The final presentation from our cooking competition! The ingredients we had to use were strawberries, zucchini, ricotta, and macaroni. Ours are the two on the bottom part of the picture.
Tommy and Emily!
Then I began my 12 weeks at National Jewish Health! This was an outpatient pulmonary rehab clinic in which we saw a variety of complex patients who all had one thing in common- a pulmonary condition, meaning some sort of lung condition like COPD, ILD, etc. It was a really great learning experience. I had my best clinical instructor yet who I could tell really cared about my learning and goals, helped me improve my patient education, documentation, and some of my technical skills. During this rotation I really started to feel like my own practitioner, part of the team, who could really take care of my own patients! It was fun to really start to come into that and feel like a "real" PT!
Amidst my time working and doing patient prep, Jeremiah and I managed to do a bunch of fun things! Many of which are just pictured below all of this writing as well!
We went to Beaver Creek for our annual family trip! We had told my family that we wouldn't be able to drive up until Friday night, but were able to surprise them by getting up there on Thursday night! It was a really fun surprise and it was so great to have that extra time with everyone there. We skied, we talked, we enjoyed the grotto... Not much better than that!
We did make another quick trip to AZ for a big occasion: Nathan's graduation! Jeremiah's brother graduated from ASU this winter and we are very excited for him and excited to see what the future has in store for him! I was there for literally less than 48 hours (Booo) but managed to see all of both of our families while there thanks to my whole family being invited to Nathan's graduation party! It's pretty awesome to have your in-laws get along so well with your family. Besides that I spent the 48 hours just hanging out with the Dwights, playing games, and enjoying each other's company! Jeremiah stayed for an extra couple of days so that he could be at the actual graduation ceremony. He was able to sneak in a quick visit with Tommy and Emily, play plenty of video games with Nathan, and even hang out with some of my nieces and nephews for an afternoon!
The whole gang!
As I mentioned our holidays looked a little different this year. We were not home or with any family for Thanksgiving so we went for a really nice walk in our very snowy/icy neighborhood, watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, and Jeremiah spent a lot of time making rolls, before heading to our friend's Tyler and Emily's for dinner with them and a few other friends. We contributed the rolls, Green Beans Almondine, and tried and succeeded making Apple Fritters for dessert! We also played a couple of games while there and squeezed in a FaceTime with my family where my cousins Sarah and DJ announced the sex of their baby that is due in June!! They haven't announced the sex to Facebook so I will keep that to myself. We are very excited for them! Onto the next holiday, we both had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off fortunately, so on Christmas Eve we slept in, went to the gym, FaceTimed Jeremiah's family, decorated gingerbread houses, watched a Christmas movie, and went to Tyler and Emily's house for a very nice Christmas Eve dinner! They are excellent cooks, so they challenge us (in a good way) to try to step up our cooking game especially when we have them over! We then did something very different and went to our church's "midnight mass" which was at 11:30 pm and went right into Christmas Day. It was really reflective, more quiet than normal, and we both really loved the experience and really welcoming Christmas Day reflecting on Christ's birth. Christmas Day we slept in before making a special breakfast of english muffin breakfast sandwiches (special for us, because usually we just have oats!) while listening to Christmas music, then opened presents from each other and some of the presents that our family had shipped to us. We got some really fun, great things! Then we FaceTimed my family for quite some time, because my sister had put together clues for my nieces and nephews to participate in a scavenger hunt to find presents that we told them the Grinch stole and hid around the house. It was really fun to watch them and see everyone opening some of their presents as well to feel like we were there for a little part of it! We then spent a good part of the afternoon making our special Christmas dinner! We were inspired by Great British Baking Show (one of our favorite shows) to make a Raised Pie. Ours was Indian inspired so curry was a predominant flavor, and also had potato and chicken as main ingredients. It turned out really great! And took us a few days to finish off. Then onto the last of the holiday season. I had to work New Years Eve but only until 3:30 so we still had all evening together and both of us also had New Years Day off. New Years Eve we went to a place called Boardgames Republic for their NYE celebration! We met our friends Chris and Amanda there where we played games all night, enjoyed food and drinks, and I even won a boardgame! It was such a fun way to ring in the new year! New Year's Day we went to the gym of course, went over to a friend's house for a little get together for a bit, and made pierogis for dinner! All in all we had a wonderful time just the two of us this holiday season! We are very thankful for technology that connects us to our families from afar because that really did make it easier to not be there in person! We also are very thankful for some wonderful friends that we have made here in CO who help make it feel like home. So our celebrations were simple, but we just did what we wanted to do and had a great time doing it!
Our self-timer iPhone photo in front of the tree!
Jeremiah has continued to enjoy his work at Stryker over the past few months. He loves his coworkers and the working environment, and has even gotten into a nice routine of fitting in the gym before work. But the exciting update for him is that in the month of October he was awarded employee of the month (after only having been there since April!) and then in November found out that he got a promotion to Senior Test Engineer! How cool and official does that sound?? I frequently say this on here, but he is an incredible hard worker who I think any company would be lucky to have so I am very grateful to Stryker for acknowledging that and rewarding him for it. He definitely earned both of those achievements!
Highlights of the year include:
- Trip to NYC and DC! So many sights, so much good food!
- Making it through a really crazy Spring semester. Possibly my hardest ever!
- Jeremiah got an offer from and started a job at Stryker!! A really great fit for him.
- I spent 8 weeks in Kansas on my second clinical rotation.
- Finished didactic work and moved on to my full time clinical rotations
- Participated in a beautiful Blessing of the Hands ceremony at school
- Roadtrip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with my parents
- Jeremiah was promoted to Senior Test Engineer!
- A few more trips to AZ
- A few more 14ers climbed
Things to look forward to in 2020:
- Rochester trip! My grandma Warren turned 90!
- Starting and completing my last clinical rotation at Children's Hospital of CO on the Neuro Rehab floor
- Graduation baby!! I am going to be Dr. Dwight come May 2, 2020!
- Family cruise over Memorial Day weekend. Sooo excited to take this family trip.
- Hopefully getting a job and starting to work with my own patients!
- A couple other fun trips are on the agenda, but not officially booked yet so you will have to check back to see what is to come in 2020...
Lexy and Me
Photos from our "Blessing of the Hands" ceremony at school before sending us off on clinical rotations to bless our patients with the use of our hands!
Stacey and Me
Me presenting with my research group during my final week of didactic work.
Most of the DPT class of 2020 after the Blessing of the Hands!
Jeremiah and I having boba together for the first time. My second time ever but I think I am hooked now!
Celebrating my friend Jess at her Bridal Shower in Erie, CO! Wasn't able to get down to Tucson for the wedding itself so I was very grateful to celebrate her this way!
Pumpkin carving! Can you guess whose is whose?
I decided to chop a lot of hair off and am loving the change!
A ski weekend with my parents right after my third clinical rotation ended! Two days at Copper Mountain.
