera (which was a good thing to since it didn’t end until 12:45!)
So we took an extended nap and then woke up ready to explore Verona some before the opera began at 9. First we headed to the market where we bought crackers and cheese and grapes and then caught the bus to piazza bra where the arena is. We then found a café for Lucas to pick up some dinner at (I was still full from lunch) and sat to people watch until time to go in. At 8 when the doors opened we anxiously went in to see the arena and find our seats. Our seats were up and to the right of the stage, actually quite close which was a nice surprise since we booked them online it Italian and weren’t sure exactly where we would end up. We were there to see the opera Carmen, a famous French comedy about a beautiful gypsy who woes a soldier into falling in love with her and then leaves him for a bullfighter; his jealousy eventually leads him to murder Carmen. The performance was beautiful with amazing acoustics and truly an experience of a lifetime.
The next day we got up at 9 for breakfast and ready to hit the town… well, I was anyways, Lucas, needing more sleep than any mere mortal was still exhausted so he headed back to bed and I headed into town. While Lucas slept I visited Piazza Erbe, the church of Sant’Anastasia, Piazza dei Signoro, and Juliet’s house. I then met up with Lucas at the fountain in Piazza Bra and we had lunch on the way to Castelvecchio, a totally incredible castle that we spent hours exploring and snapping photos of. Afterwards we visited the Basilica di San Zeno and then called an evening. We headed back to the hotel to call it an early night before getting up early to head to Florence.

Venice; The Romantic Sinking City

Well, we arrived safely in Venice after a long 13 hour trip. Luckily, since we are from Alaska, this length of trip was kind of standard for us, in fact, it’s kind of ridiculous that we can fly halfway across the world to a foreign county in the same amount of time that it takes us to get home. Regardless, I have not logged in to talk about flying to Alaska, but to share about our trip thus far to Italy! So let me get to it... We are currently on the train on our way to Verona after spending 2 glorious days in Venice. We arrived early Sunday morning and after a little bit of time and a lot of Euros we were on our way across the water to Venice; the airport is actually located on the mainland so we had to bus to the main station and then take a vapporetti (think water bus) to our area of the floating city. We stayed at the Pelligrio and Commercio a quaint hotel located in a tiny alley right near San Marco Square. Our room was super tiny, slightly larger than those you would find on a cruise ship, but who comes to Venice to spend it in a hotel room anyways? Fortunately the continental breakfast was good and the beds were fairly comfortable so our stay there was pleasant. In addition, the location was ideal for first time visitors to Venice as it allowed us the luxury of popping in and out whenever we needed to use the restroom or change sandals. After arriving in Venice we opted to take a nap in order to actually enjoy our evening and not just be zombies for the entire day. So after a refreshing nap we hit the town.
Okay, on to the exciting stuff. Our first afternoon we spent wandering the streets and becoming familiar with the layout of the city and the surrounding cites. We purchased a San Marco Square pass which allowed us entry to the Doge Palace and the Correr museum. We spent an hour or two exploring the Correr museum which held various statues, paintings, artifacts and relics. We explored San Marco Square taking in the sights (and Lucas chasing the pigeons) and then meandered to the famous Rialto Bridge where we did some window shopping and admired the beautiful Murano glass and carnival masks. We then finished off the evening with a glass of wine at a local shop and tucked ourselves into bed.
Day two began with a look at the Doge Palace and then St. Mark’s Basilica. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it is to stand in a church that was built centuries ago and by hundreds of craftsmen. Both cites were breathtaking and a work of art without all the beautiful statues, woodwork, mosaics, and paintings that were found in both. Afterwards, we stopped off at our hotel to change footwear and were off to do a self-guided walking tour of some of the churches of Venice. We stopped at approximately 8 churches; can you believe we still managed to miss more than 30! Unfortunately there was just not enough time in the day and our feet began to complain. So we headed back for dinner stopping at a nearby market to pick up a bottle of wine for the evening. We grabbed some pizza from a local vendor and sat canal side enjoying our pizza and wine. To finish the day off we headed to the Café Florian, which is the most famous Venetian café and one of the first places in Europe to serve coffee. It has been visited by Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Casanova, and now of course, by us. J We each enjoyed a ridiculously expensive espresso, incredible tiramisu, and live music in the square. The perfect ending to a perfect day.

Clinicals, Italy, and so much more!

Where do I start? So for the past 7 weeks I have been in Richlands, VA fulfilling my acute care rotation at a hospital called Clinch Valley Medical Center. It has been a really long 7 weeks as I have been working 6 days a week to get done a week early. This has of course been great because now.... we are going to ITALY!!! The last day of my clinical is tomorrow and we leave on Saturday to go to Italy for 2 weeks! We will be hitting up Rome, Florence, Verona, and Venice. We are super excited. I can't wait to stand beneath the Sistine chapel, see the colloseum, Michaelangeo's David, the leaning tower of Pisa, Juliet's balcony, and so much more! This is going to truly be an experience of a lifetime! I promise to do my best to post pictures and keep anyone who actually reads this thing updated!
In other exciting news, since I last posted, my sister is pregnant (about 5 months now), my niece was born 7 weeks early, and my sister in law Rachel is engaged! So my sister surprised us all by announcing her pregnancy on our trip to Alaska for my brother's graduation. They still don't know what they are having yet, but we are stoked whether it is a boy or a girl! My first niece Gabriella Christine Dargis was born 7 weeks early in a scary situation; my sister in law Carmen woke up covered in blood with a detached placenta. The good news is that after an emergency C-section both Carmen and Gabby are doing great. She is growing daily and has finally been allowed to go home... she only weighs 4 lbs! And just a week ago Rachel and Jordan got engaged and are looking at getting married in February or March.. they are still in the planning stages but are super excited to get married and start their life together.
Lucas and I are doing great... it has been really hard to be apart for these last 7 weeks, especially knowing that we will be apart for another 2 months for my next clinical as well. Fortunately, God saw fit to give us a wonderful 2 week vacation in Italy together; hopefully it will be wonderful and just what we need! Well that's all for now... I will try to do better with posting ;)

The craziness that is my life!

I can't believe that it is already the middle of May! Where does the time go?
I'm gearing up for round 2 of testing which signifies that I am approximately halfway through this module! Crazy! The last several weeks have flown by... we moved into our new house, which we LOVE (pictures coming soon!), I had a presentation to give on muscular dystrophy, I have a test I am taking early this Friday, the relay for life event is this Friday, I am flying home for my brother's graduation on Saturday, will be there through Wednesday and then I will be flying home to drive straight to class to take another test! And then I have a 10 page paper I need to write! Whew... I'm tired already! I think I will actually be glad to come home to "just" write a 10 page paper! Anywhoo... I will leave you with a picture of Chloe who we had groomed and flea dipped before we moved her over to the new house... she looks mad but she really has been so much happier... I think she likes feeling like a lioness!

Birthday Festivities, Moving, & More School

So I realize that I am really bad at this blogging thing, but you guys have to bear with me. It's just that I always have something else that I should be doing. Even now when I should be making notecards, I am posting to you guys... so feel special!
So I celebrated my 26th birthday at the beginning of this month.... Lucas and I and another couple (the Morgans) drove down to Charlotte and went clubbing to the mixings of DJ Marcus Shultz. We partied until 3am and then drove 1 1/2 back! Crazy... I'm getting much too old to be doing stuff like that! Then on Friday a bunch of us went out to dinner to celebrate. I received lots of warm wishes and some very generous gifts... thanks to all of you! (Thank you cards are also on my to-do list)

Some of you may also be aware that we are moving on May 1st. We are moving a little closer to Greensboro to a town called McLeansville so that Lucas has less of a commute. We are also looking forward to putting a little distance between us and the undergrads as they are a little too noisy for our liking. This of course also means that I will be commuting a little, McLeansville is about halfway between Elon and Greensboro, which means that we need a reliable car. So we have also been looking at cars and trying to figure out what we want. So far we haven't decided on anything for sure.

As always, I am up to my ears in school work. Last week we had our first tests of the module and this week I had my first practical; I did pretty well overall. This upcoming Wednesday I will get the opportunity to shadow a pediatric home health physical therapist. I am really looking forward to the chance to learn more about home health and how it differs from traditional physical therapy. Next Monday I have another practical, and then next weekend we'll be moving and I have a presentation to give on the 5th! Yikes! SO... if you think of me, say a prayer! I think the next couple of weeks are going to be crazy!!! Miss you!

Hockey, hockey, and more hockey!

Let me think, How can I sum up the last week? One word: Hockey. Last Tuesday I got to go watch one of Lucas' hockey games, which was a treat for me because they are usually too late so I don't get to go see them. Then on Wednesday we went with my sister and her husband and saw the Hurricanes play the NJ Devils. And then on Sat. we went with Lucas' hockey team to watch the Hurricanes play the Capitals... we were rooting for the Capitals and unfortunately they lost. :( We did get to watch some hilarious Mascot hockey of all the mascots fighting each other... the blue guy on the left who is bent over spent the whole time on the ground... so funny!
On Friday night Lucas and some of his coworkers went to support one of their friends in an acapella competition. Their group was called Central Station and so Lucas and his friends made a train! Hopefully this link will work for you guys:

I suck at this :)

Okay, so I am definitely not a very good blogger. I guess I probably should have known this since I'm not a very good journal writer or anything like that either. It's not that I don't have thoughts, or really even the time (most of the time) to sit down and write... I just always seem to find things that seem more important. Oh well, so here I am trying to be a better "blogger". I have finished my first clinical, which was an amazing experience... sadly though, that means I am back in class (boo) Don't get me wrong, I like the profession I have chosen and find most of what I am learning very interesting, I just hate sitting in class all day. Plus it's very hard to stay focused and really absorb all that information for 8 hours. We are currently learning about the brain though, so that is really interesting. I have discovered that I am what I call an "unwilling learner"... meaning I never want to go to class or be in class, but once I am there I am fascinated at all the cool stuff I get to learn.
For the week off in between my clinical and resuming class, Lucas and I went to Vegas for our 2 year anniversary and Lucas' birthday. We had a lot of fun seeing the sights and all the shows. We were able to see Phantom of the Opera, KA (A Cirque Du Soleil show), and Lance Burton (famous magician) They were all very cool. We were also able to meet up with Lucas' aunt and uncle and spend some time with them, which was also really fun. We did a lot of walking though and in the end, almost needed a vacation from our vacation!
In other interesting news, I have joined the Relay for Life Elon DPT team! I decided that it had been much too long since I had signed up to do any kind of fund raising/volunteer work and that it was time for me to give back a little more. I don't really have any moving story about why I joined and how someone I know died or recovered from cancer, I just know that I have more to give, both of my time and money, and so I am trying to answer that calling. If you would like To donate online now, click here to visit my personal page.... no pressure though :)
Tonight my sister and her husband came over and we had dinner and played Catan (a really cool board game)... it was great to see them both and we all had a really good time. I love that my sister is closer now... so sad that she will be far away much sooner than later :( I think that's all I've got for now... !

Heat wave in February?

It is 67 degrees right now. In February! I'm telling you it's just not right! I will admit that it is a nice change for a couple of days though... Maybe the ground hog didn't know what it was talking about after all? So Lucas and I are getting ready to start looking for a new place to live. Our lease is up at the end of May and so we are trying to decide whether we want to go ahead and buy a house or just lease until I'm done with school... we still don't know if we want to stay or not. Say a prayer for us that God will lead us to make the right decision. Speaking of God, we tried a new church today in Greensboro, it was an assemblies of God church and overall we both really liked it but it was SO long! It was close to an hour and 45 minutes... that is a long time to sit! I think we are going to keep looking but I feel like we would be comfortable there if we don't find one that feels more like home... anyways, I need to go work on my presentation (I'm giving a presentation about aquatic physical therapy on Thursday)... later!

Blast from the past

So while I was fiddling around on this thing I was thinking that this all seemed really familiar... I knew that when Lucas and I first started dating that we made a blog together so that we could log how our relationship progressed. Unfortunately we only made it about a year... but I found it and linked it to our new site for anyone who wants to visit and read about the first year of our dating adventures. I'll warn you it's a little sappy at times so beware.... plus I am really thankful that I've lost weight since some of those pictures :)

A New Beginning for 2009

Okay, so I've been inspired by my sister to start my own blog... I don't know how much time I'll actually have for it, but I waste enough time doing other random things, why not do something that my friends and family can read and have some idea of what's going on in my life? I guess realizing that my sister is an hour away and I still rarely have any idea of what's going on in her life made me think that maybe it was a good idea... because if I can barely keep up with her, how can I expect to really keep up with all my friends and family that are all over the US? Exactly. That's what I thought too.
So here I am... trying to figure out how to set up my own blog and avoiding one of the two homework assignments I actually have to do while on my clinical... pathetic huh? I am also sick... I stayed home from my clinical yesterday because I had lost my voice entirely... when I called my CI (clinical instructor) to tell her I didn't think I should come in, I actually couldn't get my voice to work right away.. I was scared she was going to hang up on me! Anyways, for those of you who don't know I am currently on my first of 3 8 week clinicals that I am required to do over the next year. So far I love it. The clinic I'm in is kind of slow but my CI allows me a lot of independence which is very nice. I LOVE not being in the classroom and it is so nice to get my first real taste of what I'll be doing for the rest of whatever... so far I like what I see :)