Thanks, Lee!

Tropical storm Lee has past, and left us with some lovely fall weather!!

Unfortunately he decided to make landfall right around Labor Day, just when our family was coming in to town!  Oh well ... We originally had a great and exciting weekend planned, full of events like:

Kayaking in Mobile Bay!!!  We even had reservations!!  Obviously this picture is not from there as there are no dolphins in our Bay.  Or mountains.

Visiting the white sandy beaches of Gulf Shores!

But the weather obviously hindered our plans.

We had a great time anyway!  We drove over to Memaw's house in Moss Point, MS for a family cookout.  I think we literally drove through the worst part of the storm.  That always makes for good times.  Once we arrived, her yard could have provided us with a kayaking adventure.

That's like 6 inches, folks!

We also laughed away several hours playing Balderdash, which is one of my favorite board games.  Did you know that in Oklahoma, it's still illegal to steal another man's melons at night?  I didn't either until I played!

And of course, I got my baby fix (which doesn't take too much), with our little niece Vera Kate!  She is kind of adorable, and is now walking everywhere! She can almost talk, too.  You can see an intense expression on her face break out and you know that she really has something to tell you, but all that comes out is "BABABABA!  BRRRRR?  HIEEEEEE!!"  She also entertained the dogs

This picture reminds me I must blog about Winston (white dog).  We adopted him, had to give him back, then adopted him again.  Story to come soon perhaps.

And of course what do I enjoy more than cooking for friends and family (and myself)?  I think the favorite dish of the weekend was an untitled dessert ... a lemony pudding custard thing.  I learned how to make it when I lived in Panama, from a friend who was Costa Rican.  So we'll call it my Latin Lemon Lush.  Here's the recipe if you like!

Ingredients: 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can condensed milk (the little can), 1 pack of Maria cookies (found in the Latino isle), and 2-3 lemons

The cookies

Directions:
1. Open the cookies.  This is probably the hardest part.  If you just look at the cookies the wrong way they will break.  Once you open them, try one!  They kind of taste like 'Nilla wafers, but a bit milder.  Now layer these in a pie pan.

Don't cry over broken Maria cookies!  They taste the same!

2. Grab your blender.  Make sure the jar is on securely so you don't spray stuff everywhere like I did once.  Pour in the two cans of milk.  Turn the blender on and begin squeezing the lemon juice into the mixture.  This is not an exact science, but super nifty.  You can squeeze through the first lemon pretty quick, but slow down on the second.  Keep squeezing until you see/hear a texture change in the blender.  I don't know how this happens, but it does.  Don't keep squeezing or else you'll end up with a clumpy mess.  It usually takes me 2 or 2.5 lemons to get to this point.

3. Pour some of the pudding stuff on top of the cookies.

4. Layer some more cookies.  Repeat.

5. Chill in the fridge until kind of firm-ish.

6. Enjoy!

Step 1: Applying to Residencies

Holy cow, it's finally happening.

I'm 9 months away from being a DOCTOR.  Yes, one of those people that works in a hospital and wears a white coat and knows what they're doing.  Frightening?  A little.  Exciting?  Yes!

The first step in getting there is to get accepted to residency!  Well, I really guess the true first step is graduating from medical school.  I made all A's for my 3rd year (first time in my life!) and just have a few more rotations to go before I'm done with this step!  And the next part comes tomorrow:  Hitting the "submit" button on my residency application.

I've spent months researching residency programs, compiling my resume, and typing up what I hope to be the last personal statement I'll ever write.  Tomorrow I will be sending all that out (along with some hopes and prayers) to a little over 10 schools.  That means that the next three years of our lives will be spent in one of the following states:  Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virgina, and Rhode Island.  Whoa!

In October I'll find out which schools are interested enough in me to offer me an interview.  Say some prayers for us and I'll keep you posted on any updates!!

4 Years of Med School Means ...

I'm currently studying 10 hours a day for the second part of my boards (USMLE Step 2 CK).  In a moment of boredom/procrastination I realized this: somewhere in my brain lies the contents of all the books on the left.  Plus more books that I have sold/lost since med school started.  Now, 4 years and $100K later, all the important things I have learned from those books on the left can now fit into the books on the right.  A good thing or bad thing?  Not sure yet.

I'd rather be wrong

I think part of a good medical education requires that the student doctor become confident in himself or herself.  Physicians have to make some tough decisions from time to time, and if you weren't confident in your thinking then you'd really never do anyone any good.

I remember my first day of third year rotations.  I started out on neurology and had no idea what I was doing.  I was told to go see my first patient BY MYSELF!  I went, woke up that poor lady, and stayed in her room for about an hour asking her all kinds of crazy questions that may or may not have been relative.  I fumbled through a physical exam.  I'm sure she thought "good riddance" after I left!

After 1 quick year I have progressed from that fumbling bumbling med student who spends an hour on physical exam, to a fourth year who is left in the ER to admit patients alone with just a quick check-in by an upper level resident.  I can see about 2-3 new patients in an hour and am confident in my physical exam findings.  And my brain works a lot better too.  Present me a constellation of symptoms and I can get the right diagnosis most of the time.  And I have to admit, I like this new confidence.  It feels pretty good when you get things right.

But last night I admitted a patient that makes me think otherwise.  He's a charming Philippino guy who's young and has his whole life ahead of him.  He works hard on a marine vessel to support his wife and child back home.  He told me his story of what his life was like back home, how he lives on the boat now, and about this nagging nausea with a little low-grade belly pain he's been having.  He's also lost some weight.  But the real driving force for him to come into the hospital was being shocked a few days back when he turned yellow all of a sudden.  Eyes and all!

With my almost-physician brain, I immediately think of the medical term "painless jaundice" and how it's almost never a good sign.  More often than not it's a ticket to an untimely death.  I try to not show much concern on my face and proceed with his physical exam.  His belly is a bit tender, but I spend more time focusing on his neck.  Two large firm lymph nodes move around under my fingers.  I think the amount of time I spent on his neck made him nervous.  I had never felt enlarged lymph nodes that were so firm, and I wanted to make sure I felt right.  He nervously looked up at me and asked in broken English if those were bad.  I suddenly wished I could take a time machine back to 1st year of medical school and say "I don't know".  I'm sure my face said differently.

After finishing his exam and talking with my residents and attendings, a CT scan was taken which is so far presumed to be what I thought it was: cholangiocarcinoma.  This is a very nasty cancer that forms in the bile ducts of the liver.  Most people get it when theyre very old.  But he has a risk factor: being from Southeast Asia and exposed to certain kinds of parasites in his food that can cause this cancer.

This is one of those things it doesnt feel good to "get right".  Id rather be wrong.

When life hands you excess fruits ...

Make a streusel!

From the afore-blogged baby shower, I had a ton of fruit leftover.  Berries and plums which were soaked in a brown sugar and lime juice.  There was so much leftover that I didn't think we could eat it without going bad, but I also didn't think it would freeze too well.  I suddenly remembered I had a pie crust in the freezer ...

A berry pie with crumbly streusel topping came to mind!

So basically these are super easy.  

1. Put a pie crust in a dish.  I used a tart pan for prettiness.  

2. Dump in fruit.  I think it's always good to let the fruit sit in some sugar and citrus juice for a while.  The sugar draws out the juices and sweetens, obviously.  The citrus just kind of brightens the flavors and keeps any brownness from occuring.  You can add sugar to your personal taste.  I think I added about 2/3 cups, but probably could have used a bit more. I also mixed in a bit of cornstarch just to thicken it up a bit. 

3. In another bowl, mix a stick of butter, about 1 cup of old fashioned rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/2 cup sugar.  Throw in a pinch of salt for good measure.  Then the fun - mix it up with your hands and crumble it on top.  In hindsight, a bit of nutmeg might have been delish mixed in with the crust.

4. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbly and the crumbled top is brown.

Whoa.

 5. Top with ice cream, or homemade whipped cream (I had the latter on hand)

"Shouldn't babies take baths, not showers?"

Spoken so true by our friend Adam.  His wife and I along with 5 other ladies hosted a baby shower for our wonderful friend Lauren this weekend.  She and her husband Gray are due to have a baby boy in September!  I had fun, as usual, making the food for the event.  Lauren got a lot of great stuff for baby, and we got to surprise her with a super cool bench made by her favorite artist, Brian Andreas.  The bench has this hand-stamped on it:   For a long time there were only your footprints & laughter in our dreams & even from such small things, we knew we could not wait to love you forever.  Sweet, huh?  The bench looks something like this:

Here are some pictures from the event!

The spread

Fruit salad in a waffle cone with mint and homemade whipped cream!

Chicken salad, courtesy of Ina Garten, in wonton cups

Wish I could take credit for these beauties!

Grands-to-be

Gray would have it no other way than to have his boy dressed in Under Armor

There's a funny (but long) story behind this mobile

Eyes closed, waiting for the bench reveal

Hooray!  She liked it!

Hostesses

Happy 1st Anniversary (7/31/11)

We were made for God.

Only in being in some respect like Him has any earthly Beloved excited our love.  

When we see the face of God, we shall know that we have always known it.  He has been a party to all our earthly experiences of innocent love. 

All that was true love in them was far more His than ours.  Ours only because His.

CS Lewis