Where Has the Time Gone.....

I cannot believe that I'm almost done with my rotations, it seems unreal! I'm down to my last two weeks until graduation. I have been so fortunate to get the rotations that I did. They've all been excellent and I've had the best preceptors.

I feel so much more prepared to become a pharmacist. I graduate May 16th and it's coming quick!

I've also accepted a job with Shopko in the Douglas/Wheatland area and will start work a few weeks after graduation.

It seem surreal that something I've been working at for so long is almost here. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I've had to pursue my dreams and especially grateful for my parents who have made it all possible. I finally made it and I can't believe it!

Community Rotations.....

For my last two rotations I've been working at Albertsons. In July I was in Cheyenne & now I'm in Laramie for August. I absolutely loved the rotation in Cheyenne. The people that I was able to work with were amazing & I feel like I fit right in. It was such a fun environment to work in. I was really sad when my time was over there - actually I may or may not have cried.

My final project was making a poster about Shingles. My preceptor was impressed with the final product, which makes me happy because I spent hours making it. Garry ended up displaying it right outside of the pharmacy.

The people I've had the privilege of working with at all my sites have made me feel very welcome and I learned so much. It affirmed to me that I love what I'm going to do when I graduate, and it makes me excited to go to work every day. I can't wait to graduate so I can work every day and not have to worry about doing homework. 

Week One.....

Well I've survived week one of my first rotation. I've really enjoyed being at the Board of Pharmacy. There's been lots to do to keep me busy. Already I've answered about 10 questions regarding the law, prepared presentations, read 2 books, written my newsletter article, and met with the FDA/Wyoming Attorney General's Office. I get to meet with the FBI next week, give a couple of presentations, and go to the Board meeting and WPhA convention at the end of the month. Luckily, I have some down time which means that I've been able to get a head-start on my Seminar Presentation too.

The days are kind of long because I have to be on-site by 8:00, five days a week, so driving from Laramie means waking up by 5:30 to get ready to be sure that I'm on time every day. I don't take a lunch break usually so I can head home by 4:00, otherwise I would have to stay until 5:00. All I can say is I'm glad that I'll only be commuting to work for a few weeks, I definitely couldn't do it every day.

It's nice to be able to get my feet wet before jumping in head first to the demanding rotations that I'll have later on. The people I work with every day are the sweetest and have made me feel very welcome. Not a day goes by without receiving a compliment from my preceptor. I'll be crossing my fingers that the rest of my rotations go as smoothly as this one has been so far!

Last Piece of the Puzzle.....

I was happy when I got my Rotation Schedule, but I still couldn't relax fully because I was waiting to hear about my Seminar Topic. Over the course of the year of rotations, we have 3 separate Reflective Weeks (after 4 months of rotations) where we have various presentations and assignments due. At one of the three reflective weeks, each student has to give a 35 minute presentation and then answer questions for about 10 minutes. It's a big part of determining my grade for my final year of school.

Luckily I got assigned to present in the Reflective Week that I wanted, the 1st one, at the end of September. My topic I was assigned wasn't at the top of my list, but I was happy with it overall. I get to speak on Diabetes Insipidus. I don't know a lot about this topic, which is a bit nerve-racking, but I'm sure it will turn out okay.

This is one of the things I was most nervous about because I get very uncomfortable when I speak in front of people. So I will be very happy when this is over, and I can relax & enjoy my rotations.

**My blog has been pretty boring for the most part, but I don't really have much to talk about except for school & getting ready for my final year of pharmacy school. It's a huge part of my life, it takes a lot of my time & effort, and it is pretty much all I think about. Hopefully once I'm done with school I'll lead a little bit more of an exciting life!**

Done & Done.....

I am officially a P4 student as of an hour ago. I just finished my last final ever, and I couldn't be more excited! The only thing that can top how I feel right now is next year when I'm completely done.

It seems surreal that I am so close to the career I've wanted to have since I was a little girl. As excited as I am, it's a little weird to think that the life I've known for the past 6 years (waking up, going to class, doing homework, studying, and wanting to pull my hair out) is never going to happen again. I'm going to miss my friends that I've made, and it's bittersweet to know that I won't be seeing them every day anymore.

I snapped this picture my final day of classes, and I can definitely say that I won't miss listening to lectures every day.

I'm so blessed to have been accepted and survived this difficult program, and I can't wait to get to the final stage of my education so I can be finished with school for the rest of my life.

Finally!!.....

After what seems like forever, I finally received my Rotation Schedule. For the most part I'm pretty happy with it, and got a lot luckier then some other people in my class. While I might not have gotten my first choice on everything, I at least got one of my top choices. Some of my other classmates got assigned to places that were their seventh or eighth choices or ones they didn't even choose. Overall I got pretty lucky, and I'm happy with my schedule. I get to stay around the areas that I wanted. I'm close to home or around Laramie within driving distance.

I get some time off in the summer, get my harder rotations done towards the beginning, and get to be in Laramie right before I graduate.

I've still got so much to do this semester, not only with my classes, but also with getting ready for rotations. I still have to do CPR certification, finish my Immunization training, applying for licenses, getting drug test, liability insurance, background checks, and meeting with my adviser to help make sure I have everything ready to go. I can't wait until everything is done and I can be on my Rotations. It's going to be a nice change for going to class every day and studying for exams. I'll get a glimpse into what the rest of my life will entail.

Down to the Wire.....

I can't believe that this semester is almost over! It is flying by. I'm leaving for Thanksgiving break in a week and after I get back, there's only 2 weeks left until I'm on Christmas break. At the end of this year, I'll be all done with schoolwork and starting in June it's time for me to start rotations. My official graduation date has been set: May 16, 2015!! It's so surreal that in a year and a half I'll be done with school forever. Graduation has been a long time coming, and it can't get here soon enough. I knew this time was coming, but I got an email from my professor about my schedule and it made it feel so real.

As exciting as it is, it also scares me. The transition and change is going to take awhile to get use to. Once I start rotations, the preceptors are going expect me to not only remember but apply those things that I've been learning for years now. It's intimidating because right now I don't feel like I know anything. I can't even remember all the things that I've learned this semester, let alone recall things from the past 5 years! Obviously, I know more then I think I do (hopefully), and I guess I'll find out when the time comes.

With the start of the new school year, also means the start of sports season. Football & Volleyball are close to being over. My favorite time of year started a few weeks ago, which means it's time for basketball! I love going to watch our team play. It's such a cool atmosphere to be in (even if our student section is obnoxious and don't have much sportsmanship)!! Dani & I have been going to as many games as we could this year, as long as we didn't have homework or exams to study for. We love our Pokes & are proud to be from Wyoming!!

Eventful Weekend.....

This past weekend was a good one. Not only did I get some homework done, clean the house, and now only have one week left of classes before the semester ends, but I also had some fun.

Friday night was the annual Pharmacy Christmas party. It was nice to see some of the people from my class that I haven't seen much. We mostly talked and caught up, and some of our faculty even attended. It was only a couple hours but it was fun to catch up and see everyone. After the party was over, Dani, Steph, and I went to eat dinner and then spent the rest of the night hanging out at the house. It felt good to get out of the house and do something with my friends.

Saturday night the basketball team played CU. We knew it was going to be pretty packed because CU is nationally ranked #19. We got there an hour early and still had to sit at the back of the student section. I've never seen so many people at a basketball game (it was  reported that we had over 8,000 in attendance). Our team definitely didn't disappoint. They played great and the atmosphere was awesome! We won the game 76-69!! It was a great day to be a Pokes fan.

This semester is coming to an end quickly, and pretty soon it's going to get super busy & stressful. It was nice to have a weekend where I was able to go out and have a good time before hitting the books to finish out my semester!

Sweet Success.....

Well, it's been a long, hard, stressful, drama-filled, fun, time, but I've finally made it to the end of the school year! I'm officially done with everything, and I've passed all my classes. One year of school down, only three more to go until I'm done with school forever, I can't wait!!

I finished my finals yesterday morning at 9:00 and I'd say it's a total understatement to say that I was ecstatic. After picking up some things I left at the pharmacy building, I headed home, packed all my stuff up, and loaded my car to get ready to head to Lovell for the summer. I had to take Dani to her final and then pick her up so she wouldn't have to find somewhere to park in the middle of the madness.

Since Dani & I were taking separate cars, I went to lunch at Lovejoys with my pharmacy friends before heading home. It was nice to hang out with everyone when nobody was stressed about school or feeling like we should be studying or anything else.

I love my class, and I've got some great friends! I don't know how I'd make it through all my classes without all these guys. It makes everything worth it and so much easier. Leaving Laramie was bittersweet because I was so happy to come home and see my family, but I already miss all my friends & it's going to be weird being away from all of them for 3 months when the most time I've spent away from everyone in the past year is a couple of weeks! If only Lovell and Laramie were closer together, I'd have the best of both worlds.

Now I get to relax for a few weeks until rotations start on the 23rd and go until the middle of July. It'll be nice to get to work again, I've actually missed working. Even though I have rotations, at least I dont' have anything I need to study for. Summer vacation, I'm glad it's finally here!!

Light at the End of the Tunnel.....

It's finally the end of the semester. All I have left now is finals week. I've got four finals and one presentation this week, and I'm actually done with my first final in Med Chem. Now I'm completely done with three of my classes. Three down, four to go!! I'm doing better in my classes this semester so finals aren't as stressful, but I still want to do really well to hopefully keep my grades where they are.

On Wednesday I have my final in Kinetics and my presentation in Drug-Use, Thursday I have my Self-Care final, and on Friday I have my Patho final. Luckily it's in the morning, so I get to head back to Lovell Friday afternoon.

This has been an intense, stressful school year with everything that I've had going on, and I'm excited to have summer vacation just around the corner. It's time for this week to be over so I can get back home and have a real break for a few weeks before rotations start... summer vacation, here I come!!

Dinnertime.....

To celebrate the last day of classes, Dani & I went with some of my friends from my pharmacy class to eat dinner last night. A few of them went to dinner during Easter weekend, but since there were some of us who went home for Easter we wanted to do it once more before we left for the summer. We went to an Italian restaurant called Luciano's. I wasn't all that impressed with the food. I know that I'm picky, but it wasn't just me who felt that way so it wasn't just me and that made me feel better.

It was really fun to hang out with my friends some more outside of class. It was a little awkward to talk to everybody because they had to sit us at two separate tables because of the size of our group. We had a great time even being less than impressed with the actual food.

The Laramie weather wasn't very nice to us. It started snowing when we first got there to eat and we had to run back to our cars since the wind was blowing hard (That's why some of my pictures look the way they do!!). It was a great time and I loved hanging out with everyone when we weren't stressed out about studying for probably the last time this semester.

The semester is coming to an end fast. It's going to be stressful and super busy this next week, so I'm enjoying my free time while I still can!!

P-Wonders.....

Throughout the school year, our pharmacy class has gotten some teams together for intramural sports. I haven't done any of them, until these last few weeks. I was on our P-Wonders volleyball team. It was a lot of fun. I have some great friends in my pharmacy class, and we have a blast. We needed another girl on the team, so Dani played with us too! We had 4 guys & 4 girls on our team: Ben, Devan, Miles (a.k.a Papa Rooney), Landon, Stephanie, Megan, Dani, & me.

We did pretty good, considering that some of those people who signed up to play haven't ever played before. It was in means a pretty game ever, we were pretty sloppy but somehow still got it done.

We went into tournament play and made it to the semi-finals. We had an off game and lost, but we shouldn't have. It was a hard loss so we are no longer playing because it's a single-elimination tournament. I'm actually really sad that it's over, it was so much fun to play with our team. We plan to come back next year as the P2-Hot-to-Handles, we'll come back with a vengeance, and we'll dominate!!

*Side Note: I had nothing to do with our team names, all the credit goes to Papa Rooney!

Wish Granted.....

This summer I have to do 2 rotations: a community one and a institutional one. I put in my preferences a few weeks ago in Dr. Krueger's class. She told us that we weren't going to get our results until the beginning of March to the middle of March. The program we went through, is super quick & tries to give everyone the best results possible, so the process takes quite a while. They let us put in up to 20 preferences, but we aren't guaranteed to get any of them; however, they try to accommodate everyone as best they can.

I got an email today with my results of where I'll be going this summer. I'm happy to say that I got exactly where I wanted to go and the times that I wanted them. My first rotation starts May 23rd and goes to June 17th. I'm going to be working at the Walgreen's in Cody for my community rotation. My second rotation starts June 20th and goes to July 15th. For this one, I'll be working at the Worland Hospital for my institutional rotation. I got the third rotation off, so I'll get the rest of the summer off. Which means I'll get a nice long break before school starts off again.

These rotations are as close to Lovell as I could get, so I was really hoping that I'd get them so I could be home all summer. It's not going to be fun to have to drive every day, but I'll take it! Not only was I able to get the sites that I wanted, but I was also able to get the time period off that I wanted. I really didn't want to be doing a rotation in August, and my wish was granted! This will be a great summer, well as great as it can be having to work for free!! :)

Bowling Night: Take 2.....

Since our class had such a good time bowling when we went before, we decided to go again. We went last Thursday because our exams were done for that week and we didn't have any the next week. Since it was going to be Halloween weekend a lot of people were going to be gone or doing something else for the holiday, so the weekend was also out.

When we first got to the bowling alley, there was league going on so we had to wait for awhile. Some of us ended up playing pool. It was a good warm up until we could get some lanes. There were a lot more people there this time & it made it way more fun.

 

 

 

 

   

 

We took lots of pictures & had a good time. I can't wait until we do it again, it's been a lot of fun as we've gotten to know each other even better & spend more time together.

Busy Weekend....

I've been pretty busy this last week and this next week as well. Not only with school but also with church and watching volleyball. At the beginning of the week, I had a Biochem exam on Monday. I'm hoping I did alright on that one, it didn't seem too bad, but it's hard to tell.

That night I had a Presidency meeting for about an hour and studied for my exam that was the next morning.

Tuesday I had a Pharm Calc exam. That was extremely difficult, one of the hardest tests I've ever taken. Not because the material was difficult by any means, but the amount of time that was permitted made it difficult to finish it, in fact I wasn't able to get through the entire thing (nobody else was either!).

That night Dani, Kristen, & I watched the UW volleyball game vs. Colorado Christian University. It was a fun game to watch, and we won!!

On Wednesday afternoon, I got a text message from Brother Bailey asking me to speak tomorrow because the original people that were called to speak cancelled because they found out they were going to be out of town.

Yesterday Dani & I headed to Fort Collins to watch the CSU vs. UW volleyball game. Well, it wasn't the prettiest game I've watched, UW wasn't on their best game and CSU has some amazing hitters (UW lost, sadly). The trip there and back home was an adventure in itself. We got into town in before the game started. I know where the campus is but wasn't sure where the gym was at, so we drove all around the campus, hit a few dead ends, & finally we made it to the game where we had to park pretty far away & walk in the pouring rain to get to the gym. After the game was over we got back to the car to head home, turned down the wrong direction & got lost. We ended up pulling over & using my navigation system to find our way back to the main road. Thank goodness for that, or we still might be stuck in Fort Collins!!

Today I spent the day getting my talk ready & studying for Dose form because I have that exam on Monday.

Tomorrow morning I have to go to the PEC meeting because Michelle is out of town. I then have to go to prayer meeting and then speak in Sacrament Meeting. I always get super nervous to give a talk because I really don't like speaking in front of people and having everyone look at me. This is only the second talk I've had to give since I've been down here.

Monday morning I have an exam in Dose Form. Then right after that I have to meet with my advisor to go over the classes I'm going to be taking next semester, and getting my PERC number so I can register. At 5 I have another meeting as the Relief Society presidency, with FHE right after that.

When the week is over I get to go to Lovell to see my family! I'm so excited to see everyone. It's been a stressful semester, and it'll be nice to get to relax and see my friends and family! At least there's something to help me get through the rest of the week!! :)