Current Favorite

I LOVE to eat! I'm not a girl who skips meals or watches my portions carefully. I eat fairly healthy, but Blake often comments about how I out-eat him. However, I cannot say that I love to cook. I think I do pretty well when I decide to, but I really don't enjoy it. It takes to long, it makes a mess, and if it turns out not to be good it is very disappointing (I especially hate overcooked chicken).

For me it is key to find meals that take 45 minutes or less, start to finish. I am totally in line with Sandra Lee who does "Semi-homemade". Give me a good base to start with and let me jazz it up and make it delicious.

One of our favorites right now meets the requirements. It is easy and sooo good. We had it twice before the holidays and I was excited when Blake asked for it again when I made my grocery list this week. On top of that, I can take credit for it: I created it on my own without a recipe! (It's really not that impressive...) Here's the recipe, you should try it.

Semi-Homemade Jambalaya
1 pound turkey sausage
1 box Zatarain's Jambalaya (we like the one with cheese)
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 can of Rotel

Cut the sausage into quarter inch pieces and saute with peppers and onions until veggies soften. Drain excess liquid from the Rotel and combine all ingredients. Cook rice as directed on the box and dinner is ready 25 minutes later! Enjoy - and tell me if you like it!

Happy Hurlidays!

Happy New Year! Wow - I can remember being accepted into MCG's Class of 2011, and when I started I never thought that year would come - and here it is!

We had a wonderful holiday season, but it brought with it some unwelcome bugs. Blake worked most of the day Christmas Eve so when he got off, we rushed to LaGrange to start the Christmas celebrations. I woke up Christmas morning, and then an hour later had to rouse Blake out of bed. He complained that he did not sleep well because his stomach hurt all night. His stomach was growling and gurgling like crazy! Another hour later we knew why. He had a stomach virus. He sat with us at breakfast and opened presents with my family, then spent the rest of the day in the bed or bathroom....

We were supposed to eat lunch with Blake's parents, so I called his mom to tell her he was sick. She sounded terrible and had been suffering with a sinus infection all week. Ryan, Blake's brother, was also not feeling very well, and Mrs. Wanda said, "we might have to cancel Christmas."

CANCEL Christmas!

Well Christmas is not cancelable, breakable, or refundable. It is simply, and most importantly, a day to remember and thank God for loving us enough to send us Jesus. But of course you want to spend it merrily with family and go through all your family's traditions.

Thankfully, everyone was feeling "well enough" by the evening to get together at the Meeks'. Not as much was eaten, but it was as enjoyable as ever.

The story does not end there. Blake breathed the same air as my family for about an hour, but somehow Mom, Emily, Grandmother, and Dad were exposed to the virus and enjoyed the same fate as Blake - it was virulent! Me, Nate, Mike, and the Meeks were spared - thank goodness. Those affected were knocked down for a couple of days but by New Years, everyone was well and able to ring in 2011.

I just got back home and have to take down all of the Christmas decorations. That is not nearly as fun as putting them up :( Maybe I will look at them one more day....

Watch out - it snows in NC!

I spent most of this week in the beautiful state of North Carolina. The first part of the week was spent in Asheville and Winston-Salem and the last part in Lake Lure. My week started and ended with snow, which I was not expecting in mid-December.

Monday, I left Augusta for Asheville and it was a chilly but bright 40 degrees. I expected the temperature to drop as I drove into the mountains and when I entered Asheville it had gone to 25. It was also dark and I started seeing little specks of white in the air - SNOW! Wow, my first snow of the year. It was so tiny though, I never thought it would stick. About 10 minutes later I was proven wrong, and the novelty was over. I had to meet a group for dinner at 6 and I was running out of time and going the wrong way. I picked the wrong street in the Garmin and was driving up a scary road carved into the mountain. I called the B&B and they got me on track and I finally skidded into the driveway at 5:55.

The B&B is worth mentioning further. I don't have much experience with B&B's, I've really only stayed at hotels or privately owned condos or cabins, but I kind of think I'm a B&B person. I stayed at the Sweet Biscuit Inn and it was sooo cute. It was all around charming, from the couple that owns it, Robert and Angela, who personally greet you, help you in, and serve you homemade biscuits and muffins in the morning, to the simple eclectic decor and the old, probably original features in the house - I had a claw footed tub in my bathroom and my room was heated by a radiator (I had never even seen one of those before)! If you are in Asheville, I definitely recommend it. They have a website: www.sweetbiscuitinn.com

Then Friday, with Blake accompanying me this time, we headed to Lake Lure, NC for the a Christmas weekend with the Hoxsie's. This is the third year that we have gone to a cabin in the mountains to have Christmas together and it is always super fun. We find a cabin large enough to sleep all of us together (14), with a full kitchen, and some fun things to do (pool tables, hot tubs, games, etc.) - and then we just hole up for the weekend. We enjoy good home-cooked food, great views, and quality time together to make lots of memories. This year we stayed at the Dancing Falls cabin, named so because it was built in the resort/golf course where "Dirty Dancing" was filmed.


Another highlight that has become tradition is our Dirty Santa gift swap. Before I go further, I have to say that Aunt Lydia, who was in charge this year, did a great job! She found and booked the cabin, organized the meals (which were awesome), and put together some really great gifts! The gifts are a mixture of snacks, pranks, and truly desirable/functional items. Whatever you get, it is going to be good!


We had really great weather Saturday. It was warm enough to walk around outside without a coat, but we knew that Sunday was going to get ugly. I got up at 5:30 Sunday morning for a potty break and saw huge clumps of white falling outside. I was too distracted to go back to sleep, so I stayed up for an hour to watch it. The snow was so heavy you could hear it when it landed. It was beautiful in the morning! The only downside was that we have to leave pretty early. I have learned this week my car isn't the greatest in snow. But thank goodness, we stayed on the road and made it out.


I had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time, and now I'm kind of bummed that it's over - but there's always next year!

Tragedy at 4175

So today a very bad thing happened....I accidentally poured one of our goldfish down the drain! I was unable to save him. He had a premature funeral.

You probably didn't even know that we had fish. Well, we had 2 fancy goldfish for about a month. We got them for one of Blake's Young Life games. The kids thought they were going to be drinking water with goldfish, but obviously it was a trick because I have kept them as pets. When we bought them, I didn't really think of what to do with them after the game. They only cost $3 a piece but they are living creatures and so I couldn't just flush them....(seems like that what I ended up doing anyway). So I have been caring for them in a pitcher until this weekend when we picked up a fish tank that Blake's parents had.

Finally they had a real home! And then tragedy struck. I was trying to pour out the extra water from the pitcher to transfer them to their palace of a tank when one began to swim the wrong way and swam with the water being poured out! I saw him wriggle for a half a second in the sink before he was lost forever.

Well, I shed half a tear and then I put the remaining fish in the tank. I could tell he was lonely and broken hearted but I had to leave him to go to church. (As you can tell, to me, all fish are boys.) When I got back home 6 hrs later (church doesn't last that long, I had other things to do, including buy a new filter and more fishy friends), the goldfish was dead....Don't know what happened, maybe I shocked him in so much new water.

Well now we have 2 goldfish, but they are not the original 2. I always wanted fish, and I really hope these last. One has been hanging out on the bottom next to the glass and I'm afraid he's trying to kick it. I cheer for him "swim fishy, swim for your life!" Blake thinks I'm stupid. So far I have spent about 25 bucks on my fish project, which I think is pretty good. 4 fish, some food, and a filter - so if they end up dying it won't be the end of the world. I just can't believe I kept two fish alive for a month in a TEA PITCHER, and I can't keep them alive for one day in a tank.

These are the new fish in their shiny new tank, they are white with red heads
which would have looked really good with 2 totally orange goldfish...
SWIM fishy, Swim for your LIFE

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.