Hurry up, spring break!

I can't believe this will be my last spring break ever. This time next year, I'll be graduated and probably working somewhere in town. Travis might have to spend next spring break by himself! That means I want to take full advantage of this year's. We don't have any big plans, but we may go to the lake for a few days (if the weather is nice). Other than that, we'll probably just sleep late, throw the frisbee around, maybe go on a picnic, play tennis, and watch a few movies. I can't wait!!

Tuesday was my first day of OB clinicals. I got to watch a c-section, so that was pretty cool! That was probably the most exciting moment of the day. The saddest moment was seeing a stillborn baby born after only 20 weeks gestation. I pretty much decided by the end of the day that I would never want to work OB. Here are my reasons:

1. I wouldn't be able to deal with sad situations like stillborns or miscarriages.
2. There are too many dysfunctional family situations in OB. I pictured it as being all happily married moms and dads...but in reality, you see more women who aren't married, women in the middle of divorce, teenagers, and all sorts of other situations. It's just depressing to see babies born into bad situations like that.
3. There are so many ethical issues like abortion, IVF, surrogate mothers, etc. I'd rather just not have to deal with those on a regular basis.

Travis had one test today, and he has a couple of tests next week. I've also got 3 tests coming up before spring break. We'll both be busy bees until then!

Yummy food and a Valentine's Day recap

It's been a really fun weekend!! Here's the recap:

Friday - We ate dinner at Depalma's, an Italian restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. We hadn't been there in almost 2 years, but it was even better than I remembered! I got the Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken in it...yum! We've heard that their pizzas are awesome too, so next time we might have to try one.

When we got home, I made a cheesecake from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com (Chantal's New York Cheesecake - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chantals-New-York-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx). It turned out really good! I followed the recipe exactly, except for the part at the end about leaving it in the oven to cool for 5 or 6 hours. That would have required me to stay up til about 3 A.M., and I wasn't that dedicated, so I only let it cool for about 2 hours before refrigerating it. Supposedly, letting it cool in the oven like that prevents cracking. Mine had a small crack in it, but it still looked good! Next time, I might add more butter to the crust because mine turned out a little crumbly.

Saturday - I made breakfast for Travis (normally he has to settle for cereal!), cleaned, and went to the Rec Center to exercise. For dinner, I tried another new recipe from allrecipes.com called Zippy Chicken Corn Chowder (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zippy-Chicken-Corn-Chowder/Detail.aspx). I loved it, and Travis said he liked it too. It actually turned out to be pretty spicy, but it wasn't too spicy that I didn't like it. I only made a few changes to the original recipe: I left out the red pepper and leeks and added some onion instead. I also substituted some cayenne pepper for the hot sauce and used milk instead of half-and-half. Yum!!

After dinner, we went over to Alisha and Katie's for their Valentine's Day Party. I took my cheesecake and some brownies I'd made, and we had a few other snacks. The big event of the night was the Photo Scavenger Hunt. We split up into four groups of four, and we had exactly one hour to go to as many places on the list as we could find and take our picture. At least 3 of the four group members had to be in the picture, so that prevented the group members from splitting up. The different places/things on the list had different point values, depending on how hard they were. I was in a group with Travis, Mollie, and Jason, and we got 2nd place!! Here are some pictures from the night:

This is everyone before we left!! We were getting our gameplans in order!

We had to take our picture in one of the engineering buildings by a lady named Ruth Garrett's picture. Doesn't Travis look excited?!?

Reading the Crimson White (campus newspaper) in front of the Ferg

Posing with one of the Crimson Ride bus drivers...she said we made her night!

Climbing a tree on the Quad

Doing our best "Rocky" impression on the steps of Gorgas Library

Doing cartwheels in front of Gordon Palmer (the math building)

Sliding down a slide outside of our apartment

There were several other fun pictures from the night, but it would take forever to load them on here with our slow Internet. We would have gotten a ton of points for getting inside Bryant Denny, but we didn't think we'd have enough time to find a way in and get all the way back to Riverside on time. We also would have gotten a lot of points for jumping into the Riverside pool, but none of us were that dedicated (the pool was pretty slimy), although if we had, we would have won! Alisha, Katie, Alan, and Kyle all jumped in though!! They were pretty hard core :)

Overall, we had a blast! I hope we do another scavenger hunt soon!

One bad thing about working with sick kids...

...is that you get all their nasty germs! I think I was lucky the first two weeks I was on the peds unit b/c I didn't get sick at all afterwards. But, yesterday I took care of a 7 year old with strep throat who was throwing up all day...and my throat was hurting before I even left the hospital. Today, it still hurts, and I'm starting to ache all over. YUCK.

Other than that, it's been a pretty good week! I have a test tomorrow that I've been studying for off and on today, and it will be nice to get that over with. After tomorrow's test, I don't have another one for 2 weeks! Travis, on the other hand, is up to his ears in stuff to do...poor thing. Seems like all he ever does is write lab reports, do homework, study for tests, and go to class.

We're planning to go out to eat for Valentine's Day, except we're going on Friday night instead of Saturday. I think we're going to eat at Depalma's, an Italian restaurant here in town that is really really good! Depalma's is also where we had our first date, so it's a pretty special place :) Can't believe that was almost 3 years ago! Saturday night, Alisha, Katie and Mollie have planned a big Valentine's Day party. I'm excited! Apparently, we're doing a photo scavenger hunt, which I've never done before, so that should be fun!!

That's all for now :)

Homework + Hospital + Housekeeping = My week at a glance!

Well, it's been a good week so far! I had a test on Monday that went well, and yesterday was my 12 hour day at DCH on the pediatric unit. I got to take care of a 26 day old baby boy with pneumonia, and he was a cutie! He was pretty sick, but hopefully he'll get better really soon. I have another test on Friday that I'll be studying for today and tomorrow.

Travis has been busy studying for quizzes and writing lab reports all week. Usually I don't have any trouble keeping up with his schedule, but it's hard to do when he's got 6 classes! I think he's ready for things to slow down, so hopefully he can make until spring break (it's only a little over a month away!).

This weekend, we're going to a singing at Vestavia. They have it every year in February, and R.J. and Tim Stevens come to lead it. Last year, I think there were over 600 people there! We've been going every year since our freshman year. I'm really excited! Afterwards, we're spending the night at my parents' house to celebrate Jenn's 19th birthday. She, Daniel, and Miss Bo are coming home for the weekend too. Speaking of Miss Bo, she turned 1 year old yesterday! So I guess we'll be celebrating both of their birthdays this weekend.

My parents have been out in Phoenix this week. Dad had a business trip out there, and Mom decided to go with him. She and one of the other wives have been sightseeing and going to all sorts of places. They are coming back tomorrow.

Well, there's a quick update on what's been going on with us. Time to start studying!