The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The most wonderful time of the year...at least, that's what the radio had been telling me during my morning commutes for about a week.  The time of year when kids go back to school and parents celebrate.  I, however, am not on board with this whole idea.  Even though I only had a week break between classes (and most of that was filled with orientation to my new internship) and didn't have time to get used to the idea of freedom, I was definitely NOT ready to go back.  Back to the busy schedule, back to not seeing Justin, back to the stress.

Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about this "time of the year."  My classes are interesting, I'm seeing clients, and I get to do my year-long internship at a facility that is like my "dream-come-true."  My two interests when I started grad school were to work in a medical setting, and to work with the Hispanic population (do therapy in Spanish).  At OneWorld I get to do both (yay!)  It's a lot to get used to, and the whole working-with-doctors thing is a new experience because we only get about 15-20 min with patients instead of the 50 minutes I am used to.  When I first started, I wondered how I would fit anything in to such a short session, and now I wonder how best I can drag out a 50 min session.  There's definitely a learning curve.  I love what I do, though.  It's just beginning to show me how burnt out I can get, but also how rewarding it can be.  Justin supplied the picture of the main facility of OneWorld. They are currently building three new clinics, and they have three (maybe more) school-based heath centers, and a satellite clinic in Plattsmouth, NE.

One really wonderful part of this time of year is that we get to enjoy food from our garden.  It has produced quite a bit, and we've been able to can some tomatoes and freeze zucchini and squash.  Our zucchini and squash have shown us how resilient they really are (we've thought they were going to die on numerous occasions), and even though our cucumber plants have all but shriveled up and died because they're in direct sunlight, we've gotten a lot out of our determined little plants.  It's been a little harder to keep it thriving with the water restrictions that have been put in effect, but it's still going strong.  Justin took a picture of what he brought home from the garden one day:

I guess another things about this time of year that Justin would probably say is not quite so wonderful is that he has spent a lot of time on dental school applications.  He went full out this year, applying to 10 different schools and retaking the DAT.  We hope it broadens some options, but it also leaves us with a sense of uncertainty of where we'll be within the next year.  It makes it a little hard to plan :)  But, our fingers are crossed that we'll start hearing back from some places, and that we'll be able to move forward in the whole process.