Kable needle roll

Finally I have finished up my Kable needle roll! This was actually a pretty fun pattern to knit - the body was mindless tv knitting and the cables knit up quite quick. I got lazy and decided to glue the cables to the body rather than hand sew. Ugh, not a fan of hand stitching anything. Just getting ready to sew the buttons on the outside to secure it when I roll it all up.

The handsome Dr. Felipe Rosso

Guess who got their white coat today?

Living & dining rooms: before and after

If you can't tell, I'm COMPLETELY in love with our new home. It has plenty of room for everyone, is locating in a stunning neighborhood, and most importantly has quiet neighbors:)

Study: before and after

I think this room had the most stunning transformation, check out our diploma collection!














It's wonderful to have a nice nook for all of our medical texts and office supplies.

bedrooms: before and after

HUGE difference a bed and a bit of furniture can make. This is "Felipe's room" where his Museo del Oro posters hang, his guitars rest, and his clothes are closeted. This room also serves as a guest room - so come visit!















Our bedroom - simple yet chic. So difficult to find his/hers bedding!

kitchen & balcony: before and after

The kitchen is SO spacious and wonderful! The bistro table fits perfect in our breakfast nook and there is a TON of cabinet space. We also found a couple of nice rugs for in front of the sink and stove.














The porch was brightened up with the addition of some cushions (on sale at world market!) and a nice fern which I have affectionately named Vern:

bathrooms: before and after

So, not that different. It's a boys bathroom - throw in a rug and a curtain and you are set:)

Now my bathroom on the other hand. . . . . . .This is where I hung all my "melissa stuff" - the colorful crazy stuff that just didn't match with the rest of our sophisticated house.

comic relief

This is from my mother, to prepare me for my upcoming ER rotation. Thanks mom;)

casa melipe

I'd like to thank Gloria for these lovely pictures, I've not had the opportunity to take any of my own yet. Stayed tuned for more pics - our bedroom and guest room are not finished yet.

The in-laws (who brought lots of yummy treats) and our neighbor's gorgeous home. We have a great view of their garden from the study. I'll try to remember to take a pic later. Hanging out on the porch. I'm going to LOVE this porch. I think my dad might like the porch more than me;)
Our living room with the HEAVY recliner couch.
Andy sitting at our lovely dining room table. My dad, the amazing handyman, was able to fix it in a mere 10 minutes (we bought it "as is" as it was terribly wobbly.) UPDATE: Now if only the amazing handyman could return and fix the dining room chair. I sat down on it last night to eat my dinner and it collapsed underneath me:(
My kitchen where I hope to prepare some scrumptious meals:

casa melipe (cont'd) + engagement pics

Our built-in bookshelf filled to the brim with fun little treasures from felipe's travels and fun little romance novels and knitting patterns from my personal library:
Me "studying" at the computer in our home office: Engagement picture #1 (for the parents), I must say JC Penney's impressed me with the quality of their work, our love for each other shines through:):
Engagement pictures #2 (for the grandparents):

career satisfaction. . . .

It only took an entire year for me to find a rotation that was completely satisfying. I enjoy seeing the patients in Rapid Return Clinic, I feel like I am able make a difference in their lives, the residents appreciate my contributions, and the hours aren't half bad.

They are trying to recruit me into Internal Medicine, but I don't think its the Internal Medicine that I enjoy about the clinics, I think it is the primary care. As I progress in my career I will be able to have more continuity, building a relationship with my patients, something I have found that I derive immense satisfaction from.

Oddly enough, I've enjoyed my Ambulatory half of the rotation so much more than the Geriatrics half. Thankfully its not the patients nor the type of work, but the administration and organization of the course. So despite the disappointing experience I am very interested in working with the geriatric population.

Its so relieving to find my niche in the field and know that I can have career satisfaction in the future. Up until this point I was getting rather dubious that I had made the correct choice of career.

Despite the craziness of all-day clinic, packing, moving, and studying for a finals this has been one of the happiest weeks this year. I'm so excited to be starting a new chapter in my life with Felipe.

p.s. Wanted to let you know I enabled the comments feature - just click on comments at the end of each post and then type your message. Also, if you click on the Name/URL option you can leave your name so I know who posted.

Floor plan

So this is rather a mess, but I hope you can get the basics. I'm not very computer savvy, and I made it in Word only to realize it has to be a picture file to upload on the blog. So, with some help I took a screenshot and pasted it into Paint and here it is. Architecture would have been a long, hard, road for me:)

our humble abode

The lovely balcony where I envision myself sipping lemonade or a nice glass of wine in the evenings with friends: Dining room half of the living room, complete with curtains:
Felipe loving the living room:
Study:
Built-in bookshelves for all my romance novels, textbooks, cookbooks and knitting patterns:

our humble abode (part II)

our bedroom: guest room:
Felipe's bathroom (I'd just like to put on record that he chose the smaller bathroom):
Elo & I's big bathroom:
Our HUGE kitchen - check out all the counter and cabinet space. I can only imagine the yummy things I'm going to be able to whip up in here. Not pictured: the perfect breakfast noon, just the place for my pub table!

Happy Father's Day!

Dad,

Thanks for helping to move me 8 times - and an early thank you for the 9th! Just think what a good work-out I've given you these past 8 years:)


Love you!

Moving Day!

Never realized I was such a packrat, but packing went perfectly on schedule until this afternoon when I ran out of boxes midway through the kitchen. I'll probably head to World Market tomorrow to get more and check out their furniture. They have some fabulous pieces. I must say, despite the tediousness and hard work of packing I'm enjoying find treasures I forgot I had (fun fabric!) and parting with some junk that should have gone out the door long ago.

Lots of shopping this weekend thus far. Friday was Nebraska Furniture Mart day - wow, that place will wear you out! We left a mere two hours later with our pocketbooks quite a bit lighter. A TV console and dining room table lighter. The TV console is LONG and a beautiful study wood that we should have for many years. The dining room table an espresso colored wood with very clean lines. It was very exciting to make our first furniture purchase as a couple; I was very impressed with how smooth the decision making process went. No arguing, no heated debates, only a little "couch syndrome" on both our parts.

Today we hit up Overland Park - Walmart for basics like a shower curtain, dish drainer, and toilet brushes, Target for a trashcan. And then on a whim we stopped at JC Penney outlet where we scored a fabulous deal on 2 dining room chairs. Whew! They are not quite as dark as the dining room table, but I think once we re-cover the pads they will work great. I'm still wanting a bench for one side, I've got a lead on a nice one at KMart

Tomorrow at 7p we get our new casa and will drop off our first load and do a bit of cleaning (yummy Murphy's oil soap!) - I hope it only needs just a bit of cleaning and nothing more. I'll try to get some snapshots up soon so you can see it too.

poster presentation!

My poster presentation went great at the Kansas Acadamy of Family Physicians (KAFP) Annual Meeting. There ended up being 5 posters - I was the only student and the only female. Not sure if that should have been intimidating but I felt I held my ground quite well. Anyways, my heart was thumping as they announced the three finalists. . . . .and I got 3rd place. Even better there was a cash prize - which 90% will go into the bank. But I did use a bit to get a nice new one-piece swimsuit and 2 pairs of comfy flippies. Not bad for a morning's work (not to mention all the hours of poster creating and data gathering.) Here's an action shot:

In other news, I began packing today. BLECH! Here's my goal:

• Monday: bedroom


• Tuesday: hall closet


• Wednesday: living room


• Thursday: living room closets (2)


• Friday: kitchen


• Saturday: bathroom


• Sunday: clean new house!

Wish me luck - because on top of all this packing fun, I've got 3 finals to study for.

conferences and celebrations

Tomorrow night Felipe and I will be attending the President's Gala at KAFP's annual scientific session here in Overland Park. I want to look cute, but still sophisticated - just like a future physician. Saturday I will be presenting my research on smoking cessation from my master's thesis during a poster presentation session. The top three presenters receive a cash prize - so wish me luck! I'm just excited to wear my new red Ann Taylor skirt suit (pictured in February's blog.)

Lots of celebrations and good-byes this week. Monday night was our final knitty before the girls all leave for residencies across the country: new jersey, ohio, north carolina. Tonight we are going out for drinks and then to a friend's house for dinner before they move to new orleans and st. louis. And then Sunday we are going to a barbecue before other friends move to DC. Its sad to see everyone go, but to make lemonade out of the lemons of their leaving it opens up a lot of travel opportunities.

photo shoot!

It's been a thrilling weekend. Friday was the end of my geriatrics rotation and we made it through all the patients by the early afternoon. Such a treat to take off early on the final day. Friday night was Girl's Night at the Sex and the City premiere. The movie was definitely entertaining with some amazing fashion, though I can't say I agree with where the took the characters and plot. To continue the evening we grabbed sangritas at a bar in my future neighborhood - yummy!

Saturday was a baby shower for our good friends where the yoda hat and Ugg booties I made were a total hit. The rest of the day I was totally lazy, finishing up a knitting project and taking a nice afternoon nap with Eloise.



Today Felipe and I got our engagement pictures taken at JC Penney's. Felipe was dreading the entire experience but I think he ended up having some fun. We got some great pictures to give everyone and send in to the newspapers. I'm going to have a hard time waiting until June 13th when we can pick them up.

Dinner tonight is shrimp scampi with whole wheat pasta (Felipe's new specialty!)