It's 1:30 PM, and I'm still in my pajamas. I worked in the ER til 2:30 this morning, so I don't feel so bad about my choice of clothing at the moment especially since I'll be back in the ER at 6 tonight. I know I need to update my blog, but I have been a slacker. I don't have a really great excuse; it just seems that every time I try to put my thoughts down lately, the words don't convey the depth of the experience. To sum up the last 2 weeks in tidbits:- I really love my husband. We drive each other nuts sometimes, but I love that man so much!!
- My experiments in the kitchen have been exceptionally tasty recently. I've made a ton of chocolate chip cookies, one delicious pot roast (thank you, Barefoot Contessa!), several yummy spaghetti dishes with extra veggies, a yummy butter cake, two batches of java-streusel banana muffins, mango sorbet for the hubby, and a batch of vanilla bean ice cream. I've given most of the food away which is why I haven't gained 50 pounds.
- Swine flu is not my friend right now. Neither are the 300 parents crowding the ER wanting their perfectly healthy kids tested for the swine flu.
- I think we've figured out where we want to move. As soon as our house sells, we'll re-examine the area to see what houses are available, but it's nice to have an idea of where we want to end up.
- On the other hand, I really dread packing this house and finding a moving company!
- Speaking of other hands, I already bought my birthday present even though my birthday is six weeks away. Hubby is taking me to see Fiddler on the Roof when the production comes through Dallas in May. I am SO excited!! I loved that movie when I was little and can still sing all the songs from the musical.
I'm on PICU nights right now. I hate it. I work 7 PM to 9 AM Sunday through Thursday nights for 2 weeks in a row (except that on Sundays I come in at 5 PM). It gives me the required 10 hours off between shifts, but I think it's safe to say that not a one of us thinks 10 hours is enough especially when you work 5 shifts in a row. It's only two weeks, but it's already been a LONG week plus a day. Last night I had parents of a very sick child get angry because of things that happened before I even came to work, and they took it out on all of us. I understand people react differently when they are scared, but to this non-confrontational person, having someone cursing at me and insulting both me and my hospital was very unsettling. To top it off, I'm going 48 hours or so without seeing my husband; this may not sound like a long time given how much time we used to spend apart, but now that I've gotten used to having him around every day, it's awful to go for 2 days without seeing him. :(Six shifts down ... four to go. Let the countdown commence. I finish Friday around 9 AM, and then I start a 10 day vacation!! My plans include decorating for Christmas, finishing up my shopping (almost done!), and sleeping. Since I'm working Thanksgiving night, I'm making our own Thanksgiving meal on Saturday; the full menu hasn't been planed, but it will definitely include my famous brined and roasted turkey! I seriously cannot wait.
Sarah = boring. At least my blog seems to make me look that way! I have actually been pretty busy with work but have had enough down time over the last week to make two delicious soups from scratch (crab & corn chowder as well as shrimp bisque), a pot-roast, and two baked goods (double chocolate cake with white chocolate-sour cream icing and cranberry-orange scones). Hubby and I had the opportunity to go out to eat with some sweet friends of ours at a great restaurant on Saturday night and again with another couple we adore on Sunday. We had a busy but great weekend!I donated blood yesterday, and I've felt a little tired since then, but this feeling is totally worth it. I'm CMV negative, something a little uncommon by the time you're my age, so I get hit up by the blood bank every eight weeks since my blood can be donated to the little ones as well as to immunocompromised individuals. I haven't been able to give every time I'm eligible, but I try to do it as often as I can. I have a firm belief that since I have ordered so much blood for my patients in the last two and a half years, I should help to supply that blood while I am able to do so.I love that the weather has started to turn cold. We've actually had to put our electric blanket on the bed! As my hubby likes to say, "yes, we are old." I'm curled up on our bed under my quilt and am about to snuggled up underneath the quilt and the electric blanket. Comfort awaits!
After the last eight weeks, I desperately needed a day off with no pressing responsibilities or to-do lists. I had a great massage yesterday followed by a quick, short-notice trip to visit my mother-in-law. I had planned to spend yesterday afternoon relaxing, but since we made the trip instead, I decided to use today for my relaxation today. I spent the morning curled up with Sebastian watching Season 2 of Heroes. Since we missed the season premiere last night, I figure I had time to refresh myself on last season (thank goodness for DVR!). Now I've moved into the kitchen (bringing the laptop and the rest of the season with me) and have started on my own version of therapy -- baking. I trialed a new recipe for a dessert called Serendipity Deluxe bars (3 layers of deliciousness -- all from scratch!) and am waiting on my yeast roll dough to finish its 2nd rise before I split it up into rolls and do the 3rd rise. I'm also testing the new breadmaker to make a loaf of fresh bread for sandwiches. Knowing what ingredients I'm putting into my recipes appeals to me, and making all of these treats from scratch has been so fun. I have some flour left over from the bag I opened today that won't fit into the flour canister, so I think I may make some peanut butter cookies too in a little bit. :)Hubby's not going to know what to think when he walks in the door tonight! At least I know we're having salads for dinner tonight; that will help counter-balance some of the yummy goodness awaiting us for dessert.
I didn't have to work today (although I did have to go to the hospital for a meeting at lunch that lasted an hour), so I used the afternoon to clean the downstairs. Since I had a little extra time before Hubby gets home, I thought I'd make a loaf of bread. I just checked the dough, and yeasty smell of the bread along with memories of my Grandma hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. My Grandma, my mom's mom, was and still is one of my favorite people ever. Her husband, my Grandpa, died before my parents even met, so she is the only grandparent I have ever known on that side. She and Grandpa M were both Czech and grew up deep in the heart of Czech country in Texas; she spoke the language fluently, grew up on a farm, and even gave birth to her first child out on a farm. My grandparents moved to College Station before my mom was born and raised their little family there. They were strict Catholics and in spite of this were only blessed with two children. My mom was born almost ten years after my uncle, so my Grandma considered Mom her little miracle. Grandpa M died unexpectedly of a heart problem in the early 1970s, and my Grandma never remarried. For her, he was it, but the entire time I knew her, she never seemed sad or discontent with her life.My main memories of Grandma revolve around the kitchen. She was a good Czech woman and knew how to bake the most amazing creations all from scratch. Her kolaches were beyond anything I've ever eaten to this day! I remember her making bread in the kitchen and showing me all the steps; she even used to pinch off little pieces for her grandkids so that we could make our own loaves. Of course we didn't do everything correctly, but somehow Grandma's loaves were always the imperfect ones. I seriously didn't figure out for years that she switched them when she handed them to us! I know that my love of baking comes from her.When I was around twelve, Grandma went to the hospital for routine gallbladder surgery. She had a massive stroke while she was there and was never the same. When I hear the word "Grandma," I flash back to her before the stroke because it's too painful to think about how changed she was afterwards. She passed away several years later, but I still miss her. Hubby and I each have a grandparent that we were really close to who died before we met and who we wish could have met us; I know she would have loved him as much as the rest of my family does.Like I said earlier, Grandma was a strict Catholic and raised her children Catholic as well. My mom came to Christ when she met my Dad in the mid 1970s, and I know that they both preached Christ to Grandma multiple times after that. She told them that she believed but that she kept going to the Catholic church because it's what she knew and because she didn't want to upset her family. After her stroke, she came to live to us, and I remember reading aloud a passage about salvation to her and my sister one night, praying the words meant as much to her as it did to me. When she passed away, we held her funeral at the Catholic church where my grandpa is buried out of respect to her family. To this day, I still do not know if my Grandma believed, but I am full of hope that I will see her again one day.In the meantime, I'm going to back and check on my bread. If I want to keep at least a piece of her legacy, I need to ensure I can make a decent loaf of bread ... even if I use some help from a machine.
I haven't worked much for the last several days, but I am just tired. It's a little after 1 PM, and I'm still in my sweats, snuggled up on the couch with the cuddliest dog ever and watching Food Network. I had a horrible headache Tuesday afternoon, so after heading home from the grocery store, I did nothing productive that day. Hubby and I had dinner with some friends Tuesday night, and I managed to keep the headache at bay that evening (thanks, Aleve!). We finally got the coat of primer and one coat of paint up on the first wall yesterday evening, and it looks SO GOOD. If his job gives him enough time today, we will try to get a second coat up on the wall and start on another wall. His job has been working him to the bone, so we may not get to do as much as I had hoped. It's back to work for me tomorrow, and then Hubby leaves early Monday morning for yet another trip to Philadelphia. I switch to PICU nights 1 week from Sunday, so little to nothing will be accomplished for 2 weeks following that.Hopefully I can get my bootie off the couch soon and start to be at least semi-productive. My brother bought me The Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook for Christmas, so tonight I will be making a delicious chicken piccata. I'll be using my breadmaker to make dough for focaccia bread too, so hopefully Hubby will be able to take a short break for dinner. :) I haven't blogged about work lately, but I'm still loving it. Kids are awesome, and watching my clinic patients growing up in front of me is one of the coolest experiences of my life. I'm having a bit of an emotional time right now because we've lost several children to cancer lately. Even when I haven't seen these kids in a while, I still feel a connection to them and to their families. I'm probably just a faceless resident to them, but losing these kids still affects me. That's about it for now; I think Sebastian and I will hang out for a bit more before I head down to the kitchen to do something worthwhile!
Dillards has been running an amazing clearance sale this week. I have been contemplating a bread machine for quite some time but haven't been able to bring myself to buy one. It is hardly a necessity, and the cheapest decent one I could find was a little over $60 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. On Thursday I stopped by Dillards to get some necessary undergarments and made my usual stroll through the home section. There I happened upon a bread machine originally priced at $70 reduced to $50; on top of this, they had just marked it down another $15. I pulled out my Dillards giftcard that I'd been saving for a while, and I had almost $30 left on it. Add in a little tax, and I only paid $8.13 for a beautiful little bread machine!I've already made one loaf of white (almost gone) and just finished a loaf of honey wheat a few hours ago. The house smells soooo good right now. I think I'm going to try a loaf of French bread tomorrow. This machine is so fun!
The last eight weeks of work were absolutely draining. I spent 4 weeks in the PICU and then 4 months as senior resident on one of the general pediatrics inpatient teams. While I was inpatient, I took overnight in-house call every 4th night, and I am so tired. If I don't see another child with RSV for a while, it will still be too soon! I had so many random hilarious things happen last month and so many random frustrating things to balance out the funny that I am just exhausted.I managed to work out my days off from last month, my vacation time, and my Christmas break time to work together to give me 13 days in a row off. I will probably NEVER have this much time off again, so I'm definitely enjoying it while it lasts. I'm now on day 8 and have loved every day of sleeping in (which means not getting up til 7:30). We hosted our Sunday School class Christmas party at our house last Saturday and had a blast! We spent last Sunday afternoon with Hubby's dad and 2 sisters and had a mini-Christmas since parts of that side of the family won't be together again this year. This afternoon, my parents and 2 siblings are coming in to stay with us for the next 4 days, and I cannot wait.Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I love everything about it -- the food, the smells, the gift-giving, the decorations. This year has been even better since Hubby and I are the ones hosting Christmas. We have scrubbed the house from top to bottom and hung all our decorations. We have our formal Christmas tree downstairs and our homey Christmas tree upstairs. The house smells like a combination of the sugar cookies and cranberry-orange scones I baked last night, and my first turkey is sitting in the fridge getting ready to be brined soon (thanks, Food Network and Alton Brown!). I even have the cutest Santa outfit for Sebastian! Best of all, I have been able to attend church last Sunday with Hubby and will go tomorrow with my side of the family as well as Hubby; sharing fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ is even more beautiful to me this time of year after my long absence due to work. I am so thankful for the miracle of my King's coming, and while I know this time of year is likely not the actual time of His birth, I enjoy using it as a time to celebrate His story. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Earlier today I began an entry on my experience this weekend as I watched the aftermath of a horrible tragedy that resulted in a young child dying in his mother's arms. I was not there for the end due to duty hour rules, but I was there for the beginning. It was so horrible that I pray no one else ever has to go through this. I recognize that we unfortunately live in an imperfect world, and this terrible scenario will likely play out again in that same unit time after time. That said, I'm not ready to deal with the emotions that this experience is evoking. Instead, I've decided to blog about the happier side of the last three days.Saturday I left the hospital and came home to Hubby. It was the first time I'd seen him since Sunday night (technically I saw him Monday morning, but I was half asleep, so it doesn't count), and boy was it good to be in the same house with him. Sunday I had to go to work, and I had a SICK patient. She was a complete mystery to multiple teams, so I ended up staying in the PICU hours later than I had planned. I didn't have an official breakfast that day, and my lunch consisted of a cold piece of pizza I ate as I left the hospital at 2:45 that afternoon. The upside of Sunday? My dad was in town, so we picked him up and had a delicious dinner at Cantina Laredo. Today I slept ten hours straight -- glorious. I had a meeting with my program director at 3, so I left the house after lunch to run some errands before the meeting. I'm asking for new jeans for Christmas, so I dropped into my favorite store for jeans to try on a pair. To my extreme pleasure, I have dropped a jean size!! I noticed that my jeans had been quite loose lately, so today's dressing room revelation came as an expected but pleasant surprise. After I got home, I made a HUMONGOUS batch of fudge and 2 loaves of pumpkin spice bread. Now I'm preparing to watch my favorite TV show, Heroes. Life is good! :)
Today I took our yearly in-training exam that we'll take 3 times throughout residency as prep for our real Pediatrics boards that we take the fall after we finish. 170 questions in, I had enough and lost my drive to keep going (for the record, I did answer all 200 questions). I just wanted to finish and go home! I had good intentions of making a Target run since I was near my favorite Target, but that test sucked all the life out of me, so I *gasp* skipped Target and headed home. After giving my sweet puppy kisses and taking him outside, I immediately headed for the kitchen and whipped up my casserole version of my mom's chicken enchiladas. I made a sour cream-Monterrey Jack cheese sauce from scratch, grilled some chicken breasts that I then shredded, caramelized 2 chopped Vidalia onions, and sliced up some flour tortillas. Then I mixed everything together with the remainder of the MJ cheese and baked in a casserole dish for about 30 minutes. With a side of refried black beans, the meal was perfect, and cooking for over an hour at my own pace without any pressure was amazingly therapeutic.I'm struggling right now. Hubby's job has taken him out of town for 5 weeks in a row again. He gets the weekends back here, but this is the longest stretch we've done with him being gone for a while. I have Sebastian here to keep me company, but obviously it's not the same. I'm such a quality time person that being apart just hurts. I saw him this morning, but coming home and knowing that it would be dinner for 1 was a sad moment. On the bright side, the cutest dog ever is staring at me right now ... think he wants to go play outside for a little bit before it gets dark. This Yorkie thinks that he's a Labrador! Seeing him approach other dogs is hilarious because he doesn't realize how small he is. He is a truly wonderful addition to our little family (and a perfect reminder of why I'm not ready to be a mom yet!).
The hubby got a call on Saturday. It looks like the house may be a reality by the end of APRIL. Wow. Looks like our Houston visitors will actually have a place to stay sooner than we anticipated! If only I can get the details worked out to find some movers, I would be able to start a countdown til I can sleep without the sound of vacuuming or loud monkey-lovin waking me up. I need to take new pictures of the house; we have walls, cabinets, and doors up now. Craziness.I'm watching Dancing With the Stars right now. I DVRed it like I do with most shows so that I can fast forward through all the boring parts. I've never watched this show before; the sad truth is that I really just wanted to see how Heather Mills-McCartney would dance. She only has 1 real leg, and I have a weird curiosity to see how it's gonna work! HA HA HA ... Billy Ray Cyrus just came on!! No lie -- his female partner has a mullet!! Too funny. NO THEY DID NOT -- he is dancing to a song that says, "I want my mullet back." The irony!I made the most delicious roast chicken tonight. I've actually never cooked a whole chicken in my life; I'd always just used the boneless skinless breasts before. I have to admit that it was quite tasty. I'm practicing different meals so that once we actually have room to have people over, I will be able to cook for people. I used to cook dinner for my friends in college at least weekly, but I haven't really done much cooking other than for 2 since the middle of med school. I need to get back into practice!
