LA Zoo

On Saturday, I went to the LA Zoo with Brian, my sister & brother-in-law and his mom who is visiting from Mexico (her 1st time to the US!). We had a great time!! Here are some of my favorite pics from the day:

Tiger

Giraffe sticking his tongue out at me

Simba & Nala :)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!! I cannot even believe it is already 2010! I hope each of you has a wonderful year filled with happiness and blessings!!

Today Brian and I also celebrate being engaged for 1 year - time sure does fly by! It has been an amazing year of engagement and the two of us only grow closer and closer to each other every day.

Happy 25th Birthday, Brian

Today is Brian's 25th Birthday!! We went for a little hike in the hills of Orange/Anaheim
and then after church there was a surprise party for him. A couple of his friends wanted to throw one for him, so I helped make an evite and get him there. It was rather hard getting him there because he is so clever, but he was surprised, so that's good. The theme was "boy bands", so I made a shirt for my costume
and the whole night there were NSync, Backstreet boys, LFO and other boy band songs playing. We had a good time that night - thank you to all those who were able to celebrate with us! :)

Christmas Pics

Just a couple pictures from Christmas that I thought I would share:

Me with my mom and sister

Sisterly Love

...and Brian & Me

6 Months to go!!!

Six months from today, Brian and I will be getting married!! It is soooo exciting, but I can really feel the stress building up. Since I put a lot of wedding planning on hold until the semester and holidays were over, I am starting to get serious with it now, but have very little time before school starts back up again. So, every day of break right now is a busy one - trying to check things off the long list (not all wedding planning stuff though). I can't believe we only have 6 more months to go - it is going to FLY BY!!!

Flu Shots

So as I have mentioned before, I am a volunteer for the OC Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). I signed up to help give flu shots at the OC Health Care Agency on Monday and I really enjoyed it. I was one of 6 volunteer vaccinators for the seasonal flu, and there were 4 vaccinators for the H1N1 that were hired to work from an agency. Most of the people that came in were there for the H1N1, so we were pretty slow. I think I gave about 50 shots all day and then 7 flumists (in the nose)...and I was there for 9 hours (1 hr lunch)! Oh, and I was the youngest vaccinator there. We must have given about 300+ seasonal flu shots and there must have been almost 1000 there for H1N1. There was almost always a line of 15+ people for H1N1.

Whenever I did not have a patient, which was quite often, I would prepare/draw up more shots, label vaccination cards to give patients, or chat with the nurse sitting at the table in front of me. Her name was Pam and she is an oncology nurse (pretty neat since I have been working in Oncology). She also grew up on the East Coast, so we talked a little about that too. I felt really comfortable asking her questions and I really enjoyed talking to her (but I also had fun with some of the other nurses too - especially the ones who stayed till the very end with me because Pam and 1 other vaccinator left after lunch). I feel like Pam and I talked about so many different things, which was great and she was so sweet - having her there made me more comfortable and my experience more rewarding.

Many patients would make comments about us being bored, but even though it was a little boring at times, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I loved the conversations with people, even if they were pretty brief. I was happy to be able to volunteer my time to help do that and it was a really good experience. I definitely feel great at IM shots, but the screening part is where I get confused. About a month ago, I also volunteered to give flu shots at a school, through the MRC, but when I got there they had me help a nurse screen the patients beforehand and later I helped draw up medications (I think we vaccinated over 1500 people that day!). The screening is so confusing because we have to ask if they have received any vaccines lately and/or in the past, if they have any allergies/asthma (especially if allergic to eggs), if pregnant, any medical conditions, etc. Then, people between the ages of 2-49 can get the flumist if they want it, pregnant women have to have a special vaccine, over age 65 may not need H1N1, children have to come back for a second dose (depending on age), etc. You can probably see how this can get overwhelming! I have definitely learned a lot from it all and, like I said, it has been a great experience. I enjoyed it so much that I might sign up for another shift next week. :)

For my nursing friends out there - if you live in OC, you should join the MRC too!! Maybe we can sign up for events like this together! :D http://www.ochealthinfo.com/mrc/

The Purpose of Christmas

This month I have been reading The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren. It is the perfect way to prepare for the birth of Jesus. It's a really easy, short read and the "chapters" are really short - a perfect book to read right before bedtime.

There were a few good quotes that I wanted to share with you - just little reminders. :)

I don't know what difficulty you feel you're drowning in right now or where the heat is on in your life, but I do know that whatever it is, God knows about it, cares about it, understands it, and is going through it with you. You're not alone.

God is waiting to save you. He wants to save you from sin and self, save you for his purpose, and save you by his grace, through faith. But you've got to relax, quit trying to save yourself, let go, and trust your savior to do it for you.

It is astounding that so many people have celebrated Christmas every year of their lives without ever having opened their greatest and most expensive Christmas gift. Jesus Christ is God's Christmas gift to you.

Have a very Merry Christmas, remembering the true meaning of this blessed holiday!

Re: Manuscript Submitted!

Well, I found out last night that Women's Health Issues Journal will not even review my manuscript. Dr. Rutledge said that she has never heard or experienced this. She has had manuscripts need revisions in order to be accepted, but apparently they wouldn't even review our, perhaps due to the type of study we did. So, now we are looking at other journals to submit to and then revise the manuscript as needed. I will keep you updated!

Manuscript Submitted!

I just got home from meeting with my teacher, Dr. Rutledge. Today we submitted my/our manuscript to Women's Health Issues Journal and so now we wait to see whether it is approved or not or if it needs revising. I am guessing it will be a few months, especially with the holidays, but I will be keeping you posted. It's so very exciting to have this done!

So, the question is: Do I want my current name or my soon-to-be married name on the article? It would be nice to have something under the Kengen name, but it would also be nice to have Traska in case I publish in the future (then everything will be under the same name). Any suggestions? :)

Oh by the way, in case you don't know what my manuscript is on - I worked with some faculty at CSUF on a qualitative descriptive study on Fibromyalgia symptom management. We conducted an interview with 8 women with FM and they shared the various ways that they cope with their condition. It was very interesting and I learned a lot!!

Fun Fact - My Future Pet

My dream dog is a Greyhound and I cannot wait to have my little (haha) companion to walk.

Purina Friend Fetcher - a cute website to help you find the perfect pet. :) http://www.petcentric.com/fun-games/friend-fetcher.aspx?DCMP=EMC-PETC-PETC-MarthaNov09_1&HQS=copy