Happy List

I'm stealing this idea from my sister in law Stefi.  She regularly posts lists of things that make her or Blake happy.  I was feeling overwhelmed every time I thought about posting to the blog, so here you go, what follows is a simple list of things that make me happy right now!  

• Getting my license to practice medicine as a PA in New York State
• 2 mini pumpkins purchased at the farmers market 
• Trivia night at the grad student bar on campus with Will's classmates 
• Passing my boards
• Finally painting the legs for my DIY standing desk (they are drying downstairs in the basement, but I promise to post pictures when it's finally put together) 
• Starting my job as a PA at the gynecology office 
• Learning to play dominion with Ann last weekend 
• Getting to sign my name as Sara C Passey, RPA-C (Registered Physician Assistant - Certified) 
• Having time to read! (Just finished Nora Ephron's "I feel bad about my neck")
• Having a kitchen and being able to cook & bake
• Eating delicious Boston Cream Pie Cake that Ann made to help Andrew celebrate his birthday
• Catching up on NPR podcasts (Planet Money, Ask Me Another, This American Life) 
• Listening to thunderstorms from my warm and cozy bed 
• Knowing that Mom is coming to visit in October and Dad in November!  

Leave me a comment of what makes you happy right now!

Graduation

 Will came with me and acted as paparazzi, so this is one of the few pictures with him in at graduation, luckily it turned out great!  Thanks Blake for snapping it!  

 Figuring out how to put on the hood was a bit of a challenge.  One classmate took the name hood a little too literally and had the whole thing draped over his head.  Luckily our wise faculty stepped in to make sure we all looked up to snuff.  I put in a lot of hard work for this fancy piece of graduation attire, so I made sure Will photographed it in it's full glory!  

 Here's the rest of the support team!  Couldn't have done it without Mom & Dad!  

Blake & Stefi were awesome and added another stop to their vacation in the West to see me graduate!  

My surprise graduation present!  When I arrived in Ithaca I found a beautiful cedar lined chest that Will had been stealthily working on for the past 3 months.  I guess there are some benefits to living apart - makes surprising a spouse much easier!  I was speechless and even now I enjoy just sitting in our bedroom gazing at this beauty!  

See the cedar lining?  If you come visit us in Ithaca you can smell it!  

Reunited at last

With Blake and Stefi coming out for graduation, we grabbed the chance to get some nice family photos and had a lovely night on Sauvie Island before graduation the next day.  We're so happy with the way they turned out.

I could not have made it through PA school with out the support of family.  Thanks everyone!

We decided that graduation with a class of only 36 is the way to go.  Graduation was personal and short - completely done in an hour and a half!  Next post to follow will contain pictures from graduation.

Back Across the Country

So it's been a week and I'm sure that you all want to see pictures of the new place. Here's the thing, I'm no longer on the East Coast. I'm back in Oregon. Sara is wrapping up her Emergency Department rotation and I thought I might venture on out to Medford to join her. After all, Crater Lake is only an hour and a half away.

Sara has been front-loading her work weeks so that we have more time to hangout. Sara's roommates noticed that she didn't have to work for 3 days and they began to comment, "It's like you're on vacation!" To which Sara would respond "Yeah, a vacation with a twin bed and three roommates!" So the accommodations may not be perfect but we're together so it's all going to be great.

But here's what you've really been waiting for. The two pictures I sent Sara when Dad and I finished unloading the truck in Ithaca.

There's a Whole Continent In-between Us

So, I don't believe it's a big secret that Sara and I haven't really been living together for the past 13 months. Granted there was the glorious 8 weeks from mid-December through January that we resided in the same house, but for the most part Sara's rotations have put a little bit of distance in-between us. Well, on July 6th I decided that enough was enough, if we weren't going to live together then I was going to take all of our stuff in storage, load it into a truck and drive across the United States and set up a house there in order to woo her back from the arms of the dreaded OHSU Physician Assistant Program.

I enlisted the help of a few local ward members on Mercer Island and after 2 hours I was set to go.

After church I got Horace Greenly's quote confused and I said to myself "Go East, Young Man" and off I went. I encountered many dangers along the way. From dust devils:

To being stranded in Minneapolis and then forced to do manual labor in order to pay for my keep:

Fortunately along the way there was a couple in Butte, MT that had stopped at a local hostal. With the promise of fortune and Red Vines I was able to convince the young (read: old) man to join me on my journey. Unfortunately the manual labor required from us resulted in his passing:

During this time of loss I took comfort from the only person who could understand me in the strange land called Minnesota:

Eventually I reached the promised land. Some how the truck got unloaded and upon hearing the news of what I had done my beloved Sara she called out to me saying that she wants nothing more in the world than to be with me... but only on the condition that I only unpack what is necessary and that I leave it for her to do the rest (she really enjoys unpacking stuff). I begrudgingly agreed to these terms.

Yet with her arrival not until the 21st of August, the dreaded Physician Assistant Program still demanding her attention I have now vowed to travel back to the land of Port in order to see her conquer our mutual enemy. This time, I'll do it on a plane. It saves a lot of time.

R10 - Last Rotation!

I am now one week into my last rotation of PA school!  I'm in Medford, OR doing an Emergency Medicine rotation.  Graduation is looming...August 10th and in someways it can't come soon enough.  I have loved PA school, but Will and I are ready to share a residence again!  Luckily Will is hard at work on setting that up.  He loads our moving truck tomorrow and will set out on his cross country trip - joined by Dad in Montana on Monday.  What a trooper!  This will be the second time he has moved all of our belongings without me.  I owe him big time!  He'll go get everything set up in our sweet little duplex in Ithaca before he heads back for my graduation.  Maybe he'll even post some pictures on the blog!  :) Although he is under strict instructions not to do too much unpacking before I get there.  Am I the only one who loves that part of moving?  I love deciding where to put each thing and the opportunity to go through belonging and get rid of things.  Since most of our stuff has sat in storage since Feb, I'm guessing there are a few things I will be willing to toss.  However, I am excited to see a few things...my green kitchen aid mixer, our comfortable bed, and our couches. (just a short list of the things I day dream about while I'm supposed to be studying for the PANCE.  (that's the national boards for PAs)

Happy Happy Birthday Mother Dear!

Today is my sweet mom's birthday!  I just want to take a moment to celebrate her since I sadly cannot be with her to celebrate today.  However, she has the best replacement I have to offer - Will, who kindly took care of arranging for our gift for her this year...a new clicker for her highlander!  Thanks Will!  I'm so lucky to have a mom who is also one of my very best friends!  This weekend she picked the new Chihuly glass museum at Seattle Center for her birthday adventure and we had a lovely time ohhhing and ahhhing over the beautiful pieces there.  Here's a picture of one of my favorites

It was such a fun trip and I have had so many fun trips with Mom over the years.  Below are a few photos I have of the two of us traveling together.  Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you! 

At the cave of the Milodon in Chile.

Celebrating Mom's 50th at Cannon Beach - remember the deer we saw on the beach that morning?

Spitting cherry pits into Lake Washington

Watching the gypsies dance in the cave in Spain

Family trip in NYC. 

Weekend with The Morgans

I just got back to Pendleton for my last week of Preceptorship in Boardman, OR.  I was lucky enough to get to spend this past weekend with the Morgans - our good friends from our time in Wymount.  They live in Boise currently, until Mike starts medical school in July.  I took advantage of being only 4 hours from there and drove out the spend the weekend with them.  I spent time playing with Katie (we got to visit them in the hospital when she was born), holding the boys (twins born 5 weeks ago) and enjoying girl time with Brittany.  Saturday we left Mike with all the kids and hit up Cafe Rio, Costco and Target.  Living in rural OR has made me really appreciate the ability to going to my favorite stores.  See the pictures below for proof of my lovely weekend. 

Mother's Day

Will and I have both been blessed with amazing mothers!  Here's a list of just a few of the things I've learned from both of them. 

Things my mom taught me:

-       how to enjoy a slow morning of “puttering” in my PJs! 

-       How to make pan cookies, yum yum cake, double fudge brownies and countless other delicious homemade treats!  Homemade beats store bought any day.

-       To love reading, how to find books I love and  that it’s ok to put down a book I’m not enjoying – too many books in world to spend time with one I’m not loving.

-       How to explore a library or bookstore and end up spending hours there

-       How special I am!  My mom is the best at making you feel amazing for being you – whether it is something small she picked up at the store because it made her think of you or waking up to a basket of 16 wrapped presents for my 16^th birthday, she’d always made sure I knew I was special.

-       Taught me that someday that brother I’d spent my childhood fighting and competing with would be one of my best friends!  She’s right!  She taught me this through her own relationship with her brother Karl. 

-       How to keep friends close and value friendship.  She still keeps up with friends from all different parts of her life. 

-       How to pack for a trip – from an early age I was in charge of setting out outfits for each day we would be gone. 

-       How to mourn & how to comfort.  Mom taught me that it’s ok to miss people and to be sad, that she doesn’t expect me to get over it in a flash

-       The importance of extended family with the many Scifres family reunions & cousin weeks that she helped plan and orchestrate. 

-       To keep meetings short– watching her as primary president and young women’s president and countless other leadership roles she taught me that everything important and vital can be covered in a hour or less.  Respect everyone’s time.  

Things my mother-in-law taught me:

-       To trust in the Lord, if you doing your part to keep your covenants then relax and trust the Lord to do his part – It’s all going to work out. 

-       To see people as individuals – I loved listening to her describe each of her children to me the day Will and I got engaged. 

-       How to throw a great party with minimal stress

-       Involve everyone in keeping the house clean. 

-       If you are good at something and enjoy it, serve others by offering to help them (organization) 

 

We Know Where We're Going!

It has been a while since I, Will, have last posted. For some reason I felt weird talking online about the schools I had applied to. The logic behind it doesn't make sense so don't ask.

Just as a refresher, I will be pursuing a Masters in Human Resource Management. You might remember this post from a while back about my trip to the Midwest and the East coast. I was visiting the University of Illinois and Cornell. I had a great trip and learned a lot about the two programs. Those were not the only two programs I applied to. The nominees, in no particular order are...

The University of Minnesota

Michigan State University

The University of Illinois

Purdue University

Cornell University

Utah State University

Sara and I were a little surprised when every school accepted me and a few even offered scholarships. We spent a lot of time talking about it and decided that the choice was clear. There was only one way I wanted to end up, and it's like this:

I was going to post a couple of photos from my visit but sadly I had to reset my phone and I lost them. Take my word for it, the campus is stunning. You just might get some pictures when we make the move to Ithaca this summer.

That being said, we finally know where we're going to be when Sara graduates! Only 137 days left (but who's counting?).

Sick

Wish we had more exciting news here, but alas, we've been ill.  I was sick two weeks ago and Will came down with it this weekend.  I'll spare you any pictures as it would consist on piles of tissues, bowls and soup and one sad sick husband.  Luckily today he is starting to feel better.  Not the most exciting way to spend your 3 day weekend.  However, I am now 1/3 of the way through hand quilting my 1st quilt.  It's going wonderfully and I'm really enjoying it, even if my fingers do get a little sore.

Hope everyone is able to enjoy today - on NPR they were playing some of MLK's speeches & I missed the inauguration due to clinic, but caught up when I got home. We wish we could have gone with Ann & Andrew!  

R5W1 - General Surgery

I've just started my 5th rotation.  It's general surgery and the surgeon is a wonderful woman that I've know since I was 11.  The best part however, is coming home to Will every night!  We've really been looking forward to living together again.  We also get to live with my lovely parents who are kind enough to open their home to us right now.  (Will's been living with them since September when he got his job at the middle school).

The surgeon I'm working with does lots of breast surgery so that's most of what I've seen so far.  The best part is I get to be first assist on all the cases we do, which means I'm right there doing everything she needs - retracting, suctioning, holding pressure and closing (the suturing is my favorite part).  It's been great so far and I'm excited that I still have 4 more weeks to go. 

Christmas

We spend a low key Christmas in Seattle with parents this year. We all missed Blake & Stefi (they were in Utah with her family this year).  Highlights included a delicious breakfast casserole on Christmas morning (thanks to Rachel Steed for her recipe that we use year after year!), a baking night with my mom and her friends, seeing Les Mis on Christmas day & the Hobbit on Christmas Eve, running my first 5k, spontaneous game night with Ann & Andrew on Christmas night, facetiming with family, and doing puzzles. 

Will and I are very bad a documenting our lives with pictures, however, here is one, and of course it is of food.  The park where my 5k was happened to be very close to one of our favorite donut places - Top Pot so we stopped on the way home to pick up some to share. 

Pie Night and Christmas Devotional

Will and I hosted possibly our favorite event of the year, Pie Night. We made toll house pie, chocolate cream pie, pecan pie, pumpkin streusel, and a lemon tart. Let me tell you they were all delicious. We had two couples join us that night to watch the Christmas devotional and some good friends who weren't able to make it got pie delivered the next day. We weren't organized enough to take pictures before digging in, but here's a picture of the aftermath.