Almost there!

I'm checking back in after a long week of finals, clinicals, a field trip, and lots of relaxing time.  I'm still not 100% done with my take home test, but I still have until 6pm tomorrow to turn it in.  Procrastination at its finest ;)

I rocked my clinicals this semester, and so far grade wise, I think I'm sitting really good.  I know I have a B in one class, but in my others, I have A's or A-'s, which I am more than happy with in grad school.  I just may get my cumulative GPA above that 3.5 level again.  We'll see how this take home goes, but I'm pretty sure I can pull off an A no problems. 

In other news, fiance is acting as the company commander this week and next week- so he's getting a taste for Captain life.  We'll see how he likes it.  At least I'll be down there in a week or so, so that'll be good for the two of us. 

We were talking tonight about wedding stuff and we may kinda sorta have a tentative time frame in mind!!! I'm so beyond excited to start looking at venues and hopefully nail one down by June.  Then comes the dress and all the other fun stuff :) things are moving along quickly in the future department, which is a nice change. I'm still not holding my breath, the Army may change things suddenly on us, which is why every place I look at I ask about their reschedule policy.  Most have seemed pretty nice, but a few said that we'd have to pay 2x the deposit if we had to cancel then reschedule.  Ugh, annoying but I understand where they are coming from. 

Anyways, I just wanted to check in for a bit, I'll be back to my normal bloggy self next weekend.  And hopefully fiance and I will have some fun trips and activities planned while I'm on post visiting for 2.5 weeks! Including another race and some small weekend getaways :)

Never fear!

I am still alive, just getting swallowed by midterms this week and next. I'll be back next week, so please forgive my absence.  I have a paper calling my name, so here is to hoping I can crank out another 6 pages and get to bed by midnight tonight.  Here goes nothing!
But before I take off, a photo to share:

A photo from a recent football game.  My mom drove down and we had a blast!

Big thanks to my Dad's coworker for the amazing free seats :)

Ahhh FINALS!

Yeah, that explains most of my absence I think.  I had a final Monday, 3 quizzes Monday and today, and I have an oral final Thursday, and a comprehensive final on next Monday.  Eeeeek!!  I'll be parking my butt in the library all weekend to cram and get my stuff done.   Hopefully there will be a few breaks in there to hit the gym and keep up this health kick I've been on recently.

Not to mention on top of all my coursework, I also have to have all my clinical clock hours tallied up by TH, and get all that stuff done.  My to-do list is currently at the overwhelming level.  Day by day, that's all I can do. 

At least after all the stress that is coming up, I have a MUCH needed break in the form of a hearing aid conference to attend to.  It's sad when a school conference is your vacation, but no complaints it's all expense paid and I get to relax in downtown Chicago.  Just one more week!  Oh, and just a wedding and some BFFs to visit as well.  I'm looking forward to a much needed two week break from classes and clinicals. 

BUT, once I get back from my conference I will have homecoming news and the great poll of "what in the heck do I wear that will look cute in ungodly hot temps in the south"so stay tuned and please play along :) Check out all this green.... it's getting closer!  I have to force myself to only check on Sundays to make sure I'm not staring down the minutes every day.  He'll be here soon.

Taking a little me time.

Yeah, I know, I dropped off the face of the planet this last week.  After all the craziness of the clinicals situation, driving 3 hours round trip for clinicals on Fridays, and then also throwing 10-15 hours of work a week on top of it all- I was getting run ragged.   

 I decided to take a few days and the weekend and just enjoy some relaxing time to myself.  I got in lots of pool time and I actually got to read something that was not a textbook this week!  I read Mary Roach's book, Bonk about sex research, and it was quite interesting!  I love her other book, Stiff about bodies that are donated to science, and thought I'd give her other books a try.  I also got my hands on The Help, and I freaking loved it! I sped through that thing in 3 days.

Notes about the 5k I ran on the 4th- wow was it hot!! I think next year I am going to wait to register until the day of the race to take into account the weather.  I started running really strong the first 2 miles or so, staying at a 9:00 mile pace- I was trucking!  After mile 2, I hit my wall and the heat really started getting to me and I was feeling kind of sick.  I ended up having to walk about a half mile, then got to running again at a much slower pace.  I still finished with a PR of 30:38.  If I had stayed with my running partners I would have finished around 28 minutes, so all things considered I am very happy with the race. Here are some photos I can share.  I love my hot pink leggings!

At the finish.  Hating life a little right here.

My mom and sister were also in town, here sis gave me a post-race ride to the car.

Dinner the night before the race, we enjoyed being downtown, yay $1 sushi night!

I was also researching my little booty off this week, two of the researchers that are working with my professor were in town and going over our numbers thus far to determine if we had a significant different between the Deaf children we tested and the hearing children.  So far, there is a difference, and we still have 40 children left to test so that is good!  With them in town we were busy entertaining and yikes is my ASL poor.  I felt bad, there were a lot of miscommunications, but they seemed to be pretty understanding and patient with my lack of ASL fluency.  But, they were nice guys and it was nice to meet the guys that I research for. 

I’m counting the weeks until clinicals and classes are done- just 3 weeks including this week! Before I know it, “boots on the ground” day will be here! That pesky donut is finally back down to the 10% range- eeeee!!! Hurry home soldier :)

This is exactly what I needed

I had a really awesome Friday, and it was the much-needed boost to my mood that finally got some pep into me.  I got more news on Thursday about how the Army keeps shuffling around “boots on the ground” day, and it’s really starting to get to me.  I shouldn’t be surprised though after all the shuffling with R&R.  I guess I’m still trying to learn the ropes.

I had so much fun at placement, and even got to have lunch with my kid sister and her boyfriend who lives in the same town as my placement.  I felt so bad, I was supposed to be done with a baby’s hearing test at 1 but the child did not cooperate and would not stop crying, so the appointment ran over by 45 minutes.  My sister and her boyfriend waited for me for that whole 45 minutes in the parking lot for lunch.  Thankfully, I managed to call them and my supervisor let me take my hour-long lunch break with them, just starting later than usual.  So it was good to catch up with my sister and her boo. 

Then, when I got out of placement, I had some free time before dinner with my cousin and found a cute little bridal/pageant gown store that was having a $25 dress sale.  Yes, $25!! Needless to say, I just had to go and check it out.  Well….. I ended up finding something.  I got a $250 gown for $25, and it fits like a dream!!  AND to top it all off, it's even long enough I can wear heels with it!  Boyfriend and I will be going to his brother’s senior military ball at some point in the spring, and who knows if there may be a ball or two once boyfriend gets home.  Eh, can’t ever go wrong with a pretty red dress right?

I also got some FANTASTIC news on the school front- I GOT MY RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITION AGAIN!!! EEEEEE! That means, stipend and tuition and fee waiver for another 3 semesters… woot!! I also got a raise, so no complaints from this girl!  I sent boyfriend an email, so hopefully he gets the news soon.  Thanks to the greater financial stability, that means I can totally go visit my BFFs who will be teaching abroad in china for a year!  Now on to get that pesky passport applied for.  

Just another day in the life of an AuD student

I just had the most fantastic Friday I could have asked for.  I was so incredibly nervous to go to my first external placement; it was really my first time to see how Audiologists work in the real world.  I drove to my placement the night before (it is an hour from where I go to school) and crashed on my cousin’s couch that night to avoid waking up and leaving by 6am. 

I got there nice and early, reviewed my notes from all my classes the past 2 semesters, quizzed myself on the normative values for any test they may ask me to run and generally prepared for a very long and possibly overwhelming day. 

Needless to say, this was one of those days where I LOVED everything that I was doing.  I felt comfortable doing all the testing and giving results to patients.  My supervisors were both very understanding, and also pushed me outside of my comfort zone and letting me try all sorts of new things.   One of my supervisors was in the first AuD class to graduate from my program, so we had fun swapping stories about the professors :)

All in all, it was just an affirming experience.  The entire day, I had so much fun trouble shooting hearing aids and figuring out what was wrong with them and how to fix/repair them for the patient.  I used to not be wild about hearing aids, but they are just such AMAZING little bits of technology.  I love being able to counsel patients about their lives, expectations and seeing how I can best help them to have the life they want.

I know deep in my heart that I have truly found “my calling”, I had my doubts when I started school and was unsure I made the right choice in my program- but as of Friday I truly felt affirmed in my decision and everything just felt right. 

When I have my days that I am stressed out beyond belief I’ll have to look back on Friday and remember this feeling and that on May 18th, 2014, it’ll all have been worth it. 

Back in Bloggy-land

First of all I’ll share some good news:  1) I passed anatomy! That is that class that is mostly commonly repeated/remediated in the program and 2) I am officially a 2nd year in the AuD program- bring it on grad school!

These past two weeks of R&R seemed to fly by. Before I knew it, we were embracing, saying our “see you soons” and wishing time would stand still so we could spend more time together.  The time we had together was stressful, tiring, wonderful, relaxing, priceless, and entirely too brief.  There were laughs, tears and lots of memories made.

Now, I find myself back at school struggling to find the motivation to study electrophysiology, pharmacology, and medical terminology while getting back into the swing of clinicals.   I’m also “pee-my-pants-nervous” for my first external clinical placement on Friday.  All I want to do is lounge around, eat copious amounts of junk food, and throw a gigantic pity party.

I keep trying to downplay my feelings with knowing he’ll be home in the next few months, and that deployment is about 3/4 of the way over, but it still hurts nonetheless.  The timing for leave was as good as it could be, once I finished my finals we had 3 wonderful days with just the two of us down at my apartment at school.  If I had known that was all the extended alone time we’d get, I would have cherished it that much more.  Everywhere I look in my apartment I remember the things we did together in CU and the fun we had. 

The night before he left, we spent the night talking, cuddling and as I just found out, waiting out a minor tornado in his parent’s basement with a foosball tournament.  As the night drew to a close, he held me tight, told me he loved me and walked me out to my car where we kissed goodbye in the rain.  We discussed it, and decided I shouldn’t go with him to the airport; waiting together for a plane to leave would just draw out an already agonizing goodbye.  Thankfully his family was able to take him and spend a bit of time with him.  Poor guy, he had to go back on his birthday.  Thanks for that lovely present Army! I did get word today he made it safely to Kuwait, now he's just transitioning to his new job and getting settled back into deployment life.

I want to thank all you bloggy-buddies for your support and comments on my recent posts.  Without that, I do not know if I would have been able to handle the constant ups and downs from this deployment as well as I have.  So, I thank you again- it means a lot.

Ok, off to go on a cleaning and organizing binge and then doing some Ben and Jerry’s therapy.  Tomorrow is my one day off during the week to take some me time so I will be taking full advantage and hopefully getting all caught up on reading blogs.  My google reader count is ridiculously high (200+) and is at the point I never want to see that number that high again, yikes!  Looking forward to see what has been going on with everyone :)

Off The Radar

Yeah, it's that lovely time of the year... the one where school and work will completely kill any semblance of a life that I thought I had.  I'm frantically trying to finish my HUGE research paper so I can edit the heck out of it the rest of the week.  Start studying for my Anatomy and Physiology final (hoping for a B so I can just be done with the class), typing up a take home, another huge paper, and two presentations.   Why didn't I stop with a bachelor's degree again? Oh right, that whole want to be an Audiologist thing :)

Anyways, just wanted to let you know that I am probably going to drop off the face of the earth for the next week and a half or so.  I may pop in with a photo or update should I have any news on the R&R situation, but I'm still just trying to stay focused on school work at the moment.  Thankfully I don't have any patients scheduled currently, but that could change in an instant. I think I schmoozed the office secretaries enough with cookies that they will take pity on me and not give me a patient until finals are over *fingers crossed*.  Yes, I play dirty, but it usually works.

I'll try to keep reading all the blogs I follow, but it may just be a skimming.  Ok, light at the end of the tunnel is hopefully some R&R time with that one guy I'm kind of crazy about.  Then the summer semester beings... and the madness continues.  See you all in about 2 weeks!