Hooray!! The last day of our 1st semester!!

Today was the last day of our first semester! We just finished with our final in these pictures. Can you see the excitement and relief on our faces??? At the start of the semester it seemed as if the end would never come, but it snuck up on us pretty fast! We could hardly believe it was already here. Only three more semesters and two summers to go!!

Hate blurry pictures, but these were too great to pass up! Laura is clicking her heels with joy over the end of our 1st semester!! Hilarious!

Paul's Going Away Party

Unfortunately, our Assistant Director, Paul has decided to leave the program to pursue other endeavors that better suit his life at this time. We had a going away dinner for him at Foothills Brewery. It was a great night of delicious food and many laughs. We will miss Paul dearly as he has been a major part of our adventure thus far. We wish him the very best of luck!

Adam & Allison
Allison & her adorable son Jackson
Paul & Dr. Rieker
Dr. Rieker showing Paul how he really feels about him leaving, just kidding, he's just having a little fun with him!
Courtney & Jennifer
Sue, Lisa, Sarah, Meredith & Paul
Lindsey, Kate & her husband Sid, Jaime & her husband Blake, Jill & her husband Jason
Ann, Laura, Dr. Rieker, Lindsey and her husband Bryan

NCANA Annual Conference

Central Line Lab

Friday afternoon we had a central line lab. We each had to perform five central line insertions. We all take our education very seriously, but in between we are all pretty SILLY! Jed and Sharon had a very funny moment between them (something about good, deep, cricoid pressure) as did Sharon and Anne, and Paul is always good for some laughs!

End of Basics potluck...

Yesterday was the official last day of Basics of Anesthesia, YAY! No offense, Dr. Rieker. We have all enjoyed the past eight weeks, but are soooo glad not to have two or three tests within a week anymore. We celebrated by having a potluck for lunch. It was amazing! There was so much food, and we have some really great cooks in the class. Well, here's goodbye to Basics and hello OR.





Jim said this picture looks like Kathryn is Miss SRNA 2009 and the rest of us are her court. All she needs is a sash and a tiara. Doesn't it though?? It gave all of us a really, really good laugh!

Recertification...

Wouldn't it be nice if that meant recertifying our CRNA license? Not yet, but were well on our way!

This past Wednesday, we had BLS and ACLS recertification. Who knew recertification could be so much fun! Many people commented on what a fun day it was and some had to reflect to see the humor in it (related to certain ACLS instructors, no it wasn't you Jed), but in all honesty the fun was because we have such a great class!! We get along so well and have some REALLY funny people in our class.

Not sure why Lisa is making this face....
Here we go, this is more like Lisa. We were laughing because her pretend compressions were more like flashy dance moves!
Jed was able to be our instructor for the day...man was he intimidating!! Just kidding, he was great.

Spooky Woods

Tonight several us went to Spooky Woods together for a little Halloween fun. It was a great time, it's too bad not everyone could make it! Start planning for next year everyone.

We started by going through an old farmhouse, where it seemed like we might end up being dinner. Then we were taken to the spooky woods where we had just a small flash light to get us through the deep, dark, spooky woods. Jaime's son led the way quite bravely. Along the path something darted out of one the trees that left us wondering if it was part of the show or not. Jim commented that those chain saw noises can really get to you, and we all readily agreed. Then we wound our way through the corn maze, ending at the haunted castle. This was one of the best parts of the night, mainly because we were able to go through here as a group. In the other areas there were too many of us, so they split us into two groups. It was really funny to watch each other get startled. One of the most memorable parts was when Freddy Krueger took a liking to Kathryn - he kept yelling "Kathryn"! Then of course it was kind of the joke of the night and several of us started saying it. Towards the end we came to a room with strobe lights flashing and dead zombie looking nurses moving towards us, which we all laughed about (it's how some of us are feeling after these past eight weeks, nine as Laura has mentioned but isn't bitter about, of basics!) and then ended by walking through one of those spinning tunnels that make you feel like you are walking sideways - those things are crazy!
We really had a great time and lots of great laughs!


Jim took his son Toby and Jaime took her son Gage. What brave little guys!!



Carie and her husband Neil.


The group with Beetlejuice. Notice Jim showing off his funnel cake, he's a sucker for that good ol' North Carolina fried food!

Dixie County Fair in Winston Salem

What a great night! The weather was perfect and the delicious smell of fried food was in the air!! Food was definitely the focal point of the evening. The corn cobs were a big hit with everyone, Anne and Laura tried fried cheese curds and loved the fried Oreo's. They even offered fried butter this year!! Food wasn't the only event of the evening though, we also watched the Demolition Derby, Pig Races, a BMX stunt show, and the livestock show.

Our first trip to the OR...

Look at all of those excited faces!!




Today we went on a tour of the OR. Wow was it confusing. Pretty much every single one of us got turned around in there at some point. Outpatient holding, inpatient holding, PACU, second PACU but only after first cases, CT, Specials, inpatient OR, outpatient OR, pediatric OR, regional anesthesia and acute pain clinic ~ how are we ever going to keep all of this straight. Soon enough, we'll have the chance to figure it all out! Then we'll be wondering how it ever seemed confusing. We can't wait for the OR, but the best part about getting close to clinicals is that we are almost done with all of our Basics of Anesthesia exams! We've almost made it through the toughest two months of our lives!