Happy Memorial Day!

Fel and I had a very productive weekend - we've got 2 rooms packed up, the basement has been sorted through, we bought a super-comfy new mattress that I'm sure will give us sweet dreams, and we made some nice cash-money on craigslist.  The utilities are transferred, the uhaul is reserved, and we've got a frig full of beer, bottled water, and gatorade to stay hydrated.  New house here we come!

Countdown to fabulous

We close in 4 days, and get the keys in 6!  This new house business is starting to get very real and Felipe and I are both so excited to move into our first place.  Yesterday we spent an hour in Sherwin-Williams finalizing colors for our kitchen and bedroom.  We also scored a fabulous desk at Office Depot.  All that is left is to pick out a mattress and somehow this seems to be the most difficult purchase.

I'm off to work and then out to see the new SATC moving with my college girlfriends.  Ciao:)

Kitchen!

W&D

Picked out our new w&d this weekend - a fabulous LG front-loader!  Maybe this will make me a wee bit more excited about laundry?  Thank you mil and fil:)

TGIF!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted - - - the hubby and I have both been SO busy at Children's Mercy.  All the kid-germs finally caught up with me and I was home sick with a lovely case of gastroenteritis on Wednesday.  Luckily, my immune system was much better than it was last time this hit me and I was only down for a day.  I figure 7 weeks of sick kids with only 1 twenty-four hour bug isn't too shabby.  Now of course my hubby hasn't gotten sick once, which only proves my opinion that surgeons are either 1) super-human; or 2) that they don't spend any face-time with their patients ;)

We're both home for the day - I'm off and Felipe is post-call and today is all about our house.  We get to go for our final walk-through and will be getting an estimate from the painter.  We plan on roaming around Nebraska Furniture Mart for a few hours.  I'm wishing for a sectional couch and a bed-room set (maybe even upgrading to a queen!)

The kitties are doing fabulous, they think all these boxes are their new playhouses and are having a blast hiding inside.  I think they will like our new place just as much as we do.  The upstairs window seats will be perfect for an afternoon nap in the sunshine.

Hugs and kisses,
Melissa

112?

I'm officially having my quarter life crisis - which must mean I'm a late bloomer.  If I'm currently at a quarter of my life I'm going to live to be 112, which is a rather sweet prospect.  Anyways, I just celebrated my first wedding anniversary, just bought my first home (hooray!), and have decided I want to be a pediatrician. 

I used to be a kid-phobic, I never wanted to hold the baby and always felt awkward trying to play with the kiddos.  However, in the last few years and most especially in the last few months my "mommy-gene" has kicked in and I'm loving the kids.  I thorougly enjoyed my urgent care peds rotation at KU and am loving my inpatient rotation at Children's Mercy (and let me tell you, I'm not an inpatient kind of person.)

Unfortunately, my current job does not give me the luxury of changing my aspirations at a moments notice.  Its going to require meetings, planning, and probably a fair amount of stress to make the transition.  My boss is out of the country for the moment so it gives me some time to reflect and make sure this is really what I am interested in.

On a lighter note (literally)  here are a few recipes I've made in the past week.  Actually, I have done little to no cooking over the past week as a whole, all three were whipped up during my day off.  First, are watermelon margaritas - absolutely divine!  I adore fresh made margaritas, so much better than the syrupy mix.  The second recipe, scallop salad looks SO much better than it tastes.  The colors were absolutely gorgeous but the taste just wasn't for me.  Couldn't even get Felipe to try it.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of my last recipe - carrot cupcakes.  In my opinion they are altogether too healthy to be considered a cupcake.  So instead I call them muffins, and happily munch on two of them each morning for breakfast.  PS -  I used orange flavored prunes which were quite delicious:)  PPS - I would recommend doubling the frosting, the recipe only made enough for a thin layer on each cupcake with none left to lick out of the bowl.

Braids

I want to introduce you to one of my favorite blogs - nienie dialoges. She writes about her adorable children, the love of her life (Mr. Nielson) and the arduous healing process after her horrific plane crash. Her blog never fails to put things into perspective and help me appreciate my many blessings when I'm trying to throw myself a pity-party.




Braids: "

I felt a little better today.
Having the flu is the worst. It really is.
I finally decided to get my sick body up and get in the shower, but
Mr. Nielson had beat me to it. No problem, I just hopped in and joined him.


Anyway, after the shower I asked Mr. Nielson to please braid my hair.
Mr. Nielson always says yes to anything I need have done to my hair.
But when I asked for braids he gave me a very confused look and said:
Braids? I don't know how to do those
Then I said:
Yes you do, you are a boy scout
and he said:
But we didn't learn how to braid women's hair.
Then I reminded him that most of the manliest cowboys probably had to braid their horses tails once and awhile.
NO WAY he voiced.
followed by:
No way did John Wayne braid his horsed tail, no way did Zorro, or Wyatt Earp, or Butch Cassidy braid their horsed tails either-that's so girly.
Then I said:
I bet The Sundance kid braided his horses tails.
In fact I know he did because he was a romantic.
And romantic men do things like that-just like what you are doing right now.
It's hot.
Then he tied a rubber band around my braids and I took a big long nap.

****
Back to Phoenix today for another hunchie treatment... 2 more to go!

"

Almond Joy Brownies

Wow!  I totally want to make some of these. . . . . .If only I wasn't stuck here on call at Children's Mercy.


Almond Joy Brownies:



Almond Joy Brownies

Source: adapted from Baking and Boys
¾ cup cocoa powder (recommended: Hershey’s Special Dark)
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon salt
3/8 cup coconut flour (could also use the same amount of all purpose flour)
2 cups shredded, sweetened coconut
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
Pinch salt
2/3 cup toasted, chopped almonds


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with foil, and spray foil lightly with baking spray.


Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, and whisk together well. Let stand 3 minutes. Whisk in eggs one at a time, then add sugar and vanilla and almond extracts. Fold in salt and flour and stir until ingredients disappear into batter. Spread half the batter evenly in pan.


Combine coconut, salt, and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl. Spread dollops of coconut mixture over the brownie batter. Sprinkle chopped almonds over coconut mixture. Spread remaining brownie batter over coconut mixture. Smooth carefully with a knife. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool on a cooling rack, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Cut into squares.

Happy Mother's Day

You are the best.

bff's

Lazy Saturday. . . . .

Am in the midst of a most glorious Saturday (part of a "golden weekend" per residency terms.)  Golden weekends are few and far between.  Even more rare for two married residents to share a golden weekend.  What it means is you aren't on call Friday night and get to leave at a normal hour, then have both Saturday and Sunday off.

Felipe and I started our golden weekend apart - me at home eating a brownie fudge Sunday, him out celebrating the end of another rotation with his urology buddies.  As soon as he arrived home he plopped down on the couch where he didn't move for at least 8 hours.  During this time I started going through my kitchen and putting extraneous stuff into 2 boxes (1 for Brent, 1 for Goodwill.)  For the first time, my cabinets are not overflowing and instead are tidy and organized.

Today we slept in and then enjoyed press-pot colombian coffee while perusing our e-mail.  After a bit of tv time spent enjoying Top Chef masters we dined on sausages at Werner's with the Schumachers.  Absolutely delish.  They even had specialty potato chips to choose from (sweet potato all the way baby!)

After a quick drive-by of our home to be we headed back to Janssen and enjoyed root beer floats on the balcony where I discovered 2 baby strawberries just starting to grow.  Now we are off to an engagement luau where I get to wear this vintage sparkly top I picked up that his been hanging lonely in my closet for way too long.