Off to Utah!

Tonight I'll be heading to Utah and I couldn't be any more excited! Scott has been there since Wednesday so it has been very hard for me to go to work these past 2 days. Looking forward to going home, but now looking forward to the long flight... and dealing with JFK. I am hoping that my experience is not like Scott's. He sat on the runway for an hour waiting to take off, multiple babies were screaming, and a little kid was kicking his seat the entire time:( I hope I can just read, sleep, and have an enjoyable flight. See you soon family and friends!

While I am waiting to finish work, and fly home... Scott is running! He is running the Ragnar with members of his family, and some of their friends. I tried to post pictures of the route, but blogger wouldn't let me. Refer to the link It's a relay race from Logan to Park City. Each member of their team runs 3 legs of the race. That's what he'll be doing for today and tomorrow. I'll have him make a post of his experience.

1 year down... 3 to go

Today Scott officially finished his 1st year of Medical School! I am so proud of him for working so hard. It's crazy that we now have one year down... it has gone by so fast!

I asked Scott to share some highlights of his first year. This is what he said:

• White Coat Ceremony - Even though I don't know what I'm doing, at least now I look like I know what I'm doing.
• Anatomy lab - dissecting my cadaver, aka my "first patient." My mind's view of the body will forever be changed, and it is imprinted with the delicate nerves and vessels of my cadaver's flesh.
• Shadowing in the OR - scrubbing in on a heart surgery and touching a live heart, seeing it stop . . . and start again, and seeing a full hip replacement, complete with power tools and all.
• Columbia-Harlem Homeless Medical Partnership (CHHMP) - Each Tuesday night from 5:30 to 10:00, providing healthcare to street-homeless individuals in Harlem. As you might imagine, I've met people here in the city looking for help who have life stories I couldn't make up even if I tried. All types of drug addicts, dealing drugs, stealing cars, prostitution as a means of staying alive, sleeping on trains, etc. At times I wish I could do more than give them allergy and blood pressure medication, advice on how to keep their infected feet both clean and in-grown toenail-free, and a new pair of socks...but I hope that what we do do makes a difference.
• Assisting a lung transplant - "harvesting" the donor's lungs at 3:00am - then racing back to our hospital with siren's blaring to put them in the recipient whose lungs have failed them from years of cystic fibrosis damage.
• Being a witness to both life (delivering a baby in the hospital) and death (in the ER)

This summer Scott will be busy doing research with a Urologist. The research he is doing is comparing patients who've had both cryotherapy (freezing) on their prostate cancer and organ transplants.

Cody's Graduation!

My little (but a lot taller) brother Cody graduated from High School on June 4th! I was sad that we couldn't be there... but so excited for him! He will be going to BYU in the Fall. Thanks Mom for posting pictures on Facebook! Sorry this is a late post too...

My little (but taller) sister Courtney in this picture just finished up Jr. High and will be heading to High School! Our family is growing up...

We went to Boston for memorial day weekend...

And ran a half marathon! I know that this is a late post, but better late than never. I have a bunch of pictures I wanted to post from our Boston trip but for some reason, this is the only picture blogger will let me post...so I have put off posted until I got it figured out, but I didn't. These are our friends in NYC that we ran with.

This race was the hardest thing I have ever done physically, I really didn't think I would finish. It was really hot, and it was humid, and the race didn't start until 8:00 am. I saw people passing out around me, saw a few people on stretchers and hoped that I wouldn't be one of them. I started getting dizzy and blacking out a few times during the race, so I'd slow down during those times. When I came up the final hill and started on the downhill I thought I was almost to the finish line, but it was further than I thought. Scott saw me during this time while he was waiting for me to finish, and ran up to help me finish. He was trying to give me encouraging words, but all I was saying was, "I can't do this, I'm going to die..." He kept me going, and helped me get to the finish, even though I was getting mad at him for being so perky. When I finished I told him to hold me up because I really thought I was going to pass out. I have never been good with heat and get very overheated easily.

I thought that I would love running after training for a half marathon or that it would get easy at some point. All I can say is that I don't hate running as much as I used too, and it still has not gotten easy. I'm glad that we ran the race, and that I finished. I proved to myself that I can do something if I put my mind to it. Never before would I have ever thought that I could complete 13.1 miles.

We had a great trip to Boston! It was mine and Scott's first time going there, and I loved the area. I was surprised at how different Boston was from New York. It had a sort of small town feel, but it wasn't a really small town. It was very calm, and relaxing being there. We went to a Red Sox game one night when we were there. Scott and I weren't planning on going because it was sort of expensive. Walking with our friends to Fenway Park, we decided that we wanted to go, and bought some tickets someone was selling. It was fun to experience a Red Sox game. We also went to some really good restaurants, and just had an overall good time with our friends. It was nice to get a break from the city for the weekend.