After all of the stress, all of the prayers, Courtnay passed her boards and is now a registered dental hygienist. Thank you everyone for your prayers; God has been so faithful to us during this entire process. I never got to post about the actual exam experience, so I'll talk about it a little about last Sunday.
Courtnay's exam was at 6:30 AM on Sunday, March 9th, which if you'll remember was the morning after the daylight savings time switch. Given that we had to get up so incredibly early for it, we started staggering our sleeping schedules, which helped a lot on the actual morning where we got up at 4:40 AM. The few days before were very stressful, because we really were not sure if Courtnay's patient would pass (that is, if Courtnay's patient fulfilled the correct qualifications) and were just praying a ton that God would cause everything to work out.
So we both woke up that morning and Courtnay headed for SF for the exam and I picked up the two patients (one primary and one backup) and met her there. The process went so much faster than last year, when there happened to be rolling blackouts which delayed the examination process a lot. So this time the process started pretty quickly and Courtnay sent her patient off to the examiners for them to take a look at Courtnay's patient and tell her whether the patient was suitable.
After a short while the patient came back and didn't come with an examiner, which meant the patient was accepted! Then Courtnay called me in because I was her assistant and she got working on cleaning some teeth. She had 2 hours to do it and finished in an hour and a half (after checking and re-checking to make sure everything was off) and sent her patient off to be examined for a final time. The exam sounded like it went well, but they did not give us any indication of how she did, so we just knew that we had to wait and see. We were told that the results would be mailed in 6-8 weeks and available online in 6 weeks. But now we know that it all turned out well! Courtnay got her license number so she is free to go look for a job!
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
2 ribs celery, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup white wine
1-2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1 quart vegetable or poultry broth
1 1/2 pounds garnet sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch lengths
1/2 cup whole milk
Salt & pepper to taste
In a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add onion, celery, garlic and thyme and cook, stirring, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add wine and chipotle powder and cook until the wine is reduced and alcohol smell dissipates. Add broth, sweet potatoes, carrots and a little salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes.
Cool the soup, transfer to a blender and pure until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add milk and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Garnish with plain yogurt and cilantro.
My Notes:
I didn't have chipotle powder or cayenne powder so I used Emeril's Southern Essence and it tasted fine. I also didn't have whole milk so I used about 1/4c half and half. I did not put in yogurt or cilantro. And I used Japanese Yams ( from the farmers market!).
Yum!
