We went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out!!!

Add this to our (very short) list of rare sports events attended: Mississippi Surge hockey.  If you would have told me ten years ago that on a free Friday night I would be sitting with a handsome man in a Gulfport MS arena watching minor league hockey players and shooting champagne party popper fireworks, I would have laughed at you.  But!  Lucky for me, I married into a family of die-hard Mississippi hockey fans.

Stuart's Uncle Rusty and Aunt Ginny are really awesome and gave us tickets to go with them to last night's Mississippi Surge hockey game.  They are huge fans and have attended almost every game for the past 10 years!  They love it, but I must admit I was a bit skeptical.  I know nothing about hockey and hate being cold, but I decided to be a good sport and go along for the ride.

Stuart and I drove over after work, and I started feeling better about the event as soon as we set foot inside the coliseum.  It was warm!  Before we got to our seat we thought we would have some delish and totally unhealthy stadium food (when in Rome, right?).  We split a Nacho Grande that had a delightful amount of liquid cheese and settled in for the game.

People watching is one of my favorite pastimes, but the crowd was unfortunately sparse.  However on first glance around the stadium I noticed a majority of the attendees were women, most well past the age of retirement.  They were all bedazzled in their "I heart hockey" rhinestone pins and MS Surge plastic rings.  Some even had a beer in their hand(s)!  Several of the most hard-core (and younger) fans were down on the floor level behind hopefully sturdy plastic walls.  They carried signs that said things such as "If you can't play nice, play hockey".  The people watching was good, but then it was time for the main event to begin!


Aunt Ginny supplied us with champagne party poppers and instructed us to fire them at any score, or just because.  I was hesitant since my mother was always rather paranoid about firecrackers, and inside nonetheless!  But I warmed up to the rebellious idea quickly.

At the beginning of the game, rumor quickly spread around the coliseum that the Surge had hired three "enforcers" who were good hockey players, but specifically chosen to take out (aka beat the mess out of) the other team's players they didnt like.  As the team skated onto the field we immediately spotted them as the guys that had numbers on the back of their jerseys but no names.  One would think the refs would be suspicious of that?


So the hockey game got underway.  I have to admit friends, it was pretty exciting!  There aren't many other sports besides college football that can keep my attention, so hockey must be something pretty special!  The only thing is that Stuart and I couldn't quite figure out the rules.  Obviously the goal is to get the puck (aka biscuit in hockey slang) in the goal (aka basket).  Other than that, I cannot begin to tell you what the strange markings on the ice are, or what constitutes a penalty.  It seems that slapping someone with your hockey stick and then slamming them into the wall is ok, but tripping them with your shoe is not.  Quite the mystery.


Unfortunately, The Surge lost this face off.  But Stuart and I came away with a greater appreciation of a new sport!  I'll leave you with my favorite moments:

An engineering marvel: The Zamboni truck

If you look closely, the wall is painted so that the opposite team looks like ballerinas.  Ha!

The best part was spending time with the hubs!  Please ignore our winter pastiness and my apparently massive sternocleidomastoid muscle

Oops!  It's been a while since I posted!  To fill you in, we got back to work on a good foot after our Christmas/New Years vacay ... Stuart to his semi-new job in the Blending and Shipping division at Chevron, and me at Children and Women's hospital BIRTHING BABIES!  Yes, you read that right.  My hands have been in many places they have never been before/should never go again.  It's a semi-stressful rotation, nowhere near as bad as surgery so far, and it's pretty fun.  It runs the gammot (is that how you spell that??) from seeing clinic patients to assisting robotic surgery to birthing babies.

Anyway, the big challenge that this new year brings is summarized in this lovely photo at the top of this post:  figuring out our future.  Or perhaps I should say, trying not to panic/worry/fret/be overzealous in dreaming as God directs our future for us!  The time has come for me to 'grow up' as a medical student and (1) pick my future specialty as well as (2) decide where I want to go for residency.  Fortunately I think I have my specialty pretty well figured out to be Internal Medicine.  Basically because I have ruled everything else out!  Haha.  Here's how that process went:

- Neurology rotation - Loved.  Brains are cool (nerd alert).  However; most of your patients don't get better and you just give them a lot of pills
- Pediatrics - I don't know how to act around children.  I still can't look in an ear with confidence.  It was not challenging enough (nerd alert #2)
- Surgery - Turns out I like cutting things and sewing them back together.  Turns out blood doesnt make me faint.  Turns out I enjoy having a life too much to do this.
- Ob/Gyn - I dig women's health/women's rights.  I don't dig putting large instruments into you-know-where.  It makes me a little queasy
- Family Practice - Haven't done it yet but it involves children, so that's out.
- Internal Medicine - Shadowed an internal med doc over Christmas and LOVED it.  I love old people.  I like the complexity of managing several diseases at once.  Variety is the spice of life.

See?  Decided.

Now the next step is figuring out where in the heck I'm going to finish learning to be a doctor.  There are so many factors that go into that decision!!!  Big program or small one?  Community based or university based hospital?  Big town or small one?  Terrible call schedule or moderately terrible call schedule?  Those are kind of obvious questions I anticipated.  But as I've looked a little more I've discovered more, like: Can I learn Spanish through a program here?  Can I do an International rotation?  Is there a housing stipend?  Agh!  So much to think about!

Since I have to keep you reading this blog and on the edge of your seat, I'm not going to reveal just yet where we are thinking about going!!!  But as of now I have a list of about 10 programs I may want to apply to.  That may grow or shrink.

Finally, and most of all, Stuart is the most amazing husband in the world.  He fully supports me in this, knowing that the next few years with residency will be super tough!  He also wants for us to make the best decision for me and my education and career (maybe because he wants me to make a lot of $$ later so he can be a stay at home dad??).  I am so blessed to have such a great husband!

2011!

My how time flies when you're having fun!  It seems like just a few weeks ago Stuart proposed (Oct 2009), and now we're already at January, 2011!

Stuart and I rang in the new year in a couple different ways.  First, on NYE we headed to Stix with some of Stuart's republican friends to enjoy an entertaining Hibachi dinner.  (As an aside, does anyone else feel awkward when you eat hibachi?  Honestly, the food is okay, but I get so distracted watching the guy and feel like I should pay more attention to him than my eating companions!)   Anyway, we were planning on going to downtown Fairhope to watch their version of the ball drop that night; unfortunately, they had to cancel the festivities due to the economy!  I never envisioned Fairhope as a city requiring budget cuts, but it's apparently true.  So we headed home on an unseasonably warm NYE and made a fire in the chiminea on our porch.  Being the night owl that I am, I fell asleep on the couch before the ball dropped on Dick Clark's (which is not hosted by Mr Clark, ironically) NYE extravaganza. 


NY day we woke up and broke in our never used wedding present waffle maker with homemade buttermilk waffles with a blueberry/blackberry reduction sauce!  I've always been intrigued and intimidated by reductions, what with them making them right and left on the Food Network and all, but they're pretty easy!  Basically the title of a sauce is a verb, not a noun.  You take a liquid and boil it until it reduces into a syrup.  The only trick is that hot/boiling syrups are in a liquid state, so I had a hard time telling when it was done.  It came out a little thick but it was still good!  After some football watching and novel reading, it was time to start our NY dinner!  Of course every good Southerner knows you have to have greens and black eyed peas on new years!  Last year I did greens and peas from a can, so this year I wanted to get a bit more inventive.  I did sauteed kale with garlic and red pepper flakes (super super easy and healthy!) and black eyed pea cakes.  Now, for the cakes, you have to picture a pea/pepper/onion/delicious spice mix molded together and fried like a crab cake.  It was inspired by my favorite cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.  It sounded easy enough, but alas, my cakes did not adhere to each other and many wound up looking like fried pea stew.  Stuart spent some man time outside grilling some spicy sausage.  Topped off with honey cornbread and a glass of champagne, it was a complete and delish meal!

 The next day we realized we had stayed inside the house all day for the first time in a long time!  Stuart watched more football than I believed possible, and I knocked out well over 100 pages in the 600+ page epic, The Poisonwood Bible (buy it and read it now, its amazing).  The relaxing was so nice, but probably something we won't get to make much of a habit of  =)


Then on Sunday we splurged and went to The Grand Hotel for brunch.  The Grand is listed as one of the top 30 hotels in the WORLD, and is located just down the street from us!  Can't beat that!  Since we aren't fancy pants members (aka loaded), we just go for brunch once in a while when we save up some extra money.  And boy, hidey!  That is a delightful meal!  Belgian waffles, blintzes, pecan crusted fish, cheese trays, smoked salmon, the list goes on and on.  If I'm lucky, we go at a time when they make up fresh banana's foster.  To top it off, the service is fabulous, and they have a brass band made up of cute little old men!  The highlights of this trip were (1) dropping a huge bite of unknown sea creature smothered in tomato sauce onto my brand new sweater dress while the waitress dashed across the room saying "ohhhh honey do you want some club soda?!?!?!" and (2) running into a surgeon from South.  Not just any surgeon.  The surgeon that strikes fear into the heart of every medical student.  And she's a lady!  We were walking up to the buffet when I spotted her loading down her plate with cocktail shrimp.  I thought I saw little horns protruding from her hair, but it could have just been the light reflecting.  I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Stuart to run into the back of me.  He said, "What what?!" and I said, "Don't talk!!!!!!  She doesn't like it when you talk!!".  We narrowly avoided her so as not to have to exchange pleasantries.


All in all, it was a great and relaxing New Years!  I hope you all had a great one, too!

Christmas 2010: We drove; We ate; We conquered

This Christmas holiday, our first Christmas as a married couple, was spent visiting our wonderful family and friends.  1,434.8 miles and 1 8-inch windshield crack later, we're back home!  Below in map form is an abbreviated view of our trip:  Daphne to Starkville, Starkville to Brookhaven, Brookhaven to Jackson, Jackson to Brookhaven, Brookhaven to Gadsden, Gadsden to Memphis, Memphis to Daphne!  

Daphne:  We packed our bags, loaded up the 'stang, and bid Mardi farewell.  No worries!  My friend Liz was a very capable caretaker for Mardi while we were gone.

Starkville:We changed into fancy clothes in an un-fancy gas station and arrived with time to spare in Starkvegas to attend our friend Lori's wedding.  We actually had 5 (five!!) friends getting married that same day, but Lori won out since she was a scripture reader at our wedding  =)  The ceremony was in a Baptist church in Starkville and was absolutely beautiful.  I'm not usually a fan of traditional in-a-big-church-weddings, but this one was very personal and unique.  Afterward, on what seemed to be the coldest night of the year, we enjoyed a semi-outdoor rustic reception off site.  I guess since I am post-wedding planning I tend to appreciate all the details that went into a wedding better.  Lori had burlap and mason jars and frozen custard and delish food!  She did a great job!  We skipped out on the reception early though because we had to make a 3 hour drive to ...


Brookhaven:  We stayed here for a few days with Stuart's parents.  Though not pictured on the map, we took one day to drive to Prentiss, MS with Stuart's dad to visit Meme, his grandmother.  She wanted to take us out to lunch.  In a town of around 3,000 there aren't many restaurants to choose from; however, we happened upon Williams' Old Time Country Buffet.  It had an all-you-can-eat buffet with various fried meats and delightful vegetables which often contained more pork than they did plant product.  Most of the patrons there were in head to toe camo and appeared to have just walked out of the woods.  I ate only vegetables but still think I gained a pound or two.  Otherwise, back in Brookhaven, we just enjoyed time relaxing.  I even read a novel!  We also took some time to go on a few family walks around the neighborhood and took a drive to see Christmas lights.  On the second to last day of this leg of the trip we took a short drive to ...


Jackson: We met up with several friends at Mugshots, a delicious hamburger joint.  I had a burger smothered in blue cheese and, well, it just doesn't get much better than that!  We enjoyed our dinner together and then headed back to ...


Brookhaven:  one more day here, then we were off to ...


Gadsden:  Being married is wonderful, but it definitely complicates holiday plans since there are now two families to visit with.  Stuart and I decided that we would spend more time with his family, but even it out by spending the big days of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family.  We arrived in Gadsden a couple of days before the 24th and were able to visit with my old church family and my Uncle Jerry.  On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Brown Family Christmas (mom's side), which usually involves eating a lot of delicious foods and watching the kiddos open present.  If we're lucky, there is singing involved.

Exhibit A of delicious food

Trenton, the youngest of the grand-kids, ate too much of Exhibit A and had to take off his pants.

Trenton walking with Papaw around the back yard.  Presh!

The yearly family shot

On Christmas Day in Gadsden, Santa came and he brought SNOW with him!!!  It was the first recorded white Christmas in Gadsden in 100 years!  We opened our Christmas presents and headed outside to play!

Newly fallen snow on the yard reindeer my dad made

=)

Good thing Stuart grew out his vacation beard so his face was warm!

Our Christmas day finest

View from the front seat of the 'stang on our way to ...

Memphis:  After a 4 hour drive, mostly in the snow, we arrived at Dee Road to celebrate the Saulters/Ray family Christmas!  We had a great visit with them and especially with little Vera Kate!

Vera Kate has taught me that I like children after all!  =)

Two peas in a pod ... watching present opening while wearing a Saulters' family tradition

Uncle Stu is learning!

The Ray's most beautiful Christmas decoration:  La-a.  Long story there.

Finally, Monday morning, the time came to head back to our little neck of the woods.  Stuart had been disappointed all trip because a Chipotle restaurant was supposed to open in Memphis, but was not yet ready for us.  I had no idea the love and obsession Stuart has for this restaurant until we were married.  So on the way home, we took all highways and back roads so that we could go to Tuscaloosa (The Armpit of the South) to eat lunch at their Chipotle.  Stuart got his burrito, and we got to pass through a lot of interesting places along the way, such as the twin cities of Guin and Gu-win.  Guin is the only city in Marion County that sales alcohol; Gu-win (same pronunciation) has a population of 204 and has 1 policeman. 

That's a happy man right there, folks

We made it back home safely after an 8 hour drive!  Mardi welcomed us back with open arms.  I think she was afraid we abandoned her because she has been super nice ever since!  And I think now we're ready to stay home for a while ...

Welcome, Christmas! Bring your cheer!

The holidays are finally upon us!  This means that I am (finally) finished with my surgery rotation, and now Stuart and I will be driving around the Southeast United States to visit with family and friends!  Of course, we couldn't begin our holiday festivities without the soon-to-be-famous annual tacky party.

Yes, friends, that is a floor length hunter green velour skirt you are seeing!  Stuart donned his green cords and women's sweater and we got the party started!  Unfortunately I had one of my too-frequent blond moments:  I took about 50 pictures of the party to later discover that I had no memory card in my camera.  They saved on my camera's 'hard drive', so to speak, but I don't have a cord that can connect my camera to the computer.  So you have to work hard to imagine about 25 friends in their tackiest clothes, eating fried twinkies and pigs in a blanket.  A good time was had by all!

After the tackiness was over, I decided to take a morning to spread the Christmas love by making treats!  Stuart went for his marathon-training 3 hour run last Friday and I headed to the kitchen (yes, I am running a half-marathon with him; no, I have not yet started training - I bake instead).  I spent a wonderful 4 hours in there and wound up with flour in my hair and on the floor, and a counter covered with homemade Reese's cups, lemon shortbread and cake-mix cookies.  Now, I have a passion for good food blogs, and here is my weak attempt at capturing my cooking on film (don't judge me).

Baker's semi-sweet squares melting and getting ready to be made into cups!

Mardi loves Publix too!

The Reese's in action.  I put homemade caramel in some of them.

Cake Mix Cookies, made famous by the lovely Laura Copeland.



And a way to use up leftover scrapbook paper - recipe cards!



Since I put a picture up of Mardi, I have to mention our latest adventure.  Apparently Mardi loves Christmas just as much as we do.  She loves it so much that she just can't stop herself from eating decorations.  Without giving too much detail, one day last week she threw up a Christmas bow.  Two trips to the vet and a whole lot of steroids later, she is on the road to recovery, and we are now having to cat-proof our home.

Stuart and I left Daphne on Saturday morning and were blessed to be able to attend a wedding of one of Stuart's dear friends, Lori, in Starkville, MS.  We actually had 5 (FIVE!) friends to get married that day, but could unfortunately only attend one wedding!  After the celebration (and delicious food I might add), we drove back to Brookhaven to start our family holiday travels.  We are currently here with Stuart's parents and will be heading to Gadsden to see mine on Wednesday.  After that it's on to Memphis on Christmas Day to see Sal, Brian, and little Vera Kate!  We can't wait!

I'll have to give a play by play later.  I hope you all are having a great holiday season!  I'll leave you with this video which I think is important for us all to reflect on this time of year!

Where shopping is a pleasure!

I must say that I have always loved grocery shopping.  Even when I was younger I used to go to Food World with my mom on Friday nights (maybe that's why I wasn't cool in high school??) to get groceries for the week.  Maybe it's because I know that if I combine the right things into my cart then I can create something delicious later!

I've spent my dollars at quite a few grocery establishments in my day.  I spent my parents' money at Food World in high school, then moved on to the exciting world of Kroger in college.  There were a few dark days at Super WalMart when my semester funds ran low in college.  I try to put those mealy apples and bruised bananas at the back of my mind.  When medical school started I felt kind of fancy pants for a while and shopped at Fresh Market, until I realized that would quickly put me in even greater debt than I was already in.  And most recently when God lead me to Stuart in Daphne, he also lead me to PUBLIX.

Before we were married, I used to drive 30 minutes across the bay, just so that I could get my groceries at Publix.  Here's why:

1.  BOGO.  If I am clever and shop their buy one get one sales to stock our pantry, and also supplement that with coupons, I can get away cheaper than if I had gone to that dark place from my college days (walmart).  For instance, yesterday I got Smart Balance organic milk for ... 50 cents!

2.  They have commercials that make me cry.  Like this one, and this one.

3.  The employees there are like the nicest people I have ever met.  They come up to you if you look confused and ask what they can help you with.  The other day I couldn't find fennel for a soup I'm making next week, and I was escorted to the fennel section by two gentlemen who then told me great ways to use it in recipes!  Once Stuart and I were checking out pineapples and someone came up, helped us pick the best one, and then asked if he could core it for us for free!  I may have squealed when I said "yes, please!"  Then when time comes to check out, they will unload your car for you and take your groceries out to the car - no tips accepted!

4. PRODUCE!  MANGOS!  POMEGRANATES!  TOMATILLOS!  OH MY!


I could go on and on, but I doubt you share the same love for groceries as I do.  Anyway, the whole purpose of this blog today is to tell you that they just opened up a Publix that is 1.2 miles from our front door!  Yes, we measured!  We went there yesterday to purchase ingredients to make pimiento cheese for our small group Christmas party.  Stuart can attest to the fact that I had been counting down the days until it opened.  I considered wearing formal attire, but decided not to.


Once we arrived and walked up to the front door, what did we find but a Boar's Head HOT DOG CART!  If there's anything I love more than Publix, it might just be hot dogs (and Stuart, of course).  Alas we were in a hurry and didn't stop for the $1 hot dog and soda delight.  We walked inside to grab a basket and were immediately greeted by a lady with fresh slices of Clementines.  We grabbed one while she educated us on the delicious mini-fruit.  Then on to the cheese section where we passed the tiny end-of-the-aisle kitchen where two ladies were cooking a sample dinner for which all ingredients were on sale.  

Eventually we grabbed all the ingredients for our pimiento chese and got out of there quickly; otherwise I would have wound up talking to all the employees and touring the new store... But I'll be back next week!

Give Thanks!

Stuart and I decided to take the plunge and enjoy our first Thanksgiving together by hosting the families at our place for a weekend-long extravaganza!  It all began on Thanksgiving day when my parents drove in from Gadsden, and Stuarts fam drove in from Brookhaven/Memphis.  We all met up in Moss Point, MS at Taris and Corey's (Stuart's cousin's) house and enjoyed our first Thanksgiving meal!  Some of Corey's extended family are from Louisiana/the Bayou, and they make a mighty fine jalapeno infused fried turkey and spicy sweet potatoes!

Friday of course was arguably one of the most important days of the weekend ... The Iron Bowl.  If you watched it you know it was quite the entertainment event (War Eagle).  I think mom and I frightened Stuart's grandmother and baby neice by hootin' and hollerin' so much!  Dad isnt into football as much as mom and I are, so during the game he and Stuart decided to be a bit more productive and make a hammock stand for the hammock I bought in Panama many moons ago.  They did such a good job and now my hammock has a place to rest other than our bedroom floor!  Too bad it's cold now and we can't use it!

Saturday was the day that we hosted the family at our house.  Stuart and I got up at 6am to prepare our 22 pound turkey for the feast!  Stuart was a great sport and did the yucky stuff, like pull out the turkey neck and rub the gooey butter rub on the XL fowl.  We follwed the recipe for Paula Deen's Maple Cranberry glazed turkey, and let me tell you friends, it was delish!  The day before I had prepared my cornbread dressing and homemade cranberry sauce, and then everyone else brought delicious sides!  

After the turkey went in the oven for the start of its 6 hour roast, Stuart and I went to pick out our first Christmas Tree!  We went to Home Depot (cheaper than a farm we found ...) and wound up with an 8 foot fir tree that is gorgeous!  Then all the fam showed up at noon and we chowed down yet again!  Later that night was the Egg Bowl (MSU vs Ole Miss) which State won!  Another exciting day of football and feasting!

Sunday both our parents and Sally went to church with us, and then we headed out for a walk on the Bay to take a few family pictures!  Stuart and I are deciding if we want to send out Christmas cards, so maybe you will see one of them in your mailbox soon!

Here are some pictures of the weekend!

Dad and Stuart working on the hammock stand for our porch

Stuart testing out the hammock.  He may need to work a little on his technique =)

My wonderful husband, yanking a turkey neck out of a small opening

 

Carving up the roast beast!  That's Vera Anne over there coaching Stu

Some of the fam chilling in the living room waiting on the turkey to finish!

My parents and Stuart's two grandmas enjoying the grub

What do you do after Thanksgiving?  Pile in the car and go shopping, of course!

Sunday was family picture time!  Here are my parents walking down the pier behind our house.  Cute, I know!

Vera Kate!  Mine and Stuart's little niece!  She has convinced me that I actually like babies  =)

Family photo shoot

This was a difficult pose for several reasons, but I think it turned out ok =)

How many condos have a back yard like this?!