Big Day Tomorrow

I am in the library right now in between classes.  I have one more class before my 2 hour lunch break!  I plan on going to Jimmy John's to eat and then finding an actual coffee shop to study in both at lunch and then again maybe tonight.

Big day tomorrow, we have the bones test, our first exam of veterinary school:  Gross Anatomy I.  Yay, what a relief it will be to be finished!

Here's to my class!  Photo taken by a photographer at our welcome picnic!

Coffee Shop

So, tonight I was exhausted so I decided to study at a coffee shop instead of my room so I would not fall asleep.  Turns out the coffee shop that I looked up on the internet did not exist!  I drove around about 30 minutes trying to find it and nothing.  Then, to my disbelief, I saw flashing lights behind me.  Little did I know, I was driving without my headlights on.  Opps....got a warning.  Home now and ready for bed, no more productiveness happening.

Cool part of the evening was that I found where our Shaft Party is going to be on Friday.

Tuesday

Lots going on here!  I sat through a Christian Veterinary Mission meeting over my lunch hour.  It was truly awesome!  What a great inspiration and thought to be able to serve through helping people with their animals.  I am pretty fired up about it!

I just got done with Mirco lab and looking into a microscope....stood outside and enjoyed the sunshine for a few while I talked with a friend.  Now, in the lab until the other half of the class is done so that we can all go over to Call Hall for their infamous ICE CREAM!  It's a great day for ice cream....Tuesdays are pretty long, but SOO awesome!

I have a student chapter meeting of a club that I would like to join called American Association of Bovine Practitioners.  It is open for anyone that is interested in cattle with our without experience....should meet some cool people in there with similar interests.

So, as you all know, I have been talking alot about the canine skelton....dog bones....  It is tradition that each year the 2nd years through a "Shaft" party for the 1st years after their first gross anatomy test...BONES.  This year it is titled, The Night of the Interossious Man.  We are supposed to dress up as spies, either Austin Powers style or James Bond Style.  I will be going Bond Style!

http://www.thewareham.com/

Briggs and Beau-the focus I'm looking for!

Monday

Today has been a very productive day.  Great run with Briggsy this morning!  We found a way to get on the Linear Trail!  

We had an excellent speaker come to our professional career development class to talk about getting stressed and different ways to cope with finding that balance in life between school, relationships, and outside activities-physical, social, and spiritual.  It was really helpful and exciting to know that there are really nice people here to help us learn how to study again or if we have questions about something, they work at the vet school for us!  People are so nice here.

I have gained very valuable study time in the lab today....headed home now to make hamburgers and then head back to the lab.  Super productivity!

Quote of the Day:

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

~~Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th President of the United States~~

Sunday Night

Been tying to study bones, but keep pushing it off to try to catch up with syllabus, exam schedules, readings, organization, scholarships, clubs, emails....  As I was cleaning out my inbox, catching up, I found an email from my friend from Stateline Bean in Nebraska.  It was about being who you are and being strong in that and not being guilty for all the things that you are not.

I am but, a woman who wants to learn to be more thankful for what I am, than guilty for what I am not.

Psalm 139:13-14, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  (NIV)  Thank you Lord for my wonderful worship this morning with a wonderful new friend!  It was meant to be.  Please help me focus on what lies ahead of me today, tomorrow, and in the future.

Happy Sunday

Today, I got to go to a church up by the lake called Crestview Christian Church with an awesome girl from my class.  I went to pick her up and we headed that direction.  Everyone was very friendly and the preacher even came up and said good morning before the service.  At the conclusion of the service, we both looked at each other and said that this felt like *home.*  What an incredible feeling!

Well, I am off to studying for the rest of the day (in my room-without distractions) so I just wanted to write on my blog before the focus begins.  Doggie bones, here I come!

Quote of the Day:  Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

~Michael Jordan~

Pitter, Patter, Pitter Patter....

I woke up to the most AMAZINGLY wonderful sound this morning!  My senses rose with the sound of rain and then the smell gently floated through my window with the nice breeze!  So awesome!  I just laid there thinking what a blessing it is!  I so wish I could share with each one of you the moisture we are fortunate enough to be receiving.

Ok, I will stop bragging now and tell you how awesome my day was today!  I had a very relaxing morning as described above and then met some friends from class at the pool to swim!  When we arrived, I saw that the lanes were very full with what appeared to be a swim team.  The lady checking me in said that it was indeed a swim team, but I could still go swim my laps.  My friends went to the other pool and I took Brian with me to talk to the team.  I walked up and asked if it was a high school team or a collegiate team and I was pleasantly surprised with his answer.  He said that this was everyone and it was a KSU affiliated deal from what I understood.  When I asked how I could get involved, he said just give me your email address and I will keep you updated!  Needless to say, I had a phenomenal workout and also met a 3rd year vet student.

Afterwards, we all went over to a colleague's house for pancakes....even though it was 4 pm in the afternoon! Banana pancakes with strawberries on top and Nutella!

The rest of the day I have been organizing, cleaning, and ironing!  Productivity so that tomorrow after church I can get to studying!  Finishing up all the odds 'n ends will help with my focus!

Teaching Hospital

Today, Friday, is normally a scheduled exam day.  Since we do not have any exams yet, we had the day to do what we needed to do.  I got to go lift in the morning with Pam and Brian and then go home and shower.  I went back to the school for my second of 3 rabies shots and then headed over to the Teaching Hospital.

We are extremely luck to have such a valuable resource at our fingertips!  We are encouraged, just about everyday to hang out at the teaching hospital during our free time.  I was able to take advantage of this after the rabies clinic today.  I spent about 2 hours there and had a great experience.

Probably the best part of my day was dancing tonight!  I went with Brian and Pam and a ton of our classmates were there!  It was super fun!  I got to do alot of 2-steppin!  Alot different than line dancing, but I got out and enjoyed myself!  :)

*Focus*

So, we have a test coming up next Friday on all the nooks and crannies of the dog skeleton.  My friends asked me to go study with them in the lab so that we can actually hold and examine the bones as well as look at the fully articulated dog.  So, I decided to take Briggs with me so that he could be there too.  Turns out, it was not a productive "studying" session as we are both a little on the social side.  On the other hand, we met a ton of people from my class!  :)

This is a good thing to find out before I really need to be studying.

Day 3

Beautiful morning!  We actually got to sleep in a little today as class didn't start until 9 am.  I went on a bike ride with Pam and Brian at 7....it was nice and cool and awesome times and lots of chatting.  Poor Brian had to listen to us girls chit-chat for a hour...lol!  We are going to start a traditional Saturday morning "Pancake Ride."  Ride to Eat!  We also plan on going country dancing on Friday night!

The shower turned out to be fine, but there was not any electricity in the bathroom to plug in my hair dryer.  So, you gotta do what ya gotta do.  My only option was my study carrel in the Gross/Micro lab.  Haha!  (Liz , I had to post this picture for you!)  L*I*F*E!

Day 2

Family Road Trip....9 PM

Long day today, but great!  We pulled out the microscopes in Micro today....how fun!  Got home and still needed to do my run.  Briggsy was thrilled to get out!  Ate dinner with the roomies....burritos from Mrs. Senkel starred the night!  Everyone was SOOO happy to have WONDERFUL homemade food.  (There are like 3 more bags of them!  Yay!)

After we ate, I had to go back into the school to take in my clothes for the morning.  I am going to go on a bike ride with some classmates in the morning and will attempt showering at the school for the first time!  Just before I left, our neighbor came over and she introduced herself.  She is super sweet.  Also, she wanted us to be aware of a local thief in our nice little neighborhood.  So, after this convo, I had the whole house load up in my car....3 dogs, 3 people, 1 road trip at 9 PM to the vet school!  Memories in the making!

First Day of Vet School

                                    

Yay, the first day of school....Professional Monday!  Heath and Briggs were here to see me off!  ....and yes I did ride my bike as it is my goal to ride my bike to school most days to avoid getting a parking pass if I can.  I have amazing roomies who will take me when/if it gets icy!  So, I just posted both pictures so that you could see the various parts of my day!  :)

Great day, we covered a bunch of things that I remembered from high school and undergrad.  I have lots of work to do to get them back to be fresh in my mind.  Lots of reading and memorization as we tackled the fore limb of the dog today.  Each and every bump on every bone in the dog is fair game for our first exam in Gross Anatomy!

First swim at the Natatorium tonight and I also got to dive for the first time in a very long time!  How fun!  :)

Visits and Triathlon

Granny and Mama got here on Friday evening!  They said it was a very quick 6 hour trip from Granny's house!  That is so close!  They had a little trouble navigating Kansas City, but other than that they made it smooth!  Their initial experience in Manhattan was less than ideal as their hotel was really not up to par.  They had to move to another hotel in the city which served them much better!  It even had a jacuzzi in it!

After I got home from orientation Friday night, I fell asleep putting my sheets on my bed.  I was awakened by Briggs wondering what was wrong.  I called Ma and Granny and we went out to Olive Garden.  A little pasta 2 days before a race is good, they say.  I went back to their hotel and hung out for a while before retiring in bed!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning!  Mr. Senkel came to watch me race!  He drove through the night after Justin's football scrimmage!  How awesome and what a dedicated supporter of my races!  He drove all through the night and got here at 5:30 AM!!

Saturday we hung out with Granny and Mama and I introduced them to Heath.  Later, Heath and I went grocery shopping and he did chores for us at the house!  Then, I went shopping with Granny and Mama at GW's!  What great stuff I ended up with for $35.  Thank you Granny!

We all retired early as my race was this morning!  I had my roomies, Mama, and Heath all there to watch me, it was awesome!  I am so happy, I finally SWAM the whole darn thing and took about 20 minutes off my time by also increasing the biking and running paces!  Lots of practice and about 8,000 feet lower than Steamboat!  It was so special having my whole support crew there and our doggies!  I received 3rd place in my age group:  25-29!  Keep training and keep racing!

I'm going to share some awesome pictures that Ma and Heath took!  Enjoy and thank you everyone, again, for your continued support!

Ok, need to get to bed, my first day of VET SCHOOL is tomorrow morning at 8 am!  WHAT A DREAM!!  :)

Oh, and after the tri, we had some serious YOGURT!

Day 3 Orientation

I was wide awake and ready to go at 5 am this morning only to find out it was still dark, so we postponed our ride until 6 am!  I did a 15 mile bike this morning with a classmate of mine from Cali who is a road biker.  Pam will be joining us on our Saturday morning adventure/smoothie rides!  Pam is with me in the picture above.  She is also from Cali!

Today, we had computer orientation, continued, this morning and then headed to the rabies clinic for our first of a series of 3.  It was super easy and I got new health insurance yesterday that paid for all but $250 of it!  It's some type of vet school insurance with great benefits!

In the time between sessions today, I took time to work in the lab on getting organized and getting all my things pulled together.  We start classes on Monday and there will be no looking back!  I am hitting the door running!

We had clinical orientation today in the Teaching Hospital!  I am so excited, they are so welcoming and ask for us to come visit/shadow ANY TIME!  That is where a lot of the learning will happen.

If you are interested, check this out!  It is a publication they put out for all to see what is going on at our vet school!  http://www.vet.k-state.edu/depts/vhc/PDF/Animal_Life_Summer12.pdf.

Got to go for today, Mama and Granny Lee just arrived and they are getting all checked into their hotel!  YAY!

Day 2 Orientation

Today, we had chats with the Iams food reps and also Hill's.  Hill's (Science Diet) actually has a feeding program for vet student's dogs and cats!  I will be allowed to buy 40 pounds/month of dog food for Briggs at a highly discounted rate!  YAY!  I will be working on switching him over to it slowly as to not mess up his system.

We also learned about available scholarships today!  How exciting that we fill out one form and they college does the research for us.  I have been inspired to work hard and never give up.

Ice Breakers....I sat on a married man's lap!  Funny story actually.  We were asked to get close and stand in a big circle with all of our shoulders touching....all 112 of us.  Then we were asked to turn to the left and take a few steps in.  THEN....we were asked to sit down.  Right before the last request, the man behind me said, "I would like to introduce myself before this happens."  I was rolling on the floor laughing!  He said he was a safe "one" (man) because he was married, therefore, I sat on a married man's lap.  Now you tell me I won't remember him!  His name is Lee, spelled the same way as mine!

Things are going great!  I feel really good about everything.  Honestly the hardest part of this so far is actually getting ready in the mornings.  Is not only professional, but respectful to dress nicely each day.  I am not used to getting myself together in the mornings but I look forward to the challenge that each and every day my bring.

I took B for a run tonight before I headed back to the school at 8 pm to look through what the college has to offer in the way of student clubs.  So inspired!!!!!!!!

Check out our Class' Facebook account:  http://www.facebook.com/KSUCVM.  I am on the front picture in my purple scrubs!  (My NE friends, please do not be mad!  :)

First Day of Orientation

Today, my roomies and I got ready for our first day of orientation for Kansas State veterinary school.  We all got dressed up and headed out the door, feeling very professional.  Briggsy willingly posed in all these pictures because he is such a ham.  :)  We spent most of the morning at Frick Auditorium and then headed back to the house for lunch.  We let the dogs out, grabbed a bite to eat, and went back to the school to receive our school computers.  It is a tablet that you can actually write on with a special pen and it converts it to text.  Way cool!  After that was done, we ran home again and changed into our scrub tops for the college picnic on the lawn.


I suppose I should introduce my roomies.....Hanna is in the middle in the light blue and she is from Florida and Shannon is on the right and she is from Georgia.  We come from all over and represent alot of different things.  It was a great feeling to walk into orientation today already knowing these amazing women!

During the picnic we were able to go into the school and find our locker, study corral-in the anatomy lab, and our mailbox.  We had our picture taken for our ID badges today and we are allowed 24/7 access into the veterinary college.  We also took the veterinary oath today after we were all introduced in front of our classmates.  We all competed with 1300 applicants for the 112 spots that they filled.  What a true privilege.

We are paired with a second year "buddy" who will help us in our transition.  My buddy's name is Josh.  I haven't gotten to meet him yet, but I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at my lab station that he had left several items for me including:  old notes, tests, Dawn dish soap, a red bucket, chocolate!, and trail mix.  I mean really, how AWESOME and thoughtful!  All of this was accompanied by 1 hand written letter and 2 pencil drawings.  How fun and totally unexpected!

After we went to the lab and found everything on our 3rd floor of Trotter, we headed down the the basement to check out the cafeteria.  We were asking the very nice janitor about the location and a professor came out and introduced himself.  Long story short, we had an awesome, AWESOME, inspirational conversation with him.  We are so blessed to have met him.