Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Bump

Tonight, around 9:30pm

"Mom, Mom, Cambree's stuck in her sheets!"

Now picture, if you will, a perfectly made crib mattress, wrinkle free even...aside from a whining bump in the middle.

She did not like it that we giggled a little, ok a lot, before she was rescued.

How she got all the way under without pulling the sheets off (or disturbing them in any way) is beyond me but at this point, I should stop being surprised at anything that she does.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Move II

When we moved from Provo to North Carolina 5 years ago, we made a top 10 list of things we'd miss and not miss and I thought it'd be fun to do again. This is mostly for our benefit so if something doesn't make sense or if it doesn't seem very funny, just remember it's included because it's funny to us.

Disclaimer: We do not claim that any of the following lists are all inclusive. We reserve the right to add to or change whenever we want.


Top 10 things we will miss about living in NC:

10 - The little blue dodge that served us so well (thanks again to the Brays, we love you!)

9 - The Raleigh farmer's market

8 - the Town of Cary (parks, roads, flowered medians, walkways, crime stats, etc.)

7 - College basketball (notice the color of the above title)

6 - Rita's Water Ice (especially a chocolate/lemon gelati or misto...try it!)

5 - Goodberrys!!!

4 - hushpuppies!

3 - friends!!!

2 - living close to my sister Mindy and her family

1 - THE BEACH


Top 10 things we will not miss about living in NC:

10 - BJ's extra long commute to and from school

9 - living in the dark (literally and figuratively speaking)

8 - walking through cobwebs to get to the car every morning (and afternoon)

7 - weak toilets (if you were lucky enough to use one at our place, you know what we mean)

6 - living close to the stinky dump

5 - the trains and all the bazillions of trucks that drove past our place 24/7
(they have damaged our children so much that the first time we heard thunder here,
Bree started signing "train" and "choo chooing" and Haylee rushed to see where the
train was)

4 - the lake in our backyard that never quite disappeared in between storms

3 - living on red money

2 - the STINKIN' mice!!!

1 - NO MORE SCHOOL! (well, sort of)


Things we are looking forward to in MO:


* getting to know our extra friendly Italian neighbor who thought to warn us that he plays his Italian music extra loud on Sunday mornings

* the zoo is free!!

* what it will be like to have a teenager living with us

* determining if St. Louis really is the Gateway to the West

* living on a street where (no exaggeration) we are the only residents without AARP cards (we're hoping their grand kids visit often)

* going to a Cardinals game and then proceeding to buy any and all kinds of wearable Cardinals apparel (flip flops, scrunchies and diaper bags included) as we see 80 % of the residents do here whenever we go out (except at church)

* experiencing a real, live tornado

* St. Louis BBQ anyone?

* day trips to Nauvoo

* a gallon of milk for $1.88...beat that North Carolina!!!

* biking to and from work

* going back to being a one-car family

* having a TV that doesn't get TV

* learning whether or not a yellow toilet gets dirty faster than a white one

* living close to a temple, again, and not having to call ahead to make appointments

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Life After School

Many of you have wondered, what will BJ and Julie do now? I was accepted into a geriatric focused residency program at the VA medical center in St. Louis. Yes, we have already moved, we are working on a post about it. Anyway, to pass the time in NC between graduation and moving I studied for two more exams. They were the two required to get a license and covered everything I had learned about pharmacy over the past 4 years. Somehow I managed to pass and am now a licensed pharmacist. I also worked at Rite Aid as an unlicensed pharmacist. This provided us with a little cash to move to MO, some valuable experience and some entertaining stories.

One such story was quite the reality check for me. I answered a phone call from a doc who asked, "Is this the pharmacist?" My reply was, "uh...uh, yeah I'm a pharmacist." He didn't seem too sure that he was talking to a pharmacist but asked his question anyway. Fortunately I was able to answer it. The story doesn't sound that funny but it was since I was a new pharmacist unsure of myself in the situation and he was an oral surgeon who didn't call things in so he was unsure of how a phone call to a pharmacy was supposed to go.

So the residency program is a one year deal. I will be working at the VA with a geriatric outpatient clinic for most of my time. That means I will be seeing patients with chronic disease states that are managed by medication. I will be working with them to optimize there medivation regimin and hopefully improving their quality of life. There are a few months I may be doing other things to round out my education.

Most people ask if pharmacists have to do a residency. The answer is no, pharmacists don't, but if you want certain jobs they are highly reccomended if not required. I am still not sure exactly what I want to do, but I am currently leaning towards a clinical faculty position, which is one of those jobs that a residency is highly reccomended. During my residency I will also complete a teaching certificate program which can't hurt when looking to become a teacher.