Sarah’s Blog

Heidi, Patrick, Ryan

Happy Birthday to Heidi! We celebrated by going to PF Chang. It was great fun.

Sarah, Jake

Crystal, Dave

Trying out my new camera!

For some reason, my pictures from my trip aren’t uploading properly.  So…I do have more pictures to post, but it’s “under construction.”  Just like everywhere else, eh?

These past few weeks have flown by. I have been meaning to post some pictures/updates from my trip to Utah and beginning of my rotations. So here we go…

My trip home was great! The drive home by myself was REALLY long but I survived (thanks to audio books!) I spent a day in Delta with my mom. We took a drive to Richfield and had dinner on Spencer & Jonene at Wingers. Later the girls had fun showing me and mom there trampoline tricks.

The next morning we drove to Provo and met up with Marlene, Oscar, Lily & Henry. We continued on to Liberty Park where we met Juliette, Alex, and Shealea. We rode the carnival rides, played in the water, fed the ducks, and ate snow cones! That night Marlene made a delicious dinner for Phil and us.

Mom and I drove up to Midway where we spent the night at Ilene and Curts. It was fun being in the mountains and seeing the stars. What a great way to spend my birthday!

Thursday I drove to Lagoon and spent the day with the Forsberg’s. We had a blast on the rides. My favorite was Liam’s facial expressions on the roller coaster. It was just great seeing the boys and catching up on their lives. Seth, Joey, and Liam are all in school now.

After a sunny day, I partied with some high school and college friends at Cynthia & Jeff Fowler’s house. It was so fun having everyone get together! I love great friends. We BBQ’d, talked about the Olympics, school/work/dating/babies! We ate birthday cake and the kiddo’s helped me blow the candles out! It couldn’t get any better…

I met up with my friend Jake from Mesa on my drive back to Midway. We drove up the mountains east of Bountiful. What a spectacular view of the SLC valley.

Friday mom and I drove back to Delta where I packed up some goodies and headed off to St. George. I stayed with Kim Hayes Christensen and her family. Her kids are so cute and fun. We toured the town and catch up on the past 10 years. I need to be better at staying in touch. The next morning her dad, Gordon, came over and we had a nice breakfast before I hopped back in the car for the end of the long drive. I made it safely to Mesa and got all ready for Monday to begin.

Monday came quickly, and my nerves were going haywire. Day one of my OB/GYN rotation began. Surprisingly, I really have liked the rotation. After I got over the fact of the “location of study” and really focused on the concepts, it has become easier to talk with patients and perform some procedures. There is great variety in the field with clinic, surgery, and on call for labor and delivery. I have loved the OR, even though I get yelled at each time I scrub in. It’s all a learning process! It’s amazing to see what goes on in the OR and what steps each procedure follows. I really like it, even if I’m physically exhausted. It is a much better way to spend my day, rather than sitting in class and being mentally exhausted!

Rachel and I are on the hunt for a couch/futton for our tiny front room. Rachel doesn’treally care if we have anything, but I feel it is needed if we every have anyone come over. Some seating would be nice. We checked out DI with no luck. I will continue to check craigslist and compare against new furniture.

I’m excited for mom to come to town for the holiday this weekend. I know she’s coming for the grandboys and Rachel, and that’s cool. It will be great to have her here. I unfortunately am on call this weekend, so without avail I’ll be working because I’d rather not! We’ll see how the week plays out.

I finally invested in a camera.  I bought a Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS - I will try to be better at posting pictures.

As I was waiting for my flight to leave from San Jose, I decided to use the restroom before I was stuck on the plane. I went in an empty stall, just sat down and all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I see that my toilet paper rolls were being changed. I glanced over and there I was exposed to the world. The cleaning lady was in the stall right next to me and had unlocked the silver box that contains the toilet paper, etc for my stall. Apparently she didn’t notice (or didn’t care) that I was sitting on the toilet. I quickly covered my legs and wondered what I should do. Do I quickly get up or wait? I just patiently waited until she had finished her work, and then gracefully left the bathroom.

Another funny thing… So Rachel and I are in a new ward, as of two weeks now. Well, last week we are both sitting and waiting for RS to start. Brother Neilson comes and introduces himself to us and then explains that he is going to need to visit with each of us. I went first and we had a nice chat. Then Brother Neilson, who has been in the Bishopric about 3 weeks, said he had a calling for me. He scanned over his pages of notes, vigorously looking for my name. After a few minutes he called out: “Aha! I found it… We would like to extend a calling to you to be (such and such).” I proceeded to accept and exit the room. Rachel followed my visit and came back laughing at me. She asked if I was on the “Munch and Mingles Committee.” I said yes. She then informed me that Brother Neilson was going to need to visit with me again. That as he was looking for her name she pointed it out, and he said enthusiastically “Oh!” With a quick little disheartened sigh right after and “Oooh! I think I’m going to need to visit with your sister again. Rachel, I hope you are as excited about this calling as your sister was.” I was a little less enthusiastic about the “second” calling I received as a Gospel Doctrine teacher. It is going to be very time demanding, and I pretty much hate teaching. I guess this will be good learning experience!  Welcome to the ward!

The year has flown by! And what a year it has been. There have been ups and downs, hard classes and easy classes, parties and ceremonies, sad days and happy days, reflective moments and strong pursuits, flowers and heartbreak, and best of all, I survived! I have finished my written final exams and anticipate passing my OSCE’s tomorrow morning. Last week was our White Coat Pinning Ceremony which transitioned us from “Tweeners” into our clinical year. I have finished the didactic phase of my schooling. I have a full two weeks break before rotations actually begin.

Rachel came to the ceremony. She fell asleep but woke up just in time to see me get pinned. It’s the thought that counts, right? I can see that it might not be the most interesting event if you aren’t interested in medicine. We had speakers talk about healthcare, professionalism and our purpose as a provider. We recite our oath, we receive our pin or white coat (this is for both first and second years), and have time to mingle with our families. Thanks for the beautiful flowers, Mom!

I remember the first day being a first year and wondering what it was going to be like. All the second years said it was going to fly by and to just learn and enjoy what you can. Part of me thought, “Yeah, I know time flies by, but this is 14 months of intense schooling?” And it has been long months with really long days, but the time has gone so fast. And I’m supposed to know something by now. I guess I will find out when I start my rotations.

ATSU PA Class 2009 - I’m on the second row, second from the right side.

I recall when I first moved to AZ and had Amanda along for the ride. She was doing me a favor, by taking the long trek with me, and I was doing her a favor by bringing her down for her interview. She started a few months later. This Saturday she graduates. In one more year, that will be me.