Applied

I have officially mailed out my applications for the radiology program.
Yup I know, life moves way too fast.
I'm extremely excited/nervous.
And I don't think I find out anything until April.
So I guess I'll just busy myself with this winter semester and by the time it's over, I should have a reply back!
So Weber has the program in multiple areas and I applied to Ogden and Provo. I'm leaning more towards Provo but they only accept 12 new students every year. I think Ogden accepts 24 or so... not sure. Either way my odds are going to be tough to beat.

Seeking

"Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well." -Epictetus

I had a good friend share this quote with me a little bit ago, I loved it then and I love it more now. Things didn't turn out the way I wanted them to this Christmas break. I had my mind set on something else. I thought I knew what was right for me. But I learned something as I went along in this experience: I developed a better trust in Heavenly Father. I came to the conclusion that whatever happens will be the right thing. If I'm trusting him and honestly searching for his path for me, then what happens is for my good and will lead to better things. I'm sure if I was still stuck on wanting things to happen as I want them to, then I would have a much harder time moving on. 

But for now, I've closed a chapter in my life and am ready to start a new one. Which is my last semester up at BYU-Idaho before getting my associates and moving into the world of radiology (crossing my fingers to get in first try). I'm going to be living in a house firstly, the lower level where there are 8 total of us girls. I know no one. I'm taking for the first time night classes and online classes. I hopefully will get my job as a tutor for anatomy and physiology. If I can handle it, I'll take on a second job where my good friend works, (she's got the "in" for me). I'm just so excited for a new semester to start. I always am. 

"Life will go well."

Palladio

Kind of an epic song.

David and Goliath

Natalie and I decided early this morning that we were going to make a snowman later in the day. 

But when Natalie got back from sledding, this is what we saw from across the street. 

Yeah a giant snowman. 

How do you even compete with that?! Hey don't mind our little normal boring snowman....while across the street we have freakin Goliath. 

So we decided to go about things in a different manner. 

We made David.

Yup like David and Goliath. You can't see them very well in the background but we also made a wall and had 2 cowardly soldiers hiding behind it.

 Cowardly Soldiers

It was a lot of fun and a little harder than I thought it would be. Hopefully people can connect the giant snowman across the street with ours holding a slingshot to David and Goliath.

Days of Old

Girls night with Aubrey and Caira. 

We attempted to go sledding at the same place we went last fall semester,  but the snow was not sled worthy. So we sat in front of the temple and just ate snow. 

We attempted a snowman, but alas the snow would not give us the joy of that either. So we made this absolutely creepy snow creature. 

Caira, Aubrey, Me

We of course had to make cookies and eat cookie dough. That's practically an unspoken law with us. 

Caira attempted to make the first letter of our names in cookies. In didn't work out too well with mine and Aubrey's. 

Caira's turned out pretty good though!

It was a really good night. We slept in the living room, took over the couches and Aubrey brought out her mattress. We fell asleep to a movie like we always use to do. It was really good having a girls night, out doing stuff and just being crazy ourselves. I'm sad Katie couldn't come though. She had to work so our reliving of fall semester fell short. We attempted a lot, with only half of it working. But we loved it. I would do it again any night. I love these girls. 

Chap-stick

Chap-stick: apply for chapped lips or as needed.
Protects from dry chapped lips and sunburn.
Small enough to carry around with you everywhere.
Normally applied more than once a day.

The Gospel: apply especially when soul is chapped and as needed. (Which should be always)
Protects from adversary, gives strength to overcome temptation, strength to continue onward, and faith in this life.
Simplistically beautiful and beautifully simple. "Small" enough to carry around with you everywhere.
Should be applied more than once a day.

What can you relate the gospel to?

Medical Books

Remember my kick that I was on with the autobiographies? Well I've moved onto the wonderful world of medical genre books.
I won't go into them too much but I love reading the different cases they talk about. I look up what I don't understand and write it in the book. It's like another night of watching E.R. only in book form and with much less drama. I love reading a doctors thoughts on what they do. The struggles they have or the joy they find in orthopedic surgery.
So far I've read Complications: A Surgeon's notes on an Imperfect Science: by Atul Gawande. And Hot Lights, Cold Steel: by Michael J. Collins.

I would completely recommend either of these books to anyone interested in the medical field but probably Complications over Hot Lights, Cold Steel though.

Homework

Homework assignment for Thanksgiving break: de-junk room. Serious de-junking too.
And it's begun.
I think there must be some health code violation for keeping the mask used to knock you out before a bone marrow transplant. I've had that mask for 9 years exactly. Sentimental, but sick.
What about this, my very first retainer from 5th grade. Really? Why would I keep that for so long?!
Old letters from my cousins. Those are absolutely hysterical to read. For sure keeping them.
My 3-animals in 1 sculpture. Yes that's right. Body of a penguin, neck of a zebra, head of a toucan.
I found a memoir book about myself that I had to write in jr. high, and I wrote that I was going to get married in either the San Diego temple, or the Hawaii temple. Oh yeah, I'm going all out. I hope you all can make it to my wedding.
I found art I did when I was 9 years old.
I also found these clown dolls that were mine and Heathers, and I want to say these came from Grandma Crosland. But I'm not positive. They're small, stuffed body but with a porcelain face. Just check out these beauties.
















I think all this de-junking will be good for me. If nothing else, extremely interesting.

The Urinary System

I know you were hoping that I'd have some outstanding connection with the urinary system to the gospel, but today I don't. I'm sure I could think of one, but I must admit, I haven't enjoyed this system as much as the previous ones I've studied. There are a few concepts that are hard for me to wrap my mind around. Like blood osmolarity. That one takes a good few minutes for my mind to register what's exactly happening.

I have to say, my favorite part of anatomy and physiology is being able to understand how the body works. The physiology part of it. When watching Untold Stories of the ER, I know exactly what goes on when someone takes a diuretic. I know what channel it's blocked, and why a diuretic makes you pee like crazy. My anat and phys study buddy Emily and I have also started having E.R. slumber parties every Tuesday night. We watch a ridiculous number of E.R. episodes and all the while we have our laptops out researching medical terms that we don't know, or drugs we haven't heard of. It's very informative and the most productive I've ever felt while watching a t.v. show.

I'm also reading a most interesting book titled, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. I will post more about this once I finish the book so stay tuned.

I guess all I really have to post about is medical stuff. Ah the consumings of my life.

The Digestive System

So I had another connection of Anatomy and Physiology to the gospel. I know what you're probably thinking... but I don't care. I'm going to tell you anyways.
Let me introduce you to the digestive system according to my teacher.

Obviously it's not anatomically correct. It's more a diagram for functional purposes. Let me try and explain this. In the stomach there are 4 different types of cells that are all stimulated from the brain. Once the G-cell is stimulated it releases gastrin which stimulates the ECF-cell and the Parietal cell. The ECF-cell releases histamine which also stimulates the parietal cell. The Parietal cell releases HCL (hydrochloric acid) which makes the stomach acidic. The Chief cell releases pepsinogen which reacts with the HCL to make pepsin. Once food moves through the pyloric sphincter it activates the S-cell from the HCL and the I-cell is activated from fat. The S-cell releases secretin which goes back to the Parietal cell and tells it to turn off. It also goes to the gallbladder and the pancreas and stimulate them. The I-cell releases CCK (cholecystokinin) which tells the pyloric sphincter to close and also activates the pancreas and gallbladder. The Liver makes bile and moves it into the gallbladder. So when the gallbladder is stimulated it releases the bile into the small intestine for digestion. When the Pancreas is stimulated it releases alpha amylase, lipases, proteases, and bicarbonate. All things that help digest food.

Okay so you don't really need to understand all of that. But I'm sure you're wondering how that could possibly connect.
Yesterday in church we were reading in Jeremiah and the scripture Jer 31:33 says, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put the law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." The phrase underlined specifically jumped out to me.
You can see that when you eat food, your digestive system goes crazy. This activates that, which stimulates this, which reacts to this, which stimulates this which releases that...
When we allow the laws of the gospel into our lives, it essentially effects everything. If we truly allow the gospel in our lives we will get this snowball effect of things working together to help perfect ourselves. For example, say we really think about charity and we work on that specifically, it'll develop in us a love for others, which will lead to service, which will lead to humility, which will lead to growth in some other area and the cycle will continue on until we have fully digested the gospel into our inward parts.

Well, that's my connection of the gospel to another anat and phys topic. I hope it made sense. But even if it didn't, it made a light bulb go off in my head.