Valentine's Weekend

We had a really fun Valentine's weekend because my great friend Nadine and her now fiancee (yay!) came in to celebrate her birthday on the 13th! We had a great time seeing them and miss our SA friends so much. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Grapevine for a yummy lunch at Big Fish and then went to several different wineries on the Valentines wine trail. It was a lot of fun and was such a cute area. We can't wait to go back again!

Heather & NadineHeather, Nadine, Andy, ColbyThen...Saturday night we got all dressed up and Colby took me out to see...

...the ballet! Romeo & Juliet! It was so beautiful and I loved every minute of it! For those of you that don't know, I grew up dancing my entire life and even taught through college, so ballet is something that is so close to my heart. Whenever Colby and I were first dating in Waco, he surprised me with a trip to see the Austin ballet do the Nutcracker, and I knew it was meant to be! We have since seen Swan Lake and Cleopatra together but this one ranked up in my top picks. Perhaps a lot of it was that our "stage" Romeo & Juliet were actually married in real life, so their chemistry and dancing together was so beautiful. It was a fun date and surprise, thank you love!http://www.texasballettheater.org/index.php?q=node/7
Valentines night we went to church and then had our traditional crab leg dinner in our cozy home. It was delicious, cheap, and not crowded at all! Plus, we both were having to study that evening especially Colb with a test on Monday morning. I really enjoyed the simplicity in this day with my favorite Valentine!

SNOW!!!!

We had a record breaking foot of snow in the DFW area in one day last week! It was crazy, but SO beautiful!! While everybody got "snow days," including Colby's school, I still had to gear up on Thursday evening to drive home from work and at 5:30am on Friday morning to drive to work...yikes! A lot of people spent the night at the hospital, but I didn't have any stuff and really wanted to get home. All the snow was certainly a site to see! The first evening I couldn't even get my car in the driveway. Colby had to shovel it out, only for it to be covered back up the next day. I left the house super early in order to allow enough time to make it to the hospital. While on my street, there were 2 different neighbors that were stuck at the bottom of their driveways with the tires spinning. I was so thankful that Colb had dug it out the night before so that it wasn't quite as bad. He said, "I think that is the first time in my life that I've ever shoveled snow." So funny! We surely don't like the cold here in Texas! So on my drive to work, I did my best to not stop at any stop signs in my immediate neighborhood b/c I knew if I started/stopped it would be a lot more trouble in my car. Thankfully there wasn't anyone on the road at 5:30...imagine that!?! I was praying the whole way and just asked God to get me there safely b/c someone had to take care of those sweet babies at the hospital. So not too far into my drive, as I was getting on the highway (going maybe 20mph by the way), what is entering the access road, none other than a sanding truck!!! I literally said Thank you Lord out loud! What amazing protection! I made it to the hospital safe and sound, and had a good day at work, but wished I could be out playinging in the snow!

This is Thursday night getting home from work. My car was stuck there, so Colb had to shovel out the driveway...and the snow is still coming down!

BEAUTIFUL!

Then this is Friday morning when I'm surveying the driveway. Look how much snow filled up what Colby had shoveled the night before. Ps- when I say shovel, I mean he had to use a regular dirt shovel and a garden rake to move the snow, we aren't prepared for this stuff!Quiet, early morning. God made His presence known to me right then with the beauty and stillness of the morning. I stopped for a second to take it all in.

Here is on the way, and yes it's blurry, but I was concentrating on the driving part (mom!). This is the flashing lights of the sanding truck! Thank you Lord for your provision!

Colby took several pictures later this day of the beautiful snow. Even the fence had at least 3 inches stacked up on it.

The backyard pillowOne of the most pensive pictures I've ever seen! Hey Rocky...wanna go get your ball? Come on! It's right there!What about your ball AND your rope?
Umm...No thanks, I wanna go back insideSo Colby continues to pick him up and is going to make him get in the snow. Look how deep his foot print is!Look mom, no legs! Ok, maybe I'll get my ball, I'm gonna have to paw at it to dig it out

Then, this is Saturday morning when there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Rocky had to be forced to go in it. The poor dog would stand on the porch and raise his leg to pee off of it. I bet he held number 2 for about 3 days! Poor puppy! And to think we almost ended up in Pennsylvania for med school!

Small Group Game Night

Last week was our small group Bible study game night! We had a great time hanging out with everyone and playing games. The guys had a ping pong tournament in the garage and the girls stayed inside in the warm and played "Blitz." It was a really fun card game that was super fast paced and almost too much for my ADD, ha!! Briyana and I were partners and lost by 1 point to Kari and Paige. We are so blessed by this great group of friends!

Since it was Valentine's week, I made a yummy chocolate cake

I thought it turned out really pretty!The boys in action Love these girls so much!
Briyana, Ashleigh (& Harrison), Carolyn, Paige, Kari, me

Breathe!

Here's the new skill for the week. Here I am intubating a baby today in class...I'm praying for all breathing patients please! Blurry phone picture, but it was really fun to see the "blue" areas in the baby change colors once oxygenated, oh technology.

Just Because... :)

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

-Robert Heinlein

Yes sir, I'll stitch that right up!

So yesterday was a fun (but long!) class day for me. We learned all of our skin biopsy techniques as well as suturing. We did all of the biopsy stuff on chicken legs, and I must say that I will never look at a chicken leg the same, as I practiced anesthetizing it, and cutting out an excision to remove the "lesion." I think my favorite was the cryotherapy that we did for if someone has a wart or skin tag that needs to be frozen off. It was VERY cold and leaves an ice ring around the specimen in seconds. My least favorite was the toenail removal...oh my sickness! Gives me the heebie jeebies, so future patients, just go ahead and do me a favor and do not get an ingrown toenail, yikes! So, we practiced our suturing on pigs feet and those were pretty raunchy to look at. But I learned single suturing, continuous suture, a mattress suture, dermabond closure, and even stapling! It was fun, and really made me feel like I was learning something useful. Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot in the last year of school that I've been in, but this one is a little more meaninigful as far as experience goes. I am also starting in the hospital this semester and will be rounding with a PNP and a radiologist, so this will be fun and I'm excited to learn a lot!

***** Warning...semi-gross pictures ahead (not really, but just in case)********
My first patient

No problem Mr. Chicken, I'll take that right off!Amber and Maranda biopsying away- so thankful to have these two ladies in all my classes with me!Cryotherapy- Freezing!

Patient #2Ta-Da!

Seamstress at work

Home Improvement & B-day Dinner

We received a great Home Depot Giftcard for Christmas and for all of those homeowners, you know that this is Heaven on plastic! We knew just what we were going to use it on! Hardware for all of our cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. Yes, we've lived in our house for a year and a half and have been awkwardly opening the cabinets since then. But hardware is expensive when you multiply it by all the number of cabinets!! I was in charge of measuring and marking and Colby did the drilling and placement of the knobs. Followed by me being in charge of cleaning up all of the sawdust! I think they look great! The funniest part is that it's been hard to remember to use the knobs! I find myself still reaching underneath, ha! Thanks Aunt Linda, we love them!

Love my handy husband

Yes it took a couple of days between study breaks to get them all doneBEFORE:

AFTER!! (yes the stain is the same, just looks different with the flash!) PS- ignore my cluttered kitchen :)Here's pictures from our fun dinner at Gloria's (yes-we're predictable) for Colby's birthday. Just can't resist those yummy $3 margaritas!