School Starts Tomorrow!

The new school year starts tomorrow, hard to believe it's here already!  Tonight was the Welcome Student picnic.  I enjoyed catching up with people today at church and at the picnic.  Here is a photo of our group this year:

 Then, they decided they wanted to take pictures of the groups of students that live together.  Well, my roommate wasn't there so they wanted me to stand up and put my arm up like I had it around him so here I am:

The picnic was a nice way to relax before the school year begins.  I just got my schedule for the first eight weeks of the semester and it looks interesting.  I am taking anesthesiology, ophthalmology, neurology, theriogenology, and small animal critical care this quarter so I am looking forward to that.  We also start surgery this quarter but I'm not sure when I will be doing my surgeries yet. 

Good-Bye CT

Well, my time here in CT has come to an end yet again.  I am leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Illinois.  My Dad is going with me and we plan to spend tomorrow night in eastern Ohio and then finishing the trip on Thursday.  I am bummed that my final summer break has come to a close but am ready to get back into school because the sooner we get going, the sooner we finish!  It's hard to believe I'm going into my 3rd year of veterinary school already, it seems like just yesterday that I was applying to vet school and hoping I would get in!

Maine

Last week we went for four nights up to an island on a river in Maine.  It was about 1.8 acres and had only one cabin on it so we were the only ones there which was nice.  Here are some photos from our trip:

The bridge leading to the island from mainland:

The cabin:

Some pics taken of the island:

Some pics of the water taken from the island:

Even Snickers got to come with us!

Some pics of the inside of the cabin:

Monday morning, my family is weird, but hey, ya still gotta love 'em! ;)

Heidi busting in through a screenless door

Tuesday we went to Lost River Gorge and Caverns.  It was real neat and we all enjoyed it!

Aww, how sweet :)

Snickers, the ever faithful guard dog!

All in all it was a great trip.  For more pictures of our trip go HERE!

I had my last week of work this past week.  This coming Wednesday morning I leave to head back to Illinois.  Dad is going with me.  We will be in Rittman, OH Wednesday night and then head to Illinois Thursday.  Class starts a week from Monday, it's coming right up!

New York

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have last posted.  It is crazy how fast this summer is going!  I have been working half time at the vet and half time at UCONN still.  I had a great weekend with some friends from Fairbury a couple weekends ago and also had a good time with my cousin Kasi and her daughter Amy and also my uncle and aunt and cousins from Tremont as well in the last month.  Lots of visitors is always nice!  Working full time definitely makes the weeks scoot right on by that's for sure!

This past weekend a number of us in the Rockville single group drove to New York to serve lunch at our Croghan, NY church.  It was an adventure for sure!  We hadn't been driving 20 minutes when we had a flat on one of the vehicles.  The tire was torn up pretty good.  There were five of us guys working on getting the spare tire on and it took awhile as we couldn't get the spare off very easily!  Finally, we got the spare on and drove somewhere and had a new tire put on and went on our way.  Once we got close to where we were staying (probably around 2AM or so) we hit a porcupine.  That thing didn't stand a chance against the minivan!  Then, when I entered a bedroom in the house we were staying at, I saw a big bug flying around but it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't a bug, it was a bat flying around the room!  Thanks to Ian for going in with a badminton raquet and taking the bat out!  It was quite humorous!  Finally around 330AM it was  off to sleep for us.
Here is Ian, saving the day (or should I say night?):

 Saturday we took a boat tour around some of the thousand islands up in Alexandria Bay.  It was a good time, and beautiful weather.  Here is a pic of me and two of my cousins and another friend looking out over the edge of the boat (I actually stole the pictures from my sister as my camera wasn't with me):

To see the rest of the pictures from our boat trip go here: Heidi Lynne

On Sunday we provided lunch for the New York church.  We had an awesome day at church and really enjoyed supporting them!  Here is the group of us that went from CT (along with one extra girl from Illinois, but she pretty much counted as one of us for the weekend as she was with us the whole time):

Overall it was an awesome weekend, we had a great time as a group and I think we would all probably do it again in a heartbeat!

Next week my family is going to Maine for a four day vacation so I am looking forward to that! And then, three weeks from tomorrow it's back to Illinois for year 3 of vet school!

Fishing

A week ago this past Saturday, I went deep sea fishing for the first time.  While I enjoyed it, there was only one fish caught the whole time out of everybody, and there were 45 people on the boat, talk about disappointing!  It was still a good time though.  Here is the one picture that I took:

For awhile, we had to take turns fishing with the opposite side of the boat as one side's lines was always going under the boat and getting caught on the lines of the people on the opposite side.  So, I snapped this one photo while it was the other side's turn to fish.  For those of you who have never fished for striper/bluefish before, you let the line go all the way to the bottom and then reel in real fast for 8-10 turns and then let it back down to the bottom, there is  no leisurely reeling in involved.  It was a good experience and I would love to go again!

July is here, June ended uneventfully for me.  My cousin Kasi and her little girl Amy come on Wednesday so I am looking forward to that.  And, my little brother is all graduated from high school so his graduation party is this Friday night. 

Kayaking

Yesterday myself, my brother and 7 other guys decided to go kayaking down the Scantic River.  We had just gotten a good 10 inches of rain in the last week or two so the river was really flowing.  Things were all good at the beginning, hit some nice rapids that tipped all but 2 or 3 of us over, but other than that, nothing major.  However, at one point we came up to a tree branch that was laying across the river.  We had to hop it to get over it which some of us did successfully (yes, believe it or not, I did it successfully!).  However, just after that branch the water became very restless and all 9 of us were flipped out of our kayaks and left scrambling.  The water was really rough, and when I flipped over, I had a hard time keeping my head above water for a bit despite my life jacket I had on.  When I finally gained footing on a rock, the water coming up behind me was extremely forceful and began pushing me towards more unfriendly rapids.  It was at this point that I was legitimately scared.  I finally dove towards shore, hoping that I would make it, otherwise I was going for a bumpy, not-very-fun ride.  Luckily I was able to grasp some plants right on the edge of the bank and pull myself onto the bank.  My brother and another guy were there on the bank near me having made it safely before I did.  My brother said, "Hey there's Tim."  By the time I looked all I could see was Tim's paddle out in the middle of the river.  Finally he popped up again and was whisked down the river a little ways. He was able to reach shore further downstream. With that we heard a cry for help, so we went running (side note: I lost my glasses during this bit of action and am now running around with my near-sightedness not exactly making me the most useful guy around.). Luckily, when we got to where the cry came from, our buddy who had been pinned against a log had gotten unpinned and they were both fine.  Upon regrouping, we realized that we only had 7 and had no idea where the other 2 were.  Well, we finally found them way downstream as they were unable to make it to shore earlier, they just floated/sputtered down the river through some more rapids until they could get to shore.  This was when it was decided that we were going to carry the kayaks the rest of the way, that we were no longer going to kayak.  It was a good thing too, cuz near the end the water was very rocky again.  We were all quite thankful to be safe and sound and only missing one kayak (mine) and a paddle and a half.  I think we learned our lesson, don't go kayaking when there has been 10 inches of rain recently added to the river!

6/10

The last week has moved on past and a new week is here!  This past weekend we had some company from Ohio who were here for a funeral.  The father of the family who stayed with us is a veterinarian and his dad is a retired veterinarian.  It was nice to get to know his family and overall it was a nice weekend.  This week looks to be busy with a birthday party on Thursday night and the Sunday School picnic on Saturday on top of my normal work schedule.  It really is amazing how rapidly the summer weeks scoot on by!