D.I.Y. Sunday

It's been a busy day around here. We started our day going to church, then stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things {which ended up with both TJ and I with our arms full}. We made some eggs, sausage, toast, etc for brunch, then relaxed for a little bit.

Later in the afternoon, my dad came over to help us hang a fan in our bedroom. I bought the fan a while {i.e. at least 1 year} ago, but since TJ and I are not so handy around the house, we hadn't hung it up yet. Well, today was finally the day, and it looks pretty good!

My dad and TJ...and my dad being goofy

And its' up! {Sorry it's so blurry...my iphone is not the best}

Ta da! The finished product!

My dad worked up an appetite {and I wanted to pay him back for spending his Sunday afternoon on the fan}, so I made some burgers for dinner. I used lean ground beef from Trader Joe's, then mixed it with onions, horseradish, and garlic that I blended together in the food processor. I also added in a little bit of Egg Beaters and breadcrumbs to hold everything together. After I cooked the burgers {inside using our grill pan since our grill wasn't working}, I topped them off with some bacon bits and feta cheese {on mine} and mozzarella {on my dad's and TJ's}. I also mixed up some horseradish mayo...all in all, pretty tasty! {And it got good reviews from my dad and TJ too!}

My plate

After dinner, TJ and I were looking for something sweet, so I finally made the 4th of July funfetti cake that I've had for over a month now. Nothing too exciting, but tasted pretty good.

That's about it for now...have a good week everyone!

Happy Birthday Dad!

It's a big birthday week for us. Monday was my grandma's and today is my dad's. Nothing big planned today, but I think I'll be heading over to my parents' house for dinner tonight.

After the 2011 Mini-Marathon

I can't help but think how blessed we are for everything that happened last year with my dad's surgery, and that he's now so much healthier. 

Here's to many more years of running together, Dad!!! I love you!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Over this past weekend, my family had the chance to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. My parents and I were down in Cincinnati during the day on Saturday for my cousin's graduation party, but then for dinner, we drove part of the way back home to a small, hole-in-the-wall family style restaurant to meet up with my dad's side of the family. After a yummy, fried chicken dinner, we broke out the funny glasses and had some cake. :)

Thelma and my Uncle Tim

My cousins, Nikki and Joey

My Aunt Cindi and cousin Anna

Me and my parents

The birthday girl!

It was great to see everyone and spend some time visiting with them. Best of all, it was great to celebrate my grandma's day. :)

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Hope you had a great day today!!! I love you!

 

Monday, Already?!?

Where did the weekend go? I swear it always goes by so fast!

This weekend was pretty productive...got to spend some time with family, time with my hubby, made a little extra cash doing some moonlighting, and did some cleaning and laundry....overall, not too bad.

Friday night, TJ and I went out for dinner and a movie with his sister, Tiffany, and her husband, Matt. We all live in the same area, but we're all so busy that we don't get together with them as much as we'd like to. {It always comes down to not enough time, doesn't it?} We ended up seeing Horrible Bosses, which was actually pretty good. Very funny. I'd recommend it.

TJ unfortunately has to work every Saturday from 10-4, so that usually gives me a chance to sleep in a little bit and get some stuff done before he gets home. I braved the heat and went for a 10 mile run Saturday morning, although I probably should have gone earlier. It went pretty well, but it was really hot out there. {Note to self: next weekend, start run at 8am, not 10 am.} That afternoon, I went into the Stress Center (my hospital's inpatient psych hospital) to do history and physicals on the new admits. I only had 5 people to see, so that was an easy $150! I ate dinner, then went to church while TJ met up with a couple of his buddies after work. We had a pretty low-key evening, but we did venture out to check out a new frozen yogurt place for dessert. It's called Huddles, and it's really yummy. Basically, you go in, grab a {pretty decent sized} cup, and serve yourself from the 10 different flavors (red velvet cake and cake batter swirl, yes please!) and various toppings (including Fruity Pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch!). The price is weight-based, and for both TJ and me, our total was around $11. Maybe a little expensive, but maybe we're just ice cream pigs. :) I definitely recommend it, and I can't wait to go back and try more flavors!

Sunday was my big laundry and cleaning day....after I made a tasty French Toast Casserole for breakfast. I put it together Saturday night, refrigerated overnight, then baked it after I went to the Stress Center and ran some errands yesterday morning.

Here's a before picture....

And after!

It turned out pretty well...I could have baked it a little longer, but I didn't mind too much because I like stuff on the dough-y side. It might also be better to use a more substantial bread...I just used the thin, 35-calorie bread that we always have for sandwiches and stuff. Regardless, I think I'll make it again in the future.

With our tummies full, TJ helped me clean all the bathrooms {thanks babe!}, then I vacuumed {including the stairs!}, dusted, and washed sheets, bath mats, and comforters. I was able to sleep a little bit better last night knowing that everything in the house was a little cleaner.

One thing that we didn't do this weekend {that I thought we were going to} is buy a new washer and dryer. We were all set to go out to HH Gregg on Saturday to make the big purchase, but we ended up talking ourselves out of it. Our current washer and dryer is not my favorite, but it's functioning okay, and we just decided that we could wait a couple more months for another good deal to come along. I guess I was a little disappointed, but I think it just makes sense for now. Maybe we'll take advantage of a Labor Day sale...or maybe we'll even wait till Black Friday comes around...

Last night, we went over to TJ's aunt's for a little cookout. We don't see her as often as we'd like either, even though we live 15-20 minutes away from her. It was nice to spend some time with her, and just relax a little bit on Sunday night. Thanks again Ann!

Before I sign off for the evening, I also wanted to send a {belated} birthday shout out to my awesome mother-in-law, Sharon. Happy Birthday Sharon! Hope you had a great day yesterday!!!

TJ and his momma on our wedding day :)

That's all for now....hope y'all had a great weekend!!

Independent Study? Sure, I'll do that!

Today was an "Independent Study" day. It's supposed to be a day where you spend time studying, reading, etc. But for most people, it means A DAY OFF.

Woo hoo!

Here's what I "studied" today:

1. My bed
2. The Today Show
3. The Zionsville running trail
4. Goodwill and Target

I actually had a very productive day. I was able to sleep till 9:30 and didn't have to set an alarm. {I hate that noise!} I got up, made some coffee and cinnamon toast, turned on the Today Show, and spent some Q.T. on the couch before really getting going for the day. Around 11, I ventured out and went for a 5 mile run outside...it was so beautiful today! Definitely warm, but manageable. After my run, I came home, got ready, and ran a few errands, which included Target for a few groceries. {it was Taco night tonight at our house.} I also decided to stop at Goodwill to see if there were any cool furniture pieces, but not so much today. I looked through some of the clothes racks and actually found 3 shirts which I ended up getting. Two are from Ann Taylor and the other from American Eagle, and I got all three of them for...

{drumroll please!}

 

....$8.70!!!!

I'm pretty excited, can't you tell? I may have to do some more shopping at Goodwill in the future!

The rest of the afternoon I've spent working on a Case Presentation that I have to do next Monday. Not quite done yet, but getting there. I'd like to finish it tonight if I can so that I don't have to worry about it over the weekend.

I intended to do some cleaning around the house today, but that hasn't really happened. Guess that will go to Saturday's to-do list...

Even though it's been a pretty easy week for me {i.e. lots of half days and the day off today}, I'm very happy that tomorrow is Friday. I have a full day of clinic, so it will definitely be busy, but looking forward to spending some time with the hubs this weekend. We may get our new washer and dryer too!

Decisions, Decisions...

It's July once again and that means that I'm one year closer to being done with my residency training. {woo hoo!!!} On one hand, that is very, very exciting, but on the other hand, that means I need to start thinking of what I want to be doing this time next year. {oh crap!} After being in school or training for 22+ years, I have yet to answer the question, What do I want to be when I grow up? Kind of hard to believe that after all this time, I'm still not sure.

As most of you know, I've been doing my residency training in Family Medicine. I have absolutely loved it and don't regret my choice one bit. However, over the last couple months, I can't stop thinking about embarking in just a little more training to do what I am truly passionate about. What's that you ask? Well, it's sports medicine. You may remember me talking about sports medicine back in November. I kind of pushed it to the back-burner for a couple months, but now I can't stop thinking about it. If you look at my essay that I wrote for college admissions, I talked about being a doctor for a professional dance company, and now, 10 years later, I am realizing that it could actually be part of my career. A sports medicine fellowship would be 1 more year of training to learn much more about musculoskeletal pathology and treatment. I'd have the chance to work with sports teams and learn various procedures as well. The big question is where I would do this extra training. Applying for fellowship means another round of applications, interviews, rank lists, and the Match, and I wouldn't find out where I would be until January 2012. Right now, St. Vincent (where I am for residency) doesn't have a Sports Medicine fellowship, but there's a good chance they'll have one in 2012. {i.e. just in time for me to finish!} Over the next month or so, I need to talk about my options with some of our faculty, and I'm hoping they will be very encouraging!

In the meantime, I'm going to be getting involved with some of the local high schools {possibly Zionsville, my high school!} spending some time on the sidelines and in the training room. I'm not sure of all the details of it, but it should be a great experience. I've also signed up to go to the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science annual meeting in Washington D.C. in October. Check it out here. I'm super excited to be surrounded by people that share my same passion!

Anyways, enough rambling from me! I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Just Another Manic Monday

Monday, Monday. It's amazing what you can get done when you only work a half day.

After my morning with the radiologist (I'm on radiology this month and was only scheduled to work this morning), I went to our lunchtime conference, then took advantage of having some time off. In addition to being able to relax a little this afternoon, I got a great run in (3 miles was so easy today!), made some dinner, did 2 blog posts, and got some work stuff done.

On the menu tonight was pork tenderloin with sauteed vegetables and udon noodles in teriyaki sauce. I used some teriyaki seasoned pork tenderloin that I got on sale last week along with a couple things that have been in my kitchen for awhile. The frozen veggies are courtesy of Trader Joe's and come with a yummy teriyaki sauce to stir in after the veggies cook. The udon noodles are something that I like to keep on hand - I always throw away the seasoning packet that it comes with (too much sodium) and just do my own thing. I have to say, the result was pretty yummy.

Before...

After!

and a little more meat for TJ :)

On top of all that, I was able to pamper myself a bit and got a $15 manicure after work!

The OPI color - Ate my berries in the Canaries! (It's a little more purple in person)

Now time to unwind and enjoy The Bachelorette!

Weekend Recap

Well, another weekend has come and gone. It was a pretty low-key weekend around here. I had a bad migraine on Friday, that unfortunately crept into Saturday, so that left me out-of-commission until Saturday afternoon. Once I finally felt human again, TJ and I decided to head downtown for the Indians game. It was a great night for a little baseball. We were lucky and had seats in the shade, so we didn't even have to worry about the sun beating down on us. I love the view of downtown Indy from Victory Field...we had the new JW Marriott right in front of us. It wasn't the most exciting game (i.e. not many hits), but the Indians did pull off a win!

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning then had kind of a lazy Sunday afternoon (the best kind in my opinion!). I did drag TJ out to HH Gregg to look at washers and dryers, which he was thrilled about [insert sarcasm here]. Our traditional top-loading pair is not the most reliable of machines, and I've been eyeing a front-loading set for a while now. We've saved up some money for the occasion, now we just have to find ones that have the options we want and won't break the bank. I think we found ones we like...they're Samsung and on sale for $673 apiece at HH Gregg. I tried to do some wheeling and dealing at Best Buy to see if they'd give me a better price, but apparently the guy didn't want my business because the best he could do was $748. So now TJ and I just need to find some time to go back out to HH Gregg and make the purchase. I'm hoping that a new, fancy washer and dryer will inspire me to stay on top of the laundry situation....a girl can hope, right?

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Stay cool out there and have a great week!

Happy Retirement Dad!!!

Well, my dad actually did it. He's now a retired man. Last Thursday, after 36 years of working at Dow, he hung up his coat. He has been talking about it for a while now, but I think after everything with his surgery last year, he has thought much more about it. He's always been a workaholic...staying late during the week, going in on the weekends, working on stuff at home...I even remember going into work with him when I was little when we lived in Michigan. When he told me a couple months ago that he was going to retire this summer, I was shocked and almost couldn't believe it, but nonetheless, I'm very excited for him. He'll now [hopefully] have the time to do all the stuff around the house that he's been wanting to do for years (i.e. the deck!) and taking roadtrips with my mom in the Boxster. 

To celebrate the occasion, his group at work had a retirement party for him last Thursday afternoon. My dad knew that my mom and I were going to be there, but he didn't know that my grandma (his mom), aunt (his sister),  cousin (his niece), aunt and uncle (his sister- and brother-in-law), and my brother were going to be there. Needless to say, he was quite surprised.

Just after my dad walked into the room...

...Starting to hit him now...

Giving his mom a hug

Cutting the cake

It was really cool to see all the people there at the party and to witness just how many people's lives my dad has touched throughout his career. It was also funny to hear people's stories about my dad. :) Later that night ,we were able to visit more with the family after the party before they all had to drive back to Cincinnati. Here are a few more pics of him opening cards and presents.

 

My dad's group at work was very generous and got him a gift certificate to one of our family's favorite restaurants, Oakleys Bistro. If you live in the Indy area, I HIGHLY recommend it. You can check them out here.  It was a beautiful night to sit outside, relax, and enjoy a good meal.

TJ's dinner: Pork tenderloin and grits with corn

My dinner: Lambchops...yummm...

My mom had the vegetarian plate...still very good

And my brother had the salmon

Me and TJ

Me and Joe

The retired man :)

On Sunday, we went down to Cincy for the Reds game, then spent some time with my aunt and uncle at their pool. We came back home on Monday. No big fireworks show for us this year, but it was still a great weekend with family.

It was a hot one!

Great view of the Ohio River from our seats

And the Reds win!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!