Mackenzie Adelyn: June 2009

Well..... This is my first blog update in about 2 months, inspired by my best friend, Lauren, of course. It will be a long one so get prepared!!

Since I last blogged...

I visited Connor at John Carroll!

The weather was beautiful and we were able to catch the tail end of Snowboarding season! He and I drove to Peak 'N Peek, NY which is about 2 hours east of Cleveland (Weird name, I know!). The conditions were crappy since the snow was melting but we had a great time and it was cheap! :)

They made this school bus into a ramp!! So cool!

Since I last Blogged...

My Family and I created a new Easter Tradition!

Easter weekend was especially wonderful this year because I wasn't home for Easter last year! We started off the weekend by boating to the Tarpon Turtle across the lake with my neighbors. Good Friday is the Anniversary of my Mom and Dad's first date so we celebrated their 26th Anniversary!

I LOVE this picture of them :)

A tradition in my family started by my Grandma Pat is making Bunny Cakes on Easter. Our neighbors Sarah and Ally helped last year and it was so fun getting to do it with them. It is a big team effort! Connor helped too!

Our new tradition was a big joke!! In the weeks before Easter, our neighbors Danny and Debbie, started getting fleas in their house and their dog, Dolly, kept scratching at spots in their walls. They decided to see what Dolly was scratching at in the wall and found baby possums, some already dead and some still alive, in the walls! It turns out that a large mother possum had made a nest in their attic and had babies!! The babies were falling into the walls of the house from the attic! They had no idea how many babies their were but they called in the guy from Crazy Critters that cares for the animals once they're caught (only in Florida!!). My Dad and Danny are constantly playing practical jokes on each other so this was perfect material. This is the Momma Possum and her surviving babies when they finally caught her!

And so of course, in the spirit of Easter, we had to make Danny and Debbie a POSSUM CAKE.

We were very proud of our creation! Can you see the resemblance?...

Danny and Deb had no idea! Although it was delicious, I don't think they were all that excited about bringing another possum into their home... :)

Since I Last Blogged......

I have been shadowing my Pediatrician, Dr. Amy Harbage Zitiello.

Dr. Amy and I got to know each other really well when we moved to Florida because my mom misplaced my shot records during our move! I had to get ALL of my shots since I was born all over again!! It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I loved seeing Dr. Amy and got to experience her office a lot more than a normal person. This past year I have been thinking a lot about pursuing a profession in medicine and Dr. Amy has really inspired my interest in Pediatrics. When I contacted her about majors, grad school, etc., she suggested that I come shadow her in her office! It has been an amazing experience and I am so thankful for her faith in me. I have been going to her office about once every two weeks since the middle of spring and I get to go into exam rooms with her and interact with patients. I have gotten to see every type of ear infection imaginable and seen and learned about many common conditions I have never heard of! It never ceases to amaze me the amazing relationship she has with even her littlest patients and their families, she is such and inspiration to me and I can only hope I live up to her example. The funniest thing is that she is about 5'3 and I am 5'9. When we walk into rooms she tends to say, "And this is my little shadow, Mackenzie.." It's funny :)

Being in her office has made me realize that I have one chance to study something that interests me and to put my knowledge and experience to work. Sometimes I am discouraged because I realize any graduate work in the Medical field will be extremely challenging and will take a lot of focus and hard work. Now that I really think about it, I want to be able to go home from work at the end of the day in 15 years and be satisfied and know that I am impacting people's lives. I want to know that I can keep their family's healthy and be able to give them peace. I don't want to end up falling into a career because it is less difficult and then regret not doing my best.

Since I Last Blogged....

I have transfered schools yet AGAIN!!

I began my Freshmen year in college as a Seminole at Florida State University. I was very fun but I realized that a big school just wasn't for me and I wasn't really a fan of Tallahassee.

So rather than trying to do yet another college search while in Tally, I decided to come back to Tampa for the Spring and go to the University of Tampa. Overall, I loved UT. All of my professors were awesome and I had SMALL classes which was a great change from FSU. I loved UT but I didn't see myself staying there all 4 years because I decided that I want to play soccer in college.

At the beginning of Spring I decided to send in a recruitment form to Connor's school, John Carroll University, in Cleveland Ohio. Since I haven't played club soccer since my sophomore year and since I don't have a highlight tape or a way for a coach to see me play, I wasn't sure I would even get looked at. If I got a response from the coach at JCU, I hoped that was a good sign that I could find somewhere to play.

The coach ended up emailing me back saying that they actually NEEDED a goalkeeper for the upcoming school year! It seemed almost too good to be true! I started communicating with Coach Blasius and started realizing that JCU might be a really good fit for me. When I visited Connor this spring, I met with her and was like 99% convinced that I couldn't pass up this opportunity to play soccer and to attend such a great school. Of course it helps that Connor is there but I have a lot going for me there, too!

A fun part about it is that Connor's Football season and my Soccer season are both in the Fall. His family and my family will be able to visit for the weekend and catch one of both of our games! We even play in the same stadium!

It has been great thinking about how different and crazy next year will be but now reality is hitting me! It is really coming and now I have to prepare! I just started my Summer workouts yesterday and it is going to be a tough program but it will get me in the condition I need to be in to be able to be an asset to my team. Wish me luck!

Since I Last Blogged...

Summer has begun!!

Oh sweet summer... This summer has been especially sweet because I have missed my friends so much this year! It is so great to have them back at least for a little while.

Last week, our friend Eric was home for a week from New York so in celebration of his birthday and him being home, I had a get together at my house so that we could all hang out at least once while he was home! It was so fun being together and almost like old times!

Last week, we rented a beach condo on Sanibel Island, a couple hours south of Tampa, and it was wonderful!! It was such a relaxing couple days and Connor got to come too!