Kevin and I went blueberry picking on a farm in central Connecticut.   The land was beautiful, but the weather was hot and muggy, so we didn't stay too long.

I officially finished my GEPN year last Friday, which is a relief and sort of sad at the same time.  We separate into specialties in the fall, and though I know I'll still see my friends, it won't be the same.  All of the girls that I've grown close to are in different specialties.  It will be strange not having them in all my classes anymore.  We'll just have to make more of an effort to see each other outside of class, I guess.  

This is my first weekday off since finishing and I'm already bored.  Good thing Amber's coming tomorrow.  We're driving up to Maine later in the week, a trip we've been planning since I got my acceptance letter last February.  The day after she flies back to Mo, Kevin and I hop on a plane and fly out for a week in Springfield.  I've been a little homesick lately; I think this trip will do me good.
 

Kevin and I had a great time at Block Island.  We rented bikes and rode up to the top of the island.  The further we got from the harbor, the more the roads cleared of cars and people.  The beaches were beautiful and almost deserted.  The sand was soft and clean and the ocean was clear.  At the tip of the island, a strip of land stretched between the ocean and a lake creating a marshland that held nothing but a lighthouse.  It was a perfect escape from school and New Haven.

Kevin's been on nights the past few weeks, which really messes up my schedule.  I seem to stay up to late on the nights he's home and then I'm sleepy all day.  

Everything else has been pretty low key.  I got a bike last week, which I've been enjoying very much.  It's faster than driving in this town.  Kevin and I have been sharing it and we like it so much that we've planned a day trip to Block Island.  We're going to take the ferry over and then rent bikes and ride around the island.  I've been wanting to make it out there this summer - it's supposed to be beautiful.

I started my community health rotation last Thursday.  We'll be going about 40 hours a week for the next three weeks.  The organization was created and is run by nuns, which I find incredibly soothing.   The main building is on a 14 acre farm which the sisters built and landscaped themselves.  There are all kinds of gardens and flowers and big shady trees to sit under.  It's so pretty there it doesn't quite feel like a real place.

I have always suspected home care would be a passion of mine and I've thought before that it seems a lot less expensive and more reasonable than nursing homes.  Fortunately, the government recently discovered that home care would save them millions of dollars over nursing homes if they invested in programs to keep elders healthy!  I can't wait to graduate and become a part of this brand new system (it just started this month!).  I know the goverment is primarily seeing dollar signs, but think about all the other benefits.  How great would it be for our elder population to be able to live the rest of their lives in their own homes?  Many older adults' greatest fear is being taken out of their homes and put into a long term care facility.  With this new program, that would only happen if they required 24 hour care.    

I'm still not sure exactly what kind of position I want when I graduate.  I want to spend a lot of time with patients and build relationships with people as a primary caregiver.  But I also want to work at a corporate level, helping to create programs that improve quality of life for large groups of older adults.  Since my junior year in college, I have wanted to make a program that would bring together afterschool care for children and assisted living facilities for older adults.  There was a program like this in Kirksville, Mo and the benefits to both populations were significant in a study one of my professors did.  The children loved the one on one attention from the adults and the adults loved playing games with the children.  Wouldn't it be great if this type of program were everywhere?  

Ok, off my soapbox now to talk about my weekend.  I went to the beach with a friend yesterday morning.  She wanted to go for prime sun time (when you're NOT supposed to go out) and that time actually worked best for me, too, so I slathered SPF 55 all over.  Or so I thought.  I came home and my armpits are fried!  I never would have thought to put suscreen there, but let me tell you - I won't forget again any time soon!    Later last night, that same friend and some others came over and we attempted to make our own sushi.  Everyone brought a different ingredient to put in the rolls.  There were cucumbers, carrots, sweet potato, shrimp, squash, and avacado, even kimchee.  It was fun to do, but only okay to taste.  After the dishes were done (I love having these girls over!)  we watched V for Vendetta, a movie Kevin loves but I do not like.  Last night confirmed my opinion and the group of girls were split evenly over it.  We all made fun of it the whole way through but in the end it turned out some of them liked it as much as Kevin did!  I guess it's one of thoses movies you either love or hate.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days - my computer has been having some troubles.  My Internet Explorer is still busted, so right now I'm trying to do this through another browser which isn't 100% compatable with Blogger.  We'll see how it goes.

First of all - I finished my classes!  Better yet, I passed everything!  It got a little rough there at the end - a 20 page paper didn't come together quite as planned - but it all worked out in the end.  Tomorrow I start my last GEPN rotation - community health.  Home care and hospice 40 hours a week for three weeks.  I'm looking forward to it because this is the area I'd like to go into when I graduate.

Second of all, I haven't mentioned it yet, but they've been filming Indiana Jones IV right here at Yale!  It's been very exciting, though the traffic delays are pretty annoying.  They completely redid downtown so it looks like 1957.  A few of my nursing school friends are even in the movie as extras!  I can't wait to see them on the big screen!  

Kevin's parents had to cancel their trip at the last minute, unfortunately, so we didn't get to visit with them as planned.  To make it up to Kevin, we spent a day on the town on Sunday.  We walked down to a pub for a late lunch, walked over to the movie theatre to see Oceans Thirteen and then walked through downtown to look at the movie set.  As we were walking, I told Kevin we should eat somewhere really fancy so that we could maybe see Harrison Ford.  We laughed and decided that would be silly (not to mention expensive) so we went to a little Spanish restaurant we've been wanting to try.  Halfway through our meal, guess who got seated at the table next to us?  Harrison Ford of course!!!!  With Calista Flockheart (who cares?) .  I was so excited I could hardly finish dessert.  It was surreal because I knew his voice so well he didn't seem like a stranger.  I had to remind myself he was so I wouldn't run up and give him a hug.  What a great ending to a great day!!

I finished the Superman quilt! This is very exciting since I've been working on it for over a year. I think for my next one I'm going to try a little more complicated pattern. I've been looking through my quilting book for ideas and there's a gorgeous fan pattern I might use.

Saturday night we had a lovely little potluck over at our place. Several people are going out of state for community rotation - most will be gone until next semester. It was really nice to visit with some of the girls before they left for the summer.

Kevin and I spent Sunday at Hammonasett beach. We had a nice little picnic by the water and spent the afternoon reading and napping in the sun.

Today brought another spontaneous trip to the beach, this time with some other students. We went to Silver Sands in Milford, which was beautiful. It was by far the prettiest beach I've seen since coming to the east coast. The weather was perfect, nice and hot with a cool breeze. It wasn't very crowded, being Monday afternoon, so we had great views of the water and islands. There were tiny little birds hatching on the beach and wandering around next to us. We even spent a little time studying for our last final on Wednesday.

The last few days have been really relaxing. School is winding down and I feel like summer is finally here.

We bought a wine rack yesterday.  I feel like our living room is finally complete.  The empty wall to the right of the entrance has bothered me since we moved here.  

I spent most of today quilting.  I just have the edging left to finish!  It's going to be hard to let this one go; I've put a lot of hours into it.  

It's almost time for my favorite part of the week - Wed sports!  We're playing kickball this week.  It had rained all day, but the sun just came out, just in time.

I got no studying in over the weekend, which means I had a pretty good one. Saturday, the beach party I was going to got rained out, so I ended up at an indoor potluck, which turned out to be just as nice. Sunday we went strawberry picking! I'm the top picture, Mary's hard at work in the bottom picture. It was really hot out in the sun, but it was worth it. Five pounds of strawberries for $5! We also got to sit in the shade and eat some before we weighed in. Delicious...

I saw a birth today! It was amazing and gross and fascinating. I wish I could write about it. I learned so much.

We celebrated Kevin's birthday today even though it's not technically until Wednesday. I got him the first season of Entourage, which he seemed to like:

Then we drove out to Water's Edge and enjoyed the famous and delicious gourmet brunch. The food was awesome and we had a great view of the ocean as we ate. This was the gazebo between the restaurant and the beach.

Everything else is going well. School is trucking along. Labor and delivery is very boring so far. I haven't even seen a woman in labor yet. Hopefully next week there will be more going on. I only have four days on that floor and I'd like to see something before I go. I had an outpatient experience at a community clinic in Meridan and I loved it. I've been thinking for a while that hospital work isn't something I'm suited for. They were really busy at the clinic, so we got to call people back and do initial assessments. It was so much different from the hospital. Now that I've seen a little bit of primary care, I want to see more! I'm hoping my community health rotation in July will be similar to the clinic. After graduation I can see myself working in a community setting. The more I see the more I realize that if I'm going to be the best I can be at my job, I need to start learning Spanish! At the clinic, many of the patients spoke little to no English and I would imagine in Arizona, language barriers will be even more common.

We're making preparations for Kevin's parents to visit. They get here the last week of June, the weekend before 4th of July. We'll probably visit Boston while they're here, a request from Dave. It will be nice to see the city when it's not freezing cold. Kevin's dad loves history, and I do too, so at least we'll want to see the same things. I just hope it's not too hot to walk the Freedom Trail. That's something I really wanted to do last time we were there.

Well, yesterday was awesome. I spent a large portion of the day at the beach, soaking up some sun. The friend I went with came over for a quick meal before soccer. We didn't plan on this and as soon as we walked in the door I realized how gross the place was and really regretted not cleaning it. I also regretted not warning Kevin someone was coming over. As soon as the front door opened he walked out of the office in his underwear. I thought it was pretty funny (you should have seen him jump!) but he did not agree.

After our meal, it was soccer time. A lot of people came and it was so much fun! I forgot to reapply sunscreen, so I did get a little burnt, and I think all of us may get poison ivy because the ball rolled into a huge patch of it, but it was worth it. It was that fun. We played for a couple of hours before we had to leave so Kevin could get to work on time.

I leave in an hour or so for my outpatient experience in Hartford. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a big waste of time, but it brings me one step closer to graduating so off I go.

It's June and school is still in session. I feel like I've hit a groove as far as studying goes, so I don't worry about school stuff as much. My stress is not as low as I think it is, though, because I've been having some weird palpatations that I'm sure are anxiety related. My doctor thinks so too, but wants to be absolutely sure, so this Wednesday I have to go get a Holter monitor hooked up to me. It's basically a portable EKG that I have to wear for 24 hours. I just found out this afternoon what day I have to wear it and it happens to be a day I planned on going to the beach with a friend. Awesome. I'll just have to wear shorts and a t-shirt because I'm 99% sure bathing suits and EKGs don't mix.

I've decided I'm going to try to update regularly again. No promises, but I will try!

The midterm went fine; I have another on Monday. When classes are only six weeks long, there's always a midterm or a final hovering over us. It's nice to have things change every few weeks - there's not much time to get bored with a class. On the other hand, you have to know your stuff and know it quickly!

I've been on the maternity floor the past three weeks. All the tiny sweet precious babies have made my desire to have a baby explode. It doesn't help that I found out in the last week that two of my three sister-in-laws are pregnant! I'm going to be on labor and delivery the next three weeks - I'm hoping the more painful side of birth will save me. Luckily, Kevin's holding strong that we should wait at least another year. Whenever I start thinking about how nice it would be to have a little baby in my arms, I try to think of having a teenager in my house and that clears things up pretty quick.

It's another steaming hot day out. I need to study, but I'm thinking I may end up studying at the beach...

We had a wonderful weekend. It was exactly what I needed. I feel refreshed, like maybe I can actually finish the next two months without becoming a raving lunatic. We saw a LOT of pirates roaming around the resort town and spent some time with them and a lot of time with just the two of us. We had 3 hour dinners and long walks on the water and even took an afternoon to see a movie together in the theatre, something we hadn't done in ages (we saw At Worlds End, of course).

Now I have to come back to reality and study a bit for the midterm I have tomorrow.

I'm now in my maternal newborn rotation. It's much more difficult than any of my others have been. It feels like I've been spending a lot of my time studying. Posting will probably continue to be infrequent at least until Memorial Day, when I promise I will post pictures of our anniversary weekend complete with pirate fest!

The weather here is gorgeous. We went on a lovely hike yesterday up to two different viewpoints in East Rock Park. Afterward, I made dinner and the people we hiked with came over for Pac-Man and board games. It was a pretty awesome day, a much needed break from the depressing monotony of school.

Everyone is starting to leave New Haven. All of the undergraduates are moving out for the summer and the grad students are finishing up and either graduating or going on summer trips. It's nice because there's finally parking downtown, but it's also a wicked reminder that I have almost three months of school left. At least during the summer there will be nicer ways of spending my time off. Summer in New Haven is actually pretty fantastic. There's tons of farmer's markets, free movies in the park, excellent plays, and the hiking is so much better with the sun out. There's also the opportunity for weekend trips to the beach - something I hope to really take advantage of this summer.

It's been a busy week. I finished up my pediatric clinical - it went by much faster than I anticipated. I ended up having a pretty awesome experience there. The hospital was wonderful and the nurses were great - if only it wasn't so far away! I will not miss getting up at 5am.

I had two finals this week, marking the end of two classes and the beginning of two more. It's hard to get used to the schedule here, where classes start and stop without a real pattern. We have semesters, but they have nothing to do with when classes begin and end.

I still have a paper to write and an online midterm to take before Monday hits, but I'm taking the afternoon off to go to the graduate "Chill-Out" where I've heard there will be free facials and massages. I'll write better once I'm relaxed, or so I tell myself. Meanwhile, if anyone thinks of a topic that will fill out 5-7 pages on an enduring issue in nursing, pretty please send it my way!

Good news! I got the job! It starts up next week. I think it'll be good for Kevin and me - a little extra money certainly won't hurt.

The weather was really nice for a few days - upper 70's, sunshine. It was beautiful and I tried to enjoy it as much as possible. I went hiking with some girls over the weekend and yesterday took a walk for some ice cream after class with the same people. It was so nice. It'll have to last me for a while, because it's already turned rainy and chilly again. It may be for the best, though, seeing as how I have two finals on Tuesday and really should use the weekend to study rather than hanging out in the sun.

Spring is finally here! It's supposed to be 77 and sunshine all day. Perfect for hiking and sushi. It should be a wonderful afternoon...

I know that there's a huge chance that you have no idea who Ellen Muth is. That's okay. I have a feeling that most people don't know who she is. No problem, I will fill you in - she's the lead in a show Kevin and I like called Dead Like Me. She looks like this (she's the tall one):

I sat at the table next to her today and ate some ice cream. Isn't that thrilling?!

I wanted to grab her shoulders and shout "I've seen you on TV!!!" Luckily I was able to control myself. Wise, mature, wordly Kevin was not excited at all - he saw Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman together and didn't get excited, so you can imagine Ellen Muth was pretty dull for him. It was the highlight of my week.

I probably ought to get out more.

The storm started last night and it continued all morning. Kevin and I had planned a brunch date at this little Italian restaurant that has live Jazz. We decided to brave the downpour and go since we'd both been looking forward to it. What a good decision that turned out to be! The food was amazing, the Jazz was perfect, and the tiramisu was just like Italy! It didn't hurt that it was one of the least expensive places we've been to since we got to New Haven. Kevin's put it at the top of his list of favorite restaurants - we will definitely be going there again!

I'm almost completely recovered from my sinus thing, but I still get tired so easily. It's very frustrating when there's so much I want to do! I talked to Kevin about the Pirate Festival (on May 26) and he has agreed! We booked a beautiful bed and breakfast and plan to spend our long weekend taking walks along the beach, exploring shops and restaurants, and maybe seeing a pirate show or two. Isn't that a perfect way to spend our first anniversary?