Bienvenidos a Mexico!

Just a sneak peak to our first day in paradise!

First Day was a success!  

275 pound Marlin caught by yours truly (and Jake!)

Body Worlds and Decorating the Christmas Tree!

Aside from feeling shards of glass in my throat every time I swallow and facial pressure that makes me feel like a balloon, I am feeling slightly better!  I think medical providers are the worst patient because I absolutely hate taking any sore of medicine, but for the first time in my life... I can't get enough of nyquil, dayquil, and chloreseptic cough drops!

My friend.

Jake and I went to the BodyWorlds exhibit yesterday at the Anchorage Museum with his parents. VERY cool!  It was like a tasteful version of cadaver lab that we did in my first quarter of PA school.  

From the BODY WORLDS website:

Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds is the original anatomical exhibition series. It displays authentic human bodies, willed by donors and preserved through plastination. The series is designed to educate the public about the human body and increase health awareness.

I think Jake was initially a little freaked out, but by the end, he got into it and really enjoyed the experience!  If the exhibit ever comes to your hometown, I highly recommend it.

The rest of the day was spent doing very important things.  And by important of course I mean: watching Elf & Home Alone, snuggling with Jake, drinking hot cocoa, and decorating the Christmas tree.  Followed by a delicious dinner  of steaming hot Pho with Jake's parents.  Just what the doctor ordered :)  

Most wonderful time of the year

Jake and I have a busy agenda today that includes: Christmas shopping, lunch date with friends, haircuts, and dinner date with friends! There really is no place like home!

Cold, Dark and Snowy Alaska!

Has it really been two weeks since I've written?  It feels like just yesterday!  So much to update.

1.) Finals week - In two words? No fun. The week started off with a BANG with a wonderful 4 hour practice board exam. It made me realize just how much more I need to learn before taking the real thing in 5 months.  Luckily I didn't do too horribly, so in 5 months I should be ready to ROCK!

Aside from the classes and testing, I had a great time with my classmates.  It is so nice to be able to vent talk about all of the good, bad, and ugly that make going to PA school such a wild ride.  No one will ever understand it quite like my fellow PCAP'ers!  After our last final on Thursday, we had our second annual (and final :( ) Christmas Party.  Last year was "Ugly Christmas Sweater" theme, and this year was "Your Favorite Holiday" theme.  Unless there is a nation jeans & sweater day, I didn't quite get as creative this year.  But regardless, a great time (with Champagne!) was had by all :)

Cheers to officially being in our LAST quarter of PA School! 

Love my class!

Costume Contest Winners

Early morning hike in the San Carlos Hills!

Deer!

2.) HOME - I arrived home on Friday night into a cold, dark wintery wonderland.  12 days of negative degree weather, 4 hours of daylight, frosty trees, snowy roads, down coats, big fluffy scarves, and excuses to have hot cocoa every day. What's not to look forward to!!  Well... the negative degree weather and lack of daylight I could do without, but it truly does feel like Christmas now. As much as I love Palm Trees, they were not made to be decorated with Christmas lights.  :)

Baby, it's FREEZING outside.

Jake and I have been busy since the second I got home, but you'll be happy to know that I haven't opened a single textbook in 4 days.  Probably a record.  Instead, it's been Kaladi Brothers coffee stops 4x daily, dinner and drinks with friends, awesome workouts at the Alaska Club (local Gym), Christmas shopping, and doing my best to stay as warm as possible (although I feel like an Ice Cube all day every day).  Oh Alaska, how you never fail to freeze me. Jake had to work Saturday and yesterday, and will have to work quite a bit while I'm home, but it has given me time to catch up on girlfriend time and somehow finding Christmas presents for the man who is impossible to buy for. (Unless it's a lifetime supply of Tacos, guns, or fancy tools. All of which are not in a Grad Students budget.) Luckily in 9 days from now, Jake and I will be sitting on a plane heading to Mexico for a much needed vacation together!  Cannot wait.

Christmas Concert!

 Jake must like me or something. I think I have my work cut out for me.  

3.) Grandma Update - To fill you in if you weren't aware... My Grandma fell and fractured her hip when she was visiting me in San Diego last month.  She had a hip replacement and is staying in a care facility until she is strong enough to fly to Utah.  She was doing extremely well and progressing each day, but on Friday she was starting to have more pain and difficulty weightbearing. They took an x-ray and discovered she has a stress fracture below the new metal joint.  :(  So... prayers are needed once again! It looks like she probably won't be going home tomorrow, but they are going to see the Ortho Surgeon today so hopefully he will have some good news.  I know both she and my Dad are ready to go back to Utah!  My Mom will be flying back out there if they don't go home tomorrow.  I wish I could be there to relieve my Dad and support my Grandma!  Hopefully she will heal quickly and be back on the road to recovery in no time.

4.) Strep Throat Update - Wait, what?  So one thing you may not know about me is that I never get sick.  It has literally been 4.5 years since the last time I had a sore throat or cough.  I feel lucky that my immune system takes such good care of me. Apparently... I've been a little overworked and under-rested the past few weeks because my body decided to quit on me.  I find it amazing that could see 10+ sick patients a day with the flu, rhinovirus (common cold), strep, mono, scarlet fever, and every other imaginable sickness - all without ever getting sick.  But flying for 6 hours to AK and I come down with the worst case of strep I've ever had.  I can't understand it either.  So my throat feels like it's coated in broken glass, my ears feel as if they are going to explode, and if anyone gets near my lymph nodes in my neck... they will likely get high-fived in the face.  It's pretty awesome.  Hopefully I get better quickly, because every minute of the next 9 days are mapped out with fun Alaskan adventures that do not include lying in a bed and eating jello/ice chips.

Moose and Strep are not related,
except that he made me get off the cozy couch to see who was banging on the house! 

Hope all is well! I promise to not take 2 more weeks to write :)

Look out, she's on the move!

One of my favorite pictures of Grandma and I!
(At the summit of Jungfrau in Switzerland). 

Grandma has an return ticket to UT booked! Yay! She'll be in San Diego until the 19th, so just 11 more days at the residential care facility! She has made so much progress this week; her need for pain meds is getting less and less, which means she'll start feeling better and better! I knew she was doing well, but I had no idea just how well until last night when she said, "Excuse me, I'll be right back." Before I even had a chance to even ask if she wanted me to get the nurse to help her get up, she was off the bed and walking to the bathroom alone. Take THAT, hip fracture! She is now able to get in and out of bed on her own and go to the bathroom without assistance. The care facility is wonderfully equipped with "help buttons and pull cords" just in case she needs help. I can not get over how fluid she is moving and maneuvering with the walker. I guess she's named Ann Walker for a good reason :) (did I ever tell you I make lame jokes? haha) She'll be using a cane in no time. I think she'd be ready to leave as soon as next week, but the extra time will give her the confidence that she's lacking right now. I don't blame her one bit-- what a scary fall!

After being completely amazed by her progress, last night consisted of our usual: Food Network and talking. As always, it ended up being more talking and laughing than anything else. She has the greatest stories and has so much wisdom from her 83 years. She's probably one of the most talented artists I've ever met. She still attends art classes, sells her artwork, volunteers at homeless shelters, has weekly lunches with friends, and is very active in her church. She has many goals and fun adventures waiting in Salt Lake, so I know she will do very well!

It was so hard saying goodbye last night! You have no idea how much I wish I could stay to help and be her cheerleader, but I guess finals are calling me... And I know my dad will do a great job keeping her company!

To give her something to look forward to each day and as a countdown to going home, I made little daily care packages with cards for her to open every day until she goes home! Hopefully it will help her next 11 days fly by :)

Simple, but great way to brighten someone's day!

Now... back to school, back to school... Let's do this!

Haha, so true.  Story of my life right now.

To Stanford, I go!

Me? Busy? Never.

Okay, I've been a slacker.  I didn't even finish my grateful postings last week.  I promise I've been grateful, just slightly busier than normal.  I'll spare you the: "woe is me, I have a to-do list that stretches from here to Tibet" because let's be honest, we all are busy in our own ways and my list doesn't trump yours! That's a crazy little thing called life.  :)

Finals are NEXT week.  You know what that means, cramming. Writing papers.  Creating presentations. It also means that I need to resort to as many motivational techniques as possible.  Like this:

I'm leaving for Stanford this weekend. As much as I'm dreading finals, I am so excited to see all of my classmates that I'm pretty excited to get there! Leaving for Stanford brings me one step closer to a little place called HOME.  If I survive all of my finals, I will be on flight to the cold north next Friday!  "Excited" barely encompasses how I feel about this!

It will be very hard to leave San Diego, of course.  I'll miss my work buddies, my awesome friends and the beautiful "fall colors."

December and it's finally Fall in San Diego. 

I'll miss you Mr. Giraffe (he hangs out in the lobby at our clinic). 

But mostly, it is going to be so hard to leave my Grandma and Dad (my Mom had to leave on Monday for a scheduled trip to AK).  I'm sorry for not doing Grandma updates lately, but you'll be happy to hear she's making great strides - with a few bumps in the road.  She has good days and bad days- as you can imagine.  Monday was probably one of the worst days she has had yet.  The pain medications are making her extremely nauseous and constipated (most common side effects), so it was challenging for her to eat the food that she needs to heal! Without eating, she developed low blood sugar which caused scary side effects, but as soon as she was given sugar, she improved.

After getting some Zofran for nausea, she felt much better and yesterday was a very good day! She was up walking around the building, doing her exercises with the PT, and had a much more positive attitude.  I've been visiting her every day after work- it's about a 30-45 minute drive from my house each way, but completely worth the trip every time.  I love being able to sit and talk, catch up on the past years of being apart, and watch Chopped on the Food Network with someone who appreciates the show as much as I do. :) I'm realizing more and more just how alike we are.  As horrible as the whole situation has been, we have spent more quality time together the past 2 weeks than in my entire life.  My Grandma is one tough lady and such an inspiration!  Please keep her in your prayers- although she's on the mend, she has a long road of recovery ahead.

I got Grandma a Christmas tree to make it feel a little more like home! 

She gets things like Filet Mignon, Prime Rib, and Lobster for dinner ever night! 

It's going to be hard to leave my Dad who has been the ROCK in this whole situation.  He is the most patient and selfless person I know.  He spends 8-10 hours at the care facility with my Grandma; helping ease her fears, adjusting pillows, answering her questions, and helping take care of arrangements for when they go back to SLC- all while I'm sure he is worrying but not showing an ounce of fear.  His faith shines through and it shows me how to "let GO and let GOD." They are not sure when she will be released to fly home, but hopefully before Christmas. I wish I could come back after finals to help, but neither my Grandma nor my parents would let me skip Alaska.  Or Jake.  I think he might miss me just a little bit.  :)

This weekend was my awesommmeeee Christmas work party.  The most beautiful house I've ever seen; delicious food, fabulous company, and so many laughs my jaw still hurts.

My "work" family.  I love seeing their faces every day.  So blessed. 

My parents got to be there!  Love these two!

That's the update for now. There's a big chance I might disappear for the next 10 days, but I'll try to say hello and update how Grandma is doing.  THANK YOU for the texts, emails, and calls to check in on her.  You are all so supportive and my family appreciates it IMMENSELY.  xoxo