Oops ... It's Christmas?

Nothing says Christmas time like some fish tacos with cilantro-lime slaw, right?  Wait...  It's December.  It's a week from Christmas!  I realized this last night while Stuart was out on the deck grilling trout in the 75 degree weather and I was inside preparing a nice vinaigrette-based slaw.

Fish tacos, cilantro-lime slaw and rice ... on our reindeer Christmas plates!

Perhaps it's the unseasonable weather, or the fatigue from my most recent burn rotation, or the fact that we've been skipping about from town to town and party to party; regardless, the Christmas season really snuck up on me this year.  To combat this, I've been playing Christmas music in the house, burning wintry candles, and making some homemade Christmas decor!

I found the cutest wreath idea from my new addiction, Pintrest.  It seemed like a genius and simple idea: ball ornaments hot-glued onto a foam wreath.  I collected all my supplies (having to go to Walmart for the cheapest ornaments - the horror!) and started working.

Supplies.  The water is very important!  Always stay hydrated while crafting  =)

Kind of at the beginning.  Note my lovely $2.99 hot glue gun!

And the "I ran out of ornaments" almost-finished project

Well, a couple hours later when I ran out of ornaments, this how far along I got.  I realized that (1) I didn't use enough glue and (2) when I hold it up, precariously placed ornaments crash to the floor and explode!  Not good for front door usage.  Today likely holds another trip to Walmart for ornaments and hot glue.  Maybe I'll get it done before Christmas!

I am officially now on vacation until mid February (crazy!!) which means I will likely be doing a lot more craft projects to keep me busy.  Stuart is working most of this week.  We will be flying up to Memphis Thursday, driving to Gadsden early Friday, then driving back to Memphis Saturday afternoon to spend time with the fams.  We'll be back home Monday and then I hope to share some fun Christmas pics!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Delightfully Tacky

It is our greatest pleasure every Christmas season, for the last three years at least, to host a tacky party.  It's a great excuse to (1) see friends, (2) not be fancy and (3) eat deliciously gross things that we would never eat any other time of year.  We've done our best to let the tackiness bring both Stuart's work friends and my school friends together, and I think we succeeded!  This year was our best turnout ever!

The clan - barely fitting in the camera!

Stuart and I prepared for the occasion by tacky-ing up our house.  This was best achieved with garland from the dollar tree.  I was a bit concerned our neighbors might send in a complaint to the condo association, but fortunately they did not.  The only thing that could have made the night perfect was to have somehow obtained a giant yard inflatable for our front porch.  Maybe next year!

Notice the multicolored strands, all made complete with a giant stocking on the door

Coincidence our tacky garland is Bammer colors?  I think not!

Winston even joined in the fun!

And as always, there is tacky food.  What is tacky food, you might ask?  Well it could be any number of things.  Our definition is foods that you might never eat in public, but secretly think are delicious.  Like ... things you could get at a Southern church pot-luck (cheese balls anyone?).  Or bagel bites.  Or easy cheese and pizza rolls.  Not necessarily together.  And of course, being the hosts, we tackily asked everyone to bring their own food, and we served it on a vinyl tablecloth and ate on mismatched Christmas plates.  Or just with hands.

Club crackers with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with brown sugar.  I probably ate 12.

Chocolate covered bacon, by yours truly

Also pictured are a cheese ball, Little Debbie cakes, pizza dip, cocktail wieners, and crustless chicken salad sandwich triangles

However the ultimate tacky food, and I think probably the reason most people come, is fried desserts.  When Stuart and I got married, the only appliances he owned were: a built-in microwave, a sandwich maker, and a deep fryer.  I was originally appalled because he did not want to get rid of the fryer.  Well, I always believe in making the best of a bad situation, so we turned it into a reason to have a party!  Over the years we have fried everything from twinkies to Little Debbies.  This year's saturated fatty treats were fried oreos, fried Milano cookies, fried cookie dough (my personal favorite) and fried Kool-Aid.  The latter turned out to be interesting, but unfortunately not the favorite of the night.

Stu hard at work 

And to end the night, a good game of Dirty Santa!  It was a great game with a perfect mix of good and weird presents.  Best of all, there was a lot of laughing!  I have to say Stu and I cashed in with 3 good DVD's; others unfortunately left with drug-rep notepads.

Cody opened, and had stolen, I think a total of 3 Starbucks cards.  Bless his heart.

My favorite gift: a half-dead Beta fish

And finally for your tacky delight, some more random pictures to end on.  Enjoy!

Travis, Caleb and Cody

Me and William.  Hard to tell but that's a green velvet miniskirt!  William is more crafty and made his outfit.

Liz and Winston

Med School gals

Stu, so proud of his work!  And his musical tie!

Marshal, testing a fried oreo while wearing his mother's sweater

Liz and Britni

Caleb and Cody perplexed by the deliciousness of the cream cheese-cracker-bacon concoctions

Jaron and Allie in their matching denim shirts!

Britni and Anna

I'm a bit behind with blogs

So I'll start with Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was great, though somewhat unconventional.  Stuart and I celebrated our own Thanksgiving on Wednesday night after work.  Then Thursday we traveled to Gulfport, MS to have dinner and way too much fun with Stuart's Uncle Rusty and his immediate family.  Friday we were both off work and parted ways for Stuart to visit with his family and attend the Egg Bowl (Ms State vs Ole Miss), and for me to visit my family and afterwards head up to North Carolina for more interviews.  Whew!

So starting from the beginning, I was really feeling the need to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner.  I feel that a delicious meal is not quite as special unless it can be shared with someone; unfortunately, everyone we knew was out of town!  So Stuart and I just had our own little quiet Thanksgiving at home.  We ate on our wedding china and then settled down on the couch to watch The King's Speech.  If you haven't seen that, it's amazing. Anyway, together we made Ina Garten's "engagement chicken", with a sweet potato gratin and roasted asparagus.  Then an apple pie crumble to finish!

Stu hard at work making the pan sauce for the chicken

YUM!

Sweet Potato Gratin.

Pre-baked apple pie

This chicken was one of the best and easiest things I have ever made!  Ina (we're on a first name basis) says this chicken is so good that if you cook it for a boyfriend, he will shortly thereafter propose.  I would say that she's probably right!  Go out and buy yourself a chicken and follow the recipe here.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of Thursday, so you'll just have to believe that we had a great time for yourself.  There was great food, visiting with family and even a bonfire/marshmallow roast!

Friday and Saturday I was with my family.  We had a little immediate family gathering where Mom made some of my favorite foods from growing up (thanks, Mom!). Then Saturday we headed over to my grandfather's house for the "Brown Family Thanksgiving".  I capitalize it because being with our family is quite an experience!  Stuart once said that they should sell tickets to our family gatherings because they are so entertaining.  Mostly because of my mom and her three sisters who all love to talk and sing and eat, and above all that just love life and are fun to be around.  I also got to spend some time with my precious grandfather.  He is my only living grandparent now and is suffering with Alzheimer's Disease.  It's always great to see and hug on him!

The Brown Fam

Me and my parents

Mom and me

All this was great, but to top it off I was even able to see my best friend, Megan and her husband Daryl!

To date, I've been pretty frustrated with all of our country's Holiday hustle and bustle.  Since Halloween, stores have had Christmas trees up and shopping "bargains" have been advertised on television.  Sales traditionally happening on Black Friday even inched their way up to starting on Thanksgiving night this year, pulling retail employees away from their family gatherings.  I think it's a shame when we start materializing the holiday season and forget what it's really about.  So I'm thankful that we were able to step back from the Holiday Hustle and spend some much needed time with family and friends, and ultimately to be thankful for what God has blessed us with!

On the Road Again

As I write this, I am enjoying the Charlotte, NC skyline from my free room at the downtown Hilton Garden Inn. That's right, friends: it's interview time again! Tomorrow is an interview in Charlotte and then Wednesday in Greenville, SC. Stuart's not with me this time. He couldn't get off work this week, so I planned these two since he's already seem both cities! I must say driving that long distance alone is a little boring, and I don't enjoy having to carry all my luggage by myself, so I'll be looking forward to getting back home Thursday! Please continue praying for us during this time as we seek to discern Gods will for our lives!

Interviews, Part 1!

Well, we've returned home after a week long trip, seemingly around the world!  In 1,813 miles we've traversed: from Daphne to New Orleans and back; Daphne to Starkville, MS for the State game; Starkville to Gadsden, AL; Gadsden to Charleston, SC; Charleston to Augusta, GA; and finally from Augusta back home.  And all in a week!  This trip included interviews at Ochsner (New Orleans), USA (Mobile), Medical Univ of S. Carolina (Charleston), and Georgia Health Sciences University (Augusta).  I don't want to reveal too much information about these, but so far I can tell you I don't yet have a clear #1 choice - probably because I'm just almost halfway through the interview process!

At the State-Bama game.  The Bad Guys won, but we had a good time anyway!

I will say that, while the traveling can be somewhat stressful, the interview process for residency is MUCH easier than interviewing for medical school.  There is really no stress in the interview whatsoever.  You get granted an interview because the program wants you to come there; so the interview is really about seeing whether or not you fit in the program.  Out of all my interviews, the hardest question I've had to answer is "so tell me about what it was like growing up in Gadsden".  I can handle that!

Stuart was able to go with me on all these visits.  He was a great driver/dropper offer/picker upper and really helped me to be more calm.  And obviously to not get lost!  It's also important that he comes since he will be moving wherever we go to as well!  He also gets the fun job of checking out the cities while I'm at my interviews for 7 hours or so.

Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time in New Orleans or Augusta, but we did get to hang out a while in Charleston.  This was really by design, since I had never visited there and Stuart told me it was an awesome city.  Well, he was right!  Charleston recently got voted as the #1 tourist destination in the United States, and it's pretty apparent why!  Obviously there's a lot of history there as Charleston (Fort Sumter specifically) was where the first shot of the Civil War was fired.  A ton of the original architecture is still in place and open for touring.  The city is small enough to be walkable, but big enough to provide lots of activities and (most importantly) delicious restaurants!  There's lots of outdoor parks and the city is so dog-friendly they will let you bring your dog into stores and restaurants (provided they aren't attack dogs)!

Here are some pictures we took while roaming around the city.  Enjoy!

The Cooper River Bridge; designed to look like sails on a boat.

USS Yorktown: an aircraft carrier built around WWII and fought in the Battle of Midway, Korea and Vietnam. And a sailboat for size comparison.

Not a good view, but this was our B&B

Carriage Ride!  Yes, we were cheesy tourists, but that's ok!

The Mills House Hotel; where Robert E Lee stayed and could see the battles out in the harbor.

Charleston street with the city's oldest steeple in the background

Closer shot; the only one of Charleston's 128 steeples to survive the Civil War and not have been hit by a cannonball

Hmm ... wouldn't mind living here!

We could call this the "millionaire mile" I guess.  These homes go for around $17 million.

The harbor

Remaining cobblestone street

The Customs Building - where the Deceleration of Independence was first read to Charlestonians.  They actually booed because they knew if they declared independence from Britain that their economy, mainly consisting of exports to Britain, would plummet.

Let the fun begin!

Yesterday started interview season at Ochsner in New Orleans. Today I will be interviewing at South Alabama, then after a short visit to Starkville for the Mississippi State game we will be on the road again to interview at Charleston and Augusta, GA! Things will be moving at the speed of light here, and I'll try to keep you up to speed as much as I can! Please pray for Gods protection over us, as well as guidance and direction for where he wants us to go!

Desperate Radiology Housewife

I think being a housewife (aka domestic engineer) is definitely a calling.  And I definitely cannot do it.  I have been working anywhere from 1-4 hours per day the past three weeks and it is DRIVING ME CRAZY!  I know I really shouldn't complain because in July when I'm a "real" doctor and start residency my butt will be kicked daily.  But for now, I just really need something to DO.

So I cooked.  And then after I exhausted our two week grocery budget, I resorted to cleaning house, and even cleaning the carpets!  You heard that right!  I borrowed a carpet cleaner from some church friends and, let me tell you, our carpets were pretty disgusting.  But not any more!  So now that that's done, I've moved on to crafting and finding a volunteer job.  Maybe I'll even find a real job when December rolls around and I'm on vacay for 2 months.  Sigh.

Well here's what I did today after doing some carpet cleaning:

Picture frames from wedding + burlap from wedding + fall leaves dried in a book = free cute fall decor!