There to clean up my messes...

One thing I learned early on in our marriage is that when I make a mess Scott is the sane person to clean it up.  I get all frantic, and I freeze.  This happens when I drop something and it breaks, spill something, cut myself, etc. 

This was no exception last night when I was painting my nails... I decided that I really wanted to paint my nails black.  So I was using our coffee table to hold my stuff and as a surface to paint my nails.  I got distracted while I was talking to Scott and my nail polish flung to the ground landing on our rug, spilling black nail polish. 

I freaked out, not knowing what to do, spouting off about how we needed to get a new rug.  I frantically was telling Scott to google how to get it out.  I'm lucky to have a very handy husband that at times is better at being domestic than I am... He jumped into action, and started blotting up the nail polish.  Then making a diluted acetone solution, and using some Oxyclean to finish the job.  Ta da - you would never know that had happened when you look at our rug now! 

Scott is amazing, and we balance each other out.  When I'm freaking out he's calm which is definitely what I need.  I just wanted to share this story, because it shows one reason why I'm grateful for Scott.  November is all about being grateful right?

Half way through med school

Half way through med school today, and since I have an afternoon off, I thought I would give an update on the past 6 months that I've been locked away in the hospital. I finished classroom work in December, and started clinical rotations in January. Ashley is realizing how nice it is having me gone all the time: less dishes to do, less laundry since all my scrubs are washed by the hospital, and extra shower time for her since I have to be up and at the hospital by 5:30 some mornings before she is even awake. Or to think about it another way, I like to think that she appreciates me more when I am home :). In reality though, I really appreciate all she does and puts up with, because I couldn't imagine having to do this school without her support.

Speaking of school, here are some of the highlights of the year.

I started on surgery - very long hours, living in Stamford, CT. I had no clue what I was doing, but I eventually learned how to sew and how to tie square knots with two hands. That's just about all you need to know to be a surgeon. So next time you need your gall bladder out, save some money and call Ashley (she's good with a needle) as well as your local Boy Scout troop to tie those knots!
I got to take care of infected appendices, gall bladders, pancreatic cancer, thyroid tumors, blood vessels, livers, colon cancer, and various other bad things that need to be cut out. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Next, I went to pediatrics. Very nice people. I took care of the usual asthma, RSV, respiratory infections. I also helped take care of Tylenol overdoses, helped diagnose a 12 month infant with a rare blood cancer, sickle cell patients who were losing their eyesight, muscle aches, fevers, stomach viruses, encephalitis, and painful diseases that make your skin shed.

My next rotation was in psychiatry - yes, I am analyzing everything you do and say. And yes, I have thought about what your particular psychiatric disorder is. Ashley thought it was amusing...until I started analyzing her behaviors. Then it wasn't so fun. Remember that kid you went to school with that was always a little crazy? You were right all along, he probably is crazy.
I was assigned to an acute, lock-down eating disorder unit, but also saw the usual depression/psychotic people as well. Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. It was so shocking to see the denial that people had about their illnesses. I saw first time admissions in 16 year old girls who were just beginning their eating disorder journey, and I saw their future (but hopefully not) in 40 year old women who had spent the last 20 years, 12 hours a day, eating and purging. I have a new respect for the physiological power of addictions, having seen it now up close when there is nothing for it to hide behind.

After psychiatry, I moved on to Neurology which was quite interesting. I helped take care of a smiling old man with dementia, taught a scared college student and her mother about her new diagnoses of multiple sclerosis and what her life would be like going forward, took care of a woman who suddenly couldn't walk one day, spoke with a Haitian man via translator about his prostate cancer that had spread to his spine, and helped evaluate patients with Parkinson's disease, among many other things. Many patients get really sick in neurology, and only a select few can slow the progression of the disease or get better. Most continue to get worse.

Lastly, I just finished my rotation on OB/GYN. Screaming women, screaming babies, emergency c-sections, terminal cervical cancer in single women, terminal ovarian cancer in young mothers, cutting out fibroids the size of your head, pap smears, ovarian cysts, infertility treatments, and circumcisions. Catching a slippery baby was, to say the least, really cool.

Next up: Urology and orthopedics.

I Cooked Bacon...

For any of you that know me very well you know that I hate bacon.  The way it tastes, smells, texture, grease, all of it.  I refuse to cook it, but I made on exception last night.  So if you know all of this you know how much of a big deal and out of character it is for me to cook it. 

Here's the story: 

Scott has been starting to get sick and when I asked him what  he wanted for dinner he said he wanted soup, potato soup (see recipe posted below).  I told him I would make the soup if he would cook his own bacon.  The thought of cooking it made me feel sick as I have always refused.  The agreement in our marriage from the beginning was that he would cook his own bacon, preferably when I wasn't around.  So I go home from work pick up a few things from the store that I need and head home. 

I get there and start getting the potatoes ready for the soup since that's the longest part.  Once I get them in the pressure cooker I ask Scott when he was going to cook his bacon.  He was working on an assignment he had to do that night and said he would do it when he got to a good stopping point.  I felt bad because he was working hard on school stuff and was sick at the same time so I didn't want to bother him.  So... I pulled the bacon out of the fridge, got out my pan and started to separate the pieces.  I thought to myself, how do you even cook bacon?  You can tell I haven't done this in a very long time.  I turn on the stove, wait for the pan to heat up and put the bacon on.  It started getting all sizzly and greasy and making the weird noises that bacon does and I thought, okay I can do this. 

I decided to make Scott aware of how good of a wife I was.  I said, "I deserve an award, I'm such a nice wife.  Just listen..."  Scott was too busy paying attention to his schoolwork that he completely ignored me so I stormed out of the room since I didn't get the attention I was hoping for.  I went back to cooking the bacon and Scott runs in and tells me thank you so much (he was very grateful!), and he does me a favor and pulls the bacon out of all that nasty grease so I didn't have to.  Anyways, I am making a big deal about a little thing but I was proud of myself for kind of getting over that fear of cooking bacon.  Now I'm not saying that will happen anytime again soon...  Also for the record, I did not eat it just cooked it.

P.S. Here is the recipe of the soup.  My older sister Amber found this recipe a while ago.  It's our go to potato soup recipe now.  Thanks Am!

*Things I do differently: 
-We have the bacon on the side so Scott can add it to his soup.
-I cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker, it's faster.
-For us I cut the recipe in half so we have leftovers but not too much.

Potato Soup

16 strips Bacon
5 large Potatoes
2 cups Chicken Broth
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
16 ounce Sour Cream
3 ½ cups Milk
½ large yellow/white Onion
2 cans of Corn, drained

Cook bacon and crumble into small pieces, set aside in small bowl. Simmer onion in small frying pan until tender; add to bacon. Peel and chop potatoes into bite-sized chunks. Boil in large pot until soft (not too soft). Drain potatoes and set aside. In large pot, add bacon, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk, onion and corn. Bring to a low boil, stirring often, until thickened. Add potatoes and reduce heat to medium. Salt and pepper to taste; let simmer until desired consistency. Sprinkle cheese on top and serve with rolls.

Yield: 1 large pot of Soup

A Long Weekend Calls For a Long Blog Post:)

So I keep wanting Scott to make a blog post, but life as a medical student in rotations is very busy. I will just have to include a recap of his birthday for him. So here is a look at our holiday weekend, and sorry the blog post is really long!  I guess it makes up for me not blogging very well lately.

Friday, the day before Scott's birthday the weather was amazing, mid 60's! We decided to go out for Korean food down by Columbia's main campus. It was so nice, no coat was needed, I wore a sweater and flats (no boots necessary). It was the perfect night to go out, afterwards we walked around the campus.

So Scott and I have a tradition that on birthdays we decorate the apartment for the other person. This started right when we got married. These are homemade decorations which is fun and you can use creativity. Scott set the bar really high last year with a funny idea to make signs that had pictures of celebrities and a birthday wish from them to me. I decided to follow along with that idea and do that for Scott this year. So when Scott was sleeping Friday night I woke up and hung these up around the apartment. Most of these are people that Scott likes, but I threw in a wildcard because I couldn't resist.

On Saturday, it was Scott's 25th Birthday and Scott woke up to all of his signs. I was still asleep but I could hear him laughing so I went to see him find all of them. Scott opened up his present from me which was The Price is Right game for the Wii. We agreed to only do a small gift for our birthdays, like $25.00 or less. I found the game and I was like, oh perfect, it's on sale and everything. I was so excited to give it to him, he opened it up and we played it. Sad to say, it was not a fun game, it was a huge disappointment. I felt so bad because my only gift I had for him was a flop. I'm working on a replacement gift...

We got ready for the day and headed out the door. When we were getting ready to leave we were determining the outerwear that we needed. It was going to be colder than Friday by 20 degrees, but still didn't sound that bad. Too bad Friday couldn't have been his birthday... So we each put on a coat, and decided we didn't need a scarf or gloves. We were planning on going to lunch on the east side so we decided that on the way we were going to try to win lottery tickets for Wicked. I didn't want Scott to be disappointed if we didn't win since it was his birthday. We headed to the theater to put our names in and it was freezing cold! The wind was so strong and sooo cold! This was our 5th attempt to win cheap tickets for this show, so we weren't holding our breath. Waiting for the drawing it was still really cold! They waited longer to draw the names so we had to wait outside for a while. They drew the names and.... no we didn't win! I thought maybe we'd have a birthday miracle or something, but no.

We decided to walk into a store to warm up and figure out what we were going to do. We decided to head straight to where we were planning on going for lunch. We had to walk a bit longer, but luckily the wind had slowed down. We arrived at our location, Baluchi's. It's really good Indian food right by my work and for lunch everything is 50% off. We love going on Saturdays because it's super cheap for lunch and really good! We are also always the only people in the restaurant---weekends are their slow days because during the week it's filled with people working in the area. We ate our food and of course it did not disappoint. Mmmm I love Indian food. I'm getting hungry thinking about it--and it's only like a block from my work... While we were at lunch, we were talking about an alternative plan for the remainder of the day because it was just too cold to be out and about. The original plan was to go to Standburger to try their famous toasted marshmallow shakes, but because of the cold we were not wanting to eat something cold. We decided to head back home and I would make "Chocolate Lava Cake" for dessert.

On our way home we went down into the subway station, paid and walked through the turnstile only to find out that the "E" train was not running that weekend. We ended up having to take an alternate route that ended up taking a long time waiting for the trains.

On the way home because it had taken a while we were hungry and decided that a donut from the street cart sounded good. To try to be festive I decided to put candles in Scott's donut. I had bought birthday candles, but I could not find them. We decided to use a regular sized candle which was pretty funny. I sang and took these pictures of Scott:

We just chilled the rest of the day, played a few wii games, Scott was able to watch basketball games. I think Scott enjoyed taking his mind off of school for one day. I made the cakes and they turned out really well! I'll post the recipe another day, super easy.

Parts of the day were good, parts were not so good... I can't speak for Scott but it was good to just be able to spend a whole day together, we haven't had much time together lately so it was nice. We are happy now that Scott will be able to rent a car for us and being 25 sounds so much cooler than 24:)

Since we weren't able to do anything amazing for Scott's birthday because of not so pleasant NYC weather pleasant... we are going to do something when it warms up to make up for it. Here's to another year!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who sent their birthday wishes! Scott felt very loved on his birthday. We especially laughed really hard when we read the comments from my sister's kids.
Sunday, I found out it was my last week to teach the 12-13 year old youth sunday school class... I am sad about this. I have really loved teaching them since I don't get to teach for a profession, and I'm going to miss it. I learned so much teaching them.

Monday, I decided it was a day to catch up on the apartment since it was a holiday and I didn't have to work. It also helped that it snowed overnight so I knew it would be a staying indoors kind of day. I feel like I never have enough time to get it really clean. Since I always leave our bedroom for last I decided to start with that first. I worked a long time doing laundry and cleaning, but our apartment looks great! Well our bedroom, living room and kitchen. I still need to finish the extra room and bathroom. How do those of you with houses keep it all clean?  I can barely keep our 2 bedroom apartment in good shape!  It felt good to have a day to get a lot accomplished. We also played Michael Jackson - The Experience, on the Wii. So fun! Scott did a few songs with me, but he was mad I kept beating him!

It was a well needed long weekend!

It's a Special Day!

It is Scotty's 25th Birthday! 

It's a big birthday year...he can finally rent a car for us:)  Feel free to leave a message for the birthday boy!  We'll post later about the festivities...and a picture of the birthday boy. 

Scott's Secret...

This is what Scott likes to do while blowing up the air mattress...

He flips the switch and likes to lay on it until it fully inflates.  This happens just about every time we blow it up:)

Bed Half Made, or Bed Half Un-made... you decide

Ever since we've been married Scott has almost always made the bed. The other day I thought I would be nice and started making the bed while he was in the shower. I got distracted by something and went to do something else. Scott comes in and sees that I only made half the bed, my side of the bed. He said, "What is this?! You're only going to make your half of the bed?" I started laughing because I didn't realize that I had only made my half of the bed.

The next day I walked into our room after getting ready and see this:

Scott was giving me a taste of my own medicine:)  So here is the question would you consider our bed half made, or half unmade?   

By the way... I made the whole bed yesterday morning.

Long Needed Haircut

We went home to Utah in June and at that time Scott needed a haircut which he never got...  I wanted him to go somewhere to get it cut, but it never happended.   Now it is October, well almost the end of October and I finally caved in and cut his hair.  I wanted to show before and after pictures so everyone could see how long his hair was.

Sidenote:  For those of you wondering why it took me a long time to finally cut his hair---first of all Scott kept saying he wanted to grow it out to see what it would look like, second of all anyone who knows me knows I'm hair-phobic.  Hair that is out of someone's head freaks me out, even my own!  Also, it typically takes me FOREVER to cut his hair.  The first time it took 2 hours, second 1 1/2 hours.  This time only took me about 30 minutes, I would say that is progress!

Before: 

After: 

Look What Scotty Did!

He bought this from a student moving out....

And turned it into this!  Isn't it so cute? 

What an amazing hubby!  Thanks Scotty!

P.S. For those of you who have backyards/frontyards/garages to do projects, we're jealous...

First Day of School!

Today is Scott's First Day of his 2nd Year of Medical School! 

I made him take the traditional first day of school picture:) 

Real Sandwich

It's called, "Bacon, lettuce, vine-ripened tomato, avocado double-decker on lightly toasted white bread, with mayo, salt, and pepper." Sorry, the recipe is a secret, and I can't give it away no matter how much you want it.

Scotty got a haircut!

Both of us haven't gotten haircuts since we went home for Christmas. Scott's hair has been getting a little shaggy so on Sunday when he woke up he asked for a haircut. I was surprised because I've been asking him over and over. I thought he'd never let me cut his hair again after it took me 2 hours last time... This time it only took me 1 hour instead of 2, I'm getting better and better:)

Before:

After:

Happy Birthday Scott!

Happy Birthday To You! Happy Birthday To You! Happy Birthday Dear Scotty....Happy Birthday To You!

Scott is the big 24 today! Leave your birthday wishes for him!

The Ragnar

I finished the race of all races last weekend – “Ragnar: The race formerly known as The Wasatch Back.” Ok, so maybe its official name doesn’t really sound like a rap artist who has changed his name 3 times, but we did hear some other runners blasting rap music along the 188-mile, 33 hours and 45 minutes, 12-runner relay race from Logan, UT to Park City, UT along the back side of the Wasatch Mountains.

I never knew how fun it could be sitting in a truck with 5 other sweaty runners for 33 hours, but surprisingly, it was a total blast! I had to run 3 different legs throughout the race. My first leg was 7.4 miles, uphill at an average of 2.9% grade. It was on the dirt road going up Avon pass to a point just below the summit. My second leg was going from Morgan, and on through Richville for 4.2 miles. My third leg was the easiest, on the highway into Heber City for 2.6 miles.

Half-way through the race, I ate a real meal of spaghetti, and it was the best plate of spaghetti that I’ve ever eaten! I don’t think it was that special (it came from a high school cafeteria – and I don’t think I’ve given a “great” review of food that comes from school lunch), just noodles and plain sauce. But I was tired and hungry, and it just seemed to hit the spot!

I have 12 more months to train for the big hills next year. But my training might have to wait for another day – I have brownies to eat tonight.

- Scott

Feeding us more bologna

He’s doing it again. The almighty Sun King Obama spoke with physicians who are a part of the American Medical Association (AMA), trying to drum up support for the looming government healthcare takeover. Our savior-like Obama mentions that critics of his healthcare plans are “naysayers,” “fear-mongers,” and proponents of a false “Trojan horse” theory. In almost the same breath, however, he claims that our current system is a “ticking time-bomb.”

I’ll be one of the first to admit that our current system can definitely be improved, but blatant hypocritical remarks like that remind me of the many doomsday-like speeches that were given to hurriedly pass the “stimulus” package (a.k.a. the bill that my unborn children will have to pay). Even Mr. Biden last Sunday admitted that “everyone guessed wrong” on the impact that the stimulus package would have, citing how disappointing it has been so far. On the other hand, only about 5% of the money has been spent, and it looks like things aren’t as bad as “predicted.” Do we really have to spend the other 95% now?

I didn’t guess wrong. And I know many people who didn’t either.

"If we do not fix our health care system," Obama said, "America may go the way of GM -- paying more, getting less, and going broke." And because I don’t support His all-inclusive, overly expensive, tried-and-tried-again-and-failed healthcare experiment, I’m the fear-monger?!

He admits that “excessive defensive medicine,” practiced out of fear that doctors have of being sued needs to be kept under control. Ok, I’m listening now, and you’ve got my attention. At least I’m trying to make lemonade. But while speaking to the AMA, definitely don’t take into consideration the caps on malpractice awards, one of their most important concerns – in fact, let’s encourage the zealously litigious nature of people in society and their feelings of entitlement.

“Ok guys, here’s a problem that we all agree on, and in fact, this is your number one problem. But I don’t like your solution. I don’t have another answer (at least not one that I’m admitting to publicly). But vote for me and I’ll fix it.”

Hmm, that sounds familiar. It sounds like what he said to get elected. It sounds like Guantanamo Bay, and it sounds like the $800 million spending spree legislation.

It sounds like more bologna.

- Scott

New Product

"I'll buy almost anything if it's shiny and made by Apple."
"I like how the email automatically says, 'Sent from a MacBook Wheel,' that way people know you have one."
I hope you like this video as much as I do.
- Scott

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Exercise

My first blog post . . . Ashley's just too good at keeping everyone updated, so I never have a chance to write :) The intramural basketball team I'm on is now 2-0. We won our last game shooting free-throws with 0.6 seconds left in the game. It was tied before that, and our unfortunate opponents foolishly fouled our player on a 3-point shot. He easily sunk all 3 baskets, and we won 39-36.

I went running again tonight, and it's been a while since I've been running regularly. I was still able to run a 4-mile stretch, but my goal is to work back up to marathon stamina by the end of the summer.

That's all for now.