Well, where to start? Let’s talk about school. It was my first week back, and I have to say, it was a little difficult to get going again… but I’m getting there (I’m not quite back to champion studying level yet though). It was interesting to return to school and to have basically everything the same as it was, the routines are the same (except for particular times of course), the people are the same wonderful people left in May, and we’re trucking along yet another body system. This module is the reproductive system, which is not only interesting on its own, but when you’re among friends it’s a great system to make some less than appropriate jokes. My current community placement this module is, appropriately enough, with the Thunder Bay midwives… I can already tell that I’m going to learn some great new perspectives from these wonderful women! Best part, I’m actually on call! So I can get a call at any time of the day to go and deliver a baby!! Woohoo!! (no calls yet, but I’ve only been on call for 1 day) As for my study partner Beth, she and her fiance just bought a house and moved in today… We now have a wonderful little office space in her house, and she bought a new desk for the both of us. So now we have two places to study. We’ve both decided not to mess with a good thing (since we both passed last year). As usual, I’m already starting to get worried/nervous for the upcoming exam in 5 weeks EEK! But seriously, I think I’ve realized that this worry of mine is part of what drives me to work hard. Just like when I’m doing a procedure on a patient I always try to do it as perfectly as I can, because I worry for them… In the end I think this is going to make me a better doctor (hee hee!! I’m going to be a doctor!… yup, it hasn’t gotten old yet!).

What about everything else? Well, the apartment is looking pretty close to normal and we’re slowly working our way through trying all of our new gifts from the wedding. I still cannot believe how generous people were, and there’s really no way for me to ever thank everyone enough. I hope they all realize how much we appreciate their generosity. I’m going to mention some of the things we’ve been using. Everyday Keith and I make a batch (one tall glass each) of juice with our new juicer. This thing is so freaking cool! You can juice pretty much anything! It’s a fun way to get your minimum amount of fruit and vegetables per day! Our new espresso maker is pretty darned fabulous. We actually don’t need to go to Starbucks anymore, because we actually make better latte’s, cappuccino’s and etc than they do!! It’s completely manual, so you can as much or as little coffee, steam your milk as much or little as you want! The new mixer has practically been one religious experience after the other. I can’t believe the things it can do! I’ve made my own ground meat (with no extra fat, or scary things in it), I’ve sliced and diced with it, I’ve mixed with it (obviously), I’ve made super low fat, sugar free ice-cream (it was mango, I almost died!), and as of tonight I’ve made pasta (it was whole wheat… and a total dream come true). I’m so loving all of these appliances that let me make my own, well Everything! I can control exactly everything that goes into stuff, so I can make it as healthy as I possibly can! OK I should probably stop talking about my love affair with all our new gifts.

All in all, things are good… I mean we’re already busy and my day planner is already filled with stuff to do, appointments, meetings and etc… but things are good.

Based solely on how quickly the year went by last year, I know this year is going to fly by… I’m hoping that since this time I already know what I’m doing (i.e., I don’t have to figure out how to study, I don’t have to have a melt down every week because I feel like I can’t cope with the amount of stuff I need to know) that I might be able to fit a few more non-study related items in between to make the year a wee bit more balanced (ok, I realize entirely that there’s no way I can achieve total balance… but I would like to try to tip the scales a little more towards “normal life things”).

At any rate I’m feeling positive, and I’m glad that I still have Keith here with me (now as my husband!!) and my family via skype/mobile/email to help me(and Keith) through this crazy adventure of mine(ours).

Love you all

p.s. I love comments, please try to comment on my posts so I know you’re reading these things… I’m not the diary type, so I need confirmation that I’m writing these for someone

It’s been an amazing summer and I am kinda sad it’s almost over. The wedding was absolutely awesome! We’ll post some pics soon.

We are in Florida right now and tomorrow is our last full day here, we somehow managed to go to all the Disney theme parks, universal studios, adventure islands including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, sea world and busch gardens. Pics and videos soon!

I am slightly excited and nervous about going back to school, I hope that I’ll have a better year this year.

Oh one more thing before I try and sleep again, there is a band called Keith and Renee! And their website is keithandrenee.com. I find it funny! I hope they don’t suck, cause I know we, Renee and I, don’t suck! We, Renee and I, are wicked awesome.

Watch here live.

Free Webcam Chat at Ustream

After the ceremony, we’ll go offline for a bit and come back during dinner and the speeches. Enjoy. And please leave some comments, Renée and Keith would like that.

Lots of love!!!

So the moment we got home, Beth and I had to do the “Tick Dance”. It’s a mandatory procession of steps, a recipe if you will, of the things that are required to identify the presence of a tick on your body (did I mention that these things are practically impossible to kill, and when they get on you they shove their heads under your skin and just sit there and get engorged until they’re the size of grapes! GRAPES!! HEADS UNDER YOUR FREAKING SKIN!!.. it’s sick).

So the tic dance… here are the steps:

1) once inside (now choose your “inside” wisely, it has to be indoors, but not in the area that you live/would want ticks), take your coat off and shake it like crazy.

2) shreik when ticks fall off

3) take off you pants and shake them, follow this with another shriek (it’s not mandatory that there be tick for the shrieking… it’s very cathartic any which way).

4) stump around (kinda like tap dancing) on all the bugs and ticks that are on the ground

5) take off your shirt, shake, shriek

6) continue until you are in your under wear

7) bend over 90 degrees at your waist and shake your hair out like it’s on fire… and shriek.

8 ) Spin around and around while you get your buddy (the tick dance is better carried out with a buddy) to inspect for any of the buggers on you

9) Run into your house, because you’re most likely stripping and dancing like a nerd in a slightly inappropriate place (you can shriek here too).

10) Done!

On April 24th Simon (a buddy of mine) and I got in a car and headed towards North Bay. Simon was only making half of the journey, his stop was Sault Ste. Marie, where he lives. The first part of the journey was a lot of fun. We made several stops just to look around and see the beautiful landscape (pictures will be posted soon).

We made a stop in White River, the birth place of Winnie the Pooh, while there we stopped at A&W for lunch. When we stopped in Sault Ste. Marie, we went and saw Kick-Ass in theatres, which by the way that movie was awesome!!!

We stayed the night at Simon’s parents’ place, they were extremely kind and pretty cool.

The next morning I headed out on the road alone, at first I was a little nervous about driving for 5 hours on my own. But it wasn’t that bad, I made stops every chance I had just to walk around or look at the landscape. In the end it wasn’t that bad at all, truth be told i really enjoyed myself.

I arrived in North Bay, actually Corbeil, on Sunday around 4ish and was very happy to be back.

On Monday I started working for Paul, doing physical labour and all around grunt work. Now it needs to be said that all the stories I have heard about working for him, from Renee and Cam, were convincing enough to put the fear of Paul in me. But, honestly, I really enjoy working with him. It may be the best job I have had in a long time. Yes the work is hard and I do come home sore sometimes. But at the end of the day, I actually feel like I have accomplished something. Would I want a career like Paul’s, no. But I am enjoying myself very much and would gladly work another summer for him anyday.

So for Mother’s Day I went to Toronto. Now a lot of my friends reading this are going to be mad that I didn’t tell them I was down. Well, I told no one at all other then my family that I was coming. No offence and all but I really wanted to spend the weekend with my family. I hope you guys can forgive me:)

This weekend Julia, one of my fellow ninjas, came up so we went out for dinner with the other ninjas (Curtis, Chyanne, Erica, and Kelsey). That was a lot of fun.

Right what else….

Oh wedding stuff… Invites are out, thought you might wanna know that, although you probably already got them.

And on that note, I am going to go now, cheers.

Our guide brought us to painted rock, where there is actual paintings that they guess are about 1000 years old. These things, although slightly faded, were so cool. I have never seen anything like it before (outside of movies that is). It was so wonderful. Then he brought us to warrior hill, where the men used to train to become warriors. We then saw an Ojibway warrior nest, a place that someone would hide our and ambush the Sioux… he said that when they were at war, the water was most likely red due to the blood. He then brought us to twin falls, it was so beautiful.. while there we saw about 5 eagles!! So cool! We ended stopping a few more places.

A good day!