Jake's Birthday

Frosting, frosting everywhere.
The final product....a little ugly and a little manly. Jake loved it.

A picture before we left for dinner.

Jake blowing out his candles. I did not put 28 on there.


He's opening his gift. I was sneaky and packed it in a laundry rack. Hehehe


Jakester turned 28 on Thursday. I've been pretty busy and am getting to this late, but I have pictures. I spent Wednesday making his birthday cake: Devils Food with chocolate frosting in masculine colors. Thursday, we celebrated by going to Water World, a pretty fun waterpark about 35 minutes away. It definitely wasn't as nice as Noah's Ark, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Some of the highlights of the day: realizing we're not spring chickens anymore, world's biggest wedgie, going down a slide so fast keeping our eyes open was impossible, losing all modesty as you fly out of those fast slides, and enjoying the day with my perfect husband.

After coming home and showering, Jake opened his gift, with my parents on Skype to watch. We (my parents, my sister, my grandparents, and I) chipped in for a flight on a World War II bomber. Jake is very very excited about it. He goes for his 30 min flight on July 11th. http://www.warbirdsunlimited.org/about.htm

After presents, we went to dinner at Brasserie 1010 http://www.brasserietenten.com (one of our favorite restaurants). The food was delicious and we both stuffed ourselves beyond uncomfortable. After dinner, our friends came over to eat cake and hang out. We had a lot of fun and kicked them out at 11:40. A day in the sun wore us both out.

Sun over the Mountains

I looked out the patio and saw this amazing sunset/storm cloud over the mountains. Beautiful!

Greekfest and Dinner Tonight

I forgot to take a picture of the yummy honey teriyaki chicken, so here's Jake with the empty wok.
Here's my pasta mess :(
Me eating my gyro!


Yesterday, I dragged Jake to Greekfest in Denver. Oh man, it was awesome! The music and dancing and food was just fantastic. I ate way way way too much, but oh man was it good. I had saganaki, tyropita, a gyro, and loukoumades.

So tonight, I made dinner. Jake was supposed to but something broke in the lab and he kind of got stuck. I made honey teriyaki chicken and a lemon linguine pasta dish. Both recipes came from a low fat cookbook that we picked up at B&N. I made dinner while Jake was tutoring and I made a huge mess. Like I dropped the rest of the pasta on the floor. I left it for Jake to clean up. Oops.

An actual married couple living together

These are some pictures of Jake building his new work bench. He decided this last weekend that he needed one because he was using the kitchen table, but now that I'm here, all of my study materials have kind of taken over. So he drew up a plan, went and bought the materials and started building it. Plus it gives him something to do while I'm studying.

So living together....it's been so wonderful!!! I think the weirdest part is not constantly thinking that one of us is leaving in a few days. Normally we are attached at the hip, but this weekend he actually has plans with some friends while I stay home and study. On visiting weekends, he would usually cancel to hang out with me, but I encouraged him to hang out with the buddies so I don't get distracted by him. What else is weird? Cooking for two people! We are both so used to having leftovers that last a long time but now we eat the food up pretty quickly. It's nice sharing the cooking and cleaning duties with him too.

So I guess I'll end this with a poll: what's your favorite meal for two?

When Did the Library Rule Change?

Seriously, am I the only person who thinks being in a library means being quiet? Am I the only one left who whispers if I'm forced to talk? On Monday, I studied at Jake's campus library. This is a huge library on a huge campus. I assumed that studying there would be a good quiet place. Boy was I wrong. People answering their phones, people talking in normal voices, slamming doors, etc. I didn't go back. Today I'm in the Longmont public library. Yesterday wasn't too bad, but there is currently a mother with her two children sitting at a table reading with her children; in a normal voice. Really???? There are about 7 adults who are quietly doing their work and she comes in with her noisy, bratty boys. She's not even attempting to be quiet. I'm a heartbeat away from walking over and telling her this is a library, not a classroom. People are studying...for MEDICAL BOARDS!!!!! I could care less about hearing her child learning to read. Shut up please.

Brazil Visa

Well today I am sending off for my visa to enter the country.
Application- check
Passport photo- check (I wasn't allowed to smile!)
$140 postal money order- I will buy this at the post office
Passport- check
Copy of my itinerary - check
International immunization card - check
2 postal express envelopes- I will buy this at the post office

In 15 days, I should have my visa!

Yesterday I went and met up with Dr. P to get the itinerary. Man do we have some long traveling days. We will be departing Cincinnati on Aug 3rd at 8 pm and we arrive in Manaus at 1:30 pm the next day. Then we take a 12 hour boat ride. On the way home, 12 hour boat ride back, 4:30 pm flight out of Manaus, and we don't get back to Cincinnati until 4 pm the next day. I am going to be one tired girl.

10 months!

We have been married 10 months today! Gosh time is flying by. Pretty soon a year will be past, and then we'll begin year 2. I have to say I have had an amazing first year of marriage so far (don't screw it up now Jake, lol). I'm getting pretty antsy. In three days I'll be out in CO with him. Thank goodness. It's strange getting everything wrapped up here though. It's definitely not the same as when I just leave for a long weekend. For example, I'm eating like crap because I'm trying to clean out the fridge and cupboards. Blech, I can't wait to get back on a healthy regimen when I'm out in CO. I will not even tell you what has gone into my mouth today. Bad Jenny.

IVs and Foley Catheters

Me doing an IV on the fake adult arm.


Starting a female catheter.

Starting a male catheter. I'm totally bummed that he cut my head out of this photo. Oh well.


Yesterday was a pretty good day. We practiced IVs and Foleys on fake arms, penises, and girly goods. The fake arm was not very realistic because we got to keep lifting the arm and turning it the way we wanted. Yeah I don't think my patients would be too pleased if I turned them 360 degrees. But we had fake blood that came out when we got into the vein. We practiced on an adult and then a pediatric arm. I did get the chance to practice on Kasia. It took a little while, but I did get one in her hand. I know that I'm a super hard poke because my veins are really small and deep. She tried in two different places and couldn't get me.

So the foleys we obviously didn't practice on each other because, well that would be very very weird. So we had models to practice on...not as fun and exciting as I had hoped, but oh well.

Last night, we had a BBQ at our professor's house for an end of the year celebration. It was so much fun. There was plenty of good food and lots of laughing. It's weird because it will be a long time before everyone is together like that again. And then at the end of the summer the new students will be joining us and the whole dynamic will be different. Oh well.

I'm Going to Brazil!!!

Typhoid, yellow fever, and malaria Oh My! I don't think I've blogged about going to Brazil. Well I'm going August 3-14th for an international medicine rotation with an organization that goes into the Amazon www.cbm.org.br/amazonboatministry.html . One of the doctors I work with asked me to go with her (at her cost). I pretty much fell over myself saying yes. Turns out, we are doing a surgery mission. I went over to her house on Sunday to discuss some details since I'm leaving for Colorado a week from Friday and won't be back until two weeks before we leave. So the itinerary is: fly to Miami where we will meet up with the rest of the group (there are 18 of us I think), fly to Manaus, get on the boat and take a 12 hour ride to either Sao Sebastiao or Urucura. Once we are there, Dr. P, myself, a nurse, and a translator will get off the boat and stay at the preacher's house (Wesley). For 3-4 days we will be doing surgeries from sun up to sun down, go home to eat and rest and go to sleep to do it all again. We will then get on the boat and head to the other village and the four of us will disembark but this time stay at a hotel. For 3-4 more days we will do surgeries, then head back to Manaus on the boat.

I am obviously very excited about this trip. It's an opportunity of a lifetime and I'm hoping to be a rockstar at these surgeries by the end of the trip! I still can't believe she asked me to go with her. I promise that I will use this opportunity to learn everything I can!!! And let's be real, there will be three of us in that OR with the patient, in the middle of the jungle...In the US there is usually 6-7. I am hoping to do a lot more.

So back to my first sentence: I've been getting immunized and I'm all done with my shots. On Friday I received the hepatitis A and yesterday was yellow fever and typhoid. I will start my antimalarial medicine on the first day of the trip. My left arm is killing me. That typhoid shot just sucked big time. Oh well sore arm vs typhoid...I'll take the sore arm.

I'm going to be there for my 25th birthday. It will be strange considering I won't be surrounded with any loved ones. Unfortunately, I will also be gone for Jake's and my first anniversary. I am aware that I suck and will be making this up forever.

It will be weird to be without my computer for two weeks considering it's pretty much attached to my hip, but I'll be paper journaling (back to ancient times) and taking tons of photos so you'll all be bombarded with reading and photo looking when I get back.