University Hospital

Well, I will have been in Cincinnati for two weeks this Sunday, and today was my first real day of work. Up to now we have just been doing paperwork and lectures and a couple of tests. Today I spent some time in an ambulatory care unit getting more practice starting IVs: 9 attempted, 7 successful. Tomorrow I will be going to the actual unit were I will be spending most of my time, the neuro unit, which promises to be very challenging. This unit also specializes in treating epilepsy, and has one room where nurses monitor patient brainwaves and video to see if they have a seizure. When I was getting a tour they were even trying to induce a seizure by having a bright light flashing in the patient's room.
The program I am in has four students total; we are staying very close to the hospital in an old converted hospital. It's a decent enough place . . . nothing really fancy but we get a tv and our own bathroom. When I have time off I've been doing lot's of reading, exercising, and surfing the internet at the hospital computer lab. I also took a trip to the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, which is just across the river from Cincinnati. I highly recommend it if anyone is in the area; it's very high tech, and even has a planetarium.
Please continue to keep Dan and I in your prayers.

Funny Young Pictures

I thought I would post these since I was blogging already.

Baby Linnea with her Daddy :)
Linnea, age 3?

Dan is the boy on the far right in the white shirt.
If anyone has more young Dan pictures out there, I'd love to see them.

New Year, New Adventures

Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. We had a blast having Esther and Lois, Dan's sisters from Washington state out to visit us for a week. During that time we visited Colonial Williamsburg on Christmas Eve, rode a four-person bicycle on Virginia Beach, and gave Esther and Lois a tour of Dan's ship. We also had a great time at the house; we cooked a Christmas dinner of duck with orange glaze, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and rolls. I missed a sweet potato dish, but apparently there is some genetic mutation that prevents Mintzers (excepting those by marriage) from enjoying sweet potatoes :).
One of Dan's Christmas presents to me was a surprise trip to Washington D.C. We had fun walking by the Capitol, the Washington monument, the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the Lincoln monument, and the White House. The next day we also visited the International Spy Museum, the Marine Corps War Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery where we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. I will try to get the pictures up here soon, but I have to get the film developed as we used a camera with actual film.

As of January 1st, I am now an active duty Lt. in the Air Force. This weekend I will be leaving by car for my Nurse Transition Program in Cincinnati, OH for 11 weeks. The program, while run by the Air Force, is located at the civilian University Hospital in downtown Cincinnati. Myself and about 9 other nurses will be staying on the hospital campus for our training. While I am excited to begin putting my degree to good use, this will be the longest I have been away from my husband. Also, we will not have a lot of time together when I get back, as he will be leaving for a six month deployment in the spring. I know many other couples are going through more difficult and longer separations, but I would appreciate everyone's prayers for both Dan and I in our marriage and our jobs, and that we would glorify God in both.

On a lighter note, here is a video of a Christmas fife and drum brigade at Colonial Williamsburg.