Intern Orientation...

Just a quick post to update on what's been going on!

I started intern orientation last week. Here's what the schedule consisted of:

Sunday PM: Welcome dinner at Cozymel's. All 24 peds interns and the 5 med/peds interns plus significant others had dinner together, on the department of course! Several attendings were there and it was a great time of meeting people. They also gave out schedules for orientation and gave us our MedStudy books, a generous gift from ACH to help us study for boards!

Monday: ACH orientation, a great day. We were in the fancy-schmancy board room. We received our moving bonuses!, pagers, and our ipod touches already loaded with excellent medical apps that we'll need during residency.

Tuesday: UAMS orientation. Took pictures for badges, got shots, and listened to a lot of information about HIPAA (patient privacy), insurance, and more.

Wednesday: More UAMS orientation. Pretty boring. But Wednesday evening the Dept. of Pediatrics took everyone to the Travs game. We had a great time! Free food and it wasn't too hot. Great meeting some of the residents I didn't already know and catching up with others!

Thursday AM: ACH orientation again. We received our scrubs and learned about the ACH standards of care.

Thursday PM: Back to UAMS to turn in forms...now UAMS pays for my insurance!!!

Friday: Neonatal resuscitation training. We learned how to resuscitate babies who have just been born if they are having trouble breathing right after delivery. Very interesting!

Overall, a fairly good week. I've been trying to stay up later at night to get used to getting a little less sleep. Most of our days this week started around 7:30 AM.

And the overview for next week:

Monday and Tuesday: PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) training. This is what to do if a child codes (heart stops beating, they stop breathing, etc.). It's supposed to be pretty intense I think. Luckily we already had adult ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and some parts are similar.

Wednesday: computer training

Thursday: THE REAL WORLD STARTS! This is the day we officially start working. I'll be starting on an inpatient team (Team 1). I'll be taking care of infants and toddlers with general pediatric problems that need to stay in the hospital for a few days. I've heard great things about this team and the people I'm working with already, so I'm very excited. Also, Thursday night is my first night on call, so that's scary! Luckily, it's short call so I don't have to sleep at the hospital.

I plan to try to update a little more often now that I'm working, when I get a little time. I hope I have some interesting stories to share! I'll try to do a post later this week that explains some more about what I'll be doing. And then I'll try to update Friday about my first day on the job!

Vacation Recap

We had such a fun trip! If you follow Jordan on twitter or facebook, you already know most of what we did!

We made it to the 4 big parks at DisneyWorld: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. The rides were all really fun, but my favorite part was probably the fireworks every night.

Epcot-IllumiNations

Magic Kingdom-Wishes

Hollywood Studios-Fantasmic!

Fantasmic was not so much a fireworks show, but more of a laser/water show. It was amazing. The stadium seats about 2000 people (or more!) We had to get there 90 minutes early to make sure we had a seat. Crazy, but worth it!

Of the fireworks, I think Fantasmic! was Jordan's favorite, but mine was Wishes! It was so fun seeing the castle change colors, Tinkerbell fly down, and the music was incredible! The last part of the video above shows part of Wishes.

Our favorite rides were Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Expedition Everest, Kilaminjaro Safaris, Tower of Terror, and Rockin Rollercoaster.

We saw several shows while in the parks, including Finding Nemo, the Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. We also saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and Lights, Motor, Action! stunt show. Finding Nemo was definitely my favorite. The costumes were amazing!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Can you guess where we're going???

DISNEYWORLD!

I'm so excited! It's my favorite vacation destination! It will be our first time to go together!

Do you have any good Disney vacation tips for us?

Can't wait to see Mickey, Minnie, and all their friends!

Our House...Before and After

A few weeks ago we had our house painted! Jordan bought this house in 2007 (if my memory is correct!) and since then it has undergone some drastic changes! We've painted the inside (in some rooms twice!), redone the floors in the kitchen and master bedroom, replaced the old deck with a bigger and nicer one, new appliances to the kitchen, painted kitchen cabinets...I'm sure there is more! But I think the latest project is definitely one of the best! As you can see in the before, we had a yellow-ish color, some lovely cedar shingles, and a green door. There used to be green shutters to match!

Painting day! One of our good friends recommended this painter to us and he did a super job! They finished painting our house in about nine hours! Amazing!

And here is the finished product! A nice, crisp white! Bright blue front door! New black shutters! And new lighting fixtures for the outside. Also notice the brick flower beds Jordan and Chris made for me so I could plant fun things!

What do you think of our Extreme Makeover?

We love it!!!

Becoming a Doctor...

On March 18th, 2010, I got to open a very important letter. It said, "Congratulations, you have matched at Arkansas Children's Hospital!!!"

What a whirlwind day! For such an important day I really didn't take many pictures...crazy, I know! Here is my family on Match Day though!

A realty company sponsored a huge party for our class at West End. It started at 10:00 AM. We couldn't open envelopes until 11:00. At 11 they started randomly drawing peoples names out of a bowl, and as your name was called you went up on stage and opened your envelope! We were so excited (and relieved) to know that I get to stay here at Children's Hospital. Residency officially starts July 1st! (But we get to warm up a little with orientation the week before).

A few weeks ago, Jordan's mom and dad took us on a trip to New Orleans! We had a blast and ate some amazing food!

Oak Alley Plantation

The French Quarter

We had a mini photo shoot at the plantation! These trees were huge! 300 years old.

Of course, we had to have Cafe Du Monde! No New Orleans trip is complete without it!

Have you ever eaten at Commander's Palace? It is soooo delicious! So glad I got to experience it!

The signature dessert is, of course, bread pudding! This was the plate my bread pudding came out on. We were celebrating my graduation and acceptance into residency at ACH!

On the morning before we left, we went back down to the Quarter for breakfast at Brennan's. This was no ordinary breakfast! Strawberries with double cream for an appetizer, salmon with eggs benedict and roasted tomato, and strawberry crepes for dessert! If you ever get the chance to go there, it's a must!

Such a fun trip! It really made me want to go back to New Orleans and explore some more, especially all the great restaurants!

Catching up...

This month I've been on my Peds Primary Care rotation. I spent one week in the ER at ACH, one week in the nursery at UAMS, a week in the Developmental Clinic and Adolescent Clinic, and this week I'll be in the GPC (General Peds Clinic). It's been a lot of fun. I was really glad to get to work in the ER because it can be a confusing place to be so I was glad I got the chance to see how it works.

On February 24th my rank list is due. I've already made it and submitted it, but it doesn't really count until 2/24. That's the same day the programs submit their rank lists. Then a big magical computer "matches" everyone who's applying to any residency in the country this year. Crazy! Hope there aren't any technical difficulties! Between Feb. 24th and March 15th everyone sits around biting their nails, hoping we've matched. Then on the 15th you find out IF you matched. IF you matched (and hopefully everyone does) you hang tight until March 18th. Then on March 18th, my entire medical school class gathers at West End in LR around lunchtime. Everyone's name is placed into a hat. When your name is drawn from the hat, you go up on the stage and open the envelope that says where you've matched! And hopefully it is your first choice! Isn't it wild? This whole process has resembled rush so much it's unbelievable. You just get a 4 month break between bid day and pledge year. ;)

More updates to come. Sorry I've been a slacker!

Jordan's New Ride...

In December Jordan and I traded in his Honda and my Highlander so that I could get my new 2010 4Runner, which I love! It rocks! One reason we were able to do that is that Jordan had a van for the business that he wanted to have "wrapped" so it could be a driving billboard. It just got finished last week! What do you think? Isn't it fun? It makes me want to go to the beach!

A new year...

On New Year's Eve, we got together with some friends and went to dinner with some of our friends at Loca Luna, one of my favorite LR restaurants!

After dinner Cara and Chance invited everyone over to their house. It was so fun!

Guy group shot...these are guys Jordan plays basketball with at Immanuel.

And the girl group shot! So much fun!

On New Year's day we headed on over to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl on January 2nd! It was freezing, but we had so many layers on, we stayed pretty warm!

Wrapped up at the stadium! This is how I stayed most of the game!

My best friend Lauren and her husband Brett's seats were right next to ours, just by coincidence! I was so excited! When we took this pic we were trying to be like Tyra and "smile with our eyes"...it was too cold to unwrap!

I don't have a lot of firm resolutions, but here are a few goals for 2010:

~Jordan, my mom, and I will run the LR Half Marathon in March. We've already started training!

~Jordan plans to do a sprint triathlon this summer. If the half marathon goes well, I'd like to try the triathlon too!

~I also plan to become a doctor this year :)

On the note of becoming a doctor, later this week we'll head out for another tour of interviews in Birmingham, Augusta, and Charleston. It should be exciting and exhausting. I am so thankful that Jordan can go with me everywhere!

First Anniversary

On December 20th Jordan and I celebrated our first anniversary! It was very exciting! It has been a great year for us!

Here we are before we went to dinner that night...

Traditionally the first anniversary is "paper", and that's what Jordan got me. He presented me with two envelopes. In the first was a piece of paper telling me we were going to spend a night at Big Cedar Lodge in a cabin! I was SOOO excited! The next envelope had a picture of John Mayer in it...meaning we get to see John Mayer in Memphis this March! YEA!!!!

I wrapped Jordan's "paper" in a book. Inside the book was a gift certificate for a private golf lesson, complete with video analysis! Haha! He was excited!

We went to dinner at Bonefish (yum) and then to a movie. When we got home we had to eat our cake! Surprisingly, it was still pretty tasty! Jordan is already trying to eat it in this picture!

The next day we headed up to Big Cedar. I was so excited...I love that place! This is the view from the balcony of our cabin...

Since we were there during Christmas, the whole place was beautifully lit at night! Soooo pretty!

Pretty tree in the lodge!

It has been an exciting year!

~Jordan became the owner of Tropical Smoothie Cafe

~We got to go to Destin for Spring Break in March for TSC training

~I finished my 3rd year of medical school and decided I wanted to become a pediatrician

~I completed Step 2 of my medical boards successfully

~Jordan learned how to install laminate flooring and did an awesome job in our kitchen, and just last week in our bedroom too!

~We got a new car! Jordan knew I really wanted a black 4runner, and I finally got it!

~We laughed a lot and learned a lot. We always have such a good time together!!! Can't wait to see what's in store with us for MANY years to come!