Some Nature Therapy

This last weekend I had the opportunity to float the Kootenai ("koo-tin-ee") River with some of the locals. Some of them fished but I just relaxed and enjoyed the smooth ride down stream.
Sunday I went for a Hike to a place called Ross Creek. There is a grove of really old Cedar trees that are 8+ feet in diameter and really tall. It was absolutely breath taking. I wish I could bottle and sell the smell there. After my hike I went to Bull Lake which was nearby, I sat down on the beach for a minute and woke up an hour later! Guess I needed the nap.
Overall my rotation here is going really well. I'm loving the people and the area. As much as I'm enjoying it, I'm really ready to be around people I know and who know me! I've already started counting down the days til I head to Cedar City (9 in case you were wondering)!
Here's some pictures from my weekend…

Blue Heron on the rock and taking flight. He followed us down river for quite a while 

Lost in the Woods

First week of rotations was amazing! I finally have that mental confirmation that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I love seeing the patients and working through any concerns that they have. Technically this is my OB/GYN rotation but most of what I'm seeing is family practice. Other than feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing, things are going great!
So far I'm loving Libby; it's teeny tiny but it's gorgeous! The trees and the green just go on as far as the eye can see. Here's a few pictures of some of the places I've been…

 Osprey and Libby Dam

 Lake Koocanusa

 Kootenai Falls 

 Loon Lake and a very territorial chipmunk

Ready or Not

It's been a while since I've blogged and it's mostly due to the fact that this past year has been more or less ground hogs day… Get up, go to class, come home, eat, study, sleep, and repeat. I figured I didn't want to write the same things over and over again just about as much as you didn't want to hear them. As of a week and half ago I officially finished my first year (didactic year) of PA school! I can't even express how incredibly excited I am to be done with that portion of my schooling… Now I'm on to the fun part; 8 clinical rotations each lasting 6 weeks and each in a different field of medicine. My first rotation starts tomorrow and is my OB/GYN rotation that takes place in a family practice clinic so I'll get to see a little bit of everything; the catch - It's in Libby, MT (aka Canada). Libby is a little town way up in the the northwest corner of Montana. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty bummed to be assigned a rotation so far from anything I'm familiar with, but now the initial shock has worn off I'm pretty excited! I'll try and keep the blog updated with my what-doings and pictures of the absolutely gorgeous place I get to spend six weeks…Here are some pictures of the drive up and the house I'm staying in.

 Summit Lake

  The view from their yard

The house

Out and About

So I'm terrible at upkeep on the blog but here are some pics of our most recent adventure. Colton, Walker, and I went sight seeing up the Boulder River. It was absolutely breathtaking and a much needed day out of the house/classroom....don't worry I took my books and studied on the way.

 He hates pictures...I take them anyways

 One of the stops we made was at "Natural bridge". The river eroded a hole in the rock and formed a rock bridge. This is where it disappears under the ground...

 My two favorite guys!

 And there's the river again 

This pond was absolutely perfect, had it not been raining I could have propped a chair right here and sat all day long.

 We weren't far from snow...Winter is coming too soon I fear

 We saw this beauty on our way back home. 

Information Overload... Week 1

Technically this is week 3 of the highly anticipated PA school but for all intents an purposes its week one - no offense genetics and biostats but a two week crash course was enough for my liking. Weeks 3-6 are the crash course in anatomy and physiology that seems to be laid out in a teach yourself kind of way. (wish me luck)
So week one - 4 hours of lecture and 1 1/2 hours of lab and I fear it's only the beginning.  The best way I can describe this week is as though information has been vomited on me... I'm now covered in information: some of it important, most of it nonsense and some of it missing and it's up to me to go through and put the pieces together and decipher which is which. Sounds rather simple really but on a day like today for example and the power point is 207 slides and the lecture was 4 hours long with a chapter thats about 50 pages it gets rather taxing. So there's my rant for the day.

All in all Montana is great! The weather is perfect (so far, and I don't want to hear anything about how cold it gets in the winter). The people are super nice. Campus is absolutely gorgeous even if there's grass on the sidewalks. I'll be sure to post pictures in all my spare time. Walker is really enjoying his job and seems to get along with the people he's working with. We have had some time to go exploring. Last weekend we went to Riverfront park and walked around the lake, it was all we could do to keep from getting eaten alive but it sure was pretty. Our little house is only about 3/4 mile away from the yellowstone river which has trails that run all up and down it and makes for the perfect run!  We still have three bunnies that live in our little culdesac: Howard Bernstein, Edward Hammerschmidt, and Steve; Walker and I have grown rather attached to our bunnies and look for them on our lawn in the evening. (I have no plants so I have no qualms, the neighbors may think differently)
The one complaint I do have is the restaurant selection; I'm determined to find a good pizza place (we've had some failed attempts) and I've heard the mexican food here is quite sub par. On the bright side they do have a Cafe' Rio which I count as a major food group.

The trip with no return!

After nine months of anticipation the big move came and went with only a few minor "bugs" along the road. Mom and Ray were so awesome and came up to help us. We loaded all our stuff up in our truck and car, their truck, and Grandpa Bob's moving trailer. We were quite the caravan.

Just over halfway here mom calls and says their truck died and they are pulling off the road.  Walker and I pulled off and we jetted back up in my car to see what the trouble was.  The truck would start but wouldn't stay running. They called a tow and we threw as much as we could in Walker's truck, the trailer and my car and Walker and I headed down the road.  We waited for them in Bozeman and after some rearranging were able to fit Mom, Ray, their stuff, and the rest of our stuff in our two vehicles and the trailer.  It was quite the squish. We left their truck at the Ford dealership in Bozeman.  Ray got a call Monday and the mechanic asked straight up if they had had the vehicle serviced recently. Apparently when they had the air filter changed before the trip the mechanic didn't ensure that the air box was completely clean; a bug had melted to the air flow sensor (or whatever it is) causing the truck to not run.  At least it wasn't the fuel pump.

Our new place is great! We live less than a mile from the Yellowstone river which makes for a great run and we're very close to Walker's new work. OH and we have bunnies that live in the field behind our house and they like to spend the evenings on our front lawn!

I realized on our way up that this is almost like a vacation, except we're not going home. It's strange being so far from home and family, it's definitely going to take some getting used to.

View from the old place

 Definitely going to miss these mountains

 Between Billings and Bozeman

 He hates pictures

 Our new place!!!

 I might be a little over excited that we have bunnies!

Bye Bye Buick

Walker bought the ol' Buick from Grandma about two years ago and has been using it as his commuter car. We decided that there was no use trying to get a third vehicle 600 miles when we didn't really need it, so we decided to say goodbye and sell it.