November/December Update

So I totally missed the November blog....

November was spent doing my ER rotation in Aiken, beginning interviews, having a great turkey day, and watching some really great football. WAR EAGLE! SEC Champs and on the way to becoming national champs!

More on interviews: I am done with 5 out of 8 residency interviews. It is exciting and a little scary to imagine what life would be at each place. They have gone really well so far. You get to visit a new place and eat lots of food and fortunately they are fairly relaxed and not as intimidating as I had imagined. Monday I head to Asheville and then on to Wake Forrest. I'll be going to these by myself which isn't as fun, but in Wake Forrest I get to meet up with Kavitta, my roommate from first year. We will keep you posted in March as to where we match!

I am getting in the Christmas spirit! Last week I got my decorations up. This is my third married Christmas with Blake but it's our first year having a Christmas tree. In the past we were in the apartment and did more traveling over Christmas and it wasn't practical. This year I had to have one though. I have collected a few ornaments over the last few years and I was really excited to use them - I had to laugh when I hung the "Our First Christmas, 2008" ornaments for the first time. But I love our tree and I think it looks great!

YAY! Love our stockings!

Hope you are all having a wonderful December, see you soon!

October Happenings

So I've finished up my time in Columbus and now I'm back home! I've started my ER rotation in Aiken, SC. I've only had 1 shift so far, but I think it's going to be very exciting!

Two weeks ago, our good friends Daniel and Kelli got married! They have been together even longer than Blake and I and we are so excited for them to get to start their life together. They had their wedding beside West Point Lake in LaGrange and it was beautiful!

The Wedding Party

Cutting the Cake

Blake, Daniel, Jeff, and Jerrod

Another fun time was when I got to babysit my niece Josephine for an evening while Isa went to a dinner meeting. We had so much fun! She is starting to cruise around and has got a handful of our words she says and thousands of her own. She is interested in everything and was just another reminder of how big a responsibility children are; I wonder when we will ever be ready... Josephine turns one this Friday! The time has gone by so fast! She shares a birthday with my dad, so we wish them both a Happy Birthday!

Purple What?

My poor husband is color blind - all his brothers are...I usually forget about it because it doesn't limit him and it really doesn't come up unless we are taking about paint colors. The other night we were eating out and I was wearing a purple shirt and I got a complement. Blake asked me what color I was wearing. Purple is the only color he can't see. He doesn't see a lot of colors quite right but he absolutely can't see purple. He sees it somewhere on the red or blue spectrum. It is kind of sad that he misses out on an entire color scheme - no lavender, no egg plant, no nothing. When I am shopping for him I have to resist the urge to buy him purple, he wouldn't know the difference...until someone told him.

After we played the "What color is this?" game for a while (Blake's favorite), we started talking about teams that had purple in their colors. The only team that Blake already knew was purple was LSU, and maybe Clemson. We rattled off 5 or more teams and Blake was shocked. He assumed they were all blue. Then I realized we had forgotten one and I told him about the Lakers being yellow and purple. He thought I was lying. It was pretty funny. Now he will be second guessing all the sports teams color combos, hehe.

New Location and Good News!

Let's start with the good news.....drum roll.....I PASSED my boards! Yahoo! And to take a moment to brag, I not only passed, but I did pretty stinking good. I am still waiting on the score for the second part of the test and really don't know when to expect it.

So this month I am in Columbus, GA on a Family Therapy rotation. I am learning to "listen" and to analyze my interactions with patients.... I was a psychology major at Mercer and I am used to these ideas, but I have mixed feeling so far. I think I am learning valuable things, but I begin to get annoyed after we have picked apart a 5 minute interaction for 2 and a half hours - to me it's not that big a deal to just talk to someone.

While I am in Columbus, I get to stay with Jenna Wenna :) Jenna and I went to the same day care, pre-school, etc, to high school, and then went to college together and were roommates. We have had a lot of fun already this week and I am thankful to have company, friends, someone to have dinner with, and activities this month, unlike my last rotation.

More Good News: I have been thinking of something all week that my pastor at Quest shared last Sunday. It was a sermon full of lots of powerful points; this was probably one of the more minor points, but it's what stuck with me. He was talking about Genesis 2:7 when God made Adam and says "He breathed breath of life into the man's nostrils." John, my pastor, went on to say that every breath we take is from God. Then he asked us to think about the names of God; in the Old Testament, God is called Yahweh. John said with every breath we take we breathe God's name. Breathe in "yah", exhale "weh". Think about it...I have and it was super cool to me. Now every time I listen to someone's lungs, I am going to hear them cry out to God.

One liners

So I am still in Rome, it is my last week. Today Blake said, I don't know what you would do if you were single, you are always looking for something to do there. It's true, and I don't know either. Really the problem is not being single from Monday through Friday, it's not really knowing anyone around here or having my own space...

But really I have enjoyed it. It has worked out well because I have been able to see Blake every weekend. Last year when I had tests after my rotations, I couldn't spare the study time every weekend to drive 4 hours one way to get home. This year, I do not have a test to study for, and it is not worth the strain or boredom staying in town over the weekend.

I am spending a lot on gas continually driving across Georgia, but again, it's worth it. This weekend there were a couple of one-liners which stuck out and reminded me how much I love my relationship with Blake. From the previous sentence, you might assume I'm taking about lovey-dovey one-liners. Definitely not - that's not our style, we are pretty blunt with each other.

We were on the way home from eating out at a Mexican restaurant (where we also got to watch LaGrange High play on ESPN 2) and Blake threw out the phrase "fecal particles". He was speaking of gas, but I thought it was a hysterical phrase. How often do you think of fecal particles? In medicine, we talk about poop a LOT, but not in the form of fecal particles. Apparently this is a phrase they use a lot at work. I laughed so hard I could barely drive.

The next morning we woke up at 10:30 - glorious. In our lovey-dovey moments of waking up, Blake says, "I think you gave me pink eye, cause your breath smells like butt!" Hilarious! (Pink eye is spread by fecal particles.)

It seems like when I get to sleep in, my mind has time to wander, and I have weird dreams. This was one of those nights and I had to share the dream with Blake. In my dream, Jack Black was a midget who was chasing me, and I was scared of him and was planning to drop kick him but he tripped first. After hearing this Blake said, "I want some of whatever you're on."

For the rest of the weekend we relaxed, watched lots of football (including the Auburn victory), and went to the Arts in the Heart Festival. On Thursday Blake is coming to Rome to go to dinner and go on a tour as part of my interview. I can't wait to see him and create more one-liners.

September Happenings...

So I sighed the other day when I noticed another month has passed since my last blog; we've just been going through the motions and staying busy. Here are some things that have happened over the last month...

1) I finished my boards! There were two parts to it and they both took a full day - one practical, one on the computer. I feel like I did well and I am actually expecting to get my scores for one of them tomorrow, eeek!

2) College football is back! Blake and I got to go to the opening game for Auburn against Arkansas State. We went with my parents and Nathan and it was so much fun. We got to see the new basketball arena, go to the tiger walk, and watch Spirit fly from great seats. We were on the 8th row near the visitors in-zone. It was awesome until the visiting team scored first and then my blood pressure rose because we were right next to the visitors section. We scored soon after that and pulled out the win of course.

I love Auburn and going to the games. For us, it's a family tradition. To me there is nothing like a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. There are plenty of others who agree with me. We heard a child ask his dad "Is that the stadium?" and the dad answered "No, that's God's country son." That's a little extreme for me and we had to laugh. I do love late games when you can watch the sun go down and the sky turn tons of shades of orange and blue. It is like God is smiling on the Tigers. I'll be cheering Auburn on this Saturday as they play at home against Clemson.

3) I started my rotation in Rome, GA. I have really had a good experience and am enjoying it. They have a great hospital and residency program. Even though the rotation is going well, away rotations are hard because they get boring and lonely. With this one, I am staying in the on-call rooms in the basement of the hospital. I am here all the time! I also get to eat here for free, so I literally never leave. I have to find things to do so that I can go outside and have a change of scenery. I'll go to the mall, find a trail to walk on, or go somewhere with free Wifi. I've got about a week and a half here and then it's on to Columbus.

4) I've submitted my residency application, which is a big relief. I applied to 10 Family Medicine programs and am starting to schedule interviews. Looks like I'll be traveling all over the South come December.

Well that's about it. See you in October!

August Happenings

So not much has been going on this month, which is why I've not updated the blog in a few weeks. I'm off this month studying for my second round of boards which are coming up August 24 and 27. It's not very interesting to write about studying. But a few things have happened this month...

We got a new bed, donated to us by my brother and sister-in-law, Ryan and Isa. It is a king size bed which is wonderful considering we've spent the first two years of our marriage sleeping on a full sized bed with mattresses literally from the 70's. I don't know how many times Blake said "scoot over" when I was already on the edge. Now it doesn't even feel like Blake and I are asleep in the same bed, there is sooo much room. We can go a whole night without bumping each other. We got to shop for new bedding which was really fun. We changed up our colors from green and beige to gray and blue.

We got to relax a few days at the lake with the in-laws. There happened to be a meteor shower the first night we were there so we went out on the dock from 10:30 to 11 with our eyes to the heavens. It was pretty neat! We saw about 8 or so meteors, which looked like shooting stars, streak through randomly. Then the next morning, I took Finn on a walk and I got to see a red fox scamper out from the woods. I was starting to feel like a nature woman with the star gazing and wild animals. We did not do any kind of water sports. Blake has stitches after having a mole removed and wasn't able to swim.

I got a new hair cut. I had kind of neglected my hair for several months and it was time for a change. I'm feeling stylish and I am actually having color put in on Tuesday! This was a nice suggestion from my stylist who informed me that it would help cover the gray that's starting to come through - thanks for pointing that out. I'm a little nervous. I haven't had any color in several years and always wonder if it will turn out good.

Lastly, I would like to share one of our favorite recipes that Blake and I recently enjoyed. Since coming to Augusta, Blake and I have had a chance to branch out on our cuisine. We've discovered that we really enjoy international food. Our favorites are Japanese, Indian, and Thai. We have good Japanese and Indian restaurants, but we are kind of lacking in Thai, so I went online to try to do it myself. We have found a couple of recipes that we've liked - nothing with shellfish though, not trying to kill Blake. We were eating this and saying "Mmm, this is so good" while our noses were running and we were sweating. Enjoy....

Thai Red Curry Chicken

1 lb chicken breast, cut into strips
1 cup zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1/2 cup carrots
1 onion
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, chopped
14 oz can of coconut milk
2 Tbl red curry paste - we end up using a lot more than this,probably 6+ Tbl, we like it spicy
1 Tbl cornstarch (I don't have this, so I just use flour, it turns out fine and makes me feel healthier)
Cilantro
Peanuts
EVOO

- Cut all of your vegetables into strips (cut zucchini in 2 inch strips and then quarter it, etc). You want to leave them kind of chunky so you can eat them separately, but have them small enough to cook well. Cut to your preference.
- Heat extra virgin olive oil in a skillet and cook chicken with curry paste and garlic. We also add the juice of half a lime and dried pepper flakes.
- Add your vegetables to the chicken and let them sautee and begin to soften.
- Next mix in the coconut milk and cornstarch
- Bring to boil and simmer until vegetables are soft
- Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro, lime, and peanuts. It also usually needs some salt.
**Like I said, we like ours spicy, but if you go lite on the curry and don't use the pepper flakes it is a savory, almost sweet dish; it is easy to adjust it to your taste.