Pay Day!

I've been at my new job for three whole weeks now.  Since I started in the middle of a pay period, today was my first big girl pay day!  That is a milestone in any college grad's life and mine is no different.  I would love to say that I went and celebrated in some way, but truth be told, I am just enjoying a lazy weekend at home catching up on some much needed sleep.  I've had a time getting use to these early mornings.  I get up at 5am now and, as a night owl and ANTI morning bird, it has taken its toll.  

I have enjoyed my first couple weeks on the bench though and have been "checked off" to work in blood gas, troponin iStat, Urinalysis, and kit testing.  It's been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to starting a new bench sometime next week.  

I'm sure this will make for a story later....

Well, I've survived my first week of work.  And when I say survived, I mean it.  I started the week with two days of orientation.  At the end of the second day, the Wishard computer system crashed and was down for more than 36 hours.  The WHOLE computer system.  No way to register patients, order tests, view histories or results, nothing.  While  "down time" creates a problem for almost every area of the hospital, it creates a very chaotic and incomprehensible problem for the lab.  Everyone handled the mess gracefully but the backlog of work, manual processing, and endless phone calls meant no one had time to deal with new employees.  They were all very apologetic but I spent most of the week sorting papers and doing what I could to help and stay out of the way.  The majority of my processing training has been rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday, then I can finally begin training to be a generalist tech in the core lab's chemistry and hematology departments!  Yippee!

It's a boy!

Yes, it's true!  We've adopted another little bundle of fur and this time he is extra fuzzy.  We have named our new 8 week old Kind Charles Cavalier Spaniel Sulley.  We have been thinking for a while that Mia needed a little play mate and we fell in love with this little guy when we went to take our niece to see the puppies at the pet shop.  We were so excited to bring him home and happy that our family could enjoy him too!  The adjustment has been a little more difficult for Mia than we had hoped.  Her little feelings seemed to be a bit hurt and she ignored me and the puppy altogether for a couple days.  She seems to be coming around now though.  They run around the house and tackle each other for hours on end.  We are still working on sharing chew sticks though.  Sulley keeps trying to take Mia's beloved chew sticks.  Mia gets her little feelings hurt and sulks.  haha.  It's a doggie world in our house these days, but it is fun nonetheless.  

Pinterest snacks for little ones

Just wanted to take a quick minute to tell you about a couple of the pinterest snack my sister-in-law and I made for her beautiful daughter last week.  The baby was teething while she was here, so we tried out these teething biscuits by ImprintAlish.  They were quick, easy, healthy, and tasty.  The texture was perfect for teething biscuits as they were chewy and didnt crumble.  The baby loved them and even the boys snuck a couple.

We also tried out these homemade goldfish crackers by Tasty Kitchen Blog.  They were also really good.  They tasted a lot like cheez-its.  They took a bit more time for a lower yield but all in all a fun and delicious snack.

Ok.  now the last one I want to share is a real keeper.  We had bbq pulled pork for dinner one night and made these quick and easy buns from Taste of Home.  They were SO GOOD.  The boys managed to sneak the rest of them as a snack later with and without the meat.  Ronnie made me promise I would make them again soon for dinner rolls or buns.  Love them.  (I will mention that a friend recommended to me that we let the dough rise for 30 minutes instead of the recommended 10.)  

***pictures are all from their respective sites.  please follow links to recipes and credits.   

together at last

Just a short day after we got home from Alaska, Ronnie's two younger sisters and his sister's husband and baby came for a week long visit.  It was the first time they made the treck out to Indiana to see our home and the first time for me to meet out sweet baby niece.  She is 9 months old now and it is hard to believe I had yet to see her!  We all had such a good time.  We ventured around town some, played with the baby, shopped, and did several pinterest recipes (of course!).  The guys spent a lot of time fishing while us "ladies" chit-chatted about life.  I cant even tel you how good it was to spend time with my sister-in-laws.  We had yet to have a chance to just be friends.  Needless to say, we are already trying to plan another get together really soon!

Mia wasnt quite sure what to think of the baby, but they were never apart!

she loves lemons!

we took a quad bike around the canal on a double date!

Alaskan Cruise

Ronnie and I just got back from an amazing family vacation to Alaska, Canada, and Washington State.  We spent seven days on the ship "Rhapsody of the Seas" with the whole family... Mom, Dad, sisters, Grandma, Uncle Rick, Aunt Lynn and Vince. 

Our first stop on the cruise was in Jeuno, Alaska where we went whale watching, saw Mendenhall Glacier, and shopped in the quaint town.

In Skagway, Alaska, we took a tour all the way up to the Yucon and British Columbia; first by bus then back by train.  We stopped in the small town of Carcross where we ate a nice lunch and played with some adorable sled dog puppies.

Our Captain took us to Glacier Bay where we were able to see a glacier up close from the deck of the ship; icebergs and all!

Our last stop was Victoria, Canada.  There, we were able to walk through the Butchart Gardens.  The flowers were breathtaking. 

All too soon, our cruise was over and we were back in Seattle, ready for the next adventure.  My mom's cousin Bill helped us get all ten of us and all of our luggage to Port Townsend to visit his parents for a couple of days.  It was great to see their home and also visit Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. 

 

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.  : )

Nerdy Oasis- My Office

The office was our biggest project.  Since Ronnie has his man cave upstairs, this was my dream room.  I call it “Nerd Chic.”  We painted those awful bright green walls a soft grayish-purple and accented the room with royal purple and blue. It's not done yet... we just ordered a new [gray] cozy chair and I am still planning to hang a shelf, but it's too fun not to share.

book case

closet moved

House Projects

There have been a lot of projects happening around here since Ronnie moved home.  I will try to hit the highlights.  :)

New Back Door:  Since the new door is smaller than the old door, it needed to be framed in.  So, I figured it was the perfect time to paint the wall!  I love it!  Also, it is worth nothing that our privacy curtains were $7 per panel at Garden Ridge.  What a steal!  I also did a collage wall late last year for one of the living room walls.  

My cute little herb plants, orange walls, and collage

After switching the office and guest room, we gave the guest room a new look with a new [used] bed set and added in a treadmill that was given to us.  Got to love a multi-purpose room!