Ten for April

10. The front of our house is looking much more like spring!  We've spent a lot of hours this month working out there...Devin even more than me.  I've played with the loppers a good bit while he's been planting our spring/summer grass and preparing the flower bed and planters.  Then, he had to come behind me and get all the lowest branches on our bushes that I'd missed in my non-squatting state.

9. We've made a lot of progress as far as Devin's next year goes.  We are still working on figuring out his schedule, but we've at least got the first two months settled (we think).  He's also begun studying for Step Two, which he will take at the end of the summer.  He's spent time working on his VSAS application, which is how he will get an away rotation for next year.  Also, we are trying to work on a residency list.  He won't submit residency applications until September, but with a baby on the way, we are getting a jump start on researching programs now.  We currently have about 60 programs in consideration and should be cutting that roughly in half by the fall.

8. When we moved into our house two years ago, one of the things we disliked the most was our master bathroom.  But, it was still fully functional in it's very ugly state.  Because of this, it's a project that been pushed to the back burner.  This month though, we've put in a lot of man hours stripping wallpaper, picking new hardware, and prepping to paint.  I'll be even more excited once it is all finished!

7. This past month has been a pretty big month for our boys.  Blue is of course our awesome, obedient, loyal dog that we've rarely had problems with. (Please notice I said rarely.)  But, Moose is seeming a lot less puppy-ish these days and much more mature.  Yesterday, he was perfect through getting his nails trimmed, getting a bath, and his nightly eye cleaning.  (Blue was perfect, too.)  These used to all be dreaded tasks that we never would have wanted to tackle all in one day.  He's also learned to take a pill easily this month thanks to his allergies.  And, I may be biased but our boys seem to be getting sweeter, cuter, and more hilarious every single day.

6. We have two new local food options that we're loving this month.  Two Moms Cookies is just a little further up Central Avenue than our house.  Seriously, they make some of the BEST cookies I've ever eaten.  We look for opportunities to eat them ourselves and share them with others.  Crums is located a little further down the road from us on Central Avenue.  We've eaten there a few times in the past, but it was always for dinner.  And, it's a little pricey for us.  But, we've learned they have a lunch menu three days a week that is much more affordable and just as delicious!

5. I have become much more proficient at sewing this month.  I've spent a lot more time with my machine and am actually ready to tackler some bigger projects.  Well, I'll be ready as soon as I do a some shopping for supplies.  It's been a lot of fun to pick up a new hobby, but I've definitely fallen in love with expensive fabrics!  So, I'm having to pace myself in my purchases and projects.

4. This baby inside of me is pretty close to fully cooked at this point.  If I were to go into labor now, we'd be facing a NICU stay, but the chances of long term consequences from prematurity are pretty low.  My appointments are still just every two weeks and are pretty low key.  I pretty much go in to hear that my blood pressure is wonderfully low, the baby's heart rate is exactly where it should be, my weight gain is on target, and the baby is in a good position as far as can be determined at this point.  As long as that is what I keep hearing, I'm totally fine with going to as many appointments as they want!

3. Popsicles are my new best friend.  I'd been wanting the ones that you have to freeze once you get home for weeks but couldn't find them.  Finally, at our beloved Publix, we found a big bag of them for two dollars and change.  To make it even better, Publix had been so kind as to freeze them already!  We'd barely finished putting away the groceries before I tore into those.  I'm now on my second (very large) bag of them this month...but I really just opened in this weekend.

2. We've made some pretty fun progress on the cooking front.  We've now mastered the art of making homemade ravioli!  Our first attempts were pretty tragic, and we almost gave up it was working so terribly.  But, we persisted and have enjoyed them a couple times this month now.  We've also learned to make croquettes together.  I can't get enough of them now.  After craving french toast for days, I finally made it for us for breakfast one morning.  I hadn't done this in years but ended up with some of the best french toast I've ever eaten after picking some pretty good bread and busting out the electric skillet (both of which made a huge difference!).  We are also enjoying all the fresh fruit this season has to offer and have been eating quite a bit.  This past weekend, we tried out a new fruit dip that we've decided we must keep available at all times now.

1. Devin's radi-holiday may have ended, but he's now entered a nice period know as "Intersession."  It's two weeks dedicated to learning about critical illness and end of life care.  While the subject is not particularly upbeat, he only has four days of "work" spent with a local hospice, and the rest of the days are "filled" with two to four hours of lecture and discussion.  I'm grateful for the extra time that he has to be around.  Even with studying and step two prep, he's going to be very un-busy for the next couple weeks!

Spring Break...The Rest of It...

So, I already wrote about our camping trip that kicked off the (mid week) start of our Spring Break celebration.  But, I have yet to catch up on the rest of the week.  With April nearing an end, I figure it's about time for me to actually post these photos that I uploaded weeks ago.  We had fun in three different cities in three days...with much of it revolving around food!

On Friday, we headed to Athens.  We made it there in time for lunch at Cali N Tito's, which is quite possibly my favorite place to eat ever.  If nothing else, it's at least in the top five!  I'd been craving a chicken Cuban with tostones for weeks, and it was definitely worth the wait!

Saturday morning we left Athens and headed up to Helen, GA.  This is a pretty special place for us as we got engaged the first time Devin ever brought me to visit, and we returned for our first anniversary, too.  I love seeing all the horse traffic right as we are coming in to town every time!

Our first stop was a Hofer's.  Large piles of authentic German food were consumed after waiting in a very long line for a table.  Again, the food was definitely worth the wait.

The day was absolutely gorgeous with the most perfect weather possible.  We weren't the only ones taking advantage of the day.

Our previous trips hadn't been quite so busy, so there were always people in the background of our pictures.  But, it made for a fun atmosphere in town.  We enjoyed browsing the shops, seeing some of the street performers, and hitting up one of the chocolate shops.

After touring Helen, we climbed Anna Ruby Falls.  The previous two times we did this, we had the entire viewing deck to ourselves.  This time, it was pretty congested even on the trail getting up there.  We didn't stay for very long.  But, we did manage to at least get a similar picture to our last two climbs after waiting for a break in the crowds.

After leaving Helen, we headed to Atlanta where we went out to dinner with all the Stephens siblings who were in town.  We stayed with Devin's sister and brother in law that night and enjoyed Easter with the whole family the next day.

After our traditional Easter dinner, we had our annual egg hunt.  I thought I did pretty well for being pregnant, but even our five year old niece out paced me...sigh.  Afterwards, we headed back to Augusta to get back to our busy lives...and our boys who acted as if we'd left them forever.

A Long Awaited Trip

Last summer, I very excitedly bought myself a hiking pack.  I'd been wanting one for years and had spent a LOT of time researching, asking opinions, and reading reviews.  I finally settled on a beautiful blue Jansport pack that had more features that I really needed and fit like it was made just for me.  Devin and I planned to take a several day backpacking trip right after he finished Step One but the weather stopped us from going and led to other plans.  We never did make it camping again for the rest of a very busy 2011, and my pack began gathering dust.

Finally, over spring break, we were able to go camping.  Rain threatened once again, but we just couldn't stand to think about not making it this time either.  So, we loaded up our packs and headed out to Mistletoe State Park for one night.  The hike in was only a couple miles or so, and we were determined to make this trip happen.

As it turned out, the rain started falling as soon as we pulled into the parking lot at the park.  After a couple minutes of unease, we decided to put on hats and just go for it.  Thankfully, it stopped falling within a the first couple minutes of us walking and didn't start again until we arrived at our campsite.  We raced to set up our new tent (given to us last summer) that we hadn't used or even practiced setting up in ten months and got inside and dry within five minutes.



Once the rain finally passed, we headed over to a stream near our site to watch the dogs play and swim in by the waterfall.  This was a pretty big deal as Moose has previously been afraid of the water.  Devin used to have to carry him over any crossing as he freaked out if his paws even got wet.  But, here he was heading in for his first full fledged swim ever!  It happened many times over the rest of the trip then, too.

We cooked over the campfire for dinner and served up some very tasty red beans and rice with andouille sausage.  I was pretty proud of Devin for getting a fire going and getting this to work after all the rain we'd been having.  He's pretty awesome at stuff like that, though.

While Devin worked on the fire, I mixed up Orange cakes to cook in a coal pit.  We buried the oranges (wrapped in aluminum foil) with coals for an hour while we made s'mores.  Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be nearly long enough.  So, we put them back in the whole surrounded by many more coals and left them to cook overnight.

Next time, we're thinking the oranges may just need to be placed near the base of an active fire, because they were still just batter in the morning.  Instead, we ate a breakfast of leftover s'mores snacks and the snacks we'd brought with us.

Devin found a tibia at our campsite, and we debated carrying it out with us.  I was pretty excited thinking I had a shot to end up on the next episode of Bones (kidding...sort of), but Devin looked closer at some "mustache" part of it and determined it wasn't human...sigh.  So, it ended up staying at the camp site.

Overall, the only real bad part of the trip was that the mosquitoes were out in force thanks to the rain.  So, while the rain itself didn't cause much of a problem, it did lead to one big one.  Devin woke up with two big bug bites on his cheek amongst many other bites.  I don't know that we ever applied any bug spray to our faces, though.

My face was thankfully spared, but I did have quite a few bites on my legs.  My right ankle alone had 13 bites!  We spent the next several days using a combination of Benadryl cream, hydrocortisone cream, and IcyHot rub to try and calm all our bites.  Because of me being pregnant, we'd only used Off! Family Care bug spray as opposed to the Deep Woods with Deet spray, though, so we probably should have expected this to happen.

Unlike last time, they actually slept at night because we'd dosed them with Benadryl.  They'd been sneezing a good bit, and we did like the idea of insuring they would not keep us up so much.  Of course, our dogs were still tuckered out by the time we arrived back at the car. They'd played pretty hard for the whole trip and made sure they got the most out of their time in the woods on the way back.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how pleasant the trip turned out.  I slept better than I thought I would and only had to get up once during the night--although I may have set a record for the number of times I had to pee in the woods over the whole trip.  There were relatively few glitches (we forgot leashes...oops!) and lots of pleasant time to talk and enjoy nature.  The night was beautiful once the rain clouds passed over, and almost all our food worked out perfectly.  So, this one can definitely be counted as a success!

$388 Chocolate Chips

Have you ever wondered the financial damage that can be done with a bag of Special Dark chocolate chips?  Or, better yet, have you ever pondered on the cost of a late night emergency vet visit for a pair of mischievous dogs?  Well, I've got you covered on those details.

Be careful!  These may be much more expensive than the price tag on the shelf!

There are a lot of things you can do in this world with $388 (plus a few extra to cover the cost of your emotional eating).  One of them is said vet visit.  We came home last night to discover the bag that we had previously believed to be in an unreachable place torn apart and empty on the living room floor.  While Devin immediately began attempting to get Moose to throw up (the suspected culprit), I jumped on Dr. Google and discovered that we were far past the toxic levels.

Moose didn't have very much chocolate come back up, and I melted down.  Was it too far down Moose's digestive tract or was it mostly in Blue?  I couldn't stand the thought of loosing either dog.  Between my hysterical sobs, Devin called the emergency vet whose magnet was thankfully on our fridge.  We headed in with both of them because we just didn't know what happened.

After a long night with a mistreated stomach, you'd pass out on a pile of towels, too.

After checking to make sure their vitals were okay and then waiting quite some time (we were competing with a laboring guinea pig, a sick kitten, a very injured dog in the trauma bay, and a handful of other pups) our boys were finally pulled back.  We ran out for some late night Wendy's (a Frosty helped me feel a little better) while the dirty work was done. 

Essentially, they were given an IV medication to cause vomiting followed by administration of activated charcoal.  We actually were back in time to hear them protesting to the second part of the treatment.  We learned that Blue was somewhat unexpectedly the culprit.  The vet didn't seem to be expecting that either as the next time we saw her she was freshly showered with a clean shirt and no white coat...poor woman.

The after effects of too much theobromine and caffeine left them pretty wiped out all day.

Because Blue got most of the chocolate, he's been placed on medication to protect his digestive system for the next seven days.  They may both have more frequent and disgusting bowel movements as the charcoal binds to anything left in their system and comes out with it.  It was past midnight when we left the vet and much later once we got home, got them settled, and were able to get to bed ourselves.  We then woke up every half hour or so for the rest of the short night to let them outside, give them water, or get them calmed down.

After all that, we were pretty beat.  Thankfully, Devin's easy rotation allowed him to call in.  I showed up to work just briefly to take care of the couple things that couldn't be put off until tomorrow and then headed home.  The rest of the day turned out pretty nice though--a consolation prize for the loss of money, I suppose.  Devin made me a big breakfast.  We caught up on a couple episodes of a show we'd started watching back in January.  There was plenty of cuddle time with each other and our sleepy dogs.  And, we made a very yummy dinner together (complete with a visit from Mount Potate!).



Notice the charcoal around his mouth? This is after wiping quite a bit off.

To make a long story short, though, don't ever let your dogs anywhere near chocolate.  Or, keep $388 around that you don't mind loosing.  Of course, if your dogs are anywhere near as awesome as these two, they are definitely worth it--even if it stings a little.  The random Thursday off as well doesn't hurt too bad either!

The Most Perfect Day Ever

Last Friday, I woke up very well rested and had my hair be completely cooperative.  I should have known then that things would only get better.  Little did I know...

Devin was told to take the afternoon off, and kick start his Spring Break.  I got a phone call to this effect sometime around lunch and quickly crammed an afternoon's worth of work into an hour so that I could leave, too!  We went out to lunch at Takosushi, one of our very favorite places.  We ate our favorite appetizer, I had a plate of Firecracker Shrimp, and Devin ordered a fully cooked sushi roll with his lunch special so that I could eat a piece of it.

After lunch, we went grocery shopping.  Believe it or not, this really is one of our favorite things to do.  We stocked up on foods to grill an amazing meal over the weekend along with the necessities for a couple other favorite dinners.  And, while walking past their floral section, Devin bought me "just because" flowers.  I'm getting pretty spoiled with these, but I love them!

On the way home, we stopped at a new little bakery near our house, Two Moms Cookies, and picked up a dozen and a half of their gigantic cookies.  They lasted us five days total, but I'm pretty sure that we both ate at least three that first day.  Our favorite was that Monster Cookie, which pretty much had some of everything you could imagine putting in a cookie.  If you're ever near Central during weekday business hours, you should probably stop in to try them!

After all this, we were still home before the time I usually would have gotten off work.  When I started to get drowsy, I realized there was no reason to fight a nap.  Devin spoiled me with a back massage first, filled my water bottle and put it nearby, and turned down the air conditioner so that I would be more comfortable.  (We are usually pretty stingy about spending money to cool or heat our house.)  The past few months I've not napped a lot, but this one was pretty darn pleasant.

When I woke up, we took the boys to the dog park.  It's almost addictive to watch them have so much fun.  On a very frequent basis we discuss how they are pretty much the best entertainment we could ever have.  Friday they filled that role quite nicely.

That evening, we didn't do anything too out of the ordinary.  We watched some Netflix.  We ate some cookies.  We sat on the porch for a while and talked.  It was wonderful.  I love realizing that sometimes the perfect day comes from lots of little things falling into place just like you want instead of just having something really big work out right.  Maybe I'm easy to please, but I would definitely be happy with many, many more days like this one!