Jade and me.

Jade loves taking pictures of herself (like me), so every once and a while we have fun together with the camera. She practices new poses, and honestly, once she sees a camera pointed at her she strikes one instinctively. She's a ham like that. This is a good one of both of us. Too bad the light is so dreadful. I tried to get Jared in there but, alas, he doesn't share Jade's love for modeling.

Summer is here.

So the days are in the triple digits, the air is running 24 hours, and our bbq is getting its money's worth. We are all turning caramel-colored to boot. As much as people around the country can't wait for summer, Arizonans don't really share the enthusiasm. That's because there is literally NOTHING to do except stay inside in the AC or go swimming. It's like walking into an oven every time you open your front door. Every once and a while I see a few crazies out walking to the store at 3pm, but they're just not in their right minds. To keep our sanity, we go to our little water park and pool down the street from us. It's really one of the best things about Anthem. I don't know what we'd do without it. I think it really does save my sanity over the awful summer months. So we go almost every day, the kids get TONS of energy out, they learn a life skill (swimming), and I end up with a nice bronze tan by September. I guess if you look at it that way it isn't too terrible.

Time for a change.

These past two weeks have been very freeing for me. I've gotten rid of a bit of baggage that I've been holding on to for the past year, graduated from my online school that's taken me 2 and a half years to complete, and the kids are out of school. I felt a physical change was needed, so what do I do? Chop off my hair of course! I didn't mean to go as short as i did, and now that it IS this short, it's taking a little while to get used to. But that's okay, change isn't supposed to be accepted right away is it? The really awesome news is my hair salon has partnered with other salons across the country to send their cut hair to the gulf to help plug the leak. Apparently, the hair will be put in nylons to form more of a blockade. Sounds weird to me, but if it's helping then hey, I feel like I did my part!

I did it.

After 2 and a half years of spelling words like duodenojejunostomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in my sleep and editing the local newspaper instead of actually reading it, I can proudly say I graduated, and I am officially a medical transcriptionist!!! I know that may not sound monumental, but to me it's one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

This course was HARD. It's true I slacked a bit...but I mean, it's an online self-paced school and I'm a stay at home mom. It's bound to happen, but for the most part I really put a lot of myself into this. I've learned so much, worked so hard, and I feel so good about myself. Truthfully, at one point the in the course, I was unsure if I could ever pick it up. Doctors just ran their words together, one medication would sound exactly like another to me, and the speed-talkers made my brain turn to mush. There were countless days of frustration, of wanting to pull my hair out or reach through the screen and slap some of those doctors for being so damn inconsiderate. I wanted to cry. I wanted to throw my headphones across the room and give up.
I went through months of this frustration thinking I was wasting my time - I'd never learn this crap, never.

One day, in advanced transcription, it all just clicked. It was like my ears opened up and a light switch was flipped. Everything (mostly) became crystal clear. I decided to go back to my beginning reports to get through the rough ones that were so hard months ago. I laughed. What was so hard? Suddenly I could understand EVERYTHING the docs were saying. My biggest hurdle was simply keeping up.

Now, here I am. I know I'm still just beginning, but I'm hoping to land a job where someone will take a chance on a newbie (graduated, yay!!) transcriptionist.

So the dermatologist....

After all the embarrassment of the see-through undies, something good came out of it. The mole that was biopsied was, indeed, atypical. It's precancerous with abnormal cell growth. So, back to the dermatologist I go for excision of the root and surrounding tissue. That's going to suck. But I will definitely remember to wear my plain ol' white cottons, and maybe do a few leg raises and squats the day before. (You can never be too cautious, especially since the young intern will likely not enjoy untanned cellulite)

Burro Creek

I told myself I'd go to the gym this morning, but who wants to go through that torture after being lazy for 6 weeks? Alas, here I sit...blogging.

This past weekend we went with Jared's den on a weekend campout to Burro Creek. It was actually quite a beautiful drive out there. And, oh how wonderful it was to be able to fit EVERYTHING in one vehicle! We did all the regular camp stuff, roasting hot dogs, s'mores, foil dinners, campfire songs. Everyone had a great time. Saturday we woke up, and Marcus, the den leader, decided we needed to go on a hike. So we literally hiked 2 miles on a dry creek bed FULL of river rocks. Jared collected quartz after quartz (which I ended up carrying back of course). Doug found a really cool HUGE Apache tear, otherwise known as obsidian. After the hike, Marcus decided it was time to swim, or rather, wade - in a very questionable pool of water. It was large enough, but it was pretty algae-ridden, and it was sort of stagnant. Against my better judgement and caving under pressure, I let them play in the filth. Hey, I wasn't the only parent! I was a little worried last night when Jade had some pretty intense stomach cramps. I found myself Googling Giardia and other parasitic lifeforms found in standing water, and of course all that reading scared the crud out of me. But this morning, all seems to be well. She bounced out of bed, happy as ever. So, hopefully the crisis is averted.

Today's Lesson

Be mindful of the underware you choose to put on when you're going to the dermatologist. They just might want to to a full body check, especially if you have family history of melanoma. They'll likely ask you to wear one of those gowns that opens in the back, after you take off everything but your under garments. They might even find a suspicious mole ON your back they want to biopsy - which means they'll have you lie on your stomach to do the biopsy. The dermatologist might even bring in a young student doctor who's eyes have yet to see the horrors all doctors live to see, like buttcracks. So for today's lesson... don't wear see-thru underware to the dermatologist. Don't ask me how I know this.