Leave of Absence- Done with School

HELLO OUT THERE!  I'm back in blogger world and am excited to post about some of the amazing things I have experienced over the last few months.  I know It has been a long while since I have posted anything.  School left me with very little free time this year as it was my senior year in the IU School of Medicine, Clinical Laboratory Science program.  So I guess we will just start off there.  To all my frequent followers, I apologize for the number of posts coming up in the next few days/weeks as I try to catch up.  I've tried to post most of them ahead of this post

I finally graduated!  We had our IUPUI graduation in May, but it didn't feel "real".  After all, we still had like 6 weeks of school left.  On top of it, our program is made up of 12 IUPUI students and 12 IU Health Methodist students, so it was hard celebrating without half of our friends.  Nonetheless, here are a few pics:

My Instructors

I was surprised at the graduation with an Honor's Cord!  

Our "real" graduation was at the end of June when we had our program dinner.

sorry, I will find a better pic later

Here it is!  All done.  I passed my certification last week so I am now Kristyn McCulley, BS MLS(ASCP).  That is "Bachelor of Science, Medical Laboratory Scientist (American Society of Clinical Pathologists).

Nerd Party!

I was put in charge of our CLS end of the year class party.  We had a nice budget to play with and, thankfully, a class willing to play along.  I [of course] used pinterest as my inspiration:  See my board here.  I passed out ideas to willing members of the class and here is what we came up with!  It was so much fun and a great last hoorah before we all went our separate ways.  

Jello Agar Plates

Ginger Bread Techs

Red Velvet Red Blood Cells

White Blood Cell Sugar Cookies
"Love U Bunny Rodak"

Virus Treats and Red Hots

All the Urine problems

The Stool Cup Chocolate Pudding Bar

Love these Peeps.  : )

Ugly Sweater Party

I hosted our CLS class Christmas party after our last day of school before break.  I could not have done it with out the help from my good friends from school, Jacqueline and Kim.  We baked and decorated and got everything all ready.  The party was a huge success!  We had a white elephant gift exchange, Mario Cart competition, and a photo booth.  So many fun photos to choose from.  :)

I know, I know, I'm completely awful... I have been in school for over six weeks now and I have yet to blog one word about it!  I guess the main word is :

BUSY!

Dont get me wrong, I am loving my time in the Clinical Lab Program but it has certainly been stretching and takes all my time.  I wake up at 6am and usually dont get home until 5:30 or 6pm.  Then there is homework to be done and oh, the studying!  ALL my free time is spent studying...  tv, facebook, pinterest, and even cooking are all on hold for the most part.  Mia spends the day at "grandma's house" which she loves and it tires her out for me too.  Anyways, I did want to get it out there that I AM back in school now, it is amazing and very challenging, and I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  I hope to update a little more soon!