Grace

Yup, it's official, we're having a baby. And we are so excited!!  It wasn't necessarily our plan to wait 6 years but that's the way it worked out and I'm glad to be done with school so I can focus on this baby.

She will be a girl and her name will be Grace.  Zach didn't have any intuition about the gender but I was pretty sure from the beginning that she was a girl.  Her projected birth date is January 28, 2013.  For posterity's sake I thought I'd record a few thoughts on my experience thus far.

My pregnancy so far has been, I think, pretty typical.  I started getting pretty nauseous at about 6 weeks and stayed really, really nauseous until about 20 weeks.  I puked a lot and Zofran didn't help a lick.  All food was disgusting to me and I had to force myself to choke things down.  Somehow I made it through my last rotation of school, orthopedic surgery!  My preceptors were heaven sent.  They were very patient and always made sure that I ate when I needed to and sat when I needed to.  Despite being sick I never missed a day, never showed up late or left early.  That was another huge blessing.

I've started feeling much better over the past few weeks but I've found that I can't push myself nearly as much as I'm use to.  I have to sit down a lot more often and if I don't eat about every 2 hours, my blood sugar plummets and I'm out for the afternoon.  Food still isn't my friend at all but I'm grateful that I'm to a point where everything doesn't make me sick.  My bedtime has moved way up.  If I'm not in bed by 10:00 PM, I'll throw up.  That has taken some getting used to.

On a positive note, I am feeling much better and starting to recognize my limitations so things are looking up.   For the past week or so I've started to feel her kick and move and I LOVE it.  Mindi gave me some little shoes the other day and I can't wait for her to wear them.  I've been pretty good at not buying everything but I am so excited for this little one to come.  She'll have an amazing dad, who can't wait to meet her as well.  Zach has been amazing!  He had a hard time not being able to help while I was living with my parents so I think he's trying to make up for it.  I can't dote on him enough.    

I still have a hard time believing that I'm going to be a mom.  Despite being so sick, I didn't really believe I was pregnant for a long time.  I would still doubt it but I've seen the pictures.  She's in there and I can't wait to meet her.

PA-C

(The past two years I've put up a fake family picture.  This time it's a real one!  The sign says and baby!)

Well the past year has flown by.  I'm finally a PA-C.  That means that I completed my 2 year masters degree.  15 months of sitting in class all day and studying all night with a little time left over for my wonderfully supportive husband.  That was followed by 12 months of working all sorts of hours in different medical specialties for free.  I liked some specialties more than others but feel very blessed to have had the experiences I had.  My surgery rotation was with a cardiothoracic surgeon.  I don't like surgery but it was such a privilege to see and touch a beating human heart.  I discovered that my passion lay in family practice and that is where the majority of my rotations were.  I got to watch several c-sections and see those beautiful babies take their first breath.  I don't think there is anything quite like that.  I appreciate so much my wonderful preceptors who helped me realize that it was ok not to like certain parts of medicine (surgery, ER!) and I will forever be grateful to my last preceptors who worked with me during my first months of pregnancy and being horribly sick and never made me feel uncomfortable or bad about having to sit down! (That might not sound like much but it meant a whole lot to me)  I'll never forget some of the patients I was able to work with.  I know it's hard to have a student come and see you but they were so kind and patient with me and helped me learn what I needed to learn.  I could not have done it without them!  So thank you!

PA-C also means that I passed the PA National Certification Exam.  Getting to graduation is only part of the process.  It all comes down to whether or not you can pass this one test.  I studied for a good month after graduation and sat through a 5 hour test!  When I found out that I passed all of the emotions and stress and hard times of the past two years kind of disappeared and it all became worth it.  I don't want to do it again mind you but I did it and it feels good to accomplish something hard.

A very special thank you to my family for all of your support!  You guys are the best!  And to Zach who got me through it all.  I could not have done it without you!    Now on to bigger and better things!!

Koen Evan Smith

Everyone, meet Koen Evan Smith. He was born on August 30th at about 4:40 am. He was 3 weeks early and he is perfect! Welcome to the world Koen! You were born into a strange family but we're fun and we sure do love you!

5 Years

Today was our anniversary. We've been married for 5 years and while sometimes it's been hard and life hasn't turned out how we planned, it's been a great 5 years. So at the risk of sounding cheesy, thanks Zach. You're the best and I love you.

One Year

Our fake family photo. We took a similar one last year with Jude.

I recently had my white coat pinning ceremony. The actual pinning doesn't mean very much except that I've made it through my first year of PA school. Probably the hardest year of my life and hopefully one day I will be able to say it was worth it. Now if I can just make it through one more!

Happy Father's Day

This is my dad.  He's a superhero.  Now, not everyone is lucky enough to have a superhero for a dad.  I am.  Since today is Father's Day, I thought I'd take the time to tell everyone a little bit about him.

Squareknot has many super powers:

Life Saving.  Squareknot worked very hard and sacrificed much to develop this power.  As a child I remember Squareknot ripping the ears off my stuffed bunny so he could practice sewing them back on.  This is the level of commitment he has shown to his super power of life saving.  I hope one day to be as good at saving lives as he is.  

Teaching.  This may seem like a strange super power but that is because it is so rare these days.  Being a teacher is one of SK's greatest powers.  He is always teaching.  Growing up I sometimes didn't appreciate being woken up at 6:00 am on a Saturday etc. but I now know that Squareknot was using his superpower to help me learn important lessons.  

Defying Death. Squareknot has defied death many times.  Just ask him.  He's been in snowstorms on the top of a mountain and almost died...but didn't.  He's gone on an 18 mile hike with a  98% blocked artery in his heart and almost died...but didn't.  I highly encourage anyone to ask Squareknot about his superpower of defying death; just make sure you have lots of time to listen.  I'm glad I've had the chance to witness some of these events because it has given me a love of adventure!

These are just 3 of Squareknot's superpowers.  A few others are cooking, knot tying, working, knowledge, wisdom, story telling, encouraging and the list goes on and on.  If you want to learn more, check out his super hero tutorial.

 Happy Father's Day Squareknot!  You sure are my hero!

Providencia

A few years ago Zach and I hiked the Inca trail.  While on the hike a couple told us of a small Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua called Providencia.  It's the third largest reef in the world next to Australia and Beliz.  This year when trying to decide where to go on vacation we remembered their suggestion and decided to go.  It was quite the adventure.  We ended up having an island pretty much all to ourselves for a week.

It took 4 plane rides to get there, the last of which was in this tiny little thing.  I was terrified but it was actually not too bad.

This is the place we stayed.  We had made reservations at another place but it was very far from town, pretty much everything so we went here instead.  It was awesome.  We had a room on the third floor that overlooked the beach.  Did I mention there is not a single shower with hot water in all the hotels on the island.   

This was my favorite beach, Southwest Bay.  We spent most of our afternoons here.  There were times when we literally were the only people on this beach.  That was a little weird at first and definitely took some getting use to.

Our second day we took a boat tour of the island.  One of the stops was a tiny island called Crab Caye.  It had beautiful views from the top and we got to snorkel all around it.  

One of the days we hiked around a small island connected to Providencia by a makeshift bridge called Santa Catelina.  It is famous for being the place that Pirate Morgan had landed and hidden treasure.  You can see the cannons etc.  There's a rock formation that they call Morgan's head that we snorkeled out to.  

Another fun thing we did was hike to the top of the Peak.  It's the highest point on the island and ended up being about 8 miles round trip.  We had a native guide who spoke very broken English but was so friendly and so much fun.  He knew everything and even opened a coconut up for us to drink and eat on the way down.  This is a view from the top.

The next day we did another hike around the Lagoons of the island.  This was my favorite hike.  It had great views of the reef and the water.  These island are the 3 Brothers Caye.  No one is allowed near them because of some birds that live on them.  While hiking by the water we also saw some turtles and a huge sting ray.  Our guide was a local guy they call Nino.  He was very rasta.  

This island is famous for their crabs.  Every year starting now the crabs come down from the mountains to the beach, leave their eggs and head back up to the mountains.  There are crabs everywhere and when I say everywhere, that's what I mean.  They are all over the road, walls, trees...everything!  This pic barely gives you the idea of what it is really like.  NUTS!

Our last day on the island we rented a scooter and went all around.  There is only one road on the island and it goes all the way around.  Zach drove and I got to tell him to stop wherever I wanted so I could take way to many pictures.  Most people on the island get around by moto so there are a thousand scooters on the road.  

It rained on the island almost every day we were there.  That was a little frustrating but we managed just fine.  The one thing I was disappointed about was that there was no sunset when it rained.  I love sunsets and wanted to see one.  Thankfully, it cleared up on the last day we were there and there was a spectacular sunset!

Some of my other favorite things about the trip

1. FOOD!  The food was amazing!  Fresh fish, crab, shrimp, lobster...you name it, they had it and it was fabulous!

2. Language.  The island has 3 languages: English, Spanish, and an English Creole mix. It was amazing to hear the natives speak this language.  I couldn't understand a word.

This was a great trip!  I remembered how much I love adventure.  I'm already starting to plan our next big one!