Anchors away!

My friend Jenn lit a little fire under my tail to post some pictures from our post-graduation celebratory cruise. I'm only 3 months behind. That's not so bad, right?

We started in San Juan and then sailed to Curacao, Aruba, Dominica, and St. Thomas. Since Andre is not much of a beach person, and I get sunburned just looking at the beach, we decided to look for other types of excursions for our island stops.


In Curacao (ok, I know there's supposed to be a little comma-thing under the second c, but I can't figure out how to do that on my American keyboard) we went for a mountain bike tour of the island. It was incredibly beautiful and included stops at an old fort and a sanitorium which was a hospital of sorts built well outside of town and oriented so that the wind blew into the building from the island side and out the windows to sea to prevent the spread of TB.


For some reason, Andre really liked this old cannon. I pretended not to know him while he was doing this.

In Aruba, my sweet sweet husband agreed to go horseback riding along the beach with me so that I could enjoy one of my most favorite pasttimes. Poor Andre and his poor horse. For some reason, the ranch decided to give Andre the smallest horse, and his legs were almost dragging the ground! We also found the hotel and beach where we stayed on our honeymoon, and so went back and spent about an hour on the beach there. No worries, though--we stayed tucked under a little thatched umbrella so that the dangerous rays couldn't reach me as easily!

Dominica was gorgeous! All green and mountainous. We took a van ride way up into the mountains for an authentic cooking experience in the home of a local family. We made fish stew, coconut-coated fried plantains, coconut rice, tropical fruit salad, and an incredible spiced rum pumpkin drink. Most of the fruit, vegetables, and herbs came from the backyard.

Andre and Liz, the family's chef. He needed a little assistance scraping all the tomato out.

Slicing plantains. Riveting, I know.

Proof that he's not just a pretty face.


Cooking in the outdoor kitchen. I was kinda nervous because we were given the task of frying the plantains, and this chica doesn't really fry stuff. They turned out pretty good, though.

Pumpkin juice!!! I have a whole new appreciation for Harry Potter's love of this drink.

One last comment on the cooking experience. If you are thinking about signing up for one of these, and perhaps work in a Caribbean or Mexican restaurant, and think you know better than the chef teaching you her way of preparing a dish, and you can't keep your mouth shut, please rethink your decision to come along. Just sayin'.



Our time in St. Thomas was spent on a 40-ft racing yacht, learning the different roles and racing with a second yacht. Andre was a superb grinder, and I pulled on some ropes. We actually have some really great pictures of this. Unfortunately, they are all on a jump drive in Andre's office. Maybe I'll get them uploaded next month.

Our "cup" for winning the regatta. We let the other people onboard keep it, since the entire rest of the group (including the other yacht) was an extended family traveling together.

We did sign it, though. I again had to pretend not to know Andre.

We had a really great time on the ship, too. Lots of relaxing. We read six books between the two of us, and made it to the gym a couple times, too. I found a great hidden deck at the front of the ship that was perfect for an afternoon nap. And the food was pretty great too. I may or may not have ordered multiple desserts some nights. Okay, I absolutely did.

Escargot. Glad I tried it. Once was enough.

Andre's new friend :)

We went to a mystery dinner theatre one evening, and this "woman" just loved Dre! She pulled him up out of the audience during the hors d'oeurves/plot set-up part of the show and had him help her out with some props, and then came around and hugged on him during dinner. Can you tell how much he loves it?!

Okay, Jenn, I did it!

Rosie Toes

The only known surviving video from girls' weekend at Kiawah Island.

Home-grown is so much better

Not even gonna say anything about not posting in ages. Not. a. thing.

This winter when I was home visiting my parents I happened to pick up and browse through a seed catalog and it got me thinking. My grandparents have planted a garden for as long as I remember; my dad often planted small ones while we were growing up and now plants a large one every year; my sister and brother-in-law have been planting for several years. Why not me?

Maybe because Andre and I live in a townhouse with a concrete patio for a "backyard" and pine straw-covered flower beds for a front yard. What is a farm-girl-at-heart to do?

A pot garden! Wait. Pots garden? Container garden!

My first ever produce. One beautifully ripe strawberry. Andre and I split it for dessert. Or maybe for a dessert garnish.

My strawberry vs. Dole's. Smaller but 0h-so-much sweeter!

What I predict will be the first blueberry to ripen. We had lots of flowers at first without any fruiting, but that's starting to change!

The second tomato. Sadly, the first tomato fruit succombed to a tragic accident when its stalk was completely severed during an attempt to prove to Andre that we did, in fact, have a tomato on the way.

The Windowsill o' Herbs. They are, from L-->R, rosemary, thai basil, german thyme, chives, sweet basil, and more rosemary.

I also have a couple different kinds of peppers that are starting to show promise. The first flower has been spotted, and I will be keeping a close eye (and a much gentler hand) on the situation. I am also keeping a running tally of the produce picked and eaten--so far, we've had 7 strawberries and 0 anything else. It's still early.

It's all about who you know...

...especially when "who you know" is a classmate with six chickens and more eggs than she can handle! Aren't they beautiful?!?! They're ridiculously delicious. And now I want chickens of my own--all I have to do is convince Andre. Hmmm. Maybe I should just get to know more people with chickens.

Kitty-proofed

Otherwise titled "Why my laundry closet doors look like this:"

(That's a hair band, by the way, for those of you who may not recognize it. )

All so that this...

doesn't happen anymore!

The view from my front door

Looks pretty normal, right? Old Blue is holding strong--12 years old this year! And you can see they have finally cleared all the mobile homes from the property next door. They're going to be building new homes over there soon. But wait...is there something in that tree over there, something that just doesn't belong?


Well look at that! Somebody's fence found it's way 20 feet up into a tree!

We had a tornado come through last night, and Andre and I were completely oblivious until friends started calling and texting us asking if we were okay. We were fortunate to have absolutely no damage to our home or cars. And from what we've heard so far, there weren't any injuries, just property damage and some power outages.

The back patios/alley of the townhouses just across the parking lot. Some houses across the street had much worse damage to the siding and roofs.
Lightning is never supposed to strike twice, but what about tornados? 'Cause we are now under another tornado watch until midnight tonight. What is going on here?! I thought this was hurricane territory, not tornado alley!

When they let the animals out of the zoo...

Since starting my new career, I've gotten involved in the student section of the American Medical Association. Which means trips to Chicago (twice), Hawaii, Mobile, and Orlando where medical students from all over gather in one city to work hard and play a little. Or play hard and work a little. Depends on who I'm talking to :)

Our latest regional meeting was organized and hosted by Brody. We decided to hold it in Raleigh to make it easier for everyone to get to, and because there is much more to do there than here in G-vegas.
Now, fortunately for everyone, I don't have any pictures from the actual meeting. I do, however, have some shots of playtime. And I do mean playtime...dinner at the children's museum!

Why they won't let me start performing neurosurgery is beyond me. I mean, I wore personal protective equipment and everything.

Trying out a career as a weathergirl. I don't know that I have the hand-eye-camera coordination to do it justice--I was trying to point to North Carolina.

Dane was trying his best, but being as this exhibit was meant for children, he could only get from our shoulders to our noses in the frame.

I was just checking to see how many pounds the camera really adds to my butt. I have no idea what my friend Jenn was doing.

The Dress-for-the-Weather game. The mittens fit. The vest didn't.

My friend Megan. Slightly vertically-challenged.






On second thought, it may not be such a great idea to let over a hundred slightly cool-challenged (aka dorky, according to my husband) fun-starved medical students loose in a children's museum. Especially when there's an open bar during dinner.

A glimpse into the future...

Our church had a costume party this evening--I know, it's one day late in the Halloween department. But last night was for the kiddos, so tonight the adults got to have a little fun. The theme was "the 70's". So Andre and I decided to go as ourselves...in our 70's! Unfortunately (as already addressed in my very first blog entry ever) I am horrible about taking pictures, so we only got a couple of ourselves. But, here we are, 40+ years older...

Gramps is gettin' a little frisky!

This was toward the end of the evening, so Andre had already started to lose parts of his costume. He started off wearing his geek glasses (big black framed ones--sadly, we had to run to his office to pick them up before heading to church because he actually wears them sometimes!) and carrying a newspaper. And you can't see his high-water pants or black socks with sandals in these pictures either. And of course, I had a "pocketbook" filled with crumpled Kleenex and hard candy, knee-high stockings rolled down Mama's House-style and clunky Naturalizer shoes. Gotta love the Goodwill for costume parts! But the true secret weapon of both costumes was the almighty water balloon--multiple balloons, to be exact!

Ok, ok, I know it has been so stinken' long since I wrote last. But I've been busy. Really, I have. Since I last posted, I have done something incredibly amazing--and incredibly scary at the same time. I delivered a baby. A BABY!! Somebody let me be a part of something so...so...WOW! But I do have to admit, after I saw my first vaginal delivery, and then my first cesarean, I decided I never wanted either one to actually happen to ME. My husband, and my mother, will be happy to know that I have changed my mind and will be willing to have a baby. Someday.
Seriously, the last eight weeks on OB/GYN have been wonderful. I started out thinking that I might enjoy this rotation, but would never really want to do it for a living. Then I got in it and really liked it. Then I did two weeks on GYN surgery and thought--never, ever, ever. And now it's over and I already miss it. I don't really know what that means for my future career plans right now, but I'm staying open-minded.
I start family medicine on Monday. I'm hoping I get to see some OB patients in clinic. It's the only thing that is keeping me excited about the rotation.

p.s. Sorry there aren't any pictures with this post. Surprising, none of the women wanted pictures of what I was doing. Who knew?

Time flies...

It has been a loooong time since my last post--and yet it seems like just yesterday that I posted the pictures of my sweet niece. That day was my very first day of my first 3rd year clerkship, and orientation didn't start until 10, so I was killing some time that morning. Now, I have only two weeks left of my internal medicine rotation.

This first rotation has been scary, and fun, and nerve-wracking, and exciting, all at the same time--and I'm not even making any of the real decisions! But it's amazing how much I have learned in just a few weeks. When we first learn the physical exam, and for the first two years when we're tested on it, it feels like we're just going through the motions on completely normal, fake (aka "standardized") patients. And we really are just going through the motions. I felt absolutely zero confidence that I would be able to pick up anything abnormal--or that I would think something was wacky when it was completely normal. Students in classes ahead had told us that it's always that way--and then one day it just clicks. You listen to someone's heart often enough that you just know when you hear something off. I totally didn't believe them. Then it totally happened for me. I started to see and hear and feel some of the abnormal findings that we had learned about but never experienced. I am so loving this.

I have no clue what I want to do when I grow up. I'm kinda worried that I will be one of those students who loves every rotation and can't make a decision when it comes time for residency applications. I really do like internal med, and I never really thought I would. OB-Gyn is next, so it will be completely different and maybe I'll get a better idea. But whatever I choose, I have no doubt that this medicine thing is what I was made do.

p.s. I'll try to get some new pictures up soon. But I haven't had much time for fun pictures :)

Look at my little cutie-patootie of a niece! I can't believe how big she's gotten already!

The Rabbit Hunter

A couple weekends ago Andre and I had the chance to get away for a couple days and stay up in the mountains in West Virginia. My parents--or rather my dad, since my mom doesn't really ever go there--own a hunting camp in Cass, not far from Snowshoe. We used to go up there every Christmas break as a family and go skiing, and I even took a big group of people from school last February for a ski trip. But after five years, Andre still had not had the pleasure of staying at "camp" as we call it. On the drive there, he tried to get me to explain more what it was like. "It's a cabin, right?" he asked. Mmm, that sounds a little too quaint. "A lodge?" Still too quaint. It's just a very hard place to describe. It's an older, two-story house with five bedrooms but only one bathroom (although there is a VERY nice outhouse for when the house is full), furnished and decorated mainly with my mom's (and other wives) discarded things and all the animal heads/antlers/skins that are not allowed in to be hung in their home. I will say, the kitchen is kind of charming because there is this big old wood burning stove and a huge farmhouse sink.

Anyways, we went up there to get away and just relax before the craziness of third year started. We were planning on going cycling on the trail, but since the forecast called for thunderstorms every day, we didn't even bother taking our bikes. We did take fishing stuff, but didn't end up doing that either. So what did we do? Well...we went rabbit hunting. (Ok, not really hunting--we just took a long walk around dad's property, and saw a bunch. No animals were harmed in the taking of these pictures.) It turned out to be pretty easy, since my brother-in-law apparently planted several small gardens just to bait the animals out into the open. Thanks Brian!

Here are some pictures of the rabbit hunter in action.

No deer sightings until our drive home--we saw three, very conveniently running right in front of our car. No close calls though, and everyone lived. There was even a little tiny spotted fawn with its mama. Maybe one day I'll see that fawn again...in a bowl of stew.

Five Years

Dre and I just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary a little over a week ago. We spent it the way everyone wishes they could spend a romantic weekend--at an extended family reunion surrounded by 35 or so people. Actually, we had a really great time, and were even able to sneak away for a quiet walk and a noisy dinner.

It's funny how much we know about each other after these five years. For instance, I know that it is next to impossible to get a nice picture of Andre. So I was sitting with my aunt at the reunion picnic while Andre was watching a rousing bocce ball game and I said "watch this" as I took this picture:

And then I said, "Hey Andre, look over here and smile", and this is what he did:

Every stinkin' picture starts this way! If I wait long enough or make a fuss, he'll stop and smile. I didn't do that this time, and this is what we are stuck with.

Only Child

I got a really special treat last week--my mom joined me in Chicago and I got to be an only child for five whole days! Okay, okay, I know I'm an adult now. But I'll take it when I can get it!

Here are some pictures from the trip.

At the John Hancock Center. Here's a tip (that we learned after our visit)--you can take the regular elevator up to the bar, which is actually higher than the skydeck, and enjoy the view for the price of a drink vs. the $15 ticket to the skydeck.

My aunt Mary, mom, and I before heading off for Wicked, possibly the best show ever. Mom got us AMAZING seats right up front. Now, I am a big reader. I don't get to read as much during school as I would like, but I did get to read the novel Wicked this past year. It doesn't even touch the musical. The story is somewhat different, and oh so good! If you get any chance at all, see this show. If you have an hours-long layover or are on several months bedrest, then you might (only might) want to consider reading the book.

We didn't have time to eat dinner before the show, so we had cocktails and appetizers afterward. Yum!

The big event of the week happened on Thursday. My sister Jennifer suggested we go on a Segway tour of the city. You know--that machine that Weird Al rides on in his video "White & Nerdy". No reflection on what we looked like, of course! Our tour started at 10 on Thursday morning, so we got there a few minutes early. They make you sign your life away, AND THEN they show you the scary video about all the ways that you can fall backward off the thing and smash your skull. Luckily, they are also handing out helmets around this time. Our group of about 10 people, plus the guide, wheeled our machines over to an open area to learn how to get on, off, and turn in circles. One lady decided right then that there was no way she would feel comfortable riding for three hours. She got off and left. Here's mom and Mary in the training area:

The closest you'll ever see me to my Segway.

Oh, okay, fine. Here's one for Megan and Jenn.

Mom and Mary doing great, taking a short break by Soldier Field...

And then...

Filling out their incident reports!

There was a bit of a collision while trying to cross a busy intersection crowded by ten Segways and lots of pedestrians. Mary wasn't quite able to make the ramp part of the sidewalk and tried to step foward off the Segway. These machines are kinda scary in that they don't turn off when you step off, so they will continue to go backward or forward onto your feet and legs if you aren't in complete control of the handles. So when Mary stepped off of hers, it continued forward, knocking her over and into Mom. Mom then fell off her machine, and one of them ended up on her leg, pinning her down. She also hit her head, but thanks to the trusty helmet, did not end up with a brain injury. Yay! There were maybe seven other random people in our group. One of those seven JUST HAPPENED to be an orthopedic surgeon. Divine intervention, maybe? Anyways, he checked Mom's leg out, talked to her about the possibility of getting a little lightheaded and sitting down before she passed out, and gave me some follow-up instructions. I can't wait to be able to do things like that!

One very unfortunate consequence, though, involved Mary. As you can see in the above pictures, she started off with a button-down shirt over her tank top. But the day got warm, the sun beat down, and the overshirt came off. When she stood up from her little spill, her tank top must have caught on something and twisted, and she had a bit of a, well, wardrobe malfunction. Not completely revealing, but certainly not how she would walk down the street! We actually tried to do a reenactment for my mom later on, but we couldn't for the life of us figure out how the top could get so twisted and expose so much. The moral of the story: always wear a pretty bra. :)