Just a hello during my time off!

Hi all! It's me in the middle of my time off! :) Things are going well which to me means, I am keeping busy. It is very hard for me to be able to kick back and relax, so I have been doing my usual housework and research but alot of fixing up around the house and outdoors. I wasted no time getting started as my first week off I began building a retaining wall/flower bed around our patio we got last summer. The week after that I had to rip up alot of rock and fabric liner around our house to prepare for a privacy fence and white picket fence on our corner lot, which will really expand our backyard space. Over the next week or so I have finished picking and planting my flowers and herbs in the flower bed (had to wait until it warmed up a little bit more). It is such a transformation! I am working on anything and everything to make the house as improved as possible before beginning residency - that seems to be my focus...

That being said, I have also become quite the coupon lady lol. My wonderful mother-in-law has been getting me into it for about a year now but now it has expanded to not just groceries but to things at Walgreens, CVS, etc. It's now an addiction! I only buy things on sale and what I have coupons for to make it a double sale (=clearance, lol?). This plan also is to prepare for residency. I enjoy doing alot of the housework around the house even though my husband is fantastic in doing this as well. I love trying to do it all, which I am sure will come back to bite me soon enough. Though, by keeping up with my sales and stocking up on things in our giant pantry, I am hoping that it will save me from having to do big shopping runs and saving time to be home when I am off!

I have been looking up different ways to prepare for residency, though not in my reading and studies -that is a given. But ways to prepare my home and protect my time off from certain chores that can either be done on a scheduled day or to find ways to make things easier/fast to do. Also, looking to make my own "happy bag" (name of the bag is a work in progress, haha!) for my time in the hospital. This will include things like food, my iPod for morning pre-rounds, organized rounding sheets that I have made, pictures, bathroom things for refreshing/on-call like face wash, toothbrush, deodorant, etc. I think it will help me get through the days easier. This will also be helped with finalizing my own plan of how to complete my work. Since I have done my rotations at HFH, I know what a day in the life is like as far as rounding, lectures and call nights. This will make my days run smoother and full of me frantically running around or confused at what needs to be done next.

Time is moving along quickly though. My graduation is later than most, coming up June 4th at Madison Square Gardens! Should be a nice trip spent with my family and fellow graduates. More of that to come! We are trying to plan little weekend trips but I am at least hoping to be able to SIT and relax. Slowly, I'm getting there but in the meantime I think I will keep getting things done! :) Gotta go for now, but plan on writing again this week of wrapping up rotations and getting set for my graduation audit!